Chapter Twelve:

"—such a beautiful night!" Laito exclaimed, and I started, glancing over at him in the back of the limo. Everyone had been talking since we left the mansion, and it was odd to see them all so cheerful for once. I must have drifted off into a daze. "If only we didn't have to go to school!"

"We could have just skipped," Subaru mumbled, his arms crossed.

"That's the last thing we need from you," Reiji quipped. "You're already the youngest of us and you've skipped more than enough times already. The last thing you need is to be held back a grade, too."

Subaru hissed and Ayato and Laito laughed. I couldn't help but put a hand over my mouth to stop any sounds from coming out. He was talkative, but Subaru didn't look so happy about the direction the conversation just took against him, and I wasn't in the mood to try and piss him off. Not like I ever was, either.

"Oi, Pancake!" Ayato snapped his fingers in my face and I jumped again, looking over at him. He was on my left, one long arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him every so often. Subaru was to Ayato's left, and I was surprised that he seemed as nonchalant about me as ever. It was almost as if nothing had happened yesterday, and everything was back to normal. The only reason I knew that yesterday had been real was the numb feeling in my body. The two brothers had healed my bite marks quite well, but I still had bruises, and my muscles were all weak. It was just that no one could tell from just looking at me… No humans, that is. I assumed that the cheerful mood in the car was because everyone already knew about what had happened. It made me flush.

"Look! Bitch-chan is blushing!" Laito cooed immeditely, crouching down as he stood from his velvet seat. He never let me have a moment of peace when I was flustered. He crawled over to my side of the car and put his hands on my knees. I yelped and he put his head on top of his hands and pouted up at me. "See, Reiji? She took more than one of us." He smiled. "Does this mean it's finally my turn, hmm?"

"Shut up," Subaru growled, leaning forward and pressing his palm against Laito's face until he fell backwards. He playfully grumbled and rubbed his bottom from the light fall.

"That wasn't very nice, Subaru," he fake-cried. "You can't just keep her to yourself anymore, you know."

"Teddy says it was funny to watch you fall down," Kanato suddenly piped in, looking at the floor of the car. He looked up occasionally only to meet his stuffed bear's eyes for a moment before looking down again. His voice had been monotone and bland.

Laito stood and crawled to the middle of the floor, turning and sitting crossed-legged, staring up at me.

"Biiiiitch-chaaaan," he called, squeezing his eyes shut. When he opened them, his eyes were a bright, glowing red. His expression was devilish and it made the blood rush to my face. "Imagine, if that's what I can do to you with just a glance, what do you think I can do in bed, hmm?"

I just froze as my face got even redder. No one had anything to say about that? Not even Ayato or Subaru? I gulped as he continued to stare at me. It took a few moments, but I finally broke eye contact and tried to look out the window. It was too dark out, so I nervously looked across the seats at Shuu. I could still see Laito grinning from ear to ear at me out of the corner of my eye. But Shuu gathered my attention for the moment. He wasn't looking back at me, though. He was staring out the dark window, listening to whatever was playing in those earbuds of his. He never took them out. At least, I'd never seen him without them. He even bathed with them in…

And he looked so bored. Despite everyone else being talkative and as cheerful as the Sakamakis could be, Shuu just stared out the window at nothing but the night outside. He had said a few things on the ride so far, but they had been mostly irritated comments, as per his usual routine on the way to school.

The limo stopped and Ayato was the first to jump up, pulling me with him. By the time I was upright, everyone but Ayato and Subaru were gone. Ayato gave me a light shove towards the door, and Subaru waited for me to exit.

I stepped down onto the pavement of the parking lot, and Ayato and Subaru lead the way into the first classroom building. I was about to say something as we neared the first years' hallway, but Subaru turned and disappeared down the hall without a word. I paused to stare at the ground where he was just standing a moment ago.

"Don't take it personal." Ayato smirked down at me. "He's just an antisocial freak. He can't help it."

I frowned at the attempted joke, but just let it blow over as he lead the way to the pool room. I really didn't feel like getting into the water right now, but…

"Oi." I bumped into Ayato's back and almost fell. "Unless you want to watch me change, your locker room is over there. But you can watch me whenever you want, Pancake. And I'd rather you not watch anyone else." He winked and headed off, leaving me frozen in place. At this rate, my face was going to stay permanently red for the rest of my possibly immortal life. I shook it off and headed for the girls' locker room.

"Yui!" Sona called, as soon as the door shut behind me. I waved at her and walked over to my locker. She came jogging over, looking a little distraught. Just before I was about to ask her what was wrong, she nearly tripped right in front of me and she yelped, catching herself on the wall. "I… I'm not sure if it's serious or not, but I heard some of the other girls saying that they were mad at you and… I don't know. They just didn't sound very happy. I thought I should tell you."

"Mad at me? For what? And who?" I asked, unhappily coming down from my high as reality set itself back into motion. And just as Sona answered me, I knew who it was. Reality was back, after all…

"Ereka… and her friends. It's mostly the new girls."

"But, Sona, aren't you technically new here, too?" She froze for a moment and I laughed. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Well, sure, I've been here less than a month, but don't group me in with those... those noisy girls."

"Noisy?" I could've thought of some better words than that… Sona was too kind.

"I just wanted to let you know. They sounded really mad before." She jumped. "I-I still have to change. Sorry. Excuse me." She grabbed her pack and hurried into the changing room. I decided to change in a bathroom stall today because most of the girls were already out in the pool, and I wanted to look at my body before going out there in a bathing suit.

The bruises weren't as bad as I thought they'd be, but I had so many around my waist and my chest. Thankfully, the swimming suit covered up the really bad ones. And if anyone asked about the few on my arms and legs, I could just say that I took a fall yesterday. My neck would have been much worse if they hadn't healed up all the bite marks for me, but there were a few marks there, as well. I figured they were really light, so no one would notice unless they were looking for them. I pulled my hair over them and thankfully it covered everything up. I nodded once to myself before stepping out of the stall, dropping my school clothes back in my locker, and heading out to the pool area.

As always, it was hot and humid, and I looked around, searching for Ayato's hair in the water. For some reason, I felt a strong sense of determination to learn how to swim. I knew that the reason I hadn't learned yet was because Ayato hadn't been taking my lessons seriously up until now, but that was going to change. I wanted to talk to him about teaching me for real. And if anything, there was a large pool in the mansion, as well. He could teach me even when we were at home.

I spotted a splotch of orange hair and stared for a moment. It was Ereka. And she was surrounded by her little gang of pretty girls. I didn't know for sure, but I would bet that she had been the one to push me into the deep end of the pool in the last class. I didn't want to think about that, but I found Ayato's hair at the far end of the pool, in the deep end. Ereka was also swimming right towards him, her gang in pursuit.

I wasn't going to be able to swim all the way over there, so I took my time, careful not to slip and fall, and walked around to the other side of the pool. Ereka was laughing at something, trying to act cute, as I neared them. She looked up and noticed me approaching and I went to wave, trying to be polite, but she cried out and her head slipped under the water. My eyes widened, but she came back up after only a second and grabbed onto Ayato, panting, and pulling herself a little too close to his bare chest.

"Oh my god," she breathed through a few obviously fake coughs, "I slipped. I'm so clumsy! Good thing you were right here, Ayato. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here for me to hold on to." She giggled and pushed herself up close to him in the water, her hands on his shoulders. My face turned red for a whole other list of reasons.

"Could you please not touch him!" I blurted out, not thinking. Ereka, Ayato and her posse all looked up at me, but Ayato was the only one who started laughing. The others didn't think it was very funny.

"Excuse me?" she immediately backfired, and I had the dreadful feeling that maybe she'd been planning this all along. I didn't want to fight with her, especially now that I started this conversation with something I just blurt out without thinking. "I almost drowned! Are you saying that you'd rather have me drown?"

"Of course not… But you didn't slip. You faked it so you would look like some kind of damsel in distress."

Ereka gawked at me from in the water. She was still flush up against Ayato, who was still annoyingly smirking up at me. Did he think this was funny?

"You've got some nerve!" Ereka screamed, and whether it was her intention or not, she got the attention of at least half the people in the pool. "What do you want from me, anyway, huh? I'm so grateful to Ayato for saving me," she said, rubbing her perfectly manicured hand over his chest a few times. Why was he just letting her do that? He was acting like a rag doll… "But for you to tell me that I just tried to pretend that I was drowning… Are you kidding me? Unlike you, I'm actually trying to learn something in this class, instead of flirting with the boys, strutting around the outside of the pool in that horrific bathing suit, trying to get attention. Forgive me for having standards for myself!"

I was baffled. Everyone was in the water, and the people paying attention to what was going on were all staring at me. I saw a few people chatter and whisper to one another and I just stared out at the pool, my lips parted. I didn't even know what to say. And before I could think about how to respond, Ayato pushed himself up and out of the pool—out of Ereka's arms, and landed on his feet in front of me. I stared at him. So did everyone else in the room. He took one long stride forward and pushed himself right into a kiss, grabbing me and pulling me against him before I had time to think.

My eyes were wide open as I stared at his closed lids. One of the girls in the posse screamed bloody murder. A few people all the way in the shallow end started clapping and whistling. But for the most part, it was quiet, apart from the sound of splashing and swimming.

When I thought the kiss was over as Ayato began to pull away, I placed my hands on his chest, pushing him and preparing for a much-needed inhale. But his lips never left mine. His hands moved to the back of my neck and head and he kissed me harder. My eyes were still wide open… This wasn't his style at all. Ayato hated kissing, so why…—?

"Get a room!" I heard a boy shout, and more hollering and whistling followed.

I tried to push myself away, but he stuck his tongue out and forced my lips apart. As soon as the tip of his rough tongue hit the point of my fang, my eyes immediately squeezed shut as I tried not to moan at the sensation.

"A… Ayato…" I whispered into him, but he didn't respond. I knew that as he traced circles around my fangs my body was squirming against his. And with the knowledge that we were both half naked, my body seemed to move on its own. I would try to squirm away, but he would hit my fang right at the tip and suddenly my body would arch into him and my legs would tense. And now I could feel him, too, pressing against the bottom of my stomach. He was getting turned on. This was bad. Why was he doing this…? The noises in the pool were growing silent with each passing second, until I realized that there were no more sounds of splashing water. No one was even moving…

But he didn't release me. He parted our lips for only a second to let me take in a gulp of air, but right before I could practically choke, he dove back in with his tongue, swirling it around my mouth with exploration on his mind.

"Ayato…" I whispered again, "Ayato… please… this isn't… the time…"

Every part of me screamed. Everyone was watching. In any other case, I wouldn't have cared half as much, but these were my classmates. The majority of them I had in other classes, and I had the rest of the school year to spend with them. How was I supposed to show my face in this school anymore after something like this?

And then he finally released me, letting me go, but still holding onto me. He smirked as he turned back to Ereka and her friends. I couldn't handle the amount of unwanted attention, so I turned my face away and stared at the angle where the tile floor met the wall. My face was definitely going to stay bright red forever at this rate. I never got a break.

"Yo!" Ayato called to the girls in the pool, and I knew he was smiling again. "I'm not interested in anything you have to offer. You're blood smells like bitter garbage, too. So, if you could stay away from me now, I wouldn't have to hurt any of you."

"Hurt us?" At first, they giggled, thinking it was some kind of joke, but the aura around me now told me that Ayato wasn't smiling anymore, and it was silent again in the room.

"It's not like I'd mind… ripping your heads off, that is. But it'd be a pain, so I'd rather not waste the energy. But if you make my female upset again, I'll take great pleasure in letting you drown next time. Maybe I'll even help you, since you seemed so eager to go under just now."

There was more silence, before one of the other girls slapped her hands on the surface of the water, making a few of the girls around her jump and then glare at her for scaring them. "You're… crazy. There's something wrong with you!"

Immediately, Ereka took the reins on that one. "Yea! You're fucking crazy! You can have the stupid bitch! I bet it's all her fault you're acting this way! You can come to me once you're ready for a real woman!"

"You guys really are dating…" another girl said. "Yui's a liar."

Ereka took the reins again as people gave her more ideas. "Yea! Yui the bitch is a big fat liar!"

She managed to flirt with Ayato and completely annihilate me in front of the class in one go, I noticed. Just a minute or two ago, she was all over Ayato, hands all over his shoulders, boobs in a tight bikini top pressed into his chest—skin contact galore. The image of it was burned into my brain for now, but instead of making me upset, it was making me angry. How dare she do all this, and then once she can't have her fun anymore, turn it around and make me look bad. Granted, Ayato's little stunt had made everything ten times worse, in my opinion… But she didn't have to go this far. Just because she didn't get what she wanted? Which was what? Ayato? She would have got bitten in the end anyway, so she should really have been thanking me. If she still chased after him after this, she was ridiculously dumb.

"Leave her alone!" someone shouted, and my eyes left the wall in surprise. It had been Sona, who never made a peep. But now that she opened her mouth, all eyes turned to her. She looked like she wanted to say more, but instead she put half her head underwater and blew bubbles. Everyone started ignoring her again and she came back up for air.

"The teacher's not even here. Let's go," Ayato said, his arm still around my waist. He walked me over to the girls' locker room before stepping inside with me. I heard a few girls scream behind us, but the door shut and all sound ceased. Then he grabbed my wrist and dragged me around the locker room until we were in a shower stall. They had no doors, but he pulled me into one that faced the wall. And before I got a word in, he shoved me against the side of the stall and bared his fangs with a growl. My eyes widened, but not before he pushed his excitement into my stomach, like before. I jumped a little.

"A… Ayato…"

"Class won't be over for a while. No one's coming in here, Yui. And I'm starving." He bit down above my collarbone and I yelped. He cupped his hand over my mouth and drank hard. He pushed one leg between mine and forced them apart. I yelped again through his hand and my head involuntarily tilted back from the sensations.

"Back away from her!" a voice suddenly screamed, and I pushed Ayato away as hard as I could. He obliged and took a step back, facing the person who screamed. I stared into Sona's eyes in absolute shock. She was glaring down Ayato, and she was holding something… something that looked strangely like Subaru's knife. But that was impossible, because I had it in my nightstand back home. Ayato must have noticed the sharp weapon because he hissed dangerously.

"Sona… where did you get that? I think we're just having a misunderstanding—"

"I said, back away from her!" Sona shrieked, completely ignoring me. "Now, vampire!"

My eyes went wide and my hand immediately jumped up to cover the bleeding bite marks above my collarbone. She must have seen him. She must have seen us…

"Sona, this isn't what it looks like… I mean, come on. Vampires? There's no such thing—"

"I know!" she yelled at me, her eyes never leaving Ayato. "I know what he is! I'm trying to help you, Yui! You don't know what they're capable of!"

"Hunter…" Ayato said slowly, and then smirked. "In training."

"My father trained me," she hissed. "I'm no longer in training because vampires like you murdered him!"

"Hmm," Ayato chuckled. "You're in over your head, little girl."

"You think I don't know what you can do? I've killed your kind already. I've lost count. You don't scare me."

"And what about now?" Subaru asked, stepping around the corner. Sona whipped around and backed up against a far wall as the two brothers walked towards her. Without thinking, I dashed forward and stood between them, holding out my arms.

"Don't hurt her," I said forcefully.

"They're not going to listen to you, Yui. Please, stay behind me. Let me take care of this. I saw him biting you. I promise, that will never happen to you again. I'll kill these monsters!"

"No!" I suddenly shouted. "You can't! They're… They're my…"

"They're not your friends, Yui. No matter what they've told you, they only see you as a blood bag. You have to listen to me."

"She doesn't get it," Ayato smirked.

"She thinks you're pre-Awakening," Subaru said, lifting an eyebrow. "Hunters can't sense you, while we can. How strange."

"What does that mean?" Sona snarled.

I just watched her in amazement. This wasn't the same girl I knew and talked to. This wasn't the Sona that shyly meant well and hid from large crowds. She was… confident… and deadly. She was a vampire hunter…? And I never even noticed. I never even had an inkling of an idea. I never gave much thought to the hunters because I rarely heard about them and I'd never seen one before.

"Let me kill her," Subaru shrugged. "She knows about us and her secret's out of the bag. She can't be allowed to live."

"No!" I shouted at him. "Sona is my friend!"

"She's a hunter, Yui. You understand what that means, don't you?" Subaru asked subtly. "She kills vampires. No exceptions."

"But she's trying to help me! She's not trying to kill me! She…" I trailed off and turned to her when it finally clicked in my head. She thought I was human. She thought that Ayato bit me just because of the blood… She didn't realize that we were all…

"Yui…" Sona said slowly. "Don't listen to them. Come over here. Stand behind me and I'll protect you." Was it simply because she couldn't sense me as a vampire? Was it because I was originally human? There were too many unanswered questions and my head was spinning.

"What's going on?" another voice called and I turned to find Shuu strolling into the locker room, his hands in his pockets. "I can feel your anxiety just from you being bonded to me. How awful…"

"Why do you keep coming?" Sona snarled, gripping the silver knife even tighter.

"I could sense my future mate's cry for help," he said, half bored and half sarcastic.

"That's disgusting," Sona spat. "What do you plan to do with her?!"

"I think you should be asking what we plan to do with you," Subaru frowned.

"Stop it!" I screamed. "All of you, just cut it out!"

"Someone bit of more than she could chew, hmm?" Laito smiled as he entered the shower room. Reiji and Kanato were behind him. "I knew I smelled garbage, but I had no idea it would be a little lady hunter. What happened, did your parents leave you all alone? Are you lost?"

"Shut up!"

"Ooh, feisty. But still. You're way too young to be taking on a group of us. Maybe you didn't think this through, hmm?"

"I am going to protect Yui! That's my job as a hunter! I will not let you beasts harm another human while my heart still beats!"

"Another human?" Laito blinked in confusion.

"She can't sense it," Shuu piped in, before covering his mouth and yawning.

"Sense what?" Sona snapped. She was crouched, like she was ready to pounce. I frowned. This poor girl was in this mess to save me, when I didn't need saving, in any sense of the word. I had a family of vampires to protect me, and very little could get past them. But Sona… the Sakamakis were already advancing on her, and it was all because she had been trying to protect me… If she died, that was on me and I knew it.

"Enough!" I said. "Ayato! Subaru! Stop it!" Immediately, they paused and looked over at me. I was happy to see that the bond gave me some control in this case. "Shuu, Laito. Reiji. Kanato." And even when they weren't bonded, the other brothers listened to me. I felt a strange sense of power all of a sudden, and it felt… good. It was strange, but good. "You will not hurt her. Any of you. Do you understand me?"

"She'll just try and kill us later, you know," Subaru said softly. I met his beautiful red eyes and nodded.

"Sona, please," I walked towards her and she lowered her knife—obviously still not understanding what I was, but the look on her face was extremely confused. "These are not bad vampires. They only take my blood when I allow it and they don't hurt people. In the time I've known them, they've never killed a human before. They don't hurt people. You don't have to kill anyone. Each of them are very important to me, and I wouldn't want them to die. Can you understand that?"

"But…. He bit you."

"I wanted it."

"Wh… What?"

"I have a very special relationship with these vampires, and I don't expect anyone to understand. But I do expect you to understand that I will not tolerate it if you try to bring them harm. If I ask them not to hurt you, they won't, but I can't ask them to not defend themselves if you attack them. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"You're… threatening me? You know I'm on your side, right? I'm trying to help you. Listen, I don't know what they did to you, but you need to snap out of it! They're using you and you need to break away from them!"

I opened my mouth to say that they never did anything to me, but I froze… The Awakening… was because of them. They're the reason I turned into a vampire… For a split second, I wanted to agree with Sona, and I hated myself for it. I shook off the feeling of uneasiness and stood up straight.

"I understand where you're coming from, but they saved me. I was… very sick. There was something wrong with me and they helped me get through it. I don't feel like I owe them anything, but they have my trust. And my friendship."

"Friendship?" Ayato smirked, walking over and grabbing me from behind. He nuzzled himself into the back of my neck and I yelped. Subaru snarled and grabbed my arm, yanking me away. I fell into his chest and looked up at him in shock. He leaned down and started lapping up the blood that ran down from Ayato's bite marks and I shivered. Now really wasn't the time for this…

"You don't hurt her, we won't hurt you," Shuu said casually as Sona gawked at everything in front of her. She went back to gripping her vampire-killing knife, which wasn't a good sign. But she nodded at Shuu.

"I wouldn't hurt her anyway."

"You would if you knew…" he whispered, and I doubt Sona heard him. She was too busy watching me as Subaru finally lifted his mouth from my neck and stared at her with glowing red eyes. Ayato chuckled as she gasped.

"How can I be sure you won't try and kill me as soon as we leave this room?" she snapped, but her voice wavered in real fear.

"They won't," I assured her, pushing myself away from Subaru. "If I tell them not to, they won't. I promise."

"How can you make promises for uncontrollable monsters? I can't trust your word. And I certainly can't trust theirs." She was back to facing the knife at the brothers. I frowned. There was no way out of this mess if she wasn't going to trust me.

"You can trust my word," I said, and then gulped in fear of what I was about to do. "Here's why." I held out my hand to Subaru first and he frowned at me, shaking his head. "Trust me," I whispered to him.

"You don't do this when you're in danger. We can't protect you if we're like that."

"Just trust me, please," I said, and he sighed before holding out his wrist. I dug one fang into the delicate skin on the inside of his forearm and took as little blood as possible. As soon as it hit my tongue, I felt him shiver. And when I pulled away, he dropped to his knees. I turned and held out my hand to Ayato. He frowned, but let me take his wrist. When he dropped to his knees, I turned around and faced the others.

"W-What are you doing?" Sona stammered.

"You all want to see if I'm bonded to you, right? Let's find out." I held out my hand to Shuu, who'd already told me that he felt my bond to him. So when I took a drop of his blood, he dropped just the same as the other two. Laito almost shoved his hand at me, and I noticed that he'd already bit himself for me. I licked up a drop and he convulsed before dropping. Kanato bit himself for me as well and shivered once before going down. Reiji gave me a look before I held out my hand to him.

"You'll have no one left to protect you if you do this," he warned. "And we won't be able to protect ourselves for at least a few minutes. The hunter knows that." I just nodded and took his wrist, as well.

And suddenly, this felt like a terrible idea. But it wasn't before Reiji grunted and dropped to one knee. When I turned, and saw each of the brothers lying on the damp floor, some shuddering, others convulsing and all moaning, I felt extremely vulnerable.

"How… did you do that?" Sona asked, and I was just happy that her first reaction wasn't to stab them all. "How can a human make vampires submit like that? How can you do something like that?"

"I told you. My relationship with them is special. But I still can't have you trying to kill my… friends. Take this as a sign of good intentions. They will not hurt you. I promise. Can you believe me now?"

"Tell me how you did this!" she shouted. "If hunters can learn how to control vampires as you just did, we can eliminate them from this world completely! You have to tell me what you did!"

"I trust them," I said, wondering why my voice came out sad. "And they trust me…"

"Why would you go this far for creatures that can only bring you pain?" Her voice sounded sad, as well. And I had the feeling it had something to do with her father's death. It would be hard to listen to what I was saying when all she knew about vampires was that her father hunted them, and they had killed him. But I had an answer for her question, and it was something that I'd been meaning to admit to myself for a while now.

"They don't bring me pain. They bring me happiness… And it's because I love them."