Content Warning: Violence (Hunting)
Danny wasn't sure what to do most of the time, and sure even when he was with Sam he was left clueless, but he was starting to trust himself more as time went on. However there was one thing Danny always seemed to have a knack for, something he was genuinely good at, something he almost always got right. Hunting. It was one thing he was good at, and every time he managed to save a life, it made him feel a little bit better about himself.
"Daniel, are you prepared for it?" Charles asked, his soft voice humming through the phone. Danny smiled, leave it for the all-knowing being Clockwork was to still worry about him. He figured part of it was the grief Pandora would give the man if Danny ever got seriously hurt on his watch.
"Yea, I'll be okay." Danny nodded, eyes scanning over his choice of weapon for this hunt.
"I apologize for interrupting your time off from classes." Charles spoke, pulling a sigh from Danny.
"It's okay, it really is." Danny reassured, surveying the motel room that was booked for him. "I don't mind, it's nice to brush up on my skills sometimes."
"Very well, and do be careful."
"I know, I know. Wouldn't want Pandora to dig into you." Danny chuckled, smiling at the soft laugh on the other side.
"No we would not." Charles mused, before continuing. "Be sure to text us once you are done and once you get back to your dorm."
"I will Charles, no worries." Danny bid his goodbye, before hanging up. He didn't mind Charles sending him the occasional hunt to take care off. Sure, Danny still felt a weight on himself every time he's had to take a life, just to save more, but he understands now. Better than he did when he first started. Not all creatures can be saved, some of them are genuine monsters.
It's become easier to spot the lost ones, and the ones that can be helped. It's disheartening to rarely ever find any that can be saved. In his time so far, there was only one none ghostly being that he managed to help, a werewolf. She had been freshly turned, and horrified that she killed someone. Danny managed to set her up with a good system, and with the help of Skulker managed to find her a community of werewolves that kept themselves from hurting people on the full moon.
This case was a simple on, a vampire nest. They were supposedly kidnapping and turning local kids into blood banks. Once the kids were drained of their blood, they were disposed in dumpsters around the town. It wasn't that hard to sneak into the police station and find the locations the bodies were dumped. It was just as easy to find the epicenter of it all.
An old warehouse that was essentially abandoned, leaving it a perfect place for squatters to stay and keep out of everyone's hair. In this case, vampires. Danny sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. Cases that involved kids always bothered him more than the others, kids were easy to scar, and this. This was trauma that would take years to over come, if they ever did.
Regardless his feelings, Danny knew he had to get down to business.
Shit.
He fucked up, kind of. It was his fault that he didn't put his phone on silence, but he honestly didn't expect anyone to call him. Sure he expected a call from Sam, but he expected it a lot earlier in the day. Not now, not when he was in a warehouse with four kid hostages and at least ten vampires in the vicinity. This seemingly easy hunt for him, turned into a cat and mouse game.
Danny grit his teeth, ignoring the blossoming pains across his back. A vamp managed to get the sneak on him, and falling down two stories was not a fun experience. This would me a lot easier if he could tune into his powers, but he knows the rules. He made them up for himself, but it was meant to help him stay less reliant on his powers. He wants to be able to do this, protect people, even if he didn't have access to his abilities. Being ghost king made dealing with matters like this a lot easier, and he'd rather reserve that for times when it's really needed. No need to abuse something as strong and important as that.
"Come out come out where ever you are." A taunting voice rang through out the warehouse, bouncing off the walls and causing an echo. Danny took a deep breath, focusing his attention to the job at hand. Take out the vampires, save the kids.
If he paid attention enough, he'd have four vampire left to take care of. This went from a stealth mission, to full frontal which means he needed to play this smart. It's less of a headache if he managed to not have all four of them on him at once. Only two of them seemed to be on the floor he was, the other two were probably looking around on some of the upper levels. Which left him with some time before they realized where he was.
As quietly as he could, he shifted between crates, keeping trained eyes on the vampire in front of him. He wasn't too sure where the second one was, but he was far away enough to not be able to get there in time to stop Danny. He glanced at his machete, the red blood already drying against the blade. Quick and easy, he's done this plenty of times by now. With another deep breath he stepped out from behind the boxes.
"I wonder, whose really the cat and mouse in this." Danny smirked, tightening his grip on the machete. The vampire turned, lips curled to reveal stained fangs, a hiss vibrating from his chest.
"Your going to pay for what you did to them." The vamp growled, crouching lowly before launching himself at Danny. The shorter of the two shifted quickly, jolting the vampire in the shoulder and pushing him to the floor. He dropped his foot on the man's chest, and raised the weapon up high enough to swing with force.
"Wai-" The words cut themselves off, red blossomed from the neck and pooling onto the floor. Danny exhaled, pulling himself into a stand. One down, three to go. The hurried footsteps jumped off the walls, making it a little hard to pinpoint where they were coming from. Danny managed to narrow it down to one person however, meaning the other two haven't notice just yet. He knew he didn't have much time before they did though.
"Asshole!" The voice screamed from behind him, giving Danny enough time to turn and dodge an attack. "You fucking bitch!" The woman cried out, turning a teary-eyed angry glare in his direction. He steadied himself, gripping the machete tight as the woman charged at him again. The swing didn't land, barely clipping her shoulder as he narrowly missed the assault.
More footsteps sounded, hurrying down steps.
Danny cursed under his breath, landing a blow to the woman's leg, dropping her to the ground. She hissed up at him, trying to pull herself up. Unlike the last guy, her teeth weren't stained red. In a passing thought, Danny wondered if that meant she hadn't had a chance to feed. Not a thought for the moment though. He only just managed to slice through yet another neck when the force hit him.
He swallowed a grunt when he made impact with the concrete ground, feeling pain blossom across his upper back. His grip of his blade never let up, giving the chance to jab it behind him, causing his attacker to jolt back enough for him to get out from underneath. Two vampires stared back at him, angry and hungry eyes burrowing into him. He readied himself yet again for another attack, but nothing came for just a beat.
"What are you?" The older vampire asked, taking a sniff of the air. Danny's eyebrows furrowed, how could he know? Danny hadn't done anything to give away his true nature, had he? "Your blood, it smells... different." That's Danny just noticed the wetness that bloomed along his back. He wasn't so sure how he got cut, but he needed to end this soon.
"Enough Roger!" The younger one growled. "He killed them, all of them!" Danny dropped just in time for the younger man to fly over him and hit the ground behind him.
"You idiot." Roger sighed, taking a charge at Danny. It wasn't too hard to off balance the older one with a well placed slice, leaving him leaning to heavily to one side, Danny swiped his legs, hearing the audible thud of a body hitting the floor. He turned quickly, the blade cleanly slicing through the neck of the younger one, earning a growl from the vampire behind him.
"Where are the kids?" Danny asked, placing weight on the older man's chest, blade aimed for his neck.
"Why should I tell you? You'll kill me anyway." Roger grinned, his teeth stained pink. Danny growled, leaning down with the machete pressing hard, earning a line of red to blossom and pulling a wince from the vampire.
"I'll find them without your help." Danny said, raising the blade and bringing it down before the man could protest. It would have been easier to have known, but the warehouse was only so big. He'd find them, they'll survive.
"Shh, I'm not going to hurt you." Danny spoke softly, holding his hands out as he moved closer. The young girl was press against the wall, eyes wide and filled with tears. Danny gently pulled the gag away from her mouth. "Where's the other kids?" He asked, he knew there should be four. Six kids have gone missing and only two were found dead.
"G-G-Gone." She whimpered, eyes trained on Danny's hands as he tugged and undid the ropes binding her hands. Danny held back a wince, he was hoping they would still be alive, even if he knew for the better. "Are... A-are you going to h-urt me-e?"
"No, no." Danny shook his head, noticing her gaze focused on the blood on his hands and clothes. "I promise, this happened from taking down the bad guys. The ones that took you."
"You.. save me-e?" She asked, hiccupping slightly. Danny nodded, wiping softly at the tears streaming down her face.
"You'll be okay, you'll be back with your family in no time." Danny pat her head, watching the hope rekindle in her eyes. "I need to do a quick sweep and make sure I'm not missing anyone, but when I come back, we'll go."
"DON'T!" She cried, tiny hand gripping at Danny's shirt. Fresh tears running down her soot stained cheeks, Danny sighed.
"It's okay, I won't be long." He eased her hands away from his shirt, taking a knife from his boot and placing it on the ground next to her. He didn't like leaving kids with weapons. "If anything happens, call for me and I'll be here. Only touch this if it's an absolute emergency, okay?"
"O-oka-y" She sniffled, eyes falling on the knife.
"I'll be right back"
Danny released a harsh breath, hand press tightly to his side. His angry glare fell on the beheaded corpse of the eleventh vampire. He should have know, should have heard her sneaking up on him, but he didn't. Now he was in a little bit of a worse shape, and he might just have to visit clockwork. His healing factor has gotten better, faster. The problem was that it mostly kicked in to stop bleeding, or to stop fatal wounds from being fatal.
These bruises and cuts were probably still going to be here when he gets back to university and that was just something he didn't want Sam to notice. He wished that being the ghost king gave him a much faster healing speed, but atlas not everything can go in his favor. Charles was the only few that could speed up the process for him, and hopefully Danny got a chance to see him about it. Even if it would result in a lecture from him and Pandora.
First things first, take care of the little girl. She definitely doesn't need to see this. He zipped his hoodie up, hoping that it was enough to cover the blood and keep the wounds out of her eye sight.
"You okay?" He asked keeping he's tone low and soft.
"Y-your hurt?" She mumbled softly, watching him with worry in her eyes. Danny gave her a small smile, placing the knife back in his boot.
"No, I'm okay." Danny shook his head, holding a hand out for her to take. "Why don't we get you out of here?"
"Really?" She perked, Danny chuckled softly.
"Yea, come on." He picked her up gently, resting her against his hip as he treaded on his way back to his car. "Why don't you tell me about you parents?"
He smiled softly as the girl went on to chatter on about her parents and her annoying older brother. The little girl did an easy one-eighty from the scared girl he found to a bubbly one the moment she was placed in his car. He drove with the music playing softly and the little girl, Angel, going on about how her teacher keeps putting kids in the time out room.
It was cute, and Danny was a little happy to see that she still had a brightness in her. Even after everything that just happened. The hum of the engine and the soft rock on the radio seemed to do enough to doze the child off to sleep. Giving Danny a quiet ride for the rest of the way to the hospital.
It didn't take long for him to pull into the hospital, the area was surprisingly quiet for this time of night. Danny pulled a baseball cap over his head and slid the hoodie over it all. He'd usually just let whoever he saved walk in themselves, but he didn't have the heart to wake the little girl up. The events of her kidnapping seem to have caught up with her and she was out like a light.
"I need help!" Danny called out the moment he made it into the hospital with the little girl in her arms. A nurse rushed over first, followed by a man with a gurney.
"What happened?" She asked, getting at work to make sure the little girl was going to be okay.
"I don't know I found her laying on a bus stop." Danny explain, watching everyone's attention quickly shift off of him onto the girl. Quietly he slipped out before the attention could land back on him. It was better not to stick around and wait for questions to arise.
It's better to just go back home.