Blooming Azalea

Chapter 2: Discoveries

He placed the girl down on his bed upon entering his room, making sure to place her on her front so he could dress her wound. He went and fetched his bandages he used to hide his chevalier hand and a washcloth, making sure that it was damp. He slid next to the unconscious girl and moved her inky hair aside to see the wound.

A gash on the back of her head had dried blood matting the hair surrounding it, and fresh blood seemed to slip out slowly. He tried his best to clean it with the wash cloth, but soon found it to be too challenging. He decided the best way to clean the wound was to dip the back of her head in water.

He removed the iPod and a cell phone from her pocket and placed them on the bedside table, her music still loudly blasting from the buds. Scooping the young girl in his arms again, he strode over to his bathroom where he placed her in the tub, her head near the faucet. The dark haired man made sure that the plug was unplugged so the bath would not fill, for he wished only to run the top of her skull under the water. He turned the water to lukewarm and gently cleaned her wound, using the washcloth again. This method proved more efficient, and after he finished he turned the water off and gently picked her up, striding to his bedroom and placing her back in his bed. There, he delicately applied a medicine they had invented in the past ten years which healed wounds much faster. After smearing the clear gel over her cut, he strategically wrapped the bandages around her head.

He looked down at the girl wearily. He still didn't know what to do with her. Her dark mane was sopping wet and her clothes had gotten some water on them as well. He noticed the back of her jacket had blood on it from falling over the deceased mugger. He gazed at her face; it had a peaceful and docile look to it when she was resting.

He was about to relive her of the dirty and blood stained hoodie when she made a noise. He froze and his keen eyes went to her face. She was cringing in her unconscious state and looked as if she was in pain, a grimace carved into her mouth- a great contrast from how it had been a few seconds ago.

He didn't know what to do when she started groaning. Maybe she was having a bad dream? Haji sighed lightly and stood from his crouched position next to the bed. He went over what was going to happen in his head calmly. Her wound was going to heal and if there was anything wrong he'd take care of it and she'd be on her way and wouldn't ask any questions.

He knew it wouldn't go that smoothly though. Nothing he recently planned seemed to ever proceed the way he desired. He had too many things on his plate right now and couldn't deal with another issue on his hands… Not to mention he still needed to find that chiropteran.

After putting away all the supplies he had just used, he glanced at the sleeping girl who had stilled. Her breath had evened out and she had a halcyon look once again. She would be fine; he would only be gone a few hours at the most. He put his heel on the window sill and gave a parting glance at the girl. 'Please stay asleep…' he begged in his mind, disappearing out the window.

I smirked as the black shadow blurred away, the window open and the golden curtain lightly reached out, begging him to come back. I jumped off the roof I had been stalking him on, landing on the window sill that jutted off the wall. Silly chevalier, he must have had something on his mind to not have sensed me. I had expected him to feel me near and react, but the handsome man didn't even acknowledge my existence. How curious.

My blonde locks caressed my cheeks as I landed softly in the room, my shoes making a clacking sound as they hit the glossy wood flooring. The man had taste, I'll give him that. He picked a rather nice little apartment, and no doubt barley occupied it. A short, maroon velvet armchair lined with gold stitching sat in the corner, and an expertly weaved chocolate, gold and crimson colored carpet rested on the floor.

I absorbed the room with my azul orbs, before finally resting them on the still body in the room. She was resting in the king sized bed with eggshell sheets with a white headboard, her long body a bump under the comfortable looking sheets. Her onyx hair splayed out around her, the pillow around her head was dark from the water.

I strolled closer, my hands on my hips. I leaned in to her face, observing her sleeping features and bandaged head. So this was the girl he had rescued instead of chasing down the chiropteran. I smirked and pulled back.

"Oh Haji-chan, what would Saya assume with a girl sleeping in your bed~?" I gasped dramatically and chuckled, brushing a lock of her raven hair aside with my long pale fingers. I was leaving my scent there for the noble knight to pick up later.

This girl reminded me so much of little Diva, her plump pouting lips and the soft, child fat in her face. Her drenched raven hair was not as long as the deceased queen's, but it was long. She was pale but had signs of sun, unlike Diva's ivory white skin. A smile quirked my lips at the memory of Diva, the loud, untamable sapphire queen who only wanted love despite her repelling actions.

I left the bedroom and snooped around shortly; looking for any letters he may have received from Diva's twins. How I loved to read his letters and keep a somewhat steady news update with them, even if it did mean him discovering I knew where he was and moving apartments. I missed the girls dearly and hoped that maybe someday I would get to meet them again.

As I poked around in a desk of his, I caught a groan from the bedroom. I paused my shuffling and listened, my head cocked to one side. I heard the damsel roll over, the bed squeaking softly under her shifting weight. Could she be awake? That wasn't great, but it wasn't troublesome either. I stopped exploring and peeked around the corner and into the bedroom. She was on her side, facing away from me. I shrugged; if she was awake there was nothing I could do about it. I returned to poking around his apartment for a couple more minutes.

Sighing upon finding no recent letters, I headed into the bedroom towards the window I had come in from.

"H-hello?" I stopped my advance towards the sill, my lips slowly turning into a playful smirk again.

"Yes dear?" I turned my body towards the frightened teen.

"…" She was sitting up and staring at me, her dark chocolate orbs wide and her small hands gripping the bed sheets. "Who are y-you?" She inquired, her voice high with fear. I thought over my response briefly before I gave her a charming smile.

"Why, I'm the great Nathan Mahler." With that I left in a blur, the golden curtain stretching and gripping my afterimage, begging to not be left alone with the confused teen.

"It's getting dark." I sent an annoyed glance at the petite boy. He flinched and looked down, his shaggy charcoal hair covering his face. Mother wrung her hands again- I swear she was going to wring the color right out of them she was doing it so much.

"Where is your sister? Did you call her?" Her dark brown tresses brushed against her neck slightly as she paced, her almost black eyes staring at the floor. I nodded again- I had answered this question a million times but it seemed she had yet to grasp this.

"Yes mother, I called her four times already. It goes straight to voicemail." I drawled. This wasn't the first time my younger seventeen year old sister had gone missing without a call. She had probably turned off her phone so she could not be bothered. I rolled my eyes.

I always have to be responsible for her, being older and nineteen, I have to 'set an example'. What bull shit. She would do whatever she preferred regardless of how I acted- the whole family knew that.

"Call her again." My mother ordered. I sighed loudly, annoyed. I flipped my phone open and dialed the familiar number, holding the small cell to my ear. There wasn't even a ring as her peppy recorded voice sprung in my ear.

"Hey it's Azalea! I'm not here right now- probably too busy! I'll call you back soon as I can!" I mouthed every word of her voicemail, even faked the giggle she had when she mentioned she was probably too busy. "Beep."

"Azalea, mom is flipping her lid. Get home soon!" I shut the cell after leaving another irritated message.

"She didn't answer?" My mother runs her hands through her hair, her other hand twisting the bottom of her sweater. I shake my head, tossing my phone on the table as I rested my face on my fist.

"Maybe her phone died?" The youngest in the family at age ten, Arashi, commented meekly. He sat across from me at the table, his hands in his lap as he tried to stay microscopic. My mother didn't respond, she just kept pacing, fiddling with the bottom of her wool sweater.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I was tired of all the worry being given to her; it was draining to have to be in the middle of it. "She's fine; probably just out having fun."

My eyes flew open and I started when a fist slammed onto the table. My father's clenched hand stayed planted onto the furniture as he shouted, "That's not good enough! She did this far too many times back in Okinawa. For god sakes, we just moved here a week ago! Plus with the reports of monster sightings…"

His barking voice gradually got softer, anger replaced by fatherly concern. He was the only one in the room that would make me flinch, my lax attitude slipping. My brother seemed to slouch even more than before, his chin dipping to his chest. My mother stopped pacing, her wide worry stricken eyes glued to his face, looking for an answer to the problem.

A tense, crackling silence hung in the air.

"…I'll call her again." I mumbled, trying to calm everybody down.

"Thank you, Magnolia." My father said after a moment, moving his hand to run through his silky black hair, identical to Arashi's. I flipped my phone open again, my fingers trembling slightly as I redialed the number.

The chiropteran was fast, just as the past ones had been. I swiftly jumped rooftop to rooftop through the dark, my sharp eyesight never straying from the chiropteran, and the people below only thinking of my passing as a brush of wind. The beast however was not as stealthy as me and crashed through whatever was in its way. If it was not for the cover of approaching night it surely would have been spotted. At last the beast stopped, its attention drawn to a bird flying above. I pushed myself to move faster, my dagger already zipping through the air towards its misshapen head.

The monster leapt into the air, unintentionally avoiding the blade. Its clawed fist snatched the feathered animal from the sky, crushing it immediately. Blood squirted from in between its large digits before the dark liquid merely leaked and dripped. The fist unclenched, shortly revealing a barely recognizable bloody carcass before it disappeared between gnashing teeth.

I was close enough to the chiropteran that when I threw the next dagger and it landed in its eye, it stumbled backwards. Trying to keep the momentum, I hurled myself forward and landed my foot on its leathery chest, sending it flying back and tumbling off the building. Not wishing to lose it, I jumped into the space between the two apartments. I deftly pulled up my cello case, narrowly blocking a swipe to my side in midair. The force of the attack made bright sparks fly off my bulky shield, illuminating its frightful features shortly. Its dark skin was grotesque, littered with bumps and crevices. A tuff of black hair sprouted from the top of its head, tangled and wild. Its opened jaw revealed the two rows of sharp, deadly teeth, still wet from the blood of the bird. Its glowing amber eyes were animalistic, no sense of reason other than to attack.

I landed on the ground and lifted my instrument case up again, defending myself from the clawed danger. This time the monster pushed against my shield, and I moved the case up causing its arm to come up as well, leaving its massive middle exposed.

Dashing forward, I landed another dagger in his stomach. The beast growled and swiped at me, but I was already ten steps back. It reached up and dislodged the weapon from its right eye, the blood squirting shortly before the muscle and eyeball regenerated, the golden iris staring at me fiercely.

I blurred to the top of the apartment, quickly unsnapping my case and pushing it open. I reached into a small hidden velvet pocket, beside the compartment for Saya's katana and yanked out a vile filled with dark liquid. The beast roared beneath me and I yanked the cork top off with my teeth, dipping one of my daggers into the metallic smelling contents.

As the chiropteran made a massive leap towards me, its claws ready to tear me in half, I flicked my wrist and a satisfying thunk came back to my ears. The monster came up short, slamming into the wall and digging its beastly nails into the brick. It groaned as my queen's blood started to crystalize its body, the arm where the dagger landed already crumbling away. It roared at me again shortly, sliding down the wall and landing in pieces on the stone grounds of Paris with a sound like glass smashing against the floor.

I closed my cello case, my face monotone. I slipped the strap over my shoulder and dropped down in the alley way to retrieve my daggers.

I picked up the dagger previously coated in Saya's blood and stared at it for a few seconds. After learning there were chiropterans in Paris, I had sent a letter back to the others, requesting Saya's blood. They had found a way to acquire it by inserting a needle into the cocoon and extracting her blood carefully. To make up for the blood lost, they would inject human blood into her. This would not wake her, for only a chevalier's blood could disrupt a sleeping queen's slumber. They would send me several vials of her blood through discreet shipping, thanks to connections from David.

I was aware of the ruckus the monster had made, and tried to be speedy about locating the rest of my daggers. Alas, I wasn't fast enough.

A bright flash blinded me. My human hand that had been shuffling through the remains of the creature froze with surprise.

"Dark, mysterious man caught with the remains of a monster. Could he be related to the appearances of the beasts?" The voice made my blood run cold. Since my hand was already clenched around the hilt of one of my short blades, I sent one flying in the direction of the cheerful intruder. The whip of wind alerted me I had missed, along with the clatter of my dagger hitting a wall. As soon as the white spots dissipated, I swiveled around to see him.

He was dressed in what seemed to be a news reporter uniform. A fedora capped his blonde hair, along with a dashing black suit with a breast pocket and black wingtip shoes. A pen rested in his breast pocket, and a large modern camera was in one hand, the strap around his neck. Nathan Mahler gave me a taunting smirk, waving the camera with humor swirling in his blue irises.

"Sound like a good headline, Haji-chan?"

I narrowed my eyes, and tried to land a kick to his side. He was gone though, and appeared behind me, resting one manicured hand on my shoulder gently.

"Is that any way to treat your paparazzi?" He mused, snapping another picture, purposely blinding me with its flash. The piercing light invaded my sight again, and I could hear him chuckle as I swiped my bandages away and flexed my chiropteran claws. "Now, now, I didn't come here to fight. I just came here for the soon to be article that will be sending Paris into a search for this said dark, mysterious man..."

"How are you creating more chiropteran?" I questioned. I heard the smirk in his response.

"I don't know what you mean, dearest." His voice was getting farther away, and I followed it, still blinded by his flash.

"What are you planning Nathan?" I threw another question at him, my voice low. I was slightly irritated I could not see.

"I would love to take more pictures of you handsome, but I must be going. I'm an extremely busy man." I rushed forward and uppercut where he would have been had he not disappeared. I could feel his absence and stood still until the spots disappeared again.

Dammit, he had found me.

Not only that, he would be putting me on the list for "Paris' most wanted" by tomorrow morning. Slightly frustrated, I retrieved my daggers before disappearing just as the feckless chevalier had done.

When I returned back to my apartment, it didn't surprise me his scent was practically a dense fog hanging in the air. What did surprise me was the absence of a certain raven haired damsel.

The bed was empty, the soft sheets pushed back and a dark stain on the pillow where her wet head had rested. Alarm made my pulse quicken and my body tense, my head swirling with dread. I feared the worst- the mischievous chevalier had taken her. I forced myself to calm down and clear my head, opening my senses back up.

I relaxed when I heard the sound of movement from the other room, and the soft intake of breath. I moved, quiet as a shadow, to the doorframe and peered out. I stayed silent as I observed the up and moving teen, her back turned to me. Her long pitch-black waterfall of hair was damp, multiple locks twisting and intertwining together. She was running her hands over something on the mahogany desk in the corner of the drawing room, unaware of my entrance.

What now? I wasn't sure how to proceed from my current position. I stayed silent, my gaze boring into her back with dread heavy in my gut.

I was dumbstruck after the blonde man practically disappeared into thin air, leaving me alone in this strange unfamiliar place. I couldn't remember how I got here, where I was- anything! I started to hyperventilate, twisting the comfortable sheets. I pushed the covers off me and swung my body around, my feet touching the ground. I looked down at myself; even these clothes were unfamiliar! I shakily stood, my head throbbing and my body trembling. I was scared shitless.

I cautiously walked to the door frame and peeked out, looking to see if anyone else was here. The place was quiet, only the flapping of the curtains occupying the silence. I quietly stepped away from the door frame, inching farther into the room. It seemed to be a drawing room, with a large writing desk and an elegant couch and glass coffee table.

I took deep breaths, trying to calm down the adrenaline, fear and panic rising up my throat like bile. I found myself in front of the wooden desk, shuffling through the papers that were messily scattered on top of it, trying to find some information on where I was.

'This can't be happening!' I only skimmed over the words decorating the pages- too upset to really absorb their meanings.

I gave up on the papers and turned around quickly, only to freeze. A man was here. He wasn't the blonde man, he was tall and dark. My eyes widened and I started to take deep breaths, feeling as if I would really start hyperventilating any second now. The bile of raw fear tore through my insides, burning my throat and scorching my gut. I felt my body lean against the sturdy desk, my hands gripping the edge of the wood as if I was trying to hold onto my sanity.

The man simply watched me, his brow creased slightly and his mouth a hard line. He was tense and seemed unsure what to do. My legs shook violently, and if I hadn't been holding onto the desk I might have collapsed. Was he here to hurt me? Had he abducted me? My mouth was too dry for me to voice any of the sharp questions whizzing through my head making my brain mush.

He raised a slim eyebrow questionably, his steely gaze frightening me. A croak of dread spilled from my mouth, and I was unable to think through the fog of fear. Suddenly, it felt if I didn't know what was going on I was going to explode.

"Who are y-you? Where am I?" The words were scratchy and shaky, breaking at certain points. Once I started though, it felt as though a dam had broken, a flood of words racing through my lips. "What am I doing here? Why don't I remember anything? Who… Who am I?"

Who… am…I…? Who am I? It repeated in my mind, over and over in an endless loop. I didn't know who I was. I didn't remember anything about… anything! I felt my knees hit the floor, and it seemed like everything outside my small personal bubble didn't exist anymore. It felt like my body was shutting down, unable to support the immense block of emotions weighing on my heavily.

A hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my trance, and I slowly raised my head to the owner of the appendage. The man who had been watching me was now beside me, his face carefully collected but grave. I swallowed the lump increasing in size down my throat, and tried not to tremble. Surely there could be a reasonable explanation for all of this… right?

Meh, a little anti-climactic end but I've been revising the shit out of this chapter. I still don't like how her forgetting everything scene came out, but no matter how many times I tried to tweak it, it didn't get any better.

Also, I found a folder the other day labeled, "The Book of Exciting Words" it's basically a couple pages of synonyms, and it was really useful actually. So you can thank "The Book of Exciting Words" for any… *Pages through the folder* exhilarating~ phrases you read.

Don't be shy; hit that special review button. If you think this story sucks, then please, tell me with reasons. Constructive Criticism is loved all over~

Hit it please~

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