Midnight Rose (Kaimaki vampire AU)

Chapter 22: Safe

"Why are you here?!"

"There's a lot of reasons right now! I'll explain later!"

"You're an idiot!"

Lightning clashed and thunder boomed. Wind blew harshly at the paper doors. The room felt freezing cold. The lights had been blacked out by the storm. The only reason why any light ignited the room was from the lightning and the lights from the pagoda's garden. It was eerie to say the least. It didn't worry Kaito. He only felt that desire to fight right now. It was Maki's sudden screaming and seeing the Chief on top of her, ready to drink her blood that made him fight. He hoped that he knocked the Chief out when he threw him onto the table. Anything to give him and Maki enough time to get out. But now that he's forcing the Chief to back away from Maki and fighting him, he was glad. He wanted to show the bastard that he shouldn't have done what he did for goodness knows how long. That he shouldn't have murdered innocent people! That he shouldn't have touched Maki!

Kaito pushed back as hard as he could. The problem is that the Chief was older and clearly had more experience and strength in a situation like this. As Kaito pushed, the Chief pushed harder, almost knocking him off of his feet. Kaito could actually feel his feet slip slowly under him. Wanting to use his opponent's strength against him, Kaito suddenly ducked down. The Chief wasn't expecting it as he toppled forwards. Kaito took advantage of that but kneeing in the gut, causing him to stumble back. However he recovered quicker than Kaito thought he would. He launched at Kaito, causing the Ultimate Astronaut to raise his arms to brace himself. There was an agonising pain in his arm. It only took Kaito a second to realise that his arm was bitten into. The bite was so powerful that Kaito thought that it had reached the bones in his arm. The pain was so intense that Kaito couldn't stop himself from falling to his knees. The Chief jerked his head a little, as if he was trying to rip the appendage right off.

As he tried to push the Chief off of him, Kaito looked at Maki. She wasn't running. She had an opening. Why wasn't she taking it?! When he looked at her, he had a strong suspicion. Maki was shaking tremendously. He assumed it was from the cold, or maybe from adrenaline. But as he looked into her eyes, it wasn't because she was cold. She was actually scared, terrified. Fear was what was keeping her to the ground. It was so abnormal to see her like this. Maki always seemed strong, like nothing could scare her. Seeing her like this though, it made Kaito's blood boil.

Kaito's free fist swung around, colliding with the Chief's face. The Chief leapt off, tearing the sleeve of Kaito's over shirt and a chunk of his flesh. Kaito slowly got to his feet. He felt his blood drain from the injury down to his fingertips. Blood drops splattered to the floor, forming a small puddle. While the wound stung, it healed within seconds. Kaito could feel his instincts surface again. If there was ever a time that he was glad to be born a vampire, this would be it. Kaito looked down at Maki. She was still sitting in the same position. She hadn't wrapped herself in his coat, but she was clutching it like a lifeline. Her eyes didn't seem unfocused when they were moments ago. They kept trained on him like a cat chasing a laser pointer. They seemed to hold a silent warning for Kaito not to come any closer. Did Maki see his arm heal and figure out that he wasn't human? Right now, that didn't matter. He's going to get her out of this place. He just needs to tie up a loose end here.

"You might want to look away for this bit." Kaito warned, his tone more serious than he had ever heard it before. Maki blinked twice. She looked like she was going to ask him what he meant, but the words never came out. Kaito ignored it as he focused his attention on the Chief, who was a little dazed. Kaito gave a silent apology to Maki. He didn't want to show this side of him, a side that he didn't know that he had, but there was no choice. Kaito raised his fists, ready to fight. He should be afraid of these instincts that started to take control of him. However, so long as he knew what he was doing, as long as he was in control, he had nothing to be worried about.