Clara came back to school in the middle of December. True to what Miss Amara had explained, Clara confirmed her sudden ailment and her needed treatment in Isla del Sur. The rest of their classmates were highly suspicious of Clara's mysterious illness, though.

A week later, Ian showed up. Lira, Yumi and Mari were ecstatic that Ian finally came back. Only, everyone noticed the radical change with Ian. Gone was the tall and lanky bespectacled boy. Although Ian still wore his beanie and glasses, he developed some well-formed muscles in his biceps and abs. He resembled those slayer boys the girls often spot jogging around shirtless.

"Wow Ian, what did you do?" Yumi asked appreciating Ian's new physique. "You're all hunk of beef! Did you play with some steroids?"

"I appreciate the hunk part, Yumi. Just scratch the beef part," Ian said looking embarrassed with the attention he was receiving. "And no it's not steroids. What do you know about steroids?"

"Really, Ian, what have you been doing during your vacay?" Mari insisted. "If I wasn't half in love with Matt, I'd drool all over you."

"I've been working out," he explained. Secretly, he told Lira in a whisper, "I ditch the glamour thing since you and the heads of school already knows who and what I am."

Since that day, Ian earned a spot in the academy's list of top ten handsomest boys that-ever-roamed-the-school-ground. Lira had high suspicions Mari and Yumi had started that list.

The following day, Matt approached her and asked her to meet with him in the gazebo later in the afternoon. Lira agreed. When she arrived at the gazebo, Matt was already there, standing in the middle, his hands inside his pockets.

"Hey Matt," she said approaching him. "What is this all about? Is there something wrong? Does Miss Amara want to tell me something?"

Matt spun around looking angry. "I'll be the one doing the asking, Lira. You'll be doing the answering."

Lira placed her hand on his arm, frowning over Matt's odd behavior. "Matt, what's wrong?"

Matt suddenly grabbed her wrist and held it in a vise-like grip, his face was twisted with anger and his eyes stared at her murderously. "What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong! How could you do this, Lira?"

Lira tried to loosen Matt's hold on her wrist, wary over Matt's sudden outburst. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about," he grated. "I've just heard from someone that I nearly died that night in the woods and that you asked those bastards to heal me. Do you know what you have done, Lira? Do you have any idea?!"

"Matt..."

"My slayer blood is tinted with a filthy vampire blood! Do you know what the implications are, huh? Do you? You have made me just like them!"

"But Matt, you can't be turn by drinking their blood. Nick explained that to me. No one has turned by a vampire's bite or drinking their blood; except from the bites of those Crazed vampires."

"Oh, I'm not a half-vampire. I only share their fucking powers! I can see like them; I move faster like them. I can lift a fucking truck! Let's not forget that I can also hear your heart beating wildly—and it's like music in my ears! I can even hear everyone's mind around me." Matt took a step closer to Lira, his eyes were now blazing with intense fury. "I can smell your blood Lira, and I understand why they crave for it. The only consolation I get out of this is I don't have the fucking thirst for blood!"

Lira cringed, not used to seeing Matt acting like this. Yes, he bullied her most of the time before but he was never this violent towards her. She had expected him to be angry at her once he found out what had happened back in the woods. But she did not expect him to react so violently.

"What? You're disgusted with how loosely I cuss and yet you're not disgusted with what you did to me?"

"I don't even know why you're all upset, Matt. What matters is that you're alive. That was my priority that time," she explained calmly, trying to make him understand that what she did was for his own good.

But Matt wouldn't accept her reasons. He pushed Lira roughly towards the column, her back hitting hard against the cold stone. "I'd rather die than have them smear my blood!"

"Why are you so angry over this? It's more than what you told me before, isn't it? It's more than the slayer blood in you that made you hate them. What did Nick do to you in the past?"

Matt ignored Lira's question. "What did you offer him Lira? Surely that vampire doesn't prance around saving slayers on his way? What did you offer?"

Lira remained silent, her mouth tightly shut. She couldn't tell him about their bargain. But her wavering eyes betrayed her. Matt's gaze fell on her neck adorned by the black lace choker. And before she was able to block her mind, Matt had already read a part of it.

"You made yourself his pet? You gave your blood to that monster? How could you, Lira!" he bellowed.

"I told you I couldn't let you die! You were turning, like those mutant vampires. It was either kill you or let them save you. I didn't want you to die! I had no other choice that time!"

"Was the vampire really that irresistible that you succumb to his animalistic needs? Was he what you wanted in a guy, Lira? Is that it?"

"Oh, now you're being absurd!"

"I see him always hanging around with you; tagging along like a love sick puppy," he said sounding disgusted. "And I see the way you look at him, as if he meant every world to you. Tell me something, have you fallen for him?"

Lira's silence confirmed his accusations.

He pushed Lira's shoulder further into the column. "So you have! How could you prefer him over me, Lira? Me!"

"Matt, what are you saying!"

"Oh, you are so naïve until now. Haven't you realized why I constantly make fun of you when we were kids? When we used to go to the same school, I bully you around? Remember that? That's because I have a crush on you back then and I have to cover it up because I can't like someone from a lower caste!"

"Matt—"

"And then when I saw you in that bus the day you were to go to the academy, I knew I still harbor that crush. And now, when I get to be around you that much, I'm already half in love with you!" In a soft voice he added, "I even let you play cupid just so I could spend more time with you." Then in an angry voice he said, "But how could you prefer a vampire over me! What does he have that I don't? Was it the fangs? Can he kiss you like a real man could?"

"Matt, stop this! That's enough!" Instead he descended his face until his lips crushed onto hers brutally. She tried to move her shoulders and push him with her hands but he pushed her shoulders harder back against the column. She squirmed in his hold but Matt continued his onslaught. Lira clamped her lips shut as she continued to struggle for freedom. Her mind, however, was doing everything it could to explain Matt's sudden confession of his feelings. Why would Matt even have feelings for her? She did nothing to receive such ardent emotions from him. She was hurt; her heart twisting with pain but she could never allow herself to feel regret over her actions. All she ever wanted was for him to live that night after the attack. Why was Matt accusing her of doing something heinous when all she did was to save his life?

His kiss felt like he was punishing her. It was hard and callous. And no matter how hard he tried to coax her to participate with his kiss, Lira could never do that. Her heart already belonged to someone else.

The moment Matt pulled his face away from hers, she shoved him in the chest and slapped him in the face. "Never do that again and stay away from me!" Then she stormed away from the gazebo. She couldn't believe Matt would do that to her! She couldn't even believe the reason behind him his actions. If he had liked her, then he should have just said so in the beginning! And now that she had Nicholas, Matt decided to—to pursue her? Boys! She could never understand how their mind worked!

When Lira was a few meters away from the gazebo, she halted when she saw Mari's trembling figure, her shocked face was pale and her eyes were looking hurt and betrayed. To Lira's dismay, Mari had witnessed the earlier scene. Lira tried to approach her friend but Mari took a step back, shaking her head.

"I thought you were my friend," Mari said softly.

"Mari—"

"You knew I like him. And yet I found you kissing him!" she cried then spun around and left Lira.

Lira couldn't help but to let out a sigh of frustration. That stupid, stupid gazebo! One of these days, she was going to burn that down. But before she would turn herself in to an arsonist, she would have to talk to Mari first and explain things to her.