I Do Not Own Vampire Knight
A/N At Bottom
Let's GO!
Nineteen
Awakening
"Are you telling me that out of all of you, not one of you could kill him? Accomplish our goal? We need Zero!"*
The other five occupants in the room didn't even flinch at the icy disdain in her voice. There were no shameful, cast-down looks, no wringing hands. Instead they all looked down on her with disgust. If not for the blood contract that bound them they'd have long since spitted her. In fact her hours were numbered.
She didn't seem to notice as she strode up and down the elegantly decorated living room. She moved as if she were in charge, which to be honest at the moment she was.
But tides could change at a notice pending natural disasters.
One of them spoke in return, the voice dark and smoky, the accent foreign. "You've underestimated him, his court, and his love for his mate. They would willingly die for him. And his mate as well. He was able to sense our exact positions." The voice turned hard. "You are not strong enough." This one that spoke didn't have a problem with challenge. Thrived on it instead. Survived on it.
The smaller women turned to her, eyes sharp. Her aura began to whip around the room. "Are you suggesting that I cannot handle him?" She smiled and it oozed like pus, "I can make him walk to to the guillotine willingly."
Her metaphorically chained ally smiled like a striking cobra. "I would like to see that," she laughed. "His mate would eat you up like the lamb that you are."
She turned on her heel, black hair flowing down her back. She gestured towards the window and the other figures shifted into shadow. The tall, svelte figure walked behind them calmly, the walk sinuous and seductive, only allowing herself to change back to shadow when she was close to the window, flowing out, leaving only cold in their wake.
The smaller woman shivered with cold, her face twisting. "But I woke you. The least you could do is show some respect. Knowing I'm the only own with the means to give you what you want."
But you haven't given us what we want either.
The answer flowed back to her on a psychic plane, the threat no less obvious.
TD
His expression was grim as he watched several vampire enforcers disperse throughout the grounds. His hands shook slightly as the burn of thirst swept through him. He was standing at the window of the main atrium dressed in loose flowing cotton pants and a snug t-shirt. Furry house shoes covered his feet. Since they wouldn't let him leave the house and he had no meetings all he could do was sleep, eat and go over paperwork. And worry. Starlight illuminated the cold glass ceiling and he shivered with the infernal cold that wouldn't cease unless he was in the presence of his mate.
He didn't turn around as Seiren approached him.
"Don't think that I don't know what you're planning."
Her voice was serene, not evidencing the stress that had beset all of them for the last seven days with waiting for their 'fearless leader' to awaken.
"I'm supposed to be out there," Zero growled, turning his head slightly so that he could watch her from the corner of his eye.
She sighed.
"They are not going to just let you do as you please," she warned softly. "So just sit down and accept it. They are here to protect you and your mate. And your children." She hesitated when she mentioned the extended familial addition.
He chuckled, the sound a little sour as he watched the night. He was thinking, 'Catch me'.
He felt felt Seiren go still next to him. "You're not leaving here tonight Zero," she warned, voice still placid. "I can sense the restlessness in you. You've been up the last two nights, when you'd usually sleep. You don't talk to anyone, you just sit and watch Kaname. You're going through withdrawal pretty badly, even though you've drunk from him. And you're pale. I can see your mating marks throbbing. A bright, brilliant red. If you go out tonight nothing good will come of it."
She was right of course. He fed from Kaname the last seven days, taking from his throat, while the vampire slept his healing sleep, letting the twins auras intertwine with theirs. But the feedings were in a word, lackluster, the blood heavy and flat, devoid of the animal presence of Kaname and his beast. It was making him suffer worse. The absence. The darkness where Kaname should be. He couldn't stand it any longer. He had to get out. To run wild and free for just a few moments. The only place he'd gone to lately was with Seiren to get a look at the bodies and then back here again. And a few of the dignitaries had chosen to remain. Entertaining them was tedious in the extreme with the slight exception of Señor Quinta and John Kennedy. Hell, everyone was irritating at the moment! Everyone walked on eggshells around him, eyeing him as if he were going to implode at any second. And Aaron was hanging around getting on his nerves.
It was killing him!
They'd finally felt good about moving Kaname on the fourth day as the wound was steadily healing and so his Vampire King rested on his own silken sheets with his mate beside him.
A mate that constantly swung between reproach and self doubt.
His appetite for real food had returned, resulting in a tight bump where his flat stomach used to be. He'd been eating everything that Miki had sat before him in the last five days. From the first moment she'd set the steaming hot pancakes flourished with whip cream and strawberries, he'd been under her spell.
The only thing missing was the thrill of feeding. Every time he took blood he felt even worse. Kaname wasn't there. It was an empty shell. And yet he knew this wasn't true. Kaname was just unconscious, deaf to the world. His heart still beat. Zero should know. He'd watched his chest rise and fall enough. But there was no life there. Nothing that vibrated with the blatant charisma Kaname usually exuded.
His teeth clamped down on his bottom lip as he thought of the grand escape he'd planned, sneaking out of the window and showing up in the morning with a ramrod excuse for his absence. Now that was almost impossible.
"They aren't here to police you," Seiren damn near snarled. "But to protect the King. You are the King's mate." She didn't waste words, didn't tarry with sympathy. There had only ever been truth between them anyway. "And protecting you means not letting you roam dangerous places."
Which she considered every place nowadays. "Fuck it!"
He turned around, almost running towards the stairs, compensating for his new center of gravity. His body was rapidly adapting to the change. The skin of his abdomen was tight over his children, their soft, silver auras suffusing him with warmth, battling the encroaching cold. The twins slept deep within him, safe and peaceful beneath his heart, their consciousness just a whisper on the edge of his mind. The bond was strong though. He could feel their well being; their delight every time he connected with them; their confusion that Kaname's side of the bond had gone dark, seeming to be broken. He reassured them, while shying away at the same time, refusing to let himself get too deep.
At nights he was wide awake. Something very new to him.
He spent the nights in their room, studying Kaname's face, memorizing all over again the curves of cheeks and the planes and angles of the face itself. It was there he headed now, craving at least the illusion of closeness with his unconscious mate. He glided down the hallways, staying relaxed as the twins' weight pulled him slightly forward. Just that tiny addition was enough to throw him off balance.
He felt him before he rounded the corner to view him, sitting between the two guards, his back to the doors. He looked haggard, his dark eyes cloudy.
One of the sentries shrugged upon his arrival. "He wouldn't leave, Your Grace. It was either let him stay or cause a ruckus."
Zero waved the explanation away. He knew Eiji was missing his brother. Was trying to cope with the demise of his other half. The person that moved the same way he moved.
He stepped forward, shooing the guards away as he grasped Eiji by the elbow and helped him onto his feet. He didn't ask him if he was all right as he ushered him into his rooms. And that was another reason for shame. In the seven days that followed the 'incident', he hadn't taken time out to sit and talk with Eiji at all, even though he felt responsible for his brother's death. He pushed the almost catatonic man into a random seat and went in search of blood-wine. In the end he had to open the door and make the request, all the while studying Eiji discreetly.
Finally he sat across from him, watching him nestle the steaming glass of liquid comfort as if he'd never held a cup before. They sat there like that, the night ticking down by minutes, Zero shivering and Eiji watching him intently. His handsome features were strained and sallow.
Zero wasn't known to be patient so it was all too soon that he began to speak, not knowing where his speech was headed.
"If Ichiru had been the one to die, I would resemble you exactly," he began, uncomfortable as he headed in a direction that would be sensitive for anyone. "I don't think I could survive that sort of torture," he went on when there was no clear response. Eiji just stared into the red tinged liquid, his lank hair falling into his eyes. His skin looked like paste, his eyes dark burning holes in his face. "There is nothing wro-"
"What am I going to do without him?" Eiji interrupted abruptly. His hopeless eyes raised to meet his and Zero twitched in alarm. The life there was already spent, irises gazing into a near future of death.
"Complete your duty here first," he stated bluntly, his bedside manner terribly lacking. His reaction was immediate. "Make sure that those responsible are treated to the same."
Eiji's eyes were dead. "And how can you ensure that?"
Zero paused. "We can work together to find out who they are and destroy them. I suspect that by my side is as good a place as any to accomplish that goal. And I'm not going to stop until I do destroy them." His eyes were cold. Pitiless. He let Eiji see the full intent of his wrath. "They threatened my family. I'm going to hurt them."
And there a brief spark of life across the barren landscape that peered out at him from Eiji's face. "I'm not going to stop until I uncover who's behind this mess."
Eiji was silent for a long time.
"Good, I Accept."
The contract sprang into life washing the room in a tingling brightness and Zero shivered as it clamped tight over them.
The dark haired vampire seemed to shake himself, the despair falling away like a perfectly executed disguise. His eyes bored into Zero where he sat. "First things first. You do not go anywhere without me."
What in the hell had he gotten himself into now?
He was still breathing hard when Eiji stood. "A moment." He walked to the door and issued quiet commands that Zero couldn't help but overhear.
…Appointed…No one..without my….
Zero felt his face flame as Eiji came back in to sit across from him. It felt as if those flames were shooting from his eyes as he willed Eiji to burst into a well deserved bright, hot conflagration.
Eiji flexed in his seat, his expression serious. "His grace trusted me to protect you. I will not fail in that."
A pointed look and a raised eyebrow didn't effect the vampire in anyway. "What in the hell was that?"
"A protection contract." Eiji flexed in his seat. "As the first of your appointed guard I'm unable to leave your side, barring the King is at your side of course."
"What?" His mouth fell open as the import of the statement registered. Why in the hell was it always some manipulative vampire hiding in his wings? "Just what in the hell does that mean? Protection Contract?" He stood, his temper boiling. He wanted to reach out and hit the other man. But he restrained himself, barely.
The sharp knock cut into his answer. They stared at each other as the conversation on the other side of the door escalated. It burst open and Seiren strode through, face like thunder and eyes like lightening. That storm swept over the both of them, drenching them in a rain of anger.
"What did you do?"
To his credit Eiji didn't flinch at the venomous tone. "I'm the first of his personal guard."
Zero shrugged when the fire swept back over him. "I wish you guys would tell me these things before I stumble onto them," he muttered.
"Only you would stumble onto them Your Grace."
Oh yeah, she was pissed. His title fell off her lips like chips of ice. He returned it with exasperation before his attention swung back to Eiji. "Are you-"
"He is physically incapable of betraying you," Seiren cut in stepping closer to Eiji's chair. "In fact he has chained himself to you for life."
"Don't your species do anything without the 'until death part us'?" Zero scowled.
Seiren scowled back. "You don't get the gravity of the situation. The first of your personal guard is the one closest to you besides your mate. The one you afford the most trust to after your husband. And you just gave that position to him."
Zero didn't take his eyes off Eiji as Seiren gave her explanation. "Then how did I appoint him if he isn't the closest one to me?"
"You two shared a sense of something. Life, death, friendship."
Now Zero glared at Eiji. "Death."
Eiji nodded. "Haru gave his life for yours."
Zero began to pace, vacating his chair in purposeful movements. "You planned this."
Eiji shook his head. "No one plans the death of their brother."
Zero rubbed a palm over his face. "And no doubt my guilt was part of that?" It was rhetorical by the make up of Eiji's expression.
"It is a contract like the one Kaname and I share," Seiren imparted suddenly, her gaze still heavy on Eiji. "They are like your lifelong companion. Always with you, never abandoning you, forever at your side."
"In return for my brother's life, I take yours and give you mine."
"Stop it damn it!"
Zero stopped pacing. "Who said that I wanted your life? Huh? I didn't want your brother's either."
"But you got it!" Eiji snarled.
Zero and Seiren whirled around, Zero being the quickest. His fingers curled around Eiji's throat just as Seiren's pulled his hand away. Her look was a painted portrait of her anger and frustration.
"You can't just kill him indiscriminately," she growled, "No matter what mood you're in!'
He shook himself, the red haze clearing from his vision. Eiji looked at him in alarm, his memory of the previous night fresh. Zero stared him down. "Fine, but if anything happens to Kaname I will have your head."
Eiji dropped to his knees. "Your grace there is no obstacle that I will not overcome in your protection. Wether it be your mate or you. Your life is safe in my hands."
"See that it is so," Zero echoed, the word unbidden from his lips. He turned towards the bedroom. "Damn you guys exhaust me!"
He was walking and throwing orders knowing they would be obeyed, before he could forget his lapse in conscious. But, he just didn't care anymore.
Eiji nodded. "I will be here Your Grace."
"Yeah, yeah."
Zero swept through the doors of his chambers, his eyes finding Kaname immediately. He lay, his face so peaceful. His hair sprayed out around his head, shining blood chocolate in the pure light. He gave another exasperated sigh. "You and your damn subjects! Everyone of them are going to be the death of me. Hurry and wake up before I kill all of them!" He was agitated,
As usual there was no response and Zero settled himself to another sleepless night. His eyes roamed Kaname's face, anger settling deep in his gut as he recalled the attack. He moved closer, letting the sleeve of his shirt brush Kaname's cheek, before he sat in a chair at his King's bedside. 'Everyone is here. Wake up."
He leaned down and whispered onto Kaname's ear. "We'll all be here when you wake up."
He gasped at the sharp stab of awareness. A spark in the darkness. It was quick, brief, but brilliant like a flash fire. He scooted to the edge of the chair and let his mind rove the darkness between them. He'd seen it. Of that he was certain. He didn't shine as he walked the halls of Kaname's mind this time, pushing through the tug of dark agony that accompanied the dank, lifeless bond. He'd seen it. The flare lit a candle of hope in his chest. It led him into the center of Kaname's psyche.
His passage echoed in the dark, the space vast to accommodate the immense knowledge Kaname had gained throughout his years. He didn't listen, his eyes too intent on the darkness. Time passed as he stood still in the blackness, waiting. He could feel the night passing, the twins stirring in tiny vibrations.
He ignored it all.
Waiting.
And finally, there it was again.
It sparked brilliant and cognizant.
He pounced, casting a sprawling mental net to catch it. It fluttered languidly under the mental threads as he began to tug it towards him. At his closer proximity it began to glow a bright, heated red. He imagined blowing on it, making it flush blue. And then he began to feed it, supplying and almost endless line of memories. Of him. Of Kaname. Of their makeshift family. Of their new family. It was an overload of emotions. He didn't feel guilty for it as he set Kaname's inner world aflame.
He calmly stepped from Kaname's brain, the last residual vision of lines of blue flame igniting around him.
Exhaustion promptly pulled him to the bottom of dark.
It was all he could do to roll onto the bed before he let sleep alter his world.
TD
He woke centuries later, mouth dry, hunger first and foremost on his to take care of list. He started to roll over onto his side and froze. He slowly turned his head to take in Kaname who was already on his side one, long arm slung across his ribs. His breathing was deep and head rested on his usual pillow his soft hair fanning out to caress his cheek. Zero was suffused with warmth. It burned from the roots of his hair to the soles of his feet. The bond in his head was active again, bursting and glowing in his head again. He just lay there, letting the feel of life rush through him like a waterfall. The twins lazed in contentment as both of their bonds were restored. And damn, he wanted to feed. He shivered with the need of it. Kaname wasn't awake yet. But….he was here. He didn't want to disturb this resting phase with a bite. With that thought in mind, he scooted towards the edge of the bed in preparation of exit.
A throaty growl stopped him, as did the hand curled over his hip.
He glanced at Kaname again to verify that he was still sleep. His King's face was peaceful, the blood tipped lashes resting against his defined cheekbones, the tense lines of pain erased by rest. But his hands weren't relaxed. They flexed, holding on, keeping him in place.
Zero sighed. He should have expected no less. Even a smidgeon awake and Kaname would hold onto him. His heart twisted as he watched his mate's sleeping face. Even his sleeping mien was animated, filed with vitality.
And shit he was hungry and thirsty….
And horny….
The triple combination was killing. The bass of his desire beat underneath his skin, heating the air around the two, their re-linked minds swaying against each other languidly. Intoxicating. The feel of Kaname'd mind rubbing against his again. But he had to get up. His bladder demanded it.
He tried to move again, sliding towards the edge of the bed gingerly.
The growl sounded again and he flinched at the scarred sound. The hand tightened, pulling him back into the warmth of Kaname's spoon. He let out an exasperated huff. He knew his husband was still sleep, yet the brute refused to let him go in his regained un-conscious. He did what he promised himself that he would not do. He speared into Kaname's sleeping mind, projecting his desperate need. The fingers loosened almost immediately and he slid to the edge and then to the floor, fleeing to the bathroom just in time.
He stretched lazily once he was finished,eyeing the shower with definite interest. It wouldn't hurt to get clean. And then he would go and speak to Miki. Or he could just wait until she came to check up on them. Kaname was deeply asleep still and from the feel of his resting mind, would be for a least a little while longer. The thought of being clean won out and he stepped in the shower, letting warm water cascade over him. Steam, warm and fragrant from the spicy scent of the soap that was Kaname's wafted around the room, engulfing the four walls.
He was at a tenuous peace.
His mate was alive, was going to live.
But dozens of children were missing.
He had a seemingly invincible foe, but their casualties, so far, were low. And he aimed at keeping it that way. There were so many loved ones in his care.
Kaname, Seiren, Cross, Toga, Ichijo, Yuki, Aidou, Ichiru, Kain, Ruka, Eiji, Aaron, Hunter….So many more.
For precious, private moments he allowed the tension to slough away, massaging soap into his skin in the incredibly mundane task of washing himself. He paused as his palms rubbed over his rounded belly, fingers slipping around the taut curve. He opened his eyes to stare down. Try as he might, he couldn't deny that the twins were becoming more and more apart of him everyday, changing his body and leaving viable evidence of their existence. He swore the curve expanded every and and from Miki he knew his time of elimination was over. He was a little over eighteen weeks pregnant and Miki insisted to try and extract them now would do more harm than good. He was relieved that that option had been taken out of his hands. He stroked over his belly a few more times, the curve drawing his fingers as his children stirred deep within him, responsive to his touch.
He finally exited the shower, snagging a fluffy towel, all the troubles of the universe swirling around his head. Steam billowed out behind him slightly obscuring his vision, and he had already partially navigated the room before he realized. He snatched the towel from his head, turning to the bed. He was greeted with the sight of Kaname rising from the rumpled sheets, his movements hesitant as if his body ached. He sagged against the headboard behind him, the activity of his mind still lazy. He looked down, fingers running over the thick scar that marred his side. The brown was paler around its edges before it blended in with the rest of his skin. His head suddenly thumped back against the wood, his wild hair crowning his face. He took a while to get his bearings as Zero stared at him frozen on the plush carpet.
And then the inevitable…. Those black eyes snapped to him, brain firing. Midnight roved over his pregnant mate, caressing the long pale lines, and the new curves. He took in the longer silver hair and thickened waistline. He opened his mouth to speak and there was a brisk knock at the door before Miki ambled in. Even though she'd seen him a million times, his face went scarlet and he cinched the towel around his waist. Kaname's eyes were on her instantly as he assessed the new potential threat and she stopped abruptly.
"Your Grace." He really didn't blame her if her voice was a little breathless, what with Kaname eyeing her as if she were his next steak. He spoke up.
"Miki Hairi. Our new physician. She's here for our nightly check up. Let her look you over while I get dressed. I'll explain fully then."
It was a neat escape. He took to the closet so that he didn't have to face Kaname's sudden burning presence, though he knew he was going to have to very, very soon.
"Injuries," Kaname inquired politely, though Zero felt the promised retribution through the bond as he fled.
"Two shattered ribs, two fractured and a nicked lung."
"How long was I out?"
"A week, your Grace."
A week away from your side.
Fear, trepidation, fury, guilt…
But most of all fury.
Zero scampered away, throwing clothes on, girding himself for the upcoming battle.
TD
Sorry for the long wait!
Just another move-the-plot-along-chapter!
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