Part Two

spare me your judgments and spare me your dreams

The wind was in his hair and rushing past his ears. The night was warm and the smell of eucalyptus leaves was heavy as he searched for the scent he was tracking. His long legs kicked at thin air as he bounded from rooftop to rooftop. The stars were obscured overhead but the lights of the city flashed past his eyes with dizzying speed.

His quarry was below.

He gathered all his speed and when his feet touched the lip of the roof of the coin laundry, he launched himself out, high, above the street, and he tucked his arms in close to his sides and the air swirled around him—and he laughed. The sound of his delight carried down the street and fell on the ears of his quarry as it ran pell-mell through alleyways, tipping over garbage bins and kicking trash behind it. Foolish. He was not giving chase on the ground.

He barely cleared the street to land on the other side, but his feet found purchase on the crumbling edge of the library's rooftop and he immediately bounded forward so his momentum could not cause him crash on the landing. He was closer now.

His blood was high and he laughed and laughed. He could not help it. He loved the hunt.

He caught up with his quarry. They looked up as they ran, and saw him high above, and they stumbled for a moment and he saw with his sharp eyes the fear in theirs. He bounded ahead a little and then he swung himself down from the top of the post office with grace and landed lightly on his feet. He was not in front of the one he hunted, because they had veered down another alley. But he gave chase and his own speed was greater than theirs, and he caught up quickly.

Then he whistled sharply.

His companion thumped down into the street just ahead of the quarry. The slender figure reeled back and in the moment of indecision, knowing that the hunters were on both sides and there was nowhere to run, that was when he made his move. He leapt forward, light and quick, and sunk his teeth into the back of his quarry's neck.

The young-looking man let out a short cry, but he didn't move.

"I am Fai," he muttered against his quarry's neck. "You know of me. Yield now and come quietly."

The glory of the hunt was thundering in his ears, his chest, his mind was all bright and sharp and the taste of this creature was on his tongue, and he felt his teeth digging in deeper despite himself. He could tear this filthy killer limb from limb and dance in the ashes when the body crumbled.

Brother, have a care, a voice spoke in his ear. A high, lilting voice that fell over his mind like a pale shaft of sunlight in the shadow of trees. I know not what you are doing, but you are losing yourself. Do nothing you will regret.

He had tied himself carefully to Suu so that she could always feel when he began to lose control and she could call him back. He always heard her voice when he could hear nothing else.

Thank you, my sweet one.

Then he turned his attention to the vampire who was struggling feebly to slide his own flesh off Fai's teeth.

"You are charged with reckless murder, and I would know your name."

The vampire spat in the dirt. Kusanagi stepped forward and cuffed the insolent creature on the head. The vampire snarled at him and finally managed to get away from Fai without harming himself. Laughable. Kusanagi fetched him another blow to the head, although he twisted to the side almost fast enough to escape it. It still grazed him and left him reeling just long enough for Fai to grab him by a shoulder and spin him around to look into his eyes.

"You are mine, now, you mindless bloodthirsty beast. Tell me your name."

"Kyle Rondart," the vampire said slowly, unhappily. He was bowing to Fai's influence, but he retained enough of himself to show that he was unwilling.

Fai knew that name, and he had to clamp down tightly to avoid showing his surprise. No matter what, he had a job to do. No matter what, there was a murderer in front of him.

"Do you deny that you killed Adam Matthews, Harrison Matthews, and Katherine Matthews? Do you deny that you have taken Theresa Matthews unwilling and enthralled her?"

"I fed," Rondart replied, spitting again into the dirt at their feet. "And I must continue to eat. As all vampires must."

Fai pressed his influence closer, but it was harder work with this one than it was with lesser vampires. Rondart was slippery and his mind felt disgusting. It was like reaching your hand into a pumpkin and trying to grab a fistful of seeds, feeling the cold squish as they shot out sideways from your grip. Fai couldn't help his grimace of distaste.

"Kusanagi, let's take him back. Hold onto him. I've got him now, but he might escape me."

He was able to hold the connection without maintaining eye contact, walking behind Kusanagi as he frog-marched Kyle Rondart toward the car that waited for them. But it was difficult, and he was drained before they were halfway back to his home. He couldn't hold the connection forever. Fai had never had a problem maintaining influence over vampires as much as twice his age, but Rondart's own lineage was providing him with an advantage that Fai had not foreseen.

He needed to speak to Suu, but he could not maintain his hold on the vampire at the same time he reached out to his sister.

"Hold him tight, Kusanagi," he murmured, and let his mind wander far, looking for the mental equivalent of dappled sunlight through trees and finding her quickly. She had left her mind open to him, obviously concerned for whatever he was doing.

Call Mother. Tell her I have need of her. It's urgent.

Brother, what have you done?

Call her, Suu.


Fai stood in front of the chair where Kyle Rondart sat and neither of them moved.

He felt aching and cramped. They'd been like this for hours. Fai had realized quickly that he'd never be able to maintain the control he needed over Rondart long enough for Mother to arrive. It wasn't some low-level maintenance of influence he could exert as he went about his daily routine. He had to stay in this room and never waver. The way Rondart's mind twisted to try to get out from under Fai's careful pressure was much more clever and subtle than Fai was used to. It was less like wrestling a wild animal on a leash, and more like trying to catch mist in his hands.

It didn't help that Rondart was slime and Fai hated having to look at him. Unfortunately, taking his eyes off him for more than a minute was out of the question.

If Rondart were not the foul creature that he was, Fai would have used these hours locked away in this small room to indulge in curiosity and study him. He had never been in close contact with a child of Fei Wang Reed's before, and he was curious as to how they might differ from one another. He was more powerful than Rondart, but just barely. He was interested, but not enough to examine someone who was capable of the slaughter Rondart had committed.

And he could hardly afford the distraction. There was no way they could wait for Mother. It could take her days. A week. He couldn't keep this up for a week, and even if he could there was no way Yuui could keep feeding him as often as he needed to maintain this. He could feed from Lucia in an emergency, but that wouldn't sustain him for long.

Yuui. He'd taken too much blood from Yuui, and he knew it. Yuui was in danger. But no, he couldn't afford to worry. Lucia would take care of him. He'd be fine.

He'd sent Kusanagi away to find his neighbour, the vampire Kurogane. They needed a third to pass judgment, and Kurogane was the only other vampire in their area. Kusanagi hadn't stopped talking about him since they'd run into each other. He didn't seem to know anything about his own kind, as if he hadn't spent a day of the last hundred years in their company, and he didn't seem to trust them in the least. But from what Kusanagi had said, he'd be a valuable ally if they could win him over, and so Fai had counseled him to approach as casually as possible, feed him information and befriend him without overwhelming him.

But this? This was not the ideal way to bring him into the fold.

The whole thing was making him feel weary, more than just the drain of his energy and power. It was his duty to punish the crimes that Rondart had committed, as the child of his Mother, but he was more than a criminal, he was the child of an old enemy. No matter how Fai punished Rondart, he was going to be touching off a scandal and sorting out the political implications was going to take years. It was a nightmare, but he had no choice.

Not when the other choice was letting him go.

"You look tired," Rondart sneered. He was sitting in a comfortable armchair, looking for all the world as though the two of them were simply lounging about. But Fai's mind was wrapped tightly around his. Rondart might be clever and slippery, but he was still under Fai's influence as the more dominant vampire in the room. He couldn't have gotten up even if he'd wanted to, but at the moment he didn't seem to be trying. "Why don't you go get some rest? Or at least go check up on that human of yours—it seemed like you took so much blood."

Whispers of fear about Yuui were too distracting, so he brushed them aside. For all he wanted nothing more than to run to Yuui, to apologize, to care for him and ensure he was safe . . . The minute he left this room, Kyle would free himself and run. Fai had to trust that Yuui and Lucia were intelligent enough to handle it.

In addition to ignoring his own worry, he was doing his best to ignore the thrill of being so full of vitality and power. It felt amazing, like light was pulsing just below his skin. And that made him sick, his gut twisting in horror. It was wrong, so utterly wrong, to feel this good from nearly killing what he loved most. He hadn't felt so wickedly powerful in many years. He hated it. He wished Ashura were here. It had been a long time since he'd heard Ashura's gentle words, guiding him to accept what he was without changing who he was, and he missed the confidence and peace in his spirit that his time with Ashura had given him.

"You shouldn't keep a human who can't handle—"

"Ta geule," Fai snapped.

Rondart's attitude changed, a lazy grin stealing over his face at the obvious sign he'd gotten under Fai's skin. His legs shifted, and he almost stood up. Fai tamped down ferociously on his emotions and focused on his task. He bore down hard on the other vampire's mind. He was treading a very fine line—he could exert the whole of his power and reduce Rondart to a jibbering wreck, but then he'd be the one who'd committed a crime, and he'd possibly wind up a jibbering wreck himself. He had to keep this piece of garbage imprisoned, but still in control of his own mind. If vampires could sweat, Fai would have been dripping with it.

Someone knocked on the door. It had to be Kusanagi at last, since he'd told Lucia to stay out of here and not disturb him under any circumstances.

"Enter," he said tersely.

Kusanagi came in, followed by what had to be his neighbour. Fai spared a glance for him. His youthful face and slender build made him look hardly more than a child, but there was a depth and breadth to his shoulders that indicated he'd have grown up to be quite a sizable man indeed, if his growth hadn't been arrested by his death. He was certainly past one hundred years, though not by much, Fai didn't think.

He was handsome. And he looked angry enough to tear all three of them apart.

"Interesting stroke of luck," Kusanagi said, flicking his eyes over Rondart with disgust while addressing Fai. "I couldn't find him, but turns out that's because he was already here. Seemed he planned to introduce himself to you. Couldn't have picked a better time, although it would have saved me a couple of hours of looking for him if I'd known about it."

Fai took a deep breath of the air from the hallway and frowned. "There's a human out there."

"My prey," the new vampire answered, straightening up his shoulders like he was ready for a fight.

"You brought your prey to another vampire's house?" Fai asked, feeling slightly amused. He really didn't know anything at all, did he?

"Yeah, well, he says he knows you."

Fai scented with more attention to detail, which wasn't hard. The other vampire carried the smell of the human, and it was a smell he recognized. This human had troubled him deeply in the past. "Oh," he said, looking over Kusanagi's neighbour with fresh appreciation. So this was the source of the darkness in Shizuka Doumeki's dreams, was it?

. . . or . . . not. Fai frowned. He couldn't stop looking over the younger vampire, as though he was hiding some kind of mystery in his clothes or behind his eyes. This wasn't the source of Doumeki's problems, after all. Fai was sure he would have felt it, somehow. This vampire was important, he was the one who filled in some of the blank spaces in Doumeki's mind, but he wasn't . . . all of it. Fai felt sure he would have known immediately if Kurogane could account for the utter darkness that swallowed Doumeki up when he slept. He didn't, and yet . . . Fai couldn't help feeling as though some important question had been answered nonetheless. He didn't know what it was, and he caught himself raking his eyes over the other vampire too intensely. He didn't like this feeling of being given the answer to a question when he hadn't asked one.

And in that moment, his concentration was broken. Rondart leapt from the armchair and tried to speed right past them. But the young vampire that had caught Fai's attention was even faster. He grabbed Rondart up by the shirt and flung him back into the armchair.

Fai acted quickly, leaning over and making eye contact and shoving on Rondart's mind. "You will stay seated until I tell you to rise," he growled. Kyle went completely slack for a moment, and the power of being so thoroughly fed throbbed in Fai's body. He turned again to Kurogane. "Thank you for your assistance, Mister . . ." It was a mere formality, but Fai liked formalities.

The black-haired man rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Kurogane. I was told this one is a criminal. Seemed like a bad idea to let him leave."

"Indeed he is," Fai said crisply, "I am Fai, by the way. Now that the two of you are here, let us proceed with all haste. As evidenced, I cannot hold him forever."

"What do you need me for?"

Fai blinked at Kurogane in surprise. "A judgment cannot be passed without three vampires in agreement." He turned his surprised expression on Kusanagi. "You said he knew nothing, but I didn't realize you meant not a damn thing at all."

Kusanagi shrugged. "Well, after he got made and got left behind by his maker, seems like he stuck close to his human family instead of looking for other vampires. He's hardly had contact. He told me he's only met about half a dozen, not including us."

Fai gaped at him for a moment. It was already unheard of for a maker to abandon their child, and he had been intensely interested in trying to find Kurogane's. But to think he didn't even know any vampires . . .

"Don't look at me like it's my fault," Kurogane muttered, scowling. "I didn't ask to be made. So, what, we all have to agree about how we're going to sentence this guy, and then we just do it? Is that how it works?"

"That's the short version," Fai said, unable to help a small smile. "You can't gather any mere three vampires, although in an emergency situation you might be able to make the case for such an action. It's because my own maker is quite a powerful figure in the vampire world, and I've been given authority by her to act on her behalf."

"Oh," was all Kurogane said, but Fai felt the weight of his eyes as he turned back to Rondart. He was sizing Fai up, and for some reason he didn't mind the presumption. Kurogane occupied such a unique space. He was judging Fai without understanding who he was or any of the implications of what they were doing tonight. Fai even felt . . . He struggled to identify the feeling. Anxious. He felt anxious about what Kurogane would decide. He'd never had the chance to know before how he might appear to an outsider.

"Stand up, Kyle Rondart," Fai said, some of the anxiety fading into the background of his thoughts as he slipped into this familiar role. "I will lay the charges before us to allow for complete understanding. Two weeks ago, you became interested in Theresa Matthews and began to harass her in her home and her place of work. Nine days ago, you attacked the Matthews family. You killed her husband Adam Matthews. You killed her nine year old daughter Katherine Matthews. You killed her seven year old son Harrison Matthews. You carelessly left the bodies behind to be discovered by human law enforcement. You abducted Theresa Matthews against her will and enthralled her against her will. Do you deny that any one of these actions was yours?"

Fai kept half an eye on Kurogane as he spoke. He watched Kurogane's face get darker and his scowl get deeper, and his lip curled in disgust when he looked at Rondart. Good. He knew Kusanagi was in agreement with him, but it had to be unanimous between the three of them.

Rondart's answer was to bare his teeth menacingly. "What I deny is your authority in this matter, Fai Fluorite. You have no power over me."

"I have authority over any of our kin who transgress in my territory," he answered calmly. "Whose child you are makes no difference."

"You are no kin of mine," Rondart spat. "It makes all the difference. I do not agree to your laws."

"Then do not come into my territory!" Fai shouted, losing his temper for a moment, taking a step forward. A hand on his shoulder held him back. He looked at it with surprise. Kurogane. Kurogane seemed surprised, too, releasing him with a shrug.

He regulated his voice. "You knew that your actions were a punishable offense here, did you not?"

Rondart hissed at him.

"Did you not?" Fai asked more viciously, pressuring him with influence.

"Yes," Rondart muttered sullenly. And then his eyes flicked around wildly, his mind flickering as well. It wasn't deceit, but it was some kind of evasion. Fai could not spare the energy to chase it.

"My sentencing is thus: final death. The stake. You are to be executed for your crimes," Fai said calmly. "Unless there is one of our kin who will intercede on your behalf. If so, you will bend the knee to your intercessor and pledge twenty years of service. If not, the execution is scheduled for dawn." Dawn was still the proper time for these things.

Rondart's face grew darker and darker as he spoke, and then he spat at Fai's feet. "Bend the knee? Like you did, you piece of shit? Crawl for one of lesser birth simply to save your own skin? Crawl for a disgrace like Ashura?"

Fai bounded forward and struck Rondart backhanded across the cheek, this time too fast for Kurogane to restrain him. His chest was tight. "I will not hear his name cross your filthy lips," he hissed. "I served and I learned the error of my ways, and I have been given much in return. There is no shame in serving one who has mastered themselves. So, Kyle: will you bend the knee to an intercessor?"

Rondart's eyes swept the room exaggeratedly, taking in stolid Kusanagi with his arms crossed by the door, and Kurogane with his look of deep disgust just behind Fai. "And where am I to find an intercessor by dawn, fool?"

Fai felt weary, impossibly weary, as he spread his arms from his sides, just a little. "Here, Kyle Rondart," he said, and he actually felt Kurogane stiffening with surprise behind him. Their minds were attuning to each other eerily fast. "Pledge me twenty years, and I will not execute you. Give me twenty years of your immortality, and I will help you walk a better path."

He was echoing almost word-for-word what had been said to him, long ago. A better path. It had called him out of darkness and bloodlust and brought him back to his family. Kyle Rondart, though . . . It would take him far from his.

"No," Rondart said.

"Then we will wait for my dame," Fai said, keeping his voice even despite the way he wanted to plead with Rondart. "She will accept your service as I would." And give him hell for it for the next hundred years, no doubt, but she would do it. To see one of Fei Wang Reed's children turn aside from butchery and rape would cause a stir in their world, indeed.

"No," Rondart spat. "I will not bow and scrape to the likes of you or your blood. I will not. And you will not dare to execute me. You will not dare to risk the life of your own brother. My sire will retaliate and you know it. Your brother is lost the moment you drive the stake home."

Fai was terribly, terribly good at not showing his emotions to others. But the mask he wore began to crack at Rondart's words. His brother, lost to them for so many years. His brother, at the right hand of Fei Wang Reed.

"Wouldn't that start a war or something?" Kurogane spoke up behind him. Fai jerked in surprise. "I mean, this is like a court judgment right? So it's all legal. But if his father killed your brother to retaliate, wouldn't that be a crime too?"

The question was what Fai needed to ground himself, to think past the fear Rondart had instilled in him. Of course. Fei Wang Reed would not dare. Things were imbalanced enough already with his brother serving at Reed's side. He would never tip the balance so far.

Fai was tipping the balance rather dangerously, himself. But he was acting within his rights to punish crimes in his territory, and they all knew it. He had two witnesses and Kyle himself had acknowledged his crime.

And he had seen them. Little Harrison Matthews with his chest torn open and pretty little Katherine with her bright hair spilled over the ground and splashed with blood. He'd crouched on a rooftop high above watching the forensic team set up around the bodies, and he'd seen the blood of children spilled on the ground.

Fai steeled himself, hardened his heart against the fear that Reed would hurt his brother. "My judgment stands, Kyle Rondart. You will pledge me twenty years, or we will execute you at daybreak. You have . . . three hours to decide."

Rondart grinned. "Unless you drain that cute little thing who keeps your house, you don't have the strength to hold me for three more hours."

Fai froze.

"He's not the only one holding you here."

Fai turned to look at Kurogane in shock. This man had no idea about vampire hierarchy and stepping on anyone's toes, stumbling over tradition so clumsily that it should have been painful but instead Fai had never been so grateful in his life.

"You think either of us is gonna let you past us, after what you did?" Kurogane growled, gestured to himself and Kusanagi, who quickly covered up surprise with a hard implacability. "Try to leave this room. I dare you."

Rondart took him at his word. Fai had relaxed his grip on Rondart's mind to be sure he was not influencing his decision, and Kyle now slid himself sideways out of Fai's influence entirely, and he was a blur of speed as he ran for the window.

Kurogane was faster. He bounded past Fai and grabbed Rondart by the shirt and flung him to the floor. He placed his foot on Rondart's neck and bent close over him. "You killed children, you bastard. You're gonna pay for that."

Rondart put his claws into Kurogane's leg, but the young vampire didn't even flinch. Rondart used the grip to twist Kurogane's leg sideways and throw him off. Kurogane hit the wall, but he got himself between Rondart and the window as he did so. Rondart bared his teeth in frustration. Kurogane grinned, all fang.

Kusanagi had scooted sideways to make sure he was standing fully in front of the door. Fai felt a wash of gratitude warming his chest. He'd gotten lucky. Not just two witnesses but two allies. After the hours spent mentally wrestling with Rondart, he was losing the steady throb of power from Yuui, but between the three of them they could easily keep Rondart caged. Fai could have wept with relief.

And so they did. None of them spoke and felt no need to move, either. All four of them stood in complete silence, and Fai gave up trying to hold his influence on Rondart. He was too weary, and Rondart was no longer trying to escape. It was an hour before dawn that Rondart spoke.

"He didn't ask me. I didn't have a choice."

He had been sitting in the armchair again, with his shoulders bent and his elbows braced on his knees, looking at the ground. He kept his eyes there, his hands clenched together at his knees.

"My sire. He made me, but I didn't want it. I never wanted to be . . . this."

At first, Fai feared a trap, feared that Rondart was trying to influence one of the other two, worried that he was distracting them for one last escape attempt. But his shoulders were hunched and his feet were loose on the floor.

"I cannot bend the knee to you, Fai Fluorite," Rondart said slowly. "My sire . . . I can't." He finally looked up, and his eyes were nothing but hollows. "Is it dawn yet?"

"My family would protect you," Fai said softly.

"No. I choose final death," Rondart said. "Come, it must be close to daybreak. Close enough."

Fai wanted to argue, he wanted to try again, he wanted to slip inside the defeated mind before him and make him a puppet on a string and force him to say the words that would bind him to Fai for twenty years. He wanted anything, anything but this. But Kusanagi was already opening the door, and Kurogane was lifting Rondart out of the chair by one arm, supporting half his weight because Rondart was so limp and yielding.

"Come on," Kurogane said to Fai. "If that's his choice then let's get on with it."

Fai nodded, and led the way outside. Lucia loved to garden, and he hated to get ash on her flowers, but they couldn't very well do this in the house. He broke the branch from a tree that hung close to the back porch. You couldn't just use any stake, no mere piece of plywood, and it couldn't be metal like a sword. It had to be a living thing. It was the intrusion of something natural and alive into their strange, unnatural bodies that did it, and the branch was the easiest way to intrude so. He couldn't even wait long before the vitality would go out of the branch and leave it ineffective.

The sky was still grey and the sun still shying away behind the horizon, but Fai spoke the formal words anyway.

"Here under the light of the sun which dispels shadows, you are judged. We judge you thrice." He paused, waiting.

"Guilty," Kusanagi said after a moment.

The second pause was far longer. "Guilty," came Kurogane's voice grudgingly.

"Guilty," Fai finished for them. "And now you are sentenced, and so let it be done." He twirled the branch and raised it, and then drew it close to his chest so they might not see his hands tremble. He looked up into the hollow eyes of a man in despair. "Kyle," he whispered desperately.

"Just do it," was his answer, arms loose at his sides.

"Hold him," Fai commanded.

"No," Kurogane answered, even while Kusanagi began to step forward. "He doesn't need to be held. Let him have his dignity."

Kyle even dropped to his knees to make it easier. So Fai rushed forward in a blur and drove the branch straight into his chest without another moment's hesitation, pushing it all the way through him and into the earth, pinning him to the well-tended grass of their backyard. The force of his drive forward made it hard to stop, and he ended up on his knees beside the pinioned vampire.

Kyle immediately began to flake away. His eyes were closed.

"I did not wish for this," Fai whispered.

Kyle didn't even open his eyes. "I did not wish to see my bride murdered on our honeymoon and to be turned against my will simply because I was wealthy and my sire wanted my holdings," he murmured. "Try not to put too much stock in wishing, Fai Fluorite."

Then his body caved inward and crumbled, and he fell as a heap of ash and immediately began to scatter away on the wind. Fai stayed on his knees, watching bits of Kyle Rondart disappear into the light of the rising sun.

"You should go home, Kusanagi," he said after a long silence. "Thank you for all the help you've been tonight, but you should go. Yuzuriha will be awake soon."

"Mmmph," Kusanagi grunted in agreement. "Lord knows the little miss won't go to school unless I make her."

Fai felt the weight of eyes on him, and turned to see Kurogane looking at him with utter disappointment, which was strange.

"You know about her?" Kurogane said incredulously.

"Of course. Kusanagi and I rescued her together. Kusanagi, you're not taking all the credit are you?" he asked teasingly, hoping it would distract the other two from the fact that he was still on his knees.

"Rescued?" Kurogane spat out. "She's prey to a two-hundred-year-old vampire and she's in middle school and you call that rescued?"

"Oh," Fai said with sudden understanding. "She's not prey."

Kurogane had a look on his face as if he'd been walking briskly along and the sidewalk suddenly wasn't there. "She's not?"

"She was. She was in thrall to another vampire. We took her away, because we have rules about these things. We put this into effect over fifty years ago. You cannot enthrall or even feed from anyone younger than the age of legal consent, according to the laws of the country you inhabit, not without dire emergency. We had meant to send her back to her family."

Kurogane was looking at Kusanagi, who was shrugging.

"Wasn't any family to send her back to," he said simply. "And she likes getting into trouble. Got a knack for it. Seemed safer to keep her than to let her go. And she has a stupid obsession with vampires anyway. Can't scrape her off me with a spatula."

"This is Kusanagi's way of saying that they have taken a shine to each other, that a small girl has him wrapped around her finger, and that they have both promised to wait until she comes of age before making a decision about whether or not she will become his prey."

"Y-yeah," Kusanagi agreed uncomfortably, shifting his feet. Fai grinned at him. He often called Kusanagi his deputy, but for all that they were not particularly close he also called him friend. It did Fai good to see how happy this young girl made him. "So I'd better get back home before she wakes up. And you keep your mouth shut, you got your own prey to look after," he scowled at Kurogane.

Kurogane smirked in return. "My prey's a grown man," he drawled. "And if I know him at all, he charmed Lucia into cooking him dinner and then passed out on the sofa in the sitting room."

"Fai, I'll report in later tonight," Kusanagi said, suddenly anxious to be gone. He was one of the sort who grew uncomfortable when he was caught out in daylight. "We've got a hell of a mess to sort out."

"Yes, we do," Fai muttered, and his hand fell to a smear of ashes in the grass.

Then Kusanagi was gone, and that was when Kurogane came over and hauled Fai to his feet without a word of warning.

"Come on," he said gruffly. "I can tell you're worn out, and I can tell how bad you want to check on your father. I kinda want to see how he's doing, myself."

"My what?" Fai asked faintly, leaning on Kurogane in spite of himself.

"Isn't he? Yuui, I mean. You look a lot alike, but he's way older than you."

Fai couldn't help but chuckle. "He's my brother. My twin brother, in point of fact. I was turned when we were young, but he did not become my prey for a long time after that."

"Oh. Right," Kurogane said awkwardly. "Because you killed someone and had to spend twenty years serving somebody named Ashura."

"Not someone," Fai sighed out. "Many someones would be more accurate." He pulled away from Kurogane, and stepped ahead of him into the sitting room. Exactly as Kurogane had predicted, his prey was snoozing on the sofa, an arm flung casually over his face. Fai passed him by and went down the hall to look into their bedroom, desperate to see Yuui with his own eyes and be assured that he was all right.

He was in bed, sleeping deeply. He looked ill and pale, but he was breathing, and Fai sagged in relief. He took in the sight of the bandages expertly wrapped around the bite mark, surprised. Lucia wasn't usually quite so handy with first aid.

"If he's still bleeding I can change the bandage," Kurogane said, right in his ear. Fai jumped with surprise and whirled around, throwing out a hand to push Kurogane back and sending him sprawling against the hallway wall. "Uh, sorry."

Fai had thought Kurogane would remain in the sitting room with Doumeki, and he paused to allow his jittering nerves to calm themselves.

"You bandaged him?" Fai asked.

"Hnn." The sound seemed to be one of agreement. "Got some water and sugar into him. Bundled him up and tried to keep him warm. But I left him in the other room. Shizuka must have carried him in here."

Fai didn't know what to make of this Kurogane, from start to finish. He was the most unusual vampire Fai had ever met. And he'd taken care of Yuui when Fai himself could not. It was more than he could get his head around right now. He already had too many things he was trying to think and feel.

"Maybe next time you shouldn't come so close to killing him," Kurogane said suddenly, his face expressive with challenge. He knew he was overstepping himself now, at least.

Fai was too weary and heartsick to be affronted. "It was an accident." As he spoke, he was going to Yuui's side, brushing long strands of hair from his brow, needing to touch him and know for sure that he was warm and living.

"You're free to go, for now," he said over his shoulder to Kurogane. "I imagine that when my mother does arrive, she will want to speak to you about the events of last night."

Kurogane's eyes were sharp and troubled. Fai felt guilty, absurd as it seemed. Kurogane had remained far from the schemes and complicated politics of their kind, and he seemed content in his life. If he became embroiled in the war between Fai's family and the Reed coven, Fai would feel even worse. He needed to prepare Kurogane as best he could, answer his questions and anticipate the ones he wouldn't know he should ask. Kurogane lived in his territory and that made him Fai's responsibility.

But Kurogane wasn't thinking about the same thing as Fai, after all. "He's not going to wake up anytime soon," he said, nodding at Yuui on the bed.

"I know."

"I'm not gonna leave yet."

"Beg pardon?" Fai asked politely, for a moment certain that he'd heard him wrong.

"You're a fucking mess," Kurogane said plainly, leaving no room for error. "You're keeping it together pretty well, I'll give you that. But if you have a meltdown or something, somebody should be here who knows what they're doing to help him."

"Meltdown?" Fai repeated haughtily. The insolence of this man was staggering.

Kurogane crossed his arms. "It's not gonna work on me. I know you wore yourself out keeping that guy under control. And I can tell how bad that was for you, having to kill him."

Fai hissed at him sharply, and it was a mighty struggle not to slip into his mind and silence his tongue.

"So quit pretending you're fine. You're not."

Fai was a blur as he slammed into Kurogane and gripped him by the collar and shoved his fangs into his face. "You are too familiar with me, child. Know your place."

"I know my place just fine," Kurogane said stubbornly, unmoved by the intimidation, gazing into his eyes without fear. "For the moment, it's right here. You and Yuui both seem like idiots so I'm gonna stick around to make sure neither of you does anything too stupid, cause I'm gonna need you to do all the talking once your mom gets here."

A pair of hands rested themselves gently against Fai's back.

"I don't know you or anything, but I know it probably sucks to feel like you have to pretend to be better than everybody all the time."

Then, somehow, Fai found himself crumpling against the other man, ducking his head to hide his face. Vampires didn't cry, but their bodies remembered the way of it, and his shoulders were shaking with unvoiced sobs. He wanted Yuui, he needed to feel his brother's arms around him, hear his voice against his ear telling him that he was strong enough for all this . . . But Kurogane was here, and if the arms around him were not Yuui's, neither were they unwelcome.

"Come on," Kurogane said, sounding embarrassed for the first time. The hands that had rested tentatively on his back now smoothed over his arms and tugged on him. "Don't want to disturb him, so let's disturb Shizuka instead. I'll wake him up and send him home."

"No, let him sleep," Fai protested, but Kurogane was already in the sitting room. It was hardly the most polite way to rouse someone from sleep, Fai thought with distant amusement as he watched Kurogane yank the knitted blanket (one of Lucia's) off him and tell him loudly that he'd slept through his alarm and was going to be late for class. Fai stopped breathing so that he wouldn't be caught laughing as Doumeki vaulted off the sofa and reached for something nonexistent that he must keep close to his bed—the clock, perhaps. He fumbled in the air, gave the whole room around him a deep frown, and then his face cleared as he realized the truth.

He shoved Kurogane in the chest. "You're an idiot."

Kurogane cuffed him lightly on the head. "So're you."

"Everything go okay?"

"Okay as executing a criminal can go, I guess," Kurogane muttered. "If you're just gonna sleep, go home and do it there. We want the sofa."

That gave Doumeki a moment of pause. "You're staying here, then?"

"Yeah, for a while. I'll be home later."

"Alright," came the easy answer, as though it did not matter much either way.

Kurogane cast an odd, furtive, sideways glance at Fai for some reason before he leaned forward and kissed his prey lightly. "See you."

Doumeki smirked more than he smiled at that, then turned to Fai and bowed. "Thank you for your hospitality, Master Fai," he said.

An interesting thought occurred to Fai then. "If you can spare me the time, I'd like another opportunity to dream with you," he said. "Now that I know Kurogane belongs in same of the missing spaces, I wonder if I might not be able to make a better study of the rest of it."

Doumeki looked interested, and nodded his acceptance. "Sure."

"Not right now, though," Kurogane spoke up. "Shizuka needs more sleep, and you need to relax."

"Is he always so bossy?" Fai asked Doumeki in a terribly gauche stage whisper.

"You haven't even seen bossy yet," Doumeki replied.

Kurogane crossed his arms and scowled at them, and Fai found it oddly endearing.

"I'll come back another day," Doumeki promised, and bowed to him again before exiting.

Fai sank down onto the sofa, still warm from Doumeki's sleeping body, before Kurogane could start insisting. This was all very strange. Normally if a vampire forgot or overstepped their place to such a degree, Fai would have them on their knees apologizing for their disrespect long before this point. But he was rapidly becoming dangerously fond of this one. He was so utterly sincere.

"What are you smiling about?" Kurogane muttered, sitting down on the other end of the sofa.

"You are so informal with him," Fai said, gesturing at the closed front door. "Most of us do not let their prey become so familiar. Certainly not allowing them to strike you, even in jest. It was all rather amusing."

"Yeah, well, I don't really do things just because it's the way vampires are supposed to. Don't really know about all the rules. I just sort of do things because I want to. Shizuka's not just my food, he's my—" Kurogane cut himself off, appearing stumped by his own effort to define it.

"Boyfriend?" Fai suggested brightly, unable to help it after seeing them flirt.

That just made him shrug irritably. "Not really. We're not dating, he dates other people. That's probably another thing I'm not supposed to let him do, isn't it?"

The truth was, there were any actual rules regarding the type of relationship you must or must not have with your prey, barring those that protected against abuse. It was more a matter of what was normal, especially among lesser vampires who felt the need to posture and act out their roles. Fai was far from caring about such things himself, but he had the luxury of his position. Kurogane certainly was not required to be normal.

Instead of saying any of that, Fai said, "You must have so many questions."

"Yeah, but I'll ask them later. Right now all I want to do is have a minute to think."

So Fai fell silent and allowed him that. Both of their thoughts were drifting, Fai's mostly crowded with worry about his mother's reaction to all of this. Fai had done what he thought best, but if Mother didn't like it, she might order him to give up his home here and go back with her so she could keep a closer eye on him. He had moved his small family here to get away from all the games and dramatics. The last thing he wanted was to be dragged back in.

He didn't even notice that he was wringing his hands until Kurogane's hand covered them and stilled them.

"Worrying about it's not gonna help," he pointed out.

Fai existed in such isolation. Lucia knew her place was as a servant, and so all he really had in this world was Yuui. And he wanted desperately to be with Yuui right now, but he'd been an idiot and nearly killed him last night. Maybe he'd been caught at a uniquely vulnerable time, or maybe Kurogane was just that special. But Fai didn't even think about it. He turned his hand palm up and fit their fingers together, and then there they were. Holding hands on his sofa. Leaning in close to each other and he wondered if Kurogane also felt as though they were becoming familiar with frightening speed.

A spark jumped between them. Not the romantic spark of vapid storytelling, and probably not actual electrical charge either, but it felt like a spark. Sharp and short and just barely painful. And then Fai saw in his mind a man, a tall man with a long ponytail of hair, silhouetted in the night by leaping flames and brandishing a broken chair.

He and Kurogane ripped themselves apart from each other, and Fai felt as though he were slowly falling into dark water.

"Kurogane . . . That, just now, was that your father?" he asked, the words coming out slow and queer because it was suddenly hard to remember how to operate all those muscles in his chest.

"I . . . what just happened?"

In other words, yes. The man Fai had seen looked so similar to the vampire that he had guessed. But how? How had he seen that?

"You know that I can touch people when they sleep and look into their minds and tease out their secrets and futures, like I have done for Doumeki."

"Heh. Lot of good that did for him."

Fai didn't know what to do with his hands now, so he placed them carefully between his knees. "I can't do it with other vampires at all. Because we're not alive in the same way, I cannot access a mind the way I do with a human mind. For one thing, we do not sleep and so there are no dreams for me to manipulate. It's honestly very hard to explain, because the gift is unique to me. It's never happened before that we know of. Although my mother did not seem surprised, so I have my suspicions that she can do it also."

Speaking calmly, reasonably, explaining it—it was helping, but not much.

"Get to the point," Kurogane demanded.

Fai shrugged and spread his hands helplessly. "I just did it to you."

"You just said it doesn't work on vampires."

"Yes, I did."

"So how did you do it to me, then?"

Fai closed his eyes and said, "I have no idea."

Saying it aloud made it so much worse. Fai reached out his hand, meaning to hold Kurogane's again, meaning to investigate this, find out how far this went, try to explain it somehow— Kurogane jerked away from him.

"I don't want you in my head," he snapped.

Fai let his hand fall again, more surprised and hurt by that than he had any right to be. "No, of course," he murmured automatically. But if he could not investigate it further, then what was he to do? He'd seen into Kurogane's mind, his subconscious mind that awakened only when humans dreamed—and it made no sense, Kurogane was not human and this should not have been possible. The closest he'd ever come to sharing something like this with another vampire was the way he could communicate with his siblings, but it was never with this level of clarity and it was explained by the ties of their blood. This was different and strange and Fai didn't think he could cope with anything else on top of what he was already dealing with. But here it was, and so he must.

Kurogane was back on the other side of the sofa. His sudden discomfort and distrust was so strong that it was a like a physical pressure holding Fai away from him. Fai supposed he couldn't blame him. They'd known each other for all of . . . nom de dieu, was it only four hours? And Fai had just seen something not just intensely private but probably intensely painful—there was only one good reason Kurogane's father could have been standing in a burning house swinging around a broken chair, after all.

No, he should not push Kurogane on this, much as he might want to. There may be a way to convince him to allow Fai to explore this, but not now.

"I am going outside to clean up the yard," he said at last, getting to his feet. "I don't want Lucia to have to see it."

"Need help?" Kurogane asked grudgingly.

"I do not, thank you," Fai answered in tones of strained formality. He didn't quite know how to handle this. He had no desire to use his standing or power to order Kurogane around, which was a realization he was too weary and disheartened to think about just now. Why shouldn't he order a lesser vampire around? No, it was too much to think about on top of everything else. Everything he wasn't using to worry about his brother and his mother, everything he wasn't using to grieve over the execution he'd just carried out, that was given over to worrying about Yuui and feeling guilty over hurting him. He had nothing left for Kurogane right now.

"C'est le bordel," he muttered, and shook his head fiercely. He had a lot of responsibilities and self-pity was a luxury he could not afford today.

He picked up Kyle's clothes and shook the ash from them. A cracked leather journal fell from the jacket and thumped to the ground. Fai set it atop the folded clothing, resolving to look at it later.


Fai took longer outside than was strictly necessary, and he wasn't sure whether he was hoping Kurogane would have left by the time he came inside or whether he was hoping to find out that Kurogane had waited for him. So he was unclear as to whether or not he was disappointed when he re-entered the sitting room and found it empty.

He sat down on the sofa and let his head fall back with weariness. He had long ago gotten used to the fact that vampires did not sleep, but there were still far too many moments in which he wished he could. He knew better than anyone that a mind did not fall completely still in sleep, but there was something to be said for being unaware for a few hours. To not be able to drive yourself mad with thinking. And he needed blood again. Already. He'd never needed to feed twice in the space of eight hours, but then he'd never engaged in a mental battle with one of Fei Wang Reed's children before.

He needed Yuui. He could not feed from him, but nevertheless he needed to curl up beside him, bury himself inside the scent and warmth of him. Let Yuui chatter to him and distract him, tease him out of his troubled thoughts. Kiss him until he could almost feel alive again.

The sound of the television came buzzing from their bedroom. Fai shot to his feet. Yuui was awake. And now that he was thinking properly, he could smell food of some kind, so Lucia must be awake as well, probably trying to care for Yuui. He was a blur of speed down the hall to their room. And then he brought himself up short so abruptly that he nearly fell over, which would have been unforgivably lacking in grace.

It wasn't Lucia. It was Kurogane.

Kurogane, half-sitting on the edge of the bed. Kurogane, with his arm behind Yuui's back, lifting him. Kurogane's chest that Yuui leaned his head on. Kurogane's hand steadying the cup—beef broth, by the smell—that Yuui was drinking from. Kurogane. In his bedroom. With his hands on Fai's twin.

Fai's fangs shot out and he hissed in warning.

Kurogane looked completely startled, but Yuui's smile was lazy when he turned his face toward Fai.

"Good morning," he greeted.

Fai could feel his claws creeping out and he tried to stay steady. Yuui would get angry with him if he attacked this fils de pute in their bedroom.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his words harsh and half-formed to avoid cutting himself on his own teeth.

Yuui looked amused, because he was a conasse who lived to make Fai's life more difficult. "He is nursing me back to health, of course," he said lightly. "He was going to wake Lucia, but the poor dear only went to bed a few hours past, and I would not wish to disturb her. Why would I wish to be waited on by Lucia when I can faint in the arms of such a beautiful young thing?"

Kurogane was off the bed and across the room before Yuui could draw breath to speak again. Yuui's eyes sparkled with delight at the trouble he was making, while Kurogane looked completely panicked as he turned to Fai and, for the first time since he'd arrived, bowed to him as a superior.

"I didn't— I wasn't— He needed to eat as soon as possible, and I was only—"

It was almost a shame that vampires did not blush, because Kurogane looked like he ought to be red from the tips of his ears to the curve of his neck.

"And then he told me that he doesn't watch t.v.!" Yuui went on, apparently undisturbed by the fact that he'd been dropped back onto the bed like a sack of potatoes. The broth, at least, was still in Kurogane's hand instead of splashed across the bedding. "So I insisted that he must stay here and learn about terrible daytime programming!"

Fai's anger was becoming a more general annoyance at his twin than a predatory jealousy aimed at Kurogane. He could hardly blame the vampire. This was clearly an effort by Yuui to tease Fai, and Kurogane could not be faulted for not knowing that Yuui was essentially shameless and for being unable to counter his devious mind.

And then he realized that Yuui was just trying to keep him from worrying so much about him, and trying to cheer him because he knew that Fai would be grieving today. His claws and fangs melted away along with his anger, and he saw for the first time just how pale Yuui's skin was, and how his hands were shaking as he tugged at his blanket.

"Yuui," he said softly, going to the bed and sitting down beside him. He drew the blankets around his twin and drew Yuui's head into his lap. He wanted to cry at how weak Yuui was in his arms.

"Here," Kurogane said gruffly, holding out the mug full of warm broth. "He needs this. And he needs more sleep. When he wakes up, he needs more broth and maybe some toast or crackers if you—"

"I know," Fai said calmly. As if there were a vampire in existence who did not know how to strengthen their prey when necessary!

"Right," Kurogane said awkwardly, passing over the mug into Fai's hands. "I'll just . . . You'll call me when your mom wants to talk to me, right? I'll let myself out."

"Don't be a stranger~!" Yuui called after him, sing-song, as he shot out the door.

Fai flicked him lightly on the nose. "Ne fait pas le con. You are mine and you should not tease him so."

Yuui grinned unrepentantly. "It's only because he was so flustered. He came in to check on me and it woke me, but I thought it was you, and I called him l'amour de ma vie. First he didn't know what I said, so then it amused me to translate. Then he didn't know why I was calling anybody the love of my life, so I had to explain I still had my eyes closed and I was calling for you. Then of course he didn't understand that, so I had to tell him quite plainly that in addition to being your twin and your food I am also your lover. I thought he would spontaneously fall into a pile of ash when he finally realized. So then of course I had to see just how easy it was to tease him. It's very easy, as you saw for yourself. Even easier than you."

"You are terrible," Fai said in disapproval, then kissed the tip of Yuui's nose where he'd flicked him. "L'amour de ta vie, hmm?"

"Yes, of course," Yuui smiled. "But I am only half-joking, you know. He's lovely and I will allow him to feed me while I lounge in his arms at any time. And I'm quite impressed that I escaped his company unscathed. I doubt he told you about what happened last night."

Yuui told him the story of Kurogane nearly attacking him, making Fai, for a moment, feel intensely sorry that he hadn't torn the little upstart apart after all.

"He apologized for that, this morning, by the way. He was intoxicated by the smell of my blood, what little of it there is right now. Apparently I smell simply irresistible. He's actually quite a gentleman."

"He seems to be," Fai agreed, weighing his desire to chase Kurogane down and kill him against his weariness. "Now stop talking and drink this. You'll pass out any minute and I want this inside of you before then. If you manage that, I'll tell you the other very unique thing he did this morning."

Yuui knew when to stop arguing and do as Fai told him. He drank the broth and listened quietly as Fai told him about seeing into Kurogane's mind. And as predicted, Yuui barely managed to say "But how?" before he was overcome with a wave of dizziness and passed out in Fai's arms.

Fai undressed and crawled under the blankets beside him, pressing their bodies close together. He couldn't have Yuui's blood nor his company, but he could have his warmth. It was enough to relax him so that he could drift along with the sounds of the television and stop worrying for a while.