“Yeah, and I’m sure that made your day.” Setsura said with a jerk of his head, “So take a hike. That ship is getting ready to set sail. Captain down to the deckhands, Kikiou’s gotta be one busy boy. Who are the passengers?”
“There will be at least two going aboard, me and my new servant.”
“Screw that.”
“And how will you? I had forgotten about the you that is not you before, but not this time. I will now deliver your last kiss. Can you resist the music of Silent Night?”
She plucked the strings again. The notes rang out like pearls of sound. Setsura fell to both knees.
“Return Kanan-san.”
“I can’t do that. I did once. I won’t twice. I will make her my maidservant before your eyes. And after, I will take hold of her true heart. My hand is as good as a stake of fresh wood. Hoh, you came here without any recourses, all for the sake of a woman, and to no avail.”
She strummed the koto. The strings rang out. Setsura closed his eyes. Only for a moment, but when he looked again, Takako was in Princess’s arms. A mere ten feet separated them.
The crimson lips sucked at her neck.
“Plead, Setsura. Beg. Become my servant for her sake. And when you do, you will learn to heel like a good puppy. Bend your knees and beg. Lick the soles of my feet.”
“Princess,” said Setsura, lifting his head.
“What?” Her voice broke into a smile of victory.
“What happened to Ryuuki?”
Her immediate answer was a look of surprise. Uncertainty flickered in her eyes. In that instant, Silent Night played out an altogether different tune. The strings broke one by one. And then as if pulled by invisible wires, Takako’s body flew out of Princess’s grasp and into Setsura’s arms.
A second later, Setsura had bounded to the edge of the roof. One more jump and flying through the air, he should be able to catch hold of one of the wires he’d left behind while climbing up here and safely make his escape.
Supporting the wires was the Shinjuku Station building, Yodobashi Camera at the west entrance, Nomura Securities Building, the Sumitomo Building, Shinjuku Police Headquarters, Kogakuin University, and a good hundred more. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
Setsura jumped.
To think she could stop that body in midair through the sheer force of will. As soon as Princess’s shining eyes glittered red and her gaze pierced his back, Setsura’s will became her own.
“Cast her aside and come back to me.”
To think that Setsura would comply. She gestured to him. He left Takako there and staggered towards her. Without another word, she placed her hand on his shoulders and tore open his black collar.
The pair of teeth marks pulsated there like a poisonous hickey. The fourth and final kiss would be planted there.
Setsura abruptly shifted the position of his head. Princess did not pull back her head reflexively, but burning with anger, pressed forward—as Setsura attached his lips to hers. Princess opened her mouth and beckoned in his tongue. In it came—but not what she had expected—a cool, refreshing liquid.
She swallowed. She didn’t spit it out. After all, she had confidently informed him that no poison should be able to harm her. Should be able to—then what was this substance scorching her immortal body from the inside out?
Unleashing a wild cry, she tried to retreat. Two red lines crisscrossed her body, from the crown of her head down to her crotch, from the right side of her waist to the left.
A second later, the most beautiful woman in the world was transformed into four chunks of fresh meat that tumbled onto the concrete.
With a sigh, Setsura slumped to his knees. He reached up and felt the side of his neck. The accursed scars had faded to half their color and form.
“So half isn’t enough?” Setsura murmured. “I guess I was bitten one time too many.” He tossed the bottle in his hand to the ground.
Mephisto had given Setsura the bottle back when he was a vampire. The contents contained a drug that prevented vampiric transformation, something Princess would not have imagined coming into play.
Setsura had never gone anywhere without it, and had drained it down while leaping from the building with Takako, swallowing half and saving the other half for Princess. He’d calculated that playing the bad boy would cause her to lose her temper, and she’d come after him before finishing off Takako.
On a night like this, in a contest like that, fair was foul, and foul fair.
By having his blood taken by Ryuuki, Mephisto had seen a path to perfecting a treatment appropriate to that level of vampire. He’d given it to Setsura instead of using it on himself, perhaps because of the strange world filled with mysterious wonders he saw then through the eyes of a vampire.
Though when it came to this doctor, it was always hard to tell the cart from the horse, whether the desire to become a vampire was principally another way to amass knowledge far beyond human understanding, or the only way to save the soul of Setsura Aki.
In any case, the drug saved Setsura in his moment of extremis, and seared the heart of the Demon Princess. That an anti-vampire compound would prove such a potent poison to this particular vampire was clear from the evidence. Drawn and literally quartered, the body of the Demon Princess showed no signs of reincarnating itself.
“I have to wonder if this will do the job. Maybe if I ground her up and burned her to ashes?” Setsura glanced down at Takako in his arms. “More importantly, taking care of her takes priority. Mephisto or the cops should arrive any minute. I can’t leave Princess here by herself.”
Setsura took a credit card-sized cell phone from the breast pocket of his black shirt.