As soon as they reached the mansion, Yui climbed down the limo, her hand snatching her bag and dashing towards the mansion, without looking back. The sky was cracking with the first rays of the sun, and a crow flew past her, as though in a race against her. Her cheek was scraped with its wing, but she didn't care. Her legs were loaded with adrenaline, as she pumped all her life into the act of fleeing away from them, away from her kidnappers. She'd already made peace with the fact that they could emotionally manipulate her whenever they wished, and whatever she could not provide them, they would snatch away from her.
Reiji's principles and policies were too much to bear for her. She had had enough of his strict behaviour and his awful punishments. Her sense was already knocked out with the kiss Ayato and she had shared. A warm, fuzzy feeling crept up from behind her belly button, upwards, spreading through her bloodstream. She didn't want to stop. She knew the slightest disobedience would warrant an obvious whipping from Reiji. And who knows what he would do once he got to know about what she had done with Ayato. She remembered the last time when she was inside the library, her hot blood spilling on his open mouth as he drunk from her happily, chiding her for being careless with Yuma.
She finally reached the flight of stairs, her feet taking her up towards second floor, while she noticed Reiji as she turned towards the right, her eyes locking with him. He stood there, in front of the gate, his expression stoic, before he finally smiled. His grin was overflowing with a malice Yui had never seen before. Her heart pumped blood across her body, her legs losing their sensation. She was about to turn away before catching him disappear right in front of her eyes. Where did he go? She found herself dumbfounded, not stopping to hide yet not bothering to pick her pace up. What should she be doing instead? Stop before he'd come chasing after her?
Yui spotted a room in the corner of the long corridor, and found a ray of hope. Most doors had been closed and locked, but this one was not, as she caught a ray of light from the open latch. She pushed the door and closed it shut after her, leaning against it, breathing hard, collecting her thoughts. She wouldn't catch Reiji by the sound of his footsteps, but Reiji wouldn't come in unannounced. He was theatrical in certain ways, and preying was just one of those things. She was aware that she was keeping him entertained with her escaping act, and while it would indeed keep him engaged, it would only make her punishment a bit more strict.
She even bothered to latch the door, not that Reiji would be stopped by that little inconvenience. He would simply knock the latch out with his bare hands if he has to. She backed away from the door, expecting him to knock the door right in her face and injure her, inviting all the brothers to suck her blood out of her. Her shoes squeaked as she backtracked, hearing footsteps outside. The room was lit by an old fashioned lamp, her vision aided with yellow light. She became aware of the tall shadow being cast on the door a little too late. Her back collided with something hard, and her shoulders were gripped by two strong hands holding her firmly. She dared to take a look, as her hair scratched the bottom of his jaw.
"Your behaviour is pitiable," Reiji said, pulling her by her elbow, as she struggled, and strapping her to a chair in the middle of the room. This couldn't be happening, she thought. This wasn't real. Her mind was getting foggy already, trying to distance itself from the trauma she was about to experience, dissociating. That was until Reiji slapped her right across the cheek, and went back to tightening the straps around her ankles.
"I've told you, time and again, to stay disciplined." He sat down on the red carpet, his chin resting on her knees, her skirt being lifted by his right hand. The contact made her shiver. He suddenly got up, and Yui was gagged with a leather strap, her breath quickening, her mind going blank for several seconds, before Reiji smacked her yet again, waking her up.
"Stay awake, you uncultured girl," Reiji got down to her knees, tracing his hand across her thigh, while Yui struggled with the gag in her mouth. He'd make her live through it. He'd leave marks or possibly drain her dry, before dressing her up and repeating the process yet again. She was horrified when Reiji proceeded to take off his glasses. She'd been witness to his wrath whenever he took his glasses off before, and she didn't have very pleasant memories from those incidents.
"Bite down on the gag," Reiji said, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. The tender gesture was all a facade, as she knew he was going to be ruthless once he started doling out his punishments on her. She didn't realise when he got back down on his knees, and ripped away her skirt, his teeth now digging into her skin, tearing past her muscles, reaching her bone.
For a brief moment, she didn't feel anything. Only the searing hot breath of Reiji on the inside of her thighs.
Then her scream ripped through the mansion.
***
Ayato slammed the lid of the iron maiden shut as soon as he heard the first scream.
He snapped the locks on the inside as the screams continued, a mechanical rhythm in the background. It was considerably dulled with the iron maiden snapped shut, yet he could hear her sobs after every scream, even Reiji's taunts after every bite. "...scream louder!" He could hear it way better now, hating how the grating his voice was. He longed to hear Yui's screams instead. His sadistic mind still got excited at her shrill voice peaking at the top of her lungs. Anything was better than Reiji being loud.
"Ayato kun, don't."
Her voice still resonated inside his mind, and he shut his ears, splaying his hands over either side of his face, as if that would stop the voice echoing in his mind.
"Ayato kun, I'm not your puppet."
He shouted inside the iron maiden the sound ricocheting around him. "Shut up!"
His hands clutched at his hair. Yui's screams now died down, probably due to exhaustion or excessive loss of blood. He didn't care. He was just happy she was out of pain for one moment. His mind shifted back to the kiss. She'd been bold enough to make the first move. He wanted to do so many things to her, but his body wanted to do, well, otherwise. In retrospect, he shouldn't have tried to drink her blood when she was not ready, or maybe he should have taken her previous offers. Biting her when she just wanted a sweet little kiss was a sloppy move even for Ayato.
But her lips...
It was everything Ayato had imagined, maybe more.
He sighed, unlatching the iron maiden and flipping off the lid. It crashed on the marble floor with a clang, kicking up a dust cloud. Ayato got up, stretching, before finding blue eyes in the darkness of the room, staring intently at him.
"Shu." Ayato knew he had something to do with Yui's strange behaviour, but he didn't have any valid reason to rattle his elder brother about it.
Shu rolled his eyes, sitting down beside him, as he asked, "What have you two been doing?"
***
Laito saw Reiji exit the torture chamber, his sleeves dripping with blood, his spectacles now dripping with thick, coagulated blood. He'd never seen Reiji this messed up after his torture session before. Granted, this bride was acting up too much, but in the long history they had as brothers, this was the most blood drenching, excitement inducing, gut wrenching punishment he had ever witnessed. Her blood smelled particularly fresh and sweet as well. Laito knew fear made the blood smell better, but it was infinitely better right now. Something Laito doubted was even possible by vampire standards.
It made him excited.
"You ever wonder what Shu's reaction will be once you reveal what your plan is?" Laito dared to ask. Reiji was obviously calculating all far reaching consequences, taking in risk management with what he had told Laito. Laito was not very pleased to work on such a malicious plan with Reiji but had little choice. Reiji would kill him if he did otherwise.
"Possible regret," Reiji said, wiping the spectacles with a white silk cloth. He tossed his blood soaked glove behind him, and took a fresh one out of his pocket, slipping it on his left hand.
Laito doubted Reiji's intentions. Now with the whole Eden project headed towards sure destruction, he didn't believe in the girl being some sort of salvation for any of them. But what was that person's obsession with her? She was obviously disposable. They didn't need to care about what was in store for her, since she wasn't going to make her choices herself. She had been reduced to a mere finger puppet, to be used for their own sick pleasure. The best she could do for herself was to jump off from the third floor window, as most had done before her. Most of them were also forced to be in bed with Laito. He didn't mind them not giving their consent. He had made them happy and content, so much that they couldn't handle the pleasure and freed themselves from the worldly attachments.
Laito had tried jumping from the building once. It wasn't a successful attempt, though. he couldn't drive a stake through his heart and be done with it. His body healed right up after he took it out. It was almost like they were being punished for being born as blood sucking beasts. The snake didn't ask for venom. They didn't ask to be dependent on pathetic humans for their sole sustenance. Kanato didn't mind falling off the mansion. He instead enjoyed the short moment of euphoria while falling, the brief seconds of zero gravity that he gained, before being returned to that same miserable existence they all had been cursed with.
You could easily replace that feeling.
Laito cleared his throat, as Reiji started to walk away from him. "Can I take little bitch now?"
Reiji squinted at him, and pushed his glasses back. "You're free to do whatever you want," he said, "Just refrain from killing her or encouraging her to take her own life. Her father is important for us right now."
Laito chuckled. Now was the time.
He walked into the room as he heard Reiji's footsteps fade into nothing, and was pleased with the sight in front of him. Reiji had taken time with creating the masterpiece.
She didn't look... right. Her head twitched at regular intervals, her eyes half lidded, as though drugged and not in sobriety. Her hair had been drenched in water and blood, her fingers curling up and unfolding, as though her muscles weren't sure what to do. As though her brain was shutting down, yet her body was fully awake, and was confused with the lack of direction. She shuddered, her leather gag soaked with saliva, and a hacking cough was buried into the leather. Her skirt had been discarded behind her, and her thighs bore giant rips of flesh, presumably cut by teeth. Stuck inside her femoral vein was a wide bore needle, the sort you used for blood donation. Laito wondered whether she had really donated her blood, but it didn't matter. By now, most brides would have been dead. They wouldn't survive the sheer torture. At least their brain would dissociate itself in confusion.
So she refused to be broken by them.
He got down on his knees, touching the flaps of flesh tenderly, looking intently for her reaction. She took a sharp intake of breath, her hair falling on her face. Her eyes were still unfocused, poor thing. He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She raised her head slowly, her eyes seeing right through him, not registering his presence. He cupped her cheek in his hand, and she seemed to respond, leaning into his touch. He smiled maliciously, knowing his touch to be so effective that she didn't even know who he was, what mattered was the faint comfort he could provide her during this time.
They'd proven themselves to be bigger beasts than the Mukamis, finally.
"Little bitch," he brought his mouth close to her gashes. Her entire muscle had been torn out by Reiji. What witchcraft did she possess to resist dying, or at the very least, try to take her own life?
Her reply was more of a quiet sob. Two heavy tears rolled down her cheeks, as she closed her eyes, squeezing them, her bloodstained teeth showing as she winced. Poor mortal didn't even get to shut her mind while Reiji made her into this work of art. He licked at the gaping wounds. "I will fix you," he said, freeing her from her bondage. Her hands lay limp by her sides, her head twitched in a weird neurotic way now. The blood supply being given to her limbs was too much to bear at once, it seemed.
Her white shirt was stained red now, but that didn't matter to Reiji now. She was his little plaything now. He was going to stitch her up. He made sure to leave his healing saliva over her quadriceps that had been torn out, so that the flies weren't attracted to her. Then, reaching out towards the back of the chair, he found some surgical needles and thread.
He sat down in front of her, as he started to stitch. This garnered no reaction from her. The nerve ends must have been frayed from the endless agony she suffered. Her earlier reactions were from disgust, not pain. He derived some more sick pleasure by knowledge of the fact that he had goaded Reiji into punishing her this way. They reserved muscle and tendon tearing for only brides who tried to escape, but Laito knew she was going to flee soon.
"Now that will teach you," Laito said, whispering into her ear. "That you do not get away with raising a hand against me."
Yui's head twitched.
"You've been showering Ayato kun with your attention so much, something like this was bound to happen, little bitch." His voice was filled with false pretentious innocence. "Reiji san has emptied your vessels, but I will empty your mind. I will taint your soul so that when you meet your made up creator, He will cast you back to hell. You will come back to me, no matter what path you take, little bitch."
Her chest expanded a bit, before collapsing abruptly. Great, even her lungs had given up on her.
But why didn't she?
"I am your destiny, little bitch. There's no use fighting back against me anymore."