The snake, which cannot cast its skin, has to die

As well the minds, which are prevented from changing their opinions;

They cease to be mind. – Nietzsche.

• * •

The Coronation Toast was predictable as it was crucial. Every royal raised his or her cup and drank to the promise of prosperity in their guidance. Merely a teenager at his coronation, Kaname couldn't bear how he was to reign and control vampires. He remembered their eagerness to hear him speak on leadership, not knowing seconds prior he had been wiping blood-tears before joining the congregation.

Two days ago, the world was robbed of the royal couple, his parents, Kirrin and Sora Kuran. Without a choice, he had to shape up and engage in a mightier role. The world construed purebloods as managers, but Kaname had a distinctive experience. One where the Elders Council abused his powers recurrently by emphasizing brutal laws and movements. His stamps and signatures were forged. When Kaname refused to aid in their lawmaking rules, Asato threatened him.

He had no one. No one amply rapacious to contend the Elders Council. It was no news he had more enemies than friends at the palace. Furthermore, it was grim trusting the faction that proudly addressed themselves as his Right Hands. Seven years ago, Kaname had enough. He told no one his deals or plans and moved in the dark all the while letting Asato believe he had complete control. If Yuuki hadn't sent Takuma to kill Asato, it had been Kaname's next move regardless if it cost him the throne.

Yuuki took every decision and action with heart and care. The scrutiny was rigorous. As the Mother of Vampires, she exemplified common vampires that dreamt of the crown. She avoided making a scene at her toast by quelling her reaction and consumed the abhorred blood. Yuuki disapproved drawing attention to her blood consumption let alone her health. The fact that she dropped his hand point blank mid conversation and dashed from the hall unnerved him—and Kaname wasn't easily frightened.

The door had barely caressed the lock when Takuma entered the murky shadows. He wasn't remarkably talented with scrimping for details compared to his preferable and popular suit for being a convivial artery at a party. Kaname hadn't acknowledged him and preceded Takuma out of the hall. As pungent as poison, his lower vampire-self sensed the pureblood's venomous aura. He didn't imagine spending a great deal of the night running errands, but the matter claimed rigid discipline.

Gently he placed the designated object on the table for inspection. "Unwashed as requested."

A long arm extended out of the linear curve of the chair and tipped the cup over by a firm finger. Remnants of blood ringed and puddled the desk. "Have the blood tested."

Takuma gingerly picked it by the handle. "The blood passed the initial exam."

Kaname hadn't averted from the cup on the Right Hand's sleeve. "Yuuki can stomach blood from the infirmary."

Green eyes scanned the pureblood's irreversible mask. Kaname's eyes were calm as they were threatening in its taciturnity. Takuma could never get used to the pureblood's menacing temperament. "Yes."

"She had trouble ingesting blood from her coronation cup. Who dispensed it?"

The questions did not easily fool Takuma. "We made sure everything was up to standard and requested the palace physician deliver the blood she toasted. He has years of experience with her case, and he knows her health record."

"She had a reaction."

Vampires didn't react to blood. Takuma gaped at the pureblood that'd arrived to the conclusion. Vampire senses were far superior to human and detected antigens, pollutions, drug or psychedelics including illness by mere odor humans emitted. In the past hundred years, the Kuran palace tested humans and allowed healthier ones to donate blood before a chain of physicians retested and processed it to the dispensary. All palace personnel had access to the blood.

At the ceremony, no one else exhibited irregularities. Kaname spared a moment in private with Sayori, who was more than capable with her observations.

"She kept clawing her shoulder—as if—as if she wanted to get something off." Sitting at his desk with arms tucked across her chest, Sayori was happy to supply information he sought. "Shaking, rambling, almost frantic-like. I've never seen her like that. Even though, she claims to feel starved after feeding. She might've kept it a secret from me, but to hide it from you is not a good sign."

"Your forewarning is appreciated." Narrow-eyed, Kaname hummed against the glass.

She thoroughly studied his enigmatic countenance, unable to recall how the man had become unreadable and secretive over the years. Now that they were on the brink of war against Rido Kuran, she was better off aligning with Kaname. "I'm not doubting. She has her reasons. The stakes are high. She has to compete with the household and be credible to her in-laws and public."

Kaname waited for his blood tablets to condense into the murky red in the glass. The dim moonlight, sly and tenuous, skittered across the black entrapment of his eyes. "She's been learning spells from Ichijo, battling Arisu-sama when she isn't practicing at the Hunters Association. Yuuki intends to kill Rido."

"Good for you." Sayori nodded, "Her feeling starved all the time is not."

He abandoned the drink and closed a fist on the desk. Kaname assessed the noble woman carefully.

She stiffened under the demanding stare. "You share a blood bond. How did you not know?"

"The Great Queen sent Yuuki in my memories. She didn't return starving for her brother's blood." He observed her pale ominously but continued, unaffected. "You believe her reactions are psychological—possibly. But she lost more than her brother. What about her parents' blood?"

"It was a theory," Sayori admitted.

"Blood loss or starvation does not cause hallucination."

She stopped by the edge of the desk, tapping one nail to soothe the debate in her mind. "What else can it be? She is healthy and works hard. Blood blond is tough to commit to, but you've both adapted to each other."

He didn't convey his suspicions further. Yuuki hadn't been alone most of the night and presented typically only until her toast. Though she tried to hide her personal calamities for fear of ruining the evening, her strange behavior ensued.

"Is she not feeling well?" Takuma asked.

"She is too loyal and blames her growing hunger." Clever crimson eyes pinned the Right Hand.

"Every vampire, pureblood or common, experiences a spike in hunger as they age." Takuma knew too well.

Kaname's razor fangs glinted out of the darkness. "Get me the physician."

• * •

When the love of his life, who unfailingly stood by him at his conscious and unconscious time, whimpered tearfully about how she broke her promise, he felt a shiver of emotion undulate from his chest and gorge his vocal cords.

Disconcerted out of her mind and unkempt with mascara scrolling her cheeks and crown toppling her head, she gaped widely at what a disadvantaged she caused herself. He premeditated it and escorted her to the tower. Deposed of maids, guards and Right Hands, she was left to her resources. She cleaned her face while Kaname locked the door and made an unsurprising but intimidating loom over her head.

There was a time she was nervous about irritating him. Random kinks couldn't undermine the promise to be together for a lifetime. It wasn't precisely a kink to outright admit she couldn't control her hunger. She knew more than life itself she adored and loved Kaname as he did her. Their blood bond was emboldening.

All they needed were little secrets and some hundred years later, refuse to share ideas and vulnerabilities with each other, further encumbering the blood bond they built. Yuuki didn't want to stimulate misunderstandings. Kaname was consistently patient and doting even while his foreboding pureblood aura was triggered. He never gave her incentive to run in fear.

"Does my blood not satisfy you?"

There it was. The most agonizing question a vampire ever attempted.

Here was the epitome of pureblood dominance wondering and dreading if his lover sought his blood because no other pleased her body, heart, and soul.

She turned and faced the vertical but impressive wall of his chest. Kaname's arm coiled around her back and caressed her spine. She shuddered defenselessly, loud and unimpeded by his subduing touch. He left her flushed and lightheaded. An innocent touch lurched her with the fever of a thousand kisses. Inside her body, his blood hummed seductively, closer than her beating heart.

Her hands relaxed on his forearm. "Kana-me." Yuuki respired.

He loved the singing vowel at the end of 'Kana' silenced by a doting 'Meh' from her lips straight into his ears. "Yuuki." Tenderly she beamed, and he fought with clouded judgment to slam his mouth on hers.

Intricate lily designs narrowed the cuffs in cobalt blue of his pearl white ceremonial robes. She had to be brutally honest, and he always allowed her that. "I'm like a kid in a candy store."

His eyes chiseled her face intently. Thick black brows unruffled by frustration or emotion. Undying acceptance whirled in deep garnet eyes down at her. His head bent forward out of habit.

Yuuki trembled under his smoldering stare. "Ask a vampire what the most delectable blood there is, and he will say 'pure blood.' I'm a noble vampire that struck the gold mine. It's obvious you got the shorter end of the stick. There's more to my hunger."

Prying his arm back, he turned and leaned against the desk, both hands folded in his lap. When it was just the two, they were simply vampires speaking freely. He was no king, and she was no consort.

"We are vampires who have lost everyone we love." Kaname finished her line of thought.

"Our wounds allowed us to come together. Slowly we've been healing." Yuuki sat in the chair by his leg.

"Yuuki, I will never keep you here if you want to leave." He expressed brusquely, and she could hear millions of roses wail to death somewhere in a garden. Their perfume moseyed the night, deep through motionless forests.

Aware of how painful it was for him to make the selfless admission, her hand snuck on his thigh and tangled a larger finger with her pinky. "The memories in your blood are full of my brother." Yuuki licked her trembling bottom lip. "Because I have a hole in my heart, I see you do too. Your parents were taken from you. Our hunger is linked to them, and we can't selfishly force each other to placate the ache."

Kaname caressed her wrist. Somehow his fingers knew where her pulse resided. "I knew you were taking blood therapy. You didn't want to discuss the matter, so I let it go in the interest of regaining your health."

"You asked me never to let another's blood touch my lips." Yuuki murmured. It was not that she didn't want to. "I couldn't."

A large hand stroked down her spine again. The healing pressure and temperature soothed the stiffness in her back and further eroded the rising tension. Kaname repeated the motion, and she breathed deeply. Yuuki hunted the blankness of his face for hidden emotion, but there were none. He was honest and very still. Drops of brown-black hair swiftly drizzled across his eyes as they contemplated the floor. Against her back, the warm hand sat at ease, but in relaxed detachment from the rest of his immovable frame.

She never imagined hurting Kaname. He was the strongest man she grew to love and admire after her father and brother. Whether pureblood or common, no vampire recovered after the thought of being unable to satisfy his or her lover's hunger.

I've hurt him.

The smell alerted him. By the time the drops landed on the floor, he had looked up. Yuuki hung her head despairingly, toiling in guilt and self-contempt, emotions he knew too well.

She wasn't his or the denka's equal. It was stark apparent she needed to be strong as a hunter, a vampire, and queen. Groomed and schooled all his life by the Internal Affairs Magistrates, royal elders and her brother, Kaname had everything under his belt: dexterity, diplomacy, and articulacy. Above all, he was the seed of an undefeatable bloodline the vampire kind revered. Taking blood therapy served justifiable incentive to build herself up at the least.

She could convey many reasons for her actions, but she'd continued taking blood therapy after Kaname's return.

Lovingly he caressed her wet cheeks and pushed her quivering chin forward to peer into her moonlike face. "I don't resent you for taking blood therapy. It's but frolicsome excuses. You've mastered spells and how to defend yourself in battles. You are an admired queen who has won over all against their will. Why don't you divulge the truth now?"

Her misty red eyes widened at his all-knowing, cold stare.

"I just-"

"Yuuki." Kaname hissed with the precipitousness of an aggravated lion ensnaring its victim. The fingers on her chin switched to glacial canines on her jugular. Her pulse beat hungrily against loose fingertips. His gaze was murderous with an unpredictable sheen.

She could feel her life squeeze out of her body by his fist and the rest of her break in half from his fangs. His pureblood influence was extreme, her skin ached, and every hair on her body stood pin-straight. Kaname could tear her flesh, hair, muscle and organs if he wanted and consume her like the predatory creature he was. Or he could push her past the breaking point and torture her with his pureblood will. At his mercy, completely submitted to his fierceness, Yuuki should've known better and escaped for dear life.

But, no.

She'd done herself and fallen in love with the pureblood—not just any but their leader. As much as Zero worried about her, Yuuki let herself get swayed by Kaname. He was impenetrable, deadly and everyone was too afraid to jolt or joke with him. Provoking Kaname was worse than getting eaten by a pack of wolves. He didn't exhibit his powers to get attention. His actions spoke for themselves because without a look or thought, he eradicated what posed a threat to his people and Yuuki.

No one was safe after inciting Kaname's wrath.

Except for Hanabusa-san.

If it were anybody else, he or she would readily cut their heads for causing Kaname distress. Yuuki was not afraid of the man. His eeriness and solitude were an equal aspect as his pureblood hostility. He didn't have a proclivity for forgiveness or warnings. Even Takuma expired his tenure in the criteria. His wife, like his noble-blooded Right Hands, was another story despite his scathing triggers. The weak vampire blood in her body was aware of his sinister blood promptly and screamed.

Kaname's nose tickled in the smell of fear and the hand on her person dropped, inert with feeble restraint, to the armrest of her chair. He bore into her unfaltering eyes as she reclined in the backrest while he continually bent over her.

How bold.

He gauged her firm expression, untainted by fear the rest of her body emitted. She was beginning to tremble against her will. Automatically her noble blood caved under his pureblood supremacy, but her determination left her contending with herself.

And audacious of you, Yuuki.

She shivered in the hymns of his growl, virile and edgy with control that all she was reminded of was silk against skin. Yuuki exhaled and caught the sound of her breath breach the stillness in the room. She didn't avert from what his eyes uncovered. The sound of her breathing seemed suffocated, partly since she was sensitive to how difficult it was to breathe and act calm with a clawing immortal over her. He could bend her lungs to cease function with his mind if he chose, and she needed to breathe to stay grounded.

Finally, with a shaky breath, Yuuki forfeited the staring contest. There had been one too many moments where the two were as good as one. The darkness of Yuuki and the lightness of Kaname, two entwined aspects reflected high and low at each other. What many didn't understand was they were equal made into whole. As he speared down in her shadow by reining his verve, she embraced his softness by owning her fatalness. Their polarity was glaring.

Even now. Yuuki shuddered from the gentle hand running along her chin. Knowing my blood like his own, he doesn't harbor anger or was threatened by my actions.

The fear that had previously spiked calmed. Yuuki opened her large eyes and greeted his cool, narrowed ones. Blood bond was an extraordinary combination that allowed vampires to connect on a cellular, physical and spiritual level. Being the dominant blood of the two, Kaname had the ability to interact telepathically with Yuuki. All of it consisted of time, a nonresistant, willing and open heart and mind. Her bond with him depended on vulnerability to share her mind and heart. Though she couldn't reach him telepathically due to her low-level blood, she hadn't stopped trying.

Loving a pureblood was arduous. Creating a blood bond was not easy between two different blood statuses. While the world stood in wonder at what they established, Yuuki wholly believed it was due to each playing their instinctive roles. Kaname was a more mature man than she was a woman. He understood his limits and weaknesses and didn't run blindly by exulting his pureblood abilities on her. Sometimes his menacing aura won, but Yuuki was now less reactive.

She trusted herself on a deeper level and aspired to be an intelligent woman and lover as he. Love alone didn't guide them to harmony. For all the sources of deadly vices so was Kaname the spirit behind life, and as dark was his pureblood aura, the greater he believed in the lightness and warmth of life. Yuuki had just begun to embrace her darker traits as a vampire, which ultimately allowed her to be a compelling woman and queen.

The hand minimized to a fingertip trekking her supple red lips. For years, Kaname ravaged them and succumbed to the worshipping whisper of his name from them. They didn't shy away but caressed his avidly. She trembled from the finger dripping down her chin, along with the hollowness of her throat. Her breathing sharpened immediately and her eyes blackened as he hoped. They crossed their journey against the folds of her dress, between her breasts and margined the narrowness of what was her delicate waist his arms missed holding and sank into the crevice of her navel.

Her breathing hitched.

My hands can do far worse, Yuuki. Kaname bent closer, almost brushing her forehead. They always do.

"You know my blood like your own." Her voice quivered unusually.

"Admit it."

Yuuki stared in his eyes daringly. "I feel starved after drinking your blood, but I'm afraid of killing you if I don't deter my hunger off you. So, I kept taking blood therapy."

A strange noise rumbled out of his chest. Yuuki thought it resembled roars out of a cave. The sound boomed between his lips abruptly. "Yuuki—" His hands steeled on the armrests. "How can you forget every time my fangs caress you I wage the same war of killing you with one bite?"

Her hands enclosed on his clammy fists.

"Or each time I revel in your sweet blood, I practically lose sanity from the pleasure of craving as you come willing and wanting to be taken by me?"

Her eyes slowly imbibed the sight of glinting fangs underlining each syllable. "You can kill me any minute without effort." She voiced.

Then a row of knuckles lifted and trembled against her mouth adoringly. "You are the crux of my ecstasy, livid and spirited. First, you are the one I protect and love."

Her lips opened and tasted a finger. It darted against the inner skin of her mouth and her fangs.

"That's all I remember before I descend from my high. Crave is guile, not humble. It is an animus that has an indelible grip on a vampire for life. It likes to have its way with us, sometimes force us to kill the ones we love to satisfy itself."

Yuuki brushed a hand up his sleeve and let it saddle his shoulder. "We will always be this way. Two vampires never fully satisfied."

Kaname studied the impish yet stubborn frown tailored across her mouth. He tilted his head for a brief second and pinched her bottom lip with a fang. Her fingers bunched on his shoulder. Red dew dribbled in his mouth. He licked her lips deftly, reeling with pleasure from her blood and body against him. The reaction took him to a mysterious realm secret unto them. Somewhere hazy in the clouds, numbed through strokes of the warm breeze, lost in silk sheets, her arms entangled and buried under him and him, a vagrant soul, found sanctuary inside her.

"Never getting enough of one another." She whispered.

"Blood therapy is far beneficial than blood tablets. You did well taking it."

She regarded him and tenderly touched his right cheek. "Why do you take blood tablets?"

"Would you prefer I drain the servants?"

She smirked at the rhetoric. "Purebloods grow in power and hunger with age. Kaname, I'm sorry I won't be able to sati—"

"No, Yuuki." He breathed against her face, "Long ago I realized craving your blood was detrimental just as you're beginning to understand yours. Blood tablets are easier to acquire. If I want to have blood therapy, it will nurture my crave. Consequently, it'd lose its sufficiency. At that point, nothing, not even you, can quell a portion of my hunger."

She loved the softness of his pale skin on her hand. "Are you subduing crave by starving on purpose?"

He was a creature of control. "Yes."

She seemed troubled. "But to maintain our blood bond, you have to supply me with a ton of blood." Yuuki started worriedly. "So our blood and your powers fuses with mine, allowing us to connect psychically. Sometimes I hear you talk in my head when you're gone."

"You never complained before." Kaname curiously assessed her.

"I didn't understand the enormity of your blood loss. If you habitually consume a lot of blood at a young age, you'll have to keep increasing it as you grow older otherwise—"

He lifted to his superlative height and drifted toward the drink cart. "There will be no otherwise."

Very much like his grandfather and father, Kaname disproved blood slavery where vampires and humans only lived to provide blood to purebloods. Most did not last long. Katashi Kuran was famous for these attributes during thousands of years of kingship. Even though Lord Kuran didn't reign for long, he expelled slavery. Everyone was aware of their powers, and now purebloods were not allowed to drain without permission.

The transition to blood tablets launched under Lord Kuran's reign, who believed it would help vampires train their hunger as well as suppress it. Since its inception, the quality of the tablets had improved. Kirrin requested the best scientists to create a delectable formula, so vampires enjoyed it. Like all vampires came to know with age their tastes changed, and their hunger remained charged. Despite the progression blood tablets made, it couldn't rival the taste of fresh blood. Especially blood of a loved one.

"I said I'd get strong so you don't have to protect me. I meant it." Yuuki contemplated the pureblood's back as he hovered various canteens of tablets and liquor.

"I took your word for it." Kaname hummed a little too easily for her amusement.

If one knew Kaname, he wasn't the type to let her battle noxious vampires. If one knew Yuuki, she wasn't the type to take no for an answer and do what she pleased without his knowing. Despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to keep her in one place, and despite her efforts, she hadn't been able to placate his fear of losing her.

"I believed blood therapy would make me healthy in addition to your blood."

"Your habit of comparison is a disadvantage to us." He replied without thought. "You're stronger than you were but continue to believe you're not strong enough—like you believed you're not good enough to be queen or min—"

"I get it." Yuuki shot up.

Kaname, who hadn't turned his back to look, sipped his blood drink.

"I'll stop looking down on myself."

"Strong or not, nothing will stop my protecting you." He stated.

"I didn't ask for it." She huffed impatiently.

"I didn't ask you to help fight Rido."

She paled. He paused and checked over his shoulder. "Kaname…" Her tone dimmed in warning. Though the vowels were drawn out, they didn't contain their usual liveliness.

He regarded her detachedly and blinked once. "…Yuuki."

"We don't underestimate you. We want to help you."

"We." A tinge of sarcasm blackened the word on his lips.

"The Right Hands, Shizuka-sama and I." Yuuki approached and straightened the large crown with a hand. "Everyone wants to help."

"You are to remain as far away as possible from Rido."

She understood he was not demeaning or unconvinced of her abilities. In fact, Kaname always supported, loved and encouraged her to stay true to herself and cultivate her noble-blooded powers. They never agreed on the subject, and so she wasn't surprised by his response.

She was shaking her head at the floor deploringly. Kaname placed his empty glass back. When he reverted, she was trembling with tears chiseling her flushed cheeks. "You are not allowed to die." It was an order, a plea or a prayer. "You are my family, my home, and I cannot have Rido hurt you. I won't." Behind the shield of tears, a black wall abruptly found her.

She was slammed into it and pinned against its warmth as his arms clenched across her bare back. His heart pounded in her ears, consoling her fears of abandonment and further rusting them to nonexistence. She relaxed, but he'd grown quite comfortable in their stance. One hand stroked her back, and the other pressed her to him.

His warmth heralded her mind and soul, a seductive enclave she endeared sharing. Beneath his durable exterior resided an abnormal current of power, she hadn't known existed. Again, she remembered she was alone in the malevolent arms of a pureblood. Only she saw herself sink in tranquility and pleasure. Be it she knew him, or he grew on her, either way, Yuuki couldn't find an ounce of fear or worry. She rendered herself entirely vulnerable as a vampire and a woman and in return, Kaname dropped his guard and ego.

His heart and blood crusaded her walls of self-restraint. Like the echo of the ocean in seashells, his blood lured her to its temple where she yielded in prayer. Hard to imagine there was a time she spurned his blood. Now used to its persuasive taste, it relieved her of aches and pacified her hunger. Kaname's pure blood invigorated her taste buds, nestled juicily in the back of her throat, excited her mind on contact and the belts of her stomach knotted in anticipation at the rejuvenating properties. Beyond that, Yuuki crumbled from lust—out of her soul and spirit, it was the blood of the creature she violently desired, adored…loved.

Heaven and hell knew he felt the same.

She gulped down the piercing ache in her throat and shifted. His arms loosened but never untethered.

In the last two years, Kaname provided her with pure blood in abundance to fortify their blood bond and the permanence of their connection. Sure enough, it expanded her hunger. He needed to regain the blood he lost. There existed no higher delight than drinking a lover's blood; she let him drink from her.

He didn't need to read her body language. Simply with a tear of his nail, Kaname opened his wrist and varnished her sight with divine, pure blood. It tapped the floor between their shoes and twisted ropes around his wrist and palm.

Yuuki hissed at the back of her throat, eyes alive and fangs peeking.

Kaname studied her in magnanimous patience and astute. "The smell is affecting you."

The blood vessels in her eyes ripened, and her fangs burned in her gums. The smell of Kaname's blood was not sweet or light like sunny rain. It was damp, thick, almost murky with a trace of light poking in a mountain cavity.

"Take it, Yuuki." Kaname offered as she panted.

She hadn't been able to avert from the uninterrupted blood oozing out of the wound. Impatiently she licked her lips and snatched a fistful of Kaname's robe. "It's not that I wanted to violate our promise, I didn't want to hurt or kill you once I submitted to crave." She hurriedly unraveled the silk buttons.

"I'm aware, Yuuki." Skittish eagerness invaded him once her mouth planted on the side of his neck.

The smell of the blood she craved was mind numbing. She crunched in the first layer of skin and plunged past the healing attributes that prevented contact with the blood and sucked feverishly. Kaname drew her against the column of his body. She rested heavily on him, hooked both arms around his broad shoulders.

Instantly her body felt refreshed, coaxed by the seduction of permanent restoration and pleasure. Just for a moment, she turned away from the crumbling reality of her loneliness that served a refuge with Kaname. And at that moment, she ran far and free and breathed renewed air that filled her lungs akin the love of her parent's embrace. It mollified her frantic cells. Finally, the crave screaming inside her dispelled. She was healed and rekindled out of the earth like seeds into plants.

Ever so observant, Kaname watched the flowers by the windows bloom from buds and spread petals across the desk. Vines swished from trees outside, and the windows vibrated out of the fermented powers she channeled.

Yuuki broke away in stern panic to control herself and gave him a glance over. He peered at her assuredly and licked her mouth of the residue. She would be lying if she said that was enough. Five minutes later she would crave him again.

"What if I told you there is no such thing as 'satisfaction?' Ultimately all vampires need to return drinking blood after 'thinking' they are full." He remarked.

"That satisfaction is an illusion." She picked his bloodied hand and tongued his wrist slowly, then the palm and fingers.

Kaname's expression was far from its general remoteness. His eyes flickered with specks of black-red shimmers, fangs severer than knives, unveiled behind lips as he resumed. "You can calm the mind by believing you are full temporarily. In the end, you're searching for an outlet."

Yuuki pursed her lips. "My hunger comes from a basic and instinctive level. I don't seek your blood to quiet my mind but,"

He thumbed traces of blood on the corner of her mouth. His touch was possessive yet gentle. She lost herself in the sensation and closed her eyes.

"My body requires it to feel whole. You are in my veins, a part of me, at my core sharing my body with me, pumping around my heart. No, I can't be satisfied. I'll never stop craving your blood. The blood lust is too great."

His eyes softened, and he enclosed her tiny hands in his. "Our blood bond is strong because you remain open-hearted and honest. Inside you thrives an unbridled light full of love you shared with me years ago, unaware of whom I was, a stranger and a pureblood watching over you. You loved me completely. My crave started long before I took you to the territory."

Her hands appeared minuscule and powerless inside his sturdier, larger ones.

"I trust you, Yuuki," Kaname whispered. It had taken him long, self-contempt years to trust another being. Trust was foreign and new to him, but he understood it enough not to resist it.

• * •

With the evening gala underway, he was allowed the necessary discretion. He plunged high and low, went as far as the chapel and the woods. Palace guards stood vigilant of characters specially invited to the gala, the last of many celebrations of Yuuki's coronation. As the palace closed the gates from the public for a private function, he wanted to believe his nerves would finally calm.

Sadly, it had yet to happen.

The infirmary was deserted. Takuma lost all patience waiting for the physician and realized—belatedly—when the banquet ended the man had yet to appear. Takuma rounded back to the halls and made a clean trek to Kaname's office. A vague shadow impeded him from a considerable distance.

Shiki folded his arms and regarded him for a good second. "We missed you at the banquet earlier."

"There are urgent matters to attend to." Takuma strode past him.

Shiki raised a brow but followed close. "More than the celebration?"

"Yes." Takuma clenched his fists and gave him a glance. He sighed exasperatingly. "Like you didn't know already. You've been following me most of the night."

"I can't help my alliance toward you." Shiki shrugged.

Takuma chuckled, forcefully if not so, "No need to feel concerned about me. I'm doing fine."

Shiki lightly grabbed him by the forearm. The blond glared at the move. "Are you?"

"I don't regret what I did."

"I know. I don't undervalue your loyalty. But are you alright?" He asked concernedly.

Green eyes gleamed in pain and shamefully looked away.

Shiki released him apologetically. "Dark places are not suited for bright people like you. You submitted your life to him. He won't mind your taking time off."

"I've been taking steps." Takuma quickly confessed, "To be a better person."

"Why does that have Yuuki written all over it?" Shiki wondered in mild humor.

Takuma grinned. "She's kind to me and feels responsible for what happened."

A silence passed. "Rima and I, we don't judge you," Shiki revealed.

A quiet smile warmed his strained countenance, and his eyes vivified. "Thanks, it means a lot to me."

Shiki indicated Kaname's office. "Will you tell me what's going on?"

Takuma hastily led the way and closed the door after Shiki. A shadow by the desk leaped and dropped the object it held. Papers flooded the floor. Shiki tipped the light on and waited for the individual to collect herself.

Sayori glanced between the men and closed the folder with an aggravated scowl. "Her lab results are normal."

Takuma hadn't stirred from the door and assessed the office devoid of its owner. "Where is Kaname?"

Sayori had been watching him with a smug look. "Impatient, aren't we?"

"You'd be too." Takuma returned.

Her head snapped up to attention. "Oh? He's with Yuuki. It might take him a long while."

Not missing the hint, Takuma scraped a hand through his hair in apprehension. "The gala needs to proceed without interruption. It looks like we need to take the matter in our hands."

"What matter?" Sayori padded toward the men.

"The matter where the palace physician has gone missing."

• * •

Curtains cruised through the windows. Soft mosaic glittered from the ceiling down to the leather booths and bar. Shiki's lounge sat idly in the warm glow of heat lamps. Serene piano music filtered with lukewarm deftness across the empty room. She stirred the blood tablets in her vodka futilely and stared up at the distant stars that might lull her mind since the drink couldn't.

The coronation celebrations were unending, and it had thinned her patience. While the rest of the entourage hustled to accommodate purebloods and maintain their resourcefulness, she had no desire to offer her time or energy. It had been a restless couple of months preparing and handholding Yuuki, simply in lieu of the fact that Kaname appointed her to be at Yuuki's side. He made her inconsiderately dress her on the eve of their wedding. Earlier she'd repeated the task on her coronation.

She loved being a Right Hand. Someone who was trusted and relied upon by a pureblood that protected humans and vampires. It was wonderful they also grew up together.

If Ruka remembered, she never left his side. Hers was a humble job, and he depended on her quicker than their entourage, occasionally more than Takuma, whose sincere reputation was unbeatable. Slowly over the years, she watched Kaname, mysterious and magnificent, a fantasy she chased indolently. After his mentor and parent's death, Kaname detached from everyone, but Ruka could've sworn she held a treasured place, if not his heart than in his mind.

He looked at her warmly and trusted her with tasks difficult to convey. She understood him. He was lonely and eventually, his isolation became a shield. If he didn't trust the Elders Council or other Right Hands, he trusted Ruka. She bet her life on the fact. Even though he was tender toward her, and even though, he was betrothed to another, Ruka continued to mount cenotaphs of affection, desire, longing, and love for the pureblood.

Kaname might have suspected her feelings but remained indifferent. He had the instinct to read people on sight and smell. It should've hurt, but her mind and heart were imbued with the man. Come to think of it the reality of her situation wasn't so bad, she was too lost watching and following him wherever he asked her to be. He deserved to be with someone of equal caliber.

From childhood, Ruka knew he was meant to be with another pureblood. It didn't hurt that he and Sara announced their wedding date as the palace hastily prepared for their big day. Not one bit.

What had hurt was the sight of bruises on Yuuki's thighs when the maids bathed her on the night of their wedding. It scarred her deep. How he repeatedly protected her and asked Ruka each time to assist Yuuki on her every need. She was no noble's right hand—she was Kaname's Right Hand.

Nails cut through the flesh of her palm. She unclenched her fists and quelled her fury with a shaky breath.

What followed afterward was evident. Kaname went above and beyond, risked his life, kingship, and honor for her. It angered Ruka to no end, and it was for him alone she controlled her resentment. Now Yuuki was the pureblood queen, powerful and—most of all loved by Kaname. It was not fair how a below-average vampire snaked a pureblood's heart. She'd never seen Kaname genuinely undone at someone's mercy. Yuuki had him eating out of her hands.

It baffled and infuriated Ruka. She swigged her drink and hissed from the bitterness of the alcohol.

A hand snatched her barren glass. The dark-haired vampire sniffed the ring. His brows lifted in surprise before returning the glass. The Lord tilted on his elbow at the counter and arrested her with smoldering crimson eyes.

Ruka yelped and offered a clumsy bow out of her seat. "Lo-Lord Kuran, did you need something?"

"I'll let you know." Lord Kuran glanced away from the almost empty vodka bottle under the shelf. "Why is a Right Hand dawdling at a bar when there's work to be done?"

She flushed and bowed with a heavy heart. "I apologize. Please, excuse me."

Lord Kuran didn't have the wit to be rude to women. He had trouble watching them tear and stammer and felt oddly responsible for their reactions. He reasoned siring sons resulted in his directness. What was with his luck and weeping women lately? First, Yuuki, now Ruka. He had picked up a few tricks from softhearted gentlemen like Nagamichi. On that train of thought, he patted his dinner jacket and fished a handkerchief ready.

Ruka blinked at the item.

"Wipe your face." He ordered and proceeded to pour himself a glass.

She hadn't realized she'd been crying. Embarrassed out of her mind, Ruka turned away in dire need to regain some ounce of composure and cleaned the unruly trail of mascara down her cheeks.

"Do girls believe they're pretty when they cry?" Lord Kuran voiced and waited for answers from the ceiling.

Ruka folded the handkerchief neatly and returned it to him.

He gave it a disdained look, "I don't want that dirty thing." He prompted her to sit and sampled his drink.

Ruka took her chair and watched him refill her glass.

"You're not pretty when you cry." He offered her the drink.

Ruka nodded respectfully. "Thank you for the honesty, my lord."

"So what the hell happened?"

She blinked into her glass and another surge of tears erupted. "N-nothing, Kuran-sama. Celebrations are a time filled with great friendship and happiness."

He didn't buy it obviously and stared beadily down at her, grumbling. "Your mother was a shrewd liar than you."

Ruka looked up, "My mother?"

"All the damn time, yes!" Lord Kuran avidly exploded. "Were it up to her, I didn't have the right to hold any close relationships, not even with my wife. She said our friendship meant more than any relationship each had. Of course, she loved your father."

"He wasn't a pureblood." Ruka tested her liquor and bit her lip.

"He was a better man for it and an excellent Right Hand."

A faint smile eased the tension in her brows and smoothed her satin face. Her heart reposed in the memory of her treasured parents. The palace and public spoke of them honorably. She was certain it was due to the man on her right.

"You were close to her." Ruka waited for him to bob his head. "Would you miss her if she left your side?"

Lord Kuran beat the reverberant trajectories of the thought quietly.

He and Rumi were closer than he and Nagamichi. She looked out for him and loved him openly and did not care about the repercussions. Ryou often laughed but thought nothing of it. He was just as firmly loyal to Lord Kuran. It was not that he would miss his best friend, but that he did miss Rumi Souen, his Right Hand, every infernal day of his eternal life. His love for Harumi was infinite, but the bright-eyed and passionate Rumi had been a part of his heart since he was a little boy.

He may miss Rumi more than his wife.

Hell, he did.

"Every damn day." Lord Kuran whispered between the thread of emotion and swallowed the vodka urgently.

It was amazing devoting to a lover; nonetheless, it would've been better to share ideas with her. Due to Harumi's severe episodes, he was removed from having a friendship with her. Most of his life he cared and provided for her. Rumi readily came to his aid. She knew him and never failed to remind him of her loyalty, that friendship dominated everything they had.

She may have been right. After seven hundred years Lord Kuran felt his conscience admit in the furtive unwind of old age.

"Is it because she was downright loyal and did everything for you?" Her question was laced with self-doubt and pained curiosity. She did spend her entire life in the palace shadowing Kaname like a puppet. Sometimes she never thought twice about herself. She did whatever, whenever he wanted.

Lord Kuran blinked at the vodka. He could care less about what Rumi did. A lot of the times she defied him because she believed her judgment was greater than his despite the fact that he was a king.

She was right about that too. Lord Kuran snuck a grin behind a knuckled fist.

If he were honest, it didn't matter she was a Right Hand or loyal. He always felt relieved when Rumi was at his side. They trusted and depended on each other, and she never emasculated him for marrying Harumi.

"Not at all." Lord Kuran murmured with tongue heavy with liquor, "She never needed to do anything for me. I valued her exactly as she was."

"Did you…" Ruka clenched her glass, as if it were her sanity, "Love her?" Gasping from the power of the liquor, she blushed and disapproved her line of question. "I'm sorry, I didn't—Lord Kuran, please forgive me."

Lord Kuran chuckled and patted her strawberry blond head. "You're alright, daughter of Rumi Souen. You carry your mother's steadfast loyalty, her bluntness, and spirit. She meant a great deal to me. I won't vilify the memories I have of her by lying. She was hard not to love."

Ruka chewed her lip. Her fingers clamped around the glass, turning pallid by the second. "Pureblood Royals can feel that way toward their Right Hands."

"Of course." Lord Kuran considered her, "You may know Kaname better than Yuuki. You've been by his side longest. Doesn't he refer to you as—ah, what was it?"

"His rib."

His lips parted at the funny name. "Rib?"

Ruka's eyes chilled on the drink. "Close and around his intrepid heart, I protect him in an intimate way no Right Hand does."

His eyes narrowed. "…Yes."

She tipped her head back and finished her drink in a single gulp.

Lord Kuran released his drink in contemplation. "It must be hard watching him go to someone else."

"I cherish our king and remain loyal only to him."

"Your efforts are appreciated." Slowly he poured her another glass and combed his mind for wiser words, "We don't take our Right Hands for granted. Your dedication is blatant, he trusts you."

She glared at the island of bottles behind the bar. "Ever since our late heikas died, he hasn't been able to trust family or Right Hand. I tried piteously and followed every order accurately, but the wall around his heart stayed. Isn't it funny?" Tears fled from her eyes onto her cheeks. "I, Ruka Souen, protector of my king's heart, was never able to earn his trust. He never let me in. Until she came—he gave her everything in a heartbeat."

Lord Kuran quieted in the drum of her sharp pain. Each violent gnaw hit him in the solar plexus.

A gasp wheezed through her trembling lips. "When you look at them, all you see are two people melting in one. She possesses him and doesn't realize it."

Cautiously he touched her stiffened back. She bent her head on her fist at the counter. "Ruka…"

"I'm not supposed to let him down. Somehow, a part of me says I have. He couldn't trust me or let me in. How can I protect his heart?"

"Kaname trusts you with his life." Lord Kuran whispered and patted her lightly on the shoulder as a tribute of comfort. "You can't tell, but he trusts you more than you think. You will never let anything hurt him."

She wiped her face, nodding. "...es."

"He never meant to overlook you. If he didn't trust you, why would he ask you of that? As for Yuuki, that child didn't plan on loving him. She gives his heart light, to thrive. You're tasked with virtue to keep his heart, his life secure. Knowing his discretions, allow me to apologize on his behalf."

Ruka's head snapped up incredulously and bounded out her seat. "No, Lord Kuran!"

He smiled wistfully down at her. "My grandson isn't good with words. He's an excellent observer. Your demeanor must've affected him, but he didn't bother you with it."

"He knows a lot about everyone." Ruka agreed. "I never slackened my duties and took his orders to heart."

"I'm certain of it." Lord Kuran murmured gloomily, "You can be less harsh on yourself. Kaname needs you on his side more than ever."

She smiled weakly and bowed. "Thank you."

Lord Kuran reached for his drink. "No problem."

"I should get going. Enjoy your drink." She turned on her heel soundlessly.

Swirling his glass, Lord Kuran watched her across the distance. "It's not because she and you are noble-blooded vampires."

She stopped and turned slightly.

He frowned, "Doesn't take long to be convinced no one in the world is trustworthy before loneliness creeps in. He feels an affinity with Yuuki. It surprised him. Kaname isn't the type to replace the shadow of someone's essence from his heart, no matter how big or little. You're not any less valuable because of her presence in his heart."

"He trusts her," Ruka admitted with strong conviction.

A worried scowl yielded his black brows. "Yes, Ruka. You need to trust him and allow him to be the pureblood he is."

She sighed at the floor. "I hope you can erase our conversation from memory."

Lord Kuran pried the glass from his lips. "What conversation?"

Ruka grinned and opened the doors.

• * •

The doors reared solidly. Not a leaf thwarted its lock or rocks wedged open a crack. Blocked from the world, the occupants basked in a world of their own. An unknown domain portended by walls and ceilings. Even the chandeliers and curtains running adrift in the open window knew about things that threatened to contaminate her lucidity.

Oh, if she only were a mosaic in the shattered ceiling. A prickly glass, unnoticeable and untouchable, and hear Kaname speak effortless odes of love, so unfathomable and elusive to mankind—apart from her. That place beside him belonged to a person he protected and worshiped.

Worshiped.

The word bred a ravenous fire in her mind. Kaname was incomparable, no one suited to dwell by his side.

No one.

She found her way to be next to him by serving him. When he offered a hand to his mate, she painfully realized he was married. That he belonged to another and that he was not hers to touch. And Ruka tried for years to expunge her feelings. Every struggle, sticky with defeat and anguish, tarnished her will to breathe tomorrow. Somehow, he became her reason to wake up day after day. To comb her hair back and attempt to smile.

Each Right Hand had his or her purpose to serve the king. Hers was rooted in Kaname's existence. Such was the life of Ruka Souen, who loved her king so much, she was willing to follow him in the slithering volcanos of hell.

It should be disquieting. On the other side, Yuuki caressed the door handle. And yet, it's not. The door parted to reveal the startled Right Hand.

Her eyes chased the shadows beyond Yuuki, thirsty for its favorite subject. Bitten by his nonappearance, she removed herself from the doorway. "The party is about to start. The guests are waiting."

Yuuki morphed through the slit between the doors, a creature out of her world of darkness and flinched in the illumination. "Before I go, can you do me a favor?"

Ruka stabled a composed stare on the brunette who offered a gold box sealed in ivory ribbons. "This is?"

"I thought it'd be wonderful if Sayori tried something new."

Not knowing why but she accepted the parcel. "I'll pass it on to her."

"It's time for her to move on from my brother."

"Wise move." Ruka approved.

Yuuki contemplated the slender woman with divine strawberry-gold hair framing a graceful face currently shaded in warm emotion, impatience or emotional pellucidity. She remained guarded around Yuuki, and to be caught trying to listen in the door was undignified.

Two. Just two.

"..wo"

Ruka came to a strained stop. "Did you say something?" In the gap stood the Right Hand who avoided her and loved her husband more than life itself.

"Two." She looked up, eyes dull with acceptance. "More than anyone, he needs these two. More than myself." Her steps flowed gracefully over the floor, hardly touching that it seemed she hovered in front of Ruka.

"What are you getting at?" Ruka frowned.

"Takuma keeps him steady and level-headed. And," Yuuki held her with soft eyes. "You're the second one he can't live without."

For the longest time, Ruka stared and felt her mouth give away a bitter scoff. "Cch. Nonsense."

"I can try as much as I want but I know. It's not me that can protect Kaname from himself. You've been part of him his whole life." She smiled sadly, "I don't even have to tell you because you know him too well. Can't I read into another woman's heart and speak her will—even if she refuses to relieve herself of its truth?"

Ruka clenched her teeth. "You don't know anything." She mouthed.

"Maybe." Yuuki nodded. "But I know you can't bear leaving him."

"I am his Right Hand."

Yuuki beamed. "It's you he can't be without, Ruka. Not me."

She mauled over Yuuki's words and halted under the shiver of acknowledgment fluttering in her blood stream. She wanted to laugh hard, but a lax smirk loosened her pearly fangs into view, glinting as she shook her head.

"Please, don't deny it," Yuuki said. "Don't ever deny how much you mean to him and the royal household. Don't even for a second assume he'll be ok without you."

Hurriedly, she tried to disprove, but she realized the charges crushed in the back of her throat. "—He loves you." Ruka croaked. Too vain of an argument, she peevishly looked away as heat darkened her face.

"He's my family. Can't I have something in this life to call my own?" Defeated by the loss for the millionth time, she flinched. Year after year, corroding inside furiously, the loss of many she loved summoned an emptiness. She understood it, and she knew better than to latch onto temporary relief that even Kaname, who was permanently eternal, seemed impermanent.

This is what happens when you get used to losing people. Yuuki realized in indignant, blood-curling fear. You start to see everyone as temporary.

"He was your family since you were children," Yuuki said evenly. "I entered his life a few years ago, but you were always there. I can't possibly step in your light. For however long he's by my side, can't I love him too?"

Her fist clamped agonizingly, blood splattered the floor, barely missing her dress. She huffed in disbelief. Her piercing eyes turned from Yuuki. "Why are you saying these things?" Ruka rasped against the imminent threat of bile in her throat.

"You're incomparable." Yuuki had said without a pause. A practiced haunt that cleaved out of her mind finally. Though she spoke with an affluence of serenity, it cost lots of self-control to admit it.

Despite Yuuki's well-meaning and frank disposition, Ruka couldn't help but feel robbed. Leaving the halls, she found herself a bench overlooking the ideally catered garden. Moonlight smoldered the rippling grass in torrents of white. She set the parcel aside and hung her head.

One of the glass doors opened in controlled silence and the silhouette cut over the threshold. Kain's eyes lit in concern, and a solid frown bolted around his mouth in contemplation.

"I've been looking for you." Kain started to extend a hand but noticed her falter back. "Why are you here alone?"

"I've spent years hating her." The confession peppered her eyes like a cloud of sand. "I don't have the right to show my face."

An incessant witness of her uncontrolled and wretched heartbreak, Kain could blame Kaname. He desperately wanted to, but the pureblood wasn't injuring Ruka purposefully. Her feelings were her responsibility and Kaname becoming hers was improbable. It's not like they didn't see it coming.

"Do you think she-" Ruka pierced her words with a stubborn fang, "She knew I hated her?"

Kain passed a hand on the rail and burrowed his gaze down the overflowing fountain as the sound of night creatures unfurled around him. "Kaname knew of your feelings. We all did."

It was no secret. For some reason, it heightened Ruka's shame. "I'm horrible."

Kain's ears tweaked. "Ruka, I'll discard my ties and leave this life behind. I can do that for you if you'll let me. I'd be grateful to take you far away."

She wiped her eyes dry. "I've tried."

He froze. "When?"

"Multiple times." A strained smile sponged her response. "But I couldn't bring myself to leave him."

"You're the most loyal out of all us." Kain resigned.

"Not loyalty. Wishful thinking." She allowed herself temporary sedation in the fact that Kain understood her best. Sometimes that was all that mattered. One person that never judged but unconditionally knew her. Kain determinedly upheld his place. "Why, Kain?" Ruka chorused in the wailing breeze.

His brows cluttered above his eyes. For a moment, they quivered with emotion, and he dropped his gaze from its passionate weight. "I suppose I'm a lot like you. We can't give up on the people we love."

• * •

Masaru Hayashi had purchased a crippling shack in the countryside. Free of luxuries and comfort—discounting his sake and the little current of electricity propelling the unreachable countryside—he chose a simple and humble life alone and had a coffin in a separate compound. When the time was right, Masaru would resign to the age-old spell purebloods conformed and slumber. He'd slumber for millenniums until a stupid human cracked open his coffin. Not understanding the offensively decomposed corpse, there stood a good chance he'd end up in a museum for future generations to ogle and become the subject of an unpleasant spiel on pureblood origins.

"Really?"

He paused the champagne glass against his lips and raised brows at the appealing silhouette swirling her toast. He executed a noise in his throat, close to a grunt or growl out of stubborn frustration. "Stop reading my aura. Those are not your powers."

She would've apologized, but it was too late. "You're dead wrong for believing you'll dangle on a museum wall." Yuuki consumed her glass in one swallow. "I won't let that happen."

How unlikable was it at one point the woman showed up at his home, drenched in mud, pleading him to resume the civil rights movement, was reigning queen, not consort?

He stared at the documents awaiting her designations. "No second thoughts."

She set her glass loudly and pondered its emptiness.

"Kaname-sama wants to share his royal title and power with you."

"He's clever," Yuuki smirked coldly. "He knows if something were to happen, I'd have to fulfill his plans in his place. That's how he is." She met Masaru's eyes, free of emotion, "While everyone plays checkers, he plays chess. Fooling everybody is his specialty."

Masaru found no enjoyment in his drink and put it away. "The Hunters require assistance working with him due to his threatening moods. But we've made it custom to seek you before him. We believe any news concerning the Hunters Association coming from you sounds like bird chirp and violin string to his ears. Kaname-sama is incapable of keeping his guard around you. But if you sense he has a hidden agenda—"

She was shaking her head and folded her arms. "Tomorrow is too significant a day to play it cool. We rushed my coronation, upheaved my powerless consort status. Today I am as equal a queen as he is pureblood king."

"I don't claim to have a superior understanding of his demeanor, but one thing I do know with certainty is he intends to oversee the barrier's removal."

Yuuki slid down the table and picked up the pen. She signed the documents that marked her status change. With a somber sigh, she stood back. "A non-pureblood vampire has joined the ranks of purebloods."

Masaru compiled the documents and sealed the envelope. He tucked it under his coat and studied her downcast profile. "You've been good to the crown and royal family." He reassured, "The purebloods will—"

"Resent me." Yuuki said, her mask too impeccable and unstrained, "They've never toasted to a non-pureblood. How can I ignore their wish for me to die? This is no utopia."

"To be a good leader you must look at the bigger picture and not get distracted by current circumstances however deadly they may be." Masaru left the room and Yuuki to her assimilations.

She was in debt to the man. He could've chosen his lackluster country home and soul-shriveling life. He fought with her brother and honored the late Kuran heikas. At her bid, he came bearing nothing but fierce loyalty and fair-minded command as the Royal Minister of the Hunters Association. Vampires with moral were on the decline, but those harboring Masaru's integrity and strength were the foundations of Kaname's legislation.

Two subtle knocks on the door spurred Yuuki on her feet. She greeted a succession of maids assigned to chart last minute modifications to her gown. She'd been wandering without the substantial crown, an unroyal custom, but she didn't look forward to having her neck crushed by its weight. Not to mention it was rather hackneyed.

She imagined Arisu choking her barehanded at the stream of thought.

They were the same faces and hands that prepped Yuuki on her wedding night. It seemed a lifetime ago her delightful maids had been part of her transition from sacrifice to consort. Today she celebrated a form of power alienated from low-leveled vampires. From the inception of the vampire kind purebloods led. She was meant to deliver an impressive speech without disarming their protection.

Yuuki had cultures of supporters. Humans, the aristocrats, and common vampires were a significant party. She was astutely aware purebloods were not on her side for obvious reasons, but she dismissed negative mental chatter no matter how disturbing.

She closed her eyes once the beautiful crown was placed with the accordance of pins. Her maids circulated under a current of mumbles. Yuuki's brows furrowed at their speedy handwork and impenetrable silence. She could hear through the walls if she focused harder. Although an exceptional skill, Yuuki didn't desire to peer into people's thoughts and secrets. It encumbered her peace, which she loved.

An unerringly distinct sensation caressed her shoulders. She sucked in her breath sharply and stared at the locked door. The psychic pull was avaricious. Her hands curled into fists in a preemptive fashion. Silence pillared, debatably the maids searched the trembling queen. The door plunged open to a wall heralded by shadows. She panted lightly in the decadent aroma of blood that hurtled her sense of judgment. Casually the shadow slanted against the doorway. Gray flickered incandescent white, hands in sleeves, draped across his waist and red eyes seared Yuuki.

She shuddered and the shadows deflated. A face clear to the eye, fastened by a reflective mouth and flawlessly draped by black hair. Her fingers twitched in demonstrative need to run through them. His gaze wasn't warm but crusaded hungrily over her. An electrifying jolt teethed across her skin in response. The room dulled to smoke, a shroud of tears glittered in her eyes. Maids circuited Yuuki. Her gloves rested on the table, ready to be worn. They made a quick order with tasks despite her lack of attention. Her cheeks reddened as she breathed unevenly. It dawned on her the nervousness had little to do with the impending speech and more to do with the vigilant man.

"Ladies." Yuuki gasped at his ravening eyes. "I can take it from here, thank you."

He straightened without a sound. If she blinked, she could've missed him approach. She caressed her quivering throat. Suddenly he was in front of her. An orchestra of thumps permeated the empty room. She relaxed marginally. A sigh squeezed through red lips before crawling back in her parted mouth. Starved eyes imprisoned Yuuki, curdling her blood with its sway.

He halted an unyielding impend over her. Her hand nestled into listless fists again, improbable of repelling. Their eyes had yet to shift from each other. Considering her vertiginous intake of breath and edginess, he heard her swallow faithlessly, a nervous-wreck no doubt. She hadn't even memorized her speech.

His resolute eyes nipped her in mystery. She tasted his crisp, unruly pureblood scent on her tongue. Kaname searched her blushed face. The weak hastening of breath amused him, however, not as much as the elusive pink tongue licking her bottom lip. A fang succeeded and pinched before withdrawing.

That's my job. Kaname clenched his jaw.

She stared widely up at him. Her crown winked in secret language.

"Shall I-?"

"No." She read him clearly.

Kaname gaped at her freshly bitten lip. "You're nervous."

"Very." Her chest bounced as she responded.

He traded his ceremonial robes. Fixed at the base of his elegant throat a Fleur de Lis pin proliferated his cravat. A gold-buttoned waistcoat in garnet, like his eyes, appeared cozily tucked inside a black overcoat. His cuffs were at a particular length, links of lilies knotted at an angle, never inching past his wrist. The man looked unbelievably handsome. No wonder women in his vicinity were in love with him.

Her eyes instinctively caught his equally possessive stare.

His fangs glinted. It was all Yuuki glimpsed before brusquely meeting his hard chest with bone-shattering force. His mouth seized hers hotly. She softened in his irrepressibly constrictive arms. Feet dangling, hands knotting in his hair, Yuuki moaned in grueling lust. His hands slid across her back and squeezed her derrière. He deepened the kiss, and she felt her back rest on a cool surface. Kaname opened his eyes when he felt her shiver.

She gasped on the table. A test of time and hunger, Kaname claimed her swollen lips. Yuuki insistently tugged him down. Her thighs tingled from a collective sensation of investigating fingers. They charged up the slit, hoisting her gown against the table's edge. He explored her throat, tongue lapped and nibbled on skin.

Yuuki buried her face in his shoulder. "Is this your idea of monarchal induction?"

He was quick and tugged the bands of her undergarment out of the way. Kaname branded kisses across her collarbone. "This is my idea of distracting you from the gala." He thumbed her bottom lip and silenced her whimpers with a kiss.

It worked extremely well. Yuuki forgot everything, the time and place, her name. Kaname pushed her thighs apart and knelt. Automatically she fidgeted and intended to shove him, but he held her down and trailed kisses along her inner thigh. Yuuki's eyes rolled heavenward when he probed her with his tongue. She saw stars and clenched his hair. The room spun. The flowers on the table erupted into fire.

"F-fire!" Yuuki wheezed.

Kaname pinned her in place and lifted smoky eyes.

"Fl-flowers." Yuuki pointed.

He didn't seem to care one bit but climbed to his height in a languid move. He waved the vases that consisted the room. In turn, the flames dissipated. He leaned in with utmost concern to her beckoning neck. A hand trailed between her thighs and slid inside her.

She trembled with throes of pleasure and clung to him, needing more of his touch. Her thigh curled around his hip. In his hair, a strong hand bent him toward her. He nibbled her bottom lip and tugged her by the chin in an intense kiss.

A string of knocks accorded from the door.

Kaname kissed her with a fierceness that made her gums ache. He pulled away and weaseled his fingers out of her. She was scarlet and flustered, unable to move under his hover. Another testing knock came to, snatching her focus back to reality.

Yuuki collected herself and managed on wobbling feet. His purposeful arm slid around her waist to steady her. She flinched and pushed it aside, distrustful of her reaction if he touched her again. With a determined shake of her head, she led them out of the office.

As Kaname doted on his gorgeous wife whom he loved with his heart and soul in a dress of his preferred color, cerise, of course—that contrasted the paleness of her skin and matched the red depth of her eyes. It fit her well enough to a distracting degree and accentuated her white shoulders that were trekked by his kisses. Her narrow waist and modest but steady rounded hips he loved gripping and tugging on top of him as she rocked—

Hmm.

Kaname speculated overdue theories he wanted to demonstrate to his wife. By the time the evening ended, he'd ascertain her blush matched the dress. Judging by his handwork, she was ready to burst.

Not long from now.

He couldn't wait either. Yuuki was gnawing her lip absently and touched her crown for the umpteenth time. The scent of her nervousness among other things tugged his blood. She stopped fidgeting and looked at him out of expectation. Eyes wide, hungry and ardent, and he wasn't about to tell her to stop. Not when he was giving her a hungry gaze of his own. She was panting lightly and evenly under her breath. Her lips opened and trembled beneath the desire that enveloped her frame with shivers.

'Shall we not go?' He wanted to inquire.

'Many are waiting.' But her eyes told him otherwise.

She turned a deeper shade of red as he leaned in her face. "You're free to do what you want. By the end of tonight, I will have you." Under his watch, her lips trembled again. He thoroughly enjoyed the effect he had on her. It was sinfully marvelous how she melted in his arms after so many years.

Yuuki gasped with excruciating want and peered in his eyes. "It's going to be a long night." She challenged.

Kaname was excruciatingly accommodating and patient she came to learn in the past. He was also determined to make do with his wishes. When he said, he'd have her; nothing could stop him. She'd have little say in the matter, not that she complained. It was just startling how she battled with desire while he looked impeccably comfortable.

She licked her lips. Mere moments ago, she quivered immodestly as Kaname licked her cunt. Standing before her he looked fresh and innocent. No one could tell the things his mouth said and how it stirred her world. She could still feel his tongue massaging her between her legs. Hot and soft, lick. Hot and soft. Over and over. She wanted to scream.

The door was opening.

Kaname hadn't moved. He tasted the finger that slipped joyously inside of her.

"Walk away but I'll look for you. And when your eyes meet mine, remember how good it felt and how you shivered and moaned lick after lick after lick…"

She throbbed between her thighs. A fang stabbed her lip.

Two can play this game.

Yuuki raised her face, desire and wicked need curtained her eyes. One fluid step and she stood against him. His head lowered with great resolve to abide her command. Blood outlined her mouth. She pressed on the virile wall of his body. Unbeknownst to Kaname, he hissed twitchily from the scrumptious warmth of her softness. Her breasts margined his broad chest, and her waist lined his torso. A velvet thigh appeared past the slit of her dress. She caressed a stray hair out of his hooded eyes and passed it down his body slowly, lingering on his belt and caressing the evidence of his need for her in his pants.

She could be forward if she wanted. "That's right, Kaname." A hand crawled along the side of her elegant throat. Her back erect as she leaned up on her toes. Her face closing in that his mouth tingled in immeasurable fascination to press into them. "Remember how good it feels to be inside me." Rascally fingers lingered on her collarbone.

His eyes adopted a vicious silver sheen. He snatched Yuuki's delicate wrist within talon-like fingers and rested a hand on her hip. He could feel the tantalizing band of her undergarments within reach again. Kaname's pupils enlarged at the blood on her mouth. He tongued her lips. She moaned in her throat. Her gaze tremulous as the rest of her and met his eyes. What a tongue he had too. The same tongue from not long ago. Ugh, she didn't want to go.

The doors beckoned them. Except neither parties moved or seemed interested.

Yuuki breathed shakily, her face redder than her dress already.

"Go on, Yuuki." Kaname straightened with a phlegmatic smile at his wife. "Don't worry. I'll make you tremble soon," He caressed her right cheek.

She almost plummeted to the floor, her knees wobbled.

"I have seen you in several shades of red than your current hue. I prefer the shade you wear when I touch you, naked." Kaname smirked. "Have your fun. But you're mine tonight."

Yuuki bowed her head as a rush of warm desire collided with self-control.

"The honored guests of the evening. Please, welcome the pureblood king and queen!"

She hadn't looked away from him or his hardly concealed, deleterious smirk. "You're a tease and I'm not a toy." She hissed lustily. Although the idea of being snapped between his beautiful fangs ravished her sanity. She writhed and came hundreds of times under him.

"No, but you belong to me." Said the immortal pureblood king. For he learned many years ago, he couldn't love another as he loved her. He never would.

She looked ready to resist but stopped at his amorous and heated stare.

And you belong to me too.

• * •

Shiki, Toma, Ori, Hanadagi, Shoto.

The shifting landscape of steel-eyed purebloods appeared out of the peripheries of arbitrary silver and gold ripples. Once, she dreaded standing with purebloods. Founders from Rome interweaved with legacies. The undisputable shuffle of pureblood families from over the world compelled a sagacious thread of fear inside of Yuuki, a supposed queen in charge of the vampire specie. Her speech hadn't been too long, or for the matter, too short. The fact that she managed to knit eloquent phrases was an accomplishment. Calmly shaking hands of acerbically dominant purebloods contended with the need to shoot out of the room and never return, but she braced herself and smiled instead.

A tightening grip on her hand slung her back from her reverie. Her head snapped toward the omniscient shadow on her side.

I'm right here. Blazing crimson eyes flickered in silent pledge.

"I don't doubt you." She whispered under her breath before greeting another pureblood couple. Kaname collected a friendly smile out of his ruthless arsenal of expressions and returned the pair a handshake. She allowed herself to relax once they were out of sight. "I am the single non-pureblood here."

"Would you like me to fetch your Right Hands?" He had said that too easily to be serious.

Yuuki took the offered blood-wine from the pureblood maître, not for sampling but to keep her unstable hands busy. "I'm not a child." If she was a mess, the Right Hands didn't stand a chance.

Kaname scrutinized the familiar creatures he acquainted from soirées at the palace. "Did I tell you my parents loved parties?"

"No." Yuuki consumed her glass more anxiously than preferred.

"They had them all the time."

"I guess that makes you the only Kuran who refrains from social assemblies."

"I'm not one for theatrics." The sheer idea irritated him. "They're not here to celebrate."

She hadn't looked up yet her voice was as unblemished and cultivated as a string quartet. "No, they're judging how weak you've become because you chose a non-pureblood queen."

Kaname took her glass and finished the contents. "You're not at fault."

Yuuki stared up composedly.

His arm curled around her bodice and hauled her against him. "If you have difficulty believing me I can guarantee my reasons by escorting you out of this dress." He was inches from her face, mind crawling with images of their prelude to the event.

Never one to doubt him, she didn't need declarations of his sentiments, and despite the surrounding purebloods listening in their hushed conversation, it was excruciatingly difficult to keep his hands off her and watch her sway from pureblood circles over the last few hours. He had tried to quell her nervousness, but seemingly it transpired into a duel of the flesh. He only knew what he wanted, and that was Yuuki, shaking with pleasure in all her yielding softness and high-pitched vocals. He didn't understand the grueling fruition of loving another vampire before. In retrospect, he wanted to apologize to his parents for being revolted by their ever-growing affection for each other.

She swore he would give the purebloods a show, considering his heated stare it was a probable reality. Yuuki struggled to breathe. It had been brewing for a little bit. One glance over her shoulder and obviously meeting his across the room, a gentle invitation. He always found a reason to be nearby, she noticed. Whether it was because he didn't trust the purebloods around her or it was what she needed to believe, that he was close just in case a pureblood decided to tear her heart out. Sure, she could fight, but frankly, a pride of lions outnumbered her and she didn't stand a chance. He was her sole consolation. Each time she averted his gaze, turning redder than the last, dizzy from a lustful dream. She found it insane how the pureblood tormented her with just one look.

It was no surprise she didn't respond to his pure blood, but the man itself consisted of solitary intimidation. The man who lost his parents was stripped of royal powers by Asato at the beginning of his reign. He couldn't take it anymore and out of a series of defiant actions, survived Yuuki. A fundamental conclusion, a calling to his true-self, he realized what type of king he wanted to be. The path to pacifism would be time-consuming, and he wanted to keep his civilians unharmed. Prioritizing one class of vampires over others held no grip over him like his great-grandfather, Katashi, and he intended to fulfill it with Yuuki on his side. For the greater half of her life, Yuuki knew love in the eyes of her parents and the Kiryuus, but her fate met with a different love she never considered. He loved her with his eyes, with silence, by listening and etching out the blemish on her birth name for eternity. He loved her with his blood, his mind, and dare she say, his soul.

She hung completely in the control of his arm. The elegant curve of her back bent to accommodate his dipping forward. Forehead to forehead, she felt his heavy breath caress her face where logic ebbed in a shallow stream of desire. The sensation of his tongue revisited. Loudly Yuuki shuddered and stared in bewilderment at her hands latching onto the lapels of his dinner jacket.

Her cheeks burned as she managed to utter with a tongue that wanted to enjoy other skills than speaking like tasting—his. Around them, silence gripped the observant room. "This is not the place."

His nails bore into her back in fervent warning. "I see no perfect opportunity than now to demonstrate how I don't regret marrying a non-pureblood." He detected a tremulous quiver out of her vocal cords. Her eyes hadn't stopped feasting his mouth.

"You are not one for theatrics, remember?" Yuuki frowned at her shriveling tone, but her eyes couldn't get enough of his captivating fangs. His power over her mounted by the second. She reeled from his boisterous blood inside of her. Thickening desire, uncontrollable lust and immense satisfaction conceded from his solid body against hers.

His arm tightened another degree. Yuuki was stark red, and his imagination told him it ran farther than her décolleté to places he reveled in the privacy of their bedroom. She was panting, but not from his grip. "Maybe I should be," Kaname whispered into her lips.

She returned his kiss instantly and trembled with soul-wrenching revelation his tongue delivered. As if they hadn't kissed in years, the ferocity of his kiss astounded her. She tugged him insistently against her and shivered against the irrepressible stirrings of desire his body provoked. Uncontrollably her hips grounded on his. His second arm caressed her collarbone and up her warm neck. Her body brimmed to a steady simmer from his touch.

A spark fluttered on the rug and cast a sheen of amber on the curtains. Yuuki became aware that purebloods fenced them and even though she was at his convenience, she should have better self-control and stop making out. His palm burrowed in her hair and fastened her enduringly to his kiss.

Yuuki started with a shove. He growled at her resistance. She pried away by an inch to peer at the desire illuminated in his red eyes. "Not fair! The night isn't over yet. You're cheating." Yuuki gushed laboriously.

He fought with the nightmare that they weren't continuing their administrations. Kaname clenched his fangs, determined to make her squeal. "You delighted in it too." He ran a digit covetously on her lips. Her breathing hitched from the motion. The smell of smoke made them both blink.

With adverse concern, he turned to the reproachful scene of burning curtains. The purebloods stood back while the maîtres extinguished the fire with their powers.

Yuuki untangled out of his arm and gave him a look of stern accusation. "That was your doing."

His eyes narrowed in a hushed contest. He caressed Yuuki's red cheek with a long finger, and the waistcoat of the passing maître fluttered to flames. The man gasped and hurriedly brushed the patch of fire with a hand. Yuuki cautioned her gaze from him toward Kaname.

"You were saying?" He grinned, and she had never felt so sexually stimulated by a pair of fangs in her life.

She could almost feel his fangs on her throat, tearing through flesh and pitching shelter in her blood. Air hissed out of her mouth in acceptance that she was the instigator of the fire. "You're the reason behind my 'pyromania.' "

He took her gloved hand and kissed the evident bumps of her knuckles. Unconsciously he ruminated on its petite size that didn't take away its undeniable toughness from the many times she drew blood on his back and clenched his hair in the spin of desire, and the number of occasions their fingers laced into one on sheets to long walks on streets. "Keep wearing the red, Yuuki. It suits you," His tease provoked another delicate shade from her, which he found even more irresistible. Kaname felt his throat knot as the ability to speak left him for the first time.

A reorder of feet sounded behind Kaname. Red eyes reviewed the elongated silhouette of the palace guard. "Kaname-sama, your attention is requested by the Right Hand Ichijo." He receded as shadows did from sunlight.

Kaname caught eyes with a dark-haired individual presently encircled by legacy purebloods. His gaze shifted in acknowledgment and he reverted to his company.

"Yuuki," He brushed the flesh of her arm with distracting satisfaction. Her eyes fluttered in pleasure and snapped wide, dark with desire. Kaname smiled at her attentive expression. "I have to step out for a minute."

"Ok. I can handle myself." She promised.

Kaname left the embellished hall to a less fantastic location curtailed by night frost and moonlight. The terrain stood plowed by gusts of heavy wind. He made sure the guard had returned to the immediacy of the palace before he turned toward the agitated visages of his Right Hands.

Takuma held his glare severely and met him halfway. "The palace has been compromised."

• * •

The gala drew the largest concentration of purebloods to Japan to make the acquaintance of the pureblood queen. Although she worked with daunting vampires and purebloods alike, the obligatory fear comprising lower-level vampires eventually surfaced. He understood the need to compose herself finally won, and she snuck a moment of respite on the balcony. On her head, the crown dazzled fiercely in the moonlight. She leaned on the banister and focused on her breathing. He moved around the curb and slung over the banister. The queen was too preoccupied to acknowledge his encroach.

He arrived in her general vicinity with an interceptive, "I had a feeling you'd come out here."

She raised her head at the familiar gruff voice. The shadows cleared momentarily, his silver hair shimmered and parted in the wind to unveil a pair of hard lavender eyes. The eyes obstructed emotion and warmth, belonging to a stranger than a childhood friend. His approach didn't perturb her. Her right palm rested on the banister as she faced him.

"I had no idea you'd come this way. The gala's forbidden to non-purebloods." She flinched at her words. "You know what I mean." Yuuki hoped her stitch-up was fruitful.

Zero knotted his arms across his chest as he had appropriated one foot away from Yuuki. "Is it too late to renounce the crown?" He asked.

Yuuki analyzed the vampire for several seconds. He resented her marriage to the pureblood and the consequent network she had garnered. "You hate me, don't you?" Her heart shrank in recognition.

"You're politely shaking hands with purebloods and acting like they never wanted to kill you. Have you gone blind or are you just that stupid?"

Yuuki was admiring the distant lights floating in the darkness. An undetectable, bright line weaved through the black cloak of the night. "Can you see the silver light there, Zero?" Yuuki pointed. "The barrier Kaname created with hunter magic so we can be safe. It has successfully repelled attacks from our city and alliances for two years. Tomorrow he will lift it, and Rido will come charging."

He seemed unbearably bored and blinked. "I'm aware."

"I'm scared to be queen." Her voice trembled with a significant burden. "But I have to put aside my insecurities and do my job. It's not about my survival anymore. Now it's about the millions of vampires vulnerable to Rido. Between Ichiru, you and I, you are unrivaled. I thought you'd understand me better."

"Yuuki," An unguided emotion penetrated his chilling voice, a feeling he thought he knew but contritely did not. "You were sent here to die. You're dining with people who can turn their backs on you any moment."

"I know." She whispered to the stars. "If I must socialize with purebloods that want me dead, I will do it. If this is the only way we can avoid vampires of a different class from tearing each other apart, so be it. Kaname told me to use every inch of power he gives me. Be his equal and warp the monarchy for the dream my brother and his father had."

Zero's eyes widened. "You mean-"

"There'll be a time pureblood monarchs will be no more."

He smirked at his feet. "The Prime Minister is determined to take advantage of the monarchy. He'll stop at no costs." A hand clenched her forearm and swung her around. He towered her and growled impatiently. "Why did you ask me to be your Right Hand?"

She struggled unsuccessfully and bit her lip. "First, let me go."

"Answer me."

"Zero!"

"I hate purebloods and the factions working with or against them. You have no idea what it's like to be an assassin. The people I killed to satisfy a brute's blood-lust."

"That's not—"

"Why then?"

Yuuki stood her ground. "Akira-sama took Rido's blood and created the first prototype. We've been watching his citizens, but we know it's a matter of time Level Es will overrun their city. Akira-sama doesn't know the real darkness of Rido's blood. There will be no survivors." Yuuki shivered as she considered his piercing eyes, "I don't want to turn you into an instrument like Asato. I dread losing you in the battle between Rido and Kaname. I wanted you on my side. The Right Hands are a resilient force of goodness, trained by Elders from the Council of Ancients. I don't want you to do anything you don't want to—"

"But." He insisted alertly.

"Destroying the drug labs will diminish his army considerably. We haven't discovered all locations."

He shoved her back and absently examined the noiseless trees and trickling fountain behind Yuuki. "You want me to find them."

"I have need of you in the reformation but not at the cost of your life. Anything but that."

Zero chortled and rubbed his stinging eyes. He averted and leaned over the banister. Yuuki massaged the bruised handwork on her arms. Both remained quiet, the howling wind the single sound echoing their childhood back to them.

Silver hair fluttered as he shook his head to empty the storm of emotions and grunted. "I wonder what would've happened if Ichiru never drank your blood." He remarked abruptly.

Yuuki blinked, but he had turned to look at her with calm eyes. She steadied herself against the warmth she believed didn't exist.

"He practically wanted to possess you. Ichiru was so in love with you. Before he took your blood, you and I were…" He searched the sprawling forest. Lastly, the frigidity in his voice cracked with an ache she found agonizingly beautiful. "You used to be mine."

It was true.

Yuuki had always been with Zero. Her first choice had instinctively been him. Two on two, she rode on his shoulders, hid under his arm and crawled in his room at sleepovers. They were too young to understand the significance of their closeness or how aberrantly and sincerely Zero's heart distorted at the thought of her. He knew Ichiru wanted Yuuki. When his younger twin tasted her blood, she became detached.

"If Kaoru-kun were alive, would you ever come here?" Zero muttered. "Would we have normal lives?"

She glided to his side and admired the forest encompassing the territory. "Ichiru drank my blood after I fell from a tree. I always felt I betrayed you. He insisted I stay with him and did not leave me alone. He was childish. There is not a chance in the world we'd be here if my brother were alive. He'd have married Yori. I'd have little nieces and nephews. Maybe we'd have gone to study abroad and visited on Christmas."

A long-debated moment later, Zero turned toward Yuuki. "How did it happen?"

She frowned in question. "What happened?"

"You and—" He cocked his head toward the banquet hall in indication.

He never heralded interest on the subject, and she was certain it was the last. "Kaname." Merely saying his name, her eyes lit animatedly. She sighed in the direction of the territory and considered the year spent alone with the pureblood king. "He crept up on me. It was like he was inside my heart long before I knew his face. I was scared all the time, but I wanted to live. He knew me better than I knew myself. I had everything to lose, so I lost my fear first. And more than anything, Zero, I wanted him."

Silently, Zero withdrew from the banister and strode toward the shadows that led him to the balcony. "I'll leave tonight."

She reacted as he hoped she would. Yuuki darted toward him nervously. "But the barrier-"

"Bloody Rose will allow me to penetrate it."

"I'm afraid Bloody Rose can't, Zero." She shook her head, "The barrier will test your stamina and blood. The hunters can't break it. It's fortified with Kaname's powers. The only way to surpass the barrier is by Kaname demolishing it or his death."

His steps allayed to a halt. The balcony doors unlocked, and an oversized silhouette filled the threshold. He slid in the moonlight and stopped next to Yuuki in a moment's span. Lord Kuran touched her elbow and glared at her company.

"Kiryuu," Tapped out of patience and kind words, he angled threatening maroon eyes on the fellow. "You must be lost or confused. The gala is not open to the rest of the palace. That includes you, Right Hand."

"He was just leaving." Yuuki pacified the hand on her elbow.

Lord Kuran grunted at the back of his throat. "Hmph. I'll be damned for leaving you by yourself. Kaname had an urgent matter to attend. He asked me to render you over to your moody Right Hand, you know the one, and lock yourself in the tower."

Before Yuuki managed a response, the rustle of bushes reverberated the disappearance of Zero. "That's not a good sign." She breathed.

"I don't have the details." Lord Kuran hauled a reassuring arm around her shoulders. In a matter of seconds, the world spun and darkened. She hid under his wing and found herself standing in the collective staircase branching to the tower. He offered her an arm and escorted her up the stairs. Leave it to the generous pureblood to never outgrow his gentlemanly roots. "Stay here until we have further information. I have substantial rapport with purebloods than Kaname. I should return to the gala and keep them content."

Aidou was waiting at the top of the stairs. He plunged into a bow as Lord Kuran delivered Yuuki to the door. "You know what to do." He said to Hanabusa.

The Right Hand pushed Yuuki inside and followed close behind. She promptly sprang toward the balcony overseeing the never-ending forest and Kuran palace. Preliminary guards hedged the entrances, and music soared out of the banquet hall flooded by purebloods. A flurry of shadow-spies took form by a modest entryway. Within seconds, Lord Kuran's outline materialized. He disappeared in profuse curtains. She searched the darkness and trees for familiar spies. If she chose, she could slit her wrist, and he'd wrestle time and nature should a drop of her blood touch the ground. She wasn't reckless. Yuuki peered into the abyss of the night and the trek laid out by stars.

The faint overturn of rocks propelled from an external force dragged her attention. She leaned over the side toward the vague flashes. The final clearing as the forms altered into resplendent contours. Last of the lot, the darkest and loneliest with coattails unfurling around him, his red eyes bore into hers through the distance.

Their eyes held.

He knew she would be searching for him.

Kaname turned, by way of scattering into a thousand bats in the black night.

Yuuki stayed outside for a long time. She retreated in the suite and tugged her crown in aggravated movements. Catching the scene, Aidou plucked off the wall in the foyer and joined her.

"They're gone." He heard her whisper. "The Right Hands and Kaname."

"The usual." He scoffed.

She sensed the profound irritation with Kaname unswervingly leaving him out of pertinent conquests. Yuuki released a sigh of distress at a pin and tossed it across the table. She kicked her shoes off in agitation and gave him a look over. "I'm sorry you're stuck babysitting me, again."

"Sorry I ended up having to be your Right Hand." He snapped routinely.

Yuuki untethered the leftover pins and felt the crown tumble. He shot to grapple the large ornament in time and slipped unceremoniously in between her feet. Yuuki frowned distastefully and aided him up.

Aidou gruffly shrugged her off and promenaded around the table to place the crown at the center.

"I don't get it. You hate Takuma working with me. You hate being my Right Hand."

"Can you blame me? While everyone is gone, I am here with you."

Yuuki regarded him pointedly. "I trust you, Hanabusa, that's why you're 'stuck' with me."

Aidou tipped his nose to the ceiling. "I'm here because, through some pitiless amusement, Kaname is punishing me by sticking me with you."

"Then why do you get upset when Takuma and I are together?"

Blue eyes flashed. "Upset, me? Peh."

Yuuki smoothed a hand on her brow. "I thought you'd grow out of it by now. Takuma and I are very close."

"I'm not supposed to keep my eyes off you. I can't do my job properly if you two frolic off in the sunset every damn day."

"Are you listening to yourself?" Yuuki cried. "We don't frolic."

"There is hand holding." Aidou shrilly accused.

"He's a gentleman." She muttered. "Stop fighting with me, Hanabusa."

Fighting was all they ever did, Aidou scowled.

"I'm here with you, not Takuma. Isn't that what you wanted?" Long mahogany hair unraveled down her back and she rose. "A day before the barrier gets removed, something had to go amiss."

He recoiled a guarded step. Two fists collected readily at his sides. "You weren't feeling well earlier. What happened?"

"A dizzy spell," Yuuki answered without a pause. "I got blood therapy from the infirmary."

The furrow of his brows vacated. Steel blue eyes fell to the floor. "And now, you're not dizzy?"

"I took Kaname's blood." She revealed.

His eyes trickled over her in a frenzy of uncertain despair.

• * •

Four disseminated in different hemispheres. They burst through the roof without pitfalls and entered the gray maze of shipment containers. Lightning fractured the clouds, and a dash of midnight blue expired like hot marble in the stratosphere. There was no rain, but lashes of thunder continued. The harbor was free of workers. Their race to the shipping port lasted a few hours.

Takuma gave a meaningful kick to a scattering rat and crossed the alley. It was here, the last of several ports the Right Hands would find themselves confronting the spineless creature who escaped. It might as well be a trick of unpredictable doggedness. The man was not trustworthy, and after the evidence of his findings was imparted to Kaname, the very ground under Takuma's feet vibrated from the pureblood's rage.

Another orchestra of thunder ripped the night sky. Sure now than ever the energy struck buildings somewhere in the expanse, Takuma glanced at the recognizable shadow examining the harbor. Shadow-spies had driven out the workers just in time.

"Here comes Rima." The moment Takuma executed the words, the row of containers shuddered. Ahead of them, a translucent blur passed.

Takuma came to an untaught stop at the strenuously pallid figure. His disheveled attire revealed the slum, mud, terrain and water he'd plummeted through from her attacks. He'd evolved into an imperceptible shadow-spy like most vampires and without much choice finally weaseled into his human form. Violent bolts of light punched through the container on the left. Kain torched the narrow alley with fire, and the screaming man darted back the way he came.

"Not a good idea." Takuma gave an earnest shake of the head.

Rima was waiting on the other end with a sinister smirk on her mouth. "Hello, royal physician. We've been looking for you."

A piercing mass of black bats soared over him and shoved him flat on the pavement. The array of shadow-spies signaled and pillared muscle and tissue and crawled around his intestines in the shape of jagged black claws. Shrieking in agony, he gasped and met his reflection in a pair of crimson eyes.

The spies rippled into a finalizing outline of the pureblood. "You were a trusted palace personnel, a sworn official catering to our household. You have ten seconds to tell me everything." He growled.

Suffused with blood, he writhed in pain and looked dizzily in the eyes of his reaper. "I had no choice." He croaked.

The claws inside his body pierced his liver.

He twisted from the eternal torture.

"Speak up," Takuma commanded.

"The blood…was his." He coughed. "I was appointed her personal physician and provided her blood therapy. The concentration of dark blood has reached its final phase. She survived the rigorous amount in her coronation cup. The hallucinations were part of her system succumbing to dark blood."

Takuma's eyes widened incredulously. "You dispensed his blood in her coronation cup. What about the other times?"

His head fell back, and his breathing pipe surged with blood, he closed his eyes. "I've been adding his blood," He sputtered, "In her blood therapy for years. Today she's immune and can't discern."

Kaname gritted through fangs, "How did he get you to accomplish this?"

"Rido-sama has been in the palace longer than you." He grunted. "The palace personnel have been his slaves for years."

The silhouette beside Rima forwarded from the security of the shadows. He bent over the man in scrutiny. "He tells the truth. The vile pureblood had many affairs with maids. They must've consumed his blood." Shiki verbalized.

"He had access to the palace dispensary," Takuma noted and glanced around them. Shipments of blood passing the Sea of Japan were regulated by the palace. "The port delivers human blood from registered locations. I have a hunch Rido's salves contaminated the blood transported to the palace. It's everyone, Kaname. The entire palace is infected."

Kaname wasn't exactly listening as his claws were still inside the man. "Why?" He only demanded.

"She is his chosen puppet." The man whispered with a shameless grin. "He now has a blood connection to your queen. With his mad blood, she is susceptible to his every bid. She won't even know it hits her."

Kaname snatched the man's heart.

"Stop, Kaname!" Urgently, Takuma fished his hand out of the man's body cavity. "I will take it from here. She doesn't know she shares his blood. Go to Yuuki, now."

But, fury ate Kaname so intensely, he could not see straight.

• * •

Aidou felt his heart stop, followed by the sharp pain of blood receding. He imagined that was what he'd feel with Kaname's hand inside his chest, ripping his heart out. He aggravated the pureblood all his life and rebelled at every opportunity. Still, he worshiped the pureblood, and if he ever disappointed Kaname, Aidou would commit suicide. He wondered if letting Kaname find his remains serve as a gift to the pureblood.

"I should just kill myself." He admitted in the hollow tower.

Moments ago, Yuuki mumbled about the whereabouts of the entourage and the impending dangers after tomorrow. Troubled to be tucked away on an important night such as the pureblood gala, she wrestled with her wits.

Aidou had been keeping his distance and watched her unravel a wooden box. She took the anti-vampire weapon and shifted the slit of her dress to fix the strap for the item. His eyes bulged skeptically.

"We don't know what's happening. Nothing wrong with being prepared." She defended.

"I'm not getting killed by Kaname so that you can run off on an empty mission," Aidou exclaimed. They were both in the dark. Meanwhile, the Right Hands were tackling the heart of the matter. He never felt so useless in his life. Aidou glared at the source of his misfortune. "He had to marry you."

"Quit your eternal bitching, Hanabusa."

"You're staying locked in the tower unless I get word to let you out."

"Fine." She relented.

He felt his mouth hang detachedly at her submission.

Yuuki hadn't moved, but an invisible shroud slithered across his vision. He thought he saw things and rubbed his eyes of dust. Her own impulsively widened. She hissed and lunged in a graceful bow. He was startled by the forceful act and watched her dematerializing hands grasp empty air that would have been his sleeve.

"Hanabusa!" Yuuki cried. The rest of her fragmented in cilia-like powder.

Aidou tackled the elusive characters. Traveling fleetingly crossways to the balcony, the current dissipated into dark obscurity.

• * •

The lax stars and moon fell away, inactive and tranquil. It came as a rumble, muffled by hundreds of miles, but it took one second to transcend the indolent stars that shuddered, and a thread ripped the moon in half, cutting a narrow line and staining the blank perfection in angry red. Blazing, corrosive and volcanic, the light exploded out of the black sky as if the heavens could no longer keep it bound and deposed in the everlasting gray forest. Nothing held him back; nothing could. Flames cascaded indignantly through the wilderness. A creature given life and crawled into the seams and roots of the forest.

He had flown fast. The result of his unmatched speed vented the current sea of fire enveloping the forest. A boot cracked twigs and the fine material of his coat beat with gold flames; some singed the ends of his dark hair. Through the smoke, he emerged out of the wreckage, trailing an unsuspecting signal viable to night-dwellers like himself. His glowing red eyes uprooted the shadows. Birds flew, critters, and reptiles scurried away fearfully.

Dark blood had been part of her for years. They drank from each other and connected to the other's life-force. She was transparent and readable, and nothing escaped Kaname. How did he not sense Rido's blood in her? Minor skills and crave augmented, but the transformations were dismissed as vampire maturation. She was now a product of two pure blood and Kaname was in contradiction of any conclusion hereafter. Horrorstricken rage fermented between the basic need to protect her or—

Or?

Kaname did not want to consider it. His jaw clenched and a copious wall of trees exploded. Timber and branches brewed a dense rain of green and black wind. Forest animals sought refuge in the sky and those that had little feet shot off. His eyes narrowed and scanned the dreary landscape.

A decipherable but indistinct pulse beckoned Kaname. His shimmering red eyes zoned in the specific direction. Her heart screamed insistently inside her chest. Thumping like wild mustangs and beating against the fence of her chest. He could hear her now. He could feel her fear, desperateness to hide, hollow loneliness in the darkness, and the acceptance that it may be her end. Her bare feet running on mud and grass. Her frantic but determined gasps from burning lungs. Through her billowing hair, she kept stealing glances over her shoulder. An exquisite prey to the shadows. Roars drifted and from violent courage, she skidded to a stop and gritted her fangs. Out of her left hand she unleashed the anti-vampire weapon. He saw her plunge the scythe at the commodious wind of shadows from the psychic pull. Shrill screams swallowed her but the shadows preceded into the trees.

Another train of shrubs danced in her line of sight. She rubbed sweat from her upper lip with the back of her hand and blinked tears. The mammoth creature passed the clearing in a blur, leaving her with peeks of imaginary red eyes. Raucous growls came as it circled its prey. Yuuki grounded her feet and gripped Artemis tighter.

Suddenly it came in front of her. Eyes that were not eyes and hooks for teeth, it was not manlike or animal and slithered precipitously to the left. It towered her and she could not look away from the glass-like orbs bleeding out of the top part of the head.

Claws snatched her waist from behind and threw her around in a controlled grip. He pushed an elbow out as the creature's talons touched the material of his coat. The eyes blanked and frightfully, the creature screeched and dissipated. Several feet from them, it rematerialized and blurred in the herd of trees.

Still reacting from instinct, Yuuki was swinging her scythe and kicking the appendage on her person. He picked his hand off and studied her for damages. She was scarred badly, gashes raked her cheeks, and her bare back was a masterpiece of claw marks. Raising the scythe over her head, she whirled and aimed.

He thwarted the weapon with a fluid shove. Yuuki heaved and blinked at the whistling darkness. His red eyes pinned to her face. Loudly, she gulped and struggled against the scratchiness of her throat.

He would have asked if she was all right and established she was safe, but they were beyond that. Yuuki glared at them, her arms arched and ready to strike. "They're everywhere." She rasped. "What are they? They don't move like we do."

Kaname frowned at the blood dripping down her arms. She barely escaped the creatures, and the smell of her blood attracted thousands by the second.

Yuuki laid questioning but purposeful eyes on the pureblood. "It ran from you." She noticed the creatures lining up farther and farther in trees and shrubs, preferring distance for once. If he had been a minute late, she would have been eaten alive.

He regarded the anti-vampire weapon rattling in static. "How did you get here?" Fury and calm patience hissed in his demand.

The sound yanked her head up sharply. She worked some words and blinked thoughtfully for a moment. "I-I can't remember."

A howling nightmarish beast darted out of the hedges. Yuuki backed two steps and watched it climb a tree. "What is that?" She shuddered.

"How the hell did you get here, Yuuki?" Kaname demanded with ferocity being the ultimate winner than perseverance.

Her blood flinched, and she could feel his razor-sharp fangs crunch the pit of her stomach.

"Answer me, now." His eyes were vicious red, the usual tenderness and sympathy gone.

She jumped and lowered Artemis to her side. Her memory diffused in lights and wet grass. Yuuki evened her breathing. "I found myself here. I don't remember leaving the tower." Her conscience berated she ought to have held her silence than attempted such an inadequate response since Kaname's expression turned severing and gruesome.

Fangs orchestrated without his mouth opening. Goosebumps came alive on her arms from the sound. "You have no means of finding this place, and yet, here you are, lost in the forbidden forest." Kaname uttered crisply for her sake, or he could have torched the other half of the land.

"Why haven't I—"

Kaname took her bloody arm. The pressure of his fingers inevitably softened. "You need to leave."

Shrieks and footfalls enveloped them. Kaname's piercing gaze drew toward the west behind the narrow lane of evergreen trees. Instead of nudging Yuuki behind, he waited in amiable forbearance as the silhouette approached.

"Yuuki!" The Right Hand skipped over a log and hastened. At the sight of the pureblood, he slumped on his knees and bowed. "Forgive me, Kaname. I was watching her closely."

Grim-eyed and reserved, Kaname released Yuuki's hand. "Take her to the territory, stay there."

Aidou shot up and nodded. He gestured toward Yuuki, but she hesitated and searched Kaname imploringly. The pureblood trekked the terrain of beastly sounds and red-eyed ghouls. They didn't depart by the physical act of walking. Aidou was an established noble vampire than herself, but he couldn't repel the mindless pests lurking in the dark like her. Her fingers bunched tightly on his sleeve, and she lingered a step behind. Out of the corner of his eye, Aidou checked Yuuki. He transferred into a stream of cold white air, enclosing her in luminous liquid, warmer than fresh snow.

They came upon the territory within moments. He set Yuuki carefully on the bridge overlooking the flowing lake. She lurched but grabbed the banister to steady herself. Wiping her wet brow, Yuuki regarded the shimmering lake rolling into the forest. Aidou moved away with his back turned. Her blood trickled continually at her feet. Yuuki closed the anti-vampire weapon into a shaft.

He found the courage to revert. "How did you get there?"

She considered her response than the one provided to Kaname. "I don't know what happened," Yuuki mumbled with a void that made her insides eternally quiver and the sheet of stars above blinked.

Sapphire entwined with white, and moonlight chiseled the blue of his eyes. He peered at her. "You're bleeding, Yuuki."

Her eyes snapped back on the man. It wasn't the statement but the way he pronounced her name. She eyed Aidou softly. A frown substituted the constant snarl on his lip. A sensation pled for release in his gaze. Fear and concern stretched vehemently in place of fury. "You used to yell 'hey, you, Kurosu' in disdain. Strange how time has passed."

The worry in his gaze persisted despite Aidou averted. "Why are you bringing that up?"

You're changing too.

"I'm okay, Hanabusa," Yuuki whispered instead. "Kaname got to me on time."

Aidou became noiseless and contemplated the lake with the slightest hope he won't be beheaded tonight.

"It wasn't your fault." Yuuki caught on.

"Peh."

"I'll tell Kaname to go easy on you."

The idea irritated him, Aidou scowled, "Don't you dare wreck my time with Kaname. I'll bear the punishment no matter how cruel."

Yuuki grinned in the dark that her fangs glinted. "You are Hanabusa, Kaname's greatest exception."

He uncoiled the strains off his haughtiness and overly confident demeanor and raised his nose to the moon. "Hmph, that I am."

"He'll just send you to the kitchen for a week." Yuuki shrugged.

"Are you implying I can't endure his harsher punishments?" Aidou demanded.

"I'm saying he chooses not to. Your father was an imperative Right Hand and comrade of Lord Kuran and continues to be an excellent ally. He doesn't talk about it, but it'd feel iniquitous to hurt the child of a friend. Lord Kuran would be very upset, too."

Aidou's eyes turned round. "Stop acting like a know-it-all."

"Am not."

"Kaname has an important reason for keeping me around."

"Kitchen cleaning."

"Why you—"

Yuuki ducked from the flash of disparaging fangs.

Aidou grumbled and intelligently flung away lest he yielded to further irritation and whatever that entailed. He was less reactive but occasionally he'd publicized discourteous sentiments about the spoiled woman. He ceased upon a formidable silhouette and trembled under hard red eyes. "Kaname." Respectfully, he lowered his head.

"My office." The growl executed from the pureblood stirred the Right Hand without hesitation. He scampered toward the deck and opened the screen door.

Yuuki had been watching in concerned expectation. He glided to her left in three calculating steps and folded his palms around her scarred knuckles. The warm sensation of his mouth against her hand sent divine chills down her back. Volcanic red eyes trained on hers, he said. "Wait for me."

Kaname entered the gloom of his office without a noticeable footstep or hand grazing the door. He slipped through the keyhole as a malleable black puddle dropped on the floor. A figure appeared prostrating in the center, head bowed.

"Before you cut my head and relieve me of my duties, I want to apologize for my insufficient conduct." Aidou murmured. "I am not a fine Right Hand compared to my father but I swore my loyalty and heart to you. I will gladly take a stake to my heart for you. Kaname, I beg you to punish me as you deem right. I will accept it with an open heart."

His boots crept toward the desk and stopped in front of the window. The pinched curtains gave a vivacious scope of the night illuminated by the white moon. Here, he ruminated his nation, mission, and consequent danger. Years passed sitting in the moonlight when Yuuki'd tiptoe and swoop her arms around his shoulders. Nostalgia welled in him, and he recalled his father, upon a series of moons, gazing out the territory. The pureblood taught him goodness and balanced perspective. As he considered his blood-reeking hands, failure and disappointment raided him. He did not teach Kaname how to kill. Nonetheless, it cost blackening his soul to commit the deeds of today.

Kaname blinked at the rapt moon that knew his sorrows as well as his joys. An extraordinary portrait it was, and often Kaname admired the round light that was as peaceful as he wished to be, but he knew the reality of his pureblood nature better than anyone—than Yuuki. Though it served some form of deliverance to be understood and loved, he was not one to drop his guard. Especially around Yuuki imbued with Rido's blood.

He didn't order Aidou to slice out his heart or command the desperately loyal vampire to expunge himself from the circle of Right Hands. Kaname looked toward the individual and exacted with the likeness of a dangerous sword, "How did it happen?" It nipped Aidou's carotid pulse.

He flinched and blinked at the blood drops. "She shifted out of her body and traveled."

"That skill hasn't been taught to her yet," Kaname replied.

Aidou winced, "I smelled her blood coming from the forest. She wasn't in control of her transition. I think her blood—"

Kaname came to a stop before Aidou. "You won't speak of it to her."

"But she," Aidou tipped his head back indignantly but caught himself and resituaited. "She must learn how to control it."

"She can't," Kaname whispered as doubt and anguish tightened their vices in his bloodstreams. He slanted against the desk and clawed his forehead with stained hands.

Aidou peeked a glimpse of the pureblood and frowned upon traces of struggle plaguing the self-possessed man. The man was a pragmatic mystery and never revealed his heart except for torrents of anger. As expected, the floor under Aidou's hand tattered to pieces. He screamed and scampered to a less discoverable corner. He understood Takuma's trepidation each time Kaname lost his train of thought, an inherently unfortunate tendency in the manner of bones breaking and random furniture exploding. Regardless, Aidou was determined not to flee the room.

"You need to control her."

The fist against Kaname's temple tightened, henceforth, a ringing shot of electrocution propelled down Aidou's knees, searing blood and bone. He shrieked and jerked violently from pangs of shock.

"I take that back!" Aidou screamed.

"A determined person like Yuuki resents mind control. She'd prefer death." Kaname straightened and regarded the heaving Right Hand as if the sheer propensity of emotion was unknown to him. "My oji-san always had an eye on her. He used his best trick to tip the scale on his end conveniently. Yuuki was to be his pawn from the very beginning."

Gasping, Aidou raised his head and cautiously added, "He's been hounding her since the attack in the cellars. She's an easier prey."

"No." Kaname's eyes narrowed. "He is going to use her to make me submit."

Aidou bent his head. "We should give her the benefit of the doubt." Permanently inconsiderate and hateful toward Yuuki, he couldn't believe his words. "She can learn to control the blood."

"I don't need to lecture you on dark blood, do I?" Kaname growled against the frustration prickling his will.

"But," Aidou gasped as truth sawed down his windpipe and glared fervently into his red eyes, tears hauled out of him at the devastating possibility, "She'll go insane."

Kaname clenched his eyes before the words came. The wall of emotions barricading him disintegrated, Aidou saw it. The fear and anger ate away his conscience. It was only a matter of time before Yuuki dissolved to the enchantment of dark blood and lost her sanity.

"Kaname, I'll do anything," Aidou begged as a wind of tears flickered the glacial vehemence of his eyes. "You can't go through it again. The pain of loss."

Kaname collected himself and moved toward the door. "Yuuki looks toward you warmly." He uttered finally over his shoulder. "Don't lose that."

How long before she would forget their life, their home, and their passage of pacifism? How long until the darkness sets in and gnaws the remaining vestige of rationality, identity, and understanding of the world—their world? The poison was in her system for years, and she was a perfect host for dark blood. Exactly how long from now until she didn't recognize him? For his touch and his kiss to feel foreign? How long could his blood suppress Rido's darker pureblood, and she stop responding to their blood bond?

She sat on the deck outside her old room. The ledge crept over pearls of shimmers as the river weeded out of the dark. Yuuki kept her eyes fixed on the stars, searching or sensing only construable to her gaze. Threads of goosebumps knitted across her skin. She heard Kaname make his way to the balcony doors where his shadow reposed and folded his arms.

"I woke up here after Rido almost killed me." She looked as if she were speaking to herself and the shadow hashing out of the moonlight on the door panel remained as faint as her murmur. "You kissed me here for the first time."

"I vaguely recall you pleading to be kissed." The fluctuating shadow he consisted of slipped out of the curvature and lowered on the ledge. He dipped both hands in the water, and the dense suggestion of blood swarmed them.

"In my defense, I wanted my senpai."

Kaname gathered a handful of water and scattered it to the wind. The evening breeze ceased and a mirage of clouds dashed through the sky. Yuuki sat up alertly under the shadow enveloping the moon. Two seconds later, rain descended over the city. A shiver stole out of her as she watched him settle on the deck. One leg sprawled, the other bent up for an elbow to suspend, a customary dip of his head pulled streams of hair down his cheeks and forehead where his red eyes were lost forever. Yuuki was irretrievably taken by the pureblood.

"In my defense, I was said senpai whom you begged to kiss you." He retaliated.

Abnormally red, she looked out to the raining sky. How could Kaname make her feel embarrassed or shy by primary measures? The sound of rain flourished the region and splattered the deck. A cold draft came and went. Yuuki gaped into the dark depths of the territory, arrested by its never-ending spell. Another breeze passed, her breath rattled out of her lips, and she looked at the enigma again. An unpredictable man, equally with the motions as he was not. Terrifying to some, but passionate under his strong shield that it took controlled patience to see the storming heart beating with an unpremeditated tug of his shirt. He could be gentle or a menace, never out of control. She regarded him sitting relaxed, and all it would take was a twitch of a muscle, and he'd be up in a spur. She sighed in the smell of the rain and allowed herself to bring the sake bottle from her corner and impart two small plates.

He grew up around immaculate royals, people of high order, and it was circumstantial he chose her instead of a beautiful pureblood. She poured them a drink. The bottle trembled on the wooden floor. She never forgot that she was not in the company of an average vampire. Kaname could not be manipulated, and it was deadly to test him. How passively and unerringly he called upon rain and transformed inanimate objects with telekinetic skill, the strongest Kuran blood comprised of an excess of powers.

Yuuki raised her cup to her lips with steady hands. "Tell me about the creatures in the forest, Kaname." She finished the portion in a single swig.

He drank first and looked her in the eye. "Things I put in the forbidden forest no man should see."

She poured them another round, never stirring or uncomfortable by the unnerving cast of his stare. "They are not vampire or human."

Kaname considered the encapsulating darkness. "When a pureblood's maturation peaks, their powers escalade. I was young when I began shedding my abilities. Once I lose track of thought or spoil myself with emotion, life around me gets destroyed."

"This is not about lack of self-control." Yuuki ran her tongue on the lingering sake on her lips. "But having too much power."

"Yes."

"The creatures fear you." Yuuki suspected.

"They are predators living on instinct, or parts of me too vile and atrocious to domesticate. In ways, they sense I am the original host."

Yuuki examined two black eyes pulsing in mysterious knowledge. Permeating his mental boundaries was tempting, but her repertoire wasn't earned from impulsive suspicion and furtive advancement on his dominions. It might have been why the eternally secretive pureblood that he was grew less secretive around her. She sighed and listened to the rain slashing in the darkness, like sword fights behind a curtain.

"I've been picking up new habits," Yuuki admitted.

His eyes hardened.

"Reading energies, pyromania, and transitioning," Her eyes narrowed on him, "Is your blood responsible for my budding propensities?"

"I can't answer."

She picked up the sake bottle, grounded her feet and stood with practiced agility and approached a desk in the gray light. The ceramic bottle hummed out of her hand and sat idle. Long arms slipped beneath hers and pulled her against the firm warmth of his body. His lips planted on her head as he followed her empty gaze on the deck.

"I trust you." Yuuki covered the twining thread of his fingers. "Whatever is happening to me, I know you'll tell me when the time is right."

He inhaled the scent of her hair once over before she clenched his hands expressively and turned in his arms. He peered adoringly down at her, radiant with emotions.

"I'm going to be here after you go. One of us will carry out the plan." Yuki brushed the smooth expanse of his cheek, "I've always wanted someone to love me the way you love me. I'm eternally honored to be your wife and friend. Despite how negatively you think of yourself and our losses and calamities, Kaname, you've filled my heart with everlasting happiness."

Kaname brushed the bangs out of her eyes and nuzzled her temple. "So have you." He mouthed against the pores briskly enlivening from his touch. Tears unfurled down her cheeks. "We are sharing a casket just like we promised. The only way for me to die is if you are no more. My life is not his to take." His arm folded around the clots of dried blood on her back.

Yuuki softly sighed against his lips. "I understand."

He pulled back to inspect her strangely. A sterile quality highlighted his pupils as his mouth dropped grimly by her meaning.

She cupped his cheeks.

He clenched her wrist, grittily rasping, "N—"

"You will always be my first and last love." Tearfully Yuuki grinned. "It's not easy being king or fighting him. You are ready to pay the price to defeat him and do right by our people. You need to hear that I understand what you must do and the consequences hereafter. No, don't—" Quickly on her toes, she kissed the hot string of tears falling from his eyes. "I've been the luckiest girl to be loved by a man more than her parents and brother—my whole clan combined. What more could I possibly want?"

He whispered incoherently. Yuuki moved, but he snatched her back. Fiery eyes wide, Kaname vowed resolutely, "I won't let him have you." He crushed her petite frame against him, quieting her gasp with a violent kiss.

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