~ Chapter 1 ~

Zero sat by his desk at the Hunter's Association. He had a stack of papers that needed to be sorted and signed. He hated paperwork with a passion and it was the only thing he and his fellow hunter in training, Kaito Takamiya, could agree on. It had been long nights the last couple of weeks with missions almost every night. He felt exhausted and on top of it all, his thirst gnawed at him. This only happened on rare occasions or when he'd over worked himself. Zero believed that it was the Association's cruel way of trying to force him to cave in to the thirst. Get missions complete and rid a torn in their side. They wanted him to fail so that they would have a reason to kick him out of the hunter clan. Too bad for them that Zero had yet to fail or fall to level E.

Something that was in Zero's favor was that his shishou, Toga Yagari, had great influence since he was on of the top hunters. He was ruthless in his training of aspiring hunters, but he always believed in Zero. Without Yagari he wouldn't be sitting here in his office as an almost graduated hunter. He was currently the best apprentice and was predicted to follow his shishou's footsteps. Kaito wasn't far behind, though his temper and too rapid decisions was something that he had to work on before succeeding Zero. It irritated Kaito to no end that a hunter that also was a vampire, was better than him in slaying 'bloodsuckers' as he so mildly expressed it.

Zero had been turned on a dark night when his whole family had been slaughtered by a pureblood in an act of revenge for her hunted down mate. Ichiru, his beloved twin, had been weak since birth and died instantly. Their parents fought bravely against the pureblood, but met the same fate as his brother. The pureblood had been fatally injured and left Zero behind with a bite mark on his neck. The attack hadn't got unnoticed and soon Zero was found by Yagari and his hunter partner Kaien Cross. Everyone knew what had happened and had looked at Zero with sad eyes whenever he came into a room. They pitied him. The pity had driven Zero to work hard to become accepted by the hunter clan. Despite his hard work trough out the years there still were many people who didn't approve of him being a hunter. It was a struggle, but a struggle he was used to. Zero traced the tattoo on his neck that sealed the bite and decided to take a few artificial blood pills. They tasted like crap and sometimes he couldn't keep them down. He needed rest and he would get better, not that the Association would give him that. A presence outside his door drew his attention from his paper work and he looked up just as his door swung open. The small dagger thrown his way was caught easily and thrown back to embed into the wood beside his visitors head.

"Nice try, shishou." Zero said while surveying Yagari.

"I expect nothing less of you." The man said coolly and then closed the door. He pulled out the knife from the wall and replaced it in his heavy coat.

"New orders?" Zero wondered. Yagari never visited without a purpose.

"A meeting actually."

"About?"

"They didn't say, classified information."

"Something big then." Zero sighed.

"Yeah, it's tomorrow morning so I suggest you rest before that. Your bloodlust is overwhelming."

Zero looked away, embarrassed that his shishou had managed to find out so easily even though he tried to suppress it. "I know." He said.

"You have it in check, right?"

"Yes." Zero held up his case of blood tablets and Toga nodded.

"I have to go. Don't be late tomorrow."

The young hunter wasn't done with the reports until late evening and his coffee had been finished several reports ago. He had a hard time to keep his eyes open and still had the travel home before he could get his well deserved rest. You could have a sleeping quarter at the Association, but it wasn't optional for Zero since he was a vampire. He wouldn't get any rest and his fellow hunters wouldn't either when they could sense a vampire within. Putting up charms everywhere is such a hassle too. His Spartan apartment on the third floor did have a spell cast over it though to help with suppressing his hunter aura so that other vampires wouldn't pay him a visit while sleeping. That was easier than doing the opposite.

The Association was stationed in the outskirts, mostly to not drag too much attention from humans and Zero didn't have a car at the moment. His low apprentice pay could only afford necessities. He usually ran on his way to the Association and sometimes on the way home depending on the hour and how exhausted he was. This night he couldn't muster that energy, Zero walked briskly down the road towards the small town he lived in.

When he got home he toed of his hunter boots and hung his coat on the single pegged rack. Zero found some scraps in his fridge that he wolfed down before he walked in to the bathroom to take a shower. He almost squeaked when the frigid water hit his back, the old pipes always took forever to bring the hot water up to his apartment. When the warm water did pour out from the shower head, he sighed in bliss. Zero washed his hair and then his body, he was tempted to just stand and soak in the warm spray but he knew his neighbor already hated him for showering this late. His towel was snatched quickly to not lose any of that precious heat. Fed and washed, Zero fell in bed and fell asleep the moment his head touched his lumpy pillow.

Apparently he had been more exhausted than he had thought. He woke with a startle as the sun abused his sleeping face. The blinds had been forgotten in his haste yesterday, this was the reason that they always where down. Wait…sun? Zero sat up in his bed in alarm. He'd over slept. On a day he really can't oversleep on. Shishou is going to kill me, he thought. If the president don't get to it first. He sprung out of bed and threw on his clothes and hopped that he took a clean shirt as he had no time to check, then he remembered that he hadn't done any laundry in a while. Damn it.

Zero ran on the familiar road while he cursed over the distance he had between his home and the Association. This wasn't the first time he found himself rushing. It wouldn't be the last either for sure. Fortunately his excellent stamina and cardio brought him to the Association as quick as possible. When he stopped by the big wooden gate doors, his chest was heaving for air and sweat trickled down his brow. He swept it away with his forearm and walked inside.

Begging his heart to calm from the run, Zero walked up the stairs to find the conference room that they would be in. He had to walk calmly to not drag any attention from other hunters that he was late. His pride wouldn't take it. While roaming around in the halls, he realized that his shishou never told him what room they were supposed to meet in. He had to walk back to the big bulletin board in the entrance to see if they had announced it there. Why he hadn't looked there from the beginning made him want to bang his head against a wall. His eyes searched for the paper with the room bookings and found it. A finger searched for something to indicate that it would be the room he was supposed to be in. 28-B, booked by Touga Yagari. YES. Zero hurriedly made his way towards the room and paused outside the door. He knocked on the closed door and took a deep breath before he walked inside…only to be met with an empty room. Were the hell where they?

"Oh Kiryuu, what are you doing here?" A fellow hunter said behind him.

"I was supposed to attend a meeting here. Shishou booked it."

"Uhm, I saw master Yagari walk in 32-C recently."

"My mistake." Zero said and threw himself out.

He repeated the procedure and walked inside at the president's confirmation to do so. The calm conversation held by the patrons sitting by the long table in the room died down and he got a hard stare from the president. The others weren't any worse and did the same.

"Sorry for my lateness." Zero said disgustingly polite, not that it mattered, but for manners sake.

There was one empty seat left beside his shishou which he took. Yagari didn't say anything, but Zero could tell that he wasn't happy. The meeting continued as if nothing had happened and left Zero to pick up the bits and pieces and tie them together. They hadn't gotten far from what he understood.

"…and to the main reason for this meeting. The Association has gotten the privilege to act as security surveillance for the vampire prince." The president said seriously and the room got very quiet. "This is only temporary until after the coronation of the prince." Zero gritted his teeth; there was no way that he would partake in this ridiculousness. They, guarding the prince? He could use his own bloody guards and not use their resources; the Association was busy as it was already. He folded his arms across his chest in protest.

"Yagari, you will organize the operation together with hunters of your choice. All of you in this meeting will be at the site. No exceptions." Zero found himself being stared at by the president and he glared back with all his might, but got met with a smug smirk. "This mission is ordered by the prince and we will be compensated for it. Immensely. Our future reputation depends on the outcome of this mission. I know many of you couldn't care less if the future king where to perish but it would cause too much ripples in the world right now. We aren't prepared for such."

"Mr. President with all due respect, won't our other missions be disturbed by this? If all the good hunters are concentrating on the prince alone, wouldn't our defenses get weakened?" A hunter across the table said. He had a good point, Zero agreed in his head. A few in the room made supportive sounds.

"The prince will only require escort outside the castle walls and on the coronation day itself. His own men will deal with safety indoors. You will be able to continue with your regular missions when our attention isn't needed. If there are no further questions, this will end our meeting. Yagari, you will get all the information at a later hour."

The older hunter nodded and rose with the rest of the participants. Zero rose too but was quickly stopped. "Kiryuu, I want a word with you before you go." The president said icily. The room emptied quickly and when the door closed, the president turned his attention towards Zero who had sat down. "You were late…again and you look like something the cat dragged in. Where's your pride as a hunter? Has it totally been eradicated by that filthy vampire inside of you?"

"No, Mr. President." Zero answered with clenched teeth. He did everything he was asked to without any loud complaints. Hell, he even did more work and missions than most hunters at the Association, but apparently that wasn't enough. It would never be enough.

"You're lucky that you are a Kiryuu and that Yagari speaks well of you. At the moment you are valuable, but the second you aren't I'll banish you. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, loud and clear. Are we done?"

"You're dismissed."

Zero rose and walked out from the conference room. Outside his shishou stood across the hall, leaning against a wall and waited for him. In his mouth was an unlit cigarette which he rolled between his lips.

"Shooting range training in ten minutes. Kaito is already there." Yagari said and moved away from the wall going in the direction towards the range.

Zero blinked; surprised that he hadn't gotten chewed out for being late. Being in a room by himself with the president had probably deemed to be enough by his shishou. He went to the bathroom before taking the elevator down to the basement. Because off his late departure from his apartment, he hadn't even gotten the chance to relieve himself. He had wanted to pee for a long time by now. After he washed his hands, Zero cleaned his face and tried to tame his bed hair. Since he had been sleeping with his hair wet, it was a crazy mess. His stomach screamed after breakfast so he took a few blood pills. The chalky taste almost made him gag them up, but he drank a lot of water to get them down. He usually took them with coffee in the mornings to get rid of the taste.

Straightened out, Zero went to the shooting range. The old elevator brought him deep to the building's basement. When he stepped out of it, he immediately drew his gun as he sensed someone doing the same at him.

"Kaito." Yagari said in a deep voice.

"What, I sensed a vampire." Kaito shrugged nonchalantly but didn't lower his gun.

"Cut the crap Kaito." Zero said irritably.

"Both of you, shut up." Yagari growled.

The lowered their guns simultaneously, taking their sensei's words seriously. Zero really wanted to retaliate with 'Kaito started it', but decided against it. His shishou looked to be just as annoyed by the mission as he was. The president had given him all the responsibility for it and probably hadn't asked before doing it in front of everyone.

Zero walked to one of the other shooting booths and changed the antivampire bullets in his weapon to regular ones. He then pressed on the button to the automatic line that held the scoreboard paper. With a new fastened in the clip, it was moved back to the end of the range. He the noticed what Kaito had done to his while he had waited. He'd painted something resembling a vampire, fangs and all. He chose to not comment about it, it would only use as an argument starter anyway. Set up to train his aim, Zero put on the hearing protection and waited for his shishou's sign to start shooting. Though it didn't come, instead Yagari ripped the protection off and threw it away.

"What have I said about these?" He chastised.

"That we shouldn't wear them to not get surprised by the noise in field." Kaito answered, making Zero glare at him.

"My ears are sensitive! It's not you who have to spend the rest of the day wearing off a headache."

"My reason still stands. No protective gear for ears."

"No wonder half the Association is full of deaf, grumpy geezers." Zero mumbled and earned a chuckle from Kaito. It was custom to shield the ears from the noise in practice since nearly all experienced hunters in most cases experienced lost hearing after a long life in the field. Though Zero being a vampire, his ear drum would heal itself if that ever happened. No one knew what shooting could do to a vampire's hearing in the long run (he was after all the first hunter vampire) so he wasn't off the hook completely.

"Make yourself ready, thirty seconds standing and thirty lying down. Looser pays my lunch."

The bell rang and they started to shoot. Thirty seconds went by fast and quickly the hidden targets popped up close to the floor, both went down and started shooting at them. Zero exchanged his clip while changing his position. Each target that he hit fell down and another popped up on a different location to test their ability to change their attention. The ringing started again, indicating that the one minute was up. Zero leaned his forehead against the cold, dirty floor and grasped his head. Damn noise.

Yagari counted the hits and signed their points on their progression sheet. "Get up from the floor stupid apprentice." He said. Zero did as told and joined Kaito to wait for the results. "You're the lucky one this time Kaito," The young apprentice exclaimed a sound of victory. "You get to pay my lunch." The look on Kaito's face was priceless. Zero did his best to not laugh at the poor guy.

"That can't be right!" Kaito objected.

"Zero got one more hit than you, better luck next time kid."

They ended up in the cafeteria where most meals were served for those who lived at the Association. Kaito and Yagari did for simplicities sake. You never had a day off per se as a hunter; the work volume depended on the outer world and the level E's. It had been a while since Zero had had a proper meal and there was a lot to choose from on the menu board. He took a bowl of ramen, his favorite and a coffee. Kaito had to open his wallet when Yagari took one of the more expensive meals. Zero was glad that it wasn't his bad luck to treat their shishou. As usual he got a lot of stares from other hunters as he made his way through the sitting area to find an empty table. He was used to it by now and chose to ignore. They wasn't worth it.

Their meals where eaten in silence, Kaito was probably annoyed that he had spent a good amount of his money on another to bother and start a conversation. Their shishou on the other hand, ate away in an odd happy way only their grumpy sensei could express. The ramen was good actually and Zero wished he could have another bowl of it. He settled to drink his coffee instead. Since he was having coffee, he took the opportunity to take a blood pill. It was taken discreetly. Unknowledgeable hunters could mistake it for him being thirsty and dangerous. Kaito did notice and looked away when their eyes met. They never really spoke about him being a vampire besides when Kaito brought it up just to rile him. His comrade had been reluctant to be taken under Yagari's wing when he'd heard that Zero was his apprentice. Though, the thought of being taught by one of the best hunters had in the end won and Kaito somehow came to accept Zero…. he tried at least.

A sharp elbow colliding with his head brought him out of his musings. Zero turned his head to the right to see who had hit him. It was a pair of hunters that probably had done it whilst walking past him. He had two choices, either ignore it or confront them. Ignoring would mean that they seemed stronger than him and we can't have that, can we?

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" He said loudly.

"What does it look like?" One of the men answered.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Zero hissed and stood. The group came back and they stood face to face.

"That you can't dodge properly? What kind of hunter are you?" The man smirked.

Of course he didn't think of dodging when he sat as relaxed as he could get in the presence of his own kind.

"But we all know the answer to that question, don't we?" The rest of the group laughed quietly.

Zero grabbed the collar of the man's shirt and pulled him closer. Just as he was going to open his mouth, a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"He's not worth it Zero." It was his shishou that had moved to stand behind him. Then a clearing of a throat made him let go completely.

"Mr. President." Everyone said in greeting. The group bowed slightly but Yagari and Zero stood as they were.

"Problems?"

"Not anymore." Yagari reassured. "Right, boys?" The group moved away quickly to carry on with whatever they was supposed to be doing.

"We got an urgent mission for you to carry out. Here are the orders. You will move out as soon as you're ready. It needs to be finished before tomorrow morning." The president's outstretched hand held an envelope with the Association insignia.

Geared up and ready for their mission, Yagari and his apprentices headed out. They were supposed to track a group of level E's that had slaughtered a family. Rumors told that they still hid in the neighborhood and was out for more. Kaito was pumped up as usual; Zero on the other hand still had his mind on the cafeteria incident. It had been awhile since someone actually dared to confront him. They were only lucky that the president had come at the right moment. If it meant protecting his pride, to be charged of assaulting a fellow hunter would be worth it even if his apprentice period would be prolonged. He wouldn't let anyone dare say other about his loyalty as a hunter.

"Step up your game Zero. Distraction isn't what you need right now." Yagari reprimanded while they swept the streets.

They came to a stop when the streets divided into two. Protocol said that as apprentices they had to stay with their sensei during a mission, though they had in minor ones done exceptions. This mission wasn't a minor one.

"Zero, Kaito since you almost have completed your apprenticeship I trust that you will be able to work as a pair, without my help."

"Sensei, are you sure?" Kaito said. "We haven't done something this big alone."

"Che, if you can't do it at this stage then you two shouldn't be certified at all."

Yagari was right and they split apart hoping to find what they were hunting. They could handle themselves… or so they thought.

To be continued…