Chapter Text
Mao remembers it only vaguely.
When he tries to think of what life was like in his childhood and early teens, he remembers it as being simple and carefree. His memory may be bad, since it feels like it was a long time ago, but he remembers a few important details.
He can recall the faint sound of piano keys, the scent of playing outside on a cloudy day before rain, and a blossoming, young friendship. He remembers the first feeling of true terror, and pure heartbreak at a young age as well.
Mao, and his family, was devastated when the neighbor’s kids were found by locals, dead in the forest near their adjacent houses, face down with puncture wounds to the neck. The causes of death were determined to be vampires.
This was the first reported incident in their small but heavily populated city, rumors of an epidemic spreading out of nowhere from all over the country, the stories of vampires were believed to be stories until they actually started happening more and more.
The parents disappeared without a trace from the neighborhood and probably the city, respectively, after the children’s joint funeral. That was the prelude of the war, right before life wasn’t quite the same anymore.
It didn’t happen right away, but when more and more incidents were happening with no traces left, Mao remembers his parents afraid and overly protective over his little sister, and he couldn’t blame them when they didn’t even want her to leave the house. His parents had every right to fear, it could have been their kids. Mao also remembers to this day, he’ll never forget, it could’ve been him instead of them.
It’s a thought that has stuck with him, ingrained into his mind, especially when he watched the city where he grew up gradually deteriorate and fall apart, becoming desolate and abandoned, due to the plague of vampires, of all possible things.
People began turning up dead in broad daylight on the street, their necks the telltale sign, it was always vampires. It didn’t surprise him when the city became isolated from what seemed to be the rest of the world, like they were trapped under a dome with the option to leave.
Nearly everyone did end up leaving. A new system was set up, some people moved in—more like an army: with a newly built and huge facility, a counteractive against the vampires, designed to keep them here in this sacrificed area that is now considered a hell-hole and not allowing them to spread elsewhere.
The people here spend all their time baiting vampires, capturing them and keeping them prisoners or subjecting the cooperative ones to research or just plain beheading them and burning them at the stake if necessary. It’s basically like a government job.
All that was required to join these people, a force that called themselves the council, was a simple program course after high school, teaching the basics of vampires, basic survival skills, physical training, weapon training and what they called slaying 101.
When his parents bought a new house in another far away place, he made his decision, even though it hurt the most; that it meant being separated from his little sister. He decided to join before his parents left, a year before he graduated, where he lived alone and studied on his own for a year.
It’s not like he had any other plans after high school, besides trying to live a normal life and make an honest living. He didn’t feel alone; however, not like the town had many people anyway with his graduating class was him and two other people, but it never bothered him being alone for the most part.
To this day he’s not even sure why he made the decision to stay. Maybe it was to avenge his childhood friend from the past, maybe it was because he’s always had the worst habit of throwing himself into trouble.
He definitely doesn’t consider himself a martyr, but he’s here and made an oath to save and protect what’s left, and it’s always been one of his flaws to help out anyone in need.
---
The trouble he always throws himself into happens to be at this very moment.
Mao is trapped in the middle of an alley. His gun points to a vampire’s head and the vampire’s fangs are beginning to dig deeper and deeper into his neck.
It’s a standoff—not the first time he’s ever had to deal with a vampire but it is the first time it’s life or death. Usually he isn’t alone like he is now, and usually the vampires are already disabled by the time he gets to them.
He’s considered himself lucky up until this point, never actually having to face one, one on one. Even if this is the first vampire that has cornered him like this, it’s also the first time he’s ever hesitated and he has no idea why. He thinks, he learned about this, trained to kill, and is in a good position right now to do it. He can’t help but to think he fucked up.
He didn’t even think he stumbled onto a vampire at first, just thought it was a pile of clothes or something in a dark alleyway—even though it is sundown and he curses himself for knowing better but still falling for it— and right from the start he was thrown off guard to find out it was a vampire sleeping, curled up in a ball, startled and now wide awake.
His fangs press into Mao’s neck, not actually puncturing the skin, and it adds another reason why something feels really off about all this. The vampire won’t bite him, and Mao doesn’t have the slightest clue of how a vampire thinks. Maybe the vampire is thinking the same thing as him—it’s an honest standoff, first to move dies.
Well, not like a bullet through the head will kill a vampire, but will disable them for a while, and if the vampire is found disabled and Mao is found dead with puncture wounds, blood drained on the cold ground next to the passed out vampire, it’s pretty much the same as a death sentence.
Mao’s best bet is to just pull the trigger and hope for the best, but since the fangs are already to his neck the vampire would end up involuntarily biting down and—fuck. He’s really not afraid to die at this point, but he just can’t do it, can’t end this. He really still is a coward after all this time.
Time stands still, like they’re both frozen to each other’s next move, neither of them budges a single bit. Mao has stopped breathing this whole time, he’s surprised he’s not trembling at all—he’s sure it’s from the shock of it all, too stunned to react.
This is an instant homicide-suicide, or double homicide, however it turns out. Either way they’re both dead.
Mao wasn’t sure he could even go into shock harder than this, but he does the second the vampire retracts his fangs, still not even moving a muscle.
“What’s your name.” His voice is barely above a whisper; Mao can feel the words breathed against his neck.
“M-Ma… Mao.” He’s compelled to answer anyway, fight or flight senses kicking in, he’s terrified and wishes he could hide the shaking in the sound of his voice.
“Maa~kun.”
Mao feels his blood run cold, a chill running down and back up his spine, along with an acute, stifling fear washing over him whole. The nickname, the vampire can taste his fear and is just fucking with him now. Or maybe Mao is just hallucinating or already dead, but there is no way, no way—
The vampire pulls back, and stares at Mao, dark red eyes searching into his and Mao is still frozen and can’t move, he can’t believe what is happening. The vampire, side of his face illuminated by the moonlight, scrutinizes him, staring him right in the face, totally unaffected by the gun pointed to his temple.
“Let’s call a truce.”
“…Huh?” His whole body stiffens, and it’s the only response Mao can come up with, voice sounding overly strained, as if he still has lethal fangs pointed at his neck.
“I’m too tired and hungry for this. You’re the one who came to my nap spot, you know.” The vampire’s tone is so dismissive that Mao has to stop himself from asking him to repeat what he just said, there is no way…
The vampire continues to stare at him through half-lidded eyes, completely backed away now, Mao’s arm goes limp and his gun is now pointed to the ground instead. “You’re…” Mao really doesn’t understand.
The vampire, however, seems that he’s made up his mind to end this and leave it at that.
He yawns, scratches the back of his head and just blinks at Mao. Mao opens his mouth to say something, too confused, practically thrown off balance from how off-guard he is, and still dealing with the shock of everything, he can’t even process a question to ask as to why he’s being spared—or why he’s sparing the vampire’s life. This could also be some kind of trap as far as he knows.
So he doesn’t question it, he turns around and bolts out of the alleyway as fast as his legs can take him.
---
Mao doesn’t bring it up to anyone or even report the incident.
He doesn’t even tell his unit mates about what happened, even when they asked that night he came back to their shared base, the place they call home, it was still obvious how shaken up Mao was.
“Isara, you look like you saw a ghost, are you sure you’re alright?” Hokuto questions him seriously as Mao sits at the door unlacing his boots and he notices his fingers are still shaking. Hokuto obviously sees it as well, the concern is written all over his usually impassive face.
“Seriously, I’m fine. Just a little exhausted after a meaningless chase is all.~” He tries his absolute best to sound cheery, desperately trying to convince not only Hokuto, but also himself. He doesn’t think not telling them counts as lying—it is the truth for the most part, the whole ordeal was meaningless but still managed to drain him of all energy.
It doesn’t stop him from feeling guilty, even if it was a standoff, even if he could say that he didn’t have a choice but to let the vampire live, but he already knows that admitting it will cause more trouble that he seriously doesn’t want to get involved in—its best to just forget it happened.
“Sari, Sari, you know if there’s something wrong you can always count on us more!” Thankfully, Subaru always manages to brighten up a room with ease.
Hokuto sighs. “Can you stop shouting this late at night? But, for once, he’s right. We’re teammates, remember that.”
“Geez, and I thought I was the one who always worries about everyone… but I know. And thanks, but really, I’m fine. I’m just gonna go to sleep.”
Hokuto and Subaru simultaneously call out a “goodnight” and Mao shakes his head while smiling, dragging his feet towards his room. Their words calmed him down a bit, reassured he’ll always have them on his side.
He would never forget that they’re teammates, he’s thankful for them, he’d even offer his life if it meant protecting them, gladly, in a heartbeat. But this is something he has to deal with on his own, a mistake he made on his own and he doesn’t really have the option to burden others with it.
He stands a little too long, thinking probably too in depth about it while in the shower. He scrubs at his skin a little too hard, wondering why it’s bothering him so much, just the thought of the vampire from earlier. It really is best to forget about it, it’s really what he should do, but he still feels uncomfortable.
He dries his hair, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, and damn, he’s still pale, he can see why Hokuto and Subaru were so worried. He inhales, exhales, he should feel better once he sleeps it off, probably just the adrenaline still coursing through his veins.
He’s torn between his morality, duty or his cowardice, he’d rather blame it on the former. He checks his neck, holding his hair up on the side.
Even though there aren’t any marks, if he looks close enough he can still see the indents. He tries to rub them away with his finger, hoping he’ll forget about it soon.
---
Forgetting about it is easier said than done, and he thinks the vampire might have put a curse on him or something. He thinks about all he’s learned about the black magic of vampires in lessons, he knows they can’t really do anything without blood involved, but it still doesn’t put him at ease.
He walks down a long corridor, heavily bordered off from the rest of the facility, so silent he can hear only his own footsteps. If there’s one person that could maybe help him at least give him a rational peace of mind, it’s Keito.
The vice president of the council, he’s in his office as always, probably busy, but Mao knows he’s always welcome. He wouldn’t consider Keito and him to be close like friends, but they do have a lot in common and Keito is also reliable. He also doesn’t get really well along with others, but Mao knows how to talk to him.
He knocks twice before hearing “come in,” in a monotone voice. Keito is at his desk with piles of paperwork, per usual.
“I hope I’m not bothering you.”
“It’s fine, you know, I did tell you to come speak directly to me at times.” Keito raises an expectant eyebrow.
“It’s really not that important, but I was wondering if there was ever a case reported of being spared by a vampire.” Mao asks trying to sound nonchalantly as possible. He knows Keito has always had an appreciation of Mao’s hardworking nature and motivation to learn, as he was his mentor at one point, and knows he likes talking hypotheticals, so Mao is sure Keito wouldn’t be suspicious.
He doesn’t know why he’s even asking Keito, though, when he knows the answer.
“Don’t tell me you were spared by one.”
“It’s not that…” Mao lies straight through his teeth, but truly, he wants to know if it ever happened before and reported, he wants to be reassured that he isn’t the only one.
”Reported, no.” Keito gives him another incredulous look, obviously still suspicious.
“So not reported, but it has happened, you think? We’re you spared by one before?”
“I would never allow myself to get cornered and let it get that far in the first place. And I’d expect the same thing from you, Isara.” He scolds, eyes narrowing sharply as he studies Mao. Ah, well, shit.
Keito sighs. “I don’t want to sound harsh. I know how hard you work, and I’m only hard on you because I don’t want that to happen. I don’t even like talking about it, or thinking about being cornered by one of those monsters. They’ll kill you in an instant without remorse.”
Mao forces himself to nod, he wants to argue back talking about… but he can’t, he doesn’t want to worry Keito about this, when Keito already has so much on his plate. He’ll handle it himself.
“I hope that answered your question.” Keito dismisses him, turning back to his endless stack of papers.
“It did, thanks.” Mao leaves Keito alone. It doesn’t make him feel better, really, it makes him feel worse knowing that Keito worries about him. He’s not in the place to complain about how bothered he is—he hasn’t been in the field for that long, only for a few months, but before he was doing the same thing Keito does, practically under Keito, so he knows how stressful it can get, and he surely doesn’t miss it.
Keito did entrust this job to him, appointing him to be a slayer in these desperate times, so Mao has to make sure to be careful from now on, and he’s not the type to make the same mistake twice.
He doesn’t know where he’s going when he leaves Keito’s office, as it’s his day off and he has nothing better to do. He walks halfway across the facility, considers going out in the city to clear his mind, but he ends up out front of Makoto’s room.
“Yo, Makoto.” He calls as he enters, Makoto is leaning on an autopsy table, tapping away on his phone. Makoto looks up and smiles.
“Isara-kun, hey. What are you up to?”
“I was wondering the same thing about you, have you been busy?” Mao works under Makoto, technically, he’s head of the research department. Mao brings him all of the disabled vampires he catches, but they go way back, they used to work with each other every day. Even if they don’t see each other like they used to, Mao considers them to be close, he trusts Makoto.
“Nah, not really. It’s been slow recently, ah, not that I’m complaining or anything.”
“I see.” Mao laughs, tapping at the screen of Makoto’s phone. “But, I did want to ask you about something.”
“What is it?”
A while back, Mao would have been hesitant about asking Makoto anything about vampires on account of how jumpy he used to be at the topic alone, but Makoto’s come a long way since then.
“Vampires can’t read minds, right?” The teasing lilt of Maa~kun still burns his ears when he thinks about it, and if anyone knows about the anatomy of vampires and what they can and cannot do, it’s Makoto.
“Ah, no… at least as far as I know. They can easily sense emotions through the scent of humans but they can’t read minds. That’s actually terrifying, now that I think about it. Sounds like something out of a horror game.” Makoto laughs, a little bit of nervousness laced in it.
“You don’t gotta tell me about it…” Mao sighs with the shake of his head. Terrifying is an understatement.
---
When he decides that enough is enough and he needs an answer, so he can stop letting it gnaw at his conscious, Mao finds himself out on a vampire hunt.
It’s sundown block sweep, and their unit’s turn to shift for the night. Block sweeps are usually easy but take a while, they spend the night searching every crevice at the border of the city, the crossing line where the vampires tend to stay away from, unless they’re starving and looking for humans.
He wanted to bite his tongue so badly when he suggested that he, Subaru and Hokuto should split up in order to search more ground and get the search down faster, knowing damn well he wants to find the vampire from last week one on one.
They agreed, of course, and they’re off, leaving Mao to stalk through empty streets. He definitely doesn’t check the spot he saw that vampire last time first, and he really doesn’t admit that he’s still diligently looking for him, while staying alert to whoever else may be lurking in the area.
He walks and walks, it’s a really quiet night, almost peaceful, not considering… everything. He kind of misses peaceful nights like this, not too hot out even though it’s summer, not too dark outside but dark enough to where the streetlights are lit up on nearly every corner. It’s way different now than what it used to be. This place always used to be filled with people, enjoying their lives.
When he looks up and sees a lamppost flickering, near a known dead-end alleyway, he considers it some kind of sign and heads straight to it.
He finds him in the same position Mao found him last time.
But this time, even though he picks his head up at the sound of Mao’s footsteps on the concrete, the vampire just curls up into a ball, not even attempting to attack Mao.
“Hey, vampire.” Mao nudges the tip of his steel-toed boot against his shin.
The vampire’s eyes shut tighter and he grimaces, before half-whining half-yawning. “Ten… more minutes.” He stirs a little bit while sounding petulant.
Mao can’t believe he’s just laying here, not doing anything, like he doesn’t care in the slightest bit. Like he doesn’t fear Mao at all. “I don’t have time for this…” He sighs and nudges him with more force, actually considering kicking him, trying to turn him over so the vampire can face him. “What are you even doing out here.”
“It’s better than the mansion.” He pouts, eyes still closed. He really sounds petulant and whines a lot, like a child, maybe he is a child, but that can’t be; he looks to be in his early adult stages. He huffs again, obviously upset about being bothered, as if that excuse justifies why he’s out in the open like this, like he’s trying to be captured or slayed or found.
Mao doesn’t even know what the “mansion” is, he won’t even question it because he’s only here for one answer to one question. “Yeah, well why don’t you stay closer to your side, you’re awfully close to our side of the city, I mean, unless you have a deathwish.”
“Anywhere farther away from Anija is better.” The vampire sits up slowly and stretches his arms out above his head. “You nag a~lot.” He blinks, sleepily, and Mao notices how heavy the vampire’s eyes are, dark and puffy lids and underneath, nearly covering all traces of red. Maybe he’s already sick and dying or something—a question he reminds himself to ask Makoto, if vampires can get illnesses.
“You’re making my job so much harder.” Mao mutters to himself, knowing that the vampire has no reason to care about his problems, even though the vampire himself is the main cause of all of them right now.
Mao thinks, if he moves quickly enough, it’d be too easy to capture him right now. A voice in the back of his head tells him it’s a bad idea at this point—the vampire could snitch on him and the council believing him over Mao is nearly impossible and the most unlikely outcome, a 99.9% chance it wouldn’t happen, but he doesn’t want to take that risk even if it is minuscule.
He could also kill the vampire right now, let it end here and he can forget about this past week for the rest of his life, never having to stay up at night thinking about it again, but—
“Why did you let me go the other night.”
The vampire shrugs. “Maa~kun sure asks a lot of questions… noisy and nags a lot.”
That nickname again, why—
“You have ten seconds before I kill you.”
“Oh? You want to kill me?”
The vampire is too fast, Mao didn’t even see him move, he didn’t even anticipate a quick reaction like this, let alone the vampire now standing behind him.
But like a shadow, and not even in a second, the vampire has one arm wrapped around Mao’s torso in a steel grip, nearly squeezing the breath out of him, painfully sharp claws digging into his side. The other hand wraps around the front of Mao’s throat, tilting his head up and holding him still.
God damn it he really wasn’t trained for this shit, he’s almost positive he can’t get out of a vice-like grip like this, but he knows vampires aren’t usually this abnormally strong, unless they usually feed fresh blood from humans.
Even though the mere thought of that realization sends a chill down his spine, he doesn’t panic this time. Already having one scare with this vampire, he’s calm now. As stupid as it sounds he still has hope, calculating his next move and trying to time it perfectly to end this.
“What’s your name?” Mao whispers, almost praying to a higher power that this works.
He feels the vampire tense against his back. “Why are you asking.”
It’s not a question and more like a demand, the vampire’s voice is lower and colder than he’s ever heard yet. It’s actually frightening to hear it, compared to the way he slowly and languidly speaks.
Mao feels the bob of his throat as he swallows against the vampires palm, mouth feeling dry, maybe he fucked up for the last time if he’s finally pissed off the vampire, maybe he just should’ve kept his mouth shut and just killed him right then and there.
“It’s fair, isn’t it?”
“Ah… that’s cruel… using my own tricks on me,” He loosens his grip to the point where Mao can breathe again. “Ritsu. Are you really going to kill me even after I spared your life? That’s mean, yeah?”
“I spared your life too, don’t get cocky.”
“Nah, I would’ve gotten you first and you know it.” Mao shivers when he feels the vampire—Ritsu’s—teeth brush against the back of his neck when he speaks. “But if you say that you let me go, and now I’ll let you go this time, then that makes us even, right?”
Mao doesn’t respond at first, which only makes Ritsu drag his teeth up slowly to behind Mao’s ear. “I have the energy to spare this time, unlike last time. If you truly wish, I’d fight you one on one.”
Mao swallows again, cursing himself, the vampire can feel the bob of his throat again and now he’s shaking from adrenaline, it’s now or never—
“But just so you know… I feel every single one of your emotions coming from you. So, I don’t want to fight.”
Mao has no idea if that’s a good or bad thing, really. It must be bad, if it has to do with his stupid brain right now, every nerve in his body telling him not to kill the vampire and he doesn’t know why—and that scares him the most out of all of this.
He knows it’s not in his nature to be that cruel. The vampire truly wasn’t harming anyone—at least at the moment, and never tried to attack Mao out of rage or bloodthirst once, only in self-defense the last time. Even if he is a blood-sucking monster… Mao hates himself in this very moment. He doesn’t have the heart to kill someone, not in the act of harming someone else, he really is a coward, and has no idea why, but he just can’t.
Mao surrenders in the vampire’s hold. “Can you just promise to stay away from the border?”
“This whole area has been my spot for months now, and no one’s ever noticed me besides you.” He groans, doing that whining thing again.
Mao puts a hand on his machete holster at the side of his belt, not even bothering with the gun this time because this is the last time he will ever spare a vampire.
“Fine.” Ritsu sighs against his neck before letting Mao go, he backs up but stands in front of Mao now, face to face.
“Don’t mention this to anyone.”
“Demanding for someone who’s life I just spared…”
Mao feels as if a blood vessel is going to pop in his head if he continues this conversation any longer. He’s usually not the type to lose his patience, but this vampire is testing him, and doing a good job at irritating Mao.
“Va—Ritsu. Please. I’m asking because I really don’t want to do this again.” Unless he has to, that is. Ritsu grins and the corner of his eyes narrow, almost resembling a cat.
“You said please, you’re too kind to be a slayer.” He points out.
Mao can’t do anything but roll his eyes. “And you’re too lazy to be a savage, bloodthirsty monster, so I really guess were even.”
Mao earns a soft laugh from Ritsu, and Mao shuts his mouth quickly and indignantly, he really wasn’t trying to say anything funny.
“Fine, Maa~kun. You will never see me again, alright?” He yawns and with a delicate wave of his hand he vanishes from his feet to his dark colored hair, turning into a shadow.
Mao sighs. That guy makes absolutely no sense, if he can turn into a shadow then why— Maybe the vampire, Ritsu, actually wanted someone to find him, which is insane and not to mention suicidal. He really doesn’t seem like the type to have a deathwish.
Mao stops thinking about it. He didn’t get the answer he wanted, but at least he got some type of closure. It doesn’t stop him from feeling utterly defeated though, reflecting on how much of a pushover he truly is. It’s done and over with now, he tries to take solace in that.
Really though, all he can do is hope that the vampire is true to his word. Maybe he’s the one who's insane for letting a vampire go in the first place, let alone believing in one.
It goes against every single thing the council has taught him: don’t trust them, they are heartless and ruthless savages, they won’t stop until they get the taste of blood, stop them at all costs. It’s like he can hear Eichi’s voice repeating the drills into his head like a mantra.
For some reason, Mao feels disappointed. He hopes it’s because of the fact he didn’t kill the vampire and he’s upset with himself, rather than the fact he will never see the vampire again and get a true answer, as to why he feels this way.
---
Mao finds himself alone, yet again, which is definitely the only time he gets himself into trouble, all the more reason why he needs to stop going off to places by himself, because right now he’s bleeding out on a sidewalk.
He ended up getting to a fight with two twin vampires, or he thinks they’re twins, at first he thought it was one person with the ability to split themselves in half.
He finds them as he turns a street corner, running headfirst into them, but prepared to fight. He chased them to a dead end alleyway, which probably was a mistake. Why do these things always end up in the damn alleyways?! He should know this by now.
But it’s too late—when he corners them in, they cower in the corner, one huddling over the other one.
Mao almost feels bad; it looks like the one is trying to protect the other using his body as a shield. They’re siblings. Mao feels a pain in his chest, thinking of protecting his own little sister with his life, but he has to, none the less he squeezes the trigger of the gun.
Then they bolt, moving in tandem and confusingly. They’re fast—faster than Ritsu who can move like a shadow, faster than any vampire he’s ever seen before.
They jump from wall to wall, like acrobats, nimble while contorting their bodies. Mao shoots at them twice, misses, curses.
When he goes to chase after them on foot, pulling out his machete from its holster, since they’re obviously not going to cooperate and he has to take them down by force, one turns around and slices his leg, moving his arm with a whip-like motion.
Mao doesn’t really feel the pain of it, but can feel it start gushing blood, already pooling and pouring down his pant leg. Methodically, he sits on the ground, using a bandanna and wraps it tight around his leg to stop the bleeding, tying and pulling it tight with the long handle of his machete.
He catches his breath for a few seconds before standing, he’s been hurt a lot worse than this, had to do mock vampire chases with broken bones during training, courtesy of the Emperor of the council, so all that preparation makes this seem a flesh wound seem like nothing.
He won’t let these ones get away. He takes a few steps forward, out of the alleyway, then immediately stops.
He stops moving and breathing. Fear. Acute and stifling and nearly crippling, and it’s not because of his leg he can’t move.
It feels like he’s in a nightmare and the wind has been knocked out of him simultaneously, he’s never quite felt anything like this before in his life.
A tall vampire comes closer and closer to him. Those twins must have called for him. He’s absolutely terrifying with an overwhelming presence, Mao has learned in a lesson about these kind of rare vampires.
Among themselves, they are called the kings. They have beyond supernatural abilities, and can manipulate the space around them. This has to be one, a truly otherworldly being.
He gets closer, and Mao finds it even harder to breathe, like the air is scraping his throat to get into his lungs, feels like his limbs have turned to stone in place, and this is it. He’s more than likely going to die at this point.
The vampire is surrounded in a black and purple fog, and it looks like he’s levitating. Blood red and narrow eyes shimmer and are locked onto Mao’s, not allowing him to look anywhere else. The look of the vampire is alarmingly familiar, he feels like he’s seen the same shade of dark hair framing his face and red eyes before.
Mao closes his eyes, he can’t look anymore, and it’s starting to hurt.
“Anija. He’s mine.”
That voice, a smoky aura appears behind the tall vampire, challenging him with an animalistic growl.
Mao opens his eyes at the sound of his voice and he thinks, maybe today isn’t his day to die. With that slight comfort, he’s able to stop fighting and slip into unconsciousness.
The last thing he sees is Ritsu.