A/N: Okay, I didn’t plan to start posting this story for a while yet. If at all. But I’m kind of depressed, because I went out of my way to secure over an hour of free computer time so I could type the next chapter of my other story, only to discover that I had every page of that story except the chapter I needed to type. So I’m posting this instead, for now.

I’m honestly a little reluctant to unleash this story on the unsuspecting masses. Of all my stories, this is probably my favorite, and I personally really, really like it. But I’m afraid that it’ll get a bad response, or just no response at all, and that would really depress me.

So anyway, I’m going to give it a try; tell me what you think.

Chapter One

“What did you tell the person, mom?”

Stephan had been sprawled lazily on the couch, trying to pretend he was entirely unconcerned with the events going on. However, the seventeen year old sat up immediately at rapt attention the moment his mother re-entered the room after making the phone call.

“Relax, honey,” his mother said to him, walk over to ruffle her son’s messy shock of inky black hair before sitting down next to him. “All I told him was that my son had almost been kidnapped, and we’d like to hire his services.”

“But what did you tell him to explain why?” Stephan asked, his voice tight with worry, as he twisted around on the couch to face her.

“I thought I told you to relax,” she replied soothingly. “I said that we had reason to believe it was related to the supernatural, and needed his specific services.” She looked at him pointedly, finishing with what he wanted to hear. “I didn’t tell him about you.”

“Thank you,” Stephan said, breathing out a sigh of relief and visibly relaxing.

His mother sighed a little herself before standing up and crossing her arms. “Honestly, though, I think I should have said something.” She pursued her lips. “I know you don’t like it, but there’s a good chance it’ll come up if he investigates the matter for us. After all, it’s only because of you that we think that the matter is occult-related at all. You’re lucky he didn’t press me to be more specific right from the start.”

“I really appreciate it anyway, mom,” responded Stephan sincerely. A little pit of worry started to gnaw at his stomach at her words, though. Hopefully it wouldn’t have to come up. It made him feel sick just thinking about it.

“I know that, sweetie.” She leaned over and gave him a quick hug. Her shows of affection never really embarrassed Stephan, as long as she didn’t get too bad in front of anyone else. Some part of him needed that affection, needed to be reminded that she accepted him, despite…everything.

Righting herself again, his mother added added, “I’m going to go get some laundry done. He said he’d be here in about twenty minutes, do you think you could get the door?”

“Sure,” Stephan said, and his mother walked out of the room. He leaned back in the couch again and flipped on the TV, but couldn’t bring himself to focus on it.

It was exactly twenty-four minutes later when the doorbell finally rang. Not like Stephan had been counting or anything, of course. Immediately, he turned off the TV and practically vaulted to the front door. Not on edge at all, he reflected. Not him.

After taking half a second to attempt to compose himself, Stephan finally opened the door…and his breath caught in his throat. In the second in took him to remember how to breath, he found himself taking in the stranger’s rather dramatic appearance.

The man was perhaps in his early twenties, surprisingly young for someone famed to be the best paranormal private investigator in the business. However, he certainly looked the part. Everything he wore seemed to be black; black trench coat that fell down past his knees, a black cut-off tee, black leather pants (which, Stephan wasn’t quite sure why he noted, were rather tight-fitting), and black combat boots. It contrasted sharply with his rather pale complexion. Nearly the only color to him seemed to be his hair, which looked to be naturally blood red. Even tied back, it reached down to his waist. Well, that and his eyes; intense, deep green, with seemingly bottomless depths…

Suddenly, Stephan realized that this person was studying him with a look almost as intense as the one Stephan must have been using on the man himself. At both thoughts, Stephan’s face flushed; he swallowed, finding his throat had gone dry as well.

“Um, please come in,” Stephan managed finally, stepping to one side as the man brushed past him. Once through the doorway, the man turned back to face Stephan, who was in the process of closing the door, cursing when he almost shut his finger in the crack.

“Stephan, I presume?” The man said, making it more of a statement than a question. “I’m Damian Stanford. Pleasure to meet you.” The man, Damian, held out a hand to shake and grinned. The simple smile transformed his entire appearance; his demeanor turned about five times less imposing and about five times more casual. It was a nice change. Stephan took the offered hand and shook it (ignoring the strange impulse to not let go) and smiled, a little tentatively, but with sincerity in return.

“Oh, hello,” Stephan’s mother said brightly as she entered the hallway of their apartment that the front door led into. “You must be Mr. Stanford,” she said to Damian. Stephan noted that Damian seemed to wince slightly at the title, but looked amused nonetheless. “Come to the kitchen, sit down!” Stephan’s mother insisted, ushering both males down the hall into the small kitchen. The three of them took seats around the equally small table; it was meant for two, but could easily sit three, provided Damian didn’t intend to stay for dinner.

“Ms. Daniels, I presume,” Damian said, much as he had to Stephan earlier. Stephan’s mother nodded. “Call me Damian, please,” he requested politely, adding with a wry smile, “‘Mr. Stanford’ doesn’t exactly fit the image.”

“No, not quite,” Stephan’s mother agreed with an amused smile.

“So, then,” Damian began, getting to business. He leaned forward onto the table, facing both Stephan and his mother equally. “What exactly have you called me here for?”

“Well,” it was Stephan’s mother who spoke, “as I told you earlier, my son was nearly kidnapped today.”

“What happened, exactly?” Damian asked, facing that intense gaze back towards Stephan, clearly expected the answer to come from him this time.

“It was pretty cliché, I guess…” Stephan began, almost hesitantly, looking towards the ceiling. “Two big, shady-looking guys suddenly appeared from an alleyway in front of me and tried to grab me.”

“How did you get away?” Damian’s gaze became, if possible, even more intense, as though he were trying to see through Stephan, into the boy’s soul. It made him distinctly uncomfortable all of a sudden. He’d heard this man was powerful. But surely, he couldn’t be powerful enough to see through the layers of mental shields Stephan had built up over his life…could he?

“They, um, they didn’t get a good hold on me. I broke away and literally ran back home.” That was basically the truth, Stephan reflected to himself.

“Are you a sensitive?” Damian asked, abruptly changing the subject. Stephan paled instantly. ‘Sensitive’ was a term used to refer to anyone who had the ability to feel and manipulate psychic energy. It wasn’t actually a very common thing. Most sensitives were often either highly sought after or feared and distrusted. Obviously, Stephan knew Damian would be, but how had the man guessed that Stephanwas? Could he be that powerful?

“Wh-what?” Stephan managed, trying to keep the nervous edge out of his voice. He rubbed his hands together under the table. They felt clammy.

“You’re shielding part of your aura,” Damian said simply. Stephan didn’t need a mirror to know that his face must now be completely drained of color. A small knot f panic formed in the pit of his stomach. Had Damian figured it out that easily? Did he know? No, no, he couldn’t know, just couldn’t…suddenly, Stephan inexplicably couldn’t bear the thought that Damian of anyone would hate him, and if he knew, then there was no way he wouldn’t-

Damian’s voice cut through Stephan’s panicked mental ramblings, continuing blithely, as though unaware of Stephan’s reactions. “I assume you’re doing it so that anyone capable of sensing auras will think you’re perfectly normal.” Stephan was still on the verge of panic. His throat had gone dry again, for a very different reason, and he felt like he’d break out in a cold sweat any second.

“I will tell you,” Damian continued, still oblivious, or at least acting it. “I am a very powerful psychic.” God, would he just get it over with? Stephan kept waiting for it; the poisoned words, the barely concealed disgust… Once again, his thoughts were interrupted by Damian’s voice. “However, I can’t sense the part you’ve hidden. Just enough to know it’s there.”

With that statement, Stephan went weak with relief. It was probably a good thing he was already sitting down.

“Besides,” Damian finished logically, “There must be some reason. You thought this case involved the supernatural. From your description, the men who tried to kidnap you weren’t anything out of the ordinary. Therefore, the supernatural aspect of the case must lie with you; otherwise, I don’t see why you would have called me.”

Oh. Stephan blinked. Duh.

“Yes, my son is the reason for our suspicions.” Stephan had almost forgotten that his mother was there. She continued to Damian, “My son also told me that the men insinuated they were attempting to kidnap him because of his…unique circumstances. I apologize, I should have made that clear on the phone.”

“No problem, you’re telling me now, right?” Damian said, grinning that amazing grin of his once again. However, he sobered again almost immediately with his next words. “I apologize in advance, Stephan, Ms. Daniels, but I’m going to ask Stephan to put himself in danger again.”

“How so?” Stephan’s mother asked worriedly.

“Nothing too terrible,” Damian assured her. Directing his speech towards Stephan again, he continued, “Basically, I need you to show me where you were almost kidnapped. I’m not going to force you, though. If either you or your mother is uncomfortable about doing this so soon, we can wait.” He leaned back a little in the chair. “Of course, I’ll be with you, so it’s unlikely that anything will happen, but I can’t make any absolute guarantees.” Damian looked at mother and son pointedly. After a moment during which no one spoke, Stephen finally answered.

“I’m fine with it,” he said with a slight shrug.

“I don’t know, honey…” His mother began, sounding reluctant, looking at Stephan.

“Mom, it’s either that or sit here and do nothing,” Stephen pointed out mildly. “Except maybe wait and see if they’re determined enough to come here and try to get me.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she admitted hesitantly, biting her bottom lip. “But be careful, please.”

“Of course,” Stephan said, getting up out of his chair.

Stephan’s mother turned to Damian, who was also beginning to stand. “Thank you for coming, Mr. Sta –er- Mr. Damian. Please take care of my son.”

She sounded like she was giving him away to be married or something, Stephan reflected. Immediately following that thought, Stephen felt his face burn bright red. Quickly, he turned to face the hallway, hoping no one had noticed.

“Of course,” Damian was saying to Stephan’s mother, apparently not having noticed a thing. Stephan breathed a mental sigh of relief. He blushed too easily, he decided, still not entirely sure why the thought had made him blush.

“Well, um… let’s go, then,” Stephan said a little awkwardly. Leading the way down the hallway. Before opening the door to the outside, he turned back and called “See you later!” to his mother, then walked out into the bright midday sunlight. Holding up a hand to shield his eyes, he waited while Damian walked out the door behind him and closed it.

“You have a close relationship with your mother,” Damian commented, walking up beside him. Stephan noted they were nearly the same height. Not that Stephan was that short, but it felt weird. Damian had the sort of presence that could fill a room; he somehow felt taller than he really was.

“I guess so,” Stephan shrugged. He supposed he did have a closer relationship with his mother than most, but his mother was easy to get along with. She was very accepting and Stephan had always felt comfortable with her. He wasn’t completely anti-social, but there were precious few people he could honesty say that about.

“That’s a good thing,” Damian said, smiling a little wistfully. Before Stephan had time to wonder, the redhead changed his demeanor again, asking, “So, how far is it?”

“Not too far,” Stephan responded, finally turning to face the other man. “I was probably lucky that I wasn’t too far from this housing complex; they chased me for a little bit at least.” Stephan stretched his arms then, looking around at all the perfectly identical little white apartment houses. “All the uniformity really gets on my nerves, though.”

Damian unexpectedly laughed at that; it was a free, heart-warming laugh, just like his smile. Somehow, it made Stephan feel warm.

“Well then, shall we be off?” Damian’s voice was still laced with the last traces of his laughter.

“Wha-? Oh, um, yeah.” Stephan took a moment to snap out of the slight daze he’d been in. “This way.” With that, Stephan walked down the street, wondering what in the world was wrong with him lately.

A/N: FYI, if I do decide to keep this story up, it won't be updated quite as often as my other one, but it'll be at least once a week.