I launched across the concrete,it breaking like porcelain as i do a short 20 meter jump,fast enough to concuss into Rome’s chest as i Drop my shoulder and try to throw the little loli through the wall she stood against at mach speed.Rome, long since abandoning the pretense of holding back, shot out a hand enveloped in dark,indigo waves of what looked like heat. I knew from experience her power was literally just atomically pin point accurate fields of pressure. Between her “Gravity” ability and her ridiculous strength, you always want to dodge her hits. I twisted to the left,into and under the punch, and continuing the forward motion into her solar plexus, she went to gasp but i pushed upwards and jumped. Using my charges’ motion and the jump,I dislodge my shoulder from her obliterated chest cavity, and pull up my hands, clasped together, and hit her in the throat and chin with a thunderous crack,her neck snapping on impact.

She wasted no time as she flipped backwards and locked my head between her knees as they passed my ears. I shot a hand up again and punched the back of her right knee as i tried to grip her left thigh with a desperate grapple. The backwards and upwards pulling motion of her knees pulling me into her spin, and the force of my punch, only made her plan work flawlessly as she dragged me through the air by my head and slammed my body into rough,jagged wall that had started out behind her. A wicked smile carved against her face as the wall caved and my body ruptured, torn and broken, against the stone and the devastating strength of the vampress.

“That’s 5 to 4 T!!you owe me a decent date!!” she yelled in triumph, stamping her feet in a march over my bloodied, dust caked body.she giggled and jumped up and down on my temporary grave in delight, eliciting a pained groan from the fallen rubble that partially hid my form. Screw the whole concept of a “date”,she looks like a KID. I look no less than 19 at the least, I DON'T NEED TO GO TO JAIL. Even if we went by immortal monster years i would be robbing the cradle.

I angrily pushed the bloodied chunks of wall off my body in a huff,one accidently striking and damaging the wall further as i slowly rise, my bones feeling less like jelly and sand, “ where do i take a vampire dressed like a 13 year old sex worker for a date? Chuck E cheese? Au De Nut, right on the corner of 1 hour ave and For-80 bucks st?” i shake my head, my jokes obviously lacking due to the widening smile on her face. In 3 months i literally have made massive strides and bounds in training.as it turns out, Rome had been holding back, WAY MORE than me or Jo anticipated. This broad has not only treated our training like a literal video game, she DREW OUT A SCALING CHART. It's a black board with me and jo’s names above blank boxes.running at the top another blank box that says,”Rome,the Training Room Level Death Goddess”. Theres a gold star put next to my name for every “level”, i’ve gained.i’m at a 4 currently,every time i level up she adds 2 black stars to her own name box on my side.lets not forget that when the chart was first made, i had 1 star too her five. My 4 stars too her 13 is beyond degrading to say the least.i had tried everything.but in the end she’s a ruthless trainer and just is way stronger in experience.

She shrugs,a cocky grin still plastered on her underage face. “ how about Fascinations? I can have a cute blond for dinner and i can shop for new toys,” she puts her palms to her face and strikes and innocent pose, completely unbefitting of the mischievous look in her eyes, “you know how much kids love to play.”

I swear I almost choked to death on my own bile.luckily due to the 2 people I've gotten a read on, Jolie and That man Owen, I at least know that putting anything private or even remotely damp near Rome would land me a jail sentence in the eyes of nearly anyone. The rest are on watchlists or from places that aren't good ol America. I stood and dusted myself off as i looked absently around the room for Jo. I found her sweating profusely on the far side of the room standing straight up,arms held to the sides as she stretched her leg high above her head.her body was slowly becoming more lithe and sculpted in the past 3 months, she had just finished running almost all day,doing other exercises in between the endless stretching. She had be slaving away ever since we spoke, from endurance to speed and some VERY light sparring with Rome. What made me so angry?on the level board jolie had 7 stars.7 WHOLE STARS. I was lucky if i got mine in halves, and almost every 2 weeks jolie got a whole star.

FAVORITISM AT IS FINEST. Ugh.

Regardless i had to admit, she was in terrifyingly good shape for it only to have been 3 months. She still smokes and drinks and watches anime and such, but her sheer force of will has been a constant source of a font of something in her. From diet change to simply deep conversations with me and thoughts about plans and ideas, concepts and dreams, it's like she has found what she considers to be her calling.

I’m snapped out of my thoughts when she noticed me staring.she looks back with a smile and winks at both Rome and I before finishing her stretches and breaking for a few seconds to down a bottle of water,just before sprinting back outside for more laps i assumed.as soon as she left the door she angled to a set of buildings in the courtyard of the abandoned warehouse. They all had level roofs and she had been using them to practice being a ninja turtle basically. In the end it was stupid but i was almost bitter that some powerless human, No offence to jolie, Was technically doing better than me. Hell even in the whole light sparring deal with Rome she was landing more hits more often, for what she was capable of. But i was more worried than anything else in that moment.It’d be terrifying if Jo had come into any level of power.

Rome cuffed the side of my head lightly, startling me. I turn to look at her and she has a slightly endeared expression on her face. a light smile on her lips accompanied by her slightly shaking her head.

“T, you know it's easy to tell when you're lost in thought when you watch her every move and stare off into the distance even after she's gone,is something up?”she steps forward a bit with her impossible grace and lays a cold hand on my shoulder.i simply shrug in response, trying to shake the thoughts off. But it wasn't so easy. I sighed and absently scratch my ear, uncomfortably looking away to the side where i could see jo was scaling the buildings in the yard faster than she had days before.

“She’s strong...like horrifyingly strong.but she's human. Normal. There is no way she won't follow us in this. But her body is weak,she cant regenerate,she literally has nothing but sheer willpower and a thirst for knowledge. No strength or speed...if we fought anything just weak enough to scratch us, she would become the target and she would literally burst like a ketchup packet.” i sigh heavily again, shaking my head in worried thought. “There's nothing i can do..but somehow she's getting stronger, what if she gets overconfident and gets herself killed?”

Rome nodded in assent and looked out after her as well, after a few moments of silence she sighed. I turn my head to see her smiling as she shakes her head. My facial expression turns to one of confusion just as Rome playfully pushes me and chuckles to herself. “you've sat there and spent all this time watching her and you're telling me the primordial container of EVERYTHING EVER, is too caught up in their emotions to notice when a ‘Normal' person is changing?” she quirked an eyebrow at me and i reciprocated the action.i wasn't following, Rome just sighed and her expression drooped as she put an hand on her hip and the other to her forehead in a theatrical show of exasperation.

“Sometimes i swear i wonder if this is all a joke in regards to you and how slow you are.she has started researching dreams, plants and herbs, minerals and legends, for any instance of human empowerment without the loss of themselves or their humanity. The cigarettes she smokes are even hand made and as natural as possible and even then she's cutting back,” Rome was looking at me in disbelief, as if wondering how anyone could miss such changes. “she rejected the offer to be turned by me and is bent on knowing how to fight or talk to every other being in existence if ever she runs into them. Her mind is impenetrable, her presence gets stronger every second. Even her mannerisms are more peculiar and she's become more mentally active and meticulous. I even suspect she’s getting to the point of walking her dreams consciously with mediocre control. That child...she's making her own way. And i don't think she will be so ‘Normal' much longer. All we have to do is be patient and protect her long enough that she can-”

I’ll never forget that moment.it was so incredibly fast,a glint of something silver flashed and a short stake of metal plunged into the center of Rome's chest. It had moved so fast that it seemed to have just appeared, as soon as it made contact, branches of metal shot from it in all directions as Rome screamed so loud i jumped away slightly on sheer impulse. I looked outside frantically,looking for the source of the attack. Suddenly where i had been standing a person appeared. In Black leather padded armor that was reinforced with the same gleaming, unnaturally bright metal. They wore a smooth featureless mask of the same.the only detail was an engraved equal sided cross on the forehead. Before i could react the figure struck a horse stance,lowering themself,and shot forward both fists at my hips.

I felt the bones in my hips literally stop existing as the force threw my lower body backwards,pitching my head forward as the grabbed my hair and slammed thier knee bluntly into my nose, sending me flying back for a millisecond before their fist collided with my chest and stapled me to the ground, destroying all of my organs almost instantaneously bedor my hip could even think about healing.

The figure had already struck another horse stance,facing Rome. She had gotten up and was Snarling so evilly her smooth skinned face contorted into a mask of wrinkles and wrath.her fangs bared and hands clawed as she rose with the stake still in her chest. There was no mercy in her eyes,and holding back was forgotten as her violet hued energy pulsed off her in waves and made anything that touched it creak and groan under its pressure.she spat blood to the side as she took a ground cracking step forward,the spit piercing the concrete like a rock thrown at flour.

They stared silently at each other as i healed,before i heard another gut wrenching scream behind me in Jolies direction.I immediately looked at Rome who Suddenly was pushing so hard against the figure she left a visible slip streamas the rocketed towards the entrance,the attackers legs breaking concrete like glass as they were pressed by Rome's sheer might. Her eyes locked with mine, their whites were now a deep eggplant purple, almost black, as she Roared in a voice deeper and more hoarse and gravelly than anything i heard before, “GO!!!!!!”

I was already jumping backwards out of the door, Rome hopefully could handle this. In seconds i was where i last saw Jo.

And was stricken motionless and mouth agape to a sea of stakes, and a figure with a strange blade standing over another