Ren stayed in his room until he was sure that the rest of his family had left before sauntering downstairs. He had no interest in seeing his grandmother and ending up in an awkward conversation about his new family anytime soon - Bridget was wanting him to come home so he could take care of Rei after she had their second baby.
On second thought, maybe six months with his grandmother would be better than spending the same amount of time with a hormonal wife.
As if on cue, the cell phone in his pocket started to vibrate. Ren automatically flinched before remembering that only two people had his new number.
"Big brother, Karin needs her memories back."
"Why?"
"Kenta and I were correct - she's a true vampire. She can be one of us now."
Ren sighed in relief. Now he had an excuse for Bridget and Rei if they managed to find him. "It would be nice to have that clumsy, noisy sister of ours back, wouldn't it."
The sound Anju made was soft but clearly a small sniffle.
"Where did you take them?"
"The temple we allowed the Usuis to use for a time. Kenta's better now but Karin is still unconscious. Little niece is scared but I told her that she needed to stay with her parents if she wanted answers."
Ren nodded, then remembered that Anju wouldn't be able to see the motion. "What happened?"
"Meet me outside and I'll explain."
_-Embarrassment!-*'
Day ?: Japan - ?th day
Ugggh, I'll pull out my calendar and figure out the dates later. Later being as soon as I'm sure I escaped the crazy old (but young-looking) Elda Maaka. She can tell I'm a hybrid - the other hybrid I met in China was right about these Japanese vampires being unusual. I wish I'd pushed her more when it came to whether they knew if there was a psyche in the area as well. My mom said that those descended directly from the original psyche would be much more powerful than regular vampires, so if I find one I should be able t
"Why do you guys happen to catch me every time I update my journal?!"
"I don't know, but the thing must hold valuable information if you take the time to write in it as often as possible," Elda grinned as she flipped the pages back and forth. "Western books look so weird to me now..."
Silviu blanched and strained against Henry and Calera's arms even more. "You can read it?!"
"Of course I can. I know quite a few languages."
This was not good at all. Silviu had tried to write in that journal every day since the last of his family passed away, and the first four pages contained a carefully written summary of who he was and what his newfound goals were now that he was completely uprooted from his ancestral home. If an ordinary human found and read it they'd think he was an aspiring writer, but if a vampire or anyone with knowledge of vampires picked it up...
He watched Elda's expression turn from triumph to solemn to absolutely unreadable as she took in the detailed summary of the past two years of his life.
"Mama...?" Henry tentatively asked after at least five minutes of silence.
"There are still vampires left in Europe?"
"What?!"
Silviu shook his head, knowing exactly where the eldest Maaka was in his journal. "Not many, but there are plenty of hybrids like me wandering around. We're called dhampirs where I come from, actually. That's why I started searching for a psyche."
"A psyche?" Calera asked.
"Oh wait, you call it a pushuke...I think. These day-walking vampires that can make other vampires."
"..."
Silviu couldn't help but grin at the stunned silence. "You know one?! Great! All I want is-"
"She doesn't exist anymore!" Henry cut Silviu off just as Elda slapped Silviu with the journal. Calera hissed angrily and gripped Silviu's arm so tightly that he thought it was going to break, then held his head up so Elda could hit him again. "And they can't directly make other vampires!"
"Yes...they can! Ow! Let me explain-!"
"If I hear one more thing about pushukes I'll kill you! They don't exist anymore, and they don't make other vampires!"
"Oh yes they do, which is why we have to kill the dhampir...and now you! Hand him and his journal over and I'll consider having your throats slit instead of stuffing you with silver bullets!"
All eyes turned to the three black-clad figures standing in the doorway, guns cocked and ready to fire. They were clearly vampire hunters even though their uniforms bore little resemblance to the long black and white tunics that Elda remembered.
"The name's Silviu! Stop calling me 'the dhampir!' How're you going to be able to tell me and another hybrid apart if you call both of us 'the dhampir!?'"
"Weeeeeell, practice makes perfect, dhampir!" the leader laughed. "The same sort of practice that helps us follow you so effortlessly now!"
The intensity of the Maakas' glares could've incinerated Silviu. "THEY WERE FOLLOWING YOU THIS WHOLE TIME?!"
"I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE - I THOUGHT I LOST THEM! I'M SORRY!"
_-Embarrassment!-*'
Ren shook his head in disbelief. "All right, let's get this over with," he sighed as he strode into the shrine and looked for Karin. Since the building wasn't very big the task was quickly completed; he found his sister lying in Kenta's arms near the back wall.
"Kenta."
"Ren." Kenta nodded and offered a polite smile, which wasn't returned. "It's been a while. You're doing well, I guess?"
"It has been, and I am. Go sit with your kid while I see to Karin." The vampire gently took Karin and set her on the ground before kneeling beside her, placing a hand that was emanating a strange yellow-green glow over her face.
"What's he doing?" Kanon asked Kenta when her dad chose to sit beside her.
"Giving Karin her memories back, I think."
"Her memories?"
"Yeah. You could say that she had a bad case of amnesia and forgot almost everything about her past. Her family did it to protect her, but now that she's changed she can remember everything again."
"You let them do that to her?!"
"I didn't even know they were going to do it until they asked me to take Karin in since she'd be pretty much homeless."
"And he did a good job of taking care of big sister for us," Anju appeared on Kanon's other side, her face as expressionless as usual.
"...Big sister?"
The pale-haired girl nodded as Ren walked over, then looked up at him. "how is she?"
"She'll be awake pretty soon but I'll leave before she does."
"But big bro-"
"You know she won't be to thrilled to see me." Anju thought she saw a hint of regret in Ren's eyes as he took his cell phone out of his pocket and held a button down to use speed dial. "I will let mom and dad know she's coming around though."
Riiing.
Riiing.
Riiing.
Riiing.
Rii- Moshi moshi, this is Henry Maaka's phone. I'm sorry that I can't talk to you now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!"
Beep~
Ren and Anju looked at each other and frowned. Getting their father's answering machine was a rare occurrence. Maybe Ren just happened to call when Henry was talking to someone about the next vampire meeting?
"What's wrong?" Kenta asked the pair.
"Nothing yet. Big brother will try to reach papa again."
Ren nodded and waited a couple of minutes before redialing.
Riiing.
Riiing.
"I guess it's pretty unusual for my...grandpa to not answer his phone?" Kanon still couldn't believe that she had a grandfather or an aunt that looked about her age, but the idea of having more family members was starting to grow on her.
"Yes. Not very many people have his contact information."
Ren suddenly held up a hand for silence, his eyes narrowing angrily. "Who is this?" He paused for a moment before pulling the cell phone away from his ear and putting it on speaker. "You're on speaker, not like anyone but me is here to hear you."
"Good," a man's voice with a foreign accent chuckled.
"What do you want?"
"The pushuke."
Kanon looked around and opened her mouth to ask what the pushuke was but Kenta shook his head in warning.
"The pushuke is gone."
"The pushuke is anything but. And I want her in two days, or the vampire adults in my 'care' will be left in the sun to burn. Understand...Ren? It is Ren, yes? I'm relying on caller ID."
"It is." Ren rolled his eyes. "How do I know that you're really holding vampires captive?"
The voice was muted for a moment before a gunshot suddenly burst through the phone's tiny speaker, followed by a loud yelp.
"Henry, don't be such a crybaby!"
"But they almost shot my foot!"
"Uggh, Ren, don't worry about us - I'll take matters into my own hands and - hey!"
"...Good enough for you?"
Ren growled.
"I'm guessing it is then. We are at the pretty shabby hotel about two blocks south of the airport, got it?"
"Yes."
"Then Karl Loft, vampire hunter, signing off!"
There was a crunching noise, and then a silence momentarily broken by a dial tone before Ren ended the call. Even Kanon had been able to tell that Henry Maaka's phone had been crushed under a heavy boot.
[Edited 7/24/14]