Chapter Text
Jeannette was no astronomer - yet - but she was certain the night sky shouldn’t look like that.
It was the same deep blue she knew and loved, but the clouds and stars were all an odd reddish brown, like dingy terracotta tiles, and everything warbled and curved at odd angles. The moon was much larger than she was used to as well, a looming spectre in the distance. It was unsettling.
Almost as unsettling, in fact, as awakening and jerking upright in an unfamiliar bed and room and house had been a few minutes ago.
Looking down from her window, however, she realized house might not be the best word to describe this place. Mansion, maybe, or even castle. The wall outside her window was made up of stones placed and set in a gorgeous spiral pattern that her eyes could have followed for hours. Had the situation been different.
Instead, she was more focused on the fact that her window was fifty metres in the air and overlooking a courtyard with a stone patio. Escape wouldn’t be as simple as breaking the window and jumping out.
Escape because even though her thoughts were hazy, she knew she’d been kidnapped.
She looked around her room. Everything was grey, and there wasn’t much in it. Nothing helpful, at least. Jeannette returned to the bed she’d woken up in and ran her hands across the top. She hadn’t been given any covers or even a blanket, and there was no way she could make herself a long enough rope by tying two sheets together.
No, her sole exit from this room was the door. It wasn’t even locked (she had checked first thing when she’d woken up). Opening the door and running away seemed like the obvious choice… but she had no idea where she was or who had taken her here. This was a hastily put-together guest bedroom and not a cell or basement dungeon or anything like that, at least, but something was still… off. She couldn’t stop glancing out the window at the strange, warbling sky.
Something wasn’t right.
It wasn’t like she had any other options, though, and going out into the unknown felt like a better course of action than waiting for it to come for her. Jeannette pushed open the door and stepped outside.
The door opened into a spiral staircase, and one that was barely lit. It didn’t have a railing, either. She took the steps one by one, and slowly, keeping her hands on the walls. The staircase opened into a hallway, and she squinted at the change in lighting. White walls with grey trim, lined with portraits of people she didn’t recognize. It all looked very elegant.
Jeannette crept through the halls, fighting the urge to open every door in the mansion. Under different, better circumstances, this was the kind of place she could spend hours in, admiring the architecture and exploring room after room after room. But she couldn’t do that. She had to escape and figure out where she was first, because this castle didn’t… look like anything she’d seen before, somehow.
She took a left, and the hallway expanded into the grandest room yet, with another, larger staircase leading down into the foyer, and - most importantly - the entryway. Her exit. She tore down the stairs.
This door wasn’t locked, either. Was she supposed to believe that whoever had kidnapped her hadn’t bothered with any guards or even a lock? What on earth was going on? Jeannette forced the door open and darted out.
Cold air smacked her in the face. She hugged herself and curled inward, shivering as her breath steamed in front of her, misty and glittering in the lamplight that illuminated a grown-over garden. Vines curled over the tops of stone planters, and whatever cobblestones that weren’t completely overgrown with browning mold were uneven beneath her shoes, which made walking difficult. Jeannette cautiously made her way to the edge of the property, marked by a rickety-looking, leaning, rusting iron fence. It creaked - a horrible, grating noise - when she shoved it open, and again even when she tried to be quiet about closing it behind her.
“I suppose it is well-past time for us to oil the gate,” a low voice spoke from behind her. “Not that it would do much good with the oncoming winter.”
She startled and spun around. Long, white hair and blazing yellow eyes. Even though she had only seen him once before she’d - well, she didn’t remember most of it very well, but before she’d been knocked out - she recognized him anyway.
Jeannette eyed where the castle’s yard ended and the woods beyond began. She didn’t know what was out there, or where the next town was, and the man behind her didn’t seem like he was about to attack her. He wasn’t pointing a weapon at her, and he was on the other side of the fence, not making any moves to approach her. Even so… the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck were all standing on end, and every nerve in her body was screaming at her to run. She didn’t understand any of this. Her foot slid in the grass against her wishes, inching toward the treeline.
“Your mother - Maira, was it? - works for the Gardaí*,” the man said. “You plan to find the nearest police station, so you can get in contact with her.”
Her foot had stopped the second he’d mentioned her mother’s name. It was an obvious plan, but the fact that he knew her name was still unsettling, even if he had been in her house. She didn’t have much leverage, but she still had to try to get herself out of this. “If you let me leave, I won’t tell anyone about this.”
“You believe you would be able to find your way home from here?”
“What’s all this about? My family isn’t rich, so you can’t be trying to get a ransom. And my mom… she mostly hands out parking tickets. This can’t be about some grudge.”
“Not against your mother, no.”
“My dad’s a doctor. I don’t-”
“This is not about your family. Or you. And I do not owe you an explanation. I will tell you, however, that you will never make it to a police station should you choose to run, and that there will be consequences if you attempt to.”
Jeannette eyed the man. He was barely taller than she was, and even though she couldn’t gauge how muscular he was through his clothes, he clearly wasn’t ripped. And she could get a head start. And even if there weren’t any police stations around, there had to be someone nearby that would help her out. She would rather take her chances.
Jeannette snuck a glance at the woods, trying to gauge how far she would have to run to lose him in the forest, and her breath hitched in her throat.
Dozens, maybe hundreds of pairs of glowing yellow eyes speckled the treeline. She couldn’t even count all of them. She stood, frozen in place, and one pair of eyes moved, and a wolf stalked out of the woods, haunches raised and teeth bared. Her mother had told her that she should stand her ground if a nasty-looking dog approached her, but… she didn’t know wolves were this big. Her legs felt both stiff and wobbly at the same time.
“We have given them orders to rip your legs off if you run,” he said, suddenly at her side. “Would you still rather take your chances?”
No, she wouldn’t. Jeannette shook her head and allowed him to usher her back through the fence. It squeaked when he tugged it open, and again when it closed behind them, and she realized she hadn’t heard anything before he’d appeared next to her near the woods. She tried to keep a good distance between him as they walked back to the mansion, eyeing him warily.
Another man, or maybe she could even call this one a boy, was waiting for them in the doorway, grinning (she recognized him from her house as well, from his bizarre outfit and the mean way his face looked). “You look terrible, sweetheart. Did you not sleep well, or did our familiars just scare you?”
Jeannette tensed up, catching malice in his tone. Thankfully, the older man spoke before she had to. “She would be a fool not to be scared.”
“Of course, nii-san,” the younger man said. Was that… Japanese? He opened the door for them as they approached, and warm light flooded into the garden, bringing out his single eye. It was also an unnatural gold, and as Jeannette studied his face, she noticed that his pupil was a slit. His grin widened as he met her gaze. “The real question, however, is whether they scared her enough.”
“I will not concern myself with that.” The other man was staring at the back of her head, she was sure of it, but she couldn’t force herself to check. “She knows what the stakes are. Her legs, her choice.”
His companion laughed - an awful, harsh sound - and closed the door behind them. “And what else does she know?”
“Does she need to know anything else?”
“No, but I think it would be fun to fill her in on a few things.”
“Um…” Jeannette stammered, fumbling for words as she took a few steps away from them and put her back against a wall. “I’d like that, i-if you would.”
The older man stared at her for a moment, and then sighed. “I suppose. This castle is called Banmaden. I am Carla Tsukinami, and this is my younger brother, Shin.”
They knew more about her than just her name, clearly, so there was no need for her to introduce herself. “Okay. And… if I’m allowed to ask… where is Banmaden, exactly…?”
Shin didn’t skip a beat. “The demon world.”
She squinted back at him. Was he… messing with her? “Is that, erm… outside Ulster, or…?”
“Ulster?” He raised a brow.
“It is one of the four provinces of Ireland,” Carla explained to his brother.
“Ah, human geography,” Shin muttered, rolling his eyes. Or eye. He looked annoyed. “You’re not in Ireland anymore, sweetheart, or even Europe. The demon world is its own thing.”
“What do you mean by that?” Jeannette asked, pressing into the wall. He had said ‘human’ almost as if… he didn’t want to include himself in that category. Her heart thrummed in her chest.
“It isn’t a place you humans can just go to,” Shin explained, obviously enjoying her discomfort. “You need someone from here to get through one of the entrances. In or out.”
“Uhm. Okay. But… actually, though.”
“He speaks the truth.”
“That’s… it sounds crazy.” She searched for a sign that either brother was joking, and found none. “What he just said implies that you aren’t… human.”
“Which is accurate,” Carla said.
These two were dead serious, Jeannette realized. She clutched at the fabric of her skirt. “Then… what are you?”
“We’re the founders,” Shin said.
“I don’t know what that means.” And, come to think of it, she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know what it meant, because these two sounded like nutcases. Knowing would still be helpful, though. “And… what’s going on? Why am I here?”
Carla exhaled, sharply, through his nose as his eyes narrowed to slits. “I do not appreciate your tone. I suppose a history lesson would be to all our benefits. Our family settled here thousands of years ago, and became the foundation of the realm of demons. From us, other clans formed. You humans… you call members of those clans ‘vampires,’ I believe.”
Jeannette couldn’t think of anything to say. He couldn’t be serious. “You’re saying that you two are vampires.”
“No.” Carla’s voice, controlled as it was, was still so cold that she cringed. “We are founders. Vampires are impure descendants of our kind.”
“So… can you please explain to me what the difference is?” she asked, meekly.
“We’re better than they are,” Shin replied.
Jeannette tilted her head. He looked about as serious as a boy in pirate getup could look. Then and there, Jeannette decided that, one, she had been kidnapped by complete and total lunatics, and two, that she should have taken her chances with the wolves. The door was still… right there, after all, and who was to say that they hadn’t been lying about the woods?
She wasn’t quite there yet, though. “Do I get to know what’s going on?”
Shin glanced over at Carla with big, hopeful eyes, and scowled at his brother’s expression. “You don’t.”
So these two had kidnapped her and expected her to believe that they were super-vampires. And she wasn’t supposed to ask questions. Her hunch had been correct - they were complete lunatics. The woods were sounding better and better by the minute.
There was, however, as much as she hated to admit it… something off about these guys. They were both staring at her, and their eyes, odd as they already were, looked too bright to be the products of colored contacts. They almost looked as if they were… glowing. And her thoughts kept circling back to how quietly Carla had approached her outside. How he’d suddenly just been there.
Crazy as these two obviously were, crazier still was her inclination to almost… believe them.
“Do you have any other questions?” Carla asked, in a way that made it clear he wasn’t about to give her any answers.
Jeannette realized her jaw was slack, which probably wasn’t doing her any favours. She closed her mouth and shook her head.
“Good. If you think of anything else, questions or otherwise, please feel free to approach Shin about it.” Carla gestured to his brother, who looked anything but approachable. In fact, Shin looked rather nasty at the moment. Before she could think of a polite way of asking if there was anyone else she could direct her questions to, however, Carla walked away. His heels, clicking against the tiles, sounded much louder in the awkward silence that followed his leave.
Jeannette turned to Shin. He didn’t seem very nice, but at least he was… slightly more open to questions than his brother, it seemed. Even if he had taken a bit too much enjoyment in relishing her discomfort a few minutes ago.
“Your brother…” she stammered, fumbling for words that wouldn’t potentially upset him. “He seems… busy.”
“Nii-san works hard,” Shin agreed. His forehead wrinkled, and then he smiled. “He says humans eat three times a day. You haven’t eaten once yet. You’re probably hungry, aren’t you?”
His smile didn’t reach his eyes, and that made her nervous. “I… uh… sure?”
He clapped his hands together in front of his chest. “I’ll make you something!”
“Oh, you don’t need to…” she started, but he was already dashing off. She frowned, but decided to follow him. Shin turned a corner and vanished, and when she finally caught up to where he had disappeared, there was nobody there. It was just an empty corridor.
Jeannette swallowed, but crept forward, opening doors as she came to them. Every room was empty. There was no way he could have ran the whole length of the hallway before she got there. There was probably… a shortcut that she didn’t know existed. If she was going to be staying here for a while (she still wasn’t sure whether she wanted to chance the woods or not), she might as well figure this place out. She circled back and walked into the first room.
It was a library. Hundreds upon hundreds of books filled shelves that covered every inch of wall space and stretched all the way to the ceiling. And everything was color-coordinated. The shelf closest to her was red, and the book covers bled into oranges and yellows in a gentle, perfect gradient. It looked very nice, but it couldn’t have been very practical, with a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales sitting next to Macbeth and… a book on M.C. Escher, whoever that was.
There were a couple of chairs in the centre of the library surrounding a coffee table, which had a few piles of books on it. All history books, most of them on the Hungarian Revolution. Very dry-looking. She opened the first book on the pile, which had a page on Transylvania all marked up and annotated with pen. More Japanese. A sinking feeling began to weigh down her stomach.
“Hope you aren’t allergic to peanuts,” Shin said.
Jeannette startled and dropped the book, and it tumbled to the floor. She snatched it up and set it back on the table, more than a little flustered. He and his brother moved so quietly. “Thank you.”
“You’re snooping.” It was an observation, not an accusation, which made it worse. “You shouldn’t do that.”
She thought that kidnapping was the worse offense, but didn’t dare say that to his face. “Sorry.”
“Well, whatever. Just don’t do it again. Here, come and get your dinner before it gets cold.”
He had literally toasted a slice of bread and put peanut butter on it. She didn’t have to feel guilty about having him prepare something especially for her, she supposed, but she couldn’t help but wonder what they would be feeding her here now that he’d brought her… this.
Shin must have noticed her expression, because he clicked his tongue in annoyance. “What, do you have something against crunchy?”
“No, I’m fine. It’s fine. Thanks for making me… dinner.”
“It’s going to get cold,” he said, face pouty as he shoved the plate into her hands.
She almost wanted to apologize, but he looked really… expectant. She supposed he must really want her to try his creation and praise him for it. Which, if her hunch was right, was… kind of pathetic. It was just peanut butter on toast. Ridiculous as this was, she should try to keep him happy. Jeannette forced a smile and lifted the toast to her mouth.
His hand shot out in a flash of movement too quick for her eyes to follow, and Shin smashed the toast into her face.
Jeannette shrieked and swatted his hand away. Globs of paste and peanuts stuck to her face as the bread peeled away, and it felt disgusting. Oily and gooey. Furiously, she wiped her face. Shin was laughing like he’d never seen anything funnier, and her face heated up. “Why would you do that?”
She knew the answer before he said it. “We’re even now.”
“I only got dal on you because… because…!” Because he’d been in her house, and she was home alone, and she’d been convinced he was going to abduct her. Which he had! Her smashing her dinner into his face had been justified! “That was unnecessary and mean!”
“Mean? Is that the best you can do?” he taunted.
Jeannette ground her teeth together. She didn’t want to deal with him anymore; she’d had enough of weirdos for the day! For forever! She began to stomp off, but he grabbed her wrist. She flinched. His hand was really, really cold.
“Hey, you haven’t eaten your dinner yet.”
She looked from him, to the sad piece of toast crumpled against the floor (she was pretty sure she had stepped on it), and back to him again. “I’m not hungry anymore. I’m going to go wash my dinner off of my face.”
His grip tightened, and she winced. He was stronger than he looked. “I took time out of my day, took my peanut butter out of my peanut butter jar, to make you - an insignificant human! - dinner. You’re going to eat it.”
Jeannette tried to tug her hand away, but couldn’t do it. “It’s on the floor.”
“That isn’t my problem,” he sneered. “You should’ve grabbed it before it fell.”
“I’m not going to eat that.” Jeannette grabbed his hand and tried to wrench it off of her arm. “Let go of me.” Even prying with all her strength, she couldn’t get his fingers to twitch, and, worse still, he didn’t even seem to need to try to keep his hold on her! “Let go!”
One single golden eye bored into hers, and his hand tightened, again. “You aren’t scared enough yet.”
Jeannette winced at the pressure around her wrist. She was plenty scared! She just didn’t want to eat trampled toast off of the floor! Her dignity was at stake! “Let go of me. Please, I just want to go back upstairs! I’m sorry about the dal!”
Shin’s free arm looped back around her neck, and his hand fisted fabric and hair. The next thing she knew, they were both on the floor, and he was smearing her face into the toast. “Eat it.”
He was all but on top of her, and she couldn’t move. At all. His body was solid and immovable, like stone, and just as cold, and her wrist was throbbing. There was peanut butter up her nose and all over her face and on her clothes, and she couldn’t move, and he wasn’t going to let her go until she ate this sad, grimy piece of toast off of the floor.
Everything came crashing down all at once, and Jeannette started to cry.
If anything, the crying made things worse, because now she had her face pressed into a crumbling, soggy piece of toast, but she couldn’t help it! This was all too much! She was stuck in an unfamiliar castle in the middle of wolf-infested woods with a couple of unhinged lunatics, and she had no idea what was going on!
Above her, Shin made a noise in his throat that sounded suspiciously like a growl. “You won’t eat it?”
“I can’t.” He had her pinned so well that she couldn’t have tilted her head to choke down the toast had she wanted to. “I’m sorry about the d-dal. I w-won’t bother you guys with any questions. I d-don’t know what you guys want with me, but I won’t get in your way. I promise! So please … let go of me.”
“You don’t get to make demands of me,” Shin snarled, tugging her head back. Jeannette stared up at him, wide-eyed and flushed, feeling more afraid than she’d ever felt in her entire life, all because of this mean boy who was wearing pirate clothes. He grinned down at her. “I guess you look pathetic enough already, though.”
She absolutely did. There were tears and snot trails and chunks of crunchy peanut butter sliding down her face, and she just wanted Ammi to break down the door and take her home, where she could shower and put on warm pajamas and crawl into bed and forget that all of this ever happened.
But Ammi didn’t break down the door. Nobody did. Instead, Shin somehow managed to make everything worse by dragging her closer to him and licking peanut butter off of her fingers. The only thing that kept her from smacking him was the overwhelming terror that constricted her chest and sent patches of goose pimples streaking across her flesh.
“You actually taste pretty good,” Shin said, once her fingers were clean and she was thoroughly and completely disturbed. “That’s a high compliment, especially from a founder. You should be honored.”
A small part of Jeannette wanted to scream that of course she tasted good, she was covered in peanut butter, but mostly, she just wanted to curl into a ball and be done with all of this.
Shin dragged her closer still, and she heard the ripping of fabric, and a sharp pain nettled her shoulder. Jeannette sobbed, but his arms around her back were a vice, and she knew there was nothing she could do to get away from him. She could hear him… gulping, and before long her shoulder was numb and prickly. This was happening. He was sucking her blood. This was…
Jeannette quivered in Shin’s arms, in the unfamiliar mansion, in the unfamiliar woods, in this new, awful, unfamiliar… world, and Shin drank and drank until she was dizzy and nauseous. Then he leaned back, and she saw blood - her blood - smeared around his lips, and she knew that everything - every single crazy, unbelievable thing that they had told her - was real.
She’d always been squeamish around blood. And now she was here.
Black spots peppered her vision, and Jeannette tumbled down.