Black Blood

Adrian had gotten up on his own eventually, but Claude was at Jean's side, shaking the other fallen vampire who was otherwise lying still and unblinking. Adrian made his way over to the pair, a frown on his face, and he placed his hand over Claude's shoulder.

Claude shook him off. He had to keep trying.

"Jean! Se lever!" Claude yelled as he continued to shake Jean's body. He should have known; with the way Jean's glossy gaze was trained on the ceiling, unseeing.

"Il est mort," Adrian said quietly. He placed his hand on Claude's shoulder again, and that time Claude threw him off, standing up and stepping backward.

"Non!" Claude yelled. He ran his hands down his face, dragging his nails, as tears welled up in his eyes. He let out an agonized sound, and the next words came out as a whisper. "He can't be."

"Où se trouve Chloe?" Adrian asked, attempting to get Claude to refocus on the mission at hand.

"Edward-" Claude started, choking on the name. He swallowed hard. "Edward Blackblood took her. He- he grew wings. Vampires don't have wings! We've no way to reach her. She's on her own at this point."

The tears fell, freely rolling down Claude's cheeks. His companion was dead, and Chloe would surly be next. He could only hope that she would somehow be able to defeat Edward on her own. Sure she had a secret weapon, but she'd have to get Edward into the right position to use it.

"She'll be fine," Adrian said. "She has a strong will. Edward Blackblood won't be able to influence her to work alongside him."

"No, you don't understand," Claude said. He turned to face Adrian finally, and Adrian took a step back when he saw the state of Claude's face. "He- he's able to drink her blood. Without it poisoning him."

Adrian's eyebrows knitted together. Claude looked back over to Jean's corpse.

"Okay?" Adrian said when Claude didn't continue. "What does that mean?"

"It won't poison him, but it will make him stronger," Claude said with a frown. He wiped the tears off his face. "He plans to drink it, and do just that. It's... it's not going to end well. I can feel it."

"We need to find a way to get to her, to help her," Adrian said. He ran his hands through his hair. "That damned, old fool..."

"I don't know if there is a way to get to her," Claude said and shook his head. "He flew off with her... His palace was moved to the sky somehow, most likely through his magic. That's where he must have taken her."

Claude cleared his throat and knelt beside Jean's corpse. Adrian watched, and tried to imagine what Claude must be feeling.

"For now, we need to... bring Jean back," Claude said, his voice growing quieter. "We need to report back to Ami. And I'll see what's in the archives-"

"You and those stupid archives," Adrian said, throwing his arms in the air. "You go on ahead. I'm going to see about buying a helicopter."

Claude's head snapped up, but when he looked over Adrian was no longer there. He had already taken off. Claude shook his head again and looked back down at Jean. He gently closed his fallen brother's eyes.

"I will bring you back home," he whispered to the corpse. He lifted Jean up into his arms as he stood.

The body was a lot heavier than it was when Jean was alive. But perhaps it was all in Claude's head, and he was the one that felt heavier with everything that had happened.

How had such a simple blast killed him, anyway? Claude and his brethren were supposed to be nearly invincible, and able to quickly regenerate. Claude recalled that Jean had been having issues, and Clair had been experiencing issues as well. Even Arthur had a few of his own.

Claude carried Jean out the doorway, over to his car. He carefully opened the door and placed Jean in the back seat. He stared at Jean a moment longer.

Jean had been the prototype, and Clair came not too soon after. Arthur came later, and Claude was the official final product. They had worked through all the issues with Claude's genetic code. He didn't want to think about the fact that he would definitely out live his other siblings.

Claude shut the car door, and then leaned heavily against the car. As if that wasn't sick enough, he knew they were working on creating more 'super vampires' using the success of Claude's genetic code. Claude leaned back and stared at his hands.

He pushed the thoughts of what they might look like from his mind and got into the driver's seat, bringing the engine to life. He silently prayed Chloe could handle herself as he drove.