Chapter Nineteen
Bloodlust
Zero could not take it anymore. His thoughts remained on the words Yuuki told him just a few minutes ago.
"I am no longer the Yuuki you used to know Zero. Because, my vampire side devoured the remainder."
He could not believe it. He would not believe it. Yuuki was a vampire, a pure-blood even. But she was still Yuuki. He knew it, but he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge it. Because if he did, it may give him a reason to fight the bloodlust longer. He could feel Yagari and Cross outside of the dorms. Zero already decided to let them kill him. He did not want to run the risk of hurting them. And his bloodlust was growing. Fast.
Staggering to stand from his bed, Zero clutched his Bloody Rose in his hand as he made his way to his window. Just as he thought, he found Yagari and Cross down below conversing. Clutching the window sill, Zero quickly launched himself through the window and landed in a crouch on the ground below.
Straitening up as much as he could in his weakened state, Zero leaned against the building as he tossed the Bloody Rose to Yagari, giving him orders to shoot him. Yagari refused and instead pulled Zero to the room where they could restrain his vampire side if they needed to. He did not chain Zero to the wall, but left him there to decide what he was going to do. Become a vampire, or a hunter.
Zero watched with reddened eyes as Yagari left him on the ground. He could not think straight. Something was growing in his blood, and he had an assumption that it had to do with him drinking both Yuuki's and Kaname's blood. They were both pure-bloods, and Yuuki's blood had awakened. The bloodlust was gaining up on him, and he knew that he would have to choose soon. But it would not be the choice Yagari had picked for him. No, his choices were either die by his own hand or... find someone to kill him.
It was time. Kagome felt it the moment Rido returned to his body. Standing up from her previously lying position on the Chairman's bed – his room had a special barrier around it to protect it – Kagome moved out of the door and to Yuuki's room. She was going to need some larger clothes.
He couldn't stop his thoughts. No matter how much he tried focusing on his current situation, and when that didn't work, he tried to think of only Yuuki and her change, but his thoughts kept drifting to Kagome. Was she safe? Did the Chairman get her somewhere where she could stay out of trouble? Would she be happy if he were gone?
His eyes strayed to the Bloody Rose lying innocently on the ground five feet in front of his slouched form. Could he do it? Could he truly kill himself to keep the others safe? What if he could help them now? What was happening outside of his "cell"?
He did not know, but his thoughts again returned to the aching of his body. His blood was moving, and it was painful. A pulse went through his veins, and he could feel the presence of yet another pure-blood. This one more evil than the others. Yet, he did not move. He remained in his place against the wall, still contemplating his next move. Still trying to decide whether to live or die. To remain with Kagome and Yuuki at Cross Academy, or leave so they remain safe.
As soon as she grabbed one of Yuuki's longer skirts – because Yuuki was shorter than her it would come up to a bit above Kagome's knees, as opposed to right below the knees where it came up to Yuuki – Kagome made her way to the guest room, her originally appointed room. Placing the skirt and one of Zero's shirts on the bed, Kagome made a barrier around the room to keep scent out. It would not do to have a vampire ruin the procedure because they smelt her blood.
Quickly changing into the Chairman's large bathrobe, Kagome sat in the middle of the room in a cross-legged position. Taking her left pointer finger, she pushed power into her nail to make it grow. Making a cut in her right hand till she had a long, thin cut across her palm, Kagome repeated her actions with the left hand. Placing her hands, palm-up, on her bended knees, Kagome closed her eyes as she prepared to bring her powers to the surface. It was difficult for her to separate her miko powers from her vampire powers, but in order for her to change back, it had to be done. Reaching deep within herself, Kagome found the two mingling powers. Her red vampire powers danced with the blue of her miko powers. Never mixing, but forever together. Mentally, she grabbed a hold of the red and carefully pulled it till it seeped through the cut in her left hand. Mixing and swirling in the blood until they became one. She repeated the process with her miko powers. The blue power came from her right hand and manifested into a ball of her raw power.
Taking deep breathes to calm down her breathing, Kagome muttered a few words under her breath before clasping both her hands together and holding them closed as the powers forcefully mixed with each other. A wind began to spin around her small form, her powers coming out and mixing with the wind. Until all you could see was a swirling purple bubble spinning continuously around her. A few minutes later and the wind slowed down and the power seeped back into her skin.
Opening her blue eyes to take in the room around her, Kagome was happy to see that she was back in her original body. After making sure that she was safe and everything went as it should, Kagome collapsed to the ground in a dead faint. She would awake in an hour or so, and by that time her energy would be mostly back and she would go searching for Zero. And when she found him, she would first give him a large hug before pulling him away so he could help her kill Rido. Then... she would explain why she was as she was. Oh, she was going to have fun with that. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to stay asleep. It was less painful that way.
Bring in a ragged breath, Zero tried to make sense of what had happened just an hour ago. Kaname had found him in this room, and explained to him about what was happening. Rido, Kaname and Yuuki's uncle, was revived and now after Yuuki.
To top it off, he was supposed to be her knight, her shield. He was apparently prepared for the part. By drinking both Yuuki's and Kaname's blood, Kaname had made sure that he would be strong enough when the time came. The only problem... he was not strong enough now. In order to become strong enough, Zero was told he had to devour his younger brother's blood. To return the power and strength that was supposed to be only his at birth, and bring it back to himself. But Zero could not, would not do it. No matter what, he could not kill his brother. He may have said that his brother was dead to him, he may have said he meant noting to him, but it was all a lie. He still loved his brother, and he would die before he was forced to kill Ichiru.
But then, what about Yuuki? Would she be killed because he wasn't there to protect her? And what of Kagome? What would she do if both he and Yuuki were gone? Living her life at the Academy alone with the Chairman.
His eyes opened in horror at the thought of what the Chairman would feed her and what he would dress her in. The thought that he raised Yuuki just fine never crossed his mind, he was too stuck on the horrifying possibilities to think about that point.
He was brought out of his thoughts as another wave of bloodlust hit him. Bringing a hand to his chest, Zero closed his eyes as he tried to calm his erratically beating heart. He didn't know what to do, but if something didn't happen soon, he was sure he would just kill himself.
He heard the door in front of him open, but didn't have the will or strength to see who it was. If Kaname had returned, Zero was sure he would grab the Bloody Rose and shoot the pure-blood instead. It would help ease his frustrations a bit, but it would also cause Yuuki more pain.
Feeling a soft, warm hand on his aching neck, Zero opened his pained purple eyes to see who would dare to touch him while he was in this state. He was met with a view of long raven-black hair flowing over the shoulder of a young woman, who looked vaguely familiar to him, but he could not for the life of him remember where he had seen her before. Moving his gaze away from her hair and across her shoulders, to see that she was wearing a white shirt that was obviously too big for her. What a minute? Wasn't that one of his shirt?
Jerking his head up to see who would steal one of his shirts, only be met with familiar blue eyes. Concerned, familiar, blue eyes. His eyes opened wide and the red receded back as he took in a whiff of her scent, just to convince himself that what he was seeing was not an illusion. As soon as her scent hit his nose, he turned questioning eyes to her smiling face.
"K-Kagome?" He had to ask. Because, last time he checked, Kagome was a small seven-year-old that barely came up to his chest, and who's body was definitely not as developed as the obvious young woman was before him. No, this girl, woman, who sat before him was not a cute seven-year-old, but a beautiful woman that appeared to be his age.
As soon as he said her name, Kagome's smile grew. "Hey Zero," she said casually, yet a bit cautiously.
At her confirmation, Zero tried to ask her what happened and why was she like she was, but the only question that came out of his mouth was, "Is that my shirt?"
She laughed as he asked her. Sobering up a moment later, Kagome smiled brightly at him before replying, "Yes, this is your shirt. Yuuki's wouldn't fit and mine were all too small. I didn't really feel like wearing one of the Chairman's shirts, and besides... I like your smell on me," Kagome explained with a small blush on her face.
He seemed mesmerized by her voice, and all he could think about was how beautiful she sounded and looked. Before she was cute, but now... he wasn't sure if his brain would ever be able to put together another coherent thought again, and he was okay with that.
She brought him out of his thoughts as she began to speak in more serious tones. He could only listen as she began to explain what they were going to do. It would seem that she knew what was going on, maybe even more so than he did.
"Zero, I know that you do not like vampires, in fact you hate them with a passion. So I want to apologize in advance for what I am about to do. If there was another way to go about it, I would have. But there is none, so I am sorry."
He was able to do little more than give her a confused glance before the smell of blood hit his nose. Eyes once again shining red in the dark, Zero's eyes locked on to the thin trail of blood slowly making its way down the column of her neck and to her collar bone before being soaked into his white shirt. Not even knowing what he was doing, Zero soon found his fangs lodged deeply into her throat. The warm, red, life-giving liquid flowing smoothly down his throat, sating the burning thirst he felt.
What he did not know, was that Kagome was controlling the blood now flowing through his veins. She commanded it to search and destroy any and all traces of bad vampire blood, before using her own and replacing the old. He would be a vampire, but he would not be under her control. She only had one more step to complete the procedure. Carefully brushing his silky, silver hair away from his glowing tattoo, Kagome whispered her apologies into his ear before her fangs sank into the center of the glowing mark. As his blood flowed into her mouth, Kagome could taste, not only her powers flowing through his veins, but she was surprised at the extent of feelings she could taste. He loved her, and she was sure that from her own blood he would know that she loved him as well. Words were not needed, they knew each other's innermost thoughts by sharing each other's blood.
He grunted when her fangs pierced his skin, but otherwise continued what he was doing. Zero didn't even know what was happening. All he knew was the taste of Kagome's sweet blood, the smell of her in his shirt, and the feelings he could taste. It made him want to keep her to himself. To hide her away from the rest of the world. The urge to do so had never been so strong. And now that she was at the age where she would start thinking about dating, it made the desire to have her and keep other males away stronger. He would have continued to drink her delicious blood, if his thoughts had not returned to him and he remembered what he was doing. As soon as that thought crossed his mind, he pulled away slowly and licked her neck clean. Zero was about to apologize when he noticed that she was slowly licking the blood away from her own marks on his neck. He stifled a groan at the feeling it left as she pulled away with a final lick to his neck. The holes already healing.
She pulled away to look into his deep amethyst eyes. They were shining with a silver glow as the light provided reflected the natural shine in his eyes. About to open her mouth to ask if he was all right, her words were silenced as he moved his head down and slowly kissed her on the lips. At first she didn't respond, too shocked to do anything, but after a second she began to move her lips with his own. They continued to kiss for a minute before the need for oxygen became known to their aching lungs. Pulling apart with ragged breathes, the two of them stared at each other's eyes, trying to make sense of what happened.
Kagome opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. They turned their attention to the doorway, to find Ichiru standing there with his wide eyes staring shocked at the two beings sitting on the floor. Kagome would have been embarrassed at being caught by Zero's brother, if the smell coming from Ichiru had not been so strong. Blood. And a lot of it.