A/N: It's worth mentioning that in this chapter and others to come I play a bit with the different powers that some of the vampires in the story have. These are just my own invention as Aido's is the only one we've seen in the manga. Hino Matsuri has said that we will eventually see others as well, so again, the ones I've chosen for different people will probably end up AU, but then, that's what this whole story is, soo... ;)
Individual responses in the bio as always.

Chapter Seven: "Nightmare to Nightmare"

Yuki started when the bell rang. She'd been gazing blankly at the whiteboard behind the teacher and hadn't realized class was wrapping up. Political Science was holding her attention less than usual today. She started to jump up from her seat, then checked herself. There was no need to rush. Not anymore. Slowly, she gathered up her books and closed her mostly empty notebook, tucking them into her bag.

Usually, she and Zero should already have been rushing outside to escort the Night Class to the school building and make sure the Day Class returned to their dorms without incident. But there was no Night Class now. Almost three weeks had passed since Kaname had disappeared. The first week almost all the vampires in the Moon Dorm had stopped attending classes, although most of them still resided on campus as a full-scale search and investigation was mounted to try and find the missing pureblood.

By the second week, the genie was out of the bottle, and the Night Class vanished like morning mist, either off in pursuit of leads that they hoped would take them to Kaname, or else called home by their families who were scandalized by the whole affair.

Yuki had never realized how odd and empty the campus would feel without the presence of the vampires in their secluded dorm.

Zero said he was glad they were gone, but Yuki wasn't so sure he was quite as glad as he let on. She felt sorry for her father too. All his hard work and dreams seemed to have disappeared overnight.

Yuki realized she'd stopped walking, staring across the campus at the dark roofs of the empty Moon Dorm. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. Something dreadful must have happened to Kaname that with all the people searching, they couldn't find him or even pin down for certain who had taken him. The vampire assassin that had been pulled from the rubble had revealed nothing. He'd committed suicide before he could be properly questioned. The vampires of the Knight Class had searched him of course, before tying him up and putting him under guard until he awoke, but they couldn't have known that one of his back teeth was hollow, and all he had to do was bite down hard enough to smash it and ingest the instantly lethal poison contained within. Kain and Aido had been in charge of the prisoner at that point, but they couldn't stop him from dying, much to their guilt and chagrin. Whoever the mysterious vampire had worked for, he was loyal to the point of death. It was not a comforting thought.

Yuki swallowed the hard, raw lump in her throat. This surreal, aching emptiness just didn't get any easier, it seemed. Not yet at least. She kept expecting to look up and see Kaname, even though she knew she wouldn't. It was like she was living a weird dream where everything appeared to be normal, except that something huge was missing.

"Hey," Zero's soft voice and his warm hands as they settled on her shoulders made Yuki start. She turned a little, craning her neck up to see him, but not moving enough to dislodge his hands. She was feeling very lonely at the moment, and his presence was comforting.

"Oh! Zero, I was just…" but she didn't know what she'd been intending to say, or why she bothered. He saw right through her, he always did, and she let her words trail off.

"Yeah, I know," Zero replied, voice still quiet. It hurt him to see Yuki this way. The past week or two she'd lost the sparkle in her eyes and seemed to have grown increasingly lethargic. He'd swear she was even looking pale. It was awful, seeing her so downhearted. It hurt too, knowing why. Knowing she was worrying about him. Stupid thing was… Zero worried sometimes too. Just because he felt responsible in some way, of course… or so he told himself.

Gently, Zero pulled Yuki in against him, cradling her head gently to his chest. She felt so warm in his arms… he closed his eyes, trying to keep his heart even as Yuki wrapped her arms around him in return and held on, not caring that they were standing outside where any of their classmates could have seen them. What am I to you, Yuki? Am I your 'little' big brother only? He didn't know, but if all she wanted or needed from him was his comfort and protection, then she would always have it, no matter what.

Yuki always felt safe when Zero held her and she took comfort in this remaining bit of normality, feeling his heart beat under her ear as she had so often since they were children.

"Kain's supposed to come by sometime this evening to visit the Chairman, let's go see if he's here yet, huh?" he said after a few moments, giving Yuki a squeeze before releasing her. They'd not heard from most of the Night Class in over a week now, but Kain and Aido at least made something of an effort to keep Chairman Cross in the loop out of respect for him, and for the fact that Kaname had placed so much trust in him. Besides… the headmaster was not without his own resources, and Yuki knew that although he had his hands full still running the school, he was also deeply involved in trying to unravel the mystery of what had happened here a few weeks ago.

She nodded, giving Zero a small, wan smile as they headed off together.

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Yuki tossed fitfully in her sleep, the sheets bunching around her legs. White.Red. Blood everywhere… Always the same nightmare.

The world dissolved into red… then Kaname was there. Not looking like he did now, but as he had then – his face rounder and softer with youth, his eyes not quite so distant, although already sad. The long, flyaway sepia hair whipping in the wind was unchanged. He held out his hand to her and Yuki reached for him, but her arm was so small and her fingers too short, she couldn't reach him and she couldn't move. She looked down to find that the snow was up to her waist. But it wasn't white. It was red. It wasn't snow either. No… she was mired in a deep pool of blood that was slowly sucking her under. She panicked and looked back up, searching for Kaname… but he was gone. Gone…

Yuki groaned and whimpered softly in her sleep, fists knotting feverishly in the covers. Slowly, in the corner of the darkened room, an even darker shape coalesced into being, as if the shadows were drawing together, away from the usual shapes they cast in order to form a different shape. This one was shaped like a being - a tall, person-shaped being.

Yuki, lost in her night terrors, was unaware of the nightmare taking shape in the waking world in the corner of her room.

Yuki tried to scream, but no sound other than a soft, pitiful mewling escaped her. No one could hear her, no one would come… there was no one left to come. They were all gone. All dead. She was alone. Yes… that's what she feared in the darkness of her dreams. That's the part she didn't remember when she awoke. They were all dead. There was no one left…

But there was someone there. She could sense the presence, although she could not see them. Ice swept down her spine and she struggled as she sank to her chest in the quicksand-like blood pool. No… this was wrong, there shouldn't be anyone else here. She was always alone in this blood soaked place. Always, for as long as she could remember. The presence she felt was not comforting. It was exactly the opposite and her heart raced in increasing terror.

The strange face of a man she did not recognize appeared before Yuki. He was looking at her in a way that made her want to shrink back and wish that the blood would hurry up and pull her all the way under just so she could escape.

He smiled coldly… and she saw the fangs. He was a vampire. He looked old… older than most of the vampires she'd ever seen. His eyes were cold… dead… He reached for her…

Yuki woke herself up with a short little scream of fright. There was no time to calm down and remember that it had only been a dream, however, because Yuki woke from one nightmare into another and in fact, wasn't sure she was awake at all. Because the face from her dream was still there, hovering over her. A gloved hand clamped over her mouth, choking off her cry and pressing her into the bed with painful force.

"Shh…" the bearded vampire hissed softly and Yuki's whole body trembled at the dark, terrifying aura that rolled effortlessly off of him. She was momentarily immobilized by fear and by the strange, heavy weight of his will pressing down upon her. "Be still, girl… there's an old friend dying to see you…" he murmured with an obvious hidden meaning that Yuki did not understand.

Suddenly Yuki realized that it wasn't just a glove pressing down across her mouth and nose… it was a folded cloth, the heavy smell of chemicals pervading her brain as consciousness swam sickeningly.

The jolt of the realization broke whatever spell she was under and Yuki thrashed with unexpected vigor brought on by pure terror and desperation. She clawed at her attacker's hand, fumbling fingers sliding between glove and sleeve to rake deep scratches across his wrist as she bucked and tried to roll away.

The shadowy figure leaning over her was surprised, but not thrown off. His grip tightened and his other hand grabbed the front of her thin pajama shirt, pressing down and holding her in place while the drug quickly took effect.

Yuki's struggles stilled and her body slackened, her hands falling to her sides and twisting weakly in the sheets one last time before swimming blackness engulfed her.

Asato Ichijo lifted the unconscious girl swiftly into his arms with a dark scowl. His wrist had already healed from her scratch, but he didn't appreciate her causing such trouble. He was not accustomed to dirtying his hands with this kind of work personally, but this was the best option.

Rido wanted the girl, and even with Kaname out of the way, she was very well protected. While they could simply have sent another squad of assassins after her, this was much less messy and much more efficient. With Ichijo's ability to control darkness and bend light waves to render himself or anything else invisible at will, it was simplicity itself to slip unnoticed onto the school grounds and into the girl's bedroom.

There were footsteps in the hall; someone must have heard the girl's small cry. It was unexpected that anyone should hear that, or think enough of it to come running, but it wasn't disastrous. Ichijo swiftly tossed his cloak around Yuki as he held her, and like shadows dissolving when the light shifted off of them, both of them simply vanished from view, although they remained in reality exactly where they had been.

"Yuki?" Zero knocked softly on her closed door. When he dozed off during the day, it might take a small nuclear explosion to wake him, but he was a light sleeper at night, since it was against his nature to be sleeping then although he still doggedly followed the normal daytime schedule of the human world. In any case, he was attuned to listening for Yuki's nightmares and he'd heard her cry out. Also… there was some odd, creeping sense of dread that was painting goose bumps across his skin and made him want to assure himself that she was all right. "Yuki?"

Getting no answer, he simply slid the door open, figuring she needed to be woken and knowing she wouldn't mind. She usually sought him when the nightmares were bad anyway. The empty, mussed bed made him frown and for some reason sent a dark chill up his spine. There was something wrong. There was something indefinably… evil… in the room that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He felt like he was being watched, his hunter senses screaming that there was a vampire nearby… but that wasn't possible, the room was completely empty. Even Yuki was missing. He looked quickly around… there was nowhere for her to have gone that he wouldn't be able to see her, he'd just come in through the only door and the window was shut. It was as if her nightmares had manifested and sucked her into the dream world.

"Yuki!" His call was louder, more urgent this time, bordering on panic. "Yuki, where are you? If this is a joke it isn't funny! Yuki!"

Flicking on the lights and looking around frantically, Zero knelt and looked under the bed in a last desperate hope that maybe she'd crawled under there for some reason.

Suddenly an intense cold wave passed over him, seeming to sap all the energy from his being and Zero swooned, senseless.

Ichijo stepped over the boy he'd rendered unconscious on the floor. He could hear others in the house awakening from the sounds of Zero's raised voice a moment ago and knew he had best be gone. Not that he couldn't take them all out if needed, but that wasn't in the plan and he preferred not to tip his hand too soon. Sliding open the window, he climbed out and dropped down the short distance to the ground below, carrying Yuki away at a brisk but calm pace. After all, no one could see them.

"Zero? What is it? Is Yuki all right? Another nightma…" Chairman Cross in dressing gown and nightcap, glasses perched somewhat crookedly on his nose, pulled up abruptly when he saw Zero slumped over on the floor and Yuki's bed empty. His gaze immediately flew to the open window, curtains fluttering faintly in the night breeze. He hurried over and peered out, but he saw nothing. Crossing swiftly back to Zero, he knelt by his as-good-as-adopted son's side, checking his pulse and rolling him onto his back.

"Zero, Zero wake up…" he urged, patting the youth's cheek.

Zero groaned and opened his eyes sluggishly, blinking a few times as if trying to figure out what had just happened.

Akatsuki Kain appeared in the doorway behind the Chairman. Of all of them, he alone was not wearing pajamas. Like all vampires, he was nocturnal and had been using the Chairman's study on the other side of the house when a familiar feeling of darkness and the sound of voices and movement at the other end of the dwelling had attracted his attention. After his visit, Kain had requested the use of the Chairman's library for the night, as it was quite extensive and there was a possibility that it might contain information intentionally omitted or stricken from similar records in vampire libraries.

Aido had talked Kain into helping him try to research what had happened to Kaname's parents, as it might have a bearing on what had happened to Kaname. Grasping at straws, perhaps, but as time drained away their options were dwindling alarmingly and there was no lead that wasn't worth at least considering.

Zero finally came aware all the way and he sat bolt upright, looking urgently around. "Yuki's gone!" he said as he scrambled to his feet, a trifle unsteadily.

The Chairman rose as well, lightly catching hold of Zero to keep him steady. A deep frown pulled across the older man's face. "What happened, Zero? Did someone attack you?" He couldn't believe that Yuki would just up and go off somewhere in the middle of the night without word.

Confusion blanketed Zero's face. "No… I mean… I don't know. I came in here because I heard Yuki cry out, I thought she was having a nightmare, but the bed was empty and she was nowhere in sight. I looked under the bed and then… I just blacked out. I don't know what happened… hey!" Zero had just caught sight of the fluttering curtains, pulling away from Cross and making his way over to the window. "Did you open this? It was closed when I came in."

Cross looked disturbed and deeply worried. "No, it was like that when I came in just now and found you lying here. Are you sure it was closed when you came in? I heard you calling for Yuki barely a minute or two ago."

"Before you passed out, did you feel anything out of the ordinary? Cold, perhaps? Or fear?" Kain's serious, worried voice from the doorway made both of the others realize that he was there for the first time.

Zero frowned thoughtfully, battling the panic throbbing in his throat in an attempt to think rationally. "Yes, I did. The whole room felt… dark. Oppressive. Right before I passed out I remember a kind of cold sensation," he confirmed. "I could have sworn there was a vampire in here, but there wasn't."

"There was," Kain replied, his voice quiet and tense. He crossed swiftly over to Yuki's bed, moving the covers around and bending his face down close, smelling them. "You just couldn't see him."

Zero looked at him like he was slightly off his rocker, but the Chairman knew Kain was searching for a scent that did not belong, something that would tell them who else besides Yuki had been in here.

"Some vampires have the ability to render themselves invisible to the naked eye, Kiriyu. They can command light and darkness and confound the senses of even other vampires. It is a perilous ability and there are only a handful who possess it," Kain explained. The only one whom Kain knew of by more than just reputation was the head of the Vampire High Council, Takuma's grandfather, Asato Ichijo. Actually… he didn't know for certain that Ichijo possessed this power. Certainly, no one had ever told him so in as many words. Those who had the ability did not advertise it, although such information sometimes leaked out, or was at least spoken of in rumor. But the darkness he'd felt before had reminded him of the time that the elder vampire had visited them in the Dorm. It was logical such an old vampire with such a powerful and relatively undiluted family bloodline would have such powers. And the pieces fit with what Zero had experienced.

It wasn't enough though. It was mere suspicion only, which was not enough to accuse an Ichijo, even among friends. Certainly, he and Aido had already tried to check up on the Ichijos as much as possible already, given that it was known things had not been easy between Kaname and his former guardian, and because Takuma had never returned to school and seemed to have effectively disappeared as well. His family insisted he was away on urgent family business in Moldavia, however, and so that was that. Shiki had never come back either, but the word was he'd been offered a film deal at the last minute to replace another actor and had snapped up the chance. It all seemed a bit fishy, yet weeks of effort had still provided no way to link any of it to Kaname's disappearance, and it was possible they were totally unrelated. Kain didn't know what to think anymore.

If he could just find something definite… Kain froze, nose pressed close to the sheets. He could smell Yuki, of course, the whole bed smelt like her, but there was a second scent here. It was faint, but unmistakable, and it was fresh. There was his proof.

"Whoever did this was careful not to leave any trace of themselves or their scent behind. But Yuki must have caused her assailant to touch the sheets here, or else scratched him and then touched them herself, because their scent is clear…" he said slowly as he straightened up, turning back to the other two.

"AND?" Zero prompted impatiently.

"It was Lord Ichijo," he said quietly. "As I feared."

Cross looked deeply troubled, Zero looked stunned. "I-Ichijo, but how could he… why…?"

"Not that Ichijo, Zero," Cross said softly. Zero was alarmed to see a certain light of resigned fear in the headmaster's eyes.

"No, not Takuma," Kain clarified. "His grandfather, Asato Ichijo."

"Head of the Vampire Council, the oldest and most influential non-pureblood in the vampire world," Cross sighed, suddenly looking very weary. In many ways Ichijo was older and more powerful than many purebloods. Cross had had dealings with him before over the years, especially through Kaname, and the thought that he had taken Yuki and done it personally filled headmaster's heart with fear and a shocked hopelessness that he battled hard to deny.

"Well if we couldn't see him, then that means he might not have gotten too far away! We've got to try and catch him!" Zero said urgently, not understanding why they were all just standing around here when some monster had made off with Yuki.

The Chairman grabbed him by the collar before he could rush off, holding him back. "And do what, Zero? How do you catch an enemy you can't see? And with only three of us to cover the whole school grounds? At best we will be rushing around in the dark wasting time. At worst we will provoke him and he may harm Yuki…" Cross's voice strangled off slightly, his throat momentarily swelling shut. That girl was his daughter, he'd raised her and he loved her as much as any father could love their child. Blood mattered nothing.

Zero faltered, hating to have to accept that Cross was right. His head and heart were spinning in fear and anger. Yuki... She must have been in this very room, along with her attacker, when he came in. They were right here and he'd not known it! He'd let them get away…

"Don't blame yourself, Kiriyu," Kain broke into his thoughts, apparently reading them easily in his expression. "There was nothing you could have done. Ichijo is a foe far beyond your strength. Even I would not be able to take him on alone, or resist the force of his will if he bent it full upon me. There are few who can. You are right, Chairman, we must go about this sensibly. If Ichijo has taken Yuki, it is reasonable to assume that he was likely involved in Kaname's disappearance as well."

Cross nodded, determination having returned to his gaze as he got over his initial shock and his mind quickly spun back into gear. "Yes, we must call back the rest of the Night Class Students who are still faithful to Kuran and tell them of this development. Yagari and the hunters he trusts must be informed as well…" Cross was now deep into planning and organizing mode, which was what he did best, be it school picnics or full scale search and rescue operations.

Zero felt agonizingly helpless, his stomach so knotted up that he felt sick. There was nothing he could do but wait for a part he could play in the plans swiftly being put together and enacted and each second that ticked by took Yuki further and further out of reach.

I'll find you, Yuki. I swear… I swear…

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Kaname dangled from his bonds, only semi-conscious. How long had he been living this nightmare? A week? Two? Three? He'd lost track of time somewhere in the midst of his frequent bouts of torture and unconsciousness. Between the dreaded visits of his tormentors, he spent a lot of his time in this half-dazed state. His uncle and his guardian made sure of that. They weren't stupid enough to let him regain enough strength to start plotting against them. So they kept him drained and weak. They gave him a little food and water, keeping him marginally sustained since they apparently didn't want him to die, but his true hunger was left un-sated and Kaname burned relentlessly for blood, the silent, unending torture of his body's need adding to the rest of the torment inflicted upon him.

Rido seemed to enjoy flogging him regularly for no reason except to hurt him, and spill more of the blood Kaname could ill afford to lose. Ichijo never gave his neck a chance to even start to heal, feeding on him brutally almost every day. It was disgusting… made even more so by the dark, violent bond that had formed between them. Kaname could not deny that Ichijo could make his knees weak with something other than just pain when he played his cards right, and Kaname hated him violently with his whole heart and soul for that. It wasn't fair that he should have so little control over his own body. His pure blood was a curse in this; it left him infinitely more responsive to bonding than any other class of vampire. Despite that, there was nothing but hatred in Kaname for his former guardian. Bonds tended to need to be cemented by strong emotions. Usually it was love, but in some cases, such as this, hate was just as powerful.

The worst of all though was when they would both work him at the same time, Ichijo at his neck, violating him, sucking away his lifeblood and touching him in places he did not wish to be touched while Rido whipped him mercilessly, making Kaname scream himself hoarse behind the muzzle gag, choking and gagging on the bit in his mouth. The muzzle he was always forced to wear cut him badly and his mouth and lips were raw and bleeding where the metal and leather chafed him.

In moments of weakness, Kaname wanted to die, was tempted to end his own life if he'd only had a means of doing so, in order to escape the prospect of this horror going on and on forever. But he refused to let himself stay in that frame of mind.

No.

He would not die. He would live. He would live to spite them, these people who did this to him. He would live, and he would avenge himself brutally on these bastards someday. This he swore with every tortured breath as Rido whipped him repeatedly within inches of his life and Ichijo ravaged his neck – mouth and tongue and groping fingers as brutally savage as his teeth as he tormented the younger vampire with his own helpless, agonized responses. Vengeance and hatred were powerful motivators. They were a slow poison darkening his soul, but they were all Kaname had to hold onto during the long, dark, unspeakable hours of his captivity.

Well… perhaps not all. There was also her.

Drifting in an agonized daze, Kaname would pull up Yuki's face in his mind. He would see her smile. He would remember the way she bounded across the yard to greet him as a little girl, her pigtails flying in the wind as she threw herself into his arms. Outside of his deceased parents, she was the only person who'd ever loved him unconditionally from the moment they met and never expected anything in return. Loved him not out of respect or fear of what he was, not because of his status, not even because he had saved her… but simply because it was the way she was. It was in her heart to care about everyone. She was the only one who could give him warmth… even now, even here.

Holding Yuki in his heart was Kaname's only balance against the deep, dark abyss of vengeance that consumed him. But as time passed, her face was fading from his memory and the more he was tortured, the darker and colder his resolve became. So much was being taken from him… before this was over, would he even have anything left to offer her, should he survive? Sometimes, especially after Ichijo had been having a go at him, it didn't feel like it.

Kaname heard the door creak as it opened. He'd been too out of it to scent the approach of his tormenters, but his body immediately tensed at the sound of their footsteps. He tried not to let them see how deeply their appearance cut fear into his heart, how much he dreaded and hated the sound of movement at the door of his prison. But he didn't always succeed. He was too weak, and they hurt him too grievously, too often. He couldn't help the way he shrank back slightly, as far as his bonds and the imprisoning circle on the floor let him. His heart raced in sickening fear.

No… damn you, no… he was still bleeding sluggishly from his last beating, it hadn't been that long ago. He couldn't take another right now… he just couldn't. But he always thought that. And they always proved to him that he could, and if they wanted him to, then he would. Why…? Kaname was given no reason, no explanation for his unending torment. They didn't question him, they weren't after information and there was nothing they seemed to want him to do except suffer and suffer...

He knew there had to be a purpose though, and this must be part of the game - to deny him even the right to know why he was suffering, to make him utterly powerless to even effect his torment by cooperating or not. Then perhaps, when they thought they'd broken him enough, maybe then they'd finally get to what they wanted, figuring by then he'd jump at the chance to escape this hell. Some part of his mind was dully able to appreciate the dark effectiveness of such a tactic, although they would be in for quite a disappointment. Kaname would never give them the satisfaction of breaking to their will. They could destroy his body; he would never give them his soul.

There was of course, another possibility for the reason behind all this… but if Rido thought he could break his nephew down bad enough to gain Kaname's consent to allow Rido to possess his body, the way he was currently possessing Shiki's… then the other vampire was sorely mistaken. Kaname would definitely die first. No matter how horribly painful the process was looking to be.

Kaname steeled himself, his fists clenching angrily into fists as he breathed slowly through his teeth. Please… no. No more… his mind pleaded, but those words would never escape his lips. They could beat him forever; he'd never beg them for mercy.

Suddenly, he realized that Ichijo and Rido's were not the only scent that had entered the room. They were not alone… his head jerked up suddenly, eyes wide with completely shock and horror as they met with the large eyes staring back at him with a matching expression.

Yuki.