Ichiru watched his sister as they continued through the mountain side woods. Maria offered Ichiru her hand and he smiled at her.
"I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner." She murmured to herself, but Ichiru was attentively listening to every word. "Okaa-sama once told me of a place she likes to go when she wants to be alone; Zero-onii-sama didn't have to go." The cheerful ring in her voice was fake he knew it.
Maria had been saying 'onii-sama', after Zero's name a lot. She was starting to sound like the Kuran-hime.
"Why do you keep saying that?" He finally asked. His fiancée pauses before looking up at him and smiling. Fake.
"Well…I'm not sure, just trying to remind myself he's only my brother now-"
"Why would you need to remind yourself?" Ichiru stopped them and Maria felt his grip on her hand tighten.
"…Oh! There it is!" She yanked her hand away from her broth- no fiancé. She had to get use to that, Zero was her brother and Ichiru was her betrothed.
She skipped ahead of him to a stone labyrinth and she knew in the heart of it would be her mother, sitting on a bench surround the Kuruizaki family memorials. Going to the door she smiled to see that the barred door was ajar and the smell of her mother was deep within the depths of labyrinth.
"Wait here, only females are allowed to enter." Maria said truthfully. Her fiancé gave her a look, but restrained himself from following. Maria waved shyly and entered the labyrinth.
"It's a place where we Kuruizaki woman can ease our troubled minds." Shizuka's words scrolled through her mind and Maria had to check to be sure she wasn't still five years old, clinging to her mother's hand.
Shizuka's spirit and aura was so strong, the memory of her and the way she spoke just seemed to make her like a ghost. Always there, always watching, always somewhere in the back of your mind.
Maria admired her mother for that. I will be like her. Maria's mind urged. I will be strong and beautiful and remembered. She didn't want to be just another Kuruizaki, or turn her family into the Shirabuki's who are, almost, always forgotten.
"Maria…" Maria glanced up to see she'd aimlessly walked to the center of the maze –which wasn't that hard, she'd been here so many times it was second nature to her, right after biting.
Her lilac eyes met the narrow pink gaze of her mother and she smiled. "Okaa-sama…" Soundlessly Maria entered the small ring of memorials and knelt in front of the one her mother leaned at; Iruka Kuruizaki.
Folding her hands in her lap she slouched a little and looked up at the tall white poll. "I miss you Otou-sama…"
"Maria, this poll," Shizuka gestured her claw-like figure to it. "Is not your father, Iruka is not here and he isn't in hell or heaven either."
"Then where is he?" Maria looked over to her mother who only sighed.
"I don't know, Maria, we are the damned; rejected from heaven and too good for hell, so I always assumed our spirits linger. Like in those old ghost stories your father use to read you, remember that?" Maria shook off the question.
"Then why are you here?" Shizuka smiled secretly.
"This is a place for Kuruizaki woman, and I presume that even stands for the dead, so I thought here would be a good place to be alone while I confess my sins to someone who will understand."
"What sins?"
"The Council wants me to marry again…to Rido Kuran." Maria shot up from the ground and glared down at her mother.
"You didn't say yes did you? Okaa-sama, they can't force you!" Shizuka looked away from her infuriated daughter.
"They can threaten to murder me and my children, Rido-sama arranged the marriage himself."
"Okaa-sama, why would he do that?"
"I don't know sweetheart, time will tell, it always does."
Kuran
"Everything is going as planned,"
"Hmm, being in the background for the past fifteen years really paid off; I have my nephew, your grandson and my son at my disposal. See Ichiou-san? Waiting pays off."
The young child smiled and bit hungrily into the Level D's neck. After switching bodies –again- he was sure this disguise would be enough to fool his niece. A black crow swept into the dark room from the window and the vampire out stretched a hand for it to perch on. The crow cawed as it melted into his skin and the vampire's mix match eyes became wide.
"What?" The Level D dropped to the floor and the vampire whipped the blood from his mouth. "...Oh Shizuka-san, I am going to murder that son of yours."
Kuran
Bloody images flipped through the young girl's mind. Her teeth dung into her lower lip as they became faster and faster, swirling around her mind, jumping out at her. Showing bits of her childhood memories, splattered with blood, like a picture frame.
Then she saw something else. It was a memory of her walking down the back hall of the Kuran manor when she was thirteen. Hands folded behind her back, long hair trailing behind her, she was taking the chance to look at the upper level of her house when her family was gone.
She remembered that she'd not yet been introduced to society yet and whenever Okaa-sama, Otou-sama and Onii-sama had to leave her home alone she'd wait then wander around the house aimlessly for hours.
She stopped at an old painting of her mother and father when they were young, but noticed something else. Another boy was in the picture with them, and judging by his looks he was a Kuran; wild, dark brown hair –darker than Onii-sama's- and two different colored eyes, one the traditional Kuran crimson-brown and the other and icy blue. She was about to read the gold plat when she heard the grandfather clock strike one. Onii-sama said they'd be home at one-thirty. Scared out of her wits of being found she turned and ran back to her basement room, but she'd read 'Rido Kuran'.
The name sent shivers down her spine then the image changed again, bats millions of them. Flying around, shooting themselves at her. Yuuki squired and then a pale, long arm reached out in the mixed of them and grabbed her.
Yuuki was ready to scream, but it was caught in her throat and then a flash of white –teeth…fangs! The teeth dug themselves into the skin on her neck and Yuuki found herself arching her neck for that person and gripping on to a silk like texture. Her body was being lifted and she couldn't feel the bed…
The bed? This was a dream, she had to wake up…she had to.
"AH!" The fangs dug further into her skin and seeming to make her relax, but she continued to fight the sleep that was trying to cover take her. Her eyes felt heavy, welded shut.
Kuruizaki
Zero would have to hand it to her, the girl was strong. Almost breaking the sleeping spell. His teeth dug further into her pale flesh and she cried out, but he tried to ignore it.
This was the blood he wanted, the crimson wine that would keep him alive for all eternity, nothing like his sister's blood or Ruka's or Amu's, not even his mother's. This princess's blood filled him; the dry burning in his throat, the emptiness and the hole left over in his heart.
Suddenly he realized that he was taking too much and Yuuki struggle was dying down and he feared that he'd hurt her.
His teeth eased their way out and looked down at her. Crystal-like tears fell down her heart shaped face and she looked paler than normal.
Zero felt his heart plummet into his stomach. How could he have been so greedy? So horrible? So evil? To hurt the girl he…the girl he loved.