A/N: I finally did it! LOL. Yet another one of my VK ideas that's been rattling around in my head this past semester. I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and throw it out there. I don't know if it'll just be friendship or Yaoi later on or whatever. Might have to take a vote. LOL. If you comment, let me know what you think. It's friendship for now. The title of this fic is explained from the cat proverb, A Rose has thorns and a Cat has claws, but both are worth the risk~Anon. ^_^

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any Vampire Knight anything that belongs to Matsuri Hino, I only lay claim to my original plot bunnies and characters.

SUMMARY: The Cross Academy days are over and Zero is a respectable hunter working dutifully and minding his own business when he stumbles across an injured cat with red eyes and fur the color of Kaname-chocolate.

Kaname clutched his injured arm, head thrown back against the wall, teeth gritted in pain as blood poured from the wound. The very scent of blood in the air was almost too much. He was in a very bad way.

He was tired, weary, exhausted and whatever other version of the blasted word that there was. He'd been doing this for far too long, but it seemed as if they wouldn't stop at all. The attacks just kept coming one after the other and now, he was alone.

He'd had no rest and it didn't look like there was much of an end in sight.

A hiss of pain escaped and Kaname willed his pureblooded body to make the injuries go away. Sure, some of the wounds were hunter-inflicted, but that only meant a delay, right? Nothing permanent? He couldn't afford any lasting injuries, if he did suffer some, he certainly wouldn't make it out of this hellhole alive.

He could only hope that the others of his inner circle had managed to figure some things out on their own without his instruction, but from the very fact that he fought alone, Kaname knew the reality of such truth was rather bleak.

There was nothing in the world that would keep Seiren from coming to him as long as there was breath and blood in her body. The girl was that loyal, blood aside. She would never have left him to fend for himself like this and knowing his current situation, Kaname didn't want to think what must have happened.

There was no time for that sort of thing.

Drawing in a shaky breath, he gathered up his pureblood power and threw it out around him like a blanket, not bothering to douse the pureblood aura. The others would certainly smell his blood and it was pointless to try to hide that, perhaps his aura might help him in keeping some of the lesser ones at bay. This had really begun to get quite bad. The Level E's were sure to be upon him in another wave, but for the brief moment of reprieve, he'd use his head.

Something was definitely wrong with all of this and with all his scheming and planning, surely he should've been able to see and know that something was wrong. He should've known. The throbbing in his arm grew worse and Kaname did something he never thought he would do.

He ran.

From the abandoned warehouse on the edge of town, he dodged through the alleyways, the dirty, cluttered streets and he ran as fast as he could.

Distance.

That was all he was thinking of. He had to get away. He had to go somewhere safe.

His legs grew heavy and tired with the effort being exerted in his precious state. He'd really lost too much blood. Snarls from behind alerted him to the fact that he had managed to put some distance between them and the others, but not all of them.

A sickening feeling of dread began to work its way into his churning stomach as Kaname realized that Level E's most certainly would not have the power nor the intelligence to hunt a pureblood, so the ones that were following him were at least—he took a cautious sniff—definitely vampire.

He rounded the corner of one building and slammed against it to draw himself to an immediate stop.

"Hiding, Kaname-sama?" The disrespectful shriek was followed by cackling laughter as one pair of burning red eyes appeared around the corner of the building. "Poor, poor pureblood." The laughter was mocking. "You run, run, run! But no hi-ding!"

The Councils secret dogs.

Kaname swallowed hard. At that point, he didn't care whether it was the Hunter Association or the Elder Council who'd sent the wretched killers, it just mattered that they'd sent them. That they considered him enough of a threat to have him hunted and killed.

They couldn't even send a trained assassin. They'd sent Level E's and a wave of noble amateurs. Tamed amateurs.

Oh the disgrace.

They couldn't even kill him with dignity.

He was nothing more than a problem and they'd just let him die.

Like a dog.

As if he were nothing.

As if he were some worthless little-!

In that moment, Kaname lost his temper.

No, he'd been angry before, but this time—this time he'd really lost it.

A fierce throbbing pain in the back of his head alerted him to the fact that something was about to happen—mostly because purebloods didn't get headaches and when they did, a pureblood's headache usually meant trouble for those in the immediate vicinity.

Kaname felt his body tremble, shiver and began to convulse as if shrinking into himself and suddenly, he couldn't bear it. The pain became a blinding white hot blur and when it was over, Kaname didn't remember anything at all.

~*~*~Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!~*~*~*