| Kyuketsuki (Vampires) By Lady Khris Author’s summery: Une & Treize are vampires. Told from the latter’s point of observation. It was the year A.C. 201. I had been living in the manor for over three years when I saw her. She was standing at the gateway, looking at the manor. She was tall, brunette, and stunning. She had to be mine. After she had left, I sent Mariemaia after her, to pursue and alter her. Being as Mariemaia was still little, I knew she could worm her way into the young woman’s heart. Mariemaia knew I would follow her, knew I would have to bear the young lady back to the manor. Mari had followed the woman straight to her house. Putting on the act of being wounded, Mariemaia knocked on the door. “Will you help me?” Mariemaia asked, her voice childlike. The young woman took one look at Mariemaia and nodded. Mari followed her into her house like a very submissive young puppy. Excellent. Mariemaia had gotten in. Now all I had to do was wait for her to poke her head out of the casement and I could get the young woman I lusted after. With my keen vampiric senses, I could hear struggling in an upper bedroom. Then all was silent. Mariemaia’s head popped out of a casement. I took my sign and ran inside. The young woman was lying on the floor, her head pillowed on her arm. I bent swiftly and picked her up. She was still breathing shallowly and that soon stopped. That was good, that meant she was soon going to be alert. Though it was only half a block from her house to the manor, it only felt like two steps. She was sleeping now. As soon as we were in the manor, I sat her in a chair. She woke then. I offered her a chalice. She sniffed it suspiciously. “What the hell is this?” she asked. Then she fainted dead away on the chair. I told Mariemaia to open the door to the bedroom next to mine. She did so and I laid the woman down. She half-awoke and I asked her what her name was. She said it was Lady Une. I told her mine was Treize before she had fainted again. I ran downstairs, grabbed the chalice again, and placed it by my bed. She was going to need to feed in twenty-four hours or she would die. When I passed her room, she was laying on the bed so peacefully. Her lips were parted. I went to my room and took the chalice off of my bedside table. I carefully poured the virgin’s blood down her throat. Mariemaia suddenly appeared in the entryway. “Dad,” she said, “that woman is a virgin. Look how tall I am now, compared to when I left.” Mariemaia was right. Only a true virgin could make a vampiric child grow taller. I finished pouring the blood down her throat and set the chalice down. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at me. She had the most striking brown eyes I had ever seen and her face was untouched by death. Though her skin was pale, her eyelashes black as dusk, and her lips as burgundy as roses, her eyes retained their natural exquisiteness. She fell asleep in my arms, but the way she turned away from my body told me that Lady Une was a recluse and most likely a runner. My late wife, Leila, had left a black dress, her hunting clothes, and some other things in the closet before she died. But that is another story. I’ll leave that for later. I quietly left the room and gathered the attire Leila had left behind. Lady Une slept on, even as I hung the attire in her closet. I made sure I didn’t waken her until dark; wanting to make sure, she got her rest. Her mysterious exquisiteness had captured my cold, unbeating heart. I was in love once again. Une stretched in her sleep, her arms above her head, making her seem erotic. I inaudibly walked over to the bed and sat down. Only then did I notice how tall she was. Knowing that, I left her room. It was 8:01 P.M. The last traces of sundown had left the sky. I went into Une’s room. “It’s time to hunt,” I said. She looked up and nodded. She went into the closet and changed into the crop top, camo (camouflage) pants, and the leather jacket Leila had left behind. She stretched and then raced me down the stairs. She won. My instincts were right. She was a recluse and a runner. Furthermore, she was striking. Lady Une was standing by the gateway once more. A young man was standing there. She stood there unobserved. Suddenly, she pounced. Her first slay, and she drained him dry. When she looked up at me, with the blood covering her fangs, making her lips even redder, I smiled. I was proud that my love could do that without being noticed. There was something hypnotizing about her eyes. I hugged her close, but she pulled away. I didn’t blame her. She could probably sense that another woman had tainted my life, or changed me. “Lady,” I began, “I wasn’t changed by a woman. I did love one though. Mariemaia was from that union. But she and I weren’t right for each other. After Mari was born, she went out during daylight and killed her self. She, too, was a vampire.” Lady Une slowly walked around. “Treize, I could sense that. I knew that young girl had to belong to somebody, or something. I knew she had to be a vampire when I felt her teeth sink into my neck. I’ve never been treated like I was someone important. I was always treated like drek, dirt. And right now, I’m starving,” she said. “Lady, you just ate and I forced some blood down your throat earlier,” I said. Just then, a young man darted through the trees. I pounced on him and held him down so I could bite down on him. Lady would have some, but not a lot. He struggled, but stopped after her teeth closed on his neck. After a few moments, she stood up. A second later, she was unconscious. The young man was high. I slit his throat with a blade I kept with me always and then placed the blade in his hands. It was going to be ruled a suicide anyway. No one in these parts believed in vampires anyway. I picked Lady Une up in my arms and carried her inside the mansion. She was so striking, but it would be days before she would recuperate from the man’s blood. I would have to force blood down her throat every twenty-four hours to make she didn’t die. I laid her on the bed in my room. She was going to have to be near me until she was fully recovered and had her strength back. “Treize?” I turned as I heard my name. Lady Une was conscious. “Treize?” she asked. “Yes, Lady, what is it?” I muttered. “What happened?” she said quietly. “The other guy was quite high on alcohol. That can cause us to die or even pass out for hours,” I said delicately. Her eyes were quite frightened. I sat down on the double bed next to her. She was shaking fiercely. I took her in my arms and soothingly rubbed my hands up and down her arms, soothing her quite a bit. She leaned against my chest. I quit rubbing my hands up and down her arms and changed to rubbing her back. She was soon asleep in my arms. This was the first time she hadn’t pulled away from me as I held her to my body. “Treize?” she murmured. “Shh, just rest. You need to sleep. The alcohol could injure you severely if you don’t rest,” I said quietly. I felt her head drop back against my chest. She was out cold. I gently laid her against the cushions. I stood silently and walked over to her house. She had a cabinet full of attire there. I quickly gathered them all into a large garment bag, including all her gowns and the whole lot. Oh, Lady, what kind of life did you have before I came along in your life? I see all these ball gowns and official clothes, but did you ever use them? I thought as I left her house. When I returned to the manor, I found her still asleep. I went to the room she was sleeping when she wasn’t in poor health, and hung the attire in the cabinet. I heard whimpering sounds coming from my room, like that of a small bird. Was she wakening? I swiftly walked in and found Lady lying on the bed alert. She blinked calmly once or twice, and then fell back asleep. I let her sleep, even though I dreadfully wanted to find out more about her history. She finally awoke four days later, ravenous as a wolf, and as mean as one too. Apparently, no food (meaning blood) left her fairly weak and exhausted. I went below and brought up a chalice of blood for her to drink. After a few drinks, her eyes started to flutter close, but I told her she had to keep drinking. After only a couple more, she fainted into my arms. Her body quivered as she slumbered and she was like ice. I noted that and almost panicked. Although we (meaning vampires) are usually faintly cooled to the touch, we are never, ever like ice. Yet, she was. I had to get her to drink more blood; I had to get her to warm up. She would die if she didn’t warm up quickly. I lightly lifted her up and laid her on the settee. After doing that, I pulled back the sheets and quilt on my bed, then carried her back over, and laid her under them. She trembled vaguely as I pulled the covers over her, but she didn’t waken. As I sat there, watching her sleep, I could see faint shadows of purple and blue under her eyes. That was a good sign; she was warming up now. Mariemaia was passing by in the hall. When she saw me sitting there, she asked what was wrong. I told her that a young man was high when I caught him and allowed Lady Une to feed on him, which made her ill. Mariemaia asked if there was anything she could do, but I told her no. A few moments later, Lady Une started to stir. She sat up slowly in the bed with one arm supporting her. “Treize?” she asked softly. “Shh, Lady, it’s all right,” I said quietly, not wanting to scare her. “Please, call me Ana,” she said softly. With her voice as low as it was, I could barely hear her. I slowly walked over to her and kissed her. She blushed softly and I was quite surprised. I had believed she had never felt any emotion, but her blushing proved me erroneous. Ana fell asleep again. I was asleep shortly after her, holding her in my arms. She didn’t waken until noon the next day. When she looked over at me, I just shook my head and told her to rest. She hadn’t warmed up like I had hoped—but at least now, she wasn’t like ice. She was, however, still weak. Somehow, I knew that she would rest when the dawn came and waken with sundown. She was like Leila in that sense. But this is our story, not the story of Leila and myself. When I woke her for the hunt that night, she was so bleary-eyed that I told her that she should rest. She told me she’d be fine. I told her to stay at the manor and to recuperate from the alcohol. She finally agreed after a repeated argument that drove us both nearly bat-shit. Mariemaia had heard the argument and knocked on the bedroom door. I stepped outside and told her that she was too young to hunt, unless I told her to hunt someone specifically. She pouted a bit, put out, I suppose, but accepted it. I went downstairs alone and out into the yard. There were two humans standing dangerously close to each other. One of them wandered away from another and I killed her. Before she died, she looked up at me with eyes that asked, “why?” I felt my eyes narrowing, and then carried her off to the house for Ana to feed on later. I did the same thing with the person she had been with. Luckily, they were both virgins and their blood combined was able to helped Ana recover quickly. A few days later, there were some cop-type people hanging around the manor before dawn. I happened to be outside enjoying the fresh air with Ana. They waved us over. I whispered to Ana to go inside and rest a bit more. I went over to the cop-types and asked them what was up. They said they had reports of a man of my description entering a dignitary’s house. I asked who the dignitary was. They said it was Lady Anmaría Isabella Shoran-Une. I said I had never heard of her. The cop-types believed me and left. I went back inside, as it was nearing dawn. Ana was sitting on the sofa in the living room. “Who were those people, Treize?” “I don’t know my love.” “Treize, have I ever told you my full name?” “No, my darling, but it’s not important to me.” “Treize, were those people asking about a missing dignitary?” “No, they said that a man of my description had been reporting entering a dignitary’s house.” “Did they say who the dignitary was?” “Yes, Lady Anmaría Isabella Shoran-Une.” “Treize, that’s my full name. I …was a dignitary for Germany to this country. Then, my life took a sudden dive off the high dive, and I ended up staying here until otherwise informed. I was a political prisoner of state. “ I momentarily froze. How could they keep someone as kind…as gentle as her as a political prisoner of state?? What had she done?? I looked at her, the tears gathering in her large, deep-set brown eyes. “Why did they make you into a political prisoner of state? What had you done?” “ I was never told why. I never asked questions. Well, in that case, I was told not to ask questions.” I could tell she didn’t want to discuss the matter further. I gently took her in my arms and kissed her. She fell asleep a few seconds later. I carried her up to her room and lay her on the bed. I could tell that she was finally happy for the first time in a long time. “Sleep well, Lady Ana.” I turned and walked out of her room and into mine. A few hours later, I woke from my slumber to find her beside me. Her body was trembling with internal fear. I didn’t waken her. I took her in my arms, instead. Ana was shivering so badly I was afraid she’d shiver herself right off of the bed. “Ana.” She was still shaking. I was so scared for her. She was my silent partner, my never-crumbling rock. She was beautiful—taut where it needed to be taut and loose where it needed to be loose and she was just all around beautiful! Mariemaia knocked on the bedroom door, holding a cup of heated sake. She offered it to me. “Is this for Ana?” “Yes, father. I knew she was shivering because I could see her pacing in front of the fireplace in your bedroom. “ “What do you mean, girly-o? She’s not pacing in front of the fireplace, she’s laying in the bed with the covers up to her neck.” “Oh.” I took the cup of sake from my daughter and closed the door behind me. Ana was still lying on the bed, her beautiful brown eyes closed. “Ana, wake up.” “Hn? Treize?” “Shh. Here. Drink this.” “What is it?” “It’s heated sake.” She took the cup from me. I sat down next to her and gently took her in my arms and kissed her. Ana looked up at me, her dark brown eyes silently thanking me for saving her from her personal hell. “Just drink the sake, dearest. It will help you warm up. “ “Thank you, Treize, thank you so much for everything. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me. You’re my savior.” “You’re all right, Ana. You’re going to be all right. I’ll protect you as long as I can from the vice of everyone out there.” ??Change P.O.V.?? ??Mariemaia’s P.O.V.?? My father was entirely taken with this young woman. She was very pretty, I’ll admit. She was a loner and a runner. I had realized this even when she told me to come into her house; there weren’t any signs that she had a man in her life. Her house was a small two story. She was very tired looking and her house had the smell of a politician. I soon realized that she was a political prisoner when she went up to her bedroom, which is where I tackled her. When I attacked her, she didn’t scream or struggle. She seemed to sense that I was changing her into something new, something free from the politics that had trapped her in this tiny prison. Oh sure, she did struggle; all the politicians do struggle when they’re attacked. She didn’t struggle long, however. She was soon still under my hands. I quickly looked out the window to signal my father to come and get her. She was limp in my father’s arms as I walked home beside him. He seemed, I really don’t know how to describe how he seemed, happy. I suppose it was because he had the woman he wanted or maybe it was because she was so pretty. I just know that he was quite content with holding her so close to his body, to see a human being turned into a vampire. The only woman he had turned had committed suicide shortly after I was born. The young woman didn’t wake until my father placed her in a chair. He offered her a cup of virgin’s blood. But before he did that, he ordered me to go fix up the bedroom next door to his. If she wouldn’t eat…drink, I mean, she would have to be forced to drink the blood while she slept. In order for a new kyuketsuki, or vampire, to live after the first hours of their being changed, they have to drink pure virgin’s blood. A few moments after I had prepared the room for the young woman, my father came up, holding her in his arms. I knew Father wouldn’t want me to ask any questions as to what he was doing, so I kept my mouth shut. Luckily, the young woman was able to drink when my father forced the virgin’s blood down her throat. She was very fair, very pretty. I liked her. She would make a suitable foster mother for me. Father had been down since my mother, Leila Barton-Khushrenada, had committed suicide. Contrary to many people’s beliefs in this county my father & I live in, vampires do not slit our throats. Instead, we go outside while it is day & wait to be turned into ash. When my father & his protégée went out hunting that night, they came back in too soon. I knew something had happened to her. When I heard my father cursing like a maniac, I knew that somebody had been high. I could hear him saying things like “why did I let her feed on that man??” “why am I such an idiot?” things like that. I went out into the hall after a while. I knew that my father would be going to go get her other clothes. I had neglected to do so because I felt that I would be trespassing. Had I spoken to the young woman before I had changed her, I would have asked her permission to get her clothing out of the wardrobe in the room. When my father returned, I asked what had happened. “A young man was quite high & I allowed Lady Ana to feed on him like the idiot I am,” he had replied. To that, I told him that he wasn’t an idiot. Father smiled at me and told me to go back to my room. After a while (meaning a few days), I heard my father about to go out to the hunt. I asked if I could join him, but he said no, that I wasn’t old enough. Wouldn’t you think a fifteen-year-old vampire would be a good hunter? Sometimes I just don’t understand my father’s thinking. When he returned, he went back into his room. Lady Ana (for that was the young woman’s name) was still shivering. I could hear my father trying to get her to warm up. While he was preoccupied with that, I went downstairs to make some warm sake for her. When it was finished, I went upstairs & knocked on my father’s door. I could see in my mind’s eye Lady Ana pacing up and down in front of the fireplace, trying to warm up. When I told my father that, he said something to the effect of, “she’s in the bed, buried under the covers.” I, of course, was stunned at that, but I gently pressed the goblet of heated sake into my father’s hands & told him to give it to Lady Ana. ™™Change Point of View™™ ™™Lady Anmaría Isabella Shoran-Une™™ I suppose it would be right if I told you how I came to be a political prisoner in Austria. I don’t think the Duke Dermail, that old buzzard, would want me to tell anyone the circumstances of my imprisonment in the house so close to Treize’s manor. I could tell you if I wanted to when I came from, where I was born & how I came to be a politician. But I don’t want to. It’s too painful. I suppose it was because Treize had seen me looking at his manor that he decided to have his daughter, Mariemaia, follow me, & change me into a vampire. Or maybe it was because I was the only woman for miles around that he deemed suitable for the care taking & upbringing of his young daughter. Whatever his reasons, I do not want to know. I just know that he had saved me from committing seppuku, or suicide. It was a hard time for me. I was trapped in a strange country, unable to leave the house except to go to the governor’s offices to plea to be released so that I might live a normal life. When I was changed, it was like something in my mind setting me free, turning me into a dove, or any bird. I didn’t know what to say to Mariemaia, but I do know that when I figured it out, I was unconscious on the floor of my bedroom. I felt like I couldn’t see, hear, or feel a thing until I felt Treize’s arms pick me up. He was extremely strong. When I woke, I was in a chair & Treize was looking at me, holding out a chalice of some liquid. I sniffed it suspiciously, asked, “What the hell is this,” and then fell unconscious again. I could hear Treize ordering his daughter to do something and then everything after that is a total blank. I suppose it was because I was exhausted, or something. I had no control over my own body. I couldn’t move. Upstairs (I only knew where I was because I felt the bumping of going up stairs), I was placed on to something like a bed. As soon as my head was on the pillows, I was out of it. I didn’t waken until Treize came in. It was time to hunt. I pounced on a young man and drained him dry. Shortly after that, Treize caught another young man & let me have a little. I stood and then I was unconscious. I could hear Treize cursing. I knew something was wrong. Four days passed & I was as hungry as a wolf. Treize handed me a chalice of blood. That night, I was still too weak to go out to the hunt, so Treize brought two young people in for me to feed on. When I asked what had happened to me, he told me that the young man I had feed on had been quite drunk. That explained my passing out. I wasn’t used to spirits. I never drank, not even when I was human. A few days passed. It was shortly after midnight when Treize & I spotted two cop-types lurking outside of the property. Treize told me to go inside & rest. When he came back in, he was very nonchalant about it. When he told me that they had told him who a dignitary was, I panicked. They weren’t looking for me, at least, not yet. I wouldn’t go back into politics. They had pushed me to the point where I was ready to take my own life. 18 years have passed since I was initially changed. It was difficult adjusting to the life at first, but now, I am fine. Treize & I have two children of our own. Mariemaia is nearing her 16th birthday, but being as she is a vampire, she won’t be able to take advantage of driving. It’s not like we’ll ever leave this manor. Too much of the vampiric history is stored here to let it go to waste & ruin. Here & now, I will end my tale, for Treize is calling to me that the children are hungry & they will only feed from me. Lady Anmaría Isabella Une-Khushrenada, 7778 Duchessburg Street Austria. **Aa, finally! It’s over. Now I can fully concentrate on my anime and on my World War II studies. Well, whoever may read this, please review. Questions or comments on why my writing is this way, or why I choose to write such dark fics, please e-mail me at silverwinggundam07@juno.com & I will be happy to answer your questions. Lady Khristina María King Lady Khristina María King J** |
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