“Kat, you need to stay with me.”
“You should have thought about that before you forced me to become a vampire.” I stomped in what I hoped was the direction of the farmhouse. My body ached from what we’d done against that tree. What should have been a beautiful moment straight out of a dream turned into a nightmare. He moved so fast and stood in front of me, hands gripping my arms, the desperation within him escaping with every breath.
“I loved you, Tatsou. I knew what you were and loved you anyway. I never held the past against you, but you took away my choice, and I can’t forgive that.” I gritted my teeth. “Now take me back. I’m going home.”
“I’m trying to protect you from the real monsters of this world, Katsumi. Dammit you need to see that I am not your enemy. But I sure as fuck will be an enemy to anyone who hurts you. I will become whoever I need to be to protect you. You’re my spark,” he roared, and while I heard his words, they didn’t absorb.
“Take me back,” I said one more time, and he cursed. His hand wrapped around me, and we were back at the house.
“Don’t follow me, Tatsou,” I demanded, as I walked to the car. Rei ran out and gasped when he saw my chin and clothes soaked in blood.
“You bastard, what did you do to her?” my friend bellowed and took off for the vampire only to be intercepted by Eleanor. Her swirling eyes collided with him. She whispered to him and his body uncoiled. Great, she compelled him to act like me being covered with blood was no big deal. He waved to her and walked away with a stupid grin on his face. I shook my head as the tears blurred my vision.
“Kat, please.” My once true love attempted to get to me, to see his side, but I was lost. My whole world dropped from beneath my feet and all I could do was head to something familiar.
“Let her go, Tatsou, she needs time.” Eleanor stood at his side, a hand on his shoulder. Both of them stared at me with remorse. I kept my eye on Tatsou in the mirror as Rei drove us away from the farm.
The closer we got to my studio, the more my body began to change. It started with aches, then chills shook me. Rei had to pull over twice for me to vomit. He didn’t think twice about what was happening to me, and that hurt more than I thought it would. He was compelled to act normal, but I was literally dying in front of his eyes. No longer would I be the sweet and bubbly Katsumi he’d grown up with. I would be a monster for all eternity.
Chapter Thirty- Five
Katsumi
I should have stayed with Tatsou. My anger tore me away from him, but the change happened regardless. Rei left once I was safe inside the studio, and the pain ripping through my body had me doubled over on the tatami-matted floor. Tatsou would know what to do, how to help me through this. I knew virtually nothing about being a vampire except I would be as close to an original as one could get, since he was the one who changed me.
I vomited twice, and my blood boiled as it raced around my body. The mutated plague crawled through me, and I felt every second of it. My heart pounded in my chest. then slowed in a second. Back and forth my body fought to speed up, to push harder, only to drag at a snail’s pace. My eyes slammed shut, and when I tried to open them again, the light on the ceiling blinded me.
A creaking noise from behind screamed in my ear. “Tatsou?” I prayed he was here, that he didn’t listen to my requests to stay away. I needed his help badly.
“No, sweet daughter, but don’t worry, I’m going to take care of you.” My father’s voice blasted my eardrums, and my hands covered them to stop the echoing. Someone scooped me up, and I was aware of my body being carried somewhere but when I tried to look around, I saw nothing but fuzzy shapes. Whoever held me was strong, though. I shook as my body fought the dying process, but they never once dropped me.
“Kat!” my sister sobbed, and I thrashed to see her. Oh no, no, no. Something wasn’t right, and I was too incapacitated to do something about it.
“Get her chained and shut her up. Her wails are gonna alert all of Japan,” my father commanded, and a cool metal clasped around my wrists before something struck the back of my head and I passed out.
Tatsou’s beautiful and hard face haunted my dreams. I’d fallen in love with a monster, and now I was one. The pain slowly dissipated, then transformed into another sort of agony. My heartbeat and my future slowed until both died in my chest. It was the last pathetic rumble within me that snapped my eyes open.
“Oh, Kat.” My sister’s bruised face and bloody lip came into view, and my throat burned with coppery scent clinging to the air molecules.
“’Bout fucking time you wake up.” My father’s main guard glared at me. He’d always seemed like an asshole, but now I could smell it on him.
“Kat, what’s going on?” Romi pleaded to understand. I tried to reach her, but the shackles at my wrists held me back for now.
“Yes, Katsumi, let’s all hear your story.” Father walked into the room and looked down at Romi with a sneer before shifting to me. There wasn’t any familiarity to the cave walls surrounding us. He had us somewhere secret, somewhere we could scream and not be heard.
“Father, what are you—" The harsh slap across my face hurt less than the betrayal of his intention. Father hurt me and would hurt me more. I glared at him with pure hatred, and he laughed. The man had the audacity to laugh at his own flesh-and-blood’s pain.
“Your sister is not only working with the police commissioner to take my organization down, but she managed to snare the attention of the legendary Wisterian Vampire.” He squatted down to Romi’s level on the metal chair. Romi’s eyebrows pinched together, and her mouth dipped down. She didn’t understand.
“I’m not working with the police,” I said, trying to understand how he had that notion in his head. He reared back and slapped the other side of my face.
“I saw you talking with him at the event. Why else would the leader of the authorities in all Japan talk to you? Then you snoop around the house in the cloak of night, rifling through my office, searching for dirt on your own father,” he spat at me, and I wept. He had this all wrong.
“You are too weak to be a part of my world. My dynasty. Your dearest mother and sister tried to keep you away. I had no use for you until recently.” He pulled a chair in between Romi and I and sat with his head held high. Both of us were chained to chairs like prisoners before their warden.
“I never taught you girls our family history. How the Sakura line came into power. It all started with Kano Sakura, the very same I was named after. He’d fought against the monks and people of these lands but was always stopped by the boogeyman. Legend spoke of a warrior with unmatched skills who killed over a hundred men without them even knowing their death had come. He moved in the shadows, destroying empires in one night. Tall and strong like the wild bear. Teeth sharp and pointed like a tiger. The old scrolls say he bore the markings of the flower wisteria across his back. An ode to his youth with the plants.”
With every word my father spoke, the more my throat scorched.
