All previous warnings, and note apply.
Disclaimer: Hino owns VK.
Credits to my friend and Beta Obin, and delicated to my friends in the Kaname FC
"Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again."
-Psalm 140:10
Chapter three- The Darkness of Men
The torrid afternoon sun burned Haruka's pale skin as he shielded his eyes from those deathly rays, squinting his eyes slightly as he observed the bright flame ball and its surrounding clouds.
He sighed lightly. It was going to be a bright sunny day, lasting so until the night would return again. He knew Father would have not allowed him to sit around the mansion and eat bonbon idly like a spoiled royal, but had it have to require him to wake up at unholy times and mingle with humans to improve his social skills, and internal knowledge of the workings of the mysterious world that concealed even its secrets to its proudest and best creation, the most refined creature that walked this earth.
"Haruka, are you going home?" a brunette human girl that he had identified from an advanced macro economy course walked up behind him, asked eagerly, hurrying beside him to match up to his elegant, but swift pace of steps that he had adopted.
Haruka nodded and titled his lips lightly, "I don't have anymore classes this afternoon."
The candid girl appeared disappointed for a moment with her lovely brows in a bow, but brightened at the sight of his easy smile. "Are you doing anything…"
But Haruka had not heard her for he spotted someone standing in front of the elaborated university gate, underneath the cool shades of the oaks. Her soft curls upheld and twisted into pigtails which cascaded down into loose ringlets by her frail shoulders. She rubbed her eyes wearily after restraining a small yawn from breaking out of her pink lips.
"Excuse me," Haruka apologized courteously to the girl as his maroon eyes focused sorely to the little vampire.
Haruka fastened his pace, and touched the little girl's locks affectionately when he reached her.
He bent down on his knees, ruffling her hair, and smiled gently, making the untoward girl still beside him blush at such blatant display of veneer splendor.
"What are you doing here?" even his voice was softer and kinder toward his little sister.
"I am waiting for you," Juuri blinked back tired tears. "Father said that you would be out around this time. He said that I could come out if I took Yue with me." She motioned the silver-haired youth leaning o the tree a few meters behind, who Haruka had detached from the moment he turned eighteen. Forever protection was reserved for the heirs of the family, and he was not.
"How long have you been waiting for me?" Haruka demanded, concerned over her lack of energy.
"Not that long. Who is she, Haruka?" Juuri extended a finger toward the girl still beside him. "I've never seen her before."
Haruka glanced at her carelessly as if she were nothing but a mere piece of airy substance. "She is my classmate, Laura. Laura, this is my little sister, Juuri Kuran."
"Nice to meet you, Juuri," Laura smiled brightly at the little girl.
But Juuri nodded only once in her direction, acknowledging her existence. Her exquisite face was devoid of the sugary sweetness that seemed to be natural to her when she spoke to Haruka.
"Can we go home?" Juuri grabbed Haruka's fingers softly, letting an element of pleading into her voice. "I am so tired, and you promised that you would teach me tonight."
"Sure," Haruka obeyed her. "Good-bye, Laura. I will see you tomorrow."
Laura waved hesitantly. "See you, Haruka."
"Let's go home, Juuri," Haruka whispered to Juuri as he secured her from the sun for he could not let the radiant sun bruise her poor and fragile skin.
"What don't you understand?" Haruka rested against the spongy armchair, before returning to a proper position with his back stray and hands together across his lap.
He leaned against Juuri, trying to see the process of her equation to understand why she couldn't arrive to the answer. He could taste the luxurious flower scent she rinsed her silken locks with.
He took into a long whiff, allowing the sweet and sultriness of her exotic fragrance to cloud his judgment for a moment.
"I think it is this place over here…" Juuri marked the spot unhappily, angry at her inability to solve the problem. She was a pureblood vampire. She should be able to solve this with ease, like Haruka and like Rido, to produce an answer with just a magical twirl of a pen.
"It is just a simple careless mistake," Haruka comforted her, taking her pen-wielding fingers into his, and guided her to write down the correct way. "See you just didn't bring the x to over here. It is nothing to be upset about…"
"Those are also quite advanced problems. I am surprised that they are allowing you to learn this," Haruka said, his eyes lingered on the worksheet, calculating swiftly each answer and comparing it to Juuri's dexterity in this area of science.
"Rido told me that I have to learn this by the time he returns," Juuri clarified with an unsatisfied and acrid air.
"I'm sure that it is out of his good intention. If you wish, though, I could speak to Rido, or Father when he comes back from his trip, about altering the course to a more expected level." Haruka entreated, looking at Juuri with concern.
Juuri shook her head quickly. "No, I can handle this. Plus, didn't Haruka also go through this difficult course when you were young? If you can do it, then I can do it," she glared at the piece of paper with determination.
Haruka observed her with a tender glint in his eyes. "Of course, my princess."
Haruka glanced unthinkingly at his watch. "Our mother should be awaking from her slumber now… I will go greet her."
"Shall I go with you?" Juuri lifted her head from the work.
"No, finish this. Mother will see you later," Haruka bit his lips pensively, but remained perfectly composed. He sensed another presence in the house with Mother. It was not of Father or anyone he would recognize immediately.
He advanced with agility but soundlessly toward his parent's chamber, his fine brows becoming more and more trenchant with each step that brought him closer. Maybe he was just being quixotic about his Mother, but he hated the feeling of unsettledness bubbling inside him.
"What is going on here, Mother?" Haruka swung the door open without any faltering sighs, and stepped into the room calmly, which echoed sadly through the spines of the whole hallway.
His mother stretched languidly under velvety sheets on the capricious bed she and Father shared for many years, upward before its twisted headboard was the tapestry of the Kuran crest. Her similar vampiric flesh glowed softly under the moonlight, inviting carnal monsters to induce in its aroma.
But it was not that which captured Haruka's attention. It was the unrecognized vampire that was frantically donning on his clothing.
Haruka looked away out of simple politeness.
"You may go, Lovett, Haruka will not harm you. Am I correct, Haruka?" his Mother said lazily as she ignored her spectators, stepped out of those tangled sheets with her nakedness as if she were without company, and slipped herself into a flamboyantly printed yukata, hysterically breeding red orchids, carelessly tying it together in a loose bow.
The vampire glanced at Haruka fearfully before escaped out of the window into the night.
Haruka's hand balled into a tight fist, but he did not speak a word until his mother strolled before him, gazing at him through her thick eyelashes and wine red pupils that reminded him so much of his own and even more of Juuri's, for the latter had inherited most if not all of their Mother.
"You will not be a little sneak and speak of this to your Father, right, my dear Haruka?" she whispered in a low and charming voice very near his ear. He could feel the way her tongue flickered as she mumbled each word especially when she pronounced each distinct syllables of his name. "Ha ru ka…"
Her hands slinked around his neck, and fingering his ties and straight collar silkily.
He remained expressionless, and looked down at her hands.
"I'll do anything you ask for you to keep this little harmless secret between you and me…"
Her warm palm traced down from his collar bone, along the lines of his chest, rubbing against it slow and leisurely. Her mouth so near to brush against his.
Her warm breathe hissed against his lips, reminding him of his little sister. It was repulsive and disgusted him.
Haruka closed his eyes, and he looked almost painful.
However, he reopened his beautiful eyes, and smiled gently, took his Mother's fingers into a hand tenderly and gave them back to her, pressing them against her soft breasts. "Don't worry about this Mother. I will not speak a word of this."
He turned away, not looking at her. "I hope you understand where my loyalty lies."
"Of course," Mother bit her lips, and stepped back.
"Juuri is waiting for me…I must return to her."
Haruka exited the chamber, but before so, he glanced back into his parent's magnificent and elaborated chamber as his desecrated Mother still stood, her dark eyes latched onto his back.
"I pray that you realize what you are doing," he said softly, and his Mother muttered a few words.
He closed the door and the lock clicked briskly as the bolt slid into its place.
His Mother last words haunted his conscious for a few minutes afterward.
"I know exactly what I am doing… my dear, dear son."
"I am just embracing it."
"There is only two ways a pureblood could die," Mother smiled kindly as she held up two fingers as a visual guide for her blessed little son who rested on her laps.
He attempted to grasp those two fingers with his short stump of an arm, but she teased him by holding the finger just a few inches away from his swings.
Her bell-like laughter rang out clearly and she amused herself with her adorable son just a few months old.
"Okay, okay," she wiped the happy tears away, and added, "We must continue this important lesson about your family."
"There is only two pureblood could die," she repeated and shook her fore and middle fingers to emphasize, "Suicide and homicide… We could not die of long age or simple sickness because I suppose," she commented breezily, "that is part of our pact with our creator to suffer such violent and unpleasant death in return for beauty and immortality, our curse pureblood, you could say. We are a cursed kind, Haruka. I could never understand why others would look at us to enviously, so fill with awe. We are obviously so cursed and such pitiful creature, because we are not natural. No creatures on earth should have been given the hateful gifts that we received. Why do they want to be us? Why do they believe that we are happy?"
"Do you understand me little, lovely Haruka?" she snuck a swift kiss against his cute cheeks. "So our cursed bloodline, the royal and precious Kuran bloodline, each of our previous parents has died either by suicide or murder. There are no exceptions before, nor will there be after. Isn't that an enjoyable future that will befall on me and before you?"
"I wonder how you will die, Haruka. I've already chosen mine, the last luxury of our kind, the power over our life." Mother poked his nose playfully. "However, I am so glad that you are born. You are so lovely, Haruka..." She giggled and squeezed the small child fondly. "I love you so much, Haruka. There are no others before you, only ones behind you."
"You are the one I loved the most." She promised as she gazed at her small child with her crimson, blood-like pupils.
"I am glad that it was I who bore you, Haruka…"
"Haruka…"
"Yes…" Haruka stirred from his imaginings, and answered. He watched Juuri, who patted him softly on the shoulder, with a weary eye. He sat up from the armchair he slept in and a leather-backed Machiavelli's The Prince slid off his lap, falling to the floor with a light thump and fluttering of pages.
He knew why he dreamt of her and of her words, but the message she brought made chills ran down in spine.
"Dad just came back," Juuri explained in a hushed voice under the dimmed light. "He wished to speak with you."
Haruka pressed a hand before his forehead, sighed, and stood up. "Thank you Juuri for telling me."
"No problem," Juuri swirled and skipped toward the door, before poking her head back in and reminded him, "Don't forget our lesson together."
"I won't," he promised. "Is Father in his study?"
"Always."
He chuckled at her humor, and fixed his appearance before leaving his chamber again.
This time, the Adam's fruit grew redder in the darkness, and the Red Dragon's sinister eyes become brighter. The color was vividly alive; he traced the invisible line that ran through the murals.
He knocked on the door, and waited.
"Come in," Father responded from inside.
He opened the door, and shut it behind him.
A familiar scent greeted him, grabbing and twisted its vine around him, pulling him toward them as if they were saying they missed him greatly. His garnet pupils followed the source of the light until he reached the mahogany desk in the middle.
"Good evening, Father," Haruka said politely, stayed in front of his Father's desk, unmoving until Father's command.
Father propped open a vanilla folder, and started, "I received the report that one of our kind had attacked a family, killing all, leaving no survivor, except one. Apparently, she had bitten one of its children, a girl of fifteen. She is infected. The Senate asked for our family to take care of it, because the pureblood is rather associated with our affairs. Since they so respectfully requested of our assistance, I want you, Haruka to go and learn of the situation. Handle it any ways you see fit."
He closed the folder and handed it to Haruka.
"I see," Haruka leafed through it swiftly. "I shall leave then."
"Do you need the carriage?" Father's tone was mocking and sarcastic.
Haruka shook his head and smiled coldly. "I'll walk."
"Please tell Juuri that I will rain check on our session."
He was a few miles away from the town as he stopped and gazed up into the black and cloudy sky. No stars could be spotted tonight.
Sometime when he was traveling, flakes of snow began to drift down slowly upon the black forest of littered the country side.
He reached out for one and it melted as it touched its palm.
He breathed white wisps as he buried his face into the scarf.
Haruka could smell the strong stench of decaying blood even from this distance.
His beastly urges pulsed inside his throat and he felt nauseated by it.
His wind-like speed eased into a swift walk as he approached the house. The taste of blood became thicker and thicker in the air, and his vision reddened as vision of the events began to take form in his mind.
Haruka swallowed and ducked into the small cozy cabinet now guarded by various noble vampires that he recognized from assorted affairs.
"Good evening, Windshire," Haruka inquired a brunette noble he had familiarized himself with. "What good tidings brought you?"
"Master Kuran," the noble swung around, surprised. "I've heard a respectable Kuran is coming, but I didn't think of it to be you."
Haruka shrugged, and pulled the scarf down to speak with more clarity, "Father asked of me. Please, share the information about this incident."
"We estimated the time of attack is about one hour before its discovery, which is around eight o'clock at night. The family must be eating dinner. When we arrived, the food was still warm. The mother answered the door and she was also the first victim," Windshire surveyed around the scene, and pointed to the dribble of dried blood that exploded in mid doorway as if a can of red paint had tipped over, "She must have died immediately upon impact with the floor. The damage on her body was internal bruising and heavy bleeding on her abdomen near the kidney area about three to four inches in diameter and some web bruising on her shoulders, head and back all about third-fourth of an inch to one-fourth of an inch. Her skull was cracked at an about two inches in lacerations, and one inch deep. No bite mark was found upon her. We have taken her body and the rest to the coroner for an official examination." He strolled around the area of death, and walked toward another room, still speaking in an apathetic monotone. "Then the Father must have heard the scream and came out to investigate. He only arrived so far in the doorway of the dinner, before our pureblood, broke his neck, at C-1 and C-2 on the cervical vertebrae, and bit viciously, tearing the platysma and sternocleidomastoid completely clean of each other," Windshire gestured the a pool of dried crimson liquid before the threshold, where it appeared to have sprayed out and far, and they started into the blood-splattered dinner, where the spaghetti still lingered in its plates for its owners to finish, " After our pureblood sucked the father. He went on to the children, two of them, a boy of seven and a girl of fifteen. He arrived upon the girl first. Maybe he was unsatisfied, but the girl fainted upon blood loss of .66 quart. The Pureblood advanced toward the boy. He decapitated the boy first. The head landed against the wall," Windshire motioned at the large drops of redness and the mess it made on the pale wall before finally fell with a dull thump on the floor where another pool of blood was formed. "The laceration was three and three-fourth of an inch in diameter and just as deep. The pureblood proceeded on to fulfill its lust on the stump of the neck. We might be able to trace a set of bit marks from those for identification, but I doubt it, the muscles and the arteries were mangled and many issues uprooted. We had difficulty with even separating the flesh from the bones and arteries."
Windshire paused and swallowed hungrily, "He dropped the boy's corpse about three feet from the window, and escaped through that portal. The whole attack estimated at thirty minutes to forty minutes, maybe even twenty."
Haruka scrutinized the dinner calmly, scanning every section of the room methodically, where a few hours ago a normal family feasted on its lovely snug table and straight backed chairs.
"I see. Is the Hunter Society aware of this?" Haruka demanded softly, still pondering deeply.
"They might about receive the news half an hour ago, but we are here before them. Do you wish for me to manage them?" Windshire reported and watched Haruka expectantly.
"No, I will deal with them, but pass down the word that I forbid anyone to mention that it was a pureblood who committed this deed. Make sure everyone here testify it as a rogue Level E."
"Of course," Windshire nodded, and muttered into his attendance. "We must protect the pureblood. Is there anything else, Master Kuran?"
"After the examination, send the record only to me, and destroy the bodies as soon as possible. Make no extra copies. The records of this family's existence must be also taken care of," Haruka continued with an unreadable expression. "Burn this house. So no evidence could be trace. Your team already cleaned this house right?"
"Yes, Master Kuran," Windshire looked impersonally about this matter as ice with his dark hair and crystal blue pupils.
"Take me to the girl," commanded Haruka. She was the objective of his appearance in this god forsaken place. He needed to handle her, because she had been inflected with their vampirism. He needed to assess her as the procedures demanded.
He was to exterminate her before she transform into a Level E, like a worm into a thick cocoon, to leach his black poison into her before her wings could stretch and embellish with satanic marks.
That was why he came, why the Senate asked for his presence, and why Father send him. No one else was allowed to execute her until a pureblood had evaluated her. It was the rule that all must abide by.
Winshire nodded, and stated, "This way Master Kuran. We kept her in her parent's chamber, the only room with a lock. I must warn you. She is quite damaged mentally and physically by the attack. We were forced to induce sleep upon her to stop her from screaming and skirmishing so we could treat her wound. She was bleeding quite heavily. She might have awoken by now. I didn't stress the brain too much."
"Of course," Haruka muttered and touched his lips contemplatively. His pupils obfuscated until nothing was seen except orbs of liquefied darkness. "Lead me to her."
Windshire halted in front of a wooden door, and slipped out a silver key from his pocket.
The door unbolted with a simple click, and Haruka stepped into a room with a perfectly indifferent face.
In the dim gloominess of the chamber, he saw her, shrink into a pathetic corner of the room. She curled into a small, tight ball, trying to stuff herself into some nook to become invisible.
He almost laughed at her stupidity, but he restrained himself. He must distinguish himself from the darkness that oozed out of his heart like fatal toxic.
Haruka arrived before her, and watched her little frail shoulder quivering profusely like dying leaves in the wind. She had long dark hair that tumbled all over the place as if she were a madwoman. He touched it and she jumped back. For the first time, he saw her large, brown pupils overwhelmed with excruciating fear and dilated into a small circle in mid pupil. Her face was crusted in dried blood and ugly purple bruised that flowered healthily on her cheekbones and visage.
She let out an inhuman shriek, and swung her sharp, little claws at him, but those were to him, like kitten's harmless teasing.
He marked a flash of white upon her neck as she attempted to keep him away.
She kept screaming, until her voice was hoarse and reduced into a whimper.
Haruka caught her hands and summoning a tiny portion of a calming draught. He inserted the energy into her.
The pitiful whimper diminished, and replaced with short panting.
The small creature began to sob tearfully, not those lugubrious loud cries, but silence mournful tears. The crystal tears ran over the crusted blood and dripped down her thin chin into little black roses on the floor.
One, two, three… rose blossomed on the wooden floor.
Haruka lowered his eyes as pity and sorrow dripped into his hardened heart as her tears flowed freely, but she never wailed obnoxiously.
She stayed in the same position and cried silently, sometimes gasping for breathes, breaking slowly into pieces all over the floor.
"What is your name?" he asked lightly. "Tell me please. What is your name?"
He waited for her, for the poor creature to gather the remainder of herself.
"I… Ilsa…" she mumbled inaudibly as she no longer had the strength for anymore words.
"Would you like a new life?" Haruka inquired gently and softly. "I would give you a new life if you wish. You will not remember any of this. I will promise you happiness."
"Would you accept my offer?"
Then he waited for her again.
She churned out the answer gradually, "I… I can't die… I can't…I…"
"Very well then," Haruka closed his eyes and placed his forefinger on her forehead, cleared of any strands of hair or blood, and the piece of skin where he touched grew warm.
He was inside her head. He was inside her, stretching her, examining her. He was everywhere, and she couldn't hide from him. She was exposed from inside out. She was pink and naked He could see everything. He was darkness, seeping into her bones and her flesh. He was her.
He discovered the library where she accumulated her precious memories. He took out a strand of moving images, and sealed them with an elegant tap of his finger, forbidding anyone to gain access into this vicinity of her lobe.
He could not "erase" memories, because things that happened cannot be forgotten. It was the nature's rule. Its remains could be destroyed and hidden away, but one could never rewind and untangle events.
But Haruka could fasten them with a heavy bolt and adorn them with a fancy knot, and he could make sure she could never be able to open that set of images again, at least, not without some inference.
The girl fell into a deep dreamless sleep in his arms during his intricate operation. Her weak conscious unable to withstood such extensive attack.
Haruka picked her up and carried her outside as if she were a light doll.
He murmured to Windshire's dubious face as he passed by the acquainted noble. "There have been a change of plans."
The he left and disappeared into the snowy hills, still carrying the girl in his arms.
Thank you for reading