Royal Blood

Takei and Aridien were brothers but not by blood. Aridien's family had found Takei wandering around their home when he was about 2 or 3 years old. He could not utter a word and only made sign language that he was hungry. They gave him new clothes, food and a home. Aridien was more or less the same age as Takei. They grew up friends, the thickest of brothers, the closest of allies. They played under the sun and now fought in the darkness.

Takei pierced the chest of the vampire that came lunging towards Aridien. "We are brothers and that will never change," he said and took the hands of another vampire again. Aridien too then got into the fight. He leaped out like a tiger and flung himself into battle. The courage that his brother had given him made him through himself into the middle of a battle that he would not have fought before. Aridien was always scared of vampires and ghosts. He trembled when their names were uttered.

When Aridien and Takei sat down to listen to stories told by their grandmother about vampires and ghosts and spirits, Aridien would shriek and tremble while Takei would remain fearless and his gaze unfettered. It was as though he had this resolve when he was a child then to fight them and quell them and quench their thirsts. Nobody thought of him as special then and certainly not now. But that was beginning to change at least in the minds of his brother Aridien.

Takei took the heads of two vampires with a single strike and even Tiberian was surprised.