Zero Kiryuu

It was a bright, sunny day despite the fall chill and the encroaching scent of winter in the air. Wind rustled through the late autumn leaves, ablaze with color in the sunset of their short lives. One or two of the slowly shedding leaves drifted languidly on the breeze, landing with a sound only audible to vampire hearing.

Slightly more audible was the hushed rustle of fabric, the quiet shifting and shuffling of many feet. Here and there a soft, sporadic cough, a whispered word or the sound of someone sniffing into a hanky occasionally punctuated the respectful silence as Chairman Cross's glossy,...

Zero blinked groggily, completely disorientated as he awoke. His body was slowly healing itself from a pretty nasty concussion. For a moment he had no recollection of what had happened or where he was. His vision was blurry and wouldn't coalesce into focus. The light was dim. He could feel vampire, but his senses weren't any clearer than his vision. Warm breath brushed his neck and he felt the distinctive, sharp smoothness of fangs gliding lightly across his jugular.

"Kaname?" he slurred automatically. What was wrong? Why was his head pounding like this? Why did everything hurt? Why couldn't...

Kaname stood in the hotel hallway and started to knock, but the Chairman answered the door while his hand was still in the air. Kaname smiled faintly and let his hand drop, giving the other a nod of greeting. He'd long ago gotten used to the fact that the one-time hunter's senses clearly allowed him to know when the pureblood was about.

Cross also seemed to know exactly why Kaname had stopped by – another hazard of their long history together. "Yuki's sleeping," the Chairman told him, keeping his voice low. "She drifted off about an hour ago. She's not too used to trying to keep up with your...

Silent as shadows two dark figures slid down long, snaking black ropes like graceful, lethal spiders descending from the crisscrossing web of girders that formed the superstructure of the massive skylight crowning the tall atrium ceiling of Ichijo Enterprises' main lobby. It was night out so this area of building, the appropriately named 'human relations' or public side of things, was closed and deserted. Elsewhere, the vampire work day was just beginning and other levels of the building would be humming with activity.

"You know, I never knew people did things like this in real life..." Zero...