It had been months since the thing in Abed had occurred. It left tension between the two so much so that they even got rid of the medals that had been given to them for best couple. They didn’t need the tension! They were hunters for gods sake, at least in Echo’s mind. She wasn’t Holly and she wasn’t about to throw everything away that she had earned to try and appease Naota like she had. She didn’t go out of her way to appeal to the hunter, they were partners that was all it was. Though the tension was still so thick between them they tried their best to put it aside and do their jobs. So far, so good.

In the months that passed she had been able to calm him down on more than one occasion. It was becoming a ritual for them and she held the key to keeping him calm. They understood each other. They had lost the same amount of things and been scarred so badly by society. At least a certain part of society. Echo-Rose still had no idea that Lily had hired him on but even if she had found out she wouldn’t have been entirely angry. They were a good match on the battlefield. 

She had managed to pawn off her clothes from Abed and got a new shirt and corset for the road. It was much like a pirate on her and she felt at home in it, she didn’t need the armor. If they could catch her, then she deserved to die. That was what her mother had always told her. Together they walked up to the gates of Kurayo. This place was in constant darkness and by now the reputation the two had was so good, even their appearance in the city had people talking.

It seemed to have spread about Parvpora just what jobs the two took on. Today they were hunting for a nest that was causing its own sort of problems in Kurayo, one that the government powers there couldn’t really ignore, not without starting a fight between the houses. She moved uncomfortably with Naota at her side. Her white hair was up in braids today as to keep them out of her face.

“Do you think we should find a place to stay OR just power through this job so we can get the hell out of here.” She whispered to him as they moved through the crowded streets. “I’m not entirely comfortable being around others that I hunt and I’m sure they feel the same way.”

Of all the places that could have hired them, it just had to be Kurayo.  His family had warned him about this place, and so far he’d managed to stay away.  Nevermind that his last name and never changing face would garner hatred from so many people here, but he and Echo had made a reputation of themselves over the past few months.  The closer they drew to the gates the more uneasy he felt, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t help thinking that they were making a mistake doing this.  He wasn’t about to show weakness to these people though, and his upper lip curled in disgust as they walked through.
 
Prejudice was something he was still working through, Hiromi made it easier but she wasn’t here to remind him that vampires were people and could be good just as easily as they could be bad.  Even in their own community they had a problem and that gave them a sense of humanity to him.  Despite reminding himself that they had managed a decently calm social infrastructure here, his eyes stayed at a constant crimson.  For the most part the crowd paid them no mind as they carefully walked through, trying to appear as natural as possible in the dark city.  But every so often an eye would catch sight of them, and he would lock his own with theirs only to have them pull a child behind them or decide to change direction.
 
Torinasu pulsed at his hip, hungry for the amount of negativity this place had to offer, and the further they went the more he could hear the subtle and familiar growl in their chests.  Yes, he knew for a fact there were plenty here that wanted to rip out their throats as much as he wanted to return the favor.  He stayed closer to her than normal, but the tension that had managed to keep itself nestled between them was forgotten here.  There just wasn’t enough room for that barrier when they had to be constantly on edge.  His voice was sharp but low, “We power through.  I don’t want us spending a single hour here longer than we need to.”
 
Needless to say his protectiveness over had grown exponentially over the last few months and it had little to do with the promise he had made to Lily.  They were partners now and the trust that was necessary for them to have with one another was unexplainable.  That kind of bond could make things…complicated at times.  There were so many times he felt confused; he’d never stayed with a person for this long as a constant, not since Nemu and it had been some time since he’d talked to him.  With Echo at his side he knew he’d be in constant danger and couldn’t afford to risk Nemu’s safety…but he knew that the little star was safe and not alone.
 
Even then, the relationship he had with Nemu wasn’t like the one he was growing with Echo: with Nemu he was a constant protector, with Echo they were always protecting each other.  She alone held more trust than anyone else outside of his family and that was another thing he wasn’t used to.  He was used to being alone, always protecting other people and expecting no one else to do the same for him, but she was different.  Many nights had gone by where she filled his head, sometimes they were bad but other times they were just…well he didn’t know how to describe it, and had to remind himself that he was just getting used to working with someone else; having to trust.  More than anything she was a Rose, and he couldn’t forget that. 

“Let’s get to the nest, the sooner we finish with this the better.” His heart spiked in his chest as they moved, there were more and more of them now and he felt suffocated as if they were closing in on them even though it was people going about their daily business.  He wasn’t used to so many eyes on him, so many people that would have loved to hear him scream or taste his blood.  The urge to touch his neck was strong but he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction and kept a calm, if not blank, expression as they walked.

Many nights they had sat around a camp fire telling grand stories of their adventures, mostly ones they were proud of. Sometimes the sadness of their duty came in and took over but it reminded them they were good mortals just trying to save the world. She wanted to be comfortable around him and knew that she was the only one who could stop him currently on a rampage if he lost it. It was the same way with him.

He had watched her rage against a group they were hired against. The savagery had effected her this time, and she lost it. It was the marks on those girls bodies… The same ones she bore on hers. She wandered if he caught glimpses of them when they bathed. The marks of demons and vampires were all over her thanks to the so called training her mother had put her through. It made her shiver just thinking about it.

The scars had an eerie glow to them in the moonlight, like all the toxins her body had taken in over the years responded to the moonlight. Even now on the streets of Kurayo she was pulling her sleeves down to cover them up, even if they were no where near her wrists. They were like flecks of silver scattered across her body from the amount of holy magic that had to be pumped into her to expel the unholy energies of the demons her mother pitted her against. It had made Naota angry when she told him what they were. Why she went to such lengths to hide them, she wasn’t proud.

Her scythe was collapsed at her hip much like a three section staff would have been. It had been made for her by a client at the end of the job so she wouldn’t have to summon it every time. It seemed bulgy but she dealt with it with ease as they walked. It barely made a sound as it hit against her rear. “I agree.”

They had already received word where the nest was. It was in an abandoned section of Kurayo that was being rebuilt thanks to an all out family war a few months back. Seemed to Echo that they were more uncivilized than Rosenites were, but then again they didn’t have to deal with the Casimir if they messed up too great. Having your soul ripped out and caged for an infinite amount of time had that affect on people.

When they reached the abandoned district, she found herself… uneasy. Something was wrong with this area more so than what she thought it was. “Maybe I should scout ahead.” She was faster than he was thanks her elven blood. It wasn’t unlike her to scout a little bit ahead on their jobs just to make sure things were rather safe. People never knew she was there and that was how she liked it.

She ran ahead of him and when still in his field of vision, the building next to her exploded with some of the strongest magic she had ever felt. Her arm got punctured with debris as she held it tightly. Grabbing the metal she tore it out only to have a horrified look come over her face as her eyes darted up to the sky. “Naota, I need you to heal this.” She knew he was right there with her. “Please, I can’t heal if the sun isn’t out, at least not fast.” That was the key difference between the two races. Blood and Sunlight. "They were waiting for us." She looked at Naota as they fell through a gate.

The gate threw them into what appeared to be an underground lair. Her hand squeezed her wound more as she felt all magic suddenly stop. She began to panic as she tried to light the area up with magic. It only caused her to scream in pain as her wound finally got to her. "Naota, this is a damn deadzone." Well, ambushed would be the word she would use for this situation.

The further they got from people the more his stomach knotted.  Here so close to the abandoned district he realized how silent it was.  Where earlier there had been the bustling sounds of activity, here it was merely absence.  This place was almost too quiet, a planned type of silence where you were on edge waiting for a loud sharp sound to whip against your ears.  Yet nothing came.  He didn’t like it and nodded once to her before she ran ahead to scout.  His fingers moved and gripped around his hilt, but despite everything he didn’t feel any negativity.  It was dry here and that disturbed him even more than if his head had gone dizzy with a surge.
 
Just as he was about to reach out to her telepathically there was a grand explosion, so much so that he had to take a bracing step back.  His eyes widened in horror as the building came down and he was only a few meters away from her by the time she called out to him.  Going to his knees he took her gashed arm into his fingers and brushed them along the blood.  He’d only managed to get it halfway healed before his stomach dropped.  And so did they.  His arms locked around her to keep them from getting apart as well as preparing to teleport them…but nothing happened.
 
They landed hard on packed earth and he made sure she was sitting straight before looking around.  His eyes could cut through the darkness, but not as much as he would have liked.  It was hard to make out any detail, and he unwrapped one arm from her to bring as much light towards his palm as he could…and again nothing happened.  Then she said the two words he’d always dreaded: dead zone.  In denial he shook his head, unwrapping his other arm from her and standing.  He pressed his palms together, trying his best to build energy between them but still nothing happened.  Now he was starting to worry.  He pulled Torinasu from its sheath and tried to send out a burst of light, but even then his efforts were fruitless.
 
He didn’t mean to, but he spoke out loud to his daemon, “Some assistance would be nice.”  Minasé’s voice was dark and somber in their head, “I’ve been trying to get out since we dropped.”  At that moment his mind went blank.  Even Minasé could do nothing, not even switch places or lend his power.  He’d never spent time in a dead zone, they made him uncomfortable and made him feel vulnerable.  He swallowed down the forming lump in his throat as he slowly knelt down beside her again, taking off his vest but leaving on his shirt.  As he slowly tore it into strips he spoke softly to her, willing himself to be as calm as his voice,
 
“We need to find a way out.  Your arm was able to be healed enough that-”  But as he started to tie the strips around her arm he realized that he was wrong…his hadn’t gotten to healing her quickly enough and she was still bleeding.  Blood.  In this city.  Now true fear was taking hold and he tightened the fabric around her arm, hoping to stave off the blood loss for as long as he could. “It’ll be all right, you’ll see.”  He managed a smile that was meant to be comforting but worry edged at the corners of his lips.  “That’s what people say when they know things aren’t going to be all right you know.”  He had no retort for his daemon.

At first Echo thought he was yelling at her, after watching him for a bit. It was then that she realized he was talking to Minase. “Minase can’t come out? That’s a damn shock right there. Normally his ego gets him places.” She was trying to keep the situation light as her arm was bleeding out.

She was fussing as Naota tied up her arm. “I’m not dead yet Naota.” Her wild amber eyes stared up into his and she gave a smile. “Just a little damaged but not too dead. Not yet.” She wanted him to relax about her. It always made her nervous when he thought he was going to lose someone. At least in a place like this Minase was under control.

Echo-Rose’s arm was pretty limp at her side, it was numb and she knew it was most likely due to her healing being stopped. For right now she felt a human’s pain. It was making her clench her teeth and she was trying hard not to let Naota get wind of it. “I should have told you a Rosenite’s limitations… We’re much more human in the dark. We’re not like vampires at all. They can heal all times of the day thanks to blood. We depend heavily on the sun and storing that energy. I didn’t have any stored up thanks to the days we spent getting here.” She frowned a bit. “I wasn’t expecting to be blown up.”

She got up and looked around the empty storage room they were in. “Some kind of ruins under Kurayo? Or is it the old district?” She released her three sectioned scythe from her belt and snapped it into place. “I can fight one armed. Sure.” She mused as they moved out of the storage room.

They didn’t make it far before Echo thought she caught a glimmer in the distance but thanks to the no magic thing, she was left wondering. “Be on your guard.” She whispered. Suddenly her nose caught wind of bodies around them. She couldn’t see them but she could smell them. “Not good, there’s an ambush here.” She was calm about it as she raised her scythe up defensively. She tried to use her arm and ended up ripping open whatever healing had been done. The blood must have been driving them mad as they sprung onto her like mosquitoes to a blood bath.

“BRING IT.” She yelled as she swung her scythe. As disadvantaged as she was, so were they. They were not the all powerful creatures of the night down in the dead zone tunnels. She cut down quite a few before being piled on. They latched onto her arms and legs, her screams filled the room. Well, she said she wasn’t dead yet.

That one little word: yet.  It brought tension to his jaw and he stood with her, though stayed close as she moved, not wanting to be too far from her in this place.  Her arm wasn’t getting better and the strips of his vest were hardly doing anything.  Reaching his arm back he pulled his crossbow from his back, already primed with an arrow.  Hopefully a strike through the heart would work for anything that attacked…if they were lucky.  Unfortunately, the things that worked best against vampires would be pointless here.  This was exactly why he worked so well against them: he had power that could match and surpass them, but here?  He was like a human with not even the proper type of weapons since all of their effects were gone.
 
And then he heard it, each hair stood on end as he straightened, instantly aiming his crossbow and moving in front of her without thinking.  His eyes narrowed against the darkness, and even though he couldn’t see them from here, he could smell them…hear them.  Their pulses were racing; they were hungry…she was bleeding.  He took a few steps forward and like lightning a wave of them rushed forward: some jumping over him, others coming from behind, but all of them aiming for her.  His jaw locked as he let his arrow fly, instantly reloading it and shooting another, feeling relief only when he realized that the pierces through their hearts resorted them to nothing more than dust.
 
But no matter how fast he went, even with the speed and strength he had with reloading such a weapon so quickly, it was barely taking them off.  Each time he tried to teleport nothing happened and he felt his stability go down with each try.  He quickly flung his crossbow onto his back, keeping an arrow and darting forward.  Fighting the old fashioned way tired him in this place, but with each foe he stabbed the arrow through their chests until he was so covered in remains and blood that it was hard to even make out his features.  His clothing began to be weighed down from the carnage and his movements, though precise, were becoming slower…his muscles and lungs couldn’t recover as fast without being able to heal himself as he fought.
 
He heard a blood curdling scream followed by a sickening rip and everything seemed to go in slow motion as he watched one of her arms get flung from her body…discarded like rubbish, paled from all of her blood being drained.  A cold hand gripped around his neck, ripping him back and down to the ground as his wide eyes stayed on that arm.  The world around him went quiet even as he felt the first pair of fangs sink into the side of his neck from behind, and then three more sets on his now spread arms.  His blood was being drained, and even as he was forced to lay on his back as more began to feed on the blood of an Uharu he couldn’t get the image of her curled fingers out of his head.
 
And then everything went red.  By this point Minasé would have switched them, but without the capability he was forced to go through this like any other person would have, which resulted in an animalistic mixture of a scream and a growl as his fingers found their grip on the arrow.  Using quick bursts he stabbed through their backs, his free hand gripping into one of their faces until he felt their eyes squish under the pressure and threw them away from him as the rest crumbled to ash from their stabbed hearts.  He didn’t even think to use the crossbow like a crossbow and pulled it from his back, swinging it into their backs, their heads, the arrow constantly stabbing until he was finally able to pull her crumpled body up from the ground, but her color was gone…Despite that he kept her cradled in his arms, crossbow on his back once more and arrow resting in her lap as he dipped and pulled her dismembered arm from the ground. 
 
With the small amount of strength he had left he ran.  He didn’t know where, he just needed to get them as far away as possible.  Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him from collapsing from his own blood loss and still bleeding wounds, and by some grace of the deities he came to a door and threw it open, resting her down on the floor and spinning just in time to shoot one of them to their death.  But there were still at least twenty of them rushing towards him and he backed into the room and slammed the door, instantly barring it. 
 
They pounded against the metal, grunting and screeching for their blood.  At that point he fell to his knees and managed to pull her into his chest.  Sitting back, he leaned against a shelf in the tiny space and shakily pushed her blood stained hair away from her face, looking for any signs of life in her face and finding none.  His eyes warmed, tears forming and falling silently as he kept her held up against his chest.  This was his fault…He didn’t know how, but it was his fault, it was his job to protect her.  It’s what Lily had trusted him with.  It’s what Angela had trusted him with…He pulled the lapis lazuli from around his neck and moved the chain around her neck.  The blue of the stone was made even more prominent by the contrast of her paled skin and smeared blood. 
 
With as much care as he could, he gently moved his fingertips along her eyes, her cheekbones, her lips that had grown so cold it felt like touching a corpse.  He didn’t want to think of her that way…More tears fell and finally his expression shifted, breaking as a quiet sob left his lips.  His arms wrapped more and he leaned down, resting his forehead against hers as his eyes tightly closed, as if not seeing it, not hearing it, would stop it from happening.  Before he could even realize what he was doing he had tilted his head and gently pressed his lips to hers.  They were still cold…

Aaryona had been tracking her clan for months. Finally when she found them, they had been in Kurayo. Lilith had been paying attention to the groups around them and came with some disturbing news of her own. The Draconis Queen stared in disbelief but took the information with stride. “You’re sure that’s the name that was dropped?”

“More than sure Aaryona. Tell your mother because we don’t have the force to deal with this.”

Knowing what that meant the girl moved fast, taking the nearest archway or beating the hell out of a mage to cooperate. Before she knew it she was in the Sundered Gardens and she didn’t have time to play. She pushed her sisters back and made straight for her mother with the girls in tow. “Mom, get your army.”

“Why should I do that?” Angela looked up over her book at she happened to be reading to Iva.

“Echo is going into an ambush in a deadzone.”

That was all it took for the goddess to leap from her thrown. She changed into armor so fast that Aaryona had blinked and she was in it. Trandafir was already in it’s obsidian sword form by the time Aary seen it. The goddess was pissed. She was barking orders in Arriese. 

It was an army fit for a rescue. They made it to Kurayo with a snap of Angela’s fingers. Her magic would do no good here. Nerezza stayed behind with Iva and Rohan but Aelwen was there with her war hammer. Aaryona drew her sword as well. This was going to be close if not already too late but Angela had her ways.

“Take us Lilith.” Angela’s words were cold to the wife of her ex husband but this was no time for games as they were lead down the streets of Kurayo. Angela took not time finding the spacial zone and threw her foot down into the ground. For what magic she did have on Parvpora, it was all unleashed. The ground collapsed enough to where she could see the door with the vampires beating up on it.

“Kill them all no survivors,” and like that the war on the vampires began. Angela had no time to waste as she dove into the hole and began to snap necks and rip hearts out. She used Trandafir to sever several heads before she got the door free. What she saw broke her heart. Naota was at the entrance with a vicious look on his face as he fought to protect it.

Angela pulled him to his feet and stared at him for a second. "Get Echo and meet me back out here." She took a look at how beaten he was and when she saw Echo-Rose she heard her heart break. The poor thing had a rough life as it was and now… She put it from her mind. "Follow me."

She took the short route as the men around her killed all that dared get in her way. She was in a rush as she kept looking back at Naota to keep him close. He was tired she could tell. She got them out of the dead zone and grabbed hold of him. “Where are we going Aary?”

“Home,” Aaryona shared with her mother the location and soon they were inside a ransacked manor on the other side of Kurayo. 

“Move, MOVE MOVE.” Angela voice boomed as she pushed vampires out of the way and got a bed. “Don’t worry about them.” Aaryona had them all back off with a flick of her wrists. Angela helped Naota get Echo-Rose onto the bed.

She took a potion out and tossed it Naota’s way. “You’re gonna need that boy. Hold the arm.” She undressed Echo, or what was left, her lifeless body began to have some sort of life as it began to breathe as soon as Angela started in. She didn’t need her goddess powers to be able to do her healing…

As soon as she could Angela took the arm and started to reattach it. “I need that salve over there on the counter. MOVE NAOTA.” She barked and waited for it. After the stitches were done she began to lather it on thick. “Should help heal it fast.”

Angela bit into her wrist and popped it into Echo’s mouth. “I’ll have to heal her from the inside out.” What better way to use her blood then as a needle and thread on the inside. Her magic pumped throughout Echo and soon Angela collapsed into a chair near them.

There was a stir in Echo but she was tired and a groan came out of her lips as she tried to move the limp that had been torn off. “Don’t let her do that Naota. I’m going to rest but you watch over her. It’s going to be a long night for her.” Like that, they were left alone in the room. Echo was shivering now as Angela opened the door and tossed him a blanket. "She might need that." The door closed and they were alone. Amber eyes fluttered open as they stared at him for a good long while, the color of her skin coming back slowly, but she was quiet as she watched him. Not mad, just quiet.

What felt like hours but had only been minutes ticked away and Echo still hadn’t stirred.  His eyes were fixated on the door, watching it as it trembled against the beating fists, shoulders, and feet of the vampires as they tried to break their way in.  If this was how it was going to end then he wasn’t going to wait for them to make it inside only to rip them to shreds; if he was going to die he’d at least want it to happen fighting and defending.  Minasé spouted curses at him as he gently laid her body down, leaning her upright as much as he could against the shelves in a weak attempt to keep her from losing the rest of her blood too quickly…even then he already knew she was more dead than alive.
 
Pulling his crossbow back around, he loaded it with one of his ten remaining arrows and stepped up to the door, staring at it with half lidded eyes before pounding a strong fist against it once.  The slamming on the other side stopped and he heard the surprised scuffle of feet.  Good, that would leave him with three seconds, maybe less, and before he could stop himself and despite Minasé’s protests, he unlatched and opened the door and pulled it shut so hard behind him that it jammed in the lock.  Two seconds…and already the attack started.  The last ten arrows struck true through their hearts but then that was the last of them. 
 
The last thing he did with it was throw it so hard at one of their heads that he heard a wet crunch as their spinal cord snapped back from the neck’s axis point.  That was eleven dead and there were still at least fifteen of them left, or more.  He quickly pulled Torinasu from its sheath, moving and slashing, spinning and ducking when he needed to, but he never moved more than five feet away from the door.  This blade wasn’t meant for piercing but he managed to get two of them through the heart, but at the expense of one of them latching their fangs into the side of his chest.
 
Each time he was able to put one down it seemed like ten more were there to replace them until his arms felt like sore rubber and he wasn’t even sure what was keeping him mobile on his legs.  His lungs were on fire, his head trying so hard to split from the pressure of not being able to change places with his daemon.  Pained tears ran down his cheeks, cutting trails through blood and grime.  Three charged at once, and though he sliced off one arm each of two of them, they still got him pressed hard against the door; his head slamming back so hard that his vision blurred.  Their fangs sunk into his shoulder, his neck, his chest and without meaning to his blade fell from his fingers with an unapologetic clang.
 
Just as he thought sweet death would finally come he heard a great explosion…and had he not known any better he would have thought he heard Angela’s voice.  That couldn’t be though, probably just some delirium from passing on from this world to the next.  But then men at arms hacked and slashed through all of the foes, even ripping away the ones that were latched to him, leaving him to slide down the door and off to the side next to it.  His body wanted to fall, to lay down, but somehow he was able to keep himself sitting up, even has Angela forced the door opened.  His fingers reached out weakly for Torinasu, wrapping around it’s hilt and shakily tying it to his hip though it wasn’t sealed in the sheath.
 
She was speaking but he could barely make out what she was saying until she pulled him to his feet and commanded him to take up Echo.  His body seemed to be moving on auto pilot as he moved into the room that would otherwise have been the outline of their tomb, and pulled her up into his arms.  He nearly dropped her he was so weak but he was able to keep her slumped against his chest. 
 
Try as he might, his footfalls couldn’t match Angela’s and when she took them from the dead zone it was the sweet Mother’s merciful grip on him that kept him from collapsing right then and there.  Suddenly they were in a place he didn’t recognize and with Angela’s guide he made it into a room with her, gracious for the relief on his body when she helped him move Echo onto the bed.  A potion was thrown his way and he fell to one knee to even manage catching it and uncorked it with unsteady fingers, losing some of its contents as he tried to drink through his cracked and numb lips.
 
He felt nothing, it was too soon, but still followed Angela’s instructions as best as he could…when it came to caring for Echo there was no room for error, no matter how close to death he was.  When she was finished he walked to the side of the bed, moving the blanket over Echo as much as he could and feeling guilty from how much blood he’d gotten on it…he wasn’t sure how much of it was his or theirs.  That was the most he could handle and as the door closed he fell to his knees, fingers gripping at the edge of the bed to keep himself held up as he looked down at her. 

Her eyes fluttered and so did his heart, a small amount of his strength returning just from seeing signs of life on her face.  But even with that he slumped on his knees, his forehead going to the side of the mattress as one of his bloody hands found her good one, weaving their fingers together so that he could still make sure she didn’t pull at her bad arm.  His other hand sloppily untied Torinasu, letting it fall the short distance to the ground as his eyes finally closed.

She had felt it, at the cold end of the dream she was forced into. His lips on hers and his cries. She had heard them. The world was gray but she felt his warmth. Death had been close before and it felt like this a lot. Stuck in a dead zone with no healing options in sight left her weak. She just wanted to react to him. She closed her eyes to resign to her fate but something felt off. Like fate wasn’t done kicking her down just yet. She couldn’t put her finger on it until she felt the magic on her body.

Angela. She had made it.

When she was able to, Echo-Rose returned the grip his fingers. It was faint but her strength was there. She wasn’t sure if she could speak yet without crying out in pain. They laid there for hours waiting and letting the magic in both their bodies heal them.

A gentle knock at the door and a blonde, blue eyed girl opened the door. She looked a lot like Angela. “Mother had to go home but my name is Belle, I’m a herbalist and healer. I’m looking after you both until you are well.” She came over to Naota and helped him up. “You should feel yourself replenishing your blood by now. The potion my mother gave you is one of the strongest she’s ever brewed.” She sat him down on the bed with Echo-Rose. Belle Helped Echo sit next to Naota. She was naked from the waist up but Echo’s focus was on Naota. They had almost both died.

She examined Naota first and shook her head. “I can see why she gave it to you.” She tilted his body in various ways. “You are barely alive. The potion is transmitting healing magic from her to you. You should be fine soon. With some rest you will be able to walk around normal tomorrow.”

Belle moved to Echo and pulled her white hair back the best she could. “I’ll let you both rest in another second or two.” Okay that was a lie. She took a dull knife and began to pry the salve off of Echo. The stitching on her arm had been absorbed into her body already thanks to Angela’s blood. The scar was bad but it was starting to turn silver like the rest of her scars. “Mother has healed you before Echo?”

Echo snapped out her gaze and looked over at Belle, “Yes.” Her voice was crackled and weak. “Many times before.” Belle looked with pity as she bandaged the wound up now. 

“You don’t need the salve anymore… but what I want you both to do is rest. Naota, somehow you are awake but anyone else would be dead… and Echo if it weren’t for the Rosenite blood and how hardy your body is… You would be dead.” Belle was concerned as a doctor and quickly laid them both down on the bed with each other. “You both need to rest. I’ll be back in with dinner. I suggest to sleep and I’ll wake you up in a few hours.”

Echo gave a frown and looked at Naota. “Sleep Echo-Rose. I mean it. You both will still be here in a few. You might experience weird dreams because of the blood but you will be fine.” She covered them up with a fresh blanket and left them there.

“I felt you… In the darkness.” That was all she could muster since she couldn’t move on her own. She was too tired to admit anything else as she gripped his hand. She felt the sleep taking her.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep.  Asleep didn’t feel like the best way to describe it, “passed out” was probably more accurate.  Either way though it had helped, not entirely, but he was much more lucid when the door opened and someone came in.  His muscles were sore, his spine aching from being slumped like this for so long and he was grateful for the assistance in getting up as his legs had gone numb from sitting on them for so long.  They got their feeling back with fiery pin pricks but that was hardly his focus as he looked over at Echo.  She was alive, her arm staying on even as the cracking salve was peeled off…aside from the forming scar it was as if nothing had even happened.

He still remembered the sound it had made when it was ripped off though, and his eyes closed in an attempt to block it out.  There was nothing about this night that he wanted to remember for as long as he lived.  His eyes opened, falling on the lapis lazuli that was still around her neck, now moving gently with her subtle breathing.  Seeing it reminded him of why he had put it there, and what had happened afterwards…Maybe there was one thing he wanted to remember.  Still, he wouldn’t be taking the stone back.  Lily had trusted him, Angela had trusted him, and had it not been for the latter they both would be dead underground right now.  He didn’t deserve the lapis anymore.  Angela had even more reason to hate him and want him dead now…

Belle was speaking to them but her words barely registered, only when she spoke of how they were both lucky to be alive did his attention return.  Echo, she’d said if not for her Rosenite blood then she would have died…but why hadn’t he perished?  She’d just said it herself: anyone else would have been dead.  He wasn’t so arrogant as to think his half demon heritage had anything to do with that: many others had fallen from much less than what he’d just gone through.  Minasé had said nothing, either out of respect or lack of ability to do so he’d let him rest quietly thus far.

Echo spoke when Belle was gone and his eyes turned to hers, not denying what he had done when he’d through her to be gone…That was all that she had been able to manage though and with a weak grip of his hand she’d fallen asleep.  For a few minutes he just stared at her, as if looking away would rip away everything that Angela and Belle had done to keep her alive.  Again his eyes warmed with fear like they had in the lair, but now there was relief.  He blinked hard to make sure there would be no tears this time though and when he opened them again the only indication there had been any at all was his blurred vision.

Unable to help himself, he carefully shifted his body down and rested his head on her chest, not even thinking about how her top layers had been removed or he would have been too modest to do so.  A gentle thump resounded in her chest, slow like how her heart beat usually was, and a little fainter than normal, but there all the same.  His eyes gently closed, finally breathing out in relief as he stayed resting against her, his head never leaving her chest.  Her heart beat lulled him back into sleep and just before his consciousness was gone he gripped her hand tighter.