Yuuichirou sat quietly at the kitchen table, elbow propped up on the surface and hand supporting his head. His eyes were closed and Akane couldn't tell if he was sleeping or not. With a small sigh, Akane returned to stirring the pot. The oatmeal wanted to stick this morning. The kids, well, Ako and Taichi, would sometimes complain that the oatmeal had no flavor, that they always had oatmeal for breakfast. She knew that it was hard on them but there wasn't anything else that she could do about it. It wasn't like the vampires were going to provide them with anything that they weren't already.

The sounds of the children playing in the other room, instead of washing their faces and fixing their hair like they were supposed to be doing, brought a small smile to Akane's face. It was good to hear them play. If they could all be happy… then everything would be fine.

The sound of someone clearing their throat beside her caught Akane's attention.

Chihiro fidgeted a little when Akane turned to look at her. "Uh… um, where is Mika-kun?"

Her heart sinks at the question. She doesn't know either. It's not like she can tell the other children that though, after the fight between Yu-chan and Mika-chan they were bound to be worried now that Mikaela was missing.

"He'll be home soon." Akane smiled as the lie passed her lips.

The smiled faded as Yu aggressively slammed his chair back, getting to his feet in a quick movement. The boy quick to flee the room.

"Wait! Yu-chan!" Akane called after him. "We have to give blood today!"

Yuuichirou paused by the doorless entry, glancing at her over his shoulder. "I'll be there." Then he was gone.

That was probably meant to reassure Akane, but it most certainly did not. He was probably off to look for Mikaela which meant he'd probably yell at the vampires for answers. She wished that Yu would think before he acted, the big dummy.

Akane had never seen the vampire that Mikaela had been running off to at least once a week, but she knew that Yuuichirou had seen him. Kouta had told her about the silver haired vampire that had touched Yu-chan, only for Mika to shove his way in between them and give his winning smile.

Mikaela had saved Yu back then. Of that Akane had no doubt. Yuuichirou wasn't clever enough to handle the vampires, he'd rather fight with them. Mikaela had made sure that the attention had fallen solely on him.

"Um, Akane-nee-san?"

"Hm, Chihiro?"

"The um… the oatmeal's burning…"

"Ah!"

Immediately her eyes flicked back to the pot. So it was. Quickly she lifted the pot off of the heat, setting it on a cold burner and flicked the button off. It wasn't that bad, just a moment's distraction. It wouldn't be terrible. They still had a little milk that she could put in it, though she wouldn't waste the small amount of sugar that they had on this.

They'd complain about it, but at least they couldn't say that it was the same as every other morning now.

Akane hummed as she set to work, pausing to instruct Chihiro to get the other kids at the table regardless of their state of dress. She had to get them fed, give them their nutrient pill, fully dressed, and off to the donation site before noon. Akane heaved a sigh, she was much too young to be a mother.

The voices in the large corridor were muffled. Soft murmuring conversations echoed off of the vaulted ceilings with hesitance. All the children were present here, about a hundred already hooked up to the machines that would take their blood. The lucky ones that had arrived earlier had already left or were waiting inconspicuously for their friends or family. The rest waited in long lines that trailed out the door.

Vampires swarmed this place, crimson eyes following the children's movements like a hawk's watching prey. They were the mice cowering in a field.

Akane gathered Taichi, the youngest, and Ako, the trouble maker, to her side, making sure that they never left it. The rest she knew would know better than to go too far from each other. Chihiro would help look over them since Yu and Mika weren't there.

They were standing in line, all clustered together rather than in any kind of file. About halfway to the machines, they had probably two hours until it was their turn. They had already been standing here for an hour, and Taichi never missed a chance to complain about his feet hurting when her attention was on him.

They should be safe here, Akane knew. The vampires hadn't done anything to them yet while they donated blood. The stoic city guards stood in the background in their white uniforms with apathetic eyes, they were probably the least likely to attack them. It was the weaker vampires, dressed in regular clothing that milled around helping the other vampires in uniform that worked the machines, they were the ones that watched them with hungry eyes.

A quiet disturbance amongst the children behind her attracted Akane's attention, and she turned in time to see Yu squeeze his way through the crowd. His eyes searched the people before him and lit up when he found his family. Of course it had taken the virus for the little brat to realize what they meant to him.

The relief that swept through her small body was enough to make Akane sag. She sighed, returning Yuuichirou's smile with one that held all the pain and worry that she had felt at his absence.

"Sorry, sorry Akane. I didn't mean to be gone for so long… it took me awhile to find the place and when I got there there was no one-" Yu began to explain, speaking almost too fast for Akane to follow before she interrupted him.

"What place?" Akane asked sharply. What had he done?

Yu at least had the decency to look sheepish, a light blush dusting his cheeks as he avoided Akane's angry eyes. Shuffling his feet, Yu scratched at the back at his head. The rest of his family and even some of the children in line nearby had noticed the confrontation and had turned curious eyes on him. He felt those eyes, and it made his skin crawl uncomfortably.

"Well… Mika didn't come back, I even checked at home before coming here and he wasn't there." He rubbed his neck, eyes looking down at his shoes. At this point he made sure to keep his voice low and Akane stepped closer to him. He leaned down at bit so that he was closer to her ear, not that she was that much shorter than him.

Not quite whispering, Yu said. "I talked to some kids, and I found out where he had been going to sometimes. That vampire apparently has more kids as his little…" He trailed off, realizing that whatever he was going to say would be an insult to Mikaela as well.

"Anyway, I got one of them to show me where they meet him at, and I broke in..."

"Yuuichirou!" Akane scolded, smacking the back of his head. "That was a very stupid thing to do! You could have been killed!" She hissed the words, clenching her fists at her side so that she didn't hit him anymore. Didn't he realize the stupidity of his actions? Even if Mika was missing… there wasn't anything they could do about the vampires. Yu wasn't the kind of person that cared about that, but Akane couldn't loose another precious family member.

"Ow!" Yu yelped, not able to keep his voice down because of both the pain and the surprise at being struck. "Akane…" He whined, rubbing where she had hit him.

"Well?" Crossing her arms, Akane regarded him with a cold expression, though the anger in her eyes belied her stance.

"Don't be mad. Seriously, Akane. I didn't really break in… the door was unlocked when I tried it. I would have left if it was locked. I'm not that dumb. Besides, no one was there."

Eyes widening, Akane grabbed Yuuichirou's forearm. "What do you mean? No one was there?"

Yu shrugged. "Yeah, I looked all over that place. That's what took me so long."

Akane let go of his arm, suddenly feeling weak. She searched his face before turning away from him.

"Akane? Akane what's wrong?" Yu grabbed her shoulder, forcing the girl to look at him. Well, not really forcing. Yu didn't think anyone could force Akane to do something that she didn't want to do.

The tears trailing down Akane's face startled Yuuichirou. He hadn't told her the worst of it yet and she had already figured it out.

"Yu-chan…" Akane grabbed his arms, staring at the ground. "If Mika wasn't there then…" A sob wracked her body and she found that she couldn't continue. She had feared this last night, when he hadn't come home a few hours after he left like he usually did. It wasn't something that she had wanted to think about and now she was ashamed that she had ignored something so obvious when he still hadn't come home by morning.

She stiffened when Yu wrapped his arms around her in a hug, melting into his embrace a second later. Controlling her sobs, she cried silently against his small chest. She could hear Kouta and Chihiro quietly talking behind her but she couldn't find it in her to reassure her family that everything was alright yet. Because really, it was far from alright.

Yuuichirou patted Akane's hair gently, trying to reassure her. He felt shell shocked, not really sure what he should be feeling right now. He hadn't really considered the possibility that Mika could be dead, not until after he had seen the huge puddles of dried blood in the dinning hall of that vampire's mansion. He had cried then and preceded to tear through the rest of the mansion screaming at the top of his lungs for the damned vampire to come out.

When he had approached his family he had tried so hard to make it seem like nothing was wrong. Had told himself that just because there was blood it didn't mean that Mika was dead. A heavy false hope that lay in his chest, he knew that there was no way Mikaela could hurt a vampire like that. It had to be Mika's blood… and for him to lose that much blood, he had to be…

Yu broke away from his thoughts forcefully, before he started to cry again himself. One of them at least had to be strong, for the rest of their family. At least until they got safely to their home and could all just cry together.

"What happened?" Kouta asked, stepping closer to them. He had noticed Yuuichirou look up and felt that it was appropriate to ask then.

Yu felt his heart drop again and shook his head. "We'll tell you when we get home." They had to get this blood donation over with and the vampires didn't care about their problems. He didn't know what they will do once they tell them what happened to Mika, but it would be better to sit them down and not do it here where they can't possibly watch them all. There were too many eyes to see their grief here.

"Promise?" The younger boy asked, biting his lower lip gently. Behind him, Chihiro had her arm around Taichi who was playfully fighting her grip, watching them from the sides of her eyes while she tried to distract Ako. Fumie was looking sadly at her shoes, but Yu could tell that she was crying.

Yuuichirou nodded and said solemnly. "I promise." Though he didn't think that what they would tell them would be a surprise to any of them.

Pain.

That was the first thing that Mikaela was aware of the moment he regained consciousness. Regrettably. A short hiss escaped his cracked lips and he curled up, wrapping his arms around his legs. His limbs ached horribly, and his movements were a little stiff and slow.

"It's normal to hurt at first."

The soft voice that had floated across the room to him brought the memories of last night crashing back into him mind.

Trying to to move his head to look at her only caused more pain and Mikaela whimpered. It seemed that she was feeling generous because the vampire that had given him her blood last night stepped into his view. Had she been an adult he would have only been able to see up to her torso, but she wasn't. She must have been about his age, though Mika knew that wasn't true.

With quick though gentle movements she had helped him to prop his head up on her lap, one hand gently grasped in his hair and the other holding a glass vial before his lips. Again she spoke the words that she had the night before, the sound a soft murmur in her throat.

"Drink."

A soft but firm, unyielding command. One that compelled Mikaela to follow it. The scent of the vibrant crimson within the vial worked with her voice, pulling at something within him and painfully twisting all his organs.

Even if right at this moment he really wanted to obey and throw back the blood… Mika couldn't. It was abhorrent. He didn't want to be a vampire… Yu would hate him. The others wouldn't be all that pleased either, but Yu would hate him.

It took a long moment but Mikaela finally found the strength he needed to feeble rock his head in a negative gesture. The vial moved closer to his lips, tantalizing. He was trembling.

"The pain will go away once you do, trust me."

Still he refused, going so far as to dig his new little fangs deeply into his bottom lip.

"Hmm." The voice of his mistress hardened, but the vial disappeared from his view. A long shuddering breath was drawn of him as if pulled out by another being and he went slack in the vampire's grasp.

"I understand the initial revulsion but you will break eventually. It is not within a vampire's nature to abstain from their desire's. Though retaining a child's form is undesirable…" Here she paused, either in thought or for effect Mika couldn't tell. "This is merely a temporary measure, but I shall give you a choice."

Her hands snaked around to before his face, a slender finger drawing a nail across her own wrist. Blood welled from the wound quickly, splattering down with wet smacks against Mikaela's skin.

He shuddered, bright pain searing red across his vision and tugging at his stomach. His entire body yearned for this. Without even thinking he reached out, grasping her wrist greedily and striking his fangs into her flesh with the agility of a snake.

A quiet gasp from above him and then Mika could no longer hear what was around him. Once again all his senses were overpowered by the overwhelming presence of blood. Black blood, thick blood; it wasn't quite right, somehow his body knew that. Yet it was above delicious. The perfect hit of what his body had so desperately been craving. The pain slowly ceded to bliss, a pleasure strong enough to curl his toes.

"Yes." The vampire above his cooed, stroking his hair with her free hand. "You'll never be able to leave me now, dependent on me for all eternity… my cute little dog."

The bed on which Mikaela sat was squishy. More so than he remembered beds being, it was too soft, feeling as though he could almost sink through it at any given moment. Almost like he was on a cloud through some supernatural means and was about to plummet to the ground below. Was it because he hadn't, none of the orphans had, felt a real bed in such a long time? Or was this an experience driven by his vampiric senses? There really was no way to be able to tell.

As a… as a vampire he knew that his senses had expanded. During the trek to this room Mikaela had been so overwhelmed by all that was around him to even recall how they had moved through the corridors. What he could see was dazzling, with fine detail and depths that distracted him. The conversations, though soft, could be heard from several stories up and down. Even the way the air moved across his face as he walked had held Mika's attention far better than tracking his location had.

He suspected that Krul, the name of the vampire who had turned him, knew about his disorientation and was using it to her advantage. She had instructed him to stay in this room until her return, leaving no guard or other incentive to persuade him to stay. The appeal of obeying her was strong though, both as the Vampire Queen and, at a baser level, as his sire. Even the lingering sensations of a being human in the presence of a predator prompted him to follow her orders.

That hadn't stopped him from considering running away, the thought of his family burned at the back of his mind like the new bloodlust that burned constantly at his throat. He'd even gone so far as to open the unlocked down and look down both sides of the hallway.

There was no way he'd be able to figure out how to leave this place before someone took notice of his presence. Strange that he had considered the vampires to be 'someone' at first thought. He shuddered at the thought that he was one of them, almost. That he needed blood to survive.

It was unthinkable that he could see his family now. Not even to tell him what had been his fate. They'd all spent evenings talking quietly about how they hated vampires, and Yu had made plans in the streets in front of those very beings to kill them all. Vampires were the enemy of humankind, no matter what protection they loaned to their prey from other predators.

He couldn't go back to them. Absolutely could not let them see him like this, couldn't face them and feel the burning in the back of his throat for their blood. He'd rather die.

A long sigh parted his lips and Mikaela fell back on the bed with a soft noise. His hair splayed around him uncomfortably but he didn't move. Moving felt strange to him right now. It was too fluid, too different. He'd had a hard time of it walking earlier, though Krul had let him take his time.

Thinking of his family was not something that he wanted to do at the moment. It was too fresh of a loss. Really that's what it was, they weren't dead to him, but he was better off dead to them. It would be best if he could just pay his respects and put their memories to rest. Though he didn't think that he could do that either.

The ceiling of this room was tiled with large, white panels. Mika stared up at it from his vantage point on the too soft bed, trying to use its nondescript nature to clear his mind of his family. He tried to focus on what Krul had told him to distract himself.

He'd already known that feeding on human blood in the capital was illegal to them. She'd informed him that it was also illegal in all the other underground cities and sanctuaries in her domain, though other ruling progenitors had other methods of preserving the remaining herds of humans.

She'd given him a brief rundown of other vampire laws, the most important ones as he could wait to learn the others in her opinion. However, the one that stuck with him the strongest was the punishment for the illegal consumption of blood from the source in Sanguinem.

The severing of the perpetrator's non-dominate arm.

The grin on Krul's face as she had told him caused him to shudder. Though she was quick to assure him that he would be exempt from this long for his first feeding. They both know that that was not why he'd reacted.

Krul had nefarious plans in store for Ferid and now Mikaela would have a part to play in them as well. As her dog and as the victim that had caused Ferid's criminal activities to be exposed.

When Krul came back to retrieve him he would be an accessory to a small, perhaps petty, revenge on the monster that had ultimately caused him to become a monster himself. He recalled with vivid detail Ferid's interest in Yuuichirou, and felt no small sense of horror at the thought that that attention could extend to the whole of his family.

If the loss of an arm would inconvenience or hinder Ferid in any way, then Mikaela was eager to aid in any way that he could.