Seiji propelled his legs to push forward through the asphalt, looking behind him in fear, as he raced across the street. He had been stupid to trust Ruki with his childish plans and entrusting his daughter's safety upon the immature vampire was a grave mistake on his part.
The shadow of a person, vague against the full moon came across him, as he heard a low voice, demanding and cruel. "I told you to stay back."
Seiji fired his revolver at him. Azuza's form shifted across his vision, his bullet had gone to waste. He had five more in his chamber, but they weren't silver bullets. They were enough to shock Azuza, but not enough to keep him down. He would soon be either sucked dry by the masochistic vampire, or his throat would be ripped out by him in anger.
Azuza appeared right beside him, but this time Seiji was prepared, his hand over the trigger as he shot a bullet right into Azuza's left arm. An animalistic howl escaped Azuza, as he went sprawling on the road, his limbs going everywhere in the frenzy of being shot. Azuza moved fast enough that Seiji didn't see him move with his human eyes, but experience had taught him to predict the vampires' moves ahead of them.
He reached into his coat, bringing his wooden stake out, poised over the still body of the vampire. He inhaled deeply, steadying his hands. Only one shot, and then he could proceed ahead for his daughter. He raised the stake, and brought it down hard on the chest.
Seiji felt a blow to his stomach, forcing air out of his lungs. His body flew towards the street lamp, his head colliding with the pole. Seiji felt blood gush out of an open wound on his head. He should've gotten his silver bullets. Now he was about to witness this sad excuse of a vampire die a howling death.
Azuza limped towards him, laughing as he towered above the priest. "Follow the rules. Not very difficult for you, right?"
Azuza leapt at the priest, lunging towards his neck. Seiji brought his stake in at the right moment, and heard a wet squelch.
Azuza screamed.
***
Ruki felt his limp body being lifted from the spiked grill and being mercilessly dropped to the ground. His inside cried for help, his fingers becoming numb with the hammering pain inside his limbs. His heart had stopped yet again, so his blood hadn't been spilled as much as he had expected. He had coughed up a significant amount, thought, and simply drinking from the glass won't suffice anymore. He had to have Yui's blood. He deserved to. That damn Ayato had betrayed both him and his precious Eve. Ruki would skin him alive if he dares to touch Yui with his filthy hands.
He heard the flick of a lighter, a cigarette being ignited by Father Komori, as he inhaled in deeply, his glasses resting on his wisened face. Ruki felt a rumbling laughter within his chest as he asked, "How did you find me?"
Komori looked at him, his face stony and expressionless. Kicking the cigarette butt away, he breathed out a cloud of smoke. "I am a hunter. You must learn to expect the unexpected from me."
Ruki put pressure over his open wounds. He wasn't sure why he wasn't healing yet. "And Azuza?"
"Taken care of."
Ruki looked at the priest in horror. "Is my brother okay?"
"Bleeding, but not dead." Seiji usher him, pushing him towards the grilled wall. "Now come on. I need to save my daughter from those demons. We can't waste any time here pondering over schemes."
Ruki felt this urgency forced, but he didn't have the courage to stand up against Seiji, in fact. He was just too scared to anger Eve's father of all people. He complied, taking the lead to follow Laito's scent to find the exit.
***
Yui forced herself to get up, the bedsprings creaking with the absence of her weight. Darkness engulfed her; the only thing visible from her point of view was a skylight way beyond her reach. She stumbled across the room, bumping into familiar objects. The bookshelf on her right, the dresser at the edge of the wall, the scattered rosary beads beneath her feet. This was the room on the third floor. Where she had been kept for her first few months during her stay with the Sakamakis. Before Cordelia attempted to take over her body with the help of Richter. Yui pushed open a door in front of her, her vision now flooded with a blinding light.
Yui brought her hands towards her face, shielding her from the sharp rays. What was this? Was she falling into a multi-layered dream? How many times did she have to wake up in order to actually wake up? Smoke gathered around her, shadowing her from the bright light, drowning her into a peaceful dull light. Yui fell to the ground, her knees worn out and her body trembling with pain.
The dull light was interrupted with the shadow of a titanic form. Yui lifted her gaze, and was met with a pair of brilliant golden eyes.
Her skin felt raw and exposed, prickling up at the thought of witnessing him first hand. Her eyes assessed his tall frame, his hair that hung beyond his feet, the huge red cloak shadowing his form, a staff in his hand knocking gently over her knees.
"I didn't know what to expect this time," Karlheinz said. His voice was a soft baritone against her ears. Yui extended a hand towards the man, and saw a smile emerge upon his lips. "Eve," he greeted. Yui was pulled up with a tug from his long hands. Her legs still trembled in the sheer energy Karlheinz emanated from his immortal body. She squared up her shoulders, her gaze shifting from him towards the ground.
"I know you have a multitude of questions for me," he started, his hand wrapping around her gentle wrist. "But you need to see something first."
He took the lead as they walked out of the rom. Yui was very familiar with this place. A dome encircled a huge tree in mid-air. The floor shined like mirror, ripples travelling in every direction wherever Yui stepped. She gathered her tulle skirt in a bunch inside her fist, trudging forward as Karlheinz pulled her towards the tree.
The tree of life, it was called. There were two more trees similar to this inside the castle of Eden, the lair of the vampire king. The tree of knowledge, and the tree of the world. Yui halted beside the huge tree. Beside Karlheinz, Yui felt overshadowed by the tree, its golden leaves falling to the ground, piling up around Yui's feet.
"What happened to the tree?" Yui heard the faint ticks of a clock blending into the background. The vampire king turned his head towards her, cocking his head in a familiar fashion that evoked a certain pain in her heart. She sucked in a quick breath to suppress her surprise at the similarity of the vampire standing in front of her and that person.
"The tree signifies the circle of life," Karlheinz explained, his golden eyes glowing in the rapidly dimming light. "It sheds its leaves and regains them the same way seasons might change. This stage," he placed a gloved hand over the shimmering bark of the tree, "signifies death and destruction. Somebody is going to die, my dear Eve, and nothing will change it."
Yui looked at the leafless branches of the tree, running her hands along the gilded cracks on its trunk. How much did a life matter to an entity like him anyway? Dying was common among people like her. She'd been accustomed to death, witnessing funerals and burials in her father's church every other week, even in the small town she lived in. Death was a disease, gripping mortals from the day they were born, to leave them only after the warmth in their lungs was gone. Immortals, on the other hand, knew not the death that accompanied them, but the one they would meet in the form of a loved one, or an enemy. The sins of Eve were borne by her children, and the ones who evaded the fate were considered heathens themselves.
"Funny that you think of religion when I mention death, Eve." Karlheinz's remark caught her attention.
"Are they not interrelated?" Yui asked, her hands wringing themselves with nervousness. She didn't know what was happening while she was having conversations with the vampire king in her dreams. She now knew that someone was going to die, and the worry tugged at her heart so hard that it could have ripped it in half.
"They are, though not in the same way as you think." He bent down on his knees to reach her level. "Do you want to listen to a story?"
Yui widened her eyes. Were they going to tell each other stories while somebody was going to be killed within perhaps hours from now? She blinked once, then nodded.
"Good girl," he wrapped his lithe fingers around her chin, forcing her to look at him. He started; his voice suddenly sullen.
"Once upon a time, a pair of lovebirds were trapped into a golden cage." Yui felt his grip on her chin tighten. "They were told to roam around the cage, were told to eat everything or do anything, but to leave a sumptuous fruit left in a silver tray untouched. They both followed the instructions for a very long time, until a voice told them that the fruit contained all the worldly knowledge, and consuming said fruit would enlighten them. Guess what they did?"
Yui felt her chest rise and fall in rapid breaths, as she felt his hand tightening around her fragile neck. "They ate the fruit of knowledge?"
He nodded. "And when their captor got to know about this, he released them back into the wild. But their wings were clipped by him, and they no longer could fly, rendering their life full of regret and remorse." Karlheinz stood up, his eight foot tall frame towering above her. She wanted to run away and never gaze into his hypnotic eyes ever again, but she felt compelled to listen to his poor interpretation of the fall of humanity till he was satisfied with her attention.
"So, Komori Yui, I pose a question for you," Karlheinz said, his hand cupping the side of her cheek, his voice now being overshadowed by the gongs of a clock. Yui shivered, her eyes watering up. The ticks of the clock distant in the background tolled around them, inciting a headache. "Who is the one at fault here? The captor, who stole the freedom those birds desperately wanted, or the one who freed them?" Yui closed her eyes shut, her tears spilling away, rolling down her cheeks.
"Now's not the time to be cowardly, Eve," Karlheinz yanked her head, his fingers grabbing her luscious locks. "Tell me the answer, and I give you a life you can only dream of. That future you dream of with my son? I will personally make sure you walk down the aisle and end up in his arms."
Yui wanted to correct him, tell him that she wanted nothing to do with that possessive, egotistical man anymore. She wanted to be free from his demands, his tantrums and jealousy. But he didn't care enough to listen to her opinion. "Give me the wrong answer, however, you get sent to the pits of hell, where you can kiss your future goodbye. I will be sure to send that pesky father of yours there as well. He did good to comply with the church and give you up as the new sacrificial bride."
Yui winced as his grip became even tighter around her jaw, his eyes shining like a maniac. His lips peeled back to expose his fangs. Yui cowered even more, but forced herself to keep staring at the monster in front of her. If she refused to meet his gaze, he would kill her instantly, without hesitation.
"Can't think of anything? Scared? Do you want to finally give up your life? I can help you with that..."
Yui choked as his hands applied pressure on her neck, her hands scratching his knuckles as she wheezed. She couldn't die like this. She had to meet her father, she had to uncover her role in this elaborate plan.
She had to save a life.
His hands let her go, her body convulsing into hacking coughs as she covered her mouth, bile burning up the back of her throat. What did he want from her? Why did he want her to answer his riddle?
"You might be trifling the Acts of God, Karlheinz, but you abandoned your own flesh and blood for the sake of your sick experiments." Yui felt a confidence bubbling inside her as she stood her ground against the vampire king. "If you think you can condemn God for abandoning His creations, you are wrong. Scum of the underworld can never stand up against His grace."
Fury was what Yui expected after giving such a bold answer. She expected him to finish her right then and there, ending it all and leaving her story without conclusion, in a cold blooded murder.
Karlheinz looked at her, disinterest evident on his face. He probably expected her to do something wilder, but perhaps she had been right. Perhaps, she had given him the answer he wanted.
Outstretching his arm, he grabbed a fruit, hanging low on a branch, and handed it to her gingerly. Yui held it in her palms, studying it. It was a golden apple. The glow it gave was dull, yet mesmerising.
"Is this the fruit of life?" she asked, her voice squeaky. Fear had forced her back into being submissive.
"Yes," Karlheinz said, his fingers combing through her hair gently. "Be careful, for the battle of Troy was fought over the same golden apple. Atlanta lost to a man for the same apple." He bent lower, whispering into her ear, "Your God left humanity on its own for the same damned fruit."
Yui looked at the fruit in her hands, her indecisiveness striking her at the worst moment possible. Was she going to damn herself by taking up the offer? Was the freedom of choice so inherently evil, that she should just walk away without doing anything to better her life, without gaining anything from her experience? What if this was all another dirty ploy by the immortal? What if he stood to gain from her mistakes?
"Decide," Karlheinz pressured her, his voice booming above her. "You have your lover boy waiting to rescue you back in your reality."
Yui gulped. Was her father forced into giving her up in a similar situation? Where somebody's life was dangling by the thread? Should she really accept the devil's offer and taint herself, or be banished in hell for something she never did?
Shaking her thoughts, her fears, she opened her mouth and took a bite.
A/N: Hi lovlies! See, I did stick to schedule for once!
How are you guys, by the way? Is the quarantine going well for you guys? Our country just had a massive rise in the number of cases recently, I just hope we get through this somehow. :(
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Take care and stay safe! :)