OK, so I lied about the 3 'o clock Friday update last week. But I do have a good excuse this time. . . well at least I think it's a good excuse. I had a biochemistry midterm that I didn't realize was coming up and needed to have a cram session. But I did make this almost twice as long as the average chapter to make up for it :) enjoy.
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Zero wandered the halls of the Headmaster's house, unable to sleep with all the vampires that were there. He had no idea what that man had been thinking letting all of those things stay over on the campus with all the human students still there. In Zero's opinion, he was just asking for trouble. But it wasn't going to be his ass on the line if anything happened to anyone because of that delusional man. He knew one thing though, he was going to do what he could to protect the humans from the animals.
Like you did Yuuki? A rude part of him snarked. He ignored that voice and continued on his path through the halls. Perhaps it was the thought of her that led him there or just force of habit, but he soon found himself walking past Yuuki's door.
He heard her moaning on the other side of the door and he instinctively reached for the handle to see if she was ok.
"Don't touch that," a female voice said quietly from the shadows across the hall. He jumped at the sound of her voice. He hadn't realized that she was even there; and that was a rare thing since he had become a vampire.
"Where the hell did you come from," he snapped at her. Siren gave a small smile that quickly faded at his surprise and stepped out of the shadows. Even though she wanted to laugh at the expression on his face, she kept her expression neutral and leveled her stare at him.
"Where I came from is irrelevant," she said finally. "All that is important is that my master and his sister are resting and have requested that none disturb them until nightfall." She was surprised that she had been so talkative with him. That one burst was more words than she had said in a week. How did he have this effect on her.
"Like I give a damn what he wants," Zero said curtly, though the reminder that Kaname was also in that room made him secretly glad that she had been there to warn him before he opened the door and saw Kuran's ass again. He could go the rest of his life and never see that again. "If I feel like she needs me, I will do whatever the hell I want."
Seiren had to admire his courage. Not many in their world would risk defying a pureblood. He was either very brave or very foolish, or a little of both. On second thought, she wasn't sure if she admired or pitied him. Instead of telling him that she might admire him she said, "That could bring us into direct conflict. Do you think you can handle that?"
He was taken my surprise by the callousness with which she discussed a fight between the two of them, because there was no question in his mind that that was what she was implying. "Oh I think I can handle you," he said, taking a step towards her. "Do you think you could take me?"
Mentally she flinched as he closed some of the space between them but she kept her face blank and took a step forward of her own refusing to back down from his challenge though her heart beat did speed up a bit. "I think so," she said with a bravado she wasn't feeling. She had just watched Zero go toe-to-toe with a pureblood and not only hold his own but defeat him. Odds were that if they actually fought she would be unable to beat him.
He heard the rise in her heart rate and smiled as he took another step forward invaded her space. "Really?" he asked. She met his stare levely and her heart spead up again. There was a bit of tension in her eyes and she took a step back trying to put a little distance between them and she bumped into the wall. He followed her keeping the same space between them.
When she hit the wall, she felt a moment of panic. There wasn't much that she could do if they came to blows with her backed against the wall. Somehow it didn't feel to her like that was what was about to happen, but she had no idea what was going to happen next. Whatever it was it excited her, something about his nearness caused her breathing and pulse to race. She felt her expression soften with confusion.
He stood above her looking at her eyes and saw the brief flash of panic in them when her back hit the wall but then it was replaced by something that he couldn't name and he felt himself drawn to her. He put his hands on either side of her head on the wall and leaned towards her.
She tried to lean further back but was unable to do so because of the wall. She was unsure what his expression was. It almost seemed like hunger, but his eyes weren't glowing so that wasn't it. Generally being trapped like this would have made her nervous, but she was . . . excited as his face came towards hers.
"DON'T touch me," they heard Yuuki yell from the other side of the door.
"Yuuki," Zero breathed and turned towards the door and started to walk towards it. Seiren reached out and grabbed his wrist to stop him from going towards it. He turned to look back at her and she blushed at her actions.
"You will not go through that door," she said with much more steal than she felt inside. He lifted his lip in a bit of a snarl and tried to pull his hand out of hers.
"Let me go," he said coldly glaring at her. She just shook her head and tightened her grip on his wrist. He didn't know what it was, but even though he had told her to let him go, he really didn't want her to do it. Something about her touch was pleasant. And her blood. Her blood was absolutely delicious.
"I'm sorry," she said snapping him out of his contemplation of her blood, "I cannot do that. I promised my master that no one would go through that door."
"NO," Yuuki screamed from the other side of the door.
"Yuuki," Zero called breaking free from Seiren and heading for the door.
"Stop," she said reaching for him again. He turned to look at her incredulously and a fingernail on her hand that had been reaching for his shoulder sliced into his cheek. She watched the trickle of blood in fascination.
He didn't even seem to notice as he snapped at her, "How can you be so cold? She's in trouble." Then he turned and slammed the door open and saw Kaname pinning Yuuki's arms over her head and hovering over her thrashing, whimpering form. "What the hell is going on here Kuran!" he yelled.
Seiren hung her head in shame; this was the second time in as many days that she had let her master down. Though she did have to admit that she was a little curious as to what they were up to as well. Unlike Zero however she had been raised not to question the actions or motives or purebloods. As she had thought earlier, he was either very brave or very foolish.
Rather than snap at Zero that it was none of his damn business what was going on, Kaname surprised all three of them by saying, "I have no idea what is going on. She seems to be dreaming but I can't wake her up." It was then that Zero took a closer look at the situation and realized that Yuuki was fully clothed and did appear to be sleeping.
"Have you tried to wake her up," Zero asked seriously.
"No," Kaname said sarcastically. "I thought I would just let her sleep and continue to thrash about. Of course I tried waking her up. That why I have her hands pinned down. She was a little violent the last time I tried to wake her."
"Violent," Zero said confused. "Yuuki never liked mornings, but she was never violent when I woke her up."
"Well she is now," Kaname snapped. "She split my lip earlier." Seiren felt a surge of anger at the girl for drawing her master's blood but shoved it down as she remembered that the girl was also a pureblood and Seiren had no right to be angry at her for anything. She wondered if she should leave, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She knew that this might come to blows again and wanted to be there to step in before anyone got hurt. Also, no one had told her to leave and she needed to make sure that no one else came through the door.
"Then you must be doing it wrong," Zero said curtly. Kaname felt his temper flare at the suggestion that he was unable to even wake his sister correctly and would have snapped at Zero or perhaps done more than that, but another moan from Yuuki diverted his attention.
"If you think you can wake her up, just do it," Kaname said with a hint of desperation in his voice. Something was wrong with Yuuki and she needed to wake up for them to fix it. Not commenting on the tone in Kaname's voice, Zero walked forward and grabbed Yuuki's shoulder firmly and shook it. When she didn't respond he shook her harder. He grabbed her other shoulder to try to see if that would help but to no avail.
"So I was doing it wrong?" Kaname asked pointedly. Zero let out an exasperated breath and released her.
"It's hopeless," he said. "We're just going to have to wait for her to wake up on her own."
"That's not an option," Kaname snared baring his fangs at Zero. "She's in trouble and you want to just wait!"
"Well do you have a better suggestion?" Zero yelled back. "She won't wake up and I'm out of ideas."
"Water," Seiren said from the doorway.
"What," Kaname and Zero said turning to face her.
She got shy with both the garnet and violet eyes staring at her. "Have you tried splashing a little water on her face?" she finally asked. The guys were a little surprised that Seiren had spoken at all.
"That might work," Zero said appreciatively giving her a small smile. His smile made her feel pleased with herself. "I'll be right back with a glass of water."
As he walked past her, Seiren stayed where she was standing and felt the heat from his body as passed her and fought the impulse to reach out and touch him. When he left the room Kaname went back to looking at Yuuki's face as she slept. Her eyes were moving like she was dreaming but she kept whimpering in her sleep. He felt helpless.
The two minutes that Zero took to get to the bathroom and back seemed like an eternity to Kaname. "So how do we do this," he asked Seiren. "I've never splashed someone to wake them up. Put their hand in warm water while they were asleep, yes. But not splashed them."
"Why would you put someone's hand in warm water?" She asked quietly. Zero started laughing and Kaname looked between the two of them speculatively. Kyriuu laughing and Seiren talking, there was something going on there but he had more important things to worry about.
"It it an immature prank in which the person who's hand is placed in water will . . . relieve themselves in their sleep," Kaname said simply. "Now Seiren, come show us how you do this."
"Yes Master," She said simply, blushing at the idea of Zero doing that to someone and wondering who he did it to. She walked forward and placed her fingers in the cup and flicked the water onto Yuuki's face. She wrinkled her nose and turned her head away from Seiren who repeated the action.
"Zero, quit it," Yuuki mumbled. It hurt Kaname a bit that the first name that would some out of her mouth would be his but at least that meant that she didn't think that he was capable of harassing her while she was asleep.
"Master, shake her shoulder while I splash her one more time, please," Seiren said gently. Zero was disgusted with the way her tone changed when she spoke to that monster, as opposed to when she spoke to him. She should never be that subservient to anyone.
Kaname did as she suggested and Yuuki gasped and sat up in bed. "Kaname," she sobbed before throwing herself into his arms. He stroked her hair gently and let her weep into his chest whispering soothing things in her ear to calm her. Seiren took a few steps back to the corner of the room to give them a little privacy.
"What was going on?" Zero asked suddenly, breaking into their moment. "Was it a nightmare, or what?"
Yuuki turned to look at him and her eyes were haunted and filled with tears. "Was that all it was?" she finally asked.
"Yes," Kaname breathed stroking her back gently. "It was just a nightmare. You were safe the whole time."
"It felt so real," she whispered through her tears. "I could feel him touching me again and hear his voice. And everything else was so dark it was just him and me and I couldn't even speak," as she continued speaking her voice became more and more hysterical.
Zero clinched his fist at the mention of that man and his eyes got hard. Kaname tried to keep his face neutral in front of Zero and Seiren but felt his jaws clench and his eyes get harder at the knowledge that that bastard was still hurting his dear girl even though he was dead.
"He's dead Yuuki," he said gently. "He can't hurt you anymore. He's gone. It wasn't real."
"Are you sure he's dead?" Yuuki asked almost desperately, gripping the front of Kaname's shirt.
"He vaporized," Seiren said gently from the corner. "He is dead Yuuki-sama."
"But we didn't see the body," She argued. "He could have teleported away from there and we would never know."
"Yuuki," Zero said sharply. "Vampires don't leave bodies when they die, they vaporize. Don't you remember Shizuka's body?"
"Are you sure?" She asked desperately.
"No," Kaname said gently. "We're not sure but it is the most logical situation. From what I have heard, your attack was so sudden that he wouldn't have had time to do anything else. And if he does come back, we will be here for you, ok?" He just wanted her to feel good; he didn't want to let her know that if Rido was still alive there would be nothing he could do to help her.
"Do you promise," she asked, behaving like a small child for the first time since the attack.
"Yes, we promise," Kaname said.
"For once he actually speaks for me too," Zero said. "I don't know how much help I will be if he is not actually dead, but I will do what I can."
"Thank you," she whispered sincerely and gave a weak smile to both of them and Seiren. Seiren took it as the dismissal that it actually was and walked out the door with a "Sleep well, Yuuki-sama, Master." And to the surprise of Yuuki and Kaname, Zero ruffled Yuuki's hair and followed her out the door.
"So do you want to go back to sleep," Kaname asked her gently. "It's been a long day."
She shook her head and said, "I don't think that I could sleep right now."
"What would you like to do then?" he asked a little suggestively.
"Can we just talk?" She asked.
"Of course, what would you like to talk about?"
"Anything," she replied.
"How about we talk about what the nobles brought up tonight. Would you like to be a queen or should we set up a new council?" He asked her.
"What about both," she countered.
"Both?" he asked confused.
"We could take the throne and set up a council. They could vote on issues and present us with ideas that we could then make decisions on what we will do. But we get the final vote," she said simply.
"I like that idea," he said quietly. "Then we don't have to deal with all the petty things but they don't get too much power."
"Kaname, would you be willing to help me learn how to master my pureblood powers?" she asked suddenly changing the subject. "It is disconcerting to have all this power inside me and not know how to control it."
"Of course, Yuuki," He said in surprise. "I will help you with that as soon as you like, starting tomorrow. I hate to say this, but I am exhausted. And after your show of power, I'm surprised that you aren't."
"I am," she said sadly, "But I'm afraid to sleep. I'm afraid that I will dream about him again."
"If you would like," he said gently, "I can put you into a dreamless sleep." She nodded and he put a hand on her forehead and released a little of his power. She saw a haze of purple before her eyes began to drift closed.
"Thank you," she mumbled just as she collapsed into his arms. He laid her gently on the bed and moved a strand of hair off her face before he kissed her forehead and lay down beside her and joined her in sleep.
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Seiren walked down the hall glad to be out of that room. There was too much emotion there for her taste. It was disconcerting for her to see that much emotion from a pureblood. She knew that they were still vampires, but most pureblood were more restrained in public than Yuuki-sama is. And Kaname-sama, his was not as obvious but there was still more emotion from him when he was around her.
"How can you stand to do that?" Zero asked suddenly from behind her. Wondering if she had been speaking aloud, she turned to face him.
"What do you mean?" she snapped her temper short because of the stress of the last few days.
"Talking to them like they are gods rather than flesh and blood creatures," he explained continuing walking towards her though she had stopped when she turned to glare at him.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand," She said looking away from his intense eyes and the tempting line of blood on his cheek.
"You're right, I don't. But you could try to explain it to me," he said in a surprisingly gentle tone. Even though she acted so tough there was something about her that was fragile and uncertain and it called to him.
"For us they are gods," she explained. "They live and they wield powers that none of us can even imagine. You saw what Yuuki-sama did today and you heard what Kaname-sama did. They could do that to any of us at anytime and there would be nothing we could do about it. The fact that you do not fear them impresses me. You are either very brave or very foolish."
Zero laughed again and replied, "I'm neither brave nor foolish, I just don't care. I have to die someday and at least that death will probably be less painful than my change to a vampire was. I will never be able to see them the way that you do after what Shizuka did to my family."
"And you will never be able to see Yuuki-sama that way," she said with a smile.
"No," he replied with a smile as well. "It's kinda impossible to see the girl you watched throw up as a child when she was sick as a god."
"Can you explain something to me," she asked suddenly, her eyes sparkling.
"Sure, what do you want to know," he replied hoping he hadn't agreed to something he would regret.
"Who's hand did you place in warm water?" she asked. She immediately regretted asking that question when his eyes lost the sparkle they had had a moment before and took on a more melancholy light. "You don't have to answer me if it pains you," she said wishing she could take back what she had said.
"No, it's ok," he said. "I was my twin brother's. Right after I found out about the trick."
"I'm sorry," she said reaching out to grab his hand though she generally avoided unnecessary physical contact. He surprised himself when he didn't pull away from her touch but rather felt himself lean down and gently place his lips against hers.
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So what do you think? Is Seiren going to kill Zero and how is he going to react to his drastic behavior? What will the nobles think about Yuuki's idea for their new government? Tell me what you think and leave me a review if you feel so inclined.
Thank you for reading this chapter,
Stickdonkeys