Finals/graduation and the subsequent binge-sleeping and social functions are over, so I finally got some writing done!


The whole family, Saya, Haji, Freddie, Yuki, Diva and Solomon were all seated around the dining table. Naturally, Diva had chosen to sit beside Saya.

Unfortunately, the chief feature of the dinnertime conversation was the ticking of a clock. The chirping of crickets would have been appropriate too, but it was a little too early in the year for that.

"Diva, go easy on the steak, you'll turn into a cow!" Freddie nagged, probably just for the sake of breaking the silence.

Diva rolled her eyes and dragged another slab of meat onto her plate.

"There's some truth to that, you know," Yuki added. "Our kind evolved to mimic our prey. It's a characteristic common to all chiropteran species, and by chiropteran, I don't mean bats, I mean us."

"All chiropteran species?" Solomon asked, curiosity heightened by a desire to keep some kind of conversation going. "Are you saying that there's more than one?"

"Of course!" Yuki answered smugly. "Did you really think that humanoid chiropterans were out on an evolutionary limb, all by ourselves? Many other species have predators hidden in their midst."

"Why haven't human scientists found any of them?"

"A shape shifter is only found when it wants to be found. But humans have had contact with them. Think about it, human folklore is full of immortal critters, particularly ones who have wings, even though it makes no biological sense – angels, pegasus, griffins -"

She sounds like Nathan, Solomon thought, and yet she doubtlessly knows more about it than he does.

"What about flying pigs?" Diva muttered. Solomon chortled, mainly because he wanted her attention. He suddenly felt ridiculous, realizing that he'd just fallen into the most cliché form of flirting imaginable – laughing at a joke that wasn't really funny.

Diva turned over to Saya, who was unenthusiastically poking at her food. "Aren't you hungry, Saya?"

"Not really," Saya mumbled.

"Oh! Well, then, hell with dinner," Diva said cheerfully, standing from her seat, steak forgotten, "let's go hang out!"

And once again, Saya was being led upstairs, this time to Diva's room.

Yuki leaned back in her chair as soon as they'd left. "You know, I'd never really thought of myself as the sort of mother who would beat her children, but I swear if Saya doesn't knock it off, I may have to slap some sense into her."

Diva plopped herself onto her bed, and after more than a minute of dumbly standing around, Saya sat stiffly on a nearby desk chair.

"So Saya, can I ask you a question? I know it's gonna sound sudden, but I've been wanting to know for a long time. Do you mind?"

Saya shook her head slightly.

"Well," Diva began to fidget as she spoke, "I guess you know that I don't really remember anything that happened before five years ago, and mom and dad won't tell me anything, they just say that I'm better off not knowing. But I also know that sometimes, parents can be kinda overprotective, that they sometimes withhold things from you –but that's what big-sisters are for – telling you things that you need to know, but your parents won't tell you," she said imploringly. "But don't get me wrong, I'm not really asking you to tell me everything you know, that wouldn't be fair. What I'm really asking is – are mom and dad exaggerating? Is it really that bad? You're my sister, so I'll trust anything you say – if you tell me that I really am better off not knowing, then I'll know never to ask again. Whatever you say, I'll take your word for it – so, am I really better off not knowing?"

Saya didn't make eye contact as she answered, so flat that it was almost mumbled. "Yes. You are better off, not knowing."

"Oh," Diva said softly, sounding both sad and disappointed. A few more seconds of silence passed.

"Can I ask you just one thing about it then?"

Saya didn't answer this time, but Diva went ahead with her question. "The abuse –" she murmured awkwardly, "was it – you know – sexual?"

Saya fought off a fleeting urge to viciously shout - no. The only rapist was you.

"Not that I know of," Saya forced herself to answer. Focused on her own discomfort as she was, it didn't occur to her that just because Diva had technically been a virgin when her children were conceived, didn't necessarily mean that some of the various tortures and abuses she'd suffered didn't have a sexual element.

"Oh," Diva said, now sounding embarrassed but relieved. "Sorry, that must have sounded like a really weird question, it's just that, you know, when people say that they did stuff too horrible for me to be told about, my first thought was that it was – you know."

Silence.

Diva noticed Saya gazing absently at her sports trophy shelf. "Those are mostly from soccer. I made varsity this year," Diva explained proudly. "Do you do any sports?"

"I used to do track," Saya answered listlessly.

"Really? Cool! Any particular event?"

"High jump."

"That's so cool! I bet you totally kicked ass, what with your chiropteran powers. Sometimes, especially during big games, I wish I had them. Sometimes I feel like, even when I'm giving it a hundred percent, I still feel like I could do better, like something's holding me back, you know?"

"Hmm."

More silence.

"Do you do any sports now or, I guess you're too busy doing grownup stuff, taking care of your kids."

"I do teach a kendo class."

"Kendo? You mean like samurai-fencing? Holy crap, that's awesome Saya!"

With that, Diva hopped up and grabbed a broom and dust-mop that had been propped up against the wall nearby, no doubt left over from her cleaning earlier. Diva hastily unscrewed the long handles of both tools, tossed one to Saya, and held the other out in front of her, as if it were a sword.

"Here, show me some moves!"

Of course, Saya immediately proceeded to faint.

"Oh shit! Saya!" Diva dove toward her sister, reaching her just in time to keep her from hitting her head on the corner of the tarantula tank, which would have really hurt. Diva knelt on the floor, holding Saya up with one arm, and lightly patting her cheek with her other hand. "Saya? Saya? You dummy, did you forget to feed?"

Saya's eyes shot open, and as soon as Diva's face came into focus, she let out a scream of utter terror and scrambled away from her sister.

That was apparently the last straw, necessitating the intervention of the various eavesdroppers. Haji was the first one in the room, flying to Saya's side and instantly scooping her up into his arms.

Diva stepped away nervously. The look her brother-in-law gave her just then from over her sister's shoulder, cold and mistrustful, was about the scariest thing she'd ever seen. "She fainted," Diva sputtered, not quite sure why she was suddenly afraid for her life, even though there wasn't even the slightest hint of aggression in his posture. But for the briefest of moments, she could have sworn that his face literally changed into that of someone else, still with dark hair and an icy pale-blue gaze, but the features were different. Face more square, eyes more rounded, a neat black beard and narrow moustache, and countenance even more unreadable.

But one blink was enough to dispel the illusion, and the rest of the household came rushing in.

"She fainted," Diva explained again. "I'll go down stairs and get some blood." She turned nervously toward her brother-in-law, checking again that his face was as it should be, "Does she like it warmed up? In a glass or still in the pack?" she asked him, sincere and innocent, as if trying to convince him of her good intentions out of a vague fear of disapproval.

It seemed to work. Whatever panicked suspicion Haji had felt when he'd first walked in to find Saya cowering in front of her in terror, seemed to ebb. In the old days, he had truly hated Diva, having loved the people that she killed just as much as Saya had. But now he found himself thinking of this new Diva much in the same way as he had once thought of Kai, someone that he disliked for reasons he knew to be unfair, so deep down, he had no choice but to approve of them.

Even Saya, only half present, saw in that moment, that this Diva wouldn't hurt a fly. But even so, Diva remained just as terrifying, just in a completely different way. Saya had no good reason not to love her, but still fairly sure that it was impossible to do so. That she would never be able to reciprocate the affection that Diva so clearly showed her.

"I kind of doubt that blood is the real problem," Solomon commented.

"Yes," the stepfather chimed in. "Precious, you've never been on a long plane ride before, so I guess you don't know – that sitting in one place for hours is actually surprisingly exhausting." He turned to Haji, "Perhaps it would be best if she went straight to bed?"

Haji nodded, and carried her out of the room.

"Yes, I'm sure she'll be in a much friendlier mood tomorrow!" Yuki shouted, making sure that Saya could hear.

The rest of the family exited, Solomon lingering for a moment as if waiting for an invitation to stay. But none came; Diva just sat down on her bed, obviously deep in thought.


They were in a hotel room now. Jonah was staring vacantly out the window, and Aka was crosslegged on the bed, hunched over her laptop.

"What do you think about Taiwan?"

"It won't be enough," Jonah said gravely.

"What do you mean? You think we should go for somewhere more remote?"

"No. Running away, in general. It won't be enough. They'll find me, eventually."

"Why do you say that?"

"If he's consciously looking for me, Solomon can sense me from miles away. And that phone call you made, you heard – he's acting on Saya's orders, and there's no way that she'll give up, just like that. She'll hunt me, or more likely, make Solomon hunt me, until the day I die by his hand."

On the surface, it sounded a bit paranoid, but considering what they both knew – Saya's obsessive devotion to destroying non-Red-Shield affiliated chiropterans and Solomon's obsessive devotion to Saya – it wasn't an unreasonable assumption. It probably would have been true, if it weren't founded on a misunderstanding.

Aka's laptop clicked shut. "What do we do then?"

Jonah looked up at her, stare deadly serious, while one side of his lips curled into a smirk so subtle, that you would only notice it if you were looking for it.


The music, that first phrase, seemed to float into his ears, and then course through his veins to every extremity.

"What is she doing?" Solomon asked his older brother, sitting on the opposite couch.

"Diva? She's singing. What's it sound like?" he returned teasingly.

"But why? I haven't heard her sing once since - If she doesn't remember anything, then how does she know that tune?"

"She picked it up from Yuki. Notice how the syllables are all different? That's the mother tongue, whereas Diva used to pretty much sing in vaguely romantic gibberish."

"Are you saying that Diva was born knowing it?'

"Yes. There are other more complex explanations, but consider her childhood. Sitting alone in that drab tower all day, it's no wonder that she had to reach into her subconscious for sensory stimulation. She was always very in touch with her instincts, because god knows she wasn't in touch with anybody else." Freddie paused. "Though I always did notice that she had a tendency to start singing whenever Saya was around. While I have no way to prove it, personally, I got the impression that she was trying to impress her… though you know, it probably isn't doing anything to help Saya relax, now. The bedroom walls are all soundproofed, but I'm sure Saya can hear it."

"I'll go see if I can get Diva to stop," Solomon offered, sort of looking for an excuse to see her in private.

He made his way into the other end of the house, that nook in the greenhouse where the piano sat, and Diva along with it. Interestingly, the moment he entered the room, all thought of asking her to stop vanished.

It's been so long since I've heard it.

The song didn't finish though, somewhere near the end, she apparently slipped up in some way, and the piece was ended with a frustrated shit! instead of a dramatic fortissimo. She slammed down the piano lid and huffed. "I suck today; damn high f!" she muttered to herself, turning around on the bench to get up.

"Solomon!" she squeaked in surprise, and then made an obvious effort at coolness. "What are you doing here?"

"I actually came to ask you to quiet down so Saya can rest, but – I just couldn't bring myself to interrupt."

"Oh," she started fidgeting, as usual. "I was actually hoping it would help her chill out; mom says that part of that song comes from a lullaby, from olden times. That and I'm only allowed to sing late at night, when we can be sure that no humans are gonna stop by." Diva pursed her lips thoughtfully. "My parents say that bad things happen when humans hear my voice, that they die, and it has something to do with stuff that happened a long time ago; some company used chiropteran blood to make poison, and gave it to, like, millions of people. God, what kind of assholes would do something like that?" she demanded, apparently rhetorically.

Solomon nearly laughed out loud at the irony of the moment, and the thought of himself slinking out of the room with a nonchalant whistle. "No idea."

"Hmm."

She then let out a loud, childish sigh, the sort that is made only to beg the listener to ask what's wrong?

Solomon obliged. "What's wrong?"

"Okay, I'm just gonna out and ask – is Saya crazy?"

It actually took him a moment to think of a response. "No. At least, I don't think so. I think it would be better to say that she has issues. Her past affects her deeply. But then again, I would be a complete and utter liar if I said that I understood your sister, and why she does what she does."

Diva sighed again. "It's not going anything like I imagined!"

"You mean, Saya's visit?"

"I dunno, I guess I thought that we'd hit it off right away, you know? Like in those lame, supposedly real stories about how long lost twins meet for the first time and find out that they're wearing the same clothes."

"Well, I don't think you and Saya are identical twins, technically."

"She's acting like she doesn't even want to be here! What's her problem?"

Solomon sat down on the bench beside her. "Diva, keep in mind, that this past that your parents have deemed too terrible for you to be told about – was inextricably intertwined with Saya's. I believe that in some way, you remind her of things she'd rather forget." Solomon paused, leaning back to gaze at the rain tapping on the glass roof, "You and I both do. Notice how she didn't exactly seem glad to see me?"

"Hmm. Yeah," she murmured, lost in thought again. "Oh my god. I think I just figured it out. That's why my parents don't want me to know. They're afraid that I'd get all jumpy and traumatized, like Saya."

"Something like that," Solomon muttered, the lie tasted bitter on his tongue. "But Diva, there is one thing I can tell you for sure. Saya is very devoted to her family. I am sure she recognizes you as part of that. Just – be patient with her, she'll come around."

"But there's also the problem that – I don't know what to even talk to her about! I hadn't even thought about it before but, I mean, all the shows and movies and bands I like, she's never even heard of! I guess she's probably into Japanese stuff."

"I somewhat doubt that Saya keeps much in touch with contemporary pop-culture, American or Japanese."

Diva's head hung over her lap. "Then what do I talk to her about? She already freaked out when I tried mentioning sports. I don't know what to say!"

Solomon reached over to her, placing his fingers under her chin and gently pushed her head up to a less dejected position, and to the side, to face him.

"Diva, I'm sure you'll be able to think of something. If you can make interesting and entertaining conversation with a hundred-and-fifty year-old soldier-turned-businessman, then I'm sure you can do the same with a two-hundred-year-old warrior-turned-housewife."

"Thank you, " she said, looking up at him with a hopeful smile, gazing at him with eyes somewhere between gratefulness and adoration. "You know, I kinda missed having you around, these past few weeks," she said shyly.

He smiled back the same sort of smile, though on him, it looked a bit more smug. "You know, I kind of missed being around."

A few seconds later, they both realized that they'd been staring at each other for far too long.

"Diva, you should probably get to bed," he said, standing from the bench, not quite sure why he had diffused the moment.

"Yeah, I guess." She did the same, and they both walked toward the door.

"Oh and Diva, if you are ever really stumped as to what to a topic for conversation with Saya – try bringing up her children."

"She likes talking about her kids?"

"There isn't a mother alive who doesn't."

The two went their separate ways, Diva toward her bedroom, and Solomon toward the door of the guestroom. There was something he'd been meaning to do, but hadn't had a good opportunity to do it, until now.

He knocked lightly on the guestroom door.

"It's me."

"It's not locked," Haji answered in monotone.

Solomon walked in and began to speak as soon as the door was shut behind him. He found Saya standing with her back to him, hovering over an open suitcase on the bed, apparently unpacking.

"Saya, I just wanted to tell you that I knew nothing about any of this until very recently, and I would have told you immediately if Nathan and your mother hadn't sworn that they were about to tell you themselves -"

He cut himself off when he realized that she wasn't taking things out of the suitcase, but putting things into it. Solomon was speechless as she snapped it shut, handed it to her husband, and pulled on her coat.

"Saya – what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm leaving."

"No, you're not," Solomon insisted, as if he weren't arguing so much as correcting her error. "You're staying for another five days."

"I'm leaving now."

"But why would you do that?"

Saya huffed, muttering again. "I found out what I came here to find out. She's not dangerous, so now I'm leaving."

"No, you're not." Now he was arguing.

Saya glared at him. "It is not your place to tell me what to do."

"No, you're wrong about that," he answered stern but calm. "You see, I can tell you what to do; you're under no obligation to do as I say, but I will say it all the same. That is the difference between him and me." Solomon briefly pointed at Haji. "I will not just stand by in silence and watch you make mistakes. I will tell you what I think, and considering what I have suffered for your sake, I'm sure you at least feel obligated to hear me out."

Saya couldn't help but unwillingly agree with that.

"Saya, are you leaving because you still hold a grudge against her, is that it? That's absurd. Saya, she doesn't even know what she did. Even if she did know, even if her memories were completely intact, even then, how could you hold her responsible? Saya, I've seen her kill more times than you have, I can tell you with absolute certainty that she didn't understand. I don't think she comprehended the difference between a human and her dolls, other than that one offered her sustenance, and the other didn't. I don't even think that she understood death any better than a child does, over the years, more than once, she asked me when Grigori was coming back, even when he'd been dead for decades.

"Saya, don't you know about her upbringing, if you can even call it an upbringing? For the first fifty years of her life, the only example of humanity she was exposed to was Amshel! How was she supposed to learn empathy and compassion from a man who was completely devoid of both? And let's face it, she wasn't exactly surrounded by good role-models in the years following." Solomon paused, searching his memory for additional ammunition. "You know, at times Amshel even encouraged her to be cruel, she would kill a child and he would clap and laugh with delight, and mutter something about her glorious chiropteran nature. Have you ever read Amshel's journals? I did turn them over to the Shield. If you read between the lines, you'd see he wanted her to turn out a savage, no doubt to support his own hypothesis, he even mentions doing things like dragging drunks and prostitutes back to the tower, killing them and harvesting their blood right in front of Diva. I knew he was evil for longer than you'd probably guess, but I went along with it out of self-interest. Diva didn't have that choice. She did what she did because it was all she knew, and she killed because she didn't know any better. The deaths of her victims may as well have been just a series of unfortunate accidents."

"I've heard this sort of thing from you before, a long time ago, remember?" Saya said bitterly.

"In a way, yes. I was trying to help you then and I'm trying to help you know." He returned to his tirade. "Or is your anger with Diva more specific? About your little brother Riku, perhaps?"

With the mention of that name, the look on Saya's face went from grouchy to enraged.

"Well Saya, I have news for you. Diva didn't kill your brother. Not on purpose, anyway."

"Of course she did!" Saya bellowed. "She raped him and forced him to drink her blood!"

"No, Saya, think about it, that doesn't make any sense. I don't think there was any she could have made him drink her blood, no matter how bewitching she was."

For a moment, Saya saw the image of her crystallized dead brother, and recalled how she'd always found it odd that her sister had forced her blood on him, but there wasn't a single drop or smudge of it on his face.

"Saya, I'm surprised that your mother and Nathan didn't explain it to you, what happens to a Chevalier after a successful mating. Diva went to Riku as a virgin, and that was the blood that killed him. Ask your parents, they'll tell you."

"That's impossible! Then you'd be –" Saya couldn't finish. She couldn't bring herself to say another word on the subject, not in front of Haji.

"Yes, but if you recall, your mother gave me blood that afternoon. That's why I survived, and Riku didn't. You see? Diva didn't murder your brother – and I seriously doubt that she had to rape him."

"ENOUGH!" Saya shouted, briefly covering her ears, as if she couldn't bear to think of her pure-hearted martyr of a little brother in such a way, like some sex-crazed insect who willingly mates at the expense of its life.

"No. It's not nearly enough," Solomon stated, still infuriatingly calm. "Saya, do you have any idea how happy Diva was when you finally called? How she was beside herself with joy when she found out you were coming here? And do you realize how much it will hurt her if you up and leave after three hours without even saying goodbye?"

Saya just scowled at the floor in response.

"Or is that what you want, Saya? You want to hurt her, you want her to hate you so you won't have to see her again, so you go back to Okinawa and pretend that she's still ground into the foundation of Lincoln Center? You want her to hate you as much as you hate her, don't you? Well, I'll tell you something. That girl never really hated you. Whatever you've convinced yourself over the years, you were the one that hunted her, not the other way around. Was there ever a duel that you didn't start? Did she ever try to kill you when you weren't actively trying to kill her? Even now, that girl loves as sister should, she's been nothing but excessively kind to you, and now you treat her like toxic waste."

Saya finally looked up at him with head-on glare, eyes full of rage and burgeoning tears, her voice just as harsh as her words, but with a calm that seemed to mock his. "Not everyone can love their enemy as easily as you can, Solomon."

Solomon's eyes flinched shut and he averted his face, as if it had just been pelted with a handful of shit.

Haji appeared between them, mainly to protect Saya from the violent response that she almost deserved, but in some small way, he was also shielding Solomon. Whatever grudge Haji held against him, he actually recognized that for Saya to say such a thing to him, was just plain mean.

After a moment of tense silence, even Saya seemed to realize that she'd crossed a line.

Her eyes closed, and she forced the fury off her face and out of her voice, sounding truly apologetic. "I'm sorry Solomon. I'm sorry I can't be friends with her like you, and my parents seem to want. I tried, and I can't."

"An awkwardly silent dinner and a ten minute one-sided conversation? You really call that trying?" He took a step forward, regarding her intently, voice softer and yet ten times more caustic. "Who are you? Where is the Saya I came to admire so deeply? Where is the Saya who would do anything for her family? Where is the Saya who would willingly put herself through hell, just to correct a past mistake? Where is she? Have you left her behind in Okinawa? Or have I been deceived in you, all these years?"

Solomon turned to leave, walking to the door, and as he reached for the knob, he looked back over his shoulder. As if to complete the parallels with that afternoon at the Zoo long ago, when he'd mercilessly cornered her with repulsive truth, again, he left her with that withering, persuasive stare.

And then he was gone, door shut behind him.

Saya sat down on the bed, arms folded like a pouting child, and a tear finally rolling down across her sour face. Haji tried to embrace her, but she scooted away, and glared at him spitefully.

"You agree with him, don't you?" she demanded.

"No, I don't agree with him," he stated, soothing and frank. "But I do think you are underestimating yourself."

Saya looked up at him as he continued, as if surprised by what he'd said, as if she had expected him to berate her too. "I know that being here is very unpleasant to you. But I have seen you endure trials, both physical and emotional, that were at least as great as this." He smiled at her tenderly. "You know that I believe there isn't a single thing you can't accomplish, if you truly resolve to see it through."

Her arms jerkily unfolded, and she threw off her coat. Between those two arguments, there was no way she could leave now.

Meanwhile, Solomon was standing just on the other side of the door, head thrown back in hopeless frustration.

What is wrong with that woman? How can anyone be so pointlessly stubborn? Does she really love her own misery that much?

He was literally just about to get to the all-important mental statement what did I ever see in her? when he noticed Diva standing in the doorway of her bedroom, at the other end of the hall.

Solomon was seized by a moment of panic at the suspicion that she must have heard some of that conversation. But he quickly recalled his brother mentioning that the bedroom walls were soundproofed. Plus, the look on Diva's face wasn't anything like it should have been if she'd heard any of that argument; it was casual and calm instead of embarrassed and awestruck.

For some reason, Solomon felt it necessary to explain why he had been in Saya's bedroom. "I was just checking in with your sister. After all, I am still her Chevalier." There was a subtle, but unmistakable regret in his voice. "What are you doing up, Diva?"

"Oh, I heard some weird noises coming from the bushes outside; I think it's probably the raccoons." Her tone lowered as she spoke, as if she knew she was rambling. "Sometimes they come at night and roll up the sod to get the bugs underneath, and it messes up the lawn. I was just about to go get my dad to go scare 'em off, but it looks like he's in his study, and he doesn't usually like to be bothered…"

"Hm, I guess I could help you," Solomon said, regaining his usual pleasantness, "I may not be very intimidating to humans, but I think I'm probably capable of scaring off a raccoon or two."

I could use the distraction, and I have to think of a way to prepare her for Saya's early departure.

The two of them walked downstairs and out onto the back porch. It was raining hard now, probably one of the few decent storms the area got in a year.

"Do you hear it?"

Solomon had to strain to listen; he could vaguely perceive that there was something in the bushes, but the harsh patting of the rain made it difficult to sense anything clearly.

"It's bigger than a raccoon," he commented.

"Bigger? Like a coyote or something?"

Solomon had closed his eyes to better focus in on the creature. "It's bipedal," he added after a few seconds.

"You mean a human?"

His eyes suddenly snapped open, "No, definitely not human," his voice took on a considerable degree of urgency, and he leapt down the porch stairs out into the yard. "Diva, go inside and stay there," he ordered.

"No!" she snapped with childish attitude, as if to say you're not the boss of me. She followed him down the steps.

Solomon stopped somewhere near the edge of the orchard; he could hear the monster rustling through the growth.

It's Karl. It has to be. Who else could it be? Could I have been wrong about him being harmless?

It was getting closer and closer, the sound of branches snapping and leaves crunched by oversized feet.

He's already transformed. He's here to fight.

I should have killed him. I should have killed him…

Solomon waited, holding his breath in anticipation of the sight of his little brother, no doubt just as violently maniacal as ever, ready to plunge all the family's well laid plans into chaos, as he'd always had a knack for.

But he breathed a deep sigh of relief when the monster finally appeared. As the former CEO of Cinque Fleches, he knew a garden-variety delta-series chiropteran when he saw it. The creature wasn't even charging them, it was just slowly lumbering towards them, swaying clumsily like a drunk, drooling heavily and looking rather disoriented.

It looks like it's just barely reached full zoanthropy. There are still a few scraps of clothing on it.

Diva shrieked at the sight of it. "Oh my god! What the hell is that?"

Solomon glanced back at her, about to answer you know what it is, but realized that Diva probably had no memory of ever seeing one transformed before.

"Chiropteran," he cursorily explained, shrugging off his coat and tossing it to her, less like he was preparing for a fistfight, then preparing to clean up a nasty mess. While the monster didn't seem hostile, and he knew that it posed no real threat to either of them, they being its blood-mother and blood-brother, Solomon still thought it best to put it down before it started causing problems.

His right arm was briefly enveloped in pale blue light, while it transformed into his signature weapon. Diva gave a little grunt of revulsion at the sight of the bizarrely deformed limb.

Solomon rushed forward at the creature, blade poised to slice it to pieces before it even knew what hit it. But just as his weapon was about to make contact, the thing seemed to realize that it was under attack, and threw one gigantic muscular arm out in front of it, knocking Solomon into a bed of tulips, a few feet away.

Solomon grinned and shook his head as he righted himself. "Well then, it seems I'm getting out of shape," he chuckled with a tut-tut. But before he could reengage the monster, he sensed movement from behind him, in the vicinity of the upstairs guestroom balcony.

That said, he wasn't even remotely surprised to see Saya leap over the rail, sword already in hand, nightgown fluttering around her as she flew toward the ground.

Oh good, she's in her nightclothes. I guess that means she's decided to stay, thought Solomon.

Saya wasted no time in entering the battle. "Kyaaaaa!" she bellowed as she charged at it.

Solomon stepped forward, feeling obligated to help, but found his way blocked by one of Haji's arms, followed by a meaningful look.

Hmm, I suppose you have the right idea, Haji. Better to let her blow off some steam.

Saya attacked, springing up off the ground just before she reached the monster, and with one graceful crescent-shaped stroke of her sword, she beheaded the creature and cut a huge diagonal line down through its torso, that almost certainly ran directly through its heart. Saya was apparently still in command of herself enough to keep in mind that her blood was now useless for this application.

The poor creature hit the ground in three separate pieces, and Saya stood panting over it, watching for any signs of life. But the thing was so thoroughly killed that it didn't even twitch, let alone regenerate. Now satisfied that the chiropteran was dead, Saya turned around to face the onlookers, and sword still in hand, the glow of her eyes through the rain droplets made it look almost as if they were giving off sparks, as they fixed directly on the stunned Diva.

Solomon immediately saw the danger, and appeared beside Diva, one arm extending in front of her, prepared to shield her from any half-delirious attack. But the strange, one-sided standoff only lasted for a second, not even long enough for Diva to remotely guess what her sister was thinking. The tension was shattered by a shrill, but masculine voice from the back porch.

"What the hell is going on out here?" Freddie demanded, headphones hanging around his neck, and his wife strolling out close behind.

"What took you two so long?" Solomon asked casually.

"I had my headphones on and she sleeps with ear-plugs, but even that wasn't enough to block out that god-awful racket," Freddie whined, walking toward them and nearly tripping on a slab of dead chiropteran.

"Ewwwee!" he squealed, as if it were an ordinary dead mouse. "Where the hell did that thing come from? Oh shit, I hope it's not Ignacio!"

"Yes, good question," Yuki added, thinking a moment. "Oh dear, you were singing earlier, weren't you, precious?"

"Huh?" Diva asked, shock just starting to wear off.

No one seemed to notice that they were all sopping wet from the rain.

"But still," Yuki continued, "we made sure that the neighbors can't hear it from the edge of our property. Whoever they were, they must have been in the yard."

Solomon was already trying to find out the answer to that all important question, and found it in the form of a wallet, entangled in the shreds of clothes still clinging to the creature's body.

"Ohhh," Solomon to said to himself as if he'd just parsed out a riddle. He held up the ID tab of the wallet. "It's just my stalker. She's been following me on and off for the past few weeks."

Makes sense, I suppose. Cinque Fleches products stayed in circulation for years, and she must have consumed one, at some point.

Freddie's face scrunched up in irritation. "This doesn't have anything to do with that chick who's been hanging around the front of our house for the past few weeks, now does it?"

Yuki turned to Diva. "See? It's not your fault, precious. There's no way you could have known that crazy lady was sneaking around in the garden."

"Solomon, you're sure she's not a cop, right?" Freddie asked.

"Quite sure."

"Alright then!" Freddie said with an enthusiastic clap. "This should be a piece of cake. You all go inside and dry off, Solomon and I will take care of this. Go on, go, go."

They all did as they were told, Diva lingering at the back of the line filing in the back door, glancing back at the bizarre murder scene.

"Thank god for the storm, it'll make this a lot easier," the ancient Chevalier declared, "The blood will go into the lawn and give it a bonus nitrogen boost, and then all we need to do with the body is cut it up into a few more pieces and dump it in the creek, the storm'll have the water so high and fast that the body should be out to sea before anyone notices it."

Freddie assumed his thinker pose. "Hm, let's see, I guess tomorrow, I can assume her face and drive her car down across the border making sure the cameras catches me, dump her car and then take the bus back as someone else. That should clear us of any suspicion, don't you think? And even if the police were somehow able to connect us, the only one without a solid alibi would be me, and I am pretty damn cool under interrogation. Lived through the Spanish Inquisition, you know."

"So, wait - what am I supposed to do?" Solomon asked, confused by his brother's volunteering to take care of everything.

"Nothing, really. It's only fair, you see. Recently, you volunteered to take care of an unpleasant task for me, it's only right that I do the same for you. Now will you be a dear and fetch me the wheelbarrow from the shed? Oh and could you also go check on Diva? She must be pretty shaken up, seeing all that."


As usual, I yearn for reviews!