Ok, everyone, just a little warning for you on this part. It's boring. And
it sucks. I admit it. This is one of the most boring five pages I've ever
written in my entire life. It's basically a Q&A session between Duo and the
mysterious woman known as Carmen. Wufei and Quatre don't say much of
anything, just because, well...I didn't come up with any lines for them.
^^;;; So, I'm sorry this part's boring, and I'm sorry it sucks, but it is
necessary for the story, because it does answer a few questions and bring a
couple points up.

Don't worry, there shouldn't be anything else this crappy in the near
future.

Just wait for the next part. You'll never believe what I'm going to do to
Duo!!!!

*MANIACAL LAUGHTER*

*choke*

*gasp*

*thud*

--
Katsu "O-ka-ne" no Miko
"Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen
kann man uns am Himmel sehen
wir haben Angst und sind allein...
Gott weiss ich wil kein Engel sein..." (~Ramms+ein~)




Warning: The characters belong to who they belong to and not me. Don't
sue me, I'm not worth your time. Special thanks to Laurell K. Hamilton
for writing the Anita Blake novels.

Addtional warning: Characters acting wildly OOC. You have been warned.

Additional Additional warning: Alternate reality fic. Events that have
happened or will happen in this reality not necessarily connected to what
happened in the real series in any way. Don't wave the time line at me, I
am beyond it now. A HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

Additional Additional Additional warning: Extreme supernatural action.
Supernatural abilities are as defined by me in the shadow world, where
this takes place.

Additional Additional Additional Additional Warning: Story contains Yaoi,
Bad language, violence, and pretty much everything deemed as
"unwholesome" by Focus on the Family. (My Arch Nemesis...) If you are
easily offended, do not read. Also, extra warning is attached to this due
to
the "YUCK!" factor during some scenes.





Acherontia Atropos Part VIII


"I'm always happy to meet another practitioner of the art." the woman said,
shaking my hand firmly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said conversationally. It was
the honest response, though, especially considering what kind of place she
was working at--I wasn't sure I wanted to know what kind of art she was
talking about. She gave me a penetrating look, but she let the comment pass
without saying anything else.

For a moment, it was a normal handshake. Then the hair on my arms and the
back of my neck abruptly stood up and did the hula. I pulled away as
quickly as I could without being too rude. My hand was tingling, like the
pins and needles feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. Carmen smiled
at me. "Are you alright?" She asked pleasantly.

"Just peachy." I waited until she turned her attention to Wufei, and then
scrubbed my hand against my pants leg. It still felt weird. "I'm guessing
that you're Carmen, right?" I kept my voice cheerful and neutral. Carmen
was not making it on my good list so far�I had a strange feeling that she�d
done whatever the hell it was that she�d done on purpose.

She idly rubbed the soft fabric of her robe over her breast. "That's
correct. I'm the one you talked to on the phone. You didn't say anything
about bringing friends."

"Sorry. I just felt the need for a little backup." I shrugged, not sorry at
all. This was getting just a little too weird.

"Don't trust me?"

"It's been a bad week." I stuffed my hands in my pockets. "And I don't have
a reason to. I didn't even know your name until now...the only reason I
knew to call here was because someone broke into my room, put a box on my
bed that had some guns in it, and wrote the phone number down on a white
card that was with the guns. Not exactly confidence inspiring."

"I see. I'm sorry. I thought that you would have gotten warned about this."
She kept rubbing. Up and down. Up and down. There was a bump under her
fingers, which I presumed was her nipple. I was getting a really funny
feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I was pretty sure it had nothing to
do with whatever hormones were flowing in my veins. It wasn�t that kind of
funny feeling.

"It would have been nice." I muttered.

Carmen either didn't hear me or just ignored me, either of which was
perfectly fine as far as I was concerned. Instead, she offered her hand�the
one that wasn�t busy�to Wufei. "And you are?"

"Wufei." he said grudgingly, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Carmen�s
right ear. He looked like he was putting some serious effort into fighting
off a blush. Not that I wasn�t fighting off one too. He took her hand and
shook it. Nothing happened. Maybe it had all been in my head. Right.

When she was done with Wufei, she turned her attention to Quatre. He smiled
at her. "My name's Quatre. It's a pleasure to meet you." He offered his
hand to her. That's Quatre. Always pleasant and polite, never mind the fact
that we were in the ever so slightly odoriferous basement of the bondage
and leather hut and shut in a tiny room with someone that...well, I wasn't
quite sure what the hell Carmen was.

Strangely enough, Carmen didn't shake Quatre's hand. After a moment, he
gave up and tucked his hand back into his pocket, his smile becoming
faintly puzzled.

"Now that the intros are done, would you like to tell us WHY we're here?" I
asked, a little more abruptly than I had intended. I'm not exactly the most
polite person on earth, but I'm normally not rude, either. Then again, my
nerves were understandably getting a little frayed, and something about
Carmen was really starting to set my teeth on edge.

She glanced at us, then back at the sagging bed. "Wouldn't you like to
sit?"

In perfect unison, we shook our heads. "We're fine."

Carmen shrugged and sat. The bed made some interesting squealing sounds and
sagged a little more. "You're here because my coven was given a message
through one of our anonymous contacts that we were to keep an eye out for
you and help you." She folded her hands neatly in her lap, and it took an
effort not to let out a sigh of relief.

"Coven?" I raised my eyebrows. "What's that?"

Carmen looked surprised. It wasn't necessarily good, though, because that
meant that I knew less than she was assuming I knew. And I'd just informed
her of it. Go me. Give the woman you don't know the advantage. She crossed
her legs and the bathrobe rode up, exposing a generous amount of thigh. I�m
talking a REAL generous amount. "A coven is a group of witches." The robe
slipped even more. She definitely wasn't wearing underwear.

I suddenly developed a whole new interest in the molded out paint of the
wall just behind and to the left of her ear. "Witches. I see now. It all
makes perfect sense." I wondered if there was solidified sarcasm dripping
on the floor yet.

"You really don't know anything, do you."

I sighed, going beyond the point of exasperation. I was suddenly just very
tired. "Look, I just found out last week that vampires exist. Be nice."
Yeah, I actually said �be nice� to a woman that I had a feeling would
belong on the list of people that my mommy warned me about. Or would have
warned me about if she�d lived that long.  Whatever.

I didn't think it was possible, but she managed to look more surprised.
"But I thought..." she gave me a sharp glance. "You didn't shake hands
right, though..." Her voice trailed off on a bemused note.

My hand was still tingling. "What the hell did you do?"

"I read your aura." She shrugged, like she'd just said that she baked a
cake or something. No, no, nothing weird happening here. Just another day
at the shop. Sure thing. "You have one of the strongest auras I've ever
seen. Normally, only people that practice the Art have that sort of feel to
them."

I had to ask. "The Art of what?"

"Magic of course."

Yeah. Magic. Of course. It all made perfect sense now. NOT.

My internal comment must have been pretty obvious, because Carmen coughed
politely. "Magic does exist, you know. You should know, actually. You have
more than your fair share."

"Sure." Whatever. I didn't feel like arguing. A real first for me.

Carmen wisely let the subject drop. "I'll begin at the beginning, then. I
am a member of the local coven of witches. The woman that brought you down,
Hara, is also a member of the coven." There was a kind of odd note in her
voice. It sounded like...jealousy?

"She's higher rank than you, isn't she." I glanced up. I had no idea how I
knew, but it made sense. Call it a hunch.

"Yes." Carmen's eyes widened. I shrugged before she could ask me anything,
and she let it go. "I'm fairly new to this area, and I'm not terribly
powerful. Hara is one of the high witches. High witches are like the ruling
council of a coven. They tend to be the most powerful of a coven, though
it's not a requirement." she quickly explained.

I had to admit, while this sounded like something out of a role-playing
game, it was kind of interesting if you could suspend your disbelief long
enough. And considering the events of the last few days, I didn't have a
lot of disbelief left to suspend.

"What do you do?" Quatre asked quietly. I glanced at him, and he twitched
on shoulder. I guess I wasn't the only one that was finding the little
lesson interesting.

"We do a lot of things, Quatre." a small, dangerous smile quirked Carmen's
lips, and she ran two of her fingernails up her thigh. They glittered in
the stark light. "We have to keep our power base stable and protected, and
we need to repel any outside encroachers, like the vampires that you seem
to be having problems with. That is probably why we were contacted. We have
a common enemy." Her hand moved off of her thigh and she absently picked at
a loose thread that was hanging off of one of her sleeves. "For the most
part, covens are simply interested in staying hidden."

"Why?" I asked.

"Do you have any idea what the general public would do if they knew witches
were real? Look how well you're taking it."

She did have a point.

Carmen smirked. It wasn't an expression that I liked. "If you keep playing,
Duo, you're going to find that there is quite a lot that's kept hidden from
people in general."

I really hate it when people act like they know more than me, even if it�s
true. The superior attitude thing just pisses me off. "If I'm lucky, I can
kill the vampires and go back to being blissfully unaware." I said.

She actually laughed at me. "I don't think you'll be able to. Once you're
in the field, everyone's going to want to try you out...especially
considering that interesting aura of yours." Something in her voice said
that she�d like to try me out, herself. And we�re not talking in a nice
way. It suddenly struck me how small the room was. Great. Claustrophobia,
too.

I shrugged a nonchalantly as I could. "Yeah, we'll see. Until then, can we
just cut to the chase? Dinner's coming and I'm hungry." A lie. I didn't
think I'd feel like eating when I got back to the school. I had way too
much on my plate already.

"I have a client coming anyway." Carmen shrugged, the movement oddly fluid.
"You need my help to find the vampires."

I nodded. "We were given an idea of how to kill them, but we don't know how
to find them, or look for them or whatever."

"Hunt them during the day. You just have to find their resting place."

"Somehow, I don't think they're going to have a little neon sign that says
'resting place here.'" I said.

"Correct." Carmen hesitated, tapping her chin with one long, obviously fake
fingernail. Hers were bright, metallic blue. "I can try to locate them for
you, if you can bring me something that belongs to one of their victims."
She saw my confused look. "The vampires would have drank the person's
blood...so a small part of that person remains inside them. I can try to
locate that, if I have an object I can take an impression from. I'd rather
not try unless it's necessary, though. It takes a great deal of energy, and
could attract the attention of the master vampire." She looked a little
nervous, which was odd.

"Woah, slow down. Master vampires?"

Carmen sighed. "Just like there are greater and lesser witches, there are
greater and lesser vampires. Master vampires control the lesser ones, to a
certain degree. It's a little like the structure of a wolf pack. Masters
are very powerful. The only reason vampires would even hunt together is
because there is a Master forcing them to cooperate."

"Great." I wanted to moan or bang my head against the wall. So we were
dealing with five normal vampires, plus the other EXTRA one that I had
hoped I was imagining, and that one was more powerful than all the others.
Shit. Not my week. "We need to find these things, Carmen. They're eating
high school kids. It's bad publicity, and if someone figures out that
vampires exist, they might start wondering about the other stuff."

Carmen paled a little. Ah, a palpable hit. I am so good.

"So come on...you help us, we'll kill them and then that's one less worry
you have."

"I can't." She shook her head and looked at me, wide-eyed. "I said that
maybe I could...but...I'm low in the coven. I can't pull that much power
without permission of the high witches."

I sighed. "Then get permission. This is important. You don't want anyone to
find out about you witches, right? It's in your best interest." I gave her
my best charming grin.

It must have been my sincere, boyish charm that wowed her. Yeah, me and
Christopher Robin. "I'll do what I can. It's going to take a couple days,
though. I can talk to Hara right away, but it'll take time to contact the
rest of the high ones."

"Fine. If that's as good as it gets, I'm not going to push it."

Carmen hesitated, and actually started nibbling on the end of her
fingernail. I had the insane urge to tell her not to--that nail polish of
hers was probably radioactive if you went by color. Not a good thing to
ingest. "There's something else you can try, while I'm trying to get
permission."

"What's that?"

"Contact the Master of the City."

"The what?" I could feel another lesson coming on. My brain protested
loudly that it was already too full. I told it to shut up.

"The Master of Tokyo." Carmen kept nibbling at her fingernail. It was
starting to get on my nerves. "Most vampires are set up like my coven
is...they try to keep to themselves and out of the public eye. They aren't
going to like a bunch of rogues moving in and killing, because it will
definitely attract attention to them. We don't deal with the vampires
often, so I don't know who the Master is, or where you can find him...but
he's the Master that rule all of the vampires in Tokyo. We're in his
territory."

Yippee. More vampires. But no. These were good guys. Right. "No idea where
he is. No clues to find him. That isn�t real helpful."

"If you want to meet him, he'll find out, and if he wants to see you, he'll
find you himself. He might find you anyway, once he hears about you."
Carmen shrugged. "I'm just saying that he might be able to help you."

"Alright, I'm going to make a concrete rule, right here." I said, images of
corpses with their throats torn out dancing in my head. "Normally, I hate
to generalize, but this is an exception. Vampires are monsters. I'm not
going to deal with them." I felt a smile creep onto my lips, one that felt
a lot like my special Deathscythe-piloting grin. "I'm going to kill them."

"Have it your way." There was something very final in Carmen's words. I
wasn't sure what it was for. "I'll talk to the high witches."

"You do that." I pushed away from the wall and dug through my pockets until
I found an old receipt. Why the hell had I paid so much for a damn bowl of
ramen? I must have been pretty flippin hungry. Whatever. I found a pen in
my other pocket and wrote down the phone number for our dorm room. Dorm
rooms didn't normally have phone numbers. Heero's a useful little guy to
have around. "When you hear something back, call me."

She took the paper and nodded, tucking the slip away...somewhere. I didn't
see where, and I didn't particularly want to know where, either. "I'll do
my best."

"Thanks." I turned to leave. Quatre and Wufei were already half out the
door. Perfect exit. The effect got kind of ruined, however, when Carmen
grabbed my arm and I yelped. I really hate getting startled.

Carmen let go of my arm as quickly as she'd grabbed it, shaking her hand
like she'd just gotten burned. "You say you have no magic." Her voice was a
little amused.

"Someone told me I have an affinity for the dead. I can go for that. I'm
Shinigami." I shrugged. "But not magic. That's too weird."

Carmen's eyes widened, the narrowed. "It's more than that, Duo." She stood
and leaned forward until her lips were nearly touching my ear. It reminded
me uncomfortably of Victoria the Vampire. "Stop denying what you are, or
something bad will happen to you."

It wasn't a threat. At least I didn't think it was. Carmen laughed very
softly, and kissed my ear.

I took a very deliberate step away from her, and then another and another
before I turned and walked quickly out of the tiny room, shutting the door
firmly behind me. I wasn't running away.

Really, I wasn't.