A.N. Its been a little bit since I wrote the first chapter... I've been dreaming up some of the following sequences, and trying to find a deeper plot than 'ok, she's here now, what's next?' As it is, I'm pretty much making this up as I go along. For once, I don't have any concrete grandiose plan in which 'Aela fits maddeningly well into the various layers and sub-plots I normally have squirreled away. So lets be a good audience and just see what I come up with, yes?

Bishonen and Bishojo: Daughter of the Mob

Chapter 2

It was with a startling 'POP' of her inner ear that brought Michaela's subconscious back online.

It was the whistling of air screaming past her ears and the CRACK SNAP of branches flailing her that yanked her back into total consciousness...

But the eventual THUD of impacting the ground gave power back to her feral subconscious.

Aware, but not exactly awake, 'Aela's deep inner mind had to contend with two disparate thought processes. One train of not-thought had to do with the welling of rage, fury and fear brought on by the destruction of her previous life at the hands of those who invaded her home. The other track was primarily attuned to her senses and set on an observatory mode. Those same senses were nudging the primal subconscious. Not everything was 'right' or familiar with her world anymore.

While the observation track had noted her injuries, the welts and bloody scratches that came from falling at high speeds through tree branches, it had classified them as minor. The broken leg and sprained wrist were of a little more concern, but still not what it wanted the subconscious to wake the over-conscious about. No, what the senses were telling the male-bashing subconscious was that at present, a great number of entities of the male persuasion were gathering en masse a few yards away and just STARING.

Well, this new information caught id's attention. When a breathtakingly gorgeous specimen of the male species made an attempt to approach, however, Aela's id took over the body's reins and brought a head crowned with a riot of raven wing curls upward so id could stare out of midnight eyes and lift her lip, baring luminescent white teeth in what was unmistakably a flat-out threat.

What id did not know, and the unnamed master of the senses could not tell, was that the male started backing away not because of her visible warning signs. No, he had that inestimable sixth sense that most Blood males possessed, and tasted a female's psychic scent paused tremblingly between riding the killing edge and descending into the Twisted Kingdom. The slightest wrong nudge could send her spiraling into either undesirable side of the spectrum, and as much as his blood cried out to help a hurt female in distress, he knew he did not have the capabilities to ground her or otherwise channel the urges she was feeling into something less self-destructive.

He was on the verge of communicating to his brethren what he had discovered, spear to spear, when Aela's id took solid notice of her growing entourage. She sent a non-verbal snarl out into the ether, and it would have been echoed with a similar one from her throat, except that even her body's subconscious did not have the 'authority' per se to invoke one.

So the dark one just knelt there, with leg and wrist throbbing, on the cobblestones of a Bishonen and Bishojo hidden city, mute and radiating stress and pain, rage and sorrow, all swirling in great eddies that picked up the interest of those called to serve. But none were able to help. Id warned them all away, as she would not accept the touch or help of one who so resembled those who had audibly brutalized her mother.

But minutes later, as the dull murmur of a sea of masculine voices rose and fell in worried discussion, a calmed silence pervaded from a certain direction. A ripple in the sea of gorgeous maned heads occurred as people moved aside to part a path to the dark one. The silence also had a tinge of awe to the massed psychic scents. The one who walked that clear path very rarely was seen, even in this most protected of Bishie lands. The only one more rare would be the full-blooded Janaelle, passed into her full power of Witch. There was only one Witch in the Realm at a time, so every other Janaelle was either a chibi or had matured into a sama and acquired her Twilight's Dawn jewel.

It was a rather short golden head of hair that finally breasted the crowd. Ancient sapphire eyes surveyed those around and a young sepulcher voice commanded, "Alright now, show's over. Go about your business and you won't be psychically maimed."

And back in her normal high-pitched child's voice she muttered to herself, 'And whether its me or her who does the maiming, I'll never know.'

Turning back to the huddled figure that brought a chibi-Janaelle out of her mother's protective hiding, she rested a hand against a non-existant hip and regarded the wild creature before her. Janaelle had her lessons in dealing with feral Kindred and snarly boyos, but she hadn't yet covered the dangerous topic of trainers, let alone hurt newbie ones. Brilliant sapphire met midnight black. Janaelle focused through the opening those dark orbs gave her, and frowned cutely, like a kitten considering how to pounce on a hoppy bug that was a bit too big. What she saw through those eyes ... Like the lights were on, and the watchdog awake, but there was nobody home.

"Aha! You're still not all awake, aren't you?!" she exclaimed brightly, very happy with herself for figuring it out.

Considering black blinked slowly before focusing on something behind the chibi's shoulder. A lip lifted only the slightest to show a hint of tooth, but otherwise remained relaxed. Janaelle's presence presented a soothing balm of comforting abyssal darkness. Her darker aura enveloped Aela's frightened/angry id and brought it to a more stable level. But at Aela's action, the chibi turned with exaggerated slowness and again scrunched up her face in dissatisfaction. It was Daemon Sadi. More to the point, it was not only A Daemon, but THE Daemon who had assigned himself to watching over her when she wasn't around her mother, one of the few sama staged Janaelles.

"I know you're a Daemon, but you're not MY Daemon," chibi Janaelle shouted at him, meaning the one she would take as consort if/when she became full Witch in the Realm. "So stop following me!"

"Actually, little cat, I'm not here entirely for you this time," he crooned with the slightest hint of mockery.

"Don't call me 'little cat'! That's what Lucivar calls me"

Actually, that's what pretty much everyone who thinks of himself as a brother to a Janaelle calls her, but this chibi didn't know that.

"Hn," he murmured in a 'we'll see about that' tone while his golden eyes swept over to the still kneeling girl.

In an instant, Daemon's assessment came to the same conclusion as his little chibi charge.

"Could you please ease her into true-sleep, lit-Janaelle?"

"Why?"

"So that I might bring our new friend to Witch. She desires a meeting with this new trainer."

"So she really is one? A trainer, I mean? I couldn't tell at first, 'cause she's never said a word or anything, and she doesn't have any Bishie balls, oh and the fact that she's in our Realm, aren't trainers not supposed to be in our Realm? Is Witch going to kill her or banish her or break her of her jewels or exile her or wipe her memory or something since she's a trainer and in our Realm?"

"Curious cat. We won't know until we bring her, so please...?" he asked after ruffling the old gold of her hair.

Janaelle smacked his hand away while taking those remaining steps closer to the fascinating being known as a trainer.

The dark fury held back from lashing out to this close presence in the ether for several reasons. It did not have the distinct cast associated with males, and somehow, she could sense that it was a youngling approaching, a type of bebe as well, and presently offering no threat. A dark and soothing presence actively coated the raw wound in the ether that Aela's id exuded. Cooling her rage and relaxing her body, the subconscious registered that she felt safe for the first time since her mama had awoken her in her bed. Gently, softly, her senses were telling her that the throbbing wrist and spiking pain of her leg were releasing their grip, and id went with it, submersing itself back into the depths of unconsciousness.

It was a sleeping Aela that Daemon dove to catch before she again cracked something against the cobblestone. Lifting her with a fluid ease that not even Craft could match, the one known as the Sadist cradled a soon to be oriented captor in the manner one usually holds brides before giving the smirking chibi a hairy eyeball.

"Ebon Askavi, little cat. Meet me there." And then he caught a black thread after spinning a bubble carriage to keep the depths from crushing his new charge.

Which left Janaelle to gape for those few precious seconds for his getaway before she could retaliate. Just before she also disappeared, jumping the webs was more her style, she could be heard to say, "And I'm not your little cat..."

End Chapter 2