Doctor of Demons

Family

Three days passed by in the blink of an eye.

Three days in which Scarlett and vali followed Andre around like lost little lambs. A full seventy-two hours in which they traipsed after him across the countryside, scarcely speaking so much as a word. Four thousand, three hundred and twenty minutes of awkward silence, ony broken by brief periods of rest as he guided them to his sanctuary in the mountains.

Frankly, the former celestial found the way they clung to him adorable...and terribly, painfully sad.

Even now he could read their emotions plain as day. They thought they owed him something; that he would collect at any given moment. They were relieved to be off the streets, they were grateful, yet an undercurrent of fear persisted beneath their every thoughts. That wouldn't do. No, no, no. It simply wouldn't do.

Made him want to turn around and burn that god awful town to the ground, it did.

"Now, now," Hazel chided. "You know better than that. Besides, its not their fault. They were raised this way. It'll take some time for them to trust you."

Maybe so, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Turning youngsters was a risky business by itself; if only because they didn't always survive, let alone reach their prime. It was something he'd stopped doing ages ago for that very reason; even when they survived, the process changed them. Sarah had since renamed herself as Scarlett after her rebirth for reasons he didn't understand, and although vali clung onto his old name, the older boy was likewise affected in his own way.

Both brother and sister were hungry. Newborn demons always were. He could sense it -and yet for all their hunger, they didn't dare leave his side.

His brow furrowed at the thought. Best address that soon. Wouldn't do for them to go feral when he wasn't looking. Thankfully there weren't any travelers about on the road; else he'd have to fend off two starving children and erase any...evidence.

"A bandit or two might be nice. No one would miss those."

Andre clicked his tongue and kept walking.

His cravings were something he'd mastered long ago; even then, it took him the better part of a century to do so. Like it or not, he was a predator now - as such his body constantly craved meat. Human fare barely sated him these days. Fried chicken, even less. Wasn't that a crime? He'd gotten by all these years from feasting on animals and the occasional criminal. But not innocents. No. Never them. Not those simple souls trying to make their way in this world. Evil humans were to be destroyed, but good ones were to be protected at all costs. Vali and Scarlett would learn in time. He'd teach them all he could.

Now if only he could get them to talk!

Scarlett tugged at his hand like the child she still was at heart; it was this very act that drew him back to reality.

Andre shook himself out of his maudlin thoughts and looked down. "Need something, kiddo?"

Bright eyes met his. She turned and pointed. "Big brother's falling behind again...

Sure enough, Andre flicked a glance over his shoulder and found the latter lingering three paces behind. The gap was widening between them and her brother; not out of any malicious intent on either of their parts but rather, because the boy kept stopping to look around in the waning light. He wondered why...

Realization struck him a moment later.

It must've rained last night while they slept; because vali had taken to balking whenever he caught sight of himself in a stray puddle on the road; or rather, his new face. Couldn't much blame him for that. His blood was potent; as such, Guy's subsequent transformation had cleansed him of the ruinous physical deformities he'd suffered from as a human. He actually looked rather handsome now. It hadn't done a thing for the color of his hair, though. Black and green was a strange combination, even stranger than white-on-green. Still, a faint smile touched his lips when the boy began to splash about in said puddle.