A vampires forbidden love: the lies that bind us

by max333

It's been a year since the big battle against the lycan's and now a new war rages within the coven. Deceit and lies wreck havoc as Usagi, Mamoru and those closest to them uncover a new enemy and find that the enemies might be closer than ever imagined.

10. Aftermath leads to catching the rat

OrientalDanceGirl: who says he's dead? And as for Emon I agree.

1 review, that's nice, still have a bit of chapters to go so I hope your all still tuned in out there to see how far this can go. the next couple of chapters should definitely throw some twists in here you didn't see coming. Please read and review!

A vampires forbidden love: the lies that bind us ch.10

Usagi POV

It took me a moment to realize that the near blood curdling scream that came out and echoed through the halls for but a moment had come from me. My heart was pounding in my ears, my blood pumping through my veins so fast that it felt like I'd run a marathon when in reality the rush was from what I'd witnessed and had done and in some way felt like what I'd failed to do as a leader here.

I looked from the broken window to our elder then at the floor that was stained his blood. It was pouring out copiously from both of his sustained wounds. I had dropped to the floor by his side only moments after Emon had fled the scene. The look of satisfaction on his face had been sickening to see. I looked at the only parental figure I had left in my life and his blood was seeping from him into the hardwood below his fallen form. It was like it happened in slow motion for me.

It touched my fingertips with a disturbing slickness that I couldn't help but feel ill from. The liquid spreading no faster than water but no slower than oil making my stomach turn that I was even seeing it. The leather pants I had on repelled the blood away from sinking through and plastering itself to my skin as Mamoru came up to us. I had barely registered him run up to us as his knees hit the wooden floor.

The impact barely jarring me from my position. My focus was so spilt that the only emotion I could clearly identify at the moment was rage. Yet the rage that had been so prevalent in me as Emon made his deadly attempt seemed to stall for a bit at the sight of our elder as he grasped for my hand to bring my focus back to him. I heard the alarms go off as vampires outside the gates went after him.

Something told me however that they wouldn't catch him. He was the elder's last-born son after all. He was stronger and faster than anyone, other than the elders truly, here. We had older vampires here of course but he was older than even them. Rei, Minako and even Makoto and I were the next technical oldest ones and according to Minako when she followed him, he'd demonstrated great power in his physical strength against her.

I looked at the blood as Mamoru began to go into doctor mode. I couldn't understand why Emon had done this. I knew he hated me, wanted me dead but WHY go after his own father? Then it hit me. He was finishing off what he'd started back then. He had wanted his father dead for not giving him what he wanted…for not stepping aside and letting him have the world. Problem was I stood in his way now to.

And because I was like a daughter to our elder he wanted to hurt me and him. Me mentally and emotionally and him physically. He did this to us both but more so to me. His words clear as day now that my head was able to process it. He wanted me to suffer the way he felt he'd suffered when I killed Damon. His only brother. This was vengeance against me and to a degree to get even with our elder. I looked up at him as I saw a trickle of blood from his mouth emerge. Never once could I ever truly recall a time where he bled out.

I mean he was our elder. An elder wasn't supposed to be able to get hurt. They were supposed to die in peace when they chose to be with their loved ones. Or to go out in battle in a fierce fight that solidified how great and strong they were. It's how things were done. The only reason why our elder never sought to die peacefully once he lost his mate, unborn daughter and Damon were because at the end he gained me.

Even in the battlefield he was much stronger than any vampire other than maybe the grand elder of the counsel that still lived. Yet to see him like this now…it cracked me. That carefully guarded piece of heart that I had behind protective barriers cracked at the sight of him like this, hurt and in pain. In some ways I saw him as invincible, un-killable, even though that obviously was impossible…no vampire, elder or not was invincible.

I barely stepped away in time as Mamoru rushed in another vampire to his aid, using his medical back round to save him as the sword and knife wounds from the very sword that lay nearby, continued to pour out blood. I went on autopilot for the next twenty minutes. Giving out orders to secure a travel pattern to the infirmary that we had with little to no interruption from any vampire in the area.

I watch as the vampire guards didn't even blink just followed the orders and moved. I order two others to secure the room and not let ANYONE other than myself, Mamoru or Chikao back inside. Then I ordered a double round of security around the whole compound though I knew by now that it was useless. Emon had done what he came here to do. He was breaking my heart in a way that Damon could never achieve.

I had allowed myself to care for and love another father besides my own and now he may be dying in his own bedroom no less. There was no grand battle, no all-out war…he was attacked without provocation in his own home. Damon may have taken me away from my home but I had only known my family for less than twenty years I had known our elder for generations and had come to care and love him as a father figure.

I did everything I could to prevent the tears that were welling up from becoming noticeable and falling. I couldn't show weakness now. I couldn't allow ANYONE to gain the thought process that something terrible and irreversible was wrong. I had to show a unified front even if I felt like part of my world was falling apart and collapsing. I mourned my blood father, I couldn't mourn the only remaining father figure I had left. Not now…not for a long, long time.

For those twenty minutes we got him downstairs and into the infirmary taking one of the side hall short cuts to get there with the guards making less vampires roaming around it. In fact, I wanted to shove everyone into their rooms so that he could travel without the prying eyes of the vampires around to see him in this state butt that might be worse to do. It might show that something terrible had happened and there was risk now.

I knew deep down in my heart that he would survive…but that chest wound…it looked like it had hit his heart and were not invulnerable to that. Not even an elder is. We got him downstairs as I felt like my world was being turned upside down. Mamoru getting hurt earlier on in the past few weeks was one thing. Yes, he was at risk but not nearly as much as our elder was right now as he was loaded up onto a bed.

Mamoru's shoulder had been the focal point and he had sustained a great deal of blood loose, one that if left untreated could have killed him. Our elder however had sustained two blows that if not treated right the hell now could result in his death. The one in his chest is the one I worried about the most. Regeneration was impossible if the heart or head were damaged. We had to make sure the heart hadn't been hit or damaged in the fight.

Worse yet about this was that it happened in our own home! The battle last year had been different, he had anticipated that fight coming. We had been prepared and fought back with support from others. This was a snake coming in like a damned rat and eating its way inside to get to its true meal. The cheeky bastard was reveling in his moment of victory while we were holding our breath and what would happen next.

After all this was the one place that we should have felt the safest yet, in one moment, became the one place that was compromised within the span of a day. I saw the blood that had poured out. It wouldn't leave my head. Forever burned into my retinas like a bad taste that wouldn't leave your mouth even after you drank something else to be rid of it. It was still on the bottom of my boots as I glanced down at them, shifting them around.

I knew they would stain there, not that it would be noticed. The boots were a dark black after all so I wasn't worried…or at least it was the last thing I was worried about. I turned away unable to look at it anymore without becoming even more ill. The blood I had consumed earlier threatening to come up. I swallowed any bile that was beginning to rear its head up. I didn't want to have that taste added with it.

I order two more vampires to clean up his room of the broken glass and the blood while another two looked for clues as to where Emon could have gone with the sword he left behind and how the hell he got back in to begin with. I think the vampires actually grew afraid of me in these moments. My voice was carefully controlled but it was the look of death that took over that I think had them iffy on asking me anything. Soren was pouring over the footage now of all the camera's looking for how he got in.

The one thing that bothered me though was that if that came up empty then it meant only one thing. It was the one thing I had been hoping wasn't the case. Someone had LET him in. I didn't want it to be that reason. If that turned out to be the case whomever he or she was, I was going to rip their head off IF our elder perished. I wouldn't let them live if he died so I knew that they had better pray that he lived.

Cause if he didn't, it would mean their deaths for letting a known murderous sociopath inside to seek revenge knowing all too well the destructive personality he had. I forced myself to focus back on our elder as for the moment I could do nothing about Emon. I had nowhere to search or kill just yet. Seeing him look so vulnerable it reminded me of my birth father. When he lost me, when I saw that expression in his eyes it was of fear for me. I took years afterwards tell his grave stone that I was okay.

That I did what I had to do to protect them all and that I'd do it again in a heartbeat. But I knew deep down he felt that paralyzing vulnerability from having Damon come into his home, his home that he was the protector of, that he laid with my mother, bore my brother and I and raised us as properly as he knew how, and still had to watch as Damon ripped his only daughter from him IN his own house.

The guilt of not being physically strong enough to take on a vampire and lose me, his only daughter, in the process must have weighed upon him heavily till he perished. I could never remove that from him. That's when something in me clicked and I shut my eyes hard coming to a bit more of an understanding with our elder's decision to remove Damon's memories. I hadn't thought about it at the time but now I think I understood more.

If I could have would I have taken away my father's memories of me? could I have compelled them away or have asked Damon to do so that way, he wouldn't had to worry about what became of me? Would I have got back and compelled them away so that he could have had that peace and never have felt that guilt? Granted he would have wanted me to stay but knowing that I was a vampire at that point he might not have even seen me as his daughter anymore. Just the thought of him looking at me differently sent pain through me.

I loved my family to death but the fear of vampires and lycan's back then was so etched into possibilities that I don't think gather could have handled me being a vampire. Nor mother or my brother. They might have just seen me as just dead after I was taken. Though nowadays vampires and lycan's were so etched into mythology and movies and tv that for humans they were as real as zombies.

Things were seen differently back when I was a human compared to todays modern world of acceptance and understanding of things of yesteryear. Back during my day all witches were seen as evil and burned at the stake whereas today its accepted to be a Wiccan. Zombies were even thought to be real only for scientists to prove that there was a reason they rose from the dead, but it wasn't to eat people.

So, in light of that, was our elder wrong for his decision to remove Damon's memories to protect him? To shield him from the pain of loose of his brother on top of everything else he'd lost in his lifetime? Could I have done the same for my mother and my brother to give them peace that way they never would have felt the pain of losing me as they did? I wondered if maybe it would have been better.

Shield them in a way from the pain of losing a loved one by taking it away as he did. I was stunned now that I thought about it. Or would that have been to cruel to take those happy memories away simply due to what transpired in the end? Yes I was taken and yes they suffered later but for the time that I did live with them I loved them dearly. I enjoyed cooking with my mother, taking the bow out with father and practicing with him, even doing choirs with my little brother around the house.

I looked over at the curtain that contained him. I really had to think about it. Would removing the memories have been a blessing or a fatal mistake? Is it better to remember everything and still know the gut-wrenching feeling of having it ripped away or to never have had it and be left with the feeling of nothingness? Or is it the same for everyone or different for different situations? I wasn't sure, but I did have a better idea and a better understanding of the decisions our elder made for his son.

Either way that pain I saw in my father's eyes of losing me, I saw that again in our elder. The only difference was he held the vulnerability of a parent that had lost a child yet again and this time he lost Emon to Emon. For him I think that made it even worse. His son became his own worse enemy and no matter what he did he couldn't have seen what was going on in his mind, contrary to popular belief vampires aren't mind readers.

We can compel and input certain thoughts into one's mind to get them to do certain things or to remember things a certain way so we can avoid detection or misdirect for many of us like our elder did with Damon, BUT we cannot read a person's mind. Not their thoughts or opinions. Not in a human nor a vampire nor a lycan. Things would be MUCH different if we could and obviously, they aren't.

I thought on how that confrontation could have gone. We have no security footage of the upstairs for that area, so I can't even get an idea of what was said via lip reading but I knew he had to have tried to talk to him. Tried to reason with his only remaining son. It was just who our elder was. I knew he worked hard desperately to try and communicate with him, to try and reason with Emon rather than start a fight.

Diplomacy was first then when that failed, he had no problem taking out the opponent. Yet Emon resisted and it resulted in him getting stabbed twice…by his own son. And even though I want to yell out and demand to knowhow Emon got the drop on him a part of me told me why even before I could voice the thought out fully. After all, could anyone truly kill one's own child that they loved?

I can only imagine that that pain alone, that Emon was willing to kill his father and still had every intention to do so must have been ten times worse than the double edge sword he was stabbed with. He raised his son, he loved him…despite his dark side our elder still loved him and did he best to do the right thing for his son and Emon still…I clenched my eyes shut…the sight of Emon's face as he stabbed him etched into my head.

A sight I'd never be able to un see ever. Then when I looked into our elder's eye's I saw that pain yes but thinking on it now I also saw the expression of a bit of peace in his eyes that he'd finally gotten that confrontation with his son. He's been able to see him one last time and see the vampire, the man that he had truly become. The man that his son WANTED to be and even though it wasn't the man he wanted him to become at least the question marks are gone. The closure is there.

I mean he's now gotten the chance to try to reason with Emon one last time and even though it ended badly he felt at peace with the world. Problem was Emon wasn't going to stop there. He was going to keep going. He was going to do what he came to do and kill me and try to take this coven over for himself. Though how he'd do that when everyone here despised him I wasn't sure on that. I looked over to where our elder was, still covered by the curtain in front of me as Mamoru worked, he wasn't supposed to die on me. He was the only parental figure I had left in this world.

I had already lost my family when Damon took me, I lost a good friend to vampirism, I couldn't lose him to. I sat in a chair outside of the curtain where Mamoru was working on our elder with three other vampires trained in the area helped him out while he determined what was needed to patch him up I guess. I wasn't sure…I wasn't the doctor he was. They waited with bated breath as he gave the orders needed to help save our elders life.

I knew Mamoru himself looked up to our elder and knew what he meant to everyone around here, meant to me now, so I knew I could trust him with our elder's life and then some as he worked on him. It was Chikao that came down to the infirmary next. I looked over at him as he looked to see if he could see through the curtain, but Mamoru made sure they weren't enough to be see through.

Chikao rarely ventured anywhere other than the counsel chambers or his room, so I knew it meant that even he worried over the prognosis of what was going to happen when he ventured down here to where the infirmary was. It was enough to stun me momentarily but the fact that I was still processing things prevented me from jumping up to acknowledge his presence instead I remained seated.

If he felt offended by it, he didn't show any concern nor care. That and the fact that he probably wanted to know what the hell happened as we all did right now probably stopped him from caring as well. The only thing I knew for certain was that Emon got in and tried to kill our elder and now we had to find him before he could make another move against us. "How is he?" he asked. I looked up at him as he stood. His robes still on as he held back what I could sense was his worry over his fellow elder. "Being worked on as we speak." I told him.

It was then than Mamoru walked out from behind the curtain. His hands still dripping with blood as he wiped them off with a faded white towel. I stood up, moving the chair behind me in the process since I stop up fast, but no words were needed for me to speak as he stated, "He'll be fine." The relief that hit me was like a fifty-pound weight leaving my shoulders as I took an inhale in what felt like hours. I know I had been breathing but it just felt that way metaphorically since everything happened.

When Mamoru had been hurt by the lycan I breathed only because I told myself repeatedly where the injury was. Told myself he'd be fine once we got him back. It was a lot harder to convince yourself of someone else survival when the wound was a potentially fatal one. but with this knowledge now, I felt as weak as I felt relieved by the news. The adrenaline kicking in and wearing off at the same time leaving me glad I still had a seat to sit in behind me.

He's going to be okay…I had to keep repeating that to myself to allow it to sink in, so I could focus better now. My heart rate beating fast as it leapt in joy rather than panic as it had beforehand. "The first wound was in his side." Mamoru was in doctor mode now, so I knew he was trying his best to distance himself from how he was feeling on the matter. It was how he processed such close familial matters I knew.

"It was the move that Emon more than likely used to stun him so that he could gain an entry point to stab him in the chest. But he missed." I looked up at him as he explained, "He wasn't hit in his heart, but in the center of his chest through the chest plate." He indicated on himself, "To be honest it was thought for the longest time that the heart was in the center of the chest but its actually up around here." He commented showcasing on himself where it was.

Not that we didn't already know it but showing us, the visual helped in some small way to accept it better. "Emon, either didn't know this or…" he looked to us both as if doubting if he should say what he had to say next, "Just tell us." Chikao told him softly. "Or he wanted him to suffer by stabbing him twice so that he would feel pain and so Usagi here would feel the pain of it as well." He concluded.

I felt relief from this. Granted Mamoru spoke words that I felt were in my own head recently but just the knowledge that our elder would be okay was a grand relief. Whether Emon missed on purpose or not would be dealt with later on the why all I cared about right in this moment was that our elder would be healing. "At this point I don't care. I'm just glad that he's okay." I noted, "How long before he's up and about?" Chikao asked.

I looked over at him as he looked at me then realized what he meant. "Right…the others need to see that he's okay and well." I stated. He looked at me, "When an elder is seen as having fallen it's a huge blow to the coven." He began as he looked to us both, "He hasn't fallen BUT that doesn't mean that the longer he's down here the worse it looks." He concluded himself. I nodded then looked at Mamoru.

"He'll be fine in a day or so. The smaller wound has already healed halfway and the bigger one is closing up at a faster rate than what I've ever seen." He admitted, "In all honesty the doctor side of me wants to run more tests to see how regeneration is possible at that rate but I don't even come close to having that sort of equipment here." I knew what he meant and motioned for Chikao to ignore it.

Mamoru's doctor side didn't quite understand how some vampires could take his light-hearted jokes but it also told me that our elder would be fine if he was in fact giving such a jest. I'm just glad I was able to stanch the bleeding in time. "He needs to be given a chance to let his healing abilities take hold and where Emon did stab him he hit a lot of arteries." He expressed. "But you stopped the bleeding." Chikao confirmed.

"Hai…in both wounds. Now he just has to heal." Mamoru gave him the information he needed, "He's one of the eldest of us, from the sounds of it he'll be able to make an appearance tomorrow." Chikao assumed as Mamoru nodded his approval of it considering he was our elder's 'doctor' for the moment. "Hai, he will be. I just need him to stay down here tonight for further observation." That gave us both relief.

"I'll have Soren on a break come down later on with some blood for him to drink and regain his strength some more so he can heal faster. I've already given him a bag full once I stitched him up but I'll have him given another one later on to finish healing." I worried though about anyone else coming in. "I'll stay with him for the next few hours till Soren comes in for the next shift." Mamoru stated.

I nodded thanking him for it as he stepped towards me and kissed me gently before nodding to Chikao and walking back in to where our elder was. "You need to find out how the hell he got back in here." He ordered of me. "Oh believe me sir I've already got people on it. I want to figure it out as badly as you do." he nodded knowing the truth of my words. "In fact, I'm going to go check up on them now." I made to leave out but not before he stopped me.

"Come see me later on this evening Usagi. We need to talk...much to discuss." I worried for a second on what that could mean before he turned away from me, a dismissal of sorts before I left off. I didn't have time to worry about what that could mean, only time to find out how Emon got in here so I could kill him myself. I wound up walking into both Minako and Rei as Makoto was with them now.

"We heard, what can we do?" Rei asked, "Help me find the rat that let him in here." I ordered as I paced the hallway. They followed in line next to and behind me, "Then what?" Minako asked, "Get the rat to rat out Emon…" we rounded the next corner as I went to the control room where Soren was, "Then track him, find him and kill him." I stated, "You got my vote." Minako agreed, "I'm on board to." Rei jumped in, "Lead me to him." Makoto said.

I got to the control room when I rounded on them, "Believe me everyone will get to kill Lycan's in this fight but Emon…is mine to kill." They all nodded as they all saw the expression in my eyes. Emon and I had a confrontation to be had and it would end with his head bloodied on a platter. If there had ever been a doubt in my mind it went away the second he tried to kill his own father, it was unforgivable to me when our elder had only ever tried to be a good father to him, and he tried to kill him.

We walked into the control room, "What do you have for me Soren?" I asked, "Well I have a path that I backtracked where he came in from or at least from where he could have come in from and it leads here." He pointed to the monitor. We looked up and found the same entrance we had seen a lot of lately since the elders arrived. "Son of a bitch…he used the same tunnel that he escaped from to get back in." I was in disbelief.

"Who the hell was manning that tunnel?" I demanded, "Kitiara was." Soren swiveled his chair around to look at me, "I don't think she was aware of all the camera's that we have around here." He stated as he pulled up footage of her darting down there and then seeing him emerge ten minutes later then herself once more as she left out. "She came back thirty minutes later but then the alarm sounded off and she bailed from the presumed meet up place." He said.

"But she's an elder." Minako stated shocked herself. I understood her shock as elders were meant to uphold the values of the counsel, not let murderous bastards inside to kill the other elders they were on the board with. Especially the ones that were so well respected and highly ranked. "Did Emon have something on her?" Rei asked trying to figure out motive for her reasoning to do this, we all were as it didn't truly make any sense. She hadn't been involved with anything as of yet. Just here as an elder that was all.

"I don't think so." I tried to reason or at least come up with something logical, "Emon's been out of the game for a while there's no way she knew him. Besides when he was brought up during that last meeting you should have seen the look on her face when she found out he was alive. It wasn't 'they found him out!' shock, it was 'he's still alive?!' shock." I stated as we tried to figure it out. It was then that Makoto said, "Perhaps Naoyuki does though." We looked at her then each other agreeing it had to do with him.

"Problem is he's in the wind and I doubt even if he wasn't that he'd be willing to talk." Rei commented, "But not her…" Makoto reasoned, thumbing up towards the image of her on the screen Soren had up. "I'm willing to bet you she's holed up in her room here and is just hoping no one knows of her involvement just yet so she's playing it cool." Makoto had a good point. We rarely saw her as it was unless she was fiddling with knives in the basement.

"We need to talk to her." my mind was whirling with possibilities when Soren pulled up more footage, "She hasn't left her room and according to the camera's she hasn't left the grounds either." He confirmed for me. "Sometimes you make me wonder if you can read my thoughts." I teased good naturedly. "Nope I'll leave that to your mate." He joked back. "We need proof of her deception though." Soren printed out the image of her and Emon standing together at the entrance at the time zone.

He handed it to me, "Good." I looked it over as I wanted to make sure she was clearly etched out in the image we had as was Emon's. We had these two, hook line and sinker…metaphorically speaking that is. "When do we get her?" Minako asked, already ready to pull her by the hair if need be. "We don't." I stated. She looked at me questioningly. "We can't tip our hand just yet." I explain to them.

"I'll send for her to my office that way it'll seem less suspicious to her than meeting in the counsel chambers. I'll say its urgent business. You go get Chikao and let him know what we've found out and what's going on next. If you run into her on the way back charm her ass in here." I ordered Minako as she left out before I could speak another work, not wasting another moment as we knew the seriousness here.

None of us wanting to lose any more time than we already had. "You two I need you to guard the room once Chikao and Kitiara arrive. I need to make sure that she can't leave with ease. The more of us there the better and hopefully with Chikao there it'll be less chances of her trying to actually leave but you two are definitely needed." They both nod as we leave the room and go for my office.

Minako sent out a message letting us know Chikao was coming to the office and that he was bringing the only other two counsel members left within the counsel to deem what happens next as this was now becoming an inside matter to be dealt with. We waited then saw him coming in with both counsel members each flanking him, "Are you sure?" he asked. I understood his reservations this was huge issue and bad if there was another elder that was going rogue on us for any reason.

"Hai…we saw the video footage. Soren pulled in up." I handed him the image. He looked to be as shock as we first were. "Were in as much shock and disbelief as you are sir." I expressed letting him see how stunned we still were over it. To have two elders commit such acts against the covens or their own respective counsel members was completely unprecedented. It had honestly not to anyone's knowledge EVER happened before.

Yet it happened TWICE! This couldn't get out. It would put such doubt and mistrust into the counsel going forward I for once was in agreement to keep things secret but still TAKEN care of to avoid any more negativity from happening. "Why?" he asked, "That's what this is for." I explained. It was five long minutes later that we heard Minako talking animatedly with her. It was a talent of Minako's really to lure the unsuspecting catch she had her eyes on into anything she deemed necessary.

Her talents only went so far though. It's why we had both Rei and Makoto in my office along with Chikao and the last two counsel members in here as well. Once they both walked in Minako's demeanor changed at the drop of a hat. Her eyes shifted as she walked in. The ruse was dropped as she did her part and got the elder in here. Rei closed the door behind Kitiara as Makoto guarded it with her.

Both acting as blocks preventing the elder from leaving if she tried to take off. Not that they could truly stop her BUT they could stall her till one of the other elders got to her and stopped her. The elder looked at everyone in the room surveying us all till I put the photo Soren took of them from the security camera and placed it down in front of her. I wanted to see the expression on her face when she knew that we knew what she'd done.

Normally a matter like this would be conducted through the counsel chambers but one we couldn't let her get tipped off and take off. We'd already made that error in a sense with Naoyuki, and also because we were trying to keep this from becoming official. The case was one thing, this was entirely different and went up the scale of not only importance but in how things got handled. It's why Chikao agreed to it instead of ordering us elsewhere. Especially when it involved multiple elders like this on a scale like this.

She met our eyes and surveyed her surroundings again. She knew what this was about, and she wasn't about to hide behind lies. I'd like to believe it was because of her guilt for what had happened, but it was probably more due to knowing she'd been caught red handed than anything else. I could see it in her eyes as she looked at the photo in near shame before saying, "I guess there's no point in trying to deny it is there." But in the end, I couldn't tell if she looked defeated or even a tinge guilty over her actions regarding this.

Both Chikao and I asked it at the same time, "Why?" our tones low and even then, the one word spoken in unison was nearly deafening in the room. She looked up at us and there is when I saw it. The guilt. It was deeply in there, but it did exist in her eyes. At least that she felt, it also told me she felt remorse over her actions. I sensed both Rei, Minako and Makoto ready to move but looked at them all and with the look in my eyes to back down. They remained still and steady ready to act if given the order.

"I didn't have much of a choice." I narrowed my eyes at her, "You're an elder." I began as for me that was proof enough before following it with, "You ALWAYS have a choice." I verbally slammed her back. "I couldn't risk my seat here. I didn't know I was helping Emon at the time." She looked pleadingly at both myself and Chikao. The room became tense and thick with what would be said or happen next.

"All these decades…" she honestly sounded disgusted with herself. "I supplied Naoyuki. Helped him as he said there were vampires less fortunate out there that needed help in getting to covens that were coming in from the cold. Vampires that I thought had gone rogue and decided to come back to their covens realizing that they had been miss-lead or tricked in some manner. I helped him help them thinking I was doing the right thing. I didn't know I was helping Emon." She began confessing.

I was more stunned now. She'd been used. Tricked herself. "It wasn't till the case that day…" she looked at me, "When it was revealed he was still alive. After Naoyuki was ejected and the rest of us separated I went to speak with him. I demanded to know what he had done and if what I had given him had been to help him." She began, "He admitted to without fault. He held no care that he'd used me." she looked away from the photo.

"He needed the resources of the coven's I had under my section. Just like yours had the two under his own." She looked to me, "The one we are in now and the coven that Emon was to over -see." She explained, "But he had been lying to me and put both of our counsel seats on the line to help Emon." I did have one question going forward though…why was she spilling so many beans here?

"I mean we're elders after all…the very seats that are meant up hold justice and prevail over injustices and he was using ours to give help to that monster…and I had taken part in it without knowing my part. I felt sickened by it, yet he didn't care. He just wanted to make sure that Emon was looked after." I was wondering now if I was hearing the truth of things or if she was giving us a sob story.

I looked over at the other elders as they considered her words. They knew her longer than the rest of us and could be better judges of her lies over the truth. "Then Naoyuki he contacted me after he left. Said if I didn't let Emon back inside and give him thirty minutes he would tell you all of what I'd done. I panicked, I didn't want to lose my seat and so I let him in. I didn't know he'd go after another elder I thought he was just going after Usagi." I rose a brow to that, "Just going after me?" I remarked.

Gee thanks…I thought. She looked at me as her eyes grew colder. Her guilt swaying as she spoke, "I do feel as Naoyuki does regarding pure bloods on the counsel, I just don't agree with him wanting Emon back into the fold. He was dangerous from what I'd heard of him." She looked to Chikao on that one. "We told the elders at that time of the vampires that took a turn for the worst so that we NEVER had a repeat event." He explained.

"We were told of them but sworn to secrecy of the ill deeds they had done so that they wouldn't be repeated going forward. We were to be the only ones that knew about them. I mean what he did to his coven. What he tried to do to his father." She said as Minako looked to her coolly before looking at me. Something wasn't truly adding up here and Minako and I both sensed this about her.

I regarded her with pensive eyes myself. She knew more than what she was letting on even to her fellow counsel members. It was something in her eyes that spoke of other things that I couldn't read, and it bothered me. I looked to Rei and Makoto as both had distrustful eyes aimed at her as well. It was sounding like she was trying to evade talking about what we needed to really know from her, the problem was I wasn't about to let it go that easily. She wasn't going to weasel her way out of this.