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@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Rei’s fingers remained gently resting underneath Caelum’s chin. The elder was clearly in pain, why else would he be crouched down on the ground. A frown came to rest on his lips when the elder laughed. Who in their right mind would laugh in this situation? Rei just lightly shook his head. He wasn’t amused. As a matter of fact, he was very concerned for Caelum. Although there was still a stinging sensation that was coming from his jaw. It was very sore and he was lucky that he hadn’t broken his jaw when he had fallen. He could feel the little droplets of blood running off of his chin and down his neck, but other than that he was perfectly fine.

The younger vampire just raised a brow at Caelum. "Oh, what? You mean this little thing?" He uses his other hand to lightly touch his own chin, wincing a little bit when his skin came in contact with the wound. "Yeah, yeah. I am perfectly fine, never been better." Rei flashed a smile towards Caelum, even smiling hurt. It stretched his skin, but he kept a normal, unreadable expression on his face. He hummed softly, slowly removing his fingers out from the elder’s chin. Lightly dragging his hand along the skin as he pulled away.

Rei’s eyebrows pulled together, standing up along side of Caelum. His lips parted as he stared at the elder. Something had ruptured? Well what exactly was it that ruptured. Basically any organ that was in the elder’s body was needed.

Rei’s mind immediately went to spleen. What if Caelum’s spleen was ruptured? He needed that, it was vital for filtering his blood. Or what if it was his kidneys? Were kidneys even able to rupture? He let out a small whine, looking towards the elder with concern. His lips were pushed out into a slight pout, and his dark round doe eyes shone with a glassy look. "You won’t be fine until you get yourself some help." Clicking his tongue with sympathy towards Caelum when yet again, the elder disregarded himself and cared more about Rei than his own battered up body. He would bleed out, and he’d hate to admit that Caelum was right. Although it was true, he needed help because until that skin on his chin closed up, it’s just going to keep on bleeding.

"Okay." Rei nodded, his gaze shifting down to the other assassin’s stomach. Their bodies were sore and tired. But in the end, the were the victors. They had won the fight and that was something to be proud of. It wasn’t easy, but they were able to make it out of there alive, even if they had almost died inside of the building. They came in as two, and they left as two. Leaving with a few gashes, bruises, and 'ruptured organs.'

"Hm?" Rei’s face scrunched up, one of his eyes squeezing shut as the piercing sound of Caelum’s whistle echoed throughout the city and rang loudly in his ears. "Ouch..." He mumbled softly, shaking his head at the other’s apology. "That’s alright." Rei chewed on his bottom lip, losing himself in his thoughts. He almost hadn’t realized the vampire that emerged from out of the car but when the male spoke it snapped him out of fantasy land. His gazed bounced off of the driver then back to Caelum, doing this a couple times as he had never really see this vampire before.

It was obvious that this other male was an acquaintance of the elder assassin, but why didn’t Rei remember him? Maybe he had already met him before but the male just wasn’t a memorable vampire. A small sound came out from his closed lips as he was led into the vehicle, wiggling down in the seat. It was nice in the car, but it really didn’t match Rei’s or Caelum’s attire. Their clothes were torn and bloodied along with parts of their skin.

It was very quiet and Rei just sat there, feeling a bit awkward as the elder and the driver made small talk. His head turned to look out the window as they passed trees and buildings.

After a few minutes he felt a tugging on his shoulder, looking back at Caelum. Rei scooter closer to the elder’s body, finally they could be at peace with themselves and rest while knowing that the other was safe. "Okay Caelum.~" His body shifted, leaning against the other’s body, probably getting blood on his shirt as well. The seats most likely weren’t looking as clean either. His eyes slowly fell shut, resting one of his arms on Caelum’s chest. One of his eyes sleepily popped open, thinking that he heard the assassin say that he’d be staying with him. He was tired and maybe just hearing things, but if that was indeed what the elder had said then that was perfectly fine by him. Even if he didn’t say that it was fine, he knew Caelum wouldn’t take no for an answer.

All that he wanted now was to rest in Caelum’s embrace, to be with the elder. Which was a different feeling for him since he was never the clingy type. Almost all of these emotions were new for him, and quite confusing.

It wasn’t long before the younger drifted off to sleep. Playing off somewhere in dreamland, sleeping peacefully. His mind was clear and he felt content as the motion of the car rocked him gently.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ All Caelum was doing now was trying to stabilize his breathing, parting his lips open to allow oxygen to escape. The sound of another body falling near him had not made him falter much but definitely caught his attention, turning his head over to the left so be could inspect the situation. His eyes caught on to a clearly deceased body. The sniper. Caelum smirked. Good job, Rei. Though his current attention cost him. He went right back to being in pain, the hold around his stomach tightening. The assassin was sure something had ruptured.

"CAELUM?!"

The vampire's head snapped up at the sudden, panicked call of his name. Rei? When did he get down from there? Was he in this much pain that he couldn't even be aware of own his surroundings?

"Rei." Caelum huffed out after the others questions, looking up at the beautiful creature in front of him. Through in pain, his students touch seemed to be the only thing he needed to get through it. A chuckle rumbled in his throat. "Should not I be asking /you/ if you're ok?" Rei had more blood on his face than the last time he was able to make any eye contact with him. And his jaw... basically split open. The sight made his chest hurt more than his gut at that moment. Rei needed medical attention, and he could help but they would have to reach Caelum's place for that to happen.

The vampire sighed, slowly raising himself up from crouching position. The entire movement was dreadfully painful, but Caelum kept his face as straight as he could. "I'll be fine, Rei. Something ruptured but I can handle it." Raising his chin, his eyes came into contact with his students once more. "You? You're gonna bleed out." He sighed heavily, lowering one arm as the other was still wrapped tightly around his waist. "Let’s go to my place. I can take care of us both." Being alive and an assassin for so long made his life get to the point that he'd rather take care of himself than others to give him medical attention. Besides, a small amount of blood goes a long way.

"Hold on--" Caelum rose his free hand to his face, fitting his index and pinky finger past his lips. Taking in some air, he let out a rather loud whistle. "Sorry--" He apologized to the other vampire for the sudden noise, attention still on the road in front of him. A few moments had passed and a gust of gentle wind rose in the air. Following after, the sight of bright car headlights. Soon came a modern, black Mercedes came into view. As soon as they stopped, a familiar figure came out from the driver's seat.

"What in gods name-- Mr. Asmodeus? Are you alright?"

Caelum slightly rolled his eyes at the formal speech. "I'm fine, Lim. Get us home? Please?" He then gently grabbed Rei's hand, walking forward and tugging the other to come follow him to the car. The other male quickly came over to the other side to open the back door for the both of them. "Thank you..." Caelum said as he gotten in the car after Rei.

It wasn't long until they were on their way, the journey quite silent.

"My apologies about calling you in so suddenly Lim, but I was not going to be able to get us home by myself." Caelum sighed out, sinking into his seat to get comfortable so he wouldn't focus on the current pain in his body.

"You rarely call me anyhow. For someone who was demanded to have a servant, you rarely call on me."

"Because using people is not something I enjoy to part take in. No matter what it is."

Lim chuckled. "Either way, I will still be there if you need help."

Caelum just nodded, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "Thanks." He then reached over to Rei, reaching around to his other shoulder so he could pull the other in his embrace. "Sleep. The rides going to be a bit long." He then pressed a gentle kiss on the male's temple, sighing against his skin. "You're staying home with me for the night."

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ The other vampire grumbled in pain as he clutched his stomach, giving Rei the most hateful glare. It was definitely a very intimidating look, but sadly for the other, looks couldn’t kill him. If the vampire wanted to kill him then he’d have to try a whole lot harder than that. Rei returned the stare, scrunching his face up towards the other in a sort of mocking way. Which only fed into the vampire’s anger towards him.

Rei leaned forward, crouching down on the cement as he placed his arms on either side of him. His body titled forwards, looking like a runner about to spring off in a race. He locked the other in his sights before pushing off on his right foot. He sprung all of his body weight at the other’s stomach, tackling him down onto the floor of the roof. The other vampire’s head hit the ground with a loud sound, their bodies skidding across the roof from the force. While Rei had the other pinned to the floor, the sniper rifle falling out of the vampire’s grasp and being tossed into the air. The rifle fell and landed a few feet away from the two.

Both the young assassin and the other vampire’s heads snapped into the direction of the weapon as it slammed to the ground with a crash.

Their bodies quickly shuffled from the position that they were in. They were both eager to get to the rifle first. Rei’s feet skidded a bit as he regained an upright stance, his body slipping forwards. The other ended up getting kicked directly in the face by Rei’s boots when he was getting up. He was about to lunge himself and dive down to get a grasp on the weapon. But before he could do anything, the vampire gripped onto both of his legs, yanking Rei forcefully back. He lost his footing as his feet were pulled out from him all of a sudden. His chin connected with the concrete, causing him to groan in pain. That hurt.

Rei’s vision blurred, for a moment only being able to see black splotches and stars. He rolled over, squinting as his eyesight was slowly regained, opening his eyes to see the other vampire already picking up the weapon. It took him a little bit to process what exactly was going on. He sat up and saw the vampire pointing the rifle straight at him.

Oh no, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. His gaze met the stare of the vampire, his own eyes widening in fear.

He had to think quickly. But oh god it hurt so badly to think. Rei’s jaw only splitting open more from the fall. He blinked, grabbing onto the edge of the roof as he shakily started to stand up. He almost had his footing when he heard the click of the weapon. Placing one of his legs up on the ledge, he pushed himself backwards, going the opposite direction so that he wouldn’t fling himself off of the roof. At that same second, the other vampire fired the gun, barely missing Rei by a centimeter. There was a large chunk blown out from the cement which was now cracked from how hard the bullet had hit.

Now there was a spot of blood that stained the roof where Rei had landed on his chin. He lifted his fingers up to touch his jaw, bringing his hand back into his view. There was blood. It dripped down his fingers, running onto the palm of his hand, a few droplets falling from his face and hitting the ground. He shook off the blood from his hand, wasting no more time in trying to eliminate the other vampire. He faced the other head on, if the vampire wanted to play dirty, then Rei would play dirty too. He kicked the rifle into the other’s rib cage, knocking the weapon out of the other vampire’s hands. The gun fell to the floor by Rei’s feet and he kicked it up in the air, catching in his hand. He slammed the rifle into the other’s head, making the vampire lose his balance and fall backwards. He didn’t need this gun though, it had an unfair advantage in this fight and it was only getting in the way. Without giving it another thought, Rei chucked the gun with all of his force, causing it to fly off of the roof and shatter against the side of a building.

But Rei still had his gun, so who was the one with an unfair advantage now?

Taking his dagger from the sheath that was connected to his hip, he slowly walked towards the vampire that lay on the ground. Rei stepped onto the skull of the other, holding his head into the concrete as he pushed all of his body weight onto the vampire. The other wriggled underneath him, trying to get out of his hold, but it was too strong. Rei had the dagger in his hand, his grip on the handle tightening before he bent down, stabbing into the other’s abdominal cavity. It wasn’t enough to kill the vampire just yet, but enough to make him feel like he was dying. Blood spurted out from the large hole that was caused by the knife and Rei just smiled.

"Now wouldn’t this be fun?" He hummed as the other vampire seethed in pain, taking a glance at Rei with a puzzled pain filled expression. Then he continued on. "Making you beg for mercy... to make you plead for me to kill you and just get it over with?" The other shook his head frantically, already feeling like he wanted to die.

Normally, Rei wasn’t such a cruel vampire. He had mercy on his victims and would kill them in an instance, not wishing for them to suffer. This time was a little bit different, he was angry. Angry for what they had made him and Caelum go through, and on top of that, the elder almost died, multiple times. He was about to stab the vampire when he heard a crash from down below, realizing that Caelum wasn’t up here anymore. He started to panic, thinking the worst things that could’ve possibly happened. Rei swiftly took out his handgun, shooting the other in the head. The other vampire’s body convulsed, and he shot another bullet through his chest just to make sure that he was dead. Then he harshly kicked the lifeless body to the side, it landing on the cement with a crash as the bones were broken. He scoffed taking one last glance at the other before running in the opposite direction to find Caelum.

Rei looked over the ledge of the roof, seeing the elder’s figure crouching near the ground. Something was wrong. His mind was clouded and before he could think, he lunged himself off of the roof. He switched his gravity before his feet hit the ground, landing a few feet away from the elder. "Caelum?!" His eyes widened in panic, rushing over to the elder and crouching down next to him. "What the hell happened? What’s wrong?!" Rei placed his hand underneath Caelum’s chin, gently lifting the elder’s face to look at him.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ Regardless, Caelum was not going to allow this to make him waver. The vampire snapped back into reality immediately, face scrunching into a scowl as he took off again. He was fast, slicing in every direction he could. No, he wasn’t doing this to be stupid, but to buy himself some time to think of an effective counter attack. Though the enemy vampires regeneration was ungodly fast, it was not faster than Caelum’s own attacks.

‘What about his head?’ Thinking to himself as he continued to cut through the vampires skin. This was more than enough time to at least try. The blade fizzled back into around around his hands, now throwing unbearably fast punches and jabs to throw the enemy off. Caelum backed up for a split second, just enough time for his aura to move from his hands and morph back into a long blade. In a blink of an eye, Caelum swiped down and to the side. The enemies left arm and head was lopped off, their body falling to the ground with a loud /thud/. The vampire started to catch his breath, soon turning his head over to where his student was.



“Rei?” He was ok. A bit beat up but overall? Ok. Thank goodness. Caelum was sure that the enemy would not proceed to move with their head removed.

Boy was he wrong.

Caelum only had taken a half step towards Rei. Something wrapped around the assassin’s ankle, barely having time to look down as he was completely launched off of the roof and across the air. The force of the throw was insane, taking Caelum much longer to straighten himself out. He used his body weight to flip himself in the air, feet landing on the side of the building across from them. The force of his landing created a shock wave that shattered almost every window in that building.

He kept himself in that position for a bit, using his manipulation of gravity to plant himself in a stable posture. His head snapped up, staring straight ahead, his eye sight zooming in on the tiny figures. His face dropped. The enemy was about to charge Rei. The pressure that Caelum had against the building multiplied, using telekinesis to create a barrier around his lower body; cruising deeper and deeper into the building. He bent his knees, kicking off as he used the barrier for solid support.

Caelum was fast, quite sure that you wouldn’t be able to see him if you had human reflexes. The sword was held out forward, coming towards the enemy in flash. The pressure against the other vampires body was harsh, hands being pushed back a bit but he fought forward. They both passed the roof doors and hit the wall across from outside. The enemies back hit the wall with enough force to knock the wind out of him, the tip of the sword going through him entirely as it burrowed deep inside of the plasterboard of the wall.

Before Caelum could even move, his stomach felt as if it had caved in, feeling his body fly through the air. He was kicked off quite hard but the vampire used his gravity once again to cut the force and twist his body in the air, feet coming down to land and sliding across the roof until his feet hit the thick of the ledge. The pain in his abdomen was dreadful but he kept it together until further notice. Besides, Caelum wouldn’t of had time to recover as the enemy charged straight at him. The vampire gladly sprinting forwards himself. Caelum raised his sword, bringing down his shoulders to swipe down on the man once again. His aura then melts down, surrounding his each digit of his fingers and hands. It was too fast to catch. The vampire pointed his fingers out, moving his right hand on a cross until it hit an area in the enemies neck. The force of this hit causing their neck to break on impact. He continued to hit pressure points in the other vampires shoulders and hitting in his solar plexus at last. His enemies body slowly slumped over, but Caelum did not let him touch the ground. Caelum reached out, snatching the neck of the vegetable of a body that was of his enemy.

Their sounds of pain were choked out, looking up at Caelum with a gaze seething with hatred. The enemy was baffled, struggling to speak. 



“Yo-ou…” Trying to sound out anything was excruciating to the enemy vampire.

“It only makes sense—“ Caelum’s grip tightened around their neck, an eerie sound of pain coming out of them. “—You can regenerate at will, but can you with your body paralyzed?” The vampire hacked and spat blood at the assassin’s face, action making Caelum’s grip becoming ever stronger. "The moment you set out to kill me, is the moment you /lost/." The vampire hissed. He then walks them both the side edge of the building, taking a step up to stand on the edge.

"Can you fly?" Caelum asked, a dark, twisted expression rising on his features. He was putting an end to this in his way. Slowly putting his weight forward, the enemy vampire began to loose the last bit of his sanity in the assassins hold.



“N-NO-“

Caelum fell forward. He kept the enemy vampire in front of him the entire time, the vampire pilling more weight on himself so the two could fall faster and faster.

They reach the street below, landing on the roof of a car. The impact made a huge shock wave from the multiplied force, making every street light in the area shatter and other car alarms go off. Yet, Caelum did not touch anything. He made himself float at the last second, only coming down when everything had stopped rumbling. He planted his feet on either side of the deceased vampires body. The expression of death on the enemy made Caelum scoff. “You should have tried to figure out more tricks than that…”

He then jumped off of the car, landing with his knees crouched very close to the cracked asphalt. The pain in his gut from before resurfaced a lot faster than he expected. Caelum crossed his arms around his stomach and leaned his upper half forward, still crouched down.


“…”

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ There was a sickly feeling in the pit of Rei’s stomach. Most likely it was just nerves, but still it was a very uncomfortable feeling. Quite frankly, it was an unfamiliar sensation. It wasn’t very hard to explain, it was a fluttering that took over his whole body. His stomach didn’t seem like it was going to settle, only getting worse whenever the elder was near or in his thoughts.

Rei’s head was faced downwards, only his eyes lifted up to look at Caelum as he listened closely to the instructions. It seemed easy. Take out the sniper. But it was going to be a lot harder than that. Instead of answering he just nodded his to let the other vampire know that he understood. His hands were clasped together, nervously fiddling with his thumbs. Why did things have to be so complicated?

There was no longer pain that filled Rei’s eyes, but fear. He was genuinely afraid, deciding against speaking up about it, he just kept it to himself. Once he felt Caelum’s hands on his face, his fingers reached out to grasp the fabric on the elder’s chest. Looking attentive as he nodded once again. He wasn’t expecting for them to go out today. After all that they’ve gone through they deserve to rest, knowing that one another is safe and out of harms way. Rei closed his eyes as Caelum’s lips connected with his own, feeling a sense of calmness washing over him. Pushing away all of the fear and doubt leaving him at peace with himself and the world.

With the kiss still lingering on his lips, he quickly followed Caelum. The faster that they get this done, the faster they can get out of this wretched place. As they made their way up to the roof, the whistling of the bullets was very loud as the guns fired. There was only two of them. It didn’t seem that hard. They had wiped out rooms full of vampires, the only difference was that these snipers were all the more trained.

Rei took in on the action, running towards the other vampire. He decided why not make this interesting and use his hands to fight. Relying off of pure strength and wit to see who was better and who would outlast the other. He squared his shoulders, making sure that he had good footing as he put up both of his fists in a defensive stance. The other vampire hissed at him, flashing the red in his eyes as if to try and make Rei cower, but he still stared him head on. He threw a punch to the enemy vampire, hitting him straight between the eyes, causing the other’s steps to falter for just a moment.

The other vampire took a swing, trying to aim for Rei’s head, he quickly ducked the action and slid down underneath the male’s legs. He stood up behind the other, forcefully kicking the enemy in the back. The kick caused the other to fall forward, but he didn’t stay down for long. The enemy turned his body over and fired his gun at Rei. He tried his best to avoid the bullets, ducking out of the way and running to the opposite side.

Rei’s couldn’t help but take a glance over to Caelum and the vampire he was fighting when he heard the elder’s name coming out of the sniper’s mouth. Curious as to if the sniper knew him because the elder was a very good assassin and was well known, or if they had knew each other from somewhere. He shook it off, staying in his own battle that he was fighting.

When his mind was elsewhere, it gave the other enough time to recuperate and regain his strength once again. The other vampire used his gun to knock Rei in the gut. He groaned as his body unconsciously bent forward as a reflex. He tucked his head and shoulders, rolling himself over to the edge of the roof, which probably wasn’t the smartest move. 'Why was everyone going after my stomach?' He thought to himself but grumbled out loud.

As the other vampire ran towards Rei, he lowered his body getting ready for when the other was close enough. The vampire came closer and Rei hooked his arm in with the other’s, using their body weight against them. He pulled himself down, dragging the other vampire along with him, catching the vampire in an arm drag. He slammed the vampire’s body against the cold, hard cement of the roof.

Rei let the other’s arm go, standing up and slightly backing away. He knew what he was doing. He was trying to lure the other in, attempting to make the vampire come to him. He heard a splattering sound, seeing blood splattering and staining the floor of the roof. Thankfully it wasn’t Caelum’s blood.

Not very long after, Rei was caught in the other’s arms in a very tight headlock. He would yank his head back to try and pull away but it only seemed to become tighter. He saw the other drawing out a gun, about to blow his brains out. He had to think fast, sliding his feet into the vampire’s shins, bringing the other down to a knee. That was when he was able to pull out of the headlock, side kicking the other in the head.

Everyone was everywhere, and the snipers weren’t showing any sign of caving. This was much harder than just killing the vampires that were on the floors below.

He and the other vampire exchanged punches. Rei being hit on the side of his jaw with the other’s uppercut. It stung, the force from the hit causing the skin on his jawline to split open, stinging as the salty, sweat mixed in with the cut and the cold air blew harder. He hissed from the pain before repetitively punching the vampire in his abdomen. He was sure he had done at least some damage, making the other sore and hopefully breaking something in the process.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ Caelum hair suddenly fell in front of his face, his ribbon landing on his shoulder before sliding down to his lap. It was ruined from the bullet that shot him in his head. The vampire could only sigh. That was his favorite.

Caelum slid himself back up the wall, fully coming to a stand with Rei's body still in his hold. With a slow, steady inhale and exhale, the assassin released his student. "Rei." Caelum's tone was stern. "I need you to listen to me." He had no idea of what was to come with this last fight. All he knew was that there were two bodies behind that door, leading to the outside roof. "The sniper from earlier has amazing reflexes, and I'm sure the other one is our /target/. Once there's an opening, take out the sniper. That is /it/."

The vampire had not meant to sound so cruel but there were much too many close calls during this night. He then brought his hands up to the youngers face, giving their soft cheeks a gentle cup. "I'm doing this so we can both be safe, ok?" Caelum then raked his fingers through the youngers dark locks, smiling. "I still want to take you out on a date... even if we don't get to tonight." Ending his words, he lowered his head, pressing their lips together in another kiss. Never in his life has he had been so content with someone. All he wanted in the end was Rei. Nothing else.

Releasing from the kiss, Caelum placed another a top of Rei's forhead. "Let's go." He then moved away from the younger, continuing back to the door. The vampire moved his neck side to side, popping and snapping at the tension that was built around his neck. As soon as the assasin came into view, bullets immediately came his way.

Caelum constantly deflected the bullets, each contact the bullets would make cracked his shield, but his shield would recover immediately after. He could sense the panic in the snipers body, sure that they weren't expecting something like this. The enemy pulled the trigger on the next bullet. Instead of Caelum deflecting it, Caelum backed away just enough. Swipping his hand left, the bullet seemed to turn, reflecting back towards the gun man. It hit the gun man in his shoulder, disarming him for that moment.

He was sure he did not have to give Rei the word, turning his neck towards the other figure that just stood there and watched.

"Caelum Asmodeus." They called his name with such amusement. They then began to clap their hands together. The action making Caelum's face drop into an intense scowl. "You've put on quite a show so far. You and your... friend." The male slowly walked forward, Caelum putting his defense up out of reflex. The mystery vampire stopped. "Don't be so jumpy. I just wanted to talk to you before you both die." This made Caelum's lips flare, hissing from the words.

"You talk like you have the chance." It was almost as if Caelum's words were a trigger to the other vampire, them rushing Caelum with force.

Caelum was quick, backing up and yanking his gun out of this holster to take a few shots. All of his shots were dodged, the other vampire coming up to slash him with his claws but Caelum blocked the attack, using the of his gun to pistol whip the others jaw. The other stumbled.

The wind started to pick up. Being on top of such a tall building made the air so much colder than before.

The enemy was quick to recover, throwing such wild hits that even made Caelum grimace with pain from blocking them. Finding an opening, he chin checked the enemy again, this time his body flying half way across the floor of the roof. Purple aura began to surround his hands. Caelum made the palm of his hands connect, pulling his hands away from each other as a thick line of aura was slowly being formed. Caelum twirled around the shape, the hilt being formed in his hand. A long sword.

He was not exactly the distance combat type, but that did not mean the assassin had not known what he was doing. The next second, the only thing that was seen was the neon trail of the blade, Caelum already behind the enemy. Blood trickled heavily on the blade, moving his wrist to flick the blood off. He turned around, seeing that the enemy dodge his attack but not entirely. Their arm was clean off, as well as a chunk of their chin.

Just when Caelum flinched forward to attack again, he froze. The assassins eyes widened in horror as he watched the flesh begin to stitch back together, their arm completely binding back together in a disgusting mess.

It... grew back?

"Oh? You never seen such regeneration like this?" The enemy vampire spoke, at the advantage in his mind. The assassin has never seen such immense regeneration power; only seeing such a thing with the Leaders of Clans. "Come on, keep cutting through me and let us see what happens."

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Everything had happened quickly, Rei getting a little too big for his britches and Caelum having to pay the price. His eyes widened once he felt the elder’s body wrapping around his own. Caelum used his body as a shield for Rei, who in their right mind would sacrifice their life like that? That just goes to show how much the elder cared for Rei.

It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. Seeming like it’s starting to become a pattern of Rei’s reckless self getting into trouble, then Caelum comes in as the hero in his story. Saving the day in the most daring way.

Rei held close to the elder, not wanting him to get hurt any further than he already was. He tried to give Caelum all of the support that he needed, keeping a hand behind the elder’s head, trying to hold him in an upright position. Once the younger heart Caelum’s words it caused him to narrow his eye at the elder, letting out a quiet hissing sound. It made him upset at how selfless the elder was sometimes. Caelum had just literally gotten shot and he was still asking if Rei was alright. "Don’t you..." His words trailed off, being quick to place his own hand behind Caelum’s head. Rei’s expression softened, his lips beginning to be pulled into a slight pout. He listened closely to the elder's words, nodding his head as he leaned over the other vampire. Rei lined his neck up to Caelum’s mouth, waiting for him to bite down and take the blood that he so desperately needed.

He felt the elder’s pointy fangs penetrate his skin, staying completely still until the elder had drank what was needed. Once the other’s fangs came out of his neck, he moved back, his body hovering over Caelum’s. "All better now?" He hummed softly, placing a hand onto the elder vampire’s shoulder, gently rubbing it as if he was trying to apologize. Rei did wish to be with the elder, that was really all he had wanted. Not be left alone. He lifted his hand up to wipe the excess blood away from Caelum’s pink, pair of lips. He never knew how attractive somebody could look, all beaten, battered and covered with blood. Right now, Rei had no intent of leaving the elder’s side. Not until Caelum gives the word, or says that he’s good to go.

Rei’s hands carefully moved the dark strands of hair away from Caelum’s eyes so that he could get a better view of his face. "I won’t. Don’t worry I’m not going to leave you." He knew how it felt to be left alone as the other vampire went off to fight the battle on his own. I mean he could’ve just gotten up and left, just to spite the elder, but he was nicer than that. He shuffled his body closer towards Caelum’s as he felt the elder’s tight grasp around him.

It wasn’t really the time to be all cuddly and snuggle into each other’s embrace. This wasn’t like some sope opera or whatever, this was do or die. Rei could hear the rumble that came out from deep within Caelum. It was intimidating. If the elder vampire uses that voice with him, he’s bound to immediately do whatever he’s being asked of. Although there was still a room full of vampires, or however many of the vampires were in that room, right now it didn’t really matter. Unless the vampires were going to start shooting at them again, then that did matter.

"Are you alright?" Rei breathed out softly, gazing at Caelum with the most innocent expression. He really didn’t mean for Caelum to get hurt, in a way it hurts him also. Except, it hurts his inner being to see the elder vampire in pain and suffering like that. "I’m sorry... I should really be more careful." He threw one of his arms over Caelum’s chest to hold him more fondly to his frame, as if they weren’t close enough already. "Don’t know how much longer you can keep saving my life..." That line sort of made him feel bad. What if one day Caelum gets killed by Rei’s carelessness? He wouldn’t be able to live with himself and it’d probably end up like a ed up episode of Romeo and Juliet.

He frowned, turning his head back around to look over his shoulder. Seeing if there was anybody coming out from the room at the top of the staircase. The elder was so quick to give his life up for Rei, and the more that he thought about it... he’d definitely do the same if that’s what it’d come down to.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ Caelum’s body tensed from the sudden contact, eyes widening at the familiar voice that ran through his ears. Rei? “Rei? What—“ The other vampire let go of Caelum too fast for him to even finish his sentence. His body froze. Everything started to slow down again. Not again.

Caelum looked up, watching Rei open the doors with such vigor. Then.

BAM.

It was like a broken record. Happening over and over again. Just like the same scene earlier in the night, Rei’s blood splattering everywhere.

Caelum body was released from the shock. A wave of panic flowed through his body. Caelum was swift, yanking the male back as he turned both of their bodies; his back now facing the open door.

BAM.

Caelum’s head snapped forward, eyes dilating and rolling back. He felt his body lock up from shock, but it was short lived as the rest of his adrenaline allowed him to quickly move them both to a safe spot away from the door. The vampires body slammed against the wall, Rei still in his arms as he slowly slid down; making a line of blood on his way down. Caelum’s vision was blurred, the noises of his surroundings sounding like blaring ringing. It hurt to think.

Before Caelum was shot, he put a force field around his body to block or at least stop the bullet. But, it was a bit weak given the time he had to do anything. The vampire had definitely forgotten about their enemy not using normal sniping rounds. So, the bullet penetrated his shield but not enough to go through his skull or kill him. He knew there was going to be a pretty heavy gash though.

The vampire slowly opened his eyes, still not able to see too much or hear anything. He was in a heavy daze but that did not stop him from checking on the younger. “R…Rei?” Caelum huffed out, words slurring due to his current condition. “A..Are you…” Caelum’s head dropped down for a moment, feeling the warm rush of blood begin to streak down his neck. He tried to find as much strength as he could to lift his head up again to look at Rei. “Please…Please be careful…” This was a lot worse than he was expecting. Only if he was fast enough to create a thicker barrier. Sadly, he was still recovering from his precognition and that ended up slowing him down. 

“Blood…” Caelum said, feeling himself beginning to slip out of consciousness. “Your… Your blood… please… Rei…” The vampire pulled Rei close, using his chin to turn the youngers face to the side. Caelum needed Rei’s blood and fast before things had gotten any worse. Parting his lips open, Caelum’s fangs sank into the young vampires neck. He knew, this was bad, but what was worse? Passing out in this situation and getting them killed or getting right back up to fight?

The sensation that shot through his body was strong, a guttural growl erupting from his throat as Rei’s blood coated his mouth. It was so sweet and herbal. It’s been so long since he’s tasted something like that. Caelum had almost lost himself in Rei, pulling back with a loud gasp. There was blood that trickled down his mouth, lips parted open and eyes wide. Caelum was trying his best to get himself back to reality. Though the elder vampire has done it before, it’s been years since he’s fed from another one of his kind. The feeling of his endorphins rising was intense. Was this the real effect of vampires blood?

He could feel the wound on the back of his head stitch itself back together, along with his vision and hearing clearing up. “D…Don’t go out there yet… please.” Caelum continued to hold Rei tightly. “Please. I’m serious…” His voice was low, growling every syllable. Rei’s blood made him feel as if he was going to go feral again. It felt like nothing happened to his body, like they both did not just go through war.

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Rei’s vision became blurred by his tears that he could no longer hold back. The little droplets wet his cheeks, making streams as they ran over the dried up blood patches on his skin. It hurt him that no matter how hard he’d plead and cry with Caelum the obvious answer was still no. The elder didn’t even bother to turn back around. Rei watched as Caelum left, sitting on the steps as that was all he was able to do.

Small, quiet sobs left his lips, hugging his legs towards his chest. Rei rested his back against the wall, unable to help himself from crying. Crying his heart out on the same steps where he and Caelum had shared their first kiss.

There were crashing and smashing sounds coming from the levels up above. He just stayed curled up in a ball, feeling so tiny and helpless, letting everything out until his eyes couldn’t produce anymore tears. The lump in Rei’s throat was sore and his eyes were red and puffy. He let out one last sob, letting the final tear fall before they were all dried up. No more tears left.

Rei took in a few deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves back down again. He knew that Caelum meant it when he had said he’d come back. It just hurt so much that he was left all alone, abandoned on a staircase. There were so many different emotions running through his head, which made him all the more confused. Rei felt angry because he wanted to fight, but sad that he was left behind. He wanted to throw a tantrum, kick and scream until it felt better. Deep down he was also scared for Caelum, afraid of losing him. Although his body was here, his heart had gone along with the elder. The only vampire that would hold Rei’s heart.

The young vampire let out a yell of frustration, clenching his fist and throwing a punch to the wall. There was a hole left behind from his outbreak of anger. Tiny red cuts decorating his knuckles. The physical pain distracted his mind from the mental pain that he was experiencing. Rei threw a few more punches at the wall, which only caused the hole to grow bigger. After a moment he sighed, dusting pieces of the drywall and chipped paint from his fists to reveal his bloody knuckles.

An infant. That’s what he felt like. Rei felt like a useless infant that couldn’t do anything without another to help it. The most annoying part was he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. It was so boring just sitting and waiting. But he was specifically instructed by Caelum to stay there and wait for the elder to return. He could feel the vibrations from the chaos that the other vampire was causing. Wiping out the enemies, all by himself. "Please be careful Caelum..." Rei muttered to himself, basically speaking his words out into the universe in hopes of somebody hearing him.

He wished for something for his hands to grasp onto, something to hold in his arms. Being left with nothing to remember Caelum by, or to hold in his arms when he missed him. All that he had was the memory of the elder’s soft lips against his own and the sweet metal taste of Caelum’s blood that was fed to him.

The silence was louder than everything, the pounding in the ceiling could be heard amongst the noises of nothingness. Until Rei heard a big explosion. That was when he had enough. He couldn’t take it anymore, he had to take action and do something. He knew he’d be disobeying orders, but it was for a good cause.

Springing up from his spot in the stairs he bolted. Rei was wasting no time in getting to Caelum, whether the elder would be angry or not. His feet moved faster than they ever had in his entire life. Moving up flights of stairs in a matter of minutes, running past the deceased bodies that were left behind. Finally he saw Caelum’s figure, running over to him with a wide smile, hugging onto the elder’s arm. "You really didn’t think I was going to let you have all of the fun, hm?"

Rei let go of Caelum’s arm, darting up the last steps first. "Oh and by the way... I’ll be paying for the next date." He called out, looking over his shoulder at the elder before busting open the doors to the top floor.

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@⍤Rei Katoka♙ It pained the elder vampire to hear the younger cry out to him. Each crack and strain hit his body harder than any bullet, but he kept walking. "I'll come back. I promise, Rei."

Caelum never broke a promise.

The vampire took a step towards the doors, eyes dilating as a blight of force ripped the doors off of the hinges.

His hand swiftly released his gun from the holster, aiming straight ahead, he shot twice. Caelum used velocity control with his gravity manipulation, making the bullets much faster and brought more destruction. The bullets created large crators in the wall buildings. Many vampire's had large holes in their bodies, some bodies not intact from the ripping force of his bullets.

After a few more shots, Caelum threw his shoulder forward to hurl his gun at an unsuspecting vampire. The force of the weapon hitting their face killed them instantly, skull caving in. The gun flew up in the air, Caelum phasing through and appeared above the still standing [but deceased] vampire. Grabbing the gun out of mid air, Caelum landed behind the now fallen body and continued to shoot some vampires in the back of their head; Caelum being far too fast for them to turn around in time.

Caelum putting pressure on his heels, a blade unsheaths itself from the bottom boot. Caelum twisted his body around, doing a spinning hook kick behind him, the blade cleanly slicing through ones head and kicking the head off another. Collateral.

Caelum continued to clear the space before moving on to the next. At the next floor, he no longer bothered to touch any of them. Caelum no longer wanted to waste his time, entering through by simply opening the doors and walking in. The vampire's stared at him with such conflicting looks. Just walking in here like he owned the place.

He hunched his back, in a deep breath before raising back up. His muscles flexed harshly, head tilting back as he let out a loud roar. His veins protruded, a blast of energy bursting through out the entire vicinity of the room, even reaching up to a few floors. The wave completely decimated the vampire's that were hit, into nothing but bloodied mush. Glass shattered, walls cracking and breaking, even the ceiling coming down. More bodies fell through the hole. Caelum refused to waste time.

The vampire continued to clear the other floors that weren't effected by the blast, completely blanking the entire time. He had one mission, and one mission only.

Return back to Rei.

Caelum was now at the last flight of stairs. Staring up at the doors, blood lust never faltering. This was it. The assassin took a step forward.

[post deleted by owner]

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Everything felt as if it was falling apart, crumbling here before Rei’s very eyes. He could see the pain and also the anger that filled Caelum’s eyes. A small, almost inaudible whine left his throat when he was pulled against Caelum. Using his free hand, Rei held tightly to the front of the elder’s shirt leaning into the gentle embrace that the elder offered him. He was having a hard time keeping eye contact with Caelum, feeling somewhat ashamed that he had failed. That he had ended up like this. He felt like a very pitiful being, moving his gaze up to Caelum’s eyes then back down again.

Rei softly hushed the elder vampire before weakly resting his head on Caelum’s large shoulder. He really didn’t want the elder trying to say that it was his fault because it really wasn’t. If only Rei had focused, it was his own fault for letting his mind wander instead of snapping himself back in check once he realized he was slipping. But it didn’t matter now, right now he just wanted to be comforted, being sure that this would be the last time he’s going to see Caelum.

The younger’s eyebrows knitted together when he saw Caelum cutting himself open. He was sure he knew what the elder was doing and he didn’t want to accept it. Rei couldn’t take the elder’s blood.. but there really wasn’t any other way, huh?

Obeying Caelum’s command, Rei let his mouth fall open as the elder dripped the blood down into his throat. Not even minutes later, he could feel the bleeding start to subside. There was no more liquid dripping out through his fingers, although his side was still slightly sore. "Thank you..." Rei breathed out as he looked up to Caelum.

The mending of the wound was an awkward feeling as the skin started to rebond itself together. Rei was focusing on the funny sensation until he felt a pair of lips on his own. It was Caelum and he was kissing him. His body melted into the kiss, lightly tugging at the collar of the elder’s shirt as his eyes closed. Caelum’s words meant so much to Rei, and he knew that the elder meant what he said. He nodded his head, his face leaning into the other’s hand. "I swear I will... the last thing I’d ever want to do is die on you... I wouldn’t leave you just like that." Rei placed his own hand over Caelum’s, holding it to his face. More than anything in the world right now, he wished that the elder could stay with him although he knew there was still work to be done. They didn’t really have a choice as to whether or not they wanted to keep on fighting. It was either fight or die, and that doesn’t give you much of a choice there now does it?

Rei didn’t want Caelum to go, at least not without him. He wanted to go and help, even if he got hurt he just couldn’t let the other stand alone. "Please..." His hand was quick to catch the sleeve of the vampire’s clothing, looking up at him with pleading eyes. His hand slipped off of the fabric as Caelum kept walking, and that was when he started to panic. "Don’t leave me here... please take me with you."

He was trying to plead with the elder, feeling his vision becoming impaired by the tears that were welling up in his eyes. Rei’s voice was shaky when he called out after Caelum, trying his hardest to make the elder turn back and agree to let him come. He couldn’t just stand back, he’d feel too helpless. 'God, no this can’t be happening.' Rei shook his head a couple times, feeling useless as he watched Caelum go.

"Please?!" He called out one last time before the vampire had gotten to the top of the staircase. Rei’s voice cracked when he begged, he was at the brink of tears and he couldn’t help it when one of the silver droplets fell from his eyes.

This couldn’t happen again, it was all too familiar. He’d watch Caelum go and then he’d never come back. It had happened before in the past with two people he loved so dearly. The elder just couldn’t leave him like that... could he? Rei felt his heart breaking a little bit, waiting, hoping for any response from Caelum. He just didn’t want to be ignored, but most of all he didn’t want to say goodbye.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ The sight before him made his throat tighten, feeling his vision beginning to tunnel with black. This was all Caelum's fault. He felt his legs grow weak, falling to his knees on a step below Rei's body. He'd taken no time to handle the male, pulling them close to his own body. He wanted to cry. Did Caelum pose as a distraction to Rei? Was that why Rei was injured? Caelum could only assume, as that was the reason why Caelum was injured to an extent himself.

"I should of never..." Caelum whispered, dragging into silence as he gritted his teeth. He should of never put this task up to Rei. Caelum would of rathered to sacrifice himself to battle all of these men than Rei to... end up like this.

He knew this next idea would most likely bring shame to him, but the elder wanted to do everything he could to save Rei.

The vampire knew well of what he was about to do. Another vampire taking the blood of their own was a highly taboo practice across all vampire clans. A few practice these things, those few being black listed from other higher clans. The assassin did not care, it was all to save Rei's life. Though consumption of another vampires blood was illegal, it worked well as a healing and rejuvenation cure. Caelum had to figure this out the hard way along his life.

His nails grew slightly in size, opening the palm of his right hand. Caelum pressed down on his palm, slashing the area without hesitation or a single flinch. There were no three long bloodied marks across the area.

"Rei, drink this..." He used his other hand to hold Rei's face, gently squeezing the youngers cheeks for his lips to part open. Caelum held his injured hand above his students mouth, letting the blood flow freely.

"Come on, come on..." Caelum muttered as his blood dripped into Rei's mouth, some of the droplets missing the youngers mouth and dripping down the side of his lips. Looking down, Caelum witnessed the bleeding from the wound begin to slow. It was working, but either way, Caelum was not going to allow Rei to continue fighting. 

After a few minutes, the wound was closing and Caelum removed his hand from Rei's view. In that second, the vampire closed the space in between them. His lips were gentle against the youngers, pouring all of his sorrow into the motions of this kiss. Though he had not wanted to depart, Caelum pulled away, only enough for his eyes to still loom over Rei's face. A familiar glowing red began to emerge in the vampire's eyes. Caelum was sure that most of his rage from before had settled, but it grew even bigger at this moment. "If you are ever in trouble... please call my name-- think about me hard enough--" He brought his bloodied hand up, caressing the youngers face. "--I promise I'll be there." Though strained with sadness, the vampire smiled down at his student. Caelum needed Rei to know that he would always be there, no matter what plays out.

Caelum did not show it in his voice, but he was angry at everything around him. Mostly himself. It was definitely going to take awhile for the vampire to truly forgive himself for what he's caused.

"Stay here..." The vampire's tender hold was released, as gently as he could, laying Rei's body back onto the stair case. All Caelum wanted to do was to hold the younger vampire in his grasp for the rest of the night but everything had to come to a halt at some point. "I'll come back for you." He raised his body up, staring straight at the doors ahead. This stare was all anyone really needed to know. That Caelum was sure to not let anyone come out out this building alive.

Caelum began to walk up the rest of the stairs, boots heavy against the floor.

He was going to release all of this saved energy for only destruction.

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ With much pain Rei pulled his own body up the stairs, it hurt but he was sure that he would definitely get more battered and beaten. The hit to the stomach did cause him to be sore, most likely the feeling of bruising internally and externally. Now, the back of him was soaked in his victims blood, still tasting the bitter iron on his tongue. Rei kept pushing himself further and further. Telling himself to keep going then meet Caelum on the twenty ninth floor. Not being one to wallow in self pity, he tried his best to bottle up that sore, tense feeling in his stomach, kicking open the next set of doors. Except this time, they didn’t go flying off, this time his kick was much weaker than his last.

Again, the enemy vampires came rushing towards him. Thankfully Rei’s senses were still very sharp and he was quick enough to maneuver around them.

One of the others yielded a large sword, attempting to slash the younger with it. As soon as he saw the shiny weapon coming towards him, he jumped in the air, his shoes connecting with the hand of the other vampire, causing the blade to turn and stab through the enemy’s head. The head was chopped in half, falling off of the vampire’s shoulders and splattering up against anybody who was close by. BANG! BANG! Rei’s gun fired, this was the quickest way to keep a good distance between him and the others, and it would also kill them in moments. He shot two bullets, going through several of the enemy’s chests. Large holes rested on their pectoral areas, anybody could clearly look straight through the holes and see the exposed organs along with their rib structures.

In hoping of having at least a little bit of cover, Rei ran to the other side of the room, hopping over office chairs, deciding to use them as ammo. Use your surroundings, that is a very smart tactic, especially when using foreign, unfamiliar objects against the other vampires. One by one, he would pick up the chairs, throwing them forcefully into the faces of the enemies. The metal collided with one’s skull, crushing when it came in contact. A large indent had been engraved into another’s from being hit with a chair, compressing the vampire’s brain. It was a very disturbing sight to see as the other’s head were being crushed in.

Throwing his last chair, it ended up slamming right into a vampire’s neck, severing the head from the body in split seconds. From the force of the throw, the body collapsed on the ground, but the head went flying across the room, hitting an unsuspecting vampire in the face. There was shock and horror written all over the other’s face when the blood of the head began to drip down the vampire’s face.

Rei had used his last chair, and yet there were still a small handful of them left. His hand fumbled with his gun since it was drenched in the slimy blood, and whatever else had come out of the other vampires.

Finally, Rei had the gun in hand, ready to pull the trigger until a sharp stinging pain hit him in the stomach. "Not again." A gasp left his lips, quickly blowing the brains out of the vampire closest to him. If he was in pain before, compared to that this was much worse, it was excruciating. He didn’t dare look down at himself to see what had hit him in the side, Rei wanted to finish clearing out this room before he started to worry about himself.

The led from his gun shot into another’s stomach, hearing them gasp for air before their eyes rolled into the back of their heads and they fell to the ground. Rei tried wasting no time in reloading his gun. He opened the magazine with a click, putting the fresh bullets in then pushing it closed. He shot another vampire, watching blood pout out of their mouth, neck and nose before going limp. Rei felt a pair arms wrapping around his neck, somebody was trying to choke him from behind. With a deep grunt, he pulled back his arm, ing his elbow backwards into the ribs of the vampire. That made the other release him, although when Rei turned around he was met with the blade of a dagger.

It stabbed him in the stomach, causing him to let out a loud cry of pain, his body flinching as a reflex, making the knife slit downwards in the process. Rei threw a punch at the vampire’s face, knocking the other off of his feet. When the other vampire was down on the ground, he placed his foot on the face of the other, crushing the vampire’s jaw into the ground. He pinned him there for a few seconds, pure rage flamed in his eyes. He could hear the other’s plead for mercy, which drew a scoff from his lips before pulling the trigger back, seeing the other grow still.

The room was clear and Rei didn’t know if he could go on and clear another. He leaned his back against the wall, taking in a shaky breath as he took a glance at his abdomen. The shiny dark dagger was still logged in his side, the bottom part of his shirt was torn around the area and the scarlet liquid ran out of him in plenty. He winced in pain, wrapping a shaky hand around the handle of the knife, pulling it out in one quick motion.

A stabbing pain ran through him, he let out a scream, and his knees buckled underneath his weight. Luckily he caught himself, propping his body up on his hands and knees. Rei tossed the knife to the side, not really caring where it had landed as he closed his eyes for a second. He could feel his shirt becoming more and more soaked with his own blood. The blood of his victims mixed in with his own, he winced in pain as the burning in his side was overbearing.

He took in another breath, still sounding very irregular as he pulled himself up, holding onto the windowsill. Thinking that Caelum was already ahead of him, he kept going, limping out of the room and down the hall. One of Rei’s hands dragged against the wall, as if to give him some support, while the other clutched his middle section tightly. It didn’t do much help, as blood spilled through his fingers, dripping down and onto the floor. He left a long trail behind him, which could probably attract even more enemies. Bloodied handprints were also printed on the wall, smearing the red liquid as it left fingerprints.

Rei was so close to the next staircase, it was only a few feet away. That was when he heard footsteps, assuming that it was another enemy, he groaned in annoyance. He didn’t feel like fighting any other vampires off right now, especially in the state he was in. The hand that was clutching his stomach, moved to grab his handgun until he heard the sweet familiar voice, that he’d never thought he’d be so happy to hear.

Shoving the gun back into his inner pocket he stopped walking, trying to find his balance while he turned around. But wait, Rei didn’t want Caelum to see him like this. If he tried to run it wouldn’t matter because he was much slower now.

Rei hesitantly turned around to face the elder vampire, the one that he so greatly cared for. His eyes widened at the sight of Caelum, forgetting his own agony when he saw the cuts and gashes engraved into the elder’s body. Caelum looked much worse than Rei felt, and yet somehow the elder was standing up straight without a sign of being in any pain. He tried to rush over to the elder but the pain struck again like a lighting bolt and he stumbled as more blood spilled out. Falling to his knees yet again, he could hear a ringing in his ears, and see flashes of black painting across the picture of reality.

"Caelum..." Rei breathed out weakly before lifting his head up to flash a smile at the elder. "...fancy seeing you here." A forced laugh left his lips as he kneeled on the ground unable to stand at this moment.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ Rei was finally out of his sight. Meaning? He could release all of this monstrous rage he's been building all of this time. The first floor didn't even scratch the surface of his fury. The images of Rei getting his head blown out earlier earlier had constantly replayed in his mind the entire time, even until now. If Caelum was not blessed with the abilities of his clan, Rei would of been gone from his life just like that. No more did he want to lose the ones that were close to him. In his nearly 500 years of living Caelum had someone he could find himself in. He wasn't going to sit there and lose them.

Caelum had no problem clearing out the first couple of floors, the only thing heard were pre-mature war cries and noises of death.

Caelum had cleared the area. Except one.

Suddenly, the vampire felt himself being lifted up from behind. The next second, being slammed heavily into the wall. His head was the first thing to hit the hard material, head snapping back as the rush of pain bloomed through his body. It happened a few more times. This set the vampire off. Caelum used most of his body weight to lower himself in the large vampires hold. Bending his knees, he came up, switching their gravities. Caelum had them both floating in the air for a moment, until he stacked his own heavy gravity with the larger opponents to come down. Caelum flexed his body as he dropped on top of the larger body, using the impact to sink them further. All of that weight crushed everything inside of the vampire's body, even their intestines not being able to handle all of it; flowing out of their mouth. Caelum rolled himself backwards and out of the now limp hold, flipping up to land on his feet.

Some thing did not feel right within Caelum. The vampire knew to trust his student. Rei was strong. Rei was one of his top students. Caelum shook his head, trying to throw the thought out of his mind.

It was then, Caelum's eyes dilated. His head snapped forward, his vision blurring out until it cleared out. There, he saw Rei dragging himself across the wall, painting not only the enemies but his own blood as he walked. More enemies were beginning to come his students way. Not many, but they had an advantage. Caelum was snapped back into reality, another gasp escaping his lips; his chest heaving up and down.

Rei was hurt. And if he kept going like he was now, he'd surely bleed out. Caelum brought his hands to his face, slapping the skin as he tried to calm down. He needed to know what floor Rei was on as soon as possible. The vampire tried to shake his brain to remember if he had seen a floor number or /something/ in his vision. It then popped in his head. He did, just barely. 17. Caelum looked over to the exit door. This was 13. 

Caelum either had to skip the next few floors, or get through them quickly. And honestly, the odds of them finding Caelum and Rei were huge. He hissed between his teeth. His options were , but he just had to make due. Rushing out of the room, Caelum was building up a lot of speed. You'd think he'd use up most of his energy and power from the countless of enemies that he's went through, but this burning determination to get to Rei before it was too late was intense. It completely made him feel... nothing. All of his fatigue and annoying spots of pain disappeared, only leaving the energies of anger in his shell.

As soon as Caelum's eyes came into contact with the door, they'd flown off their hinges; plowing through some enemies behind it. Another blank of rage had the vampire fighting his way through again, getting slashed here and there, but no assassin was entirely perfect; no matter how strong. It soon came down to the hand full, not wanting to use his manipulation powers as it would exhaust time much too early. Caelum was close quarters this entire time so he could save enough energy for later.

As Caelum fought the rest, someone came down and slashed Caelums back, from his shoulder blade down to his hip. Caelum's muscles tensed a bit from the pain, but that did not stop him. The vampire turned around, throwing a punch that not even a trained vampire could see. Their body flew to the side, breaking through the glass of the window beside them. The pain had began to blank out in a slate of white, his adrenaline moving much too fast for it all to really catch up to him.

Caelum moved on to the next few floors. The entire process was as gruesome as before. He couldn't be stopped. He had a mission, and he was going to get there one way or another. Through out the flury of men, Caelum did not come out unscathed. His fatigue was definitely getting to him, getting hit with things that he should of seen or reacted to. There were more gashes on his body from blades and claws, a bullet wound in his shoulder, and blood running his face from a small cut above his left eye. None of this could weigh him down. The vampire has been through far too much for this to make him waver.

Caelum was only a floor away. He definitely shaved off a few seconds from how fast he cleared the past few floors. At this point, he could definitely smell Rei's blood in the air.

As Caelum went up the stairs, he noticed a trail of blood below him. Rei's smell became intense as he kept staring at the trail. This was his students blood. The assassin came up to the beginning of the last flight of stairs. The door was already gone. Did Rei already clear this area? In his condition? Caelum's mouth lowered into a frown. The smell of Rei's blood would not leave his nostrils. It almost made him sick to smell his friends blood like this. He never wanted to smell such a thing like this.

Caelum ran through the bloodied hall way, deciding to run on the wall for a bit to avoid stepping on the endless deceased bodies.

He hoped dearly that it wasn't too late.

Caelum opened the doors, following the trail of blood up to a figure that was nearly half way across the hall. Dripping blood.

"REI!"

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Taking in the sight of broken jaws, lifeless eyes, some with severed bodies, and others with holes going directly through them. Either way all of the other vampires layed on the ground in pools of their own. This didn’t look like a murder scene, no, it was far worse. The sight around Rei and Caelum looked like a battle field. It was a very gory sight, enough to give anybody with a weak heart or not, nightmares for months.

Rei’s turned his body around when he heard the breathless sound of Caelum’s voice ringing out in the air. He saw the head literally explode from the elder’s grip, dirtying the other even more than he already was. Something inside of him was slightly frightened but also very attracted to the supernatural strength that Caelum had. Taking in a few deep breaths, Rei nodded his head with a light sigh. "Sounds good to me." The younger’s shoes were covered with blood, as well as every other part of him. There were some strands of hair that stuck to his forehead from his perspiration. His sleeves were still rolled up, exposing his biceps with spots of crimson dotting his palish colored skin.

If there were thirty more floors to go, then whatever Rei and Caelum had gone through was most likely just a glimpse of what was to come. Rei was sure that there’d be plenty more enemy vampires to keep them busy for a while. It was as if this was an episode of slaughterhouse and it were starring Caelum and Rei as its main characters.

Rei’s eyes followed the elder as he disappeared up the stairs. He stood there watching the staircase well after Caelum was long gone. He knew that the elder was well trained, Caelum was way better than him at fighting... but still there was a tiny ounce of doubt in him. Rei had lost both of his parents and god he really didn’t want to lose Caelum too. He trusted the elder, if he said that he was going to meet Rei on the twenty ninth floor then he knew that the elder would stick to his word.

There were noises coming from the floors above, signaling to him that Caelum was already at work with the next bunch of vampires. Rei quickly maneuvered his way over the bodies and body parts, darting up the stairway to get started on the other floor which the elder wasn’t on.

"How many vampires do they have on their side?" Rei mumbled to himself as he reached the last step on the next floor. "They have enough reinforcements to fill thirty ing floors." He shook his head as he threw open the doors, causing the hinges to break off and the doors to go flying into the walls, making large dents as they landed with a crash. Rei’s eyes narrowed taking a good long look at the enemy vampires that wasted no time in taking action, running over to him with barred weapons. He stood his ground, making sure he had his footing before darting into the mob. This bunch was much fiercer than the last but Rei is relentless, no matter how many times they decide to knock him down he’s going to get back each and every time.

Pushing through the multitude of others, he tucked his neck and shoulders down, rolling underneath a large table, popping up on the opposite side of it. Rei kicked the table forward with much force, knocking a few vampires in the stomach as pens, and whatever other contents that were resting on the table, spilled to the floor. It was a messy job and there wasn’t any way to make it cleaner, quite frankly it wasn’t too pretty either. Rei felt somewhat bad for whoever the person was that would end up having to clean up this mess. He made sure that there were still bullets in his gun before aiming at the others that were much too close for his liking. The smell of gunpowder filled the air, mixed along with the irony metallic smell of blood as it seeped through the rug and shirts of the few vampires he had just shot.

Although Rei’s whole body was here, every physical inch of him was here... but his mind was trailing off, starting to become clouded by the thought of Caelum. That was until he felt a sharp, cramping pain that shot through his lower stomach. "!" Rei cursed quietly under his breath as his thoughts were returning back to reality. When he blinked his eyes he saw a rather large vampire standing directly in front him. A wave of rage surged through him and his fangs came down, hissing at the one who’s eyes met his own. In the blink of an eye Rei raised his foot, kicking the vampire in the stomach with full force. There was a loud cracking sound which was probably the sound of the male’s ribs shattering and puncturing his vital organs, killing him from the inside.

'Keep your head in the game Rei... Caelum’s fine, he doesn’t need your help!' He internally yelled at himself, giving himself a good scolding but he also was reminding himself that he needed to focus. Rei’s hands quickly gripped onto one of the males’ collars, smashing the guy’s head through a window, pieces of glass shattering as the crimson blood began streaming out of the other’s crown. Rei took another vampire into a headlock, pointing the gun to his head and without waiting another second he pulled back the trigger, dropping the body once the other was dead. A heavy pain still stung inside of Rei’s lower abdomen, it felt cramped up in the middle section of his stomach but he still powered through, it probably wasn’t a big deal or anything. He knew how to handle pain, if he could still be mobile then to him nothing vital had been hit or broken.

Rei slashed the neck of a few of the enemies, slitting open the skin to reveal the muscle tissue and bloody veins, causing them to cough up blood and die. He heard footsteps running towards him, he snapped his body around but as soon as Rei’s stance was refocused a body collided with his. It caused him to lose his footing, falling backwards and being pinned to the ground by another, hitting his head in the process as he landed in a pool of his victims’ blood. "Get the hell off of me!" Rei clenched his fists, swinging his arm directly into the vampire’s mouth, seeing a couple teeth falling from the other’s mouth. In return, the other threw a punch of his own knocking Rei on the jaw. Once he felt the metallicy taste in his own mouth, he had enough, he spit the blood into the other’s eyes; flipping out from underneath the vampire and shooting him in the chest.

Caelum’s words still lingered in his head, "Be safe." well he was still alive and this whole situation wasnt really safe anyways. He spit out some of his own blood onto a vampire’s limp body, taking a glance at the new mess he had made before running out of the room, heading up to the next floor, this time with a pain in his side that only seemed to grow heavier.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ It was simple really. Clear out each room until you get to the top. It was more fun making a game out of something to gruesome. Why take out everyone and just go straight up there? Caelum wasn't one to underestimate /everyone/; having to be careful about being too cocky as an assassin. Anyone could catch someone off guard if they tried hard enough.

A few men ran up to Caelum [most staying back, as they should], all of which were carrying a variety of sharp weaponry. A few swords men slash at him left and right, dancing through and blocking each slash. One vampire came up to his side to hack his head execution style, Caelum crouching and turning to face them in an instant. The assassin swipped up on the down coming blade, the aura breaking the weapon instantly. Caelum kicked his left leg down, heel coming in contact with the baffled enemies knee. The vampire's body immediately crippled by the action. As soon as their body flinched down, he used that momentum to punch him down; using his shoulder to put more strength into the hit. The floor below them cracked and shattered as the slammed down with such speed, making a few of the vampire's around him stumble and or fall.

This was an excellent block of time.

The grip on his trench knives tightened, the aura beginning to elongate at the tips. The knives were now as long as his entire arm. The vampire sprinted forward. From his very movement, they began to shoot at him. Caelum slid of his knees, bullets flying past his ears; some even grazing his skin. He used his upper half to turn his body in mid movement, using the momentum and strength his body had collected as he rose up on one leg. In one fall swoop, he pushed out his hand at 70 degree angle; the sharp aura coming at a great speed. In one great slash, a good 15 were cleared. All of their bodies simultaneously falling to the ground; some in half, some missing heads. Blood was spilled /everywhere/. He was sure it'd cover the entire right wall and ceiling of that floor. The spill of guts, brain matter and other body parts had seemed like it was a scene out if a horror movie.

Whoever was left stood there in horror, a few gasping and dry heaving from the sceen they just witnessed. He could smell the stench the fear wafting off of those few men. Adding more fuel to his fire. The others, who seemed unphased by the entire thing, decided it was their time to be next. Caelum's weapons had already simmered down to their original size by this time.

With this batch? He decided to do something a bit more.../hands on/. The knives fissled in to a blank slate of aura around his hands, molding around each finger until it'd solidified around both hands. Caelum still had anger to blow off and using knives were not cutting it for him. Close quarters combat was his favorite thing to do.

Flaring out his wrist, Caelum put both of his hands in defensive position, closely tucked in front of his face and chin. He simply walked towards them, flexing his muscles in preparation with what was to come.

"You really don't want /me/ to be the one to come to you..." Caelum stated with a smug smirk that rose on the corner of his lips. Not in this current state. He was a true predator in this moment.

A few of them taken the offer,  rushing up to him with no hesitation in their step. Caelum brought his left foot back, putting a bit of weight on his heel to lean back; dodging a punch. Caelum, using the weight on his leg to snap up, swiftly cross jabbing ones jaw. The hit was clean, watching the jaw bone break and the skin rip from the sheer force of his strength. Caelum bent his knees, quickly ducking down as the sound of something going harshly against the air missed its target. Coming up, be simply back handed the one behind him. Their head almost turned perfect 180, unleashing collateral damage to the poor vampire behind him, making his head snap back so fast that their chin apart from their neck. There were a few more but they did not last very long to keep record of them.

You'd think, with this many people on this floor, it would of taken much longer for 2 vampires to clear. In reality? 10 to 15 minutes.

"Woo!" The assassin breathed out, panning over to Caelum having a sole vampires face trapped in the grip of his right hand. They made no significant sounds, other than the choked out noises of pain from Caelum's ever tightening grip. "Well--" Fingers flexing, the head in his hands splattered to the nearest areas; most of the mess being spilled on Caelum's body. The deceased vampire dropped to the floor with a skin crawling 'squelching' noise from the waterfall of blood escaping the exposed veins. "--30 more floors to go..." The vampire brought one of his bloodied hands up to his face, running it through his hair as he felt a few loose strands that escaped his hair tie. "Let's cross paths again on the 29th." His eyes veered over to the other male, eyes widening at the sight before him. Rei's appearance was distracting, blood covering his pale skin in certain spots, dripping down his face, tangled in his hair. If ethereal was a creature; it'd be him.

Caelum ripped his eyes away from Rei's sight, catching on to that if he stared any longer, he'd forget what they were even there for. Besides, their game wasn't going to pause for anyone.

"Be safe." He sprinted up the stairs, out of the others sight.

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Rei could feel the tension in the air as his eyes watched Caelum anxiously. He held his gun in his hand, ready for whatever was coming next, waiting for the elder to say the word.

Once Caelum gave the signal Rei’s legs darted off, like when a race horse is let out of the gate, hurrying into the streets as he quickly following the elder vampire. He turned his back to Caelum’s, looking around to see if there were any others behind, covering the elder. Rei held his gun readily, waiting to see a flash, a flicker of anything. His eyes flickered over to where Caelum was when he heard the gunshot and then a firing of bullets back. Yet none of the shots hit the elder, only firing at the ground, making a very loud noise as it chipped pieces of the gravel creating dents in the ground. They ran into the large building, knowing that there was most likely more than one.

Rei hummed in response until he saw the many other vampires that stood ready in front of them. This person was prepared, they knew where Rei and Caelum were going to be. Somebody had planned this out. He had never imagined this many men to be awaiting their arrival, it seemed that they might’ve been a teensy bit over prepared. Rei clicked his tongue in annoyance, snorting a bit at Caelum’s remark. "Well two can play at that game." If this someone wanted them to play the little games then the younger and the elder vampire would play along. But somebody is going to win this and put an end to all of this crap.

"Cute... that’s real cute." Rei gave the other a sarcastic response, a small smile held place on his lips before turning back into a frown, remembering that there was still some 'things' to take care of. Caelum could always find a way to even turn fighting into a game. Guess it’s just a race to see who’ll take care of their bunch of people first. The younger rolled up his sleeves, knowing that it was about to get very messy, keeping his weapon ready in hand. "Show off.~" He mumbled in a playful tone as Caelum made weapons appear, deciding that his gun would be good enough but he had a small dagger in his pocket if he needed it.

Rei watched as the elder ran out before swapping his attention back to the other vampires. He cracked his neck, giving them an amused smirk, motioning at them with his hands to come here. "Let’s dance.." And with that said, chaos began to break out. Vampires coming at him from left and right. Rei used his power to switch their gravities, throwing a few men up against the wall to stun them, even for a short moment. Extending his hand out towards a man, he flung the vampire into a shelf that was behind a desk. The contents and the individual shelves falling and crashing over the other’s head.

Not wanting to let them get any closer than they had to be, Rei lifted three vampires into the air, letting them dangle there as he held them unwillingly. He lifted his gun, pointing towards a man that began running straight at him. BANG!

Rei fired his gun, hitting the vampire directly in the chest with the special bullet. A big hole was blown through the other as the vampire fell to the ground with a thud. The vampire’s clothes were dirty with crimson patches of blood, as a puddle began to seep out from underneath the other. The vampire’s body began spasming and gasps of air could be heard coming from his mouth as he started to choke up blood, the red liquid streaming from his nose also. The other writhing in his own mess on the floor. The other’s eyes rolled backwards and he stopped moving, laying there dead in front of Rei.

It was unclear to him as to whether or not Caelum wanted him to kill everyone so just went with his gut. The vampires Rei was fighting were lowlife scums anyways, nothing more than the dirt underneath his shoe. He fired his handgun again, this time hitting two vampires, the bullet went through one’s neck and hit the other straight in the head. The vampires he had shot fell and landed on top of each other, blood spilling from one’s neck onto the other vampire’s chest, and pieces of brain and chunks of skull splattered all over the ground and the surrounding surfaces.

A low deep chuckle left Rei’s lips, his facial features holding a devilish smile as he sighed. "Ah, I love my job.~" He walked over towards one of the men that was still being held in the air, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the wall. Rei pulled the dagger out of its sheath as the other vampire remained pinned to the wall. With much force he stabbed the dagger into the other’s chest, dragging it downwards, peeling away flesh along with clothing. Blood poured out of the other as he squirmed and screamed, but unable to move. Rei thought that he had torched the other enough, peeling back the flesh that he had torn then carving the male’s heart out. He let the lifeless body fall to the ground, tossing the bloody heart to the floor. Rei’s hands were now coated with his victim’s blood, continuing to wipe out the rest who were still standing.

https://i.redd.it/xrrycgjzc7a11.jpg

[the knives shape]

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ As if the street wasn’t already empty, it was completely cleared out at this point; the sound of the gun shot scaring off whoever else was in this street. It was just them and their target(s).

This made no sense. Why was something happening /now/. /Right/ at this second? It wasn’t like— 



Caelum closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. Someone must have been watching him and they waited for the perfect time for him to be alone when he was back at his home clan. It was smart. Whenever he was alone out on missions, Caelum would never leave his stay. It’s either he doesn’t come out, or you come in; and you’d wouldn’t want to do that. So they caught him at a perfect vulnerability point. Well— not so perfect. It did not seem like whoever is trying to kill them, did not do their research. Their bullets would have to be faster than his precognition, but only if they were faster than his speed. Him and other assassins alike had records in and out of the country; no matter how hidden, they’ll still find you. He guessed this group were either unintelligent or just ill-prepared. Stupid, either way.



From the looks of the speed of the last bullet, he could take his chances and get inside of the building before they could catch the vampires. He then reached inside of his jacket pocket to pull out a white silk ribbon. Letting go of the gun, it just simply floating in front of him, Caelum tied his hair back; using the bow to secure his hair. Caelum rolled his shoulders back, stretching out his neck enough to crack it a few times. Eyes rolling back to his head, closing his lids, the vampire took a deep breath in, and out.



Here goes to another sleepless night.



Caelum grabbed the floating gun. “Go.”

They both rushed out of the alleyway, the assassin taking the time near the middle of the road. In mid movement, Caelum pointed his gun at the height of the building, catching the tiniest glimmer from something before pulling the trigger a split second after. He could shoot faster than snipers but alas, just missing this one by a bit. The sniper surprisingly shot back time but his aim was disturbed by Caelum. He knew he’d shattered the scope. Caelum followed behind Rei into the building, barging through the doors, just a [literal] moment after. 



“They’re on the top. I don’t know how many but they don’t seem to— ….“ Caelum dropped his hand that was secure around his weapon. Oh. The vampire was looking at about a good 60-75 counts of bodies standing around them. “What is this? A video game?” Caelum scoffed as he disarmed his gun, pulling the safety back before slipping it back into the holster. So, their real target was at the very top, huh? They could play this game. 



“Alright, whoever gets up there first has to pay for the next date?” Was this really the time to be doing this? The vampire did not care. At the end of all of this, he still wanted to enjoy the rest of his night. Caelum began to take off his coat, noticing a large hole burned into the tail of it. That ing bullet. “Whatever—“ With his coat dropping, that must of signaled every one around them to get ready. Caelum took a step forward, flaring and snapping his arms and hands out. A smoky purple aura surrounded his hands, the aura materializing into solid, sharp trench knives. The vampire stretched his hands out through the handle holes of the knife, popping his knuckles. 



“Have fun—“ Caelum took off, aiming to handle the bunch of the left of the building. 


@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Rei still couldn’t couldn’t look Caelum in the eye, still feeling way too flustered to even try to glance in the other’s direction. "O- okay..." It was all good, right? They were just messing around, although when Caelum had grabbed onto Rei, it did shake him up quite a bit. Rei’s head snapped into the elder’s direction, slowly tucking a piece of hair behind his ear. "Oho, if I take it that way I’ll be ready to take you on right here." Of course nobody could count him out just because he’s down, he’ll recover soon enough and be ready to tease right back. Rei his lips teasingly, as his eyes slowly looked Caelum up and down.

Humming a light tune, Rei followed closely beside Caelum like a loyal little puppy dog, trodding alongside of him. He realized that the elder didn’t finish his words, but didn’t think much of it as he continued to walk down the block.

Turning his head in slight confusion and also alarmed, wondering what was Caelum screaming about, and what the hell was going on. Rei knitted his eyebrows together, opening his mouth to say something but he wasn’t able to talk as he was being yanked towards the other vampire.

As Rei was pulled against Caelum, his immediate reaction was to hold onto the elder, tightly curling his fingers to Caelum’s clothes. He knew that the other wouldn’t just grab onto him for no reason. No, there was definitely something up and he wanted know.

The younger’s head quickly turned into the direction of a loud sound, seeing a chunk being blown off of the side of the white building. As a reaction Rei’s body flinched, moving closer towards Caelum as he clutched the elder’s coat. His knuckles turning white at how hard he was holding on. That could’ve been one of them and that’s terrifying. Rei clung close to Caelum, as the other picked him up and brought them to a somewhat safer spot.

Rei didn’t want to move, he could feel Caelum’s body shaking and he knew that whatever that was, it had to be pretty damn bad to have shaken the elder up like this. Something inside of him wanted to calm Caelum down, tell him that’d it’d be okay, but he knew before any of that could happen they were going to have to do something about whatever or whoever was after them. Rei’s frame was pulled into Caelum even more, letting out a soft grunt at how tight the elder’s hold was around him. If anybody were to take a look at Caelum right now they’d be scared for their life. The elder literally looked like a creature that had crawled out of hell, coming to destroy and kill anything that gets in his way. Rei internally jumped when he saw Caelum’s transformation and the sound that came from his mouth would’ve been able to scare the out of even the toughest person.

Now he was angry, he was angry for Caelum and whoever that was, they were going to regret what they had done. Rei’s eyes darted over to the spot where the next bullet had hit, but his body remained turned towards Caelum. "I’m alright... but that’s really only thanks to you." It wasn’t really the time for formalities, but Rei would make it known later in that he was grateful to the elder for saving his life. His eyes darted down to see the handgun that was attached to Caelum’s hip. Of course being a trained assassin he was always supposed to be ready to fight, in any situation. Although his gun wasn’t as large as Caelum’s, it still was just as lethal.

Rei took out his medium sized gun out of the inside of his coat pocket, repeating the elder’s actions. A smirk played on his mouth, gesturing forward with his head. "On your signal boss." He was focused, ready to do whatever Caelum instructed, all the elder had to do was say the word. This is what he was trained for.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ “Did I?” Caelum asked back with a chuckle, shaking his head. “I did, I did— well—“ The elder flashed a teasing grin on his face. “Unless you also wanted to take it that way.” Caelum knew how to break down the male every time. It was basically pay back from all of the countess times Rei had , but was also serious about his words.



Returning his gaze forward, Caelum could sort of see the restaurant ahead of them. It was still a bit far, but they were close enough to see it. “Almost the--“ His words interrupted, Caelum began to notice that time around him was beginning to slow down.

The vampires expression dropped. 

His eyes looked over to the young male, only seeing his back as he walked in front of him. Caelum blinked, the next second, blood splattering all of over his face. The scene was horrid; watching pieces of brain matter fly and spill all around them; even painting red on the white building. The vampire stopped breathing at that very moment.



Caelum’s world suddenly came rushing back to him, opening his eyes with a sharp gasp. There was no way this could be happening now. He quickly turned to his head right, watching Rei walk ahead of him for a brief moment. No, no.



“REI!” 



Caelum’s nearly frozen muscles launched forward, wrapping his arms around the smaller frame. He twisted his body to the left, using both of their weight on the ground to jump a few squares of the sidewalk away. 



BOW.

Caelum looked back over towards the area, seeing a large hole embedded into the Supreme Court building. No, that wasn’t a hole, that was a ing crater. Before anything more could happen, Caelum lifted up Rei’s body, using his speed to cover behind them; in between buildings. ‘That wasn’t a normal bullet. Normal bullets don’t crater like that…’

Caelum’s breathing was heavy, shaken as his eyes stared down at the wet asphalt below them; back sliding down on the cold wall. He could feel his eyes shaking, nerves beginning to run wild in his body. Caelum’s precognition was a strange one. All the events on what were to happen were much too real for his liking. The assassin was sure Rei was dead in that split second. He was sure of it. Caelum’s hold around the smaller male tightened, his fangs now baring and protruding in pure anger. The vampires body rumbled in a low, demonic growl, mouth parting open to hiss. Caelum’s eyes were now glowing rubies, a sign that he was past the point of anger and now settled into a fitted rage for /blood/.

Caelum released his hold from Rei’s body, his own slowly raising up from his previous position. At that moment, another bullet whizzed through the area, creating another large noise. Caelum did not react. “Rei…” Caelum growled out the youngers name. He wasn’t meaning to sound so harsh but with his current mental state, he couldn’t hold himself back. “Are you alright…” As he asked the question, the assassin pushed back the tail of his coat, revealing a rather large handgun on his hip. 



“I guess we got our wish…” Caelum cocked back the hammer of his desert eagle, looking over at the other male with a scowl on his face. Maybe he shouldn’t have hoped for them to be in a situation like this so soon. It was like someone was /listening/.

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ Rei joined in with Caelum’s laughter, pressing his lips together in a thin line as he smiled. "Psh, don’t worry. It wasn’t that bad of a punishment anyways. Besides you know me, sometimes I just can’t help myself and I just HAVE to make a remark." Turning his head in Caelum’s direction he raised a questioning brow at him, before wiggling both of his eyebrows. "Oh, so you only want me to flirt with you. Why does it make you jealous when you see me flirting around?" A light hum came from Rei’s throat, not wanting to imagine what possible ways that the elders could torture him. Yet still finding a way to turn it into a joke. "Well I do enjoy a little pain now and then... if ya know what I mean?" Rei snickered lightly, not wanting to darken the mood with possible things that could happen to him if he ended up in deep deep trouble.

"Should I be offended by that?" The vampire thought for a few seconds while continuing to keep his eyes down. "I feel like I should... or it could be nice since you choose to be with me rather than you’re true love." A smile tugged at his lips as he watched their feet, walking together in perfect unison.

The vampire hadn’t noticed that Caelum had stopped until he only heard one pair of footsteps. He was about to stop until he felt a pair of arms wrapping around his neck, they were Caelum’s arms. Rei’s eyes widened slightly and his body immediately stood frozen. He felt a shiver run down his spine as Caelum’s warm breath blew against his ear oh so softly. Rei thought that his knees were about to buckle right then and there, but with a whole lot of willpower he pushed through that feeling. He swallowed hard, gulping his saliva as the other vampire’s voice played in his ear. Unable to answer Caelum, seeming as if he had lost all of his ability to speak, the only sound that he could muster up was a small whiny whimper. Rei had never pictured himself being in that position with Caelum, it felt different although he knew that the other was just teasing. His body leaned against Caelum’s as if to get some support, feeling his knees becoming weaker and weaker the longer Caelum’s mouth stayed near his ear and neck area.

Once the other elder’s arms were removed from his neck, a shaky sigh left his lips. Rei cleared his throat, trying to gather himself after basically almost falling apart in front of Caelum. Slowly, he nodded his head, eyes still widened in shock, contemplating what had just happened a moment ago. "Y- yeah, yeah. It’s just boring being by yourself once you’ve gotten used to it." When Rei thought that he had almost finished picking up the pieces of himself the elder started again. Rei’s head turned to meet Caelum’s eyes, smiling as he thought the other was being sincere. "Oh! Well I-" His eyes opened wider yet again, turning his face away, shyly avoiding Caelum’s gaze.

Rei mumbled quietly to himself, whenever he thinks that he has it in the bag, when he thinks he finally can get Caelum even the tiniest bit flustered, he’s the one that ends up taking the fall. Rei nervously chewed at his bottom lip, still avoiding the elder’s eyes. "Y- you meant, like a mission, right?" Right about now he was parting to god that Caelum didn’t any further, his face was already feeling warm and if the elder continued it’d be on fire.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ Caelum chuckled, shaking his head at the other vampires words. “Rei, I’ve told you about how your mouth could get you in a lot of trouble with the other higher ups.” He sighed, but he knew that it was apart of Rei’s personality; nothing you could really do about it. “I’d prefer it if you’d only be like that when I’m around.” Caelum turned his head, the harshness in his brownish red eyes softening into gentle concern for the other. “You know how ruthless they can be…” Caelum captured his bottom lip in between his teeth as gently as he could to bite back extra words. Why was it so hard to keep himself in check around his friend?



“If I had, do you think I’d be here with you right now?” Caelum asked honestly as he tilted his head up and to the side Rei was on, lowering his gaze to match with the others. Teasing words, but he was also quite curious as to the answer of his question. Only if Rei knew how much Caelum /truly/ cared about him but he wasn’t sure if that was going to be anytime soon. Or ever.



His nose had caught onto the familiar scent of a certain vampire. His head looked down at the other in a knowing smirk. Rei knew what he was doing. Caelum then slowed down his pace a bit. Until Rei passed him a bit, Caelum wrapped his arms around the smallers neck, his chest pressing against their back in one motion. “Awe…” The elder purred in Rei’s ear, his lips curling into a wider smirk against the skin. “You remembered what I like. You shouldn’t have.” It was all teasing and good fun, but deep down he truly meant his intentions. Caelum knew well on how to fluster the male, enjoying every bit of his reactions whenever he’d done so. 

They were basically the same person in terms of personality quirks; both rather flirtatious around each other but never really going so far as to really /do/ anything.

The vampire slowly released the younger from his firm grip, returning to the males right side. “Anyways—” He started, gently tapping the tip of his chin with the nail of his left index finger. “Nothing has been /too/ interesting on my side— well, at least not too much. I’m by myself majority of the time. It gets a bit tiring killing everyone by yourself after awhile.” With a shrug, he turned his head half way to get another look at the male again. “I’d be great if I could have you with me for some missions.” A smug grin rose on his lips. “It’s been awhile since we had some action together, Rei.” 



Caelum knew how ual the question could of been taken, with or without context. That’s exactly how he wanted it. They both soon neared another corner of a building. The Supreme Court building. He’d forgotten how close this place was from the restaurant. Only about 10 more blocks of walking and they’d be there.

@⍤Caelum Asmodeus♟ The fond memory of Caelum remained inside of Rei’s head. Whenever he had missed the other he would replay the special moments where they had hung out together, or when Caelum would help Rei with practicing his powers. He was lucky to have befriended Caelum, or honored he’d might say, since he knew that it was very rare that Caelum would make friends. Never in a thousand years would Rei have guessed that he would’ve made friends with his teacher and also his leader, but he’d never been so glad he did. Rei got to see the side of Caelum that not very many got to, as well as showing Caelum the side he has hidden away from everyone. They were somewhat alike in various ways, but also different, that’s probably what caused them to bond so tightly together.

Rei was always pleased to see his friend that he held so dearly to his heart. He’d try his best not to be clingy to Caelum, or at least not to come off that way. Every now and then they’d run into each other in the mansion where Rei resided. He didn’t think much of it although he knew that Caelum did indeed stay somewhere else, he didn’t want to assume things so he just let it go.

Caelum understood Rei in a way that probably no one else could. If it was destined to be, he would’ve said that the universe had brought them together. Caelum was a complicated person to unravel, yet Rei could totally relate to him. There wasn’t much that he didn’t know about the other, unless it was something that Caelum purposely hid away from him. He found that his friend wasn’t such a stone cold person that he came off to be, he was just a big softie trying to protect his heart.

Rei knew that around this time nobody would be in the training room. Even after practice he still goes there alone to practice his telekinesis and precognition. He’s not as good as the other vampires are at it but sure does try his best. If it was up to Rei, he’d say that his gravity manipulation has gotten a whole lot better even though that is not what he needs practice on. Now, he could lift much heavier things and easily stop objects in mid air if he wanted to.

He was walking on his way to the training dojo and when he had arrived there was Caelum. He was standing there right before Rei’s very eyes. He really couldn’t believe it because it had felt so long since he had seen Caelum. Rei had to touch him just to make sure that he was real and not just a figment of his imagination. Sometimes he would have a very wild imagination and it wouldn’t surprise him if he had dreamt up seeing Caelum. But nope. Caelum was there and of course Rei accepted him with opened arms. Hugging onto him as if this was the last time he was going to see Caelum again. Rei absolutely beamed with joy, smiling so widely that his cheeks were sore from being in an upward position.

It wasn’t exactly, embarrassing per say, but Rei felt a little bit shy when he would practice in front of people. That would be surprising to most people since he comes off as a very straightforward flirty guy. With Caelum it was different because he knew that Caelum wouldn’t make fun of him or laugh at him for messing up or getting something wrong. It made Rei happy that Caelum would set aside time for just them to practice together, it made him feel wanted and cared for.

It helped a lot that Caelum was a fun person, although Caelum was somewhat serious about his teaching it was nice that Caelum wouldn’t get angry at Rei if he didn’t do something right. Rei took everything that Caelum threw at him. [literally] He laughed lightly when he caused Caelum to fall, but of course he wouldn’t let him hit the ground. Each and every time Caelum decided to fall, Rei would try to be there for him to catch him before he hits the ground. Whether it’s physically or metaphorically.

The training dojo was filled with the soft panting coming from Rei’s mouth after practice. His body fairly wet from his perspiration, a few strands of hair sticking to Rei’s forehead and he nodded his head once Caelum declared that practice was officially over.
"Mmh, that was a good session." Rei chuckled before clearing his throat when Caelum bent down. He leaned his head to the side, making it purposely obvious that he was checking Caelum out, wiggling his eyebrows teasingly once Caelum looked his way. Rei’s eyes flickered back up to Caelum’s face when the other spoke, looking at him with slightly widened eyes. "Hm?" He brushed his fingers through his own hair, raising a brow at Caelum when he told him that he didn’t have a choice. Rei pursed his lips as a small smirk played at his features. "Well I was going to say sure... but I wonder what you’d do if I said no?" He shuffled his stance a little, wiggling his shoulders as he scooted closer towards his instructor to eye him up and down. "I’ll just say okay because I missed you when you were away.~" Following along after Caelum when he gestured for them to take showers. "Oh don’t you just love the feeling of frozen sweat? But yeah, I second that... you definitely could use a shower." Rei continued with his teasing, scrunching his nose up at the other vampire.

They parted ways to freshen up, and Rei may or may not have put on an expensive smelling cologne on. One that Caelum could’ve possibly said that he liked the scent of.

Yes it was cold, but Rei had sort of gotten used to it by now, sort of. As they walked down the streets, making their way to the restaurant that Caelum had spoken of, Rei shrunk down slightly in his long overcoat; trying to keep as much heat in that he could. The streets weren’t too busy, surprisingly quieter than it usually was. It was nice, just Caelum and Rei... alone together.

With a light hum Rei thought for a moment before answering the other’s question. "It’s nothing that you haven’t seen already, you know... just the same old stuff." Gently, Rei brushed his shoulder against Caelum’s, looking down at their feet as they walked. "Also my mouth may have gotten me in trouble a couple times, as that should be expected. What about you? You were gone for such a long time that I’m sure something must’ve happened." The vampire’s lips curled into a smirk. "Did you meet anyone special... you know, like love at first sight?" Although he was asking these questions, he was only doing it as a tease. Something deep down inside of Rei sort of hoped that Caelum’s answer would be a no.

@⍤Rei Katoka♙ It's been months since the Head Assassin has seen his friend, Rei. The only one that the assassin had the luxury of calling such. Caelum did not make friends very much, especially ever since he was promoted as head assassin some odd years ago [33yrs]. As far as Caelum remembered, many of his old friends had died off on missions through out the years; eventually him being the only one alive. The vampire wasn't fond of making friends ever since then. Yet, here he was, making the first friend he's ever had in about 30 years. What made matters worse? The assassin was sure he was growing a crush on the other.

Rei was a ball of mischievous sunshine; something that was pretty rare given them being apart of a clan. Caelum wasn't sure if Rei knew or if he'd made it obvious, but they were really the only reason the elder would visit the main mansion [unless their leaders called for him or if he needed to come in to teach other assassins]. Caelum had his own place and was given his missions in person from there, really not having too many reasons to step foot into that place.

Today, being one of those rare days of freedom, Caelum decided to come by as a surprise. Which was really an excuse to see Rei and Rei only. He estimated about what time Rei would possibly be by himself, not knowing about any certain schedule changes so he was really doing this on a whim. To his surprise, no one was in the training room. Damn. Maybe he just missed him or he just wasn't coming today. Well, apparently that was too early of an assumption. Just when he was about to go and walk back home, the dojo doors opened; in coming the familiar face of the male he wanted to see.

Rei was just as surprised as Caelum, them both hugging each other with wide smiles. They both caught up on each other just a little bit before getting to business. Caelum wouldn't exactly call himself a "harsh" teacher but, he was just as serious about teaching as he did his job. Caelum's goal was to teach young assassins to live their life expectancy not matter how much they thought things weren't that serious. Sure, he's lost a few lives over the years, but that was bound to happen. Caelum was no different with Rei.

Not being one to /exactly/ take favorites but Rei was definitely one of his best students. Rei was a fast learner, though struggling with telekinesis and precognition, he still held enough power to wipe out an entire building with little to no help. Caelum should of thanked it to himself for helping the younger improve but, it was really Rei's sharp and quick senses that pulled through immensely.


Rei had even improved so much that he caught Caelum off guard pretty well with his manipulation of gravity. Caelum throwing a couple of hits in a rhythm that was hard to keep up with, but Rei ended up switching their gravities. It made Caelum fall, nearly hitting the ground until he was stopped in the air; floating. Caelum released a small fit of nervous laughter as he was basically being held against his will. Rei let him down and he thanked the other.

From the moment they met eyes until now, it's it's 4 hours of non-stop practice. "That definitely should be enough for tonight."
The assassin appreciated the intense session but, he was beginning to get a bit famished. Bending his upper half down a bit, Caelum brushed off his pants. "Hey--" Caelum looked up at the younger male, from his current position before straightening his back up. "--let's go out to eat. Rare occasions where I crave human food but there's a special place that's ran by unaffiliated vampire's that's pretty damn good." Pressing out his black wife beater, a smug grin rose on the ends of his lips. "And I won't take no for an answer." Motioning his head to the left, his grin formed into a soft smile. "Let's freshen up a bit before we leave? I'm not too fond of walking out side in the cold while /sweaty/." The vampire chuckled at the end of his sentence.

The two eventually went separate ways to take showers and change clothes, not taking longer than an hour.

Soon, the two began their leisure walk; Rei being on the other side of him. Being the head assassin of your clan had its perks but also has its cons; as everything else does. Being such, Caelum did not have much time to spend with friends or even by himself in peace.

"So--" The vampire started, stuffing his hands into his coat pockets. "--Anything interesting happen on your solo missions while I've been gone?" It was so cold that whenever Caelum opened his mouth, chilled air would puff out. "Or have things been pretty slow?"