Chapter 23

Toga Yagari throws himself into a stool at his favorite bar. What a day, he thinks.

After the meetings earlier that night, he needed a drink. As he waits for the bartender, he remembers the interaction he had with Zero before making his way to town.

Zero had pulled him aside after the meeting and said, "I never knew. About your fiancée being turned intentionally." He looks down. "I'm sorry."

Yagari had clapped Zero on the back and replied, "I know. Me too."

There hadn't been much to say after that. He'd thought about apologizing to Zero about keeping more secrets from him, but he couldn't find the words.

So he went for a drink.

"This seat taken?" a cool female voice asks.

Yagari turns and almost fell out of his stool.

Seiren stood in front of him, a hand poised to pull out the stool beside him so she could sit down.

His mouth turns up into a grin. "Ready for our drinking competition, then?"

"Something like that," she replies, sitting down.

The bartender, who hadn't taken Yagari's order yet, appears and asks them what they want. Seiren orders two beers for them.

"So, come here often?" Yagari asks. "I've never seen you here before."

"This is my first time," she says. Nothing else. A woman of few words.

A few moments later, the drinks appear.

"Now, we're talking!" Yagari exclaims. "I didn't know they had glasses this size."

The beer glasses in front of them seem as long as his forearm.

"Are we sipping or chugging?" he asks Seiren.

In response, she grabs her beer, throws her head back, and drinks deeply. Yagari watches her until he realizes that she plans to drain the glass and hurries to catch up with her. He can't be left behind, after all.

Seiren slams her glass on the counter. She cocks her head at Yagari inquisitively.

Yagari signals the bartender for more.

After Zero's conversation with Yagari, he needs to talk to someone else he isn't particularly eager to talk to. He looks around the room. With the exception of Yagari and the headmaster, who'd said he needed to go do some work in his office, the rest of the vampires linger in the room.

Zero really doesn't want to talk to Kaname. But he has no choice. He starts to make his way over to Kaname, but then out of the corner of his eye notices Takuma. He stops, looking at Takuma. I could ask him, Zero realizes, Takuma is the Dorm Vice President and probably knows. Zero decides to try Takuma first.

Zero approaches Takuma, who is in conversation with Rima Toya. At Zero's approach, they break off, looking at him.

"Do you know where Maria is?" Zero asks Takuma.

Takuma frowns. "She went home after term ended."

"And she's there now?" Zero asks.

"As far as I know," Takuma replies.

Zero nods his thanks and turns around to find Yuki standing behind him. Kaname is a few feet behind her. Great.

"I heard what you asked Takuma," she says. "Kaname can get you her address, if you'd like."

Behind her, Kaname nods and says, "She is at home. My sources have confirmed that."

"I would appreciate that," Zero says.

After Zero disappeared, it was just me, Kaname, Takuma, Hanabusa, Akatsuki, Rima, and Ruka left in the room. Seiren had left at some point. We sit around the common area.

"Ugh, I hate just sitting here," Hanabusa complains. "I want to do something useful! We still need to find Yori."

"Is there any way of tracking her?" I ask. "Perhaps something a vampire hunter wouldn't know how to do."

"Vampire hunters are the best trackers out there," Takuma says. "I can't imagine there's something else."

"There must be a way! We have powers for a reason," Hanabusa argues. "I'll do some research." He leaves the room, presumably to find a library. I make to get up and help him, but Kaname pulls me back down beside him on the loveseat we're sitting on. I want to protest but stop at the look on his face. "Let him go," he says. "Hanabusa is an excellent researcher and scholar, but he's very unpleasant to work with. If anyone can find something, it's him. He doesn't need or want help." At the hurt look on my face, he strokes my cheek and adds, "His loss."

"I want to see Senri," Rima pouts. I've never heard her talk so much before. Losing Senri is really getting to her.

"We'll see him soon," Kaname says assuredly. "At that time, we'll need you to try to get him to come back to himself."

Rima nods, tears filling her eyes. Ruka puts a comforting hand on her shoulder.

In the silence, we all hear as the screaming starts in the distance.

We reach the staff quarters at the same time as my father does. We'd followed the sounds of the screams and, soon after, the smell of blood right to the building that housed the staff. During the summer, the staff was much smaller than when school was in session, but we still had the essential services: groundskeepers, gardeners, cooks, and the cleaning crew.

The front door is off its hinges and as we run inside, we see smashed furniture, wrecked paintings, and broken doors. It's absolute chaos.

We see vampires attacking the staff: biting them, tormenting them.

Without thinking, I launch a fallen doorknob at the head of the nearest vampire. The resounding crunch with his skull forces the vampire to withdraw from the cook's neck and stagger backward. In an instant, I'm upon him and I swing my sword, cutting off his head.

I look around and see my companions making quick work of the rest of the vampires.

"Level E's," says Akatsuki, spitting on the ground.

My father is checking on the staff. I quickly join him. We don't find any casualties, but most were severely injured and sustained a lot of blood loss. It appears that the Level E's were playing with their food, opting to torment their prey first.

"We have to heal them," I say to Kaname. "What can we do?"

"We have to give them some blood," he replies.

"We can't let you give your blood," Ruka protests. "Your blood is too valuable to be used for something like this. We'll do it."

Almost before I could blink, Ruka and the others had bitten their fingers to draw blood and had descended upon the staff. Those who were able shrink away, but the vampires hold them and force the blood upon them. I can't be idle. I turn to the nearest person, who I recognize as a gardener. She's almost completely fainted. I bite my finger and drop a few drops into her mouth. Immediately, her wounds start to close and fade away.

"They don't need much," Kaname says, gently pulling my hand away and pulling me to my feed. He kisses my finger and sucks on it. "It's risky if we give them too much. It's addictive."

"But how will they recover from the blood loss?" I ask. "Don't we need to give them more blood?"

"Our blood helps stimulate their organs into action," he replies. "They need food and rest."

"Let's get them food then!" I say.

Kaname looks at an overturned table and it rights itself. In another moment, food appears.

I open my mouth to say that we need to help the staff eat when the back door is thrown open and reveals a swarm of vampires even larger than the group we dispatched.

Kaname blasts all of them backwards before they can step into the house. We rush outside and he shields the doors, preventing anyone else from getting inside.

There had to be over 50 vampires surrounding the house.

"Divide up," Kaname orders. "Take them down." He grabs my arm. "Stay in the back," he says. "I won't tell you not to fight, but don't take unnecessary risks." He looks behind me. "Stay close to Kaien." I turn around and see my father, glasses off and sword drawn. He beckons to me. I look back to Kaname only to find that he was gone, fighting the first wave of vampires.

I run to my father. The amount of vampires we have to fight overwhelms me.

"Stay beside me," my father orders. And we fight.

Since we've been fighting together for a month, it feels natural. We anticipate each other's movements and back each other up as vampire after vampire fall under our swords. My father has the advantage since he can wield an anti-vampire weapon, so I try to slow them down so he can land the killing blow.

I stay focused on the fight in front of me, not daring to see how the others fared. Eventually, the number of vampires we fight lower and less appear in front of us. I help my father kill one more and we realize there are none left to fight.

I look to see how the others are doing, running a mental tally. Everyone is still standing, breathing hard and clothes disheveled. Ruka has a nasty scratch on her arm. Akatsuki has blood running down the side of his face. Hanabusa had appeared at some point apparently and the ground around him is covered in frost. Rima and Takuma stand next to each other, uninjured. Kaname looks completely composed.

A slow clap rings out across the lawn.

"Well, done," a familiar voice says, stepping out of the shadows. Rima gasps. Senri strides towards us, but it's not right. He's walking differently. His eyes are mismatched, one gray, one maroon, like that little boy I saw before. His expression is completely un-Senri-like. He's got a wide grin and a mad glint in his eye.

"I must say, I'm impressed at how quickly you dispatched my little band of subordinates," Senri says.

"Rido," says Kaname. "Good of you to finally join us. Though I would appreciate it if you showed up yourself instead of wearing one of my friends."

The grin on Senri's face becomes a snarl. "I would gladly do so if you hadn't destroyed my body."

"Oh, your body is fine," Kaname replies. "You've been able to put it back together. I would have thought you'd appreciate something like that to do to use your time differently, for a change."

"Is that what you thought, progenitor?" Senri-Rido asks. "I can arrange for you to experience the same delightful pastime." Then he looks at me. "Or perhaps Juri's beautiful daughter here." He staggers back staring at me with wide eyes that feel like they're piercing through me. "She looks so much like Juri."

Kaname moves so his body blocks me from Senri-Rido's view. "You're not touching her," he snarls.

"Oh ho ho. We'll see about that," Senri-Rido says with a mad grin. "She'll be begging me to take her from you before long." And with those words, Senri-Rido vanishes into the darkness.

Hanabusa and Takuma start to move toward where Senri-Rido vanished, but Kaname holds up his hand, stopping them. "He's gone."

Back in our bedroom, I can't stop shaking. I'd moved in with Kaname soon after my transformation and I'm especially grateful for this fact tonight. I don't want to be alone.

After Rido had vanished, I'd tried to comfort a distraught Rima. I had told her we'd get Senri back, even though I had no idea how. Ruka had taken over from me and I had checked on my father who was overseeing getting the staff reorganized and situated. We made sure that everyone had eaten. I had asked Kaname to use his powers to repair as much of the damage as possible and he obliged. The others had helped put things back together as well until it almost looked like nothing had happened.

We'd debated whether we should wipe the staff's memories from the event, but it seemed like, overall, they'd witnessed that the Night Class students weren't bad and understood that not all vampires wanted to torment them. They'd watched us fight the other vampires out of the windows. Saw us protecting them. Of course, there were a few naysayers that we'd have to keep an eye on, but I told the others later on that whenever they saw a staff member, to go out of their way to be kind to them. Strike up a conversation or do something nice for them. I hoped that would help continue to reiterate that not all vampires are evil.

At last, as the dawn had started to rise, we decided to get some sleep. I'd trudged back to the bedroom I shared with Kaname and discarded my bloody clothing. I'd entered the attached bathroom, climbed in the bathtub, filled up a bucket, and rinsed myself off using a large ladle to pour water over the dirt and blood. Soon, enough my skin was clean. I filled the bucket again and dunked my hair under, flushing out the dirt, grime, and blood. I'd debated if I wanted to fill the tub and soak in the water for a bit, but decided that if I did, I'd just fall asleep in the water. So, quickly, I lathered myself up in soap and rinsed myself off one more time.

Once I'd finished freshening up, I'd wrapped myself in a robe and walked back into our room. As I'd walked towards the bed, the gravity of what had just happened hit me hard.

I'd started shaking. Hard.

Yori missing. Senri possessed. Rido thinking I looked like my dead, biological mother. Vampires attacking the staff. The Association using Zero as a pawn.

What have I gotten myself into? How can we possibly face all of these challenges?

As if he knew I needed him, Kaname enters the room and immediately wraps me in his arms. I cling to him tightly and continue to shake, breathing hard.

"Yuki," he murmurs. "Breathe. I'm here."

I take a deep breath. I let the tears I hadn't realized I'd been holding back fall.

"Yes, let it out," he says, stroking my back. "You're safe."

I cry and cry until there's nothing left. All the while, his hands stroke my back and my still wet hair, comforting me.

"Breathe," he says again.

I take deep, slow breaths. I look up at him. The love and tenderness in his eyes makes my heart crack and I want to cry all over again.

Gently, he gives me a light kiss on the forehead, then my nose, then my lips.

I wrap my arms around his neck and deepen the kiss.

He pulls back and rests his forehead against my own. "You were amazing tonight," he says. "I'm in awe of you."

"Oh," I say. "Thank you." I pause. "What did I do that was so special?"

"You stepped into your role as royalty and led. You joined our groups together and solidified our alliance. You fought vampires and held your own. You took care of the aftermath of the battle and made sure everyone was as all right as they could be." He strokes my cheek, which had no doubt turned red as I'd felt heat flood my face. "I'm so in awe of you. So proud."

I don't know what to say to his praise. "I'm always in awe of you," I reply.

"We make a good team," he says, kissing me again.

This time I'm the one who pulls back. "You're filthy. Let's wash you off."

I take his hand and lead him to the bathroom. I remove his jacket, throwing it in the laundry hamper. I unbutton his shirt and pull it off. This too goes in the hamper. I slowly and methodically take off each layer and throw them in the laundry hamper. I made a mental note to find a way to thank the laundress. Maybe find some special soap for her. Once all of his clothes are removed, I lead him to the tub and gesture for him to sit down in it.

Seeing him in the tub made me realize that it's not actually as big of a bathtub as I'd thought. It had seemed abnormally large to me, but seeing him in there, I realize it should actually be larger. He looks cramped sitting in the tub.

"Pull your legs back, so I can fill up the water," I tell him. He obliges, a dark and searing look in his eyes. I avoid that sultry gaze as I focus on the task at hand.

I fill the bucket with water and then gently pour water over him. His eyes close at the sensation, clearly enjoying the warm water flowing down his body.

"Does that feel good?" I ask.

Without opening his eyes, he replies, "Heavenly." He grabs my hand. "It's nice to be taken care of. I – I'm not used to it."

I kiss his cheek and continue rinsing him off. I allow the warmth in my chest at his words to spread throughout my body and through my actions, pouring love into each motion.

Once he's rinsed off to my satisfaction, I take the bar of soap, lather it up, and rub it on his chest, his back, his arms. All over his upper body. Through his hair.

"It might be easier for me to get your lower body if you stand up," I say.

He rises to his feet immediately. I notice that's not the only thing that has risen.

I spin my finger in a circle, telling him to turn around. I take the soap and massage it into his lower back, his ass, and down his legs. I took special care rubbing his firm butt cheeks. I place my hands on his hips and gently apply pressure in a circular motion to get him to turn back around.

I start with his feet and work my way up to that particular body part that stands at attention, waiting for me. I grasp it with my soap-lathered hands and rub it up and down. I continue rubbing with one hand and move my other to his balls, covering them with bubbles and kneading gently. He groans. I spend several long moments luxuriating in making him feel good, honoring him in this way.

"You're extra clean now," I say. "Time to get rinsed off." I refill my bucket and pull him back down into the tub.

Again, I pour water all over him, this time washing the bubbles off of his skin. Once I finish my work, I look at my handiwork. Kaname's hair is slicked back behind his head. His muscular body is wet and gleaming in the light. How can anyone look so perfect? I almost start drooling.

I look into his eyes and see desire reflected in them. He stands up, his massive frame dripping wet and looking sinfully delicious. I grab a large towel and wrap it around his shoulders. He steps out of the tub and stands in front of me. He unties my robe and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me to him. His wet, hard body presses against me.

I wrap one hand around his rock-hard length and the other I use to cup his balls, stroking them. I have to focus my brain to have one hand moving up and down while having the other caress. I quickly decide I'd rather get down on my knees and I take the length of him into my mouth, while still caressing his balls. He groans and starts moving his hips back and forward. I pull him in and out of my mouth while using one hand to slide up and down his length in tandem.

"Yuki," he moans.

He pulls me back up to my feet and takes me into his arms, carrying me to the bed. He lays me out on the bed and pulls my legs apart. He kisses my inner thighs before burying his face into my pussy. His tongue buries deep inside me and he licks the inside of my vaginal walls. I lose track of his actions as wave after wave of pleasure courses through me. I lose myself in the sensation. I faintly notice as his wet fingers move to stroke that bundle of nerves at the apex and then another wave of sensation crashes over me. Sometimes it's borderline too much, but I let my body go limp as he feasts upon me. The sensations increase until they crest and I'm flying through space and time, feeling the channels of energy open up within me and I feel powerfully alive.

Kaname rises up from between my legs and moves over me. He slides himself into me and begins to thrust himself deep within me. I wrap my legs around him, pulling him close and meeting his thrusts. They increase in intensity as he pushes in and pulls out. My hands move all over his body. I bury one in his hair, the other I use to grip his back, his ass. I pull my face to his neck and kiss it. I inhale and smell his delectable blood. I bury my fangs into his neck, which makes him groan loudly and he begins pounding me. I suck deeply as he enters me in and out. I feel that rising wave of pleasure coursing through my body and pull my head away, licking his neck to capture any stray drops of blood before his wound seals and begins to heal. I look him in the eyes and kiss him deeply. I still can taste myself a little bit on him as I'm sure he can taste his blood on me.

He continues to thrust and I receive each motion with immense satisfaction. He moves his head down to my breast and takes my nipple into his mouth. I arch my back, moaning at the sensation. I feel a sharp pain in that sensitive spot and realize he's bitten me there. The pain immediately turns into a pleasure so acute that I shatter right then and there, screaming his name. I ride wave after wave of pleasure as I feel him find his own release. His head is back up to mine and I wrap my arms around his shoulders tightly as we share in mutual orgasm, I ride him as he releases his load into me.

He collapses on top of me, keeping most of his weight on his arms so he doesn't completely crush me. His weight feels relaxing and soothing to me. It feels right. I hold him tightly, feeling the love and warmth spreading out through my chest and through the rest of my body. I pour that love into him as I hold him. I stroke his hair and his back.

"I love you," I whisper.

"I love you, my princess," he replies. "My queen."

I smile as he rolls to my side and takes me in his arms.

Even though we don't know what the future will hold, I've never felt so right as when I'm in his arms.