Chapter 4
The Level E
Zell tried to push her chair out away from the desk after class on Friday, but it wouldn't move. She looked down and saw a green rod blocking a chair leg. She yanked it loose and discovered it was a yellow rose. She smiled and put it in a vase on her windowsill in her room. She slept soundly for the first time in weeks.
Zell looked at her watch, it was seven fifteen. Yuuki was late. Zell gave her five more minutes until she marched to the main house and dragged her out of bed personally. Three minutes later, Yuuki came running down the street.
"Well it's about time."
"Sorry, Zero caught me and wouldn't let me go until I threatened him." Said Yuuki a little breathlessly.
"Yeah well, he'd better not follow us. This is an all girl day. I really need to personalize my dorm room. Right now it's as austere as a prison cell, or should I say Zero's room."
"Let's just get this over with." "
"Kill joy."
Yuuki punched Zell in the shoulder so hard that she fell into the bushes.
Touya, Shikki, and Aidou were called to Kaname's room for an urgent announcement
"A level E vampire has just found it's way downtown." said Kaname "It has become a threat to this Academy and I need you to take it out before the Hunters do."
"Kaname! Zell and Yuuki snuck out to shopping. They're Downtown now!" said Aidou alarmed.
"Go. Find them and bring them back."
They rushed out of the dorm with Aidou in the lead.
One rug, three boutiques, and a curio shop later; Yuuki and Zell finally stopped to eat at a local ice cream parlor.
"You think we have enough stuff for your room yet?" Yuuki asked with her mouth full of hot fudge.
"No. we haven't hit the Fung Shway yet."
Yuuki raised an eyebrow.
"I'm kidding."
They paid the bill and started to walk back to school. They turned down an alley and a woman dropped her parcels. Yuuki stooped down to help but Zell pulled her back.
"Yuuki don't. Something's not right here, we need ¾"
The woman's eyes turn red, her nails lengthened and sharpened. Then she launched herself at Yuuki's throat. Zell threw Yuuki to the side and grabbed the woman's wrist, stopping the attack. The woman twisted away but Zell kicked her legs out from under her. She scrambled to the wall and scuttled away. Stuck to the side of the wall.
"What is she?" asked Zell to herself. "Yuuki stay here. It's to dangerous for you. Guard the stuff."
"But ¾"
It was useless. Zell had already raced off in the direction the vampire had taken. Yuuki sighed, she had forgotten how fast Zell was. With out even glancing at the stuff they had bought, Yuuki pulled her anti-vampire weapon Artimis, which was a collapsible silver rod complete with Hunter runes, out of it's sheath and raced after her cousin.
Zell looked around. She looked everywhere but behind her and knew that was where the woman was. She could feel it. Zell dodged as the woman leapt off the wall towards her.
She grabbed the woman's arm and slammed her into the wall of the alley. The woman twisted but Zell would not let go and the woman ended under Zell with her arm twisted behind her back and her face smashed against the cobblestones. The woman would not stop struggling, but all of a sudden Yuuki, Aidou, Shikki, and Touya burst threw opposite ends of the alley.
Yuuki, Shikki and Toola stopped dead at the sight of Zell holding the woman down. But Aidou yanked Zell off the woman and forced her not to look by holding her face against his shoulder and pinning her.
Out of the corner of her eye Zell saw a flash of silver and a blood colored streak. She heard the sounds of a struggle and heard the woman cry out. Then there way silence.
"Touya, Shikki. Take Yuuki bake to the academy and report to Kaname and the Chairman. I'll take care of Zell." said Aidou.
They nodded and left. Aidou let go of Zell but turned her so that she was stuck between him and the wall of the alley.
"What possessed you to fight that woman? Regardless of who your parents were that was a stupid move. She was trying to kill you!"
"You don't get it! She wasn't trying to kill me! She was trying to kill Yuuki. I couldn't risk her coming back to school where I couldn't protect Yuuki or risk her hurting someone else, and what do my parents have to do with this?" questioned Zell. "Why did you interfere? I was handling her by myself. I'm not a child, I don't need to be saved every time someone pulls my pigtails. I was going to turn her into the police."
"That would have been a mistake. The next time you come across someone like her in this town, and pray that you don't, bring them to the Moon Dorm. We will deal with them." Aidou told her.
"And what makes you guys more qualified than the police?" asked Zell.
"We just are. Let's leave it at that."
"Fine." said Zell sourly. "The least you can do is help me carry my things back to school since Yuuki ditched me."
With a rug tucked under his arm and with art tucked under hers, along with shopping bags weighing them both down, Aidou and Zell walked back to Cross Academy. With Aidou wondering all the way how Zell, a girl with absolutely no training, had survived a level E vampire.