Amy Blankenship - Vampire Gemini

Replacing the stone with the mental picture of what the silver guardian had once been, he lazily smiled knowing the guardian could hear him, they all could. Everything was silent and as still as it always had been. But deep within the souls of the statues… he could feel the power like an earthquake being restrained by thin shackles of time.

“So even in this imprisoned state, you have all found a way to fight.” Tadamichi hummed his curiosity. “Could it be that you feel her? Do you want her?” He lowered his lashes as he felt a wave of power sweep across the room in answer. “Maybe you should have forced her to stay on your side of the time portal… like you did last time.”

He turned away from the statues, leaving them with a haunted warning. “It is too bad you cannot accompany your priestess this time.”

Chapter 2 “City Heat”

Kyoko woke with a start knowing the sun was setting. It was like a biological alarm clock to her and had been since… as far back as she could remember. She pushed herself up knowing it was time to go to work. She just wished she were getting paid for it.

Hearing a siren in the distance drew her attention to the window just in time to catch the last rays of light leaving the city sky. She could hear the faint sound of thumping music from the nightclubs on the strip where she lived. She had picked an apartment right in the heart of the city for a reason.

She could feel the vibration through her bed… The Underground was the name of the club she lived above. Rent was cheap because there was no way someone could live here and expect to get any kind of sleep unless it was during the day. That’s where Kyoko believed in luck.

Where else could she have found a place that had the same hours she did? There were no rude people running up and down the halls… unless you counted Yohji, but he didn’t usually stir up anything unless it was early in the morning when she got home or in the evenings just before she went to work.

Speaking of rent… hers was late. She would have to come up with it soon if she didn’t want to deal with Yohji, the landlord’s brother, who lived right across the hall from her. The last time she had been late with the rent he’d actually offered to work it out in trade with her. He had seemed so disappointed when she’d handed him the rent in full less than an hour later.

She glanced at her cell phone seeing the message symbol blinking and smiled. Clicking the buttons that could connect her with something familiar, she listened to her mom’s voice, not even paying attention to what she was saying. She already knew anyway.

“Hello Kyoko it’s your mother,” Kyoko mimicked the words on the answering machine. “I really wish you would call, we miss you terribly. We’d like to know when you’re coming home again so I can make your favorite dinner. Tama had a great time the other weekend and is already starting to have withdrawals from not seeing you. Are you eating well enough or need any money? Please give me a call, I love you.”

Kyoko shook her head and let the voicemail continue playing the rest of the messages. One was from Yohji reminding her that the rent was due. “Yeah-yeah… sleaze.” She deleted his message. The other was from her younger brother Tama telling her about his latest girlfriend then warned her not to tell grandfather or he’d spread really embarrassing rumors about her and Tasuki. It was an empty threat and they both knew it.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that little bro,” Kyoko said into the phone.

She’d left home to keep them safe. There had been no way around it. Ever since she was little, she had been aware of demons in the world… but that didn’t mean she wanted her little brother to know the monsters from the movies where real and waiting out in the darkness. It was like she was the only one who could see them walking among the innocent… feeding off them.

Demons usually looked like normal people until they had their victim alone. The demons within the city were multiplying at a dangerously fast rate and she was having trouble keeping up and helping to even the odds for the humans. As a matter of fact… she felt like she was losing the war.

Those humans she was trying to protect had given the evil a name through books and movies… vampires. It was just a name though… vampire, demon, to her it was the same thing. She shrugged. With her it was almost like a two-way mirror because although she could detect the vampires… they also knew when she walked into a crowded room. She didn’t think they could detect her power… that wasn’t what seemed to draw them to her… it was more like a dinner bell with her as the main dish.

She’d even gone to the doctor once to see if she had a strange blood type… thinking that was drawing them to her. But the doc had only given her a clean bill of health. What gave her cold chills was that when she was leaving the office, the doctor had stopped her and asked her to donate blood. Twisted… it was just twisted.

For some reason, vampires were always drawn to her and she would have to fight them. Maybe the doctor just hadn’t been looking for the right thing. A sad expression slid across her face knowing that was why she had to remain alone. She’d put her family and friends in danger too many times to live near them. The last time one had followed her home. It was hard enough keeping her secret without having a demon in the front yard.

Her grandfather was the one who had brought her into this life, so it was him that she had asked the one question that plagued her. How did the vampire’s sense when she was near and why did they always seek her out in a place full of hundreds? She remembered he’d tapped his chin while deep in thought, but the way he was looking at her made her feel like he was keeping something from her.

“I’ll research it and let you know if I come up with a clue.” Was all her grandfather had said.

She’d stopped questioning why she had the power to hit them and actually hurt them… it wasn’t like they couldn’t hold their own sometimes though. She had limped home too many times to think she was indestructible. But she healed faster than anyone she knew and she could take a hard punch better than… okay, she didn’t know anyone who could withstand what she could… any human that is.

Now that she had a safe distance between her and everything she loved… Kyoko had a reason to be angry and a reason to fight. She blamed them for it… the demons that stalked her. They’d forced her to leave home and abandon everything that resembled a normal life. Now her family had moved into the home at the shrine. Granted, it placed them closer to Tasuki and that made her feel better.

“It’s not that bad,” She said aloud within the solitude of her apartment. Getting out of bed, she headed for the small kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “Okay… maybe it is that bad,” Kyoko smirked seeing it was still empty.

She would just have to go hunting for vampires tonight and if they had a wad of cash in their pocket when she killed them, then so be it… it wasn’t like they could take it to hell with them. Closing the door she turned to the one thing she knew she had plenty of. “Thank god for coffee.”

She lifted the cup to her lips knowing it was going to be a long night.

*****

Hyakuhei lay in the bed listening to his brother’s voice once again before it faded. This had become a habit… although in his opinion, it was better than being face to face. They would listen to each other’s thoughts most nights for the few moments it took for the sun to set… then the link would vanish. As of late, the silent conversations had become more and more disturbing.