2. Hunger

"And who might you be, little miss?" The silver-haired man asked as he looked at Maryweather quietly. He wore a buttoned up lab coat, with black trousers and a white shirt peeking from underneath the coat.

Maryweather paused before responding. "My name is Maryweather. I came here to look for my brother Cain."

Cain and the silver-haired man exchanged glances of what seemed to be of surprise. "Jizabel, can you take care of Cassandra?" He spoke. Jizabel nodded as Cassandra crawled over to him. "Stanford...bring Maryweather to the waiting room, and Riff...come with me. Now."

Riff was silent as he and Cain walked down the hall. The raven-haired man (or boy, since he seemed much younger than Riff for sure) had been quite surprised when that girl appeared out of the blue and claimed she was his sister.

"I wasn't expecting what just previously happened, if you're wondering." Cain finally spoke after a long time of silence. The two stopped walking and turned to each other as Cain continued. "Anyway, so mostly you'll be looking after the other patients, especially Gilford and Cassandra when Jizabel is unavailable, with a little administrative work on the side. Any questions?"

"Only one." Riff responded quietly. "It's just...with all this considerably grotesque work that the hospital does, how do you bear with all of this? Doesn't this...sicken you at times?"

Cain appeared to hesitate for a moment before he answered. "Oh, this work does anything but sicken me. It's always a delight to see a new patient...or to obliterate the lives of those who deserve worse than death."

Maryweather sighed as she sat in the waiting room, completely bored. How long was it going to take before she could actually have a conversation with Cain? She had been looking for him for quite some time, it had to be at least a year since she learned about him, and she just wanted to get to know him, since they were family, after all.

She didn't know, though, that she had a half-brother who was at least a few years older than Cain. The silver-haired man with the glassy eyes...she shivered slightly as she remembered his appearance. He seemed quite calm, but...tense at the same time, almost to the point that it was intimidating.

"Hello?" Maryweather turned to see a woman with long, dark brown hair enter the room. Her amber eyes looked at her quietly. "You're Maryweather, right?" She asked.

"Yes." Maryweather responded, nodding.

"Oh, good. Dr. Cain Hargreaves will be seeing you quite soon, so just be patient." She reassured the younger girl. "My name is Dr. Celeste Helena Octavia. I serve here as a nurse. I was ordered by Dr. Hargreaves to keep you company; he feared that you may have been lonely by yourself in here." She sat down across from Maryweather as she spoke.

"Thank you." Maryweather responded quietly. She paused for a moment before asking, "What's it like around this hospital, anyway? It's nothing like the hospitals I've been to before..."

Celeste merely chuckled a little. "This place is nothing like the hospitals you've been to before." She spoke quietly. "We have the most sadistic doctors around. They are quite crazy especially when it comes to disposing of anyone that tries to go against them...and..." She sighed a little bit. "One of the people closest to me here is a permanent resident. Dr. Hargreaves agreed to help him if I worked here."

"Oh, I'm sorry..."

"I'm not done." Celeste continued. "Have you met Cassandra yet?"

"Y-yes." Maryweather responded, remembering the animalistic brown-haired man. "Why do you ask?"

"Cassandra is my older brother. He's thirty-five. I'm only three years younger than him."

Maryweather froze at this statement. That...animal/beast/man/creature was Celeste's brother? How had she not realized that the dark amber eyes and that dark shade of hair was completely the same? Those had been the only similarities that she saw between the two, and despite those two obvious similarities, she hadn't realized it...

"But-" Maryweather paused before she tried to speak again. "Was he always-" She cut herself off, unsure of what to say.

"No, he never always looked like...the appearance you see of him now. His appearance now is the result of a surgery that Jizabel gave him. He had gotten into a car accident, and his injuries were critical...he wasn't even the one at the wheel, and he wasn't drunk or anything like that, but still..."Celeste blinked a little bit, as if trying to restrain tears. "Cassandra's changed so much...he's so scared of himself now, of his own behaviour...even I myself am frightened by it, too. I'm glad that...he's still alive and all, but...it's come at a heavy cost."

"Cassandra?" Jizabel's voice echoed in the nearly empty room as he held up a packet of blood. "I thought you would be...starving by now."

It didn't take Cassandra even a second to rush to Jizabel, gazing at the blood that Jizabel held. He immediately tried to grab it with one clawed hand, but Jizabel pulled it away at the last second.

"Ah, ah." The silver-haired doctor chided. "What's the little word that gets things done?" He asked, his blue-grey eyes making direct contact with the older man's dark amber ones.

"P-please..." Cassandra stuttered out quietly. He was starving, completely famished. And he needed that blood. Now.

All Jizabel did was let go of the blood bag, and he stepped back as he watched Cassandra tear it open and start lapping it up like a dog mad with thirst. The sight of it would sicken a normal person, but it didn't faze the doctor. Jizabel knew Cassandra craved blood, particularly blood of human beings...sometimes flesh, too. Of course, Cassandra could eat regular food that humans ate as well, but he was much better off with what he was currently consuming. Much, much better.

Cassandra's dark amber eyes looked so blank as he finished drinking the blood, but at the same time, still filled with hunger. Jizabel knew something, oh just something had to be done. He knew exactly what to do.

Jizabel disposed of his lab coat to the side, started to unbutton his shirt, and smirked as Cassandra looked at him in slight confusion.

"You've been a good boy for the past little while, Cassandra...I would give you more blood bags, but there hasn't been many donations lately, so..." Jizabel undid his shirt and threw that to the ground, beside the lab coat. "As a special treat, you can...feast upon my blood tonight. How about that?" Cassandra nodded quietly as he licked the blood about his lips. "But first...what's the little word that get things done?"

"Please." Cassandra whispered softly again, getting closer towards Jizabel in terms of distance.

Jizabel's lips just curled up into a smile as he was pushed lightly against the wall and ended up in a sitting position. Cassandra was practically inches away from him now, the clawed hands gently pushing on his chest.

"Good boy..."

Cassandra bit into Jizabel's right shoulder, and let out a whimper of delight as the warm, life-giving liquid flooded his mouth. It went on for some time, but Jizabel knew that Cassandra's hunger would be satisfied soon, and that he could never kill Jizabel, not like that. As much as animalistic Cassandra could be, there were still shreds of humanity in him that prevented him from drinking all of Jizabel's blood and killing the doctor.

Jizabel just simply stroked Cassandra's hair quietly and let out a sigh, ignoring the throbbing pain of his shoulder. It was alright. Cassian could always fix it up afterwards.