Cam’z Notez: Haha, yeah so. Odd chapter. First person is so hard. Xx So, excuse the oddities, please? I suck at explaining things. (: Also, I am a bad author in the sense that I haven’t exactly planned out the story so where it is going nobody knows! Heh. ;

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.:chapter four:.

Mhm. I finally came to consciousness, my eyes blinking open. I shot up, confused, and Kyo grabbed onto my shoulders, standing in front of me. “Calm down,” he said with a grin, rustling my hair. I sat down on the edge of the bed, taking a deep breath and glancing up at him. Around his face was the same cloth Zero had in the photo.

“Kyo…,” I murmured. I wanted to ask him about everything, but I was so confused… I glanced over towards the chair the other man who had been with us was sitting in. He had long black hair and was also wearing a cloth.

“Are you okay?” Kyo asked.

“Y-yeah… I’m just… yeah…,” I stammered uneasily.

“Are you tired?”

“No… I’m just confused…”

Kyo turned around. “You should still probably rest,” he said, starting to walk away.

“No,” I grabbed his hand and he turned back around to look at me. I blushed, quickly letting go. “I-I know.”

“Hnm?”

“A-About everything,” I lied. There wasn’t a much better way to put that I could think of, though. “About Croix Treize…” I wanted them to explain everything to me.

The other man’s attention shot over to me and Kyo looked focused.

“Then why had you gone into gang territory?” the other man asked.

“I just, I got lost…”

“Wandering around at midnight?” he asked.

“I was looking f-for…,” I glanced up towards Kyo.

“Me?” Kyo looked at me. My eyes dropped to the floor. “So, you think you know everything?”

“Er, well. Not exactly…”

“What do you know?” the other man asking, walking up to me with his hands in his pockets. His hair went down to the middle of the black and was pure black. His eyes were dark, but he didn’t look like a criminal kind of person. None of the people I’d seen did. I even had a hard time imagining Zero killing someone- and I didn’t even like Zero.

I wasn’t going to mention how I knew or that both my father and my grandfather had chased after them. I didn’t think that would be a good way to go about it.

“I saw the photos of those people, with the crosses carved in their chest… A-and I saw Zero’s photo… Everyone was h-hiding something from me… I just wanted to know what it was…”

“Mm, Kodi…” Kyo put his hand on his forehead, sighing. “You should’ve just let it go.”

“Are…?” the man looked at Kyo.

“No. Kodi, I want you to listen to me, okay?” Kyo sat down next to me.

I glanced over at him, nodding.

“You don’t understand. None of this is what you seem to think, it’s all just stupid things. What happened last night was just a gang thing. You’re lucky we were there, but next time you might not be so lucky,” Kyo explained. “You should lie down for a bit more. That’s one hell of a bruise, wouldn’t you say, Kyishi?”

“Quite so,” the man replied.

I raised an eyebrow. “What bruise?”

Kyo poked my forehead, which became incredibly sore as he poked it. “Ow”

“That bruise,” he grinned.

From the gun, no doubt, I grumbled. I didn’t understand anything, he was right about that. “Yeah…,” I murmured, lying back down on my side. I was a little tired still. He slid his hand through my hair and I smiled, curling up a bit and shutting my eyes. I was confused but, it would be okay.

It hadn’t been long after that that I fell asleep, but I woke up again to voices, keeping my eyes shut. I felt Kyo’s hand on my head and their mumbling became audible as I became more awake.

“He’s not going to forget everything,” Kyishi said.

Kyo’s hand was stroking my head lightly and he gave a sigh. “I don’t want him to get involved…,” he murmured, followed by a pause.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“Hnm.”

“Kyo…,” I murmured. I wasn’t exactly trying to make the moment awkward, but I had to say something, didn’t I? I glanced up at him, pushing myself up to sit next to him.

“Hnm- you’re awake,” Kyo said, standing up.

“Y-yeah…”

Kyo grabbed my hand and helped me up. “We better get you home.”

“Kyo,” I said, holding onto him. “I don’t want to cause trouble,” I said lowly. “I just… I wanted to know about you…” I wasn’t sure where I was going. At this point, I was confused, I wasn’t behaving right, I was acting dumb and pathetic, and I didn’t care. I was just going along with everything and, unlike I normally do, I was acting more so on instinct. I wasn’t thinking out what I said or what I was doing.

“I don’t… understand…” Kyo looked at me.

By now, I had pretty much become positive that I was indeed queer, or bisexual or whatever. I didn’t care. I wanted to know what Kyo was involved in… “I-I’m nnot sure why- I mean, i-it’s not a bad thing! I-” I was stammering again.

Kyo put his hands on my shoulders. “Kodi.”

I glanced down at the ground. “I just… I was curious and… I mean, I just… I don’t know, I do… and, I… I just-”

Kyo just sighed. “I know.. We’ll take you back, okay? Everything will go back to normal.”

I sighed. I didn’t really want it to. I still wanted to know everything and I wanted to understand it. I had this aching feeling in my stomach that I was already involved in some way, but if nothing happened, I wouldn’t do anything. Kyo didn’t want me involved, so…

“Come on,” Kyishi said, producing some keys and walking out to the door. Kyo and I walked over to him, following him out to his sleek black car and making our way in it. Everything was uncomforting.

“Nervous?” Kyishi asked, glancing back at me. I was sitting kind of in an upward fetal position, arms around my knees.

“I’m fine...,” I murmured lightly. I didn’t really know of anyone else in their group besides Kyo and Zero and I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to. They all seemed nice (except for Zero ¬¬) and I wasn’t sure how any of them could be murderers. Kyo said it was just stupid things, but… the photos and… the files… the book? I still had it, right? I pulled up my bag up next to me, taking out the dusty book and opening it up to the page of illustrations and ‘Croix Treize’ at the top.

Kyishi paused, slowing down at my house. It hadn’t taken long at all… “Something’s not right,” he said, glancing around a bit.

“What?” I looked at him, quickly putting the book away. Eventually I’d get to look at it.

“I’m not sure.”

“I’ll go with him,” Kyo said, getting out of the car and opening my door.

“Thanks.” I got out, shutting it, and glancing at my house. It seemed normal…

Kyo walked up to the door with me and I went to pull out a key from my pocket.

“It’s not locked,” Kyo said, pushing it open. It wasn’t even closed all the way.

“Dad must be home,” I mumbled, stepping inside and looking around. I couldn’t tell- he kept his car in the garage. I walked towards his office, Kyo walking next to me. I wasn’t so sure Kyo should go in there- the room was full of Croix Treize stuff.

“Stay here, okay?” I tilted my head. “Please?”

“Yeah…,” Kyo agreed.

As soon as I walked inside, I jumped back, panicking. There was blood over the desk and files, on his chair. His lamp was knocked over and had shattered on impact. Kyo ran in behind me when I gasped, glancing around. My dad wasn’t in there.

“Dad…?” I called, walking out of the room. I called his name throughout the house, going into every room and making my way this way and that. His car was in the garage and there were bullets through the windows. I ran back towards the office, grabbing onto Kyo’s arm.

“I can’t find him!”

Kyo seemed focused on the files in front of him. Files of the Croix Treize. “Your father is… Komachi…?” He looked at me, stunned. “You are…?”

“Kodiak Komachi,” Kyishi’s voice rang, standing in the doorway.

“Kodiak… Komachi…,” Kyo echoed.

“I don’t understand…”

“You don’t know any of it, do you…?” Kyo asked. “Your family… anything?”

I glanced down nervously.

“It’s best not to keep him here. They’re going to come after him, too,” Kyishi added, looking over to Kyo, then at me. “You can’t keep him from being involved anymore, Kyo… He was born into this…”

Kyo sighed. “We need numbers five and ten. Grant will know who’s involved.”

“Five and ten?” I asked, looking up to him.

“We’ll explain when we get there,” Kyishi said, walking out of the room.

I stared around the room, confused. Where was my dad? We moved here on business- because of the Croix Treize? I was so… lost… and we kept going from place to place… I didn’t know what to do or how to act or anything.

“Come on.” Kyo put his hand on my shoulder. “You can’t dwell on it. Just chase it,” he said. I turned around, looking up at him. “It’ll be okay,” he said, and I believed him. I nodded, walking out towards Kyishi.

We had pulled into a relatively empty parking lot and another car pulled in next to us. Kyishi opened his door, turning off the engine and getting out of the black car. Kyo was next to get out, and I was last. Two men stood in front of us. One was tall, with dark brown hair down to his neck with matching eyes, two tanned archs on the side of his face, a cloth over nose, and facial hair. He looked as if he were in his twenties.

“Grant, the tenth of the cross,” Kyo said. The man’s dark eyes glanced down at me, as if observing me.

The man next to him was younger, probably eighteen or nineteen. His hair was black with streaks of different shades of reds and browns. His eyes almost looked black (maybe kind of grey?) and he had a tanned bulls-eye symbol on part of his chest. He also wore a cloth over his nose. I figured this was kind of a trademark of the Croix Treize.

“And Otto, the fifth of the cross,” Kyo added.

“Fifth of the cross?” I asked, glancing up at him.

“Everyone in The Thirteen is assigned a number and ranking,” Kyishi explained. “I’m Kyishi, third of the cross. Above me is Zero, second, and then Kyo, first of the cross.”

“First…?” I glanced up at Kyo, who was looking towards the other two.

“Komachi is missing,” Kyo explained. “There was a lot of blood loss, so if he’s alive, there’s not much time left.”

“Rescue mission?” Otto asked, tilting his head.

Rescue mission? I thought… my family was the enemy? Why would they rescue him?

“Do we know anything about who took him?” Grant inquired.

“We didn’t stay long. You’ll have to go back and look over it,” Kyishi said.

“Why are we rescuing Komachi? Isn’t he the enemy?” came another voice from inside the Grant’s car. The back window rolled down and a boy, probably around sixteen, looked out. His hair was a greasy, black mess and there were scars on the sides of his face. He also wore a cloth.

“Curios?” Kyishi took a step back. “No. That means-”

“Relax, Odd isn’t with us,” Otto said with a grin. “Your dedicated stalker obsessive lover is with Estavon and-”

“Estavon?” I interrupted.

Kyishi readjusted himself. “Curios, twelfth of the cross,” he said, gesturing towards the boy. “Amnesic, and a lot of trouble for one.”

“Estavon is the ninth of the cross, Kodi,” Kyo said, answering my question. “I assume you’ve met him, then.”

“At school…” School. The word was actually so inviting and normal. I actually wanted to go back.

“So, why are we rescuing Komachi?” Curios asked again.

“Pay attention, Kodi,” Kyishi suggested, nudging me.

“The Komachi are vampire hunters and nearly everyone with their blood follows the same path. About 72 years ago, Dr. Akihito Komachi became aware of the thirteenth of the cross. I’m sure you know this,” Kyo looked at Grant. “Grant was the one investigating the case and following Komachi’s discoveries. All information was reported to us. When it seemed Komachi was nearing the peak of his discoveries, he went missing. The circumstances were much more drastic, but similar, to those of your father,” he said, looking at me.

“This kid’s a Komachi?” Otto asked.

“Kodiak Komachi,” Kyishi said. “It seems the family kept everything from him.”

“Why?” Curios asked, looking at me.

“Probably to keep him safe. He’s next in Akihito’s bloodline,” Kyishi answered.

Okay, so. My family’s a bunch of vampire hunters. They never told me to keep me safe. My dad’s missing, my grandfather went the same way, and I’m talking with a bunch of crazy people. That’s perfectly normal, right? This stuff happens to everyone.

“So… that makes you guys… vampires?” I glanced up at them, wide-eyed. Vampires. That’s. That’s great. Wonderful, actually.

“We better get going, then,” Grant said, getting back into the driver’s seat. Otto got in the other side and, well, Curios had never gotten out of the car. “I guess you can explain the rest,” he said with a grin. “We’ll call you when we find something,” he added before pulling out.

Kyo was still looking ahead, as if they were still standing there. “Yeah, kid. Vampires.”

“I don’t… understand… so the Croix Treize is…?”

Kyishi took a deep breath. “The Croix Treize are vampires. You have The Thirteen, which are the ones who pretty much watch out for the rest and are the most involved. Beyond that, you have The Cross. The Cross has about three hundred vampires, separated into their own groups and what-nots. Most are, to be quite honest, murderers. They’re mostly the problem and the trouble. We have to keep them in line.

“Finally, you have the remaining vampires who make up The Innocents. They are the vampires that pretty much sink into everyday society and just kind of make due with their lives,” Kyishi explained.

“The Cross is usually the mistake,” Kyo said. “The ‘cults’ or ‘covens’ or whatever you call them don’t get along or associate with each other. The fact they’re all part of the Croix Treize means nothing.”

I looked up at Kyo. “So then, what’s the thirteenth of the cross?”

Kyo tensed up uneasily.

“We better go,” Kyishi said, quickly getting inside the car. The sky was getting darker. “Believe it or not, I think it might actually rain.”

Kyo quietly got into the car. I was confused. Why would that make Kyo all freaked out? I got in behind him, silent. Mostly, I was just going along with things and not trying to make sense of it. Everything was… odd, and I knew it wasn’t going to get any better.