Time to refocus on everyones favorite vampire! Please enjoy!

Several Weeks later.

With the addition of Francis to the Sanctuary, everyone sleep a little bit more at ease.

The young man was a life sprite. That is, a healer, a breather of life.

He could bring someone back even from the brink of death. This made it a lot less stressful whenever someone returned bleeding and bandaged. Despite having not yet lost a recruit to the labs, they were only escaping by the skin of their teeth, not to mention that they often had to circle around for hours to lose the ones pursuing them.

Valentin thought this all over as he coasted above the city under the pure dark sky.

A storm brewed darkly, the clouds blocking the moon and the stars. The vampire had needed to stretch his wings, and another set of dots had recently appeared in the tome. Two of them, to be specific, and the duo was close by. Valentin's blood red eyes glittered as the lights from the city glowed bright even under the threatening night skies. The vampire sailed to a nearby skyscraper and landed gracefully on the top.

"What did Arthur say...I think a few streets south...or was it north? And which way is south again?"

Valentin scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

Well, he was lost.

Oops.

Sighing heavily, he took a running start and jumping from the edge of the roof with a hoot of excitement, he felt the rush of the deadly drop below him as he spread his wings, they billowed up and caught the wind, carrying him upwards until he was soaring once more.

I suppose I'll just circle for a while then. Geez, Iggy is gonna kill me if I lose another recruit because I got lost.

Frowning at the thought of getting lectured, he lowered his coasting height a bit, looking down to the alleyways below. 90% of the creatures so far had been hiding in alleys or abandon buildings, so it was a safe enough bet.

He dropped down into one of the back alleys, so to avoid being spotted.

Looking around, no one else was back there.

Figures I wouldn't just drop right on top of them.

"Well, at least it hasn't started raining yet..." The vampire sighed.

A few drops landed in his hair at that moment, and before he knew it, a dismal shower was raining down onto his head.

Blowing at the wet ribbons from his hat, which had dropped into his face, and grumbling under his breath, Vali set himself into wandering.

Walking around in the rain. Of course. This is all because I didn't pay attention to the directions Lukas was talking about until after he told me to get going. Which means I just flew out here and now I have no clue where I'm going. Guess I'll just have to look for someone suspicious.

Valentin was all for the positives, but this was going to get tedious, not to mention that if he didn't reach the myth creature first, they might be captured by the labs, whom the group still hadn't discovered the name of.

It was also raining, which was never a good time.

He grew increasingly agitated as the night dragged on, rain still pouring down on him, soon enough he'd have to leave if he wanted to make it back before sunrise. Dragging his heavy black combat boots down another street, he shuffled along until something strange poking out of an alley caught his eye. This was a shady back street, but under these circumstances Vali knew he could take care of himself. He crept closer to the strange thing just barely emerging from the corner of the alley. It looked like a piece of leather. Reaching down, Valentin picked it up between two gloved fingers.

He wasn't aware it was attached to something.

But it wasn't a something that lay mingled amongst the trash bins, it was a someone.

Valentin let out a frantic gasp at the sight of a ghostly pale hand sticking out from behind the trash cans.

Moving quickly, he pushed aside the trash cans and took in who he'd found.

His heart just about stopped.

"A...vampire?" He breathed softly.

It could be nothing else. The young mans mouth was hanging slightly open to reveal sharp incisors, and the strange black thing Valentin had spotted was no leather, it was the tip of the injured creatures wings.

"Hey! Hey, wake up!" He shook the form of the vampire gently.

When he wasn't met with a response, he gently rolled the fellow onto his back.

The one lying on the ground was wearing a heavy green coat with a white button up underneath, and tattered looking overlarge green pants. His mussed up hair was black, with several spiked bangs hanging down into his face.

Swallowing his dread, Vali took in the scene.

It appeared the guy, who looked not older then Valentin himself, had crashed into the alley from the air, seeing as the trash cans were scattered around his form. But the destruction wrought looked a lot more then this one skinny vampire could deal out. It looked like more then one person had crashed.

After a few moments he discovered another body curled up against the wall. He was wearing a tan overcoat patched many times, over the entire coat in different colors of brown and white. The edges of the coat were frilled with brown fur, and he was wearing black pants and boots under it. A tiny black bowler hat was lying on the ground a few feet from where his head had landed. He had long light brown hair tied up into two strange strands to either side of his head, almost like animal ears.

Valentin moved over to the kid immediately. He was much younger then the other who had crashed, he was about a head and a half shorter then Valentin himself.

Although the red garbed vampire wasn't worried about that at the moment, he was more concerned about how both of them had congealed blood in their clothes and spattered on the ground.

Cursing under his breath, Valentin gently lifted the first, the one who'd been facing the wall. He coaxed the boys wings into folding against his back and cradled him in one arm. Right now, he was thanking the stars that his blood hadn't distilled so much that he had lost the enhanced strength of a full blooded vampire. After some maneuvering, he manages to settle the smaller, younger vampire onto his shoulder, eventually using his belt as means to be sure that he didn't slip off of Valentin's one arm and fall. The black haired vampire he wound up clutching around the waist. Valentin managed to lean the green coated one against his chest before he took off from the ground slowly. Once he was confident he had a good grip on them, he took off in the direction of the Sanctuary, as fast as he could without dropping his precious cargo.

At the Sanctuary.

The storm had started to get really bad by the time he was half way home. The slide and the entry were difficult, but once Valentin got inside, he laid the two of them into the grass. Though shivering cold and soaking wet, he turned his gaze upward. Spreading his wings, he made a beeline for Francis's hollow.

He yanked the curtains back as he hissed as loud as he dared.
"Francis! Wake up!"

The blonde rolled over, his usually immaculate, glossy hair stuck up every which way.

"Oui, oui, I am up. What is it?" He mumbled as he struggled to get out of bed, kicking away the sheets that tangled up his legs.

Valentin let out a shocked yelp at the fact that he was buck naked.

"Why aren't you wearing pants?" The vampire demanded in a high pitched voice as he covered his eyes with a gloved hand.

Francis gave his classic laugh. "I am covered up by blankets, so why wear anything else?"

Valentin groaned. "Dammit, just get dressed. The two I found are badly injured."

All of his joking manner melted away as Francis moved quickly towards his dresser. Once he was back in his usual dress pants and vest, which he wore in varying colors just about every day, he came climbing down the ladder to the grassy cavern center.

The freshly awoken healer ran over to where the two bodies lay, still as death, in the grass, with Valentin beside them.

Skidding down from the run onto his knees, the frenchman went to work immediately.

Valentin flitted about anxiously, obviously irritating the healer, as a yawn reached his ears. Turning, he saw Yao shuffling towards them with lidded golden eyes and a stuffed panda under one arm.

"What's going on?" He demanded.

Valentin tore his attention from the work being done and focused on the bleary eyed chinaman.

"I found them in an alley, I was following directions from the tome and it looks like they had crashed into the trash cans."

Yao's eyes widened as he looked over to the two of them.

"Aii-yah! Their wings! They look like you!"

Valentin swallowed hard. "Yeah. They're vampires."

He took in the faces of the ones he'd brought down below a bit better, and now, looking into the face of the younger, he felt a painful throb in his heart.

Fire was everywhere, his mother was screaming at him to run, his little brother was crying. He was running out the door, trying to reach the body of his father before it collapsed to the ground with a stake protruding from his heart. Crying out, he charged the man who had done it. Another stake was raised, aimed for his heart, and self preservation kicked in. His wings weren't strong enough to carry his weight, and his strength at thirteen only put him at level with a grown man. Strong for his size, but not strong enough to overpower the one before him. His father was lying dead on the ground behind him. Panicking, he did the only thing he could think. Despite what his father had warned him of, he seized the front of the mans shirt, pulled him down, and sank his fangs into the side of his neck.

His mouth filled with sweet, delicious blood. He'd never once thought of the stuff as this wonderfully tasting before. It went dribbling down his chin as he pulled away, the lifeless body tumbling to the side. Briefly he wondered if the man would turn, but recalled that was impossible because he wasn't a full blooded vampire. The man was dead, and would not become the monster Valentin had been born as. Had had no choice but to become the same thing that haunted small children's nightmares. The cries of his brother were falling on deaf ears, the screams of his poor human mother as she was murdered went unheard, the sight of his vampiric father with a stake through his heart wasn't fully registered. All of it was unnoticed, as he looked to the other attackers, tongue running over his lips to catch the droplets of the scarlet liquid that had escaped him. They were staring at him in unadulterated terror, because in front of their very eyes, he'd just drained a man dry. Scarlet eyes filled with bloodlust.

That one man hadn't been enough. He wanted more.

But this was exactly what his father had warned him against. Never drink human blood. Though it will enthrall you and empower you, never drink it, for you will do things you regret. What scared Valentin the most was that, while he regretted deeply not being able help his mother or father, and grieved the loss of his baby brother every day, he never once regretted that he'd taken the life from the eyes of those evil mad men. Perhaps it was that mere fact that Valentin regretted more then anything else.

"Valentin!" Yao was snapping his fingers in front of the vampires face.

Valentin blinked several times, snapping himself from the stupor the flashback had put him in. The face of this young vampire, blissfully asleep, awoke the memory deep inside him.

Because if his little brother had lived to grow up, Valentin would imagine he'd look exactly like the one lying on the ground before him.

Of course that could not be. Aurel had been six when the attack had hit, unable to fly with his barely full grown wings, unable to fight with his strength having not yet manifested. Trapped on the second story of their former home. There was no possible way for Aurel to have escaped by himself. Valentin had done nothing to help him either, caught up in his raging bloodlust after he'd drank from that vampire hunter in self defense.

"Are you ok, aru?" Yao waved a hand in front of his nose, trying to get him to come fully back to earth.

Shaking his head, Valentin pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling weak.

"No...I'm fine. Just...the younger one reminds me of someone...that I lost a long time ago."

Yao's face instantly took on that wise look from beyond his years.

"Go get some rest and dry off. It must have been hard flying all the way back here with these two in the rain, aru. I'll stay up with Francis and help them get into bed."
Valentin nodded unwillingly.

"Thank you." He mumbled before managed to unfold his wings and send himself up towards his hollow.

Amethyst: I hope you're all ready for tears.

Feliks: I'm already crying!

Amethyst: Great! Wait, why!? Who made him cry!?

Gilbert: The awesome me wanted to check and see if that wolf tail was real!

Feliks: So he pulled it with demon super strength and I feel like my tailbone is broken!

Amethyst: *Rolls us sleeve* Gilbert...

Gilbert: I am demon spawn! You cannot defeat...*gets pegged by purple lightning bolt ball*

Everyone: Oooooooo...

Ludwig: *Rolls eyes* You deserved it.

Amethyst: I appreciate the back up. You really aren't sixteen are you?

Ludwig: I am. Why?

Amethyst: *Stares up at muscle bound, weirdly tall demon spawn* Never mind...

Feliks: *Rubbing tail* Favorite...follow...review...does anyone have an ice pack?

Amethyst: Do any readers have an ice pack they can lend Feliks? Anyone at all? ANYONE!? NO ONE!? Sheesh, fickle crowd.

Tino: I could...!

Everyone: NO.

Tino: But why?

Berwald: You want ta accidentally freeze'im solid?

Feliks: It's fine! Please don't try to help! Please! I'm fine! *Still crying* But, like, ow...that was mean...

Gilbert: *Emerges from pile of rubble* I HAVE NO REGRETS!

Amethyst: You're about too! *Charges Gilbert*

Ludwig: CUT IT OUT!