Carpe Noctem - Ch. 27
AU; Chapter 27 - Fiat Iustitia Et Pereat Mundus
More or less the final main chapter. Melodrama abounds.
~2700 words
Wataru and I always joked about who would win in a fight, and we’d had our spats. But this was different. This wasn’t for punishment, not him losing patience with me, not some harmless bout.
His hands shot toward my chest anytime he came within range. He wanted to tear my heart out. He wanted me dead. Well, it wasn’t really him.
My only thought was to stall. His reach was longer than mine, and if I made one wrong move, I was as good as dead. If it had been some other vampire aiming to kill me, I would have had little trouble moving in close and ending his life first. But this was my brother. I could only hope for an opening to knock him out.
In the cramped quarters between homes, I leapt back from him over and over, always fearing my back landing against a wall. He closed each gap I made in an instant, one hand outstretched to grab or kill me.
I had to buy more time. Useless as he was, Father wouldn’t abandon us. He would show up eventually to help.
Any moment now…
If that bastard did abandon us again, I would come back from the grave just to kick his ass.
Despite his empty eyes, Wataru wasn’t as mindless as he appeared. I was wrong to think I was leading him, as I saw the walls in my peripherals narrowing into a corner. He’d herded me right where he wanted me.
With my options limited, I tried to dart past him. Immediately, I realized my mistake. His hand caught my throat and slammed me into the wall. The wooden structure crackled at my back.
“Wataru,” I hissed, catching his eye. The familiar song of hypnosis tinted my voice. “Stop.”
His eye flashed red for an instant, just long enough for me to know he was fighting, just long enough for his fingertips to pause against my chest. It gave me enough time to grab his arm and snap the bone clean in two.
Though he didn’t make a sound, his grip on my throat eased. Shoving myself from the wall, I placed myself in his guard. “Wake up!” I roared, grabbing his head in one hand and smashing it down onto the dirt ground. The crack of his skull rang up into my shoulder. As I knelt there panting, he remained still. Blood pooled out in a dark stain around his head.
I may have overdone it, but his heartbeat remained strong in echo to mine. Leaning in close, I breathed a sigh, “My apologies, brother. But please stay down.”
Regaining my feet, I looked back to the wolves. Nazca stood over Shep’s fallen form. The poor boy’s tail was tucked between his legs, though it was clear he was trying to look menacing in case of trouble. Gido, as always, had vanished from sight. I had to hope Father had tailed him.
“Nazca,” I called. The wolf’s ears perked up. “Try to drag these two to safety, somewhere out of the sun’s reach. If Wataru wakes, he shouldn’t hurt you, but stay out of his way just in case.”
He gave a nod. I had no choice but to trust him based solely on that. The sky was beginning to lighten.
I could still feel Gido and Father’s hearts, both racing now. They weren’t too far. I dashed down the nearest alley as half the sky stained the deep blue of the ocean. If the Sun caught me, so be it, as long as it caught Gido as well.
I came upon him in the middle of a crossroads, covered in nicks and gashes from the rapier clutched in Father’s hand. It hung limp in Father’s grasp, fallen to his side. His breath rattled like Zero’s had after that damn arrow hit him. The gash in Father’s shoulder, Gido’s cutlass, and the smell of wolfsbane in the air told the rest of the story.
As I rushed in between them, Gido stepped back. It seemed I’d arrived just in time, or something had stopped Gido from delivering a fatal blow.
“Sorry,” Father murmured at my back. “Let my guard down.”
“It’s alright, Vati,” I said. “Find a safe spot. Rest.”
His slowing heart raced a few beats. He always was easy to please. As his dragging footsteps grew distant, I stared Gido down.
“Enough running,” I said once again.
He said nothing, his lips pulled into a frown.
“Let’s end this.” I took a step forward, and he staggered back. It seemed all that talk was for nothing once he truly had to face me.
“Is Wataru alright?” he asked.
My blood boiled for a moment. He’d been the one to put Wataru in danger in the first place, but my confusion overwhelmed my anger. “What?” was all I could manage.
“You smell like his blood. Is he alright?”
“He’s fine,” I growled.
He swallowed. Then nodded. When he spoke, his voice wavered. “The house with the flowers in the window, back the way you came – go there when this is over.” A tear rolled down his cheek. “My god, it’s finally over.”
I took another step toward him, my hand reaching out on its own. And again, he stepped back away from me. His cutlass, stained with Father’s blood, clattered to the ground.
“Go back there, Phantom. Promise me you’ll go back.” More tears followed, bleeding out from under the mask.
This time, I didn’t give him the chance. In two quick steps, I stood close enough to rip the mask away. His eyes were puffy and red with exhaustion, yet they were the same brilliant blue as the sky overhead. “Richard,” I breathed. My hand came to rest against his cheek, and he leaned into my touch with a pained smile.
“Promise me, big brother.”
“I-I promise.” I couldn’t recall what I was promising. I only knew he was here now, my little brother. There was ground beneath my feet once more.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t stay.”
No, I had him back now. He couldn’t leave again. I wouldn’t let him. I wouldn’t let anything hurt him ever again. I would protect him. I would-
“Let it end,” he said.
My heart burst again, a cavernous, bloody hole in my chest.
“But you’re back,” I said, dazed. “It’s you. I know it’s you.”
“He’ll come back. He always does once the sun sets. Phantom. Please.”
“I can’t,” I choked. “I can’t kill you. I can’t lose you again.” I clutched his face in my hands, tears pouring from my eye. “I can’t hurt you again. I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Pushing up to his toes, he placed a kiss to my forehead and shushed me as though I were the younger one. “You don’t have to kill me. It’s alright. I should never have asked you to. But let it end.”
He placed his hand to my chest and shoved be back hard enough for my back to hit the wall. Again, he took a few steps back, out of the shadow of the house shielding us and into the sun’s burning rays.
“Richard,” I gasped, stumbling forward to grasp at him. Even with my glove, the moment my hand found sunlight, the sting made me jolt back. I couldn’t imagine my brother’s pain as he fell to his knees, steam rising from his skin.
“It’s okay-it’s okay,” he lied. He forced his eyes up to mine, a bright, brilliant smile easing onto his face. “I know Gido always wanted to make you hurt, so it’s cruel of me to give him what he wants like this, but I’m happy you’re here with me. I didn’t want to be alone.”
His breaths became ragged gasps for air, and I started toward him again. I wanted to pull him to safety, but if I couldn’t have that, I wanted to hold him close while he burned.
“No, Phantom, you have to live,” he said as a crack appeared in his cheek. “I’m not mad at you. I wouldn’t have traded those years with you and Daiba for anything. I want you to be happy like that again, with him. So live for them. And for me.”
His cheek began to crumble away, graying into ash and falling like snow. It infected his eye until he mirrored me. As I tried to find something to say other than an apology, he turned toward the sound of uneven footsteps. A young boy with rattling breaths hobbled toward us, his hair a mess of auburn. Blood dripped from his chin with his every lurching step.
“Sammy,” Richard called, and the boy’s red-hued eyes lit up. He collapsed into Richard’s awaiting arms as they too crumbled into dust. “I’ve got you,” Richard cooed as though speaking to a pet, as I felt sure he was.
“I’m sorry,” I said, this time to the boy. I doubted he heard me. His eyes fell shut as he rested his head in Richard’s lap, his breaths softened into nothing as Richard ran his vanishing fingers through the boy’s hair.
“It’s alright,” Richard said, a soft, contented smile on his face as he watched the boy. “It’s so warm. I’ve missed the sun.”
Finally, his body could no longer sustain him, and he fell away completely into dust. The boy lay alone with a pile of clothes. Unable to bring myself to leave him, I reached into the light and snatched him out of it.
It felt wrong to hold him, but nothing felt right anymore. Ducking into the still-shadowed alleys, I returned to the square where I’d left Wataru and the wolves. No signs of them remained. With the sun bearing down on me, I was left with no other choice but to hide away in the home with the flowers in the window. I had to return there anyway. I couldn’t deny my brother his last request.
The door was open, and the darkened staircase was an inviting reprieve from the blinding sunlight. As I carried the boy down, I felt the echoing drum of heartbeats. My family must have found the safe house as well, allowing me to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
It wasn’t until I reached the bottom of the steps that I noticed the two forms huddled in the corner of an open cell. They were much too small to be my family, yet their hearts beat as mine. Gido must have turned others, then.
That explained why Richard wanted me to come back, to take care of Gido’s newbloods, the poor things.
Settling the boy’s body on the floor, I crept toward the cowering forms. With no idea how they might react to me, I had to be prepared for a fight.
“Are you awake?” I called, my voice raw and hardly recognizable as my own. “Excuse me, I mean no harm.”
One of their heads popped up from being buried against the other, and a growl began. Just as the thought of a feral rang in my mind, it tackled me to the ground. Brown eyes hung over my own, tips of blond hair prickling my cheeks. He reared back to slash at me.
“Daiba,” I said as though the name were foreign to me. His hand froze in the air. “Daiba… Tadashi Daiba…” I couldn’t find anything else to say but his name, over and over. Perhaps that would make it real.
“It’s me, Daiba. Harlock. Captain.”
Of course, he didn’t understand. If anything, he found my scent familiar. His eyes remained fogged, his lips drawn into a snarl. I moved slowly so as not to startle him, bringing my hand up to my mouth to tear open my palm with my fangs.
He perked up at that, leaning down to latch onto my hand without hesitation. He gnawed on me like a dog chewing a bone, just like he always had. Daiba. This was Daiba.
He gave a yelp as I sat up and threw my arm around him. Despite his hissing and struggling, I buried my face in his hair. The smell of him brought back a torrent of memories, of the way he’d sneak into my bed or lounge in my lap like a lazy cat.
“My little Daiba,” I hummed as I found myself crying again. This made him still. His growls warbled into purrs. I must have held him for hours, until he fell asleep once more.
I would have been content to remain like that all day, having someone to hold onto once more. But my head snapped up as I suddenly recalled the other one. His heartbeat tipped me off, a frantic trill. He must have woken and noticed me because he’d pressed himself into the corner, clutching his head for protection.
Daiba gave a grumble as I set him down. It seemed he truly hadn’t changed from the clingy newblood I remembered. “Hang on,” I said. “I’ll be just a moment.”
As I eased closer to the other one, his trembling increased to violent tremors. Definitely another feral. “It’s alright,” I called regardless. “I won’t harm you.” Flexing my hand broke open the wound again, and I held it out to the boy.
But he turned and slammed his back further into the corner, terrified of my outstretched hand.
He looked so certain I would hurt him.
Yama.
My Yama.
I fell to my knees in front of him as he tried to fuse himself with the stone at his back. “Yama,” I breathed. “Yama, it’s me.”
But when I reached for him, he screamed, bringing his hands up between us for protection. It was like a knife to the chest. Daiba appeared then, pressing himself to Yama’s side and purring like a roll of thunder. Perhaps Yama imagined him like Mii-kun, as he clung to Daiba in a frightened daze.
As much as I longed to hold them both and to ease Yama’s fears, my exhaustion was catching up to me. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d slept properly, and crying had left me drained. “Ah, liebling,” I sighed only to realize my English had failed me. A quick shake of my head cleared the blur from my vision for a moment. “Please be here when I wake,” I said as I settled myself to the ground beside them.
I must not have looked threatening that way to Yama because Daiba’s purring infected him. It made for a nice symphony to help ease me into sleep. By some miracle, I had no nightmares.
And by some greater miracle, I found them both snuggled into my grasp when I next opened my eye. Some sound had woken me, but I let my eye fall shut again. The mumbled voices I heard were familiar enough to give me no cause for alarm.
I heard yelling soon after, enough that I could only pretend to still sleep. And pretend I did. Daiba was growling about something, but Yama remained close enough that I could smell flowers with each breath.
“Harlock!” Tochiro snapped, loud enough to break through to me. “Wake up!”
“No,” I said.
“We’ll have to carry him back,” Emeraldas said.
“What about Daiba?”
“Zero can get him.”
“He’s going to rip Zero’s throat out.”
“I doubt Zero will mind.”
“He won’t! And that’s the problem.”
“Quit talking about me like I’m not here,” Zero snapped.
A smile tugged at my lips. I felt far too heavy to move. Even speaking felt impossible, but I managed some slurred attempt at communication. “S’everyone alright?”
“I guess?” Tochiro said. “Léopard and the others are helping get your dad, Wataru, and the wolves back to the ships. What, uh, happened to Gido?”
“Gone.”
“Oh… well then we’d better, um-”
“Promethium called a meeting,” Zero said over him.
My eye snapped open. “What?”
“It seems she found out the Lords were congregating here without her, and she didn’t care for it. She’s on her way. Léopard is shaking in his boots.”
That would be Hell to deal with. With everything else going on, I didn’t need that too. “Can I… just sleep now?” I sighed.
Zero laughed. “Go ahead. Rest. We’ll take care of you for now.”
As my eye fell shut once more, I saw Daiba gnawing on his hand. Of course, I could leave things to him and the others. Neither Tochiro nor Zero had ever let me down. All would be well.
At least until Promethium arrived.