-Leigh's pov-

I honestly didn't know what to make of Konosuke's last sentence. He seemed dead serious, but he hadn't exactly proved his sanity to me at this point.

But if he was just nuts, wouldn't Ronin be denying it or looking at him funny, at the very least? At that point, Ronin was only simply glaring daggers at him. Not an "I told you to bring your sanity" kind of glare, but the kind you would give someone after they just spilled a secret that you had trusted with them and them alone. Toklata didn't look hopelessly confused either.

Maybe they were all crazy?

Suddenly, not-so-distant memories started to make sense as pieces fell into place. Ronin licking the blood off of my palm, the way they healed after he did this, the way he followed the scent of Toklata's blood, and how he got confused when he caught someone else's scent. There was also his strength and amazingly fast healing to take into consideration, and that whole "people were married by age thirteen in my day" thing that he had mentioned to me.

I looked towards him slowly, and he hung his head, though still shooting Konosuke that horrid stare.

"No, Ronin," I moaned. It wasn't really the fact that he was a two-legged leech that was bothering me, but the fact that he had thought to keep it a secret from me. Even if I hadn't believed it at first, he could have demonstrated his strength. Toklata knew. Konosuke knew. So was I the only one who didn't?

"You're no perfect human, either," Ronin growled to Konosuke, momentarily forgetting his shame and lifting his head high. "But what the hell are you?"

"What gave it away? I didn't expect someone like you to figure it out, despite how obvious it was," Konosuke shot right back. Around all of this inhumanity, I actually stopped and wondered if maybe Toklata was a werewolf or something.

Ronin continued, and I listened closely. "You haven't aged much, despite the time lapse between now and out first meeting. And you could smell me on Leigh."

"So you used her as a test?"

Thank you, Konosuke, for siding with me on that one.

"Of course not."

Shut up, Ronin.

Between their verbal war, Toklata had snuck over towards me, still clinging to Ronin's sword. Wordlessly, she carefully set it on the ground and showed me her hands, which were, despite her best efforts, sliced up.

"Poor thing," I murmured, ripping a piece of cloth off my pants and wrapping her hands. "But it was brave of you to carry it all the way out here. I'm sure Ronin can use it." That is, if he could get a hold of it without Konosuke's interference.

"Sorry I didn't believe you," she mumbled, examining her patched hands. I was going to reply, but then she suddenly asked, "Excuse me, but what are you to Ronin? I mean…are you, like, his girlfriend?"

"Um…you could say that…I guess," I responded, not quite sure what the real answer would be. She didn't look too happy with my reply, as she kicked the ground and turned away, again picking up the sword, thus destroying my homemade bandaging. Clueless, I sighed, and turned my attention back to the two men.

--

-Ronin's pov-

The whole verbal insults thing was getting pretty old. Of course, I was at a disadvantage, but come on! I thought it was pretty obvious that I'd be the one stressing defense, so I was waiting for Konosuke to attack, but here we were, throwing insults back and fourth. And I still didn't know what he was, but I was willing to bet that he was a partial vampire. Not quite Half, but partial. I asked him this directly, and he gave a sickening grin.

"Brilliant, Takoda, absolutely genius. I didn't think you'd guess that, it being so rare and you being so moronic." He slipped out a gun. "You see, I never wanted to be blooded. It was done forcibly, but I fought it, fought the leeches that were holding me down and pumping blood into my fingertips; killed them—so there's not much of your kind's horrid blood in me. And I don't have any loyalty to your type. So I'm not following any of your rules, understand?" He shot just above my right shoulder, but I didn't flinch.

There was no way I was giving him the pleasure of seeing me squirm. Of course, that story of his was enough to churn my stomach. Leigh had been listening as well, and her face was pale, with maybe a slight green tinge. And the thing was, it wasn't Konosuke's behavior that had been so grueling, but whatever scum of a vampire had tried to blood him with force, and had needed some other bastard to help hold him down.

Leigh wasn't hearing too well about vampires at this point, and was inching slowly further and further away from me. Toklata, though, actually came closer to me. Slowly and carefully, but with my katana in hand.

Konosuke caught this too. Without taking his eyes off of me, he commanded, "Don't take another step, girl."

Toklata stopped, but she didn't draw back any. Konosuke seemed satisfied enough with this, and turned back to me.

"Well? I'm waiting. Why don't you attack already?" he asked, knowing exactly why I hadn't so much as moved yet. The last thing he was expecting was for me to lash out without a weapon.

But that's what I did. Dammit. Bad idea.

I lunged at him, but not with my heart quite completely into it, obviously, because he was able to dodge without too much effort. I wasn't thinking properly, and after he countered, I was wide open. He took advantage of this momentary stupidity, whipped a dagger out from somewhere, and shoved it into my side.

The wound the blow left wasn't too bad, with minimal bleeding, but it was irritating, just because of where it landed—a long scratch, right down the right side of my body, that ended just above my belt. I abandoned my now ripped cloak. I assumed that it would only get in the way.

"Trying to flaunt yourself for your admirers, Takoda?"

Admirers? That was plural…so he was either referring to Leigh and himself (ugh) or Leigh and Toklata. I was willing to guess the second option, but still…Toklata? An admirer? Of me? Maybe I should've paid more attention when we had just been relaxing in the cave. Oh well, too late now. If she wanted to have a crush on me (and what living female creature wouldn't?) then that was fine. I'd set her straight later.

Again I lunged, contrary to my thoughts of defense only minutes earlier, and this time I caught his face with my nails, leaving long, ugly gashes across his already scarred face. Snarling, he fired his gun again, and the bullet caught the very edge of my shoulder, barely leaving a welt. Of course, while checking this, he again took advantage of the situation and took another stab. I narrowly avoided it, but I got knocked off balance while dodging and stumbled ungracefully a few times, which left me wide open.

I was not having a good day.

Suddenly, a familiar scent was detectable in the air. The sickening smell of blood; Jaden's blood.

I was really not having a good day.

--

-Leigh's pov-

I wasn't quite sure what happened. My eyes couldn't register every little movement that was going on, but I noticed that booth Konosuke and Ronin had picked up wounds in the moments that had passed. The latter remained weaponless, but I suppose that since he was a, ah, vampire, he should be stronger than Konosuke anyway. And yet, he seemed to be the one at a disadvantage. Maybe he was better with a sword, but his skill without one left a lot to be desired.

Toklata hadn't made a move to give it back to him after Konosuke had snapped at her, and it's not like she could've thrown it to him or ran it to him. Either way, it would end up in Konosuke's hands. Ronin could've got it from her, I guessed, but he was so heated that he hadn't thought about it or was afraid once he took it from her he'd slice her in half when he turned around with it—something I wouldn't put past him in the state he was in.

Speaking of which, it was kind of hopeless. You'd think he was blind, the way he was suddenly throwing out odd punches (I couldn't actually see the movements, but I could tell that only a few of them actually hit by the positions he ended up in and the lack of much reaction out of Konosuke).

Still, when I examined more closely, I realized that this kind of made sense. Ronin wasn't a muscle bound goon. Well, yeah, the muscles were there, but they weren't huge, bulging things (of course, his height made up for this). I guess that meant he relied less on brute strength and stressed other aspects more. But then, I'm no expert.

No matter how little I knew of the matter, though, I was sure that he must be very strong anyway; it just seemed like a natural thing—he talked big, so he should be able to back it up.

"Come on, Ronin!" Toklata shouted, bouncing up and down with anticipation where she stood. Ronin took the cheer in stride, finally landing a blow to Konosuke's shoulder—and apparently one with a lot of force behind it.

--

-Ronin's pov-

Finally. Finally I managed to get in a decent hit.

The smell of vampire blood, especially the blood of someone as close to me as Jaden was, leaves a big dent in my senses. I mean, they go absolutely haywire. It's a natural reaction, and it's damn annoying, too.

It works out like this. Your average vampire would be able to sense vampire or vampaneze blood, because of their heightened senses. It might be a minor annoyance, but it wouldn't drive them insane. A well-trained human swordsman also has more highly developed senses than your average mortal, plus a sort of sixth sense, if you will.

These two aspects, with a dash of Jaden's blood adds up to one thing: a losing battle.

I stopped, realizing that I wasn't going to get anywhere fighting the way I was. The last hit I had delivered gave me enough time to back off before Konosuke came back with a good swing, and I took advantage of it.

We were both panting now, and I managed a smirk. "That's kind of disgusting, don't you think?" I asked innocently.

"What's that, Takoda?"

"Keeping samples of your victim's blood." I dropped the smile. "Quit antagonizing me—or are you afraid you won't be able to beat me without confusing me first?"

"You know, you really are clever, aren't you? I wasn't sure if it would work, honestly. But you seem agitated. I'm glad." He smiled, inducing fresh rage from me. I threw another punch, right to Konosuke's stomach, sending him into a tree trunk.

And, so, I got my chance. "Toklata," I growled, keeping my eyes on Konosuke, who was now standing up. "Give me the sword." I edged towards her—I didn't want her to come and give it to me, which would pull her right into the middle of the battle (and I had a feeling that it was going to get a lot messier once I had my sword at my waist).

Konosuke was up now, and severely pissed. No more playing. "Finally, you're serious!" I called to him, still moving my feet slowly towards Toklata.

"I've been serious!" he spat, again lifting his handgun.

"Give it up," I drawled, extending my hand to Toklata, who was just close enough to throw my beloved katana to me. "There's no way you'd hit me from there. Even if your aim was perfect," –she threw the sword to me and I caught it by the blade—"I could block it easily with the distance you're at and my speed."

Konosuke grinned wickedly. "But I'm willing to bet that they can't." He nodded to Toklata, and then Leigh. "Would you be willing to bet against me, Takoda?"

"You wouldn't," I snarled, taking a step towards him.

"You're quite the gambler." He raised the gun. "But, to show you that I'm not a sore winner, I'll let you pick which one you want to keep. Toklata…or the woman?"

I glared at him with a reproachful gaze. I couldn't get to the two of them as fast as he could, but there had to be some loophole I could use. No way I was going to let either one die, no way in hell.

While I stood there, moronically biting my bottom lip and trying to think of something clever that would get me out of this, Toklata ran over to Konosuke and motioned for him to bend down. He did so, and she whispered something in his ear. He stood up and replied not by verbally answering, but with a gentle push back in the direction she came from. She went back towards the trees and leaned on one grumpily. Konosuke rolled his eyes at her.

Maybe…no, that was stupid and irresponsible. But mostly stupid.

But still, what else could I play off of? If this didn't work, the loss would be huge. But what other choice did I have?

Lifting my head and meeting Konosuke's eyes, I said, solemnly, "I choose Leigh. Kill the girl."

--

A/N- Two weeks. Is that how long it took me? Would you like an explanation? Probably not, but I'll explain anyway. Last week I had a softball game every night. Except Friday night, which I spent packing to go camping all weekend. And, I mean, we've got a working bathroom and everything in our camper, but there's not a computer in it, which destroyed any thoughts of writing right through Memorial Day. Tuesday I had practice and wrote for a little bit, but Wednesday I had my last softball game, and then a meeting for field hockey next year, so I got home really late. Thursday and Friday were devoted to finding a perfect field hockey stick for said field hockey season, but to no avail. Saturday, I wrote. A lot. And here is the effect.