Chapter 7

Chapter 7

As the wind rushed around them, Kyoko’s auburn hair flew across Kotaro’s shoulder to mingle with his darker locks. She felt like she was still flying. Her attention focused on his face as he looked ahead, his eyes the brightest blue she had ever seen. Everything was still so bright as if lightening had flashed and not yet gone away.

She started to relax. She was safe with Kotaro and no longer in the arms of the beautiful stranger, then remembered Toya.

Kyoko tried to concentrate and glanced over Kotaro’s shoulder to see if she could still see him. Was he all right? Would the strange man that reminded her so much of Toya hurt him?

Adding to the strangeness of the evening was seeing trees fly by at an astonishing speed. She got a glimpse of the large marble stone in the center of the park and frowned. It was getting further and further away but for a moment it looked different… as though she could see through it to something else hidden within. Even more out of place was the shimmer of rainbow dust surrounding it.

Shaking her head, she dismissed the notion to having one too many drinks that night.

“Toya,” she whispered his name just as the glowing light that was reflecting off everything they passed slowly died. Her eyes closed against her will as if her energy had suddenly been drained from her and darkness returned.

Kotaro snuggled Kyoko closer, trying to ignore the fact that she had just said Toya’s name when it was he that had saved her. Once more that peaceful feeling surrounded him and he recognized the aura the marble stone in the park always gave him. Right now, he wasn’t about to question the stone’s effect on his emotions as it was keeping him from doing anything remotely foolish at the moment.

He kept up the swift pace to outwit and outrun the others even though his enhanced senses told him that neither had followed them.

As darkness returned to its borders around him, Kotaro glanced down noticing Kyoko had fallen asleep. He wanted her safe and only with him. Could he keep her away from the dangers of the night? Was Kyou one of the reasons the college girls had been turning up missing? Was he in on it with Hyakuhei?

After all, Kyou had tried to kidnap Kyoko right in front of him. Worry slid across Kotaro’s expression as he glanced down at her wondering if Kyou would have taken her to Hyakuhei. He shook his head ‘no’ as if answering his own question. There was no way Kyou would ever forgive Hyakuhei for killing Toya.

Not even a thousand years could heal that wound.

But one question still remained. If Kyou wasn’t with Hyakuhei… then why did he try to steal Kyoko away? “It doesn’t matter,” he growled to himself. “I won’t give you or anyone else the chance to try that again.” He would take her to his place. Kotaro knew for a fact no one was aware of where he lived.

What was Kyou doing here and when had Toya grown so strong? Kotaro could feel the wounds from the confrontation still healing. Toya had managed to wound him? How? He had been reborn human… had somehow the vampire part of him also been revived?

If that was the case, they were all in a world of trouble, especially if Toya somehow remembered what happened. Or if he didn’t remember the past and became like he was… what path would he choose? Plus, with Kyou finally reappearing after all these centuries, it raised more questions than he was able to answer.

One thing he wanted to avoid was Kyou or Hyakuhei making the connection between Toya and Kyoko. His fear was that he was already too late.

***** Toya lowered his hand as the aggravating light vanished. He was still looking up as Kyou lowered his arm from shielding his eyes. Two sets of golden eyes clashed… one floating high in the air and the other standing firmly on the ground.

Kyou started to descend and confront the boy who stood gazing up at him with his brother’s eyes but something caught his attention. The darkening of the sky was his warning that it would soon blaze to life with the dawn. As much as he wanted to find out what lay behind those golden eyes… he would have to wait for the darkness to return.

With a soft growl, Kyou flung his cloak in front of him and vanished backward into the night.

Toya frowned as the vision disappeared. He blinked wondering if it had only been another dream like the ones that sometimes haunted his nights. The dreams had become more frequent lately. His expression hardened knowing what had just happened had not been a figment of his imagination.

Suddenly disgusted with himself for even caring, he turned away and sniffed the air trying to detect which way Kotaro had taken Kyoko. He took a step back leaning against the stone and slowly slid down it into a sitting position when visions started flashing within his mind’s eye that he didn’t understand. Unknown to him, the stone became translucent showing the maiden statue inside… guiding his memories back to him.

The last flash through his mind was of the silver-haired man holding Kyoko as if the hounds of hell couldn’t take her from him. The thought spurred Toya back to his feet and out of the park. He raced through the alleys… his mind filled with disturbing thoughts of a dark monster that often followed the pale one into his dreams.

In those visions, it had never been the silver haired being that he had feared. If anything… they had been close allies.

Toya gritted his teeth. One thing he knew for sure was the fact that he needed Kyoko with him, every fiber of his being called to her and he would not let a stranger, monsters, or Kotaro stand in his way.

***** Hyakuhei watched as the boy called Tasuki sucked in the first breath of his new life. He would sleep for a little while longer as his body adjusted. “It is done,” his whispered words ricocheted off the walls in an ominous echo. His long dark hair flowed over his shoulders, lifting in an absent wind.

With a fluttering of black silk, Hyakuhei took the boy and left him on the steps of the deserted school to face the dawn. The light would not hurt him for he was not yet a full vampire. As long as he could abstain from feeding, he would continue to be able to enjoy the light and also lead him to the girl he searched for.

Calling the remaining darkness around him, Hyakuhei vanished… returning to his resting place to await the night once more.

Tasuki jerked awake, reaching out for Kyoko desperately as if it had only been a split second since his last conscious thought. As the amethyst color faded from his irises… they returned to the more normal soft brown. Confused, he lowered his hand looking around at the foggy morning’s first light.

“The college? How did I get here?” Where was Kyoko? He ran his hand through his mussed hair in bewilderment. “How much Long Island iced tea did I drink?”

He stood, feeling suddenly refreshed and wide awake. Pushing his hands deep into his pockets, he took off in the direction of his apartment still confused about last night’s happenings.

***** Yuuhi smiled a slow, gruesome smile as he wiped at the blood smeared across his face. Hyakuhei would be proud of the torment he had wreaked on the human before he had lost consciousness and died the temporary death. The boy’s body was almost unrecognizable with its limbs bent oddly in the wrong directions from all the broken bones… most of those bones showing through ripped skin.

Hearing his master call to him, Yuuhi disappeared moments before dawn struck across the misty crease in the skyline.

Yohji screamed as the dawn rushed across him making the shadows within the alley withdraw. Withering in agony, the multitude of wounds that littered his body seared closed with the heat of blazing fire until the skin once more covered his insides. The agony of the broken bones moving back into place was no less terrifying then when they had snapped apart.

He nearly threw up as he watched his skin writhe with the mending process.

Coming up on his knees and hands, Yohji raised his face to the dawn and screamed as the blood receded from the whites of his eyes. As what was left of the hellish pain vanished, he stumbled to his feet as if climbing from a cold grave.

Shivering as he broke out in a cold sweat, he looked around fearfully, wanting away from the area where the nightmare had taken place. Leaving the alley and heading toward the park and the shortcut to his place he noticed children playing. His sudden fear of children added to his speed.

Anyone who spotted him running would have thought the hounds of hell themselves were after him.

***** Toya slammed the door behind him as he entered the apartment he and Shinbe shared. He was so fucking worried he thought he would lose his mind. Hearing a shriek behind him, Toya swung around as Suki’s head popped up from the sofa followed by Shinbe’s.

“What the…?” he shook his head. Suki had never stayed over at their apartment before.

Suki jumped up before Shinbe could reach out to stop her. “Did you find Kyoko? Is she okay?” Seeing his steps falter and his face lower, Suki felt like her knees would buckle. “Toya… Where is Kyoko?” Her eyes began to fill with tears as she stared at him.

Worried that Suki was going to pass out, Shinbe leapt over the back of the sofa and clutched her against him to keep her standing. “I’m sure she’s fine Suki, don’t worry,” he reassured her with a slight squeeze of his arms. He only hoped that he wasn’t lying as he looked toward his best friend whose expression was now hidden by the shadow of his bangs.

Toya growled in frustration, snapping his miserable golden eyes up to the both of them. “It’s not what you think, damn it. I saved her but now she is with Kotaro!” He practically spat the name from his lips. “He took off with her after we had a run in at her place…” Toya frowned recalling how fast and strong Kotaro seemed to be.

Something strange was going on… first Kotaro, then that guy stepping out of his dreams, it’s like he was supposed to already know what was going on. Toya’s thoughts began to plague him, taunting him mercilessly. Those dreams were filled with some really wicked people and if one could step out, then… would the demons be far behind?

Both Suki and Shinbe cocked their heads to the side at the same time giving him a disbelieving look.

“No offense pal, but since when have you ever let Kotaro just run off with Kyoko? Uhmm… and you’re not tearing the place apart. Are you feeling okay?” Shinbe reached out a hand and felt his friend’s forehead to be sure he wasn’t coming down with something.

Rolling his eyes with a defeated sigh, Toya pushed Shinbe’s hand away and walked past them into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. He knew Kyoko was safe. What angered him was that she was with Kotaro and not him. His worried golden gaze turned to the window as he looked out at the dawn.

He had always loved the dawn.

Toya's thoughts turned dark and his lips thinned. Kotaro… that man had a lot of explaining to do. It was almost as if he wasn’t surprised that there was a guy flying around in the air.

Hell, he saw it with his own eyes and was still having a hard time believing it. Of course, how would he explain his own enhanced abilities? They were not normal either. He clenched his fist at his side deciding that, disturbingly enough, nothing seemed normal anymore.

Toya lay across his bed thinking more about the silver-haired man with golden eyes so much like his own… identical to the man that haunted his dreams. “Who the fuck are you and why are you after Kyoko?” he snarled, throwing a pillow across the room.

Had his nightmarish dreams come to life to haunt him? If the golden-eyed vampire materialized from his dreams, would the dark one follow him? Would they try to take Kyoko… the only one he would ever love?

If only that light hadn’t blinded him… he would have been the one who caught her, instead of Kotaro.

Toya jerked upright on the bed, the panic creeping back in. Feeling like it was getting harder to breathe he stood up and stepped back to the window trying to dispel the disturbing thoughts. His fingers gripped the windowsill and his vision focused on them… remembering.

Slowly raising his hands to his face, he searched for evidence that the razor sharp claws had ever been there… when he had fought Kotaro.

Lowering his hands, Toya’s eyes widened as his mind processed one thought. The figures in his dreams were vampires. Then that meant the silver haired man he had seen twice in one night…“He’s a real vampire… Kyoko!”

***** Kyou stretched out on his bed, floating several inches above the soft mattress. He was still too restless to actually sleep. His mind was a whirlwind of images. Closing his eyes he searched his memory for his brother and locked on it.

The same voice he had heard tonight. The same foul language… the same golden eyes… the speed he had witnessed tonight could not have been human. The one thing that made the muscles in his stomach clench was the spark of recognition that leapt into the boy’s eyes as they had stared at each other… even if it had only been for an instant.

He had heard once that a vampire never truly dies but he could not shake the picture of his dead brother in his arms as he had carried him to his grave. “I buried you,” his voice whispered unbelieving.

Had his brother somehow been reborn and finally found his light in the darkness… His Guardian Heart Crystal from the legend? Kyou’s thoughts turned to the girl. If the boy from tonight was in some way Toya, then his brother was enchanted with her. That could be dangerous.

He had held her in his arms, and the power he sensed residing within her had also affected him. Could he even trust his brother with such a power or should he take her for himself to keep her from Hyakuhei’s clutches?

No, if it was Toya, then he was not capable of protecting her from Hyakuhei yet. He could tell by the boy’s eyes that he was in love with the human priestess. His heart felt cold and hollow for a thundering moment as if he had lost something that was irreplaceable.

Kyou sucked in a deep shuddering breath knowing it was indeed his brother. But it seemed that his powers were still mostly dormant… as were his memories. And unless his powers were unleashed, he would fall to Hyakuhei again. He would need to understand who and what he was… very soon.

Knowing his brother as well as he did, Kyou knew Toya was not going to be very happy. He had fought the fact that he was a vampire in the past and now, if he became what he hated once again… it would be no different.

Kyou’s heart began to ache with an almost forgotten intensity as he recalled the patience he would have to sustain in order to deal with an angry, irrational, hot-tempered Toya. The barest of smiles crept across his lips at the thought. Life… even if he had to live it in the dark would be worth living once more.

Somewhere in the back of his mind lingered the image of the Lycan that had protected the one called Kyoko. The sight was still a bit shocking considering the werewolf clan had virtually stayed hidden for centuries. Or was Kyoko’s protector the only one left? He himself hadn’t seen one in over a thousand years. Maybe this wolf had the power to protect her from Hyakuhei.

The one called Kotaro had not shown his true power tonight, but what he had revealed was enough to make him wonder if Hyakuhei was within the realm of a formidable foe. If the wolf could keep her from him, then he could also protect her from Hyakuhei.

A frown creased his brow as he thought of both Kotaro and Toya. They had been fighting over the sleeping girl. Kyou growled ominously in the silent room as he realized that both his brother and Kotaro wanted her.

One angry, jealous, hot headed, Toya was bad enough… but two? He had a feeling those two were going to get in his way when he went to retrieve the girl, but for now she would be safer with him. Only he knew of Hyakuhei’s yearnings and weaknesses. He knew the enemy better than either of them. He would protect his brother this time… even if it meant taking the girl from him.

He had thought in the past that the only way to protect Toya was to stay away from him. This time, Toya would not be forsaken. Kyou’s thoughts dipped into the past as his eyes slowly closed and he waited for the shadows of night to once again appear.

***** Kotaro stood outside the enormous steel bars of the gate looking in across the vast yard at his home. No one at the college knew of this address. The only address he had given them was the small apartment near the school grounds.

After all, why would someone with as much power and money as he had, be a lowly security guard for a college? Kotaro smirked. He was the guardian and prince of his own race. His gaze lowered to the young girl he held so protectively within his arms. He was a protector of many things.

He growled, low and soft. A sound humans couldn’t even hear, unless they knew what to listen for. With the sound, the gates swung open as if obeying his command. Tightening his arms around her, Kotaro entered his secret fortress.

***** Kyoko slowly became aware of the soft, heavy comfort that surrounded her, holding her in a warm embrace. That very comfort pushed her further from the world of dreams as she frowned slightly, wondering when her bed had become so soft.

‘Hmm, the only time it feels this comfortable is when I get to sleep in…’ Kyoko thought lazily.

Suddenly the gentle fog of sleep was ripped away as one thundering thought crashed down on her. ‘SCHOOL!!’ Bolting upright, scattering the blankets, Kyoko blindly scrambled for the edge of the bed crying out. “I’m late for class!”

Stabbing pain halted her flight and she grabbed her head in confusion. “Ugh, why does it feel like I got kicked by a mule?” She mumbled as she fell back to the bed. Lying on her side she cringed, hoping the room would soon stop spinning.

“Your last midterm was yesterday Kyoko. You’re on break now… you can relax.”

Sighing as the soft voice off to her right reminded her that she had a week’s break, Kyoko nodded. The movement elicited a groan from the groggy girl, as pain again flared between her temples.

Since her eyes were closed it gave way for the clear visions that came with the memory of Club Midnight and a few Long Island teas too many. That answered the question of how her head had become the playground of tiny demons with huge drums.

“When I get my hands on Suki I’m gonna…” she growled softly thinking of painful revenge to dole upon her best friend.

Hearing a soft chuckle, Kyoko swung her head to peer into the darkness to her right. “Eep!” Bouncing back across the bed, Kyoko flung the covers up to her chin kneeling behind the tented barrier.

There… standing against the window, backlit by the electric blue glow that happens right before dawn… was Kotaro. His legs crossed at the ankle, he lounged against the window frame, a soft breeze playing with the shorter strands of raven black hair and gently lifting the longer locks that hung down his back as if wanting release from its low ponytail.

Her jaw dropped as her lips parted. “What are you doing here?”

Getting over her initial shock, Kyoko’s eyes narrowed in a deadly glare as she watched Kotaro push away from the window. What the hell was he doing in her room watching her sleep? ‘The perv!’ She fumed as she added his name to the growing list of ‘People to Hurt’.

What was it with the men in her life? As if it wasn’t bad enough that they barged into her apartment without knocking or called her up demanding to be met here or there with nary a question as to whether she already had plans. No! Now Kotaro had apparently invited himself into her apartment to ogle her while she slept off a hangover.

However, she couldn’t help but take a moment to admire his sensuous appearance. Something about him always screamed ‘wild child’ but when he opened his mouth to talk you got another impression entirely. It was as if he had been born from royalty and the mixture of both sides had always captivated her.

She gave a mental growl as Kotaro walked closer. ‘I’m supposed to be mad at him for being in my room… not checking him out.’

Kotaro smirked at the sounds of her tiny growls. Taking a step closer, he tilted his head to the side… his lips softly smiling. “I live here.” Trying to clamp down on the laugh that bubbled up when she whipped her head around to look at her surroundings, Kotaro gave into just cocking an eyebrow in amusement.

“Oh my, I’m not in Kansas anymore Toto,” Kyoko whispered.

His lips twitched as he tried to stifle the escape of his growing amusement. She could be so cute some times.

As Kyoko sat there, confusion clouding her features, Kotaro watched as she lowered the blankets to rest her hands between her knees where she knelt on his bed. Sudden heat jolted through him as he watched the dawn highlight the tussled strands of her auburn hair. Her cheeks were flushed from her earlier anger and remaining confusion.

Quickly turning his head to the side when she started worrying her bottom lip with small white teeth, Kotaro reached up tugging at the band restraining his hair, desperate to give his hands a task… distracting them from the urge to wander over Kyoko’s soft body.

Running hands that shook slightly through his hair, he turned back to the woman in his bed and growled softly in approval. ‘She belongs here… in the past, now, and forever,’ his inner voice reflected possessively as he forced himself to lean once more against the windowsill.

He remembered the same scene playing in his head over a thousand years ago… only days before the hellish night that had taken her from him. Toya had once again gone in search of his brother, leaving Kyoko within his care for the darkest hours of the night.

Kotaro had taken her to the safest place he could have… his own bed though he had not taken her purity from her that night. He had only held her but it had meant so much more to him. His eyes began to take on a haunted glow of things that should not have been forgotten.

They had stayed awake all night, whispering secrets as he held her… secrets about the vampires who hunted her… about her deep seated love for one of them… a love that was only rivaled by the love she held for him. They had made promises to each other that night that fate had refused to let them keep.

If only she would remember the truth behind those awakening feelings. His eyes grew sad as he recalled the dagger he had given her for protection… he had never meant for her to use it as she had… the same dagger he had found embedded in her heart.

Kyoko’s startled eyes found their way back to Kotaro as he regarded her from his lazy stance at the windowsill. He had let his hair down and Kyoko nearly stopped breathing at the effect it had on his appearance.

His long coal black hair always drew her attention as it swung down his back from its jaunty tail but now, with it released from its restraint, Kotaro’s hair streamed around him falling over one shoulder like an inky waterfall. Dangerously handsome, his startlingly blue eyes seemed hypnotic now that those windblown locks framed them.

She actually had to resist the urge to step from the bed and run her fingers through it. If he only knew how many times she had dreamed about him. Even the daydreams, in all of them his hair was the same as it is now… released from its prison and very untamed.

A slow smile tugged at the corners of Kotaro’s lips as he watched the amazed look on Kyoko’s face. Her stormy emerald eyes grew wide as she gazed at him. The heat of her stare washed over him, making Kotaro take a deep shuddering breath. She had looked at him the same way in the past… before he had lost her.

Suddenly an image of the fear in those same eyes as she fell from her bedroom window last night flashed across his mind. The knowledge that he had been able to save her did little to comfort the anger that began to smolder once more as he remembered how easily the golden-eyed vampire had snatched her out of the air.

Kyou had tried to steal her away from him.

Toya’s brother was not the enemy, but still he did not know enough about Kyou to trust him. Kyou was an enigma and abided by no one's laws but his own. He wasn’t about to risk Kyoko’s safety on the whim of Toya’s unpredictable brother.

Kotaro’s calm faltered and he stalked across the room towards the bed. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to give her the spanking she rightly deserved or the unyielding kiss of an angry lover. At the moment she deserved both. He had to make her understand. She could not just run off unprotected whenever she felt like having a night on the town.

His anger spiked again as he remembered the lie she had fed him so that she could slip away from his watchful eye. This would not be allowed.

Kyoko’s lips parted when he left the window and started toward her with a disapproving gleam in his eyes. Suddenly she wanted to shrink back under the covers again, but tilted her chin up as if to defy her cowardly instinct. She nibbled on her bottom lip hoping he couldn’t see right through her.

Feeling like a five year old who was about to get a spanking she stuttered, “How did I get…” Kyoko looked away from his intense blue eyes and around the room again “…where am I exactly?” She looked back up at him abruptly remembering more of last night’s happenings. Golden eyes… Kotaro and Toya fighting… Suki and Tasuki… hauntingly golden eyes again.

Kotaro put one knee on the side of the bed while glaring down at her, watching as the memories of a few hours ago came rushing back to her. He didn’t care that she looked frightened… she should be afraid of what could have happened. She needed to be very afraid.

“Do you even realize how much danger you were in?” he asked almost harshly. “You could have been killed or worse last night. Why did you lie to me Kyoko?” His insides growled the final words, ‘I could have lost you!’

Reaching out without warning, Kotaro grabbed her smaller frame and dragged her across the bed. Crushing her against him, he needed to convince himself once more that she was really okay. Kyoko was here in his arms… he had not lost her to the vampire that had held her so dangerously the night before. Kyou had not harmed her when he could have so easily.

Burying his face in the crook of her neck, he held her closer, taking in her scent and letting it calm his crackling nerves.