The twin moons, Anyos and Phoebos, painted the color of blood by the desert dust, rode in the inky, star splattered sky. A huge bat swooped across them.

Tenshi watched the silver shuttlecraft with the indecipherable markings settle on the loose lito at the bottom of the crater. The whirring engines cut into the silence. Humans. How dare they land on his planet without permission. He ducked back behind the huge rock of common gold quartz, one of a row at the side of the basin and flattened his face against its cold smoothness.

The shuttle sat like a beetle, hunched and waiting. A door hissed open. Two humans exited the ship and scanned the crater. One looked like a woman. The delegation had not included women and Tenshi had wondered about that. Apparently, they existed.

The human voices echoed as they covered their vessel with a beige camouflage. Their scent, especially that of the woman, so indescribably different, wafted over the gritty sand. Tenshi's hands shook. He hungered and desert thirst dried his mouth.

Tenshi stiffened. He smelt his wife's, tender fragrance. Where was she? What had they done to her? Did they keep her on the ship? He would rescue her. He heard the faint clank of chains against wood and strained to see around the mound of crystals in the middle of the crater. Had they tied her up on the other side? In this forsaken place, who would hear her cries?

The male human sprinted off over the sand. Tenshi heard the harsh unknown language. More clanging of chains. What did he do to her? Tenshi crouched, ready to attack then saw the female human pull out her laser. He stayed hidden, a frustrated weaponless coward. The man came into view, escorting Kokuei unharmed and unchained, her pregnancy still swelling her blue silk robe. The three of them walked back to the ship, entered it and closed the door.

Tenshi slipped under the ship's camouflage, leaned against the door and concentrated on finding a way in. Smooth, no latch, no automated entry. He would wait. Tenshi curled up under a loosely tied section of the awning. He shivered in the desert cold.

The hiss of the door startled Tenshi. He squinted out from his dark hiding place under the cover. The sky brightened. He must find a safer spot. The humans walked around the crystal hill.

The shuttle door opened at Tenshi's touch, they must have activated it in some way. He entered a metallic caravan, utilitarian and cold. No bright hangings or pillows, no happy knick-knacks of the gods and goddesses. At one end rested a table and several closets, then came a tiny galley with a coffeepot and a pan of their foul dead food. A folded-back door revealed a cockpit.

His eyes fell on Kokuei, sleeping on her back on a gray couch. Her hair flowed like a black river. Her lips were like drops of blood, her skin white as a drift of lily blossoms. A little ripple stirred in the swelling under her robe.

"Do you know I'm here, little one?" Tenshi said. "Are you greeting me?"

He knelt beside Kokuei, full of love. He would rescue her. They would be one forever. No one would kidnap and separate them again. Tenshi bowed down to bite her neck.

The camouflage rattled and scraped over the ship. The humans returned. Tenshi jumped up and scanned the room. He slammed into a closet and closed the door, squeezed and almost smothered by a clumsy spacesuit.

The humans clumped in. Their words grated at his ears. Bags banged on the floor, pots and knobs rattled. He froze as other closets and drawers slammed open and closed. His hiding place remained secure.

"Please. It's very bright in here. Are you leaving now? Where are you taking me?" Kokuei asked.

The male answered roughly. Tenshi heard the whir of an engine. They would not have her. He jumped from the closet. The human woman fiddled with the coffeepot.

Tenshi snarled, grabbed and whirled the woman towards him. He pinned her in his arms and forced her to look into his hypnotic eyes. She swooned, her head lolling back and exposing her throat. Tenshi hissed and sank his fangs into her neck. He sucked her blood and her life. His long black hair smothered her face like a shroud.

Kokuei screamed. The male yelled. A blast from a laser hurtled Tenshi against the bulkhead. He slid down, down in a smear of blood and ashes to the floor.

The woman fell too. Her blood with the delicious taste and smell pumped from her neck, forming a pool. A tiny red river of life oozed down the floor to him. He stretched out a hand to touch, taste, drink and live.

"They locked me in a black room. I couldn't find you in the dark," Tenshi said to Kokuei.

She slumped down beside him and hugged him. Kokuei pulled him over her legs and rested his head on her knees. Tenshi looked up at her. Blood and ashes covered her gown. She stroked his hair. He liked when she did that. Her tears fell on his face.

"Tenshi, Tenshi," she keened. Her little white fangs gleamed.

He gasped with sudden pain and dizziness. His breathing slowed, his head sagged back over her arm. As the dark claimed him, Tenshi saw the human woman as if through an upside-down tunnel. She lay dead and still as marble.

***

Cold, unbearable dead cold. Tenshi's hands and feet tingled with it. His body shuddered with it. The blood thinned and rushed through his veins again but it could not warm him. He gasped. Ice pain seared his lungs. Tenshi's eyes flicked open

A light shone in the darkness, reflecting off gray ceiling panels. The Niu kidnappers, some his own bodyguards, had moved him from the stone storage room. Tenshi sat up on the gurney. He rubbed his stiff face. The light shafted through a small window in a solid steel door. It showed him shelves packed with jars and the stiff corpses of creatures familiar and alien. Hope soared that they might have moved him, for some unknown reason, to an animal room. He could feed and calm the blood madness that gnawed at him. Another glance around the room killed the hope. Everything had died long ago.

Tenshi hugged himself and rubbed his arms. His breath puffed into the light. His shoulder ached. He pulled open the drawstring that gathered the death robe. Someone's idea of a morbid joke, putting that on him. His enemies had stripped him of his clothes and the Imperial medallion. Tenshi pushed away the unbearable thought of lying helpless and unconscious from the stasis gas, one of the undead.

He examined his scabbed, burnt shoulder. It healed faster than normal. He inspected the dried blood and ashes caked to his shroud, poking a finger through the tattered burn hole.

Kokuei! Where was Kokuei? Tenshi clenched his fists. Daaku had laughed when Tenshi begged them not to harm Kokuei. Had they hurt or injured her? Or worse? He seemed to remember her tied to a pole. She slept on a couch? Tenshi shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

Sound clinked in the room beyond. Tenshi looked at the bright square of light and hoped. The army liked his policies. Maybe they came to rescue him.

He slid off the gurney. His bare feet shrank against the cold of the floor. Tenshi shuffled to the door and pushed against it. It refused to budge. He thought about pounding then noticed an odd shaped handle. To his surprise, it pulled down with a satisfying click. Tenshi eased open the door. His squinting eyes adjusted to the dazzling glare of the room.

A beautiful woman dressed in pants, stood at a metal table. She picked up and examined an odd jar filled with bits and pieces of creatures. Her hair fell over her face like a spray of gold. The delicious smell of her moon blood wafted to him. The fertile prey bled in secret places. Thirst and madness overwhelmed. How he loved her. Tenshi stepped out into the room, smiled, touched his head, heart and throat in a salaam then spoke the only human words he knew.

"We are very pleased to meet visitors from the stars."

The woman screamed and dropped the jar. It smashed on the floor. A sharp smell of formaldehyde and rot smothered the room. Tenshi glided towards her. She backed up against the table. He mesmerised. She swooned and he caught her in an embrace. Tenshi brushed the soft hair away from her pure white neck. He sank his fangs deep into her flesh and sucked. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the delight of it. All pain, all humiliation, all despair vanished. Nothing mattered. The human gave him everything he ever wanted.

Voices, human and vampire, strange and familiar, murmured in the hall beyond.

"No, I've never fed on humans, only bad vampires," Paladin Yorba said. The commander of the military arrived. He was saved. A woman spoke in the strange human tongue. Yorba chuckled. "We feed on animals. No humans on our world. Until recently, you were mythical beasts."

A door slid back. Tenshi glanced up from the prey. Kokuei, Yorba and Reba, Yorba's daughter, stood in the doorway. Reba carried a folded blanket. They knelt, bowed their heads, and salaamed.

qA human woman with hair almost as gray as that on Yorba's head, and human soldiers crowded behind them. Their polite features changed to shock and horror. A metallic box hung on a chain around Yorba's neck. It picked up a human's voice and translated it.

"I swear, Captain. He was dead."

A small smile crossed Yorba's face then vanished. The human guards drew their lasers. Tenshi tore out his fangs and snarled a bloody warning. Yorba jumped up and stretched out his arm to hold the humans back. Tenshi returned to feeding. He shuddered as the final gasp of the life force hit.

"It's too late," Yorba said. "The life is gone. Let me see to him."

Tenshi removed his fangs and for a brief moment, rested his bloodied lips against the dead woman's cheek. He lowered her to the floor and smoothed her hair. He motioned for Reba and Kokuei to rise.

"She's taken my cold," he said. "Put the blanket around her."

"She has no need of anything, My Lord Emperor," Yorba said, squatting down beside him. "She's dead. Do you understand?"

Tenshi glanced down at the blood, dried and fresh, saturating the front of his white robe. His forehead wrinkled in bewilderment "I'm unclean. These aren't my clothes." Tenshi scrutinised the group at the door. "Where's Hiro? I need his help."

"Your Imperial Aide is dead," Yorba said. "An assassin's stake through the heart."

"Don't you remember the attack? The Niu seizing us?" Kokuei asked.

"Why is Hiro lying on the carpet?" Tenshi muttered to himself. He stood up and sent Kokuei a worried frown. "Did they hurt you?"

"My poor love." Kokuei grasped his hands. "Oh. Your hands are warm. How odd. I'm fine. The baby's fine. These humans are different from the ones allied with the Niu. They're from a group of worlds called The Peace Alliance. Don't give me that cynical look. The humans in the shuttle rescued me. The Niu had chained me to a pole in that desolate place, to wait for," Kokuei paused, "You."

Tenshi stared at an invisible point on the metal floor. Kokuei threw her arms around him. He embraced her and buried his face in her hair. She smelt of roses and alien perfume. The swell of the new life inside her pressed against him. He remembered the alien ship and why he had entered it. He wanted her. He wanted the child. He wanted their life as part of him forever. Tenshi's mouth slipped down to her fragrant neck.

Yorba roughly pulled them apart. Kokuei sent him a look of surprise. Yorba shook his head at her and motioned her back.

"You're not yourself yet, Excellency," he said. "It's time to leave. The military will look after you."

"I don't understand," Tenshi said.

"Your father and grandfather are dead," Kokuei said. She bit her lip. "As for the woman you killed, parliament decided that humans are people and deposed you. You've drunk the blood of the innocent. You're shunned. Not even the title of Jouhou. Maru's Emperor."

"I wish to see him," Tenshi said.

"That's not a good idea," Yorba said. "It's best you come with me. We'll look after you."

"You're replacing Hiro?" Tenshi's confusion grew.

"Even though you're shunned, the military has agreed to take you in. They know about all about blood madness. They'll take care of you," Kokuei said. "Murasaki is Regent and Empress."

"You're the Empress," Tenshi said. "Father and Grandfather won't stand for that."

"The Jouhouyn are dead, Excellency," Yorba said. He gave a deep sigh. "Murasaki has what she's always wanted, and more," Kokuei said. "You know she's burned forever that you never married her."

"She's a bitch. Not respectful at all. Threw things at me." Tenshi smiled, blood on his lips and teeth. "You never shout at me. I love you."

He stepped towards her. Yorba grabbed his arm to hold him back. Tenshi sent him a look of annoyance.

Tenshi's foot nudged the body of the woman. He glanced down. The wonder of her blood drained away.

"Oh, Great Goddess Menedek. What have I done?" he said.

"This isn't your fault," Yorba said.

"I want another," Tenshi said. "I crave it."

"I know." Yorba put an arm around his Emperor. "The military knows all about this. We'll help you." He grinned. "Soon you'll be back to sucking on monkeys and rabbits, not a care in the world. "

Reba came forward with the blanket and covered the stained robe. A human soldier stepped forward with manacles.

"I want him cuffed. Security is watching every step you take to your ship. They have orders to shoot," the old woman said through her translator. "I won't have Menedeks terrorising my ship. You've told me a lot of supposed truths, but I prefer to trust my eyes."

"I understand, Captain," Yorba said. "No more than I would do myself." He took the cuffs from the soldier then turned to Tenshi. "I'm sorry, Excellency. The humans insist."

Tenshi nodded and held out his wrists. Yorba snapped the manacles shut. Tenshi stared down at them, his mind clear.

"I'm cast out," he said. "I'm destroyed."