Amy Blankenship - Vampire Gemini

Kyoko smiled… knowing she was doing the right thing. She loved him so much that it made the decision to leave hurt less. “I will come back to see you soon, and once school is out, I promise you can come to the city to visit me. We will spend so much time together that it will be as if I never left.” She looked up to see her mothers’ gaze lock with hers.

Miss Hogo pulled Tama away from her daughter with an understanding smile. “We will have your room ready and waiting on you. Won’t we Tama?” She brushed the tears from his cheek as he nodded, then looked back up at Kyoko. “See, everything will be fine.”

Glancing up at the house one last time, Kyoko could see her grandpa in the upstairs window. She waved and gave him a smile that almost made her cheeks hurt… then climbed into the cab. If she was leaving home because of the demons, then she was going to go invade their home and wipe them out one at a time.

“The city please,” Kyoko told the driver and refused to look back.

*****

In the heart of the city, Hyakuhei lay in a state of semi-sleep when he heard his twin brother’s voice calling to him. He knew not to open his eyes because there was no use. His brother wouldn’t be there… so he just inhaled sharply and listened to the darkness.

“So, my younger brother still refuses to join me?” The voice held a hint of longing mixed with anger.

Hyakuhei opened his eyes and ran a hand through his long, ebony hair. Without saying a word out loud, he answered the intruding voice. “Younger brother? We are twins Tadamichi, you are no better than I.”

Tadamichi’s voice hardened, “Twins are alike… are we alike? Plus, I am the first born… so that makes you the youngest.”

Sitting up, Hyakuhei let the silk sheets fall from his naked body as he slid from the bed. It was just like Tadamichi to twist events to his liking. “No, we are nothing alike… so enough with the riddles.” He flinched, and then rolled his eyes when the lamp on the nightstand beside him shattered. He would have to learn to keep his temper under control or everything around him would be destroyed. He assumed it was his punishment for losing his temper so long ago with his brother.

“I don’t hate you,” Hyakuhei growled as if trying to convince himself.

“How generous of you,” Tadamichi’s voice took on a melancholy sound as if he didn’t believe the confession. “The last time we were within the same realm… we killed each other. Such senseless acts for immortals… don’t you think?” There was a pause before he continued. “Once the banishment was over, like a faithful brother… I waited on your return.”

“We are destined to be alone,” Hyakuhei cut in with the lie. He knew his brother was no longer alone… Tadamichi had made sure of that.

He could hear his brother’s silent laughter. It made him wonder if it hadn’t been a mistake to think he could come back and face the wicked family his brother had created in his absence. The only way he and his brother were alike was that they didn’t like to be alone… though they had two completely different ways of correcting that problem.

“I knew you would return… here where the night is never dark… here where you will never be alone among so many humans and the children I have created for us.” Tadamichi’s voice had become wishful.

Hyakuhei walked into the bathroom, turning on the shower then whirling to face the mirror. No reflection looked back at him so he just pictured his brother’s face… his own face as he answered. “I want nothing to do with the abominations you have sired.” He backed into the shower as he tore the link apart so he wouldn’t have to hear his brother’s haunting voice any longer.

No… he had not come back to his homeland to join them like some twisted family reunion. His brother was the most destructive of all the demons and the children he sired were disturbing to say the least. Those children where now spawning others and their numbers were growing like the black plague.

Hyakuhei placed his hands on the ceramic walls of the shower… letting the hot water warm his frozen skin. What did it matter to him? The last time he’d tried to stop his brother from infesting the human world with half-breed demons, it had ended in both their deaths… a false death that took centuries to rise from.

Their punishment for that crime was banishment from each other and this world of humans. They had become Shades who walked the realm between realms… casting only shadows of loneliness. That had ended over a century ago. Yet, he’d stayed away from his twin. Even from the darkness on the other side of the world, he had heard this city calling to him until he couldn’t fight the summons any longer.

His brother was right about one thing… he was exhausted from being alone. But now that he was home, he could smell the taint of his brother’s sins plaguing the land. True blood demons he could abide by, but the rape of the city by the half-breed vampires that spawning had created… was provoking.

His twin brother stayed underground most of the time within the lavish catacombs they had once shared during the medieval era… only to resurface once in a while, long enough to bring another victim into the deadly fold.

Hyakuhei looked up into the waterfall of the shower… trying to keep his rage from seeping out, but knew his failure when he heard the bathroom mirror crack.

Tadamichi had accused him of hiding himself away from the world but that wasn’t true.

‘It is Tadamichi who has chosen that path,’ He thought darkly. ‘He cannot see the destruction he is causing. The night is no longer dark nor is it silent.’ Hyakuhei turned off the shower and stepped out, not bothering to wrap a towel around his lithe form. Instead, he grabbed the soft black cloth and began drying his long ebony hair. Within moments he was dressed and ready for the night.

Walking back to his window in the living room, he sat down on the sill and looked out at his view.

Hyakuhei smirked at his own dark humor and looked down at the side of the opposite building.

“The darkness is alive with demons Brother. This city with its high walls has made it so,” he mused aloud.

*****

Yuuhi reappeared within the downtown area of the city minutes before daybreak. He could already feel the sun’s heat on his skin and quickened his pace toward the Grand Hotel in the center of the metropolis. Beneath the massive five star establishments hidden away from the world was his sire’s underground dwelling. It was just as beautiful below ground as what housed the humans above… his sire had arranged it to be so.

Yuuhi stepped through the front doors of the Grand and strode across the lobby. Ignoring the friendly greeting of the human woman behind the desk, Yuuhi stepped through the door that read ‘maintenance’. Making his way down to the basement, he boarded the maintenance elevator that would take him down to the sub-basement level. From there, it was the opening of the hidden passage that would take him to his sire.

Feeling the darkness close in around him like a protective blanket, the platinum-haired child raced through the winding tunnels as though trying to outrun the darkness… or keep up with it.

Yuuhi was one of the privileged few allowed in Tadamichi’s private lair… only the ones Tadamichi had personally sired were permitted. The small boy had been one of Tadamichi’s first and the bond that held him faithful was what led him to warn the master about the girl… and the power she possessed. The bond also allowed him to feel his master’s emotional states, which could prove troublesome at times.