Chapter Eight: On the Run Again
* "Hey, guys? Does anyone know where Hiiro went? Last night after Serena killed those vampires, he stormed off and still isn't back yet. I'm getting worried about him." Quatre said to the rest of the boys while they sat around the breakfast table. It was still early, only five thirty, but they were all up and waiting for Hiiro to come home. At one point during the night, each of them had drifted off to sleep, but now they were all up and alert.
"Maybe Serena killed him too." Everyone shot Duo a dirty glare. "Sheesh. I was only joking." Just then, the door banged open and Hiiro walked into the kitchen with Serena trailing close behind him.
"So then, if you don't eat food, do you drink anything? Ever?" Hiiro asked her. Apparently, the two had walked into the apartment mid-conversation and weren't about to stop to explain it to the rest of them, they just had to sit and wait.
"Nope. Never ever. Except blood. But then, you knew that, didn't you?" She smiled at him. The guys watched as he smiled back.
"I had better know that." Serena began to giggle slightly as she took Hiiro's usually seat at the table in-between Trowa and Duo.
"Good morning guys. Well, I suppose you all want an explanation as to the 'thugs' problem last night, am I right?" Serena asked them.
"Actually, we were more interested in where you and Hiiro have been all night." Duo said with a short laugh. "But we would like an explanation of that as well."
"Oh. Hiiro and I were in my apartment. You could have tried knocking on the door, and that might have gotten you in, but I doubt it. We were busy last night." She said.
"When you say busy, what does that imply?" Trowa asked, smirking just slightly. Hiiro gave him an ultimate death glare and Serena smacked him lightly on his arm.
"We were talking all night." Hiiro supplied coolly.
"Right. Except for that hour when you were… well, except for one hour. Other than that, we were talking." They nodded their heads to verify their stories together.
"That hour? You make it sound like he passed out or something." Duo looked at Hiiro and Serena's faces and a smile spread across his face. "He did, didn't he? Hiiro passed out! And I missed it! How come?" Duo pegged them with questions.
"Slow down Duo. Both our heads are still spinning from everything"
"Hnn." He grunted.
"Alright. So why did Hiiro faint?" Duo asked again, this time in slow motion.
"Blood loss. Sorry again about that Hiiro. I didn't mean to take so much the second time around." She looked guilty.
"It's alright. I told you to. In fact, you should drink more." He said, quite at ease with the whole conversation.
"Yeah, but not from you. Or the guys. I need to go hunting. I should wait until tonight though. I'm a lot less conspicuous when it's dark, you know?"
"Freeze! Rewind! What are you two talking about?" Duo cried out.
"Yeah, care to let us in on the little secret?" Wufei added. They watched as Serena gave Hiiro a worried look, then turned to watch him give her a supportive one. Something was definitely backwards with them today.
"We were talking about me and my eating, err, drinking habits." Serena said, now quite unsure of herself.
"You drink?" Asked Quatre and Trowa simultaneously.
"Uh, yeah. But not the way you're thinking. Hiiro told me that last night when you all looked at the vampires, you saw their fangs, and that was how you knew they were vampires. Well, there are other ways to tell too. First of all, a vampire has fangs. That much is obvious. But do you think a vampire can live outside during the day?"
"No! Everyone knows vampires turn into dust when the sun comes up. And another way to tell if someone is a vampire is to look at their reflection. They won't have one." Duo announced happily. "What does this have to do with what you're talking about and you're drinking problem Sere?"
"Do you have a portable mirror?" She asked them.
"I think I might." Said Trowa. He stood up to go look for one. Duo shot him an odd look, but said nothing.
"And Duo, after a vampire has been a vampire for over eighty years, they can stay out in the sunlight." Serena continued, correcting him.
"Says who?" He asked her.
"Says Serry. Now listen up or I'll kill you Maxwell." Said Hiiro, pulling his gun out and checking his bullet number. He had to be prepared for Darien to pay them a visit after what Serena had said last night.
"Here's that mirror." Said Trowa returning. He gave it to Serena and stood behind her, looking at the blank mirror. Though she was staring straight into it, there was nothing there. No, face, no hand, no reflection. It hit him like a ton of bricks. She never ate, She didn't like vampire movies. She had a 'drinking problem'. Serena was a vampire. He looked around at his comrade's faces. Apparently, they had come to the same conclusion as he.
"You're one of them. You've sold you're soul to the Devil!" Accused Wufei.
"No! No! Not at all! I was made a vampire against my will! I didn't ask for it to happen and I didn't go willingly. I was forced." Serena cried out in shame and fear. These were her friends? The ones who accused her of wanting to damn herself for eternity?
"Serena. They don't know any better yet." Hiiro said, trying to calm her down. He should have known Wufei would say something about her honor or about injustices. Suddenly the room was dead quiet. After a few moments of the uncomfortable silence, Serena stood up and ran out of the apartment. Hiiro stayed behind, intending to give his 'friends' a piece of his mind.
"Hiiro, you let her corrupt you. You've let that wench of a devil's advocate corrupt you!" Wufei started.
"Shut the hell up Wufei. Just because she's a vampire does not make her damned. Wufei, Trowa, Quatre, Duo, she told you because she thought you would understand."
"But Hiiro! She's one of them! Why did she go and kill her own kind last night?" Duo asked.
"Because. She's not one of them. She is one of the only vampires ever created against her will. She was raped and then consecrated over two hundred years ago. Now the same vampire who created her wants her back. His name is Count Darien, and he happens to be the head of the vampires. And now you've gone and killed what little faith she had left in the living." He gave them all one more of his coldest possible death glare, then stalked out of the room.
"Well? What do we do now?" Asked Trowa.
"Serena can't be evil. She just can't be. She can't even be dead! She's got so much life!" Quatre said in a melancholy tone.
"But she is. Yui is brainwashed."
"If he's brainwashed, then so am I. I believe Serena." Said Duo. Quatre and Trowa sat quietly for a moment, then both nodded and stood up next to Duo.
"You're all insane!" Wufei screamed at them.
"Maybe." Trowa said. "But we've never made a wrong decision before. Why would we start now?"
"Because she's bewitched you!" Wufei yelled back.
"I thought you didn't believe in magic Wufei." Duo mocked him.
"I don't. Ahhh! Why are we all still standing here? Let's go apologize to that idiot woman." Wufei said. With that, all four of them stormed out of the apartment and across the hall.
*
"… So instead of just staying here, you want to leave before that Darien follows you here and catches you?"
"Exactly. I'm sorry. I just can't go back to that sleazy creep." She said with hatred in her voice.
"Don't worry. I understand." He said calmly.
"I understand you have responsibilities as a Gundam Pilot. Don't think I don't. You and I, we both fight for peace. Just different ways."
"Still…" heavy banging cut him off.
"Would you get that?" She asked him. "I have to finish packing these candles."
"Sure." Hiiro left for the door. A few moments later he came back with four very nervous pilots following him. Serena couldn't bring herself to look them in the eyes, so she simply nodded in acknowledgment to their arrival.
"Sere." Quatre began. "We just wanted to apologize for our behavior. It was extremely rude of us. We were just in shock. Now that the news has sunk in, we realize how wrong we were to write you off as one of the villains." Serena smiled slightly at his words.
"Yeah. Hey, Sere, I'm sorry babe. Think about it this way: how many people know a living dead person?" She almost laughed at Duo's apology.
"I beg your pardon Serena. I didn't mean anything in a rude or harmful way towards you." Said Trowa. Then he nudged Wufei.
"Woman, you may be dead, but you fight well. Maybe you're not working for the Devil after all." Serena turned around, full blown grin on her face.
"Do you all really mean it?" She asked them.
"Of course woman. We wouldn't say something we didn't mean!" Wufei snapped.
"Thank you guys!" She hugged each of them as a thank you for their apologies and then began retelling her tale.
"It was during the eighteen hundreds, and I was at a party my parents were throwing. Count Darien, as he calls himself, appeared. I had only met him once before, but I didn't like him nonetheless. I suppose I insulted him, but he got angry and stole me away. I was given a chance to win my freedom via a sword fight, and win it I did. Still, Darien claimed he would set me free, not that he wouldn't make me a vampire. So he did. He made me a vampire. A few nights later I left."
"He didn't try to stop you?" Trowa asked.
"No. Vampires have a Code of Honor we need to follow. It dictates what happens if we lie, cheat, steal, etcetera. For the most part the rules don't apply to vampire human relationships… a vampire can still take a mortal from another vampire, it's perfectly allowed. But for a vampire to steal another vampire from another vampire? Its punishable by death. Still, there are a few exceptions, like a vampire cannot interfere between the fight of a vampire and a mortal. Anyway. Darien had to keep his word and let me leave because that is a law of the Code."
"Vampires are very confusing." Duo scratched his head. Serena laughed.
"Why don't you all sit down and I'll tell you more?"*