Forums » General Roleplay » Hide and Seek (1x1)

Sterling sighed. It was the least he could expect. He pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote an address on it, before handing it to the kid. "Here. Try not to lose the address."

"I don't know, Jonah. My two methods of dealing with a problem is to kill it or nullify it. I can't promise I won't hurt them--especially if they come after me. But if you insist, I won't go after them."

Jonah took the paper and shoved it in his pocket. "Got it." He looked around a bit, being slightly paranoid. "If they attack you its fine to fight back. I just don't want anyone to fight them when they haven't done anything yet. I wouldn't mind killing my father myself though.. But that itself is impossible.. Since I'm just a weak, worthless, halfbreed. Thats quoting my stepmother and her daughter." He looked at the hunter. "By the way, you know my name, so why don't I know your's yet?" He said with a smirk, acting rather cocky.

Sterling flashed a smile at Jonah's impertinence. "I never give it to demons, if I can help it." He hesitated, wondering if he should give his nickname or not. And then figured that Jonah had been through enough and it wouldn't be fair on him. "The name's Sterling. And I wouldn't let what they said about being a half-breed get to you. Halfbreeds can be capable of much more than their full-blooded relatives think."

Jonah grinned and forced back a laugh. "Betcha people pick on you cause of your name, eh?" He teased a bit, swishing his tail. "And they were right about me being weak though, I can't fight worth crap. Only thing I got going good for me is running, I'm sure I gave you some decent exercise with that." He laughed and hopped on one foot for a moment.

Sterling smiled at the kid. "Eh, you could say I've been called a few things before." Hunting demons gave him a wide assortment to choose from. "And you did give me a good run for the money."

He rolled his shoulder a little. "Too bad I'm not gonna be collecting that bounty. It was a nice one, too. If it's training in fighting you need, though, you can always take classes. I've done a bit of teaching in the past, self-defense mostly. But some offense."

Jonah's ears twitched for a moment. "Just out of curiosity, how much did they offer you for catching me?" He asked warily, wondering how much he was worth to those morons. "And I'm not interested in learning how to fight, though it would be useful. I'll just stick to running like a maniac." He grinned wildly.

"A lot," said Sterling. "100,000. You should thank them for stating alive only, but..." Now that he thought about it; that only meant what they had in store was either torture or killing. "It's only money.Look me up if you ever get tired of running."

He shouldered his crossbow and eyed the alley again. "It's gonna take me the better part of a week to clear this particular town of vampires."

Jonah nearly fell over after hearing the rather large number. "Good grief.. I'm in a load of trouble.." He stared at the ground, considering his options. "I think I may actually really need that training after hearing that, if my thoughts are anything close to what I think they're gonna do." He leaned against the wall and sighed. "And I don't mind being vampire bait, hopefully while I'm awake, besides I need to repay you somehow." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't like owing someone a life debt without compensating for it." He looked at Sterling and the crossbow.

Sterling eyed the kid warily, unsure of what he had in mind. "It doesn't matter how you help me, kid. What matters is clearing your name of the ransom and charges. Which means finding whoever put out the order and dealing with them first. But if you want to help me with vampires, I'll give you half of what I earn."

Jonah nodded and sighed more. "I'm sure it was my father, unfortunately. And honestly I don't care about money, you can keep all of it. Just tell me what to do to help." He grinned and saluted like a soldier, trying to be funny and serious at the same time.

Cute, kid. It was a shame he had to use him for bait. "I'm not the one who's wandering place to place," Sterling said. "You're going to need money unless you plan to steal. If you're planning on stealing...I'm not going to let you get away with that."

"There's a much better chance at catching vampires at dusk. We'll just steer clear of that place where we encountered the oozing water and if we keep to the shadowy places--we should be okay."

Jonah laughed and put his hands in his pockets. "I don't need to steal, I can survive months without eating or drinking or any of the normal stuff. As long as I'm able to sleep. Thanks to my family for that." He said half-jokingly. "Yeah lets never go through that crap again.." He shivered, thinking of the sludge beast they killed. "That was really freaky, but I'm kinda wondering what the heck it really was.. Oh well." He yawned a bit.

Sterling shrugged at Jonah's goo comment. "Leftover demon spawn, probably." He really didn't care to think about it; that stuff had been...bad. "It's not something your family or whatever uses, is it?"

"Must be a handy trait to have, though, to sleep instead of eat." He wished he had that habit. But then he'd probably never eat; his meals were always scattered anymore. It came with Hunting at night and sleeping during the day. It was a pain.

Jonah shook his head. "They would never use something like that, would tarnish their reputation amongst the other demons." He yawned again. "And its not a trait, my body just ended up trained that way thanks to the cage and lack of food for the most part. And I'm also immune to most poisons, thanks to my stepmother spiking the little food they gave me with various types." He grumbled.

Sterling had no idea what to say to that. "I'm sorry, Jonah." He really couldn't help but think that just a few seconds with the business end of his crossbow would end that trouble pretty succinctly. But if Jonah didn't want the help, there was little he could do to force the issue.

"You're a plucky half-demon, I'll give you that," said Sterling.

Jonah shrugged and grinned. "Don't worry about it, its pretty useful being like this." He said as cheerfully as he could, though with a little bitterness at the edges. "And I suppose I'll take that as a compliment." He laughed.

A compliment coming from Sterling--the kid really was special because Sterling didn't compliment hardly anyone. He just let a small smile cross his face and nod before producing a stake from his inner trench coat lining.

"Alright, I don't know if you've had any experience with vampires, but I'm gonna assume you haven't. Just in case they get too close you can shove this into their chest. They'll scream and spit unless you hit them in the heart--at which point they'll dissolve into ash--but it'll stop the initial attack if they mean to bite. I should have them staked by that point, but that's a just-in-case tool." He offered the stake to Jonah. "Think you can handle that?"

Jonah nodded and took the stake, looking it over curiously before tucking it in the pocket-pouch of his shirt. "Doesn't sound too difficult, as long as there aren't a bunch of them at one time." He scratched his head nervously, wondering what he would do if that happened.

Sterling could probably read his mind, or at least the expression on his face. "If there's more than two, just run. I think you're probably a smidge faster than the vampires. And I really don't want you to get bit. And you don't have to worry about me. I'm pretty loaded with stakes."

Jonah nodded and grinned. "If I do get bit, feel free to kill me. I'd rather die than become something more vile than what I already am." He said simply, flicking a small bug off of his shoulder. "Ick.." He mumbled, squashing the bug with his shoe.