364 I smell Blood

Of course, as time went on, Taz was left with fewer things to do as he delegated the roles and the shelter grew, but still, everyone in the shelter knew about Taz.

It even left the others who were there form the start to claim this was all his doing, even though he insisted he wasn't the one supporting them at all. They still had a sneaky suspicion it might have been him, so they treated him like some mayor of the shelter.

Because of this, it was easier for Taz to request specific items and to get what he wanted. All information would eventually pass through his ears.

A special request had been made, to inform him of all new people entering and leaving the shelter and he had been told immediately. After passing on the information to Leo, he wanted to start his search for the two. As he saw Leo leave again through the two big red doors, he began to remember how great that man was.

'You do so much for everyone, and nobody knows it's even you. You still haven't changed since the day you saved my life on the battlefield. I will always be loyal to you.' Taz had extreme loyalty because when he was just a young soldier, his life was once saved by Leo. If it weren't for him, he probably would have never got to come back home alive.

He and Leo were both privates at the time, so when he heard he was going to become a sergeant, Taz thought it was well deserved and wanted to help make his life more comfortable at any cost.

As Leo began his walk outside, he didn't really know where to go, only that they would be in the shelter. Although he could remember Erin's aura quite well since she used to be in his beast class and was one of the best students compared to the others. Surprisingly though, it didn't take as long as Leo thought it would too find them.

A little away from the Dojo, just down one of the streets to the central Plaza of the shelter, He could see two people walking his way, and one of them was Erin. The two continued to walk, but Leo made sure not to say anything. The instant she had seen him, he could hear her heart beating rapidly.

On top of her not saying anything, and doing her best to carry on, it all felt a little weird.

'Something's wrong, and I have a feeling it's to do with the person behind her.' Leo thought.

The two of them didn't do anything and Erin, who carried on walking as if she didn't know who Leo was.

'What's he doing here?' She thought., 'Shouldn't he still be at the military base, has the school come here on an expedition, but the timelines don't add up. It doesn't make any sense.'

If he was able to help her back then, maybe there was a chance he could help him now.

James was still following her but from a distance away as he usually did, while Leo was doing well to keep up his act of slowly walking completely blind.

One look of his eyes and people could usuelly tell he wasn't faking.

As the two of them passed each other, Erin whispered as quietly as she could.

"I need your help; the man behind me is with Pure. They have agents on every corner." She quickly said, even though the time they passed each other was short, she continued to whisper. Knowing that Leo hearing was better than others, she hoped he could still hear her, "I don't know where to go, I can't go to the military base, but if you can get me somewhere safe, I can stay in hiding until everything settles down. Please, if you can, help me."

She didn't know how much he had heard, and she felt guilty asking for his help after he had done so much for her before. But as soon as she saw Leo, images of Layla, and the others had popped into her head. It seemed like she missed them more than she had thought. Her pride would no longer get in her way like before. She would willingly take all the help she could get.

What Layla didn't know was, Leo's hearing wasn't just good, it was excellent. The abilities of a vampire had significantly increased his senses, and he had managed to hear everything.

Still, he didn't fail to notice the direction the two were heading; the Dojo. It was secluded from the rest of the shelter. Although people often went walking down this route, now knowing what organisation they belonged to, he had a feeling they might be looking into him.

Continuing his journey into town, Leo started to think of the possibilities of how he could help out Erin.

The two had finally arrived outside the Dojo and were standing by the two large doors.

"So what are we going to do now, you said the young guy never lets anyone in, right? And I don't think asking him who owns this place is going to work." Erin said.

James put his hand into a side bag that he had on with him this whole time. Erin wondered why he had been carrying it, she also remembered she saw he had packed something she didn't like seeing being put in there.

He then handed her a balaclava, to place over her head, while putting one on his own.

"What are you doing?" She said, looking around. "You can't be serious."

"Don't worry," James replied. "I have checked the place before for cameras, I've already snuck in beforehand. However, to be safe, this has always needed to be a two-person operation. The only person in there is the young man who people call Taz. He seemed to be well respected in this town, so no one must see us doing this. We will both go inside, and then I need you to stay on the lookout.��

"Wait," Erin said, grabbing Jame's arm, which he quickly lifted to throw her hand off his. It was the first time the two of them had actually made physical contact since the base.

"Erin, don't!" James said in a stern voice, as he took the balaclava out of her hands and forced it on top of her head for her. This was a reminder to her that James wasn't a good person. When they had first met, he had been rough, but in the base and now recently he had been a little nicer which made Erin forget about the past.

But now she remembered, he was a high ranking member of Pure, all the training that people went through, he had no problem watching people suffer. "Just tell me that you're not going to do what I think you're going to do. You said to me we would just act like normal travellers and gather information. Why has this become so important?"

"It's a request," James replied. "From above, I don't know why, but after I reported to them the location of the Dojo and where it was built, they wanted us to find out who was behind it all, and we're doing it now. No one will know it was us, and after this is done, we can go onto pretending to be travellers."

After saying that, James swiftly Jumped and started to scale up the wall, he was done explaining, and she had no choice but to follow. After scaling the wall, it seemed like James had already known the young man's daily routine and the most likely places he would be. At this time, he would be cleaning the main dojo hall.

From the top of the wall, they could see the place was quite large. There was the wall they were on, which was in a square shape. It had a path that allowed one to walk all the way around, and then there was the centre dojo, as well as other buildings behind it off to the side. The flooring was white in colour as if made of some type of pebbles. It was a strange thing to have such flooring since it indeed would have made too much noise.

When looking at it, Erin started to think. 'Wait, didn't Leo come from this direction. Don't tell me this place belongs to Leo!?' After asking for his help, and what the two of them were planning to do, she didn't know whether Leo would help her after this.

James, leapt from the building wall, and nearly covered the whole distance, and made it to the centre. As he landed, he signalled Erin to follow after.

'Huh, did I hear something from outside' Taz thought as he got his towel off from the floor. It was cleaning duty for him today, and he wanted to make the place spotless for Leo when he came back. Even if he couldn't see his hard work, he knew he would appreciate it.

Just, as he was about to check it out, the sliding doors opened, and a man wearing a balaclava came running out to him. The door was swiftly shut from behind, and Erin stood outside as the watch guard.

The man's hand was firmly over Taz's mouth, and he had already swiftly cuffed his two hands behind his back. All the actions had only taken a few seconds. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want you to answer them honestly, otherwise…." From his side bag from earlier, James had brought out a toolbox, full of different sharp objects.

"Who has been funding the shelter? I know you are Taz, you're the only person who would know everything going on here, and my guess is they have something to do with this place. You were nothing but a private when you left the military. There is no way you could afford to live in a place like this or get a position here. So tell me now!"

Removing his hand from Taz's mouth, James had thought that would be enough; just the threat was often enough for people to give in. In reality, torture didn't work. People were scared beings, and they would just tell you what you wanted to hear, hoping to let you go. But, all he wanted was a name.

"Go to hell!" Taz said with a smile as he spat in Jame's face."

"Wrong answer."

While Erin stood outside waiting, she was extremely worried, she was meant to be on the lookout to see if anyone was coming, but her mind was elsewhere. Because right now, all she could hear were the muffled screams and the shouts of the man behind her. When she saw the toolbox, and what James had said before. She knew something was up.

'Should I stop it, but he's too strong. I'm still weak.' Erin said as tears ran down her face and how she was doing this to the person who had helped her before.

A few minutes had passed, and the muffled noises had continued, then finally, Erin couldn't take it anymore and fell to her knees. At the same time, when she looked in front of her, the red doors had opened and in came Leo, it looked like her guess was right. However, a look she had never seen before was on his face.

"I'm sorry," Erin said with tears rolling down her.

"I smell blood!" Leo said.

*****

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