Chapter 24
Both unofficial leaders of the school's supernaturals were informed by Headmaster Cross that two new students were going to be joining.
Neither could deny the acceptance of the two newcomers, one Vampire, one Witch.
Sara Shirabuki stood from the sofas in the communal area of the Moon dorms, coming over with her male companion as the President of the Moon dorms and the unofficial second President came in, quickly followed by their friends and classmates.
Tsar and Duke came running in, going straight upstairs as soon as they saw the two in front of them.
"It's so good to see you both again," Sara greeted with a small, self-contained smile. "I so wished I could have attended the Summer Solstice festival, but sadly I wasn't invited. Though, it's strange that the Aido family was allowed to go but I was not."
"Not strange at all," Perse said. "Family of friends were invited. Since you are neither friend, family, nor family of a friend, you weren't invited."
Sara hummed as bags were brought in from the cars outside.
The triplets paused as they saw Sara's companion, a male their age.
He looked half Japanese and half Caucasian, being a little taller than Perse when she wore her boots and had bright scarlet hair that fell into his face a little. He wore dark clothes, mostly jeans and a white t-shirt with a dark, casually worn suit jacket. The half-cocked hip made him seem arrogant as he strode to stand next to Sara.
"This is Eita Ebber," Sara said, placing a hand on his arm. "He's a friend of mine and a Witch. I think his family is part of the Greylight domain."
Kaname asked for Sara to come with him, Perse watched them walk away with a tightening of something in her chest.
Perse shifted her feet a little to stand straighter as she looked at Eita. "I'll give you the same warning as I did the others. I am in charge of you. You answer to me and only me for any Witch matters, otherwise, you can go to Kaname Kuran, Takuma Ichijo or Headmaster Cross. Magic is limited to the dorms. If you attend Cross Academy, you attend the Night Class."
Perse turned on her heels and strode upstairs, letting the triplets sort him out for her. Ichiru went to see his brother before class started.
Eita grinned. "Hot and bossy? I like her."
Usher snorted, standing on one side of Eita while Bereket stood on the other, "You'd best try and not."
"Or you'll end up with something missing," Bereket said.
Eita didn't know if they were referring to his family jewels or something a lot more precious. He was a little frightened by what they said, but he had a job to do and he would do well in it.
How hard could seducing a lady be?
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"You don't look happy," Ichiru said, sitting on Perse's bed as Duke and Tsar slept on her pillow.
She was putting her clothes away manually, not wanting to use her Magic at the moment. She gave him a look.
"Good point," Ichiru laughed. "You're never happy."
"I've had enough of people,"
"You have had enough of people messing with you,"
"Yep," She finished the rest of the putting away with her Magic, sitting next to Ichiru before laying down with her legs hanging off the edge.
He laid down with her, staring at the ceiling. "They'll get what's coming to them."
"Couple months and I'm officially Crown," Perse muttered. "Couple months and I'm eighteen. My mum's been dead for almost eight months now. Saints and Gods, sure as hell doesn't feel like it."
"Time sure flies when you're trying to figure out what lies people are telling,"
"True."
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Perse slammed open the door to her room to stop the incessant knocking. Dressed in a messily buttoned black shirt and a pair of short shorts, she glared at Eita.
"It is eleven forty-two in the morning," She said, a muscle of her eye twitching before she rubbed at it to go away. "What do you want, Ebber?"
"Oh, ouch," He smiled. "Harsh with the last name thing, isn't it?"
"Well," She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to get rid of the chills. "We're not friends nor on friendly terms. I'm your superior so don't treat me like a close friend when we're not. So again, what do you want so early?"
"As you said, it's eleven forty-two, well, forty-four now," Eita checked his watch piece on his right wrist. "And I thought we would get some lunch?"
"Right now? Are you serious? We have class at eight, and I've been asleep for only like, what, an hour or so?" She leaned against the doorway, half wanting to go back to sleep and half slapping the man in front of her for daring to wake her up. "You need to go to sleep. We have class at eight and it is not optional. Go to your room and just do whatever."
"I thought that I didn't have to attend classes," He said. "Being almost an adult and all."
"If Ichiru has to, you have to too,"
"But I'm not a Hunter,"
"But you are a Witch and under my orders, so you will be attending if you plan to stay at this school," She kept her face blank because she was being snippy and because she was already tired. "So go and fuck off somewhere else and don't wake me up ever again."
She closed the door on him, quickly getting back into bed. She laid on her front, arms tucked under a pillow as she cuddled it under the duvet with Duke's head resting on the small of her back. She quickly fell asleep, never realising the bright red eyes of the dog near her.
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"Who the fuck touched my fucking coffee?!" Perse slammed her coffee cup against the table, nowhere near breaking it but the edges cracked as her hair flared out in Magic filled rage. "It is the first fucking day and I can't find my coffee which I know I made sure there was plenty of."
Sara appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, dressed in the uniform already. She had an innocent look on her face. "Oh, I had it all gotten rid of. I detest the smell of coffee. It's so bitter and disgusting."
"You what now?"
Ichiru sighed, watching as Hanabusa came in with a yawn. Hanabusa pouted when he also realised there wasn't coffee, only to bristle and back away from Perse as the charcoal and plum haired Witch had the fiercest scowl he had ever seen at a person.
"Is Lady Shirabuki trying to get herself hurt?" Hanabusa muttered as he stood next to Ichiru, watching the exchange between the two highest classed females in the dorms.
Ichiru leaned towards him, whispering, "Perhaps so. I wish her luck in dealing with a caffeine-deprived Persephone."
Hanabusa shuddered. "Sleep-deprived is bad enough, but caffeine? Scary thought that."
Perse rubbed a hand down her face, never messing up her Magically glamoured eye makeup. "Look, Shirabuki. You don't touch what isn't yours. You don't touch my coffee. You don't touch the food in the kitchen. You don't touch what isn't yours. Got it?"
"You're being particularly rude today, Greylight," Sara smiled, eyes crinkling in a way that conveyed smugness. "Don't you think you should be polite to guests?"
"Guests? You're not a guest here. You're a student."
"So are you."
Perse rubbed the bridge of her nose, pinching it. "Just— Just go away. I can't be dealing with you. I have more important things."
"More important like what?" She looked so smug and so confident, and so-so-so
Perse was ready to lunge at her and claw her eyes out simply for being so annoying.
ARGH—
"Here," Kaname leaned over her shoulder, holding a coffee cup in front of her. She looked at it like it was the northern star and she was a lost shepherd. She grabbed the cup, pecking a kiss on his cheek before strutting away with the perfect coffee in the cup with a satisfied moan.
He turned back to Sara. "Please don't touch what isn't yours, Sara Shirabuki. While you have some domain over people here, I have the absolute. Many only attend because I do, and the Witches are only allowed here if Princess Greylight is attending. Don't pretend to be something you are not. It will not end well."
Kaname left the room soon after, needing to find Takuma to see if there was anything that needed his attention.
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Perse was ready to give up school already.
With Yuki finding out about her heritage, and Zero wanting to become Human, or something close to it, Perse was using her alchemy skills and efficiency in poisons to create something that could keep Zero from feeling pain as they were finishing off their sessions.
There were only a couple of sessions left, very few if she played her cards right and found a way to get Zero to purge all of the Magic blood in his system that kept him from being Human. She still hadn't found a good concoction that would allow her to use her abilities and keep pain away from him.
Zero accepted this, sitting docile in a room in the Headmaster's mansion as Perse ground up the proper ingredients and mixed them into a powder that could be put into the water base she had in the glass next to her.
They were silent as Perse worked and Zero wallowed in nerves and excitement. He wanted to become Human, to be normal, to be something he should have been instead of the monster he was forced to become.
While Zero sat on a chair, Perse finished up and brought a chair up in front of him so they could be face to face.
"It might not be pleasant but this will help with the inevitable pain," She said, handing the concoction of powder and water. "Drink up and we can begin."
He picked up the white and grey spiralling drink, taking one look at the water mixture before downing it all straight away. He grimaced, made a face and coughed before settling again. She took the glass and waved it away, letting it float back to the table.
A large bowl, more like a porcelain bucket, floated over to them and sat between both of them.
"Let's get started then," Perse said, raising her hands as she concentrated for the Magic to surface.
She sat back, looking up into the air as she activated her gift.
Strands of bright red appeared in the air, overlapping, weaving between themselves as two ends attached themselves to Zero and two other ends were intertwined with a dark, almost icy blue strand.
Magic was fun to play with, having to weave it with her mind and hands as she allowed the natural energy inside of her out to play and manipulate the matter in the world.
To properly do Blood Magic, one had to be intimately intertwined with their Magic. To weave and pull the delicate threads, to snip and shape the Magic into their bidding, there needed to be a certain level of confidence in their own Magic before they could manipulate another's.
With Shizuka Hio's blood and Magic absorbed and morphed as her own, she could use the Pureblood's to make her own more powerful.
To watch as the strands began to pull away from each other, undoing each and every knot and bind they were in, Perse stayed calm and relaxed as she worked her Magic through Zero.
It was just like unravelling rope, one bit at a time as the knots slowly loosened and she tugged at that.
Blood.
Blood?
She sensed blood, not just any blood, Magic.
Blood that was changing, Magic influencing it as something changed about the blood.
Yuki?
Perse tugged at one end of the blue strand, trying to get it loose but finding it slowly turn silver before it completely attached itself to the ends of Zero's red ropes.
She gasped, trying to tug it loose but not able to. Quickly finding that the strand no longer seemed to belong to Shizuka as her body told her, but rather to Yuki's new Magic.
Letting Zero's life and Magic strands go back to him, she stopped the manipulation.
She regretted turning her back to her, feeling the sharp pain of a bite go into the right side of her neck and shoulder.
He wrapped his arms around her from the back, burying his teeth deeply into her skin and muscle. It took a moment for him to realise what he was doing, relaxing and almost freezing.
Ripping Zero away from her, Perse clutched her shoulder as she felt chills go down her skin.
Zero paused in disgust, surprised and revolted by what he had just done.
Perse had blood dripping from the bite area, slightly torn at the edges where he tried to bite harder. She waved him off, dismissing him.
He ran out of the room.
She sat down on the stool again, willing her body to stop the blood and it did. She wiped away the main bits, covering the nasty bite with a bandage before cleaning up the room she was in before she left.
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She got back to her room quickly. She managed to avoid everyone in the dorms, getting into her room with ease before locking the door along with a barrier to keep any smells or sounds in.
Perse stood in front of her bathroom sink, peeling the bandage away from the fleshy skin between her shoulder and neck. She sighed in irritation as she looked at it again.
The bite was painful, the edges torn where the teeth had tried to shred the skin to get more blood. The whole area was bright and flamed up in irritation as she roamed her medicine bag for a certain cream. She squeezed out a large amount, taking in a breath before running her finger with the cream against the bite, coating it all.
It burned like nothing before.
While Blood Magic could heal a lot of things, injuries from other Arcane creatures such as Vampire bites needed extra care to not get infected.
She clutched the edge of the sink, knuckles turning white and grinding her teeth to keep in the pain. It felt like lava was being pushed through her bloodstream, trying to vaporise any and all remnants of Zero from her system.
It took less than half a minute but it felt like a lot more.
Perse finished up by putting a bandage on the area, sticking it on with medical tape around the edges so it wouldn't move.
She was lucky it could be hidden under her uniform.
She left like nothing was wrong.