Yuuyami Suicide [Complete]

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

The night was dark and cold, the wind biting, the street dark. The buildings in the distance barely lit this area. It was too far down for any of them to reach properly. The damp road glistened even in the absence of light, and his thick boots made an echoing clunking sound as he made his way down the street.

His long trench coat made a slightly eerie whistling sound as he moved, the fabric being more like plastic than anything else. His hands were shoved far down into his pockets, a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Ryoshiya Le'Gard was starving. Starving for blood. He hadn't eaten in awhile and he needed sustinance. He doubted that he would find anything good in the part of Coruscant, but he liked to start here and work his way to the club areas. He knew he would find someone who met his fancy there, but the few moments of solitude here would get him ready for the hunt.

Moving down the street a little more, his ears caught a small sound from somewhere to his right. Looking over, his vampiric eyeshine shimmering in the faintest light. He spotted a young child, dirty and consumptive, crouched in the shadow, something clutched in his hands. Ryoshiya paused in his walking a moment to look over, the several things he could do going through his mind.

That was easy prey right there. A young child, with the purest blood. And a lost child at that. He would be to frightened not to do anything Ryoshiya wanted. And his blood...oh, how sweet it would taste. Especially after not eating in a couple of days. IT would be warm and new and silken. Just the thought of it gave Ryoshiya shivers.

However, he turned away and began to continue on his way. He remembered being that child. Lost and hungry and cold. He remembered the many fightening people who tormented him, when all he wanted was his mother.

He wasn't going to be one of those people. The vampirism had taken most of his sense, but it had not taken him completely.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"Have you seen this man?" Manhattan held the small object in her hand the image being shined upright the hologram being a still image. She watched the men glance at her and then the shadowed man in the picture. Of course they didn't know, their minds telling her before their mouths did.

"Nevermind, your drunkard." She closed the image and moved around the club. This was not a good night. Nobody could tell her where he man was, the man she was needing to find, the man she was needing to hunt down and kill. SHe was getting tired of these drunk men groping her, giving her looks, and not giving her any answers. This place was useless and she was beginning to doubt her decision to even look there despite what sources had said and how she had been lead there. She was hungry, and she needed food. But she was going to starve until she found the scum who she was hired to find.

"Where the hell are you?" She said to herself, remembering the image of the man. She headed out of the club and stuck the small image projector into the pocket of her trench coat. She sighed out and moved towards the wind, hearing her coat flap. She needed something to drink, anything. The night was young and there were plenty of people she could drink, but she had sustained from doing it for so long she felt almost ashamed to do so.

She frowned as she walked, feeling someone nearby, watching, observing. Whoever it was if they didn't come out she was going to be enjoying a good drink tonight.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." She said to herself, hoping the person heard and was going to follow. Either way the person was going to regret looking at her.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya blew smoke away from him as he continued to walk, the lights from the imminent club district flashing across his face. He stopped walking a moment, the wind taking the smoke from his lips and pushing it away from him to dissipate in the sky.

Leaning down, he dropped the spent cigarette into a puddle and listened to it hiss at him. For a moment, he watched the dying embers, before looking back ahead of him at the crowds mingling in the club district. He already sensed several likely candidates to accompany him away from the crowd this evening. Two of them stood away from the crowd, both younger teenagers, smoking and talking with one another, though Ryoshiya could tell they loathed each other. He might as well put one out of the other's misery.

Smiling, feeling his fangs ache for skin to peirce, he moved forward with smooth steps, the lights of the district endlessly fluctuating across his face. He could smell the scent of every persons blood, all smelling differently, some more enticing than others. The two young teenaged boys eyes him suspiciously as he went past them, assessing the situation.

It would not take much for him to turn on that vampiric charm he had grown accustomed to using and lure one or both of them away. But he wanted the one who had the sweetest blood. The younger of the two. He could tell that the one on the left had to have been nineteen or twenty. However, the other could not have been over sixteen.

Grinning to himself and the turning back to them, he brushed away some of his hair and smiled at them.

"You don't happen to have a light on you?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Manhattan sighed out, annoyed that she couldn't find her man the she had been searching for relentlessly for over a year. This was annoying her. She wanted to eat, she wanted to satisfy her thirst since it had been a long time. She pulled the trench coat around her tightly, not being one for cold weather since she was trying to be warm blooded as possible.

She turned a corner and scanned the shadows wondering if there was a man who was needing to be relieved of life. Kenzie hated taking lives, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Food...where are you tonight?" She asked lowly as she moved along the streets endlessly searching for something to curb her cravings and stop her desire to feed. She wasn't like them she wasn't ever going to be like the race she so despised.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

The trick had worked just as Ryoshiya had wanted it to. First a light, then invasion of personal space, a little flirting, and the kid was his. It was amazing how weak youths were these days. They seemed to get weaker and weaker.

The small body of the young man went slightly rigid in his arms as he gently slid his fangs into the ripe, eager skin Ryoshiya found on the neck. It was fresh, young, supple, ready to be devoured. Ryoshiya felt the velvety liquid slide over his tongue, filling his mouth, and gliding down his throat, its warmth spreading all over him. It tasted like liquid silk and Ryoshiya's entire body reacted to it.

The boy in his arms slowly went limp as Ryoshiya drained him of his life force. He held onto the small body as he drank the oncoming last of the blood, running his tongue over the puncture wounds, and savoring the taste of the boy. This would not completely satisfy his two day fast, but it would take the edge off until he could find larger prey.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie turned the corner as she continued to walk into oblivion, unsure of where she was heading and what she was doing. She was so hungry it was beginning to take effect. SHe need to drink and regain her strength. It had been so long since she had some and she was growing weaker and weaker by the day, if only she could keep the vampiric urges at bay, keep them away from her, keep them from continuously destroying what little human life she had left.

She was good at wallowing in her misery, a professional at doing so. But when her mind was cleared she knew what was going on. She smelled it. Felt it. Heard it. She stopped walking and glanced up, her eyes shimmering brilliantly under the pale light of the night. Kenzie could hear the last breath, the last beat of a heart, the last life a person had in them. Someone was near, someone was draining, someone was feeding their own natural desire for blood. Her mouth curled and she knew exactly what was going on. A vampire was nearby.

Slowly she moved forward, hearing the wind lap around her body and against her coat. Her gloved hand moved from her belt loop on her cargo pants, to the shimmering silver knife by her side. She kept a hold on it tightly as she moved to see a disturbing scene. Apparently a man had forgotten his vampiric manners and was feeding for all the world to see. But then again, many people were blind to such darkness and it appeared they both had perfect eyesight for such a dark night.

"Please tell me I am not interrupting." She raised an eyebrow and came to a halt a few feet away from the man feeding. The metallic taste could be felt on the tip of her tongue,the sound of it entering his mouth and being washed down so fresh that her mouth watered at the thought. Oh, to feel the warmth, to feel the velvety liquid run smoothly down her throat, to have a person become a part of her inhumanity. She was hungry.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya heard the words the woman spoke, but to his blood intoxicated mind, they made no sense. So he ignored them, drawing more blood out of the boy. The taste was so sweet, so fresh. He could not help himself.

Quietly and quickly, Ryoshiya drained the boy of all his life force, a small drop of crimson life slipping down his chin, the red such a contrast to his otherwise pale features. Slowly, Ryoshiya slid his fangs from the young skin that was now so pale and bruised. Ryoshiya carefully licked the excess blood from around the twin wounds and off of his mouth. Carefully, he laid the body on the ground, closing the child's eyes and folding his hands over his chest. He bowed to the unmoving corpse.

"Arigatou..." he said and then nodded. He looked up to see the woman still standing there. He cocked his head a moment, as he slowly and delicately wiped the remaining sliver of red still marking his bottom lip. He sighed a little. "Pardon me, ma'am." He slithered past her towards the street beyond, wondering what it had been she had said anyway.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Manhattan smelled the blood on him smelled the blood that barely poured from the childs fresh puncture wound. God how sweet it was, how she wanted to be the one to lick it off the man who brushed by her. She licked her lips and swallowed she needed to find someone, she needed to drink and feed she was so weak she could feel her world spinning.

"Glad someone can get a drink around here." She didn't realize she spoke but when she did she woke up from her haze and glanced at the shadowy figure walking away. He was a vampire! She grinned and glanced at the fresh young child who was now relieved of his duties in life. She grabbed the hologram projector in her pocket and glanced back at the man.

"Excuse me..." She said as she moved towards him. "You wouldn't happen to know this man would you?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya stopped in his step and turned back to her slowly. The hologram glowed like a small diamond in the darkness. His eyes grazed from her face to the hologram where he saw a shadowed figure. He observed it for a few moments, before raising his gloved hand and inspecting it as if it might have the answer.

"Sorry," he said monotonously. "Never seen him before in my life..." he blinked a few times before sighing out through his nose, as if he were bored with the eintire situation. "You might try The Junio Sabado down the way here. They know everyone." He instructed her. He didn't know if in fact anyone would know him there, but it would give her somewhere else to waste her time, and someone else to bother. He nodded.

"Good evening."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie feared he'd say that. She was a hunter and she was needing someone to hunt. If this man didn't help her with the one she was looking for then she could do something unlawful, something she didn't need to do. She was going to hunt the man she spoke to.

There was a law amongst all Vampires, kill your own kind... it would lead to their certain fate. She knew that if she was ever caught by the group of Vampire's that were searching for her she'd never live to see the life she always wanted. She didn't know how to go about hunting the man who freshly feeded, but she wasn't about to let him get away that easily. After all he could be her dinner for the next couple of weeks.

"Why did you kill that child?" She asked boldly, walking towards him not ready to give up on this man so easily.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya paused in his step, furrowing his brow, then turning slightly so that part of his pale face could be seen in the ever changing lights of the club district. He smiled insolently at her, as if she were a small child to be mocked when they did something supremely stupid. He turned fully, putting a gloved hand to his mouth as if to stifle the laughter. He looked back up at her, the eyeshine of the vampiric race evident as his eyes flashed physically in her direction.

"Because I could, love," he answered simply. "Surely you know how sweet a child's blood is? Surely you know how enticing it is and how it warms the body to drink it." He smiled at her again, this time more as if he were scolding her for reaching her hand into the cookie jar before dinner. "I should think my own sister would have known that."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie looked at the man watching the ever changing shapes his face took. He was by fart he most beautiful creature she had seen in a long time, and he truly was a creature. She slit her eyes and tilted her head in his response. She didn't like it when people insinuated that she was one of their kind, even if it was the truth. The hard, cold, truth.

"Excuse me?" She asked as she moved an inch closer watching the pale skin reflect lights that were unseen to humans. "Are you calling me out? Do you suspect me of being a ruthless killer like yourself?" She cocked an eyebrow her eyes scanning his own and moving all around his face.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya laughed deep in his chest. It was a full hearty laugh that on anyone else might have been pleasant. But coming from a vampire its tones were laced with seduction, fury, and blood. He reached a hand up and brushed away a little of his hair, knowing he should have secured it with a bit of leather instead of the cloth he had chosen. His course Asian hair was too slick for the band he had in it now, and the shorter strands were continuously falling into his face.

For a moment, Ryoshiya regarded the woman with silent interest. So she did not want to be counted among her vampire race. That was fair. Ryoshiya could understand not wanting to be considered a vampire. It was a damned life of killing and bloodshed. He could see why a beautiful girl like herself would not want to be one. Nevertheless, she was one, and as such, Ryoshiya wondered why she didn't embrace it. Embrace the things she could do. Maybe set restraints for herself, but being a vampire was not the worst thing that could happen to a person.

"I apologize, miss. Next time, I shall ignore the smell of lust on your breath as I drink of my next victim," he paused, flashing her a white grin, his fangs glinting in the fluctuating neon lights. He touched his forehead as if he were tipping his hat. "Good day to you." And he turned and began off again, his boots making thier familiar clunking sound on the hard ground.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"You have a wicked tongue, my friend." Kenzie said his words rolling in her mind, his voice like a plague for she was already wanting to hear him speak again. Damn Vampires and their ways. Damn how they made people want them so.

"If I were fullblood I am sure I could sense your lustuous ways as well. I just don't see the reasoning of killing an innocent, like the child, like some monster out of a fairy tale." She wanting to speak to the man again, watch his eyes catch a brilliant light, see those fangs that she, sadly, longed to see peirce flesh and be stained with red.

"Do you always hunt in shadows? Or do you allow your coniving tongue to bring them to you?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya stopped again. What was it with women? They were never satisfied. He smiled a little, then turned fully towards her. He strode back over and stood in front of her looking her up and down a moment. He reached down, picking up her hand and pressing his lips to the back of it.

"I am Ryoshiya Le'Gard. I don't think I caught your name. And such secrets aren't just given to anyone, love," he purred against her wrist, leaning back up and dropping her hand.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Men! They were such scum, especially the vampiric ones who could charm a dog off a meat wagon. His actions didn't repulse her and she wasn't about to admit that she very much enjoyed it. She grinned and placed her hand that had been kissed in her pocket as a cold burst of wind ripped through the alley.

"Le'Gard? Hmm..." She hadn't heard of him before then again she wasn't one to hang around gangs or crowds of the same race. She very much enjoyed spending time alone with herself. "As for my name, friend, I did not throw it. Perhaps another time when you are less...distracted?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded to her and smirked a little, waving gently to her.

"Alright then. If distracted is what you call me, then distracted is what I'll be. Good evening, ma'am, I beleive for the third time tonight."

Turning Ryoshiya started off yet again, feeling like a broken record. If there was anything Ryoshiya Le'Gard hated, it was repeating himself. And he had just done it three times for this woman. Then again, she was quick, and pretty, a good combination for a woman, and Ryoshiya enjoyed a bit of a challenge. However, he sensed her dislike for her own kind, he included, and knew that it would probably be in his best interest to allow her to go on her way. He already had enough Vampire Hunters on his tail, he did not need anymore. But then, he was assuming that she was a Vampire Hunter.

But there was nothing else she could have been.

Ryoshiya glanced up and down the street, a breeze pulled through his hair, tearing it from its bit of cloth and setting his long hair free. He purred in annoyance at it, then turned towards the wind deciding to go into it to keep his hair away from his face. He glanced back at the woman, once again touching his forehead as if tipping a hat, then began down the street again, into the wind, but away from the club district. He was off for some better food. That child had not had enough in him. He needed adult prey. It would take off his hunger several times.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie didn't know why but she decided to follow him. She was a hunter, he was a vampire, thsi was a perfect thing to do. But as she walked in the shadows far behind him she felt a pang of guilt. For the first time she didn't want to harm a vampire, didn't want to do anything wrong to the man named Ryoshiya Le'Gard. He was so damn sneaky, so coniving, so beautiful. She was attracted to him in many ways, his looks being placed in second position considering her interests were piqued by him.

A beautiful but dangerous creature like himself obviously had moves that could kill and it was very apparent with the hump of flesh far behind them now. Where was he going? What was he doing? How had he become changed? How old was he? What powers did he possess? Where did he live? Did he eat daily? The millions of questions that ran through her mind at that moment surprised her, usually she wanted to know a few stats and then find them and kill. But not with Ryoshiya, no not something so magnificent. He was too beautiful to get rid of, too beautiful to rid the world of his prescense.

"Tell me everything, Mr. Le'Gard."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya looked experimentally about him, his hair ruffling about his face and collar as he moved farther down the road his hands shoved far down into his pocket, his left absentmindedly twirling a necklace around his fingers. It was his necklace, one had had since before he could remember. He had never been without it, and didn't plan on giving it away anytime soon. He could not remember where he had gotten it, but he assumed it was from someone he had known before he was changed.

Glancing around a moment, he saw no movement in the shadows around him, but he was smart enough to know that people hung around here at night. A lot of people. Most of them not the greatest of individuals, but perfect for food. He could kill two birds with one stone: eat well, and rid the street of another mortal whom no one cared for. It was the best thing for them.

Ryoshiya realized a little bit late that someone was peering out from the shadows at him, interested in what such a well dressed aristocrat was doing in the slums. Ryoshiya threw a glance over to the shadows from whence he felt the look coming from. He could see a form melting from the alley way just off of the street.

Ryoshiya automatically assessed the person. It was a man, larger than he by far, and probably considered stronger too, by at least mortal standards. He was big and dumb looking, and appeared to be unhappy to see Ryoshiya. Immediately, Ryoshiya began piling on the vampiric slither and sugary seduction. It would not take long to convince this beast that he was the best friend he had ever had.

"Evening, friend," Ryoshiya purred, turning towards him, pulling his hands from his pockets and glancing down at the white gloves that covered his hands. This was going to get messy. Pity, too. These were his favorite gloves.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie became lost in thought, the sly devil had been working his way around her mind and it was beginning to annoy her, yet in a good way. If that was even possible. Somehow she had lost him and she found herself wondering where it was he had gone to, no doubt to eat she knew. Her stomach growled and suddenly she felt light headed. She paused briefly in her steps to allow the sudden weakness to take flight for the moment. She felt the world spin and she felt sick, her vision beginning to blur. Kenzie found herself leaning against a building for support so she could catch a moments rest and try and figure out what she needed to do.

"First off, stop pretending." She said to herself as she leaned her head back feeling the cool breeze nip at her revealed neck. The breeze was welcomed, but it still wasn't helping her need for blood. She licked her lips as her mouth watered thinking of her fangs peircing porcelain flesh that was unharmed, virginal. The sound she'd hear ringing loudly in her ears, as well as the persons heartbeat. Oh the sweet seduction of biting a mortal, the fulfilling tastes of Jugular wine enticing her lips and satisfying the constant hunger for the life's vital lifeline. How the sweet metallic taste would give her a moments peace as the world would disappear, the breathing and heartbeat echoing in her ears until all she heard would be a still silence. Kenzie could feel her fangs growing to a sharp point, the animalistic action unable to be stopped. She was in dire need it had been so long since she drank and it was apparent now why she scolded herself for not taking somones life, anyones life. Damn her for being so picky in the victims she chose.

She slowly opened her eyes, the lustful haze that spread through her causing her body to grow sensitive and aware of everything that was around her. She could hear a pin drop in the middle of Coruscant's busy streets at this point. She heard a heartbeat, a panicked one. Perhaps she could go save the helpless person who was either being chases, attacked, or perhaps in the makings of love. She grinned to herself, the bloodlust she felt always finding a way to turn simplist feeding habits into something more sensual and more meaningful than sex. She tongued her fangs as she drew in a sharp breath, the cold air feeling like knives sticking into her throat. She needed to feed, now.

Kenzie moved away from the wall the reserved energy left inside of her and the arousal of her body giving her the strength to follow the sounds. She found her way walking down the street before slowly turning a corner to see a long dark and damp alley. Sure enough someone was being pleasured by the heartbeat, who else would be in an alleyway? She moved down it, her eyes shimmering brilliantly as she scanned the surrounding areas. She was getting closer the heartbeat ringing like a loud tune in her ears, but something was very different about this beat. She frowned slowly as she made her way towards a large trash bin, a pair of black boots being seen slightly before the owner being hidden by the object. Kenzie slit her eyes as she moved closer, the heartbeat beginning to slow. A grin replaced the frown as the scene became apparent to her. Two times in one night she was meeting with the mysterious man in black, Ryoshiya Le'Gard. She could smell the blood in the air as she had earlier, the wind picking up the scent and bringing it to her to where she could again taste it on her tongue. Her fangs were paining her aching to peirce flesh. If he was now stealing her dinner how was she to curb these undesirable cravings?

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya slowly drew his fangs out of the man's shoulder. A smooth drop of blood found it way down his pale face. Annoyed by his table manners, he slowly drew a hand across his mouth, wiping away the last of the warm lifeforce that had escaped his tongue's embrace. The man had not been difficult to overcome. He was big and dumb and once his bigger and dumber friends in the shadows had seen what he did to thier cronie, they all scattered like feild mice at the step of a hungry bob cat. Not that Ryoshiya really minded. It gave him privacy while he fed. Gave him the time to draw out the liquid at his leisure. He had been able to take the man slowly, allowing him to enjoy the full lust, and amazing joy of dying at the fangs of a vampire.

Ryoshiya straightened and looked down at his gloves. As he had expected, they were dusty, and had several drops of blood on them. What a disappointment. He had been hoping to keep them clean. Oh well.

Pulling them off and stretching his long slender fingers, he deposited the gloves onto the dead man's body, gently stepping over him as he turned to go. His stomach was full and his mind cleared, his bloodlust satisfied. He could go do as he pleased. Not that there was anything he pleased to do. When you were as old as he, had seen what he had seen, little thrilled you anymore. Ryoshiya Le'Gard was probably the most difficult person to thrill. Not even the joy of the hunt aroused him anymore. He was simply unamused by life anymore.

Taking a deep breath and sighing out in slight annoyance at a breeze that ripped at his long hair, he turned to emerge from behind the trash bin...

"Oh my," Ryoshiya muttered, a small smile hinting at the thick lips that toyed with happiness while hovering on the edge of fury. There was a person crouched there, a very familiar person at that. It was the young woman he had met not so long ago. He looked down at her, then back over to his former prey, then back to the woman. "Good evening, miss. Again, I believe." He paused striding past her so he could have a better look at her.

"I can't imagine what brings you to the same place I am, spying on my feeding habits yet again. I am sure you wouldn't mind enlightening me?" he said, smiling a little. "Then again I cannot imagine you will share. I shall excuse myself for the fourth time this evening. Unless you feel up to being a tad less antisocial with your brother?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie's eyes were glazed with hunger, she could smell it, feel it, hear it all around her the blood that she so needed to survive. The man had frightened her, but very little, his prescense being more of a surprise than anything. She glanced up at him and she let out a sigh as she fell to the ground to take a moments rest, her weakness over coming her more than she had thought it would, but then again it had been so long since she fed.

"My friend," She said in a sigh as she leaned her head against the trash bin, propping her head up. "You enthrall me. It's been a while since I have been in good company of a vampire." She swallowed down air as she tried to make the sudden moment of hunger pass, hoefully it'd be soon. She glanced at the man and nodded towards him before bringing her glance up to meet the mans vibrant eyes that shined like headlights on a foggy night. Brown originally, she supposed, but with the damned life they both lead the color shifted with the light, much like that of a cats.

"I am hungry." She said blandly slowly making her way to the original point of their meeting. "I heard the man and I was needing blood, unfortunately my luck has since changed and you had gotten to him first."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya looked her up and down. He knew that feeling of extreme hunger. It could hit at any time if they had not eaten for over twenty-four hours. Ryoshiya became weak when he was hungry. Not as weak as some, but definately weaker than normal.

A pang of something like guilt ran through his chest. Odd. He was not much of an emotional vampire. He crouched down in front of her studying her face a moment, seeing the hunger written on every thought line, crying out from the corners of her mouth, and flowing from her eyes like ice tears that seized the very heart of the onlooker. Ryoshiya cocked his head at her.

"You should consider eating a little more often, my love," he muttered to her, standing up again, but keeping his eyes on her. "It might help the state you're in now."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie's eyes felt so heavy as if they were being held down by sand bags. She was barely able to see the man in front of her, but when he had gotten close to her she could smell the blood lingering on his breath and his beauty was even more imaculate than that she remembered. She watched him move up and then it all went blurry again. She swallowed air once more, her body slowly malfunctioning. She needed to eat, but she swore for the first time in her life she'd never be able to stand up and find a piece of flesh.

"I am beginning to think... you are right." She was slurring her speech, she sounded drunk probably. Her body never handled long periods of time without drinking very well, which was why she fed on the rats in her aparment complex, which that was now very scarce to come by considering she had drunk the whole building dry. People now were thanking god for having a home blessedly free of rats.

"I need to go find food." She said out loud not really speaking to anyone. She tried to stand but the ground felt like mush, as did her legs. She immediately fell to the ground feeling the hardness cause a shock up her spine. She grimaced but it was mainly due to the pain her body was feeling. How could a vampire not die like this? How could those wretched souls who spent eternity in a box live forever hungry?

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya watched her stumble up, then almost immediately fall back to the ground. He furrowed his brow. Knocking back his trench coat, he reached out his hand and secured her upper arm in it, using the other to take her shoulder and help her to her feet. He wasn't much of a toucher, but he felt a little bit sorry for the young woman.

She did not look as if she would be able to find food on her own. Ryoshiya's choices went through his mind. He could get food for her, but he did not exactly feel it best to leave her here in this state while he went to find a good subject. She would need a lot of blood. More than he was likely to find on these god forsaken streets.

Sighing out a little bit in annoyance, he slowly reached down, slipping his arm under her knees, hoisting her up into his arms. His home was not too far from here. At least, it would not take long if he tapped into that speed he was blessed--or maybe cursed--with.

Digging a heel into the ground, Ryoshiya began towards his home in leaps and bounds.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie remembered being pulled up into his arms like some lost child and for a moment she was about to disagree with his decision to help her but she was too tired and hungry to even worry about it. Perhaps he had reserves at wherever he was taking her. Another thing that popped in her mind... never trust vampires. She opened her eyes and glanced up at him and grinned, beautiful couldn't even desribe the man. She slit her lips and tried to speak but she was too preocuppied with his face and his strength.

"Where are you taking me, friend?" She honestly didn't care if it meant she was going to be put out of her misery, but sadly she wasn't ready to leave this god forsaken rock just yet. Kenzie didn't know if he gave a response for she was out in two seconds, the one thing that hunger did to her was make her tired and sleep like no other. Whenever she got food she'd be happy and on her way out of this mans life and hair forever.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya leaned on the door frame of his common room in his large flat. The couch was occupied by the young woman, so far sleeping soundly. He was waiting for her to wake up so he could give her the blood supply she needed. But so far he had just been disappointed with subtle movements and slight stirrings in her sleep.

Ryoshiya took a deep breath, turning and going into the kitchen of his flat, looking around for a moment. There was nothing in here. At least, nothing that he used on a regular basis. He rarely even came in here. The common room and his bedroom were the two most inhabited places of his home. And even then. He was rarely at home at all. He only came here when he craved light, and when he slept, and after that he was almost never here.

There were too many other places to be. Too many other places that did not remind him of how condemned he was.

Ryoshiya took a deep breath, brushing some of his long hair from his face and biting his lip, his fang poking into his bottom lip a little. He felt foolish now for bringing this woman to his home. He could have done any of what he was going to while she was lying on that street.

But he hadn't wanted to be so open. Hadn't wanted to share his blood where simple riff raff could have seen it being given. Royal settings for royal blood. That was the way it had always been.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie frowned and slightly stirred awake hunger taking an effect. She frowned and leaned up and suddenly she was lost. Where was she? How had she gotten there? Who had taken her to this place? Kenzie didn't want to find out. She moved off the couch and suddenly felt light headed. She blinked and breathed evenly trying to regain her breath and try to realize where her exit was. She moved around the coffee table and saw the magnificent furnishing the person had. Whoever lived here lived richly. Kenzie stumbled around, almost tripping on one of the legs from a chair set beside the couch. She was so lost her head was spinning and her vision was blurred. She needed to go home, sleep this off, and find some fresh blood the next day, but so far if she kept tripping over things she'd not be able to make it out of the common room.

"Ah!" She said as she tripped on her own two feet that felt like she was wearing metal boots. She caught herself on the wall and she leaned for a moment, praying that she'd see straight and figure out how to get the hell out of there. Kenzie's eyes scanned the room as best she could amidst the vision she was lacking, the strength leaving every part of her body. She just needed a few drops to get her by, just till tomorrow.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya lifted his eyebrows at the commotion coming from his common room. He glanced over his shoulder at the door from his kitchen to the common room and blinked.

"Someone is awake," he muttered, then pivoted on his heal and strode to the door. He leaned out and then leaned back on the frame of the door, watching as the woman tripped over herself in her frenzy to find her way out of his home. Ryoshiya could not help but smirk a little at the way she tripped awkwardly about, hands flailing and her face showing confusion and lightheadedness. He chuckled deep in his throat, putting a hand to his mouth as if he were coughing, and laughing into it instead.

He found it slightly charming how anything with even a little bit of mortal in it was so much less graceful on thier feet. He did not really remember what it was like to be a clumsy mortal. It had been so long since he had been that awkward teenaged boy with legs and arms longer than anything else on his body. He did not know what it felt like to really trip over his own two feet. But watching this woman gave him a good idea that it was not exactly pleasant.

"Bravo, Madam," he said, clapping lightly to her. "Perhaps the ballet dancer should learn to warm up before she tries to dance." He smiled a little, bringing his wrist to his mouth and sinking his fangs into it, feeling a little blood trickle over his. He strode towards the woman.

"I think this will help you gain back your grace, my love."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie turned and placed her back against the wall as if she were holding it up, the voice and clapping coming as a surprise. The voice was very familiar and suddenly her clarity was given. Her eyes adjusted and she could see the man walking towards her, blood was dripping she could hear it. She felt light again and she rolled her head back until it was against the wall, pleasure trying to course through her dead weight body. She could smell it again, hear it, feel it... it was like music to her ears and yet it was like nails on a chalkboard. She frowned and opened her eyes, the lust for blood showing widely in the brightness of her eyes, the sharpening of her fangs.

"You'd let me drink from you?" She questioned, this coming as a surprise since many were very touchy about blood, their blood in particular. Hopefully he'd allow it to happen, her body was so weak and in dire need of it. If he came a step closer there would be no way in hell that she'd not accept it.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya tilted his head, then raised his wrist, licking off the blood that was threatening to drip on his nicely cleaned white carpet. He blinked at her as he swallowed, and then took a few more deliberate steps towards her. He chuckled a little again. That was a dumb question. Or at least in his opinion it was. What was it with people questioning things others did? They did it, that was all that had mattered. Don't ask why, just accept. Ryoshiya closed the space between he and the woman placing his right hand on her face so that his bleeding wrist was next to her mouth and nose.

"Now, love. Would I have bitten my own wrist and allowed my own blood to be spilled just for the fun of watching it?" he asked. Then he purred. "Drink it," he said, more like a demand than anything else. "Before the wound closes."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie moved her head away for a moment, trying to ignore the fact that she desperately wanted to taste him, feel him explode in her mouth, but her fight was useless. She moaned out seductively and turned her head, her fangs sharpening to a dangerous point. She looked at his hand and then looked up at him. She wasn't about to not accept it, never would she not accept it from him. She grabbed his wrist within her hands that seemed frail and tiny amongst his own. She brought the pierced flesh with the life flowing out freely to her mouth and licked her lips, she opened her mouth and sank her fangs deep within his skin, hearing that sound she loved. She began to suck on it, feeling the warm liquid feel her mouth and give her an explosive feeling throughout her body from her head down to her feet.

She moved as close as she could to him and held his wrist tightly, sucking as if this were to end in seconds. She felt the warm velvet liquid trail down her throat as she moaned against his skin, frowning and concentrating on what she was doing. How beautiful this was. But before long she began to feel a bitter taste, something was wrong with his blood. She continued to drink and suddenly she felt this huge force press in her mind, an explosive movement of images filled her mind and all she could hear was his heartbeat, the blood coursing through his veins, the sweet sensation she got from this man. It was more powerful than anything she had ever had, the taste was bitter and sweet, thick and fulfilling. She needed more, desired more, had to have it all. She sucked forcefully, images of family, happiness, the sun, sky, a man in the dark, knowledge of things she would have never seen. This man was old, older than most, and anything he had seen was being transmitted into her own mind as if she herself were witnessing it.

She moaned again against his skin, her body aching and hurting from such powerful things. His force was strong and she couldn't let go, didn't want to. This man was special, rich, strong, wise, old, fullbred vampire. Nameless victims came and went, men and women throughout his past all haunting him in her memory. A tortured and reserved soul. But how she longed to know it all. She wasn't about to let go, never would she let go until the last drop came.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya's breath sped considerably. They were shallow and soon he was gasping for them as his eyes went dark. Swirls of images were passing from him to this woman. Countless images of his past, things he had wanted to forget had tried so desperately to forget.

With his free hand, he clutched her hair, gasping for air as he saw the faces of his parents, his brother, his friends, deaths, so many deaths, screaming victims of his beginning terror, nameless strangers, endless lovers, fear, pain, anguish, happiness, joy, euphoria and disphoria the like. All of it rushing from Ryoshiya Le'Gard to this stranger who drank of his blood. His pure blood. The blood that belonged to...

Pain shot through Ryoshiya's arm to his shoulder and down his back, to his legs and then shot back up into his head. The images were swirling, one man occupying them as none other. The man who was responsible for Ryoshiya standing here this night. His maker. The man he hated just as much as he loved.

Ryoshiya's good sense was alarming him to the fact the woman was going to drink him dry if he did not do something about it soon. He pulled at her hair, pushed on her shoulder.

"Stop..." he groaned. "Stop...please..." he gasped as his vision cleared. He ripped his hand from her grasp, stumbling backwards, reaching for the table to regain his balance, but only throwing it off. Blood smeared across the glass table top as Ryoshiya Le'Gard fell over his own two feet for the first time in so many years.

The ground hit him hard in the left shoulder as he grasped his right wrist and growled angrily, feeling his heart beating hard, his pale face even more so from lack of so much blood. He was gasping for air, praying that in a moment he could be back to his regal self.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie fell against the wall her head being hit forcefully. The pain she felt was not from the wall but from what she had just witnessed. Her mouth was red, teeth drenched in the blood, trailing in a thin line down her chin and down her neck. She gasped for air, her strength coming back to her so quickly it was like a rush of drugs. How she was addicted to blood, how she counted on it for so many things other than life. She moaned as she closed her eyes, licking her lips clean of the blood that had filled her body with marvelous sensations and visions of another time. She opened her eyes after a moment, hearing the man gasping for air, his heartbeat off rhythm. Had she drunk him dry? Fear shot through her and she was soon on the prowl to see if he was okay.

"Ryoshiya?" She asked in a low husky breath that was still laced with the desire for blood. "Ryoshiya?" She questioned again, unable to even say anything else for she was still panting herself from the enticing drink. She cleaned her mouth off and looked at him, if she had killed him she'd might as well throw herself off a bridge, the interest in him now had grown to a new height. Why was he so pure? Why was his blood so perfect?

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya writhed slightly with the pain that clutched his arm. He clenched his teeth together, huffing and puffing in annoyance now more than anything else. He was still frightened from what had conspired between he and the woman just now, but he wasn't going to show her that.

He sat forward a little, a drop of sweat trailing its way down his temple, jaw and chin. He raised normally shining eyes that now looking slightly dead. He growled.

"Damn it, woman," he purred the aristocratic gentleness to his voice now edged with the true vampiric spirit. "Next time warn me when you are that bad off."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie was breathless, but probably not as bad as Ryoshiya. She gave him a true vampiric grin, her fangs still craving that last drop within him. She nodded knowing he was weak and she was at least going to give him a little bit of blood he could use to live. She bit into her own wrist, ignoring the pain for the human feeling was still very alive within her. She watched the crimson colored liquid pour ruthlessly out of her wounds and she crawled on her knees over to the man clutching his wrist.

"An eye for an eye, so to speak, my beautiful friend. I am giving you blood with the upmost respect." She winked at him and held her wrist to his lips as he had done to her. He best accept it otherwise she'd forecefully give it to him.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya eyed the blood she offered. He lifted one arched eyebrow, before lowering his lips to the wound, and drawing his tongue to it. He slowly slid his fangs into the wounds already there from her own fangs and gently partook of the blood that he found there, carefully, slowly, unmessily, as was the way of such royalty.

The blood tasted fine at first. But as he drank a little more, and then a little more, he felt it burning slightly as it went down. Immediately alarms went off in his head. Blood should not burn. But he needed it too much to refuse.

After a few sustaining gulps, he drew his fangs away from her skin, feeling the wound on his own wrist slowly heal, and finally disappear all together. Slowly, his eyeshine returned to normal and his bodily functions returned to normal. Drawing a tongue over his lips and getting to his feet carefully and looking about it. There was still blood smeared across his table. He sneered a little at it. Then he looked at the woman.

Something about her blood. What was it? It was not pure, that was for sure. It was dirty. Something was wrong with it, that was for sure. He swallowed hard and tilted his head.

"Your blood, love," he purred a little. "It is not of pure inheiritance...you are not full vampire," he said as if just realizing it. His stomach flipped as the blood settled in it and it tied his stomach into knots. "You're blood is dirty."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie grinned and licked her wounds, hoping it would heal quickly. She shrugged and let out a sigh, this was an awkward night in deed. "Dirty, is it? I learned that blood was blood, when you need it you drink it. But I am sorry that it couldn't quench your aristocratic tastes." She glanced at him his skin becoming a bit more healthy, if one could call a vampire healthy at all.

"My head hurts." She groaned and lifted her hand to her head. His blood was pure all right, pure and painful. She wasn't use to such high qualities, if she could say such a thing about blood. Those images were burned in her mind and they kept replaying over and over again like a broken record. The faces, the places, the death, all of it linking to the man in front of her. What an odd way to get to know someone.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya shook his head at her holding a hand over his stomach. He slowly sunk down to sit on the couch, his insides twisting around themselves. He wasn't sure what was wrong be he had never known blood to do this to him.

"I meant it not as an insult...but truly...your blood is making me ill..." he said quietly, his head becoming light. He shook it several times to try and clear it. What was wrong with him? Was he losing touch? Was he losing his tolerance for blood? That could not be. He looked up at her, studying her features, thinking back to anything she had done. And he remembered it.

He had noticed earlier that she was not full vampire. That she was part mortal. He had never drunk half bred blood before. It was either pure as it came or mortal as it got. Nowhere in between. This was a shock to his system, and it was not taking it well. He shook his head again.

"It will pass," he said, with more confidence than he felt. "It will pass in a moment."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie watched him, hopefully it would. She wasn't even meaning to kill this creature and already her ability to be kind to one vampire was not working as well as planned. She sighed out and nodded.

"It is not an insult, believe me, I've heard much worse." She smiled at him, fangs still sharp enough to cut through iron. She glanced at her wrist and the pain she felt. That was the only thing she wished she could have such full bred powers. Wounds would heal a lot quicker. She moved her eyes up to him and continued to smile.

"Now that you are no longer distracted... my name, if you would like to know it still, is Manhattan Kenzie. But please, I insist my friends, those few that I do have, to call me Kenzie."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya slowly felt the twisting in his insides passing, slowly moving out, although he still felt poorly and his head hurt a little bit. He swallowed and looked up at her, his regal air coming back about him. He stood and bowed to her slightly.

"Miss Kenzie," he said, taking her hand and kissing the back of it, as was appropriate for a man of his class to do when meeting a woman of the same or higher rank. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I apologize for being so distracted earlier. You simply don't know how difficult it is to stay on track nowadays. A vampire simply has so much to do and so little time in which to do it." He nodded at her, hoping she caught the sarcasm, as sometimes, some he spoke did not know when he was being serious, or was merely being cynical.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie smiled at his words, he was so interesting and very kind when needed to be. She liked him, well liked him so far.

"I wouldn't know how busy vampire's lives are, after all I am a dirty blooded halfbreed, remember?" She teased him slightly, his company giving her more satisfaction than it should have. She had one or two friends, but all of whom were probably dead know due to their dangerous professions. She hated vampires, despised the race, but for some reason Ryoshiya Le'Gard was a very good exception.

"So, how did you gain all this wealth, assuming you are very wealthy? I don't think I've met a vampire like you who has lavish tastes, hospitality, and such perfect blood."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded at her, turning and going to the kitchen, getting a wet rag, and moving back to the common room. He crouched down and wiped away the smear of blood on his table, folding the rag and holding it in one hand as he inspected the rest of the immediate area of thier blood sharing. He saw nothing, but no doubt with all the many, many lights in his home he would find a speck somewhere.

"I came into a great inheiritance when my father passed away. And when my mother passed away, I also recieved a great amount of money from her. Unfortunately, my brother cheated me out of several thousands. But when he passed on, I received his money and possessions as well," he paused. "I was always used to living well. And that did not change when I did."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie nodded as she watched him clear away the mess they both had made together in the whole mess of trying to save her strength. How stupid she felt for not feeding earlier, how womanly she had become within minutes of meeting Mister Le'Gard. She smiled finding his story interesting, much more interesting than her own considering dysfunction couldn't even begin to describe the problems she had with her past.

"So, how old are you exactly? I know you have to be over 200 years old. The images you gave me..." She shook her head as her eyes traced over his tall body that was strong and cat like. "I saw things that you might've not wanted me to see. I apologize for my ignorance tonight. I had been following you when I saw you feeding. I think I became too interested in you then when you were drinking I lost all of my thoughts and became enthralled with blood. You interest me, very much." And I don't want to lose the only friend I could possibly make. How stupid she felt inside, how human. The relationship she had within herself... how she hated it.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya paused. Those images. Those so guarded memories. The things he had tried to forget, tried to ignore, tried to keep deep inside of himself. They had just been thrown around as if they meant nothing. He did not want to talk about those images. Did not want to talk about the man that inhabited nearly every one of them. He didn't want to say that he was afraid of his own past.

Ryoshiya turned away to work on a bit of blood that had dried onto his glass topped table. He glanced back over his shoulder, not at her, but more at the floor around her feet. He blinked a few times, before turning, the normal aristocratic expression on his face.

"Now, Miss Kenzie. It's very rude to ask someone's age," he purred. "Even I was taught that. And, of course, it is even more improper to ask a vampire his. His age could be a source of embarrassment for him," Ryoshiya tsked at her, before smirking a little and then turning, going back into his kitchen and laying the rag on the sink.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie smiled widely. He was most unusual and for a vampire that was saying something. But she liked him, he was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Killing him was definitely a bad idea, even though she hadn't really put a lot of thought into doing so.

"Excuse me for being so improper." She said to him as she smiled, not being able to find his response very serious. "And you need to stop saying 'miss' before my name, as proper and primp as that may be... I don't like it. It is Kenzie, my dear friend."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya glanced back into the common room and sighed. His cover up for his fear had apparently worked. He let another sigh out through his nose and then went back into the common room looking at Manhattan and then nodding.

"Alright. Kenzie then, if you insist," he said bowing. "I apologize." Then he smiled a little and nodded. "And be glad that I am not a touchy vampire. As for my age, I am three hundred and fifty, give or take a year or two." He nodded. "Although, I don't know what age is supposed to mean. I have met ignorant four hundred year olds, as I have met wise one hundred year olds," he said. Then he looked her up and down. "Does my age mean something to you?" he asked quietly.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

She smiled. Kenzie was beginning to like the feeling when she smiled considering it had been a long time since she had done it. She was just interested in his age, how long he had been alive, how much he had seen. To him everything she wanted to know was probably boring and held no interest to him whatsoever, but then again when you live to be so old you have probably seen enough crap to last you for centuries. She shrugged and looked at the surroundings amongst his home. The man had very nice, and expensive, tastes.

"No reason. I am just interested to know how old you are, how long you've been living here. I guess that is my mortal side taking over considering I haven't been blessed to see the end of days." Kenzie wondered if he was a cryptic and cynical vampire who had seen so much death and destruction he'd curse what he was blessed with. To see the things he had seen, to experience life to its fullest, to do things that you would never do while knowing you can die... vampires were blessed yet cursed creatures.

"My father was very old, he'd be around four hundred and twenty had I not.... had he not died."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded in her direction continuing to look around his common room absentmindedly. He was just waiting to see another drop of blood on the white carpet, but no matter where he laid his sharp eyes, he say nothing. He then nodded again, looking fully back at Manhattan. He closed his eyes a moment, trying to imagine all of the elder vampires he knew of that age or older.

"No doubt he would be a wise young vampire," Ryoshiya said, opening his eyes again and looking at her. He shook his head. "The oldest vampireI know is no longer present on Coruscant. But he is well respected, very reveered among the younger of us."

Ryoshiya nodded a little. That was a lie. The man he spoke of was not the oldest vampire he knew. The oldest vampire he knew was his own creator. But Ryoshiya was not going to tell her this. Indeed, he did not even know if his maker was still alive and well.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie laughed lightly amused by his words. Sure her father would probably have been considered young, as was Ryoshiya, but he was incorrect about the other part.

"Wise? I don't think so. My father wasn't the kindest of people." She glanced down at her hands that were finally no longer shaking and her body strength was growing to a height she swore she had never felt before. She could smell things better, see clearer, walk straighter, move gracefully, speak faster. She glanced up at him seeing he was searching for something on the floor or furniture, blood no doubt.

"My father tried to kill me when was a little girl. My whole family turned against me, even my mortal mother. Wise he was not for he winded up dead at the hands of someone he never could have imagined."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded at her, giving up his fruitless search for any droplets of blood. Here in about a week he knew he'd find some and he'd get mad that he hadn't found them before. But for now, he was still not feeling quite up to par.

He went back into the kitchen, putting the rag in the sink and rinsing it off. He hung it over the side and then walked to the door, leaning on the doorframe, knocking some of his hair from his face. He thought for a moment before speaking.

"I suppose we can't really be trusted can we?" he said quietly, looking up and over to the right wall. It was opened byt three floor to ceiling windows that looked out upon the lights and life of Coruscant. He could even see the Jedi temple from here. Although he figured he probably could have seen it from anywhere on Coruscant. The lights in his home almost drowned out the view as all he could see really was his reflection, Manhattan's reflection and the reflection of his common room and the decorations therein. Not that he minded. He preferred the light in his home to the view anyway, although on certain occasions the view was magnificent. He finished his thinking momentarily to look back over at Manhattan and switch his weight from one foot to the other.

Going over to his coat, which was laid across the back of his couch, he dug around in the pocket and found his cigarettes and lighter, pulling them both out and lighting one for himself. He took a drag and blew the smoke away from him. He held the pack and lighter out to the woman.

"Do you smoke?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie wasn't one for smoking but she figured occassionaly social smoking wasn't half as bad as doing it full-time. She grinned thinking of the reprocussions that were involved with smoking, hell he was a vampire and he wasn't going to die from cancer! She reached into the pack and pulled one out and took the lighter.

"I do at the moment." She said finding having a cigarette to be the most best thing to calm her nerves at the exact moment. She put the brown tip in between her lips and lit it up, hearing the sizzle of the paper and she felt the bright cherry light up her face and warm it. She blew out the smoke and handed the lighter back to Ryoshiya and smiled. "Thanks."

"So, waht is with all the lights in here, hmm?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded as he took the pack back and stuffed it back down into the pocket of his jacket. He puffed thoughtfully on his cigarette a little, considering her questions. He figured it must have seemed odd to her, to have a light in every corner of the home. He was being ridiculous with it and knew she would think him childish for the reasoning behind it. He smiled a little, and shook his head, looking down.

"When you have not seen the sun in three hundred and fifty years, you tend to seek warmth and light wherever you can find it..." he muttered, looking around at the lights. "If it makes you uncomfortable then, they'll turn off."

Leaning around to the control panel for all systems in his home, he pressed a blue button and all the lights in his home went off. They were plunged into almost perfect darkness, the city lights giving off a faint white glow that outlined Ryoshiya's slim form, putting half his body in shadow, half in silver light. The smoke curling away from his cigarette looked like silver strands of the Gods' thread drifting away from the tip. The only color in the room was now the bright red ends of his cigarette and Manhattan's cigarette.

Ryoshiya blinked once, just noticing how frail and small the woman across from him looked. Of course, mentally he knew she very much wasn't, but in the darkness, the silver of the city lights outlining them both, he could really see how small she was. Smiling a little, his fangs glinting in the faint light he looked down at the floor and absentmindedly twirled the black ring on his left hand around his finger.

"I supposed I get a little lonely for warmth," he said, a little quieter than before.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie smoked watching the man nearby. How different he looked in darkness, more mysterious, frightening, perhaps more... sensuous? She couldn't help but find the man in front of her an enigma, a man she wanted to solve, a man she would have no problem providing the warmth he craved. She grinned the brightness of the cigarette causing his face to glow red and make him seem more evil than her truly was. She had met many vampires in her life and never had she seen one so sad before in all her life.

Kenzie wasn't sure about the man just yet, his trust factor was slightly better than before, better than hers probably. If he knew how horrible she was how she hunted the race he was... the chances of ever getting to speak to the man in front of her with kindess was next to nothing. That was why she was going to harbor this as a secret, one of those deep dark ones that could never be let out into the open. So she would just go by bounty hunter, if the question was ever to arise.

He was so taller, taller than most people his race that being original race of Japanese, because there was no way in the world Ryoshiya Le'Gard was French. That last name didn't suit him, yet at the same time it did. It wasn't something uncommon in the Vampire community many, after the cross-over, changed their last names to erase any true identity to their human life they left behind. They all linked it to the French, whom Vampires probably stemmed from. Unfortunately she didn't get to experience the true sadness and horror of living such a charmed life like many full-bred mortals. After all she was still human, she was a half-blood. Dirty half-blood in Ryoshiya's case. Again she grinned. She liked him.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiys leaned his head on the door frame, his hair falling over his eyes, blurring his vision slightly. Ryoshiya was thinking deeply, his mind wandering to all different subjects. His three hundred and more years had brought him many to consider. Many things to think about and dwell on, many people to remember and try to forget. Ryoshiya's mind was on his maker as of this very moment. The man he had been so close to, had loved unconditionally and been loved in return by him. The man he had given everything to. the man who had taken his soul, had shown him the true meaning of what a vampire was.

The man who had left him for dead.

Ryoshiya hated thinking about him, and yet he was the only thing that occupied his thoughts. Ryoshiya was of the opinion that he was going insane because of his maker. That if he didn't get a different hobby than thinking of him, he would lose his mind.

Leaning off the door frame, trying to rid his mind of the chilling thoughts, he walked to the table and put his cigarette out in the small bowl sitting on it, then waved his hand slightly to get the smoke to dissipate.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie sighed out as she exhaled the smoke that was infecting her lungs with cancer. She wondered what the vampire was thinking he looked as if he were in deep thought. What did a vampire think about? Aside from the fact they cursed the life they lived, wallowed in their misery...they thought about their makers, at least that was what she had learned to believe.

"My friend it has been fun." Kenzie stood up and put out her cigarette and she looked over at him and smiled. "Your company has been most enjoyable, even under awkward circumstances. Perhaps we will talk again soon."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded, leaning up off of the doorframe and glancing back out the window. He yawned and nodded to the door.

"I believe you can discover the way out yourself. Dawn is coming soon, and I am growing weary," he said quietly. Striding to the huge windows, he pulled the thick black velvet curtains. When he was satisfied with them, the turned halfway towards the woman. "Maybe we will talk again. You never know." He bowed. "Good morning, Miss Kenzie."

Yawning a little, he walked to his coffin room, pushing the door to, not really knowing if the woman would leave or stay. He imagined she would want to get out of his presence as quickly as absolutely possible.

Ryoshiya strode through the dark to the black marble stand in the corner of his room upon which his black coffin sat. He looked lovingly down at it and raised the lid, looking inside to the violet satin lining. He sighed out through his nose, stripping off his shirt and sliding into the coffin, lowering the lid overtop of himself. He felt safe inside, felt genuinely safe. Genuinely warm. Ryoshiya took a deep breath, thinking still about the woman and whether or not he would in fact see her again.

He hoped so.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie didn't let her prescense be known but she had followed him quietly to his coffin room, watching the man shamelessly admire his own coffin. It was a beautfiul piece of work and for a moment she was jealous that she still had to sleep on a bed. But it wasn't as if she were bidding on death anytime soon, she still liked being alive, very much alive. She drew in a deep breath when she watched him pull off his shirt, the glow from his pale perfected skin shimmering brilliantly in darkness. If only she was able to see it more often. She scanned the room and figured it was time to leave, especially when he laid inside of it and closed himself in.

Kenzie hoped she'd see him again, she'd make sure to place her in a situation to where he'd get so annoyed with seeing her he'd have no other option than to befriend her more than he already has. She wanted to know what those images meant, who his maker was, how he became made...all the things one would long to know for his wisenss was very appealing. But he was probably bored with life by this point and she'd have to do something really big to make an imprint on his life.

Kenzie did see her way out and as she did so she watched the sunrise in Coruscant. Her mind wandered back to Ryoshiya. How long had it been since he had seen the sun? How long had it been since he felt the warmth that resonated off of its surface? Judging by the massive amount of lights he had in his home it was apparent he missed it, somewhat. She grinned as she watched it rise, having gone to a place that she remembered going with her mother when nobody else could. She had a beautiful view of the nature that was limited on Coruscant, watching the bright sphere in the sky glow brilliantly and warm her cold skin. She was half mortal and could still have the sun, but in limited doses. She smiled brightly as she thought of Ryoshiya, his sadness could be felt and whether or not he was willing to admit it was his problem. For some reason this made her happy to think she would like to change his cynical outlook on life, for almost all full-breds had a habit of acquiring this feeling.

She wanted to make him feel something other than death.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

There was a sound. Of whispering. Quiet whispering. Gentle words flowing from perfect lips, a smile haunting those lips like the fog after a hard storm. The words were either unintellegible, or in a different language from any Ryoshiya spoke, for he could not make out what the man was saying. He could only not look away from the face that was so close to his own.

Don't be afraid...I won't hurt you... came a sudden wave of words that Ryoshiya understood. Dont be afraid, I won't hurt you. For some reason, Ryoshiya was not frightened. That face, those words, brought him such comfort he could do nothing but melt against the man in front of him as those perfectly shaped lips, with the curve like a smile at each side, touched the skin of his neck and parted ever so slightly.

And then, there was only pain. So much pain. His body was rigid, his hands clutching at the man's hair, his breath coming to him in short gasps. Pain...and yet, somewhere inside, an immense pleasure as Ryoshiya had never felt before. Euphoria and disphoria mixing and joining like one emotion.

Ryoshiya's eyes flew up and his first instinct was to sit straight up. But after the first several times of having nightmares and ramming his head against the coffin lid, he had learned not to go with his instinct.

He pushed the lid open and sat up, pulling air into his lungs as quickly as he possibly could. How many times had he had that dream? And yet how it still frightened him so much. No matter how many times he had the dream, he still awoke in a cold sweat, gasping for air, hoping he could just die and get it over with. But every time, he awoke to the familar surroundings of his own home, his coffin, the darkness. Nothing changed. Nothing ever did. In a way it was good, and in a way...it was horrible.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Ryoshiya slid out of his coffin, standing and stretching, looking at the clock set into his wall. It was near time for him to get up, so there was no use going back to sleep, even though he felt like he hadn't slept at all. Ryoshiya ran a hand through his hair and smelled the air. There was an odd scent in the air. Why had he not noticed it the evening previous? He smelled a little deeper.

Wait a moment. It was the smell of the woman, Manhattan Kenzie. It lingered from where she had been there the last night. It was her particular smell. He did not know why it jumped out at him, probably because no one but him had been in his home for so many years anyone who came in would leave a smell that Ryoshiya would probably smell for days.

Not that Kenzie's scent was unpleasant. Quite the opposite, in fact. Ryoshiya smiled grimly. They had told each other they hoped to see the other again, and yet, somehow, he knew they would never see each other again. No one ever met with a vampire again. He did not know why, but it was like an unwritten rule that vampires, pure bloods, could not make friends, could not be social. It was like they had to live out their miserable lives all alone.

And for all Ryoshiya knew, that was just how he was going to live his, too.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie stirred awake the vampiric instinct telling her it was time to rise and feed, but the blood she had received last night was filling her more than normal, more than it should have. She moved around her home, the windows having been painted black, as well as the walls and the limited furnishings she owned resembled nothing but black, unlike those she had seen in Ryoshiya's home. She loved the sun and only a few hours were allowed. She could have windows and proper furnishings but she opted to have limited items for she never had a moment to enjoy them anyhow. Her life consited of moving around, feeding, killing. Her life wasn't meant to enjoy lavish settings and items mortals purchased.

She was bored that evening. The only thing she had to bide her time was to think of Ryoshiya and the images that were still burning lively in her. She figured the dark figured man had been the creator, his father, his maker. She knew not to purge on the need to find out more information unless the man Himself wanted to tell her and she knew that wasn't going to happen. Was she even going to see him again?

The answer was yes. Kenzie dressed for the nightlife and walked out of her home, the air feeling good in her lungs other than sparse stagnant air rotating inside. Where would be a good place to find Mr. Le'Gard? How could she share another cigarette with him? She didn't know but she went to the areas where clubs were everywhere. If it worked once before there was a slim hope he'd be there again.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya had showered and donned a pair of black glossy leather pants and his huge clunky boots he wore with everything. On top he had pulled on an undershirt and a mesh black longsleeved shirt that flared slightly at the elbow. Finally, he had pulled on his cut off gloves and his trench coat.

His hair was neither here nor there this evening. He had brushed it all out and the longer part he had braided into small braids, and left the top short part alone. He was hungry and was going to go find some food, but figured he should at least look halfway undiseased if he were to get anything better than what he had had the night previous.

Heading out of his high end apartment, building, and district, Ryoshiya made his way towards the clubs. They were the best. Because not only did scum visit them, but high class blood types could be found there, and high class blood was what he was looking for. Blood that would fill him up instead of just take the edge off.

He ignored two women who approached him as he smoked outside of a dance club, hoping to see someone come out or go in that was worth following. They both appeared to be hookers, and stank of low end blood. They had hit on him, asked him to go home with them, anything they could to get something out of him. A flash of his fangs and a purr of annoyance had gotten them to leave him alone.

Now, all he needed was prey. Something good. Something tasty.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie slit her eyes as she moved amongst the sea of people crowding the streets of the famous Strip. She could see many famous clubs had already started and many people were trying their best to get them all in before sunrise. She was constantly searching for the reason she was there, if she were to run into him she didn't actually have an excuse but she was sure something would come up at the spur of the moment. Heck, she didn't even know if she was going to see him again.

She felt something tingle on the back of her neck as if something was following her, that same eerie feeling she had gotten the night before in the darkness prior to their meeting. She frowned and stopped walking, her coat hugging her body as the air whipped by. She glanced around, her sharp eyes shimmering brilliantly in the club lights a few people doing double takes at the ill deadly color. She frowned when she saw nothing but happy faces and strange people. Was someone following her again? She was getting tired of having to constantly watch her back, but it was something she had become acustomed to after learning of those who were trying to give her a taste of her own medicine.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." She said to herself lowly as she continued to search the crowds before turning around and walking a little faster. Sooner or later they'd appear and when they did they'd be sorry for ever doing such a thing. Kenzie moved her mind onto better things, Ryoshiya.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya yawned. This was boring. Of course, he found almost anything boring nowadays. This was no different from what he had done every other night, for years and years. Nothing varied, nothing changed. It was just Ryoshiya Le'Gard and his victim and then his home. The routine was well known, well practiced.

Ryoshiya crossed the street to a club that played only Japanese music and all workers were of Japanese desent. It was a favorite among the young people for it allowed them to get a taste of a different culture.

What were they playing now? Ryoshiya kept his ears open as he walked inside plunging into the mass of bodies, all dancing, having fun, most probably drunk. Ah, it was Dir en Grey. A personal favorite of Ryoshiya's. He smiled a little as he made his way to the bar and sat but ordered nothing. He was smelling the air, waiting for someone with the exact right blood to come along. He knew it could take a little while, but Ryoshiya could wait. He was, after all, the master of it.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie floated through the clubs not spotting him, not smelling him. She wanted to see him the longer it was taking the more she was getting anxious and annoyed. Where was Ryoshiya? Which club was he at? She frowned and heard people speaking quickly in Japanese. She frowned and glanced around until she found the club that held a million and one people, young people who were dancing and talking lively in a language she did not understand. Their eyes all slanted in that perfect almond shape, much like Ryoshiya's. She grinned and stepped inside, not paying the cover fee. A man grabbed her arm and told her to either pay or leave, but one quick look at him with a flash of her eyes he let go and stepped away. She grinned at him, her fangs longer than usual. She moved into the sea of people and looked around. Where was Ryoshiya for this seemed the kind of place he'd be.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Someone was talking to him in his language, but he was not paying attention to the man. Ryoshiya's eyes had found the woman who had just wandered in, looking so out of place among all the Asians. Ryoshiya smiled. Wasn't this a coincidence indeed? Who would have thought that Manhattan Kenzie spent her free time--or hunting time--in a club which the language was that of which she could not speak? It was odd. Odd enough for Ryoshiya to slide out of his seat and begin towards her.

She seemed confused, and who would not be if they did not know what was going on around them. Ryoshiya slid towards her, his motions fluid, his eyes shimmering on thier own, changing from brown, to blue, to green and back again as quickly as they did so.

He moved in behind her, and leaned down, placing his mouth next to her ear so as she could hear him over the music.

"Did not expect to see you here, love."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie felt a shock run up her spine and into her neck. The voice was smooth and velvety, caused her body to tingle, sent her mind into over drive, and put a smile on her face. He even sounded better up close and personal than the night before. Kenzie wanted to turn around and see him, but she kept her back turned her eyes moving over the crowd as if she were looking for someone when really the man she wanted had found her.

"I am sure there are a lot of things you couldn't expect." She wanted to hear him speak in her ear again as if it were a guessing game as to who was speaking. She wanted to feel the shiver run through her body, wanted to feel that closeness again, wanted to feel his breath on her skin, oh... the things that she suddenly desired from the man who talked to her. If he could read her mind then she was done for.

"But I would have expected to see you here."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya purred out a laugh that echoed in his throat. That laugh that could have been pleasant, but edged on frightening. Ryoshiya leaned back and glanced around the club again, listening to his language another moment or two before turning towards the door.

"I am sure there are," he said. "Come, let us move out of such a crowded area. It is dreadfully warm in here."

Ryoshiya moved to the door of the club and found his way out taking a deep breath of the air, looking up into the sky and sighing outwards. He smiled a little at the words the woman had spoken. So she had expected him there. Was that the reason she was there? Of course it wasn't. Ryoshiya Le'Gard was not that important.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"My friend, how are we doing tonight?" She smiled as she exited the building seeing him looking up at the sky as his breath condensed into the air. She couldn't help but see the true beauty of the man in such a darker light. The natural darkness somehow adding the radiance that glowed.

"I see you are scoping out the potentials to be your late night snack?" She watched him as she moved to stand near him, his scent already drifting under her nose and giving her a sensation inside she was not expecting. How interesting this man was.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya sighed out through his nose as he smelled the smooth blood of a youth pass him. If it had been up to him, he would have eaten the young person, but he only ate a child when he really needed to. Although he was known to make exceptions every once in awhile.

"Indeed," he responded, glancing over at Manhattan and smiling a little. "A man...well, a vampire must eat as well, am I incorrect?" he said smoothly, but did not stand and wait for her answer. Ryoshiya continued on down the street glancing this way and that, assuming the woman was going to come with him. He figured she was probably also in need of sustinance.

Pulling his pack of cigarettes out, and then pulling one from the pack with his teeth, he lit the end, the smell of the smoke blowing back on him in the wind as he pulled in a breath of the smoke and sighed, feeling it enter and then promptly leave his lungs. He pulled another cigarette from the pack and held it up flicking it backwards to where Kenzie was behind him.

"A smoke?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie wasn't expecting such an odd way to give her a cigarette. She caught it, luckily, and let out a laugh amused by his odd actions. Kenzie put it between her lips ad jogged to catch up with his speed. She glanced at him and smiled.

"Gotta light?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya smiled and sighed. He hated to repeat himself, and dragging out his lighter would have been what he was doing. He turned towards her and placed a hand on her face to steady it. Leaning down, he put the tip of his cigarette on hers until it was lit, the heat of the two in between thier faces causing his cheeks to warm. He glanced up at her, the light from the two cigarettes caused her face to glow slightly. Ryoshiya blinked, then leaned back.

"There you are," he said quietly, scanning the darkness quickly for any sign of anything other than the normal rats that roamed this area. There was nothing in the field of his vision. He paused in his walking a moment, looking up into the sky, wondering breifly what it must have looked like with the sun suspended in it. He sighed out through his nose, and then looked back at the woman beside him.

"So. Are you here to scount out sustinance as I am?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie smiled as she took a deep puff off the cancer stick, as mortals called it. Funny, since yesterday evening after her meeting with Mister Le'Gard she had been calling those she lived amongst mortals, as if she herself no longer was a half-blood. She blew out the line of smoke watching the gray mist float against the wind and form odd shapes and forms. She grinned as her smile faded, taking his question into consideration.

Was she really there to look for a good "bite" to eat? Or was she truly there to see him? She already knew her answer for it was the only purprose for er comingto the strip, but she didn't dare want to let him know it. She looked up at him his tall cat-like grace very appealing and very interesting. How aristocratic he was, rich in clothes, money, grace, beauty...

"I am slightly feeling weak, my urges for blood have been much more powerful, more so than yesterday. I don't know what is with your blood, friend, but it has done something to me." She took another drag and then she smiled. "But then again, mine did more damage to you than yours did to me." Her stomach growled, so she was hungry after all. Perhaps he'd be interested in the offer to go and have a bite together? She knew for a fact he was probably a loner and didn't hang with the normal vampiric crowds that had branced into covens and were now using their powers for sex and gothic glamour. What happened to the good 'ol days of just guessing, horror, and death?

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya gently dropped his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it as he continued to walk down the street, fixing his gloves on his hands and his coat around him. He smiled a little. So his blood was doing something to her. That wasn't difficult to believe. He glanced back at her and smiled a little more.

"If you have not partaken of pure vampire blood, then your first time is a little...overwhelming, shall we say. As was my first time drinking the blood of a half-breed. It works both ways," he said. Then he glanced back at her. "You're half mortal...as such, you can go out into the sun for a certain period of time, am I correct in my assumptions?"

If she knew the reason for that question, she would probably think him so childish. But anyone who had the ability to go out in the sun made Ryoshiya yearn to be them. Pray that they will voulintarily tell him what it is like. But Ryoshiya knew he would have to inquire after that information and he could not do that. To be so cold otherwise and to have a weakness for the sun. It was so unbecoming of a vampire his age.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie drew in a deep breath of her cigarette, feeling the cloud of smoke fill her mouth and carpet her throat as it entered her lungs. She blew it out soon after as she glanced at the ground they moved over, their shoes echoing off the lonely walls and into the darkness. She glanced up at him sideways, watching his eyes glisten iridescently, seductively although both were unintentional and just observations.

"Mmm." She said as she continued to glance up at him slightly giving him a crooked grin. "Me being a half-blood there are certain...qualities I possess that did not falter with my decision to not crossover." Kenzie took another long drag off her cigarette as they continued to walk as if they had a purpose for being there as if they were on a mission despite them just wandering around and chatting.

"It is my daily decision to not fully become a vampire, actually it is my daily struggle to not become a vampire, not fully anyway. The attributes I was damned to receive is, of course, my bloodlust, fangs, vampiric strength, vampiric eyes, pale skin...extended life, not eternity, but long enough," She didn't know why she was actually freely despersing this information to Ryoshiya, perhaps he was the first person she could actually talk to and enjoy the company, but either way she was a bit frightened...in a good way. She breathed in deep again and glanced up at him.

"But with my decisions I have also been blessed with a few things mortals have. The sun. I am damned in a different way, Mister Le'Gard, although I can see the sun it isn't without some clause. An hour, two at the most, is all the time I have with the sun. Any longer and my skin begins to burn, I begin to die. The longer I stay in the sun the shorter my life span can be. For some reason it harms me in a much different way, so it isn't without consequence." She took one last draw before tossing it aside and finally finishing her story that she was sure he didn't want to hear. After all it had been a simple question, a simple question that should've been answered simply.

"Why do you ask, my friend?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded as he listened to her story. So she did have a time limit on her sun intake. At least she could take in the sun though. He could not put one finger in the sun and not feel such pain as no one could imagine. He could barely hide in the shadows and look at a stream of it. It hurt his eyes too badly. Nothing about the sun was really appealing to a vampire. But to him, it was that forbidden fruit. That one thing from his previous life that he was not able to shake. He could still, even now, remember what it had been like to wake up to the sun every morning. Could still think of the warmth it brought him. At the time he had taken it for such granted. Now, he longed to be able to feel it again.

Ryoshiya knew that his want to be mortal again was his biggest fault. If he had taken complete advantage of his vampiric powers, he could have been more than just a powerful aristocrat. More than just some higher power which younger vampires spoke of, but never came into contact with. He could have been one of the more powerful. He was getting into the ages of the ancients, he knew more than most vampires his age, had seen more. And yet he restrained himself. He would not join the massive covens that ran all along the underground of Coruscant. He didn't want to be a part of that world. The world that truly embraced the bloodlust and death. The world that wanted to control all others.

"No reason," Ryoshiya answered simply, his mind wandering off. He could think of this type of thing all night. If Ryoshiya didn't know it could ruin his life he could honestly sit and contemplate all he would have done--all he could have done--if he had not gotten on that ship with his maker. If he had simply said no. But Ryoshiya had not yet let it consume his life, there was no reason to begin it. He looked back over at Manhattan.

"I was simply curious. Men seem to get that way in thier old age, don't they?" he said quietly, smiling fondly at her.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie grinned back up at him, he sure was a vampire for the ages. He was beautiful, curious, aristocratic...very different. He must've liked his own grief.

"Curious, hmm? If that is what you want to call it." She smiled at him knowing her boundries of not to push that boundry. She wondered if perhaps he had wondered what it felt like, looked like. Many of those remorseful vampires liked to ask if it had changed at all, asked those who could see it what it was like for memory and time had somehow altered the true essence of it. She knew for a fact Ryoshiya was curious, curious to know all of those things he used to take for granted for surely time was beginning to blur and his mind was beginning to lose touch with what he once used to have back in his present life.

"My dear, is there anything else you are curious about? I would be rather delighted to answer any questions that burn in your mind. It has, after all, been many many years since I have actually talked with anyone."

Kenzie hoped he had millions of things to talk about, tell her about, question. She had never realized how much she missed company until she met the unique vampire. If only people were as pleasant as Mister Le'Gard, perhaps she'd want to actually spend more time with those mortals. But they were so ignorant and so blind to the many things that certain people, such as Ryoshiya, coveted. How people loved their ignorance.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya gazed up into the night sky. The sky that had become his best friend over the lonely years. The only thing that had ever heard him speak of anything personal. He had never shared with any being anything more than his name. And yet he felt as if he could share anything with Manhattan. But his heart, or what was left of it after so long, was so guarded. He couldn't really go into anything. He felt so foolish for still having such emotions as a mortal would have. Most vampires his age were so emotionless, they did not even mind killing off thier own kind. He looked over at the woman.

"I wonder if you've ever seen the vampire constellation," he said, smiling a little bit, and looking back up into the stars, the eyeshine glistening in the pale light. "Rumor has it that the first vampire who was killed by another became a constellation. That everyone knows of the constellation and yet no one believes vampires are truly real." Ryoshiya looked back down at the woman. Then he observed his gloved hands again, enjoying the way the material slightly glowed in the darkness. Then he looked back at Kenzie.

"Of course, this is naive talk. I don't believe you have met the most interesting of vampires, as all I speak of are the sun and stars. You'd be much better off with a vampire who has exciting stories to tell you," Ryoshiya chuckled a little. He was sure she would be interested to know more about the images which had invaded her mind the evening previous. He figured she would want to know about the beautiful, tall, cloaked man who had breeched her mind. And maybe sometime, Ryoshiya could tell it to her. Until then, the sun and stars would simply have to do.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie glanced up at the sky he was peering at, speaking about a constellation with a surprising story behind it. She grinned as she moved her eyes over to his face to see him looking at her, speaking about interesting vampires. She was better off with Ryoshiya, she didn't want to befriend or even know of any other vampire except him. He held things deep within that she was wanting to discover, wanting to allow him to let out into the open after centuries. She smiled and wondered if he could perhaps tell her things that nobody else could, after all all vampires had interesting stories to tell and Ryoshiya was the only one she wanted to hear them from.

"Are you saying you are a boring vampire, Monsieur Le'Gard?" She knew that one word in French and was proud to say it correctly. She had always loved the language but never had the patience to learn it. Sadly, she knew that she had all the time in the world to learn languages.

How brilliant it must've been to be a full-bred vampire who had eternal life. To imagine what he had seen, what he had heard, what he had learned. To live forever young, to know certain histories, to read anything one could, to learn any instrument known to mankind...brilliance was a sure thing. He must've been able to have done many things no mortal can at his age it must've been a marvelous thing to know what he had discovered about himself and to know things nobody else at the dying age knew. It was easy to see his taste for things had been narrowed down through the years of learning, look at him now. He was sheer magnificense and intelligent.

"Or are you just a vampire who is bored?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya laughed heartily, his fangs glistening in the night light, his eyes also glimmering like two Onyx orbs hung in the face of a porcelain kabuki doll come to life. He looked back down at Kenzie and then laced his fingers together, resting his mouth on them, still smiling slightly.

"Perhaps a little bit of both, Miss Kenzie," he said quietly. Then he cocked his head. "I did not know you spoke French. A dying language, sadly." Ryoshiya turned to continue walking again, extending an elbow towards the woman, using the manners he had been taught by his parents so long ago. "Shall we?"

[Keijin Aritaka]

The vampire thought he had always known that someday, his travels would lead him back to this planet, back to his old life, back to Ryoshiya. The buzz at the back of his neck was stronger than ever as he slowly made his way from the port where his ship was now docked. He knew his friend was close. His offspring was nearer now than ever before.

Keijin Aritaka glided down the street slowly, his mind heavy with thoughts of the past. He felt torn slightly as the emotions of Ryoshiya fluctuated within him. The connection he had with the other vampire was incredible. Maybe it was because Ryoshiya had been his first offspring. Maybe because Ryoshiya and he had been so close before Keijin had turned him. There were a thousand different reasons, all as unlikely as the next.

But Keijin's heart yearned to see Ryoshiya again. He longed to speak to the boy who he had missed for so long. So many years they had been apart. But Keijin had know Ryoshiya's feelings through them all. At times, Keijin had gotten weary of feeling conflicting emotions, his own and Ryoshiya's. But then at other times, times such as this, when they were both at peace, Keijin enjoyed nothing more than to wonder what was making his child so happy. So calm.

Keijin moved from the middle of the street to the side of it, keeping to the shadows as the wind gently pulled through his hair and ruffled his cloak around his feet. His boots made a loud clunking noise as he walked, the only noise that echoed through the empty, dark streets.

He was going to find his friend, his child. He was going to look at him after over three hundred years. Keijin looked up and over as he saw two young children run past him. He smiled slightly.

But for now, it was time for nourishment.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie looked at Ryoshiya as if this action was something ungodly. Many people had lost the ability to be kind and gentleman like, he was beautfiul in every way and she loved every little thing that he was doing, even if that was driving her insane with thoughts of actually being able to have someone to talk to after so many years. She smiled at him, his laugh still burning in her mind. How happy it sounded, how loud, how real and full. She giggled herself as she grabbed his arm as he had offered and walked beside of him, the closeness somehow warming her despite knowing his flesh was as cold as ice.

"A bored vampire..." She said in a sigh as she glanced around before up to the graceful man beside of her. This was wrong to be this happy around someone, it must've been for vampires were lonely creatures. "Perhaps, someday, I can change that."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya purred slightly deep down in his throat. Perhaps she could change that? Was that some sort of subtle offer? Ryoshiya did not know, he only glanced sidelong at her, then looked back ahead of him again. The street glistened slightly in the dampness. He purred again then chuckled.

"I do not think anyone could change it," Ryoshiya said, his voice lighthearted, but his feelings deeply saddened. Manhattan Kenzie would never know how much he believed that statement. As cool and collected as Ryoshiya always acted, always was, he was always suffering from such lonliness, such pain, such fear. Such mortal emotions. Ryoshiya then smiled a little, slowly slipping his other hand out of the glove to place over Kenzie's hand that rested in the crook of his arm. After all, it was not gentlemanly to place a gloved hand on the ungloved hand of a lady.

There was a slight twinge at the back of his neck. He did not know what it was, or why it was there, but it felt so familiar, as if he should know exactly why he was feeling it. But Ryoshiya had no idea why he should be getting such a strange feeling, as if there were two sets of emotions inside of him. Glancing around once, he decided it must've just been him somehow channeling Kenzie's emotions, although he was not sure how he could have been doing that.

It was then he realized just how much warmer than he Kenzie really was. Just her hand under his own caused a warming sensation through his arm. Even though she was not full mortal, she was still a great deal warmer than he. He stepped away from her slightly, dropping her arm. He bowed.

"I apologize. I forget that I am cold as ice."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie raised her eyebrows and looked up at the tall figure that was shadowed in the darkness. When he bowed she slightly grinned almost shocked that there were still a few gentlemen left in this world and as sad as it was to think of it, he might just outlive everyone else to be the only gentleman. She put her hand around his arm and smiled up at him, looking into the irridescent eyes that held so much emotion that mere mortals could never see. Something was there that she couldn't quite put her finger on, but she knew that if she looked hard enough it might come to light, no pun intended.

"No, Ryoshiya." She grabbed his other hand with her own and placed it back onto the one that rested on his arm for once not wanting him to move so far away. "Cold as you may be, I still like to feel your hand." Kenzie had let something slip, her emotions that should've been locked away in the depths of her soul creeping out into the open, probably scaring him to death. That was...if he wasn't already.

"Sorry, that was rather foolish of me to say now wasn't it?" She removed her hand and stepped a cintimeter back, not very far, but still she had gathered up her senses for a second. You just don't understand, Ryoshiya. I could warm that cold skin better than anyone can.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

And once again, Ryoshiya was distancing himself from someone. It was his natural reaction. He looked down at his feet and then let out a sigh, closing his eyes and touching his hand to his mouth. He opened his eyes again and looked back at Kenzie, turning slightly and moving back towards her the centimeter she had moved away.

"It is not foolish. It is a mortal feeling," he said, glancing around them once as he felt his stomach drop slightly. What were these strange emotions he was feeling? He could identify his own, but there was a completely different set of emotions raging inside of him that he could not figure out. He looked back over at Manhattan and Ryoshiya was surprised by the warmth that he felt when he did. It had been a long time since he had felt that emotion. It had been so long since he had found a kindred spirit, someone he could talk with intelligently.

And that frightened Ryoshiya. He could not get close to anyone. That was something he simply could not do. He did not know how to deal with being close to someone. He had not had anyone near to him since his maker. And that had soured his need for contact with another intelligent being. And yet, he wanted it more than he wanted anything else. He wanted someone to be close to him, wanted to be close to someone as he had not been in so long. He wanted someone to warm the soul he owned that habored so much anger, lonliness and hate.

"There is no need to feel foolish, Miss Kenzie," he said just above a whisper. He smiled a little. "I believe it is called a Freudian Slip. But I could be mistaken. It has been known to happen."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"You have a guarded heart, Ryoshiya. I can see it in your eyes." She smiled at him as she touched his chest. She had seen it the moment she met him and she knew now that he probably was a very lonely man, a very lonely vampire. She knew the ways of vampires and being lonely was something they were doomed to have for she remembered how her father talked of their kind, the kind she so loathed.

Kenzie let her hand fall knowing Ryoshiya wasn't needing a lesson in learning how to love for he had probably had too many. Imagining him falling in love with someone knowing they were to grow old and die while he still lived, while life still went on. The death he probably witnessed, other than the death he so inflicted. kenzie had never been so amused by a vampire, never wanted to know a vampire so bad, never wanted to see how human he still could be. Her patience was award winning, but for some reason she didn't think she could wait forever to know what she so wanted to from him.

She cared for him already and she knew that this was her mistake, her biggest mistake. If he ever found out that she hunted those unlike her for money and for her profession it wouldn't be a surprise if he himself tried to kill her. Usually she lived for the gratifacation she received when killing a damned soul, but now that she had moments to think of it she wasn't so sure she loved it so much. The soul searching one could do after meeting someone so fascinating...she had lived like that for years so how could a few hours change her?

Another lesson she had learned was that one should not have prejudices against those who were not like her and she had ignored it for so long, 'til now. How he was causing her to rethink all the decisions she made in her life. Kenzie wondered if she could honestly change the loneliness he felt, the sadness that captured him, the tormented feeling of never going to share anything with anyone. Manhattan moved her glance to the ground, all of the loneliness she thought Ryoshiya felt... perhaps it was just her own putting thoughts into her mind. Maybe she was the one needing all the things she felt to be fixed and she had just fallen under the spell Le'Gard had her wrapped up in.

"I'm sorry. I am telling you things that might not even be true, telling you things that, frankly, aren't any of my concerns." She smiled and lifted her head to see his vibrant eyes. "I'm embarassing myself. Mortal feelings, yes?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya turned his head away from her. It had been his beleif that his eyes were completely dead. After all these years of seeing nothing but life passing him by, friends dying, family suffering. It had hardened the shell around his heart. Kenzie was not mistaken when she said his heart was guarded. It was guarded by a hard cage, one that would not be unlocked easily. Ryoshiya had always liked it that way. Nothing could hurt him that way, nothing could get to him. He could be safe from pain, anger, fear. And yet as payment, he was doomed to being lonely forever. Literally. Ryoshiya would never know the warmth of another person near to him, would never enjoy the whispered words of a lover, could never laugh and truly feel it. Ryoshiya could not have the life he had had once. He could not have what he had back then. The joy in life he had felt would never return. Life was dead to him. It had nothing that could thrill him, make him feel as if he had not lived it already a hundred times.

And yet, this woman had somehow given him a glimpse of the life he could have lived. She gave him a thrill, and exhilaration that he had not felt in a long time. But Ryoshiya knew that soon, even that would wear off. He never found amusement in anything for long. And yet he yearned to never let go of what he felt that very moment, while at the same time distancing himself from it to protect himself. To protect Manhattan Kenzie.

He didn't know her, not really. But he did not want her caught up with him. So many terrible things happened in his presence and he did not want her mixed up in all of it. He was dangerous. He was an animal, a dangerous, untamable monster. It was a hard fact that Ryoshiya had come to the bittersweet conclusion of long, long ago.

Ryoshiya blinked a few times before looking back over to the woman, giving her a small smile that he hoped was much more reassuring than he felt, as he forced himself to the action.

"You're a half-breed. You're entitled," he said, looking away with a little wink. "I'll forgive you just this once."

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin let out a moan that was much more sexual than anything else as he slowly retracted his fangs from the tender skin of the young woman who had come to him so easily. He ran his tongue over his fangs then over his lips, standing upright.

His body felt rejuvinated. He could now continue what he had come here for in the first place. Reaching out slowly with his mind, he searched his immediate area for any sign of his young child. When he did not find any sign of him, he reached out farther and farther. He could not feel his presence and yet could feel his emotions as clearly as if he were standing right there.

It did not take long however for Keijin to locate him once he had reached out as far as he could possibly go without killing himself. And he was surprised to find that there was someone with Ryoshiya. A woman. Clenching his jaw slightly, he reached into her mind and body to find out about her.

He wanted to know everything before he approached them.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie smiled feeling too mortal. She had a stability in her life where she splurged on the instincts given with the vampiric blood coursing through her veins and tried to stay straight with the mortal inside of her as well. For years it had worked perfectly together, but not so good anymore, not after meeting Ryoshiya Le'Gard. She didn't dare keep up her feminine, hormonal, mortal-like ways she wasn't going to go over the edge without keeping that balance.

"You better or else I just might have to sink my teeth into you." That was flirtatious phrase if she had ever heard one, but yet it was a joke at the same time. Kenzie grabbed his arm gently, letting him know that she was still willing to walk arm in arm, after all he had offered it, and continue their walking.

"If you don't mind my being so bold, Ryoshiya, but would you like to go on a scavenger hunt for some fresh jugular wine? I'm afraid to say I am getting hungrier by the moment."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya nodded slightly, immediately his radar going out for anyone near to them. Anyone of high class blood. He would of course only eat the best this evening, as he would only insist that she do as well. They were not far from the club districts, but he rarely found anyone there of more than only mediocre blood.

Ryoshiya closed his eyes, searching for the scent of anything with blood better than what he usually had. He was ready for something better, something that tasted like velvet, something warm and cold at the same time. Something that would burn on the way down.

And suddenly, Ryoshiya's searching intercepted someone else's. Another pure bred was nearby, and searching as well, thier mind comsumed with Kenzie, searching her being. Ryoshiya distracted him. For a moment, there minds swirled, thier thoughts tryingto separate themselves from each other. Ryoshiya struggled for a moment, this vampire was an old powerful one, and trying to fight for dominance with him was giving Ryoshiya a headache quicker than anything else had before.

Soon, Ryoshiya had to give up. Grunting as he broke contact with the other vampire, he put a hand to his head, his eyes searching the darkness, his vision heightened at night. His eyeshine sparkled even though there was next to no light. He dropped his hand, then looked over at Kenzie and looked her up and down.

"Did you feel that?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie frowned at the noise he had made then by his actions of bringing his hand to his head. She looked around as she searched his eyes seeing he was doing the same. Was someone else nearby? Another vampire? She hadn't paid much attention to anything around her except Ryoshiya, a bad habit that she was going to have to break if she were to be around him more often. She suddenly sensed another vampire, but not as good as Ryoshiya could considering her half-blood decent.

"Another immortal?" She frowned as she looked up at him. Had someone been channeling brainwaves with him? She knew that some vampires had a gift to read minds, search souls, and find out vital information that was private. Could he be that powerful? That old? That wise in his ways?

"What is wrong?" She questioned as she began to look around. Something apparently had done something to him otherwise he wouldn't have said anything.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya looked back down at her, his mind continuing to stay open. He did not know why, but those thoughts had seemed so familiar and yet foreign. Ryoshiya could not put his finger on why, but he felt as if he ought to know whomever he had just intercepted the thoughts of. He nodded to Kenzie.

"They were searching you..." he muttered, still looking around them. "I don't know why, but they wanted to find out about you...I don't know how long they were looking. If you have no sensetivity to it, they could have been reading you for days, weeks, or years...I can't be sure. But that vampire..." he muttered. He smelled the air, trying to see if he could pick up a physical clue, to know exactly how close the other immortal was. He could not smell him, so he was not too close at hand, but his sense of smell did not go exceedingly far out. A mile, maybe two on a good day. This man was definately looking for one of them, and Ryoshiya thought he ought to know why. But it was like trying to remember a hazy dream. He could not figure out why he was supposed to know the person.

Damn old age.

[Keijin Aritaka]

That was Ryoshiya. Keijin knew it. It was like a breath of fresh air feeling his friend close to him again. Keijin smiled when Ryoshiya broke the connection. He was still weak to him. Ryoshiya had always been too weak to connect with Keijin anymore than physically. He had mentally not been prepared and was still not, apparently.

Slipping from the alley, and fixing his patched black leather trench coat around him and pulling up the hood of the black hoodie he was wearing underneath it, Keijin took a leap, his vampiric strength propelling him through the streets quickly, his senses telling him where his child was. His child and his child's...friend. Keijin was suspicious of this woman. Who was she, and what was she doing with Ryoshiya? Those were two questions that needed to be answered.

Keijin got within a street or two of where he had sensed the two and landed, looking around him, his eyes glowing as if they produced thier own light. He stood, and slowly began to walk, his knee calf high army boots making a loud clunking sound that was only muffled once in a while when he stepped on the hems of his too big black cargo pants. Brushing some of his hair from his face, he smelled the air and got the scent of Ryoshiya.

It was such a clean scent, one that he had not smelled in so long. He smiled and glided on a little faster, rounding several corners before moving into a street and gazing down it. At the end of it stood two lone figures turned towards each other. One was tall, elegant, his hair longer in the the back and a dark color. It was Ryoshiya, Keijin knew it. He did not even have to reach out to him to know it. And the other person was...

"A half breed..." Keijin purred to himself. He moved slowly down the street, keeping in the shadows. When he was within calling distance, he rasied his head slightly.

"Evening, my dears. It is a kind night for blood hunting, if I do say so myself."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie frowned and sharply looked up to see the figure in the shadows, a man she did not know, a man that automatically gave her a feeling that was not very warm and welcoming. Her eyes shined birlliantly, her fangs protruding to kill the hunter for she knew that something was not right with the person speaking.

The mortal inside of her told her to turn and run for dear life, that this man was dangerous to her and it showed when she grabbed onto Ryoshiya a little tighter than normal. She wasn't a full-bred mortal and she had good strenght, then again she wasn't full-bred vampire and thus she succeeded in weakness.

"And who, might I ask, is saying so?"

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin laughed heartily. A half breed trying to be a clean blood. How amusing. Keijin stepped from the shadows, but did not lower his hood. He put his hand on his hip and threw his weight out to one side.

The girl was pretty, he had to give his friend that, Ryoshiya had good tastes. And she smelled amazing, her blood being of vampires and mortals. Although Keijin had never partaken of dirty blood, he knew those who had. And he had heard that once ate it, you could never settle for anything else. Perhaps this woman would give him a tiny taste. He smiled, his fangs glittered and his eyes shone out from under his hood. He tossed some hair from his face.

"I imagine, love, if you spoke to most beautiful of men next to you, you would know who I am..." Keijin paused, walking foward a little bit, tilting his head so that he could see Ryoshiya a little better, touching his mouth to Ryoshiya's neck. "You do of course, remember me, dear?" Ryoshiya had not yet had the courtesy to turn and see who his guest was. Keijin gently pressed against his offspring's back pushing his hood away from his face and down, glancing at the woman once with a look that clearly said to stay away from what was his. And Ryoshiya was his.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya's mind had gone completely and blissfully, blank. The voice was so familiar in his ear, the breath escaping down his back as cold as ice. Of course. This was who Ryoshiya had felt, and he knew him. He knew that he had. Memories, thoughts, emotions rushed through Ryoshiya. Half of pure hate, half of intense joy. Ryoshiya could not decide whether to be happy or angry.

"Sensei..." he muttered. "Watashi ha...watashi gaanatano kankaku wo utta kotowo kangae ta..." he muttered, turning his head slightly to see Keijin Aritaka out the corner of his eye. He did not yet have to courage to look upon his maker fully yet. He did not know where he would get the courage. "Watashi ha ... nogashi ta..."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

She could've sworn she had seen that shadow before. Kenzie's attention shot up to Ryoshiya and by the look on his face she knew exactly who this man was. She glared back at him seeing the look he had thrown her way and suddenly she realized this was a mere territorial matter dealing with her and Ryoshiya. This must've been his maker, the man she had seen, the man that had haunted her dreams as much as it had Ryoshiya's.

She watched Ryoshiya speak to the man breathing down his neck, looking at her as if he were to kill her if she touched him. Her insides churned knowing that she was not ever going to be safe around that man. Sirens went off in her mind telling her to leave them now, leave Ryoshiya where she had first met him, ignore the desires she felt for him, ignore the burning inside of her that gave her an odd connection with Le'Gard. His blood was in her as was hers. Images that she needed to rid herself of, everything pointing to Ryoshiya. No. She was not going to leave because of one man.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin ignored the woman as he moved around his offspring to stand in front of him, look him in the eyes. His beautiful eyes. His face so pale, so perfect, just as he had left him. Reaching up, he ran two fingers through a strand of Ryoshiya's hair. He purred at its softness before dropping his hand and tilting his head one way, then another as if Ryoshiya might change should he do so.

Keijin did not know what he had expected, but he was glad to see that his child had not changed one bit. Not that he would have. Keijin slid his hands up Ryoshiya's arms and cupped his face before wrapping his arms around his child's neck, pulling him gently to him. Ryoshiya awkwardly responded by wrapping his arms around his waist. Keijin chuckled a little. Ryoshiya had always been slightly averse to touch.

"I missed you too," he muttered back in Japanese, responding to Ryoshiya's statment. For a moment, they did not move, but soon Keijin stepped back and then smiled. He finally glanced at the woman and blinked once cocking his head to the side, smelling the air. He grinned, his fangs flashing menacingly. "And you, my love. Manhattan Kenzie was it?" pausing, he took her hand and kissed it lightly before stepping back.

"I see you have made nice with my child. How precious."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie didn't like him, not one bit. The feeling of fear she got from him, the distubance she felt deep within herself... this man was not as kind or gentle as he was appearing to be. No his eyes were like daggers tearing her apart and she could tell this man was going ot be very possesive of his "things."

"I see introductions must be made by diving into someone's mind to find out a name?" She cocked an eyebrow and tried to ignore the feeling of being violated since his lips touched her skin. Kenzie glanced up at Ryoshiya knowing that she mustn't say things that could sour her new friendship with the man. She glanced back to the maker and she smiled, knowing he'd know it was false.

"The power you possess isn't within my capabilities so I ask, what name do you go by?"

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin smiled to the woman in response to the smile she gave to him that he could see was completely plastered to her face. He leaned back on his heals slightly and felt a morbid sense of happiness. He had gotten his messege across to the woman loudly and clearly, exactly how he had wanted to get it across to her.

He glanced back over at Ryoshiya who had still not turned. He could feel the emotions churning through his child. All different things. Happiness, sadness, anger, hate...fear. Ryoshiya was afraid. Keijin smiled a little wider. How he had missed being so close to his child. He looked back at Manhattan.

"My name is Keijin Aritaka. You will call me Aritaka. Or Vampire. Whichever works for you, but I won't settle for anything else."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie raised her eyes, a crooked grin forming for the first time since their meeting. He was sneaky, vile, and obviously very obsessed with his "child" as he had called him a moment before. She didn't like him nor did she think her midn could be changed. Not even vampiric charm could make her like this man, she could smell the evil on him.

"As you wish," She said polietly bowing slightly to him. "Formalities don't suit me very well, so call me by what you wish." She knew that was going to give him a wide range of things to call her, probably all bad as well. But she had no concerns for Keijin he was not going to have that much control over her emotions.

"Ryoshiya, my friend, I am hungry and the city awaits. I will leave you now, unless you are still up to my offer?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya turned, glancing over at Manhattan. He automatically regretted ever reaching out to find something to eat. He would not have Keijin here, he would not have anything running through him like they were now. He would not have to tell Manhattan no.

Ryoshiya bowed slightly to the woman, his eyes watching her. He glanced to Keijin and the nodded.

"I apologize, Miss Kenzie. I must be otherwised engaged for the rest of the evening," he said to her, knowing she would undserstand. He smiled a little. "Perhaps I will see you again soon?" he bowed again. Then he turned to Keijin and extended an arm.

"Sensei?" he said. Ryoshiya saw Keijin throw Manhattan a sneering smile as he linked arms with Ryoshiya. There was no way Keijin would allow Ryoshiya near Manhattan Kenzie again if Ryoshiya let him step back in so quickly. But he was not even sure yet if he wanted Keijin back in his life.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie bit her lower lip, her fang puncturing her lip as she began to bite down hard, waiting on his response which she figured would be a decline to her offer. She sucked on her lip and kept the fresh wound from being seen. She glanced at Keijin then back to Ryoshiya, somewhere in her mind hoping he'd still come.

His voice made her heart jump and then she realized that lady luck was not on her side at that moment. She nodded and let her lip go and she smiled. "Of course." She said lowly watching the two link arms and suddenly head on their merry way. How she wanted to jump Keijin, suck him dry, and then have Ryoshiya without problems, but she knew that was an impossible thing.

The glance Keijin gave her chilled her to the bone, angered her, and caused her to bite her lip again just to taste the metallic liquid to keep her mind on her task. She moved slowly away from the scene and headed towards a damp dark alley. Whatever crossed her path at that exact moment better pray to God for mercy because she doubted they'd live to see another day.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Keijin had insisted upon not staying long in Ryoshiya's home, as he said he needed to go on and get back to his coffin. Little had been spoken when they had arrived. Ryoshiya was too dumbfounded to say anything. He and Keijin had mostly watched each other. Making sure the other was real. Keijin had said light things such as, "How have you been?" and "I missed you, Ryoshiya." And Ryoshiya naturally mirrored the sentiments to be polite.

But Ryoshiya was not sure if he had missed Keijin. Of course, any offspring longed for his maker. Wanted that intimate connection, that unspoken pact, that understanding that they shared. But Ryoshiya had learned to live without Keijin. Learned to survive on his own, learned that he could trust no one. That no one cared for him but him. It was one of the most important lessons Keijin had ever taught Ryoshiya.

But now, everything Ryoshiya knew was slowly coming undone with the reappearance of his maker. Seeing Keijin again made him doubt many of the things he had thought he knew. The affection his maker was showing him, as if no time had passed at all. Ryoshiya was torn.

Ryoshiya looked out his window. There was a tiny glow. The sun was going to come up soon. He needed to get to bed. Turning and observing his common room, as clean and meticulous as it had always been, he began towards his room, nursing the puncture wounds in his neck, waiting for them to heal. A vampire's bit always too longer to heal than just an injury inflicted by a mortal. And Keijin's bite was so much more powerful. Ryoshiya did not know how long it would take for the tiny holes to grow together again. But he knew that the wounds he, himself, had left on Keijin's throat were not going to heal as quickly either. It was the way of things.

Entering his dark room, his tired mind glad to be going to sleep, he went to his coffin and opened the top. He stared down into it, into the emptiness, the smallness of the death chamber. And he suddenly wanted to see Manhattan Kenzie. She was the only warm being he knew, and the coldness of his home, of his coffin, of his own skin made him wonder what it was like to lay down next to someone warm. To be warmed by them.

Carefully climbing into the coffin, Ryoshiya laid down and pulled the lid down, darkness enveloping him. He blinked a few times as his mind slowly began to shut down, the events of the night still fresh in his mind.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie threw her head back and gasped, licking her blood stained lips wildly as if to spill a drop meant her own life. She panted as she felt the blood revitalize herself and wake her tired mind up. The images of the dead couple on the ground were filling her head with memories of love and lust, their mind set on marriage, how horrible she had felt while taking their life, but at least they were together for eternity in another life.

Kenzie looked at the woman who was now in an endless sleep then to the man she had attacked previously. She was so full now that she doubted she'd need to feed until a few days. This had been the first time in many years that she purposely sought out for someone and kill them maticiously. Any other time she'd have good reason, the person was a muderer, corrupt government official, dying slowly...but this was just for the lust for blood. She smiled as she stood up, her fangs slowly retracting to a normal and not so obvious size. She pulled her long coat closer to her body as she stared at the couple a grin on her face that was nothing but sheer evil. Ryoshiya was having that effect on her, it seemed she was wanting to be more like him so she could get slightly closer.

"Mortals." She said to them as she stepped over their bodies, walking towards her home where she would not get to sleep.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya spent the day tossing and turning, waking up and dozing off, waking up and lying there forever. He could not get to sleep. It might have been that he had Keijin's such pure blood running through him, making him restless, making him want more. Ryoshiya had known at the time he should not have been drinking Keijin's blood, should not have allowed Keijin to drink his blood. It was sealing the bond they had, truly making them belonfg to each other. But Ryoshiya had not been able to control it. The bloodlust a vampire felt for another vampire was much, much stronger than that of just normal hunger. It was an issue of strength, mentality, bond. It was a fight to see who was the dominant vampire.

Naturally, Keijin had won.

Opening his eyes, and sighing out in annoyance, Ryoshiya kicked open the lid of his coffin, feeling very flustered. There was nothing a vampire hated more than not being able to get his beauty sleep. Well, besides not eating it was the thing they hated most. Ryoshiya moved to his door, and cracked it open glancing out into his common room. The curtains were shut tight, making it safe for him to emerge.

Walking out into the common room, he stretched out, his bare chest making him feel very exposed. He rarely walked around without a shirt on, but he was too tired to don one. He moved to the curtains and standing back away from where the sunlight would fall should it still be day outside, he pulled the curtain open a little. A tiny and very low sliver of light sliced across the floor. Ryoshiya immediately dropped the curtain back into its original position.

Still daylight.

Oh well, there would be time for him to shower, smoke, dress and think before he would emerge again into the darkness undoubtedly with Keijin awaiting him.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Manattan had slept slightly peacefully but she was still curious to know when it would be until she Ryoshiya again, after all it seemed that Keijin would try desperately to keep them apart. She got the feeling that he was evil and rutheless in his killings. No doubt if she were to tread on his territory there would be hell to pay. She grinned evilly, vampiric wars were always fun, but she wasn't one for it. She didn't like how Keijin made her feel and she would be damned if he kept her away from her newfound friend.

Kenzie yawned as she moved out of her bed and walked over to the window where the sun was setting, throwing beautiful shades of red, pink, purple, and blue. She wanted to show that to Ryoshiya, it was her goal to be able to let him see the light, feel the warmth, feel the possibilities of life if she could only unlock the guard he had around him. Now that Keijin was in the picture she knew it would be even harder.

"We will meet again, soon, love." She didn't know why but her sudden attraction to Ryoshiya was blown into full force and she was sure it was because jealousy was seeping through, Keijin was who threatened her most.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya stepped out into the cool darkness. He had donned a rather young wardrobe, sporting a pair of loose jeans held up with a brown belt, and a tight white t-shirt, covered by a too big blue zip-up hoodie, zipped up a few inches. He still had his big clunky boots on, but his wardrobe was matching the younger crowd of the streets these days. His hair he had let loose from the braids, and the longer part in back was now wavy and soft.

For a few moments, he merely stood on the step, looking around him, as if he were waiting for something. But what he was waiting for was standing right below him, leaning against a wall, smoking, his eyes ravishing Ryoshiya's form. He turned his head over to the side and went down the steps leaning on the railing to see Keijin also dressed differently in a pair of tighter boot cut jeans, one leg rolled up. His t-shirt was white and tight, and almost glowed in the dark. And Ryoshiya believed it was the first time he had ever seen Keijin in a pair of tennis shoes, a very short, black leg warmer resting over his slender ankle and the shoe.

Looking around him, as if he might see a team of teenagers flocking around him--his followers--but he saw no one but he an Keijin on this street. His mind flicked to Kenzie. Where was she? Would he catch her tonight? He doubted it since he and Keijin were likely going to be together for the rest of the night, and probably all the next day.

"Sensei..." Ryoshiya said quietly.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin watched as his offspring came out onto the steps, his slender body being enhanced by his clothing. He looked like a teenager again. Keijin could remember the hot headed, cause driven teenager named Ryoshiya that he had met so long ago. Keijin smiled slightly at him, blowing his cigarette smoke away from him. Ryoshiya soon noticed him looking on, and came around the steps observing him a moment befor saying anything.

"Sensei..." he muttered. Keijin rolled his eyes, flicking his cigarette away from him and leaning off of the wall. He wrapped an arm around Ryoshiya's waist and twisted some of the other vampire's crimped hair around a finger, smiling serenly at him.

"Come, come, Ryoshiya. I do tire of speaking those old languages. Japanese died so long ago. Basic will be my chosen language and you will speak it, understood?" he said firmly, but without reproach. Ryoshiya quickly nodded, but said nothing in return. Just as trusting and obediant as he had been when Keijin had left. Moving back to being with his friend would not be as difficult as Keijin had originally anticipated.

"Come, my precious pet. We will fetch your freind and find food, yes?" but he did not wait for a reply, he beckoned to Ryoshiya and he lead the way down the street. He'd be able to find her easily, and he knew she would come with them, for she had an attachment to his child. And that could serve Keijin well.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie walked alone on the street, listening to what people were saying in their minds and through voice, her eyes scanning their necks awaiting the vein to rise to the skin, her vampire eyes always finding them. Her urges to cross-over were becoming more violent, more unmanigable, more crass.

It would take every part of her body to reject the feelings to become fullbred, she wanted it yet she didn't. She wanted to stay human for she was a hunter, a woman who enjoyed the sun, someone who wanted to stay human to feel the touch of Ryoshiya. She sighed, how she would want to be more like him, be a full breed to be closer. The feeligns she was harboring suddenly for the creature she barely knew were confusing her, scaring her, but yet she was willing to accept them. She knew for a fact they all came from within, but she also knew that Keijin, his maker, had more to do with it.

Kenzie looked away from a few thugs who watched her, thinking about raping her and killing her, she knew they would not touch her for fear of being caught. She was bored and she wanted to find Ryoshiya, wanted to be alone with him. Wanted to do something that only she and he would share for she knew he was the only other person in her life and would probably ever be.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya simply followed his maker, knowing that they would find Kenzie sooner or later. If there was anything Keijin had more of an inclination for than Ryoshiya, it was anyone else associated with Ryoshiya. He knew that Keijin wanted to revel in the fact that he had stepped back into Ryoshiya's life, but Ryoshiya had still not decided if he could do that.

Yes, he had shared such forbidden things with Keijin the evening previous, had allowed things to go on that shouldn't have, as now he was bonded to Keijin again. Bonded even stronger than before. Ryoshiya knew that if he decided that he did not want Keijin in his life so close, that if would be more difficult to tell him no. But Ryoshiya could not make up his mind.

Looking up and around him for a moment, he realized that Keijin had, quite literally, taken them straight to Kenzie. He could tell her smell from where they were at. He could not see her, but he sensed her being there.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin smiled as he smelled the woman close. Taking Ryoshiya's hand he walked towards her scent, rounding a corner to find her walking towards them. He smiled wide, and turned back to Ryoshiya, running a hand down his back and nodding to him, and then to her.

"See? Didn't I tell you I'd get you there?" he asked quickly, before turning to the woman and raising a hand, waving to her as if she were his friend, when in reality, he wanted to see what she thought of the fact that he had stolen Ryoshiya right out from under her. "Hello, Manhattan. Would you like to join us? Ryoshiya and I were about to go find a nice breakfast. I am sure Ryoshiya would like to have you along, isn't that right, Pet?" he asked, looking back to Ryoshiya who nodded at him.

Keijin couldn't wait to see her reaction to them. It would not be difficult for Keijin to steal Ryoshiya right from under her nose. He had even been able to adopt his old nickname for him without any protest whatsoever.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie was surprised by their finding her, but she had come to expect that from the maker who she so despised and knew was trying to make her jealous, make her see what she had lost. She smiled happily, glad to see Keijin glad to see Ryoshiya. She was not going to allow Le'Gard's creator feel the satisfaction he was searching for. Of course he'd try to steal Ryoshiya, but she had faith in the man to make his own decisions even when Keijin was trying to provoke him to do otherwise.

"Morning, gentlemen." She said with a smile that was actually real. Keijin wouldn't be happy if she kept the happiness inside of her kept her thoughts golden, and never thought a bad thing about the man who was wanting a different reaction. Keijin might've been sneaky, wiser, older, more talented, but there wasn't a way in hell that he was to steal the man from her despite him truly not being hers.

"I could've only expected to find you two wandering about. I do say I am hungry and the city awaits. I gladly accept your offer. It might give me a little more time to get to know you both better."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya looked from Manhattan to Keijin and back. It took him a moment to realize that they were both actually there. Ryoshiya had been slightly out of it since he had drank of Keijin the evening before. And it seemed the side effects had yet to wear off. He found that he did not want to find some mortal to drink of. That he didn't want to hunt. He found that his desires laid within Keijin. And yet, they also laid with Kenzie.

Swallowing and pulling out a cigarette, he lit it up and nodded to Kenzie, blinking twice and puffing on his cigarette, blowing the smoke away from him in a hazy line.

"I see we have pleasant company," he said, his eyes lingering on Kenzie a moment longer than he had intended them to. Then he looked to Keijin. "Sensei. Shall we?" he said, nodding to him and pointedly extending an elbow to Manhattan. "Come."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie drew in a sharp breath as she took his and laid her hand on the crease of his elbow, enjoying the feeling that she had encountered last night before Keijin had come into their path. How she was going to have trouble staying with Ryoshiya, but she had faith in herself and patience that extended mortal boundries. She would get Ryoshiya alone, she would get to know him, she will get rid of Keijin as he had planned for her as well.

"Did you sleep well?" She asked Ryoshiya in hsi ear, not daring to acknowledge Keijin's prescense for this was intended for him only. "You look tired, my friend." She bit her lower lip barely looking at the man on the otherside, viewing his profile and his beauty that was undeniable.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya tilted his head slightly away from her mouth and breath, as instinct told him she was readying to bite him. When it was only to ask him how he had slept, he felt much more like an animal than he had before. He went only on instinct. The only thing that told him what to do was instinct. Just like a wolf, or a snake. He had no brains, simply did what nature had told him was right. He was conditioned by Keijin, and conditioned well. He had not thought such things could happen so quickly when a master came back for his young. And yet, Ryoshiya found himself clinging to staying as independant as he had been. But Keijin was easily and quickly draining him of it. Soon, Ryoshiya would depend on Keijin for everything again. Just as it had been.

"I did not sleep as well as I would have preferred," he said, looking down at his feet as he blew cigarette smoke away from him, and watching the cigarette burn for a moment. He smiled a little. "A vampire hates losing his beauty sleep. And at my age, I need all of it that I can get."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie smiled, happy at his reply but not happy with the answer she received. Was Keijin doing something to him? Brainwashing him? Taking him away from the life he lead? She didn't like Keijin and it only fueled her disliking towards him even more to know to think that he had been draining him of something important.

"Of course, but I must rebuke your statement, Ryoshiya, you don't need to sleep to be beautiful. You are just naturally so." She hugged his arm a little bit wanting him to catch the drift that she did like him and did want to be his close friend for she was needing one so bad. But was he going to allow that to happen? Did he want to be friends with her as well? She couldn't be sure and she knew for a fact that Keijin probably did not want that at all. Kenzie was sure that if she ahd someone as beautiful as Ryoshiya by her side she'd do everything in her power to keep things that way, so she could not blame him fully for his actions, but she did not like them.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya watched her a moment, glancing over to Keijin who had fallen in step with him, the man only slightly taller than he, but still making him feel as if he was being towered over. Ryoshiya took the moment to look from Manhattan to Keijin and back. He liked Manhattan, liked her much more than he knew he should. But he also loved his maker. And yet, in both situations, he knew he ought not to.

For him to care about Manhattan...that was not something he should do because anyone he was close to was at risk. Either at risk from him losing control of his lust triggered blood need, or at risk from his enemies--and God knew he had many of them--going after them to get to him. For Keijin. Ryoshiya knew that he should hate him. The elder vampire left him for all but dead after drinking of him, telling him things that weren't true, spending so much time letting him know that he did care. And somewhere inside, Ryoshiya did hate him, but he also loved him. Keijin was his maker, and Ryoshiya had a connection with him he would never have with anyone else.

"Ah. Naturally? I don't believe vampirism is listed as one of the definitions of 'natural' in the dictionary," he said, smiling down at her. "Although, it has been many years since I have checked. Perhaps we may put that on our 'things to do list', yes, Miss Kenzie?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie laughed lightly as she looked ahead of them seeing if any good prospects were coming, but she saw nothing. She glanced up at him and smiled something inside stirring farther than she had expected. Her attractions were becoming dangerous and she knew that she could be in trouble with Keijin and she wasn't even sure where Ryoshiya stood on the matter of feelings, he'd probably tell her he had no feelings. But it was her burning desire to make him feel, feel something that nobody else could, but what would make her so special? Why did she even think that she could be the one to change Ryoshiya's dreadful outlook on his life?

"Perhaps we will, Le'Gard." She wasn't sure what to say next, but she knew it was something risky to say in front of Keijin. How she wanted to just be alone with him, wanted to slip away if only for a moment. Keijin was going to be a hard one to get away from even if it were for just a moment.

"You don't suppose you and I could be alone for a moment, do you Ryoshiya?" She raised her eyebrow at him, hoping it would be just a moment.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya hesitated for a moment. His natural instinct was telling him not to stray from his master. But he ignored it. He had lived over three hundred years without Keijin. He could survive a moment or two. He nodded down at her after a moment and looked over to Keijin, who was watching him curiously.

"Sensei. Watashitachi ha toki dakedearu hitsuyou gaaru. Watashitachi wo yurusu ka?" he said quietly. Keijin nodded at him, and Ryoshiya knew that his master would be able to hear, to know anything they said. But maybe, it could serve to make Keijin step away a little.

"Of course, my precious pet. Take all the time you need. God knows you have it," Keijin responded in Basic. Ryoshiya did not know why his master was so bent against speaking his native tongue. Perhaps the years had made Keijin something different from what he had been when Ryoshiya had been with him. Only a little longer would tell.

"Come, Miss Kenzie," he said quietly, then nodded to Keijin. "We will be back in a moment."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie had never felt so relieved in all her natural life. For some reason being near to Keijin made her heart weary and her mind weak and incapable of thinking certain things. She was sure it was his extraordinary powers considering he had been an elder and probably much wiser and better trained than the two of them. She was glad that Ryoshiya had been able to get them away from him, if only for a short period of time. She followed him willingly thinking of what to say to him, what to do, explain to him that she was fearing for his independence from Keijin.

"Are you doing well, Ryoshiya? Are you doing all right with your maker seemingly back into your life?" She didn't want to tell him that she wasn't very fond of him and thought he was very threatening to his health as well as her own. She could swear he'd kill her with proper provocation.

"You look a little tired and a little be different since our last meeting. I don't mean to speak about your personal life or seem to butt in, but it does concern me." Hopefully he wouldn't blow her off and tell her to get out of his business since she was doing just that. "Friends worry about one another, or so I remember."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya considered her a moment. Friends did care about one another, or so it had always been with any that he had regarded as a friend, that being few and far between. He thought for a moment. He knew that Keijin was more than likely listening to their conversation. He glanced over his shoulder at the elgeant vampire, the elder, his maker. Keijin did not exactly frighten him as he sensed that he was frightening Kenzie. Ryoshiya had always been used to Keijin's possessive ways and touchy, invasive behavior. He was just that way.

Looking back over to Kenzie he smiled a little, raising one cool hand and placing it on her cheek, her skin feeling warm against his. He brushed a little of her hair away from her eyes and sank into them for a moment as he listened the to the beat of her heart, the rushing of her blood, the working of her inner thoughts, her entire being becoming a symphony of sounds around him. He carefully reached out with his thoughts into her own, not wanting to be instrusive, but wanting to find the true question she wished to ask. However, being unequipped to do such a thing at this time, he quickly abandoned the task, knowing that she would be able to feel him delving deep into her mind.

He took a deep breath and leaned back blinking a few times at her.

"I apologize for the way my maker has treated you. It is unacceptable, yes, but Keijin has always been very protective of me. I am his only offspring, his closest friend, his greatest lover," Ryoshiya shook his head a little. "I am not sure yet if I am alright with him being back in my life, myself and Keijin still have to work out a few personal issues." He paused a moment, running a hand wearily over his eyes.

"I also apologize for my rather lazy behavior. I fear that I went a little overboard with my master last night, and it has caused amazing fatigue. I am recovering however..." he looked at her and nodded. "Thank you, Miss Kenzie...and if you feel uncomfortable with my Sensei, then please, feel free to go on by yourself and you and I can find the time to spend time without him."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie could honestly see herself falling asleep to feeling his touch over her face and in her hair. How she was always a baby when it came to someone touching her, it gave her good warm thoughts of her family. It was so long ago since she had been with someone who truly cared and the only thing that she had that gave her that warm safe feeling was standing right in front of her telling her about the conflict that he and Keijin had yet to fix.

"I understand." She watched his face for a moment before nodding and looking down at the ground. How she wanted to stay but she felt awkward being in the prescense of his creator. She wanted to be alone, talk to him, get to know him, for her undeniable feelings that raged deep inside were causing her problems. She was never possessive, but she found some reason to be possessive with Ryoshiya. To make him hers would have been a dream, to make him feel, to make him understand that Vampires too could feel love, warmth, and actually not dwell on the eternity up ahead...but would he actually want that?

"I will go." Again. How she hated seeing him then leaving soon after. She nodded her head back to Keijin. "You best go, I am sure he heard us." She touched his arm and squeezed slightly.

"I would like that very much, to see you and be alone. There are so many things I would love to know about you." She leaned forward and gave him a very slight peck on the cheek, barely grazing her lips on his cold skin. How good it felt to feel that on her. "Good bye, Ryoshiya. See me soon." She whispered in his ear before moving away ready to walk to her home where she'd dwell on Ryoshiya for the rest of the night.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya watched her a moment longer before pivoting and walking back to where the tall slender statue of his maker stood, awaiting his return patiently. He walked over and slid a hand on the other vampire's shoulder. Keijin lazily turned to look at him, smiling, his fangs glistening in the nighttime. Ryoshiya watched him a moment, knowing what would come next and hoping Kenzie was gone before it did.

"Are you hungry, Sensei?" he asked, his line well practiced. The cold hand that found his arm let him know the answer before Keijin had to say anything to him. He watched the other vampire steadily, feeling Keijin invade his mind, slowly, his power overcoming Ryoshiya's easily. Ryoshiya's head tilted to the side, and Keijin'd body wrapped around his, two warm, anxieous fangs sliding into Ryoshiya's neck in the exact same place they had found the evening previous.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie glanced down the way at them, trying her best to leave Ryoshiya but she found it much harder than before. How her mortal heart had such power over her. She watched them talk before she saw Keijin sink his teeth into his neck. Any other time it would have been perfectly normal but all she saw was perverse actions mixed with sick sadistic pleasure of blood and desire. She turned and walked down the street wanting to find her own piece of flesh, her mind burning with the images that Ryoshiya had given her, the unlitmate closeness having been shared giving her slight gratification. Her teeth pained her as they grew, her anger and jealousy being fueled by her own sudden lust for blood. She would sadistically masacre someone tonight, she could feel the vampiric urges growing to a new height, Keijin's actions causing this effect.

She grabbed a young woman and didn't care if she screamed, the prostitute meant nothing to her, nor anyone else. She sucked her dry and dropped her like a fly, wanting more, the coarse whorish blood not satisfying her as it should have. All she honestly wanted was what Keijin was having.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

When Ryoshiya awoke he found himself safely in his coffin, staring up at the lid, the darkness total. He did not know how he had gotten there or even how long ago he had gone out. He simply now that he was tired and full of energy at the same time.

Slowly, he pushed the lid up, and looked around his empty room. For a moment, he thought maybe everything had been a dream, but when he touched his neck and felt the slightly tender area that Keijin has nursed, he knew it had not been. Ryoshiya threw his legs over and hopped out of the coffin, looking down at himself. He was still fully clothed, besides his shoes which he had been relieved of. Ryoshiya stood a moment, gathering his thoughts before walking to his door and opening it.

The lights were off in his apartment, and the huge window's curtains were drawn. He looked out and saw that it was still dark outside. For a moment, Ryoshiya considered that he might have made his way home after eatinf his fill, but when he saw the long, body stretched out on the couch, a glass of wine resting on his stomach and in his hand, Ryoshiya knew he had not made his way home on his own.

"Sensei?" Ryoshiya whispered, afraid to break the silence. The pale face of his master turned and looked at him, his expression fond, his body language inviting. Ryoshiya slowly made his way over to the couch and slid down into it next to the elder vampire. And for a few long moments they did not say anything to each other.

However, Keijin's body gently rested against his and his head carefully, and elegantly, laid against Ryoshiya's shoulder. Ryoshiya felt awkward but tried to let it pass. He needed to talk with his master, and Keijin might as well be comfortable and placated before he did.

"I know that I have not done everything that I promised you I would do, Ryoshiya. I know that I did not stay by your side as I vowed..." Keijin muttered after a long time. Then he sat back up, looking over at Ryoshiya, who did not share his gaze. He merely allowed it to stay captivated by the world outside the window. "I can tell that girl cares for you, and I know that you have to have developed some feelings for her, Ryoshiya. There is no way a vampire cannot feel lust for a mostly mortal half-breed. But you must understand Ryoshiya...you aren't like her. You can never have feelings for a mortal. You can only sympathize with a person like you. A person who is a vampire. A person like me, Ryoshiya..."

Ryoshiya listened intently to the smooth voice in his ear, and he was so inclined to believe his master. Keijin had never lied to him, and all his evidence was beginning to prove his master right. But somehow, something about it did not seem right.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie lounged on her small seedy couch as she drank blood in a wine glass. She had lured a young man home with her where she bled him dry, her ability to cause an enchanting spell on him was fairly easy and killing him had been even better. She was getting better at this whole vampire thing, but she knew she was straying far away from her mortal side and she was needing to get back into reality, forget about everything she had seen or done those past few days, but it wasn't as easy as it seemed. Ryoshiya's images, face, voice, touch had been flowing through her mind all night long. To forget about him was nearly impossible, but she was sure it could've happened if only she didn't want those feelings to be invaded her space.

She sipped it lowly, the warmth having gone quite some time ago. The body had been thrown out like yesterdays garabge and she knew that nobody would find him for she had done all that she could to keep her identity off of him. She sighed Ryoshiya's name as she moved the blood in in a circular motion, watching it stain the sides then fall into the velvet liquid. She wanted to see him, taste him again. It was untelling what Keijin was doing to him and a hunter shoudl've not cared, but she did. She was slipping away from her reality that she had been fond of for years and years.

"What have you done to me?" She said out loud as if Ryoshiya himself could hear her. She was suddenly lusting for him as she did the blood in the glass. How odd this all felt, but how much she loved it.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya stood from the couch where he had sat and walked over to the window looking out at the city, his mind a swirl of hate, love, anger, happiness. He didn't know how to respond to Keijin. The elder vampire struck so many chords within him that he did not know which one to listen to. They were all equally beautiful, and yet all off pitch.

For a few more moments, he said nothing and Keijin did not move from his position on the couch, his feet resting on the table. Ryoshiya thought a moment, before turning to face the elder. He watched Keijin watch him and the next few moments passed in this way.

"You left me to die, Keijin..." Ryoshiya muttered. "You left me with two gaping holes in my neck, in the middle of space, barely in Coruscant's orbit, cold, and hungry, and frightened. You did not even tell me what you were doing to me the evening previous. But I trusted you fully. I trusted you with my life, and you stole it from me..." Ryoshiya said, his voice barely above. He shook his head. "So, I was twenty-one, I was barely an adult, and still a kid in most ways. You knew that better than anyone, Keijin. And you still left.

"Its been three hundred and fifty-years. I am getting old, and I have realized that I can trust no one," he paused, looking at Keijin, his eyes flashing in the night light. "No one." He snarled. "That includes, and most importantly emphasizes, you, Keijin. As much as I love you...I cannot...forgive you..." Ryoshiya had not known if he had had the courage to say it, but somehow, with Manhattan Kenzie's voice in his head, it was possible, and it had just spilled out.

"You can't tell me you are going to go fall for a half-breed, Ryoshiya! You are better than that!" Keijin said, standing up. Ryoshiya sliced his hand through the air, cutting off his master.

"I am not falling for anyone, Keijin. She is someone I know, nothing more," Ryoshiya said. Keijin's eyes flashed.

"And you could drain her dry without a second thought?" he purred. Ryoshiya clenched his teeth and answered without hesitation.

"Without second thoughts, without remorse."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie groaned soflty as the empty glass fell to the floor, sleep surpassing her lust for more blood. She hadn't slept very well those past few days and the mortal side was finally getting to her. Vampires could stay up for hours on end without problems, but not half-breeds, not her. She was so tired and she was so full from drinking that she swore she was blood drunk, if that was even possible.

She frowned softly as she heard Ryoshiya and saw him in her head, plain as day. She wanted to see him again without any strings keeping him back, without Keijin, but it was just wishful thinking the feelings she was harboring for him were not returned. They were so different, yet the same, and she didn't know if he'd ever have the power to fall in love with her as she was slowly doing with him. The loneliness and desperation had obviously gone to her head, but she didn't care because everything she had seen in her mind and saw in him... it was all beautiful and fueled the fire that was burning deep inside. She cared for him far too much even if it was too soon. Damn mortal feelings, how they tricked her so.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin stared at Ryoshiya for a moment, not sure what to make of his reply. He watched his offspring. He didn't believe him, not for moment. Ryoshiya cared for that woman, and Keijin was determined to stop it before it got to far. He slowly raised up from the couch, standing to his full height and still keeping his eyes on Ryoshiya.

"Well, my precious pet. I will expect nothing more than your full attention to me," he muttered, setting the glass down on the table and heading towards the door, grabbing his cloak on the way. "I have a taste for mortal blood right this moment. I will expect you to be here when I return. Is that clear?" but he did not wait for an answer, he simply threw his cloak on and went out the door, going down the steps and peering around him.

It would not take him long to find Kenzie, and then, he would know once and for all where Ryoshiya's loyalities lay.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie moaned again, louder this time and caused her to stir awake. She groaned as she moved up on the couch, her neck hurting from such an awkward position she had been laying in. She saw the glass on the floor and she sighed out, agitated at her clumsiness, at least she had drunk it all and not stained the carpet which was already bad enough. She stood up, feeling her knees pop as she stretched and bent down to pick it up. Kenzie wasn't sure of the time, but she knew it was late. Mortals would not be caught dead at such an hour.

She moved around the couch with her glass in hand, placing it into the sink and rinsing it out, smelling it slightly the bitter iron tingling her senses the smell of blood still thick and set in. She sat it into the drainer and moved back into the living room where she lounged again, wondering how Ryoshiya was, like she always did when she layed down for long naps. What was he and Keijin talking about? What were they doing? She rolled her eyes at the thought of them biting each other and sucking their blood, exchanging such a thing somewhat sensual and all too filling. She could tell that was the thing that drove Keijin, his perverted fantasies of the past being thrust back into his future for it was apparent they must've had some kind of connection other than the creation.

Kenzie rolled onto her side and stared at the window that had been painted black, how she hated being lazy, how she wished something exciting would happen again considering Ryoshiya had been the last thing to happen.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin made his way down the street, his senses on high alert as he dove into the air around him, grasping for Kenzie's location. He could hear her heartbeat, feel her breathing, knew of her existence somewhere around this area. He simply needed a a place that she was present.

Looking around him a moment, as if doing so might help him to locate her, Keijin sped his pace a little, lighting up a cigarette as her vitals got stronger, tingling at the back of his neck. He took long stubborn strides, his need to find her becoming stronger and stronger. He looked ahead of him where he could feel her pulse coming from stronger, and taking a leap he was only enabled to by the blessing that was vampirism, landing in front of the building and looking up at it. He smiled and licked his lips.

"Now we'll see what you can really do, Ryoshiya."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie couldn't find a comfortable position on the couch and was weighing her option to just go lay down on the bed, but she didn't know if she had the motivation to get up and walk all the way in there. She was tired, the blood filling her to sickness. She hadn't drank so much since that night she was with Ryoshiya. A smile krept on her face tiredly, as if this action too would wear her out. She yawned largely as she shifted yet again, throwing her legs over the side and slowly rising slowly walking towards her bedroom. Again she yawned running a hand through her hair as she saw the comfortable place in sight.

She would sleep very well tonight, she knew, the blood having fulfilled her thirst and hunger and her mind was slowly wearing down to where she would find it easy to slip into a deep slumber. As she made her way into the bedroom she couldn't help but get a sudden sense of someone invading her privacy. She frowned and looked around the dark room waiting for a sign of someone, but knowing that nobody was there in the shadows, knowing that Ryoshiya and Keijin were far away from her.

She tried to ignore it, unwillingly, as she crawled onto the bed and fell down face first into her pillow. This was something she didn't want to give up, her mortal need for a bed. She knew those who loved their coffins and wouldn't have traded it for anything, but she was finding it hard to believe. The bed was much more comfortable and less confined. Small spaces were not as friendly as the open rectangular mass of comfort that allowed room to move. She sighed out as she stared at a picture on the wall as she laid on her stomach her eyes slowly getting heavier and heavier. But even as she tried to sleep there was that feeling on being looked at, or for, and it was giving her a strange tingle on the back of her neck.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin mounted the steps to the apartment. He looked the door up and down. He smiled and reached out, taking the door handle and feeling it shiver under his touch. He pushed the door open, locks meaning nothing to a vampire of his age and experiance. The door easily swung open a slight creaking noise coming from it.

Slowly, Keijin made his way inside, silence surrounding him. Everything was quiet except for the sound of Manhattan Kenzie's slowing heart beat as she laid down to sleep. Keijin looked about him as he shut the door behind him, closing off this place to the rest of the world, the universe condensing to only he, and Kenzie, and this apartment.

Keijin followed his senses as he made his way down the hallway, easily finding Kenzie's bedroom. The door was closed on him, but he slowly put an ear to it, listening. He heard her breath slowing and evening out as she fell asleep and he smiled. His hand found the doorknob and he turned it quietly, pushing it open to look inside the room, his eyes shimmering, and his night vision serving him well.

He saw the woman's form stretchedo out on the bed, laying on her stomach, her head turned over to the side. Keijin smiled and crept forward until he stood at the foot of the bed. He watched her a few moment's smelling the air, the smell of her mixed blood as strong as that of a full bred. He had never eaten of a half breed before, and tonight would mark his first time.

Carefully walking around to the side of the bed, Keijin pulled off his cloak and left it on the floor. He crawled onto the bed gently so as not to wake her, and carefully straddled her hips. Keijin smiled one more time as he parted his lips, moving her hair aside, and touching his mouth to the soft creamy skin he found on her neck.

His ready and eager fangs slid into young skin and the blood seeped into him.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie gasped at the new pain she felt coursing through her body from her neck. Her eyes flew open and glowed brightly as she felt the pain causing fear and adrenaline. She felt something heavy on her and she immediately knew who this could be, who this was on top of her beginning to kill her. She screamed in pain as she tried to move but it was to no avail he was too strong for her, his vampiric strength keeping her down. She screamed loudly as her fangs pointed at the pain of the blood being drained out of her slowly, paifully, horribly.

She reached her hand to grab his hair and pull, but it only deepened his fangs and his sucking continued at a faster more violent pace. Her body grew weak, her vision blurry, her inability to fight back coming to a complete halt. She groaned as she tried again, but still nothing. She could hear her heartbeat slowing, her body dying.

"Get off!" She said lowly feeling her body slowly die on her. Suddenly her world went black. He was killing her.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin felt her struggle, but only drank more and more. He wanted to see Ryoshiya's true colors and this woman was the only way to him. As he felt her go under, he slowly slid his fangs from her neck, gracefully licking the small wounds and crwling off of the bed. He watched her pale frame a moment. No one had been joking when they said dirty blood was the best. Although Keijin far preferred Ryoshiya's over any, this woman's was not bad. He would eat it again.

Carefully, Keijin picked her up, tenderly wrapping her in his arms and walking out of the room. Everything in the home was as it had been when he had entered. Carefully opening up the door and stepping out on the step, Keijin breathed in and smiled, looking down at the woman in his arms. It would not take her long to come to, he had not completely drained her and her body's natural reaction would be to produce more blood to replace the emptiness. But it would give Keijin enough time to get her back to Ryoshiya's apartment.

And then, they would all witness Ryoshiya's true vampiric nature.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie moaned as she felt her neck burn and hurt, the pain rushing through her body like a million daggers. She couldn't remember who it was or what had happened but all she knew was that she was weak and couldn't see.

She felt that she was being moved by someone or she was actually dead, she wasn't able to decide for she was sure she wasn't going ot heaven. That would be just her luck dying of severe pain for the rest of eternity, how she should've taken the vampire's approach to living.

Where was he taking her? Who was she with? Where the hell was she know? She struggled to open her eyes but it was blurred. Was it still Keijin? Damn him, she'd kill him if she could, but her body was so drained that death was just around the bend and she had tasted her fill of it. Living was all she wanted to do at that moment.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin kicked Ryoshiya's door open with such force that it flung the handle into the wall off to the left. He let out a victorious roar, common to hear in the covens every so often, not so common to hear amoung the more civilized of vampires, namely Keijin and Ryoshiya. However, he was feeling particularly animalistic and as he walked into the apartment, he heard moving in Ryoshiya's bedroom, the shutting of a coffin lid, and the distinct sounds of scuffling feet.

"My pet!" Keijin called, reaching around him and slamming the door shut, being sure to make as much noise as absolutely possible. He made his way into the house and unceremoniously dumped the woman onto the couch, not giving her a second look. "My Pet! Come out and see what I have brought you! A special gift from father to son, eh? What are you doing in there?"

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

When Ryoshiya heard his door hit the wall, he jumped up out of his coffin. He had assumed Keijin had left and was not going to return that evening. Apparantly he had been wrong. He went to his dresser and pulled out a t-shirt, quickly pulling it on, and donning his torn jeans that he had taken off earlier.

Going to his door, and opening it, he saw Keijin standing there, arms outstretched a smiled on his face. Ryoshiya looked at him for a moment before seeing slight movement on his couch.

Looking over, Ryoshiya was horrified by what he saw. It was Kenzie and she was pale. Much paler than she should have been. And two small puncture wounds marked her neck. Keijin had bitten her. Ryoshiya's first instinct was to go to her, but he knew that Keijin would proclaim his weakness, tell him he'd never be the vampire he was meant to. So Ryoshiya held his ground and simply talked to the woman.

"Miss Kenzie?" he asked. Then he looked to Keijin. "You bit her didn't you?"

"Not like you have not already helped yourself, my precious Pet. I could smell you on her breath, taste your blood in hers. You are as much a part of her as she is a part of you. That first night we shared, Ryoshiya? Do you remember? Back then, your blood was pure, perfect. Last night when we shared each other, I could taste this woman in you, on you, all over you. You say you have the courage, you say you have the coldness, the heartlessness to drink her dry, to eat her alive, to take her life without feeling remorse. But I think you should show me. Show me what kind of a vampire you are. You are beginning to get into the ages of the elders, and if you do not learn respect, proper vampire manners, you'll never be more than a cold, lonely young man with no one," Keijin said, his voice quiet, and filled with malice. "You drink her, Ryoshiya. Drink her completely, make her die...and you'll know freedom like you've never known before. You'll finally be the aristocrat your parents longed for you to become. You'll finally be the man you told me you wanted to be all those years ago. You will have achieved more than you believe. And not only that, Ryoshiya, you will have my respect, your enemies' respect, you'll have the respect of every vampire that exists. And that will feel good, Ryoshiya. That will feel amazing."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie heard Ryoshiya's voice and she suddenly, and slowly, opened her eyes. She heard Keijin speak to him about becoming the vampire he was supposed to be, the aristocrat his family wanted. All the power in the world it seemed would be his if he were to kill her. She moved and suddenly rolled off the couch onto the floor like a drunkard. She moaned at the pain her body was feeling, the feeling of mortal death that hurt beyond all reason. Her body was dying and they were to stand there and watch.

"Monsters!" She yelled out as she tried to move up onto her knees. She was successful and she saw Keijin within her reach. "You monster!" She moved forward as if to lunge at him, but she missed, falling to the floor again. She stood up and began to trip, stumbling like a blind man and dying like the mortal she was.

"I need blood." She lazily moved her eyes to find Ryoshiya, tears burned her eyes from the pain that coursed through her body. Her heart beat was slowing and any moment her life would be over without anyone taking a single drink.

"Don't let me die." She said to Ryoshiya as she moved forward tripping on the leg of his coffee table. She fell on top of it and slowly moved again. "Ryoshiya! Don't do it!" She stood up as the pain progressed. She cried like a mother during childbirth, the truth being shown that she was but merely a mortal with feelings of a woman. How she hated that they were witnessing it.

"I need to drink! I need to go!" She stood up and stumbled towards the door, but she fell again, her legs not working properly, nothing working as it should. "I don't want to die here." She moaned as tears fled her eyes dripping to the floor. She looked over at Ryoshiya who stood standing tall. How could he watch this? How could he love this man who was trying to kill her? Make him prove himself?

"I can't die like this! Help me, Ryoshiya, help me!" She pleaded to him as she moved towards him in a last resort. "Please, help...."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya had to look away as he watched her fumble about. He couldn't watch her. His heart was torn. He loved Keijin but Kenzie was his friend. Kenzie was something to him no one had been before. She was close to him, kind, feeling, wishing to simoly be his friend. Keijin was his master, his possessor, his obsessor, interested in his blood, in his life, in his love and only those things. To a degree, Keijin loved him. But Ryoshiya could see such a vast difference between Kenzie and Keijin that he knew who was really worth him, worth his interest.

"Stop this, Keijin!" Ryoshiya snarled, finally looking up at his maker, baring his lengthening fangs. Within two long strides, he had reached Kenzie's form that was on the floor, trembling. He got to his knees touching her back, his eyes softening as he watched her. He gently wrapped his arms around her waist, her small form easy for him to lift. He rested her head on his knees and looked down at her. After a moment, he turned his animalistic gaze back upon Keijin who laughed.

"How did I know you couldn't bite her, Ryoshiya? How did I know you were too weak, too human. You cannot do it Ryoshiya..." Keijin said quietly, his voice sounding a little amused, slightly more angry, but most of all, sad. Ryoshiya picked up on the elder vampire's emotions so acutely it was as if he were feeling them himself. He gritted his teeth, touching Kenzie's face.

"No, Keijin, I cannot. I'm sorry. Maybe I let you down, maybe I am not the vampire you wanted me to be, but I cannot--will not--bite this woman. I will not take the life away from her. She may be half vampire, but she is far from one, far from you and I. She sees the sun, she resists our urges, she is...she is unique and I won't hurt her. She has been a better friend to me in a few days than you ever were in several years...I am sorry, Keijin...I love you but..." but Ryoshiya's voice faded off as he leaned over Kenzie.

He brought his wrist to his mouth sliding his fangs into it and waiting until he tasted his own blood before he brought it away and gently placed it next to Kenzie's mouth. He watched her a moment.

"Miss Kenzie...can you drink?"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie felt him move her but she was barely able to realize for her body was in so much pain and was dying to quick that she only moaned in response. She heard muffled voices and raised voices, but she was not able to decipher what they said let alone pick out who was talking. She smelled blood seconds later and she could see it with her foggy eyes. Her body lusted for it, needed it, and she was almost positive that it was Ryoshiya who was offering it.

She felt her head being lifted and she felt blood drop quickly onto her pale lips. She jumped slightly when she felt it, but the moment it leaked inside she felt her fangs grow, her heart beat as fast as it could, and her eyes grow bright blue. She opened her mouth, feeling it fall in and she was quick to sink her teeth into the warm flesh. She held it with her hands and looked up at Ryoshiya, her vision being corrected almost instantly the blood seeped into her system. She sucked as hard and as fast as she could making sure to get as much as she desired, more images being burned into her head.

The second she felt it were enough to suit her needs and not harm him she let go and rolled onto her side, feeling her body grow sick from what she had tasted, just as it had before. She felt her energy come back, her body stabalize, and suddenly she was ready to kill whoever walked in her way. She scanned the room as she cleared her lips of Ryoshiya's blood finding Keijin nearby.

"You made the mistake of trying to kill me." She said to him in a low voice that was full of sheer hate and anger. What he had done to her was something that brought back painful memories of her father, memories of doing the exact same thing and wanting the same result. Her death.

"God condemned me to hell the moment I was born and I swear I will look down upon your body and laugh before my time is done."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya's wrist quickly healed and he saw her crouched in an attack position for his master. Ryoshiya hissed, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. Like a cat he leaped into her way, arching his back upwards, his eyes shimmering deep inside. He hissed at her as he felt his fangs grow. This was instinct, it was territory...this was his master. He wasn't going to hurt her, but he would not let her get harmed by Keijin again, and he would not let her harm Keijin.

"This is not your battle, Manhattan Kenzie," he growled, his voice deep, angry, rumbling in his throat. It was the voice of a true vampire, his true nature was peeled open now. If she wanted to see, she would see now. He hunkered down into a crouched position and turned slightly, looking at Keijin who was watching amused by the whole situation. Ryoshiya turned to look back at Manhattan. He could see his reflection in her eyes, and he even frightened himself. He was a monster, a true monster filled with hate, revenge, and lust. And he realized then, just how little he and Kenzie were alike. He could never be like her, with her, around her. Because he could never shake the hate and despair that made him what he was. Three hundred fifty years of hate piling on top of him made him a true pure-blooded vampire. Ryoshiya could never be redeemed, could never feel, could never understand that which he once did. He would always be a vampire, always lust after blood, always be his master's offspring.

Ryoshiya's eyes lost thier shine momentarily. His eyes faded almost back to thier normal brown color as the spiral pattern around his pupil dimmed slightly. One long, thin, pale hand reached up and touched Kenzie's face. He smiled ever so slightly, his fear of himself creeping into his features.

"This is not your battle, Kenzie..." he whispered. "I'm sorry for what has transpired here this night. I am sorry that my master has been...as he has always been. And at this point, Kenzie, I am so sorry that we ever met, that I dragged you down into something not even I could get out of. Keijin will not be satisfied until he has me. All of me. He won't be appeased until you are out of the picture and he and I are as we once were." He paused a moment. "I intend to keep you safe, it was always my intention. I failed. But I know now that the only way you'll be safe, is if you are away from me..."

Slowly, the shine returned to his eyes and the blue and spiral pattern faded back into them. He brushed her cheek and stood, looking down at her a moment before turning and looking at Keijin. His master watched him inquisitively. Ryoshiya did not look back at Manhattan, he did not think he could. He simply walked foward, slowly, carefully, until he was facing his master. And with mixed fear, sadness, love, and happiness, Ryoshiya leaned his fore-head on Keijin's shoulder brushing back his hair, and offering his neck.

"Watashi ha, masuta ima miru...gomenasai..." he muttered as he felt Keijin's hand rest on his shoulders. Quietly, he prayed Manhattan would leave it alone, trust him. Beleive that he knew what was best. He felt Keijin's mouth next to his ear.

"And thus ends an age, Ryoshiya," he muttered back to him in Basic. "This is how I meant for it to be. You have left behind a life you could not have, for one you can enjoy. The choice is a good one. It has given you a chance for survival. And the woman? Her reward is her life. It's not much...but still..." he whispered. Ryoshiya stared at the wall as Keijin's fangs bit his ear slightly. "We are father and son, Ryoshiya. You have finally come to realize that. And your intelligence will not go unnoticed. You'll be rewarded well when we get home. I am proud of you, however many mistakes you made. You truly are the son of vampires. And now you have proved it. Well done, Ryoshiya."

Ryoshiya's eyes closed. This was what vampires truly were. And maybe if Manahttan could see this, she would see what kind of a web she had been part of. She was lucky that they had been able to cut her out as quickly as they did. A few more moments and Ryoshiya knew she might be dead. Maybe if he saw what kind of a bond, a slavery, it was between a master and his offspring, she would stay away. Because Keijin had always gotten his way. And Ryoshiya knew neither of them alone could interrupt that cycle.

This was the way of the vampire.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"Aww..." She said lowly as she stood up as if she were stretching, her long limbs seeming to have never been so long to her as she stood feeling as if she were ten feet tall. The floor seemed so far away but she knew it was because of her newfound strength after everything Keijin had done.

"Aren't you a good boy." She breathed in heavily as she tried to forget the shocking force than ran through her body, the way he had touched her made her feel as if she drew in a breath of fresh air. Nothing had ever energized her such as that cold hand. The liking toward Ryoshiya was far out of control, so far that she swore she had wanted to try and be with him for it was something she had always wanted. Her life had been consumed of loneliness and Ryoshiya made her feel alive, but his words had cut her deeply and it pained her. Was she going to do what she always did when talked to like that? Walk away and forget about everything that had drawn her to Ryoshiya? Like always? She knew that if she did that it'd only end with loneliness for many years, as she had always lived. But could she at least try to see if he liked her in return? She was sure he didn't. He had his plaything, his Master, his possessor...

"If that is what you want...then take it. Live forever with a man who finds pleasure in keeping you a prisoner. You can have your choice of either life or death, life is with a friend death is with your master, Ryoshiya." Kenzie looked at Keijin evilly, she despised him at that point, he was treading on plans that she had wanted tto put into motion, plans of a friendship, plans of not feeling so lonely. How stupid she was, how mortal she was, to think that she could be friends with a man who was obviously still very much in love with their master.

"Get busy dying....or get busy living."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya turned towards her his eyes flashing. If that was how she wanted it. Ryoshiya hissed slightly, allowing a hand to push Keijin slightly away as he watched Kenzie.

"Death is what I am. I am dead, I do not have a life, I have not had one for over three hundred years. You are telling me that suddenly I can live? That is a lie and you know it. I want you to be safe, Kenzie. The only way that is going to happen is if you walk away from this right now..." he muttered to her, his voice deep in his throat. He didn't want to make her go, didn't want to face what he was. But being with her had only made it that much worse. Made him realize more what he really was.

"I am a vampire. That is what I will always be. As much as I hoped that you could change that for me, reality hurts sometimes, and no one can change that. I either put you in danger, or I go with the man who made me and put myself in danger. Which one do you think I am going to choose? I am damned, Miss Kenzie, you know that as well as I, you share my life part way. You have a taste of the misery, the loneliness, the fear, the hate, the sadness. You understand these feelings. You can give me love and warmth like Keijin cannot. But Keijin can give me friendship like you cannot," Ryoshiya said. He sighed out through his nose. "You can say I am a good boy. You can call me a dog, a pet, say I am a slave, and maybe that is all true. But this is the only option I have. I am not willing to risk you over me. I've chosen my path, Manhattan, one I should have chosen long before this happened.

"There is no dying and there is no living for me. Those are two unreachable goals a vampire is destined to strive for until the end of time. That is no choice, Manhattan Kenzie, not for me. I'm asking you to please leave this alone. My master is used to getting what he wants. And I don't want you in the way of that. You are the last person I want in the way of him."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie knew that she couldn't change him, but she knew that he was wrong. She could help him feel, help him love, help him do so many things that he could not imagine. She saw it with her father and her mother, he always told her of the damned life that she should've chosen, but he always let her brothers and sisters know that there was a life to be lived even if they were vampires.

"You can do so much more than you think you can, Ryoshiya. I saw it with my own two eyes! My father said he died when he was born into darkness, but he always said he came alive when he let a little light in." She bit her lower lip and looked over at Keijin. The hate for that man was solitary and she doubted she'd ever hate so much again in her life. She glanced back to Ryoshiya and softened her frown. She also knew that she would never feel the same for any other person on the planet Coruscant. She liked him far too much to just let something like that get in the way, and if he was telling her the truth about letting her help him feel then she was more than ready to so.

"I like you, Ryoshiya. You were the first person I ever truly believed I could handle and be around. But if the feelings are not requited..." She sighed out and nodded. "I will respect what you say. I will stay away from Keijin, far away, but I don't think I am quite ready to stay away from you." She slightly brushed passed him and towards the door. If he liked her, wanted to be friends, wanted to just acknowledge that she even breathed he'd at least let her know in some way.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya watched her go. His still intact human senses and instinct was telling him to go after her, stop catering to his master, stop all of this, put an end to it. But his vampire instincts, the bigger part of him, was telling him that this was how it had to be. He cared for her far too much to see her hurt again. He wanted nothing more than to be like her so he could be with her. Yet, he knew that these things were fantasies, dreams that would never come true. Just like the nights he had lain in his coffin wondering what it was like to stand in the sun, wishing that he could. All in vain, all a part of this life he had been living for over three hundred years.

Ryoshiya loved Keijin, but he had never hated him more in his life than he did right then. Hated him for how he could not say no to him, hated how Keijin had always gotten his way, and always would get his way. He didn't want to be here with him, and yet he did. He hated him just as much as he loved him and there was nothing he could do about it. It would always be this way. He would always be left in the darkness, he would always be the one watching those he loved walk away, or die. He would never be able to say no to Keijin. And this time he had lost someone that he could never get back.

His eyes glistened with unshed tears that would not fall, could not fall. He would not let them. Yet even as he bit them back, almost drawing blood from his lip, he felt one solitary tear slide down his face, the last tear he would ever cry, he vowed. He was a vampire now. He could not let his human feelings get in his way ever again. Because human feelings had never given his anything but greif and pain and sadness. And if he could reject them, take on a completely vampiric life, then he could, hopefully, forget the hurt that he had been caused, and had caused to others. Perhaps Manhattan Kenzie would slowly fade from his mind with time and age until all she was was a shadow that no longer meant anything to him, until her name was so faint he didn't know whether or not it was even her name. Maybe, if he tried hard, he could love Keijin like he used to and the pain would slowly ebb away with the feeling in him for his master. Maybe Keijin could fill up that space that he had once taken up in Ryoshiya's heart.

But somewhere insisde, Ryoshiya knew that there would always be a tiny empty space in his heart, in his mind, in his body, in his soul where Manhattan Kenzie should have taken up. A place she shoul have belonged and filled and overflowed. A place that nothing and no one would ever fill. And all because he was a coward and a vampire. And for no other reason than that he was terrified of Keijin.

"She was not worth you, pet, you know that," Keijine whispered to him as he moved up behind Ryoshiya, wrapping arms around his waist and speaking softly into his ear, purring quietly at the contact. "You have a special place back home where you will always belong, where you will always be loved. You'll always belong with me, Ryoshiya. I'll always love you. Love in ways that that woman could never have. You'll never fear what you understand, Ryoshiya, and you understand vampires. You'll never have to fear what you are. Take pride in it, my pet. You are a strong member of a scarce breed. And that is what you were born to be..."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie walked out of the apartment trying to lick her wounds and try to regain the strength she had lost by hearing Ryoshiya choose his maker over someone who could give him endless love, make him feel, give him everything a woman could. Give him everything she could give. She never liked being shot down, but then again she was used to it considering she practically lived in rejection and a shadowed life.

Her attraction to Ryoshiya was something of a surprise. She didn't know him that well, but she knew enough by looking at him, he would be a very easy person to love and to take care of, give the world to...give him the feeling that living his damned life took away. She could do everything for him, things that Keijin could never do. But how could she, how would she, ever let him understand that?

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin stroked Ryoshiya's face lightly, an expression of fondness and affection replacing that of anger and hate that that woman brought about him. He hated being sore, and now that he had what he had come for, he doubted that he would be feeling sore any time soon.

Keijin was proud of himself. He had successfully run that tramp off and now had his pet back with him. He would not lose Ryoshiya, he could not. He had done that already and knew that he hated being without Ryoshiya, hated the lonliness, the lack of companionship, the silence. But Ryoshiya was with him now, resting in his arms.

His body was lounged backwards on the couch, wrapped around Ryoshiya's like a lover, his eyes staring listlessy out of the window, and his hands absentmindedly twisting through Ryoshiya's hair. Keijin had laid down with him soon after the woman had left because Ryoshiya was drained. After such emotional trauma, Keijin understood, and he wanted his pet to rest before they began off. And Ryoshiya was being good, lying still, his back and head resting gently against Keijin's hips and stomach, his elbows resting on either thigh, his long legs stretched over the arm of the couch.

Keijin watched the other vampire's stomach rise and fall gently with his breaths, his body remaining otherwise unmoving. Keijin's knees bent a little more around Ryoshiya's chest and he sat forward, stirring Ryoshiya from the stupor he had fallen into. Keijin leaned down to observe his offspring's face. It was paler than normal and he looked up at Keijin, his eyes shimmering at him, but the lustor gone. He was hungry. Keijin purred as Ryoshiya's body pressed against his and then slid away from him as Ryoshiya changed to a sitting position to allow Keijin to get up as he had been intending. Keijin stood and stretched.

"I am going to go smoke a few cigarettes. Welcome to join me, pet," he said quietly, but Ryoshiya said nothing, and Keijin took it to mean he did not take the invitation. Keijin shrugged. "Alright, then. I'll feed you when I come back in, don't worry."

Keijin didn't wait for Ryoshiya to say anything, though he doubted he would. He made his way to the door and carefully opened it, stretching his arms as he walked out into the cool air, it feeling good on his chest as he unbuttoned his shirt and lit a cigarette. It didn't take him long to sense someone else around, but he paid it no heed. He was too content to care as he slowly puffed away on his cigarette.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"Post-winning cigarette?" Kenzie couldn't help keep quiet. She wanted him to know how much she hated him, hated him or his beauty, his power, his everything! Everything that Kenzie did not possess nor would she ever. This man had eternity, an eternity to give him everything she could not. She hated him for he was immortal.

"I mean after all that hard work by deceiving Ryoshiya into loving you..I mean you gotta smoke right?" She knew she was being crass but who wouldn't be when one liked someone after many years of being lonely.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Ryoshiya looked over and saw that that woman had not yet left. He rolled his shimmering eyes, and took a drag from his cigarette, blowing the smoke out in a long line away from him. He flicked it down onto the ground and descended the steps, grinding the butt with his heal as he came down from the last step. He looked up again at the woman and smiled sweetly, the daggers in his eyes evident, however.

"Deceive? Do you call this decieve?" he asked, slowly letting his thin shirt fall from his shoulders, allowing the love marks Ryoshiya had made with his teeth show. They marked him like sacred tattoos. Two on his collarbone, one on his neck, three on his stomach and hip, and one around his nipple. He chuckled as he looked down at them himself. "I don't think deceive is quite the word you are looking for." He paused a moment as he pulled his shirt back over his shoulders and buttoned the last three buttons so it would not slide off. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Miss Kenzie. I need you to consider Ryoshiya. Stop thinking about how much you hate me. Think about this. I am going to live forever. I have forever to stand beside Ryoshiya. I have forever to comfort him when he is angry. Forever to give him love. I can accept that there are things that you could give to my pet that he craves after. Warmth, life, mortality. You can show him what it is like to be human again. But I can give him forever. I can give him something you cannot. Companionship for one hundred, one thousand, one million years. How long could you give him warmth? When you had finally passed on, Ryoshiya would be left broken, sad, alone. In the end, Manahttan Kenzie, both you and I want Ryoshiya to be happy. And you know that I can give Ryoshiya something that you cannot. I can give him eternity."

Keijin watched her a moment. He didn't like her anymore than he had before, but he knew that she wanted Ryoshiya to be happy. And he knew that she ought to be able to see this.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie couldn't help but stare at his glimmering white body that was sheen and strong, he was so beautiful even the markings on his skin were beautiful. She did not have such a body, such a thing that was dangerous, yet sexy. She hated him even more simply because he had everything she did not. The envy, the thing she never had for anyone else was finally there in her life, a feeling that was new to her a feeling that she wanted to go away.

"Just because you have an eternity with such a beautiful man doesn't mean you can give him the love that could last a life time like I could, Keijin." She clenched her jaw. She could give him the proper love, the proper life that such a man like him needed. Keijin could only give him what he offered...death...sex...and blood.

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin blinked sleepily, and smiled lightly. He shifted his weight again and observed her face for a few moments. He could smell her jealously, taste in in the air that drifted from her and he knew that he lorded over her because of that. Then he shook his head.

"Ryoshiya cares for you. That much I know for certain. But do you think that he could tell you what he has told me? His heart fancies such wild things when no one is looking, and he shares that with me. Do you think he would be able to tell this to you? Has he told you anything? I imagine you have heard very little of his escapades over these three hundred years. He knows you are delicate, and you should be treated such. Ryoshiya is a vampire, Miss Kenzie, in case you have not been informed of this fact, and there are things Ryoshiya can do, and does, with me that he could never do with you. There are cold whispers from his mouth I have heard that you will never. There are things I know of Ryoshiya that you can't ever know," he paused and smiled. "And yes, some of it is about my blood and his, our connection mentally and physically. But the bond Ryoshiya and I share is different from what you share with him. You know the guarded Ryoshiya. He is protecting you from the horrors he knows will make you ill. He doesn't have to hide when I am with him. He can be exactly who he is, Ryoshiya Le'Gard, and exactly what he is, a vampire."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"He can be whatever he wants with me, but you won't leave him to make his own decisions without putting some mind control over him! I can know him in a much more normal level...I can make him feel, I can make him human. You can only continue to make him the lonely vampire you see fit." She was getting mad, madder than she had been before! How dare he say she couldn't give him the things he needed, have him share things with her...he could and would have had he not stayed away from him.

"This is the future, Keijin, stop dwelling in the past. Wallow in your misery with someone else, preach to someone who actually cares."

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin grinned.

"Do you really want to try to reach someone who tells you nothin?" he purred, like a tiger on the prowl, but so calmly that it barely resonated from his chest. His eyes flashed blue as he watched her. "Do you want to know for the years that you spend with him that he becomes someone else when he goes to clubs alone? Do you want to sit at home and wonder who he is, and realize that you know nothing of him? Do you want him to lie next to you at night and dread having you wake up because he must put an act on for you? Would you rather him suffer and you get what you want just to spite me? What do you want? Do you truly want Ryoshiya Le'gard, or do you simply want to show me how awful I am to the amazing creature that I made?"

Keijin felt his back arch and the wings that usually lay dorment in a tattoo across his back melt from his skin and burst forth, stretching skyward as his fangs grew into razors ready for fighting.

"You can never truly know Ryoshiya like you want to. It is a dream that you cannot let go of. And maybe that is why we hate each other so much. We are both dreamers."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"He'll tell me in time, unlike you I don't force people!" She wanted to hurt him so bad! Wanted Ryoshiya enough to do so, but how would he look at her after that? She stood there staring a hole in him. how she hated him how he had everything she wanted!

"How would you know! You know the Vampiric Ryoshiya, I could see the human in him all you tend to see is the animal! I want Ryoshiya and to love him...I don't want to see a creature, which is more than I can say for you!" She saw his fangs and she was quick to show her own. Her eyes flashing such a bright blue and her fangs needing to peirce flesh, preferrably Keijin's.

"I may be a dreamer, but I am not the only one! I am sure Ryoshiya wants to dream as well, dream of a life that he could possibly never have with you!"

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin crouched down allowing the air to fill up his lungs. He arched his back up like a cat and let out a howl. It was a vampiric call one that was too high for humans to hear, but if you were a vampire, you heard it. It was like the sound of a wolf, lion, and the warning scream of a horse when back into a corner all thrown together haphzardly. It was barely even vampire, it was the call of a maker when protecting his offspring. It was the call that no vampire could imitate. Keijin's scream was not identical to any other maker. It was his fingerprint, and only his offspring would know it. But every vampire would hear it.

Keijin flapped his huge bat wings, feeling power building behind him, as he readied himself to spring on her. He brought his scream to silence. He watched her a moment, allowing his vocal cords to warp slightly, he smiled, the air around him pressing outwards. He wanted to use his full power, and he was just getting started.

"I love seeing people die..." he said, but the voice that left his mouth was not Keijin's. Instead, it was Ryoshiya's, soft and deep, and expressive. "I love being a vampire, Keijin. I know what Kenzie wants me to be, and I know that I cannot feel like she wants me to. I cannot be what she wants me to be, I can't see like she does. This is what I am, isn't it? This is how I will always be. I'll never change...and I don't think she sees that I don't want to..." Ryoshiya's voice faded from Keijin's mouth that was not moving, simply projecting the voice as if it were a very live recording. Slowly, the elder vampire closed his mouth and then he purred, then laughed, his voice now his own.

"You know, some secrets just can't be shared with a dirty blood."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

"Secrets, sure, but how would know when half the time he is probably telling you things you want to hear! You won't give him half the chance to live because you tempt him and you make him feel like he is nothing but a vampire!" She hissed at him, wanting to fight. She could understand Ryoshiya and his vampiric ways and enjoying watching people die, but so did she especially when seh was allowing the vampire inside of her take over, as it was now.

"Let him live a little and we will have this conversation at a later date." She wanted to fight him but she knew she would probably lose. But she would lose giving it one hell of a fight!

"Call me dirty all that you want, it kind of turns me on!" She crouched slightly knowing his intentions were no longer friendly. If he wanted to fight, so be it. She'd rather be dead at the expense of someone she cared for than anything else.

[Keijin Aritaka]

"Oh, I imagine you'd like for your teeth marks to be added to Ryoshiya's on my body wouldn't you?" he laughed, prowling forward on all fours like a spider. "Ryoshiya has already stated that he owns my body many times more than just a few nights ago."

Keijin leapt forward suddenly, soaring towards her, intending at first to land on her, but instead, he spread his wings out to thier full wingspan and caught himself, taking his clawed hand and crashing it against her cheek with all the force and power behind it and then he soard upwards and arched back down, landing in the position he had been in only a moment before, crouching like a waiting cheetah, his long body wrapped up in that one spot.

"Does imagining Ryoshiya getting off with me turn you on, or does that just make you angrier? Because honestly, the former can be arranged easily," he said, laughing in his chest.

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie stared at him with sharp blue eyes, the intensity of their anger only making matters worse. She never realized how much she enjoyed fighting vampires and enjoyed being one at times until now. But she kept in mind that Ryoshiya was worth fighting for, worth trying to make him feel normal and human. She was almost positive after centuries of loneliness that one would give anything for at least one night to be human again.

"Perhaps it does...but seeing me suck you dry would be much more. That, I assure you, can be arranged willingly or not."

[Keijin Aritaka]

Keijin laughed out loud, then screamed again, and heard the windows in the buildings near him shudder with the stress that he put on them with the yell. He drew it out as long as possible before quieting and watching the woman.

"It makes me feel special to know that you hate me so much. It has been years since I had a formidible opponent. Then again, none of them were half vampire. I could not kill you, Manhattan, because you interest Ryoshiya. But I can certainly come close!" he growled and stampeded forward like a wolf on its prey.

He balled his legs from under him and leaped, full force behind it, but instead of running into the woman that he knew would have been taken out by the force, he hit what felt like a solid wall. A solid wall that enveloped him with wings and wrapped arms around his waist and sunk teeth into his neck. Right into his jugular, nearly immobilizing him.

Keijin made a choking noise as he felt his body and the other hit the ground. What was this, some parlor trick?

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya had heard his master's scream. He knew almost immediately what was going on. He just had been slow on the uptake at getting out there. He had needed to struggle out of the shower, struggle into clothes and then find his way out there. It had taken several minutes for him to make his way to the door. And when he saw what was going on, he knew it could only end in tears.

Keijin was in full fledged maker protection, and Ryoshiya knew that once again, Keijin was willing to do anything for him. Ryoshiya had taken a few moments to quickly rip two holes in his shirt so his wings would not struggle to get out. And then he had leaped out.

Keijin had hit him with such force he knew that if he had hit Kenzie, she would be out for the count, probably for a long time. But he caught him, and wrapped his arms and wings around him, and attacked Keijin's jugular, throwing him back to the ground before ripping his teeth from his master's flesh and wiping away the blood. His eyes were whited out and he looked like death animated, like a true vampire.

He stood above his master a moment looking down at him. Keijin said nothing, but only looked up at him, his eyes watching him closely as he put a hand over the wound in his neck. Ryoshiya shook his head like an angry beast. Suddenly, he dropped to all fours and whipped to face Kenzie who had so far not moved. He watched her a moment, his white eyes staring through her his wings arched above him like the Devil's throne.

"And so goes a lover's quarrel..." he roared at her, his voice certainly not his own. He was furious and sad at the same time, and his voice was deep and sounded like the roar of a wild beast. "Didn't I tell you to go?!"

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie was ready and angered that he had stopped what was to come! She wanted to end it all if it was to end her suffering of liking someone so deeply whom she could never have.

"You did! I was standing here minding my own! Keijin and I exchanged words, what does it matter to you? The one time in my life I offer something other than my services to harm someone I get rejected. I just wanted to make you feel! I want to make you feel." She felt tears form in her eyes, something that vampires never did, then again she was not the normal vampire.

She lowered her head so heartbroken for it was the one and probably last time she could love someone. But it was a forlorn hope, it always had been. She felt the warm tear fall down her cheek and she was quick to wipe it away. She looked at her hand and saw it was blood red. She had seen vampires cry tears before, but only once, when one suffered severe heartache. She did not love Ryoshiya, but it was that she liked him so much that made it hurt for she had tried to convince herself that she could ever be loved. But like before, like her family did, she would never receive it.

"I am sorry."

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya watched her for a moment, then looked back at his master, shaking his head and pressing a hand to his forehead, leaning down close to his face.

"If you move, that'll be it for you," he purred warningly, and for the first time, Ryoshiya actually thought he had struck fear into his master. Slowly, he turned back around and stood, lowering his wings, his eyes becoming a blue color instead of completely white. He took a long time to walk to Kenzie, but he got there eventually. He looked down at her, and the blood she cried, and his eyes softened. He raised her chin with a hand and leaned down, kissing the blood from each cheek before resting his forehead against hers.

"You just don't understand, Kenzie. You have made me feel more than I have felt in three hundred years. You have reached your goal. You made me feel, and for that I will forever be in your debt..." he paused a moment, lowering his voice, like sharing a secret. "This was a love triangle and I wanted you out of the corner so that, for once, someone I cared for was safe. For once, someone that I had trusted, someone that I wanted to share myself with, would be able to escape this ridiculous cycle. I wanted to see you alright, Kenzie. I know...I know that you must be angry with me for choosing my master over you. And I...I think I know what I really should do..." he paused. "I am a coward. And Keijin scares me. He scares me beyond anything else. He is the one person I could never refuse half because he frightened me, half because I cannot help but love him dearly." He sighed out of his nose, and slowly allowed his wings to wrap around her shoulders. "I have seen myself through you. You are all the mirrors I used to be afraid to look into. You have shown me what can happen when I am not afraid. And suddenly, I am not anymore. Keijin does not frighten me. And I see now that he and I are more alike that we seem to be. But even still...I know that what used to be and what is are two very different things, and I need to change, I need to finally say no to him. You have given me the strength to do that, the ability."

Leaning away from her, he watched her a moment, before turning from her and looking at Keijin who had not moved from his postion on the ground, except that he was sitting up, watching them, pain and fear written on his face. Ryoshiya shook his head, spreading his wings out to hide Kenzie from his master's view.

"I think I can finally say that I don't need you anymore. I love you desperately, Keijin, but I can no longer be your pet. I am Ryoshiya Le'Gard. And you are Keijin Aritaka, and we are no longer father and son. And you will not touch this woman again."

[Manhattan Kenzie]

Kenzie felt like a girl, a woman who needed to be taken care of for she had never actually cried in her life and here seh was doing it for a man she wanted. His words meant so much to her, so much that it hurt her even more to think of her life without him, even as a friend.

She stared at the ground as she heard him speak to Keijin, his words still leaving a deep effect on her as he began to tell him how he wasn't ever to touch her, how he was breaking away. But she had made him feel...now what? It wasn't the way seh wanted to make him feel! Was he going to leave her now? Live a life without Keijin? Live a life without her? She was being selfish she knew, but yet...

Kenzie wanted to walk away from the situation she created, but she couldn't. She glanced at his wings and grinned to herself, she had never seen him in full wingspan and she loved the way it looked, it was a part of him and she wanted to learn more about him wanted to share things with him, wanted everything Keijin said they shared, but in a different sense.

Kenzie slowly moved towards him and wanted to touch him and tell him she was leaving because she was unsure of what was to ensue afterwards but she didn't move.

"What's next?" She asked herself feeling a gust of cold wind wrap around her, tears not falling anymore but staining her cheeks.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

Ryoshiya watched Keijin as he watched them, and for the first time the other vampire lost his composure. His eyes closed and a moan escaped his mouth. It was the cry of sadness. The cry of a broken heart. It was the cry of a Master when he lost his young to death...or to life, which was sometimes worse and in this case true. Ryoshiya felt the pain that came from his master, it was so evident it was almost like another entity standing there with him.

Ryoshiya watched as Keijin finally gave up, something in Ryoshiya causing him to finally see that he no longer had his offspring. Ryoshiya watched as tears escaped Keijin's eyes, real tears. This was actualy pain and sorrow that Keijin was feeling and in turn, Ryoshiya felt it too. Slowly, Keijin rose from the ground, his voice fading off, as he watched Ryoshiya with saddened features, his body looking as if the weight of it was too much.

"I love you, Ryoshiya. As much as you think I do not. My heart will never be the same, and neither will my life. That woman means nothing to me. You were all that mattered...you have made your decision and I have lost..." he whispered. Ryoshiya watched him, feeling pity and sadness himself. He reached into his pocket to retrieve a jewel that Keijin had given him a long time ago that Ryoshiya had kept with him all the time. It was a jewel that was no longer found anywhere. This was the last on, as far as anyone knew. He held it out on his palm. It had been a gift from lover to lover, master to offspring. Keijin shook his head however.

"I gave it to you in love, and I leave it with you in love."

And Ryoshiya heard the rustle of the breeze in his master's wings and then, there was no longer a Keijin Aritaka standing in front of them. Not even a shadow drifting into the night sky could be seen. Only the faint smell of his beauty and his love was left behind for Ryoshiya to always remember. He slid the jewel back into his pocket and quickly said the Prayer for his master. Slowly, he folded his wings on his back and turned back to Kenzie.

"And so dissolves a triangle, of love and hate, and a chapter in our lives ends. The next is blank, Miss Kenzie..." he said quietly. "And I would really like it if we might write the next together. Because I don't think it would be quite as nice alone as it would if you are beside me."