CHAPTER EIGHT - A Rogue Vamp

The next day, Korra went to extreme measures to avoid Asami on campus. She avoided her usual shortcut through the physics building in case she was between classes, and instead added ten minutes to her walk to the lecture hall by taking the path around the massive Beifong dorm complex.

"Ohhh, we were wondering why you left so early for class! You worried us when we realized you weren't in your room!" Bolin laughed on the phone. It was a recently discovered development, that ghost voices could travel over cell phones. Also recently discovered was the fact that if he called and a normal human picked up, they could not hear him. Asami would have gotten a kick trying to work that one out.

"It's just the scenic route," she grumbled, speeding up to a brisk trot. Korra hadn't exactly thought it through. Being out of the house earlier didn't mean her train was going to arrive earlier. Which, of course, it didn't. Now she was probably going to be late.

"Really? More scenic than running into Asami and her long wavy tresses, enchanting green eyes, and ruby red - "

"I'm almost at my lecture." Korra cut him off. "I'm hanging up on you now. Give Mako his phone back."

"Okay, shoot us a text-o after class!"

"Fuck you."

"Swear Jar!" Bolin sang before ending the call. She shoved her phone in her pocket. The boys were never, ever going to let her live that one down.

"Ooooh. Swear Jar."

Korra jumped and whirled around to find Asami standing two feet away. She was grinning, holding a school bag on one hand and a large cortado in the other. There was a strong end-of-summer breeze that Korra wished would just stop for a second, because while it was blowing her own short brown hair into a frenzied mess, it was somehow making Asami's jet black mane billow perfectly like in a goddamn photo shoot.

"A-Asami?" She smiled anxiously. "I promise, I'm not following you. In fact, I've been trying to avoid you."

"You're trying to avoid me? Why?"

Shoot me a text-o.

"I don't know, it's been a long week for you. I figured you're getting real tired of us."

Asami's pleasant grin faltered. Her hand came up, and stopped midway to Korra's face before she awkwardly dropped it again.

Korra blinked at her.

"Your face still looks awful from yesterday," Asami said quickly, putting her hand on her own cheek. She mirrored her action and winced at the sharp pain at her cheek bone. She'd forgotten about all the bruising.

"It's okay."

"Do you have, I don't know, an expedited healing process or something?"

"What? I'm a werewolf, not Wolverine!"

Asami blushed. "Anyway, speaking of things that make absolutely no sense - I remember what was in that photo that was missing last night. I need to talk to you guys."

Korra's eyebrows shot up and all plans for the rest of her day disappeared from her brain.

"What was in the photo?"

"More like who. I'll tell you about it later."

"What? Wait, no, you can tell me now!"

Asami looked uneasy, glancing at the clock tower on the building behind them.

"Oh, my God," Korra said incredulously. "Are you that hung up on being late for class? Really? Like that's more important?"

"I mean, kinda! I have an aeronautics quiz coming up!"

"So? You're a genius, you'll catch up. Come on, let's go - "

Asami made a face. "But I love aeronautics."

"Wow. Nerd."

"I'm not going to let you peer-pressure me into skipping class, Korra. You shouldn't do it either."

"But I have three classes in a row! I can't wait that long!"

"I can drive you home, if you want, and we can talk then." She looked around discreetly. "I'm not all that comfortable talking about it here, anyway."

They were surrounded by students all hurrying to the lecture hall for their morning classes. In all the mad rushing about, it was awfully suspicious of them to be standing around exchanging hushed whispers.

"Fine. My last class ends at three, and it's a good thing I'm off work today."

"My classes are done by one, but I had laser lab booked for this evening. I'll see if I can change the time - what?"

Korra was gaping at her. "What the hell is a laser lab?"

"The laboratory for laser energetics?" Asami clarified. "You seriously don't know we have a laser lab? That's basically the whole reason I wanted to come to this school."

"You get to use lasers? That's so fucking cool."

"Well, if you want, I can - "

Someone suddenly bumped into her as they rushed to the lecture hall.

"Watch it!" Korra called angrily. She gently pulled her closer to avoid another running student. "Are you okay?"

"Of course. Um, anyway, I was just trying to tell you I can get you into the laser lab, if you want," she smiled. "It's actually kind of fun. I can show you some Lissajou patterns, total internal reflection, maybe a little beam modulation…"

Korra swallowed. If she didn't know better, it would almost, almost, sound like she might be possibly proposing a nerdy laser science date with her.

Yet another person pushed past them rudely.

"Sorry!" he called, clearly not sorry. "I wanted to see the body before they took it away!"

He disappeared into the lecture hall. It was only then that they realized a lot more people were running to the lecture hall than was expected at 8 in the morning on a Friday. It was a universally known fact that college kids avoided 8 AM classes like the plague, and if it was unavoidable, they usually just sort of trudged. But through the windows, they could see a crowd forming in the hallway, outside of room LH11.

"I'm gonna be honest with you," Korra said. "I really, really wanna pretend that guy didn't just say the word 'body' to us."

"What on earth…?" Asami slowly started towards the the commotion, then broke into a trot as more kids came rushing over.

They got to the lecture hall together, but there were too many people to actually get a good look. Police were just arriving, trying to fight through all the students.

"Move, move!" A strong-looking female officer with graying hair and a formidable scar on cheek roughly shoved past them. "If you kids don't move I'm throwing all your asses in jail for obstruction of justice!"

That got maybe three people out of the way, but the woman and her squad just managed to push through. They grasped the partly open doors of LH11 and pulled them all the way open.

"Oh, my God," Asami whispered.

At the very front of the lecture hall was a massive pool of blood. Korra almost didn't see the body it had come from, there was so much spreading across the floor right before their eyes. It was a woman, as pale white as the linoleum floor used to be. She was very obviously dead, but that wasn't what spooked her the most.

The woman's neck was torn apart. There didn't seem to be any other wounds on her body, just the gaping wound and shreds of flesh that used to hold her head to her body. Her head was practically hanging by a thread. And if the scene wasn't already gruesomely horrible, the kids that held out their cell phones trying to take pictures made everything overwhelmingly worse.

As a werewolf, Korra had to deal with a whole other level of awfulness aside from the visuals - the smell. The smell of vomit wafted around her as a few people threw up in front of them. Others made faces or held their noses, but they didn't have her sense of smell. It nearly knocked her over. She could smell the corpse from all the way outside, the hint of decay, the metallic tinge to the liters of blood creeping across the floor.

Korra gagged, having to turn away and pull her t-shirt over her face.

"I know, this is…" Asami swallowed. "Is this...from a…?"

It was. It absolutely was. The lingering scent of a very specific type of death was still there, hovering over the body like a dark cloud.

"I think so. I think a vampire did this."

"Listen up!" the female officer shouted. "This is an active crime scene. All you kids back off, do you hear me!?"

A balding man that Korra recognized as a calculus professor spoke up. "Chief Beifong, can you tell us what could have done this? It almost looks like it was done by an animal!"

Chief. This was the police chief Mako had told them about. The one that was a vampire. She could smell it on her.

Korra felt a burning in her veins as she realized what was about to happen. They were going to cover it up, hide evidence. There would be no justice for that poor woman who was violently mauled to death. Whoever did this was going to get away with it, for the sake of vampire infrastructure.

"I promise you that we will find whoever or whatever did this. But for now, everyone needs to GET. OUT."

Korra stormed out of the lecture hall before the rest of the crowd began to disperse at the insistence of the armed police. Asami stumbled after her.

"Korra? Are you okay?"

"No."

"I know. My God, I've never seen anything like that. I can't believe…"

"I can't…" Korra bent over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath. She was sweating profusely, as if she'd just run a mile. Her heart was pounding. The sickening stench was still surrounding her, as if clinging to her nose and refusing to let go. "I'm sorry, I…"

"No, it's fine," Asami said, concerned. She crouched down, holding her hair back, in case she actually hurled. "Wait...it's the smell, isn't it? You have a really good sense of smell. You can smell all of that, can't you."

Korra nodded weakly. The murder scene was disgusting. The police that were about to cover it all up were disgusting. But the smell? That was beyond anything conceivable in any nightmare.

"Come on. Let's get to the library."

It was a good idea. Asami ushered her into the main campus library and the crime scene was immediately washed away by the scent of old moldy books and too-strong coffee. Korra sighed in relief.

"Wow. Thanks, that was…"

"A lot."

"Yeah. Um…" Korra suddenly bolted towards the bathroom by the coffee stand. It was thankfully empty as she dove headfirst into a stall and released the inevitable.

As she heaved pitifully into the toilet, she heard the door open and a light step come towards her. A gentle hand gathered her sweaty hair again and held it back patiently. Korra was so busy emptying the considerable volume of her werewolf stomach into the toilet that she couldn't even spare a thought to be embarrassed by all this. She was throwing up at a frightening velocity. But when it finally ended and she thought maybe she'd lost her spleen and a kidney in the process, she turned around in shame.

Asami was holding a water bottle in her other hand. She let go of her hair and flushed the toilet.

"You should wash your mouth out."

Korra gladly took the water and stumble weakly to the sink, her dignity too long gone for her to care that Asami was tying her hair into a short ponytail with a rubber band she'd had around her wrist.

After a few deep breaths, she looked at Asami behind her in the mirror.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. Feel better?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Um, you can keep that."

Korra realized she was stupidly holding the water bottle out, for some reason, as if Asami would want it back after it was used to rinse vomit.

She turned around. "Sorry."

"Stop saying sorry. Are you sure you're okay?"

When she didn't answer, Asami guided Korra out of the bathroom and back onto the benches of the library, where they sat wordlessly. More students filed in, thoroughly spooked at what they'd just seen. Quiet murmurs traveled across the library atrium.

"That was Professor Yangchen," Asami said quietly. "My physics professor last year. She was my advisor this year. Super smart, well-respected in the academic community, and one of the kindest people I've ever met."

A new onslaught of thoughts barraged Korra's blanked mind. Why would a vampire attack her? Were they after something? Had she seen something? Why make it so high-profile and obvious? Was this connected to Asami somehow? Was it connected to her father?

What would she do if it was?

"I'm sorry for your loss," she said finally.

Asami swallowed. "I'm okay. But she had kids. She had a grandchild on the way."

That hung heavy over them for a while, until Korra couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't stay here," she said, starting to feel queasy all over again.

"Let me drive you home," Asami offered. "I think it's safe to say classes will be cancelled for the day, and...we should to talk with your friends, anyway."

"Right. Okay. Yeah."

Mako looked stricken.

"No. This is wrong. That's not how to do it."

"Is there a right way to kill a person?!" Korra demanded, still somewhat pale. Bolin sat next to her, trying to force a cup of tea into her hands. "Bo, I said I'm fine."

"I'll take it, if that's okay," Asami said. She had been sitting on Korra's other side on the couch. Bolin shyly passed it over to her. "Thank you."

"Um. You're welcome."

"Yes, there actually is a right way," Mako said, pacing. "It's Vampire 101. Zaheer taught it to me when I still worked at the hospital. You don't...kill...in public places like that. You don't kill prominent figures like a professor at the biggest university in the United Republic. And you definitely don't leave a mess like that for all to see, especially a bunch of kids with cameras on their phones. There's a system set for a reason."

Asami raised a hand.

"I'd just like to say that I both do and do not want to know what you're talking about."

Korra sighed. "Long story short: vampires have an 'infrastructure', like, people in positions of power that help cover up stuff like this. It's how they managed to stay a myth for all these centuries."

"Oh. Well, I guess I really didn't want to know that."

Mako ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"You said the police chief was there?"

Asami nodded. "Middle-aged lady with an attitude and crazy biceps like Korra?"

Korra coughed. Bolin elbowed her in the ribs, grinning.

"That's Chief Lin Beifong, yeah," he sighed. "She, the medical examiner, and the Red Lotus lawyers will fix this. They probably will pin this on some kind of wild animal attack. I wouldn't be surprised if later on tonight we hear on the news the cops shot some big dog or something on campus. They'll make a big show, evacuate the dorms and all that."

Asami's eyes widened. "Wait. The vampires have the cops and lawyers in their pocket?!"

Bolin mimed quotation marks with his fingers. "Infrastructure."

"Sort of," Korra tried to explain, although she wasn't sure she was okay with the answer yet, either. "Apparently, the vampires don't want to run the place. They just want to live their blood-lusty lives. Occasionally, someone dies, and they clean up their messes."

She put her tea down, looking cautiously at Mako. "So...oh. Oh."

"Not everyone is like Mako," Bolin said, quickly coming to his brother's defense. "It's hard for them, not everyone can pull off not drinking human blood, but Mako does."

Korra felt like she should have said something for him as well, but she still couldn't shake the image and smell from her brain. Bolin hadn't been there. He didn't understand what exactly this vampire had done. It was unforgivably evil.

"Okay…" She recognized the uneasy expression on Asami's face. It was the same one she had when Mako had told them. The difference was, she didn't know Mako like they did.

"So what was this, then? A rogue vamp?" Korra asked, trying to shift the subject.

"It happens," Mako said. "Most vampires go for people with no connections, you know, without families or friends that would miss them. Sometimes there's like, a vigilante thing going on or whatever, going after criminals and stuff. No matter what, though, the bodies are quietly disposed of. I don't know what this attack was. It was excessively violent - you don't have to maul a victim, we can only drink something like half a liter at a time and that can last us for days. Weeks, maybe. There hasn't been a gory, publicized attack like this since...well…"

"Us?" Bolin said.

"Well, yeah. Zaheer said they found the vampires that did this to us and...I don't know." He shrugged. "He told me I didn't want to know what the Elders did to rogue vampires that risked exposing our secret."

"Oh, there are Elders now," Korra threw up her hands. "Of course there are Elders, how could there not be Elders with you people?"

"So they do face justice," Asami said, her voice cracking.

"They do."

"Although, I guess it's more for being obvious about it and not so much for the actual taking of an innocent person's life, right?"

Mako stopped pacing to look at her. "Not everyone is innocent."

"And who are these vampires to judge? Are you guys gods now?"

Korra stood up hastily. "Asami, he's not defending the vampire for what they did."

"It sure sounds like he is," she replied, a little bit more confident.

"They can't help who they are," Mako said through gritted teeth. "I know this was wrong, I know there are really dangerous vampires out there that shouldn't be, I know all sorts insane, evil, horrifying things. It's you that doesn't understand."

"I understand that a good person is dead right now."

"I'm dead right now!" he snarled back. "So is Bolin. So was the vampire that killed that professor. So are a lot of people that were robbed of that chance to ever be 'good' again, but you don't know shit about that so why don't you shut your - "

"Mako!" Korra and Bolin cried.

Asami swallowed hard, but she didn't look afraid. She looked contemplative.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you. And you, Bolin. But - "

Mako flared. "But what? What do you, some girl that just walked in off the street and into this life for like four days, have to say about all this?"

Korra grabbed his hand.

"Hey. That's enough. You're right, she doesn't quite get it yet. That's no reason to jump down her throat."

"She thinks - !"

"I know what she thinks," Korra said quietly. "But I think it a little bit, too. And so does Bolin, and so do you. We can't blame her, right?"

Mako shook her away. "Why did you even bring her here?"

In all the commotion, even Korra had forgotten why Asami had wanted to speak to them in the first place. The missing photo.

"I remembered what was in that picture that was missing from my album," Asami said quietly, pulling the album out from her bag and flipping to the page. "All the photos from that section were from my Sato Worldwide HQ's grand opening, so it wasn't just me. There were lots of pictures of me with my dad's employees and stuff, too."

Bolin peeked at the album. "Aw, look how cute you were! Did you guys see this!?"

"Yeah, she was adorable," Korra admitted.

"She was okay," Mako grumbled.

Asami continued. "The picture that's missing was one of those with my dad's employees. They might have been business partners or something, actually, because they wore fancy suits and stuff. I was sitting on a desk, and a woman was sitting next to me smiling, with a guy behind the desk putting little bunny ears on me with his fingers."

"Classic," Bolin said. He'd taken the album and seemed enthralled at all the cute baby pictures.

"I never knew their names or anything. I probably never saw them again after that photo was taken, I mean, my dad had lots of people working with him. I don't recognize anyone else in all the other pictures, after all. That's why I didn't realize at first."

"Realize what?" Korra asked, although she was starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I didn't realize that the two employees in the photo were the two vampires that attacked you in the parking lot of Air Temple Espresso," she said. "The vampires that broke into my dorm."

Everyone just stared at her.

"I mean, they were just about the same age in the twenty-year-old photo as they are now, but they were cleaner cut and, well, much nicer-looking. Better dressed and happier," she explained. "That's probably why I didn't recognize them immediately. Also, uh, the woman still had arms back then."

More silent staring.

"And to make things even stranger, they must have recognized me. Maybe it was in that parking lot or whatever, but they had to have known I would make the connection. Why else would they go out of their way to steal the photo? To make sure I never realized it was them. And why would they do that? I'm just some human girl, right? Who cares if I recognized some of my dad's old coworkers twenty years later?"

Korra was the first to say anything, although it was just a soft, "Uhhh…"

"So, last night my mind went a little wild. I started thinking about my dad, and how he only ever took photos, and was never in them. There are other photo albums at the house, but I can't remember my dad being in a single one of them. I always chalked it up to him being weird and loving paintings, but now after all this I'm just...I meant, you said vampires don't show up on camera right? Am I being completely crazy?"

Mako and Korra shared a look. They'd come upon this exact thought last night.

"Maybe not completely," Korra said. "We did wonder why those vampires were at Air Temple Espresso in the first place. They weren't following either of us, they made it pretty clear that stumbling upon Mako was an accident."

Asami closed her eyes. "So you're saying they were probably scoping me out."

"I mean it could have been a coincidence that they broke into your dorm shortly after they realized you'd seen them and might recognize them," Korra said. "But…"

"But probably not," she said softly. "Probably, I've been living in this world even longer than you guys have."

Bolin put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"Welcome to the club, buddy. Let me make you more tea."

He took the cup into the kitchen. Mako frowned.

"Why do they care about you? What do they want from you?"

"It might be a good idea to maybe talk to your dad," Korra suggested. Asami shook her head.

"Absolutely not."

"He may have answers."

"I can work the answers out on my own," she said firmly. "I'm not speaking to that man. Or vampire. Or whatever he is."

"Hey, guys?"

They looked over at Bolin, who was staring out the window over the sink.

"What is it, Bo?"

"I think...I think this guy can see me."

Korra and Mako darted into the kitchen with him and the three of them leaned over the sink. Outside was an old blue car with heavily tinted windows. They could see through the windshield, though, and Mako's eyes darkened.

"That's Ghazan. Even if I couldn't see him, I recognize his car."

Ghazan seemed to sense the jig was up. The car tore down the street before Mako could even get outside. Korra and Bolin followed him and watched from the stoop as the car disappeared.

"I wonder what the heck that was all about?" Bolin said.

"I hate to make it like everything revolves around me," Asami said, joining them on the front steps. "But, it was probably about me?"

"It looks like you have a new set of stalkers," Korra joked. "Uh, sorry. I don't know why I keep thinking that's an okay thing to bring up."

"Still don't want to call your dad?" Mako asked.

"No. But I'm considering making a different stupid decision," Asami took a deep breath, looking mostly at Korra. "Is that room still available?"

She jerked. "Wait, really?"

"I'm not sure I feel particularly safe in my dorm anymore, and here at least I know only one vampire is allowed in. Right?"

"It's a home," Bolin nodded. "Vampires can't enter a home uninvited."

"I just...I think I can find my answers here. With you guys."

"We'll definitely try to help," Korra agreed. "The room is yours if you want it."

Mako slapped a hand to his forehead. "I honestly can't believe any of this."

"Shove it, bro," Bolin said. "You were on board last week, remember?"

"Yes, but I didn't realize our roommate would be able to see ghosts and have some kind of weird connection to vampires!" Mako insisted. "I mean, no offense, Asami, you're probably not awful. You seem kind of nice. But this is a big hot mess you're getting into."

"I'm already in it," she pointed out. "Maybe I always have been."

"Yes, but…" he sighed. "Okay, fine, I'll say it. I'll be the asshole. We're not here to protect you from anything. I'm not gonna risk Korra, Bolin, or myself for anything. Not even you."

"Fucking harsh, Mako," Korra said, scowling.

"I'm looking out for me and mine," Mako insisted again. "I don't know you, Asami. You're not our responsibility. Okay?"

Bolin threw a pillow at him. "Dude!"

Asami held up her hands. "I just want to live in a vampire-repelling house with people who know more about this stuff than I do. I won't ask anything except questions you're comfortable answering. You can kick me out whenever you want for whatever reason. I don't need your protection. I just need a little help getting used to all this."

He still looked skeptical and Korra was just about ready to push him upstairs and lock him in his room for a timeout, but Asami was way ahead of her.

"Did I mention I can cook?"

"This still doesn't seem like a good idea - "

"You can drive my car."

"Fine!" Mako threw his hands up in defeat as he stomped up the stairs to his room.