"You want to pretend to want to join these vampires?" Black said with narrowed eyes and a raised eyebrow. He didn't seem upset or displeased in any way—more utterly incapable of comprehending James' suggestion. To be fair, it was a wild one, even for him, but it made sense.

Clearly these angels wanted old vampires. Be it for their blood or not, that would give James an opportunity to pretend to be interested in joining them and trying to get some intel. Maybe what the end goal here was, or where they were keeping all those demons they'd kidnapped.

"They will see through this immediately," one of the other Aegis leaders said, a tall, ginger woman James had probably seen before but didn't know the name of. There were four in total in the office, counting Black, and James had never seen the other two. Not that he cared much. "Didn't they try to take you by force?"

"Well, then put some kind of tracker on me, or something. You can pick me up later if they capture me. It's worth a shot."

The four vampires looked at each other dubiously. James wanted to sigh. This was one of the problems he had with Aegis—they always had to plan everything out first instead of acting as soon as possible.

These angels had managed to destroy one of the main bases Aegis had, kill a bunch of their members, kidnap a demon much stronger than Arkie, and infiltrate Aegis. Realistically James knew that anyone working for the angels had probably already left for good, but the fact that anyone in the smaller headquarters he was now in could be a traitor was putting him edge. If anyone tried to do anything to Arkie....

James tried to push that thought aside. The point was that if there ever was a time to be impulsive and risky, it was now. He could feel the tension everyone was giving off. The longer they waited the more likely it was that all the vampires here would probably try to do a forceful change of management. And despite James complicated feelings towards Aegis, even he knew this would be a terrible development.

"No offense meant, James, but this sounds a bit like you are planning on deserting us," Black said, hopefully unaware of how close he was to the truth. But after his earlier talk with Arkie, James was determined to at least see this angel business through. He might desert after, but that was for later.

"Well, I'm not," James replied, really having no proof of his claims. But he shouldn't need one. "Look, you all know this is a good idea. I'm the oldest aside maybe from you." James looked Black up and down as he said this. He still had no idea how old this vampire was. "And we can all agree I'm way more expendable."

The four exchanged an unsure look again, though they didn't seem as opposed anymore. Finally, Black heaved a sigh. With the harsh, artificial light beaming at them from the ceiling, he looked even more tired and ragged than before.

It made James wonder how Denise was doing. He hadn't seen her since that pocket dimension debacle.

"Well, if you are certain you wish to try this.... We will consider it."

James would have tried it with or without their say in the matter, but he was pleased, nonetheless, because when Black said things like this, it usually meant he would agree eventually. Assuming he would, this would make things easier.

"We have yet to track down any deserters to a specific place, however, so this will have to wait. The warlocks should be working on it."

James nodded. He couldn't really help with that in any way, or even go ask the warlocks to rush it because they were probably already going as fast as they could, whatever it was they were actually doing. He just hoped they would manage to find something out.

Since there was nothing else to discuss, James excused himself, leaving the four in the office alone while he began wandering the long stark white corridors making up this place, looking for either Arkie or Denise. James couldn't help but stop at times, though, and gaze outside through the large windows along the walls, throwing sunlight into the headquarters.

They must have been made of the same stuff the car window, since being in direct sunlight wasn't causing him to die though it was still a bit uncomfortable, but it was much more impactful to be in the sunlight like this, as opposed to the cars. He missed it, even after all these years, but he rarely let himself think about it.

"Oh, there you are!" came Denise's voice from behind him. James turned around, surprised that she had apparently been looking for him. He had assumed she would be working on something, especially with the current situation. She wasn't one to sit around, unlike him.

"Glad to see you're okay," she said, nodding at him as she ran a hand through her hair, pushing it back from her forehead. Even though as a vampire she didn't have to sleep, she sure looked like she could use some of that. Maybe a full week. Had she had those circles under her eyes since they'd escaped that death trap Aegis called one of its headquarters? James really hadn't seen much of her since then.

"Yeah, same to you," James nodded back, suddenly feeling a sense of weariness hit him. It had been a long day. Or night. What day was it now even, anyway?

"Oh, before you ask, Ark went off with that Qironin guy a bit ago. Something to do with tracking down Azralis, I think."

James wasn't sure whether to feel annoyed that Denise was assuming that was all he was concerned about—not that she would be wrong—or if he should just feel grateful that she was keeping him in the loop. Because if she hadn't known where Arkie was, James would definitely spend a considerable amount of time searching this entire base for him.

He decided to just be grateful. He was too tired to feel annoyed anyway.

"Thanks."

He sighed, rubbing his eyes. Had he been exhausted this entire time and just hadn't noticed it? He had been pretty preoccupied with...everything, so he supposed it was possible.

He almost flinched when Denise tapped his shoulder with something, only to realize it was a bottle of water, with the blood substitution powder slowly dissolving in it.

"Where do you keep getting these?" he asked as he took it. He was suddenly very aware that he was hungry, but he his stomach turned at the thought of drinking this. Though he knew he would have to—if he didn't he would just feel worse and worse and grow weak, which was about the last thing he or anyone around him needed right now.

"I come prepared," Denise replied, smirking at him in amusement. She had another bottle in her hand, which made James raise his eyebrow at her. "And also there's a vending machine here."

Right, that made more sense.

"I'll have to start charging you for all that powder at some point," Denise continued, chuckling and taking a swig from her bottle. James did the same, gulping the whole thing down as quickly as possible.

He let out a deep breath as almost immediately he felt both his mood improving and energy returning. The fact that this took effect so fast was good, though it never failed to make him a bit suspicious of what exactly was in this powder.

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"Yeah, sorry, I have it here somewhere," James replied, patting the pockets of his jacket in search of the small bag of powder he carried with him at all times. It wasn't that he was too forgetful to keep the stuff with him—it was more that he never had any water to mix it in, and eating it dry was disgusting, so he tended to put off eating longer than he probably should.

"It's fine, I was joking. I have more than enough," Denise said, waving her arm as if this wasn't a big deal. Aegis didn't give James that much powder, so he definitely disagreed on that. It was enough for him, and if he ate at regular times he would have some left over, but he wouldn't say he got enough to share. Did they give Denise more?

Well, maybe. Probably. She had a better work ethic than him. In fact, Aegis had better pay her better than James, or he would go make it someone's problem.

"Well, I appreciate it. Thank you," James said, nodding again. Had he ever told her that? He couldn't imagine how he'd handle working for Aegis without her, seeing as she was probably the only one who had made the experience somewhat bearable before Arkie had showed up.

It was too bad that he was realizing this only now, while dealing with a problem that might very well cause their deaths. Although that was probably why he was realizing it in the first place.

"What got into you?" Denise asked, raising her eyebrows in a sort of amused surprise. "Did demon boy tell you to be nice?"

James shook his head, playing with the empty bottle in his hand even as a smile tugged on his lips. Though it did make him feel guilty if him being nice was out of character. It seemed his worries had been warranted.

Denise meanwhile walked up to him, standing next to him and leaning on the wall behind them. "I'm just teasing." She proceeded to lightly elbow him in the ribs. "You're fine, Adley."

James wanted to joke that hell yes, he was fine, but then decided against it. He smiled to himself bitterly. Nathan hadn't been wrong when he'd said James looked dreadful. He certainly hadn't looked his best since his change of diet.

He supposed he could try to do the barest minimum and maybe find something to tie his hair back, at least.

"You're fine, too," James told Denise, laughing quietly when he saw her blink at him.

"You sure you're okay? You're freaking me out," she said, laughing. "You haven't made one joke this entire conversation."

James shrugged. They'd finally reached the moment he wanted to deflect the conversation with a joke, but he wouldn't. There was no point avoiding it, especially since despite her smile, there was worry in Denise's eyes, which convinced him further.

"It's all this angel business." James had intended to elaborate on that, but when he saw Denise grimace, he realized he clearly didn't need to. Right, obviously she was worried about that, too.

"You don't think we're gonna win."

James looked at her in surprise. "I didn't...say that."

Denise snorted. "You didn't have to."

There was a moment of silence before Denise shrugged and continued. "Honestly, this all does look pretty bad, not gonna lie. But we have yet to get defeated."

James frowned. He assumed Denise was talking about the two of them specifically, but he supposed this applied to Aegis, as well. Sure, they'd lost some people along the way, but they had been around for decades, maybe centuries—he wasn't sure because no one had ever given him a straight answer—and the world hadn't ended yet.

"We might be up against angels, but the fact that there are weapons that can kill them makes them way less scary than if we didn't know how to deal with them," Denise said, a patient smile on her face that James wasn't sure he'd seen before. "We just gotta get that sword back. Or whatever else there is."

James nodded. He didn't necessarily agree with her optimism, but it was true that at the very least they had much more information now than they had before. They knew what was going on to some extent, which was setting the bar really low, yes, but they hadn't had even this little for months. "Let's hope you're right."

"'Course I'm right, old man," Denise replied, somehow managing to keep both her voice and her face completely serious as she gazed off at the opposite walls, sipping her dissolved powder.

James stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out if he'd heard that correctly. Just a second later though she burst out laughing, putting her hand over her mouth as she tried to contain her laughter.

"You did not just call me that," James deadpanned as Denise continued laughing loudly, pointing her finger at him.

"Your face," she gasped out, wiping her eyes as she finally managed to get her laughing fit somewhat under control. "Oh, God. Thanks, I needed that."

James chuckled, unable not to anymore. "Sure, anytime. Never call me that again, though."

Denise snorted, proceeding to giggle as she playfully punched his shoulder. "But that's what you are."

James shook his head, trying to keep the smile creeping onto his face hidden. If he hadn't been so exhausted, he wouldn't have found this funny. Definitely not. Well, in for a penny....

"Age is just a number."

Denise laughed again, clapping her hand on his shoulder. "You're right. I'm sure Ark is way older than you, anyway."

"Hey!"

"You tell him you like him, yet?"

James sighed. He had suspected this talk would happen eventually, but with everything else going on, not only had he not really thought about his interest in Arkie, he'd also sort of grown resigned to just hanging out with the demon platonically. Not that that was bad or anything—he liked hanging out with Arkie in any capacity. But after his talk about demon relationships, it certainly hadn't made James think he had a chance.

It was probably better that way, anyway. James wasn't even sure if he was capable of a steady, healthy relationship at this point after a century with Nathan. A century of what he'd done to Nathan.

"No, he has...stuff to figure out."

Denise raised a skeptical eyebrow. "And that means you can't tell him? Given the situation, it seems like the perfect time, too."

James sighed. He needed her to drop this, so he supposed he would have to be more straightforward. "Getting rejected isn't going to help my morale. Not knowing is better."

"Is it, though?"

"Yes."

Denise shrugged, putting her now empty water bottle on the floor and sticking her hands in her pockets. "Well, whatever you say, man. If it were me—"

For a split second James was confused why Denise stopped talking before he noticed Arkie at the end of the corridor, making his way towards them. Thank God for his impeccable timing, because James really wasn't very eager to continue this particular discussion.

But wait.... Something was wrong. The demon was stumbling a little, looking unsteady on his feet. He didn't seem to be in danger of falling, but that didn't matter. Arkie hadn't been in this state when they'd arrived, so those warlocks must have done something to him.

James rushed over to the demon, even though he had almost reached them already, grabbing his shoulders and looking him over. Arkie didn't protest, only blinking and looking confused and dazed.

"I'm...okay," the demon said, frowning up at him and tilting his head as if he'd only now noticed the vampire was there. "The warlocks needed me for a spell to find Azralis. It left me slightly...disoriented."

James did his best not to get angry when he heard that. He really wanted to march over to those warlocks and give them a piece of his mind right now, and the only thing keeping him from actually doing that was his desire to stay with Arkie to make sure he was all right.

"Did it work, at least?" Denise asked from behind James as he guided the demon to sit down on one of the plastic chairs that lined the opposite wall.

"No, unfortunately." Arkemoz shook his head as he sat down as if trying to clear it. "Or, well, I suppose it did. My blood connected with hers, but there seemed to be some kind of wall obscuring her location."

James had no idea what to even imagine here, but he was too busy checking Arkemoz over a second time that he didn't bother asking the demon to elaborate. He had a feeling he wouldn't understand, anyway.

"So, they're hiding her," Denise summed up, nodding to herself. "Well, that's just great, but I guess not surprising." She reached over to pat Arkie on the shoulder. "We'll find her."

++++++++

As it turned out, they didn't have to wait long for a development. James spent the next maybe half an hour with Arkie as the demon got gradually better when one of the Aegis leaders came to fetch him.

James hoped that this meant there would be some kind of development, and that it wasn't just about them telling him that they wouldn't let him try to get some intel out of their enemies. Thankfully, as soon as he entered the office again, he could tell immediately it was the former, if only by Black's tired, displeased expression.

"We have a location if you are still interested," Black said, sighing. He really wasn't happy about this, was he? But James didn't see why. If they had a place that he could try to talk his way into, that was great, right? Not to mention Aegis could just surround the area and arrest everyone for questioning.

Unless of course this was a trap, but that wasn't likely. James hadn't been told how Aegis came across this information, which might reveal something concerning that, but even if he did know about it, he was sure he wouldn't understand anything, anyway.

"Of course I'm interested," James replied. And furthermore, he was very ready to get to the bottom of this, which was a bit strange. All this time, he hadn't really given this investigation much thought, treating it as just another series of errands for Aegis, but not anymore. It was definitely because of Arkemoz, but it was still nice to feel motivated.

"Good," the redhead said, nodding. She looked much more on board with this than Black. "Then it's time to move out."