Sat. back finally. Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? My bad. That's really all I can give y'all. Anyway, it seems that someone is moving against the school and now the vampires might have to become involved, too. Let's see what will happen. I own nothing familiar.
Chapter Fifteen: Wolf versus Fox
Sarah
The cool night seems eerie, like a video game about undead things. The moon is high, telling this side of the Earth that half the night has drifted away. So far, there aren't any blood foxes out and about and the students move along silently. Ana and I took the first group, which are all girls and are moving tenuously through the clear night. It seems that the normal humans know that something is going on that is out of the ordinary. Horrible things don't have to happen on a Hollywood like setting with the fog and the cold, wet nights in the middle of the woods or on a road or some random house. Horrible incidents can happen even on the best of days or nights. Seems as though the human girls understand this. Ana took the lead, being the radar and all, while I took the rear, doing my best to keep the girls calm. By now, Kaitlin and Rena should have left.
Some students whisper among each other, clasping one another hands tightly. I really do feel like a small wolf pack, now. I just don't like being hunted by something smaller than me. Then again, there is nothing that can help that. Sometimes, the Hunters are amazing. Now if they would use those amazing skills for something better than genocide. However, that probably won't happen any time soon…or ever. The group continues and before I know it, we're halfway there. So far, so good. Maybe Kiryuu is doing a better job than I give him credit for. Suddenly, Ana picks up the pace and we enter the building. We disperse the students easily, telling them to stay in their rooms this evening. This isn't the night to stalk the vampiric class. All of them seem to be a little worried, so I think they will obey for once. We exit back out to the moonlight.
"You sped up the last half," I state, following her, "Why?"
"Call Kaitlin," she replies, "Let her know to change her course to her hard left."
"How many?" I ask, flipping my phone out and dialing her number.
"Three."
"Yeah?"
"Turn hard left now," I report into the phone, "You've got three…" I look at Ana, who says in front, "in front of you. The girls are safely delivered."
"Got it," Kaitlin replies, her voice wavering from her sudden movement, "I'll keep the line opened."
"Right."
Instead of shutting my phone off, I keep it on, just as Kaitlin is right now. Without even needed to ask what Ana wants to do, I follow her. Either she wants to find Kiryuu or find that other group to better direct them. Suddenly, Ana tugs my shirt to stop me and a blood fox lunges out of the hidden shadows almost as fast as the bullet that hit the collar. It seems that Kiryuu has learned where the main power source is on the collar. Good, at least he learns quickly. The fox looks devastated that it's out of the woods.
"That way," Ana says pointing to the right, "That's to the woods. Run."
It bolts without a second glance to its surroundings and heads to where my friend points. I always wondered if they could understand the language of beings that have language. Perhaps the blood foxes can.
"Nice shot, Kiryuu," I compliment with a smirk, "Shows that you're at least competent with a gun. That's always nice to know."
The silver haired teen steps out from the shadows, looking every bit of a nocturnal creature whether he deigns it or not. His stoic face lands on Ana; no doubt he is thinking when he can ambush her with questions.
"What's your report?" she questions before he can do anything.
"I've got two shots left," he says, without much conviction to Ana's demanding voice. Perhaps he's smarter than he looks.
"Then there were seven all together?" I pipe up, "That's a pretty small pack. Then again, I'm surprised the Hunters caught as many as they did to collar 'em."
Ana looks at the ground thoughtfully for a moment and beckons Kiryuu to follow us. No doubt we're gonna intercept the last foxes. At least, I hope they're the last.
"Listen up, Kiryuu," my short friend says, "I'm gonna give you another bullet, and it's one you're not gonna like. We can't be seen by the foxes while the collars are still working, and we'll have to recover the last collar with the bullet I'm going to give you."
"What kind of bullet?" he questions, easily keeping pace with our jogging.
She smirks and I do to. "A homemade one," I respond for Ana.
I kind of had a feeling Kiryuu knows more about our abilities than Ana was willing to let on. Honestly, I'm not really angry about it. He just needs to stop asking questions.
After a few minutes of jogging, we suddenly stop behind a small thicket of trees. Ana takes Kiryuu's borrowed weapon and opens the magazine. With little concentration, she creates a black and red misting bullet from her energy and slips it underneath the last two bullets. She smirks at Kiryuu's astonished face and slams the magazine clip back in and cocks Artemis for him.
"Don't miss," I teasingly warn, sticking my thumb over my shoulder to where he's supposed to go.
He glares at me and takes his cautious, but sure steps around me and to the last foxes. Ana leans her back against a tree, a hand resting on her belt buckle. I lean back to, but keep my head turned to the direction he went. She closes her eyes and slowly pulls the leather halfway out of the metal buckle. Studded leather belts can make great weapons if one doesn't have any. The muffled "phew" sound rockets off once, then twice, and the third follows closely. Three young foxes bolt out the area towards the heaviest and closet area of woods. Ana nods to me and re-clasps her belt.
"All clear of foxes," I mummer in the phone.
"Roger. Just made it to the boys' side of the dorms," Kait replies, "Do we sign off for now?"
I look to Ana for instructions and she says to meet at Cross's office. I relay the information and Kiryuu comes with the last collar he shot, a bullet hole very evident, but the bullet missing.
"Thanks, Kiryuu," she says, taking the collar away from him, "Everyone made it back to the dorms safely. I think we should pay a visit to Cross."
He nods and leads the way.
"This is so weird," I mutter to Ana in English, "Why would the Hunters send something as weak as blood foxes here? Yeah, it would make sense if they were sent in town instead of here where there is only one thing they can eat here. Sure, they're easy to collar and manipulate, but wouldn't the damn Hunters have a larger and easier species at base, or something? Maybe they were hoping that we'd have to save Kiryuu if he screwed up or something."
"And by easier, you mean easier to raise and control? They sorely underestimated Kiryuu, then," she asks, "Yeah, they should, but they sent these things instead. Which leads to two blatant options. They're either running out of money and resources or the people after us aren't involved with the big league of Hunters. They could be a smaller, subgroup trying to make it big on the Hunters."
Oh crap. I just thought of something.
"Do you think we can stay here?" I ask in a near whisper, "I would really rather not leave."
"If we're too much of a liability, then I wouldn't blame anyone for getting rid of us. I wouldn't doubt it if we had to leave either tonight or in the morning."
That doesn't settle well with me. Man and they got an awesome library here, too. A sudden flash of Takuma's smiling face pops in my vision. Why did I think of him? Meh, it's probably because I always talk to him in the library. It's like he comes with it, or something. Like a toy that comes with a Happy Meal from McDonalds. We arrive at Cross' office before any of the other girls and Cross looks at us gravely behind his desk.
"The situation has been handled and cleaned up," Kiryuu says, going to stand near the window.
Yeah, the current one is. The one we're going to talk about isn't, though.
"Would you rather wait for the rest of your friends?" Cross asks, interlocking his fingers.
"No, they can be informed about the initial conversation later," Ana replies, her back stiffening, "Please begin."
"Ms. Rose, I know that you didn't mean to bring these creatures here," Cross says, leaning on his desk, "but you did, and by doing so, endangered every single person here. I know what blood foxes are and what they're behavior and eating habits are. What brought them here?"
She tosses the collar on the desk. This rocks Cross back on his chair, a look of surprise and disgust mixed evenly. Kiryuu watches the Headmaster's reaction carefully.
"So they still use these," he mummers, looking at the ruined device.
"Used to," Ana corrects, "They were banned and, supposedly, destroyed after they used them on us. Looks like they enjoyed this toy a little too much to get rid of it."
I feel Cross' heart drop as he looks at us. To try and make him feel better, I smile and shrug to brush it away. There really isn't anything he can do about it and I don't want his pity. The girls probably don't want his pity either. The door opens behind us and the others file in.
"Headmaster Cross, we completely understand if you want us to leave," Ana states, gripping her arms behind her, "We have brought unneeded hostility to your school and we know that we have become a liability and the longer we stay, the closer the conflict will come to home. All we ask for is a day to gather our things and leave."
"Who said you were leaving?" he asks, rising, "Who said any of you were leaving?"
Each of us looks between each other in pure confusion. Wouldn't, I don't know, common sense dictate that we should leave in order to keep this place safe and the school's secret safe?
"Are you saying for us to stay?" I can't help, but question.
"There is no reason for you to leave."
We all look at Kiryuu. Wait, he said that? Ana glares in confusion and crosses her arms over her chest.
"Explain," she demands.
"You've been running for half you life, right?" he starts, turning his pale purple eyes on her, "Stay and fight."
I choke a snort of laughter down. All the girls do, and even Ana fights with a growing smile.
"Yes, what a perfect battleground," she coos, insultingly holding her arms wide, "Indeed, a place where a coven leader hates me, and by hating me hates the others and that's not mentioning the human class doesn't even know about the existence of other creatures. Do you even consider the ramifications of showing ourselves here? There is too much at stake and I personally refuse to break up any semblance of peace here. That is not even mentioning the politics behind such a stand."
I nod wholeheartedly in agreement, as do the rest of the girls. Oh, wait. Angelica is missing. That's okay. She's probably still taking care of Inacio.
"And even if we did fight," Rena puts in, "Where would that leave us? The Hunters are a worldwide spread organization and we will always be a priority on the list. The only way we can get out from under them is if we destroy all the records of our existence, and I do mean all of them. Do you know how many there are? A paper trail that old would take too long to clean up and that's not accounting for the medical examinations and experiment records."
"The only other way we could get out from them all together," Kaitlin continues, "Is by killing the entire organization or having someone from the Hunters allow us full access to every database and destroy our records that way. Who in the hell would help us with that?"
"You cannot just hack the system?" Cross asks.
"Thanks for the complement," Ana says in a low voice, "But even we can't get in there. Not without a little inside help. And before you say anything," she cuts off Cross, while picking up the broken collar, "no, you're not going to help. You have too much at risk."
"Then stay until you figure something out," he commands, a bright, almost moronic smile adorning his face, "Now go and get some rest, all of you and inform me if you have anything important to tell me."
I nod to Cross, happy with what we have right now and leave with everyone else.
"Jesus Christ on a cracker," Kaitlin mutters, "I just wanna go to bed."
"Go on, then," Ana says gently, "There's nothing else for us to do tonight. Get some rest."
"Thanks for Artemis, Black," Kiryuu says, hand back the silver handgun. She waves a hand somewhat uncaringly and secures the weapon.
Kaitlin and Rena nod and leave without saying anything else but goodnight. Well, now Kiryuu knows we're armed most of the time. Great.
"I'll call Angelica to let her know we're in the green for the moment," I offer, "then I'm probably gonna go to bed."
She nods and starts to head off with me. Kiryuu grabs her upper arm and stops her. Ana gives him an annoyed look and I feel myself reaching for a Tear. He may know we're armed, but he doesn't know with what or where on any of our persons.
"We need to talk."
With a huff, and pursing her lips, she nods. So Ana will actually concede?
"I won't be long and I have my cell, so call if you need anything," she says, shaking his hand off.
"Don't let him do something stupid," I mutter in English.
Ana winks at me with a confident smirk and walks away with the silver haired moron. I shake my head and take my phone out as they walk away. This has been an interesting week. I dial in Angelica's number sub-consciously while I walk to the library. This school, like most others, has really bad cell phone reception. This leads me to believe that people who build schools put them in crappy dead zones so students can't use phones. After the second try, Angelica picks up.
"Hey, we're in the green right now," I say before she says anything, "We also talked to Cross and he wants us to stay until further notice."
"That's surprising," she replies in Japanese, "How is everyone?"
"Ana is talking to her stalker, Kaitlin and Rena went to their room and I'm heading to the library. For some reason, I think Kuran might find Ana later on this week and tell her to leave."
"Huh, wanna put a bet on how long it will take him to confront her?" Angelica asks no doubt with a grin.
"Five bucks says tomorrow night."
"Five bucks says tonight before she finishes with Kiryuu."
"Yeah, we'll see. He's taking care of Yuuki right now, so he'll be too busy with her. How's your guest."
"Doing well. He's sleeping right now. Poor guy hasn't gotten enough food, so I let him have my whole stash. I'll have to refill it later."
"Yeah, no doubt 'bout that. Anyway, the lines will be opened, so call if need be."
"Right. See you tomorrow."
"'Night," I say and close my phone shut.
Guess I can go to the library and decompress. Once I get there, I start to just wander, letting the words mesh to a strange language of nonsense. This is what I need right. Things that don't make sense make me feel better, but it can only be something like this. Words on paper that don't have to mean anything important. Eventually, I stop in one section and slid down the bookcase, a few spines digging into my own. How did this get so out of hand? My knees draw themselves up to my chest and I rest my head between my knees, arms wrapping around my legs.
With everything that's been going on with school, I can see how I forgot that I wasn't allowed in this normal place. Hell, I've had fewer nightmares here. Lord knows it's funny that I even considered staying here until I graduated. With what background? This is the first formal school any of us have ever gone to. Like I would even be accepted. If that acceptance does come, it's because I'm lying to the ones that accept me. Slivers break though my chest and hot, choked air builds up. My head leans back to try and repair the slivers. I look over to the end of the aisle.
"Dad?" little Kizuna asks with wide eyes and a crayon drawing in hand.
I slam hard into the bookcase at an odd angle and try to move away from the boy that is gone a painful second later. Why did I just envision that kid? Suddenly, my hands and knees are shaking and something runs down my face. That's the truth, isn't it? My own mind just told me the truth of myself. The thing decided it for me before I could even think of the question. I will forever be a monster to other people and will forever have to hide. There is no acceptance outside of the girls. Honestly, this shouldn't bother me at all. But the tears come faster and my shoulders spasm from sobs. So, since I don't know what to do, I just sit here and let this happen. What's left for me to do?
"Wave-san? Why are you in the autobiographical section?"
Without thinking, I swivel my head to look up at Takuma. Nothing can stunt my tears or help my face. Confusion and worry crosses the vampire's face and he kneels next to me, making my sobs harder now.
"What happened?" he whispers, placing a cool hand on my shoulder.
I can't respond. Words drown in the back of my throat and are crushed before anything intelligible comes out. Truthfully, I don't know what to say because there is no real reason for me to be breaking down like this. So, instead I just shake my head.
"Please tell me."
Looking at his worried face, I stop for a second and wonder if he would accept me. I doubt it.
"It's just been a bad couple of weeks," I weakly say, my voice cracking through the tears.
Takuma gives a disbelieving look and sits down next to me.
"That isn't all of it, but I won't press you any longer on it," he replies calmly, "I will just sit here until you feel like moving."
What can I say to that? After realigning myself into the previous position I had, my tears slowly begin to stop. Never was much one for crying, even when I needed it. None of this was supposed to happen. Then again, nothing that I want to happen does, so something has to replace it. Slivers start to break my chest open again. With a grimace, I shut my eyes tight to try and block out whatever is coming up. Air comes in slower and hotter, limbs shake from something more than sobs. More calmly than I let on to be, I lean my head on his shoulder. All I really need right now is just someone physical around me. As long as I have something physical to compare to the mental images, the mental pain will go away. His cold temperature reminds me that the apparitions can't have temperatures. His arm loops slowly over my shoulders, almost asking. The action calms me down somewhat and brings me back out of my wretched mind.
"Sorry," I murmur, "It was just a little PTSD*, that's all."
"It seems more than just that," he replies, leaning his head toward me.
"It is, but it's nothing that can be helped. I take it you came here to either get a book or to talk to me about what happened a little while ago."
"Both."
I lean away and wipe my face off with my shirt.
"This turned out to be a bad evening," I laugh, "Every time Angelica says something is going to happen, it usual does. I swear that girl jinxes us."
"Are you going to be alright?" he asks, looking me hard in the face.
My hand waves away his concern and I smile brightly. "Nothing sleep won't fix. What does Kuran want to say?"
The blonde shakes his head and sighs. "He isn't very happy right now with what's going on. I don't really blame him, either."
"Blood foxes weren't our fault," I defend, holding up a finger, "Besides; we already told Cross that we would be more than willing to leave. He told us to stay and see what happens for now. That's why I'm still here. He'll have to take that up with Cross."
"Kaname-sama wants to talk to Rose-san soon," he replies, either ignoring my information or saving it for later, "Tonight won't be good, unless all of you are up for it."
"Does he want to talk tonight?"
"He does."
Let's think. Angelica has a sleeping, unregistered shifter in her room, Ana is off trying not to kill Kiryuu because of all of his questions and no doubt Kaitlin and Rena are either sleeping or talking right now. Personally, I really don't feel like dealing with anything that can talk back to me right now. Guess I'll make an executive decision.
"No, I don't think this evening will do it," I say at a length, "There isn't much we can do right now, anyway. Maybe just gettin' some sleep will be good for all of us."
…Crap, Angelica won our bet. I don't know why I bet against her sometimes. Perhaps I'm secretly masochistic.
"I will deliver the choice to him, then," he says, rising and offering me a hand up.
Out of politeness, I take it and get up. My legs tingle from a sudden rush of blood and I lean up to the tips of my toes to stretch my feet a bit. I move to take my hand back, but his tightens.
"Are you sure you will be alright?"
Why is he so worried? It doesn't really matter and I just bat the thought down. Without answering, I just flash him another smile and leave the library. There's nothing to do about it, and if his concern is linked to anything outside of this mutual liaison relationship, it will be cut down swiftly. I stop walking down the hallway for a moment, a thought striking up my mind. Perhaps that's why I'm taking this attack so hard. In the last couple of years, this is the longest we've ever stayed in one area and I'm actually getting attached to the place. That has to be it. I've never felt this scared since I had to attack Kizuna's family. God, I feel sick to my stomach.
Ana came back late and I was asleep when she entered the room. I woke up long enough to inform her that Kuran wants to talk to her. However, what time that was is still unknown. Well, there is one good thing about this little disaster. At least it happened during our break. I didn't tell Ana about my breakdown in the library. There's no real reason to. Since I got some sleep, thanks to some nighttime cold medicine, I've felt better. Days when I resort to drugging myself are far and few in between, but it was a bad night and I think I earned it. Last night I honestly didn't care if some Hunter stuck a bullet or two in my neck. All I wanted to do was sleep.
But today is another day, and with another day, I will continue. There is only real one thing I want in this world: freedom from Hunters. That's it. If I obtain that, I will get everything else I want in life. Right now, it's raining outside. I guess even here spring rains are random. The cherry trees on campus happily and carefully take in the falling drops, one or two of the early blooming flowers falling from the branches. We're supposed to go see Kuran in less than an hour and we have to meet at the front door of the Sun Dorms, which is where I'm watching this soft rain.
I've been thinking all day and I want to run something by the girls. I think we should find the information that Kuran has and leave. We've been stationary too long and we don't have the ability to lose the Hunters completely. Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. More like Hunters go away.
"How long have you been out here?" Kaitlin asks behind me and sitting next to me.
"Only about fifteen minutes," I reply, bringing my knees closer to my chest, "Why?"
"You're depressed. That or you have something really heavy on your mind," she says, leaning back on her hands and crossing her ankles.
"Had a bad PTSD moment in the library," I explain with a shrug, "That's about it really."
She raises an eyebrow at me and I just grin. "Yeah, I still feel a little down because of it and because of what happened last night," I continue, "But I'm doing better right now."
"Did you find someone to talk to or to be with?"
"Yeah, but you'll laugh or hit me if I tell you who," I nervously mutter, giving her a wobbly smile.
"Takuma."
My head whips around so fast that I nearly fall on my side. She said his name with such certainty and flatness. My cheeks flare up in a rush of heat before I can even notice the reaction. Kaitlin's face is flat and she waits for me to respond.
"H-how…?" I stutter.
"He's always at the library and so are you," she reasons, keeping her straight face, "No doubt Kuran sent him there to talk to you. Besides, you like to go to libraries for nearly any type of reason."
"I think I really scared him. I was crying when he found me. He looked really freaked."
"Well, out of all of us, you're the one to cry the least," she explains, crossing her arms. An impish smile spreads across her face. "So, do you like him?"
Now it's my turn to give her a flat look.
"I would ask how you mean that, but I know you too well," I grumble, sticking my tongue out, "He's nice to talk to, but we haven't gotten past the acquaintance relationship and it will not go past that. Not as long as I have to be a liaison between us and his coven."
"Yeah, I figured you'd say that," Kaitlin sighs, shaking her head, "But if something actually happens, do you think you shouldn't act on it?"
"I…don't know," I reply uneasily, "You and Aido have worked out pretty well, even though I'm still in shock from that." She glares at me. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Common sense would say that I shouldn't and the objective side of me is saying oh, hell no. But we won't really be able to say or debate how we should handle relationships until one actually happens."
Kait blinks at me and snorts. "Sweetheart, you just referred to yourself as 'we.' I'm not talking about all of us, I'm talking about you."
"Then I sure as hell don't know," I reply with a laugh and a grin, "but it will have to be something to talk about later. First, we need to placate a pissed off Level A that is too young for that kind of power."
"Hey, maybe if we're lucky, he might spontaneously combust," she replies, grinning at the hopeful thought.
"That would take the fun out of beating his face in."
We both turn around to find Ana with one hand on her hip, staring out the doorway. Rena comes down the stairs soon after Ana throws in her comment.
"Alright then," I groan and get up, cracking my fingers, "We're just missing one now. Where is she?"
"She'll meet us outside," the redhead replies with a tired look. Seems like Ana doesn't really want to do this either. I don't know when she came back to the room last night, but I feel asleep around two in the morning or so. I haven't really seen her since last night, which is strange. She wasn't there when I woke up this morning, but I could see that her bed was unmade.
"Anyone got an umbrella?" Rena asks with a sheepish smile, holding up her small, black one.
"Eh, I don't mind the rain," I say with a shrug.
"I do," Kait counters, latching onto Rena's arm, "We're close, right?"
Rena rolls her eyes at the short girl's poor joke and mutters that they just got a whole lot closer. Without word or warning, Ana starts out in the soft drizzle with no notice to the rain, her thick braid already turning a darker shade from the falling water. Kaitlin and Rena step out next, just a few paces behind Ana and I start out too. Holy cow, that's cold! It may be spring, but the rain still feels like winter! Shaking my head, I keep pace with the others. Angelica flanks me a second later, nearly appearing out of nothing but water droplets. She holds her small, brown umbrella close and brings me under it. It's too small for both of us to fit under there, but at least some of me will be dry.
"So, was last night okay?" I ask in a light tone.
"Erm, define okay?" she shoots back sheepishly, "He's alive and I don't think he will leave the area anytime soon. Does that count?"
I snort a chuckle and nod. "I don't think this will go okay, though."
"Don't have to be a mind reader to know that."
I press five American dollars to her hand with a somewhat sour face. Without saying anything, she looks at the currency and back at me. A grin splits her face for a moment and the ebony girl shakes her head.
We finally make it across the soggy field and the gateman opens the doors without a look to us. Guess he was told that we're coming.
Once on the stairs, Ana curtly knocks and rubs a hand over her face. Some random Night Student opens the door and frowns in annoyance. I glare back as he leads us in. Here we go. All of us are led into the same room we were in before when the new semester started. Kuran sits on his chair in a very relaxed manner, though he has some anger radiating from him. His little posy is around him, all very stoic faced. That's…not good. Everyone of them is really, really annoyed.
"Please, have a seat," he says with a dull voice, gesturing to the chair across from him.
"No, thank you," she replies with the same voice and points to her wet clothes, "I'd rather stand. What do you wish to speak of?"
"Last night's attack," he begins, closing his dark red eyes, "was inexcusable."
And we're at fault for that? I'd love to hear this logic. Yes, our presence brought those stupid Hunters here, there's no disagreement there. But what in the hell were we supposed to do? Plus, the Hunters could have made an attack on the coven. The creatures used were vampire eating creatures…though they would never attack a coven or one of this potential.
"That's a loaded statement," Ana replies, crossing her arms in an uncaring manner, "You may want to choose a side of that statement to give some clarification."
"This coven already has a tentative stance among these humans," Kuran explains, "It is to be noted that the blood foxes could have been sent towards the coven only, but your presence here brings their appearance into heavier questioning."
Did he read my mind? He has the ability to do that, but I honestly don't know how much he uses that trait.
"Grant it," she replies, still uncaringly.
A tense silence stiffens the air and Kuran audibly sighs, which makes most of his little posy looks at him for a moment.
"Look," Ana snaps, taking the initiative, "I'm sorry that these beasts came here, but it isn't anyone's fault; yours or mine. What the fuck do you wanna talk about?"
"The activity here has increased since you've been here," he calmly explains, linking his fingers in his lap, "I just want to make sure that all of you aren't stepping on tripwires or…continuing actions that draw in attention from unwanted eyes."
"So you make us come here to interrogate and lecture us," I state calmly, but lace my feelings with annoyance and anger and direct it towards Kuran only.
He doesn't answer and looks coldly at me. To return the favor, I give him my own frosty glare.
"To keep stability and peace on the campus," Ana interjects before I say something else, "I will happily inform you that we have done no other circuits or investigation, nor have we drawn any extra attention here. However." She snaps up a glare and her voice turns harsh. "You will not drag us in here thinking to use your prestige to intimidate us. We are not under any of your jurisdiction and we will not submit to it. With that said, Kuran, have any of you or your coven done something to provoke and entice Hunter attention?"
"You're accusing us of bringing those blood munchers here?"
Some random kid from the gathered crowd said that. I do my best to ignore the moron.
"I am merely asking the same question your coven leader put to me," Ana answers like a true politician, "And I would like an answer, though I will not force one."
"We have not, Ms. Rose. I suppose we should add a new course of action in our treaty," Kuran replies willingly. Does this guy ever display emotions? I can't pick up anything on him. "This rule, if favored, will apply to both of our separate parties. If one of us were to commence some action that would draw attention here in anyway, the other party is to be informed with general specifics of the operation."
"Would that mean that we'd have to tell you the reasons why and have a full open briefing?" she counters, ruffling her wet bangs, "Or are we to only inform one another of the basic actions and possible outcome of attention?"
"If there is no Hunter activity brought to the campus, only the basics and a proposed timeline, if it calls for such."
She leans on one leg and tugs on a lock of hair. Ana is thinking about this. She nods over to Angelica and without any more beckoning; she comes over and places a hand on Ana's shoulder. The two talk for a moment and Angelica motions to all of us. We make contact with one another, using Angelica as a mass phone between all of us.
"It doesn't seem unreasonable," Ana's thoughts float in, "And we can at least establish basic communication against any other possible attacks."
"I don't like working with Kuran," Kaitlin angrily cuts in, "but he is in charge of them."
"It does seem pretty generous, considering who we're dealing with," Rena murmurs, "It's not a bad offer."
"Either way, we will still have the jump on this guy," Angelica reasons, sounding the loudest out of all of us. Being the one with this ability, she would have the most volume and control in the conversation. Control is the wrong word, but if she wanted to , she could kick us out of the conversation without breaking physical contact.
"True," I agree at length, "I'm in."
"All in favor?" Ana asks.
There are three other agreements and we all break physical contact. One strange fact about thought-speaking: it only takes two seconds after physical contact to speak to each other. Thoughts move faster than words do.
"We all agree," Ana confirms, "Is there anything else to this meeting?"
"No, that is all," he says, nodding his head, "Thank you for coming out in this weather."
What a douche bag.
Instead of a reply, Ana just nods her head and turns on her heel, refusing to stay in this infested den any longer than is necessary. We leave the place quicker than we can and are back at the Sun Dorms before long. Everyone goes to their own rooms to change into drier clothing and we all meet back in my room. Ana changes into some pajamas and rubs her head down with a towel. I change as well and grab one of my towels slowly, thinking about something. I don't know why, but I have been avoiding asking a certain question all day.
"Ana, what did you and Kiryuu talk about?" I cautiously question plopping on my bed, "I wasn't even awake when you came in last night."
"I think I got back around five this morning," she says in a muffled voice, since the towel is over her head.
"Holy cow, why?"
"Erm…well, let's just say that Kiryuu and I have a better understanding of each other now."
Small, almost undetectable waves of embarrassment ripple from her. They're faint, but I can still pick them up. A grim rises to my mouth.
"Will you tell me?" I ask in a taunting voice.
"…Maybe," she mutters, revealing her face and ruffled hair, "but that douche did give me an idea. We can't and won't use Cross' Hunter access information, but we could hack it off of someone else's computer. We could use a Hunter computer and copy and paste an IP address."
"That way, when the address is traced, it will lead them to nowhere," I mutter, a hand on my chin, "Well, that could work, but it would take some time and another hacking job to see what new format they use."
She nods and undoes her braid to let all her hair dry.
"Man, you two must have had a serious heart-to-heart or something for him to give you ideas on the Hunters," I say casually, but in all honesty, I'm trying to provoke her to tell me what happened.
"Odd thing to say," she replies with no hesitancy, "considering his heart doesn't beat anymore."
I study the elder girl carefully, noting how her head turns away slightly from my eyes and her thick lips purse only a little. Nobody else would notice these small changes, but because Ana is so good at hiding her emotions, I've learned to read her smaller actions very well. And this is telling me that she is embarrassed beyond reason. Ana never has these types of reactions to a simple conversation. A wicked grin tries to rip past my teeth, but I push it back so not to bother Ana too much. If I bug her, she won't tell me for years.
"Whaddya know," I comment, swinging myself on my bed to lie out, "That silver haired moron can have some good ideas."
"Yeah, well those records we found in Spain said that he was a prodigy for the Hunters," Ana says without much thought, "He has every aspect they wanted in a new recruit."
"Until he joined the ranks he was trained to kill."
"…Yeah. That shit is so unfair."
I chuckle humorlessly and give her a knowing look. Unfair is reality's middle name.
"What do you think about acting on one of the plans to get the info from that bastard, Kuran, and runnin'?"
Blue eyes shoot up to mine in surprise and some confusion.
"What brought this on?" she asks, putting her towel down, "Don't you like it here?"
"Yeah, but…I hate to admit it: Kuran has a point."
She grimaces and nods, scratching the back of her neck. "That he does. I'm still wondering what is going through Cross's to let us stay here. That attack was meant to draw us out, even if it was poorly planned. Cross knows about the M.C.C.s, and the Hunters couldn't use that as information that we would know alone. If they wanted us to come out in the open by wayward knowledge, they should have used newer stuff."
"I'm leaving our staying here to the fact that Cross goes through the happier side of menopause," I toss in, shaking my head.
"There's a happier side?" she asks flatly.
"There is now, and it's him."
We look at each other for a moment. Laughter trembles in my gut and starts to move up, my face twitching to keep from letting it out. Ana has a slowly growing smile on her face. My ribs shake from restraint. I can't hold it. I burst out laughing and Ana's quieter laughter joins in with me. My lungs and throat start to burn, but I look at my friend to see her face turning red, face all lit up by a smile. We catch each other's eyes and start a whole new spiel of laughter.
"W-what wacky universe d-did we walk into?' she questions in a quivering voice.
"I don't know, but this is the most I've laughed in a while," I choke out, rolling on my side.
That comment wasn't even very funny, but we both need excessive laughter right now. So that's what we do, we laugh and laugh until we can't breathe while rolling on the floor or bed, unable to get up. After a few minutes, we both calm down and Ana shakily gets up from the floor and flops on her bed, still chuckling.
"As crazy as this place is," she huffs out with a grin still on her face, "I don't think we should confront them just yet. It would draw too much attention to the school when we'd leave."
"Point taken," I heave back, fanning myself with my hand, "but if he doesn't hurry up and agree to meet you, I'm gonna pop him in the head."
She hums in agreement and closes her eyes, a smile still splashed on her face. Soon, the redhead's breath begins to slow. I know she's not asleep, but she didn't get a whole lot of it last night/this morning. A gentle smile creeps to my lips and I turn off the overhead light after tucking my dear little leader in. We don't say this very often, the girls and I, but we really are family. We each take on all the roles of a family. We're each other's mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather…we're everything to each other. Tonight, I get to be the elder sister or the mother. With sweet, tender thoughts, I crawl into bed and drift off to sleep. Maybe, just maybe this might be a place worth fighting for and planting my family here. Just maybe.
Sat. back down here again! The * above is to say that PTSD is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, just in case some people reading this didn't know.