"Luka Megurine of House Karnstein," Miku read, sitting at her computer. It was night, and she was in her room, dressed in pajama pants and a comfortable white cotton shirt, hair still wet from her shower. She was looking up the vampire who bit her tonight. Miku frowned at the mere thought of it. How disgusting. She couldn't believe that she actually got bitten by a vampire, and she found herself repeatedly looking at her neck in the mirror, at those two tiny puncture marks.
Immediately anger filled Miku's head and heart, anger at her violation, anger at what happened to her, anger that this event now set her out as different from her peers, anger that such a dirty, low thing happened to her. She resolutely scrolled down the page and her cursor hovered over the 'report an offense' button.
She stared at it for what seemed like a long while, remembering everything - Luka attacking her, Luka sucking her blood, Luka apologizing, Luka's fear at being reported. Miku swallowed and willed herself to click, but for some reason, her finger wouldn't respond.
With a sigh, Miku scrolled back up and looked at Luka's information. She was turned at the age of seventeen three years ago. Her previous offenses...Miku clicked and was surprised to find that the page was entirely blank.
That can't be; Miku's brow furrowed. Duplicitous as Karnstein vampires may be, they would never lie when it came to disadvantaging themselves. Luka had no reason to avoid the government blood suppliers if she didn't have any previous offenses with the government. It was unlikely that she would attack Miku randomly, considering her very real fear afterward. Miku shrugged. Perhaps Luka made her offense recently and the site hadn't yet been updated - with so many vampires in the world, it took a while for information to get onto the database.
Miku sighed and leaned back in her chair. She would spare Luka, she decided. It brought her no real gain to send her to the not-so-tender whims of the Seraphims, especially not after Luka's very real and desperate fear. A vampire begging a human for mercy...now that didn't happen often. Miku couldn't help chuckling a little to herself. She glanced one last time at the database entry on Luka.
"I better not see you again," she whispered, and then she shut off her computer.
-o-o-o-
School was uneventful. A quick dash of makeup on her neck, and the puncture marks were covered. Miku was eating her lunch - a ham and cheese sandwich - while listening to her friends talk.
Miku's friends were good people, all quite ordinary. There was Len, his twin sister Rin, the serious and quiet Lily, and the exuberant and bright Yukari.
They were talking about the recent reports of ghostly happenings downtown. Miku was only paying minimal attention, because her mind was still focused on what happened to her last night. The bite mark felt itchy and Miku resisted the urge to scratch it.
"Stupid ghosts," Lily sighed. "I mean, why do they even do those things, anyways?"
"If I was dead and bored and had nothing else to do, I'd probably fly people around and scare them too," said Rin, grinning a little.
"What's wrong, Miku?" asked Yukari, jolting Miku out of her stupor.
"Huh? What?" Miku blinked and looked around.
"You're kindth of out of ith," said Len, his voice muffled by his turkey sandwich. "Somethin wrong?"
No way Miku could tell them about last night. She felt herself blush at the memory of it. "Uh...nothing's wrong."
"You're blushing," said Lily.
"Whoa!" Yukari gasped. "Miku, don't tell me...you got a boyfriend?"
Len nearly choked on his cheetos. "What!?"
"No, no," said Miku, hastily. "Nothing like that. Just thinking about vampires."
"Ah," Lily rolled her eyes. "What's with people these days and fantasizing about vampires?"
"People love vampires," said Rin. "I mean, there are so many corny vampire romance novels out there."
"What's so great about vampires," Len muttered in a dark tone, shooting glances at Miku every now and then. "I mean, I guess they look pretty, but they run around drinking blood."
Yukari smiled at Miku. "Vampires, huh? Well, they are pretty cute. Ah..." Yukari sighed. "They're so perfect..."
"Uh, no," said Lily. "They are not perfect. They just look pretty. Sure, they're strong and fast and getting bitten by them feels good, but personally, they're far from being the coolest supernatural out there."
"Exactly!" Len chimed in. "Finally, someone who doesn't have a hard-on for vampires! High five, Lily!"
"What?" Yukari stared at Lily and Len. "How could they possibly be boring?"
"Besides, you guys should really stop treating supernaturals as some kind of...fictional being," Len said. "They're people too, you know."
"Sheesh Len," said Rin. "I mean, it's not like we ever see them, so it's like they're not real."
Miku looked down at her sandwich and nodded. "Yeah...not like any of us can ever meet anything supernatural."
"Exactly," said Rin.
-o-o-o-
The days passed, slow, boring, ordinary - Miku's puncture marks healed and she did not hear from Luka, so she thought that perhaps the vampire had forgotten her and left her to go on with her ordinary life. And with a sense of relief, Miku happily plunged back into the world of homework, tests, and eating junk food while watching reality TV shows.
It was a shame then that all of that ordinary was shattered a few months later.
The hints had been there early on - the fouler weather, for one, the clouds gray and the skies overcast. The fog that permeated the town, impeded vision to the point where people disappeared into the haze after little more than ten steps. A few Seraphim were dispatched to monitor the situation and they discovered nothing especially extraordinary, after going through the normal battery of tests for environmental supernatural symptoms.
Indeed, Miku herself thought that all of the fog would clear up, but she was proven wrong when she was talking with Lily outside of school.
Lily was commenting on the weather when the top half of her face was sliced off.
Literally sliced off.
Miku could do nothing but stare as the top half of Lily's face sailed in a graceful arc through the air, leaking blood, gray pieces of brain flying out in disgusting globules, half of her hair still on her head, her eyes wide open, bulging, teeth and shattered bone. Lily's body rocked a little before falling over on the ground, dead.
Miku was too terrified, confused, to move. What just happened? Lily was dead? How could that be...Miku had just been talking to her. There was no way she could really be dead, but the evidence of it was right in front of Miku's eyes - the oozing brains, the red blood soaking into a puddle underneath Lily's body.
"Oh my god," Miku whispered and she backed up. Whatever killed Lily was just as likely to kill her too. Her and Lily seemed to be the only people around, as everything else was hidden by fog, the rest of the world locked away by the unknown in the fog. Miku fell to her knees and stared at Lily's body and waited for her own death, her eyes squeezed shut, tears spilling - both tears at Lily's death (that Miku still could not accept, could not believe, she had been alive, she had been there, she had been talking about the goddamn weather, how could she be dead?) and tears at her own fate.
A dark shadow stepped out from the fog and Miku looked up. Her dulled mind slowly realized that the thing that stood before her was a genie, perhaps a vengeful one that had escaped from its lantern, a shadowy, smoke-made thing. It had some control over the weather, which perhaps explained the fog - genies could not manifest without fog or a smoke-like substance. Perhaps someone in the town set it free, but...not that it mattered now.
Miku could see the vague, smokelike form raise what seemed to be a hand, a scythed hand.
Miku put her head on the ground and prepared herself to die.
Which was why, a few minutes later, Miku realized that she wasn't dead yet. She looked up.
The genie's form was shifting, pulling into a small brass jar held by two vaguely familiar hands. Miku eyes slowly followed the hands to clean dark brown sleeves with yellow bands on the cuffs, drew up to the stiff dark blue-banded collar, up to the face, which was hauntingly beautiful and Miku realized with a jolt that it was Luka Megurine.
By the time the genie had been fully sucked into the jar, the fog was beginning to thin, and Luka sighed and put the lid on. She turned to Miku, who was still lying on the ground, tears running down her face, pale with fear.
"Are you okay?" Luka asked, and she offered a hand.
Miku ignored it and stood up, shakily. She did not know what had just happened. It was too much for her mind to process. Why was there a genie trying to kill her in the first place? Miku did nothing wrong, and she stared numbly at Lily's body.
"Lily's...dead," said Miku in a small voice.
Luka walked over to Lily's body and knelt down next to it. "No, she's still alive."
"...what?" Miku said, stupidly. She pointed at the top half of Lily's head, lying on the ground, blood and brains. "...but...her head..."
"Oh no," said Luka, "us vampires are stronger than that."
"...Lily's a vampire?" Miku said, completely confused. "But...she was talking with us! In daytime! She can't be a vampire! You're lying!" Miku whirled at Luka and glared at her. "This is all your fault! Why are you even here?! You...you creepy bloodsucker!"
Luka looked pained. "I...I'm sorry. I was trying to protect you."
"Who said I needed your protection?" Miku fumed.
"What?" Luka frowned. "Is that what you say to the person who just saved your life? I told you I'm in your debt! When the fog started gathering, I thought you might need some protection!"
Miku did not want to dwell on the fact that this vampire might have been following around, stalking her, for the past few days, so she hastily changed the subject.
"Anyways!" Miku turned her attention back to Lily. "She can't be a vampire...Lily's my friend! My friend can't be a vampire," Miku's voice was growing hysterical. "She's dead!"
"She's undead," Luka said, testily. "Look, she's already regenerating."
Miku couldn't deny that Luka was right - Lily's jaw was reassembling.
"...how?" Miku said, numbly. "Lily was my friend. She was out in daytime. She's not a vampire. She can't be a vampire..."
"Umm," Luka looked down at the small brass jar before looking up at Miku. "Walk with me. I'll try to explain everything."
-o-o-o-
The fog over the Vanderlyn District of the city was beginning to dissipate, although the weather was still overcast; that was probably why Luka was able to be up and about, instead of sleeping inside her darkened home or wherever she hung out during the day.
"I don't know this 'Lily' person personally," said Luka, "but she's definitely a dhampir." She flicked a strand of beautiful pink hair out of her face - even a gesture like that done by a vampire was elegant and graceful.
"A...dhampir?" Miku echoed. That was a term that she had never heard of before. 'Wh-what kind of a vampire is a dhampir?"
"Half vampire, half human," said Luka. "The result of a union between a vampire and a human...although dhampirs can also be created by the normal turning process, except with less of the blood given. They are very uncommon. Not surprised that you haven't heard of them." Her voice was casual, a little bit too casual - Miku found herself feeling a small flicker of resentment within her, although worry and wonder about Lily overwhelmed that.
"Wh-what do dhampirs do?" Miku asked. "Do they have any powers? Other than regeneration. Do they drink blood?"
The thought of Lily drinking someone's blood seemed all too natural for Miku's comfort - she could just imagine it, Lily brushing her long blonde hair out of her face, exposing her fangs...Miku shuddered. She had joked around with her friends about Lily being a vampire due to her pale complexion, but she had never actually thought that Lily would actually be a vampire...or a dhampir for that matter.
Luka looked pensive. "I don't think they necessarily have to drink blood. As for their powers, I have met a few dhampirs before. They are noticeably weaker than vampires," Luka's voice was arrogantly prideful, "although sunlight has little to no effect on them, and neither do enchanted crosses. They are endowed with higher than human strength, faster than human speed, regeneration, and depending on what House vampire fathered them, a variety of other little power trinkets...oh, and they can live for quite a while," Luka shrugged. "Although they're no match for actual vampires."
"...ah," said Miku, and she looked up at the sky. She was feeling so confused. A small part of her was a little rankled by Luka's arrogant dismissal of dhampirs and by extension, humans, but she decided to not pursue the matter - it was true that vampires had powers that extended far beyond the powers of humans, after all, and no amount of protest would change that. "I see."
"Are you alright?" Luka asked, looking over Miku again. Miku shuddered; she could almost feel Luka raking her gaze up and down her body. All at once, the heavy shame from when Luka drank her blood rushed back, and Miku felt that heavy, essential feeling of anger and disgust wash over her.
"Fine!" said Miku loudly. "Stop looking at me."
Luka, looking a little hurt, angry, and confused all at once, nodded and turned her gaze away.
They walked on in heavy silence for a while before Miku spoke up. "So why was there some genie trying to attack me?"
"I think that the genie was after Lily," said Luka. "You were just in the way. Maybe her vampire parent wanted her dead. Although dhampirs are so uncommon, not many people know how to do away with them."
"And...you do?" Miku asked.
"Of course," said Luka, her voice proud again. "Us Karnsteins are a noble lineage. We know everything."
Miku sighed. "Yeah right."
"Hey!" Luka sounded affronted. "Don't insult us. You're nothing more than a human anyways."
"You used to be human too," Miku pointed out.
Luka bit her lip and looked down. "I suppose so, but that was so long ago. And besides, I'm not a human anymore. And you don't know anything about us vampires."
"I didn't spare you from the Seraphim to put up with this," Miku snapped. "Why are you still hanging around with me then?"
"I'm trying to protect you," said Luka, with exaggerated patience. "I'm not sure if you understand, but you live in a hotbed of supernatural activity, I-"
"Why?!" Miku yelled. "I don't want your protection! I want to be normal! Just forget about me, you...bloodsucking creep! Just stay away from me! I never asked for vampire protection! I have the Seraphim for that!"
Luka stared at her before her beautiful face set into a frown. Miku still wasn't looking directly at her, but she still shuddered - the force of Luka's features accentuated the anger in the frown even more. "Look, human. I don't especially want to feel like this either, but I just feel...drawn to you, alright?"
'Drawn to me?" Miku was horrified. "What? You want to make me into your...into your..." Miku couldn't bring herself to say the words.
In this world, there were a few vampires who get 'drawn' to a certain human. Not many people could explain the phenomenon, but it was nothing that Miku wanted; the whole thing brought with it so many repercussions. Apparently, Miku's blood had been too delicious for this particular vampire to stop at just one forced feeding, and Miku, afraid, backed away, a hand protectively, and uselessly, covering her neck.
"I don't want to become your blood-slave," she said, still unable to bring herself to say the real name of what the vampire intended her fate to become. "Drink someone else's...n-not me. Not me, okay?!"
Luka looked at Miku, her eyes darkening. She looked coldly aristocratic, as all vampires do. "Idiot. You humans really don't know anything at all."
"What's there to know about!?" Miku''s voice was becoming increasingly hysteric. "You w-want me to...I don't want that! I don't need your stupid 'protection' or anything! Get away from me! I just want to live a normal life!"
Luka actually hissed and her fangs appeared for a brief moment, a mere flash before they retracted, and then she looked away. "Some way to repay the person who saved you. Humans really are vulgar creatures. Listen up," Luka addressed Miku again. "I won't hurt you. I feel like I owe a sort of debt for you because you didn't report me. Do you really think that after this, your life is going to be left alone from supernatural influence? Please. You're going to have to go to school, knowing that your friend is a dhampir, and since she's still alive, do you really think that the people trying to kill her will stop there? You're going to be in danger all the time. I thought it was strange when I sensed the smell of another vampire on you, but apparently it was the smell of your dhampir friend."
"I can just report this to the Seraphim," mumbled Miku, dazed.
Luka gave out a short, disdainful laugh. "Sure, and your friend will be carted away to the facilities to be experimented on for being a dhampir. The Seraphim can't do anything if they can't even catch a rather elementary genie. Humans are useless."
"Shut up!" Miku put her hands to her head as her world crashed down around her. She didn't want to believe Luka's words, but they were true - Lily really was a dhampir, and she will be in danger...despite everything, Lily was still Miku's friend, and Miku could not bring herself to leave Lily to her fate, murky as it may be. She didn't want to admit that she may in the end require the help of the vampire who fed on her.
Luka leaned back against the wall and looked at Miku before looking away. "Just telling the truth."
"So...in return for this protection," Miku said, numbly, "you...want to drink my blood."
Luka sighed and looked up. "Yes. I think that another sip of blood would be adequate in return for my protecting you during the duration of all this."
"Don't protect me," Miku protested. "Protect Lily. She's the one in danger."
Luka scratched the back of her head and sighed and walked over to Miku. "Fine, I'll do my best to protect you two," she said.
"I can still report you to the Seraphim," Miku mumbled.
Luka's gaze hardened. "You can do that, but your friend would die, and you would die with her."
Miku really had nowhere else to turn but this vampire for help. She felt revulsion rock up her spine again. She never thought that she would do this, but she never thought that Lily was a dhampir and she never thought that she would ever meet a vampire.
This is for Lily, Miku told herself as she offered her neck. Luka put one hand on Miku's shoulder and brushed back Miku's hair slowly and caressingly, like a lover would, and Miku shivered as she felt Luka's cool breath on her neck, and then Luka pushed Miku against the wall and took her blood. Miku's world spun and she gasped as the vampiric venom worked its way through her bloodstream, felt her knees weaken and her heartbeat accelerate, the odd pleasurable feeling of it all making Miku's head swim in a miasmic haze. For Lily.