Page 41 of Lore and Lust
Haruka wasbonded.
Nino sits straighter in his bed, rubbing his palms against his thighs. He looks up. Haruka is sitting in an armchair beside the window. The lighting there gives his milky, almond skin an incandescent quality.
“Who were you bonded to?” Nino asks, thinking it better to start simple.
Haruka leans with his elbow against the arm of the chair, lazily cradling the side of his face with his palm. “Yuna Sasaki. We were betrothed to each other as children through an arrangement between our parents.”
“When were you officially bonded? And for how long?”
“As customary, we mated when we came of age at twenty-one. Our bond lasted ten years.”
Nino nods in understanding. The general practice of formally arranged bonds had died out by the 1970s.
“Only ten years?” Nino asks.Why so short? Did you love her? Did she hurt you?The questions are still frenzied in his mind, all of them desperate to push through to the funnel of his mouth.
“Yes,” Haruka says. “She…” He pauses, his wine eyes focusing on Nino. “How much of this would you like me to explain?”
“As much as you’re comfortable with.”
“I do not wish to bore you with the mundane details of my life.”
“Haru, you never bore me. I wouldneverbe bored with you.”
A little half-smile pulls at the corner of Haruka’s mouth. The subtle gesture makes Nino smile as well in the fleeting moment.
“Yuna had a close friend growing up. Kenta Miyoshi,” Haruka explains. “He was first-generation. Despite their obvious affections for each other, our parents arranged that Yuna would bond with me when we both came of age.”
“Because you were both purebred?” Nino guesses.
“Correct. Yuna’s bloodline is also old like mine, so the pairing was ideal. But as we grew, Yuna and I developed… what I believed was genuine affection for each other. As you know, my parents died when I was twelve. When Yuna and I reached twenty-one, I asked if she truly preferred to form a bond with me over Kenta. Although her parents were still alive, if we wished to sever the arrangement, it was my prerogative to do so.”
“She chose you, even though you gave her an out?”
“Yes,” Haruka breathes. “She expressed her… love… for me, and insisted that I was her choice. So I trusted in that. In her.”
Haruka sits up straighter in the chair, rubbing his palm down his face. His eyes seem far off somewhere as he recalls this situation. Nino gives him another moment before he speaks.
“So what happened?” he asks quietly.
The dark vampire laughs from his throat but the sound is bitter. It isn’t warm and bubbly like usual—the way Nino is accustomed to hearing it.
Dropping his hand into his lap, Haruka smiles weakly. “This is the rather… humiliating part. Later, I realized that Yuna and Kenta had orchestrated many clandestine meetings after she and I had formed our bond. One such meeting resulted in Kenta’s feeding intimately from Yuna. I felt the bond between us break almost instantly—like profound cracks in a foundation.”
“Did you know that something like that could happen? Had you ever heard of it within your research?”
“No.” Haruka rests back against the armchair. “It was the first time I had ever heard of such a situation and I have yet to find anything like it.”
Nino remembers the empty section at the end of theLore and Lustmanuscript.Broken Bonds.When he’d read the words, they hadn’t made sense to him. It was like reading “sober drunk” or “angry peace.” How could these two words exist side by side? It emphasizes how profoundly ingrained the lore of bonding is within the vampire psyche. Within their culture.
“The result of the infidelity,” Haruka says, his deep voice quiet, “was immense pain. A profound shooting, almost stabbing sensation in the depths of my nature within me. We decided to formally absolve our relationship, and for the following six months, my body… very harshly rejected Yuna’s nature from within me. Even with the passing of my parents, perhapsthatwas the most horrific experience of my life. I—I did not think I would survive it. I did not want to… To this day, I truly do not understand why I did.” Haruka brings his fingers to the top of his dark head, twisting his hair as he slumps. He clenches his eyes shut as if he’s still in pain.
Nino quietly crawls off the bed and takes the few steps necessary to reach him. Once there, his friend blinks his lovely eyes open. Nino bends down, placing his palms against the armrests. He leans into Haruka, softly pressing their foreheads together. He closes his eyes. Haruka briefly tenses from his nearness, but as Nino extends the warmth and peace of his aura further outward, Haruka relaxes.
Soon, the dark purebred’s breathing is slow, in perfect rhythm with his own. Nino opens his burning eyes and lifts his head. Haruka’s eyes are still closed, his face calm.
“Are you okay?” Nino asks.
When Haruka opens his eyes they’re glowing scarlet. Beautiful. “I am… My apologies…”
