The Vampire's Love

Chapter Eight - Mean Girls

Chapter Eight

            Rosaline ran through the woods, knowing that her disappearance wouldn’t be overlooked by the vampires for very long. She knew Kaname was going to be cross with her for running away from her “guards,” but she needed time by herself to think.

            Finally, Rosaline climbed up into a tall tree; as far as she could before the branches wouldn’t support her. She sat on the limb with her back to the trunk and stared out at the upper branches of trees and the sky around her.

            A few minutes later, she heard three sets of hurried footsteps near the base of her tree. Thankfully, the heavy scent of pine needles would mask most of her scent and the wind would blow it away from them. Rosaline silently groaned. She really needed to quit hanging out with Zero so much.

            “Where the hell did she go?” Rosaline heard Hanabusa complain.

             “I don’t know, but she couldn’t have gotten far,” Ruka said. “She’s only human.”

            “Yeah, but she’s a human with a fear of vampires,” Akatsuki pointed out. “What did you think she was going to do, trust us blindly?”

            “She trusts Lord Kaname,” Ruka said.

            “But that’s Lord Kaname. Everyone likes him, even the people that hate him,” Hanabusa retorted.

            “I don’t care if she likes us or not, we just need to find her before Kaname finds us,” Akatsuki interrupted. Rosaline breathed a sigh of relief as she heard their footsteps fade away into nature’s silence.

            What was Kaname thinking, putting guards on her? It was bad enough that being on the Disciplinary Committee made her stand out when all she wanted to be was invisible, but then Kaname had to put Night Class students on her as guards which made her stick out like a sore thumb. Rosaline breathed out a quiet sigh. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to be mad at him. Of course, she wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t entirely furious either. There was a small part of her that was excited that Kaname wanted to make sure nothing happened to her again, but mostly she was disappointed that he didn’t think she could take care of herself, that she wasn’t strong enough.

            Rosaline stayed in her tree with her thoughts until the sun began to set. She didn’t come down for anything, not Zero wandering around the forest calling for her, nor Yuki’s pleas to come out from wherever she was hiding. No one thought to look up in the trees, which was what Rosaline had counted on when she chose her hiding place.

            Ultimately, it was Seiren who found her. It gave Rosaline quite the surprise when Kaname’s bodyguard dropped onto her branch from an upper one. Seiren didn’t say anything; she merely sat in front of Rosaline with her right side facing her and her legs dangling of the branch. Neither said anything, they just stared off into space.

            Seiren was the first to break the silence, surprisingly. “I know how you’re feeling right now,” she said quietly, surprising Rosaline. Seiren turned to face Rosaline. “And before you tell me that I don’t, listen to me first.” She looked back out at the sky. “When I was younger, my father decided to assign me a bodyguard from his own personal retinue. I was furious with him. I thought that he didn’t think I was capable of handling myself. I argued with him for days about it, but he was firm. I was to have that bodyguard. So the first thing I did when I was able to was to run away from him. I was determined to prove to my father that I was capable of taking care of myself.” Seiren sighed. “Then, before I knew it, I had walked into a group of renegade vampires. I tried to fight them off, but I soon realized that I was no match for them. There were too many and their skills were far superior to mine. They caught me and were about to kill me. I can still feel his hands all over me and the warmth of his breath grazing my neck.” Seiren shuddered. “Then the one who was about to drink my blood was ripped off me and then my guard was there. He proceeded to kill every single one of them, but not before sustaining great injury to himself.” Seiren turned her head to look at Rosaline. “I realize now that my father had someone guard me because he loved me. And if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here talking to you now. All I’m saying is that maybe you should think about the reason why he did this before you run off,” she said. She stood up. “It’s getting dark. You should get back to the dormitory, I think you have some things to think about.” With that, she leaped off the branch and into a neighboring tree and was gone.