Okay, you guys. You know the routine. Black Rose is only borrowing the Weiss boyz for a little fun. Okay, I think I've figured out who the troublemakers are.Baka-Ryu and Dessa Rhiannon.*eyes them hungrily* I have an idea.why don't we.play?

Black Rose: I'm going to interject here, on behalf of my readers. Kida, leave them alone or they'll never get to read this chapter.

Kida: *sighs* yes, you're right.here's the next chapter everyone.*grumble grumble*

~*~*~*~ Chapter 2 ~*~*~*~

My gaze searches the shadows of the city, deeper and darker than normal due to the full moon. I crouch on a rooftop in wait of my prey. Hono'o and Kori are at my sides and I finger their decorative hilts absently as my mind patrols the area. The Others are out tonight. I do not want to encounter any of them. They're heading this way. I'd better leave before they sense me. I do not care to fight with my own Kind just now. And if they sense me, they cannot be allowed to alert the others of my presence here. I would have to kill them, and I rather despise the act of taking lives. It reminds me of what I am. What I was forced to become in order to survive.

I move with all the grace of a cat, but at speeds unnatural to that of a normal human. In a blink, I have left the roof of the building I was on, and am landing softly on the next. A higher building is closest to where I am. If I can perch up there, I will be out of the Other's range. She is not as old as me-therefore not as powerful-and will not sense me until she strays too far into my territory. Hopefully she will not, but if that happens to be the case.too bad for her. Already my human side of me is dulling, and I can do nothing to stop it. I am once again becoming a thing of the night.

Hono'o's jeweled eyes begin to glow orange-red. Shit, she has entered my territory. I'll have to take care of her now, then. Though I know I'll hate myself for this later, I leap from the roof to street-level. The impact has probably broken my ankle, but I do not feel it. My tolerance for pain is extremely high, and it heals within seconds. I run, my legs carrying me fast as the wind, and soon I catch up to her. She freezes, sensing my approach and turns to meet my attack. She is a large, heavily muscled woman, using a two-handed ax. As soon as she has me in her sights, she charges-attacking first. I quickly dodge to the side, using my smaller size and speed to my advantage. Unfortunately she sees me moving behind her and swings the ax round.

I deflect the blow with one of my daggers-Kori-muscles screaming at the effort, and dart in with Hono'o. There. As her eyes open wide in surprise and she tries to defend herself, my blade sinks deep into the muscle of her right forearm. That arm will be relatively useless to her now. Blood is already flowing from her wound in a great stream. It pools on the ground, black in the moonlight, and oh so tempting. But I turn my head and force myself to ignore it. That can wait until later.

Still, the excitement of having drawn blood is beginning to control my body. It is the bloodlust that my Kind cannot fight against, and I hate myself all the more for it. Once blood is drawn, I cannot stop fighting. I, though strong, cannot ignore that lust for long. It makes the adrenaline pump in my veins, my mind quick and on the alert. Before I know it, I have shifted into predatory mode. I am a predator and my prey.is wounded. She is as good as dead now-she just doesn't know it yet.

Swinging the ax around should be more difficult for her, but then again, this woman isn't human. She is of my Kind, and such an injury is nothing but a minor hindrance to one with extensive training. She drops the weapon in pain as Hono'o's magic goes to work. The steel of the blade was crafted with the very element of fire. I imagine being cut with it would be rather painful. I never have-I am not careless with my weapons. She is apparently a youngling, since she can't seem to get past the searing pain in her arm. I quickly dart in and press Kori to her throat.

"Who is your sire?" I ask, my voice as smooth as poisoned chocolate. She knows I will kill her if she doesn't answer my question. What she doesn't know is that I will kill her anyway, whether her sire is powerful or not. I no longer fear death by my Kind. Perhaps if they come to avenge this youngling's death, I will simply allow them to kill me if they give me a good fight. I don't know that I really want to live like this anymore.

She looks up at me, eyes wide in pain and fear. Her blood is still flowing sluggishly from her wounded arm-Hono'o's magic interferes with one's ability to heal one's self-and it is dripping on my black coat. This nearly throws me into hysterics, but I restrain myself for I need to know who she is. It wasn't an accident that she came into my territory. She'd been sent. I avoid my kind like the plague, but even so, I know who is powerful, and an enemy. There are very few living that know who I am, as I kill all that approach. Someone would dare send their servant here? As what? A warning? Whose toes have I stepped on lately? Into whose territory might I have strayed without knowing it?

"Who sent you?" I ask, turning the knife slightly and drawing a faint line of blood on the woman's throat. She screeches as Kori's ice blade instantly freezes the skin it grazes.

"Well? Speak up young one, you're running out of time." The woman turns pale. With a cracking voice, she whispers,

"Jasper."

I curse and release her. Jasper is one of my strongest enemies. He is the one of the only ones I know who would care about my presence on his territory. He must have expanded recently, because my usual hunting grounds carried no taint of his aura. The woman smirks, thinking she has an advantage over me because I know who she serves. She stands, her voice growing stronger, the tone changing from fear to confidence.

"He sends a warning. Know your place. If you fail to comply with his request, he'll deal with you the way he's dealt with the other fools who dared defy his plans."

I turn my attention back to her. I only half-listened to the warning-I was listening to the implied 'plans' the youngling referred to. Jasper is up to something, and it definitely can't be good. She still stands there, smirking at me. I refuse to let him intimidate me. He will either face me himself, or I will continue killing the servants he sends to teach me a lesson. These 'plans' of his, though, they worry me, but I will only get the information I want one way. For some reason, it does not bother me what I am about to do.

I smile at the woman, the slow, lazy smile of a cat. If I had a tail, it would be twitching in anticipation-I am ready to pounce. She looks at me, confused. She thought she'd had and advantage over me. Before the realization sinks in that she misjudged my reaction, I am there. In one smooth motion, I have her head between my hands and I snap her neck. I can still feel the life in her, but she will not heal herself. I will not allow her to do so. Holding her up with one hand, I drag one of the daggers across her neck. Her blood pours out over me as I lean in to the wound. The blood of immortals always tastes so sweet when they're dying. I relish the taste of the thick, warm liquid in my mouth. As I drain her, her memories flood into my mind and it takes no more than a thought to isolate the ones I need. Shit. Oh shit. That son of a bitch, Jasper, is going to kill us all. He's trying to open the Demon Gates.

Suddenly disinterested in the blood the woman still holds, I let her drop to the ground. Reaching into a pocket of my now-blood-drenched coat, I pull out a flask and a box of matches. Uncorking the flask, I pour the lighter fluid over her body and drop a lit match. I watch the body burn away to nothing, and then leave the pile of ashes behind me. I am going to the church. I need to think.

---+---+---+---+--- Aya reentered the apartment late, around three in the morning. He was covered from head to toe in blood, and all he wanted to do was get cleaned. It was a good thing the other three hadn't waited up for him, or he'd have had a lot of explaining to do. He reached his room without incident and quickly showered and changed. What he'd learned that night worried him, and he pondered it as he shut off the lights. Something big was going to happen soon, he'd known that much already-he'd sensed it. Now, with the sweetness of immortal blood on his lips, he had a better idea of what was going on. The Demon Gates were going to be opened, and Jasper was in the middle of it all. If he managed to find all the Keys.Aya didn't want to think about it. The opening of the Gates meant that all the innocents he'd managed to save over the years would die anyways. It meant that his mission in life to protect those weaker than himself would be for naught. He couldn't let that happen.

---+---+---+---+---

Aya didn't sleep well that night, but he really didn't need the sleep just now-he was feeling perfectly fine after his meal of immortal blood. He reached into his shirt and extracted a small key on a chain. It was a beautiful key, done in skeleton-style: it was gold, with spidery markings scrawled into it. A small green gem winked at him from the handle. He clenched his fist around the key as he looked out the window. They were looking for it-he could feel them searching.drawing ever closer. It wouldn't be long before they found him.

As usual, Aya was the only one up and about before Omi came down to the kitchen in the morning. He glanced at Aya, who was staring out the window blankly. That was unusual for him-he never just zoned out.

"Hey, Aya?" he asked. There was no reply. The redhead didn't even hear him, and if he did, he didn't act like it. Omi shrugged and picked up a mug of coffee.

"You want any coffee, Aya? Or did you have some already? Aya?" he walked up and held out the mug, shivering as he did so-it was cold this morning-but Aya was apparently ignoring the goose bumps on his arms. Omi was wearing a pullover sweatshirt and he was still cold, but Aya was just wearing a tee shirt. He waved a hand in front of the man's face. Again, there was no reaction. "Aya! Snap out of it, would ya? You're creeping me out," he said, reaching out to shake the man. He knew the guy's thing about his personal space, but he was beginning to creep him out.

He'd felt his presence the second he'd entered the room, but Aya snapped out of his reverie only when Omi's hand reached out. He took a step back, quickly, to prevent himself from hurting the boy. His aura was strong-very strong-and he hadn't been veiling it like he normally would have. He didn't want it to lash out at Omi-his power could very easily kill a human.

"Don't touch me!" he gasped, backing away as he quickly veiled his aura with a thought.

Just the same, Omi yanked his hand back as if he'd been burned. "Ye-ouch!" he cried in pain and clutched his left hand. He dropped the mug of coffee.

Aya glanced at the falling mug with interest. It was like this every time he fed; everything just seemed so slow to him. Without even consciously thinking about it, he reached out and caught it. Not a drop was spilled and he casually took a sip. It was hot, but not unpleasantly so. It warmed him up and helped him snap out of the remainder of the trance he'd been in.

"Omi, are you alright? You jumped," he said, a hint of worry in his voice. He knew Omi would be okay-he just wanted to make sure he sounded normal to the boy. He was more observant than the other two combined, and he couldn't have him drawing any unwanted conclusions.

"Yeah, I think so. It's just a cramp," he said, shaking off the pain in his hand.

"Hn." He sipped his coffee.

"So when did you get back last night? I fell asleep before you came in." asked Omi; completely oblivious to the fact that he'd just dropped the coffee that Aya was drinking.

"Around three."

"Three?" cried Omi, "What were you doing out until three o'clock?"

"I went out for a drive." He replied.

"Oh. Where'd you go?" asked Omi, with interest.

Aya glared at him, letting him know he didn't want to talk anymore. Omi sighed.

"Okay, okay, I'll go get ready to open shop." he mumbled, exiting the kitchen. He glanced back at the redhead worriedly. He'd been acting very strange over the past few days. And he'd been jumpy too-that wasn't like him. Just what was up? He wondered.

~*~*~* Author's note: Heh heh heh. Black Rose answers to ME! I am the almighty KIDA!!! *cackles insanely*

Norris: yeah, and she's just a LITTLE high right now. I won't tell you what she got her hands on.

Kida: *curses and snaps out of her high daze* What the f*** are you doing here, Norris??? *goes into guard stance*

N: Black Rose asked me to pop my head in and make sure you weren't sucking her only readers dry.

K: *gold eyes wide and innocent* who, me?

N: *sighs* I think now would be a good time to end this page. All you readers will have to be careful around this one.*gives Kida a Look*.and Black Rose has also requested between 10 and 15 reviews before her next update.

K: Hey! Who do you think you are? Black Rose left ME in charge here! ME!

N: and you have fed, very recently. You don't know what you're saying.

K: I do too! *slurs her next comment*