Echelon

by Nur Misurr

Rank and title overpower free country ideals, often dividing families, even lovers for centuries. Haruka/Juuri & Kaname/Yuki.

51. The Crossing I

o o o

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The Crossing I

o o o

A hundred years passed. The floating mountains appeared flat and dark as charcoal in the violet ocean, and the colors of the rainbows teared down in the lake of the stars, chilled but rumbling from the muffled glow of moons, obscured with mystery and time. The female pureblood halted, heralded in light, curtaining down her petite frame on the glistening marble, as she sought the chain of sounds from the waterfalls while the birds retrieved stars and moons.

The place was incapable of change. It was disconcerting to say the least. Many times she ran back and forth from the palace, she realized, there was no trace of growth burgeoning her time as a pureblood girl, yanking Kaname's sleeve, or a young female. The familiar shadows and elegant stones of the courtyard were as pristine as having laid on the first day. Even the flowers and trees in the wilderness died, Yuki figured distractedly. She reflected on the preserved area, an impenetrable fence around her life, entrapping her, overburdening her carefree will indefinitely.

Ache lassoed her heart. She spent years trampling around the wilderness, encountering mighty purebloods, befriending the weak. An unmanageable weight edged in her heart, constricting her breathing, as if the impressionable lack of change in the courtyard restricted her life from moving forward.

Yuki hissed under her breath, her fangs clicking and jaw hooking tautly.

o o o

The hall grew restless. Kaname stared down in the ever-growing train of prattling and giggling females. The occasion was not tradition, but Kaname was beginning to question it. Every day more and more female purebloods engulfed his hall, touching his books, misappropriating crafts as trophy or relics of love. Whatever that entailed, Kaname scowled.

New faces shined up at him, tossing napkins and letters. They petitioned to be mated with him by means of fulfilling an agreement and rendering them to Seiren for approval. Not long ago he was hassled by the Imperial Lord to take several lovers for procreative purposes, and Seiren did not have the gall to set the petitions aflame — so Kaname was happy tarnishing them in her stead. She did not think much from his response, and she wasn't surprised by his apathy. More or less, she assumed he grew lazier and duller to take on a mate. His institution of freedom and solitude was obsessively substantial than to be dismantled over a woman.

Far from the truth, nonetheless, Kaname was in no mood or sobriety to change her perceptions. The sooner Seiren learned about his relationship with Yuki the better. His butterfly did not need to know about the affronting behavior of childish purebloods. His gaze narrowed on a certain red-head tucking a hand sculpture inside of her skirt.

Forget his heart, the females were becoming intrusive and impulsive with his property. Fire seared his crimson eyes, flashing bucolically and menacingly down the banister into the hall flooded with irritable fawning.

"Lord Kaname!"

"Come down and join us."

"Take a better look at your inventory." Adorned in exquisite shimmering robes, the multitude of female purebloods in the hall twirled, revealing long, pale arms, lifting their dresses to reveal smooth legs.

His blood numbed from exasperation. While Kaname was patient, he was not foolhardy or heady. The younger females were less than a quarter century old, having not lived long, it would be baseless to end their lives here and now. The urge was riveting though, poison slathered his nails.

"Don't be shy."

"We promise not to bite, hu-hu-hu."

Biting was the farthest form of endangerment, if he was honest. Kaname took a deep breath, lest he shattered the entire perimeter and laid waste to everything that took breath.

Seiren emerged from the shadows of the bookcase on the second level where he lingered, instinctively beckoned by his lack of amusement. His irresistible track of silence was bound to wreck into ear-splitting curses with imperceptible eloquence that would render the Imperial Lord's eulogies ineffective. Black sails of cold anger showered his tall frame, he clenched the banister meaningfully, poison hissed, melting the marble through and through.

She did not panic, not immediately, but the elusive and irrepressible fear that barely tickled her spine in his company or whenever Kaname was distinctly bothered, had returned once again. It wasn't the same with other purebloods or Yuki. They screamed outrage and broke things. Kaname was five times more powerful, his emotions and reactions would be ruthless were he to showcase a slither of it from the cortex of self-control.

"I will send them out and bolt the doors." Seiren hurried down the stairs toward the foyer. Like herding cattle and elephants, she began shooing them, outside, far from the steps of his hall.

A shrewd little pureblood of barely a thousand years old snuck up the stairs and tip-toed toward the owner.

"Lord Kaname," The blond pureblood with electric blue eyes smiled giddily at his towering profile, "You are multi-talented, this research compiled under a hundred years is outstanding." She pressed one of his collections to her chest, gasping beneath the hashed and narrowed crimson glare, "Take me as your student, please. I will do anything to learn from you." The pretty pureblood exuberantly declared.

At least she did not prattle on useless ideals. And her guise for endorsing his extensive research was a nice touch, but Kaname had dealt with a plethora of purebloods pretending to acknowledge his hard work. He turned away from the banister to loom before the girl. She grinned hungrily at him, her blue eyes sparkling.

Downstairs, Seiren's heart skipped like a stone on a lake. She darted out of the throng of fumbling, pouting females and stormed back inside. Kaname outstretched a hand toward the blond.

He is going to blow her head off.

Seiren sped up the stairs.

Kaname sharply clamped his palm on her blond head. His pureblood authority and abilities surpassed the rest of the purebloods. The assumable abject denoted control over another pureblood, a simple task for someone of his accolade. The pureblood did not seem to understand the fact entirely. She had barely lived long enough to understand power and struggle. He already looked the way he did when the Imperial Lord pulled her out of the immaterial plane 17,000 years ago.

"Revert." He commanded.

The book dropped out of her arms and heavily settled on the floor. She could not resist the order. Her arms and legs coiled, shortening. Brown-gold hair strung along her skin, and her large blue eyes shrank into the face of a blood-borne squirrel. She chittered and flicked her large tail indignantly.

"Go home." Kaname ordered.

The blood-borne squirrel hissed at Kaname. In disappointment she jumped down the stairs, passing Seiren's boots.

She was reeling from relief as she pieced Kaname under the glass ceiling, lit by rainbows. "I thought you were going to kill her." Seiren confessed, dizzy from the rush of fear that began to recede.

Kaname picked up the book. "Next time I'll squish her under my boot."

Internally, Seiren cringed.

He brushed the book and set it on a table. A ruinous trickle of roses and light nipped the crimson-eyed pureblood's blood streams, barricading a chilling vapor of stupefaction, and he couldn't speak a word. Kaname twisted in a flurry of black bats, escalating rapidly out of the hall through the doors with Seiren blinking in perplex after him.

Kaname landed in the courtyard, noting her immovable frame. She was facing something, but the dense smell of blood remained hypnotically fluid, feverishly pulling him. He weaved two arms tightly around her and tugged her protectively.

Yuki tipped her head up to peer into Kaname's impassioned eyes, stunned by fear and worry. Now, hushed by an intricacy of calmness and assurance after she was in his arms.

"Look at what I made." She gestured to the line of upright, immaculate, bright red roses.

The furrow on his brows smoothed, he visibly relaxed, his crimping heart tattered and hollow like a barren log after a month of thumping on turbulent waters. He imagined a pureblood had taken a bite of her addicting blood. Judging from the cut on her fingers, she had clawed the skin open diligently. Kaname took her fingers and slipped them on his tongue, soaking her delicious, vibrant life force. His eyes glowed emptily and his fangs lengthened in anticipation.

Yuki shivered against the sensation of sharp fangs, her fingertips stirred against the tickling tongue. Her eyes darkened and her breathing deepened. His eyes held hers unblinkingly, marred by hunger and need to see and touch her. She retracted her hand. Standing on her toes, Yuki nuzzled him on the nose, her breath ruffled in light and eager pants. His arm collected her around the waist, curling until she was pressed against the warm column of his body.

"I thought you might like the roses," Yuki whispered as he craned his neck down.

"They are beautiful," Kaname scanned the flowers, unraveling in the light, redder than blood, "You made them for me?"

Without leaving his arm, Yuki slowly plucked a rose and fixed it on the lapel of his jacket. "You have my blood and my whole heart, the roses are supported by my powers. They won't deteriorate when you touch them. They are thornless." She added.

The roses did not contain the normal sweetness. The perfume of the wild, hot light reminded Kaname of light caressing the fields and forests, mirroring on the lake, pooling into a faultless nectar of Yuki's own blood, infused in red pedals, as if her blood were the pedals itself.

"It smells like you." Kaname realized, partly mooring in consternation over which and how many purebloods would be lured by its smell, other than him.

"Now you won't have to miss me," Yuki smiled demurely, "If you want to be near me, the roses should hold you up until I'm back."

Gingerly he trekked long fingers through dark tresses of her hair, enjoying the soft thickness roping his fingers, clinging in return. "You shower me with love, Yuki. I'll make your roses part of the dimension and fill the mountains with them, to remind you to make your way home to me," Kaname whispered endearingly, kissing her forehead. "You can do everything — but remember," He started worriedly.

She opened her eyes once he straightened.

His piercing eyes widened imploringly. "You have to be with me only, no one else."

Yuki burst in to a wide smile but did not hesitate to placate him. "If I am ever away from you, you have every right to steal me back. I belong to you. You belong to me."

Kaname passed his fingers over her large beaming red eyes, brushing her eyelids. "No sentiment in the dimension can justify what you mean to me." He whispered.

She smelled his tears, the rift between desire and detachment, the silken interlock of hunger and pleasure, the incinerating purpose of self-dissolution as he obliterated in his bones and essence just to have a sip of her love. The calling was not primarily of the flesh or heat. His heart stirred apprehensively. Need transcended up his chest, incrementally pushing into his throat. His eyes had turned sable in the uninterrupted brilliant day, strumming in the diverting ray of breezes.

Her own eyes stricken wide, stiffening at his struggled breathing and needy black eyes. A gentle twist-tie, of daring to dream, tearing at the seams of hope and imagination, driven mad from need, the urge to have or he might break — had come open. In all her years, Yuki had never seen Kaname wear the expression. Were she to point at Kaname to die, there and then, he might yank out his heart and set it at her feet. For a sterile moment, she felt daunted. To hold him down and let his powers diminish due to his self-sacrificing feelings. She grew frightened to never see him again.

Yuki lowered her hand on his heart. It skipped several beats under her palm. Other purebloods gawked at her with red-eyed hunger with a fetish for power and status. She could not remember a pureblood ever holding a similar expression. Probably because purebloods were not willing to die like Kaname was for her.

He loves me.

She froze in realization.

Really… really.

More than physical hunger, he was imploring from the vastness of his soul. Yuki closed her eyes, instinctively she learned forward on her toes. "Yet you've shown me anyway." Beneath the tightening curl of his arm, she hung flush against Kaname, where she sighed shakily against his seeking lips.

His warm breath tasted like blood and fire, cooled by the flickering thunder of tongue. A fissure of long fingers filled her hair. He tugged her in to taste her sweet mouth, merge with her honeyed tongue and burn with the riveting sensation of fangs. Yuki clenched the collar of his jacket.

Had she shaken him out of his shell? For a cool-centered, cunning pureblood of obscene power had she made him foolish and urged him to design ideas around silly expressions? Had she made him less of his impeccable self? Kaname might not care. Around the curve of her ravenous heart, a small crack formed.

o o o

Kaname was about to decline if Yuki hadn't beamed at him with loving eyes, smelling and, no doubt, tasting sweet. He realized it would be rude to refuse. He decided if she handed him a cup of poison with those eyes, he would not waste a second. The dangerous amount of control she had did more than pacify him, it swallowed any threatening connotations purebloods carried about other purebloods. Yuki and he did not have a lack of trust. He could peak into her blood and drink her soulful secrets alone, which confirmed she earnestly wanted to help the No-creature and integrate him into their family.

Suki left his dubious line of questions aside and deviated his attention on the petite brunette. It had been a hundred years since he'd seen his mistress and master. There were no alterations to their form or physique, both looked the same. The deception was in their smell, hinting the telltale thread of age despite their youthful appearances. Someday he would rise among their ranks as a pureblood.

Yuki assessed him curiously. His long arms dangled like black streams and two legs filled a pair of gold shoes she'd provided. To the eye, he looked normal, except his bulging black eyes were outlined in tears. "How was it like living with Seiren?"

Suki lowered the round surface of his black head, gaping at the floor, "Lady Seiren didn't lock me up and threaten me. She taught me interesting things." He answered politely, "I understand now. You chose 'Suki' to remind me the truth about my life. I have to remember I am loved, wanted and protected. I have a home. A No-creature has nothing, but I have everything. I want to look at the dimension, again. There's more than feeding and hunger. I see now I have a lot to do."

Warm tears shimmered in Yuki's eyes. She hugged the black slime. "I'm proud of you."

Surprised by the gesture, he began sobbing. "No one has ever held me before."

Yuki patted him on the head, peeling back to inquire, "You'll turn a thousand soon, Suki. The Imperial Lord will make you a handsome pureblood. What kind of clothes should I make you?"

He could hardly believe it and sobbed harder, burying his face on his claws. Yuki continued to consolingly pat him on the head, patiently waiting for him to continue after he wiped the mucus running down his round black eyes. "I like how master dresses." He choked.

Yuki checked Kaname, whose eyes narrowed coldly in response. "Kaname has his own status. I can't give you his clothes. I can make you a set of clothes unique to you, will that do?"

Suki bobbed his head energetically, "Yes, mistress!"

The No-creature's excitement was unforeseen. Kaname had not sensed its usual hanker to kill. The creature was not trustworthy, that was for sure. He summed the contents of the subject in silence, gauging from the corner of the eye intently, beneath the coil of long lashes when he felt another pair of eyes upon him. His ears slicked straighter, as well as his spine. Her hand chiseled his left shoulder and slipped down the sleeve. The passing motion sent flutterings down his limbs, radiating a quake in his bloodstreams. His crimson eyes darkened hungrily on Yuki, matching the magnetic haze of lust and love in hers.

"You don't want him to stay with us." She knew what he was thinking without an ounce of hesitation. She could read his intention, the wry wrinkle on the corners of his mouth, and the black web of wrath in his glance.

Kaname was not taken aback. She was the only one with absolute sanctions and the well-meaning of those sanctions inducted by intuition. She knew him—too well. His remote expressions or brisk anger did not displace her own conduct compared to most. Yuki tended to take advantage of him in quixotic fashion. It was either that, or Kaname was softer than failing fire in throttling winter when it came to her. He had been damned. Not in the way most purebloods forfeited; damned in her smoke and heated love, her passion and sportive wiles, damned for thrusting a bizarre No-creature in his life. Damned, and he couldn't get enough. As fortunate and abled a pureblood of distinction as he was, Kaname never imagined adopting a black slime in a million years.

"I don't want any thing bothering us." Kaname declared. He secretly hoped sounding out his objection would transform the slime into a black cloud of dust, deducing a sprinkle of dust was purposeful and adjustable than that creature.

He wanted Yuki to himself as often as possible, but she needed to enrich her life with adventures and connections, and he could only go without her for brief spurts of time. To think he'd have to share her attention with a blob was irritating enough. If Seiren proved to be a magic-worker, it might pay off in his favor. He had yet to test the theory and judge how well trained the No-creature had become in a span of a hundred years.

Yuki smiled warmly all of a sudden. His chest tightened at the reaction. "You've been holding back. Kaname, it means a lot to me. If Suki harms you again, I won't let him get away with it."

"You'd bloody your hands." Kaname eyed Yuki amusedly.

"That should be obvious." She said without a pause.

"What should be obvious is I want you to myself." Kaname brushed his knuckles against her warm cheek. She captured his wrist and nuzzled it.

"Plenty of opportunities for that," Yuki pierced the pad of his index finger, forcing a thread of bright red blood into his palm. She traced the lingering trail of blood with her tongue, sipping the thickening sweetness, brimmed with memories of them.

Kaname tugged Yuki against him, pressing her tightly and frowned. "It'll never be enough." He mused her bright, upturned face. Her eyes large and unbearably passionate, urging him in secret for more. Her fangs unguardedly and lazily rested on the petering hinge of hot air as she swallowed hard. Her lips were outlined in fresh blood, his smell waded through her body. "I may never tire of you. Do you feel overburdened?"

She knew him better than Seiren, perhaps better than the Imperial Lord. Kaname would have liked to believe so, as she pierced his heart and life with her adulations and love over and over again, no end in sight.

Calm fingers caressed his jaw and brushed over his cheekbone. "Never. I love how you love, secretly but deeply. You know concealing it is useless and do it anyway. When you act on it, I can't get enough either. There's not a cell in my body you don't own. Take everything, you are my everything."

His eyes turned black with desire. The blood on his hand had dried. A thunderous crackle ricocheted across the recesses of her mind. Loud, alluringly clear, the sound of his heart beat rummaged her conscience, nipping her self-control. Kaname bent his head to lick the forgotten trail of blood tearing the edge of her lips. Yuki shivered from the contact, clenching her fangs from the languid wet caress.

We might be individuals, different in sets and skills, in appearance and life essence, and in supernatural powers, but we live tied to the same extremes and pitfalls. Blood-lust or perverse power, kindness or morality, the indignant plight to love and be loved without fear. We live enterally, breathe and laugh day-to-day in these ties — risking, in the end, to be condemned by it all.

Risks taken, although, not forgiven, for in times they secretly betrayed themselves and their pureblood identities in the height of passion and promise. It was no illusion to dare wanting what each craved, each other, or foreign ideas that simultaneously stole them from one another, and the eternal dream to die together. Many blood-thriving creatures were created alone. In their case dying after coming to life together was realistic, however least expecting it was in the eyes of the Imperial Lord, who put the dimension at their feet. It would seem everything was in their miraculous favor, their eternity would fare unsuspecting of ulterior consequences. Kaname wanted to believe it as much as his love for her.

The aspects of self-betrayal had snuck upon her. He found her closing the almanac carefully and placing it on the table. A shaky breath tickled down her throat, hopelessness drowning her chest. Yuki darkly studied the floating fire in the hearth. Under her grim stare, icicles formed around the flames, encapsulated in cold, transparent glass. She let out a drained sigh, her might and light diminishing the sterile silence.

Across from her, the No-creature sat puzzled and looked up from the calligraphy he had been practicing. A knot of overwhelming fear and frustration coalesced in blistering sharpness around him. His slimy body erected needle-like circular rings up his arms and legs. He gaped at his somber mistress, radiating an unnaturally terrifying heaviness and displeasure. He could sense now the fear in animals, the pain in the blood-formed trees, and the scheming hatred in purebloods over power and conformity.

"Something the matter, mistress?" Suki inquired politely.

The flames diminished to black smoke from her smothering glacial glare. Yuki blinked out of her reverie, without much reaction, she angled large maroon eyes in his direction.

He almost jumped from the seat. Her eyes were normally bright and warm. There was a commanding death-like authority in the glare, easily identical to Kaname's glare. She looked so much like him. Suki averted his bulging black eyes fearfully.

Yuki folded her arms, the controlled action overriding the pinnacle of anger in her blood. She despised projecting her low moods on beings and things, Suki, at present.

"A hybrid creature was created to hunt and kill purebloods," She whispered dubiously, "In truth, they were made to eradicate vampires completely. The woman who allowed this to happen is a pureblood, blood among blood — a distant descendant of the Kuran pureblood."

"Does the death of purebloods trouble you?" Suki asked gingerly, "Purebloods are invincible."

"Not this time," Yuki said firmly, "Purebloods made unnecessary trouble for themselves. She started a pureblood killing army, the hunters." Wearily Yuki closed her eyes to push away the images garnered through her readings centuries in the future. "That place is a pothole of war and death. Purebloods and humans discriminate one another tirelessly. Hunters can't be stopped."

Suki leaned forward over the table keenly, "Won't a hunter be tempted by pure blood?"

She would have jumped to agree, even Suki had consumed purebloods. Yuki smiled absently, warmth pooled her eyes as she glanced at him. "There's no detail on how a hunter feeds or if it does. The purebloods of the human world are born from one strain, one ancestor, Lord Kuran. Had the Imperial Lord sent more purebloods to accompany him, it could've worked in the their favor in the war with hunters. There aren't purebloods of prowess comparable to Kaname. Purebloods here are unfailingly stronger than those born out there."

Suki bobbed his head vigorously. "I see, so the hunters can eliminate them."

"Yes," Sadly, she frowned, tearing in the eyes, "The Imperial Lord wanted Lord Kuran to support humans. Hunters won't let it happen anymore. Too many morbid circumstances point blame on purebloods. Maybe he shouldn't have sent Lord Kuran in the first place."

Humans were not hunters, who could outsmart and overpower different levels of vampires. Most vampires had no powers, some controlled the elements, while a pinch could transform. Though they were different levels of power among purebloods in the dimension, ultimately, there were no different vampire breed. Yuki explored the notion for centuries: what it would be like to befriend other lives and levels of vampire, and she was reprimanded of the dangerous outcomes by Seiren. Whether half-pureblood or a lower grade vampire, a vampire desired a grain from the source of power, a taste of the pure blood.

"You will be pillaged and made a tool for millennia's," Seiren warned, "Look around you, a female pureblood isn't born often, but a female of power? The male population will eat you before you can bat an eye." As understanding and open-minded as Seiren was, she harbored strict thoughts on the topic.

Yuki was scowling at what she was hearing, not pretentiously, but in nerve-wrecking alarm. Each condemning word, a toxic nail to her internal organs.

"Don't get me started on how these male purebloods will eat you," Seiren murmured forbiddingly, her eyes narrowing unhumorously, "They can cut you to pieces and take your body parts to consume you. The one who eats your heart gets the most credit. It's for your own good to live in the villa."

"How suffocating," Yuki grumbled, at last.

Seiren impatiently gauged her through narrow eye lids, "Little Dark," She snapped authoritatively, "This isn't about self-satisfaction."

"All I have is Kaname to bother and he can handle so much, you already know." Yuki interrupted. "I despise making him upset. He likes to shut himself and throw himself to…" She blanked suddenly, "What does he do in there?"

"Little Light has a vast mind, like you're spirited for adventure. He's established in science and research, his work is lauded by the Imperial Lord. You'd know of this if you'd ask him. You're too distracted for your own good."

Yuki bit her lip, widely stumped.

Seiren shook her head at the pureblood girl. "I fear I may have committed an error in your education. Let it be that you stay put and forget about building relations with inappropriate purebloods who want to consume you — and worse."

Yuki scoffed, "What could be worse than getting eaten alive?"

"Impugning your dignity."

"Like a sex slave?"

She seemed to carry notions on the subject, to Seiren's withering surprise and upsetting relief. "And none of us ever wish it to happen. Your children will be powerful. Mated with the wrong pureblood, he can eat your children and use you to make more."

She paled drastically, matching the white coat draping her small shoulders. Her dazzling black hair laced the collars and pillowed down her chest, silk black trails, like the roads crisscrossing the mountains of the wilderness.

"Never in my life will I let that happen." Yuki announced, "I am irretrievably in love with someone already."

"Who?"

Yuki tipped her chin forward. "Kaname."

Seiren stalled in silence, digesting the information. She dripped lethargically in her chair. "Oh…" She mumbled, paler than Yuki.

"It's not ephemeral infatuation, I promise you," Yuki clarified.

She nodded slowly, her thoughts jumbled like a gordian knot.

"Why…aren't you happy?"

Color faintly returned to her complexion, Seiren raggedly managed. "Little Dark, it's no surprise you're endearing and kind. You throw your heart at everyone, at everything. I admit I'm not all too overcome by the news. You want to break down walls and connect. It makes you an easy target, can't you see?"

Yuki regarded her grimly, "You've looked after him, you know he's better than that."

Seiren apologetically nodded. Her fair hair trembled against her cheeks from the motion. "You may share power and blood, but it doesn't alter the darkness he comes from, war and thirst. He can enforce terror in others. If convinced, he'll consume you. I don't want either of you turning on each other. I'm telling you because you are Little Dark. You soften and lower your guard around him. If it were up to you, you'd let him kill you. Frankly, he isn't generous like you in the aspect."

"If Kaname kills me, you must forgive him."

Seiren clenched her fangs and contemplated her under the combative reign of complacency and outrage. "I will not." She countered, demystifying attributes of motherly justice, "You've set a balance, and you're responsible for maintaining it, or else he'll revert to the madness of thirst and war. After consuming your power, he'd be unstoppable. I'll have no choice but to kill him. I don't want either of you to suffer. I also don't wish to take his life. Do your best not to be consumed by him or another pureblood. You may know of love, but you must understand the consequences of disrupting your balance."

Yuki felt like she were choking on a chunk of ice, the lump constricted her air pipe, broken icicles chiseled her lungs. She gaped Seiren raptly. If she was gone, Kaname would not remain the Kaname she knew. It tore her heart suddenly, she forced herself not to burst into tears. "I require him to keep me in check too."

"Naturally." Seiren consented with another breath of air.

"Why are we like this?"

Seiren averted, a demure smile hooked the contour of her mouth, "I watched you in the immaterial plane. You didn't attack but protected each other. You gave him powers, so did he. It changed your foundations, made you stronger but co-dependent. It's uncommon in the dimension. Purebloods are solitary and built on their abilities through age, practice, and consuming blood. Little Light keeps you from abusing power by teaching you control. You need healthier limits."

She could be murderous, if pushed. Like her irrational feelings for Kaname, a secret obsession pulsating her blood since birth. "Are you saying there's a high chance I'll do something terrible if Kaname didn't return my feelings."

Seiren did not blink and regarded Yuki intently.

Yuki shuddered under the cognizant spell of her stare.

"You are endearing and kind," She repeated, "When a kind person is wounded, the world suffers."

Feeling uncomfortable, Yuki turned away, biting her bottom lip nervously. "My feelings for Kaname can actually be harmful?"

Seiren did not speak.

Yuki looked back at her guardian, inquiring tearfully, "Will you kill me when I'm a baleful pureblood?"

Seiren stared at her lap.

"Right," Showered by the cold rain of reality, Yuki moved her lips but found it difficult to find words, "You'd… have to kill me. Afterward, you'd… kill him too." A tear strayed down her cheek. "I hate to break it to you, Seiren, I think, I'll love him forever. No, I'm sure. I make a ruinous move, I'll kill myself. You won't have to do it."

"I don't want to lose either of you." Seiren whispered.

"I can't help but impose him, it's all I've ever done." Yuki wiped a straggling tear from her chin. "I think I should go far away."

"Don't."

"It would be healthy to get space." Yuki forced a tearful smile. Her eyes sparkled white and red, streams collected on pale cheeks, "It might temper down my feelings."

Three thousand and seven hundred years passed, she had disappeared and left Kaname in a state of distraught. Upon her return, her feelings had remerged, or rather a reminder to not risk her sense of self-control. The obsessive chain of demand and desire rang her bloodstreams. He could not live without her nor she without him. After she accepted him, and he made her his, he drank her blood as often as possible in intense need, sampling her secrets and twisted greed. His own madness shined in stark thirst, bidden by war, and unlike Yuki, if he was so inclined to snap, in an unpredictable second, one could not construe how Kaname killed him or her, just that he would be biting into their heart and consuming their power.

Over the edge of the paper, crimson eyes scanned the threshold to his hall. Before the shadow dipped and illuminated, he stilled in the beguiling summon of roses and light, tensing in the passing moments in anticipation to see her. The pupils of his eye incrementally widened.

Yuki slid between the ajar door carrying a tray. Relief strummed through Kaname once she appeared. She kicked the door shut with her heel. From her footwork, he could sense she wasn't in the best mood to entertain. Her eyes did not adorn the picturesque candor of heat and innocence, and her skin was whiter than the columns of the hall. Her heart beat erratically for a second, dropping lumberingly the next. Kaname lowered the paper as she arrived at his desk. Her sweet beckoning lips wilted at the corners.

She set the tray in front of him and met his eyes. A moment later, she forced an energetic smile and lavished him with the sight of white fangs. "I made you tea."

To the average person, she looked like her normal self. Kaname could read through her like a sharp dart. Her happiness was his happiness. He earnestly replied, "I love your tea."

She mechanically began to arrange a cup. The hot liquid dripped languidly out of the kettle and filled his cup. When he didn't reach to accept his share, she peeked to find him appraising and dissecting her very intently. Yuki shifted the hot kettle to the side. "What?" She mumbled.

Kaname laced his fingers through hers and clenched her hand. "You tell me."

She hissed a soft, long sigh and circled around his desk to stop on his left. Kaname found her dropping on her knees lethargically on the pillow he sat upon. She set her chin on his shoulder and peered up at his handsome profile. "Will you find me strange for wanting to help the Kuran bloodline?"

Kaname let himself contemplate an answer. He slowly reached for the hot cup of tea and blew on it, closing his eyes for a second to bask in the fresh nectar of roses she used. "I love everything about you, Yuki. Your restless curiosity of the human world is considered normal. No, it wouldn't be strange you'd want to help. I told you before, their lives are pre-written, out of our control. They've already lived and died while we're having tea."

Yuki curled her grip tightly around his arm, bouncing her chin on his shoulder in a nod.

"A thousand years here is fifteen thousand there. It's too late to do anything." Kaname reproved. "What could you possibly do for the Kuran pedigree?"

"What I've read hasn't happened yet," She tentatively interjected.

Kaname sipped the tea after the temperature was fitting.

"The Imperial Lord gifted me a book about the future. Things don't turn in the favor of purebloods. There will be a new type of creature, a breed created by a pureblood's blood, given to a human. She won't turn the human into a vampire, instead she'll turn him into a hunter. This event changes the trajectory of purebloods forever."

"Perhaps it's meant to unfold that way." Kaname answered ponderously, "Purebloods don't belong in a mortal world. The hunters can drive them out for good. Creatures become extinct all the time. Purebloods will be part of human history, not the future."

Listening to Kaname calmed Yuki, but she continued to feel remorseful over the descendants of Lord Kuran. The various pureblood clans that had formed and separated from the original family and their forthcoming pureblood descendants.

"Not all purebloods are insufferable, not all purebloods deserve to die." Yuki debated.

Kaname stirred by putting the cup on the table. He glanced down at her, blinking widely and beautifully from his shoulder. "Yuki," He said, "Majority find me evil. Only two know the real me. They might not deserve to die. Their departure means something else has to arrive in the human world."

"Like vampire hunters?"

Kaname shrugged, the motion made her chin bump up and down. "You're bound to me, there's no point going out of your way to help. You won't be successful." He said. "The Imperial Lord doesn't break laws of the mortal world. It's out of his scope of power."

"This war…" Yuki frowned, "Between hunters and purebloods is the end of vampires. She kills the pureblood king and demolishes the monarchy. Humans have to bear living with hunters, but their hands aren't clean. They also have vampire genes, but it's fine for them to live while purebloods have to die. What about Lord Kuran's mission?"

Kaname blinked in puzzlement. "Lord Kuran?" He might've heard the name before but failed to connect why his blood curdled sentimentally.

"He was the one the Imperial Lord gave the broken sword..." Yuki hinted, "You know, Light of Heaven?"

Kaname turned in his head, tossing and rummaging his memory. He shuffled mentally for a brief moment. "Hnh, that old thing."

Generations waged war over that "that old thing" and Kaname could not be bothered at all. Yuki chewed the inner lining of her cheek to keep from bursting. She loved the vampire, truly adored him. Sometimes she could crumble him like a ball of paper and throw him as far as the eye could see. Let him straighten himself out.

It rushed back to him, his eyes narrowed with interest. "Lord Kuran was very close to the Imperial Lord. He could fly to the fortieth layer and see the Imperial Lord's true form. He loved Seiren."

Yuki gawked, startled by the automated series of facts he'd vocalized. "How do you know?"

He was an intelligent vampire, although, it syphoned as a contradiction. He knew about the humans more than he conveyed and the reasons why Lord Kuran wasn't around. Kaname eyed his massive hall, glimmered in aisles of private research.

"He was the second pureblood the Imperial Lord created. I didn't realize he went to the human world." He did not take the knowledge to heart and imagined forgetting it over the terminating hour.

"He volunteered to go," Yuki glowered, "I didn't know Seiren and he were in a relationship."

"Their story isn't very happy. All the more reason to forget it. We're much happier." Kaname noted her cheeks flush bright red under his stare.

Taking note Yuki didn't elaborate on the aftermath of the lord's arrival in the human world where he met a human and produced a dozen children. She couldn't understand how elegantly Seiren contained her broken heart from watching him move on to another female. Her heart tweaked abrasively, she bit back fresh tears.

"Do you think he's the reason why she guards the Kuran crypt, where he's asleep?" She wondered, starry-eyed.

Kaname smirked at Yuki, full of romantic notions. "No."

"Oh."

It proved difficult to cast the niggling future aside, like it did not matter, and the lack of effort to not change the future even slightly for the benefit of purebloods hurt Yuki to the strands of her hair. She was not troublesome, or foolish. She may be idealistic, but her counterpart and beloved had other terms.

"Pointless."

Yuki skipped over the trapping roots of blood-sucking trees and dodged a flying rock.

Kaname searched the skyline and the lush tree ahead, glaring acrimoniously at the watchful rootless trees they passed. He would rather be entwined in bed with Yuki, counting the tickles spurring her shivers. Not exclusive to bite marks, the long-winded orgasms he'd imprinted on her body. He hadn't let her rest. Somehow she prevailed to escape his arms and wrestle out of bed.

The peeping shadows in the wilderness receded farther in the darkness at his stare. Kaname turned to eloquently utter to the dimension. "A waste of time."

Three paces in front of him, Yuki tsked and tossed him a look of warning. "If it's such a waste of time, why are you following me?" She huffed, bolting her fists and marching faster to lengthen their distance.

Oof!

Kaname angled thick black brows, an undesirable taste flooded his mouth. A moment later he realized he was beside himself and thoroughly infuriated. He would not let her trample alone to prohibited parts and wait for the Imperial Lord to behead her for disobedience. As the older of the two, physically, he was responsible for her life, despite her pail of dirty glares.

His breath sharply hooked his solar plexus, freezing his blood. Less than an hour ago she purred like a satisfied feline in his arms, taking advantage of him to the heights of her pleasure, which was sumptuously dizzying and exhilarating. He planned to spend the rest of the day nestled with her in the rooms, naked. Kaname scowled around the wilderness bitterly. Why was she always doing this to him?

"I would die than let you go to the crypt alone." He growled, a rampant fissure of cold wind throttled the trees. The starving red-eyed beasts of the wilderness scattered out of fear.

He did not care about the welfare of the human world. A pureblood from their home, Lord Kuran, slept in the crypt. If she could catch a word with him, he might shed light on the deliverances between pureblood, hunter and human.

She spun back impatiently, "Why are you always talking about dying?"

"Why are you always leaving me?" He boomeranged.

"They may not be purebloods from the dimension, but I would like to help."

Kaname inhaled a long, stalling breath, his eyes flashing black and red, narrowing to maroon. "So you say. The crypt has rules you don't know."

Yuki gritted her fang, glaring down the slope. She had never felt frightened or nervous and partly wondered how others fared around him. What she had done were vulnerable things in bed, and it might have lighted her ability to snap back and set him straight, when deemed appropriate. He was worried right now, not annoying on purpose. In the heart-clearing wine, she'd seen Kaname despairingly alone, dying. One of his greatest fear was losing their relationship, including her. She was poking it by outright sailing to the dungeons of hell.

"What rules can a sleeping chamber have, bring a pillow?"

Kaname's brows continued to crinkle, but he refrained from the ire, causing his eyes to darken. He clenched his jaw. "When I am so inclined I may share it with you, once you ask nicely."

"I will go whether you tell me or not." Yuki declared, stubbornly.

She was not docile, and he enjoyed the quality notoriously, until now. Jaw hinged and eyes burning, he trekked up the slope to tower her instantaneously. "I may be privy to the purpose of the crypt and its transportive channels. The resting place is for dead purebloods, which you are not."

"Seiren enters the crypt."

"Part of her duties as manager is inspection of infringement." His tone sank like hot iron on skin, singeing forever. The wind ceased hailing.

She glimpsed the darkness of his emergence and had yet to wiggle from any ounce of intimidation. Yuki contorted her mouth, watching him hook both arms over his chest, an impenetrable shield to ward her from coming near lest she had a penchant for spinning out of the layers of the dimension.

"How do I get in?" Yuki demanded.

Kaname plainly stared down the nose at her, waiting.

"I have to try!" She vehemently tinkered with hope.

Shrewdly his eyes narrowed, disappearing in the crack of eyelids.

Gingerly Yuki tugged the cuff of his sleeve and instrumentally pouted, "Kaname… Please, help me. Mmm?"

If her fluttering lashes did not have him, her pout surely did. Silently he sized the authenticity in her plea. He resisted yanking her in his arms.

Yuki nuzzled his sleeve, "I can't do this without you. Won't you help me? Mmm?"

"Come back to bed first." Kaname stipulated.

Yuki chucked his sleeve back and whirled back on her route. "I will barge in. I can and I shall. Seiren will eventually make her rounds—"

"In a thousand years." Kaname succinctly provided.

She did not let him witness her frown.

Slowly he trailed at her heel, guardedly paneling the dark shrubs. "We are not responsible for their demise, nor are we part of the lineage and have no business entering the family crypt."

Yuki halted dismally and spied on Kaname by craning her neck sideways.

"The war will happen regardless of your breaking in." Kaname wished to get through her and terminate the empty mission before she set her tail on fire.

"I guess it would be disrespectful." Yuki admitted, casting him a glance of intrepid inquisitiveness, "What else do you know?" He seemed enraptured by napping, a successful pretense but he knew the cause and core to vast affinities.

"Not enough. Apparently I don't know how to beg you to come home."

He was lying. For some reason, she was not upset by the response, staggering at the prospect of what lay beyond sleeping purebloods inside the crypt. Lives were at stake, she frowned.

Kaname noticed the corners of her mouth swivel down. He reached forward to capture her soft hand and linked their fingers firmly. "You can't enter because Seiren is the key."

Her head snapped up to peer at him widely. "Key?"

"Yes," Kaname caved. "She is the keeper of the crossing. Purebloods born here can't enter." He deliberated her sullen expression and sighed, caving again, "The purpose of the crypt is to ease his direct descendants back into the dimension. After they've cleansed and their powers restored, they can come out."

Yuki squeezed his hand earnestly, "How?"

"Seiren can tell you." Kaname caressed her cheek. "Will you come with me now?"

He did not take her home — or to his bed, Yuki was surprised. He loomed at the forefront of Seiren's table, authoritative in his height and incorrigible dark stare that was as expectant as a storm. "Yuki needs to speak to your e-" Kaname paused and regained better sense, his honor as well, "An acquaintance of yours."

Seiren sat in awe. He avoided her office immeasurably. Seeing him accompanying Yuki sent a shiver of caution up her scales, a grizzly brush tempering on inconsolable discomfort. She thoughtfully pieced the pair beneath her lashes and decided to imbibe on the mysterious conversation. "Acquaintance?"

Next to Kaname, Yuki fidgeted. "I might startle him from his nap. On second thought, I don't think he'd want to see an unfamiliar face. Could you maybe wake him up?"

Seiren lingeringly eyed the two. "Why must I wake him at all?" She stopped and frowned. "He is alive?" She inquired.

"Yes," Kaname answered. "After a long adventure he prefers to sleep. A common theme among purebloods of the rank."

"Are you sure you need me to wake a pure—" Seiren abruptly rose from her seat, stiffening, "YouwantmetowakeasleepingKuran." She insinuated, her blood chilled.

Kaname tossed his lover a calm stare. "Oh," Yuki nodded quickly, "Just Lord Kuran."

"Wh-whom?" Seiren wheezed.

Kaname raised a brow at the uncommon sight from the frosty gate-keeper and second-in-command. "The owner of the Light of Heaven."

As she had suspected, however, she needed to make sure she had heard correctly. Glossy-eyed, Seiren concernedly whipped toward Yuki. "Why? Why even?"

"War is imminent! His hard work will be for nothing. His descendants will be eradicated, he must know."

Who in their right mind would want to splash ice-distressing news on the progenitor of the Kuran bloodline? Seiren shivered and closed her eyes, not in frustration or grief, but to nurture her erratic heart to calm. On the opposite side of the table, the pair watched in placid anticipation, like turning roulette and spinning dice, removed from the dread the silver pureblood emitted. She hadn't lost her pride and would not let them watch her diminish.

Seiren lifted her head solidly to face her audience. "No, you won't." She implied conclusively.

Yuki's mouth hung open, pallid. "Why not?"

Kaname had curled his arms across his chest, black eyes flashing silver. "You promenade the human world and rub noses with the descendants. Yuki can't do much but read about the horror. She finds it her responsibility to make a difference."

"We can't let this happen!" Yuki exclaimed.

The news was no news to Seiren, frankly. "We can and we will." She firmly replied.

Kaname assessed Seiren. The Imperial Lord handed Yuki the almanac outlining the drastic future events. Her personality and nature would not stop pressing on a rescue, albeit, the impossibility. Yuki was too stubborn to acknowledge surrender. The pureblood creator knew she'd stir trouble.

"So the mission is over." He deduced.

"The Imperial Lord won't let purebloods stay in there anymore," Seiren kindly conveyed, "Purebloods have no integrity. The better half of Kuran descendants are involved in slavery and murder. They overpowered the world and ruined innocents. They throw around terms such as, 'pride' and 'power' interchangeably, as if it's their right to win and outdo every creature. The war is the start of new life. The rise of hunters is imperative for humanity's sake. They're supposed to wipe out vampires forever."

"Can you tell me there's absolutely no Kuran who is good to humans and vampires?" Yuki demanded.

Seiren began to shake her head, "That world is darker. Laws can't suppress a pureblo—"

"If there is even one pureblood, Seiren, it's enough for vampires to keep going."

Seiren sighed, "Yuki, it's more complicated than that."

Bitten, Yuki ceased and silenced.

Studying her out of the corner of the eye, Kaname said, "Let Yuki meet lord…" He blanked, "The owner of the broken sword — or she'll never let it go."

o o o

With great reluctance Seiren entered the crypt to retrieve the sleeping pureblood while Kaname and Yuki waited. Yuki twisted on her heel to peek at his silent contour against a tree trunk. The branches trembled and leaves shivered, flinging upon her from above. She noted the surrounding wilderness did not attempt to ambush and drink their blood. Pointedly she gaped at Kaname who had closed his eyes. She had dragged the lazy pureblood out for most of the day. Gracefully she approached him and set a hand on his folded arm.

He opened his eyes, peering down at her.

Seiren's scent drew their attention toward the cave. The pureblood wandered outside, her eyes had dulled and the rest of her had paled drastically. She passed them without a word or glance.

Guilt whipped Yuki from the inside, cementing her bones. She watched the pureblood disappear in the wilderness leading back to the Imperial Lord's palace.

Kaname straightened at the sound of footsteps cutting out of the stone threshold. A tall shadow struggled out, stumbling on the grass. Yuki shot past him to provide aid, but he snatched her back out of caution, jaw taut and eyes remorseless.

"A pureblood's first instinct is to feed, you will become fodder." Kaname counseled.

Yuki held still, watching the staggering progenitor crawl on his knees. He braced an arm upon a rock and pulled up to sit. Streams of black hair ran fixedly down his torso and thighs, past his knees. His pale complexion contrasted the thriving darkness of the wilderness. Pure red eyes grimaced shut against the bright rainbows and floating ledges of mountains and waterfalls. They waited and watched for a long time, evaluating his next move, but the lord simply sat on the rock, staring all around him in ravenous interest. His eyes widening by the passing seconds and his ears tweaking from the friendliest engagement of shadows and forestry movements. The sounds were vague, but definitely familiar. He gaped in bewilderment at the flocking moon-carrying birds and rainbows sealing the sky from darkness.

He placed both hands on his knees and closed his eyes.

Yuki curiously blinked at Kaname. He looked unimpressed but had yet to blink away. "I'll go talk to him."

Kaname clenched her arm tighter.

She placatingly caressed his blanched knuckles, feeling her arm tingle from lack of circulation. "I will be right back."

Kaname narrowly stared at her, "I would rather d—"

Yuki fiercely shook her head, thrashing her hair, some managed to tickle his cheek. "I never want to hear you speak of dying, ever. I mean it."

He was baffled, his brows lifted in secret amusement. "Stop bringing me trouble, then."

"What trouble?" She gasped, confounded by the accusation.

"You wander there, and he swallows you. I will have to kill him. Make no imprudent moves." Kaname spoke through clenched fangs, struggling with the admission, "He is stronger than we are."

Yuki watched the immobile pureblood. Seiren hadn't been on board with the idea. Waking another powerful pureblood changed the dynamic in the dimension. There was an upsetting possibility he might turn them into appetizers after centuries of no sustenance. Seiren hadn't divulged how the purebloods slept inside. His skin and hair were not shriveled or decayed. Tussled hair and wrinkled clothing, he looked like he had just woken up from bed, like any other day.

"Are you certain you want to disappoint him with bad news?" Kaname sliced. "He does not need the extra motive to kill us."

She could hear Kaname's blood roar as he assessed the level of threat, ready for war. His fangs had lengthened and the hair on his neck stood out, his claws exposed. Yuki faced her lover and cradled his cheeks between her palms. "Go home."

Kaname gripped her wrist. "Don't be foolish."

"You can wait out if he eats me."

Classic impulsive Yuki. Kaname hissed a final growl. "NO."

And then, a baritone, almost flutey and rhythmic, called out to them. "Will you two stop squabbling, I am trying to listen to the birds!"

Underneath the tree, the lovers froze.

Yuki uncorked out of Kaname's arm, and he slid into motion toward the sitting pureblood, who hadn't opened his eyes and resumed to focus on the sounds around him. Yuki quietly approached the rock he perched. Kaname fished her right arm and tugged her a few steps back protectively.

"Lo-Lord Kuran?" Yuki whispered, waveringly.

The long-haired pureblood kept his head bowed, eyes shut.

"Please, don't eat us." She fruitlessly muttered, noticing Kaname's glare of warning.

He mused over the tempo of the pureblood's heart, even and sturdy, unruffled by the movements of the world, their smell and hot blood. To his surprise, Yuki gently dropped to her knees in front of the lord, peeping into his shadowed countenance.

"Actually I asked Seiren to bring you out. Forgive the interruption from your eternal sleep." She began hesitantly, licking her bottom lip, she sought Kaname for help.

"We are Kaname and Yuki." He inputted reflexively, "You are here because there are important things to discuss."

"Important." The lord rumbled and tipped his head upward, carefully unveiling bright red eyes to study the purebloods before him, "The universe and I have parted ways. Nothing is important."

"Uh," Yuki shifted on her knees.

His eyes flew in her direction of crackling twigs under her leg.

Uneasiness knotted Kaname's chest, his grip on Yuki's hand clenched in preparation to whisk her up and away any moment.

"What I'm about to share may potentially change your mind."

"Change," The lord gargled amusedly. "My life has ended. I have no mind, no taste or inkling to change."

Yuki gloomily lowered her eyes. She worried a loose thread on her dress, "You were part of two different worlds. You had to adjust, your unprecedented course makes you noble. Your quest in the human world was challenging. You lost everyone you cared about."

The lord absently surveyed the cave he had ventured from, entrenched by the ever-so hungry wilderness. "That would be true." He murmured sleepily, going over his words and blinking at the young purebloods. "My waif's corpse returned to the earth. She was born human and cannot come to the crypt. We will never see one another again. It's a stifling life," He confessed numbly, "Life here is eternal. My other life felt short despite outliving everyone."

He remembered the fragile woman he produced children with, whom he cherished and protected. Seiren was a fleeting candle light in his life. Her prodding to meet the lord must be a humiliating slap to the face. Seiren probably hated Yuki by now.

Ugh.

She had no time for this and couldn't turn glum thinking about that.

"What else do you remember?" Yuki inquired, gently.

He sat silent and closed his eyes, as if going back in his mind. Images nicked him, but he listened and waited. "Famine and war, lots and lots of blood. Humans perish quickly, one wonders why they need be bothered," He somberly muttered.

"Do you suppose vampires made conditions worse for humans?"

"We helped them live longer," He replied after a pause. The lord stared at Kaname.

"Your direct descendants are sleeping in the crypt, do you think they meant to harm humans?"

"When you are constantly surrounded by weakness, you become abusive." He returned unflinchingly, "Humans are cunning too, but we were always stronger. Their plots didn't hurt us. The Light of Heaven was of great importance. The problem was power. Children diverted and made possessing it their goal, betraying and killing each other in the process."

The same war was evident in the dimension. "I'm very sorry." She murmured.

"Our foundation became weaker and weaker. My children left the scheming clans to hide the Light of Heaven. The mission was never about the bloody sword. We were experimental tools in a terminal world."

"Do you think you were successful?"

His long hair fluttered in the wind, tugging against his cheeks. "Only as successful as my successor." The lord whispered.

Yuki bit down on her lip, hard, forcing air in her lungs. He had done his best to teach his lineage not to abuse but to live harmoniously among humans. Unfortunately it seemed purebloods wanted to steal the weapon designating the throne and control the vampire kind.

"My lord," Yuki nibbled her lip nervously, "I fear your descendants will be eradicated by a breed called hunters."

He sat up at the announcement, his eyes barely widening.

"The vampire kind will turn extinct. The world will belong to hunters and humans."

"Someone managed to destroy my sword." He mumbled, stunned.

"It seems that way." Yuki quietly replied, not sure how it was achievable, the sword was broken purposely.

The lord was lost in thought and tipped his head up at Kaname one more time. "Did someone else emerge from the crypt?"

"Seiren didn't disclose." Kaname said, offering softly, "But no one has."

"I don't see how it was done." The lord confusedly whispered, "The second piece of my sword lives here. Someone would have to come and take it."

Yuki raptly checked Kaname. "A descendant can do that?"

The lord spied Yuki on the ground. "My direct descendant and inheritor can," He clarified. "Before his birth, his name appears on the handle. The new breed, hunter, can't defeat the Light of Heaven. The end of vampires must have started with my own descendant."

Yuki sat transfixed. How had she missed the fact in her readings? It was like, she'd showed up for an interview without research.

o o o

It resulted in the shambling of the common area of the villa. Yuki tore book after book from the shelf, as Suki collected the tomes from the floor.

"Is it another war?" His bulging black eyes shimmered incredulously.

Yuki ruffled through pages and growled in frustration, not a hint or scent, a mistaken drivel about the broken sword. The dimension did not focus on it, and yet it seemed to pierce the lifestream of Lord Kuran's direct descendants. She threw the book over her shoulder, which Suki, juggling several beastly tomes, seized. She tapped her chin, eyeing the vast library.

"How unusual an important requisite as the Light of Heaven remains omitted in almanacs," She hissed darkly, "Maybe Kaname can bring some chronological order to this chaos."

"Is it worse than you expected?" Suki gasped.

Yuki turned from her violent scrummaging toward the dark form, "Lord Kuran's descendent turned his back on his kind. One can only guess why with the hysteria for power and blood. Sounds like he'd had enough and decided ending purebloods was the best decision for everyone and tossed the baton to the hunters." She picked another book, perused the third page and handed it to him. "I want you to read this, Suki."

The books in his arms plummeted to the floor, he snatched it from her and clutched it to his chest. "Right away, mistress!" He scurried to the table and sat down.

Yuki returned to disorganizing the shelves and adding to the growing clutter on the floor. Kaname was not accustomed to the charade in the degree he happened upon. She did not look toward him as he proceeded into the common area, surveying Suki hunched over a book enthusiastically at the table while Yuki inspected the shelves.

"How can it be?" Yuki mumbled, rubbing her temples.

Kaname unbuttoned his coat. "How can what be?"

"Did you happen to make a chronological map on human evolution?" Yuki wondered.

He outstretched an arm, and without looking, dropped the coat on a chaise. "You know better than that, Yuki. I don't dissect information and theorize on avoidable subjects, especially humans. That is your specialty. What I know of humans is what you taught me."

"Don't you find it strange? Our dear lord worked hard for that life. He gave up Seiren for it."

Kaname sank in a chair left remarkably abandoned and untouched by Yuki's frustrated investigation over their home library. "Yuki," He said softly, his eyes glowing with kindness and patience, "You can't stop it."

Yuki lowered her hands from her temples and looked away, "I know." She could not express how sad it made her feel. All the lives bound to succumb to dust. It hadn't happened yet but knowing about the catastrophe made her anxious and depressed for not helping or making things better. "I just thought we could help while we had time, vampires wouldn't have to die."

"Being that vampires force their fangs on humans and enslave them? You were upset how angels treated us."

"Our wonderful lord's bloodline established progressive laws and abolished slavery."

Wonderful?

Kaname paused and reflected where the 'wonder' in the awakened pureblood had come from?

Yuki suspected his puzzlement and caught him clenching his jaw, prudently. "What do you think of him?" She asked.

Kaname analyzed her evenly through thick lashes. "You seem to like him."

"Don't you?"

"He can swallow us whole in a bite, and we wouldn't be able to stop him." Kaname's brows curled grimly at the horror she did not seem to notice. "What is there to like?"

Yuki trailed away from the shelf toward the chaise he occupied, "I know you're not excited about another strong pureblood in our vicinity."

"You know what power does to a pureblood." He sternly reprimanded, hoping she understood the implication. "You and I don't cause trouble for the Imperial Lord."

She stopped in front of Kaname. "I don't think he's the tyrannical type."

Kaname blinked up at her, "Says my lover who brought a No-creature to our home. Remember it meant to eat you?"

Yuki crossed her arms, droning. "I see your point, Kaname. Don't you trust my judgement?"

"Occasionally," He acquiesced, "Not at the expense of your well being and happiness. You and I don't hunt or kill, our status and rank is different."

"So, I have a soft heart, you have a hard head."

Kaname clenched and tasted blood on his tongue, he narrowed his eyes even more.

"The lord is decent and sweet."

He could not believe what he was hearing. Why not make friends with every terrible idea in the dimension?

She crawled next to him on the chaise, chaining her hands around his right arm. "Should we adopt him?"

Kaname warmly glanced at her, "He is a lord of significant caliber, we can't demean him with 'adoption.' " Disconcertion roped him, a noose around his neck, Kaname gaped at Yuki in stiffening alarm.

Yuki prettily set her chin on his shoulder, peeking at him with loving eyes. "He has no one. What's the point of eternal solitude? We forced him awake, we can't send him back to sleep."

"Why not? Sleep is appropriate after a life of trauma and death. He isn't the same pureblood he used to be." Kaname could not neglect to impart.

"I think we should welcome him in to our family, consider him our grandfather."

Kaname vigilantly let her prattle on.

"He's wonderful and wise," Yuki whispered, "I used to think the Imperial Lord made us unique, but he has an idea of what strong purebloods are like. Lord Kuran has your eyes—well, anyone who has your eyes I automatically like—But it holds purpose, he can fit with us and we can learn from him. It'll do everyone good."

"We can't force a pureblood to become family." There was no such thing or purpose as a clan, or a tribe. It ended in war.

"We did it." She pointed out.

Kaname linked his fingers through hers. "We were together in the immaterial plane. We couldn't be apart. No pureblood is like you and me."

"Ma-master, mistress?" Suki crept toward their chaise. Beadily staring at the couple, he clutched the book to his chest. "I finished it."

"Already? That was fast." Yuki remarked.

"Yes, Lady Seiren taught me many tricks. I understand the dimension and…" His eyes drifted over the pair in enunciation, "Purebloods better."

"I'm happy to hear that, Suki." Yuki sat up.

"Shall I clean up the library?" He offered.

Yuki frowned at the pile of books. "I'll get to it."

"I would like to do it," Suki interjected, "I should keep busy or else I'll—"

"Eat us." Kaname distinctly sliced.

Suki bobbed his head guiltily. "Master is right. I'm not in complete control of my hunger and my urge to kill. I want you to trust me and see how I've improved."

"Whatever Seiren did, I am grateful that she did. You've made progress," Yuki nodded nobly, "We know the void in you can't be transformed. We're also like you, prey and predator. We make adjustments and do better. We'll help you no matter what, Suki."

"Thank you, mistress." With an energetic spin, Suki bounded toward the islands of books on the floor.

Yuki was contently smiling at the black slime, Kaname noticed out of the corner of the eye. He picked their entangled fingers up to inspect the crisscrossing heat of hers. "You trust it more than you should." He kissed her knuckles, intaking the delicious aroma of blood beating in the veins of her hands.

"Can't you see he's trying?"

"The enemy strikes after trust is earned." Kaname stated softly.

"That's the wolf in you talking," She set her chin on his shoulder and frowned, "You want me to abandon him to the wilderness, hurl him to pain and oblivion? Think of what he'll endure. He'd succumbed to worse methods than before."

"I could've killed it on our first encounter."

"He's bound to us."

"To you, but it won't restrain its devious disposition of eating you."

"You're judging off of his reactionary impulses. No-creatures want to belong, like we do." Yuki solemnly clenched his knuckles. She pressed her burning lips upon his.

His eyes narrowed against the intoxicating brush of fangs and tongue, accompanied by the feverish spell of blood minced in fresh roses, he smirked as she pulled back, blushing. Kaname stroked her back, admiring her silently.

Suki's efforts were not all in vain. He maintained the villa, tended to Yuki's roses, delivered books to Kaname's hall and studied purebloods in the neighborhood. He had not seen purebloods closer to each other than Kaname and Yuki, who constantly made physical contact, like delicate caresses in public, or talked telepathically when they were not too far, including things Suki had confusion understanding. But she liked what he did. Especially when he undressed her. Suki summed it to be a heavily mandatory custom placed upon them by the Imperial Lord for they were very dedicated and remained locked in the rooms for alarming periods of time.

o o o

"I'm not upset. Really, I mean it. Will you please stop pouting?" Seiren objectionably blinked at the brunette pureblood dragging her feet.

"I wasn't trying to bulldoze over your feelings," She mumbled sorrowfully, "I realized how hurt you must feel. You broke up a long time ago, but you haven't taken a lover—err, mate ever since. I apologize that it brought memories you wanted to forget."

Seiren walked elegantly ahead. Her slender frame shimmered in a pale, white gown. The avenue was littered with scones of indigo fire. The silver ground glistened under the flickering rainbows, casting a dazzling carpet. "All in the past now." She assured.

Yuki squeezed her arm, "Do you mean it?"

Seiren sighed, "Yes." She nodded toward the garden littered with capable, picturesque purebloods. "Now smile. This is an important event."

Yuki puffed air out of red lips, released her arm and scanned the private affair flooded with famous, well-connected and established men. Her lips flattened at the view that stood rapt upon her. She stiffened her spine promptly, testily searched Seiren out of the corner of the eye. "You didn't tell me it was an all male event?"

"If I had told you, you wouldn't have come." Seiren implied, "This is for your own good. These spectacular bachelors are only twenty-thousand years younger than you. I've checked their backgrounds. They are well suited for you. According to the Imperial Lord, you can have them all."

"Wh-" Yuki gaped at the row of smiling, winking purebloods, raising wine glasses at her. "What would I do with them all?"

"They are the finest bachelors of the dimension. Each has identified having interest in you."

Yuki withered inside, her eyes casting black. "I… can't believe you are setting me up."

"Don't be glum." Seiren counseled, "Mate with one, and you'll forget about Little Light. I don't want to see you brokenhearted over him."

Unfortunately it was one bachelor too many. Yuki bit down on her lip. Seiren was worried she'd die pining over Kaname. It was her fault the silver dragon did not know unrequited love was not the issue. She spent days in lust and love in Kaname's arms, spoiling and getting spoiled. Seiren nudged her forward by a graceful push on the middle of her back toward a tall blond pureblood.

o o o

Kaname sensed glistening black eyes scrolling over him three times and paused on the ground. It contemplated silently and scrolled over him two times more, paused and shuffled its scrawny, slimy legs. The nervous energy in the air reeked the lecture hall. He threw the manuscript from his hand on the table and glared over the shoulder.

"What?" He barked.

Suki jumped, retreated two steps and bowed. "Ma-ma-maaaster!"

"You're going to stand and stare or what?"

Suki straightened, "No, master. I-uh, I-uh, I had something urgent to tell."

Stonily Kaname waited, without turning.

"Mistress returned from her outing. She looked upset—so upset, she went to my quarters—which used to be hers. She forgot I was there."

"Are you complaining Yuki took her room back?"

"No, master! I can sleep comfortably on dirt, it's no matter, no matter at all. I was thinking mistress could use comfort." He nervously dipped back into a bow as Kaname turned, glaring.

"You think you know what Yuki wants?" He hissed.

"I dare not think so, master. I will never understand purebloods as well as you do."

Slowly he trailed toward the black slime, Yuki had gifted him a hat to wear, which trembled in front of Kaname. "What is this truly about? You want to be a pureblood. You want to stay with Yuki — Replace me?"

The slime dipped on the floor, shakily. "I wouldn't dream of it, master."

Crimson eyes narrowed over the shadow, "Don't think I can't smell the designs you inhabit. You cannot eat her, so you want to possess her? Or me?"

"I correct myself every day, master. Please, believe me." Suki tearfully begged.

Kaname motioned an arm.

Swaying, he climbed and elevated to Kaname's height, bending his head low.

"Becoming a pureblood won't change what you are, No-creature." Kaname muttered. "A new suit won't give you a conscience. I protect her. She shouldn't have to live a lonely life just because you lost control."

"I vow to never put you, or mistress in harm, master." Suki whispered.

Kaname studied him, not allowing the act of obedience to delude him. He went to the villa, where he found Yuki in fettle position in the center of her old bed. Her beautiful dress dirty and crumbled. Her slick dark hair disheveled, and her large beaming eyes lifelessly black. Kaname widened open the door to enter.

She tipped her head to meet his eye. "Don't start worrying," She warned first, "I don't have the will to support myself right now." Yuki clenched her arms around her knees.

Kaname sat down on the mattress, beside her head and frowned. She sunk in the mattress, unwilling or unable to move. His fingers weaved in soothing motions through her hair. "You left happy. Did someone offend you?"

Yuki merely closed her eyes.

He combed hair from her cheeks and eyelashes. "Do you want blood?"

Yuki sought his hand and cupped it against her cheek. "You're all I need." She sighed, a tear made a white dash down her nose.

Kaname reached over and collected her petite frame. He lifted her from the mattress to carry her out of her old bedroom. Yuki pressed her head to his chest, looped an arm around his shoulder. "Why are you so good to me?" She mumbled against the lapel of his shirt.

Kaname entered his bedroom, nudging the door shut in the process. He placed her on the bed, hovering down to peer into her sad eyes. "Because, you're good for me."

She chuckled, as she was beginning to grow accustomed to his sweet, seclusive candor. She traced fingers gently against his smooth cheek. "I love you, Kaname. Can you believe in that?"

His brows wiggled upward. "I don't doubt your feelings, nor do I take them for granted."

"Not anymore." She corrected.

Kaname caressed the corner of her lip. "Forgive me. I don't ever want to be without you."

Yuki intently stared at him, her lashes unwavering above glowing red eyes. "I think we have a great deal to teach each other. You show me how to have self-control. Seiren said, you didn't come home for 3,000 years when I was gone. You were like a lost puppy."

Kaname edged back, disfavoring the term intensely. " 'Puppy?' "

"Dogs are in the family of wolves."

He blinked, crimson flashing black. "Says a finicky light with wings."

Yuki slapped his shoulder. "My butterflies can knock you oumm-"

Red ignited his irises, his fingers bunched tightly on the back of her head, tugging her to hungry lips. His tongues creamily rolled into hers, tasting the sweetness of her saliva, basking in her rosy smell, and the ardent beat of need keeling at the back of her throat, as she moaned to the sensual aggressions of his hand sweeping down her side and setting on her hip.

Kaname pulled back to peer at the light twisting in her eyes, full of desire and fire, no longer distant or sad. "What will make you feel better?" He whispered.

Yuki slipped her hands down his lapel, unbuttoning his shirt. "You." She mouthed, rubbing her lips on his.

Kaname closed his eyes and deepened the kiss. He divested her of clothes. Her hands roamed his firm shoulders and collarbone, she nuzzled his neck, licking his carotid pulse, reveling in his cool scent and solid warmth. He held her firmly, but his gaze was soft, his eyes glistened from irretrievable tears. Kaname patched kisses on her bare shoulders, across her chest and bouncing breasts. Her fingers clenched the soft strands of his hair. Her eyes dripped shut from the caressing sensation of fangs moving over the shell of her left breast to her right. His warm lips continued down her ribcage, dedicatedly to her navel.

He took his time and made love to her slowly. Removing the scaffolds of sadness from her skin and bones, as she quivered and moaned softly in his ear.

Yuki sank against his wet chest. Sprawled under a sheet, she shivered from the designs he traced down her spine. Seeing the immediate trail of goosebumps on her skin, he smirked. She made no attempt to move off of him or pick her head up, either. Her arms tightened ever so slightly. Kaname brushed her long dark hair.

"Did Seiren upset you?" He inquired.

Yuki winked her eyes open, "Not really."

"Should I use my fangs to drink your memories?"

She pouted, tipped her head up finally. "You don't trust me?"

"Something is bothering you." Kaname cupped the back of her head, the pupils of his eyes widened from hunger.

"I love your fangs on me, but," Yuki brushed his lips with an index finger, "I need courage to tell Seiren about us."

"We can tell her together." Kaname informed.

Yuki returned her cheek to his chest and closed her eyes. "Seiren is overprotective of us. She took me to a match-making event. A confidentiality agreement was made, the bachelors agreed to mate with me for reasons other than rank. Seiren had collected the best profiles."

Kaname began to inspect the long strands of her hair. "Find anyone you like?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Yuki muttered.

"She went through the trouble to arrange it for you, wouldn't want to disappoint her."

"I'm not listening to you. My heart is set already."

Kaname peeked at her hugging his torso. "You're easily distracted, traveling and meeting new purebloods. What's the difference?"

Yuki pouted at him. "I don't want to give myself to anyone but you!"

Stunned, Kaname did not expect the declaration.

"I will only have children with you as the father. I can't imagine sharing my heart, or my body with those males." Yuki sank back on his chest.

Over her, Kaname broke into a smile.

My Yuki…

"Seiren is overthinking. She believes my love is unrequited." Yuki mumbled.

Kaname circled the ring of her ear. "You want to be exclusive with me?"

"We may have told the Imperial Lord, but the dimension assumes we're autonomous. I have to muster the courage to tell her."

"She doubts my feelings? Hmph. I will make her face the truth."

"Try sounding less threatening?"

"I will give her a compelling reason not to doubt me." He stroked her hair placatingly. He twisted a lock of hair, winding it around his index finger. "How many children shall we have?"

Yuki blushed, scarlet. "Please, don't make fun of me."

"I'll be with you no matter what," Kaname examined her with a secret smile. "Nothing can tear me from you." He was extremely happy, more than he expected.

First he wanted to make it easier for Yuki, he despised it when she was troubled or hurt. He left her sleeping and went to Seiren's establishment within the confines of the palace. Seiren gaped at him entering her halls in widening stupefaction, but she acquiesced with his silent presence a moment later.

"Is there a disaster? I see no other reason for you to come alone." Seiren notified.

Kaname pulled a white parchment from his jacket and held it out for her.

She reluctantly accepted the document that recorded his pureblood oath to Yuki by blood, body and soul. He'd initialed it with his blood.

"Yuki and I have decided to be together for eternity." Kaname announced over her frozen expression, "You may go ahead and tell the bachelors she's mine. I'm not comfortable if another male touches her or pretends to dote on her. They're envious of her power regardless of how decent they pretend to be, they will consume her. I cannot let her suffer like that."

Seiren daintily folded the paper and approached Kaname. "You must've heard I arranged a match-making event. I assure you I checked the prospects' background."

"You won't risk endangering her." Kaname reflected on her motherly demeanor, "It doesn't change she chooses to be with me."

"Are you capable of controlling yourself?" Seiren asked. "Won't you consume her?"

Kaname smiled distractedly, "She is more important than power and recognition. We'll prove it to you by being happy together."

Seiren contemplated him, "How 'together' are you?"

Kaname wryly smirked and strolled back to the door. "As together as a male and female should."

Her eyes widened, taken back.

o o o

He gaped at the hard-shelled fruit, blinking in silence and searched the bright-eyed pureblood peeping at him hopefully or anxiously, he could not determine yet, but she seemed to be waiting on him to do something to the fruit. Lord Kuran eyed it in puzzlement.

"The Imperial Lord created it 500 years ago, it's new, try it," She nodded vigorously.

He labored over the size of the palm-filling circular fruit and smelled the shell.

"It's great for blood." Yuki folded her legs on the white soil, in front of his feet. "You can't go back to sleep. You've taken the first step, they say it's the hardest. You'll come to see the dimension isn't as bad as you remembered. There are newer purebloods around, it'll take some time, but you'll adjust just fine. Kaname and I are happy to take you in."

Lord Kuran put the fruit next to him on the boulder and stared at the young pureblood, blandly. "I would like to resume my slumber. There is no excuse to rejoin the likes of the dimension."

"But this is your home."

He grew silent and closed his eyes. "The idea of home can change. The dimension does not suit me, nor do I suit it. Things have changed, I can smell it. I'm not needed anywhere."

Yuki nibbled her bottom lip, sadden by the utter loneliness and listlessness petering out of his soul due to his life-long journey. "No one's needed to exist. We give each other the need to exist." She mumbled, staring at the fruit cradled in her palms. "I disturbed your slumber and made you and Seiren uncomfortable, I am very sorry. I wanted to help your lineage. The Imperial Lord is bent on finishing vampires in the human world. I thought challenging would make a difference — maybe get your help." She sulked.

"Someone must be grateful a pureblood in the dimension worries about them," Lord Kuran stated after a pause, "What's meant to be will be. We are not meant to change their destiny."

Yuki leaned forward, whispering, "Where is the rest of your sword?"

"With Seiren." The lord answered. "She's a grand creature. The dimension cannot go on without her. Someone would need to take it from her and reconnect the pieces. The Kurans would slowly die off. Vampires cannot go on without a leader. The hunters you speak of would succeed in their quest, and the Imperial Lord would have what he wants."

"He won't let vampires die off." Yuki insisted, "You were good to humans and to her. Your lineage didn't forget it."

"It would seem that way," The lord pondered with a half resplendent smile. "Not all of my children followed in my footsteps. Many turned against each other and tormented humans."

o o o

The Imperial Lord sifted the sheet of paper and without batting an eye, he murmured, "You may rise, Seiren."

The pureblood carefully repositioned herself in front of the golden throne. "I would like to pose a question."

"I am sure you would." The Imperial Lord replied and turned the page of the document filled with words that left him consternated, if possible.

"Little Light and Little Dark have copulated. Are you consenting their status?"

The Imperial Lord shot her an amused look, "Who do you think showed them the way? Hadn't I nudged him, he'd have no clue about his feelings, let alone administer them on—"

"My lord," Seiren raised both of her palms in a pleading manner, "I get the picture."

"He more than craves her and she's devoted to him. Their copulation should bring us lots of boisterous purebloods. Prepare to babysit."

"I had seen signs." Seiren weakly admitted, "He would only drink from her. Sometimes I swore it was more than 'drinking' that went down…"

"Why didn't you encourage them?" The Imperial Lord demanded.

Seiren somberly lifted her head, "They are better together, but if they separated, they'll bring chaos. I am tasked to look after them and I don't wish to see them hurt one another."

The Imperial Lord folded the documents he had been browsing to give her his solemn attention. "Seiren," He said gently, "I know I made you dedicate your services and care, because of that you grew attached to them. I have a good feeling about them. We need more purebloods who can forget power and love each other."

Seiren nodded her head slowly, "My lord, you created us. You know them better than anyone." She steeled herself before continuing, "You also knew Little Dark wouldn't ignore the tragic future of vampires in the mortal world. Lord Kuran is currently awake. She'll want to know about the broken sword."

He did not look surprised and merely stared. "She'll never pass the crossing, nor will she ever go to that world. It is time our sacred purebloods returned to the dimension. How is Lord Kuran holding up?"

She paled and did not meet him in the eye. "I am sure he is fine."

"Oh?"

"I hadn't the chance to check—"

"Hiding from him."

She tentatively shifted away from the throne, "I wouldn't dare, my lord. Shall I invite him to the palace?"

"I'd rather you took him to your quarters and reminded him what he missed." The Imperial Lord grumbled.

Seiren flushed like a little girl.

"Yes…this too is my fault," The Imperial Lord muttered in realization, "I never let you enjoy the carnal opportunities that should be bestowed upon a female. You are a pureblood, Seiren, and you never badgered me about creating you a mate. Why not?"

She shirked back, astonished. "I-I am in charge of the crypt, I watch over the purebloods of the dimension. I attend to the Kuran kings. How could I possibly debase my time with-"

"Find out whether Lord Kuran means to return to dimension life."

"Yes, my lord. And if he doesn't?"

"Let him go. Don't disturb him again." The Imperial Lord ponderously whispered. "He risked everything only to hear it was a failure."

Seiren frowned, "Shall I personally advise the Kuran kings?"

"They won't hear your cries of protection over the power they let get to their heads." The Imperial Lord sourly replied, "I never should've sent him with the sword. He was enough, just a pureblood in a mortal world."

"A good thing the Kuran didn't have the whole sword." Seiren remarked.

"Has Little Dark shared how she wants to correct the inevitable demise of vampires?" He questioned.

"No, but she can be outlandishly creative."

"Let Little Light take care of her."

o o o

Kaname knew that look. It hinted the Imperial Lord was not only disturbed by the notion, but he was ready to refuse. He would've taken it personally, but he wasn't invested in the No-creature and secretly hoped to take it to the wilderness and tear it to pieces before rendering said pieces in the violet sea — at the convenience of the Imperial Lord's rejection to the request. She would be upset, then again, she had never truly been extremely upset with him and would get over it.

The Imperial Lord hadn't stopped sizing the black slime. His eyes narrowed in roaring silence. "I know what grain of emptiness you branched out of," The creator pointed an accusing white claw in its direction.

The black slime shivered but continued to remain flat on the marble floor next to Kaname's left ankle.

"All things have their reasons and excuses, the No-creature has right to none." The Imperial Lord whispered without averting from the slime. "Everything that does not fit or suit the dimensions becomes a void. Sneaky thieves, I left them to the shadows, but they decided to come alive and do as they please." The Imperial Lord turned sturdily toward Kaname. "Why do you want this?"

"I don't." Kaname merely stated.

"Excellent."

"I've been trying to manufacture methods to eliminate it without enraging her."

"So why ask me at all?" The Imperial Lord dully murmured.

"The request is hers." Kaname elaborated. "She even gave it a name: Suki. He is a member of our family."

The Imperial Lord leaned forward and pointed accusingly at Kaname, now. "This wouldn't be happening if you two procreated. Your need for family would not be left at the mercy of a No-creature. I warned the dimension not to rile or give you trouble. A No-creature is not part of the living. It never received such an order from me or Seiren. It'll do whatever it wants. This makes you vulnerable."

"We're not living at its mercy. I can kill it without batting an eye." Kaname calmly implied, "Yuki groomed and trained it to behave. Are you going to make a liar out of Yuki?"

"I don't have to do anything." The Imperial Lord glared at the black slime. "A No-creature turned pureblood will be uncontrollable."

"Please." Suki mumbled from the floor, "I will do everything in my power not to hurt anyone. I wish to live with master and mistress. I wish to be part of their family."

The Imperial Lord grimaced, "What kind of nonsense have you been teaching it? You mean to tell me it has feelings?"

Kaname stared at Suki through the silt of his eyes, nonchalantly. "So it seems."

Suki began to sniffle. "I wish to be a good person. I wish to change, to be anything but a No-creature. Grant me this honor, please!"

The Imperial Lord incredulously looked at Kaname. "Why is this important to you?"

"It's not." Kaname blinked. "Yuki is. She wants to give it a chance to be better than it used to be."

"Deny her." The Imperial Lord replied.

"I can't."

"You are apt, you'll be fine."

"That's not how we do things." Kaname smirked, "Yuki doesn't deny me, and I don't deny her."

The Imperial Lord stared from Kaname to the black slime, unimpressively. "You are telling me I am obligated to transform it for you?"

"You are to Yuki."

The Imperial Lord relaxed in the golden chair. "How so?"

"Ever since you put the article from the future in her hands, you've caused her grief. She wants to stop hunters from killing vampires, because unlike you she believes the Kuran can actually do good. Letting hunters win is not the answer. Connecting both parts of the Light of Heaven in a descendant's hand to end their lineage won't do Lord Kuran's work any good, either."

"Do you agree?" He quietly asked.

Kaname clenched his jaw. "I don't care what happens to humans. To me they have the protection they need to live."

"If you were a Kuran, what would you do?"

"I wouldn't need a sword to make a point, but I wouldn't let any one or any thing be trampled unfairly by any one or any thing."

The Imperial Lord processed his answer, murmuring softly after a moment. "Humans were doing it to each other long before Lord Kuran went. His sons and daughters fought obstacles you couldn't construe, dying one after another. All of a sudden they became twisted. I couldn't recognize they were from his lineage. I had to make sure the right candidate inherited the throne and kept things stable for vampires and humans. I put the names of his successors on it and each successor was better than the last. But the world remained dark and miserable regardless of how excellent the candidate was. I can't watch them suffer anymore."

"And that is why Yuki can't talk about humans without getting conflicted." Kaname remarked.

"I wanted to hear her plan," The Imperial Lord wryly smiled, "She has a tenacious affection for odd things, humans being one of them. She strong-arms me by sending you to accept her request and transform the No-creature."

"No pressure. We can forget having this conversation. I'll get rid of it once we're through here." Kaname insinuated.

Suki gaped at the pureblood fearfully.

"Purebloods are not made from emptiness." The Imperial Lord chuckled, "It'll be stripped of its abilities and left in the immaterial plane. Very few make it before I choose whether they are born. This pureblood will be different compared to others, it'll still have the hunger of the void."

"How unoriginal."

"There is no guarantee it will work. The immaterial plane is a battle field. You were with Dark and made it out. It'll depend on how much the No-creature wants to survive and fight its way out. That's not the only thing that will make it different."

Kaname glanced at the trembling Suki by his leg. "The only person expecting good news from this mess is Yuki. I never trusted it, and I won't trust it long after it becomes your finest shoe-polishing servant."

Suki hung his head, sadly.

The Imperial Lord observed the reaction. "Whether you trust it or not, it seems to be attached to you. Leverage it, Little Light."

"What good will leveraging its attachment do for us?" Kaname scowled.

"No-creatures are a mixture of emptiness from multiple dimensions. It'll remain connected to parts your pureblood body can't pass, but it can."

Kaname scrutinized the black slime. "The crossing?"

"The entire universe." The Imperial Lord answered.

Suki perked up, nodding, "I can crawl between spaces, it's very easy."

Kaname stopped short, just to make sure, "Can it still be killed after gaining a pureblood body?"

Suki oozed into a black puddle hopelessly.

The Imperial Lord scrutinized Kaname.

"You are more than aware if anything happened to Yuki, I will destroy the dimension. She will too if something happened to me." Kaname informed. "If you find me evil, wait until you see Yuki's anger."

"I know you better than you know yourself." The Imperial Lord placated. "I also know you are hoping I let the No-creature die in the immaterial plane."

"Your word against mine." Kaname glanced at the slime. "I can console Yuki and get her a pet, something safe."

"Ma-mas—master?" Suki quivered.

"She took the time and cared for a famously detested creature, cooked for it and schooled it. She has twice the nobility and character than our purebloods. You want the future mother of your children to believe her care isn't enough?"

"My problem is not her quality of care. I don't want to assume changing its face and giving it a new body gives it credibility not to eat us. I don't want to forget the threat it poses."

"I am impressed you're willing to put aside your feelings to let her have what she wants. The No-creature is important to Little Dark. You know very well her ideas intrigue me."

"Where do you stand?"

The Imperial Lord gestured toward Suki. "I accept her request. I want to see what will become of it — in the immaterial plane or after."

"Fine." Kaname gave Suki one final look.

Yuki stood by the lake of stars, deep in thought. Her long dark hair sifted in the wind and her deep garnet eyes floated upon the moon rocks tucked in the water. Kaname quietly arrived on her left, noticing she did not turn to indicate having heard him.

"The Imperial Lord agreed to put the No-creature in the immaterial plane." Kaname turned to stare at the flashing light crisscrossing beneath the surface.

"But first you gave him a hard time." Yuki had replied knowingly.

"Yes. Why did you insist I take it to him?" Kaname asked.

Yuki finally looked at him. "Do you have any idea how much Suki looks up to you?"

"I had no idea criticism heightens its affection."

She blinked at him, "He believes it's part of training. You can't keep hating him for what he is. We're filling his emptiness with kindness and goodness. Holding a sword over him doesn't help."

"I can't, Yuki." Kaname warned, his eyes darkening.

"He has been trying and holding up his end of the agreement. An encouraging word from you will mean the world to him. I won't ask you to turn a blind-eye. Once in a while a nice gesture goes a long way."

"I lower my guard for a moment, it will sense it and considers us its' pawns."

"Kaname, I promised I'd kill him if he hurt you. He's outdone himself. It's time we acknowledged that."

"How do we know—"

"We don't. So we trust him not to turn on us. He has also trusted us to do right by him." Yuki squeezed his sleeve. "You've never trusted another pureblood. Here I am, asking you to try."

Kaname scowled, "You're different, we're different."

"Suki is different too," She nodded, "He can either be the worst pureblood or the best. We reared him. He doesn't want to be a miserable void of darkness. For the first time, he's seen and tasted life differently."

Kaname unwound a lock of hair from the lope of her ear. "You win, Yuki."

She hugged him, pressing her head to his chest. "I didn't win. I don't want you to think I don't understand why you are hard on him. I won't let anything destroy our life together."

He kissed her head. "Speaking of together, I told Seiren about us."

Yuki pulled back, gaping up into his smiling facade.

"I didn't want you to worry."

"Did she flip out?"

Kaname raised a brow and decided against commenting on the expression. "She doesn't believe I love you at all, or I'm capable of compassion."

Yuki shook her head at him. "This is your fault."

"Her beliefs don't impact our relationship."

"No, you never confided in her, or told her how you felt. How can anyone believe you?"

Kaname held himself expressively still, including his breath, "But I do - I do love you. Long before I knew how I felt about you. I didn't confide in her because I confided in the Imperial Lord."

Yuki stood struck, staring widely. "You did what?"

"You abandoned me for 3,000 years. I had no reason to live without you. I can ask you right now if you ever planned to come back, or I can assume you never did. I can also detect Seiren was behind why you were gone. After telling her about us, I realized why."

Yuki stared at her feet. "She thought I'd get over you. She worries about us a lot more than we know."

"You left because you thought we didn't stand a chance." Kaname interrupted.

"I wasn't going to come back," Yuki admitted, "I looked at the possibility of becoming inhumane if you never loved me back. Seiren would rather we never get together than hurt ourselves. So, I left. But I couldn't…" Tears swarmed in her eyes, she averted, shakily, "I couldn't go through it. I'm not strong where you're concerned. Seiren knew ages ago."

"I love you, Yuki." Kaname whispered.

"And, I love you. She knows the intricacies of our nature, why we do what we do, how and when we do. Seiren will have to clean up our mess."

"We won't betray each other." Kaname promised.

"Do you trust me?"

Kaname smiled, "With my life, Yuki."

o o o

500,000 years flickered through his eyes when Kaname stared down what he never thought he would. The crypt was sealed airtight, but he had been glaring at the rummaged cracks outlining the entrance through impatient lenses, burning with an itch to release his powers upon the stone-edged doors and intrude upon the sleeping Kuran ancestors that had lived and died in the human world. He was surprised by his line of thought. As he, himself, once stopped Yuki from storming and waking the sleeping ancestors. Today he intensely wanted to do the same thing. Unlike his impulsive and stubborn lover, Kaname had better sense going about such avenues.

Which was why instead of throwing open the doors that were theoretically impenetrable, he waited. About what felt like forever, the stones budged against the cold floor and the scent of stuffy, old and dry air floated out in wafts of dust. He waited for the dark contour to slide forward in the light. It groaned against the brilliance of the dimension and traded one foot carefully in front of the other down the stairs to meet the waiting pureblood.

"I grow impatient of these interruptions. For the final time, I appreciate your willingness to adopt me and rank me the title of a family member or grandfather. I have no intention of returning to join the dimension." Lord Kuran grumbled at Kaname.

Many years had passed since he stared at the young face, although, it appeared the same than he remembered, he could sense there was something else in his eyes, a confined density of worry and anxiety, which was not normal. Lord Kuran sleepily blinked at Kaname and gestured toward the boulder a stones throw away from the crypt.

"I'm not in the mood to change your mind," Kaname strolled alongside the giant lord and waited for him to slump heavily on the boulder, as if his legs waited to give out. "Yuki and I will remain a family regardless of your seclusive proclivity. You resorted to sleep in the crypt. I'm here to assure you it means more than enough that you stay here and not force yourself."

"Then why do you children keep making Seiren knock on my door?" Lord Kuran searched the standing pureblood.

"We have questions only you can answer. The purebloods of the dimension don't understand what family is, or how to put another's wellbeing before their own. For as long as Yuki and I have been alive, we've prioritized each other's needs. Our relationship needs more than that."

Lord Kuran blinked, "Are you asking me for relationship advice?"

"Yuki vaguely mentioned something you did in the mortal world. A public statement about what a human meant to you. No such service exist here. If I want ravenous bachelors to stop harming her, I need to make one such a statement."

Lord Kuran studied him lengthily. "You want a wedding."

"I need to give Yuki one. How is it done?"

"Was she attacked?" He raptly asked.

Kaname did not jump to answer. "There have been incidents. It definitely is not the sole reason why I want to make a statement."

"Yours will be the first pureblood wedding," Lord Kuran chuckled, "First, I asked for her hand."

"What is that?" Kaname asked.

"To ask for her hand is to ask her to share her life with you. You may already have the answer, but properly asking her gives you both a fresh start. You are giving her title, your home and security, signaling hungry males to back off. When she gives you her answer, she becomes your 'betrothed.' Gift her anything special for accepting you for she has agreed to become your wife. And, a wife is no simple title. She is the cornerstone of your home and your children's first contact with unconditional love. A man who treats his wife lovingly reaps the rewards of heaven."

"Touching."

"You'll need the Imperial Lord's help to mark the ceremony. If you want to make the statement effective, invite the males stalking your lover and claim her in front of them. Their hot-blooded antagonism will unite them to beat you. For what it's worth you'll be their target, not her."

"Yuki is the most important person to me. She is carefree and loves to travel, but she can't go anywhere anymore. I want the wedding to exemplify she isn't a pureblood they can oppress, or access by any means."

Lord Kuran straightened alertly, "Do it quickly, purebloods are persistent. Show them who is alpha."

o o o

Kaname meticulously placed the letter on the table. The Imperial Lord glanced at the parchment before meeting him in the eye. "What's this?"

"An invitation." Kaname flipped open a wooden box at the edge of the table to admire the beads of light inside.

The Imperial Lord unhurriedly purchased a glance over the script. He chuckled, his entire body shaking and eyes curling tighter from the rhythms of emotions rustling out of his fangs, "Hah-hah-hah — A wedding?"

Kaname reached inside the box and picked a dark ball. He held it up in the luminous hall.

"We don't marry, we aren't humans." The Imperial Lord chortled, amusedly looking him up and down, "I barely finished Little Dark's last request, and you're here to accost me about a silly ceremony humans use to feel better about their lives."

Kaname contemplated the black murkiness inside of the glass bead. "You asked me if I wanted anything. I want a wedding ceremony with Yuki, and I want you to invite the entire dimension to witness it."

The Imperial Lord sighed and shook his head. His eyes glowed like two candlelight in black irises. "You are more self-absorbed than I realized."

Kaname began tossing the black ball from one hand to another. "Yuki and I were made from different properties. We shared powers and saved each other. I endorse her whims because her happiness makes my happiness."

"As I said, self-absorbed."

Kaname casually tossed the heavy glass ball in the other hand. "No one is willing to believe we want to be mated only to each other. They want to take her away from me. I will ruin your purebloods if I must. Every male is out to consume or abduct her."

The Imperial Lord closed the book he had been reading. "In other words, you want to sway Little Dark with a ceremony and prove no one else can protect her better than you."

"I've killed 300 purebloods who attacked her. 5 nearly abducted her. I can't bear seeing them put their hands on her, let alone bite her." Kaname angrily gritted at the black ball.

The Imperial Lord grimly stilled and watched dark fury consume Kaname. "I was made aware of the casualties. They've continued to ignore my warnings. I've begun the process of creating more females." He stirred to the left, addressing the shadow. "Seiren, let us hold a wedding ceremony for Little Light and Little Dark."

Seiren swept toward the table where he sat and stopped next to Kaname. "I will send the invitations out."

Kaname placed the black ball at the edge of the table, an aversive movement could tilt the ball over and send it rolling down, forever lost in the hall. "There is something I need your opinion on."

Seiren paused, "Mine?"

"Yes."

"I'd be more than happy to give it." Seiren smiled politely.

"Follow me." Kaname began to move toward the large doors of the hall.

The Imperial Lord scrubbed his brows, "Tsk, don't leave the No-creature exposed like that! Put it back in the box."

"Why don't we forget about it and let it try its luck?" Kaname nonchalantly continued to walk out.

Seiren shook her head at Kaname and gingerly picked up the black orb. She placed the No-creature's soul inside of the wooden box. Before leaving, she bowed respectfully to the Imperial Lord.

The Lord peeked at the black orb. "You have your work cut out for you. It's been over 500,000 years." He looked up at the disappearing silhouettes of Kaname and Seiren. "Time for you to be the person you wanted to be, No-creature."

o o o

An immaculately white attired tall pureblood of yellow hair and green eyes strutted toward the opening doors. He pivoted at the sight of Kaname and Seiren.

Acknowledging the incomers, he forced a large smile, shining his fangs, reluctantly. "You've arrived." Star reader, Lord Daiji gestured them to proceed through the hall. "Come in, come in…"

Kaname led Seiren into a conjoined room through another pair of doors. She stopped on her tracks, gaping widely at the sizable material dangling from the glass ceiling. She inspected the knit in the red material from the distance, discerning fragments of the finest and exquisite stones ever found in and out of the dimension.

Kaname expected her surprise. He also noted the changing colors on her face, pale from disbelief, red with adoration, and finally relaxed with enviously glistening eyes. He waited for her to speak and watched her brows furrow.

"Will she like it?" Kaname was compelled to break the silence.

"Like?" Seiren blinked at him, stunned, "I'm afraid she'll prance around in it for eternity and never take it off. How did you manage to get that many stars? The gems are not from our dimension. You'd have to travel beyond the 40th layer and visit the outer limits of the angels."

"I did." Kaname said.

Seiren stiffened cautiously, "I know you don't take my advice, and you don't like being told what to do, but what you're doing is extremely dangerous." She hissed, "It's equivalent to trespassing the human world."

Kaname stared at the red gown and matching veil, "As long as Yuki likes it."

Seiren swallowed her fears to steadily reply, "She won't like your creeping in and out of the dimension."

"I've kept it a secret from her. I want to surprise her after I ask for her hand."

"That is very sweet. She'll wear the dress you prepared on her wedding day."

"Lord Daiji has been guiding me on where to find the rarest stars and gems in each world. I have yet to finish the hem of the dress."

Seiren considered Kaname. Who would ever think of designing a wedding gown for a bride studded with the very stars and finest gems not from just their dimension, but the angels? It was unbearably difficult, next to impossible, but Kaname made it happen.

"Yuki will be the first bride in the dimension. She has to set the bar high for the future weddings about to follow her example."

"For a long time I never believed you had what it took to cherish her." Seiren admitted.

Kaname was not offended, but he wore a deleterious smirk. "Something Yuki blames me for to this very second."

"Meaning?"

"I never speak to you about the truth. You approach me, but I push you away. I never let you see the real me."

Seiren smiled at the clothes hanging in mid-air, "You were right about the suitors I had arranged years ago. None of them would make an admirable effort as this. She'll refuse to belong to anyone but you in any universe. You have my blessing, Little Light."

o o o

"Your blood sweetens with age, a perfect fruit bound for harvest. You're even more perfect than they say."

Her spine clicked against the tree, bones cracking. Pain spiraled up her back, as a spearing elbow locked around her neck, squeezing the air from her windpipe, Yuki wheezed.

"Too bad nothing good can be said about you." She glared at the black-eyed pureblood, curling a fist of claws, she swiped it across his eyes.

The dark-haired pureblood scrambled back, cursing. He reared around, darting toward Yuki.

She kicked him in the abs. He resisted, seizing Yuki at the shoulders and tossed her against the tree. Her vision dimmed. The restless sizzle of rootless trees moving back dangled between the roar of the blood in her head, and the sound of the pureblood propelling toward her. He yanked her hair, smelling her rosy sweat. His fangs punctured her neck excitedly.

Yuki kneed him between the legs.

The pureblood hopped back, wincing.

Shadows triumphantly surrounded him, engulfing him around the head. His eyes dialed wide at the sinister hairy four-legged creature rampantly charging over the terrain. Growling, the wolf dove at his neck. Another silhouette manifested from the dark, directly behind him, hooking a long-sleeved arm through his spine and breaking into his chest cavity.

Kaname ripped out his heart, watching in menacing pleasure as the pureblood deformed to ashes. The shadow wolf gaped from the white dust up at its master.

"301." Kaname tossed the heart to the wolf.

The mammoth wolf hungrily snared the organ and gulped it in one swallow.

Yuki was dizzy from the blunt landing. She blinked several times from the wolf toward Kaname, panting, as she chewed bitterly, "He was supposed to be mine."

Kaname approached her, who struggled to stand upright against the tree trunk, "You want a hunt, you'll have to do better."

"You don't have to fight my battles for me," She roughly shook her head, waiting for the dizzy spell to cease.

"Normally I'd let you deal with it as you see fit, but I have no interest letting a pureblood molesting you slide." Kaname caressed the bite mark on her neck. Rage curdled his irises into black-silver, he clenched his jaw.

"You can't steal my well-deserved satisfaction at killing these bastards." Yuki scowled at him.

Kaname tilted his head down at her, "Next time."

"You said that last time!" Yuki exasperatingly cried.

"Try not to get thrown around like a fluffed pillow, and it might happen."

"I can kill faster than Kage." As soon as she mentioned its name, the vigilant wolf sat at attention, a silent mitigator between the pair.

"Doesn't mean you leave him and go alone." Kaname asserted.

"Now I can't take a walk by myself?" Yuki refuted.

"How is it fine for you to avenge me when the wilderness attacks but awful when I stop a pureblood from ravaging you?" Kaname demanded.

"Because I need to prove I can kill them!" Yuki shouted out of frustration.

The crimson-eyed black wolf whined in warning.

"Yuki…" Kaname clenched his fangs, sternly, he gritted, "No matter how hard you prove you can kill, their ambition to consume you and mate with you is a risk they'll take at the cost of their lives. I prohibit it from happening on my watch."

"If I don't kill them I'll continue to have nightmares about them."

The wolf howled at them.

Kaname warned over the howling, "You can't. You need to keep Kage around you."

The wolf yipped in agreement.

"I don't want you to see another vampire doing that to me."

"I would've protected you even if there were no purebloods stalking you."

"Don't act like it doesn't affect you."

"I wanted to do worse than take his heart out."

"Don't you always?"

"Anything for you."

Kage's whining turned high pitched.

"I feel so powerless!" Yuki exclaimed.

His eyes widened. For the first time, Kaname was at a loss of words. The attacks would eventually wear on her despite the failed attempts. Each attack chipped away Yuki's sense of pride, self-preservation, worthiness, her will to defend herself until she gave up, believing she was not powerful.

"I'm not used to feeling like this."

"You are not powerless, Yuki," Kaname bore into her tearful eyes. "Remember they're after you because of your power. I won't let them put their filthy hands on you."

The wolf's whining stopped upon the sight of Yuki's pout.

"Kage, go home. Your mother and I need to go somewhere." Kaname ordered.

The behemoth wolf gaped, whining sadly before standing up at the order. The shadow creature ran toward the rootless trees.

Yuki looked away, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Don't get your hopes up. I need to check the crack in your spine." Kaname clarified.

She grimaced at his rough tone, it caused her to shiver. Yuki peeled off of the tree trunk. She could sense the surplus of rage pulsating his veins while he scooped her in his arms. His corporal form fragmentized in black bats. He was not upset with her. The prospect of Yuki losing her willpower to fight back was alarming.

Kaname dove out of the dimension, carrying Yuki to the sky castle. She lit the place with light butterflies.

Sinking at the edge of the bed, Yuki hugged her shirt against her chest and mused over the teeming bright wings wandering around the bedroom.

He inspected her back and ran his fingers down her spine carefully. She stared at their bed. The place held memories that remained special to this day. He brought her to the sky castle often. Recently due to less ideal circumstances, like attacks and attempted abductions. Kaname eventually whisked her away to keep her close.

He trailed her spine with a nail. She shivered, winking her eyes shut in unexpected pleasure. Kaname passed a massaging thumb on the swelling.

"Your spine is healing." Kaname whispered.

Yuki nodded, her eyes closed.

Kaname ran his palm down her smooth skin, watching her shiver and sensing her heart race. He leaned forward to taste the soft flesh of the curve of her neck. She gasped sharply in response. His tongue glided on warm skin and disappeared behind kissing lips.

And…just like that, he had spelled her.

She forgot the world, the purebloods clashing for power, especially the ones who tried to rip her apart from Kaname. The odd fear in her stomach began to recede. Her breathing roughened from the sensation of his lips, as a tongue and fang crawled her shoulder.

He bunched her hair to the side, revealing the nape of her neck. Kaname kissed her throat, feeling the discerning pull of blood beneath the surface of her skin. He bit down deeply and drew fresh, hot blood. Kaname tapped in her memories. He tasted her fear of turning incapable from subduing the attacker. There was anger at being caught off guard. The surefire kick on his abdomen, and the endless tussle as he pinned her arms against her head before biting her.

She hated that.

But, now she shivered from his slurping tongue, instantly anew with pleasure and love. The emotions saturated her thick blood. She reached over with her right arm, curled around his head and pressed Kaname closer to the bite.

She loved how he drank from her and touched her. Or how he precisely knew what she liked. Yuki clenched the silk strands of his hair, breathing shakily from the expanding heat and desire trumpeting in her heart and mind. His hand slipped around her ribcage, tugging the shirt off her chest to knead her right breast.

Mmm.

Kaname plucked his fangs back and inspected the dark indentions he'd left. Within seconds her flesh began to heal. Yuki peered at him over the right shoulder. Her eyes had grown dark, like his, red-ringed with desire, heralded with need.

Yuki stood up and turned to face him. Her breasts shimmered in the gold light of butterflies. She slipped her shoes off without looking away and unhooked her pants.

Kaname watched her undress. "I said, don't get your hopes up."

She smelled his escalating excitement despite his warning. Nude, Yuki crawled toward him, "That's always a risk when you're alone with me." She straddled him and began unbuttoning his coat.

The buttons unlinked resoundingly against the tug of his running heart.

Kaname grabbed her left hand and kissed her knuckles. "You have more power in your little hand than the rest of the purebloods." His dark eyes narrowed, unblinkingly.

Yuki drew his jacket off one shoulder followed by the other. Swiftly, she parted his white shirt, running her tongue over his smooth collarbone. "Take your clothes off, or I'll burn them." She licked his Adam's apple, kissing his chin.

Kaname probed her dark eyes. She could demand anything from him. He would eternally favor her. He discarded the jacket and shirt, never averting from the sobering affect of desire in her stare, or the darkening blush on her cheeks, trailing desperately down her neck and chest. Yuki rubbed her lips against his, tenderly, brushing down his left cheek, neck and kissed his sturdy wide shoulder.

Kaname's breathing hastened. "Yuki…"

Yuki nuzzled his throat, pricking his skin with a fang in the process. "I also know what you like."

His claws entwined her hair, tugging until their lips met. Hunger and need seared his bloodstreams as she slipped her tongue on his, he deepened the kiss in response. Yuki moaned as soon as his tongue massaged hers, a fine fang chiseled the tip of her tongue. The tangy sweetness of saliva mingled. She pulled his hands to her chest, down her breasts and ribcage.

"I only want to feel your touch, no one else's," She mouthed between kisses, "I want to feel your fangs on me, Kaname."

Kaname dipped his head below her chin and sucked on the flesh of her throat, biting around her carotid pulse. She shuddered from the delicious bite, chiseling in stark plight of blood and her life-force. He gulped loudly, enjoying a honey taste instead of salty metallic and relived her memories and feelings as if they were his own. Kaname slipped his hands between her thighs, entering her waiting lips. Yuki shifted in surprise, hissing over his silky hair and succumbed to the intricate motions of his fingers.

Kaname licked the bite mark clean and watched the blush she had adopted. Her sighs escalated into shivers and soft moans from the friction of his fingers and her moving hips.

"Yuki," Kaname panted against her lips, "Why don't we do what humans do?"

Her eyes had rolled in the back of her head, "Aren't we already? Isn't this…?"

Kaname kissed her shoulder and closed his eyes against the successive heartbeats chiming from her as a result of his kisses. "Marriage — you and me."

Her eyes fluttered multiple times, silently mauling over his words against his distracting fingers. "What?" She mustered through blurred vision.

Kaname kissed her on the mouth softly. "You told me about it not long ago, a man and a woman declare themselves to each other. Why don't we do it, and I can shield you?"

Yuki peered at him through the fog of desire. Her arms hung tightly around his shoulders, caught in the middle of heated determination and desperation. She dropped her forehead against his, drinking in his warm breath, letting it fuel her body.

"What?" She mumbled again.

Kaname smoothed a hand over her head and down her spine, a soothing action to coax her into comprehension. "I won't be without you, and I want to be the father of your children. We're already together. Our status insinuates we can take on other lovers, but if we marry and show the dimension we want no one else…" Kaname sought her dark maroon irises to make sure she was capable of answering.

"We don't need marriage for that."

"You do."

"How do you mean?" Yuki whispered.

"Our marriage can send a message to the males that you're mine. They'll attack me instead."

She caressed his long cheeks and jawline cautiously. "I love you. I don't want you to be a target."

"But I can't lose you." Kaname nudged her forehead with his own.

Yuki sighed against his lips.

"You like human traditions, don't you?" He murmured hotly on her lips.

"I never imagined you, of all people, succumbing to the hype. Marriage is very contextual, and you're the exact opposite. I do love the thought of calling you 'husband' though. "

Kaname nuzzled her throat, "I'll be the best husband by stopping the attacks on you."

"There're other ways too…" Yuki shivered as soon as his tongue brushed down the column of her throat and toward her breasts. "You do learn fast, Kaname."

In an instant he flipped her flat on the bed and rolled on top of her. She removed the rest of his clothes, sighing with relief from the warmth of his bare body against hers and held him close as he showered her with kisses and nibbles.

"This means you'll be my wife?" Kaname hovered over Yuki, searching her shimmering eyes.

"I told you, I'm going to soak your blood and bones with my love. No one can stop me from being yours," Yuki picked her head up to capture his lips.

Kaname cupped the back of her head and eased her gently in the mattress, deepening her kiss.

o o o

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© Nur Misurr • Read & Review • Thank You

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A/N: Just my personal opinion on how open Yuki is about her feelings in the dimension but closed in the human world - almost afraid - because of what's coming in the next chapter, which wraps up the dimension series. I loved developing the contrast in her. I also wanted to show how deeply they both loved each other (not just Kaname) before they joined the Kuran lineage and her passion was the driving force behind what changed their lives.

Since the story is not about the rank system as much as it was before I am considering ending Echelon and continuing the next part as a sequel called "Eternity" and tie up all the loose ends properly.

Thank you for reading and supporting this story for so long :) You are all amazing. Thank you for patience! Come back for more!