[center][b][u]Sanguine and The Blue Fang: Siblings In Darkness[/u][/b][/center]
[center][i]Yoshua171 & Celaira[/i][/center]

As they fled from the scene, Mairyell clutched his sister, wrapping his other arm around her, holding her to him protectively. His jaw was locked as his teeth ground back and forth against one another. After maybe five minutes of flying Mairyell was flying over Thorpe and so he dipped down and landed on one of the buildings, sitting down as he landed, and folding his wings into his back once more. [B]"Are...you okay Aeris,"[/B] he said, sounding worried, but also as if he were holding back. His breathing was a bit heavier than it should've been, and his eyes were flickering between purple and crimson frantically.

He knew he was unstable, but he was determined not to lose control. he still had plenty of blood, but with his anger and panic rearing he needed blood to calm down properly. Man it was like 200 years ago all over again, and it pissed him off a bit. Taking deep breaths, he began to increase the flow of Brisn in his body in an attempt to mitigate some of his hunger for a time. He needed to make sure Aeris was safe and at least somewhat okay before he would feel comfortable leaving to hunt. He briefly considered bringing a demon back for her, though he knew he wouldn't be able to bare watching her [I]eat[/I] just yet.

Too much had happened today.

Aeris clung to her brother for dear life, like he would disappear if she let him go. Her face was hidden in his shirt, but her shaking was obvious. She was so confused. 

What had just happened? Their mother was dead. There was no way that was actually her. No way. All of her life she had been told that Layna died giving birth to the girl. She'd always blamed herself for that, even if no one else did. She felt like she was the reason their father tried to destroy Mai. Tried to change him into something he wasn't. 

By the time they landed, she was hyperventilating. 

When Mai spoke to her, she almost didn't hear him over the turmoil in her head. "I..." She sounded and felt like she was going to throw up as she choked on her own words. "...don't know..." Her eyes were dark, the glow in them fading, as her vision began to swim. 

"Mai I don't... I don't understand..." She whimpered shaking her head over and over. "I don't... I don't... I don't..." The vampire began repeating the same thing over and over quietly.

Hearing her words he nods and brought her back into his arms. [B]"I...only found most of this out after the fact, but apparently our mother never technically died..."[/B] shaking his head, [B]"...at least not when we thought she had."[/B] Their closeness was starting to get at him, he wanted to bite her, and it reminded him of all those years ago, probably because it was a very similar situation and he was getting hungrier by the minute. [B]"She was in a death-like coma, her life signs were essentially gone, so well...they wrote it off and buried her. Turns out she was excavated awhile back by some being named Ioi. He...changed her, brought her back, so to speak."[/B] He shook his head, stroking her hair comfortingly, knowing how crazy this must've sounded.

He really wished that they hadn't been separated....

Little Kasio's breathing calmed somewhat as her brother told her the story the way he knew it. She clung to him tighter, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes. "So, she's gone?" She paused, fighting the urge to look up at him, her voice as steady as it was going to get in her mindset. "For real this time..?" 

"How.. how did you even find out about her?" This time, she couldn't keep herself from looking at him, tears streaming down her face. Tears of confusion, pain, and anger. Her emotions were beyond anything she'd ever felt before. Even when she was with Szayeis. 

It was obvious the girl was having a mental break down. Think she'd know how to deal with them by now. What was she supposed to do though? Act like nothing ever fazed her? She'd tried that once. All it did was earn her scars. 

Looking at her only briefly before his eyes became distant, looking over her as if into the past. Recalling what had happened he spoke. [B]"Soon after Szayeis...took you, she [I]visited[/I], I suppose you could say,"[/B] he sighed deeply before continuing. [B]"I trained with her for a year, in an attempt to get strong enough to rescue you from Szayeis' clutches. When we tried we failed and so I went to Solus. I don't know what happened to her after that, but evidently nothing good."[/B] He shook his head and clutched at her a bit, [B]"I'm so sorry..."[/B] he murmured, feeling almost as much at a loss as she did, but for totally different reasons.

Aeris listened quietly, looking away from him to the ground. She smiled sadly. He'd gotten to meet with her. To be with her. [i]That must've made him happy.[/i] It was the only thought that managed to make sense in her skull. 

When she heard him say he had tried to save her, she gripped his shirt tighter. He wouldn't have liked the result of that if he had managed it. 

After a year of being with Szayeis, she had become completely [i]enthralled[/i] with the demon. She wouldn't have left. Even if she, deep down, had wanted to. 

Noting her reaction he sighed lightly and laid against the fence, which encircled the top of the building, making sure that anyone attempting to commit suicide would have plenty of trouble climbing the fence. He knew that was what it was for, safety, so no one accidentally fall off, and safety so anyone [I]trying[/I] to do such would have a hell of a hard time with it. At the moment though, he was just grateful that it was there for him to lean on as she clung to him. It reminded him of all the times he had protected her back then, when they'd still been young, not that much appeared to have changed on the surface.

They looked the same...and they would continue to look the same until the day they died. For some reason that didn't sit right with him, but he said nothing on that. So they sat there, her in his lap, crying, shaking, and trying to regain herself, and him, leaned against the fence, withholding his intense hunger, and trying not to wallow in his own self pity. He was done with all that.

He was strong now...or so he'd thought. Maybe it was time to reevaluate.

As Mai leaned back, Aeris sat up so that she wasn't basically laying on his chest. Her head still lowered, hands between her thighs, she stared at the ground. She wiped her tears away with her sleeve trying to steel herself so she could look at him. She wanted to tell him what had happened to her, she wanted to be able to lean on him like she had 200 years ago. 

But she couldn't. It wasn't fair to do that to him. If she told him now there was no telling what he would do, and she didn't know if she could handle it if he left her again. 

The doll's mouth opened, fangs showing as she tried to speak, only to close it again. "Thank you." She finally spoke after a moment, her voice barely audible to human ears, though he likely would have heard it perfectly. 

"I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble, big brother." Her voice was still low, but it had changed. It was like she was the Aeris from 200 years ago again. The girl who could do nothing to help her brother with his turmoil, and only seemed to make things worse. The girl who simply wanted the only family she had left to be happy. To be free.

A weak smile crossed his lips as she said those words. [B]"No,"[/B] he shook his head, [B]"Thank you for not giving up...like I did."[/B] He sighed deeply, his eyes closing before he opened them again and looked at her. [B]"Aeris..."[/B] he said, a long pause between his words, [B]"...what happened to us?"[/B] There was a sad...confused look on his features as he questioned her. He didn't entirely expect an answer, but he had asked anyways, because someone ought to, right?

Aeris smiled softly at Mairyell as he spoke, her eyes a dark almost purple blue. "I don't know what you thought happened to me brother, but it's to be expected. The only reason I didn't give up was because I knew you would [i]never[/i] let yourself die." She shook her head, "You've always been a protector. As long as there are people who're in need, I know you'll stay alive." She spoke softly, but with confidence. 

The faith she had in her brother was absolute.

When he said her name, her eyes brightened a little. Then he finished his sentence. Her head shook, but the smile on her face remained. "I don't know, Mai.. I wish I did." 

"Y'know as much as I'd love to tear his guts out, Szayeis did me a favor," she murmured timidly. "He gave me the one thing I needed to be able to see you again." 

His eyes, having appeared sad despite his slight smile, brightened a bit and he even felt tears build up slightly before he embraced her again, this time more tightly before speaking. [B]"Well...I'm glad you're back, and I guess I have to agree with you on that."[/B] He drew away after a few moments, scooting closer to the fence before laying against it, this time his back a bit straighter as he gazed up at the sky. [B]"This is a harsh world,"[/B] he said somewhat absentmindedly, somewhat distracting himself. He knew that someday soon he'd have to face whatever Szayeis had done to his sister other than turning her, but today was not that day...hopefully. He was tired, and he was hungry, and with that in mind he finally stood up and offered her his hand. [B]"I may not like it, but I need to hunt, sis. You know what I am...I know what you are, and now that we know eachother's scent it'll be hard for us to lose one another again."[/B] He smirked a bit, feeling just a tad more confident about this all.

He didn't even want to think about who that man had been, not now at least. Perhaps he'd ask Solus later. He wished he could have stayed to hear his mother out, but she was dead...Aeris was more important. She was the last family he had, and he was sure mom would understand.

The vampire smiled when Mairyell hugged her, gratefully hugging him back. She nudged him a little with her cheek as he let go, her eyes brightening to their glowing blue once more. This time, however, they were sharper. She listened intently as he spoke, taking his hand gently. "Mhm." She murmured softly, looking at him a bit embarrassed.

Shadows began to coalesce on Little Kasio's back, forming her wings. She looked away a bit, almost ashamed of them in the presence of her brother. "Hey... Mai?" 

"I love you." 

Smiling a bit wider, he reached over with his free hand and ruffled her hair after her wings had extended. [B]"I...I love you too, sis,"[/B] he said, light entering his eyes a bit more before he glanced at the horizon, his own blood red wings forming behind him, dwarfing her's in their size, while he sniffed out their [I]breakfast[/I]. [B]"By the way..."[/B] he said, stopping a moment when he located what he was searching for, [B]"...race ya!"[/B] He then let go of her hand and bound into the air, his wings sending a rush of air down at her, dust eddies rolling across the cement roof around her.

When Mai ruffled her hair, Aeris laughed nuzzling him.

As soon as her brother took off, Aeris was right on his heels, her wings pushing her right up to his side. She leaned so that she was horizontal, and grinned. She wasn't even using her levitation to increase her speed yet. 

"What was that?" She said, her smile widening, a giggle escaping her mouth.

Glancing at her, he smirked and the shape of his wings changed drastically, [B]"I said, catch up slow poke!"[/B] He then burst forwards, his wings moving in a blur as he also moved upwards and downwards as if he were a dolphin treating water. He was using the motion to speed himself up further, though he was nearly at max speed in this state so if she could go faster than this then he might be in a tad of trouble. He had to admit that this wasn't so bad...maybe he could get used to it.

As her brother sped up, the grin on her face widened. [i]Brother's got some tricks![/i] she thought laughing as she used her levitation to speed herself up to his side. "Hi there! How's being a flying fish?" She laughed, flipping twice in the air.

As they flew Aeris made sure not to completely pass her brother, because he actually knew where he was going, and she didn't. Absently she wondered if she would need to use her trick in order to feed.

Mairyell rolled his eyes, "Well it's damned useful for chasing down particularly pesky demons. I can't levitate like you, Ms. fancy pants," he stuck his tongue out at her before his eye twitched and he glanced down and in front of them several blocks. "This way," he suddenly swerved to the left and under her, diving down towards a building, his wings altering their shape slightly as he did so. They became totally silent, like owl wings, and then he pulled up, landing on the top of a small flat with silent feet. When she landed he'd speak to her plainly, but with slightly muffled volume. "There is a small group of demons down there, planning a robbery. I heard them from up there, this way we won't get any trouble for dealing with them," he said with a slight smirk.

He had become particularly good at finding prey that was criminal in nature. In fact, it even sounded like some of them were Renegades in training and this was their first assignment. Apparently to gather money for something bigger, but who knew...and who cared?

Aeris giggled again, gliding into the turn as her brother instructed her to follow. Discarding her own wings when Mai's changed again, the vampiress levitated in the air next to him, walking cautiously when he landed. 

Her smile ever present as he told her what was going on, she silently nodded, putting a finger to her lips. There was evident focus on her face as she closed her eyes, her Brisn intensifying slowly, [i]painfully[/i] until her essence showed her as [b]almost[/b] completely human.

This hurt. Like hell. She was being seared from the inside out, but it seemed to be working as she heard the renegades start to talk about something above their flat. She smiled, the blue of her eyes so bright it was almost white. As if she were blind.

[i]They're coming[/i]. She wrote in the air with Brisn, the only thing she could use right now, trying to keep her pain from being visible. 

Nodding, Mairyell waited, using his sense of smell to track their location mentally till he knew they were ascending through the building's interior. He pointed at the door, gesturing before he took flight, silently mind you, and flew over the other half of the roof, where they would be unable to see him once they came out from the door, whereas Aeris would be in plain sight. He figured she had learned a thing or two from Szayeis, her essence certainly felt much stronger than when he had last seen her.

In this harsh world you either learned to protect yourself, or you were snuffed out or made someone else's toy. There was little in between, at least in Mairyell's opinion.

Aeris turned to face the demons as they exited the stairwell, her head tilting. "Who's there?" She questioned, as if she couldn't see them. Her body moved slowly forward, arm outstretched, she waited for them to surround her. "Hello?" She questioned again, her voice raised, "Is anyone there?" She stopped moving, dropping her arm to her side.

When they had encapsulated her, she closed her eyes again, a flaming dome of Brisn shooting up around her, trapping two of the demons inside with her. 

She grinned.

The other four demons, immediately realizing the trap, retreated away from the hostile dome and either drew weapons or shifted into their demonic forms. Mairyell, from above and behind them, smirked as several portions of his wings liquefied and then solidified into hardened [I]scales[/I]. With a single flap of his wings roughly twenty of the blood scales were hurled towards the demons.

Three of them whirled around and dodged, but one was caught totally unawares, his hearing not all that great, and thus was impaled with several of the scales. He tried to pull at them only to be burned as they liquefied and entered his blood stream, at which point he began to scream. In moments he was on the ground, frothing at the mouth and coughing up blood, his body seizing violently. Mairyell smiled at the other three, [B]"If you stand down this will be far less painful~"[/B]

Aeris stared at the two demons trapped in the sphere of flaming Brisn. One of them, not understanding their position transformed into his demon state and tried to pass through the blue fire. He let out a gut wrenching scream as he was incinerated. His friend, however, locked eyes with Aeris and lunged. 

Big mistake. 

When the demon was a foot or two away, his shadow cast over the vampire, and she smiled softly as his own shadow turned against him. His scream echoed inside the dome as she brought him to his knees. "Shhh..." She whispered in his ear, a gentle smile on her lips. "It'll be all right, I promise~"

With her last word spoken, her fangs became visible, and she dug in. 

Mairyell, not paying attention to his sister for the most part, watched as one of the demons took to the air and whipped at him with its tail, which he caught, spinning his body and slamming the demon into his ally who had lunged into the air in hopes of catching him when he was distracted. Both of them were promptly sent into the cement of the roof. The last of them ran for the door, only to find several hardened blood scales in his back, which quickly took care of him. The ones he'd thrown would feel a burning on their flesh as the blood he'd slithered onto them spread, made a wound, and then entered their bodies. After several moments of writhing all four of them were incapacitated. He motioned at them and then clasped his fingers almost shut and pulled towards himself.

His blood having bonded with theirs, he pulled it from their mouths and up towards him, leaving their dried up husks on the roof as he absorbed the sustenance through his skin. He could still taste the essence though, for as it flowed into his blood core he shivered and sighed with relief.

He was full again, and that was a good feeling.

Drifting to the ground, his wings folding into his back as he touched down, Mairyell approached the edge of the Brisn dome and then waited. [B]"Well, that was quite enjoyable,"[/B] he said as the last of the demons came from the door. He was immediately snared by tendrils of blue blood --blood which was infused with his Brisn. Oddly the brisn did not burn the demon, nor did Mairyell's blood. [B]"You are going to profess for the crimes your fallen brethren committed,"[/B] Mairyell said, looking at the demon and smiling. "The hell I am, surface scum!" Mairyell chuckled at the demon's retort and walked over to him, forming a claw on one of his fingers.

The demon glanced back and forth between his face and the claw before the vampire was uncomfortably close to him. [B]"Hehe, you seem to think that was a request,"[/B] Mairyell stabbed the claw straight into the demon's right arm, injected some of his blood, and then withdrew it, the wound sealing up moments afterwards. The demon writhed a bit, struggling against the blood tendrils while Mairyell smiled and nodded. [B]"So this is the deal. You do as I said, or I don't stop that blood from [I]slowly[/I] dissolving you atom by delicious atom~"[/B] The demon nodded vigorously and so Mairyell let him go, the blood tendrils flowing back to him and vanishing beneath his clothes where he absorbed them. [B]"Oh, and if you were wondering, bub, I can do it long range. There's no where you can run to hide from me either. After all, I can smell your essence a continent away."[/B]

Recognition spread across the demon's face. "B-blood hound..." Mairyell sneered, [B]"Sanguine. Mairyell. Get it right."[/B] He flicked the demon in the center of his forehead and then turned away from him, walking towards Aeris. As he approached her, his demeanor shifted a bit and his essence calmed down. [B]"So question is, are you coming with me to find Zi?"[/B]

Aeris' Brisn dome dropped from around her, her shadows releasing the dust they held. There was a small droplet of blood that fell from her lip, and she wiped it away quickly as Mairyell walked over to her. Her eyes fell on the demon that he had been talking to, and she smiled sweetly at it, before looking back at her brother. "Blood hound? I don't think I've ever heard someone refer to you as that before. S'lame nickname anyway." She spoke calmly, her eyes back to their vivid blue. 

Little Kasio checked her phone and cursed a bit, "I have to get to the Academy, I'm pretty sure I've already missed the entrance ceremony, but I might still be able to make it, if I'm lucky." With that her wings had reformed, and she was half way into the air before she looked at Mai again, "Bro, catch up to me later, yeah?" She called to him happily, "We're staying in touch this time!" And with that, she was off, as fast as she could toward Master Melody's. 

It was time to meet Hazumi, again.

Smiling and nodding in response, Mairyell glanced in another direction and closed his eyes. After several moments he detected what he was looking for. It was and was not similar to Hazumi's essence. He'd heard of this Zi before and he'd smelled a few people who had met her. There had been traces of her essence on them, and that had been enough. As such, he took off, turning in a different direction than his sister and departing.

It seemed they each had their own missions and he was okay with that.