Once Bitten
Part II
Prowl
...
She wasn't entirely sure if she could trust him.
Frankly, she didn't trust men in general, due to her own personal list of issues with her father. That was part of the reason she was in this mess in the first place - she hadn't trusted her Vice President enough, or Yukimura, or any of the other men on her squad, despite how hard they worked to please her. And she'd never put her female friends in any sort of danger, so sending Sakura or Shizuko was completely out of the question... actually, no, that wasn't quite right. Sending anyone, no matter their gender, was completely out of the question. After losing so many people already, she didn't want anymore deaths on her hands.
So naturally it had to be her who went this time. She would be the one to confront the Elite all on her own, and end the killings on both sides once and for all.
Except... well, that hadn't gone over in the way she had wanted it to, and she didn't quite know where to go from here.
'Here' being some sort of cave in the middle of who knows where? And with a man, no less. A creepy vampire stalker, to be precise.
"What is it that you're looking at?" Misaki finally decided to ask her rescuer, seeing as he'd been staring out of the opening of their cave dwelling for what felt like hours. The moonlight was spilling in, lighting up his handsome face in all the right ways, and she had been doing a mighty fine job of acting like it didn't phase her in the slightest.
But he seriously hadn't moved for so long that she wondered if he was even real anymore, or just a statue. How a person could stand so still seemed utterly impossible, but then she had to remember that he wasn't human, like she was.
In any case, watching him stand completely silent and unmoving for several hours had finally started to unnerve her enough to say something. Anything to break the awkward silence they'd fallen into since she had fully regained consciousness.
"...The stars."
Misaki blinked at his answer. "You're telling me," She said gruffly. "That you've been staring up at the stars for the past several hours?"
"It's only been an hour, at most." He finally turned his head toward her, his green eyes glowing as he searched her figure through the gloom. "How's your head feeling?"
Reaching up, Misaki touched numb fingers to the aching part of her skull. "It's fine." She spoke the lie automatically, out of habit. She wasn't one to allow others to fret over her.
In an instant, the boy was at her side. His own icy fingers were touching the spot on her head that hurt the most, and she flinched. A small, thin smile appeared on his face, and she immediately felt the urge to slap him.
"So stubborn." He chuckled, leaning out of her personal space before she could so much as raise her hand.
She frowned up at him. "I didn't say you could touch me."
"Sorry, Prez." His voice held that floating, lyrical cadence to it once more. "You're just so cute, I couldn't help myself."
"I..." She tried to come up with something else to say, but before she could, he was whipping his head back in the direction of the cave opening.
The boy hummed to himself, his eyes narrowed as he seemed to be watching, or listening to something that she was both blind and deaf to.
"What is it?" Misaki asked, after a minute or two of him just standing there staring again. Surely, it wasn't the stars that held his attention this time.
He said something under his breath, words in another language she didn't understand.
"You know," She grit her teeth in annoyance. "It's rude to ignore someone when they ask you a question."
Green eyes pinpointed her so quickly this time, that it took her breath away. His full, toothy grin should have charmed her to no end, or at least, she knew it was meant to - which was probably the reason why it didn't work on her. She held his stare, refusing to react to any of it.
"My apologies, princess." He replied, ever so sweetly, while tilting his head to one side. "Did you need something?"
"Er-" Misaki gave pause, if only for a moment. Why would he go and call her something so embarrassing? And in that tone of voice! Just... who does that, anyway?!
He smirked at her while she silently fumed. "You know, whenever you blush like that, you look even cuter than normal."
"N-nevermind! Just go back to staring at the stars again, you stupid perv-"
Her stomach growled loudly, cutting her off, and she flushed even more red than before.
The boy arched an eyebrow at her. "You should probably eat something, Prez."
"I'm not hungry." Again, the lie spilled easily from her lips.
His eyes scanned her from head to toe, before he nodded his head and turned, walking out of the cave without another word.
"Hey, hey!" Misaki yapped at him before he could disappear into the night. "Where are you going, all of the sudden?!" She attempted to stand and follow him, but almost fell over in another dizzy spell. "Damn it..." She cursed the fragile state she was in, slumping back down to the earthen floor again.
"Don't worry, I'll be back soon with something for you to eat." The boy explained simply enough, and before she could argue any more with him, he was gone.
...
As soon as Usui exited the place where he'd hidden her, he backed up into a rocky ledge, covering his nose and mouth with a hand.
His temple was throbbing, as were his fangs, which protruded prominently now from the edges of his lips. His nostrils flared, and he closed his eyes in an attempt to forget the way she looked, the way she smelled... He wouldn't give into that temptation no matter how much he wanted to. He wasn't like the others, just taking whatever he wanted without any form of consent. And Misaki, of all people, deserved to be treated with some respect.
Although he loved getting different reactions out of her, and seeing her blush... having her blood rush to the surface of her skin all at once like that was almost too much for him to handle.
He could only hope that the others hadn't noticed it. From what he could tell though, they were too preoccupied with someone new to prey on.
...
"Okay, now I know I heard something." Cece pulled the twin pair of switch blades from her utility belt, and turned to press her back against Lakshay's, in case of an ambush.
He twirled his own twin pairs of sickles at his sides. "Laughter. I heard it too this time."
The sound they were referring to reached their ears again; a string of cackling noises bouncing among the trees from an unknown direction.
"Could you stop swinging your weapons around so carelessly like that?" Cecelia hissed back at him. "If you nick either one of us, we'll practically be ringing the dinner bell."
"Hah, that's funny." His voice turned sly, and she could practically feel him smirking. "I wasn't expecting you, the daughter of the great Giuseppe Russo, to be so nervous out in the field."
"Cautious. The word you're looking for is cautious, you arrogant pain in my ass."
"Mhm, speaking of your ass-"
"And for your information, I'd much rather be handling this on my own."
"-I just love having it pressed up against me like this. Any reason you're standing so close to me, Cecelia? You're not trying to tempt me, are you?"
"Quit being unprofessional-" She snapped, only to be interrupted by more unsettling laughter. "Shit. Was that closer than it sounded before?"
"There's more of them now, too." Lakshay sobered up a bit. "They're closing in fast. It seems Kanou-san was right to warn us, they truly must be a dangerous group... I mean, to have found us so quickly, even though we're both thoroughly trained on how to go unnoticed in vampire territory..."
"...delicious..."
"...that scent..."
"...too easy..."
Words began to make their through the wind amongst the laughter.
Cecelia sneered, gripping her small weapons more tightly than before. "And they're not even bothering to be subtle about it. I don't like the looks of this - they're probably going to try to split us up, and go after me first. Isolate the weakest looking one and close in for the kill together."
"Ambush style, yeah, I know the drill. Groups like these always have a pack mentality." Lakshay shifted his stance slightly, moving his weapons from beside him to in front of him. "Stupid, cackling group of hyenas, that's what they are. Don't they know that they're hunting down a pair of wildebeest, not some measly antelope?"
"I'd prefer to be the hunter, actually. Sitting safe in my ATV with a long-range weapon and some night vision goggles."
"If you prefer to hunt from a distance," He gibed. "then you shouldn't have thrown yourself into this type of mission."
At that, Cecelia had to scoff. "I'm trained in all areas of combat, not to mention, I can track almost as perfectly as my equipment can. I was practically born for search and rescue missions like these, Mahajan. There's a reason why I graduated at the top of my class from the Academy."
"Oh, is that so?" He tilted his head back, just enough to look down at the top of her head. Since he was twice her size, he couldn't see the expression she was making, to tell if she was bluffing or not. "Because from my end, it almost sounds like you're chickening out on me, Russo."
"Would you stop using animal terms? We're people, and they're monsters. That's all there is to it-" She glanced up at him, feeling the weight of his stare. "Keep your eyes on what's in front of you, asino!"
He smirked, and turned back to face the treeline. The leaves were rustling in the wind, creating a dance between moonlight and shadows that played tricks on the eye. The flowers hovering in patches on bushes nearby smelled lovely, he mildly noted; and he had hoped it would help to mask their own scents. "Now who's using animal terms?"
"Shut up and pay attention. The laughter stopped, they must be-"
"You know you sound just like your father," He went on to muse aloud, distracting her from her observations. "He believed in the Devil, didn't he?"
Uncomfortable with the change in topic, Cecelia shifted on her feet. One of her blades almost slipped from her hand, and she fought the urge to nibble on her lips, in case she accidentally drew blood. "Considering how he drilled his religious teachings into my head for all the years that I knew him, yes, I do know. He called vampires 'Devils in disguise', and honestly, I think that's the best term anyone could come up with for them."
"Looks like a human. Talks like a human." Lakshay grinned, though she couldn't see it, she could hear it in his voice. "And yet, they eat little human girls like you for breakfast."
Cecelia was just about to reproach him for that comment, but before she could get the words out, the wind unexpectedly changed directions. The scent of the flowers hit her rather suddenly, a few leaves ripped from the branches above and into her face, and then, someone else beat her to answering him.
"Actually," A girlish voice cooed from exactly five paces to their left (Cece could calculate that much, in the few seconds the newcomer took to speak with them). "I prefer big, handsome men like yourself."
There was a sharp change in temperature, due to close proximity to chilled skin. It lasted no more than a second. Lakshay swore something in his native tongue, and more laughter floated through the air, followed swiftly by silence, and suddenly -
Cece was standing alone in the middle of the garden. Or perhaps, not totally alone, but her only ally in this godforsaken place had been whisked away at a moment's notice.
Rather than fear, anger flooded through her veins; and she felt her face grow warm and red with it. This was exactly the type of reason why she preferred to do missions on her own, since she was in no mood to deal with unexpected (and completely avoidable) damage control.
Hopefully, Lakshay could hold out on his own, because her top priority still remained the same - saving President Ayuzawa.
It was with this thought in mind that Cecelia was able to quickly shake off the shock of her companion's disappearance, and, not wishing to chance further delay, she took a dutiful step in a predetermined direction.
"Awww, looks like you're all alone now, kid." A voice came from approximately two yards out from where she stood; apparently, one of them had managed to sneak up behind her.
She pivoted, threw one of her knives without having to look, and immediately broke into a run.
A body slumped against a tree in her wake. And then - a low, throaty growl was emitted.
"Oh, I'm gonna rip that bitch a new one."
