I Do Not Own Vampire Knight
A/N At Bottom
Let's GO!
Chapter Twelve
Incandescent
Zero shivered, his eyes hooded as he stared out of the window and into the night. The branches of the trees shook, the trembling leaves mirroring his emotions. Or maybe just the residual of Kaname's.
He was still out there, riding the currents of the night, his anger a taste on the wind. He wouldn't be surprised if humans, hunters and vampires alike suffered nightmares tonight. He had the feeling that he, himself would be getting no rest tonight, despite being so weary. He growled, low under his breath and turned to face the other three guilty occupants in the room. They were all fully dressed now, their earlier dishabille seeming like a clever illusion. He was still dressed in his hunter blacks.
"I need a physician," he announced without preamble and wanted to laugh at the surprised looks that were the response to his statement. They thought I was going to ask about them. But that would come later; when he sorted out his jumbled thoughts.
Kaname's reaction to that was the bond shaking between them, echoing his displeasure. Zero ignored him and the open link, focusing on the task at hand.
"Of course," Seiren murmured smoothly, her eyes shrewd on him.
"How long is that barrier going to hold," Yagari interrupted brusquely ignoring the white elephant in the room.
Zero waved off the significance of his answer. "A week at most."
Yagari's eyes traced the walls of the room as if he could see the lines of the enchantment. "It's not a hunter charm."
Zero shrugged his shoulders in frustration. "Does it matter?"
"You're losing more of your hunter side."
"And why is that coming up in this conversation?" Zero gave his former sensei a severe look though he was relieved that they were broaching the topic of his pregnancy. He would delay that part as long as he could.
Yagari's black eyes were steady. "Just a comment, seeing as you used a vampiric charm versus a hunter one."
Zero huffed angrily. "Because being mated to me makes Kaname immune to hunter charms."
That was met with silence and Yagari's eyes twitched twice before he spoke again. "Are you immune to vampiric charms?" His voice only held a bland curiosity.
"Most of them, but not all of them." He responded smoothly, not letting them see his uneasiness of the subject. "And that doesn't leave this room."
"Ahem." Cross cleared his throat, deliberately loud, pulling Zero's attention to himself. "Just out of curiosity, which ones are you not immune to?"
He flushed before he could control the reaction. "The one ones between mates," he snapped. "And that's enough on that subject. Why don't you all start by telling me how Kaname figured out there was going to be an assassination attempt?"
Seiren's mouth tightened and Cross pushed his glasses further up his nose. From Yagari there was no tell tale reaction.
"Rumors." This from Seiren, her answer brief and succinct.
This time Zero's eyes held the depths of pure murderous intent. "Elaborate."
"Spies in the streets, an overheard conversation that a friend of a friend heard at an exclusive party, whispers on the wind. All dead ends unless you're good at puzzles."
Which she was.
"And the number of made vampires are increasing, " Zero muttered absently, his mind instantly going to work, trying to sort out who would want Kaname dead. Or who would gain the most from his death. "Which means there is a pureblood or several who profess their loyalty in open and conspire in secret to carry out their own agendas. Nothing new in that."
"And there's also the fact that the number of disappearances don't correlate to the number of newly risen. For instance," Seiren elaborated at Zero's arched brow. "In the last two months sixteen children have gone missing, but none of us has run into any newly risen child vampires."
"Sixteen?" Sudden nausea clawed at this throat and he swallowed deeply, taking shallow breaths to calm the abrupt dread he felt. "And how does that relate to the attempted murder?"
"It doesn't which is suspicious." Seiren crossed her arms and gave him a cool look. "I refuse to believe that we have two factions moving at the same time. It's too coincidental."
"Why in the hell wasn't I informed about this!" He could feel his head starting to pound as the implications began to sink in.
"Kaname has been resistant of late to involving you in matters that would cause you distress," Cross stated calmly, his tone delicate as though he were navigation land mines. "He's been very worried about you."
"And none of you have thought to ask why?" He snapped, turning swiftly to glare out of the kitchen window again as he could spear Kaname with a simple look through the darkness. "Did none of you find it peculiar that I wasn't taking an interest? Protecting humans is the Hunters Association responsibility!"
"Aaron has taken up the investigation," Cross spoke up. "We thought he was sharing those findings with you."
More like sharing them with Kaname.
Secrets upon secrets.
His nails dug into his palms as his fingers clenched into fists as overwhelming anger scorched him, tinging his vision in red. How many more secrets did Kaname have hiding behind the shadow of his soul? He couldn't underestimate his mate even after walking his mind with torches blazing. Kaname was an expert at shadow warfare and espionage. His anger was a quiet storm, his aura sweeping restlessly around the room.
"So no leads on the attempt or the kidnappings."
"There were no clues left behind, " Seiren answered softly. "It was as if they'd been-"
"Snatched by shadows." Zero finished her sentence bitterly, thinking of the phantom of the party. He turned from the window. "That's our connection. I'm going to take over the investigation from now on. Aaron no longer reports to me but to Kaname." He ignored their surprise and kept going. "Call a meeting tomorrow. Here. With the exception of Aaron." His tone cut off any questions they would have asked. He sounded distant. Unattached.
He stared outside, knowing Kaname was out there.
He felt cold, his anger boiling away because he was too tired, too dejected to sustain it. He was too-
"I'm hungry."
He grimaced as Cross popped out of his seat. "I'll make some-"
"Are you trying to kill me?" And besides, he wasn't planning on eating what someone else prepared for a long time. If ever again. "I'll make something. You get started on what I asked."
He didn't wait to see if they followed his orders. He let the world fall away as he was lost to the soothing cadence of the preparation.
And always Kaname's presence throbbed in his mind, silent and there.
He longed to fall into the heat of the bond and let if warm the ache of cold that'd plagued him since the closing of the bond and still persisted even after it was reopened. He still stood outside of it, his frothing emotions like clear glass where he and Kaname were joined, smooth, hard, lusterless glass. With a start, he realized that he'd erected another barrier, flimsy this time, between them, his distrust unconscious.
"Zero."
"Shit!" He cursed in pain as the knife he was using sliced across his finger. Seiren reached around him and plucked it from his hand. She placed it on the counter and turned him towards her. The room behind her was empty and her eyes were careful as she spoke.
"Do you have any idea what you are going to do when that charm wipes out?"
"No fucking clue." He muttered, looking down at the now healed cut. Apparently his healing was back in order. "And I don't have much time, " he explained unnecessarily. Seiren had taught him the charm after all. "It's not going to last more than five days and that's pushing it with Kaname."
"You are going to have to find a way to forgive him."
"Why?" His fury reemerged and he had to take deep breaths so as not to take it out on her. He couldn't blame her for being loyal. She'd been at Kaname's side far longer than he had.
Seiren's eyes were sympathetic. "Because you're his mate and he loves you, no matter that he took matters into his own hands."
"And is that going to be his excuse every time he crosses a boundary? Oh I love you, get over it?"
Her eyes were harder than her voice had been. "You are the only thing that helps him keep his balance. I fear what he would become if you walked away from him."
"And I'm supposed to what, just settle in my role as a good little wife?" He snarled, "And count the children he knocks me up with?"
That seemed to upset her more than any of the other words he'd spoken.
"I don't know what you tell you, but I do know that Kaname wasn't that far from the edge when he bonded you. If you take yourself and your children away from him, even I won't be able to save him. There will be nothing to keep him from going over. And we know how bad that will be."
She walked away, leaving him alone with the foundation of his meal and the shattered memories of the man he'd thought he knew.
TD
"Shit!"
Ichiru felt paralyzed, desire and indecision warring, anchoring him to the bed. The room, once so heated, felt as cold as the arctic shelf, the evidence of Hana's anger lingering in the air. The wound at his throat pulsed with the flow of his racing heart.
He didn't want to follow, but it was like a compulsion. He convinced himself to stillness as two different wishes tugged at him. It lasted a whole minute before his heart and body took over. It was like Aidou Hanabusa was his own personal black hole, drawing in him deeper into an abyss of insanity where captivated captivity was wanted. No…needed.
That need had been slowly eating away at him ever since Hana had forced him to acknowledge what was between them.
"Shit!"
He thumped his head against the door, splaying his hands across the wood in an attempt to not touch the knob. Hana's pain pulled at him, made his stomach churn. The fledgling bond burned within him.
Five years of freedom.
It seemed a fleeting thing compared to the future before him. Tied to Hana for the rest of his life. An eternity of being at the beck and call of his mate.
Hana was his mate.
He faced the knowledge head on rather then going out the door. It was a shock to his system after denying it for so long.
Hana was his.
And he didn't deserve him.
He finally admitted that to himself as well. Hana was too bright. Too clean. He was life and vitality and sunlight. His light would shine on the innermost parts of himself and illuminate all of his dark corners. Reveal all of his dirty secrets and the dark demons that dwelled there.
He should just step back and leave-
His hand was on the doorknob, his heart and body in control now, acting where his mind simply debated. His feet followed the trail of Hana's ice through the living room to the great double glass doors. He forced himself to stop again.
Cold moonlight glittered through the ice-encrusted panels of glass, outlining Hana's tall, handsome figure. He clutched the stone bannister, the muscles of his back and arms corded from the strain. His head was bowed, as though he prayed to a nameless deity, his glorious hair swinging out to cover his face.
It broke something inside of him, this sight of Hana alone, covered in icy moonlight. His resistance shattered and crumpled into bitter dust. All of his excuses melted under the need to comfort his mate. His mate was never supposed to be unhappy and never because of him. He pressed his hands against the frosty glass and pushed outwards, still ruled by visceral instinct.
Hana's head whipped up as he took the first step into the frigid night, the stinging wind slipping under his pajamas to nip at his sensitive flesh.
"Ichiru."
He hands shook where they were attached to the glass. Concrete layered Hana's voice, running beneath it like stone. Such impeccable warning. It echoed the shrieking alarms inside his own head.
He took a second step and the keen wind eddied around him, pushing against him. Hana's warning given life by nature.
"Ichiru." Softer this time, yet no less of a warning than the first time. "If you come out here, I can't promise that I will be able to restrain…my instincts."
The third step was easier and the fourth easier still.
Hana didn't warn him again, nor did he turn as Ichiru approached, pushing through the wind. He hesitated on last time before he reached out and touched Hana voluntarily for the first time. Hana hissed and he sighed as the heat he was looking for spread from the contact. The alarms stopped shrieking in his head and the sharp wind died down. It was second nature to press close to the impressive expanse of Hanabusa's back. He laid his face against the tempting contours as his fear and uncertainty swirled away like mist before a storm. He inhaled the sweet fragrance of Hana's hair, the fabric of Hana's shirt cool beneath his cheek.
It felt comfortable to let his arms slide around Hana's waist as he anchored himself against sleek sinew and formidable strength and hung on for dear life.
Neither of them moved for a long time, each lost to his private thoughts, the heat of their connection a balmy oasis in the chill night air. Ichiru breathed shallowly, unwilling to break the tenuous link. He wanted to stay like this forever and keep the real world at bay. But that was wishful thinking and Hana broke their silent contemplations before he was really ready, reversing Ichiru's position in a seamless move of confident authority.
He found himself caught between cold stone and warm Hana. And it felt so right that he adverted his face so Hanabusa couldn't see the naked emotions that he knew were plain on his face. Hana didn't let him run away this time. And he could safely say that he wouldn't ever again. He didn't try to brace himself as Hana's fingers slipped into his hair, tugging so that his head was cradled in his large palm. Ichiru's lips parted in soundless protest as they were slightly separated so that Hana could look down onto his face.
The full force of Hana hit him. Electric blue twitched back the curtain of his emotions and stared into the windows of his soul. He didn't try to turn away again as the warmth flashed into full burning heat that seared the cold away completely. Need and the lust of desire made Hana's eyes bright. Gentleness and caring softened the blaze. Resolve and satisfaction tempered it. Comfortable sloughed away, uncovering an eternal tension that would tether them together for a lifetime.
"Why?"
His tongue flitted out to wet his lips as he tried to give a coherent answer. "B-because I couldn't bear to see you hurt."
Hana's fingers tightened in his hair, cutting off his stammering explanation. He swallowed, the emotions in Hana's eyes stripping him down to the truth. "I want you."
Hana let out a deep breath. "Finally!"
He gasped, his hands flying up to clench in the resilient flesh of Hana's shoulders as he was lifted, one thick, muscle lined arm cinching around his middle. The cold stone chilling his bottom didn't even register as his legs were forced open, Hana settling between them as if he belonged there. And of course he did. He was the missing part of Ichiru's soul. The half of him that lived in the sunlight.
That sunlit heat poured through him as Hana tilted his head back, lips rubbing over his in sweet, tantalizing brushes. It was a tender meeting, a serene connection of soft and firm over smooth and pliant. It burned him to the core as if it were the most ardent kiss in the world. His lips parted around a soundless whisper as he finally allowed himself to relax completely, delivering himself wholly into Hana's hands.
Hana nuzzled his mouth, sinking a little deeper into him so that their breaths mingled but not deepening it to a full kiss. Neither of them looked away as they sunk even deeper into the seamless melding, their hungry mouths searching out and memorizing every supple line of each other's lips, sought out the most tender, sensitive grooves. The quiet intensity of the barely there kiss taunted his bones, the aphrodisia a slow creeping thing that swept up from his feet to his hair.
He was gasping softly when Hana finally released his mouth, to kiss his chin and then settle into the juncture of his throat, the hand in his hair never loosening.
"Why?"
A different question this time and the one most difficult to answer. He opened his mouth and Hana growled, the vibrations stirring up excitement.
"The truth."
He paused, his eyes widening as he tried to articulate the truth. It was hard with Hana riding between his thighs, the sleek, powerful physique pressed tight to his smaller one.
"I-" He stopped, swallowing roughly against the lump in his throat. "I don't deserve you. You're too good for me."
He felt Hana's reaction to that in the drop in temperature before the leonine head rose so that he could connect their eyes again.
"What?" Surprise and anger twisted in his voice.
He hastened to explain before Hanabusa could work himself up even further. "The things I've done-"
"Were in a different life. A different you. Those memories don't belong here." Hana made a disgusted sound. "I can't believe you've been thinking this way the entire time. It pisses me off."
And a pissed off Hana was a forceful one.
The second kiss obliterated the illusion of control and he was swept away as Hana dove into hot, damp, intimate depths of him. The heat burned through him in sparkling shards of torrid craving. He succumbed to the truth of his yearning, opening himself wide to the relentlessly sensual plunder. Hana's tongue slid over the roof of his mouth, a silky tendril of flame that ignited an incandescent blaze of eroticism.
He moaned and sought that instrument of pleasure, tangling them together he tasted the sweet, decadent piquancy of his mate. The sea of flames burned away the lie of their skins as they strained against each other, leaving only the truth of their hunger as they sought the fevered heights of each other. He gasped in loss as Hana yanked his head back, the grip in his hair and around his waist becoming almost painful. Then his mouth was on the burning, throbbing wound, his tongue tracing over it.
He tried to jerk back as Hanabusa's intent became obvious. But there was no longer escape of any kind, no place that Hana would let him retreat to.
"Hana! Wait!"
"Shhhh," Hana crooned under his breath and he relaxed again for one soothing moment.
Sharp fangs slid along the vulnerable skin of his throat as Hana opened his mouth wide and then the honed tips plunged into him.
"Hana!" His cry was high and splintery with pain and he jolted in Hana's arms.
The bond he'd always felt just over the horizon snapped through him, Hana's ice expanding within him until it felt as if it were testing the limits of his body. Hana pulled, drinking deeply of his blood and the ice morphed into a blazing wildfire that raced through his blood, melding their psyches together. It hurt as two became one. The fire melted them down into one being only to remake them as two halves of a whole.
This time it was Hana who moaned, drawing again, and the blaze simmered down to shimmering glow that soothed the newly, minted pieces of them.
Ichiru blinked, seeing nothing, his body limp as a languorous pleasure washed everything away but the reality of Hana at his throat and the blood bond pulsing hungrily between them.
He wasn't afraid as he fell, the velvet darkness smoothing the world away.
TD
And cut! That was the second half of the last chapter! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did LOL! Can't wait to start on the next chapter!
Thank you for all of your fabulous reviews! And for the faves and follows!
Until next time…