• “Raven?” He jolted slightly then glanced up at his twin,
    “Yeah?”
    “Are-are you okay?” Raven took a deep breath and then let his head fall back onto the pillow, gazing out the hospital window. Beneath the bandages and he rubbed above them trying to ease the annoyance. Evean’s brow furrowed in sympathetic pain and he scrubbed at his own eye.
    “Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Ev.” Raven kept his gaze on the street below and soon Evean, a cold satisfaction in his brother’s pain, left, leaving Raven alone in his hospital bed. Drifting in and out of sleep, he thought about Evean. He knew his brother blamed Raven’s fiancée, a marriage arranged at birth, for his injury but he also knew that Evean would use this injury to justify his long standing hatred of Raven. With a sigh Raven moved to lay on his side, squeezing his hands tightly together, trying to block out the numb pain behind the bandages. “Ev, it’s not her fault,” he murmured, “It’s yours.” And before he fell asleep, he ran his tongue along the tips of his canines and thought about how thirsty he was.

    Evean collapsed onto his bed, thinking about Raven and the hospital. He’d looked so calm but Ev knew he was fighting something inside him. ‘It’s the Hunger,’ he realized slowly ‘Rave has the Hunger now.’ His own Hunger had come earlier in the year, making him thirst constantly. But it had brought something else too and Evean shuddered with delight.
    “Ev?”
    He sat up sharply and stared at the little girl standing in his doorway
    “Is Raven o-”
    “Shut up, you little tramp!” he snarled, cutting her off and making her flinch.
    “This is all your fault anyways! Why do you even care?!”
    “It’s not my fault! You were the one playing with Uncle B’s knives!” Evean’s face went pale with rage and he leapt at her, hands reaching for her pale throat. She screamed and backed out the door just ahead of his fingers, slamming the door.
    “You did it to him! You-you made me do it! Its you fault!!” he howled slamming his fist against the door, “Your fault.” He slid down the door to sit on the floor, pressing his face to the door, “Not mine. It’s all your fault, Kat.”

    Kathrina flew down the stairs, bare feet silent on the marble, stopping only when she stood outside the door to her room. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest part in fear and she took a deep breath, trying to calm down. She glanced back up the stairs, tears forming and falling before she could wipe them away. Scrubbing at her eyes to stop the flow, she pushed open the door.
    “Kat?” her older brother Kite sat on her bed, reading an old book that their late mother had given them. Kat froze in the doorway, staring at him for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and bursting into tears. Kite sat, stunned for a second and Kat rushed him, throwing her arms around his chest, sobbing into his shirt.
    “What’s wrong, Kat?”
    “E-Evean! He-he said it was my fault Rave got-got hurt!” she sobbed clutching his shirt, “A-and its n-n-not! It’s his fault! He-he’s the one who threw the knife at Raven!” Kite stared down at her head “He what?! Why would he do that?”
    “Be-because Raven said he was going to marry me when we grew up!” she wailed, starting to sag to the floor. Kite scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed, before jumping up next to her. Burrowing her head in pillows, she pulled her legs to her chest. Kite frowned,
    “Did you tell Uncle Birchwood what happened?” shaking her head, she mumbled, “Ev said that if I told…he- he would kill Raven.” Kite gaped at her then went red with anger
    “What is wrong with that brat?! He’s been weird ever since last summer when that gardener was murdered!” they sat in silence for a while before Kite said “Well there was no reason for him to get so upset. Its obvious that I’M going to marry Raven.” Kat sat bolt up right sending pillows flying
    “No your not! I am!” she shouted, cheeks pink and no longer crying. Kite smiled at her “There. Now you feel better don’t you?” He wiped traces of tears from her cheeks and she smiled at him, nodding. “But I really am going to marry Raven.” He said matter-of-factly. And she smacked him with a pillow.

    13 years later,

    “Snoozing in the library? You’ll get sick, Kat.” Kite grinned down at her from the 2nd floor, resting his arms on the banister to keep from falling. His dark blonde hair hung loose, gently brushing against his face, and bringing out the deep blue of his eyes. Kat scowled up at him, brushing her own lighter blonde hair from her face,
    “I’m not ‘snoozing’! I'm waiting for Raven to come home.”
    Kite rolled his eyes, walking to the stairs, “You are a stalker girl you know. An obsessed stalker girl,” She threw the book she was reading at him and he caught it, flipping through it as he came down the stairs
    “Not really my taste.” He tossed the book onto the table and flopped down on couch next to her.
    “Of course not,” she smirked “That book requires you to have a brain.”
    “Ah! So why are you reading it then?” Kat growled and started smacking him on the head and shoulders. “Ouch! Hey you brat, quit that!” they started to tussle on the couch, Kite defending with Kat on offense. Neither heard the door open nor the sound of footsteps approaching them.
    “Geez, I leave for a couple months and your already trying to steal her?”
    “Raven!” Kat squealed, leaping up and throwing her arms around a handsome young man. The raven black hair for which he was named fell to just below his waist and was held back in a dirty braid. His green-gold eye sparkled as he wrapped his arms around Kat’s slim body.
    “Hey! Don’t let me interrupt. I was enjoying myself.” He grinned down at her, his dark skin even darker in comparison to her cream. Kite grinned at him up at him.
    “Oh no. we can’t have that, can we? You must suffer for leaving us here all alone for 3 months.”
    “I missed you!” Kat pouted trying to back away to better glare at her wayward fiancé but he held her tightly to him, so she settled with jabbing a finger in his chest.
    “Kat you know I couldn’t just come back when you called. Father needed me at the conference to act as advocate for the blood drive.” Kite stood walking to browse through a shelf of books.
    “Blood drive? Isn’t that sponsored by the Red Cross?”
    “Not anymore. Now it’s sponsored by Birchwood Hospital and a certain amount of blood will be diverted to a private collector.”
    “So we’re to drink the blood of slop now? How lovely.” Evean leaned against the door way, watching everyone with a cold disinterest. With shorter hair then his brother, his cruel nature floated about him like a cloud and was so different from Raven’s, that visitors often thought they merely looked alike. No one could think that Evean and Raven were twins.
    “Ev, its willingly given blood and we should be grateful.” Raven gently pushed Kat behind him, making it seem natural but Evean smirked at him.
    “Of course, Raven. Your right but I still don’t understand why we should. After all, couldn’t we just make some slaves of those fanatics? I'm sure they would love-”
    “No.” Evean stiffened, anger boiling in his eyes, then swallowed it down with a shrug,
    “All right. But wine is best drunk fresh.” Raven ground his teeth together and snarled “This isn’t wine we’re talking about, Evean! Its people, humans with whom we have an allegiance and it must be honored!” but Evean was ignoring him now, turning away from him and out the door calling back, “Ridiculous. They’re livestock and should be slaughtered like such.” Clenching his hands into fists Raven started after him, prepared to argue but Kat stepped forward, blocking his path.
    “Raven, don’t!” Raven stared at her and for a moment Kat thought she was looking into Evean’s face, full of rage and hatred, before it softened. Raven let his hands go limp then wrapped his arms around her shoulders and Kat sighed happily, rubbing her cheek on his chest. Raven kissed her head but he glared down the hall after Evean, silently smoldering with rage.
    Alone in his room Raven slammed his palm into the mirror above his sink cracking the glass and slicing his hand open. “Damn it.” He blinked at the blood as it made tracks down the side of the sink, light pink streaks marking the path.
    “Idiot.”
    “Shut up!” Raven snarled whirling around to glare at Evean, lounging at the doorway. Raven shoved past him to stand enter his main room, collapsing onto the couch in a sudden weariness. Evean smiled slightly before walking over to crouch in front of him,
    “You should listen to me. I’ve always been smarter than you, even if you were always stronger.” He drawled reaching up to stroke Ravens scared cheek, letting his fingers brush over Raven’s empty eye socket. Raven glared at him silently, his disgust emanating from every pore on his body. It made Evean smile, Raven’s hatred and disgust for him, made him happy in a strange dark way. “Oh Raven. You poor wounded bird of mine.”
    “What’s your point, Evean?”
    “My point is that you will never leave this cage.” Raven’s eyes widened in shock at Evean’s words but before he could retort, Evean grabbed his jaw in a cold iron grip. “You will stay here, wounded and in pain, for the rest of your life. Why? Because I will not let you leave me behind.” Evean’s voice held a frigid air but had an insane heat to it. “You will remain here, with me, until the end of time because you are mine.” These last 3 words Evean hissed into Raven’s ear before releasing him. Raven pushed himself back, as far from Evean as he could get.
    “You’re insane.” Raven snapped shakily as Evean left the room. At Raven’s words, though, he paused
    “Yes, your right about that. But my mental state is not something you should be concerned with. What I do in my insanity is what you should worry about.”
    Raven sat, breathing hard, for several minutes before he stood from the couch to stumble to his bedroom. Falling forward to lie face down on his bed, Raven stared blankly at his wall. Since they were young Evean had viewed Raven as some kind of pet, something to be kept in a cage and watched or played with. Evean’s attack on Raven when they were 6 had been one of many that had sent Raven to the hospital. It hadn’t bothered Raven when they where little but as they grew older the violence became worse. Several times when Raven had expressed a desire to do something of his own, Evean had attacked him, breaking bones and trying to stab him with any sharp object he could find. Raven squeezed his eyes shut thinking about the incident before he left. Raven had just announced his trip to the family and Evean had stormed out of the room in a rage. When Raven had gone to his room to pack, Evean had been waiting with a poker and, had Raven not heard him, Evean would have cracked his skull. “Why are you like this, Ev?” Raven mumbled to himself then “I’m hungry…”
    Evean wandered slowly down the garden path outside, brushing his fingers along the roses, idly smiling. ‘Raven is scared of me.’ He thought gleefully, ripping a rose off its bush and crushing the blossom in his hand. Evean dropped the petals from his fingers as he walked along, coming to a stop when he ran out them. He stared down the way he had come, ‘Raven will stay here. He is mine so he will stay.’ A small mouse scurried by and he snatched it up, his hands a blur of motion. It squealed in fear as he stroked it with one finger, ‘He is afraid of what I will do to him.’ Evean smiled slowly ‘He will stay here.’ And then he bit into the mouse, ripping its head off with his teeth.