Beautiful Death (16 page)
“Mizu no Yukihime—”
“Asta-chan, tonight it is simply Yuki. No need to be so stuffy,
ne
?” She stuck her lip out and pouted as she said, “Just do not make an old vampire wait so long to see you next time.”
“Yukihime,” Ash said, jaw stiff. She would acquiesce to the dropping of the title, but she refused to call her simply Yuki, no matter what the older vampire said. “Thank you for taking us into your home this eve. I am most humbly regretful I did not prepare an offering for you, please accept my deepest apologies.”
Yukihime considered her for a moment around the pipe she was sucking on and then said, “No you’re not.”
Ash stiffened and then relaxed, cracking a small crooked smile. “No, I am not.”
Yukihime laughed and Tristan shuddered, eyes shutting as those tingling fingers tickled below his waist. God, what was that?
“Asta-chan here has not told you of us?”
He had to fight to not give Ash a nasty look. “Apparently not.”
“Subarashii!” the tiny vampire said with a wicked smile, clapping like a maniac. It was then that Tristan noticed the fangs. How hadn’t he before? They were fucking huge.
“Oh my god,” he breathed. “Why are they so
big
?”
Yuki looked down and cupped her nonexistent breasts. “You think?”
Tristan couldn’t help but snort a laugh. Then he realized she was serious and frowned. “No, the fangs.”
“Ah yes, those are rather big too, ne?” Yuki plucked at the tip of one her fangs with a long fingernail.
“Why?” he said, looking to Ash. Her fangs, even Desmond’s and Lucien’s were all small. That girl out in the room had none at all—he still wasn’t even convinced she was a vampire. Didn’t mean she wasn’t something else, something Ash hadn’t bothered to tell him about yet.
“Asta-chan,” Yuki prompted.
Ash cleared her throat. “Age.” She took in a deep breath, let it out and looked to Tristan. Even if she couldn’t read his thoughts, the confusion was written so clearly across his face. “As we age, the fangs grow longer, simple.”
“Yeah but…,” he said looking back to Yuki.
Why are some so pale and others not?
he wanted to know.
The tiny vampire smiled broad. “Oh this is too good. I love it when my children bring me virgins. And such pretty ones.”
Tristan flinched back. He was just realizing how much he didn’t belong here. How fucking nuts this place and its inhabitants were.
“Only just?” Ash hissed lowly at him.
“Shut up,” he snapped. “You brought me here.”
Yuki stood and took a step forward. “And I am so very glad for that. Please, allow me to show you something beautiful.”
Tristan gave her a look, one that said ‘stay the fuck away’.
“Please,” the small vampire pleaded looking as innocent as could be behind that childish façade she wore. But Tristan knew she was no child. Not if she really was over a millennia old.
Tristan looked to Ash for guidance. Reluctantly, she nodded her approval. She distrusted the old vampire as much as she trusted her. It made no sense, but she knew Yukihime too well. Yes, she trusted Yukihime with her life, however, Yukihime never did things in a direct sort of way. The ancient vampire would always save Ash’s life, but at everyone’s peril. So long as they came out alive, Yukihime considered it a win. Even horribly maimed.
“Please,” Yuki said again, motioning for his hands.
For some reason, he didn’t want to touch her. Good instincts. Finally, he sighed and trusting Ash’s judgment and abilities, stood and gave his hands to the little vampire. Next to him Ash stood too. He made a small surprised noise at how warm Yuki was despite the frigid temps in the house. He just assumed all vampires were as cold as they looked, Ash always was.
Yuki shot Ash a knowing smiled and then encompassed Tristan’s larger hands with her small hot ones. Something tingled through them into Tristan and he gasped when their hands suddenly went ice cold. Electricity mixed with excitement sizzled up his arms, spread across his chest and shot right to that cold ball of tingling he’d been carrying in his middle since he walked into the home. He moaned, not meaning too. Yuki laughed and he shut his eyes, certain now that she was making him feel that way and didn’t care as the touch of her laugh excited one of the most basic of human wants.
Those little hands let go and Tristan opened his eyes, wondering what happened. There was a weight in his palm and he opened his hands revealing the tiny treasure. “Oh my god,” he whispered. In his hand was a tiny ice sculpture of a camellia flower. Perfect and gleaming yellow in the light of the candles. Next to him Ash let out a heavy sigh, relieved.
“How…” Tristan looked up. “How did you do that?”
Yuki smiled, all teeth. “Simple,” she answered and then the flower collapsed into itself and melted into a puddle of cold water. Tristan cursed and flinched back, hands out to avoid getting the water on him when suddenly the water was no longer dripping through his fingers. His mouth fell open as he gaped at the droplets spiraling straight up, inches from his face. It gathered into a large ball and then shot away to splat wetly against a screen wall across the room.
The small vampire, pleased and looking the cat that ate the canary, turned away. “Asta-chan did tell you we have powers?”
He shot Ash a look. She wouldn’t meet his eye. “In so many words.”
Yuki laughed, sitting down amongst her pillows, taking up her pipe again. “The older we get, the stronger our powers. The more we use those powers, the more we look like this.” She made a flamboyant gestured to herself and he knew she meant the washed out pale features and not that fourteen year old body.
“But then that means…” Tristan’s eyes widened as he understood his host and bodyguard even more. She had powers. And she used them a lot if she was that pale already. Desmond too. God, even that fucking prick Lucien was halfway to being as pale as Ash. The question was, how strong did that mean they really were? What was it that Ash did that was so terrible she had to hide it from him? Yuki’s power seemed simple enough, but he could see the inherent danger in having such precise of control something so simple as water.
“Tristan, I—” Ash started but then Yuki interrupted with another one of those moan inducing laughs. Tristan managed to keep his eyes open this time, just.
“Please, honored guests, sit.”
Ash tried to hide her surprise. It was not like Yukihime at all to deflect a situation. Then again, she was
always
up to something. Trouble was, now Ash was at a bigger disadvantage than normal with good portion of her memories gone.
Yuki smirked at Ash then looked to Tristan. “This one will break my tiny neck from having to look up for so long and I trust you want to hear all I have to say, ne?” Yukihime motioned across the room to a pair of elephant sized pillows. “Sit.”
Just as Tristan turned, he flinched, realizing the feeling of being watched wasn’t wrong. Standing off to the side against a wall was a black haired girl. She was dressed in a frilly black and white maid’s outfit complete with hair accessory and lacy apron. The outfit was borderline Lolita cosplay. Not Tristan’s thing but, he realized, was fairly popular in the bigger cities in Japan. The Japanese liked their Lolita.
“No?” Yuki said with a high pitch. “
Kono chiisana sennyou wa kawaii desu
ne, Asta-chan?”
“English, Yukihime. He does not speak Japanese.”
Tristan looked at Ash, hearing the first hint of anything but humble respect in her voice. And he realized the propriety, the formal shit they had to go through pissed Ash off. The fact that Yuki was older and therefore Master, pissed off Ash too.
Ash shot him a look, reading his thoughts and nodded. Too much power for someone so fickle.
“Fickle, dato? You want to know about fickle?”
The room dropped ten degrees and then Yuki was on Ash. Tristan gasped, stepping back. He thought those fangs were huge before, but closer, they were mammoth. Why did someone so tiny has such big teeth?
Yuki’s dark red lips pulled into a crooked grin, those crystalline eyes shining with dark amusement. “The better to bite you with, my dear.”
“That’s—” He took another step back, running right into the Lolita girl. He never even saw her move his way. She took his arms into her hands. Her grip was barely there, but something in him told him to stay put anyway. He didn’t want anything to do with the two vampires staring at each other, one in dark contempt, the other in whimsical thought. Something about Yuki screamed dangerous to Tristan. He didn’t want anything to do with her.
“No?” The small vampire said, eyes still fixed on Ash. “Asta-chan’s sentiments of you aren’t the same.”
Ash hissed a nasty word at the Master vampire in Greek.
“What?” Tristan asked, completely confused.
“Asta-chan, you must tell the boy everything he needs to know. Poor little danshi is so very much in the dark.”
“Shishō, stop.”
“You dare to tell me what to do?” Yuki screamed. Tristan knew what was going to happen before she even moved towards Ash with her mouth agape and fangs bared. And there was nothing he could do.
THIS
. This right here, this was what vampires really were. Vicious, ruthless, dangerous. Monsters. Ash gasped, her body going ridged, but she didn’t try to fight. Tristan was damn well going to fight for her. He wasn’t about to hit the woman holding him but then he didn’t have to as he wrenched his arm from her hold and she let him go. He dove forward but was stopped by a single hand held out towards him.
“No!” Ash snapped and then in a calmer voice, said, “No, Tristan. I... it is fine.” He opened his mouth to complain. “Please.”
Grumbling unhappily, he stepped back. Standing so close he could hear a soft sucking noise, slurping that turned his stomach. Fighting everything in him to not run to Ash’s help, he sat down onto the too big, too fluffy pillow, uncomfortable. He looked up and met the crystalline eyes shimmering with pleasure that looked over Ash’s shoulder. How he wanted to jab his fingers right into those eyes and rip them out. Tristan gasped softly to himself and looked down at his hands. That thought, it was so dark and he felt…
it
. The warmth of flesh and the give of what he imagined punching out her eyes with his thumbs would feel like. Why had he thought that?
Felt
it? What was happening to him?
Ash sobbed, half sighed and collapsed against Yuki. Still staring right into his eyes, the smaller vampire moaned and ratcheted an arm tightly around Ash’s waist. The other she clamped to the back of Ash’s head, steeling her against the tiny body upright.
“Okay,” Tristan blurted, finally having enough, “you’ve made your point. Now stop, you’re going to kill her.”
Even though her mouth was hidden by Ash’s neck, he could tell the old vampire was smiling. Yuki pulled away from Ash slowly, leaving a trail of saliva and blood dripping from her tiny chin as she watched him. She bent for one last lick starting low and moving slowly up to Ash’s hairline making her shiver.
To Tristan she said, “Don’t be silly.” To Ash, lips against her ear, she whispered, “Take off your shoes next time, incorrigible child.”
“
Kutabare
,” Ash cursed at her. She hated to curse at all, but the girl deserved it and more. In all her three plus hundred years, Ash could count on one hand the number of times she’d cursed and twice were just in the past week alone. She blamed the American’s influence.
Yuki burst into manic laughter. The other girl, Little Lolita, moaned from her place across the room. But the real focus of that delicious laugh doubled over, moaning, pressing his face to the mat. Tristan couldn’t even think, he felt so amazing.
“P—please,” Ash said, barely able to form the words over a husky whisper from her place on all fours on the floor, trying to recover.
“
Zannen da
,” the little vamp pouted, though smiling with Ash’s blood on her lips.
“Oh my god,” Tristan mumbled against the floor and took a moment while he was curled into himself to check his lower half. He was sure he had an orgasm, but he felt dry. “What the fuck was—?” He sat up and let out a soft gasp when he saw Ash. Caring less about what happened to him and more about Ash, he darted forward. Her neck was a bloody mess. Torn skin, caked blood. If she were human, she’d need serious medical attention.
“I am fine,” Ash hissed.
Tristan frowned at her, getting a good look at her neck up close. Yuki had more than driven her fangs into Ash, she bit in with her human teeth too, leaving two bruised purple moons. He looked up to the sated little girl. “You fu—”
“Stop. Please.”
Tristan frowned at Ash. If these vampires kept up with their bad behavior, Tristan was going to have to get real nasty real fast with a shiny new Magnum Research .45 to back his bark. Fuck propriety and all that shit, they broke niceties the moment Desmond opened his big mouth.
Yuki grinned at him knowingly as she took up her long pipe. Inspecting the contents of the end, her bottom lip came out in an exaggerated pout. She stretched her thin little chicken arm out as far as it would go. “Sibylle!
Tu as du feu
!”
…
French
? Tristan frowned at the old vamp and the pretty little thing that was moving to relight Yuki’s drug. He thought he knew the smell when he walked in the room, but was even surer now as he watched Sibylle roll the gummy glob of black between her fingers. It was opium and probably the good stuff too. He’d tried it once. Okay, maybe twice. He wouldn’t do it again, but he remembered how he felt while on it, the scent and taste of it. Already he was starting to feel dizzy and more than a little hot from just sitting in the room. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about.
“Look—” Tristan started but again, Ash stopped the tirade of rudeness that was going to explode from his mouth with a hand on his chest.
“Yukihime,” she snapped and then took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Shishō, if we could dispose of the theatrics now. Please?”
“Theatrics?
Atashi ka
? I think you confuse me with some other stunning, beautiful, old vampire.”
She laughed and Tristan held his breath until he realized she didn’t do whatever it was that made him want to come in his pants. He cleared his throat looking a little uncomfortable when clear eyes flicked to his.
“Can I ask one thing?”
Yuki considered him for a long moment behind her pipe. “What if it was the only question I permit you all night?
Ever
?”
“Fine,” he answered flatly.
She smiled. “Very well.”
“Why did you hurt Ash? Hasn’t she been through enough?”
The old vampire’s clear eyes widened and she let out a surprised, sharp laugh. “That is all? Not why I took her memories, why do I know of you? What you are? You wish to know why I bit Asta-chan, of all things. Oh, you are rather grand. I’m so very pleased she found you alive.” Yuki looked at Ash. “So you’ve told him of your past?”
The past? No Tristan was just thinking about Yuki’s servant, Lucien. “Answer the question.”
Yuki put her pipe down and touched a finger to her chin, eyes turned up on fake modest thought. “I was hungry?”
“That a question?”
She looked down and met his eyes. “No.”
“Yeah, well I think you’re a fucking psycho bitch and we don’t need to be here.” Next to him, Ash sighed dejectedly, giving up on the idea of Tristan behaving himself. “If the price for finding out what I am hurts Ash then I don’t need to know. Nothing is worth that cost. Ash and I will figure it out on our own.” He stood and held a hand out to Ash. “Come on, let’s get out of here—”
He stopped when he looked down to her. The mess that was her neck was already healed. Only a few flakes of dried blood left behind to show proof that she’d had her neck torn up by the crazy old bat. When those pale purple orbs met his eyes and he saw them full of emotion, Tristan smirked. Ash was pissed at the old vamp too.
Good
.
“No, I think Yukihime will be more accommodating now.” She looked to the vampire in question. “Am I wrong?”
Yuki smiled slyly. “You do know me best.”
“Much to my dismay,” Ash mumbled and Tristan sighed, returning to his seat.
“Fine, I’ll stay. I’ll listen, but I already don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth.”
Yuki’s smile broadened to show a hint of saber tooth teeth. Tristan wondered what kind of practice went into hiding those in her mouth.
“Refreshments?” their host chirped.
Tristan maintained a stink eye with Yuki while Sibylle placed a Japanese tea bowl down in front of the pair. Tristan’s was only water. But Ash’s, hers was a blood offering from Yuki, though the old vamp would never acknowledge it. And of the finest blood to be had this side of the tenth century, BCE. Tristan happened to glance up just as the girl was retreating and had to do a double take. Up close, she was far cuter than he realized—short, straight black hair almost a shade of purple, piercing green eyes, narrow nose. The thought occurred to him that she’d be a good elf in a movie, just add on the pointed ears.
Yuki’s sudden laughter made everyone flinch, even Ash who was struggling to focus on the drink in front of her. “Elf?” Yuki sang. Sibylle bristled as she returned to her place against the wall. “No, I think not, danshi.”
“Stay out of my head. And stop calling me that.”
“Make me.”
“Oh my god, you’re such—”
Ash touched Tristan’s arm and gave him a pleading look. She’d had about all she could handle and was weak from feeding the old vampire. If Yuki snapped again, there would be nothing she could do about it. Not that there was to start. Tristan nodded his understanding, swallowing back the rest of his nasty words.
“Where shall we begin?” Yuki chirped.
Tristan opened his mouth first. Ash caught a preview of what he was going to say—Yuki too—and quickly interrupted. “I did as you bade and spoke with Aaron. Was that truly necessary or just to further impede my progress?”
“Asta-chan…,” she gasped sounding affronted, “why would I ever want to impede?”
Neither Ash nor Tristan were buying the modesty presented in the form of a young girl, batting her white eyelashes and somehow managing to blush. “Yes, well, Aaron knew less than I had assumed. He’d recently been taken under Malik’s arm as his second. But that was a ruse. Ah, I suppose that old bastard has not changed much over the centuries.”
“No,” Ash answered softly as she reached for the blood before her. She could not resist it any longer. It was foolish to deny it and rude to let such a rare treasure go to waste.
Yuki smiled knowingly, sucking on her pipe again. “Pity you ate the poor sod,” she said, mimicking the Brit’s accent perfectly. She made an exaggerated pout pushing out her lower lip. “I was still hoping to talk him to my side. Ah, the girls would have enjoyed him, I heard he was rather skilled. Something you would know a little about.”
Tristan gritted his teeth, having understood that himself. Ash shot Yuki a dirty look. “You owe me, Shishō.”
“My goodness, what for?”
“You took something that does not belong to you. I want them back,” Ash said, looking more tired than belligerent now.
The tiny woman sat up straight, rolling her shoulders back. “Can’t make me.”
God, she was infuriating. Just like an insolent child.
“Why did you take them?” Tristan blurted.
Yuki focused those crystalline eyes on him and he forced himself to not tense under their intense glare. “I believe your question limit has been reached.”
He stood in a flurry of movement and realized that his limbs were starting to feel heavy as the drugs relaxed him. Well, his body anyway. His mind was out of control still. “That’s it. I don’t have time for this bullshit.” He started for the door, not caring whether Ash followed him or not. He was leaving.
Behind him, Yuki called out, “How else would I get you to come see me?”
Tristan stopped and turned to face her, nearly to the door. “Could have asked.”
Yuki’s clear eyes moved to Ash. “Oh no. That wouldn’t have worked. No, not at all.” Ash would not have allowed it had she all her memories.
He gave a defeated sigh, having looked forward to leaving and mumbled, “You’re such a bitch.”
Yuki burst into laughter. “Oh yes. You’re quite fun, Tristan-
san
. Oh, may I call you Tristan?”
“Look lady, I don’t give a shit what you call me. Just tell me what the fuck is going on already because I’m this fucking close to shooting you.”
Yuki grinned then, flashing fangs at him. “This is better than I expected.” Her expression went suddenly serious. “Come to me.”
He stiffened. The door at his back was like a siren, calling. He knew he should give in to the song and run for it. Get out while he had a chance. But really, the moment he arrived, he lost that chance. He looked to Ash. There was no way in hell he wanted to be any nearer to Yuki, but then Ash was encouraging him to with a small nod.
“You’re serious?” he said to her. “After what she did to you.”
“I will not bite. That is a promise.”
He pointed at Yuki, not bothering to look her way. “Not talking to you.” His voice and expression softened. “Ash?”
She licked her lips slowly, still tasting the exquisite blood she’d been given. It had been decades since she tasted such richness. It was enough to make her reconsider her current eating habits. “She is… Yukihime is what she is, however if she promises, then I trust that word.”
Yeah? Well, he didn’t. He decided he’d give in to the curiosity and go to her, but for good measure, pulled his gun, readying it on the old vamp.
“That will not kill me, danshi.”
“No? Slow you down enough though.”
She grinned. “Think what you wish.”
He shook his head and went to her, stopping an arm’s length away.