Before Ayame, Vincent had never seen a vampire in his life, or at least no one, none who had presented themselves as such, he was beginning to think. But certainly, these thugs acted as if the same was true for them. It must be very different seeing a vampire in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, although it never got dark, however.

  Even he felt a little intimidated seeing Ayame like this. He didn't like thinking in those terms—even though he felt more excitement than fear thinking about it—but she seemed filled with brutal power, with a wild, inhuman grace. The thugs had finally discovered they weren't easy prey, but it was too late to regret it and remedy the situation. Now all that remained was to pay for the mistake they had made, thinking they would rough up some random kids.

  Walking into the lion's den, Ayame shot forward, claws first. She went first for the thug holding Tara, not for him, to his surprise.

  That stung a bit, but it was silly. She had known Tara for a very short time, him too, but well, they were friends, they had been through more together and... Maybe Tara couldn't do anything without her bow and arrows, defenseless, but the same wasn't true for Vincent. He had proven it in class just a few hours ago, after all.

  Sword Storm.

  Vincent summoned the illusions at a much greater speed than his first attempt. The problem was that they were just that, illusions. They wouldn't cut, but the real Sword Storm did cut. Ayame had no reason to think he wasn't perfectly capable of getting out of this on his own, while Tara needed her help. It had been a smart and rational decision, as far as she knew, and she couldn't know anything other than the lie he told. And would continue to tell, as long as he kept his fucking mouth shut.

  Now, essentially, he was at the mercy of the thug's gullibility. If he saw it was just a bluff, if he realized the extra swords didn't cut, then...

  "Wait, wait!"

  That guy stepped back, raising his hands in surrender, his legs trembling like jelly, while Ayame subdued the asshole who had caught Tara with the same effort it had cost her the first one, that is, none.

  Vincent made the swords disappear. Anyway, they were no longer useful to him.

  The last thug standing turned around, starting to run, with a choked cry. Vincent started running after him, but he didn't need to. Immediately, Ayame landed on the son of a bitch's back, knocking him to the ground. Then, her claws tore through his jacket and shirt, reaching the skin. Blood flowed in large quantities. It was the reddest blood Vincent had ever seen.

  More importantly, it was unnecessary. The three guys had been defeated. The matter was resolved.

  "Vincent," Ayame said.

  He wasn't sure what her tone might mean. He swallowed. He wasn't sure how his tone might be interpreted. In a matter of seconds? No, it couldn't even be called a fight. A fight was something between at least two people, who posed a threat to each other. Clearly, these guys never had a chance.

  Ayame moved away from the body. No, she had only scratched that guy's back. He wasn't dead. He wasn't just a body yet. Sure, sure, they deserved to bite the dust. Pay for their mistakes. But killing another human being for something like this, just like that, that would be too much. Although he couldn't say he didn't deserve it either.

  "I wasn't going to do anything," Ayame said, wiping the remaining blood on her claw-like nails, rubbing them on her skirt. It was black and there wasn't that much blood, so it wasn't noticeable in the end. But it was a somewhat disturbingly casual gesture.

  "Well," Tara said, her voice slightly trembling. "All's well that ends well. We should report this to the proper authorities."

  "Yes," Vincent said. "Yes, of course."

  "Take them to the station yourselves," Ayame said, crossing her arms, leaning her back against the wall. "I'll stay here."

  "Why?" Vincent asked. "It was self-defense, and besides, you haven't done anything serious."

  Ayame shook her head.

  "This isn't the time to argue. You do it. Listen to me, please."

  "Well, alright."

  Vincent bent down, lifting one of the thugs and slinging him over his shoulder. He did the same with the second, but he couldn't carry three at once. That was clear.

  "Help me with this trash," he asked Tara. "And tell me where the hell the nearest police station is."

  "Yes, right away."

  ***

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The nearest police station turned out to be very close. In the end, they spent more time giving their statement than getting there.

  Once everything was resolved, with the idiots behind bars, they left. They returned to the alley where Ayame was waiting for them. He found her on the ground, curled up against the wall, and for a moment he thought something had happened to her while they were away, however absurd that was.

  "Ayame." Vincent approached.

  Then he heard the crunch. His ears might not be as sharp as an archer's, but that crunch was definitely the crunch of bone. Of bone. No wonder. Getting closer, he could see why.

  She had the thumb of her left hand in her mouth and was biting it, but with great force, crunching the bone, twisting the fucking finger, and even blood was coming out, not much, but blood. And still, she didn't loosen her grip. Quite the opposite, she bit harder each time.

  "Ayame."

  Vincent called her, his heart in his fist.

  And that seemed to snap her out of her reverie, though slowly. She dropped her hand and looked at him. Her expression, covered in shadows, softened almost instantly. She extended a hand, taking his, squeezing.

  "Don't worry, it's okay," she murmured.

  But he could see how her finger was twisted in a way it shouldn't be able to move. It wasn't the worst wound he had seen on her, but it was still gut-wrenching, made even worse by the fact that it was self-inflicted.

  Why? What exactly happened? She had behaved strangely since the blood started flowing. Was that it? Could it be that? Even though vampires no longer needed to feed on human blood, could it be that she was hungry?

  Vincent helped her up, saying nothing more.

  The girl was a little unsteady on her feet, as if she had recently felt dizzy or something.

  "It's a shame they ruined the end for us," Ayame said. "But I had a really good time with you guys, seriously."

  "We did too," Vincent said.

  Tara approached, touching her other shoulder, squeezing.

  "We're a team," she murmured. "If something happens, if you need anything, same goes," she said.

  Vincent felt like hugging that poor girl tightly. The way she had been biting her finger, ignoring the pain, how she had continued even after her body had started sounding the alarm, almost without realizing it, without realizing it. Vincent didn't want to see her like this. He wanted… No, he needed her to be happy.

  "I'm fine," Ayame said. "It was just a.. Well. Just a lapse. I don't need anything right now," she added, her voice barely audible. She lowered her head, her hair falling in a way that covered her eyes. "But thank you. Thank you very much. Seriously."

  If she needed blood, he would give her all she needed. But if she didn't need it, even better still.

  "We wouldn't judge you," Vincent said. "Trust us."

  But you can't trust her, he thought. Stupid. Damn idiot.

  Sooner or later people had to stop running. Sooner or later.

  ***

  They returned to Runehaven, although there was still much of the afternoon left to enjoy, but they simply weren't in the mood to wander around anymore. Somehow, the city looked different. Maybe because they had delivered three bags of trash to the police. But if something had gone wrong, it could easily have been three corpses.

  Everyone lived with death in their shadow, but Vincent had never been in a situation where he had to consider killing another human being to survive.

  Well. He'd get over it.

  They didn't feel like going out. Vincent, at least, didn't feel like training anymore either. Nor anything in particular, to be honest. In the end, they decided to stay in the room. They could, who knows, read something and chat calmly about unimportant topics and spend the afternoon pleasantly.

  Why not?

  They deserved it, dammit.

  Indeed, they talked about inconsequential things and had a great time, without needing to do anything special. But, of course, that got ruined. Vincent didn't even remember how the topic came up, or what it was about, but it did.

  “Thank goodness for the Sword Storm thing,” Tara said. “Otherwise, things could have gotten very ugly, even with Ayame helping.”

  Vincent frowned. The only thing that had saved their asses was that thug’s cowardice. If he had been a little braver and a bit smarter, calling his bluff, then he would have discovered the swords didn't cut and could have really hurt him. Or worse still, used him as a hostage against Ayame and Tara. He preferred not to think about that.

  There was a reason they had been talking about all sorts of nonsense. Nobody wanted to think about that.

  Tara had brought it up. He didn’t remember how it had come up, but the damage was already done: the faces of all three darkened in record time.

  “Sorry,” Tara said. “I shouldn't have said anything.”

  Of course you shouldn't have, Vincent thought. But if things were as they should be, we wouldn't have had to go through that either.

  Ayame had said the armed forces were more competent than the faculty of any school, but the difference must have been minimal. After all, she had preferred to hide her presence during the incident, fearing the consequences; surely, that some asshole would jump to hasty conclusions and interpret everything however they pleased.

  The world had a lot of work to do to be as it should be.

  “It’s okay,” Vincent said. “These things happen. I bet most students have been or will be mugged. It just happened to us a bit sooner.”

  Anyway, it wasn't very funny, but humor was a good defense mechanism.

  What had affected him most, anyway, wasn't feeling at the mercy of some low-level thugs, but Ayame herself: how she acted, what she did to herself. Quite abnormal behavior. If he could even be the judge of what was normal for Ayame, whom he had known for not even a full week yet.

  “Well, I suppose so,” Tara replied.

  Damn, how time flies, Vincent thought. It seemed like only yesterday he was constantly worrying about what he would do when he arrived at Runehaven, if he would be up to the initiation test. Before he knew it, the first year would be over.

  “I don't think it's that frequent,” Ayame said, turning page after page of a book she had taken out from the library.

  Apparently, she was one of those who could talk and read at the same time. It wouldn't be very useful to him, but she had certainly shown she didn't miss a thing. He couldn't know how much she retained from reading the book, of course, but surely she did it well.

  On the contrary, it would practically just be fiddling with his hands to stay hidden. And Vincent didn't think she was wasting time pretending to read.

  “It's not like nine out of ten Viewpoint residents are thugs.”

  Vincent laughed. Tara joined him immediately.

  Ayame looked up from the book and looked at them as if wondering what they were laughing about. He was pretty sure Ayame had a sense of humor and understood sarcasm, but apparently, sometimes it just went over her head. Well, he thought, there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all.

  Laughter is the best medicine. Whoever said that wasn't too far off.