Everyone in the house was awake. From my bedroom, I couldn't figure out why. Yawning, I slid on my stomach off the edge of the tall bed. My teal pajama shorts had twisted around my waist in an uncomfortable way. After fixing them, I stretched my arms over my head, making my shirt raise up, as another yawn took over. I'm so sleepy… but something is happening downstairs. Pushing the door open just wide enough for me to slip through, I walked down the hallway. At the top of the stairs, I could see that everyone was in the living room, plus a girl.
The smell of blood wafted up, making my fangs hurt. Biting humans was still hard for me but her blood smelled really yummy. Taking one step at a time, I stayed as quiet as I could. Reiji pushed his glasses back up his nose and sat down in the chair nearest the fireplace. The girl had a sliver cross in her hands. She screamed, hurting my ears and bolted for the door. I stopped at the bottom of the staircase, rubbing my eyes with my hands. They burned from the bright lights.
"Your kid is awake," Subaru said, passing me to go back upstairs. He looked angry. He always looked angry but more than usual. At least it wasn't at me. It isn't fun when he's mad at me.
Before I could make another move, I'd been scooped up and I was looking right up at Laito, my dad. It confused me sometimes. At school, I couldn't tell anyone that he was my dad because of our im..imor…living for a long, long time. "What are you doing up, Kisa?" His expression couldn't tell me if he was mad or not.
"I… There's a girl," I replied, letting my head fall back to look around him. She was gone, but Reiji caught my eye. His disapproving stare scared me. I held onto dad's shirt and hid from him. "Who is she?"
Laito chuckled, carrying me up the stairs. "A new house guest. Now, let's get you back to bed." His grip tightened on me, anticipating my attempts to free myself from his arms. "Kisa."
"I don't want to! I want to stay up," I whined, kicking my feet. Nothing worked. A small vampire like me, less than 3 feet tall, had no strength, not like my dad or his brothers. It wasn't fair! I wanted to be strong. And I wanted to stay awake!
"It's the middle of the day, Kisa. You can't be up this early." Laito replied, taking me into my bedroom. The night light under the small desk glowed brightly, keeping the room brighter than it should have been with blackout curtains. He waited for me to stop the fit I was having.
"I don't want to," I said again, but stilled. Tiredness took over in the darkened room. My curiosity always won out, but the sleepiness became harder and harder to fight.
Finally setting me down in the spot where the covers had been drawn back, he laughed again. "You never want to, but this is grown up business. When you wake up, I'll tell you all about this new girl, okay?" Sitting down beside me on the bed, Laito brushed my hair out of my face. Everyone says we look just alike. Same hair. Same eyes. I even had a mole on the opposite side of my face.
I folded my arms, still mad. It's not fair. I never get to stay up for anything! Yawning again, I rubbed my jaws a little. My fangs were hurting me.
"So that's it," Laito said and raised one eyebrow. Lifting one arm, he continued, "Come on. It'll make you feel better."
Frowning, I turned my head away. "Uh-uh." Biting is hard. It hurt and I wasn't any good at it. I'd rather just drink it out of cup like I used to. They'd taken that luxury away, insisting that I had to learn how to bite because I was a vampire. Blood was the only thing we really needed.
"Kisa, you have to learn. I'm not leaving until you do. You can do it. Try."
Reluctantly, I gave in. I ran my tongue over my fangs. They were sharp and my teachers at school complained about them being so big. Unnatural. I heard that word a lot. They whispered about me and my family. I didn't like it. Before I bit down, Laito said, "Hard."
This time I did it. Besides human blood, I'd only ever drank his and Ayato's blood. Successfully… only a few times. Happy, I drank slowly. The warm blood coursed through my body, making me even sleepier. Since I was so small, it didn't take as much blood to satisfy me.
"Good job, little one." Laito petted my head until I was done. He tucked me into bed and told me not to get up again. Usually, I stayed in bed until he came to get me dressed for school. Laito stayed with me until I couldn't keep my eyes open and sleep took over. He kissed my forehead and said, "I love you, Kisa." Those words weren't said much by anyone but me, except in here late at night.