It was six in the morning when he woke up, the vampire equivalent of 2:00am, and he was not pleased.

"But Hiwatari you expressed interest in going back to school. I'm sure Shiki or one of the others could drive you." Krad mumbled, showing him his watch (It lit up, an essential to all vampire watches.)Satoshi cursed in the privacy of his own skull and rubbed his eyes as Krad snuggled back down into the velvet.

"Why can't you drive me?"

"I do not feel like it." The Hikari wrinkled his nose. "So kind. Where is his room?" Krad's eyes were glazed with sleep. Satoshi shut the lid harder than necessary and changed into his uniform. The mansion cast wild shadows in the corners of the halls, and Satoshi wondered if waking up a werewolf in the wee hours of the morning was such a good idea. He should have just convinced Krad. Standing outside the door he paused, his hand reaching for the knob. A soft, mournful sound drifted through the air, barely detectable. A violin was being played, singing of every painful human emotion Satoshi was familiar with. Listening to it, even for those few moments, made his chest tighten with a mixture of jealousy and sympathy for the violinist. Whoever played that instrument was truly a lost soul. He swallowed, and the symphony ended abruptly. Realizing he'd been heard he lifted his hand and was about to knock when Shiki opened the door. His eyes were sunken from lack of sleep and-he could have been mistaken-seemed to have a golden sheen around the edges. "Why aren't you asleep?" The blunette blurted, and Shiki raised an eyebrow. He could see enough of his room to see the violin, a dark red, laying at the foot of his bed. "I could ask you the same thing." Satoshi indicated his uniform.

"I was hoping you could give me a ride to school." That hot smell came from Shiki's body, and the Hikari resisted the urge to cover his nose. "It's the full moon day after tomorrow." Shiki said, by way of explanation. "I never can sleep…Give me a minute." He closed the door and Satoshi had a revelation. He'd forgotten his glasses, since his vision had been perfected by death. Well, he could say he'd gotten contacts. "Okay." Shiki reappeared, stepping around the young vampire. "Let's go." Satoshi followed silently, pausing to look at a painting he'd never noticed before. It had two scenes, one of a happy 1900's family, posing for the picture.

The other, a group of wolves gathered in suspicously similar positions in thin woods. Satoshi recognized all the humans. "Shiki-" Although now that he looked closer, they weren't anatomically correct-their knees bent foreword, and they had human elbows and torsos…

Shiki tensed and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the artwork. "You can look at that as much as you want when you get back." Satoshi glanced at Shiki's hand. His nails were longer, curved and milky-like dog claws. The teen noticed his gaze and dropped his hand, slipping on a pair of brown gloves from his pocket.

"Sorry." He muttered, revving the engine of the Bentley as Satoshi climbed in. "We get a little high strung during this time. It'd probably be best if you avoided all of us as much as possible for the next week or so." The car rumbled to life and he pulled out, the sand spilling around the black tires. "Your coffin does have locks, right?" "Takai said it would come today, but I don't know. Krad's does." "Good." Shiki took one hand off the wheel and massaged his shoulder joints, one corner of his mouth pulling down in a grimace. "Does it hurt?" Satoshi asked quietly, and Shiki stared at him through the mirror. He placed his hand back on the wheel and said flatly ,

As a human, I was shot by accident on a hunting trip. It hurts five times worse than that." He sneered into the mirror and a young woman driving beside them stared at him.

"Betcha blondie didn't tell you that did he? We used to be human. All of us."

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