Chapter 2
A/N : Thank you very much to those who have read and reviewed "The Beast Within." This is a sequel of sorts; I hope it pleases!
He was at the annual family reunion that Cross Academy held for its students, when parents could come and "visit" their students. The celebration was more for the human students than the vampires, whose lifespans were measured in decades; but they took a night off anyway, feasting and laughing.
Zero had wanted to stay in, to sleep – he had no parents, it never mattered anyway, but – he had had to come.
The tables were laden with unusual delicacies and expensive dishes; the scent of wines filled the air, some subtle and teasing, others strong and permeating. Vampires danced under the moonlight, their wild hair flying, revealing their long, smooth necks…fangs glinting, eyes glowing iridescent in their joy, reveling in their skill, beautiful to all humans who looked upon them.
Beautiful, and dangerous - They were like shapeshifters, docile in daylight, only to reveal their true forms by night. That eager glint in those unnatural pupils, hooded with lust and anticipation, watching, even now, as Zero danced on hot coals at the edge of a precipice, waiting for one misstep – the slight wrong movement, and they would tear him apart.
He had had to come, or risk offending the aristocrats.
"How has your first week of school been , Kiryuu?"
Zero turned around, lips automatically tightening, hands reaching for the Bloody Rose.
"Absolutely wonderful, Kaname," Zero hissed. Thanks to all your helpful classmates.
"The lessons do not suit you?"
The lessons kill my eyes as they are being conducted by candlelight. Otherwise –
"I'm alright at them."
"Yuki asks after your health and schoolwork." And I'll bet you answer her with warmth and gentleness, layering your cruelty with kindness and care…
Kaname stepped closer.
Zero, quaking in his shoes, stood his ground. It was silent contest for supremacy, one of the many that had taken place between both; each time, Zero held out a little longer.
Their eyes met, their gazes held. Lilac eyes glowered from beneath slender, slate grey brows, pale and shining with fury and fear.
Dark, long lashed eyes, half lidded and lazy, returned the stare from behind darker hair. Zero opened his mouth to say something –
"Ouch! Aido, you fool! Watch that carving knife! Ah!" There was a boisterous scuffle behind as Aido "accidentally" cut his friend, and the smell of blood surrounded them.
"Say, let's not waste it…"
Zero hauled himself up the edge of a mental cliff, and looked away from Kaname. The sudden outbreak of sweating, even in this cool weather, made his uniform stick to his sides and back.
He turned in time to see Aido running his tongue up another boy's arm.
"Hey, Kiryuu, how have you been lately? You're looking a little wane… come, have a drink, you do look thirsty." the golden haired noble was all charm and smiles, nonchalantly lapping at the blood like a child with an ice-cream, crystal blue eyes baiting Zero.
More laughter as Zero ground his heel and bit down on his tongue.
"Enough, Aido, you'll tempt the … new student…" it was another of Aido's friends, leering predatorily at Zero.
Zero spun around, seething, and saw Kaname's appraising look.
"See, he's already losing control…looking in all directions, like a cornered animal…"
Something in him snapped. He wheeled and threw a punch at Aido, hard; the vampire saw it coming and blocked; he blocked the vicious kick as well, and shoved Zero away.
"Behave yourself, boy!" Aido sang. The sing-song tauntingness, the casual order, so reminiscent of his disgraceful compliance to Kaname, fell like salt on open wounds.
"Fuck you!" No words could describe the sudden rage – he grabbed a gold rimmed platter of fruits and flung them at Aido; he seized a delicate crystal bowl and thrust it, contents and all, at the vampires.
The gun was out, his finger moving for the trigger, the barrel looking for Aido, Kaname, anybody. The bullets left in an angry streak of silver, swift and silent. There was a roar of anger; the anti vampire magic might have hurt one of them. Then he turned and ran.
He barely made it into the woods before tripping over a tree root. He didn't care; the pain of the fall was lost amongst vengeance and hatred. His hands and knees were scraped and bleeding, and his new uniform was torn. It didn't matter, he hated it anway.
There was a waterfall just behind, pouring gently into a small pool. His feet had brought him instinctively to this place of serenity, a place he came to for what comfort it could offer…
A fit of coughing wracked his lungs – he sank down on his haunches, resting his head against the tree.
"Fuck all of them," he whispered.
…They're beasts in human form, feasting off the blood of others, uncontrollable, mad, insane…
And you belong with them… They who can only find satisfaction at the taste of blood…
His laughter was harsh and self directed as it echoed in the shadows, the throaty call of a nocturne predator. He undressed and stepped into the pool, bathing himself in the water, strangely warm during the night. The water was pure, clean, and he tried to cleanse himself of his – crime. He sat on a rock, the water lapping at his chest, and hugged his knees.
"Yuki…" a moan, tender and melancholic. Then, softer, lower, drawn out in a hiss of desire and abhorrence, "Kaname……"
Again, with that same trembling intensity, in sync with an exhalation, "Kaname…"
"Hungry again, are you?"
Zero scrambled to his feet, eyes turned to the waterfall, water trickling down his body. "Show yourself! " he wanted to say, but his throat made no sound.
"How long has it been since your last meal…one week? Two?"
Zero squinted into the darkness.
"Have you been behaving yourself since then, Kiryuu?" this last statement seemed to slice its way around his neck. Zero wheeled around, and the top of his head nearly clipped someone's chin. He moved back, farther from the edge of the pool.
The pureblood stepped past him, shedding the shirt and pants. He walked to the waterfall and stopped at its edge, sluicing his hair with water till it became like a wave of ebony fringing his smooth features.
"The last time we spoke, you agreed to abide our rules."
A barely human snarl.
"That was then, Kaname. This is now."
The pureblood moved so quickly he was a blur in Zero's sight, until Zero was pinned to the rough wall of the pool, rock scraping against his bare back and legs, hands clamped above his head.
"Yes…this is now."
Zero was painfully aware of the compromising position they were in – Kaname's bare skin was inches from his, the intrusion into personal space was highly unsettling; the sharp rock wall behind – but he drew his head back and spat, putting all his disdain and disgust in that action.
"Release me!" he growled.
"And let you continue to step out of line? A mere mockery of humanity above my rules, when all other vampires are beneath it?" his voice was hard as granite, his grip strong as steel. Zero was shoved upwards roughly.
The boy yelled as the jagged rock edges cut and tore into his back, leaving dreadful gashes that left their blood trickling down the sides of the waterfall. He tried to bring his knees up, but in vain - they were captive between Kaname's body and the rock wall.
"You dare defy me, Kiryuu? Here, now…on full moon of the seventh month?"
The blood of the vampire is most potent on the seventh night of the seventh month, when the influence of the moon is at its zenith, when the silver light of the heavens swallows the stars and falls on the night's favoured race…
…When the power of the pureblood rises as the tide of a sea, implacable and inexorable…
The clouds cleared, the moon shone through…the silvery moonlight illuminated what Zero could not see in the darkness before. He struggled to maintain his composure; this was a new feeling, far from bloodlust … it was some other baser instinct.
Kaname's eyes were the colour of molten rubies, his hair like gossamer strands of obsidian; white skin stretched like porcelain over his collarbones. Even through a haze of pain, Zero's eyes swept over the fine contours of his chiseled form, an alabaster statue of a warrior.
"Your bloodscent spreads through the air, bearing your name, the desire of every vampire tonight…one word from me, and you would be as rat amongst owls, shredded apart, from skin to bone!"
Kaname bit into every word, enunciating each syllable with a vicious clarity that made unspeakable desires rise unbidden to Zero's consciousness. He writhed against the rock and clenched his trapped fists, fighting the surging vampirism and madness in him, sharpening his senses, arousing his instincts…
"So this is how you command the loyalty of the vampires – with threats of butchery and bloodshed!" it was barely coherent, almost a rant, forced through teeth that grit so hard, his jaws hurt.
Kaname released Zero suddenly, and the human dropped back down, howling as the rocks tore into his back again, this time in a different direction.
"Fear is a useful weapon," Kaname conceded coolly.
"Though there are some which are more effective."
Zero was trapped on both sides by Kaname's arms, and the proximity was driving him up the wall. It was a strange sensation, to have cool water swirling around your waist, and to feel unbearable warmth from your navel upward, a sensation that was due to one's own feelings.
"I know what you want," he growled.
"Really…what is that?" Kaname asked, a predatory glance deliberately dropping over Zero's body like a silken robe. He could see the reddening hue of the boy's face as clearly as the need in his eyes.
"Don't be a fool! Don't think I didn't see it – Shizuka Hiou, mad as she was, feasting on the blood of my parents draining them till they were merely dry husks of flesh and bone – and then Ichiru, young as he was, she spared his life, but should have taken it instead – and I –" Zero swallowed.
Kaname lifted an arrogant black brow.
"You are … very perceptive…"
A hand slipped over Zero's hips, moved up slowly, sliding over the lean torso.
"And much...too…bold…"
The whisper was near his ear, the warm breath with a hint of wine, too close to his neck for comfort. Zero shuddered involuntarily.
Zero could find no retort as the hands raked his back, threatening to further injure the already raw skin. His head was tilted upwards, his breath coming in pants, the puffs of air misting in the cool air, then diffusing as rapidly as his sanity.
"Turn around," Kaname ordered.
Zero stiffened and hissed, every muscle in his body pulled as taut as a bowstring.
Every movement waged war against his sense of pride, but he still turned and faced the wall.
Eyes shut, Zero felt the sharp grains of rock beneath his fingers; the fine spray of the waterfall landed on his open wounds. He was no stranger to injury, but his squirming was not due to pain.
For a time those were the only sensations he felt. Then he felt fingers sliding down his back, sometimes soothing and soft against his wounds, other times cool and cruel, clawing teasingly at the open gashes.
Kaname played Zero like musician does an instrument, each touch earning an agonized gasp, every slight lift of his fingers receiving a lilting moan; and when he was done, Zero was no longer bleeding.
He stepped away, and Zero, feeling the loss of warmth at his back, whirled around.
"You – " the words died, unable to phrase his disgraceful thoughts.
A slow, langorous smile graced the lips of the pureblood.
"I?"
Speechless. Furious. Kaname turned to leave.
"Take what you want!"
Spoken in desperation, the words were stricken with shame and guilt.
Kaname grabbed the sodden silver bangs and yanked Zero forward, who crashed to his knees and cried out. He dragged Zero towards him, and the boy gasped when more than a few hairs parted from his scalp.
"Your naivete is astounding." A brutal tug and another wince.
"You imagine that I want you…"
Zero looked up, the wild passion simmering in his eyes.
"This exquisite body of yours, carefully though you may guard it, I can have…anytime I want…"
He bent close, drawing his teeth against Zero's, rubbing his fangs over the boy's pale lips. The slight touch was like cool honey on fevered skin; Zero's lips parted eagerly, tilting his head, leaning forward.
Kaname pulled back just as Zero's mouth met his, and Zero fell forward unsupported, catching himself on his hands with a groan.
The pureblood tossed his wet locks and gave a husky chuckle. His hand's left Zero's hair, and he sloshed back to the shore, feeling Zero's gaze on his back.
"Kaname!"
Kaname ignored it.
There was splashing as Zero got to his feet and caught up with him.
"Don't leave me here! Finish what you started!"
Kaname gave Zero a cursory glance.
"I already have."
There was a confused silence.
"Loyalty, from one such as you, is a rare thing…" they stepped out of the water.
"…But, there are a few effective, albeit unorthodox ways of gaining devotion…as you, Zero, have so admirably demonstrated."
Kaname pulled on his clothes, then he was gone with a smirk, knowing that behind, Zero was standing with his head slightly down, brows furrowed in turmoil, and eyes filled with hurt.
END
According to the Chinese ( and Japanese, I think ) Lunar calendar, the seventh month is the "month of the hungry ghosts", when spirits are said to reawaken and roam amongst the living; I just borrowed the idea and used it for vampires!
Again, should I continue? Please review and give me your thoughts! Constructive criticism is always welcome, and it also encourages me to continue. Thank you!