Here's the last part of the trilogy's second part. Sorry if that's
confusing in the least.

The last warnings for content & language are here; same with the last "I'm
not really allowed to do this" disclaimer.

Daughters of Darkness II: Shina (chapter 4 of 4)

Shina watched from the distance as Sage approached, steely determination
permeating every movement he made. A few feet away was her usual body,
ready to begin the overt assault. An easy ambush was what this stubborn
bastard needed to put him in his place. He had robbed her of several
suitable meals, and keeping him in eternal agony alongside his idiot friend
was the only appropriate way to punish him for all the grief he had given
her. It was surprising; her wayward little sister’s body was stronger and
faster than she let on. With this new vessel, it would almost pathetically
easy.

“Shina,” a familiar, slightly angry voice said behind her. she turned
around and met Sai’s angry gaze from under his armor. “I’ve come for
Ayame.”

“What the hell is that, a shell?” Shina-Ayame asked, reaching to touch him;
he batted her hand away with a quick, light swing of his trident. “You
don’t honestly think that get-up will help you with this little endeavor, do
you? Ayame’s gone, and she’s not coming back.”

“She’s here,” Sai said, menacing the succubus with the end of his trident.
“She’s with me.”

“That bitch actually thinks she can hide in a pathetic little boy like you
and challenge me?”

{Shina, you don’t know who he is.}

“I’m not letting you take Ayame away from me. Not after all we went
through.” Sai’s tone became cold, focused; his temper was starting to
surface.

{Sai, please stay calm. She’s still more powerful than you,
and she could really hurt you....Please don’t let her hurt you.}

Shina-Ayame moved menacingly closer to him. “You know, humans are repulse.
You’re little more than refuse waiting for decomposition. Why would Ayame
even want to TOUCH one of you mistakes, let alone BE one? Besides, she
doesn’t even LIKE you, or else why’d she have gone after your friend like
that? I wouldn’t so much as TOUCH him, let alone what SHE did.”

A sense of hurt alarm surged through Sai, followed by steely denial. “What
are you talking about?”

Shina-Ayame smiled cruelly. “You’ll know soon enough, little boy. She
doesn’t even THINK about doing that kind of thing to YOU.”

Sai stared in total confusion, then suddenly smirked under his icy glare,
drawing a deep, condescending giggle from his opponent. “Awww...you have a
plan? What is it, little boy?”

\Ayame,......excuse me./

Sai took a deep breath and dropped his trident, seizing Shina-Ayame in a
tight embrace. He closed his eyes and kissed her, letting a sensation of
warmth slip out of his body; as it did, a cold, burning sensation left
Ayame’s body with a faint shriek. The protesting push of her hands against
his arms became gentle yielding, and the resistance to his osculation
developed into passionate acceptance. A feeling of relaxation and relief
engulfed the two; at least they were free now.

Sage stared directly into Shina’s deathly gaze. All the pain that he and
his friends had suffered in the past weeks originated from her; every moment
of agony and terror and grief was her fault. She smiled cruelly, revealing
a set of humanoid fangs under what he could only hope was red lipstick and
not anything else. A pang of pain raced through his right arm; the third
eye shot open. Sage stared at it, a nagging ache swallowing his entire
form. Shina started to laugh a low, guttural giggle. The image of Rowen’s
lifeless body slipped into his mind, adding to his pain. He steadied his
shaky legs and focused his pain into his gaze, meeting Shina’s fiendish
glare. Fighting the aches, he raised his right hand, palm open and third
eye focused.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” Shina taunted. “You must have a death
wish.”

“I don’t care if I die,” Sage painfully responded. “Just so long as our
souls can rest and you can never hurt anyone again.”

Shina dashed forward with an inhuman velocity and grabbed his throat.
“Have it your way, slave boy.” A burning, stabbing pain ripped into Sage’s
body, and his knees gave out. He forced his hand over her gaze; she froze,
leaving him trapped in his pain. A faint whisper escaped her lips.
“......M-Mother.........?”

The eye blinked, and a symphony of tortured cries filled the air. Shina
deteriorated in seconds; her elegant hair rotted away into wiry clumps; her
skin first stretched taunt over her, then darkened to a charcoal gray and
dissolved; her entire structure fell into a heap of dust that ignited into a
brilliant conflagration. Sage watched the fire from where he had fallen.
He doubled over as he knelt, cradling his injured right arm against his
stomach. The tears washed his face, trickling off his chin and onto the
resting third eye. “Rowen.....I’m sorry.....” he whimpered. He stood up
and started to wander back towards home, starting to sob. His victory was
not complete; he doubted it ever could be at this point.

Sai opened his eyes as he felt Ayame pull away from him. He stared into
her baffled gaze; she broke her eyes free from his long enough to analyze
his attire. Soon, he too wore a look of confusion as he removed his helmet,
repeatedly dragging his tongue along his teeth.

“Ayame, do you know you have fangs?” Sai rhetorically asked. As he dropped
his helmet, he noticed her perplexed study of his armor and blushed with a
nervous laugh. “Oh, yeah.....Well, I can explain back home.” A stumbling
figure neared the couple, a steady stream of moaning following it. Sai
caught his breath. “Sage?”

Sage staggered towards them, glaring painfully at Ayame. He pried his
right arm away from his body and rested it heavily against Ayame.
“..You.......killed.......Rowen, you.........” Sai pulled him away from
her. “N..... She killed him.....” Sage whimpered, more tears streaking his
face. “Ask her... She killed him....”

“I-....” Ayame stuttered, eyes awash with tears of her own. “I don’t’
really remember. I remember hearing his voice but that’s it, honestly. He
can’t be dead now...”

“You BROKE his NECK!” Sage angrily cried. Another cry, one of pure pain,
escaped him as the third eye shot open. Instead of a silver-blue iris, a
rush of blood ran down and puddled on the ground.
Sage’s pain eased into disgust at the unending flow of blood, a distaste
stopped by Ayame sacrifice of her scarf as a bandage. He tried to catch her
gaze, but her eyes focused down at the ground. “Thank you,” Sage half
whispered to her without reaction. “Can we go home now?”

Rowen opened his eyes. Every inch of him was in extreme pain, especially
his limbs. He was nude, and something white and lightweight was covering
him. The memory of the assault was oddly faint, even though certain details
remained unwelcomely clear. How could someone just overpower him like that,
ravage him like that, violate him so wantonly? He sat up, tossing the
sheets that covered him off his bare body. If he was in so much pain, where
were his injuries? He fished out a pair of boxers from his pile of random
clothes and wandered out into the hallway. Hopefully, Sage was still here.
As he reached the living room, he saw Sai at the phone, looking rather
agitated. At least he wasn’t alone.

“It’s okay, Kento, I’m ok--” Sai said as he paced with the phone. “No,
we’re at Mia’s. We--....She doesn’t need to call the police!......Yeah,
she’s here. I wanna talk to her for a while, and--....No, she’s NOT evil
anymore! How can you.....” Sai looked at the hall and met Rowen’s confused
stare. “I gotta go......Yes, I’ll call later. Bye.” Sai shut off the
phone and replaced it on the table before going to meet Rowen. “Rowen? Are
you okay?”

“I really, really hurt,” Rowen answered. “Is there any morphine?”

“All we have is Advil.”

“That’ll do.” Rowen started into the living room. The place was, as
usual, crowded. Sage was sprawled out on the loveseat, curled under the
afghan; his hand was bandaged, and he looked alarmingly
pale. In one of the recliners, Ayame was sleeping, wrapped in Sai’s jacket.
A bolt of recognition hit him; this slumbering little girl had nearly
killed him, had savaged him and treated him like such a lifeless rag doll.
He had half a mind to attack her, let her know the pain and terror and
dehumanization he had felt, but Sai’s close proximity and his own nagging
sense of decency prevented it. “Bitch,” he spat out under his breath before
retreating to the sofa.

Sage moaned from the sofa and tossed the blankets off. “Sai? Are you
there?” he whined, eyes closed.

Rowen just stared for a while before finally breaking the silence.
“Where’d you go?” he asked, assuming Sage could see him.

“Rowen?” Sage cried, his eyes shooting wide open. He beamed in relief and
rushed to hug his friend. “Rowen! I thought you died!”

“Sa--”

“I never thought I’d see you again.”

“Sage!” Rowen yelled; Sage looked up, still smiling. A pale, embarrassed
blush had come over Rowen’s wan complexion. “This is really awkward, and I
really hurt, so if you’d just...”

“Oh.” Sage stepped away and left Rowen to flop back down on the sofa.
“How long have you been up?”

“Not long, and I won’t be up much longer if Sai could just hurry up and get
my Advil!” Rowen said in an ever-increasing volume between clenched teeth.

Sai hurried back from the hall bathroom with a glass of water and a bottle
of pills, both of which he nearly threw at Rowen. “Here, you big baby,” he
said with a frustrated sigh. He knelt down by Ayame and kissed her on the
cheek, waking her. “You wanna sleep upstairs, darling?” he whispered.

Ayame nodded. “Are you still wearing pointy stuff?” she whimpered.

“No, it’s okay,” Sai said as he cradled her in his arms. “I’ll explain
that later, I promise.” He started off for the hallway stairs.

“Okay..” Ayame drifted off, resting her head against his shoulder as he
hiked up the stairs.

Rowen glared at the two as they vanished. “I DON’T LIKE her,” he grumbled
as he sipped his water.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Sage said. “You realize that all this......
weirdness started with her arrival.”

“Oh, yeah. What are you suggesting we do, ‘cuz I ha--”

“I wouldn’t do anything hasty yet. If it keeps up at this pace, we may
have to take certain measures, but for now we should wait.”

“Well, what if it IS her fault?”

Sage winced inwardly; he had never seen Rowen so upset, and he knew it
couldn’t result in anything positive. “We’ll see if it is.”

“And if that’s the case, what about Sai?”

Sage stood up to leave his friend, still weary and achy. His fingers
drifted over the bloodied bandage. “We’ll see what happens. That’s all.”