Seventh

Even while she ran, she wasn't sure why. None of the triplets gave any hint of wanting to attack her. Rather, they all looked far too somber and lost in thought to even notice her leave the room. They certainly weren't chasing her.

She just wanted to get away, she supposed. Away from the vampires, away from their house, away from everything that happened in it. Having nowhere to go seemed irrelevant now.

Yui tripped over something and fell to the ground, roughly scraping her hands and knees. She almost didn't feel like getting back up, but she couldn't just stay there.

Curling into herself, she shakily murmured, "I hate this place. I can't stand it anymore."

If one, two, or all of the triplets had followed her without making themselves known to her, she hoped they heard her.

"You should have run when you had the chance."

Yui flinched and looked up, only to see Subaru standing a few feet away, staring down at her.

"Subaru," she said breathily, "you know about it, don't you? About what the triplets did to their own mother?"

"And if I do?" Subaru questioned dismissively before turning away from her.

"Subaru," Yui said, "why did you give me that knife?" He didn't acknowledge her question and kept walking, so she got up and hurried after him. "Wait!" she called out, reaching for his arm.

"Stay away from me!" Subaru commanded, turning sharply before she could touch him. "Come one step closer and I'll destroy you! Not just your body, but I'll break your mind as well!"

He swatted in frustration at the white roses nearest them, sending petals everywhere. For some reason, it put Yui in mind of the strange dream she'd had a few nights ago. She remembered the small Subaru she'd seen and remembered where she found him and what he'd been looking at.

"Was the woman in the tower," she murmured, "your mother, Subaru?"

She should have known the question would make him angry.

Subaru grabbed Yui's hand and sharply tugged her closer.

"What do you know?!" he demanded.

"Subaru!" Yui protested, trying to pull her arm back. "You're hurting me! Let go!"

He didn't let go. He just looked at her with fathomless kinds of hurt and frustration.

"What do you want from me?" he asked in a harsh whisper. "What do you expect from someone as powerless, hideous, and polluted as me?"

Yui didn't understand his question.

Instead of demanding an answer, Subaru tugged her closer again, flush up against himself, and held her there for a second. Long enough, at least, for her to take note of his still chest. It reminded her that he was also a blood-drinking creature with a heart that didn't beat.

"Subaru?" she questioned nervously.

Since she first entered the Sakamaki mansion, the only time Subaru had ever really paid attention to her was the night he gave her his knife. That night aside, he barely acknowledged her existence. She had come to believe he had no interest in her, and that was something she'd been grateful for.

Had she been wrong?

She heard him click his tongue in annoyance before he brushed her hair away from one side of her neck and bit into it.

He was a bit like Ayato—it hurt and felt hot, but it wasn't so overwhelming and he didn't take big gulps. Subaru was being more conscious of her.

He lifted his head and murmured, "Amazing…it's so sweet…" and then bit right back in.

He pulled her red bow off and dropped it and tugged her blazer halfway down her back. He untied her white ribbon, undid some of her buttons, and pulled her collar out of the way, all while drinking her blood, getting more and more vigorous by the second. His pleasured grunts weren't helping her keep her head straight.

"No…" she whispered meekly.

"Shut up and hold still," Subaru ordered. He sounded a little out of breath, like he'd forgotten to breathe between gulps.

He leaned a little further down, inhaled deeply near her bicep, and then bit in to it. That hurt a little more, but then felt even better than his bites on her neck. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed his hand against her shoulder blade, keeping her angled in a way that made it easier for him to drink.

He couldn't have been comfortable. Even standing on the tips of her toes, Yui was significantly shorter than him. He would be better off going back to her neck, or if he really wanted to drink from other parts of her, they could go sit down somewhere.

It took Yui a moment to realize what she was thinking about suggesting.

She was getting corrupted. Brainwashed by the pleasure that was forced on her.

Subaru didn't stay in that position for long. After a few gulps, he lifted his head and said, "You asked me why I gave you the knife." He leaned in until his lips were right next to her ear. "I gave it to you so you could stab me with it, should I want you to."

Yui looked sideways at him with horror. "I couldn't possibly—"

"If you can't do that," Subaru cut her off, "use it to end yourself."

Yui's eyes widened. Was he telling her to kill herself? Why? Suicide was a sin—one of the worst sins an individual could commit.

Subaru stood straight. He kept one hand on her shoulder and the other cupping her face so she couldn't turn it away from his.

"You have no right to refuse," he told her firmly, "in the same way you can't deny me your blood."

He leaned his face close to hers. She closed her eyes tight and clamped her jaw shut, thinking he was going to kiss her, but he stopped short.

"Good," he murmured. "Just be quiet and allow my fangs to enter you, always."

He gathered her hair to the other side of her neck and bit into her shoulder.

At this point, as long as it was just his fangs, she wouldn't complain. Maybe if she stayed quiet and let him drink, he wouldn't try to do other things to her, as well.

Something seemed to be…lacking, though. Her temperature was coasting just above hot but wasn't getting hotter. She knew that was something she should be glad for, but it was actually kind of frustrating. If only he would dig deeper, be a little less careful with her, get more into it…

Subaru lifted his head from her shoulder and straightened up, eyes on her face. Yui looked up at him with hazy, slightly out of focus eyes, breathing quickly and shallowly. Subaru huffed humorously.

"That's quite the face you're making," he said.

Yui almost asked what kind of face that was, but she managed to focus on her reflection in his eyes well enough for her to see.

She never imagined that such a lustful expression would ever occupy her face. Her cheeks were so red. Her eyes were so wanting.

It was mortifying.

Rain started to fall.

Subaru looked up at the sky with annoyance, like it was trying to harass him. He grabbed Yui's wrist and tugged her a little ways down the path, to a section that was lined by trees as well as roses. He shoved her down to the soft grass in a gap between two bushes, protected by the trees from the increasingly heavier rainfall.

"S-Subaru," she said shakily.

"What?" Subaru barked, leaning down over her on his hands and knees. "I don't want any backtalk. No one's going to bother us over here."

"But—"

Subaru cut Yui off by sharply turning her over and biting into her neck from behind. Yui had her arms folded under her to keep herself from being pressed flat into the grass, making it easy for Subaru to let his hands wander. He slid one up over her breasts and started playing with them, eliciting quiet moans and heavy breathing from her. The other hand trailed down her waist to her thigh, then back up under her skirt, and slipped its fingers into her underwear to assault her clitoris.

He was good at that. Really good. It made her squirm against him and dig her fingers into the ground and forget to restrain the breathy moans that came out as she panted against her pounding heart.

She orgasmed loudly. Her arms gave out on her. She let gravity lay her flat on the grass and didn't even care when the sudden movement painfully ripped Subaru's fangs out of her neck. She just laid there under him, eyes closed, breathing heavily.

Subaru licked a couple drops of blood off his lip.

"That was fast," he commented, turning her over. "You've gotten pretty used to this, huh?"

Yui's eyes snapped open. She looked at Subaru with a mixture of horror and bewilderment.

Subaru chuckled. "What? Nothing to say?"

"I," Yui tried to think fast, "I'm not…I don't…"

But could she really deny it?

Subaru leaned down and licked blood up off Yui's neck, too. "You taste best when you're high on pleasure, huh?"

Yui could feel herself already getting riled up again. She pressed her thighs together in a futile attempt to calm it down. She needed to put a stop to this.

She slid her hand up to gently press up against Subaru's shoulder and said, "Please, stop. I don't want—"

Subaru grabbed her forearm and slammed it back down to the ground, squeezing it hard, making Yui scream. When she looked up again, it was with fear and uncertainty.

Subaru smirked. "That's a nice face."

He reached back and broke the seam of her underwear to get them out of his way.

"Please," Yui tried to say again, but fell silent when Subaru squeezed her arm more. She knew someone who easily punched huge holes in stone walls would have no problem snapping her arm in half if he wanted to. She stayed silent when he adjusted her legs, bending them up on either side of his waist, and then undid his pants.

"Stupid woman," he muttered. "You should have escaped when you had the chance. I won't let you now."

He positioned himself and grabbed hold of her other forearm before slamming into her. It was a rough movement that made her cry out.

"No," Yui pleaded, "Subaru, sto—ah!—st—"

She quickly gave up on trying to make coherent words. There wasn't any point. Subaru was going at her so hard and fast that all she could think of was the second orgasm that was building up. She let her legs raise to make it easier for him to go faster and deeper.

He wasn't quiet, either. While Yui mewled and moaned, Subaru growled and swore at her incoherently.

When she came, he leaned down and bit into her harshly, still thrusting. The pain only exacerbated the pleasure fanning through her. She couldn't decide if she wanted him to stop, to release her from the intensity, or if she wanted him to keep going, to make her feel even more.

Subaru only continued for a few more seconds, and then came to a shuttering halt, growling, "Fuck," in Yui's ear.

They stayed like that for a minute, breathing in the rain-soaked air.

Subaru moved first. He pushed himself up and looked down at Yui's face, still flushed from afterglow. He kept his eyes on her, too, while he re-buttoned his pants and straightened his jacket.

She hadn't attempted to move at all, mostly because she didn't think her legs would work even if she tried to stand on them.

Subaru leaned over her and brushed her hair out of her face, caressing her cheek. "Hey, you okay?"

Yui blinked at him, surprised. None of them ever asked if she was okay.

"Mm," was the only answer she could manage, tired as her voice was.

Subaru huffed. He lifted her easily off the ground, and next thing she knew, they were in her bedroom. He set her down on her bed and disappeared, doing the cruelest thing he possibly could: leaving her alone with nothing to distract her from her thoughts and her shame.

To my followers, I feel I should let you know that because school will now be taking up a great deal of my time, there probably won't be any updates for a while.