Disclaimer- I don't own Vampire Knight

Chapter 22

Takuma

"Do you think they noticed?" Sara asked, leaning seductively close to Michael.

A dark chuckle permeated the air and Michael removed his pale hand from his face to reveal his gray tinted green eyes and allowing his blond hair to fall into his face. "Oh, they noticed."

"Kaname will be angry," Sara giggled.

"I don't care, it's time the games began. I have every intention of taking everything from Reina. Starting with the lives of those around her and ending with her own. I'll make sure she suffers for what she did to me."

"How do you think she'll react when she sees the man that she loved killing all of her precious little friends and even the daughter she produced with him?" Sara inquired with dark curiosity.

"I don't know, but the look on her face should prove to be quite entertaining. Especially if it's any better than the one just now when all she saw was his reflection in the window," Michael replied with a sadistic grin that looked out of place on the handsome face of the boy whose body he had taken for his own.

"She's weak now. Her body was too frail to carry a pureblood child and it has weakened her greatly."

Snorting arrogantly, Michael smirked. "Reina has always been weak. I suppose it's a good thing that I didn't take her as my wife. She was only good for bearing one pureblood child and now she'll never have another. Such a disgrace to the purebloods... I've said it before, that woman doesn't deserve the blood flowing through her veins."

Running her fingers over Michael's pale cheek and brushing some blond hair from his eyes, Sara said, "Then maybe we should take it from her. I'm sure we can find something useful to do with it."

"All in due time."

"What do you think the meaning of that scene was?" Kaname asked, directing his attention to Ken who was seated across from him.

The dark haired man shook his head and closed his eyes to let out a long sigh. "I really don't know. I think it's odd that none of us sensed anything, which leads me to believe that high level magic was used. Why magic would be used to make Reina and Emiko both react that way I don't know, all I can figure is that Michael is trying to announce his presence to everyone and to let Reina know that Takuma is alive."

Resting his chin on his steepled fingers, Kaname spoke again. "Whatever the meaning behind it is, I think we can assume that Michael and Sara have just about finished with whatever they're planning. We need to be on the lookout for them. And we need to be sure that Reina, Emiko and my son are all safe."

Reina groaned, fidgeting in the bed she was in only to be confused when she felt a light pressure on her right arm. Humming curiously, she blinked her sapphire eyes open to see that Emiko was curled up beside her, her golden head resting on her shoulder. It was slightly confusing to wake up in the position she was in with absolutely no memory of how she and Emiko had gotten to the room she and Kaname shared. Rubbing at her head with the tips of her fingers, she frowned feeling that she was forgetting something important. She brushed the feeling aside when she heard a quiet rustling and looked over to see the bassinet that her son slept in in the corner of the room.

She couldn't see over the edge of the crib, but she could sense the presence of the child she had carried for nine long months sleeping peacefully within it. Normally the child wasn't kept in the bedroom, but in his own nursery since Reina had been in no shape to care for the boy and needed as much rest as she could get without interruption. Sighing in contentment, she rested her cheek against Emiko's head until she felt the little girl begin to stir. Lifting her head, Reina tucked some golden blond hair behind the little girl's ear.

"Momma," Emiko muttered tiredly, letting her deep blue eyes open so she could groggily look up at her mother and rub at her eyes. "My head hurts."

Putting a hand on the girl's blond head, Reina smiled and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry little one, will you be okay?"

Pushing herself up carefully, Emiko nodded and looked around. A look of confusion bloomed on her face when she realized where she was. "Why are we in here?"

"I'm not really sure myself," Reina answered softly, frowning again when she got the sense that there was something she was forgetting. Shaking her head of the thought, she looked down at Emiko and smiled, pinching the little girl's nose. "You've grown in the last few months."

Grinning proudly, Emiko nodded. "Uncle Hana says it's all because of him."

Reina laughed, the quiet sound of tinkling bells that made Emiko's smile grow. "That's probably because you have a bad habit of draining poor Hana of all his energy. Really, Emi, I'd appreciate it if you learned at least a little restraint. I like Hana. Drain Shiki more often, he never acts like he has energy anyways so there won't be much difference there."

"But Uncle Shiki and Aunt Rima never come to see us anymore," Emiko pouted, her chubby face falling.

Reina sighed and ruffled her hair. "They have their reasons, Emi. I'm sure they'll stop by to see us again soon enough."

The door to the room opened quietly and Kaname stepped inside, smiling warmly. "How are you feeling, Reina?"

"Fine, just what happened though? I don't remember," she admitted, frowning as she rested her cheek against the top of Emiko's head and ran her fingers through the girl's thick blond locks of hair.

"You came to join everyone for dinner, but you collapsed. I brought you up here to rest some more, Emi was worried as well and fell asleep with you."

"I see..But I feel as if I'm forgetting something," she replied softly.

"Perhaps you'll remember in time," Kaname suggested.

"Perhaps," Reina replied with a distracted smile.

"Emiko, would you mind giving your mother and I a moment alone?" Kaname asked politely with a gentle smile to the young girl.

Nodding, Emiko smiled up at Reina and hopped off the bed, bouncing out of the room happily. She knew how much her mother loved Kaname and she knew that it had been a long time since they had been alone together while Reina was actually able to move once again. All she wanted was to see her mom smile again and she knew that Kaname would be able to help with that.

Once the door had shut behind Emiko, Kaname walked away from the sleeping child in the bassinet and approached Reina. It was amusing to watch her reaction. Her cheeks tinted the palest of pinks and she swallowed before her breathing became a little more shallow.

"I've missed you," Kaname uttered softly, sitting beside his wife and cupping her cheek in his palm, stroking the velvety flesh with his thumb.

Reina sighed and let her eyes flutter closed in response to the gentle, loving touch. "I've missed you too, Kaname...I love you," she said, taking the hand on her cheek and tenderly kissing the long fingers.

As Kaname made to reply a soft cry stole Reina's attention and her eyes strayed from his to settle upon the bassinet that their son was in. Standing from the bed, Kaname approached their child and gently lifted a bundle of squirming blue blankets into his arms. Returning to Reina, he laid the baby in her arms and watched her face brighten with happiness as she ran a finger over the soft cheek of their son and spoke quietly to him.

"I think he's going to look like you," Reina said, looking up with a content smile.

"Hopefully he doesn't act like me."

Reina chuckled softly. "You're not all bad, you have your good moments," she teased lovingly.

He couldn't think of anything to say in response, he felt too consumed with guilt. He had put Reina through enough in the time that they had known each other and now he was hiding the truth about the man she had loved so dearly and whose daughter was now like his own.

Sensing that something was bothering Kaname, Reina laid a hand on his cheek and when he looked up at her, smiled. "Something has been bothering you for sometime, Kaname. I don't expect you tell me everything, you have a lot to deal with as ruler of the vampire world and some of those things I am better off not involved in. I don't like to see you sad, not when we should be deciding on a name for our child."

"You're right, I apologize," Kaname replied, smiling ever so slightly and looking down at the bundle in Reina's arms. "It is about time that this little one received his name."

"Any ideas?"

"Perhaps we should ask Emiko, I told her that she could help in choosing a name."

"Hmmm, I think he looks like a Haruka," Emiko said surely, bobbing her head to prove she was certain of her answer.

Hearing the familiar name Reina blinked and looked to Kaname to see what his reaction would be to Emiko's suggestion that they give their son the same name as the man who had raised him. He didn't seem perturbed in the slightest, he smiled at Emiko and nodded.

"What do you think, Reina?" He asked.

Smiling, she replied, "I think it's perfect."

Michael snorted and turned away from the stone basin and the water that was mirroring the events that were happening in the home that was quite far away. "Disgusting."

Lifting a blond brow in dainty amusement, Sara skipped to her lover's side and looped her arm through his. "You sound jealous, dear," she commented tauntingly.

Scoffing, Michael shook the small woman from his arm. "Jealous? Of that?" He asked incredulously. "Far from it, it makes me want to be sick."

"Well, whatever," she replied dismissively, shrugging a thin shoulder arrogantly. "The little princess is still weak from childbirth don't you think now would be a good time to make our move?"

"Not while the others are there. Kaname won't leave her side willingly and after the earlier theatrics he knows that we're ready to begin moving. Let's give it a little time," Michael answered with a snake like smirk.

Sighing in disappointment, Sara let herself fall onto a lavish chaise and put a hand over her eyes. "But I'm bored," she complained.

"You're always bored. There's no satisfying you," Michael muttered in annoyance. "Anyways," he spoke up again. "We can't move while she has three purebloods guarding her. It's too risky."

Removing her arm from her eyes, Sara turned her attention to the now pacing form of Michael as he frowned at the flooring. She quirked her eyebrows and rested her head on her fist so that she could stare at him curiously. "You're worried that in your current state you won't be able to stand up to Kaname. It's not like you to be so...cowardly."

Hissing through clenched teeth, Michael turned his gray tinted green eyes in the direction of the beautiful golden haired girl that was watching him with amusement.

"Oops," she giggled innocently. "Did I saw that out loud? I didn't mean it. Honest."

"Of course you didn't," Michael grumbled angrily. "I'm not being a coward. I'm being careful. This body, as fun as it may be, is not going to be able to withstand a battle with a pureblood like Kuran. He won't hesitate to kill his own friend if it means he can protect his precious little queen Reina. I may have a good deal of pure blood flowing through my veins, but it won't be much help against him. I can handle my brother, even his pretty little wife, but I know better than to pick a fight with Kaname. If I plan on living through to see this game to the end, I have to move carefully."

"Yes, yes," Sara sighed while flippantly waving a hand in the air. "Being careful is boring though, dear. I want to have some fun already."

"I didn't say you couldn't have fun, Sara," Michael replied, grinning devilishly at her. "I just said that our game was going to have to wait a little while longer. In the meantime we can always play other games."

"Now that sounds fun," the blond girl purred, tossing herself back onto the chaise with a wicked smiled on her doll like face. "I wonder what we should play..."

"How about a game that takes time and thought to play."

"Like a strategy game?"

"Why not?" Michael shrugged a shoulder and picked a glass of deep red colored liquid up from the desk he had stopped to lean against. "We have quite a bit of time to kill, after all," he said suggestively before taking a deep swig from the crystal glass.

"Yes, yes we do," replied Sara thoughtfully.

Two years later...

"How long has this been going on?" Reina asked, her voice pouring through a speaker phone that was set up on a thick wooden table top.

"Apparently things of this... nature have been happening for over two years," Kaname answered. He was at the headquarters of the Vampire Hunter's Association, having been summoned by Cross in response to an urgent message with little information.

"Two years?" Reina repeated. "Basically since the birth of our son. You can't tell me that this is just a coincidence?"

Cross spoke up, his eyes hidden behind his spectacles as he leaned back and the light from the overhead chandelier reflected off of the glass. "How we didn't find out until now... Well, that's fairly simple."

"Most people disappear, these didn't. They continued to live their lives almost normally," Zero finished, brushing his white hair from his face.

Glancing at Kaname, Zero shook his head before looking towards the speaker phone. They had decided that it was best to include Reina in the discussion over the recent discovery, but it was proving difficult to remain silent on certain topics when there was little doubt in the minds of those gathered at the Association headquarters that those topics were what they should be discussing.

"I don't know what it is," Zero replied after a few moments thought.

"You have to be kidding?" Reina replied incredulously. "You find out that nearly a hundred people in the towns surrounding our home have been made vampires and you're telling me you no idea who's doing it?"

Zero looked away from the phone with a scowl and refrained from saying anything.

Kaname could easily sense that the news had troubled his wife. It was understandable and she was right, it was hardly a coincidence. There were few reasons why the people in the surrounding towns would be turned into vampires that would obey whatever pureblood that made them and none of them boded well for their family.

"I doubt there is anything to worry about, Reina," Kaname offered reassuringly. "There's no way that former humans would be able to get through the security-"

"It's not the former humans that worry me, Kaname," Reina interrupted. "It's who made them and why."

"I understand that the news is upsetting, but we're dealing with the situation as best we can and we will provide you with as much protection as you need," Cross said. "We've already sent a number of hunters to the villages and your home to be sure that your family is safe."

"And what good would a small group of hunters be against an army of vampires and their pureblood lord? I'm not taking you lightly," Reina continued before Zero could remind her that it had been hunters that had helped her against the Takamora's several years before. "I'm simply saying that we don't know what we're up against. We have an idea and it could be only one pureblood and with those of us here one pureblood wouldn't be much of a challenge. However, I doubt that Daiki Takamora did all of this on his own."

"You're right," Zero agreed, lounging back in the seat he was in and eying Kaname almost lazily while ignoring the warning glances cast in his direction by Cross. "We don't believe it was one pureblood, but two, maybe even three."

"Three? What makes you say that?" Reina inquired.

Zero shrugged. "Just a hunch," he answered boredly.

Silence descended upon the phone line a moment. "A hunch, hm? Mind elaborating?"

"Even if there are three purebloods," Cross cut in. "We've dealt with worse odds in the past and survived. There's nothing to worry about."

"Of course there's nothing to worry about. Even if there are three purebloods they can be dealt with easily enough," Zero said.

"I hope you're right," Reina spoke up. "I'm not going to sit idly by like a good little girl if I sense that my family is in danger. I suggest you find the cause of the.. disturbance, and take care of it."

The line went dead and silence engulfed the room. Cross leaned forward and pushed a button to quiet the phone that was beginning to beep loudly at them after having been left off the hook for too long.

"Kiryu," Kaname called conversationally, his face blank. "Is there a reason why you tried to provoke Reina with your mention of three purebloods?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kuran," Zero answered a sharp not to his otherwise calm tone.

Speaking up before the two men could start any type of argument, Cross cleared his throat and began. "Kaname, we need to begin to formulate some sort of plan. There's little doubt about who is behind the turning of the people in the area, but we have yet to figure out where they're hiding or why they're taking the time to surround you with vampires they've turned. It makes no sense that they would waste time creating vampires that wouldn't last seconds when face to face with a pureblood. They should have made their move by now."

"It seems strange that they would wait so long I don't understand it myself," Kaname admitted, resting his arms on the dark wood of the chair he rested in. "We can assume that Michael has been biding his time, he's no longer in the body of a pureblood and he knows that he's weak."

"So it's a distraction?" Zero asked.

"If he keeps us focused on the people that are being turned then it gives him the opportunity to move about freely," Cross added, nodding his head as he tried to weigh the possibilities that the recent events where nothing more than a distraction.

Kaname shook his head. "If that were the case then as you said already, he should have made his move by now. Yet he hasn't and now the security around Reina and the children is tighter than it's ever been. There's something else going on."

Cross sighed tiredly. "I was afraid you'd say that."

"What do you think Michael could be planning? Why would he go through all the trouble of having his father or Sara turn the locals?" Zero asked.

"You're the Hunters isn't it your job to keep tabs on troublesome vampires?" Kaname replied with a small, taunting smile.

Gritting his teeth, Zero forced himself to not throw his pencil at the pureblood's head. Instead he set the writing utensil aside and glowered at the brown haired man. "You know full well that we've tried to pinpoint the location of Takuma Ichijo's body, Sara Shirabuki and Daiki Takamora. And you know that we've had no luck in finding them. I thought it was the duty of the self proclaimed king of the vampires to keep all of the leeches in line."

Eyes glinting darkly, Kaname smiled. "Touché. It seems we've both failed in our duties."

Snorting, Zero tossed his head and leaned it against the cold, hard wood of his seat. "We still haven't figured out what we're going to do about the situation."

"There's not much we can do," Cross answered, his eyes scanning through a document in his hand. "Each and every one of the humans that were turned were apparently all turned within the confines of the laws. None of them were forced, it was their choice to be turned. Many of them have also apparently said that the one to have turned them was a beautiful, mystery woman with golden hair who was always accompanied by a handsome young man whose most notable feature was his eyes. They appeared to be emerald green, but they were shadowed with gray."

"When exactly were you planning on telling me this, Cross?" Zero growled at the blond man who was looking at a sheet of paper before him with extreme interest.

"Hm?" Crossed hummed, blinking innocently up at the angry silver haired president of the Vampire Hunter's Society. "Sorry, what?"

Growling, Zero shook his head and resisted the urge to punch the man only a few feet away from him. Eyebrow twitching, he fisted his hands and glared at his former caretaker. "Was there anything else that you'd like to inform us about before we continue, Cross?"

"Hm? Nope, that's it," said man chirped happily. When he noticed Zero wasn't going to stop glaring at him, the man sighed. "The report came in just before the meeting, I hadn't looked it over yet."

"Idiot," Zero muttered darkly.

"I have a bad feeling about all of this," Cross admitted, setting down the document in his hands and adjusting his glasses.

"Yeah," Zero sighed, frowning up at the ceiling. "Me too."

"We can only do the same thing we've been doing for nearly eight years. Wait. The passage of a few years is nothing to a vampire, Michael is playing games and keeping himself entertained while he waits for the perfect opportunity to strike," Kaname said.

"When would that be?"

"Preferably?" Kaname replied. "When Reina's alone."

Setting the phone aside, Reina sighed and looked up curiously as the doorbell rang. Glancing toward the open doors of the library that she had been sitting in, she hummed thoughtfully when the doorbell sounded once again. Figuring that it was just another delivery for the upcoming surprise engagement party that she and Kaname were throwing for Kain and Ruka.

After years of being in love with the blond girl Kain had asked her to marry him, never mind the fact that they had never dated or anything. Much to his surprise, but not disappointment, she had said yes. They now spent much of their time together and Reina was quite happy for the couple that had both finally opened up to one another.

She stood up from where she sat, setting down the flowers she had been arranging in their black and white vase onto the table. There was another vase beside the one she had just finished arranging, a yellow, black and red hand painted Chinese styled one with white orchids and sprigs of cherry blossoms, she lifted this vase from the table and took it with her as she stepped out of the library and gracefully walked down the hall to the front doors.

The house was almost empty only Reina, Emiko, Haruka and their maids, Setsuka and Midori, in the house with very few others. Aido and Kain had left with Kaname, Shiki and Rima were at a modeling shoot and Ruka was with her family making wedding arrangements.

Since most of the staff was busy with planning and shopping for the party that was now less than a week away and even Setsuka and Midori where busy with chores that weren't usually theirs, Reina wasn't surprised that no one had heard the doorbell.

Gliding elegantly down the hall towards the door, Reina carefully held the vase of flowers in one hand and opened the door with the other. "May I help you?" She asked jovially, smiling up at her visitor only to suck in a deep breath when she met the eyes of the man that stood outside her home.

The sound of something shattering echoed loudly throughout the quiet manor as the colorful vase of flowers fell from Reina's shaking hand and erupted when it hit the floor. Water, flowers and brightly colored plaster splashed over the wood at her feet and all she could do was stare in shock up at the familiar face that was leering at her in such an unfamiliar way.

"Takuma..."