The Fallen Vampire

Yukiko could feel something amiss.

She couldn't describe it very well, but it was akin to the feeling that she got before bath time.

Yuki didn't like baths.

She put down her crayon abruptly and looked up at her current babysitter.

"Where daddy?" She tilted her head.

Raymond was busy drawing a picture of himself and Tiche in a flower field while holding hands.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

… She was his first woman, alright? Being a little ditzy over her was part of the experience.

Some would say a rite of passage even.

"Little lady, do you think I made Ti-Ti's head as pretty as it is in real life?" Raymond held up his picture with a worried look.

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Yukiko kind of just stared at him with a droll look that was dangerously similar to Taira's.

"Ah…" Raymond scratched the back of his head. "You said something again, didn't you?"

Yukiko nodded.

"M-My bad…"

"Where daddy??" Yukiko asked again, with much more puffy cheeks.

"Not actually too sure about that…" Raymond said thoughtfully.

They'd been back at the cult for a day and a half now. Only the ladies of the cult had been seen out and about, while the Dai-Shi remained in their room.

Yukiko had just seen her parents this morning though. It was as if she was only just now realizing that she had been placed in the care of someone other than them.

"Go see!" Yukiko pleaded with big eyes.

Raymond's face lost almost all of it's color. "Little miss, I don't think I should be going anywhere near your parents' room. That sounds like the kind of thing Senior Brother Vaal would hit me just for thinking about."

Yukiko pointed to herself. "Go find..?"

Raymond's face couldn't have been more comical if he forced it to.

He could think of a long, laundry list of things that the main family could be doing that their child couldn't be around for.

"U-Um, well, maybe we should wait for-"

"Pleaseee..?"

Yukiko's eyes were as big as clay pots. And cuter than two million newborn puppies wrapped in onesies.

Despite his rugged exterior, Big Country was not immune to such trappings. His resolve was crumbling like a granola bar.

"I-I really don't think you should-"

"I will take her."

The duo looked up and found Shakti's familiar silhouette standing in the doorway with her arms folded.

Raymond immediately straightened his posture and tried to hide the pictures he'd been drawing.

"S-Senior Sister! It's good to see you, but -"

"You can head back to your quarters for today, Raymond. I'll take care of the little princess."

Even if Raymond wanted to refuse her, Shakti was his superior. Besides, Yukiko was already running up to Shakti like she was a long lost friend.

She crawled up her back like a spider monkey until she had arrived at a firm perch atop Shakti's shoulders.

She proceeded to giggle madly like a cartoon character and bury her face in Shakti's forest of hair. "So fluffy!!"

For a moment, Big Country thought he might've seen a small blush mark her cheeks, but it disappeared before he could commit it to memory.

"Both of your pictures look very nice by the way." Shakti replied as she walked away.

Raymond wasn't sure if he should be thrilled or embarrassed by the fact that he had been found out.

At least the First Bane was a discreet individual. If anyone had to discover what he'd been doing with his afternoon, he would've preferred it be her.

-

Shakti could feel her heart pounding.

Just like the rest of the Cult, she hasn't actually seen Taira since the night they left the summit.

And that moment when he… with her hand…

*Bang!*

Without realizing it, Shakti ran smack into a set of doors; producing a fit of giggles from the tiny little girl riding on her shoulders.

"You are supposed to knock with your hands not your head! Mommy taught me that!" She giggled.

Shakti had realized two things in that moment.

One was that at some point the princess had needed to be informed that she shouldn't knock on doors with her frontal lobe that was still developing.

The other was that she was unbearably precious and Shakti was quite literally willing to die for her.

The latch on the door clicked open and Inadu poked her head outside.

"Shakti? Peanut?"

"Mommy!" Yukiko showed incredible agility and practically launched herself off Shakti's shoulders to land in her mother's arms.

"Hello there, my baby. I thought you were supposed to be with Raymond doing arts and crafts?"

"Want daddy!"

Inadu's expression threatened to crack underneath the weight of the blatant favoritism.

"N-Not mommy? Any of us?"

"Daddy!"

Shakti could've been imagining things, but she could have sworn she heard the sound of four hearts breaking behind the door.

Inadu discreetly rubbed a tear from her eyes and turned to Shakti. "Would you like to come in..?"

Shakti was largely robotic and unshakable, but that simple invitation had rattled her to her core in a way that no battle ever could.

"W-W… Would that not be p-presumptuous of m-m-me..?"

Inadu smiled shyly. "Well… you didn't come all the way here just to stand outside… did you?"

The door widened and Shakti saw a string of very familiar faces.

Namely, Taira's.

She was pretty sure everyone here was an advanced enough cultivator to hear the way her heart started beating out of control, and that single thought mortified her.

But she was almost too distracted by the appearance of Taira's face to care about that.

Unlike Shakti who was too mesmerized by Taira's face to notice what he was wearing, Yuki was much more observant.

"Go somewhere?" She tilted her head.

"I'm afraid we are, peanut." Aveena smiled sadly. "Your father and I are going on a small day trip and we'll spend the night away."

"I go too?" Yukiko pointed at herself.

It took every ounce of strength in Aveena's body to shake her head no. "Sorry, baby-doll. It's a work trip and it might be dangerous for you to go."

Yukio's ears couldn't have dropped any lower if she took them off and put them on the ground. The fragments of her mothers' broken hearts were crushed into even finer pieces.

"She can come with us." Taira suddenly said.

Yukiko's ears bounced back up with alarming speed and her eyes sparkled like gems. "Weally??"

Taira took her into his arms. "It may be a little dangerous though, so you can go as long as you have a proper chaperone to watch you."

Unanimously, everyone with the Amarok last name turned to stare at the only member among them who did not belong.

Shakti was still staring at Taira awkwardly; flustered that she had been rendered incapable of even saying so much as a word.

"Shakti?"

"Y-Y-Yes...?"

"You wouldn't happen to have any plans for the next day or so… Would you?" He smiled.

Shakti had initially promised to tutor some of the young ones today.

But she had almost completely forgotten about that as she shook her head without a thought behind her eyes.