"I was told to stay away," she added, almost lazily. "And now I see why. They were so right."
Eimi's eyes darkened, gold turning to something closer to fire.
"I really fucking hate vamps like you. Always soaking in sadness, like it's perfume. Walking tragedies. Pathetic."
Eimi moved before I could blink—nothing but a blur of silver and smoke.
Pain bloomed, sharp and sudden.
Fingers, dagger-like, slammed into my side—just beneath the ribs. Not fatal. But deep. Deliberate. Cruel.
I staggered, breath catching, blood soaking through my shirt in seconds.
Eimi leaned in close, lips brushing my ear as she whispered, almost fondly, "You can't kill me, so don't come after me."
Then—she was gone.
No flash. No sound.
Just an echo of laughter fading into the unnatural quiet.
[Good thing I was a vampire.
Otherwise, I'd probably be dead by now.]
The wound throbbed, hot and cruel, but already the flesh was beginning to knit itself back together. Vampires healed quickly—one of the only reasons I was still on my feet.
Still, my knees buckled slightly as I pressed a hand to my side, blood warm and slick against my palm.
Eimi.
The name felt like poison. Like something I should have remembered, but couldn't.
And that line—my partner Kiara. Was that the Kiara I knew?
Her name cracked through my mind like thunder. It shook loose fragments of feelings and sensations: a laugh I couldn't hear and a smile I couldn't see. They felt like warmth I'd lost long ago.
I called Desmond.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Desmond (Emperor)
Desmond: Hello?
Xavier:...
Desmond: Xavier?
Xavier: The entire village of Kamakura has been massacred…
Desmond: What?!
Xavier: Yes… Please send the clean-up crew.
Desmond sighed.
Desmond: Alright.
As soon as the call ended, I sat down on a nearby concrete pavement.
[Was this hell? Why is nothing going the way I want?]
Just as I was lost in thought, a sudden gust of wind swept past me—and then, a figure stood before me.
"Did you avoid the security cameras?" I said with a blank expression.
"Yes, sir!"
"Good. When are the rest of them coming?"
The figure looked at his watch. "Right about… now."
A strong gust of wind blew through the area. In seconds, four more men joined him—making five in total. One of them dropped a big bag of cleaning supplies at his feet.
"Please clean this area and the bodies so we can bury them. I don't want them to be buried soaked in blood; some of these people are truly innocent." I covered my face, rubbing hard as frustration took over.
The men saluted. "Yes, sir!"
One man unzipped the large bag and pulled out the cleaning supplies: bottles of bleach, a box of masks, a box of gloves, five full-body suits, hydrogen peroxide, laundry detergent, paper towel boxes, and plenty of cloth.
One by one, they all zipped up their full-body suits and put their masks and gloves on.
"Hey, Zack, go fetch cool water from a nearby river, and be quick," said one of the men.
"Yes, sir!" exclaimed Zack.
They began to clean from the centre of the town where the person Eimi had been. They wiped as much blood as they could with cool water and a cloth.
"Yo, Zack, get some warm water from somewhere, warm, not hot, okay?" said another man.
"Yes! Sir…" said Zack, out of breath.
The fresh blood was much easier to remove than dried blood. For the fresh blood, they started scrubbing the area with laundry detergent mixed in warm water, then rinsed the area with water and left the area to dry.
For the dried blood, they wet paper towels and put them on the area where the blood was. After ten to twenty minutes, they removed the paper towels and began scrubbing the area. For the blood areas that resisted the detergent, they applied hydrogen peroxide. They let it fizz for a moment, then wiped it clean.
To disinfect the area, they made a bleach solution of five tablespoons of bleach per gallon of room temperature water and applied it to the entire area where blood was present. After one minute, they wiped the surface clean with fresh water and dried it.
This process was repeated until the whole town was cleaned.
They got rid of the materials that touched the blood. Then, they gathered the civilians' bodies to bury them.
Two of the men started cleaning up the bodies covered in blood, while the others began digging plots of land for the burial.
I myself got up and started helping the men to dig plots of land. Just as we finished, the men also finished cleaning up the bodies. Together, we gathered lots of white cloth and wrapped the bodies in it, later burying them in the plots of land we had dug.
"Sir, we have disposed of everything that leaves the evidence of us being here," said one of the men.
"Okay, good, let's start leaving, shall we…" I said, staring at the burial site.
"Yes, sir!"
The men went back the way they came, and I went over to my car, my mind full of questions.
I pressed my foot hard to the pedal, the engine snarling through the silence, tyres screaming as my car tore out of that town.
After an hour and a half, I finally arrived in Tokyo.
I stormed through the front doors of Desmond's mansion, shoulders squared, jaw tight, blood soaking through my shirt where Eimi had struck me. The wound had closed—but the memory of it burned hotter than ever.
The guards at the entrance faltered, hands instinctively reaching for weapons, but one look at my face and they backed off.
I didn't knock. I didn't speak.
I found Desmond in the command room, surrounded by glowing screens and murmuring voices.
Desomnd turned—and froze.
"Xavier," he said. "What happened there? Why are you soaked in blood?"
My eyes were dark and burning.
I didn't waste a breath. "I saw a vampire, one with no heart."
"What?!" Desmond yelled.
I looked around, eyes on me. "Please dismiss them first."
"Everyone, you're dismissed; please leave us alone," said Desmond.
Once people in the room left, I stepped closer, voice low and sharp. "She called herself Eimi. She's feeding in the open. Unhinged. Dangerous."
Desmond frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. The air in the command room shifted—sudden tension crawled along every surface.
"Eimi?" he echoed, brows furrowed. "I don't remember ever hearing that name."
My jaw clenched.
"Respectfully, sir, you do not know a lot of things—"
The door to the command room burst open with a loud crash.
"Hello~, my lovely Uncle and…" Kael's eyes met mine. "Human…? What's going on, Uncle?" He looked between Desmond and me.
"Xavier met a vampire with no heart," replied Desmond.
"Wait, for real? There can't possibly be a vampire with no heart."
"She had a silver bullet stuck in the place of her heart." I interrupted Kael.
"...Well… maybe she has a heart in a different place? Mutations can occur, you know," said Kael, shrugging his shoulders.
"That… you are kind of making sense…" said Desmond.
"Okay, even if we consider that, it doesn't explain the fact that she seemed to know me," I snapped, the edge in my voice sharper than a blade. "I have not been a vampire as long as the two of you, and I have never seen that woman in my entire existence."
I took another step forward, fists clenched at my sides. "And even if we consider her hearing about me from somewhere that fucker mentioned Kiara."
My voice cracked; fury barely caged.
"The exact words she said were my partner, Kiara. Now I know that people can have the same names, but I have a feeling that women know something about Kiara."
The room fell into a heavy silence.