*chibi Griz is hitting chibi DS over the head with a large mallet reprimanding her for taking so long in updating and leaving all the poor readers at a cliffhanger. Chibi DS has little anime waterfall tears coming out of her eyes as she's repeating over and over again, "I'm sorry!" in a little chibi whiny voice.
Suddenly, chibi folders of TR/SR, BO2/TR, and Shay'Telnira's story all mob and jump on chibi DS while chibi Griz looks on with a sweatdrop over her head. Chibi Griz says: "Oh boy…"*
"Hey Ky, you know how I have to go out for my practice today?" Tansy asked. Ky looked up at her sister from stuffing a bagel in her mouth. Ky swallowed and nodded.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"You don't have work today, do you?"
Ky looked at her sister worriedly a moment, then shook her head, saying, "No, I don't. Why?"
"When I get home, would you be willing to help me with lines?"
Ky smiled widely and nodded. "Of course, Tans. You know you only have to ask. When and where?"
"Later tonight, about eight or so. I don't want to do it immediately when I get home so I can get cleaned up and everything. I'll meet you in the gazebo, kay?"
"All right. Have fun at your rehearsal!"
"Oh, I will," Tansy smiled maliciously to herself and raced out the door. She was very much looking forward to eight o'clock that night.
In the meantime, Kain waited patiently as his sons settled down for the day to rest or lounge about. He let one eye slit open when he heard Raziel walk by.
"Raziel."
The eldest turned his head and went to his creator, kneeling before him.
"Yes, my Lord?"
"If I were you, I would avoid going outside to the garden's gazebo at about eight tonight. I noticed that Kyviana left Dumah a note for a rendezvous then."
As he spoke, the vampire lord activated his gift of Charm and impressed just a slight bit on his first-born's mind, implanting a tiny seed of jealousy. Kain watched as one of the corners of Raziel's eye twitched slightly at the thought of Ky meeting Dumah, but other than that, his face stayed a perfectly sculpted marble statue.
"Yes, my Lord." He nodded once and turned away, his feet clicking on the polished floor. Kain smirked triumphantly. He knew his children very well. Turel appeared next to him and bowed his head slightly.
"What was that about, my Lord?"
"Nothing of importance, Turel. Now, tell me. What have you learned about this world?"
"Well, they have these quite fascinating contraptions called microwaves . . ."
Tansy sighed happily, seeing her home for the summer rise in front of her. She had just had a wonderful day. Ky's impending punishment let her feet rise and she hadn't messed up once in rehearsal. Everyone else had been generically good, and the feeling among the dancers was a good one. Everybody was hyped up for the coming performance. By the time Tansy got home, she was almost literally dancing on a cloud. She headed into the house, pausing to spin as she shut the door, and quickly dashed up the stairs to the second floor, laughing at herself and not caring.
As she headed for the third story's stairs, she met Turel coming down the hall. She laughed giddily.
"Whee! Everything's coming up roses!" She abruptly hugged Turel, leaving the vampire staring down at her as she greeted, "Hi!" She moved past him happily and ran up to her room. Turel walked back to his brothers at the den's table, blinking slowly.
"You look like you just saw a Sarafan's ghost," Dumah remarked.
"She— Tansy just hugged me." He pointed vaguely off toward the third floor's stairs, a surprised look still on his face. "She doesn't like any of us, but she just gave me a hug!"
Tansy, in the meantime, had grabbed her diary on the way up, and quickly snatched her green pen off her nightstand.
"Dear Diary,
I lied. Zephon's brother Rahab is most definitely NOT a psycho killer. He's far too smart and friendly for that… although he hasn't got anything on Issy! I'll admit I like him MUCH more than Zephon.
Did I mention that Ky thought she could hook me up with him? Luckily for me, Rahab told me about the situation, and I've turned the tables on Ky. Couldn't have done it without Kain… who is actually pretty decent as far as potential psycho killers go.
It also seems that Ky broke the big 'no supernatural entities rule' as Rahab, his father, and his siblings, are vampires. VAMPIRES, of all things! For all we know, those awful people who want to come and get us sent them! Although… I don't sense the aura that those demons have around the vampires…
And to be honest, Ky really had no idea that they were vampires, so I should cut her a little slack…
Bah, can't write anymore, so I'll just send you back to your hidey-hole."
Tansy sneaked back downstairs to hide the diary. She bumped into Kain on her way to the bookcase.
"How's the plan going?" she asked him casually.
"Oh, it's working out quite nicely," Kain replied with a slightly evil smirk. He caught sight of the book disguised as a Harry Potter novel.
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? What's this, Tansy?"
"Oh, nothing, just a book I finished reading."
"Oh really?" There was a glint of wicked amusement in Kain's eyes. "May I read it, as you're finished?"
"Uh…" Tansy had no idea how she was going to get out of this situation, and clutched the diary closer to her chest.
"It's really something personal, isn't it?" Kain inquired when he noticed her gesture.
There was no escaping the situation now.
"It is," Tansy admitted with a sigh. "To be honest with you, it's my diary."
"May I still read it?"
"You wouldn't want to!" Tansy said firmly. "It's just the senseless drivel of a teenage girl who would still be mortified if her sister found it." Kain still looked disbelieving. "Here, Kain, I'll even read some of it for you!" She made a big show of clearing her throat as she opened the diary.
"A-hem. Dear Diary," she read. "Today I was staying late for drama class when I ran into Justin! He was so handsome in his basketball uniform… with his chestnut hair thrown about in all directions and a towel about his neck… and he actually said 'Hi!' to me, Diary! Can you imagine that, him even so much as talking to lowly me?"
"You're making that up," Kain said dryly.
"I am not! Here," Tansy said, turning to a different part of the diary, "I'll read more!"
"That's entirely un—" Kain didn't finish, as Tansy read to him about Israfel's superiority to mortal men. She also read how she planned to elope with the angel.
"I don't believe you," Kain said simply. Tansy thrust the diary under his nose. The words written about Israfel were exactly as Tansy had read them.
"See, I told you!" Tansy laughed, taking the diary away and shelving it. "Not worth reading!"
"Not at all…" Kain agreed, before walking away to find something to do that would be less painful than reading Tansy's constant rambling about Israfel. The vampire did have to question her constant reference to an angel, however, and after the little escapade with the demon the day before, it might not be entirely unreasonable that these girls met with angels on a regular basis. And if that were true, then it would seem that there is much more to these children then they've been admitting to…
Eight o'clock rolled around, and Ky leaned against the wall of the gazebo irritably. Her sister was usually quite prompt, and Ky was getting annoyed with waiting. Inside, Kain called Dumah to his presence.
"The girl is waiting in the gazebo outside," he stated simply, studying his claws uninterestedly. "You may feel free to kill her now."
A cruel smile ran across the vampire's lips. "Thank you, my Lord." He turned and quickly headed out. Kain teleported upstairs to a balcony where Tansy already sat, waiting. He sat down and picked up a teacup, the contents of which were a dark red of color. Tansy already had her popcorn ready.
"Everything good?" she inquired.
"The catalyst for it all is heading out," he responded amusedly. "It was almost too easy to get Kyviana out there. Why is that?"
"Oh, because I never use turnabout to get back at Ky," Tansy responded. "I usually just give her extra chores to do. She won't think I had a hand in this until it's too late."
"Good evening, demon-slayer," a deep voice rumbled throatily from the gazebo entrance. Ky looked up in surprise to see Dumah striding in, scowling like a demon ready to kill. Ky's eyes widened. In a lightning fast move, the vampire lord had slammed both of his claws against her shoulders, pinning her back to the wall. He leaned close and smiled malevolently.
"Let her go," a voice grated. Both Ky and Dumah turned to see Raziel stalking into the gazebo. The eldest had stepped in, seeing Dumah's face dangerously close to Ky's. A part of Ky's brain that was still rational and not confused to all high hell mentioned to the rest of her mind that the gazebo looked much smaller with two vampire lords in it.
"And why would you care about this little one, brother?" Dumah demanded.
"Let her go," he repeated. "She is not yours."
Both girl and vampire were blinking at the eldest in confusion. Ky was wondering what the hell was going on, while Dumah hadn't been aware that he had considered Ky his. He had just been here to kill her.
"Raziel, what are you babbling about?"
The first born grabbed Dumah's hands and pulled them away from Ky. Ky gratefully relearned how to breathe.
"She is mine."
Ky abruptly stared up at the eldest in surprise, her mouth dropping open.
"Wha—"
"What?!" Dumah overrode her voice with his own in surprise. "Something about this girl must be overriding your sanity. Allow me to rid you of this problem."
He grasped the blade and slid it out of its sheath in a smooth move. Ky decided that enough was enough, and it was time to make another strategic retreat. She dropped back off the waist-high railing of the gazebo and started running.
She heard pounding feet behind her, and quickly glanced back. Dumah was racing after her, sword still in hand, and still intent on killing her. Behind him was Raziel, keeping pace with his younger brother. Ky turned her attention back to running and rolled her eyes. How in hell did she manage to get herself into these situations?
Suddenly, laughter filtered through her perception and she glanced up to see on one of the second story balconies were Kain and Tansy, and her sister was laughing her ass off. Ky's eyes narrowed.
'So,' she growled to herself mentally, 'you got the guts enough to try to get me back?! Well, we'll see how well this turns out!'
As she passed by the balcony, she bunched the muscles in her legs and hopped up onto the balcony railing, glaring down at its two occupants. Tansy stopped laughing, but she was still breathing heavily, and small tears were sneaking down her cheeks.
"You do realize this means war," Ky hissed.
She twitched suddenly to the side, and a sword slammed into the wall, inches from where her head had been a moment before. She looked down at Dumah as he swore, then turned his attention to Raziel to keep him from beheading his younger brother.
"A bit close, hun!" Ky shouted down.
"It would have been closer," Dumah's voice filtered up to her, "and maybe through your head if you hadn't moved!"
Seeing her sister distracted, Tansy suddenly darted forward and shoved her sister off the railing.
"Woah!"
There was a soft thump from below as Ky landed on the ground ungracefully, and Tansy went back to laughing.
"So," she asked Kain as Ky ran back into the house, "you gonna take out that jealousy you implanted in Raziel's head?"
"Mmm… no," Kain answered. Tansy stared at him in shock.
"Well, why not?"
"Well," Kain said with a wicked smirk, "why should I?"
Tansy gaped at the vampire lord before answering with a meek, "Because you're nice?" This time it was Kain's turn to stare. Before he said anything else, he laughed his evil little laugh.
"Okay," Tansy muttered, "you're not a nice guy. I stand corrected."
"Tansy, dear, however did you come to the conclusion that I was?"
"Blind faith in my crummy intuition," Tansy replied, earning herself another laugh from Kain.
"Well, child," Kain laughed, "what did you think when I offered to help you punish your sister? Doesn't seem very fatherly and loving to you, does it?"
It was Tansy's turn to laugh. Oh, if only he knew her father . . .
"You really should meet my father," Tansy giggled. "I bet you'd get along famously!"
"Explain to me who this enigmatic 'father' is," Kain ordered, looking Tansy right in the eye. Tansy winced away from his stare, but recovered.
"He's our father!" she chirped. "You know, the other half of our genes?"
Kain glared at her. "Don't get smart with me," he snapped. "I am aware that he is the other half of your genes. But when Kyviana was repeating your house rules on supernaturals, the only exceptions to it were, as I believe she put it, 'Daddy' and 'Issy'."
"Er… Dad's a medium!"
"A… medium?" Kain repeated, with an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah!" Tansy affirmed. "A medium. He sees dead people. And he talks to dead people!"
"Is he where you get your powers from?" Kain continued on.
"What powers?" Tansy asked innocently.
"Well, I suppose we haven't seen many from you, but Kyviana seems to be quite the demon-slayer. And you two apparently have angels checking up on you from time to time. That must denote some special ability."
"Oh," Tansy stated, "THOSE abilities. Yeah, you could say we get those from him."
"I could say?" Kain inquired, raising his eyebrow even higher. "And how might I not say?"
Tansy began praying silently for divine intervention.
"Well?" Kain pressed on. Suddenly, the door to the balcony opened.
"Are you all right, Tansy?" a gentle voice inquired. Kain and Tansy both turned around slowly. Standing in the doorway was a tall young man who was built like a gymnast. He had wavy golden hair that fell to the small of his back and gentle, wise gray eyes. The young man was clad in a pair of khakis and a short-sleeved white button-down shirt.
"Issy?" Tansy whispered, before dashing to him and giving him a bear hug. Or, at least, trying to give him a bear hug.
"Is this Israfel?" Kain asked coolly. Tansy nodded and led the angel back inside.
"I need your help," she told him as they walked back indoors. "I can't seem to grasp my character during her singing parts. You understand, right?"
"Isn't the whole show sung through?" Israfel inquired wryly.
"Well, yeah, but I just can't get in character for my first number . . ."
"Ah," the angel murmured. "We'll see what we can do."
They walked arm-in-arm to a quiet room on the second floor, unaware that Zephon had caught sight of them and was following them. They closed the door, leaving Zephon alone outside. He pressed his ear to the door to listen.
"Like this?" he heard Tansy's voice ask.
"No, no," Israfel's voice responded. "Like this."
"Better?" Tansy again.
"Ham up on your limp a little bit… there we go…"
Zephon inhaled sharply. What was going on in there? He pulled his ear away from the door.
"What does he have that I don't?" he muttered.
"A nice baritone voice?" Ky's voice piped up from behind. Zephon squeaked and turned sharply around. "Don't do that!" he snapped.
"What's going on in there?" Ky asked, gesturing toward the door. "And how come you're eavesdropping on the occupants?"
"Tansy and some… some MAN went in there!" Zephon spat. "And I don't know what they're doing!"
"And, let me guess, it's bothering you?"
"Exactly!" Zephon growled before putting his ear back to the door. He need not have bothered, though, because a second later Israfel's voice bellowed, "Belt! BELT!"
It resounded throughout the hallway, and Zephon turned to face Ky, looking pale.
"I… that's… why are you laughing at me?"
"Because!" Ky managed to say through her laughter. "They're practicing music in there! Using all kinds of musical language!" Catching Zephon's confused look, she tried to clarify with, "They aren't doing any perverse things in there! They're singing!"
A moment later, Tansy's clear voice rang out, nearly as loud as Israfel's. She sang a few bars of a rather melancholy song.
"See?" Ky pointed at the door. "They're not doing anything!"
Zephon was too overjoyed to say another word. He whooped and dashed away, sing-songing, "She's not doing perverse things! She's not doing perverse things!" all the way down the hall as he went. Ky stared at him in bewilderment.
"He's certainly thrilled… what a strange little man…"
At that moment, Tansy and Israfel stepped out of the room.
"Oh, hello Ky," Israfel said warmly. Ky smiled superficially up at him.
"Hi, Issy!" she greeted him.
"Uh, why were you here, Ky?" Tansy asked her twin.
"Oh, I was just passing by," Ky lied easily. "Your singing has really improved!"
"Really?" Tansy squeaked. Ky nodded, and asked what Israfel was here for.
"Well, I was due for another check-in tomorrow anyway, but your sister begged for some divine intervention, so I thought I'd drop by. By the way," he queried Tansy, "why DID you call me in?"
"Well, I was up on the balcony with Kain, as you know," Tansy started. Ky cut her off.
"And you pushed me off!"
"You pushed your sister off of a balcony?" Israfel gasped.
"'Least it wasn't an old lady down an escalator!" Tansy inserted innocently, then she went on. "Anyway, Kain started asking some pretty sensitive questions about Dad, so I started asking for divine intervention, and Issy just… showed up!"
Israfel nodded to confirm the story. "They were going to send Uriel," he chuckled, "but I volunteered first."
"Oh, good," Ky sighed. "Uriel's no fun. He just sits there and glares at me."
"You haven't done anything to deserve it, have you?" Israfel inquired in his kindliest and 'I'm the caring father everyone loves' voice.
"Of course not! I don't push random pedestrians out in the street!" Ky snapped, glaring at her twin.
"It was self-defense!" Tansy retorted in a syrupy-sweet voice.
"Oh, yeah, that poor old guy on his bike was really out to get you!"
"He was probably a pedophile! I could sense it!"
"And we all know how your intuition is," Ky snickered.
"Well," Tansy countered, "your instinct isn't much better! For God's sake, you invited VAMPIRES to stay with us. VAMPIRES!"
"Vampires?" Israfel questioned, but he was ignored.
"It's better than killing off poor old men," Ky muttered. "And besides, they're cute."
"That guy didn't die," Tansy protested. "He's still in the ICU… and those vampires are NOT cute!"
"After four months! And yes, they are!"
"No, they're not!"
Israfel stared blankly at the girls. "Let me get this straight . . . Ky invited vampires into the house?"
"I didn't know they were vampires at the time!" Ky responded.
"Still," Israfel overruled gently, "the bad people have ways of attempting to retrieve people… perhaps they sent the vampires?"
"I doubt that," Ky scoffed. "They'd never be stupid enough to blow their cover like they did. The boys were at the mall having fun and screwing around when a retrieval demon came after us. The bad people aren't that stupid."
"'Sides," Tansy added, "I don't sense the aura the bad people have around them, and that's the one part of my intuition you can trust."
Ky stared at her sister. "We're DOOMED…" she wailed in a mocking tone. Israfel laughed softly.
"I think," he murmured after a moment, "that I need to stay here and keep an eye on you two."
"Would you?" Tansy squealed. When he nodded, she hugged him tightly. Ky groaned.
"Zephon is gonna have a fit…"
*Chibi DS looks at readers with cute, teary eyes as she says, "I left you off at a cliffhanger again, didn't I?" Behind her, chibi Griz readies the mallet.*