"What do you mean you lost her!" To say Ren was mad was an understatement. His eyes became black pools as they narrowed in on Shou. "You! What the hell did you do to her?"

"No…noth…" Shou couldn't breathe, there was a heavy weight bearing down on him. He bowed his head unable to disobey or lie to his king. "I knew that I was taking too much blood from her, but I didn't care. I'm sorry I didn't know that it would get her possessed. I thought she was safe because she's plain and no other vampire would ever look twice at her."

The king growled teeth bared ready to rip out Shou's throat. "YOU really expect me to believe that you had no idea what that girl was! All this time you've been committing a cardinal sin and feeding on an Upyr. I should have the entire Fuwa clan eradicated for your stupidity and selfishness. You really are a true gaki vampire."

"Ren, killing him won't fix any of this." Lory tried to talk sense into his king. He was beside himself with worry. The girl could very well be a relative of his. There were only four Upyr families left in existence and they each had members who had gone missing over the centuries and presumed dead. He looked over Ren noting the worry on his face as well.

"That girl needs help. We can't stay here fighting with some clueless boy." Yashiro said standing between the king and Shou.

"Fine, we'll punish him later. The rest of the hunters in this room as well, especially that one." Ren growled in Shoko's direction. "I'll go get the girl." Ren sneered and leapt out of the window Yashiro following closely behind him.

"Punished? For what?" It was a mistake for Shou to question the king, but the words had slipped out.

Suddenly he found himself hoisted into the air with Ruto's hand around his throat. Lory stepped over to them and spoke in a calm stern voice.

"Not only were you draining her for your own gain, you starved that girl. You kept a young Upyr as your blood slave! I seriously question the training of the Akatoki agency that a room full of hunters couldn't identify an Upyr. What is worse, you Shoko recognized her as a hungry vampire and instead of offering food you tried to kill her."

With a wave of his hand every hunter in the room had their wrists bound. They would be taken to LME where they would await their punishment.

"Mm," Kyouko muffled her cries of pain with bloody hands as her body pushed shards of glass out of wounds that oozed blood. "Ow…"

She regretted jumping out of the window. It hadn't been a conscious choice to escape death at the hands of those powerful men. Rather she had fled to keep herself from killing every last one of them. Kyouko had no desire to kill but the hunger inside of her wanted to rip them all apart.

Growing weary from loss of blood, she slipped into an alley, leaning against one of the buildings to rest. Fingers shaking, she reached into her pocket for her stone and began to try healing the larger wounds. The vampires would follow the trail of her blood to her. She had to stop the bleeding, but the stone wasn't working right. It healed the shallow cuts but couldn't close the hole where the dagger had been stabbed into her stomach. The enchantment infused wound oozed magic refusing to close.

"Ahnngg!" She clenched her jaw before the anguished scream could tear out of her throat. It was like fire was coursing through her veins, as the wound fought against the stone's healing powers.

"That won't work." A concerned voice startled her, causing her to drop the stone.

Ren looked at the frightened girl and tried to keep himself calm. She was covered in blood and barely keeping herself conscious. His eyes fell on the stone that had clattered to the ground and he could have sworn that he recognized it. From a different time when he was much happier. But where could this young abused Upyr have gotten a fairy healing stone? He could tell that the fairy stone she had was running low on power, from years of having to be used too often. Bending down he picked up the stone then turned his eyes to the young vampire.

"Kyouko?" He studied the face carefully, taking in every miniscule feature of the familiar girl.

She was the same age as the young human girl he had met all those years ago. The one he had begged his father to rescue from her cruel masters. Upyr did not keep such pets however, and his father wouldn't entertain the notion of buying a human. Not even if it was to save her. His mother would have done it, as fairy sometimes employed human servants and she never denied him anything. Unfortunately, she had not gone with them to visit his father's family. He had been forced to leave the innocent young girl to her fate.

"Your name is Kyouko, isn't it?" He asked regretting that he had not kidnapped her when he'd had the chance.

Cautious hands reached out to her not wanting to scare her any further. He offered her the stone, but she growled shrinking away from him.

"I won't hurt you, Kyouko." He said opening his arms for her. "I only want to help. You're hungry, right?"

There was such a strong urge to eat him that her teeth ached with the need to bite down hard on the pulse in his neck. She would rip his heart out and consume it. Drink in every ounce of blood he had and use his bones to pick his flesh out of her teeth.

"Stay away from me." It was a plea for his safety.

"I can't do that." He said taking a small step forward. If he were to leave her in her weakened state then her hunger would cause her to consume herself. He could tell that she was powerful, but half crazed starvation and she would not be able to control her hunger for much longer. "Please let me help you."

"Please leave me alone." She begged barring the razor-sharp fangs.

He took another step closer to her and she slashed at his hands. "Leave me alone!" He caught her wrists and she fell forward.

"Kyouko," Ren wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her against him. "I know you're hungry. It's alright to give in to your need. If you don't it will consume you." He tilted his head to the side offering her his neck. "Don't fight it."

She leaned in closer and closed her eyes savoring the scent of his warm blood. She was tired and so very hungry. Her mouth skimmed over his pulse and he shivered. He had never let anyone feed from him, but it was what she needed. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her fingers sunk into his hair tugging his head back to further expose his neck.

"Don't fight it." He breathed his own fangs growing against his will. "You won't hurt me."

Kyouko was too tired to fight it and his blood smelled too good to resist. Her fangs tore into his neck and she moaned at the taste of warm blood flowing into her mouth. Not wanting to waste a drop she sucked vigorously at the open wound and swirled her tongue around to catch as much red nectar as she could.

Yashiro was ready to pry the young vampire girl off of his king, but a glowing emerald gaze had him backing away instead. Though they were green instead of red Ren's eyes screamed of bloodlust, something Yashiro had never dreamed Ren capable of. The king growled wrapping his arms tightly around the girl and Yashiro backed away further.

Hunger sated Kyouko fell limp in his arms. Ren held her tightly and looked down at her drowsy face.

"Sleep now little one. You're safe I promise." Ren said petting her head. Her eyes drifted shut and she snuggled closer to the wound that was already healing.

"Head back to LME. Lory and Ruto have no doubt already brought the Akatoki hunters their. I will take Kyouko home. Send me the paperwork, I'll take care of it there." Ren said walking passed Yashiro.

"Yes." Yashiro bowed not taking his eyes off the sleeping girl. "Kyouko?" He wanted to ask how Ren knew her name but sensed that he wouldn't get much of an answer. Instead he gave another bow and asked, "Are you sure taking her to your place is a good idea?"

"She'll be hungry again when she wakes." Ren replied.

"My point exactly. She'll need more blood and it shouldn't be yours." Yashiro stated. This was something he could not back down on. Not even when Ren fixed him with a deadly glare. "You are the king. Every coven has been clamoring for you to take one of their daughters as your queen or even just a blood doll. To take in an unknown into your home and give her your blood would cause an uproar."

Yashiro liked that Ren had little interest in the politics of marriage and blood contracts. The women from those covens always made fools of themselves. They pulled humiliating antics like hiding in the king's office wearing little to nothing and showcasing fresh cuts over major arteries. It only got worse when the heads of the covens got involved and tried to bribe Ren to honor them by taking their daughters to bed or just as a snack. The Morizumi clan had even dared to spread the rumor that Ren had accepted their princess as his blood doll. Ren had scoffed at all their attempts and Yashiro had punished those who spoke lies. Despite enjoying seeing the spoilt brats being spurned, as Ren's assistant he knew he could not permit the king to take the fledgling vampire home.

"There will be enough of a scandal just from her having fed from you once. Take her home and the covens will accuse you of being a blood doll." Yashiro stated holding his arms out to take Kyouko. "We have plenty of donors at LME for her to feed from."

"Yukihito…" Ren growled trying to step around his assistant. Kyouko wasn't some unknown fledgling, she had been his friend once. She was the only ray of hope he'd had as a child before the darkness had consumed him.

"Ren, she needs to be looked at by a doctor. I suspect that boy never even bothered taking her to a human doctor let alone one who specializes in vampires; she'll need a full checkup. Unless you became a doctor when I wasn't looking, I suggest you hand the fledgling over to me." Yashiro held Ren's gaze unwilling to back down.

Ren couldn't say that she was already healed because he was supposed to be a low-level vampire; an algul. Only upyr blood healed other vampires when consumed. With a heavy sigh he turned around ignoring Yashiro's outstretched arms as he headed for LME.

"Call Woods-san than. She's the only one I'll trust to look after this girl." He said not caring what anyone would think of his personal doctor looking after Kyouko.