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As the full moon glowed in all its glory, Kaina reached the rooftop. The aching in her side from exertion and the earlier fight had her panting. She didn’t even remember how long they had been at it—months, years. All her memories seemed to revolve around this fight. Each of her hunts, each of her training sessions, each of her missions… it was always her.
All she remembered, all she could think of, was Nana.
The very vampire standing on the next roof. The same vampire that had evaded her stake for gods knew how long, only for them to face off again tonight. There was not much to say anymore. All words had been said a long time ago and yet, when the wind caressed Kaina’s cheek, playing with her hair, she couldn’t help but speak up: “So we meet again.”
—
She’d never really understand how people could voluntarily host a party—in their own house, nonetheless. It was troublesome, making sure everyone kept in line and nobody took anything home. Not that Kaina had anything valuable in her house that could have been taken. She was a hunter. Her guild-issued salary was modest at best, and moving every few months did not offer the luxury of owning stuff.
Thus, the more foreign it was to be standing in a well-maintained house now, stuffed with all kinds of knick-knacks and souvenirs from some long-gone adventure. The walls were lined with photographs, some older, some newer, but none of them could help her identify the owner of the house. That was why Kaina had given up on finding any hints, turning off her hunter brain for one blissful evening of leisure. Even though Hawks next to her had other ideas. Or, well, Keigo as she had come to know him, looking behind the mask he had been given by the Guild, same as he knew the person behind Lady Nagant.
As he leant over the balustrade, overlooking the party going on below them, he huffed: “Look at them, all cosying up to each other as if we won’t hunt them once morning comes. One night of peace doesn’t erase centuries of animosity.”
“It would be easier to kill them despite the truce, and endure the Guild’s punishment. Making it so much easier on everybody else might be worth it.” She didn’t even need to look at Keigo as she scanned the room, waiting for something to happen, expecting the inevitable wake from a dream too good to be true. She knew he was grinning.
“Aw, but where would be the challenge in that, Nagant?”
Just as he mentioned her name, Kaina’s eyes were drawn to a pair of dark grey ones, trained on her and oh so knowing. They must have been on her for a while now.
Shimura Nana.
With a look of pure amusement on her face, the woman lifted her glass in a teasing toast.
—
Hawks ducked just in time to avoid the disgustingly long claws, though his ripped shirt did not have as much luck. Before the vampire could make another swipe, Kaina staked the monster, driving her tool right between the ribs into the long-dead heart of the creature before them.
Most people underestimated how much effort it took to actually make a hit and finish the job.
She grunted, giving the stake one more thrust and triggering the ashing, the vampire going up in flames.
In silence, they watched the monster falling to pieces and crumbling into dust. The only sound in the night was their heavy pants. That was until Kaina saw Hawks’ neck.
“Keigo!” Without much thought, she stepped over the heap of ashes, grabbing Hawks’ chin to get a better look at the wounds. Thankfully, it wasn’t a bite, but anything caused by vampires was suspicious enough, considering they possessed powers beyond a human’s comprehension, especially the older ones. “Shit, I should have—”
“None of that,” Hawks shrugged her off, gently prying her hands off him. “I am old enough to know the risks, especially the calculated ones. I know I’m still your trainee. But that’s nothing a simple cleaning ritual and a good night’s rest won’t heal.”
—
“No! I am telling you, they are not all bad! There are good ones, too!”
“Enough!” The Guildmaster let her gavel come down with a violent thud. The hushed whispers quickly died down and order returned to the courtroom. Yet the wary glances thrown around, suspicions written all over faces, and sharp eyes trying to reveal secrets that were not there did not stop. Kaina frowned, her eyes trained on the old man in the stand, pleading his case, but of course, she knew what was going on around her.
“What did I miss?” Hawks slipped into the seat next to her with all the assurance of a guild member that had just returned from his year as a journeyman. As all of them had to do, he had travelled the lands, hunting vampires and other crawlers on his own to prove his worth and knowledge to the Guild. Like all of those who returned alive, it had gotten to his head. But she’d let him have that, for two days at least, before she reminded him of his actual job.
“Nothing much. Old geezer keeps sprouting nonsense about ‘vampires are our friends, we cannot kill them’ and such.” She rolled her eyes. Of course, there had always been some soft-hearted people, some blood whores addicted to the bite or just some hippies that thought all problems could be solved with words. However, it was hard to see a respected member of the Guild fall prey to old age and senility, embarrassing himself in front of everybody.
“Damn, Gran Torino lost his marbles, huh?”
“Shh,” she chided Hawks. “He brought down many vampires, did a lot of covert missions when he was young. Don’t talk so disrespectfully now.”
Hawks paused for a moment, scrutinising the scrawny figure of the old man. “You think he got compromised?” Bitten .
“To be honest? I don’t know what to think anymore.”
—
When Kaina whipped her head back just in time to avoid the long claws coming for her throat, she had a vicious flashback to a simpler time when all she had to do was fight vampires with Keigo and the worst injury they got were a few scratches, quickly taken care of after the staking. Nowadays though—
“I won’t stand for this,” the vampire hissed, attacking anew but unable to unleash her full power. The stacked library was the least opportune place for both of them. Neither of them could get a good swing, nor duck fully out of reach. Each bigger movement had books cascading down around them.
And to Kaina’s dismay, it wasn’t just any books, but spellbooks bound to powerful spirits and magic, releasing ghosts that had been banned into the realms of literature.
Wispy white silhouettes rose around them, dust dancing in the milky reflections, and Kaina had difficulties not getting distracted. When another rapid blow came her way, she blocked it, gripping the dagger in her hand, cursing her luck to round up Shimura Nana in this of all places.
“Haven’t I told you that this is not what I want?! I will kill them for what they did to my family! I will kill them all.”
The next punch, she couldn’t evade. Kaina was way too entranced by the bloody tears running down Nana’s face at the threat, the promise—the hurt? She reconsidered: “Let me help—”
The dark trails on perfect porcelain skin were the last thing she saw before the world around Kaina faded to black.
—
“Didn’t think this was your kind of… event,” Nana commented when she joined Kaina on the balustrade. Keigo had just left to find something to eat and to keep an eye on a pair of obviously freshly turned vampires. The vampire next to her must have waited for an opportunity like that.
“It is not. But the Guild mandated that if I'm already in town, I have to attend. No exceptions if I don’t wanna end up somewhere in the middle of nowhere.” Kaina’s gaze dropped into the glass in her hand, twirling the delicate stem between her fingers. “I didn’t peg you for a party animal either.”
“Me?” Kaina looked up just in time to see a surprised look before Nana broke into a bright smile. “You must have me mistaken for someone else. I love parties and times to let down my hair. All these people… look at them, they’ve been fighting against each other for so long, is it so bad to let them have one night?” A single fang poked through the smile, giving it a sharp edge as Nana continued: “Was it so bad for us to have one night, too?”
She blanched at the words thrown out so easily that anybody could overhear them. “Keep it down, will you? That was…”
“Don’t say a mistake. The longer a life, the more things there are to regret, but you… you aren’t one of them.” Dark grey eyes turned soft at the admission and Kaina couldn’t help the blush crawling up her neck. A foolish thing, but after dealing with the Guild, even the slightest form of appreciation, praise, affection felt monumental. Even if it came from a century-old vampire.
“We still shouldn’t have,” she mumbled in reply, averting her gaze quickly. “We are on different sides.”
“Are we though?” Nana’s voice turned colder, more business-like than Kaina had heard her before and she looked back in question. “You know this truce was spoken for the Elders and the Guildmaster to strike a deal. It’s about this new threat brewing… a group that creates new vampires with the promise of power and eternal youth. But they also train new hunters to cash in on scared citizens, hunting their own children. Tsutsumi-san, I am new to this sensation, but I am not too proud to say that I fear.”
Kaina couldn’t help it and scoffed. “You’re a vampire. Shouldn’t chaos and destruction be just up your alley?”
“They are not. I have never killed a human if I didn’t have to. I only feed from willing humans. Do you remember the day they tried Gran Torino?” The sudden change of topic gave Kaina whiplash, yet she nodded, stupefied. “That day, I lost a great friend. My closest maybe. He helped me when… when I had to give up my son. I couldn’t stand the thought of him becoming a part of this society, nor a hunter guild. I gave him away out of love. And… that group, that new-founded alliance, they killed him and corrupted my grandson.”
The air between them was thick with tension and Kaina had difficulties breathing upon that revelation. Of course, she had learnt that vampires could easily outlive any human, they could live for centuries and yet, looking at those youthful faces, it was all too easy to forget about it. Hearing that Nana had a son, and now a grandson, messed with her perception.
“So you will fight them? Vampires and hunters alike?”
“I will kill them all until he is safe.” She paused. “You could join me.”
—
The night was clear and the full moon bright as Kaina leapt to the next rooftop, stopping in front of Nana who greeted her with a strained smile: “It’s been a while, indeed.”
With that, the last remaining tension in her body fell off her shoulders and finally, the pain from her injury caught up to Kaina. Of course, she knew she’d been injured by the mindless crawler they had been hunting down, badly so, but the urge to get to Nana first and to make sure she was safe had been greater than anything, numbing all other sensations. It wasn’t enough to stop the bleeding, though, nor to hide the weakness quickly settling in.
Kaina crumbled on the spot, waiting to hit the floor but instead, she was wrapped in strong arms, the softest of fabrics used to cushion her body. Looking up took all the strength left in her, fluttering lashes obstructing the view of Nana’s grieving face.
“I am tired, Nana… please, let’s just end this.”
There was not a bone in her body left that would have listened to her wish to meet Nana halfway despite her desperate attempts. The vampire simply hoisted her up to comply, their foreheads briefly touching on a whispered “ I failed you ” before their lips met in the sweetest kiss. Soft lips caressed hers, worshipped her cheek, her jaw, her neck as they made their way down.
All of Kaina’s instincts screamed inside of her to flee, to run, to get away. The weariness was stronger, though. All she could manage was to fight her dread with words: “You’ve never failed me.”
As Nana’s teeth broke the delicate skin, Kaina’s eyes travelled up towards the sky, marvelling in the quiet night and the brightness of the full moon. Nobody would ever learn of this final weakness, only the stars and moon would witness her surrender. And yet, there wasn’t anybody else she would have surrendered to but Nana.
On that thought, she closed her eyes, a serene smile on her lips as the world faded out one last time. At least she was with her.