This was the first time that Shadow had ever bled without any hindrance. And of all the places on his body, it had to be his wings.

Or rather, what was left of his wings. It looked like a small pit in his back where they had been removed. Shadow felt sick; the vampire had twisted the bone from its place, making Shadow’s entire skeleton vibrate with pain as a part of it was torn free before it’s time. That coupled with the pain that of the angel’s skin ripping and muscles breaking had caused the angel to vomit

The angel tried to get up but Demos just pushed him back to the ground, forcing his face into the puddle of bile below him. The most he could do was slide to the side to make it so he wasn’t lying in the vomit.

A cruel hand was set upon Shadow’s remaining wing which made him start scratching at the ground, tears streaming down his cheeks, trying to get away from the vampire’s renewed assault. All Demos had to do was pull on the wing lightly to make him stop the feeble attempt at getting away.

Shadow wanted to force the pain away, concentrate on something else. His eyes flashed to his wrist and he could see his blood dripping off the side of it. He’d nearly bitten through to the bone when the first wing was removed but the agony of his back had done more then enough to numb the pain of his arm.

Breathing hard, he braced for the second wing to be removed. Hopefully it would be less painful than the first since it wasn’t broken.

Demos dug his heel further into Shadow’s spine as he prepared to tear the wing from the angel’s back. A light laugh came from his mouth as he slowly pulled on it, giving Shadow a taste of what was going to come. This one wasn’t broken; it would be a completely different experience.

“Shadow…” Demos said lightly, suppressing his laugh from his voice as he said it. Shadow winced and turned his head to ignore the man but the voice pierced through his mind. “Did you think it would come to this eventually? I did, ever since the beginning. An angel and a vampire rooming together? They were just asking to get one of us killed. But, I must say, I’ve been looking forward to it since Mina told me that I was the one who was going to win.”

The foot on Shadow back was shoved as hard as it could have been and cracked one of his vertebrae, causing the angel to spasm viciously as Demos ripped out Shadow’s wing part way.

Shadow couldn’t feel the rest of his body, only where his wings were. Or rather, were previously. It wasn’t until Demos shook it slightly when Shadow realized however that the second one was still intact, just partially removed from his back. Loudly, Demos bellowed a disturbing laugh that was heard echoing off the nothing around them.

Demos reached down and pulled Shadow off the ground by the back of his collar, covering the vampire’s hands in foreign blood. The wounds had released enough of it that both Shadow’s shirts were soaked with blood all the way up to where Demos was pulling Shadow up by.

“This isn’t going to be quick,” Demos quickly warned the angel. Letting go of Shadow’s wing and spinning quickly, he brought his foot up to his hip for a second, pausing only to cherish the moment before he extended it like lightning, striking the same spot he had been digging his foot in while Shadow had lay on the ground. Demos waited for Shadow to get just far enough away to make the game fun and then he took a step forward and tore the wing from his back the rest of the way. The vampire lovingly watched the blood fall to the ground as Shadow crashed into the nearly invisible floor

As Demos threw the wing he’d torn from Shadow into the air, you could hear faint clapping in the distance, Mina’s signal of approval for Demos’s actions. Laughing, Demos started to walk away from Shadow, his intention of removal unclear.

As Shadow lay on cold nothing, he came to the realization that he had stopped breathing. Making a conscious effort to do so, his chest expanded and deflated, his stomach bulged and shrank, his nose flared and returned to normal, his mouth gaped to capture some of the air around him but he could not suck it in.

What’s the point… the thought ran through his mind. Kimia’s dead, Demos wants me dead, Kalli is gone and Yukari is God knows where… There’s no point in even living if I make it out of here.

Giving up, he let out a sigh, or at least tried to anyway. He made the motion at the very least. A feeble attempt slowly got him onto his back and hissing due to the pain from his injuries, but even that was going away.

“Fuck this Demos… just fucking kill me,” the angel demanded, putting his head up enough to see his best friend walking away from him. He was surprised he had the ability to talk, it didn’t seem to him that air was moving through his body. “You’ve won, finish the job.”

Turning slightly, just enough to see the broken form of Shadow on the ground, Demos gave the boy a toothy grin, showing off those fabulous vampiric teeth of his. “If you insist.”

Jumping, Demos performed a lofty back-flip in the air, showing off the extra skill he hadn’t been using during their fight. He landed next to the angel, his back facing Shadow. Then he turned sharply, his claws pointed right at Shadow’s throat.

“Beg.”

“What?” Shadow demanded, sitting up as far as he could without running into the sharp nails pointed at him.

“You heard me. Beg.”

“Fuck you.”

“You’re the one who wants to die.”

“You’re the one who wants to kill me.

“A point very irrelevant this point. Beg.” Demos’ grin was pure satisfaction.

Shaking his head, Shadow had every moral in him screaming at him to not beg. It just didn’t fit his style having to beg for anything. However, it wasn’t like he was going to be around to regret it later.

“Demos, please kill me. I don’t want to live any longer,” he pushed out of his mouth, each word harder than the next.

“Sounds good to me.” Demos laughed, bringing his arm back slightly before thrusting it at Shadow’s exposed neck.

-

“They’re going to be here soon,” said a young man, black hair and pale skin said as he loaded up his favorite pistol. “You should get going.”

“I’m not going anywhere, you should know better than that,” said another young man, black hair but tanned skin.

“Whatever, it’s your life,” the first one said, slapping the clip in and pointing the gun at the other person.

Laughing, the second one pushed off from the wall he was leaning against and walked toward the gun-wielding freak. “No more arguments? For shame Demos, you’re supposed to want me out of here so bad that you’d threaten to kill me.”

“Ugh, stop watching so many bad movies you fucktard,” Demos demanded, shoving his gun into its holster on his left hip. “I’m not going to threaten to kill you to prove a point. If you want to sit here and get shot up a few hundred times by Mafia goons, then go for it.”

Rolling his eyes, he laced his fingers behind the back of his head and walked in a circle, showing his beautiful white wings to Demos. “So, how long have they been after your family?”

Thinking about it for a moment, he checked the peephole in their dorms door to see any signs of men toting guns. “Four years now I would think. Hanzo and I are the only ones left.”

“You sure? Hanzo did say that the reason why he was alive was because they thought they killed him. Maybe some of your other family members did the same and have stuck themselves in hiding.”

“Don’t kid yourself Shadow-boy, the Mafia doesn’t make the same mistake twice, especially with the same family.”

Then, faintly, the sound of footsteps could be heard outside the door. Shadow and Demos cast a quick glace to the other one before getting to their stations.

Shadow picked up a feather bag, one that didn’t look like it was full like the other ones and Demos grabbed a table, dumping what was on top of it to the ground. Shaking his head, Shadow said, “Are you ever going to clean up your side of the room?”

Laughing, Demos shook his head. “Not if I can prevent it.”

“Pig.”

“Fairy.”

Then there was a quick rap of someone’s knuckles on the door and Demos grinned. “’ey, Shadow ol’ boy, open the door. There’s someone there.”

“You’re so fucking lazy sometimes,” was Shadow response as he walked silently to touch the doorknob.

Once he made sure he wings were tucked in as tightly as they could be, he jerked the door open suddenly and threw the bag out in front of him and then jumped away from the doorway.

The men on the other side of the door had opened fire as soon as they saw something flying toward them. Semi-automatic weapons tore through the casing for the feathers, releasing light and airy clouds that were nearly impossible to see through.

“Hold your fire!” the commander yelled through the commotion and suddenly the firing stopped

“Wow, they played into our hand perfectly,” Demos muttered to himself. “I betcha this kills someone.” And hold the table in his hands well enough so he could run though the door, he charged.

The sickening crack that issued forth from Demos crushing one of the goons with the table made the Mafia stand still. As Demos dropped the table and backed away, it revealed that it was the commander which had fallen.

Showing off his claws, he thrust his left hand into a man’s chest, tearing through his body armor as the other claw slashed out another’s throat.

Shadow then came running out of the room and didn’t waste time to see what had happened. The feather fog was dying quickly and the Mafia would regain their senses soon. “You know where to meet!” he called over his shoulder as he bolted down the hall.

“Yeah, and if you die before you get there, I’ll kill you!”

-

“I need to find them… god damn it Kalli, why did I let you convince me to summon them?” Kaydence cursed herself. Somehow, despite her disheveled appearance, she still retained her natural aura of authority. Her hair was thrown about her head in a fashion that looked like she did it in a convertible going 70, part of her blouse was untucked from her skirt and one of her socks was part way down her leg.

Pacing around her room, it was still in pristine condition, her sister’s side was obviously taken care of with more attention however. The clothes that Shadow had made for Kalli were laying on her bed, as well as the books she had been using when the angel met her. Even though a new set had been bought for her, she had refused to get rid of them.

Their room was a typical dorm, not transformed and deformed like Shadow’s and Demos’ had been. Their beds were made neatly, their desks tucked away tightly, their cooking space clean and their door with no blemishes. Kalli had never used it before Kaydence had shown up and the Ferrier was a very clean type of person.

As she was staring at the clothes that Shadow had made for Kalli, something clicked and she looked in the general direction of Shadow’s dorm.

“You’re not serious…” she murmured and she went to her door and put her hand on the handle but went no further. “Why?” she asked the door, almost expecting an answer from the chunk of wood. She let out an elongated sigh as she turned to walk to her bed and sink into the softness.

“I am not taking you to the other side! I refuse!” she said shaking her head violently, her hair breaking free from it’s loosely held bind and tears flying from her eyes. “I need you! I need you to help me get Alexandria and Desdemona out of the school!”

But there wasn’t anything she could do about it, she knew that at her appointed ferrying time, she would have to fetch his soul from the place of departure, lest it be left to roam free amongst the world and perhaps turn into the ghosts humans were so afraid of.

“I hate you Shadow!”

-

Her hair was dyed badly, being bleached from a deep brown color and then dyed sky blue. But it had been done so many times that her hair was starting to flow with it better. However, it had been months since she had last dyed her hair and the brown was obviously sticking from the roots of her hair. Her fingers were laced between those of a man with slightly darker skin than hers, not that it took much to be darker than Yukari. However, it seemed that she wanted to pull away as much as she wanted to be there with the man she was with.

“I miss him…” she said, looking toward the school. They were walking out in the courtyard, next to the beautiful statue depicting dolphins, the school mascot.

The man sighed and didn’t speak. His face was strong and defined, a real man unlike what you could find at the school. He walked on the ground Yukari as she walked along the rim of the fountain, gazing at whatever would bring nostalgic memories to her mind.

“I know you don’t like him,” she said, squeezing his hand lightly. Laughing lightly, she tried to lift the mood. “But he is someone to worry about. He’s your brother.”

Shaking his head, he cast a quick look at the school and then turned away. “I would do well not to care for him. He would stick a knife in me as I would him.”

Yukari stopped treading along the edge and turned to face the man properly. Her face was solemn and she shook her head slightly. “I haven’t heard from him in weeks, I’m scared for him. He’s never been the safest of people.”

Sighing, he let go of her hand and started to walk to the street. “I don’t care, Yuki. Demos can do what he wants; he separated himself from the family when he turned willingly. It was his choice; he can suffer the punishment he asked for.”

“Darren…” she whined, looking after him. “Your family is dead, your father got you all killed. It’s just you, Demos and Hanzo left and you all hate each other. Why can’t you put it behind you? He’s almost all the family you have.”

The glare he gave made Yukari flinch and she almost fell into the water. “I don’t need my family, especially Hanzo or Demos. They’re the bottom of our family chain, why they lived baffles me.”

Yukari jumped off the side of the fountain, walking toward the school. “I love him, I miss him, I want him here. You should feel the same, you’re his brother.”

Darren ran forward, grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. “Yukari, I don’t love anyone but you.” Disgusted, Yukari pulled her arm away from him forcefully and started a jog toward the school, leaving Darren there to kick himself while he was down.

-

“How totally, awesomely sweet!” said a boy, looking the age of 10 or so. His snow white hair was set beautiful against his porcelain skin. “Are you sure it’s going to happen soon?”

“Positive.” She was a woman with long blonde hair and extremely busty chest. When she moved, it always seemed to attract the eye of the boy in front of her, like she was made for him almost. “Rehian’s wife lent me the Book of Stars, the book he wrote his dreams in. It’s supposed to happen today, I’m sure Seishin will not be happy.”

The boy spun in a quick circle, giggling like a madman. “Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure! Tora will be desperately happy though, she’s been waiting for so long.”

The woman returned the laugh. “I’m sure you’re plenty happy as well.”

“Don’t you think you’d be happy to if you got your favorite thing in the world back?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Sven dear, I could never lose my favorite thing in the world.”

Sven laughed. “I guess that’s true,” he admitted and he started to play with his green martial arts shirt. “I better tell Mother, she won’t like it if I skip a few days of work all of a sudden, huh Zaira?”

“No, no, it’s because of her workers doing things like leaving all of a sudden that the Earth suffers the black plague.” They both erupted in laughter.

“So, is Seishin going to do anything about it?” Sven asked.

Shaking her head, Zaira spoke. “He’s the one who caused it. He won’t find out about his mistake until his scout reports back to him. By that time, I’ll be able to prevent anything Seishin would want to do to prevent our plan.”

Squealing, Sven shot up and rushed to the door. “Oh, I have to tell Tora now; I have to let her in on the good news. When are you leaving?”

“As soon as possible. If I take too long, damage might be irreparable.” Zaira said calmly as she gave the kid a wave. “Have fun, dear.” Sven didn’t waste anytime leaving.

As soon as the boy was out of the room, she let out a long sigh and her hair started to shift. It shrank, slowly getting darker until it was a pure black color and hung just below her ears. “You better be done when I get there, I’m not waiting for you.”

-

“What the hell is this? My claw, it’s not piercing his throat.” Demos said, striking at Shadow’s throat a second and third time. “Mina, was the fuck is going on?”

Mina didn’t sound so happy anymore. “I don’t know, he never told me that something like this could happen.” She fiddled with her skirt as she tried to think of a solution. “Try shooting him, or biting him, or kicking him around again!”

The vampire didn’t waste any time in continuing his assault. Whipping out his pistol, he pressed it against Shadow’s forehead and pulled the trigger. Loudly, it went off but when he pulled the gun away from Shadow, the bullet fell out of the barrel and clattered on the ground.

Biting him didn’t work either; in fact, it felt like Demos was going to break his teeth if he kept it up any longer. So, in frustration, he jumped back a foot and swung his leg as hard as he could at Shadow’s head.

“God damn it!” Demos swore, jumping back another few feet and looking toward Mina. “I can’t do anything to him, what happened?”

I still can’t breathe… why am I not passing out? And his attacks, they were useless. Even the gun didn’t do anything and it was touching me when he fired it. What the hell is going on? Shadow thought to himself, slowly opening his eyes to see that the world had changed for him. Now, certain things he saw had a slight purple-ish glow to them. Mostly Demos at this point, but even some of the darkness had purple splotches.

Shadow rose from the ground. First to his hands and knees, then to a single knee and finally he was standing. He couldn’t feel any pain anymore. The once beyond agony he was experiencing from his back was completely gone. He felt stronger than he had before. And now, the light that had only been in one spot before had moved to illuminate Shadow. It followed him as he walked to Demos, slowly, but surely.

However, it wasn’t until he was halfway there when he realized that he wasn’t in control of his body. He tried to make his body stop moving, wanting to talk to Demos before any more fighting occurred.

His arm reached out, and a flash of light shined in his palm. Slowly forming in it was a staff of sorts. A deep purple and black, you could see the different sections it had for the separation of the staff.

“Chaos…” Mina said, backing away from Shadow, making sure that the vampire was directly between the girl and the ex-angel.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Demos demanded, looking to Mina and then right back to Shadow. “He’s never been able to do that before.”

Cracking the staff like a whip, the sections separated. They weren’t connected by anything that the other two could see, but Shadow saw that there were small strings of purple linking the parts together.

“Looks like you won’t be winning this fight,” Shadow said. His mind was completely detached from his body. While it was moving confidently and with force toward the vampire, his mind was freaking out. His voice wasn’t his own anymore. Although it sounded similar, there was a much more commanding presence behind it. Demos felt it, Shadow could tell, as the man flinched when he spoke.

“Heh…” Demos murmured. “Shadow, you know I was joking about before right?”

But Shadow didn’t respond. He just continued walking toward the vampire as steadily as ever. Demos looked behind him for Mina’s assistance but the girl had fled into the darkness, her fear finally taking over.

“Shadow, c---“ Demos tried to plead for his life again but it was quickly interrupted by a crack of Shadow’s staff along his jaw. Demos grabbed his jaw and took a few steps back, shocked that it hurt so much.

Speeding up, Shadow’s head shook. “I don’t think you really understand what’s going to happen, Demos-darling. I’m going to kill you, quickly. You won’t have to feel a lot of the pain that I’m going to put your body through. Unlike you, I’m a merciful master, no extra tortures used.”

Demos started to turn and run. For what, even Demos wasn’t sure. But Shadow raised his other hand and a purple ball appeared on the vampire’s chest, preventing his movement.

Dropping his hand, Shadow started to circle Demos, barely getting close to him with each passing step. Demos couldn’t move, something about the purple ball bound him to the spot. “Your life is forfeit.” Shadow told him in a matter-of-fact tone. “Your actions in the past effects the events in the future. Aren’t you glad to find out first hand?”

“Ugh, fuck you Shadow. Why don’t you just hurry up about it? If you’re going to kill me, do it, don’t talk about it.” Demos demanded.

“If you insist,” Shadow said. Internally, he was imagining all of the shit he’d been through being the friend of the vamp in front of him and now it was all going to fade with the swing of a staff he didn’t even control.

Cocking his arm back, the staff separated as much as it could with the end floating in the air like the idle tail of a serpent. Shadow couldn’t close his eyes to prevent the sight of his friend’s destruction despite how much he wanted too. His wrist snapped forward, bringing the staff toward Demos at full force, the very tip of it heading right at his temple.

-

“I’m going to kill him, he’s so annoying,” Demos whined, sitting in one of Shadow’s feather bags with Yukari between his legs and his arms around her waist.

Yawning, Shadow was laying on his bed with his head in Kimia’s lap while she played with it. “Want him to have a crush on you? He hits on me nearly every time we run into him.”

“Ew, fucking, ew. He’s my cousin man. Not into incest, ya fairy.” Demos shivered underneath his girlfriend. “Maybe he has an angel fetish like your girlfriend over there.”

“Yeah, and maybe Yuki there wants to become a vampire like you. Why don’t you try to bite her and find out?” the angel said, sticking his tongue out at Demos.

Demos growled deeply at Shadow and attempted to say something. However was stopped short by a soft hand over his mouth from Yukari. “You know better Shadow, don’t make fun of him being a vampire.”

“Well, tell him to not make fun of me for being an angel. You act like I wasn’t born like this,” another cheap shot from Shadow. “Maybe he’s just jealous that I have beautiful wings and he doesn’t.”

“Shush, Shadow,” Kimia said, lightly hitting the boy on his head with the tip of her fingers. “Learn some manners, freak.”

Shadow feigned looking hurt and then sighed. “Whatever, I’m sick of the bastard too. Why haven’t you killed him before?”

“Because,” Demos began. “He’s the one who’s been ferrying information to me that’s kept me out of the hands of the mafia. And kept me out of a coffin. But now that they’re not after me anymore, I can put him to rest.”

“It’s going to be weird, not being chased constantly.” Yukari said absent-mindedly, remembering times when they all had to hide out in her room.

“Boring is more like it,” chimed in Shadow.

“Better than being having the threat of death lying on your doorstep.” Kimia said.

Demos laughed. “Not all of us are as fragile as you humans. We don’t even know if Fairy-boy over there can even die.”

“Lucky you two.” Kimia muttered under her breath.

Sitting up, Shadow planted a soft kiss on his girl’s lips before getting off the bed. “Not that it’s exactly easy to kill either of you. How long have you been running with us?”

“A year and a half,” both Yukari and Kimia said in unison.

“And how many bullet holes have you gotten?” Demos asked.

“One.” Yukari said.

“None.” Kimia stated.

Both Shadow and Demos shared a mutual glance of amusement before letting out silent laughter. “Seems like the both of you are pretty invincible yourselves.”

“Well, how many have you gotten?” Yukari asked.

“Am I counting the ones I’ve given myself?” Demos asked.

“Uh… no?”

“Well then… oh, I’d say about eight.”

“What about you Shadow? I know that you’ve had at least two; we treated those in my room. Any more?”

Thinking about it for a moment, Shadow nodded. “I’d only count those two as real bullet holes. The other ones are just piercings that have gone through my wings, not really holes.”

“You’ve taken more shots than us,” Kimia noted.

“That’s because we’re together all the time,” Shadow pointed out.

“So? Not getting shot is a sign of luck. Getting shot and living is a sign of immortality,” Kimia told him.

“Or luck,” Demos shrugged. “Whatever it is, we’re still alive.”

“However unwillingly,” hissed Yukari which made Demos roll his eyes.

Then Shadow tapped Yukari on the head lightly and stuck his tongue out. “Weren’t you the one who told me to stop fighting?”

Yukari frowned. “Not really…”

“Uh huh, well, at the very least we can spend more time together. The girls are even getting along better than before. They can be in the same room now,” he grinned, turning and blowing a kiss at Kimia.

“You’re funny,” she said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.

Frowning, Shadow looked to Demos for some help but didn’t get any. So, he sighed loudly before getting all three of them in his view. “We’ve spent so long trying to keep each other alive, we might as well enjoy our profit right? I’ve been saving your ass since I met you Demos, it’s time that death stops haunting us and I get to know you.”

-

About half-way there, the staff exploded in a torrent of fire, the flame spurting from the core in random directions, attacking every piece of air it could reach except Shadow. It lit the area, revealing dark runic symbols drawn in the black floor and walls, none of which could Shadow understand. The staff entered Demos’ skull cleanly, almost like the tip of it was sharpened to the fined point. The purple sphere in Demos chest shattered as he stiffened like a board. The fire roaring around the staff licked along the figure of the vampire before finally he caught fire. Holes started to appear in the skull of his, the flesh and bone turning to charcoal before Shadow’s eyes. There was no blood spilt, the extreme flame has made it vanish upon contact. The smell of burning blood, as mixed and stale as it was within Demos was disgusting to say the least but Shadow was forced to bare it.

Demos’ bone structure then began to fail and he started to collapse to the ground slowly. His head held almost no figure anymore, the flame completely consuming and destroying what made Demos move and act. His body from there grew more stable down to his feet but even that began to crumble and die away as the seconds went on.

It couldn’t have been more than twenty seconds, the whole ordeal. But Shadow felt a lifetime of pain and suffering through those moments. In comforted him slightly, knowing that the initial blow had most-likely killed the vampire, though it wasn’t enough to calm the nauseous feeling.

The staff then returned to his hand, fully intact before vanishing. The weapon of the deed gone, nothing left to remind Shadow of his loss. The charred remains on the ground were invisible to his eye, as the flame of the staff was gone and the light of the Kusabi had left him alone. He could barely see his hand in front of him.

Then without warning, what little he could see was gone and his right knee buckled from under him. He was gaining control of his body back, what had possessed him had relinquished it’s hold? However Shadow found that his body did not respond like it did before. It took much more work to move his limbs and even open his eye lids, more energy than he had at his disposal.

Toppling into the ground, the scene ran through his mind again. This time, the sick feeling started to produce some reaction from his body. However a gentle hand touched his back and all of the ill feeling disappeared

“It is okay, young one. What you have come into is a sudden shock and you will not be able to control it at first. But someone will be along to help you soon enough. I will take you out of this world you know as the Kusabi. His ambition will return you to the glory you deserve and you’ve taken the first and smallest step. But do not worry, although not seen, I will always be watching you. After all, it’s the only thing I have to do anymore.”

-

A/N: Wow, took me long enough to write this chapter. Well, the fourth one should be up soon. Hope you enjoyed this!