Chapter 25: Our Solemn Hour

Everyone kept telling me that I was okay. That the things I heard and saw were all due to the side effects of killing a noble vampire for the first time. However, even with their reassurance, they studied me cautiously. Takuma's facial expression was currently curious and concerned. I had told him about my dreams and what usually happens.

I don't believe I have prophetic dreams.

I don't believe I can see ghosts.

I just didn't know what to tell Takuma or how to explain it, but I could see Kaede sometimes.

And Damon would occasionally tell or show me something important.

Since I was usually right, and my dream of Kaede holding Kiren against her will disturbed Takuma as well, he remained mostly at her side.

I didn't blame him. In fact, I felt a whole lot better when I saw him with her.

I made a vow to him that I would inform him of every dream I had just so he could be prepared.

Kiren was sitting in front of me with her legs curled under her butt and her hands neatly folded on her lap. She was patient, worried, and a bit disheveled. The wind had roughly played with her hair, making it look extremely poofy. She was tired but she wasn't about to leave me alone. Not when I was apparently hearing voices and seeing Kaede everywhere.

Hanabusa was leaning against the door frame, listening to the Kuran explain my situation to him. As if the Kuran could understand the unstable condition my brain was in! Hanabusa would glance at me once in a while, his eyes stormy. A strong wave of wanting to protect was flooding me and I could feel myself nearly drowning in his energy.

"Can I go to bed now?" I asked the swarming crowd of eyes.

I was getting annoyed. My personal space was being invaded. I was tired of being poked with foreign objects, having to stick out my tongue, and having my head scanned for any bruises on my brain.

The latter part I didn't doubt. After all, the explosion that killed Kaede had also hit me.

They continued to stare at me and I wondered if they had decided that I was a nutcase.

"Of course," the Kuran said softly, already leaving the room. It was a gesture that was followed by Takuma and Hanabusa. The vampires probably believed it was best to leave me alone, which was true.

I wasn't in the mood to deal with vampires. I only came to the Moon dorms because I knew Kiren would be protected. I crawled into the bed—the same bed that I was in when I had my ribs broken and had to be drugged up. The bed sheets smelled better, and not a bit of the room reeked of my blood anymore. It was like I had never been in it before.

Kiren got into her bed but kept her eyes on me. She looked like she wanted to ask me questions but didn't know how to word them without triggering my temper.

"Good night," she said into the darkness, flicking the switch so the light in the room died.

As if it was waiting for the darkness to surround me, I heard a familiar creaking sound. I groaned and pulled the bedcovers over my head, not bothering to check what it was.

I already knew what it was.

The same creepy looking doll on a wooden horse creaked back and forth on its rocker. Her black curly hair bounced when the horse swayed back and forth. Her cat-like eyes, violet amethysts, reflected only mischief. She grinned a crooked grin at me—a grin that told me I was in deep shit.

I really need to invest in headphones.

"Kiren, turn on the light for a second," I said.

The light switched on. "Something wrong, Serena-chan?"

I looked around the room, finding no child-sized doll anywhere. I wanted to growl but that would have given away my dilemma and I didn't want to freak Kiren out. As long as the doll left her alone, and didn't try to smother me with my pillow, I was totally fine with its presence.

Okay. I'm lying. I'm not totally fine with its presence but beggars can't be choosers.

"Switch the light off," I told her.

She gave me a peculiar stare but did as I told her to, and once the light was off the doll was in the middle of the room again. The doll slowly creaked back and forth, knowing she was getting on my nerves.

"Do you notice anything weird?" I asked Kiren.

There was a pause of silence.

"Should I be?" she inquired, sounding worried. "Should I get Takuma-kun or Aidou-sempai?"

I snorted. I should have known I would be the only one to notice the freaky things.

"Nah, I just noticed that there was a necklace on the nightstand next to me," I lied.

"Did you leave it there?" she asked. "Isn't that the gift that your father got you?"

"Yeah," I said, looking at the sun and moon fused necklace. I fiddled with the necklace, which was actually hanging low on my collar bone. It normally gave me comfort, but tonight the metal was cold and heavy.

Almost like it wanted to warn me.

If there's a God, please let me keep my sanity.

Jade returned to America yesterday. He said he had things to take care of back home, such as family affairs. It made sense. I mean...I bet he was worried about his other relatives. Not that I know much about them. In fact, I only remember meeting his aunt and uncle. He would probably stay with them. I wonder if they knew that members of their kin were dead. I wonder how their deaths were covered, if their deaths are known at all. Maybe his family members were told a load of bullshit.

He was supposed to call me whenever he had the chance, but I doubted it. I had a hunch that he was going to be extremely busy.

To be honest, I didn't really want him to go back. I wanted him to stay on school grounds, where I could keep my eyes on him and have him surrounded by people who could protect him. But that would have been selfish of me. I can't keep him locked up in his room just to make sure he was safe. However, it didn't stop me from worrying about him. I was already afraid that someone knew he had gone to America and followed him there to finish the job. I mean I know this is going to sound bad, but he probably can't defend himself on his own, and therefore he'd be an easy target.

Call me paranoid.

Anyway....tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I hate Valentine's Day.

I hate the cards. I hate the candy. I hate the balloons. I hate the flowers. I hate seeing teddy bears everywhere. I hate how people are all over each other.

And I really hate how people look at me with pity when they don't see some random dude slobbering all over my face.

Kiren, on the other hand, was overjoyed. She had decorated the whole room a week ago with pink balloons and flowers, claiming that she just wanted to 'brighten' up the room. Every time my face met a balloon, especially in the morning when I would forget that they were there, I had to fight the urge to pop it. She also left random pieces of chocolate all over the place...

I once found a bar of chocolate in my shoe. It was weird.

I have never celebrated Valentine's Day before and wanted it to stay that way.

I suppose this was her way of dealing. Distracting herself with something to do, and not think about how we've been living in the Moon dorms for the past three weeks. At least her mood improved. She wasn't as clingy and she didn't cry every time someone said 'mom'. Takuma would have her sleep over in his room sometimes, forcing his roommate to sleep in his girlfriend's room, and leaving me to fend for myself. The nights Kiren was gone the creepy doll would move closer. I once woke up to find her an inch away from my bed and never ran so fast to the light switch in my life.

I was becoming accustomed to sleeping with the lights on and the Blood Star near my pillow. Ha, if I slept at all! I didn't bother mentioning the doll to Takuma. It's not like the doll was attacking me. It was just fucking with my mind. And that's what it was: A mind game.

It just wanted to have fun. It didn't really want to harm me.

Yet anyway.

I'm going to pull a Kiren and change topic--back to the Valentine's day part. Kiren took it upon herself to kidnap me after class, determined to buy the ingredients to make homemade chocolate. I allowed her to drag me to the stores, become her guinea pig as she forced me to try different types of chocolate, and carried all of the bags.

I felt like a guy.

When we returned to the Moon dorms, we headed straight to the basement where they had a small kitchen. Why did they have a kitchen in the basement? Who the hell knows. Maybe a few of the vampires kept their secret stash of blood in the refrigerator.

And if I was unlucky enough, I'd find a chopped up corpse while opening the oven.

"Serena-chan!" Kiren made a disgusted face. "That's sickening!"

Oops. Must have said that last part out loud.

I smirked. "Yeah, I know."

Kiren shoved in a dozen of balled up chocolate, informing me that the balls would expand on the cookie sheet and then harden while it cooled off on the counter. I shrugged, letting her do all of the cooking. I did not trust myself with food. I was already tempted to lick the chocolate that was in the bowl. I had to keep my eyes busy by reading my latest Japanese homework assignment and contents of the Hunter Association Manual. I was still cursing myself for not finishing the latter.

And that's when the fire alarm sounded.

"Crap! CRAP!" Kiren shrieked, panicking. "CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!"

"Kiren, relax...it's just the fire alarm," I told her, covering my ears with my palms.

"Yes! But it's during the day! They are going to be so upset with me!" she whined.

"So what? If the blood suckers give you hell, I'll tell them off," I said simply.

She shot me a nasty glare and whacked my hand with the spatula. "You will do no such thing! We are currently residing in THEIR territory! We should be respectful of their schedules and sleeping patterns!"

Right. Me? Respect their sleeping patterns? HA! I don't ever recall myself respecting their sleeping patterns! Besides, Takuma was probably already awake.

"Why is the fucking fire alarm going off?" An angry blonde poked his head through the door.

Hanabusa's hair was sticking up in very interesting angles, making it seem like he had devil horns, and his p.j. pants were hanging loosely on his hips. He squinted his eyes at me in outrage, immediately singling me out to blame. "Do you have ANY idea what time it is?"

"Good morning to you too, sunshine!" I smirked at Hanabusa, flipping him the bird.

"I am so sorry, Aidou-sempai! I burned the chocolate!" Kiren sighed loudly, throwing her apron.

At the sound of chocolate, his whole attitude changed. He licked his lips as his eyes sparkled childishly. "Chocolate?"

"Yes, chocolate..."I said suspiciously. I didn't realize vampires could eat chocolate.

He vanished and reappeared beside Kiren, clapping his hands together. "Are you making me some?"

Kiren glared at the oven as if it were at fault and then addressed Hanabusa's question with a tiny smile. "Aidou-sempai, this is for Takuma-kun! But I'm sure Serena-chan will be glad to make you some!"

"HA!" I sneered. "Only if I slip cyanide in it!

Hanabusa pouted. "Darling how can you be so cruel to me?"

A vein twitched on my forehead. "Go back to bed, Rabbit. Kiren won't be able to finish if you stay here."

"She has a point." Kiren quickly agreed with me, wanting to avoid a marital dispute. "Please leave...so I can finish."

He huffed, folding his arms stubbornly over his chest. "FINE!"

He stomped back up the stairs with his chin sticking up, peeking at us before leaving.

"You're not sneaking any chocolate, Hanabusa," I snarled. "And if you think that just because you're faster that you'll be able to get away with stealing, think again."

I dropped the Blood Star near the table so he could see it and smirked at him. "Come on. I dare you."

He glared at me. "You're such a bit-"

Kiren cleared her throat, focusing her eyes on the next set of chocolate that needed to be made.

I grinned. "Damn straight! Wannabe chocolate thief."

He left us to our cooking--if you can call it that. We set off the fire alarm five mores times, causing the basement to be filled with smoke. I coughed a few times to clear my lungs and Kiren opened the small little window to let out the smoke.

"So, about that bonfire we just had," I teased Kiren, spraying the fire with the fire extinguisher.

Note to self: Never let Kiren cook without supervision.

"I don't get it," I muttered. "Why make chocolate when you can buy it already made?"

She shout me a glare. "You obviously don't know the customs of our culture, Serena-chan!"

"No..." I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. "I obviously don't."

"You're supposed to make chocolate for the man you really cherish," Kiren explained, pouting. "And I just wanted to show that I really care about Takuma-kun!"

I sighed, looking at the ruined chocolate. "You know what? Why don't you let me make it?"

She glanced hopefully at me. "You know how to?"

"No, but maybe I won't start a fire every time I try," I laughed at her scornful face.

"Fine," she said, handing me the spatula. "Have fun."

I followed the directions carefully, not wanting to have another fire accident. I patiently waited for the timer to go off, but took the chocolate out of the oven four minutes before I heard the timer ding. Good thing I did too because they were already done. I laid the cookie sheet onto the counter and waited for them to cool off. Kiren smiled at me.

"Good job!" she said. "I should have made you do this from the very beginning."

I rolled my eyes. "Nope. I wouldn't have helped anyway. I hate cooking. So don't expect me to help much."

"But at least they can sleep peacefully when you cook."

"That's probably the only up side," I said, staring at the bowl.

Kiren followed my look to the bowl and flashed me a grin. "Did you want to lick it?"

I returned the grin. "I'm tempted to."

"Then have it." She handed it to me. She frowned when I didn't take it from her. "Don't tell me you're starting to follow your mother's advice about dieting."

Truthfully, her voice did pop in my head a for a split second to scold me, but I laughed. "Hell no! I was about to ask if you wanted some!"

She pulled up the stool to sit next to me and I brought the bowl closer to us. I handed her the spatula as I took out a spoon.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" she declared loudly.

"Kiren, Valentine's Day is tomorrow," I muttered under my breath.

"Don't ruin my fun," she smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say."

We both dug in.

If I thought class was a pain in the ass, I was definitely ill prepared for what would happen during the 'exchange'.

The crowd was insane.

At least during class the students would remain in their seats until the bell chimed so that they could hand out chocolate. However, during the 'exchange', everyone was bouncing off the walls with excitement.

And I do mean bouncing off the walls.

The crazed fangirls were climbing on top of each other to pass over the gate that separated the Night and Day class students. More than once I had to threaten them with violence to get them to back off. When the vampires walked passed the gates and stationed themselves where they could be given their chocolate, everyone lined up in front of their favorite Night Class student to give them the chocolates that were either bought or made, and some of them even waited in vain for the vampires to open and eat the chocolate.

The screams and declarations of love were what really got on my nerves. I thought my ears were going to bleed.

In the corners of my left eye I could see Takuma and Kiren sneaking off on their own, and I debated with myself if I should follow them. I decided against it, hoping that they wouldn't do anything stupid. My focused my attention on the massive crowd of female students surrounding Hanabusa. He laughed at them, waving and winking, accepting their gifts. However, as he walked away from them, he flashed me a huge grin.

"So! Do you have anything for me?"

"You're going to have cavities," I told him, annoyed.

"Oh come on! I know you do! Kiren said you did!" he said excitedly, ignoring the whines of the girls he left behind.

I glared at him. "Kiren lied, plain and simple."

He frowned. "Fine! You fun sucker! Ruin your Valentine's day all you want, but you won't ruin mine!"

He spun on his heels and faced his fans with a cheesy grin. "Anymore ladies?"

"Attention whore," I snarled.

He stuck out his tongue. "Fun sucker!"

"Yeah," I smirked. "Well at least I don't suck other things."

He snorted. "That can be taken in so many ways."

"It was what I meant," I laughed at the face he was making and decided to say it a little louder. "That's right everyone! Hanabusa's gay! Sorry ladies!"

But instead of hearing whines and pouts, the girls started discussing outloud who Hanabusa's male partner could be. The girls looked at him curiously, checked out all the Night Class males and looked back at Hanabusa--much to his horror.

"Ladies! LADIES! I assure you that I am STRAIGHT!" he shouted, sending me a dark glare.

I smirked, sticking out my tongue. I won that battle. I left him to attend my other prefect duties, which included using the Blood Star to scare the crap out of the crazy fangirls. Valentine's day made them so much braver and annoying. They were even scheming on how to interrupt the classroom settings once the vampires were in the actual school. Well, every vampire was except Hanabusa who kept flashing me a huge grin.

That grin that told me he was up to something.

"Hey you!" Hanabusa shouted to get my attention.

A vein pulsed in the corner of my forehead as he stepped closer to me.

"You know, by now, you'd think he'd call me by name," I muttered under my breath. "What do you want?"

He winked at me, showing a small blue package of chocolate. "Thanks darling!"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "For what? Those weren't from me."

"Yes, keep telling yourself that lovely," he laughed. Before I could move away from him, he quickly kissed my cheek and took off running.

My face turned a bright shade of red, and then fury engulfed me. I balled up my fists as I started to chase him.

"HANABUSA! Come back here you asshole!"

Damn him for being so fast. Just as I was about to catch him, he was already in the classroom and the door slammed in my face. He stuck out his tongue from the other side.

"This isn't over, Rabit," I frowned.

I felt a mix of emotions as my heart pumped. I was angry because he had kissed my cheek but at the same time I was...giddy? Well, he shouldn't have done that in public. I mean what was he thinking? Especially with all of those crazy fangirls...

Ooooooh wait. The fangirls. They saw that peck on the cheek.

God damn asshole did that on purpose!

"I can see that he got his chocolate," Takuma said to me, appearing out of nowhere, and I nearly jumped.

"Takuma! A warning would be great next time!" I had a hand over my heart. I looked over his shoulder to see if the fangirls were stalking behind him.

Coast was clear so far.

Takuma chuckled. "Sorry, I thought you would be better at sensing me now."

"I'm just distracted. It's Valentine's day."

Takuma wiggled his eyebrows. "You do know that blue package of chocolate came from Kiren, right? However, she told him that it was from you."

"SHE WHAT?" Well no wonder that idiot thanked me. He thought the chocolate was a gift from me!

"Yes, she thought it would be rude not to give him any," he said.

"Then why didn't she just say it was from her?" I snapped.

"She said it would be awkward, and in my opinion her reputation as a lady would have been slightly tarnished. After all, she's dating me yet she gives another man chocolate? It is just not seen...as proper," he explained.

I glared at him. "You...just made that up, didn't you?"

He grinned and spun me around to face the school's exist. "I'm off to class, Miss Serena! I hope you have a lovely night! Oh, and be mindful of those...women...out there. They saw the--"

"Shut it, Takuma! It wasn't anything!" I cut him off and left the school before he could say anything else.

As soon as I stepped outside though, I was faced with a bunch of would-be rapists.

I mean...fangirls.

And Shizune was leading the crazy bunch. They all had balled up fists, raised hair, dark violet glares that screamed murder, and fake fangs.

"Fontana Serena, you have violated the third law of--" Shizune began her lecture.

"I don't follow the school rules. What makes you think I'll follow your cult's rules?" I interrupted.

Shizune sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "Have you gone insane?"

I swung the Blood Star over my shoulder with my right hand and held my chin thoughtfully with my left. "My sanity...whatever happened to my sanity?"

"Fontana, this is no time for your stupidity," Shizune growled.

"Oh yeah," I continued, ignorning Shizune. "I traded it for a sandwich. It was a good sandwich. Just like I always love them."

"CHARGE!" Shizune yelled, her index finger pointing right at my forehead and her left leg stomped forward.

And that's when all hell decided to make me prey.

I plugged my nose as I tried to prevent myself from sneezing. If I sneezed, I was going to give away my position and that would have led to a disaster. It's too bad the Chairman is against killing fangirls.

"They're my students!" he says. Well, he's not the one being HUNTED down like a dog right now.

All because of a dumbass who decided to kiss my cheek in public.

I'm going to kill him. There's no rule against killing the vampires. Though the Kuran would hate me for the rest of my life--if he didn't already. Not that the Kuran's lack of affections mattered to me.

I scanned the area before I made my way to the Moon Dorms. The fangirls weren't allowed there. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if they were breaking the rules today. It was fucking Valentine's day, which means they'll do anything stupid to make sure that the obsession of their life at least knows that they exist. Once I got past the old, creepy man who guarded the gates to the Moon Dorms I started to feel better.

"You're supposed to be watching over the human territory tonight, Fontana," Zero frowned at me.

"It's your turn to babysit the mindless piranhas in heat," I glared back.

I received a tiny smile from the silver haired brat. "Mindless piranhas. That's new."

"Just go already."

To my surprise, he agreed to switch locations and I was left to guard the vampire area. I sighed and found myself wandering around the area carelessly. The vampire area usually were boring since the students---vampires--- were in class. The vampires who occassionally skipped knew that it was better to stay in their rooms than to wander off because they would either get caught by a prefect or be scolded by the Kuran.

And it was always worse to be scolded by the Kuran. All of the vampires respected him.

At least it was pretty tonight. The moon was full and the stars were bright. I could locate Mars, showing off its reddish hue in the sky. With the moon being full, it was easier to see and check the areas to make sure that they were void of beings.

"Serena-chan," a feminine voice greeted me and i spun around to see Yuuki.

"Well hello stranger, you've been gone for a while," I smirked at her.

She blushed at my response. "I know...I've been..."

"Hibernating a little bit? Probably next to your hubby?" I teased her.

She pouted her lips, almost as if she wanted to scold me for teasing her, but she began to giggle instead. "I guess you could say that."

Truth be told, I had no idea as to where she disappeared off to. I haven't seen her since last semester...a little after Jade woke up. I would have asked her what happened, but I already knew I wasn't going to get an answer. That was strictly vampire business.

However, I could ask her why she was out now. "So, what causes you to join me tonight?"

She shrugged. "Got tired of being locked up and I wanted to be outside."

An eyebrow rose. "Locked up?"

I felt my face twitch. If someone ever locked me up there would be hell to pay.

"OH! It's not like that at all!" she said, her hands up in defense. "I was....I was just..."

"Forget it. I don't want to know." I waved it off.

She cleared her throat. "Well, I'll be off now. I have a place to be."

She curtsied, offered me a polite smile and made her way around me to move on.

I blinked a couple of times. "Did she just...curtsy? To me? Of all people?"

That wasn't all though. Her hair was much longer. I mean it was long before, but now it nearly reached the ground. And something was off about her scent.

Damn Kurans. Can't trust either one of them.

Three days have passed since Valentine's day, and I was in the middle of my math class when the Chairman stuck in his bubbly head into the classroom. He had a serious face on, which alarmed me right away, and when he pulled me out of class to inform me that someone was on the phone I moved faster than a cheetah to beat him to his office.

"Serena, sorry about this. I know that he interrupted your class. I told him I would call later," Jade said.

"It's all good. Just tell me what's wrong," I told him and tried to kick the Chairman out of the office so I could have some privacy.

But he was stubborn so I had to cover the phone with my hand to tell him he needed to leave.

"I want to listen too! This is about your mother," he mumbled.

I frowned. Well, I didn't know that. I uncovered the phone. "Jade, what's wrong with Mom?"

"Well first, let me tell you that the people here think my family died in a train accident." He avoided my question.

"What train accident?" I asked.

"The one that occurred in China during your winter break."

"But I was in that train crash...and it was much, much later. How's that possible?" I was confused.

"Well, apparently the chinese police found the bodies of a family that look a lot like mine..." he voice trailed off.

"Oh," the Chairman interrupted. "That could be the work of the Bokyo clan. One of the members has the ability to change the appearance of corpses. That person might have taken some of the victims and transformed their appearances."

"Why the hell would they do that?" I snapped.

"Because darling, the Bokyo clan doesn't want the humans to know that vampires exist. They want to be able to devour their meals without having their victims being able to fight back. After all, if the humans were better informed, they would also be better armed."

"That makes a lot more sense now," Jade said.

"You can hear him? Sorry, he's not supposed to be in here," I apologized. "But he won't give me privacy."

"It's okay. He needs to know this too anyway."

"What else is going on?" I asked. "What about Erica's family?"

He sighed. "Same deal."

"And no one is suspicious of anything? What have your relatives done? Have they asked you about your arm?"

"No, it's like they're completely brain washed. They think I lost my arm in the train accident, and that I was lucky to survive." I could hear the venom in his voice. "But that's not all, Serena. I was just given Sunflower two days ago."

"Sunflower?" The Chairman asked me.

"Erica's bitchy dog," I told him and turned back to Jade. "Yeah? And what happened?"

"She died this morning. She was drained of blood."

I wanted to smash the phone against the table. "How the fuck are the Bokyo--"

"It wasn't the Bokyo family, Serena," Jade interrupted.

"Who was it then?"

"I got the dog from your mom, Serena," Jade said in a quiet voice.

My body went cold. I heard him inhale deeply before continuing.

"When I got the dog, I noticed a lot of puncture holes on the dog. Your mom didn't tell me anything about the dog being attacked by other vampires, and Mr. Tampon didn't look so well either."

"What do you-" My voice cracked so I had to clear my throat, "What do you mean?"

"I mean he seemed to be suffering from lack of blood."

"Fuck!" I growled, repeating the word under my breath. And all of the sudden the room got really small and really hot.

The Chairman put his hand on my shoulder to steady me. "Serena, perhaps you should sit down."

He yanked a chair over and gently pushed my shoulders to force me to sit.

"Serena?" Jade was anxious on the other side.

"Still here," I answered.

"I think it's almost time."

I groaned and dropped my forehead onto the desk. It was so soon, wasn't it? I thought I had more time. Or did time slip by me without even realizing?

I stood up, immediately shoving the phone into the Chairman's hands as I left the office.

"Serena? SERENA!" he shouted down the hall. "Where are you going?"

"I want to be left alone," I snapped and started to run.

But I knew I couldn't run from my problems. No matter how I fast I ran.

I found myself staring at my brother's tombstone. I wasn't sure how I got to the graveyard, or how long it took me. To be honest, I didn't want to know how long.

I was avoiding time. I was pretending time didn't exist.

The end can't come if time didn't exist, right?

It was a small tombstone, which is probably normal. He was a kid, after all. A bouncy, playful kid.

His birthday was May 17. It made me smile. We were both born on the number 17. That made him a Taurus then, or at least that's what Erica would have told me. She was the one who was more into astrology. I guess that's what we sort of had in common---astronomy and astrology.

I was freezing. My legs felt like two blocks of ice and I was surprised that I could still tell that I had fingers. My skin had turned a light shade of blue though. Not a good sign. It was windy as hell. My hair was a mess.

I was a mess. Inside and out.

Tonight it wasn't as bright because the clouds were racing past the moon. The trees looked more ominous with their naked branches that seemed to reach out with black, sharp fingers. Instinct was telling me to leave, but I didn't want to go. Not until I heard Damon's voice.

I needed encouragement. I needed strength.

I was the little sister that needed her big brother.

Something behind me snapped, like a person stepping onto a twig. I spun around and instinctly swung the Blood Star in front of me for protection, and came face to face with a male...human?

He stepped under the street light so I could see him better. He had brown hair that reminded me of one of the vampires back at school...what was his name..Shiki? And he had brown eyes. Cold eyes that were scheming. He was taller than me with light complexion to his skin. He wore my school's black uniform, so there was a possibility that he was a student. I doubted it though.

At this time of night, all of the Day Class students were in their dorms.

"Who the fuck are you?" I snarled.

"You should introduce yourself first, if you want my name." He gave me a smug smile.

I dangerously narrowed my eyes. "How about I just swing this at your head, hm? I like that idea better."

"Takamiya Kaito. And I assume you are Fontana Serena."

"Assume is to make an ass out of you...and you," I replied. Like I'd actually agree that it was my name. What if he was lying?

"I see you have an attitude--I bet it comes in handy," he smirked.

He was keeping a safe distance from me. I don't blame him. I was armed and wouldn't hesitate to remove his head.

"Get to the point. What the hell do you want?"

"As a fellow member of the Vampire Hunter Association, I've come to inform you of your duties," he said with an air of arrogance. "There is a ball being held for all pureblood vampires...kind of like a reunion. And you are to attend as a guard."

"Shove it, I'm not a part of the Vampire Hunter Association," I retorted.

His smirk, if it was possible, got bigger. "Oh but I think you'll want to attend this ball, Miss Fontana. With all the purebloods going, you can bet Hajime will be there."

"And why should I care?"

He looked at me as if I wasn't intelligent enough to exist. Like he was far superior to me just because he knew who Hajime was and his importance to me. "He's the leader of the Bokyo clan. I thought perhaps you'd like to meet him."

Hearing the name Bokyo caused me to swing the Blood Star on impulse and he quickly jumped to dodge it, causing me to blow up a tree. I was definitely not in a good mood to listen to someone talk about the Bokyo clan.

He sneered. "You missed."

"That was a warning, asshole. The next time I won't miss," I promised, gripped the Blood Star tighter.

We glared at each other for a while, neither of us moving. I could feel my body begin to tense with the urge to strike him down.

He smirked devilishly. "Well, at least I know that you'll be useful to our association."

"Are you brain dead or something? How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not part of your fucking association?" I snapped.

"You're right. You're too stupid and weak," he said and turned his back on me.

"Stupid? WEAK?" I charged at him but he disappeared right before I could smash his skull in.

However, humans can't disappear. Meaning he had jumped into the air.

Like I figured, he was directly above me and about to kick me in the face, so I used the spiked ball end of the Blood Star to block him. I heard him grunt and watched him land awkwardly a few yards away. One of the spikes had cut his ankle.

But he laughed. The dumb fucker laughed. "I'll see you at the ball."

Against my better judgment, I allowed him to limp back to wherever the hell he came from. He had a point. I would show up at the ball. I wanted to meet Hajime. I'll admit that I'm nervous about meeting the pureblood of the clan who wants me dead, but who better to kill while I was pissed off about Mom. And it's not like it was impossible for me to kill a pureblood vampire. After carefully reading the latest chapter of that now useful manual, I've come to realize that vampire hunters can indeed kill purebloods.

It gave me hope. Even if I logically knew that it was false hope.

I wasn't strong enough to kill a pureblood...yet.

However, maybe Yagari-sama. Or Zero.

In the mean time, I was seriously considering planting a bomb at the Vampire Hunter Association's headquarters. I wondered if I could persuade Zero to join me and my madness.

End of the chapter! Woot! I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring Kaito and Yuuki, but...I have it in the plans...muwahaha.

I won't apologize for taking forever to write this up. And you don't want to know my reasons why. Heh heh. Some parts of the chapter I was actually writing about on Valentine's day, hence why it's featured. Though Serena and I don't share the same sentiments---not that I absolutely adore the "celebration" but I'm okay with it.

The number 17 is actually considered the most unlucky number in Italy--and 13 is considered lucky. Why 17? I have no idea. I keep forgetting to ask Mom but I don't think she knows either.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. It has a little bit of humor....