Teratos High: Demon Hunters

Yes, you saw correctly. It actually is an update! *waits for everyone to stop fainting* Now that NANO is over for ZB we’re focusing on this story again, and the chapters should be coming a lot faster as we are determined to finish the story. I do hope you enjoy!

And now… on with the story!

~~~~

It was Tuesday and, so far, Anzu was not having a good day. She was the school whore, a succubus to the highest degree. With her black leathery wings poking out from her backless top and a short pleated skirt that rode up in all the right (or wrong) places, Anzu was considered a walking weapon. Modesty for Anzu was considered an art form. Something not really needed, but looked at with detached amusement.

Now, normally, she would prance through the Teratos hallways seductively eyeing the males of the school (even the mated ones); certain her charm could bag her any of them if she so chose. Though, naturally, she didn’t. She knew she deserved only the best, and the best was all she got. Nor was she shy about letting everyone else know that.

That was normally…

Today she was out for blood.

She swept through the school’s hallways, her every day bag by Louis Vitton clenched in her fist and her highly polished stiletto heels clicking on the onyx stone in a rapid progression. Even the other students, coming in with coffee filled thermos, sleepy-eyed, and irritable, instantly backed away from the storming girl. No one wanted a firm kick in the ass with a stiletto heel that early in the morning.

After she had left her house in middle-earth Buckhead, she had found she had managed to chip her pink poesy colored toes on the concrete outside. Screaming about the injustice of concrete driveways and the injustice of living in such a crappy place, she ranted until she was short of breath. She had then found that the vast amount of complaining had expended the breath she held in smoke eroded lungs. The results of which, made her exhausted and with the beginnings of a migraine. Naturally, this incurred her wrath again, and the ugly cycle repeated once more.

When she had finally realized she was about to be late, she had jumped into a shiny sports car that was stolen from the auto salesman she’d slept with. He was dead now, naturally, so he wasn’t able to report the car as stolen. On her way to school, she ran several red lights and was eventually pulled over by an angry police officer whom she’d had to seduce into allowing her to pass through unhindered. (She’d been careful not to kill that one. Cops tended to be as clannish and vengeful as demons. A headache she did not need.)

After reaching Teratos, she had parked her luxury Jaguar XF haphazardly between a rickety 1981 Toyota Starlet and a shiny red 2002 Nissan Maxima. She had just received her parking space today, and boy was she pissed when she saw who she had the pleasure of parking next to every day for the rest of the school year. Those poor bastards didn’t know what was going to befall them.

“Now the Nissan isn’t so bad, I could stand parking next to that mediocre piece of trash, but that Starlet…” She pretended to gag, “I can’t believe the school had the nerve to put me next to an abomination such as that!” Anzu complained about her petty issue to the one person she knew would listen: Ushio, her boyfriend.

The gigantic demon really couldn’t bring himself to care an exuberant amount about Anzu’s parking troubles. The conversation bored him so he took to digging at the built up wax in his ear. Anzu crinkled her nose, “You’re such a brute...”

Ushio ignored her half-hearted insult and glared at a few freshmen who were ogling at his girlfriend’s obvious and fully displayed curves.

“Get out of here you little horn dogs!” he snarled.

The freshmen jumped, intimidated by the large demon.

Ushio was the only pure bred demon left in the magical plane, hoisting the teenager up as one of the most feared and respected figures ever to step forth in Teratos High. This gave him a sort of regal standing, diplomatic immunity, and an incredibly swelled head. Clans clambered over each other in their eagerness to impress him enough to join them. He never did. He’d always felt himself to be too good for clans. He was large, strong, and magically the most powerful thing at Teratos. Still, despite all that, he was to be pitied.

When he was barely a year old, his parents had been killed by blood thirsty humans. When the mortals had murdered two of the most respected figures in demonic society, many had eagerly fought with each other to adopt the demon child. But, despite having been taken in by one of the wealthiest families Hell had to offer, none had been able to match his parents in strength and status.

Since his parents had been considered the Lord and Lady of Hell, they’d had tea time with Beelzebub and went golfing with Lucifer on Sundays. Both were fallen angels, not true demons like Ushio and his parents, but every bit as ruthless and evil. It was a mark of extreme status to be allowed to associate with the two Fallen at all; much less be considered friends. (A status his adoptive parents simply had not possessed.) Had his parents survived, he wouldn’t have needed to raise a pinky throughout his entire life. As it was, despite growing up spoiled and powerful, Ushio wanted more. He had a powerful need to prove he was every bit as powerful as his parents had been and reclaim their former status. More than that, he wanted his very name to send tremors of fear coursing through humans and demons alike.

“You ought to wear more clothes,” Ushio snarled and wrapped a possessive arm around Anzu’s bare midriff, “You only need to dress this way for me.”

Anzu resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She truthfully wasn’t interested in Ushio, but he had proved to be a convenient source of food and status. Having sex with the demon kept the sheen in Anzu’s hair and the bounce in her stiletto clad feet. There was only one other sex demon that attended Teratos, and he was the only man Anzu had ever truly desired.

Yugi the incubus, the student who starved his body of its basic needs because it went against his moral code. He was the only man who’d ever kept Anzu at arms length. And for that alone he tantalized her. More than anything she wanted to be Yugi’s permanent lover if not his mate. But he refused to allow himself to tempt fate and sleep with her. Even to the point of openly denying her.

Her black blood seared with anger. How could anyone refuse her? It was unseemly, unthinkable, and most of all, it was insulting.

“I only dress this way for you.” Anzu purred manipulatively, walking two fingers from his chest up to his chin. She ran one white finger across his nose; it was misshapen, probably from being broken once before. Anzu hid a grimace and planted a kiss on his lips, “So why are you complaining?” Her hair was plaited into a long brown rope and it pooled on his shoulder when he hoisted her up into his arms. Ushio ate her excuse up like a shark that smelled blood.

“Of course.” The demon ran a hand through the loose strands of hair from Anzu’s braid and smirked, “Now I know why you wear so little clothing, it’s easier to take off...”

Blue eyes shot up towards the ceiling, “You’re such a pig.”

“Oink, Oink.”

The two demons walked hand and hand to Anzu’s first class. When the first bell rang, Anzu looked at Ushio with large puppy blue eyes. “Hey honey,” She sang. Ushio turned black eyes towards her.

“Yeah?”

She rocked back and forth on her heels, a miraculous feat for one wearing stilettos, “Could you please do something about those nasty cars that are parking next to me..?”

The demon cracked his knuckles, a sinister look spreading across his face, “Sure thing sweetie.”

Ushio wasn’t afraid of being caught in the hallways, after all he was the head hall monitor, and his lackeys wouldn’t dare put him in detention. Not that anyone would.

“One more thing Ushio!” Anzu called from the doorway, “There’s this really annoying kid named Yami in my class. He’s a human...” She giggled, “Could you please...” She trailed off, moving her index finger across her throat, “... Do him in?”

Ushio smirked, knowing who she was talking about, “Yami huh?” The weedy little mortal that had lied about his name and needed a meddling Chimera to interfere in his affairs, “Yeah, I know who you’re talking about... I’ll send some of my men to scout out his house.”

~~~~

Yami didn’t go to school the next day. Something about getting your hand bitten through by a vampire seemed to exclude him from daily activities, so the orphan just relaxed and enjoyed his day off.

Isis came down to Yami’s new room on the lower level, a small smile on her face. Yami looked at his foster mother suspiciously; there was something about her easy-going aura that had him looking around for a weapon.

Of course, most things about people had him looking around for a weapon, but that was beside the point.

“How would you like to go visit the orphanage?” She asked. Yami froze his mental search for things in his room that could be used as a weapon. Ruby eyes gazed at Isis, unblinking. Yami couldn’t be sure if she was joking, but she didn’t seem to be the joking type. Yami had hardly ever seen her smile.

Yami frowned, “Is this a joke?” He demanded, suddenly suspicious that they were getting rid of him already, “Because it’s not funny.”

“I’m not joking.” Isis said serenely. She sat on the edge of Yami’s bed, “In fact, the orphanage is close enough to walk to.” She eyed the suspicious look on Yami’s face and smiled, “Rest assured we have no intention of sending you back Yami. We merely thought you would like to visit your friends there.” Her smile widened at the hopeful look of elation on Yami’s face, “Would you like detailed directions?” She asked.

Yami nodded, sitting up in his bed and kicking off his covers. “Yeah!” He exclaimed, excited.

He could see Leo and the others!

“But first...”

Yami flopped back down on his bed. He had just known there was going to be some sort of requirement, but he had just been so excited when he found out there was a chance he might be able to see Leo again that he had jumped at the chance anyway.

“What do I need to do?” He asked glumly, “Get baptized by the pope? Jump up and down while rubbing my belly, patting my head while singing ‘It’s Raining Men’? Or should I jump down a sewage pipe and save Princess Peach, or would you prefer Hyrule to save Princess Zelda?”

“While that’s a good idea,” Isis said in amusement, “I’d never ask you to do the impossible,” She looked at Yami and folded her hands in her lap, “Could you please wash the dishes while your father and I are out in a business meeting? We won’t be back until late, and neither of us will be up to it.”

Yami was shocked; he was actually expecting it to be something hard. In his previous adoption families he’d have to do the house work by default. He was never asked.

“I know you’re probably still not feeling well,” Isis said apologetically, “But after you’re done you’ll be free to go off wherever you please.” She gave him a sharp look, “So long as it’s not illegal, you’re back by dinner, and you don’t get yourself killed.”

“That’s fine.” He replied truthfully sitting up to grab some, relatively, clean clothes, “I can do the dishes.” He paused and looked at her curiously, “Out of curiosity… why would you and Shadi need to clean anyway? I know you can afford the help.”

Isis gave him an amused smile, one of her delicate fangs appearing under her lip, “With our clan it would be rather difficult to hide what we are for long from human housekeepers, and I wouldn’t trust a strange demon to walk across the threshold of this house much less clean it.” She shrugged, “We have a cleaning service come in once a month to do the major dusting and such, but we do the daily upkeep. It’s easier that way.”

Yami thought about that a minute and shrugged, “Makes sense I guess.” He got off the bed and went to his closet, picking out a black shirt that looked clean. Isis chuckled to herself and got up to head out.

“Yami?” Isis asked, turning back around to face him.

“Yeah?” He grunted distractedly, pulling gray jeans over his boxers and unhooking his wallet chain from the pants he had worn on the previous day. They were blood stained, and with a grunt of disgust he tossed them in the trashcan. He hooked his wallet chain on the belt loop of his pants and stuffed the wallet in his back pocket.

“Shadi and I both owe you an apology.” She said seriously, “Several in fact. I won’t bother with reasons or excuses, but please know that despite what you may think our intent was not to hurt or betray you. And we hope that you can one day forgive us. We’re very sorry.”

Once more Yami found himself dumbfounded. An apology? She was actually apologizing to him? None of his previous foster parents had ever bothered apologizing for any of the things they’d done to him. And he’d had no expectation of getting one from these people. He had no idea what to make of it, and even less idea of what to say.

Yami shrugged uncomfortably, pulling out a black wrist band and stretching it over his forearm. It was plain black and made of cloth, not particularly useful when dealing with sweat. But habit was habit. He turned towards Isis and gave her a tentative smirk, “Thanks Isis.”

Isis nodded in understanding and looked away. “Okay,” She replied, “Shadi and I are going to leave now, but if you need us you can contact us on our cell phones. Do you have the numbers?”

Yami nodded, eager to start on the dishes so he could start walking towards the orphanage.

“The directions are on the counter; it can be confusing at first, Shadi has horrible hand writing, but you’ll eventually be able to read it if you stare at it long enough.” She smiled and walked towards the door, “We’ll be back around seven or so, and we’ll get some take out while we’re gone. I’ll see you at dinner.”

She left. Seconds passed, and soon Yami could hear the car pull out of the driveway. He smiled to himself, relishing in the feeling that he had the house to himself. Yami’s smile grew wide. Soon he’d be able to see Leo again. This was a good day.

He left his room and saw the pile of dishes. Judging by the amount of porcelain, he figured that it would take him about an hour to finish. He pushed the wrist band higher up his arm. The faster he started on his chores, the faster he’d be able to see Leo.

~~~~

Yami frowned at the small scrap of paper clenched in his hand. He was having little or no luck trying to read Shadi’s instructions that would take him to the orphanage, the hand writing looked suspiciously like a ransom note. A serial killer might view Shadi’s note as a type of exquisite calligraphy; simply because it looked like the person who wrote the note was getting brutally murdered. Christ. How old was Shadi anyway? A twenty-something year old shouldn’t be writing like a mass murderer. Yami sighed; knowing there was little or no use in trying to decipher the scribbles that were seemingly written in another language.

A very demented language… Was this Orcish?

He turned back to the house, hoping Isis and Shadi weren’t involved so deeply in their conference that they wouldn’t have the time to give Yami better directions. Now if only Yami could remember their cell phone numbers…

Yami was still in his neighborhood, and he swiped a glance at the rusty watch he’d strapped to his wrist. If he moved quickly, he’d be able to walk to the orphanage, spend a couple hours with Leo and the others, and come back by dinner. The dishes had taken him longer then he thought they would. Though that was mostly because of Yami’s anal attentiveness sparked when he saw the dusty appliances, and the carpet that needed to be vacuumed... Just to say it simply, Yami was there longer than one could expect of the orphan. So now he was running late and he had no urge to become lost while attempting to read Shadi’s psychotic handwriting.

He just rounded the corner that would take him to the street he lived on, when a glossy Volvo, packing more speed than necessary, fish tailed wildly around a turn and sped towards a surprised Yami. The orphan’s heart sped up, the tinted window shield screaming towards him like the grim reaper. He barely had enough time to think the coloring was odd when he saw that the driver was in a hurry and most likely not planning on slowing down. Yami dove out of the road and rolled to a stop under some over grown bushes shaped like a giraffe’s head. And not a moment too soon.

The car had accelerated, leaving burning rubber and tire tracks in the place the orphan had been standing seconds before. Yami felt his mouth run dry; he swallowed thickly to moisten his throat. If he had hesitated for a second more, Yami would be nothing more than road kill rotting on the side of the street.

Slowly, Yami peeled his body from the grass. He couldn’t work his mind enough to cuss fanatically at the driver who had almost killed him. He couldn’t even lift a hand to flip them the birdie.

What Yami had seen a split seconds before he jumped out of oncoming danger, was a wrinkled teenager. A demon.

Adrenaline and fear had slowed down the actions and quickened his reaction time. Quite clearly through tinted glass, Yami was able to make out the teenager’s squinting eyes lock with his, the unmistakable able look of glee, and the tightening of emaciated hands gripping the steering wheel as he sped up.

“That was intentional.” Yami muttered, a mixture of shock and anger mingling with his reawakening senses, “That son of a bitch, tried to run me over!” He raised his body from the sculpted bush head and brushed his gray pants roughly. There were grass stains left on the knees.

Just perfect.

Yami snarled at them, as though hoping that if he glared at them long enough they would go away. Stubbornly, the spots refused to jump in fear at Yami’s fierce look and remained blissfully unaware, happily staining Yami’s only good pair of pants.

So much for his so called “Demonic” glare…

He sighed just coming to grips with the situation. Should he tell Shadi and Isis about the attack? He wasn’t so sure about that. He still didn’t trust them, despite the earlier apology, and frankly the orphan wasn’t sure how they would take to Yami accusing a demon of attempted vehicular manslaughter. Not that he actually knew it had been aimed at him… For all he knew it had been an accident. He didn’t figure demons were above losing control of their cars from time to time… Right. And he was the second coming.

He snorted at his own thoughts. Okay so accident was vastly unlikely… still, there was no proof that he’d been specifically targeted. It could’ve been a random act; perhaps engineered by a rabid group who hated humans. That seemed far more likely. His debut into the demonic world had only been one day, and despite his adventures, he didn’t think it likely he’d picked up and enemy who knew where he lived so soon. Which pretty much left him with… a drunk driver or a rabid human hating lunatic. Neither option sounded like a particularly appealing discussion with his foster parents. Not after yesterday. He sighed again and turned down the street towards his house.

That’s when he froze.

And unrecognizable car was parked in the driveway. Apparently empty. Yami automatically dismissed the idea of it being Isis or Shadi’s, they only had one car and they both left the house at the same time. Yami frowned feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up and his palms prickling with perspiration.

He slowly walked up the driveway, checking the car to see if there was anyone waiting inside. It was empty. The car was a green Pontiac and it looked as though it had been used before. Yami frowned, the car stuck out horrifically against the sleek white mansions that decorated the expansive lawns. He crept forward towards the front door to the Sobek’s house and tried the door, it swung open.

Silently, Yami pushed the door open, tightening his hand into a fist and relaxing it. A long white scar shone in jagged peaks on his tan knuckles. Yami had discovered it that morning and assumed Serenity had healed the injury he had received from the monster whose face he pounded in previously back when he was drugged with morphine.

“Who’s here?” Yami called sharply. A glass broke from inside the kitchen, and red eyes followed the noise keenly. He walked slowly to the kitchen and pushed open the glass door.

Suddenly a tan and blond blur rushed out of the kitchen and tackled Yami to the floor.

“Yami! Mariku is so sorry! He didn’t mean to chew on your hand!” Yami flailed a little under the vampire’s powerful grip, but Mariku plowed on heedlessly, “Though Mariku should point out he didn’t enjoy it!” He made a disgusted face down at the squashed human, “Yami tastes icky!”

“Mariku I think you’re smothering him…” A voice Yami instantly recognized as Bakura spoke up dryly. Mariku looked at his new clansmen and abruptly scrambled up sheepishly.

“Mariku is sorry again!”

Yami waved off the vampire, but refrained from answering in favor of regaining his senses, “What the hell are you guys doing here?” He asked after a minute.

“Bringing you your work obviously.” Bakura smirked holding up a fat envelope, “Today’s and the rest of yesterday’s. Lucky for you; you share all your classes with at least one member of the clan.”

“Clan?” Yami asked in confusion as he finally got back to his feet and took the envelope from Bakura. The chimera chuckled.

“Yeah. A demon clan.” At Yami’s continued confusion he grinned, “That’s what we call a group of demons who are close enough to be actual friends as opposed to casual acquaintances or allies.”

“Ah.” Yami grunted, deciding not to question further. He had a feeling that demonic society would give him more of a headache than human society did, “So how’d you get in?”

“Bakura picked the locks, and Mariku disarmed the alarm.” Yugi sighed giving his two clansmen a mild glare as he strolled in, “They didn’t need to though. Both of these jerks have keys, and know the code.”

“But Yugi!” Mariku whined, “It’s more fun that way! Mariku and Bakura need to stay in practice!”

Yugi rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, “Yes, and Isis will kill you, again, if you’ve cost her another alarm system in the process. And Shadi will help her.” He smirked wickedly, “Or have you forgotten what he did the last time?”

“How could we forget?” Bakura drawled lazily and tapped his toe restlessly against the thick carpet. He tossed the envelope containing Yami’s assignments onto the glass coffee table before he slumped back against the plush couch behind him. “It took weeks for the stench of holy water to come out of my hair.”

Yami raised an eyebrow, momentarily distracted from his immediate concern over the lunatic-human-hating-driver by the talk about holy water, homework, and who knew what else. “You guys can’t really expect me to go back to Teratos, can you?” He shot the envelope with his assignments in it a scathing glare. “Multiple people were trying to kill me on a regular basis. I think it’s pretty safe I’m going into public schooling now.”

Bakura eyed the glaring human with faint amusement. Yami was certainly oblivious to the way things were done in their clan. Even if the other attempted to transfer to a public school, he couldn’t get rid of them so easily. “Luckily you have us to watch your back from now on. Although we can’t do anything to help you if you stick your hand in a vampires mouth again.” He raised a white eyebrow, mirroring Yami’s expression, “That one was on you.”

Yami flushed slightly at the reminder of his folly and jammed his hands in his pockets as if trying to hide the evidence. Bakura had a good point. If he thought about it, he hadn’t been acting in a self-preserving way. Sticking his hand near a vampire’s mouth? Hell, it just sounded like a bad idea. Oh well, hindsight had 20/20 vision.

It wasn’t as if Yami had been a perfect student in public school anyway. He didn’t have friends he could rely on, and his smart mouth would often get him into trouble. Fights were a common thing for him. Why should it matter if the one throwing the punch was a human or a demon? He mentally weighed the pros and cons.

Well most demons could break walls... and humans couldn’t. Con.

But here, he at least had a ‘clan’ that theoretically wouldn’t abandon him. Yami met Bakura’s gaze with a glare and picked up the envelope reluctantly. He’d give them a chance. One. His survival instincts were screaming at him that this was a bad idea, but Yami wanted to see. He had to grudgingly admit that Bakura had grown on him some. And the Chimera had come to his rescue once before. And not just him. His gaze drifted over towards Yugi who was watching him carefully for a reaction. The incubus had flown him to safety during Bakura’s fire to distract Ushio. That handsome bastard didn’t even like Yami all that much but he still helped him. Pro.

It didn’t hurt that the handsome bastard was undeniably attractive.

Unfortunately that meant Yami was sticking his neck out on the line for a ‘maybe.’ For hope. For a concept and idea that he didn’t even believe in or give a damn about. His heart thudded in fear. He was afraid to trust these demons with this much. His life was literally hinging on this. Con.

He sucked it up and opened the envelope. Yami didn’t have time to really deal with life making decisions right now, so he was just going to trust his impulses for once. After all, he needed to get a cryptologist on the phone so he could attempt to decipher Shadi’s directions. Yami needed to see Leo. Badly. Just as a distraction from the crazy days he had been having ever since he was adopted.

“Fine,” Yami grumbled and eyed the gathered demons with annoyance as he filtered through the papers, “But as much as I’d love to discuss this with you guys in greater detail, I’m about to leave.” There was pretty much no point in kicking the demons out. Not if they could just break in again if they felt like it. “So, uh... Just hang out here I guess?” He shrugged and walked over to the phone.

Luckily Isis had enough insight into the male teenage mind to know that Yami would immediately forget any and all important numbers that he may have needed, and thus placed a notepad with both of their numbers printed neatly on the top page. Yami raised an eyebrow. Why couldn’t Isis have written the directions? At the very least she wrote legibly. He dialed Shadi’s number as he was the one to give Yami the poor directions in the first place, so now he had to deal with the confused teenager.

After a few rings, Shadi picked up, “Hello?” The man’s voice crackled over the speaker. Yami frowned slightly as he picked up the note of distraction in the other’s voice. So Shadi was busy, oh well, Yami would be fast.

“It’s Yami.” He clarified over the phone, vaguely aware of the demons beginning to crowd around him curiously. “I can’t read your handwriting to get to the orphanage. Where the hell am I going?” He demanded.

There was a pause and the sound of shuffling papers. Shadi sighed, “Call Mariku. He knows where it is.”

The said vampire’s ears twitched at the sound of his name and he looked at Yami curiously. The human in turn gave Mariku a suspicious look, “You know where the orphanage I come from is?” He asked the other, not bothering to cover the receiver from Shadi. These guys all had super hearing or whatever. There was little point in hiding anything from them really.

Mariku slowly looked from the receiver to Yami, down to the poorly written instructions in the human’s hand. He nodded.

“Do you have everything under control?” Shadi asked over the phone, still distracted, and obviously wanting to return to his work, “Can you get there alright?”

“Yeah. He knows where it is.” Yami decided to have mercy on the poor businessman. He had probably eaten up a lot of his time with his question. “I’ll let you get back to whatever it is you’re doing.” He gestured at Mariku to get ready to show him before hanging up with Shadi.

Whatever it was his foster father was doing must have been highly distracting to warrant such a conversation. Yami shrugged. It didn’t matter to him; whatever it was about was probably boring and had nothing to do with Yami.

--::--

Shadi sighed as he sat at a conference table, looking over a book filled with gruesome pictures. He could remember each of the events portrayed in the illustrations with sharp clarity. Each and every single horrible one of them. As an angel, he was not allowed to kill another angel. Nor was he allowed to kill a human. But that particular rule had been broken before...

He came across the picture he was interested in and surveyed the scene. Wings covered the sky and demons littered the ground, hunting the Hunters. Angels and Demons worked together to defeat an unholy threat. Mortals. Except... different. The scene was horrific and the ground ran red with the blood of those they had killed.

His cell phone rang, jerking him out of his thoughts and sending adrenaline coursing through his body. He was jumpy. Nervous. He distractedly answered it without looking at the caller ID, his heart beating rapidly, “Hello?”

“It’s Yami. I can’t read your handwriting to get to the orphanage. Where the hell am I going?”

Shadi glanced over at the open book and shook his head, amazed at the timing. Speak of the devil and he shall come. He looked down at the book absently running his fingers over the thick paper. “Call Mariku.” He said, once more getting absorbed in the memories the haunting images induced.

“Who’s that?” A voice came from across the room. Shadi spun around, his heart once more beating a mile a minute in his chest. At this rate he was going to send himself into an early grave. Again. He glared at the man who was currently sitting at his desk with his feet propped up on the surface and covered up the receiver.

“Mahaado!” Shadi growled, “What’re you doing here? How’d you get into my office?” He demanded.

“Someone is a grumpy bastard today,” Mahaado said blandly, tucking his long purple hair behind his ears, “Whatever happened to a good old fashioned, ‘Hello, how are you doing today?’” He stood up and walked over towards the other. He smiled slightly at the Guardian Angel, glad to see him even if the greeting was rough. “I’ll fill in the gap then. How have you been brother?”

Shadi strained a smile at his brother, “I think it can go without saying.” He shook his head, “There’s no privacy anywhere.” He smiled with a resigned sigh.

Mahaado snorted, “In this clan? You’d be lucky if you can go to the bathroom without someone knowing.” The purple haired angel certainly had an advantage over most in that area. He was a Tracker. This meant that he could find anyone, anywhere just so long as they were in the same realm as him. It was both a useful and annoying trait to have. “So who’s on the phone?” He looked at Shadi curiously.

Shadi looked back at the phone on his shoulder and put it back up to his face, mouthing at Mahaado to give him a second, “Do you have everything under control? Can you get there all right?” He nodded as he listened to the response before saying goodbye and hanging up.

“That wasn’t anyone important. Just a business partner trying to find an area to go to lunch” Shadi lied smoothly, looking at the other angel idly. Shadi was a damn fine liar, but he knew it was pointless to even try against Mahaado. That was the hazard of being brothers.

Sure enough, Mahaado raised a skeptical eyebrow as he caught the lie. There was surprise on his face, showing that he was shocked Shadi would even try. He crossed his arms and gave Shadi an annoyed glare, clearly displeased that his brother wanted to play that game. However, he took the hint for what it was and changed the subject. Purple eyes fell on the book beside Shadi and Mahaado felt his annoyance drain away at the sight.

“Is that a copy of Heaven’s Mandate?” Mahaado asked curiously as he drew near. He caught sight of the illustration Shadi had been looking at and drew away with a soft hiss, “Shadi! What the hell are you looking at this for?”

Shadi looked sharply down at the book and closed it quickly. He was far too late as the damage had already been done. “I was just curious.” He said flatly and picked up the book to shove it into the bookshelf in the back wall.

Mahaado frowned and cut off his brother, gripping his arm before he could get far, “Curious?” He growled in irritation, “What could you possibly be curious about? We both fought in that war and saw...” He trailed off and shook his head to dispel the morbid thoughts the book inspired. He looked at Shadi firmly, “What we saw was a first hand truth that no one can ever know.” His jaw locked.

The Guardian angel pulled his arm free and gave Mahaado a stern look, “I know brother.” He said gently, “I was just curious...” He stressed.

Mahaado shook his head, “About what?” He demanded, “Why do you even want to think about what happened? It’s far too fresh. For Christ’s sake Shadi, it happened barely eighteen years ago!”

“I want to know what happened to those we killed!” Shadi snapped furiously in response. “Some were innocents! Children! They hadn’t committed any crimes! What happened to them?” Mahaado flinched away as if he had been burned. He rubbed an area underneath his robes subconsciously and Shadi looked away, ashamed he had brought up a tender subject with his brother.

“I didn’t mean to shout.” Shadi apologized quietly. Mahaado had problems... in the past. This struck a little close to them for Mahaado’s comfort which was most likely the reason why he preferred to forget about the entire incident.

Mahaado shook his head and looked up at Shadi with a slight smile, “Don’t worry about it.” He looked out the window and slipped his hands into the pockets of his robe. His chest ached as if it had been sliced open. To kill an innocent had bothered Mahaado. It was just as bad as killing a Guardian Angel’s charge. He rubbed his chest again, finding it slightly difficult to breath. “It’s a good question. One I’ll admit that I’ve asked before.”

“And did you find any answers?” Shadi asked softly, looking over at his brother intensely. This answer was important to the Guardian Angel. Far more important than Mahaado realized. The question had tormented Shadi since the war, but now it had reached new levels in its intensity. His fear had been personal before, but now... Now it was even closer.

The tracker shook his head, “No. I found nothing.” Mahaado shook his head. Shadi’s face fell and he sat back down in his seat, his hands coming up to rest over his eyes. He shook his head slightly as despair settled on his shoulders. Mahaado’s chest tightened at the sight of his brother’s pain and settled his hand on the other’s shoulders, “I found nothing, but I didn’t look very hard.” He said softly.

Shadi looked up at Mahaado in confusion. “What do you mean?” He asked the other with a slight frown. Mahaado lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

“Listen Shadi, I don’t deal with this type of stuff well,” Mahaado sat on the table and looked at the Guardian sternly, “I’d much rather run away from the problem and deal with it alone when I can.”

“Sounds like your approach to women,” Shadi teased with a faint smile.

“That’s neither here or now thank you very much,” Mahaado snorted and glared at Shadi, flushing slightly at the reminder of his love life. Or lack thereof. “I was referring to the fact that I didn’t want to find the answer.”

Shadi frowned, “But why not?” He could understand how his brother didn’t like dealing with shadows of his past. And he liked searching for answers to them even less. But in this case, the suspicions that they had truly killed something or someone weighed heavily on both of their minds. To ease that fear, even a little... Wasn’t it worth it?

Mahaado looked out the window. He chose not to answer Shadi’s question, but instead turned to look at his brother flatly, “Do you want me to look for you?” He asked quietly. “I’m going back to Hell soon anyway. Do you want me to search for those that we killed?”

Shadi nodded, looking up at his brother resolutely. He needed Mahaado out of the way for now anyway, much to Shadi’s intense regret. He simply couldn’t bring himself to embroil Mahaado into his mess. The tracker had enough issues to deal with currently. But Shadi needed this favor. He was not afraid of the answer he hoped Mahaado could provide. It was one he needed to know. For his peace of mind.

And for Yami’s.

This had everything and nothing to do with him. Shadi could only hope it had nothing to do with him...

Mahaado nodded and clapped his brother on the shoulder. “I’ll see you soon then.” He grunted before sliding off of the table. He looked at Shadi, “Give my regards to the rest of the clan. And apologize to them for not being able to stick around longer.” He gave Shadi a stern look, “I’ll be back soon. So don’t think you’ve gotten rid of me yet.” He smirked before walking out of Shadi’s office.

The Guardian angel smiled sadly as he watched the other depart. He sighed and pulled out the Mandate of Heaven a second time, letting it fall on the page he had marked. The ruby red eyes of children screaming in pain loomed up at him from the dusty pages, and Shadi suppressed a shudder. Those eyes would haunt him forever.

Neither human nor demon. Not even a half-breed.

Just a soulless husk.

Yami.

--::--