Disclaimer: I do not own Diabolik Lovers. This amazing anime was created by Seiko Nagatsu. I only created Reiko.
Editor / Beta Reader: Waffle (Thank you)
Rated Teen for violence, blood, coarse language and / or sexually suggestive scenes (rating may change to Mature in the future as story progresses, readers have been advised).
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Bound To Shadows
By: Swanna
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Chapter 2: The Family Meeting
It was in the early evening and the day was winding down, with the golden-orange sun already sinking behind the mass forest. Normally at this time of the day, Shu would have still been resting in bed until it was time for Reiji to barge into his room, pestering him to attend school with his brothers. Unfortunately for him, Reiji had decided to hold a brief family meeting to discuss the new information that he'd compiled.
Since that phone call two weeks ago, Reiji had taken the matters into his own hands and launched a private investigation on this newcomer. Shrill curiosity had been irking Reiji. He'd been hankering for a satisfactory exposition as to why a guardian was suddenly assigned to them, and specifically why this particular individual was chosen.
Shu had to admit that he was somewhat curious the moment he'd received the call, but not to the extent of troubling himself over it. Regardless of what their father was scheming, this guardian would only turn out to be another watchdog. Just like many other servants in the Sakamaki household.
Even if Shu didn't propose any deliberate actions against their new guardian, his ruthless brothers would still take on the initiative to break this watchdog's spirit and bend the individual to their will. Shu wondered what kind of reaction their father would have when he discovered his minion was instead their slave. Nothing was more entertaining for Shu than witnessing that man stew in dissatisfaction. The thought alone brought a curve to his lips.
Subaru, the youngest son of the Sakamaki household was the first to break the silence. With his arms crossed and leaning against the wall casually, he clicked his tongue in annoyance and said, "Reiji told us to gather here but he's not even here himself!"
"How much longer do we have to wait? Teddy is growing tired," The fourth son, Kanato whined as he held his inseparable teddy bear in his lap.
"Patience is the key to paradise," Laito, the fifth son commented while keeping himself preoccupied and threw the red dart at the board. He barely missed the bullseye. "A virtue that all of you are obviously lacking."
"Shut up!" Subaru snapped, pushing himself away from the wall and standing next to the billiard table. "And why isn't Ayato here either?!"
"I'm here," Ayato announced as he walked in with a blue file in his hand. Yui was trailing closely behind.
Shu could smell the stench of blood and sex in the air the instant they entered the entertainment room. His brothers couldn't have missed the scent of it either; Subaru crinkled his nose in disgust, while Laito ogled her and smirked in a bawdy manner that suggested he was fully aware of what they had been doing. Embarrassed, Yui blushed and lowered her head to avoid eye contact with them.
Ayato was so cocksure of his brothers' recognition of his own power and control over his possession, he continued without care of the looks they threw at him, "Reiji is tied up at the moment preparing some last minute arrangements for the arrival of our new guest and can't come. Since we have school later, he told us to start without him and he will join us as soon as he's done."
"Then start! We could have started earlier if you two weren't screwing like rabbits," Subaru retorted bitterly, causing the girl's cheeks to blush a redder shade.
Ayato flashed him a cocky grin, "Are you jealous?"
Subaru's anger rose. "AS IF!"
Just when Yui attempted to walk past Laito towards the sofa, he put his hands on her hips and pulled her against him, startling her. "Not so fast, little bitch. You should let me have some fun with you too. I can give you pleasure like you've never experienced before."
It was obvious that Laito was trying to get under Ayato's skin, and the hothead fell for it. "Laito, if you don't remove your hand, I will cut it off!"
Laito's smirk grew at the challenge and brought his hand to her face, tilting her head until her bare neck was exposed to him. "I can smell your sweet scent in the arteries of your neck. It makes me want to bite down hard so your blood will gush out."
"I said keep your hands off her!" Ayato rushed towards Laito and growled at him, grabbing his forearm forcibly enough to affirm that he wasn't making empty threats.
Yui took the fleeting opportunity to escape from the younger brother's grasp and stumbled down next to Kanato on the love seat.
"Teddy, she's really stinking up the place, isn't she? Maybe we should scrub her clean with steel wool," Kanato's grisly suggestion made the girl widen her eyes in fear.
"Ayato, stop hogging the little bitch to yourself. Let us have a go at her too," Laito suggested with a visible pout.
"Speak for yourself. I'm not interested," Subaru quickly opposed the idea, as if sharing a human girl amongst his brothers was outrageous and he refused to partake in it.
Ayato flung Laito's arm away from him, irritated. "She belongs to me, only I can to do anything I want to her!"
From the corner of his eye, Shu noted the hurt on Yui's face was crystal. Just what exactly was she expecting? When she'd first arrived at the mansion, they'd only considered her livestock for the six of them to take turns feeding on. She should be grateful that she was being treated like an exclusive toy by Ayato now.
Spent and not wanting to see that expression any longer, Shu finally spoke up. "You're all so loud, it's getting really annoying. Just get this talk over with quickly and leave so I can go back to sleep."
Ayato spun his head to face him and gave him a frustrated scowl. "No one forced you to join us. You can crawl back to your bedroom if you want to sleep so badly!"
Disinterested, Shu held the right side of his temple with his fingers, his elbow resting on the chair's armrest as he lazily glanced up at his idiotic brother. "I was here first before you guys barged into the room."
"I want to get this over with too," Subaru agreed without hesitancy. Out of the five younger brothers, Shu and Subaru surprisingly had the least dispute with each other despite the fact that they weren't born from the same mother. "I've wasted enough time waiting around for you and Reiji to show your asses."
"Fine, alright. Let's get on with it then," said Laito when he turned to Ayato, a dart was still held in his hand. "What did Reiji find out?"
Pinning the men with a glare, Ayato tossed the file onto the billiard table. A few papers and a photo slipped out of the folder. Laito went straight for the picture. He seemed more than pleased with what he was looking at when the corners of his lips slowly rose.
"Are we in luck or what? She is just my type. Can I play with her sometime?"
"What? Our guardian is a female?" This time it was Subaru's turn to scowl, evidently not content with what he was hearing.
"A very young and pretty one at that," Laito raved as he gathered the stapled pages in his free hand and started skimming through the documents on her background. "Mukami Reiko, a latent vampire, daughter of a pureborn and a mortal woman."
Such unorthodox unions were rare but not forbidden. Couples of this conjugality, especially the immortal however, were often frowned upon by the vampire society. Nearly all pureborns would want to copulate with their own kind, so they could breed the strongest vampires by preserving their bloodline.
With her half vampire and half human heritage, this new guardian of theirs might as well have been a new demonic race compared to Shu's background. Not that it mattered to him. He'd learned to look beyond the vampires' inbred society at a very young age since he'd stumbled upon the truth of him and his brothers' very own existences were mere empirical experiment for that man in creating a new race.
"What the hell do you mean she's a latent vampire?" Ayato's eyes changed, confused.
"It said in the report here that something had gone wrong in the womb of the mother and she's been born with most of the known vampire abilities except…"
There was an unexpected pause.
"Except what?" Kanato pressed. Even the hysterical one was showing some interest.
…Except she's human," Laito finished his sentence with his brows furrowed together, almost doubtful that he was reading the report correctly.
A human girl with vampire abilities? What a messed up progeny, Shu mused to himself with his eyes closed.
He could imagine she didn't lead an easy life by any means. She was truly set apart in her flawed generation and walked in a unique path where both the mortal and immortal realms wouldn't have accepted her for what she was.
In other words, she was an outcast from both worlds.
"Her parents were murdered when she was eleven," Laito continued. "At age thirteen, she was adopted by the Mukami brothers and has resided with them ever since. At age fifteen, she moved to New York alone and from there, she became a vampire huntress who hunted rogues for a living in the past two years."
It'd gone unnoticed to his brothers, but Shu caught the gap in her record and he wondered what had happened during the time after the death of her parents and before her adoption. There appeared to be something amiss about her background information.
Laito tossed down the remaining unread report back onto the billiard table when Ayato spoke again. "Why did he choose her to be our new guardian?"
"You can never figure out what he is scheming," there was an edge of violent anger in Subaru's voice.
Ayato turned to him with a smirk. "Then why don't you go and ask him directly to find out? That is if you're not afraid to face his wrath when you question his decision."
Subaru snorted and turned his head away. "I will kill him one day, when I am strong enough."
Shu did not doubt his words for a second. The fire in his eyes and the strength in his voice mirrored the other Sakamaki brothers, including Shu himself. Besides being born from the same father, the only thing they all had in common was the rage and hatred they shared towards that man. Enough to want him dead.
"You should watch your mouth. You never know who is eavesdropping around here," Laito warned with an uncharacteristic sternness as he abruptly spun around to throw his dart at an intruder who was leaning against the wall next to the dart board.
The intruder with a full face carbon black motorcycle helmet dodged the flying dart effortlessly with a tilt of the head to the right. Judging from the fitted black leather jacket that fully outlined the feminine curves, and the vintage skin tight black denim jeans with a pair of matching colored heeled boots; it was obvious that the intruder was a woman.
"I'm not sure if you were trying to aim for me or the board," her voice was feminine but it had a lower pitch than most females. As she removed her helmet her long silver hair, which had been tucked away, flowed down to her back and her profile came into view. "But if you were aiming for the board then you were way off the mark."
Laito looked amazed but slowly smiled at her. "I was actually aiming for you."
She ran her fingers through her hair, her eyes amused. "Really? Too bad you still missed your target then."
"Who the hell are you?!" Ayato demanded angrily, displeased that her presence was almost undetected among a group of pureborns. "How did you even break in here?!"
Without tearing away his gaze from her, Laito shut him up when he flashed the photo right under his nose. Shu saw the surprise in Ayato's eyes as realization struck him. "You're our new guardian?!"
"You ask so many questions like a child," she ignored the threatening glare that Ayato was giving her and walked towards them with a confident sway in her hips. Her heels clacking as they connected with the hardwood floor.
"My name is Reiko-"
Her sentence was cut short the moment she placed down her helmet and saw the report of her background laying on top of the billiard table's surface. If she was surprised or annoyed, then she was doing one hell of a job at hiding it with her current unreadable expression.
"Not that you guys didn't know that already anyways."
She lifted her head to stare at Laito as she bridged their distance, close enough that their bodies were almost touching. She took the photo from his hand. Once the girl got what she wanted, she immediately moved away to lean her hip against the edge of the table. Laito's disappointment was clear on his face. Her lips curved ever so slightly while looking down at the photo.
"I'm surprised you guys managed to find this old picture of mine. My hair was quite short back then, huh?"
"Why did he hire you?" Subaru queried, cutting down to the chase.
She lifted a delicate brow at him. "He? You mean your father, Karlheinz? You don't even address your parent properly? Just how spoiled can you brothers be?"
"Cut the crap or I will do it for you by slicing off your tongue," Subaru warned, his tone filled with menace and pure fury. "Stop spouting nonsense as if you know what's been going on in this household. You are only an outsider!"
Instead of cowering away from the outburst like a normal human would, this girl stood her ground with her eyes narrowed. Interesting. Shu decided that she would be one tough minion to subdue, which would only make things all the more interesting and satisfying once they broke her. Ultimately she would just become another toy for the Sakamaki brothers to play with.
"Why don't you ask your father why he chose to hire me instead? But make sure you don't kill him before you get an answer from him first, since I'm curious to know myself."
Her casual remark incited a chuckle from Laito but Subaru was far from being amused. He was quite antagonized by her sarcasm. With a growl, he charged towards her in an attempt to punish her for speaking out of place as a mere human servant. She pulled out a silver gun from her waist and pointed it directly at him, halting his steps.
"A gun? Really?" This time Subaru laughed in amusement. "You think you can hurt me with a gun?"
"Unless I had a death wish, I'm certainly not stupid enough to aim a regular gun at a pureblood vampire. The silver bullets are specially made to incapacitate pureborns like you. So I suggest you to back off because this will hurt like hell."
"I call it a bluff," Ayato placed his hand on Subaru's shoulder, trying to instigate the youngest one to continue with his attack. "Don't let her intimidate you so easily, Subaru."
Subaru flung away his hand and glowered. "Who said I was intimated by her?!"
As if to prove his words, he lunged at her again but a loud bang deafened their ears when Subaru dropped to one knee. Yui gasped in horror with her hands over her mouth; while the others became instantly on guard after realizing she'd meant business and would show no hesitation in harming them despite her role as their guardian. Subaru cried out in what appeared to be excruciating pain as he clutched his left thigh.
"I warned you that it would hurt," she said as she put away her gun. Not even a hint of remorse was in her voice.
"You are going to regret this," he sneered, gritting his teeth.
Knowing that the injury wasn't severe, Shu watched impassively as Subaru dug inside the skin that she broke, trying to extract the ammo with his finger. After several seconds, he finally succeeded in clawing out the silver bullet. The object may have been withdrawn, but the pain evidently remained since Subaru couldn't even rise to his feet.
"You psychotic bitch," Ayato was squaring his shoulders, ready for a fight. He was enraged that she had the nerve to hurt a Sakamaki. "What kind of guardian are you to inflict injuries on one of us like this?!"
"Your father granted me the permission to deliver any form of punishment I see fit to modify your behavior accordingly."
"Does that mean we can also do whatever we want with you for your future mishaps as our guardian too?" Shu asked, shooting her a mocking look.
Her vibrant sapphire eyes met his for the first time. "What do you mean by that?"
"What do you think I mean?" Whether her guess was correct or not, Shu wasn't planning on offering her an elaborated answer. She could let her imagination run wild. In fact, he welcomed it.
"I don't know about Shu since he's the most unmotivated one among us," While being momentary distracted, Laito appeared behind her in the blink of an eye. He snaked his arm around her midsection just below her breasts as he buried his face in her neck. "But I know what I'd want to do to you all night long."
The human girl vanished only to reappear in a flash on top of the billiard table, standing and watching them emotionlessly. So the report was true, she was indeed a human who possessed the strengths and abilities of a vampire.
"I'm here to be your guardian, not your plaything," she turned to Yui suddenly, startling the girl. "No offense to you, by the way."
"Enough," a voice boomed by the entrance and Reiji entered the room. His attention flew to the girl right away, yet he didn't seem at all surprised by the uninvited presence of a complete stranger inside their mansion. "Standing on the table is unacceptable. Get down this instant before I come over to remove you myself."
Masato appeared beside Reiji and bowed in her direction. "Miss. Mukami, I have already retrieved your luggage from your vehicle. Please allow me to guide you to your chamber."
"I guess playtime is over, boys," she declared with feigned disappointment as she jumped down from the table in a swift motion.
As she was walking towards Masato, she gazed at Shu from across the room one last time. Her stare lingered longer than he expected before she turned to go while keeping her own thoughts to herself. She had fortitude like a true vampire huntress, Shu confirmed. But it only made him want to destroy that man's puppet even more.
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AUTHOR NOTE:
Phew, this scene ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated but I was having so much fun writing the Sakamaki brothers in here lol. This is honestly the first time for me to write story with so many dark, sadistic characters and I actually enjoy it very much…but does that make me twisted? *sweatdrops*
Thank you for all the reviews / favorites / follows in chapter one so far. It was really nice to see readers were interested in the story despite it being the first chapter only. Special thanks to VampireSiren, VampWolf, Guest, Blue-Phoenix311 and princess-snow510 for taking a bit of your time to leave me the lovely reviews! I hope everyone will continue supporting me throughout this story.
Out of curiosity, obviously my favorite characters are Shu and Ruki since they are so good looking, so my question for you is: Which brother is YOUR favorite character?
Thanks again for reading, I promise to update soon!