The city in itself was on strict surveillance, so the ones without knowledge of the darker side of the world wouldn't freak out. The tragedy was passed on as a gang war - bloody and ruthless.

During the lockdown of the school and cleaning of the “battleground”, Vince was always there. Since I felt like shit while “recuperating” he was there to help me out to move around and to get food at the mess hall. Of course, the classes were canceled too, except the combat classes since they were held under the dorm building, so no one had to go out or was allowed to leave, for that matter.

Strangely enough, Wann was never in our room. Rumor said he was fucking around, literally, but I knew he was probably at the training grounds; honing his skills.

Later I found out half of our apartment residents were dead. Dre and Peter I saw, but JR and Khai was a surprise. So now only Sylvester was residing with us. After a couple of days, Wann requested a change of rooms so he wouldn't see me every single day. And Vince, he, as a little fucker he was, settled himself in my room. Apparently, other rooms were singles, so he could have just moved into one beside, but no, he had to get on my nerves and come to the one I was sharing with Wann. Though, if you asked me, Vince was a better choice than Wann, so I stopped complaining the same day he settled.

While on lockdown, I spent my time reading textbooks and getting ahead of where we were in classes. I had nothing better to read. Occasionally Vince would try to coax me into watching movies on his computer and fail miserably. I never really liked watching them; it caused me headaches. One time he managed to talk me into watching a movie with him. We were cuddling on my bed, with me basically sitting in his lap, drawing the warmth of his body in. It was strange, but he didn’t mind, and I felt relieved, for some reason.

“Your hair is so messy...” he murmured.

It warranted my hand to fly to my head, my fingers brushing the untidy strands on the back of my head, haphazardly cut without a mirror. Vince took a strand in front of my face, it was double the length than other parts of it. “Should I cut it for you?”

“Maybe when it becomes bothersome to have them in my eyes,” I said and turned back to the movie. He didn’t say anything else but kept playing with my hair.

It was the first time in a long time someone had been so close to me. And it was also the breaking point of my and the boy’s relationship. He erased most of the boundaries, and just treated me like a stubborn child when I forbade him something.

During the week, one more resident moved in with us. It was the guy Wann had intercourse while I was in the room. He said other guys were making fun of him for what Wann did, though none of them knew the truth. Rumors were spinning around, but the truth stayed with the three of us. So he ran. He spent most of the days holed up in his room, barely stepping out to the bathroom or toilet, Vince was worried about him not eating enough. His decision didn’t stop the mockery and rumors, and the bullies were getting more aggressive and more elaborate on their jokes whenever they caught sight of him.

“Tai seems...” Vince tried one time when we were eating dinner in the kitchen and the said boy left the bathroom.

“Broken?” I finished around a bite of steak.

“Yeah... I never really heard what happened,” as he said, Vince had his eyes glued to the wall where the boy just passed. He was pressing his hand on his nape as if it would keep him steady.

“You don't need to. It's none of your business.”

He turned his head to me, stared me down, “But he’s one of my underclassmen and pupil, I am worried.”

“Your worry won’t help him fight his own demons. Leave him be.”

“You're probably right,” he sounded dejected. In another second, though, he cheered quite a bit, “So how about that other movie?”

“Forget it. I'm gonna sleep,” I said as I stood up and piled my dishes in the sink.

“You sleep a lot these days.”

“Because I'm thirsty,” I murmured.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

These days to slip up and give everything away was too damn easy. Despite the closeness in the beginning, my self-restraint was really on its limits; I was worried I soon would drain all of them. Though it never happened. I managed with the water bottle I had prepared before. But the water was going stale and it could not satisfy me enough.

On the last day of lockdown, I ran into Wann in the kitchen. I thought of leaving then, but I figured, I'll just grab the milk and leave. He blocked the way out with his wide frame. On purpose.

He was on the phone talking profanities, probably to a girl. There was a mention of genitals... I said something about him being a bitch in heat and he exploded, forgetting the phone. Apparently I have no sex drive and I am so ugly no one would want to touch me even if I was the last person on Earth. It made me laugh, not the real laugh, the one which made him even more pissed. He was about to shove me to the wall, but me being me was a bit ahead of him.

“Go on, mutt, show me what you've got,” I enticed him.

“Don't you dare-”

“Mutt," I cut him off. "Your family must be proud of your activities, huh. Just like a dog, can't keep your dick in your pants, can you?”

“Shut the hell up!” He pushed me back, hands in mu collar, my toes could barely touch the ground.

“Oh, stepped on a bitter wound?”

“You don't know shit, yo- you- you fucking ab-abomination,” his words were dripping venom. “I don't know what you are yet, but I- I will f-figure you out. And when I do, you're going to pay for ev-everything. Even Vertig won't be able to help you.”

“I'd love to see you try, mutt.”

“Hey, stop this. Both of you,” Vince managed to cool the atmosphere by a little, yet again trying to pry Wann’s hands off my collar.

Wann shoved past us and left the apartment leaving a trail of loud curses and profanities and a hole in the bathroom’s door.

“So it's true. They are a family of dogs.” I have heard the legends, more like rumors, about the famous hunter clan of Wann, being superior to others by a blessing of Nature herself.

“Wolves, actually,” Vince interjected. “Legend says they derive from wolves. Differently from Moon Walkers, they just supposedly have wolf genes in them or their spirits, or something along those lines.”

“Eh? So one of his ancestors fornicated with a wolf?”

“Maybe?” he smiled a sheepish smile while blushing crimson.

After, we just ate dinner and went to sleep. Well, Vince went to sleep, and I sneaked out to the roof to get some fresh air. I needed to hunt again, but I had to wait for a while longer. Some of my wounds were still healing so I had to control myself. If I went hunting, I would have ended up slaughtering half of the city. And I honestly did not want that. I had my conscience and it wouldn't let me go on a rampage as I did a couple of centuries back, when I had none of that. As I realized a couple of centuries ago – a heart was a heavy burden – it made everything so much more complicated.

I spent the whole night on the roof drawing in the moonlight and the cold air. True, it was cold as hell, but it was nice. Just this once I liked the cold seeping into the depths of my being making me shiver. I felt the closest to being a human then. But only until the first rays of sunlight hit the horizon and my eyes blared in pain. I was not human; I should never forget that.

The week of lockdown passed without much of anything happening. Half the town was somber, grieving. It was a grim day, no sun in the sky, clouds hanging ominously above us. The school buildings and the dorms were half empty. It was the only time that girls preceded the boys in numbers. Before morning classes started, we were all rounded up in front of the dorms and Vertig was there giving us a speech. He talked again about how great a loss we suffered, how this impacted the whole Huntig community, how we did a great job dealing with the attack (at this one I barely held in my laugh), how he is proud of all of those who fought to protect the others. He carried on about other dangers lurking in the dark and warning us about it.

“So be prepared for whatever might happen. We do not know if their party retreaded or if that was the whole of it. Be alert and have your eyes open. That is all.”

Basically, be ready to kick some ass if necessary.

As he was done we all went on our respectful ways. As usual, Vince walked with me to the morning language class and then a bit more than halfway he went on his own way. When he left, Wann took on his role of walking me to class. By throwing things at me. Though today, differently from other days, all of the objects hit the target. I was too tired to dodge. And too distracted by thirst.

I was never really bothered by his animosity, but when I thought about it, it was probably caused by his natural instinct. He was born a hunter. A true supernatural hating hunter. So it's not like I had done anything for him to hate me so immensely, my only sin was existing. He did not despise me for who I was, he loathed what I was. I had to admit, I always liked people like him – determined, strong-willed and sure of the ways of their own path, even if that path was the wrong one. Not the way humans like other humans, I liked them only to the limit of not wanting to off them… So, if not for the fact that I was an enemy to everything in this world, we would have been pretty good friends; the way we treated others and saw the things around us was too similar.

The class went by as boring as always; meaning me and Wann did not get into a fight. What a shocker, really. Though, he did translate a sentence to spite me with it, but who cared, right? I was the smarter one of us. But man, I was so not willing to act as the better man in that situation. So, in the span of the class, both of us translated sentences to bite one another. No one caught up on it, which made things even more fun. For me, at least. But in the end, it still was boring.

The lack of enthusiasm could be blamed on the fact I was so incredibly thirsty and it was freezing outside. And there were all kinds of smells around me, it was driving me up a wall. I was already losing my concentration – my hands were beginning to shake, my breath kept failing me. After the class, Wann resumed his ‘bullying’ and I resumed ignoring it completely, trying not to get too distracted. Which is why I also ignored the warnings of a minivan approaching. Rapidly.

When I finally came to it, my instincts kicking my butt, the car boomed the sound and I looked back, only to see it uncontrollably skidding towards me at a speed, greater than the limit. I managed to jump up at the last moment before colliding. My legs grazed the windshield and I rolled down the roof, and then landed on the concrete with a cracking sound; the right shin bone sticking out through the fabric of my jeans. Blood was pooling around me. My head swam and I felt burning in my throat. At that moment I realized I had lost way too much blood in the battle with Viscardi, and holding back came to bite me in the rear end.

I screwed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. In – out, and repeat. For a moment I managed to pull myself together, enough to think straight and try to avoid a more serious problem. Before everyone from the language course could come and see the scene, I covered my leg with my coat and tried to stand up.

“What? There's nothing to see,” I hissed when Dark was the first one to approach me.

She looked betrayed and stopped in her track, turned around and joined Wann. Wann, on the other hand, was staring me down, trying to figure out what just happened. Eyes wide, lips parted as if stopped on saying 'the fuck?', brows furrowed. And that sweet taunting smell filled the area. So it really was him… Unconsciously I tried to inch closer to him, to reach him and sink my teeth into his flesh.

One thing was clear, I had to get out of there before I lost control completely. The car owner was calling an ambulance, I think, if I heard right. And I seriously did not need to be checked by regular medics or be near people with blood running through their veins. I had to avoid contact with anyone fitting the description. My leg was starting to heal on its own against my wishes and it was painful as hell, because of the lack of blood in my system. The leg was not hurting; my throat was. It burned with thirst and I sure as hell would have bared my fangs at someone at any given chance. That someone most probably being Wann.

“Fey?” Vince's clear voice was like needles piercing my ears. He was the last person I wanted to see right then, even so, I couldn’t get my eyes away from his face. He smelled weirdly delicious. “What happened?”

He never waited for an answer, just after looking at me and probably seeing the widening pool of blood under me, scooped me up into his arms and proceeded to march back toward the dorm.

“Let go,” I hissed. Trying to struggle in his arms was hard. He was stronger than he looked. And calmer than I would have expected. “I can walk on my own,” I argued again.

“No, you can't. Not with that leg. Should I put the bone back in?”

If I would have been able to see my own face at that moment, I would have probably laughed, because, I swear, I was never that surprised in my life.

Without asking, again, he put me on a bench and removed the coat which was still restricting the view of my injury. He scrunched his nose upon the sight, his brow furrowed in a funny way. Vince gently placed his hands on my leg and looked up to affirm my resolution on what was to follow. I gripped his shoulders and clenched my jaw. His hands firmly held my leg and pushed the bone back in its place. The pain of tearing flesh and other tissue made it even worse. I barely managed to reign in the scream of agony, the incredibly slow process he was dragging me through was something of a different sensation of what I had felt during all those years of my life. I could only blame it on the thirst and the lack of blood. Even if I was a monster, it still hurt. Half-human qualities did that…

“Should be good now. Up we go,” he scooped me up again.

“Dude, seriously, unhand me...” I panted; my self-control was slipping. My hands were clenched into tight fists as to not grab him and bite down.

“It's alright,” he soothed. “You need blood, don't you? Be my guest.” He crooked his head to reveal his neck as he said it.

Again, the funny face from before graced my muscles.

“Fey, I know. It's fine. I know you want it, so just suck it up and bite me,” he whispered without a change in expression. Dropping the blushing act entirely. As if a completely different person was carrying me as if I weighed nothing.

“You are so weird, you know that? No human would-”

“We're friends, right. Come on, just hurry, heal up.”

“Why-” Confusion dripped thick and heavy.

“Fey. Just bite, damn it,” his voice was sharper, but his expression did not change.

“Fine. You asked yourself...”

After hesitating a little bit, I unclenched my hands and moved them closer to his collar. I moved my mouth closer to his neck, pushed the scarf away. His neck emitted a warm, welcoming smell which, I bet, was right then the best smell I had ever sensed before. It's like he was enticing me with his whole being, egging me to bite down at him and suck him dry. I gulped hard, throat searing in burning pain, and bared my itching fangs. At the last moment, I stopped myself from biting into him. I gained enough control over myself to only graze his neck lightly, producing small wounds dripping a minimal amount of blood. Finally leaning in I licked up the few drops seeping from his tender skin.

His blood flooded my taste buds with something new and unfamiliar, but at the same time so painfully close and warm and soothing, I thought I might cry, and I felt ecstatic. The smell of his body hid the taste of this divine red gold perfectly – I would have never thought it would taste this overwhelming. It was hard to resist biting in.

“Hey, that tickles,” he chuckled, breaking his stern expression.

“Don't you dare go hard on me,” I teased, still greedily licking at his neck.

“As if I would.”

*****

With those stupidly large steps of his, we were back in our room faster than I could heal completely, but before he stepped inside the old building, I had stopped licking up the droplets off his neck. I said he could put me down, but he refused and grasped the other key. Since when was he this strong anyways? Where was he hiding all this strength in this skinny body of his?

He swiftly unlocked the door to our room and put me down on my bed. Without asking, he tore the rest of my jeans off and looked at the former injury in close inspection. I cleared my throat; he jumped and started blushing in a deep shade of red. His reactions were interesting, funny and somewhat familiar.

“You should think more before acting,” I teased. “Give them back, it's cold.” I reached for my pants. He complied.

“So you came back, Miss Knights.” Verting's voice startled us both. Vince even jumped. The old man just walked inside and shut the door. “I believe we have something to talk about, wouldn't you agree?”

His stare made me squirm in place for some reason so I cast my eyes down in excuse of putting my jeans back on. Vince had no such excuse so he just looked at the tips of his shoes; his body tense. I heard his heart beating faster and going into overdrive.

I guessed my secret wasn't much of a secret. Vince just proved that he knew somewhat, Michail seemed to know, judging from his actions during the combat training class, and now even Vertig was here making the room fill with dangerous atmosphere with that sly grin of his. Only one thought crossed my mind – was he here to expose me or to play this now useless game I created?

“We do? What could it be?” I played stupid. Maybe it would work.

“When I saw your application for admittance, I expected to see a person pretending to be something they were not. After I saw you, however,” he showed at me with a wide hand gesture, “I was certain of it. An impostor claiming the name of a legend to get some attention, I thought. But then you defeated the wolf barehanded and didn't even try to hide your true self. So it got me wondering, why would a legend such as yourself come here, to Huntig, and pretend to be a human and play friends with our students?”

“Sir-” Vince spoke up but was cut off immediately.

“Bloomer, stay out of this. I will want to hear your explanation later.”

“So you really know what I am.”

“I have heard legends, stories from fellow hunters. I believe, other Cold Walkers call you The Immortal. Or am I wrong, Miss Knights?”

“Not just them. Moon Walkers, shape-shifters and other supernaturals.”

“Fey, don't answer him,” Vince warned; his body was tense and ready to act. He was preparing to run.

“Calm down, Vince.”

I wouldn't say I was calm, though. I was kind of in a bit of a panic, not because of myself, but because of what the boy would do to protect me. And it was strange. A human trying to protect me wasn't as strange as my own desire to keep him safe.

I was thinking of how to better run if the push came to shove. My muscles tensed and I felt my heart squeeze in worry and anticipation. Throughout the millenniums that I lived there'd only been a few occasions when I felt sincerely concerned over someone else's well-being. I couldn't fully understand this development with this particular boy, but it was how it was and I had no other choice right then. The safest bet was to stall for time and try to get information out of the old man.

“So? What are you planning to do by talking to me? Is the convention off?”

“No,” he stated, “we just wanted to make sure of your intentions.”

“Why now?” Vince wanted to be over with this as soon as possible. “If you know about-”

“That's the thing – we only know some things and nothing certain, so it's hard to make decisions.”

“You want to know what I am exactly.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” Verting sat down on Wann's, now Vince's bed, laced his fingers together and rested his chin upon them. “You bleed, so you can't actually be a Cold Walker, yet you require blood, which makes you fall out of the Moon Walker category. The Fae is out of the question, too. The rest of them does not apply to you either. We were cracking our heads and racking through archives, but found nothing.”

I had an urge to laugh at the statement of the archives, I mean, if their textbooks had no actual truths about supernatural, then those archives would be as useless. Either way, I held myself back and tried to compose myself into serious conversation.

“Then, you should start by asking me when I was born,” I said finally.

Vince flinched, he stared at me with incredulous eyes, trying to determine how far off I was with this all. I grabbed his hand and pulled him down on the bed, beside me. Reassuringly pressing his fingers might have not meant anything to him at that time, but I knew, he would calm down eventually.

“And when was that?” after a moment of consideration Vertig asked.

“Around what you call the "Ancient Greece" period. I know the Dark Ages were over then... I'm not too sure. I wasn't in my right mind then.”

The gasp escaping Vince was unexpected, to say the least. Also, Vertig was on the verge of dropping his eyes out of its sockets. I couldn't understand what was the big idea.

All of the supernatural came to be at the same time as humankind, some of them were here even earlier. The only difference was the numbers and perception of the world around. Oh, and the life span. There was a time when those, who humans called unnatural, reigned and ruled, but it flunked out because of greed and arrogance. The never-ending war between Cold and Moon began and when they realized they were killing their source of, let's say, food, they retreated. Then humans decided they were the only living and smarter than animals being on the earth. Yes, they're conceited. And when some unfortunate events happened, bringing the old legends back to life, humans called them supernatural beings unworthy and too dangerous to live alongside themselves, so they began hunting them, no questions asked.

“I knew the legends were old, but this...”

“Well, if I think about the one who made me, he must be at least two hundred more millennium older. It's just a guess, though.” I shrugged.

“M-made you?” Vince's voice trembled.

“Elaborate.”

“On which one?" I stared at the old man, but he kept silent. "I know he had many names. But the name he went by then was Dionysus. Something to do with wine... I don't remember much. Like I said, I wasn't of very clear mind then.”

Vertig regarded me with curious eyes. He leaned back and rubbed his chin with his thumb and index finger, thinking. I felt Vince fidgeting at my side and glanced at him. It was funny how confused he looked, staring at me with wide eyes, blushing slightly.

“And by making me, I meant just that. I wouldn't go as far as calling him my father, though he practically is; he wanted to kill me. And he did, like three times. And he's pissed ever since then because I just wouldn't stay dead.”

“What do you mean by that?” Vertig couldn't hide the surprise from his voice. Did that really got him off guard?

“I thought you knew. They don't call me The Immortal for nothing...”

“You can't die?” Vince shivered. Was he afraid of me?

“I've been decapitated, burned, hanged, quartered, left out in the sun, starved, drowned, poisoned, electrocuted, buried alive, jumped off a cliff. In other words, dead in as many ways as possible. But each and every time I walked out just fine. It wasn't instantly, it takes time, especially when you lie at the bottom of a sea, but yeah, I come back, eventually.”

“Then why come here? I've been thinking of your motives and goals, but I’ve got nothing,” depressed tone was vividly painted over the boy’s words.

“Most of those were done by me. I've been trying to off myself for almost a thousand years now and I'm still not dead. So, I thought, either they off me somehow or I get back the will to carry on.”

“You want to die?” What’s with him and his obvious questions?

“Yes, Vince, I want to end my existence. If you did your calculations right, I've been up and about for about three thousand years. And I'm sick of it. Despite those few occasions where I desperately wanted to be alive, more so than that, I want to not be alive.”

“Why?” I swear I haven't seen a face more confused than his right now.

“Why? You want to know why I want to die? Because being the abomination to this world is the worst possible way of living. Every creature on this planet hates me instinctively. That explains why Wann wants to fry me alive. Even the one who was supposed to love me wants me dead. I was not supposed to come to being in the first place. And if there is someone who somehow manages to at least try to care, to give a shit about me, they either die of old age, if they’re lucky enough, or they end up dead because of me. That's why I want to stop existing, damn it!”

“Abomination?” Vertig asked incredulously.

I had to sit down because in the heat of my speech I stood up. I reigned in my breathing and waited a second, to collect my thoughts.

“Simply put, I'm one of a kind. There's no other like me. Should I continue?”

“Why?” Vince and his why’s.

“Because it was a mistake on his part and he wanted to fix it, but he couldn't, and now we're here.”

There was a beat of silence and I decided to cut this discussion short.

“Well, enough about me. Let's talk about why you are actually here. Did you want to off me? Or maybe experiment on me? If so, don't bother, I'd rather kill every one of you than be a guinea pig.”

“Calm down,” Vertig said, more like requested. “I just wanted to know what you actually are and whether you'd be willing to cooperate with us. Or maybe, if your intentions were not in favor, I needed to make sure of what you're capable of. Either way, if you decide to work with us, we will grant you partial freedom.”

“Meaning?”

“He means,” Vince glared at Vertig, “they will probably lock you in a cage or have a supervisor on you 24/7.”

“That's exactly right, Assistant Instructor. We will grant you permission to attend the classes and the convention, and go about as usual, however, we cannot let you roam around freely. We will be glad to provide you with blood, if need be, but otherwise-”

“I got it. I don't know why you have your panties in a twist, because Vince is already at my tail pretty much... always.”

“Your supervisor during the day will be Argent Wann.”

“Shit.”