The compound where they were staying was rather conveniently set up, Kai noted from his spot against the wall, arms folded over his muscled chest. He hadn't really taken the time to look around the first night-his mind had been rather occupied with other things-but now that he had the opportunity to explore the place, he found it was quite accommodating. It even had a room stocked to hold and torture prisoners-which was perfect since Kai now had one.

When he'd opened the door to his quarters earlier to find Ray Kon lying out in the hall, unconscious and trussed up like a Christmas turkey, he'd been torn between bewilderment and glee-especially when he'd spotted the tube of blue liquid with the note attached saying it would keep Ray weak indefinitely.

Considering their recent confrontation, Kai had been a bit skeptical of how this could have happened: had all Ray's bragging about the power of the lamia been just bullshit? Or was there something else going on here?

His eyes slid open and shifted to the subject of his thoughts. He'd brought Ray down here after discovering the dungeon-like chamber and replaced his previous bonds with the more trustworthy chains attached to the wall opposite him. He'd also injected him with some of the stuff in the vial to test if that note had been telling the truth; he didn't want to have the Chinese vampire running loose on him.

However, it looked like he was going to have to wait to see if it had any effect because he didn't know what had knocked him out or how long it was going to take for him to wake up. That was fine, though. He was a patient person-especially now that he had an eternity to live.

Conveniently, though, after about twenty minutes of watching the comatose neko-jin, Kai was provided with a distraction in the form of Tekla and a pale, spiky-haired teen that he didn't recognize.

"Here you are, Kai," Tekla said by way of a greeting as she entered the room with her companion close at her heels. She gestured at the guy as she came to stand in front of Kai. "This is Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother. He wants to help us fight the ghosts."

Kai arched a single slate eyebrow as his gaze fell on the other man, scrutinizing him with a whole new perspective.

"So, you're the only other surviving member of the Uchiha clan," he observed, tone giving away nothing of his thoughts. He could see the resemblance between this guy and Itachi-and it wasn't just in the way they looked. "You aren't one of the ones I require for this mission."

Sasuke looked ready to argue-and not in a calm manner-but Tekla held up a hand to forestall him.

"But it couldn't hurt to have more people, could it?" she pointed out reasonably. "Itachi and Sasuke have a lot of similar abilities, and Sasuke has also made a name for himself in the underworld as the Hawk-,"

"The master thief," Kai finished, his other eyebrow rising to join the first at that unexpected revelation.

The boy before him didn't look like a thief-but then, if he had powers like the Reaper's that was probably why he was so good.

Knowing that certainly changed Kai's impression of the younger Uchiha-who didn't seem to appreciate being outed.

"Way to blow the lid off my secret identity, Tekla," he admonished her with a look of obvious reproach.

Tekla raised her palms.

"Well, I doubt Kai's going to tell anyone who doesn't need to know," she told him, unrepentant. "Especially if he decides to let you our little crew here. "She looked back at Kai. "Will you?"

Kai wasn't immediately forthcoming with a response this time, once again observing the younger Uchiha as if assessing his worth.

Tekla was right: it couldn't hurt to have more people on his side-and having a master thief could be useful. The only problem would be if Itachi was okay with it; but Kai chose to assume that Sasuke had already had that conversation with his brother.

"Whatever," he replied at last, lifting one of his shoulders in a careless shrug before returning his attention to his prisoner.

He heard Sasuke let out a quiet scoff at the non-committal answer, but the younger Uchiha made no comment while Tekla simply muttered, "I think we'll take that as a yes" before herding him back out of the dungeon/

As they were leaving, Kai saw Ray begin to stir in his chains, and he stood up a little straighter, unfolding his arms.

It looked like the moment he'd been waiting for was finally here.

Showtime

The Chinese lamia opened his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar room, unable to move, and with Kai watching him from the opposite wall, a malicious gleam in his red-rimmed amethysts.

"Oh good, you're finally up," that silky Russian baritone punctuated the air, the faint mocking undercurrent like an oil slick through the tiger's brain. "I was beginning to think someone had taken away my fun and already killed you."

Ray didn't speak right away, instead yanking at his chains to try and free himself. When he was unsuccessful, however, his lips curled in a snarl.

"Kanda and Kuran are working with you," he declared acidly by way of a response, shaking his head. His amber slits flashed in the darkness. "If you think any of this scares me, you've got another thing coming."

An uncharacteristic smirk twisted Kai's pale lips as he pushed himself off the wall and began to lope toward Ray in a distinctly predatory manner.

"You should be scared," the younger vampire stated softly, the gleam in his eyes growing more and more dangerous the closer he got. "After all, you owe me quite the debt, kotenok. And this is going to help me collect on it." He reached inside his coat and withdrew the vial of blue liquid he'd found with Ray earlier, holding it up so the lamia could see it.

The sight of that liquid succeeded in breaking Ray's unflinching mask-only for a second, but Kai still caught it.

"Where did you get that?" Ray demanded, covering his fear with anger.

Kai's smirk turned vicious.

"It doesn't matter; all that matters is that I can use it to keep you weak and defenseless while I take my payment for what you did to me."

Ray tried to continue to feign indifference as he watched Kai come to a stop a few inches away from him, pulling a wheeled table toward him from the corner of the room and lifting a single jagged, rusty silver knife off of it.

"You really think that's going to be enough to hurt me?" he affected a scoff; but this time, he failed to hold his disdainful sneer-even more so when Kai removed the stopper from the vial in his hands and dipped the knife in the liquid inside.

"Well, we'll find out, won't we," Kai replied smoothly, red bleeding even more into his glowing, merciless amethysts.

He dragged the now faintly glowing blade over Ray's bare arm, and the lamia couldn't suppress a-more surprised than pained-cry when it actually managed to break the skin.

It had been a long time since anything had actually managed to hurt him-never mind make him bleed-and though he'd known what that substance Kai had could do, he hadn't thought it would be this bad.

Seeing his reaction, Kai let out a dark, pleased chuckle.

"Looks like I was right," he intoned vindictively, bringing the blade to his lip and running his tongue over the thin line of red that had appeared there.

Ray had to force himself not to recoil when a low, satisfied hum let Kai's lips; but he couldn't fight down the rather undignified whimper that rose from his throat when the knife returned, pressing into his skin even harder than before.

Blood streamed more heavily down his arm, and Kai's eyes flashed with malice as he watched Ray struggle to squirm away.

This was so not what he'd thought would happen when he'd followed Orochimaru's order to turn his former friend into a vampire; sure, he'd known Kai wouldn't take it lying down, but he didn't think the fledgling would be able to do him any real harm. Lamia were supposed to be pretty much invincible, after all; he hadn't expected Kai to gain possession of the one thing that could wound them. And he definitely hadn't expected the legendary vampire lords to be helping Kai get his revenge.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong

He cried out again when the knife slipped underneath one of his fingernails and pushed, lifting the appendage in a way in definitely wasn't supposed to. Tears sprang involuntarily to his eyes as the action was repeated on his other fingers, and he struggled to hold them back, biting his lip against the rapidly intensifying agony.

Kai didn't stop with his one hand, either; he gave Ray's other one the same treatment, wringing more cries from the neko-jin's lips, and even more blood from beneath his dislocated claws.

Ray bit his lip harder, but it was no use; the tears fell, and his upper body tensed with every fresh lance of pain.

He tried to cringe away again when Kai began to slice through the flesh of his other arm, but the combination of the chains and the poison coursing through his system held him immobile. He couldn't escape this-all he could do was hang there and take it.

you brought this on yourself

Kai cut through the sleeve of his shirt at his shoulder, slitting it down the side, and then ripping it clean off his torso, leaving him in nothing but his black cargos. Then, simmering, red-violet orbs raked over Ray's naked chest with what could almost be described as lust.

"Things could have been so different between us, you know, Ray," he sighed with mock regret, caressing Ray's neck almost tenderly with the tip of one of his claws. "If you hadn't listened to Lee and joined those…abominations, we might've been able to take our relationship in a more promising direction."

"Is that why you're really doing this, then?" Ray spoke, trying to sound sardonic-but his voice came out hoarse and pitiful. "I did something you didn't like, so you're going to make me pay with my blood?"

He jerked when he felt fangs prick his skin.

"If you'd rather, you can pay me back with your body," Kai offered, voice dropping to a low, unfamiliarly suggestive purr.

Ray let out an involuntary moan as a slender hand wove into his loose ebony hair, yanking his head back to expose his tan throat.

Another soft, sinuous chuckle vibrated against his skin, and the press of fangs into his neck grew sharper.

"Hn, I'll take that as a 'yes'," Kai whispered before sinking his teeth into the map of exposed flesh beneath them.

Ray hissed as pain shot through him like an arrow, and he wrenched at his chains again, even though he knew he couldn't break them in his current weakened state. This had never happened to him before; he'd never been at the mercy of another vampire before, never had another vampire's fangs in his neck-at least, not when he hadn't given his consent-and he definitely didn't like it.

or at least that's what he told himself

When Kai's free hand skimmed across his abdomen, and his knee pressed between his thighs, though, his agony was unexpectedly joined by an intense, white-hot pleasure that made his whole body shake. He threw his head back, groaning, and his hair came out of Kai's grip, a few strands catching on his pale fingers.

He felt Kai's cruel smirk as his lips moved to Ray's, filling his mouth with the saccharine taste of his own blood, while his hand slipped lower, teasing the flesh below the waistband of Ray's pants.

It shouldn't have aroused him, Kai's touch on his body after what he'd previously been doing, but, despite himself, Ray felt heat bloom underneath that exploratory hand-and it wasn't from pain.

"Kai," he panted harshly into the incendus' mouth as it continued to ravage his own, and that hand continued its journey down, tracing the shape of him through the cotton material of his briefs.

Kai's smirk widened, and his fangs scraped at Ray's already abused lower lip.

This was an unfamiliar feeling, this excitement at causing another person pain. He didn't feel any stirrings of remorse at it being someone he knew, either; the fact that it was Ray, hanging there, covered in blood and moaning in agony, actually made it all the more arousing. Kai wanted more-and he would have it, too.

"I never knew you were such a masochist, kitten," he murmured in another, unfamiliar tone, continuing to pull at Ray's lips with his pointed incisors, while his hand traveled further inside.

Ray's hips jerked when those cold fingers suddenly wrapped around his rigid length, nails digging into the underside.

"Luckily for you, what you did to me seems to have turned me into quite the sadist," he continued sinuously, beginning to stroke the hard flesh with his claws and drawing out strangled whines from Ray's bruised mouth.

He shifted even closer, tongue coming out to catch the drops of sweat rolling down Ray's neck. "This should be fun," he finished huskily before plunging his fangs into Ray's throat once again.

Welcome to your eternal punishment

The rooftop was slick with the rain that had begun falling about an hour ago and had grown steadily heavier by the minute. There was water pooling around Kanda's boots and soaking into his dark robes, yet he seemed largely unbothered; he'd been standing up here the whole time and he hadn't budged an inch.

He knew he shouldn't be out here in the open like this-after what he'd just done, the Eidolons would probably be redoubling their efforts to capture him-and the lamia he'd kidnapped. But that wasn't what was troubling him at the moment; far from it.

Inwardly, he was still fuming over what Allen had told him about Itachi. He didn't really want to believe that it was true; but Allen had no reason to lie to him-and Uchiha did seem like the kind of person who would convince Orochimaru to kill Kanda's family to get to him.

He clenched his fist over the hilt of the katana sheathed at his hip, trying to control the urge to follow his first instinct and go after the Reaper again; that hadn't worked out very well the last time, This time, he needed to be smarter about it, and more careful; as much as he wanted to kill Itachi-or at least hurt him-he suspected the elder could easily prevent him from doing so, and he wasn't really keen on getting strangled again.

Opening his eyes. Kanda let out a soft, soundless breath, relaxing his hands as he turned back toward the compound. He was confident he could come up with a plan to handle this particular confrontation better than the last.

"I know what you're hiding, Uchiha."

Itachi barely batted an eyelid when he once again heard that harsh Japanese accent reverberating through his quarters; he hardly even appeared to hear it.

Seeing his reaction-or rather, his lack thereof-Kanda strode further into the dimly lit chamber, pale features arranged into an expression of barely concealed ire.

"I know everything," he just barely refrained from spitting, hands plunged into the pockets of his robes so Itachi wouldn't see them trembling. "About the vampire lords, about what you did to your family-and mine-while you were the snake's personal pet and executioner. I know it all."

That finally managed to garner a response from Itachi-albeit a rather muted one.

"Is that so?" the elder man queried mildly, ivory features remaining typically unfazed-but there was a dangerous look in his dark coals that should have told Kanda it wasn't wise to push any further.

Kanda didn't seem to get the message, though, because he kept pressing.

"You didn't really to just blindly trust you when, other than your reputation, I hardly knew anything about you?" he retorted incredulously, brows furrowed. When Itachi once again said nothing, he let out a huff. "Well, you definitely can't expect that now that I know you were the one who sent the snake after my family."

The Reaper exhaled slowly and soundlessly, the barest flicker of emotion crossing his inscrutable features as he appeared to contemplate what Kanda's words meant.

Someone had exposed him someone the panther trusted enough to take their explanation at face value

"And who was it that so conveniently had all these answers in order to give them to you?" he said in a low, barely audible tone, dark eyes glittering beneath lashes that were nearly as dark.

Kanda shook his head, refusing to give up his source-since, in his opinion, that was rather beside the point. "It doesn't matter."

He had to force himself not to retreat when Itachi took a step forward, those soulless voids boring holes into Kanda's onyx orbs, power seeping out of them in a way that made him tense.

"Oh, I think it does, Yu," Itachi insisted softly, his sibilant voice echoing within Kanda's skull, filling his mind so there was no way he could ignore it.

Kanda's skin prickled when Itachi's gloved hand suddenly closed around his wrist, forcing his hand out of his pocket and holding it aloft between them.

You have no idea who you're dealing with

"What are you doing? Get your fucking hand off me," Kanda demanded, attempting to throw Itachi off-but the elder's grip only tightened and Kanda felt a sensation like a shard of ice being dragged over the palm of his hand.

I know who you're trying to protect, panther

Itachi's eyes flashed like polished obsidian in the lack of light, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"I'm not the only one with secrets, you know," he intoned cryptically, shifting his hand further down Kanda's arm, brushing the inside of his elbow before releasing him again. "Your lover, who I know was the one to tell you about me, has his own that he's been keeping from you for a very long time."

I know everything

"You're wrong," Kanda denied fiercely, sparks of electricity spitting from his gaze-but the involuntary fracture in his voice gave away his true feelings.

And the truth was he had no idea if Allen was keeping secrets from him. Though they'd been together for nearly four years, there were still things they didn't know about each other.

Kanda trusted Allen-and thought he was fully entitled to hide some things- the way Itachi was insinuating made him question just what he might be hiding.

Itachi continued to stare at him as his thoughts spiraled, expression turning cool.

"Why don't you ask him, Kanda?" the Reaper suggested pointedly, flicking his fingers. "I don't really need you to trust me, but if you trust him, then you should have no problem asking."

I'm not the one you should be doubting

Kanda's eyes narrowed, face contorting in an ugly look.

"So, that's how you want to play this?" he snapped icily, fingers once again curling around Mugen's hilt. "If that's the case, then why didn't you just kill me last night?"

"I could kill you now," Itachi offered mockingly, a kunai suddenly materializing in his hand, the point aimed at Kanda's throat.

When Kanda simply continued to glare at him, he let out a quiet scoff and lowered the weapon carelessly.

"Like I said, I don't need you to trust me; but if you can't stand to work with me to destroy the evil assailing this world, then you deserve whatever unpleasantness you get," the Reaper stated in a soft, mechanical tone that didn't quiet reach his swirling black eyes.

Kanda's glare intensified, but before he could anything more, Itachi turned away.

"It's time for you to leave, Panther," he dismissed the younger man without emotion, voice just barely above a whisper. "You choose your actions and suffer whatever consequences come with them."

The Panther stared at Itachi's back, frown deepening as everything Itachi had said whirled inside his head. He wanted to dismiss it all as Itachi just talking crap to avoid discussing what Kanda now knew about his past, but deep down, he knew that wasn't it. He didn't really know the Reaper, but he seemed like someone who never said things without a good reason-which meant that his statement about Allen might actually have some merit.

Not that Kanda was going to acknowledge it.

"Che," he gave an irritated scoff of his own before turning on his heel and striding back out the way he'd come in.