Author's note: I do not own Vampire Knight or any of its characters. I simply borrow them to use in my own sick, twisted fantasies. ^^ I do, however, follow very closely with the plot from the manga. That does not mean, however, that I'm claiming it as my own. –Nira

Chapter Twenty Four

I woke up with a start ad looked around the room. Zero had just walked in and I sighed, falling back on my pillow. I stared up at the ceiling for a moment while Zero sat next to me on the edge of the bed, looking at me in concern.

"Are you alright?" he asked but I was silent for a moment, still staring at the ceiling before I looked at him with a smile.

"Yeah… it was just a bad dream."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… but what am I doing in the infirmary?"

"I was hoping you could tell me."

"All I remember was talking to Kaname for a while but I think I fell asleep mid-conversation. I'm not exactly sure. I might have passed out from not eating, too."

He stared at me for a moment before he sighed. "You should take better care of yourself."

I smiled, sat up, and kissed him. "Isn't that what you're here to help me with? … I'm gonna check on Yuki and I'll meet you in the kitchen so we can eat something, 'kay?"

"I guess…"

I smiled and got up to walk out the door. When I got to the headmaster's guest room where Yuki was staying so the headmaster could keep an eye on her, I knocked before letting myself in.

"Yuki-chan, are you awake? Does your head still hurt?" I asked and before I could ask if she was hungry, she tackled me.

Her hands were around my throat and she had an expression of fear and anger on her face and she was panting and trembling. I sighed and closed my eyes and after a second she snapped out of whatever she was thinking or hallucinating.

"Yua?"

"Are you alright?" I inquired.

"Are you? …Why aren't you fighting back?"

I shrugged, lifting up the cast still on my arm. "And because I deserve whatever you want to do to me. I've failed you as a big sister for four years now."

"You've got it wrong… I've been using you, Yua. You've been forced to play along with my selfishness. Being someone close to you—someone you could see as family… I was only doing those things for myself… If I could pretend that was indispensable to you, I felt it wouldn't matter if I had a past… Yes. I did it all for me… Otherwise I wouldn't have said something I shouldn't… Forgive me…" she smiled with shame and tears in her eyes. "Did I hurt you? Is your arm okay?"

"I'm fine. It doesn't hurt at all… Yuki-chan, you're not making any sense. It sounds as if you're desperately trying to tell me that you need me… But you're wrong. The one you need is Kaname. It's always been that way. Something is wrong with you," I replied, sitting up.

She stared at me in shock for a moment in silence as I examined my cast-encased arm. It didn't hurt at all anymore, and I didn't feel the tugging of my stitches on my hand or leg anymore, either. I shrugged it off, telling myself that I'd go to the nurse in the morning to have them removed. I looked at Yuki again and repeated my earlier asked question.

"Yes. I am. Sorry. I'm sorry for doing this to you, Yua," she replied, getting completely off of me. "I've been hallucinating and it makes me act weird. I wasn't myself. Yua, I'm really sorry for what I did, but I'm alright now, so…"

She was kicking me out of the room with an apologetic smile plastered on her face. When I was outside the door and she'd closed it, I heard her slump down against it and start sobbing. I sighed, leaning against my side of the door, aching for her. About five minutes later, Zero was walking down the hall toward me and I felt a cold draft coming from under the door and the presence of a vampire behind it.

"Yua, what's going on?" Zero asked, but I ignored him and opened the door to see Kaname holding an unconscious Yuki and preparing to leave through the window. I stared at him apathetically, knowing in my gut what was going to happen next and Zero was right at my side. He was the one to break the silent tension.

"Kaname, what do you intend to do with her?" he glared.

"You will not betray her," Kaname glared back before jumping.

Zero growled and tore down the hallway at full speed to try to find where Kaname had taken Yuki. I followed a second after and caught up to him. We passed the headmaster who was begging us to stop and listen to him and rushed past Ichiru who was shocked to see his brother glare at him, not even pausing to acknowledge his presence. I chased after him and all of a sudden, he stopped just outside the door.

"What is it?" I panted.

"I smell blood… It's Yuki's," he replied, looking to the roof of the main academic building, and we took off again without a word.

'What's going on? Is Yuki hurt? Please don't let her be hurt. Please don't let anything be wrong. Please don't let it be too late to protect her,' I panicked, thinking that an attack had started already.

When we got to the very top of the building we looked down at Kaname and Yuki and she was holding his face with wide almost awestruck eyes. I could feel it, so I knew Zero could feel it, too. He pointed Bloody Rose straight at Kaname's head as he spoke.

"I know that smell. It's Yuki's blood… However…" Zero started, his temper rapidly rising. "NOW I SENSE TWO VAMPIRES! KURAN! YOU'VE TURNED YUKI—!"

"Stop it, Zero!" Yuki yelled, standing between him and Kaname and blocking Zero a clear shot at him. "This man… he's… my older brother! …I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" she cried.

My heart sank. He was her brother? She was a pureblood? All along? Then what had I been to her? Had she really been using me for ten years for her own gains like she'd said she was just earlier that night? What had she really been to me those ten years? She was never human. She'd always been a pureblood. She'd always been one of those disgusting creatures that destroyed both Zero's life and my own. She'd been my adorable little human sister for ten years… but it had all been a lie.

"I'm sorry, Yua… nee-chan…" she cried as she passed out into Kaname's arms, and my eyes widened in both shock and rage as I clenched my teeth and fists.

"You're… siblings…" Zero muttered in disbelief.

"If I truly was born her older brother, I'd have been much happier. The look on both your faces says that you don't want to believe it."

"Yuki said you were he older brother… but you say you aren't. What do you mean?"

"Yuki is indeed a pureblood daughter of Kuran. Even a pathetic vampire like you should be able to sense that… But then you're also something that hunts us… What will you do?" Kaname asked, walking off with Yuki in his arms.

Zero and I stood there, dumbfounded for a long time. I was angry and betrayed and lonely. I'd finally felt like I'd had a home and a family to come back to—a place where I belonged—and people to protect and love as if they were my own flesh and blood… but it had all been a lie from the start. I had been protecting a complete and total stranger—a vampire! And even though she had always been a stranger, she still had the gall to call me her sister!

My body was trembling from the stress and emotional strain until my knees collapsed from under me and my frustrated sobs and tears broke loose. I hugged myself, clenching the sleeves of my nightgown and cried until my tears ran dry and my body felt heavy and numb.