Hey! Sorry for the long wait, but I am happy to bring you all the 6th chapter of Diabolik Lovers: Justine. I'm so sorry, but I started another story called Diabolik Lovers: The Elm Witch, and got a little preoccupied with it. But in the end, I'm pretty happy with how this chapter came out, so I hope you all like it. I would like to once again thank everyone who has followed, favourited, and reviewed my story. You guys keep me going!
It took a little while for Justine to awaken completely, lingering in that pleasant purgatory between sleep and wakefulness. She honestly wanted to go back sleep, having just had one of the most restful catnaps she'd had in months. She was not plagued by horrific visions or memories. She instead dreamt of nothing at all, which is just the way she liked it. She didn't even want to risk having good dreams if it meant being thrown back into her nightmares.
Just as she was beginning to fade back into unconsciousness, she felt the bed she was laying on move and shift. It felt as though the bed had just gained weight, and she prayed that it was not what she thought it was.
"Did you rest well, Darling~?" came that insipid voice Justine was truly growing to despise.
God damn it…
She opened her eyes to see Laito sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at her with his infuriating grin. Jesus Christ, this was the last thing she needed right now.
"What do you want, Sakamaki-san?" she asked him tiredly, really not in the mood to deal with his nonsense after his psychopath of a brother tried to murder her. She felt herself cringe at the memory, seeing his face full of malicious glee as he watched the life drain from her eyes. She was considering reporting it to the school or even the police, but given his family's influence she could only wonder if that would only make her situation worse. Money talks, after all.
"Aw, don't be like that! See, I even brought you your bag from class!" he smiled cheerily, holding up her school bag in his hand. Pulling herself up from the bed, she made a grab for it, only for Laito to swipe it away from her at the last second, holding the bag above his head and out of her reach.
"Not so fast, Darling~. Since I went to the trouble of retrieving your bag for you, you need to do something for me in return." He teased, throwing in a wink just to be extra cheeky.
"I didn't ask you to bring me my bag, Sakamaki-san. I don't owe you anything. Just give it back." Justine replied, making another attempt to reach her schoolbag only for him to raise it out of her grasp once again. He giggled at her, not even fazed by her intentionally rude demeanour.
"You're such an ice queen, it's adorable! Anyway, all I want is a tiny little favour, is that really so much to ask?" he questioned her with a mocking tone of voice.
It really didn't matter to Justine what Laito thought was and was not fair. She just wanted him to go away and leave her alone. Even if that meant humouring him for the time being. Swallowing her pride and irritation, she decided, just this once, to play along with his idiotic games.
"What do you want, exactly?" she asked, already dreading the answer. Laito, delighted at her cooperation, widened his smile and he once again started to chuckle.
'That definitely isn't a good sign…' Justine thought.
He looked down at her, looking as excited as a child on Christmas morning.
"I want you to come over to my house tonight." He announced, a glint of dark playfulness in his green, catlike eyes. Justine almost dropped her jaw at his request. Not only did she lot like him in the slightest, she barely even knew him; what made him think she would ever agree to something like that?
"There's no way I'm doing that. We're not friends, Sakamaki-san. Besides, I already have a ride waiting for me, so the answer is no." She flat out refused, hoping in vain that her point would get across to him. Seeing his playful smirk not move from his face, however, she knew that he had already predicted that she would refuse his offer, and thought ahead. Reaching his hand into her schoolbag, he spent a second rummaging through it, much to Justine's chagrin, before pulling out her phone. Before she could say a word of protest, he unlocked it (he knew her pass code, the bastard), showing her a wall full of texts.
"Actually, Darling, that man will not be coming to pick you up tonight. I made sure of that~!" he said with glee, proudly showing her that he had texted Akira, pretending to be her, telling him that she was going to hang out in the city after school and make her way home by herself. Akira, bless him, replied saying that it was wonderful that she was getting out of the house more and to have fun. Quickly reaching for her phone, he once again held what belonged to her over her head and out of grasp, then put the phone back into her bag. Justine was beginning to seethe.
"Fine then. Keep the stupid bag if you want. I'll just walk home." She stated as she stood up from the bed, marching in anger to the door to leave the nurse's office. She briefly wondered where the nurse actually was at the moment, but decided that she did not really care right now. Before she stepped through the open door, however, Laito spoke up again.
"But I thought that your house was quite far away from school? If I'm not mistaken, it'll take you over two hours to get there on foot. I don't think you'll be able to make it, especially after the rough day you've had." Justine whirled around to face him, her eyes blazing with anger.
"Oh, please! Don't pretend that you give a crap about my health. I'm not going to your house. I'll just walk, even if you think I won't make it. I could use a good cardio workout anyway." She said, backing away from him and standing her ground. Laito's smirk morphed once again into a cheerful smile that seemed to mock her with every passing second.
"Well then, in that case I'll just go over to your house! It'll be fun! It'll be just the two of us~…" he said with a sly grin that Justine knew was brimming with ulterior motives. She cringed, wondering what exactly was going on in his perverted mind, and then a second later deciding that she honestly did not really want to find out.
She really did not see the enjoyment out of making someone think they had a choice when in reality they did not. It just seemed like an unnecessary waste of time to her. Then again, she was not a perverted trust fund brat, so what did she know?
While she really did not want to go to wherever he lived, he made it clear that they would be spending the next few hours together no matter what. The house she shared with Akira was a home; a sanctuary. In Justine's view, it was better to be in his territory than have him invade hers, as if his very presence would defile it. With a defeated sigh, Justine relented.
"Fine, I'll go to your goddamn house. But you'd better give me my things back after…" Laito beamed at his little victory over her, which only made Justine regret her decision even more. Unconsciously touching her throat with her hand, she felt her anger give way to confusion when she realized that her neck was… wet?
Momentarily forgetting Laito, she marched over to a mirror hanging on the wall above a sink to examine her throat. When she was able to see her reflection in the mirror, she immediately noticed two things. One, her neck was indeed wet, with a clear liquid that was a bit too viscous to be water. Two, there was no sign of any kind of bruising anywhere. Her eyes widened in shock. Laito's brother had squeezed her neck so tightly that she'd had trouble merely speaking, so how on earth could there be no bruises?
Noticing her astonishment, Laito simply chuckled.
"Yes, I did notice those terrible marks on your neck, you poor thing. It's alright, though, I took care of them for you. You're welcome, by the way." He said nonchalantly, as she hurriedly used the sink to scrub her neck with water, hoping to get whatever was on her throat off. After she was sufficiently clean and dried, she was about to question him about how on earth he was able to make her bruises go away, when he cut her off.
"Anyway, since you look all better, let's get going now, shall we~?" he purred, looking at her with excitement.
Before Justine could say anything, he forcefully grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the nurse's office, practically dragging her down to the front exit. Justine tried to protest, but with his strength, she knew that her efforts would be pointless.
Just before Laito opened the front doors to the outside, he decided to make this experience even more excruciating for Justine. With lightning speed, he scooped her up into his arms, flung the doors open as loud as possible, and proceeded to carry her bridal style outside. Justine, mortified at his brazen move to attract as much attention to them as possible, tried to wriggle her way out of his arms. But of course, he didn't budge at all, and carried her all the way to the parked limo waiting for him and his brothers by the curb, with all eyes baring down on the two of them.
Feeling her face flush in embarrassment, Justine dared not look around at the other students to see their reactions, as she assumed that half of them would be looking over at them in curiosity while the other half would be glaring at her as if they wanted to tear her apart. She definitely would not put it past them. She knew that whoever had defaced her desk was most likely someone among the droves of students going home for the day, which made Justine dread their next attempt at making her suffer. Because she definitely did not have enough of those already…
When Laito finally put her down, she pushed him away from her in order to get some space. Looking at the limo, she could see that Laito's brothers were all already inside and ready to go home, and they were currently all staring at her. She flinched under collective gaze, feeling even more uncomfortable that she had been before. She felt her blood run cold, however, when she spotted the purple haired boy with holding his stuffed bear. Taking his malicious death glare into account, he remembered her as well, and was not pleased to see her again.
The feeling was mutual.
Involuntarily flinching when she felt Laito put his hands on her shoulders, she was firmly but not painfully guided into the car where she awkwardly placed inside. Seeing Laito get in after her, the car door was shut by who Justine assumed to be the driver. Now trapped inside with four strangers, a perverted bully, and a psychopath that had tried to kill her earlier that day, she crossed her arms against her chest in an attempt to close herself off from them. While Justine had always wanted to ride inside a limousine, this was definitely not how she thought she would get the opportunity to do so.
"Who the hell is this?" she heard a harsh voice break the silence. Turning in the direction of the voice, Justine saw that it belonged to a tall boy about the same age as her and Laito. She could most definitely tell that they were brothers, given that they both had red hair and the same acid green eyes. The boy, however, did have shorter hair than Laito, and went about his life hatless. He was giving her a glare full of complete disdain and annoyance, as if she were a bug that had landed in his orange juice.
'Whatever,' Justine thought derisively, 'He's the one wearing his pants at two different lengths. Does he think it makes him look edgy or something?'
Laito slyly smirked at his brother, taking hold of Justine and trapping her into a tight embrace. With an involuntary jump, she looked at him in irritation. His smile did not waver.
"This is my new friend! We're going to be having some fun after school. Isn't that right, Darling~?" he said, intentionally wording his sentence in a way that gave it a filthy double meaning. Blushing with embarrassment, Justine frowned at the fedora wearing pervert.
"Not even in your dreams, Sakamaki-san. I'm only here because you won't give me my things back unless I go to your house. Now shut up." She said coldly, trying in vain to get her point across to him. Once again, her attempt proved pointless.
Justine remembered that Albert Einstein's definition of insanity was essentially doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If this was true, then she should have been committed the moment she met Laito Sakamaki. Although if she had her way, he would be the one in a straitjacket locked inside a padded room. If psychiatric institutions even still had padded rooms…
"Isn't she cute? She's so biting and defiant, thinking that she can actually fight back against me. She's just so much fun!" Laito gushed, not at all fazed by her blatantly rude remark. Justine briefly wondered if he just had selective hearing, or if he just did not care about what she had to say. Most likely the latter.
"Tch. She's annoying, that's what she is." The boy scoffed, intensifying his glare. Justine, now being too irritated to be scared, countered his glare by rolling her eyes dismissively. She honestly did not care at all whether or not this spoiled brat found her annoying; she was only going to Laito's house to get her belongings back.
Noting her complete disregard of his presence, the red haired boy's face contorted from a glare into an angry snarl.
"Hey! Don't roll your eyes at me! You've got a lot of nerve to disregard Yours Truly, Freak!" he growled, apparently taking being ignored about as well as Laito and the purple haired boy did.
Justine decided to say nothing, not wanting to give someone who actually calls themselves "Yours Truly" validation by giving them a verbal answer. It just seemed pointless to her to talk with him at all; just like his brothers. Inflated egos must run in the family, she decided.
"Ayato, that's enough. Do not start a fight while we're all still in the car." A stern voice interjected, coming from the immaculately dressed, glasses-wearing Sakamaki brother.
The narcissist, Ayato, scoffed and folded his arms petulantly, looking away from his brother with his nose upturned. With him dealt with, the bespectacled brother's eyes bared down on her, causing her to shrink a bit under his ruthless gaze.
"You. Who are you, and how are you acquainted with Laito?" His tone of voice was no-nonsense and pure business. Justine could feel herself grow even smaller at the severity in his voice, though she did not break eye contact. She would not let yet another Sakamaki brother bully her.
"I'm Justine… Justine Lenoir. I'm in the same class as Sakamaki-san, and for the past week he won't to leave me alone." She replied, the end of her sentence turning bitter as she glared beside her at Laito, who simply smiled at her in response. The hark-haired brother adjusted his glasses.
"In that case, Miss Lenoir, what exactly is the purpose of your visit to our home? For your sake, it had better not be anything depraved or unsavoury, though given the type of women Laito tends to associate with, I won't hold my breath." He practically sneered at her. Justine bristled at his words.
"Oh Jesus, ew! I'm not doing anything gross with him, if that's what you're implying. The only reason I'm here at all is because he's holding my stuff hostage; I'll be gone as soon as I get it back." She replied. He gave her a sour look that told her that he did not quite believe her.
Laito chuckled and rested his chin on the top of her head. This made her want to rip his head off, throw it into a bonfire, and dance on the ashes. Maybe a fun little jig.
"It's okay, Darling, don't take Reiji's words too personally. He just has a massive stick up his ass and really should loosen up once and a while." He said playfully, his words clearly directed at his brother, whose name was Reiji, rather than Justine.
Reiji's gaze shifted from Justine to Laito, burning with a cold, silent anger.
"Well, Laito, it figures that you would choose to fraternize with a woman who is equally as ill-mannered and uncouth as you are. Whatever you have planned for her, at the very least do so in your private room." He replied dryly.
Justine was somehow both insulted and a bit terrified as his ominous words, while Laito's smile had not faltered in the slightest.
'What he has planned…? Mon Dieu, why did he have to say it like that?' she thought.
Looking away from the both of them, she unintentionally made brief eye contact with the brother with the teddy bear, who had not stopped scowling at her since she had entered the limo. Feeling a chill wash over her, she decided to just look down at her lap and not engage with the boy that had tried to murder her only hours earlier. The sound of Laito chuckling made Justine want to start grinding her teeth.
"What's wrong, Darling? Are you afraid of Kanato? I heard that he got a bit rough with you after you left class~." He said in a mock imitation of a sympathetic tone. Justine decided not to look up from her lap, not really wanting to see Laito's smug, amused face. He knew that his brother, who she now learned was named Kanato, had tried to strangle her earlier, and was now using that to torment her even more. She was not quite sure what disturbed her more; the fact that he knew Kanato dangerously unhinged or that Laito was willing to torment her with her near-death experience. Honestly, at this point she doubted that anything he did could really shock her anymore.
While she was being as careful as she could to avoid eye contact with Kanato, she could definitely feel him glaring at her, as if he were trying to see if he could burn two holes into her head with his mind alone. She jumped a bit when she heard him speak.
"She hurt me! I was just talking to her, and she hit me on the head from behind! What a horrible girl she is…" he seemed to whine, hiding the bottom half of his face in his stuffed bear.
This statement made Justine wonder if she was hard of hearing. He went up to her, licked her, and then tried to strangle her when she reacted negatively to his actions, and yet she was the one in the wrong for acting in self-defense?
Victim blaming, what's that?
"Wait," interjected Laito's equally red-haired brother, "You said that you had her in the air by the neck. If that's true, then how the hell could she have hit you from behind? You would've seen her hands!"
Justine froze at his question, a feeling of dread overtaking her. Unbeknownst to her, Laito's smirk grew even wider.
"I don't know how she did it, but she did! What are you trying to say, that I'm lying?!" Kanato began to raise his voice to a near hysterical pitch, eyes wide with manic rage. Ayato scoffed.
"Sounds like you were too embarrassed to admit that she fought you off, so you made up some bullshit about her getting in a sneak attack." He mocked his purple-haired brother.
"Shut up, Ayato! I'm telling the truth! That worthless girl hit me on the head, I just don't know how!" Kanato screamed, frustrated tears beginning to well up in his violet coloured eyes. Looking away from Ayato, he turned his attention back to Justine, who almost flinched at his furious glare.
"Maybe she's a witch that used her evil magic to hit me…" he grumbled angrily. At this, Laito could no longer continue to just smirk, and let out a hearty laugh, which of course only caused Kanato to begin to yell at him.
Justine resisted the urge to face-palm. Please, he was hardly the first person to call her a witch…
"Be quiet, all of you… You're too damn loud…" said a very tired sounding voice. Looking over to the source, Justine saw one of the other Sakamakis, sitting with his back propped against the wall and his eyes closed, looking as though he was asleep. If she was not mistaken, he was the eldest brother. She still could not recall ever hearing him name, though.
His words had no effect on his brothers, unfortunately, as Laito did not stop laughing and Kanato did not stop yelling. Once again, nothing these brothers did made any sense to her.
Who knows, maybe she was the one not making sense at this point? Had stepping into the car somehow transported to another planet? Hopefully this planet had oxygen, or else she'd be dead as soon as she stepped out of the car. How long did it take for someone to die of asphyxiation, anyway?
…
This car ride was starting to make her feel drunk.
After trying her best to tune the rest of the ride out and ignore the Sakamaki brother's nonsense, the limo finally came to a stop. When the car doors were opened by the chauffeur, Justine could not get out of the damn car fast enough. Once she was outside, however, she could only stand there in awe at the spectacular mansion that loomed over her. It looked like something out of a Gothic novel, being both beautiful and ominous. The giant main structure, the sprawling garden (at last what she could see of it), and the other brilliantly designed buildings that dotted the property almost made her swoon.
She loved this kind of Victorian-esque architecture; she only wished she could live somewhere like this house.
"Mon Dieu… you live here?" Justine asked no one in particular, still enraptured by the grand mansion in front of her. Laito was the one to answer her.
"Hm? Oh, yes I do, I suppose." His nonchalant tone of voice put her off; how could he be so casual about a mansion this grand?
Using Justine's preoccupied state to his advantage, he decided it would be fun to scare her half to death by scooping her up in his arms once again and carrying her through the large, wooden front doors. She instinctively let out a shriek at the sudden physical contact and glared at the red-haired pervert. He responded to this by giving her a cheerful smile.
"I'm not sure why you think my legs are broken or something, but I can walk by myself…" she grumbled at him, deciding not to physically struggle against him this time, given how her many previous attempts went.
"But don't all girls like being carried this way? Isn't it supposed to be romantic?" Laito teased, looking down at the girl in his arms with a predatory grin.
"Besides… if you can't walk, you can't get away from me, Darling~!" he finished, flashing her another cheerful smile, though this one carried a sinister vide. Justine stiffened her spine, trying her best to not give him the reaction he clearly wanted. Showing any sort of fear would not do her a bit of good at all in this situation, so she remained silent and continued to glare at him, blue-grey eyes meeting into acidic green, as he carried her up the grand staircase and walked down his houses' maze-like hallways. Finally stopping at an oak door that looked just like all of the others (in Justine's perspective, anyway), Laito kicked the door open with his foot and confidently walked inside.
The room that they entered was all very green, with the carpet, furniture, bed, and even the curtains looking like a sentient emerald threw up all over them. She also took notice of a large painting of a beautiful woman and three very familiar looking children hanging over the fireplace, in what she could only assume was a family portrait.
'This must be his bedroom.' She thought briefly, only to then go a bit pale when wondering why he took her to his bedroom of all places.
Without any sort of warning, he nonchalantly let go of Justine, causing her to painfully drop to the carpeted floor with a loud thud, landing on her shoulder. She could hear him laughing as she clumsily got back to her feet, trying to avoid making any movements that would cause her now sore shoulder to throb in pain. When she managed to get back onto her feet, she was practically trembling in rage.
"Are you alright, Darling? I hope you're not too sore already, especially considering what I have planned for us~." He said with a smirk, winking at the angry girl in front of him.
Enough of this, Justine thought.
"What the hell is the point of all this? What do you want from me?" she asked him as calmly as she could manage, fed up with his nonsense. Nothing that Laito or any of his brothers did made any sort of logical sense. In her mind, if she knew the motive behind his actions she would gain a better understanding of her situation, and would be able to work from there. She could then have a slim chance of finding a way out of this mess.
Laito gave her a what was surely insincere smile, his eyes never losing their predatory nature.
"I thought you were smarter than this, Darling. It should be obvious what I want from you…" he said as he began to walk towards her, devilish smirk still on his face.
Justine began to step back in an effort to get away from him, but it was not long before she felt her legs in what she assumed to be the edge of the bed. She tried to run to the right so she could get around him and out of the room, only for Laito to grab hold of her waist and flip the both of them over, pinning her to the bed with him on top. Startled at both the sudden change of position and the fact that he was violating her personal space now more than ever, she instinctively raised her hand to try and slap him away, only for him to grab her by the wrist and pin it above her head.
Pinned down to Laito's bed with him on top of her, she still tried desperately to resist, writhing around in an effort to get loose. But alas, his grip was too strong as he lowered his face down to hers', a blush covering his face and an excited twinkle in his eye.
"All I want is for you to submit to me, that's all. Is that really too much to ask?" he teased, using the hand he was holding down her arm with to sensually rub his thumb against her wrist, tracing his finger down her veins.
All Justine could manage to do was glare back at him defiantly, what with his body restraining hers'. In another attempt to get him away from her, she raised her free hand as far above her head.
Slap!
Using all of the strength she could muster, she brought her hand down and smacked him right across the face. She could see Laito's eyes widen slightly, as he was not expecting such a brazen act of resistance. As his cheek began to turn pink, she grabbed onto his face with the same hand she had just hit him with in order to hold it in place.
"Do you have a selective memory or are you just an idiot? I told you already; I will never submit; not ever! Especially to someone like you!" she exclaimed, determined to at least get her message across through his surprisingly thick skull.
She could feel Laito's lips turn into a frown against her hand, his eyes becoming cold and unforgiving with a hint of anger behind them. Still, she did not waver, meeting his glare with one of her own. That was when he did something that not only caught her off guard, but would completely change her worldview.
"You know, I've been thinking. Since I know your secret, Darling, I believe that it's only fair that I let you in on one of my secrets…" he half-whispered, loud enough for her to hear him, his tone of voice cryptic and ominous.
Shifting his face that was still caught in Justine's hand, he turned so that his mouth would be directly facing her palm. In an instant, he opened his mouth, revealing long, sharp fangs and bit down on Justine's hand, eliciting a painful scream from her. Panicked, she tried to wrench her hand away from him, only for him to grab hold of her wrist so that she would stay put as he began to suck on the wound he made, drinking her blood straight from the palm of her hand.
Acting on instinct, she forced her knee into his crotch, which at the very least startled him enough to loosen his grip on her. Taking the opportunity, she was finally able to get out from underneath him, falling to the floor. Quickly picking herself back up, she backed away from Laito as she clutched her injured hand, taking a moment to review the damage.
Two distinct puncture holes were visible on her open palm, blood trailing out from the wound. Wincing in pain, she looked up at Laito as he got up from the bed to face her, her blood still on his face. As if to gross her out even more, he proceeded to lick it off of his face using his tongue, moaning wantonly as he savoured every last drop. Justine could feel her stomach turn from the horrid sight.
"Y… You bit me? What the hell is wrong with you?!" she yelled at him, in full panic mode. Stepping away from him until she hit the wall, she began to shake in fear as he advances towards her, his eyes seeming to glow. Then, he gave her a toothy grin, his razor-sharp fangs becoming even more pronounced. That was when it all finally came to together in her mind.
"You… You're a vampire…" she whispered more to herself than to him, though Laito was able to hear her thanks to his inhumanly heightened senses. He smiled down at her.
"Ah~. It's so good that you finally figured it out, Darling. I was growing tired of holding myself back all this time. And now that I've finally gotten a taste of you-" he was interrupted by the sight of Justine's face suddenly losing all traces of fear, and instead being replaced by… relief?
"Oh my god… God, it finally all makes sense now…" she said to herself, an odd grin working its way onto her face. Laito's green eyes widened in shock and his smirk fell from his face instantly. She was… glad that she knew he was a vampire? He quickly put his smile back onto his face, not wanting her to know she had caught him off guard.
"Darling… You must be in shock; I don't really think you know what's going on right now…" he attempted to tease her, only for her to respond with,
"No, I definitely know what's happening. You're a vampire, right? An actual vampire. All I'm saying that I'm relieved that everything make sense now, well, as much as a situation like this can make sense, anyway." She said, all traces of fear or pain in her voice completely gone.
Laito could only stare at her in confusion. This… this was definitely not going as he had planned.
"You… why aren't you…?" he said. Justine just sighed and looked at him with one of her eyebrows raised.
"Really, Sakamaki-san? I don't know if you just forgot or something, but I can move things using my mind. You said before that you apparently know everything about me, so you should know that I have different standards about what is and isn't weird. I mean sure, learning that vampires are real is definitely surprising, but it's not really scary or anything." she asked him, genuinely curious about how he thought she would react.
For possibly the first time in his life, Laito was rendered completely speechless. He simply did not know how to answer that question.
Dusting herself off, Justine calmly made her way over to the fireplace where she saw that her schoolbag was propped against the wall, Laito making no attempt to stop her. Before she left through the door, she turned back to look at him with a strange look on her face.
"Anyway, I think we're done here. I'll see you at school on Monday, Sakamaki-san."
In all honesty, Justine didn't really expect Laito to actually let her leave his house. Yet here she was, walking down the long, winding road back to her house with the sun just beginning to come up, school bag and cellphone in hand. She knew not to expect him to be honest with her ever again though, as it did not really seem like his specialty. Still, Justine thought that her little visit to the Sakamaki mansion could have gone much worse, all things considered.
She was snapped out of her thoughts, however, when she felt a presence behind her. Whirling around, she saw that it was none other than Laito Sakamaki, still dressed in his school uniform, looking at her with a blank expression on his foxlike face. Rolling her eyes, she turned around to face him.
"What is it now, Sakamaki-san?" she asked in a fed up tone of voice, just wanting to go home, take a bath, and go to sleep. She sighed.
"Look, if this is about the vampire thing, I'm not going to tell anyone. Like I said before, I don't really care at all about you or what you do with your time. Besides, I'm pretty sure that no one would believe me, anyway. So just let me go home, alright?" she explained, thinking that her knowing his secret was the reason he was bothering her again.
She was only half-right, however.
Laito walked up to her, not saying anything. When he was standing in front of her, he grabbed hold of her chin and tilted in upwards so that he could look into her blue-grey eyes. This time, Justine did not even flinch at his touch, looking half annoyed and half indifferent.
"I'm curious... you were definitely afraid of me before, but when I showed you what I was, you suddenly… weren't. Why is that?" he asked her, his green eyes looking deep into her's. Justine tilted her head slightly to the side in confusion. Why did he care at all?
"For one, I wouldn't say that I was scared per say, just very, very confused. Anyway, to be honest, I think that the situation just didn't make any sense to me. So many unknowns would make anyone feel on edge. But now that I know the truth, that you're a vampire, everything just kind of… fits into place. The world is coherent again. It makes its own kind of sense." She said as she pushed his hand away from her chin.
"I know that might sound kind of weird, but that's really just how my brain works, I guess. So I hope that answers your question." She finished, taking a step back to continue her trek home. God knew that she had quite the journey ahead of her. She was stopped, however, when he took hold of her shoulders and spun her around to face him.
Wondering what else he wanted, Justine was surprised when one of his hands let go of her shoulder and took hold on her injured wrist. He brought it up to his mouth and, to Justine's disgust, began to lick the puncture wounds with his tongue. His supernatural strength made it impossible to wriggle her hand away from him, so he continued to lap at her hand until he eventually let go of her.
Once free, Justine looked down at her wet hand, only for her eyes to widen in surprise. They were gone, she realized, the puncture wounds were completely gone! There was not even the smallest trace of a scar left behind.
"What the… how?" she whispered to herself in astonishment. Laito smirked at her confusion.
"Vampire saliva has healing properties. No need to thank me." He said. Justine continued to stare at her wet wrist.
Wait a minute… wet…
"Yes, I did notice those terrible marks on your neck, you poor thing. It's alright, though, I took care of them for you. You're welcome, by the way."
Practically feeling the colour drain from her face, Justine wrapped her hands around her throat.
"Oh my god, you didn't…" she murmured more to herself than to Laito, who winked playfully at her.
"Well, I couldn't let you walk around with those bruises on your lovely neck, could I? Besides, seeing you on that bed, looking so delectable, I just couldn't help myself~." He purred, a noticeable blush forming on his face at the thought.
At that moment, Justine was 60% sure that she was going to vomit. She did not, thankfully. She had more important things to do with her mouth, anyway. Such as screaming bloody murder at Laito.
"Jesus Christ, you goddamn pervert! You're disgusting, you know that?!" she yelled in his face, though this did nothing to shake that infuriatingly arrogant attitude of his. She took several steps back in pure revulsion.
"God, you're sick! I bet you also sent that stupid bat to spy on me outside my room, you creepy son of a-"
"Bat?" he cut her off, sounding perplexed. Justine paused her rant and looked up at him, the look on his face seeming just as confused as his voice.
"Yeah… you know, that creepy bat that was outside my window before I left for school. That was you… right?" she asked, a look of dread creeping onto her face. Laito's expression became blank as he looked down at her, his lack of emotion putting her even more on edge. Then, as suddenly as it went away, his cheerful demeanour returned, all smiles and mirth.
"Fufufu, of course that was me, Darling! I was just teasing you; it's so easy to get you on edge!" He laughed. Justine just baulked at the rather jarring change of mood from him. She was honestly beginning to wonder if he was that good an actor or if he was possibly bipolar or something. Though even if he was, Justine could have to say that that would probably be the least severe of his problems.
She could never quite know exactly what he was thinking about. And honestly, she did not currently have the energy to care if he was trying to mess with her or not. It had been a very, very long night, and she just wanted to go home and sleep for the next 1,000 years.
"You know what, whatever, Sakamaki-san. I'm done with all of this for tonight, okay?" she turned in the opposite direction and began to walk away from him. Then, without turning back to face him, she waved her hand that he had bitten in the air and shouted,
"I'd better not turn into a vampire!" Justine was far away enough that she did not hear his short laugh at her words, and before he knew it, she was completely out of his sight.
Once he could no longer see her, Laito teleported back into his bedroom and fell backwards onto his bed. Turning his body around so that his face was buried in the sheets, he closed his eyes, almost looking as though he were asleep.
His Darling's scent still lingered in his bed, the reminder of her delicious - but brief - fear sending a jolt of excitement throughout his body. He could almost see her underneath him, her blue-grey eyes widened in horror as his fangs sank deep into the flesh of her palm, the taste of her delicious blood as it flowed into his body, nourishing him and permeating his being. Oh, if only he had been able to drink from her neck!
Oh well, he thought, he just had to be patient. He would get his chance soon enough.
After a minute, however, his short moment of bliss faded when he thought back to their conversation before parting ways, and found himself unable to suppress the sudden, strangely overwhelming feeling of displeasure at what she had unwittingly revealed to him; that some other vampire was sending bat familiars to spy on his prey.
His face became stone cold, his acid green eyes turning to ice. Sure, he was not as possessive of his mortal playthings as his brothers tended to be, but make no mistake, Justine Lenoir belonged to him, and no one was going to touch her without his permission. Or at the very least being asked to join in.
A cruel smirk graced his lips. If knowing he was a vampire somehow made her less afraid of him, then he would just have to try even harder to get her to submit to him. After all, really working for it made the end reward even more sweet, and Laito knew that seeing her, broken and obedient, would be the sweetest reward of them all.
Wow, this is definitely the longest chapter I've written for this story. Well, I am trying to make longer chapters, so I guess I can call this a success! Again, sorry for the long wait, I will definitely work hard on getting the next chapter out faster!
Edited Notes: Okay, this was the chapter that I really wanted to change. Even back when I published it I really wasn't happy with how it turned out. I like it a lot better this time around, and I hope that you all do too.
Thanks for reading!