Ruki sat in the abandoned church, his hands holding an incense stick, waving its vapours around to mix them into the surrounding air. His boots brushed up against a fallen banner, and he gently pushed it aside. Moss and vines crawled on the walls around him, snaking up in patterns that felt vaguely familiar yet unrecognisable. The smell of incense settled deep inside his lungs, comforting him in some weird way he didn't yet understand. His blazer had been soiled with greyish soot settled beneath him, but he didn't seem to care. The sun started to descend down beyond the horizon, its last rays catching Ruki's hair as he watched the sky turn into a dull red shade from an old Victorian window beside him.
"You said it was going to be safe for her," Seiji emerged from the wings of the altar, his prayer book in snug against his chest, his rosary dangling from his right hand. Ruki looked at him, as a smile broke onto his face. "Ayato would not hurt Eve, as far as I know."
"Your knowledge has a very narrow spectrum." Father Komori was blunt as ever.
"It is your opinion, and I can do little to convince you otherwise, Father."
"Why am I not allowed to meet my daughter?" He sat down beside Ruki, his eyes wrought with worry and confusion. Ruki watched him as the man stifled his sobs, and an epiphany occurred to Ruki. Why did he leave her in the first place if he wanted to protect her?
"Reiji and his brothers are more powerful than all of us combined." Ruki flicked a lighter in his hands, observing the flame as the sun sank lower into the horizon. "No doubt you can take one of them with your unparalleled skill, but we have other problems to think about. There's the Tsukinami brothers who would kill everyone if we dared to harm Eve. There's Karlheinz who wants Eve alive for the Project Eden. The stakes are higher than they seem to be, Father. I hope you understand my concern."
Father Komori laughed. "God has forsaken me for what I have done," he said, his voice low, "Soliciting and taking help from vampires."
"Apparently you left your adoptive daughter for His sake as well," Ruki said, sounding ingenuous. It was rare for Ruki to sound so disinteresting.
Father Komori didn't answer back. Ruki wouldn't have understood his motives even if he had been a human. Desperation led people astray from basic decency. Ruki had himself fallen in that trap, but it wasn't like he had sacrificed his own blood for some unattainable goal. What good was this faith of Komori that he was willing to let his innocent daughter fall prey to one of his kind? Months ago, Ruki would be ashamed of himself thinking about the well-being of a livestock such as her. But now, now he understood, that such things had to have been written in fate. There was nothing him and Father Komori could change about the course that fate took them towards. Even though right now Eve had to have been claimed by Ayato, he couldn't have any control on his affection towards her.
"There are things that we do out of love, Ruki kun," Komori finally admitted, "And there are things that we do for fear."
Ruki saw the black limousine roll out of the mansion gates, the scent hitting him hard. It was Yui, no doubt, but something was changed. She smelled a bit more... alive. He could practically smell the joy oozing out of her, and another faint spice of Ayato's musk.
The realisation dawned upon him as everything fell into place.
He stood up, his palms sweaty and his heart kicking into motion. He wondered how cruel somebody could be to make her go through this right on this day. When he knew the chances of her surviving were thin.
Father Komori saw him get up hastily, picking up his father's keepsake, the book he always kept close to him, and rush outside. Father Komori asked, his voice urgent, "What happened? Is everything alright?"
"Don't worry, sir," Ruki's voice remained unsure. "I'll come back as soon as Eve gets back to the mansion."
Ruki disappeared into the twilight, as the moon appeared on the horizon, and Father Komori noted, with dread, that it was another full moon.
***
Yui felt the wind run through her hair, her heart settling uneasily inside her chest. Her legs still trembled when she remembered Ayato's wandering hands on her gooseflesh. She'd been unsure of whether it would go any further from here on. This was her first experience. She'd always been hesitant about her sexuality and thinking about boys, usually diverting her mind into other things, preoccupying herself with useless bullshit that wouldn't matter to her nowadays. Maybe she'd been wrong, and Ayato kun could be nice. Maybe he wasn't as bad as she had thought. Maybe she'd had bad experiences. Maybe she had been too quick in her judgement.
The familiar driving the car looked at her through the partition, his cold eyes startling her for a moment. His voice was grating, almost as though sand had been trapped in his vocal cords, rendering them useless. "Are you comfortable there, Miss Komori?"
Yui swallowed the fear down her throat, as she managed a warm smile. "I'm fine, just a little worn out."
Worn out seemed a bit of a kinder version of sore. All over. There had been bite marks that itched from time to time, and Yui would become aware of it only when the sting felt out of nowhere. Ayato kun had not left an inch of her untouched. She blushed hard, hiding her face as the familiar looked on. "You do not appear healthy to me."
"I swear, it's just me being motion sick." Yui looked at the sky, now pitch black. "How much time will we take to reach the mansion? I had promised Subaru kun a visit in the tower, I think you can drop me in front of the rose garden, if it's possible for you."
The familiar nodded, his eyes back on the road. Yui knew he wasn't capable of committing mistakes, yet felt a bit of fear, for she hadn't yet been accustomed to the supernatural, despite what she believed. Her lips trembled as she had offered her prayers in the church, knowing that the sins she had committed, succumbing to creatures of the night, willingly giving them blood, and now pleasure. She wasn't sure if there was a hell down there, but if there was, the Devil must have been eager for her soul. She had been a huge hypocrite during her stay in the mansion. Her belief was weak now, and she was sure that nothing will save her from damnation.
And in some messed up way, she was looking forward to it. She was glad if she was going to hell from her crimes. At least that way, there was a tiny hint of the fact that there was still justice in the world. At least that way, her faith in the Lord would be restored. At least that way, Ayato kun would not get away with manipulating her feelings.
Despite that, she felt her heart ache as she imagined Ayato being dragged to hell for whatever sinful deeds he had done to her and so many before her. She'd been feeling sympathy for the demon who had damned her. She stuck her head out of the window, her fingers extended outside, a tiny part of her soul yearning for the release that death might provide her. At least then she would not have to bear the bipolar behaviour of her perpetrators. She knew it was wrong to have suicidal or nihilistic thoughts, because if there was a chance for her to escape hell, she would almost certainly ruin it by taking her own life or wishing death upon herself.
But she deserved way worse, and deep inside her heart, she wanted herself to repent for the things she had done.
They halted right in front of the rose garden, her feet hitting the ground as soon as the car stopped. She'd been late. The moon hung overhead, shining bright, bathing the surroundings in pale light. She knew that within a few hours, the vampires will start to behave weird in the influence of the moon, so she'd better hurry for the quick visit she had promised to Subaru.
Her white sandals clapped against the stone steps as she raced towards the upper levels of the tower, where she had often seen Subaru sulk after being ignored by his brothers. Deep in her heart, she wanted all of them to get along, as she had seen Mukamis do so effortlessly. The Sakamakis were bound by blood, yet were so distant. Why couldn't they just sort their differences and settle their disputes? Reiji and Shu were obviously divided over their mother's attention. Ayato, Kanato and Laito were united as brothers once, but their mother tore them apart. Subaru was... well, the little things she had heard from Laito and Shu, he had been a product of incest. Though Karlheinz was not a direct sibling, Subaru's mother Christa was a distant cousin who saw him more as a brother.
All worked back to Karlheinz, didn't it? He had been the reason Beatrix favoured Shu more and left Reiji to his own devices while growing up. He had been the reason his first wife Cordelia was so obsessed with Ayato being the best. He had been the reason Subaru had been vilified by his own mother.
She panted as she reached the topmost floor of the tower, her tulle skirt bouncing as she jumped from stairs, her eyes noting the pink eyes that stared at her through the darkness, cutting through the shadows, settling upon her tired body.
She knotted her eyebrows in confusion, as she took a few steps towards the bars. The moon shined in from the window opposite the little cell, and illuminated the tiny space. Yui took a step back, as she was struck by the beauty she was witnessing. Subaru's mother stared at her, her hands over her mouth, her long fingers on her plum, pink lips. Her silver hair was tied up in a bun above her head, and a few locks escaped, spilling over her shoulders, glowing around her like a halo. Her eyes were the same bright pink as Subaru's, with pretty, frosty long eyelashes framing them. Yui wrapped her hand around a bar separating her and Christa. The vampire queen had been reduced to a shadow of herself. Yui had only known her through the paintings and old photographs in the study, yellowed with time.
They didn't do her any justice, though, as even though her cheeks had been sallow, her complexion paler than most vampires, her limbs bony, she looked like an absolute angel, even in the faint light where Yui could barely recognise her.
She stepped hesitantly towards Yui, and grabbed the iron bars, studying her. "You are the sacrificial bride?"
Yui raised her eyebrows in surprise. How did she know about her? Did Subaru talk about her to his mother? Yui imagined him lying on his mother's lap while he recounted his day's events to her, and felt an innocent smile creep up on her face. "Yes, my lady."
Christa held a hand over her mouth, as though offering condolences. "The boy kept asking for you. That person would come every day and tell me to call you here when the full moon arrived."
Yui smiled. Subaru could be weird at times. "Did he?"
Christa's eyes settled behind Yui, as she let out a scream that pierced through the night, and a few bats scattered across, scaring Yui out of her wits. Christa shouted at her, pointing at the shadows behind her, "He's a monster! An abomination! Get away while you still can!"
Yui felt the air knock out of her lungs when she was tackled onto the ground, familiar pink eyes and white hair glowing in the dark as Subaru straddled her, her tulle skirt riding up as she felt him sink his fangs into her warm flesh. He groaned in pleasure as her hot blood went down his throat. His hands held her shoulders down as his teeth punctured her shoulder with all their might, and Yui felt her pain shoot through the roof. Her scream was a trembling sound that deafened even herself, before Subaru silenced her, his hand clamping her mouth shut.
All the worst case scenarios possible popped in her head as she felt him drain her blood out. His moans resounded in the air around them, his audible gulps of her blood almost overshadowing his mother's screams. Yui's vision blurred around the edges. The blood circulation to her head was quickly diminishing, and she had to act fast.
Her hands went into a pocket in her frock, so glad that she had used a pencil for the records she had to fill in order to enter the church. Holding it firmly in between her hands, she jabbed it hard into Subaru's ribs, groaning as Subaru's teeth detached from her skin, scratching and tearing of a part of her flesh.
Subaru yelled out as he rolled off her, his hands plucking out the pencil from between his ribs and putting pressure on the wound. Yui scrambled to her feet, her hands flying to her puncture wounds as she panted. Subaru was writhing on the stone floor, his screams reaching the same note as his mother. She felt adrenaline pump into her limbs as she climbed down the stairs.
Subaru's pained groans dulled as Yui felt her heart beat hard against her ribs, her tulle skirt now dirtied with soil and blood, bouncing insanely as she climbed down the stairs. She wasn't going to be preyed upon today, and if she was going to die, she wasn't going down without a fight.