A/N: Making this chapter was actually pretty hard, I had the main things I wanted to highlight, but had to wing it when it came time to connect all of the scenes together. I wondering if I'm making things too mysterious all at once, of if it's easy to figure out. either way, once you finish this chapter, you might be able to piece some things together. If not, then I'm not sure if that makes me a better or worse writer. XD because I tried dropping hints here and there, but then again, with my open ended writing style, the answers may not be all that clear, which is my intent. Hope vs. intent. XD
Thank you for all the reviews! =D Enjoy!
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
Snow was falling steadily now. Upon approaching the school gates, Kaname tried to loosen his hand from Zero's grasp, intending to give the wrap to him so they could be separate on the way back to the dorm. The hunter's hand clenched his. They spared each other a sidelong glance.
"You'll be bullied by them." stated the pureblood.
"That's never bothered me before." Zero insisted. "Though I suppose you have to keep up appearances." he sighed, reluctantly letting go of Kaname's hand, quickly winding the cashmere wrap around his shoulders.
The hunter hopped up onto the wall, throwing an unreadable expression down to the pureblood, only the hint of a subtle smirk threatened to grace his lips. Kaname could feel the dull ache in his chest--the disappointment Zero felt.
"Well? Don't slow me down, you're supposed to be fully recovered from the poison, am I right?" he asked, cocking his head to the side as he delivered the snide remark.
Kaname eyed him wearily, actually smirking when he disappeared, becoming visible once more at Zero's side, a peculiar expression overtaking his features. He felt unbalanced for a moment, weird.
"Don't you slow me down." came his reply as he placed a quick kiss on the hunter's forehead, making his heart skip a beat.
The two sprinted ahead through the trees scattered across the Academy grounds, feeling high, giddy.
The feeling was contagious, invading Zero's heart as well as he tagged along from behind, releasing a playful growl from his throat. Moments like those were so out of character, for the both of them, but it felt too good to want to willingly return to their usual serious selves.
Until a voice hit them.
"What the hell are you two doing?"
They instantly straightened their spines, dropping to the ground within the sun dorm territory to face Yagari.
"Searching the treeline for any more of those creatures that have been hanging around the Academy lately." Kaname replied simply, looking to the canopy as if searching for more of those, what Zero assumed, bats. "If you see any of them, they must be destroyed, don't hesitate."
Yagari's brow furrowed at that bit of information as he outed a cigarette.
"Bats? Spying animals? Interesting, where do you suppose they're coming from?"
Bats? Like that thing Kaname killed earlier? There were more of those things flying around?
"I'm thinking they're from my uncle." Kaname admitted hesitantly.
"Are you guys talking about those exploding birds?" Haine asked, appearing from the south gate, the rest of the day class, dressed in city clothes, with him, shepherded by Kaien, some of the girls scooting closer to the front so they could be around Kaname and Yagari.
"I thought I told you guys to escape while you coul-"
"How do you know about those creatures?" Kaname asked, waving a hand and cutting Yagari off in mid sentence, earning an irritated glare.
"I've been killing them for sport while on watch here. Was I not supposed to?" his brows raised, not expecting to get in trouble for slaughtering tree mammals.
"How did you manage to kill them?" the pureblood pressed, wanting an exact answer.
"Like anyone else would." Haine eyed him strangely. "I used my arrows and dagger."
"Then it's my uncle." he concluded with a nod.
"Maybe not." Shiki called, flanked by Rima and Ichijou.
The trio entered through the far gate, quickly pacing towards Kaname and the rest of the crowd, ignoring the hushed squeals of delight from the day class girls.
"Alright, everyone inside, the Association's blocked our only method of exit, so you'll have to keep safe in here." Kaien told them, pointing the teenagers back to the day dorm, much to their protests.
"Wait, the Association?" Zero asked, not sure if he was hearing right.
The unexpected flood of information confused him slightly. So apparently, Rido was spying on the Academy, but at the same time wasn't. The Association was preventing innocent humans from escaping peril, which would have been the only reason they would have been attempting an evacuation, and to top it all off, Zero could smell the Association President's scent, slightly mingled with that of a vampire, coming from inside the sun dorm.
He was missing something here.
"As you may already smell, Zero-kun, we're currently playing host to the AP, but he's unconscious at the moment."
"Shiki, what do you mean, 'maybe not'?" Kaname asked his cousin.
"Too many people talking!" Zero snapped, glaring all around. "First, since we're here, what's going on with the Academy?" he turned to Kaien, Yagari and Haine, eyes lingering on his foster father. "You first."
"We were informed earlier about the vampire Council of Elders, they're coming to try and execute you, but we're trying to keep that from happening, all while protecting the rest of the day class, because they might become fodder for the council. Members from the Association have come to look into Yuuki's death, or so I've been told, and they're back at the actual Academy right now, taking pictures and trying to gather evidence to help find who could have done such a thing. Apparently, I am to be arrested for not reporting it to them, and you are to be detained if they decide that you're dangerous. The AP has been knocked into unconsciousness by one of the members of the day class, but that's fine, since I have a few questions for him as well when he comes around."
Kaien felt tired after explaining, watching Zero trying to wrap his mind around the new information without having a nervous breakdown from the thought of Association officials poking around in a place he had yet to investigate himself.
"Tell me about Rido." Zero asked Shiki, who didn't even look his way as he waited for Kaname to nod in agreement, beginning his latest theory.
"I have reason to believe that Rido is dead."
"That's a heavy claim," Kaname frowned deeply. "Where is your evidence?" he asked, lifting a brow, not willing to believe his cousin's words.
"You can search me if you want to be sure, but I woke up without my bonds this morning, my puppet strings were gone."
Zero could feel the shock that shot through Kaname's heart. It was a staggering weight, especially following the feather-light emotions they had just experienced, but the pureblood kept his expression stoic, while Zero gave a slight grimace. Shiki's eyes flickered back and forth between them for a moment before resting once more on Kaname. He noticed something, although he didn't look too concerned with trying to dig into their business.
"Mine are as well." Ichijou spoke up from behind Shiki, and every pair of eyes were on him. "I think that explains the actions of the Council."
"We want to investigate it to make sure." Rima added, cutting straight to the point.
"Report to me whatever you find." Kaname nodded. "But leave once everything here is settled. Your departure will only be delayed by an hour at the most, but we might need you for something."
"Of course." Shiki murmured, eager to figure out the entire mess that he was apart of.
Purebloods were tricky like that. Shiki wasn't aware that his father was still alive for a long, long time, and, until he had that dream, until he confessed to Ichijou, he hadn't known too much about the details surrounding the purpose of his existence.
"What the hell are you two wearing?" Touga asked, lighting up once more, looking Zero and Kaname up and down, noticing their weird, revealing leather garments.
"Are you guys wearing my clothes?" Kaien asked, paling on the spot.
"I wouldn't even call these clothes, the hell kind of fashion sense do you have?" Zero yelled at Kaien.
"Take it off then if you're going to complain." Kaname shot at the hunter. "I rather like them."
Everyone watched pink tinge his cheeks, the effect very clear, even in the darkness of morning overcast. They were all tired of standing in the cold, beneath the steady stream of snow.
"It's too cold for that." Zero huffed, hoping that would cover the reason for the blood rushing to his cheeks.
Blood, the strong, slightly rotting scent of it was coming from inside the sun dorm. It had him and Kaname racing once more, the others following suit once they realized that something was wrong.
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
A feral snarl ripped from her throat, so low, so unladylike, but what could she do? She had been summoned by this disgusting man with the black intentions. So what if she was nothing more than an unconsciously fragmented being that still held a conscious connection to oneesama? She had been squirming for all that time, peeking through the cracks of consciousness for a rare and precious few seconds here and there, again with a morbid curiosity, like a dream, never connecting the evidence.
The little girl growled again, approaching the girly-man that sought company with her. He wasn't at all like her oniisan or oniisama, he was sick and cruel and selfish.
She would tear him apart before he could hurt them.
"You should learn your place, child." he said, growing impatient with her.
In all of the Vampire Anatomy classes he had taken, he couldn't recall a child having fangs. No matter. He would shatter this illusion and go after all three of them, Zero, Kaname, Kaien too. The pureblood must have been near enough to take over his mind, but with the poison he had taken, it wouldn't be difficult to overcome that obstacle.
"This isn't your original form." she mused.
The little girl looked up at him, gaze blood bright, she curled into a crouch, back arched, arms trembling, her thirst getting the better of her, shattering her control. Her dark hair frizzed, standing on edge, making her look like a feral beast. Her fangs grew ridiculously, lengthening to proportionate sizes in comparison to her little mouth. Her red lips parted, painted by the blood that dotted her snowy dress, her sickening grin curling with a wickedness as a snarl left her throat. Echoing in what was now the maw of an inhuman creature, filling the air with the baritone cacophony of resound.
She barely breathed before closing the distance, fading into nothingness and reappearing on his back, fingers curling into his kimono like a monkey, bone-white claws puncturing his skin, like teeth through an apple, crunch and all.
Shivering with excitement, the demon child brought her slender nose to his neck, inhaling the sickening fragrance his skin held. The blood didn't need to be spilled, she could tell straight away that it was spoiled. He didn't have all that much time to live since it had turned to poison in his veins, slowly affected by the pure blood that had entered his body.
This man was cloaked in it--the rotting stench of the undead.
She could take it though, no matter how disgusting this meal would be. It wasn't going to be that bad, all she had to do was manipulate the blood to where she would only tap the pure, leftover essence that the pureblood had deposited into his bloodstream. The little demon girl could feel it, see how it coursed excitedly through his veins, eager to rejoin the rest of his blood inside of her.
With a soft coo her ivory fangs gently brushed his neck, aiming in precisely the right spot as she called the blood to coagulate for her slow consumption.
Piercing deeply, she tore the flesh at the junction of his neck, draining him mercilessly...
Before he knew it, warmth dribbled down his face, coming from his eyes and nose as his brains were shredded, abdomen eviscerated, as his body turned to ash beneath her grip.
Her hands clutched at his kimono, wrinkling her nose, wiping at her mouth as she spat--she had accidentally consumed some of the girly-man's blood instead of just the pureblood's as she intended.
Looking up into the white abyss, she searched within herself, jerking when she felt the violent kick of the blood she had consumed. Her eyes burned of two colors, the left crimson, the right sapphire. Slowly, the right orb boiled, shifting to violet, back to the bloody crimson of her wraith.
A sick grin split her lips.
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
Kaname could smell the mixture of scents coming from the AP, the most surprising was the presence of Rido's scent, faint, but still there. He also smelled of the rotting blood that had been around for a short while now.
He, Kaien, Zero, Touga, Haine, and even the small traveling party of Shiki, Ichijou and Rima stood in the blandly decorated sitting room of the sun dorm, brushing snow off of their clothes and out of their hair before it could melt. Kaname placed his hand on the man's head, watching as the torso of his robes darkened with blood, a fountain of it coming from his nose, ears, mouth, even eyes, spilling onto the couch he was draped on.
"Well?" Touga asked impatiently.
"He should turn to dust any moment now." Kaien said grimly.
And sure enough, once the words were spoken, the Association President's form faltered, body quickly disintegrating into dust and ashes.
"He gave off this slight aura of a vampire, I intended to investigate it, but I guess it would do him no good now."
"Shiki, please relay the results of your search to me the moment you find them." Kaname again insisted to his cousin, Shiki nodding in understanding.
"You think this was his doing." he stated, sure of the pureblood's answer.
"I do, but we don't have an accurate time frame right now, we need to-"
Kaname's head snapped up, his eyes narrowing towards the door.
They were coming--the Council...
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
The lift finally stopped its slow descent, depositing them in a bizarre room, where the first thing they noticed was the hideous, rotting stench and cold, frigid air.
The room itself was tinted in various shades of blue. Both Yori and Ichiru looked around the new setting, noticing everything they could, even the navy and azure checkering of the marble floor, realizing that the small platform they were standing on was a single square of its own in the large design. Large, elaborately carved glass figures stretched from floor to ceiling, made to look like various chess pieces. A light shined inside some of them, one even lay shattered in a far corner. Above them, tangled in slate colored chains was a snow-white queen piece, bathed in the blue light. Glowing turquoise strings of cobwebs were strewn along the empty space between the glass figures, chains weaving intimately in and out of them.
But what caught their eye was not the unusual decor, but the glowing strings of crimson cobwebs near the opposite end of the room, all anchored to an oddly carved chair, throne if you will, of ivory. A dark figure sat leisurely in that throne, unmoving, maybe even dead? No, That was definitely the wrong thing to assume.
A slow, steady plip, drip of liquid seeping up from a lower sting of crimson to a higher one echoed, causing Ichiru to draw a conclusion.
Whatever the hell that thing was, whatever the hell it was doing, a lot of blood was going into it. Going in or coming out. He gazed intently at the interconnecting lines of crimson near that throne, watching as the red hue spread outwards, slowly consuming the shining blue of the cobwebs they were nearest to.
The pair jumped when a chess piece imploded, shattering soundly, glass raining to the floor, some shards flying across the room. Ichiru and Yori looked to the carving that had been destroyed, just in time to watch the bead of light from its center fade into oblivion. Neither of them could tell whether it was a pawn or more important piece, but they instead turned their attention to the figure in the chair, its eyes lighting up to a bloody scarlet. A slender hand reached down to pick up a runaway shard, turning its closed palm up, curling a single finger to beckon them towards it.
"Thank goodness." Yori sighed, walking quickly towards the figure with Ichiru reluctantly in tow.
White, curved fangs glinted in the azure and crimson darkness, the figure smiling.
"Yori..." It whispered in a high pitched voice. "Where is the Black Master?"
And Yori teared up, this time not in sadness, or pain, all of which was eased away now that she was there next to the figure, but in joy.
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
"Aidou, we shouldn't be doing this." Kain sighed, tagging along, once again with his cousin as he conducted some of his own investigations, in Kaname's room.
That guy was crusin' for a brusin', and Kain was likely to get punished as well.
Oh well, he was used to it by now.
They entered the pureblood's bedchamber, only to realize that now was the one, and probably only time in which they wouldn't have gotten in trouble for being in that room, not while Ruka and Rima were allowed to stay there. Rima had gone down a little while ago, and they hadn't seen Ruka since they woke up, so this was where she must have been.
Aidou could feel a tendril of jealousy snake around his heart. She sure as hell was lucky to be able to stay in Kaname's room, in his bed. He was pretty sure that he wasn't gay, for the most part, but he sure felt like it towards Kaname. Though now wasn't the time to perform a cross examination on himself, they were there on reconnaissance mission! He and that hunter were sneaking around doing something, and Aidou was going to get to the bottom of it. He would never accept any sort of excuse that involved an unexplained friendship popping up between them, it was too suspicious.
Then there was that one time, that Zero was nude, flushing in Kaname's bed... His blood had been spilled that night, all of them could smell it, but no one said a word.
It couldn't have been that! They would have heard something, wouldn't they?
Then again, Kaname was a rather smooth, silent-but-deadly type of person.
Nooooo!!
"Are you having another episode, Aidou?" Ruka asked from her half-laying position on Kaname's canopy bed. she was still dressed in her silk pajamas, and her hair was a long, frizzed and messy mop of bedhead.
"What do you know!" the spazzy aristocrat jumped, eying her with jealousy. "Shouldn't you be up by now? I mean, everyone's sleeping schedule is screwed up now, so...?"
Ruka shot him a halfhearted glare, laying back down onto the silk sheets.
"Yeah, but I've been thinking." she sighed heavily, gaining Kain's attention.
"Something wrong Ruka?" he asked gently, sitting besides her on the mattress.
"No, more like I'm getting something right. You know, I've realized quite a few things... It must have come to me because of this room, no, because of Kaname-sama, and that dream I had. I'm thinking that he let me sleep in here for a reason." her voice was heavy with depression.
"Go on?" Kain coaxed gently, watching Aidou turn his attention to her in concern.
"I've long since known that Kaname hasn't ever seen me as special, at least in the way I've wanted him to, not that I'm saying that I'm special at all to him or anything, it's just, that he's nice enough to talk to me, listen to me, I foolishly kept hoping..." she turned to Aidou.
"You must be able to smell it, right? How could you not, being so close to the bedsheets and all. That hunter's scent is all over them. Even he's more important than I am."
Aidou frowned at that, expression rearranging sympathetically. He too wanted to be someone very important to Kaname, and he realized that they all were, just in different ways. Their positions of importance were according to how he would decide, not how they would like. It seemed as if Ruka had just now come to the same conclusion. He could guess her next words.
"But as long as I'm important," they said in unison.
Ruka smiled for a brief moment before it fell into a frown.
"Have I been that blind all along? Rima knows this, you know this, have I been that blinded?"
"You haven't." Kain spoke up, rubbing her arm. "You're just the most loyal of us all."
His hand slid over hers, its warm weight welcoming, comfortable. Ruka's pained smile became crooked.
"Rima says that I'll never become useless because of that."
"And it's the truth." Aidou smiled, Kain nodding in agreement.
All three of them stiffened, tremors running up their spine. A large group of ill-intentioned outsiders were closing in, quickly, and somewhere within the Academy grounds, Kaname was wound up tightly.
"Nii-san!"
Tsukiko's panicked voice called from down the hall, sending Hanabusa into full big brother mode.
"Tsukiko! What happened?" he called, rising from the bedspread to run to the door.
"You can feel it too, right? Something dangerous?"
"Yeah, Ruka! Get dressed, stay here and look after Tsukiko for me, would you? I'm going to help Kaname-sama."
"Since when do I listen to orders from you?" Ruka scoffed, springing from the mattress with Kain, running past them into her already clean room. "Obviously, Kaname-sama needs the help of his most loyal follower! And Tsukiko can fight for herself, she's fully capable."
Something was off, and Aidou could tell, as Ruka ran past, he caught a small whiff of the rotting stench of blood.
"ღ*~+~*ღ"
A/N: Suddenly, I'm really glad there was an anime made of this series.
Reviews: Please and thank you! =) I will love you forever!