The sun was up and the light and heat from the open window was towards her face. She felt Zero's arms around her. She has her back on him and he's hugging her from behind.
She has decided the moment she found out it was her blood that can save him all along, that she will give it to him. She wondered though how it would feel when she finally would crave. Dr. Yanagi said that it's not blood she'd feed on but a human's vitality. The force that gives life to a human body.
Anja's musing was disturbed by Zero's scream.
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Zero heard footsteps and doors opening and closing. Then he heard his father's voice telling his mother to get his gun.
"I'll go with you." His mother said.
"I'll go in first. Call backup." His father replied.
Zero tried to wipe the sleep away from his eyes with the back of his hand and yawned. He stood and went to the door. When he opened it, Ichiru; who's room is right across his, had just went out his own room.
"What's going on?" Ichiru asked, yawning.
Zero shrugged and heard their mother from downstairs.
"Yes, they're under attack." Their mother said to whoever she's speaking to over the phone. "Okay. Make it fast please." And she put the phone back to its craddle.
Zero and Ichiru are already on the stairs. "What's going on, mom?" Ichiru asked.
They saw fear in their mother's eyes. Even before she was able to answer them, they all heard gunshots.
Riza Kiryuu's eyes widened. She pulled out a gun from her side and ran to her sons. "Stay inside no matter what, okay?" She told her twins. She then gave the gun to her eldest. "Zero, use this just incase. Protect your brother." Then she was out of the house.
Several more gunshots were heard from outside the house. Zero felt his heartbeat accelerating. He ran towards the window and saw the house across the street on fire. "Selene!" He breathed and automatically, his feet moved towards the door. But Ichiru was quick to capture his arm to stop him from opening the door and going outside.
"No! Mom and Dad will save them." Ichiru said.
But Zero was stronger than his twin brother, that's why it was easier for him to let go from his grip. "Stay here!" He said angrily and passed the gun to him. What Ichiru said didn't matter. He could not just stand and watch.
When Zero was finally outside, he saw several hunters that were his parents' friends running towards the house that has most of its parts on fire now. He can even feel the heat from the wind that was blowing, encouraging the fire to grow.
Zero knows there's a door at the back which he hopes is still safe. When he was about to run towards the house, a big and strong arms wrapped around him.
"No! No! No!" He screamed to his hearts' content, he struggled with all his strength but it was all futile. His eleven year old body is nothing compared to an adult and seasoned hunters'.
Something bursted from inside the house and the fire went bigger. The left side of the house which is where Selene's room is, fell apart. At the corner of his eyes, he saw his father coming out of the fire carrying a body in his arms. But it wasn't Selene. It was her mother and she was lifeless.
"Let me go!" Zero yelled and was still trying to escape Toga Yagari's strong hold.
He saw his father lay Selene's mother to the ground, together with another body. It was Selene's father!
"No!" He screamed once again. Someone hugged him tightly, he heard muffled sobs. It was his mother. "Selene! She's still there! Let me get her out!" He screamed. The thought of Selene being burned to death is slowly killing him too. "No!"
0-0
"No!"
Anja was shaking the hunters' shoulders to wake him up from an obvious nightmare.
"Selene!" He called.
"I'm here! I'm here!" She said loudly.
Zero opened his eyes when he heard her voice. As soon as her face registered on the hunters' head, he bolted to a sitting position and pulled her to an embrace.
Anja can even feel and hear his riotous heartbeat. "You're alive." Zero uttered.
"Yes. I'm here." She knows about the dream. He heard him screaming out her name and that he'll save her.
She never imagined his reaction to be this intense. But somehow, knowing this; she felt important. "I'm sorry. Sorry that we had to hide the truth from you." She whispered.
Zero gently pushed her away to rest his forehead on hers. Her little Zero was never good with words, and it seems like he's never outgrown it.
"Sorry... I didn't recognized you the first time." He said, his lips slightly touching hers. "I buried everybody who left me in the past. Mom, dad, Ichiru, your parents... and you." He uttered, emotions filled his words. Words that surely is difficult for him to say. "Kaito once said, orphans are the most effective hunters because they don't have people that slows them down." He says. "They only need to worry about two things. To get the hunting done, and to get out alive for the next one."
Anja felt the urge to throw something at that hunter again. But she can do it later, it's not everyday that someone like Zero would start talking.
Zero continued. "I just wanted to be a hunter for one reason. Vengeance."
Anja gulped. She realized she is asking for Zero to tell her 'everything' but she can't tell him everything about her real plans yet. She figured out if Zero won't tell her 'everything', it's just fair if she doesn't too. Though eventually, he would know.
"Chairman Cross helped me. He let me stay with him and Yuu-"
Anja pressed her lips on Zero's. As much as she wants to hear about his life here in the academy... she wants to be fair to him. She needs to keep him at arm's length because if he would know, he might stand in the way. Because just like him, she wanted 'vengeance'.
Zero pulled her closer to his side. Zero was nibbling her lower lip and his arms around her tightened as well as her hand on his nape and hair. She's starting to get used to his kisses but whenever she starts to question why they're doing this... she gets confused and sometimes it all boils down to Zero's welfare. But regardless, she is enjoying it. Zero doesn't need to know about it though. She giggled.
Zero let go of her lips and stared at her sharply but with amusement in his eyes.
"What's funny?"
"You."
"Me?"
"Uh-huh. You see..." She smiled. "You've always been too dependent on me."
The hunter frowned. She caressed his cheek.
"But I like you depending on me."
Zero smirked, he pushed her on the bed and settled on top of her kissing her like he never did before, until Anja's tummy complained loud enough to stop the hunter.
"Shower up and get dressed. Head back to the kitchen for breakfast afterwards." He said and stood at once, leaving the raven-haired girl lying on the bed jumbled at the hunter's hot and cold behavior.
"You should get your things back here." She heard Zero saying.
She got an idea. She got up and fixed herself. "No." That earned her a frown from the hunter. "It's high time you become independent." And she left him in awe.
0-0
After he's showered and has changed clothes he was about to go to the kitchen to cook breakfast when Kaito stopped him in the hallway.
"Two purebloods were abducted last night." He said so seriously, gone is his usual smug bullying face.
"What? Who?"
"Hsu Mei Ling and Kuran Yuuki." Kaito was looking at his reaction intently.
Zero paled at the news, he clenched his teeth. He remembered telling Yuuki before that he's going to kill her. He said those when he was too angry to think straight. For years he had been living in anger alone, it's what keeps him alive. It's the only emotion that keeps him going. Before he came back here at the academy, he was the angry-Zero... but now, not anymore. Another feeling took over, the feeling that maybe... just maybe, he can be the same Zero that he used to be. And he knows that feeling... it's what's left when all else fails. Hope.
He just can't let Yuuki; the girl who bravely climbed the walls he put around him and put-up with him at his most difficult times, be murdered for somebody else's cruel intentions. He was blinded to see it clearly before, but Yuuki hadn't done anything to hurt him intentionally. He will save her to repay for her attempts at saving him before.
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Yuuki opened her eyes, then she closed it and opened it again but still, all she see is darkness. She tried to move her hands to feel the surrounding, but she can't move them including her feet. She's tied! She's lying on her back and the ground; or wherever it is she's on right now, is moving. There's also that sound of the engine and she's sure she's on a moving vehicle.
Her mouth is taped so she can only make muffled sounds.
Suddenly the movement stopped and the impact made her roll and bump into something soft, like fabric. Then she heard a groan.
She's with somebody! Afterwards the events of last night washed over her. Mei Ling!
Sounds of clanking metals filled their ears and then some rays of sunshine and soft breeze of the wind touched Yuuki's skin. Two people in black overalls pulled down the covering and stood before them. Only their eyes were shown as their entire body is covered in black clothing.
"Our princesses are awake." Says a female voice coming from the one on the left.
A male voice chortled. "Lucky bloodsuckers... the stupid organization put up checkpoints to all the entrance and exits from the town to the academy. So we may have to postpone your deaths and do a little hide and seek."
Yuuki has then figured out that their abductors are humans. First they referred to them as bloodsuckers and secondly, they don't have a vampire aura. If only she has a gift just like the others, she can use it on them but no...
Their eyes' focused on Mei-Ling when she started to struggle and tried to break free from the cuffs that Yuuki realized they used on them. And everytime Mei-Ling struggles, her eyes turn blood red and Yuuki knew she's trying to use her gift... but as she does, the cuffs on her hands and feet lits up too.
The people in black laughed. "As if you can use your demonic powers on us with those anti-vampire cuffs." Says the girl.
They heard something, like twigs and grasses breaking and they were alerted. Another person in black appeared out of nowhere. There's three of them!
"Stay with them, we're gonna check on the area. Our rescue should be here any minute now." Says the girl and disappeared from their sight together with the other one.
0-0
"Because of the attack two nights ago, the organization placed checkpoints on all the entrances and exits from the town to the academy. The people they sent to place barriers on the gates of the academy arrived this morning... but we already have two purebloods missing." Yagari discussed. All the Night Class is present on the lobby except Kuran Kaname who left last night for the Vampire Council's meeting in Tokyo. Kuran clique is also absent in the meeting as they are currently making a 'search party' in the woods. "Be vigilant... I suggest you practice self-defense, do not just depend on your gifts... that would be useless if they have anti-vampire weapons that would suppress your powers. Knowledge is power. It won't matter if you are the most powerful if they knows your weakness. We don't know who these people are yet, but we'll try to save them. Our hunters are already searching for them."
Zero, Takamiya and Casey are not around and most probably are searching the woods now.
While Yagari was talking, someone tugged Anja's hand and pulled her by the window. Streaks of Irene's beautiful red hair shone brightly under the sunshine through the window. She leaned to whisper on her ear. "We found them, get dressed now." She said, her eyes was following a black hawk circling the academy.
Anja nodded and they both slipped through the curtains. When she reached her own room, she pulled out her luggage and opened a secret pocket where she hid the uniform. Her ninjitsu uniform. She got out of her dress and got inside the tight black overall. She scooped her hair into a ponytail and pulled the hood over her head then wore the black face mask that would hide her identity, just incase. She also wore a black flat boots and gloves for her hands.
She looked at her reflection on the mirror. She looks like them now. She prepared for this. She trained hard for this. Her thoughts were interrupted when a pebble hit her window. She immediately grabbed Luna and some blades and knives.
0-0
"Let's split up." Kaito suggested. Zero and Casey agreed. "Remember, if you find something... just press the button." He was referring to the walkie-talkie-thing he gave them earlier.
Zero saw two black silhouettes at the corner of his eyes, he immediately ran towards them. They move so fast, and they're circling him. Playing with him. He blinked, trying to follow their movement was painful in the eyes.
"Have you made up your mind, Zero?" asked the female voice.
It's them!
"Here to join us?" Followed by another male voice.
"No." He hissed.
"No?" Repeated the girl. "You've decided to die then?"
"We want you on our side, Zero. If we can't have you, you're better off dead." Says the other one and Zero felt a painful sting on his left cheek. When he touched it, he found blood on his fingers. When he turned behind him, a blade was stuck on the tree trunk.
Zero felt something coming so he immediately jumped as high as he can to his left and indeed, a knife hit the ground he was previously standing on. "Ofcourse, they won't hail you one of the best if you die so easily."
"That would be shameful... a disgrace to your parents." The guy said.
Zero grunted, "You know so much about me."
And they laughed. "More than you know about yourself." Says the girl.
"What do you mean?"
"I meant the 'curse of the twins'." Says the male voice.
Zero flinched, guilt still ever present inside of him. Eventhough Ichiru was already dying then, taking his blood even if he told him to do so would haunt him for the rest of his life. He finished the deed Rido Kuran has started.
'Zero... The last of my life...Take it...'
Those were Ichiru's words. Ichiru and Bloody Rose are now inside of him... along with the beast Shizuka Hio planted when she bit him that night, making him the most powerful hunter in history... but everytime he uses the beast's power he craves, that's why the first and last time he tried to use it was when he killed Rido Kuran.
"You killed your brother for power! That's something a monster would do." The girl accused.
They heard leaves moving on the bushes with a small gasp.
All of them turned to the sound only to find another person in black. "What are you doing here? Stupid! No one's guarding them you idiot!" Says the male voice.
Zero's walkie-talkie sounded with Casey's voice on it. "I found traces of tires going to the falls. I'm going there now."
The moment they heard that, the male voice grunted. "Shit!" He abruptly turned to the female. "I'll finish him, you two go back! The master is going to kill us if we go back with nothing."
Just that, the female disappeared in front of him. The one behind Zero looks hesitant.
"You! Follow her!" He ordered and that's when the other one disappeared too.
Zero took that moment of distraction to attack him with his fist but quickly enough, he avoided it by blocking his arm.
"You want manual combat huh?" Utters the guy and his knuckles landed squarely on Zero's jaw. The silver-haired hunter fell to the ground, the guy raised his foot to hit him again on the face when Zero kicked his other foot faster making him wince and fall on the ground.
Zero stood and as soon as he regained his balance, pain struck the side of his stomache and then he found a knife pierced on it. "I'm not fair. I use any advantage I have. That knife is anti-vampire, by the way." The guy said. He noticed Zero's eyes glowing blood red. "Wow, I consider myself lucky to have witnessed the great hunter Zero Kiryuu in his beast form." He saw the hunter's nails growing and his muscles expanding, some veins appeared on his neck that runs through his arms to his hands, his fangs are also protruding, drawing blood in his own lips when he grits his teeth. The guy reached for his gun to finish the silver-haired hunter while he's still in the middle of his transformation, but as he raise his head to aim the gun... Zero is no longer on his spot. He quickly turned but he's not behind him either. Something fast moved in front of him and then behind him... he heard something break, then a stinging sensation hit his knee. He found himself falling, kneeling on the ground finding no strength on his knees. When his eyes landed on his knee, he saw blood and something pointy piercing his skin from the inside. He winced and grunted in extreme pain. Zero broke his bone!
All the hair on the person's neck raised, the hunter's presence behind him made goosebumps appear all over him. He can feel him breathing down his neck. "I use any advantage I have, too." Zero whispered and the person screamed when he felt his fangs digging his neck.
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a/n: :p