Chapter 10: Kagirinai Ren’ai (Eternal Love)
Jacob realised too late that he had absolutely no idea which direction Britain was in. After swimming for hours he finally came to land. He saw the sun begin to rise and knew he should find some shelter in order to get some sleep. After searching for ten minutes he finally met a large number of humans, who explained to him that he was in the chief city Salamina, on the Salamis Island, located sixteen km west of Athens. When he asked how long it would take him to get back to Britain they replied that if he went by plane he could be there in roughly two days. His next question was the most surprising one, “How many miles is Athens from the UK?” The Greeks explained that it was about one thousand four hundred and eighty five miles south east. After finding a cheap hotel to sleep in, he began to swim back to the UK, once the full moon had arisen from behind the clouds and imbued him with strength. The journey took him exactly one day, two hours and thirty five minutes. I’m coming for you Yuuku, and when I find you your suffering shall be exquisite.
Jess was at a loss for words. First Yuki had been feeding on Connor, then Connor was feeding on her, and now they were feeding from one another at the same time. God this makes my head hurt. She thought as she went over it again and again. Once she was certain that Yuki and Connor had both fed enough from the other she pushed them apart, using all her strength due to their resistance to her attempts to pry the pair apart. Finally, after several unsuccessful attempts, she separated the two vampires. She had been expecting a violent reaction, however they remained completely still on the ground. Jess would have thought they were dead if it wasn’t for their chests moving in unison.
“What’s wrong with them?” She asked herself aloud. Suddenly Connor jerked slightly, she didn’t move to his side, assuming that this was what happened when someone was so close to the doors of death and returned. He jerked again, a few seconds passed and he jerked again. This continued and, as they did, they became progressively violent. She was about try and do something to stop it, when they stopped. Jess waited to see another spasm would wrack through his body. When none happened she moved to his side and saw that all signs of his demonic blood were present, the enormous raven wings streaked with crimson, the dreadfully sharp horn, and the burn like symbols that covered almost sixty percent of his bare flesh. His eyes shot open and she stared at the twin pools of black and blue flames.
“Connor, are you alright?” Jess asked.
“Yes.” He weakly whispered.
“Well you don’t look alright. Your demonic traits are on full display.” She said and moved to Yuki’s side.
“Leave her alone Jess.” Connor ordered in a slightly stronger voice.
“How can you expect me to do that when my best friend is lying there unconscious?” She shouted at him and began to move towards Yuki again.
“If you awaken her before she has had a chance to utilise my demonic blood, then she will forever be a slave to the demonic whispers.” He warned her, his voice showing what his face would not, fear. Jess finally grasped what he was saying to her.
“Alright I’ll leave her alone. But what if she never wakes up?” She asked him, her voice breaking.
“She will wake up, of that I have no doubt.” He replied.
Hours passed and there was no sign of Yuki awakening.
“It’s been three hours now, shouldn’t she have woken by now?” Jess asked, worry lines creasing her forehead as she looked upon her comatose friend.
“Please be patient Jess, I’m certain she’ll awaken soon enough. If she doesn’t then we’ll go to the one person who could know of any possible way to awaken her.” Connor said and as Jess looked into his black and blue eyes she realised that he still hadn’t sealed away his demonic traits.
“Connor shouldn’t you lose the horn, wings, and the eyes? I mean you usually only have those when you’re fighting.” Jess said momentarily forgetting her now twitching friend.
“I don’t know what happened, but the only reason I did that before is that I was afraid of the demon within.” He explained.
“Well isn’t the demon still there within your heart?” She asked Connor placed his hand over his heart.
“No it seems to have disappeared.” He replied his voice almost sounded lonely. He would have said more however he saw Yuki’s hunched body rising from the floor. Usually he would have been overjoyed to see her alive and well, however the zombie like groaning told him that something was horribly wrong with her spiritual body.
“Jessssss.” Yuki hissed her friend’s name in a similar fashion to a snake.
“On my mark you run.” Connor said and began to count down with his fingers.
The pain flared again. Jacob’s thoughts were completely overruled by its intensity. The swim from Greece had been far more difficult than he had anticipated. First he had been attacked by multiple carnivorous sea creatures, next he got caught in the middle of a hurricane, and thirdly he got hit in the face by a speed boat. In summery he was not having the best day.
“This had better be worth it.” He muttered to himself. Finally he saw it, the HQ of the K.O.E. however it didn’t resemble the place that he had first seen after being beaten by Yuuku. Back then it was a place that seemed to radiate safety, now it made his blood cold. The main building was rubble; the living quarters were more or less un-touched by Connor’s demonic rage, whilst the weapons area, the recreational centre, and the science lab were completely destroyed. There was one new building that rose from the ashes and rubble that used to be the Protectors of Earth, the tower seemed to have been formed from nothing but darkness and at the top of this tower Yuuku stood with her arms folded staring down at the people of London as though they were her playthings.
“So Yuuku,” He said, swiftly climbing the tower to stand opposite her, “No welcome party? I would have thought that, seeing as I was your puppet and all, you would have set up someone to greet me.” He mused aloud.
“Traitors don’t deserve my time.” She said simply. Jacob noted how much she sounded like a little girl, scared and alone.
“I’m not a traitor, if anything you’re a traitor of humanity.” He declared. Yuuku sighed and visibly seemed to resign herself to the present situation.
“Don’t you see? The only way to completely annihilate the demon race is to bring to the place where they are weakest, Earth. Once they are here we can fight them on our terms and win.” She said and Jacob saw a desperation that seemed to be on the verge of madness brighten her eyes. She’s just grasping at straws; the truth is she has hit a dead end. After seeing what a demon could do without being a complete demon, she has lost hope.
“Yuuku you don’t get it. If you bring the demons here all of humanity is doomed.” Jacob pleaded, but he could see that she would not be deterred from her decent into deeper darkness. He felt fiery warmth spread though his body and with it came a power that both mortals and immortals have yet to taste, the Blade of Sonshitsu.
“Very well,” Yuuku said, sighed again, and held out her arm, Jacob watched as the darkness swirled around her arm until they finally came to her hand and began to form a short sword made from a black metal. This is going to hurt. He thought and charged her.
Yuki had awoken with the feeling that something was wrong. She rose from her prone position and saw Jess and Connor standing with their backs to her. She was about to ask the two what they were talking about, when her gaze travelled down Jess’ body taking in her bare flesh. Yuki was suddenly overcome by the white hot desire to sink her teeth into the flesh of her best friend.
“Jesssss?” She barely managed to hiss her friend’s name when the burning desire destroyed her self control. She felt her arms extend and her feet begin to move toward the lycanthrope.
“On my mark you run.” Connor instructed. Once Jess began to run he leapt forward and tackled Yuki to the ground with his arms forcing her mouth to stay shut. Yuki didn’t understand why, but she struggled against his hands in an attempt to bite into
his cold and semi dead flesh.
Connor was struggling to keep her mouth shut. He could tell that she was semi conscious of his presence, however her body was not obeying her brain’s commands. He stared into her blank eyes and realised what had happened to her. Of course there are demons, vampires and werewolves, so why not bring zombies into the mix. He thought to himself as Yuki made another bid to bite his flesh. It must be Yuuku; she’s the only one who has this kind of experience in Necromancy.
“Jess fetch me some rope please?” He asked the now sitting Jess who was staring in shock at Yuki, who was becoming increasingly violent.
“Jess!?” He said her name again this time filling it with a small percentage of his power in order to capture her attention.
“Wh- what?” She stuttered as she looked at Connor.
“Could you please get me some rope?” He asked again this time without the demonic tone in his voice.
“Yeah, sure.” She said still completely shocked by the sight of her friend. Slowly she began to walk toward the plane wreckage. Connor sighed and looked the teenager he loved and who, until now, had loved him back, now stared at him with only hunger for his life. He felt a single tear leak and make a trail down his cheek. His demonic power began to react with his emotions, around the two un-dead creatures; a small cyclone began to build up until the wind it was generating was powerful enough to blow the trees that surrounded them away into the ocean. Yuki. Yuki. He thought her name over and over again, filling his thoughts with her face. Eventually he felt the demonic power begin to enter Yuki’s struggling body. He released her once she had ceased to struggle against his grip. He felt her body jerk as his demonic power purged the Necromancer magic from her entire being.
Jess returned, with a long rope; just in time to witness the demonic power begin to swirl around her friends. As it built up she could see a single tear on Connor’s cheek. Before she could reach them, the cyclone of power forced her to kneel as it tried to push her away from two of the most important people in her life.
“Yuki! Connor!” She screamed their names as they disappeared from her sight. Hours passed by and the wind still didn’t begin to lessen. She was about to give up and let the wind blow her away with the trees, when the wind finally died and Yuki and Connor reappeared before her. Connor looked like hell and Yuki was glowing with a demonic light.
“Hey guys, what was that just now?” She asked as she ran up to them.
“Stay back Jess!” Connor shouted in reply. Immediately she stopped dead in her tracks, his wings were extending from his back; the single horn grew from his forehead. Oh no! If the marks appear I’m screwed. She thought and as if reacting to her thought the burn like markings began to spread along his skin. Oh crap!