Author's Note: Another update today but that means nothing for a couple of days...maybe. I also updated When Worlds Collide today and I'm hoping to finish the next chapter for that story sometime this week. Oh yeah, if I made any horrible mistakes in this chapter - as in wrote a sentence that makes no sense whatsoever - let me know. Also at this point in the story, Zero's eyes are still on Yuuki only. Hunter's personality will develop soon and she won't be as boring. Don't worry, she's anything but your typical Mary-Sue.
[Handguns and Second Chances]
-03: First Revelation-
The classroom door opened and a young woman walked in adorned in the standard Day class uniform, her footfalls nearly silent against the hardwood floor. Her raven hair cascaded down past her shoulders like a waterfall of black oil, contrasting violently with her pale milky skin while her thick black lashes accentuated her icy-blue eyes that glistened like the stars surrounding a crescent moon.
Several gasps and murmurs erupted between the students as they eyed the newcomer with an interest, curious as to whom she may be. Making her way to the teacher, who stood at the podium, she handed him a sheet of paper. Scratching the back of his head, the instructor looked over the information then lifted his gaze at the seated students.
"We're on page fifty-four and take a seat by Kiriyuu," he said nonchalantly as he pointed to the silver-haired boy.
Giving him a small nod, the new student walked up the steps and took her respective seat. Several uneasy looks were sent towards her, seeing as Kiriyuu Zero was known to be not one of the friendliest of people and no one really sat next to him either.
Zero shifted uncomfortably when Hunter took her seat next to him. Why of all things did this have to happen? Remembering last night's events he eyed her from his peripheral vision. Just as expected she looked as if nothing had happened. No puffy red eyes from crying, no bruises from slamming her hand into the nightstand. Just the same emotionless eyes and blank expression. It was quite irritating actually. It really played on his nerves how she could sit there so nonchalantly when her very presence made the hairs on the back of his neck stand.
Yuuki glanced back at Zero and Hunter. They were sitting quietly with their usual expressions. How boring. Yori elbowed her gently. "Is that the new girl you were talking about last night?" she whispered. "Un," Yuuki replied, eyeing the teacher carefully so he didn't catch them talking. The class president was already pissed off at her enough as it is for bringing down their class average. "She's really pretty, she looks like she belongs in the night-class," Yori commented offhandedly as she jotted down some notes. The comment made Yuuki tense a little since Yori had no clue that the night-class students were actually vampires. Yet again, her friend was right. Hunter did look like she belonged in the night class.
Hunter's head hurt. She had the same dream again last night. The one where she's locked up in a dark cellar that reeks of blood and then chases that black silhouette. It's been reoccurring quite frequently. It was really confusing to think about. Damn did she need Michelle right now. She never even got the chance to ask where she was staying after the fire. Maybe she should ask Sister Katherine about it? Maybe some other time, right now the only thing she wanted to do was drill holes into her throbbing head. Hunter noticed that the doses for her sleep-aids were increased after that incident she had no recollection of. Personally, she didn't even want to take those sleeping pills. They made her drowsy all day and always left her brain in the clouds. Another frequent result was also those brain-killing headaches. Feeling rebellious, Hunter vowed not to take her medication this upcoming weekend. She wanted to rid herself of the cloudiness and the headaches at least for a couple of days.
With her ice-blue eyes like the ones of a Siberian husky, Hunter stared blankly at the board and made no effort to take notes. Not like studying the crap the teacher was talking about was going to get her anywhere. She felt Kiriyuu sit next to her tense like a guitar string tuned too tight, ready to snap if played. It was actually quite a common reaction she got from some people. The people that reacted in such way always had a certain scent about them and Zero had it too. Sighing mentally she looked out the window only to recoil as the sun painfully jabbed at her eyes. This was going to be a long day.
* * * * * * *
The day went by uneventfully yet Kiriyuu Zero couldn't help but feel as if there was a higher power out there trying to punish him. Or maybe the Chairman was playing some sort of sick joke on him. Hunter – the girl without a last name that looks like a freaking porcelain doll – was in half of his classes. And in all half of them the teachers made her sit next to him just because no one else would. Zero officially declared to himself that his life sucked. First his family got killed by some revenge-drunk psycho pureblood bitch that his brother brought home and the same bitch turned him into a vampire, then he had to fall in love with Yuuki who's in love with the pureblood bastard Kaname, and his only way from falling to a Level E is to drink the same bastard's blood, and if this wasn't bad enough now there's Hunter. The nonchalant mute whose presence keeps him walking on pins and needles. And what the hell was he thinking last night when he touched Hunter?!
Raking a trembling hand through his wild silver hair he threw his back against a tree and slumped to the ground, resting his arms on his knees. Maybe he should just let himself fall to Level E so then someone will put him out of his misery?
"What's wrong Kiriyuu, you seem awfully distressed…" said the voice he oh so loved to hate.
"That's none of your damn business," he replied venomously to Kaname. The vampire's eyebrow arched at him suspiciously. Was this low-life self-loathing himself again for drinking his precious Yuuki's blood? No, that wasn't it, he couldn't smell any blood. Ah well, Zero was always in a pissy mood to begin with. Kaname figured it'd be best to shrug it off and ask him what he intended to ask him in the first place.
"So who's this new student, Kiriyuu?" Kuran asked hoping the perfect knew. The Chairman had no obligation to inform him about the affairs regarding day-class students so he wasn't informed of the new student. But then again, that only pertained to humans and not that. He had no idea what the Chairman was trying to pull off by pretending that was human. If the perfect didn't know he'd have to go confront Kaien himself.
Zero tensed at the question. What did Kaname want with Hunter? "Why the sudden interest in a day-class student?" he asked the pureblood thinking he should play this a bit. Pissing off Kaname was probably the only bright-side of his life.
The pureblood shrugged. "Just curious, it's not often we get so see new faces around here." Okay, so that was a bad cover up. Kaname knew Zero would catch this but he couldn't care less. He could kill this low-life with one blow. Much to his surprise Zero just gave him a blank look, "if you have any questions regarding her go ask the chairman himself," he said coolly, then got up and left.
* * * * * * * *
Kuran Kaname having an interest in a day-class student that wasn't Yuuki spelled bad news for Zero. After leaving the pureblood he decided to go check on Hunter to see if the bastard was going to do anything to her. However, when he reached her room, she wasn't there. Where could she be? It was dangerous for day-class students to be out after dark.
The scent of blood caught his nose. It was faint but there. Following the scent he found himself before the Chairman's office. What was that old man up to now? Pushing the door open his pupils shrunk back from the light. There, right before his eyes, was a naked girl with ridiculously long black hair. It was Hunter. She was sitting on a chair sideways, with nothing more but her long hair covering her chest and a towel around her waist. It was then he noticed the burns on her arms and back as the Chairman was applying some ointment on them.
"Ah, Kiriyuu-kun! What brings you here?" Kaien asked ignoring the fact that Zero was a guy and Hunter was a girl sitting there naked. The phone suddenly rang catching the headmaster's attention. Hurrying over, the ash-blond man answered the phone, "hello?"
Zero stared blankly at Hunter while she didn't even bother to look up at him. She just sat there, emotionlessly – like a doll. He found it annoying. "Kiriyuu-kun, can you please finish applying the ointment on Hunter-chan's back? I really have to take this call." Kaien said in his usual fatherly way.
Truthfully, he really didn't want to touch Hunter again, but the fact that she was sitting there naked and shivering he decided to cooperate for once. Picking up the tube of cream ointment he squeezed some out onto his fingers and began applying it to the burns. He felt Hunter tense under his touch so he eased the pressure and proceeded with much gentler strokes. Her burns were already scabbed over but still looked painful as some of them broke open letting blood seep through. The scent of her blood was intoxicating to his vampire side and he wanted to bite her but the fact that her presence stabbed needles in his back kept his fangs away.
Eyes glowing crimson red, he reached for a roll of fresh gauze. "Can you hold your hair?" he asked, his voice a bit hoarse. When she pulled her hair together she lifted both of her arms above her head in order to hold the hair and make it easy for him to bandage her wounds. Zero's face flushed a bit when he noticed for the first time how full her chest was. A knife of guilt stabbed his gut once more when he realized what he was thinking. Shaking his thoughts off he tenderly began wrapping her torso, making sure he wasn't pulling the gauze too tight.
Once her upper body was done, Zero moved onto her arms, tending to them with the same gentle touch. The scent of her blood was now less noticeable since the blood already dried and turned into fresh scabs, making it easier for him to go on. And all this while, Hunter sat there motionlessly like a doll. It baffled him how she wasn't embarrassed to be exposed. When he finished, she pulled the towel up around her body making it easier for him to look at her.
"Thanks," she said in a soft voice. The mute has spoken and her voice was the one of an angel's.
Zero gave her a small nod and heard the Chairman giggling like an old mother on the phone that just heard some juicy rumor. An angry tic appeared on his forehead. That bastard! He made him suffer through this just so he could gossip on the phone like some old hag?!
"I'll be taking my leave now…" Hunter said quietly as she pivoted and began heading for the door. "I'll walk you," Zero replied impulsively, then smacked himself mentally for saying that but there was no way he could back out of it now. Hunter's enchanting sapphires looked at him blankly as she stood there in nothing more but a small white towel and bandages. What was with this girl? He let out another mental sigh.
Zero walked up to Hunter and placed his hand on the small of her back, urging the doll-like girl forward as he opened the door for her. They stepped out of the Chairman's office and only managed to take one turn before Kiriyuu's shoulder rubbed against Kaname's. The two vampires instantly glared at each other and Zero's hand flew up to Hunter's lower back protectively. This little doll scared him and he didn't really like her but hell would freeze over before he would let Kaname touch her. He didn't like the way the pureblood looked at the girl.
Kuran Kaname smirked at what he saw, "excuse me," he said and resumed his walk to the Chairman's office.
* * * * * * *
"Alright, talk to you later, bye," Chairman Cross said as he hung up the phone and just then Kaname Kuran waltzed into his office. Judging by the vampire's aura he wasn't too happy.
"How come I wasn't notified about that," Kuran said and Kaien already knew what "that" was.
All joking and laughter gone, Kaien looked up at Kaname with a serious expression that he rarely wore. "That is nothing you should worry about." He told the pureblood though he knew that wasn't enough to appease the irritated noble.
Kaien Cross knew very well that he should have notified Kaname about Hunter but then again she wasn't a vampire so he wasn't obligated to do so. The pureblood placed his hands on the chairman's desk and looked down on the older man. "If I recall correctly, the purpose of this academy is to prove that vampires and humans can coexist peacefully," Kaname began, his voice even and confident, "but I do not recall bringing in any werewolves into the mix," he finished enunciating the word "werewolves."
"Now, now, Hunter-chan isn't 'werewolf' as you put it. She's just a descendant of Fenrisúlfr, more commonly known as Fenrir the mighty wolf. After all, he did have two sons before the gods imprisoned him." Kaien replied calmly, trying to defend Hunter. Yet the fact that she was a descendant of one of the most powerful werewolf bloodlines really wasn't helpful.
Chairman Cross knew very well that vampires and werewolves never got along and their relations were worse than with humans. Werewolves were infamous for hunting down vampires and killing them in the most brutal ways imaginable, but Hunter was different from the usual werewolves. Most werewolves around now are usually what Level E vampires are because most of the purebloods are extinct. Pureblooded werewolves are almost impossible to meet.
Hunter on the other hand, was never turned into a werewolf; she was born one from one of the strongest bloodlines that ever existed. In the end she still wasn't a full-blooded werewolf. Unlike a pureblood she couldn't assume her true form – that being the form of a giant wolf, being bigger than a horse. The most Hunter was capable of was growing out long talons on call that were capable of unaccountable of damage to a vampire and more than likely a set of fangs. Other abilities the chairman suspected would be speed, flexibility, fast healing (as he's been witnessing on her burns), night vision, unbeatable sense of smell, and immense physical strength.
Feeling the vampire's eyes burn into his skin, Kaien looked up at him. "I have her contained, she's not even aware of what she is. Besides, she's still just a pup, not even a pureblood. There really isn't anything you need to be worried about." The Chairman reassured the vampire once more.
"If you say so," Kaname replied, though he still wasn't happy with the outcome of this conversation. Now he had to consider the x-factor that wasn't supposed to have appeared in his plans. He also doubted that Hunter was as harmless as the Chairman claimed her to be.
