Eleventh

Yui didn't stop running until she reached her bedroom. Given how much blood she'd lost that night and the abuse Ayato had just put her hips through, and Shu not long before that, it was an amazing feat.

She didn't stop to wonder how she managed it, though. She went right for her nightstand and pulled out the knife Subaru gave her.

Why she went for that, she wasn't actually sure. She didn't want to kill any of them…did she?

She couldn't say she liked any of them, but she cared about them. Maybe it was Stockholm Syndrome. Regardless, she knew she didn't hate them.

Why had she gone running for the knife?

"Stop smelling like that."

Yui flinched, surprised by Subaru's voice intruding on her thoughts.

"Subaru," she said, starting to turn, but she barely managed a glance over her shoulder before Subaru was right behind her. He grabbed her jaw to keep her head tilted out of his way and wrapped his other arm around her waist to keep her securely against himself as he sank his fangs into her shoulder.

It was an almost desperate bite. Was the moon affecting Subaru, too? Or was there really something different about her blood?

"It's so good," he murmured, a little short of breath. "I'll make you really feel my fangs."

It was a more vicious bite, and a more pleasurable one. How they could make it feel so good, despite piercing her, she would never understand.

Subaru lifted his head again after a single mouthful of blood.

"I'll destroy you if I keep going," Subaru muttered, "but your blood is irresistible."

Yui noticed the frustrated way his eyes narrowed.

"More," he went on, "I need more! I'll make it all mine, down to the last drop!"

Moon-crazed or blood-crazed? Which was it? One was temporary. The other wasn't. Unless her blood suddenly became repulsive to them, they were going to keep doing these things to her until she died of exhaustion or blood loss.

Yui dropped the knife.

The sound of it clattering on the floor seemed to snap Subaru out of some kind of trance. He released her completely and staggered back, fist rising to his mouth as if he was preparing to shield his face.

Like he expected her to try to hit him.

Yui's legs gave out on her without warning, but she managed to catch herself on her bed instead of crumbling to the floor.

Subaru quickly recovered. He picked the knife up and asked, "Are you afraid of us now?"

"I'm not!" Yui denied, and the recanted, "But if I carry that with me…I don't know what I might do."

She really didn't.

She wasn't afraid of Subaru himself or any of the brothers as people, but their fresh lust for her blood…for her in general…that scared her. Everything that had been happening that night scared her.

Their uncle scared her.

Cordelia scared her.

"So, I…"

She rested her head face down on her mattress. She found it difficult to say she didn't trust herself with something that could end the lives of the brothers.

She felt Subaru's hands on her waist and made a panicked noise as he lifted her. He tossed her onto her bed, on her back.

"Wait!" she protested. "Don't!"

She tried to get up, but Subaru caught her wrists and held her down.

"Your blood's calling out to me like a siren's song," he told her, and sank low until his body was fully on top of hers. "But you smell like other men," he added, glaring directly into her pleading eyes. "It pisses me off."

He bit her neck harshly.

Yui's back arched and a strangled scream managed to escape the back of her throat.

He went to her shoulder from her neck, and then tugged the top of her dress down to bite into her breast. She gripped fistfuls of her duvet.

When he lifted his head again, he murmured, "Why didn't you run away?"

Yui blinked at him.

"Why didn't you leave when I told you to?!"

Why?

"I wanted to know who I am," she told him quietly.

Subaru frowned. "You're a fool," he told her. "Stupid woman."

He kissed her.

Yui trembled under him, starting to feel itchy and heated. Subaru broke the kiss with a throaty growl. He looked at Yui with an expression of despair mixed with frustration and confusion and fear, like he was begging her for an answer to a question he didn't know how to ask.

He kissed her again, harder this time, more desperate.

He started to pull her dress up her legs.

Yui no longer had the energy to protest. She was so low on blood. The kisses felt so nice.

Subaru pulled away from her again and shifted down. He clamped his hand firmly over one of her thighs. He hooked an arm under her other leg, hitched it up over his shoulder, and bit into her thigh with suddenly savage ferocity.

Yui screamed again.

"Subaru, please!" she pleaded. "Stop, Su—"

He dug his fangs in deeper, inciting another scream. It was such an intense feeling that Yui wasn't sure if it was pain or pleasure.

Both, probably.

She tried to just breathe through it. She panted with strained moans seeping out of her parched mouth.

When he took his fangs from her thigh, she went limp.

Subaru huffed, drawing her hazy eyes to his.

"You enjoying this, stupid woman?" he asked, voice quiet and hard. "If you keep looking at me like that, I might do crueler things to you."

Yui privately thought that, though Subaru was the most outwardly violent and quick tempered of them, he was actually the least cruel of his brothers. She knew he probably wouldn't like being told that, though, so she just said, "I don't enjoy it."

It came out as a raspy, barely audible whisper.

Subaru smirked. "Who do you think you're kidding, with an expression like that on your face?"

Yui didn't want to ask what kind of expression she was making, so she simply turned her face away from his.

Subaru shifted her legs further apart, making it easier to position himself between them, and said, "Hey. Look at me."

Yui swallowed dryly and did as he said.

"Do not avert your eyes," he commanded, voice low and husky.

That was her only warning. He shoved himself into her sharply, hands keeping a painfully tight hold on her waist, and kept his eyes locked on hers as he thrusted. She couldn't look away.

His movements were haphazard and brutal, making her already sore loins ache. His growls overpowered her restrained mewling and numbed her mind, exacerbating her lightheadedness. The words that slipped from his lips were unclear but sounded vicious, scaring and thrilling her at the same time.

Yui couldn't take it.

She grabbed his sleeves and tugged, surprising not only him but herself as well.

Fortunately, he didn't ask for an explanation. He released her waist, leaned down, and bit her shoulder.

It was a gentler bite. One that made her body clench and press her thighs in against his hips. Subaru slid his arms under her and kept thrusting, but at a steadier pace.

It felt pleasant.

Yui wrapped her arms around him. The gloves prevented her from getting a good grip on his jacket, so her hands slid around his back and shoulders a lot with his movements.

Like this, it didn't take long for Yui to orgasm. When she did, Subaru started moving faster again. He started growling and swearing right in her ear, making her mind numb again and the fanning orgasm more intense.

When he came as well, he bit into her throat.

He didn't drink much from there, but it seemed painful for him to pull back. He looked into Yui's eyes again. Perhaps he could see how very lightheaded she felt. She was panting shallowly, sated and only just barely managing to stay conscious.

Subaru slipped out of her line of sight without a word.

It took her a minute, but Yui was able to sit up. She saw Subaru standing by the balcony door, holding his knife. She didn't like the way he was looking at it, and shaking at that.

He couldn't be thinking of stabbing himself…

"You're different," he murmured. "Your blood is changing. I could drink it forever and never get sick of it."

Yui pulled her dress back into place and tried to get up, but her legs wouldn't support her weight. She slid right down to the floor, keeping herself only half up with her arms on the bed. Her vision spun alarmingly. She couldn't help but rest her head on her arms and mattress. Even without asking, she knew Subaru was looking at her. She could feel his eyes burning her skin.

"Keep it."

"Eh?" Yui questioned, looking up again.

Subaru was gone, but the knife was on the bed.

Why tell her to keep it? She couldn't use it. Even in her current state, feeling half-dead, and even knowing that she would feel like it again, and again, and again, she couldn't imagine using it to hurt Subaru or any of them. Just thinking about it put a sad look on her face.

If she kept it with her, would the time come that she found a different way to use it?