Chapter one: There's A Breed On The Brooklyn Bridge?
"Winter in the city is different from what it used to feel like. It's not as cold, it's not as hard to see through the snow, it's not as wet, I don't slip on the ice covered sidewalk, the wind doesn't hurt when it throws hale in my direction, and no matter what I am always happy. I always didn't like Winter, it was cold and everything died for an entire season, I couldn't stand to watch the flowers slowly die one by one. But now even human deaths don't make me flinch. My heart must be as cold as a human would feel this weather…unbearable…but this is the life I choose." Riho whispered this to herself as she stood still for a moment from her walking. It was rather cold out but there was no snow yet though there was a lot of ice and the sky threatened to cause snow to fall at any moment with the angry sky's angry clouds above all of Tokyo.
Riho unconsciously looked up to the dark sky and empty sky; the black sky with the purple clouds that were currently mixing together like a poisonous gas. She stared up at the clouds emotionlessly not caring if it were actually poisonous gases or just the clouds that all of the humans would see it as, for the fact that she didn't have too breath to survive. Riho was an immortal creature of the night, thus she didn't have to breath or eat just feed. She just needed blood to survive now…she was still getting used to it. Riho had learned to be emotionless but was still adjusting to the other disadvantages of immortality.
Drops of water started to fall from the sky and landed on the tip of Riho's nose immediately waking her from her train of thought. Soon it started raining much more and harder, Riho looked back in front of her, before continuing she looked down at her dress. There was an over dress that was red with lines of black running down the fabric and a see through yellow silk under it, the dress ended at the middle of her thin upper legs; she smiled. Soaking wet she continued to walk around the city wondering what it would have been like to had been saved, to have not been injured by Cain to the point that she would have bled to death.
"I have to stay positive and not think about Cain, Shido is still edgy about him after the last time he showed up. I have to think about the think I want to do." She chuckled and jumped into the air think, 'fly, fly, fly.' When she opened her eyes she was flying over Tokyo looking down on every human in the city. They were not very lucky tonight though, she had not yet fed so she still had to stop for a bite to eat. I should just stay in one place for awhile, she thought as the rain slowly stopped and the sky began to clear up to see the stars in the distance.
She looked down at the top of a building about ten meters below her, it looked like a good place to take a rest so she stopped moving forward and changed her direction below and landed gently on the stone blocks used to make the roof. Smiling at her good decent she turned her head slowly to get a look to the West. "The sun won't come for awhile longer, there isn't a sign of light yet. I still have time to be alone…but then I have to go back for another day in the shadows…hidden from all this. Everything I was brought up to love and live in from my stupidity and getting killed." She almost whispered as if ashamed of being a vampire. But she just shook her head, she didn't regret anything, she loved everything about her life and wouldn't change anything about it. Relaxing she sat on the cold stone blacks and slowly lower her body until she was lying down with her arms behind her head acting as a pillow. Remembering when she was able to go out in the sunlight every day caused tears to fill her big brown eyes. Her parents were dead, and all of her friends thought she was dead except for Shunichi who promised to not come looking for her any ways. Besides the tears from remembering the pain and lose of her family and friends, her stomach ached from her lack of feeding on human blood. But Riho had never enjoyed feeding, though the blood was warm and tasted sweet usually but she couldn't bear feeling the life of another flow from their body into her own…draining them of every memory and ounce of life they loved before they had been chosen to help her live another pointless existence of endless and forever nights for all of eternity. But she didn't like to feed so she fed as little as she possibly could and not taking much, just enough for her to get by.
Riho knew Shido and Yayoi were expecting her home soon but she didn't wish to go return to them quite yet, Shido would see she was more pale thus proving that she was starving herself again and make her feed from Yayoi until she regained some color. "Oh no, it's three already." Said Riho miserably starting to lift herself up from the cold stone. The back of her dress was wet and the blue ribbon in her hair must had come out before she had landed on the building. Her long brown hair was now flowing everywhere as she stood and looked out to the moon by the bridge smiling that she didn't have to go back to the detective agency yet. Then jumped into the air and yet again thought to herself again, 'fly, fly, fly.' She floated into the now clear night sky.
Riho thought of her old best friends, Micako and Shunichi and how much she missed them and how much they were probably missing her. They might have looked for her since Shunichi had found out she was a vampire when the drug incident happened about a year and a half earlier, but she avoiding thinking about them…she might do something stupid. Everything since those days back when she was normal had changed completely, nothing seemed or felt real anymore, maybe that was the best part, maybe it was the worst. Everything had changed…being almost killed by Cain, becoming a vampire, swearing to a vow for all eternity, Shido and her being involved with each other's lives far more, Shido becoming her lover, Yayoi being her source and means of survival or saving her from murdering, and Guni annoying her three times more then she had ever thought imaginable compared to the level it started out on. She laughed at her memories and thoughts of the past trying to forget and just have for the remaining time that she had on her own.
Riho looked down at another building and landed not wanting to be seen flying then jumped to a lower building, then another all different in shape and size, then into the park's garden. Her feet crunched down smashing roses, tulips, daisies and many other flowers she didn't recognize. The sakura blossom trees were bare and looked like she was in a black and white movie from the lack of color in the park compared to what it was going to look like in the early Spring and Summer. She stepped out of the garden and founded the path through the park to the main street. Once she found it she started walking to the Brooklyn bridge, it was the quickest way back to Shido's detective agency. She looked down at her wrist where her 'Hello Kitty' watch was beeping annoyingly with a cat with a bow on her ear pointing to the time.
"Damn! I'm late, Yayoi's going to kill me...or just not feed me. But still, I promised her I'd leave for only three hours…" Riho sighed to herself, "and it's been five." She sighed picking up her pace until she starting to run in the bridge's direction.
The cold air was like a gentle Summer's breeze on her already ice cold skin. It was refreshing and she forgot mostly about being on time or being late. She started to only focus on the breeze that was surrounding her entire body as she ran. Maybe she wouldn't go back tonight, maybe she would stay out and walk around looking for a club with girls and guys that she could fit in with. Most likely the goth of freaks crowds as they were called.
Before she even realized it she was at the bridge and she slowed down slightly, from the cars and humans. Riho stopped slightly confused when she got to the bridge, there was a fire and a serious accident in the middle of the bridge, kind of like the first night she found out about Shido being a vampire, Guni's very existence, and that Yayoi was a blood bank to a vampire and soon would be hers as well. Riho smelt the air for a second and caught a whiff of breed blood in the air.
"Shido will have to wait a while for me to arrive. There's a breed here and it looks like it's planning to take possession of an innocent human's body." She muttered under her breath not wanting any of the authority figures to hear her then ran towards the heat and light of the collision.
She ran almost at top speed so as not to attract attention, the police had put up yellow guard tape with the words, 'Stay out, Police area, Danger,' written across it in bold black letters. She jumped over it easily and gracefully as if it were nothing at all, just like steeping over a crack in the ground. Riho was stopped by a man who grabbed her arm rudely.
"Miss it's far to dangerous on the bridge. There is a very bad collision in the middle of the bridge and it's not safe to cross yet. You'll have to find another way across, and shouldn't you be home now any ways? Your parents must be worried about you." He spoke gently holding her back.
"No I have to get though. My...parents are in that car. That's my parents over there dying, let me go!" She lied breaking form his grip and ran forward again towards the smell of blood and breeds unknowing if the breed was behind her or not.
"Miss come back it's not safe!" He shouted but she just disappeared into the smoke and the blinding, scorching light.
Riho found the car quickly and looked for the breed. It had been a brutal attack the passenger was injured badly, if she wasn't already dead she was going to be very soon. Her seat and the window in front of her were covered in blood, a huge gash on her neck was oozing with thick red blood and it kept flowing and coming out and not slowing down. Riho looked at the woman then turned away, the blood's smell was bad enough, she didn't want to see it as well…she might lose it. I can't look at her, and I can't kill her, I know she's going to die but I'm not going to be the one to do it! She thought to herself then stepped away from the car. Riho scanned the area, the night breed couldn't had got that far, it's smell was still everywhere and it's blood still laced some parts of the road.
"Breed! Come out and fight me!" Screamed Riho to the night sky, she started to sweat, if it was a breed it would have attacked her by now. The body in the car was far to damaged to be used as a shell for the breed to use. To her left she heard a painful scream and a body flew to her feet, it was the breed and it's neck had fang marks on it. Riho's face lit up and she looked around excited. "Shido! Where are you?" She shouted with joy to the smoke filled atmosphere.
From her pocket came a ringing noise that was a piano playing Hitomi's song 'I am'. She picked it up and put it to her ear after moving some hair our of the way.
"Hello, Riho here." She greeted walking around looking for a sign of Shido.
"Riho? It's Yayoi, where are you? Shido and I are home. Breakfast's getting cold, though you don't care. Where the Hell are you? It's six, I wanted you home for five thirty. Don't worry Shido doesn't know, everything's okay." Riho held the phone to her ear in shock, if Shido was home…then who was the one who bit the breed's neck? "Riho? Riho, are you there? Ri-…" Click. Riho put the phone back in her pocket and ran into the smoke not looking for a night breed but for a vampire.