Earlier:
"Alondra. Zero will be attending the ball as well. Although he will be there on behalf of his work." I stop putting black nail polish at Kaname's remark. "Are you uneasy with that? Are you afraid he might pull out his gun at us in there?" I look at Kaname over my shoulder. Yuki is also staring at me wondering what I'll say.
"Not at all. I'm expecting it." I turn back and continue to polish my nails. "Anyway Zero is duty before instinct. He won't do anything, but glare daggers at us." I remind him as I finish polishing my nail.
"I think the same, but I have to confess that just now I felt a tiny pang of jealousy." I turn to face him confused.
"You're the worst! This is why I hate you! Saying such a thing in front of Yuki!" I storm off, and go into my room to finish preparing in peace.
The time of meeting again has arrived.
I give him a friendly smile, and turn away from him.The silence now has become tense and awkward. I try to control my beating heart. I hope I can keep up my strong facade. It feels like I might break eventually, and run into his arms. There's no way he would allow that ever again.
"How are you tonight, Kaname-sama? And these young ladies, are your sisters?" I feel the fear in Yuki. I graze my fingers with her assuring her I'm there with her.
"How are you doing, your highnessess? Kaname-sama has informed us of your existence, but he wouldn't say anything more and we are so curious." Vampires say geting closer. Crowding us. They're so hungry.
"Kindly come closer to the center."
"We all want to admire your beautiful faces."
"Come." I must not show them any fear. I am a pureblood, and they should fear me. I step up tall, and let some of my power radiate. They begin to back off. I reach for Yuki's hand.
"Your hignessess, we still have not heard your names." Yuki grips my hand tighter. We give them our best smiles.
"I'm Yuki, and I'm pleased to meet you all." She says polietly.
"I'm Alondra." I state simply, I'm not pleased to meet them.
"Yuki-sama. Alondra-sama." They all call out our names with sadistic smiles.
"Come to think of it, Yuki-sama's features are strikingly similar to those of the late Juri-sama." I slightly squint my eyes at all of them. They would go so far as to try and open up those wounds in our hearts. Because of our returned memory, the death of our parents is still so fresh. We didn't get to mourn them until recently.
"Yes, and Alondra-sama has Juri-sama's personality, they both share Haruka-sama's soft gaze." They continue on and on. I begin to lose my patience.
"Oh, Yuki-sama and Alondra-sama, Haruka-sama and Juri-sama have left for us such marvelous and delightful treasures. We could never have imagined such wonderful things." They go on faking flattery.
"Oh, yes the purebloods are our precious 'treasures'." I cross my arms over my chest.
"So of course, we intend to protect you all very well, and of course we shall swear loyalty." I clear my throat and stand up straight. They all become silent as I prepare to speak.
"Well thank you, but it seems I don't believe any of you." I say with an innocent smile. "I seem to have fallen into a pit of snakes. That won't do. It seems my first impressions of you all are not very good. Stand out of my way." I tell them all as they grovel in fear the moment a fraction of my pureblood aura is released. They all bow to me.
"Forgive us Alondra-sama! We did not mean to displease you." They all say.
"Well if you all show me other wise I might forgive you all. Now stand aside, and enjoy your time with my Oniisama and Oneesama." I walk past the bowing vampires.
"Yes Alondra-sama." Is their simultaneous reply.
"That'll teach them to try their games with me." I mentally state. Pretty sure I pissed off Kaname, well he can complain later.
A man walks up to me and bows. "Forgive me Alondra-sama, but may I offer you a drink." I look at the blood wine in front of me. I smell human blood in there, but I had learned there are willing donors or even vendors that willingly give their blood to vampires for consumption. There's no way I will drink human blood the most.
"No, thank you. You may go." I say walking away from the man instead.
"Human scents? Is there other humans here other than the hunters?" I question mentally. Now that does have me worried. No, there's no way the hunters would allow anything to happen to innocent humans.
I gasp when I spot Yori being questioned by a lot of vampires. I make my way over to the group. The vampires seperate at my presence.
"Alondra-sama." They all bow their heads. I put my hands to Yori's shoulders from behind her.
"I hope you're not disturbing my friend." I tell them all with a fake smile. They all tense up.
"Of course not, Alondra-sama." They all answer me.
"That's good to hear. I wouldn't want you to see me angry. So I suggest you keep away from my dear friend." I say looking at them all with an icy glare. They quickly back away.
"That's what I thought." I mumble triumphantly.
"Alondra it's really you!" Sayori says taking my hands in hers. I smile at her happily.
"It's really good to see you too, Yori." Then I give her a serious expression.
"Yori, you shouldn't be here. It's dangerous here." I tell her putting a hand to her cheek.
"I know, but I wanted to see you and Yuki. I really missed you both." She says looking at me sadly. I smile at her.
"We missed you as well, but this isn't the kind of place you should have come to search for us. Lucky for me they'll obey my command, but I don't know what will happen if I left you on your own." I say worried.
"It's really okay. I'm being watched over by Takamiya-sensei, and Zero." Yori assures me.
"Zero, huh? Wait who-"
"You weren't scared?" I turn around to face a woman who just interrupted me.
"Sara-sama!" Some vampires explain.
"Darn, another pureblood." I mentally complain. Oh that's right I have seen this woman before. In that ball hosted by the Aidos a year ago.
"What a brave young person you are and so cute as well! Ah, and you must be one of the Kuran twins, Alondra, right?" I nod my head standing in front of Yori.
"There's no need to be so overprotective of this girl. I just wanted to meet her." She says extending her hand to Yori. Before I can stop Sara's hand from touching Yori someone beats me to it.
"That's enough. I already allowed one pureblood to touch a human, but I won't allow another one to touch her." My heart starts to race at the sound of Zero's voice.
"Zero, you are mistaken! This person was just going to-" I look over at Yori shaking my head so she doesn't continue. The vampires are agitated at the fact that Zero grabbed on to Sara.
"Please move out of the way!" We all turn to the sound of Yuki's voice.
"So it was really you, Yori! Are you okay?" She asks rushing over to us.
"Yuki." Yori exclaims happily.
"Well, now that you're here Yuki, you can spend time with Yori. Stay close to her at all times, Yuki." I tell her glancing over at Sara. Her smile doesn't convince me that she's very trustworthy. I look at Zero still holding on to Sara's wrist.
"Let go of her, she's a pureblood, and it's not a very good thing for other vampires to see this kind of behavior. Anyway she's a guest so it's fine." I look up at him with what I hope is no expression or feeling in my eyes or voice. I turn away when he lets her go. I walk off disappearing in the crowd.
"That woman. I don't trust her. I smelled fresh blood on her." I walk over to the snack table. I stand by it watching the guests watch me. Another man approaches me. He bows, and extends a hand.
"Alondra-sama? Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?" He asks reaching for my hand. I let him take it and he is about to kiss it before someone grabs my wrist, and pulls my hand back to their lips. He just never learns at all.
I turn to face the man that dared do such a rude thing. "Zero." I whisper as he stares at me with an unreadable expression.
"May I help you hunter?" I say with a cynical voice.
"Is that how you treat an old friend?" He says with a small smile. I smile right back.
"Oh friends is it? That's not how we left off last time." I answer back.
"Alondra-sama! Is that hunter hurting you? Such a disres-" The man that asked me to dance earlier says.
"No, of course not. He's an old friend of mine. This is how we act with each other. Please excuse us, while we reminisce about the past." I say dismissing the man. He bows and heads off.
"Alright, now that he is gone, what is your real purpose for being here?" I question him as I turn to face him. He grabs my waist and pulls me close. We begin to dance. I look over Zero's shoulder and notice a hunter watching us.
"A friend of yours?" I question Zero.
"Something like that." Is his simple reply.
"So how do you enjoy the authority you have of being a pureblood?" I don't let Zero get to me. I know his ways so I know how to counter. It's better to let him hear what he expects.
"It's nice. I wish I had this authority earlier so I could have kept annoying pests away from me." I say with a smile looking up at him.
"Looks like your lying hasn't improved over the past year." My eyebrow twitches.
"Is that right? You think you know me so well." I state losing my temper. "Enough small talk why are you really doing this?" I question Zero looking at him seriously.
"I just wanted to keep that man away from you." He says to me. I chuckle.
"If you keep acting like that people will think you're my jealous lover." I state looking at all vampire eyes on us. They must be amazed that a pureblood would dance with a vampire hunter. Especially the man that was accused of murdering Shizuka Hio.
"I don't care." Zero says.
"As expected. The Kiryu men are usually like this." I state as he twirls me around, and he instantly pulls me back into his arms.
"Are you saying that because of Ichiru? When he kissed you." My mask of indifference falls, and I blush.
"It wasn't me. He was the one who caught me off guard and kissed me. Anyway how did you find out about that?" I whisper yell at him.
"When I took Ichiru's life into me, I saw his memories." My blush deepens. Wah now he knows more conversations we had with each other.
"Oh well, that doesn't matter now." I state not looking at him, but at his neck. I feel my heart skip a beat at the sight of that neck of dreamt about for the past year. I shake my head not wanting to fall into temptation.
"The song's over. You can let go." I say a little disappointed. He nears my ear, and his warm breath makes me shudder even more than before. This closeness of his neck. It's too much, but I stay strong.
That's it he's trying to tempt me and then have an excuse to start killing purebloods. Yet, it also feels like a lie and that is not his intention at this moment. Maybe it's my wishful thinking.
"I'll make sure none of these monsters come near you." He whispers into my ear. I blush deeply, but I'm very confused.
"Is this a trick? What are you up to, Zero? I thought you hated me." I mentally question. He pulls back, but his hands are still on my waist.
"You know wh-" I stop at the sudden scent of blood.
"There's the smell of blood, suddenly. Where. . ." I look at Zero and see that he notices it as well.
"Where's Yuki?" I question Zero, and then I start looking around frantically. He takes my hand, and drags me with him up some stairs.
"Down the hall over there." He states leaving me at the top of the steps. Our fingers linger on each other before he lets go.
I make it to the room and see Yuki trapped in ice.
"Kaname-sama has expressly asked me to not leave your side no matter what happens."
"Yuki!" Yori exclaims, and I rush over.
"If you don't want to die Aido let her go!" I yell clenching my hands. The ice breaks at my anger.
"In that case, senpai, you, Yori, and Alondra, come with me! It's pretty close to here." Yuki orders us. I nod my head. Looks like they are going to investigate the scent of blood.
~0~
All vampires smell the blood. Kaname is facing Sara.
"By the way, Sara, you wouldn't happen to have done something to Ouri-sama, from whom you were feeding from earlier, would you?" Kaname asks, knowing the truth even if he wasn't witness to it. She tilts her head to the right.
"What right have you to ask me such a crude question, I wonder? Ouri-sama and I are fiances who haven't seen each other in a while, so of course it would be rather depressing if nothing intimate had happened. Although he rarely deigns to pay me much attention, as he still views me as a mere little girl. Or are you worried about a different type of 'something'?" She says with a cynical smile.
"If that's what you're thinking, you need not worry. You of all people should know better than anyone just how such a thing is far from being easy to do, shouldn't you?" She says sadistically, but keeps up her innocence.
"For a pureblood to do anything at all to another pureblood, really. . ."
~0~
"Sayori. Stop, don't get any closer." Aido says holding her back. I'm in front of Yuki.
"It's okay. Just please wait out here for a little, okay?" She says reassuringly. When I turn I find an unexpected sight. I look down at the blood I just stepped on. Yuki and I see Headmaster and Zero stand next to the dead body.
Headmaster notices us and smiles.
"Oh hey! Yuki! Alondra! Uhm, both of you stay over there or your dresses will get dirty." We stay put looking at the body.
"What happened here?" Yuki asks for both of us.
"A truly regretable occurence. Apparently, one of our hunters fell into a condition where the only choice that was left for him was to take his own life with his weapon." Headmaster reaches for the weapon stabbed in the man's heart.
"Here, see? He's slowly turning into ashes, starting from the very tips of his fingers, and also. . ." Headmaster closes his eyes regrettably.
"On his neck you can see the marks where he was bitten by a vampire." Zero finishes for the Headmaster. My heart starts to pound, and I actually shiver from the look in Zero's eyes. I clench my hands.
"I will ask around and find out who did this." I say strongly.
"Stay out of this. This isn't something to play with." Zero says coldly all traces of what happened earlier gone from his voice.
"I know that! I'm no longer Alondra Cross who didn't know anything about the world and had no power to do anything." I argue with him. "If something bad is happening, then I will take action to protect my loved ones. Definitely!" I assure them taking Yuki's hand in mine to make sure that I meant it.
"Yuki. Alondra. You two should get back to the room before the scent of blood affects you. Especially you, Alondra. Considering you haven't fed in a while." I clench my jaw and glare at Kaname.
"You know what Kaname! Sh-"
"With what just happened here that farce of a party is obviously over, Kuran." Zero says interrupting me.
That deadly chess match. . . when had it truly begun?