The Trap of Innocence
Author: Western Ink
Rating: R
Genre: Supernatural/Horror/Romance ?
Pairing: Aoshi x Misao
Summary: In the boundaries between the human world and the "underworld" reclusive vampire Lord Aoshi discovers temptation.
Author's Note: This story sticks to no particular vampire legend. Anything I wanted, I added it. It's loosely based off of Vampire Princess Miyu, but very loosely. I took heaps of liberty with creative license.
Credit Notice: This
story was inspired by Tesuka-chan (author of "The Vampire
Aoshi") and Ravyn (author of "Blood Dawn"), both
stories highly recommended.
He peered, staring through the inky darkness, toward her window. He could hardly imagine himself being reduced to such a pathetic state, and yet it were so painfully true.
He, the great Lord Aoshi, playing the role of peeping tom.
Were it not so inviting, he would have been repulsed by the entire matter.
Yet still, she drew him forth. Stringing him along, drawing him further and further into her sickly sweet web.
She came into view, the light flipping on and her tiny figure stepping into the room.
It was the same every night. She made it painfully easy to spy on her, to watch her most intimate moments. She made it a simple task to become obsessed with her.
Her pale colored skin shone, even under the hideous yellow lighting of her bedroom. She looked best in moonlight, clothed only in her pure, alabaster skin. She dressed that way for him often. Clothed in milky sheets and pure, untainted skin. He loved her best that way.
She radiated innocence.
Bright, curious eyes not befitting of her age. Lips, a pale, pure pink rather than red and seductive. A joyful, buoyant personality that seemed so appropriate for her.
Her small hands made him dream of shaking fingers fumbling over his shirt buttons, ripping with innocent impatience. Her small, slender fingers wrapped around his heated flesh. That tiny frame spread over his lap.
That small woman in the room above him - a woman who charged rashly forward always getting more involved than she could handle.
A tiny figure that begged to be tamed. He licked his lips as she rose from where she'd sat at her school desk.
A mere sixteen year old girl had him flushed like a teenage boy ripe in puberty. He groaned silently, his blood pulsing.
She walked over toward the windows and stared out. That she did every night.
She pushed open the window and perched herself on the edge. He'd been startled as, one night, she'd risen from her bed and leapt from the window to the ground. He'd followed her to some midnight rendezvous with a young boy from her neighborhood.
He'd been hoping it would be the last night of her virginity. Both hoping and hating.
Her virgin blood was his biggest ward. The singular thing that kept him from leaping upon her and snatching her from where she now sat staring out into the night, lost in her thoughts.
She was a complete innocent, mind and body. She was the worst thing he could ever ask for.
The blood in her veins would burn the skin from his body with an awful, agonizing hiss and a sickly curl of green smoke.
He'd seen it himself, the danger of virgin's blood. Not fourteen months past in the Aquis, his favorite haunt, he'd seen that very thing happen.
It hadn't kept him from finding her again after that first, enchanting night. The chill her very presence brought to his body wasn't enough to ward him off completely. It only served to whet his appetite and increase his dangerous longing for her.
It was dark, the music quietly drumming as the girls dressed as geisha's plied their musical trade by the line of shoji doors. One could sit all night and watch the girls play, but no touching. The geisha girls were entertainers only, the courtesans were kept inside, hidden from the eyes of the low-grade customers.
The Aquis was an exclusive club that catered to the finer taste's of a man's fancy, if one could afford it.
Many a night, when bored, he'd sit alone near a corner his tea steaming away on his small tray. He'd stare at the women as they danced on the small, low staged floor.
He liked the soft smiles and gentle touches of the women who dressed themselves so elaborately and spoke so gently. He liked to watch their tiny hands loosen the ties of their clothes, never fully removing them, only parting the gown just so.
He liked the feel of creamy thighs on either side of him and pushing them far and wide apart and driving himself deep inside while the chosen woman whimpered beneath him. He liked biting the woman as she lay, panting, too weak to move. But... that had been before.
Before he realized he was tempted by something else. Something much more difficult to obtain. Something much more different. Something much more dangerous. Something... he couldn't buy.
He slinked through the open room, navigating through the courtesans and their customers, all entertaining on the floor, most in some kind of flirtatious conversation that would lead to more intimate contact sooner rather than later.
He came around to the back room, intending upon slipping out for the night when a short figured female slammed straight into him.
He, surprised, caught her by the shoulders. She reared back from him, stunned and afraid. Bright eyes widened in pure terror for a matter of moments before she'd caught her bearings and glared.
Glared and dared to snap at him about releasing her before he did what came natural to him and pushed her into a store room, sliding closed the door with his foot. Trapping his prey in a corner, he grinned.
He licked his lips, leaning forward, sliding his fingers apart enough to grasp the material of her cute little flower print kimono and slide it off her shoulder.
Who was this? He hadn't been aware there were new girls on the floor baring creamy pale flesh to his eyes .
Yumi got new blood so rarely, it seemed. Correction: Yumi got anything that was good very rarely.
She trembled, her bottom lip quaking. Again, she spoke.
"G-get off me!"
He ignored her, as if she'd never spoken at all. He leaned down, determined to taste the tiny treasure thrust into his grasp. His slid his tongue across her shoulder as she attempted to thrash away, but was grossly unsuccessful. Her fearful, embarrassed groan turned into a sweet sigh as he kissed along her neck, sliding his hands down to the tie of her obi, which he realized, was all wrong. There was no elaborate tie in the front, it was slim and tight and... around her back. It was.. proper.
He drew back suddenly and took a closer look at his little gift. His eyes widened as the thing before him became recognizable. His lips and tongue now burned from touching her skin as an eerie chill swept over him, almost a paralyzing wave of cold that froze his nerve endings.
His head dropped to hide the painful reaction.
"Virgin," he groaned. "What is your name?"
She trembled. "M-Misao."
"Misao? What is your surname, Misao?" He pressed, not willing to let it escape him.
"Makimachi."
He drew away completely.
Makimachi.
Makimachi!
He turned, sliding open the door almost violently before turning back, snatching her wrist and dragging her along with him.
He stalked menacingly toward the back door and threw it open and hurled her out. She tumbled, unable to stand the force of the movement, thumping to the ground.
"You have no business in a place like this, do not return." He warned, sliding the door closed succinctly.
He had spent much of the night trying to rid his mouth of the taste of her skin, unsuccessfully. Trying to forget how small and tiny she was. Trying to forget how slim her hips had been and how soft her skin was. Trying to forget, fruitlessly, what his body was begging for.
Afterwards it had been an easy task to track her down.
Makimachi was a name very familiar to him.
Makimachi Misao was even more so.
She was the daughter of his best friend, known these days as "The Beast Hannya". He was, formerly, known as Makimachi Takeo when working in the human realm.
It was Makimachi Takeo that had sired the young beauty Misao.
The girl was a miracle of sorts. A child created between a human and a vampire - an impossibility. An impossibility according to human lore.
He found the tales of human legends fascinating and had spent years reading and searching through countless volumes. If it were as humans thought it to be, vampires were nothing but 'undead' humans transformed by fangs and the taste of blood into zombie like non-living creatures.
It all made for a quite fascinating read, but it was the most ridiculous notion he'd ever come across. As it stood, in perfect truth, vampires were a different breed of human. One was the hunter, the other the prey. He had spent many nights in his youth staring down from school top roofs into the empty courtyards wondering where his purpose in life was.
His parents had taught him that vampires were supposed to be guardians, to watch over their weaker counterparts, but it seemed pointless. So many of the humans themselves were bad.
Yet, Hannya, one of his best friends, had mated with a human not so long ago. Years though, it had been.
Years indeed.
He had peered into the eyes of Hannya's child some weeks past. He had tasted her. He had wanted her.
The girl, Makimachi Misao, should not exist. His breed was not supposed to mate with humans, and conceiving with them was supposed to be impossible.
Hannya kept no contact with the human he had mated with. He may not know of the existence of the child at all.
As far as he, Aoshi, knew, it had been nothing more than a drunk encounter between him and the woman one night when the fog was heavy. That was all he'd ever heard of it, Hannya was not given to being talkative on the matter, or any matter really.
Suddenly, she swung her feet out over the window ledge and dropped down. Graceful as a cat she was, and just as deadly with that blood of hers.
She stood from her crouched position.
She was such a short girl, so tiny, so easily he could hurt her.
"I know you're there, so come out here."
He didn't move.
Was she speaking of him?
Did she know he was there?
Could she know?
"You're not moving!" She snapped. "I want to see you, here, now. I damn well deserve too especially given that you're the pervert that's been watching me for how many nights now! I think I've been more than patient with you, so come out now or else!"
He stepped out, slinking toward her. "Or else what?"
He towered over the small thing before him. He could see her frame tremble slightly.
"... Y-you, I remember you! I met you at that..."
"Whorehouse?" He drawled, leaning down toward her. "The Aquis is no place for virgins."
Already he could feel power seeping from her... purity begging to be corrupted.
She drew her chin up. "What do you want? Why are you always following me?"
"Following you?"
"Don't play dumb. I know you're following me, always watching me from my window," she snapped.
He leaned closer, trapping her against the wall. "Oh, so you've known all this time? Have you been letting me watch you? Leaving your curtains open, just for me?"
He just barely saw her blush in the dim light, stemming off an amused chuckle. She had been letting him watch, the little vixen.
"I can leave my curtains open if I want to, you just can't look in them whenever you want to," she snapped, crossing her arms, trying her best to keep up her defiant act.
"Where is your parental figure?" He asked, gaze darting over house windows, searching for signs of life. "You live with a mother, do you not?"
He didn't know who she lived with. He assumed she lived with her mother, but he hadn't seen anyone else in the house. But then again, he never arrived before nightfall and never looked at any windows but hers.
"Mother?" she scoffed. "I don't have a mother and I live here alone. I'm not a little girl, no matter what you happen to think about it."
"Where is your father?"
"I don't have one of those either, stop asking twenty questions. I asked you one first, you can't just pick and choose what you want to answer, mister."
"If you live alone, why did you leap out your window to meet with the male some time ago? Why didn't you go via the door?"
"Because I thought you were a sucker and would follow me and then I'd confront you. But you managed to elude me and I couldn't. As for the guy, he was just convenient."
The house was empty, what a nice thought. It also left him feeling rather stupid. This whole damn time she'd been alone?
That aside, the night air felt so good, he thought, peeling off his long overcoat, tossing it to the ground. The chill in the air was perfect.
A gentle breeze wisped through the area, stirring his hair and hers, causing the leaves above and below to rustle. Misao trembled against the frame of the house, her neck covered in a white, off color collared shirt high up under her jaw.
He stood back from her, taking her by the arm and propelling her toward the door.
"Go. Change."
"Change?" she asked, looking to be onto the verge of another outburst.
"Into that white kimono from before. Come back down here. I'll wait."
"What makes you think I won't just go in and not come back out? Or, better yet, why won't I just sneak out the other door and take off toward town?"
He grinned with the assurance of complete confidence. "If you wanted to escape me, you wouldn't have been enticing me for weeks."
"It wasn't weeks," she huffed.
"It was," he replied, noting her pale blush.
Oh, sweet.
She turned away from him, heading into the small house. Did she really live here alone? Could she? So young?
How old was she? He'd thought her no older than 16, but that simply couldn't be. He could not recall the age of Hannya's child, but now that he thought about it, she must be quite older than she looked.
He stood, turning his back to the structure, leaning against it as she had been as he waited. The wind blew, ruffling his clothes and sweeping across his body intimately. How nice a night it was.
Perfect really.
He smiled to himself, content in his decision.
His obsession was changing clothes for him.
He heard her movement, and her nearness surprised him. Her feet were bare, just peeking out from the hemline of her white colored kimono. He couldn't discern the distinct pattern of the furisode in the darkness but he could tell the design of it for certain.
Her hair fell still in a long, casual braid down her back.
She approached him and he almost grinned in the darkness. He stepped up, away from the building, and she backed away. When her bare foot touched his fallen overcoat, he reached, snaking his arms around her waist and dragging them both to the ground.
The night was perfect... so perfect.
She looked a bit miffed to be pulled to the ground, but he would take care of that, he thought, leaning closer, dragging his hands from her hips to her shoulders, shoving her down.
She wouldn't care much longer where she was, who she was, or anything else about her life. She'd only care about him.
His eyes glinted in the darkness, and he lowered his head, sliding his tongue sensuously down her jaw and placing wet, open mouth kisses along her neck. He reached, snagging his fingers in the cloth of her kimono, dragging it off her shoulders.
How he loved women in a kimono. Modern clothing would never top the garment that, for as long as he could remember, given him as much pleasure when he got to remove it.
There was nothing in stripping a woman out of a blouse or skirt or other articles, but the kimono...
She moaned sweetly, her eyes closed. He raised his head, slanting his mouth against hers and she whimpered against his lips. His tongue darted against the seam of her lips, sliding, and tasting.
She arched beneath him, pushing her breasts up against his chest and he groaned. Already he could feel her heady power.
His lips burned from the contact with hers and his body felt cold in response. It was enough for him to draw away enough to let her catch her breath and for the reaction he was having to lessen enough.
He watched her, eyes open staring up at him, chest heaving slightly.
He slid his eyes over the print of the kimono, more bouncy patterns. This time it was little bunnies sitting on clouds with rainbows overtop. Really, and she wasn't a little girl?
He leaned back down, sliding a hand behind her to peel at the quickly tied sash. He pushed the tie aside and pulled open the garment. She gasped as cool air rushed across her exposed chest, his mouth sliding over one pert breast.
She gasped brokenly as his tongue flicked over her hardened bud, her hands slid over his shoulders and tangled in his hair. Her moaning was egging him on and the cold that had swept over him had faded leaving him feeling hot and wanting.
He slid his mouth up, running his tongue over her collar bone, admiring her pale flesh in moonlight before slinking closer to her neck. In one lost, dazed moment, his mouth slipped and his teeth nicked her skin.
The blood that slid to the surface scalded his tongue, but his body was on fire for her. Dropping his head, he sank his teeth deep causing her to tense beneath him, her hands fisted tight in his hair.
"You would dishonor me so, Aoshi-sama?"
Aoshi's head snapped back, eyes aglow, blood and saliva mix sliding over his teeth. He hissed in pain, holding his body over hers still even as he turned his feral gaze to the one who would interrupt him.
The blind fury faded as he caught sight of the demon mask, but he made no move to disengage himself from the woman on whom he lay and Misao was quietly panting, looking somewhat oblivious to him or anyone else.
Hannya's mention of Aoshi's senior rank as lord surprised and concerned Aoshi. It was infrequent for Hannya to address him such.
"You mean this girl?" he motioned casually to Misao.
"You know she is mine," Hannya replied. "Yet you still determined to take her without my permission? Even after all this time?"
Aoshi drew back slightly, pulling himself up to kneel on his knees. Only then did Misao seem to wake from her haze, eyes clearing. She sat up pulling her kimono closed, turning her head back. She met Hannya's gaze directly, but didn't look startled or afraid. She might have been embarrassed, but he couldn't be sure if she was blushing or not.
Then she glanced back at Aoshi.
"I did not know you would mind. I was not aware of any connection you had with her."
"You did not ask," Hannya replied. "Misao has not remained unclaimed by accident."
The sheer weight and tone of his words caused Aoshi to stand completely, drawing entirely away from her.
Hannya had been protecting her all this time?
He stepped back into the shadows by the house. "I am sorry," he stated, tone sincere but terse. "I did not mean to impose upon you, Hannya."
There was a hissing sound and a curl of gray smoke and both knew Aoshi was gone. The coat beneath Misao vanished also, rising up in a cloud of silvery dust and vanishing on the breeze.
"You know better, Misao."
She looked toward him, straightening her kimono.
"You play games with the men in your boredom, but Aoshi is not one you can control. Stay away from him or you will find yourself belonging to him."
She pouted. "I was doing perfectly fine," she protested. "I had him right where I wanted him."
"You were completely helpless, do not deny the obvious. It is your blood running down your neck now, not his. Stay away from him, he's too dangerous for you."
She scowled. "Too dangerous for me! Don't I live for the dangerous jobs?"
"Not him. He's not a project. Aoshi is the Lord of the House of Shinomori, that makes him your Master in technicality. Do not get any further involved. I am warning you."
"I didn't get involved!" she protested. "He did!"
"You are encouraging him," Hannya replied stepping back. "Do your job and behave yourself."
She sighed as he slipped away leaving her alone.
The House of Shinomori?
Was he really the Lord Hannya served?
She smiled.
Amazing.
Beast Hannya stood back, staring over the steel railing looking down at the people below. Behind him, he felt another approach.
"Aoshi-sama..." Hannya drawled, not turning toward him.
Aoshi came up to stand beside him. "She is... ?"
Hannya glanced toward him. "She is one of ours. Misao inherited my blood. She learned some time ago she could repress her baser instincts and that her virgin blood was a ward against the aggressive males of our species. The seals increase her natural defenses and seem to quell her more wild instincts. She likes to tease."
"Tease?" Aoshi asked. "How unfortunate."
Silence lapsed between them for a few moments.
"What is her place?"
She had to have some type of duty, Aoshi surmised. She wasn't wandering the earth for nothing. If she was Hannya's and had taken his blood, that meant she had inherited his vampiric wants and needs, no matter if she repressed them. Which couldn't, he imagined, be an easy thing. Or, entirely possible given a biological necessity.
"She is a realm guardian. Shikijou needed someone to weed out the unwanted in his hunting grounds and I procured the job for Misao. "
"How does she restrain her baser wants?" he asked, desperate to know how she managed to survive without the hunt.
"Holy seals around her wrists and neck help, they do not function completely. They mostly serve to tame her more feral instincts. She removed them when you ordered her to change clothes," Hannya replied looking down over the side of the building.
So many people were out today, even in the rain. Misao loved when it rained, he thought, thinking back to his rambunctious child.
"Why is she serving Shikijou? She's your child, that puts her in my dominion."
Hannya turned toward him. "What is your intention for Misao?"
Aoshi turned likewise to face him. "I have no intention."
"You have spent weeks watching her for nothing, Aoshi-sama? Surely, you have another you can direct your attentions to."
Aoshi's expression tightened. "You do not approve of me...?"
"Your interests run vain, Aoshi-sama. Misao is my daughter, I want more for her than to be one of your conquests. You aren't more than a passing amusement for her."
Aoshi's smirk caused Hannya pause. "A conquest of mine?"
Hannya tensed slightly and looked away, unsure of this man who had been his friend and master so long. Even after all this time, he did not understand Aoshi or his motives.
Hannya turned at Aoshi's silence only to find him gone. Feeling unnerved he too turned to go.
Shikijou lounged, stretching out his body. The water was an annoying tepid temperature and getting cold. Where was that servant girl? His muscles ached, he needed hot water.
Just as he was about to bark out a call for her, another appeared. He almost blanched at the sight of the unexpected man.
"Eh... Aoshi-sama...?" He almost groaned at the sight of his House Master. Aoshi was the current head of the House of Shinomori.
The House of Shinomori was a Ruling House. One of only two, the other of which was the House of Saitou, a clan hell bent on the distribution of justice and ruling order.
All servants of the dark realm fell under the jurisdiction of the two ruling houses, the House of Saitou, or the House of Shinomori.
Shikijou belonged to the House of Shinomori.
"I have heard from Hannya you have a girl in your employ, clearing your grounds?" Aoshi asked, remaining where he was by the door just staring at the man submerged in the huge stone tub.
"Eh... Some female." He opened his mouth in a wide, leisurely yawn, surprised he could be tired in the presence of the Lord of the House of Shinomori. At least the man didn't seem interested in taking off his head... yet. "Hannya suggested her to me. Said she was trouble and it would keep her busy, so I agreed and set her up in some place. She's good, surprisingly. Tiny little thing though..."
Aoshi just stared at him a moment.
"Did you want her?" Shikijou asked, unsure of any other reason why the Lord could be visiting his domicile.
"Yes," Aoshi replied. "I do want her."
Shikijou nodded tensely. "She's all yours, Aoshi-sama. Please, take her."
He encouraged, only too happy to do anything to please his Master. If that scrawny little thing could make the master happy, that was good. That meant he would be happy too.
"Thank you."
Aoshi stepped out the door and Shikijou breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing Shinomori Aoshi was a rare occurrence. The man was well known for being a recluse, living like a noble lord tucked away in his castle on a dark hill. The Lord of the House of Saitou was a much more frequent visitor, although no more welcome than the other guy.
They were both sword wielding, attitude toting, maniacs when in pursuit of something. He'd seen it himself, first hand, but he respected Aoshi-sama. The man was tough but fair and always took care of his own.
He didn't know the first thing about the girl though. Only that she had some kind of connection to Beast Hannya and a big mouth.
Aoshi stared at the little house. Misao's little house, he mused, walking up to the front door. Was she home now?
He was just raising his hand to slide open the door of the old house when it was pulled open from the inside.
The bright ocean colored eyes were not surprised, they were expectant.
"You're a tad predictable. Anyone ever tell you that, Aoshi-sama?"
He stared at her a moment and then stepped forward, wordlessly inviting himself inside.
She didn't say anything about his intrusiveness, she just closed the door. He peered around. So, she was a realm guardian, was she? One of those who hunted and killed the strays who had left the Dark Realm without permission.
The penalty for unauthorized departures was death, and the realm guardians dealt out the punishments. He couldn't imagine, though, that she got much to kill in this deserted place. He couldn't imagine her killing at all.
He turned back, but her gaze was turned toward another room.
"Oh! My tea water!"
Tea?
He reached suddenly, snagging the back of her blouse, pulling her back. From the other room, he heard the blaring of a water kettle on the stove.
The black material pulled tight, dipping to mid shoulder. He recoiled sharply as needles of pain shot up his arm from contact.
She whirled around with an angry snarl. "Hands off the clothes!" she snapped. "I have to buy these and money isn't something I've got a lot of."
"So... You are wearing holy seals?" he asked, flexing his fingers, ignoring her outbursts.
How did she manage that? To wear holy seals and not sear her skin with the touch?
"Of course I'm wearing them. I'm not here to hunt humans, I'm here to hunt demons," she stated, matter-of-factly.
"Demons?" he mused. Is that what she thought of him as? A demon? What then of herself? Was she not a demon beneath her holy seals?
His eyes narrowed.
"You're over thinking it, I can tell just by looking at you."
She pulled herself free and headed into the kitchen toward the blaring kettle leaving him alone. After a moment of silence staring at the old design of the room, noting the low table, cushions, wall hangings and amiable emptiness, he followed after her.
It was a very peaceful place. It seemed like something completely unsuited to her boisterous personality.
"This is your residence?"
She was tinkering with a tea set, and didn't bother looking up while she answered.
"Yeah, but I'm just borrowing it. Actually, I'm leaving it soon, too boring. I don't like being in the middle of nowhere."
He watched her stir a golden brew and lift the small teapot and pour a small cup.
"Want some? This is all natural chamomile tea. It's good for you, try it." She poured him a cup and he reached for it, bringing the brew to his lips to sniff.
It smelled quite pleasant, he noted, lifting it to his lips trying the warm liquid. A bit too sweet, he thought, but ... It was quite good.
Of course, there were other things he'd like to be tasting, he thought, staring at the prayer beads around her wrists.
It was a fascinating little discovery, he thought. He never would've imagined Hannya's half-breed child could be so... interesting.
"What are you here for, anyway? Hannya told me very clearly to stay away from you, which I can't do when you're popping up all the time."
She sipped her tea quietly, a little frown upon her lips.
"If you have no mother, by whom were you raised?"
"Raised?" she asked, her face turning solemn. "I haven't been a little girl in a long time," she admitted. "My guardian died some time ago... years and years it seems like."
She turned away, looking out the window.
"A human guardian?" he pressed. There had to be some reason for her reasons to remain here the way she was. He didn't imagine she would choose such drastic methods to contain her own nature if not influenced by a human.
Hannya, surely, hadn't taught her such a thing. He wasn't called "Beast Hannya" because of his face, despite the mask he wore.
"Yes, got a problem with that?" Her tone and eyes turned sharp as she looked back at him as though daring him to say one bad thing about humans before she pounced on him.
Well, that certainly explained it. He reached forward toward the delicate glass beads around her wrist, close enough to touch, but not daring to. "This is unnecessary..."
"Unnecessary?" her voice was almost a whisper. "Have you any idea what I'm like when I don't wear them?"
He inclined his head slightly staring at her expression of absolute horror.
"Do you have any idea the kinds of things I can do to people?"
She didn't like hunting? Why did she look so haunted?
"It is what you are," he replied absently, setting aside his tea, wanting nothing more than to snap the beaded chains restraining her and see her wild.
She had not attacked him on the eve when he'd been a breath's away from seducing her on the lawn, but he was the stronger. Even without feeding she would have sense enough not to attack, she was apparently living well enough and had to have been for some years now.
"What I am!" she shot to her feet so quickly, it surprised him. "What I am!" she repeated, this time her voice more sedate. Her eyes seemed to flash. "I'm not anything!"
"You're afraid," he stated, words simple and even. He watched her carefully for a reaction and wasn't disappointed. The girl was transparent.
Her eyes widened in complete outrage.
"Afraid? Me? I'm not afraid of anything. Not fighting, not dying, not you. Don't come to my house and run your mouth!"
"You are afraid," he answered smoothly. "You're afraid of your hunger. Your wants. Your desire not to be human."
"I am not! You don't know the first thing about me!"
The raising of his eyebrow was a silent challenge. "Show me."
She growled, stalking forward toward where he sat in the only high western-styled chair in the house.
He'd taken the seat impulsively and was now glad for it as she crawled up in his lap, spreading her knees on either side of his, pressing her hands down on the wooden armrests.
"Are you saying, I won't bite you?" she cocked her head to the side, her expression tight and angry. "That I can't? Like I'm some kind of impotent half-breed?"
His reply was an expectant silence, as though to say 'you know you won't'.
He was surprised at her usage of the words 'impotent half-breed' and immediately determined it wasn't her own vocabulary, but that she'd likely heard it from someone else. It would explain part of her quickness to anger and her wantonness to disprove it.
She growled at him, but it was more of a sexy little growl than it was threatening.
She leaned toward him and he waited, eagerly.
Her breath fanned against his neck. Her weight shifted in the chair as she pushed her knees nearer to the back and further over his lap.
His collar was low, a simple casual cut leaving space for her tongue to slid across his skin.
The warm slickness of her tongue sent a delicious shudder through his body and again, he wanted her. He heard her broken gasp and saw a faint glow around her wrist.
So... The seals had activated.
He lifted a hand, pressing it to the back of her head, cradling her gently, encouraging her. She dipped her head slightly, nearer to him, another brush of her tongue sent quivers down his spine.
When had he ever allowed such a thing? He'd never, not even in childhood, been bitten by another. Who would imagine the heartless House Lord always shoving people away would be allowing such a young female such complete dominion over him, allowing himself to be bitten?
He wanted it so much. He checked a groan as her mouth met his skin with hot, open mouth kisses. The pressure of her lips was painfully erotic, surrounded by the soft scent of her, and then the fine points of her teeth against his flesh.
He couldn't contain the groan as she bit sharply down, piercing his flesh, only to draw back just as quickly.
More soft laps of her tongue made pulses of heat dance over his body, rapidly descending southward.
He just barely stifled a grunt as she kissed his wound, bringing her hand to the opposite side, curling her fingers around his jaw. She pushed his chin up, tilting his head upward as she slid her mouth across his jaw, planting kisses along the way. Her hand slid up, sliding through his hair.
He was too entranced, too drunk on her, to want to stop her. He'd didn't anticipate the hot snap of her teeth as she bit him again, deeper this time, piercing through his flesh.
His jaw tightened at the pain and then loosed as she drew back, licking him.
The hand in his hair slid down, past shoulder to meet the other as both pushed his coat open, flattening against his chest.
Aoshi tensed as, over Misao's shoulder, he spotted an ivory mask. He repressed his frustrated growl as Hannya stepped into view, bringing his arms up, crossing them.
He waited for the man to speak.
"Surely, you realize the danger of letting an inexperienced girl bite you, Aoshi-sama."
Aoshi leaned forward, gently holding her against him. His muscles quivered as she shuddered against him, slumping, her head against his chest. From around her wrist he could see the beads were gone... Melted into speckles of dust coating the arm of the chair, but most had fallen into a powder that littered the floor by the back legs.
"You think I am unable to control her?" Aoshi asked, unhappy with Hannya's intrusion.
"It isn't her I'm worried about."
Ah, well, that explained it. Hannya was worried that he would seduce the girl. He cursed his timing, Hannya was showing up just when things were getting good.
Damn it.
Misao drew back and he immediately noticed the difference in her eyes. "You never let me have any fun, Hannya."
Why she didn't call him "father", or some name thereof, he wasn't quite sure.
"You've broken your seals, Misao," he stated, without addressing her previous comment.
She shrugged, her eyes alit, glowing almost ethereally. "I'm sleepy."
Beautiful eyes, he thought, staring into the glowing orbs. She would be a magnificent hunter.
"Go to bed," Hannya ordered curtly.
She curled her arms around Aoshi's neck. "Can I take Aoshi-sama with me?"
"No."
She pouted, her lips drawing back into a smile, her teeth glimmering. She drew back, off his lap. "No, fun, Hannya. No fun at all. Night, night."
He watched her go, his eyes trailing up her frame as she climbed the stairs.
"You should give her to me," Aoshi replied, glancing back at Hannya.
"I believe it is the wrong thing to do," Hannya firmly replied.
"Very well," Aoshi agreed and stood.
Both knew it wasn't the end.
He had tasted her.
She had tasted him.
This was only the beginning.
Author's Note:
This story is likely to contradict itself at any given point as I weave in different things. I'll try to avoid it, but it's completely possible.
"The Aquis" – I do not know where I got this from. I cannot remember, if you've seen this before, won't you tell me where? I try and try to remember and get nothing…
Any similarities between this and any other RK vampire tale are strictly, and honestly, coincidental. I've only read 3 of the 40 of them posted on this site.