Divine Light

by PlanetGeek

Lord Nesta is dead and Ritsuka is safe from the dreaded vampires. Rem Arlond, along with his comrades have gone back to hell in search of a new power to obtain. But a year later they all come back to the human realm. But why exactly did they come back? And five women have mysteriously appear in Shikō Town. Who are these women or mainly what are they?

10. Chapter 10

Hi everyone!! I'm so sorry for the late update again but I had the worst case of writers block!! I couldn't figure out what to write about to make this chapter significant and worthy for you wonderful and loyal readers!! T_T Plus school started and now that I'm a senior, I'm on my way to becoming an adult so I haven't really had time to fantasize and all this other stuff. Time really goes by fast doesn't it? Anyway, I finally got this chapter done and I hope that it will once again satisfy you readers since I fell behind once more. Read and enjoy!!

I do not own DWD except for my oc's and nor do I own any songs I publish here.

Chapter 10

It was empty and dark in the student council room at Shikō Academy; curtains were closed, lights were off, and no sound prevailed within the room. The only sound that could be heard was the heavy footsteps that belonged to a cloaked stranger, who soon entered the domain of the demon king: Glax Arlond, who was awaiting for his arrival. When the stranger appeared before the demon king, he kneels down on one knee and bows his head to him.

"My lord." He speaks calmly and the giant mystical blue eye peers down at him. "What news do you have for me?" He asks and the stranger responds still keeping his eyes on the ground. "Turns out that you were right, the Divine Light is here as well as it's guardians as I have been told. I sent out the demon army to attack them to see if the rumors were true. They certainly have remarkable strength when working together."

Silence hit the demon lord for a minute until he asks another question. "And what of my son? Does he know anything of it?" The visitor shakes his head. "He suspects nothing of the attack you sent out yet my lord, and it still seems that he has yet to figure out where the light resides, which will be very soon, I assure you."

The lord hums in slight approval and thinks real hard about the next move he should make. "What are your orders for me now sire?" The man asks. "Shall we send for another attack while they're recovering?"

"Not quite." Glax says firmly. "Even though one of the guardians are injured, we'll have to wait until the rest are at ease; they'll be expecting an another attack since we made the first move on them. And when they are, see if you can take them down one by one to weaken their defenses. Our time is coming, whether they'll be ready for us or not."

The stranger smirks and lifts his head to face the king. "Of course it will. My lord."

~(XXX)~

It was 10 in the morning and the sun was shining over at the Tachibana residence, where Sakura was taking shelter there until her battle wounds were healed thoroughly. It's been two whole days since the demon attack and everyone's been laying low. The wounded huntress had just awoken from her deep slumber earlier and since she couldn't really do anything, she just sat there against the headboard and stared out the window next to her. She watched carefully as some random civilians pass by and she continued to do that until a soft knock on her door interrupted her.

"Come in." She invites, allowing her unexpected visitor to come in. "Oh Mrs. Tachibana. Good morning."

It was Ritsuka's mother, Maria. Even though she's been there for a couple of days, Sakura never really got the chance to officially meet her since she's been doing nothing but rest. This is actually the first time she's ever came face to face with her. The mother came in with a warm smile along with a tray of food and a glass of water in her hands. "Good morning. Please excuse me for bothering you, but I brought you some breakfast. I thought that you might be hungry."

Sakura blinks at her a bit surprised at her kind service. "Oh! Um...well thank you Mrs. Tachibana, that's very kind of you. You can just set it right there for now." She points to the nightstand next to her bed and Maria gladly complies. "And don't worry, you weren't bothering me at all. In fact I think I could use some company."

Maria smiles and clasps her hands together. "Well I'm glad to hear that. I was just making sure since you're..." She gestures to her bandaged waist and shoulders. "... heavily injured and most people would prefer to have some peace and quiet, so I wasn't too sure." Sakura nods in response for understanding and Maria takes a seat on the edge of her bed, looking at her sympathetically. "Though I have to say that your wounds look really awful dear. I'm very sorry that you went through with something like this. You must've been in sheer agony."

Feeling bad about this situation she's in with the Tachibana's, Sakura looks down with slight guilt in her eyes before she closed them. "I'm sorry if this isn't easy for you Mrs. Tachibana." Maria raises her eyebrows with confusion and Sakura looks out the window again. "I didn't want to meet like this and I certainly didn't mean to become a burden to you or your family."

Ritsuka's mother instantly moves forward and takes her hand in both hers. "Oh no no no no, don't say something like that dear! You're not a burden to us at all!" She exclaims with sincerity. "We're more than happy to provide you with whatever you need! After all you did save my son from being attacked and also prevented him from being in your position and I will always be internally grateful for that, so thank you." She sets her hand on her arm below her injured shoulder with appreciation and praise. "You are indeed a noble and brave young woman. I'm happy to see that my son has such good company."

No wonder why Ritsuka has a kind heart; why this woman's just full of love and admiration and that makes Sakura smile softly at the mother. "Thank you, that means a lot to me Mrs. Tachibana. I can see where your daughter gets her kindness from."

"Oh yes, Ritsuka's quite the angel." Maria nods in agreement about her daughter. "I don't know what I'd do without her. Ever since my husband's disappearance, I..." She looks down and sighs sadly. "... I haven't been myself." The small sadness that lingered in her eyes suddenly vanished. "But both Ritsuka and Lindo helped take care of me until I was ready to stand back up for myself."

Sakura nods. "Yes, they're both wonderful people. In all honesty, a lot has changed since I met the two of them." She shrugs. "Well at least I change a little. I don't think I've ever met anyone like them before. They're so brave and strong and kind, I'm surprised that people like your family still even exist. You did a wonderful job raising them Mrs. Tachibana."

Maria stays quiet as she bites her bottom lip like she's just itching to say something. Her curiosity soon prevails. "Can I ask you something?" She nods once to her, curious of what she has to ask. "Of course." The mother twiddles with her fingers as she's trying to be careful of what to say next. "Well this may be a little personal for you and it may not be any of my business to know but... I've been wondering about something the moment Lindo brought you here." Sakura raises an eyebrow at her before the mother lowers her voice. "Are you perhaps... not human?"

Sakura widens her eyes a touch at her question and soon tries to figure out what to tell her. How did she know? Should she tell her or should she just keep quiet? Either way, her question totally caught her off guard.

Maria immediately notices her hesitation and confliction and that makes her panic. "Uh I-I'm sorry dear, I shouldn't of asked you that!" She rambles on in attempt to help the huntress relax. If anything it just made her feel even more responsible to tell her. "You don't have to tell me anything about your race, I was just merely curious! I didn't mean to make you feel-"

"I am inhuman." She answers seriously, silencing the mother completely. She looks over at her. "In fact I'm just like your son Mrs. Tachibana: I'm a dhampir and I'm also a vampire hunter that hunts and kills my own kind because of my hatred for them."

The mother blinks owlishly at her, very surprised and stricken by her answer. "Oh. Well that's... that's astonishing!" She gestures to the young woman. "For a young girl your age at least! Seems like you and Lindo have a lot in common!"

Sakura looks down at her hands when she took notice of Maria's concern. "I don't intend to harm your son in anyway if that's what you're worried about Mrs. Tachibana. Like I said he's a good rational man and if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here. He helped saved my sister's life as well as mine and he was even more gracious when he decided to bring me here so I could recover from my wounds." She closes her eyes as she touched her left shoulder and smiles softly. "I honestly couldn't be anymore grateful towards him as I am of now and I don't even know how else to repay him for all that he's done for me."

Maria stares at Sakura in awe and surprise when she spoke about her son in that manner. This causes her to smile genuinely and to tear up a little. "Well I'm happy to hear that. It's not everyday I hear someone talk about Lindo like that, let alone a hunter." Sakura chuckles softly but it soon stops when she slightly remembers about what Lindo did to save her from that demon. His vampiric side came out again and he didn't show an ounce of mercy to the creature. It makes her wonder... "Can I ask you a question Mrs. Tachibana?" She asks Maria.

"Oh of course you can! Might as well will make it even huh?" She chuckles warmly and Sakura glances away. "Does Lindo normally... lose control of himself?" Confusion hits the mother's face when she asks that, she's not entirely understanding of what she's asking. "By that I mean does he always let his vampiric half get out of hand whenever he gets angry?"

Maria stares blankly at her until she looks away with hesitation. "... Oh that. Uh well... apparently there were a few times his anger did overpower him and his senses." She holds her hands up and waves them. "But that only happened when someone would hurt Ritsuka or put her in danger of some sorts! Other than those times, he's always managed to keep his anger under control as well as his vampire side!"

"Is that so?" Sakura asks by pinching her chin. "He's half human, he tries very hard to suppress his other half so he won't hurt anyone unintentionally. And even though he is half vampire, not once have I ever known him to drink any blood from any human!"

That fact made the pink head whip her head up and look at the mother in shock. "Not drink any blood? How is that even possible?" She looks back down at her hands, thinking very hard about this. "He may be able to suppress his thirst because he's half human but he can't just ignore the other half." She frowns and clenches her hands into fists. "I wasn't able to."

"Why do you ask about that anyways?" Maria asks curiously, breaking her deep thoughts about Lindo. She clears her throat and looks at the window again. "Just curiosity I suppose." she murmurs and the mother nods. "I see. Well, I suppose I should go and finish my chores before Ritsuka and Lindo come back home from school!" She stands up from her seat and heads to the door. "Now if you need anything, just give me a holler and I'll get you what you need!"

Sakura nods and gives her a small smile in appreciation. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind Mrs. Tachibana."

Maria opens the door but stops to look at her. "It was lovely talking to you Sakura and thank you for being honest with me about everything. Now you get some rest and like I said, I'll be out here if you need anything." She turns around but stops again to look at her once more like she remembered something. "Oh and one more thing." She smiles warmly. "Since you're going to be staying here for a few days, there's no need to be so formal with me, so please, call me Maria from now on."

With that, the mother walks out of the room and closes the door. When Sakura knew when she was gone, she chuckles softly with amusement as she once again looked out her window with a small smile on her face. "She truly is Ritsuka's mother." She says in her head before frowning sadly. "And she's very lucky to have her as one."

~(XXX)~

Back at Shikō Academy, everything was pretty normal for everyone. Well maybe for except the fact that the whole group of Sakura's sisters were a bit on edge since that surprise attack happened at the festival ball. Not only that but they were also pretty concerned for their injured sister. Of all the years they've been together, none of them have ever been in a life or death situation like Sakura's been. Her close death pretty much scared them all, especially the Tachibana siblings.

Ever since Lindo brought Sakura over to his house, Ritsuka was scared stiff; her best friend was severely wounded and would've died if Lindo hadn't killed the demon in time. She was afraid that she was going to be losing another good friend to an evil outside force. But when she knew that Sakura was safe and going to remain alive, the fear of her dying simmered down. She still worries about her and her health but she's relieved that she's being protected and sheltered with her and her family.

Not only was Lindo concern about Sakura's health and condition, he also felt really guilty. If he would've seen the demon coming on time, Sakura wouldn't of pushed him out of the way and almost get herself killed for saving him. Even if the two dhampirs butted heads for a while, Lindo couldn't escape the fact that he did care for Sakura's well-being, after all he did just make peace with her and did choose to start over with her as friends or allies at least. He wouldn't have forgiven himself if she did die for him, it'd be like losing Azuna again. She died while trying to protect Ritsuka from Jek and he felt horrible that he couldn't save her. But like Ritsuka, he was also glad that she was now under his protection and supervision until she's able to go back to her sisters in good condition.

Even though the sisters knew that Sakura was safe and recovering with the Tachibana's, they still couldn't help but to remain cautious. As the days passed by, they all began to noticed that the attack that happened that night was too suspicious and reckless of the demons. Any bloodthirsty or greedy race like them would try to attack Emi in a secluded area instead in public and not only that, killing the demon army was way too easy for them, none of them were really strong enough to fight against them. It was as if they were being tested in some way; like they wanted the sisters to come out to fight them with the power they had to protect Emi. Was this attack planned or was it just out of sheer desperation to capture Emi? Either way, something was up and the sisters didn't like it one bit. And now with one of them injured and unable to fight, that's just makes the remaining sisters even more vulnerable. So they'll have to be very careful from here on out for they know that another attack is soon to come.

Class just started for Nadia and the teacher was discussing the topic on today's lesson but the kitsune's mind was far from paying attention to it. Her thoughts on the suspicious attack did cloud her brain, but her main concern was on Roen.

"You don't know what you're talking about Roen. As if you know anything about me."

"On the contrary, I know a lot about you." He circles around her slowly as if she was his prey. "Your relationships with your beloved sisters, what your position is with them, your location, and your most deepest secrets of them all. I know everything about you dear. While you were learning a lot about me, I was surely getting to know you a lot as well. So you see, we're nothing but equals to one another." He places a hand on her shoulder and leans towards her ear. "Wouldn't you agree?"

He couldn't possibly know every everything about her. If he knew that she knew where to find the Divine Light, then why hasn't he done so years ago? More importantly how does he plan on having her reveal it's real location? She growls softly and nearly broke her pencil in half when she remembered that the hellhound put his filthy mouth onto hers and not mention, he had the audacity to taste her blood.

"Such an intoxicating scent your blood has." He states after lowering his head and Nadia grimaces when he licks up her blood. "It tastes just like how I remembered it: sweet and satisfying."

That particular memory actually did just make her break her pencil in half as well as making her cheeks turn red with pure anger and unwanted flattery. Damn him and his smooth suave words, even to this day he can still make her unintentionally blush!! Some of the students were eyeing her nervously with confusion and concern, but Nadia didn't care. The inescapable hellhound has already clouded her senses and self-control. Thinking about him just pisses her off to the point where a deadly aura was radiation from her body.

"What could that little shit rodent be possibly planning this time?" She bites her teeth down on her fist in fits of annoyance and frustration. "Well whatever it is, he will not succeed."

In a different location of the academy, Chinatsu was found walking by herself just outside the academy. Her saddened eyes were kept on the ground as she watched her feet move her body forward. Even though she's back to her daily routine, she wasn't really motivated to act like her normal self. She didn't feel like playing or flirting with any guys nor did she ditch classes because she hated it, she just needed some time to think to herself.

She sighs in annoyance and confliction. "Damn it, I need something to keep my mind busy. This is just stupid."

Suddenly sensing someone appearing from behind, her reactions take into place and she instantly swings her foot up and around to kick her opponent. However her attack was blocked when a strong yet familiar hand grabbed it, stopping it from hitting his face a centimeter away.

"Sheesh babe, jumpy much?"

Her eyes widen in realization and her nerves relax when she saw that it was just Mage. "Oh. It's just you Hotshot." She sighs before putting her foot back down. "Y'know I think I'm gonna haveta put a damn bell on you or something. This whole appearing out of nowhere shit's gotta go." She rolls her eyes and points to him. "Hell I nearly just kicked your face in already, imagine what I'd do to you if you really scared the shit outta me."

"Well hopefully it'll be something good." He leans on the tree beside him and hovers over her with his predatory gaze. "I've been real patience since I last saw you Hot Stuff." She gives him a dead panned look and blinks at him. "Seriously? You're still playing this guy?" She rolls her eyes and rubs her temples. "Okay look, as much as I would love to do nothing but play games with you and all, I'm afraid that now's not the time. My brain's been all jacked up and I don't have the time to mess around, especially with you. I'm very stressed as you can see."

The now disappointed and irritated devil sighs heavily and crosses his arms. "You can't stay mad at me forever y'know. I already said that I was-"

"I'm not stressed about that you dumbass, I don't hold a grudge for that long!" She snaps at him. "Jeez could this guy be any dumber?" She rolls her eyes and he frowns at her. "Well then what the hell is your problem?" She opens her mouth to say something but she closes it back up and sighs as her eyes soften with sadness and Mage catches that.

"It's... It's nothing." She shakes her head and turns away from him. "Forget about it."

He knows that look on her face. It's a look of hesitation and sadness mixed together, it's like she wants to say something but she's not sure if she really wants to. All in all she's just bottling up her true feelings, it's the same thing he did when he wasn't sure if he truly was falling in love with Ritsuka or not. But this is a different matter with her. Chinatsu really does care about her sisters and the fact that one of them almost died, just made her very stressed and worried, so he can understand why she's feeling down in the dumps. But what he can't tolerate is the fact that his girl is feeling blue and nothing can really get her back into her usual self at the moment.

"Hey." He speaks and Chinatsu stiffens and blinks when she felt two of his broad arms wrap around her in a warm yet firm embrace from behind. "If I know anything about that half-breed sister of yours, it's that she's gonna be fine. She fought a demon for that damn exorcist and I'm positive that she'll pull through. And even if anything else comes to try to kill her or anyone else, I know for a fact that you'll be the one to kill their sorry asses first. After all you are pretty damn strong for a hot she-devil, hell, they dunno what the hell they're gonna be in for once you come into the picture."

Chinatsu stands there for awhile, trying to process what he says. And after a short while, a familiar teasing grin eats away at her lips. "Are you actually tryin' to comfort me Hotshot?" The male devil flinches and blushes at her question before trying to unwrap his arms from her. But surprisingly enough she holds one arm back and closes her eyes with a soft smile. "Well whatever you're doing, you're doing a pretty good job of it."

He blinks and stares at her until he grins as well. He hugs her close to his chest and they stay like that until the bell rings. The two blondes then separate and look at each other. "Well. I guess I'll see you around Hotshot." He smirks at her. "Not if I see you first babe." She scoffs and crosses her arms. "Right, I forget that I'm not hard to miss at all." They both chuckle and the female walks off with a wave. "Whatever, later big guy."

In a blink of an eye she vanishes. Mage sighs and stuffs his hands in his pants pockets. Well he may not have seduced Chinatsu this time but at least he got to comfort her in way that made him feel satisfied. And in all honesty, he was okay with just that.

As the buff devil turns around, he comes face to face with Chinatsu once again and she surprised him by grabbing his face and crushing her mouth onto his. He muffles in surprise and before he could comprehend what was happening, she pulled away but still held onto the sides of his face.

"An award for your valiant efforts on making me smile again Hotshot. You deserve it." She clicks her tongue and winks before vanishing again, leaving the surprised jock behind in shock once again with her unpredictable moments of affection.

Damn, this woman's gonna be the death of him someday. He just knows it.

~(XXX)~

"Hey Emi, are you doing alright? You look so sad."

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Did something happen to make you upset?"

It was the next class and both Emi and Yurina were in Biology since Sakura wasn't there to join Emi. Not only was that saddening for the blind angel, she also couldn't help but to think about Shiki and what happened that night. Right now some of her female friends had just noticed her sad demeanor and they were concerned for her since she's always smiling and socializing.

The angel smiles assuringly at her friends. "I'm fine girls really, I'm just... feeling a little bit tired today since I didn't get much sleep."

"Oh is that it?"

She nods to them and they all seem to buy her excuse for looking so glum. But Yurina, who was sitting behind her, knew exactly what Emi was feeling and why. Of course the witch hated to see her loving sister to be sad and depressed but she was also frustrated with the fact that she's being overly distraught by that pathetic fallen angel. Just this morning, she already sensed him nearby and she was planning on going over to him to talk but Yurina of course wouldn't of allowed it. Yes she does understand that the two of them do care deeply for each other due to the fact that he almost died protecting her that night of the demon attack, but the love she held for Shiki Natsumezaka was getting out of hand.

"Honestly. Just what does that girl see in that foul creature?" She crosses her arms and looks down at her open textbook. "More importantly... what does he see in her?"

The witch glances up at her sister once again when her human friends started to departure to their assign desks as soon as the professor arrived and she saw her fake smile falter back into a sadden frown. Yurina frowns sadly and sighs before using her discreet magic to initiate a telepathic conversation with the angel.

"I'm sorry Emilia, but this is for your own safety."

"I know it is Yurina, but unfortunately it's hard for me to accept that. It's not fair for me to be separated from Shiki. It's not fair to him; he cares a lot about me just as much as you do. In fact a lot more actually."

"It will do you no good if you continue to fall for that angel Emilia. He is fallen, he has committed a sin that has forced him to leave the heavens. He betrayed his homeland, he betrayed our Father. And for that you cannot trust him, you shouldn't of in the first place."

Emi sighs softly before she looks towards the window as if she could see the scenery outside and Yurina does the same with sternness.

"But he's not evil Yurina. Not like those creatures we've faced before in the past, he is different. Yes he's made his mistakes but he already paid the price once his divinity was taken away from him. He's alone in this world Yurina, he has no one to take care of him other than himself. I can't just leave him like this."

"Your love for each other may be genuine but in all honesty, it is futile. You could never be together because of what he doesn't know about us, about you. It could not only bring danger to yourself but to him as well and deep down you know that." She closes her eyes and props her chin on her fingers when Emi shuts her eyes to stop her tears from surfacing. "Emilia. Please. Don't make the same mistakes that I've done in the past. Don't fall for this man. You will die if you do."

Their telepathic conversation ends there and after awhile Emi opens her eyes back up and inhales sharply after wiping away her small tears. From there on it was silent between the two and it went on like that until class ended. Yurina then escorted Emi to Nadia who took her to her own class, leaving the witch behind.

Yurina took it upon herself to roam the halls for she had a study hall. Just like Chinatsu, the brunette also needed some time to think to herself and she believed that taking a walk would help her clear her mind.

"This is simply chaotic. First those vile wretched demons come out of nowhere and attack Emilia, Sakura almost ended up killing herself by protecting that exorcist, and now Emilia is head over heels for that fallen creature." She ends up walking over to a window, overlooking the scenery. "This is certainly a huge dilemma that we cannot solve that easily. What could we do?" She lowers her eyes like she's contemplating. "What could I do?"

The second she starts to think for solutions, her eyes gazed upon something. It looked like someone who was wearing a black cloak and when she tried to get a better look at them, a sudden high ringing pitch hits her ears. The witch cringes and place her fingers on her forehead for she was receiving a massive headache now. The painful ringing was getting worse and the louder it got, the more pain Yurina was in.

"What in the world?!" She cries out as she fell down on her knees, holding her head like she was about to go insane. She couldn't hear anything, not even her own voice when she was crying out. "What is this?! What's happening to me?! Please make it stop!! Anyone!!"

Meanwhile Urie was on his own, walking in the halls as well for he grew bored of the student council. He was actually planning on going over to his sanctuary so he could clear his mind.

But that all was soon forgotten the minute he heard a pained scream.

The incubus whips his head around in alarm and instantly runs towards the location of where the screams were coming from. He thought that the screaming sounded a little familiar as he got closer and when he turned a corner, his heart stopped. There was Yurina, who was lying on the ground on her side and holding her head while curling up into a trembling ball. The site was horrific, Urie had never felt so much fear for someone he loved that was in so much pain. What on earth was happening to her?!

"Yurina!!" He calls out before sprinting over to her. "Yurina, what's the matter?! Are you alright?! Tell me what's happening!!" He placed his hand on her arm and cups her face.

The trembling and wincing witch snaps open her eyes when she felt a hand on her. If she hadn't been in so much pain, she would've reacted harshly. But all she could do was stare at the incubus as he was yelling at her to tell him what was wrong, or at least that's what she thought he was saying since she couldn't even hear a word from him.

She whimpers out before grabbing ahold of his arm with desperation in her now pleading eyes. "Please. Make it... stop!" She writhes around more to the point where Urie grabs her face with both hands.

The incubus looks into the witch's eyes using his hypnosis to clear her head in order to locate and block whatever's causing Yurina harm. When her mind's blank, he came to find out that it was a high frequency sound wave that was the cause. It was being targeted at from outside and when Urie looked out the window, he knew then that someone or something was out there right now.

He had to act fast before Yurina could faint from the excruciating pain she was experiencing. So the incubus swiftly scoops her up in his arms and instantly teleports all the way to sanctuary, disconnecting the sound waves from the witch's mind. He gently lays her on his red chaise longue chair. All of the masked girls that were present were swarming in, curious to see who Urie brought along this time.

"Urie, who is that?"

"She looks awfully familiar."

"Has she been here before?"

"Ladies, if you'll please!" Urie raises his voice as he shooed them away. "Give her some space, she needs to recover!"

Some of them tilt their heads and frown with jealousy before walking away. When they're all gone the incubus looks back down at unconscious woman. His eyes soften with concern and sadness. Who or what in the world would attack Yurina like that? Seeing her in such pain caused him to fear for her own life and to also have the urge to track down the culprit behind her agony.

"Yurina." He whispers before cupping her cheek with his hand.

Not a second later, the witch snaps open her eyes. She jolts up and exclaims in alarm, fearing that someone was kidnapping her since she was just attacked with a spell of some sort. Her reactions also took place when her hand swiped forward, slapping Urie's cheek in a flash. The slap echoed through the sanctuary, catching the masked girls attention. They all watched her carefully as she breathes heavily; mind blank and unsure of what's going on.

Eventually the witch then recognizes her surroundings and caught ahold of Urie holding his cheek as he stared down at her in surprise and worry. "Mr. Sogami?" She asks before looking at her hand and then looking up with realization. She remembers what happened when she was being attacked. She remembered seeing Urie coming to her aid and when she lost consciousness, he must've brought her here. Which means he must've saved her from whoever or whatever was attacking her.

Coming to that conclusion, the witch looks at Urie once again with uncertainty. She knows that she should thank him but knowing him, he could be wanting something from her as an award for saving her. So she's not entirely sure of what to say to the moment. Urie noticed her cautious gaze and her hesitation to speak, so he took it upon himself to speak first in order to ease her mind.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt in any way?"

She stares at him, not answering until she registers what he had asked her. "I'm fine." She looks around and spots the staring girls. "I see you have decided to bring me back to your little... sanctuary filled with your harems." She frowns at him. "Were you planning on taking advantage of me once again, like the devil you are?"

That firm question made the incubus step back and hold his hands up. "No, certainly not! You were just attacked Yurina, I'm not capable of being that atrocious to you!"

"Then why bring me here instead of the infirmary? Or better yet, why didn't you notify one of my sister's of my distress?! Is it that difficult to think outside the box?!" She demands an answer before realizing her behavior. "For heavens sake Yurina!! This man chose to save you and here you are demanding why he didn't think properly! You are a lady, you must apologize and be grateful that he came to your aid, otherwise you could've been killed!" She yells at herself before sighing and calming her anger.

"I'm truly sorry." Urie spoke before she could and that make her freeze and look at the solemn rose devil with confusion. "To be perfectly honest, I wasn't thinking about anything when I saw you writhing in agony." She blinks at him like she doesn't understand what he's saying and he gives her a sad frown. "All I truly cared about was getting you to someplace safe, where I know that nothing could harm you and this was the only place I could think of." Confusing her even more, the incubus kneels down on one knee and bows his head to her like she's royalty. "Please forgive me for my lack of intelligence, I only wanted what was best for your safety."

Yurina stared down at him quite dumbfounded and shocked. The man was apologizing and asking for her forgiveness when she should've been the one to apologize first! Just what is this man up to?! Coming back to reality, Yurina looks away in embarrassment with red cheeks.

"Oh come off it! There's no need for you to apologize and to ask for my forgiveness! It's outrageous!!" Urie lifts his head up to her and her cheeks burn even more while squeezing her eyes shut. "It is I who should be the one apologizing! You came to my aid and stopped that person from breaking my mind, and yet here I am ridiculing and scolding you for not thinking straight." She crosses her arms and sighs. "I... I humbly apologize for my behavior and be it as it may, I am... grateful that you have helped me once again."

She says nothing more while the incubus just stares at her and when the silence was too much, she whips out her fan and starts to rant. "But don't think too much of it! Just because you saved me, it doesn't mean that I am indebted to you and such! Just be honored that you've earned my gratitude!! Now if you'll excuse me!" She stands up from the chair but quickly regrets it when her head suddenly got dizzy.

Her vision blurred and her legs betrayed her as well as her feet that tripped her while staggering forward. Urie gasps and was quick to rush forward to catch her. But Yurina unintentionally lunged into him and he fell back with her. The two hit the floor with Yurina laying on top of the incubus and she didn't know that until she noticed that she had a soft landing. She groans as she lifts herself up and touch her dizzy head while her vision was coming back. When her gaze landed upon who was below her, the witch widens her eyes and her whole face flushed red with an appalled gasp.

Urie awkwardly stares at her unsure on what to do at this point. He knows that she must be mortified at this position they're in right now so he's going to try to do anything that will ensure her that he doesn't intend on doing anything indecent. Or to trigger anymore of her painful memories like the last time. But before he could even speak, the brunette instantly scrambles off of him and scootches back until her back is pressed up against a pillar. Her face is still red and her whole body is shaking with sheer embarrassment and shock.

"Good lord, what is the matter with me?!?! First I act like a mad woman after being saved and then I end up falling on top of this man because of how clumsy I was?!? Pull yourself together this instant!!!!!" She screams at herself, not even seeing Urie stand back up. "Alright, what happened was clearly an accident! It wasn't on purpose, I fell on him so he simply can't think that it was intentional anyway!!"

After she was done ranting to herself, she then took notice of Urie's hand that was extended out to her. She looks up and stares at him as a small smile is planted on his lips. "If it's alright with you, I would personally like to escort you to wherever you need to be."

This causes her to be taken aback and become a little offended. "I don't need you to escort me anywhere! I'm perfectly capable of getting there myself!!" She snaps while she tries to stand up. "Well do forgive me for saying this, but you do appear to be at a weakened state and that alone will cause you to fall and perhaps hurt yourself. Besides, what if that person who was targeting you earlier was still out there? With all due respect, I believe that it would be best if I did escort you."

For a brief moment, Yurina thought deeply about his proposal since he did have a point about the mysterious attacker. What if they were still out there? What if they tried to the same thing and she yet again couldn't do anything to defend herself? She couldn't risk getting herself hurt, Sakura was already injured and she can't be letting her guard down because of her pride. Emi's life was on the line and if something were to happen to her, she'd be even more vulnerable. With that conclusion, Yurina sighs in defeat and frowns at the incubus.

"Oh very well. You may escort me back to the academy's infirmary so I can properly rest and recover. Nothing more!"

Inside, Urie sighs with relief. Even if she still refused to allow him to escort her, he would've followed her back anyway. There was no way he was going to allow her to get hurt once more. With that Urie goes down a few steps on the stairs and extends his hand out to her since he believes that the stairs might be a bit of a challenge for her at the moment. The witch scoffs at him and turns her head away but she still takes his hand for she also knew that the stairs would be a little difficult for her.

He carefully guides her down the set of stairs all the way to the bottom and after that was done, they both were on their way. But when they walked past the group of glaring girls, Yurina stops to turn her head and glare right back at them, irritated at their behavior.

"I hope you all know that it's impolite to stare." Her red orange eyes glow menacingly at them, making them step back. "If you all have something say, then come out with it already, don't just give me a dirty look!! Learn some bloody manners for once!!"

When no one said anything, her eyes go back to normal when she took out her fan and walks away with Urie, who sweat dropped at this. "I apologize if my butterflies had irritated you. They're very overprotective of me and they can get easily jealous when I'm giving someone special treatment."

She frowns and closes up her fan. "They may be your mind slaves, but the least you could do is have them appear to be more approachable and have more respect for any certain guests you may decide to bring. If I was human and they had the chance, I'm certain that those girls would've tortured and killed me for 'disrespecting' you."

Well she wasn't wrong there. Urie was certain that if Yurina was weak against them, they would choose to torment her. As much as he loves to be admired and adored by them, maybe he should teach them to be a little more respectful to the people he cares about, such as Yurina or Ritsuka.

"Make no mistake Mr. Sogami, just because they are humans under your control, it doesn't mean that I will choose to defend myself in any way that I can. So you better keep watch of their behavior or else you know what's going to happen." She says firmly and he nods.

"I can assure you that they will be on their best behavior the next time you come here." She huffs and crosses her arms. "What makes you think that I'll ever come back?"

"Well I'm just saying, that if you ever do, you'll come to find out that they'll behaving themselves." She humphs and closes her eyes. "We'll see about that. Now if you don't mind, I would like for you to remain silent. There's a good chance that my attacker is still out there and I want to be aware if they're near."

He smiles and nods. "But of course. I'll be here to protect you if anything were to happen." She frowns and tch's. "Oh hush up! I don't need any protection from anyone! Especially from you and despite what happened today, I'll have you know that I'm very capable of defending myself!! Now as I said before: be quiet!" She hisses and he actually stays quiet.

As they're walking, they kept an eye and ear out for anything suspicious. Urie couldn't sense anything and neither could Yurina and at the same time, they were both relieved. When they knew that the attacker was long gone, it became awkward. They both couldn't stop thinking about what happened when Yurina fell. Urie caught her but she still fell on top of him. Not once would she have ever figured that would actually happen!!

Eventually the pair reach the infirmary and Yurina turns around to face the incubus. "Well you did what you said you would, you've successfully escorted me to the infirmary so there's no need for you to linger anymore. Good day Mr. Sogami."

She turns around and walks towards the room and when she's about to walk in, Urie frowns seriously and speaks out. "Yurina." She stops and looks over at him. "I want you know that... that no matter what, I will always be there at your service. I will keep on choosing to protect you, whether you want me to or not." The witch hardens her gaze on the devil. "My life is yours, and I will do everything I can to make you see that I'm nothing like Haru."

Yurina stiffens at the mention of his name. "I know that he hurt you. He hurt you so much, your heart was broken to the point where you hated all men. Well I'll change that; I will prove to you that your heart can be mended with the love that I feel for you!!"

The brunette stared at Urie with disbelief when he made his confession. He told her that he loved her and that no matter what, he will always remain at her side, no matter how much she rejects him. Not only was this shocking to her, it also infuriated her. "You..." She growls lowly before a dark aura engulfs her body. Urie knew this was going to happen, but he didn't falter back when she gave him the death glare. "You. How dare you say such false nonsense?!"

"It's not false nor nonsense Yurina. My feelings for you are genuine and I truly do mean that." He calmly say and she snarls. "Liar!!!!" Her eyes glowed into a familiar red orange, meaning she was close to losing control of herself. She storms over to him and pushes him back. "You lying, conniving, son of a bitch!!! You don't know what you're saying!!! You only wish you were capable of loving but you cannot for you are a devil, an incubus!!! You thrive on women for your desires and you will remain that way until you perish!!!"

She grabs ahold of his jacket as the tears flooded her eyes before escaping. "You have no right to speak of my past, you have no right to tell me that you're any different from him, you have no right to tell me what my heart can and cannot love, you have no right to anything!!!" She screams at him and sobs. "It is because of him that I am like this!! He took everything that I loved away from me; he used me to get ahold of my family's power, he killed my family Urie!! He left me with nothing!! NOTHING!!!" She cries out so much in despair, it made Urie do the unthinkable.

He hugged her.

He hugged her so tight, her face was buried in his chest where her sobs were muffled. At first she struggle to get away from him but when her emotions overflowed, she gave up. Her arms automatically wrap around him like she's desperate for comfort and she didn't care from who at this point. She just needed to be held. She cries so hard, Urie held and stroked her head lovingly like she was a fragile child.

"He ruined my whole life!" She growls desperately and he shushes her gently. "He took away my future, he stole everything away from me!" She hiccups and sniffles before growling muderously. "And as God as my witness, I will make him pay."

Hearing her say these vengeful words made the incubus hug her tighter, which also made Yurina start crying again. He didn't know where this man was nor of what he looks like, but if one thing is for sure... is that he will be there when Yurina gets her revenge. He wanted nothing more than to see this man die in agony and if all else fails with Yurina, he'll be honored to go back to the demon realm where he could torture his soul for all eternity. Just for her.

Urie has a dangerous glint in his eyes as he stares ahead. "Yurina. I swear to you, that not only will you find and kill this man, you will also be bringing his soul to everlasting terror and anguish. I can promise you that."

Just outside the window they were standing by, the cloaked individual that set out the attack on Yurina was hiding in a tree, watching and grinning at the hugging couple. "Touching yet pathetic." He chuckles softly. "It'll only be a matter of time before they even realize what's going to happen to them. The poor fools." With that the stranger vanishes into thin air.

~(XXX)~

It was the last class before lunch and Nadia was with Emi during her class. During the teachings, Nadia glances over at Emi, who just started to shiver and hug herself like she was cold. The kitsune raises her eyebrow at the angel for her behavior. "Are you cold or something Emi? You're shivering." The blind girl rubs her arms with her hands and started to look around with slight confusion and concern. "I don't know. For some reason I... I had a weird feeling. Like something bad was happening."

The blue eyed girl narrows her eyes and looks forward, clearing her mind so she could sense if anything was happening here. So far she got nothing, so why would Emi feel that way? "I'm sure it's nothing. We would've known right away if something was here to cause a disturbance." She assures the angel who nodded in agreement. "Yes, you're right. I don't know, perhaps I'm being paranoid." She chuckles softly while rubbing the back of her head.

The lunch bell then rings as soon as Nadia was about to say something else and the two young females made their way out to meet up with Chiantsu and Yurina. But much to their surprise, Yurina wasn't there.

"Chinatsu, where's Yurina?" Nadia asks the blonde who shrugs in response. "Beats me, she's probably out taking a walk or something. She did look pretty down about something the last time I saw her." Emi pinches her chin and thinks. "Well that's strange, normally she doesn't talk walks during lunch. Should we go find her?" She looks up towards the rest of her sisters and Chinastu waves her hand down. "Nah leave her be. If she wants to find us, she'll know where to go. Now c'mon, let's go get some lunch."

The three sisters walk away and head to the cafeteria and when they got their lunch, they went outside to the fountain so they could eat in peace. "Are you sure that we shouldn't look for Yurina? She should've came a while ago if she was just talking a simple walk, don't you think?" Emi asks in concern.

"It is very strange that she's been gone for this long, it's almost time for the next class to start." Nadia agrees and Chinatsu pats Emi on the head. "Relax you two! I'm sure that Yurina's doing fine! We would've sensed if something was wrong and from what I remember, I didn't catch a whiff of anything."

"Hey!!" A familiar and petite voice calls out, catching their attention. They all look over and see Ritsuka and Lindo waving at them. "Ah is that Ritsuka?!" Emi asks with excitement while Chinatsu smiles. "Sure is! Lindo's there with her too, lucky us." Nadia does nothing but frown and continues to eat her lunch.

Emi rushes over to the siblings and hugs Ritsuka before hugging Lindo as well. "I'm so glad that you both are here! It's been a while since we've last seen each other." Chinatsu walks over and wraps her arms around their shoulders and bring in them in towards her. "Yeah no kidding, I've been missing you two for a while!" Ritsuka giggles and pushes her hand away from her head, when she ruffles her hair playfully.

"So how's Sakura been lately?" Emi asks anxiously. "Yeah is she still doin' alright? We haven't gotten the chance to visit her at this point." Chinatsu questions as well and Ritsuka smiles reassuringly. "She's doing fine, she's been getting a lot of rest and she's still fully recovering."

Lindo nods in agreement. "If all else goes well, I'm sure that she'll be fully healed by next week or so." Emi's sightless eyes brighten up. "That's such good news, I'm happy she's doing well."

"How about you guys? How have things been with you?" Ritsuka asks and Chinatsu inhales sharply and crosses hers arms. "Not too great honey." She frowns with concern. "Ever since those ugly ass demons attacked us, we've been keeping low and with Sakura down, we've been extremely careful about our surroundings. Hell I almost kicked Hotshot in the face when he came up behind me earlier."

Emi glances up towards the she-devil in surprise. "You saw Mr. Nanashiro Chinatsu?" She scoffs. "Hell yeah I did, nearly scared the crap outta me. He's lucky he's got fast reflexes."

While they were talking, Ritsuka caught ahold of Nadia sitting at the fountain. She was still eating in silence and not even making eye contact with her. A sad frown forms on her lips when she remembers why Nadia wasn't so fond of her. She still couldn't believe that she was once Roen's lover and that he abandoned her to serve his master; her father. If only there was a way for her to make Nadia understand that what Roen did wasn't her fault.

"Hey you two haven't seen Yurina around have ya?" Chinatsu asks and the siblings shake their heads. "No, we haven't. How long has she been gone?" Lindo asks and Chinatsu shrugs. "I dunno, just for an hour I think. She had study hall and I'm assuming she went out for a walk. Then the next thing that we knew, she didn't show up for lunch. Which was weird since she's always there to meet up with us."

"Yes, I'm starting to get worried about her. If you two do happen to see her, please let us know or tell her that were looking for her." Emi requests and they both nod. "Of course, we'll do that."

Chinatsu sighs and looks around until her eyes caught sight of Yurina walking this way. "Hold the phone! There she is!!" Everyone turns to where the witch is coming from and Emi hustles towards her. "Yurina!" She reaches her and hugs her around the waist. "Yurina, we were getting worried about you! You never showed up for lunch, is everything alright? Where were you?"

Looking down at her sister, Yurina smiles softly and pats her head. "I'm sorry for making you worry Emilia, it was not my intention to do such a thing." She sighs and takes her hands in hers. "However there is a reason for my absence and I'm afraid that it is too personal for me to share with you as of now. Which is why we must go back home immediately."

Sensing a bit of dread and insecurity in her voice, Emi reaches up and touches Yurina's face. Hey eyes then widen a touch when she realized something. "You've been crying." She states before withdrawing her hands. "Something happened to you didn't it?"

She said nothing and that's when Emi knew that it was that serious. So she turns over towards Chinatsu who had just approached them and ask if everything was okay. "Chinatsu, we need to go back home. Now." The blonde blinks at her angel sister until she saw the look in her eyes as well as Yurina's. The female devil then frowns but nods firmly before speed walking back to the Tachibana siblings and to Nadia.

"Chinatsu?" Ritsuka asks when she saw how her face looked. "Is everything alright?"

The blonde goes over to Nadia and whispers something in her ear, making her demeanor become rigid and tense. She stands up on her feet and storms over to the rest of her sisters. Chinatsu then comes up to Ritsuka and Lindo.

"Something just came up and we have to go home right now." She informs the siblings, who grew more concerned for them. "Go home? Now?" Ritsuka questions and Lindo steps forward. "Is everything alright? Did something happen?"

"We're not sure yet but seeing that we need to leave right now means that it could be critical." She answers and Nadia calls her name. "Do me a favor hon, keep your eyes open, make sure that if you see anything suspicious, you let us know in anyway that you can." She calls out to them as she jogging away to join her sisters. "Keep watching over Sakura too, I'll let you know what happened if I can!!"

The two siblings watch them leave in a hurry and they both look at each other before looking back at them.

~(XXX)~

It was a half pass three o'clock and both Rituska and Lindo were on their way back home from the academy. They walked in silence as they thought about the sisters and the way they acted. They hoped that it wasn't anything serious. Ritsuka clutches her school bag close to her chest before looking over at Lindo with concern.

"The girls sure did leave in a hurry. Do you think that everything is alright?" The exorcist looks down with a frown. "I can't be too sure." He replies lowly. "Like you said they left in a hurry and I assume that it was for a good reason."

"You think that we should tell Sakura about it?" Lindo shakes his head. "I think that it's best to keep quiet. We don't know anything for sure yet and we wouldn't want her to overexert herself; she is still recovering."

Ritsuka looks down at her feet with a sad frown. Lindo did have a point, she didn't want Sakura to worry about her sisters so she could be ignoring her own health and well-being; she would be basically be killing herself if she did choose to see them. But the fact that something did happen at the academy, it just made her feel obligated to tell Sakura about it. She is their sister and as a guardian she has the right to know about her own family's well-being. This is going to be hard for her, she knows that much.

"It'll be alright Ritsuka." Lindo touches her shoulder. "Chinatsu said that she would let us know what happened the next time we see them. All we need to do is just wait and make sure that Sakura's still safe with us." The brunette smiles at her brother and nods in agreement until they realize that they're back at their house.

They both walked in through the door. "Hi mom, we're home!" Ritsuka calls out to her mother who came out of the kitchen to greet them. "Oh hey you two, welcome home! How was school?"

"Oh you know same ol' same ol'." She says swiping her hand down. "How about you? Is Sakura doing okay still?" The mother smiles warmly. "Oh she's doing just fine, in fact I think she's still awake." They widen their eyes in surprise and Ritsuka smiles, happy to hear that her friend is finally awake. "That's great! I brought her homework over so she won't fall behind in her classes. I'm gonna go give it to her."

"Ok sweetheart." Maria calls after her when she hurries over to Sakura's room. Lindo noticed the smell of food coming from the kitchen as he took off his school bag from his shoulder. "I see you're making dinner mom, do you need any help with anything?" The mother shakes her head no. "Oh no, not at all Lindo. In fact it should be done any minute now."

"Alright then, I'll go wash up." He walks away but she stops him by speaking up. "Uh Lindo before you do that, can I talk to you for a quick minute?" He stops and turns towards her, curious to hear what she has to say. "Sure, of course mom. What's up?"

The mother looks away with slight guilt and uncertainty while she's clasps her hands together. "Well... it's about Sakura." His face turned firm and serious. "Nothing happened to her while we were gone right?" She waves her hands quickly. "Oh no no no, no not at all son. It's just that... well..." He waits for her to finish and she sighs. "I know that it wasn't any of my business to know but earlier this morning when she woke up, I asked her if she wasn't... you know, human."

Lindo tenses up like a statue and was getting nervous. "And she told me that she isn't. In fact she told me that she's a dhampir like you and that she's also a... a vampire hunter as well." Lindo says nothing for he didn't know what to say and Maria looks at him with concern. "Lindo is that really true?"

He sighs in defeat and takes her hands into his. "Mom, I'm sorry, I should've told you earlier but I didn't want you to worry about-"

"No no no, it's fine son really! I'm not worried about it." She assures which caught him off guard. "You're not?" She shakes her head and smiles. "No, she's already assured me that she means no harm to you whatsoever. In fact she's such a nice girl, I'm surprised that she even is a hunter to begin with! She's way too young to be doing such things!" She sadly glances towards Sakura's room. "Poor girl, I bet something happened to make her hate and want to kill her own kind."

She looks back at her adopted son and smiles warmly at him. "But no, I'm not worried about her. She told me of how good of a man you are and that she's extremely grateful for you saving her and her sister's life!" She sets her hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you son, you've always been a knight in shining armor and I'm very happy to see that you and your girlfriend get along very well."

"Well we..." He pauses suddenly when he just registered her words. "Wait what?" Maria smiles more at him. "I think you and Sakura make a wonderful couple son, regardless of your differences between each other." Lindo's cheeks turns into the same color of his hair when she said that. "What?! Oh n-no no no, mom, mom, you got it all wrong! Sakura and I aren't-"

"Oh were you planning on keeping your relationship a secret son?" Lindo blushes more and yells in desperation. "No! No, mom listen to me, Sakura and I are just fr-"

"There's no shame on having a girlfriend son." She cuts him off in order to calm him from being embarrassed. "In fact I think it's rather adorable that you two are together. She is quite the young lady; she's strong, independent, wise, and not to mention very attractive!" She giggles and cups his face in her hands with a proud and approving smile. "You found yourself a good one Lindo, I wouldn't mind having her around for a while."

"Mom!" He groans, desperate to find a way to make her understand that he and Sakura are not a thing. "Don't worry, I won't tell Ritsuka anything. You can tell her when you two are both comfortable enough to come out and say it." She points and smiles at him in a teasing way. "Just promise me that you won't be sneaky while you two are alone together!"

The timer on the kitchen oven dings and Maria hears it. "Oh! Looks like dinner's ready. You go wash up and I'll get the table ready." She walks away, leaving her blushing and defeated dhampir son alone to register what had just happened.

After dinner was over, Sakura set aside her dinner plate that Rituska had given her and then saw Lindo come into the room, quickly shutting the door with his back against it. His face had the look of him being at a loss, like he just saw something and he didn't know what to do to save his life.

Sakura raises an eyebrow at him before blinking at him. "What's with you?" He says nothing for a brief moment, still with that look on his face. "My mother thinks that we're a couple." He finally answers and that makes Sakura stare at him. "Really?" She questions and he nods. "She thinks that we kept our 'relationship' a secret because I was too ashamed to tell her. I tried to explain that we're just friends and nothing else but... she's pretty convinced that we're dating."

After a while of silence, Sakura humphs and nods like it's nothing and goes back to reading one of her assignments. "Wow, even your mother thinks the same thing as everyone else. Should've seen this one coming." Lindo blinks and looks at her completely at a loss. "I'm sorry what? Everyone else?" He asks and she looks over at him again when he started to freak out. "Who else thinks that we're dating?! And when did this happen?!"

The huntress stares at him until she looks back down at her papers while choosing to explain."Well for starters, Chinatsu repeatedly kept on hinting that you'd be a good match for me and that we'd make a great couple for some apparent and idiotic reason. And that night during the festival ball, after we had finished our dance and mutual discussion, some of the students there came up to me and asked if we had a thing going on. Obviously I told them no and went on about my business. But knowing girls and their creative minds, the rumors will spread regardless of what we say." She eyes him. "I'm surprised you haven't been hearing about it lately."

He had that lost look on his face as he took a seat on a chair. "This can't be happening." Sakura shuffles through her papers before straightening them. "Well in all honesty, I am a hard person to talk with and the fact that you and I get along now may lead to some sort of misunderstanding. So I don't particularly blame them for thinking such a thing, including your mother." He looks at her and shakes his head like he doesn't understand her. "Aren't you even a little worried or at least embarrassed about this?"

"I don't have time to worry about false rumors and school drama. As long as we don't appear to be intimate with each other, the rumors will eventually fade." He flinches, taken aback about the word intimate. "Intimate? Since when have we ever been supposedly intimate with each other?!" She looks at him with a dead panned gaze. "I never said that we were, I'm just saying that as long as we don't get too close to each other, people will get the point and eventually drop the subject." She sighs at his stricken state and gets her folder. "It's nothing to get worked up about Lindo, it's just a silly rumor and a huge misunderstanding, that's all it is. It happens all the time."

He stays quiet as he rethinks about this whole situation and he soon came to think that maybe Sakura was right. He shouldn't be so worked up it, it is a rumor and rumors do end up stopping at some point so he just needs to relax make sure that it doesn't affect him that much. He clears his throat after blushing for being slightly embarrassed at himself for freaking out. "Uh yeah, y-you're right Sakura. I'm sorry, I just uh... I wasn't prepared for it and I tend to freak out when I don't know what to do so..." Awkward silence hits them until Lindo looked at her bandages. "So uhh... how are you feeling?"

She looks down and automatically touches her side. "I've been better, though my wounds still ache whenever I move too much and it's taking me much longer for me to heal than usual." He nods. "Oh I see." She glances and gestures at his face with the faded claw marks on his cheek and down towards his covered chest. "And what about you? I see that your wounds are already starting to heal up." He touches his left cheek. "Oh yeah, they are, I think they'll be all gone by tomorrow or the next day." Now she nods. "Good to know."

Another long awkward silence hits them until Sakura sighs in defeat. "Alright, clearly this can't be ignored since this happened to peak my curiosity ever since you walked in here." She says after pinching the bridge of her nose and confusing Lindo. "What is that you're wearing?" She points to the light green frilly apron that he was wearing around his body and he looks down at it. "What this? It's an apron."

She took one mighty pause after she observed it carefully. "No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not." She repeats.

"Yes it is!" He raises his voice.

"No, nope. Nope I'm sorry, that's impossible." She shakes her head no and he plants his fists on his waist. "I wear it while I'm cooking and cleaning!" She shakes her head at him with a deadpanned frown. "Well then you look absolutely ridiculous wearing that. If I really was your girlfriend, I would've made you throw that out a long time ago." He points to her. "Hey I don't need style advice from a woman who doesn't cook everyday for her family! Beside this is my mom's, are you calling her ridiculous?"

"You look feminine Lindo. If anything you're going to give people the wrong idea about yourself." He's taken aback at that. "Wrong idea, what?! What is that suppose to mean?!" She rolls her eyes and puts her papers in the folder she had. "Whatever you want it to mean apparently."

"Oh very funny! I'll have you know that this apron..." As the two dhampirs bicker back and forth about the silly apron, Maria was outside the door, smiling warmly as she swept the floors in the living room.

~(XXX)~

Back at the residence where Emi and her sisters were living, Yurina had just finished explaining to her sisters of what happened to her during her time at the academy and when she did, everyone was either shocked or worried now.

"This ain't good." Chinatsu paces back and forth. "First a whole raid of ugly ass demons come out of nowhere to attack us and now someone just tried to attack Yurina at the academy?! I don't know about you girls but I think something's up and it ain't pretty!"

"Do you think that something or someone knows about us?" Emi asks nervously and Nadia glares down at the floor. "I don't doubt it." They all put their attention on her. "With everything that's been going on these last few days, I'm certain that we're being targeted one by one."

Silence is present until Yurina stands up. "One by one you say? You think that whoever is behind these attacks are planning on separating us?" She asks and Nadia stands up from her seat as well. "It all makes sense. Ever since Sakura had been injured by that large demon, we've been vulnerable. Without her, we're not as strong as we usually are and I think that they knew that since they only targeted you especially during the day." She makes her way to the window and stares at the sunset that's close to disappearing over the horizon. "That demon raid was no reckless act of sheer desire for Emi. No, it was a test, a test to prove that we are stronger together than we are separately, which means..." She pauses for a minute when she figured something else out. "... which means that we were being observed." She concluded.

Everyone widens their eyes as they stayed still. "You mean that they... they planned this?" Emi asks in a whisper. "They meant to attack us and now they know about our weakness?" Chinatsu growls and runs her hands up her face. "Shit, we gotta tell Sakura about this! And Lindo and Ritsuka!!" Nadia looks at her like she's gone insane. "The Tachibana's as well? Why in the world should we tell them what's going on? They have nothing to do with this!"

"Bullshit they don't!!" She snaps at the kitsune. "Nadia, Sakura is under their care and their protection and if what you said about us being targeted separately is true, then there's no doubt that they'll go after her there as well!" She slams her hand on a table. "The Tachibana's know us, both Lindo and Ritsuka!! They know what we're capable of and if any of those damn creatures figure that out, they're gonna go after them with everything they got!!" She points to Nadia. "And I dunno about you but I am not gonna let that happen, we owe it to them for everything they've done for us!!"

"Oh and what have they done for us exactly Chinatsu?! Enlighten me!!" She snaps at the devil, starting to lose her patience. "They befriended us!! They knew exactly what we were and yet they still stood by our side no matter what happened!! Hell they even got the student council to side with us, when they were our main enemy!!!"

"They've done nothing but give us trouble!! If it weren't for them, specifically her, none of this would be happening in the first place!!!" Nadia retaliates now angering Yurina. "Don't you dare put the blame on Ritsuka Nadia!!!" Yurina yells and points at her. "You have no right to say such things about her!! You think she wanted any of this to happen to us?!? She didn't know anything, Ritsuka Tachibana is innocent!!!"

"SHE IS A CURSE!!!!" She screams with blue eyes glowing and fangs present. "You're just pissed off at her because Roen left you for her family!!!!!" Chinatsu hollers. "You blame her for everything that's happened to you when she didn't even know anything!!!!!"

"ENOUGH!!!!!!" Emi screams so loud, the house rumbles and shakes like there was an earthquake. This makes everyone become silent and shocked and when Emi stands there for a while, she burst into tears. "None of this was anybody's doing. Not hers, not theirs, not ours." She sniffles and wipes her eyes. "We can't be choosing to fight with each other like this!! That's not who we are, we are sisters, we are each other's family!! We are all that we have left in this world."

The angel turns to the kitsune. "Nadia. Chinatsu is right, we have to inform Ritsuka and Lindo about these upcoming attacks as soon as possible. We can't just let these creatures hurt them after everything they've done for us. Not only has Ritsuka changed the way we see life, she changed us. She taught us what the true meaning of friendship was and she also showed us what true happiness feels like! She never gave up on us even when we told her that she had to! And Lindo... Lindo chose to save Sakura from being killed by that demon and he chose to take care of her until she's fully recovered." She takes her hands into hers. "Don't you see Nadia? We owe the Tachibana's everything!"

She looks down and sighs. "I know you're in pain because of what Roen did but you have to remember that you're not the only one who's suffering. Nadia... my dear sweet sister. You have to let go of the hatred that fills your heart. You can't stay like this forever, you have to let go of everything and see what you have right in front of you."

Nadia stares into her sister's sad sightless eyes as her grip tightens on her hands. "You're our family Nadia, you're our sister and you know how you must act. So please... don't try to make us think that Ritsuka is the enemy here. She is our friend and our most trusted ally. Please believe me when I say that from now on because it's the truth and you know that I speak only the truth."

She lets go of her hands and turns away before speaking softly to everyone else. "We've had a long day. If Sakura were here, she'd tell to relax and get to bed. And that's what I'm choosing to do. Good night."

When she's out of the room, the rest of the three sisters stand there silently until both Yurina and Chinatsu walk away to join Emi, leaving Nadia behind with her thoughts. She stands there for the longest time as the angels words ran through her head and before she even noticed, tears were spilling out from her eyes. She then looks up at the moon through the window and walks out of the house. She stared at the rising moon for the longest time with her wet eyes and when she felt like it, she went into the forest singing.

How can I say this without breaking

How can I say this without taking over

How can I put it down into words

When it's almost too much for my soul alone

She stops to hug herself and closes her eyes.

I loved and I loved and I lost you

I loved and I loved and I lost you

I loved and I loved and I lost you

And it hurts like hell

Yeah it hurts like hell

She glances over at her house and saw her sisters bedroom light turn off.

I don't want them to know the secrets

I don't want them to know the way I loved you

She closes her eyes and resumes walking at her slow pace.

I don't think they'd understand it, no

I don't think they would accept me, no

She stops and glares up at the moon again.

I loved and I loved and I lost you

I loved and I loved and I lost you

I loved and I loved and I lost you

And it hurts like hell

Yeah it hurts like hell

Gusts of winds come blowing at her and her hair comes undone as it billows with the wind.

Dreams fight with machines

Inside my head like adversaries

Come wrestle me free

Clean from the war

She walks forward still staring at the moon.

Your heart fits like a key

Into the lock on the wall

I turn it over, I turn it over

But I can't escape

I turn it over, I turn it over

She stops when she came across a cliff that over looked the city and after observing the view, she slowly looks down and closes her eyes once again where more tears came.

I loved and I loved and I lost you

I loved and I loved and I lost you

I loved and I loved and I lost you

She wraps her hands around her arms and one is then placed upon her chest where her heart is beating. Then her bottom lip begins to quiver as her eyes were squeezing shut.

And it hurts like hell

She collapses down on her legs and buries her face in her hands. She cries quietly but the more she cried, the louder her sobs became. She wasn't even aware that Roen was in a nearby tree on a branch just watching her with a straight face.

~(XXX)~

It was officially night now and Sakura had just finished up her last homework assignment. She was just about to go to bed but then a knock stopped her from doing so.

"Yes?" She calls out and Ritsuka let herself in. "Hey." She greets and Sakura sits up. "Oh hey Ritsuka." The girl closed the door and comes walking in. "I just wanted to see how you were doing before I head on up to bed. Is there anything that you need from the kitchen or something? Speak now or forever hold your peace." Sakura chuckles at her friend in amusement. "I'm fine Ritsuka, thank you."

She smiles at her but it fades when she sees her bandages. She frowns with concern before taking a seat on the edge of her bed. "Do you think you're actually gonna be alright Sakura? I mean with wounds like those, you'd think you'd be paralyzed or something."

"I'll be fine Ritsuka." She says reassuringly. "Trust me, I've had my battle wounds before, none as serious as these but I'll still manage to live. I am half vampire after all." Ritsuka sighs and then smiles. "That's good to hear, I was really worried about you when Rem told me what happened that night." The huntress shrugs. "Well you don't need to worry anymore. As you can see, I'm alive and I'm not going anywhere for the time being."

Ritsuka's smile widens more at her in appreciation. "Thank you so much for protecting my brother Sakura. I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't defended him. I don't know how else to repay you." Sakura stares at her until she looks away at the window.."Both you and Lindo are wonderful people Ritsuka. I know that Lindo means a lot to you since he's your brother. Which is why I saved him in the first place."

The girl raises an eyebrow at her whe she says that. "But... isn't he also your friend?" That question makes the huntress stiffen and think deeply about it before answering. "I... I wouldn't know specifically. I haven't really narrowed down what our relationship is like. I'm not even sure if he even sees me as a friend."

Ritsuka nods instantly at her. "Oh he does Sakura, trust me! Lindo wouldn't go this far to helping you out like this if you weren't his friend." She sighs and adjusts herself in a more comfortable position on the bed. "Well how do you know if he's just trying to make things even between us? You know I saved his life and he takes care of me until I'm healed. We may have made peace Ritsuka but... I think we're still trying to get to know and trust one another."

Ritsuka shrugs and pats her hand on top of her leg. "Well then this would be his first step into getting to know and trust you more Sakura. You may think that he's just doing this to make things even but I know my brother. You're his friend Sakura and if bringing you here to heal your injuries isn't considered friendship then I don't know what it is!" Sakura says nothing and Ritsuka sets her hand on her shoulder "Just give it some time, you'll see what I mean."

After a while, Sakura couldn't help but to grin in amusement. "Well I'm glad to see that you're probably the only one here who thinks like that about your brother and I." Ritsuka tilts her head in confusion and Sakura chuckles. "I'm not sure if you've noticed by now but people have been thinking that Lindo and I are together as a couple." Ritsuka snorts and covers her mouth from bursting into laughter. "Pbft!! Really?!"

She smiles and nods. "Yes, especially your mother. Lindo came in earlier and told me what she thought about us. You should've seen his face, along with that silly apron of his." She rolls her eyes at the image of the green apron she saw today. "Oh my goodness. Some people have creative minds don't they?" She asks and Sakura nods in agreement before sighing. "But what they all don't know about him that he's already in love with someone that he can't have. Not because she's already taken but because it's also a sin to love her. It's quite sad really and I pity him for it."

Ritsuka knows for a fact that she's talking about Lindo's romantic feels towards her. She wishes that Lindo could somehow move on and find another love interest but she's pretty sure that his feelings for her are still strong. She does loves him but only as a brother and not to mention she's with Rem now. The brunette frowns in conflict and looks at her friend. "Have you ever been in love before Sakura?"

"Me?" She scoffs and chuckles softly while shaking her head. "Oh no, not once in my entire life. No, like with everything else, I don't take the time to relax and socialize with other people especially with the males. It's not my thing and with what I have going on in my life, having a male companion by my side would just make things even more difficult for me to deal with." She shrugs and looks away a little awkwardly. "And I guess you could say that I'm saving myself for someone. Someone that's just right for me you know?"

Ritsuka sits crisscross and leans forward. "Well what's right? What's he gonna be like for you? Is he gonna be a human, is he gonna be from a different race, or maybe he's... a vampire too?" She carefully asks, hoping not to offend her in anyway. Sakura just grins and shrugs her shoulders. "Honestly... it doesn't matter to me. As long as he's loyal, committed, caring ... and kid-friendly, I really wouldn't care what kind of race he is."

"Kid-friendly?" Ritsuka blinks.

"If I ever do meet the one and things turn out well for me, I'll eventually settle down with him and start a life of my own." She smiles fondly at herself. "Have my own family to take care of." Ritsuka stays silent when she hears that. "Wait a second. You want to have kids someday Sakura?" She smiles more and cross her arms. "As shocking as it is, I adore children. They're filled with so much hope and are so innocent. I'd love it if I had children of my own someday." She chuckles softly and looks out the window again. "I guess a stone-cold killer like me can dream about becoming a mother too huh? Pretty boring and cheesy of me to wish for, isn't it?"

"No!" Ritsuka exclaims before grabbing her hands. "No, I don't think that at all Sakura! I mean I think it's beautiful that you want to have your own family too someday! I mean... well look at you!" She gestures to the huntress. "You're brave, smart, strong, beautiful, and you'd do just about anything to protect your family!! Who wouldn't wanna have a family with you, I think you'd be a wonderful wife and a terrific mother too."

The purple eyed dhampir stares at the brunette and after a while she lets out an embarrassed chuckle and rubs the back of her neck. "Sometimes I think you're too kind for your own good Ritsuka."

"Well it's true! In my opinion, any guy would be lucky to have you! Especially Lindo if he ever moves on." She jokes and giggles at Sakura's playful frown. "Oh I'm just kidding!" She swipes her hand down before returning to the subject. "But seriously Sakura. Whoever or whatever kind of guy finds and loves you first, just know that he's going to be one of the luckiest man there is, I can guarantee you of that."

The huntress couldn't help but to smile appreciatively at Ritsuka for her flattering beliefs. What in the world did she even do to deserve a friend like Ritsuka? "Well I suppose that I better get to bed now. I'll see you in the morning Sakura, good night." Ritsuka gets up from the bed and waves to Sakura as she's going to the door. "Ritsuka?" She stops and looks at the huntress. "...For what it's worth, thank you. For being my friend and... for never giving up on me. You're truly one of a kind and I'm honored to be considered as your close friend." Ritsuka stares at Sakura until a bright smile forms on her lips with her bright eyes. "Thank you for letting me be your friend in the first place Sakura. Good night."

"Good night Ritsuka." She replies and the brunette leaves.

Sakura sighs in content after she was left alone and seeing the time, she figured that it was time to get to bed herself. So she turned off the lamp and laid back down, allowing herself to be consumed by sleep.

~(XXX)~

It was close to midnight and the whole group of sisters were sound asleep. Well, almost all of them, Emi stirred awake one moment and once her eyes were open she wasn't going back to sleep at the moment. The first thing that filled her heart was sadness and loneliness and when she felt that way, she got out of bed and guided herself all the way to the front porch where she normally chills in order to ease her mind.

She takes a seat on the bench and listens to the sound of crickets chirping and feeling night breeze swarm her. Even though it was peaceful and quiet, the blind angel couldn't erase the sadness that lingered in her heart. Not only were some of her sisters having trouble cooperating and getting hurt, she also was missing Shiki a lot and she was certain that he was lost without her too. Whenever he was near, she could feel or sense his despair from being kept away from her and that just breaks her heart considering of how much affection she holds for him. They finally confessed their feelings to one another and they can never be alone together again. Emi sighs softly as she stood back up and as if she could see the moon in the night sky, she looks up at it with her sightless eyes before she started to sing.

Emi:

In a perfect world, one we've never known

We would never need to face the world alone

They can have the world, we'll create our own

I may not be brave or strong or smart

But somewhere in my secret heart

I know love will find a way

She places her hands on the porch railing and leans forward on it.

Anywhere I go, I'm home

If you are there beside me

Like dark turning into day

Somehow we'll come through

Now that I've found you

Love will find a way

She closes her eyes before she brought her hand back to place it on her chest. Back at Shikō Acadamey, Shiki is sitting at the fountain where he and Emi got close for the first time. He stared down at Emi's flower clip in his hand with sadness before looking up at the moon.

Shiki:

I was so afraid, now I realize

Love is never wrong and so it never dies

There's a perfect world shining in your eyes

When Emi opens her eyes back up, she smiles at the memory of Shiki and his touch and Shiki does the same when he remembers her and her beautiful eyes.

Both:

And if only they could feel it too

The happiness I feel with you

They'd know love will find a way

Anywhere we go, we're home

If we are there together

Like dark turning into day

Somehow we'll come through

Now that I've found you

Love will find a way

The two opposite angels place both hands on their chest and close their eyes.

I know love will find a way

The wind blows past them and Emi sighs softly before going back inside. Shiki does the same thing, only he chose to expand his wings and fly away. Even if they couldn't see each other, the two angels could somehow feel close still. It was like they were beside one another whenever they were alone or feeling rather down about staying away from each other. Either way, they both knew that their love for each other was strong and genuine and they hoped that one day, they could be together without any consequences whatsoever. Only time will tell.

~(XXX)~

It was an hour past midnight now and Lindo woke up at that time because he was thirsty, so he went into the kitchen to get some water. He pours the liquid into a cup and drinks it down and when he was finished, he headed back towards his room. But then he stopped when he suddenly heard something. The redhead walks back into the kitchen and listens for the noise again. It sounded a lot like someone was moaning and whimpering.

This time a loud yell of distress hit his ears and the sound was leading him towards Sakura's room. Sensing that something wasn't right, Lindo quickly rushes into her room only to find Sakura moaning and writhing on her bed like she's dreaming about something. And when she let out another distressed yell, Lindo figured out that she wasn't just dreaming, she was having a nightmare. He rushes over to her when she began to thrash around in panic.

"Sakura?" He grabs her face and her thrashing gets worse as well as her yelling. "Sakura, wake up! Wake up, you're dreaming!!" He grabs ahold of her shoulders and begins to shake her in attempt to wake her up. "Sakura!"

The second Lindo shook her harder, the huntress snaps her red eyes open before whipping out her large hunting knife from underneath her pillows and pinning Lindo down on the bed beneath her. Shock hits the redhead when Sakura pinned him down and felt her push the cold blade at his neck in a defensive manner. He stares up at her as she pants heavily; eyes still glowing red until she finally took notice of who she had at knifepoint.

Her eyes fade back into her normal eye color when she blinks at him. "Lindo?" She instantly retracts her knife from his throat and pushes herself off of him in a heartbeat. "Lindo! I'm so sorry, I didn't know that it was-ugh!!" She groans and falls on one knee while holding her aching side when the pain started to resurface.

"Sakura!" Lindo caught and helped her back up on her feet before she could fully collapse on the floor. "It's okay Sakura, I got you. Let's just take it easy and get you back to bed okay?" After she nods in agreement, Lindo wraps her arm around his shoulder and helps her hobble back to her bed. He gently sits her down on the edge and he notices that her hand is still on her right side.

"Are you okay?" The huntress winces and softly groans when she takes her hand away to lift up her shirt to inspect her wound. "Ah God." She lifts her shirt up to reveal the blood soaked bandages that's wrapped around her waist. "I think I reopened this one."

Lindo kneels down to inspect the bloody bandages. Sure enough she did reopen it, her blood was soaking through her bandages pretty quickly. "It'll be fine, I'll just clean it up and rebandage it again. Wait here." He gets up to retrieve the first aid kit in a nearby dresser. When he finds it and turns around, he flinches and blushes when he sees that Sakura had taken off her tank top.

"S-Sakura!!" He exclaims in shock before immediately turning away. "Y-You didn't need to take your shirt off, I'm just changing your bandages for crying out loud!!" Sakura lowers her eyelids at him. "Oh calm down Lindo, my shirt would've been in the way if I hadn't taken it off. It'll be much easier for you this way so just do what you need to do."

The flustered exorcist inwardly groans as he turns back around, trying his best not to acknowledge her nearly exposed upper body. "You know just because you know me so well, it doesn't mean that you should be exposing your body to me like that." He starts to get the materials out of the kit. "I'm a man, what makes you think that I won't try anything?" This makes the huntress chuckle at him. "You're amusing. Even if you did try anything, you wouldn't want to know what I'd do to you. Besides what would your mother say if she were to walk in on us?" She teases and he frowns at her.

"But I understand if you're uncomfortable with this. Normally I don't get embarrassed about things like this since I'm always on my guard." Her face softens and she hangs her head down when he unwraps the bandages around her waist. "As a matter of fact, some of my sisters tell me that I'm too paranoid or take my job a little too seriously. And maybe they're right, perhaps I do need to relax once in a while. But I'm afraid that once I do, something will happen as usual. That's how it always ends up and I can't seem to let that happen."

Lindo stays silent for a long time because for once he can actually relate to that. "I feel the same way." She looks down at him when he says that and he begins to carefully dab her bleeding wound with a cloth. "About a year ago, when Ritsuka was involved with the student council, I wanted to make sure that she stayed safe at all times." Sakura nods when she understands. "Yes, Ritsuka's told me about your own paranoia. You were so overprotective of her, you even locked her inside this house if I remember correctly."

"I wanted her to stay away from them but being the stubborn person she was, she was pretty persistent on figuring out where our mom was since she was-."

"Attacked and kidnapped by vampires." She finishes his sentence. "All because of the Grimoire that resided within Ritsuka right?" He stops what he was doing, shocked to hear that she knew about the Grimoire incident. "How'd you know that?" Sakura shrugs her shoulders. "Ritsuka's blood. Her life memories briefly flash in my head when I want to know something about her. Don't worry, I don't do it often, I'm not that nosy."

He forgot about her ability to see people's life memories whenever she drank their blood. She must've saw everything that happened within Ritsuka's life when she drank her blood that day. When he resume to clean her wound, Sakura couldn't help but to remember the memories of the time where Ritsuka had found out about Lindo's sad life. She clenches a handful of the sheets underneath her and avoids herself from looking at him.

"... I also know that you lost your real mother when you were a little boy." He stops once again and she closes her eyes. "I'm sorry to hear that, I'm sure she was a wonderful woman." He says and does nothing until he eventually continued to tend to her open wound.

"She fell ill the moment she knew what I was." He says. "Because of him, she couldn't accept the fact that a dhampir was her son. So she got even worse and eventually died from her illness. From there on Aunt Maria took me in and loved me as her own. My real mother is nothing but a vague memory for me; I didn't really get to know her as well as a child should know their mother." He takes out a new roll of bandages and begins to wrap it around her waist. Sakura stayed quiet until she looked at him.

"Well at least you were lucky enough to even see your own mother." He stops wrapping her waist and stares at her when she looked away with a firm frown. "I couldn't even meet mine the second I was born. I had no childhood with her or my father. I was an orphan." After a minute of silence, Lindo finished wrapping her waist with the bandages. And when he was all done he takes a seat beside her and leans forward on his knees.

"You know... I was going to ask your sister Emi about you." He confesses. "About the name on your silver knife actually." He eyes the large hunting knife in her hand. "Akina Tsundra. Is that your mother's name?" She says nothing and Lindo looks down at his hands as they clasp together. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to Sakura, I just wanted to know who she was to you and what happened to her. I'm assuming that she died?" After a long minute, she eventually nods. "Yes. She died from losing too much blood after I was born. She never had a chance of surviving." She whispers and he gives her a sad frown.

"I'm sorry. That must've hard for you when you found out." She carefully brings her knees up and hugs them to her chest. "A vampire bit her when she was in labor with me; it wasn't just my birth that killed her. My father up and disappeared before she became pregnant with me so she had no one to take her to the hospital. So she took it upon herself to walk there. She struggled a lot but she was already halfway there and it was night time, no one was there to help her. Then the contractions she was having was too painful for her to move; she started to bleed." Her eyes became dark when she looks down. "The scent of her blood then attracted a drifting vampire and when he got to her..."

"My God." Lindo whispers in disbelief and she didn't dare finish the sentence. "Some of the people in their homes heard her scream and found her in an alleyway. They took her to the hospital since she was barely alive still and there she finally gave birth to me and died soon after."

"No matter what happens, mommy will always be there for you."

Her hand slowly touches the side of her head. "All I can remember about her is her voice. Sometimes I could hear her in my dreams or at least I think I do." Lindo stares at her. "What happened to you after that?" He asks and she shakes her head. "What would happen to any parentless child: I got sent to an orphanage and grew up there until I was 12 years old. At that age, I got my fangs in and noticed that I'm getting stronger and quicker than most kids, even the older ones."

She lays her chin on her knees and stared ahead. "Of course I didn't know why I was like that at first, I didn't know nor believed that vampires existed." Her eyes darkened once again. "Not until I... I came across one of them."

(Alright so the italicized words here mean that she's having a flashback and the non-italicized worst means she's just narrating. Just an FYI for y'all)

She slowly approaches a crouching blonde woman who was sinking her teeth in a man's neck, growling and slurping hungrily.

"It was the middle of the night and I went outside when I heard a scream. There I found a middle aged woman... feeding."

Sakura watches her with wide and cautious eyes as she slowly drew out a knife she kept for safety.

"And when I approached her..."

As if she heard her, the woman whips her head up, blood smeared all over her mouth, and snarls at her.

"She attacked me and before I even knew it..."

The woman swipes her claw-like hand at her and Sakura dodges, quick to shove her blade in her now blood bursting chest.

"Her blood... was all over me." She lowers her eyelids with a pained frown as her hand reaches up towards her eyes. "And my eyes..."

She yanks her knife out and when she looked at reflection in a shop's window, she saw her eyes glowing red. She gasps at this when she realized that they looked exactly the same as hers.

"My eyes were glowing red like hers when I looked at my reflection." She pulled her hand away. "It was until then I finally knew that wasn't human at all. And when I saw myself... I ran away. I ran until I passed out from exhaustion and when I woke up again, I was in a church. The people there took care of me until I was able to get back up on my feet. They somehow knew what I was and yet they still nursed me back to health."

She looks at Lindo. "They were the one's who told me that I was half vampire after learning that I don't have a thirst for blood like normal vampires. Like I said, I don't have a thirst for it but I still seem to need it to survive. Otherwise I get weak and I die. It's like taking a pill, you either take it or you... you start feeling the symptoms."

"After learning about this rare quality I had, the church offered to train me to become a hunter since they were against the fact that vampires were killing innocent people. And since I was young and alone at the moment and was also bound to be on my own soon, I accepted their offer. Since then, I learned the ways of killing a vampire from many other professional hunters. It wasn't easy, in fact it was crucial since I was half of what they despised. I got ridiculed and picked on a lot but I eventually got through with it until I was able to fend for myself."

Lindo frowns and gets irritated at the thought of her being bullied and beaten by hunters that didn't know or understand her situation. "When I grew of age, I left the church. I wanted to know where my mother was and if she was alive, and if not then my father. I did a little research and eventually found the hospital I was born in. Then that's when... all was lost for me."

"Tell me where she is." Sakura insists to the old nurse that's trying to calm her down.

"I-I'm sorry Miss but I'm afraid that I can't tell you that."

"No, you don't understand! All my life I've been looking for her!! And I know for a fact that she gave birth to me here! She must've been sent somewhere afterwards!! So please! Tell me where Akina Tsundra is! Tell me where my mother is! Please!" She begs.

The nurse stays silent until she looks down sadly.

"Miss Tsundra, your mother..." She looks up at her solemnly. "Before she gave birth to you, she was attacked and bitten by some sort of animal; she lost a lot of blood and... died shortly after you were born." The huntress stands there in shock when she hears this and the nurse sighs. "We also have no records of your father being here, in fact she briefly told us that he was nowhere to be found; that he left before your mother was pregnant with you. I'm so sorry dear. There was nothing we could do to save her."

She was speechless. Motionless. She could no longer feel the need to stand since her legs couldn't take the news. Her own mother that she's been wondering and searching for has been dead since the day she was born. All her hopes of finding and reuniting with her were gone. All gone. What was she to do now? She's all alone with no family left. She had no one.

"I tragically learned that both of my parents were gone that day. I didn't want anything to do with my father since he chose to leave my mom in the first place. Since then my hatred for vampires grew and grew to the point where I hunted them down myself. I knew for a fact that it was a vampire that killed my mother and made me what I am."

She grins and chuckles with no humor. "It's funny really. The things that the other hunters said to me never really bothered me; I knew exactly how they felt once I learned what happened to my mom. Even I couldn't stand the fact that I'm half of what I hate the most." She lifts her hand up and stares at it before clenching into a fist. "My vampire half is a constant reminder of my mother's killer and even though I was different from them... I would always be a part of them no matter how much I denied it. And sometimes... sometimes I'd have the urge to put myself down because of how disgusted I was with my other half."

She closes her eyes and glares. "This life that was chosen for me... I used to think that it was a damn curse and that I needed to get rid of it as soon as possible. But if I had done that..." She opens her eyes with a firm gaze. "I wouldn't of found and killed my maker."

Sakura screams out as she charges forward the vampire that had dropped a young girl he was feeding on, with the other lifeless girls.

"I found the bastard feeding off of some local teenage girls and when I approached and challenged him, all hell went loose."

Her feet and fists kick and hit swiftly at him with quick speed, but no matter how fast she was, he was quick to block her attacks like it was nothing.

"He was a lot stronger than I had expected; which meant that he was probably a pure blood of some sort. He managed to injure me when he found the opportunity."

The huntress screams in pain when the vampire's claw-like fingers sliced at her face and through her stomach in a quick swipe. That's when she couldn't fight anymore; the pain was too great for her to tolerate.

"When he knew that I wasn't capable of fighting at that moment, he backed me into a corner and made his move."

She coughs weakly as she struggled to hold herself up due to the bleeding injury she had on her stomach. There she was facing her difficult target, who soon had her pinned to the wall with his hand on her throat. She groans with frustration and in pain as she tried to pry his hand off.

"I thought I was going to die then but before he could finish me off, he told me something. Something that I wasn't prepared to hear."

"You look awfully familiar. You remind me of this beautiful woman I fed off of when she was pregnant; she looked a lot like you." She stopped her struggling and slowly opened her eyes to stare at him as he ponders through his thoughts. "Oh what did she tell me her name was before I drank from her? Hmmm, what was it?" His eyes brighten up a bit when he remembers. "Ahhh yes, Akina was her name, Akina Tsundra. Quite the midnight snack she was for me. I bet you taste just like her: sweet and delicious." His clawed finger traces her neck softly as he stared at it with hunger.

Sakura just stared at him with wide eyes as her mind went blank.

"That name." She shakes her head. "As soon as he told me her name, I lost myself. I was no longer in control of my mind nor my sanity."

When the vampire leaned in to sink his fangs in her neck, the look of shock immediately left her face and was replaced with the look of death and hatred.

"So I killed him."

The vampire lets out a choked gasp when the young huntress punches her whole arm through his chest, holding his black heart in her crushing fist. She stared into his shocked black eyes with her wide, murderous, and empty blood red eyes. She then squeezes his heart so hard, it turns into nothing but dust. She yanks her arm back and shoves her silver knife up she kept in her sleeve, under his chin and where the tip comes out from the top of his head.

"You chose the wrong mother to kill and the wrong daughter to turn!" She growls muderously.

She yanks her knife out and kicks him away in the chest before watching him hit the ground. After that he disintegrated into a cloud of black dust which blew away with the wind currents that came by a minute later. After another minute had passed, the dhampir looks down at the bloody knife with her mother's name that's engraved on the silver blade. Not long after, her body began to betray her with the immense exhaustion and the amounts of blood she lost. She collapses on the ground as her knife falls from her hand and clatters in front of her. She winces and trembles as she slowly lifts her head up, smiling at an approaching blurry figure. A figure with wings.

"I did it mom." She murmurs. "I finally found and killed your killer. Now we can finally be together. Just... wait... for me."

With that her body went limp again and her eyes closed for good when she collapsed back down again.

Lindo stared at her in shock when she finished her story."Wait. So you... died?" She lifts her head up and turns her head away. "I was about to and I was ready for it. But then I came back when Emi found me. She healed me and took care of me along with the others. At first I was a little irritated and disappointed; I had finally killed the one that murdered my mother and ruined my life. All I wanted to do then was just to see her in heaven because I had no reason to fight anymore."

She looks back down at the floor. "But all of that changed when Emi revealed that other bloodthirsty vampires were terrorizing families and killing innocent people. She gave me a reason to keep on hunting, she made me want to prevent the things that's happened to me from happening to someone else. Not only did Emi save me, she also changed my life and because of that I became her family; her last loyal guardian."

She smiles softly at the kindness of her angel sister. "Even though I've been with her for a few years, I will never fail to protect her. Like you with Ritsuka, I will always be there for her whenever she's in trouble or whenever she needs me the most." She now looks at him with a straight face. "And that, Lindo Tachibana, is how I became the woman I am today. Now here I am." She gestures to herself and around. "Here I am."

Lindo looks away when he didn't quite understand something. "How... How do you know the way your mother died Sakura?" She looks down once more when she explains the reason of knowing her mother's death. "After I tore that man's heart out, some of his blood had gotten into my mouth. I saw everything he did throughout his whole life, even the moment of when he was watching my mother. That memory of killing her seemed to be the strongest out of the rest of the victims he's killed and it sickens me." Her hand tightly clenches around the knife handle. "The look of desperation and fear in her eyes, her horrifying screams of terror and agony... I could tell that he enjoyed torturing her before he tried to drain her of her blood. Which is exactly why he deserved the kind of death I gave him. I wanted him to die a cruel death; one that even he couldn't imagine coming from a mere dhampir."

She sighs after she had calmed herself from that memory of her dying mother and then looks over at the exorcist. "Quite the life story huh? Well I can't say that mine's worse than yours. I mean... you're the son of Nesta, the king of all vampires. Which technically makes you the prince." She shrugs and shakes her head. "I can't imagine what that must feel like whenever you're reminded of that. I mean he is the reason why you lost your mother in the first place, hell he was even your father." She noticed his long sullen silence and she began to think that maybe it wasn't a good idea to remind him of that. "I'm sorry." She apologizes. "If this isn't comfortable for you to talk about then I'll stop."

"No it's fine Sakura." He holds a hand up, assuring her that it's okay. "Honestly, talking about him doesn't even bother me anymore. I'm just relieved that the old bastard is dead. He had it coming sooner or later." She nods in agreement and when he looked up at her bandaged wounds, he turns his body towards her. "I meant to tell you this earlier but... you were pretty out of it when I brought you here." She stares at him and he gives her a nod. "I wanted to thank you for saving me that night. You really didn't have to go out of your way to help me." He gestures to her injured body. "Not like this at least."

Now she stares at him until she speaks. "Of course I had to Lindo. Believe it or not, that demon I fought was stronger than the rest that you faced." He nods but still has guilt in his eyes. "I know that but... I just feel guilty that this happened to you. I mean you almost-

"If I hadn't taken your place Lindo, you would've died." She cuts him off instantly. "That demon almost attacked you by surprise; you weren't prepared at all and I couldn't let that creature kill you. Both Ritsuka and your mother would've been extremely devastated and I wasn't going to let them lose you like that." She sets her hand on his shoulder. "You have a life Lindo, and I expect you to live it up to your fullest. That's what I would do if I were you."

She takes her hand away and pushes a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Besides, it was the least I could do for you since you protected Emi for us. It's what... friends do for each other and I'm sure that you would've done the same for me... if given the situation that is." Lindo stares at her with surprise when he technically heard her say he was her friend and when realized that, he gave her a soft smile. "You're right. I would do the same. If given the situation."

Sakura grins back at him and opens her mouth to say something else but then her head started to feel light and dizzy. She placed her hand on her forehead and could barely keep herself up from falling.

"Don't tell me." She tells herself.

"Sakura?" Lindo asks when he saw her trying to hold herself up. Her eyes glowed into a crimson red and her breathing quickened as she started to lean forward. "Sakura, are you alright?" He asks starting to get worried about her now. She grabbed her throat and squeezed her eyes shut in attempt to wear off her weakening state. "No. No, not now. Please."

"Sakura!" She falls forward and Lindo catches her in a second. He shakes her in order to keep her from closing her eyes. "Sakura, stay with me, what's happening right now?!"

"Blood." She whispers. "What?" He puts his ear towards her face when he couldn't hear her. "Blood. I lost a lot of it that night and my due date to refill came sooner than expected. If I don't drink any soon then... then I'll..." Her eyes started to flutter close and when Lindo saw that, he quickly brought her head up and exposed his neck to her.

"Take my blood." That makes her eyes open and look at him. "What?"

"I said take my blood! It'll help you regain your strength!" Now she gave him a look like he was insane. "Take your blood? Are you serious? Don't be stupid Lindo, I can't just- I won't do that to you!" She raises her voice. "You don't have a choice Sakura, there's no other way around this, now do it!" He orders her and she hesitates, trying to figure out another solution for this. She growls lowly when nothing came to mind. "God damn it."

"Sakura!" He urges her and she sighs in frustration. "I know Lindo! Just... Just let me know if I go too far. I'm not used to doing this to just anyone." He nods for he understands. "Yeah well that makes two of us then."

With hesitation, the weak huntress reaches her arms out to Lindo and wraps them around his shoulders to lift herself up to him. When her face is close to his neck, she licks her dry lips and sighs while her fangs extracted. Her right hand cups the back of his neck and she tilts her head at an angle so her fangs can sink in smoothly and try not to cause Lindo any discomfort whatsoever.

When she started to drink, both of them started to feel strange and a little uncomfortable in this position they're in now. Lindo, of course, never had nor allowed any kind of vampire to drink from him so it was a new experience for him. Sakura was the same; she never drank blood from someone who was willing to give it to her. She'd normally drink from her targets before she'd slay them and the fact that she's feeding off of Lindo, just makes her feel awkward and tense.

Despite the memories Sakura was receiving here and there, she was beginning to notice the flavor of Lindo's blood. It didn't taste plain or dull like she's tasted from other vessels. No this was different. His blood actually tasted... pretty good. It was satisfying and clean; this was really new for her. Of course she wouldn't be the one to admit something like that, especially not to Lindo. No, that would make things even weirder between the two them!

So she just shook that thought out and slowly sinked her fangs in further so she can finish this up as soon as possible. She already knows that Lindo is just as uncomfortable with this as she is right now. The exorcist slightly tenses and he gently grits his teeth when he felt her fangs go in all the way. It's not that it hurt him at all, it just felt strange and surprisingly... nice?

Confirming this uncertain feeling, his temperature started to rise up a bit and the spot where Sakura was biting had this tingling sensation lingering there. His hand then started to rise with the intention of possibly resting on her back or cupping her head. It's like he's wanting to hold her in place so she wouldn't pull away or something. Coming to that conclusion, his hand suddenly froze and his eyes widen. This wasn't normal to feel something like this with someone right? Sakura is his friend, he couldn't possibly be secretly enjoying her feeding off of him like this, that's just wrong and insane!

Thankfully he gained control of himself when she retracted her fangs from his neck and licked the puncture holes closed. She sighs in content while pulling back from the slightly flustered dhampir. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand while not making eye contact with him, not that he's staring at her either. There was a long awkward silence between them until Lindo cleared his throat and looked at her. "So uh... how do you feel?" He asks and she takes a brief glance at him. "Much better actually. I feel... re-energized again."

"You think you'll be okay now?" She nods. "Yeah I think I'll be due next week, depending on how much blood I lost and by then I should be healed so no worries." He sighs with relief. "Good. I was uh... I was glad that I was able to help out." He rubs the back of his head and she nods in agreement. "Yeah, me too. Thank you."

Once again, awkward silence is presented in the room and when Sakura checked the time on the clock, she clears her throat. "Um. We should probably get some sleep now. It's pretty late and you have school tomorrow morning." He blinks and then nods when he agreed. "Yeah! Yeah right, I-uh I agree so I'll just uh go and let you get some sleep now so... yeah. Good night."

Sakura sits there as he walks to the door and when he opens it to walk out, she lifts her head up and speaks. "Hey Lindo?" He pauses and looks over at her. "Thank you... for opening up to me like this and letting me open up to you as well. It was nice sharing with you and I think it was well needed for the both of us."

Lindo stares at her in surprise until his face softens up with an appreciated smile. "I think so too and thank you for listening. Good night Sakura." He walks out and starts to close the door. "Good night Lindo." Sakura says before he closed it and when she was alone again, she looks out her window with a soft sigh. Lindo was on the other side of the door, sighing as well. When he felt his neck where Sakura had bitten him, he was beginning to wonder if she had taken enough blood from him so she could have the chance to heal faster.

And with that, he went towards the direction of his room and with Sakura, she gently laid herself back down in her bed and turns off her lamp, darkening her room once more. As she fell back asleep, she was completely unaware that a few pair of red eyes were watching her from a far distance and after a good minute of silence, they all dispersed back into the shadows from whence they came.

Oooh spooky! Sad but heart-warming chapter isn't it? Those two songs I posted here are called "Hurts Like Hell" by Fleurie and "Love Will Find A Way" a Disney love song from Lion King 2!!! So we finally get a look in on Sakura's life story and it looks like that both her and Lindo are getting closer as we speak huh? Yurina finally opens up to Urie after his confession and both Mage and Chinatsu seem to be getting back on track. Can't say the same for poor Nadia though, the poor girl's still very heartbroken about Roen and he happened to see her break down into tears because of him. You happy Roen?!? Also poor Emi and Shiki, they can't talk to each other and yet they still miss each other. Such heartbreak and forbidden love! (Sniffles) Ok now back to the main point here, I know for sure that the next chapter is gonna be intense so I'll be writing nonstop about the fight scenes and whatnot. And hopefully it won't take as long as the last two times did but hey, we all get busy with life am I right? (SIGH) Well I suppose I better get to work on the next chapter now, I'll see you all later and I hope you all have a great day XD!!!