Bloody Petals

Chapter 33

Zero's eyes widened.

Ichiru's presence suddenly got weaker before it totally disappeared.

"Ichiru!" Zero immediately did his best to run to the south at full vampire speed despite the fact that he was still badly hurt.

Wounds created by hunter weapons often take a long time to heal. And if silver was used, it could end up killing even a half-pureblood vampire like him. He was really glad that those bullets were red. He now wondered if that hunter would still have fired the bullets at him if they were silver.

He was much slower than he usually was because of the pain still raking in his body so he arrived at the scene only after several minutes had already passed.

The place smelt of burnt woods and grasses just as several bodies of hunters were sprawled on the ground. It seemed three more hunter reinforcements aided the five hunters who pursued Ichiru for there were already eight hunter bodies on the ground. They were all bloodied and some of their limbs even looked burnt. Kyou and Shin were also there.

"Don't worry... I didn't kill them..." Zero's gaze darted towards the direction of the voice and saw Ichiru lying on his back on the ground. He was bloodied and obviously having a hard time breathing. "I wanted to... really. But just imagining... nii-san's face when you see them... I couldn't do it... I couldn't... because you finally said... you don't hate me..."

"Ichiru..." Zero immediately knelt down and looked at the full extent of his brother's wounds. He tried to be as professional as possible. He didn't want to break down in front of his brother.

Ichiru was hit with silver bullets. None of them were shot in his torso but silver bullets were still very deadly. Zero could also feel the remains of hunter charms used on his brother's body. The older twin immediately worked on taking the bullets out while incanting counter-charms. When his younger brother gritted his teeth in pain, the hunter immediately apologized and resumed taking out the bullets in a more gentle way. "I'm sorry, Ichiru. I'm so sorry."

Ichiru looked at his older brother's eyes, so similar to his own and yet so different. He then gazed at Zero's face... his nii-san's expression barely concealing the pain and worry. And Ichiru knew he had to say what he had wanted to say all this time. He wanted Zero to hear him out, even if it turned out to be the last words they would exchange as brothers. "Nii-san... I want to tell you something..." He started, his voice hoarse and trembling from so much pain. He could feel his consciousness fading out and he knew he needed to hurry up.

He immediately shook his head when Zero acted like he wanted to argue. "I hated you, nii-san... and yet I love you at the same time... ...because you're my brother... the one who steals all the attention... and yet the one who loves me the most... also the one I love the most..." He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth to prevent himself from feeling too much of the pain.

"Ichiru, there's no need to talk about it now." Zero voiced softly when he finally finished whispering the counter-charms. "We can talk all about it after you've recovered from these wounds."

But Ichiru still shook his head. He needed to say it now... or he might never have the chance to say it again... "No, nii-san... please hear me out..." He pleaded. "I... I'm a coward... I'm sorry if I didn't tell you I was alive... I was just... really scared that you would find out... about what happened that night ten years ago..." He panted a little but he resumed talking after some seconds. "I wanted to just hide from you... It wasn't my intention to reveal myself... But I didn't want the Association to use you any further..."

He remembered vividly how he planned for Shizuka to bite Zero in that particular mission. It was in order to wake up his brother's vampire side. He wanted Zero to realize that he was hunting his own kind all this time. "I knew Shizuka would be charmed by you, just like everyone was, and she would not drain you of your life..." He chuckled a little. "I was right..."