Yukari showed up at school looking more energetic than she had in a while. Gone were the dark eyebags under her eyes, and her previous gloom, while still there, had lifted significantly. She hummed as she took out her pens and paper in preparation for class. A lot more people were in class now too, Miku noticed. Did something happen to the wendigo?

Len, still sniffling from his illness, asked first. 'Something happen, Yukari?"

"I broke the window," said Yukari with a smile. "And now I'm grounded."

Miku blinked. That didn't seem like anything to be happy about. She examined Yukari closely. No sign of her having been in any sort of wendigo attack at the moment - she was still obviously weak, her face pale, the ghost of sleepiness weighing her movements, but she was much better than before. Miku didn't know if Yukari knew about wendigos, but she didn't want to unnecessarily alarm her. "Why'd you break the window?"

"Um," said Yukari. "I was playing baseball."

Miku gave her a look. "You don't even know how to play baseball. Besides, you were sick for a while, weren't you?"

Yukari turned away, busied herself with her books. "I thought it would be nice to learn while I was stuck at home."

-o-o-o-

For lack of anything else to do, Luka skulked around Miku's school, checking on the progress of Yukari. Rin and Len were back, Luka noted. Yukari was more awake and cheerful now - Luka wondered what exactly she told her parents about the broken window.

Really, Luka was just here to kill time, and since Miku didn't exactly know about Luka's capabilities, Luka couldn't reveal herself to her now. It would raise too many questions about how she could walk about in sunlight. Even though it's been such a long time since they had last seen each other...

Luka sighed. They hadn't even really contacted each other in a while, and now, the first thing Miku did was text her about whether or not she knew if anything supernatural was going on? When Luka asked for friendship, she hadn't asked for this. But maybe all relationships went through phases like this - not that, Luka hurriedly told herself, she was in a relationship with Miku or anything. Far from it - at this rate, they were rapidly devolving into mere acquaintances.

At the thought of that, Luka frowned. She paced the perimeter of the school, keeping herself out of sight. Mere acquaintances. Was that what they were now? Was that all they were now? But that couldn't be, they had gone through so much. Though, who's to say that that meant they were friends?

Luka checked her watch. Six hours until nightfall. She walked over towards the window of Miku's classroom and glanced inside. They were eating lunch now. Miku's friend, Rin, was talking about something excitedly, waving her arms to punctuate whatever she was saying. Miku was, for some reason, rather focused on Yukari. Her teal eyes were thoughtful and somewhat intent, like those of a determined detective, and Yukari was laughing and apparently brushing away whatever Miku was asking her. Miku heaved a sigh. Then, she looked over at the window. Her eyes widened as she saw Luka.

Luka froze for a moment. Shit. Instinctively she reached into herself for the ability to turn invisible, but she hadn't really been keeping up with her blood intake lately, and using abilities depleted too much energy for her to practically use anyways. Instead she ducked away from the window and pressed her back against the wall. She only half-heartedly berated herself for letting herself get seen - after all, she hadn't talked to Miku in such a long time that a part of her wanted to be seen.

Luka's phone vibrated in her pocket. She checked it. Miku had texted her.

omg, whatre you doing here? its daytime!

Luka answered: I had time incense. I'm checking on Yukari.

There was a pause. why?

There's a problem. Luka hesitated. Should she tell her? But, Luka supposed, if Lily already had a hunch that something supernatural was happening, she probably told Miku already. In fact, Miku probably already knew everything, judging by how she was apparently interrogating Yukari earlier. Do you know about wendigos?

There was another pause, longer this time. When Luka's phone shook with another message, Luka immediately opened it.

ic. do u want 2 meet up after school?

-o-o-o-

"Oh," said Yukari, near instantly once she saw Luka. She turned to Miku and clapped her hands together. "That's the vampire that saved me last night!"

Luka smiled at Yukari and nodded. "Glad to see you're doing better, Yukari. Was it okay for your parents when they saw the window?"

Yukari grinned and shook her head. "No, they grounded me. But it's okay. If it wasn't for you, I would've just tried to stay awake forever."

Miku blinked as she tried to keep up with the conversation. Luka had been with Yukari before? When? Yukari didn't say anything about that when Miku was asking her about things on the way here. When Miku confronted her with her knowledge of the wendigo after she received Luka's text, all Yukari had told her was that it was true, that in fact a wendigo had been haunting her, but now she was safe from it. No mention of any sort of vampire. Why would Yukari even try to hide the fact that Luka saved her? Was she...

No, Miku told herself. That was a bad road for her thoughts to go down. Better to just ask Luka directly. "How do you know Yukari?"

Luka turned to look at her, eyes faintly amused. Despite herself, Miku felt the side of her neck itch, even though the bite marks had disappeared by now. She resisted the urge to scratch it.

Yukari answered for her. "She was just standing outside my house last night. That's how we met," Yukari shrugged. "But Miku, you know Luka? How?"

Luka was standing outside of Yukari's house? Miku's mind was caught between that unsettling thought and the question, so all she could muster was a lame stammer.

Apparently Luka noticed Miku's distress, for she came to the rescue. "We worked together on a supernatural issue your friend Lily had."

Wait, what? There was a lot more to the story than just that. The way Luka phrased it had made it sound as though they were nothing more than business acquaintances, which wasn't - couldn't - be true. Miku stared at Luka, silently appalled, though if Luka noticed, she gave no indication.

Yukari's eyebrows furrowed. "W-wait a minute, Lily had an issue too? What happened to her?" Her gaze swung towards Miku. "Why didn't you two tell us?"

Miku frowned. "It's just...it's hard to talk about these things. You didn't want to tell me about the wendigo either, right?" Then, without thinking, she added, "And even when you did tell me about the wendigo, you didn't tell me about Luka." Her voice came out harsher than she intended it to. Miku winced inwardly when she heard herself.

Yukari blinked, surprised by the sudden vehemence in Miku's voice. "Um, okay. I get it. Well...now that we're all in the know about each other, what happened to Lily?"

"Lily's..." Luka hesitated. "You can ask her about it. It's a little complicated. Anyways," her tone turned businesslike, "we have to think of some way of dealing with the wendigo. It's still alive, so it will probably come for Yukari again tonight. The vampires are aware of this issue, though not too many are actually concerned about it."

"What? But...why?" Yukari asked.

Luka smiled. "Well, this is something that principally affects humans. It hasn't reached the level where vampires would be worried about this affecting our, um, blood supply."

Miku had the sudden realization that this probably meant that Luka had been drinking other people's blood in the time between Leon and now. Her gut clenched and she stared at the floor.

"Oh," Yukari winced. "I see. So that's why you were standing outside my house?"

"Right, I was assigned by one of the higher-ups to monitor the situation. Speaking of which," Luka put a hand to her chin, "she'll probably want to meet you."

-o-o-o-

"Why are you coming along with us..." Luka sighed once she saw the sniffling, coughing Lily. "You're obviously sick. Go home and get some rest."

Lily glared at Luka. "If you think," she coughed once, "that I'm going to let my friends walk into a blood coven on their own," she coughed again, "you have another thing coming."

Luka frowned as she glanced up and down Lily. "...right. And what'll you do to help your friends? Sneeze on them? Miku," Luka turned towards her, "honestly, why is she here?"

"I don't know-" Miku began, but Yukari interrupted.

"I texted her asking about what happened to her, and once I brought up Luka and the fact that we'll be going to the blood coven, Lily said she wanted to go right away."

"Ah," Luka sighed. "Well then, follow me." She turned around and started walking down the street.

It was a cool, crisp winter night, and their feet crunched against snow. They had met up at the bookstore near Yukari's house, and were headed towards the financial district. Tall glass buildings glittered around them, lit up in the night, stock prices scrolling on the sides. Cars honked and rushed. Miku glanced around. She didn't spend much time in the financial district, so seeing it at night was a strange new experience for her. She wondered where exactly the blood coven was; for some reason, she didn't expect it to be in a place as fine as this. Though, perhaps it was only to be expected - House Karnstein was one of the more lucrative clans out there.

Luka stopped in front of a large, modern apartment building, its front almost completely glass. "Here we are."

Lily squinted at it. "Is this where you live or something? Fancy place."

"The main meeting area is on the top floor," Luka said, walking through the rotating doors, heading for the elevators. Miku tried to catch as much of a glimpse of the building as possible. A huge television screen dominated the lobby, showing, inexplicably, underwater nature scenes. The interior was also surprisingly crowded, groups of people - humans, from what Miku could tell - milling around and watching the television. There was a gap in the middle of the room, from which Miku could see what seemed like a miniature mall. The walls were paneled in wood, the ceiling was high, and well-dressed men in suits manned the counter.

"What is this place?" Miku asked. "Is this some kind of vampire-only place?"

"It's a normal apartment building," Luka answered. "We just inhabit the upper floors."

"Like bats," Lily mumbled. The four of them stepped into the predictably spacious elevator, the back of it mirrored, the sides of it a cool glass. Luka pressed the button for the fifty-eighth floor and they shot up. The elevator doors opened to darkness, a sharp contrast to the brightness of the lobby below. Luka walked out, followed by everyone else. Miku felt her feet sink into a plush rug. She sniffed the air. It smelled faintly of incense.

"It's so dark in here," Yukari said. "I can't see a thing."

"Really?" Lily sounded surprised. "I can see fine."

"You're a dhampir," Miku pointed out. The darkness was oppressive - she could just barely see Luka's back. "I can't see anything." There was a very real possibility of her getting lost altogether if she was to lose sight of Luka.

Then, she felt Luka's hand, cool and gentle, on her wrist. "We're almost there," said Luka. Miku suppressed a not-unpleasant shiver. "Gumi usually spends her time in one of the game rooms."

"Game rooms," Lily repeated, and then she coughed again.

"Right," said Luka. "Here we are."

Miku felt Luka lean forward, heard the sound of a door being pushed open, rubbing against the carpet. Light escaped from the crack of the door. They went in.

The interior of the room was lit by ornate lamps. There was a pool table to the side, several dark paintings hanging on the wall, an armchair, a bookshelf, and, incongruously, a Dance Dance Revolution machine that some green-haired girl was energetically dancing on, holding onto the rail behind her as her feet flew. She looked vaguely familiar.

"Hey," said Luka, "I brought some guests."

"I know," the girl answered, eyes fixed on the screen. "I smelled them the moment you all got out of the elevator." She finished the song, then flipped herself around with such agility Miku was left gaping. The girl grinned at her. "Oh, I remember you. You're that human Luka brought with her to the club some time ago." She nodded towards Luka. "You two have a thing?"

Miku's face immediately turned red, though before either of them could answer, the girl turned her attention to Yukari and Lily. "So! What're your names? Introduce yourselves, please. Don't be shy," she grinned, showing very visible fangs. "I won't bite, unless you ask me to."

"I-I'm Yukari," Yukari stammered.

Lily glared at her. "I'm not introducing myself until you introduce yourself first."

The girl glanced over at Lily. "If you insist. My name is Gumi. What's yours..." Gumi trailed off. Her eyes narrowed and she vaulted over the rail, landing on the floor near-soundlessly. She walked closer to Lily, green eyes intent. Lily took a step back.

"Wait," Lily said, thrusting her hands out, a barrier. "Don't get close."

Gumi ignored Lily's protest and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her close to her. She took a deep breath. Lily's eyes widened and she hurriedly pulled away from Gumi, who now looked rather thoughtful.

"Wh-what the hell?" Lily stammered. "What was that for?"

"You're not human," Gumi said, slowly, "but you're not a vampire either..." She turned towards Luka. "Making friends with dhampirs now?"

"Oh, well, you know," Luka shrugged.

Gumi raised her eyebrows. "You're an interesting fledgling." She turned back towards Lily, grinning. "I've never met a dhampir in the flesh before. Tell me," she cocked her head to the side, "do you drink blood?"

"Of course not," Lily said, her voice icy and disdainful, although the effect of that was ruined when she immediately started coughing.

Gumi laughed. "Where did you find her, Luka? She's adorable." She turned back towards Lily. "What's your name? I introduced myself, so fair is fair."

Lily, face faintly red, looked away. "I'm...Lily," she muttered.

"Lily and Yukari," Gumi repeated. She glanced over at Miku. "I don't think I ever got yours, even though we've met before."

"Oh, um, I'm Miku."

"Right. So," said Gumi, turning towards Yukari, "did you know that you smell like wendigo?"

Yukari looked down. "Yes. Well, I didn't know I smelled like one, but-"

"Right, so you know what's happening," said Gumi. "The wendigo will come for you again tonight." She turned towards Luka. "Now that she's here, of course, this should be easy."

"Easy?" Yukari asked, rather hopefully.

Gumi nodded. "Easy. If you just sleep over here tonight, we can take care of it. Nip the infestation in the bud."

Yukari paled. "I have to...sleep in a blood coven?" Uneasily her fingers touched her neck.

"Relax," said Gumi. "We're all well-fed here. You won't be harmed."

Well-fed? What did that mean? Miku turned to look at Luka. Luka avoided her gaze.

"Right..." said Yukari, doubtfully, and Lily stepped up.

"I'll stay here too," she said.

Gumi gave her a dour look. "You? You're sick."

Lily scowled. "I'm not letting my friend stay here alone. I don't know what could happen here."

Gumi smirked. "Oh really? Well, I'll tell you straight out, the price for a human staying here is some blood. You're half-human, so you'll get a discount. Of course, I'll be more than happy to get some more from you, if you want..."

Lily clapped a hand over her throat. "That's not funny."

"It's not a joke," Gumi replied. "Hotels charge money. Vampires charge blood. Yukari gets free admission because she'll be helping us out with the wendigo. You, however, are a sick half-human whose best attack is probably sneezing on the monster, so you will have to pay."

"Do I have to pay as well?" Miku asked. "I want to stay with Yukari too."

Gumi magnanimously spread her arms. "Since you're our newest fledgling's squeeze, I'll be generous and say you can stay for free. Of course," her green eyes darted over to Luka, "I'm sure Luka would be more than happy to receive your price, if you would like to donate...?"

Gumi's words brought a rush of memory to Miku - Luka drinking her blood, the heady addictiveness of it. Miku bit her lip and said nothing.

"Well," Gumi clapped her hands together. "Yukari, you can stay in our largest guest bedroom. It has a huge window that offers a beautiful view of the city; that way you can see your wendigo coming from a mile away. There's a service rope. Pull it when you see it coming. Lily, I'll put you in the room next to hers. Miku, you can sleep in Luka's room."

"H-hold it," Luka broke in. "What?"

Gumi glanced at her. "Well, we only have so many guest rooms. Besides, it's not like you're going to sleep with her." She smiled. "Everyone's agreed? Good. Luka can show you to your rooms. Lily, come with me for a bit."

Lily visibly flinched at that, before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, she nodded and followed Gumi out into the hallway. Yukari, Luka, and Miku stared after her.

Miku broke the silence. "Is she going to..."

Luka shook her head. "It's not like that," she said. "We just prick them with a needle. It's not like we actually suck the blood ourselves. There are, um, connotations with that."

"Oh," Yukari looked visibly relieved. "That's good."

Luka nodded. "Okay. Follow me, I'll show you to your rooms."

-o-o-o-

Luka's room was surprisingly small. After Luka dropped off Yukari, she took Miku here, and standing at the doorway, Miku looked around. It was rather spare, especially compared to how nice the apartment building and Yukari's guest room looked. There was little more than a bed and a closet.

"It's..." Miku searched her mind for words.

Luka smiled. "You can say it. It's tiny, isn't it?"

"...yeah."

"I'm new, so I don't get any fancy rooms," Luka explained. "I still have to prove myself."

Miku nodded. That made sense. Still, despite Luka's current easy manner, there was an awkwardness in the air, stifling. Memories of the times they spent together crowded the room, filling the atmosphere with implications. Miku's neck was itching horribly now, though whether it was actually itchy or some kind of psychological trick, Miku didn't know. There was a deep, gaping desire in her heart for something, though what that something was was a mystery.

"Vampires sleep in beds?" Miku asked.

Luka nodded. "We can sleep anywhere. Coffins are better because they have a lid and can keep out sunlight, but...beds are fine. See how there are no windows? No chance of sunlight getting in."

Miku's eyebrows furrowed. "But from outside, this building is all glass and windows..."

"Top floor has no windows, save for some of the guest rooms for humans."

"Um, okay," Miku mumbled.

There was a silence. It felt as though Miku's neck was pulsing. She was extremely aware of her own blood flowing through her body. She clenched her hands into fists in an attempt to distract herself.

"Are you alright?" Luka asked. Miku looked up. Luka was staring at her intently, and Miku quickly looked away.

"I'm fine," she said. "I just feel...sleepy."

"Uh huh," said Luka. "Well," she swept her arm out, "you can use the bed if you like. I won't be sleeping. You have midterms now, right?"

"Yeah," Miku said. She gave a start when she felt cool fingers on her shoulder.

"Then you should rest," said Luka.

The air in the room seemed stifling. "I, um, I know."

Luka's hand retreated. "Alright. I'll go now, then."

Before Miku knew it herself, she had grabbed Luka by her arm. "Wait."

Luka stopped. "What is it?"

"I..." Miku began, before she trailed off. Why did she stop Luka, anyways? Her mind was empty. All she wanted was for Luka to stay with her for a while longer - she hadn't seen her in weeks, and all they talked about today was supernatural stuff, nothing else. Miku wanted to talk about more, but she didn't know how to approach it. What could an ordinary teenager talk about with a vampire? Words, unbidden, stumbled out of Miku's mouth. "I...earlier, when we were talking to Yukari about how we met, why did you say we just worked on Lily's supernatural case together?"

Luka blinked. "Well, it's the truth."

"That's not all the truth," Miku protested. "There's more. We didn't just...work together. I thought we're...we're..." Miku trailed off. What were they then, her mind asked her. "...friends," she finished, lamely. The word hung there in the air, inadequate.

"We are friends," said Luka.

Miku bit her lip, suddenly feeling very stupid. "...nevermind then."

"What, did you want me to tell her about my sucking your blood?" Luka asked, her voice tinged with annoyance. "Just drop that news on her?"

Miku felt her face heat up. "N-no."

"That's what I thought, so I didn't bring it up," said Luka.

"Does this mean..." Miku said, slowly, "you don't...you aren't going to..." She couldn't quite bring herself to finish the sentence - she was embarrassed enough as it was. Luka's skin was cool under her fingers.

"Aren't going to what?"

"...suck my blood," Miku mumbled, all in a rush, words blurring together.

There was nothing but dead silence in the room. Miku studied the pattern of the carpet. She couldn't bring herself to look up at Luka's face.

"You should go to sleep," said Luka at last, pulling her arm out of Miku's grasp.

"But," Miku protested, and Luka turned.

"What do you want, Miku?" Luka asked, her expression dark. She stalked closer to Miku. "Before, you didn't even want me to do it. You just did it to save your friend Lily, right?" Luka grabbed Miku by the wrist and pulled her close to her before putting her face by her throat. Miku shivered; she could feel Luka's cool breath on the side of her neck. The itching intensified, as though her blood was clamoring to get out of her skin. "Will this make you happy? Is this what you want now?"

Miku remained silent. Putting a voice to her answer was something beyond her. She only closed her eyes. Her heart was hammering fast, fast, fast. The two of them hung, suspended, for a moment too short and too long.

Then, Luka let go and took a step back. Miku caught a glimpse of red in her eyes, but Luka looked away too fast for her to be sure. There was another silence, heavy and dark, in the room, one that Luka broke.

"...I'm sorry," Luka said. "I..." She passed a hand over her face and sighed. "You...should go to sleep."

"O...okay," said Miku, still trying to process what had just happened. Still, she knew she had to apologize. "I'm sorry, I didn't know what..."

"It's fine," said Luka, quickly. "Look, I...well, I'm sorry too. Get some rest, I'll, um, I'll see you later."

With that, she was gone. Miku slumped onto the bed, dazed. What had just happened? She held a hand over her heart and waited, slowly, for her pulse to calm.