[November 9th, 8AM. New York City, Queens. East Elmhurst.]
Kyle and Drey left the ANM base and headed to find Melissa. They were led to Queens but that's as far as could sense Melissa, for some reason they couldn't tell her exact location.
"So did she ever tell you where she went?" Kyle asked as sat on the edge of a rooftop.
"She wanted to see her family but she hasn't contacted me ever since." Drey said as he looked at the ground below them.
"I see, you didn't try to warn her what might've happened?" Kyle asked as he looked into the distance.
"Yeah but she was adamant on the fact that nothing wrong is gonna happen. At that point, it's all her. I have no influence." Drey explained as he watched everyone walk by the building at the bottom.
"I suppose but don't you have as much control over her as I do over you?" He asked as he closed his eyes.
"Yes but she isn't my slave. I won't force to do something she doesn't want, much like you." Drey answered as he sat down on the ledge. "There's more than one way to find her." He finished.
"Yeah,'I'm looking for her scent or a scent that's familiar to her. Even though everyone smells different, people who are closely related to each other, have the same hint. I'm looking for that hint." Kyle explained as he tried to sort through all of the smells in his nose.
"I found that hint." Drey said as he jumped towards and turned the opposite direction from Kyle.
"Good, let's go." Kyle said before he started following Drey to the scent.
They ran to the back of the roof and jumped off, onto another lower roof. Heading west of their location. They didn't want to risk getting spotted on the street so they traveled by using the rooftops.
Using lampposts to bridge the gaps between buildings that were too far apart, they were able to get through the streets easily. The HPA's search force was less focused in Queens unlike Brooklyn and Manhattan.
They stopped on the roof of a townhouse, there were multiple apartment buildings and stores around, surrounding the building.
"Her hint is stronger in this building but it's from multiple people." Drey said as he looked at the other buildings.
"Yeah, but she isn't here. I can't remember her smell but I can sense her now." Kyle said as he looked down at the roof.
"I know where she is. There's only one place she could stay safely." Frey said as he stared at a certain building that was about two blocks away.
"Where?" Kyle asked as he tried to listen to the voices in the building.
"It's one of my other safehouses, it's very close to here, I showed her this one while we were on a mission a few months ago. I never realized her family lived around here." Drey said as he started heading towards one of the tall apartment buildings.
"I used a different identity to put my name on the lease but I'm not sure how she would be able to stay in the apartment if I didn't pay the rent." He finished.
"Hmm, if it's just rent I doubt there would be much trouble with convincing the landlord to let her stay. She could've used her eyes." Kyle said as he followed behind him.
"Right, I was thinking the same thing. As long as she wasn't caught by HPA, I don't care what she does." Drey said as he took a huge leap to the next building.
"How did you get yourself one of these if you were on the run?" Kyle asked as he landed below him, on a balcony.
Landing behind right after him, Kyle almost slid into the balcony's glass door. Every window had a balcony with about 15 feet of space separating each other.
"I made great connections of course, some of which the ANM has also made." Drey said as he climbed on top of the balcony's rail.
"How tall is this building?" Kyle asked as he looked over the balcony's rail.
"About 31 stories high if you count the lobby but if I counted correctly, we should be on the 15th floor." Drey asked as jumped to the next balcony above them.
"What floor is Melissa on?" Kyle asked as he followed.
"23rd floor, it's on this side. So we'll just need to climb up a few more flights." Drey said as he climbed up another balcony.
"There has to be a faster way than this." Kyle said impatiently as he continued to follow him to the top.
"You know." Drey said as he waited for Kyle to catch up.
"What?" Kyle asked confusingly as he got to a balcony just below Drey.
"….Forget it, I guess you wouldn't recognize it now. There should be about 4 more balcony's left." Drey quickly jumped to the next floor.
"He's much more social than before, probably because he was able to get his original self back. He sounds more genuine and less like a robot." Kyle thought as he jumped to the next balcony.
After a few minutes they finally reached the Drey's balcony. The glass doors were locked with curtains blocking the view from outside.
"I guess you don't have any keys." Kyle said as he looked at the door.
"I wish." Drey said before he saw a silhouette of a woman standing in front of the door.
They saw Melissa, the very opposite of that liveliness she used to have. She had a thick blanket draped over her body, barely showing her face. Her hair however couldn't hide. A breeze as sharp as winter met Kyle, making him rub his arms slightly to keep himself from freezing.
"Welcome back." Melissa said depressingly as she glared at Drey.
"Are you okay?" Kyle asked as he couldn't ignore her blatant perturbation.
"Yes. I am." She said as she stared at them. "What do you want?" She asked.
"Well I need your answer." Kyle said in a slight shiver.
"What?… come in. I'll turn the AC off." Melissa said as she walked towards one of the rooms.
"I'm going to Blutheim because that is the only place where I can't-'' Kyle took a brief pause as if he was in a trance. "Where… I won't have to kill anybody for blood…" it went unnoticed.
"Blutheim…. I'll go with you. I don't think I can stay here anymore but there's something I want you to do." Melissa said dishearteningly as she looked at Drey.
"What is it?" Drey said as he looked at her.
"I want Kyle to overwrite your blood order on me. I do not want to be a servant, but if I am one. I would rather be his, not yours." Melissa said bluntly as she seemed to feel a way towards Drey.
"That's understandable, I don't have a problem with that. Do you Kyle?" Drey asked as he slouched slightly in a chair.
"I don't but why do you wanna change? What's the difference if it all falls under me in the end?" Kyle asked in a confused tone.
"It's obvious, why wouldn't she feel this way? I'm the one who ruined her regular life. It would be weird if she didn't feel at least a little angry." Drey explained to him although he kept a straight face as if he didn't care about the situation.
"I see… I'd hate you too if you ruined my life. But do you still have a reason to stay here? You can be honest with me, we'll be making two trips until we settle down in Blutheim." Kyle said as he looked at her.
"No, even if I wanted to stay. I can't. I'll just go where I belong so I can't harm anyone here." Melissa said stubbornly hiding her feeling.
But of course there wasn't much Kyle could do about it, no matter how he tried. This is the first time he's met the real them so he's starting from the beginning with them again.
"Let's start overwriting his blood now." Kyle said as he pushed his nail against his palm.
[Overwriting blood order- Is a process that Kyle learned after he turned. It's a technique that allows him to permanently take over the role of master for a servant by giving them a portion of his blood.]
Kyle pushed deep enough to slit the middle of his palm open with his nail and started to draw blood quickly.
"That's a lot of blood, you drew. I think you went a bit overboard." Drey said as he saw a small pool forming atop Kyle's hand.
"It's just enough and some more for luck." Kyle said as he stood up while trying to balance the blood. "I might need a-" fortunately Melissa had already brought him a cup as she saw him recklessly cut himself.
"I think this was a bit much, don't you?" Melissa said as she noticed how thin his wrist was. "I could feel the weight." She finished as Kyle dunked the blood cup.
"Maybe." Kyle said as he licked his cut. "I'll manage, I had enough blood today anyways." Kyle said as his hand healed slowly and his eyes started glowing.
Although she seemed prepared to drink blood, it looked like she had to mentally prepare herself before drinking Kyle's blood. As she sipped from the cup, the blood was glowing as it traveled down her throat. However unlike regular blood, it didn't go down to her stomach instead it entered her veins. From outside it appeared to be like glowing red roots, although there wasn't enough to reach her entire body. All of Melissa's veins were shining brightly through her skin.
"I could feel my blood coursing through her. I feel something else as well, it's Drey's blood order and I can consume it." Kyle was amazed as he reach for it.
He placed his finger on top of her sternum. Just as Kyle touched Melissa, she passed out. He was able to catch her before she fell, luckily.
"Are you okay? Melissa!" Kyle tried to wake her up as he put her on the couch. "Drey-" unfortunately he passed out too. "What the hell…" He said confusingly.
"Well, I guess I just wait until tomorrow now… still I feel bad for them." Kyle thought as he went to the bathroom. "Drey has no family to welcome him and Melissa's family probably doesn't want anything to do with her after everything she has done. The HPA had released our faces to our immediate family members under the premise that they'd remain protected from the public. Unlike me however they weren't born with Vampire blood in them so their family had no part in this making them wholly uninvolved. If that's the case then, Melissa's family were probably afraid of her. They probably thought she was the one who killed her fiancé." Kyle said as he looked in the mirror. "Unfortunately it was me…. I'm the one who killed her fiancè during that night in Manhattan…"
"Fuuuuuuuck." He stressed his words, cursing his actions as he squatted below the sink, unable to look himself in the mirror.