His eyes moved down to his finished plate, slowly stacking the fish bones meticulously as he thought about what she had said.  Even at the age he was now, with the level of confidence he held, he still sometimes had a barbing memory rear its ugly head from after he’d found out what he was.  Needless to say demons of any heritage weren’t fondly looked on by the holy community, and his whole life had been devoted to that practice.  For years he’d been trained to fight the undead, and while his family had never batted an eye the years they’d raised him, he still wondered if it was in the backs of their heads: that deep down he by definition was a monster.
 
As shameful as it was to admit, he was glad that he could pass as a human being, it made things easier, especially when it came to working with others.  Though he wondered what he would have been like had he not been brought up by a family of humans.  Would he have succumbed to his nature?  At times it felt as if he was constantly having to watch himself, even the slightest slip could push him into being dangerous…whether his actions started with good intentions or not.  There had been some clients lost after the information was leaked, and there would forever be a smudge on his family’s name.  Even if it was wiped away more and more each year, it would always be there: a stain.  He didn’t like thinking about these things.
 
He smiled, eyes lifting back up to her, happy for the change in subject, “You know I’m not sure I could ever properly describe what it feels like.”  His eyes turned up in thought for a brief moment before returning to hers, “Like having extra body parts I suppose.  It shifts around, sometimes I feel it more in my gut, other times my arms, my head…It’s like being asked to describe what it’s like to know how to move your leg or arm: you know what it’s like, but you can’t explain the feeling without actually doing it.”  His eyes blinked opened wider and he straightened, a skin sample?  Well that most definitely was a question he’d never had and he couldn’t hold back the quiet laugh that escaped before he could pull it back.
 
“N-No, no it’s fine…Um, consider my skin yours.  Though I’m not sure how much good it’ll do, I’m not sure how closely it could resemble human flesh.”  Maybe it would give a clue as to why he healed faster, why his kind did in general.  He sighed with a light shrug, “Your guess is as good as mine: we probably have the same amount of questions.  I’ve yet to track down my father and I don’t even know which class of demon he belongs to.  The most I’ve ever been able to get was his name and generic description.  For all I know he could be dead.”  But he knew that wasn’t true…somehow he knew, he’d feel his death.  Or maybe he’d just hoped he would.

“But,” he leaned forward comfortably on his arms as their dishes were cleared, waiting for the server to be further away, “That is a discussion for another day.  For now, let’s get ready to take our positions.  How do you feel?”  

Aries was quite happy at his willingness to give up his skin. She had a friend– a lens maker, and part time biologist– who could make magnifying lenses to look at things quite small. She'd made a few interesting discoveries, though she said that she wasn't good enough to get the lenses REALLY small. Still though, better than the naked eye. Aries would ship the sample to her ASAP, when she got it.

Although it occurred to her that maybe the man was joking? Aries figured she'd leave her daggers sheathed for the moment, and wait to see if he brought it up.

It also occurred to Aries that he might have changed the subject on purpose. She reached into the Aether and grabbed her bow once again. "Ready when you are, Captain my captain!" She did a half salute, standing to her feet as she did so. Aries was kind of bad at… Interacting with people, but she was trying to lighten the mood after Naota seemed to have gotten really solemn.

"So, uh… Where are we headed?"

His eyes followed her up as she stood, eyebrows raising in surprise from her sudden exuberance and choice of words.  Laughing gently, he too got to his feet and left a good amount of coin on the table, more than double what their meal had been so that their server wouldn’t be lacking that night.  He spoke as he headed towards the exit with her, “To the northern vents.  It’s early enough yet that we can make it there before sundown and with enough time to move through.” If luck remained on their side then they’d hopefully confront the beast before nightfall, but he knew that the vent system was a large and intricate one.  The center was the best point for them, but he didn’t want them to stay for too long as it had the highest concentration of toxin.
 
As they walked down the street he continued, “So long as we keep our pace brisk we’ll be able to get to the center before too long.  After that I suggest us staying for no more than an hour, even with my protection over us I don’t want to tempt fate with those fumes.” He would have an easier time keeping safe from them, but he also had her safety to consider in this.  Yet another reason he didn’t want this job to extend for much longer, they couldn’t go into the vents every night. 
 
“If we’re unable to stop it tonight then tomorrow it would probably be best to try and lure it…though I sincerely hope that it won’t come to that.” He looked over at her, thinking about her ability to breathe fire, “What’s the furthest you’ve ever been able to send your fire?  If we can’t get to the monster, then perhaps we can lure it towards us tonight instead.  I wouldn’t exactly want to fight it in the vents unless I had, but it may come to that if we can find it there first before it ventures out.” Once it was out there was too much risk to everyone else, and while it would make it easier to find, he was uncomfortable at the idea of sacrificing someone just so that they could track it.
 
When they got to the edge of the vent he paused, looking back at her to see if she was ready.  There was no one here in this shaded spot, too many people worried about any toxins that may have seeped out, and for that reason he silently spread his protection over them.  It would keep them safe for a few hours, but he’d be sure to boost it every so often as the early evening went on so that they would be as safe as possible.  It was a good thing hardly anyone came over here unless they were a worker, it’d make their job all the easier instead of having to deal with questions: too much risk to other people, and they couldn’t be delayed any longer if they wanted any chance of finishing the beast off tonight.

Aries recoiled at the thought of going into the center of the vents. She'd been in there once, looking to see what she could find out about the magic keeping the place in the sky. It was disgusting; the very air itself seemed to sizzle against your skin. Still though, she'd agreed to the job, so she would do the job. "Well then let's get moving!"

She felt a small amount of relief when he mentioned staying in there for only an hour or so. Aries didn't think she'd be able to stand staying longer than that. "So… How strong is your protection spell?"

When he mentioned luring it, Aries was interested. "Why don't we just lure it immediately? And how do you plan on luring it?" Considering the vents, she silently agreed that it'd be better not to fight in there. Her bow wouldn't be much good, and she wasn't very skilled with her daggers yet. "I can shoot my fire… Maybe ten feet? Fifteen? Like I said, I've been practicing since I was little."

He turned his eyes back to her as he took off his vest, folding it and letting it hang from the back of his belt: it’d be easier to move with it off, but he still wanted as much separation from his skin and the fumes as possible and for that reason tugged at the edges of his long sleeves to ensure they wouldn’t ride up.  The protection was over them now, but he still didn’t like what they were going to have to do, “My protection is very strong, I assure you.  I’ve dealt with far worse than this, and that was from people aiming to hurt me.”  Those situations still hadn’t been fun though.

Kneeling down next to the grate, he pulled a knife from his belt and started to carefully take off the bottom line of screws that kept the vent closed, “We’re going to try and attack it from inside of the vent first because I want to keep it from making it outside if possible.  So far no panic has ensued on this level and I’d like to keep it that way.”  He moved the screws into his pocket and started to work on the rest of them, all but one that was left in the corner, “If we must though, then we must.  Once it’s spotted then panic might spread, small at first but things like that tend to grow into hysteria.”  

Finally he was done, and had the rest of the screws safely in his pocket which he buckled to keep securely closed before replacing the blade onto his belt.  Now the vent would be able to slide around and open with just being attached by the one screw, and that meant they could go in but still close the vent behind them to keep from having more fumes escape than usual.  His eyes lit up, already feeling the antsiness he got just before a hunt.  He let the vent swing closed again and stood, looking back at her with raised eyebrows,

“Honestly?  Raw meat, things to that effect, and blowing the scent into the vent way to draw it in.  I don’t exactly want to bring meat in there with us right now though…I’m pretty sure they’d be cross if any of it got left inside and started to stink things up.”  He looked out towards the streets, thinking about how many people were nearby even if they weren’t in their line of sight: how many lives.   “We should head in, and it’s good that you can shoot it that far, you might need to.”  Opening the vent again, he walked through, glad for how large it was, and kept it held open right at the entrance as he looked at her,

“I’d normally offer ladies first but in this situation it hardly seems like the gentleman type thing to do.”  He wanted to keep their demeanor light despite what they were about to venture into and his eyes softened despite himself, “Try not to worry too much, so long as we can subdue it, get a clear shot, I can paralyze it…right now the trick is going to be finding it, and after an hour we’ll be out of the vents either way.”

Aries was glad to hear his protection was strong. She hadn't really doubted that it WAS, but still, it was better to have it from the mouth of the source, rather than assuming. "Yeah, I can't imagine you face too many friendly people, considering you're a vampire hunter…" Aries still wasn't sure how she felt about that.

While he was unscrewing the grate, she said, "Okay, that makes sense. Is it not possible to like, sanction off an area? Or do you not have the authority to do that?" Jumping back to the vampire subject, she said "So wait, what kind of vampires do you hunt? Like, all of them? Or just ones that… You know, hurt innocent people? I had a vampire acquaintance a while back, she was quite kind, outside of the whole blood thing."

After they entered the grate, Aries took a sniff and grimaced. It seemed like the spell didn't block out smells. "Pretty sure the radiation in here would sterilize any piece of meat. I wouldn't be too worried about the smell." She didn't mention that, even if the meat DID rot, then it wouldn't be able to cut through the stench of the vents.

Smiling at his comment about letting her in first, Aries said "I've never been one much for gender tradition." She was getting, though she didn't know what they were called, battle jitters. She had never gone into a battle expecting it; Aries felt as though she preferred not knowing. Following Naota's lead in both path and mood, she nodded. "I know, in my mind, that we'll be safe; but my heart… Well, you know how it goes."

He shook his head as he began to lead through the vents: a small orb of light hovering in his palm to aid them, “Not the ones I hunt at least.  As foreign as it may seem I have crossed paths with some good people in my line of work and built friendships.”  He sighed, wishing that what she had suggested would have been possible for him, but unfortunately it would take a more obvious threat to the public for him to pull such a thing off, “Sadly I don’t have the authority to sanction off parts of this level, or any level for that matter.  Whether it’s about money or formulating an excuse for me to do so, I’m not sure…most likely the former as money wouldn’t come into play if it’d make this entire ordeal go smoothly.”
 
His eyes saddened, “If there were any casualties though…they’d probably give me authority to do whatever I wanted for this particular hunt.  But I won’t let it go that far if I can help it, good thing I found you eh?”  He looked back at her with a small smile before looking forward again, laughing gently at her comment about the meat, “I can’t very well argue with that logic.”  He chewed gently on the skin of his bottom lip, a small nervous habit he’d had since childhood as he tried to think about the best way to answer her questions about his profession.  It was a difficult subject to talk about, especially given that he was torn in his beliefs in his later years. 
 
When he was young it had been easy: hate vampires with no question, show no mercy and only quick precision.  But now…?  Now things were different, as painful as the memory was, Holly had helped a lot with that…all of the Rosenites did, and the odd web they were always tangled into with one another it seemed.  His sister too, she had helped…Though he still had his days where he didn’t trust her, despite their blood.  Her circumstance was tragic, but years of being taught to think one way were hard to get over, even for someone like him.
 
“To tell you the truth when I was your age I would have killed one despite their alignment if you offered me the job.  Vampires were animals to be hunted, vermin infesting an area, killers that were below society.”  His eyes saddened thinking about it, thinking about how hateful he’d been, how he still had to fight with that every day,
 
“I’m no longer that young man.  It’s no easy feat, I still get more nervous and edgy around their race and am quicker to distrust them, but…I’m working on it.  For jobs though, I only take jobs where the targeted vampire has done something wicked that deserves ultimate justice.  Perhaps that’s why my skills have been requested for other types of jobs now, like this beast we’re hunting.  While still a vampire hunter I’ve started to narrow my scope of vision…which can be disadvantageous to those that had grown used to a dog that would have said yes no matter who the vampire.  I guess I should more say that I hunt that which is dangerous with a specialty in vampires…”  His words trailed off and he looked over at her before shrinking down, warmth filling his cheeks,
 
“Sorry, I’m beginning to rant, I’ve just never really spoken about it out loud, these thoughts usually just bounce around in my head.”  His focus returned ahead of them, stopping for a moment and resting his free hand against one of the vent walls as he closed his eyes, feeling it out, searching for any strange vibrations and listening intently for the slip and slide of skin along metal.  Despite that, he whispered quietly to her,
 
“It’s all right, to tell you the truth when I learned how to do this and spread the protection onto others, I used to hold my breath…thinking that even breathing would disturb it and get everyone killed.”  He smiled, a small one in the quiet and took a deep quiet inhale through his nose, letting it out slowly, “I’m breathing, so we must be fine.”  All of this was to keep the moment light for as long as he could, but he could feel far off the shake of metal ever so slightly under his fingertips.  While his voice stayed quiet, his words held urgency,
 
“It’s not far.”