[Ander]

Nasimine (Human-Shape)

The human-formed Lucain was lean and wiry, strutting through the dismal streets. A golden locket bounced on his pale chest, shining metal wrapped around a blood-red stone: glistening and real and taunting the dangerous Slums to claim it. Because, despite the way he flaunted his treasure so openly, the boy did not look like a challenge. He was tall, yes, but slender; lean in a manner that didn't suggest great strength. His hair was a ragged mop, but fairly tame, and obviously clean. His slacks, black as the tips of cherry-red hair, were pleated and as high in quality as the shirt he had folded over a bent arm. Pampered, his look seemed to say. In the language of this place, such a look suggested easy pickings.

Maybe the boy had been lucky so far. But maybe, instead, those who dared to attack were only put off my something familiar in his icy blue eyes - something mad, even twisted. Something that, like the locket on his chest, dared them to come.

For as the boy who walked beside Nasimine knew, the shirtless son spoiled for a fight when he was in good spirits. And, having just come from a successful kill, the boy was in very good spirits indeed. "Drunks are easy. Aren't they, Iah?" He grinned toothily at his brother, baring fangs still red with supper's blood. Nas had no problem letting it drip down his chin the way it did, a drop landing on the locket's head. Dinner had been a poor drunkard - and as a result? The vampire was a little buzzed, too.

[Citanul]

Iahmes, Human Form

To any onlooker it was quite obvious that these two were related. Near-identical images, aside from the hair and clothing. Iah's hair was white where his brother's was black - though still tipped in the blood-red that their father had bestowed upon them. An equally lean form was clothed completely in a button-down shirt and slacks, both a dark blue with golden accents. An ankh hung outside of his shirt, heavy and shining gold in the sun. Easy pickings? Not these brothers.

"I suppose, Nas." Iahmes murmured softly. He hadn't wanted to choose the drunk, and had only drank enough to keep himself going for now. Unlike his brother, he rarely liked to drink much. Always in control of himself, he did his best not to completely drain whoever his meal was that night.

"Why did we take this way home?" He asked, glancing to the piles of trash littering their path, the dilapidated buildings that seemed to lean too far for his comfort. This was not their usual way home.

[Ander]

Nas laughed at his brother's reservation. Quite obvious that they were related, yes. But identical? Under the surface, they were nothing of the sort. "For the fun, brother!" That grin never faded, a skip jumping into the boy's step. "This place is a playground. Haven't you heard about the things that happen here? It's a place made for those like us~" He leaned in close to his white-haired sibling as he spoke, fangs and death-scented breath close to his cheek. The hand that snaked out to clutch Iahmes' arm was not a kindly one; it would pull too hard on the gold-trimmed sleeve, nails biting at the skin underneath.

"Besides, you like slumming it. Don't you?" The smile widened, all points, and lopsided on Nas' face. There was no one on the street the intoxicated vampire had to hide his heritage from tonight. "People saw you, you know...couple weeks ago, in the nightclub, with our step-brother. Spent a lot of time in there, too. Dancing? Fighting? Or...?" The boy lost what menace he had and burst into high-pitched, manic giggles. The glint in his eyes was still cruel, though - a little foggy, but cruel. And the way he'd spit the word 'stepbrother' could mean nothing good. "You liked it here then, brother~"

[Citanul]

Beneath the surface, they were nothing alike. Almost opposites; but luckily there would be no cliche twin-brother opposites in this family. Not entirely.

"Those like you, brother." Iahmes retorted, though gave his twin no satisfaction of responding to the rough hand on his arm. He had felt worse, and there would be only pleasure in his struggle to get away from him. "I don't like hurting people. I do what I have to, to survive."

It wasn't as if they hid their heritage well anyway. Fangs were prominent, even when merely speaking... And his brother rarely 'hid' from anything. A slight snarl came across his features at the mention of that night.

"Hardly, Nas! Unlike you and our dear sister, I don't find incest arousing." He spat out rather... Uncharacteristically. "Achilles and I have more in common than you know. I was merely keeping him from killing our father."

[Ander]

Caught up in his mirth, Nasimine released his grip on his brother on his own. He was far from done with him, though - this was too good. The tone so prominent in Iahmes' denial was one that Nas hadn't heard from him in a long time.

"No, no, those like you too! Don't be modest, vampire." It was so easy for him to stress his words, incorporate in them a subtly sinister meaning. The lithe young man's tongue could make choir hymnals sound wrong. "We're not so different, are we? Not when you admit what you are...and what you enjoy. Call it what you want, Las and I live, not survive. We breathe, we love! And we're never alone." The boy smirked. "Can you say the same?"

Those bright, mean blues positively shone with malice - but it was nothing new to Nasimine. "Las was there that night, you know. She said..." He giggled, the scattered tones escalating into a cackling bray. "Want to know what she said?" Truth be told, his twin was his favorite brother. The easiest to read, the easiest to wound. And if, as some said, there was a bond between identical twins - something to let one feel as the other felt? It made hurting Iah all the sweeter to Nas, who fed as much from pain and torment as blood.  

[Citanul]

Unfortunately, Iahmes was quite easy to read. He couldn't hide anything from anyone - and especially not his brother. They read another far too well.

While he tried to hide it, Iah was quite affected by the words. His stance shifted a bit; unsure. Alone? ...He had his family - loved his family - and wasn't as close to any of them as he would have liked to be. "Surviving is all I need, Nas. Until I lift this wretched curse from our family, all I need." He murmured, watching hi twin carefully. He was trying to rile him, he knew... But was there anything he could do about it? Nas knew exactly which of his buttons to push.

"No. But I'm sure you'll tell me anyway, brother." Iah glowered as he watched Nas' crooked smile. He looked so much like their father at that moment - Caine would have been proud of him.

[Ander]

He knew it. Nasimine laid it on thick, grinning like a shark as he danced away from his brother. "Nah. You need more than that." Oh, he knew it. "You need to thrive, Iah. It's part of who we are! To find others, to make a pact with those outside of our nature, even for a short time. To play with our food." As he talked, he continued to dance away - sauntering toward a multistory building of unknown tack. The lights within were gaudy, the voices inside raucous. Colorful wrappers and slippery refuse littered the steps leading up to the cracked concrete landing outside the once-grand double doors. "It's in our blood... Stop denying your blood, brother!" The boy threw open the doors.

The light from the hall within bathed Nas' face in gold. Judging by the brightness and ringing sounds that drowned out the young vampire's entrance, the building was some sort of casino, likely below-board and populated with those both loaded with and lacking the keystones they wagered on their visit. He turned back toward Iahmes, smirking over his shoulder. That smile usually heralded bad things for those in it's path - and at the moment, that was the entire casino before him. As he strode in, the boy started to laugh.

He still hadn't mentioned what Lasombra had said.

[Citanul]

Blood? The look on Iah's face.... He was quite torn, between anger and pain. Of course he needed something more. But he certainly didn't want it. Not until all of this was over, this curse was lifted and he could be normal.

Seems anger won out. "You want me to stop denying my blood, Brother? You want to see what I can DO?!" It was rare for Iahmes to even raise his voice to be heard over his siblings - this shouting was completely uncharacteristic, as was the white aura that seemed the emanate from him now.

While even Iah wasn't sure what was going to happen, it was already going on. The building just seemed to disintegrate around Nas, slowly turning to ash as he clenched his fists, a low chuckle falling from his lips. It was immensely dark, a look in his eyes that no one had ever seen there before, a maniacal gleam behind the bright blues.

"IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED BROTHER?!"

[Ander]

Nas was already poised, foot in the air, to kick in one of the locked game room doors when his twin yelled. He looked over, too ready to continue tromping on the white-haired sibling's emotions, practically tasting the blood of the few mortals needed to bring him to the breaking point. Nas' eyes fell on Iah's and the cocksure grin faded. His ears perked at the raised at the other boy's raised tone. Had he ever yelled before? And had he ever...what? What the... What?

"I-Iah...?"

Iahmes was gleaming. It was a white that looked as pure has his mother's pelt, as snowy as the frosty tips of the hair currently dancing above his twin's head. Yet the color was dirtied somehow: washed with a taint that Nas felt like he shouldn't be seeing. The white extended into an aura that surrounded his body, seeping from his eyes and drifting through his lips. From there, it spread - tendrils that snaked from his clenched fists and across his form reached and curled into the wood-paneled walls. Where they touched, before Nas' eyes, the walls were suddenly gone. No ceremony, no fanfare. Just gone, like there was something burning them from the inside-out. He could see, just for a second, the shocked face of a Yonyuu that had time to watch his arm vanish into thin air - and then he was gone with it. Only the partial beginnings of screams rippled through the air above Nas' head as the changes spread to the upper floors, and then voices were cut off so abruptly that it was easy to believe they had simply ceased to exist.

The screamed words brought the white-haired, white-lighted sibling back into his twin's focus. Was this what he meant? Was this was he wanted?

"Oh, brother," the vampire's words were touched with rapture. "Yes."

[Citanul]

The cut-short screams brought Iah out of his rage-trance. It was far too late to stop the devastation - the entire building was ruined now, ashes lightly dusting Nas' shoulders as they drifted gently down, ignorant of what they used to be. The soft blues seemed to fade slightly as it came upon him, the realization of what had actually happened.

Dropping to his knees the aura faded from Iah as his eyes watched what he had just wrought, brother standing in the middle of it, completely unharmed.

"Wha..." He mumbled, eyes suddenly glistening. "What... What did I do?" Voice hardly above a whisper now, it seemed hoarse from the yell he had uttered earlier. "What did you make me do, Nas?"

[Ander]

It was like Christmas! The red-haired boy uttered nothing besides those few soft words, watching the gentle ashes of what had once been lives, love, vivacious debauchery drift harmlessly through the air. His eyes glistened as well; in wide-eyed, childish wonder. Hands opened, catching the flakes in their palms like the most deadly snow ever.

And in the middle of it all, Iahmes. Was he overcome with emotion, too? "You did...this! You did something wonderful!" Nasimine, bouncing in place with excitement, leapt down to hug his brother. His knees raised clouds of ash where they fell. "I didn't make you do anything! You did it yourself, and it was great! See what happens when you stop hiding what you are~?" The boy beamed - a smile usually reserved for torturing the sibling it was now aimed at. He couldn't be prouder of his wonderfully dangerous brother.

There was someone else who would be proud of him, too. "Aah! Oh, wait until we tell Father...! He'll be so pleased with you! This is so great, Iah!"

[Citanul]

Emotion... Well, certainly it was there. Likely not the emotion that his brother wanted however - pain, guilt, shame... Nothing like the glee his twin felt at the destruction Iah saw before him. How had he done this? There were no powers like this, not in Caine's lineage.

"There is nothing wonderful about this." Even in his brother's embrace he was stiff, completely tensed up, fists balled and eyes clenched shut now as he shook his head. "I killed them! People, Nas! Not just dead - gone, completely!"

Standing the shaking teen wiped his eyes, even if the tears wouldn't fall they still wetted his shirt. "No. No, brother. No one else will know of this. It won't happen again."

[Ander]

"What?!" What had just moments before been a gleeful embrace ended; Nasimine recoiled in horror. "Brother, no! We're kneeling in the ashes of your victory - even you can't deny this!" His arms scrambled as hands clawed at the grey earth, pulling together handfuls of ash and raining them into the other boy's lap. The darker brother's smile was hopeful, just beginning to take on the pinched edges of pain. He was happy about this! This was a wonderful thing! Couldn't Iahmes be happy about it too? Couldn't they finally see eye-to-eye - just about this! Just this once?

"This is a magnificent gift sleeping inside you! Can't you feel it? Can't you feel your blood singing white with that, that...that glow! The mightiest vampire of all - that's you now, Iahmes!"

Nasimine reached up with white-grey palms, leaving chalky streaks on his brother's face as he helped wipe the teen's tears. They agreed on that much, at least: this was not a moment for crying. "Our family will want to know. They need to know... Doesn't Achilles need to know?" His voice quieted. It sounded almost sensitive, which was most unusual for the black-tipped twin. "Lasombra was watching you two, Iah. She said that Achilles would never leave you alone..."

[Citanul]

Victory? The pile of ash he knelt in - that his brother now poured upon his lap... How could this be victory? Innocent lives; sinful or not - lost, for his one moment of wrath aimed at his brother. It was something to be glad for though... Nas was unhurt. As much as they fought, as much as they 'hated' one another, Iahmes loved his brother. More than he would ever admit to.

"Mighty?" Iah murmured softly, not entirely sure he liked the sound of that word. "How does destruction make me mighty, brother? This... This can't be more powerful than our father. It's impossible." To be more powerful than their father... Mother better have some sort of innate power for that to happen.

A few moments of pondering, before Iah nodded, meeting his twin's eyes, his own no longer watery. "They should know." At least someone should... Maybe mother would know how to quell this immense power.

[Ander]

He wasn't happy, but it was a start. Nas grinned, little more than a mouthful of fangs that stretched from ear to ear. "Not impossible! Father can only kill. That's all any of us can do, and even then, half the time we don't even do that right. This is something that even Dad can't fathom." The boy squeezed his brother's shoulders, still unimaginably gleeful. "Caine has limits, brother." If there was one thing Nasimine had learned in the last year, it was that. Their father may have been First, but he was not all-powerful. He could be surpassed - and Iah had done it!

The white-tipped twin's eyes would find his brother's delighted blues, staring at him with an expression of pride almost unknown until now. Iahmes' agreement was yet another step closer to accepting this power as a wonderful gift of his own blood. Nas rose, trying and failing to keep his emotions in check, wrapping both hands around Iah's in efforts to pull him to his feet as well. "Yes, let's! Let's go tell everyone, and then-"

And then Nas' face utterly froze. His voice died off as suddenly as those in the casino. The boy, who had but moments ago been animated, thrilled, now moved as if through water: sluggish and slowed, hands lifting to his throat in a moment of confusion so slow it might have been comical. Might have been, were the circumstances different - and if not for the low, malicious chuckle that chose just that moment to roll through the air, carving a path through the settling ashes.