Hikaru's voice caught in his throat. He dropped the knife and tugged backward, his hand small enough it slipped easily from the thing's grip.
"Kijima?" Hikaru said finally. He felt behind him, catching hold of a snow-covered branch for support.
The thing that once was Kijima moved slowly but perfectly as it twisted to look up at Hikaru. Its neck bent, black hair slipping down to shade one of the darkly glowing eyes. Hikaru turned-and ran.
This was going to be how he died. After miles of walking, sleeping under the stars with two men and a piece of paper with her face on it, nothing to entertain him except writing yet another draft of the song for when he met her-he was going to be eaten alive by the zombie of his best friend.
"Help!" he shouted. "Ren!" A branch snared his ankle; he stumbled. He spat snow, shoving himself back up, running again. "Ren! Kill Kiji-"
A cold hand wrapped around his neck, cutting off his shout into a strangled gurgle. The thing raised Hikaru in the air easily, shaking him the way a terrier shook a rat. "Kill who?" it said with a sneer.
"Ki-Ki-"
The thing grinned, dropping Hikaru in the snow. Hikaru scrambled backward in the snow, his eyes latched on the predator above him. "Ren," Hikaru whispered. "This is what I pay you for."
The thing craned its neck from side to side, unleashing a series of bone-cracking noises. Hikaru grimaced, turning his face away. When he looked back, it held one blue-white hand down toward him. Hikaru stared, open-mouthed.
"I just drained a fucking deer," the thing said. "Get up before I change my mind and decide your blood is worth more than your pocketbook."
Hikaru stuttered, his mouth moving uselessly.
"Fine," the thing said. "Stay in the snow." It turned, cape swirling around its legs.
"Ki- Ki-"
"If you try and make that my nickname today," the thing said, "I will disembowel you."
"You're a-"
The thing spread his arms wide, throwing his head back. He spasmed suddenly, his back arcing up then forward as he slammed his fist into the ground. It split beneath the impact. Snow fell from the trees around him, naked branches waving in the wind. "Vampire," Kijima said, his voice breathy and finally recognizable to Hikaru. "Fucking amazing."
Hikaru pushed himself upright, lips chapped from all the mouth breathing. Ren was walking through the trees ahead of them, his bow cocked and pace steady. Hikaru glanced at Kijima, then at the bow. He went to stand next to Kijima, forcing himself to swallow down his fear as he jumped up and down, waving at Ren. "Ren!" he said. "I have-We have-we caught a deer!"
Ren stood over the mess Kijima had left of the deer carcass, his eyes on the red staining Kijima's shirt. "You caught the deer," he repeated flatly.
"No," Kijima said with a wide grin.
Hikaru shifted his weight from foot to foot, edging away from Kijima slightly with each movement. "There was another hunter."
Kijima pulled his lips back farther, widening the grin into something too rictus to be a smile. Hikaru and Ren watched as thick fangs slid over his front teeth. Their breath fogged their air; Kijima's did not. Ren's hand hovered over his sword hilt then fell to his side.
"Let's go," Ren said.
Kijima's laugh shook snow off the tree beside them. "I'm a fucking vampire, and all you have to say is let's go."
Ren shrugged, a movement made extra mocking by his broad shoulders. Hikaru glanced at Kijima, then ran forward to Ren's side, matching each of the mercenary knight's steps with two of his own. "Should we…" he started quietly, trailing off.
"I can hear you," Kijima said, still standing, staring up at the trees. "I can hear e-e-e-everything…" He spun, his arms out, gauntleted hands striking snow off of branches. The night had fully fallen, moonlight glinted off Kijima's ice-blue cheeks.
"He's more useful now than he was before," Ren said, shifting his bow to rest on his other shoulder. "And he'll have a harder time finding a whore interested in messing with those fangs."
Hikaru snorted. He glanced back over his shoulder. Kijima followed now, his eyes a dull, burnt red. He looked like a satanic version of a knight errant, all his teasing indolence made jagged and sharp with power. Hikaru would be writing a song about someone other than Kyoko tonight, for the first time in months.
If they ever stopped walking, that is.
Reader, turn to Chapter 28.