It had been a year, now, almost to the dot. Zuko's anniversary was just three days ago. He'd grown so much. Already he'd been on two hunts, done stunningly well on both, and Jet found himself swelling with undeserved pride whenever he thought about his sired's prowess.

And now they were on his third. Jet could smell Zuko's concentration from here, see the way he tensed as he scented another prey. It was a strong scent, too. Something, somewhere, was bleeding out.

He let Zuko lead the hunt.

It didn't last long. Whatever was giving off the smell was only a few blocks away, and it was weak and unmoving. They closed in on the alley way, Zuko's fangs already out in anticipation, moving silently on the cobblestones. A pile of rats had been tossed here by some pest control, and a lot of their blood had already been lost to the air. Still, though, it was a free meal, if a little low-class, and many of those rats were still whole. They each selected two of the cleanest they could find, and, sucking them dry, continued on to the next district.

This neighborhood was richer, though not by much. Crime was less around here, which meant fewer ready-made meals, though this specific district was more than a bit…red-light. (Zuko, ironically, knew the situation better than Jet did. He'd at least tried to have his finger on the city and country's pulse, even from the palace–a difficult feat when everything you hear is filtered through the mouths of nobility and terrified servants.) Even with so many women who would take money, there were those who still wouldn't pay, or even ask, and those were who they were after.

The scent of blood, much like before with the pile of rats, wafted on the air and into their noses, and Jet let Zuko make the decision to follow it to its source.

It was only a few blocks away, just like the rats, but Jet doubted it would be something that guiltless. New vampires had a tendency to…moralize. He himself had gotten over the problem ages ago, of course, but his Zuko was young, and he'd been renowned for his honor in his human life.

He looked over at his sired as the pair leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Zuko was caught up in the hunt: pupils dilated, poised and ready to leap, mouth ever so slightly open to taste the scent of their prey. It was a terrifying look for a mortal to behold, but every vampire knew the ecstasy of the hunt, of knowing that soon you were going to feast. Smells grew richer, sight got better, the mind focused in on the kill. You could practically feel the warm blood on your tongue. Jet, for one, looked forward to it, and he was sure Zuko looked forward to it too.

The look dropped off his face when they got to the spot.

"Mai?" he whispered in quiet horror. The young woman, Zuko's age, lay in a large pool of what was almost certainly her own blood, huge gashes in her neck exposing a broken collarbone and red glistening flesh. Her face was paler even than the noble's silly ideal from blood loss. Her limbs were in positions that suggested a fight. Even worse, her eyes were open. And staring.

She was still alive.

A vampire attack, then. Victims could live up to three days before dying, waiting for blood. Zuko tiptoed over to her and sunk to his knees, hand over his mouth, utter despair in his eyes. He reached with his other hand, slowly, trembling, towards the young woman's prone form.

"No…" It was a quiet whisper, and all the more powerful for it. "No."

"Who was she?" Jet knew better than to offer condolences without information. "Someone important?"

Zuko's breath shook on the inhale, keeping time with his hands. "Y—yea. My betrothed."

"From your old life."

Zuko looked at him, quiet desperation and a terrible sort of fear in his eyes. "Please, Jet. I can't let her die."

Jet knelt behind him, wrapping his arms around his sired and pressing his front to Zuko's back. "Baby. You know how painful it was. Holding on will only hurt you."

"No. I—no. Mai…Mai's worth it."

A hand in Zuko's hair, a mouth by his ear. "Let go."

"But—"

"Hush." Jet laid a finger on Zuko's lips, and his words collapsed into a quiet sob. "Let go."

It was a long while, full of soft, incoherent protests, until Zuko finally nodded and let Jet, who ignored the pleading in her half-delirious eyes, pull him away from the living corpse.

"It'll be okay, my darling," Jet said, not looking behind him. "It's good to let go."

Zuko didn't respond.

"I know it's hard. But you have a new life, a new world, a new status, one that will help you when you're hurt, one where you don't have to put on a perfect façade. You'll be so much happier than you were before." Jet took a deep breath, preparing for what he was about to say. "I know I was." He looked back to see Zuko's reaction, knowing his sired would want to know more—

Zuko wasn't there.

Nights! No wonder he hadn't spoken since they'd come across Mai. What was he doing over there? Jet immediately turned on his heel and leapt through the buildings back to the alleyway, and, sure enough, he found Zuko bent over, hand pressed to weak lips, stroking her hair and whispering softly to her, little choked-up assurances of I got you, it's gonna be okay, I got you.

"Zuko!"

He looked up at Jet, and Jet could see the guilty cringe on his face. "I swear," he whispered. "I just don't want her to die."

Getting angry wouldn't solve anything, but the heat still rose in Jet's chest. He pushed it down. "Zuko, you're still a kid in vampire terms. You don't have enough hunting expertise to get enough blood to feed both her and yourself. I'm still supposed to take care of you, and no one—" He thought of a few people he'd met over the centuries and amended his statement. "—almost no one can take care of two new sireds at the same time. It'll be better—it would have been better for everyone if you'd just—"

He stopped. There was no way to phrase this that wouldn't turn Zuko against him.

"Just let her die," Zuko finished, expression hard. "I'm not doing that."

Jet sighed. "I don't think you can, now." He knelt just behind him, slipping his arms around his sired's waist and nuzzling his ear. "But you've got to understand that you can't sire everyone you loved in your old life. Part of being immortal is making peace with death."

He felt Zuko's face soften, but Zuko didn't answer.

Jet sighed and gently pushed his hand away from Mai's mouth, noting the shallowly dripping cut in his palm. Zuko would likely be exhausted from this already. Too little blood in the body, and a person couldn't function. Zuko tried to push him away, but the hunger hit him like a brick, and he practically collapsed by her side—only to watch Jet cut a line in his own palm and place it on Mai's mouth himself. "Don't worry, darling, she only needs a little more blood."

Zuko relaxed at that, took his arms out from underneath Mai and let Jet scoop her up. Already her questing was slackening, her head threatening to roll back, and Jet thanked the Night that he'd had the foresight since only three hundred to keep himself full for as long as he had a sired around. (Poor Longshot still couldn't talk, and a vampire bite was supposed to be restorative.) Zuko lay still on the bloodied cobbles, eyes closed, looking for all the world like a dead body.

"Are you gonna be alright on your own for a bit, darling?" Jet asked, and got an affirmative hum in response.

"Alright, then," he whispered, and carried Mai off, jumping across the rooftops and through the districts towards their little apartment.

It was a long enough distance, even taking shortcuts, that Jet had plenty of time to think on just how he was going to do this. She'd be attached to Zuko first and foremost, after whoever bit her, so he would have to do the majority of feeding. Of course, there was another problem with that: young sireds required both a lot of food and a lot of face-to-face time. The only one's he'd known who'd managed to pull off raising two at once had kept massive farms to drastically cut down on hunting time, and had been careful not to kill off any of their livestock. He'd never heard of anyone successfully raising three. Of course, Zuko was moving out of the dependent stage, and could probably figure out a lot of hunting on his own, with only occasional guidance. He wouldn't need as much emotional support anymore. And, given Zuko's protectiveness over her, he wouldn't have any problems with the emotional side. If Jet did most of the hunting while Zuko took care of her, and fed off of him so that he could feed Mai himself, they might be able to give her all the time and food she needed. Maybe it would be different. Maybe she'd get attached to Jet as well, and they could split duties. Maybe they'd be able to pull off this craziness.

Maybe, just maybe, this might work.

So, uh...apparently I forgot to update this two chapters ago. So. Doing that now.