Bloody Kisses

By: Lazeralk

Disclaimer: (uses the art of mime to communicate non-ownership of Rurouni Kenshin and Anita Blake concepts.)

Part 13

"The Fiend"

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AN: Yeah, so I'm really sorry about the whole…not up-dating thing…I uh…kinda broke up with my boy-friend and lost my best friend and had a wedding canceled and my brother in jail all at the same time. It was…not fun. Really bad actually. Really, really bad, so if my writing is a little…eh, violent, I'm really sorry.

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Saitou met the vampires attack head on as Kenshin watched helplessly from the side. The sword was drawn, but hung limply at his side, the silver flashing invitingly as it swayed gently with the motion of his body. The redhead watched the ensuing brawl with his face twisted in worry and pain. Even now, when his friend was fighting for his life, he hesitated. Kenshin growled at himself, and lifted the katana to his eye level.

"I can do this. I already decided to do it, so just do it, you baka deshi." He whispered harshly to himself as he gazed at the blade. His eyes moved back to the two combatants and he followed the battle with the same conviction he'd used during the war. He searched for an opening and found it, shifting his stance to let Saitou know what he was about to do. The wolf looked surprised, but ducked sideways and rolled a few feet away to avoid a clumsy swing of the vampire's fist.

Kenshin was there in the next instant, silver blade flashing as coldly as his eyes. The sword cut though the flesh of his target's chest and spilled blood in a crimson waterfall to the street. Calvin screamed and backed away, clutching at his chest and glaring daggers at his attacker. Kenshin shuddered once, bit his lip and then made a single quick stroke that severed head from shoulders.

"Saitou." He whispered as he shook violently, his voice pleading and his breathing becoming raged again as he stared in horror at the body.

"What?" came the wolf's response, his voice shaking also.

Kenshin turned to watch as the half beast slowly and painfully reverted back to human. He mentally lunged at the new topic it presented him. Anything at all to help him ignore the bloody, horrible thing he had just done, if only for a few moments longer.

"Why?" he asked, waving his free hand in his companion's direction.

"Once a shifter changes, they're suppose to stay in animal form for at least five or six hours. It takes a lot of power to change back as soon as I did. I need to sleep for a while."

"Oh." Said Kenshin lamely. "What about him? That other vampire, the girl, she got right back up again when Aoshi chopped her head off."

"Aoshi was using steel. You're using silver. That one won't be getting up again. Still, we should burn it to be sure. Vampires burn rather well."

Kenshin frowned and cleaned the blood off his blade with a decisive flick of his wrist. He sheathed the sword and walked quickly to the gambling joint they had just recently left. He borrowed a torch from the drunken patrons and hurried back to the wolf's side.

Saitou took the torch from the redhead's hands and tossed it on the bleeding, headless body of their enemy. The corpse burst into flames on contact and burned higher and brighter than Kenshin would have thought possible in such a short time. He kept his eyes on the fire to avoid looking at Saitou's questioning ones.

The wolf stared contemplatively at his smaller companion, an unreadable expression on his face. This was what he'd wanted, for the Battousai to kill again. But, now, looking at him, he wasn't so sure it was going to turn out the way he'd hoped it would.

It was unavoidable, Kenshin had to bloody his hands again, and he accepted that fact with his usual finality. But standing there, watching the firelight shine on the silent tears that trickled down the redhead's face made a slow, gnawing guilt build in the pit of his stomach.

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Kaoru sighed as she stared at the gate to her house, willing Kenshin to appear. A hint of dawn touched the horizon and Kenshin still wasn't home yet. Old fears of him wandering off into the night touched her for a moment before she banished them. Kenshin would come back. He would walk through the gate with Saitou any minute now and smile at her, even if he was exhausted, and say 'tadaima Kaoru-dono', just like he always did.

Yahiko was still asleep, Sano was still trapped in that awful house they had been talking about, and the two ninja's who'd joined her household were off combing the streets for a fox or a vampire to kill. As she looked around her empty yard and listened the stillness of the morning, she felt terribly alone. Jaw clenched against the familiar, horrible, feeling she clutched at her bokken and forced herself to stop fidgeting.

The minutes dragged on and she frowned at the yet unopened gate. She took a deep breath and dragged herself back into the house in a monumental show of will. She would wait; she had to, for another hour. Then she'd write Yahiko a note saying she'd gone to market to get some things for breakfast and then she'd go and find her red-headed idiot and drag him home whether he liked it or not.

Despite Kaoru's adamant decision to wait another hour, she lasted, maybe, ten minutes before she caved and bolted back into the living room to scribble the note to Yahiko. Once finished, she slammed it down on the table and practically flew out the doors and onto the streets.

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Yahiko awoke to the slamming of the front door, and glared evilly in the direction of the noise before falling backwards and immediately passing out again.

I know, useful ain't he?

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Sanosuke sagged into the heavy silver chains that bound him to the cold stone wall. He'd been in what passed for the dungeon for two days, bleeding what precious little blood he had left in him on to the floor. They'd stopped feeding him, and he'd experienced the whole new set of feelings that accompanied it. His body wasn't trying to warm up, but he was still so cold. The lancing pains he felt as his flesh knit itself back together was both excruciating and numbing at the same time. He was ravenously hungry, but his stomach did not ache or rumble.

"Just apologize, beg me for forgiveness and swear that you will never disobey me again, it's really not so hard, is it?" asked a voice from the darkness.

"Fuck you." The bleeding ex-gangster snarled, snapping his chains forward in a useless show of bravado.

"Now, now. What have I told you about your language?" said the voice, mildly amused.

A whip snaked out of the shadows and struck him in the center of his chest, laying his skin open yet again.

Sano glared hotly in the direction of his master but bit his tongue.

The whip came down again, striking his upper arm, and then again, at the tender skin on his inner thigh. He bowed his head and counted the strikes until he passed out from the pain several hours later. He hadn't screamed once.

Take that you bastards.

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Kaoru was just about ready to tear her hair out in frustration. The wolf and her dumb redhead were nowhere to be found. She searched ruffian row, much to the amusement of the local drunks, and the streets that lead back towards the dojo. She'd even stopped by the dojo to see if they had returned while she was away. She'd checked at the Tokyo branch of the Oniwanbanshu and Megumi's clinic. The market was her last chance and she walked sullenly towards it, filled with a nasty mix of worry, anger and helpless fear.

She smoother her hands down the fabric of her kimono, yellow with blue waves and a green obi with red butterflies on it, a nervous gesture. She glanced down the street and squinted into the early morning light as people started opening their shops for the day. There weren't many customers out yet, so she thought it was odd when a small foreign girl carrying a large bag of vegetables ambled up to her.

"Ano, excuse me nee-san, but can you help me?" she asked in accented Japanese.

"Sure sweetie. What do you need?" asked Kaoru, not sure if she wanted the distraction or not. She kept scanning the streets in both directions hopefully, even as the girl set down her bag and tugged on her drooping kimono sleeve.

"I'm new in town and I don't know which way to go to get back home. I can't see over the top of my bag." The little girl complained as she gazed up the brunette with teary eyes.

"Where do you live?" asked Kaoru, turning her full attention to the girl, but still trying to stem the growing sense of panic that she still couldn't find Kenshin.

"I don't know what the area is called, but I think it's that way." Said the little girl as she pointed down the street.

Kaoru sighed heavily, picked up the back and held her hand out to the girl. The street was still part of the market area and she could keep searching for her wayward redhead as she walked. She frowned down at the little girl, her gentle heart not allowing her to turn away from a child in need. Still, she longed to keep searching for her dumb ex-Hitokiri.

"By the way, I'm Kaoru, what's your name sweetie?"

"I'm Melu-chan! Nice to meet you!" she chirped, looking adorably cute with her pigtails bobbing.

"Nice to meet you too Melu-chan. Did you move here from overseas?"

"Yeah, I did. From England. It's a lot different here, but Japan has some cool things!" said the child, swinging their joined hands.

"I'm glad you like it here." Said Kaoru, giving the girl a gentle smile.

"Oh look! I know that place! We're going the right way!" cried Melu-chan as she pointed to a candy shop.

A man in a plain kimono stepped out of the shop and smiled at Kaoru, flashing long canines.

"Kamiya-san, we've been waiting for you." He said.

Kaoru didn't have time to scream before the man lashed out a connected a solid blow to the side of her head. She collapsed at his feet, vegetables scattering everywhere. By the time the last tomato rolled to a stop, all three were gone from the wakening market place.

End chapter 13

Lycanthropy 102

Each flavor of were-animal has its own special group structure and rank names. For example: the werewolves call themselves the lukoi, and their leader is called Ulfric. There are special names for the second and third in command, the head bodyguards and various other positions within the pack. Usually, a lower ranking pack member must challenge a higher ranking member for a title and win a tournament style fight with official observers for it to be valid if they wish to move up with the pack. The fight for the title of Ulfric is to the death.

AN: Ya know what? I'm actually writing this story for a reason. Well, I mean, I'm not just writing it for the fun of writing it. I've read lots of Vampire!Kenshin fics and not a single one was ever set in the Meiji era. All of them are present times or futuristic sets, ya know? The Kenshin (as a vampire) that's portrayed in these fics is always the tragic hero type. He's still a good person, but he's come to accept that in order to survive and protect the people who are important to him, he has to be a ruthless, cold-blooded killer. He's still a nice guy, Rurouni!Kenshin type ya know? If he or his people are threatened though, Battousai!Kenshin comes right out and has a field day.

I was thinking that he couldn't have just stumbled onto a vampire and gotten turned. He'd have died of guilt and self-pity and mortification. He'd end up like Vincent Valentine from FF7, all depressed and 'I'm-a-monster-and-don't-deserve-happiness-or-life-and-should-be-locked-in-a-coffin-for-the-rest-of-eternity' ya know? So in order for him to have that kind of personality and be able to accept his darker side to the point that he can just turn it on and off, and not feel too horrible about the people he kills, stuff had to happen. He had to go through a lot of emotional breakdowns and breakthroughs to get to the point he's at.

Anyway, the point is, that when people write futuristic Vampire!Kenshin fics, they never bother to explain how he was made a vampire or why he is the way he is, so I'm doing it for them. And that, my dears, is the reason I'm writing this story.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!! I love you. In a completely non-sexual way, I swear. Really.

Anyway. We have new members in the cult. Everyone, please welcome Lost-Remembrance, eyeinthesky, nannon and Xelena to the Chaos Legion.

As always, I'd like to say thanks and give out prizes (bribes) to my (hopefully) staunch supporters and stalkers.

Persephone, Imalefty, GreenEyedFloozy, cleo, (Princess) Jasmine, Miburo Kid, Lexi, RiddleStar, Dstar504, and Innocent Battousai

Love, plushies, and cookies to you all. Here's a new chapter for you, and yes, what you think is going to happen is totally not going to happen. Even I was shocked at what my muse has planned.

(And that's all I'm saying on that.)

Lazeralk