Black Rose: Book One

The sun rose slowly, bringing a dreaded Saturday morning with it. All across the campus, students scampered around trying to hide their most prized belongings. It was inspection day. It was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. but activity peaked around nine in the morning. Even the night class students were running around the Moon Dorm trying to find places to hide things they wanted to keep.

Zelman's walked down the hall beside a sleepy Shiki with his hands in his pajama pants pockets, bare feet padding softly on the hardwood floor. "I took it even farther this time. Last time Zero found my stash of whoopee cushions. This time he won't find a thing."

Shiki's sleepy blue eyes slowly looked at Zelman. "Joker, what are you talking about?"

Zelman smiled. "Ah, it's been a while since I've heard my nickname. I was beginning to think people forgot just who I am. Well, I learned from previous experiences that you usually get caught when you try to move things right before they come. That Zero has some really sharp eyes. He looks for things that seem misplaced or moved. If you leave things where they've been for the past few weeks then he won't see it as 'suspicious' and take your stuff."

"Why can't you use that sharp mind of yours for good?"

Zelman spun around and paled. "Kaname-sama!"

Kaname has his arms folded over his chest. "I'm inspecting rooms before they even get here. I don't want you all creating problems for Yuuki." He walked past them. "She shouldn't be bothered with such trivial things like this anyway."

Zelman looked as if he would cry. He could never get anything by Kaname. If he was going to do the initial inspections...He sighed. "Fuck."

Shiki looked at him. "What?"

"I have to get all my goodies out of my room...Kaname will find them and have my head." He turned back around and dragged himself back to his room.

On the other hand, Aidou was confident that his things wouldn't be touched. He smiled broadly and put his fists on his hips in a super hero pose, inhaling deeply.

"Ahh! Look at my collection of treasures."

Ichijou stared blankly at them. "Aidou...surely you don't believe--"

"Yes I do. Kaname-sama will appreciate my lovely collection," he picked up a glass cup with big shiny eyes, "and maybe even ask for something to keep!"

As if on cue, Kaname was standing by the door. "What is that?"

Aidou almost skipped over to Kaname and held the cup up for him to see. "I found this in an alley!"

Ichijoy nearly fell over on his face from the shock. Kaname's expression didn't change. "So it's...junk?"

Aidou stepped back with a dramatic gasp. "Junk?! No! Kaname-sama, it's a rare artifact! There aren't many of these in the world." Aidou gently petted the glass with his finger.

Kaname stood up straight and sighed. "You can buy more of those down at the market in town...they come in many different colors." He eyed the blue cup. "The red ones are better looking."

Aidou's face fell with hurt.

"Nonetheless, it's against the rules to have these things in your room." He called over his shoulder. "Come in."

Kain and Shiki came into the room with boxes...big boxes.

"N-no!" Aidou's protested in a high-pitched voice. "Not that. Anything but that!!!"

"I don't want you making the inspections harder for Yuuki than they have to be." Kaname turned and walked out the room, leaving Aidou to continue to scream and fuss...and curse those "perfect prefects."

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Many of the other students spent Saturdays in town buying things for the next week. Yumiko instead chose to stay on campus, seizing the oppurtunity to explore the campus freely. Since she had no personal belongings, she was dismissed from the inspections. Unfortunately, Amai had a closet full of things related to the Night class. So much, in fact, that she was given detention as punishment for making Zero go get a separate cart just to hold all that she had.

It was fairly sunny outside, just a bit chilly due to the wind. Yumiko felt like exploring...She wandered around on her own, taking the time to enjoy herself. She spotted a tall wall...and got an idea. Her motions were fluid, pure instinct. She climbed a tree closest to the wall, inched along a sturdy branch, and climbed onto the wall. A feeling of familiarity washed over her and she felt pure joy consume her. Her smile was wide and bright, something she hadn't felt since she woke up a few days prior.

She turned so that the wall's narrow width stretched out before her and inhaled deeply. Her arms stretched out on each side to give her a better balance. She could hear a distant roar of a cheering crowd in her mind.

And she loved it.

She took careful steps in forward, keeping excellent balance. She was smiling so hard that by this time, her cheeks began to hurt. Without even trying to, she had unlocked a part of herself. She had unconsciously remembered something: she loved walking along narrow beams! She stopped and gracefully picked her right foot up, bringing it mid-calf level to her opposite leg. She brung her arms up above her head...and gently brought then down behind her, arching her back.

She felt like a swan, gracefully spreading her wings. She didn't understand what she was doing. She didn't know why she was doing it. All she knew was that she liked it...

Someone began clapping and it startled her so bad that she lost her balance, and therefore her footing, and fell. The right back side of her head slammed into the concrete wall and she fell for what seemed like forever before slamming into the hard, cold grass below.

"Ow...ow...ow!" Yumiko cried out, alternating from grabbing her head and her shoulder.

"Don't move!" A guy's voice yelled out as quick footfalls approached her. He knelt down beside her and gently touched her. "Are you okay? Does anything feel broken?"

She looked up to see Zelman looking down at her with worry on his face. 'Well, this is a change from that smiling, mischievous guy I met last night.' "I don't think anything is broken...but my head and shoulder hurts."

He nodded and gently moved her hand. Blood was leaking from the wound in the back of her head. It wasn't a lot...but more than enough to cloud Zelman's judgement. He had just taken a blood pill, which was nothing more than blood in the form of a pill, designed to dissolve in either a glass of water or on one's tongue. However, the sweet, warm scent of blood set of a reaction in him that he was having trouble keeping in check. She didn't seem to notice that she was bleeding.

"My shoulder...I landed my shoulder." She rubbed at her shoulder and winced at the contact. Zelman's hands moved quickly to keep his mind off the red, alluring liquid soaking her shirt collar. He untied her tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons to pull the fabric away from her shoulder. He gasped. There was a vampire bite on the crook of her shoulder, clearly a miss from the orginial target, her neck. What fascinated him even more...was the fact that it was bleeding slightly. Her hand covered the exposed area and she cried out in pain, tears beginning to leak from her eyes. "Why does it hurt so much?" She whimpered as her hand went up to her head.

She felt the warm wetness. She pulled it away and looked at her bloody hand...and screamed.

"No! Don't panic." Zelman tried to lift her up. "Come on. We have to get you to--"

Click.

Zelman froze and swore loudly. "FUCK!"

"Move and you won't pull another prank, Pyr." Zero's cold, indifferent voice ordered.

"It's not what it looks like." He tried to explain.

"I beg to differ." Zero muttered and stepped to the side. What he saw made him snap.

Yumiko tried to keep calm like Zelman had told her.

"Look, she fell. I saw her fall. I can't explain everything else but--" He looked back down at the girl. "Can't you shoot me after you get her help?! Yumiko. Please stay calm."

She heard her name whispered with concern. She looked over at Zelman...and Zero standing behind him with a gun to the back of his head. The pain became insignificant to her when she saw that someone who cared about her, even with a gun to his head, being threatened in such a way. "Zero, what are you doing?"

Zero paused upon hearing her say his name. "What did he do to you?"

"I fell. I was walking on the wall...and I fell." She attempted to sit up.

"No. Stay down." Zelman reached out to her but Zero pressed the barrel of the gun against the back of his skull to remind him just how close to death he was.

"Did you just move?"

Zelman didn't respond. Arms wrapped around him and Yumiko's face appeared in front of the gun. "Don't hurt him. He's trying to help me!"

Zero's arm wavered at the sight of blood. "He bit you?"

Yumiko blinked in confusion. "What? No! Why would he do that?" She hugged him tighter. "Back off already."

"Listen to the girl, Kiryu." Aidou said coldly. He walked slowly over to them with Shiki and Kain on his flank, also accompanied with other Night students. "Surely you wouldn't dream of opposing all of us, would you?"

For a second didn't say a word, even moving the gun so it was redirected to Zelman, who was on the verge of tears.

"Leave him alone." Yumiko said firmly, with an attitude she didn't know she had.

"What's going on?" Kaname emerged from the crowd of Night students. He assessed the situation...and his eyes fell on the bite mark on Yumiko's shoulder. The first thing he noticed was the bruising around it...then he knew. "Kiryu-kun, please lower your weapon. Zelman didn't harm her. That's an old wound."

Zero didn't seem to believe it...but he put the gun away. He grabbed Yumiko's wrist and attempted to pull her along but she snatched away from him.

"You owe him an apology!"

Zelman finally uncovered his head and looked around wildly, apparently shocked that he was still alive and not a pile of dust.

"I don't owe him anything but a bullet." Zero retorted coldly.

"You--" Yumiko started but a hand landed on her shoulder.

"Please go with him, Yumi." Kaname whispered. She looked up at him...and blushed. He had given her a nickname. He had taken off the ending that meaned "child" and made her simply..."beautiful". He smoothed her hair down. "It's not safe for you to remain here at the moment."

She turned away quickly and stared at the ground. "Y-yes...Kaname-sama." She didn't understand it...but...she liked him.

Aidou's blood boiled at seeing Yumiko go from defiant to a pile of mush within seconds! Just like that prefect...just like her...

"Let's go back inside." Kaname spoke firmly but with a soft tone. "We could all be doing other things."

The small crowd dispersed but Aidou and Zelman stayed behind, watching Yumiko follow silently behind Zero.

Zelman happened to see blood stains on his shirt and touched his neck where Yumiko and placed her own when she protected him. He pulled his hand away and looked at the fresh blood on his fingertips. Instinctively, he ran the tip of his tongue along his teeth and nicked it on his growing fangs. Aidou watched him carefully. Zelman eyed the wet substance on his fingers....and licked them tentatively. He closed his eyes with bliss as he sucked on his fingers in delight. Yes, peace is what they wanted but in the end....blood was what they needed.

"How does it taste?" Aidou interrupted Zelman and stalked over to him.

"Delicious, Aidou-sempai..." Zelman murmured as his amber eyes deepened in color to blood red. Aidou didn't even hesitate. He reached out, wiped off the rest of the blood with his hand, and licked it too.

He slowly inhaled the scent and exhaled as he licked his hand clean. When it was all gone, he shook his head. "This is becoming more complicated than I expected it to be."

Zelman looked up at him with a lost expression. "What do you mean?"

Aidou brought his icy blue eyes up to Zelman's...and they also turned blood red. "I have plans for her." He chose his words carefully. Although he intended for Zelman to be in on it, he didn't necessarily have to tell him all the details right then. "However, when a human's blood is so rich and tempting as hers tastes...it's too easy to lose sight of the ultimate goal. Like the Cross girl. Every time her blood signature hits the air..." He inhaled to emphasize his point. He looked around and his eyes landed on a red rose bush. "It's very distracting. With Yumiko, I'll have to exercise extreme caution and control. She isn't aware of the vampire world. Right now...she is a very delicate flower...still blooming." He plucked a rose bud from the bush. "But if I water her, feed her, and give her the attention she craves..." He sent some of his own energy into the bud and it opened up and began to bloom. "She will grow into a flower...a beautiful flower."

"But what sense is there in doing that?" Zelman asked.

Aidou's eyes faded back to their ice blue. He bit his bottom lip in thought and sent more energy into the flower. "She would be my rose. My beautiful rose. If successful, she could pay those prefects back for ruining our fun. She would become such a burden on them that they wouldn't have even half the energy to handle us at night."

Zelman opened his mouth to point out a flaw in Aidou's thinking but paused upon seeing the rose slowly turn as black as the Day Class's uniforms...yet it didn't burn. It didn't even look as if it was going to wilt. It held its form and was even more beautiful than a regular red rose as it sparkled faintly in the sunlight. He understood what Aidou had done to it. He sped up its growth...then froze it from the inside out so that it would forever maintain its beauty. However, it was dead.

Aidou turned slowly and walked back towards their dorms. "I'm going back to sleep. It's Saturday evening. When I wake up, we can go scout the grounds for Day Class students."

Zelman nodded. His skin tingled. He was being watched. He used his senses to pinpoint. He turned slowly...

She saw him look directly at her and put the binoculars down, quickly closing her curtains. 'How did he...'

Zelman blinked in surprise. The Sun Dorms weren't too far away from the Moon Dorms. But for a student of the Day class to be spying on them instead of just sneaking over was....strange.

He shrugged it off and pushed his hands into his baggy uniform pants. He needed to figure out a way to smuggle more tricks onto campus again.