The Story of Amara Kuran | Mariah Bryant

Book One, Chapter Sixteen

My Thirst

An hour later, Mike had fallen asleep. Apparently he had been too worried to sleep the night before. Ichijo had also leaned over in his chair and was snoozing. Yuki was leaning on Kaname's arm. Zero was slouching, his legs crossed, his eyes watching the scenes change outside the window. The assassin had maneuvered himself so that he could see me perfectly. I was still sitting as politely as I could, attempting to spare my clothes from wrinkles.

My thirst was beginning to get to me, as it did every evening after school. Fighting off the scent of blood makes one thirstier. Mike smelled so good. That was another reason I was not slumping against the back of the seat: I would smell him even better.

I kept my mind occupied with the sweet chaos inside Mike's mind as he slept. He kept remembering something he had watched on television about some sort of mantis. It was enchanting to him. He also remembered Cross Academy a lot, daintily picking apart all of its beautiful details. At this stage in his sleep, he was not dreaming. He was only seeing glimpses of things. His mind was childlike in its fascination.

I kept him in the corner of my eye always.

I felt a wave of hunger pass over me, and immediately sensed Zero watching me carefully. I met his eyes.

"Is there any blood in here?" Zero asked the assassin.

"No. Not for you, at least." the assassin grinned and held up a flask from which he took a long swig. It was filled with blood.

"That is rude." Aido frowned.

"Really. Just because one of us has wrongly been accused – two actually – does not mean that you are excused from treating us with respect." Ruka chimed in.

"Too bad. I was given orders not to give anyone any blood. Said, 'It will make them more powerful.' That was your plan, right?" the assassin teased.

"Not really. It is just that, well, if we get hungry you will be the first to go, and that would look very good to the senate." Zero said with a shrug. He continued watching me out of the corner of his eye.

The assassin did not reply.

"Shi, how much longer until we reach the senate?" I asked.

"Do not ask me." he snapped.

For a moment I was tempted to make him feel some sort of pain, but as per usual I suppressed it.

Kaname cocked his head at me. I acknowledged him half-heartedly.

Not thirty minutes later, I had completely turned away from Mike. I did not allow myself to see him from the corner of my eye. "I do so hate this time of day." I said in my brother's direction.

"You will be fine." Kaname replied softly, for Yuki had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

I tried to calm myself down. It took so much out of me to prevent myself from doing things, though. I was not even the only one suffering in the car. The sun was setting, and it was breakfast time for the Night Class students. Zero was pressed firmly against the wall of the car.

Mike was dreaming now. Every now and then, I gently nudged his dream back onto a sweet path when it would start veering toward a nightmare. Mostly he dreamt of our friends attending Cross Academy with us as fellow kings and queens, and it being our castle. Outside, he walked in the gardens at sunset often while I picked purple, white, and black flowers and while Melissa searched for caterpillars and while Benjamin read a book and sat on a marble bench.

At that moment, his dream-self walked up to his mind's version of me and took my hand. My eyes turned red and I grinned fiendishly.

I exited his dreams in a rush, cutting off my mind's eye from attempting to finish the story. I clutched my heart.

He sensed I wanted his blood.

Mike sighed.

I turned to him, my eyes lured to the creature that had made the pleasured sound. My eyes were unable to perceive what my mind was telling me.

I have to tell you that I am biased before I tell you that Mike was the most angelic being on the planet. So peaceful in his slumber. He did not dream the things I did. His inner workings did not allow for such. He was simply beautiful, inside and out. His smell was as wonderful as his looks.

Amara, sit up straight. You are leaning toward him.

Kaname's thoughts forced me upright. I soon found myself leaning against the cushions again, however. My head was pounding. Everything slowed down. . . .

Keep pulling. The higher being allows your leash to grow longer as you wish, so use that opportunity to get as far away from your body as possible. The further you are, the less pain you are in. Perhaps you might want to enter Mike's dream for real now?

There was blood on his neck and on my mouth. His eyes were closed, but he was not asleep. He was lying on stained flowers, the sun suspended forever at a steep angle. My spirit had been mostly pulled into the dream already; now I only put the rest of me into that shell. Now it was really I who was lying in the flowers next to Mike, holding his hand.

"They cannot get you while you are here. The monsters cannot come out during the day."

"Mike I am a monster, too. Look what I just did to you." I opened my eyes and rolled onto my side, a little surprised.

Mike smiled, his eyes still closed. "I volunteered."

"No. You did not do it because I was thirsty. There was another reason." I frowned.

Mike opened his eyes now, too. He sat up on one elbow. This made his face closer to mine. "Yes. There was. I wanted to feel what it was like. And it was every bit as wonderful as I thought it would be."

"In real life, it hurts. You cannot wait for it to end. You get weaker and weaker with each agonizing intake of blood by the vampyre. Your head swims, and you feel nauseous. Usually, you faint if you survive." I practically growled angrily at him.

Mike frowned, confused yet still dreamy. "No. I meant actually helping you. I know I will be useless fighting Shiki, but I can help you now. I can sense that you are still thirsty. At least, your body is. This is the one thing I can really do for you."

My face relaxed into a reassuring smile. "You help me all of the time. I do not know what would have happened if you had not bought me sunscreen that day at the amusement park. But Mike, you cannot help me this way. If I were to bite you, you would become a vampyre."

"What is the problem with that? I would live forever. You would never have to say goodbye."

"Mike, it is very rare that a vampyre is not like Shiki." I admitted. "I am not saying that you would become like him, but I am telling you that it is too dangerous a life for you, and even for me. I, at least, can manage to stay out of it."

"You didn't manage so well this time."

I sighed and lay back down. "I know. This is different. Once it is finished . . ."

"I can hear your thoughts, and you are wrong."

I stared into his eyes.

"We have arrived." the assassin grunted.

My eyes batted open. I did not recall falling asleep. I tried to remember . . . but all I knew was that I wound up in Mike's dream, lying with him in a huge garden of flowers.

Speaking of, I had never smelled anything so incredible in my life. I felt wonderful. I focused, trying to figure out why. Then I realized that I had leaned across Mike's lap when I fell unconscious. He was coming awake, his head above me. I looked up to see him looking down at me, blinking his eyes hard. When he stopped, his lips slowly pulled into a smile.

I smiled back, unwilling to get up. I did, though, and allowed the assassin to escort me out of the limo. He stood nearby while everyone else filed out of the limo. I caught Ruka before she could get too far from me.

"How do I look?"

She grinned. "Like you have had plenty beauty sleep."

I scoffed jokingly. "Really though."

"Oh, you look wonderful."

I smiled. "Thank you."

Mike walked behind me, angling himself protectively, and I did not tell him that it was useless.

I was so in love with him.

"Has the group doubled?" Shiki asked as he walked up from one of the other limousines. The street lights made him look ever more menacing. But in his son's body . . . he was actually beautiful. I was standing in the presence of a real Dracula.

My Michelangelo was too much like Michel from The Lost Boys to be swayed by Dracula.

"It has. Some friends of mine decided to join us." Kaname said boldly.

"I see." Shiki was not happy about that. He seized each one of us up until he got to me. Now it was I who stood protecting Mike. "Kuran, I was not aware that you had any respect for the old ways." he said.

"I may not be very old, but I have been raised well." I replied, my kind tone contradicting my intentions.

Shiki frowned. Senri's body made the action less horrific than it would have in his old body. "Come. The senate is expecting you." Shiki then spun on his heel and stomped off in the direction of the senate building, which was larger than but more business-looking than the castle of Cross Academy. Unseen guards opened the door for him.

Senri's great uncle walked between our group and the doors. Suddenly we were again surrounded by assassins. There were many more this time. My heart leaped. He turned and walked toward the door, and we followed.

Kaname, protect Mike! You know I cannot show that . . . I thought at him desperately.

I have everything under control. No one here will be harmed. Yet . . .

Thank you. I tried to calm down.

We were herded into the building like animals, though it looked as if we were merely being escorted. I did not pay any attention to the protection of Mike that anyone could see. With my powers I guarded the very air around him.

The wind picked up, and I was surrounded by the sweet scent of Mike. My knees locked, and I fell back into his arms. Surprised, he shook me. "Amara? Are you conscious?" he stammered.

I opened my eyes and stood quickly. "Yes, I am fine. I am only famished."

"That is not good."

We spoke in Japanese for the assassins to hear. They ignored us.

The guards opened the enormous doors for us and led us into a sophisticated yet simple building furnished with the finest, most simple things. Kaname, Jchijo, and Kain were leading the way. Yuki and Zero followed closely behind, then came Aido and Ruka. Then me, then Mike. I hated having him behind us all, closest to the assassins.

I strode with my head high and my face expressionless. When Shiki's uncle-in-law walked through more large doors opened by guards, the assassins in front went in both directions and Kaname led our friends to the right. Mike slipped out from between the assassins and me to follow them. I was left standing in the doorway, assassins surrounding me on three sides, my fists clenched. I looked out over the senate.

Ichio sat at the head of the table, a long way away from where I stood. The table was incredibly long. Everyone in the senate had come. Perhaps more. There were even teenage purebloods like Sarah Shirabuki sitting in chairs against the walls (though there were few. . . . There were also prestigious aristocrats joining them.) Shiki sat to the left of Ichio.

"Amara Kuran-sama." Senri's great uncle announced to the senate.

Ichio stood. Slowly, everyone else followed. For a moment I just stood there, wondering what was going on. Then it occurred to me to bow to them as they were also regarding me. So I curtseyed, wondering if that was still what people did.

Ichio almost smiled at me, and I almost smiled in return. He motioned for a single chair opposite himself, which sat, alone, in front of me. An assassin moved to pull it back for me. I sat slowly, and everyone else did, too.

"Please pull up some chairs for Kaname Kuran-sama and the rest of the Cross Academy Night Class. They have had experience in a senate room." Ichio stated. At his request, the secretaries that waited outside the many doors brought in five chairs and placed them to both the right and the left of me. One assassin pulled a chair back for Ruka. The rest of the men seated themselves. Kaname was now to my right.

Ichio seized me up. "We have all come here to finally try Amara Kuran-sama justly." he began. Then he paused, unhappy. "It seems, however, that it must wait. Now we must feed our guests."

At once, waitresses and waiters emerged from the ornate wooden doors and bustled about, serving glasses of red liquid and plates of ramen to the aristocrats. It smelled sweeter than the concoction produced by water and blood tablets. I wondered what the senate was drinking. . . .

The waiter gave some to each of my friends, too. Ichio whispered to one of the waitresses, and after five minutes she returned from wherever she had been instructed to go and handed Yuki and Mike both tea and ramen. I smiled at Ichio thankfully. He nodded at me once.

He stood and asked to speak with Shiki. They talked in the hallway closest to them, and I knew what they were discussing. Ichio was not pleased at the way he was treating my friends and me. He said that I was still a pureblood and I could still take all of them down if I wished. Shiki was disrespectful. Ichio returned to the room, furious.

The glass in front of me was definitely filled with blood. I picked it up and drank slowly, with polite sips, despite my starvation. Zero, who was sitting in a chair next to Yuki's and Mike's against the wall, was apprehensive about his beverage. He stuck to eating his ramen.

When everyone was finished, I thanked Ichio and the senate for the meal.

Now it was time to get down to business.

How it would go, I was unsure. I knew that this would not be settled in one day. I knew also that there was pain and blood in the future, so I could only expect that I would loose the battle in the next few hours. Whether or not I would be put to death, I did not know. There was nothing to suggest that I would not.


You can still tell me what you want to happen! In fact, I am extending the deadline to Chapter Twenty! I look forward to any creative suggestions anyone has, no matter how weird or un-related to the story they may be. Please . . . do not hesitate. :) And would someone please review? I know you are out there! There are seventy-some reviews I should be getting!!!!!