Tenzin was a bit less pleased about Korra's new acquisition, and Tahno shrank back against the wall, waiting for his fate to be decided. They took the discussion into another room, but of course he could hear it perfectly through the walls. He rather wished he couldn't.

"Korra, I respect your compassion, but I have children in this house to look after," Tenzin was saying. "Can't you help him some other way?"

"How, by just leaving him in the gutter to die? Look at the state he's in. He was even worse off when I found him."

"Why was he worse? Korra, tell me you didn't let him…."

"Yeah, why shouldn't I? I'm strong enough to give a little blood. It doesn't do me any damage, and probably saved his life."

"You can't provide for him all by yourself."

"I'll find other people to help, then. Or find places to buy blood, I don't know."

"No, you don't know, Korra, you don't think these things through. You just bring a hungry vampire into a house with children."

"He's not going to hurt the kids, Tenzin."

"How do you know that?"

"Because he's still…in there. I saw it. I know he was kind of a jerk to begin with, but he isn't a murderer."

Tenzin sighed. "I've lived in Republic City most of my life," he said, "and in the council I've seen a lot of police reports. Vampires have been an ongoing problem. Oh, they seem nice to your face, they'll tell you they'd never hurt anyone, and next thing you know there's a trail of bodies, and they're in jail crying about how they didn't want to. You can't trust them, Korra."

"Well, maybe if people actually helped them, they wouldn't be driven to desperation."

"So it's the fault of living people? Korra, you sound like Amon."

"No, I'm not saying that vampires are better than us or that anyone should ever be turned, or whatever other horrible, crazy things Amon says. Just that maybe there is something we can do on our end to make things better on both sides."

"He can stay in the basement," Tenzin said at length. "No one else is to know he's here—if it were known I was harboring a vampire, as a councilman, there would be consequences. And I want the door locked from the outside. He can come out when you're there to watch him, and I expect you to take full responsibility for everything he does."

"All right, Dad, I'll walk him and feed him and everything." A laugh, and a shift in the floorboards—Tahno thought maybe she hugged Tenzin. They came back into the room with him. "Good news, you can stay," Korra said.

"Yeah. I know," Tahno said.

"Oh, you heard all that, huh," Korra said.

"Couldn't really help it."

"So you know about the lock on the door," Tenzin said. "Are you all right with that?"

"Sounds like a sensible precaution," Tahno said.

They took him down to the basement. It was dank and unused, but they brought reed mats and a bedroll down for him. Tenzin left, but Korra stayed a few minutes. She talked about what had been going on—the revelation that Hiroshi Sato had been turned to save his life after the Agni Kai attack that killed his wife and left him near death, that he had hidden his condition from everyone, including his own daughter, even gradually dyeing his hair gray to imitate age, and told him that Asami Sato and her two teammates were also staying with her on the island, or had been, until their arrest.

Tahno smiled wryly. "Quite a collection of lost souls you're gathering," he said.

"Just people hurt by Amon who want to help me stop him," she said. "Well, I should go to bed, I'm going with Tenzin to the police station first thing in the morning."

"One more thing, Korra," he said.

"Yes?"

"I don't…really know how this works yet," he said. "But if I start acting, you know, more like a monster than a person…just consider me already dead, and do the right thing, okay?"

Korra was silent a moment. "Do you want to die, Tahno?"

"If I said yes, would you do it?"

"I…I don't know. I'd have to hear more of your reasons."

"I think you already know them."

"Yeah, but…this is all really new, right? You should give it a chance, to…."

"To what? See if it gets better? It's permanent. Amon killed me. There's no taking that back. I'll never be normal again, never bend again, I'll never even be able to be around people like a normal fucking person."

"I was going to say, to see if it's manageable."

He closed his eyes. "I don't actually want to die. I want this nightmare to end, I want to wake up in my bed on a nice, sunny day, and just have this whole thing have never happened. But I can't have that. So I don't know what I want that I can actually have." He shuddered involuntarily. He did know one thing he wanted, and she was standing right in the room with him. He couldn't stop thinking about her blood. But I don't want to want that.

"I'd hug you, but that'd just torture you more, wouldn't it?" she said.

"Yeah," he said. "Not a good idea. Thanks for the thought, though."

She walked up the stairs, closed the door, and he heard the click of the lock sliding into place, then something else rattling and clanking. Chains, sounded like. Probably silver. Couldn't be too careful.

Normally, being locked in somewhere would seem stressful to him, but this time it actually came as a relief. He curled up in the bed, pulling the blanket around himself, and was able to sleep.

For a vampire, his internal clock seemed pretty messed up. Sleeping at night, and waking up sometime in the day…. He knew it was day somehow from the almost imperceptible bits of light that made it through the occasional crack in the floorboards and under the door. It wasn't near enough to bother him, and plenty to see by, and he found himself very glad of the sturdy temple between him and the bright sun. He got up and paced a bit, but he still felt tired and sore, so he lay back down in bed, listening to the sounds of people going about their business above, catching the occasional fragments of conversation, and generally trying not to think too hard about how hungry he was or how his life had all gone so terribly wrong. He wondered how Ming and Shaozu were coping. He hoped they'd found someplace to buy blood with their share of the winnings.

The hours scraped by, almost as slow as they had in jail. Finally, he heard the rattling of the chains being pulled off his door, and the lock being turned, and he saw Korra in the doorway, squinting blindly into what, to her, must have been complete darkness.

"Tahno?"

"Hey, Korra."

"Oh, there you are. I can just see the glow of your eyes. Hold on a sec." She stepped away from the doorway a moment, and he thought that if he'd wanted to escape, he could do so easily. Instead, he waited in bed. She returned with a lamp that was so bright he flinched and shielded his eyes.

"Oh, sorry," Korra said. "Do you need me to put it out?"

"It's fine. I'll adjust to it in a moment," he said. "Only an idiot would go into a dark basement with a hungry vampire."

She made a little fire with her free hand. "I've always got light if I really need it," she said. She sat down next to him on the bedroll, and he looked away, hyper-aware of her presence, and trying not to be.

"Chief Saikhan wouldn't let my friends go," Korra said. "I'm going to have a talk with Tarrlok in person. Maybe I can talk some sense into him."

"Do you want company?" he asked.

"Sorry, I know you must be bored down here, but that wouldn't be a good idea. He'd just use my association with you against me, and against Tenzin if he found out you were staying here."

"All right," he said. It did make sense. And truth to be told, he still didn't trust himself outside. He'd caught himself having a fantasy about Korra letting him drink Tarrlok's blood to intimidate him, even helping hold Tarrlok down. No. That's not how it works, he told himself sternly.

Korra pulled off her leather brace again, revealing a bandage under it, and Tahno's fangs extended in anticipation. He'd never imagined the sight of a used bandage could excite him so much. Really gross, Tahno, he told himself. She pulled the bandage off, and though his hunger was not lessened, he was struck by something else, looking at those ugly little holes in her lovely, strong arm.

He took her hand and ran his finger over the wounds. "Your poor arm," he said. "It's going to get full of holes."

"I can take it. You want it, don't you?"

He wanted it so much he could cry, if he weren't trying so hard to hold it back. There was a tremor in his chest as if his heart wanted to beat. For an answer, he bent down to kiss her arm, licked the spot, and sunk his teeth in.

It was every bit as good as it had been last time, if slightly less urgent. He closed his eyes, letting her warm blood fill him. He felt like he could just stay here forever, content.

"That's enough, Tahno," she said, stroking his head gently.

This time he heard her, and broke away. He was glad of the blanket partially covering him, as it seemed that erections just came with the territory.

"That's good," she said. "You're getting more control."

"Yes, well, don't bite the hand that feeds you, in a manner of speaking," he said. He watched her bandage her arm. "I wish I could do that without putting so many holes in you," he said. "I'd use the same ones, but I don't think that's good for you either."

"It's okay," Korra said. "I can't seem to heal them with waterbending, but they don't really hurt very much. I noticed, you always lick before you bite."

"Oh," Tahno said. He realized that he did. "It's just sort of, I don't know, instinct." And it tastes good, and lets me know where to bite. "If it's gross, I can stop."

"Actually, I was doing research on it, and that's probably why it hurts so little when you do it. There's an anesthetic on your tongue, or in your saliva or something."

"Oh," he said again. "Amon didn't do that for me. No wonder it hurt like a bitch."

"I just thought it was neat that you knew to do that."

Neat. Hah. "I didn't even really know why I was doing it."

"That just makes it neater. Here, I cut my finger today," she said, holding it out. He could see that it was scabbed already. "I could have just healed it, but I wanted to test this. Would you mind?"

He took her finger into his mouth, running his tongue over the cut. His fangs hadn't retracted yet, and weren't likely to with him doing this, but he was careful not to cut her on them. How does she taste so good, he wondered to himself. That cannot possibly be legal.

Her finger slid out of his mouth, and she looked at it, pleased. "It really does work! Thanks, that's great."

"Glad to be of service. Let me know if there's anything else you want licked," he said.

She punched him in the arm playfully. "Glad to see you're doing better."

He was, a bit. He didn't think he could ever stop being hungry, but it was verging on bearable, or maybe he was just getting used to it, and his arms were completely healed from the silver. The bite mark on his neck, however, was as raw and painful as ever. He wondered if his own saliva would work on it.

"I have to go now, but is there anything you need down here? Should I leave the lamp? I'm sorry, I just left you in the dark all day."

"It's fine," he said. "I wouldn't use it. The dark feels…better." It felt strange to even call it dark. It was bright light that made it hard to see. "I wouldn't mind a book, though," he said.

"What, you can see well enough to read without the lamp?" Korra said dubiously. "Are you having me on?"

"Yeah, I can see fine," he said. "Actually, if you could manage it, I'd love a heater," he said. "The dark is great, but it gets cold down here."

She put her hand on his forehead, and he couldn't help but lean into it. Ugh, it really is like when I'm drunk, he thought. Everything she does just feels so nice. "Well, of course I'm a bit warmer now," he said, "considering I just fed."

"Actually, you're as cold as ice," she said. "I can get you some more blankets before I go."

He shook his head. "Doesn't seem to help."

"I see," she said. "Well, I'll come back in a moment with some books, anyway, and then I have to go talk to Tarrlok. I'll come back and tell you how it went."

"Okay," he said.

"And I really would love to take you with me sometime. I bet you'd be pretty handy to have around."

"How so?" he asked. It seemed like she'd have to watch her back for him all the time, and that would be detrimental rather than advantageous.

"Well, you have magic painkilling spit, for one. And you're probably good in a fight."

"I don't know," he said. "Without my bending…."

"But you're strong. Scary strong," she said. "And you can see in pitch darkness, that's a heck of an advantage."

"Until I'm completely blinded by the headlights of a Satomobile," he said. "Or made entirely useless by the sun coming up."

"We do most of our patrolling at night, anyway. And you'd probably be immune to chi-blocking."

He hadn't really thought about that. There wasn't much of anything left to take. He supposed that was sort of like an advantage. "I wonder if their electric gloves would do anything to you," she said.

"Well, if you find one, by all means test it out on me," he said. "Better yet, why not just wire a Satomobile battery to my nipples, I've been bored and my life isn't awful enough yet."

"Sorry," Korra said. "Well, anyway, see you soon." She ran out, came back a moment later to give him a book, and left. He heard the lock turn, and the chains clinking over the door.

He looked at the book. Love Amongst the Dragons. She probably hadn't even glanced at the title, and had just grabbed it from one of the girls he'd heard upstairs. Most people would probably laugh at the idea of giving a jock like him a romance novel, but actually, it was one of his favorites, and he must have read it a dozen times before. He put it down next to the bed.

He would read it in a few minutes, but first, that erection had been terribly demanding, and he hadn't been able to do anything about it with her there. He started stroking it, letting the comforting feeling wash over him. At least some things haven't changed. His mind began to wander in fantasy, but everything he thought of was tinged with pain. His adoring groupies—no, don't think about that. His teammates—certainly not, and he pushed the thought away hard, not wanting to dwell on what they might be feeling now. There wasn't a single memory of a sexual exploit he'd had that he could look back on happily from where he was now. He'd even loved to use his waterbending in the act, and thinking about that now just made him want to cry again.

The image of Korra came to mind, and he welcomed it. She was beautiful, of course, and what she didn't know about wouldn't hurt her. He began to fantasize about what she might look like naked, but the fantasy took a rather undesired turn from there. Instead of making love to her, he found himself biting her, drowning in the taste of her blood. He wanted to stop the fantasy right then and there, but it was actually working, and his body responded eagerly. His fangs, which had retracted around the time Korra had left, sprang back into his mouth. He indulged the fantasy resentfully, and came hard.

Except…. Still reeling in the afterglow, Tahno felt about in his pants for where the semen should be. That had been a hell of an orgasm, but he didn't feel anything there. He pushed the blankets off and pulled his pants down to examine himself. There was hardly anything there, just a faint trickle of blood from the tip of his cock. Disgusted, he touched the blood and sniffed his finger. It didn't smell like semen, or exactly like blood either, but it was salty, like his tears had been.

Tahno fell back onto the bed. So much for some things staying the same. He wiped his fingers off on his pants, and picked up the book, letting the familiar words comfort him, take him back to a simpler time. He tried not to think about how he was reading it in nearly complete darkness.

Some things must stay the same, surely, he thought.

Korra didn't come back in a few hours, and Tahno dozed off. She must have been tired, he reasoned. Besides, he'd understand if she didn't want to come back down here. He'd been called creepy before all this happened.

Morning rolled around, and he dozed through it, until the sound of the chains moving on his door woke him up. He sat up in bed, looking forward to seeing Korra again, but the person who opened the door was very much not Korra. He recognized her firebending teammate, Mako, with a plume of fire in each hand, lighting up the whole room. Oh, he thought blearily, I guess talking to Tarrlok must have worked. Good for her.

Mako stormed across the room, making Tahno look away from the light. Putting out the fire in one hand, he grabbed the front of Tahno's shirt, and held him against the wall, a fistful of fire held ready to strike. "What did you do with her, you sniveling little turd," he snarled.

"What?" Tahno said blankly, giving the flame in Mako's hand a worried look. "What's this about?"

"Don't give me that, you know what this is about. What did you do with Korra?"

"Do with her? She came down last night and we talked." Behind Mako, he could see the other Fire Ferret, Councilman Tenzin, a girl he guessed was the Sato heiress, and Chief Beifong—no, ex-Chief, he remembered Korra had told him—searching the room with bright lamps. "You must've seen her last, she went to try to get you out of jail," he said.

"I got them out of jail," Beifong said. "Korra was down here last night? What exactly did you do?"

"Like I said, we talked," Tahno said.

"Just talked?" Mako said. "I find that unlikely."

Tahno sighed. "Fine, yes, she fed me a little too," he said, knowing that looked bad, and seeing Mako's features harden. "It was on the level though, I swear," he said. "She left here fine. What could I have done, anyway? I've been locked in a basement this whole time."

"Is he telling the truth?" Tenzin asked Beifong.

"How should I know?" Beifong said. "I can't read vampires. No pulse." Her eyes narrowed. "But when it comes to missing people, they're usually lying."

Mako brought the flame to Tahno's face, and Tahno began to tremble. "Wait," Tenzin said. "Naga is gone too. That doesn't fit with a vampire's M.O." He turned to Tahno. "Did she say where she was going?"

"Yes, and I'd be happy to tell you if you'd kindly stop singing my hair off," he said, and Mako released him roughly. "Thank you," Tahno said, touching his hair. "I have no idea if this will grow back."

"Tell us where she went," Mako said.

"She went to see Tarrlok, to get him to release you," he said.

"Tarrlok," Tenzin repeated.

"You believe him?" Mako said, looking at Tahno with disgust.

"He does have a point," Tenzin said. "He was locked in here all day. And there isn't any sign of damage anywhere. I don't see how he could have gotten out."

They turned to leave. "Wait," Tahno said, and they all looked back at him, their glares seeming to cut through him.

"You remember something else you did to her?" Mako said, sneering.

"No, I…I want to help."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Tenzin said. "You should stay right here where you're safe."

"But I can track her," he insisted. "None of you have a nose like mine."

"It's broad daylight," Beifong said.

"I don't care," Tahno said. "Since Amon did this to me, Korra's been the only person who actually cared what happened to me. If she needs my help now, I'll do whatever I can."

"What do you think?" Tenzin asked Beifong dubiously.

"He's not kidding about that nose," Beifong said. "It may be our best hope of finding her."

Tenzin nodded, and Tahno came along with them. He stumbled as he got outside, blinded by the daylight. They got into a Satomobile, the Sato girl driving. He didn't fail to notice that it was rather crowded, and took the seat by the door so at least he wouldn't have anyone pressing on him on one side. On the other side, he had Mako, and awkwardly tried not to breathe in his scent or listen to the blood in his veins too much.

It was rather humiliating, actually, to be near someone who completely hated him, whom he rather hated in return, and still want his body in a visceral way.

"Mako, put your scarf over his eyes," the Sato girl said.

"What? I'm not giving him my scarf. You…you know why."

"Do you want to find Korra or not?" she said.

Mako groaned. "Do not get anything on this, okay?" Tahno felt the silk wrap around his face, and relaxed slightly at the reduction of light, though the thing was absolutely steeped in Mako's scent.

"Do you ever wash this thing?" Tahno said. "It reeks of your sweat." Reeks wasn't exactly the word he was thinking, but it wouldn't do to let the bastard know he liked it a little too much.

"He doesn't let me do it with the laundry," Bolin said.

"Fantastic," Tahno said. "My nose might just commit suicide before we get there."

"So give me my scarf back," Mako said.

Tahno put his hands over the scarf. "Nope, still better than the sunlight."

"We didn't bring you for your eyes, though," Mako said. "I don't really care if the sun burns them out. Will you be able to track her or not?"

"Yes, yes, it was just a joke," Tahno said. "I see you were waiting on the wrong line the day they were handing out a sense of humor."

"Yeah, I was on the line for how not to be a dick."

"They must have run out before it was your turn. What a shame."

"Stop bickering like little children," Beifong said. "This is serious. If the Avatar has been kidnapped by a Councilman…."

"I know," Mako said, sobering.

They drove on mostly in silence, Tahno only occasionally squirming uncomfortably from the sun on his skin and his proximity to Mako. He could feel the heat of Mako's leg now through his pants, and it was getting incredibly distracting. When the Satomobile stopped, he was the first one out.

Of course, he couldn't actually see where he was going, and startled slightly when someone took his hand. He took a breath to see who it was. "Thank you, Miss Sato," he said.

"Asami is fine," she replied.

She guided him along the sidewalk, and told him when to step as they climbed the stairs. "My father hid his vampirism from me for years," she said, "but when I look back now, I can see the signs. He went out in sunlight enough times, to allay suspicion, but there were these little moments when he'd seem disoriented, or trip…. I didn't think anything of it at the time."

"Well, if his experience of daylight is anything like mine, I'm impressed," Tahno said. "I don't think I could fake it."

"My father is a very self-possessed man," she said. "I…I don't even know what to think. Of course I'm against Amon's agenda and what he did to you. But knowing him so intimately…I also know he wasn't a monster just because he was a vampire."

"So you don't think I'm a monster, Asami?"

"I think any human can be a monster if they choose to be. Vampires are no different."

"Heh," Tahno said. He didn't think he could buy that. Whatever he'd been before, he'd never been at risk of choosing to eat someone. Let alone thinking about biting someone like this very nice young lady who was helping him. He could feel her pulse in her palm. He really wasn't at all picky, but he quite liked her, more than usual, and he knew that made him dangerous to her. "Maybe you should tell your boyfriend that," he said.

"He's had very different experiences with vampires on the streets," Asami said. "I can't really say his experiences are wrong either."

They entered the building, and Tahno heard Tenzin confronting Tarrlok, and Tarrlok denying it in front of the other councilmembers. He took a few deep breaths, navigating around the overwhelming scent of Mako's scarf and the lovely girl next to him, and stiffened.

"He's lying," Tahno said suddenly. "I can smell her all over him."

"What?" Mako demanded.

"What's this, then?" Tarrlok said. "Your little vampire friend here must be mistaken. He's probably picking the scent up off one of you, you've all spent time with her."

"No, I'm sure of it," Tahno said, stepping forward. "It's all over you."

"Well, yes, the Avatar did come in to talk, but she left perfectly fine—"

"She was afraid," Tahno said. "He…he reeks of her fear." Once again, reeks was a word he'd selected to save face, rather than admit to finding the scent of Korra's fear disturbingly arousing, at the same time as what it might mean chilled him. He pushed the thought aside. He was a vampire, he was programmed to like fear a little too much. It didn't mean anything.

"Surely you're not going to take this vampire's word over mine," Tarrlok said to the rest of the council. "You know their kind aren't very trustworthy. And look at him, hand-in-hand with the daughter of that Sato traitor. Why is he even out and about outside of Dragon Flats?"

"I have to get my exercise before curfew, don't I?" Tahno said bitterly. "And I think I can prove it." He stumbled forward, following his nose, Asami doing her best to guide him. The trail led him to Tarrlok's office.

"That's private," Tarrlok said. "You've had your joke, but that's enough of this nonsense."

He came to Tarrlok's desk, and tore open one of the drawers, pulling out some kind of fabric. "What is this?" he asked.

"Some kind of tapestry. It matches some of the other wall hangings," Asami said.

Tahno uncrumpled it, finding the source of the scent. "I can't see that, but that's a bloodstain, isn't it?" he said. He could hear their gasps. He licked the tapestry. "That's definitely Korra's blood," he said, and found he was shaking with rage. "What did you do to her?"

For a moment, everything was silent, and then Tahno felt a sharp, terrible pain, and heard the sound of bodies hitting the ground. Whatever the hell that was, it apparently hadn't done to him what it did to everyone else. He lunged forward through the pain, grabbing Tarrlok in a bruising grip.

"So you're not quite like the others," Tarrlok said, "But you've still got blood in you, don't you?" The pain came again, and an unseen force hurled him against the wall. He heard Tarrlok flee, and couldn't get up in time to take chase.

He tried to go after him, and tripped on one of the prone bodies. He scrambled backwards blindly. It seemed like there were bodies everywhere. Helpless, limp bodies. He didn't need to examine them closely to know that they were alive, just unconscious. For a moment, he had the terrible thought that no matter what he did, they would somehow blame him for what happened, or think he'd taken advantage.

And oh, it was tempting. For a moment, he thought they might not even notice, or at least wouldn't care in light of everything else going on. The worst they could do was arrest him, anyway, and somehow being in jail cell didn't seem much worse than his current situation was. Besides, they'd expect it of him, a vampire and an opportunistic cheater—they'd think he'd done it even if he didn't. And it wasn't like he'd really hurt anyone. He'd only take a little from each of them.

But if he did that, they wouldn't let him help find Korra, and she needed him right now. He backed up until he felt a wall behind him, slid down it, and waited.

"So Tarrlok was a bloodbender." He could hear the conversation around him, but stayed still, out of the way. Someone approached him—he could hear the clicking of the metal uniform, and smell Beifong's fragrance. He heard her take a seat next to him.

"You were the first one up, weren't you?" she said.

"Actually, it didn't knock me out," Tahno said. "I tried to chase him, but he threw me back." He was still cursing himself for it. There had to have been more he could have done.

"Can you still track him?"

"He drove off. Even I'm not that good. He's probably miles away by now."

Beifong sighed. "Well, good job, anyway."

"I didn't catch him," Tahno said, "and I didn't find Korra."

"There's something else you didn't do," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. He stiffened at the contact.

"You might not want to do that," he muttered.

"I think if you were going to attack me, you'd have done it while I was unconscious."

"Don't be absurd, I couldn't have," Tahno said. "I signed a form, remember?"

Beifong laughed bitterly. "I know the procedure is a joke. It doesn't work. I see the crime rates for vampires. And the crime rate for hungry, new vampires in a room full of unconscious humans has to be damn near a hundred percent."

"I don't deserve a pat on the back for managing not to assault unconscious people," Tahno said.

"Well, that's the right attitude to have," she said. "Funny, I didn't take you for the type to have a strong moral compass."

"Me neither," he said. "I'm not really cut out for this." He pulled her hand off him and dropped it like it burned. "And seriously, don't touch me."

"Fine," she snapped, "Play the cool guy. Are you ready to help find Korra again?"

"What can I do?"

"Best I can think of is for us to drive around, and you can try to pick up either Tarrlok or Korra's scent."

"It's a big city, and it's not like I can really pick out the smell of one person driving in a Satomobile amidst all the other traffic."

"You're still the best lead we've got. If they've stopped anywhere, you'll pick it up, right?"

"Maybe," he said. Sniffing around at Tarrlok's office had been one thing, but driving around aimlessly in a crowded Satomobile, through an even more crowded city, taking deep breaths….

"Would it help you if you fed first?" Beifong asked.

"It would help a lot," he said. "But you're not with the police anymore, you won't have access to blood…."

He heard the click of her armor opening. "I have plenty of blood right here."

She took his hand, and led him into a secluded room. He felt her wrist against his mouth and bit down, letting the warm blood spill into him—

"Can you handle it?" Beifong was saying. Tahno tried to shake off the fantasy. When he answered, he faced away, so she wouldn't see his fangs. But she was probably wise to that trick.

"Guess I have to," he said.

They split up and searched, Tahno in the Satomobile with Asami, Mako, and Beifong. He felt better knowing Beifong was there to keep an eye on him. He had no doubt she could take him in a fight, if need be. Sometimes he thought that remembering that was really all that kept him in line.

Night fell, and Tahno gave Mako his scarf back, feeling somewhat refreshed. In addition to feeling physically stronger, his head seemed less muddled, and it was easier to focus. Finally, amidst the many mingled scents of the city, he caught a very familiar one. "Wait," he said. "That's Korra. She's hurt."

"Which way?" Asami asked, glancing back at him, and Tahno pointed.

"How badly hurt is she?" Mako demanded.

"I don't know. I can smell her blood," he said. "Probably more than a papercut."

"But she's not…."

"Not what, dead? No, I don't think so." He pointed out a turn for Asami. "That way."

"There's a lot between a papercut and dead," Mako said.

"Yes, and you distracting me is helping me find her faster," Tahno snapped. At this point, no amount of distraction could have put him off the trail, though. He knew that blood. It was the same blood that was in his own body, and it called to him. But at least that shut Mako up.

Soon, they came into view of Korra lying prone on Naga's back. Both he and Mako got out of the Satomobile and ran towards her, and Tahno happened to be faster. Once he was there, though, he hesitated, warring with himself. She was covered in lacerations, and though he was pretty sure his concern for her was stronger than whatever his body wanted, he felt his fangs extend, and that was enough to give him pause.

Mako pushed him aside roughly. "Don't you think you should stay away from her, given the circumstances?" he said, pulling Korra into his arms.

"I'm the one who found her," he said.

"Hey, I'm only looking out for you," Mako said. "If you actually do care about her, you want her to be safe, right?" Korra stirred, looking up into Mako's eyes, and he cradled her gently. "It's all right," he said to her. "I have you now." He turned to the polar bear dog. "Thanks for bringing her to us," he said. "Sorry, we have to get her some help now. I'll send someone back for you."

Mako carried her back to the Satomobile. "I'm taking the backseat this time," he said. "You can sit up front," he said to Tahno. "Unless you think you'd be better off walking home."

Tahno got into the front seat. "He didn't seem to want me sitting next to you before," he said to Asami. "Wonder what changed?"

He saw Asami glance in the rear view mirror at Mako and Korra. "I'm sure he was just convinced of your upstanding character."

"Yeah, sounds real likely," Tahno muttered. He could smell her blood strongly from the backseat, even with the night wind in his face. "Is she all right?" he asked.

"She's resting," Mako said, "but I think she'll be okay."

Tahno slouched in the seat, as physically far from everyone else in the Satomobile as he could get, and let himself feel relieved.