Red Vengeance Vampire Knight Fanfiction)

Chapter 17

My nerves have been on the edge all day and it's only gotten worse since I left the house.  Let's just say I've been cautious ever since, if not paranoid.

Kaien suddenly turns to me from where he studies Aunt Yumi's tome of vampire lineages.  Despite me telling him that searching the book again would be useless, he's been staring at it as soon as we got home.

"What?" I ask him.

Kaien opens his mouth to speak, but then the landline rings, interrupting him.  I go to answer, but Kaien gets to it faster because the landline is attached to the wall closest to the couch.

"Hello." The blond hunter says into the phone.

After a couple minutes of talking Kaien hangs up the phone and immediately springs to his feet, the gigantic book forgotten on the table.

"What is it?"

"No time to explain get your weapons and shoes on."

Though my curiosity is piqued, I swiftly do as Kaien says.  As soon as we're ready Kaien and I bolt out the door, not bothering to hail a cab.

"What's happening?" I ask through breaths.

"There's a murder in progress not far from here.  One of the people were able to call in for help, they might not have long." Kaien says quickly.

My eyes widen, can it really be that easy?  Will we be able to catch our vampire killer so abruptly? Is it finally time for my vengeance?

The spark of hope I feel immediately is doused as soon as we near the house.  There are no screams.  The only sound is the roaring flames of the fire that engulfs the house.  It's almost as if that spark of hope of mine caused a whole forest fire before it was quenched.  My stomach knots. 

What could I have been thinking?  It's never that easy, especially with a bastard as tricky as the one we're dealing with.

Kaien is silent by my side, we don't have to go inside to know that there are no survivors.
As we stand, watching the licking flames, somehow Kaien's hand ends up in mine.  I'm too numb to move it or get angry.

But all feeling comes roaring back when I see a particular patch of flame on a dry piece of lawn.

My hand slips out of Kaien's and I run to get a closer look.  I'm so close that I can smell the smoke, feel it filling my nose and wrapping around my neck to choke me.  I'm so close it hurts, but that hurt is overcome by another fiery emotion as I make out the sign drawn intricately with fire, flaming across the grass.

With my close-up perspective I see that it isn't a sign but a crest, a family crest. The same family crest that nearly tore my heart apart with memories when I saw it while searching the book of vampire family lineages with Kaien. The vampire lineages book that my Aunt Yumi told Kaien and I to keep at our side always, the one we accidentally forgot in the apartment in the center of the living room.

The family crest depicting a burning dragon flying within a circle stings my eyes, but I can't bare to move farther away. This crest belongs to the family of the Pureblood vampire that destroyed my family and I's life.

This is the Brandeis family crest.

〰〰〰

The door to my apartment is wide open as if a host is at the door kindly ushering guests in, except there is no host and the only guests that have been here were uninvited.  My stomach sinks to the floor.  From the corner of my eye I can see Kaien pale.

I slowly walk into the room, dreading the inevitable.  The only sign of entry is the door wide open and swinging on its hinges, that and the empty coffee table.  Kaien turns dead-white and I feel as if I'm going to be sick.

"Dammit!"  The sudden rush of anger is a surprise to the both of us.

I walk around the room flipping over random objects in search for the book. I know it's not here, but I can't help it.  All I succeed doing is making a mess.

"Hitomi." Kaien says softly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

Like the fire it burns and that's when I turn on him, just like old times.

"This is your fault!"  My eyes flash. "You were in charge of the book and you left it here!"

"Hitomi, I'm sorry, but we shouldn't play the blame game here. We weren't gone long, whoever did this couldn't have gotten far."

This does nothing to staunch my anger, if anything it makes me madder. "It's too late anyway. The bastard's probably gone. We won't be able to find them."

"I'll go." Kaien says after a minute. "We're loosing time arguing like this. Besides you're in no state to go out like this. Stay here, if I don't find them, then I don't find them. At least I know I tried." Before I could open my mouth to say something else, Kaien is out the door, leaving me behind in my chaos of an apartment.

I'm tempted to go after him, but I don't want to leave the apartment again, just in case. So instead I lock the door and head to my room to check if anything was taken there, leaving the mess I created behind.

Instead of something being taken there's something added in my room. On my bed lies a red rose, but that is not what truly catches my attention it's what rests innocently beside the rose that does. A slim vial of scarlet blood attached to a silver chain. 

The vial brings back a flood of memories, but only a single image remains.  It looks like the same vial that the Pureblood gave me to save my sister. 

He's been here.  Those orange eyes of his scar my mind as the horror of it all unfolds right in front of me.

Deep down I know that there is worse to come.