"You!" Tsukune said horrified, picking up Yukari's body and getting ready to bolt "Your supposed to be dead!"
"Really?" the boy said sardonically, checking himself over then looking back up, smiling with pointed black teeth "Death becomes me."
…
The boy had ran, he was smarter than he looked. Noruas winced and hopped off the banister onto the hardwood floor which creaked in protest. Noruas raised an eyebrow and noted that he was already gaining weight, he winced again, even the smallest of movements brought waves of pain upon him, like his skin was about to tear off his body.
It had nothing to do with his death only hours before, he knew that it was preparation for his ascension into adulthood; he was an exceptionally deadly cocoon. He laughed at the thought and was about to take off after Tsukune when the smell of burning wood distracted him. He lifted his bare feet and saw he was leaving black footprints in the floor, he snorted in disgust; he was not some newly fledged youngling unable to control his bodily functions.
He knew the final hours in his adolescent body would be difficult and he would need to compensate for his constant loss of heat so he decided to alter his course and postpone chasing after Tsukune in favor of softer targets. "Don't worry Tsukune" he said over his shoulder "There will be a time for us" he laughed darkly and then quietly made his way towards the rest of the students.
…
"This is just what I needed!" Kurumu cried out, reveling in the cleanliness and heat the shower was giving.
"Your very vocal today aren't you" Mizore replied nonchalantly to her right, scrubbing shampoo into her own violet hair.
"Why shouldn't I be?" she asked turning off her side of the shower and reaching for a towel "There's no Noruas to kill us just for fun or drag us through a forest"
"Don't forget pushing us off a cliff" Mizore said also turning off her side of the shower. Kurumu scowled and absentmindedly rolled her wrist, but she was determined to forget everything about the last couple of hours so she proceeded to towel off her hair and changed the subject.
"Can you believe this place? I don't know about you, but I am definitely not going to sleep tonight. I mean did you see the places we walked past? There was a theater! A whole theater with a huge TV complete with DVD library and more game systems than I could count. Just look at the room were in!"
Mizore sighed in annoyance at her somewhat over eager comrade but was forced to agree, this whole place was for lack of a better term awesome. After some searching they had finally stumbled upon what could have been a room in a six star hotel complete with kitchen, Jacuzzi, washer and dryer and various recreational areas. However there was a surprisingly small amount of beds, whether this was intentional remained to be seen after all vampires were known for more than just violence. Moka blushed profusely when she brought up where Tsukune was going to sleep and Kurumu and Mizore smiled devilishly. Even the shower room they were in at the moment was lavish, the ceiling was perforated with small holes that when prompted brought forth a rain of devils herb infused water. The hot water proved to not be a problem with our cold preferring snow woman as the room was divided into hot and cold sections.
Eventually Mizore and Kurume left the shower room and returned to the bedroom which of course was also very extravagant, the room itself was very large with crème colored wallpaper and a large king-sized bed draped with red silk curtains and red rose petals showered upon the pillows and sheets, it was very obvious the bedroom was not meant to be slept in. Moka was sitting in a chair, wearing a pink bath robe and blow-drying her hair in front of a well endowed vanity. When Mizore and Kurumu entered they also donned similarly colored bath robes, Moka relinquished the hair dryer to Kurumu while Mizore was able to simply whisk the moisture away. Of course they felt somewhat guilty for taking advantage of using there rooms facilities before telling Tsukune but he would just have to forgive them, Hell hath no fury like a woman in need of a shower.
Eventually there guilt got the better of them and they decided to retrieve Tsukune, Mizore was about to put her hand on the door leading to the entrance halls handle when she heard fast approaching heavy set footsteps outside, she pressed her ear against the door.
"What's the matter, we need to go get Tsu…" Moka began but was cut off when Mizore raised her hand, head still pressed against the door, suddenly her eye's widened and she quickly sidestepped as the door splintered inward pelting the trio with slivers of wood. On the other side of the door stood Tsukune with his right leg extended as a result of his impromptu 'This is Sparta' kick, in his arms was Yukari her head lolled and was bleeding from a cut on her forehead.
Imagine the girls surprise when he offered no explanation but instead sprinted to the kitchen, swept the kitchen implements from the dining room table, placed Yukari tenderly on the table, then began to move large pieces of furniture in front of the doorway. At first the girls were too shocked to intervene but eventually Tsukune ran out of immediate furniture and stood panting against his do-it-yourself barricade, his eyes were closed. Moka carefully approached, maneuvering her bare feet through the wood shards, she slowly reached her hand toward him and placed it on his cheek.
"Tsukune?" she inquired in a whisper, his eyelids opened slowly revealing irises that shifted spastically from brown to crimson. His lips parted and it took only two words spoken in a tone that could only be truth and a loud scream in the distance to shatter their reality
"He's alive".
…
Noruas moved quickly throughout the mansion finding pockets of students and eliminating them in silence, however due to an error of his own he alerted a student to his presence and that particular student happened to be a banshee. As the student opened her mouth and released a bone chilling scream Noruas froze, he didn't have time to wonder what gave away his position he leapt from the ceiling onto the student knocking them both to the floor. In any other situation he would have silenced her in the quickest way possible, after all the quickest way to a girl's heart is between the ribs with a slim blade but he needed the students alive…for the moment. So instead he used his left hand to try and stifle the screaming while he placed his right hand on her chest. Almost immediately the wail lowered in volume, the students fingers curled inwards and she hugged her arms and legs to her chest until finally the student lay in a fetal position and was silent.
Noruas released the flow of energy and stood up, he had left enough heat in her body to keep her heart beating but she was definitely not going anywhere, his hands had left her with second and third degree burns on her face and arms but those were acceptable losses. He went over a mental list of students he had brought along on his little field trip and was satisfied that only Tsukune and his harem remained. He assessed his condition and determined that he had gathered enough energy from the students to grant him enough time to toy with Tsukune; he wanted his last day as a juvenile to be thoroughly enjoyable.
He took a step backwards into a shadow cast by table onto the wall and the darkness enveloped him and Noruas disappeared, the drain from shadow walking was more noticeable but this was to be expected as his ability to do so was coming to a close. Noruas entered one of the infinite doorway's that lay inside of the shadow and found himself looking down on Tsukune who looked rather pale, he was no doubt inside of a shadow that was being cast by a light fixture or chandelier. The scene below him was one of momentary shock on the knife edge of panic and he decided to help it along a little and even he was surprised at the voice he was able too produce.
…
Everyone was silent as the scream echoed throughout the halls even after it was suddenly silenced the sound reverberated inside their heads, such was the power of a banshee's scream. Even after the echo ended they remained where they were, rooted in place by the enormity of what had just happened and the potential repercussions that went along with it. Eventually Moka whispered her voice on the verge of breaking
"We saw him die."
"You watched me die!" A horribly distorted voice roared in reply coming from everywhere and nowhere, the group jumped at the sudden noise and flattened themselves against the wall next to the door, eye's darting from corner to corner. "Even though I was the only thing standing between you and a coven full of vampires, you watched the life drain from me as I lay dying and you failed to lift even a finger to help me. What a bunch of cowardly, miserable, wretches I ended up with!" Mizore, as usual, had a trained eye for hiding spots and so was the one who noticed that a certain shadow on the ceiling had taken on a slightly darker shade.
She motioned silently with her hand at the shadow and Tsukune nodded getting the message, Noruas continued to monologue apparently oblivious to his location being found out. Tsukune edged slowly to the barricade "and to think!" he continued "I once thought that you would be worthy foes but no, you ended up…" SMASH! Noruas noticed a bit too late that Tsukune had seized the edge of a wooden coffee table and thrown it at the shadow, where it connected and smashed into tiny pieces and fell to the floor.
The shadow that was Noruas fell silent; the only thing that could be heard was Tsukune's ragged breathing and the sound of creaking wood from the barricade. Eventually a voice, deathly quite called down to them from the shadow "Getting a little thirsty are we?" Of course most eye's turned to Moka but Moka was not the object of this game, Moka was staring at Tsukune and to everyone's surprise backing away. Tsukune was now on all fours, his tendons in his neck stood out in sharp relief from some immense invisible effort and when he slowly turned his head to look at them his face was set in a grimace.
That was not the reason Moka was backing away, it was because half of his head was covered in silver hair that was quickly spreading along his scalp along with oversized incisors that were pushing their way out of his gums. When the transformation was complete Tsukune gasped and fell forward, his shirt soaked through with sweat. Kurumu dashed at him but Moka stopped her, grabbing her by her arm
"What are you doing?" Kurumu said nearly in tears and straining against the grip that held her "We need to help him!" Moka turned her forcefully so they were eye to eye and Kurumu saw that Moka was also crying
"That's not Tsukune" she said adamantly her voice wavering little "He's doing the best he can but eventually he'll… he'll" she finally choked on that last word but it was unnecessary, Kurumu had caught her meaning. Tsukune was just barely holding on to the lifeline that was his humanity before the newborn thirst took hold and he would be helpless as he attacked his friends. "That's impossible" Mizore whispered in disbelief "The holy lock-" but even as she said it they heard a loud 'chink' as the holy lock fell from his hand, all of the many rosaries inlaid in the chain were cracked and when it finally met the ground it burst leaving nothing but dust.
With the final boundary of his potential release overcome his breathing slowed and his body relaxed. With a slow grace that only a vampire could achieve he pushed himself up onto his feet, this was done gradually and all the while his impassive crimson gaze was fixed on the girls in front of him. He finally stood and the result of his transformation became apparent, it was like an artist had went at all of his human features with a paintbrush and enhanced them, sharpened them into the beauty of a vampire. Despite the imminent danger they were in the trio of female monsters found they were unable to breath, it was only when Tsukune took a lurching and strangely ungraceful step towards them that they snapped out of their stupor.
The grimace returned to Tsukune lips, he was still fighting the inescapable thirst but from the longing in his eye's they knew he wouldn't last long. Mizore was the first to take the initiative
"I'll get Yukari" she said quickly and began running to the kitchen and adding over her shoulder "You guy's find a place to hide" Reluctant to leave their friend behind but seeing that they had little choice, Kurumu and Moka ran to the bedroom, leaving Tsukune standing in front of the doorway to fight his own personal battle.
…
Mizore was trying to be as level headed as possible considering the situation, Tsukune had for the moment and for no apparent reason turned into a full fledged vampire in an instant, which would send him on a killing spree at any moment. The only thing that kept her from breaking down completely was the thought that eventually he would return to normal, caring, lighthearted Tsukune, still a vampire but still Tsukune. The thought that kept her in tears however was the thought that he would most likely take one of their lives to achieve this. She quickly entered the kitchen and there was Yukari, still lying on the table Tsukune had placed her on, when she confirmed Yukari was there she checked over her shoulder to make sure Tsukune hadn't followed her. She turned back to the kitchen table to pick up Yukari, but Yukari's body was gone, it was at this time that the storm raging outside made it's presence known, unleashing a peal of thunder and lightning, causing the lights to flicker once and die.
Mizore gasped in fear and backed up against the kitchen wall, a powerful blow to her abdomen caused the candy to fly from her mouth along with a line of blood and forced her to her knees coughing. A hand grasped a fistful of her violet hair and pulled her head up sharply, a smooth a voice called down to her from behind the hand
"Ding-dong the witch is dead!" The hand pulled back farther forcing her up and eliciting a groan from the snow woman "Did you forget about me already? All caught up in the excitement? I'm just as curious as you are as to Mr. Aono's current predicament but you should really remember who the real threat is." The hand pulled back even farther and Mizore's ability to scream was neutralized as she was too busy trying to breathe "Just a few more inches and we shall both be treated to a delicious symphony of cracking vertebrae" He closed his eye's and inhaled sharply only to release the breath a second later "Unfortunately I need you alive… for now. Don't worry they'll be plenty of time for screaming later when I kill Mr. Aono"
He clamped his free hand over her mouth and began pulling her back into the shadows, to her credit she was able to fire several ice shards from underneath her sleeves in an attempt to at the very least wound her attacker but they all impacted harmlessly in the roof and tiled floor. All she could do was s thrash as much as he would allow until darkness enveloped them both.
…
Noruas reemerged from the shadow into the kitchen, minus the baggage he went inside it with. He dusted off the sorry remains of his jeans and then surveyed the area with his hands on his hips, he had abandoned the staff back where he kept the unconscious students, dismissing it as a broken heirloom but he knew that was a lie and it hurt to let it go. After all it was the only thing he had left of… him. He shook his head vigorously, now was not the time to dwell on such things, he had a vampire to kill, a newborn exceptionally powerful vampire he noted grimly. He unsheathed the curved, black knife he kept in the pocket of his jeans and moved quietly towards the hall where Tsukune was still struggling with his newfound thirst. Tsukune was still standing where he was when Noruas found him and he smiled to himself as he approached him from behind, raising his knife to eyelevel in a reverse grip like he was taught.
Oh how easy it would be to lure the rest of the girls out of hiding when he told them of how Tsukune had died in a puddle of his own blood. He could even spice it up saying how he called out to them as he lay dying, how he reached towards them before the light faded from his eyes. He giggled inwardly and placed himself behind Tsukune, taking the time to analyze the exact spot where the stroke will fall. Before he raised the knife he realized with some small discomfort that he pitied the creature that had been Tsukune, he had been lured by the most seductive of enchantresses into giving up what he was born into. However small his life had been before he was lured into their clutches, surely it had been better than being turned into that which stood before him. Noruas shook his head in disgust, what he was doing was a mercy killing, he was doing the boy a kindness, he even found it in himself to place his hand on the boy's shoulder as he brought the knife level with the base of his skull.
That didn't mean however that he wouldn't enjoy eating the boy afterwards, he thought with a smile as he thrust the knife forward. What should have passed through flesh just as easily as it would rice paper met unexpected resistance; Noruas frowned in confusion and looked at his hand. Pale fingers held his wrist in place in an iron like grip, preventing the killing blow from meeting its target which had also moved from sight. Noruas turned his head to the side and he recoiled at the crimson stare he received. Tsukune, it seemed had found an outlet for his thirst. Noruas may have retaliated immediately but the way Tsukune glared at him gave him pause "Now Tsukune" he said in a now somewhat less confident voice "Be reasonable"
Authors note: I'm really sorry about the short chapters, to be honest the last three chapters were supposed to be one big mega chapter at least by my standards. But unfortunately due to some plot problems I encountered I was forced to split it up to by myself some time to think. On a lighter note I have finally devised a punishment for Noruas to live with and I think it's definitely appropriate and I hope you like it as much as he dislikes it.
