Author's Note: Thank-you for the reviews! In the last chapter, Mari's view of Hao shifted, while Hao actually apologized! What will happen next? Read and find out!

Dedicated to l2ruly, my most loyal reviewer!

Disclaimer: Refrence earlier chapters.

The night was cool, and a waxing gibbous shone on the castle, creating shadows everywhere. All the inhabitants of the castle were awake, and doing all sorts of activities. Some were training, some were eating, some were reading, but most were talking of the two clans that were coming in one moon cycle. Except for one, who was laying in her bed, scowling.

Mari burried her face into her fluffy pillow. Due to her enhanced senses, she could hear the many voices from below her (barely, it was like an annoying buzz). And they were only two floors below her. And the room she lived in was on the eighth floor.

Could they be any louder? she wondered. At that moment, the people downstairs started laughing loudly. Obviously, it can.

It wasn't that she minded that they were having fun. She minded that they just had to be on the sixth floor (it had the best living room, Kanna claimed). Mari considered complaining, but she didn't want to leave her bed. After earlier, she was hestitant to leave her room for anything. She thought someone would look at her and know what happened.

She was nice. To Hao. No -sama, Mari didn't feel like using it. Especially after he, the great Hao-sama, apologized to her, the lowly underling. But, anyway, she was nice. And she had sworn to herself to never be nice to the bastard who changed her!

Damn. It must've been because she had just woken up, and the courtyard was relaxing, and the nightmare, and Chuck missing, and he didn't look nearly as smug as usual.

Damn. Again.

The sounds from below rose in volume.

Looking at the flower bundles that hung from the ceiling and the ones in the vase on her nightstand (Chuck was in Mari's arms- after the scare she had earlier, she was not going to let the doll go), she smiled, the scowl easing off her face. It was rather nice of Hao to carry all the flowers she picked up eight sets of stairs, and then help her tie them up. He even was the one who suggested she tie the flowers upside down, so they'd dry in shape (not that she didn't know that; she just decided to let him think he was being smart). It made her happy (maybe?) that he helped her, and didn't complain.

Mari didn't like that. She wanted to hate the clan master. She wanted to hate him more than anything else, no matter how hard that would be. Pulling the blankets over her head, Mari tried to fall asleep.

The noise grew again.

That's it.

Growling, Mari threw the covers back, and stormed down the stairs, not even noticing how quickly the two sets of stairs went by. Throwing the door to the living room (the best one) open, she yelled, "Mari is trying to sleep! While you may find it normal to stay up so late, Mari is not used to it, and she is very tired! So if you must be loud, take it down a few floors!"

She vaguely noted who was in the room (Macchi, Kanna, BoZ- which was just two guys, one named Zen, the other Ryo- Ashil, Turbine, Opacho, and Hao, yes, Hao). Knowing she was going to blush if she stayed any longer, she spun on her heel while slamming the door shut, and ran back up the stairs.

Jumping into her bed, she noted pleasantly, that it was quiet.

Now that was interesting, Hao thought, smirking.

"What should we do?" Ashil asked. Everyone looked at Hao, who shrugged.

"You decide," he said, hearing their thoughts buzzing.

"We should stay!" Turbine said. "No child is going to tell me what to do!"

"We should leave!" Macchi snapped. "Mari's really mad! She actually yelled!"

"So? What could she do? Yell some more?" Ryo laughed.

Kanna sighed. "Why don't we stay here and keep it quiet?"

"We shouldn't have to keep quiet," Zen pointed out.

"Excuse me? Uh, yeah, I sleep in the bed next to Mari, and I wouldn't put it pass her to throw a bed at me if we disrupt her sleep!"

Hm...If he made them stay, it could teach Mari that he won't listen to her, while if he did it might make Macchi annoyed. Even he didn't like it when she was angry.

"She couldn't do that," Turbine scoffed.

"This is the girl who hurled a block at a wall over ten feet away on her first try. I think she could" Macchi retorted.

"We should move. It would be rude to disrupt her sleep," Ashil interjected.

"So it's three for moving, and three for staying," Kanna said. "Opacho-san, what is your opinion?"

Opacho thought about it, then sighed. "As interesting as it would be to see if she could throw a bed- no, not at you, Macchi- we should move."

The vampires left the room, some grumbling, most not. After all, Opacho was Hao-sama's favorite...a fact most of the 'family' resented. She'd been his favorite for a thousand years...it wasn't going to change anytime soon...

Hao watched them leave, wondering whether or not Mari could throw a bed with telekinesis only...maybe he should test that theory...

Shaking his head, he followed the others. While he did want to find out if Mari's abilities had that extent, he was in her good graces, something he did like (it was much better than being disrespected, or flat out ignored...), and wasn't interested in changing that.

"Okay, Mari, that's good. Now try to get her to do something funny! Like cartwheels while singing the alphabet," Macchi suggested.

Mari threw her a dirty look. Obviously Macchi didn't understand that Mari was new at this, and couldn't do that. This being her newest skill to practice, manipulating humans with words. The 'her' Macchi mentioned was Lilirara, an Indian woman who lived in the closest town. From what Mari understood, Hao...sama had a deal with her. She helped his clan with training, and they didn't feed off her people.

It was a win-win situation.

Concentrating, Mari looked at Lilirara, who had just finished doing the Macarena. Putting an emphasis on her words (like she did with telekinesis), she said, "Lilirara, Mari wants you to spin around seven times."

The woman did as she was told, with a blank look in her eyes.

"Mari!" Macchi complained, but was silenced quickly by Kanna hitting the back of her head.

"Damn, Mari, you're really kicking ass on training. Are you sure you were human?" the older woman asked, speaking around her cigarrette.

Mari scowled. "Of course Mari was human! If Mari wasn't human, does Kanna think it would have been so easy for Hao-sama to change her?" she snapped. That was the fifth time that day she had been asked that, and at least the hundreth in the two weeks she'd been training. Two weeks on telekinesis, from lifting the block to lifting her bed (yes, Hao did make her do that, via Macchi). Most likely, she'd spend a few days on this (Kanna said it was the easiest ability and she didn't to master it), then work on adjusting herself to super speed.

Yeah, right. Mari had tried going just a bit faster than what she was used to, and nearly got sick on Turbine (Macchi commented something about divine retribution, but refused to elaborate).

"Well, it seems you have this down. But, try convincing her to do something she wouldn't do. Like say 'All hail Hao-sama!'"

"No!" Both Mari and Lilirara (who just regained consciousness) shrieked.

"I will not say anything nice about that monster!" Lilirara yelled.

"Mari won't force someone to do what they don't want," Mari snapped.

"O-okay..." Macchi said, confused. "Um, Kanna?"

Kanna blinked, and shrugged. "Well, I guess that's it for today. Mari, have some fun. We're going back to bed." With that, she turned to leave, dragging Macchi with her.

Mari sighed, and turned to Lilirara. "Mari is sorry she had to manipulate you. She didn't want to, but if she didn't, they would ask questions Mari'd rather not answer."

Lilirara smiled, shaking her head. "Its okay. Doing this keeps my people safe, so I'm happy to do whatever I can."

The vampire girl tilted her head, and she crossed her arms, leaving a space where Chuck would have gone. "You sound like you really care about them."

The woman frowned. "Of course. They may not be blood relatives, but they're my family."

Mari smiled softly, looking down. "Must be nice. Mari must be going." Spinning on her heel, she left quickly, not noticing Lilirara's sad expression.

She hurried through the halls. A week ago, she had learned that the courtyard she went to was only one of many, and set out to find one that few went to. The one she found, while particularily small, had an upper level and a lower level, connected by stairs Mari favored. It was easier to practice super speed while going down, rather than horizontal.

Positioning herself at the top of the stairs, she started walking (though to a human it would appear she was running, but Mari knew if she ran, she would go extremely fast). She ignored her stomach, which had become a yoyo, moving up and down with each step, and walked back up the stairs.

Reaching the top, she took a breath, hoping she wouldn't get sick. She turned to go down, and sped up. Now her speed was a bit under as fast as she went with Macchi the first day of her training. Just as she reached the bottom, someone stepped in front of the stairs.

Oh no Oh no Oh no Oh no! Mari can't stop, She's gonna-

With a loud thud, she hit the person, and started falling back. Mari squeezed her eyes shut, waiting to land, but before she could an arm circled her waist, effectively stopping her from falling.

OhnoOhnoOhnoOhno! Mari looks like a fool now!

"Mari?" a very familiar voice said.

OHNOOHNOOHNOOHNO!

Opening her eyes, she squeaked, "Hao!"