Here's the actual summary, cuz FF is cheap and forced me to shorten it from what it is on AO3:
"Vampires have struck in Vale.
And it's not like that's new, but it is new for Vale. Enforcers Yang and Pyrrha are sent to investigate the situation - only to find there is more going on here than murders and disappearances. There are such things as ancient evils lurking in the dark.
Except someone, something, is forcing Nightshade's hand - forced her out of her vault, out of the dark, and straight into Yang's sights. And Nightshade is far more entangled in this Vale case than she initially seems. In fact, she may be the one pulling all the strings. She may even be the most dangerous killer Yang has ever met.
Except there's a terrible sadness in Nightshade. And it doesn't make sense, but it's there and it's all-consuming and she couldn't possibly be so evil if she regrets so much. Torn between protecting the mortal world and her growing affection for the creature she's been ordered to destroy, Yang unravels the web of secrets in Vale thread by thread - and maybe unravels herself while she's at it, too.
Inspired by Wolfcreations21's Vampire x Vampire Hunter AU series!"
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.
Gods, Vale…
Yang hadn't been here in…well, a really, really long time.
She sighed, shoving her hands in her pockets as she continued walking on the sidewalk 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 decades ago, after all. She wouldn't be dealing with this bitter sense of nostalgia, this disbelief at being back after so long, after so much.
But the neighborhood the pair of enforcers had been stationed in wasn't one Yang knew. It was pretty and quiet, if not a bit old, too. That was usually how it went – staying away from the public eye whenever possible.
Except, of course, they had never been stationed in a quaint duplex before. So, that was new. And impractical. Don't even have proper training facilities here. Bleh.
Swaying trees lined the aging, cracked sidewalks, vines entangled in most of 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. If she dared. It wasn't that far away – just a twenty-minute drive and a half-hour ferry ride, and she could step foot on the island she'd called home as a child.
But that wasn't why she was here. And Yang feared that if she let sentimentality take over, she'd get distracted and cause a misstep in her 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. She'd understand.
But right now there was something that required more urgent attention.
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 city 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 mortal forensic team and autopsies on the case. Twenty-two (twenty-two!) people were still reported missing, all gone at approximately the same time. Aurora had tagged this as suspicious and requiring immediate investigation by their SUN operatives.
Mortal detectives were already crawling all over this in their efforts to find the victims, but…
Well, Yang had no doubt vampires were involved. The mortals were either going to find nothing, or they'd find something and lose their lives. But the strange thing was that Aurora had no previous presence in Vale and had never been forced to intervene with vampires in Vale before. At least, not since… But even with regards to that, nothing could have been done. By the time Yang had joined Aurora, a full decade after the incident, it had been too late to go after that particular vampire. SUN didn't chase cold trails, it was pointless. Even if it had happened in the Vale area.
Part of Yang wondered if Aurora had even believed her.
If they had looked into that vampire, though, there was a chance Yang and Pyrrha would probably at least have had an actual mini-headquarters building to stay in now instead of some random duplex in the suburbs.
If only.
What are the chances that same leech is involved with these crimes?
Yang kicked a pebble off the sidewalk, scowling. He better not be. If Yang ever saw his face again, she would have no mercy.
Like he'd had no mercy for her parents.
She shook her head, trying to clear her mind before she started hoping he was involved. For all she knew, he had moved on to some other place or even changed his ways. Nothing else had ever happened in Vale, after all.
Vale and Atlas – those were, for some reason, the two cities in all of Remnant which Aurora never needed to send enforcers for damage control at any point since their very founding, and the status quo being disturbed on this rather high scale was cause for immediate 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 weren't actively on duty. It had to be fairly big, too, since the leeches moved fast and Yang and Pyrrha needed time for the alarm 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 from anywhere using their scrolls.
The process took about two hours, and, when Yang and Pyrrha met back at the duplex, their next task was setting up cameras around the building and installing extra UV-C lightbulbs that would only come on if a vampire was approaching, and that took another hour and a half.
It wasn't exactly interesting work, but Yang liked keeping her hands busy. Plus, she supposed it was something different from their regular tasks. All this stuff was usually already taken care of, after all.
When they were finally done, Yang and Pyrrha went inside, and Yang was tempted to check the fridge out of habit, but remembered they hadn't bought groceries yet. Another luxury they didn't have right off the bat.
"I'm really hoping this is just gonna be one or two newbies figuring out their transformation and we can just tell them to get with the program or arrest them," the blonde mumbled, sitting down at the table for a moment. They still had to organize their equipment and ammunition and make sure everything was in functioning order.
But even as Yang's words left her mouth, a tiny part of her cringed inside. Things were very often not that black and white.
"I hope that, too…but with twenty-two 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?"
They were here now, after all. Aurora might not have looked into it before, never going where they weren't needed, but it seemed things were changing.
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 the absence of vampires. Our job is 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 choice was done, either by personal or altruistic virtue. They'd taken the mutagens – a long time ago. And this was their life now, their obligation.
Pyrrha seemed to tell that Yang wasn't her usual lighthearted self because she 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 something good. Then we can spend the rest of the evening finishing up with the equipment."
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 sometime, 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 brain on the job. 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…
Yang raised her prosthetic hand, stared at it, at the reinforced silver over the knuckles, turned it palm-face up, stared at it more. She clenched the fist, feeling the pressure against the metallic carbon tactile plating.
She had already failed her partner one too many times in the past, as it was.
So, Yang unclenched her prosthetic fingers and got up from the table, fetching 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 had three months to resolve the case, not just for the sake of the missing people, but also as a standard of competence. 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, three 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. What decent person 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.
She hated those who abused their power. She hated those who made innocent lives suffer.
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 often 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 of Aurora – the SRO – every year to give an update on their status.
Yang and Pyrrha were both effective at convincing vampires to do what was right, but things could still 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, 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 on-site clues that would lead them to the killers.
"What do you think of these two locations in general?" 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, but nobody bothered two individuals who looked like some kind of law enforcement with their weapons and investigative equipment.
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 service.
"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 (bound to be stupid if she let her mouth run unfiltered), 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. Nothing's causing them."
The redhead peered at the sand-colored pavement, then back at Yang's scroll. "Nothing visible to the naked eye. Any idea what it is?"
"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 flicked open a small compartment in the forearm of her prosthetic and retrieved a metal capsule, pressed the button on it, 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 turned on the electric 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 nine places had, almost unsurprisingly at this point, turned up very little information. There were small proofs of scuffles – like cracks in glass, patches of grass turned into messy dirt, pieces of cloth or thread on concrete – but nothing that would help the enforcer duo track down bloodsucking leeches. Yang still collected fingerprints and traces of blood, 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 ten 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 – especially for the victims, if they were still alive. Still, Yang took out her flashlight after getting off the motorcycle. She grabbed the steering bar and pressed the button at the tip of it, and the bike dismantled itself, eventually returning to its metal capsule form, which Yang put away in the little compartment in her prosthetic limb.
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 entrance. She glanced at her surroundings, making sure no one was around, and gripped the sides of the wooden board. She pulled with a burst of strength, 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. It wasn't time to think about that.
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 all the windows being boarded up. It was as simple as that. 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 examine.
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 she 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 twisted 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 swiped 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 anywhere irretrievable.
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 everything still seemed normal.
Except for...over there, a tiny difference. Yang looked up and swore she saw two dark red eyes staring right at her from across the landing. 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, your scroll isn't detecting anything. Also-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 bio-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 in her tracks. No, something's not right. She turned, aiming her flashlight in different directions – the closet, the window, then at the doorway, but saw nothing and no one. Yet 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 right bicep, above her prosthetic, start to heat up – a vampire trying to charm her. And that meant they could see her.
But from where? How was this possible?
"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 distracting. 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?
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 – Nope, not messing with that. – 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 six feet into the air to clear it. She landed on the other side with a grunt and kept running, and looked back, just in time to see…something appear from out of the shadows cast by the wall, red eyes glinting. It didn't hurry after Yang.
Fear striking her, the enforcer looked forward again – and there was the creature, skeletal 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 her feet 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 her to drop her gun while more agony erupted in Yang's torso.
"Do you regret being out tonight, enforcer?" the monster hissed, guttural and utterly abnormal.
Yang saw the face looking into hers…and was horrified. It was a mess of dried pieces of flesh either missing and hanging, whatever skin remaining practically mummified against the bones, and there was a stench of nauseating, sickening sweetness permeating from every pore and hole. If it hadn't been for those nightmarish, furious crimson irises piercing into her soul, Yang would have lost her supper right then and there.
The monster opened its mouth, glistening fangs bared, more sharp teeth showing through tears in its cheeks, ready to end her life. Fuckfuckfuck! What the fuck!
Yang's bracer was still burning, warding off a charm like it was supposed to. And if it was working, then that meant everything Yang had seen so far...was real. "Yup, I definitely am," she squeaked in reply, nothing wittier coming to mind. She took her silver cuffs from her belt to swiftly put them on the creature, whose disgusting, dilapidated hands were right there together gripping her jacket.
The monster snarled and let go, the silver making the little bit of skin left around its wrists sizzle, and Yang unholstered her other gun and shot three shocking silver bullets into its chest at point blank range. The electricity made the creature's body freeze and convulse, and Yang seized the opportunity to grab it by the arm and drag it towards the thick metal lamppost nearby, securely cuffing it to the iron with great effort.
Yang then backed away unsteadily, breathing heavily, and retrieved her gun with the UV-C clip from the pavement, holstering her other one, refusing to take her eyes off whatever the fuck this thing was. It was already recovering from the electric shocks and was now struggling against its restraints. If it looked like it was getting free, Yang would have to actually kill it. Somehow. Yang wasn't sure how she'd had the mind not to try that already. This thing was straight out of a zombie holovid – except this was real life, and that made it a million times worse.
The enforcer swallowed hard, catching her breath and holding her ribs with her free hand, and demanded, "What are you?"
It didn't reply, too focused on straining angrily against the silver cuffs. Everything about it made Yang want to turn away and wretch, but Yang forced herself to observe it, to fucking think for moment. Her bracer had warded off a charm from it twice. It had fangs. It had red eyes. Silver burned it.
If it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck… This is the fucking deadest duck I've ever seen.
The hair on its head was long, black, and stringy, patches missing, parts of the skull showing. There were two small lumps on top like there'd been something else there at some point, indents in the skull at the base of them. Faunus?
The vampire thing gave a harder tug, metal clanging, and Yang winced. "Just calm down already! I will kill you if you keep this up."
She didn't think that would work, but the creature paused. Its crimson eyes were laid upon Yang, chilling in their desire to take a life and their lack of upper lids. The bottom ones were so dark and sunken into the sockets they may as well not have existed, either. And then it laughed – raucous and strangled. "That is, in fact, exactly what I want." It lost its smile, voice lowering into a rumbling 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. There was information Yang needed. She had no will to interact with this abomination longer than necessary, but it wasn't some hunger-crazed, half-decomposed bat that was going to stop her from saving civilians. "Where are the twenty-two missing individuals you kidnapped?"
The vampire stared at Yang for a moment longer, then tugged on its cuffs again before bashing its head back on the iron post behind it, hard enough to cause a dent. Its spine was visible through its throat, either outright or outlined harshly under its skin, so much of its muscle mass had dried up. "I don't know what you're talking about," it muttered up at the sky.
"Like hell you don't! You're obviously the one causing problems around 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. Then again, Yang had never encountered a vampire who had somehow reached this state of starvation – because that was the only thing this could possibly be. Only a lack of blood for a prolonged amount of time could have caused this.
It was beyond unsettling and it messed with Yang's usual protocol – after all, anyone in this state of mind had nothing left to lose, and that made them unreasonable, which made sensible 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 anything 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 was quiet, barely a ping and whistle thanks to the silencer, a UV-C bullet going right through the vampire's left calf bone.
The creature screeched, twisting in its restraints and curling in on itself as much as it could while sizzling and smoke came from the wound.
"Where are the missing mortals?" Yang demanded.
"I don't know!" the vampire roared. "This is my first active hunt in over fifty years!" It then said something in a different language, probably a cuss, and it occurred to Yang that this beast spoke with a subtle accent, but she couldn't place where it, or the language, came from.
"What…?" she creased her eyebrows, confused. "What do you mean by that?"
The monster huffed, and Yang wondered at that, as there shouldn't have been a need to breathe at all. "I mean," it spat, "that I've been trying to starve myself to death. Or weaken myself sufficiently for someone to be able to kill me... Like you. Kill me."
It confirmed what Yang had thought a moment ago. But fifty years? How? There was no way… Yang couldn't quite comprehend the implications of it all. 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 creature laughed again, ironic. "Oh, I'm plenty guilty. Just not of anything that has happened in…a very, very long time." Its expression twisted into a grimace. It suddenly lurched forward, pulling on its 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, somehow – 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 its vitriolic outburst. As terrifying and awful and aggressive as this thing was, if it was innocent then Yang couldn't just arbitrarily end its life – and she said so with, "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…everything it had done to itself… This was an old vampire. Older than anything Yang had encountered before. It was a sheer wonder those restraints were working at all – but, then again, it was severely weakened.
"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." Its voice lowered more, taking on an eerie kind of growl, and the space around it 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 it 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 brick wall of one of the buildings beside them, clattering to the broken pavement. It was going to give at any second. "Synthetic plasma, blood packs – all useless to me! 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 ghoulish 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 in its awful rasping, it 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. It went crashing into the building next to them in a harrowing cacophony and causing debris to rain down. One brick hurtled off the wall and struck the now standing vampire in the shoulder with such force there was a horrific crunch, and the leech's torso bent forward, arm twisted into an odd angle.
Yang took a step back, swallowing bile.
But all the monster did was growl and straighten up again with another crack, and with a simple shake of its boney shoulders and hands, it was healed and free. Discs of black locked onto lilac as if nothing had happened. "Unfortunately, you've run out of time to think about that."
The very shadows themselves rushed towards the vampire until most of its 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 its shape again as it 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 its body, where it 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 bicep yet again, as if the vampire was once more trying to charm her. The stench of predatory decay made her eyes water, made her gag. 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, her prosthetic fist connected with the vampire's face, hard enough that the remainder of the nose caved in while the silver knuckles made the rest of the flesh burn.
She finally managed to properly straddle the leech, and it was the most disturbing feeling in the whole fucking world, but she immediately shoved her left wrist in the beast's already self-reconstructing face.
"Take it! Drink from me! Just promise you're not gonna hurt anyone else ever again."
Glinting black eyes bored into Yang, chilling her to the heart. There was no soul there, no humanity, nothing except death and hunger. Nothing left to empathize with. The vampire breathed in deeply, skeletal fingers wrapping around Yang's fist and forearm with a somehow 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 – and wretched, too, off to the side – pain searing through her arm, but the monster was too strong. Legs wrapped around her own, pinning her there. She was stuck.
The vampire's eyes rolled shut – or would have, if they could; instead, they just rolled back in their sockets – a moan leaving the back of its throat. It adjusted its hold, pulling Yang even closer.
It only hurt for a few more seconds. A dry tongue scraped the cuts, and cold, destroyed 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 terribly powerful creature beneath her. It was almost nice, feeling her muscles relaxing after so much tension. And the vampire's body was gradually easing, too, bit by bit, moment by moment – feeling softer and fuller, too, bit by bit, moment by moment. Soon its legs rested by Yang's, no longer keeping the enforcer in place, and even its fingers – dark red and pink flesh sowing itself together over the bones – 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 – a throat that looked a lot more normal now, slender and smooth, albeit pale – as it 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, her eyes refused to open.
It was only when white dots began swimming behind her lids 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 with a tongue that felt a lot wetter, fingers caressing her skin.
But even that came to a stop. A sigh of regret – or pleasure – escaped the monster, and it let Yang go completely.
Yang practically fell over. She had begun shaking violently, cold creeping into every inch of her body. Her muscles felt so weak, so stiff. She tried opening her eyes again, desperately attempting to regain some form of…anything.
She stared, suddenly caught, enraptured in a haze.
Gold. Rich, rich liquid gold. That was the color of those irises now. Flecks like sparks through the middles, shimmering in and out of existence like flowing rivers of molten treasures, framed by long, dark lashes blinking slowly, igniting the pools of yellow lava within their depths.
Yang couldn't see anything else. Couldn't think about anything else. But those eyes were now very much alive with emotion other than fury. 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'm open to criticisms and suggestions! Stay tuned for more!