Anthy walked up the stairs, the abandoned dorm quiet around her. The dust lay thick, here, and the broken lights hung empty from the ceiling. If Utena really wanted to she could live some semblance of a normal life, using her powers to hide her presence but instead she chose to remain here. Privately Anthy suspected it was to protect others, to shield Utena from the temptation that other people represented. She reached the upper floor room then Anthy waited patiently out in the dim hallway, calmly leaning up against the wall as she watched the sun slowly set outside the nearby window. The last of the light finally faded, and from inside the room she heard faint movement as the woman within stirred. Finally, Anthy heard a voice call out to her clearly, “Come in, Anthy.” She pushed the door open, seeing Utena sitting on the edge of the bed. Strangely, there were no sheets or blankets, the mattress totally bare, and the old bed seemed to have a reddish stain right in the middle. She looked up, her robin's blue eyes seemingly haunted by something. Anthy felt a pulse of desire at seeing the young woman's nudity and fought for control. Utena was so beautiful in the moonlight, her skin ivory white, the nipples just a bit rose, her muscled belly and that lightly haired pink mound. 'It's just the vampire mind gifts,' she thought firmly, knowing that for her that was in part a lie. “You're here early tonight,” Utena said to her softly as she got up from her bed, taking a damp cloth from a wash basin right beside her bed and then beginning to clean her naked body off. She moved so sensuously, her long, lean body turning in the dim light, and Anthy felt her breath catch in her throat as her heart beat faster. Anthy opened her mouth to speak, surprised to find she couldn't. Clearing her throat Anthy managed to get out, “Kiryuu Touga seems to have killed again.” Utena stiffened, carefully putting the cloth down for a moment. “Damn it,” she said softly, finishing with a snarled out, “I should have got him when I had the chance!” She strode over to her closet, her body still damp, and smoothly pulled out a school uniform. Pulling it on roughly, she demanded of Anthy, “Do you know where he's been hiding?” “I did some investigation in the daylight, it's the Observatory, I think,” Anthy answered her softly, looking at the furious Utena rather warily. She reached into her pocket and grasped a stake in her hand, hoping that the bloodlust had not suddenly taken Utena over. Eve worse the power that Utena radiated seemed to crackle in the air, an electricity that made her want to kneel before this powerful woman and.... 'No,' Anthy thought to herself firmly. Utena saw the concern and fear in Anthy's eyes, and visibly worked to try and calm herself down a little. “I'm sorry to frighten you,” Utena said to her softly, “you see, I had a chance to finish him off earlier, but he managed to escape me.” She sat a moment to lace up her shoes as she added, "A mistake I won't make again." “I understand,” Anthy said to her quietly in return, “but don't let your fury get the best of you. You're better than that, I think.” Utena smiled back at her grimly, “I'll try.” Reluctantly Anthy extended a piece of paper, knowing what it would probably do to Utena's temper. “He left this with the body,” Anthy said seriously. “Tenjou Utena,” it read in an elegantly written script, “Stop me if you can.” And underneath it was signed simply, “Kiryuu Touga.” Utena read it through once, then again, the expression on her face strangely blank before she crumpled it in a flash of rage. “It was a young woman that was found?” Utena asked her softly, struggling to keep her voice even. Anthy looked at her in surprise, so Utena asked the question once again, “The body that was found, it was a young woman?” “Yes,” Anthy nodded, and asked her, “how did you know?” “It's just his style,” Utena said coldly, letting the crumpled note drop to the floor. She walked over and looked out the window at the stars and the night, “I'm going after him tonight.” To Anthy's utter shock, she simply let herself fall right out of the open window before dropping down like a cat to the ground far below her. “You shouldn't face him alone!” Anthy leaned out the window to yell, but Utena was simply gone from her sight. Swearing softly under her breath, Anthy rushed out of the room into the hallway, down the old stairs, and then out of the building after her. Utena let her body fall, then with a unearthly twist she landed smoothly onto her feet. Anthy yelled something to her, but Utena didn't hear it through the blood that pulsed through her veins, driven by pure fury. Utena loped across the deserted school grounds with purely inhuman speed, focused on one thing only: killing Touga. The Observatory was badly neglected, abandoned long ago by all of those who had any sense in this vampire haunted place. This was where Akio had slowly changed the student council into his vampire servants, where debauched orgies of death and violence had taken place. This was where Utena's life had ended, and then in a spurt of Akio's foul blood had begun again... Utena felt her rage rising up to fill her, fangs extending automatically and she fought to hold it back. She grasped the heavy door in her hands and with a single surge of unearthly strength tore it right from it's moorings. She stepped inside the shadowed front room, and was almost instantly set upon, a foul stench early driving her back! Saionji gibbered and howled, his claw like hands raking at her face, filthy green hair wild as it flopped about in a rough ponytail. Utena was slammed to the ground by his first leap, his fetid breath turning her stomach as she tried to fight free. With his fangs he viciously snapped at her face as she held him away, seeking something to chew. Utena got a foot between them and kicked outward, sending him flying backward across the room. Seizing the moment she kicked again, this time back at the door frame and soon held a jagged piece of lumber in her hand. `It's a poor stake,' she thought to herself grimly as she turned to face the recovering Saionji, `but it'll have to do.' Saionji circled her a bit more cautiously as she strode forward, knowing what wood could do to a vampire. “Nothing should disturb the master,” he slurred out, licking his chops like a dog, his once fine uniform simply dirty rags. “You were captain of the kendo team,” Utena plead with him as she held the stake ready, “admired by all the students. You don't have to be Kiryuu's dog!” Making her words a lie Saionji charged right at Utena, howling at her madly. He ripped at her, clawed at her guard and tried his best to get at her throat bare. She sweep kicked his long legs, brought him down to the floor and then leaped down on top of him. She held him down, feeling sick as she realized that he had an erection. In a smooth motion Utena drove the wood into his chest and through the heart, and Saionji's body arched upward. His eyes seemed to clear for a moment as he gasped out, “Thank you.” Then he convulsed, and was still. Utena got up, fighting back her illness as a sudden burst of stench radiated from Saionji. She pulled a decorative blade down off the wall, then in a single stroke she removed the head from the rotting body. “Rest in peace, you poor bastard,” Utena murmured to him softly. She looked around her, and saw the elevator waiting. `Why do I get the feeling he'd cut the cable?' Utena thought wryly of Touga. Instead, she decided to take the stairs. The stairway spiraled up the length of the tower, and as she walked, she almost thought she could hear women chanting. She couldn't make out all of the words, but one bit kept on repeating over and over again, “Absolute destiny apocalypse.” The chant grew louder and louder, until finally she reached the very top of the stairway. Looking around the corner carefully, Utena saw that someone had done some fairly serious remodeling. The furniture was all gone, the floor completely bare except for the tiles that formed the image of a giant rose. Touga watched the ladies chant, smiling to himself widely as he sat in a throne like chair. Occasionally, he would call one of the girls over and hand her a gleaming straight razor. She would draw it across a vein, filling up his wine glass until he waved her away yet again. Utena took a breath, more out of reflex than anything else, gripped her sword and improvised stake firmly, and stepped out into the massive room. “Kiryuu,” she said loudly, “I'm here.” He jerked up, and Touga looked honestly surprised to see her standing so brazenly on his very doorstep. “Tenjou,” he scrambled to his feet, and then gave her a charming, snake like smile as he said, “would you care for a drink?” He made a sweeping gesture towards the young women nearby, who all smiled at Utena glassily. Utena's jaw clenched as her fangs seemed to ache with need, and she fought down her first response, to take one of the girls that had been so cruelly offered her. “This stops now, Kiryuu,” Utena said to him coldly, beginning to pace towards him with deliberate slowness, across the gleaming floor that was so much like an dueling arena. Touga met her eyes, and whatever it was he saw in them he didn't much like. “Stop her,” sounding more than a bit frightened he commanded the mob of girls. They scrambled to obey him, charging towards Utena at a mad gallop. Even with her supernatural speed they climbed all over her, and all Utena could do was silently swear as Touga laughed with false amusement. `I can't hurt them, they're all innocents,' she thought, struggling under the pile of nubile flesh. Bare breasts brushed her face, long legs tangling with hers, the scent of female in heat washing over her. Fresh blood splattered some of them, overwhelming her with it's sweetness, and Utena could feel her fangs extend, demanding to be used. Utena fought for control, and then a forbidden idea occurred to her. Not letting herself take a moment to reconsider, Utena bit down fiercely on one girl's bare breast, her joyous cry echoing around the room. Letting her instincts take over Utena bit down on another, and another, and another. `He bound them with the power of his mind,' she thought grimly, `but I've just bound them to me by blood.' Laying there on the bare floor the girls gathered all around her, looking up at Utena in pure adoration, their excitement feeding the hunger within her. "Mistress," a familiar face purred out, looking at Utena hungrily. “Get out of here,” Utena managed to get the words out past her aching fangs, past her surging desire to feed on the beautiful girls, “and don't come back.” The girls all but ran down the stairs, leaving Utena and Touga there alone. “I didn't think you had it in you, Tenjou,” Touga remarked casually, his log red hair flowing in a graceful wave sown his back. He added with a impish smile, “Maybe you're more like the other vampires than you'd like to believe.” “I'm nothing like you,” Utena scowled. `Or am I?' she found herself wondering. `I did that to them so very, very easily. And their blood tasted so good!' she thought, a faint shudder running through her long slim body. Touga laughed softly. “You're more like us than those simpering human cattle." He paused, tilting his head as he listened, "What happened to Saionji?" "Dead," Utena answered, "for good, this time." "That's a waste," Touga actually sounded a bit regretful. "Join us, Utena, and you could help me rule over all the vampires at Ohtori,” he invited. Surprisingly, Utena smiled at him sadly. “What I really want,” she said to him softly, “you can't offer me, Touga. I want to feel the sun on my face again, and to know the warm touch of another human being without wanting to kill them.” Touga's eyes met Utena's in the dim chamber and in them she saw that something, some deeply buried piece of his former humanity still understood her wish, and also understood that she couldn't be tempted by him. He smiled with a odd kind of regret, and then without changing expression or stance he charged. Utena let him run at her, standing there completely calm in the center of the rose emblem. His eyes were glazed with pure madness, his hands stretched out to rip her apart. And still she stood there waiting, serene. He reached her, fanged mouth going for her throat, when he stiffened. Touga looked down in shock at the stake that she had so calmly used his own charge to drive home. He frantically tried to grab at the wood, but it was simply too slick, covered with his own blood and gore. He swayed there, then weakly dropped to his knees in front of her. He looked up dazedly, and saw Utena readying the sword. “Please,” was all Touga got out before she swung. Utena watched the headless body drop, and she just felt so cold inside. She had managed to kill two of the vampires tonight and she knew should be feeling proud of herself. But she had chosen to taste a human's blood and a fire now raged inside of her body as she stood there in the echoing silence. Somehow, Utena knew that just drinking the blood of wild animals wasn't going to be enough to satisfy her hungers anymore. Utena heard her cautiously coming up the stairs before the sound could have even reached human ears. “Hello, Anthy,” she said softly, “nice of you to join the party.” Anthy entered the room carefully, holding a wooden stake ready to be used, and she gasped softly when she saw the blood all around Utena's mouth, the aura of feral power that seemed to radiate off Utena. She seemed more dangerous, somehow, as if some hidden part of her had been finally unleashed. “I saw those girls outside, and I noticed all the blood and fang marks,” Anthy said to her cautiously, fully on her guard. “Touga controlled them with his mind,” Utena explained to her softly, still looking down at Touga's still form, “I needed something stronger to get them out of his grip.” “Are you all right?” Anthy asked her softly. Utena looked up to meet her eyes, her own dark and nearly unreadable. “No, I'm not all right,” she answered Anthy softly, her long pink hair flowing around her face as she conceded, “I don't think I'll be all right ever again.” She bent down to pick up Touga's remains and sighed, “Let's get rid of this, and Saionji downstairs.” On the lawn outside the tower the vampires' corpses were quickly placed on a improvised bonfire and in a few short moments it was lit. The blaze warmed Utena's body as she looked into the scarlet flames, watching the ever-changing fire. Looked at what was very likely to be her own fate, one day soon to come. The girls that had been forced to serve Touga milled around for a bit nearby, then made their way over to where Utena and Anthy were standing, drawing close to Utena herself. Utena frowned at one of the naked young women and asked, “What do you want?” “To serve you, Mistress,” she said dreamily. “The blood bond,” Anthy murmured, her eyes wide as she realized what Utena had done. Utena looked at the gathering young women, then over at Anthy. “How do I free them?” she asked Anthy rather desperately. Anthy sighed softly, “You can't.” Watching from the shadows of the nearby buildings it took all of Juri's self control not to start laughing aloud at the stunned expression on poor Utena's face. Things had worked out even better than she had initially planned. Having Shiori plant that note she wrote in Touga's own handwriting with the girl's body had been a stroke of genius on Juri's part. In one stroke two rivals of hers had been eliminated, and in the process Utena had been forced to taste human blood at long last. And now Utena had an small army of thralls following her around, all of them sweetly willing to do whatever she may want. Juri wondered how long even Utena's strength of will could hold out against all those willing young girls. She didn't think for very long. With a broad smile, Juri silently made her way off into the night.
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