Love and Blood

Chapter 4 - First Mission Together

Mieko

I wasn't serious when I mentioned being mates to Satoru. I was just teasing him because he drank my blood. The way it works with vampires is different from werewolves because most of us choose our mates. Some vampires are lucky enough to find their fated mate, but it's not that common. When 2 vampires want to become mates, they perform the mating ritual, which is just drinking each other's blood at the same time. But we both have to accept the bond. It won't work if someone forces you to drink their blood.

I haven't thought about having a mate. I would like to have someone by my side, but I feel like it's not the right time yet. I'm still too young to have a mate. Right now I just want to focus on my work. I walk out of the bathroom and head toward the kitchen.

“There you are.” I hear Keiichi say.

I turn around. “Were you looking for me?”

“Yes, father wants us all to have a meal together.”

“Perfect, I was just about to head over to get something to eat.”

I walk into the dining room and see my mom, dad, and Satoru sitting at the table. I take my seat next to Keiichi.

I feel Satoru’s intense gaze throughout the entire meal. I do my best to ignore him, but his presence still makes me uncomfortable.

Just as our meal comes to an end my father clears his throat to grab our attention. We all look at him.

“I’d like to discuss the next mission. Keiichi, Mieko,” My father says sternly.

“Yes, father?” Keiichi and I speak in unison.

“I'm sending you both on a mission together with Satoru. Keiichi I expect you to guide Satoru since it's his first mission. If you successfully complete this mission I might consider sending you both on missions alone more often.”

“When is this mission?” Asks Keiichi.

“Tomorrow you will depart right before sundown.”

“Alright, we won’t let you down father!” I tell father.

My father smiles gently. “I look forward to seeing your results.”

I train the rest of the night, feeling anxious about my first official mission without a senior clan member. Then have a meeting with my father about the mission right before going to bed.

I woke up the next evening pretty early to get ready for the mission. Then head to the living room to wait for Keiichi and Satoru.

“Hey,” Keiichi says as he walks in.

“Hey, are you as excited as I am?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe he gave us a mission without a senior member after what happened.”

“It's almost 6 right? It's about time to head out, what's taking him so long?”

As if on queue Satoru walks in yawning.

“I didn’t think the mission would be this early when your father said before sunset. It's 6 pm!”

“You’d better get used to it. We wake up pretty early for missions a lot of the time.” Keiichi replies.

“Let's get going now the car’s waiting for us upfront.”

We walk out the door and then into the car. We arrived at the location after an hour and a half. We are in the woods near a private high school. The school is in a pretty remote area with the only way to get to town is to take a bus or a car there. A vampire was believed to have attacked students who tried to sneak out at night. They are badly wounded and are currently hospitalized. We believe they are hiding out near the school in the woods.

“The woods are pretty big. How are we going to find the vampire?” I ask Keiichi.

“We’ll need to split up. I’ll search the west side and you and Satoru can search the east side. If you spot them, call me and I’ll head over to you. I’ll let you know if I spot it as well.”

“That sounds good.”

“Remember that our goal is to capture them. But if it's a former human and they get violent, we have permission to kill.”

“Kill?” Satoru questions.

“Yes, that is necessary with those types. They are too far gone many times to save, so it's easier to kill them.” Keiichi explains.

“Yes, there is also no guarantee that they won't kill other humans again,” I say.

“Alright then, let's get to it shall we.” Says Satoru, then grabs my arm and drags me with him.

As we walk deeper into the woods I start to feel nervous being alone with him. But I’ll just have to get used to this. I’m sure with him working for our Clan that we'll be going on many missions together. Honestly being with him makes my first solo mission less exciting.

“Let's pick up the pace a little,” I tell Satoru.

“Good idea. I’ll let you know if I sense something.”

We walk for about 20 minutes, then Satoru tugs on my arm.

“Mieko, I sense something this way.”

I follow his lead then shortly after I see our target. Without a doubt, it's a former human vampire. I immediately take my phone out and then send Keiichi our location. I think we should be able to take care of one with the two of us but just in case.

I prepare my sword to attack and we approach it carefully. I get ready to run over and attack when another vampire appears out of nowhere and pins me down. I throw him off quickly and then defend myself against his next attack. I see Satoru ready to take him down for me and I stop him.

“Satoru, go after the other one before it gets away. I’ll take care of this one.”

“Alright, but be careful.”

“Who do you think you are talking to?”

He runs off toward the other and I try my best to fight back. The vampire has large teeth and claws to defend itself but I fight back with my sword and stay on the defensive till I find an opening and go straight for the kill. I stab the vampire right at its heart and I watch it as it collapses to the ground. As soon as I see it's dead I turn away and head towards Satoru. I am a bit worried since this is his first mission. I quickly see I have nothing to worry about. When I spot Satoru the other vampire is already on the ground dead. He sees me and wipes the blood from his hand and walks toward me.

“Mieko!”

“I killed it. I sent Satoru our location a while ago, he should be here soon.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah I'm fine, I deal with these vampires all the time”

“But that other one came out of nowhere.” Noticing the wound on my arm, he comes closer to me and then grabs my arm to inspect it further. “Sorry, this happened to you.”

“I’m fine, and It’s not your fault,” I say and try to pry my arm away from his grasp but he won't let go. He steps closer and I start feeling nervous.

“But I feel responsible.” He whispers as he looks me in the eyes. My heart starts beating faster and I am caught in his gaze.

I suddenly notice a hungry look in his eyes and he lowers his head and licks my arm. I am startled by his actions and push him away. The realization just dawns on me of our closeness and my face turns red. I look away from him.

“What are you doing!”

“I just wanted to help your wound heal faster.”

“I never gave you permission to do that so don’t ever think of doing that again.”

I storm off angry and embarrassed at what just occurred. I can’t believe I allowed him to get so close. I gave him an opening to taste my blood again. I will not let that happen another time.