Chapter Nine:

Yui changed into her regular clothes and left the hospital as soon as the hour striked and her long shift was over. It was nearly 11 PM, but she ran down to the parking garage and got in her car, turning on the inside light. She slowly pulled out the paper with the address the woman had written and stared at it, as if maybe the numbers and letters would start rearranging themselves before her eyes. But when she heard the elevator doors ding, she quickly turned off all her car lights and sat in silence, watching as three of the nurses walked to their cars.

She didn't know why she was being so secretive. It wasn't like she had parents to answer to, or a curfew or a bedtime to meet. But for some reason, she felt like this was something to hide… Maybe because deep down, she knew that others would say it was a bad idea to start looking for answers in the dark when so many people were mentioning monsters lately.

But the world was a cruel place. And just because she worked in an environment where she had to face all the bad every day, didn't mean that it was commonplace for everyone. Manhattan was a big place. Violence and death weren't everywhere. And she was hoping that this unknown place wouldn't hold either.

When the other nurses had driven off, she started her car. She put the address into her phone's GPS and slowly pulled out onto the street.

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He frowned.

What was she doing now? He knew where she lived, and he knew it was about time for her to be leaving that annoying death house, but she was going the wrong way. She wasn't heading to her home. And it was the middle of the night.

He crossed his arms over his chest and tightened them. After all, what did he care? Humans didn't purposefully put themselves in harms way, so it wasn't like she would willingly go somewhere to hurt herself. And she hadn't felt enough discomfort or anxiety earlier to be forced into something now. In face, she felt a bit calm to him. So, whatever she was doing, he didn't feel like caring much about it.

He just leaned against the doorframe and stared out into the night. The balcony was on the third floor of his family's mansion and a slight breeze came into his bedroom. He turned around and stared at his bed, wondering if she would ever lay there and stare back at him. But after a split second of those kinds of thoughts, he shook his head back and forth. Of course not… She wasn't welcome here. This was a house full of his kind. They would eat her alive.

Then again, she was his bonded mate. He knew his brothers wouldn't dare attack her. They wouldn't even agree to go kill her for him, and that was really saying something. Any other human and they wouldn't have minded the small field trip. He knew they enjoyed the hunt more than anything.

But, oh, how he hated how they just told him to accept his fate. He kept thinking that there must be some way to remove the bond. Or at least dull his senses towards her. Like now… She felt nothing. She was probably alone and lost in her own thoughts. If he could find a way to make this the norm and steady her human inconsistencies, he would be fine without her. Maybe he could drug her up and lock her in a room somewhere for the rest of her life…

"What are you thinking about?" Laito's voice suddenly echoed from behind him. Ayato rolled his eyes and turned back to look at the stars. It was a quiet, clear night…

"Go away."

"You look so lost in thought. Are you night-dreaming of your female?"

"No."

"How does she feel?—"

"I'm really not in the mood for you tonight. Go find someone else to bother."

"You're not in the mood?" Laito asked, and Ayato could hear his smile. "And what if I said I was here for you? And I'm in the mood."

Ayato replied with a sound alike to vomiting and his brother chuckled.

"How many days has it been?" his brother asked, checking his nails.

"What?"

"How many days since you've gone to see her."

"I'm not counting. I don't care."

"Oh, please. You've probably been counting. You probably know the hours. And the minutes. And even the seconds—"

Ayato whirled and slammed into the fur-coat wearing smartass. Laito slammed against the far wall and slid to the ground, tilting up his hat.

"Oh, so now you're in the mood."

"I. Don't. Care. Get it through that thick head of yours."

"And I know when you're lying, dear brother. When will you figure out that you're only so much fun to tease because I know you're torturing yourself, and when I bring it up… Well, that's the only time you're actually fun." He shrugged. "Otherwise, why would I even be here? At least Kanato knows how to put on a show when I need entertainment."

"You're both sick fucks."

"At least we don't torture ourselves over something so… unproductive."

"Unproductive?" Ayato repeated angrily. "You want to know what's unproductive?! Bonding to a human! What's the point? They aren't immortal! They can't hold our offspring! She's a time bomb to ruin the rest of my life when her short one ends!"

"Then go enjoy her while she's still around," he shrugged again.

"There's nothing to enjoy." Ayato glared, wondering if his brother needed to be slammed through the wall next time.

"You could mate with her again."

"I can fuck whoever I want."

"I said mate… You know the difference. You felt it… Wish you would describe it to me. In detail."

"Get lost."

"But I live here," he laughed, still sitting on the floor. And Ayato let out an exasperated groan. He made a dash for the window and flashed onto the ground below. Laito was at the balcony's edge in a moment, with a victorious smirk on his face. "Use protection!" he shouted with a sarcastic wave.

Ayato sneered and started heading out. He wasn't going to see her. He was simply leaving to get away from his annoying brother. And maybe go fuck a stranger or two.

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Yui kept her headlights on and stared down the street. For close to midnight, it wasn't at all as busy as she thought it would be. Or hoped it would. It wasn't so much a back alley as it was an unpaved, rarely used back road, behind buildings and in front of abandoned ones. But it made sense. This was the perfect place for an attempted murder. Luckily, no one was here now.

She turned to her car door and made sure all the windows were rolled up and the doors were all locked. She double checked and triple checked before putting the car in park and staring ahead.

Was she really going to just sit here…? She came here for answers, and there was no one around. She had her car and even if she stepped out, it was close by. She could see bullet shells on the ground in front of her car. All she would have to do was step out and pick them up, and she could start trying to put some of the strange pieces together from her most recent, and confusing, patients. There were some marks on the brick wall to her right, but she would need to get closer to see them clearly. She had her phone. She could take pictures and gather evidence here. It was all here. And the woman from before said that the police wouldn't listen to her. No one was even coming here for answers and she could see part of the mystery right in front of her.

There was a voice in her head that kept saying she should turn around. It was making her jumpy. She was a surgeon, not a detective. This wasn't anywhere near her field, but she knew no one was coming here to look at this.

She could always turn around and drop a tip off at the police station, but what if things changed by the time they got here? What if the shell casings were picked up and this scene was disrupted? What if… whoever killed that man came back to clean up their mess?

Suddenly the sound of her own breathing made her heart race, and Yui wanted to get out of this place. She suddenly realized that it smelled weird to her. She didn't even know what the scent was, but it was very dry. And it was almost as if the temperature had dropped quick a few degrees in the past minute.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. She reached over to her passenger seat and grabbed a quick pair of latex gloves and a small plastic bag. No fingerprints… She would be quick about all this. The technology in the labs at the hospital were enough for her. She could figure some things out on her own, but she needed to do this. She closed her eyes again for a brief moment.

She whispered to herself, "Did you really drive all the way out here to chicken out…? No."

She opened her eyes and took a steady glance ahead of her. She would keep her headlights on, grab a few of the shells that were in her light's view, take a couple pictures and head home to her nice warm bed. Simple.

Leaving the car running, she opened her door. She glanced behind her, but there were only the other headlights from the street over. Nothing to be scared of. She left the door open and stepped out, making sure her gloves were on properly. She jogged forward and bent down to bag some of the casings and slid them into the plastic bag. They were small—most likely from a handgun. She could figure out a way to cross reference permits if she could get a reliable source from inside the police barracks. She knew a lot of people, so maybe someone would do her a small favor.

Then she stood up and looked around. Down where she could see, there was still nothing. She nodded to herself and headed for the wall with the scratches. She took out her phone and turned on the flash, taking a picture from every angle. She paused and zoomed in on one of the pictures she'd taken, and her eyes widened. The marks did look strangely like animal scratches. But what animal was so strong as to leave such deep marks in a brick wall?

Suddenly, she heard the sound of her car door slamming shut and she whirled, facing her car. A large black silhouette stood in front of her headlights and Yui froze. She tried to squint to see the figure better, but it just looked like a man. A very large man… a bit hunched over… his head tilted to one side. But he wasn't moving. He was just… standing there, staring at her…

And then he lifted he head, and Yui continued to stare, getting more and more blinded by her car's bright lights behind the man, and his head flopped to the other side. His one arm twitched a bit and his fingers started twitching. Then Yui noticed the slight shape of a large knife in the man's other hand as he continued to twitch.

She was frozen.

She didn't know if she should scream or run. She didn't know if the man was going to start walking away or darting towards her. His figured seemed mangled in a way, but he wasn't moving at her. He was just twitching in place. She knew she was a deer in headlights—eyes wide, body stiff, her legs like Jell-O. She couldn't move, but a part of her thought that if she moved a single muscle, this man would come at her. Maybe if she remained motionless and quiet…

But it lasted too long, and she slowly moved her phone and turned on the outer flashlight to be met with red eyes and a mangled smile of sharp teeth. The figure lunged at her.

Yui screamed.

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Finally… he found what he was craving. It wasn't just the blood that he was missing. He should have thought about this before. He should have realized that the sex was a big part of it. He was so focused on the fact that he didn't want to be mated to someone that he forgot all about fucking strangers. He didn't need to be tied down by that pathetic human. He could do whatever he wanted.

But as soon as he found two willing females and brought them to a back alley, and they were both equally drained of blood and stripped of clothing, he was hit with… something. She was nervous. She should have gone home by now. Was she still out? He'd been trying to hard not to pay attention to her that he didn't realized that she was still on the wrong side of the city.

He paused and the one woman pretended to cry from the lack of attention.

"Honey, don't stop there. We were just getting to the good part, weren't we?"

Ayato released the human and she fell onto her back on the concrete ground and groaned at him. The other human laughed and crawled around to grab at his leg.

Ayato tsk'd and kicked her away. Yea, they were just getting to the good part… Oh, he knew. He was going to fuck both their brains out and then feed until they were both half-dead. And then he would leave them here and not care if anyone came and found them before they died in the street.

But this feeling was different. Sure, his female had been nervous before, like with that bastard, but she always had a sense of control. This time… it felt like she knew she was getting herself into trouble, but she was doing it anyway… Why? Humans were frail and their bones were brittle, and they knew this, and yet she was putting herself in danger? Was she stupid?

He looked in the direction he sensed her and headed out onto the main road, staring down that way, as if he could see her in the distance, but she was a couple miles away. He realized he'd subconsciously found his two meals a short distance away from her and was a bit disappointed in himself for not being able to fight this better. He hated the feeling of not having control over himself.

He glanced back over at the two wanting women on the ground and sighed. He had control… He could fight this. He took one step back towards the alley and his body jerked to attention, like lightning bolts were running through every inch of him. Something was very wrong. He had to move… He had to move.

Danger. That's what his mind was filled with. Danger. Danger. Danger.

It was her. She was terrified. Something was happening to her and he couldn't stop himself when he blinked the two miles in a matter of seconds. But where was she? Buildings stood in his way. He dashed around them, between them. Where was she?

Danger!

"Fuck!" he shouted into the dark. It was always so easy to pinpoint her before!

He found her. He could feel her. He dashed around one more building and reacted as he saw everything. It was a lesser vampire, and he collided with the creature as it was lunging for his female. Without hesitation, he bared his fangs and ripped apart the creature's face with his fingernails. It screamed its high-pitched scream, and he dug his nails into its throat next. It dropped whatever useless weapon it was holding and bared its own, smaller fangs, trying to get a bite. Ayato almost rolled his eyes at the weak attempts. First of all, no way was he getting a lesser's blood in his mouth. That would be disgusting… Second of all, he was a pureblood. The lesser knew it was about to die.

And in the next second, Ayato snapped its throat and let it slump to the ground. It attacked his female… It needed to die. He wouldn't have stopped ripping until it was dead. But she was still scared, so he finished it quickly and turned to her.

And froze.

She was there, staring at him, phone-flashlight in her hand.

She could see him.

"A…Aya…to…"

But her emotions were the same. Danger. Danger. Danger…. But the danger was gone. Ayato tilted his head at her. He'd disposed of the lesser. There was no danger anymore. But she was still so scared…

Of him.

He exhaled and didn't think too much about it. She had nothing to be scared of. He would keep her safe. He would protect her. He was right here. He never wanted to leave her side… He took a step forward.

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"A…Aya…to…"

It was her miracle patient… He was standing in front of her, covered in some dark red, thick blood from that thing, lying dead on the ground. The knife had skidded away in whatever small fight she'd just witnessed. But her miracle patient… He just tore that huge… thing… apart. How did he do that? How did he have that kind of superhuman strength? And then the words of the other patient echoed in her mind… "What do you know about monsters, Doctor?"

And then he took a step towards her and she could only drop her phone. She heard it crack as it hit the ground. She could even bring herself to scream. She couldn't bring herself to fight. To dive for the knife almost 5 feet away from her and defend herself. Instead, a tear slid down her face and her legs gave way and she crumpled.

But he caught her, and for some unknown reason, she reached around and held onto him. It felt like that dream she'd had… When she was scared and alone and all of a sudden, a stranger came and made her feel safe. A stranger… like the one who'd visited her that night…

As if to make it obvious, her miracle patient made a sound next to her ear… alike to purring. And it calmed her. She gasped as more tears fell down her face and she latched onto him, burying her face in his shirt so she wouldn't look around him to see the creature on the ground behind him.

But he was holding her tight, too. And that familiar scent washed over her, making her body relax and making her thoughts dull. His purring turned her body into mush and she melted into him, holding on like her life depended on it.

"Ayato…" she whispered.

"Mhm…"

"You're the—"

"Shh…"

"I'm safe with you…"

"Mhm."

"How did you… know I was here?"

Ayato frowned, but this feeling was like a weight lifted off his shoulders. She was here, in his arms. She knew him and she was calming down. This was his female. His. And he protected her. She was safe. Relief washed over him like a hot shower, and he felt his own muscles relax with her. He felt like they'd both ran more than they should have and were finally catching their breath… This felt right. He didn't want to leave her alone. God, he hated that she was so weak and useless, but she was his. She would always be his and his alone. He would let no one else touch her or have her. This was his property, and he would do with it as he pleased.

"Rest," he said, and she seemed to comply quite easily, and when she closed her eyes and leaned her whole body into him… He took her home.