I could hear my heart pounding in my ears-the sound so loud it blocked out all other noise. I'm sure that they could probably hear it too. However, it was the only thing that I could hear. I may have never laid eyes on this man in my lifetime before, but I knew him. With one look I knew him. It was his eyes. I knew those eyes. They haunted my dreams for so many years, stared at me, tormented me, saw every move I had ever made. They had a distinctly crazy look in them.

"Kuran Rido."

I snapped out of my trance, realizing Auido was standing in-between us now-staring Rido down, his back facing me protectively, ever muscle in his body tense. He had appeared in front of me as suddenly as Rido had.

Rido laughed loudly at him, throwing his head back like a deranged lunatic and grabbing onto his sides as if he had just heard the funniest joke. I heard Auido swallow hard, clenching his fists tightly-knuckles going white from the strain, desperately trying to figure out exactly what to do next against a Pureblood. He didn't stand a chance here, and Risk knew that just as clearly as I did. The temperature in the air began to drop fiercely-morning dew freezing against the ground- and ice shot out from where Auido stood-shards jetting out right towards Rido's head, sharp as daggers.

I should have stopped him.

Rido stopped laughing just as suddenly as he had started, his face a grim mask-ice shattering loudly like glass before it got anywhere near him. Rido stared Auido down as if he were an insect that needed to be squashed, making Auido flinch with unease.

I knew I should do something now. Help Auido before things got too out of hand. My body was screaming at me to move, to do something to stop this. But my feet felt nailed to the ground. My mouth felt dry and I couldn't move an inch. Memories of my last night as a vampire were fresh in my mind. My mother's bloodied face leaning over me. The scent of my father's blood-I could smell it now.

Auido collapsed at my feet in a pool of his own blood, breaking me from my trance. He wasn't moving. I couldn't hear his heart beating either.

It was my fault.

This was all my fault. Audio shouldn't have been here. He shouldn't have protected me. I shouldn't have let him interfere in this. This was my problem. This was my family. This was my fight. I should have stopped him. He didn't stand a chance against a Pureblooded vampire. I knew that. He had to have known that. He was always braging about how smart he was. And yet he still got in the way. I should have made sure he didn't follow me here. Or at least told him to go back to the dormitory. Made him go back. No one else was supposed to get hurt. I was supposed to make sure no one else was hurt. No one else was supposed to be taken away from me. I wasn't going to lose anyone ever again, and yet... I still couldn't do anything to save him.

I was still so weak. I was still that weak, defenseless little girl from so many years ago that could do nothing more then hide behind her mother's skirt.

What was wrong with me? What was so wrong with me that I couldn't save the people I loved?

I felt cold hands on the back of my neck-snaking around me, yanking my head up by my hair painfully, forcing me to look up into unnaturally colored eyes-terrifyingly insane. "Oh...Yuu...ki...mine...all mine." he whispered my name softly like a climaxing lover, squeezing my face in his hands, burying his face into my hair. "Yuuki, Yuuki, Yuuki. Oh Yuuki." Frozen lips trailed down my temple, my cheek. "I've been waiting for this moment," he breathed. "your whole life. And now I finally have you." his nails dug into the flesh behind my ears, piercing the skin, drawing blood. "You are...all mine. No one else is here to interfere."

His voice, I was scared what he was going to do to me.

His hands, he kept running them up and down my body, feeling every inch of me-touching me so intimately, squeezing me, whispering my name over and over again. Chanting it, parsing it, like it was the only word he knew.

He inhaled sharply, so suddenly that I jumped. "That smell...you smell like him." he sounded wounded, like I had betrayed him somehow. Rido's hand went to the front of my borrowed shirt, firsting the fabric, tearing it, making me tremble. I assumed that the him he was referring to was Kaname, by the way he was treating my clothing.

"Let me go." I whispered, still feeling like a weak, frightened child in his iron embrace.

He smoothed his hand over my cheek, in what he probably thought to be a soothing gesture. But there was nothing gentle in Rido's touches, nothing calming or reassuring. "your mother didn't want me either. She was always rejecting my advances. Always pushing me away. It was always about Haruka. Haruka, Haruka." he chuckled. "I told them I'd come for you. I told them that I would have you. You won't reject me, sweet Yuuki. I have you now." he leaned forward and bit into my shoulder roughly-tearing into the skin.

I screamed.

A gunshot echoed loudly through the morning sky, disturbing some birds, making them fly out of their perches in rage.

The front of my shirt was completely soaked in crimson red. Rido dropped to his knees in a bloody heap, grasping his gaping chest and gasping for breath. I stumbled backwards away from him and from the force of the gunshots impact. My ribs felt bruised from the force of him slamming into me. I held onto my neck where Rido had bit me, my eyes searching for that bullets owner, blood dripping in between my fingers.

He found me first.

Zero came up behind me, grabbing me by the back of my arm and yanking me around to face him.

"Zero."

"What the fuck, Yuuki!" he yelled in my face, towering over me. And he looked so mad, so confused, so betrayed, and hurt. His eyes held more emotion in them then I had ever seem.

My eyes filled with tears. I cleared my throat trying to reign in my emotions. "What the fuck, you! You could have shot me!" I yelled back at him, trying to act like my old self, punching his arm. But he just stared at me like he didn't know me. I bit my lower lip, nervous about this confrontation. I shook my head. "You said...you could never hate me." I whispered. Of course he could sense that I was a vampire now. The sent of my blood was everywhere. And Zero knew my blood. He had been drinking it for months before now. His hatred for vampires was so strong. And his family was murdered by vampires. The human side of Yuuki loved him so much. Zero was her brother. They shared a home, secrets, a life. They grew up together with the Headmaster. The Headmaster! What would he think?

He probably already know.

I didn't get a chance to explain myself. Rido began laughing once more and slowly rose to his feet. Blood continued pouring out from his chest.

"What is this?" he asked through his laughter, staring at his bloodied hands, like he thought it was so funny he was wounded.

"It doesn't matter that you're a Pureblood." Zero told him calmly, keeping his guard up. "You are no match for my Bloody Rose gun. An anti-vampire weapon will kill you."

"Yuuki," Rido turned his wounded, crazed eyes on me, ignoring Zero completely. "how many men will you cheat on me with? With how many men? What are you trying to prove here? Why do you want to hurt me?"

"What in the hell are you going on about?" Zero asked, stepping in front of me as Aidou had done.

"Hmmm? You?" Rido stabbed a bloody finger at him. The blood began to snake out into a whip-like string, curling around his body. "You're one of the Fallen. But you've been drinking my nephew's blood. Haven't you?" he laughed again like it was one of the funniest things he has ever heard. "Kaname's always had a problem collecting strays."

"Kaname's?" I asked, shocked.

So that's why Zero didn't need my blood anymore. He had been drinking Kaname's which, at the time, was so much stronger then mine. It definitely would always be stronger than mine.

Zero looked pissed at his secret having been found out.

His whip shot out at me. I didn't know how to channel my powers yet. I couldn't defend myself. I was basically a child still.

Zero caught Rido's blood-whip in his fist as if it were nothing more then a nuisance, yanking it towards him, pulling Rido along with him like he were on a rope. Zero shot him again, in the same spot as before, the bullet going clean through his body this time. Blood smeared across the pavement in a wide arch. There was something different about Zero in this moment. He seemed so strong, so powerful, so intimidating. He also seemed like he didn't give a shit if he made it out of this alive.

Rido just kept laughing, like his mind was completely lost, like he wasn't even feeling the pain. Even when Zero grabbed him by the throat and threw him against the ground, he just kept laughing, not seeming to notice what was being done to him.

Gunshots echoed loudly, making my ears ring painfully. I felt so surrounded by their sounds, like I was caught in a fire fight in an old western movie. I covered my ears with my hands, dropping to my knees, staring wide-eyes as Rido's head turned to pulp on the pavement.

Somehow, he was still laughing.

"Yuuki," he called softly, when his laughter finally, finally stopped. He reached out to me, fingers extended, beckoning towards me. His skin began to crack and very slowly turn grey. "I have always...loved you."

I stared at him until he turned to dust-wanting to make absolutely sure he was really gone, thinking to myself that Zero made killing my uncle look easy and so completely unreal. It wasn't fair. I wanted to kill him, this murdering pycopath. I wanted revenge for my family, for my parents, for Kaname, for myself.

Zero was always having to save me.