Chapter 3

There was nothing to do. The Silver Blade had become a boring subject as of late, even if his and the Lord Sage's personalities were so intriguing. Previously, Zelman would have thought that the return of the Kin Killer would spur more rebellions or riots within the vampire community, but that didn't seem to be the case any longer. After Cassa's little plan failed, there seemed to be nothing but peace and quiet. He hated it.

In the last meeting with the leaders of the four affiliate houses, there seemed only to be a few selfish disputes that were honestly too childish for him to get his teeth sunk in. He had contemplated getting up and walking out, it was so tiresome. In fact, he was about to do just that when Aguri, the newest head of the Order Coffin Company after Zhang Lei Kao's death, decided to speak up…

"So I hear that a few of the Asura bloodline have proclaimed themselves, Zelman," Aguri had said with a small, but noticeably crooked smile. The room fell silent at this comment, for Aguri's rivalry with Zelman was no secret, and it could be dangerous to simply let them speak freely. If they were going to talk about such a fragile subject, the others had to make sure nothing came of it. Zelman leaned back in his chair and crossed his right leg over his left. He decided to humor the young vampire, at least to see if this would lead to anything interesting.

"Have they?" he asked with the same smile creeping onto his face. "Obviously my sources are outdated if I haven't heard of this. Do tell."

Of course, he HAD heard, but he wanted to see where Aguri was going with this. Aguri chuckled, reading Zelman's obvious lie, but almost happily continued.

"Oh, yes, they certainly have. There were four, I do believe, that claimed to have the same blood as you. Nobody challenged them, either because they thought they were lying or were afraid of them. Apparently, they were all leaders of small bands of rebellious vampires…"

Zelman narrowed his eyes at the word Aguri used. "What do you mean 'were'?"

"Surely you must have heard. Only last night they were found dead in their homes. Oh, but that's not the interesting part…" Aguri's smile widened and he leaned his head in his hand before he continued. "The thing that really has me hooked is that they were found as ashes with scorch marks around where they lay, yet there was no evidence of fire in any other place. It was as if they weren't given the time to fight back… or maybe they just weren't who they said they were and couldn't do anything to save themselves from the heat of the real Asura bloodline's flames."

Zelman tilted his head to the side and kept the smile even on his face, although this disturbed him. He didn't kill them, he had no reason to. Obviously, someone was trying to set him up.

"Are you suggesting that it was I who decided to murder these vampires?" he inquired. Though he was the leader of the unsanctioned Coven, full of scoundrels and villainous vampires, he still had an appearance to keep up. He couldn't go around willy-nilly killing vampires unless he disposed of the bodies elsewhere, which was often the case. He would never leave so much obvious evidence behind.

"Did you?" Aguri asked darkly. There was something in his eyes, something unreadable even to Zelman who had eight-hundred years of practice of reading emotions.

"As a matter of fact, no," Zelman replied easily. "I wish it was, though. Unless it is true, there is no one who can be allowed to claim to be my kin. They, obviously, were not so they got what was coming toward them. I would have been glad to deal the punishment, but I was beat to it." Zelman stood and put his hands in his pockets. "Sorry to disappoint," he finished and walked out of the meeting. Unfortunately, even Aguri couldn't satisfy his hunger for something out of the ordinary.

And that was that. He still wasn't too sure what Aguri was trying to do or say, but it unsettled him. For too long in this rivalry with the young vampire he had been on the defense. He needed to get an upper hand, and he already had some ideas on what he could look into. For one: how is it that a vampire took over leadership of the Order Coffin Company who has a distinct relationship with the Suppression team who does nothing but slaughter vampires without a solid bloodline who try to gain access to the Special Zone? It was uncanny and next to impossible.

However, pestering Aguri could really only go so far. There wasn't much to him aside from the mystery of how he got his position, even though he gave a flamboyant display of his power, charisma, and knowledge. Every one of the leaders of the affiliate houses had skills like those. How else would they have attained their high position?

No, there wasn't much interest that could be attained from him. Recently, there was only one subject that seemed to have the potential to be even the slightest bit entertaining. Even then, he wasn't sure if it was anything worth looking in to. Two assassins, without faces, referred to by many as "Snake Eyes."

In every case, they seemed flawless, and they had many targets in the past. All of them, not too peculiarly, were vampires with the tendency to take a little too much blood than was necessary. There never seemed to be any witnesses, so there was no evidence as to who the assassins could be. However, video evidence suggested that the two assassins were women with black hair. Though it wasn't much, since their faces always seemed to be turned away from the cameras, it was something. Zelman quite honestly wanted to figure out who these assassins were, mainly because he was curious as to why they were killing so many rascal vampires, but avoided killing any vampire such as himself who was high in both power and malicious intent.

A quiet knock on the door interrupted Zelman's thoughts and he sighed quietly. From the smell he could tell it was Sayuka, and that meant he would have to light the candles so that she could see. Normally light wasn't much of a problem, but he liked being in the dark more than not, especially when he was thinking. Still, he snapped his fingers and set the many candles in the room aflame with a glowing, orange light.

"Come in, Sayuka," he said and his frown was replaced with a small smile. There was a clicking noise as Sayuka turned the handle of the door and pushed it open to enter Zelman's richly decorated room.

"Zelman," she greeted once she saw him sitting on the couch facing toward the door before she took out the clipboard that had been held in place under her arm. "You said you wanted to know as soon as the assassins struck again, right?"

Zelman's smile widened slightly; how ironic Sayuka should bring him news of the thing he was just pondering. He motioned with his hand for her to go on and she pushed her glasses farther up on her nose as she continued.

"About forty minutes ago they attacked and killed a vampire in a club. Once again, there isn't much evidence as to who they are. The only ones to have seen their faces clearly are either intoxicated or dead."

"Who was their target?" Zelman asked.

"I believe it was Rafael von Connor," Sayuka answered.

Zelman folded his hands in front of him and contemplated this. Rafael wasn't too big of a fish, but the assassins hit awfully close to home. Rafael was one of the very few vampires who survived the Kowloon take-over in the Coven, and he had also been one of Zelman's higher-ranking officers. Of course, he could easily be replaced, but that was the third vampire in the Coven to be recently killed by these Snake Eyes characters. It was likely that it was just a coincidence, but it didn't sit right, especially with the murder of the four vampires who had claimed to be a part of his bloodline. Just what sort of plot was forming around him?

"Is there anything else significant you can tell me?" he asked after a few moments. Sayuka shook her head.

"In that small of a time window, that was all I could find out," she explained.

"I see," Zelman murmured, a rare moment of seriousness crossing his aristocratic features. I was replaced a moment later, however, with his usual smirk. "Thank you Sayuka, you've done well," he said and stood from his seat, "Now, go and get some rest."

Sayuka's eyes followed him as he began walking toward the front door of the mansion.

"Where are you going?" she asked, curious. It was rare that he just left so late in the night, or rather, early in the morning. He might occasionally go out in search for blood, but there would be no one to find at this hour.

"I'm just going to walk around for a bit," he responded with a hint of boredom in his voice. He knew she wasn't satisfied with his answer, but Sayuka always asked so many questions that even just one seemed to tire him now. Her usefulness had not yet been used up, however, so he continued to let her believe he still wished she was around.

Outside, the air was crisp and clear, and the moon was reaching fullness in the sky above. Zelman paused for a moment to take in a deep breath of the fresh air; he hadn't been outside since that damnable meeting. It was nice to get out for a walk, even if he was just going to be absorbed in his thoughts the whole way. He continued walking with a sigh, with no particular route in mind. He just needed to walk to get his mind running smoothly.

There were thirty-two known assassinations in the special zone that were carried out by the two black-haired women referred to as Snake eyes. Zelman knew every single fact there was to know about each of the killed vampires, but there was never anything linking them aside from their bad drinking habits. Not until now. Three vampires, all having a position in the Coven, killed over the expanse of this month alone. That was no coincidence, but there was something missing in what he knew.

The apparent motive for these killings was the fact that they were murderous vampires that were uncontrolled by the Suppression Team, but that wasn't it, there was something else… The crime rate for vampires had been steadily increasing ever since Aguri's inauguration to the head of the Order Coffin Company, which could mean something. Zelman had looked into this before, however, and decided that the vampires were just at a state of unrest since the recent Kowloon outbreak. The Suppression team and the Company were still doing their jobs quite efficiently.

There was the matter of the four vampires who had stepped forth to claim that they had the blood of Asura, but they were killed by fire. Fire was definitely not the usual weapon of choice for the Snake Eyes. No, they preferred attacking with a vampire's weakness- silver. Of course, it didn't really matter which method was used because either way the vampires subject to the weapon would be left as ashes. It could be possible that the Snake Eyes had truly killed the four vampires and burned the area around their bodies, but that would suggest that they were working for Aguri. As much as Zelman knew not to underestimate the vampire, hiring assassins didn't seem like something he would do.

Zelman growled quite audibly; no matter which direction he turned it always seemed to be a dead end. There were critical pieces of information that were missing from his overview of the events as of late, and it was pissing him off. He hated not knowing what was happening. Of course, it could all amount to nothing, but the connections seemed to prevalent to be ignored.

As Zelman walked past a street in one of the most populated parts of the city, still growling to himself, he caught a whiff of something that made him freeze in his tracks. That scent… it couldn't be. He turned toward where it came from and began to walk briskly through the streets toward its origin. His mind was wiped clean of everything and there was only one thought running through his consciousness: Aria.

The name sounded foreign, impalpable. He hadn't thought nor heard of her in years… It was then that he slowed to a painful stop. He hadn't heard her name nor smelled her scent because she was dead. It was possible that his mind was simply playing tracks on him. But no, there it was again, stronger this time. He began walking again, his pace quickening until he was sprinting through the labyrinth of apartment buildings, trying to pinpoint where it was.

He rounded a corner and suddenly slid to a halt. His eyes widened and his mouth hung open to reveal his fangs as he stared at the figure of the woman who was walking across the sidewalk with two bags in her hands. Every little movement she made, every second he stared at her, brought a new memory flooding back. There she was, the spitting image.

Then realization came. The terms of their separation were not the most desirable. If she saw him, there was no telling what would happen. The woman stopped then, and whirled her head around to look his way, but he was behind the corner he had come around and he was holding his breath. It had taken her such a long time to realize that someone was even watching her. It couldn't be her.

When he peeked his head around the building to catch one last glance at her, however, he had no doubt that it was her.

"Aria," he whispered, the feeling of the name on his tongue so old… but so familiar. Could it really be her?

"Zelman," a deep voice said from behind him, pulling him out of his reminiscence. He put on his usual facade and turned around to make eye contact with the Black Blood dressed in a long, red coat.

"Well if it isn't the Silver Blade," Zelman greeted. "What brings you out on this fine night?"

"I'm patrolling," he replied. Zelman couldn't hide the smile that crept to his lips.

"You, patrolling?" he snickered. "What are you, the Compromiser's attack dog?"

Jiro narrowed his eyes. "You know very well Mimiko doesn't work like that," he growled. "No, I was making sure no vampires were out making a nuisance, there have been too many occurrences as of late. Some of the humans are apparently getting restless. I'm here of my own accord to see if I can find out who's been behind all of the assassinations recently."

"So you're interested in the Snake Eyes as well?" Zelman asked. "That doesn't seem like your type of prey, Jiro."

"They are if they threaten the safety of the innocent public," Jiro replied, "they're reckless and they kill anyone who gets in their way."

"By innocent public you truly mean Mimiko, don't you?" Zelman asked, a small poke to get the ball rolling. Jiro, however, did not take the bait.

"I just so happened to come across you drooling like a starved mutt as you stared at that Red Blood woman," Jiro said instead. "Care to explain?"

Zelman's amusement disappeared and he narrowed his eyes at the younger vampire. "My business is my own, and I wasn't staring at her."

"Whatever you say," Jiro huffed. He then turned around and began walking away.

"Oh, is that all?" Zelman called after him. "We haven't spoken in such a long time!"

"I have business to take care of," Jiro hissed over his shoulder, then jumped into the air. Zelman watched for a few moments as he ran across the roves of the buildings before he turned and looked at the apartment the woman had disappeared into. Jiro had called her a Red Blood… His sense of smell was just as good as Zelman's so obviously he couldn't have been wrong. He had to admit, her scent did smell much different from how it used to, but it didn't seem to him that she was human.

Whatever the case, he would have to return soon. His curiosity had officially gotten the better of him. He was going to find out who that woman was…

Aria, he thought, have you returned?

Short chapter is short. At least I updated, right? :D Sorry for the irregular posts. :( But I hope you enjoyed! This was my favorite chapter to write so far, I love love LOVE writing in Zelman's perspective. Tell me what you think!

-KC