"Here," Nephrite said, handing Zoisite a glass of water and a blood tablet. "I figured you could use a drink."

Zoisite forced a smile, dropped the tablet into the water, and watched it dissolve and turn the water into blood. He then took a sip and set his glass down on a coaster on the end table.

Nephrite and Zoisite were at their home getting ready to watch a basketball game, and their usual beer was now replaced with a glass of synthetic blood.

Eyeing him with a smirk, Nephrite asked, "So, when are you planning on telling Ami that you find the blood tablets disgusting?"

"They aren't…" Zoisite closed his eyes and rubbed his temple in frustration. "How can I? She invented the thing. Every famous vampire finds her brilliant and orders them as fast as possible. I can't tell her that I have to choke them down."

"You don't think she'll realize you're sneaking human blood?"

"Of course I do. I just drink from men, so when she does, it won't sound to her like I'm doing it for some sexual reason."

Nephrite took a sip of his synthetic blood and said, "You know this stuff tastes absolutely vile."

"You agree!? But you drink it all the time!?"

"Makoto took a page out of Mamoru's book. She gives me vials of her vampire blood, and now it tastes better."

"Crap," Zoisite fussed. "I would have to ask Ami for that, and I don't want to tell her I think it tastes bad." He then knit his brow. "Why do you think it tastes bad for both of us?"

"I think it tastes bad for all of us. I think Mamoru didn't say anything because he's too pragmatic, and he wouldn't have complained over anything given to him."

"But the girls seem fine with it."

"The girls are vampires. Along with everyone else who likes her tablets. I think the issue is that they weren't made for a hybrid."

Zoisite looked at him with a stunned expression. "That's brilliant!"

"Good, now go and tell the brilliant Ami she has another tablet to design. We all thought it would be better if you finally admitted it tasted like ass and asked her to make a new one. We voted that it would be better coming from you."

"You sold me out!" he fussed with no heat. He didn't really blame them.

"I use a coaster in my own house because of her. I don't think I'm able to tell her it tastes like ass."

"I won't be putting it that way, I assure you."

Grandpa Hino walked into Saeko's office carrying a to-go cup of coffee and a pastry. "You mentioned you were working late tonight, and I thought you could use a bit of sugar and caffeine." He then placed both on her desk.

"My Secretary let you in? He doesn't even let Ami in when she doesn't have an appointment."

"Really?!" He asked, surprised.

Saeko smiled sweetly, "He likes to make his point. He usually tells her to get a sack and return in five minutes for her newly scheduled appointment."

Eyeing her with humor, he asked, "And is there a reason he's so… well a woman would call him 'hot.'"

"Shame on you," she teased. "I don't mix work and play." She cracked a big smile and added, "It's why I almost didn't hire him. He would have been fun to experiment with. But he's just too damn smart. My need for a highly qualified assistant trumped my sex drive."

"And was that the right decision?"

"It was. He's the only one I didn't have to find another job for after a year and a half. I gave them all plenty of time to really learn the job, but they couldn't keep up with me."

"You found them new employment?"

Saeko took a sip of her coffee and sighed in contentment. "They were all very talented. Just not quick enough for me. I know I hold them to too high of a standard. And in the end, I didn't want them to get hurt over my issues. So I find a job better suited for them and ensure the pay was at least equal to what they were getting."

"And now you have a hot assistant that you can't have sex with," he sassed.

She laughed, "True. But lucky for me, he's not the only hot guy in existence." She then cocked her head and asked, "I really want to know how you get him to let you in. He doesn't know you at all and wouldn't know you'd be on my approved list."

"His younger sister is one of my shrine maidens."

That got her to burst out laughing. "You used your spiritual position to get in!? That's hilarious."

"I actually just flattered his sister until he let me by. He's proud of her right now. She fell into the wrong crowd in high school and was into drugs and alcohol. She overdosed twice before the age of seventeen. Until one day, she came to the shrine and had a revelation. Then she got all straightened out, and I hired her. It mainly went well. Rei did have to help her get to the hospital when she relapsed once. She almost died, but Rei did CPR on her and-"

"You had me going there for a while," Saeko said, laughing. "Don't bullshit a doctor on medical matters. That's where I realized you were making it up."

Hino chucked a bit, "Your face was so funny! When I said she was on drugs, you looked so concerned."

She laughed along with him. "How did you really get in here? Does he even have a sister?"

"No. I used my spiritual position to get in, just like you said. How could he deny you a visit from your Shinto priest?"

"You're awful," she praised.

"How can you not know he's an only child?"

"How do you know that?" She asked in shock.

Hino rolled his eyes at her, smiling, "I don't! You need to learn enough about your assistant so you know when I'm making this stuff up."

Saeko shook her head, "Bad idea. He works efficiently, and I leave him alone. I know my libido well enough to know that any type of bonding will result in me trying to get an HR violation. He's really hot."

She then took another sip of her coffee. "It just dawned on me that you're stalling. Spill, Uncle. What brought you all the way here?"

He sat down in the chair in front of her desk and sighed. "Suki canceled on me for a vague reason. I thought our date had gone so well."

"She was vague with me today, too, but she mentioned a family meeting."

"Same, but…" He scuffed his shoe on the carpet. "I was hoping you had a read on your friend. I like her, and I didn't know if I was chasing after shadows with her."

"Didn't she reschedule another date?"

"Yes, but obviously, those can be canceled."

She smiled at him and said, "You're smitten."

"Smitten? You know you sound old using that word."

"Deflect much?" She sassed. Saeko added, "From how she was behaving, I believe she did have some sort of family meeting. It seemed important to her. She mentioned that her nephew texted and set it up for them. At the bare minimum, she is a loving aunt who shows up for her nephew. I will add that she also thanked me for setting her up on the date."

He breathed out a sigh of relief. "Okay. So I'm worrying over nothing?"

"I think you are, and don't forget I'm brilliant, and I set you up with her."

"Thank you."

A few minutes later, he left her to return to her shift with the snack he had dropped off.

Naru giggled. "So it was a lot of fun?"

"Like you didn't get sexed into your undead life, too. It was amazing," Rei replied, flopping back on her bed. "Then I woke up, and we made love for hours."

"And you surfaced from your love den long enough to talk to Satoru?"

Rei smiled, "We did. It was weird for him —good weird, though. He's now related to Jadeite and me and Usagi. He's even sort of related to Shingo through Usagi's bloodline."

"Have you told her yet?"

"No, she's working with Luna to devise a plan to stop The Order. They have a new group of people to help now, too."

"I heard about that. How strange would it feel to have a group named after you that lasted a hundred and fifty years!?"

"Very," Rei agreed.

Naru then smirked, "You all missed one interesting fact about Satoru."

"What?"

"Think about it. When you tell Usagi, she'll be able to tell you things about his past life. He was her uncle. Surely, she knew him."

"She mentioned her mother being sent from her family and married to that monster of a King."

"That doesn't mean her uncle didn't come to visit. Especially when their uncle sounds so awful. And surely, at least her mother told her stories about her brother —if nothing else."

Rei thought about that. With bright, happy eyes, she said, "You're right. That would be amazing!"

Satoru sat on the couch, staring into the middle distance, lost in his own thoughts. He had forced himself to be happy about the news Rei and Jadeite had shared with him when they were there. But now that he was left to himself, he felt profoundly unsettled.

He didn't like the idea of being born time and time again. He rubbed his hands together in thought, and his eyes locked on his wedding band. And in that one piece of gold, there lay the problem. He felt like Mayumi was the love of his life, and now he knew he had many. Believing he had been murdered before he was born had been easier to handle when he heard it since it meant he didn't have to live a life without her.

Spinning his ring on his finger, he thought about how he felt like he hadn't been living until he heard her laugh. That one sound had brought meaning to his whole life. And now he had to deal with the idea that he would be born again without her to find and love.

"You're brooding," he heard Mayumi comment from the door to the room. "What new thing did you learn?"

He looked up at her and her and frowned. "I don't want this, and it feels selfish. It means so much to Rei and Jadeite."

"What does? I wasn't here when they told you," she said, smiling fondly at him. She knew his heart and how much it must bother him to feel that way about his parents.

"I've been born eight times since the sixteen hundreds. Rei and Jadeite are excited to know that they can raise and have a child time and again. Apparently, my parents always die young, and they plan to take me in."

"They want one of your incarnations to choose to become a vampire, don't they?"

"Probably, but they didn't mention that."

She walked over to him and, sitting next to him, wrapped her arms around him. "Then what's the problem?"

He cupped her cheek and looked deep into her eyes. "I don't want to be reborn if it means not having you in my life."

Tearing up, Mayumi smiled at him. "I don't want that either. No one could love you as much as I do."

"Then What do I do?! I need you," He looked at her in desperation, begging her with his eyes to come up with any solution.

She kissed his nose and said, "Good thing your mother is a powerful witch. Sign me up for reincarnation, too."

"What?"

"If there is a way to have me reincarnated and to tie my lifetimes to yours, Rei would do that for you. Naru would get her mother back, also. And maybe one lifetime when we're still hot and young, we'll choose to become vampires together."

He pressed his forehead to hers. "You're sure?"

"Of my love for you? Always." She wondered how he thought she could not be absolutely sure about a man whose one wish was to love her in every lifetime he experienced.

That evening, Nephite chuckled and whispered into Makoto's ear, "You cheated."

"I did not!" She protested, smiling up at him.

They were both attending the underground fighting ring they both loved going to, and he had his arms wrapped around her. He kissed her temple and said, "And I thought I had an advantage as a werewolf."

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked, feigning innocence.

"I can see it now too. I get how you always picked the winner now."

She leaned her head back on his shoulder and said, "I researched it. I combed through Usagi's books on vampire powers. It's something I got by draining that asshole that turned me, and now you have it since you drank my blood, too."

He held her tightly, "What is it?"

"It's actually kind of rare. Usagi has it, of course, but she has a lot of powers. It was first seen in a few vampires in the western part of Siberia. We can sense the energy impulses that run through the human body."

"That makes sense," he said noncommittally. "Something about it bothers you, though."

"Humans are just as depraved as anything else out there. In the mid-fifties, the KGB found a vampire with that ability, nearly starved it, and kept him locked up. They then made Soviet supersoldier vampires out of children ranging from ages eight to eleven."

"And tested them in Siberia," Nephrite finished for her. "They let loose vampire children. My guess is that they lacked impulse control."

"It doesn't say who or what stopped them. The book just mentioned that they abruptly stopped terrorizing the area."

"You think he stopped them?"

"No, he's too lazy for that. I don't know how he got that power. I would guess it wasn't directly gotten from them. The blood passes on the ability but doesn't need direct contact."

"Do you see him killing-"

"He wouldn't have to. Sometimes vampires with the more unique or desirable abilities sell their blood."

"But blood sharing feels so intimate to me," he commented, confused.

"People sell their bodies all the time. It's one of the oldest professions. Why wouldn't some vampires sell their blood? It can fetch a higher price."

He kissed the back of her head. "He'd be the type to participate in that."

"He would," Makoto confirmed.

Nephrite nodded slowly in understanding, "You don't like the way he got the abilities you now have."

"I don't love it," she replied, majorly underplaying her feelings.

He knit his brow, "Usagi took a lot of powers. She doesn't seem the type to-"

"She killed them first. Trust me, I know the feeling of drinking from a vampire I killed versus drinking from you. It's completely different."

"She's pretty badass, isn't she?"

That made Makoto chuckle, "She's the Queen of badass."