This story is AU for 'One Fateful Night'. What if on that fateful night Zero was tainted because Kaname didn't come in time to rescue him? This story is dedicated to Gwen Truong who inspired me to write this and gave me wonderful insights.

Warnings: Yaoi, AU, OOC, blood, violence, rape. You have been warned.

Editor: Gwen Truong

Disclaimer: VK and its characters belong to Matsuri Hino

Prologue

In a quiet afternoon at Cross Academy, where vampires were asleep and humans were attending lectures, a silver-haired teenage human-turned-vampire boy was struggling to walk on the forest ground near the Moon Dormitory. His uniform shirt and jacket were severely torn; his pants were stained with blood. The boy panted heavily as he staggered toward the Chairman's residence, and he was consumed with great hunger from the blood loss.

After what seemed like an eternity, the hunter boy finally reached the Chairman's residence. He entered the house quietly as not to wake up the Chairman, then going straight to the bathroom to remove the evidence of shame that had tainted him. Nevertheless, no matter how many times he scrubbed himself, the feeling of filthiness would not disappear. The young hunter finally gave up scrubbing and put on his pajamas, then went to the medicine cabinet by the sink to get his blood tablet box. He took a handful of blood tablets in his mouth, scooping a draught of water from the running tab, trying to swallow them, but immediately threw all of them up as his body rejected them. The box tumbled down the floor, miraculous tablets soaked in water, thawing into blood, and he slowly looked up, his amethyst eyes in the mirror reflecting his pale face. Tears started falling down uncontrollably.

I am a level D… I am not acknowledged by human or vampire… and now I am tainted. What will become of me, a tainted level D?

The dejected hunter boy staggered back his room. He locked the door and placed anti-vampire charms throughout the room to keep out a certain Pureblood, who was the last person he wanted to see after all that had happened to him. Finally, he lied down on his bed and shut his eyes up, covering his closed lids with the back of his right arm, and let the repressed tears to flow freely down his cheeks.

Kaname… I'm sorry…

TBC…