Chapter 10
Mary was reading a book, quietly sitting on an aqua-green bench in the billiard room where Ayato and Laito were playing. From time to time she stroked two evident scarlet holes on her shoulder's pale skin, result of the second day of the vampire who was boasting with his older brother about his next, certain victory. She was wearing a red sleeveless blouse; she should have had a black sweater on too, but it had been ripped by the predator during his lunch. And Mary had promised herself that sooner or later he would have payed for ruining her clothes.
She sighed, slightly bitter, and went on reading; Laito had warmly suggested her to join them, but after Ayato's bite, who every now and then took a sneering look at her, she even had almost lacked the motivation to sit. She wasn't also fond of that kind of hobbies; she would rather have gone out in the garden chasing crickets...
She ignored Kanato's eyes, insistently fixed on her figure, sitting apart on a cupboard near the room's door, where the light bulb that illuminated the pool table and surroundings didn't reach; perceiving his disturbing presence curled her eyebrows' ends, so she focused on the words of the story she was reading. She began to relax completely, transported by the exciting atmosphere about a pilot's survival in the desert after a plane crash, until she heard a thud next to her and suddenly felt something brushing her left thigh: she saw Shuu. He was taking up with his whole body the rest of the sofa, whose color was the same as his shirt, and had a raised knee and an arm abandoned on his abdomen and the other one hanging.
She blushed.
- S-Shuu-san?
- Shut up.
- ... It doesn't take me much effort to overturn the couch too.
Shuu opened an eye, staring at her bored; fortunately, her face had returned to a less suspicious colour, otherwise God knows what he would have told her about it.
- Tch... such a hassle – he mumbled, the girl snorted amused and peacefully returned to her book. The vampire didn't immediately close his eye, as he curiously watched her for a few minutes.
- Bach.
The girl winced and turned to face him again, with a quizzical expression.
- Bach... goes well with reading...
- O-Oh. You think so…? – she said, unconvinced, and patted her neck's back, moving a few shorter strands of hair; the blond noticed three large moles so close that they resembled a clover, just a few centimetres below her earlobe – To be honest, I prefer silence...
- Tch... better than other so called "musical" genres... - Shuu muttered slowly, and then he tightened his eyelids and fell silent; Mary pursed her lips and shrugged, slightly disappointed, and returned to her book.
Meanwhile, Laito was carefully studying them, with a mischievous smile on his lips and he remembered the other times when the witch and the firstborn brother had been close: he did notice her strawberry-coloured cheeks (he also wanted to devour them), and though he was a bit jealous, it excited him, and he was eager to assist the future development there would have been with the Shuu's turn.
Ayato picked himself up off the floor in pain, moving away the closet that had devastated him. Mary, who was sitting on the gray floor only two meters away from him, had not particularly liked his attitude towards her while sucking her blood for the third and last time of his turn: he had moved his fangs on her sternum's skin and he had dared to fondle her breast. He should have deserved a thousand slaps in the face, but the witch knew that they would have just tickled him; so she resorted to her powers, completely forgetting the incredible pain that invaded her chest. Not that it was already in a good state itself; her lungs...
She shook her head, driving away the memories that were to resurface cruelly, and returned to exchange piercing glances with Ayato; she hated his personality: he was arrogant, pretentious and treated her like an object in order to satisfy only hir thirst for blood. If he had been a little more delicate, perhaps as Laito (thinking about it, what about not), maybe she would have tolerated him, but it was too much for her.
- You, bitch... - he insulted her.
- I'm still a creature like you, I have the right to deserve a little respect - Mary said coldly. The tears in her eyes, however, betrayed her determination and Ayato, seeing this, laughed maliciously.
He winked at her, gave her one last aggressive and at the same time mocking look, and finally left the infirmary, giving himself airs of superiority.
"Ore-sama", bullshit!, she thought, fixing her crumpled shirt and closing some buttons; she barked noticing that her periwinkle undershirt was ripped and her sense of revenge levelled up critically, though she wasn't in a video game. She probably would have returned to class a little later, with great delight from her friend Reiji-san, as she began to fix the mess she had caused to defend her dignity. Although she had already slapped it enough when she accepted Karlheinz's suggestion, she observed bitterly, pulling out a long sigh.
Perhaps she should have listened to her Sensei's words... "Cho-hime, it all depends on you: if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't spoil my life because of what you did. You did what you thought was best for everyone. You don't have to hold regrets; I know it's difficult, I myself have made choices giving up important things. But now...! "; that day, a year before, she had ignored the rest of his speech, while moving away from the town where she lived. Regret is an ugly beast, she thought.
She didn't think she wouldn't get out from of that room at all: from the bed hidden by the curtains, she heard a familiar voice complaining in the sleepy language, while she was actually producing too much noise as she fixed up the cabinet with which she freed herself from the Ayato's grip.
- Silence...
Shuu.
