[center][h1][color=brown]Kyle and Kayla Foster[/color][/h1][/center]
[center]Written with [@JunkMail][/center]
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With Kyle a few vampires higher in his kill count and Kayla having unburdened a troubled man’s psyche, the Fosters moved to return to the motel and figure out what to do next, now that they had a solid grasp of the creature they were hunting - an aswang, specifically the vampiric manananggal.

Kyle arrived first, due in part to him already being in the truck and closer to the motel, though traffic did keep him a bit. Kayla arrived not too long after via Uber. Kyle waited beside the truck as Kayla approached.

“Hey.” They said to each other.

“How’d you get along?” Kyle asked his sister.

“Got what we needed out of Mr. Whittle.” She said, placing her hand on her hip and giving him a smile. “Name’s Jane Whittle now, by the way. Hopefully, he can start making a recovery from what he’s been through. Mentally, at least. What about you?”

“Raided a small Blood Cult den. Six dead vampires, not all of which were solely my doing.”

“Yeah, tell me about this new friend of yours?”

“Inside.” Kyle said, and the two made their way up to the second floor.

...

“Illusions?” Kayla asked.

“Seemed like it.” Kyle replied, “She was messing with their heads somehow. Fooling them into traps or just incapacitating them.”

“And it [i]wasn’t[/i] magic?”

“My amulet went quiet as soon as the last vampire was dead. It was some form of natural mentalism.”

“Huh.”

“We [i]have[/i] heard of a few cases of them before, at the Center. Never had any around though.” Kyle stated, “They’re a phenomenon, to put it plainly.”

“I see.” Kayla replied, “Well, this ‘Vertigo’ lady… how much did you tell her?”

“Just enough. She made herself sound like a novice but she was well composed during the raid.”

“So did you give her your info, or- heh, did she give you hers?” She said hopefully.

“Kayla.”

“Oh c’mon! Honest question!” she replied, throwing her arms in the air in self defense.

“That is [i]not[/i] what we are here for.” Kyle retorted.

“I’m just saying, it would be a [i]pleasant surprise[/i] if one of these days, you actually made an effort to get to know a nice girl.”

“I’m gonna put a [i]stop[/i], to this topic…” Kyle said, motioning his hand in a halting fashion, “And ask you, [i]politely[/i], to move on to the more important matter. This… ‘manananggal’ creature.”

“Okay so, you know chameleons right?” Kayla began, “They’re like… lizards that were tricked out by Q Branch in James Bond. Got that long ass tongue? Imagine that, but on a vampire.” she explained. “That’s their… proboscis of sorts. The teeth just make the wound. Likely human sized, or only slightly larger. Long claws, too. Whittle was carved up pretty bad.” she went quiet for a moment, but Kyle knew better than to speak. His sister always had at least one more thing to add in situations like this. Something about dramatic flair.

“Some folklore say that they have wings too, but that could be a subspecies or an undescribed species. Either way, hope you’ve been practicing your skeet shooting.”

“Alright.” Kyle replied, taking in all the info he was dealt. He then asked, “How do we go about finding it?”

Kayla sighed. “From what I saw of Oliver’s memory, this one seems to like playing helpless and picking unprepared or unarmed victims. I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.”

“You want to set me up as bait for a trap.” Kyle replied, very plainly. Like he’d said those exact words many times before.

“Well, it likes men. But it gets worse. We have to replicate what happened to Oliver.” She explained, motioning with her hands. “Oliver was inebriated when he was attacked. I’m not going to ask you to get drunk, but a shot or two before taking to the streets may make you smell enough like alcohol to make it think you’re an easy target.”

Kyle just blew a puff of air out of his nose in mild annoyance. “Fine.” He replied, “And you’ll be doing what, exactly?”

“From what happened with Oliver, it didn’t take issue with attacking two people at once. I’ll be right behind you as backup. Likely also somewhat inebriated.” she said, looking down and then up at Kyle again with somewhat odd mixture that could only be a distraught smile. “So, at least it’s not just you as bait. It’s US as bait.”

Kyle just shook his head a bit.

“Only been here two days and I already hate this town.”