Yuuki Cross\\\'s earliest memory is of being attacked by a vampire and saved by Kaname Kuran, also a vampire. Ten years later, Yuuki and a vampire hunter, Zero Kiryu attend Cross Academy as school guardians protecting the \\\"Day Class\\\" and the \\\"Night Class\\\" from each other to keep vampires secret. The story follows Yuuki\\\'s discovery that her childhood friend, Zero, has spent the last four years trying to fight his transformation into a vampire, and he has finally succumbed. Yuuki struggles to help Zero fight his bloodlust and to recover her own lost memories, while suspecting that Kaname knows more than he is saying.

When his uncle, Rido Kuran, returns to kill Yuuki, Kaname is forced to reveal her secret by biting Yuuki and awakening her true nature as a vampire, returning her memories of being Yuuki Kuran, his younger sister. Rido is killed by Zero and Yuuki while Kaname faces and destroys Rido\\\'s allies, the Vampire Council, revealing himself to be one of the original vampires and the founder of the Kuran clan. Yuuki and Zero part as enemies after Zero reveals he intends to end everything, by killing all purebloods, even her. Yuuki leaves with Kaname and they return to the Kuran family home.

The story restarts a year later with Yuuki\\\'s dealing with vampire society and new enemies, as well as her craving for Zero\\\'s blood. Zero has spent his time hunting and now is offered the leadership of the Hunter Association, that he\\\'s going to represent at the first meeting with the vampires. Yuuki sees Zero for the first time since the incident, but he turns away. Pureblood Sara Shirabuki\\\'s fiance is found murdered by a hunter she later confesses to Ichijou she had transformed and commanded as well as her wish to become queen. Yuuki comes to her own conclusions and announces that if any vampire wishes to die, she herself would kill them, so that they need not change a hunter. She is attacked, but saved by Zero and taken away by Kaname, who reveals that he is not her brother, but the founder of the Kuran family after the rise of the vampires 10.000 years ago, the result of a cataclysmic event. Also, the hunters are the result of a female pureblood\\\'s sacrificing herself.