"Yes." Julien responded.

"I'll be fine here." he assured her.

"Go. Quickly." he told her.

"I'll... I'll manage, here." he finished, shaking his head.

"Damn it all." he cursed.

Demitra could see that he was taking this hard... but probably not as hard as SHE was. Still... she was seeing someone else be genuinely concerned for her mother's safety and well-being.

Julien didn't say anything at first, and merely returned the embrace.

He held her close and pressed his hands against her back, relishing the warmth of someone else.

...and finding that he hated seeming Demitra in pain like this.

"I know." he then said.

"And we'll make whomever did this pay." he told her.

"They deserve nothing but the worst."

When she was gone, he looked around in silence, his hands balling into fists.

They shook for a few seconds, before he lowered his head.

"....DAMN IT ALL!" he then yelled out, his voice echoing throughout the house.

"......." he said nothing more, before setting to work, cleaning the place.

When Demitra appeared at the front doors of Candentus Lux, she had been fortunate enough to see AJ standing there, waiting.

He looked over to her when she approached.

"Vitra?" he addressed her.

"What's up?" he asked. "Something wrong with Julien?"

"....." he was silent as he heard that, before turning to the door.

He then heavily pounded on it, anger evident in his tone, before the slot opened.

"Okay, okay, keep your-" the person started to say, before Ashley interrupted.

"Cut the crap." he said harshly.

"AJ. #122. Scalding Scallop. Open the door. NOW." he demanded through clenched teeth.

"...right away." the voice responded after a pause, before the slot shut, the locks were hastily undone, and the door flashed with mana.

"We're going to see Dani." Ashley told Demi.

Ashley looked at her and sighed.

"I know the feeling." he said.

"I'm feeling the same way, too." he told her.

"I swear, if whomever took her harms her, I-" he started to say further, before he slapped himself.

"Stop." he muttered.

"Vanessa wanted you to be that way. Calm down." he told himself.

Ashley just sighed, motioning to the blonde that HE would cover any costs incurred, if need be.

"Dani, we need to put our best tracker on this." he told her.

"Aunt Racquel is... she's never done anything to harm anyone, and you know that." he said.

"But someone's taken it upon themselves to take her and possibly hurt her." he went on, understating it massively.

"Please." he then said.

"Even if as a favour to me, we need this to get started, and 5 minutes ago."

Ashley just crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Might know one of our hunters that might be willing to start working on this before he's technically supposed to." he told them.

Meanwhile, a shadowed figure stood over the woman that they had incapacitated.

"...I admit that you put up more of a fight than I had thought you would have." they said.

"I was under the impression that you had lost your fangs." they continued, before pausing a smirking.

"But a Fyrane is still a Fyrane."

"...and I will enjoy watching the life slowly evaporate from your body." they continued.

"Your sister shows us who the Fyrane's are at their core." he told her.

"...she'll be dealt with soon enough." they then said further.

"However, that time is yet to come. For now? Your suffering is the sweetest of justice." they then chuckled.

"Though I wonder if you should die alone." they suddenly said further.

"Alone. Miserable. And knowing that nobody will find you, or be able to know what happened..."

-Several days later-

Outside the hideout, a pair of people stood there... in the darkness... looking at it.

"Hmph." the male muttered.

"If Snoop was correct, then THIS is where she is." he commented, before looking to the one he was with.

"And YOU were supposed to stay back." he told them.

"Dani ordered you to." he went on.

"The only reason I'M not actively trying to stop you is because she's YOUR mother, and MY aunt." he said further.

"And quite frankly, you deserve this."

"I care about her as much as she cares about me." Ashley responded. "Simple at that." he spat, venom in his tone.

"Anyway, pretty damn sure we can't go in guns a'blazin'." he then said.

"Come on." he told her, as he started to creep forward.

"Odds are there's no protections up, as this location's pretty secluded and humdrum." he whispered.

"But we need to be quiet, obviously. See what's going on in there." he continued.

"Now... you going after whomever's in there, or saving your mother?" he asked.

"Because to get this done efficiently, one of us does one, while the other does... the other." he finished.