Here's chapter 2! Revamped - the biggest change is there is more content with Pyrrha, and several smaller additions throughout the chapter.
Enjoy!
Consciousness came gradually. Yang registered that she was lying on her back on a plush surface, her feet propped up on another soft something. Her body felt like a few dozen trucks had run her over. She was chilled, cold sweat sticking to practically every inch of her skin and making her clothes cling to her in turn. Everything inside was uncomfortable.
She clenched her teeth and tried opening her eyes. A dim, gently flickering orange light was coming from somewhere. That was all Yang could assimilate before her eyes rolled shut again – her vision was blurry and the room was spinning. Even her heart was palpitating faster than it should be in this resting state, only adding to her increasing unease.
"P-Py – Akouo?" Yang managed, catching herself on saying Pyrrha's real name out loud. She didn't know where she was – it wasn't safe to use real names.
"I'm afraid not."
Yang froze. That wasn't Pyrrha's voice. Not even close. The blonde tried opening her eyes once more, fighting the dizziness and haze to get some sort of idea on her bearings. She was lying on a bed, low to the floor, Yang could gather that much, and there was an electric fireplace on the far wall near the…opening into the room – at least, it was probably electric, but it was made to look like a real hearth, patent warmth emanating from it. There was no door, as if she were in a cozy alcove of a room. She tried to find the source of the voice, but a cursory glance revealed nothing and Yang was forced to shut her eyes again before she became nauseous.
She swallowed with difficulty. "Who...who are you?"
The voice didn't answer immediately, as if debating what to say. It came from somewhere further down Yang's left when it finally admitted, bizarrely resigned, "…The vampire you refused to kill."
There was a memory. An attack. Missing flesh, pieces of it hanging from bones. Skin dry and mummified. Black eyes. Shadows coming alive and taking the breath from her. Power.
...Shit. Is this real?
She couldn't even get her legs to work. Like being stuck in a dream, forced to witness the scene unfold. Wherever Yang was right now, chances were that Pyrrha couldn't reach her. Maybe didn't even know where to look. Yang was weak and alone, weak and alone with a ghoulish vampire who was completely off its rockers, and there was nothing the enforcer could do.
Unless there was? With great effort, Yang searched her pockets for her scroll. She exhaled an anxious breath when her hands came up empty. She didn't have her weapons, either. This bed she was on was going to be her final resting place. As her heart rate accelerated more, Yang began to shiver, teeth chattering. Why was she so damn cold? Was this a nightmare?
Sure feels like one.
"You should try to relax," the vampire murmured, and its voice sounded closer. In fact, Yang felt the bed shift, a gentle pressure appearing on her forearm.
Her eyes flew open, defensive instinct shoving the hand away, and Yang stared at the leech in alarm. Her bracer heated, yet again warding off a charm. That bloodsucker sure was persistent.
But warm, liquid gold gazed back, calm and sorrowful and dejected all at once. Nothing remained of the horror show from Yang's memory – this vampire was a woman, lithe in shape and heart-wrenchingly beautiful in the face. She lowered her hand and let it rest with the other on her lap. Something atop her head leaned backwards – faunus cat ears. "I'm Blake," she said, cautious and soft.
What?
Yang couldn't consolidate the image of the savage, decomposed, snarling monster from her memory with the despondent woman with a soothing, mellow voice sitting near her. It was like they weren't even the same creature, and Yang didn't trust that for one second.
But, gods, those irises were swirling bright rings of hypnosis, impossible to look away from. Surreal. Striking.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," Blake added when Yang said nothing. "You really should rest."
Yang tried – really tried – to stay alert and ready to defend herself, but faced with Blake's total lack of hostility, she quickly lost her rush of adrenaline and sunk back into the mattress, even more exhausted than before. Dammit. "Where did you bring m-me?" Assuming this was real at all, of course. Because why in the ever-loving stars would this demon not have killed her yet?
Blake sighed. Not annoyed – just sad, regretful. "How about this… I'll answer your questions, whatever they may be, if you give yourself some time to recover from the blood loss. Your state will worsen if I keep giving you news you won't like."
How nice of you to care. It wasn't like this beast was the cause of the blood loss or anything. Stupid. But Yang didn't have the energy or the strength to argue. And it seemed pretty on par with her mind to be so illogical, if this was a dream. Yet she continued to shiver, wishing the heater was turned up more and that she was anywhere but here. Or that she'd just wake up already.
She felt the vampire stand from the bed, and for a moment it was as if Blake had left the room, nothing moving, but then soon after Yang realized a heavy blanket was being laid upon her. She opened her eyes again, surprised and warily watching Blake make sure the blanket covered all of Yang's body, watching her carefully avoid touching Yang's body in the process, too, by how she hesitated on where to grip the blanket to arrange it.
But for the life of her, Yang couldn't relax. This monster could decide to snap at any second and finish her off, and Yang was utterly at her mercy. This kindness couldn't be real. "Why?" she asked, making it clear she wasn't duped.
Gold met lilac in the flickering of the fake flames from the electric hearth, and for a just a moment, just a few seconds, there was a stillness, a lingering focus on this mysterious vampire. Cascading raven hair framed a smooth oval face that contrasted with high, sharp cheekbones – two subtle works of art that faintly defined a straight path down to the corners of her mouth – not gaunt, just fantastic bone structure… Yang swallowed hard. Absolutely, in the haze she was in, darkness fading in and out at the edges of her vision, everything about the creature seemed haunting and attractive to her, and that was all kinds of wrong.
Blake sat down again on the edge of the bed, a glint in her eyes. "I can't very well let my source of food die."
There it is. So easily given, too. Yang mulled the words over in her mind, and there was definitely something about them that bothered her, but the longer she thought, the less of a grip on consciousness Yang had. Her eyes fluttered shut once more when fighting the weight of sleep proved impossible. Despite not feeling safe, and really wanting answers, she was drifting before she even knew it.
Yang came to again as someone shook her.
"Ember! Ember, wake up! Oh, gods…"
The ground was hard and uneven under her back. She wasn't lying on the same surface she'd been on the first time she'd woken up. Yang's eyes flew open and she sat up straight, gasping. She looked around wildly and realized Pyrrha was kneeling next to her – and that did absolutely nothing to help Yang's confusion. "Akouo?" She squinted, and tried to make sense of what was happening, but she was so lost. She held her head in her hands, suddenly feeling weak all over again.
"Can you stand? I'm going to take you back to our apartment." Pyrrha put a comforting hand on Yang's back and rubbed her shoulder.
"I...I think I can." Yang breathed in deeply and then supported some of her weight on one hand to help herself stand up slowly. She winced when her ribs throbbed. Pyrrha remained near, though, and when Yang's knees buckled, the redhead immediately slung one of her partner's arms over her shoulders and held on to the blonde's waist.
"What happened to you?"
Yang gave her surroundings another once over, and it dawned on her. She was back in the alleyway where she had fought that vampire...Blake, possibly. But...why was she back here? Had...had she left the area at all? Had that conversation in the room with the leech not, in fact, been real? Yang's head was pounding. Would that creature have made the effort to bring her all the way back here? But for what? And why? When? Nothing makes sense. "Ughhh... I don't even know right now. Please, let's just get to the apartment so I can clean up and sit down for a while. And I need painkillers."
"Okay." Pyrrha helped Yang walk out of the alley, allowing the injured enforcer to lean on her as much as she needed, and then eased her into the passenger side of their car once they had reached the side of the road.
As she waited for Pyrrha to get into the driver's seat, Yang impulsively checked her left wrist. There. Faint scars, in the shape of two puncture holes and slight tears across, all healed. How much time has passed? It couldn't have been that long. Probably several hours, though, since it was starting to become light outside again. But the scars and the pain confirmed to Yang that the whole altercation in the alley had actually happened. She'd been fed on.
Anything after that...well, that part seemed to be anyone's guess. I must have been dreaming.
As Pyrrha got into the vehicle, Yang let her hand drop to her lap and rested her head back on the seat. "How did you find me?"
Pyrrha patted her pockets and fished out a scroll from them – a scroll that she handed to Yang. "This was on the pavement beside the burned building. I tracked it, then had to look for you and hope you weren't too far away. You jumped out of a window, didn't you?"
Her scroll must have fallen out when Yang had landed. This could have gone so much worse – and it's already bad. Yang put it back into her own pocket. "Yeah. That's where the encounter started." She felt her hips, too, and found her guns in their holsters. Much to her confusion. They'd been gone when she'd been lying on that bed.
That confirms it, then.
It was the only way she could explain the vividness of the feelings but the haze of her visuals. And why she'd woken up for real in the alley instead of on some incredibly attractive vampire's bed somewhere.
Thanks, brain, for showing me what my perfect woman looks like. Now I can be disappointed with my future dates forever.
Yang kicked the dumb thought into oblivion. The perfect woman wouldn't be a vampire, anyway. Her brain was wrong.
"I don't know how long you were lying there; I'm guessing it was since last night. When I realized you still weren't back early this morning and you hadn't answered any of my messages, I went searching for you."
Yang creased her eyebrows. "Thank you." Quite frankly, that clarified diddly squat. At least her body was already beginning to recover from the blood loss. But it would still take a few more days before she was in top shape again. That monster nearly bled me dry. Just a little more...and no amount of super healing or resilience could have kept me alive.
It was the closest Yang had ever come to dying.
The reality of that did not sit well with her. Not even a little bit.
Aurora's Archives database, as well as the SRO's, had no records of any vampire named Blake. Whoever she was, if she wasn't a figment of Yang's delirious imagination – which, especially after this fruitless search, Yang was now extra convinced was the case – she was undocumented.
Yang rested her arm over her forehead, scroll in hand, lying in bed and staring up at the ceiling with a frown, recalling the conversation she'd had with Pyrrha earlier that day after they'd arrived at the duplex.
"A vampire attacked you?" Pyrrha repeated, immediately worried. "You got fed on, didn't you? Show me."
There was no way to hide it, not with the symptoms Yang was exhibiting. But she didn't have to tell Pyrrha she had been a willing victim. Yang first sat down on the couch and put the painkillers in her mouth, then swallowed them with a swig of water. She sighed, put the bottle down, and pulled up the sleeve of her jacket so Pyrrha could take a look at her wrist. "The scars make it look like it happened a month ago. I don't heal that fast."
Pyrrha stared at them for a moment, then looked at Yang again. She gently let go of the blonde's wrist. "That is strange. I'm just glad it didn't kill you." She put her hands on her hips. "I think we may have found a possible suspect, though."
Yang rested her head against the back of the couch and closed her eyes. She couldn't refute the suspicions. Despite that ghoulish creature seemingly insisting it had nothing to do with the disappearances and murders, its behavior told quite the opposite story. Whether it was involved or not didn't matter – it was evidently dangerous. As it was, Yang would be forced to stay at the duplex for a few days until she properly recovered. "Just don't go out there by yourself, Pyrr," Yang muttered. "I don't think that was an ordinary vampire."
"I won't. And we should stick together from now on, too, no matter what we're doing for this investigation. In the meantime, I'm going to keep up with the remote surveillance and write a report to SUN."
Yang had agreed, then spent the rest of her time doing everything that she could to get better quickly. Which had involved a lot of rest under several layers of blankets and playing games on her scroll, sure, but on the other hand, she'd had ample opportunity to write a report of her own – again omitting that she had volunteered her blood…or that she had seen any of those smokey shadows.
It just seemed impossible. It couldn't have been real. And if it hadn't been real, then that meant Yang had been affected by a charm. Except, for all intents and purposes, her bracer was still functional, so she shouldn't have been. It was all just very confusing for Yang, and she didn't want to provide Aurora with false or misleading information.
…Especially when the monster had been disturbingly specific about one thing: Yang would be the only one it would be able to drink from afterwards. It sounded like an intimidation tactic, because vampires didn't have issues interchanging food sources, but…that creature had been anything but normal. Yang just didn't know what she was supposed to tell Aurora when so many of the night's events were like nothing she had ever dealt with.
More than that, though, being honest about volunteering her blood when there was a clear stipulation against doing so would undoubtedly bring about some form of consequence. And Yang didn't want to disappoint Pyrrha – losing the majority of her right arm and almost getting her partner killed in the same hour was already too much for Yang. She could barely forgive herself as it was.
She was becoming restless. Proof was of her pacing back and forth in the living room three days later, idly messing with the joints and plating of her prosthetic limb, playing with the compartment holding the capsule of her motorcycle. She'd tried playing her street fighter game on her scroll for a bit again, but her mind refused to even focus on that.
I wish I could contact my uncle.
But Qrow had been clear, back when Yang had been getting ready to leave Vale and join Aurora. 'You can't come find me or message me once you're with them.' That was what he had said. He'd refused to explain why. But he'd made Yang promise, and he'd looked threatening enough at the time that even now, some seventy years later, Yang didn't dare break that promise.
"Yang, I mean this with all the love in the world, but you're driving me insane. Sit down."
Yang stopped pacing, realized she was biting the nails on her left hand now. She turned towards Pyrrha, who was sitting on the couch with her laptop, and gave her a sheepish look before flopping onto the nearby armchair. "You know I hate doing nothing." She raised a fist in the air with fake gusto. "I'm a woman of action!"
"I know." Pyrrha slowly shook her head with a smile. "Nobody says that about themselves."
"Yeah, well, I'm not nobody. I'm the hottest thing since sliced bread."
Pyrrha suddenly looked up from her laptop to give Yang a searching, concerned once-over. She creased her eyebrows.
Yang creased hers back. "What?" She looked down at herself, trying to find anything weird or worrisome. There didn't appear to be a problem, though.
"Could you go stand over there? In the doorframe?"
Yang glanced over at it, confused now. "Uh…" Pyrrha still looked pretty worried and insistent, so Yang decided to listen and stand up from the armchair. She walked over to the bathroom's doorframe and turned around to face her partner. She shrugged. "Is everything okay? What's going on?"
Pyrrha squinted at her for a moment, and then she…returned her attention to her laptop. "Just checking." A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, self-satisfied and teasing.
Yang's eyes had never narrowed so fast. "Checking what?"
"If you could still fit. You know, because of your ego."
"Wow." Disbelief made Yang droop her shoulders. "I trusted you. With my life." But then Pyrrha's smile widened, and Yang just started laughing. She made her way back to the armchair.
"You even got up and everything."
"Uh-huh. Don't sound so proud of yourself. I'll never forgive you."
Pyrrha just kept grinning as she continued whatever work she was doing, and Yang slumped on her seat with a shake of her head. The only reason she'd believed her friend so readily was exactly because Pyrrha wasn't the type to pull legs – except for the rare times she was. And she never missed. It was kind of great, actually.
Pyrrha spoke again, more serious now. "I suppose our next step shouldn't be too physically challenging. If you're feeling up to it –"
"I'm feeling up to it so hard!"
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
Yang was back on her feet in no time. "Uh, hello, I've had nothing better to do except study this Brothers' forsaken case." She grinned proudly. "You were gonna say we should go question the four vampires the SRO tracked into Vale."
Pyrrha blinked. "Well…yes, basically." She shut her laptop. "You're feeling up for it?"
"I want out of this apartment, please."
"I suddenly feel like I own an overgrown puppy. Weird. Anyway, the SRO's information is decades outdated with regards to Fox Alistair and Yatsuhashi Daichi, so I don't think we should even bother with those two. But Flynt Coal and Cardin Winchester seem to have moved here within the past few years…and Flynt is still providing his status updates, although none have been given this year yet."
"Then we go see him first," Yang decided. "He's likely to be the most cooperative."
Pyrrha nodded. "That's what I was thinking. Maybe he knows who the vampire that attacked you is."
This made Yang hesitate. It seemed like a shot in the dark. But they could still ask. "Let's hope none of them are involved in the murders and disappearances."
"Let's hope."
With that, the two enforcers geared up and set out for their task.
"Well, Akouo, looks like we're crashing a party!"
"In the middle of the day, too. Look at us, being such rebels."
The duo was standing in front of a waterfront high-class venue. The bouncer at the door kept glancing at them suspiciously.
Pyrrha leaned into Yang's side, whispering, "We're gonna need to flash our fake detective badges, aren't we?"
"Yeeeesss!" Yang punched the air and went first, walking right up to the burly man and showing him her scroll with her fake police badge, saying, "Excuse me, sir; VPD."
He looked the blonde up and down, noting the guns and not appearing particularly pleased, but when Pyrrha came up beside Yang with a similar document, he grunted and moved out of the way. "Yes, sorry, please go in."
Yang sighed as the two entered the venue. When the bouncer was out of earshot, she lamented, "Why do they never take me seriously? Do I look like I'm only pretending to be a professional?"
This caused Pyrrha to raise her eyebrows and give Yang a once-over with a small, knowing smile. "Maybe it's not so much the way you look and more the way you act. Stop punching the air where they can see you."
"Okay, whatever," Yang grumbled. "You didn't have to actually answer my very rhetorical question. Party-pooper."
Pyrrha laughed and shook her head. "Let's just keep our eyes open for our friend."
A bluesy saxophone melody reached their ears the further in they walked, until they got into a large, fancy and modern room. The long blackout curtains were mostly drawn, allowing for some sunlight to come in, but the main source of illumination came from pretty lavender LED ambiance lights at the bottom of the walls. There was a bar off to one side, and a fireplace in a large, white brick hearth located in the middle of the room, and a live band set up against the opposing wall.
The partygoers seemed to be mostly composed of businesspeople milling about, drinking wine and discussing various matters relating to their companies. Although, now that Yang was observing more attentively, this event seemed to be for a charity of sorts. It was difficult to tell who was hosting it or what it was for, however.
Yang looked down at how she was dressed, which prompted Pyrrha into doing the same to herself, and then the two women looked at each other.
Yang shrugged.
Their practical attire wouldn't go unnoticed, but that was okay. If all went well, they wouldn't be here for very long. And if all didn't go well...
Well.
"Should we just...ask about him?" Yang wondered, going back to surveilling the premises, searching for a face in particular.
"His profile says he works here. Maybe the bartender would know?"
Yang nodded. "It's that or we walk around for a while and hope to bump into him. I think we should ask."
"Let's go, then."
Pyrrha headed towards the bar, and Yang followed. They received a few suspicious glances along the way, but nobody tried to stop them. Yang casually sat on one of the stools, propping her elbows on the counter, and Pyrrha took a seat next to her. The blond boy behind the bar was mixing a drink, pouring a swirling blue tonic into a glass and swiping a wedge of lime around the edge before letting it rest there. He handed the drink over to the gentleman waiting nearby.
Yang noticed Pyrrha gazing at the boy. Well, man. But he looked boyish. She grinned. "He's cute, huh?"
Pyrrha immediately blushed and hid her face. "I literally can't take you anywhere. We're on the job."
"Yeah, so? Give him your number."
"Why do you do this to me?"
The bartender was done with his customer and started heading over towards the enforcers before Yang could tell Pyrrha to take a wild, crazy guess. He smiled at them and asked, "Hello, ladies. What can I get for you?"
"You can give this girl here your –" Pyrrha's hand slapped over Yang's mouth before she could finish, causing the troublemaker to devolve in a fit of giggles.
Pyrrha cleared her throat, cheeks almost as red as her hair, and said, "I'm sorry, my partner has no social awareness whatsoever. We're with the Vale Police Department, we're looking for Flynt Coal. Do you know him?"
The boy seemed to lose some of his suaveness, and he blinked at the redhead like it had just struck him that she was very attractive. Whatever it was, he became more awkward. "Oh, haha... Yeah, uh, I mean, I don't know him, but he's here. On the stage over there." He pointed over at the band.
Pyrrha removed her hand from Yang's face, and they both turned to look at the stage in surprise. There was a pianist, a drummer, and a saxophone player. The latter of the three was standing under a black light, his white shirt glowing, contrasting with his dark complexion stylishly. Yang realized the reason why they had overlooked him was because in here, despite the dim ambiance light, he was wearing a fedora and sunglasses, making him unrecognizable from the image Aurora's SRO had on his profile.
He played the saxophone really well, though – and Yang didn't even like saxophones. He's probably had a lot more time than most to perfect his art. Pyrrha and Yang shared a look, eyebrows arched. They were usually dispatched to take care of unruly vampires – it was always strange coming across those who conformed to society and lived among mortals like they were regular people, too.
This man was not a suspect. But they would speak with him anyway.
"We should go make sure he knows we're here," Yang suggested.
Pyrrha turned back towards the bartender. "Hey, thank you for your help. And..." she glanced at Yang and sighed with a small smile, "do you have a pen and paper?"
Yang snickered again and waited for Pyrrha to give her number to the young man, who had introduced himself as Jaune, seemingly utterly flustered by Pyrrha's attention. She was beautiful, after all, and Yang could imagine catching a tall warrior goddess' eye probably felt kinda amazing.
The two enforcers then walked away from the counter to head towards the stage. They stood several feet from it, but made sure to be in Flynt's direct view. Yang crossed her arms and Pyrrha put her hand on her hip.
He tipped his head while blowing into his instrument, not missing a beat, and his dark eyes briefly met with the two women above the rim of his rectangular sunglasses. That was all the sign he gave that he knew they were there – he just kept playing afterwards.
"I guess we'll wait for his tune to be over," Pyrrha murmured, and Yang agreed. They walked over to the wall, where there were two armchairs placed in front of one another, a small table between them. The duo sat down, getting comfortable.
"Well, it definitely makes it easier on us if there's only four bloodsuckers – well, five, apparently – in the area, I gotta say. Can you imagine if we were in Mistral?"
"We'd be begging for help just to question people," Pyrrha laughed. "At least this Flynt guy seems like he'll cooperate if we're patient."
"Hopefully he knows stuff." Yang then grinned. "Hey, you should text Jaune right now."
"Ember, you're only going to be satisfied once I've married the guy. Also, I will have my revenge, just you wait."
Yang snickered. Pyrrha was so far from the brutal, vengeful type. Before she could say anything, though, they heard the music come to a close, and switched their attentions to the stage to make sure Flynt didn't decide to make a run for it. Fortunately, all he did was whisper something to the pianist, and then he rested his saxophone on its stand before striding off the stage. The pianist began playing another jazzy tune, and Flynt made his way over to the enforcers.
"Please, follow me. We'll talk somewhere more discreet." His tone wasn't exactly friendly, but at least he wasn't making a scene – and he clearly knew what they were.
"Lead the way."
Pyrrha and Yang followed Flynt to the very back of the main room, where there were three arches that seemed to lead into another part of the venue. He went through the right-most one, and then opened another door to the right again in the hallway.
They found themselves in a performer's lounge, brightly illuminated, and with plenty of seating space. There was no one else here. Flynt motioned at a couch, and the young women sat there while he took the armchair in front of them, putting his legs up on the coffee table between them.
"So, what can I do for Aurora?" he asked, vaguely annoyed. He touched his fingers together, resting his elbows on the armchair's arms. His expression was unreadable.
"I'm sure you've heard about the murders and disappearances that have happened in Vale recently," Pyrrha started, keeping her voice calm.
"I have. I should have also known Aurora would send their dogs sniffing into my business about it, too." He tilted his head. "I have nothing to do with what happened. I'm just trying to live normally to the best of my abilities."
"We figured as much," Yang offered, "and we're not here to accuse you of anything. We just have a few questions."
"Of course you do." Flynt sighed and made a gesture like a shoo with his hand. "Go on, then, let's get this done and over with."
Yang nodded at Pyrrha, so the redhead asked, "Why did you move to Vale?"
"Because I'd heard that Aurora's presence in Vale was nonexistent, and I could make a name for myself here doing what I love without constantly being questioned by enforcers – like you are now, mind you – the moment a vampire caused problems. Simple enough."
Yang tried to keep her expression neutral, but she cringed inside. Flynt's implied criticism wasn't wrong – even Yang and Pyrrha had been forced to interrogate a few vampires here and there that they'd already met a couple times before. Sometimes they picked who they questioned based on suspicions, but other times SUN directed them towards specific suspects more than once – and not necessarily without reason, but still – and it was almost always unpleasant for all parties involved.
"Yes, well, we're hoping to keep this conversation brief, too," Pyrrha tried compassionately. "You wouldn't happen to know who is behind the acts of violence here, would you?"
Flynt shook his head. "I don't hang around other vampires. Sorry."
Yang suddenly leaned forward, his earlier response making a question spring up in her mind along with an inkling he hadn't said the whole truth. "Hold on. How did you hear Aurora's presence in Vale was nonexistent, then?"
Flynt frowned and waved his hand. "Fine, I know of a few vampires, but I don't hang around them. Anyway, Cardin Winchester told me. I don't know much of what he does with his undying life, though."
Yang and Pyrrha shared a look. Cardin was the other vampire they wanted to meet with today. "...Okay, so who are the other vampires you know of?" Pyrrha asked more pointedly.
"Apart from Winchester? There's Mocha, Vulpes, and Axis." Flynt paused and then crossed his ankles on the coffee table. "I think there are others, but I don't know them."
Uh-oh. Yang gave Pyrrha a concerned look, which she returned as a side-glance while she took out her scroll and quickly searched Aurora's database. Those names weren't real names – they were aliases. Aliases meant those vampires were most likely at least over a century old. The SRO had been able to keep track of a few of them, especially the more recent ones, but most times the information Aurora possessed regarding vampires with aliases was based on events in history pulled from the Archives – meaning some profiles weren't necessarily accurate or even true – or some vampires had just not chosen to take on aliases at all.
More worrying than this, though, was the fact that Flynt's news revealed there were more than four or five leeches hanging around Vale – somehow. Aurora did not have an established presence here, meaning there were no synthetic plasma sites, or any blood pack cold storage units meant for vampires, specifically. And yet, despite that, it was only now, over five-hundred years since Vale came into existence, that SUN had to send in enforcers to take care of a vampire problem.
Something was regulating vampires in Vale, and it wasn't Aurora.
But whatever it was, it had failed at its job recently.
Pyrrha put her scroll away and shook her head at Yang. "No relation to our vamps on file."
Our job just got quite a bit more complicated. Maybe Mistral isn't so bad, after all. Yang took a calming breath in. "Can you give us an estimate on the number of vampires you think are here?"
Flynt shrugged. "Can't say. I only just got here within the past five years. There must be at least a dozen."
The number of new, significant revelations was getting on Yang's nerves. And she could tell Pyrrha was realizing how much bigger their task had gotten, too. All these vampires – undocumented. And any one or more of them could be their culprits. Yang couldn't help it, she stood and began pacing, the nervous energy needing an outlet. "Where do you get your blood, Flynt?" she asked, gazing at him sharply.
He seemed to warily watch her move from one side of the room to the other for a second before he replied, "Cryolife is the company that supplies the blood packs. I think Winchester actually works at the storage facility where we get what we need." Flynt suddenly took his feet off the table and leaned forward, causing Yang to stop pacing. "Look, are we done here? That's all I have, and I'm supposed to be performing right now. This doesn't look good on me."
Yang looked over at Pyrrha. She shook her head. There wasn't much else they could ask Flynt anyway, and he was right – for all intents and purposes, he was just trying to live his life, and now people had just seen two 'police detectives' walk in to speak with him in private. It was time to leave him alone. "Yeah, we just need your alibi about your location at the time of the crimes, then that's everything."
They recorded his statement, thanked him, and then the two enforcers headed out, yet again ignoring all the looks sent their way. Once they were inside their vehicle, Pyrrha in the driver's seat, Yang said immediately after shutting the door, "We might get more information out of Cardin, since he seems to be directly involved with the vamps around here...and it sounded like he's the one who even invited some of them to Vale."
Pyrrha put the car into gear and began driving. "Yes, I got that impression, too. We'll check his last known residence first. Also, Mocha, Vulpes, and Axis are not in Aurora's database. Can you look up Cryolife?"
Yang took out her scroll and searched the name on the web. "Uh…" She skimmed several lines of information first, then said, "They're a genetics research company? I mean, I guess that makes sense with why they would have blood packs. And they're based in…" Her eyes widened. "Atlas. With a lab and a warehouse in Vale. Holy shit, what are the odds? Also, it says Cryolife is affiliated to the Schnee Minerals Company?"
"Schnee? Why would a mining company be affiliated with a genetics research company? Yang, this is so bad. Once we've spoken to Cardin, we need to see what Aurora thinks of all this."
Yang put her scroll away. "Yeah…it's definitely looking like we're going to need some pointers." But now they had some idea of what was happening behind the scenes in Vale and Atlas regarding vampires. Cryolife was providing blood packs. But who was keeping – and then no longer keeping – the vampires in line when they decided to cause trouble?
Because that was just an inevitability. By their very nature, there were always some who caused trouble.
It was the very reason why Aurora's existence was so important.
That's not our job here, though. We're just trying to figure out who killed and abducted those mortals. She also wanted to know who the bloodsucker that had attacked her was, too – because it was highly likely that those two things had the very same culprit. Yang had an itch to look at the scars on her wrist again, but she kept her hands on her lap. Can't believe I just allowed a leech to practically suck me dry.
Or that it hadn't been entirely unpleasant, either, in hindsight.
Ugh. Messed up.
Of course, Yang knew the situation hadn't been so simple and that her choice had seemed right, in the moment, but still.
She'd acted impulsively. And now nothing made sense.
Whatever was going on in Vale, Yang had a sinking feeling they would be stuck investigating it for a long while still, that they were just uncovering the tip of the iceberg, and it wasn't going to be easy figuring out how everything related to each other.
It was quite possible three months wouldn't be enough time, after all.
Cardin Winchester no longer lived at the address the SRO had on his profile. A little old man told them so. That didn't deter the enforcer duo, though. Yang and Pyrrha decided to take a risk and go looking for him at Cryolife's Vale's facilities location next, since Flynt had mentioned he thought Cardin worked there.
Cryolife's laboratory and warehouse appeared to be connected, but the premises weren't particularly large. In fact, Pyrrha almost missed it. It was nestled between other factories in the industrial area of Vale – not anywhere random people would go at any point. The area was fenced off, only accessible through a gate with a checkpoint post.
Pyrrha turned in and brought her window down so she could speak with the guard. There'd be no fake badges this time.
"Authorized personnel only, state your business," he said, sounding mildly bored.
"Aurora, Secret Defense. We're here to speak with Cardin Winchester." Pyrrha showed him her SUN badge on her scroll.
This information triggered his interest – and suspicion. "What? Operative Ak…Akouo? Safety Under the Night? Is this a joke? Please, wait." He typed on his computer for a moment, his expression becoming increasingly bothered, and it took him a few minutes before his attention went back to the enforcers. He seemed almost…nervous. "I apologize, ma'am. I have a specific protocol denying...Aurora entry here."
Yang and Pyrrha shared a shocked expression. This was a first. Pyrrha turned back to the guard. "With all due respect, officer, that's not legally possible."
The man began to scowl, apparently getting over the uniqueness of the situation sufficiently to remember his role. "Then take that up with your lawyers. My directives are clear."
"Alright, we're leaving." Pyrrha shook her head and closed her window, backing out, getting onto the road again. She followed it for a while without saying anything, and Yang didn't speak, either.
They shouldn't have been blocked like that. Law enforcement and security had no jurisdiction over Aurora when it came to requiring access to locations. Yang and Pyrrha didn't want to cause unnecessary issues, though, which was why they hadn't argued with the guard. But this was a problem.
"Guess we're just gonna have to do it the old way," Pyrrha eventually hummed.
"A good ol' stakeout," Yang agreed. "We should get coffee, to really live the dream."
"Thanks. That really lifts my mood."
"No prob, Bob. That's the power of friendship. But, for real, do you remember when we first started, how often we'd just sit in some old vehicle, waiting for vamps to show up?"
Pyrrha found somewhere to turn the car around, and said, "The best bet would be getting a view on the warehouse. That's probably where vampires get their blood from."
"Damn. Ignored. You're right, though. Let's get us that view."
"Can you be serious for two seconds, Bob?"
Yang cracked a smile. Pyrrha wasn't actually mad. She was a good sport, as always. Still, Yang recognized when it was time to stop being silly. She was just frustrated with this whole thing, too, and found it easier to deflect with comedy. But she focused on what Pyrrha needed her for – keeping an eye out for a good spot to park.
They were able to get into an adjacent parking lot, and positioned the vehicle inconspicuously beside other cars, where they could still see Cryolife's warehouse and observe any suspicious activity. Pyrrha turned the car off and sat back in her seat. "What do you think it means?" she wondered into the muted silence.
Yang took out her scroll, got it ready to take pictures if needed. "I dunno what you're asking, Pyrr."
"Cryolife specifically denies Aurora access to their facilities. They know what Aurora is, they know about enforcers. They obviously know about vampires." Pyrrha turned her gaze to Yang, suddenly more urgent. "Who owns Cryolife? Who are the founders?"
Yang searched up the information on the web. "So, Cryolife started in Atlas at around the same time as the city's founding, almost one-thousand years ago. It wasn't called that, at first, though, because it served as a…hospital, I guess? Anyway, the initial founder was someone called Eis Kalt. Then, about five centuries later, Vale became a location on the map and Cryolife opened up another hospital. And the ownership of this branch has recently been transferred to a certain Oliver Beryl from his father, Edrick."
"Are they vampires?"
Yang searched for images and any possible videos available, creasing her eyebrows. There were a lot. They hosted charity events and fundraisers rather often. "Don't think so. They look pretty regular. And Edrick definitely got older. Although Oliver's quite handsome…for a guy."
Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "Well, either way, we'll submit the information to Aurora. They'll decide what to do with it, and hopefully tear into Cryolife for obstruction of the law."
Just then, Pyrrha's scroll beeped. Both women raised their eyebrows, and the redhead got the device out of her pocket to check the message. "Unknown sender," she muttered, but her eyes quickly skimmed the text, and suddenly she was smiling – small and almost shy, but definitely smiling.
Yang immediately grinned. "Oo-ooo, what's your new husband saying? C'mon, Nikos, spill!"
"Yang! We've literally only said, like, two things to each other – and you were there for it. And it's never going to get that far, anyway."
"Yeah, but I never get to tease you about romance, so I'm excited. What did he say?"
"He said –" Pyrrha suddenly interrupted herself, green irises flashing up to the front window. "Truck."
Yang smirked but decided not to comment, instead looking out the window, too. There was a semi coming in towards Cryolife's warehouse. It was unmarked, except for one, pale blue symbol in the middle of the trailer, shaped like a snowflake. The outer rim of the snowflake was arrowheads and jagged sword points, a singular hexagon at its center. Yang snapped a picture of it.
The semi backed into the docking port of the warehouse, and the driver stepped out. Yang took a few shots, but she quickly realized something. "Hey, that's Winchester."
"It sure is."
The duo shared a look.
"We can jump that fence no problem…" Yang tried.
"We sure can."
"And we're legally allowed in there anyway…"
"Let's go."
They got out of their vehicle, first making sure they were fully geared up. Cardin was beginning to unload large metal crates by himself like they weighed nothing. He was still a fairly young vampire, but he seemed to have a unique strength to him that others his age did not. Their goal wasn't to fight, but Cardin had stopped communicating with the SRO several years ago, and chances were that, just like Flynt, it was because he wanted nothing to do with Aurora anymore. Yang and Pyrrha would have to approach this as tactfully as possible to avoid a confrontation.
Once the two enforcers were ready, standing in front of their sedan, Yang extended her fist towards Pyrrha with a waggle of her eyebrows. Pyrrha glanced at the offending member. "There's cheese all over your knuckles."
"Ew, don't make it weird. C'mon, you know you want toooo." Yang wiggled her fist, bringing it even closer to her friend with a grin.
"Yes, it's my dream to have cheese on my hands."
"Unnngggff, okay, whatever, let's go." Yang rolled her eyes with exaggeration and started walking.
Pyrrha muffled a laugh behind the back of her hand. "Wait, come back, I'll do it."
Yang almost decided to give her a hard time, but since time wasn't quite a luxury at the moment, she immediately turned around and gave Pyrrha a very enthusiastic fist-bump.
Pyrrha shook her head, still smiling along with Yang, and then they started making their way towards the tall, electric and barbed fence surrounding Cryolife's facilities. There would be a point where Cardin would either hear or smell them approaching, so they waited until he disappeared into the trailer to make the eight-foot jump over the fence and continue on towards the truck, still a couple dozen meters away.
They had just reached the driver's side when Cardin came back around. He stopped when he saw them, and the duo stopped, too.
He did not look happy.
"Hello, Cardin," Pyrrha said, taking on a jovial tone. "We see that you're busy, but we need to ask you a few questions. Would that be alright?"
His frown became an outright glower and his stance tensed. "No. It's not alright. Fuck off, bitch."
Yang's hand hovered near her gun with the shocking ammunition. This vampire seemed like he was ready to get violent at the slightest provocation. "C'mon, man. We don't want to be bothering you, either. We'll get out of your hair as soon as possible."
It wasn't enough. In the blink of an eye, Cardin lunged forward to punch Yang in the face. His fist nearly connected – she moved to the side at the last second, only to have his other fist come swinging from the other direction. Yang stumbled into Pyrrha trying to get out of the way, and her partner grabbed her shoulders and jumped up backwards, bringing both of them onto the top of the truck's roof.
They drew their guns and aimed down at Cardin, who glared up at them with a snarl.
"Cardin, stand down," Pyrrha ordered, "or we will be forced to apprehend you. This doesn't have to get messy."
"We literally just want to ask, like, three questions," Yang added, "and if you're not guilty, then there's no reason to fight."
Cardin growled, low in his throat. "I came to Vale to get away from you enforcers," he spat, saying the word like it was vile. "You just can't leave us alone, can you? We're not doing anything wrong! We're just trying to live like any other person."
"I understand that, Cardin. We're not accusing you of anything, and we're not here to put our noses in your business." Pyrrha kept her voice calm and conciliatory, and Yang almost envied her. She was the best at finding the right words to diffuse these types of tense situations.
Unfortunately, even the right words couldn't diffuse Cardin's short temper.
"But you are!" he hissed, and suddenly he grabbed the underside of the truck and flipped the whole thing over, causing a ruckus as the boxes and containers inside came loose. The truck screeched in a cacophony as it crashed onto the pavement.
Yang and Pyrrha fell backwards, but despite their surprise, they managed to catch their fall halfway and land on their feet unsteadily.
Cardin was already attacking them before they could reassess the situation, though.
He rushed Pyrrha from behind, grabbing her by the nape, and sent her colliding into the cement, hard enough that it cracked.
"Akouo!" Yang immediately took the opening and shot Cardin. The electric bullets caught him in the shoulder, and they made him groan and seize up and release Pyrrha. She tried to stand again, blood running down her face from bad road rash on her forehead and cheek, and Yang raced over to Cardin, getting her cuffs out.
She reached for his wrist, but he jerked through the electricity-induced tension in his muscles and gripped her left arm instead – and twisted. Yang cried out, dropping the cuffs and fighting to stop him from breaking her arm. She slammed her prosthetic into the crook of his elbow, and he grunted, teeth clenched, letting her go as his arm momentarily hung loose at his side.
Yang barely had time to point her gun at him again – he careened into her with what felt like the force of a tank, pummeling the breath from her as they flew a few feet backwards into the air. Her back hit the ground, then her head, and stars danced in her vision through her desperate gasping.
Defensive instinct took over – despite the daze, she caught his fist as it came hurtling down inches from her nose, and rammed the palm of her prosthetic into his chin. His head snapped back, and Yang shoved him off her – so hard he landed several meters away.
As she was gathering her breath and strength again, struggling to get back to her feet through the pain below her shoulder blades and above her nape, Pyrrha stepped forward between them. She reached behind her back and unsheathed the silver weapon she kept there by the thick hilt, a double-edged two-foot point, wickedly reflecting the outside light. Cardin growled angrily and rushed towards her once more, and Pyrrha leaned into a low combat stance, her weapon extending with metallic clicking sounds until she was holding a five-foot spear.
She launched herself at him, ducking under the swing of his arm and running the spear straight through his stomach. He howled in rage and agony, stumbling forward while the wound sizzled and burned. His hands came around the handle, trying to free himself, and the skin there reddened and steamed, too.
Pyrrha held firm. "We can still end this peacefully, Cardin, if you stop now."
His teeth clenched, the tendons of his neck straining, and he set a hate-filled glare on her. In the next moment, he struck out his opposite hand and gripped her throat, lifting her off the ground. Pyrrha was forced to let go of her spear, instead hanging on to his wrist and kicking her feet in her attempts to get free.
Yang panicked. If he crushed Pyrrha's windpipe, the situation would become critical. "Cardin!" she shouted, straightening her stance. She unholstered her other gun, the one with the UV-C bullets in the clip. "Do you want to fucking die?! Stand down! Last warning!"
That got his attention. He glanced over at her, sneering and huffing through the weakness the silver was undoubtedly causing him, but didn't let go of Pyrrha, who continued to struggle and fight against his hold. He used his free hand to pull the spear out of his stomach in one quick motion, and blood so dark it was almost black splattered on the pavement with a few chunks of flesh and guts. He stumbled again, but didn't let go of the spear or Pyrrha, and hissed roughly, "This is exactly what I mean. Who made you judge and executioner of us? What gives you the fucking right? I'm defending myself."
"You son of a bitch, you attacked first!" Yang was seething, breathing hard as she pointed her gun right at his head. Her heart was pounding in her ears, fear tightening the muscles of her legs and arms. Fear that he'd decide to just clench his fingers and that would be the end of her closest friend. "Let her go!"
Cardin arched his eyebrows, glaring. "Let her go? Fine." He then turned and slammed Pyrrha's head into the metal underside of the truck's trailer.
She went limp, collapsing on the pavement, and Yang was, just for a fraction of a second, too horrified to react. In the next instant, her gaze had returned to Cardin – Cardin, who threw the spear directly at her.
Yang saw it approach, saw the silver point coming closer to her face as if time slowed down, and she got ready to pivot, got ready to take a shot, but the spear never completed its flight.
Something rose up from the ground and intercepted its trajectory. Something black and shadowy, something with huge bat-like wings made of smoke. It had triple-jointed legs, horns atop its head, and razor claws. Demon.
She took several steps back, and if it was possible for a vampire to be any paler, Cardin looked the part. His eyes widened in terrified realization, any will to fight gone from him as he seemed to recognize the misty darkness of a monster that had made its appearance so suddenly.
Yang wasn't faring much better.
"N-Nightshade," Cardin stuttered, and he tried to turn and make a run for it, but the beast extended its clawed hand, and shadows lurched from the ground at his feet and held him in place at the ankles and calves. He visibly winced and swallowed hard. "What are you doing here? I thought you were –"
"Gone? Dead?" the creature spoke, quiet and utterly chilling Yang right up her spine. The voice sounded like it came from all around them, hollow, dark, unbearably cold in its calm. "I thought I made myself very clear with you, Cardin. Yet you've made my food lose precious blood."
Cardin tried tugging himself free with increasing urgency, but to no avail. "I… I'm sorry, Nightshade, I didn't realize you wanted to feed from them. They're enforcers, they want to eradicate us! I had to protect myself!"
For a moment, there was silence and nothing happened, and Yang was suddenly struck with the panicked thought that Cardin had convinced the shadow gargoyle-like demon to turn on the enforcers. But then it said, low and foreboding, "…No. I don't think so."
And without giving Cardin any further chance to justify himself, the monster suddenly shoved explosively into him, sending him into the pavement, which crumbled and shook, and dust blew up in a plume as he was sent further into the ground.
And then the smoke and shadows were gone, as if they'd never been there at all.
Yang remained very still, waiting. She strained to hear anything out of the ordinary, or see anything unnatural, but after several moments, she had to assume that whatever the hell that had just been, it was gone. She looked down towards Pyrrha, seeing that the redhead was – thank the gods – conscious now, raised on her forearms, and she met Yang's stare in horror.
"What...what was that?" Pyrrha whispered.
Heart pounding, Yang sunk down to the pavement next to her partner, equally stunned. "I..." Her mind was racing. Those shadows and smoke looked awfully familiar. But that demon figure? Nope. The voice… It sounded colder, much more ominous and threatening, but that subtle accent was hard to mistaken… Yang rested her forehead on her hands, suddenly trying to keep herself from hyperventilating. It couldn't be. "I…I think that might have been the vampire who attacked me…"
"What?" Pyrrha lifted herself up more, eyes wide. "That was a vampire? Ember, excuse my language, really, but what the fuck?"
Yang shrugged helplessly. Pyrrha must have been completely rattled to be cussing, and Yang understood the feeling. Something was dawning on her, and she was fighting her mind from actually letting it settle because the truth of it threatened to send her into an outright panic attack. "I don't know, okay? I've never seen anything like it. Are you alright?"
Pyrrha started to get herself to her feet, wiping the blood from her brow. She rolled her shoulders. "Yes, I'm fine. Just going to have some cuts and bruises until tomorrow." But then she winced and held the sides of her head. "And a really bad headache." She glanced over at the small crater in the ground. "We should check on Cardin... And then we're going to request backup. This is...more than what we're equipped to handle."
Pyrrha helped Yang to her feet as well, and once they had their weapons again, they cautiously approached the hole.
Yang couldn't be certain if that shadowy apparition was, in fact, the same vampire who had attacked her before – if it was a vampire at all, but the conversation Cardin had held with it implied that it was. Nightshade. Evidently in reference to the deadly specimen of the plant.
And Yang had thought Cardin seemed uniquely strong.
Pyrrha stepped closer to the hole and peered down into it while Yang remained vigilant of their surroundings. The redhead carefully made her descent.
'Yet you've made my food lose precious blood.' It was that one line which made Yang truly think that creature was the same that had attacked her. And, in which case...was it only defending its food in general? Or...
Yang raised her wrist. Her hand was shaking. 'You will be the only one I will ever be able to drink from again.' The memory of those words whispered in her mind, and the gravity of them finally did settle on Yang like a crushing weight against her best wishes. Her next breath was hard to draw.
That monster, that eldritch nightmare, was going to come for Yang again. To feed. And Yang didn't know when, or how, or where, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. The one thing that could quickly debilitate and even kill vampires, given enough time – the UV-C bullets – short of outright stabbing this monster in the heart and decapitating it, this Nightshade could turn itself incorporeal and render the bullets useless.
"He's gone," Pyrrha announced, and a short moment later, she came back up out of the hole beside Yang.
"Damn, what do you mean, gone? Dead?" the blonde muttered, disbelieving.
"There's nothing down there. He either left while we weren't looking...or whatever that thing was, it wiped him from the face of Remnant."
Yang tried really, really hard to control her breathing. It's going to come after you next, Yang. She started pacing, passing her hand through her hair stressfully. "Damn," she mumbled again.
"Ember? Are you okay?"
Yang hadn't told Pyrrha what the vampire had said. She hadn't told her partner she had been the one to essentially force that monster to drink from her. And there was no possible way in which Yang could come clean now, because really, truly, what the fuck had she been thinking? "Yeah, yeah..." she sighed heavily, "I'm fine. Just...overwhelmed right now. Looks like we won't be getting our answers from Cardin."
"No... Either way, we're not continuing this investigation until we've reported what happened here to SUN and wait for them to tell us what to do next. Come, let's head back." Pyrrha started walking towards the fence at the end of the parking lot, adding, "We need reinforcements."
We need an army. Yang didn't say that out loud, though. She holstered her gun and followed.
She should have known that whatever was happening in Vale for the first time in Aurora's history wasn't going to be anything easy or normal.
And Yang had invited the devil, itself, into her veins.
As always, I'm open to criticisms and suggestions! There are definitely some parts in this chapter that I feel could have been smoother, even after the revamping, but, ultimately, I think it gets the job done. Thank you again to Wolfcreations21 and my wonderful girlfriend, Bumblebye, for the support, and thank you to my writer friend for help with editing!