Drawing the umber hood tighter around his scruffy face, Lucian Moretti looked up at the quaint, eggshell-white porch of his ramshackle home, torn up on the inside as he gazed at the only source of illumination in the darkness that threatened to shallow the house up, the bright face of his sweet daughter. His precious Aria, the last thing he had left after Rosaria's death... She looked just like her mother, only in miniature, her potential beauty possibly able to overtake the deceased in the very distant future. If it weren't for her, he had no clue as to how he would have dealt with her murder, though if it weren't for her, Rosaria might still... No, he could not blame his daughter, because it was not her fault that he had been gone that night, nor was it her doing that lured the monster to their home...

Visions of his dear wife filled his mind even still, her ebony hair tumbling wildly over the hardwood, slick with the crimson blood pooling at her head, her eyes closed, peaceful almost, lips slightly parted as if she had been saying something, some unspoken word dying on her lips... The house had been ripped apart in the scuffle, vases broken in a billion sparkling shards, flowers picked from the alley behind their home strewn haphazardly, furniture rendered little more than stray pieces of timber and cloth, and the pictures cracked in their pearled frames. Vividly, Lucian could still see Aria crying in a corner, nails cutting into her flesh, unable to recount what she had seen. Petrified by what she had gone through that night, the girl had never told him what she had witnessed, and even the so-called specialists and experts could extract nothing from her.

It had been two years since that incident, and he had not stopped once in his search for the bastard that tore his family apart, leaving his daughter not only motherless but tormented by the nightly nightmares only she knew. He had spent years tracking down all manner of unnatural creatures for Thorn, all in the hopes that he would find the vampire responsible... His patience eventually was rewarded, and he had at last found the demon that had ruined his life...

Glancing once more over his shoulder, Lucian smiled at the child waving to him, held back from chasing him by her word to her teacher in the art of combat and self-defense, her tears shining like diamonds through the distance that already separated them, "I'll come back, my Aria. No matter what, I will return."

Watching him leave, she knew deep down in her heart of hearts that she would never see him alive again, and yet, she waited for him. Every night and at every chance she got, she would stand outside on the porch, and she would wait. He promised her that he would come back home to her, he promised...

Solid ground had never once felt more precious than it did at that moment, even if it was dead and the soil was an eroded yellow color that set off the rising sun with a sickly tint. The sky, ablaze with gold and pink from the white sun, was more of a green-blue than the canvas they were used to, similar to the waters of the Caribbean, the single cloud whisping across the sky tinged an acid green, and odd foliage that strongly resembled a closed blossom dotted the horizon. This dimension, it smelled strongly of blood and bell-flowers.

But they had worse things to worry about than the thick atmosphere weighing on their shoulders as their bodies adjusted - the sun was rising, and from the looks of things, they had between ten and fifteen minutes to find a covering for the vampire. And that was if they were lucky... Scurrying like mice under the watchful eye of an owl or a hawk, the mismatched duo dove headfirst into the thicket of thorned brambles, Gabriel dragging Arianna along behind him.

To make matters worse, the things taken to be trees were alive, and they were attacking with vines of barbed ivy, wrapping themselves around his wrist and shoulders, creeping up her legs, ensnaring her ankle. Yanking her tessen from her bag, Arianna slashed at the vines, easily severing them - but not before they had begun to sap away Dracul's strength. For whatever reason, they seemed to favor him over her, though that did not mean that she was ignored by the plants...

Grunting, hacking away with one hand and hoisting him onto her shoulder as she sprinted as fast as she could while lugging all that extra weight around through the copse, Arianna could see a light at the end of this hell, "We're almost through. Just a little longer, big guy-"

Even as she said that, she stumbled upon a crystalline rock, falling through a thin layer of earth coated by a moss-like substance, hiding it from sight, tumbling down, down, down. With no time to spare, she quickly stored her weapon so it didn't suffer any damage, landing unceremoniously on her back, partner sprawled on top of her, his eyes half closed, skin ashing from the sun that shone overhead. Rolling him over and therefore out of the rays of light that filtered through the holes in the ground - unconsciously mounted on his lap - she gazed down at him, watching in rapt fascination as the crisping reversed itself, restoring him back to normal. Not that she would admit that it was interesting to watch.

But he was still weak from the plants above, so very weak, "So he lives... Damn."

Deceptively drained, though not nearly as pitiful as the mortal took him to be, he took her by surprise, tossing them both to the side so that he was straddling her, stopping when she was on her back, breathless. Caught off guard yet again, no doubt. Assuming that she had a guard to begin with. Or was it that she was secretly aroused by his dominance? The "monster" that had robbed her of everything she knew and held dear. Wouldn't that be rich? As if he could ever look beyond the glamor of food and agitation she represented, or hold a woman that was not his beloved Marie. No, she seemed more the type to love no one... Either way, the sweet nectar of life pounding in her heart was too alluring to ignore. He had tasted her blood, and it would be a lie to say that he wasn't craving more...

Running his fingers up her bare neck, brushing aside a stray sable lock, not waiting for permission as he positioned her head up, their eyes meeting, he lowered his mouth to her neck, biting down just underneath her erratic pulse. Tilting her head back, the blood gushing forth in a stream that was anything but steady, her chest heaving at his electric touch, eyes batting closed, her hand griped his wrist.

"Enough," Shocked that her voice made it passed her lips, she pulled at his wrist, trembling voice little more than a whimper, "Stop..."


At long last, the long-awaited Second Chapter! And wow, that was tree sex if I'd ever seen it...! Whoo...

Anyways, constant gratitude for SuperiorDimwit, yet again! And I just noticed something….. A Der moment that, as the author, I should have seen (or maybe I did when I first started this but just forgot that I knew) : Rosaria and Arianna's names both have "Aria" in it. Was it planned? We may never know…..