Here's the next chapter. I'd like to remind you that I don't own any rights to Rosario + Vampire or its characters. I forgot to mention that in the last chapter. I hope you guys will like this one. Questions, comments, just review or PM. Either way, I'd like to know what you think as it continues. To my very detailed guest reviewer- I will address all consequences of the last few episodes. Just give me time. I don't usually like to lay everything down at once. I really appreciate all your reviews. Everyone. Makes me we want to keep going and I'm glad I could get back to this.
"Tsukune?" The woman's voice bellowed off the walls and struck him dead in his chest. The aftermath left him a little shaken. He was alone in a room, a very large room. He moved forward despite his fear against it. The ground below him was engulfed in darkness with the rest of his surroundings.
"What are you doing here?" the voice echoed. He didn't know. He didn't even know where he was. He couldn't place it, but he recognized that voice. Whoever it was didn't sound too happy to see him though.
He could see a window in the distance, veiled with sheer curtains. It must have been slightly ajar as a breeze brushed them forward and again. Only a sliver of moonlight creeped through it, but it gave him enough sight to make out a bed near it. The bed was capsuled with a large Gothic canopy. He glanced back at the window, still a couple yards away and there he found her waiting... Moka. She stood there barefoot wearing a long-sleeved, pale gown that fit snugged against her body. Her face was encased in a shadow that he felt he had no power to remove for some strange reason. He saw the familiar rosary hanging loosely around her neck. And that gorgeous silver hair. Wait a minute he thought. This wasn't his Moka. It was her other half, the powerful one. He stopped. Even something about her didn't seem normal. She was too quiet, too...
"Where am I?" he finally asked, hoping to catch a glimpse of the eyes that captured him in a single glance. He didn't know why, but he thought he might find an answer there. But she kept her gaze cast down, her silver hair floating gently around her waist. What am I even doing here?
"You shouldn't have come here, Tsukune. It's not safe," said the woman, allowing the curtains to sweep easily in front of her, the wind shifting the edges of her gown across her feet.
He stepped forward and allowed his fears to vanish. This was the other Moka. She wouldn't hurt him. On many occasions she had helped him, saved him. He felt safe again with her. He inched closer and said "I wanted to apologize."
"Apologize?" She responded with a sharp tongue. "For what?" He watched her lips twitch upwards as she lifted her gaze to his.
His eyes widened with surprise as he noted that her eyes weren't the crimson ones he expected. They were the green ones he sought out everyday. His sweet Moka's. "Moka?"
Her nose twitched a few times as if his words had disturbed her. "I am Moka," said the woman. "The real Moka. What you love if a phantom and nothing more."
The transformation was quick. Suddenly, sweet Moka was staring up at him with her pink hair and glassy eyes, her hands clenched in front of her.. "Tsukune," her innocent voice hitched in her throat as she turned away from him. "I'm so sorry. But I...can't...stop...this...time," Moka turned and revealed long, sharp fangs, fangs he'd never seen before. But her eyes, her eyes were transformed into their true form once more. How is this possible? Tsukune thought.
And they were wilder than normal...hungry and impatient. What the hell...
In a fluid motion, she grabbed him and swiveled him on his back against the bed.
"Moka! Wait-"
Before he could stop her, she slid the length of her long gown up to reveal smooth, creamy skin and straddled him under her. One-by-one, many long-stemmed candles were miraculously lit around the bed. Where did those come from? They spread a warm glow in the room and bounced off Moka's flushed face. He tried to get up but she forced him back down with a hard shove.
He tried to speak again, but no sound came out. My voice-I lost my voice! He thought in a panic. He took a single moment to glance frantically past her when he felt the sharp pinch of her teeth sinking into his skin. He opened his mouth to scream but stopped short. Strange. This time it didn't hurt as much. It was uncomfortable, but there was also a weird tingling sensation behind it.
He kinda liked it.
There were some steps leading to another floor level below the bed's platform. Candles lined the walls of the place as well so he could see large double doors at the end of the room that reached from the ground to the ceiling... and royal blue carpet ... No way...It finally dawned on him. He was back in her father's castle, one of the Dark Lords'. Where this bed was, had been that man's throne. He knew he should have felt afraid. And for a moment the fear gurgled up in his throat and made its best attempt to strangle him, but it slid away just as fast as it had come. That's right. I beat him. Fair and square. And I got what I wanted he continued to think as Moka drank from his neck. He laughed in spite of himself, maybe because of losing so much blood, or maybe because of Moka's frenzy as she peeled back to claw off his shirt.
"Hungry, aren't you?" he asked her, feeling intoxicated, incredible. He never felt so powerful, so alive. Nothing made sense, but he didn't have time to consider anything else, didn't want to. He was enjoying the ride of his success.
Moka froze. She eyed him warily and slowly curled back on his lap, like a cat waiting to pounce on its prey. Blood trickled from her fangs and gathered at the front of her mouth in a red lining. Her dark red eyes still held that hungry lustre as she gave an innocent nod as though she finally realized she needed permission to invade his body.
He smiled from beneath her. "So am I."
He shot up and pulled her closer. The room whirled around him as he leaned in to take her neck in his mouth. She cried out in surprise and pleasure. Her blood was sweet and...irresistible. It fueled his hunger more as he pulled her waist closer, took in as much as he could until- Wait a minute. What the hell am I doing, he thought, suddenly horrified by his actions. He quickly tossed her off his lap and looked up at the candles encircling the foot of the bed. There he saw his own reflection playing in the midst of the ever-tantalizing flames. For some reason, he could still hear Moka's distorted voice, as though it came from the fire itself, "What you love is a phantom and nothing more."
Moka was now laying in a heap beside him...with his teeth marks in her. His mouth dripped with blood as he stared into his own eyes, blood-red.
He was terrified and quickly jumped from the bed. What the hell did I just do? Did I actually drink Moka's blood? What's wrong with me? I'm not a vampire. The sickness of such a revelation began to build in his lower stomach. He stared back into the fire at himself, who gave him a knowing grin. The guy in the reflection took a finger and wiped some of the blood from around his lips and tasted it with a sinister grin on his face. Tsukune watched in horror. The guy laughed hardily as the flames seemed to swallow him whole. What's going on here? That can't be me. That's not me.
He glanced back to the bed and found a deformed version of Moka's inner being, crouched back on her legs with even longer fangs, like a beastly creature of the night. The only way he could recognize her was by her pink hair. She looked like she was ready to attack.
He finally found his voice to scream as he ran away towards the double doors, but the closer he got, the further away they seemed.
All of a sudden, an invisible force snatched his legs from under him and slammed him against the ground on his belly. His bounced off the surface and the taste of something salty immediately filled his mouth. He knew it was his own blood. He rolled on his back with a grunt and noted that the candles were doused out. Darkness and faint moonlight had conquered the room again. But he was in the shadow now. He was the shadow. And for a moment he thought that it might not be so bad to be consumed by it and disappear forever, after committing such an abominable act. How could I do it? How could I drink Moka's blood like that? I'm not a vampire. I'm not a monster.
Moka's real true form then moved into the light, only a few inches from his face, with a grin that he was certain he would never forget. "You're mine now, Tsukune."
Tsukune woke sweating in his own bed with the sound of Moka's last evil laugh replaying in his mind. Once he realized where he was, he calmed down a little, but his heart still drummed rapidly in his chest.
"It was just a nightmare," he said, relieved. He'd never had one of that magnitude before. Usually, they were about trivial things: missing the school bus, running from a thirsty Moka, even failing the entrance exam to Tsokai Academy and every other high school in Japan. But he had never found himself so shaken by any.
The sunlight slid through his curtains with the promise of a new and brighter day. He got up and went into his bathroom, cupped the faucet water in his quivering hands. He splashed some on his face and drank. His throat was dry, as if he'd been screaming at the top of his lungs for a long time. He took some more water and drank. So thirsty, he thought. Soon, the cupping wasn't enough and he leaned his head down and drank. When he felt he'd had about as much as he could take, he turned it off and gazed upon his face in the mirror. The thought of drinking Moka's blood flashed into his mind again. And that sick feeling started to rebel against all the water he'd just took in. He quickly shook the thought from his head and tried to focus as he got ready for school.
He still remembered the castle, Moka's father, the fight, how could he ever forget? A young human going up against a powerful vampire. One of the three Dark Lords. And winning. Those were legendary events. Often times, Tsukune wondered why he wasn't killed. Even if he did feel power within himself while he fought against him, Moka's father's was much stronger. And he had been holding back. If that was true then why didn't he do it? Tsukune thought now. Did he have an alterior motive? Did he want him to live? If so, then why? He'd wanted to ask Moka on many occasions, but never found the right moment. He thought of talking to her true form about it, but he still felt bad about the way he treated her in the short time they spent at school. He couldn't exactly help it though. He had missed his sweet Moka so much. Although she promised she'd come back, he thought he lost her forever. She was far from a phantom in his mind. She was real, as real as he was. And Tsukune was almost certain it would make sweet Moka jealous if he talked to her true form about his concerns first.
Despite those concerns, there were some positive changes when the dust settled. Moka seemed to have a new-found respect for him. She still endeavored more determinedly to have private time with him whenever she could, probably to express those feelings she kept bottled after the events. Her true form on the other hand shared few words with him on the occasions they met. She'd simply save the day, put on her rosary, and fade away.
The other girls still threw themselves at him but not as much, especially when Moka was present. They sensed that Tsukune's feelings were entirely deeper for Moka than they would ever be for them. None of them had the courage to acknowledge that fact but there were times when he caught the look in their gaze, the knowing. He didn't want to hurt them and at times felt bad, but he always remained friendly and thoughtful to each of them.
And he hadn't heard another word from Moka's father, neither anything else relating to Moka's rosary. Luckily, there hadn't been any more threats to the seal between the human world and theirs. Tsukune still had a lingering feeling that one day the seal would be threatened again and inevitably the human and monster world would be informally introduced to one another, but he didn't keep the thought for long. He allowed it to be whisked away as he grabbed his backpack and headed out.
His nerves were still on edge as he caught sight of Moka at their meeting point. Her back was toward him.
"Hey, Moka," he called out. She turned and smiled. He released breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding. Perhaps he was expecting crimson eyes to match her pink hair.
"Good morning Tsukune."
His heart tightened in his chest. It was feeling he knew too well whenever he was met with that endearing gaze. The amazing part was that it never faltered. No matter how she felt, Moka would always smile for him. He couldn't even imagine life without it now. He almost depended on it. It was like the reassurance of rain on a cloudy day. He wondered if she knew that. He wondered if she knew how important it was to him. He tried several times to express his feelings, but failed. It was either bad timing, or tongue-tying. Now, as he approached her, there was only one thing on his mind.
"Ready to go to school?"
"Yeah!"
Forgive me for any misspellings or improper punctuation. I'm very tired and I have class in the morning, so I'll fix it tomorrow. I just didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer. Please review! Thank you for reading :)
