Kaname sighed inwardly. "I'll take you to the headmaster. This is something that has to be discussed with him present." I nodded then started to stand, but Kaname stopped me by placing his hand on my shoulder. I looked at him in confusion.
"I understand you wanting to get answers right away, but your neck still needs healing," he said, amusement in his voice.
Blushing from slight embarrassment, I allowed Kaname to lightly lie me back down on the bed as he himself climbed atop of me, supporting his own weight as his mouth retreated to my neck. As before, the pureblood's tongue began to gently lap at my flaming wound, causing pain to flare momentarily before returning to ignorable levels.
I tried not to think about it too much, but when compared to the healing process of my wrist, Kaname licking and caressing my neck was way more intimate. I could not deny the slight warming of my blood nor the small shivers that would run down my spine every now and then which was completely humiliating!
No doubt, Kaname noticed this.
Glancing at him, however, he didn't seem faced about my reactions at all. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself as he licked my bite marks away and not at all disgusted by the feel of turn flesh on his tongue. It made sense. He was a vampire after all…surely his race derived pleasure from acts such as this since biting into flesh was essential to their survival.
Kaname finished up with the wound on my neck and like my wrist, the skin was completely healed and left no proof that I had just been attacked. "Um, thank you" I murmured, getting up off of the bed. This time he let me up.
"You're welcome" he said, giving me a small smile. I started when I saw that his eyes were crimson before they returned to their natural color. "Your eyes…" I told him, almost speechless. He merely smiled again. "My apologies, that tends to happen with the effects of bloodlust, but you don't have to worry. My control is much more complex than lower vampires."
"Lower vampires? Like the one that I just saw?" I asked, a little intrigued by what he was saying. Earlier events still made me feel a little shaky, but I really wanted some answers. Kaname saw that in my eyes, and found that he wanted to tell me, despite the fact that going Cross was significant at the moment.
"Yes, you see, vampires are split into groups and levels based on one's power and control. The vampire that you just encountered was a Level E, which is the end. Vampires like that no longer have control of themselves when bloodlust takes over and are driven to madness." I took this all in quietly, nodding to let Kaname know that I understood. "I am what would be considered a Level A vampire and pureblood, the most powerful of the rest. If I so choose, I could compel lesser vampires to do my bidding or destroy them with ease. As a result of this power, I am treated as royalty by other vampires. However, my race is dwindling near extinction and it is believed that within the next one hundred or so centuries there will be no more like me left on this earth."
He said that as if it wasn't a long time, which I assumed wasn't for someone who lived as long as him. I didn't particularly know how old Kaname really was, but given his vast knowledge and talent at calculating things, I could tell that he had been around at least a handful of years longer than me.
"So then, what about the other vampires B-D?" I asked, wanting to know all the details. Kaname seemed a little reluctant to tell me, I could see it in his eyes, but it only lasted briefly before he spoke again. "Level B vampires are of nobility, consisting of aristocratic vampires such as, Takuma Ichijo, the vice president of the moon dorms. They have specialized abilities that, because of their human blood, doesn't quite gain them the powers of a pureblood, but go beyond that of a common vampire which brings us to the Level C's. They have no significant powers, aside from their speed and healing abilities that surpass that of a human's healing." Kaname stopped for a moment and looked at me, checking to see if I was still with him or not. I nodded rapidly, completely enraptured in this new, otherwise foreign information being given to me.
Once, he knew that I was still aboard with him, Kaname started speaking again. "Finally, we come down to Level D vampires. They are considered to be ex-humans who will eventually fall to Level E, due to their stronger, constant need for blood." Nothing in the brunette's voice gave away anything, but as I looked into his red-brown orbs, I recognized something akin to slight annoyance and a hint of..jealousy?
I wasn't sure and didn't get a chance to figure out if that was what I saw in the purebloods depths, because, like earlier, the emotion was there one moment and gone the next. Kaname continued to speak. "It is truly sad that their fate is already set for them. Unless they drink the blood of their master, that is."
"Their master?" I asked him, raising a curious eyebrow. "All ex-humans or Level D's are created. Each and every one of them has a pureblood master."
I persisted. "Why only purebloods?" Kaname's eyes held faint amusement at my obvious interest. "The venom in our fangs are different from a lower class vampire's, therefore allowing the DNA in human's to become mutated and change to accommodate the new DNA in their ex-human bodies." I nodded. This whole thing made a lot of sense to me, somehow.
After a moment of silent reflection, I spoke. "We should probably head to the chairman now, huh?" I asked, walking towards the door.
"Indeed, we should, but you might want to change clothes first," said the pureblood, noting how my bra was halfway showing. Immediately, my cheeks colored. How long had I been standing like this? I wondered. Kaname didn't seem like he had been looking at me, so I guessed it didn't really matter.
"You're right. I'll go to the headmaster's office once I'm dressed." With that, I started back towards my dorm, proceeding cautiously down the corridors so that no one would see me that way that I was.
Newly dressed, I entered the headmaster's office to find that the room was not only occupied by Cross and Kaname as I assumed it would be. The disciplinary committee was there too, and so was a man that I didn't recognize. He wore a brown, wide brimmed cowboy hat, a matching eye patch on his right eye, and brown trench coat with a white shirt underneath. I could tell from the slight scowl and hard look on his face that he was a no nonsense type of guy.
It did not go unnoticed that Yuki had a large band-aid on her neck, nor the guilty look on Zero's face and the slightly angered look on Kaname's face. I didn't know what had happened per say, but there was obvious tension between the bunch.
All eyes fell on me when I entered the room and closed the doors behind me. It made me feel uncomfortable because 1.) I have never been one to enjoy attention on me in serious matters and 2.) We were about to discuss my fate because I've discovered a big secret!
"Hana, I'm glad that you've joined us" said Cross, not quite cheery, but not mean or foreboding either. "Kaname told us what happened today, and I deeply apologize that you had to find out about vampires that way." I shook my head. "There's no need for you to apologize, I was the one who was foolish and fell into the trap." Of course, that was because I had not known that the child would turn on me.
"I'm just glad that you're safe," said Cross, wearing a kind smile before his expression became serious.
"While you were gone, we came to a decision on whether or not your memories should be erased." I gulped, but kept my full attention on him. "We have decided to let you keep them, however, you must never tell anyone about vampires. I trust that you can manage that."
I nodded firmly. "I won't tell anyone for as long as I live." Cross smiled. "Kaname tells me that he has explained the different levels of vampires to you. Did you know that Zero was a vampire too?" he asked.
I wasn't completely surprised when he said that. The silver-haired boy's presence screamed vampire to my senses.
"I didn't, actually, but I could tell that he was somewhat like Kaname," I answered, receiving a curious look from the man with the eye patch. "How?" asked said man.
I hesitated to answer that. I'd not told anyone about the weird feeling that others are different before. However, in this case, I sort of wanted to know what that meant for me. The man with the eye patch obviously held some interest on the subject, so I figured, why not tell?
Once done with my explanation, put in the most precise words possible, cowboy hat seemed to come to some sort of conclusion and turned to meet eye contact with Cross. They nodded to one another. "Would you like to tell her, Yagari? You are the one closest to her parents, after all." The headmaster looked pleased and a little weary as he spoke, no doubt because of whatever it was I was about to be told. "Sure" said Yagari, facing me once more with his single eye.
"You have heard of vampire hunters before, haven't you?" he asked, watching me carefully. I nodded, becoming a little uneasy. "What all do you know about them?"
The question was unexpected, but I answered anyway, thinking back to the stories that my parents use to tell me as a child. "From what I was told, they are humans who contain a considerable amount of vampire DNA within their bodies which makes them more honed to their senses and have better agility and endurance than your average human. Super heroes, my mom called them." That made me smile. As a little girl and even now, I have always admired the vampire hunter's in those stories. "They also carry around anti-vampire weapons to kill rogue vampires that tried to attack humans. I'm assuming that those that are rogue are the Level E's."
Yagari nodded in approval. "That is exactly correct, and your assumption is right." "But, I don't see how that story relates to anything, unless of course…it's more than a story." I could tell by the look on Yagari's face that that was indeed the matter. "Are you a vampire hunter?" I asked, anxious and embarrassingly excited at the same time. "Yeah" he answered in that cool, unaffected tone hunters were described to use. "And so are your parents."
I blanched, visibly. "What?" Did I hear him correctly, just now? I wondered.
"Your parents are vampire hunters and so are you." Okay, I definitely heard him correctly. "But…why would they keep something like that from me all these years?" I asked. The dark-haired man lit a cigarette. "You're gonna have to ask them."
I felt so confused and lost. Me, a vampire hunter? What was I supposed to do now, hunt Level E's? I've never killed another person before in my life nor did I believe that I could do something like that, no matter how undead the person may be. Things were just spiraling out of control, lately, and thinking back to my life before Cross Academy, I found myself starting to miss the normalcy of my former life.