Chapter 11

"YUFFIE!!!!"

Tifa screamed as she ran towards her friend, only to be roughly held back by a strong muscular arm wrapping itself around her waist and pulling her backwards against a wall of hard muscle.

"Don't," Vincent ordered, holding her tightly to him, "She could be dangerous -" "More dangerous than me???" Tifa shrieked, and without thinking, she threw up her arms and formed a large orb around herself, throwing Vincent back behind her like a used napkin.

Tifa scurried over to Yuffie, who was lying motionless in a crumpled heap on the ground, spears of blue light sticking out in every direction. Oh God, what have I done? What do I do???? She collapsed to her knees beside the girl she considered her little sister, tears already streaming down her pale cheeks. She tried to touch one of the dreadful blue spikes, only to have it crackle and spark at her hands.

"Tifa you need to calm down, love," she heard Adamus's concerned voice call from some distance behind. She looked behind her and saw him approaching her slowly, tentatively; a solid ten feet behind lay Vincent, panting slightly. …I did that…

Adamus came down to his knees beside Tifa. "You can heal," he whispered to her, his eyes shimmering with assurance. "Heal her, love… think 'heal'." Tifa took a deep breath, nodding slowly.

She placed her hands over the mangled body of her dear, dear friend. Tears continued to flow down her cheeks as she closed her eyes. Heal…

Earlier than she had intended, she felt the familiar stirring within her veins that told her that the crucifix had awakened within her. Motivated, she concentrated harder, closing her eyes tightly and holding her breath, muttering to herself, "Heal… heal…"

She heard a faint whizzing sound, also familiar to her ears as the sound of her orb dissipating. She opened her eyes, and then sighed with relief. The deadly spears of light had begun to disappear, disintegrating in the blink of an eye, one spear, then another. Soon, the last spear turned to blue sparkle before her, then faded away in the air.

She looked down at Yuffie; she was breathing lightly. Tifa took a breath, then closed her eyes again. Her hands glowed with her curious magic, her fingertips tingled, her blood coursed violently through her veins…

"Tifa…?"

Tifa's eyes flew open to see Yuffie, still lying on the floor, but with her eyes open, weakly, looking up at her. She looked bewildered.

"Yuff," Tifa sighed happily, placing her still slightly glowing hand on her friend's cheek. "I know you're confused, but don't worry, you're fine. I'll explain when you regain your strength. We're gonna take care of you." Tifa rose from the ground and turned, only to become face to face – or rather face to chest – with Vincent.

She actually had to stifle a giggle at the way he looked – his cowl was dislocated, his hair tousled untidily and he wore a slightly annoyed expression on his face. If he didn't look annoyed, that untidy hair might have looked sexy…

Tifa mentally slapped herself and threw back her shoulders, defiantly. "Well don't just stand there, pick her up," she said, matter-of-factly, causing a noticeable deepening of the already rigid lines of annoyance on his masculine face. However, he complied, lifting Yuffie's childlike frame in his arms with breathless ease.

They carried her to Adamus's cavern, where he treated her with the same potion he had given to Tifa. In a matter of minutes, the little ninja was up and conscious, asking questions by the dozen.

"Why are you guys here? What happened to me? What's going on? Why haven't you been contacting me? Do you have any idea how worried I am? What the heck is with Cloud? Why are you guys looking at me like that??"

Indeed, all three of them were staring incredulously at Yuffie, who not half hour ago was a raging, life-threatening vampire monster. She doesn't remember a thing… This doesn't help us…

"Yuffie, let me explain what we know so far. But you have to promise me you won't follow us on this. Promise me you'll go straight home afterwards and tell no one what has happened. Promise?" Tifa looked expectantly at the curious little kunoichi, who bobbed her round head yes.

Tifa revealed to Yuffie every single detail from the gunshots in the kitchen to her vicious attack on them a few minutes ago. Yuffie gasped; she had never believed in these horror stories. And now her best friend – no, her SISTER – was in the middle of one.

"Teef, you and Vincent need to come home," she insisted, tugging childishly on Vincent's tattered cowl. Vincent slightly furrowed his brow before swishing the cape away from her grasp. "You guys need to see the kids. Make up a story. You need to get more material and supplies and a shower and -"

"We will come," Vincent said curtly, his deep baritone slicing through Yuffie's sharp falsetto. Adamus nodded. "You must. Get some rest and then come back here tomorrow. We will search for a lead in the Lockheart Volume"

Tifa sighed and got up. "It's late now. Let's bunk in the cave down lower and leave first thing in the morning."


"This is where you've been staying?? No wonder you smell like soot and bat poop!" Yuffie screeched when she saw the cave in which Vincent and Tifa had stayed in for the past month or so. The teen ninja kicked at the sooty heap of past fires, then whirled around suddenly, narrowing her eyes at Vincent before letting her eyes travel up and down his large frame, then Tifa's.

"Yuffie…" Tifa said, tentatively, "… What is it?"

Yuffie's brows shot up over her round grey eyes, now sparkling with mischief. "So uh… you two stayed here… while Addie stayed up there… And you were… alone…?" She bobbed her eyebrows suggestively, and Tifa almost fainted.

"Yuffie!" she shouted, trying in vain to ignore the tingly heat that bloomed on her cheeks and flickered across the bridge of her nose. She knew she was blushing, but she couldn't do anything about it.

The truth is, she had been having rather… explicit dreams about the man who lay beside her on that sandy surface. Sleeping had become near impossible as her subconscious mind conjured up sensual images of the man whose long, raven hair and large, muscular, bulging chest heaving with each deep, intoned breath sent her mind reeling with her own body heaving in sync with his, his sighs weaving together to create sexy promises in her ear as his hair brushed against the smooth, sensitive skin of her neck, tickling not only her skin but her senses, sending titillating surges of intense pleasure through her dilated veins to the low pit of her stomach…

TIFA! Don't do this now, not now, not when you know you'll get snapped back into reality to find yourself-

"BLUSHING!!!!" Yuffie shrieked, dreadfully breaking her out of her sinful reverie and ironically finishing her sentence. She frowned and threw a charred stick of used firewood at the ninja, so upset that she missed by no less than a foot. "Shut up!" Tifa warned, and immediately felt a familiar surge sweep through her in her frustration.

She gasped and looked down at her now blue, glowing palm. Alarmed, she took a deep breath and held it, squeezing her eyes shut as she fought down the liquid energy that seemed to stretch her blood vessels to bursting. She could control it, she must.

Slowly, she let out her breath, and with it, the power receded, back to her heart, where above on her now warm flesh, the crucifix lay. She opened her eyes to see Yuffie staring, fear-stricken, at her, at least three feet further from her than where she was before.

"I'm sorry, Yuffie, I just… kinda lost it for a while. I won't hurt you, I promise…" Tifa looked at her little friend with an apologetic and infinitely pleading look in her eyes. Please forgive me Yuff… Please don't be … afraid… I'm not a … a monster…

Am I?


Was that a good place to stop?

I'm SO SORRY I took so dang long to update! I'm in Lower Six Level now at school [that's like, the equivalent to 11th grade or something? I dunno lol] and I became Vice Student Body President, so I have like a LOT of stuff to do, and then my CAPE exams are coming up now so I'm all busy with studying and oral exams and ALL KINDS OF STUFF.

I hope it hasn't affected my writing to much??? Tell me by giving me a review!! =P

Thanks to all those who have been reviewing. Luv ya!