Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kotaro felt the gentle light of the morning sun warm his face and knew the dangers of the nightwalkers had passed. He opened his eyes to silently watch the girl who had innocently curled up against him in her sleep.

He had held her once before… over a thousand years ago, much the same way.

Even if it had only been for one night filled with the most intimate of touches… he would never forget. She was now the same age and exact replica of her past life… as if she had never died. He closed his eyes as the memory hit him once again… she had died that very night.

She had been under his and Toya’s protection for only a short time. Such an odd triangle… a Lycan and a vampire protecting a human had been unheard of. He and Toya had spent most of their time fighting over her, much as they did now. They had both loved her… as they still did to this day.

That night so long ago, Toya had left Kyoko in his care so he could go and try to locate his older brother who had been sent away by Hyakuhei to an unknown place. Just the fact that Hyakuhei would go to such length to keep the two siblings estranged lent ground to Toya’s suspicions.

Toya had been convinced that with Kotaro and Kyou’s help, added to the power of Kamui and Shinbe’s magic, they could unravel the mystery behind the powers of the priestess and save her from Hyakuhei… along with themselves.

Kotaro had offered his help with the battle between the vampires, although he had not needed saving. He had only wanted to save her. When he had first met Kyoko, she had been with Toya and running for her life. Kotaro had thought she was in danger from the vampire and had carried her off.

He had found out very quickly that she was in danger… but not from Toya.

Toya had been right about her all along, even though he hadn’t had all the facts. She was the key to saving him and his brother. Kyoko had panicked when Toya had said he was going to go find Kyou and bring him back to her. She begged him not to leave that night but Toya had promised he wouldn’t be gone long. Looking back on it now… she must have known what was to come.

And come they had… many of them. The strongest of their kind had been sent to abduct her, waiting until well after midnight before striking. They had both known they were no longer alone when all the night sounds had stopped. It was as if even the crickets had sensed that evil had arrived.

Kotaro had killed many very powerful vampires that night, paying less attention to the one who had been the most dangerous among them… the one who had seemed the weakest. The ancient nightwalkers he slew had fought for their immortal lives and left him injured and weakened. That was when the child Yuuhi had shown his true powers.

That night long ago… he had saved her from a small child… a child of darkness. Had he known Yuuhi had only been a distraction to lead him away from the girl while Hyakuhei had paid her a visit… he would have never left her.

He had often found himself wondering what exactly had happened that night to make Kyoko do what she had done. He didn’t understand.

Kotaro’s heart constricted with the memory of arriving back at the cabin just in time to see her plunge the dagger into her own heart. Her frightened emerald eyes had met his over the shoulder of Hyakuhei right before hers had closed forever. The monster had turned and looked straight at him, a multitude of emotions still crossing his confused face before the wicked vampire vanished from the room.

He had fallen to his knees and started crawling toward her. “Kyoko! It’s not true… No!”

Kotaro paid no attention to the trail of blood he was leaving across the floor or the hiss of more vampires outside as they showed up to finish him off. If it had not been for Kamui… he would have followed her into true death… at least he would have been with her.

Kamui had appeared out of nowhere and wrapped his wings around Kotaro’s bleeding battered body, whispering enchantments that would keep the newly arriving vampires from entering the small cabin and finishing the Lycan off.

“Kotaro, there’s nothing we can do… it’s too late to save her.” Kamui held him tight as Kotaro still stretched his arms out toward the girl on the floor. They both heard the screams of the dying vampires outside the small hut and knew Toya had arrived.

“What…” Toya’s voice cracked as his eyes took it all in. He was standing at the threshold of the room feeling the barrier that Kamui had erected against all vampires… including him. He didn’t have to come any closer to know he had lost her.

Hearing Toya’s voice behind him, Kotaro felt a mental snap, fighting to get loose from Kamui’s restraining arms he screamed, “Why did you leave her?! She begged you not to!” He fought to free himself from his best friend’s hold even though he was too weak. “Together we could have saved her!!!” Kotaro shouted as he won his freedom and turned his gaze from Kyoko’s still form to Toya’s.

Kotaro’s breath hitched in his throat, stopping any more damning words from rushing forth. The look on Toya’s face had said it all.

Toya’s eyes had turned liquid gold with molten silver swirling in to them. His hand clutched the frame of the door with so much force that the wood cracked under the pressure as the tears came.

When Toya’s tormented gaze had turned to lock with Kotaro’s, he could literally see Toya’s heart spilling out on the already crimson floor. The wind rushed in past him causing the highlights within his midnight hair to shimmer the same color of the tears that now ran torrents down his cheeks.

Toya felt his world shatter. No one had to tell him what had happened… he already held the knowledge and the one word that slipped past his lips spoke volumes.

“Hyakuhei!”

Kamui screamed his name just as Toya turned and vanished into the night… fate had won.

Since that night… almost every night… he had saved her… both her and Toya… if only in his dreams.

Now… as Kotaro lay holding the same girl in his arms, he knew history had almost repeated itself last night. He had lost her and Toya before … this time, even if it cost him his own life, he would find a way to save them all.

Once again he closed his eyes and joined her in dreamless sleep. Daylight would protect them… for now.

***** Kyoko was starting to go stir-crazy. It was near noon and Kotaro had finally left the room to get them some lunch. She felt like a prisoner here, Rapunzel in her tower waiting for her prince to rescue her.

Sure, she liked Kotaro well enough… okay… maybe she even loved him but that was beside the point. Right now she wanted answers and he seemed very reluctant to give them. She could tell he was hiding something from her by the worried look in his eyes and the way he changed the subject every time she mentioned the word ‘vampire’.

All he had told her was that she had to stay put until it was all over. She tried to argue with him but he had stubbornly put his foot down and locked the door, she silently fumed.

“Until what is over?” she growled to the now empty room knowing the question wouldn’t have been answered even if Kotaro had still been there. With a sigh, she walked over to the window to look out at… beautiful freedom.

“I wonder what Toya is doing right now?” she whispered to herself suddenly missing him.

A blush rose up again for the hundredth time as the memory of how she had awakened just an hour earlier came back to haunt her. Kyoko’s eyebrow twitched knowing she had every right in the world to push Kotaro off the bed before he even woke up.

She gave a slight smirk remembering the sound of the thud as he hit the floor. She couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out when his confused face had reappeared to peek up over the edge of the mattress. She silently cringed when her verbal comparison of him and Toya hadn’t gone over so well.

After that, she had told Kotaro she needed to go home and he had replied with a shrug and a ‘No’ as if that one word settled everything.

“If I could only get out of here without Kotaro knowing,” Kyoko murmured to herself, mentally seeing his security guard clothes change into a prison guard’s uniform. Trying to shake the deranged picture from her mind, she leaned her head against the huge window.

Kyoko nearly screamed when the window suddenly swung open and she had to catch herself before she had a repeat event of last night. Silently cursing her own stupidity... she hadn’t even bothered checking to see if it opened in the first place.

“Smooth move dummy,” she ranted in a hushed whisper. “Tell me again how you passed your exams?”

Kyoko leaned out the large window and looked down at the ground seeing how vast the land really was. “Gee… what is this place, a castle? It looks like I’m on the fourth floor!”

Her gaze then turned toward the height of the medieval looking walls that surrounded the fortress-like dwelling and bit her bottom lip wondering if it also had a hidden moat somewhere. Kyoko snickered to herself feeling like she was trapped in some warped fairytale. All the place needed now was a fire-breathing dragon. She looked up at the sky waiting on one to fly by. “Where’s my knight in shining armor now?”

Remembering an old Disney movie from somewhere in her childhood, Kyoko got an idea. Cocking her eyebrow, she wondered if it would really work like it had in the movie or if she would plummet to the ground like a ton of bricks.

Running back to the bedroom door, she turned the handle to make sure it had actually been locked. Finding it to be true she grinned, feeling very much like a sneaky child in fear of being caught. Pushing the unwanted feeling away, she went to work. Pulling the sheets and the blanket off the oversized bed, Kyoko set about the task of knotting them together.

She had done this with Suki on more than one occasion when they’d decided to slip out late at night from the dorm room that they used to share. The room had only been on the second floor though.

That had been an experience. No one was supposed to leave the dorm after nine at night, but Suki, as always, had talked her into it. It hadn’t gone that well and Kyoko knew it could happen again, but she needed to get out of here and back to her apartment. She understood that all Kotaro wanted to do was protect her but too much had happened last night for her to just accept Kotaro’s decision.

Finishing her task, she tied one end to the leg of the heavy bed frame and tossed the rest out the window.

“This is so stupid,” Kyoko berated herself. “Stuff like this only happens in the movies. Oh well, a movie is what gave me the idea anyway.”

Ignoring her own doubtful repartee, she took hold of the makeshift rope and eased her way out the window. The palms of her hands felt like they were on fire but her stubbornness overrode it. Using her feet as leverage, she very slowly started walking down the jagged stone wall.

***** Toya stood on the rise of a hill on the outskirts of town. The silver highlights within his midnight hair blew in the breeze as he surveyed his surroundings. His brows drew together in a frown as he noticed he could see far better than normal today and he could hear even the smallest of sounds.

He closed his eyes listening for a moment as cold chills appeared across his arms. When the sounds within the grass became deafening, Toya growled and snapped his eyes open only to find the area once again quiet.

After all that had happened the night before… he had only thought about Kyoko and nothing else. The mere thought of vampires out there… and Kyoko in the middle of it... had his temper high. He had to find her and find her fast.

Toya had gone to the school and tried to find information on the wimpy security guard… an address or anything, but had come up empty handed except a small apartment that was completely empty. After a couple of tiny threats to the owner, the landlord had finally admitted Kotaro paid the bill but had never stayed there.

“Damn it!” Toya glared at the road below him. “It’s as if Kotaro doesn’t exist at all… no records anywhere.” He had taken off driving and found himself pulling off the road out here in the middle of nowhere. Some secret gut instinct had told him to stop… he could somehow feel her.

Looking off to the left, Toya could see the tall walls of a historical looking home that seemed to call to him. Following the call, Toya took off down the hill for a closer look. He approached the rugged wall and quickly scaled it, using some thorny rose vines that looked like they had been growing for centuries. They bit into his hands but it would be worth it if his gut was right.

Reaching the top of the rock wall, Toya peaked over at the enormous house that lay beyond.

His eyes about popped out of his head when he saw none other than Kyoko, clumsily making her way down the jagged wall of the dwelling using what looked like a… bed sheet? “What the…”

Quickly hoisting himself over the wall, Toya jumped down the other side and ran toward her with speed he didn’t know he possessed.

Kyoko held on to the makeshift rope with all her strength thinking it was actually going to work. A groan escaped her when she realized it was about twenty feet too short. She had never been good at judging distance.

A feeling of dread filled her and she made a very fast decision. She was losing her grip anyway and squeezed her eyes shut. “This is soooo gonna hurt.” Kyoko whispered to herself.

Taking a deep breath, she let go and fell the remaining distance. The last thing she was expecting was to land in someone’s arms. Her eyes remained shut tight as she rapidly had visions of a very angry Kotaro catching her.

“Heh, stupid girl,” she heard a very familiar voice mutter and opened her eyes.

“Toya?” she asked, uncertain because there was just no way he could have appeared out of the blue like that.

“Who else do you know that looks as good as I do?” Toya inquired smugly, quickly making his way back to the gate. Within the split second that it took to catch her, the hair on the back of his neck raised as he caught the security guard’s scent heavy in the air.

He growled, “What the fuck…” but was cut off mid-sentence when Kyoko interrupted him, her temper spiking.

“Don’t start with me Toya. I’m still confused about last night. I got guys flying around, little boys with black eyes and to top it off, you were in my bed last night. Care to explain why?” Her left eyebrow rose as she awaited an answer but knew she wouldn’t get one.

“By the smell of you… I wasn’t the only one you slept with last night!” Toya groaned nearly dropping her on purpose but instead gently set her on her feet and pulled her towards the front gate. She resisted his pull, digging her feet into the ground but he wasn’t about to let go after coming all this way to find her. Even if her feet left trenches all the way across the yard… she was fucking coming with him.

He reached for the heavy iron gates, his golden eyes narrowing when they didn’t budge. With an angry growl and a hard shove he had the gate wide open.

***** Kotaro turned the knob to the bedroom door smiling when he found it still locked. He pulled a key from his key ring and unlocked the door wondering how long it had taken her to quit yelling at him after he’d left.

‘It’s for her own good.’ He reminded himself as the door swung open. “Here you go Kyoko, I’ve brought some of your favorites…”

His eyes widened when he glanced around finding the room empty and he growled when he noticed the rope constructed of sheets tied to the leg of the bed. The tray of food fell from his hands in stunned silence and splattered across the floor, forgotten as he ran to the window. Leaning out, his gaze followed the rope down, hoping to see her dangling against the wall. A growl erupted from the depths of his chest when all he found was an empty rope that didn’t even reach the ground!

“How the hell did she jump that far down without getting hurt?” Kotaro inhaled to calm himself then stilled. If anyone had seen him it would have looked like a light bulb suddenly appeared over his head. Inhaling again, the growl became louder and his hands gripped the frame of the window.

“Damn it!” he exclaimed. “I smell Toya.”

***** Tasuki awoke from whatever lingering nightmare it was that had made his body break out in a sweat. He blinked a couple of times suddenly glad he didn’t remember the dream… the only thing he knew was that it had been a bad one.

“Why do I feel like I ate my pillow last night?” he sighed as he licked his parched lips. Sitting up in bed, he resisted the urge to turn and look to make sure his pillow was still behind him. Silently swearing off alcohol, he got out of bed.

Tasuki ambled into the kitchen of his apartment and wondered why he was so thirsty. “Oh yeah, Long Island iced tea.” His eyes glazed over as he remembered the flashing lights and a goddess in his arms dancing. “Kyoko…”

He licked his lips again. His stomach had also been growling at him since he had opened his eyes. The only problem was he couldn’t pinpoint what he was craving. All he could describe it as, was the craving for something tangy, salty and slightly sticky.

He couldn’t think of anything that fit the description, hence his current location… the kitchen.

With a sigh, Tasuki started opening the cabinets, searching for something. He grabbed cans at random, looking at their labels before carelessly tossing them over his shoulder. Nothing so far seemed to catch his eye. Soon the kitchen floor was full of soup cans, cans of tuna fish, even Ramen packages but he ignored all of it.

With something that sounded almost like an animalistic growl, he yanked open the freezer and emptied it in much the same manner he had the cabinets. Shaking his head in frustration, he peeked in the refrigerator.

Tasuki froze when his gaze landed on the blood red steak he had removed from the freezer early yesterday. His tongue unconsciously ran over his lips as he stared at the raw steak sitting in the package, the red blood pooling around it.

He saw his trembling hand reaching, actually touching the clear wrapped package before shuddering and jerking his hand away in disgust. He quickly slammed the refrigerator door closed wondering what he had been thinking. Something inside him seemed to scream for him to take the raw beef and tear into it like a rabid animal.

Running a hand over his face, he forced himself out of the kitchen, not even noticing the mess he’d made of it.

“Raw meat and blood… next thing you know I’ll be growing fangs and trying to bite Kyoko,” he muttered, heading for the shower. His steps slowed as worry began to gnaw at him. He didn’t remember Kyoko ever coming back from the bathroom last night.

Tasuki stopped dead in his tracks as it all rushed back ending with the blow from Yohji’s oversized brother. He rubbed at a sore spot on his neck as he took off for a quick shower so he could hurry to the college and find out what happened to Kyoko and Suki.

***** Waking up in a cold sweat once again, Yohji groaned as he slowly got out of bed. His nude body glistened from the streaming sunlight that came through the window. He had slept most of the day away. His normally spiky dark hair was plastered to his damp skin as he stood and stretched, wincing at his sore muscles.

He had lain there all morning slipping in and out of sleep and part of the afternoon waiting for the pain to go away.

Walking into the bathroom, he glanced at his reflection and gawked in surprise. The wounds that should have been there were almost gone except for the very large bruises on his neck.

He remembered getting into a huge fight and taking a beating that would have made the gods cry but couldn’t recall anything beyond that. A grin formed on his lips when the memory of Kyoko’s tight little body, held flush against his, came back to him.

He felt his groin tighten in response to the thought. The bitch had turned him on even more by slapping him. He liked them hot and feisty, made taking them so much more fun.

Grabbing the pick on the bathroom sink, he started jerking it through his damp hair. Yohji prided himself on the fact he’d never had one knot in his silky hair his entire life but could still make it stand up every time. It was one of the things that drew girls to him and many of them had run their fingers through his hair as he bedded them.

Looking back in the mirror, he frowned when he pulled the pick through and out to the side. For a second it looked as if he was seeing through his reflection at the towel rack behind him.

Leaning closer, he put the pick down and slowly waved his hand in front of the mirror. His eyes widened when he realized it wasn’t just a figment of his imagination. The reflection he’d spent years fawning over… was actually fading.

Had he in fact died last night and not realized it? Closing his eyes, Yohji chuckled and shook his head a bit. “I’m losing it,” he exclaimed softly.

Opening his eyes again, he cried out and suddenly backed up against the wall. His reflection had blinked out for a second then reappeared. It was now faded even more than it had been when he first noticed.

Slamming his fist into the mirror he watched in stunned fascination as the shards began to rain down into the sink leaving stray pieces still attached. Looking closer he noticed his scattered reflection again and growled seeing it just as strong as always.

Slowly backing his way out the bathroom door, he went back to his bedroom and threw some clothes on. After the beating he took last night he didn’t doubt it was just his eyesight playing tricks on him. He gave no notice to the small cuts that had appeared on his knuckles where he had busted the mirror or to the fact that he didn’t bleed as the small wounds rapidly healed.

“Probably a small concussion or something,” Yohji mumbled as he picked up his sunglasses and headed for the exit.

***** Kotaro turned from the window with every intention of giving Kyoko chase until he saw who was standing there, leaning against the frame of the bedroom door as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Lost her again did you?” Kamui asked with a smirk.

He had been secretly watching Kyoko climb out the window the whole time but refused to show himself to her… well, unless she had fallen. Without her memories of the past, she would have freaked out and let go of the rope before Toya could have gotten there to catch her.

“You were supposed to be watching her for me stupid!” Kotaro growled at the purple haired immortal he had been a best friend to for over a thousand years. In all that time, he had never figured out Kamui’s true power or where it came from… some secrets were meant to be kept.

The young man never aged a single day as long as Kotaro had known him. He still often wondered what Kamui was exactly. He wasn’t a vampire, Lycan, or any other creature of the night. His thoughts silently slid back to the night above the grave when Kamui had shown his wings.

Like Kyoko, he was as pure as the sunrise but had a mischievous streak in him a mile wide. The untamed purple hair and glittering eyes that changed colors with his moods made it almost impossible for him to fit in with normal crowds in the past but with today’s strange generation… he simply looked like he played in an alternative rock band or something.

Most of the time Kamui was happy just being invisible to the world. Kotaro hadn’t seen him show his wings since the night they had buried Kyoko and Toya. He jerked his gaze back to glare once more out the window.

“You told me you didn’t want her to see me.” Kamui responded. “If I’d stopped her, she would have seen me.”

“You should have come and got me when she climbed out the fucking window.” Kotaro lifted an eyebrow in annoyance.

“Are you paying me?” Kamui tried to hold back his laughter at the comical look that crossed Kotaro’s face when he turned back around.

“No,” Kotaro shot back.

Kamui shrugged his shoulder, “Then you’re on your own.”

Kotaro growled then caught a glimmer of playfulness in Kamui’s suddenly green eyes.

“I made sure Toya caught her…. wasn’t that enough?” Kamui smirked as he shoved his hands in his loose pockets and nonchalantly walked off. He stopped in the hallway just outside the bedroom and glanced back at Kotaro’s expression.

“See ya!” Kamui called and took off like a bat out of hell.