-+Requiem+-

Chapter Twelve

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-+Crimson+-

Images assaulted me in my delirium. Images I had never seen before, memories that had been blocked from me. I was outside of my body looking down, yet at the same time seeing things from another’s perspective. That person was inside my body and these memories were Nightshade’s.


“You should have told me you were hungry.” Infirite looked beautiful beneath me, his hair spread out behind him shinning with unnatural flames. He turned his head to the side, keeping his eyes on me and exposing his pale neck.


I, no, Nightshade was hovering over him on hands and knees and I watched as he bit him. Even within memory the sight and smell of his blood aroused my senses and my gums ached with hunger. However, Nightshade’s hand sliding into Infirite’s pants was not something I had expected.


“Crimson, what are you doing?” He may protest but I knew he liked it. I could already smell the scent of arousal on him and loved that he was so easily turned on.


I remembered what Arkaia had told me; that I had molested Infirite, and this was the memory of it. I felt my face get hot in embarrassment as I watched my other personality, which was in my body, jerk him off in front of both Arkaia and Ikuma. I couldn’t believe he had done it.

Arkaia’s bereavement of Nightshade was justified but it still worried me. It worried me that he could and would use that aristocratic, or maybe vampiric, coldness on me. It let me know just how dependent I was on him I was even if I didn’t want to be. Facing my Sire’s potential abandonment had a coil of fear welling up in my stomach. I knew I couldn’t survive without him.


“I will never consider you my Master.” Arkaia narrowed his eyes at me again and I grew tired of dealing with him. I had served my purpose by keeping my body fed and now my other half could deal with this bastard before I lost my patience with him.


I didn’t understand Nightshade’s hatred for Arkaia. It angered me that he had turned me without permission but, as revealed in previous memory, he had had his reasons for it. I was dying and was no where near coherent enough to give him an answer if he had asked me. Nightshade knew this.

Nightshade knew everything. He had known about me, when I was oblivious to him, and he remembered the things I did not. I was starting to think that he was the one who had sealed my memories—but why was he trying to keep things from me? Didn’t he think I could handle it?

Another memory started flashing before me and I forced myself to focus in on it.


Taking control from Crimson I growled at Infirite until he moved off of me. He had noticed the change and had therefore shifted his personality accordingly. It was rather convenient for me since now I didn’t have to fight him for dominance. He knew his place with me.


This was right after Infirite and I had had sex. I blushed in remembrance of it and nervously watched to see what Nightshade would do. There were claw marks on the wall that had to be made…


His scent was intoxicating but I wasn’t as drawn into it as Crimson had been. He should really learn how to control himself and take in information from around him. Arkaia had even said not to breathe in his scent, so obviously the key to staying under control was to stop breathing. As a vampire, that wasn’t a problem.

Infitite’s eyes were smoldering, fixated on me and looking for an advantage. He was still hungry. I pushed him over until he was on his hands and knees and forced my fingers inside him. As an incubus he should be able to handle this and he did, producing his own lubrication to accommodate me.

He moaned as I finger fucked him, spreading his legs and rocking back for more; such a good little slut he was. I stroked myself back into hardness while watching my fingers disappear into that tight ass, ignoring the cum that was dripping down the back of my thighs. He would have been prepared even if I had just shoved it in but preparing him probably made him think that I cared. It amused me.

Crimson can be the one left to do the caring.


It disturbed me how he was so unattached to him. That he could just have sex with Infirite and not feel anything for him. I knew that it happened but I couldn’t imagine myself doing that and couldn’t comprehend how another part of myself could be so apathetic.

Despite my unease about Nightshade I continued to watch as they had sex, eventually moving up until Infirite was practically bending over the head board. Nightshade pulled his head back by his hair, Infirite moving his hands to the wall to support himself, before Nightshade bit into him and he cried out, His claws leaving gashes in wall as he gasped and moaned.

The rest of the memory played out similar scenarios until Infirite was sated. I knew there was more for me to learn and to remember but I couldn’t focus on them anymore. I was just so tired. I needed to sleep.

-+Nightshade+-

I made sure that my mind, body, and magic had the rest that they needed before I even considered waking up. I didn’t know how much time had passed but my body was telling me that I could now move without injuring myself further. Crimson, I kept asleep. Undoubtedly he was mad at me for sealing his memories and keeping things from him but I had had no choice.

He wasn’t ready to learn those things yet and I cursed that healer for releasing our memories. My other half is all the things that I am not. He shouldn’t have to deal with things he’s not equipped to handle.

As he was my opposite I was also his, but now we were facing a new problem that would cause him even more undue stress; there was someone else in here with us.

Sniffing the air I found a familiar scent nearby and knew he was still in the room with me. The other’s scents were here as well but they were not currently with him. It intrigued me that Infirite had come to watch over me when his scent told me he was going back into heat. Just how much time has passed?

Arkaia had mentioned something about this occurring once a month so unless something had happened to Infirite it had been at least a month since I had passed out. There was no pain in my body but I could feel drugs circulating in my blood, one of the powers of a Blood Count, and I knew I could purge them from my system if I wanted to but they weren’t doing me any harm so I let them be.

The Bloodings were all curled up around me and were acutely aware that I was awake. They were awaiting orders but I had none for them. They weren’t needed right now and so I sent them away. Their sudden movement caught Infirite’s attention and he put down his book, walking over to examine me.

Opening my eyes I sat up and took in the scenery I knew to be of Arkaia’s bedroom. It annoyed me that they had put me in here and that I had slept in his bed for so long. Crimson might not mind it but I certainly did.

“How long have I been asleep?” Checking my skin I saw that it was clean but wanted to bathe anyway. The thought of Arkaia washing me had me irritable but I held back from showing that to Infirite. Instead I mimicked his expressionless façade.

“Just under a month. What remains of Lord Kinjol has been disposed of and Arkaia has hardly been able to pry himself from your side or to forgive himself.” It served him right. He should have stopped Crimson from doing something so stupid, but that was also my job as well. In that regard I failed him but I would not do so again. Although he had hurt us he had also made me stronger, for which I bade a fleeting thought of thanks to the deceased mind healer.

“And you? How long have you been here?” His eyes were calculating and his scent told me he was slightly uncomfortable. I wondered if he felt guilty as well. Certainly he hadn’t agreed to let Crimson risk our life but he hadn’t done anything to stop it either.

“A few hours now. Our Sire is preparing your quarters.” At least he had done something right. I didn’t want to be stuck sleeping in other’s beds for much longer, though staying with Infirite was appealing. That might just be my hormones talking though.

What intrigued me most was the way Infirite was subtly trying to change the conversation by giving me an opening to ask about my quarters. There was more to his staying here than he was telling me and I wanted to know what it was. Playing word games with him was not something I was planning on indulging.

“Oh? Did you come to watch me sleep or…” Smirking I ran my hand up his thigh, crossing over to pause on his stomach. “…did you come here to feed from me?” His eyes narrowed and he stepped away. I let my hand fall before bringing up my knees and putting it on my thigh. They hadn’t bothered to dress me.

“Nightshade.” He started and then cut himself off as Arkaia entered the room. Our Sire looked relieved at first and then worried as he saw me glaring at him. Too bad it was worry that the mind healer had fucked up worse than he thought than worry that I could actually hurt him. No, I needed more training for that.

“Crimson.” He said cautiously as Infirite took his chance to escape. My eyes followed him but I wouldn’t do anything now, not in front of Arkaia, no matter how entertaining it may be. There were other things to think about for now.

“Nightshade.” I corrected. “And you broke your promise to me. You let Crimson get hurt.” Crimson didn’t have it in him to be angry with people he cared about for long. Those feelings were preventing me from attacking Arkaia, for Crimson’s sake, but it didn’t mean that I couldn’t make him regret it in other ways.

“It’s what he wanted. It’s no excuse but Lord Kinjol was not acting like himself, his mind may have been tampered with.” He was telling me things I already knew. When he had looked at me through the flames his eyes had been cold and black. There was only one person I was aware of that had eyes like that: Ioquirra.

That Record Keeper had invaded my mind and attacked me. There was nothing I could to him now and so I needed Arkaia and the others to educate me. In order to find out the reason behind the attack I needed to be at a higher position with a weapon that could defend against a Lich. Those of the Blood Count were the only ones I were aware of. My fire was not strong enough to break through the orders of someone who could control vampires.

I would not tell Crimson this. This was not something he could handle, being as emotional as he was, and in any case it was my job to protect him, to protect us. Let his focus be on finding the bastards that ordered our family killed.

“You should have seen that and stopped him. I don’t want to hear excuses, what’s done is done and you will not tell Crimson of this. Make something up if you have to, but I don’t want him to know that someone may be after him.” Arkaia’s eyes narrowed at being told what to do but he held himself back.

“Why keep it from him?”

“It’s my job to protect him, as you cannot, and he has enough things to worry about.” I met his eyes and kept my voice controlled to let him know I was serious. “He cannot handle much more. He has seen the memories I have kept from him and they have shaken him. Anything else might break him.” I didn’t care if Arkaia didn’t understand the peculiarities my multiple personalities, but he would respect my limits. If the job of a Sire was to take care of his childer then he at least owed me that much.

“He is hurt?” I sneered at him and retorted with bated sarcasm. He should not have asked such a stupid question.

“Our mental scarring runs deep.” Arkaia’s patience was growing thin with my attitude but I wouldn’t stop until I got my point across. Then I’d let him deal with the product of his failure. And said product is very eager.

“Nightshade, your disrespect will not be tolerated.” He growled. “But I will not speak of this to Crimson. You know better than I how much he can take.” At least he had acknowledged that much to be true. Who better to know me than me?

“I will hold you to that.” And if he failed me again then I would bring hell upon him. Once I was introduced as a Blood Count my position would bring me many advantages; ones even Ryce couldn’t get his hands on.

“Now I will let you deal with the results of your failure. But I warn you, he is also a part of me and I will protect him. I expect you to do your job as a Sire and not harm your childer.” No matter how much you may want to.

It was time for Crim to come out and play.

-+Crim+-

Finally he let me come out. It was so hard being cooped up in there with nothing to do and no one to talk to but Nightshade. He wouldn’t even let me talk to Crimson, which sucks because he seemed much more entertaining than Nightshade was. But that was okay because now he had given me a new someone to play with: Arkaia!

Giving him a big ol’ grin I laughed at Arkaia’s reaction to my sudden change in personality, the thought of which made me snicker too, and before he could react I flew out of bed and tackled him to the floor. Hugging him I could feel the edge of the fur rug under us and liked the way it felt. It’s rather convenient too, I thought.

When I sat up again Arkaia was looking at me like I was crazy, which I was, but that wasn’t the point. The point was…okay, I can’t remember what the point was—but I did have one! I think…

“What was I talking about again?” He stared at me for a moment before opening his mouth to speak and then closing it again before actually saying anything.

“What is your name…?”

“Well it’s Crimson, isn’t it? But I guess that’d get confusing so you can call me Crim. That’s what Nightshade calls me anyway.” Why we had different names when we were the same person I didn’t know, but at least they were all connected. Arkaia sat up but I didn’t bother moving. I was comfortable where I was.

“Nightshade. Your personalities know of each other?” I gave him a weird look. Why wouldn’t I know about them? I mean I haven’t been allowed to talk to Crimson yet but I knew that he was there. On some level he must know about us too.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t we?” I was distracted by the door opening and ignored Arkaia in favor of investigating. He wasn’t doing anything interesting anyway.

Wooshing over behind the end of the couch I crouched down there and waited for Ikuma to walk by. I could smell him getting closer, though he wasn’t making much noise, and once he was within grabbing distance I jumped out and scooped him up like the little kid he was. Startled, he yelped and protested but I didn’t let him go.

“Hi!!” Once he got a hold of himself and gave me the same look that Arkaia had only a few moments ago. It was cute and so I hugged him.

“What the hell?” He looked to Arkaia for an explanation and our Sire took him from me, telling him about me and the others or something, I wasn’t paying attention. I pouted at him for ruining my fun but figured that he just didn’t want a crazy, naked vampire carrying his lover around. I supposed I wouldn’t either, unless it was me of course!

I didn’t think I had any clothes though, unless Rycie ordered them as well, but hopefully they weren’t jewel encrusted this time. If they were I’d have to punish him by making a big deal out of it. There’d be tears, and screaming, and laughter, and birds. I didn’t know why there would be birds, but they would be birds, damnit!

“But where do I find a bird?” The others looked at me in confusion and I realized they had been talking to me. “Huh?”

Putting Ikuma down, Arkaia took some clothes that had been piled on top of the dresser and handed them to me. I didn’t mind being naked but being clothed was just as good. Bathe before you put them on. There’s no reason for us to smell bad.

But Nightshade! I whined at him. That’ll be boring!

I don’t care if it’s boring. If you want to be given control then you at least have to take care of our body. I grumbled at him but knew that he would keep me from coming out if I didn’t listen to him. Besides, people usually let you have more fun when you were clean anyway.

Yes, Mommy! Nightshade growled but didn’t say any more.

Forgetting for a moment to listen to Arkia and Ikuma I darted into the bathroom and left the clothes on the sink so the magic laundry hamper wouldn’t eat them. By the time I remembered the others I was already in the shower and didn’t want to step out of it only to have to come back in again. They knew where to find me anyway.

“Crim.” See? I knew that they knew. They had seen me come in after all.

“Nightshade told me to bathe!~” I whined at them too, feeling that they needed to understand my pain as well. I kind of wanted a rubber ducky in here with me—one that squeakied when I pressed its stomach! I wonder if Ikuma would work as a squeak toy... He was small and cute enough for it.

“Crim, you’re using abilities the others haven’t been taught. How?” Was I? I hadn’t really noticed it. I don’t know how I knew what I did but I did and that was all that mattered.

“I dunno.” I shrugged, not that they could see it well through the spray. I almost wished said spray was stronger so I could just flop down and swim through it. I could probably do it anyway…

Throwing myself down onto the floor I made as though I were swimming through it, but it didn’t do me any good. There just wasn’t enough water pressure or water to keep me afloat. Pouting I stopped and just lied there, waiting for the spouts to determine that I was clean so I could get the heck out of there and do something fun.

“Crim?”

“Meh.” I answered him so he wouldn’t think I was dead. I was dead, but that wasn’t the point. At least I didn’t think it was.

He must have done something because the water suddenly shut off and I was left lying there naked on the tiles. No longer having anything to entertain or bathe me I figured I was free so leave and stood up to let Arkaia wrap one of the large towels around me. He let me hold onto it and I pouted at him.

“Awh, aren’t you going to dry me off too?” He took a moment to decide if I were serious or not before giving in and actually doing so. I hadn’t thought that he would. Ringing the water out of my hair he kissed my temple before leading me to my clothes.

I got dressed on my own, nearly falling over several times as I hopped around trying to get my pants on, and at one point I slipped and would have met the floor had Arkaia not caught me. Ikuma was watching me the entire time with perplexed curiosity while the Blooding I had given him crawled around on his head. He really was cute.

“We need to see Ryce.” He announced as I finished dressing and started to pull away to run off. He was ruining my fun again. I thought about running off anyway but knew he would just follow me since he was still all possessive and stuff.

“Fine.~” I whined again before cheering up. “Ooo, can we woosh there?! I wanna woosh there!”

“Woosh…?” I thought he knew about my woosh. Or hadn’t he been listening in?

“Yeah, woosh! As in going all super-fast—like WOOSH n’stuff!” I made a pose to show him my woosh and Ikuma giggled in response, his eyes going wide with excitement.

“I think I like this new personality. Okay, let’s go woosh!!” Finally, someone who understands me!

“Yay!” Following after Ikuma we both ignored Arkaia’s protests as we wooshed out the door and down the hall, heading towards Ryce’s office. I could hear him yelling behind us and snickered knowing that he’s soon catch up with us, probably being annoyed as hell. I was looking foreword to it.

“Crim!? Ikuma?!”

Practically flying down the hallway and staircase I stopped suddenly as we almost ran into someone on the stairs. It was someone I had never seen before and I looked him over with curiosity, invading his personal space knowing he couldn’t acknowledge me. He looked a little like Ikuma except he had brown hair and green eyes instead of the usual Malibrooke gold.

“Mali, you’re back!” Ikuma had stopped as well. He hugged the other and Mali returned the affection but with less enthusiasm.

“Yes, but only for a while. I’ll be going back with Grand-Uncle in a few days.” As expected this Mali person didn’t even look at me, as surprised as he must be with my presense.

“Have you seen mother yet?” Blah, blah, blah… I was becoming increasingly bored with the conversation and started waving my hands around wildly and running around him in a circle, trying to see if I could get him to look at me.

“No, but I doubt I’ll go long without.” He didn’t and I was vastly disappointed. Ikuma, on the other hand, was giving me strange looks. He could acknowledge me though, so that wasn’t nearly as entertaining.

“RYCE CAKES!!!” I yelled as I saw him coming out of his office. I felt rather than saw him and the others jump, startled, and giggled madly in amusement. Wooshing down to him I latched onto his waist and hugged him tightly. Ryce froze for a moment, his hands filled with paperwork, before he responded the best he could.

“Crimson. I’m glad to see you’re awake. Where is Arkaia?” Just then my Sire appeared beside us and glared at me in annoyance. He was worried. I could smell it on him and so I let go of Ryce to hug him instead. Automatically he wrapped his arms around me and kept his grip tight, probably to keep me from running off again.

He spoke to both of us so I would know what he was saying.

“As you can see there have been some new developments that need to be discussed.” Ryce frowned and motioned for us to come with him to his office. I hoped this would take too long because I was betting that it was going to be boring.

I wanted to have fun.

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Author’s Note: Before anyone even asks me ‘wtf’, Crim is crazy. He’s the third and finally personality resulting from the trauma Crimson underwent via the mind healer. (It’s funnier to read if you remember the others have no idea how Crim gets from idea to idea. The things he says and does are completely random.) Also, here’s a ‘list’ of what certain font decorations mean.

“Regular speech.”

Thoughts of the personality in control.

“Telepathy.”

Nightshade’s thoughts when not in control.

Crimson’s thoughts when not in control.

Crim’s thoughts when not in control.

angelmay, kitty, bebe, Ao: Thank you for the reviews!

Axel: Thanks for the review! When I saw the name I was like, “omg, it’s Axel!” XD