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The scent of blood streaked the night.
Tawny orbs peered out of the shadows, looking for the source of the stench. It wasn't readily within his line of sight.
He glanced at the blonde woman he had been tailing. She was finally stumbling up the steps of an apartment building, casting one last fearful glance behind her before slamming the door and shutting out the night.
She was safely inside. She wouldn't be prey, or bait, any more tonight. And if his nose wasn't lying (which it never did), Will had a new quarry on his hands.
Still flitting from shadow to shadow, Will tracked down the scent of blood. It only took a few minutes for him to identify certain tell-tale signs from the scent to determine what kind of person the victim was...or had been. A human female, none too old, either. His lips curled in a curdling scowl.
The trail lead him to a wide, brightly-lit area: a park. He hesitated. There was absolutely no way to stay concealed if he followed the trail from here.
But focusing, Will spotted the crime scene about sixty feet away: a large puddle of blood lay on a park path, directly under the light. It was still wet and still terribly fresh. There was no body.
He had only been hours, maybe minutes, too late. He felt his guts twist in regret, but supressed the sudden rush of self-loathing. This was not the time for 'what-ifs'. Now was the time for retribution.
Because he could clearly identify three more scents drifting away from the area. Two were vampiric, and the third he recognized--Hitomi Kieru, a human. And, he realized with a jolt, he recognized the victim's scent as well--Aki Tamashii. He had only been near her for a few moments, but picking up Hitomi's signature scent had been the conclusive evidence.
So. Someone slay the benevolent Aki, and her friend Hitomi carried away the body. I don't know why I'm surprised. Moves as bold as the ones Aki has made are bound to make enemies. That...and it's always the peacemakers who die first. Such was the sad truth of the world.
But not just anyone had wounded--or killed, he was unable to determine which--Aki. It had been a vampire.
Time for the hunt.
Of the two vampiric scents leading away from the scene, the Homunculus picked one at random. He followed Lucis's fresh scent as if it were a blazing neon beacon. Will flitted through the night as silently as shadow, keeping to the corners and dark passages of the city so flawlessly that even a vampire wouldn't find him more material than a nightmare.
The trail lead him first to a bar. He skulked in the alleyway across from the bar's entrance for a moment, watching the place with a scrutinizing sneer. The scents of dozens of vampires drifted around the place. Well. After he was finished with this little affair, he would definitely be coming back here. This wouldn't be a vampire hot spot any more after he was done with it.
Will picked up Lucis's scent again, trailing it away from the bar and into a more quiet, decrepit part of town. His search ended at an abandoned building. Boards cross-hatched half the windows, while some windows were glassless and empty, gaping open like fresh woudns.
How fitting.
He heard footsteps behind him. A quick sniff of the air determined that it was Hitomi, with someone he couldn't identify tailing her. Will slipped inside the building before he could be seen, following the vampire's scent once more.
There. Just around the corner. Lucis, his quarry, was not ten feet away. Neither of them was in each other's line of sight just yet.
From his black trenchcoat Will drew a heavy pistol with a silencer attached to the barrel. He cocked it, savoring the sound of the silver bullet sliding into the chamber and the tense silence before all hell broke loose.
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