http://clampfix.fanworks.net/x-fix/dark1.txt </head><body><pre>For those of you (a majority, I'm betting) who aren't familiar with Anita Blake, she is the protagonist of a series of books by Laurell K. Hamilton. She is a necromancer and legal vampire executioner. I reccommend the books. However, for those of you who haven't read them, a 'human servant' is someone with four vampire marks and a 'vampire mark' is something that can be imposed by any vampire above a certain level of power (referred to as a master vampire). I promise more characters will show up in later chapters. My apologies to Yuuto fans, I know I've been rather unfair to him in this chapter. Warnings? Uh... violence, minor profanity, shounen ai to come. Spoilers for the end of Tokyo Babylon, AU, characters warped a little to fit the alternate universe. (Sorry, Yuuto! ;_;) I thrive on C&C... someone please tell me if this makes any sense without having read the books? (Oh yeah, and if someone comes up with a better title, _PLEASE_ tell me. This one's too cliched.) "After Dark" ~Chapter One~ It was early spring. The trees were still bare, although tightly furled leaf-buds peppered the white branches. Wind played through the skeletal trees, soundlessly, so that the bone-pale fingers waved against the neon-lit night. The wind was cold. I really didn't care. Perhaps I should introduce myself... Sumeragi Subaru, necromancer and vampire slayer. I do some exorcisms on the side. I suppose the two jobs are similar: sending lost spirits to the afterlife. There are differences. For instance, vampires fight back *far* more effectively. One of the reasons that I keep more than spell-cards under my trench coat. There's a silver knife strapped to each of my forearms. A gun would probably be better--guns don't require me to get within range of the vampire's hands--but it's just not possible to get hold of a gun in Japan. I've tried. So this is what I wear when I get hired to kill a vampire. Silver knives, stakes and garlic in my bag, my pentagram necklace--it would be a cross if I was Christian, but anything you believe in works well enough--and my ofuda collection. Usually all I have to do is call fire. Vampires burn very well. I was warier than usual tonight, because my client hadn't told me anything about how powerful this vampire was. Just that the walking corpse had attacked and killed her five-year-old daughter outside their apartment. I felt distant compassion for the parents; they'd been shattered. They'd found the body. The child had been staked this morning to keep her from rising--that's one of the parts of this job that I really hate. I'm still not used to mutilating the victims, even if it saves them from becoming monsters. I hope I'll never get used to it. Damned though I may be, I don't want to fall so far that I don't care about people anymore. There are few enough differences between the monsters and me as it is. I cling to the ones I have. I shook my head, and picked up my pace. I could let myself be depressed *after* I killed the vampire. If I started feeling sorry for myself, I wouldn't live out the night. Even with my... special...advantages. This was the street where it had happened. Dark, deserted, even only a few hours after the sun went down. Very few people want to be out after dark. Tempts the monsters. My footsteps rang on the cement, striking echoes from the buildings. I wouldn't even have been able to hear them in a crowd, during the day. But there's some magic to being alone at night that magnifies every sound until you think it's a fire siren. I had my aura damped down, trying to look like a normal human hurrying home from a late day at work. If I was lucky, the presence of 'prey' would draw out my quarry. I knew some hunters who worked with normal humans, using their partners as bait, but I preferred to keep innocents out of the way. It's hard enough to keep yourself alive when you're facing a vampire. They're fast, they're powerful, and they're generally not stupid. Giving yourself someone to protect just makes everything that much worse. I wasn't the type to work with a partner, anyway. I did best alone. A sound. Most people wouldn't have heard the faint thump on the street, but I had been listening for it. The vampire was behind me. I whirled around, pulling out an ofuda. Vampires are fast enough that, if you don't have the spell ready, they can tear out your throat before you finish it. "What took you so long?" the vampire asked, stepping forward to the circle of washed-out yellow light under the streetlamp. Blond hair, pretty face and a smirk that didn't show its fangs; it looked human. That meant two things. First, it had fed recently. There was someone else dead out there. And second, it was old. Over two hundred, probably. This wasn't going to be easy. "Are you the vampire who killed Yamamoto Aoi?" I asked, keeping the spells ready to throw. If it was going to be reasonable, I may as well confirm its guilt. It didn't answer my question. It just laughed, and said, "I was waiting for you. You have quite a reputation, you know? The rogue human servant Sumeragi Subaru." Its laugh showed a flash of fangs, and that unsettled me even though I knew perfectly well what it was. It looked perfectly human. I wouldn't have even known, except that my power told me this thing was a dead body. An inhabited dead body. But that was really only a technicality. I met its eyes. Usually not a smart thing to do with any vampire, much less one this powerful. But like I said, I have special advantages in dealing with vampires. For me, they were just eyes. Blue. "You have the advantage of me," I told it. "What's your name?" It smirked again. "Kigai Yuuto." Well, I had a name to give to the bereaved parents now. I threw the ofuda and activated my spell while it was in midair. A stream of flame roared through the fragile paper. Kigai didn't even try to dodge. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was surprised: two-hundred- year-old vampires weren't usually that stupid. My spell hit Kigai, and bounced. Several square meters of defenseless pavement went up with a roar. Damn. The vampire could use magic. The job just got that much harder. Kigai lunged at me, a dark blur. I pulled my left-hand knife, preparing to stab, and he hit me with the force of a runaway train. I went flying backwards, off my feet, the vampire's hands practically crushing my shoulders. My head bounced off the cement, hard, and I barely kept my grip on the knife handle. Dark fireworks were going off in the edges of my vision. This was not going well at *all*. My vision was blurry, but I could still see Kigai bending over me, his smile wide enough to show fang. "Do you want to cooperate?" he asked with false cheer. "Or would you rather die?" Theatrical. Most of them are. For the moment, I really didn't like either of those options. I still had my knife out, and his hands were on my *shoulders*. That gave my arms basically free reign. Stupid of him... With all my strength, I stabbed up into Kigai's stomach. Even for a vampire, that hurt. Kigai screamed and jerked away, taking my knife with him. I struggled to my feet, even though it took two tries. He'd hit me hard. I didn't want to give him the opportunity to attack me again. Blood--his last victim's, pouring from his dead veins--painted his elegant shirt and beige suit jacket a vivid crimson. The stain spread slowly around the black knife handle, but he didn't bother to pull it out. He snarled at me, and gestured with one hand. The attack roared at me, a swirl of water with deadly power bound in every drop. My reaction was instinctive. The water-dragon rebounded from my hastily raised shield, and vaporized. Kigai, five meters away, started to prepare another attack. Suddenly, he froze where he stood. I felt the roil of distant anger, and shivered despite myself. It clearly hit Kigai a lot harder than it had me. His snarl dropped off his face, and he cringed like a beaten puppy. With a shaky grin, he took a step backwards and sketched a mocking bow. It was a sad attempt to regain his former arrogance. "Things to do, people to eat," he cracked. "I'm afraid I need to take a rain check on killing you." And he was gone, leaving nothing but the flickering yellow light to keep me company. I let out a sigh. That had been a hell of a lot closer than I like fights to be, and I really had no clue why it had ended. It had felt like someone was pulling rank on Kigai, forcing him to back down... but what master vampire would do that for *me*? Most of the monsters would like nothing better than to see me dead. Most of them wanted to do the honors themselves. If I'm ever going to die, I don't want it to be at the hands of a vampire. And *certainly* no arrogant bicentennial magic-user like Kigai is going to take me out... That bugged me a *lot*. Vampires weren't supposed to be able to use magic, they could use their inherent tricks but not *real* magic. What was so special about Kigai? The thought that Kigai wasn't anything special and I was fatally misinformed nagged around the edges of my mind. I hoped it was wrong. As a necromancer, there isn't much I don't know about vampires. I'd wanted to get my degree in biology, once upon a time, but ...things interfered, and I'd ended up learning on the job instead. Still, nearly a decade of this had taught me a lot. And I'd never heard of vampires with magic before. Well, only once, and that was a special exception. I knew exactly who I needed to ask about this. No, not a vampire, in case you were wondering. There are a few vampires that I know well enough that they'll talk to me before trying to remove my face, but not too many. That doesn't bother me much. Frankly, I hate vampires in general. I know it's prejudiced of me. But I have enough scars from vampires, inside and out, that I don't consider it unjustified. After all, a vampire killed my sister. --- It was nearly one in the morning. But vampire hunters don't keep normal hours. Hajime picked up on the first ring. "This is Sumeragi," I informed him. He was silent for a moment, then spoke. "Business, I guess." Was I that predictable? No, don't ask. I knew the answer quite well. I didn't call anyone unless it was business. I'm not the most social person in the world. "Yeah," I said, belatedly. "I have a question." He made an encouraging so-tell-me-already noise. I gave him the Reader's Digest version of my encounter with Kigai. "Hmm." Not a promising reaction. I waited nervously. If Hajime didn't know anything about magic-using vampires, I was sunk. He was the closest thing to an authority I knew of. Like me, a necromancer: unlike me, he wasn't trained and had no intention of ever being. But he was a vampire hunter (if not as active as he had been) and he was forty-five years old. He knew more about the living dead than anyone I'd ever met. He'd taught me everything I knew, in fact. He ran into me on my second job, saved me from a pack of vampire slaves sporting one or two bite marks and eyes glazed as day-old donuts. I hadn't talked to him in nearly a year and he was still probably the closest thing to a friend I had. He had been thinking for a *very* long time. "Hajime-san?" I repeated. "Does any of this sound familiar?" He sighed. "I'm sorry. I've never heard of this Kigai Yuuto, and unlike you I keep lines open into the vampire community. –You should start doing that, you know. It could save your life someday." It was an argument I'd heard before. "Maybe," I muttered, not exactly a promise. Hajime tsked at me. "But anyway... as for vampires using magic... the ones with psychic talents do keep those, you know. Pyrokinetics can still call fire after they're dead, telepaths can read your mind..." "This is so encouraging." "You must have hit the cement harder than you thought, Sumeragi-san, I've never heard you be sarcastic before." He laughed. I wasn't laughing. "But," he added thoughtfully, "if this Kigai had control over water as some kind of psychic talent, it would make sense..." "No," I said definitely. "He deflected my attack. He used magic to do it, not psychic talents." "Then I have no idea what's going on. Tell me if you find out, all right?" The click echoed in my ear. I sighed. Something new. Vampires that could use magic. I had to admit that I had known of one vampire that could use magic. I hate the way everything I think of leads back to him eventually. Maybe it's the marks, but I doubt it. I pulled one hand out of my pocket and stared at the back of it. At the very first scar I'd gotten from a vampire. An inverted pentagram, something I suspected had been a sick joke. The visible representation of the first mark... Its twin was on my other hand. With the first and second marks already imposed, I was halfway to being a complete human servant. There were perks to the whole deal: immortality, for instance. There were drawbacks. I'd be spending eternity bound to someone I ...hated. Someone I wanted to see dead. With only two, I could feel him sometimes. Could tell when he was close. There were fringe benefits; as a necromancer, I usually didn't have any trouble meeting a vampire's eyes. As a necromancer with two marks I could stare down damn near any vampire I wanted. Wounds healed faster, poison didn't work very well. Sometimes that was a benefit. In my darker moods I regretted it. I tore my gaze away from the back of my hand, and lit a cigarette. Dammit. Another habit I could blame him for. I inhaled deeply, holding the burning smoke in my lungs for a moment, staring at the bare surface of my desk. No clutter in my apartment. It didn't look lived in at all, if you want to know the truth. A desk, a phone, a bed, and unless you count the built-in closet that was it. Not even a picture on my wall. The only time my grandmother had come to visit, she had been absolutely horrified. The Sumeragis, by and large, aren't into asceticism. It was a personal quirk. Right now, my room was slightly messier than usual, thanks to the fact that I'd thrown my ripped trench coat on the bed and left the arm sheaths on top of it. One of them was empty. I was going to have to replace the knife soon; that was a shame. Custom silver alloy knives are not the cheapest things in the world. And Kigai had walked off with mine. I... don't really want to track him down and get it back. I'd probably win, now that I was prepared to face a magic-using vampire. He's not as powerful as I am, so long as I don't let him come within throat-tearing range again. But still... it would be more trouble than it was worth. I didn't want to get involved in this, whatever it was. Not unless someone forced me to. I should have learned not to think things like that. It tempts fate.</pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>