Chapter 2 : Coffee and Phone Calls
I smirked as I pushed the top button on the panel in the elevator, the doors sliding shut and the machine beginning its ascent. Leaning against the metal wall, I closed my eyes and remembered the joy Mokuba had this morning when I gave him his present. He had of course questioned when I found the time to buy the cd only to scold me for being up so late. Day-in and day-out I lied to that kid…and yet he thought I was the best brother a kid could ever have. If only he knew of the atrocities I have committed all these nights, these years… But he can't. And he never will. I promised myself the day I became the Blood Jewel that I would protect the kid from the darkness of night, keeping him innocent. His aura…I would never let darkness grow within it.
The elevator rang as it came to a stop, the doors opening to reveal the lobby right outside my office. Arisa, my personal secretary, smiled as I entered. Her long, black hair was in two braids, and today she was wearing a black, v-neck, sleeveless top, most likely completed with a black skirt and shoes. It didn't make her look part of the Gothic scene, however; black made this woman look professional. "Good morning, Mr. Kaiba," she said in a quiet voice. "I received some phone calls today from Tsubah Communications. Apparently they want to set up an appointment with you concerning some of your newer technology." Walking over to her desk, I watched as she winked and added, "I will be in with your coffee shortly."
That was all I needed to hear. Nodding my head, I strolled into my office and shut the double doors behind me, sauntering over to the glass desk in the back of the large office and placing my silver, bullet-proof briefcase down on the end. My office was very simple and stereotypical; an entire wall was dedicated to bookshelves, I having already read most of the books, one wall had a built-in television set and two dark green couches in front so that visitors (a.k.a Mokuba) could watch it. There was black, marble flooring and white walls, a single overhead light illuminating the room.
Then there was the wall made entirely of windows behind my desk, and as I sat down in my black, leather chair, I could see the sunlight shining in and illuminating the room. Ah, how I loved my position in this world. The shit humans made up about my kind were as ridiculous as the claims saying they could kill me. Garlic, holy water, even the sun were my enemies? Ha! Nothing could stop me. But then again, there was only me.
Well, I guess that is false. There were a few other vampires in this world, but out of a population of six billion humans, there were perhaps only six including myself. I only knew of one other, however that individual stated he had others on his side. Whether I believed him or not was another tale. Speaking of which…
As if on cue with my thoughts, the phone rang obnoxiously loud. I pressed my finger on the speaker phone and chuckled. "Well, good morning Uebana Kance," I greeted through the speaker.
"Good morning, Kaiba Seto, or should I simply refer to you as 'The Pretender' from now on?" he questioned, his medium-pitched voice coming through. You could almost say it was high-pitched, but my senses were distorted compared to humans. What was loud to them was nothing to me.
"You ask that question every day, Uebana, yet I give you the same answer," I retorted, leaning back in my chair and smirking. I could feel my eyes beginning to turn color and decided to let it go. Nobody was here except Arisa, and she was getting me my coffee. "You can call me the Blood Jewel if we need formalities."
"Ah, but you see, that would require me to believe you to be such a creature," he remarked slyly. "And that, my friend, is not what I have in mind."
"So I've come to understand over these past years." Uebana Kance was the head of this organization against me, an organization simply known to me as 'the organization', having no real name to go by. It was a huge deal centuries ago, but as time progressed, its numbers dwindled down to the ones I kill every evening. I didn't understand how they recruited these people, and I didn't care to know. But Uebana and I had more in common than a simple feud. We were both vampires. And he didn't respect my authority as the Blood Jewel. As one can see, that leads to problems.
Ever since I inherited title as the Blood Jewel, Uebana has sent men to kill me almost every night, claiming that, as an elder above me, he had every right to the throne. What I often wondered was why he wanted it so badly. But those things I don't often think about, especially when my true state takes over. Then it is simply a matter of survival, primal instincts taking over, of killing people, or vampires as the case may be, which stand in my way.
"It is my understanding as well that you killed another of us this past evening," Uebana continued. "I am deeply troubled by your stubbornness, Mr. Kaiba. In fact, I'm afraid that the numbers you have cost my organization are becoming quite a problem."
"There is a solution to this problem, you know," I countered. "That is to merely pull your troops out of my city."
"That would be admitting defeat, and a Uebana never admits defeat."
"You call me stubborn, yet you would throw away your organization just to get to me?" I asked the question as if I was surprised. Of course he would; the Uebana family has been against the lineage of Blood Jewels that eventually found its way to me since the Middle Ages. They were known to be selfish assholes, yet people continued to work for them. It was a pointless question for an even more pointless crusade.
"I just wanted to inform you that, because of the problems you have caused us, I'm afraid we'll be lowering our watch on you," he continued. As he said this, I heard the door open and quickly looked up to see Arisa walk in, a tray of coffee in her hands. I smirked and watched as she walked towards the coffee table set in the middle of the room and placed the tray down. Before she could turn around to leave, I held my finger up, indicating I wanted her to stay. She did. She was always so obedient.
"Lowering the watch?" I questioned.
"I promise you that no harm will come to those who you associate with," Uebana stated. "Your brother is not the Blood Jewel; I have no quarrel with him. It is you that I am after, and let me assure you, I will claim your title and avenge those you have defeated. However, recruitments are rather low, and me being the gentleman that I am decided to give you a call and tell you that you will not be enjoying my organization's blood every night from now on. Do not take this as a victory, Mr. Kaiba."
I chuckled and leaned forward, my elbows now on the desk. "Uebana, so you say, but yet you call me every morning and deliver the same speech. Just because we are the same species does not make us equal. I will continue my reign as the Blood Jewel, and your organization will fail, just as it always has and is now showing signs of doing. Now, unless there is anything new you would like to report, which I highly doubt because you never seem to, then I'm afraid I must actually get some work done rather than waste my time dealing with an imbecile chasing something that doesn't belong to him. Good day, Uebana."
"And good day to you, Mr. Kaiba," Uebana replied. "Let us hope that the next hunter that finds you does a better job than the last." The line went dead, and I rolled my eyes and clicked the button to turn speaker phone off.
"I must say, I do not understand why he calls you every morning to basically inform you that you are still alive," Arisa stated as she poured a cup of coffee into the clear mug. Walking forward, she gently placed it on the desk and smiled. She was so intelligent, but her voice and movements showed an elegance and quietness unlike I had ever seen. She was graceful about everything.
"He does it to make sure I know I haven't killed the last of his organization," I explained, grasping the cup in my hand and smirking, my fangs beginning to show. It was my favorite joke against humans, my obsession with coffee. Everybody, including Mokuba, knew that I could not function daily like I do without the essential goodness of coffee. What they didn't know was what was in my coffee…or even that it wasn't coffee I was drinking at all…
It was synthetic blood.
Synthetic blood, unlike human blood, lacked the flavor but still packed the same punch. I had designed it so that I could continue my progress around the clock, making sure that sleep was not a necessity. Many vampires lived in the night, drinking once or maybe twice a day, before going into their damned sleep. I hated to sleep; sleep brought back nightmares that I could never shake off. So by drinking my 'coffee' everyday, I could continue on without the useless waste of hours for a nap. Besides, it provided me with entertainment. Humans said I couldn't function without it, and they were right… They just didn't know why.
"Is it to your liking?" Arisa asked as I took a sip of it. Of course it was; I made it. And as the blood trickled down my throat, filling me with the much-needed energy, I could feel power slowly returning to me.
"Yes; thank you," I replied, smiling widely at her. "It is always a pleasure to come to work when you have this waiting for you."
"Might I ask, sir, why you don't just feed before coming to work?" Arisa asked. Arisa knew of my condition, of what she was giving me, and she accepted the responsibility fully. She was definitely not a Knight, however she served her purpose as a human servant. Besides, I needed no Knight to protect me. I was immortal.
"That would attract far too much attention," I explained, leaning back in my office chair and taking another sip of the red liquid. "Businessmen and high-class officials are the only ones that leave for work when I do, and if word got out that they were attacked, it would draw the unwanted attention of the police and hunters. By hunting on the weak and useless, I can keep the public eye off of me."
"An intelligent plan, sir," she stated. I set the cup back down, and she asked, "Would you like another cup, sir?"
"Yes please," I answered, watching her as she picked the cup up and refilled it before setting it back down.
"So…you hunted another hunter?" she questioned, her smile slowly fading.
"Yes. He stalked me around the downtown area, and I quickly disposed of him in the park."
"Did he say who he was?"
"No. He wanted to see the color of my eyes, and then I killed him."
"Why did he want to see your eyes?"
"I guess he wanted to make sure I was truly a vampire."
Arisa chuckled and shook her head. "Your fangs obviously don't give it away."
"Yes, I know. But they are all idiots, people without a brain that blindly follow that ignorant Uebana fool. They deserve the death that I give them."
Nodding her head, she asked, "Do you think there will be another hunter tonight? They seem to be pretty lax as of late."
"I highly doubt he has the men to do so. After all, I kill almost one a night, and I'm sure that recruitment isn't that high. Only the extreme people will join him, and his army I'm sure has no idea who he really is. He even admitted he was lowering the watch. So no, his motley bunch of followers most likely won't be stalking me around as much as they have been."
"What do you mean by 'motley bunch', sir? I thought they were all trained professionals." I was surprised that Arisa was asking so many questions. She was usually one to just accept what I told her and keep quiet. It wasn't that I minded, but… It was strange.
"The hunters he employs either work for the church or are just in it for blood," I stated. "Yet the religious people wouldn't accept the fact that he is also part of the Damned society, or what little there is of it, and the mercenaries don't care. Either way, they are people who don't have a place in normal society, so it is the perfect army for him."
"Why do you not hire several people to hunt them down for you?" Arisa asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. Her neck was fully shown, and it took a lot of willpower in me to not jump over the desk and drain her dry. The blood kick-started my system, but it also put me in primal mode. Sure it would wear down in another ten minutes or so, but it was difficult to focus on the conversation. I was, after all, a monster.
"That would, again, bring about too much attention and lead to an all-out turf war. I will never allow it to get to that level again."
"I… I see." She slowly took the cup away and walked back to the table, setting it down on the tray before picking it back up. "You will never lose to those hunters, correct?"
She was so adorable, Arisa. That was the only word to describe her…well, maybe cute. Either one, it was a word that I hardly used, yet there was no other way to say it. She did whatever I asked of her, never once questioning, always in it for my best interests. She always worried about me, where I was, what I was doing, and whether I was okay or not. I realized that it may be the reason she is now asking me so many questions. Yet she was neither a vampire nor a Knight, so her reasoning for following me around was still unknown to me. I just knew that light prevailed in her aura and that I was basically God to her. That's all I really needed to know for now. It wasn't like she didn't have a brain and blindly followed orders; she just used her brain to assist me. It was cute.
"Arisa, I will be fine," I reassured her. I could sense her level of relief increase slightly and smirked. "You have nothing to worry about."
Slowly nodding her head, she picked the tray back up and bowed slightly before asking, "Is there anything else I can get for you?"
"Get the representative from Tsubah Communications on the line," I ordered, starting my computer up and pulling several folders out. It was time to get down to business, time to put on my human mask. It was time to do my duty as Seto Kaiba, CEO of KaibaCorp. "I will need a list of the parts acquired for our new project from yesterday as well."
"Yes sir," she answered before turning and leaving the office. I embraced the silence that enveloped the room at her departure, frowning and leaning back in my chair. I could feel my blood high coming down, returning me to my human state of mind, the primal urges within me slowly washing away. This was the responsibility of the Blood Jewel: to act human in front of society while being the beast you are at night. It was a position that I had come to embrace, for it meant having a purpose during the day while relieving frustrations about that purpose at night.
What always confused me was this Uebana Kance. Why anybody would volunteer for this position was beyond my line of reasoning. Who would want this responsibility? Who would want the problems that came with this lifestyle? Heh, this was no lifestyle…this was just a chosen destiny for me, a pathway I was pushed and forced to take for the rest of eternity. This was my eternity…a word that made me shiver every time I thought it. It was something I was made to embrace, to accept. Gripping the edge of my chair, I groaned as memories began to pour into my head, opening my eyes and shuddering at the sensation. No, I couldn't think about it. I couldn't think about how fucked-up my situation really was…what I was forced to endure… I couldn't. I wouldn't.
Turning towards my computer, I smiled and began to access some of my files. Get lost in my work, just like I always did. Work seemed to be the only thing that couldn't remind me of my condition. It had no aura, no judgment of me, no eternity hanging over its head. It was something that had to get done, something I needed to focus on. It was something that gave me a little pleasure in my life other than the life sustenance of humans.
It was one of the only things that connected me to my humanity, my past life, as well.
Shrugging, I began to type away feverishly, Uebana Kance, the previous evening, and all my past atrocities falling by the wayside. My human mask was taking over…and I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would.