The moon was high, floating on a bed of silvery strands of white clouds in the night sky reflected within a large lake in the shadow of a dellapitated castle like structure set in the middle of a mountain. The air was still, nothing seemed to move, not even the air or still glass like water. However, a moment later something shimmered within the air as black smoke whirled in the air before vanishing revealing two figures standing near a set of mirror doors.

Light turquoise eyes surveyed the area around him, memories flooding his mind as they took everything in the sound of silent water meeting his ears.

How long had it been since he had been here? Seven years? Eight years?

He never thought he would find himself here again, here the place where everything had changed. He frowned half turning to the one who had stolen his beloved sister away from him.

He shook his head in an effort to silence his thoughts… Stop it.

He had however reluctantly in the beginning accepted his cousin's choice of love. He could not would not sacrifice Ritsuka's happiness for his own desires. He had accepted that.

Rem stepped away from the shadows and towards the double mirror doorlike gates before he turned to him and they nodded at each other the two of them throwing the long disused doors open. The gates seemed to creek with age as they did so cobwebs breaking apart dust unsettling.

The two of them walked into the castle grounds the moon their only source of light as they walked on in silence leaving Lindo to his thoughts.

Vampires had recently been attacking humans and if things went on like this… he had no other option, he needed to do this. Despite years of training under his Grandfather to seal the away his Vampire half he now had to accept it as part of him in order for him to end all this as best he could.

The Vampire laws work in the same way as Devils, to the most powerful goes the spoils. True it had been Ritsuka who had killed Nesta at the time but the others had left before they could find that out.

They did not know or need to know that bit of information anyway. Soon they would have no choice but to listen to him as they walked through the decaying brick and broken stone structures. All the while Lindo's mind was awash with thoughts of what was to come.

However this time he had embraced it willingly, now it was time to take the final step to embrace himself.

"How is Rieon?" The redhead asked as if in an effort to break the silence as they walked on.

Rem smiled at the mention of his son, his and Ritsuka's child. He cannot help but feel a spark of jealousy.

"He is doing very well… He has even managed to make a friend…" A soft look married the blond devil's face akin to that of his smile, his eyes seemingly far away in the past as if remembering something from so long ago.

Before they knew it they were within the throne room. Broken statuses and scorched ground remnants of the battle that took place here. The statue that had once held Nesta's heart still caked in blood, it's stoney mouth still open and cold face contorted as if in a scream. The center of the floor cracked and blackened.

Lindo breathed in deeply and stepped towards the throne.

Something, however silent as it was, caught their attention and they turned to see three white figures standing in the open threshold of the door. At first Lindo didn't recognize these frail looking figures but as they came closer he recognized then. He had seen the three of them before, after Nesta was just a pile of ash on the ground to be scattered away in the winds. These pale, pathetic creatures that Ritsuka had looked at with pity who had backed away when he moved closer to them.

Now the three of them were in the throne room walking towards them but their eyes were on nothing else but Lindo. Three woman dressed in white and broken chains, shakes dangling loosely about them expressions similar, sullen.

"They've… been here all this time?" He asked breathlessly as if not trusting his own eyes.

"Obviously they were taken when they were very young… I doubt that they know any other way to live…"

These three… Dracula's brides… if one could call them that. Blood bags more likely.

One of them approached them stopping a hand length away and held out her hands writs marked with fang marks towards what she thought was going to be her new master.

"…"

He backed away slightly from the gaunt figure before him, feeling the air stirring with demonic energy.

"Lindo…"

The young Dhampir looked back at Rem seeing a sword held tight in his hands, knowing full well what the blond devil was going to say to him as the blond haired woman stood there open but marked wrist held out towards him, face white as the moon above, lifeless and dull.

In the end he let them go, wondering all the while if what he did could be considered the right thing.

"What is there for them?" Rem had asked and Lindo had to wonder if he had indeed made the right choice. They were little more than dolls at this point possible he had just put them into a much crueler fate.

However… one of them lingers. The one who had offered him her blood to drink as if knowing that he was her new master.

He sees her out of the corner of his eyes as she unsuccessfully tries to hide behind something that stood out against the still gentle gleam of her blond hair whenever he turns around. He can sense that she is a vampire but surprisingly still human.

He cannot stay focused on her for long though.

He gazes down at the vampires before him bowing down to him swearing their allegiance to him. He sees them all shake and before they look away he can see a sort of resentment in their eyes.

He asks them about the woman but they know little of her only that she belongs to the Vampire King. They saw that she had been given some of his own blood but not enough to make her a vampire but also not a dhampir either.

He takes this in wondering what she might be then and how scared and confused before becoming that way… How long it took her to stop feeling and accept her wretched fate.

"She's still here?" Rem asks when he and Ritsuka visit the decaying castle one day.

He simply nods gazing at the small looking figure half hiding from view.

Ritsuka turns towards the pale figure a look of pity in her gentle eyes. She moves towards her. The two of them turned to watch her, both observing her carefully as she held out a small flower in her hand to the taller blond.

"…Thank-you." They heard her say in a soft quiet voice only carried by the wind.

It disgusted him, what that man had done to her. What he had no doubt done to all of them and countless others.

He still didn't understand why he didn't just force her to leave, perhaps he didn't have the heart to.

As of right now she is like a bird unable to take flight unaware even that she is out of her cage.

"Come here…" He said as gently as he can, his had held out to her.

He was in the newly constructed courtyard gardens herself standing there staring at him as if like a deer trapped in the glow of headlights.

He gently holds a Dahlia out to her sitting in his open palm the same way Ritsuka had.

Slowly she gradually came forward unused it seemed to such a gentle sounding voice looking into his eyes before slowly taking the flower from his hand.

"What is your name?" He asked, trying to get her to speak in the way Ritsuka had.

She looked at him then her eyes saying all he needed to know.

"I… Don't know." Her voice sounded horse, barely above a whisper from disuse.

"You… Don't remember?"

"No… Lord Nesta had very little use in naming his…"

"Don't."

She nearly flinches at the harsh tone of his voice, backing away.

"I- I'm sorry I…" He tries to keep his voice calm so as not to frighten her while searching his mind for something else to say to make her stay trying hard not to panic.

"Please… Tell me what you remember of yourself?"

"Why… would you want to know that?"

"Because I want to know more about you." He spoke steadily kneeling down to her eyes level.

She looks up at him seeing he was smiling warmly at her.

The woman is silent for a moment before she frowns as if trying to remember images that had been longed buried in her mind.

"…I remember it was cold all the time… Hills… I think I could see them everywhere. We were very poor… They never really liked me much… It was like that for a while until… That man came. He was Nesta's second in command I believe."

"Jek."

"Yes," she shuddered then, wrapping her arms around herself the flower clutched tightly in her hands nearly crushed in her dead grip.

"You don't have to worry about him anymore. He's dead." He knows he did it himself. He felt his lips curl slight as he remembers the moment. She looked up at him again eyes this time steady.

"I know… Thank-you"

She blinks at her own words as if confused by them.

He moved his hand slowly to her cheek and she didn't flinch at his touch, on the contrary she moves herself closer to him.

"You are… so warm…"

"So are you."

He gently pulled her closer a hand on her shoulder and she did not pull away.

After a while he finds she seems to be getting more comfortable around him walking several steps behind him as he walks peering behind his back in a way that reminds him of Ritsuka when she was a child, however twisted it seemed to be now.

He too was becomes more comfortable with her as well perhaps he has known it for a while now.

It comes naturally slowly as he continue chipping away at the walls put around her. She comes into herself like how he and Ritsuka used to speak when they were children. Indeed she is like a child having more or less died when she was very young possibly

All she remembered when she was taken she tells him was darkness, possibly he thinks to break them down and make them think that this was all they were until they and their blood drank freely without a fight not wanting to go back to that darkness.

"Do you want a name?" He asks her one day.

"I don't… really know what I want to name myself."

"Do you mind if I give you one then?"

"Yes… Lindo," she said smiling a gentle smile on her face.

"Chikara… it means strength," he said smiling as he took her hand in his.

One day she tells him her wish, a wish she says she has nearly forgotten with time.

A family.

Soon very slowly he finds himself wanting to give her that.

Her emerald eyes are wide in shock and wonder as he says the words one day when Rem and Ritsuka come this time at his request.

"Lindo…"

"Marry me… Let us make eachother happy."

She's silent for a moment her eyes still wide in shock before she smiles and laughs, a true happy laugh that has not passed her lips in more years than she could count throwing her arms around him.

The wedding is small, short but he had never been one for extravagance. Rem, mostly at Ritsuka's own request and prodding, was his best man. Maria standing by her daughter and grandson watching her nephew with a soft smile on her face. Her eyes and Rem's meat briefly and at that moment she knows that they are thinking that exact same thing.

The wedding night comes sooner that he or his bride had hoped, Chikara is nervous as he had though she would be but he was gentle as he could.

He smiles caressing her head as they kiss soon melting into each other on the bed.

They don't have to wait long to find out she is with child.

One day Chikara takes his hand eye alight like a child who cannot wait to share something secretive and pulls hime into a shadowy walkway. He doesn't have to be told the look in her eyes were enough and they hold each other close tears of happiness dripping down his eyes.

They are still careful however Chikara is healthy and grows day by day with only the sure typical signs of pregnancy making him worried for her.

Despite all the good signs however the birth is long and strained so much so that Lindo finds himself fearing for her life, he is beside her through the birth holding her hand tight as the midwives work and soon he hears a different cry, the cries of an infant ending Chikara's own agonized ones and he feel her relax.

He softly presses a kiss to her forehead as one of the midwives presents the child to him. A girl.

Before he can take a better look at her he feels something in the air and Chikara's hand goes cold under his touch though he can tell her life isn't truly in danger.

"Chikara?"

One of the midwives moved in front of him he can feel her tense and practically see the fear in her eyes.

Something is wrong.

Before they can name the child Maria bring Ina the one who helped in Ritsuka's birth to her who took look at the woman laying on the bed and shakes her head.

"She is old… her spirit I mean. She hadn't been fully turned so the birth is having an ill effect on her."

"But…"

"She will live… However she cannot have anymore children…"

Lindo inhales the information and breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thank-you…"

The devil mid-wife merely grunts though not scornfully in reply.

"Lindo…" Chikara's weak yet audible voice makes him turn back seeing her held out a semi shaking hand out to him.

He takes it in his hand it feels cold but warm.

"Please… Don't be angry… I…"

"I'm not angry," he said, perhaps a little too quickly.

She smiles tiredly her body still spent from the strain of birth.

She's tired but she is happy.

He again sighs in relief and looks up as his aunt brings his child wrapped in a blanket to him. Carefully he wraps her in his arms as one would cradle a small helpless animal and he looks down at his daughter wrapped securely in his arms seeing her open her eyes a crack revealing his own shape and shade bringing with them a memory of his mother into his mind.

He feels his heart thump against his chest. However… surprisingly the memory doesn't give him any pain. He smiles stroking his daughter's cheek fondly.

"Chikara… I…"

"I know… it is alright, Lindo."

He looks back at his daughter lightly tickling her nose a giggle escaping her little mouth.

"Let's call her Marta…"

Chikara recovered quickly just as soon Ritsuka and Rem arrive with Rieon apologizing for being so late and for not being there but the two assure them it is fine.

Ritsuka peeks ito the cradle a soft smile on her lips as she coos softly down at her half awake niece. Rem stood beside her smiling.

"Go on, Rieon. Go and see your cousin," Ritsuka gently urges, pushing the young boy forward to the ornate cradle.

The younger half devil moves to where his mother pointed at looking inside the silk depths.

The child has a few whisps of golden locks on her small head, fair and semi healthy looking skin her small body wrapped carefully a warm blanket in the cradle.

Rioen frowns slight and moves closer peering inside the cradle to get a better look while his parent conversed with his uncle and aunt.

"What is her name?"

"Marta." He answers seeing the look in Ritsuka's eyes.

A loud shout coming from the cradle draws their attention seeing Reion recoiling away from his baby cousin holding his nose.

"She pinched my nose!" He proclaimed looking slightly ashamed at his outburst as he rubbed his nose.

"Its fine infints do do that." Rem assured, lightly riffling his son's fine hair.

Lindo chuckles lightly patting his nephew on the head as he walks past him to retrieve Marta now awake from the cradle holding his daughter in his arms coming to sit next to his wife as he hears his cousin and her family leave through the door, giving them their privacy.

He looks from Marta back at Chikara's tired pale but happy face and moves closer to her as they sit down on the bed their daughter between them letting her rest her head against his shoulder. He strokes her hair gently and she smiles tiredly at his action.

Deep down he knows he still loves Ritsuka, but what he feels right now with his wife beside him and his daughter in his arms is also true and he hopes it will be enough.

For him and for her.