DFA: Hello again! I've finally managed to coax Bells out of hiding... She was under my bed, and Zero pulled her out. I think he likes her... hehehe (Author Dawn winks suggestively at Zero, who blushes) You know, I meant that as a joke, but since you blushed... (smiles evilly)
LB: He does not!
Zero: I do not!
Yuuki: Aww... you found your perfect match, Zero! (Yuuki and Kaname were in the middle of making out when she said this)
Zero: WE ARE SOOO NOT THE PERFECT COUPLE!
LB: This will be the first and only time I'm agreeing with this punk.
DFA: (Ignoring Author Bells and Zero)Now... we have... Kaname for the disclaimer!
(Kaname looks up from making out session with Yuuki)
Kaname: Did someone call my name?
LB: Yes, Kaname. You - give - disclaimer.
Kaname: What's a disclaimer?
DFA: (slaps forehead) can someone tell me how this guy became the damned Pureblood Prince? (Aido opens his mouth to speak, but Author Dawn cuts him off) Never mind, I don't think I want to know.
LB: Ooh, ooh, I do, I do! (jumps up and down enthusiastically)
Kaname: Well... all right... um... They own nothing! (Author Dawn mouths 'he actually knows')
BA: On with the show!
Chapter Four: The Truth
-No POV-
A few minutes later, Ayumi stepped around the trees, her tears dried and her heart stuttering with complete guilt and anger at herself. She wanted to kill herself, but there was only one way, and Kanaye will never agree to do it.
Kanaye slid to a graceful stop next to her, and pulled her into a hug that almost broke her human ribs. "I'm so sorry, Ayumi," he whispered. "Gomen, gomen."
She didn't reply, her senses ranging the forest with accuracy that could detect the heartbeat of the baby mouse that had just entered this world two miles west. Slowly, however, as the guilt faded into calm, the senses dulled, and her vision became humanlike once more.
"Where's Ichijo-kun?" she asked her brother, her voice muffled by his shoulder. Kanaye stiffened. "I know he was chasing me," she continued.
"I... left him alone," he admitted.
She raised her eyes to meet his, golden to golden. "I'll go back to him."
Kanaye took a deep breath, and sighed. "You really have fallen in love, haven't you?"
Ayumi's hands clenched into fists. "I have... despite... what we are. I'm sorry, Kanaye," she whispered earnestly. "I wish I can stop loving him... and keep on loving just you, like we've had for four hundred years since our parents' deaths. But... I just can't. Itai... It hurts when I think about him, because I know I can't be with him... in the way Okaa and Otou-sama have been together. I'll kill him. But now, I have to tell him the truth, to stop him from being with me, from loving me."
Kanaye stroked her hair. "And that's how it must be," he whispered, his voice filled with agony for his sister's sacrifice. "But... if it hurts too much... I can seal these memories."
She gave a weak laugh. "I'll have to see." She began to pry his arms off her. "Now... I must go. And... tonight, please be there at the lake, hiding. I don't want to hurt him." Ayumi pulled a Bloody Rose from her boot and placed it in her brother's hand. "If I lose control," she said softly, stroking his face, "I want you to shoot me. I will have Ichijo-kun similarly armed."
Kanaye stared at the hated weapon in his hands, then looked at his sister's beautiful face. "You'll get hurt," he protested.
She ignored him. "Remember, aim for my heart to render me unconscious. I want you to be there because you are more controlled than I, even though you still snap at times, but you are the only one to subdue me. Please, Onii-sama. Do it for my sake, if not Ichijo-kun's."
Kanaye took a deep breath and gazed at the trees, away from her pleading eyes.
"All right," he murmured reluctantly. "I'll do it."
She reached up and pressed her lips firmly to his before hugging him briefly. "I love you," she whispered, and then she sped away.
--
-Ayumi's POV-
Ichijo was still sitting there when I arrived. His eyes had an empty sense of loss.
He looked up when I arrived. "Ayumi-san?" he mumbled.
I smiled gently, moving closer to him, but still keeping a distance. "It's me." I registered the feelings in his eyes and knelt beside him, always keeping a careful distance between him and me. His mind was a jumbled mess of horror, fear, and confusion. I sifted through them carefully, not touching anything that was private, then whispered, "Yes, the both of us know what all of you are."
Ichijo flinched.
"But we are not afraid," I continued. "And we do not hold any personal grudges against any of you. What he meant by danger is that..." I hesitated, then sighed. "If you want to know, meet me by the lake, half an hour before night, but please, arm yourself with this," I pleaded, handing him another Bloody Rose, "and shoot me if it becomes necessary. And tell no one of our meeting. Not even the Pureblood Prince."
Ichijo stared at the gun with wide eyes. "You're a vampire!" he breathed as I stood and started to walk away. Pausing at his awed words, I struggled for the right words before answering him.
"No," I murmured, not looking at him. "I am not." It was then I turned to look at him, sorrow raging in my golden eyes. He gasped. "But... I am dangerous, and more so than anyone you have ever known."
I turned around and silently drifted away.
--
-No POV-
Half an hour before night...
Takuma saw her drifting towards him, her face etched with pain and some other feeling he couldn't identify. Her wavy silver hair fluttered in the slight breeze, and her dress – a simple pearly one – showed off her curves. His cheeks turned pink at the thought and he automatically tried to distract himself. It wasn't proper to be thinking about things like that.
His gaze met hers, and he was surprised at the amount of pain in her eyes, like she was suffering from something terribly, agonizingly painful. She was soon close enough for him to reach out with one hand and stroke her face, but he didn't.
"Are you afraid?" she whispered as a greeting, as the light dimmed rapidly around them.
His answer was sure. "No."
She looked slightly disapproving, but she said nothing as she watched the sun sink slowly behind the foothills.
Takuma could barely believe his eyes.
As the sun sank lower and lower, the dim beams of evening light that hit her skin turned it into a glowing sparkle. Her eyes met his, and she said nothing as they darkened noticeably, turning first ochre, then black, then dark red, and, at last, blood red.
Her skin swirled and paled into a beautiful ivory colour that matched her dress, and, after raising his eyes against a flash of painful, bright light, he noted that she became heartbreakingly beautiful, more so than any vampire he's ever seen.
Her eyes seemed too dark for her ivory face, holding his green orbs.
Her hair shone brightly, and then, as the sun disappeared from sight, the sparkles disappeared, but she still looked more beautiful than a princess from a fairy tale... or a vampire. Her full lips moved, and she murmured, her voice now more alluring and seductive than ever before, "What about now? Do you feel the fear?" Her accent was pure and clipped, and filled with ancient sadness.
She didn't move, as if trying to make this easier for him.
He swallowed. "No," he whispered hoarsely, lying through his teeth. Well, it was actually sort of true. Now, he was only afraid that he wouldn't be able to keep this destroying angel as his own. He felt like a hideous goblin in her presence.
She smiled a breathtaking smile as she stepped forward one step, slowly. Her wondrous, terrifying eyes were carefully guarded as she did so.
Her voice chimed in his head. Don't lie to me, she whispered in his head, and he recoiled from the strange presence, so foreign, so terrifying that he felt if he delved in too deep, he would lose himself.
"I do not," he whispered back. "I am not afraid of you. I'm afraid of losing you." But then, he knew he had said too much, showing her exactly how infatuated he was.
Her dark eyes clouded slightly, and sadness returned. We cannot be together.
"Why?" he breathed, although he felt that he knew the answer.
Images flashed in his mind, holding him a captive in their wake. A history of blood... tearing out the throats of people; draining their bodies of the liquid so greatly treasured... Killing those who must be killed... the bloody night two years ago, tearing apart the man after killing him, leaving the girl alone as they sped away... and killing two of the four people who were found dead here – the girl with the camera and the common vampire whose site had been investigated by Takuma...
She truly is a destroying angel, Takuma thought to himself, his eyes wide and his breath coming in gusty pants as she released him.
She surprised him by speaking aloud, "You see, there's everything of me to be afraid of. I am a murderer, Takuma, and even if I manage to control the monster in me" – here, she gasped and winced, her expression changing to agony, then back to calm, with a hint of agony still in her eyes– "I can never escape the debt of taking human life any more than those Level Es can. Too many deaths. Just too many."
"I am not afraid of you," Takuma repeated, not oblivious to the fact that she just called him by his first name.
It is wrong. You have to be afraid of me.
"But I am not. To me, this is what is right."
If you remain stubborn, then I will show you why there are many reasons to be afraid of me, and to stay away from me.
She stepped back once, and disappeared, her voice left to trail the wind. "This is what I am. A demon summoned straight from hell by my parents, who died so we may live. It is the custom of my race, the clan of half-breeds, for the children to kill their parents and take the power that has been passed down for generations. I am amongst the last of the Half-bred Vampires, made to bow down to none. We serve when we wish, and we do naught but our own will. We are free, unbound in the way no one will ever be. I have lived for centuries, seeing things that will break even the heart of Kuran Kaname. While some see with only their eyes, I see with every part of me. Even now, I can see the ants on the floor, scuttling around you, afraid to touch you for what you are. I see the animals running away from us, terrified that we shall kill them. I see your hands tightening on the gun I have entrusted to you, and I see your fear, your love, and everything else I do not want you to feel." Her voice suddenly came from behind him, her breathing even and smooth. "I see everything."
He jumped, and turned around, only to see her flash away, behind him yet again. He turned around yet again, and saw the stone she held in her hand. Wordlessly, she flung it away, and it flew into the night, whistling like a comet and flying farther than anyone can throw.
"I am stronger than you. I am faster than you. I can destroy you, right now, and there wouldn't be anything you can do about it, except scream and writhe in pain. But I won't, because..." she hesitated, and took a step forward. Entranced, Takuma stepped back, and a twig suddenly cut his cheek, drawing blood.
Her eyes flashed blood red.
Looking through the lens of panic, he saw her sharp teeth bare, and he heard the deafening snarl that ripped from her throat, and saw in her eyes the raging bloodlust that had been insignificant a few moments ago.
She gathered herself to pounce.