Chapter nine: The first attack from Afrim, and who is Afërdita?

I heard a sound of a tree branch breaking, which caused me to look behind me to see Afrim, smirking at me with his eyes glowing bright red. "Hello, Afërdita." I was shivering in fear as he said this. "Wh-What do you want?!" I took a step back to feel my back hitting against the rose bush. "You don't remember your past, don't you?" I widened my eyes at this. "H-How do you know that?" His smirk widened as if he knew that I was going to ask this question. "That's for me to know, and for you to find out, but…" That's when he disappeared and appeared again, but he was a couple inches away from me, and was holding a dagger close to my neck. I could feel my heartbeat going up as I saw, and felt, the dagger close to my neck. "Do you want to remember? Or," I could feel him putting the dagger closer to my neck as if he wanted to cut me, "you want to join your mother on the other side." He said as tears formed in my eyes, and anger was rising over me. I gripped my hands into fist as I could feel something warm within my hands. This time, he has gone too far!

"Don't you dare talk about my mom like that!" I pushed him away from me, which I felt him cutting my neck a bit and hear him screaming in pain. I was in shock because there was a gray fireball on his stomach, it looked like I threw him away with that. I looked at my hand to see that there was a grey flame in the palm of my hand, and it wasn't burning me. "Wh-What the…?" I heard Afrim groan in pain, which caused me to get into my fighting position. He start to stand up, look at me, and laughed. "Nice trick you got there, but let's see if you can dodge this!" Then vines start to wrap around my body as I struggled to get out of it, but I stopped when I felt the thrones digging in my skin when I did this action. He must have noticed because he laughed at this as tears formed in my eyes from the pain. "A-Ayanami! Teito! Someone help me!"

I start to hear a groan like as if someone was in pain, which caused me to open my eyes to see Teito and Ayanami fighting with Afrim. "Teito, get Afërdita out of those vines." Teito ran up to me and tried to get me out, but he ended up getting injured on his hands as well. He stopped and looked at me. "Afërdita, use your ability!" I gave him a 'are you crazy' look because I didn't even know how I got the flames to appear on my hands, or even use them in that matter. "But- Ah!" I winced in pain as I felt a throne digging in my shoulder. "Afërdita, do it now!" I tried to surround myself in the fire, which it worked. As soon as the vines burned into crisp, I fell into Teito's arms as I shivered in pain from the thrones. I wasn't used to this, and I could feel the guest's stares on me as I heard their worried thoughts about me. "Afërdita, can you stand?" I looked at the battle, between Ayanami and Afrim, as I wanted to help them. I stood up, with the help of Teit, and looked at him. "Teit, whatever you do don't try to stop me."

And with that, I ran to them as I heard Teito screaming for me to stop so that I won't get injured. I had a feeling that if I don't help them that this can turn into a bad scene, which meant that someone was going to get hurt, other than me. I didn't want that to happen, and I didn't care about my wounds at this point. I stopped at the edge of the battle flied, made another fire ball, and threw it at Afrim. Luckily it hit him, but it made his attention go towards me. "How dare you!" I glared at him as he said this. I could feel someone beside me, but I knew that no-one was there. "Shouldn't I be saying that to you?!" I made another fire ball and did the same action, but he stopped it midway, made the flame turn into black, and made it go towards me. I tried to move out of the way, but I couldn't. I looked down to see that my feet and ankles were wrapped around by vines. I looked back up to see the fire ball again. I'm going to get hit! This thought crossed my mind as I closed my eyes to prepare myself for the pain that is about to come.

Instead of pain, I heard a groan a pain, which caused me to open my eyes to see that it was Ayanami, shielding me from the fire ball attack. "Ayanami…?!" I was shivering in fear as I smelled his blood in the air. "A-Are you okay, Afërdita?" I was still in shock because of what he did. H-He shielded me?! I thought as tears formed in my eyes. "Afërdita?" I gripped onto his jacket, and dug my face into his chest. I didn't want anyone to get hurt because of me. I didn't know why though. It was like I've been through this before, and I don't want to experience this again. "Teito, fight with Afrim." I could feel my heartbeat going faster as he said this, which made me clung onto him even more. I guess Ayanami figured out that I was worried about this because he also ordered that Haruse to help him as well. Then I heard Miroku telling the guest to leave for their safety. Ayanami carried me to my room as I continued to shiver in fear and in pain from my wounds.

"Afërdita, calm down. Everything is going to be-"

"How can I calm down when th-that bastard is trying to get me and hurting people I care about?!" I covered my mouth, instantly, at the fact that I snapped at him. "I-I'm sorry; I-I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay; I understand." I was confused at this. Why was he so understanding about this? But then, my thoughts were interrupted when I felt him touching my wounds lightly because I flinched in pain. "You need blood in order to heal these wounds." That's pulled my head closer to his neck, which confused me. "Drink." I blinked a couple of seconds, but then I figured out of what he was trying to say. He wanted me to drink his blood even though he, himself, was injured. I shook my head and dug my head in the nock of his shoulder and neck. "I-I can't-"

"Afërdita, you need blood in order to survive. I know that you're worried about me, but I'll be fine." More tears formed in my eyes as he said this. I didn't want to get blood from him because of the state that he's in. "Afërdita, it's okay." I felt my heartbeat go down as I opened my eyes to see my vision was in a tint of red. Then I felt two small fangs poking out of my mouth as I leaned against him, licked his neck, bit it, and start to drink his blood. I was shivering through it all as I tried to control myself. I also felt his hand went on the back of my head to reassure me that he was alright, but I knew that he needed blood to heal as well. I soon stopped, pulled back, and looked down at the ground.

"D-Don't you need blood?" I felt the remaining blood go down on the corners of my lip, which made me feel uncomfortable. Why? It's because it made me feel like a monster. Then Ayanami put his hand under my chin, made me look at him, went closer to my face, and licked off the blood. This made me blush and shivering a bit as I noticed that his eyes were in the tint of red.

"A-Ayanami?" He softly pinned me down onto the bed, and was looking at me with hunger in his eyes. "A-Ayanami?" He put his head next to my neck, and slowly licked it, which caused me to shiver from the feeling of it. Then I felt something penetrating my neck. "A-Ah~!" It felt pleasurable, and yet I could feel the blood going towards his mouth. A couple of minutes later, I was starting to feel weak and tried. "A-Ayanami, please… Stop." He luckily did, and licked off the remaining blood that was coming out, which made me shiver again.

"Are you okay, Afërdita?" I looked at him with a slight blush on my cheeks as I nod. "Y-Yeah, j-just tried." He picked me up again, put me in a laying position, joined with me, and covered us in the blanket. I was confused about this, which made me to look up with a confused look on my face. "It's okay; just rest, you need it." He kissed my forehead as my blush deepened with its color. I start to snuggle against him, and slowly fell into the darkness.

"Afërdita, open your eyes…" I opened my eyes to see that I was in an open flower flied again, and was wearing the same dress that I was wearing in the party. I sat up, and start to look around. "H-Hello? Mom" I looked around, but stopped when I saw mother with the same man that she called 'my dad.' I stood up, walked towards them, and stopped when I was a couple of inches away from them. "Is there something wrong? Why are you here?" I was confused of what was going on. "You need to know about your past, and what you're getting yourself into." I was first excited about what mother said, at the first part, but was confused at the second part. "What do you mean 'I need to know of what I'm getting myself into?'" Mom's face expression went into sadness after I said this. "There is a reason of why King Afrim is after you." I wanted to say 'duh,' but I knew better. "And that is?" Her eyes start to form tears in her eyes. "Of your abilities, your rank, and the fact that you're a half angel." I was frozen in fear as dad said this. I-I'm part what?! "N-No, that can't be it. I'm a vampire. How can I be part angel when I can drink blood?" He chuckled at this like as if he heard this before. "Do you drink vampire blood?" I looked at him for a few seconds and nod at his question. "Y-Yeah, why?" He looked at me for a few seconds and said, "because angels can't harm humans. But they can harm creatures that are not humans." I was in shock when he said this. "I'm sorry Afërdita, but we can't show you your past. But you have something that is a part of your past." I wanted to know of what she meant by that, but then everything start to go bright. "Wait! Come back!" I reached my hand out towards them, but I couldn't reach them…

I opened my eyes to see that I was still in my bed, and that Ayanami wasn't there anymore. I sat up, looked around, and saw that there was a note on a nightstand with a lavender rose. I picked up the note and it said:

Afërdita, I know that you're still weak from last night, so I told Miroku to make it a free day for you. Trust me, you need it.

~Ayanami

I smiled lightly at the concern that he had for me, and put the note down. I looked at the rose for a few minutes. I could feel my heartbeat going faster just by looking at it. I picked it up, and looked around for a cup. I found one in the restroom, filled it up with water, put the rose in the cup, and put it next to the window. I start to change my clothes into something else. I noticed that there wasn't any wound on me anymore, which shocked me a bit. I guess I did need blood in order to heal, I thought as I continue to get comfortable.

But what does my dream mean? What did they mean by 'you need to know of what I'm getting myself into?' Why didn't anyone tell me about the fact that I'm part angel? Why couldn't they show me a part of my past? And more importantly, what did they mean by I have a part of my past?