Demon's Blood

Demon's Blood


"Please don't worry so much, I know my brother he will not hurt either of them, this is simply a game to him." Byakuya explained to the group of demons that were insisting that they go with the two vampires.

"Why a game though? We can't be sure that it was actually your brother that took him either." Ikkaku growled out for what felt like the hundredth time since nightfall.

"Ikka, leave Lord Kuchiki and Master Jiruga be, they will bring Ichigo and Grimmjow back." Yumichika spoke up from where he sat on the couch in the library of Vampire manor. "What's wrong?" The vampire asked as his mate sat next to him, Yumichika looked up at the other two who nodded and left the room. "Love? Does this have anything to do with when Ichigo ran away?"

"I feel so useless, last time when he ran away I couldn't find him, this time I still can't find him. I'm no good at riddles and searching, Yumi, I don't think I can go on being one of Ichigo's protectors." The Demon looked up into the azure eyes of his mate.

"Ikkaku! You can't really mean that!" Yumichika stood up and glared at the demon. "You are a great protector, we all know it! Are you really thinking of giving up being a guardian?"

"Think of it this way Yumi, if I go back to just being a demon lord I'll be able to spend more time with you and Yachiru." Ikkaku looked up at Yumichika who was glaring.

"Ikkaku you are good at what you do, there's no way you can give it up, even for me and Yachiru. You are a great guardian and if you ask Ichigo he will say the same thing, Lord Kuchiki and Master Jiruga are the ones that the elder Kuchiki wants to test though. Don't beat yourself up, if you can't trust Lord Kuchiki and Master Jiruga at least trust in my judgement in them." Yumichika sat back down and lay his head on the demon's shoulder. "They'll bring Ichigo and Grimmjow back."

***********************

"So you're little Bya's mate?" Ichigo looked from the two vampires that sat across from him and Grimmjow to the other demon. "Don't worry darling, we won't hurt you, I trust Sen's already told you that this is just a game to him, Byakuya and Nnoitra." The female vampire smiled at the slight nods from the two, she frowned a moment later. "I'll have to talk to Bya and Nnoi about teaching the two of you manners, you haven't touched your food and have been staring and glaring at whatever draws your attention, and neither of you have said a word."

"Forgive us, it's just not everyday that we're in a hostage situation." Grimmjow muttered, then jumped as the female slapped the table in front of him.

"You aren't hostages." She said with a smile.

"Then it was nice meeting you, we should be getting back to demon manor." Grimmjow stood up then sat down at the glare he got.

"Forgive him, he has a short temper." Ichigo glared at his long time friend, his glare returned. "Grimm, we are guests to the elder vampire lord of the coven that both of our mates are part of."

"Fine, whatever." The elder demon growled ignoring everyone.

"May I ask you both something?"

"Sure honey." The female smiled happy they weren't being rude anymore.

"How long has it taken Byakuya and Nnoitra to find the treasure, so to speak."

"Well," Senbonzakura spoke up. "If Bya is solving the riddles then they'll be where you guys, the treasure, will be an hour after night fall tomorrow night."

"What do you mean where we'll be?" Grimmjow asked.

"This place is a secret between me and my companion as well as both of our mates, I wouldn't bring Byakuya and Nnoitra here. I'm sorry to say this but you guys are going to have to be blindfolded when I take you out of here."

"Understandable." Ichigo nodded.

"We'll leave after the sun goes down later, right now both Haruka and I need to rest, it would be useless to try and escape there are wards all around this property that will quickly trap you." The vampire helped his mate stand and lead the way out of the kitchen. "You have access to the whole house with the exception of where Haruka and I are sleeping." Ichigo nodded and watched as they disappeared up the stairs.

"We have to go." Grimmjow growled standing up and heading towards the back door.

"Grimm, just chill, we never get to just relax. Now is our chance."

"Ichi, this isn't a vacation."

"I know that, but the point is that we aren't going anywhere so we may as well enjoy this." Ichigo went and lay down on the couch in the living room.

"Dammit Ichigo! How can you be so sure that these two are telling the truth!" Grimmjow stood over the demon prince glaring at him.

"Grimmjow, I'm going to be the demon king one of these days, I have to be good at reading people. They're telling the truth, you'll see that yourself later on today." Closing his eyes Ichigo ignored the other demon's whining. "You know, you wanna relax then go cook something, they did say that we had access to the whole house."

"What am I supposed to do in the kitchen?"

"C'mon Grimm, we both know that when you're stressed you cook." Ichigo muttered, then jumped out of the way when Grimmjow jumped at him, the younger demon started laughing at the glare he received.

"Are you still hungry? You ate everything that vampire woman put in front of you."

"Yea I'm still hungry, that was nothing compared to the food that was fed to me when I was with Lady Harribel and Rangiku. I'm surprised I'm not fat from eating all of it."

"Ichigo, I've been to Lady Harribel's the food there is a little smaller than the size that vampire was giving us."

"Really, well I don't know I'm just hungry." Grimmjow nodded and headed into the kitchen.

*********************

"We there?" Nnoitra asked, looking around, they had searched for the clues the entire night before and got an early start as soon as the sun was down.

"Yea, this is where either the last clue, or our goal, is supposed to be." Byakuya answered rereading the last riddle, it was an hour after sunset and they were standing outside of the Urahara's old club, the windows were boarded but it still looked like a sound structure. The two listened to the night, there were several people in the building, humans and demons alike. They moved towards the door and entered the old building, some of the humans backed away from them others watched from where they were against walls or on the stairs leading up into the rafters where there were the VIP lounges. Byakuya paused in the doorway looking at a piece of paper taped to the door frame, he tapped Nnoitra's shoulder and pointed, when the older vampire read the words written on the paper his brow furrowed.

"We've found them." Byakuya looked around again.

"Congratulations Byakuya and Nnoitra." The vampires looked towards the speaker and both smiled at the demons standing just in front of him. "You guys pass."

"What did we pass this time Master Senbonzakura?" Nnoitra asked.

"I'll tell you all about it at vampire manor, my mate should have been there half hour ago." With that he looped each of the demons arms through his, Ichigo looked at Byakuya and rose a questioning brow, the vampire smiled and shrugged shaking his head. When the trio reached the other two vampires, Ichigo and Grimmjow looped their other arms through the vampire's.

"Ichigo! Grimmjow!" The demons were surprised when they got to vampire manor when Yumichika threw an arm over each of their shoulders. "Ikkaku's been worried sick, you better apologize when you get the chance." The young vampire whispered only loud enough for the two demons to hear, both of them nodded. "Welcome back." He smiled and it was the one that said they had better do what they were told otherwise something bad was going to happen.

"Now Brother, what did we pass this time?" Byakuya asked once they were in the library with drinks and food for the demons.

"I wanted to know if you were capable of taking care of a mate, the both of you. I wanted to know how long it would take you to find them if they were taken hostage, though I did leave Zangetsu alive instead of killing him like most abductors would."

"Wait you mean Master Zangetsu was in on this?" Grimmjow asked where he sat next to Nnoitra.

"Yes, Zangetsu was my traveling companion when we both left this country, we have been near inseperable. We both found our mates with time and that's when we went our own ways, we still keep a cabin up in the mountains around here for when we visit and don't want to be seen. I must say little brother, I was surprised when I came yesterday through one of the secret passages that you were able to move around when the sun was at it's peak."

"That is nothing of importance," Byakuya stated without taking his eyes of his mate.

"I hear that you claimed your mate without going through the rituals."

"From who?"

"Master Ukitake."

"Of course, you always were his favorite student." Nnoitra scoffed then stood up. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to you anymore." Grimmjow grabbed the vampire's belt and pulled him back down onto the sofa.

"You are too." He growled and Nnoitra sighed.

"Anyway, when Master Ukitake told me that you had gone and claimed him without the rituals I figured I'd stop by and make sure you knew what you were doing." Senbonzakura continued as though he had never been interrupted.

"That only happened three nights ago, how did you hear it so soon?"

"Master Ukitake knows where the cabin in the mountains is, he came to me when he realized that leaving the coven in your care may lead to disaster."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Byakuya muttered smiling as Ichigo leaned his head against his shoulder.

"Forgive me for interrupting, but Byakuya take Ichigo to bed, he's been under a lot of stress since coming back from his month long trip and so he needs to rest." Grimmjow looked at Ichigo who had started dosing off. "I don't mean to make it sound like an order but do it now." Looking down at Ichigo Byakuya nodded before slipping his arms around Ichigo's shoulder and under his knees, standing up and startling the demon in his arms.

"Sorry but your guardian told me to take you to bed." Byakuya smiled as Ichigo relaxed into his arms, he left the library and headed towards his room where he lay Ichigo down on the bed, as he made to stand up the demon's arms wrapped around his neck.

"Stay with me." Ichigo pleaded.

***************************

"You know we won't see Byakuya for the rest of the night right?" Nnoitra asked eyebrow raising over the eye patch he wore, Grimmjow laughed and nodded.

"I know." Grimmjow smiled and looked up when the doors were opened again. "Ikkaku, I think you should take some time off from being Ichigo's guardian, spend some time with your mate and daughter."

"Why would I take time off?" Ikkaku asked confused.

"I'm taking time off, you should to, Ichigo can take care of himself and besides he might just stay here at vampire manor a good deal of the time. This is where his mate is and we both know that if there's any safe place for Ichigo to be it will be with his mate." Ikkaku nodded.

"I had actually been thinking about that myself, spending more time with Yumichika and Yachiru."

"Then do it, you deserve it."

"I think you both do." The two demons looked up at their mentor's voice. "You've worked hard protecting Ichigo and remember what I said about guardians?"

"A guardian is always to stay by his charges side, whether they be sick or in good health?"

"A guardian is to look after their charge until the mate of said charge claims him or her." Zangetsu quoted from the rules he had established when he was the first guardian demon in charge of looking after Isshin.

"I see we have lived by the same rules most of our lives." Senbonzakura spoke up when both the younger demons nodded. "The few vampire guardians that I had trained had lived by the same rule that they are to look after their charge until her mate claims her. Obviously this rule was only applied to the women."

"So we have lived by the same rules." Zangetsu smiled.

"Well Ikkaku?" Grimmjow looked at the younger demon.

"I think we could and probably should, but we need to speak to Ichigo before we fully decide."

"Let's wait til morning." Grimmjow said giving a smile, Ikkaku shook his head.

"Of course."