Vampires Bride

Chapter 4

"As to your question of why you know us, that is tied into why you were targeted and also the loss of your family."

Akashi's words echoed around my head as I sunk into the couch next Midorima. Loss of my family? So they were dead then. I didn't remember much of my family, really I didn't remember much of my life. I would occasionally remember parts of it or grab small glimpses of my life before but I had never really thought about where my family really was. Sure I had made up different scenarios in my head but for them to actually be dead? That was something I had never even considered it. I thought then of what little of my mother I could remember. Long hair as blue as mine, a beautiful smile and she always smelled like some sort of flower.

"My family is dead? They haven't just lost me or run off to keep me safe or even abandoned me?" I asked quietly, looking down at my hand in my lap, trying to swallow past the lump in my throat.

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and looked into the kind green eyes of Midorima as he wiped a tear I didn't know I had shed off my cheek. I rubbed my eyes impatiently, I wasn't someone who cried like a girl all the time.

"I am truly sorry," came the smooth voice from again.

"They gave their lives so that we could get you away safely."

Why would they die for me? Why was I always being attacked by random people I had never met? As if reading my thoughts Akashi continued, "this is going to sound strange but you are from a long family of special people called Eves."

"What like Adam and Eve?"

I heard a giggle and turned to scowl at Kise.

"Sorry Kurokocchi. That story about Adam and Eve is just based on real history, but there was no forbidden fruit, Eve herself was the fruit."

I cocked my eye brow at him, not understanding a word he just said. I heard Midorima sigh beside me, "really Kise you can be such a dumb ass. What he is trying to say is that thousands of years ago there was a woman called Eve and to the vampires she was the most important human ever. However, at the same time as vampires were trying to claim Eve, vampire hunters emerged to stop them. It was from this that the tale of Adam and Eve was born with Adam representing the hunters and the snake being vampires."

"Why was the Eve so important? And on that point the vampire from last night called me an Eve too?"

"That would be because you are a descendant of that Eve and as such all her children are consequently called 'Eves' because it is through them that the pure blood line can be continued."

Again my eye brow shot up and I felt Aomine sigh behind me, however a smile just tugged at the corner of the red heads mouth and I felt my heart skip a beat.

"Vampires can be categorised, I will explain later otherwise we will get off track but I will tell you that those that haven't been turned, and are instead born vampires are pure bloods. This is where Eve comes into it. It is very hard for Vampires to have children, woman of course cannot birth children and as for men, they can father children to a human woman however the chances of a child being born from the union is about one in three hundred. However, an Eve is able to give birth once, to a set of twin girls. One will be a pure blood vampire, the other a human, the new Eve."

"So that is why they are so important? Children?"

"That and your blood Kurokocchi," answered Kise brushing my hair out of my face.

"It is more potent to us vampires than any other. It can be addictive like a drug but it increases our powers, helping us heal quicker, making us stronger and faster and for weaker vampires, the power to walk in the sun."

So this was why I was being chased all my life. My blood was like crack for vampires. Great. Something that Akashi had said was tugging at the back of my mind but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"If Eve is so important why wouldn't the first vampires keep the second child to suck its blood and make more children? From what you are saying its like a treasure hunt."

"Remember the hunters Kuroko."

I turned to see Midorima pushing his glasses up.

"They try to stop the vampires from making more pure bloods and of course trying to keep humans from being fed on or being turned. At the very beginning the vampires did try to keep both the vampire and new Eve however the hunters would track them down, slaughtering many to save the human child. After hundreds of years of such blood bathes a truce was drawn up. Vampires would not stop looking for Eve and the hunters wouldn't stop trying to keep Eve away and saving humans however, if the vampires did get an Eve they would give the human child to the hunters. And that is why it is a treasure hunt."

So much information was running around in my head that I felt a little dizzy, but some of it was ringing true inside of me, like I had heard it again.

"So there is no hope for me than? The vampires always claim Eve. I will be a banquet until I am sucked dry."

Akashi's eyes flashed with anger and I shrunk back into the chair by instinct, even though I knew it wasn't me he was angry at. How did I know that?

"Sometimes the Eve is never claimed and she will live out her life in peace, marry a human male and give birth to just one girl. You will be safe Tetsuya, I swear it."

I felt warm at his words and smiled at him. Looking around at the room of strange vampires I saw them all looking at me, as if they were waiting for me to say something. I felt dread creep through me then as I thought over the words that Akashi had said. He was hinting at something, everything he ever did or said had meaning. Again, how do I know? I shook my head and the thoughts away when it occurred to me and I looked back to Akashi, shock in my eyes. I saw him recognize that I had realised the truth and he smiled.

"You said only ever twin girls, or one human girl," I began, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"I might be girly looking but I'm a boy."

The others all smiled at my like they were proud of me for picking it up. Like parents.

"The Eve has always been a woman and they have only ever given birth to girls. It all changed with your mother. She was never claimed by the vampires but neither did she live out her life blissful and unaware of the dark world around her. She married a hunter and it was from that union that you were born. A boy, with blood and powers unlike any other."

"You are the ultimate Eve, the last in your line, the holy grail if you will but to us Kuroko you are also the precious child we raised and protected after the death of your family."

"Not without my help you won't."

My body was cold with shock but the familiar deep husky voice roused me and I turned to see a tall, solidly built man walk through the doors. He had dark red eyes under strong eye brows that split into two at the ends and dark red toned hair. Suddenly I was airborne as I launched myself at him.

"Tiger!"

I ploughed hard into him but he didn't budge, he simply returned my strong embrace and kissed the top of my head.

"My little shadow, I have missed you."

I looked up at him a huge smile on my face but I was shocked to see him the same age as in my memory.

"It doesn't look like you've aged since I was six!"

He reached down to ruffled my hair, his smile sad but it was Midorima who said, "Kagami Taiga is a hunter, they do not age like normal humans. One year for them is five years of a human's life."

I looked around the room at the colourful and unbelievable people around me, people that belonged in fairy tales or on the cat walk. They all looked similar to me in age it was hard to believe that I stood in a room of almost immortals and I was some sort of magical fruit. What a weird day.