Dracula 12: Come with me...

The light was dim and gray. The morning was again full with clouds. It appeared that it was going to snow again…soon… In a quite large and comfortable room a couple was in the bed under the warm blankets. Both of them were naked. The woman had her head on the man’s chest smiling in content while her golden hair was falling over his chest like a golden waterfall. The man had also blonde hair.
“Wow…I really never thought you had it in you” Mai said softly with a smirk
Joey smirked back.
“Nah! There are many things you don’t know about me, babe…”
Their lips met for another passionate make-out. When they pulled back Mai looked at him
“Honestly I have no idea what you were doing to Vatican in the first place!”
“To tell ya the truth I dunno either!”
“Then what are you doing there?” she caressed his hair, “A life in a monastery doesn’t suit you…” she caressed his chest that was lean but covered with well-formed muscles.
“Well…it’s a quite a long story… My old man was from a really old noble family but he was a gambler and an alcoholic and soon we were running out of money so…I sometimes went out to do several jobs here and there…I sometimes got into trouble. One day…well how do I put this…? I had to steal something to eat. It wasn’t much. It was some bread and cheese however they got me. My old man was furious at me for ruining our family’s name with that so he made me say that I would willingly go to become a monk so he wouldn’t say a word and so my stealing would be erased like never happened…so…here I am. I got to the monastery but it appeared I couldn’t even wear the cassock. It appears the monks thought that it wouldn’t be the best idea for me to become a monk…”
“And they are absolutely right! Honestly…” she smirked drawing circles on his bare chest with her finger, “What I saw is that you have many skills…but being a monk is not one of them!”
Joey smirked.
“What ta say? It was that or go to jail and ruin our family’s name! Well my old man went to jail soon after because he didn’t have a single penny to pay for his bills and all the things he owed here and there so…at least the monastery gives me food and a place ta stay and sleep…”
“Hmm…and what about now?” she purred to him with a smirk.
Joey smirked too playing along.
“I dunno but for the time being…”
They kissed again…

Meanwhile not far away from the village, up to the top of the hill, in the castle a man was watching down the village with his restless eyes. Seto Kaiba, protected from the rays of the sun thanks to the thick, gray clouds, was staring down the village. When he could, he enjoyed watching the villagers starting to wake up and go to their works… He kept looking down at them. His eyes could see even till there. He could see them walking around…he could see their faces…their expressions… He kept looking carefully…watching every single one of them when something or rather someone caught his attention! He saw a young girl. She should be around fourteen years old. What really caught his attention was her hair. She had purely white hair long and rich. Her eyes were blue like the clearest ocean’s water and her body was white like a white lily. He remained there looking at her. He had seen her before but it had been years and he didn’t really have the chance to look at her carefully. She was beautiful… Even when she did nothing she was beautiful… Angelically beautiful… Her pure-whiteness was something he had never seen before! And he knew that he was made of darkness…but that woman… He opened the window and leaped in the sky. He seemed to be lifting up slowly and airily as if his body didn’t weight anything. The same airily he landed to the usual flagpole. He kept on looking down and his eyes never left her. His ears that could hear ever sound, every whisper down there caught up someone calling her.
“Kisara…” he whispered to himself.
So that was her name… He saw people greeting her and she was smiling to them… However he could see them doing the sign of cross ever time she passed by them when she wasn’t looking. Seto’s eyes narrowed. They were all afraid of her…because she was different…because her eyes, skin and hair were different. He looked down again. She looked so beautiful, so delicate… The snow around her, on the ground, seemed less pure than her. It seemed less fragile…it seemed less delicate. Seto Kaiba remained there as the wind was waving his cape.
“Kisara…” he repeated her name devouring it to his tongue.
She looked more delicate than a snowflake and purer than the white clouds in the sky. And her smile…oh her smile was magical. However he could see that it was sad and melancholic… He could see that this white young woman had in reality a black life… He kept watching her beautiful pure-white hair look like silver in the dim, gray morning and he could hear her voice like tinkling brook. He felt something…something that he didn’t expected to feel… Something he thought that it had died inside him along with his mortal life… Something that he thought it had got buried along with his life that day…he felt it reviving…through her eyes…

Yami winced a little as Tea was putting alcohol do one of the deeper scratches on his back but nevertheless most of his scratches had surprisingly healed. Tea simply looked at his naked torso. Not a single scar…not a single mark besides the one on his shoulder blade from his head to his waist where his leather pants were starting. And he was a Hunter that was hunting down monsters!
“I honestly can’t believe it! What are you? Are you a vampire too? Most of the scratches have healed!” she said half-kidding.
Yami scoffed a little.
“I heal quickly. I guess that is good for my job!”
“No kidding. You never stop surprising me!”
“That’s good for my job too!”
“Surprising me?” she questioned rather shocked.
“No. Being unpredictable!” he corrected her as a matter of fact.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. She then said, “Done”
Yami simply sighed and stood up again from his bed and walked to his clothes to put them on again. He pulled his shirt over his head.
“So you are still planning to kill him…?” she said, “Seto Kaiba…?”
“Yes” he simply answered.
“Have you any idea how to do it? How to kill a vampire?”
“Vampires, gargoyles, warlocks they are all the same-best when cooked well!”
He finished his dressing but he didn’t put his coat on. He took a good swing from his flask.
“You don’t understand! He is nothing like the things you faced before!”
“I still am willing to try”
Tea got serious.
“He is nothing like the three vampires you killed. You can’t kill him!”
“I can try”
“You can die trying. Every single man who tried did!”
Yami didn’t answer. He simply drunk some more. Tea remained silent for a second.
“You know…Kisara trusts you…” she said.
Yami scoffed.
“Yeah…and I wonder why…” he said in a low voice.
“She knows who to trust. She might have seen something in you…”
“Or…she simply appreciated the fact that I didn’t throw stones on her because of her colors!” Yami said bitterly.
He walked to the other corner of the room and he talked no more…

The night that followed was rather rough. When darkness fell the dark clouds had become black and even the moon was hidden behind them. Lightnings were tearing the darkness from time to time and soon after the thunderclaps would rumble as if some kind of huge beast was roaring in the darkness. Yami couldn’t sleep. He was lieing on his back on the bed staring at the ceiling. He just had a bad feeling about that… Meanwhile Kisara was alone in her house and she was trying to gather some stuff. She gasped and jumped a little when another lightning surprised her. For some reason she was really nervous! Suddenly another lightning stroke and she jumped again but this time the direction she looked made her eyes widen in absolute fear and terror. If there was any chance for some color to exist under her epidermis it would now be gone completely for there, the manly silhouette that was standing there at her door, dark and tall with the lightning flashes as a background, was not other than the man who was terrorizing their village for centuries, the man they’ve been calling Son of the Devil…Seto Kaiba himself. She took steps back.
“Please…I mean no harm…Kisara…” Seto Kaiba said.
His voice was strangely calm, warm and gentle…

“Yami! Yami!” Tea yelled as she ran into Yami’s room.
Yami jerked up from the bed.
“What is it?”
“It’s Kisara! I think I heard her yelling in the night!”
Yami’s eyes widened.
“Give me my shirt and that bag over there! Quickly!”
Meanwhile in Kisara’s home she was taking small steps back while Seto Kaiba was approaching her steadily. Her eyes couldn’t leave his! His eyes were capturing her! Hypnotizing her!
“Please. Don’t fear me…” he said.
There was that voice again! By just hearing it Kisara would feel strange warmth in her soul! However the fear was stronger. Perhaps that was the reason she wasn’t caught in his charm yet. Seto Kaiba dressed in black and red with his black and red cape seemed like Death himself that was coming for her.
“What do you want from me!” she whispered shaking in fear.
Seto Kaiba simply walked closer, calmly and he kept looking at her with those eyes…
“Kisara…” he repeated, “You are like me.”
“No! No I’m not! No! Stay back!”
“They fear you.” He said, “ They fear you for what you are…the same way they fear me. Come with me Kisara…and you’ll be loved…”
Kisara’s heart was increasing beat. Her back found on the kitchen coach. She was now starting to panic! Seto Kaiba didn’t approach much more. He just stretched out an arm to her…inviting her to take his hand…
“Come with me Kisara…and I will give you a place to belong…”
His voice had this strange power on her. Oh it would be so easy just grab his hand and get what he said! Her heart was beating like crazy but her mind was drifting to a strange and sweet dizziness. Seto Kaiba was still there, with his hand inviting her…the lightning flushes the only thing that was illuminating the room for brief seconds. Seto Kaiba’s eyes sometimes glowed in the darkness…
“Come with me…” he repeated in that manipulating voice.
Kisara’s hands were searching behind her back to find something. Anything! Her hands found a small object. A small bottle of Holy Water. Her fingers closed around it. She looked at Seto Kaiba again and her chest was moving up and down uncontrollably from her scared breathing, as if she was some kind of trapped rabbit and he was the wolf that was ready to eat her.
“Come with me Kisara…” he repeated again and took a step forward
“Keep away!” she yelled and with one move she threw Holy Water on his face.
Seto Kaiba screamed and the sound of the flesh that is being burnt filled the room. Seto Kaiba’s half face was…smoking! Holy water had burnt it! Seto Kaiba while still screaming he cupped that half of his face with his hand, but Kisara had anticipated seeing that the half of his face was only bone and burnt muscles where the Holy Water had touched him. Her heart almost stopped from terror and her feet finally decided to move as she ran out of the house in absolute panic. Seto Kaiba had stopped screaming now as the pain had stopped and he removed his hand from his face. The destroyed half of his face had started reforming making a soft, wet sound like the one you hear when you cut in a watermelon’s flesh with a knife…till no scar was left…

Meanwhile Yami and Tea were running.
“We must go from the short way!” Tea yelled to be heard in the rumbling of the thunders
“Which way?” Yami yelled back
“This way!”
They ran and then they saw Kisara coming towards them running.
“Oh my God! Kisara!” Tea ran and hugged her. Kisara was crying
“It was awful! He came! He came for me! He wants to take me!”
Yami didn’t expect to hear more. He ran to her house.
“Yami wait! Yami!” Tea managed to shout but Yami was already gone.
He ran to Kisara’s small home and opened the door with one strong kick. And then, for a brief second he saw him! His silhouette that was standing there. Then a lightning flashed and the next second he was gone!
“Dammit!” Yami cursed and ran outside.
He ran and got into the forest! When he got there his steps became small and careful…the only sound he was producing was his panting breath and the sound of the snow crumbling under his feet. Now he was once again focused to every sound…to ever single movement around him! Even the slightest sound or the slightest move would make him turn around and point a gun there.
“Who’s hunting whom?” Yami mumbled.
He heard a whisper in the air and snapped to that direction. He saw nothing. The same did for the other side. Another lightning flushed and then he saw him! He barely dodged the attack by falling to the ground and rolling on his shoulder. And there was another one! Again the same! He ran and hid behind a tree. The Son of the Devil landed to the snowy ground. He was standing there. Tall. Certain. Lordly. Arrogant. Powerful… He started walking softly looking around. Hearing everything…feeling everything! The lightning flashes kept illuminating vaguely…
“I can tell the character of a man by the sound of his heartbeat” he said and started clapping his hands at the rhythm of a fast heartbeat, “Usually when I approach…”
He started clapping faster.
“…I can almost dance to the beat…” he said always increasing speed.
But then he started slowing down…to mimic a steady, calm heartbeat.
“Strange that yours…is so steady…” a smirk crept to his lips
Yami tried even to reduce his breathing. He ran behind another tree. Another lightning… Seto Kaiba smirked.
“You can’t hide from me! I can sense you! Smell you! Hear you!”
Yami tried to collect his thoughts. It was now or never! Seto Kaiba kept walking calmly, being on guard. Suddenly someone threw a small stone. That caught his attention and made him turn his head around and then, Yami jumped in front of him and with a swift move he stabbed the silver stake in Seto Kaiba’s heart! He pressed it to be sure that it had stabbed his heart and then he pulled back. He did the sign of cross.
“May God spare your soul and good riddance!” he said through clenched teeth.
Seto Kaiba appeared to be chocking but then…he raised his head and smirked
“Hello, Atem” he said. A lightning flashed again.
Yami’s breath was caught in his throat. Impossible! How could he… But Seto Kaiba pulled the stake out of his body casually and looked at it as if Yami had just given it to him as a gift!
“So this is your silver stake…” he mocked and threw it away.
Yami had started to take small steps back.
“How long has it been? Eighty? One hundred years?”
Yami was taking steps back hearing this and seeing Seto Kaiba approaching him.
“You don’t remember do you?” Seto Kaiba mocked him
He started approaching and Yami was taking the same number of steps back as if they were dancing some kind of dance.
“Exactly what is it I should be remembering?” he questioned the vampire.
“You are the oh, so great Atem!” Seto Kaiba mocked him, “Trained from the best Sao Lin monks to Tibet and from hot Egypt to frozen Siberia, used to be right hand of the Emperor of Rome himself!” he smirked and added, “But also hunted like a dog from others!”
“What are you talking about?” Yami asked totally shocked now.
“You should know better!” Seto Kaiba took a rather big step forward and Yami took steps back.
Seto Kaiba chuckled.
“Have you ever wondered why you have so many horrible nightmares? Or why you see all those horrific scenes of ancient battles? Hm?”
Yami was now frozen in shock. The vampire seemed to know almost everything!
“How do you know that?”
Seto Kaiba smirked smugly again.
“Would you like me to refresh your memory? A few details of your sordid past?”
He approached him and smirked.
“Let me reintroduce myself. I am Earl and Count Seto Valerious Kaiba” he bowed deeply but mockingly, “Born 1380. Murdered 1400”
Yami growled and took the crucifix that was in his sleeve and thrust it to him. Seto Kaiba screamed once as the crucifix caught fire in his hand! He threw it away angrily. And took a deep breath to regain his composure. He smirked again.
“Perhaps this is a conversation for another time” he said
And then while Yami was still in a shock he hit him on the chest. The vampire’s uncanny strength threw Yami a dozen of feet away to hit his back against a tree. Yami felt the air being caught from his lungs and moaned loudly in pain. And Seto Kaiba…was lost.
“Damn. I am starting to get annoyed with this!” he monologized
“Yami!” he heard a female voice.
He turned his head around to see Tea running to him along with Joey and Kisara.
“Oh my God Yami what happened?!” she yelled as she went close to him to support him
“Don’t worry…I’m fine…I’m fine…” he said but he couldn’t help but moan in pain again, “Damn!”
“Fine?! Are you serious?!” she yelled furious, “Seriously now? A silver stake?! A crucifix?! Did you think we haven’t tried everything before?! We shot him, stabbed him, clubbed him, sprayed him with Holy Water, staked him through the heart and he still lives!”
She hit him on the shoulder really furious. Even tears were shining in the corners of her eyes.
“Do you understand now? No one knows how to kill Seto Kaiba!”
“Well, I could have used that information a little earlier!” Yami said sarcastically and smiled.
He earned another punch on the shoulder from Tea.
“And you went straight to kill him! You idiot! Are you so obsessed to kill him that…”
Her angry voice was stopped by another sound. It wasn’t the wind or a thunder. It was a voice. Seto Kaiba’s voice. Loud and clear was covering even the thunders!
“Listen to me! All of you!” he said
He was floating in the air, as if standing to an invisible place, with his hands crossed over his chest. His cape was waving slightly from the cold air. He was right at the center of the village! Everyone was already out watching, scared to death!
“Bring her to me! Bring Kisara, the blue eyed, while haired girl to me, or every man, woman and child will suffer! Bring her to me if you don’t want to feel my wrath!”
Another lighting flushed and the thunderclap followed right after…and Seto Kaiba was no longer there! Voices, screams, prayers soon followed. Heartbeats were beating to the crazy rhythm of fear… Yami, Tea and Joey looked at each other…Kisara was crying in Tea’s arms while Tea was trying to calm her down. Yami’s bloody eyes looked at the sky where the vampire used to be and then towards the castle. So close…yet so far…and the thunderclaps kept rumbling after the lightings. And the Vampire had left behind what he was leaving all of those centuries… Absolute fear…