Beautiful Death

by Christina Moore

  “Shit. Hey, Ash…?” He wiped the blood from his hands on his jeans before taking her face into his hands, positioning her to look at him. Eyes shut, lips parted. Still breathing.

  “Ash? Can you hear me? Open your eyes. Ash, please...” He ran his palm over her cheek, willing her hear him, to be okay.

  White lashes fluttered and then there was a sliver of purple iris looking up at him. “I said I am fine.”

  Tristan let go of his held breath in a snorted sort of laugh of relief.

  She smiled ever so faintly, almost non-existent. “Sorry...”

  He shut his eyes and pulled her to his chest. “Jesus, I’m just glad you’re okay.” It was a miracle her sword didn’t come free of its sheath and cut her in half.

  A small, frigid hand touched his cheek and his eyes flew open again. Under her pale exhaustion, Ash was giving him a small, thankful smile. Tristan gave her a warm smile in return and leaned close enough that he could feel the cold radiating off her like standing next to a windowpane in the dead of winter. “You really scared the hell out of me,” he whispered.

  “Vampire,” she answered as her fingers traced a soft, cold line along his jaw. “You need to shave.”

  Her fingers came to rest over his pounding pulse and he put his hand over hers, pinning it against him. “Stupid ass vampire, making jokes at a time like this.”

  “Tristan, I…”

  He leaned a breath closer so that he could taste hers across his lips. “What is it, Ash…?”

  “I want, what I mean to say is, I need—” Under his hand, her nails dug into his flesh.

  “Tell me, it’s okay.”

  They stared at each other in silence, her cold fingers pressed to his hot pulse. Breath and scents mixing—vampire and not-so-human. Finally she shut her eyes and sighed, shaking her head ever so slightly. With a small tug at his collar she tried to sit up. After a stunned moment, Tristan remembered himself and helped her upright. She didn’t protest when he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to her feet against him.

  “You okay?” he asked softly.

  She nodded a little too quickly. “I think, yes. I can manage.”

  He darted away quickly, leaving her to stand on her own and hoped she didn’t tip over before he got back. When he returned with a helmet in each hand, Ash turned into him and rested her body against his, her head on his chest. He gave a start, surprised at her openness towards him.

  “Hey, you ready to go?”

  She nodded against him and stood upright on her own. Without a word she walked over to her bike, leaking fluids on the pavement, scoffed at it and gave it a hard kick with the bottom of her foot. Tristan could only gape like a fool as it slid across the pavement like a greased up frat boy on a slip ‘n slide. Like it weighed nothing. The bike found the edge of the road and tumbled over and down into a deep ditch.

  Ash turned back to Tristan, still staring dumbfounded at her, and took the helmet from him. She started to pull it on, made a face and tossed it over her shoulder to join her discarded bike. Tristan didn’t complain. Hey, if the angry vampire didn’t want to wear it, he wasn’t going to argue. Besides he saw her side. It was bloody, but not bleeding. She’d healed the damage in the time it took him to get to her. She was, in a word… amazing.

  Ash’s attention snapped up to his face and he offered her a smile before going to retrieve his own dropped bike. After a double check to make sure the bike still ran and that his jacket was secure—he did not want the sort of road rash Ash had if something happened—he motioned for her to join him. She stuck her lip out as if to pout, but it was only for the barest of seconds. She didn’t like asking for help. Sure she didn’t ask in this case, but help was being given nonetheless. Tristan understood that about Ash. It was the thing they had the most in common. Well, that and somehow, they were tied by blood, even if it was metaphorical.

  Ash had a hard time climbing up on the back seat. She was just too drained to do the small task. Kicking her defunct bike away had been all the energy she had left and she wished she hadn’t wasted it so foolishly. Tristan tried to be a gentleman and help her up by her hand, her arm, her waist. Anywhere not too sensitive. In the end, he ended up reaching back scooping her up under her butt and lifting her behind him in one smooth move. Like he’d done it before. Ash also noticed in that quick little move that his elbow was double jointed, bending back much father then it should have to accommodate the awkward angle.

  With a big sigh, Ash collapsed into him, wrapping her arms tightly around his middle. His entire body warmed at her closeness. Part of it was the Uruwashi blood, sure. But the other… He liked that he could do something for her, no matter how small. Tristan smiled and put a hand over hers for a moment, hoped he could get them back without getting horribly lost—or horribly distracted by Ash—and then they were off.

  Two wrong turns and one dip almost too deep for the extra weight later, the pair arrived back to the house in one piece. Tristan was as proud as he was surprised. He shut off the bike and removed his helmet to drop softly to the ground at his feet. It was quiet out and cold. There wasn’t even any night frogs or crickets. Seemed sort of sad.

  “Ash? We’re here… Ash?”

  He looked back over his shoulder and saw her slumped against him. It was hard to tell from the angle, but her eyes were shut. He sighed and gently pried her freezing fingers open. Free from her hold, he wiggled out from underneath her and somehow managed to climb off the bike without kicking her in the face. He stopped to frown at her slumped over the seat, cheek resting on the gas tank, arms hanging lifeless towards the ground, sword still attached to her hip, hanging down, resting on her foot. She looked so sad and broken and the thought that she was far too strong of a woman to be reduced to this at the whim of someone he thought was a friend. Appearances were deceiving though, look at Ash. Hell, or himself. So much for being human.

  Tristan sighed, lifting the small vampire into his arms. “It’s my turn to take care of you,” he said softly into her ear even though he knew she couldn’t hear him. He kissed her hair and took in a deep breath of her soft scent. God, she always smelled so damn good, like sweet orange and cream, vanilla and smooth with no citrus bite. Delicious. That’s when he noticed she wasn’t covered in blood anymore, like it’d never been there. The only lingering proof that she’d even had an accident was her torn clothing and messed up hair.

  Inside in the genkan, the foyer, Haruka met him with a frown. He stopped short, frowning back and then forced a hospitable smile.

  “Hey, uh…”

  Haruka’s eyes flicked to Ash and then back to Tristan. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking. But he knew what it looked like. At least the torn side of Ash’s clothing was hidden against him.

  “We…” Had an accident, made it sound serious. By all rights it was, but he didn’t want worry Haruka. He was going take care of Ash for once. Everything would be okay. “She’s just tired. I’m going to put her to bed.”

  Haruka blinked at him once and then stepped up to them. She bent over Ash, gave her a soft kiss on the cheek and turned away without a word. Tristan sighed to himself and kept moving. At Ash’s door he’d just pushed it open with his foot when a dark mass shot out. Pandora jumped at him, almost toppling him and Ash over in her excitement.

  “Hey, it’s okay sweetie,” he whispered. “I’m taking good care of your Master. Go lay down, okay?” Pandora gave him one of those adorable thirty-degree head tilts and took off to a small dog bed in the corner of the room and laid down quietly. Sky blue eyes watched him intently as he came into the room, kicked the door shut and eased Ash down on her bed. He took a few minutes to remove all of her weapons, dropping them to the floor next to the bed. Her boots and his jacket joined the pile.

  Ash looked so peaceful lying there. Like sleeping beauty... If he kissed her, would she wake?

  And then they’d live happily ever after…

  Despite feeling beaten, he smiled. He also decided agains
t the sleeping beauty test. Was that kiss worth getting his face torn off by an angry vampire?

  He wasn’t sure why, but he found himself sitting on the edge of the bed next to her. That cold burning tingle flared the moment he pressed his hip to hers. If he had to, he could say he was worried about her. But really, he knew he just wanted to look at her just a little longer. She was just so beautiful, and kind, he was starting to realize. He was her enemy and yet, she took him in. Offered him sanctuary. And hope. He found hope was in short supply since he lost his parents.

  The careful braid she left the house with was a wild, scraggly mess now from the tumble she took. Without really thinking about what he was doing he reached under her and pulled out the end of her braid. A quick tug at the band on the end and he freed her hair of the binding. It was so soft, so silken that he only had to run his fingers through the middle to loosen the braid and then it was perfect again, like she never had helmet hair. Like she never fell off her bike. And that was Ash, wasn’t it? She was deeply broken inside and yet, perfect on the outside. She went on like everything was fine. And what did he do? What was Tristan’s answer to his deep pain? Lash out? Drink himself stupid and push his friends away? There was so much he could learn from her. He didn’t believe in fate, but maybe, just maybe they were meant to meet. Was that so weird to think?

  Tristan froze. He was staring down into pale purple eyes. He realized in that moment where he was. Not some fantasy in his head, but in reality where he was inches from the woman who saved him from death more than once. A vampire who he’d started to have feelings for and was now leaning over her like some lecherous pervert that took advantage of passed out women.

  Yep.

  “Uh—Hey… yeah, it’s not what it looks like...”

  Ash slipped a cold palm across his cheek. He put his own over hers to keep it there. “You saved me.” She made it sound more like a statement than a question.

  Tristan licked his lips. “It was nothing.”

  She cracked a tiny smile that never reached her eyes. She was so very tired. “Still… I appreciate you helping me, no matter the size of burden.”

  “I’ll do anything for you.”

  The words shocked them both. He knew he felt it, but until he was actually speaking his thoughts, he hadn’t really noticed. Yes, he would do anything for Ash.

  “Tristan…,” she whispered, eyes wide in shock. “You do not owe me a thing.”

  “I owe you everything,” he answered.

  “But—”

  They were pressed mouth to mouth. He couldn’t remember making the conscience decision to kiss her, but his body decided for him, had been denied too long to hold back anymore. He felt like he'd known her for years, longed for and wanted her. Needed her. Her lips were as soft and delicate as he had imagined they would be.

  He pulled back and licked his lips. She tasted faintly like copper. If he thought too clearly on it he’d realize that the last thing she consumed was the red liquid in the glass that Sibylle had given her and that that red liquid was blood. He licked his lips again. Tasted of copper… and mint?

  “Anyone ever tell you that you’re absolutely stunning?” he whispered, running the back of his fingers along her cheekbone. “You are a remarkable woman.”

  She let out a content sigh, pushing into the pillows behind her, eyes heavy with an emotion he knew well. She wanted him too. He smiled and leaned into her again. The need to lose control and give himself over to her completely was crushing. Every fiber of his body wanted her in a way he never felt with any other woman. He wanted to consume her entirely.

  The thought made him jerk back. Was that Tristan Blum, the human, who wanted to consume her or Tristan Uruwashi, the monster?

  Ash frowned. “Tristan…”

  “What am I?”

  She took his face into his hands. “You are what you choose to be.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her and then smiled warmly. “Yeah, well, I want to be yours.”

  She let out a long surprised breath and almost didn’t stop Tristan soon enough when he tried to kiss her again.

  He frowned down at her. “What’s wrong? Don’t you—”

  “We cannot,” she said sharply. Her tone was harsh, but her eyes, they begged to have him. She wanted him more than he knew.

  “O-K…,” he said as he sat up. What was it that he didn’t understand? They both wanted each other, what more was there to it than that?

  “Want has nothing to do with ability.”

  “Uh…” Unease tingled down his body at her tone.

  Ash let out a long sigh. “Some part of me must have remembered, keeping me from—There is much about me you do not understand.”

  He gave her a soft smile and leaned in so that he was close enough to kiss, if she would let him. “I’m willing to learn.”

  “There is much about us, vampire, you do not understand.”

  “Again, willing…”

  Ash sat up, moving away on the bed. “Tristan,” she started out in a firm tone. “If I were to so much as lick you wrong, I might kill you.”

  He jerked back, fingers unconsciously touching his lips, lips he used to kiss her once already. “What?”

  “Our saliva, some sort of enzyme in it, is what makes humans like us. Just a drop of vampiric saliva could be enough to turn you. I cannot abide by your death, vampiric or otherwise.”

  Tristan turned to sit on the edge of the bed, putting his face into his hands. “Shit,” he hissed through his fingers. The bed shifted behind him seconds before a small hand enclosed his shoulder. “So… you’re telling me, something as simple as a kiss could make me a vampire?”

  “Or kill you.”

  He jerked around to look at her. “Kill?”

  “Not all who are bitten are strong enough to handle the transformation.” She gave him a weak smile. “I suspect however, you have nothing to worry about. Your will is very strong.”

  Somehow, that didn’t make him feel better. All he wanted was to live and to be closer to Ash.

  She sighed and leaned into Tristan, resting against his back. She was so relieved that the barrier they’d been maintaining finally broke. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could deny something that was as instinctual as breathing. But of course, that meant further pain. She felt that she could be free around him to do and say as she pleased, so long as it didn’t include the swapping of bodily fluids.

  Right then, that’s all either of them could think about.

  “Well, shit,” Tristan sighed. “I… I don’t even know what to say.”

  “I know, I am disappointed too.”

  “Stop reading my mind,” he said jokingly.

  Ash only sighed at him as he fell into deep thought, his mind racing with ideas. It was then, that it finally occurred to him, why Ash didn’t feed from live humans.

  “You are wrong,” she said quickly and he turned to face her. “That has nothing to do with it.”

  “Then what? I mean, if every person you bite gets turned into a vamp, I get it. You don’t want hundreds of ‘em running around.” He certainly didn’t.

  “Yes, if every person we bit did turn…”

  “Wait… Just me?”

  Ash sighed, dropping her shoulders and looking down to her lap. “Yes.”

  “An Uruwashi thing, huh?”

  “To make a vampire, it requires several bites from the same host over many days with an exchange of blood on the final day. The enzyme kills and our blood then in turn helps the mind survive the death of the body. There is extended time in a coffin thereafter and other details unimportant right now. However, the Uruwashi had bred themselves to be more susceptible to being turned. By only requiring a single bite, a drop of vampiric enzyme and nothing more, the hunter would be one themselves by the following night.”

  Tristan furrowed his brow at her in disbelief. Under that skepticism there was fear. He couldn’t admit it to her, but to himself, he was damn worried.

  She met his ey
es. “Think of it, a normal human gets in a fight with a vampire, vampire bites human, human lives to fight another day as human. But say you are of the Uruwashi? You get bitten that one time and you become a deadly tool against the vampires. No blood exchange is needed, no time buried in a dark coffin. You suddenly have all of the deadly gifts of a vampire at your disposal and more. It is a great advantage to the Uruwashi to force a vampire to bite and not kill, if they can manage it. Any vampire that would knowingly turn a clan member would surely be hunted by their brethren and slaughtered.”

  “For someone who had all of her memories taken from her, you sure know an awful lot…” He wasn’t trying to accuse her of lying, but there were still some lingering doubts on the fullness of her truths.

  “Yukihime told me before we left.”

  “Uh, I was there. I think I would have remembered.”

  Ash gave him a small smile that said he was being naïve. He hated that. “When a vampire bites another, they can see into the other’s blood, just as with humans. But if the biter is as powerful as Yukihime is, they can also speak directly to the bitee.”

  He wasn’t sure how much of what Yuki had said was really true. He didn’t trust her and couldn’t understand Ash’s faith in her. But, if everything she did say was true and that if all it took was one tiny fang knick and a drop of saliva… “Fuck.”

  Ash gave an approving hum.

  “No wonder Malik is so afraid of me. I could be turned into… whatever it is I am and would never have known it until it happened.”

  “It is hard to say if you will be turned at all.”

  His attention snapped up from the carpet to her. “What?”

  “Yukihime believes that you may be only half Uruwashi.”

  He let out a long breath as he processed that. Only half monster… there was hope. “Why?”

  Ash shrugged? “She would not say. But it stands to reason. You do not look a bit Japanese except for the slightest slant of your eyes. But they are blue and you are very tall. Your facial structure is unquestionably European. The Uruwashi were strictly Japanese in origin, there was no off shoot breeding with other human races, at least not for the purpose of making more Uruwashi.”