To protect her

Chapter 8

I woke up will a killer headache. I got out of bed and took a shower before getting dressed for school. I walk downstairs, and I see Kukai and Ami having breakfast. Kukai a bloody mary with real blood rather than tomato juice and Ami having a bowl of her favorite oats. I walked past both of them and grabbed a frozen blood yogurt. I licked it and sat beside Ami.

"You're coming to school today?" I nodded. "Staying at home is boring." Kukai raised an eyebrow and I threw mental daggers at him. "Well, we better go before we're late." I nodded getting my shoes on. "Where are Utau and the others?" I asked. "Utau had something to take care of. The others didn't come home." I stuffed my hands into my pocket.

I have no doubt they're fine, but even so, they are my only family. "Whatever. Let's go." The drive to school was silent. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. My mind always wanders its way on the subject of Yori and what she really is. People who know of her race don't understand the curse she was born into. I do, but I was born under a different curse.

Once we got to school, I headed up to the rooftop and looked down through the fence. Jumping from this hight won't kill me. The school isn't tall enough. But this only reminds me of when Yori found me all those years ago before she died.

2 years ago...

I was alone on a hill. No one ever really comes here. It was an unwritten rule stating no one was to come here for their own safety or something along those lines. I heard footsteps and bushes moving. Assuming it was Kukai or Utau, I didn't really react. It wasn't until there was a blade to my neck I knew it was a hunter. But still, I didn't move an inch.

"You killed my family." I didn't react. The blade was pushed into my skin. I didn't really feel anything. I haven't felt anything in a long while. "Why?" I turned around. She looked familiar. Then it hit me. She must have been with that boy from 10 odd years ago.  "You killed my mother and father." I kept my blank face. How would someone react to someone holding a knife to them?

"You started it. I simply avenged my parents. An eye for an eye. It's that simple." I say and she lunged for me and I moved aside and she went face first to the ground. "There's no use. Turn away if you want to keep your life." I say. She turned to face me, her eyes were serious. She wasn't going to back down. Perhaps I should take her seriously. Grant her little pride.

"My brother's been taking care of me by himself since our parents died. Bringing back your head is what I can do to pay him back." I ducked away again. I didn't feel like playing with children, but I guess I can't really do anything about it. What do I do? Let her kill me? Kill her? She seems to take killing me seriously.

I ran a hand through my hair. "The question I'm asking myself is do I let you kill me? Or do I kill you? But if I did that, hiding you and your brother all those years ago would have been pointless." I say crossing my arms. But it seemed like she refused to listen to me. She and I jumped from place to place, going at each other like there's no tomorrow.

It slipped my mind. Before I knew it, she was dead. I thought to allow my mind slip would give her the opportunity to kill me, but I guess not. I picked her up and brought her to the hospital. "Excuse me," A doctor turned around and looked at me. "She's dead." She quickly told me to go into an exam room. I set her down on the bed. 

I held out my hand. My eyes glowed a crimson red. "Get me doctor Mizuki." The doctor entered my hypnosis and went out to get doctor Mizuki, my coven's doctor. "I'm doctor Mizuki, how can I help you?" She came in without looking up from her clipboard. "It's a hunter." She looked up and bowed before me. "Mizuki, take care of this girl for me. Notify her brother." I say.

"Should we really? If she's a hunter, then that means most likely her brother is also a hunter." I looked at Yori. She'd want her brother with her. I assume. "He's a hunter. Conseal anything that could lead him to believe you are a vampire." Mizuki obeyed. "Also, erase me coming here from everyone's memory and the cameras." She nodded and I left.

"Amu?" I snapped out of my train of thought. I was on the school's rooftop. I ran a hand through my hair. I turned around and there stood Ikuto. "Are you okay?" I nodded crossing my arm. "Just remembered how someone died right in front of me." He quickly grabbed me and hugged me tightly.

 If he knew I was talking about his sister, he'd have a gun to my head instead of his arms around me. I slid down the fence with Ikuto still holding me. I didn't say anything, and neither did Ikuto. We just sat there in a comfortable silence. When he finally let me go, I looked up at him. "You shouldn't have come today." I looked down then back at him.

"I promised I'd come," I say. Guilt ran past his face. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. "I'll be okay. I didn't know her well anyway. I just saved her once." I say. Ikuto sat beside and laid my head on his shoulder. "You know I had a sister right?" I nodded. "Kukai told me," I say leaving out the fact that his sister was killed by me.

"When I found out she was dead, I was on a hunt. But when the hospital called me, I dropped everything and raced to the hospital as fast as I could." I didn't say anything. "The doctor said a girl brought her in, but when she turned around, the girl who brought in my sister was gone. At the back of my mind, I thought some sort of angel brought her there." I looked down at my hands.

I'm the farthest thing from an angel. The devil is more like it. I'm heartless. Soulless. All I care about is the survival of my coven and my family. Nothing is more important to me that Kukai, Utau, and Ami. "Kukai told me you visit her a lot," I say. "I guess. I went to see her just a week or so ago." I saw her yesterday. But I actually saw her. I looked up at Ikuto.

"What would you do if she just one day walked into your house?" I asked. "I'd think something took over her or something and kill her." He made it sound like a solid plan. "I'm serious," I say looking up at him. 

"I'd drop whatever I was holding or stop whatever I was doing and hug her and never let her go again, but that's not how life works." If I did one day decide to dig her up, let her rejoin the living, she could never see Ikuto again. It would be painful to be alive and never be able to see or touch the only family you have. 

I got up and dusted myself off. "I'm going to class. I'll see you there." I say walking of the rooftop and into the classroom. Maybe when Ikuto finds out I'm a vampire, I'll dig up Yori and let them both come after me. Maybe this time around, she can really kill me.