"Heiji! Heiji! Heiji, you ahou, if you can hear me, come out this instant! Are you okay? Why were you lying in that alley like that? Oi, ahou, answer me!" a voice yelled in the distance as Heiji worked at getting himself further away from the her when all he wanted was to be closer and closer and sink his teeth into her flesh and make her one of his kind for the rest of forever and she would never belong to anyone but him.

Stupid ahou, why can't she just give up?

"Heiji! Hattori Heiji! I'll call your father if I have to! He'll have this city crawling with officers in an instant, so just come out already! Why do you want to run away, anyways? Huh? Is Osaka not good enough for you anymore?" she shrieked in the distance and he willed his body to move only to find it would not obey.

He ordered his feet to walk, to run, to jog or sprint or hop, but they did nothing. She was too close and, while his mind did not want her there with him, his body obviously did. She came closer, still shouting obscurities at him. He stood, frozen in place as she rounded the corner and saw him.

"Heiji!" she exclaimed happily, running towards him.

"No!" he shouted and she stopped.

"Wha-?"

"Don't." he said, struggling with the urge to close the difference and make her his. "Don't come any closer, Kazuha. Turn around. Turn around and run!"

"Heiji, what are you talking abo-?"

"Run." He said, cutting her off again. "Before I give in and come over there and do horrible things to you."

Kazuha stood still for a moment, letting the words run through her brain and getting a much different signal than the one Heiji had been sending. She felt the blush crawl over her face, her cheeks flushing with blood.

"Oh," Heiji moaned. "Don't do that!"

Unable to stand it any longer, he crossed the distance between them and sunk his teeth into the soft cushion of her flesh. He pulled away after a moment and she looked up at him, her eyes fever-bright and a shocked look on her face as she looked up into her best friend's nightling eyes, blood red and sparkling.

"Heiji, what did you do?" she asked, holding her throat as her body began to burn.

"I'm sorry, I tired to warn you, I didn't want this for you!" Heiji exclaimed, burying his face in his hands and heaving dry sobs that echoed through the empty night. "I told you to run. I couldn't control myself. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Now you'll be just as damned as me."

Kazuha screamed and he watched her body jerk before picking her up and holding her tight against his body as she thrashed in pain. He stayed that way for several hours, and she continued to jerk about, crushing his bones with her strengthening grip. Finally, after an eternity of pain, she stopped moving and blinked her eyes once and then twice before looking up at her best friend, at her soulmate; her bright red eyes mirroring his own.

Above them, the full moon turned blood red in the fading light of sunset, signaling to the world that yet another had joined the ranks of the eternal.