Blood Secrets

Prologue

The room was dark. And…well, just dark. I couldn't believe that we were here to kill someone. The fact that it was Asato Ichijo, one of the highest ranking vampires on the council, just made things worse.

And why was I here again? Oh. Right. Because father had disagreed with the old man on so many subjects that he and mother had seen fit to kill Asato. Of course. Why else could I possibly be standing in the huge council room in front of a giant window behind which the moon was hidden by clouds? It made perfect sense.

"Kanji," I turned and saw mother standing there, her eyes glowing bright red. "You understand that once the fighting starts, you must hide, yes?"

I nodded and looked out the window again. "I still don't see why we're going to kill him."

"You know why," she said, walking to my side. "Your father and I had gotten fed up with Asato's ideas. He wouldn't listen to us about important issues—the world will be better off without the stubborn old man."

"And besides," Suzuki, my older brother, stepped out of the doorway. "Don't you want things to go our way?"

I sighed. "I do, but…don't you think killing him is a bit…rash?"

"It must be done," father said, walking into the room after Suzuki. "The vampire community will be better off when he's dead."

I just looked back out the window at the dark sky. I understood why they wanted to kill him; many thought that Asato's ideas were old and needed replacing. He still stubbornly stuck with the old ways; purebloods ruled over all the other vampires; Level Es were to be killed instantly; we hid from hunters and killed humans for food….

But so much has changed now that it's impossible to stay that way. Purebloods are few, and there are only a few true, pure bloodlines left. Due to treaties, most of us could freely expose ourselves to hunters without being afraid of them, as long as we behaved while in their presence. And humans…humans were hardly a food source anymore.

And father wanted things to continue moving forward. He didn't want our family to be in charge of the vampires just because of our perfect bloodline. He didn't believe that vampires that had fallen to Level E should be killed—because he still sees ways in which to save them and bring them back up from insanity.

But no, the council refuses to listen on account of Asato's stubborn arguing. So here we were now, in a cold, dark room, waiting for the old man to come in to prepare for yet another speech he had to give to the council.

"Kanji," Suzuki came to my side. "Do you really think this is going to work?"

I just shrugged. "I don't know."

"Lier."

I sighed. That was Suzuki's power—the ability to automatically tell lie from truth. While I could shape shift and use the power of illusion, he could sense a fib before it even left your mouth.

"I know," I said. "But you really want my honest opinion? I don't think it's going to work. The entire council will come after us if we kill him—it would be better if we left him alive."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I see your point…but what would happen if we didn't kill him, hm? Nothing would go the way father planned."

"I--" I was cut off by the door creaking open. Before us stood Asato Ichijo, his beard graying and his pale face creased by lines.

"Tsuyosa-sama," he said, narrowing his eyes. "What brings you and your family here?"

He looked over each of us, calculating our every move. He knew what was going to come.

"We have been arguing over these issues for far too long, Asato." Father said, walking around in front of the old man. "And I think we both know what's best for the vampire world."

"We may," he looked father squarely in the eye. "But I think I have a better grasp on what can actually help the world, Tsuyosa Haotomi."

"Is that so? Are you sure about that?"

"Utterly positive."

Father growled, his eyes bright red. "Enough!" he snarled.

Mother stalked silently around behind Asato, prepared to literally rip his head from his shoulders. I could see it in her eyes; she would go as far as she had to in order to make the council see her and father's views on the current issues.

"Are you really going to kill me, Kirei?" Asato asked, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

She hesitated. "I will if I have to."

"Then go ahead; I'd like to see you try. Besides, it's considered an honor to be killed by the purest family in the vampire world."

She growled and shook her head before jumping at him, fangs showing and fingernails like claws. She would have been in the perfect position to swipe his head off his shoulders if he hadn't moved.

At the very last possible second, he dodged to the side. It was like he was no longer old and had suddenly been restored to his former youth. It was hard to believe that an old man like him could move so quickly.

I watched as the three of them fought and backed up silently against the wall. Blood poured out of a gash in Asato's throat and I was convinced he would go down soon. He had to. There was absolutely no way he could survive much longer with a wound as deep as that.

"So this was your plan, eh?" he panted as my parents circled him. "Kill me so that you can have your way. I see how it is."

"We know best, Asato. And you just wouldn't listen." Father said. He licked blood off of his hand.

Suzuki frowned. I glanced up at him but his face wasn't readable. He had sensed a lie, I could tell, but whose was it? At this point I could believe that any of the fighting three were lying their heads off. And lying just isn't something you do around my brother.

I was going to ask him about it when the door creaked open. And as if my heart wasn't pounding hard enough already, it sped up.

Half of the council was there, carrying paperwork and whatnot. They froze and looked at the execution about to take place in front of them.

"What--?" one of the old vampires began to ask.

"Tsuyosa-sama?" another asked, his eyes wide behind his glasses. "How—but why?"

Father leaned back on his heels. "Yes, I know. You're all appalled. I understand—you're going to banish us now."

"What? No, we can't! You're a pureblood…but still, what are you doing to Asato?"

"He would not see things from our point of view," father said. "Things are better off without him."

"Well, you can't kill him!" one of the senior council members snarled, pushing his way through the small crowd. "I don't believe this…have you given any thought to the consequences of your actions? You know the punishment for attempted murder."

"Yes," Mother said quietly.

Banishment.

"Although we cannot banish you on account of your bloodline, we can still--"

"No. You have made your intentions clear enough. We will leave." Father started walking towards the door a few yards away from me. His voice was full of regret.

"Tsuyosa," mother ran after him, her eyes full of concern.

"You realize that you will be erased from all of our records, yes?" the old vampire asked as the council swarmed around Asato.

"I understand. Good bye." Father said as he walked away without turning back. The vampire that had spoken second looked like he would run after us as Suzuki grabbed my hand and led me out through the door.

As we passed people running towards the smell of blood, Suzuki kept his eyes down.

"Who was lying?" I asked.

"Everyone. Father, the council…everyone. They were going to banish us anyway and Father has doubts about everything."

"What's going to happen now?" images of us surviving on the street flashed through my head. But that was stupid—we would find suitable living quarters somewhere.

Somewhere. What if we had to leave Japan altogether? What if we never found a good place to live? What if…what if the council sent hunters after us? Then what?

"I don't know, Kanji." Suzuki said. "I just really don't know."

Three Years Later

"Suzuki, what's going on?" I ran into the room to find him standing there by the window, watching something.

"They're coming," he said.

I ran to his side and saw a group of five or more hunters standing there, looking up at the mansion. I shrank back as I noticed exactly who they were: the Kiryu family, one of the most respected families of hunters in the world. And there with them was Toga Yagari, a patch over one eye.

"Suzuki, let's go." I grabbed his sleeve and after a moment he turned from the window and followed me.

We were almost to the door when it swung open and we faced my father, his eyes frantic.

"We need to run," he said, ushering us out the door. "And hide in the forest. They won't be able to find us; they're only humans."

We ran down the ornate hallway and down the back stairway hidden by a huge portrait of my grandfather's prized Hellhound. Out the back door we went, into the snowy forest.

"Now split up," he ordered. "It's the only way we can be sure they won't find us. Things are easier alone."

"Lier," Suzuki muttered as he ran in the opposite direction from us. He had the unfortunate habit of declaring whether or not someone was lying every chance he got.

Father simply melted into the shadows of the trees, leaving me completely alone. The sharp wind blew through the trees, knocking the branches together. The moon was bright in the sky, sending light down and reflecting it off the snow.

I closed my eyes and thought. Where would be the best place to hide? Someplace the humans wouldn't think a vampire would go, somewhere airy…a tree. That was it. I would climb a tree.

The wind was striking everything as I clambered up into the branches of a nearby tree, hoping that I could use my power to blend in with everything. I was too weak for shape shifting—illusion was all I had.

I looked down and realized that my footprints stood out horribly in the snow and silently cursed myself. Stupid, stupid…I should have known better. Now there was no way they wouldn't find me. It was like being a ghost in a psychic convention. I would stick out like a sore thumb the moment they realized I was in the tree.

My heart was pounding so loud I was sure someone would hear it. Everything was quiet—too quiet. A creeping sensation rose up my spine and I peered down through the branches, searching for someone. There just had to be someone there, and the wind was carrying their scent off the opposite direction from me. That had to be it.

Sure enough, there was someone there. I narrowed my eyes as I watched him lean down to inspect my footprints. Anger boiled up inside me. How dare he trespass onto our land and then try to kill us?

I growled and prepared myself to jump down at him. He was my age, with silver hair and a dark coat on. He was being trained to become a killer.

I sucked in a breath and jumped, ready to fight him if I had to.

Zero's P.O.V.

I leaned down, inspecting the leech's footprint. It was maybe a bit smaller than mine—which meant it was not only a vampire, but a child. Vampire children have the nasty habit of sucking the life out of you.

I heard something stirring in the branches above me and looked up only to see something land in front of me. It snarled and tried to attack me, its eyes blazing red.

I didn't have time to think as I dodged and blocked the attacks. All I knew was that a vampire was planning on killing me—and it was doing a good job of attempting to do so.

"Filthy leech," I snarled as I dodged a punch.

"Ugh!" it stepped back and I could see that it was a girl my age, with bright blue hair, wearing expensive clothes. "Don't say that! Don't you know that we 'leeches' are people too?"

I narrowed my eyes. "You're just hopeless parasites. Nothing more. You need other creatures to survive—and you do so by draining them of blood. Disgusting."

She growled. "Look at me! Do I look like a parasite to you? No. I look like a human-- only better. So yeah, I drink blood, but you would too if you were in my position."

She was really getting on my nerves. I wanted to just kill her now—but something made me hold back. I wanted to kill her, but couldn't. Every muscle in my body was for attacking her now as she stood still, yet I couldn't bring myself to do so.

I mentally screamed at myself. I was being stupid and letting myself think about it for too long. She was a vampire, and therefore must be killed. I was a hunter, and I was going to do my job by killing her.

But I just couldn't. When I looked at her, some part of me denied the fact that she drank blood to survive and was virtually a parasite. She did look like a human—they all did—and I had to admit, she was pretty. But she was a vampire—a disgusting leech.

I shook my head and looked back at her. I could just let her run and say that she got away—but then Yagari would know I was lying.

"What are you waiting for?" she yelled. "Aren't you going to kill me?"

I turned away and gritted my teeth. "Just go," I growled.

She was quiet for a minute before she said defiantly, "No."

I looked at her. "What? I'm letting you go. You can run and I won't come after you."

She shook her head and stepped toward me. "No. I want to kill you. You came onto my family's land and threatened us. I'm going to kill you."

But she didn't move; she only watched me warily. Maybe she was having the same internal argument that I was, or maybe she was just waiting to see what I would do. Either way, she didn't look like she was going to murder me.

"Who are you?" she asked finally.

I don't know why, but I answered her as if she were human. "Zero Kiryu."

"Why are you hunting us?"

"As if I would know. Why are you talking to me like this? I thought you were intent on killing me."

"Killing you won't get me very far, now would it?"

"You would know," I said. Of course I knew the Haotomi family history of attempting to kill Asato Takuma.

She just sighed when I thought she would hurt me. "I know. But really, what have we done wrong?"

"You are banished purebloods that are no longer active in the vampire community. I don't know more than that. Why do you care? Aren't you just going to try to kill the rest of us anyway?"

She shook her head slowly and sat on a rock a few feet away. She was weird alright. "I'm Kanji."

I just nodded. Why were we having this conversation? I should have killed her when I had the chance.

"You're different from the other hunters," she said. "It seems like you can actually go through though processes."

I stiffened. "The others aren't stupid."

She just smiled slightly. "They kill innocent people just for being different. It's like genocide, really."

"No it's not!" I argued. She was making my temper flare. "We kill for a reason—you vampires are threats to people. You need to be wiped out."

"And yet here we are, having a civil conversation, neither of us trying to kill anyone. Ironic, isn't it?"

I opened my mouth to talk and closed it again. She had a good point—she seemed like she was actually an interesting person.

No—they're not people. I thought. They're just parasites. Don't talk to her.

But I had to talk with her. It seemed like there was already a friendship between us. As stupid as it was, I had actually taken an interest in a vampire. But everything I had been taught went against this—vampires were evil, bloodsucking creatures, not things you could talk to like normal people.

And yet I had to keep talking with her.

"What's it like being a vampire?" I asked.

She looked down. "Nothing special."

"But it is," I said. "All the vampires look up to purebloods, don't they?"

"Oh, so they did teach you a bit, did they?" she asked almost hopefully.

"Of course they did. We're not as stupid as you think."

"Well, neither are vampires, so we're even." Her eyes went slightly out of focus for a moment as she was lost in thought. She turned back to me again and started talking.

And talking.

And talking.

And chattering aimlessly on about how things were when they lived with other vampires.

And talking about how things were now that they had banished themselves, with only their team of servants to talk to.

She talked all about her family and their proud history of being warlords and the purest family in all of vampire kind, and about their Hellhound breeding.

"But we unleashed all the dogs when we were banished," she said regretfully.

I stared at her. "You're saying that there are Hellhounds running loose? Are you insane? They could hurt people!"

"No, they won't. They stay to themselves; that's why you've never seen them before." She said.

"Oh. Right. Of course."

Kanji

I was actually talking to a human—and enjoying myself. He was listening to everything I said. While part of me kept thinking that he was going to betray us all and tell the hunters all I had explained to him, a bigger part yearned for a friend my age. Suzuki didn't count—he was my brother.

But Zero was really acting like a friend. He was listening (or at least pretending to) and actually taking it all in. Maybe I could trust him.

When the sun started peeking over the trees on the horizon and we hadn't seen any of the other hunters, he decided he had to go. I didn't want him to leave, not after I had just begun explaining the fundamentals of keeping a Level D vampire from falling to a Level E, but he had to and I understood.

"We're going to be staying here for a week or as long as it takes to kill you all," he said with a smile. "I'll find you back here at night."

"Okay," I said as I watched him walk away into the trees. When I could no longer see or smell him, I turned and went back to the mansion.

Suzuki was waiting just inside the back door. The second I walked through, he pulled me to the side and glared at me.

"Where were you?" he snarled. "We thought they had caught you and—what is that smell?" he wrinkled his nose. "You smell like a human. Why do you smell like a human?"

"Nothing," I tried to walk away but his grip was iron.

"Lier!" he snapped.

"Suzuki, let me go!" I ordered.

His eyes flashed red. "Not until you tell me. Where were you?"

"Nowhere."

"Lier."

"Suzuki--"

He growled and tightened his grip. "Tell me."

"Okay, fine! But you can't tell anyone."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"I was with Zero Kiryu--"

"What?"

"—and we were talking for a while and he's really not that bad--"

"Have you gone insane?" he asked, releasing my arm in shock. "He's a hunter!"

"I know, but he's actually kind of cool and--"

"Kanji!" I was practically tackled by my mother as she ran to hug me. "We didn't know where you were and I feared the worst, but now you're here…."

For the rest of the week, Zero and I met at the same spot every night. He revealed more about himself to me and we definitely became friends. I still had my doubts, and there was no way I was ready to trust anyone other than him, but things were starting to look slightly better in the world.

After he and the rest of the hunters left without successfully killing any of us, I was once again thrown into isolation from the rest of the world. He promised that I would see him again, but I didn't think I ever would. After all, I was doomed to be stuck in this mansion forever, cut off from the rest of the world for all eternity or until I died.