Darker Angels

Tazzy: Well, you never really know what Schuldig's name actually is in Weiss, so I just made one up for him. Besides, Reicher translates to "ruler" which I thought would appeal to Schu's vanity. You'll probably really want to hang Cain with his own entrails after this one.

DarkCrusnikMagician: Your question gets answered in this chapter.

Miss Murder: Glad you liked the chapter. Hope you like this one.

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Blaze sat at her desk shaking her head and trying to avoid letting any of the overwhelming emotions she was feeling leak out. She finished reading the final file Oracle brought to her and had the entire picture now. It was one of the most disturbing things she had ever come to know in her long life. Add to it the fact the “test subject” happened to have been her son in law did not help her frame of mind.



What disturbed her most was the fact that Takara had *felt* him die, that was a certainty but not at the time he actually had crossed over. It had been weeks before his body had actually ceased to function and still it had felt to her daughter as though her mate was already gone. Pure bred Volos clan and their mates were soul bound; the threads of their lives were wound so tightly together that when one of them died the other usually did too. That was one of the primary reasons why Volos rarely took human beings as mates as it shortened their own life expectancy greatly. Though if they were desperate enough and knew death was coming the stronger ones could sever those ties to a certain extent which allowed their mate the chance to survive without them. But that really didn’t fit this scenario since Takara’s mate was still technically alive in Tres.



Now the bigger question was how to tell her daughter about all of this. She sighed and raked her hands through her hair. Maybe it would be easier to show her instead of telling her. It didn’t matter that she’d probably have to jump through a few hoops to get it done. Better now than later, she thought. She concentrated hard for a few minutes and a shimmering doorway appeared and she stepped through intent on speaking to those who wove the threads in the tapestry of fate.





“Heeeey, Taka.”



“Yes, Reicher? Do I *want* to know what you’re up to?” she asked, eyeing the side of his face interestedly.



“Probably not. What?” he asked, when he noticed her staring.



“Nice shiner. What’s Sunny look like?”



He snorted. “Bastard has a matching one.”



“Honestly, can’t you two give it up after a thousand years?”



“That is so not happening,” he said. “Anyway, back to what I was originally going to tell you. Brad and I found a couple of toys you left behind.”



“Toys?”



“Ja. One has really pretty long, black hair and the other has shorter brown hair. Both of them are quite . . . tasty.”



Takara nodded. “Isaak and Dietrich,” she said. “How did you managed to snag them and where are they?”



“Kind of a long story on the first question. They’re in one of the guest rooms. Won’t having them here cause problems between you and your little hotbot?”



“No,” Tres said, walking up behind Takara at that moment and putting an arm around her waist.





Abel sighed in exasperation, looking around at the rubble of what had once been the Vatican grounds. “I don’t think I ever realized how vast the grounds were.”



“We’ll find the right one, Abel,” Gun said, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly.



Some part of Gun was profoundly thankful that Abel was unlike most of the others he associated with. If Abel were capable of hearing or sensing his thoughts he would have known how concerned he was about actually finding the correct tomb. He knew Cain’s unending spitefulness concerning Abel through Circe’s previous connection to both of them. He shook his head a little. He couldn’t begin to imagine that level of malice between siblings, much less twins. Hunt certainly worked on his last nerve some days, something he took great pride in, but there had never been anything more than the running sibling rivalry to be better, stronger, faster, etc. When that went a little too far Circe and Uri usually put them both in their place quickly enough.



“Maybe we should just give it up for the day, Gun,” Abel said dejectedly as they made a turn around one of the crumbling buildings. “Oh! There it is!”



Gun’s eyes narrowed as he took in the small crypt. There was something decidedly wrong with it though. There was minimal damage and most of that looked to be outside fire and smoke damage or shrapnel but it didn’t seem as though any direct hits had been made to it. He grabbed Abel’s arm as he started to hurry toward it.



“Abel, let me go first.”



“Why?” he asked, sounding genuinely bewildered.



“Something isn’t right about this,” he said, moving quickly toward the mausoleum. He stopped short just inside the doorway, clutching the stone arch hard enough to crack the outer marble. “Damn, damn, damn.”



“Gun? What is it?”



“Abel, stay back!” Gun ordered. Not that it did much good as Abel was already looking over his shoulder into the crypt anyway.



“Gun, where . . . where is she?” Abel said, pushing past him and into the confines of the tomb. Where Lilith’s sarcophagus had been there was only a long lock of red hair. Abel dropped to his knees and stared down at it as though he couldn’t quite comprehend what it was. He reached out and picked it up with a shaking hand. “What’s going on here?”



A malicious chuckle sounded in the confines of the small building. “My, dear, dear, Abel. Don’t you ever get tired of being two steps behind?”