Chapter 7.
Natsuki was glaring at Haruka Suzushiro, who stood opposite her, arms crossed, glaring back.
"I need to know where to find him, Suzushiro," Natsuki glowered.
"And I said that information is restricted, Kuga."
"I have Kazahana's permission," Natsuki crossed her own arms.
"Kazahana is the financial backer, but I am still in charge of this organization, and I still have veto power over her, per my contract, if I deem the situation too dangerous."
"Look, I just learned that Nagi is my Sire."
"Which means that he can exert control over you, Kuga. Absolutely not."
"He doesn't actually need proximity to exert control, Haruka," Yukino pointed out.
"Helping or hurting, Yukino?"
"Sorry."
"Suzushiro, please!" Natsuki pleaded, "One year ago, Tomoe Marguerite sicced a two dozen vampires on me and Nao trying to kill Nao. And when I got her to safety, a dozen of them tried to suck me dry and leave me for dead. And I would have died, except that Nagi saved me.
"And I want, no, I NEED to know why!"
"And I said 'No!' Kuga! Now, drop it, or I will suspend you without pay for…what are you doing?"
Natsuki lowered to one knee, then the other, then prostrated herself in front of Haruka, looking up at her with pleading eyes, "I am literally begging you, Suzushiro. Please! I need to know why he spared me! Was it because he wanted to use me? Did he think it would be funny? Or did…did a vampire actually take a sick form of pity on me? I…"
Haruka sighed, and spoke quietly, "Kuga, get up. You're embarrassing yourself. I'll tell you. Come into my office."
Natsuki rose and followed Haruka. No sooner was the door closed than she felt a sharp sting across her face as Suzushiro slapped her.
"Ow! What the hell..!"
"Do you like things that hurt, Kuga?" Suzurshiro's violet eyes looked at her sharply, "Because what I just did? That's nothing compared to what you're going to learn if you insist on this."
Natsuki rubbed her cheek, "That's nothing compared to what did happen to me already, Suzushiro. To what's been happening to me.
"Do you think I don't hear the whispers? People I used to think were my friends avoid me. They look at me like I'm going to corner them and suck them dry! They whisper when they think I can't hear them about me being 'fang-raped'! Even the ones who think they're being kind are really just patronizing and condescending.
"I appreciate your attempt at an object lesson in pain, Suzushiro, but trust me, compared to my daily life, that might as well have been a gentle nudge."
Haruka sighed, "First, before I tell you about where to find Nagi, there's something I need to tell you."
"That I'm only the second person he's ever turned in two-thousand years? I've heard it already."
"But what you haven't heard was the story about who and why," Haruka said, and she sat at her desk, and motioned for Natsuki to take the opposite seat. Natsuki did, reluctantly.
Haruka did some typing on her keyboard, then turned her monitor to face Natsuki, "Do you see this image, here?"
There was a picture on the screen, an oil painting of a young woman with cobalt colored hair, with long, sweeping bangs and large fanned out tails on the sides of her head. She had amber colored eyes and wore a Victorian styled dress. She was smiling, but her eyes carried a burden of sadness.
"Who is she?" Natsuki couldn't help but notice that there was a strong similarity of features between this portrait and herself.
"Her name was Nina Wang. Her father was a retainer for Count Nagi. Sergay Wang was murdered by vandals who broke into the Count's mansion while he was away. Nagi returned to find Nina cradling her father's cold body. Nina swore revenge on those responsible, little knowing of Nagi's vampiric powers. She set out on her own, looking for the men who killed her Father. She found them. And then Nagi found her, broken, bleeding, and on the point of death.
"Some people think that Nagi took pity on her due to her father's devoted service. Others say it was because of his own fondness for the girl. Some say he was impressed with her determination to avenge her father, and decided to give her the power to see it through, while others say he only did it because it amused him.
"But Nagi turned Nina Wang into a Dracula Class vampire that night. She then tracked down and killed the people responsible. She had a friend, a human girl who worked as a scullery maid, named Arika Yumemiya. Arika followed after the vampire Nina, recording her life for the next twenty years, before her records suddenly stop. She was looking for a cure to Nina's condition, and trying to keep her from feeding on innocent people. But she allowed her to attack criminals. The words she wrote were, 'Nina still needs to feed, and if she only goes after violent criminals, it's hard to stop her from having her way.'"
"Did…Did Nina kill her? Is that why her writing stopped? Or did Arika simply die. I mean, back then, there were oodles of ways to die."
"No one knows. The history of both Nina and Arika ends at that point. Neither has been seen or heard, since."
"I have to ask…Is there any sort of family ties between me and Nina Wang?"
"Noticed the similar features, did you?" Haruka sighed, "No, there's no blood ties. The similar features are…well…near as we can tell, interstitial."
"Superficial," Natsuki offered.
"Yes. That."
"Where will I find Count Nagi?" Natsuki asked.
Haruka handed her a piece of paper, "He's usually at this address. Please be careful. If you die right now, it will count as an off the clock incident, and your funeral services won't be covered."
"Fair enough," Natsuki nodded, taking the paper from her.
888888
"Where the hell is everyone?" Tomoe Marguerite walked angrily into her mansion, "I need to go have a word with Kanzaki! That self-important bastard had Kuga there and let her leave unharmed, and I am going to rip him a new one!"
No one answered her. She looked around. The living room was empty. The kitchen was empty. The bedrooms were empty. Had everyone left her? Were they out avoiding her wrath, or hunting for Kuga on their own?
"Seriously, where the hell is…every…one?" She entered the dance hall, and saw a horrifying sight.
In movies, t.v. shows, and video games, vampires disappeared into flashes of light and ash when they were killed. In reality, they left behind bodies and body parts, like everyone else. And the dance hall was filled with dozens of corpses, stacked like cordwood along the walls, and smears of dried blood all around the center of the floor.
A woman was sitting in a large swivel chair with an ottoman at the far end of the room, drinking a glass of wine, and with a sheathed katana leaning at arm's length on the ottoman.
"Ara, ara, but you did take forever to return home," the woman spoke in a cheerful tone of voice, "I was beginning to wonder if perhaps you had gotten lost."
She looked up, and already, Tomoe could see the blood red eyes, and she recognized her right away. She was the gorgeous creature that Tomoe had tasted just a few days ago. A beautiful woman with sumptuously sweet blood.
"Shizuru Fujino," Tomoe said breathlessly, whispering the name almost reverently, not mindless of her slaughtered cohorts, nor terrified of them, but indeed, enthralled by this woman's prowess, "You are a far more impressive woman than I initially gave you credit for."
"I'm afraid your subordinates were very rude," Shizuru chided her, "I asked them politely, I will tell you, to tell me who and where the surviving vampires that had attacked Natsuki were, and they simply refused to give me their names. So…." Shizuru shrugged as if her response to the situation had been evident, "I was left with little choice but to slay all of them to ensure I got the offenders."
"Practical," Tomoe said with open admiration, "Eminently practical. For what it's worth, you managed to get all the remaining ones, save for my retainer, Takeda, who is currently parking the limo.
"I'd be more than happy to give him to you," Tomoe smiled affectionately, "If you'll let me watch you punish him. You will, won't you?"
"You act as if this vengeance does not involve you, as well," Shizuru looked at her curiously.
"I ordered my men to kill Nao Yuuki. Natsuki Kuga interfered with that, and I'm afraid my employees got a little carried away with her in their frustration. It certainly wasn't my intention for that to befall her. But…well, their frustration was understandable. It was, after all, our best chance to take out the last of the Yuuki werewolf clan, and she got in our way."
Shizuru's eye narrowed, "For the pain you inflicted on my Natsuki, I should make you suffer a slow, agonizing death. But if you surrender to me now, I will be content with a quick, painless death."
"I'm afraid I can't do that," Tomoe smiled at her, "I still have something very important to do."
And with that, Tomoe waved at her, and then transformed into mist, and slipped out the nearest window.
She did not, however, make it to the garage in time to warn Takeda.
"Tomoe?" He strolled into the room, looking around.
"And you must be Takeda," Shizuru rose, setting aside the wine glass, collecting her sword, "Ara, ara, may I have this dance?"
Tomoe heard Takeda's screams of agony as she drove away from the mansion. She licked her lips at the sound, smiling.
"Oh, God, I love that woman," Tomoe sighed longingly.