Blueeyeddevil06, Love you, and thank you for being my beta!
Mamoru sat in the morgue fidgeting as he read the reports on the five bodies found without blood. He didn't know that Yamato had more information in his possession, he just knew he wanted a distraction from thinking about Usagi, and he hoped a puzzle could do just that.
He heard the doors open and unfamiliar footsteps enter the room. He looked up from the reports and saw Detective Ito standing there staring directly at him.
"I think it's time we talked a bit more," Artemis said. "Usagi, is…" He couldn't say she was like a cool aunt to him so he went with the closest comparator. "She's like a niece to me."
"And you let your niece put herself in danger investigating a killer?!" Mamoru bit back in aggravation.
Artemis burst out laughing. "One day you'll see how funny that question is. In the meantime, I'll explain this, Usagi does what she wants, and she's not stupid."
"She accused a man of killing someone to his face and of working for Diamond! That's not smart!"
"And you care because…?" Artemis prompted.
Mamoru rolled his eyes. "You're a detective. Playing dumb doesn't work for you. You know she announced we're going to end up together." The knowing smile he got in return frustrated him.
The verbal response was, "and how does that make you feel?"
"Helpless! She's in danger and…! I-I just know I couldn't stand it if something happened to her."
"And yet you resist your feelings. After the hell she's been through, I'm going to be honest. She deserves better than this…than you even. The life she's lived makes yours look like a picnic." Artemis then scowled at the floor. "Of everything she's doing, going after you is the thing that bothers me the most."
"Why?"
"Because you fight the attraction when you should run to her and beg her to be in your life. She's the best thing that ever happened to you and you don't get it at all. Fool."
Mamoru fidgeted, "it feels like she's hiding something from me."
"She is! And it's huge." Artemis admitted to Mamoru's absolute shock. "That said, it doesn't matter. It's not something to keep you apart. She's so special, and you'll find out how unique and amazing she is soon."
Neither man had heard Yamato open the door nor realized he'd been standing there listening for a few minutes. He didn't feel guilty for eavesdropping; after all, it was his morgue.
He announced his presence by letting the door shut behind him. When the both looked his way, he held up a stack of documents. "Vampires, Detective Ito?" He had put it together quickly. The detective insisting she was special and her not fearing a murder. The woman, Usagi, was a vampire.
Before anyone could reply, Yamato added, "they're all rapists."
"They were all attempting rape, if not in deed, it was with date rape drugs. They don't affect vampires when they drink them."
Mamoru was incredibly confused. "What? How did this come up?"
"The five dead bodies. They were all killed by a vampire draining their blood."
With a knit brow, Mamoru asked, "but then why weren't there any puncture marks?"
Artemis encouraged that Yamato was asking him and it wasn't Internal Investigations coming to him, answered, "some vampire saliva can heal. It's… complicated. But to simplify it, some vampires have more special abilities than others."
"She's a killer," Yamato stated.
"She's…old-fashioned."
"How old?" The coroner asked.
"Over four hundred and seventy years old," Artemis admitted. "And she sees herself more like a vigilante."
Mamoru chuckled. While he wasn't quite following the whole story, after all it was so bizarre to his logical brain, that it struck a chord. "So it is like Batman."
Yamato smiled despite himself. "Yeah, we were right about that. And it was a woman. Now, Detective, are we right about the reason she goes after rapists?"
Artemis Ito frowned and nodded, "she was raped and murdered by a vampire who brought her back to life with his blood. She was forced into his bed and the afterlife. Sold to that monster by her own father! The vampire that turned her was the first rapist she killed."
Yamato looked at him in shock and horror. "Her father?"
"Yes. She was actually born a princess. Her father, the king, wanted money to finance a war. He got it by selling his beautiful daughter."
"As tragic as that is, and you know how that affects me, is she safe to be around?" Yamato knew the detective understood the details of his sister's case.
Artemis smiled gently and said, "She's one of the oldest vampires alive right now, and has been fully in control of herself for over four centuries. Dracula himself helped her gain full control of her impulses."
"Dracula's a fictional character," Mamoru stated firmly.
"No, Dracula is the first vampire in existence and a friend of hers. Vlad sees her like a sister and she's close with his wife, Lucy."
"Lucy dies in the story," Mamoru said.
"Now, that part is fiction," Artemis replied. "She's very much alive."
"So, who is 'she'," Mamoru asked.
Yamato looked at him in total shock. "How? Didn't I say her name?"
"No, you didn't," Artemis answered. "And he's so logical that his brain can't conceive that we didn't jump topics when you came in." He then turned to look directly at Mamoru. "Usagi is a vampire and the one who drained those five men of their blood."
Mamoru was glad he was sitting down. He was completely shocked that such a tiny woman was a powerful vampire.
He whispered, "How…?" Then his face hardened and he stood up, reached in his pocket, and clutched the Queen chess piece he carried. "She was raped!" He was furious. "And her own father…" He slammed his other fist down on the desk. "How could he?!"
Artemis smiled like the cat that got the canary. The mystical and powerful bond between them really had taken hold, much to his relief. He heard from Usagi what bonded love was like and he was glad to be finally catching a glimpse of it in Mamoru.
"That's the secret," Artemis said. "Kunzite may be a killer, and he's worse than you know. But she's way more powerful than him. She might be putting herself in danger, but she can handle it all. He's not nearly as powerful as her." He then added, "there's something about those five men's deaths she's not telling me. She doesn't usually jump to killing, even for those types of men. She can stop them from raping in the future. Somethings up and she's trying to shield me from the truth."
"Doesn't she trust you?" Yamato asked.
"Absolutely, but she's really like a cool aunt to me. One who saved my life when I was a child. Once she did, she's protected me ever since."
Mamoru was getting a massive headache. How in the world did it turn out that the woman he was attracted to was a vampire, of all things?
Artemis quickly sent a text and then said, "There. She knows. Can she meet you at your apartment to answer any questions?"
He waited with baited breath for the answer. After all, it would reveal how he felt about the whole thing. Would he even trust her to be alone with him in his apartment?
Mamoru looked at Yamato, "will this get me fired?"
He shook his head. "I've read some reports. The British police are even working with vampires right now. While this isn't strictly legal, I'm not going to report anything. I'm only interested in putting away the bad guys."
Turning to Artemis, Mamoru said, "tell her to meet me at seven."