Love in War (Aphrodite)

[Aries Enali]

David... No, Aries gave his dad a quick hug and thanked him for the ride. He watched the car leave the school grounds with a heavy sigh. His stuff had been moved in earlier today and was waiting in his new room for him.... this new school was waiting for him. It was an odd hour for him to be up... or at least it felt odd to him. 4:32am. He tried planting it in his brain that this hour was his new pm but it didn't feel right yet. It was foreign but didn't feel too unnatural.

Shaking off his thoughts he turned around with long strides to the schools entrance gates. The gates were already open, thankfully, so he didn't need to worry about being locked out on his first day.

He honestly didn't know what awaited him. He wasn't even sure where to go too let alone who to go too. They had a high priestess he knew that much... Maybe he needed to find her. He wasn't sure. All he wanted to do was find his damn bed and take a long needed sleep. His coughing had kept him up all last night...morning... "My coughing has stopped..." He thought pursing his lips together. Good, he didn't want to continue feeling ill.

There still remained three problems though. One, he needed to find whoever he was supposed to be meeting. At least maybe he or she could point him to his room. Two, he needed to find his bed. Three, his sister was roaming around here somewhere. Aries wasn't sure if he wanted to face her just yet. He already felt guilty enough for refusing to talk to her. He wished everything would just slow down so he could take a breather... Wouldn't happen though.

A long sigh escaped his lips. He didn't see anyone. "I'll just wait here... If no one comes I'll sleep on that bench." Hell, he'd sleep on the ground right now if he had no other choice. Anywhere he could possibly lay would be comfortable right now.

[Aphrodite Cooper]

Aphrodite had sat in her bedroom with a fellow fledgling a third former who had was marked four months ago, sadly she was counseling him today, for his friend had just rejected the change this morning, The student was sitting on her bed and she was sitting on her desk chair with it wheeled closed to him. she looked at the fledgling sadly, and listened as the fledgling told her how his friend was like a big brother and now he didn’t know to cope without him, hearing the sadness it was heartbreaking and she was reminded of her little brother, her little david he was a sweet kid and she loved him a great deal, she had promised to look after him and she thought she could until she was marked three years ago. Then everything had changed.“Tidus…I understand how painful it is to loose someone you cherish…I promise you It will get easier in time, I believe Sam is with our goddess Nyx enjoying the beauties of otherworld and Sam is there having so much time, that he is hoping your having as much fun as him.” he smiled feebly at Aphrodite.

She knew she was running late, reaching for Tidus hand she held it tight to comfort the fledgling “Spirit…come to me, please sooth Tidus pain, not repress it, but make it bearable for him…give him the strength he needs…thank you spirit” she spoke and with a wave of love and joy spirit had strengthened the grieving fledgling. The third former stood up Aphrodite smiled gently “just remember Tidus, you are never alone, although sam is in otherworld now…Nyx will always will be looking out for you…and I too will do my best to look out for you” she had spoken softly to him the third former smiled and placed his fist over his heart, making the high priestess in training blush, this was the sign of respect. “Thank you lady Aphrodite” he spoke and Aphrodite nodded her head, following that she bit her bottom lip and looked at her schedule diary.

Normally Aphrodite had affinity practice, but she had to be canceled because she had to meet a newly marked fledgling, the teenager sighed she was running late because of the unexpected death this morning and the counseling that had messed up the schedule meaning somewhere a newbie was waiting for her probably scared. “way to go Aphrodite some high priestess you will make…you can’t even manage you’re time right.”she scolded herself and left her room, she closed it beside her and began to run towards the entrance, shadow had sat outside the bedroom because of Tidus’s fear of dogs began to follow after her, she could see one of the students call out to her and she turned “Sorry I am really running late, we can catch up later promise” she yelled as she bolted off, shadow barked as Aphrodite ran towards the entrance.

As Aphrodite ran, she looked to the side and saw Kenny-Ray, the cat that had chosen her, at the time she named the cat Kenny just to annoy him, although that arrogant fledgling probably got a kick out of it, she could see Kenny-Ray rough housing with Simba “oh yeah that’s gonna cost us something…the little cat is a terror Kenny should know better not to provoke it…hopefully their just playing around and its nothing serious” she spoke to shadow as she ran and shadow gave a bark agreeing with her. Shadow was such a pretty girl, she had only been with Aphrodite for a short time now and already she was as loyal and protective of her as a guardian would be. Aphrodite stopped running as she saw a teenager on the ground and smiled she had stopped running “Hello and welcome to the house of night…my name is Aphrodite and I will be you’re guide for this evening….David…is that you” She spoke in shock as half way she had regognized the teenager as her brother, Aphrodite’s jaw opened “oh my…goddess” she spoke in awe and shock she had no idea that her brother would be the newbie fledgling, shadow had found herself curious she had approached the fledgling and started sniffing David before licking his face as he laid on the ground.

[Aries Enali]

Here's to his new life. He had no idea of what to expect coming for him. Aries knew many rumors were spread throughout the human society from the complete arrogance of misunderstanding. He didn't know much until Aphrodite got Marked. His father had done a lot a researching afterward so he could be well knowledged on what his daughter would be doing. Aries got stuck with hearing anything his dad had come up with. He knew very little about Nyx but knew quiet a bit on the Change and what is to be expected living life as a vampyre. He always found it strange that barely any human knew about Nyx or who she it... There wasn't a lot written about her. All he knew was that Nyx was their...his... goddess and she is Night personified.

Teeth clenched onto the inside of his lip while he ran through his head what he already knew. The last thing he wanted to do was die. He made a mental note to do some Nyx talking about him completing his Change. Death by bleeding out of every hole in the face just didn't seem so appealing... or comfortable. He shook his head to remove the horrid thoughts completely. Right now, he needed to focus on what's happening now. Or what's going to happen.

His fingers found their way into his front pants pockets. "I don't need to waste time standing around here. I need to get my lazy ass moving into the school... and annoy someone until they show me to my room." He chuckled at his though. Annoying someone until he got to his room sounded nice... Of course, his guilt about annoying someone would set in later. "Never mind." He added quick sighing.

From the corner of his green eyes he spot a blonde girl jogging her way over too him. "Good, finally someone who might be able to tell me where to go." He thought facing the figure. The figure stopped in front of him and began talking... Aphrodite. "No... no no no! I'm not ready to face her!" He thought very loudly... almost screaming in his head.. Aries heart-rate increased and his shoulder twitched from the nervousness that peeked with seeing his sister he hadn't anything to do with in a couple years.

He cleared his throat and said, "It's Aries now." He tried sounding as nonchalant as he possibly could. He wasn't sure if it were a successful calm though... He could hear his heartbeat pound into his ears so it was hard to tell.

"You will be my guide this evening." He repeated the way she said it. "Does that mean you'll guide me too my bed? I feel like crap..."

He sighed...then felt completely rude. "Sorry, just been a crappy day... Uhm, hi sis." He gave her a nervous smile. A knee twitch automatically followed. That annoyed him. The whole twitching thing. He couldn't help it though... it wasn't like he had turrets... His nerves just made quick jumps whenever he got nervous. He hoped that Aphrodite was in too much shock to even notice.

[Aphrodite Cooper]

She watched her brother with shock, and in disbelief he had the mark on his forehead alright. She bit her lip she wanted to hug her baby brother tight and hold him in her arms I can’t believe it….it’s David my little brother, I have missed him so much and for so long I have hoped to see him again…thank you goddess for answering my prayers, although I didn’t actually ask him to get Marked that doesn’t matter this is still a gift a glorious gift[/i] she had thought to herself she listened as her little brother corrected her and told her that her name is Aries she smiled and thought it sounded a little auspicious that he had chosen to be called after the Greek god of war when she chose to be called after love just showing how different they were.

Aphrodite nodded her head slightly and cleared her throat “My apologies Aries. there is no need for you to be sorry…I understand it has been a very exhausting and frightening experience…If you wish I can take you to your room, or if you like I can show you to the schools kitchen where we can get something to eat.” Shadow barked liking the idea of food and Aphrodite smiled at the dog raising her eyebrow at shadow the female dog sat and wagged her tail playfully, she looked back at her brother “Have eaten anything Aries…because if you haven’t you really should…it will help you feel better” she told her little brother.

Aphrodite looked at him, right now she was holding herself in check when all she wanted to do was pounce her little brother, hug and kiss his cheek or at least shake his hand vampyre still, but she couldn’t she didn’t want to invade his space especially since he seemed to be a little freaked out. Wow look at my little brother, he is all grown up…oh I know some girls who will be crushing on him…it’s hard to believe he is so grown up now.[/i] she thought to herself Aphrodite heard a loud hissing sound and she broke her glance from her brother to see Kenny-Ray running with the tiny ball of fluff chasing after it, she couldn’t believe it the tiny Kitten was harassing Kenny-Ray hitting her head with her palm she sighed, she wanted to talk to the kitten’s fledgling to see if he could control the kitten just a little, even though she knew he wouldn’t be able to, after all Cats were the owners here, she unfortunately had some fledglings come to her and suggest a mysterious disappearance could happen to the kitten, to which she instantly scolded the fledglings for even thinking such a thing.

Shadow had mimicked Aphrodite as best as she could putting a paw on top of her nose and whimpering in agreement as if she could read her thoughts of how messed up it was that an adult cat was running away from a kitten, then again this was Kenny-way the cat was a good cat, one that was loving and friendly sooner or later of course Kenny would trip over it’s own paws he was a clumsy cat and when he did trip Simba would catch him. Lowering her hand she looked at her brother “oh I forgot, to introduce someone” She leaned down and petted shadow. “Aries…this is my dog shadow, shadow this is my little brother…Aries” she spoke the dog lowered her paw and barked out at Aries as if she was saying hello.[/size]

[Aries Enali]

She could take him to his room or show him to the kitchen. Both of those sounded exquisite. He hadn't slept that well and hasn't ate since he got marked. He pondered on which one he wanted more before saying anything aloud. He weighed out which would be most appealing to do first. If he went to sleep he wouldn't be up for a while then he'd be alone again and not know where to go to get to the kitchen. He settled for eating first.

He opened his mouth but quickly shut it when he heard a hissing noise. His head turned where his sisters turned to see a kitten chasing and older cat. Well, that was a sight. He would have made some kind of joke if it weren't for the fact he was tired and still felt sick.

Aries attention turned back to his sister. "Hi, Shadow." He gave the dog a smile before returning his attention to Aphrodite. "I think I'd like to eat first. I haven't ate since I got marked." He hoped that eating would settle his stomach and head down. He understood simple Advil wouldn't work that great now which sucked to no end. He would need to get Oxycontin or something for headaches... Wait, never mind. He didn't want to be a pill popping fool. He would just deal with a little pain. A little pain never hurt anyone anyway.

"Uhm.." He began then shut his mouth. All the sudden his ball of hidden emotion bubbled up inside him merging to his brain and body quickly. He couldn't help himself. He shifted his feet and looked down. He tried to control these emotions that were slapping him across the face. He felt like he was getting beat up by his own emotions.

He managed to keep a straight face but his body language showed a lot more. The feelings rising up were what he had hide from himself for the past couple of years. The emotions he suppressed and keep to a minimum finally peeked over the edge... He hated her for leaving him at first. Then it went from hate to resent to feeling alone to missing to hopelessness to even more.

He forced himself to look at her. She has grown up. She looked very healthy and powerful even. She had been better here after all. Aries never felt so stupid in his life. It was utterly ridiculous hiding his emotions like that and even more ridiculous that he didn't talk to her.

"I'm sorry." His voice sounded stronger than he expected. A strong urge come over him and he acted on what he was feeling. His arms wrapped around his sister tightly but not tight enough to hurt her. He kept her close. Her familiar scent filled his nose and he practically bathed himself in it. "I'm sorry I haven't talked to you. I don't hate you. Well, I did at first or felt like I did... But I felt like you left me. I felt like you took moms memory's with you and I felt lost. I could never bring myself to talk to you. I've never felt so stupid in my life. I love you please forgive me."

Besides feeling like he did something a weak person would do he felt like an apology was needed. He didn't let go of Aphrodite... He continued hugging her like she was going to disappear again... "Don't leave my again. Please."

[Aphrodite Cooper]

Shadow barked happily looking at Aries, the dog had approached Aries and nudged his leg playfully with her head and panted, Aphrodite had smiled seeing Shadow being so welcoming normally shadow didn’t like male fledglings to be around her, Of course shadow was only trying to be protective of Aphrodite but Aphrodite secretly had her own theory since shadow was single she wanted Aphrodite to remain boy friendless too. of course the young fledgling knew she was just being paranoid.

Aphrodite nodded her head as her little brother spoke “Excellent we will get a nice cooked meal into you and maybe a nice glass of wine to wash it down” She spoke with a smile, Aphrodite it felt so strange seeing her brother after so long, she could see he had opened his mouth only to shut it quickly, she saw something was with him, he shifted his feet and looked down Aries….this must be so hard on him…he is too young for this, he is just a child…I know I was the same age as him when I was marked, but still this is different…I am going to have to give my little brother special attention and keep an eye on him so he can feel safe and welcomed[/i] she thought to herself.

She could see he was struggling and it was heart breaking for her, Aphrodite wanted to hug her brother and ease his pain, but she was worried she would only antagonize him. She looked at Aries surprised as he apologized to her, his voice was strong, and she was surprised even more when his arms wrapped around her tightly she wrapped hers around him and smiled resting her head on his shoulder he had continued to speak “Oh Aries…there is nothing to be sorry for my little brother, you should know Honey I never wanted to leave you or to hurt you…you’re my baby brother.” she spoke and rubbed his back “Honey…Mom’s memory will always be with you, its inside you’re heart all you need to do is look there…I promise honey I will never leave you again” she spoke and hugged him a little tight, but not hard enough to hurt him “Spirit…come to me, please…take my brother’s pain away emotional and physical too if you can…show him just how much our mother and, how much I love him” She spoke calling her affinity of spirit to comfort and show Aries how much he is loved.

Shadow watched and wagged her tail and a few moments later Kenny ray returned panting, he seemed to lost little Simba for now and sighed out of relief giving off a cat huff sigh, shadow looked down at Kenny-Ray and licked the cat's face leaving Kenny ray to whack Shadow with his paw[/size]

[Aries Enali]

Aries listened to his older sisters voice as she spoke. She sounded slightly different but still the same Aphrodite. There was a hint of power in her voice that he couldn't put his finger on... but same nonetheless. Her voice was surprising comforting despite what he thought before... perhaps he thought about it to hard and misunderstood what it would really be like. He understood the memory of their mom would be with him forever and that he'd meet with her again someday... it was just hard to understand that with or without his sister it would still be strong within him no matter how much time has passed.

Aphrodite had called Spirit to come to her to help him. He knew very little about these element things and didn't quiet understand them yet... The feeling the surrounded him was very pleasant in-fact it was relieving. He didn't jump back or feel startled by it. It honestly felt very natural to him... like it had been there all along just more pronounced. He sighed lightly and reluctantly let go of her. He took one step back.

"Thanks." He said with a soft smile. "I guess I'm excited to start my new life. This is all new to me... Hey, did you say wine?" Finally feeling better his voice become slightly amused at the fact he could have wine. Surely the school didn't allow students to get drunk. Could fledgling or vampyres get drunk? He wasn't sure. Either way wine sounded nice right about now.

"I think I'd like wine and a chicken sandwich." He paused then nodded. "Then could you show me to me room? Spirit made me feel better but I'm still tired."

Aries scratched the back of his head still smiling at Aphrodite. He wasn't lying, he was excited to start his new life but he was also excited he could be with his sister again. He felt sorry for his dad for a moment... He was the one who was alone now without anyone there to talk to or be there. The feeling momentarily cringed at him before Spirit soothed it enough to not let it get to him. "I think we should visit dad on weekends... He's alone now."

[Aphrodite Cooper]

Aphrodite had watched her baby brother carefully she smiled as he thanked her, she was relieved to see her brother had that same beautiful smile she remembered, she petted her little brother’s head “you will love your new life my dear sweet little Aries. And yes I did say wine…oh you probably don’t know this, but because we are fledglings we can’t get intoxicated anymore…uh this means we can’t get drunk..so we can drink to our hearts content…and along with that well stuff like pain killers don’t work on us…so if you ever feel any aches or you’re hurt you get your butt to me and ill call my friend Kenny to come treat you…or you go to our high priestess.” she told him while rubbing his head.

Aphrodite smiled, Does Aries know about the high priestess…should I tell him that I am next in line to become Nyx’s high priestess…no that’s too much right now, I don’t think I can bring myself to telling him about me…Aries is my number one priority right now.[/i] she had thought to herself, grabbing her little brother’s hand she allowed spirit to stay with him, just so things could be a little easier for him. “Right this way Aries” she spoke excitedly and walked towards the kitchen perhaps a little too enthusiastically as she was tugging on Aries hand trying to rush him. Shadow & Kenny-Ray followed. While Aphrodite nodded we can do that Aries…we can visit dad…but it won’t be easy…Let me explain…a lot of the time it is believed that when the tracker marks us, we become fledglings the truth is though, we have become fledglings before that. When you were cold, you had the chills and coughs..around the same time as that your body secrets an invisible essence from the apocrine glands called alarm pheromone. What this pheromone does is lure the tracker to you and when he or she touches your forehead the tracker unleashes a preservation pheromone and that begins to act on your T-cell recepters and that slows down the degeneration of your body’s pulmonary capillary system…now what’s this got to do with dad…well because we are marked..we have to stay with vampyres..Vampyres they have something called shield pheromones that’s secreted by all vampyres that make the change…their shield pheromones bathes us and that minimilizes the damage that takes place within our body as our bodies try to assimilate the changes and evolve to the physiology of an adult vampire…uh…maybe I should simplify it. Ok when we are around adult vampyres we are ok because being around them keeps us healthy…if we are away from adult vampires we get sick…and we die.” She spoke softly wondering if she went into over kill on the information about the vampyre’s physiology, but on the other hand we was going to learn this in vampyre sociology 101 anyway.

She let go of her brother’s hand she had thought about telling her brother about fledglings rejecting the change anyway, but she didn’t want to scare him at least this way he had some peace knowing that if he stayed at school he would be ok. Aphrodite looked at her little brother, she stroked his cheek pulled out a seat “Sit” she told her brother only for shadow to sit on the floor “Not you shadow” she spoke and giggled and she started to go through the fridge pulling everything out of the fridge“sooo do me a favor if you ever want to see dad…you tell me and we can go visit him or skype him…or he can come and visit us.” She spoke sounding serious, she had began to make the sandwich and and placed it in the sandwich grill. While that cooked Aphrodite grabbed a wine glass and went to the opened wine casket left on the counter and poured a glass for her brother, walking towards him she placed it on the table beside him and went to the cool room to bring out a bag of blood, she opened it and poured it in a glass, she started to drink it slowly “So…do you have any questions” she asked while the sandwich cooked, she had forgotten it might be odd for her brother to see her drinking blood.[/size]

[Aries Enali]

He tried to understand that he had a new life starting... but it didn't set in right. Aries wasn't a type that took things overboard unless it was his family leaving, in which case, he over kills the dramatic effect. He understood no more getting drunk but wouldn't dare tell his sister he had been to a couple parties here and there. The last thing he wanted was for the moment to end with ill feelings or disappointment. He would probably never speak about the parties or anything else he's done that might upset Aphrodite.

He raised his eyebrow just for a second then lowered it. Some guy named Kenny and the school's high priestess could treat pains? How would that even work? He didn't not to bother asking her... He had a feeling he would find out the answer soon enough. Actually, he had a really bad feeling of something he couldn't put his finger on...

His inner babbling stopped as soon as his sister grabbed his hand. She nearly dragged him to the kitchen. He kept up with her easily though with no hesitation. It wasn't like they were running anyway. Listening to her talk, he realized he had much more to learn then what his dad went on and on about. He knew fledglings couldn't stay away from vampyres but for so long but she acted like a moment away could make him die. That couldn't possibly be right could it? No, he probably just misunderstood her. He sighed almost dramatically as he thought about how complex this whole fledgling/vampyre crap was... Couldn't the goddess...whoever she was... just make it simple? He could tell already that humans had a much more simple life than a vampyre did.

He sat just as she told him. He laughed at Shadow, "At least you listen." He told the little dog before looking back up to Aphrodite. "I don't think we'll die if we go out for just a few hours to see him, sis. But fine... I'll skype or make him come here." He knew he might as well just agree with what she was telling him. He learned that women tended to like people to listen and not talk back.

He sniffed the air.... his smelling was a lot better and that sandwich was making his mouth water. "I don't think I have any..." He started as grabbed his glass and took a sip casually without hesitation... That may have been a mistake. He knew from experience, when hiding things that he's done before, to act like he hasn't done them... And Aries to a drink like he had done it for years. He didn't even make a face.

To avoid any questions, if any would come to her, he asked, "Okay so, I know there's these red fledglings running around... I'm sure I'll learn about them in whatever class... but what are the rumors about lycans? Some kids at school kept going on about werewolves." He was honestly curious about this one. The rumors started about a month ago and the humans were a bit frantic about them. They acted like a plague was hitting and they were all about to die. He sighed thinking about it... He knew, even if the rumors were true or even close to true, that no one was in danger.

[Aphrodite Cooper]

She enjoyed the taste of blood drinking big gulps of it she lowered the glass and made an ah sound, sometimes Aphrodite found it odd drinking blood, but the thing she struggled with was her thirst. Sometimes she just wanted more and more blood like she could drink an entire barrel, when away from school she kept as far from the humans as possible out of fear of snapping, its one of the reasons she would rarely get away from the school. She had listened to her brother speak and she sighed softly, she knew she was dramatizing the effects of being away from school, based on her own personal fear doing this to her brother though she felt bad.

But then Aries was a new fledging’s and new fledglings often didn’t take things for serious, she could recall times when she went out looking for some stupid fledgling that had spent a lot of time away from school only to come back sick. “we won’t die if it’s just for a few hours Aries, but a lot of the time the new fledglings…they forget about these things or they don’t take it serious…then they get sick and they in some documented cases…reject the change…if you reject the change….it would kill me…you’re my baby brother.” She spoke softly, and again she was editing censoring herself, there was a chance that something worse than death her soul could shatter and be in nyx’s realm scattered into fragments where eventually her body would die and her spirit forever trapped as a restless spirit. Something that happened to nyx’s high priestess and high priestess in training. She didn’t want to tell Aries this, after all why bother worrying her little brother, beside he had no idea she was a high priestess in training and it’s the way she wanted to keep it at least for now.

She smiled at her little brother watching him, he had asked her the question about the red fledglings and lycans, At that moment Aphrodite giggled. “Uh there aren’t really any lycans…what’s going on is a new species has appeared, these species aren’t lycans, but werecats and werecat fledglings…basically vampyres have always had a familiarity with Cats going back for eons to the days of the Egyptian pharos…for some reason now…our beloved Nyx has decided to create an entirely new species…the werecat…they serve as our protectors Aries...unfortunaltly a lot of the fledglings and even vampyres frown on relationships between werecat and vampyre fledglings, but yeah nyx brought them to us and no one really knows why.” she spoke softly, but then Aphrodite did have her own theory, she believed nyx created the protectors because something was coming something bad.

the high priestess in training looked at her little brother and smiled, she had drank more blood and lowered the cup again “Sooo little brother have you got any girlfriends” she asked rather playfully.