Blueeyeddevil06, thank you for being my beta. Also, thank you and your husband for coming up with the prophecy.
I did go back and add the description of how Usagi looks as a vampire to the last chapter. Thank you so much to everyone who suggested that. I really should have put that in.
I'm thinking the chapters should have titles. As you go through, and you think of a good title message me and I might use it. I appreciate any suggestions ahead of time.
Mamoru stared at Usagi as she remained fully vampire. The black veins around her eyes and red irises stood out on her now, even paler complexion. Her sharp white teeth joined with the pink shirt and white skirt combined to make her look otherworldly and ethereal.
He ran his fingers roughly through his hair again. He couldn't figure out why her looking like that turned him on, but he could feel the proof that it did. He shifted to make more room in his pants due to that very proof.
He watched Usagi fidget with her purse again, and he thought about how even he could read the cue that she was afraid of his rejection of her vampire form.
Not dropping her transition, she set her purse down and sat. Mamoru wasn't able to give her the full admission yet, but he gave her a crooked smile and said, "You look beautiful like that." He wasn't ready to admit he found it sexy and dangerously erotic.
Tears sprung to her eyes as she dropped her transition, and she gave him an enormous smile. "I'm glad it doesn't bother you."
"Does that surprise you?" He asked. "After all, you told me we're meant to be together."
She bashfully cast her eyes to the ground, and it dawned on him she couldn't blush as a vampire, because it looked like that was exactly what she was doing.
He watched her then square her shoulders and look up at him. "There is a lot I know. But that doesn't stop the fear that creeps in sometimes."
"You're afraid?" He was so shocked to hear that it extended that far. She was a vampire with centuries of life. According to Motoki she was ridiculously strong too.
She deflated a bit and said, "You're… how do I put it?" She paused to think of what to say. She hummed quietly and said, "You're brilliant, and I believe your mind could overrule your heart. I'm afraid of coming out on the losing end of that deal." She played with the hem of her white skirt and added, "I'm a killer, and that is hard to justify to people nowadays."
He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her. It was like his body ached to reach out and comfort her. Still, he held back. It was then that Mamoru admitted she was right. He could hold back due to his reason.
Instead he said, "that's one of my questions. Why? Why kill those men?"
She didn't insult him by asking if he thought they were vile. Long gone were the days when rape made the woman unwanted or rape was a way to force a marriage. As much as current society was hard to adjust to, the modern views of rape pleased her. "Artie doesn't have the whole story. I know you believe he's hiding my murders."
He wasn't even shocked she knew that. "Yes. Yamato and I both believe that."
Usagi frowned. "Is he going to report Artie?"
"No. He's happy to go along with things as long as there aren't any huge surprises."
"What?" She looked at him, shocked. That floored her. How was the Medical Examiner suddenly on their side?
"He knows about you. He's my mentor, and honestly, he's the only elder I have that I can go to. We talked, he wants to help you."
Her eyes flew wide and she said, "How? How am I so…I have so much!"
"What?" Mamoru asked with knitted brows. He didn't understand what she meant about having a lot.
The look of sadness on her face wrenched his heart. "I make friends, but they have to break when people notice I don't age. It's not usual that people, humans, know what I am. Now I have…five humans that know the truth about me. I haven't had…." She teared up and swiped roughly at the tears on her face. "Usually the moment a human finds out, they are trying to figure out how to kill me. It's…" she sniffled, "nice."
He watched her pull herself together and look him in the eye. "I'm afraid to tell Artie because he's a detective and can't let things go. He's also human. I don't want him to die. The rapists that I killed are part of Diamond's vessel spell. His sister, Emerald, is a witch and cast the spell. He's immortal but he needs them to maintain it. The spell she cast gathers energy from the suffering of others, rape, violence, anger…" she sighed. "Then they return full of magical evil, and she ritually kills them and pours their blood in his bath. He bathes in it for hours, and it makes him nearly impossible to kill. He's almost one hundred years old. His father didn't do those things to form the yakuza, that was him."
Mamoru ran his hand roughly through his hair yet again, but this time for a very different reason. "You drained them dry so he couldn't use their blood. They were dead either way."
"Yes."
He rubbed his eyes and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "If Detective Artemis knew this, he'd go after the spelled men."
"Yes. Men that are hand picked for the evil and violence they are capable of."
"Why tell me the truth and not him?" He asked gently. He didn't want her to feel accused. He was just curious.
She chuckled and gave him a wry smile. "Because you have more sense. Artie has a hero complex and wants to rid the world of bad guys. You have a strong moral center, but you're not a detective. You don't have the same drive that he does."
Mamoru nodded and stayed quiet. He actually had a ridiculously strong desire to protect her. He didn't know if he actually had more sense than Artemis did when it came to her. That said, he admitted that he was more cautious generally. So he conceded her point.
He tried to move on and ask the next question in his head. "Do you kill, generally?"
She shook her head and said, "No. It means I have to eat more often. In a way, we're like snakes, if that makes any sense. They can gorge themselves on a meal and not eat again for a long time. It's like snacking all day for a human vs having a huge holiday meal in a way. It's only more pronounced. A human can lose a pint of blood and be okay. I take about half a pint."
"And the bite marks?"
She twisted her mouth and said, "my saliva heals. I drink, then lick them, and they go away. It's why you probably didn't find any marks on the dead bodies."
His eyes popped wide. "We didn't!" He was relieved to discover an answer to that question. It satisfied his scientific brain.
He then asked the next question, "who were you before becoming a vampire?"
He watched pain cross her face then disappear, and she seemed unusually placid. "Princess Astrid, in what is now Norway. My father was King and my mother was Queen as well as the most powerful witch of her time. I had a much younger brother, the heir, and a good man. Good men don't last long as King back then. It was seen as a weakness and his reign was short. My father was a monster, not the kind in stories, but in life. He sold me to a vampire that knew of the prophecy. He raped me and turned me. He was my first kill, and I don't regret what I did."
Mamoru was reeling from all the information she told him. He decided to take it bit by bit. "First, good. I'm glad you killed him." He was actually nauseous thinking of her being sold and raped. He wanted to kill the vampire himself. "That, I have to say first."
He watched her seem to relax for the first time, and he realized she must really not kill much. He accepted the kills she told him about, and he realized any kills she made must fall into similar categories. Ones where he didn't flinch.
She surprised him when she said, "You didn't say that he didn't matter because he wasn't human."
"What?" He was so confused as to where that came from. The multiple negatives were messing with him too.
She smiled at him tenderly as she said, "You were okay with it because of what he did to me, not because he wasn't human. A lot of people see vampires like cockroaches. Something…good to kill."
He looked at her and wondered how the hell that was possible. The idea of her dying angered him. She was precious and worth more than everyone he knew. Who cared if she was a vampire? She mattered.
He scoffed and said, "Life is life."
"But I'm not truly alive. Not according to science."
He flinched when he realized science was wrong. He reeled over the idea that something so important and fundamental to him now had to be ignored. She was very much alive to him no matter what "science" said.
He deflected from that by asking his next question. He knew it would seem out of nowhere. "Prophesy?"
He was impressed that she didn't seem shocked. "Yes. Nuair a thuiteas am fitheach, falbhaidh na h-ialtagan. Bidh fuil ag iarraidh gaol nach urrainn bàs. Le àrdachadh rìgh-chathair ùr, chan fheum an Talamh agus a' Ghealach dìoghaltas. Nuair a bhuaineas Bàs clach an sin thèid an Talamh suas an rìgh-chathair."
He raised one eyebrow and said, "I assume that's another language and you're not having a stroke." She chuckled at his response.
"Yes. It's Gaelic, the language of the Oracle that had the prophecy."
"And it means…?"
"It means my destined love is powerful. I'll translate it for you another time. I've told you a lot already."
Mamoru frowned. "You don't trust me?!"
He watched her shoulders sag. "I trust you with everything in me. It's a lot."
She then frowned and said, "When the raven plummets, the bats will fly. Blood will crave for a love that cannot die. With the rise of a new throne, the Earth and Moon need not atone. When Death reaps a stone, then the Earth will ascend the throne."
Mamoru playfully rolled his eyes. "That actually makes me feel dumber. It's my language, yes, but it still doesn't make any sense to me."
She smiled sweetly at him. "You are the Earth, and I'm the moon. You're life, and I'm associated with the night."
"I get a throne?"
"You become the King of the vampires. It's why that first vampire bought me. He wanted it to be him."
"But it wasn't because…?"
"Our blood didn't call to each other."
Mamoru frowned and looked at the floor. His head swam as he thought, what the heck? Was he going to be a king? Then he realized he believed every word she said.