Right. It’s been a while, I’m aware of that. It’s just that Bloodstained Angel (BA for short) was (or rather is) a spur-of-the-moment story, that I never thought out much further than to – uhm, well, not very far. I do like this storyline though, and will of course NOT drop it!

PLEASE READ THIS: I’m dropping Yaten and Taiki from the story, though. I’m a bad author, I know. But, let’s face it: this story deals with Usagi and Seiya and vampires. That’s it. I am very sorry to do this – smack – in the middle of the plot, but, as much as I love Yaten and Taiki and as tiny as their roles would have been anyways, there’s no use for them to be in the story. Let’s just say it’s good that they’ve only had about four lines or so in-between the two of them so far. That way you don’t even have to re-read the last chapter, which I of course altered accordingly.

So, bye-bye, Yaten and Taiki. Just imagine they never appeared on Earth with Seiya.

I also want to tell you all, beloved readers of BA, how happy I was to read your reviews! THANK YOU! (hugs all of you)

Oh, and PS: Visit my website! (grin)

--

“Bloodstained Angel” Chapter Four

By Greta

--

Leaning heavily against a tree, Nuncio gasped in pain, with his hands at his side, and a grimace marring his face of unearthly beauty. It was not only his broken rib and bruised limbs that were causing him pain, though; an altogether different thing was causing a longing that rivalled his physical pain easily to rise inside of him, for the silver-haired slayer’s blood clung to him. She had torn not only his skin open, but her own as well, making blood—crimson and thick—seep from her wound and drip onto his skin. Its smell called to him; it lingered about him, his every pore reminding him of his hunger, his lust and his sheer need for the red liquid. Closing his eyes for a moment, a moan of longing, a moan that spoke of the passion for the kill he so sought after escaped his parted lips.

Grimacing, he slowly pushed himself away from the rough trunk of the tree he had been leaning against, waiting for the unnatural healing powers of his vampire nature to set in and release him from the pain that was throbbing inside his body. No mortal would be able to get up and stand proudly still with a broken rib piercing the insides of their human shells. Fletching his teeth at the moon, the beautiful vampire even found the strength to grin tauntingly at the white orb. No, he was no mortal. He was one of the undead; one of those that roamed the dark paths of the night, living on borrowed time from stolen life, and walking in immortality. He was unearthly, yes, and how he savoured that knowledge.

--

Closing her eyes, she grimaced, as she felt the need to have a little tantrum right now and there rising steadily inside of her. As the events of the last hour finally had the time to sink into her without further interruption, she found herself seething inside and out, as the jumbled knot that was her feelings and emotions chose to come crashing down on her instead of slowly sinking into her and allowing her to get accustomed to them.

One hundred years of solitude … Zachariah … and him. Oh yes, especially him.

He was still staring at her as though she were an alien creature, unable to speak to her. His thoughts forced his mouth shut out of mere confusion, surprise and whatnot. She noticed that she wasn’t the only one that Seiya was studying; he was eyeing the dead creature at her feet with eyes filled with a mixture of horror and disgust. Lowering her blue eyes to glance down to the ground, she flinched. Zachariah, the handsome master vampire he had been, was no more. By now he had indeed turned into a sight that would make the strongest shudder. A beheaded creature was gruesome enough as it was, but this wasn’t just anybody; this was a creature of the living dead, a creature that lived on blood, lived on borrowed time. That very borrowed time had been steadily seeping out of him, the thick red blood matting his clothing and hair, soiling the earth, and spreading everywhere it could reach. With it, the lively appearance he had possessed earlier seeped away by the minute as well, turning him into a more gruesome sight by the minute. His skin was starting to dry up, wrinkle garishly and pull back so tightly over his body that his skeleton was becoming visible.

Sighing, she picked up the sword she had laid to rest on the ground before, swinging it absently as she moved to his side. She plunged that blade, which had in fact been intentioned to penetrate her own flesh, into the dead heart, twisting the blade roughly as she did so. Nothing seemed to happen at first, nothing at all, making it only the more surprising when the remains she was standing over turned into dust.

“He was even persistent in death …,” she whispered softly, her eyes fixed intently on where only moments before, the grisly sight that was her fault had lain. So he was gone, finally gone. Just like that. And it had been so easy in the bargain; she had not been fighting for her life, she had not had to summon all the strength that rested deep within her. So strange, she thought, so strange….

“You’re not the girl I used to know ….” A voice suddenly broke through the night, startling her, making her scold herself silently for two reasons: One, never let your guard down so far so that you can be startled, and two, never leave unnatural events out of your sight. She grimaced as her mind was telling her this; what intelligent rules the inhabitants of Tokyo had made up for their survival in this doomed and dark city.

“No, I’m not,” she said with a deathly calm as she turned to face her new companion once more, the sword still tightly in her grasp. “But then, how could I be?”

--

His head high, he tried to control his heart’s beat, which was far too fast for his comfort; she was sure to hear it with her vampire senses, sure to smell the nervous insecurity rise from his every pore, those pores that were filled with life once more. A small smile spread on his pale lips as the thought crossed his mind; why, the very thought seemed to soothe him. Oh how beautiful the young girl’s salty skin had been, and how intoxicating her smell of life. Her softly pulsing body had called out to him, the beating of her heart seeming to speak his very name. And now, how could he have resisted such a call?

“Rise, Nuncio,” a voice spoke up, resonating as if from nowhere to cut through the heavy silence around him. His blue eyes rose slowly to make out the person speaking with him in the dim-lit room, grand and vast as a cathedral. There she was … Kairos … the grand dame of Tokyo’s vampires, thevampire of the city that never slept. Her tall posture loomed over him as she stood several steps above him, her blood red lips curling into a tiny smile. Her eyes were of an alluring lilac; deep and dark like death itself, they were bound to draw whomever she lusted after to her, no matter what. That dark gaze was locked with his in that very moment, noting not only the cut on his neck - a wound that was normally reserved for vampires to make, and not to have themselves – but also looking into his inhuman soul so easily and deeply that he realized it had been useless to try and hide the nervous beating of his heart from her.

“Nuncio …,” she started in her rich voice, her deep purple gown rustling crisply as she moved, the heavy black cape fixed to her shoulders trailing behind her as she started to descend the steps slowly. Her appearance was that of the long gone 19th century, and she was grotesquely picturesque. She was indeed a perfect picture. Far too perfect. “What has brought you here to me tonight?” Though she had not moved any closer to him, her voice seemed to be whispering into his very ear.

Forcing his eyes away from her mesmerizing gaze, he lowered them as he licked his teeth in thought. How would she react to what he had to say, to the message he was to deliver? What a pathetic vampire he felt like, when the urge in him to turn and run was unbelievably strong. Oh, but there was no chance of that; he knew that very well. She had already woven a web of power over him, a web that forced him now to raise his eyes once more, almost against his will.

“She has killed him.” What a simple statement. He knew she’d understand, knew it as he spoke those four words; and she did. Her eyes narrowed as her shoulders tensed, her mouth fierce.

“Zachariah is dead?”

“She told me to deliver you a message,” he muttered beneath his breath, his eyes lowered to the rough stone ground beneath his boot-clad feet.

“A message?” She asked slowly, pronouncing each syllable with care in her deep voice, a voice strangely heavy with beauty, grace and unbelievable cruelness.

“Yes, a message,” he muttered, his heartbeat now rising once more very much against his will, the pounding of it loud in his ears. “She said that she would come to you. She said to tell you that she would be along shortly.” He had expected many things as a reaction: An outraged yell of hate, a deep cry of disbelief, wide-eyed shock…. Frankly, he expected anything along the lines of a logical reaction. Never would he have expected her to – after one amused glance at him, her eyebrows raised – throw her head back, in a manner that was still graceful, and break out in laughter, a laughter that tinkled and echoed around him in the high room. But laugh she did, with her inhuman laugh that only brought a foreshadow of the smell of death and fight and destruction that it promised to anyone who dared to listen.

--

Her foot pressed down on the accelerator harshly, causing the silver Aston Martin to speed along at a crazy speed. Her fingers were tightened around the driving wheel, and she jerked the car unto an uneven street. Her teeth clenched and her eyes narrowed as she swerved the wheel around once more, moving the car along to another street, paved this time, which led into the direction of the city that, despite the steady approach of dawn, was constantly lit up. Her driving style was very wild, to say the least, throwing not only herself but her companion from one side to the other constantly. Well, she thought, she had never gotten around to actually acquiring her driving-license after all, but hey, as long as she got where she wanted to, she would be the last to complain.

“Alright now, Seiya, listen closely for the time being, okay? I have no idea what you know about vampires, but until the sun’s come through, we’re definitely not safe. I don’t want anybody getting hurt tonight anymore, so I’ll tell you what’s going on in its very principles, so listen to me closely.” She spoke loudly, turning her head from the street to look at him, seated in the passenger seat, intently.

“Usagi, do me a favour and look back at the street.”

Turning her head to where it was wanted, she silently rolled her eyes. Where was his sense of excitement? Then again, he could die in a car crash, or if he met a vampire unprepared, or even if he just walked around Tokyo in the dark. Frankly, anything and everything nowadays in this doomed place could kill him, and hadn’t she sworn herself to protect him?

“So, you’ve been asking yourself why I am like I am, look like I do and act like I do. That is a very good question,” she practically shouted, to make sure that he understood her over the howling wind, which the cabriolet did not protect them from in the very least. “I don’t understand why you’re here for I cannot in the slightest see why you are alive, and I can’t say that I’m not glad to see you; but what you know and remember of Earth no longer exists, none of it. I don’t blame you if you turn back now, go to Kinmoku and just pretend and tell your Princess that I’m having a hell of a lot of fun in Crystal Tokyo.”

Cars were not really his thing; Seiya had to admit that much. They had other means of transportation on Kinmoku, so he wasn’t really used to them. Having witnessed Usagi’s, well, interesting driving style, he had been constantly eyeing the paths and streets they were driving on nervously since he had seated himself beside her. Upon hearing those words leave her lips, his head snapped to look back at her immediately, his eyes slightly narrowed while studying her face in the shadows.

“You’ve changed…. True. Everything has changed…. True. But do you really think that I could just leave you here now that I’ve finally been able to return?” He said this loudly and even slightly angrily. He had no idea what had happened or what the hell was going on – but this woman had haunted his every day since he had left her all those years ago. He wasn’t about to let her go again.

Her eyes wide, she bit her lip harshly upon hearing the fervour in his voice. Not following the urge to turn her head from the road once more and instead study his face, she tried to ignore her hot cheeks and chose to instead rearrange her thoughts. “It’s just that I wouldn’t blame you if you ran away, that’s all. For if I could, I definitely would, believe me,” she said dryly. “This is your last chance then. Tell me to stop and turn around right now, or follow me into my hell.” Taking her eyes off the street to look at him after all, she raised her eyebrows at him questioningly, and barely giving the road a second glance, swerved the car to an abrupt and uncomfortable halt.

“It’s no use talking in a driving car after all…,” she muttered almost inaudibly, as she brushed her hair out of her eyes. Her hands resting at her temples, she sighed heavily. Her eyes rested on him, noting that he was looking ruffled but somehow calmer than she felt nonetheless. Their blue gazes locked for a moment, making something inside of Usagi stir. It’d been such a long time…. Such a long time, and still her being reacted to him…. Since the day he had left, she had forced herself not to waste her thoughts on something that was not meant to be. She had forced herself not to think about this boy – no, this man – and the confused feelings he had caused to arise inside of her. Since that day, when everyone had died, her mind had deleted all thought and memory of the people she had loved to save her from pain.

“I’m not going to leave,” Seiya’s voice said softly, his lips curling upwards in the smallest of smiles.

Cocking her head, she returned the smile somewhat weakly. How long had it been since she’d smiled without malice, anger, cockiness or any twisted feelings at all? Far too long, she was sure of that. “That is your choice then?”

“It is.”

Gulping, she wasn’t sure if she felt more like laughing in relief or like crying as hard as she could upon hearing his words

--

In the end she had done neither. She had only cast her eyes low and told him everything that had happened as simply as she could: that everyone had died one hundred years ago, that she was all alone and damned to immortality, that vampires had appeared eighty years ago, and that she had taken it upon herself to hunt them as they just couldn’t seem to leave her alone.

There was more to it, and she knew too well that such an incomplete retelling of what had happened would not hold off the inevitable question and answer session she so much dreaded for long.

But how on Earth was she to explain things sufficiently when there where still things she didn’t understand after one hundred freaking years? How was she to explain things that she tried to keep buried the best she could freely and openly?

Since telling Seiya the short summary of the twisted turn of events ever since he had left, he had not so much as uttered a word, which wasn’t exactly unwelcome to her. Wheels squeaking, they rounded a corner, making a sigh of relief rise in her as she could finally see a building loom up in the distance. Surrounded by a tall iron fence, the house they were heading to was easily visible in the bright moonlight. Two stories high, built mostly of steel and huge glass panes, it looked very un-Japanese and still not modern enough for the year 2097.

The high gates opened to the Aston Martin as soon as she approached, and she felt quite happy to finally pull up the car at her house’s side and take a deep breath, as they were safe at last. Pausing for a moment to calm her thoughts while leaning heavily on the steering wheel, Usagi breathed in the refreshing air of the night deeply before opening the door and mirroring Seiya’s actions of getting out of the car.

Slamming the door shut, Seiya eyed the building they were standing in front of questioningly. “You live here?”

“Well, no. I just chose this place at random because I liked the look of it and especially those big imposing iron gates,” she muttered while walking to his side. “Sorry for the sarcasm…. Yes, I live here, among other places. Why do you ask? Isn’t it, well, obvious?”

“I guess you’re right. It’s just that… it doesn’t look like you,” he replied while shrugging his shoulders slightly, his eyes still fixed on the small building.

“It doesn’t look like me?” She repeated flatly. “Well, it’s not the Crystal Palace, I am aware of that. But I gave my hopes for that up quite some time ago.” What on Earth was Seiya on about? She actually quite liked this place. She had quite a few residences by now all over Tokyo, and Japan, and actually quite a few other countries as well, come to think of it, but this was definitely one of her preferred places to stay in. Her next neighbour was miles away, yet she could be in the city of Tokyo in a matter of minutes if she wanted to. Nothing screamed of her past here, and yet it wasn’t as technical as all the new houses that were so popular nowadays.

“The Crystal Palace…,” Seiya repeated slowly. The Crystal Palace he had in fact heard so much about, and that was, in the end, nothing but a phantasm. It hadn’t occurred to him until now that knowing your future before it happened and then not experiencing it was far crueler than just having your plans for the future upset, if you could put it as easily as that.

“No Crystal Palace here or anywhere else in this lifetime. I don’t see a crown on my head, do you?”

Turning to finally look at her since they’d pulled up in front of her house, Seiya sighed. “I’m sorry. I – I really don’t want to bring any more bad memories up. It’s just – well, I don’t know, I always had this picture of you in my mind … Not in the Crystal Palace, even though I knew, or well, was told anyway, what you were supposed to be. I always though of you, of ….” Stopping mid sentence, Seiya felt very stupid and very much like cursing himself. What Usagi had told him sounded like an extremely bad and horrifying joke if truth must be told, but he knew that the other Sol senshi would not be in that house, waiting for their arrival and eventually jumping at him out of the dark yelling, “Surprise, surprise!” Seeing him must be harder for her than it was for him to see her once more – and here he was babbling of things that probably hurt her and nothing else.

Usagi sighed. She knew why he’d stopped talking and turned his gaze back to some unseen spot in the distance. “Go on Seiya…. I want to know what picture of me you had in mind.”

“No, no, it’s nonsense…. It would have been nonsense one way or the other anyway…,” he mumbled, cursing himself inwardly for bringing that up. What sense was there in it, really? Telling that only hurt.

“I’ve been hurt in too many ways and for far too long to be thrown over the edge by anything you say, honestly,” Usagi muttered, a cold edge to her words audible.

Biting his lip, Seiya grimaced coldly, his gaze dropping to his hands that were resting at his sides. “I always saw you living in a little house with… with your loved ones… and….”

And it did indeed hurt. Well, she had asked for it, hadn’t she? She didn’t bother to listen to the greater detail of what Seiya had envisioned for her, knowing that she had reached her limit of hearing never-to-be-true dreams already. It was indeed a nice picture; so nice and simple and easy that it floored her. Neither absolute loneliness nor Crystal Tokyo…. A normal life… in a normal house… with a normal family. Dreams… dreams of long, long ago.

Laughing coldly beneath her breath, she pursed her lips. “Well, no use in dreaming dreams that will never come true …,” she muttered, swallowing back the lump that was far too steadily rising in her throat harshly. “Ah, fuck…. What’s wrong with me today? I haven’t allowed myself to cry in such a long time, and here I am doing it for the second time this night….”

Leaning against the car door heavily, she tried to steady her breath while pulling out the slightly tattered packet of cigarettes from the back pocket of her pants.

“I’m sorry….” Biting his lip, he could not bring himself to raise his gaze to the beautiful woman leaning against the car beside him.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Seiya,” Usagi muttered as she brought a cigarette to her mouth and lit it. Inhaling deeply, she let her head drop backwards and looked up into the dark sky of the night. “You have nothing to be sorry for….”

“No, Usagi…. I’m sorry. Very sorry. I’m sorry for saying what I said. I’m sorry for bringing up a lot of memories. I’m sorry for returning. I’m sorry for not returning sooner. I’m sorry for returning today of all days.”

Chuckling softly, Usagi let the cold smoke travel her lungs, allowing her to become calm enough to at last swallow back the tears that had welled up in her eyes. “You sound as if you’re just as confused as I am.”

“Do I?”

“You do. And don’t be sorry. I’m glad that you’re back.”

--

Well, that’s that for today kiddos. I honestly want to get the next chapter out sooner. Honestly.

Love, Greta