Kaname strode across the battlefield with a purpose. He could sense the other ancient and was taking the fastest route to her. Anything—or anyone—foolish enough to get in his way . . . well it wasn't there for long. He wanted to complete this task as soon as possible so that he could return to Yuuki. He felt his mind try to wander to how she might be doing but pulled it back viciously to the task at hand. She would be fine. The hunters had been declawed. The same could not be said for their pureblood. He needed to focus.
It did not take him long to find her. It seemed that while he was searching for her—rather than fleeing—she was searching for him. She stopped a few feet from him and he saw her for the first time. She had dark hair, and blue eyes that seemed familiar to him somehow. Her most startling feature, however, was the binding tattoo on her neck. He had never seen a pureblood with a binding tattoo. Despite the familiarity of her eyes, he knew that he had never seen that woman before.
She felt a sneer mar he features as she looked for the first time on the man who had ruined her life. It disgusted her to see that they had similar features. She wanted nothing to do with him and now that she had seen it, she couldn't unsee it. If she survived the day she would have to avoid mirrors for the rest of her life or risk seeing him when she looked at her.
"Kaname Kuran," she snarled. "So we meet at last."
"You know me," he replied his voice hard, "however I have never met you."
"That's not my fault!" she snapped a cold fire burning in her blue eyes. "That was your choice, not mine."
"My choice?" Kaname asked confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"It's ok," she sneered. "I'm done talking anyway." With those words, she launched her firsts attack. It was a psychic attack that Kaname easily deflected. As he did so, he noticed that it was much weaker than he had anticipated it being. Either she was holding back or she had not managed to take the blood of another pureblood in her time and was working off her base power levels. It had to be the first. The second made no sense. Why would an ancient not have fed from another pureblood?
Just as he felt her prepare to launch another of the weak attacks, he launched one of his own. He saw the panic flare in her eyes as she tried to convert the attack to a shield—which she managed at the last moment though it didn't block the attack entirely. She cried out as the attack hit her and place her hand over the newly formed wound on her ribs. Kaname snarled as he realized that she was toying with him.
There was no way that she would be unable to launch an attack and shield simultaneously. Even Yuuki could do that! She was trying to get him to lower his guard so that she could take advantage of his lack of diligence. It would not work. He would not show pity due to her apparent lack of skill. She had started this but he would be the one to end it.
What Kaname didn't know was that it was not a ruse. Kazyue was truly out of her league. She had never fought anything higher than a level E and those had been few and far between. Most of her time had been spent in her "room." It was deep in the vaults of the association and little more than a cell. She had never actually seen what a pureblood was capable of, but when she was offered the chance to revenge herself on her "father" she took it gratefully. Only now did she realize what she had truly signed up for. There was no way that she could win. She knew that now. She also knew that she had little chance of taking him with her. She was going to die and it would be for nothing. She also found that she didn't really care. In many ways death would be a relief.
ooOO88OOoo
Across the battlefield another person almost shared her sentiment. Yuuki was beside herself. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She had just cost Rima her life. She had seen the hunter preparing to fire the cannon and rather than take him out, she had tried to freeze him but had been a second too late. He froze, but in the time it took for the ice to reach his hand he managed to light the fuse. If she would have just taken the kill when she had the chance . . . Rima wouldn't have . . . She couldn't complete the thought, but instead allowed her anger at herself to flow to the surface and lend her strength. There would be time to hate herself later. All she needed to do at the moment was make sure that it did not happen again.
She still did not want to kill, but she knew now that she had to. She surveyed the battlefield quickly and saw that Zero and Seiren were surrounded and outnumbered. Even though they were doing a decent job on their own, she decided to lend a hand. She sent out a wave of power in their direction, flinching slightly as the hunters surrounding them exploded. She felt nauseated by what she had just done and tears of remorse streamed down her face, but she would be damned if she lost anyone else that she cared about because of her sensibilities.
The nobles near her recoiled slightly at the feral grimace on her face. They had felt her power wash over them and knew that it was she that had disintegrated eight people. The same pureblood that had smiled so sweetly at them and requested that they not take lives had just taken them, and seemed prepared to take more. They wondered if something had happened or if the sight of the carnage below them had just caused her to snap. Either way, it was disconcerting to see it so clearly demonstrated that the kind and unassuming girl they had met a few days before was truly a pureblooded vampire that possessed great destructive capabilities.
The others took her attack on the hunters as a sign that her ban on killing had been lifted and the battle rapidly became bloodier and the air even more full of screams as the magic users unleashed powers they had kept in check. It was in this chaos that Kaien came face-to-face with the president of the association.
"Ah, Kaien," he said with a smile. "I had hoped that I would be the one that would get to kill you."
"Ken," Kaien said desperately. "This doesn't have to happen. We can end this before anyone else dies. Please. Call them off."
"No," the president replied. "This will only be finished when one side is dead. There will be no truce." Before Kaien could reply, the president raised his sword and attacked. Even though he had hoped for a peaceful resolution, Kaien did not hold back. He was not hailed as a legendary hunter for no reason and within the space of a minute had defeated the president, having knocked his sword away. He stopped short of killing him, however.
"End this," Kaien said holding the tip of his sword at the president's neck. "You have the power to do it. Now end it!"
"Never," he replied reaching into his jacket. Kaien waited just long enough to see the handle of a gun in his hand before he decapitated him. He looked away as the body fell to the ground and the blood began to pool around the space that had been previously occupied by a head. He took no pleasure in the killing but neither did he mourn it. He knew that there were times it was necessary to take a life and this had been one of them. As he disarmed the next hunter and the boy begged for mercy, Kaien also remembered that there were times to spare lives as well.
ooOO88OOoo
Kazuye's hand dug into the dirt as she fought against the urge to sob at the pain that was moving through her in waves from her various wounds. She had been beaten before. She had been tattooed. Pain was nothing new to her, but this . . . this was not simply pain. She found that she could find no word to describe what she was feeling.
She felt Kaname approach her. She could feel the power that radiated from him. The only comfort she could find was that it would be over soon and she would not have to feel any longer. She was tired. Tired of all the pain, anger, and hatred. Death would be a relief. Rather than try to hide from it, she looked up into his angry face. She knew that her eyes were pleading with him to end it, but she found that she couldn't care less.
At the desperate plea for mercy that was in her eyes, Kaname felt some of his anger fade. He knew those eyes. Releasing a little of his power back to the wells he had drawn it from, he found that he had to know why she had done it before he killed her.
"Why?" he asked, his voice gentle. "Why did you help them try to destroy your own kind? What did I do to you to make you hate me so?"
She looked away from the pity in his eyes. She could take his hatred, but she couldn't stand his pity. "Because," she spat. "Everything that's happened to me is your fault."
"I have never met you," Kaname said kneeling down beside the broken woman trying to understand what she was saying. Her words made no sense. How could he be responsible for all the troubles in the life of a woman he had never even seen before?
"That's the problem," she sobbed hating herself for letting him see her weakness. "You abandoned me! You left me with them and they hated me. You should have taken care of me, but you were too self-absorbed to do it."
"What are you saying?" Kaname asked even though his mind was already beginning to piece it together. Her appearance, the things she had said . . . he hoped that for once he was wrong. The alternative didn't even bear consideration.
"My mother loved you," she said the words filled with resentment. "More than she loved me. She cared enough about me to give me life before she sacrificed herself for you. Some gift! A life spent in the dark. Hated and feared."
"No," Kaname breathed. He couldn't believe what she was saying. There was no way this had happened.
"She held me just long enough to name me," Kazuye said bitterly, "or that's what I was told, at least. Then she ripped her heart from her chest and threw it into the furnace. Leaving me with the hunters. They told me that you never even asked how I was."
"I . . . I didn't know you exist," Kaname breathed desperate for her to understand. "They never told me. She never told me. I would never have . . . I-I couldn't have—"
"You did," Kazuye spat. "Now do you see why I hate you?" He did see. He finally understood her anger. And he felt tears sting his eyes and rage burn through his veins for what had been done to his child. How could the hunters had kept something like this from him. He had thought that they were allies. How could they have taken her and kept her in the dark and tattooed her. It was everything he could do not to try to pull her into his arms.
"I do," he said finally looking down at the broken woman beside him. She had been right. It was all his fault. Everything that had happened to her. The pain she was in now. It was his fault. He had destroyed his own daughter.
"Don't look at me like that!" she yelled, her mother's blue eyes filling with tears as she glared at him. "You don't get to look at me like you are sorry! Nothing you can do can make up for what you have done!"
"I know that," he replied touching her face gently and feeling hurt as she pulled away from his touch. "I will not even insult you by trying to apologize. I will say that this is not how things have to end between us. I won't end your life."
"If you don't, I'll kill you," she threatened darkly.
"You can try," he replied with a shrug. "Being raised by hunters, you missed many life lessons of purebloods. Despite your age your powers are still that of a child. You can't kill me." At his words she began to cry.
"Then kill me," she begged. "I can't go on like this. If I don't kill you they will just put me back in my room. I can't go back there. Please just kill me."
"No," he snapped his eyes hard and his jaw tight. "I will not kill you and they will not put you back in that room. I will make sure of that if I have to raze the building myself."
"Why," she demanded sharply. "Why do you care all of a sudden?"
"I loved your mother," Kaname replied emotion choking his voice. "I loved her more than I cared about myself. I would have done anything for her. It turns out she must have felt the same for me because she sacrificed herself to keep me safe. I don't know why she never told me about you, but had I have known about you I would have loved you as well. I would have cared all along."
"If you loved her so much how did she sneak a pregnancy past you?" Kazuye demanded.
"I don't know," Kaname replied shaking his head. "Perhaps it was because I was too absorbed in my experiments. Or it could have been because we were at war. Either way, I should have seen it. I'm so sorry."
"You-you really didn't know, did you?" she asked slowly. The president had told her that Kaname had given her to them as a good faith gesture. He had said that he had known that her mother was pregnant and had let her come to make the sacrifice. He had lied to her!
"No, I swear it," Kaname replied. At his words, Kazuye felt anger swell within her once more and the need for vengeance but this time it was directed at the hunters. She was prepared to destroy them all for what they had done. The president in particular would learn that it was dangerous to manipulate a pureblood.
Feeling the anger that was surging within her, Kaname stood and offered her a hand. A pang of guilt flared in his chest as he saw her grimace as she stood. The hunters would pay for this. Not only for keeping the knowledge that he had a child from him but for pitting them against one another.
"Come," he said gesturing at the battle raging around them. "Let's end this." She nodded and the two of them walked into the fray dealing blood death to any who opposed them as they both searched for the president of the association to seek revenge.
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There we are all, a new chapter. Sorry about the delay, I was on vacation last week and had very limited computer access. I hope it was worth the wait.
As always thank you for taking the time to read this chapter and thank you to those of you who had added this story to your alerts or favorites.
And a special thank you to:
Anne Fatalism Dilettante: I know *looks down in shame* I am a horrible person :'(
Anon: I hope you enjoyed what happened next.
Yue Matsunoki: I am ashamed . . . so very ashamed. I'm glad that you are enjoying it despite that little setback.
Akira 91: I tend to live by that rule. I feel that only under duress do true characteristics show (probably why my writing tends to be rather angsty) and I'm glad that you do not hate me for it and hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Well, that's all for now folks. I hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear what you think (even if you hated it) so leave me a review if you have time and/or feel so inclined.
Stickdonkeys