Beta: EternalAngel
A/N: Comments/critique much appreciated.

Echizen Ryoma didn't believe in vampires anymore.

He had convinced himself that the man he had seen when he was a kid was just another loony with fake fangs that got off scaring little kids. He didn't try to deny the fact that the man had scared him. He still had nightmares about the man, climbing through his window, attacking him at school, or when he was with his friends. He was still wary around men that had light hair, or spoke softly.

But the stranger hadn't been a vampire. Because vampires didn't exist. If a person believed in vampires, they might as well believe that babies were delivered to peoples' doorsteps by storks, or start searching for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

So when he was cornered in an alley one night, while on his way home from a friend's house, Ryoma thought them to be just normal muggers, two boys not much older then him. Ryoma threw his bag at their feet, and yelled, "My wallet's in there, all my money, my phone, it's all there!" thinking they would let him leave now, after getting what they wanted.

Neither made a move to pick up his bag and the other one, with black spiky hair, smirked. The two boys ignored his bag, and moved closer. He watched, as the one that had smirked kicked his bag, and then lifted his eyes to Ryoma's. The violent hunger in the black eyes was a familiar horror, one that always hunted Ryoma in his nightmares.

"What do you want?" Ryoma asked, his voice trembling. The spiky haired one laughed and the fangs in his mouth didn't look like they were made of plastic. "Vampires don't exist," Ryoma whispered, trying to convince him self, and took a step back.

The creatures stopped and looked at him wearily. The one with spiky hair turned to his companion and asked, "How did he know? You think he's some kind of telepath, Kaidoh? Tezuka-sama mentioned them before he left."

"Fshuu, who cares? He's going to die soon," the one addressed as Kaidoh answered. He turned to look at Ryoma, shoulders hunched. Ryoma blinked and the creature was by his side. When it lifted its gaze to Ryoma's eyes, the boy turned his head away, closing his eyes. After being confronted with the terror twice, he did not wish to see it again in the eyes of this one. But when sharp teeth sank in to his wrist Ryoma opened his eyes and screamed. With his free left hand he hit the vampire whose mouth was attached to his wrist, but the creature did not even flinch. Ryoma's punch meant nothing to the monster.

Still screaming, Ryoma tried to pull his hand free, kicked and hit, fought even when he started to feel dizzy, and still the creature continued to ignore his attempts to be freed. When his wrist was released, Ryoma tried to run, stumbling back. He didn't remember the other monster until an arm wrapped around him, and a hand covered his face, cutting off his air, not letting him breathe.

Ryoma panicked, realising he would die. He wanted to fight back, break free from the monster, but it was too strong. Like the one that had torn into Ryoma's wrist it did not even flinch as Ryoma kicked it and clawed at the hand on his face, tried to twist away from the strong grip around his waist.

Fear and shame twisted into a knot in his stomach when he felt tears on his face. He didn't want to die, not here, not now, not like this, as a whining victim. But he could not fight any longer when there was no more strength left in him, when he could not even keep his eyes open.

Momo smiled widely when his prey stopped fighting, presuming the boy had accepted that his destiny was to die tonight. He licked the skin under which the blood he so desired flowed, felt the boy's rapid pulse. He let his tongue caress the skin, for once savouring the moment before the kill. The anticipation made him shiver and he smelled the boy's fear. For a brief moment he wondered why he no longer felt the boy's hot breath on his palm, but soon forgot it, forgot everything when his teeth pierced the warm skin and the blood flowed to his mouth.

Momo was torn from his feast, his teeth ripped the fair skin and blood drenched him. "What the hell, Kaidoh?!" he yelled, lying on the ground, the other vampire hovering over him.

"You were smothering him!" Kaidoh yelled back. "He would've been dead in a few seconds. They need to breathe, you idiot!"

Momo looked back at the boy. The body lay still, unmoving, the pool of blood around him growing by the second. "Well now he's going to die anyway!" Momo sprung up and headed for Kaidoh, mouth drawn to a growl, he fisted his hand on Kaidoh's shirt and hit him. Kaidoh's head snapped back, but he soon answered with a punch to Momo's side and a kick to his feet that sent the younger vampire lying on his back. He didn't stop for an instant but grabbed some of Momo's hair in his fist, turned him around and pounded Momo's head on the ground twice, and then stood up.

"Are you done?" Kaidoh asked and spat blood from his mouth on to Momo's back.

Momo growled and raised himself up with his hands. Blood dripped from his face to the ground and when he turned his head, Kaidoh could see the damage he'd done. Momo's nose and left cheek were crushed, and the asphalt had scraped his face in to a bloody mess. He still managed to glare at Kaidoh with narrowed eyes, and Kaidoh knew that no, Momo was not done.

"Idiot," Kaidoh hissed. He had expected this to happen, but he hadn't expected it to happen so soon. They had never gotten along very well, not even when Tezuka had been with them. Momo's aloof attitude to everything annoyed Kaidoh, the way he refused to show respect for anything that couldn't overpower him. The only reason they had managed to coexist was because Kaidoh could throw Momo across a street if he so wanted. But lately, it seemed, Momo had grown cockier. He'd come to think Kaidoh not killing him was a sign of weakness, proof that he couldn't do it. And in a sense Momo was right. Kaidoh didn't want to kill him, because even though he despised Momo, he did not wish to exist alone. He wanted someone to be with him, even if that someone was an idiot like Momo.

Momo stood up and ran towards Kaidoh his fingers curled like the talons of a hawk, his fangs showing as he screamed.

He never reached Kaidoh.

Kaidoh stood and watched. Frozen in place he stared in horror at the hand that held Momo's heart in its fist. The fingers squeezed and red blood trickled from between the fingers, around the wrist and on to the ground. Momo coughed blood that turned black when it reached his chin. Kaidoh watched as his companion of years turned to ash and was blown away by a wind that appeared from nowhere, leaving the hand that had destroyed him unblemished by the dark substance that had mere seconds ago still been a being that spoke and felt.

Kaidoh wasn't sure if it was sadness that he felt when he watched Momo disappear. It could have simply been hatred towards him, hatred that Momo had died and left Kaidoh alone.

"You have been making a mess, leaving a trail of bodies after you. I can't have that, not where I rule," a voice purred in Kaidoh's ear and he jumped and tried to run, only to be slammed against the wall of the alley. The impact crushed his arm and he slid to the ground, lifting his eyes to the one that had spoken.

"We cleaned after ourselves, there was never more than two a night," Kaidoh spoke while observing the monster. It laughed at Kaidoh's answer, drew delicate fingers through its light hair, ice blue eyes glimmering with cold fire. Kaidoh noted a mole under the right eye and wondered if it was a fake and if it was, why a vampire would bother with something like that.

"Oh, it's real," was the answer to the question Kaidoh hadn't spoken aloud.

"Fshuu," Kaidoh hissed, startled. It could read his mind?

"Yes," it answered languidly, and smiled with the other side of its mouth turned up. "It's Atobe Keigo, the name. It bothers me when you keep referring to me as 'it'. Even a worm like you should have the honour of knowing that name before you vanish. You should feel blessed, to have gazed at my radiance in your lifetime."

Slowly, holding his right arm Kaidoh stood, leaning against the wall. "Why?" Kaidoh asked. "We have been careful," he added.

Atobe stared at him thoughtfully, lifted his fingers to his forehead and gazed at him. Kaidoh felt his gaze drawn to Atobe's eyes and could not look away, though he wanted. Something in the way Atobe looked at him made him want to crawl to a hole and hide.

"You might have been," Atobe finally spoke, lowering his hand from his face. "But your companion has not. Three, at the minimum. That is how many corpses he's left around town every night for me to clean up. I do not appreciate it, you hunting my humans."

Kaidoh cursed in his mind. He shouldn't have left Momo alone even for a moment. "He's dead now. Why should I die as well?"

Atobe shrugged. "You are here, I have not fed tonight. Why should I search for a mortal, when I can feast on your blood? I must have some compensation for having to clean after the two of you." He looked back at the body of the boy lying on the ground not far from them. Atobe frowned as his eyes landed on the boy, and he took a step towards him.

Kaidoh saw his chance and ran. He was pulled back by his hair and teeth sank in to his neck. Kaidoh's mouth opened to a silent scream, the hand he lifted in an attempt to defend himself was grasped and his arm twisted. Kaidoh did not hear the snap of the bone, the pain distracting him, the sensation of his blood being drained soon overcoming even the pain. Memories of the time this had been done to him once before came back. Of Tezuka taking his face between his hands, sliding down his collar, pressing his lips against the skin on his neck, sliding his tongue against it, slowly pressing sharp teeth to the skin, caressing his hair lovingly while drawing the blood from Kaidoh.

There had been a sweet taste in his mouth after that when Tezuka gave back the blood he had taken, giving him a sight for the world of the night, soothing words guiding him when he took his first steps in the dark path that would now be his.

There had been tears in the eyes of his master when Kaidoh had risen, licking Tezuka's blood from his lips, asking for more. Kaidoh never understood the meaning of those tears and he never saw Tezuka cry again, never asked Momo had he seen them. He wished now he had.

"How touching," Atobe mumbled, dropping the body. As soon as his hands left the body it turned black and scattered on the ground, only a pile of dust now. "You're still alive," Atobe said and turned to look at the boy, who was still breathing, even if only barely.

Golden eyes, dimmed by a shroud of pain looked at him. The boy's heart, the organ that should have sustained his life, now hurried his death with each beat, pumping blood from his body to the cold ground.

"I am impressed," Atobe said as he walked closer. "Should I kill you?" he asked, but there was no answer. The black eyelashes still fluttered, as the boy struggled to keep his eyes open, to remain conscious.

Atobe kneeled beside him, contemplating the boy. It would not be long now, before he would die. Atobe would have to take the body, get rid of it like all the others he had not killed.

At first Atobe had been only curious when those two had appeared. Years he had been left alone, no creature had been foolish enough to set foot in the city he had declared as his own. The fact that these two young ones had done so had first made him furious, and then indulgent. They were young, after all. So he had decided to watch, and wait.

It had not taken him long to see that the other had no control over his hunger. He was too blinded by his desire for blood, for the kill to focus on anything else, not even on surviving. He had only waited to see if the problem would be solved for him, if the older, Kaidoh, would get rid off his troublesome companion.

He heard human voices approaching, and stood up. "I'll leave you to your own kind then," he told the boy who could no longer hear him. "I wonder, would I have ever met you, if you hadn't crossed paths with them," he continued to voice out his thoughts. "And would you have survived me."

The voices now sounding from around the corner Atobe knew it was time to end his one sided conversation with the dying boy. He looked up and saw a latter leading up to the roof of a building on his right. With one last glance at the boy, he climbed the latter, up to the roof of the building, and wondered how people were going to explain the wounds on the boy. An animal attack or a ritualistic murder? He was looking forward to hearing from it, wondering briefly what the ramifications of the boy's death would be, and would there be any.

He did not fear that the boy's death would be linked to him, no one had seen him, and he had not inflicted any of the injuries on the boy. If the police would succeed in finding out whom the culprits had been, they would not be able to find any proof that they had been anything other than violent criminals.

But humans were not the only ones that followed the news, and Atobe was not the only one of his kind. If news of this incident became big enough, or carried to the wrong ears it would bring unwanted attention on Atobe, bring persons not wanted to his territory.

He had a past he wished to forget, but even something as small as this, could catch the attention of those he shared that past with.