'Ripe Night' or 'The Night Turned Ripe'. It was a jargon speech figure used around the North whenever all vampiric creatures became blood-crazed. This would commonly affect low-ranking vampires but nobles and above weren't exactly an exemption. A Ripe Night was fueled by a thick fragrance of blood scent which was detrimental to those who had cracks in their mental barriers.

Amadeus was quick to leave the hallway and returned to his room, slamming it closed. Before he left, he vaguely heard Kurtis ushering Evangeline away to stay with Alanis. Of course he would, all his brothers knew what mess he was going to be.

Damn it!

His breathing was going quick and deep, sweat trickled down from his temple and he went paler than usual. Damn it! It smelled so good that it was vexing! Amadeus needed to anchor himself. Psyche, I need you! You're the only one who can keep me from falling apart! An image of a woman flashed in his mind as he took long strides to his music room which he kept locked.

Taking the keys out, the white-haired vampire pushed it in and opened the door to go to his Psyche but he froze halfway–orchid purple eyes staring with pain at the corpse in a bridal outfit. This was the reality of his Psyche.

"Amadeus?"

The voice calling from outside the music room only rattled him more, "DO NOT COME IN HERE, HUMAN! THAT IS AN ORDER!" The past few days Amadeus spent with the youngest Harker, he would not voice out to anyone that she did keep him amused in a good way–seeing her conflict whenever she was fixing her hair or the fact that the hotel uniform wasn't to her liking, all the stuff troublesome to her were so trivial.

But they never shared the bed, since Wisdom assigned her to him, Amadeus started holing himself in the music room with his instruments and corpse bride.

A huff and approaching footsteps, "Well try again! I am not taking your order tonight! You are supposed to comfort me right now not leave me out there!"

Huh?! Was she thinking right? "Are you a fool?! What comfort?! You're a pet!" Amadeus tried to keep his growling at a low volume, his throat was hurting.

Evangeline didn't stop, she would finally get to see this room Amadeus locked himself in–maybe he had some lecherous stuff here! "Put it however way you want but I am smart and referring to me as a pet is only your way to cover the fact that you care for me!"

That was the most outrageous thing Amadeus heard tonight, this woman seriously was a walking definition of damsel but he wasn't sure if she was in distress or she was the one causing him distress. His ill thoughts about Evangeline faded into the black as the bloodlust increased.

"L-leave, it is not safe!" Amadeus fell to the floor, clutching his neck tight with one hand and digging his fingers into the skin until it bled.

Worry sculpted on Evangeline's face and she quickly came to Amadeus' side, she hadn't seen the corpse just yet as she was overtaken by concern. She knelt down next to him, "Deus, do you need medicine? A drink?! Tell me what's ailing you!"

Tch, Amadeus tried pushing her off. "D-Do n-not c-call me by that nickname! We are not close!"

"Oh shut up you stubborn vampire! Men are men regardless of their race!" Evangeline slapped his hand away and didn't stay far, she forced Amadeus to look her way and she turned silent.

Amadeus was sickly chalk-white it made his orchid orbs stand out as it was slightly glowing. Blood and wound on his neck which he inflicted. He continued breathing roughly and his gaze lowered to Evangeline's swan-like neck. "You're so ignorant"

"Where is this coming from?" Evangeline squinted her eyes, not exactly being called one but she saw that the vampire was not thinking clearly.

A hand reached out to wrap around Evangeline's neck, pulling her closer to Amadeus. "Are you not afraid?" He murmured. "I am a vampire, what lays out there in the dense forest are vampires in different forms"

"I know, I was not born yesterday, we were taught by our teacher back home about vampires but you're not like them" Evangeline replied without any wavering in her tone. "Didn't your brother say it himself? If you want us dead, you could have done it already"

"What if I am just into slow torture?"

"I trust that is false and you are just putting on a show"

"You're a fool to trust your assumptions"

"At least I am beautiful"

She was ridiculous, was Amadeus' unspoken thought before he crashed his lips onto hers, giving in to the dangerous temptation and scream in his head to just pick the cherry laid before him. The kiss deepened, and Amadeus felt her melting and unable to wriggle out of his arms, slowly he trailed his lips down to her neck, and without any caution in the air, he bit her.

Evangeline wasn't sure what to make out of this brazen situation, she couldn't even form any conscious sensible thoughts because her senses were drowned in by Amadeus–the way he pressed himself to her and how his arms were wrapped around her waist tightly, the initial kiss that landed her lips and now, him sucking on her neck.

Slowly, the youngest Harker felt her eyes grow heavy until it fluttered close and the last thing she saw before succumbing to slumber was a hazy figure in a morning scene outside, a woman with a satisfied smile. "I know you are the one, please take care of him for me"

-*-

The atmosphere was not changing for the better, if anything it was more intense and worse. With the night sky veiled by a translucent red and purple concentrated above, Klaus felt the danger level spiked up. These colors were manifestations of the strong desire to devour and drain an individual. To be in complete touch with their most feral nature.

Even Klaus and Zidane were sensing it crept within their senses, a poking temptation to forget about what made them above the Rabids.

"Sometimes I wish our faction was as easy and peaceful as East" Zidane muttered, a tired sigh escaping his lips.

Klaus was looking around warily, his nose scrunching in dislike at the pungent smell that began to mix with the forest. The growling sounds and distant cries were getting louder, the Rabids were already feasting on each other. "We do not know for sure that life is a eutopia in the East and it's not so bad being here, Zi"

"Klaus, are we not telling Wisdom and Kurt about the Feathers?" Zidane remained shut about this topic since he brought it up to his friend, their patrolling members called Bats stated they saw Vox-Angel stealthily going beyond town and towards the direction of an old amusement park.

The mere mention of their long-time enemies dampened Klaus' mood, "One problem at a time, mate, we can't tackle them all, can we? Maybe after we make sure that Clock and his human are in one piece–"

"Can you not callously refer to my sister as a human? I mean she is one but she has an identification, her name is Arabella. Use it" A familiar, stubborn voice interjected from behind.

Talk about problems stacking on Klaus' shoulder at the same time, he didn't stop himself from looking annoyed. "What the fuck are you doing here?!" They were already far from the safe parts near the Melbourne private property.

Zidane sagged his shoulders, "Miss Ariadne, you shouldn't–"

"Do not tell me what to do! Ugh! I'm not a child!" Ariadne stomped on one foot, her sunset-orange eyes gleaming with eagerness and also anger. "I want to help save Arabella! I promise I won't be a liability, I can fight!"

Klaus was seething, he clenched his fists. "No, you cannot, you will only slow us down! This is no child's play!"

Come to me, dearest valiant baby...

Ariadne straightened up, her focus shifted away from Klaus and the hot anger inside her faded instantly. The surroundings turned gray, muted, and blurry; her full attention was drawn to the sensual, honey voice only as it chuckled closely in her ears.

"Mother?" She stepped forward past the two male vampires, in trance.

Klaus reached out to hold Ariadne's forearm, he too was confused. "Spitfire, who are you talking to?"

But Ariadne did not hear him, she pulled away frantically. "Mother! You're alive!" She cried in joy.

Several pasty bluish-skinned figures emerged from the darker parts of the woods, they had a human appearance but with slightly pointed ears and bald head, naked and unfazed about it. Trailing off sluggishly, their eyes were wide but a hollow black.

Zidane was exasperated by just seeing them, "Good gracious! Of all the creatures to show up it just had to be these suckers!" He palmed his face in frustration.

"Shit," Klaus muttered under his breath, eyeing the approaching hostile figures. He forced Ariadne to stay by his side despite her struggle to be released and she continued calling someone Mother from a distance.

The Blue Waxes. These types of mindless were humans who went insane on their own, adapting and evolving in a bad way. The environment also contributed to their sickly and hideous physical attributes. Blue Wax was called as such because they lacked their own free will, and would primarily just go with the flow or whoever strongly influenced them.

"Glory to the goddess" In unison, they spoke and synced with each other they opened their mouths wide to the point it reached their ears, revealing rows of sharp teeth and abnormally long pointed triangular tongues.

-*-

It was not uncommon for Ivo to dream about Mina. When he first took the job for the Harkers, his eyes were on her and that interest she ignited within him didn't disappear; of course, all sorts of salacious fantasies he kept successfully under covers. One of the other reasons he didn't wholly like Jonathan–for bagging an enchanting woman like Mina. Tonight was no different, in this dream, Ivo was taking in the details of the brown-haired woman standing before him bare from head to toe.

All he wanted now was to reach out and–

Mina turned around seductively, smiling whilst her chest was torn open and revealed the inside of it–missing a heart.

"FUCK! UGH!" Ivo scrambled up the bed, drenched in cold sweat and wide-eyed. He held a hand to his chest, feeling its loud drumming. He punched the wall above the bedside table, letting his fist there for a bit.

Their goddess wasn't aware and he hoped hard she was not strong enough just yet that he failed to retrieve what she asked for.

Ivo went to the bathroom, turned the lights on, and washed his face. "Damn it, I should stop thinking about her, she's dead for fuck's sake!" The image of Mina lying beauteously in the middle of those ruins with her entire figure an untouched porcelain doll but without a heart was haunting. Why did she not rot?

Beyond the window of the bathroom, the buff Slayer noticed a tinge of red and purple in the sky concentrated in the dense woods.

-*-

Clock stopped in front of a chapel, it was barely noticeable for the broken walls, windows, and white plants crawling up to its side, covering half the wall–albeit its color, those plants were poisonous, meant to deceive anyone with their harmless appearance but a lone touch and sniff are proven fatal.

He exhaled deeply, preparing for the worst and questions floated in his mind he needed answers for. There was no doubt this was where Arabella's scent and mental voice felt the strongest, Clock endured the unseen pricking on his sides and sudden restriction in his breathing, taking long strides forward and going inside.

Clock froze in place.

There in the middle, and suspended mid-air was Arabella held up by her blood, acting on its own–coiled around her wrists, legs, and neck. A huge pool of crimson was already forming beneath where she was suspended but what was more shocking was the blood moving on its own accord.

How was it doing such a thing? Arabella's blood was alive with its will.

"Do not disturb our Mother, you descendant of the one who brought forth the hottest of fires upon our heads, you will not be forgiven!" As this was spoken in unison by the mutated spawns emerging from corners of the abandoned chapel, gruesome varying appearances that even Clock could feel his stomach turned upside down. They continued talking in chorus at the same intonation. "Do not disturb our goddess who gave us lives in this world and no later we shall find our way into the Surface"

An ear-piercing shriek rattled in the air as the mutated children darted forward to shred Clock into pieces. The blood-holding Arabella suspended mid-air moved, losing its hold around the unconscious female and in a swift motion, placing her down on the ground and countering the fiends' attacks. The blood became sharp, piercing through those sticky and slimey torsos while others had their heads rolling off their necks after.

With his chest heaving up and down, Clock walked forward to the lone remaining mutated spawn–it was missing its legs. "You have the nerve to come here and spread your filth"

The spawn cried loudly in agony, its skin was like being stirred and melting like a wax candle until it was a puddle of mixed disgusting flesh.

Clock hurried to the unconscious Arabella, taking her in his arms to check if she was hurt. "Arabella, open your eyes" He spoke softly.

She fluttered her eyes open but only for seconds, "Clock? You're here" The brunette still felt weak.

Squinting his eyes, Clock asked. "You called for me, did you not remember?" He straightened up and carried her in his arms properly, then noticed that the wound in her forearm where the blood came out was...stitching itself closed.

"I did but I didn't know why..." She was originally wanting to call out Holly's name but instead, she called for Clock.

Did this mean anything important? Clock didn't want to dwell on the thought too much however it was odd. "Let's go home"

-*-

Evangeline watched the dark sky from the windows of Amadeus' room, her mouth slightly opened in awe seeing it finally revert to normal with the reddish and purple evaporating away. She was flooded with anxiety for her sisters and gosh, she wished hard Ariadne did not do anything bravely stupid.

"I should have followed her though" A frown sculpted on her face as an intrusive thought made its way that she had been useless in this situation the entire time.

From behind, a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and pulled Evangeline from the anxiety filling her mind. It also brought a subtle blush on those cheeks.

A deep, smooth whisper. "Stop it"

"Stop what?" Evangeline asked in a whisper in return, this was uncomfortable but at the same time, she didn't feel herself complaining.

Amadeus leaned his head on her shoulder, breathing deeply. "You said you should've followed them outside and what made you think that it would be a good idea? Staying back didn't make you useless, Eve. It's dangerous out there, more dangerous than I am" He paused for a second. "Besides, you helped me"

That sent more pink blush on Evangeline's face, she was trying hard to forget and not make a big deal about whatever transpired between them earlier but damn it refused to be labeled trivial! Sharing a kiss and getting bitten after?!

"I will get some water and check on big sister, I'm sure she is being a worrywart" She needed time to collect her thoughts, the thing that happened to her and Amadeus was too intimate and they weren't even lovers. Evangeline pushed away from his arms, not waiting for a reply or reaction, and left.

But she threw a glance at the closed music room where it happened. UGH, how did she reduce this mess?! Wasn't she brimming with confidence when she asked Amadeus if she needed help?!

He called me Eve! And not in a condescending way too, usually, he'd just blatantly call her human or nothing at all. He called me Eve and he hugged me! He's warming up to me! What happened?! The youngest Harker was covering her face with both hands in embarrassment.

"Evangeline, look where you are going"

Huh? Who–Oh fudge. "Wisdom, my apologies, I was trying to sort my thoughts" She stopped acting bashful and weird, straightening her posture. "I was on my way to check on my big sister"

The blue-haired first-born noble vampire did not have any change in expression, "Alanis already retired to her chamber with Kurtis and Holly is resting"

"They won't be too chill when our sisters are still out there–"

"The Ripe Night is ending, there is no longer a need to freak out. Furthermore, as Holly is with me, she will spend the rest of her night with me so check on her by the morrow" Wisdom stated with finality.

His words didn't leave any room for argument or refusal, Evangeline watched him go and she couldn't help the dreadful sense in her–this vampire was hard to read and he openly said something like that yet he barely acknowledged Holly warmly.