Sorry about the delay, this has been an awful couple of weeks. Hopefully this will make up for the delay a little bit. Enjoy!
Disclaimer, I own nothing
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Seiren had been standing off to the side in the woods, watching silently as she always did, as her master and that odd ex-human bickered. She was shocked at some of the things that Level D dared to say to a pureblood, but what shocked her more was that Kaname allowed him to do it. Content that her master knew what he was doing, she stood and watched. Even when they came to blows, she just watched. However when the ex-human drew the anti-vampire weapon, she decided to intervene.
She launched herself into Kaname and knocked him out of the way causing the bullet that was aimed at his heart to hit his shoulder instead. Then she stood and prepared to throw her daggers at the ex-human who had dared to shoot her master. When he had shot Rido, and Yuuki-sama it had been one thing, but this was too much.
"Stop Seiren," Kaname said quietly. "This is between the two of us. Man against man."
"So what Kuran," Zero barked. "I put away my gun and you repress your powers and we fight this out like men?"
"Exactly," Kaname said with a grin. "Think you can beat me? I'm even wounded already."
"Hell I could beat you if I was the one wounded," Zero scoffed knowing that that pureblood had never had to fight with anything other than his magic, unlike himself who had been trained in martial arts to combat vampires who (though the hunters would never truly admit it) had a slight speed advantage. Defeating a crippled, powerless pureblood should be a cake walk.
Kaname had to fight back a smile at the arrogance of that boy, but then ignorance did cause bliss. Kaname wondered for a second if it was fair to fight Zero when he was under the impression that Kaname was just some pureblood brat rather than knowing the truth: that Kaname was far older and more dangerous than Zero could know. Then he decided that he didn't care. That boy was useless to him and was becoming a nuisance. "Bring it on," Kaname said with a laugh.
The fight began, slowly at first but increasing in speed and ferocity as the two tested the weaknesses and strengths of the other and as both realized that they might be a more even match than they had previously believed. To anyone who didn't know what was going on, it would appear that the two were practicing a choreographed fight scene, because for a bit, no one actually landed a blow.
Then suddenly, Kaname faked a blow to the head and snuck through Zero's defenses, hitting him in the chest and knocking him into a tree. Rather than stop the hunter, this just seemed to enrage him and, using the tree as a launch pad, he shot himself towards Kaname when the pureblood was not expecting it.
The force of Zero colliding with Kaname sent them both to the ground, where they proceeded to fight. At one point, Zero had Kaname pinned and he forgot to keep his arm away from Kaname's face and he took advantage of the situation and bit Zero.
"What the hell!" Zero yelled, releasing Kaname. "You just bit me!"
"I am a vampire," Kaname said, "Besides it was not against the rules (I didn't use my pureblood powers) and it accomplished my desired effect."
Zero's face contorted with anger as he tried to come up with an answer to that challenge, then realized that if only powers were off, he had a weapon of his own. "If that's fair," he said, "then so is this." Without warning, he redrew the bloody rose and placed the barrel against Kaname's forehead.
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Yuuki awoke abruptly to a sound that stirred her memory and made her left shoulder ache from it. There was no question in her mind that it was a gun shot, but she wasn't sure if the sound was from her memory, or if it was real. Instinctively she reached for Kaname, knowing that he had been there when she had gone to sleep, but he wasn't there.
She sat up and opened her eyes wondering if what she remembered happening between her and Kaname had just been a dream. She quickly realized that it hadn't been a dream because her nightdress was on the foot of the bed rather than on her body and the room had a scent to it that she couldn't place but must be the scent of sex. Underneath that smell was the warm smell that was Kaname and another familiar scent: that of Zero. Now the sound of the gun she had heard made her more nervous. There had always been tension between those two men and with what had happened that day, she wouldn't be surprised if it had finally boiled over.
Standing and pulling her night dress over her head, she walked barefooted towards her door and followed their two scents out the front door of the house, past the sleeping forms of the nobles in the living room. The sound of the door closing behind her woke Aidou and he nudged Ruka and Kain and motioned towards the door with his head. The wordlessly got up and made to follow Yuuki but were stopped by the headmaster.
"Please, stay here," He asked them. "This is a family matter and we should let them settle it. I'll go make sure that things don't get out of hand, OK?" Not wanting to be involved in another conflict between the Kuran family today, they consented and stayed in the house while the headmaster followed Yuuki.
Once she had gotten outside, Yuuki's heart nearly stopped. On the night air, she could smell both Zero and Kaname's blood. Worried for both of their safety's she ran in the direction the blood seemed to be coming from, unmindful of the tree branches that whipped at her skin as she ran. When she got to their battle zone she was shocked at what she saw.
Nearly all the trees in that area had at least some damage and the ground was trampled, but what shocked her the most was the two men in the middle. Kaname was sitting on the ground, bleeding from his right shoulder and Zero was standing over him, eyes glowing red in hatred , holding the Bloody Rose to Kaname's head.
"NO! Zero stop!" Yuuki yelled, running forward and putting herself between the two men. Her voice seemed to stop Zero's blood rage because he lowered the gun and stepped back a little. Yuuki dropped to her knees beside her brother and lover and began checking him for wounds. Other than the gunshot wound in his shoulder, he was relatively unharmed. She hugged him to her and then asked, "What happened?"
Zero felt jealousy rise in his chest that she would check Kaname's wounds without even looking at his own. He had still hoped that the two of them might end up together after all they had been through. He figured that she had only had sex with Kaname because she was feeling vulnerable and needed affection but that she would realize that it had been a mistake to be in love with her brother and choose him. At the realization that he stood no chance of ever having her, a rage awoke in Zero and he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her against him just as Kaname was about to take her blood.
"Zero," Yuuki said with a laugh, "It's ok if Kaname feeds from me. I'm a vampire, remember?"
"I know that, which means that this could kill you," Zero said angrily, placing the Bloody Rose under her chin and forcing her head up a bit.
"Zero," she said slowly. "That's not funny. You're not supposed to point guns at things you don't intend to shoot." She felt him laugh against her, but there was no humor in the sound.
"What makes you think I don't want to kill you?" he asked cruelly. "You are a pureblood, the one thing I hate most in this world. What should make you special?"
"Kyruu," Kaname said in a deadly voice, "Release her." Kaname's order had the opposite reaction, instead of releasing Yuuki, Zero pushed the gun harder into her flesh.
"If you try to make me in any way," Zero said, "She dies." Kaname let out a growl of frustration as he realized that there was no way he could order Zero, he had made him too strong for that, and that he couldn't take the gun from him without risking shooting Yuuki in the process. He was just going to have to let this play out. Yuuki was her own best bet this time.
"Zero, stop this," Yuuki said firmly. "I don't know why you're doing this, but this is ridiculous. We both know you won't actually shoot me on purpose, so why don't you take the gun—"
Zero cut her off with a laugh. "Yuuki, there is absolutely no reason I won't kill you. I intend to make the worlds safe from you purebloods, you're all too powerful to be allowed to live."
"Damn it Zero," she said angrily, "That is as dumb as saying that we should destroy all Level D's just because they could someday become Level E's."
"Actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea at the moment," Kaname muttered.
"Either of you," Zero said, "Give me one good reason why I should let you both live?"
"Because neither of them have done anything," said the headmaster, walking into the clearing. "A hunter that kills without provocation is not long for this world Zero."
"No provocation?" Zero shouted. "He and I just had an all out fight in this clearing and she . . . well she. . ."
"Chose him over you," the headmaster suggested. "That's no reason to threaten her. If you love her let her go." Seeming defeated, Zero moved the gun from her chin, put it back in its holster, and stepped away from Yuuki, who, surprising everyone, turned toward him.
"Yuuki," he said, not looking at her, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." She clinched her jaw and approached him. Reaching into the holster, she took the gun from him and looked at it for a moment, and then she handed it to Kaien.
"Father will you hold this a moment?" she asked.
"Of course Yuuki," he said, thrilled that she called him "father" and not thinking about why she wanted him to hold Zero's gun.
Slowly she stalked towards Zero and he backed up trying to keep the same amount of distance between them. "So," she said slowly, "You think it's funny to threaten people because they won't do what you want?"
"No, Yuuki," he said slowly, "I'm sorry I have no idea what happened. I'm so sorry."
"This time sorry is not enough Zero," she said finally backing him into a tree. "How much do you know about purebloods? Other than that we can create and command other vampires?"
When it was apparent that she expected an answer he said, "Not much, why?"
"Because, we are the top of the vampires," she said. "The anger you feel as a vampire, the feeling of a caged monster, the hunger for blood, all of those are stronger in us than in other vampires. But so is our control. You cracked that control when you threatened me and the man I love."
"Yuuki," Zero began.
"No Zero," she said. "Not this time. I let you feed from me when I was human, even though even then something said that it was wrong that I should allow you to do it. My soul wants to destroy you for that but I have resisted because of our good times together."
"Yuuki," said the headmaster coming out of his high of her words to him and realizing what she is asying for the first time. "You don't want to kill him."
"Yes, father, "she replied coldly "a part of me does. And I would be well within my rights to do so, right?" he looked away knowing that she was right and could kill Zero if that was what she really wanted to do and there was nothing he could do about it.
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Sorry y'all another cliffhanger. I will update when I can but finals are next week and I may no t have much time. Thank you for reading.
Stickdonkeys