And Also With You ~The Tooth And Claw Books #3

Chapter Seven: The Fight and The Lost

The room we walked into was pitch black, I don't know how she managed it but it was. I could see but Yuguchi would be blind. I sniffed the air and caught the heavy scent of human blood, there was a corps on the coach in front of me, eaten alive by the looks of him, he'd been in the middle of shall we say intermate activates. I shut down the hunger and looked around, I couldn't see her in the living room but she was here somewhere.

"Yuguchi pull out, go see if you can get the lights on." She didn't like it but obeyed, pulling back.

I can't see her in this room, but the light bulbs are all smashed, but wait by the door in case she tries to flee.

I thought at the same time, finally having gotten the hang of it. Yuguchi nodded three times exactly, letting me know she had gotten both messages. I slowly walked into the room, making myself look like I was blindly, still in my human form, I moved deeper into the room. 

"More Pray I see, come little walk into my trap." She mouthed, but to a Neko, well she may as well have been yelling.

I used it to my advantage however, moving towards the bedroom where I had heard the sound come from,  I saw it first a damned bear trap right outside the bedroom door. I made it look like I was idly stabbing my Sanctified-Blade around, on the third thrust I made sure to hit the bear trap. The trap clamped tight around the blade, with it's spells off so I wouldn't be able to pull it free but it was all part of the chess game.

"Carful she's rigged the place." I called out as if I'd discovered it by accident, at the same time I sheathed Excelsior.

I heard her give out a frustrated hiss, once again it was too quite for a human to hear, and  then she leapt at me, her bright orange eyes shining through the dark. I brought up my Custodian's Shield with ease, smashing her to one side and impacting the wall to my left. With my shield out I summoned Excelsior to my left hand, it felt a bit strange as I was used to her in my right but I only had one weapon right now. It was a tactical move, and it had paid off. 

"You think you can beat me human?" she let out a wicked laugh. "I can see you clear as day, and yet you stumble around blindly."

She moved around to my left, while I made sure to stair directly onwards, as if I didn't see her, she was circling me like a predator would circle it's pray. She then cartwheeled at me, aiming to deliver a kick to my head, I countered it by bringing my Custodian's Shield around at the last second. She put all her strength into the blow, and my own Custodian enhanced strength answered in kind, her leg shattering on impact. 

"What... What are you?" She asked hissing at me with fear.

"A Neko-Vampire." I replied coldly, and before she could ask another question I drove Excelsior into her heart. 

"Job's done." I called out moving into the hallway.

"Good, I'll tell clean up that High-Matriarch Bakeneko want's the body back." Akio responded. 

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We were heading home on a Custodies Veritas helicopter when the pilot called back into the cab saying "Retainer Talidus?"

"Which one?" The three of us said in synch, thus why people typically called us by our rank then our first name.

"Any of you, the Grand-Master want's to speak to you, she's on channel three." We used radio's in the choppers because our field comm's lacked the range, and having a magical communication device for long rang was impractical nine times out of ten.

"Put her through," Akio said with a sigh, when mom called us mid mission it was never good.

"I... I bring bad news," She paused picking her words. "I just received a call from the Custodies Veritas medical officer in Hillington Hospital, Josi was admitted a short while ago, comatose"

I looked at Irina, she was my Guardian-Angel now meaning that even though I was technically an Underworld Creature, I could travel through her teleportation magic, and her's was a lot quicker than Akio's, and I was to worried to call Kenkyona didn't have healing magic.

"Kiem's on his way with Irina."

Without pause she quickly grabbed hold of me, Akio and Yugu strapped in, and mid air we opened the helicopter door. Holding on tight to me she jumped out of the door, Akio closing it behind us, and opened up her wings soon stopping out decent. Once we were steady she used her Angelic teleportation and got us to the hospital. We ran inside, thankful for it being a Sunday as the docs were used to seeing all kinds of shit, including a guy and girl dressed in a leather cat suite.

"My girlfriend was brought in," I said panicked. "Her name was.... Josi... fuck what was her surname..."

"Easy kid easy, I know the girl your talking about, she was wearing a get up like yours yes?" The Nurse behind the desk said. 

I nodded. "She's in the ICU but visiting hours are over I'm afraid." 

"It's okay Joleen," Came the Medical Operative. "I'll take it from her." 

I was panicked,  if Josi was here... I couldn't lose both of them I just couldn't. He took her through to the room where she was, her face was black and blue and bandaged up, a breathing tube down her throat, her eyes were closed shut and her heart monitor beat slowly.

"Look Retainer, first of all is girlfriend just the cover?" The Medical-Operative asked

Dating among the Custodies Veritas, was allowed, even for those of us who in the church held ranks that typically didn't allow marriage, simple because the best way for us to bring people into the secrets we protected was for them to be born into it, plus as well it helped with cover stories if those cover stories were actually true. Although it was rare, it wasn't actively discouraged either. I shook my head at the question, fear filling my eyes at seeing her in the state.

"She's my girlfriend as well as a member of my squad." I say panic filling every word.

"Then I have bad news," He replied lowly. "Who ever attacked her didn't just break her nose, he hit her hard enough to cause enough brain damage that she went into a coma, and frankly conventional medicine has no way of knowing if she'll wake up."

"Do we know what inflicted the damage?" Irina asked looking at the Medical-Operative.

"From the looks of it, I couldn't tell you, but my best guess is a Legendary." He replied, which drew a frustrated grunt from Irina.

"Kiem is their magic in the injury yes or no?" She asked me this time.

I shoot her a look, I wasn't in the right head space to even use a simple spell with one of the two people I loved romantically in a coma in front of me, let alone do anything complicated like that.

"O. Magia?" He asked Irina.

"I'm his Guardian-angel." She replied looking at the doctor.

"In that case, I have no magic and am the only Medical-Operative assigned to this hospital so I haven't tried magical healing. It's worth a shot."

Irina didn't hesitate, she walked over to her, making it look like she was praying over Josi, camera's didn't pick up magical energy any more than humans did, I saw her Aroura instantly get to work however, the yellow light covering Josi. Her bruises faded into nothingness,  her nose snapped back into it's proper shape and her eyes flickered open.

"Easy now let me get that for you." The medical-Operative spoke and removed the breathing tube, Irina healing her throat too so she wouldn't have any difficulty talking.

"Kiem..." She spoke choking on tears. "I'm sorry baby I failed, that Orpheus character got Jasmine. I am so sorry."

I felt my heart break, tears streaking down my face, I felt my chest cave in once again and felt to my knees, the pain was incredible. I felt my enter world clasping around me, it felt like a thousand bricks had fallen on me and broken me enterally. But Josi was there, she pulled me into her arms and instantly that pain was gone, that heart break replaced by the euphoria I had come to depend on.

"It's okay I'm here, I'll always be here for you."