Blood of The Serpent

Chapter 7

A week passed in Yoru's life with the Tominori family. Mornings were spent eating breakfast with the family, often times with him taking the last bite of something Reiko wanted to eat. On school days she'd head off and he wouldn't see her until later that afternoon. However, today was a Saturday.

"Yoru, Yoru, Yoru!" she yelled, running up to him excitedly in the hallway. "Look what I found!"

She was holding Mr. Happy, the Tominori family's cat. He was big and had long gray fur; definitely fully grown, although Yoru didn't know his age. His legs were dangling out underneath him and Reiko was holding on to his arm pits, making his arms spread out like a bird flapping its wings. With the way he was looking at him with his big, round eyes, Mr. Happy didn't look very happy.

"Oh Reiko, you're holding him wrong," he said, reaching for the cat. He picked him up, supporting his legs with his arms. "Try something like this. You need to support him better."

"I'm sorry," she said. He handed the cat back to her and she took him, supporting his legs this time. She smiled up at the boy she thought was her brother. "I really love cats."

He smiled back. His family had never owned a cat, but he'd always had a liking for animals. He briefly wondered if Emi liked cats as much as this girl did. Why had he never asked his own sister simple questions like that?

Amara walked around the corner. "Oh? I see you found the flea-bitten mutt.

"Aunt Amara," Reiko said, pouting. Mr. Happy was looking over at the vampire, his eyes wide. "That's not very nice."

Yoru glared at her. He had found in the short time he'd lived here that Amara didn't hold much respect for this family. She treated them like servants - no, even worse than that. She seemed to view them as an existence beneath her, something that existed only to be used.

Amara looked into Reiko's eyes, locking the girl's gaze into her own. "Why don't you go show that cat to Saki?"

"Yes..." Reiko said, staring vacantly into her eyes.

"After that, fetch me a pack of blood from the basement."

"Yes, I'll do that. After I show Mr. Happy to mom..." When Amara broke her gaze, Reiko's expression changed to one of glee and she ran off down the hallway, surely to show Mr. Happy to her mom.

"Can you stop doing that?" Yoru asked, continuing to glare at her. He briefly wondered if he even liked this woman. "You can't just brainwash everyone to get your way."

"You have no idea how wrong you are," Amara laughed.

"That's not what I mean," he said, frustrated. "It's not right. A person's mind should be their own."

Amara rolled her eyes. "They're humans, Yoru. You seem to forget that we're vampires."

"It doesn't matter!" he said, slamming his hand against the wall. "They're people, Amara! They have hopes and dreams and feelings."

"It doesn't matter," she said, her eyes harsh as she spoke. "Don't you get it? You'll stop aging at twenty, meanwhile every human on this planet will grow old and wither away."

"So? How is that any excuse to brainwash people? I can understand obtaining house this as a place to sleep, but why are you turning everyone into your personal servants?!"

"That's what humans are," said Amara, smiling. "They're blood bags. Servants. The sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be."

He turned around and began walking away. He was done talking to this woman. He always knew she was a vampire, but he hadn't realized just how far gone her humanity really was. Did she even remember what it was like to be human?

"Lucas is still alive, you know."

He stopped in the hallway. He didn't want to talk to this cold-blooded woman, but this sounded important. "What do you mean?"

"The poison of a vampire doesn't kill humans," said Amara, her eyes dark. "It only paralyzes."

His mind went blank for a moment. Lucas seemed to have some sort of grudge against Amara, but he hadn't hesitated to try taking him down with her. If he was still alive, that meant they both were in danger. No, everyone in this house could be in danger.

He turned, walked back over to her. "Lucas won't attack humans, right?"

"Only if they get in his way," she said. "I don't know why you care, though. He'll kill you just for being a vampire."

Great. Just great. With Amara treating the Tominori family the way she did, he wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they did get in his way. She wouldn't hesitate to make the family fight that crazy vampire hunter to the death.

They were just blood bags to her, after all.

"Why does Lucas hate you so much anyway?" he asked. "The man clearly has a grudge against you."

Amara smiled. "True. He does have a grudge. I'm the reason he came to here, in fact."

"And what reason did he have to chase you all the way to Japan?"

"Long story short, I killed his wife," said Amara. He waited for her to continue, but she didn't say another word.

"Is that it? No explanation?" He knew she didn't respect humans, but he didn't think she'd kill someone for no reason. "Mind telling me why you killed his wife?"

"It's really quite simple," she said. Her expression was blank, unreadable. "I'm a monster, Yoru. You can cling to your humanity, but don't think for moment that there's a human left inside of me."

"What a load of crap," said Yoru. He didn't know how, but somehow he knew that she was lying. He got closer to Amara, close enough that he could have reached out and touched her. "I get that you're a vampire, but you're no cold blooded killer."

She smiled and looked at him, her expression cold. "That's where you're wrong. I've killed a lot of people."

She began walking away from him, toward a wide open window that was allowing light to spill into the hallway. He tried to run after her, but she was faster. She jumped out the window and disappeared among the trees.