A/N: This story is the sequel to The Midori Incident; a Zero-Aidou bit I wrote. The start will be slow but I assure you my tale will be worth it.

I've reuploaded this chapter (22nd March 2011). You'll be reading the Beta version of Chapter 1. Thank you Eli (K8BNimble)! *bows* If it wasn't for her, your eyes would bleed by the time you finish. ^^ I need a Beta because my English is PATHETIC. ;p I tried my best. But suffer no more.. Thank you x100000 Eli! I luv you. xoxo

Disclaimer : I do not own Vampire Knight or any of the characters.

The Black Iris

Chapter 1- The Presence

"Just die then," Zero half growled, half whispered as he emptied two bullets into the Level E. The level E was his third kill that night, the eleventh for the week. Pretty impressive considering it was only Wednesday. Not that he was counting or anything. It's not like he was aiming to crush out every other hunter in the area and earn the 'best employee of the month' spot.

The dust scattered in the wind while the Bloody Rose was still smoking. He felt that presence appear again in the decaying alley. The temperature suddenly dropped which caused his skin to crawl. Rodents skittered out of their hiding places to flee the scene. Not good. But hell, the prickling feeling behind his neck and the sudden pitting of his stomach caused by the presence definitely annoyed him. It was a feeling Kiriyu Zero was all too familiar with.

"Come out and show yourself, coward!" he hollered as he tried his best to control his ragged breathing. The atmosphere of that damp, putrid alley had suddenly become much heavier. He could sense neither human nor vampire in the proximity. However, the presence was thick and constricting. It was like a suffocating serpent that slithered around his throat, choking the breath from him. He clawed his tattooed neck with his sharp fingernails trying to catch his breath.

Crap! That was a big mistake. He might as well have lit a beacon that flashed, 'Come on, vamps. Eat me!' He clamped down on the jagged tears on his neck and felt blood oozing through his long fingers.

The presence intensified as if it was drawing closer. Zero readied his finger on the Bloody Rose's trigger as he felt the dark tendrils of fear coil tighter around his core. Yes, Kiriyu Zero was afraid. But he was also bristling in anger.

"Oi, what's the matter with you?" A voice shook Zero back to the present.

Taking a deep breath he replied, "Nothing." Immediately, freezing air made the faint sheen of cold sweat on his skin unpleasant. He swore he could even smell his own fear. His weakness repulsed him then and it repulsed him now.

Zero glanced at the fellow hunter beside him which was returned with an exasperated sigh.

Takamiya Kaito did not like the cold and had taken full advantage of the large Hunter Association coat by wearing plenty of extra clothing underneath. His feet looked like those of a Frankenstein movie monster. His hood covered a wool hat, all of it tied together so that only his eyes and nose were visible. He looked as if he stood seven feet tall and weighed some 200kg. All he needed to complete the look were bolts through his neck.

To finish it all off, Kaito carried his not-so-favourite field weapon, a heavy 7.62mm abomination of a general purpose machine gun which was suspended horizontally across his waist by its carrying strap. The extra long anti-vampire ammunition belt curled from its breech and over his shoulders. He looked like a troll. He felt a pang of jealousy over a certain sliver haired youth crouching beside him. How on earth did Kiriyu Zero stay sane in this freaking minus 25 degrees Celsius with the lighter garments he wore? 'Maybe an ex-human vampire does not get cold,' he thought.

Zero had the same kind of coat on as Kaito did, but he only wore the standard Association-issued black turtle neck combat garb and cargoes. He had his gun, the Bloody Rose, in his shoulder holster. Kaito would bet there were some knives stored in those black leather boots too. Zero and his newly discovered obsession with weapons disturbed him. Snow and frost clung and blended in the silver mop of hair on Zero's head.

Kaito watched the younger hunter who was currently sweeping the Hirata grounds for any suspicious activities. Lately, Zero had been a bit jittery. He would jump and literally bristle even at a pin drop of a needle. But Kaito knew that Zero would rather be dead than consult him on whatever was bothering him. Knowing that, he left Zero alone.

The Hunter Association gave the Level D vampire a lot of missions. The boy attended school and to his prefect duties by day and then finished off his share of the execution list by night. Solo. If anybody asked Kaito of what he thought about the situation, he would, very obligingly, tell them that the poor boy was overworked. Now, here they were, stuck in the middle of nowhere, freezing their nuts off as they attempted to lie inconspicuously in the snow.

Their orders, plain and simple, had come in a few days before.

"Gather Intel on the Hirata clan. Standard sweep and gather procedure. Report to HQ and utilize standard equipments."

Kaito smirked as he recalled the term standard. He got the standard all right. But how in the blazes did Kiriyu Zero end up with the modified 'standard' Soviet SVD Dragunov rifle? It was a lightweight, reliable semi-auto rifle and packed a sizable punch when it was needed. It was a sniper grade weapon. The tinkerers back at the association labs had gotten more and more innovative recently. That rifle was the normal one, only equipped with anti-vampire ammunition.

Surely a customized long range anti-vampire weapon was a necessity in this kind of mission but who knows maybe Kiriyu, the gun freak, had finally gotten chummy with the armoury official dude back at HQ and managed to request, and get approval for his particular weapon of choice.

The Dragunov existed long before any of them walked the earth and it was definitely one that was made for expert marksmen. It seemed that Kiriyu wanted some special characteristics that were unavailable in any other service weapons. Kaito agreed that Zero needed one since the pureblood princess cub crush of his got away again after that one nasty kidnapping incident mess. Oops…Curse his jealous heart.

Kaito had the normal service weapon, only equipped with anti-vampire ammunition. It was a little disappointing for him.

"Zero!" Kaito nudged the other boy who was laying stomach down on a piece of tarp beside him.

Suddenly, the long muzzle of the Bloody Rose was aimed at his head. Zero's eyes were hard as he glared at his companion. Kaito raised his oversized gloved hands in mock defeat.

Zero sighed and returned to his previous position. He holstered the offensive gun back."Sorry, you surprised me," he glowered.

"What's your problem? Don't you dare glare at me." Kaito was still trying to jumpstart his heart to beat again.

"You jumped me first," Zero reminded him.

"Don't make me sound like a stalker."

"Are. You. One?" Zero replied in a mocking sing-a-song tone. Kaito nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Now you're really creeping me out." Kaito huffed as he picked at the frost clinging to his eyebrows. Then he sighed, "The Association has been milking you dry, haven't they?"

Zero ignored his question with an impatient snort and muttered, "I can't feel my ass anymore." Then he raised the binoculars to his eyes and asked, "What exactly are looking for?"

"You tell me. Maybe Cross wants to let you play outside and make snow angels with me for a change." The cold did not do Kaito any justice.

Zero rolled his eyes. Kaito resembled an overstuffed lollipop. That outfit must be killing the Kaito on the inside. Zero thought he should snap a picture, blow it up and slap them up all over the academy. That would eradicate Kaito's collection of stupid fan girls. A teacher with a mob of fanatical females made Zero's life as a prefect tiresome.

Yagari used to train them under his wing back in the good old days, alongside his damn bipolar bastard of a brother, Ichiru. It was fun although Ichiru got beaten to pulp by Kaito most of the time thanks to his well known 'fragility.' Zero was the one who ended up paying Kaito back and then had to manage bandaging up Ichiru afterwards.

Zero missed him. For good or bad, Ichiru had still been his brother. It's a loss Zero still felt. Ichiru had gone up to heaven. At least Zero hoped he had. Lately, Zero had been hallucinating about his brother: Ichiru waking up beside him in the morning smiling, Ichiru soothing and whispering his fears away during his bouts of depression, Ichiru caressing his aching heart with his soft assurances of love when he felt none from the world. His dead twin was invisible to everyone but himself. All in all, it was definitely a sign of his impending madness.

A volley of coughs erupted from his companion and snapped Zero out of his thoughts. Kaito the human is obviously suffering.

"The instructions were to stakeout this place for 24 hours. We've done 16 but we got nothing. Are we looking for snow golems? Who the heck are the Hiratas?" Zero shook the white powdery stuff out of his locks and readjusted his rifle on the bipod. He should have worn a hat like Kaito.

Kaito rubbed his fingers through the thick material uselessly. "There's nothing much to go on. Yagari told me that we are watching a certain Hirata. And that's it. Zip. You know how it goes."

"Why? Is he dangerous?" Zero passed a strawberry flavoured cereal energy bar to the older hunter and chomped on his. He would file a complaint later on about the offensively girly choice of flavour to the rations dude. Pink stuff in the middle of winter? Disgusting.

"Maybe. The Hirata clan was based in Shanghai until they were all assassinated, save for Hirata Kazuki," Kaito wrinkled his nose at the energy bar. What did I do wrong? Pink? He bit into it and chewed anyway.

"So, Kazuki is the main suspect," Zero stated the obvious. "Since when did the association get tangled in this vampire justice mess?"

"Since your Kuran Kaname wiped out the old vampire council and left the vampire world in anarchy. Look where it landed you the last time," Kaito emphasised the particular word and stared Zero right in the eyes. The boy had evolved from a potentially dangerous snow kissed Level-D to a murderous snow ghoul.

"What do you mean mine?" Zero could tell that his eye had turned a tint of red because Kaito visibly flinched. The elder hunter never got used to Zero's vampire side. He didn't really care especially when Kaito was clearly trying to avoid the Hirata matter. Mentioning Kuran right there and then was enough to annoy him. But why bother? This was the very one sly bastard who had unremorsefully smuggled an innocent human vermin called Yori into a party teeming with predatory vampire serpents.

Zero stewed over the fact that it was Kuran's blood that pulled him back from the ebb of Level-E insanity. "I owe him nothing!" his inner voice screamed. "Stupid Kaito."

Zero longed to test the Dragunov on the redhead right now. Maybe he should tell Kaito to break into a slow run.

Kaito whacked the back of his cloth-swathed head with his thickly gloved left hand. The ammunition around his shoulders jangled a bit.

"I was joking," Kaito said dismissively. Provoking Zero wouldn't get him anywhere. He knew his friend too well.

Zero picked up the binoculars again and turned it to the hulking mansion that was nestled in the valley below. The building seemed to be empty. The chimneys weren't emitting smoke. No light seemed to seep through the heavily draped windows. There were no movements, no sounds, no…nothing.. The building was deathly still. There didn't seem to be any activity on the grounds either. No vehicles came or went nor did there seem to be activity in any of the outbuildings. 'What a waste of man hours,' Zero thought. He would rather be back in his dingy apartment sleeping. It was Saturday for crying out loud!

It was close to 24 hours of waiting in the snow when Zero smelled something odd. Apparently Kaito did too because the hunter quickly rose up into a crouch and scanned the perimeter. They did not hear anyone approaching them but there had just been a flicker of movement off to their side.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Kaito pointed to the eastern side of the brush where a brown wicker picnic basket was placed under a pine tree. Zero's eyes widened at the sight of a very big pink bow tied around the delicious smelling package. Despite the sheer oddity of it, he heard his stomach rumble.

00000000000

(The Hunter Association Headquarters)

"Now, now you two. Calm down. Tell me what happened, please," Kaien Cross motioned for the two young hunters to sit down by his desk. He clasped his hands together and tapped his fingers to his lips. It was a good thing his black rimmed owlish spectacles and ash blond bangs concealed his eyes because, currently, they were sparkling with glee at the sight of the men.

Kaito looked like a bizarre rendition of the 'Little Red Riding Hood' holding an equally strange picnic basket while Zero looked like a cold wet puppy version of the 'Big Bad Wolf'. He knew he himself resembled the grandmother character in some way. Well aware of the boys' considerable lack of humour, he suppressed the urge to burst out in laughter.

Kaito plunked the large picnic basket right in front of Cross, its cute pink bowtie dangling askew. The boy pulled at his hood, hat, scarves and soaking coat. He really did look like a giant cotton ball.

"Hmm.. Something smells nice." Cross sniffed the curious package. "And I'm hungry too. Thanks, children," teased Cross as he examined it.

Zero finished shaking off his snow flecked coat and strode angrily over to Cross. "Is this some kind of a joke? 24 hours in the fucking blizzard just to prank us? Just invite us to dinner for God sake! And a pink ribbon? You're a real psycho!"

Cross raised his eyebrows in surprise. That was quite a long sentence coming out of the usually stoic Kiriyu Zero. Cross knew he was in trouble now. He nervously adjusted the oversized scarf that had started falling off his shoulders.

"If you are implying that I am the one being so thoughtful to prepare this; you are mistaken. I have never left my office," chirped Cross. He thought Zero was adorable when he got mad.

"What?" Both boys gaped in disbelief.

"Oh, wait. There's a note in here," Cross had lifted the lid and picked up the neatly scribbled white piece of plain paper from among the slices of carrot cake and baked chicken sandwiches. He read it aloud:"Come on over for tea next time. Signed Hirata Kazuki."

Cross looked back up at them. "Kaito-kun, Zero-kun, are you all right?" Both boys looked defeated. Their covers had been blown and they had failed in their mission. Cross knew what was going to happen next and covered his ears as a preventative measure to the oncoming assault.

"It's your fault, Kaito!" Zero glared at the redhead.

"You're the one that blew it," Kaito glared back.

"Shut up! You're the one that stuck out like a sore thumb in those clothes."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes, and we were freezing like idiots out there!"

"You're making a big fuss because of a stupid basket," Kaito argued.

"Well, you should have been more alert out there. The Vampire slipped by you unnoticed." Zero barked back ignoring his own culpability in the events.

Kaito narrowed his eyes. "Touché. You've gone blunt around the edges Kiriyu. You're so rattled lately even a bug can set your bombs off," he hissed. He was trying to peel Zero's fingers off of his collar. The death grip was ripping the seams. 'Does he not know his own strength? Vampire freak.'

"I am not rattled!" Kaito felt the hands loosen. Zero had lowered his eyes slightly to the floor and backed away.

Cross gently pulled the boys apart and gave each a kind fatherly smile. Kaito sighed and plopped himself in a burgundy wing-backed chair by the fireplace.

Zero let himself sag against a nearby wall and downed a handful of blood-tablets. 'Let Kaito cringe all he wants. At least I'm not chomping on him.'

The elder man could sense the fatigue and frustration emanating from them. "It's obvious that we have a very cunning vampire in this case. She's played us. The Association will not punish either of you. I'll be sure to explain this to the elders."

Zero snapped at Cross' words. "Wait, she? Hirata Kazuki is a she?"

Kaito's eyes blazed. "Cross, you did NOT tell me that before!"

"Does it really matter?" The reply was purposely dripped in innocence. How he loved to mess with the kids. It is a crime to be young.

"Why would anyone name a girl 'Kazuki'? Typical bloodsucking retards," Zero grumbled.

0000000000

The mission debriefing was as sour as his wet socks. It was well past 2 in the morning. If hunters had job contracts, he would be sure to state his work hours properly in there. He was also a minor So technically it was against the labour laws.

Hirata Kazuki was a very murky subject. It was strange that the Association even took notice in the vampire clan 'attack' that was dated more than a year ago. It was also just a few months prior to the Kuran Rido incident at Cross Academy. And it had happened in Shanghai of all places.

Why would the hunter be interested in something outside their home turf? Was it just because the rich, antique dealing Hiratas were Japanese vampires? Cross knew something, of course. Why was his adoptive father barely amused with the ridiculous picnic basket retort on Hirata's part?

According to Cross, Hirata was so elusive that no one from the Association had really set their eyes on the suspect, although several stakeouts had been carried out on the residence. They had a number of crime scene pictures and the police reports of the Hirata carnage but it remained an open case.

One of the interesting facts that irritated the Association was that Hirata Kazuki survived the attack unscathed and, still drenched with the blood of her family members, had charmed the human law enforcement to simply send her back to Japan, no questions asked. It was unfortunate that the local police had no idea about the creatures they were dealing with.

The 'attacker' had left no dead bodies behind but had left a lot of blood and plenty of dust in the carpeting. Kazuki maintained her innocence. No charges were ever filed against her so she had yet to make it on the hunter's execution list because of the lack of evidence and witnesses. Still, Hirata Kazuki was classified as potentially dangerous by the Association.

Zero peeled off his socks after discarding his soggy boots in a corner when he arrived at his apartment. A couple of cockroaches skittered away to the nearby pieces of mouldy furniture moments before the flying boots could squash them. He chose to live with the disgusting cockroaches so he did not have to deal with either the hyper and overly saccharine sweet Cross or the delectable human students who could become his next meal. His bloodlust had been getting worse. If not for his iron-clad will and self-control, he would have chomped on a few of them by now.

He needed a shower desperately. It felt like there was a week's worth of dirt and grime covering his body. He noticed the chilly air in the room and realized the heating system had broken down again. A cold shower did not sound appealing. Instead, he stripped down to his pants and threw himself on the bed after tossing the soiled clothes in the corner. Eyeing the pile, he realized he would have to do the laundry the next day. Oddly, he missed Yuuki nagging him non-stop about it back in the days. The all-too-gentle-but-annoying Yuuki. Zero sighed. That Yuuki had died. 'You must be laughing at me now right, Ichiru?'

Arms by his sides, long legs sprawled on the thin mattress, Zero shivered in the cold air. He considered getting up for a blanket, but his muscles were like jelly and his brain was about to liquefy and seep through his ears. Zero was cold but weariness won the battle.

Closing his bloodshot eyes, he let out a groan. The non-stop hunts and mission alternating with school had slowly taken a toll on him. Despite his lithe, well-built frame, he tires easily these days. Not eating right was one of the causes. His creepy stalker problem did not help either. Kaito was right. The Hunter Association was stretching him thin. The blood tablets he downed frequently no longer quenched his thirst. He was exhausted. He fell asleep within minutes.

Zero was abruptly awakened some hours later by a presence in his room. There was an unmistakably familiar aura near him. Both his hunter and vampire senses were screaming bloody murder. Not good.

It was like the air in the room had been compressed. His eardrums were hurting. The invisible tentacles were slowly wrapping their sinewy grip around Zero's soul. It nauseated him. He was afraid but Kiriyu Zero was no coward. 'Not again,' he thought as he fought back his fear.

"Sweet child, you're such a tease," a barely audible voice whispered. Zero, though, heard every word with his enhanced vampiric senses. The voice broke him from his reverie and brought him back to the present.

There was a shift in the sinister aura it was emitting. It closed tighter around him. Zero gritted his teeth. Now he was sure he was dealing with a vampire, albeit not a normal one. He did not have the faintest clue of what kind of a twisted bloodsucker he had on his ass. He needed more

information. "You bet I am. It's our twentieth date, my love." Zero scanned the surroundings. Nothing. He pushed further. "We haven't even held hands, you cold bastard! You're too damn slow for my liking." He hoped for some a reaction.

He felt its eyes boring into him. It was indeed the twentieth time Zero had encountered this particular entity. Whatever it was, it began more than a month ago, right in the middle of a hunt. This was a few weeks after the Kuran's ball where both a hunter and a vampire had been killed. The Association had been dismayed at the loss of one of their very best members. In a twisted plot, the hunter had been manipulated into assassinating one of the pureblood guests. It almost caused a complete rift between the Hunter Association and the Vampires .

Zero thought he contracted his infuriating demonic virus from that time. He also must have had his immunity kicked up a notch recently because this virus had once scared the daylights out of him but now it just annoyed him.

Sometimes, Zero wished it had been Kuran who was turned to dust that night. Unfortunately, in his experience, power hungry charismatic villains like Kuran tended to last until the very end to keep the plot appealing. It certainly felt that way at times. And now he had another one of those villains stalking him.

Tinkle. He heard the tinny chime of a bell.

'That's it, show yourself,' he thought as he tried to figure out where the noise came from.

Zero spun around. A faint whiff of sweet cherry blossoms wafted through the room. His mind froze. "No," he murmured in disbelief.

His pupils dilated and he pulled back his lips and extended his fangs. He knew that smell. He knew that sound. Memories of a cold, blood drenched, Spring flashed through his head. Visions of a barefoot fiend clad in an iridescent kimono glowing bright against the curtain of night burned in his memory. Her sorrowful gaze had been a stark contrast to the deadly fangs that had plunged him into his dreadful fate. 'It can't be,' he thought.

"No, you're dead!" he yelled furiously. His hand clutched at his tattooed neck even harder squeezing the red liquid from the broken skin.

"Poor child," it chuckled. "You must have missed me." Then the presence dissolved into the starless night.

'God.' Zero sank to his knees in despair. Palms up, pushed hard into his temples. He screamed.

A/N- How was it? ^^ Eli had gone through a lot of pain for this. I hope she won't give up on me. :) To those who had reviewed, thank you. Your words had motivated me to write more (despite of my grammatical blunders). Watch out for the other Beta chapters.