Chapter Thirty-Seven

A flash of pain went through his body as the blood hit his system, but not enough to make him break away. The rest of the pain that had tormented him since he'd woken up faded as the woman's warm blood flowed down his throat. He sucked greedily at the wound, gorging himself like a starving wolf.

The smell of blood had been appetizing, but the taste was magnificent. Not like any kind of food he'd had in his human life, but a sort of ambrosia. After the first few drops passed his lips, instinct drove him to sink his sharpened teeth into the woman's arm. The skin parted with deceptive ease, and more warm, sticky fluid slipped down his throat.

The pain of his hunger was all but absent now. He could feel the new blood revitalizing his muscles, easing the ache. Seishirou had told him this meal cemented the transformation into this new body. Syaoran supposed that had been what had made the need so dire.

I won't need to feed like this again for a while, he thought. Whether this conclusion came from some vague vampire instinct, or from the knowledge that Kurogane would've been dead by now if Fai had to feed as often as a human had to eat, he couldn't be sure.

The thought of them sent a little pang of regret through him. They must've taken my choice for a betrayal, he thought. I didn't tell them why I had to do it. They won't understand why I went over to our enemy.

The worry could not distract him from the taste for long. He took in another mouthful of blood, savoring the taste before he swallowed. Would it be like this every time, or would the enthusiasm fade as he gained better control over his impulses? His self-control was in tatters by now, but he didn't care. There was only one thing in the world, and that was the blood.

There used to be something else, his mind told him. Images of Sakura's face flitted behind his closed eyelids. You used to care about other things.

He took another mouthful, noting with some annoyance that the woman's blood pressure was dropping, making it harder to draw blood out of her.

Souma. Her name is Souma.

He tossed the thought aside, focusing on drawing more blood out through the cut. When little came out, he bit her again. He could feel her pulse slowing as he drank, could hear the labored rhythm of her heart.

A gentle hand came down on his shoulder. "That's enough now. Let go of her."

Stubbornly, he pulled another mouthful of fluid from the woman's arm. The hand clamped tighter around his shoulder, pulling him away. Syaoran tried to shrug it off. With fresh blood in his system, he knew he had the strength to fight almost any opponent.

Not Kurogane or Fai or Seishirou, though, he thought. The latter two were vampires, like him, but even human, Kurogane could easily kill him. He might want to, after what I did. If he even knows I'm still alive. The thought that they might not know saddened him somehow. Maybe Sakura will cry for me. Or not.

"Let go, Little Wolf, you're killing her."

That stirred some response in him, however broken his self-control was. He didn't want to kill anyone, least of all someone he'd known in another reality. And his raging thirst was sated now, anyway. But . . .

The hand moved his head and pried him off the woman. He looked up at Seishirou, blinking sleepily. The dark-haired man took a small handkerchief out of his shirt pocket and dabbed at his face. The piece of cloth came back bloody, but rather than being disgusted as he should've been, Syaoran felt a rush of desire.

"It's time to go back," his teacher told him. He frowned. "We have to go back to Fuuma, and we have to get out of here."

"I'm tired," Syaoran said, without really thinking about it. As soon as he said it, he realized it was true. The pain was all gone, and his body felt almost numb, like it did when it was swaddled in blankets in a bed. Logically, he knew he hadn't been up much longer than normal, and that the solid block of sleep he'd gotten before he'd left Infinity should've been more than enough to keep him energized, but the more he thought about it, the more exhausted he was.

"That's your body reacting to the blood."

"Oh . . . Is that going to happen every time?"

"Only if you take a lot." He sighed. "Although, I'd imagine anyone would be exhausted after what you went through, so . . . You can sleep. I'll carry you back."

Normally, Syaoran would've objected to the offer. He didn't want to be a burden to Seishirou, especially not after all the trouble his mentor had gone through to get his prey here. He glanced down at the unconscious woman. Souma, he thought. Her name is Souma. Remember that.

Seishirou tousled his hair again. "You can rest now. I'll take care of everything."

Syaoran closed his eyes and let the world disappear.

Seishirou checked the woman's pulse once he was sure the kid was asleep. Dead, he thought when he felt nothing. How unfortunate.

His eyes slid back over to Syaoran, sleeping peacefully on the ground. New vampires often felt fatigue after their first meal. The stress of the transformation and the relaxing qualities of fresh blood forced them to rest, however dangerous the situation. Seishirou supposed it could've been worse. The boy could've passed out the moment the torch-bearing villagers were upon them.

He looked back to the dead woman and ran his hand from her forehead to her nose, closing her unseeing eyes. No point in telling Little Wolf, he decided after a moment. After all, it wasn't as if Syaoran had any control over what had been done to him. For not expecting the shift, he'd acclimated well to his new body. A few lapses in control early on were nothing to be worried about.

Seishirou picked the boy up, holding him like an oversized infant, and carried him back to where they'd left Fuuma an hour ago. His brother looked unharmed, despite being exposed to the elements. Still, it was unwise to delay his care even a moment longer.

The boy had taken the feather inside him hours ago, but in his unconsciousness, drawing it back out wasn't a difficult task. Seishirou knelt over the boy's chest and drew a line of magic in the air. He let the dangling thread sink into Syaoran's chest, where the feather was, and drew it out. The boy shifted in his sleep, as if the removal of the feather caused him physical pain. "Sorry about this," Seishirou whispered, taking the feather and holding it over his brother's heart. The feather's presence slowed the spread of the disease, perhaps even stopped it for a time, but it could not leave Fuuma for more than a few hours, or the disease would spread as fast as it normally did. He estimated the magic artifact would prolong Fuuma's life as long as six months—but certainly no longer than that.

"It would seem I have more deals to work out," he said, summoning the magic in his eye. Yuuko's image appeared in a small circle on the ground, like colored lights projected on a television screen. "Yuuko-san," he greeted her.

The woman looked at him evenly. "I take it the magic bulb worked?"

He nodded, smiling warmly. "It did. I was able to save him."

Her voice was emotionless. "And do you have the payment I requested of you?"

He nodded, holding up the feather. "Just as promised."

"Send it over, then."

He lifted up the pure white feather into the light, admiring the gentle waves of magic coming off the it. It dissolved from this world and reappeared in Yuuko's hands. "I also have a request."

"Another one?" she asked, grinning now.

He nodded. "I know things will be difficult enough for Syaoran when his work with me is done. When you send that back to his friends, can you tell them he's alive and well, so that they might be ready to have him back?"

The witch contemplated that for a moment, then said, "That is within the bounds of my interference, but are you certain it will have the effect you're hoping for?"

"It's what Syaoran would've wanted, I'm sure."

Yuuko thought about that a moment more, then nodded. "Is that all you came to ask, then?"

"Well, there's that thing I mentioned to you before . . ."

"That is not within the limits of my power," she said, the same thing she'd said before, when he'd asked her to help Fuuma. "I already allowed you to fall into a world with a new feather. You will have to do the rest on your own."

He nodded, losing his smile.

"I understand."

Yuuko was quiet for a moment, as if chewing over her next words. Seishirou waited, holding up the connection while she thought. "You are aware how close you came to not saving the boy, aren't you?"

"I am."

"And so you must be aware of the chances your brother has, in his current state."

His eyes narrowed. "Even a one-in-a-million chance is better than no chance at all." The Little Wolf said something to that effect, once, he thought, remembering the boy's words in Edonis.

Yuuko nodded in understanding. "Challenge Hitsuzen however much you want. Some rules of the universe just don't change."

He frowned. "Then I will move Heaven and Earth to change them."

"I've known many men who've tried to bend the rules of the universe in my time. It has never ended well for them."

"One-in-a-million, Yuuko-san. That's all the chance I need."

The dark-haired woman nodded. "Very well then. I wish you the best of luck, however it turns out." She cut the connection, leaving him alone with his brother and the boy. Seishirou listened to their breathing for a moment, then guessed that neither of them would wake up for another few hours. That gave him enough time to replace the feather he'd given up, enough time to delay his brother's death.

Nothing is inevitable, he told himself. When you're immortal, nothing is impossible. He left his companions there, heading toward the strongest magical presence.