𝕯𝖎𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘: 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕱𝖆𝖙𝖊

Chapter 16

Subaru looked from the tower towards the gate that led to the mansion. His hands felt the stone wall chip away at his touch as he dug his nails into the window, his bracelet catching the glint of an obscure lamp far away from the tower, his eyes meandering from the path that led to the tower to the meadow that faced the left side of the mansion. His heart stayed silent as he heard his mother beckon him from behind. "Nee sama?"

He turned around, his mother's hands wrapped around the iron bars, a look of bewilderment in her eyes. He stepped close to her, placing his hands over hers, loving the soft touch of his mother, imagining what would have been the scenario had she been healthy. Her bony fingers prodded against his palm, as she rested her head on his closed fist.

"You might not get to see him for a while, mother." He placed his head on her fingers, kissing her knuckles. She sobbed a bit, her luscious white hair moving with the wind.

Karlheinz had probably never bothered to look after his surviving wife while he presided in the demon world. Feelings of anger and disgust overcame Subaru as he saw a dark figure emerge from the shadows. Mismatched eyes looked at him, glowing in the dark, as the dark figure stepped in, dissipating dust from the stream of light illuminating the cell.

"Subaru kun," Kou said, his voice oddly cheerful. "What a surprise to see you here. Your mother must be glad to see you once every ten years."

"I'll stab the other eye out if you act so high and mighty around me."

"Aww, don't act so closed off," Kou said, as Subaru saw his mother back away from the blond vampire, saying, "This is the spawn of Satan!"

"Now I get where you get your bipolarity from." Kou must have meant it as a joke, but the words stung deep into Subaru's heart, as he barked at Kou, turning towards him, "I'll kill you!"

"You can, after we get through what Reiji has in store for us, Subaru kun."

***

Ayato stared at the equations written on the sheet of paper before him, as his attention oscillated between Yui and the books beside them, trying hard to focus.

It was hard because he had to think through the problem first. She'd promised him takoyaki if he solved this last question without her help, but he was stuck at it. And why did she have to put her hair up in a bun like that? Her neck was exposed, and he only had two things on his mind whenever he looked up to see her staring back at him, her hands crossed on her chest as though knowing he wasn't particularly amused with this exercise.

Should I kiss her neck or bite down on it?

"I can give a hint, if you want," she offered, her eyes now fixed on the book she had been assigned for reading. She was sitting on her bed, her shorts riding up further on her thighs, The Diary of Anne Frank on her lap, and her damn hair twisted up in a bun. She'd stuffed two earbuds in her ears as Ayato had started complaining that she'd given him a difficult assignment, a soft voice singing some old songs, drowning out his whining. Ayato was lying on his stomach, his red hoodie too hot for him. He forced himself to focus on the last problem. He wasn't ready to give up on this one.

"Why are we finding out ages of fathers and sons? Don't we have better things to do?" He flipped through the previous solutions he had jotted down, hoping the answer would be written miraculously on the blank page once he revisited it.

"Ayato kun," Yui warned, and Ayato went back to pretending to write some gibberish on the paper. He looked at her in between his struggle to decipher the problem, and saw her bobbing her head to the song, her deft fingers flipping the page, and he found his stare following the curve of her collar bone, imagining what sound might escape her rosy lips when he marks her mercilessly there, holding her hands above her head, ripping her clothes off her one by one-