CHAPTER ELEVEN: DEMONS ARE LOGICAL.

      "Her face looks very pale," Kanato pointed out as he watched Yui from the edge of the couch. He pressed Teddy to his chest fiercely, as they all surrounded Yui's body.

      "She could wake up at any moment," Reiji spoke, trying to relax his siblings, though it was of little use.

      "But will she or Yui wake up?" Izumi sketched out the troubling question that overwhelmed her mind. Though it was not a question directed at anyone. Rather, it was a thought, no one was certain who would triumph. "They must be fighting each other as we speak."

      "Is there no way to get that bitch out of her?", Ayato now asked, looking directly at Shu. But his half-brother didn't answer him, didn't even bother to look at him before the red-haired man returned his gaze to the static body.

      It had been a while. Ayato had sat on the armrest of the couch where Yui's body lay, while Shu occupied a single-body couch next to him. Subaru was the farthest away, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed in an attempt to create a barrier. Izumi accompanied Kanato standing behind the backrest.

      Everyone's gazes were lost. They rested on undefined points while the ideas in their minds took them to other places. The only thing present in the room was their physical bodies, because the questions of what would happen were too many to remain there.

      However, whatever train of thought the vampires carried in their heads were interrupted by Yui's (or Cordelia's) moans of pain. Kanato and Izumi leaned over the backrest, poking their heads over the barrier to carefully observe the previously inert body. The purple-haired boy raised his eyebrows together.

      "That looks very painful."

      Ayato walked over and crouched down beside her. "Hey, wake up," he demanded, but to no avail. The moaning intensified, and she began to move her head from side to side.

      "What's happening to her?" Subaru asked.

      "The Awakening must have begun," replied Shu.

      "There is no record of ordinary mortal women awakening with the power of a vampire, is there, brothers?" Kanato fretted.

      "That's right, because no recipient has ever survived the process."

      "But this time it's different," Ayato spoke, speaking almost without consciousness as he watched the girl with his eyes wide open for any sign. "Yui has that woman's heart inside her."

      Kanato covered half of his face with Teddy, and moved closer to Izumi.

      "Then, will she really die?"

      "Isn't there a way to save her?"

      "There is, but it is incomplete," Reiji mentioned. Everyone's attention was on him with the idea of having a mere hope. "I made a remedy that will kill that woman once and for all."

      "It's unusual for you to come to us with an unfinished product. What do you need to finish it?"

      "I think I need a piece of that woman," Reiji replied.

      "But there's nothing left of her that we can use," Subaru countered, still folding his arms.

      "In fact, I have something," Kanato revealed. He ripped Teddy's head off and took out a small purple vial from his stuffing. Beside him, Izumi wrinkled her nose, imagining what the contents were. "I don't need it, not anymore."

      Kanato gave the jar to Reiji and he opened it, looking inside.

      "Is this what I think it is?" he asked, but had no answer as he placed the ashes of Cordelia's body inside the remedy and mixed it.

      From one second to the next, the liquid changed color. It was no longer that dark purple color, but became crystal clear, similar to water. Reiji's lips stretched into a smile, and he laughed victoriously.

      "Did it work?" Ayato asked hopefully. The boy's boyish grin only rubbed off onto Izumi's face even though it hurt. He had rarely given her that smile. However, it was so infectious that she couldn't help but retort it.

      After he had given Yui the remedy, silence once again took over the room. Izumi caught a whiff of burning in the air, and it was then that she deciphered what Laito meant when he promised her that he would go and prove that no one could mistreat her.

      Ayato approached the couch again and looked at Izumi for a moment, as if asking for permission. The vampiress nodded ever so slightly, looking away as Ayato approached Yui's lips and placed his on top.

      Her red gaze met Shu's, who smiled comfortingly at her without showing his teeth, and Izumi breathed in through her nose. She remembered how the blond had told her that the end of her kingdom had come along with the appearance of the human girl, but she refused to accept that this would be its culmination.

      "Ayato," Yui stammered as she awoke. A big smile settled on the red-haired vampire's face as she raised her hand and wiggled her fingers. "I'm alive... I don't think so. What am I doing here?"

      "Yui, don't worry about it. You don't need to know," Ayato spoke, his voice being too honeyed for Izumi to bear. Laito entered the room at that instant, taking the pinkhead's hand and squeezing it as he wrapped his other arm around her waist. She rested her head in the hollow between his shoulder and head as she looked at Yui, who looked at them.

      "Everyone is here," she observed the vampires around her before sitting down, "I'm really thirsty, I don't know why."

      Laito purred a laugh, "Great, bitch-chan is fine after all. Now," he raised his voice, turning his head in Shu's direction, "Shu, do you have anything to say in your defense before I sweep your ashes away?"

      Izumi frowned, "Laito? What-?"

      "Fourth-rate pervert," Shu snorted through his nose. "He's only like this because I drank your blood."

      Before anyone could do anything, Laito disappeared from Izumi's side and appeared at Shu's side, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt again and lifting him up.

      "Call me whatever you want, I can't believe that-"

      Shu yawned.

      Laito clenched his jaw. He raised his fist, to which Shu just looked at him with disinterest, almost as if daring him to do it. Which, of course, only provoked the chestnut more. However, before the fight broke out, Izumi intervened, wrapping her hand around Laito's fist.

      "Laito, listen to me. I-" she interrupted herself, taking a short breath through her nose before continuing, "I let him do it. He didn't do it by force. It was... consensual."

      "What?" the look the vampire sent her was perplexing. The girl took a step back, and opened her mouth to explain herself, but soon someone else intervened.

      Ayato pushed his brother, causing him to let go of Shu, so he could look at the vampire, "Shu did what?"

      Izumi turned her scarlet eyes on Ayato. She placed her hands at her sides, balled into fists, as her brows furrowed. "And who do you think you are to now claim anything-?"

      The girl cut herself off as she was taken by surprise. Shu wrapped one arm around her arms, and with the other she pulled down the collar of the corset dress she was wearing, revealing the skin of her neck and the marks of old bites. Then, observing the triplets he grinned mischievously, showing off his fangs.

      "Bastard, let go of me now," Izumi shrieked, struggling against his grip.

      But Shu was gone, too pleased with the anger he was causing in the room. "Huh? But you love it when I do it, Yu. You always moan my name..."

      "Can you stop this?" Reiji burst in , drawing everyone's attention to the fact that he was holding Subaru, who looked possessed by anger. At that, Izumi frowned in confusion, and Subaru turned away from Reiji and averted his gaze elsewhere, trying to act disinterested.

      "Clearly, this is another problem we have to deal with," Reiji continued. His gaze wandered over the faces of his siblings, until he finally stopped at the source of the discord. He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose in a gesture of annoyance. "I'm just going to state the obvious: no one is allowed to take Izumi's blood from now on.

      "And who do you think you are to decide that, otaku butler?" Ayato roared.

      Reiji barely looked at him before turning his attention to Izumi. "Do you agree with my suggestion, Izumi?"

      The girl looked around, realizing at that very moment the hunger that rested behind the eyes of every vampire around her. Even Reiji, who was trying to hide it, was looking at her with a new desire: probably because having more power would be what would finally lead him to be recognized as better than his brother.

      Izumi swallowed, "Yes, I agree."

      Reiji nodded, "You heard, there's a new rule," he muttered, and shot a look full of disgust at his brother. "Didn't you hear, good for nothing?"

      Shu clicked his tongue, finally releasing the girl. And in a matter of seconds, they all disappeared from the room. Izumi blinked as she realized she was alone but as quickly as she noticed, she heard the sound of someone moving on the couch.

      Yui peeked her head over the backrest sheepishly, resting her pink eyes on her with concern. "Izumi.... Are you all right?"

      The vampiress growled, disgusted that the human was asking her such a question. And it didn't take long for her to disappear just like the rest of them.