Not related to actual plot

The crowd was gleeful. There were three weddings to be arranged in the shadow of the Tower of London. The first was between singer Elsie Maynard and Colonel Fairfax, who had just been reprieved from his death sentence. The second was between Wilfred Shadbolt and Phoebe Meryll, and the third was between Sergeant Meryll of the Yeomen of the guard and Dame Carruthers. However, the mood was shattered when a rather pathetic-looking jester stormed on, throwing his hat on the ground. He sang:

"Oh, thoughtless crew !
Ye know not what ye do !
Attend to me, and shed a tear or two —

For I have a song to sing, O!"

"Sing me your song, O!" Sang the crowd. The man, jester Jack Point, began again.

"It is sung to the moon
By a love-lorn ioon,
Who fled from the mocking throng, !
It's the song of a merryman, moping mum,
Whose soul was sad and whose glance was glum,
Who sipped no sup and who craved no crumb,
As he sighed for the love of a ladye !
Heighdy ! Heighdy !
Misery me, lackadaydee !
He sipped no sup and he craved no crumb.
As he sighed for the love of a ladye !"

Then Elsie Maynard stepped forward.

"I have a song to sing, O ! "
("What is your song, O ?")
"It is sung with the ring
Of the songs maids sing
Who love with a love life-long, O !
It's the song of a merrymaid, nestling near,
Who loved her lord — but who dropped a tear
At the moan of the merryman, moping mum,
Whose soul was sad and whose glance was glum
Who sipped no sup and who craved no crumb,
As he sighed for the love of a ladye!
Heighdy! Heighdy!
Misery me, lackadaydee!
He sipped no sup and he craved no crumb,
As he sighed for the love of a ladye!"

The chorus then began it's refrain as Elsie Maynard returned to Colonel Fairfax. The jester then collapsed, dead (or maybe just unconscious).

Then the crowd in the audience applauded. Yes, that scene has absolutely nothing to do with anything. That was just the ending of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Yeomen of the Guard," starring Pernas Vaaldaren as Jack Point!

Eonoe, Pernas' father, had been sitting in the audience, watching appreciatively. When the performance was over, he exited the theatre with the rest of the crowd, waiting in the lobby for Pernas, who emerged still in the Jester get-up.

"Pernas, you should go put away the costume." Eonoe said.

"But I like it. It makes me feel merry!" Pernas said, as Eonoe shook his head.

"Now that the performance is over, we'll be leaving tomorrow."

"Aww, but."

"No buts, Pernas." Eonoe said. "I let you stay to perform in this one opera"

"-operetta"

"Whatever. In any case, we've stayed here for quite awhile, and must leave soon. Now, say goodbye to the company, and put away the costume."

"All right..." Pernas said, sulking off gloomily.

Demona sat in the back row. Her long black hair flowed around her white face as she watched the wonderful operetta go on. Her eyes followed the young boy in the jester suit. He seemed interesting to say the least if not a meal. She never killed but a bit of seduction and the right words could spin a man into her arms. She titled her head to the side and licked her lips.

The show ended and everyone jumped to their feet applauded the show. Demona stood up and clapped slowly. Her eyes not leaving the young boy that fell over. She smiled and a small giggle slipped from her lips. It was amusing but really why did he out of all the humans draw her to him? She growled to herself softly for the softness she let herself feel towards anyone. To even let the thought of sitting with a human for more than the reason to drink and then leave.

Demona moved passed the large crowd without a hair out of place. her moves where to inhuman but with all the commotion no one would notice her stealth. She pulled at her long red dress that draped over her figure snuggly.

"Aww, but."

"No buts, Pernas." Eonoe said. "I let you stay to perform in this one opera"

"-operetta"

"Whatever. In any case, we've stayed here for quite awhile, and must leave soon. Now, say goodbye to the company, and put away the costume."

"All right..." Pernas said, sulking off gloomily.

Demona listened to the part of the conversation she had come upon and watched the man the jester whined too. Her soft lips pealed back into a small smile as she watched the boy and the man. Father and son. Demona held in her breath and the pain that tormented her. She could never have that. A daughter or son of her own and watching such matters always tugged at her cold dead heart.


" I thought you were a wonderful jack point," Demona cooed as she walked up clapping her hands softly. " I had to come and meet you something about your performance just touch my soul. I am Demona Morgan." She turned to the boy's father and held out her hand. " Its a pleasure to meet you both." Demona bit her lower lip. The father was very easy on the eyes. Why was she so drawn to these two people? Why did she feel the need to stand here like some silly awe struck girl and bat her eye lashes? She could just go get a easy meal and go home to her leather couch and computer.

"Hello." Eonoe said, as Pernas stopped, taking her hand and shaking. "My name is Eonoe, and this is my son, Pernas."

"Hello." Pernas said, somewhat bashfully. "Glad you enjoyed it. I just really love acting and singing."

"Every time we stop someplace, he begs me to find some sort of performance venue he can play at." Eonoe said, laughing slightly. He looked Demona over. A vampire. Could very well be out for a meal. Nothing too sinister about that. Though she seemed somewhat nervous about something... He wondered why.

"Well, Pernas, you'd best get out of that costume so we can go get some sleep. I want you back in ten minutes at the latest." Eonoe said, turning to Pernas.

"All right." Pernas said, turning and going off to the dressing rooms.

"How a sixteen year-old gets the lead in an opera, I have no idea." Eonoe said, turning to Demona. "Maybe there's some magic in him or something. You a fan of theatre, I take it? Or maybe another friend involved in the production."

Demona smiled and watched them interact with one another. She was about to turn and leave when her mind made her stay. She wanted company and even thought out of the entire crowd she picked them. She wanted more than a meal or sex. She did not want the gossip the girls a few yards away were rambling about. Demona really wanted something more.

" Well Pernas is a wonderful actor. Maybe its not magic just talent. I have seen younger in my years." Demona held up her slim fingers and snapped lightly. A girl with a tray rushed over and smiled. Demona nodded and picked a glass of wine off of the girls try and off the young woman went. " You know they always have a wonderful after party when these successful plays fade into the night. Why not stay and let the boy soak in the praise of his peers and you could chat with me for a while. Its been sometime since I have had someone to just chat with."

With a soft smile Demona raise the glass to her lips and sipped on the wine. Nothing like the bitter dry taste of a good red wine but unlike a human i would never took her mind it would barely do anything to her but wet her mouth. The crowd gathered and the other actors and actresses came out all adore with fans and cameras. Demona laughed as a young boy rushed the lead woman with a rose and blushed as she kissed his cheek. Soft loving sentimental mush.

" So tell me Eonoe do you travel all the time taking you son from place to place allowing him to perform or do you drift for another reason?"


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

The little witch sat in her seat like some god waiting for her pawns to flutter into the right spot so that she could crush them. Vampire scum. Their cold dead flew and fangs and they were just horrid. Taking this like my parents that did not belong to them. The evil sick and twist monsters. Nothing but leeches.

" Excuse me miss but you will have to leave if your phone keeps going off its harming the performance." A young woman said to her. She turned and looked up at the woman with the flash light and rolled her green eyes. " Sorry I will take this out there and turn it off." The woman with the light showed the tall red head woman out of the concert area and into the lobby.

" Hello?" The red haired woman growled to the person on the other end of the phone line.

" Sage dammit were are you. You need your shot before you get sick again. Its the only things holding back the vampire venom and helping you stay alive." a gruffed voice growled back.

" I am on her right now this can wait. I will not change I will just die at least I have lived longer than any human now Stop calling me."

" Is that and Opera? "

" No." Sage slammed her phone shut just in time for the crowd to flutter out and her to watch the nasty vampire waltz out. Sage growled and moved into the crowd to hide from anyone that might notice her. She was a vampire hunter. Demona Slayer whatever. Even with the shit that raced in her vains she was still human thats to a alchemist back in the old days.

Sage watched the vampire's gaze and tightened her gaze as the vampire glided over to the poor lead and his father. Smart bitch hide in plan sight and no one will ever notice your a filthy vampire. Just then the boy hopped off back to the darkness of the dressing rooms. Maybe if Sage got the boy away form the vampire she would follow. it would be fun to play cat and mouse for a while.

Slowly Sage glided back to the dressing rooms with her knife along her forearm hidden in her leather jacket. She kicked the door open and rushed throough. Girl screamed men yelled but with her speed no one would be able to see her face. She grabbed the boy in the jester suit and then out the back door they went.

" Shut up or I will hit you so hard it will knock you out got it?" Sage growled and tossed the boy into the back seat of her Camaro. She jumped in the window and kicked the car into gear and raced down the road.

" Whats your name kid?" Sage asked as she turned down a dark street. Then her phone wnet off again. " Mother fucker." She growled and flipped the phone open." WHAT RAY?"

" You got the kid??"

" Yeah I grabbed the kid. Get the needle ready I will be there soon. Is Rex there? I got this one for him He sai he wanted her for himself but I thought I would gift her to him. since he did save me last time."

" No he is not and I am not sure he is the best guy in the world Sage." the man grumbled.

Sage rolled her eyes and slide into the drive way.

Pernas was whistling as he entered the room. Then he stopped whistling as a result of surprise when an unknown woman just ran in and grabbed him and knife-point, running out with him.

A knife.

Not again... Pernas thought.

"What's your name kid?" the woman asked

"P-Pernas" he stuttered. "What are you gonna do to me?" he asked, frightened.

Needle? That was a new one he'd heard. Though his thoughts were erratic at this point, due to fear, and there wasn't a great deal of coherence. "What is this?" he asked, as they pulled in the driveway. "Why are you kidnapping me?" he asked, though he regretted it, as he usually didn't like to hear whatever reasons. Still, maybe if just once it wasn't completely sinister and didn't mean harm to him, he'd be alot less scared.

He looked at his captor. A human, apparently. A red-head. Well, he couldn't really imagine what sinister things a human might have in store for him. Then again, that was something of a racist thought...

Well, she didn't seem like a demon, so she didn't seem to want to eat him. Though he may have gathered that it was something entirely different from that from the phone conversation. A needle.

***

"We're vagabonds" Eonoe said. "Don't really fit in anywhere. So we travel. Don't stay in one place too long, less chance of attracting trouble. In theory, at least." he smiled lightly, looking at her. A vampire, obviously, he'd noted before. And likely something of a loner, like himself. Though that wasn't particularly unusual for vampires and dragons like himself (well, with dragons it was mainly due to their sparsity). She seemed genuinely interested in just making small-talk. If she had anything sinister in mind, well... he was a dragon, he could deal with it. Not particularly polite to consider such things, though. "Me, I'm not usually one for conversation. Pernas loves attention, though. So long as it's not bad attention. So I let him do these plays and such. They let him get what he wants from it. Anyway, that's enough about us, what about you?" he asked. "You live around-"

There was a scream from down the hall. Several frightened yells, in fact, as people ran from the dressing room.

"The lead's been kidnapped!" a woman yelled, running from the dressing room. "Someone just ran into the room and grabbed him!"

Eonoe's face went white. "Oh no..." he said, bolting off in that direction. "Who was it?"

"I don't know." the woman said. "We didn't see her face. She grabbed him and dragged him to a car outside."

"I have to run after them." Eonoe said, running out of the building. He leaned forward as he ran, as his body elongated, becoming more serpentine. He felt the similar rush of magical energy as it enveloped him, changing him. His robes melted away as his body became coated with hard, bright gold scales. His wings ripped open out of his back, as though from a constricting cocoon. His nails elongated into silvery-white claws. He had fully shifted by the time he was out of the building, with the only two features of his human form being the diamond on his forehead and his piercing blue eyes. He looked off in either direction. No sign. "Damn!" he spat. "What am I going to do?"

Sage rolled her eyes and looked in the rear view mirror at the young man." Stop quivering in fear kid. Jezz you look like your sixteen seventeen but you act like a ten year old little girl instead of a strong man." Sage brows furrowed and she looked away. " I only took you because you were the weak like and my friend wants to dispatch of the vampire that was sweet talking your daddy. I figure she will trot along after your daddy for the shits and giggles and I will have her were I want her you go free one less vampire in this fucked up world and I can go to bed for a few hours before I go back out to hunt for the leaches and scum of the world." Sage touched a button on the dash as they puled towards a two car garage.

The one door before them flipped up and Sage stomped the gas. Her sleek car jumped forward and then down and long tunnel. Sage turned around and looked back as the floor close down. Sage smirked and raced down he underground passage with higher than human reflexes." Well kido your not my main interested at all your just some kid that was about to become vampire food."

the long passage seem to either last forever or only moments it was a mile long because the house was the decoy.Under a mile of surface rock mud and dirt it was hard to be tracked, smelled, and heard. Sage stopped the car once they pulled into a ten car garage. Next to the bikes and the Mercedes. Sage opened the door and grabbed Pernas by the scruff of his neck," Come on I have a holding area for my hostages. " She looked at the by again and her throat tightened and she could feel her fangs grow slowly. Her body tightened and her gut growled. " Fuck move." She growled and dragged him forward when a older man walked out. His greying wispy hair was pulled pack in a pony tail,a white tee with stains from god only knows and a pair of working jeans with holes and such.

" You hungry Sage?" He laughed and tossed a large needle across the way. Sage Dropped Pernas and moved with vampire speed to catch the needle and then jabbed it into her thigh.

" Not really just get the boy Please Ray leave me be I am not so well." Sage dropped to her knees and plucked the needle from her leg.

" Yeah your not well the stuff that the man made for your many years ago is not working. Your becoming more vampirc the longer you live. I bet your fangs grew again." Ray walked over and looked at the boy," She is no demon or monster kid. She is a hunter with reason. She saved your life or at least that is what Rexton says." Ray looked back and Sage and picked her into his arms." Your boyfriend is messed up in the head and I think this vampire is not a killer I have never seen her name in any text I have read and so on I think khe has a vendetta but I can go on and on and you would never listen to this old fart"

Sage growled but she was in pain from the craving and weak from the shot. Her eyes rolled up to ray and with his smile and passed out in his arms. The meds had taken affect.

" Pernas its a pleasure to meet you if you could follow me. I mean the only way out is well your can not really run off so come have some milk and cookies with me while I work on a few things maybe you could be a extra pair of hands." Ray kissed Sage's forehead and lead the way to a large lab area. He tossed Sage on a cot softly and then walked over to a pc." You were the lead in the play very interesting but I am not very worried about that but why do you smell of shifter? " Ray turned and looked at the boy," Sage normal picks up in things like that before dragging someone in here but I think the vampirc virus has been taking more control and all she smelled was blood."


X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_

" I live here and there I have many homes that I have acquired over time. I find it nice to have my thing and a bed. I am a treasure hunter job wise I like traveling." Demona smiled softly then he smile was broken by a scream. The boy was stolen by some crazy woman. Demona growled and opened her mind picking pictures and notes and smells out of the crowd. She stopped on one man that had gotten and good smell of the woman. She had on rose perfume but the linger or vampire hung around her a long dead vampire. Demona shivered when the realization that Rais was on her trail and Pernas was stolen because of her. Everything clicked and Demona was the one that was being baited.

" Eonoe," Demona called after him but he was out the door. Demona turned and walked out after him to find the street not only screaming about the boy but the large dragon in the street. Demona smacked her forehead and knew it was going to be a long time before she came back to this city.... Grand. Note call Spenc and get him to move all items out of her home to englad and see the property to a very in need family that would work to keep it.

Demona walked over to him in her stilettos and growled," No wonder you race from place to place. Your a dragon shifter with no brain. Eonoe I can track her so far but its going to take time what are you going to do sit there like a golden monster or fly over the city like a bird? The woman is long gone I promise that we are a bit to late to find her near by. The person theat sent her is after me. I am sorry you are in this now."

Demona bit her lower lip and raised her hands and the screaming around them slowed to a stop. Demona opened her eyes and in a low voice spoke," nothing is wrong here everything i fine the boy is safe it wa only a plank." Demona looked at Eonoe and rolled her eyes and then said," and the dragon is a machine for another play."

Demona just watchedin horror. The screams and then the smell of a man but it lingered. I lingered on someone that had been int he area. Demona

Pernas got a grip on himself. She said to stop quivering, so he tried to stop quivering. He just nodded to what she was saying. So he'd be free to go after she did whatever. He looked at the door. There was the switch for the window. It was awfully stuffy in the car, but he dare not push the button. But that button was just so tempting, as though saying

"puuuuuush meeeee. PUUUUUUUUSHHHH MEEEEE..."

No. I mustn't. thought Pernas.

"But it's hot and there's cool air out of the window. Just puuuuuuushhh meeee and it'll come in."

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

There will be No Yes

It went on like this for quite awhile, and all through the tunnel. Luckily, Pernas was winning the debate most of the time, until they pulled up and he was lifted out of the car. But he still had that sense of triumph, having overcome the button. Of course, Sage shook him out of his satisfied stupor, telling him abrasively to move.

"I'm coming I'm coming" he said quickly, trying to keep up. Even if she said he wasn't going to get hurt, it still frightened him. It was old and dirty, like a garage. Wait - it was a garage. There was another man there. An old man. Looked like a mechanic, who gave Sage some sort of needle and talked about something he didn't get. Except something about fangs. Wait, was Sage a vampire? Or trying to not become one?

Well, whatever it was in the needle seemed to have made her pass out. The old man (Ray, apparently) placed her on a cot in a lab. He looked around. A bunch of stuff that seemed at once interesting and boring. He looked at Ray. "Well, I guess..." he said. Milk and cookies sounded good. "But I don't know what I can help you with, really..." he said, shrugging. "But I guess." he said, sitting down in a chair. A bunch of computers around him. He didn't really like computers. They were just weird and he couldn't wrap his head around them. "Shifter? I smell like shifter?" he asked. He looked at his costume. "Maybe a shifter wore this before." he said, lifting his arm to his sleeve and sniffing it. He looked at Ray. No. That wouldn't convince him. "Well... my father. He's a dragon."

He looked over at Sage, who had passed out. "She... is she a vampire, too? But just... not?" he asked.

***

Eonoe turned his neck to look back at her. "My son has just been kidnapped. If there's another course of action, by all means..." he said, glaring. He looked back. Oh, crap, people staring at him. And Demona was saying... a machine for another play? He was almost offended.

"After you, you said?" he asked quietly, out of the corner of his mouth. "Then he won't be harmed?" then another thought came. "Wait... why are they after you?" he asked, turning his face to look at her again, once the crowd was somewhat dispersed. "Vampire hunters of some kind?" he grumbled. This always happened. Pernas always got into some kind of trouble, and he had to go get him out of it. Then they had to get out of town quickly. Again and again and again.

Ray walked over and pulled some milk and cookies out of the fridg and walked over with two glasses full and a plate of assorted cookies. " Baked them myself. The only woman in this place is Sage and she never has time to cook and I am too old now to fight the good fight so I cook now." Ray smirked and picked out a oatmeal cookie and bit into it. " They are really good I swear to ya never find a better cookie." Ray grabbed a bar stool and pulled it up.

" Well boy you maybe be here for a bit at least a day because of where we are hidden. Its going to be hard for the vampire to follow the trail because Sage needed time to get ready for the impending battle." Ray bit into the cookie again hit old eyes wandered over to Sage with Pernas's question. " KInd of. I met her when I was a run away at sixteen. She took me in and I helped her with everything. She is pretty old from all she has told me bitten but she was found by a mad man that gave her a serum that would hold off the vampire venom and not change her all the way but she got some of the pluses and minuses to being a vampire but she is still human she ages very slowly and such but is she does not get her meds she will change into a blood thirsty vampire."

Ray took another sip of his drink and sighed," I am getting old and soon she will not have me I think she thinks this new man in her life will help her but i think he uses her more than anything. I hate it."

Pain. Hot pain boiled in her veins. dreams nightmares. The darkness that pulled at her trying to drag sage in. Sage sat up and screamed. Her hair was a red sweety tangled mess around her face as she looked around and her eyes adjusted. it was to much all of this two hundred years of life and amost death but the vampirc venom seemed to be coming faster and faster for her soul.

" Damn," Sage growled and jumped out of the bed. " Shut up. Why do you find it hard to be quiet about what I am??" Demona walked over the the fridge and grabbed a soda. " Kid there is just to much for us the explain before you go home. Just stay out of the way while I kill the vampire and you can go home find and dandy."

~!~!~!~!~!

Demona looked up at Eonoe and growled lowly," I have no clue why they are after me. It would seem I have a hunter on my ass even though I don't kill humans and have never been but on their radar. Not my fault." Demona walked the crowd vanish but looked up at Eonoe. " Woul dyou really mind changing back to human. Your big in the way and stick out like a sore thumb."

" We need to think of a plan any ideas big boy?"

Pernas listened intently to what the old man said, nodding. "So, she-" then he was cut off by Sage's remark. He cringed slightly as she told him off for talking about her. "Sorry..." he said quietly, just putting another cookie in his mouth.

"Though, uhh..." he said, swallowing. "My father might be a bit upset about this. Uhh... it's hard to explain, but I've been kidnapped and attacked before, and father can get really upset. And, well, have you ever seen an angry dragon?" he laughed nervously. "But I'm sure that it won't be a problem. You don't want to hurt me, so... well..." his voice trailed off.

Having nothing else to say, he drank his milk.

He looked over himself a little, still dressed in that stupid jester's outfit, then leaned into Ray and whispered "I might've liked it if you'd waited for me to get out of costume first..." he said with a weak laugh. He looked around at the lab. All sorts of equipment, devices he couldn't even begin to wrap his head around (granted, he didn't know a flask from a test tube). Chemicals, test tubes, microscopes, computers... and some big box thing he had no idea what it was.

"Heh." he said quietly. "I get in trouble alot. Last time I got kidnapped, father arrived to find me tied to a barbecue." he shook his head. "Man, I almost felt bad for the demon..."

"So, what is it you do? You hunt vampires?" he asked. "What's all this stuff do?"

***

Eonoe grumbled, waiting for the crowd to thin, so he could shift back into human form, shrinking as the robes seem to materialize out of thin air onto his skin, his arms folded.

"Well..." he said, looking off in a direction. He reached into a pocket in his robes, and pulled out a small red crystal, which glowed faintly when he pointed it in that direction. "They're in that direction." he said, pocketing the crystal. "He's been kidnapped before, and on top of that I just can't keep a leash on him, so I needed a method of tracking him." he said. "I suppose if his life isn't in immediate danger, I can be less hot-headed about the matter." he said, more quietly, but still looking a bit cranky, judging by his narrow eyes. He looked back at Demona. "Well, I'll just go right up to their door." he said, walking off. "Not just going to sit off to the side waiting for them to get bored with him, or worse. Stay here if you like."

He walked down the road in the direction the crystal had indicated. The air was still and there were no other people around, helping him clear his head a little.

Well, he thought, I don't take kindly to this. If anything's happened to him, they'll regret it dearly. If nothing's happened to him, I'll simply pluck him out of their grasp.

He walked briskly along the road, not looking at the identical houses he passed. After a while he stopped, taking the crystal from the robes again. It pointed in the direction of an old garage. "Hmm..." Eonoe said, walking towards it. He looked at the door. "Almost too obvious." he chuckled. He snapped his fingers and the door opened. He entered, looking around. There was nothing remarkable. Just an old, run-down garage. Hydraulic lifts (likely busted), a cluttered tool-bench, bathrooms that contained things that shouldn't be in bathrooms... wait.

The floor in the middle. It was completely clear. "Hmm." Eonoe muttered again. "What is this?" he said, kneeling down and inspecting it. He saw a slight crack in the floor that ran around in a square. After tracing it a little with his finger, he pulled out the crystal, placing it near the floor in the middle. The crystal glowed a little more brightly. "Bingo." he said, standing up. With another snap of his fingers, the floor began to open. Seemed like a hatch that could accommodate a car driving through the door.

This alerted Eonoe to another fact. Whoever had done this had alot of resources at her disposal. He'd have to keep that in mind. He made his way down the passage, using magic to close the garage door and the secret entrance. The passage was dark, save for some dim lights placed at regular intervals. Eonoe made his way down the long tunnel. No doubt they were down here. As he walked, he shifted, reverting to his dragon form.

Not for intimidation purposes, mind you. He just felt that here, it wasn't a place to act undercover, and...

Okay, maybe he thought a little intimidation wouldn't be a problem. Not like it was likely to scare anyone, but still, he enjoyed being in dragon form. Being stuck in human form, he just felt a little... constrained? Is that the word? As a dragon, he felt like he had more room to flex his muscles. He stretched his wings, letting the ancient arcane energies pump through the veins.

Eventually, he came to a doorway and stopped. This was the place alright. He could hear the voices. Well, Pernas didn't seem particularly threatened or scared, carrying on conversation. He thought about what to do. Then, with a glimmer of humor, he decided.

***

"Man, you got lots and lots of-" and then, in a flash of light, Pernas was gone.

***

"Stuff..." he finished, outside the door. Another flash of light later, at the door of the garage. Eonoe didn't want to take any more chances.

Eonoe grumbled. What a nuisance. Still, having their captive suddenly abducted was a rather satisfying irony. Get your own bait.

"Come on." he said. "Let's get that costume returned before that woman in there figures out what just happened." he said, walking briskly in the direction of the theatre. Pernas seemed to take a while for this to register.

"So, why were you kidnapped this time?" Eonoe asked, checking Pernas' story against the vampire's.

"They wanted to use me to help catch a vampire." Pernas said. Stories matched. "Being human sucks."

Eonoe chortled. "Oh, it can't be all bad." Pernas just grumbled in response.