I do not have any ownership of Blood Plus, or the characters. I do however own my own words so may everything good in this world help you… if you use them without my permission. :p

• authors note:

Thanks very much to everyone who has read my story and given feedback and encouragement.

• more thanks to:

Heavens Memoirs

9081

Simmie

Fruits0Basket0Case

• my appoligies for this part… a promise to myself was that what ever part I was working on would be finished in one sitting, so one sitting for every part. If I hadn't agreed to this… I would not be posting yet… ah well… ;p

Part three

Saya is overcome, she can feel it threatening to spill over all her edges and drown her.

While she slept, time had paused and the time before she went to sleep was only brief moments ago. For Haji time had passed without her… it's meaning almost mundane in its movement. Her heart was breaking as she rose to her feet and crossed the room to meet him has he entered off the balcony.

While his emotions, never seems to swing on much of any kind of arc, she felt the ripple of surprise as it trembled along his back. She felt it when she flung herself against him and sought his mouth. And she heard it when the small silver phone clattered to the ground.

It is morning and she dresses. Back in Hajis shirt and now a pair of Hajis pants that fit fairly well, except that she has to fold the waist band down twice, and the legs up several times so she can walk.

Haji's eyes were calm while he drove, and his voice soft when he spoke. He had called Kai last night and explained things… Haji doesn't bother to explain anything more and she can't find her voice to ask.

Saya blushed suddenly at the thought of what he would have arrived to see.

She is ringing her hands nervously, until her knuckles begin to ache from the contestant gripping. Humans' minds don't work like Hajis. Without her… time had progressed eagerly forward. Saya pushed the longer hair away from her face. She thinks about her position in this life. She could fall into such happiness with the old thoughts of father and her family. Her mind flips to the obviousness of herself with Haji… to fighting, the feelings that curl threw her body like smoke, when she holds her sword. That perfect order of decisiveness when her body and mind were solidified in the singular act of battle, her mind pauses… of killing.

When they arrive at the house, Saya tries to absorb everything. It was her home but different. The house was a memory of the one she knew. The paint was new, flowers spilled out of pots along the door. Her hand is hovering between the doorknob and the doorbell, when door flings open and her eyes are met with Kai.

Kai wraps her in a hug before she can think and his familiarness washes over her like bath in all the scents of home.

They are sitting the kitchen. Her, Haji, Kai and Ami. Her mind does not idle in fear or worry; it evaporated from her being as soon as she felt Kai's arms cover her...

Kai and Ami have been talking for the better part of an hour, volleying the conversation and roughly summing up the last 28 years of their marriage. Saya has been eating from the ample plates of food Ami prepared before joining the conversation. She is happy again. Kai is still Kai. Still himself no matter what the years have added to him. Saya regards this older more mature Kai. The large stokes of grey in his hair that compliment the lines around his eyes and mouth. He is still handsome, but now decidedly grown… a man. Ami was speaking rapidly at her now, disrupting the flow of the conversation to confront Says about when they would go shopping for some more appropriate clothes.

Saya found immense comfort in the ease in which Ami has always regarded the world. In her life, Saya had been protected and lied to both by people who loved and hated her. No such regard would ever come from Ami. Everything was laid-out plain and honest, without pretence. Saya felt such relief when noting Ami was unchanged in this regard. She was happy to know that Kai had made a life with her.

A thought is in her head and she dismisses it instantly… thought she can feel the space it occupied…

Sayas voice was small when she speaks to ask about her nieces. But both Kai and Ami were enigmatic when they speak of the girls. They spoke of them both in tones of love and pride. The girls were well and happy… Kai pauses here and seems about to tell her more when he lays a hand over hers for the span of two heartbeats. He is careful when telling her that the timing of her awaking could not have been better… he promises to speak more about her nieces but first there is a pressing matter.

She feels the slightest tension from Haji as Kai speaks. (Her mind reminds her that no one had seemed surprised the see Haji when they arrived…) With the death of Diva and with her Sleep, there had been not even a mummer off activity from any Chiropterans … nothing for more than 10 years.

Then reports were erupting from the cities urban areas. Police were finding bodies… Kais words are stolen by a sound from behind the house. Saya is up in an instant and moving towards the door.

It is nearly dark.

It was also cooler now, and the fog is rolling off the ocean in fat heaps to greet it. Sayas body is tensed and her eyes flicker towards Haji.

Hajis is watching her. The soft, ancient, grey irises of his eyes glinting an ominous edge.

There is a rapid movement of his hand, and then he is pressing the hilt of her sword against her palm. Her mind notes that Ami is still inside but Kai is lingering in the doorway, in his hands is a gun that is leveled at something he cannot see yet.

She breaths in the thick air and turning now, sees the glint of crimson eyes glowing softly from perhaps 50 feet away. Sayas blood is beginning to pump loudly in her ears, its very texture audible, distinct and specific. Her thumb is braced against the sharp point just above the swords hilt. These creatures have to be descended from Diva… her blood would still work… The thoughts that leave her head are flanked by doubt that she didn't have the time to consider. Her body hums with a twisted kind of pleasure when her blood courses from her finger and down through the swords channel.

The red eyes flash, and her blade is tilted. Catching in the light it casts off a glimmer that caught in the fog, and makes the air sparkle for a moment. Her body was in motion then, her toes springing lightly off the asphalt. With a grunt she pushes her sword forward in a fluid arc, toward its neck. The creature is fast and when she misses, it catches her by surprise. Instead the blade makes contact with a muscular shoulder, and fresh blood sprays across her shirt and hair. It moves away from her and pausing in the light, Saya notes that its features are decidedly more human than previous Chiropterans. Its seems to agree and opens its mouth in a horrid smile. Long teeth point threatenly out of a human mouth, that can't close for the sheer length of the teeth. It is less than a heartbeat and she is moving forward again, the sword is cutting threw meat and bone, cleaving the head onto the wet ground. More blood erupts from the void and makes soft pattering sounds as it rains upon the ground.

She stands over the Chiropteran, dead but not crystallized. But dead.

Something in the make-up of her had attracted these creatures. She had drawn them here, she was sure of that.
She would be responsible for killing them. Chiropterans were in the world still and apparently not tied to either her or her sister… This new breed was not so durable, with only a slight mimicking of the full transformation she was familiar with. Part of her anguished at the realization she would be fighting… part of her did not.

Haji is still at her side and she can't stop herself from reaching for his hand, anymore that she can stop herself from telling him about the part of her that wishes to disappear back into her mind, back to sleep.

Haji responds with the gentlest pressure on her captured hand.