Thank you to all of you who sent in reviews and questions! You guys are so great! Please forgive the poor editing of this chapter. It was very late at night.
A Dragon's Heart – Chapter 13
Mikan stared at the woman with her mouth gaping open like a fish? "S-seal? I'm sorry what seal?" Oh gods, she hoped that didn't mean what she thought it meant. She had been trying so hard not to openly display what a freak she was from the rest of dragon kind. One would think all the teasing and bullying she had endured as a child would have taught her to be more careful, but every now and then her freakishness just popped out.
When she was younger she could never understand what she had done to be cursed as she was.
Creatures that had magic in them valued and treasured the magic that set them above humans. It was the proof of their superiority. Evidence that they were better than the useless egotistical masses that were convinced they were the dominant race on this planet.
It was the one thing they valued the most, and it was the one thing she could take away from them just by standing near them. And boy, did they detest her for it.
Her closest family members tried to give it all sorts of friendly, politically correct names like 'nullification', but the names she heard most were along the lines of 'that freaky brat that fucks up my power'. With the exception of her close family, other mystical creatures, especially dragons almost always ended up hating her and hating to be around her.
When she was a kid she had no control over her ability and it would surge out whenever she was excited or upset. At first she didn't even know that she was the cause of people suddenly losing their magic. It just looked like their magic stopped working for no reason. Abilities would just disappear, transformations would sometimes revert, and it looked like a real mystery.
Eventually though, they noticed that it only happened whenever Mikan was around. Once they came to that realization, they would remember that magic had sometimes acted funny around her father too. Her father must not have been as strong as she was because whenever he did it, others would just write it off as a prank or something. Mikan's abnormality was clearly on another level because it happened even when she didn't want it to and it had sent her crying in the privacy of her bedroom more than once. It was always bad enough for her to always be keenly aware of how different she was to all of the human kids in school, but she did not fit in with her own kind as well.
Mikan the freaky brat she thought bitterly to herself. I should have been more careful. It would not do well for her to start making enemies before she even had a chance to look around Japan.
"My door is magically sealed to prevent annoying interruptions. You should not have been able to open it, so how did you?" Hotaru inquired politely. The young woman had a completely neutral expression on her face, but there was something about her eyes that told Mikan the woman was more curious than she let on.
"Are you sure you had the seal on?" Mikan asked while mentally scrambling to find a way out of this topic of conversation.
"The seal is automatic whenever the door closes."
"Oh. Why would you have a seal instead of a normal lock?" she asked, trying to distract with a dumb question.
"A lock is not what I consider to be sufficient security. I have many secret projects that I am working on and I don't want them compromised."
"You keep them in your room?" Mikan asked. She could not keep this up long; she was running out of questions.
"Sometimes. Now I would appreciate it if you would stop avoiding my question. My security should not be so easy to break through."
Busted. The woman was a lot smarter than Mikan hoped. "Yeah… well… if it was magic, sometimes magic doesn't work normally around me." She tried evasively. With luck, Hotaru would leave it at that. The absolute last thing she wanted to say was that she could cancel out magic at will. She was fairly sure it would not go over so well.
Hotaru gave her a skeptical look. "I see." She said, and to Mikan's great relief she didn't pursue the matter.
Trying to break the tension, Mikan changed the subject. "So what should I wear to a festival? Should I wear a dress or would a tee-shirt and shorts do?" she asked brightly with her smile almost too wide to hide her nervousness.
Hotaru gave her a scary smile that made her look predatory. "I'm sure we can find you something to wear. You should go clean up though." Mikan ran off to the bathroom without further complaint, relieved to get out of the room.
She probably indulged in the hot water a bit too long, but she was a sea dragon. It was in her nature enjoy the feel of water on her skin.
When she returned to her room she was surprised to find Hotaru, Aoi and two other women there. She couldn't remember their names any better than she could remember Hotaru's. The only thing she did remember was the girl with the wavy pink hair was the one who served her dinner and that she now had a breakfast tray set out for Mikan. Mikan barely got the last bite of her food before they pounced on her.
Until that moment Mikan would have sworn up and down that there was no such thing as a hostile make-over, but she would have been wrong. They were vicious monsters that attacked her hair, body and face all at once. Mikan might have tried to fight them off but the odds were four against one. She would probably lose.
The results were quite astounding once they were done though. Her hair was put in a side tail that cascaded over her shoulder in loose ringlets. The girl with the dark blue hair -Nonoko, she reminded Mikan- had created a new perfume free make-up that she applied in a rather attractive manner. To top it off she was dressed in a very formal, very expensive looking kimono that was almost the same color as her dragon hide just a bit more blue than her. It even had a gold decorative pattern and trim. Mikan studied herself in the mirror. She had to admit it looked really pretty. She had no idea how she was going to be able to move around or go to the bathroom in this getup, and she would probably keel over and die if she found out the price of it, but it pretty none the less.
"Forgive me for asking a stupid question, but why am I in this? Wouldn't a normal dress be better and easier to move in?" Mikan asked. The other four women in the room gave her varying looks that all seemed to scoff at her.
"We may live in a modern age and humans may only think of us as myth, but we still have appearances and traditions that we uphold." Aoi said.
Anna and Nonoko nodded before Anna added her own thoughts. "We don't normally bother with human celebrations, but if we choose to take part, we will do so in a style that is befitting our clan."
"Oh. Well then how come I'm the only one dressed this way?" she asked, noting that the other women were just in normal clothes.
"Oh we will be getting changed in just a moment. We just wanted to make sure you were set first." Nonoko told her.
Shortly after that the four women left and Mikan shuffled awkwardly around her room afraid to move too much and wrinkle her pretty clothes.
~*~
Ugh. Natsume always hated going out in traditional formal clothing. It annoyed him to have humans gawking and staring at him. If he was really unlucky, some would try taking pictures of him like he was some kind of tourist attraction. He was about to leave when his sister waylaid him at the door to his room.
"Natsume, everyone is almost ready. Mochu is pulling the bus around." She told him.
"Bus? Just how many people are going to this thing?" he was hoping to get in and get out quickly.
"Everyone!" she answered happily, then she looked at him and frowned. "Natsume you are not wearing your crest and color."
He sighed and made an irritated growl at her. He didn't want to wear his crest. He felt like an overdone peacock already he didn't need to make it worse. Besides, they were going to be in a crowd full of humans. It was unlikely that he was going to run into any supernatural creatures, so he didn't need to strut around with anything announcing who he was.
A lot of dragons were quick to show off their rank or bloodline by wearing some form of ornamental crest. Most commonly it was either a ring or a pendant, but in a fit of rebellion Natsume chose to make his an ear cuff and earring. It wasn't that he really wanted an earring and cuff; it was just that he knew his grandfather would hate it so he chose to wear a gold cuff engraved with his crest and an earring with a gemstone of his dragon color. Any mystical creature that saw him would know he was a high ranking red dragon from the Kuonji clan.
He and his sister stared at each other for a few moments until he relented and let her attach his annoying ear pieces. It would not have done him any good to argue with her anyway. Not unless he wanted to be nagged all day long for not wearing them. Natsume endured the momentary torment and then moved towards the door but Hotaru stopped him by blocking his path.
"Imai. Did something happen?" he asked, figuring that since she only talked to him when something was wrong, the chances that something had gone wrong was the most logical possibility.
"I like her."
"What? Who?" Big duh. It would be obvious to anyone which her Imai was referring to. They were not exactly flooded with new people to get an opinion on. Hotaru gave him a rather scathing look for being intentionally stupid.
"She is not like anyone I have ever met." She told him, and he couldn't think of anything to say to that. He had never met anything like Mikan either. Electing to stay silent he just waited until she got to the point.
"I will help you in courting her."
Courting her? Hell, he didn't want her as a mate. He just needed to cure the insanity she induced in him. Once he finally purged her from his system she would be far better off if she went back home and never saw them again. Not that he would tell Imai that. He was nowhere near that stupid. Imai could be resourceful and if she was going to try and help him get Mikan into his bed, he was damn well going to take that help.
"Is that it?"
"I also think she is hiding something. She is a bit too open and honest for her own good. It makes her a terrible liar."
Yeah Natsume suspected as much already. His gut or his sixth sense of her told him it wasn't anything that he should be alarmed about so he chose to put it aside. He would figure it out sooner or later. Of that he was certain.
Natsume gave her a brief nod and pushed past her to Mikan's room across the hall. The door wasn't latched so he shoved it aside and strode right in. She was probably already ready and decent, but he could still hope that some part of her was unclothed.
Whoa was he wrong.
It was obvious that his sister had been at her. No one in their right mind would carry an elegant kimono in a back pack. It clearly belonged to the clan. He wondered if anyone told her that it was genuine silk and that it was most likely a couple of centuries old.
Nastume didn't really like kimonos. They were not the most flattering garment to a woman's figure. If anything, it was a throat to toe sheath that did everything it could to hide a woman's curves. He certainly thought Mikan looked a hell of a lot sexier in that little sleepwear outfit she wore last night
Still, just looking at her all dressed up the way she was he could almost understand why humans worshiped their kind. There was an ethereal quality about her that almost screamed that she was so much more than an average human. Behind that lovely facade there was a vibrant pulsing energy that made her glow from within. There was something else when one looked at her, something wild and untamable as the ocean in her. She looked every inch a goddess of the water and he felt substandard and unworthy. It took a lot of effort not to gape at her like some ignorant peasant.
It was just as well that he had control of his expression with Aoi and Hotaru there to watch his reactions.
"Doesn't she look nice Natsume?" Aoi prompted.
He gave his sister a droll look "She looks like a sushi roll."
Mikan narrowed her eyes at him "Ohhh fish jokes and I'm a sea dragon. Real funny coming from an overdressed peacock." She said acidly.
He gave her a cunning smile and put his hands at his collar as if he was going to remove his haori. "If you would rather see me undress I would be happy to grant your wish, but I insist you repay in kind." He told her with a suggestive leer and enjoyed the way color flooded her cheeks and she stormed out of the room.
As she pushed past him he clearly heard her mutter "Pervert." under her breath at him.
His sister and Imai gave him matching looks of disgust. "What?" he asked them, completely unrepentant of his actions.
~*~
It was not that big of an exaggeration when Aoi said that everyone was going. Just about everyone that was at dinner the night before was on the bus and they were all dressed in traditional formal-wear. They were so going to stand out.
He wanted to sit with Mikan next to him, but she killed that idea by making sure she sat with the handful of children that were on the bus. The kids appeared to be quite taken with her. They couldn't stop asking questions the whole trip.
"How big do sea dragons get?"
"What colors do they come in?"
"What is your favorite food?"
"What powers do they have?"
"Don't you get cold in the water?"
"What is your favorite color?"
Natsume had to forcefully keep his mouth shut. He was tempted to yell at them all for being so noisy, but every time he was about to, Mikan would look his way and give him a silent rebuke and he was forced to choke back his words.
The really irritating part came when Mikan asked questions. Unless she directed the question to one person practically the whole bus nearly fell all over themselves and each other trying to be the one to answer her. Everyone was quite enchanted with her.
It was beneath him to pout or be petulant but a small part of him wanted to yell 'MINE!' Every single one of them including the children knew that he had set his intentions on her so what the hell were they doing getting in his way? By the time they arrived at the festival she had most of his people wrapped around her little finger.
The bus stopped a ways away from bulk of the attractions so they had to walk the rest of the way. As soon as they stepped off the bus Natsume wrinkled his nose. The stink caused by masses of humans with their sweat and bad breath mixed with cigarettes, perfumes, deodorants, shampoos and cosmetics assaulted his nose. A few had similar reactions and Youichi sneezed four times in succession.
Whatever you do Natsume he told himself fiercely, don't throw up. He would never live it down if he lost his breakfast right now. The smell of humans usually put him off, but with thousands all crowded together in a very small area the effect was ten times worse.
"Imai! Tell me you have some magical gizmo or whatever to do something about them!" Oh god, he had to fight back his gag reflex.
Imai did not answer him. Instead she turned and called out "Nonoko?" who in turn bustled forward with something that looked like a tiny spray bottle. Almost like breath spray. Great, just what he needed, more smells.
"Oh! Yes! I got this idea from human anesthetics. It should reduce-" she started to explain, but Natsume overrode her.
"Will it get rid of their goddamned stink?" he asked harshly.
Nonoko gave a little frightened squeak at his aggressive tone and nodded frantically. Yuu, her mate, instinctively rushed over to support her giving Natsume a hurt look. If the green was a stronger dragon he might have snarled at Natsume for frightening his mate.
Natsume wouldn't and couldn't apologize, it would undermine his authority. However he did not mean to frighten her either. He raked his fingers through his hair. "Just tell me how to use it." he growled quietly. He turned to look at Mikan who gave him an unreadable look. He tried to test out the strange empathy they shared and even it was somehow clouded and unreadable. All he could pick up from her were tiny flickers that suggested that she was slightly impressed with him.
It turned out Nonoko's creation was used just like breath spray and it thankfully it dulled his sense of smell so he could last more than ten minutes. Imai in turn pinned small tracking chips to all of them so no one would get lost, and they split up into small groups. Natsume was completely inflexible about Mikan being with him this time. Others looked like they wanted to invite her to join them, but he glared them all down scaring them all off. This was supposed to be his date and they could just back off. In the end he was left with Mikan and Youichi who apparently wasn't as afraid of Natsume as the others were.
It was just as well there was only the two of them, because they dragged him all over the place not missing even one food stand or game.
~*~
Deep in the shadows of an alleyway a pair stood completely unnoticed by all of the people around them. They wore dark clothes with hats and large sunglasses. If someone saw them they might think that they looked very suspicious, but then their minds would relax and they would forget that they ever saw anything. Indeed, they might even look back at the alley, but their eyes would just slide over the shadows and not notice anything important.
The living shadows watched the trio of dragons exploring every stand and cart in the festival. "Is that her?" the shorter one asked, tempted to lick his lips while looking at the sea dragon. She was so tasty looking his mouth started watering.
"It looks like it." The other one said coldly "We are going to have to get her away from the red though. I don't like this. He never said anything about her having a red chaperone."
"Stop worrying. It does not look like he is actually guarding her so there will be an opportunity. We just have to wait."
"I would rather wait until nightfall. I don't like this being out in the day. It's not right. None of this feels right. He has no right to order us around like this." The taller one said in an agitated tone.
"Will you quit your whining? You are the worst excuse for a vampire I have ever met."
The taller one stiffened at the insult "Reo-" he began but was cut off.
"Relax will you. Go get the others and have them ready to go on my signal."
~*~
Oh gods when will this torture end? How can one woman have so much energy and stay hyper for hours? Youichi he could understand, he was a kid and children generally had more energy but Mikan could probably power a small country.
Natsume supposed he could have handled that alone, but almost everyone was staring at them and taking pictures. He did not like being the center of attention. It wasn't that they were the only ones wearing traditional clothes; it was just that theirs was far more formal. He should have just put his foot down and told everyone they had to wear casual inconspicuous clothing.
He hung back a bit while Mikan and Youichi bought themselves some cold drinks. He was about to rejoin them when his keen hearing picked up the conversation coming from a group of teenage boys next to him.
"Check it out." One boy said.
"What? Where?" asked a second one.
"Over there, the one in the fancy blue kimono." Said the first one and Natsume felt his hackles rise. There was only one woman wearing a fancy blue anything near them and that was Mikan.
"Whoa, nice, real nice." The second one concurred. "You think she has a boyfriend?"
"Forget it dude, I have first dibs on her."
"There is a kid with her. You think it's hers?" a third one piped up. "Maybe she is married."
"If a man lets a wife like that out on her own, he deserves to lose her. Now, sit back and watch the master work."
The kid broke away from his friends and moved towards Mikan. That was when Natsume started to follow him. Unfortunately he couldn't roast the kid because it would attract way too much attention. What he did to was charge past the kid deliberately nudging the boy with his shoulder hard enough to send him to the ground.
"Hey!" the boy protested until he caught sight of Natsume's expression and almost swallowed his tongue.
Natsume joined up with Mikan and Youichi before turning and giving the remaining boys a harsh glare. Instincts that were bread into them long before man ever walked on two legs told them they were in the presence of a dominant predator and they suddenly had the collective urge to be somewhere else far away.
Mikan was looking the other way at the time and missed seeing Natsume terrorizing the teens. She may not have seen it, but she must have picked up on his mood because she gave him a strange look "What is wrong?"
"Nothing." He muttered scanning the crowd. His mind naturally ignored the girls and women that were staring at him and giggling. They were unimportant. What was important was the rather alarming number of men looking Mikan's way. With every masculine pair of eyes pointing in her direction his anger rose up one more point.
Mine, mine, mine! His dragon side growled and snarled restlessly inside him. How dare these lowly creatures infringe on his territory! He would bring this whole festival down in flames if they didn't start minding where their eyes wandered. A less than human growl was fighting its way up his throat but Mikan choked it off rather effectively by looping her arm around his. The contact cut off his growl, but the smile she beamed at him froze most of his brain functions.
"I don't know what you are growling at, but stop it." She hissed at him through her smile. "You are starting to scare people."
At that point Youichi came over and started tugging on Mikan's sleeve "Mikan-nee." He said.
"What is it Youichi?"
The little silver didn't answer right away. Instead he pointed over to games booth. "Can we do that?"
Mikan looked at the booth. "Goldfish fishing? Oh wait I've heard about this before!" she said excitedly and the pair took off towards the game. Natsume rolled his eyes at the pair and reluctantly followed them.
When he got to the stand he saw Mikan leaning over the tub smiling sweetly at all of the fish. That did not really surprise Natsume; Mikan struck him as the type who would smile at the tub full of fish. What did surprise him was that all of the fish in the tub had swum over to look at her. Hundreds of bright orange fish bodies mixed with the occasional black ones were all jockeying for a position closest to her.
Curious, Natsume gently nudged her causing her to sidestep a bit, and he watched in fascination as the clump of little fishes no bigger than his little finger, all moved over with her. The brainless little creatures were all pushing and shoving each other against the rim of the tub where she was standing. They were completely ignoring that there were children currently engaged in the game trying to catch them.
Mikan smiled at them and her hand reached out as if to touch the water. By now the little fishes were almost in a frenzy to be the one that she touched. Her hand was barely a finger's width away from the water when it was harshly slapped away by the vendor. Shocked Mikan jerked back in alarm and started rubbing the spot on her hand that the man slapped. Natsume was back to snarling again.
"No touching the water!" the vendor yelled at her.
"Oh, sorry. Um… the boy and I would like to play." She said timidly. Mikan started to reach for her wallet but Natsume stopped her by slapping some money down for her. The vendor greedily reached out to retrieve the money but Natsume grabbed the man's wrist as soon as he made contact with it. The man tried to break free but Natsume's grip was abnormally strong. If he squeezed anymore he would probably break the fool's wrist. Viciously he yanked the man closer and murmured quietly to him.
"If you ever touch her again I'll tear your arm off and beat you to death with it." The stand vendor turned pale and started shaking and sweating. Natsume let go of the man so he could give Mikan and Youichi their bowls and paper nets. The red was quite amused by how careful the man was in avoiding any contact with the sea dragon.
It turned out that Mikan did not really need Natsume's help. She had her own way of inflicting revenge. The fish in the tub were all but jumping into her and Youichi's bowls. It was kind of bizarre the way she was scooping four or five at a time when others could barely catch one. By the time her paper net was all soggy and ready to break, there were dozens of them all crowded in her small plastic bowl with barely enough room to breathe and more were still hoping to be caught.
During her last scoop Natsume clearly saw her paper net break as it hit the water, yet somehow –though not so miraculously- the water still jumped into her dish along with a handful of fish. The vendor looked like he wanted to complain, but then he would shoot a nervous look at Natsume and stayed silent.
Natsume leaned over so his mouth was right against her ear. "Cheater." He whispered and was rather pleased with the small tremor that ran through her body from his close proximity. She turned and gave him a look.
"What?" she asked trying to look innocent. Hotaru was right, she was a terrible liar.
"Bad little sushi roll abusing your power."
"It was just the one time and he deserved it." She muttered with an adorable pout. "Besides it is not my fault they like me."
"Recognize you as another fish, do they?" he said in a teasing tone that she clearly didn't appreciate.
After taking a significant chunk of the stand's fish supply, they moved on to explore the rest of the festival. The best part about that was that Mikan would occasionally put her arm through his. That is, until she realized what she was doing and stopped for a while. Natsume liked to believe that despite her protests, some part of her wanted to be with him.
His brother and sister caught up to him at one point and they pulled him aside. "How is your date going Natsume?" Aoi asked with a sly look.
Natsume didn't answer at first. Instead he pushed a handful of bags filled with useless trinkets and souvenirs at Luka to carry. Luka accepted the bag with a grunt. "It's heavy! What did she buy?"
Natsume snorted at them. "The better question is what didn't she buy. She insists on stopping at every stand, stall, cart and shop she sees."
Aoi giggled I'm sure it wasn't that bad. Aoi sent to him mentally causing him to arch one jet black eyebrow at her.
Not that bad? She went to a dango stand because she had never tried them before.
What is wrong with that? Luka asked.
Not even an hour later she went to another stand because she wondered if that one tasted any better or worse than the one before! She wasn't even hungry! He said, his mental tone filled with exasperation.
From anyone who was passing by it would have appeared that Aoi and Luka had just begun laughing out loud for no reason.
"It is not that funny." He muttered. "Her mind is completely chaotic." He would bite his own tongue off before he admitted that he found her enthusiasm cute.
The trio chatted for a few minutes and Natsume showed his brother and sister the haul of fish Mikan had which they were suitably impressed by. While they were talking, Youichi came up to them and tugged on Natsume's sleeve to get his attention. "Natsume-nii, where did Onee-chan go?"
Natsume gave him a surprised look then whirled around to find that Mikan was nowhere in sight.
"Where is she?" he yelled to no one in particular, his eyes scanning the crowd for any trace of her.
"Maybe she went to find a restroom?" Aoi suggested.
No. Something was wrong. He could feel it. He couldn't quite explain it, but he was sure she was in trouble. He let out a string of curses that surprised both of his siblings. Not bothering to wait for them, he strode off to where he saw her last. Damn he wished he had not dulled his sense of smell!
His nose could pick up faint traces of her scent, but he could not tell which way she went. He was about to let out another growl or string of curses when his nose picked up a faint, but very identifiable smell. There was only one creature that smelled like death and blood without stench of decay.
Oh no. It can't be. What are they doing here during the day? Luka and Aoi had finally caught up to him and he saw them both register recognition.
"Is that what I think it is?" Luka asked, looking alarmed.
Natsume nodded, "Vampire, out during the day. Call the others and tell them Mikan is missing and that we have some bloodsuckers around." He ordered while pulling out his cell phone and activating the tracker that was pinned to the sea dragon.
There were dozens of vampire-type monsters or human looking monsters that needed to feed off of humans. Incubus, succubus, snow women, doppelgangers, all of them were magical creatures that needed to feed from humans in order to stay alive. Most of them did not need to kill their victims to survive and those that did would choose their victims carefully to avoid attention. If a hardened criminal suddenly died or a terminally ill patient passed away very few would bother to question it. There was however, one vampire type, the ones that called themselves 'true vampires' that did not hold to such moral code.
True vampires were undead that were kept animated with the darkest of magic. The only way to keep the magic going and stay alive was by stealing the blood and the life of humans. No animal or blood bank substitutions would ever work. The magic needed live human sacrifice only. They either embraced their killer instinct or they died, simple as that. There was one exception to that rule. Vampires could take the blood of a supernatural creature provided it was in a human form. Blood from a magical creature would not only sustain them, it would make them stronger.
There were two things that really troubled Natsume. The magic that animated vampires was weak in daylight therefore what were these vamps were doing out when most of their strength would not return until sunset? The other thing that was bothering him was that he was certain that wherever Mikan was, so were the vampires. He had no way of proving it, but he was sure nonetheless. If I see so much as a paper cut on her, I'll turn them to a pile of ash.
With the tracker, it took almost no time to find Mikan and when he did he was not happy. He found her in an alley with five vampires surrounding her in a tight ring. The shadows of the afternoon had chased away all the sunlight allowing them to move about with confidence. The red was tempted to barge in and torch them all, but he did not want to accidentally hurt Mikan.
Natsume hid back around the corner and peeked around to keep the alley in view. He took a couple of deep breaths forcing his nerves and his pounding heart to calm down. He was born and bred for this. He was a trained assassin and mercenary. He could handle this. All he had to do is keep himself hidden and wait for an opportunity. The red reached inside himself to pull out the calm, clinical part of him that he used when he did missions but was surprised to find that part of him missing. For some reason he couldn't completely slow his racing heart and he couldn't let go of the strange anxiety he felt or the adrenaline that was pulsing through his veins. It took him a moment to recognize that he was worried. Unlike all of those missions where he didn't really care if he came back or not, this time the outcome mattered to him.
"Please, you don't want to do this." He heard Mikan tell them with a quavering voice. She sounded so terrified to Natsume it evoked a response he would not have thought possible a few days ago.
Deep inside of him, where his other self stayed hidden, his dragon was no longer simply agitated and growling. Now it was thrashing and roaring inside of him threatening to break free of his control.
"Oh don't worry sweetheart," an auburn haired vampire told her with a slick smile "we just want to take you to meet a friend of ours."
"Reo. Stop playing and let's get her out of here." A taller sandy haired vampire said to the first one.
"You don't know what you are doing." Mikan told them looking close to tears. Natsume was trying to gauge how many vamps he could take down in one shot without hurting Mikan when the auburn haired vampire did… something strange.
"Just relax. Everything will be fine. You are just going to meet an old friend." Reo said, and even from his position at the end of the alley Natsume could feel the hypnotic pull of his voice and the magic behind it.
His dragon side was fairly resistant to many types of magic and was still roaring at him to fight it, but his human side was having troubles thinking clearly. Yes, just relax a voice echoed in his head Mikan is fine. No! She will be perfectly fine. She is just going to visit an old friend. She is not! His hand shook and curled into a fist, but the rest of him was beyond his control.
The brief internal battle was broken when something hit him in the back of his head. For a few moments he just stood where he was little dazed and disoriented. Shaking his head a bit to clear the fog from it, he turned to see Imai pointing that strange gun of hers with something that he guessed to be a silencer on the end of it. Most of the others were there with her and the events of the past few minutes came crashing back to him. He nodded grimly at them in thanks and greeting then turned back to the alley.
The vampires had started to move in on her and Mikan was trembling where she stood. She may not be much of a fighter, but he could see the internal struggle written all over her face. Natsume assumed her struggle was because she was trying her best to break the hypnotic spell the vampire had on her. Something twisted in his gut while he watched her try to put on a brave face when he could feel the fear in her. He was going to make them suffer for frightening her so badly.
"P-please." She stuttered causing the vampires to look at her with surprise.
"Reo, she is breaking your hold." The tall vampire said, and Reo made an irritated sound in his throat.
"It must be the daylight. It is weakening by hold." The auburn vampire said.
Natsume felt a small surge of pride towards his sea dragon. Mikan must be fighting with everything she has because even I could feel his hold.
"Please." She said again "Don't make me do this." She whispered desperately and a lone tear escaped her large expressive eyes to roll quietly down her cheek.
The sight of her crying caused something in him to snap and his dragon surged forth to push against the barrier that separated human and dragon sides. Acting almost completely on instinct, he called the fire from his hands and shot it out incinerating the three that had remained silent and would now forever stay silent.
The two remaining, Reo and the tall sandy haired vampire saw they were not alone and took hold on either side of Mikan.
Natsume was about to charge them when Reo extended his fangs and leaned in close to Mikan's neck.
"I would be more careful if I were you lizard boy." Reo warned him causing Natsume to halt and glare daggers at him.
"Let her go and I'll give you a five second head start." He told them. At the same time, the taller vampire had his own thoughts of letting Mikan go.
"Let's just ditch the girl Reo, it is not worth it."
Reo snarled at him "Idiot! Do you actually think we can show up without her? I just need a bit more power." Reo said and leaned into Mikan's neck causing several people spoke at once.
"Are you crazy? He said she needed to be untouched!" The sandy haired vampire yelled.
"If even one of those fangs touches her, you will die where you stand." Natsume threatened. His brother and a few others took up an aggressive stance behind him.
"Interesting. Koko, tell me if you can read from their minds." Hotaru ordered Koko.
Underneath all of the chatter no one but Reo heard Mikan whisper "I'm sorry." She choked out in a sob as the auburn vampire's fangs broke her smooth skin.
Several of Natsume's group and the tall sandy haired vampire all made various shocked sounds, while Natsume roared out "You're dead!" In a voice so deep and raspy it was no longer human sounding. The group was so caught up in the shock of seeing Mikan being bitten that they didn't notice that Reo was not feeding from her for several seconds.
It wasn't until he pulled his mouth away from her and looked at her in alarm that they all realized something was wrong.
"What are you?" he demanded. "What are you doing to me?" he asked staggering a few steps away from her. The rest of them were too shocked to react at first. What could possibly be happening that would make the vampire more afraid of the girl than of being burned to ash?
"I'm sorry." Mikan sobbed again "I tried to tell you." and right before their eyes they all watched as the vampire shriveled up and decayed like an ordinary corpse except in super fast forward. In the space of about four seconds, what was left of Reo crumbled and turned to dust.
The sandy haired vampire took a half a step back from Mikan and looked at her in horror. The dragons couldn't help but stare as well.
What the hell could do that to a vampire?
Tbc
~*~
Again with the long chapters! You know I was hoping to get the whole date in one chapter but it is just too long. Even at this point right here I'm almost at 7000 words for one chapter. God, I have a tendency to ramble.
Anyway, some of you have been asking questions (which I love to see) so I'm going to have a small Q&A time right now for some of the more popular ones
Q: Why do you like questions so much?
AH: I love questions because it lets me know if I am not explaining something well enough. It also lets me know if people are picking up little clues and tidbits I hide in the story.
Q: You hide stuff in your stories?
AH: Sort of. I have this story pretty well mapped out in my head as to how I want it to go right up to the ending. I might make a brief reference to something in chapter two that I won't full explain until chapter fifteen. For those of you who like to guess ahead, there are clues there for you. Just don't expect me to confirm or deny if your guess is right.
Q: Okay, how about a hint. What was the deal with Mikan and her family and talking to the ocean and stuff?
AH: Wow, too big a question. I will say that Mikan did not come to Japan accidentally. She is there for a reason and her family is not pleased that she went there.
Q: Ohhh is she in trouble?
AH: ..... Don't even go there.
Q: Right so is there going to be lots of steamy, hot lemon scenes?
AH: NO.
Q: What? Then why did you make it M rated?
AH: I'll explain better. Graphic sex scenes are strictly prohibited on this site. Don't believe me? Re-read the rules. You can have love scenes (which I will have), you can imply sex (which I will do) you can even use euphemisms and metaphors (which I will be definitely be doing). You can go right up until you say 'he put his xxxx in/on her xxxx' then your story can be deleted and you get a warning not to do it again or they will delete your account. Unlike most authors, I have received my warning and lost a story already. If you guys want to see to the end of this story there will be no lemons.
Q: Darn it
AH: I'll try and be entertaining without it.
Q: How about the book that you based the dragons on, Destiny Kills by Keri Arthur. Would you recommend it?
AH: You know I would but that might seem a little self serving so I'll have the wonderful babe-angel who is the only other person I know who has read it. So take it away babe-angel!
Q: Alright. What do you think of the book and would you recommend it?
BA: I really enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to anyone that likes mythical creatures and hot and steamy stories :)
AH: See? Go there for lemons she won't get her account deleted.
Q: Ahem, right. Is there any age group that should/should-not read it?
BA: It is an adult story for a reason. So let's just say you should be mature enough and it's not meant for young children :P It is rated R
AH: I don't find the love scenes too graphic. They are hot, but not crude or vulgar. Actually I quite like the wording she uses.
Q: Last and most importantly, how close is the book and its dragons to "A Dragon's Heart"?
BA: Well the beginning was close. The descriptions of the dragons etc was pretty much what it is. But other than that, 'A Dragon's Heart' is its own story with its own story line.
AH: This is very true. This is not a copy of the book with GA characters filled in. I really loved the idea of air and sea dragons hiding among humans in plain sight. It was so easy to see Natsume as a dragon that I wondered why no one had done it before (at least to my knowledge). There are features about my dragons that are not in the book but that is because the book does not cover every little detail about dragons that I needed for my story. More than once I've had to fill in the gaps on my own. Secretly, I wonder how different my dragons and hers will be when she finishes her series (she is working on book 2) and I my story.
Q: One question about the pairings. With the exception of Natsume/Mikan the pairings are certainly not popular. What made you choose them? And what the heck was with that scene with Hotaru and Hayate?
AH: I will tell you truthfully, I have been dying to make that scene with Hotaru and Hayate since before the first word was written. I believe it was the part of Mikan's birthday in the manga that gave me the idea. On Hotaru's suggestion all of the kids pretend that they have forgotten Mikan's birthday and there is a part where she says something like 'doesn't she look so cute when she (Mikan) is miserable?' I thought 'wow is she a sadist' and then I thought about the difficulty she has expressing affection, and from there the idea of her being a dominatrix would not go away. If there is anyone who I've seen that would express affection through pain it would be Hotaru. And if there is anyone who would accept that pain it would be Hayate.
Q: Not Luka?
AH: No not Luka. Far too many people mistake his kind nature for weakness. Luka is a strong and loyal person who is attracted to sweet cheerful girls like Mikan. Or if not Mikan, Aoi. I pair up characters that I think have potential chemistry.
Q: Last one. You have been trying to add a lot of GA characters. How many more do you plan to add?
AH: Lots. I'm trying to challenge myself to find slots for most if not all of them. The toughest one by far is Bear. Do you have any idea how hard it is to cast and animated teddy bear? You think it sounds easy and then you are like 'He is a freaking bear! What the heck am I going to do with a violent teddy bear!' I'll try my best to fit him in though.
Any other questions? Feel free to ask.