Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Rosario Vampire. I am merely twisting the creators vision into my own dream. If the supernatural, sexuality, or violence is offensive to you, then you should not read this.

Chapter 49

Kurumu woke up slowly. First she was aware of the warm, comfortable feeling that surrounded her. The world seamed warm and soft. She gave a lazy stretch and opened her eyes. Kurumu was fully awake in a heartbeat. She recognized her surroundings. She was in the school's hospital.

"Oh thank goodness," Ageha cried out. "You're awake. Look everyone."

Kurumu sat up and looked around. She felt a wave of surprise and confusion wash over her. All of her friends were in the room with her. Mizore was more pale then normal. Moka looked worried, and Yukari looked frightened. Ruby looked like she had been awake for days. Kurumu tried to remember what she could about what had happened. She looked towards her mother. The elder succubus looked tired, but calm. There was some tension showing on her face, but that was all.

Kurumu was pain free, and didn't feel like she had been hurt. She knew that the worry everybody was showing wasn't for her.

"What happened to Tsukune?" Kurumu asked, her voice raspy because her throat was dry.

"He will pull through," Ageha said. She took a glass from the nightstand. "Here baby, Drink some juice."

"Moka," Kurumu ignored her mother for a moment, starting to feel the first stings of fear coiling around her heart. "What happened? Where's Tsukune?"

"Tsukune was badly..." Moka started, but her voice failed.

"Tsukune..." Kurumu whispered. She could feel tears welling up.

Ageha quickly moved to comfort her daughter. Kurumu found herself being softly, but insistently hugged as a glass of juice was held to her lips. She drank the juice and hugged her mother back for a moment. She tried to remember what had happened.

Kurumu remembered her fight with Tsukune. She remembered his serious face and his firm strength as he defended himself from her attacks. She remembered that just before she had been thrown from the room, she had managed to land an attack on Tsukune. She remembered rushing to attack Tsukune from behind. Kurumu pulled away from her mother and looked down at her hands.

Her hands were perfectly clean. She looked at them front and back. She didn't see so much as a chipped nail in evidence of the violence she had done. Her hands were spotless, but Kurumu imagined seeing them red with Tsukune's blood. She thought that she could remember the feeling of his hot blood on them. Her hands started to shake and her vision was blured by tears.

"What have I done..." Kurumu whispered. She looked up at her motherm then to her friends. "What have I done?"

"Baby," Ageha tried to sooth Kurumu. "It's alright..."

"No!" Kurumu yelled. "No! What have I done? What have I done?"

Gripped by guilt and fear, Kurumu was yelling and started to throw off the blankets. She had to get away. She had to find Tsukune, but she wanted to run away and hide in shame. The door to the room opened and she saw members of the Student Police, and black suited men from the Board Charman's office. Kurumu was starting to panic. She had to get away.

Rumunoko

It was like a bell sounding inside of her. Kurumu felt her entire body tremble in response. Someone spoke her True Name. Fear washed through her again. She looked about frantically.

"It wasn't you," A cracked and tired voice spoke.

Kurumu heard the voice, and felt it within her heart; recognizing it.

"Tsukune?" Kurumu's voice wayvered.

"It wasn't you," Tsukune said again.

Kurumu turned in the direction his voice was coming from. There was a curtain dividing the room. The succubus suddenly understood why everybody had been in her room. They were gathered around Tsukune.

The realization that Tsukune was there pushed all other thoughts from her mind. Kurumu had to see him. She had to make sure he was truly alright. Even as she struggled to escape her mother's attempts to hold her, Kurumu saw the curtain move. Tsukune was pulling the curtain open.

Kurumu saw Tsukune laying in his hospital bed, just meters away. He had to stretch to reach the curtain, but he had managed to pull it back enough that it no longer concealed him. His skin was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. It looked as if the effort to move the curtain had been as much as he could manage in his weakened state, because his brow was beaded with sweat and he was breathing hard. His body, what Kurumu could see of his chest, neck, and arms, were wrapped in white bandages. Kurumu looked at Tsukune and felt her heart beating in her chest. He was the most wonderful thing she had ever seen. She felt a new rush of tears well up in her eyes.

"Tsukune…" Kurumu breathed, even as Moka and Ruby moved to his bedside.

"It's alright," Tsukune managed in a weak voice that was horse and cracked. "It wasn't your fault." He managed a small grin. "I'm just glad you're safe." Tsukune let his head relax into his pillow with a sigh.

"Tsukune…" Moka reached for him.

Kurumu tuned out what anybody might have said. She could see Tsukune. She could see that he was alive. Tsukune was not upset with her. All of the emotions she had been feeling washed over her in a flood.

When Kurumu calmed down she was aware that her mother was sitting on the bed beside her, holding her as she finished crying. Kurumu looked up into her mother's face and saw that the woman was on the edge of tears herself. They shared a tired smile now that the worst appeared to be over.

"Are you all right now, Kurumu?" Ageha asked her daughter.

"I think so," Kurumu gave a sniff. She took a moment, and a tissue, and composed herself a little. "Mother, how did you find me?"

"It was Tsukune's doing," Ageha said. "When I realized something was wrong I went looking for you. Finally I went to see if he knew anything." The woman turned to look towards the sleeping young man.

Kurumu felt a small shock as she watched her mother's face. The elder succubus was always very careful about her appearance and what emotions she allowed herself to show in front of others. But in that moment, Kurumu saw respect and admiration clearly on her mother's face.

"I went to that boy's house to find out if he knew where you are," Ageha explained. "I told him you were missing and he…" She looked back towards her daughter. "That boy showed me what a man can be. He took control of the problem and attacked it head on." She lowered her voice to a mere whisper. "He sent his people to look for you. He sent them to every secluded and romantic place around the school."

Kurumu understood what her mother meant. Tsukune had sent members of the student police to search for here where ever students were likely to be indulging in physical pleasure, places where a succubus would be able to find Lust to feed on. Tsukune was aware of her youkai nature.

"He did not wait for them," Ageha resumed a normal speaking volume. "He selected a handful of his people with the sharpest senses and set them to tracking you from your house. We followed your trail, and then we followed the trail of the ones that took you…" There was a small hitch in the woman's voice as she mentioned her daughter being kidnapped. "We found where you were, and he went in after you. The rest of us followed in his wake."

"Tsukune?" Kurumu breathed. "He did all that? For me?"

"Yes he did," Ageha said with a nod. She looked back at Tsukune again. "You chose well, Kurumu."

Kurumu saw the emotions on her mother's face. Tsukune had impressed the woman. She looked to where Tsukune slept and felt her heart flutter in her chest.

Kurumu knew she was in love with Tsukune. She had been for what seamed a long time now. But now she knew that Tsukune lover her too. He may not be in love with her, Kurumu admitted, but he loved her enough to risk his life for her. Happy tears quietly ran down her face. She looked at his bandaged body and worn, handsome face. Now she just had to wait for him to recover so she could show him how much he meant to her.

XXXxxxXXXxxx

Kurumu and her friends talked quietly while Tsukune slept. Ageha entertained the girls with stories of her school days, and offered beauty and makeup advice. It was a way for them to pass the time without acknowledging the concern they were feeling about Tsukune's condition.

The doctor came in to check on Tsukune and Kurumu. He declared Kurumu recovered and told her she was free to leave. He examined Tsukune closely, but didn't say a word about his condition. Which worried the girls deeply. As the day wore on, the girls dozed off at random times, with at least two of them always awake, to watch over Tsukune.

At her mother's insistence, Kurumu accepted being discharged from the hospital. The young succubus only took enough time to hurry back to her house for a shower and some fresh clothes before returning to Tsukune's bedside. Ageha, seeing that her daughter was whole and healthy, excused herself as evening came on.

It was in the quiet hours of the night when Kurumu became aware of something strange. She was drifting on the edge of sleep, listening to Yukari and Ruby talking in whispers. The lights were turned down low and there was no noise coming from outside. Kurumu realized that she felt a strange sensation. It took her some time to identify what she was feeling. It was like listening to the sound of the ocean in a hollow shell, but not with her ear, but with her inner self instead. The sound/sensation was like the winds of a distant storm mixed with the rumble of thunder. As she focused her attention on the sensation it became more real. She tried to keep her mind calm as she concentrated.

The sensation, the awareness Kurumu felt was hard to understand at first. There was the feel of wind rising and falling in a steady rhythm, slowly but surely. Mixed with it was the sensation of warm waves lapping steadily against her inner awareness. With her mind open and her eyes closed, Kurumu concentrated on the sensations, trying to understand them. She matched her breathing to the rhythm of the wind. She became conscious of her own heart beat as a rushing sound in her ears, sounding much like the lapping waves. Breathing… A heart beat… Something new within herself, but not from her. It came from outside of herself, but she felt it. A small part of her felt this outside sensation as a sense of warmth, like from sitting near a heater. Kurumu turned her face towards that warmth and opened her eyes.

Kurumu was looking directly at Tsukune. She could see the rise and fall of his chest as he slept. Kurumu suddenly understood. She was aware of Tsukune. She could feel his heart beat, the warmth of his body, the beating of his heart. Kurumu marveled at her new awareness even as she was confused by it.

She looked at Tsukune as she concentrated on her awareness of him. Moka was asleep on an empty bed with Mizore beside her. Ruby was sitting on the bed Kurumu had been in earlier, while a sleepy Yukari lay beside her, drifting slowly to sleep. Kurumu was in a hard chair beside Tsukune's bed, so it was easy to slowly reach out and touch his hand where it lay on top of the bedding.

As soon as she touched Tsukune, Kurumu's awareness of him expanded. It became sharper, almost like a part of herself. It was then that Kurumu realized that there was something wrong with Tsukune. He was not just recovering from his injuries. Something was wrong deep in side of him and his body, is youki, his soul was fighting hard. With a sense of alarm she looked around. Here eyes met with Ruby's.

"What is happening?" Kurumu demanded in a harsh whisper.

"Somebody made a mistake," Ruby answered in low voice.

"What do you mean?"

"When Tsukune rescued you, he was badly injured," Ruby explained. "The sorcerer had stabbed him with something and it had injured him inside. When the others reached him, they saw that he was hurt, bleeding. They tried to bandage his wounds. The used what they thought were bandages…"

"The strips that the sorcerer had been preparing," Kurumu was wide in the eyes as she interrupted Ruby. "They were some kind of spell that he was going to use on me. He was going to use them to make me into an assassin."

"We didn't know what they were for," Ruby continued. "By the time I reached him the bindings were already on his body. It is a kind of dark magic. The bindings were made of human skin with dragons blood for ink. When they came in contact with Tsukune's blood and youki..."

"No…" Kurumu felt a new level of dread clawing at her heart.

"There were a lot of strange magics used in that room," Ruby explained. "By the time we realized the danger, Tsukune was… He was…" Ruby choked back a sob, forcing herself to stay calm. "We summoned help and the Board Chairman brought Tsukune here. He said he would summon someone that may be able to help, but he warned us to be prepared for the worst."

"I think I am going to be sick," Kurumu squeezed her eyes shut and covered her mouth. It took several long minutes for Kurumu to regain her self control. She did not want to wake Tsukune with hysterics like she had earlier. When she was ready she looked to Ruby again.

"What is the worst that can happen to Tsukune?" Kurumu wanted to know.

"If he doesn't die," Ruby said with a pained look on her face. "Then the dark magics might consume him. His human side might be lost and the ghoul would take over. He could become a monster that has to be destroyed before he could kill everybody around him."

Kurumu felt cold. She remembered when the ghoul first awakened in Tsukune. Moka had tried to kill him. She had explained that it would have been the merciful thing to do. If he did lose himself to the ghoul, then it would be his friends, the ones that were watching over him, that would have to try to stop him, to kill him, because if they didn't, he would kill them, and then keep on killing.

Kurumu saw the tears in Ruby's eyes. She could tell that she was crying again too. Together the sat watch over Tsukune, feeling helpless.