Seventy Years' Past

"Before we start, here."

That familiar cylindrical vial pinched between the prince's fingers toyed with her sanity, having materialized into his hand out of thin air.

"Ooh, yeah. Could we take a rain check on that?"

Prince Ran cocked his head to the side. "You mean wait?" Misa nodded. "No." He said firmly, "Do you not realize how potent your smell is? Even for me, it is exceptionally hard to resist. I'm hardly able to keep myself back."

Misa knew how dumbly dangerous it was to blush down to your toes after a vampire tells you they can hardly resist drinking you to death over the smell of your blood... but she couldn't help herself. Prince Ran's words had an immediate and deep effect on her. 

"Could you have said that in any more of a suggestive way..." She muttered, a little upset that she'd started imagining all sorts of things.

Gotta lay off the vampire book from now on. Even while trapped in the real thing, she still found herself reading the book that had followed her from home from time to time.

Prince Ran continued. "And with you sitting there, in those childish nightwear..." 

Then, he trailed off and settled his bright eyes over Misa's body, checking out her attire as if he'd never seen it before. Misa's face grew so flushed with heat she felt like she was coming down with a fever.

Pulling her long-sleeved bunny and carrot pajama shirt a little higher over her chest and neck, Misa tucked her legs closer to her body. She stuttered at the suddenly leering vampire prince. "Wh-Wha-What about them??" She asked.

"The fabric is so thin." He said, walking closer to her now. Misa shuffled backward on the long couch at the center of The Vault's spacious floor as he drew nearer. "It does nothing to tamper down your scent. I can smell you through your every pore. Your veins are alive with blood. I can hear it in my ears, Misa."

"R-Ran. Hey! Wait!"

Prince Ran shoved his right knee into the couch cushions beside Misa's hip and his right hand into the arm of the couch behind her, trapping her against the cushions. He swept the fingers of his left hand through her hair until he reached her jawbone. She shivered as his thumb traced a line down from her jaw and over an exposed area of her neck, traveling just slightly below the collar of her shirt. He dipped his head and, inhaling heavily, released his fangs while he aimed carefully for the veins at her neck.

Misa made a little sound of surprise and pressed both her palms against his chest, pushing him back a little. She felt his weight flush against her, heavy; his breath tickling her neck much like it had that first night they'd met down there in The Vault. Against her own control, her body stiffened and she stopped breathing, clamping her eyes shut.

The sound of her heart was deafening in her ears.

Prince Ran's deep-voiced chuckle made her pop an eye open. "Were you going to let me this time?"

Misa, her body already stiffened, froze down to the cellular level. "Huh?"

Now, the vampire prince was really laughing aloud and rose himself up off Misa, shoving the murky potion in her face. "You were really going to let me, weren't you?"

Misa was so flustered, she couldn't even gawk in awe of his lovely smiling expression. Instead, her mouth dropped open in horror as she realized that she had been played by this ancient heathen. 

No burning star was hotter than her face right then.

"You! Y-You JERK!"

"Okay, stop glaring at me so I can tell you this story you have been bothering me to tell."

Misa hmphed, her narrowed chartreuse eyes vibrant once more. "I don't see how a little glare can stop you from keeping your promise, oh mighty vampire."

Prince Ran rubbed his fingers against his eyes. "So, where shall I start?" He asked, moving on without a fight.

"From the beginning!" Misa shouted, perking up. She grabbed a small pillow from the couch and hugged it while she settled in for Prince Ran's story. 

The prince shook his head at her a little bit, his face soft, and then his expression turned serious. Misa saw the story forming behind his eyes, memories sorting themselves into the proper order, ready to be told. She leaned forward.

"About seventy years ago," Prince Ran began, "My brother's wife got sick. Her name was Chie, and she was human--"

"HUMAN? She was??"

"Misa, please. Your shouting is..." The prince rubbed his ear as Misa sheepishly settled back down.

"Just didn't expect him to have a human wife, is all." She said.

"No one did. In fact, no one knew. It was a secret spiritual marriage, as they hadn't followed our sacred ritual. However, they were bound to one another." Prince Ran paused and repeated, "No one expected a human lover from Ryusei. Especially, not me."

~SEVENTY YEARS AGO~

Chie coughed blood into her palm, forcing Ryusei to instantly snap his fingers to produce a plain white handkerchief to wipe it up with. Without giving himself time to react to it, he burned the fabric between his fingers.

"Chie..." He muttered, wrapping his arms around her head.

The woman, just thirty-five years, was on her last stretch of life. Disease had found her, and her lungs were giving out. No measure of medicine had been helping her for a long time.

Ryusei was agonized. His chest, though occupied by a stagnant heart, hurt immensely for his love. "Chie, please. Allow me to turn you. Your body won't last the wait for an updated medicine. Please. I beg of you!"

 The sickly woman shook her head. Her long, brown hair shaggy matted to her forehead with sweat. "No, my love. Rui."

"I can turn Rui for us. You know I will!"

"But not--" She coughed at length. More blood, another burned handkerchief. "Not for us. For Rui." She said weakly. "He is but a child."

Ryusei knew this. He, too, wanted his son to live a longer human life. Preferably grow older before inevitably coming into his abilities as a halfling. Rui was six years old and had shown no signs of vampirism thus far. Aside from his striking light blue eyes, the same shade as his dad's, Rui seemed entirely human.

Defeated, Ryusei nodded. "I understand, my sweet." Gently, he lay Chie's head back down on her sweat-soaked pillow and stood up with purpose.

It caught Chie's attention. "Where... Where are you going?"

Ryusei kissed her forehead. "To find my brother." He said.

Ran had his feet in the pond in the castle garden when Ryusei came looking for him. He looked up when he heard his name being called from beyond the tall hedges.

When Ryusei came into view, he saw pure desperation on his face. Worried, he asked, "What is it, Brother? What's happened?"

"It's Chie!" Ryusei said, and at once, Ran's expression darkened, and he lost interest in the matter immediately.

"Oh?" He hummed, disinterested.

"She has fallen sicker now. I fear she might not make it past tomorrow." Ran didn't respond, not even a hum to show he'd been paying attention. Ryusei's voice wavered with unfallen tears when he spoke next. "Please, little brother, you are the more resourceful one between the both of us. You must find a way to save her! Please, for me.

"If anyone can do it, it is you. I know you can. Please."

Ran had absolutely no desire to save Ryusei's secret human wife, that pathetic human who was born sickly and only grew sicker after the birth of their halfling child. Ran could tolerate Rui more, however.

At least he's half one of us. He always thought whenever he saw the little boy. Ryusei only ever trusted Ran around his well-hidden family, living on the edge of the forest line, well beyond the kingdom's walls. Against his will, he had begun to grow fond of his nephew.

Thus, he didn't want to leave his mother for dead and make him cry. With a loud sigh, Ran agreed to help his brother. "I am not sure if I can truly do anything, Brother, but I will try."

At once, Ryusei crushed Ran with a powerful hug. "Thank you. No matter what, thank you for trying."

On his way through the dense forest, Ran heard the change around him before the change met his eyes. The sounds of the forest grew mellow and songlike, as if the birds themselves chirped poetry into the open air. Then, the scenery around him seemed to glisten and waver, like water touched by a finger.

"I notice you seek the Fae realm, nightwalker." A voice came to Ran, with no body to hold it. Then, at once, the figure of a small female Fae materialized right before his eyes. She had vibrant purple hair and the eyes to match. "Are you a brave one, here for a purpose, or are you foolish, seeking to anger the Fae and die?"

Ran perked his lips into a small smirk. "I seek to make a deal." He said simply.

"Ha!" The Fae tittered, tapping happily against the forest floor with her ballet-like slippers. "I enjoy a good deal.

"What is it that we can do for each other?"