A/N: I had a big speech prepared, ready to insert to make it clear that just because I chose Kaname for the role of the villain in this fic, didn't mean that I was hating on him, (it's just that I think he would make a great villain) but I think I'll just place it on my profile instead. (It's already there.) I don't want to overflow this chapter's A/N with unrelated content.
A big thank you to GlassTears8 , stabpinmonkey , nightdhade , Shrimp Chip , SkyLilies , Soah , honey , Anna , KanameZero4eva , and The Black Rose 1995 for reading and leaving multiple reviews! Seriously, when I feel like quitting this fic, (which I'm ashamed to admit is somewhat often, because of a lack of ideas) you guys make me smile and continue to create, because you keep coming back. I love you all and even the ones who I haven't mentioned.
Sci fi and action perhaps?
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Insubordination - not only was it a questionable act, but also very dangerous business, especially when dealing with yakuza. Kaname already had enough on his plate, and it was Aidou's aim to keep everything of lesser importance in order for his leader and lover... in his mind, filled with that one-sided infatuation...
Who cared? Aidou knew what he was doing, and he knew he would be rewarded most handsomely for his undying loyalty and dedication to the pureblood--he had solid proof. Never before had Kaname trusted anyone with covers, but there Aidou was, taking care of official business in his name.
One day, perhaps, they would truly become more.
Aidou entered Benibara, still wrapped in the pureblood's scent, which he wore with pride--a way to announce that he was someone who belonged to the most powerful man on earth, perhaps. He strode past the small foyer, past the greeter and back into the kitchen, using his nose to move past the cooking herbs and spices, to sniff out the most delectable human in the establishment. The last girl that had been their own personal bleeder had committed suicide, burning her body beyond even dental identification, and Aidou was tasked to find them a new one. As he approached the head chef, he noticed recognition spark in her eyes, which was quickly tampered down.
"We need to talk, in the back."
"What do you want?" she asked with a frown, stabbing a blade into a wooden cutting board where bloody, raw beef lay. "We'll talk right here." she folded her arms loosely for added emphasis.
"We've asked that you send one of your staff to replace the girl we let go, but you still haven't contacted us."
"We sent you our best chef and you just threw her out like scraps, and she 'killed herself' because of it. We aren't going to send you any more people if you're going to 'fire' them all." she laughed bitterly, clearly suspecting a hint of the truth.
"Remember when Benibara owed a large sums of money to a corporate chain that tried to buy you out? Remember who paid all of that money to keep your dream alive? Dokuga-sama? A personal worker here and there is hardly a sacrifice compared to loosing all of the hard work your family had put into this business." Aidou warned.
"I'll tell you what. We're turning over this restaurant over to new management. It's not worth being indebted to your damned Syndicate. I offered to be your 'personal chef' only a thousand times."
"Because of 'personal reasons', yeah, we get it. I know you just want to become someone special to the boss, which will never happen, not in a thousand years," his icy eyes flit down to her chest, where her name was embroidered into her smock in royal blue lettering. "Lily."
Lily's honey eyes flashed dangerously, darkening with anger and irritation.
"You don't know my reasons. You're a pampered and privileged son of a wealthy family, you know nothing of my aspirations."
"I don't give a shit about your aspirations. My only concern is my welfare, and that of Dokuga's. Everything else is just a game of time and numbers."
"A game?" she asked, considering the blond with a crooked smirk. "If you wanted to play games, then you should have said so from day one."
"I play the games, you get played. You're either using or being used, and you're the one with the shortest straw." Aidou laughed.
Lily joined in the laughter, the sound coming out hollow and sarcastic. Oh she was a brave one alright, didn't she even care about her own life and what the icy aristocrat could do to her? Had she any idea as to who, or what he was?
"You may be 'high-class', but you don't know everything." Lily laughed, as if enjoying a private joke while she twirled her short caramel hair set in loose curls. "I bet you're being played with as well, seeing as you're the one following orders and not giving them." she mused with an acidic smile.
Everyone in the back had gone tense in their work, doing their best to mind their own business, but not wanting to add to the already thick atmosphere. Aidou needed to calm down, or else he would lose it in front of all of the humans in the room. Why, why had he been ordered to kill no one?! Kaname was right, he needed anger management. The blond inhaled deeply though his nose, counting backwards form ten as he did so. What the hell did she know anyway?
The scent he caught was... intriguing to say the least. This person, this patron smelled faintly fruity, like something indescribable, expensive makeup and perfume loaded down with metal. Even with the stints, Aidou knew her taste would be purely orgasmic. Call it a hunch, but he really had a knack for picking out the tasty ones.
"Alright, I'll tell you what." Aidou sighed, just wanting to get the task over with. "If you bring me a specific patron in your dining area right now, then I'll overlook your insubordination, this time, and even throw in a little compensation."
"I don't send lambs out to lions." she said clearly, jaw tightening as she tried to keep from swallowing.
So Aidou had given her more credit than he should have. When would he learn that no one had half the brains he did?
"Go ahead and rough me up. Set the property on fire. What, you too chickenshit blondie?" she spat, getting in his face.
KILL, HER, NOW. That was the main thing running through his mind at the moment. For a moment Aidou almost resented Kaname for implementing that entire, 'do not kill' aspect in his orders.
The throw was meant for Lily, to shut her up lest she be murdered on the spot by the fuming blond, but she stepped aside, letting the fop of flour graze and spread along his shoulder, surrounding his upper half in a dusting of the white powder that got everywhere, in his nose, hair, eyes. He sneezed a few times before fixing a glare of death to the woman.
That little bitch was going to die.
"I'm tired of you people, so why don't you get all of your little friends, and we can have a talk, unless they're just as chickenshit as you are."
Aidou knew the warning signs. He headed for the door, lest he break his vow to Kaname.
"You don't know a damn thing about my people! Mark my words, you'll be sorry that you refused the offer." he growled loudly, exiting the swinging door into the dining area.
His eyes scanned the patrons, looking for the girl who matched the scent he caught, though his nose wasn't doing all that great. He was beginning to snot, a natural reaction for the body to have to clear sinuses. His eyes were drawn to a table where a beautiful woman sat, her tanned skin contrasting her wide ocean eyes, dark ebony hair sitting atop her crown in curls. Her full chest was still, body tense, as if she were holding her breath as she gazed at him. The male next to her shifted minimally, in front of the girl, his choppy golden hair and green eyes reminiscent of Ichijou back at Kiba's. Now that he thought about it, Aidou still had to visit him soon.
No matter. Aidou would just have to seek Kaname's permission, and that girl and all of her witnesses to that disrespect would be dead meat.
"Keep your eyes to your plates!" he growled, exiting the establishment without another word.
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
Even with her genes suppressed, Yuuki would have recognized that scent anywhere, asleep, without a nose, even in death--she would have been able to smell it on him, and recognize just who had been with that nameless blond.
Kaname's scent was all over him.
"Yuuki, Yuuki sweetheart, oniisama has an owie from a bee. Can you kiss it and make it better?" Kaname asked, palming his length in her face. "See how swollen it is? It needs your love and attention."
Yuuki looked up at Kaname with big, innocent brown eyes, which dropped immediately to the engorged portion of his body. She cupped the red swollen head in her tiny hands and kissed the very tip, making him squirm in delight.
"Ahh, Yuuki, mnnn... kiss it again? Please? Pretty please Yuuki?"
She knew very well that one kiss didn't always make it okay, and gave him another, smiling and giggling when she saw her oniisama turn shining eyes to her, petting her hair gently. Yuuki was doing a very good thing, comforting her beloved oniisama.
"Again..." he moaned, holding her hair back. "Like when you're drinking energy from me. Lick it with your tongue."
Once more she kissed him there, licking as she was told, tasting a warm bead of bittersweet salt in her mouth.
"You have to suck the bee sting out baby, or else it'll keep hurting."
"It's too big for my mouth oniisama." she looked up at him, his liquids mixed with her saliva running down her chin, making Kaname's member throb.
"I'll help you." he grunted huskily, pushing her head down, choking her on his length.
"Mnn!"
"I need to go." Yuuki whispered urgently, eyes wild behind her blue contacts. "I can smell him."
"Do what you need to do." Kaien nodded grimly.
"I've got you." Zero added, sliding out of the booth to let her pass. "Oh how I've waited for this day."
The two exited the establishment, Yuuki absolutely stressing over the situation. Catching him would mean some answers. Catching him would mean that she could possibly find the whereabouts of her brother, and torture him in a way only she had seen for so many years. She could feel her heart racing, ordering her to hunt him down like an animal.
She followed the scent through the thick crowds along the crowded city streets, Zero less than a step behind her. Yuuki's emotions were raging out of control--the blood in her body was beginning to eat away at the Serum in her system. She could no longer feel the comforting weight of the shackles of the Serum within her, only a seductively dark force that craved for death.
"Your scent's changing." Zero panted with a growl, picking up on her biological changes.
Crimson teardrops fell from her eyes as she followed the scent, turning into an intricate network of alleyways in the heart of downtown. The dank, damp and filthy atmosphere grew thick around them as the air got colder from the standing water around them, the brick reverberating only the eerie whispers of human activity on the streets.
"This is the first time I've ever faced this kind of situation, I think my body devoured it." Yuuki informed him in a shaky voice, drawing a crackling, protesting Artemis in one hand, twisting at its seal along the top of the collapsible staff. She withdrew a single, thin glass vial no thicker or shorter than a toothpick, sealed at both ends. In its center was a mixture of metallic silver and scarlet, both fighting for dominance.
They stopped at an intersection between the alleyways, the scent splitting into three different directions.
He knew they were following.
Yuuki took deep breaths through her mouth, tasting the air and heat along the three pathways, sickening herself to know she was acting like a vampire, like an animal with instinct as its only guide. But if she could capture the blond, it would be worth it. She could always get another injection, but this sort of opportunity didn't present itself every day.
"Cover me." she whispered fiercely, rushing off to her right, heels not even clicking against the concrete.
Zero's presence faded as he followed her orders, probably climbing fire escapes and watching her from above. As she nearly overshot the distance she wanted to run, Yuuki realized that she had to calm down. Her vision sharpened painfully, and every single movement in the alleyway was magnified, no matter how small.
An unnatural whisper of cold crept upon the back of her neck, making her hairs stand on end. The alley had suddenly become too quiet, with a false sense of serenity.
"Come bleed for us, little girl."
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
"I don't understand the situation here." Yagari sighed, looking to Kaien. "I've suspected that Tsubasa's been looking for something for a long time, I just don't know what it is. Does it have something to do with the way Rei reacted earlier?"
"Un," Kaien sighed, flipping through a menu.
He pulled his phone from his pocket, sliding it open to reveal the tiny keyboard as he thumbed in a quick message, tilting the phone so only Yagari could see it.
She has a score to settle. You should ask Tsubasa if you want the details.
Yagari pulled the phone towards himself, holding up his menu before thumbing back.
Something tells me she's uncomfortable about the whole 'family' setting as a cover. We both know Rei finds it a nuisance, especially when she acts like he's her sibling in public like that.
Kaien nodded, continuing the conversation through text. They didn't dare to actually send the messages, since phones those days were so easily hacked or misplaced.
"Um, sirs, I'm not... too sure what you're doing behind those menus, but this is a restaurant. Are you ready to order?" a girl approached them cautiously, red ponytail bobbing behind her.
Yagari grimaced, almost sick at the thought at being up to something intimate with the idiot Head of the Hunter's Syndicate. He pressed a few buttons, effectively erasing Kaien's text and opening a photo file before dropping his menu to the table, revealing the phone and a picture of a Delorean with its doors open, suspended above the car.
"Sorry." she frowned, instantly contrite. "Are the other two in your party not returning?"
"No, they'll come back. We'll order for them... Sukiyaki?" Kaien asked, looking to the other hunter.
"Doesn't matter to me. Free food is just that."
"Sukiyaki, and some strawberries... Two virgin daiquiris of the same flavor and two regulars of lime."
The waitress penned down their choices before offering a smile as she whisked off to another table.
"Rei should be the only one who needs medicine, right?" Yagari asked, eying Kaien as he pulled a small pillbox out of his pocket.
You know the shot was made from Tsubasa, if she becomes too excited or distressed, her body might eat it.
The text might not have made sense to anyone looking on, but Yagari understood just what he meant. Since the sterile version of the AntiVampire Serum was derived from Yuuki's blood, the iron chemically altered, it could still be reabsorbed and destroyed by her system. It was a delicate balance, and Yuuki had to remain as stress free as possible, which Zero was already more than willing to ensure.
Yes, it was very dangerous if Yuuki, or Zero for that matter were to receive the Serum solution laced with obedience genes, since they had such a high concentration of Yuuki's blood within their system. The blood was absorbable by vampires, and that was what delivered the concentration AntiVampire element, but to ensure that there weren't deserters, at least, to ensure that they didn't live long, Kaien had to lace the Serum with something to keep them from becoming dangerous to the Hunter's Syndicate.
The problem was, what would he lace it with? He couldn't just melt down their enchanted weapons and stick mix it with the blood--there would be no way that it could work. Eventually Yagari suggested that he lace it with low levels of mercury, which was what they could enchant with the hunter charms.
It was rather primitive, actually, soon they would have to start up research on the Serum once more. Either way, if Kaien's suspicions were correct, then Yuuki would need a blood tablet once the ordeal was over.
"I'm worried about them." Kaien sighed, passing a drink to Touga, effectively pulling the raven-haired hunter from his thinking stupor. "But they're too old to not be able to handle a single person on their own, especially with so many advantages in their favor."
"Do you still give blanks to their opponents?" Yagari couldn't help but ask as he took a long draught from his daiquiri.
"I haven't in years. The world doesn't face them that way." he replied, touching the tip of a small glass saltshaker. "Blanks..."
Kaien picked up the shaker, eyes running over its small, capsule design. He marveled at the smooth texture of the glass, at just how aerodynamic and deadly the design could have been. When squeezing the container in his fist, an idea was born. He presented the shaker to Yagari between his thumb and forefinger, rolling back and forth along the tips of his digits.
"This is a whole other level. We're going to need new equipment." he smirked, positively ecstatic.
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
Her heart stopped, tremors wracking her body when the line was delivered.
This was no time for a flashback, not now. Yuuki steeled her nerves and turned, pulsing life into Artemis, the curved blade emerging as it hooked around the blond's throat. She swung around behind him, leaving a welt line along his neck from where the blade pressed, but didn't slice open his throat. No, Yuuki needed to keep him from getting hurt on her hunter's blade, otherwise she would kill him accidentally. He had to be alive.
"You..." he breathed, keeping stock still. "Your scent's changed from the last time I smelled you."
"So I've been told." Yuuki mused in her silkiest voice, bringing a finger to caress the shell of his ear.
She couldn't help it. It certainly had been a long time since she played with the enemy, at least since the last time she had hunted with her pure blood unrestrained. Perhaps it was the Kuran blood running through her veins, that caused her to act so… intimate with her prey. It was disgusting, something she should have been completely opposed to, but it turned her on to know that she had such control over the life, death and actions of another person--it only added to the thrill of being an assassin.
Yuuki wondered if Zero could see her, and what he was thinking about if he was watching her pet the blond.
"You have such a nauseating scent about you as well." she growled. "But let's cut to the chase--who are you working for?"
"I work for no one but myself." he insisted stubbornly.
A fist connected sharply with the side of his face, snapping his head to the right as his jaw broke, already beginning to heal.
"S-sort of kinky, aren't you? Argh!"
Fingernails dug through his trench coat, grasping his balls along with a handful of material.
"Yeah, if you want to think of me that way," she chuckled, increasing the pressure on her grip until he turned red. "then you better be sadistic."
She fingered the glass shard, inserting the tip along his back. It didn't take much to pierce through his clothes and lodge the hollow vial in his heart.
"Now you listen."
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
It was impossible, how the hell could Aidou let his guard down? The scythe had surprised him, but what was more, was the strength behind the punch that had broken his jaw. That girl, whoever she was, happened to be one of the most ruthless females he had the displeasure of meeting, and he had known Ruka forever.
The sleek and sharp object that pierced through to his heart was the most surprising of all, especially since he wouldn't die from the damage--he hadn't been cut with the hunter's weapon. What was she waiting for?
"You're going to by my personal lapdog." she said, flicking his ear. "You'll come to me when I tell you to, and you will provide me with information about whatever activities you are participating in, and you won't lie about it, otherwise, the crystal I put into your heart will explode. Now, don't think about going and removing it just like that. It's too fragile, and any attempt will also break the glass, turning you into a vampire bomb, taking out yourself and anyone else close to you within a hundred foot radius."
Aidou's hand twitched, trying subtly to move it up to his heart, to at least take the dangerous girl with him.
"Oh I'd like to see you try to kill me with that method. That's my blood withing that crystal, you see, and another classified substance. The explosion won't effect me at all."
"You bitch." he growled, uncertain to what he should do.
"I'd keep calm if I were you. The heart rate of liars are irregular when they speak an untruth. It could fracture the vial if your heart were to become too excited. If you think I'm lying, then go ahead and try it out. Tell a lie to your beloved Kaname Kuran."
His heart faltered, the crystal fracturing as she said it would. Aidou's eyes widened in horror as he could feel and hear the fragmentation, wondering about his longevity.
"I forgot to mention," she said nonchalantly. "If you receive any sort of shock to the heart, then it could trigger cracks as well. Sorry about that. You might not want to risk any more of them, since you might not be so lucky next time."
The smirk in her voice was apparent, which would have been sexy, she wasn't going to murder him. Still, he hardened considerably, as he thought about Kaname, even trapped in the girl's grasp. There was a sadistic quality about her that reminded him greatly of the pureblood's cruelty.
"I'll call you." she smirked at the joke disappearing from the immediate area.
The blond had to remember how to breathe.
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
"I'm so lucky to have found someone like you here."
Zero was too focused on the situation below with Yuuki and the blond, that he didn't notice the other vampire creeping up on him. The hunter turned, intent on murdering whoever had come to oppose him, but he was too slow.
A single gunshot rang out into the alleyway, followed by the sound of Zero hitting the metal grating of his fire escape perch.
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A/N: Why must I always get ideas to include into fics that would require a lot of real world study? I researched forever on chemical the reactivity of mercury to other elements, just to try to be sure that it wouldn't have a chaotic reaction to the iron in blood. Curse this analytical side of me. I'm thinking in the next chapter it'll get worse.
Reviews: Please, thank you, and I would love you forever!
