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Babies, Lithle was learning, were both more complex and more simple than people made them out to be. After the dire predictions from Michael and Kyle, she had expected pure hell once the stickghost manifested.

It wasn't pure hell.

He cried, he whined, he was incapible of doing anything for himself. He seemed to always be hungry.

But Jer'ain was often at his side as soon as he showed signs of discomfort. And Savius seemed to delight in finding new ways to bring a laugh from his infant form.

He wasn't difficult to entertain. Bouncing something sparkly in front of him was enough to keep him facinated. Jer'ain had discovered that reading to him quickly soothed him when he got distressingly loud. Indeed, just being around books settled him.

If only he'd allow himself to be put down! And there, indeed was the problem. If one of the three of them was holding him, he was fine. But the moment he was set on the floor, the screaming started.

And he sure could scream.

Which was, in a way, why they were here. In a place, it seemed, that Taylor (they called him Taylor, Lithle wasn't sure which of the brats had named him) could not help but be calm. Jer'ain sat at one of the tables, a children's book open in front of her, reading softly to the facinated child. Savius was combing the shelves upstairs, looking for who knows what.

And Lithle... Lithle had decided to read up on this war that Taylor had supposedly fought in. Though what she hoped to learn, well, even she wasn't sure. She sat at the table, across from Jer'ain, tuning out the brats quiet voice, and the smaller brats coos and gurgles.

Lithle, of course, did not look up. If she wasn't learning as much about Taylor as she would like, she was reading a lot about bloodshed and justice. Enough to keep her occupied and interested despite the fact that she wasn't in her prefered surroundings. Her preferred surroundings contained beer. Dusty books were a long distance away from supplying the same sort of comfort that beer did. But still, the book was interesting.

Jer'ain, on the other hand, was quick to look up, her curious blue eyes studying the girl for a moment. She looked... like a girl. Jer'ain, in one of Lithle's button up shirts that was much too big for her, and a pair of her brother's baggy jeans, looked barely like a girl at all.

"Hey." She returned the greeting with a hesitant half smile, the infant in her lap twisting and grabbing at her shirt the second she stopped reading. Impatient zombie brat, but at least he wasn't crying.

She was pretty sure that there wasn't supposed to be a lot of crying in the library. Maybe that was why Taylor was so quiet.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Letters and numbers were a thing of Jer'ain's past, but the girl was younger than her. It only figured that she'd still be learning stuff like that. But why didn't she have a teacher? Was she really teaching herself how to read? She had to be really smart, then.

"Don't you have a teacher?" She asked, echoing her own thoughts aloud, before the girls other question distracted her from her own curiousity.

"Umm... one of who?" She asked, frowning a bit. Taylor was one of them, their family. Savius said so, and Savius was the one who'd made them a family in the first place. Even if Lithle didn't believe it.

"He's my..." She hesitated. Lithle was right there and she didn't want to ruin her guardian's good mood by calling Taylor her brother. "He's my responsibility."

Jer'ain's eyes grew wide with surprise that she didn't bother to hide, and for a moment she was completely unaware of Taylor's grasping hands and twitching, ticklish tail. The girl, who'd she'd given only the most casual of glances before, was now given a deep, studying look. "You're a zombie?" she asked, her tone tinged with disbelief, "Are you the same kind as Taylor? He was a gryphon before he died. But you don't have a tail! So you must be something else."

Sitting Taylor upright, she turned him toward Coailiann, and pointed his little hand at her. "Bratling, she's like you!" she informed him, using the slightly singsong voice people often used with children. "She came from a stick."

Jer'ain shrugged, seemingly uneffected by the younger girl's logic. She continued to bounce Taylor on her lap, getting a giggle for her efforts.

"Well, you were dead right? And you're up and moving. Sounds like a zombie for me. Or maybe a vampire..." She trailed off, consideration in her voice. Unlike zombies, vampires were scary. She looked over at Lithle nervously, biting her lip. Her guardian might not like anyone much, but she would protect her. Even if the girl did turn out to be a bloodsucker.

And maybe that was what Sidhe meant. She'd certainly never heard the word before.

And then the girl was reaching for her little brother. What if she bit him?!? Tightening her hold protectively, Jer'ain glared. It was a look she'd gotten from Lithle, and she was getting quite good at it. "Don't touch him!"

Taylor, on the other hand, had no such thoughts. Content with the comfortable familiarity of his surroundings, and the familiar arms that held him, he stared up at the sidhe without fear. Something caught the light, and thus caught his eye. Want! Greedy hands reached upward trying to grasp the shining thing.

??? Confused by the mental contact, Taylor's first response was wordless. This hadn't happened before. But, since it couldn't be those familar to him, they didn't do it, it had to be the stranger. Which meant... Give!

"I said ******** off!" Maybe she was young, if not as young as the irritating girl, but Jer'ain still showed her roots. And those roots came straight from the woman who had been sedately reading at the other end of the table.

Had been.

At last Lithle glanced up, anger flashing in her otherwise dead eyes. "Shut up brats," she hissed, "Go play somewhere else."

The boyish girl gave her mother a distressed look, biting her lip again and shifting uncomfortably in place. Now she couldn't talk unless she moved. And this vampire b***h would surely follow her.

Standing, Taylor in her arms, Jer'ain moved toward the stairs. Savius would know what to do. "Lots of people hurt their own kind," she muttered, before nervously turning her back and moving up the stairs.

The shiny thing! It was going away. And the books and the soft voice making soothing noises. All gone. Why? A whimper issued from Taylor's lips, moving its way upward toward a full out cry.

Give! He repeated, mentally. Shiny. Give!

"Savius, Savius, tell her to leave me alone!" Forgetting her earlier feelings about library's and silence, Jer'ain called openly for her brother once she reached the top of the stairs. Taylor was crying now, that b***h had made him, and she wouldn't be able to calm him until the vampire stopped chasing her.

Luckily, the boy in question was easy enough to find. Sticking his head out from behind one of the bookcases, he moved quickly to her side, and she found herself automatically placing Taylor in his outstreached arms. Almost instantly, the zombiebaby settled, contently tugging on one of the bright silver buckles on Savius's shirt.

"That b***h is trying to steal Taylor!" she explained urgently, giving the sidhe another pointed glare.

Savius's slow grin twisted his lips upward in lazy amusement as he gave the stranger a once over. "No worries about that sib," he promised, "Dad's right down stairs.

"You want my brother?" he asked, smirking.


Distracted by the shine of his brother's shirt, Taylor almost forgot about the other, the one who kept talking without talking, but in a way he understood. Tugging happily at one of the buckles, he twisted to see her and reached with the hand that wasn't firmly grasping it.

Necklace. Give. Give now! It wasn't fair. She had two shiny things. She should give him one.

Maybe both.

"Oh, all girls are bitches, more or less." Savius gave a little shrug, fluttering his wings as he spoke. He was still smirking, the expression lazily lingering on his lips. "It's their nature.

"But you can hold him, if you like." He stepped forward, holding Taylor out toward the Sidhe. The young gryphon boy wiggled in his grip, not wanting to release his grasp on the buckle.

"V?" Jer'ain's tone combined worry and anger in equal parts.

"C'mon sib. She's not gonna shut up until she gets her way. She won't hurt him."

"Huh." She subsided, her eyes resting on the girl, no friendship there.

No fuss. Give shiny. Taylor seemed unaware of the tensions in the room. With one hand, he reached toward the stranger's shiny. With the other, he gripped tightly to the shiny on his brothers shirt. He would have all the shinys!