December

Chapter Eight

The Cycle

Yuki and Zero made their way to the second floor. A man appeared from the darkened hallway, stumbling toward them. Yuki stepped infront of Zero, her hand at the ready. Zero didn't have the energy to argue with being protected. "My Lord had awaited you!" His limbs seemed to be limp but his legs were only wobbly. He wore a butlers suit, tattered and riddled with filth.
   "Who is your lord?" Zero asked.
   "Lord Kyro!" He exclaimed his arms flapped up and back down to his sides. Swinging from the gravity.
    "What does he want with us?"
    "You'll have to ask him that, yourself." The man turned on his heel and his arms swung with his motion. "Follow me~" He sang.
Zero and Yuki exchanged looks and followed far behind.
    "Hey let go of my sister! She doesn't deserve to be tortured..." Yuki called out.
    "Princess, he has no ability to let Nyoko out." Yuki looked back at Zero for a moment. "He's only a puppet."

The walls were worn by time and decorated with mother nature's touch. The floors creaked with the mold left by its past residence who were very clearly long gone from this house.
    "Through the doors!" The servant drone slammed his own body into the cracked double doors. Revealed a room untouched by dust and grime. White and gold brushed its walls with paintings hung as if only painted hours ago. A pale yellow couch that beckoned comfort like no other placed in the center of the room, along with its twin and a matching set of chairs. A wooden table lay between the furniture. A man's feet held crossed on it. He had black slacks and a lose black dress shirt on. His hand losely held onto a glass covered in blood and sloshing what he managed to get into the glass round. The missing girl was sprawled across the table her eyes glossed over, breath ragged. Cuts and bites covered her.
     "Who the hell are you?" Yuki asked.
The man smiled under his unkempt blonde hair.
     "My my. Such ill manner."
Yuki scoffed. "Said the man who has a young girl sprawled on his table like a deer? Honestly."
      "Well, she is just that. Prey." He set the glass down on the table, next to the girls face.
      "You have trespassed on Cross Academy grounds, injured a student, kidnapped and killed another. As part of the Disciplinary Committee, and a training hunter these crimes are deemed for immediate punishment." Zero said.
       "Oh? What punishment might that be, boy?"
       "Death." Zero pulled out his gun.
The blonde aristocrat busted out laughing. "You're quite the amusing one but you have me mistaken for someone who cares for silly laws put by humans."
       "You've mistaken me for someone with patience." Zero pulled the trigger. And confetti flew out of the gun, hitting the back of Yuki and spilling around onto the floor. Zero looked at his gun with puzzlement. Yukis body was still stiff from shock. The aristocrat busted out with laughter.
       "I couldn't help myself! I was going to let you think I had been shot while I drank the half breed dry but this was worth it." He wiped a tear off his cheek. Zero growled and slammed his gun onto the floor. He launched himself at the aristocrat, before he could reach the vampire, his face smacked into the air. As if an invisible wall was in the way.

Zero smacked his hand against the wall with rage. "Bastard!" He yelled.
     "Enough of this brute." The vampire raised his hand and Zero fell through the floor. "I love a good jock, but my the brains on that one... though I have to say... I get it." The aristocrat smirked. "He's not a bad looker that one."
    "Enough." Yuki spoke. "Let them go."
    "Mmmm. No."
    "Why did you attack that girl?"
    "Was it not obvious? Are all cross academy students this dull? I wanted to lure you."
    "Why me? If you wanted my attention a simple invitation would have sufficed." Yuki walked passed him, touching the floor Zero had sunken into.
     "Well, fair enough. But I dont think you would have accepted my proposal."
     "Proposal?" She scoffed. "I don't even know your name."

     "Not that kind of proposal, silly girl." Yuki gasped at a sudden force thrusting through her chest. She looked down at a blood soaked hand that had ripped through her clothing. "I want to drink you and your family dry." The hand exited violently and she sputtered out blood. Her chest still gaped open. Yuki fearfully looked up at the man. He liked his hand from the wrist up to the tip of his middle finger. "I need power, and the Kuran Clan has an unimaginable amount of it. I mean your mother has lived before I have and she still has yet to tap into her true powers." He looked down at Yuki. "Oh right. You're not healing. I forget." She took in a deep breath after her chest snapped closed.
    "Y-You... This isn't real..." Yuki stood up. "What are you doing to them?!"
    "Finally clued in huh? That hunk you brought with you basically knew it 2 seconds into the building. I had to put him in a maze of horrors just to get him to stop hitting." The man chuckled. 
     "Let them go."
     "Are you brainless? Did Kaname just take all the intelligence? I just told you I want to suck you dry and you're worried about a level E and a half breed?"
     "Let. Them. Go."
     "Mmm. No. I find them both so interesting and fun! That handsome man is so broken inside, and so angry. It's delicious!" The man giggled, sitting back down on the chair at the end of the coffee table. "And your sister, what a ball of angst that one. She's so easy to toy with."
    "You can have me. Drink me dry and eat me whole, I don't care. Just please let them go." Chains sprung from the ground and clasped onto Yukis wrists. They forced her to her knees. The man smirked.
    "You have no power here. You have no bargain to offer. I already have you, and I have your pets too."
    "They're not my pets! They're family!" Yuki struggled.
    "Mm. Pets are still family." The blonde pointed. "But in the end, they're pets. And we shouldnt let them shit on the couch and eat at the table." He got up and grabbed the glass filled with blood. He threw it at the wall. "You do not deserve a fraction of your power! I worked for mine, fought for a seat on the senate and they deny me because I was born simply a vampire!" He swiftly walked over and grabbed Yukis face, squeezing it. "You were born with gifts. I was not so lucky." He bent to her face. "But I learned. I fought. I drank every ounce of power your kind had to offer." He shoved her face away. "Thousands of years I've lived. I will have my power. And you are the key."
    "Then why keep Zero and Nyo?"
    "Gods do you even listen? I mean I talk a lot." He grabbed the dead girls hair and lifted her face up. "For fun! These things are prey! Food! Walking, breathing, screaming, happy meals! They aren't loved ones. They're... place holders."
     "You're wrong!"
     "I'm not!" The man barked. "I'm sick of your shit, you're killing my mood with your stupidity." The man bent to Yukis face once again. Eyes inches apart. "Your pets are dead. First I killed the man for a light snack. His blood was tainted with hunters taste, but still sweet with desperation." He hummed. "And oh the half breed, I mean honestly if I didn't need to scat, I'd keep her around for awhile. The perfect blend of the intoxicating taste of pureblood blood, and horror filled sweet human blood." He stroked her face. "And you, are by far the sweetest blood I've ever tasted."
    "Stop it!" Yuki pulled at the chains.
    "Pathetic. A waste of pureblood blood. But not any longer. Don't worry, I'll put yours to good use."