So guys I definitely didn't think I'd be doing this again, but after re-watching the series I remembered how much I loved it and how much I loved writing about it. It also helped that you guys left such lovely reviews and how each time I got a notification of someone clicking 'favorite' I got the happy giggles. So, I decided to muster up enough writing gusto to at least write one chapter. I really hope you enjoy it and please, if you can, a review would be amazing. And yes, some of the backstory might not be entirely accurate with the actual plot line of the original series, but when is it ever in fan fiction?

Disclaimer: I do not own Shiki, though if I did there'd be more Tatsumi, because he's a sexy beast…

Sunset

Chapter 1: Vamps for Hire

November 18th, 2011: Anchorage, Alaska

Even though the time on the clock read 9:27AM, the current mini-blizzard that was terrorizing the city of Anchorage made everything look like an endless dark-white world. The students sighed and texted their friends under the table while the teacher, ever oblivious, droned on about melting polar ice-caps and other matters that the students should've been listening to, but they weren't. It was Friday after all, and almost all the kids were going to one party or another.

A knock to the door startled the class and pulled everyone out of their little day-dreams, even the teacher, who was actually thinking of the best time to go to the bar and check out chicks. The door opened and one of those useless fat counselors that sat around in the main office and ate bad food came in, talking about transfer students.

That sure got people's attention. Who would transfer here, and so late into the semester? The counselor motioned a 'come on in' gesture with her hand. The transfer student in question walked into the room, and time stopped. Girls who were in mid-conversation stopped what they were doing and blatantly stared, while all the guys in the room instantly glared at the student with territorial glances.

The student in question sighed and brushed his purple (yes, purple!) hair from his that also happened to be an electric violet-blue hybrid. He scanned the class quickly, and all the girls instantly straightened their postures and the guys put on their best 'come at me bro!' look they could muster. The boy internally sighed and wondered how long it would take his brothers to finish the job that had been assigned to them last week.

"Class, this is Natsuno Koide, a transfer student from Japan. He'll be staying with us for a couple of weeks. He's never been to the US before, so be nice to him. Why don't you introduce yourself to the class, Natsuno?"

Natsuno winced at the use of his first name by a total stranger but did what she asked anyways. He noticed the males were smiling at the mention of this being his first time in the US (which was a lie made up for the assignment) and laughed on the inside for what he was about to say. "My name is Natsuno Koide, although I'd prefer if you all called me Koide, as that is the common way to address one's classmate in Japan. I'm here with my younger sister Sunako, but she won't be joining me at school because of a long-standing battle with cancer. Please treat me well."

The jaws of the Americans in the classroom collectively dropped as soon as Natsuno started speaking. Hell, Natsuno could speak English better than 99% of the students in that room and they'd been speaking it their whole lives!

The teacher, still in awe of Natsuno's excellent speaking skills, merely stood at the impressive Japanese teen in his classroom until the counselor nudged his side and he remembered e had to speak. "Ah yes, Mr. Koide please choose a seat wherever you feel comfortable."

All the girls with single seats hastily de-cluttered the empty seat beside them, in hopes that the gorgeous young transfer student would choose them as a seat partner. Their hopes were crushed however when the beautiful new boy chose a seat by a young girl blonde haired girl whose aura said 'I'm beautiful and he knows it, so you can go suck it!'

With the excitement dying down, the teacher attempted to grab the student's attention once more. "Ah, well, let's get back on topic shall we? We still have a lot to cover in the thirty remaining minutes we have together."

A collective sigh wafted throughout the classroom and the students went back to what they were doing prior to the new student; they did keep on casting glances at him, but his stare was fixed to the window, where the blizzard raged on.

November 18th, 2011 (Anchorage): 11:15PM

Even though Anchorage was a large city, it abided to the temperament of the insane weather that it got this time of year. Most stores were closed by five and most restaurants by nine; almost everything except for a couple dive bars on the outskirts of town was closed. Only one car could be seen driving through the dismal abyss of snow and darkness. Seishin lifted the binoculars from his eyes and squinted into the blizzard, and could barely make out the headlights from the car he'd just seen.

"Oi, pass them over would you? She wants to see. Sunako is getting hungry and we all know what happens when she gets too hungry…" Tatsumi left the sentence hanging, but Seishin could easily put in a dozen ends; bad things happened when the eldest of the group got hungry.

Seishin passed them over without complaint, and Tatsumi hastily put them up to his eyes. He studied the blizzard for a moment, and then pulled them down from his face. He turned to Seishin. "That's the car Natsuno described isn't it? A silver Jeep liberty owned by a bitchy-looking blonde girl; let's see if Natsuno can play his cards right".

Anita Goodwin sang along to Katy Perry while she thought about her amazing day. They got a new transfer student, who was a total hottie, and he sat next to her and had four other classes with him; in each class, he sat next to her! He asked about her life but gave almost no information about his own, but Anita was ok with that; it gave her more chances to talk about herself. He even allowed her to say his first name

All her friends at school said he was into her, and she desperately hoped they were right; he was gorgeous on a god-like level, a state that no boy in her town could ever hope to achieve. "Oh Natsuno, where are you?" she asked to her windshield, but the heavens must've heard her. When she rounded the next bend, who was she to see but Natsuno, who was raising his desperate arms around, barely seeable in the blizzard. Anita slammed her brakes and jumped out of her car.

Natsuno noticed her and relief came to his face, along with a beautiful smile that made her heart stop. "Thank god you saw me Anita. I was driving when one of my tires blew out; my sister is still in the car and getting colder by the minute. My cellphone is dead and I was getting really worried that I wouldn't find anyone for Sunako." Ah yes, the cancer sister; Anita remembered him mentioning that. She smirked: this was her chance to prove to him that she was beautiful and kind!

"I'll drive you guys back into town, where you can call a tow. Show me where you guys are." He smiled at her again and her knees almost bucked. He motioned her to follow him, and she went all too willingly. He led her down the winding path and onto an off ramp, one that was rarely used. "Why'd you guys go down here?" She asked, but he just turned and smiled again, and she forgot she asked.

Around them snow fell in heavy bunches, and Anita could feel her body growing colder, and cursed herself for not thinking of just driving down there. She was about to say something when a large branch cracked in the woods to her left and she let out a little scream.

"Do the things that go 'bump' in the night scare you?" Natsuno asked her without facing her, and she let out a shaky less, suddenly frightened. "Well then…" he drifted off and turned to face her, and she let out an ear-piercing scream. His face was almost completely obscured by the snow, but she could see glowing red eyes glaring into hers. "…you really shouldn't offer rides to monsters, because they'll eat up pretty young things like you." He smiled, and where teeth should've been, fangs were.

She turned and got five feet away when her knees were kicked out from under her and her face hit the freezing snow. She looked up to see a young girl with long purple hair and red eyes. "Good catch Sunako, but she wouldn't have made it far anyways," Natsuno spoke, and Anita realized there were two monsters staring down at her.

"Seishin, Tatsumi, we got her; you can come out now," the girl called out, and it was a childish voice, as though they caught the last member of hide-and-seek, not a likely murder victim.

'Murder victim…I'm going to die aren't I?' Anita thought, and began screaming with all her might. Maybe someone else would be on the road, would hear her screams. That idea was ended abruptly when she was flipped onto her back and Natsuno delivered a kick to her stomach that left her gasping for air. The other two, presumably the one's she'd just called, were looking at her too; one looked calm, the other eager.

When she could finally speak, she begged: "Please don't kill me! I won't tell anyone what you did; I won't talk to you, I won't' talk to the police; I won't do anything!" At this point she was sobbing, and the four monsters above her looked unsympathetic to her cries.

"We won't kill you," spoke the calm-looking one, "you won't even remember the feeding; you'll only have mild anemia and no memory of what happened here. We're just here to feed, not murder."

Before Anita could process what he'd said, Natsuno lifted her up by the neck and put his lips to her neck. 'Oh my god….they're fucking vamp-'. Her train of thought ended when Natsuno sunk his teeth into her neck and Anita faded into unconsciousness…

Seishin gently guided Anita back to her car, told her to start the ignition, and to keep driving until she got home. She nodded; her eyes were dull and motions sluggish. Seishin gave her a concerned look and spoke to the others. "Are you sure we didn't drain her too much? She's moving like she's been fed off of for days…"

"Well," Sunako spoke, sneaking up on him, "that's bound to happen when four of us feed at once. That's why we chose to attack on a Friday. Come Monday she'll be fine, and she won't remember any of this."

Seishin nodded and shut the driver door. Anita started up the car, and the jeep sped off into the night. Once it was out of sight, Sunako turned to Tatsumi who was already removing his shoes. Sunako removed a manila envelope from inside her jacket and tossed it to Tatsumi. Seishin quickly unlaced his boots as Sunako began speaking.

"Now that we're nice and full, let's get started here. Tatsumi, you and Seishin are to scope out the area to make sure the number of vamps described in the package sent to us was true. Howl when you've reached an answer. Retreat as soon as you have the information. Do not be seen."

With that last statement, the two boys were off, sprinting soundlessly into the forest. Sunako leaned against a fallen tree trunk and sighed loudly, which was an odd thing for her to do, seeing as how she hadn't taken a real breath in hundreds of years. Natsuno copied her and relaxed against an adjacent tree trunk. He began to wander off in his mind when Sunako began speaking again, so softly a human wouldn't be able to hear it.

"This night is so beautiful, it really takes me back…" she had a slightly sad smile on her face, and Natsuno couldn't help but ask why. "Oh, I never told you? Tatsumi's known for a long time, and I revealed it to Seishin right before he was turned." Sunako looked back at her, and Natsuno swore he could see tears fall from her doll-like face. "It was on a night similar to this that I was killed and turned into one of us."

Beautiful dresses flew across the dance floor as more and more guest arrived for the party. Men and women of high status kept on flowing in; the girl wondered if any were royalty. She looked down at her pale blue dress, and wondered if anyone would notice her. It was her parent's party, but as the youngest child she often got overlooked for her smart brothers or beautiful sisters. This was only the first of many winter galas, but she knew they'd all be the same.

The girl sighed and attempted to sit up like a proper lady, but her back was hurting from the small corset mother forced her to wear and slumping helped her to breathe. She was grabbing for another roll to sneak while no one was watching when a hand fell upon her shoulder. She flinched, and prepared to listen to another lecture from her mother; instead, a voice like an angel choir befell her ears.

"You must be the youngest of the children, correct?" She turned and there stood a man more beautiful than anything the girl had ever seen before: light blonde hair fell in straight locks to his shoulders, skin as white as white as fresh-fallen snow, and eyes of beautiful hazel. "It is my greatest pleasure to make your acquaintance, young miss; my name is Sir Alexander Charmaine. May I have this dance?"

With a blush that covered her face, she merely nodded and he nearly swept her off her feet and into the center of the dance floor. Other couples stopped and stared at the beautiful man in front of her, and she blushed even more. "Ignore them; just focus on my voice and the sound of the music." She nodded and they glided across the floor.

The song ended and he bowed; she hesitated, but quickly followed his example. He took her by the hand and led her towards one of the balconies. They walked outside into the cold air, but the girl couldn't feel the cold; her body was still warm from thoughts of the dance. He closed the balcony doors and faced her once more. He stared deeply into her eyes, so much so that she could feel him staring into her soul.

"I wanted you to know that you are the most gorgeous thing I've seen yet, and I wish to see you again; is that alright?" She nodded once again, and he rewarded her with a smile that made her heart stop.

Suddenly she was pulled close, and she couldn't breathe. Was he going to kiss her? Was this her fairy-tale romance that she'd been promised? She closed her eyes and leaned in. The man leaned down until his mouth was at her neck, and she turned scarlet. Did he mean to…

Her thoughts slowly fell apart in her head as everything started to blur, except for the man with his mouth on her neck. She began to lose all feeling in her body, and wondered if this whole experience had overwhelmed her.

As darkness began to claim her, she opened her eyes and looked up; funny, his eyes seemed to be crimson in this light. When unconsciousness finally overtook her, she noticed something very odd. 'Why, this is just like one of those stories about vampires my sister would tell me when I couldn't….'

"After that he came to my room every night and sucked my blood until my veins ran dry. My parents buried me, and two days later I came back. They put me in a cellar and would have maids come in each night so I could fulfill my…hunger. Many years past, and eventually the servants stopped coming. I broke out of the cellar, only to find a new family had moved in. I searched for decades, until I realized that not even my youngest older brother could still be living."

Natsuno stood speechless; he tried to process words, but they just weren't forming in his head. "Oh," Sunako said, touching her pointer finger to her chin, "if you're wondering about Sir Charmaine, I took care of him several years ago…"

Natsuno could feel the malice pouring out of her words, so he decided not to enquire any further about the man who made her life hell. Instead he thought about how much this changed things. If that man hadn't chosen Sunako as his victim, she never would've turned, and Sotoba would still be fine. He could've had kids, a wife, and a family.

He grimaced at the thought. Sotoba had been a place to get away from, and even though it was in a violent way, he'd gotten that wish granted. He was thankful for the life he had. He also had a family, albeit a very unorthodox one.

Branches shifted to his left, but Natsuno only lifted a lazy stare at the two approaching figures. "Sunako, the information was correct. The nest seems to have about ten, although one of them mentioned that 'Ryan' had yet to return, so we can assume at least eleven."

"Alright then; thank you boys, you did wonderful. Now let's get down to business."