Once she was sure Kaname was gone, she lay on the floor, taking a deep breath. The branches retreat into the ground. Her staff rushed to her side. No one knew that her staff was so large in numbers or how loyal they all were. Anyone who opposed her or broke her trust were killed. She made sure no knew how many staff she had; it was her defense when she was home. It meant an attacker would only expect to fight her and a handful of people, not an army. She smiled and allowed her staff to help up and straighten her hair out. She ordered her fastest followers to get to Rido, to warn him that Kaname was on his way back. But to also help him get to Yuki, kill her or to escape from whoever was defending her.
Akari paced up and down her hall, she was worried. It had been a while since Kaname had left and she had yet to hear from her followers or Rido. Her front door flew open, but it wasn't anyone she had expected. It wasn't Rido, it wasn't Kaname. It was a bloodied Zero. She wondered how he knew where she lived.
"You! You and Kaname led Rido to the academy!" Zero screamed at her, his bloody rose pointed at her head. Her staff moved into attack but she held up her hand, a signal to standby. "He killed Yuki! He and the others with him just ripped through her!" His voice broke as he screamed, tears of hate, anger and distress flowed freely. Akari hid the smile from him, it was the news she wanted to hear. Yuki was dead.
"I never led Rido to the academy…" She started to explain.
"Lair!" Zero interrupted her.
"Just hear me out." She told him calmly, Zero nodded but tightened his grip on bloody rose. "Kaname was the one led Rido to the academy by bringing Yuki to Cross." She started to explain, Zero's face twisted in confusion.
"What has Yuki got to do with all of this?" He demanded.
"You didn't know?" Akari asked, more rhetorical than a question. "Yuki is Kaname's little sister."
"Impossible!" Zero spat at her.
"Juri Kuran, their mother found a way to turn her human when Rido attacked. If Kaname had never had brought Yuki to Cross, Rido would have never gone to the academy. Kaname put the wolf among the sheep."
"No! I don't believe you!" Zero all but screamed at her. "Yuki was human, weak but she cared." Zero's voice soften a little.
"Zero, you are falling into Level E." She reminded him. "Would normal human blood from a small bite really be enough to stop your thirst? How did it stop you from going crazy instead of going crazy?" She started to quiz him, she smiled once realisation appeared on his face. He frowned and lowered bloody rose.
"She was a pureblood all this time?" He muttered to himself. Akari sighed, Zero had fallen in love with Yuki and now his broken heart was trying to fix the damage she and Kaname had made. She slowly approached Zero, not sure if he'd point the gun at her again.
She called him name softly, earning his attention. He stiffened a little before allowing his shoulders to relax, still on guard.
"I did a little digging for you." She started, he looked at her confused. "The one who bit you, didn't kill your whole family." Anger flashed across his face, clearly, he thought he had lied about what happened. "Shizuka took Ichiru, he's not dead. He is sick and he is dying but Shizuka is keeping him alive with her blood, twisting his mind." She told him before Bloody Rose ended up in her face again.
"Why are you telling me this?" He asked confused but a glint of sadness flashed in his eyes.
"Because it would be a shame to lose you, you are an excellent vampire." He growled at her as she said that. "You work to keep the others in their place, it is important that the humans have someone who thinks like us but protects them. It gives them a fighting chance." She explained, Zero was confused, why would she want him alive to get in their way? "If a vampire can't fight you for food, then they aren't worthy of life." Zero now understood. She was always for humans being prey, but she only believed that the strong and mighty should be able to feed. Weakness was like a bad smell to her and it was everywhere. She needed to wipe them out, make the race strong once more with Rido at her side.
"You want me to fight Shizuka?" He asked her, surely, she didn't think that he could win so easily against her.
"No, your twin." She told him, he growled at her. How could she think that he could just kill his family?! "Zero, Ichiru is only living half a life. Shizuka is keeping him alive for her own gain. He needs to pass on. If you devour him, you will become whole in a manner of speaking. It will forever stop your descend to Level E. You can do what you wish with the information." Zero looked thoughtful for a moment.
"I will find Shizuka, if your information is wrong, I'll either be killed or I will come back and kill you." He hissed at her. "If it's true but I can't win and live..." Zero paused for a moment. "I would like you to kill me if my teacher can't bring himself to do so."
"I will." She told him. With that, he left. She wondered why he would ask her to do such a thing. She shook her head, she didn't have time to think about him. She needed to focus on Rido and being ready for anything that was coming her way.
Once again, Akari was in the grips on anxiety as she waited for Rido's return. She was worried that Kaname may have found him or they had a run in on the way back.
Her nerves were almost shot by the time Rido had made it back to her. He was covered in quite a bit of blood and grinning ear to ear. He went to take her hand and pull her into an embrace but she moved back. "Blood and velvet don't mix." She told him simply.
"I don't care." He said with a devilish smile and quickly pulled her to him, taking her lips with his. His arms held her tight to him, covering her in just as blood. They pulled away for air, Akari giggled once she was released from his hold.
"Now look at me." She joked as she looked down at her dress.
"I am and you look delicious." He teased her, licking his lips.
"Rido!" She laughed at him, it was clear by his manner that none or very little of the blood was his. "It's going to take forever to get this clean."
"Well, at least you're not the one who has to do it." He pointed out, stepping behind her. He quickly pulled the zip of her dress down.
"What are you doing?" She eyed him, suspiciously but with full trust.
"We don't want it to stain do we? If you take it off now, someone will clean it for you." He explained as her dress dropped to the floor. "My, my, don't you think to wear a bra?" He asked with a smirk, watching her quickly cover herself up with her hands.
"I wasn't expecting to be undressed in the hallway." She almost hissed back.
By this time, Rido had noticed the ugly bruises on her neck and arms. He frowned and stepped closer to her, inspecting each one.
"Kaname, I assume?" Akari nodded and sighed.
"He got rather angry when I refused to leave with him and go with his plan." She explained. "Or tell him where you were."
"Plan?" Rido wondered how much Kaname may have unknowingly told her.
"Yeah, to kill you, take me back to the academy and do ever else he needed to do. I'm guessing which ever one came first. Marry me, make me queen consort and then a year after that, have a child. He thinks we should have two." She told him with a shrug. "No key information really." Rido hummed in agreement before carefully touching each bruise, checking for any hidden damage. "I'm fine, but the floor needs fixing." Rido snapped out of his daze and frowned, he hadn't noticed any structural damage when he came, then again, as soon as his eyes lay down on her, he didn't notice anything. Akari smiled softly and pointed towards the front door. He followed her raised fingers and spotted the raised ground in front of the door. It had been pushed up from underneath in random places, it told Rido all he needed to know.
"Your plants?" He asked as he looked around for more damage.
"Yes, Zero also came by." She told him; it was better to mention it now than have it blow up in their face later.
"What did that boy want? Did he want saving?" He asked, not taking the visit as anything important even if it was strange.
"At first he blamed me for you killing Yuki. Threatened me with his gun." Rido growled, anger boiling inside, no one threatened his love and got away with it. If only Akari knew of the countless people who had threatened her or had said something derogative towards her, without her knowing, he had killed them all. He had lost count of number, but he was sure it was in the hundreds. A lot of men saw her as a tease and a whore. Women saw her as a threat, a siren who stole their lovers. None of that was true, she had always been naïve to flirting, Rido had to point it out to her a few times. Men and even he had to be very blunt and obvious with their flirting. She couldn't even tell when Kaname was flirting when they first met, she just thought he was being rude and self-centered. As for the women, their men strayed from them, that was their own fault. Whether it was because they had picked the wrong type of man or they didn't care enough until it was too late. That didn't matter, Rido knew that when you love someone as deeply as he did, you would never hurt them, no matter what.
He always thought he loved Juri and that she had betrayed him. But when he met Akari, he discovered his love was merely an attraction, infatuation with a woman that was always said to be yours. He knew better now. It didn't make Juri's actions any less hurtful, he was her brother and she chose Haruka. She then casted him out and painted him to be the source of all evil, everything that was wrong with the vampire race. When in fact, it was them. They made vampires weak and soft. They wanted peace, Rido wanted vampires to rise and take what was theirs. Once Kaname was out of the picture, that was exactly what he was going to do. Lead the charge to a better future where humans were slaves. "He was upset but it turned out he knew nothing about Yuki. I told him it was Kaname's fault for bringing her to the academy. He sided with me." Akari words brought Rido from his thoughts. He listened carefully to what she had to say. "I then told him about Shizuka and his twin which she keeps as a pet. I know you can't stand her so now he's unknowingly on a mission to get rid of her or at least weaken her." She finished and Rido smirked.
"Clever as always. But Zero hates vampires, he will only come back if he does and try to kill us all." Rido stated as he took her hand, much to her annoyance as he was uncovering her.
"Zero has this strange respect for me, I'm sure over time, I might even be able to convince him to work for us." She reasoned. "Besides, you're not afraid of him, are you? I'm sure you could squash him in no time." She joked, Rido grumbled in response as he continued to lead her to their room. Akari smiled to herself, things were starting to work out for them.