Here's the actual summary, cuz FF is cheap and forced me to shorten it from what it is on AO3:
For the first time since the foundation of Aurora, vampires have struck in Vale. Yang and Pyrrha have been sent by the Safety Under the Night division to investigate these human disappearances and murders. But when they discover that an ancient vampire has been at the heart of Vale for centuries, SUN orders its execution. Yang finds herself torn between the sacrifices she made to keep humanity safe, and her growing affection for the very creature she's been directed to destroy.
This is a fanfiction/recreation of Wolfcreations21's Vampire x Vampire Hunter AU series. ( /series/2759011) Some ideas are mine, most are not. This is a standalone story with Wolfcreations21's ideas, so while it's not necessary to read the Vampire x Vampire Hunter series to understand this fic, I highly encourage you to support their work! And thank you for giving me permission to write this!
This story is not edited by Cowjump, but my girlfriend did read it over with me to lend me her perspective as an audience member. And she gave me all her onions and grapes. :D Enjoy!
Vale.
Yang hadn't been here in…well, a really long time.
She sighed, shoving her hands in her pockets as she continued walking and observing her surroundings. Pyrrha would be doing the same in the next block over – probably doing a better job than Yang at staying focused, too.
Pyrrha hadn't been the one to live in this area all those years ago, after all. She wouldn't be dealing with this strange sense of nostalgia.
The neighborhood the duo had been stationed in was pretty and quiet. That was usually how it went – staying away from public eyes. Swaying trees lined the old, cracked sidewalks, vines more often than not entangled in the wrought-iron fences some of the properties possessed. Just a little more forest, and Yang could have imagined she was on Patch.
She could go there, if she wanted. It wasn't that far away – just a half hour drive and a fifteen-minute ferry ride, and she could step foot on the small island she had grown up on.
But that wasn't why she was here. And Yang feared that if she let sentimentality take over, she'd miss something important about their mission.
Maybe, just maybe, she could allow herself to visit and reminisce once things were organized and set up. Pyrrha probably wouldn't even tell their superiors – she was sweet that way.
The Safety Under the Night division, or SUN, of the organization called Aurora had sent Yang and Pyrrha to Vale because of mysterious disappearances and murders that had happened in the area recently. Two bodies had been found so far – both with their throats ripped open, blood apparently having been "emptied out at a different, unknown location," according to the autopsies and human detectives on the case. Six – six! – people were still reported missing, gone at approximately the same time. SUN had tagged this as suspicious and requiring immediate investigation by their own operatives.
Yang agreed that it was weird. She had never heard of something like this happening in the Vale area before, even back when…when she hadn't been caught up in all of this. Crime happened, sure, but this fit the M.O. of vampires to a T. Yang would have never, not even for a second, thought to blame vampires before she joined Aurora, but now that her life revolved around actively protecting people from them…
Well.
Suffice to say, they'd never had problems in Vale before. Vale and Atlas – those were, for some reason, the two cities in all of Remnant which Aurora hadn't needed to send anyone for damage control at any point since their very founding, and that was reason enough to be on high alert.
The first part of the mission was establishing a perimeter around the duplex Pyrrha and Yang were in to keep themselves safe when they needed to sleep. It had to be fairly big, too, since the leeches moved fast and the girls needed time for the alert to register if one came near. The two enforcers were on the lookout for any hiding places, any locations they could use to their advantage at any given point. At the same time, they were planting wireless markers to form a secret surveillance grid they could keep tabs on anywhere from their scrolls.
The process took about two hours, and, finally, Yang and Pyrrha met back at the duplex. They went inside, and Yang was tempted to check the fridge out of habit, but remembered they hadn't bought groceries yet.
"I'm really hoping this is just gonna be one or two newbies figuring out their transformation and we can just quickly either tell them to get with the program or kill them," the blonde mumbled, sitting down at the table for a moment. But even as the words left her mouth, a tiny part of her cringed inside.
"I hope that, too…but with six people still missing, that seems unlikely. I'm curious to know what changed for vampires to be causing issues in Vale all of a sudden, though…"
"Do you think they'll make us investigate it after we've taken care of this problem?"
Pyrrha sat down, too, facing Yang. She drummed her fingers on the table, thinking. "I don't know. We've never had to look into what might be already stopping vampires. Our job is just to stop them. I mean, Aurora would be over the moon if there was a permanent solution – we all would – but if they haven't discovered anything yet…"
"Yeah..." Yang couldn't say that she loved her job. And Pyrrha didn't, either. They both wanted to help and protect others, but at the end of the day, vampires had been 'others'. It wasn't an easy situation, often needing to choose between a rock and a hard place.
But there was no going back for them. The changes had already been done – a long time ago. And this was their life now, their obligation.
Pyrrha seemed to tell that Yang wasn't in a great mood because she suddenly stood and said, "How about this. I'll get some groceries, you stay here and review all the information we have on the case, and when I get back I'll cook us up something good."
Yang cracked a smile. "You're too kind to me. But alright, that sounds like a fair compromise."
"Hey, that's what partners are for. And also, you're my friend." She grinned, and then grabbed her things to head out the door.
Left alone, Yang sighed. She wasn't usually so morose. But being this close to her birthplace was doing a number on her. She would have to go visit Patch, so she could maybe find even a smidgen of closure. It was hard to believe that some seventy years had already elapsed since...all of that.
She shook her head and passed her hands over her face. She had to get her head in the game. Yang did not want to be a burden to Pyrrha or be the cause of any possible fatal mistakes. She could never forgive herself if something irreparable happened...and she had already failed her partner one too many times in the past, as it was.
So, Yang got up and fetched the laptop from their bags, and set herself to work on the couch in the living room to look into all the information SUN had taken from the local authorities about the case.
Enforcers always worked in pairs. Sometimes, if circumstances were particularly nasty, SUN would assign more than two. But for now, only Yang and Pyrrha were in Vale to take care of this issue. They did have a certain time frame in which this needed to be resolved, not just for the sake of the missing people, but also as a standard of competence. They had four months. If no progress was made before then, or if it didn't seem like they were anywhere close to finding the culprits and victims, then SUN would send reinforcements...and Yang and Pyrrha would receive a warning in their files and essentially get babysat by more experienced enforcers for the rest of the investigation.
Usually, four months was more than enough time, especially when dealing with newly transformed vampires. The new ones made mistakes, they were often scared and disoriented, and a lot of the time, they didn't want the curse.
Which…duh. Who, as any decent human being, would ever want to be a creature made for bloodbaths?
Yang always felt awful for them. She couldn't imagine what they must have been going through, and her enthusiasm at going after their makers was always…very present.
Regardless, giving the newbies a rundown of the situation, telling them where they could get blood without hurting anyone, and offering any other support to make the transition easier was basically all that was needed to diffuse a problem. They, of course, then had to agree to keep their vampirism a secret and not cause any more trouble, as well as report to the Supernatural Relations and Order division every year to give an update on their status.
Yang and Pyrrha were both pretty good at convincing vampires to do what was right, but that was still when things could get tricky. Sometimes the leeches didn't like that. Older vampires often got tired of the blood packs, so they'd have to get directed to synthetic plasma sites, and that worked to calm them down for a bit... But, inevitably, certain ones would miss the hunt. Others realized their power and wanted more of it.
In those cases, enforcers had to resort to more...drastic measures. Imprisonment in one of Aurora's specialized facilities...or death.
And Yang was really, really hoping this wouldn't be one of those problems. Not here, not in Vale.
She was currently examining the area where the second body had been found with Pyrrha. The body had been removed, obviously, along with any evidence that it had been there at all – just like the first crime scene – but the enforcers weren't interested in the corpses. They already knew what a ripped-out throat looked like. No, they were looking for clues that would lead them to the killers.
"What do you think of these two locations?" Yang wondered, scanning the ground with her scroll.
They were at the fishing docks, behind one of the main buildings. The air smelled salty and gross from the ocean and seaweed and rotting fish in close proximity. A lot of people worked here during the day.
Pyrrha was scanning the cement wall of the building. She scrunched her nose. "They both share strong, disgusting smells in common. Which I can see the logic behind in maybe wanting to also hide the stench of decaying flesh…"
"…but they didn't do a very good job of hiding the bodies, themselves," Yang finished. The other corpse had been in a dumpster downtown, quickly discovered by the garbage disposal guys.
"It's strange. It's like they didn't really care about flying under the radar…yet they also did."
Yang was about to reply, some joke about vampires and flying, but then her scroll beeped, and she raised her eyebrows. "Hey, check this out."
"You found something?"
Pyrrha came over, and Yang motioned at a large area of the ground in front of her. "Heat signatures. Barely there, but super evenly distributed. It's not coming from anywhere."
The redhead peered at the sand-colored pavement, then back at Yang's scroll. "Nothing visible to the naked eye. Any idea what could have caused that?"
"Not really. But," Yang pressed a few commands and skimmed through the extra data, "it's definitely not natural. Like someone used a blow-torch...except if a blow-torch could be regulated super precisely and be kept at basically the same distance from the surface the whole time it was being used."
"…And also if a blow-torch's heat stuck around days after it was used."
Yang snorted. "Yeah, that, too. It's really weird." She put her scroll back into her pocket. "Anyway, I don't think we're going to find much else if the clues have been set on fire. That's the only reason I can think of as to why that heat is there at all."
Pyrrha stepped back, resting her hands on her hips to survey the now clean crime scene. "I guess it can never be that simple." She shook her head. "Alright, well, the next thing to try is checking the last known reported locations these missing people were seen. We should split up. I doubt we'll be running into any vampires for this part, and we'll cover more ground."
"You're right." Vampires would have no reason to return to the places where they had already struck, after all. They weren't attracted to death. Yang clapped her hands together. "Okay, let's do this. I'll meet you back at the apartment later tonight." On those words, Yang headed for the side of the road, where she unclasped the metal capsule at her belt and threw it on the pavement. Before it landed, though, it opened up and quickly expanded, reassembling itself into complicated sets of clasping and wiring until a sleek motorcycle was now waiting for Yang.
She sat down on the seat and brought up a holographic interface from the dash, searching the coordinates of her next destination. Once she had what she needed, Yang ignited the engine and sped off.
Night was falling. A full moon, too – Yang knew this apartment would have to be the last place she checked for today. The other three places – a playground, a bus stop, and a shelter for the homeless – had turned up very little information. There were small proofs of scuffles – like cracks in glass, patches of grass turned into messy dirt – but nothing that would help the enforcer duo track down bloodsucking leeches. Yang still collected finger prints at the bus stop and traces of blood at the playground, but she knew those would amount to nothing more than confirming who the victims were. She hoped Pyrrha would have better luck at the other two locations.
Yang stopped her bike in front of the apartment and stared up at it. It was completely charred and wrecked by fire, a black shape looming in the light of the moon. She had expected this, of course, and the police report stated the cause of the fire was the stove left unattended while cooking. This was an old part of Vale, a poorer area of the city, and the fire department hadn't arrived in time to extinguish the flames before they rendered the building utterly unsalvageable. Yang was glad she had arrived before the city tore it down – then there really would have been nothing to work with.
Her enhancements allowed her to see in the dark, which was why she was still investigating so late into the evening. The faster they solved this, the better. Still, Yang took out her flashlight after getting off the motorcycle. She grabbed the steering bar and pressed a button, and the bike dismantled itself, eventually returning to its metal capsule form, which Yang reattached to the belt around her hips.
After discovering the strange heat signatures where the bodies had been found, Yang wasn't so sure that this had been just a regular house fire. With this in mind, she headed for the building, ignoring the yellow danger tape, and walked up to the boarded-up entrance. She glanced at her surroundings, making sure no one was around, and gripped the sides of the wooden board. She pulled with all her might, and the board came loose. A few more tugs later, and the entrance was clear.
Can't deny that the enhancements still come in handy.
Regardless, Yang frowned. As nice as they were, they were also a constant reminder that the enforcer would never be able to go back to being a normal human ever again.
But she had made that choice a long time ago.
Yang turned on her flashlight and held it up, advancing into the blackened apartment. Part of the upstairs flooring had collapsed, and Yang had to carefully maneuver around to get into what was left of the kitchen. She surveyed the state of the room. A pot had survived the heat on top of the stove, just like in the pictures from the report's evidence files. Utilities had melted, cupboards were charred and eaten up, there was a layer of soot everywhere. It all very well did hint that the stove had been the origin of this mess.
But previous data made Yang refuse to believe that was the case just yet. She took out her scroll, opening her scanner tool, but then paused. Her nape had begun to prickle, like a little nagging feeling that she was being watched. Yang's gaze darted around, pointing the flashlight back at the arch, but saw nothing. I've been doing this for too many years to be freaked out by being alone in the dark. If there was no bloodthirsty creature at the entrance, then there was no way anything could be watching her right now, what with the all the windows being boarded up. Yang shrugged, determining that she was being anxious for no reason, and returned her attention to her scroll, slowly panning it over the kitchen. The roll of data was regular, no strange readings.
She wasn't going to give up just yet, though. There were other rooms in the apartment to check out.
Yang exited the kitchen, being careful about where she stepped because some areas of the floorboards were gone. She made it to the staircase leading up to the second floor, and even more cautiously put her foot down on the first step. It seemed to hold her weight, so Yang began her ascent. The stairs creaked and groaned, and the blonde almost regretted her decision.
And suddenly her scroll started vibrating in her hand. Yang practically dropped it in her surprise – or almost chucked it across the apartment – and the haphazard shift made the wood under her right foot give out. "Whoa!" She started falling backwards, but managed to grip the railing in time. Unfortunately, she grabbed it too hard and crushed it, so Yang resumed her fall. She managed to twist on her good leg as she went, and ended up landing on her rear on one of the steps.
Ego bruised despite being alone, and heart racing, Yang hit the 'Answer' button on her scroll. "Dammit, Akouo! You scared me half to death." They didn't use their real names when they were out in the field – it was too dangerous, vampires could take control of them if they knew.
On the other line, Pyrrha laughed. "Yeah, it sounds like it. Where are you?"
"I'm checking the apartment that went up in flames." Yang pulled her foot out of the hole it was in, shaking her head. "What about you?"
"I just finished talking with Lewis Beaumont's family, they let me scan his room and look for any clues about his disappearance. I'm heading back to our duplex now." The sound became more muted as Pyrrha got into her vehicle and shut the door. "Are you almost done?"
Yang glanced up to the top of the staircase. "Yeah, I'm just gonna check upstairs and then leave. I'll see you soon. Drive safe!"
"Take care, Ember!"
The call disconnected. Yang bashed her head back on the wall, letting out a huge sigh, and immediately frowned when she realized she had probably gotten soot in her hair. Man, you're really doing great here, Yang. She rolled her eyes at herself and carefully stood up, allowing her heart to calm. It was stupid of her to let her nerves be shot over nothing. At least she hadn't dropped anything.
Yang made it to the top of the stairs and observed her surroundings again. It definitely looked like the top floor had suffered the worst from the fire – which didn't make sense with the stove downstairs being the apparent cause. She held her scroll and flashlight up again, but still everything seemed normal. Except for...over there, a tiny difference. Yang looked up and swore she saw two red eyes staring at her. But when she froze, glanced at her scroll to confirm, and looked up again, there was nothing – just the end of the hallway, and the large gap in the floor where it had caved in before that. But there was something irregular in the bedroom near the end of the hallway, on the other side of the gap, and Yang wanted to find out if it was what she thought it was.
Her nape was prickling again, once more putting her on edge. C'mon, Yang. Get a grip. Vampires have bodies, not just eyes. Also, it would have attacked by now.
She advanced, and then took three running steps to jump across the hole in the floor and safely land on the other side. Thankfully, the floor didn't collapse even more. Her confidence returning a little, Yang walked into the bedroom. Something that used to be a laptop was sitting on what used to be a desk, and the bed and bureau were so charred that Yang wasn't even sure that that was what they were. The glass on the windows had literally melted – the fire had burned hotter here.
Yang's attention was caught on the wall where a mirror or something must have hung. She pointed her flashlight at it, noting the difference in the shapes of the scorch marks – instead of rounded burns created by fire spreading, they were more jagged and spread out...kind of like an explosion. Except there was nothing in the room that could have caused an explosion.
"Huh, here we go." She aimed her scroll over the wall…and sure enough, there were those bizarre heat signatures, lingering long after the fire was gone. Yang had seen no proof that the detectives on the case previously had noticed this incongruity – and even if they had, they might not have possessed the technology to see what she was seeing.
But what is it? How?
And how were the vampires connected to it? They had to be, right?
Yang would have to get Pyrrha over here tomorrow, and together they would need to set up their holographic history retracer equipment. There was no other way they'd be able to understand this.
Yang was about to leave the room and quickly search the rest of the apartment, but then the prickle on her nape intensified and she stopped. No, something's not right. She turned, aiming her flashlight in different directions – the closet, the window, then at the doorway, but saw nothing. I'm definitely being hunted.
Yang's heartbeat accelerated. This was really bad. She put her flashlight away and instead drew one of her guns, quickly changing the clip of shocking ammunition for UV-C bullets instead. Let's hope I don't actually have to use this. The prickle on her nape became like a pressure, and then Yang felt the bracer on her forearm start to heat up – a vampire trying to charm her. And that meant they could see her.
But from where?
"Show yourself!" she ordered, refusing to be caught by surprise. This was not an ideal place for a fight – nothing was solid and the space was too small.
She kept her eyes glued to the doorway, pointing her gun. That was the only possible place the vampire could come from. But something was happening to her surroundings. She shifted her weight, trying to ignore it so she wouldn't let her guard down, but it became too obvious. Black smoke of sorts, rising in lazy tendrils and puffs from the floor everywhere…and longer, much more pointed shadows creeping up the walls.
Yang swallowed hard. What the fuck?! Was her ward not working all of a sudden, allowing the vampire to mess with her mind? If that was the case, it was time to leave. Immediately.
But before Yang could hurry out, the smoke and shadows started taking form in front of her, blocking her path. Yang's eyes widened, and, heart pounding, she turned around and sprinted straight for the window. She propelled herself into it with all the force her legs could muster, protecting her head, and crashed through the melted glass and wooden board covering it.
She plummeted, briefly, from the second floor, and caught her landing on the pavement by rolling forward over herself, ending on her feet and knees with barely a scratch. Yang didn't wait around. She stood and sprinted, faster than any regular human could run, making sure to stay in the alleyways where it would be harder for civilians to see what was going on.
There was a brick wall coming up ahead, and Yang jumped eight feet into the air to clear it. She kept running, and looked back, just in time to see a woman appear from out of the shadows cast by the wall, red eyes glinting, not even hurrying after Yang.
Fear striking her, the enforcer looked forward again – and there was the vampire, arm extended to the side. Yang couldn't slow down in time, she ran directly into the arm, and it was like hitting an immovable object. The breath was knocked from her and she was flung back, searing pain blossoming in her ribs when she hit the ground.
A string of curses going off in her head, Yang forced herself to get back up despite the pain. She wasn't given the time to raise her weapon again, though. The monster came in and grabbed the front of her jacket, lifting her up like she was nothing, and shoved her into the wall of the building to their left, causing more agony to erupt in Yang's torso.
"Do you regret being out tonight, enforcer?" the vampire hissed.
Her face was really close to Yang's, and the brawler's eyes widened at having those nightmarish, crimson irises piercing into her soul, glistening fangs bared and ready to end her life. But then Yang noticed the cat ears, too, amid the black hair, and it was then that something about this vampire truly struck Yang as different from others she'd had to face before.
Her bracer was burning, clearly warding off a charm – working. And if it was working, then that meant everything Yang had seen so far...had really happened. "Yup, I definitely am," she answered, and took her silver cuffs from her belt to swiftly put them on the vampire, whose hands were right there together gripping her jacket.
The creature snarled and let go, the silver making the skin around her wrists sizzle, and Yang unholstered her other gun and shot three shocking silver bullets into her chest at point blank range. The electricity made the vampire's body freeze and convulse, and Yang seized the opportunity to grab her by the arm and drag her towards the thick metal lamppost nearby, securely cuffing her to it with great effort.
She then backed away, breathing heavily, keeping the gun with the UV-C rounds pointed at the ravenous leech while she holstered her other one. The vampire was already recovering from the electric shocks and was struggling against her restraints. If it looked like she was getting free, Yang would have to actually kill her. There was no other choice – she was just way too strong.
The blonde swallowed hard, catching her breath and holding her ribs with her free hand, and said, "Just calm down already. What's wrong with you? Do you want to die?"
Strangely, this made the vampire pause. Her crimson eyes were laid upon Yang, chilling in their desire to take a life. And then she laughed. "That is, in fact, exactly what I want." She lost her smile, voice lowering into a threat. "Finish me off while you still have the chance, enforcer."
The glare made Yang hesitate. She couldn't do that. Not just yet, at least. Either way, it wasn't some hunger-crazed bat that was going to stop her from saving civilians. "Where are the five missing individuals you kidnapped?"
The vampire stared at Yang for a moment longer, then tugged on her cuffs again before bashing her head back on the post behind her, hard enough to cause a dent. "I don't know what you're talking about," she muttered up at the sky.
"Like hell you don't! You're obviously the one causing problems here. Tell me where they are."
"I would if I knew. But I don't. Stop wasting time and get this done and over with."
Yang had not ever encountered a vampire who wanted to be killed – and with such an aggressive way of showing it, too. It was beyond unsettling and it messed with her usual protocol – after all, anyone in this state of mind had nothing left to lose, and that made them unreasonable, which made calm conversation impossible. And as if that wasn't enough, this refusal to shed light on the situation was putting her over the edge. If there was something they could both agree on, it was that the longer nothing happened, the greater chance of escaping and causing irreparable damage this monster had.
And Yang refused to allow for unnecessary liabilities.
So, she aimed her gun downwards and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed against the brick walls around them, a UV-C bullet going right through the vampire's left calf.
The creature screeched, twisting in her restraints and curling in on herself as much as she could while sizzling and smoke came from the wound.
"Where are the missing humans?" Yang demanded.
"I don't know!" the vampire roared. "This is my first active hunt in over fifty years!" She then said something in a different language, probably a cuss, and it occurred to Yang that this beast spoke with a subtle accent, but the blonde couldn't place where it, or the language, came from.
"What…?" she creased her eyebrows, confused. "What do you mean by that?"
The vampire huffed, and Yang wondered at that, as there shouldn't have been a need to breathe at all. "I mean," she spat, "that I've been trying to starve myself to death. Or, at least…weaken myself sufficiently for someone to be able to kill me... Like you. Kill me."
Yang couldn't quite comprehend the implications of this. This leech was either delusional, or…or… "You mean you're really not guilty?"
The bullet wound didn't seem to be bothering the vampire much anymore, which was absolutely insane, and Yang was beginning to fear her suspicions were true. It made the situation a lot more tense. The monster laughed again, ironic. "Oh, I'm plenty guilty. Just not of anything that has happened in…a very, very long time." Her expression twisted into a grimace. She suddenly lurched forward, pulling on her cuffs, and the lamppost creaked and cracked. "What are you waiting for, enforcer?! End this!" Dark red irises, darker than before, glinted and burned with fury and hunger.
And underneath that, desperation. Loneliness. Exhaustion.
Yang stepped back, raising her gun at the vampire's head, eyes wide. "I…I can't do that." She congratulated herself on not impulsively pulling the trigger – that was probably the outcome the vampire had hoped for in her vitriolic outburst. "If you're not at fault for the disappearances and murders in Vale, then I'm not here for you." Yang's heart was beating fast. What she had in front of her wasn't some recently turned newbie. The power, the rapid recovery, the unknown dialect, the Faunus ears hinting at a past long ago… This was an old vampire. Older than anything Yang had encountered before. Maybe even older than what she could possibly comprehend. It was a sheer wonder those restraints were working at all.
"So, what are you going to do, then? Free me? Because in the state I'm in, I will kill someone. I will kill multiple people." Her voice lowered more, taking on an eerie kind of growl, and the space around her seemed to darken – or maybe it actually did – irises glowing, pupils turned into thin vertical slits. "I may go so far as to bleed the entire city dry."
There was something about the tone, about the whisper of unnatural power, that caused Yang to believe this monster was entirely capable of doing exactly what she said. And that was terrifying. For all intents and purposes, Yang should have put a bullet right through that creature's skull while she still had the chance.
And yet.
You have too much empathy, Yang. There was something else. That single glimpse of humanity, that cry for help buried under the thirst for blood. Yang swallowed hard again, trying to put confidence back into her voice. "No. You're going to take synthetic plasma, however much you –"
"I've lived too long for synthetic plasma!" the vampire hissed. The post cracked again and began to bend. A screw broke off and hit the wall, clattering to the broken pavement. It was going to give at any second. "Synthetic plasma, blood packs – all useless to me right now! Choose, enforcer. Kill me or let me go –"
"What about my blood?" Yang grit her teeth, and seeing that she seemed to have taken the leech by surprise, she added, "You were hunting me in the first place, weren't you? There must have been a reason for that. Enhanced dextroglobin must be pretty enticing, huh?"
Silence.
Then a dangerous, dark kind of desire overtook the vampire's gaze, now as black as the night, and it was even more horrifying than the crimson. Slowly, temptingly, she murmured, "I was hoping you'd end my existence. If I drink from you...you will be the only one I will ever be able to drink from again." And suddenly the post collapsed under the pressure, crashing into the building next to them in an awful raucous and causing debris to rain down. With a simple shake of her shoulders and hands, the monster was free. Discs of black locked onto lilac. "Unfortunately, you've run out of time to think about that."
The very shadows themselves rushed towards the vampire until most of her body was engulfed by them, and, petrified, Yang shot her gun – once, twice – but all the UV-C bullets did was cast a straight trail of light into the darkness before those were consumed, too.
Like the vampire didn't even have a corporeal form anymore.
What the f –
A laugh echoed around her, and the shadows then lurched forward, going right through Yang and pulling the breath out of her. She turned around, gasping for air, watching the demon regain her shape again as she headed towards the exit of the alleyway with evident purpose.
Purpose to feed, to kill.
Instinct kicked in for Yang. She couldn't let this monster even get near people. Still out of breath and hurting, she forced herself into a sprint after the darkness like a blur, pushing herself to go even faster than before. She caught up and jumped up high to tackle the beast in the upper part of her body, where she still seemed tangible.
It worked. The vampire fell to the ground, and the shadows dropped and dissipated in a splash against the pavement at the same time. For a moment they wrestled with each other, struggling for the upper hand by twisting and grabbing and rolling. In this proximity, Yang's bracer grew hot on her forearm yet again, as if the vampire was once more trying to charm her. This is madness. A stray knee slammed into her hip, and Yang grunted, almost thrown off, knowing that was going to leave a bruise. In a stroke of luck, she finally managed to straddle the leech, and she immediately shoved her wrist in the vampire's face.
"Take it! Drink from me! Just promise you're not gonna hurt anyone else ever again."
Glinting black eyes bore into Yang, chilling her to the bone. There was no soul there, no humanity, nothing except death and hunger. Nothing left to empathize with. The vampire breathed in deeply, slender fingers curling around Yang's fist and forearm with a vice-like grip, and before the blonde could rethink her decision or pull away, two sharp incisors cut into her wrist.
Yang tugged and wrenched, but the monster was too strong. Legs wrapped around her own, pinning her there. She was stuck.
The vampire's eyes rolled shut, a moan leaving the back of her throat. She adjusted her hold, pulling Yang even closer.
It only hurt for a few seconds. A tongue swiped the cuts and cool lips pressed to Yang's skin, and soon after, a sense of calm began to wash over her. Her bracer was burning, hotter than ever, but as the blood was sucked from her, Yang found herself being lulled into some kind of trance. Watching and not watching the life slowly being drained from her. Floating. Her enhancements made it impossible for her to be turned into a vampire, but they did not make her completely immune to the venom. And she could feel it in her veins fully, reaching her heart, slowing her pulse, numbing her senses, tricking her perspective.
Nothing existed in the world except Yang and this magnificent creature beneath her. It almost felt nice, feeling her muscles relaxing after so much tension. And the vampire's body was gradually easing, too, bit by bit, moment by moment. Soon her legs rested by Yang's, no longer keeping the enforcer in place, and even her fingers loosened their iron grasp. But Yang found she had lost her will to fight, and she remained perfectly still, somehow fascinated by the movement of the vampire's throat as she drank gulp after gulp after gulp. It was the strangest sensation, feeling the occasional scrape of teeth to keep the blood flowing, and then the more forceful rush as it was drawn from her.
She could hear her own heartbeat. It seemed to be the only thing she could hear, in fact. A muffled, faraway buhm-buhm, buhm-buhm, like they were in their own bubble of silence, the world frozen in time around them.
It was impossible to know how much time passed, but at some point, Yang realized she was weakening. She knew alarm bells should have been going off in her mind. The leech was going to suck her dry. All she had to do was find the strength to shove and get up. But her entire body felt so sluggish.
It was only when black dots began swimming in her vision that Yang somehow refocused on the reality of what was happening. Dizzily, she realized the vampire wasn't drinking from her anymore – instead, the creature was licking Yang's wrist now, fingers caressing her skin.
But even that came to a stop. A sigh of regret – or pleasure – escaped the monster, and she let go at the same time as opening her eyes.
Yang stared, suddenly caught, enraptured in a haze.
Gold. Rich, liquid gold. That was the color of those irises now. Flecks like sparks through the middles, shimmering in and out of existence like rivers of molten treasures. Their surroundings began to darken until all Yang could see were those glowing, haunting pools of yellow lava, now very much alive with emotion. She saw that they were searching her face, flicking up and down, as if...concerned?
"Oh..."
But then even those were gone.
Yang collapsed.
A big shout-out to my girlfriend, who consistently bullied me throughout the entire beta-reading process! I love you. 3 But for real, you're amazing.
And thank you to Wolfcreations21 for allowing me to post this, I really enjoyed their fanfiction and it encouraged me to actually start writing again! I have the next few chapters mostly written out, so it's just a matter of filling in the gaps. I'm open to criticisms and suggestions! Stay tuned for more!