Disclaimers: Would it be considered fanfiction if I owned it?

Warnings: More OCs and… uhm… Satoshi talks a lot? Freaky…

Other: Got another chapter down. This has to be one of my favourites; maybe it has something to do with the fact that Satoshi finally acts like what he's supposed to be: a vampire. And he explains quite a bit about it as well XD

000

"When they meet again, something more terrifying and evil will awaken. Something long since sealed away will break free: leaving death and destruction in its wake. Will they be able to handle it again? Or is this the end of the road?"

Phase Seven: Vampires Need What?

Panic wasn't one of Daisuke's strong points. Or was that thinking straight while his friend/companion seemed to be dying of something? Not that the question of Satoshi being able to die in the first place didn't pop into his brain was half a second; he had shoved that away because he just couldn't take the risk. And the fact that the vampire was currently hunched over and gasping for breath wasn't helping matters either.

"Hiwatari-kun, can you tell me what's wrong?" he asked, wondering why he was trying that as it looked like Satoshi wasn't about to start talking anytime soon. If he was even able to do that it would have been astounding.

The redhead gnawed his bottom lip, unable to work out what he should do as he had never attended to an ill vampire. Were vampires even capable of getting sick? Apparently, yes. And here it was right in front of him and he had no clue on what he was supposed to do now.

Well, the first sensible thing that came to him was to get Satoshi downstairs and probably call for help – Argentine might be more help than he was, although Dark and Krad were bound to distract them for one reason or another – but he really didn't get far because 1) the vampire practically collapsed on top of him and 2) he wasn't really all that physically strong in the first place anyway.

"Ni…wa…"

"Hiwatari-kun?" the redhead tried to stand up for a moment, but failed, and cursed himself. For one reason or another Satoshi seemed to be a deadweight; although it might have had something that he was more or less collapsing for some reason that he still couldn't work out yet. It was beginning to irk him. He felt the vampire shift slightly, trying to even his breath.

"… get…" he rasped out.

(…?) Oh, the problems of trying to work out what unfinished sentences mean. Get what? Who? Where? Not to mention that Daisuke couldn't move at all, even if he wanted to. And he didn't want to because of the fact that abandoning Satoshi may lead to the vampire's demise… if vampires could die, anyway.

He felt Satoshi grip onto his shirt almost desperately, and the thought of the vampire suddenly combusting popped into his mind. Wait, why was he thinking that? this was beginning to worry him… "Hiwa…"

"Kyuu!"

"GAH! With?.!" turning his head, Daisuke was surprised to see his familiar smiling up at him, wagging his tail… he'd completely forgotten that With hadn't been with him since they'd entered the house. "What are you doing here?.!"

With seemed to pout, "Kyuu… kyu kyu kyuuu!"

"Right, you're hungry," the redhead interpreted, "we'll get you something to eat later, but could you get the others here now? It's an emergency!"

Inclining his head slightly at the message he had just been given, With then saluted and bounced off back down the corridor and a flight of stairs. He was hoping that at least Argentine might understand what the demon-bunny was talking about, but was cut out of these thoughts when someone suddenly yanked at his shirt collar; he'd almost forgotten about Satoshi being there (despite the fact that the vampire seemed to be dying, and practically collapsed on top of him. Maybe he was having a horrible case of short-term memory today.).

"Hiwatari--" he began, but Satoshi suddenly seemed to convulse with a pained gasp, "Satoshi!"

This seemed to snap something in the vampire's mind (the redhead didn't know what, but it was better than watching someone suffering) and before Daisuke could work out what was going on, something light brushed against his throat, accompanied by an incredibly sharp pain.

He would have pulled back, but his mind seemed to have stopped working at this point and besides, Satoshi had a firm grip on him to stop him from keeping away.

Either way, the turn of events (and running around and all that) caused the boy to black out.

000

Satoshi pulled back as the redhead went limp in his arms, and cursed himself. This had been the last thing he'd wanted to happen, and it had happened. Why was it that fate seemed to hate them so badly and loved to mess with their minds with whatever it was worth? He couldn't stand it.

Okay, true, he hadn't fed properly for a while now, but he never collapsed like this before in need for blood and the thought sickened him. Although it was rare for him to crave that actual sustenance, the fact that he'd never needed it more than twice a week (at the least) seemed to have his family in hysterics. If vampires could go into hysterics, anyway.

He traced a hand lightly over where he had just bitten and boy and sighed; he hadn't taken much from him, but he would still be out for an hour at the most. The vampire sat there for a moment, lost in thought before picking up the boy and taking him downstairs. During the whole matter he had heard the daemon tamer telling his familiar to find the others, so if they had received the message, then it wouldn't be long before…

"Frickin' crap! You killed him!" Dark exclaimed, more or less appearing out of nowhere. Satoshi was not impressed.

"No I didn't, you bastard," he snapped back, scowling, "Get out of the way before I decide to kill you."

"You couldn't!"

"Want to bet your life on it?"

"You--"

"Dark, SHUT UP!" yelled Krad she was stomped up to him from behind and hit him over the head; hard. Argentine, who was carrying With, was frowning (either at the two arguing adolescents or because of the fact that Daisuke was now unconscious) but didn't make a comment of either the behavior or what the scene before him looked like.

The blonde, having found a way to shut Dark up, calmed down in three seconds and went over to where Satoshi was standing with the redhead. Her brow furrowed lightly as she traced a hand over the wound, muttering something under her breath. The simple healing spell shimmered around it for just a moment before fading away altogether and she stepped back.

"So," she stated firmly, crossing her arms at him. "Considering the fact that he's still breathing, you didn't kill him."

"No I didn't," he said bluntly. Were they all going to accuse him now for killing the boy when he wasn't even dead? Well, that was just great. His eyes scanned the other two for a moment (Dark was rubbing his head from the pain and Argentine was just scowling) but didn't say anything.

It was the brunette who came to suggest something next; "Come on, we better let him rest in a guestroom." He spun around and walked off again, the vampire following close behind.

"Well, who would have thought it," commented Krad thoughtfully as she watched the two walk off.

"Uhm, he's a vampire. Of course it was going to happen!" Dark pointed out firmly, shoving a hand under her nose; she batted it away non-commently. "But wait, didn't he just take blood from animals or something?"

"When we were there, yeah, but maybe it's not enough for them or something. And he is a bit strange, even for a vampire."

"So we're in agreement, then. But wait, have we met any other vampires aside from him?"

"No, I don't think so…" silence. "Are you suggesting that all vampires are like him now? Perish the thought or you'd be dead."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"However your pea-sized brain wants to interpret it."

"…"

Smirking at her childhood-friend's-now-some-form-of-a-boyfriend's pout, the blonde continued, "None of us ever asked about his heritage, though, did we? I mean, how much do they actually get out of blood, for one thing, and I'm pretty sure he avoided taking blood from any one of us so that might have made him weaker…"

"Too true there."

Krad whipped around in shock. The voice that had just agreed with her definitely did not belong to Dark; unless it had gotten slightly more high-pitched and all. Tight-binding underwear? Nah.

The speaker just smiled at the shock on both their faces. Her hair just fell past her shoulders as she tucked a thick volume under her arm before continued to speak, "Animal blood isn't the sort of thing vampires are accustomed to, you see, and most of them tend to suck all the blood out of their victims, whether they need that much or not. Because they were formerly humans in a sense, it's only logical to say that they would need it even more then. Although killing people never really did make sense…"

She blinked when she saw that both Dark and Krad were just staring at her blankly, at a loss as to what to say; "Oh, by the way, I'm Aine. You must be Argentine's friends or acquaintances or something, otherwise he would have thrown you out already."

"… Okay…" the blonde pulled herself together, "I'm Krad and he's Dark." She poked the dazed person she was referring to and she snapped back to reality; or some sense of it.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," she beamed at the two of them. "Anyway, where is Argentine? I heard his voice before…"

"He was taking the others to a guestroom," Krad replied, only then wondering why it was a guestroom and not the guestroom. How many of them did they have in here anyway?

Aine took this in, nodding slightly, before bouncing down the hallway, "Well, it looks like we've got a lot of rooms to check in on, then, because he could have meant any one of the…" she counted them off on her fingers, "…twelve guestrooms we have scattered around the place."

Well, that was nice to know…

"Come on, then."

They both fell behind the brunette and held their own whispered conversation, in case she got offended and did something to them that would probably be too painful to mention.

"Hey, how old do you think she is, anyway?" asked Dark, frowning at her back.

"No idea, but she definitely doesn't act her age," Krad muttered back, shaking her head, "But I still don't get that whole thing with the vampire concept. For one, what's going to happen to Daisuke now?"

"You mean, is he going to turn into a vampire now?"

"Exactly."

"Hell, if he ends up with the same attitude with Hiwatari, I'm going to jump off a cliff because I wouldn't be able to stand it."

"Dealing with two vampires who'll end up with blood lust isn't my idea of fun."

"Yeah… well, let's just see if he's okay first and worry about the rest later."

That, scarily enough, had to be one of those few times when Dark actually said something intelligent that made sense. Maybe the world was coming to an end and no one had warned them…

000

"Hey," began Argentine, glancing sharply over to where Satoshi was currently standing, "Whether it's rude or not, I have to ask about all this."

"Go on."

"Because you took blood from Daisuke, what's going to happen to him now?" the brunette wasn't in for tact as he set out the entire situation's consequences and he waited for the vampire to answer.

Not that Satoshi hadn't been expecting this, "If you're wondering if he's going to end up as a vampire now, then no, that won't happen. He will be unconscious for an hour for understandable reasons, but you don't have anything to worry about that."

A raised eyebrow at this, "Oh?"

"I'm a 'true vampire', so I've never had, what you would call, a 'mortal life', and true vampires never have that affect on humans when they take blood. It's the 'undead' that can force humans into those transformations," Satoshi scowled, "Dying, they lose their soul and their minds, and the craving for blood is the only thing registered in them. Nothing can stop them, unless you count sunlight, and they have no pity, no heart; nothing." He sat on the bed, glancing over at the sleeping boy; "In the end, those are the ones that mortals should be trying to rid of."

"Well, that would explain a good deal about certain vampire attacks then," nodded Argentine, "But no hearts? I thought no vampire had hearts. Or blood running through their veins."

"No blood in our veins, yes, that's true, as for the heart…" the vampire shrugged; he would even attempt to try and explain it to the other. He knew that he might just be kidding himself this whole time and only wanted Daisuke for his blood, but he was so sure that it wasn't that… something much more that he couldn't understand and the fact that mortals seemed to fall in and out of it so easily…

He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Argentine watched this with faint amusement, while With crawled around the room curiously before bouncing over to his master's bed. The vampire seemed to be struggling with an internal battle of some sort and it was quite funny to witness. But at the same time, his little explanation had cleared many things and at least now he knew that Daisuke wasn't about to sprout fangs and fly like a bat. Of course, that was only if the vampire was telling the truth.

Another question popped into his mind.

"The sunlight… would that mean…"

"The undead, being nothing more than rotting flesh and corpse, wither away in the light of day, as for the true vampires," Satoshi blinked at this; he'd never really put it into words before, "Well, I suppose we don't really get affected by it, although no one has ever tried. From what I know, all vampires, living or dead, have feared the light and have never gone close to it."

"So you'd be the first."

"I guess."

"Then what are true vampires weak against?"

The blunette turned to face him this time, "What does it matter to you?"

It was clear that he wasn't about to talk about that, so Argentine let it drop; "You know, I think Daisuke likes you."

"… Is that so?"

"Clearly," Argentine smirked, getting back to being himself; whatever that was, "he's always been a nice boy to guests and to me, to his sister, anyone, but he usually doesn't spend much time with them. Seeing as he actually offered to drag you along seems to say a lot. And that he's not scared of you." He added thoughtfully. "We used to talk about vampires a lot in theory, and he was scared beyond all belief. But seeing as he had only been three at the time, that might have been saying something…"

Satoshi didn't say anything to this and just sat there, either thinking about something or just staring blankly at the wall, it was hard to say. Argentine remained silent as well, half-considering walking off due to boredom and then wondered where Dark and Krad had disappeared off to. Hm… the possibilities…

What neither one of them actually expected was to have the door suddenly slam open; "HA! FOUND YOU ARGIE!"

"Where were you?" he asked back as Aine smiled at him calmly. Dark and Krad followed behind her and just stared around the room, which was quite large for it and seemed to be furnished in a way that might have indicated that they stole from antique stores.

"So, he's still breathing then?" asked Dark as soon as he saw where Daisuke was located. Satoshi just shot him another glare while the blonde looked around the room curiously.

Argentine, on the other hand, was arguing with the other girl for a moment before turning his attention to the others; "This is Aine, my sister."

Krad turned her head, "Yeah, I figured as much; you two look pretty similar in the end…" she frowned slightly at this, "Twins?" she guessed.

"Hm, no, not really," Aine grinned, "Oh, by the way, Argie, the others should be back real soon and is that a real vampire?.!" She seemed to lose her head as she caught sight of Satoshi, "Wow! That is so cool!"

Her brother yanked her back before she could do something stupid, "The others are coming back soon, you said? Well, come on then, we better go then otherwise…"

"Oh, fine…" she pouted, but allowed herself to be pushed out of the room rather forcefully. Dark blinked at this for a moment, unable to say anything before he suddenly recovered his power of speech.

"Would you call that a close family or a really distant one?" he asked.

"Probably close," replied Krad, taking a seat that was by the wall and getting right back down to business, "So how is Daisuke, really?"

"He'll be awake in a while and he'll be fine," Satoshi shrugged.

"So then…" she allowed her question to trail off meaningfully and the vampire raised an eyebrow.

"He's not going to turn into a vampire."

"Well, that's good then," she leaned back and sighed, staring at the ceiling, "I wonder how old this house is anyway… it's kinda creepy, middle-aged-like or something similar…"

"They look like they just stole a lot of stuff from an antique store," Dark suggested.

"Well, that too…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Kyuu?"

"…"

So much silence…

Giving up, the blonde stood up sharply and strode towards the door, hooking Dark's arm in the process; "Come on, Dark, let's see what the garden's like or something, I can't stand just sitting in here."

"What? Huh? Oh. Sure, whatever, okay?" he seemed to be out of it and just allowed himself to be dragged off and Krad turned, her free hand on the door knob.

"Come on, With, you're bored too, aren't you?" she asked.

"Kyuu!" With bounced over, but looked behind at his master.

"He'll be fine, trust us," she reassured him and the demon bunny hopped up before she shot the vampire an odd look before closing the door behind them.

Satoshi had no idea on what had just happened.

Not only that, but Daisuke seemed to be waking up as well.

… Great…

000

"Hey, welcome back!" Aine half-yelled when the front door opened. Argentine just kept his silence until they had all piled in and the door was closed.

"So how was this morning?"

"The monsters seem to be getting more aggressive, but I wouldn't be unduly worried yet."

"Alethea?"

"I've got someone covering for me. This morning wasn't too good in terms of business and I need to look something up."

Argentine nodded briefly at this, "By the way, we've got a couple of guests that need to come to your attention…"

000

Next chapter will probably focus more on Dark and Krad again… or attempt to, anyway. For some reason, they always fight when I try to get them into a more romantic (sarcasm intended) scenario. It's like they don't want it… XD Or it's me subliminally. And I have to question that whole true/undead vampire theory as well. I just didn't want Satoshi to be a rotting corpse, and didn't want Daisuke to be a vampire, so it all works out. And I have no idea as to why Satoshi was willing to talk so much to Argentine… (maybe he cracked?) Oh well, on with the story XD

ginny brenn: Yup, you got ahead of yourself and you're right :D Of course, I never did mention much about his heritage, so I needed it. Not to mention it allows the two to get closer together ;) (is that the wrong way to say it?) And here's the update! Hope it's to your liking!

(Hands out more cookies to reviewers for their patience)