The Devil wears an Angel's face

Remus swivelled round, turning to face the vampire, 'Sirius'.

They grinned in an obnoxious manner, a humorous glint in their silver grey eyes. They wore a tight, black suit with a silk red shirt. The buttons were barely done up, revealing most of their pale chest. Half of their black hair was piled up into a small bun, revealing an old bite wound on their neck. As they smiled, their sharp teeth visibly popped out. 

And they had just killed someone; judging by the bright red colour decorating their lips. 

"Pleasure to meet you", Sirius said, holding out their hand for Remus to shake. 

Instead of shaking their hand, he grabbed his dagger and swiftly threw it at Sirius. The vampire moved out of the way, the dagger piercing into their upper arm. 

Sirius hissed in pain, "Wow. That was a very welcome greeting." 

James snorted in humour, grinning widely between the two.

Remus reached for his gun next, pointing it right at Sirius who stood still with a cocked eyebrow and a small smirk. He clicked the trigger; about to pull, when James stepped in between them. 

"James", both of them hissed. 

They caught each other's eye and Sirius lifted up their hand in a quick, mocking wave. Remus had a stake in his hand in a second, roughly pushing James out of the way to bodily slam into Sirius and knock them to the floor.

He lifted the stake about to pierce it into Sirius' chest when he felt something wet going up his arm.

Remus looked down, gaping aimlessly between the wet mark left on his arm and a laughing vampire with his tongue still hanging half out. 

"Did you just lick me?" 

The question made Sirius laugh even more; James was no help, leaning against the wall as he laughed as well.

Remus wiped his arm before realising what he was just distracted from doing and quickly brought the wooden stake back up and threw it down into Sirius' chest. 

He managed to lightly pierce the vampire before James came barreling over, pushing Remus off of Sirius; Sirius took the opportunity to get back up and glare at Remus. 

"You tried to kill me!" they yelled. 

Remus almost laughed, this was so utterly ridiculous, "Of course I did. I'm a hunter and you're a bloodthirsty, murderous vampire who's hypnotised my best friend!" 

Sirius gasped dramatically, looking at James, "I thought I was your best friend?" 

"Now you're best friends with them?" Remus gasped.

James threw his hands up in defense, "Look, Remus. How about I take you down back to the village and we can have a drink and talk, alright?" 

Remus groaned in frustration,  "What about the vampire?" 

"I have a name", Sirius muttered. 

James took a step forwards, throwing his arm around Remus' shoulder and steering him away from Sirius.

"Sirius won't kill anyone while we're gone so there's no harm in letting them live a little longer." 

"Oh, are you planning on killing me James?" Sirius grinned. 

James grinned back, "I'll come back later. Maybe later tonight or tomorrow morning." 

Sirius nodded back, "Fine. Bring your vicious friend with you", they winked before leaving at an inhuman speed.

James turned back to see Remus staring at him. 

"What the fuck is going on, James?" 

"I'll explain when we get to the pub." He waved, dismissively. 

Remus looked at his friend with raised eyebrows, "I think you might be forgetting something", he said, gesturing downwards.

James squinted and looked down to see his bare legs and lack of trousers, "Oh fuck. I guess I'll grab some trousers first… and shoes now that I think about it." 

☆☆

"James, you're here! It was karaoke night last night and I bet you're so disappointed you missed it." 

James grinned, hugging the blonde girl that Remus recognised from his last time in the pub. 

Her eyes widened as she spotted Remus close behind, she coughed uncomfortably.

"So… you found your friend, then?" 

Remus nodded stiffly, "And I'm assuming you knew where he was the whole time?" 

The girl laughed, "Well I wasn't going to tell you and just let you kill Sirius. I mean, vampires have to stick up for each other." 

Remus gaped in shock, "What?" 

She laughed again, purposely putting up her hair and revealing bite marks on her neck and grinned to reveal sharp canine teeth.

"Is everyone in this town a vampire?" Remus asked sarcastically as Marlene walked away to her table. 

"Not everyone", James answered, "I mean, there's a few others but the majority here aren't vampires." 

Remus immediately turned to James, "And what do you mean by that?" 

James grinned sheepishly, "Come take a seat. I'll explain." 

They sat at a table together, James going to get them both drinks at the bar before bringing them back.

"Explain then", Remus said, taking a sip from the glass. 

James fidgeted with his own glass, drawing patterns in the tiny droplets stuck to the side. He looked up at Remus, before dropping his hand down and gripping the edge of the table.

He then started to speak. 

"Moody sent me here with information about reports of a vampire killing people-" 

"I know that." 

"Yeah, yeah. Just let me get to it, alright? What he didn't mention was that the killings were a town over but the person who got in contact with Moody, suspected someone here killed them-" 

"Yeah, Sirius!" 

James looked up with an almost aghast expression. Remus held his hands up, in promise to stop interrupting.

"Thank you", he nodded, "I decided to go to the town where the killings actually happened first, to take a look at the places they were killed." 

**Flashback to James' perspective**

James packed up his things as he left the last scene of the killings. It was a total bust. There was absolutely nothing at any of the sights, and no one in town seemed to even know anything about any killings happening. 

He was suddenly pushed to the hard ground, dried mud choking him as several people kept him down while another checked through his bag and pockets. 

He tried to fight back, twisting his body to punch and kick. But a boot came down on his ankle and twisted it until he heard a snap. James screamed in pain. 

At the piercing, loud scream another person started slowly walking over. 

"Who gave you permission to do this?" A quiet but authoritative voice echoed. 

The group started swearing and pleading, some running away as fast as they could. They had immediately let go of James, he tried to get away but the pain in his ankle kept him lying on the ground, helplessly crawling without looking back. 

A voice suddenly coughed from right in front of him. The man crouched down with a tiny smile that was almost invisible; but James caught it. He stared at the man, with short and slightly wavy black hair, high cheekbones and piercing grey eyes. Dressed in an all black suit with a small snake pin. 

"Hello there." 

James grinned and greeted him back, then became aware of his own blood in mouth and promptly spat it out. Onto the man's shoes. 

The man got out a black handkerchief, and wiped the blood off of his shoes. James caught sight of white stitched initials on the handkerchief that stained red as it caught onto the blood.

R.A.B

The man folded it neatly and placed it back into his jacket pocket. 

"Did you want some help or were you planning on trying to get out of town like that without getting beat up again?" 

James laughed, "I hadn't really thought it through to be perfectly honest." 

The man extended an arm and helped James get on his feet, he held him around the waist to help him walk.

"This is going to take a long time", James said after it had been almost half an hour of awkward silence and barely reaching the outskirts of town, "I'm supposed to be staying at Hellsgate." 

The man suddenly whirled to him with almost inhuman reflexes, "Hellsgate?" 

James nodded, "yep. Meant to be there for work." 

"Well then, what are you doing at Purcaster?" 

"Also for work." 

The man quickly stepped away from James, too fast for James to acknowledge the lack of support. He fell to the ground and yelled out in pain. 

"Why did you do that?" 

The man looked down at him in anger, "You are a hunter." 

James froze, looking closer at the man. Pale skin, dark red lips, and long sharp fingernails with traces of something red stained under them. 

"You're a vampire." 

The vampire huffed, "Quick thinking. I thought hunters were smart." 

"We are", he defended, trying to stand up and immediately crumbling back to the floor. 

"Well I'm not. Fine." 

The vampire folded his arms, "Why are you here? Who are you hunting?" 

James laughed, "You. Obviously. You killed a load of people here!" 

The vampire's eyes narrowed murderously, "I didn't kill them", he looked around before leaning down to James, "I'm who sent the report to your agency." 

"Why?" 

The vampire rolled his eyes, and walked away. 

James groaned, he stayed in place for over five minutes, waiting in case the vampire came back. He was waiting for a vampire to come back to him, defenseless on the ground. He truly was an idiot. 

The vampire did come back, with a dark brown horse in tow. 

"Elvendork? How'd you-" 

"I was following you as soon as you reached Purcaster." 

"Why? If not to hunt me?" 

The vampire shrugged, "Boredom. I had a meeting midday so I wasn't allowed to leave the town." 

James stroked Elvendork, before turning back to the vampire, "Can you help me get on?" 

"I'm coming with you." 

"Why would you come with me?" 

The vampire grabbed him by the waist and pushed him up onto Elvendork before climbing up behind him. 

"I'm meeting someone." 

James huffed a laugh as he set off, "You meet a lot of people." 

"Don't ask me who they are." 

"I wasn't going to", James defended himself, even though he knew he was going to.

The vampire didn't reply. So James started rambling about how he first met Elvendork, not knowing in the slightest if the vampire was even listening. 

They reached the town around the beginning of nightfall, the sun almost fully sunk. And the vampire started to direct James on where to go. In the middle of town, they reached a marketplace packing up and the vampire got James to stop. 

He helped him down from Elvendork and put his arm back around his waist. 

The vampire took him to a small stall half full of medicine, plasters, and bandages. 

The lady behind the counter smiled widely at the sight of the vampire before frowning at James. 

"Who's this?" 

The vampire took him into the back of the stall and sat him down on a small wooden chair. 

"A hunter. Not for any of us. The one I called in." 

The lady nodded and turned to James, "I'm Lily. You've hurt your ankle right? Anything else or just that?" 

"James, and it's just my ankle."  

Lily nodded, turning away to gather things from the shelves. 

James turned to the vampire standing in the corner, "What's your name?" 

The vampire frowned, "Why do you want to know?" 

Lily laughed, coming back over and sitting down on the floor to get to James' ankle.

She tilted her head to look at the vampire, "What do you think he's going to do with your name?" 

The vampire smiled, "Want me to list them?" 

She laughed again and beckoned the vampire to come down and sit next to her. 

He sat down, close enough to Lily that their arms touched. 

Lily looked up at James, "He likes to linger in the shadows in the corner of rooms." 

She turned her gaze her the vampire and kissed his cheek.

"I'm a vampire, it's what our species does." 

Lily laughed, "It's what you do. I've seen Sirius. They have never lingered in a corner once in their life." 

"Who's Sirius?" James asked.

"No one," the vampire answered immediately.

"I thought James was here to meet Sirius?" 

The vampire smiled slightly again, "I've changed my mind. They'd be too insufferable together." 

"Well now I definitely want to meet them." 

"You will", the vampire answered, "And Marlene too." 

"A meeting of the vampires", Lily joked. 

"What? I don't want to be alone in a room full of vampires! I'll be killed!" 

The vampire shrugged, "We can invite an equal amount of humans if you want. So you feel safe." 

"And I'm bringing my weapons!" 

"No one said you couldn't." 

"Alright, all done", Lily said, "Are you staying at the Pettigrew's inn?" 

James nodded, "I was planning to but I don't have any money on me anymore." 

"You don't need money. They'll let you stay for free." 

"Oh, cool." 

"Isn't it just?" the vampire and Lily mocked.

The vampire helped James back on his horse and directed him to the Pettigrew's inn. 

"Tomorrow at ten. Lily will meet you here for the meeting. Be on time." 

"Thank you for your help, oh kind vampire."

The vampire stared back at him, huffing out a small smile. James noticed it was similar to the one he gave Lily.

James started riding away and heard the vampire speak once more.

"Don't be late."