The Story

The Characters

V: The Devil and Miss Ura

"Where are we going?"

It was about nine o'clock in the morning and Kheyman was leading them down Penny Lane at a rather brisk pace, as though he had a place to be in a hurry. Urara, Pluto, Ana, and Uni had to nearly run to keep up with him.

"I'll tell you when we get there," said Kheyman as an answer to Urara's question. That didn't help at all. Kheyman slowed down as they came closer to the crowds cluttering up the sidewalks of Penny Lane. There were people everywhere. It might be easy to sneak away in all the hustle and bustle but when you're dealing with a man like Kheyman Maharet, Urara thought it'd be a pretty stupid idea indeed.

"Urara?"

Urara stopped and looked around. A guy about twenty-one years old waved at her from a table outside a café. She'd recognize that spiky black haircut anywhere.

"Darce!!" Urara broke from the group and ran to him. He stood up and caught her in a bear hug, swinging her around with her arms around his neck. She kissed him deeply, tightening her arms around him. Darce finally broke away.

"Urara, where have you been? You haven't called me in weeks," Darce said, running his fingers through her hair. Urara looked over her shoulder at Kheyman. Uni was leaning against Ana with a dreamy look on her face. Pluto was looking a little bemused. But the look on Kheyman's face was unreadable.

"I've been with... some friends," Urara told him. Darce looked over at them, who were standing several feet away from the café. He let go of Urara and went to Kheyman. They stared at each other stonily for a moment, then Darce held out his hand after pushing his sunglasses up on his head. His eyes were yellow. Kheyman shook hands with him rather reluctantly, that she could see in an instant. Darce seemed to have noticed as well.

"Darce McLellan," Darce said in introduction. Kheyman narrowed his eyes at him.

"Kheyman Maharet," he said. Darce looked at him in mild amazement.

"The Kheyman Maharet? The lunatic raving about vampires? How'd you get out?"

Urara elbowed Darce in the ribs. If Kheyman was offended, he didn't show it.

"I was released," said Kheyman pointedly. Darce nodded.

"Too bad about the loony bin," he said. Kheyman feigned surprise.

"What about it?"

"Some guy blew it up. The whole thing went up in flames. Everyone dead. A shame really. There was this one nurse, wow! That's all I can say. She was my best friend's cousin, and she had this body like you could imagi--"

Urara elbowed him just above the groin in warning. Kheyman chuckled, then stopped himself suddenly.

"Yeah, I know. She was my nurse for a short while," he said.

"No kidding? Wow. You were one lucky dude!" said Darce in amazement. Urara was glaring murderously at Kheyman as she tugged on Darce's arm.

"We've got to be going, Darce. I'll see you." Darce looked disappointed. Kheyman just shrugged his shoulders in a gesture that said 'It's out of my hands.' Urara pulled Darce down to kiss him.

"You'll call me, won't you?" he asked.

"I'll try," Urara replied, kissing him one last time before being pulled away by Kheyman.

"Come on, Urara. Let's go," he said testily. Urara waved as Kheyman nearly dragged her down the street. He stopped at an alley, told Ana, Uni, and Pluto to wait for them, then pulled Urara into the shadows. In the dark, Urara could just make out the outline of his jaw and spectacles.

"Who was that?" he growled. Urara was thrown off guard by his attitude.

"That was my boyfriend. What's the matter?" she asked, surprised.

"He smelled funny. Didn't smell human," was all Kheyman would say.

Urara's heart gave an uncomfortable jolt.

"What are you saying?" she said unsteadily.

"He smelled like a vampire."

Urara slapped him across the face, angry tears springing up in her eyes.

"Don't you dare say that, you son of a bitch, don't you dare! I haven't seen him in weeks and when I do you have the nerve to go and say that we have to kill him! I helped you kill that last one, but I won't let you kill Darce, you bastard!" Urara shrieked at him. Kheyman was silent.

"Did you hear me?" No movement from Kheyman. This made Urara even angrier. "Kheyman, if you touch one hair on Darce's head, I'll--" But what she was going to do she didn't know so she faltered. Kheyman smiled thinly and stepped closer to her. Urara stumbled back against the brick wall behind her.

"You'll what?" he asked, in a voice filled with malicious laughter. Urara shrank back from him, her eyes darting aside. Her mouth moved but he didn't hear anything. Kheyman leaned down until he was a few inches from her face. "What was that?"

"You'll regret it; that's all I'm saying," she said. Kheyman straightened, laughing hoarsely, as though he hadn't laughed in a long time.

"I'll bet I will," he sneered. Urara turned and walked stiffly out of the alley and started back up the street. Kheyman strode after her.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked her, laughter echoing in his voice. Urara ignored him, picking up the pace a bit. But she was no match for Kheyman. He darted in front of her, and she ran into him. His hands clamped down on her shoulders. There was no laughter in his voice now. "I said where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going back to Darce. He treats me right. You are too much of an asshole," she spat. Kheyman's eyes flashed behind his lavender-tinted glasses, and his hands tightened on her shoulders till she cried out in pain. He glared down at her, his lips curling into a snarl, revealing unusually long eyeteeth.

"I will never be as much of an asshole as when your boyfriend turns over, I guarantee you that!" he snarled through gritted teeth. Urara gazed up in horror at Kheyman's face; his eyeteeth were lengthening just like a vampire's! Kheyman saw the alarm on her face. He looked at the group. Pluto was jabbing at his teeth and mouthing something at him. Ana and Uni looked terrified, as they were cowering behind Pluto and holding tight to each other in fear. Kheyman reached up and felt his teeth with his left hand. His eyeteeth had grown to an ungodly length. Cursing himself for losing his temper, he grabbed Urara by the arm and took off down the street, ducking away from the people all around. Kheyman ran into an abandoned alley and darted to a cellar entrance. He threw the doors open and headed down into the darkness. Ana and Uni followed, and Pluto was last to enter, shutting and locking the doors behind him. It was pitch black in there.

"Kheyman? Pluto?" Urara whimpered. She hated the fact that she couldn't see an inch in front of her nose. She stumbled over something that, from the squeal that erupted, seemed to have been Uni. A match flared to life. Pluto lit a lantern on a dilapidated table, then hooked it onto a stick with a nail on the end and hoisted it to hang it off a bent nail in the rafters above. Urara looked around.

There was very little furniture; a few three-legged stools with moth-eaten seat covers, the dilapidated table the latern hung over, and a moldy-looking cot in the corner with an even moldier blanket stretched out on it. Uni and Ana were sitting on the steps, still hugging each other with terror on their faces. They looked as bad as Urara felt. Pluto was sitting cross-legged on the table now, he looked spindly enough for it to hold him, and he was staring at something in the corner. In that corner was Kheyman and he was curled up as though in pain. His shoulders were shaking violently and he had his head buried in his arms, which were folded over his bent knees.

"Kheyman, are you all right?" Urara asked. There was no response from him. She started toward him, her trembling hand held out in front of her.

"Urara, don't--!" Pluto exclaimed but it was too late. Urara touched Kheyman's shoulder gently but it was enough to get a reaction from him. His head snapped up off his arms and she pulled back abruptly. Kheyman's eyes were dark red and leaking blood down his sheet-white cheeks; his eyeteeth were needle-like and extended just below his lower lip.

"Get away!!" he snarled in a voice no human or animal could ever make. Urara scrambled back and sat down hard on the cold stone floor as Kheyman ducked his head under his arms again. His left hand was clutching his hair; Urara could see his nails growing to an ungodly length. She suddenly realized Pluto was looking down at her from his perch on the table.

"I told you," he said simply. Urara stood, brushing off the seat of her skirt, and went to sit down on the bottom steps, below the twins.

"What's the matter with him?" she asked Pluto. Pluto looked over at Kheyman solemnly before answering.

"As you may have noticed, Kheyman Maharet is not human-- well, not completely anyway. He's three-quarters vampire." Urara gasped, clutching her throat. Pluto looked at her grimly. Suddenly he didn't seem like a boy anymore; it felt as though there were some strong power about him now. "It was his parents. They were both half-bloods-- half-vampire I mean. They got together and, well, they had Kheyman. Curious, isn't he?"

"Curious isn't exactly how I'd put it," Urara told him. Pluto's eyebrows furrowed at her.

"Be easy. It's not his fault he's the way he is." Pluto turned back to Kheyman. There was, and had been, no motion from him. "Anyway, he concocted a potion to keep him under control most of the time. But his temper, which is amplified by his vampire side, sometimes gets the better of him, like back there, and he transforms. In that case we use this cellar as a hide-away. It only lasts for a little while though. But now that you're around, it's getting out of hand again."

"Why me? And what do you mean, again?" Urara asked.

"Because you've got vampire blood-- even if it's dormant, as you say it is," he added, seeing her start to protest. "And he's itching to kill you. But he won't, since you've been such a big help and all." This Pluto said with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. Urara was beginning to not like him anymore.

"Anyway, the things that are happening now happened a few years ago, when he first discovered there were still vampires out there. But it really didn't start until a couple months ago with a girl named Quistis Mylandaouh. She wasn't much older than you, maybe by a year. She came to Kheyman and me, looking for help. Her boyfriend had turned over and had bitten her, pretty good by the looks of the wound. Anyhow, Kheyman's first thought was to kill her first right then and there, but she begged him not to. Kheyman said he wouldn't, though it was driving him nuts to have her there and not dead. He went after her boyfriend, but when he found him, the guy was already dead. It turned out that Quistis was the vampire after all. Kheyman figured she had been planning to kill him all along; she'd staged the whole thing. She jumped Kheyman at the dead guy's flat. He won, but lost his arm in the fight. Kheyman may be able to heal his wounds, but, unlike true vampires, he cannot regenerate lost limbs. So, some old lady found him staggering around in the street yelling about vampires taking over and that he was supposed to stop them."

"And that landed him in the mental ward. I get it," Urara said thoughtfully, resting her chin on her fists.

"Yeah. Kheyman regretted not killing her when he had the chance." Pluto looked up at the ceiling, leaning back a little. Ana and Uni were quiet the entire time.

"So it's my fault he's like this again," Urara said quietly after a moment of silence.

"Pretty much," said Pluto flatly. A deep shuddering breath came from Kheyman, and he looked up. His eyes, nails, and teeth were back to normal, but the blood tears had left trails down his now-sunken cheeks. He somehow looked considerably thinner in his scarlet coat and leather pants as he stood up and faced them.

"I'm sorry about that little episode back there," he said in a slightly tired voice, as though the transformation had drained him of energy, which Urara had no doubt it did. Kheyman turned to Pluto.

"I suppose we'll pay Styx a visit tomorrow. I'm too exhausted to do anything at the moment. Pluto, I want you to take Urara back to the flat. Ana and Uni may come along if they wish," said Kheyman. The twins immediately shook their heads.

"Sorry, Kheyman, but this crap's gettin' really weird now, no offense or nothin', 'kay?" said Ana as Uni nodded in agreement. Kheyman looked over his shoulder at them wearily.

"Whatever you like," he said. Pluto went to unlock the doors, but turned to Kheyman before he did so.

"What're you going to do, Kheyman?" he asked.

"I'll be right along," was all he said. Pluto nodded knowingly and unlocked the doors. Ana and Uni piled out hurriedly first and made their way out into Penny Lane. Pluto left Kheyman in the cellar to put out the lantern and led Urara in the opposite direction.

They hurried through a series of alleys and back ways, which turned out to be a shortcut to the apartment building. Pluto led her through a back door and up a few flights of stairs till they reached the flat. He unlocked the door and went in. Urara went straight into the bedroom after kicking off her sandals at the front door. She shut the door and curled up on the bed, facing the wall with her knees against her chin.

"It's my fault he's like that. What have I done?" she asked herself. She lay there for what seemed like hours, going over again and again what Kheyman had said about Darce and how he had turned over because he'd gotten angry with her.

"Are you awake?"

Urara lay very still, pretending to be asleep. There was silence for a minute. Then--

"Nice try."

"How did you know?" she asked quietly. There was silence again. Urara sat up and looked around the room. It seemed no one was there but she felt a presence in the shadows. "Kheyman, where are you?"

He shifted slightly so she could see him dimly. The expression on his face was unreadable. "Pluto told you everything?"

"Yes," said Urara, nodding. Kheyman's features suddenly turn grim.

"Did he also tell you how I'm itching to kill you?" he said quietly. Urara slowly nodded, but Kheyman could read the fear on her face. "You're afraid of me... You have every right to be."

"I- I am not," she said defiantly, but her voice gave out. Kheyman chuckled.

"As you saw before, I am not a man to be trifled with," he said.

"You're not a man at all!" Urara blurted suddenly, and she saw Kheyman's eyes flash.

"That's quite enough," he said coldly. But Urara stood her ground.

"No! You messed with me for having vampire blood, now I mess with you!" she told him. Kheyman emerged from the shadows and swiftly approached the bedside, a murderous look in his ice blue eyes, and Urara, knowing she'd gone too far this time, scooted back against the wall. He leaned across the king-sized bed with one knee on the mattress, the blades jutting out of his metallic knuckles and he raised these to Urara's face. When he spoke, his voice was smooth with ice.

"I will not tolerate such an attitude from you, girl. Next time you pull something like this I will kill you as soon as look at you, I swear it. I am not one to be toyed with, understand?" he growled. Urara mouthed the word yes, too afraid to nod with those blades so close to her face. The blades retracted.

"Good girl." He ran his metal finger along her jaw, and she gasped at the cold touch. Kheyman pulled away. "I didn't think you'd enjoy that."

"Why did you do that then?" she said breathlessly. Kheyman stood back from the bed and looked out the window at the sun. It was high in the sky. Urara's stomach growled suddenly, and she looked away quickly, slipping her hand into the pocket of her skirt. Damn; empty. Kheyman looked over at her. Was that a faint trace of a smile on his face for a fleeting second?

"Come on. I'll buy you lunch; you'll need energy for later. Then I suggest we come back here and get some sleep before the sun sets." Kheyman made for the door. Urara scrambled after him. She slipped on her sandals and followed him out the front door. Pluto was nowhere to be seen.

"One question."

"Hmm?"

"Why sleep before the sun sets?"

"We're going to pay your boyfriend a visit tonight."

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