Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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9:47pm

The town of Silvercloud had earned its name centuries ago, due to how the sky was rarely truly clear of a night time, the weather patterns of the region keeping an almost permanent blanket of grey over the entire sky when the temperature dropped cold once the sun began to descend.

During the day the sky was often a pure and gorgeous blue, sunlight radiating down and basking the bustling town in gold, but it only took the few hours of the sun lowering to the horizon for the clouds to appear and spread like an omnipotent fog.

A grand shadow, sealing away the stars from any view.

Towards the centre of town, in the bustling commercial district centred around the train station, the mess of constant bright lights turned the sky from grey to silver. It meant that it wasn’t truly dark until the early hours just before dawn when clubs and hotels finally closed their doors and turned off their neons.

But the suburbs were a different story, lit only by thin streetlights dotted randomly on corners and up each boulevard, the small and quaint cul de sacs that were so friendly and social during the day instead in low shadow, often lit only by the occasional singular flickering bulb.

They may have been better lit and more private than the dense and winding alleys of the apartment blocks further into town, but it was still possible to be practically a ghost along the neatly trimmed yards if the right moment was picked to move from garden to garden.

A needless exercise. So far out from the main town, there was no need for any sort of stealth, whether for self-protection or something more playful and mischievous.

So, looking down at her phone and checking the address she was trying to find, the young woman didn’t feel much in the way of nerves as she checked the numbers on letterboxes as she tried to find the Miller family’s residence.

There wasn’t anything for her to be afraid of out in the suburbs like she was, even if deeply-ingrained instincts of self-preservation tickled the back of her neck whenever she caught someone glancing at her through the curtains of their living room windows. She was the only person out and about, after all, and the people who live in the suburbs are always so curious. 

It also didn’t help that she knew they didn’t recognise her. She wasn’t a local, and it made her stand out.

But she dismissed it, and them, and instead huffed in relieved satisfaction when she found the right house number and made her way up the drive, slipping her phone back into the pocket of her thick patched-up jacket and running her fingers through her misbehaving dark brown curls to try and neaten herself up after walking through the night’s breeze through the winding streets.

The light on the front porch of the tidy two-story house was on, the yellow glow giving a sweet view of two neatly and lovingly tended flower boxes that lined the steps, and she hopped up with a smile as she admired the plain garden. It wasn’t anything special, gardens in the suburbs of these sorts of towns rarely were, but there was love in the care, she could tell.

It made her feel slightly more relaxed and composed as she pressed the doorbell and waited, readjusting her heavy backpack so it sat a bit neater and easier, and then put her hands into the pockets of her jacket to keep them warm.

A tickling on the back of her neck made something in her stiffen, and she glanced behind herself, casting her eyes over the street. But with the closest streetlight six houses down, it was too dark to make much out, so she frowned for a moment before forcing herself to shrug it off just in time for the lock to turn and the front door to be opened.

Opening the front door with a curious blink was a woman who could only be Mrs Miller, looking well into her middle-age and embracing it fully, with skin that showed years of working in the sunlight and a pair of silver reading glasses perched on the end of her nose.

“Yes? Can I help you, dear?”

“Hi. I’m sorry that I’m here so late. I’m Rosalia?” Giving an apologetic wince and smile, Rosalia took her hands out of her pockets so she could wave, before slumping in relief at the welcoming smile she received.

“Oh yes! Of course. Come in, dear. It’s far too cold. I’m Leonna.” After stepping to the side to beckon Rosalia in, Leonna quickly glanced around the street, narrowing her eyes over the rim of her reading glasses as she made sure every house across the street had their curtains closed and nobody was stickybeaking. “Hang up your jacket, if you’d like. We’ve had the heating on every night for a week now.”

Rosalia smiled in understanding, unzipping her jacket and sliding it down her shoulders after grabbing out her phone and putting it into the pocket of her once dark but now faded jeans.

The house was certainly warm, almost uncomfortably so, but she certainly wasn’t going to make a comment about it as she followed Leonna when beckoned with that same polite and friendly smile.

“How was the trip in? According to your email you would have gotten in earlier this evening, yes?”

“Yes ma’am. Was right on time at first, but the dinner rush messed up the buses and I just got a bit lost tonight. I’m so sorry.” Rosalia gave another apologetic smile and shrug, before smiling as Leonna’s husband came into view, seated on a comfortable looking armchair with a book perched on his lap. “Good evening, sir.”

Peter Miller looked up from his book and raised his eyebrows at the pleasant young woman, in her mid-twenties and dressed like someone who wasn’t used to cooler weather. But with her long curly hair and bright blue eyes, wide and shining, she was sweet enough that he forgave the late hour of her arrival immediately.

“Good evening, it’s good to see you’ve arrived in one piece.” Peter placed his book to the side, marking his page, and stood so he could step over and offer his hand to shake. “No need to apologise, the buses in this town are a bloody nightmare. Call me Peter, none of that ‘sir’ business.”

It got the chuckle and smile he’d hoped for, and Rosalia immediately relaxed, quickly pulling off her glove so she could reach out and take his hand to shake it, before her eyebrows almost ticked up at just how cold he was to the touch, even sitting as close as he was to the heater that was on high enough she wanted to start sweating.

But she didn’t comment, it would have been rude to, instead she made sure to keep a smile on her face as she looked between the couple.

“I really appreciate the room, I won’t be a bother at all, I swear.”

“Oh nonsense, dear. Nonsense.” Leonna waved a hand to dismiss it immediately as she went about tidying up the nearby coffee table, grabbing up a stack of a few magazines to neaten into a pile, before looking towards the kitchen. “Would you like a cup of tea after you put your bag away?”

Raising her eyebrows in happiness, Rosalia nodded in appreciation, already stepping in the direction of the stairs. “I would love one, thank you so much. Where am I…?”

Leonna and Peter glanced at each other, Leonna raising her eyebrows in an unspoken question that had Peter shrug indifferently, the sort of communication born from decades of familiarity.

It was rather sweet, honestly. Not exactly Rosalia’s cup of tea or ambition, but it still had something in her chest want to warm whenever she saw it.

Leonna gave her a smile. “Second door on the right, dear.”

“Thanks!”

As Leonna vanished into the kitchen and Peter returned to his armchair just to grab up his book to put it away, Rosalia made her way upstairs, her hand going for the lightswitch to illuminate the hallway. It was a simple and quaint two-bedroom home, and Rosalia studied the row of photographs lining the walls as she made her way to the second door on the right where she’d been guided.

The Millers had certainly had an eventful life, full of vacations and landmarks, judging from the sheer amount of photos they had from travels. There wasn’t a single major city in the country that didn’t have a photo of the couple smiling.

So why settle in a place like Silvercloud of all places…

Rosalia mulled over it for a moment before shrugging, dismissing it, and stepping into the room she’d rented and looking around it. There was a simple single bed, a chest of drawers, and a small ensuite, and nothing more.

Rather spartan, but she wasn’t surprised given that it was outfitted for short-term accommodation, a way for the Millers to make a bit of extra money since according to their profile they no longer needed the space after their son moved out to head to one of the bigger cities.

Dropping her bag onto the bed, Rosalia drummed her fingers on it for a moment in thought, frowning as her mind picked out something odd, and she stepped back out into the hallway to give the photographs another look.

Two dozen photographs, each of the Miller couple. Out at dinner, in front of a landmark, having drinks with local friends, one of Peter at the helm of a small sailboat, another of Leonna at the national botanical gardens.

But no son was present in any of them.

Rosalia bit her lip as the discrepancy settled into her gut.

Children have falling outs with their parents all the time, her own relationship with her mother hadn’t exactly been delightful, and the son had apparently moved out of the town entirely.

But still.

It wasn’t any of her business, the stories of the places she passed through never were, so Rosalia quickly returned to her room to grab her bottle from her bag and take her tablets now that she wasn’t walking around lost in the maze of suburbia.

Swallowing, she put the cap back onto her bottle and placed it onto the bedside table as she looked out the window, reaching forward to move apart the thick curtains obscuring a view of a backyard dense with planted trees.

Perfect privacy. She couldn’t even see either of the neighbours’ back fences.

Well, it was suburbia. People were nosy.

Rosalia put her bottle back into her bag before making her way downstairs, giving the photographs another glance as she passed by, and lightly tapping her fingernails on the wooden beam as she descended.

The Millers were both in the kitchen, talking between themselves in low voices, and Rosalia knocked on the side of the arch before poking her head and giving a smile to where the couple were standing together near the counter, both of them already nursing hot cups of tea while another was fresh and waiting for her.

As soon as she emerged and drew attention to herself, she immediately got a bright smile from Leonna, who gestured to the spare steaming mug.

“Just in time. How do you find the room? I’m sorry it’s not terribly fancy.”

“Oh, it’s fine! Totally fine. It’s great.” Rosalia walked over and picked up her mug, taking an appreciative sip, before following the Millers as they led her over to the small dining table.

Leonna put out a coaster for her, effectively marking her seat, and Rosalia sank down into the chair across from them both, nursing her mug in her hands and drumming her fingertips on it in thought as she took in the couple across from her.

Smiling over at her, Peter gave a content sigh as he swallowed a sip from his own mug, and sat back in his chair.

“So what brings you to Silvercloud? We get plenty of youngsters hopping off the trains, for one reason or another. Some stay for a few hours, some settle down here for good.”

Rosalia shook her head politely as she held her mug to her lips, biting the inside of her cheek in thought as she lowered it again and answered. “I won’t be here for long, I’m just passing through.”

“Ahh, of course. One of those ‘always on the way to somewhere else’, types?” Peter regarded her with a curious raised eyebrow, ignoring the slightly reprimanding look that Leonna gave him over the rim of her own mug.

But frankly being treated with a bit of attitude instead of blank indifference was a welcome change from the usual, so Rosalia laughed and gave a nod and a shrug. “Sort of. I’m never anywhere for long. Just can’t get comfortable, I guess. Itchy feet, y’know?”

Peter grunted in comprehension, nodding in agreement as he put his mug down properly and crossed his arms over his chest comfortably. “Oh I know it well. I used to be the same way, when I was a much younger and livelier man.”

“So I saw, upstairs. You two have certainly…seen the world.” Pausing for a moment as she tried to decide whether or not she was fine with satiating her curiosity, Rosalia placed her mug down onto its coaster properly and folded her hands on her lap casually. “Does your son go on your trips very often…?”

The couple immediately looked between each other in surprise at the question, Leonna’s eyebrows shooting up, while Peter’s jaw bulged for a moment as he clenched, and he tightened his arms across his chest for a moment before letting out a strained sigh.

“No, no. Our boy isn’t really the travelling type.”

Rosalia nodded at the answer, quickly taking another sip of her tea, before pausing in thought that turned into a slightly confused frown. Swallowing her sip of tea, she tilted her head in curiosity.

“He moved interstate though, right?”

The couple looked at each other again, Leonna’s grip on her mug tightening enough her knuckles went white, but her face remained in the same casual smile, while Peter shuffled uncomfortably and nodded again.

“True, true. I suppose we all get in one in our lifetimes, aye?”

Watching as the couple glanced at each other again, with Leonna quickly finishing the last mouthful of her tea and standing to go and rinse out her mug in the sink, Rosalia picked up her own and looked down into it in thought.

Something really was odd around here. Sure, she’d moved through strange places before, but ever since stepping off the train earlier that night she’d felt in the air that something wasn’t quite right.

She steadied her thoughts as she finished her own tea in a few final quick gulps, plastering a smile onto her face as she stood to head over to the sink and rinse it out, passing by where Leonna was leaning against the counter and staring out the kitchen window and into the backyard with a thoughtful look on her face.

The atmosphere shifted a few degrees, as if all the air in the house tilted on an axis, the pressure shifting around Rosalia’s chest in a way that had her grip on the edge of the sink tighten just to vent the tension from her bones.

Even in the time it took to rinse out her mug, filling it with water and swirling it around, looking down into it, she could feel the cold threatening to creep into her bones as the warmth in the room vanished, fading away.

Suppressing a frozen shiver, Rosalia glanced over at Leonna out of the corner of her vision, and her eyes widened at the look on the woman’s face.

There was a dark shadow underneath Leonna’s eyes as she looked out into the backyard, her fingers pressing into the countertop. Peter was staring at his wife’s back with wary eyes and a frown, as if disagreeing with an idea, before shrugging when Leonna looked over at him with eyes that were a type of angry that Rosalia took a few moments to recognise.

Even with the heater on high, blasting the entire house, it was suddenly so damn cold that Rosalia felt fatigue sitting around her skin and trying to soak into her bones.

Neither of the Millers had said a word, communicating only through body language and looks, but Rosalia felt the atmosphere shift again.

The Millers available room had been irresistible on the website where she’d found them, with as cheap as it was and in such a quiet area, and they had seemed lovely in the emails they’d exchanged while she’d planned her trip.

But…something wasn’t right in this house.

And it had an electric tingling that was almost painful, over every inch of her skin, even making her eyes feel dry. A sense for self-preservation that went back hundreds of thousands of years of evolution had her foot bouncing.

“I…should head to bed. Thank you for the tea.” Rosalia smiled at Leonna as she walked past, but Leonna simply stared at her with a blank, empty look, following her with her eyes.

And Peter…

By the time Rosalia had left the kitchen and passed by the dining table, Peter was back out in the living room, his own mug abandoned on the table, and Rosalia froze on the way back towards her seat when she heard the front door’s lock click.

The walls closed in, she could feel it on every side.

Everyone locked their front door before bed, and it was getting late, right?

She bit the inside of her cheek, hard, the pain jolting her out of being frozen rigid and letting her wind around the arch and get close to the stairs.

Just as her foot rested on the bottom stair, there was a light scraping in the kitchen, metal on wood, which Leonna was clearly attempting to do quietly.

And Peter was still simply standing by the front door, staring out of the living room window and onto the street, his hands by his sides and his back straight.

Rosalia continued backing her way up the stairs, only turning and facing forward once she was on the landing and in the hall again, and she quickly entered her room for the next three nights and closed the door behind herself.

Closing her eyes and resting her head back against the door, she huffed in frustration at herself for letting the tension get to her. This wasn’t her first time staying at a stranger’s place as she passed through a town, and she’d stayed with weirder people than a shady older couple before.

But still, this time it was…different.

Especially once she heard two sets of footsteps coming up the stairs, one attempting to be quiet while the other didn’t care about being heard.

The hallway light clicked off, the last source of light vanishing from under the door and casting the room into total darkness. But Rosalia could still see clearly, and she rolled her shoulders to loosen the tension before stepping away from the door and turning to face it.

A moment later, the handle turned, and it swung open silently.

In the utter darkness, the couple were a pair of pale statues as they stared into the room, neither of them twitching or their shoulders shifting with breaths now that they weren’t pretending to take them. And Rosalia simply stared back as she backed up, the back of her legs bumping into the edge of the bed.

With the couple blocking the door, simply looking at her, there was no way out unless she felt like going through the window.

Instead Rosalia looked between the two of them; from where Peter was standing just behind his wife’s shoulder, a black bag in his hand, to where Leonna was lightly and casually gripping a perfectly polished and sharpened cleaver.

Both of them were silent as they stared at her, seemingly waiting, but Rosalia had no interest in giving them the satisfaction of attempting to run past them, or begging, or anything like that.

Instead, she ran the tip of her tongue along her teeth in consideration, her hands clenching and unclenching by her sides.

A change in schedule.

“Yeah. Okay. This is fair. I guess I pried a bit.” Relaxing her shoulders, Rosalia rolled her head to crack her neck, closing her eyes. “I love the garden, it’s…a nice touch. Privacy. Justifies the… fertiliser.”

The couple both started slightly in surprise at the casual relaxation in Rosalia’s posture, and what was almost boredom in her tone. Of the many tourists that had passed through their front door, even the silent ones had normally at least tried to run.

But instead Rosalia was calm, and composed, seeming relaxed enough she might have lazily flopped down onto the edge of the bed.

Until she wasn’t.

Peter eyes widened as a sickening crunch broke the silence, the familiar sound of a razor edge piercing through flesh, and his mouth dropped open soundlessly at where ‘Rosalia’ was suddenly cupping Leonna’s head to her chest right in front of him, practically nursing it and stroking her hair while her other hand clenched tighter where it was embedded all the way into the woman’s stomach.

When she caught him looking, the two of them now close enough that she could see that Peter’s eyes cleanly and brightly reflected the light coming in from the window, she simply smiled, blue eyes no longer blue and instead a sickening emerald green that seemed to glow in the darkness as her lips opened to show two rows of fangs, each one as long as the twine of a fork.

A long tongue slithered out from an unnaturally wide jaw, split and serpentine, and glided less than an inch above the skin of Leonna’s cheek in a teasing threat even as the creature held a frozen Peter in her stare.

But she didn’t have a taste.

After twisting her hand once more, the crunch sickening and grotesquely loud, she pulled her hand out of Leonna’s stomach and let the body drop, but made sure to grab the knife from the woman’s already cold hands on the way down.

Studying the edge of the knife for a moment, emerald eyes picking out the light nicks in it from use, the creature hummed low in her throat as she sauntered over to Peter, stepping indifferently over Leonna’s body as she did so, the body already turning grey.

What a waste.

Unable to suppress his instincts, Peter turned to run, the bag of basic surgical tools and jars dropping from his hand as he went to sprint for the stairs, but he barely made it halfway down before he was suddenly staring into vibrant emerald eyes blurring into view in front of him.

Everything inside of him stopped, locking up as if every muscle was suddenly stretched taut. He couldn’t even blink as he was caught in the gaze, the creature’s eyes slitted and wide, unblinking, and pulsating with a dizzyingly soothing glow.

When she spoke, the fangs had receded once more, but the nails on the ends of her fingers instead sharpened into midnight black claws in front of Peter’s eyes as they tapped on the steel of the kitchen knife.

Shaking her head, she thinned her lips. “Laziness. Arrogance. God the internet has ruined things, ordering a tourist like it's home delivery. Don’t you understand what you put at risk??”

The creature, wearing the skin and visage of someone far too naive and sweet to be real, cupped Peter’s cheek with the palm of her hand, the man still unable to move no matter how hard he tried to wrench his head away, no matter how badly he wanted to run and run and hide under the bed like the little boy he hadn’t been for a long, long time.

“Now, I’m going to need you to cooperate, okay? If you’d both been more patient and waited an extra day I’d have been able to set up in advance and take my time, but instead you’ve made sure I only have a few hours.” The creature put the tip of the blade against Peter’s collarbone and stuck it in slightly, her eyes flicking down to the drop of blood that was so unnaturally dark that it was almost black, and the green in her irises pulsed brighter for a moment. “God. I really, really hate rushing. I can’t even lay down newspaper for your carpet. But…well, you’ll forgive me, right Peter?”

Taking the collar of Peter’s shirt in a playfully loose grip, the creature began to pull him helplessly and limply in the direction of the living room.

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4:02am

There was a specific ringtone that always shot through Summer Rose and immediately had her twitching in a combination of adrenaline and dread, no matter what time of day or night, or how busy she might be. So when it sounded in her bedroom while she was deep asleep, her hand flew out to grab it from her nightstand before her eyes even clicked open.

Adrenaline shot through her body at the sudden awakening from a nightmare that she immediately forgot, surprise and concern flushing her system as she looked at the name on her phone screen and sucked in a breath when she saw the time above it.

As her husband Tai stirred from his own sleep at the sound, eyes opening and immediately sharpening in concern, Summer gave him a nod before hitting answer and raising her phone to her ear.

“Qrow? What’s wrong? It’s early…”

“Yeah, I know. Which is why being dragged onto duty had my alarm bells ring.” The gruff voice of her best friend, exhausted and in a low growl so he wouldn’t be overheard, had Summer’s chest tighten. But Qrow kept speaking before she could ask any further. “There’s been something. Something…that’s going to be for you.”

Summer swung out of bed properly, pushing off the covers and rushing out of the room, while also making sure to keep her footsteps nearly silent so she wouldn’t wake her daughters as she went past their rooms.

She could hear Tai behind her as she went into their study and clicked on the desk light, grabbing up a pen and notepad as she tucked her phone into the crook of her neck to free up her hands.

“Tell me everything. What’s going on?”

“Summer, it’s…it’s a mess. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything like…” Qrow sucked in a breath, shaken, and let it out as a growl when Summer was silently waiting. “Thirty-two Elmwood Way. Got called in about half an hour ago. Guy across the street who woke up to let his dog out for a piss saw the light on and the front door left open, called up for us to check.”

Even as she jotted down the address and passed the notepad over to Tai, who was already booting up one of their computers so he could find out everything he could about the house, Summer frowned at the unease in Qrow’s tone.

It wasn’t like him to be shaken, not after everything they’d seen over the years.

“Okay? What makes it our case?”

Qrow’s voice was muffled for a moment as he spoke to someone else nearby, his tone stern as he gave an order, before he raised his phone back up to his ear. “...you’ll see when you get there. Can you get over to it?”

When the address information came up on the screen that Tai was typing at, Summer quickly scanned it, mindlessly mouthing the names of the two owners and frowning once more.

If Qrow was calling her up at four in the morning, it meant he was serious. That it couldn’t wait until morning when he normally came over for breakfast, occasionally with a folder of everything out of the ordinary that had been reported that might be worth glancing at.

So, narrowing her eyes as she gave Tai a nod of confirmation and made her way back to the bedroom, Summer nodded even though Qrow couldn’t see it.

“I’ll head over. How much time can you buy me?”

“An hour or two, maybe? Then we’ll be swarming all over it. I’ve got it taped off but if you want first dibs on an uncontaminated scene you’ll have to hurry.” There was a bang of a car door slamming and then the rustling and click of a seatbelt, Qrow putting in his earpiece so he could talk as he drove. “Just…get over there, okay? Before any civilians or us cops trample it up.”

“Got it. Thanks, Qrow. Beep me when I’ve got to scamper.” Summer waited until Qrow grunted in acquiescence before hanging up, tossing her phone onto the bed as she pulled off her nightgown and opened her wardrobe to get dressed.

Tai was already in the bedroom and doing the same thing, and as soon as Summer was free to talk he gave her a curious frown.

“What are we dealing with?”

“No idea, he was pretty vague.” Buckling up her pants, her belt jostling slightly from the pouch on each hip, Summer paused for a moment and met Tai’s stare. “...he was pretty shaken, Tai. More shaken than I’ve heard him in a while.”

They paused in their talk as they finished getting dressed, Summer tightening the thigh straps of her holsters, before she put her hand on Tai’s arm when he went to grab his own padded jacket.

“I’ve got this, hon. Stay and keep an eye on the girls.”

Summer gave Tai a determined look when he sucked in a breath to protest, but the slight sound of their eldest daughter tossing in her bed was enough to win Summer’s argument for her, and Tai relented as he released his jacket to grab a comfortable knitted sweater instead.

“...you come straight back once you’ve done your once-over, okay? If you find anything urgent, you call for backup.” Tai raised a hand and cupped his wife’s cheek for a moment, a touch she immediately nuzzled into gently, before brushing his thumb lightly over her skin as he gave her a slightly pleading look. “Yang and Ruby are big girls, they can look after themselves for a few hours and get themselves to school if we’re gone that long.”

Nodding, Summer pushed up on her tiptoes so she could press a soft kiss to the corner of Tai’s mouth, closing her eyes at the comfort as she nudged his temple with her own and he wrapped his arms around her for a moment.

“I will. Promise. I’ll send you through all my notes, and we can go over them in the morning if we have the time.”

“Sounds good. And next call, I’ll take.” Tai pressed a soft kiss to the top of Summer’s head as she lowered herself back down, and he gave her a playful grin when she stepped back and raised her eyebrow up at him. “Hey, it’d be mean for you to keep going out in the cold.”

Summer scoffed with a small smile and rolled her eyes as she quickly made her way back to the study to grab her leather bound hunter’s journal and her pens and pencils, putting them into a full satchel that she quickly slid over her shoulders for it to rest comfortably on her hip.

In her outfit of blacks and greys, she would be practically invisible out in the pre-dawn hours, which was what she was counting on as she grabbed up the keys to one of their motorbikes.

Giving Tai one last quick kiss, a reassurance in it that it wasn’t a goodbye, she opened up their garage and swung her leg over her usual bike in the one smooth movement, before kicking up the ignition and heading out.

Tai watched her from the front porch, his eyes on her as she vanished down the street, before jumping and looking over his shoulder as the screen door opened and both of his daughters stepped out to join him, having been jostled from their sleep by the sounds of movement and the engine.

Ruby was wrapped up in her thickest and comfiest dressing gown, her short black hair messy in a way that always worked for her, and she was still blinking herself awake as she looked at her dad in concern.

“Seriously? It’s like…early.”

“Afraid so, kiddo.” Tai sighed in concern as he gave the road one last concerned glance, wrapping an arm around his other daughter’s shoulders. Turning his head to look at her, Tai frowned at the jitters going through Yang’s entire body. “You alright?”

Yang jumped at being addressed, not even shivering despite still just being in her sleep shorts and a tank top, and she pondered the question for a moment before shrugging. There was no point lying to her parents, they always saw through it no matter what it was, so she grumbled.

“Another nightmare. I’m good. Doubt I’ll be getting back to sleep though.”

“Speak for yourself.” Ruby spoke through a deep yawn, swaying on her feet enough that she slumped against her dad’s other side, Tai easily catching her around the shoulders and supporting her weight. “...maybe I’m too tired for school today? From being woken up so early by-”

Tai laughed for a moment at the pleading and sweet pout on Ruby’s face, the picture of innocence, and raised an eyebrow at her as he nudged both of his daughters to get back inside and out of the cold.

“Nice try, but you’ve still got time for three more hours. So go and do that, I know you were up until past midnight on your damn computer. You’ve only got yourself to blame.”

Ruby gave a playful whine of despair as she headed inside, swaying groggily on her feet, before plodding her way down the hall back towards her room. But despite her exhaustion, her voice was wide awake and firm when she paused at her bedroom door and looked back down the hall at her dad.

“Wake me up when mum gets back, please? So I know she’s safe.”

It was part of the routine, established back when Ruby and Yang had both had constant nightmares whenever one or both of their parents had vanished at all hours of the night, so Tai knew how serious the request was. Especially with the slight dark haunting in the silver of Ruby’s tired eyes.

Clearly Yang hadn’t been the only one having a nightmare.

“Always do, kiddo.”

Holding her father’s stare for a moment as he made the promise, Ruby nodded in sleepy gratitude and gave a tired wave before closing her bedroom door and likely collapsing straight back onto her bed before she even took her dressing gown or slippers off.

Meanwhile Yang was wide awake, resting against the back of the couch with her arms crossed and her lips thin in a concern that had Tai raise his eyebrows.

“What’s up? Not going to try and get anymore sleep?”

“Nah, I was in bed at nine, I’ll be groovy.” Yang waved a hand dismissively, before following her dad into the kitchen when Tai nodded and ruffled her hair slightly as he walked past.

As Tai got to work preparing some coffee for them both, since neither of them would be going back to bed and they’d need the boost, Yang bit her lip to chew it in thought as her eyes flicked to the door leading from the entry hall to the garage.

Her bike was in peak condition and fully fueled up, she’d filled the tank yesterday, and her own gear was ready in her room if she needed it. And now that she was eighteen, she had a key to the armoury.

So she felt confident as she drummed her fingers on the archway and spoke up.

“Want me to go with mum? I’m not gonna be doing anything until school anyway.”

Tai seemed to consider it for a moment as he poured two mugs and passed one to her so she could add her own milk and sugar, meanwhile he grabbed a jar of honey to add to his own.

But, much to Yang’s disappointment, he shook his head.

“If your uncle called this late, it means something is urgent. You’re not ready for whatever that means, yet. Not for your first ever sweep.” Tai sighed apologetically as Yang’s expression fell in disappointment, and he patted her on the shoulder reassuringly. “Next time we get a day alert and you’re not at school, I promise you can tag along.”

After adding far too much sugar to her coffee and taking a slow sip in dejected frustration, Yang grumbled even as she knew her dad meant it and that he was probably right.

Her parents had all been saying the same thing for a year now;

‘You’re almost ready.’

When they said it to Ruby, it was a dismissal and a rejection. But when said to Yang, she knew that it was a promise.

For a while longer, however, all she could do was watch and wait until the grown-ups knew what needed to be beaten up and where it was hiding, and those were the days and nights they already let her walk in at their side.

But, for now, all she could do was sit and wait for either her mum to return, or it was time to get to school for another boring day.

It was going to take a lot of coffee.

Tai sensed her disappointment, seeing the impatience in how she drummed a mindless and stressed rhythm on her steaming mug, and he clapped her on the shoulder as he stepped past to head to the study to fill in the hours until Summer got back.

“I’m sure you’ve got homework to do, little dragon. Come on, take a desk in the study, chatting will keep me awake.”

It was an olive branch; inviting Yang in so she’d be able to see how the professionals did their research and pre-emptive notes, and she smiled in appreciation before following him down the hall, briefly stopping to grab up her schoolwork from her room.

+=+=+

4:38am

Summer made sure to park a block away from the house so that she’d be able to approach it with a degree of stealth, but that intention was scattered when she saw the small crowd that was watching from across the street.

In typical suburban fashion, everyone watched with a predatory gossiping hunger as they saw the police tape crossing over the front of the house to keep people away, even though there were only two officers on duty to keep them at bay. But they weren’t too bothered about getting close; as long as they were close enough to hear and glimpse all the juicy details they’d be satisfied.

Scoffing to herself in disgust, Summer stopped far enough away she was hidden in the shadows of a front garden, and looked around, trying to find a way towards the house where she wouldn’t be seen. Luckily in a street as typical as this there was always the same open and clean obstacle course, so she didn’t hesitate before skipping over to one of the houses on the same side of the street as her destination and swung over the fence into the backyard.

It was simple work to swing over fences and around obstacles until she got to the yard of her destination, a cluster of large trees surrounding the perimeter of it like a natural privacy fence, which made it even easier to scramble in and over.

Summer landed easily on the soft and healthy soil of the yard, able to do so practically silently, and she grabbed up her lockpicks from her pouch as she quickly made her way to the back door.

The tape out the front would keep people away, and she knew the two officers on duty would be under strict orders not to venture inside until one of their superiors arrived. Their protocol was to lock down the scene and keep it uncontaminated until the investigators arrived, which Qrow would make sure took at least an hour or more so that Summer could be in and out like a ghost.

Plenty of time for Summer to do her own work as she got the back door open and stepped inside.

The moment she was inside the house, she couldn’t just smell it, but she could feel it.

Air rushed out of her lungs in a low wheeze as her legs shook from the sensory onslaught, and she had to fight not to squeeze her eyes shut at the unnatural pressure crushing her skin and organs as if she was within a fist.

It was like the air itself was dense with it, the kitchen tiles under her boots should have been rippling and warping from the presence of it, but Summer straightened up and closed her eyes to peacefully clear her mind and push it away.

She would constantly be aware of it, feeling it crawl along her skin like a thousand spiders, trying to find every opening in her concentration to get inside of her head, but if she stayed focused she could keep it at bay.

The house was entirely silent, not even any rumbling from water in the heater, or buzzing of electricity in the fluorescent kitchen light. None of the normal ambient sounds provided background sensory fog, instead letting Summer’s ears strain to their greatest to try and pick out anything.

But there was nothing. Only the sound of her own breathing and footsteps as she made her way through to the dining room, her eyes and ears taking in everything as she kept her breathing slow and focused so that her own heartbeat wouldn’t disrupt her hearing.

Summer circled the kitchen slowly, dispassionately taking in everything and filing it away mentally before grabbing out her notepad and jotting every discrepancy down;

Three mugs sat in the sink, still slightly wet from being washed.

As she looked at them, she frowned, before immediately looking over her shoulder at the dining table where three of the four chairs were slightly shifted, recently moved.

But only two people were listed as residents. They’d had a guest.

Summer narrowed her eyes for a moment before returning her attention to the kitchen, looking for everything else that was out of place

A knife was missing from a chopping block. Large, from the looks of its slot.

With a picture already appearing in her mind before she’d even found what was causing the stench in the air and the sickening energy around her skin and mind, Summer quickly pulled on a pair of gloves before pulling out one of the other knives to examine it.

It was immaculately cared for; clean to a shine almost like a mirror, and so razor sharp that Summer suspected the leather of her padded jacket would be paper against it.

Chances were the missing knife was of the same standard.

Summer slid the knife back into the block and finally left the kitchen and dining room, stepping through the arch into the living room, with a flight of stairs on her right and the front door ahead of her.

Hesitating for a moment as the stench and aura was too much to ignore and dismiss any longer, Summer braced herself before turning her head and looking to her left into the living room.

“...oh.” Summer felt the blood leave her face, sending her pale as a ghost as her eyes widened at what she was forced to see. “...oh god...”

It took a long moment for her to centre herself again as she stared into the room, the couch and armchairs pushed aside and the glass coffee table against the wall in order to clear a massive space in the middle of the room for…work to be done.

With her heartbeat pounding in her head from where it was racing inside of her chest, Summer forced herself to do her job as she grabbed her camera from her bag and raised it up to take a picture.

Her legs trembling for a moment, she crossed the threshold into the room properly, making care to step over the slick lines of red and black blood deliberately and messily traced around the floorboards.

Summer forced herself to take her photos, capturing every angle of the scene that she could manage, even as she had to force herself to coldly ignore the state of the body itself.

Even the white plaster walls hadn’t been spared, and she captured all of it, before eventually forcing herself to turn her attention to the body.

She couldn’t touch it, so she wouldn’t be able to know any of the true extent until an autopsy she knew she’d have to make sure one of their own people conducted instead of a civilian.

Because Qrow was right.

This…this was for them.

With a breath, Summer forced herself to take a series of photos, capturing every angle and making sure she had high definition photos of every clue and injury while they were as fresh as possible, and then practically filling in her notepad as she took quick and neat sketches and stencils of everything that was deliberate and of note.

Finished, Summer stepped away to head up the stairs and see what else might be waiting for her.

The further away she got from the living room, the easier it got to breathe, the feeling of that sickening and dense corruption lessening but not vanishing entirely. With her camera around her neck and her notepad in her hand, the pencil behind her ear, Summer made sure to look and memorise every photograph on the shelves along the upstairs hallway.

Every single one of them was of the couple that were on the town records; Peter and Leonna Miller. An older couple that had moved to town a few years ago.

On the surface, they were utterly normal; never missed their bills, their mortgage was paid off, neither of them even had as much as a parking ticket.

But Tai would have more specifics ready by the time Summer got home, so she dismissed it from her mind for now as she instead noted how every single upstairs door was open.

Summer closed her eyes for a moment to listen, and when she found the sound she was looking for; rustling of the wind disturbing light drapes through an open window, she sighed and spoke up.

“I know you’re here. Come here, love.”

There was the sound of an amused hum, before a figure dressed in almost identical blacks and greys emerged from one of the bedrooms, disposable gloves on her hands and what looked to be a photo album open in her grip from where she’d been perusing it.

With her wild black hair tied back tightly to be kept out of the way, Raven’s red eyes were unobstructed as she stared into Summer’s silver and raised an eyebrow.

“You got here fast. I didn’t hear you downstairs.”

Summer scoffed, some of the tension in her shoulders relaxing, and she made her way over so she was close enough that the binding of the album was pressing into her stomach and was all that was between them.

“Then you were too distracted. I wasn’t as quiet as I normally could be.”

Raising her eyebrow higher at Summer’s proximity, Raven expression shifted into a concerned frown as she took in the slight jittering in Summer’s eyes and the tightness of her mouth, and she placed the photo album on a nearby cabinet so she could close the rest of the distance and place her hand on Summer’s shoulder.

“You alright? You finished downstairs too, huh…?”

Summer nodded, taking in a shaky breath and holding it for a few moments when Raven gestured for her to, before letting it out slowly when Raven guided her with her own breathing, and she nodded again in thanks before stepping with a turn so that she and Raven were shoulder to shoulder.

“Rae, this is…I mean, down there is…”

“Yeah. I know.” Raven clenched her jaw for a moment, her eyes sharpening as she hardened herself when her mind went to the living room. “I know…”

But they didn’t have time to let it get to them, it would haunt their dreams later, for now they had to get to work. So, shaking her head once to snap out of it, Raven clapped Summer on the back lightly to usher her to get her moving so she could lead her over to one of the bedrooms.

“It gets stranger, if you haven’t been in here yet.”

Summer frowned as she stepped into the bedroom first, her eyes flicking around to take in everything in, before they locked onto the main focus and she sucked in another breath at the body simply left on the carpet.

But she could see even from a distance that it wasn’t a regular corpse, and she gave Raven a bewildered look before dropping to a knee and examining it properly while Raven stood back with her arms crossed.

The skin of the woman was entirely desiccated, the body drained of anything even slightly resembling fluid and leaving her locked in rigour mortis in the posture she died in. Her eyes were wide, and Summer saw the unnatural sheen of them immediately, and she confirmed it by grabbing her small pocket flashlight and shining it.

Despite how they looked normal on first casual glimpse, enough so that the average person wouldn’t notice anything strange during daylight, Summer immediately noted it down when they reflected the light with a glow.

Predatory nightvision.

But what killed her…

Summer had a suspicion as her mind went to the state of the living room, and with careful guidance she rolled the body so she could examine the chest, only to nod to herself as her theory was confirmed;

The woman’s heart had been ripped out.

As she finished writing it all in her notes before putting her case notepad away and instead grabbing out her hunter’s journal, Summer spoke over her shoulder to where Raven was waiting silently, keeping an eye and ear out to make sure they kept their privacy.

“Theories?”

“Desiccation upon death, eyes with tapetum lucidum, black blood from the organs and red blood from the arteries, and willing to live in a pair…” Raven grabbed out her own journal, identical to Summer’s own with its dark leather and kept with a silver buckle, and began flipping through the notes she had been collecting and keeping over the years. “It certainly narrows it the hell down.”

Both of them were interrupted from flipping through their journals when Summer’s phone beeped with a text, and she knew what it was before she even grabbed her phone out of her pocket to check it.

Rising to her feet and sliding her journal away, she put her phone away again and gave Raven a nod.

“We’ve got to go. We’re out of time.”

“Right then. Back door?” Raven quickly put her own journal away, her ears picking up the faint sound of sirens as the time Qrow had gotten them ran out, and when Summer nodded she led the way downstairs.

But as she stood, Summer jolted as she noticed something out of place in the corner of her eye, and while she was too short on time to investigate it for now she didn’t hesitate before grabbing up the unmarked pill box from the bedside table and putting it into her satchel for later.

While she deliberately stopped herself from looking into the living room again once she was downstairs, Raven wasn’t so disciplined, and she glanced one last time at the scene they were leaving behind.

Taking it in and letting her trained mind memorise the visual of it, Raven’s stomach churned and her chest clenched as she finally ripped herself away from it and quickly caught up to where Summer was waiting at the back door.

They didn’t say a word as Summer locked the door and closed it behind them, before she led the way over to the fence and scampered back the way she came, Raven right behind her.

Only once it was safe and they were at Summer’s bike did they speak again, Raven crossing her arms over her chest tightly as her mind’s eye was branded with the sight, while Summer allowed herself to slump forward in her bike’s seat and rest her head on the handlebars.

“Jesus, Rae…”

“Oh I think it was pretty clear he had no interest in that house tonight…” Raven scoffed, but despite the attempt none of the tension left her body. So all she could do was step over and rest on the back of the bike seat, her shoulder against Summer’s back. “...so what now?”

At the question, the objective in it and the possibility of a way forward and towards a solution to the abomination currently seared into her mind, Summer sat up violently enough she almost dislodged Raven behind her, and she put her foot up in preparation to kick her bike to life as she thought.

“Same process as always; research first. We aren’t short on clues. I’ll make copies of the photos and my notes and send them around. You should come and do the same with yours.” Summer looked over her shoulder at Raven, and once Raven hopped up and off she kicked her bike to life and grabbed up her helmet. “Come on, Tai’s up too. You should come through.”

Raven hesitated, sliding her hands into the pockets of her pants as she considered it, and sucked in a breath through her nose to ground herself. Instead of answering, she simply grabbed out her own notepad of notes from her investigation and tore out the appropriate pages, before folding them and offering them over to Summer.

There was a long and tense pause while Summer stared up into Raven’s eyes, disappointment clearly warring with frustration, and she let out a reprimanding huff as she snatched the notes from Raven’s hand and shoved them into her pocket.

“You should come by, even if you’re only there until breakfast. The girls miss you. It’s been long enough, Rae.”

Looking away, unable to hold against Summer’s stare, Raven sighed and shook her head slowly and sadly.

“I can’t, yet. Not until I know if Yang…” Raven let out another sigh as she thought of her daughter, her chest aching in longing. “Just…not yet. Soon. I’ll come by soon.”

Despite the chasm it had begun to put between them, she knew that Summer understood, even if she didn’t like it or morally agree with it. So she knew it would be safe to lean down and press a warm kiss to Summer’s lips, the kiss being returned without hesitation.

Breaking off the kiss after a few moments, Summer sighed in contentment when Raven pressed a follow-up kiss to her forehead, and she smoothed her hair back before pulling on her helmet.

“You better. I’ll pass on your love to everyone.”

“...thank you.” Raven stepped back onto the curb so that Summer was safe to give her one last nod before driving away, and she watched as Summer vanished down the street and around the corner. “…I’m sorry.”

As Summer vanished, the sound of her bike fading into the distance, Raven turned and vanished into the dark shadow of the closest trees, and after a moment of silence there were only feathers where she had been standing.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

+=+=+

Ever since she was young, Ruby knew how to see monsters.

The way they didn’t twitch or shuffle in their seats, how if their eyes flicked around like a normal person’s did they only ever did so with purpose, drawn to whatever movement was nearby like some sort of predatory cat. It was in the way they moved their food around their lunch trays with their forks to make it look like it was disappearing, but if you watched carefully you could notice they never actually took even the slightest nibble unless it was meat that was slightly undercooked.

It was the little things, and once you were trained how to notice them, there was no letting them slip past. It made the world a darker and colder place once she began to realise just how many creatures of the shadows were all around her. 

Some of them, your standard werewolves and skinwalkers, were able to walk around in the daylight without any issue. She saw them at her school, catching the ones freshly turned or awakened scratching at either wherever they’d covered up the bite, or at their skin in general as if it was uncomfortable and it needed to come off.

Mimics were a bit harder, because they paid extra attention to their prey. They mastered the little mannerisms, but the lazier ones made the mistake of mastering them too well, and using all of them all the time. It was also noticeable in how their innate vanity prevented them from ever giving themselves any blemishes or imperfections beyond what was the bare minimum to be a disguise, never any pockmarks or acne scars and their teeth were always weirdly white.

Meanwhile the fey were by far the easiest to spot unless they were glamoured, and they were aware of it, so they kept themselves as scarce as possible whenever they could. But even when cloaked in illusion their features were always still a bit too pointed, and their eyes came in unnatural shades that coloured contacts didn’t hide from those taught to see through them.

But the ones who walked around during the day were, for the most part, actually relatively harmless, with no violent or murderous intent. 

The werewolves tended to end up joining the pack of whichever one turned them, and the bites were almost always done in the heat of a feral moment, never cruelly, so they took care of the newborns and helped them tame themselves. They even made sure they fed only on invasive species or pests when in wolf form, with Silvercloud being the only town for miles where a rabbit or fox was barely ever seen.

Because of their seemingly vehement desire to fit in and control their dangerous natures, while the werewolves were certainly watched carefully by Ruby’s family and the rest of their guild it was only when one of them suffered by going feral that they had to be dealt with.

Skinwalkers were just…people, for the most part. They walked, talked, had friends and hobbies, and unlike the werewolves they couldn’t really spread their monstrous natures. Their families were insular, but well-practised in controlling themselves, to such a degree that rumours of their existence had faded into ghost-story territory for civilians generations ago.

They didn’t hurt anyone, they weren’t aggressive or hostile at all, they just wanted to live normal lives by day and commune with nature by night. So Ruby’s family and friends were more than happy to let them be.

As for the fey, they kept entirely to themselves. With so much metal and reflective surfaces a part of modern architecture and daily life, they had to. But spots of mischief and strange miracles around town often went unexplained, to those who didn’t know how to spot the fingerprints of someone with a wicked sense of humour and fairness, and the abilities to bring it all to life.

The exception to the other creatures of the day, were the mimics.

Slithering into town and into an innocent victim’s house in the middle of the night to murder them in their sleep, dispose of the body, steal their face, and take their place. And they were always so damn smug about it, swaggering around town with a smile always a little too wide, like the skin was stretching. And if they found someone else’s life that would be more fun or useful to have than their current stolen one, they simply moved on, their current persona going ‘missing’ and their body eventually found (artistically placed as a tragic accident, of course), and that new face was simply stolen.

Mimics were also a pain to kill, with how quickly they healed, and how once they were dead you had two identical bodies to deal with. One genuine one to be found, declared a tragic accident, and given a funeral, but also another to be burned and then the monster’s ashes to be dumped into the nearby river.

But a solid sword swing to the neck or a well-aimed shot did the trick if you caught them by surprise, since when they stole a face they also copied a human’s vulnerabilities. Every monster had a weakness that Huntsmen were taught how to exploit, from centuries of wiping them out and protecting humanity from them wherever they were found.

Those were all the standard daywalkers, with the other occasional rarer monster dotted around, and sometimes a coven of witches and warlocks tried moving into town only for Ruby’s family and guild to encourage them to pack up and move on if their spells and rituals got any larger than the confines of their house.

But those were the creatures of the day. The ones that, for the most part, Ruby’s family left alone as long as they behaved themselves and kept their disruptions and presence to a minimum.

It was the creatures of the night, where the true war was. The true hunt. Because Silvercloud was lovely while the sun was shining bright in the sky above, with its sprawling woods, friendly population, nearby river, and a railway station that connected to half a dozen major cities and so was always bringing tourists in and out to take a break from their travels with a weekend in the fresh air of a little town that was halfway to everywhere else.

Then the sun would set, and those tourists would wonder why the residents of Silvercloud would all seem to vanish inside and lock their doors. Why the four bars and two clubs would be packed with people who were seeking crowds and unwilling to wander the streets alone, and why most of the diners and restaurants closed earlier than those in other towns and cities.

The people of Silvercloud didn’t know about the monsters, but humanity has a keen sense for danger, for eyes on the back of their neck, or when something is the slightest bit out of place.

…a sense of self-preservation.

And it had been passed down from generation to generation;

‘Don’t be out too late, always be back before the stars are out. If you have to move around at night, go with at least two friends and don’t meander. Keep your phone on you at all times. And no matter what, never keep your windows unlocked unless you have bars over them.’

Tourists didn’t always make it back to their motels, wandering back from the bars and diners late at night.

Because night time in Silvercloud was for the dead. And if the dead had their way, the night would be theirs alone.

They were all found in Silvercloud;

Ghosts, often of those who were killed by the other horrors of the night and wished only to crawl back into the living world. 

Ghouls with their twisted skeletons and pale oily skin, cursed to hunger for living flesh and to create more of their kind through any bite where their saliva entered the blood. 

Wraiths with their irresistible need to consume the sanities of innocents in order to maintain a semblance of their own sentience. 

Black Nightmares were rare, but they appeared on the nights that were moonless, drawn into the town in order to soak into the dreaming minds of children and quite literally scare them to death.

And even Shades, born to turn the lightest of shadows into a consuming darkness that leads only to whichever realm spawned them, fuelled by the very existence of those they steal away.

But none of those lived rent-free in Ruby’s mind like the ones she considered the most evil and depraved of them all;

The vampires.

Oh vampires existed, alright. Hiding away from the sun before slinking out at night and roaming their eyes from person to person as if they were running their finger down the menu at a cafe, drawn to please whatever fancy had struck their appetite that night. Tourist? Teenager? An elder? A priest? Nobody seemed to be off limits, nobody seemed to be safe.

Leaving bodies drained of blood and disposed of with centuries of mastered methodology. Or, in the case of the new, cruel, or both, they simply left the body wherever they took them. Sometimes in back alleys, sometimes in public bathrooms, and if one was really brave and persuasive, sometimes even in a victim’s own house.

Only the freshly turned or new arrivals tended to kill indiscriminately. For the most part the vampires simply left their prey weak and drained, with nothing but fog in their minds instead of any memory of what had led to them stumbling home.

But far too many vampires seemingly loved to cross the line and leave corpses and streaks of red, just for the fun of the meal.

Luckily, some of the horror stories and legends held merit; for example, vampires had to be invited indoors in order to cross a private threshold. But with a flash of always pearly white teeth from a face made irresistible by their curse, and a voice as smooth as silk, how could anyone resist inviting them in to use their phone or bathroom, or even have a cup of tea if they had bumped into each other around town?

They had a dozen tricks to overcome every hindrance, and Ruby wanted to learn them all.

Every Huntsman or Huntress had a specialty. A prey they dedicated their life to mastering how to kill, often turning into an obsession that overtook every aspect of their lives; Ruby’s sister Yang loathed ghouls, to such a degree she insisted on engaging them up close despite the risk of catching their curse from a bite.

Ruby’s birth mother, Summer, always returned home silent and withdrawn after an encounter with a black nightmare, simply bundling up her daughters and holding them tight, sometimes for hours despite Yang already being eighteen and Ruby seventeen.

So even though Ruby wasn’t a full Huntress yet, still forced to attend high school and lie to herself that she could pursue a normal life if she chose, nobody forcing her to follow in the family footsteps…Ruby knew that by the time she was her mother’s age she will have made sure there wasn’t a single vampire left in Silvercloud.

And that word would have spread to any coteries looking for fresh hunting grounds…to stay away. That something, some reaper in the night, always left ash and bones behind wherever vampires dared try and lay their cancerous roots.

Which is why every goddamn day of high school was so infuriating. Because every day, Ruby had to look at… her.

Some vampire bloodlines were different from others; older, stronger, more potent and so of course more stubborn and resistant. And those born of the ancient bloodlines were seemingly somehow able to break plenty of the regular rules;

They could apparently have children, for one. It meant they could have families, and therefore have generations.

They could somehow walk around during the day, the time when all ordinary vampires were forced into a state of torpor. But regular shade was seemingly needed to cover them, clearly not needing complete protection from the sun in order to live but wary of direct exposure.

And they were often mentally strong enough to restrain themselves from the scent of living humans, meaning they could even mingle with regular people during the day without going into a frenzy, though they were always quickly absent from the room if even a scratch occurred, with one perfect excuse or another.

Nighttime predators able to canvass their prey during the day, and hide among them as innocent. The Hunters guild didn’t know anything about the older bloodlines and what made them…different. The extent. And it meant the hunters were wary to engage them.

So they’d been left alone.

Ruby hated them.

And so…she hated Weiss Schnee.

Weiss Schnee, of a bloodline that might be so old that there was every chance an ancestor of her line had been one of the founders of the town itself, sowing the seeds of their hunting ground.

Weiss Schnee, the poster child for Silvercloud High School, the front page of the yearbook and a board member of a dozen clubs, beloved and yet utterly mysterious, with every paragraph about her praising her for her charm but not able to mention a single dot about who she was.

Weiss Schnee, who blended in perfectly with her perfect grades and perfect athletic ability in gymnastics and ballet and her perfect taste in fashion with her perfect face and hair and who lived in her perfect massive family mansion where she sometimes threw perfect parties and made sure everyone had a perfect time and-

There was the slightest creaking sound as Ruby’s pen bent in her grip purely from tension while she stared at the back of Weiss’ white-haired head as the other girl sat in the front row of class, taking attentive notes. Nobody knew how she was able to write fast enough to practically transcribe everything her teachers said and add her own notes at the same time, but Ruby did;

Vampiric dexterity and faster mental reflexes. To a vampire it was apparently almost as if the world was moving slightly in slow-motion.

But only if they’d recently fed.

And from how Weiss was moving her hand fast enough it was practically a blur, Ruby was willing to make assumptions that had her teeth clenching and her fist crushing her pen almost to the point that it would snap and soak her hand in ink.

Luckily, she was jolted out of her thoughts with a hand on her shoulder to quickly shake her and snap her out of it while the teacher’s back was turned, and she startled before looking to her left.

Nora, almost always at the desk at Ruby’s side and always with a workbook practically devoid of notes and instead filled with sketches and scribbles, raised her eyebrows as she spoke in a hushed whisper.

“Oi, snap out of it. Stare any harder and you’ll set her hair on fire.”

“I know, I know. I just…” Ruby huffed, the words not coming, but Nora nodded in understanding regardless, giving Ruby’s shoulder a quick squeeze before dropping it and going back to her mindless drawing. Curious, Ruby leant over to see what Nora’s mind was currently doing, and snorted at the sketch of a zombie being pummelled. “Long night, last night?”

“Ugh, you got no idea, buddy. I am sore, and I’ve still got hockey practice after school. I’m gonna die.” Tossing her pen down on her desk, Nora stretched her powerful arms above her head.

Silvercloud was infested and desecrated enough to warrant more than one group of Huntsmen to be permanently established, when normally Huntsmen were only in one place for a few months at best to clear up sporadic infestations. But Silvercloud was a hub, a well of darkness that was seemingly never going to run dry.

And that meant more trainees being sent in by the guild to get more experience.

Like Nora Valkyrie, unfortunate enough to be young enough to have to attend high school during the day, much like Ruby herself.

But at least she got to hunt at night, pummeling zombies or whatever else crossed her path.

Ruby scowled in a small amount of envy as she looked down at the drawing, and Nora clapped her on the back as quietly as she could, her voice still hushed so that they weren’t overheard.

“Soon, Speedy. You’ll get your shot.”

“I don’t get why they’re holding me back.” Sighing, Ruby grabbed an unbent pen from her bag and went back to trying to copy down the notes on the whiteboard. “I’m just as good as you-”

Nora scoffed with raised eyebrows. “Okay, I wouldn’t go that-”

“-and even uncle Qrow says I’m ready. But no. It’s not fair.” Ruby scowled as she put an elbow on her desk so she could rest her forehead on her hand in frustration, before groaning in relief as the bell rang to announce the end of class and she could shove everything into her bag.

Packing her bag just as quickly and far more messily, Nora didn’t bother pushing in her chair as she followed Ruby out of the door, noticing as Ruby was watching Weiss with narrowed eyes yet again as the other girl was almost immediately swarmed in a cluster of her friends.

Must be nice to be the popular girl. Meanwhile Ruby had always been an odd-one-out, always a little bit strange and reserved. But she hadn’t really had much free time to make friends, she had training and studying to do.

It didn’t bother her much. She had a group of great friends, most of them other apprentices and huntsmen who she could talk about her family’s secret world with. They all stuck together, for the most part, and enough of the others had enough outside friends that she had a degree of popularity mostly out of association.

You can get quite a bit of clout just from being the star of the track team and sitting at the right table in the cafeteria, even if you barely opened your mouth to anyone else.

Which was why whenever Nora was given a wave and a smile by one of her many friends, Ruby was given smiles as well. She responded with the right waves when she noticed, trying to remember names, but the only thing she knew about each other student at the school was whether or not they were even human.

It felt like one of the only things that mattered, and she knew that wasn’t right. Her mother insisted she should make more friends, socialise more, maybe accept whenever other members of the track team invited her out to parties or dinners.

She tried. She did. But standing around in other people’s houses with a cup of terrible alcohol and soda in her hand was always more uncomfortable than it was fun.

The others enjoyed it, though. So she went along. She tried to be a good friend to them, at least.

Nora led the way into the cafeteria just like she always did, and the two of them took the long and winding route to their usual table so that Nora could share words and grins with whatever friends looked to be in a talking mood. And Ruby got smiles as well, waves, friendly hello’s, but despite the fact she was graduating in less than a year and had been going to school with most of these people for the whole way through she barely knew any of their names.

Only the colours of their eyes, whether they had a pulse, and if they were a threat she should keep an eye on in the night once her parents finally accepted she was ready to actually start doing her duty.

Eventually Ruby’s ability to smile and bounce ran out of battery at the exact moment she reached her spot and sank down onto her bench, plopping her bag by her side and grabbing out her usual packed lunch to munch on. And just like they always did, her eyes roamed along the rest of the cafeteria, giving the usual sweep to see who was still normal, and who might have become just another victim in a long line.

Humming when satisfied, she snapped out of her scrutiny at the sound of laughter, and focused on where her friends had all collected themselves, her sister plopping down next to her with enough of a slump that the bench and table slightly rattled.

Yang practically collapsed on the table in her grand and loud dejection, her arms spread-eagled on the surface as she rested her head on it with her eyes closed and her bottom lip jutted out into a pout.

Raising an eyebrow at her sister, Ruby finished her mouthful of cookie and wiped the back of her letterman jacket sleeve along her mouth to get rid of the inevitable crumbs before grinning.

“You okay?”

Yang let out a pathetic whine in response, quivering her lip over-dramatically as she opened her eyes to look up into her sister’s.

“I’m gonna die alone and unloved.”

“Blake rejected you again, huh?” Giggling when Yang hummed in the affirmative, Ruby patted her sister on the back with full mockery and no sympathy, snatching up another of her cookies with her free hand and offering it. “Are you sure that persistence is key?”

“That girl stops me from being sure of anything anymore! I thought our first date went great! Got a kiss and everything!” Yang thumped her closed fists on the table before straightening up, running her fingers through her blonde hair and taking out the band to redo her bun, before taking the offered cookie. “Up is down, left is right, water is dry-”

“-you know, some classifications say that water is actually dry, and it’s only what water touches that counts as wet-”

Yang ignored her sister’s thoughtful interruption, instead biting a massive chunk out of the cookie with enough force it cracked into pieces in her grip. Even when crumbs rained onto the table and her lap, she didn’t seem to notice. “-the sky is on fire and the trees wish to burn!”

The bench across from the two of them creaked as two more of their group sat down, with best friends and hunting duo Jaune and Pyrrha having come in at the end of Yang’s noise and only able to look at each other in confusion before glancing at Ruby, Pyrrha raising her eyebrows as she was willing to make a guess.

“No second date from Blake?”

“No second date from Blake.” Ruby shook her head, looking over at where Yang had slumped in her posture, her head resting on her propped up hand while she sullenly unwrapped her own lunch from home. 

As Pyrrha sighed and reached across the table to pat Yang’s arm sympathetically, Ruby felt a pulsing thrill go through her back, as if a roll of static electricity began at the base of her spine and climbed up to her neck with the ticklish lightness of a spider, raising goosebumps as it went.

It was as if her entire skin was cold except for one point of warmth, like a laser, or the glow of a flashlight on what was otherwise shadow; pointed and concentrated. A beam, not an aurora.

Unable to stop the shiver, Ruby put down her still untouched sandwich and looked around, moving her gaze carefully over the entire cafeteria as she slowly cased towards the direction she had felt it from, only to blink as she briefly locked eyes with Weiss Schnee.

The vampiress had a thermos of what was clearly some sort of soup in front of her that she was nursing with her hands, it being much easier to fake eating than anything solid, and it was going cold from how she was ignoring it.

Whatever conversation was happening at her table, which was as usual packed full with friends, it was engaging enough Weiss was partially participating. Even despite her distraction she was making sure to reply to where her friend and fellow vampiress Coco Adel was asking her something, the other girl’s designer sunglasses half-down her nose. 

But even despite that, Weiss’ eyes had still wandered to Ruby’s back and…lingered.

Long enough for Ruby to unconsciously feel, in the back of her mind.

Seemingly unbothered at being caught, Weiss gave Ruby a small smile, friendly and genuine, as her ice blue eyes lingered for another moment before she looked away, her attention going back to her friends as she leant forward to answer Coco, with the other girl giving a smile of playful victory as the rest of the table suddenly buzzed in excitement.

Ruby couldn’t help but watch for a few seconds longer, taking in the large and busy group of friends. She couldn’t help but wonder if any of them… knew.

Surely at least some of them had to have gathered that something about a couple of their friends was ‘off’, right?

Regular people weren’t that oblivious.

…right?

Watching for a few more moments as Weiss spoke with her friends, Weiss flashing a perfect smile as one of her regular crowd was typing into her phone with a happy bounce at Weiss’s assent, Ruby took a slow bite of her sandwich to chew in thought.

Regardless of the obliviousness of civilians, there wasn’t anything she could do about the threat to all life sitting at that table. Not yet, at least.

She’d get her opportunity to hunt. And the instant she got her opening, she’d drive a stake right through Weiss Schnee’s unbeating predator heart.

As the determination settled hot in her gut, Ruby swallowed her bite and dismissed it from her mind for now, turning back to her friends and focusing on eating her lunch.

But as the bell rang and it was time for her final period of the day before track, she felt the cold shivers of Weiss’s stare on her back the entire way out of the cafeteria.

When she looked over her shoulder, Weiss was nowhere in sight, her normal space in her clique vacant, but the girl herself was a ghost.

+=+=+

The basement of the Xiao-Long-Rose household wasn’t like that of the other houses on their street; a large space cleared out with bright lights on the ceiling, the floor padded to be able to handle falls and crashes, and a pair of thick metal doors on one wall locked tight with a keyhole and a thumb scanner.

Speakers were built into the walls and played a steady stream of rock and punk on low volume as air conditioning kept the occupants cool as they circled each other on the mat, fists up in a guard as they each waited for the other to make a move.

Yang’s legs were already sore from impacting against one of the training bags hanging from a ceiling beam over in one corner, and underneath the cloth wraps on her hands her knuckles were bruised, but she was undeterred as she threw a series of rapid jabs at her sister’s face.

They were fast and perfectly aimed, but Ruby’s reflexes had always been quicker, so she deflected and dodged around them easily, sliding a foot forward to close distance and removing the advantage of Yang’s extra reach. She didn’t give Yang time to readjust, instead able to drive a quick jab into Yang’s stomach, punching the dense muscle almost like hitting half-set concrete, but it was her follow-up hook to Yang’s cheek that did proper damage.

Yang stumbled back under the impact but recovered quickly, darting forward and driving her fist into Ruby’s shoulder hard enough it slightly numbed Ruby’s arm, and she used the rest of her momentum to barge her full weight onto her far lighter sister, making sure to hook a foot around Ruby’s ankle so that she was sent down with the intention of leaving her helpless on her back.

Even as she rolled, Ruby mentally recovered from the stun, and she pushed herself up into a handspring, Yang’s foot sweeping where her head had been an instant before. She rolled her shoulder, still sore and tight from Yang’s hit, but despite the pain she was still able to grab Yang’s foot as Yang tried to smash it into her chest, and she twisted it to throw Yang off balance.

Yang went with the twist instead of resisting it, jumping into a side flip so she could wrench her foot from Ruby’s hands, and with a sharp pivot on the ball of her landing foot she was able to use every bit of the built-up momentum to crescent kick the side of Ruby’s head and send her crashing to the mat.

The bout was over, Ruby’s eyes practically spiralling in their sockets as she groaned and clutched her skull, while Yang grabbed a towel from a nearby shelf and stepped over to extend her hand down.

“Two-to-one, that’s my round. You good?”

Ruby groaned in response, squeezing her eyes shut so the nausea and dizziness would go away, and she took a hand away from her head and reached up so Yang could help pull her up to her feet. She immediately stumbled, but Yang caught her weight easily to hold her up.

Patting Ruby’s back and rubbing it, Yang winced apologetically.

“...sorry. Too hard?”

“Nah, it’s fine. Just…ow.” Ruby gave a jolted shake of her head to recalibrate, blinking herself back to lucidity, and she walked over to grab up her own towel and wipe herself down. “You’re even more flexible than you were at the start of the year, and you could already kick the ceiling.”

“And you’re even quicker than you were, not to mention your stamina. Get a bit better at taking the hits someone manages to land on you, and you could win just from attrition and exhaustion alone.” Yang emphasised with a proud sweep of her towel and a smile, bright and proud enough that Ruby smiled back widely.

“Is that why you don’t wanna do best of five? Getting a bit tired, lazybones?”

Yang’s proud smile immediately shifted into a playful glare, and with a flick of her wrist she whipped Ruby on the back of the head with her towel, getting a yelp and a whine in response. Before it could escalate into a war, with Ruby already rolling her own towel up in preparation, Yang shook her head and finished wiping the sweat from her face and the skin exposed by her workout gear.

“Come on, target practice now.”

Ruby brightened up, happily tossing her towel away with a smile as she extended a hand for Yang to roll her eyes and toss over a large key so that she could do the honours. Catching it as Yang tossed it, Ruby was already skipping over to the large metal cabinet built into the basement wall, and she placed her thumb on the fingerprint scanner and slid the key into the lock at the same time.

The moment the scanner began flashing green, Ruby made sure to turn the key right in between two of the flashes, and the heavy bolts on the inside of the doors clicked as they retracted, and she could pull them open to reveal the family armoury.

Even as her eyes roamed over the numerous guns, swords, crossbows, and the sorts of weapons designed for specific prey, her eyes landed instead on a bundle of throwing knives in their special belt sheaths, meanwhile she pulled out a pair of specialised bolt launchers and handed them over to Yang.

As Ruby did up the belt so that the rows of thin throwing knives were sitting just behind her hips, Yang instead attached the unique cuffs to her forearms so that the mechanisms of the bolt launchers sat on her wrists, and grabbed a stopwatch from a hook on the wall.

Grabbing up two of the specialised clips of bolts for her wrist launchers, Yang reloaded them easily as she stepped over to the makeshift target range. It was a simple line of target dummies placed at different ranges across the width of the basement, nowhere near as sophisticated as some of the other training ranges the sisters had been to, but it was enough.

Yang took a place next to Ruby and put her hands on her hips, willing to go second, and Ruby turned to face the targets as she kept her hands by her sides, her fingers flexing and ready.

After eyeing up Ruby’s form for a moment and using her own foot to nudge one of Ruby’s into the right place so that her weight was balanced, Yang counted down from five in her head as she looked forward at the targets again, the stopwatch in her hand.

“Go.”

The first knife was out of its sheath and in Ruby’s hand before Yang’s mouth had even closed from speaking, and with perfect form and her eyes locked onto her target Ruby flung it forward, confident in herself enough that she was drawing the second and third blades, one in each hand, before the first had finished driving into the absolute bullseye of the chest of the target.

Turning her attention to the second target, Ruby released both knives at once, with one piercing straight into the chest while the other hit the centre of the head, right between the eyes. The third target got even harsher treatment; one blade in the head while two went into its chest, hitting so close together that the metal scraped.

Finally, with a quick flurry and the singing of metal leaving leather and polymer sheaths, Ruby threw the last three knives along the line, forced to adjust her range with each movement, and drove one dagger into each target’s forehead.

Yang clicked the stopwatch the instant that the final dagger stuck into its target, and she raised her eyebrows high as her eyes flicked from target to target, taking in the accuracy, and she looked down at her sister’s time again.

“Four point seven seconds. That’s-”

“Point twelve faster than my record!” Ruby cheered, throwing her fists up into the air and spinning for a few moments, quietly imitating the roar of a cheering crowd, and she grinned even wider as she smacked Yang’s hand in a high-five.

“You’re closing in on mum. I’m pretty sure hers with the knives is three point eight.” Tossing the stopwatch up and down playfully, Yang smiled as Ruby walked over to pull the knives from each target.

Ruby’s improvement was startlingly rapid, despite being almost two years Yang’s junior.

She knew that Ruby spent more time than anyone else in the family downstairs, punishing the sparring bags and practising with her knives whenever she was able to convince someone to lend her a key to the armoury. Whenever she wasn’t on her computer or running at the track, she was usually down here.

It wasn’t unheard of for someone to get up at a random time in the middle of the night and hear music coming from the basement, light coming through underneath the stairway door.

And it was showing results.

Ruby slid the knives into their sheaths behind her hips as she made her way back to the firing line and took the stopwatch from Yang with a smile, and gestured to the targets.

“Okay dokey, let’s see what you’ve got. Loser does the dishes.”

“You’re on, brat.” Yang smirked as she clicked off the safeties on her wrist launchers and tested the slides, before taking her own stance and cracking her neck.

When she saw that her sister was ready, nothing in her form or stance needing correcting or adjusting, Ruby tapped her finger on the stopwatch.

“Go.”

Yang flung a wrist up and jolted her thumb and first two fingers at just the right way during the twist that the launcher fired one of the specialised small metal bolts with a high sound almost like a guitar string, the bolt driving deep into the middle of the first target.

Clenching her fist to engage the reload mechanism at the same time as she brought up her other wrist, Yang fired two shots at the second target, and then three at the third, just as Ruby had done. Her hands flashed out with twists and flourishes as she fired and reloaded in the same smooth movements, the bolts flying out with the sound of their unique song and driving into the targets.

Even despite the many other Hunters that the two of them had met, they’d only met one other user of wrist launchers. The weapons weren’t seen as particularly viable in a modern era where their targets often wore thick leathers, or had skin so naturally tough that the bolts weren’t much more than a nuisance.

But Yang had spent every night and weekend for months bent over a workbench as she disassembled and reassembled a pair of them over and over again, altering and adjusting, and coming up with unique designs for different kinds of ammunition.

Now they were hers, and as one of her bolts hit the forehead of the second target and went straight through the wood and straw and carried through to the far wall, embedding two inches deep into the padding, neither sister had any doubts that even a creature’s toughened hide would suffer a similar fate.

Lowering her wrists the instant she was done, Yang whipped her head to Ruby as her sister hit the stopwatch, and they both looked down at the time.

Yang sighed in frustration at the same moment Ruby cheered once more and fist pumped.

“Victory, by a hair! Four point fifty-one!” Ruby took the dagger sheaths from around her waist and tossed the stopwatch over to Yang smugly, before putting her hands on her hips. “You get to pick the bolts up too. I don’t wanna step on one.”

“I wish you would…” Yang grumbled half-heartedly with a scowl as she put the daggers, wrist launchers, and stopwatch back on their shelves and then got to work collecting all her bolts, satisfied that they were all still straight and sharp apart from the one that had gone into the wall.

They both perked up at the sound of one of their phones ringing, and Yang quickly hopped over to a dial on the wall to turn down the music while Ruby grabbed her phone up from underneath her towel and answered it.

“Heeeeello?”

She immediately winced at the sound of her track team captain’s permanently sharp voice, clearly as she was driving. “Ruby! How you doing, kiddo?”

“Heya Hare, I’m okay, just chilling. What’s up?” Ruby gave Yang a confused shrug when Yang mouthed ‘What’s going on?’ at her, before taking a quick drink from her water bottle.

“Chilling? Good! That means you’re free tonight, yeah??” Harriet continued before Ruby even had time to reply. “Awesome. So, the team’s been invited to a party tonight. Adel’s throwing some huge thing since apparently her folks are both going to be out all night or whatever.”

Ruby blinked in surprise at the news even as her gut plummeted as she knew what was coming. “Coco Adel. The track team has been invited to a party by… Coco Adel.”

“Y’know, people at school do actually think we’re cool. Don’t sound so shocked. Anyways, it starts at nine at her place tonight, and I think it’d be a good team-building thing or whatever.” Harriet audibly rolled her eyes, and Ruby could picture her exact exasperated facial expression, since she gave it to Ruby on the regular whenever Ruby tried to weasel her way out of social events. “Come on, dude. Pretty much the whole school is going. You can leave your desk and actually have some fun for one night. It won’t kill you.”

When Ruby clamped down on the instinct to groan in frustration, the visible clench had Yang raise her eyebrows from where she was watching quietly, and Ruby mouthed the words ‘party invitation’. But instead of getting anything resembling sympathy, Yang instead perked up immediately, giving a playfully curious face and crossing her arms.

Glaring at her sister, Ruby ground her jaw for a moment.

It wasn’t mandatory to join the team out on unofficial social events, and so she did it as infrequently as she could get away with, but it really wasn’t a good look if she seemed to come across as avoiding her own teammates every chance she got.

Which she wasn’t. She liked them all well-enough, sure. But they weren’t even aware of her world, so there was only so much she could chat with them about.

But, she’d turned down the last three parties and earned her captain’s ire. She wasn’t behind on any homework, and clearly she wasn’t behind on any training, if her results spoke for themselves.

So…

Letting out a silent breath of resignation, Ruby nodded.

“Alright, cool. I’ll be there. Nine, right?”

“Atta girl! Nine at Adel’s. No need to BYO. She’ll be stocked.” Harriet hummed in approval, and Ruby could picture her giving one of her single sharp nods. “Alright kiddo, I’ll see you tonight. Try to dress cute, but wear your team jacket. Appearances, and all that. Oh, and there’s a pool. To keep in mind. See you.”

Harriet hung up before Ruby could say her own goodbye, and the moment the line went dead Ruby slumped, tossing her phone back onto her bundled up towel and putting her head into her hands.

It was just one night, but god parties were always very, very long nights.

When she was poked on the forehead through the gap between her hands, she jerked up and blinked at where Yang was standing in front of her with her eyebrows raised in curiosity in the corners of her lips ticked up in a smile.

“So what’s this party?”

“Coco Adel is throwing a thing tonight. I dunno. Something about her parents being busy.” Ruby shrugged as she grabbed up her workout gear to head upstairs, Yang right behind her, and she spoke over her shoulder as they emerged into the main hallway. “The team got invited, so they want me there.”

“God, you say it like you’re being sentenced to a firing squad by association.” Yang laughed as they got to the kitchen and she could open the fridge to grab herself and Ruby cans of soda, sliding one across the kitchen island for Ruby to grab up. “ Most people find parties to be fun, you know. You should go.”

Before Ruby could reply, they both jumped from being interrupted as they heard their father’s voice from the dining room.

“What’s this about a party?”

They both poked their heads through the arch between the two rooms to where their mother and father were leaning over the dining table, where a massive amount of notes and papers were spread out and their father had one of the family laptops open.

As Tai raised his eyebrows at them, Summer smiled, but it was strained and tense enough that Ruby frowned even as Yang answered their father.

“Oh, one of the girls at school is throwing a party tonight and the track team’s invited, so that hot Harriet chick called Ruby that’s all.”

Tai and Summer both glanced at each other, and Summer’s lips thinned into a tight line while Tai hummed low in his throat, before they both looked at their daughters and shook their heads in unison.

“Sorry Ruby, not a chance.” Summer’s eyes were apologetic, but firm, and she sighed when Yang immediately huffed in protest on her sister’s behalf.

“Seriously? It’s Friday!”

Meanwhile Ruby frowned at the expressions on her parents’ faces, and when she slightly rose on her tiptoes to try and get a decent glance at the papers all over the table she frowned deeper when Summer closed two of the folders that had photos and gave a firm shake of her head to dissuade her.

But Ruby’s curiosity was already piqued.

“Is this because of whatever happened last night?”

Summer sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly, and Tai hesitated for a moment before putting his hands into the pockets of his jeans and giving the honesty of a nod.

“Just until we’ve got a better grasp of it, things aren’t safe out there, honey.”

Even though he meant it earnestly, Yang still groaned at the patronization of it, and she rolled her eyes up to the roof in frustration as she crossed her arms over her chest with a scowl.

“Come on. It’s not like Ruby’s helpless!”

Tai sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, exhaustion from a sleepless night in every muscle, as Yang’s frustration washed right off him. “Maybe not, but your mother and I have a guild meeting tonight and I’ll feel a lot better going if we know where you both are.”

“Then let us come to the meeting!”

Ruby didn’t hear her father’s response, but she already knew he was going to say no. She was already zoned out slightly as her mind raced and her eyebrows were dipped.

Something bad enough had happened the previous night that her parents wanted both her and Yang kept close and indoors just as a guild meeting had been called without delay, and suddenly Coco Adel’s parents were going to be busy all night on short enough notice that Coco was getting a party together on the same day.

Coco Adel, another vampiress who was firmly in Weiss Schnee’s social circle.

It might just be a coincidence, but otherwise it appeared that the events of the previous night had given them business to attend to as well.

With the adults gone and Coco herself distracted with the events of a party, it gave Ruby a perfect opportunity to have a sneak around.

So outwardly she gave a shrug and turned to head off to her room.

“Fair enough! I won’t argue against another night of youtube rabbit holes.” Ruby got to her door before any of her family were able to think of how to reply to her sudden departure, and she called up the hallway. “Oh! And I beat Yang at target practice, so she’s doing dishes!”

Closing her door, Ruby sat on the edge of her bed, and waited.

Sure enough, just over a minute later, Yang was opening the door even as she knocked, and she gave Ruby a deeply suspicious look as she closed it behind her and crossed her arms at the small mischievous smile on Ruby’s face.

“...you’re planning on sneaking out.”

“Of course I am. And since nobody should be out alone, you’re coming with me.” Ruby nodded with a smile, and when Yang raised her eyebrows in surprise at being roped into it Ruby played her card of leverage that she knew she had. “The teams are being invited, Yang. That means the gymnastics team. Blake will be there…and it’s a pool party.”

Yang’s eyes widened at the thought, her mouth dropping open, and she didn’t even try to hide the blush that appeared on her cheeks. She only needed to ponder it for another moment, one mostly needed just to compose herself, before she put her hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow with a grin.

“When are we leaving?”

+=+=+

Chapter Text

+=+=+

The trip to the Adel family house required travelling across to the far suburbs, where there was room for smaller modest townhouses to give way to houses that often reached three stories tall. The sorts of family estates with multiple structures, practically small compounds, with mechanised gates and high walls.

The Adel estate was no different, and even though the family had been pillars of Silvercloud for generations the house was modern and chic, renovated to the latest styles every time it passed to another member of the family. Despite being the home of a vampiric legacy, the main house seemed designed to let in as much sunlight as possible, with entire exterior-facing walls that were just windows, and enough skylights in the roof that Ruby and Yang could see beams of light from inside going up into the dark night sky.

Despite the security of the massive home, the gate was permanently open as teenagers filtered in and out at a constant stream, loitering around the large front yard that was lit by standing lamps that had been set up just for that purpose. It was packed, and loud, with four different sound systems discernible to the sisters as they stepped into the yard and looked around.

Yang looked up at the towering house, also knowing that there were two other buildings that made up the small compound, and let out an awestruck whistle. The last and only other time she’d been to the Adel estate had been at the start of high school, and her memory of it was foggy from the years.

Neither she or Ruby made it to this side of town particularly often, and Yang could tell that Ruby was just as out of place as she was.

But, parties themselves were something that Yang understood, so she threw an arm around Ruby’s shoulders and led her towards the double-doors that opened up into the entrance way of the home itself.

“Alrighty then! We find your team so they know you showed up, we get absolutely hammered , we get home before dawn and hope that our parents don’t murder us with something creative like a kitchen fork. That’s the plan.”

“That’s…certainly a plan, hey. But booze first? Otherwise I’ll die.” Ruby let out an awed breath as she looked around the entrance hall, before relying on Yang’s extra height to lead the way through the throngs of people and towards the kitchen.

Yang laughed and nodded in agreement, waving to a few friends and giving them a smile that signified she’d be over to talk to them and say hi soon, before both sisters stumbled to a stop as they clocked where Coco Adel herself was standing.

Perched up one step up the stairs leading up to the second floor, Coco towered like royalty over her guests, her signature dark glasses perched on her nose and dressed flawlessly in tailored trousers, polished boots, and a jacket with the top few buttons undone.

Clearly choosing fashion over any intention of ending up in the pool, she mindlessly played with one of her curls while sipping from a glass, before she paused when she caught Yang and Ruby looking at her.

A flash of curiosity went through her expression, and when she stepped down and began to sway her way towards the sisters the crowd parted for her like a school of fish for a shark, though there was practically reverence in how many of the people she passed by looked at her.

When she came to a stop in front of the sisters, where Yang was already giving her a beaming smile while Ruby was struck frozen, Coco’s eyebrows went up in approval as she looked over their outfits.

“Xiao-Long. Rose. Welcome to my humble abode. I was hoping to see you both.” Coco surprised them both when she stepped in to press an airy kiss to both sisters’ cheeks, her perfectly smooth lips ghosting over their skin.

Yang’s face rushed a deep red as she spluttered her own hello, while Ruby could only blink as she got her thoughts back in order. But instead of being bothered at the sisters being unable to return any courteousness, Coco instead looked amused, and she gestured gracefully in the direction of one of the main rooms.

“Drinks and food are in the kitchen and on the outside tables, help yourself, and if you’ve got a heavier vice and the money to pay for it I’m sure you’ll find a provider wandering about. Ruby, sweet thing, your team are out by the pool. Enjoy yourselves and do find me if you need anything.” Coco’s gesture slid flawlessly into being a playful wave with just the tips of her fingers as she stepped away, and both sisters felt that behind her glasses Coco was appraising them for one final moment before she turned and sauntered away.

The two of them stared dumbly in the direction Coco had vanished, the girl swallowed up by the crowd, before Yang let out a staggered breath.

“...wow…”

Ruby could only nod, her eyes stinging from not blinking for so long. “...yup...”

They both stared dumbly for a few more moments before Ruby eventually snapped out of it and shook Yang on the shoulder to get her moving, being the one to lead the way this time in the direction of the kitchen. If she was going to survive this, especially since she was hoping to work while here, she was going to need to be drinking.

While normally she didn’t particularly enjoy drinking, she couldn’t deny the benefits of how it helped parties and social gatherings pass by faster, so she squeezed into the kitchen and her eyes roamed over the tables and counters for anything vaguely familiar.

Yang clocked onto her own preference immediately, grabbing a plastic cup from a packet and pouring herself something Ruby didn’t recognise, while Ruby found a pack of pre-mixed strawberry vodka and took one, immediately popping off the cap without any trouble and taking a full gulp.

But when she looked around to try and reconvene with Yang, her sister was gone.

And Ruby didn’t have to look around much in order to realise why, as she stepped out into the back patio and with a scan around at the clusters of people she saw where Blake Belladonna was curled up on a sun lounge.

Dressed in a modest purple two-piece and her hair wet from a swim, Blake looked almost bored as she socialised with her friends on the other lounges or in the pool at the closest edge, before she raised an eyebrow and Ruby saw the corner of her lips flicker into a smile when Yang sauntered over and sat down on the edge of the same lounge with a level of confidence that Ruby had never understood.

Suddenly, Blake’s disinterested boredom visibly disintegrated, her lips shifting from their lazy detached line and kept in a mischievous smirk as Yang was grinning at her already.

Ruby rolled her eyes and stopped watching, but she didn’t feel any actual frustration. This was the main incentive for Yang to come out with her and be her potential backup if things went south. Though Yang didn’t know that she was filling that second position.

But for now Ruby left her to it, wishing her luck, and went to find her team. They weren’t hard to find, Harriet’s voice was easy to pick out of a crowd, and Ruby gave them a wave and a smile as she walked over to where they were clustered together.

Half of them were in the pool up to their waist, while the others were sitting on the edge with their legs dangling in, and Ruby was thankful that she’d decided to wear a pair of skintight shorts over her swimmers, meaning she could plop down on the edge, pull off her sneakers, and put her legs in.

The water was pleasantly warm, enough so she smiled, and when she did so she cringed when her team captain whistled.

“What’s this?? A smile from our Ruby??” Placing her hand over her chest for a moment, clearly a few drinks in already, Harriet smirked before leaning over and ruffling Ruby’s hair. “Thanks for coming out, kid. Good to see you.”

Ruby shrugged with her smile in place, refusing to let Harriet’s tone ruin the brief moment of satisfaction she felt, instead waving to the others and taking another deep drink from her bottle.

This was how social events with her team normally went, and while normally she found it boring instead tonight she had an objective; kill time until everyone was wasted and thoroughly distracted, then sneak upstairs and start having a look around the private rooms of a vampire family’s estate.

So she settled in to where she would likely stay for a couple of hours, dangling her legs in the water, drinking, and involving herself in the conversation when she was brought into it or it interested her.

Mostly she made sure to keep her eyes roaming around and clocking who arrived and who left. While she had no way of knowing who was indoors, the pool area was somewhere most people would be lured for at least a few minutes.

After about half an hour of observation, and getting a fresh bottle from when one of her teammates had done a drink run to the kitchen, Ruby froze with her bottle up to her lips as Coco herself strode out of the main house and towards her pool.

Having changed out of her glamorous hostess apparel and instead into a dark bronze two-piece that was surprisingly modest, Coco circled around to the far side of the pool and sank down onto one of the lounges, crossing one leg over the other and taking her shades off for the first time now that she was in the dark of the outside.

A small posse had come with her, as one always did, and Ruby felt every muscle in her body clench when she saw that Weiss was among them, the girl in a pair of tight black shorts and a white casual button-up that was tied closed instead of properly buttoned, showing a single flash of the bikini she had on underneath it as she sat on her own lounge and leant back to put her weight on her arms and relax.

What surprised Ruby the most was that she had a drink with her, something sparkling and clearly alcoholic, but also mostly clear, not a drop of crimson in it.

Weiss took a slow and indulgent sip and flicked the tip of her tongue out to catch the condensation on her lips before putting her glass to the side so she could listen to the conversation and play with her ponytail.

Before her eyes flicked over to where Ruby was still staring at her, and their stares locked together.

Weiss turned her head slightly further so she could look at Ruby properly, making it clear that she’d caught her, but instead of looking bothered or annoyed she gave Ruby a small smile and raised an eyebrow.

There was enough attitude in the movement that Ruby looked away and took a quick drink, forcing herself to focus back onto the conversation her team were having as her face flushed from embarrassment at having been caught.

That was now twice in one day.

Looking out of the corner of her eye at Weiss again, Ruby blinked when she saw Weiss take a lingering glance at her as well and smile to herself before immediately going back to conversing with Coco and their shared posse.

Ruby couldn’t risk staring again, being caught looking once could be played off but multiple times became suspicious, so she instead went back to her plan and settled in to partially zone out until the party was appropriately distracted and wild that she could slip away.

It didn’t take many more hours until she felt in the atmosphere of the crowd that everyone was unhinged enough she could make her move, and she’d stopped drinking an hour earlier so that she’d be clear, so with the excuse of going to the bathroom Ruby pushed herself up to her feet.

With Coco herself in the pool area, along with the others of her social group, and everyone else grouped off and blasted on their vice of choice that was usually cheap alcohol, Ruby found it easier than she expected to battle through the sudden nerves in her system as she made her way through the house.

First stop; the front yard.

While the yard still had plenty of people, most were utterly absorbed in their drinks and conversations enough that Ruby wasn’t that worried about attracting attention as she made her way over to one of the trees and ducked around it so that she was out of sight, before grabbing a branch and snapping it off.

With a decent jagged piece of wood in her hands, she broke off the few leaves and smaller offshoots, and studied her handiwork.

It was by far the worst stake she had ever seen in her life, but in theory it should work.

So she tucked it into the back of her waistband and made sure her jacket fell over it to keep it out of sight.

With that done, time for her main objective; the stairs.

The crowd in the main entrance way had thinned as people had filtered through and found their way to their friends and other rooms to settle into, so it was just a matter of Ruby picking her moment to slip up the stairs to the less-populated second floor.

There were still people grouped around, the second floor being a quieter space for those who wanted to cluster and talk without a racket all around them, including a break from the music, so Ruby didn’t stick out much as she made her way through the hall and past a large sitting room.

If people were around this level, it meant she could excuse poking her head into random doors and glancing at the rooms. If she got caught looking in a door she shouldn’t, she could always claim ignorance that she’d been looking for Yang, where she’d then be directed back to the safety of the pool.

Easy.

But as she looked through the large rooms of the second floor, she was disappointed.

It was a series of large sitting rooms, and a single massive and formal dining hall, the sort with a table that had nineteen chairs; nine on each side, and one at the head. A crystal chandelier above was unlit, and when Ruby couldn’t see a lightswitch she realised it was a proper candlelit one, which had her eyebrows shoot all the way up.

But apart from the opulence of it, there was nothing interesting, so she moved on.

The main feature of the second floor was it opened up to a balcony that overlooked the main entertainment area of the bottom floor, where Ruby could look out over the massive cluster of people still partying. The viewing balcony ringed the entire main social area, and two doors led out onto a balcony overlooking the pool, which Ruby made sure to avoid so that nobody outside saw her as she turned down another hall.

Which led to the stairs leading up to the third floor, where nobody dwelled, an unspoken and unofficial barrier keeping away from heading up to the private living areas of the family. The glass walls ended, the music was muffled, any of the signs of playful entertainment vanished even just as Ruby stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked up them.

Taking in a deep breath and looking around to make sure nobody was looking her way, Ruby made her way up and into silence.

There wasn’t a single soul up on the third floor, where marble floors gave way to polished floorboards and modern fluorescents were replaced with ornate wall fixtures. The lighting was low, but not unpleasantly so, and only a few steps down the first hall the soundproofing was enough she couldn’t hear the music from downstairs anymore beyond the pulsing of the bass in the floor.

The rug under her feet, which were still bare from the pool and therefore silent, was ornate and clearly made delicately and deliberately, so she almost felt bad for getting it slightly damp as she pressed an ear to the first closed door and listened.

Hearing nothing from inside, she turned the handle and poked her head in, flicking on the light.

It was a spare bedroom, simple and clean, with nice and expensive fittings and a luxuriously large double bed fitted with dark red sheets. The ensuite bathroom door was open enough that Ruby glimpsed a massive shower, with fresh towels hung up.

But nobody was currently occupying it, the empty open wardrobe was proof of that.

So she moved on.

There were two more spare bedrooms, before Ruby reached an archway leading into a second kitchen, this one far smaller and simpler than the one downstairs.

Small and simple enough that Ruby came up with a theory that was easy to confirm, when she opened the fridge and it was completely empty. The pantry was just as empty, the shelves looking as if nothing had ever been on them, though they were free of dust.

A kitchen for a family of vampires would have no need for food or drinks.

Finally the mask that the Adel family kept over their house was starting to come away.

Another hall led off from the kitchen, this one with four doors, and now that she was somewhere that was showing signs of the truth Ruby felt a fresh wash of nerves as she approached the first door and looked in.

It was clearly the family dining room; a much smaller table that looked to be handcarved, currently only three comfortably cushioned chairs, and lit by fittings on each wall. A display cabinet had an expansive collection of fine china that Ruby didn’t dare even go near, as if even just breathing too hard near any of it would be enough to crack something.

Instead she backed out quietly and closed the door.

The next door opened up onto what was one of the main bathrooms, with a shower large enough Ruby could lay down on the floor comfortably and spread out like a starfish, a bath so deep and wide it was built into the floor, and one wall that was just mirror.

It was a bathroom almost the size of her bedroom back at her place, and that realisation and mental measurement had her eyebrows shoot up in mild judgement as she backed out and closed the door.

Snorting at the ridiculousness of the opulence, that just because the Adels had money they were determined to spend as much of it as they could even past the point of reason, Ruby opened the next door.

The room had her freeze in surprise the moment she was in it.

With a truly massive bed, a desk with a modern computer, a walk-in wardrobe that was currently wide open and filled to bursting, posters adorning the walls, and speakers in the corners of the ceiling, it was clearly Coco’s bedroom.

Ruby couldn’t help but step inside properly, spinning in a slow circle and looking around at everything. The most recent renovation to the house clearly had kept in mind that this room was going to be Coco’s specifically, since it had touches that were so utterly what Ruby would guess to be Coco that the room was far more perfect than it could have been by accident.

But some small signs of Coco’s true nature stuck out, when Ruby looked. The most glaring one being that there was no window looking outside.

No way for sunlight to come in.

And yet, Coco could come to school during the day.

Ruby frowned at the discrepancy for a moment, tapping her fingers mindlessly on the surface of Coco’s desk, before she turned her attention to the large mirror attached to the wall next to her walk-in closet.

Photographs lined the edges of it like a frame, and Ruby glanced at each of them, taking in snapshots of Coco with a couple that were clearly her parents through resemblance alone, and photos of her with her friends whether it be the massive group of her social circle or the far smaller circle of trust that was the clique containing Weiss along with a few others.

Coco looked young in a lot of them, ageing through her teenage years at a consistent rate.

But…she was undead. Undead don’t age. They don’t…. progress.

What was going on here????

Ruby reached out and ran her fingers over one of the larger photos which was pinned to the mirror frame; capturing her trusted clique at around the age of fifteen, by the looks of it. Before Ruby had been put forward two years and they’d been at the same school and she’d been able to keep an eye on all of her fellow students.

There was Coco, Weiss as always, a short-haired blonde that Ruby only knew was named Arslan, a dark skinned prep named Ciel who was on student council along with Weiss, and two others that Ruby didn’t recognise; a dark haired girl with eyes that were a colour like that of burning amber, and a much shorter second girl with fascinating mismatched-colour eyes and long hair tied back in twin ponytails, with one half of her hair a dark brown and the other a light pink.

Ruby had never seen them around, so they weren’t students anymore.

And yet…

Before she had a chance to keep studying the photos any closer, a knock on the doorframe had her clamp a hand over her mouth to muffle a yelp of shock as she spun on her foot, surprise and fear crashing through her system and making her skin numb for a moment.

From where she was watching at the doorway, one hand still resting from where she’d knocked, Weiss raised her eyebrows at the massive response to her announcing her presence, and she gave a hum that was slightly apologetic.

“So you clearly do have it in mind that you shouldn’t be up here. That answers what my first question was going to be…” Weiss folded her hands behind her back as she stepped into the room properly, giving a reassuring smile to where Ruby was getting her heart rate back under control. “Is there a particular reason you’re looking through Coco’s room? She tends to be rather… selective in who she allows in here.”

Ruby’s mouth opened in order to give the excuse she’d planned, but considering she’d been blatantly peeking through Coco’s private belongings it was clear she wasn’t simply lost, so she winced as internally as possible when she only had one answer;

“Sorry. Just…got curious.”

Weiss kept approaching until she was just out of arm’s length, though Ruby’s fingertips would have brushed her if she’d stretched out fully, and she gave Ruby a curious raised eyebrow as she considered the answer.

After a few moments she broke off scrutinising Ruby’s demeanour to instead look at the photos lining the mirror frame, and she clicked her tongue.

“I’m not surprised. Plenty of people are curious about her. She…has an appeal, no?” Weiss turned her head less than an inch as she looked over at Ruby to gauge her response, the second layer in her words obvious.

It was now officially the longest conversation the two of them had ever had, and Ruby’s heart was still pounding in her chest even as she straightened herself out and tried to think of a clever response. But she took too long, enough moments passing that Weiss took it as an answer on its own, and Weiss looked forward at the photos again before unclasping her hands from behind her back and reaching forward to pluck one in particular off.

“Here, I think you’ll be amused at this one. You’re in it, after all.”

Ruby blinked in surprise at Weiss’s words, and the amusement in her tone, and her curiosity overpowered her aversion when Weiss stepped closer so she could show the photo properly, the two of them almost shoulder to shoulder.

It was a photo taken from a phone during one of the school sports carnivals, Coco and Arslan sitting together and Coco’s arm over Arslan’s shoulders while Arslan held the phone out to take it.

When she couldn’t see what Weiss meant, Ruby frowned, and her confusion was obvious enough that Weiss giggled and pointed at a figure in the background out on the playing field itself.

The sound of the giggle hit Ruby like a physical impact in her chest even as it slithered into her ears like a fog, and she blinked at the sound as something in her chased it, swaying on her feet for a single strange moment before catching herself and instead studying who Weiss was pointing at.

Sure enough, it was Ruby, doing her stretches and chatting aimlessly with one of her teammates.

Ruby scoffed in amusement and raised an eyebrow as she looked down, the sound having Weiss flash her a small smile, and Ruby’s heart clenched when she met the girl’s eyes from so close that their shoulders were almost touching.

“Huh. I remember that day.” With a small nervous smile from Ruby the words ‘because I won’ went unspoken, but she could tell that Weiss heard them anyway from how she smirked. Ruby forced herself to look down at the photo again. “So…where were you?”

It was strange to simply be chatting with a monster, Ruby couldn’t imagine a mouse conversing with a serpent, but it would be a greater risk to be rude or abrasive and risk getting on Weiss’s bad side. Especially when she had caught Ruby somewhere very much personal and private to one of her best friends.

So, for now at least, she’d go along with it.

At her question, Weiss smiled again, her lips twitching into the shape as genuine amusement in the reminiscence came out, and she grabbed the pin to put the photo back up on the mirror frame again.

“Student council meeting. The drama at those things can be quite scandalous. Ciel and I were devastated to miss the competitions, but…needs must.” Weiss stepped back so she was right next to Ruby again, and she gave her a look that was genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry I missed your win.”

After holding her look of apology long enough it sank in, Weiss’s face shifted to playful, and she raised a perfect eyebrow and smiled coyly enough there was the slightest sign of teeth. When she spoke, her voice shimmered with the light flirt in it. “Though I was there to catch the next several. Inevitabilities, certainly. But so are sunsets. Which are just as worth watching.”

Ruby’s breath caught for a moment at the praise as blood rushed to her cheeks, and she looked down shyly and held her hands in front of herself, unable to meet where she knew Weiss was looking at her.

There wasn’t much that Ruby was proud of, but her running was one of them, and Weiss seemed genuine in her praise, so Ruby blushed despite herself and crossed her hands in front of herself for a few moments.

“T-thank you.”

“Oh my... You’re sweet. Very sweet.” Weiss’s playful smile softened to something gentler, and she tilted her head as she regarded how Ruby had turned bright red and folded in on herself. “May I ask about something?”

Ruby straightened up slightly even as her ears remained red from Weiss’s words, but she focused on the question, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket. “...sure.”

The tension in her posture, pulling herself tight, had her feel the stake tucked into the back of her pants, bringing her attention back to it, and a switch in her brain clicked back on from where it had seen fit to turn off as she became aware of the danger of where she was and who she was with.

She kept the tension out of her body as much as possible, but Weiss’s eyes did seem curious for a moment before the girl clearly dismissed it and continued with her question.

“You seem to give me a lot of…attention, whenever we are within each other’s vicinity.” Weiss began, tilting her head and regarding Ruby curiously, her lips still in their small smile, and her eyebrow went up playfully as Ruby went rigid. “So you do. Well then. May I know…why?”

Weiss turned to face Ruby properly with her entire body, one hand resting on her hip while the other was down by her side, and as Ruby’s eyes slid up her body, quickly taking in her petite form before locking onto her stare she flashed a smile so pleased that the airy joy in it traced along Ruby’s soul.

If it was possible for a silent stare and smile to cup the chin and whisper encouragement directly into the ear, Weiss’s smile as she raised an eyebrow to prompt Ruby to answer was it, tickling along the skin of Ruby’s neck and cheeks like soft fingertips.

Ruby’s lips parted as she sucked in a breath, forced to lick them as they dried, and her eyes widened further when Weiss’s eyes were drawn to the motion only to, for the briefest moment, burn hot. But she cooled her stare again immediately, lightening the interest in it to a playful simmer.

But she kept her eyes on Ruby’s lips for another few moments, seemingly transfixed, and Ruby’s heart stopped as she heard Weiss’s fingernails scratch on her own shorts as her fingers curled into claws for a brief moment.

Swallowing a gulp, Ruby’s voice was raspy as it came out with a strain. “You give…a lot of attention to me too.”

Weiss finally looked up from her lips at that, their stares locking together again, and at Ruby’s answer she gave an easy smile.

“I do. As for whether it’s for the same reason…” Weiss took another step forward, her smile becoming even more pleased when Ruby didn’t retreat, and suddenly they were chest to chest.

For the first time, Ruby became aware of just how short Weiss was compared to her. This fierce predator of humanity, a member of a species that were the undisputed apex of the creatures of the night, hiding fangs behind a smile that gave Ruby a thrill just to bring out…barely reached Ruby’s eyebrows with the top of her head.

While she had a body that was built of graceful curves and powerful muscle, a body which Ruby knew was flexible and agile from gymnastics and her supernatural grace, there was something about her short stature that threatened to be disarming. It gave her an element of sweetness, but one that Ruby knew not to buy.

Looking up at Ruby from behind her pretty eyelashes, her eyes themselves a soothing light blue, and her cupid’s bow lips in a small smile that was the most alluring hybrid of hopeful and pleased, Her skin was flawless and smooth, even her eyebrows were perfectly sculpted and shaped to show her pleased amusement as she drew Ruby further and further in.

Weiss was so goddamn beautiful that Ruby’s mind was going fuzzy just from staring at her.

She’d always known Weiss was beautiful. As the sort of predator of humanity she was, beauty was a weapon and an armour, but to be this close to it…able to stare at her and drink her in from so close.

It had Ruby dizzy.

And the aroma surrounding Weiss wasn’t helping, surrounding her with the scent of snowfall and vanilla, coaxing Ruby into taking deep breaths in through her nose. It was a spiral that went down, deeper and deeper, and she was forced to lick her lips from how dry they became.

Weiss took the collar of Ruby’s jacket between her fingers, giving Ruby plenty of time to pull away, but Ruby’s heart was hammering as she felt the tip of Weiss’s fingers stroke along the skin of her neck in a teasing line. Every inch of the tease sent shivers screaming through her body, and her clothes had her sweating and stifled, uncomfortable.

When Ruby shuffled, torn between stepping closer to the teasing contact and staying away, Weiss cooed and gave another little smirk.

“It’s okay…” Weiss stepped closer, taking the initiative that Ruby was wrestling with, and she was suddenly close enough that their chests were touching, and Ruby had the slightest glimpse down the front of Weiss’s shirt from how she was forced to tilt her head down to continue making eye contact.

It was deliberate, Weiss made that clear when she playfully pulled the collar of her own shirt to the side slightly to expose more of the perfect skin of her collarbone, and the slightest inch of pale curve. Weiss wasn’t curvaceous by any means, certainly not compared to Ruby herself, instead with a build that was more delicate and graceful, but the skin being revealed was such an overwhelming tease that Ruby moaned through slightly parted lips.

Even as her mind screamed ‘Danger’ and she knew she should run, that getting this close to something like Weiss might be a death sentence, Ruby didn’t resist when Weiss slowly took her wrist and placed Ruby’s hand on her waist, giving her plenty of time to reject and retract. But Ruby couldn’t stop herself from stroking her thumb along the exposed skin between Weiss’s shorts and shirt, getting a happy giggle in response that shot straight from her ears and to her lower core, skipping her brain entirely.

Heat.

It was like a heartbeat, a second pulse stronger than her heart, taking over her blood so that when Weiss stepped closer Ruby slid her hand around so that it was on the small of Weiss’s back, her fingertips dipping slightly under the waistband of Weiss’s pants.

Weiss raised an eyebrow in response, and she bit her bottom lip for a moment, smirking when Ruby buckled at the sight, before lightly taking her finger from the collar of Ruby’s jacket and trailing it up to underneath Ruby’s chin to tilt her head to the best angle.

“I know what you’re feeling…what’s happening to you. And believe me, Ruby…” Right in front of Ruby’s eyes, Weiss’s pupils dilated and turned almost black, suddenly bestial and animal. “It’s very mutual. More than you know.”

Instead of being intimidating or terrifying, the sudden dark hunger in Weiss’s appearance, the lust in it that she wasn’t even trying to hide, had Ruby’s own eyes tingle as it drank in the sight of someone who truly desired her. Truly wanted her.

Somehow, with a teasing finger and a dark look, Weiss had Ruby’s thighs slick inside of her shorts and her core so hot it was burning. And it had Weiss smile.

“...I’d hoped this was why you were staring at me.” Weiss lowered her voice to a whisper, low enough Ruby couldn’t stop herself leaning down to hear it clearer, and Weiss smiled again in a way so unapologetically hungry that Ruby whimpered just seeing it. “Come on then. I’m right here.”

Ruby was a Hunter. She was the next in a legacy of Hunters going back too far for them to accurately track. She had been trained, ever since she was old enough to read and walk, to fight every monster that prowled the day or night. If she chose to, with Weiss right in front of her, she could take the stake from the back of her pants and drive it through Weiss’s heart before even a creature as fast as Weiss would be able to react.

It would be over. And it would be Ruby’s proof to her parents that she was ready, just as ready as Yang.

The decision wasn’t a hard one.

And when she saw Ruby make it, Weiss grinned with teeth and lurched up on her tiptoes to take the kiss she needed.

There wasn’t anything gentle or polite in how Ruby pressed against Weiss so hard that their forms moulded together, Weiss running her hands through Ruby’s hair and grabbing a fistful of it as she let Ruby taste what might have been bourbon on her lips and tongue. Instead it was something impatient, an elastic band stretched taut and desperate to snap, energy built up that could crack an atom and not from accuracy but from sheer force.

Ruby was unable to be shy as she wrapped her free hand around Weiss neck so she could hold her head in place and keep their lips permanently together, her other hand finally sliding down from Weiss’s back to grab her ass, and Weiss moaned into her mouth so openly and earnestly that Ruby’s knees gave way for a moment and she almost dropped.

When Weiss giggled in amusement, breaking off the kiss just so that Ruby would be able to feel the smile on her lips, Ruby responded by lifting Weiss up by the waist and carrying her the few steps over to Coco’s desk, sitting her on the edge of it. The desk rattled from the impact, the computer monitor rocking back and threatening to fall, but Weiss clearly had priorities above keeping Coco’s belongings neat and safe as she gasped at the rough treatment.

There was a moment of manic scrambling as Weiss grabbed the zipper of Ruby’s letterman jacket and pulled it down before pushing it down off Ruby’s shoulders, having trouble since Ruby’s own hands were busy untying where the only thing keeping Weiss’s shirt closed was the knot it was tied in.

The moment Weiss’s shirt fell free and her bikini top was revealed, Ruby allowed Weiss to properly pull off her jacket, both items of clothing falling to the floor as Ruby wrapped an arm around Weiss again and pulled her in close.

Moaning at the warmth, Weiss wrapped her legs around Ruby and tugged her in hard, cupping both sides of Ruby’s neck with her hands and pressing their lips together again without any elegance or grace, only hunger, only want. A want which Ruby felt rushing through her own body, a heat she could feel between her own thighs, a sweat beading on her neck and collarbone that was easily absorbed by the cool of Weiss’s own skin.

She felt the first time Weiss rocked her hips in the need for friction, and Ruby roughly pulled her closer to the edge of the desk so that Weiss could grind against her with enough pressure they both moaned into each other’s mouths.

As Weiss began to grind, rolling her hips in perfect movements as she manoeuvred her own bodyweight without any issue, Ruby wrapped her hair around her hand so she could clench it in a fist and pull Weiss’s head to the side. Breaking off the kiss, she began to kiss her way along Weiss’s jaw, up to her ear to take her earlobe between her teeth.

She felt Weiss shiver in her grip, a shudder running through her whole body from where she was wrapped around Ruby, trapping her between her thighs. Weiss’s head fell back as Ruby tugged her hair again, her nails digging into Ruby’s shoulders through her shirt and her ankles locking together behind Ruby’s back.

The pulse grew as Ruby kissed down Weiss’s jaw and along her neck, on an unconscious level aware of the lack of heartbeat in the arteries underneath her lips, but she didn’t register it as she kissed around and up the other side of Weiss’s neck and jaw.

There was a spice to Weiss’s skin that lingered on her lips and tongue, and it had her entire body scorching with a fever as her hands went to the waistband of Weiss’s pants to tug. She was strong enough and needy enough that Weiss’s shorts were sliding off even before Weiss lifted her hips and briefly unwrapped her legs so that Ruby could pull them off entirely, revealing powerful legs of perfect muscle and curve, and Weiss immediately spread them for Ruby to press between again.

When Ruby dug her fingers into the flesh of her thighs, hard enough her nails scratched in deep enough it was surely painful, Weiss moaned and immediately grabbed for Ruby’s own shorts, before going rigid instead when Ruby slid her fingers underneath the band of her bikini bottoms and down.

Weiss growled as Ruby reached her lips again, and Ruby took in the look in Weiss’s almost pure black eyes, her pupils blown so wide that very little blue was visible. It was as if the final vestiges of colour had faded from her skin while Ruby had been distracted, draining it to an unnatural white, her lips still pink and perfect as she groaned out Ruby’s name.

“Holy…I… gods…” Weiss threw her head back as Ruby’s fingers reached her slit and Ruby gasped and shivered at just how soaked and burning she was, calling out another shudder to go through Weiss’s body that wasn’t just pleasure, and Weiss sucked in a staggered breath as she couldn’t help but grind again, actively seeking Ruby’s fingers. “I… please… ”

But even despite the immense satisfaction at how the balance of power was shifting in her favour, Ruby was determined to be patient as she captured Weiss’s lips again to swallow her moans as she teased Weiss’s clit with her fingertips in agonisingly slow circles.

Her patience lasted right up until Weiss moaned her name directly into her mouth, their kiss so messy and Weiss’s body so desperate for more that she was a feral mess, and the moment she knew Weiss was desperate for her she cracked and slid two of her fingers into Weiss up to the second knuckle in the one twist of her wrist.

Weiss was soaked enough there wasn’t any resistance, and Weiss threw her head back as she wrenched her hips forward to fuck herself with a grind, hissing in satisfaction and her eyes opening wide.

Through Weiss’s parted lips as she panted and shivered, growing closer and closer, Ruby saw the first signs of fangs.

But it was too late. As Weiss’s grinding reached its strongest, losing any set rhythm and instead simply incapable of stopping as what had been graceful teases for herself broke into fucking herself on Ruby’s eager fingers, she let out a sound that could only have been a moan mixed with a snarl, and lurched forward.

The moment Weiss’s fangs sank into the side of her neck, Ruby’s mind washed clear with fog, the world falling away as everything in her mind, body, and soul clicked into single-minded purpose. Every facet of her existence finally given a reason to be , at least for this moment.

The moment that her fangs pierced into Ruby’s neck and she tasted her blood for the first time, something new and real and more more more, Weiss screamed her hunger and pleasure against Ruby’s neck, and came.

And she began to drink.

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Chapter Text

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Weiss was in a roaring storm of heaven and hell as she latched onto Ruby and drank, shivering in the afterglow of her orgasm and desperate for more as she dug her fingers into Ruby’s back and tightened her grip on her hair to anchor her in place. But she knew that Ruby wouldn’t move, not unless she had willpower stronger than anyone Weiss had ever met.

The bite, the Kiss, was always just enough over the line of too much that mortals surrendered to it, the pleasure of it overwhelming. And sure enough, Weiss felt as Ruby squirmed and shivered, her pulse hammering from her pleasure and also serving to make it easier for Weiss to drink.

Gods, she’d never tasted anyone this good before. Every swallow, every drop passing over her tongue, roared through her body and settled behind her eyes and in her still heart, a substitute for a pulse.

It had her grinding and squirming, moaning against Ruby’s neck as she couldn’t help but continue to drink, her black eyes rolling back as she began to feel a smaller but no less primal orgasm growing in her body again, building and building.

But as Weiss felt Ruby shudder in her grip, a flash of alarm went through her and her eyes widened.

‘Oh no. Oh no no no!’

Weiss dragged her hands free from Ruby’s hair and the back of her neck to instead brace on her shoulders, and with every ounce of willpower she had she tried to push. 

It was like shoving against a sisyphean boulder. Ruby didn’t budge, but Weiss knew it was herself, the creature underneath the other layers of who she was, that was adding resistance.

‘Come on! Stop! I…have…to… stop.’

But a voice answered that sounded too much like her own to be easily dismissed, rumbling in the depths and giggling coldly.

‘No you don’t. Drink. Drink. God, she tastes so good…’

‘I-I know. God, I’ve never tasted anything like…like…fuck…’ Weiss shuddered once more, squirming as she fought the urge to move her hips even as she swallowed another mouthful and the taste threatened to send her mind blank. But she squeezed her eyes closed and concentrated, trying to slam shut a door in her mind. ‘But I have to stop. I am not going to…to…’

‘No! Do. Not. Stop!’

‘Not her! I…I…I won’t do it!’

With a wrench of effort and that voice in her chest howling in outrage and disappointment, Weiss detached her lips from Ruby’s neck and shoved Ruby backwards while she slid back on Coco’s desk to create distance.

The power of Weiss’s shove sent Ruby staggering back and crashing against a bedpost, her eyes dazed and her mouth slightly slack. Blood leaked freely from the bite on her neck, and Weiss stared at the crimson, her own lips and chin smeared with it.

Wiping a finger along her face, Weiss cleaned up each drop she could, popping her finger into her mouth before rushing over to Ruby fast enough she blurred.

Ruby was slowly coming back to herself, her eyes sharpening, and the speed of her recovery had Weiss blink in surprise.

“Okay. Okay. Ruby? I need you to stay still for a moment. That’s a good girl…” Weiss sucked in a few unnecessary breaths to focus herself before leaning in and running her tongue along the wound on Ruby’s neck, coating it with her saliva, and she felt as the bite closed shut and vanished.

The final taste of Ruby’s blood, licked from her skin, had Weiss closing her eyes again in focus in order to lean back and fight the need to bite again. But she’d taken too much already, Ruby’s skin slightly pale, and she placed a hand on Ruby’s cheek to ground her.

“Alright, this is fine. I can fix this. I’m sorry, Ruby. I’m…I didn’t mean to…” Weiss bit her bottom lip for a moment, her fangs still protruding enough they almost broke the skin.

It genuinely had been an accident. But Ruby had felt…had smelled…had been so…so-

She shivered for a moment, rubbing her thighs together indulgently, before coming back to reality. It was hard to focus, hard to stay in her right mind, the pressure in her blood immense and snarling, smashing against the walls of its cage needing to come back out.

But she could fix this.

Quickly grabbing some tissues from a box on Coco’s desk, Weiss took advantage of Ruby’s still foggy state to wipe her neck clean of as much lingering blood as she could, then cleaning off her own face, before cupping Ruby’s cheek again and forcing her to look in her eyes.

The hard part was over, now it was just about crisis control.

Weiss guided Ruby’s dazed face steady as she forced eye contact, and her pupils shrank into needles as they penetrated deep into Ruby’s, going straight through the windows of the soul and into her mind.

“Okay, Ruby…listen to me. Listen… ” Weiss gave a small apologetic smile. She’d been bold, to seek Ruby out so openly. More forward than usual. But she could fix this. “You don’t remember any of this. You got really drunk, and Coco let you come up here to sleep it-”

But before she could continue, her words slithering into Ruby’s head and washing over her thoughts and feelings, Weiss was cut off as Ruby’s eyes immediately somehow sharpened and Weiss was repelled from her mind so suddenly it was like being hit by a truck.

The psychic whiplash was enough Weiss was thrown off balance, before it was immediately followed up by a feeling like she’d been stabbed right in each eye with a dagger made of pure sunlight.

The world was suddenly screaming in her ears, ringing so loudly and sharply that she was deafened to everything else, and her eyes were scorched. They felt as if they’d melted, and her entire vision was a pure white.

The agony of the recoil, the assault, had Weiss rock backwards on her feet and clamp her hands over her eyes, and she felt as they leaked bloody tears from a pain so sharp and agonising her teeth chattered. Her skull pounded with a headache unlike anything she’d ever felt before, and her mind was white, unable to fight through it.

And then…rigidity, as pain went through her chest as she was stabbed with something barbed and sharp right into her heart.

Weiss’s hands dropped limply from her eyes, her arms going down by her sides, and as she lost the strength and ability to hold her head upright she was able to look down at the jagged and sharp tree branch going right through her heart.

Ruby had staked her.

…she’d staked her???

As her pale skin steadily tightened and cracked from miniscule black tendrils and veins underneath the surface, crawling out from the stake wound like the roots of a weed and piercing their way into each supernaturally enhanced muscle and nerve point, Weiss’s mouth opened in an attempt to say or ask… anything.

But her knees gave out and she dropped limply to the ground, her skin greying as the tendrils wrapped around her from within, and as her eyes froze in their place she caught one glimpse of Ruby stumbling back, rubbing her eyes violently as if they hurt, before she turned and fled the room with a stumble.

Her body was numb, and empty, as the tendrils reached her head and took their final center.

Ruby rushed her way through the Adel estate, stumbling and crashing into the occasional wall as she turned corners, her balance unsteady from the blood loss. The fogginess of what had happened still had a slight presence in her mind, the final wisps like a morning mist that somehow lingered under winter midday sun, but she was back to herself enough to push her way through the crowd and get outside.

Luckily, Yang was still exactly where she’d been the entire time; curled up on the lounge talking with Blake. However over the hours she’d managed to shuffle closer, now sharing the lounge entirely and curled up close enough that Blake was able to playfully and teasingly twirl a strand of Yang’s hair between her fingers as they talked.

But despite how happy that Ruby should have been for the joy in Yang’s eyes, she didn’t have time as she stumbled her way over. Blake noticed her first, her head jerking up and her eyebrows raising as she took in Ruby’s state, and she tapped Yang’s thigh and gestured with her head for Yang to turn.

The moment that Yang took in Ruby’s state, she immediately frowned and swung around so her legs were dangling to the ground and she was facing Ruby properly as Ruby finally reached them.

“Ruby??? What’s wrong??”

“We have to go. We have to go now!” Ruby tried to keep her voice calm and quiet, her eyes flicking to where Blake was watching and listening curiously, before she resigned to being overheard and looked at Yang again. “We really, really have to go. Like, Code Red have to go.”

Yang immediately stood, giving Blake a confused and apologetic look which had Blake shrug and give a small smile to say no harm was done, freeing Yang to turn to her sister and step close enough they could whisper to each other without Blake overhearing any further.

The moment she saw the pale clamour of Ruby’s skin and how her eyes were so bloodshot the whites of them were practically red, Yang’s own eyes widened as they went to where Coco and her posse were grouped up.

But Weiss Schnee wasn’t with them.

Yang’s grip on Ruby’s shoulder tightened in rage as she growled.

“Where is the bitch???”

“She’s dusted. I staked her. In Coco’s bedroom. We have to go.” Ruby shook her head to keep Yang focused as Yang’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the news, and her sister immediately sharpened again and nodded.

Chewing her bottom lip for a moment in thought, Yang wracked her brain for options on how to get home. They’d taken the bus to this side of town, and the night buses were still running…but it was quite the trip, and Ruby was practically swaying on her feet.

So she looked over at Blake, who was scrolling on her phone even as she kept glancing over at the sisters in concern, and she winced apologetically and pleadingly as she got Blake’s attention.

“Hey…you drove, right?”

Blake frowned, putting her phone to the side, and tilted her head as she took in Ruby’s state and her frown immediately dipped lower in concern.

“Yeah. She sick?”

“She was just throwing up in the bathroom. Drank on an empty stomach.” Yang rubbed Ruby’s back in steady circles, keeping an arm around her to help her balance, and her face went even more pleading as Blake’s mouth scrunched up sympathetically. “I’m sorry to ask, but-”

“I can give you guys a lift. That’s fine.” Blake immediately stood, completely sober, and grabbed up her belongings, pulling her short skirt and crop top on back over her swimwear, followed by her shoes. “You okay, Ruby?”

Ruby managed a nod, but as the strange fog of pleasure faded away she was becoming more aware of how weak she felt, and she gave a jolted shake of her head to focus again as she began to fall against Yang. That was enough of a sign of illness for Blake to immediately speed up, only giving her friends a single wave before leading the way out.

The sisters followed Blake, easily keeping up despite Ruby’s dizziness, and Blake made sure to keep looking over her shoulder to make sure they were okay as she spun her keys around her finger. She’d been at the same parties as the sisters before, and from what she’d seen in the past it wasn’t like Ruby to drink anywhere near enough to become sick.

But Blake couldn’t deny that Adel parties always had a different vibe; something a bit more indulgent, making a person want to be a bit sinful, greedy, and selfish.

Blake thinned her lips sympathetically as she took in the girl’s symptoms, a frown flickering on for a moment before she faced forward again, getting the sisters out of the gate and onto a street packed with cheap student cars.

Her own beat-up and inherited four-seater was a small walk along the street of large houses, most of which had their lights off due to the late hour. The car, inherited from her parents once they got their newer one, was old enough that the locks were manual instead of remote, so she skipped ahead to unlock them so that by the time the sisters caught up they could quickly help Ruby into the backseat.

Thankfully being able to put on her own seatbelt and sit upright was a sign Ruby wasn’t quite as sick as her appearance made her look, so Blake wasn’t that concerned about her throwing up. Not that it would be much of a bother, her car was due for a Saturday spent cleaning it anyway.

Blake leaned over from the driver’s seat and unlocked the passenger door for Yang, and gave her a small reassuring smile as Yang hopped in and did up her own seatbelt. The ignition kicked to life easily, the engine well serviced and as stubborn and sturdy as cars from the nineties always were, and she pulled out onto the road.

Yang sighed and looked down, drumming her fingers on her thigh.

“...I appreciate this, Blake. Sorry for dragging you away.”

“Don’t sweat it, I’d feel like shit if you two had to take the damn bus. Besides…” Blake flashed Yang a smirk, her eyes teasing. “What fun would I be having there without your company?”

Yang laughed, reassured enough she relaxed and rested her arm on the doorframe and slumped her weight. She’d had a few drinks herself and was loose enough to stay calm even as she checked Ruby in the rearview mirror and saw her sister was trying to doze off the dizziness.

She’d gone through the same education and training that Ruby had, courtesy of their parents. She knew the symptoms and the signs to look for, and the knowledge of what had happened to her sister had her clench her jaw to lock up her snarl.

But if Ruby was right, then Weiss was already dust, the only signs lingering of her existence being ash on the carpet for Coco to find.

God knew the consequences, but Yang couldn’t feel particularly bad about it. In fact, as she looked at her sister, she couldn’t help but feel a small flash of pride. Ruby had fought off a vampire and staked it, her first monster kill and of a creature as dangerous as a vampire no less.

One from one of the old bloodlines, who they didn’t fully understand.

So despite the signs of bloodloss, as clearly Ruby had taken an injury somewhere even though Yang couldn’t see the blood, Yang gave the dozing Ruby a small smile through the mirror.

Their parents were going to murder them, but Yang couldn’t wait to hear Ruby brag about it, once she was back to form.

Blake was content to leave Yang in her thoughts, turning on the radio and wishing her car was as recent as most of her friends’ models, because she wasn’t even able to plug in her phone for music. Instead she was forced to use cassette tapes.

It was retro, which was kinda cool, and plenty were from the days of punk’s height.

But still, she hoped Yang didn’t judge her for it.

From how Yang was tapping her foot in time with the beat, clearly she didn’t, and Blake let out a slight breath in relief. 

Yang didn’t stay content in the silence for long, however, and as they left the rich people suburbs and began to head further into town in order to circle around to the other suburbs, she turned her head and gave Blake a playful grin.

“So why were you at the party anyway? You don’t tend to hit those up.”

“Hmm? Oh. Just…had a free night, I guess.” Blake shrugged casually, one hand on the steering wheel while she shuffled through her cassette collection with the other, mentally noting to rotate a few out with the pile she had in her room. “My dad’s working late, mum’s chill about me heading out and doing my own thing, I’m caught up on assessments, you know how it is.”

“Being caught up on assessments? Can’t relate.” Yang stuck her tongue out with a wink when Blake laughed, succeeding in making Blake laugh even harder. “How are they both, anyways? I liked meeting your mum when I dropped you off…well…the other night.”

The mention of their date the previous week had Blake go quiet for a moment, drumming her grip on the steering wheel as she suppressed a sigh. Flowers and then a dinner picnic up on the lookout, overlooking the lights of the town with a bluetooth speaker on low and lit by a small camping lantern, hadn’t been anything she could have predicted from the wild card that was Yang. But it had been…perfect.

A kiss by lantern light on a field of grass, a blanket underneath them and a thermos of tea just for her keeping her hands warm…

Some memories were worth keeping forever. Even if they couldn’t be repeated or followed up.

But after a pause that was a moment too long to be comfortable or simple, she shrugged nonchalantly and gave Yang as easy a smile as she could manage.

“Dad’s just busy, I’ve barely seen him in…weeks. Meanwhile mum’s thinking of going back to work with him now that graduation is approaching and I’m about to go all independent and shit.”

Yang gave her the mercy of a beaming smile, the waters of conversation tested and the answer given and accepted without resentment. “Hey that’s cool! So you’re going to be moving out wicked fast, huh?”

Snorting in cynical hope at the idea, Blake looked at the road ahead of them as if she could see the journey she was planning on taking, step by step and struggle by struggle, her eyes briefly going distant as the plans materialised in front of her mind’s eye.

“That’s the dream. I love my parents, I do, but jesus christ.”

“Preaching to the choir, man…” Yang gave a breathy chuckle as she forced herself to look away from the sharp ambition in Blake’s eyes, and instead looked ahead at the road too, quickly glancing at Ruby in the mirror to check on her. “You’ll be just fine. You’re smart, ambitious, determined…you’re gonna rock it.”

Blake was quiet as Yang’s words sank in, the sincere tone of them so casual that Yang clearly saw them as truths as simple and inarguable as the weather being cloudy or that grass was green. She smiled to herself, letting Yang’s confidence top up the wellspring of her own, and glanced over.

“You’re going to be just fine too. You’re stubborn and naturally talented in the perfect combination. You don’t have dreams, you have destinations; Inevitable.” Blake watched in amusement as Yang’s face immediately flushed bright red at her words, and she gave Yang a smile when Yang looked over at her flustered.

There was no response, the two of them content and relaxed as Blake drove them home, taking as many shortcuts as she could in order to make the trip as quick as possible for Ruby. But Ruby was dozing in the backseat, not groaning or twitching from nausea or a headache, so apart from dizziness and fatigue she seemed to be fine.

Blake frowned sympathetically again as she checked on Ruby in the mirror, turning the steering wheel to take the final two turns onto their street and pulling up in front of their house.

Blake had never been inside the Xiao-Long-Rose residence, but she’d occasionally dropped Yang off after school during storms where Yang hadn’t been able to drive her bike, and curiosity had her roam her eyes along the windows and tidy yard of the simple and clean two story house.

The lights were all still off, and that fact had Yang let out a sigh of relief as she opened her door and went around the car to rouse her sister and wake her up, Blake getting out as well to follow her. Ruby jolted awake the moment Yang touched her, blinking back to alertness at the slightest nudge on her shoulder, and she looked around to reorient herself only to relax when she saw they were outside the house.

“Okay…cool. Help me up?” Ruby’s voice was slightly slurred as she extended an arm, and Yang snorted in amusement as she crouched to put it over her shoulders and lift Ruby out, supporting her weight so that Ruby would be able to stumble.

Yang turned to face where Blake was leaning back against the closed driver’s side door, her hands tucked behind herself, and the two of them looked at each other silently for a moment, before Yang gave Blake a grateful nod.

“Thank you. I’ll pay you back for the gas if you send me your bank deets.”

“Don’t worry about it. Get her into bed and make sure to text me that she’s okay tomorrow.” Blake shook her head to brush away Yang’s offer, giving a smile and her eyes crinkling up slightly. “It was nice to chat with you, Yang.”

“...yeah.” Yang smiled shyly for a moment, before taking the risk of leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to Blake’s cheek. “I’ll text you tomorrow, and see you on Monday?”

Frozen from the kiss, Blake blinked from how the exact spot Yang’s lips had been was the origin of the blush that rushed to the surface, and she coughed shyly and looked away even as she nodded.

“Of course. Goodnight, you two.”

Ruby gave a dazed nod to acknowledge the goodbye, smiling in her own gratitude.

“Thanks for the lift, Blake. I’m super sorry. I don’t normally get like this.”

“You’re totally fine, seriously. Drink a shitload of water, put a bucket by your bed, and sleep it off.” Blake smiled at Ruby reassuringly as she bounced up from her lean and opened the driver’s door, sinking down into her seat and waving one last time before closing it.

As Blake started up her ignition, her ancient car rumbling to life, Yang escorted Ruby to the front door, grabbing her keys from the pocket of her shorts and getting it open, before helping Ruby inside.

The moment they were in the dark privacy of their entryway, Ruby managed to stand on her own two feet even though she still swayed, and she raised her eyebrow at Yang in amusement.

“Well, that was weird to be less than a foot away from.”

Yang smirked and stuck her tongue out as she turned on the light and locked the door behind them. “Deal with it. I left the party early because of you-”

“Because I got attacked!”

“-so I’m allowed to give a small kiss. Of thanks. Not like I’ll be getting a proper one again, apparently…” Yang shrugged as she tossed her keys into the bowl and led the way into the living room, watching Ruby crash down onto the couch.

After making sure Ruby wasn’t going to roll onto the floor, she strode into the kitchen to get her a can of soda from the fridge to help Ruby replace her blood sugar. It wasn’t the best solution in the world, but it would help perk her up for now.

Placing it onto the coffee table for Ruby to lazily grab, Yang crossed her arms and looked down at her.

“Alright, tell me everything. Start at the beginning. And don’t leave out any details. You don’t have the marks, so it doesn’t look like she got enough of a jump on you to feed from you. How did she get you alone anyway? You knew what she was.”

To her surprise, Ruby froze, going almost entirely rigid as she was halfway through sitting up, and as Yang watched she saw a blush slowly appear on Ruby’s cheeks even as she clamped a hand over the side of her neck in confusion.

But when she ran her fingers over the skin, there wasn’t any sign of punctures, or even any drops of blood.

She knew she’d been bitten, she remembered the first moment of pain, but then there’d only been a feeling of…

When Ruby blushed and couldn’t stop herself from shivering, Yang’s eyes widened in shock and she immediately looked away, suddenly extremely uncomfortable at the insinuation, and she shuffled awkwardly before clearing her throat.

“...okay, jesus, are you kidding me, Ruby??? ” Groaning in a mixture of bewilderment, discomfort, and horror for a few moments, Yang winced in preparation. “Maybe leave out a few details. Especially as we get this story straight for mum and dad.”

Ruby immediately burrowed her face into her hands and let out a groan as that realization hit her. She’d dusted a vampire, from one of the old bloodlines. None of them had done that yet, keeping the old bloodlines under distant observation but not knowing enough about them to hunt them yet.

But Ruby had managed it. Through…unique circumstances. Including ones at the end that she didn’t entirely understand.

She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. They were still throbbing a little bit, and she could feel how bloodshot they were from some sort of intense strain they hadn’t had time to adjust and prepare themselves for.

They were going to have to get her story straight, and fast.

+=+=+

By the time Weiss heard someone coming towards the bedroom door, the rest of the house and yard were entirely silent, the party over and everyone gone.

She could smell and hear around half a dozen humans still lingering around, unconscious and snoring, the group of them lucky enough to have been given a place in the spare bedrooms. But apart from that, the house was silent and dark.

It would have been the perfect time to stroll through and look at who was available, have a quick feed from someone pretty, and say her goodbye to Coco before making her way home before dawn. But not a single nerve or muscle in her body could move.

As the hours had passed she had slowly been locked further and further into rigor mortis, everything locking up, while still completely aware of everything around her, each of her senses still fully alert. She was a corpse, a proper one, the human parts of her dead while the other half… persisted.

The bedroom door opened, and she heard Coco swear under her breath before the wind was disturbed from her rushing over so quickly she was a blur. Their kind couldn’t smell each other, and with no heartbeat they couldn’t hear each other either, so she wasn’t surprised it had taken Coco so long to find her.

“Jesus, Weiss. What the absolute fuck…?” Snarling, Coco rolled Weiss onto her back and grabbed the stake, raising an eyebrow as she looked down into Weiss’s blank and unmoving eyes that she knew were still seeing. “Okay, you know how this goes. Suck it up.”

Not giving Weiss time to prepare, since it wasn’t exactly possible for Weiss to brace for the shock anyway, Coco ripped the stake from Weiss’s chest.

The moment the wood was free, Weiss sucked in a heaving breath purely out of instinct and violently lurched upwards, the tendrils under her skin that had locked her up and turned her body into a proper corpse immediately bursting like ruptured blood vessels, and beginning to bleed thick black ichor out of the hole in her chest.

Coco caught Weiss around the shoulders as Weiss spasmed and squirmed while her body was returned back to her control in pulsing waves, turning to shivers so violent her teeth chattered and she was practically vibrating from the rapid onslaught of twitches and spasms.

When Coco vanished in a blur, Weiss slumped against the side of the bed, still weak, but her body was slowly coming back to her control.

Colour returned to her white skin, and her pupils shrank back down to return her eyes to their normal sky blue. A semblance of humanity reappeared in her form, slowly washing back as the black curse bled out of the hole in her chest as it was repelled and purged, the black tendrils underneath her skin fading as they emptied of their grime.

One by one, her muscles twitched and flexed, uncomfortable and painful.

While she’d been staked once before, to be given a personal demonstration of what to potentially prepare for, it was a horrific sensation and the skin around the hole in her chest cracked and flaked like a half-healed scab as the curse leaked out and set her free.

Reappearing, Coco held one of the six remaining unconscious partygoers in her arms, and she dropped them unceremoniously in front of Weiss before taking the girl’s wrist and raising it to Weiss’s lips.

“Drink, and let yourself heal. I’ll stop you before you kill her.”

Weiss knew she could trust Coco to hold her to that, the other vampiress had never let her go too far before, so she let her fangs extend and sank them into the human girl’s wrist.

Blood immediately rushed into her mouth, and she drank greedily, sucking it in with forceful gulps instead of letting it pulse in naturally like she had done with Ruby. It trickled down her chin and onto the floor, much to Coco’s obvious annoyance, but Weiss didn’t care as she grabbed her victim’s arm with both of her hands and held it to her mouth with enough force that the bone in her grip creaked.

As the precious vitae rushed into her system and was immediately devoured by the beast she was, she felt it flooding her muscles and arteries, her eyes pulsing as the false heartbeat of the animal inside was a substitute for the proper one she’d never had, and the wound on her chest crawled closed.

If it had been a normal injury it would have healed quickly after first happening, right in front of her eyes, and she would have been able to feed later to satiate the energy needed to heal it. But being staked…

That was different. Unique.  Enough so that even as she felt Coco wrench the girl’s arm away from her lips, her thoughts went to Ruby and what had happened.

With her strength back, Weiss extended her hand for some tissues, which Coco provided with a huff so she could wipe her lips and chin clean.

“Thank you. I was laying there for quite some time.”

“What the hell happened??? Who got you???” Coco closed the bite on the girl’s arm with a few licks from her tongue, before using her fingers to pry the girl’s unconscious eyelids open to force eye contact. “Tonight is just a blur. Tonight means nothing. I fucked your brains out, and that’s why you’re so sore and in my bed.”

Weiss rolled her eyes at Coco’s usual memory story of choice as she stood up, scowling at the black soaking into her bikini, even though the wound itself was gone. It had been deep, however. There had been a surprising amount of strength in Ruby’s muscles in order to get a snapped branch through her skin.

“Ruby Rose was having a slight snoop around up here. I found her here, we talked, I flirted, one thing led to another and she fucked me on your desk.” Grabbing her shirt up from the floor and pulling it on, followed by her pants, Weiss was perfectly casual as she recounted events, finding amusement in how Coco groaned in disgust and looked over at her desk mournfully. Frowning as she mulled over the details, Weiss thinned her lips while buttoning up her shirt properly. “...I…fed from her. I lost control. Just a momentary slip. When I gave in I told myself I’d just have a slight taste, but…”

Finishing where she was tucking the girl into her bed and roughing up the sheets enough to help carry the lie that rigorous activity had occurred in them the night before, Coco looked over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

It wasn’t like Weiss to lose control and impulsively feed.

“But…?”

“I’d never tasted anything like it, Coco. The power in her blood. If she hadn’t staked me, I think I would have ended up strong enough to actually be a fair fight for you for once , even despite my natural disadvantage.” Weiss looked down at her hands and clenched them into fists, feeling the power inside of them from the blood still coursing and scorching through her system.

The girl she’d drank from to heal wasn’t nearly as potent as Ruby had been, the power in her muscles now was… disappointing in comparison. Adequate and effective, but bland.

“And then she staked you.” Coco’s eyes widened as the implications hit her, and her mouth dropped open for a moment as she stepped closer out of interest. “Are you telling me she broke through the Kiss?”

Weiss shook her head, biting her bottom lip as she thought back to the timeline of what had happened. She looked down at where Ruby’s jacket was still on the floor from where Weiss had pulled it off her, and she reached down to grab it.

“...no. No, the Kiss had her. God, she gave herself to me, Coco. One stroke of a finger if I got her pants off and she would have came just from what it built in her.” Holding Ruby’s jacket in her hands, Weiss shivered pleasantly at the thought of what could have been, running the tip of her tongue along her teeth and then her upper lip, before she focused again. “But when I managed to stop and I tried to compel her to forget…it didn’t work.”

“It…didn’t work?” Frowning, Coco tilted her head, before waving for Weiss to continue even as her eyes dulled in disbelief. “She’s only human, honey, that’s sort of why we’re able to do it. Maybe you were too close to the frenzy to focus?”

As she thought over what had happened, how Ruby had managed to pull away and then the pain that had followed nearly instantaneously, Weiss leant against the edge of Coco’s desk, right where Ruby had sat her in order to have her. Staring into Ruby’s eyes and letting her beast talk instead of herself, what had then rebounded had felt like being pierced by blades of light in its purest form directly into her eyes and her brain. Her beast had recoiled in agony, and it never did that.

It had rendered her helpless and defenseless, a state she had only been in twice in her life before tonight, and never at danger from a human. But Ruby was just human, it was her entire scent, and that was the only taste in her blood.

Weiss mulled it for a moment. There was a mystery in that, now. Something the creature that lived underneath the veneer of her rational mind wanted to sniff and follow, trying to pretend it didn’t also simply want… Ruby.

With no rational answer or explanation, she gave Coco a helpless shrug, and decided to keep the mystery to herself for now.

“I can’t explain it, but it didn’t work. Then she staked me, and bolted. Did you see where she went?”

Coco shook her head and gave a shrug of her own, glancing down at the unconscious girl on her bed with a look of detached disinterest, simply making sure she wasn’t going to die, before she gestured with her head for Weiss to follow her.

“Come on, let’s get you home before the council wraps up. We both know what your father is like if you’re not there when he has something to say. God knows what was so urgent, but I’m dreading a monologue from my mother.” They both walked shoulder to shoulder as they went downstairs and through a door leading to the garage, Coco grabbing the keys to one of her family’s cars from its hook and pressing the fob to unlock the doors. “No idea where Ruby went though, no. Her sister vanished too, so they probably took off. Which is a problem. A very, very big fucking problem.”

Weiss hummed in agreement as she sat in the passenger’s seat and slumped back to think, not bothering with the seatbelt since she didn’t need one and she didn’t need to keep up appearances around just Coco. Instead she focused on rewatching the events of what happened over and over again in her mind.

The garage door opened automatically as Coco reversed, both of them in thought as they each pondered different parts of what had occurred. It wasn’t a long drive to the Schnee estate from the Adels’, but it was long enough they’d have time to talk once each of them had their thoughts in order.

While Weiss lingered on the kiss, how impulsive she’d been to do it, how badly she’d wanted to, Coco instead asked the obvious question that Weiss had been trying to ignore the need to consider.

“So how did she know what you are? She had a stake, Weiss.”

“If anything that just means she knows what you are. She was in your house, and she wasn’t expecting me to find her.” Weiss glanced over at Coco with a raised eyebrow, the deflection a lazy one, because the implications were the same either way;

Ruby Rose knew that they weren’t human. And she’d prepared accordingly. She’d been ready.

The thought had Weiss’s stomach churn with an anxious spike, and she looked anywhere but at Coco as her thoughts rushed by.

Was that why she always stared at her? Had she known that Weiss was like Coco, when she’d kissed her? Why was she snooping around Coco’s room in the first place? Why had she let Weiss get so close, if she might have known? Why had she slammed her onto the desk? Taken off her shirt? Pulled her hair? Why had she slid her fingers down a vampiress’ pants and-

Weiss shook her head to leave that train of thought and try and get herself onto the proper one, her eyes locking onto the closed gate of her family estate, and she slumped into her seat in resigned preparation when Coco pressed the intercom on the gate and was let in the moment she was recognised on the camera.

But considering she had no idea of how the meeting had gone, or even if her parents were back yet, she had no idea what sort of mood she was going to be dealing with once she was inside.

Weiss grumbled as Coco pulled to a stop and turned off the ignition. “Here’s hoping things went his way…”

“You know you’re almost certainly going to have to tell them, right?” Coco’s lips were set in a thin and determined line when Weiss shot her a horrified look, shocked at the very idea of it. “The secret is out, Weiss. A human knows what you are.”

“I am not telling the goddamn Primogens about this, Coco Adel. They already hate that we socialise and associate with our prey so openly.” Weiss growled, practically a snarl, and she shoved the passenger door open and began to storm up her drive towards the front door of the mansion.

Coco was at her side in an instant, having no trouble keeping up, and she grabbed Weiss by the arm to pull her into the shadow of one of the pillars supporting the upstairs balcony, before they reached the doors.

Fixing her best friend with a sharp look, Coco’s grip on Weiss’s arm was tight.

“This is a full on breach, Weiss. What’s to say Ruby won’t immediately tell her sister? Who, by the way, is not known for her restraint. Then they’ll tell their parents. Then their friends. It spreads.” Tightening her grip to a degree beyond humanly possible to cut off Weiss’s dismissive scoff, Coco hissed at her, baring her fangs to emphasize her vehement frustration. “This has to be fixed. Right now only Ruby and Yang know, potentially their family. Us and the girls either kill them before sunrise and we clean it up, or we tell the council and they-”

Coco was cut off as Weiss bared her own fangs with a snarl that sliced straight through Coco’s skin and into her bones, the blue in Weiss’s eyes morphing to pure black. Her grip on Weiss’s arm was broken as Weiss wrenched it free, and Weiss’s now free hand was suddenly around Coco's throat tight enough her words became a strangled gurgle.

The pair moved as a blur from the speed that Weiss slammed Coco against the pillar hard enough the stone cracked slightly from the strength of the impact. Weiss was silent for a long moment as she wrestled internally, before her beast broke free of its cage and made its will known. There was no arguing with her, and Coco could only stop resisting and listen.

“Let me make this crystal clear.” Weiss pressed Coco against the pillar harder, the cracks in the stone spreading, before baring her fangs in a hiss that carried enough weight that pure animal instinct had Coco actively press back harder against the stone surface to try and retreat away. “Ruby Rose is not to be touched. She is my responsibility, now . I will handle her myself.”

Even as she grabbed at Weiss’s arm to attempt to pry herself free, Coco was pinned by Weiss’s stare, temporarily black eyes locked onto submissive brown. Weiss didn’t blink, her lips curled so her fangs were still visible.

Eventually Coco managed to get Weiss’s hand loose enough she could rasp out words.

“ A-alright. She’s…yours…Lady…Schnee. You… have my word. I’m…sorry.” Coco cringed from the strain of her attempt to free herself, before feeling a small flash of relief as Weiss’s eyes narrowed in satisfaction and the slightest hint of blue returned. “Come on, Weiss… come back …to me. Don’t…make me…hurt you.”

After a moment of absolute stillness, Coco was able to see the war for control happening inside of Weiss’s eyes as her pupils pulsated and the black of them swam like liquid, before eventually Weiss managed to yank her hand away and release Coco’s throat.

Coco coughed violently as she was let go, and she rubbed the bruises that were already fading. Meanwhile Weiss growled in satisfaction, grabbing her head and snarling to herself as she sorted herself out, the blue slowly returning to her eyes as her beast quietened and she closed its cage once again. Taking a few deep breaths, unnecessary to survive but calming in the action, Weiss straightened up.

“I’m so sorry…I don’t know where that…” Weiss slumped back against the wall of the mansion, her eyes wide.

Coco was still rubbing her throat, and she rolled her shoulder due to a soreness from being slammed against the pillar, but she waved off Weiss’s apology. It wasn’t the first time. And with the sort of beast that Weiss had inside of her, it would certainly not be the last.

If Coco had wanted to put up a fight, and with her superior strength and speed she easily could have, then Weiss’s particular kind of beast would not have responded favorably to that challenge to the pecking order.

It would have become a power struggle, which Weiss normally never put herself in any position where one might begin. She was weaker than Coco; slower, her strength falling short, her senses not as sharp.

And yet…

Coco could only let out an awestruck and bewildered scoff as she straightened up as well.

“Jesus, Weiss, that girl must have tasted like something else, for you to go all Schnee and be that possessive that quickly…” Coco coughed one last time, feeling as her instincts calmed down now that Weiss was back under control and the danger had passed. For now. “...so if we’re not killing her, and we’re not telling the council…what are you going to do about her?”

There was no response. Weiss could only look off into the distant night with an overwhelmed desperation in the tightness of her lips and how her eyes refused to blink. There was a fear in her chest, now. Something new. Exposed. Vulnerable.

Somehow, Ruby had known that creatures like her existed. Had prepared to encounter one, in the home of Coco Adel. And had been able to stave off Weiss’s compulsion in her attempt to fix the situation, and then stake her.

Now she was out there, having escaped with her sister.

Without any solution coming to mind as she fiddled with Ruby’s jacket and folded it over one arm, she could only shake her head.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

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Even though Weiss’s bedroom was only slightly larger than Coco’s, it was still large enough that all the members of her coterie were able to spread out comfortably. It wasn’t the most dignified meeting space for the scions of the old families, no grand chandeliers or ornate dining table, but they were all used to their meetings being clandestine and deceptively casual.

They weren’t the leaders of their families yet. They had no authority or right to conduct official meetings between the bloodlines.

And yet…here they all were, once again.

Most of the members were content to sit on the large cushions on the plush carpet, primarily because Coco had claimed the single armchair available due to being the first one in attendance, but Weiss remained standing as she waited on the edge of her desk for their final member to arrive.

They didn’t have a whole lot of time, with the elders likely wrapping up their own business soon, and each of them would likely be dragged away to either be lectured in meticulous detail, or kept out of the loop entirely, with no middle-ground.

These meetings were the closest thing to a middle-ground that most of them got.

A knock on the door had everyone’s head whipping towards it, Melanie Malachite immediately placing a hand on her own shadow just in case, but when the knock repeated in a certain rhythm they all relaxed. And when nothing hostile happened, the door opened, and Emerald stuck her head in.

The poor girl was always forced to be the last one to arrive, needing to sneak onto the grounds like some sort of burglar, but she’d stopped resenting it years ago. So she simply gave everyone a small smile of welcome as she entered and closed the door behind herself, clicking the lock.

“Sorry I’m late. I wasn’t sure if Lord and Lady Schnee were home, so…yeah.” Wincing in apology, Emerald slumped in relief when all she got were understanding smiles and nods, and she took her satchel off her shoulder and hurried to her usual spot in the informal circle of cushions and pillows.

Squeezing into her space in between Melanie and Neopolitan, she gave Melanie a smile of greeting before cringing when Neopolitan fondly ruffled her hair, scowling at the much shorter and innocent looking vampire as she straightened it.

With everyone finally in attendance and time running out, they all kept glancing over at Weiss.

So, with her large clock ticking against the wall, Weiss bit her bottom lip for a moment as she turned to face everyone, the sudden movement getting everyone’s attention, and when she grabbed up the short silver candlestick from her desk to join them they shuffled to the side to make room.

As Weiss grabbed a box of matches from the pocket of the tidy jeans she’d changed into immediately upon getting inside from the party, she glanced to the girls on either side of herself, with Ciel nodding and reaching into her handbag for her own candlestick, while Reese was already playfully toying with her own.

Eight of the nine members of their group were in attendance, and each placed a unique candlestick in front of themselves, balancing on the white carpet. Some still chatted to each other while getting ready, but for the most part everyone was quiet, and tense.

The air in the room wasn’t as light and informal as it normally was, and that had been the case all day, ever since all of their lines’ elders had been summoned to urgent business and told their children nothing.

Everyone could feel that something was wrong and had been all day. A sharp edge to how their superiors were holding themselves leading up to whatever was important enough to call a council on such short notice.

So while the rituals were normally approached so dismissively it was disrespectful, tonight each of them were solemn as they placed their unique candlesticks in front of themselves and took a black candle from the special box being passed around.

Once it was time for everyone to light their flames, the chatting and shuffling stopped, with Coco turning off the bedroom lights as she moved from the armchair to the circle of her friends on the carpet.

They could all see perfectly in the dark, nothing was hidden, yet they all took advantage of the blanket of shadow in order to brace themselves for whatever might be about to be discussed.

Coco grabbed her zippo lighter from her purse and flicked it to life, and with another silent moment of looking around at all of the others she waited until they had all either struck matches or flicked their own lighters before she lit her candle.

“Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.” Coco clicked her lighter shut and put it aside, before lifting up her now lit candle and cradling it, looking around and watching as everyone else lit their own and repeated the phrase.

One by one they all struck matches, with Reese swearing under her breath to herself when she snapped three in a row before she finally managed to get one lit, and Weiss shot a glare over at where Melanie was trying not to laugh in response to her friend’s uncouthness.

While most of the time Reese’s attitude was incredibly endearing, tonight it was rather unwelcome , and Reese looked suitably contrite and sheepish when she finally got her candle lit and repeated the phrase, everyone else’s eyes upon her.

Once everyone had spoken and were cupping their candles, Coco thinned her lips and nodded.

“I call our Crimson Council and bind it in fire light. Let these flames shine bright enough to keep us hidden. Let intruders avert their eyes or be blinded.” Coco looked down at her candle for a few moments, frowning in thought, before she placed it down in front of her. “Okay then. We probably don’t have much time for this one, the elders could finish at any time. So let’s make this fast.”

Coco finishing calling the meeting and then relaxing was enough for everyone else to slump slightly, putting their candles in front of themselves and sitting back, Reese seeming to already be fighting the desire to doze off right where she was sitting. Whether it was a great disinterest in the ‘stuffy’ side of things, or just the fact she’d already been awake for approximately a hundred hours in a row, was up to how high an observer’s opinion of her was.

Meanwhile, directly across from Weiss and running her finger up and down the ridges of her crimson red candlestick, Emerald was on the other end of the energy spectrum; completely alert and awake, to the point she seemed rigid. Emerald’s red eyes were staring down into her flame, her eyebrows dipped in a frown, and her free hand drumming on her thigh.

When nobody decided to be the first to speak, not even Coco seeming to have any idea where to start, Weiss took the lead and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention.

“Alright, we don’t have long, so let’s get to it; something has the elders rattled. It’s been a long time since a meeting has been called on such short notice, and with enough urgency that both of my parents attended. Now, they haven’t told me anything and likely won’t until they get home, but that doesn’t mean none of you know anything about what might be going on.” Weiss looked around at the others, her eyebrows raised, before her gaze lingered on where Melanie’s expression had shifted from amused disinterest to a thoughtful frown.

The other girl hadn’t gone to the party, they weren’t really her idea of a fun time, and whatever she had been up to had apparently warranted black jeans, strong boots, and a hooded black jacket.

It was an outfit they’d all seen on her a thousand times, and they knew what it meant, so Weiss felt a hum of optimism as Melanie shuffled under the attention she was suddenly getting.

Huffing at the stares, Melanie zipped up her jacket with a flourish.

“Yes, I checked around. Some weird messed up murder in the south suburbs has plenty of people pretty shaken. I don’t know any of the gruesome specifics, but that’s what everyone’s whispering about. Details are pretty hush-hush.” Melanie mulled over it to herself for another moment before shrugging and glancing at Reese, reaching over with a foot and kicking her friend in the ankle hard enough to jolt her back to attention.

Reese jumped from the nudge, having been well and truly half-asleep, and she looked around at everyone in confusion before her brain caught up on the conversation she’d been half-listening to and she nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah, yeah. Mel and I were tempted to go have a look, but since we had to wait until after school since our lives fucking suck they already had the scene locked down and halfway through cleaning by the time we got to the end of the street. The bodies are in the city morgue, which ain’t hard to get into. But we didn’t feel like breaking in to see a random dead body if there wasn’t any point to it.” Reese shrugged, before shrugging slightly more exaggeratedly at the exasperated looks she was getting from everyone else apart from Melanie, who instead looked amused again. “What?? I’ve got homework, and Mel had evening plans. Plus, getting morgue smell out of clothes isn’t easy. Y’all don’t get to host a pool party and drink and feed and then judge me for not breaking into a city building to check out a corpse.”

She had a point, and the handful of members who had indeed been a part of Coco’s party did take a moment to look appropriately reprimanded, most of them still in their party clothes even though they’d had plenty of time to get changed between getting home from said party and the phone call summoning them to this meeting.

As everyone took turns filling in the group with whatever tidbits they’d picked up through their own families or methods, the background noise was enough for Weiss to slip into distraction again as her thoughts wandered, and she was content for the others to take over the conversation as she instead sat back.

Murders in Silvercloud weren’t exactly unheard of, but they almost never happened out in the suburbs. Most were in the center of the town itself, clustered around the train station and the mass of motels and clubs in the neighborhood surrounding the station and the main highway.

Tourists and travelers were the ones who died, not locals.

And if Melanie, the current scion of the Malachite family, had referred to a murder as ‘weird and ‘messed up’, that meant it must have been something beyond the definition of abhorrent.

But abhorrent enough a council had been called over it?

Weiss bit the corner of her lip for a moment in thought before returning her attention to the conversation, but she hadn’t missed anything of much importance, she’d been half-listening enough to know that. None of them really knew anything more, just that a council had been called on immediate notice.

From the sounds of it, not even any of their parents had really known beforehand what needed to be discussed. The seriousness in the summons had been enough to prompt their urgency.

Running her finger along her candle and collecting some of the melted wax to play with, Arslan Altan frowned in thought as she used the tip of her fingernail to shift the wax into a star on the palm of her hand.

“Was it a feeding? New intrusion on disputed territory? Whose domain is the south suburbs, again?”

At the question, Neopolitan raised their hand and gave a wave, before grabbing out the necklace around their neck and showing the small sigil of their family house engraved into the pendant.

It made sense for the Vanille family to claim dominion over the southern suburbs, given the bloodline’s feeding habits; They never killed, in fact they had mastered the art of feeding without their prey even knowing they were there. Peaceful feeders, almost…gentle.

So for their territory to be disrupted by a horrific crime…everyone there would be on higher alert until the news and interest died down, which always took forever in the suburbs where nothing ever really happened.

It had just become much harder for Neopolitan and the others of their line to feed, for a while. And from the pissed off sharp edge in their eyes, Neo was thinking over that exact problem.

Melanie shook her head.

“Nope, not from the rumors. I can’t think of a single one of our kind in town that’s that messy.” Melanie looked over at Weiss and Coco, flicking her eyes between them. “But that’s your specialties, not mine. Any ideas?”

Coco shook her head immediately, no ideas or answers, and she glanced at Weiss, who mulled for a moment before nodding.

“I’ll ask my parents about possible trespassers once they’re back, they should tell me that much since a trespasser in town could interrupt our business.” Weiss chewed her bottom lip gently as she checked the time on her clock and winced at the late hour. Her parents would likely be home any minute. “Now, since we seem to be at a dead-end with this ‘murder’, does anyone else have anything worth bringing up before we disband for the night?” 

While Ciel decided that was enough of an opening to bring up everyone’s recent school grades, of which a certain Reese and Melanie were slipping behind everyone else once again, Coco’s eyes immediately went to Weiss and hardened into a glare, forceful and pleading, and Weiss glared right back defiantly.

Everyone bickering about their grades and classes around them went entirely unnoticed, the two of them instead having a silent debate just through glares and the most miniscule of twitches in their expressions. They’d been friends for long enough that scowls and eye twitches were a dialect of sign language, and when Coco tilted her head to the side slightly it was enough of a push that Weiss narrowed her eyes.

Looking away from Coco in frustration, Weiss blinked when she finally noticed Emerald staring at her equally as silently. It wasn’t like Emerald had any need to participate in a discussion about grades, since she wasn’t a student, which meant she had plenty of freedom to quietly watch the exchange between Weiss and Coco with her full attention.

So when Weiss finally noticed her and they locked eyes, Emerald raised a perfect eyebrow and flicked her gaze down to Weiss’s chest, specifically the spot over her heart, before looking up into her eyes again and raising her eyebrow higher.

The insinuation had Weiss’s mouth drop open and unconsciously put a hand over where the stake wound had already healed, leaving only slightly rough skin that was gradually repairing and regrowing. The remnants of the injury were hidden by her pullover, but Emerald’s face was confident.

She wasn’t guessing.

But Weiss was stubborn, so she shook her head, and unlike Coco who had ground her heels in, Emerald instead immediately nodded in concession and gave a small smile. Waving her hand in a tiny movement to dismiss it, Emerald turned her gaze to Coco and narrowed her eyes in a silent message to back off from Weiss.

If Weiss wanted to keep what happened a secret for now, she probably had excellent reason to.

The silent argument about her staking, and the verbal bickering about grades, immediately cut off when all of their sensitive hearing picked up the sound of car engines, and everyone went silent and turned their attention to their candles.

Coco snarled at being out of time, but grabbed up her candlestick regardless and nodded to the others.

“We’ve got more to talk about, soon. Everyone get whatever information they can out of their family or whoever else. Neo, you and Trivia can just come out hunting with me sometime, we’ll make a date out of it. Also; Reese, Melanie, you know you can just compel some of the nerds to do your homework for you right? Jesus Christ.” Coco smirked when Ciel immediately squawked in objection and sat up, with Reese sticking her tongue out at the preppy girl while Melanie instead gave Coco a smirk and winked at the advice. 

After the giggles around the circle had stopped, Coco nodded to get everyone serious again, and raised her candle so the flickering flame was directly in front of her lips.

“Let the shadow keep the secrets whispered into the smoke, may it cover our travels away.” Coco blew out her candle, and dispersed the smoke into the darkness with her final words. “ Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.”

Everyone repeated the words as they extinguished their own candles, the darkness sealing away the secret of their forbidden council, and by the time Weiss had stood and turned her bedroom light back on some of their number had already vanished;

Reese and Melanie were gone, Melanie sinking into her own shadow as if it was liquid while the door already being slightly ajar was the only sign of Reese’s practically instantaneous passing, and the afterimage of Neopolitan holding their candle up to their lips was already crumbling into shards of glass.

But the others were forced to leave the normal way, each of them straightening up and tidying themselves before following Weiss out of her bedroom and into the hallway.

Arslan gave a wave, pressing a quick kiss to Ciel’s cheek and squeezing her hand for a moment, then releasing it to turn and make her way to a glass door leading out to a balcony overlooking the back terrace. Ciel smiled at her best friend’s retreating back before linking arms with Coco and striding confidently down the hall in the direction of the staircase leading down to the main entry hall.

When Emerald gave them all a quick nod and turned to follow Arslan, she jolted to a stop when Weiss grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

“Hang on, I need you for a moment.”

“Uhh, sure! Sure.” Emerald blinked in surprise at the summons, and she glanced down at the spot of Weiss’s injury again. “Is this about you clearly getting--”

Weiss clamped a hand over Emerald’s mouth with a hiss. “How do you even know about that???”

Unable to speak through Weiss’s hand, Emerald made a show of mumbling into her palm, and Weiss rolled her eyes before dropping her hand away so that Emerald could answer properly, fixing her friend with an exasperated glare that had Emerald’s eyes sparkle in amusement.

The amusement faded into concern as Emerald crossed her arms.

“I can see it, Weiss. Shit, I can practically smell it on you.” Emerald scrunched up her nose in distaste at the slight aura of the curse still lingering, but she shook her head to banish the discomfort and sobered again. “What happened?? Who got you?? What the christ???”

“It’s…complicated. It was at Coco’s party, a feeding went wrong, it’s…” Weiss sighed and looked up and down the hall to make sure they were alone, nodding to herself in relief that they were. While their kind did have incredible hearing, the Schnee estate was designed with acoustics specifically to nullify it. “It’s complicated. But, look…I may need a favor. An actual Favor.”

Emerald blinked at Weiss’s tone and the determination in the clenching of her jaw, but she didn’t hesitate before straightening up and giving a firm nod, her red eyes sharpening.

“Anything, anytime, anywhere. You know that.”

“What do you know about…humans that can reject compulsion?” Weiss bit her bottom lip for a moment as she considered just how much to reveal. Emerald wasn’t a student at school, she’d never met Ruby and if tonight had never happened then chances are they never would have entered each other’s orbit at all. 

So Weiss didn’t have to be super vague. 

“A compulsion attempt that, for the member of our kind who attempts it, results in rather blinding pain?”

Emerald blinked at the very idea of it, her eyebrows shooting up and her mouth dropping open. Tightening her arms across her chest in thought, she slumped back against the wall in thought and looked away.

The notion of a human being able to reject a compulsion and resist the gift would have been either laughed off by another vampire, or disbelieved much like Coco had done, but Emerald’s eyes sparkled in fascination at the concept.

“A pure human? Nothing else at all?”

“From her scent and taste, she’s fully human, even if her sister isn’t.” Weiss nodded in confirmation, but then blinked when Emerald’s head whipped towards her again as a theory clicked together but more questions thrived within her brain.

“Wait, how does that even…nevermind, unimportant. But that’s what happened tonight, huh? You fed, you tried to compel, you got staked? At the party? So a high schooler did this to you?? Wait…okay.” Emerald frowned as her theory developed further, before her eyes went wide and she stepped forward into Weiss’s personal space so she could whisper in horror. “A teenager at a party at Coco’s house had a stake on her at the time of you feeding? A stake in her possession, then a feeding, then a compulsion rejection, and then she recovered from the Kiss fast enough for an actual staking? That means…a teenager out there knows!”

Emerald really was too bright for her own good. But it wasn’t surprising, given the Beast inside of the blood frozen in her immortal veins. Even though she had been half-expecting for Emerald to start spewing out some jarringly accurate and targeted theories, Weiss still hissed at her to be quiet again.

“Fine, yes, alright?? But I’ll handle it.” Weiss scowled when Emerald went to object out of worry, and briefly raised her hand in a threat to cover Emerald’s mouth again. “I said I’ll handle it. Now what can you tell me? Because knowing some information might help me!”

“About a human, a teenager, being able to reject compulsion…?” Emerald thought over it for a few more moments, wracking her extensive memory, only to shake her head in a resignation that was fascinated instead of dejected. “It’s not possible. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Especially not a compulsion from a member of one of the Eight Lines.”

Weiss winced in response, and she looked away for a moment in shame, only to jump when Emerald tutted and placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention again. When she looked back, Emerald’s eyes were kind, but also determined and firm.

“Hey, you are one of us, even though…y’know. It’s not your fault. You’re following the rules. You’re following the edicts. We screwed up, not you. It makes you strong. ”

“My mother would disagree with you on that.” Weiss grumbled, even as the firm support in Emerald’s eyes and voice warmed her, and she nodded in thanks before getting back to the matter at hand. “Well, if you don’t know anything off the top of your head, do you think you’d be able to find anything? That’s the favor I’m asking of you.”

Dropping her hand from Weiss’s shoulder after giving a final supportive squeeze, Emerald put her hands in the pockets of her denim shorts and nodded slowly. She was kept plenty busy with her own work these days, and Weiss knew that, so for Weiss to ask this as a proper favor…

Favors were no small thing to ask from any vampire. And owing one to a Sustrai was considered so dangerous and unpredictable that most of their kind avoided the very notion as if it was in the same league as sunlight or silver.

That meant Weiss was worried enough to need priority and risk it, and Weiss never got worried, she was as unflappable as the rest of her bloodline.

Emerald let out a slow breath, unnecessary but still soothing, and nodded again.

“I…can try. I’ll look through the archive. A favor, yes? I may need your help with something soon.”

Weiss sighed in relief, her mind still racing anxiously at the knowledge she’d have to wait for anything that might help her bypass whatever the hell had just happened and allow her to straighten out Ruby’s memories so that there weren’t any world sundering consequences of Weiss being unable to keep her pants on. So even though her Beast squirmed in resistance against the idea of the agreement, Weiss quickly bit her palm before extending her hand to Emerald with a stressed smile.

“Considering the dire circumstances, yes. A favor. An act of your choosing, at a later date. Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

The red of Emerald's eyes flickered darker for a moment as she stared down at Weiss's hand, her own Beast perking up and sniffing at the air with a curious growl.

If Weiss was willing to bind it, then she really, really was serious. Which meant she was far more terrified than she was letting show. And if Weiss of all people was terrified enough to put her blood on the line, then that should have the entire coterie on edge.

After biting her own palm, Emerald took Weiss's hand and shook it, staring into her eyes and giving a simple nod, a reassuring smile on her own lips as she gave Weiss's hand a comforting squeeze even as their Beasts both shivered and stared at each other warily.

"I'll find out everything I can, in exchange for that favor. I won't let you down, Weiss."

"Thank you, Emerald. And I know you won't. You never have." Weiss's stress faded slightly from her smile, and she released Emerald's hand.

When Weiss’s name was called out from the direction of the stairs, both of them jumped at the voice, but before Emerald had time to sprint down the hall towards the balcony door she was already frozen under the cold gaze of Jacques and Willow Schnee.

Both of Weiss’s parents were dressed in their absolute best; Jacques’s white suit was hand tailored like all the others, while Willow’s sparkling white and blue dress could have been sewn directly onto her body from how well it hugged her figure. They were dressed to intimidate, for their presence and superiority to be undeniable and impossible to ignore.

The power of their presence alone was enough for Emerald to visibly look like she wanted to melt into the floor, while Weiss subconsciously shifted so that she was partially between her parents and her friend.

While Jacques eyes only lingered on Emerald for a moment before dismissing her with a sneer and giving his attention to his daughter instead, Willow’s stare held longer, her eyes glimmering in distaste and her lip slightly curled up, and Weiss could feel Emerald starting to crack under the power in the glare.

“Good evening father, mother.” Weiss smiled brightly and spoke clearly to capture both of their attention and save her friend, stepping in between them fully so Emerald was fully obstructed from her view. “How was the meeting? Are you both well?”

Both Coco and Ciel were standing behind Jacques and Willow, and both looked apologetic. They’d likely tried stalling to buy Weiss and Emerald as much time as they could, but clearly Weiss was wanted.

Which either boded very well, or horrifically.

Either way, Weiss was happy to throw herself in front as a shield if it meant Emerald got ignored.

Her parents took the offer, Willow extending a hand forward to summon Weiss towards them to join them.

“Come, dear. We have to talk. It’s been…a concerning night.”

Weiss nodded and approached, looking over her shoulder and giving Emerald one last pleading look, and smiled when Emerald nodded in reconfirmation before she vanished down the hall to escape before Jacques and Willow remembered she existed.

As the Schnees passed by, both Coco and Ciel gave polite bows to the parents, and smiles of farewell to Weiss.

Ciel stepped forward to intercept Weiss with a quick hug and a whisper about seeing her at school on Monday, but Coco followed up with a longer hug that ended in a sharp and hidden glare when she pulled back.

The frustration in the glare was pointed and dagger-sharp, and Weiss simply raised an eyebrow in defiance as she stepped away and turned to follow her parents further.

As Weiss skipped a few steps forward to catch up to her parents again, they heard the massive front doors of the estate opening and closing as Coco and Ciel vanished, leaving the three of them in private.

Weiss followed as her father led the way to the comfiest and most personal of the parlors in the estate, the fireplace already lit, meaning they would be sitting and talking for some time.

It had a ball of dread lodge into Weiss’s gut.

‘What the hell has happened???’

But her dread and anxiety were distracted when her father spoke up with a stern and reproachful sigh.

“Weiss, every time you demean yourself by allowing that… thing into our home, you lessen our entire standing.”

Weiss immediately bristled as her father opened up an argument they’d had a thousand times, clenching her teeth but resisting giving her father an actual glare. It would be seen as childish.

“Emerald is a dear friend.”

“Abominations do not have ‘ friends’, Weiss. They have enablers.” Jacques huffed in frustration as he gestured for Weiss to sit on the couch while he lowered himself into his favorite armchair. “Your association with her is a continued debasement of your authority.”

“And here I was under the impression that authority is what allows me to make the decisions I wish without them being questioned by others.” Weiss scowled, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting back on the couch, her eyes alternating between where her father was looking at her in frustration to where her mother looked more contemplative. So she decided her mother was the better target. “Mother, Emerald has been a valuable ally in the past. She has talents that-”

Weiss knew that was immediately the wrong thing to say from how Willow gave a snarl so filled with disgust that her eyes briefly pulsed black, sitting up and giving Weiss a glare so condemning that it could have extinguished the fireplace.

“Talents?? That creature is profane , Weiss! We’ve been over this! That entire bloodline are nothing more than--”

“Emerald has no control over what her predecessors did! It’s not her fault!” Weiss snarled back, her own eyes darkening in defense of her friend, and the ferocity of her response had Willow’s eyebrows shoot all the way up.

“Perhaps she did not synthesize her plague. But she is infected regardless!”

Eyes widening at the revulsion in her mother’s tone, Weiss almost shot up to her feet in horror at it, her glare intensifying into judgement as well as defense.

“Mother!” 

Before it could escalate, Willow already opening her mouth to likely take things a step further, Jacques ended things by slamming his hand down onto the armrest of his chair.

“Enough! Enough of this, for tonight at least. We can discuss Weiss’s choice in associates later, as a family. But for now…” Jacques slumped back in his armchair slightly, resting an elbow up and stroking his moustache in thought. “For now, we have other matters.”

The shift in her father’s demeanor was enough to cut Weiss’s anger off at the knees, and she stared in surprise before looking over at where Willow had calmed as well as her own thoughts returned to the night.

Both of her parents had a frozen beauty to themselves as the Beasts chewing them up from the inside made sure to keep them shaped into the perfect predators they were, and yet the stress of the evening still battled through and made them look tired.

The last time a Crimson Council had made her parents look so stressed…

Weiss sucked in a breath and sat up warily.

“Father? Mother? What happened?”

Jacques rubbed his eyes with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“There has been…an incident out in the town. Quite a unique one, as a matter of fact. Our sources inside the police have provided us with photographs, and it’s certainly singular in its monstrosity.” Jacques opened his eyes again and templed his fingers in front of his mouth in thought, staring over into the fire as he mulled. “It was not a mundane crime, otherwise we would not consider it of any importance. Yet…we have been unable to identify the true culprit.”

Weiss frowned at that, since that bit of information hadn’t come up from anything her friends had known. All they’d known was that there’d been some messy murder in the southern suburbs.

But to have it identified as something supernatural in origin, yet not know exactly what, meant that the culprit wasn’t from the area.

Some other supernatural being had come in from out of town to hunt.

“What made the death so… unique, father?” Weiss tilted her head to prompt her father to answer, and the man sighed tiredly as he looked away from the flames and over at her again.

“Ritualistic symbols and signs. We know nothing about the victims yet, we shall allow mortal law enforcement to gather information and then take it from them for our own perusal, but a ritual of some description was clearly performed.”

Willow cut in at that, giving a single shake of her head in disagreement, and she folded her hands on her lap as she gave Weiss a calm and reassuring look.

“A ritual was clearly attempted. But squiggles on the floorboards and a bit of butchery does not mean anything of consequence happened. There is a chance it was just a mortal in a mad delirium and nothing more.” Willow cautioned a calm and open mind as she clicked her tongue and adjusted in her seat, pure blood Schnee to the core as she shook her head to dismiss conclusions until more evidence was in front of them. And evidence was gathered through connections, patience, and pressure. “We’re investigating to see if any new covens have arrived in town recently, but we don’t believe any have. Once we have a copy of the coroner’s report on the bodies, we can move forward, but apparently the autopsy report has gone missing.”

At the murder being described as savage enough to be ritualistic, Weiss suddenly understood her parents’ exhaustion and dread, and why they felt compelled to keep Weiss entirely up to date;

The dark cloud that had hung over the Schnee Estate for a decade now, the black mark on their name.

And considering the lump of fear that appeared in her own gut just at the thought of it, her Beast shivering and ceasing to breathe, Weiss looked between her parents in horror.

“...you think it might be her??? Winter is here???”

Jacques immediately shook his head with urgency, sitting up from where his exhaustion had him slumping rather lazily only because they were in private. But he fixed Weiss with a firm stare and thinned his lips.

“If Winter was here, we would know. We’ve been following her from a safe distance, and we made sure to receive an immediate report tonight, which is why we were out so late. No, she’s still slaughtering her way across Europe. Clearly she has no interest in returning, not whilever there’s food and fun remaining for her.”

While Willow sighed sadly at her first child being referred to the way that she had to be, Weiss instead gave a massive sigh of relief and gave a distracted and grateful nod as she folded her hands on her lap and looked off into nothing while her mind raced. The past twenty-four hours had been so utterly bizarre and jarring that she was feeling a type of anxiety she hadn’t felt for a long time.

The last time the foundations of her world had been threatened had been a year ago almost to the day.

The timing had Weiss suck in a breath, anxious and sudden enough that both of her parents looked over at her in alarm and concern. While her father remained silent, simply keeping an eye on her until she decided to speak, Willow reached over and placed a hand on her knee.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

Weiss swallowed down the dryness in her throat “...could it also be related to whatever happened last year…?”

Both of her parents looked at each other at that, and Jacques cleared his throat uncomfortably at the sudden mood shift, tutting and looking off into the fire again with a dismissive grunt.

“I suppose there’s no real way of knowing, considering Rhodes and his daughter were never actually found.”

Willow hissed and reached over to slap her husband on the shoulder, fixing him with a glare, as Weiss flinched and looked down. “Jacques! A bit of compassion would go a long way, don’t you think?”

The hit wouldn’t have done anything more than demonstrate a point, but Jacques scowled and scoffed at the reprimand anyway. Willow glared at him for another few moments before shuffling closer to Weiss on the couch and wrapping an arm around her shoulders to pull her in.

“I highly doubt it, dear. This atrocity was a one-off event, we’ll make sure of it. Tonight was mostly going over all the facts and delegating our investigations.” Willow huffed in frustration as the politics of the night entered her mind, and she scowled for a moment before banishing it and instead pressing a gentle kiss to the side of Weiss’s head. “But that’s really all. We’ll keep you updated, dear. Now, how was your party? Did you have a nice time?”

Weiss almost didn’t hear the question from how much her mind was racing, putting together a timeline of the past twenty-four hours in her head;

A murder the previous night, where apparently there had been signs of a ritual, even if just an improvised and attempted one, but they didn’t know yet. 

Her parents had received the summons just after dawn, before Weiss had left for school, and her mother had called her to let her know about the council meeting in between second and third period.

Then Ruby had stared at her during lunch while Coco had been organizing her party.

The party itself, finding Ruby bravely snooping around in Coco’s house, making out with her, feeding, the blinding pain when she attempted compulsion, getting staked.

Ruby and her sister Yang vanishing from the party, which wasn’t surprising considering what Ruby had been a part of.

Then the meeting of the coterie, and now this.

Something was wriggling around in her head, an itch that she wasn’t quite able to find in order to scratch it.

“The party was fine, mother.” Weiss forced a shrug as she stared into the fire, barely feeling it as her mother rubbed her shoulders fondly. “Nothing special. They never are. But, it is rather late. May I be excused for bed? And is there also any chance I could have copies of those crime scene photos, for my own perusal?”

Not waiting for an answer, knowing it would be an affirmative since her parents clearly wanted to get to bed as well, Weiss stood and pressed a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek before placing her hand on her father’s shoulder, the man patting her hand for a moment gently.

“Goodnight, my dear. And of course, I suppose it wouldn’t do any harm. I’ll send for some copies to be made in the morning.”

“Thank you, father. Goodnight.” Weiss nodded in thanks as she straightened up, and she was already grabbing her phone from her pocket before she made it to the stairs, scrolling through her contacts so she could call up Reese.

Raising the phone to her ear as she hurried back up the stairs and towards her room, she rolled her eyes at how many times it rang before it was finally answered, Reese almost accidentally letting it ring out entirely.

“Yo yo!”

“Stop saying yo. We’re in the twenty-twenties now.” Weiss rolled her eyes once more as she closed her bedroom door behind herself and locked it. “Do you have a moment?”

“If I say nah, are you gonna ask what you want to ask anyway?” The smirk on Reese’s lips was audible, followed by the sound of a sudden rushing of wind as she was clearly sprinting somewhere at her top speed, easily clearing rooftops in the apartment district that she called home.

Weiss grinned and hummed in the affirmative, tucking her phone into the crook of her neck as she unlaced her shoes and began to get changed for bed. “Yes. So can I go ahead?”

“Yeah yeah, if you must. What’s up? I saw you like…half an hour ago, at most.” The wind stopped as Reese landed on a rooftop and came to a halt, balancing precariously on the edge and looking down at the street well over a dozen stories below.

But she felt no fear, there was no reason to.

That was a quality of Reese’s that Weiss admired, that she envied; Reese wasn’t afraid of anything.

Another quality of hers was that, just like the rest of her bloodline, she couldn’t resist a challenge. And the amount of dares she had passed over the years meant she had a wellspring of random skills and bits of information that came in use at the most surprising times.

“How quickly do you think you would be able to get your hands on a specific mobile number, for me?” Weiss raised her eyebrow as she voiced the challenge, hoping Reese would hear the dare in it, and she grinned in victory when Reese huffed.

“Too easy. Alright, who?”

Weiss sucked in a breath and held it for a few moments as she considered whether to go through with it. She knew she could trust Reese’s discretion, it was her entire business and creed, Reese never even revealed information to her best friend Melanie without permission.

Instead it meant that she’d be removing the last barrier stopping her from making more mistakes.

But she was a Schnee, and Schnees didn’t let anyone else fix their problems.

“Just some girl we go to school with; Ruby Rose.”

Reese hummed in thought, clicking her tongue curiously, but she didn’t enquire any further. That wasn’t part of her business. Besides, Weiss was a Schnee in their coterie. Schnees gave orders, the others obeyed them and trusted their instincts and intentions, even bloodlines like the Chloris, Reese’s own.

But just because they didn’t question the orders, didn’t mean they couldn’t benefit from them.

“Oh! I know her. Pale girl, track team, kinda quiet, with those goddamn legs. Gimme half an hour, and it’s two-hundred bucks.”

Weiss rolled her eyes for the third time, a common expression whenever interacting with Reese, but she didn’t really mind. It was all a part of the game they all played. You could call someone your best friend, and it might still only last up until you had a shot at something delicious that required using their broken corpse as a stepladder.

Extortion was a love language to the vampire.

So Weiss nodded even though Reese couldn’t see it as she pulled on a faded pair of cotton shorts and a singlet for bed.

“Done, cash or bank?”

“Cash. You know me. Who the hell trusts banks these days.” Reese snorted with an audible grin, before she hummed in confirmation once more. “Alright, I’ll text it to you in half an hour. Pay me on Monday. Gotta run.”

“Goodnight, Reese.”

Hanging up, Weiss tossed her phone onto her bed before sitting on the edge of it to wait. Reese would work fast, she always did, so with nothing else to do in the meantime Weiss sat on the edge of her soft mattress and stared off into nothing.

Thoughts raced around in her head, so she couldn’t wait for the dreamless torpor of rest, the exertion of flooding the curse from her system still leaving her tired. It had completely countered the rush of power that Ruby’s blood had provided, draining more from her every minute she’d been laying dead on Coco’s carpet.

But the rush from Ruby’s blood had been otherworldly. Weiss had fed from hundreds of different people over the years, but tonight might never be matched.

Weiss remembered the first time she ever caught Ruby’s scent, passing by her at school when Ruby had been moved up and had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. As nothing like her sister just from looking at her, Weiss had been intrigued immediately, and one whiff of her had changed everything.

She’d needed to lock herself in a bathroom stall for the better part of an hour to calm down and prevent herself from just jumping the girl then and there, to feed or to ravish. Every single part of her Beast had been aroused by the richness of life that Ruby carried.

It was new, and exotic, and alien.

And now it had all gone wrong, in ways Weiss could never have predicted.

Weiss rubbed the slight lingering wound over her singlet, able to feel the lightly rough texture of the skin. It would fade by morning and she would be entirely back to normal, but for now it was persistent.

Groaning helplessly at the situation, Weiss flopped backwards onto her bed and stared up at her roof. No brilliant solutions came to mind, she had no idea what she was dealing with and she just had to hope Emerald came through pretty quickly, but she didn’t have the luxury of being able to do nothing for now.

Coco had been right; normally a problem like this would be handled through either precision compulsions and cutting off the legs of the problem before the race truly began, or by everyone involved having tragic accidents. And with Ruby apparently able to resist compulsion and make it hurt, it meant that the solution any Elder would choose would be certain death.

It would have been the easier option, sure.

But the very thought of it had Weiss hiss.

Which meant thinking of any other solution, and for now only one came to mind, as foolish and optimistic as it was.

Eventually her phone blipped with a text and she grabbed it without looking, muttering the number Reese had texted her as she entered it and quickly typed out a text. It would either work, or backfire so horrendously that Weiss herself would be involved in the wrath of the Council when they took over the situation.

But she didn’t have any better ideas for now. She just had to hope Ruby was willing to be far more reasonable than Weiss deserved, given what had happened earlier.

Entering in the text, Weiss didn’t let herself have a moment of doubt before hitting Send, before shoving her phone under her pillow and sighing in defeat up at her ceiling.

It was going to be a long and sleepless night, her mind unwilling to go silent, and her walls whispering at her.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

+=+=+

Ruby stared down at her lap as she sat on the edge of the dining table, her legs dangling loosely back and forth and her fingers digging into her sweatpants as her mother shined a bright flashlight into her eyes and checked her pupils. Fatigue still had her body in a fog, wrapping a blanket around her limbs, but she was at least able to keep upright as her parents checked her over.

When her mother seemed satisfied that her eyes were responding to light properly and took the flashlight away, Ruby blinked a few times to clear the spots. Summer was being gentle, but she’d barely spoken a word since she’d finished her scolding.

Even while she’d been making her disappointment known, she hadn’t raised her voice. She never did, and somehow it always made it worse. So even though Ruby still believed she’d done the right thing and made a strategic call, she wasn’t able to look either of her parents in the eye again just yet.

It didn’t help that her parents had arrived home from the guild meeting exhausted and stressed, Summer’s satchel thick with more folders and Tai clearly nursing a stress headache. So for the two of them to walk in only to catch Ruby and Yang going over the events of the party that Ruby had been banned from going to…

It hadn’t been pretty, and even Yang looked suitably scolded from where she was sitting on the couch with her arms crossed and watching quietly.

Ruby didn’t flinch or resist as Summer gently cupped her chin and jaw to tilt her head, but she did hiss slightly in discomfort as Summer began to prod and study the spot where Ruby knew she’d been bitten.

Even though there weren’t any marks at all. Not even bruises.

Summer frowned as she studied the skin of her daughter’s neck, shining the bright light directly onto where the marks should have been, even if just the faint ones left over from a bite being closed. “...how long was the feeding, Ruby?”

“N-not long, I think? Fifteen-ish seconds, maybe. I can’t really… remember.” Ruby winced as she tried to picture it in her mind, but while her memory up to the moment of the bite itself was perfectly intact, it was as if the moment that Weiss’s fangs had entered her neck…her brain had turned off. “She clearly got quite a bit out of me though…”

Summer hummed in agreement as she lightly brushed some of Ruby’s hair back and took another check of her temperature, before she looked over at Tai and beckoned for him to come over as well.

“The texture of the bite site. Tell me if you can feel it too.”

Tai took a break from where he’d been alternating scolding glares between his daughters while leaning against the back of the couch with his arms crossed, and joined his wife. As Summer shone the flashlight onto the right spot on Ruby’s neck, Tai narrowed his eyes in concern as he ran his own fingers along the skin.

When he blinked in confusion, Tai looked at Summer only to see the expression mirrored in hers.

While the skin was completely unblemished visibly, there was the slightest change to the feel of it. As if the skin was slightly too smooth to be human, but only in small points. Specific enough ones that Tai was willing to come up with a theory, and he reached over the table to scrounge through where Summer had her hunters’ kit open.

Ruby fidgeted under the silent scrutiny, before stiffening in confusion when Tai grabbed out an infrared thermometer. It was a common hunters’ tool, mostly used to track the slightly frosted handprints left by wraiths, so for Tai to get it for this and start fiddling with the settings was…odd.

Placing a hand on his daughter’s shoulder to reassure her, Tai managed a small smile before he placed the device against her neck and powered it on. “Stay still, sweetheart.”

The thermometer whirred quietly as it began to scan, taking a heat reading of her body, and Ruby tried to remain still even as her curiosity wanted her to crane her neck to see what her parents were looking for. Even Yang had risked getting up from the couch and coming over to see, hovering over Tai’s shoulder.

Tai clicked through the different settings on the device as he ran it along Ruby’s neck, the differences in temperature too small to be discernible in the visual display, but the detected number shifted as he slowly mapped out the spot of skin that felt different to the touch.

Sure enough, in a few small specific spots on her neck, Ruby’s skin was slightly cooler than the rest.

Invisible fang marks, in a way that Tai had never seen before. Normally vampiric bites left faint marks even if they closed them, but this was new.

“From the looks of it, the girl closed the wound the normal way after releasing you. But I’ve never seen a vampire close their bite so flawlessly before, and it’s definitely left some type of trace.” Tai passed the device to Summer before stepping around and crouching in front of Ruby. His eyes were still frustrated and disappointed, but both emotions were greatly outweighed by his concern. Patting her knee, Tai sighed. “You did good, kiddo. Even if you hadn’t staked her and all you’d managed was getting away, it’d still be impressive. But-”

“But I wouldn’t have needed to get away at all if I hadn’t gone in the first place.” Ruby broke off eye contact and looked down at her lap again guiltily, and nodded.

It had been incredibly foolish, but the opportunity for information had been too great to pass up. It was only after she’d gone upstairs that everything had gone…wrong.

From the moment she’d stepped foot in Coco’s bedroom, the memories were tinged and blurry around the edges. As if it was a dream or a high, all the colours too vibrant when she recalled them, and the memories of the sensations making her feel floaty.

After Weiss had caught her, it was like trying to remember the sensation of slowly sinking underneath the surface of a river, pressure rising on every inch of skin and her sight rippling as her hearing was muffled. Weightlessness and pressure from all sides as just being close enough to Weiss to see how light reflected in her blue eyes had been enough to coax her to drown.

She knew from her studies that vampires possessed a certain exotic aura of seduction. That of all the predators they were one of the best equipped to play with the senses and draw in their prey. Even their voices were enthrallingly pleasurable to listen to, when they wanted them to be.

Ruby had always thought that all of those reports and studies had to be exaggerated. But even full nights with other girls in the past had done less for her than the sound of Weiss’s giggling. And just a few moments of eye contact, of Weiss staring up at her and fluttering her eyelashes, had made Ruby’s legs quiver.

But…she’d never read anything about their bite causing pleasure or intoxication. Plenty of vampiric prey ended up getting killed purely because they’d tried fighting back against the pain of the attack.

And yet the moment Weiss had sunk her fangs into Ruby, there hadn’t been any pain at all. Only a pleasure and a sense of completion so raw and carnal that Ruby had still been shivering and twitching from lingering need even by the time she was in Blake’s backseat.

Ruby had thought she knew everything about vampires. She’d memorised every report, historical text, and dossier that her parents kept in the house. Every time her parents or another member of the guild fought one and dispatched one, Ruby always asked for more details than the guild itself required.

But even if she clearly hadn’t known everything to prepare for, it hadn’t saved Weiss from her the moment that she’d snapped back to herself. The stake had gone in perfectly even though she’d rushed it out of instinct, and Weiss would have crumbled into dust in less than a minute.

Even as the thought brought a small satisfied and smug grin to the corner of Ruby’s mouth, for a brief moment it was as if the skin of her neck pulsed cold. Enough so that she shuddered.

Tai raised an eyebrow as he regarded Ruby’s grin, and he stood back up and placed a hand on her shoulder to squeeze.

“Who knows what’s going to come next now that we’ve actually killed a daywalker. You sure picked a bad week to change the status quo, sweetheart. But…you did good.”

Summer gave a quiet hum of agreement as she packed up her kit again and buckled her bag closed, and placed her hands on her hips when she straightened up to her full height and looked down at where Ruby immediately felt scolded again.

She tapped her finger on her belt as she looked down into Ruby’s eyes, her lips thin, before she sighed and deflated.

As the scolding sharpness left her face, all that was there was exhaustion. Not merely the exhaustion caused by working all day and night, but the exhaustion of a mother who feared for her daughter. Summer had been training Ruby how to fight since Ruby was a child, and she’d prepared her as best she could even as Ruby had grown more zealous, perhaps too zealous.

But now that it was real it carried a weight that had Summer pinch her nose and rub her eyelids. Both of her little girls were warriors now in a constant struggle that had been going on for centuries, since the time when the Guild had instead held the name of Inquisition.

The shadows under her mother’s eyes had Ruby’s chest thump in guilt, and it must have shown on her face from how Summer shook her head and pressed a kiss to Ruby’s forehead softly.

“Don’t do it again, petal. Get some rest, and tomorrow morning you have to write up your first kill report.”

Even though she said it with the tone of a parent assigning a chore, Summer had to swallow amusement when Ruby seemed to hear it as some sort of reward, her daughter immediately brightening up and smiling up at her.

Writing up a kill report made it official; Ruby had taken the life of a supernatural creature, a threat, on behalf of the Guild. She was a Hunter now.

The reports were the part of the job that most hunters loathed the most, with Tai often putting them off as long as possible even though Summer always did hers immediately upon getting home. And the bare handful that Yang had filled out in her so far short career had been so lazy they were barely decipherable, yet Ruby looked actively excited at the prospect of it. 

Paperwork wasn’t meant to be a trophy, but Summer refused to take any of Ruby’s pride out of the moment, instead she rolled her eyes with a small smile of her own and ushered Ruby to head up to her room.

“We’ll do it after breakfast. Go on, now. Your father and I need to talk.”

Ruby nodded as she hopped up from the edge of the table, swaying on her feet and smothering a massive yawn with her arm, and she hugged her mother tightly.

“...I’m sorry that I snuck out.”

“Your enthusiasm is certainly something we need to talk about, sweetheart.” Summer sighed as she hugged back, rubbing circles onto Ruby’s back affectionately. “You’re well trained, but you got very lucky tonight.”

Squeezing her mother for a few moments and nodding, Ruby released her to hug her dad goodnight, smiling when he ruffled her hair playfully. All the other apologies that needed to happen would happen tomorrow as she wrote out her report and did all the chores that had been piled onto her as punishment for sneaking out, for now she needed to sleep off the rest of the fatigue.

So her bed was key on her mind as she swayed her way upstairs to her room, Yang right behind her on the stairs to make sure she didn’t trip from exhaustion. But she got to the upstairs hall without incident and stumbled to her door, and gave Yang a small apologetic smile.

“...sorry. For tonight.”

“Eh, you’ve covered my ass enough times.” Yang shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal, taking a hand from her shorts to wave it off. But the nonchalant bravado didn’t manage to last long before Yang’s face cracked and she pulled Ruby into a hug so tight that Ruby let out a wheeze. “You should have taken me inside with you. We’re Hunters, Ruby. We watch each other’s backs.”

Ruby couldn’t help but smile into the hug at Yang’s words. They were both Hunters now, They were partners, a team alongside their parents. Ruby was allowed to be at her sister’s side now whenever there was something to be put down. Maybe she’d even be allowed to go out on patrol with Nora instead of being forced to just hear about it in class.

“I’m alright, Yang. Promise. Just wiped. I got bit, but I’m okay and she’s dust. We did it.”

“We? I didn’t do anything. This little victory is all yours.” Yang scoffed, and Ruby heard the smile in it, before Yang let her go and stepped back to give her a fond grin so filled with pride it almost lit up the hallway. “You kicked ass tonight, even though you got bit. But you should be able to just sleep it off.”

Yawning again, Ruby nodded tiredly and waved goodnight before opening her bedroom door and stumbling inside, nudging it closed behind herself with her foot and flopping down onto her bed, still in the clothes she’d worn to the party.

Even though she hadn’t even been in a fight, every muscle in her body was sore, the tension they’d been locked in from the shock of what had happened still stinging. Every time she blinked she watched it all over again, flashing behind her eyelids, right up to the moment Weiss had given her an invitation she hadn’t resisted.

What the hell had she been thinking??? Had she even been thinking at all??

Weiss Schnee, scion of one of the oldest families in town and of a legacy of vampires that could somehow walk in the sun and break quite a few other rules, had fluttered her eyelashes in invitation. Had teased her, flirted from the moment she’d walked in the room, and played Ruby like a fucking fiddle.

And what had Ruby Rose, trained hunter and known among the guild as a hater of vampire-kind, done in response to a lethal predator getting close enough she’d felt Weiss’s breath washing over her skin as she had whispered?

She’d fucked her on the desk of the other vampiress she’d been investigating.

Ruby couldn’t pick the appropriate sound to make at herself for it, instead simply grabbing up one of her pillows and slamming it over her face.

What the fuck?

It had to have been suggestion, the way just being close to Weiss had made Ruby’s blood run hot and her hair tingled at the roots. All vampires could do it, they radiated sex and sensuality, it was their weapon and their armour, and it had reduced Ruby to a whining, panting mess in minutes.

She felt weak. Susceptible. But god, she’d never tasted anything like Weiss’s lips before, and Weiss sure knew what the fuck she was doing when she kissed and grabbed. Weiss had known what she wanted and had known Ruby could give it.

‘Willing participant’ was an understatement, maybe for them both.

And then, the flash of fangs, and no clarity to react in time before they’d been inside of her neck.

That was the moment the memory stopped. Turning blurry, like clouds swam inside of her brain and filled her veins.

It had made her body shiver and lock up as it had flooded into her, her lips were still sore from where she’d clearly been biting them to stop herself making a sound, and god even as she’d been stumbling through the house afterwards she’d been so fucking hot and needy from the aftershocks that her vision had swam.

Just thinking about it, the bite, the fog of it, the heat and the shaking in her legs, the sense of completion it had shrouded her in, had her shiver. To her horror, she whimpered into her pillow, her neck pulsing cold for a moment and making her shudder again.

Ruby tossed the pillow back up against the headboard and sighed.

It didn’t matter now, Weiss had released her and something had happened that had made her eyes so sore she’d been tearing up periodically since getting home, and it had given her enough of a flash of clarity that she’d been able to drive the branch right into Weiss’s chest.

Even though up to that point it had been the fucking hottest experience and sensory-overload of Ruby’s life, it didn’t change the fact that Weiss wouldn’t be at school on Monday. Instead she’d have to be vacuumed off Coco’s carpet.

Ruby frowned at the thought as it hit her. The reality of it.

Weiss had been a monster, a predator of humanity, part of a species responsible for torture and death and who revelled in the pain they caused. And clearly Weiss herself participated in it considering she’d fed from Ruby the moment she had the chance.

Vampires drained humans of blood, feeding from them like parasites, and sometimes outright killing them. And Weiss had certainly enjoyed the game she’d played to hunt.

But she wouldn’t be at school on Monday. She’d never spin her pen in chemistry class, or take her seat in the cafeteria, or conduct student council meetings. Her friends would leave a space for her at their table for a while.

But while the humans would be distraught that their friend was gone, the vampires would have to reckon with the reality that they were able to be slain and there was someone willing to do it.

Weiss was gone and Ruby was a hunter now.

Depending on the story the Schnees came up with to explain their daughter’s disappearance, the school might hold some sort of service, Weiss had certainly been popular enough.

Ruby would be expected to go, standing in a crowd holding a candle and pretending she hadn’t been the one who’d-

Her phone blipped from her pocket, vibrating against her leg with a text.

Ruby snapped out of her morbid train of thought and craned her neck to check the time on her alarm clock, before grabbing her phone from her pocket. Surely nobody else from the guild knew already, unless Yang had texted Pyrrha or Nora before bed.

‘Hi Ruby. You left your jacket, would you like it back? I have an apology I’d like to make in person, if you’ll give me the chance to explain. Please. - Weiss”

Every cell in Ruby’s body suddenly felt as if it was made of ice as she stared at the screen, frozen long enough that her phone went dark and she had to numbly unlock it again so she could continue staring.

There was no way.

There was no fucking way.

The stake had gone in perfectly.

Even though she’d been…distracted…she knew that she’d done it right.

Placing her phone on her bedside table with movements that were slow from the trembling washing over her skin, Ruby numbly swung up and let her legs dangle from the edge of her bed as she stared blankly at her wall. Her eyes went to the hook on the back of her door she normally hung her jacket on, and suddenly the cold numbness shifted into the heat of shame.

Holy shit.

What the fuck was wrong with her??? She left her jacket. Which had her name on it.

Ruby buried her face in her hands and screamed through closed lips and into her palms, the sound muffled enough nobody would hear through the walls, and she squeezed her eyes shut even as they teared up.

But there was no way it was Weiss that had found it, right? Someone else would have found it next to a pile of dust on the carpet, no problem.

Coco maybe? Which spelled doom as well, in its own way.

‘Okay, calm down. You’re a Hunter, so think like one.’

Ruby took in a deep breath to calm herself and sat up, rolling her neck and shoulders to pop the tension that clamped into the muscles and joints, before she grabbed her phone again and closed the text so she could open her contacts.

She didn’t recognise the number, so she had no way of knowing if it really was Weiss.

But she knew someone who’d be able to tell her.

Scrolling down to the right number and wincing apologetically at the late hour, Ruby hit the call button and raised her phone to her ear with crossed fingers.

It only rang three times before it was answered.

“Hello? Ruby? It’s very late!”

Ruby let out a short and quick sigh of relief at just how awake and alert Penny sounded, likely still at her computer, and Ruby crossed her fingers tighter and cleared her throat.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that, but I need your help.”

“Oh It can’t wait until tomorrow?” Penny had her phone tucked into her shoulder so she could continue typing and clicking, Ruby could hear her keyboard. “I’m a bit caught up at the moment.”

“It’s…for work.” 

The typing stopped immediately, Penny halting in surprise and blinking, before she immediately closed her game and put her phone up to her ear properly so she could talk.

“I see. What do you need, Ruby? Are you alright?”

Ruby let out the breath she’d been holding as she heard Penny straighten up and focus. “I’ll fill you in next time I see you. But I need you to reverse-find a number for me. I got a text and I need to know who it was from.”

“Oh! That’s nothing. One moment, I have to grab my gear.” Penny briefly put her phone down so she could push her chair away from her desk and slide across the floorboards of her room to a set of drawers, opening the third and grabbing out one work laptop of many, and quickly grabbing out a headset as well so she could talk hands free.

Connecting the headset to her phone, Penny slid it over her ear as she plopped onto her bed and opened her laptop to get the right program open. She muttered her credentials to herself as she logged in, watching as the guild’s symbol of a sword flashed once her password was accepted.

“Alright, too simple. What’s the number?”

Ruby told her, having memorised it at a glance, and tucked her legs underneath herself as she waited. It occurred to her that this was her first proper phone call from one Hunter to another in regards to ‘guild business’, and while it should have felt exhilarating instead she just felt anxious.

“Alright Ruby, that was the number of…Weiss Schnee. Which is…concerning.” Penny bit her bottom lip, a habit so common that she had miniscule and practically invisible scars from the years of chewing. “What does she want with you?”

Ruby’s eyes had closed in unison with her heart plummeting down into her gut at the confirmation, and she ran her free hand over her face and pinched her nose in a gesture she’d inherited from her mother.

There was just no way.

Except clearly…

Taking in a deep breath, Ruby shook her head in an attempt at defiance even as dread dragged her shoulders down.

“I left my jacket at a party, that’s all. Thanks for that, Penny. Go back to your game.”

Penny was quiet for a moment as she closed her laptop and put it to the side, frowning at Ruby’s tone. A vampiress that Penny knew that Ruby held a blackened hateful grudge against had just contacted her, and of all the new generation of Hunters it was Ruby that had been itching to prove herself the most.

But if Ruby said she was okay, then she normally was. She was eager, but not suicidal.

Penny bit her lip again, but she’d trusted Ruby since they were kids, so she moved back to her chair and slid back over to her desk.

“If you say so. But please navigate anything with Weiss Schnee with caution and restraint.”

Ruby nodded even though Penny couldn’t see, biting her own lip for a moment, before shakily standing up and bracing herself.

“I will, promise. Alright, I gotta go. See you on Monday?”

“Of course! Goodnight Ruby.”

Waiting until Penny hung up, using it as a few extra moments to gather her thoughts and try to focus, Ruby tossed her phone onto her bed and quickly strode over to her bedroom door and opened it. Every movement was quick and forced, needing the momentum so that her nerves didn’t have time to stop her, but it meant she wasn’t able to be truly quiet as she knocked on Yang’s door.

There was a quiet thump as Yang startled in bed, her laptop likely falling off from where she’d dozed off watching something, and her voice was groggy and heavy.

“Yeah…? Jesus, what is it?”

Ruby sucked in another breath before she turned the handle and stepped in, giving her groggy and half-asleep sister an apologetic smile that was tinged with enough poorly-suppressed fear that Yang shot up and blinked wide awake.

Ruby looked exhausted, she had since she stumbled out of Coco’s house, but fear had her practically rigid in Yang’s doorway and her jaw clenched tight.

So Yang reached over and switched on her lamp, before lifting the blankets and patting the mattress next to her for Ruby to join her.

When Ruby immediately laid down and shuffled in, Yang could feel her trembling, and she frowned.

“Hey…hey hey, what’s up?” Yang pulled the blankets up over them both as Ruby snuggled into her side, and wrapped an arm around Ruby’s shoulders to keep her close. “...shaken from tonight?”

Ruby closed her eyes and took a breath as her sister’s warmth soaked into her, and she cuddled into her comforting presence. Being near Yang was always safe. She never judged, never questioned, she only ever protected. And thank god for that.

“...Yang. Something’s gone wrong.” Ruby sighed when she felt Yang tense slightly at her tone of voice, and when Yang waited patiently for her to elaborate she opened her eyes again and shuffled back so she could sit up against the headboard. “She survived. Weiss survived.”

There was a moment of silence as Yang shot up and blinked, eyes widening and brow dipping in bewilderment. She knew Ruby’s skill, so if Ruby said she’d staked a vampire properly then she definitely did. And a staked vampire turned to dust in under a minute.

“...holy shit, you’re sure??”

“She texted me. I left my fucking jacket behind, she asked me if I wanted it back.” Ruby scoffed at the candour of it, how impossibly casual it was, and Yang sucked in a breath. But Ruby cut off the inevitable exasperated admonishment with a shake of her head. “I know, I know. Rookie mistake.”

“Understatement of the century...” Yang sighed, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes and letting out a quick breath to focus herself. “So, she wants to meet. I’m not surprised she wants to talk to you, considering.”

Ruby nodded slowly in agreement. Underneath her shock and confusion, she couldn’t deny that she was curious as well. “Should I go?”

Letting out another slow breath in a drawn out huff, Yang let her head fall back against the headboard with a thump. Her immediate instinctive response to the idea was a vehement ‘hell no’. Vampires were among the most dangerous creatures to face even when they didn’t see you as a threat, so one on the defensive with a secret to protect…

But Weiss wouldn’t have let Ruby know she was alive if she intended on getting revenge. She would have waited for an opening to strike in the night while Ruby was out, and nobody would have seen her again.

So for Weiss to openly let Ruby know that she had failed, and clearly invite her to talk, had Yang bite her lip as she genuinely considered it.

“Make sure it’s somewhere public. During the day. And I’m coming with you as backup, properly this time.” Yang wrapped her arm around Ruby’s shoulders again and pulled her in, rubbing her arm comfortingly. “We find out everything we can, then we tell the Guild. A stake through the heart didn’t kill a daywalker, Ruby, our friends have to be informed of that. That’s another weakness that can’t kill them.”

That was the thought that was sticking out to Ruby the most; it was another fatal weakness that the old bloodlines were seemingly able to just ignore without concern, which meant there were barely any options left to try. Short of beheading Weiss and hoping for the best.

But surely it hadn’t left her entirely without a scratch. She hadn’t been able to pursue Ruby through the house, where she certainly would have been fast enough to catch her before she got to the stairs.

So Ruby frowned as she considered it, before nodding.

“Okay. I’ll set the meeting, and you’re my backup.”

Yang hummed in agreement, and pulled her little sister in closer.

It had sure been a complicated twenty-four hours.

+=+=+

The Old Porter Mall was packed, just as it always was on Saturdays, with locals rushing around grabbing groceries and window shopping while tourists took their leisurely time browsing through the large variety of family owned stores that dominated Silvercloud.

What made spending hours among the shops and food courts even more enjoyable was that the mall was built more like a market than a shopping mall, with large open skylights over where people bustled and walked, letting in the sun, and the large sets of double doors dotted around kept open to let in the breeze.

It was normally a place of comfort and familiarity for Ruby and Yang as they made their way through the crowd, shuffling between families with their shoulders tense and their hands lingering by their sides. Their eyes were darting around constantly, not even noticing changed displays in shop windows, and even when they glimpsed familiar faces they didn’t acknowledge them.

They had other things on their minds, a space normally of comfort instead feeling like walking into a set of waiting jaws. It felt wrong to be in such a public place and in the middle of the day but still expecting danger. They were trained for their enemies to wait until sunset. Days were for the living.

And yet the sleeves of Yang’s jacket were tight around her wrists, hiding where her bolt launchers were attached and loaded, and while Ruby wasn’t able to wear her full set of throwing knives she had one strapped to each thigh, accessible through hidden slits in the pockets of her trousers.

Ruby checked the time on her phone and her breath caught in her throat, a ripple of ice cold anxiety washing through her nerves. They were on time, having arrived early to make a perfectly casual lap of the building to case what they might be dealing with, but everything seemed to be in order.

Well, as in order as things could be,considering what the sisters knew they were walking into.

Taking an escalator up to the third floor of the mall, they entered the massive food court, and while Yang roamed her eyes over the entire place and noted every visible face, Ruby's attention went directly to the designated meeting spot.

It was a small coffee shop owned by one of the older families in the town, so beloved by the students of the high school that they were practically keeping it in business just on their own. And, sitting at one of the tables with her hands folded and tapping her thumbs together as she was deep in what was clearly a very tense discussion with Coco, was Weiss.

Intact, alive, and alert.

She should have been a pile of dust, but instead she was perfectly capable of breaking eye contact with Coco to instead pin Ruby with her stare. Her lips thinned slightly, and her thumbs ceased in their tapping, before interrupting Coco without looking away from Ruby.

Coco immediately turned and looked over her shoulder in their direction, reaching up and lowering her usual shades down her nose so she could peer over at them, and while she narrowed her eyes as she scrutinised Ruby, her eyebrows raised when she noticed Yang.

Rolling her shoulders to stretch them out, Ruby took in a slow and deep breath as she braced herself, and she glanced next to her at where Yang was glaring right back at Coco.

“Let’s do this?”

“...yeah. Let’s. Rude of her to bring backup. Just as we seemed to have gotten into Coco’s good books too.” Yang huffed, clenching her fists by her side and cracking her neck, before her eyebrow shot up as she looked at Weiss. “Oh. The cheeky little bitch.”

Ruby didn’t respond, she’d noticed it the moment she’d seen her;

Because right in front of everyone, where others from school had certainly passed by and noticed, Weiss was wearing her letterman jacket. Ruby’s name was clear on her back, visible to the world, and the potential insinuations of it would have hit the rumour mill already.

No matter how this conversation went, school was going to be unbearable on Monday. And there was no way Weiss didn’t know what she was doing.

Even despite the anxiety thrumming inside of her body, Ruby felt the familiar sensation of social exhaustion go through her, and she groaned in annoyance. The last thing she ever wanted was people staring at her, and the track team had certainly noticed she had vanished during the party. So they were going to be unbearable in their theorising and teasing too.

But there wasn’t anything to do about that for now except dread it, which wasn’t a priority, so Ruby put it into a box inside of her brain and started walking over. Yang fell in step next to her, close enough their shoulders were touching, the message clear not just to Ruby but also to the other two.

She may have had her hands casually in the pockets of her jacket, but her glare likely could have been able to set the two vampires on fire if it lingered long enough. But, she was here to follow Ruby’s lead and have her back, so when Ruby noticeably relaxed her own posture Yang sighed and attempted the same.

Meanwhile Weiss and Coco had both stood as well, Coco pushing her shades back up so they hid her eyes, while Weiss zipped up Ruby’s jacket with a flourish before keeping her hands by her sides in full view.

With her bottom lip slightly between her teeth and her eyes flicking back and forth between the sisters, Weiss looked as apprehensive as Ruby felt. There wasn’t any open hostility in her demeanour, but Ruby didn’t doubt that there was probably quite a bit of it underneath Weiss’s public face.

Vampires were, by their nature, among the best liars and deceivers in all of the supernatural world. They lied as easily as humans breathed, and likely just as instinctively. So Ruby reminded herself of the feel of where her knives were strapped to her thighs as she ran her eyes up and down Weiss.

She was dressed deceptively casually considering the circumstances; just in a pair of expensive jeans, nice day boots, and Ruby had seen a normal pale blue blouse before she’d zipped up Ruby’s jacket over it. The jacket itself was the impossibly dark green and steel toned silver of their school colours, but she somehow made it work.

It wasn’t surprising. Weiss could have worn garbage bags and looked like pure fucking sex, as far as Ruby was concerned. Which, once she caught herself thinking it, was a reflex that had Ruby wince and scowl at herself.

Twelve hours ago, she’d done her damndest to kill Weiss after Weiss had attacked her mid-fuck, now she was half-scrutinising the girl while mentally holding a pillow tightly over the face of the half of herself that was ogling instead.

But from how Weiss’s eyes were taking time to run up her appearance, it seemed like the conflict was partially mutual.

Which didn’t help Ruby upon noticing, and she clenched one of her fists tighter for a moment.

The sisters reached where the other two girls were waiting for them, and there was a beat of silence as they scrutinised each other from up close, before it was Coco who spoke first.

“So then,” Coco raised her eyebrow at Ruby, taking in her demeanour one last time, before flicking her eyes to Yang. “I’m guessing you’re ‘in the loop, ’ as it were.”

Yang snorted and took her hands out of her pockets so she could place one on Ruby’s back supportively, keeping her expression indifferent as she stared at Coco right back.

“Clearly you are too. Strange night?”

“Finding my best friend attacked on my carpet? While I’ve had stranger ones, it was certainly an unexpected surprise.” Coco’s attention went back to Ruby, and she tapped the tip of her finger on her lips in consideration. “ Very unexpected. I don’t appreciate my privacy being violated. Nor my desk, for that matter.”

Ruby shrugged dismissively, before she looked at where Weiss was momentarily looking annoyed more than anything else. The jabs and attitude didn’t appeal to her, but she’d resigned to it as soon as Coco had agreed to come along.

But once Ruby’s attention was on her, Weiss straightened up and folded her hands behind her back, her expression cooling.

“Thank you for coming. Shall we?” Weiss looked over to an emergency door on the other side of the food court, which hid a set of fire stairs that led down to the parking garage. But they also went up, providing roof access, and mall security had given up on keeping teenagers out years ago. “I doubt we want to talk about this right where anyone might overhear.”

While Ruby genuinely considered it with a frown, Yang immediately snorted and shook her head.

“You think I’m going to let you get her on her own, given what happened?”

“I think it’s safe to say Ruby has proven she isn’t exactly a damsel.” Weiss shot back, raising an eyebrow in annoyance at Yang for a moment before she looked at Ruby again. “But, it’s up to you, Ruby. Whatever you’re comfortable with.”

Ruby blinked at the sincerity on Weiss’s face and in her tone, something almost shy in it, and her curiosity definitely sparked enough that she nudged Yang’s shoulder with her own and looked over at her.

“It’s okay. You and Coco stay down here and keep an eye on the door.”

Sucking in a slow and deep breath through her nose, Yang hesitated, before looking over at Coco and raising an eyebrow.

“You cool with that?”

“Thrilled.” Coco drawled, looking over at Weiss with a level of exasperation that bled through her sunglasses. When Weiss simply shrugged, completely unperturbed, Coco thinned her lips and checked the expensive watch on her wrist. “Shall we give them, say, twenty minutes before we go up to check and make sure they both played nice?”

Yang nodded in agreement and grabbed her phone from her pocket to check the time, before leaning in to whisper to Ruby, placing her hand on her shoulder to give her a supportive squeeze as she spoke.

“Be careful. Stay out of the shade. Sun may not kill them, but it probably still hurts like a bitch.”

The two vampires glanced at each other, Coco raising an eyebrow smugly as she clearly proved some sort of point, and Weiss huffed and nodded.

“It’s not agony, but it’s certainly irritating.” When the sisters looked over at her in annoyance at her listening in, Weiss simply gestured to her ear with a look that was mildly apologetic.

She couldn’t exactly help what she overheard, with her hearing as sensitive as it was, and the sisters knew that, but it was still annoying.

It was also a casual reminder, in the most innocuous and harmless of ways, of what they were dealing with. Sometimes it was so easy, so tempting, to forget what Weiss and some of her friends were. To forget they weren’t just ordinary teenage girls, just as susceptible to things like gossip and whispered scheming.

Ruby had certainly forgotten for a few blank minutes the previous night, in a way that wasn’t gentle at all. And it had ended dark and hot, something like oil slicking Ruby’s skin that her shower hadn’t managed to completely remove.

Thank god this time they would meet in the sun. It was Ruby’s turn for home turf.

So, with one last nod to Yang, and a long and tense staring content with Coco as she walked past, Ruby began to make way over to the stairwell door. Weiss walked at her side, but she didn’t say anything or even glance her way, instead her expression was collected and set firm as she was lost in her own thoughts.

Weiss was the one who opened the door, stepping aside so Ruby could walk past, and simply nodding when Ruby muttered her thanks. As Ruby disappeared up the stairs, her footsteps echoing, Weiss looked across the food court and made eye contact with Coco one last time.

Despite the fact she’d begrudgingly agreed to follow Weiss’s lead, Coco’s arms were crossed in her annoyance as she met Weiss’s look with a glare. She’d agreed to be Weiss’s backup, but she’d also once more made her own opinion clear about how the easiest solution would be to just kill Ruby and her family and cut the secret off before it spread.

Because clearly Ruby had done exactly what Coco had said she would, and told Yang everything.

And yet, Yang didn’t seem scared or confused in the slightest. In fact, from what Weiss could see, she looked more like she was ready to pounce and leap into action the instant she was given the opportunity to.

Curious…

Both siblings knew the supernatural existed, or at the very least that vampires existed, and if Ruby had suspected preemptively what Coco was then it was a fair assumption considering her utter lack of surprise that Yang had shared the thought.

In the past twenty-four hours, Ruby had gone from someone to be hungered for and craved, to a threat in ways that had Weiss tense and fascinated in equal measure.

So, giving a final nod to Coco, she closed the door and followed Ruby upstairs to where she was already waiting by the rooftop access door, leaning against it with her hands in her pockets. But the attempt at seeming casual was sabotaged by the sharp edge in her eyes.

As Weiss climbed the last few steps to reach the landing, Ruby pushed the door open with her foot and stepped out into the sunlight, before fixing Weiss with an unblinking stare and waiting for her to do the same.

There were clouds in the sky, bringing in the rain that was expected for the evening, but the entire roof was bathed in pure and scorching sunlight. There were a few spots of shade, shifting across the roof as the clouds travelled above, but Weiss would have to get past Ruby in order to reach any of them.

Surely even though she was clearly different from a regular one of her kind, Weiss would hesitate before braving pure midday sunlight.

And, just like Ruby had expected, Weiss did hesitate. It didn’t last longer than a slight bite of her lip and her straightening her shoulders to brace herself, but she hesitated nonetheless, and Ruby immediately filed it away.

She had a new box in her mind simply titled ‘What the fuck makes Weiss different???’, and so far there were only two notes. And unless Weiss was clumsy or decided to be open, Ruby doubted she’d find out much more today. Especially now that Weiss knew that Ruby was looking for it.

While Weiss didn’t seem to be in pain from stepping out into the light, she did have to squeeze her eyes closed for a moment as they adjusted to an agonising glare that no human had to deal with.

Another note Ruby was pleased to add to her list; Light Sensitivity. Clearly not as bad as the light blindness of a ghoul, but far more than a human. Weiss adjusted to it quickly and was able to open her eyes properly and put her hands in her pockets, but the first few initial moments clearly sucked for her.

Weiss noticed the satisfied curiosity in Ruby’s eyes, and sighed, pinching her nose and rubbing her eyes to banish the last of the spots dancing behind her eyelids. She’d expected either sheer panic, or suspicious analysis, and it appeared she’d be getting analysed.

Which had dangerous implications of its own, but at least it wouldn’t hurt her ears.

But, what Weiss knew she had to do was the same either way;

“I’m sorry, Ruby. God, I’m so sorry…” Weiss sighed again, and her head dropped. She heard Ruby’s breath catch in surprise, and it made her feel even worse. Bracing her shoulders after a few moments, she looked up and met Ruby’s eyes again. “Are you alright?”

Ruby’s mouth was open in surprise, an apology not at all being what she had expected, and she blinked stupidly before clenching her fists to focus and sucking in a breath. The tremor of surprise fading, she narrowed her eyes into a glare and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m fine. You didn’t get that much. So, we’re just…going to be straight about this? You’re not going to try any sort of weird lie or gaslighting or whatever?” Ruby crossed her arms over her chest as she glared, watching as Weiss winced and looked away again.

Weiss shook her head slowly in resignation.

“I don’t think there’s much point. Especially considering-”

“How the fuck are you alive????”

“-that.” Wincing at Ruby’s loud and angry interruption, Weiss shrugged and stepped over, fiddling with the zipper of Ruby’s jacket as she moved. “I’m just as curious about how you knew how to do it. And why you had a stake at the ready in the first place.”

Shrugging in return just as casually as Weiss had, blatantly mimicking her, Ruby raised an eyebrow.

“You really think you’re the one in the position to demand answers? You fed from me.”

Weiss stopped in her approach, her fingers lingering on the zipper, and she sighed.“...I did. I tried not to, but I did.”

“You tried not to? I’m sure.” Snorting in disbelief, Ruby took another step back, further into the sunlight and forcing Weiss to do the same. “Should I be thanking you for not draining me dry at least?”

Taking a few steps forward so that she was still close enough to Ruby to talk, Weiss stayed far enough away that Ruby wouldn’t feel threatened. She wasn’t surprised that Ruby was clearly itching for a fight.

But she was surprised by how precise and tactical Ruby was openly being about it.

Weiss shook her head slowly, releasing her bottom lip from her teeth and her eyes turning serious. “I would never have done that. I would never want that. Besides, you tried to kill me too. And unlike me, you did it wholeheartedly.”

Unzipping her own jacket with a flourish even though it meant sacrificing some of the protection of the discreetly reinforced leather, Ruby’s hands balled into fists as she walked forward and closed most of the distance in her defiance.

Ruby raised her head, eyes firm, and nodded once.

“Of course I did. Are you really going to try and tell me I shouldn’t have? Considering what you are?”

The reaction she got wasn’t one she had expected;

Because Weiss flinched, as if the words and the blades behind them has sliced a line across her face, as if she’d been slapped, and her eyes flashed hurt for a moment as she looked away.

It was such a visceral reaction that Ruby blinked. Because either Weiss was an extraordinary actress, even better than Ruby was expecting, or Ruby had twisted a knife.

Weiss took a moment to compose herself, closing her eyes and letting out a sigh, before she looked over at Ruby again. Her voice was quiet when she spoke, timid, and pained.

“Then why did you fuck me? If you knew what I was, what I am, and you were there ready for it, then why did you let me kiss you?”

And wasn’t that the grand question. The one that had left Ruby staring up at her roof and tossing and turning after she’d texted Weiss back with a time and place. The problem that had felt weird, and hollow.

Because it hadn’t made any sense.

So Ruby’s breath came out in a stressed hiss through her teeth when it was her turn to look away for a moment, her hands in fists so tight her nails dug into her palms.

“...your kind are seducers, by your nature. It’s what you do.”

“That’s not-...” Weiss trailed off and looked down. The sun was agony on every inch of her exposed skin, as if a million needles were screwing into her and trying to get inside. And yet Ruby’s glare and audible loathing felt even worse. “That’s not why I did it. And it’s not how. You giving in was all you, I’m afraid. Well, mostly.”

“Mostly?” Ruby raised an eyebrow, her tone soaked in a sarcasm so potent it was acidic. “What’s the partial? You hypnotised me.”

Weiss let out a barking laugh as her own major confusion of the night was brought up, and she shook her head and put a hand on her hip. Fixing Ruby with a playful and curious look, she stared into her eyes for a moment, at the sharp silver of them.

“Oh I clearly didn’t. I tried. To make you forget what had happened. Yet here we are. How did you manage that trick?”

Ruby hesitated, biting her lip. No matter how much she’d replayed her memory of the night, she couldn’t remember much of the pivotal moment where her awareness had come back and she’d been able to fight back.

How all the switches in her brain had been turned back on in a single instant, and the fog that Weiss had overflowed her with was scorched away.

More puzzles and problems to try and solve. So Ruby simply clenched her jaw for a moment before giving a shrug and a defiant smirk.

“Just lucky, maybe. But clearly it didn’t take.” Ruby bit her lip as her eyes flicked down to Weiss’s chest, specifically the spot she knew she’d driven in the stake.

It had gone in perfectly. She’d felt it penetrate the skin and go in deep.

But Weiss was right in front of her.

What she was mulling over must have been clear on her face, as Weiss sighed and took hold of the zipper of Ruby’s jacket, and began to tug it down. The action was slow, and hesitant, but Ruby could also see the slight tease in it as Weiss revealed skin.

Every action Weiss ever took had flirt and tease and toying in it, and Weiss clearly didn’t have it in herself to resent it as she raised an eyebrow at just how scorchingly she suddenly had Ruby’s attention.

Ruby was still looking at her as if she was something that should be shattered, but she was still only human, and so she was helpless against the delicate movements as Weiss took hold of the collar of her blouse so she could pull it down enough inches for Ruby to see the flawless and unscarred skin.

“You can take a look. I’ve never minded your staring before, just because you tried to kill me doesn’t me I have to start now.”

The offer was genuine, it was a taunt, daring Ruby to see how fruitless her attempt had been and hopefully dissuading her from trying again meaninglessly. But Weiss gave a smirk as well with the edge only ever so slightly in the corner of her lips and shimmering in her eyes.

Playful. Challenging. Deadly.

It wasn’t fair for Weiss to do this again. They were outside, underneath sunlight, and yet every reveal of another inch of skin was punctuated by Ruby remembering a flash of how it had felt to touch, and taste.

With a slam of a door inside of her mind to force herself to focus, Ruby’s eyes honed in on the spot she knew the damage should have been, directly over Weiss’s unbeating heart, and she took a step forward. Weiss let her close the distance slightly further so that she could.

Just like always, Weiss’s skin was pale and smooth, flawless and without any marks or blemishes.

The blouse was modest on the slight swell of her chest, just as Weiss always dressed when seen in public, but with her fingers tucked into her collar and pulling it down to expose inches of skin, she was well aware of what she was doing as she slightly leant forward and tilted her head away to give Ruby a better view.

She got both results she wanted; Ruby’s eyes widened in deepening disbelief at how there wasn’t a single mark left, at the same time as her heartrate skipped and sped up at the sight of the skin she remembered touching and kissing the night before.

Ruby was close enough that Weiss could hear her heart pounding, her eyes noticing the pulse point of Ruby’s neck beginning to visibly throb as her body reacted to the realisation of danger.

She couldn’t help how her tongue swirled in her mouth at the sight, savouring the memory of the taste, and while her fangs didn’t extend entirely she did feel the points of them appear. But she was in control, that was one benefit of being in sunlight, and so despite the memory of Ruby’s taste she held completely still.

When Ruby’s hands twitched at her sides, Weiss tutted even as she noted precisely where Ruby had almost reached to.

“I’d say better luck next time, but I wouldn’t recommend trying it again.” Weiss raised her eyebrow in a tease as she pulled her collar back up and hid the spot. The tease and taunt was over, so she let her hand drop by her side as her other remained on her hip. Turning her smirk to a frown, she hummed. “Don’t try it. Whatever method you’re thinking of. I don’t want a fight, I just…wanted to talk.”

Ruby wrenched her eyes up from the now hidden skin, and narrowed them into a glare as her fingertips brushed ever so slightly on the fabric of her pockets.

“Just because a stake didn’t work doesn’t mean nothing will work.”

“Your confidence is attractive, but…you’re naive if you’re giving into it.” Weiss shook her head slowly to dissuade Ruby from the adrenaline she could smell was tingling just underneath the surface of her skin. “Please, Ruby. I don’t want to fight. I…genuinely just wanted to talk.”

Ruby flexed her thighs just so she could feel the reassuring pressure of the straps of her sheaths. “About what? You fed from me.”

“While you fucked me. I didn’t make you do that.” Weiss sighed and closed her eyes, reaching up to rub them as she deflated slightly, before straightening up again and giving Ruby an imploring look. “I embraced some of my power to make you feel good while you wanted me, but I did not make you want me in the first place. You gave in because you wanted to.”

When Ruby clearly had no response, her mouth opening and closing silently even as her glare hardened further and further, Weiss took the risk of stepping closer, her hands raised placatingly and peacefully as she did so.

“Did you know what I was, when you kissed me?”

The continued silence was answer enough, Ruby snarling after a moment and clenching her fists, and she gave an angry and resigned nod.

“Yes. So god only knows why I did it.”

“I’m certainly not against the fact that you did.” Weiss smirked, before wincing when the playfulness simply got a glare, and she sighed. “Ruby, I just want to know what you intend to do now.”

Ruby narrowed her eyes again, and put her hands into the pockets of her pants, her fingers tucking into the slits that gave  her access to her knives. Her fingertips brushed the hilts slightly, but she didn’t grab for them properly just yet.

She knew the rules of the guild; The people of the mortal world were to never know that the supernatural existed, no matter what. And as much as was possible, the existence of the guild itself was to be kept a secret as well.

The supernatural world knew that there had once been an inquisition, but the guild had spent a lot of resources and time cultivating the story and fake history that it had ended. That it had just been a period of religious persecution instead of a targeted purge on behalf of humanity.

If the vampires of Silvercloud figured out that the guild had embedded themselves as well, they would do everything in their power to seek them out and destroy them. To protect their food source, but also to protect the secret of their own existence.

While Weiss would have no way of knowing that Ruby was properly trained, she was clearly suspicious now, especially since Yang had revealed herself for knowing as well. And Ruby knew Weiss’s secret explicitly, and had revealed last night she’d known about Coco too.

Ruby’s fingertips traced the hilts of her blades, and she saw as Weiss’s eyes flicked down at the movement.

Weiss narrowed her eyes as she picked up the slight sound of steel moving within nylon and kevlar. “...don’t, Ruby. Please, please don’t try it. I don’t want us to hurt each other.”

“If I give the wrong answer about what happens now, you’ll just kill me, to protect your secret.” Ruby clenched her jaw when Weiss widened her eyes and stiffened.

As she heard high grade steel moving another inch, Weiss forced her hands to unclench. She could smell the lethal urge coming from Ruby, rolling off of her in waves. Ruby was anxious, but not afraid, and when mixed with her clear confidence it was a dangerous combination.

So Weiss shook her head again to discourage her, raising her eyebrows. With every threat from Ruby’s mouth and body, it was getting harder and harder to keep herself restrained. Because the type of Beast her family passed down did not enjoy being threatened or intimidated, especially not by a human of all creatures.

A horrific voice, cold and cruel and sounding too much like her own, snarled inside of her chest.

A human has as much right and position to threaten a Schnee, as a cut of steak has against a human when already on their plate.

But Weiss bit down on it, pressing it down as much as she could. She’d fed that morning so that her Beast would be as sated and therefore quiet as possible, but with every passing moment it was waking up.

As if Ruby’s presence made its appetite endless and its thirst unquenchable. Just being in Ruby’s eyeline had it rousing, only for it to then be threatened.

‘Ruby, you are not making this easy.’

“Even if you did somehow kill me, though you have no idea how, you would be causing your own downfall. Coco would know, and I assure you she wouldn’t take it kindly. She wants you and Yang disposed of already.”

Ruby kept her breathing slow and steady as she mulled over it. “I doubt she could take Yang and I both at the same time, once the two of them would get up here to investigate.”

“I’m sorry to shatter your confidence, Ruby, but the only reason you managed to stake me last night was because you caught me by surprise. Otherwise I assure you that if you had tried, you wouldn’t have left that room in one piece.” Weiss couldn’t prevent the growl that came out with her voice at the threat that Ruby was trying to present, and when Ruby clearly tightened her grip on whatever she was reaching for in response, Weiss couldn’t prevent her eyes from darkening and her lip curling up slightly to reveal the slightest hint of teeth. Her fangs weren’t extended, yet, but she could feel the point of one of them slightly piercing into her own tongue. “And if you wouldn’t stand a chance against me, I assure you that neither you nor Yang, even together, would stand a chance against Coco or any of the others.”

She realised her slip up the moment she said it, and she admonished the ego of her Beast as she saw all of the hostility and aggression leave Ruby’s posture to instead immediately be replaced with consideration.

Ruby frowned in thought as she tapped her fingers on the hilts of her knives.

“So you’re the weakest one? I wouldn’t have expected that.” Ruby bit her bottom lip as she looked Weiss up and down, even though she knew it was ultimately pointless since a vampire’s capabilities didn’t physically show.

But still, Weiss carried herself with such a level of confidence, and she was clearly the queen bee of her social group, even with the other vampires there. Coco was apparently stronger than her, and yet also followed her lead.

Which meant that the hierarchy of the vampires wasn’t strictly based on lethality.

So what was it based on? What else did each vampire have, other than just varying levels of power?

Ruby chewed her lip as she considered it, before she slowly pulled her hands from her pockets and crossed her arms so that it was clear she wasn’t going to draw her knives. That she’d lost any interest in a fight.

Instead she clicked her tongue in thought and thinned her lips.

“So what happens now? If we’re at this impasse.”

Weiss relaxed as the danger left Ruby’s body and the lethal intent left her scent. She closed her eyes and shook her head, mostly just to banish away her own instincts and calm herself. “...I don’t know. Are you going to try and kill me again if I let you leave?”

It wasn’t a threat, and she made sure to make that clear in her tone. They both knew that logically it was probably Weiss’s best option for her own safekeeping, since apparently her attempt to wipe Ruby’s memory had failed somehow.

Ruby sighed as she thought to herself, and when Weiss took a tentative few steps closer she didn’t move away, instead simply holding eye contact with just how sincere that Weiss looked. Ruby could recognise the look, that Weiss didn’t want a fight but she’d do it if Ruby made her.

The fact that Weiss was giving her an opportunity to talk at all, had texted her in the first place, reaching out, had been an olive branch. The better option, the more logical option, would have been to take her out while Ruby’s guard was down and cut the leak off at the source. And yet she was giving Ruby the opportunity to tell her that they didn’t have to be enemies.

And if she was giving Ruby the opportunity to say it, that meant Weiss had a degree of willingness to believe her if she did.

Ruby closed her eyes for a moment and clenched her fists, hidden from her arms being crossed over her chest. Slowly, heavy with disdain for the movement, she shook her head in frustration and grit her teeth.

No answer was the right one, with selfish hatred warring against the need to preserve as many lives as possible, and she let out a snarl at the impossible predicament and opened her eyes again so she could look over at where Weiss was watching and waiting patiently.

She was absolutely still, no longer bothering to pretend to breathe like she had to around others, and with no heartbeat or muscle jitters she didn’t even twitch, meaning she could be as still as ceramic. It made being watched by her gradually unsettling.

Ruby could almost feel a stress headache coming on, and she groaned at the conflict and ran her hands over her face and up through her hair, and still Weiss stood and watched patiently.

“Weiss, why shouldn’t I?”

“Apart from because you don’t know how?” Weiss raised an eyebrow, her lips ticking up bemused for the briefest moment, and she stepped even closer, ending up close enough they could reach out and touch if they wanted to. She hummed in thought and bit her lip, looking up into Ruby’s eyes. “Because I don’t think you want to. Not primarily. Otherwise I think last night would have sparked differently than the way that it did.”

Looking down into Weiss’s eyes, taking in the confidence and the permanent tease in the bright blue of them, Ruby took a slow breath to steady herself, but it only resulted in getting lungfuls of Weiss’s scent. Just like last night, she smelled of vanilla, along with that ‘something else’ that Ruby couldn’t name, the one that had her head slightly swimming.

But it wasn’t as potent as it had been the night before, so Ruby shook her head to banish the effects of it as best she could, and sighed.

“Don’t mess with my head, not during this talk.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow, her mouth scrunching up in pointed judgement and amusement, and tapped her finger on her hip a few times before pulling Ruby’s jacket off her shoulders and bundling it up over her arm.

“I really don’t want us to hurt each other, Ruby. I’m sorry I lost control, it wasn’t what I wanted. I just…” Weiss huffed in resignation, smiling into it because all she could do was smile in surrender. “I just wanted you. Not your blood. You. ”

When Weiss offered her jacket to her, Ruby looked down at it for a moment before she took it and bundled it under her own arm, and she bit her lip as she pondered Weiss’s words. Despite herself, Ruby felt her cheeks warm. Because, for some reason, she believed her.

“...you really mean that?”

“Oh trust me, I didn’t intend on… doing what I did, last night. I had every intention of getting you onto Coco’s bed as soon as you were willing to give me a turn.” Weiss laughed and rolled her eyes, and just like the previous night the sound had Ruby’s entire body clench and sway. 

It was like it echoed inside of her, ringing her mind like a tuning fork. 

But Weiss either didn’t notice, or didn’t care.

“Look, I don’t know how you and Yang know that my kind, vampires, exist. I don’t know how you already knew Coco was one. But I do know that I have no intention or desire to hurt you, and only Coco knows what happened because she was the one who found me. And she won’t do anything unless I let her.” Weiss thinned her lips as she went serious again, and she folded her hands in front of herself and looked up into Ruby’s eyes with a wide and determined stare. “If you and I can walk away from this on peaceful terms, maybe one day you’ll tell me how you knew. For now all I want to know is if you’re going to keep the Shroud in place, and if I have to be concerned about you trying to set me on fire in my sleep.”

Ruby frowned at Weiss’s words, the faint blush vanishing from her cheeks, and she adjusted her jacket under her arm in a fidget as she thought. For now at least it would be suicide to challenge Weiss, not while she saw the danger coming.

The guild taught them patience and restraint, and a ceasefire would also give Ruby time to try and figure out how to kill Weiss when it was time.

Patience. And. Restraint.

Even though the thought of it had Ruby wanting to chew glass, and it felt as if it lacerated her tongue the same way just to say it, she gave a single nod.

“I’ll keep your secret. But we’re not friends.”

Weiss scrutinised her expression, staring and trying to see even the slightest sign of deception or insincerity. But when she found none she gave a small smile, grateful yet sad.

“Thank you. And that’s fair enough, considering. But even if you’ll never think positively of me, I hope I can at least one day convince you that I am sorry.” Weiss winced in guilt, swallowing down the lump of regret. For the bite, but also for how it ruined when she finally got a chance at what she’d been aching for. She offered her hand. “If you’ll ever give me the chance.”

Ruby looked down at Weiss’s hand silently, and reached out to take it and shake. It was cool to her touch, and her curiosity wanted her to ask how Weiss was able to be warm sometimes but cold for the rest of it, but she wasn’t in the mood to play quid-pro-quo so soon after the first truths had come out in a clash of lips and tongues and sweat, ending with teeth and a stake through the chest.

“We’ll see.”

Shaking Ruby’s hand, Weiss gave another small smile as she released it and stepped away, turning to make her way back downstairs, leaving Ruby alone in the sunlight. “Well, you have my number if you ever want. I’ll see you on Monday?”

Ruby could only nod, too lost in conflicted thought to know what to say, and she waved goodbye distractedly as she slumped against an aircon unit and crossed her arms again, folding her jacket in front of herself.

A minute later the door opened again, and Yang stepped out onto the roof to immediately jog over and place her hand on Ruby’s shoulder, squeezing.

“They’re gone. You alright?”

“...yeah. I think so.” Ruby frowned as she stared into nothing, still in thought, and she shuffled over so that Yang could sit down next to her. “We agreed to leave each other alone.”

Yang raised her eyebrows in surprise, but as she processed it and thought over it she reached the same conclusions Ruby had, and nodded in understanding as she looked off in thought as well.

Tapping her hands together on her lap distractedly, Yang pursed her lips and tutted.

“Soooo…what do we tell mum and dad this time?”

Ruby blinked.

“...oh. Right. Shit.”

+=+=+

Chapter Text

+=+=+

2:03am

Thursdays were always a quiet night for Silvercloud, with locals tired from a long week and not yet at the relief of a Friday, and that calmer and softer energy passing into the tourists. The nightclubs weren’t empty by any means, but they closed early, along with most of the restaurants and bars.

People filtered their way back to their hotels and houses just after dark, leaving the streets of the town centre quiet and lowly lit without the ambience shining out from diner windows and open club doors.

The streetlights of Silvercloud never flickered though, they were probably the best maintained infrastructure in the entire town. Nobody knew why they felt the need to keep the streets lit and clear, but if a bulb blew then it was replaced an hour later no matter the time.

It gave the town centre a feeling of security, allowing deep breaths where the more claustrophobic and tighter side streets and alleys between the hotels and shops instead felt oppressive and threatening.

So the main street leading past the train station, the heart of Silvercloud, was lit in gentle gold from the streetlamps. Quiet and peaceful, with only the occasional person out for a late walk, every shop closed up and dark.

While it was certainly peaceful, it also made working at some of the few twenty-four hour shops and amenities so, so, boring.

The town gas station was slightly tucked away from the main street, sitting on the edge of the main road out of town. Stuck in the tedium of silent nights, they were forced to keep their lights on at all hours, their automatic doors unlocked and open for any late-night traveller needing fuel, or night owl wanting to grab a snack from the shelves or use the dilapidated but dependable coffee dispenser.

The gas station was a beacon of light in the darkness, a place where people could find what they needed, no matter the time of day or night. Home to bored teenagers and late shift tradies and truckers needing to stretch their legs.

It meant that, unfortunately for whoever was chosen, somebody had to spend an entire night behind the counter, legs up in boredom and forced to find their own way to pass the time. The pay was barely worth it, but if you were willing to fall on the sword then you could do it as much as you wanted, with coworkers happily giving you their turns.

Which, for some people, was perfect. For some people the night was far more comfortable than the day, quiet and cool and without a frustrating glare. But far too often, comfort and boredom come hand in hand.

So Miltia Malachite was forced to spend hours at a time finding the most mundane ways to stop herself going insane; sometimes she went through the shelves reorganising the stock into alphabetical order, only to then spend more hours organising it into numerical order based on the barcode.

Once, she took apart the coffee machine to see how it worked, only to have to dig out the instruction manual from the dusty filing cabinet in the tiny office so she could put it back together again. As a vampire she should have had a great memory, but that required giving enough of a shit to actually pay attention.

It also didn’t help that she hadn’t fed before that particular shift. But unlike her twin sister Melanie, who fed so freely that she was practically always at full strength, Miltia was far more restrained. She liked swinging by the train station and grabbing a snack on her way home from work, before bed.

Tonight, she’d had the foresight to bring her laptop, and she twisted left and right on the rotating stool behind the counter with her legs up and her earphones in as she turned off her brain and browsed the internet.

Luckily her history lecture that day had made her curious enough about the Paris Catacombs that she’d fallen down a wikipedia and youtube rabbit hole, which was always a great way to pass the time.

Like a lot of her kind that were around her age, she loved youtube channels that tried to be creepy about some of the most mundane mortal shit. It was weirdly endearing, a demonstration of the imagination that mortals could have, finding creepiness and horror for the curiosity and the rush.

Miltia smirked to herself as she scrolled down a forum discussing conspiracies of why the Barrière d'Enfer was named that way. But she was forced to take her earphones out and tilt her head lazily towards the doors when they slid open and a pair of teenagers walked in, jackets zipped up against the cool breeze and clearly drunk from the sort of cheap beer that had Miltia scrunch up her sensitive nose.

She gave a casual wave when she recognised them, winking to Jet with a smile, before putting one of her earphones back in and going back to her music and scrolling. Even with only one ear free, she could easily hear the slurred and giggly conversation between the two as the girl Hiyoko grabbed up far too many bags of chips to be reasonable, having trouble fitting them in her arms.

Miltia rolled her eyes, and when the sliding doors opened again she looked over and nodded as the rest of the posse of teenagers entered. She waved as she recognised Olive from her year back when she’d been able to attend high school, and the girl immediately brightened when she recognised her and waved back.

They were the first customers in about four hours, clearly passing between house parties considering a very, very trashed Olive’s slightly smudged makeup. The way she was slumping against one of the drink fridges and trying to slide a pull door was a solid indicator as well, and Miltia snorted in amusement.

Drunk mortals were one of her favourite sources of entertainment during the night shift, and there were times she missed being able to go to their parties to observe them. In the same way that people go to the circus to laugh at the clowns. But with more fondness.

When Jet came to the counter holding only a pack of painkillers, preparing in advance for the hangover tomorrow, Miltia put her legs back down and swivelled to face him properly.

“Hey handsome, been a while. How have you been?”

Jet smiled back as he handed the pack over for her to scan, and his eyes briefly flicked up to where the cigarettes were kept and the corner of his mouth scrunched up. But he was still underage, so with a huff of frustration he went to ignore them only to blink when Miltia opened the case and grabbed out a pack for him.

“Oh my god you’re an absolute legend. I’ve been craving all night.” Jet grabbed out his wallet, and immediately had to shoot a glare at Hiyoko when the girl snuck up behind him and dumped all of her chips on the counter. “Meanwhile you are a fucking scourge.”

Hiyoko simply gave him a flutter of her eyelashes and a sweet smile, placing her hand on his arm and immediately winning him over with the flirt, and then gave her attention to Miltia with a beaming grin.

“Hey babe! Where have you been???”

“Here mostly. When I’m not home studying.” Miltia went through each bag, scanning them, and she had to make herself do it slightly clumsily. Like a mortal would do it. She smiled at Jet, running her eyes up and down him. “You’re looking good, hon. You been working out?”

The way Miltia’s eyes slightly darkened as she checked him out, and how it made her bite her lip, had Jet redden slightly while also straightening up to his full height under Miltia’s smoulder. Meanwhile Hiyoko scowled slightly and immediately wrapped one arm around Jet’s, staking her claim clearly, and gave Miltia a slight glare.

But the challenge was so insignificant that Miltia ignored it entirely, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as she finished scanning everything and sliding over the card pad for Jet to tap.

The others of their posse were still milling about, having a very intense debate about the validity of salt and vinegar chips as a party food, and Miltia smiled at her old classmates as she rested her arms on the counter so she could talk.

“So, exam season soon. The home stretch. How does it feel?”

Hiyoko, her glare vanishing in satisfaction at Miltia backing off, smiled even as she gave a stressed sigh. Early teenage years always felt as if they crawled, but from sixteen onwards they flashed with a blink. Now at almost eighteen, adulthood on the horizon after the final hurdle of gruelling assessments…

The existential dread was real.

“Terrifying. You’re so lucky you never have to do them.” Hiyoko smiled when Miltia laughed, and opened one of her bags of chips to pop one into her mouth. “How’s uni going, anyway? Still remote, or you moving out soon and going in person?”

“Still remote, but after this semester I’m probably going to get the hell out of here. For a couple of years at least. Come back all seasoned and mat- you get those out of your pockets, Olive Malten.” Miltia’s voice raised when she shot a glare over to where Olive had been discretely shoving things into her pockets to steal, on the far end of the row of shelves that Miltia had a clear view down.

Olive jumped out of her skin at being called out, and underneath Miltia’s glare she gave a sheepish and apologetic grin as she pulled the bars of chocolate out of her pockets and placed them back on the shelves.

At their friend’s red face from being caught out, Jet and Hiyoko both laughed, making Olive flush even darker as she made her way up to the counter slowly and gave Miltia a guilty pout.

“Sorry dude. Hungry, yet broke. Jesus you’ve still got the eyes of a hawk.”

Miltia glared for another moment, but there was no heat in it, before her attention was diverted to where the doors slid open again and another girl stepped in. Looking to be in her very early-twenties, maybe not even twenty-one yet, wearing a jacket covered in patches, and long curly hair tied back in a cute ponytail, she was easy to clock as a tourist and not a local.

So, not recognising her, Miltia made sure to keep a partial eye on her on the mirrors that let her see around the entire store, watching as the girl practically made a beeline for the coffee machine. But she grabbed a bottle of water from one of the fridges on the way, playfully tossing it up and down, as she pressed the slightly resistant buttons on the machine with enthusiasm.

The mirrors were a blessing and a potential curse for Miltia, since even though she could see them just fine, as a member of the Malachite family she lacked a reflection herself. It was a potential risk if it was noticed, but she couldn’t do anything about it, and so many surfaces were reflective in the modern era.

The girl she was supervising was probably only just off one of the late night trains, so Miltia tutted in sympathy as she sat back in her stool while the three teenagers in front of her engaged in their own conversation. Jet raised his eyebrows at her as he thumbed his new cigarettes and smiled in thanks when Miltia shrugged indifferently.

It wasn’t like she’d be bothered by the smell, she could just stop breathing until he was done if it got too annoying. Frankly she’d gone long enough without feeding that nicotine might actually have an effect on her if she bummed one off him.

The sound of conversation on the other side of the store trailed into her sensitive ears, and she listened into the tones of their voices as the new girl struck up a chat with the final two teenagers who were still browsing.

At the sound of her laughter, a playful little giggle, every hair on Miltia’s body wanted to stand on end as she felt something go through her. Immediately moving her attention to the mirrors again, she stared at the new girl across the store and took a deep breath in through her nose.

Every smell in the building flooded into her; the natural scent of the five teenagers, the smoke from Jet’s cigarette, the alcohol on Olive’s breath and the soil on the sole of her boot, the old coffee stains on the far counter, Hiyoko’s open bag of chips, the dust in the dead desk fan in the office, everything.

It was almost like echolocation, with a perfect picture of the room assembling itself through scent alone.

And underneath…

Miltia’s beast bared its teeth inside of her blood as a smell she didn’t recognise washed through as an undertone to it all. It was subtle, barely there, but Miltia honed in on it as she inhaled again.

Having grown up in Silvercloud, she knew what a supernatural smelled like. And she could smell when something was prey, and when something was…very much not. So she narrowed her eyes and drummed her purple painted nails on the counter as her beast growled low, territorial and untrusting.

After watching as the girl finished pouring a satchel of sugar into her coffee and took a sip without reacting at all to how boiling hot it must be,  Miltia blinked in surprise when the girl looked up at the nearest mirror and made direct eye contact with her. 

Despite Miltia’s lack of reflection, the eye contact was dead on.

Something in her went cold as the girl was clearly able to tell she was being watched, and even if she couldn’t see Miltia’s reflection she still knew where Miltia physically was. Being caught and stared back at had Miltia’s nails scratch along the counter, leaving light marks that she hoped her friends wouldn’t notice, and she ground her jaw.

However, rules were rules, so even if she didn’t like it she had to bite her tongue. As long as the girl didn’t cause any trouble or go too far, she was allowed to hunt in Silvercloud, even though the dark streets towards the road out of town were Miltia’s family’s claimed hunting grounds. But the girl wasn’t a vampire, Miltia wouldn’t be able to smell her otherwise, so she didn’t have to obey that particular law.

Miltia growled quietly, needing to vent the sound, and held her stare with the girl through the mirror in a quiet battle for superiority, and she smirked when the girl looked away first and went back to her conversation.

Biting one of her nails in tense concern, Miltia kept an eye on the girl and followed her through her reflection as the girl finished her coffee and tossed her cup into the nearby bin. She giggled again, blue eyes sparkling and placing her hand on the arm of the young boy that was trying his best to flirt with an older girl and being indulged without any chance of success, and with a quiet word of farewell to him and his friend she began to make her way towards the counter.

With every step the girl took, getting closer and closer, sparks pulsed over Miltia’s body, and she knew that her shadow below her was growing darker and darker, almost becoming a liquid as her beast bristled. The girl gave a bright smile to the trio blocking her way, immediately being let through, and she put her hands on the counter and leaned close enough that Miltia could pick out each small freckle on her face.

“Hello there. I was wondering if you could help me?”

Miltia raised an eyebrow, keeping the rest of her face entirely blank and aloof, and she shrugged with a hum as she folded her hands on her lap under the counter, so her nails weren’t visible as they extended half an inch.

“Sure, what’s up? You new in town?”

The girl smiled, the fingers of her right hand playfully tracing small and mindless patterns on the surface of the counter. “I am. Only been here a few days…don’t quite know my way around yet.”

It was the way the girl said it that had Miltia freeze. The way the girl smiled as her voice went light and playful, too playful, and her eyes sparkled slightly in an inside joke to herself. But something in the sound was just dead enough that Miltia tensed.

Miltia’s shadow went pitch black, and she was grateful that it was hidden from view as she tilted her head as casually as she could. But it was a struggle, her instincts screaming at her for her fangs to extend and her nails to sharpen. The voice in her head pounded against the walls of its cage.

But there were humans in the room, three of them rather close.

Trying to force herself to relax, Miltia smiled.

“What were you looking for?”

There was a pause as the girl unscrewed the lid of her water and grabbed a small pill bottle from her pocket, quickly taking one with an apologetic wave to Miltia, and she swallowed before she answered, wiping her lips and screwing the lid back on.

“Somewhere to stay on short notice, actually. My previous accommodations fell through, I’m afraid. You just can’t trust some people these days.” The girl sighed heavily, rolling her eyes, before shrugging as if she was over it. But when she opened them again, they were so utterly light and playful that Miltia felt herself slowly going rigid.

You couldn’t live in Silvercloud and not encounter other supernaturals semi-regularly, and most were able to recognise each other’s kind. For the most part, they left each other alone, since a war between species wouldn’t benefit anybody. Miltia had stopped fearing any of them years ago, in her early teens.

But something in the girl had her shiver for a moment, something on her scent and how the way she moved was ever so slightly alien that only someone with senses close to a vampire’s would even discern either.

‘Predator…’ Whispered an instinct inside of her mind, as one killer of men and beasts locked eyes with another. ‘She reeks of it.’

Taking in another small breath through her nose so she could get a proper study of the girl’s scent, a lump formed in Miltia’s throat that she was forced to swallow down in a gulp she hoped was subtle.

‘She’s killed. Recently. There’s dried blood under her fingernails, and it isn’t human.’

There had only been one supernatural killing over the past few days that Miltia had been told about; the butchery at the end of the previous week, five days ago.

And a creature that could do that…

It had Miltia hiss behind her teeth quietly.

Miltia hummed as she moved achingly and patiently slowly to pull her phone from her pocket as discreetly and silently as possible, keeping it on her lap as she unlocked it with a swipe of her finger along the scanner without needing to look. “Sure, there’s a few places around here. Won’t be cheap on short notice, though.”

“Oh I’m sure I could charm my way.” The girl stroked a few strands of her loose hair back over her ear. Her eyes went down to Miltia’s name tag, and she raised an eyebrow with a small smile. “Nice to meet you Miltia. I’m Rosalia.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Miltia smiled, showing slightly pointed teeth in a way that was very much a warning, and it had Rosalia straighten up slightly in surprise.

“Ah. I suspected as much. Well then. Aren’t I unlucky.” Rosalia clicked her tongue in thought at the glimpse of Miltia’s fangs, and she glanced over her shoulder to make sure all of the humans were far enough away they wouldn’t overhear. Satisfied, she turned back to Miltia, her eyes sharp and her smile smaller. “I’m not actually here for trouble. Not tonight at least. Just directions.”

Miltia’s eyes darkened, the light green of them fading as her pupils dilated, predatory and barely restrained. If Rosalia was willing to budge, then she would certainly push. Also making sure the humans were a fair distance away, Miltia allowed her fangs to begin to properly extend, the points of them appearing as she parted her lips and pointedly ran her tongue along them.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t cause any ‘trouble’ on any night around here. This is a claimed hunting ground, and my clan can be rather… possessive.” With her skin paling slightly, Miltia knew her hair was getting darker too, the ebony strands of them no longer reflecting the light. It made it look like a void.

The ceiling lights flickered with a quiet crackle as Miltia’s beast slowly seeped out of the bars of its cage like an ooze, infecting her shadow and crawling out into all others it could touch. The darkness spread outwards, and the temperature around them slowly began to drop.

From how Rosalia raised her eyebrows upon noticing, it may not have intimidated her but recognition in her eyes sparked, immediately followed by fascination.

“Claimed territory indeed. You’re one of the pure blooded…I knew I could smell it on you, gorgeous.” Pausing for a few moments, clearly in thought as she considered something, Rosalia looked over her shoulder at the group of teenagers that had reconvened nearby and were chatting among themselves. “They’ll notice soon. You’re being awfully… aggressive. Are you nervous…?”

Rosalia hummed quietly, drumming her nails on the counter, before going absolutely still as she came to a decision. With Rosalia looking away, Miltia took the opening to finish typing on her phone and dropping it, catching it between her feet so there was no noise, and sliding it under the counter where it was safe.

“Rich, coming from you. I don’t know what brought you here to Silvercloud, but with what I’m suspecting you did a few nights ago-”

Rosalia waved a hand dismissively to lazily cut her off, her head still turned as she studied the teenagers for a minute, seeming to weigh them up.

The casual dismissal had Miltia bristle, her eyes narrowing further and her hands clenching into fists on her lap. All she had to do was stall for time. Even despite the hour, there was a chance that her sister Melanie was awake. Miltia just had to hope.

But from how Rosalia rolled her shoulders to stretch them, it appeared that Miltia was going to have to do it herself. The thought had her shiver, hairs standing on end, and her beast snarling with bared teeth and wide eyes. A low hiss crawled out from her throat, like that of a serpent, a warning to back off.

The store counter dented underneath the pressure of her hands, her nails easily digging into it and tearing lines as she stood up.

“Leave. You’ve violated domain sanctuary before. Keep to your word and don’t cause trouble, but leave this domain regardless. Rosalia, was it?”

When Rosalia turned her head back to look at her, Miltia couldn’t prevent her fangs from extending the rest of the way, her lips curling open in a snarl and her eyes turning into pure black voids. Because Rosalia’s eyes had shifted, turning from their pretty and sweet blue, to a pulsating emerald green.

Nodding, Rosalia sighed and reached up to unbuckle her jacket. “That’s me. Your kind are so territorial. But, then again, I’d agree you’ve earned the right to be.”

It wasn’t a threat, Rosalia wasn’t trying to deter her anymore, Melanie could smell it on her. So she narrowed her eyes into thin slits. She just had to stall for time. “Why thank you. So why violate our grounds in the first place? We’re all pissed at what you did.”

“Okay? So be pissed. Necessary consequences, I’m afraid.” Rosalia glanced up at the security cameras in each corner of the room and huffed in annoyance. “Your kind are meant to be further down the list. I don’t need you yet.”

They were both completely still, inhumanly still, as they stared at each other, daring the other one to move first. The lights began to flicker as they stared each other down, as Miltia’s shadow began to grow and darken underneath her. It chewed away at the light itself, consuming it, growing through it like oil across the surface of an otherwise calm pond.

Rosalia’s green eyes pulsed, sickly purple tendrils growing out from around her irises and infecting the whites of them like the roots of a weed, and when she smiled again it showed every one of her teeth slowly shifting, replaced with thin and long fangs like that of an anglerfish, slowly extending with the quiet sound of her gums splitting and ripping just to make room for more of them to sprout.

The lights switched off entirely for a few seconds, the air conditioning stuttered with every brief loss of power, and the whirring of the fridges stopped as they died. Over Rosalia’s shoulder, Miltia could see as the five friends were looking around in confusion and concern, before quickly making their way over towards the doors.

But they didn’t open.

Not locked, simply dead as the power to the building slowly sputtered, strained one last time, and then turned to absolute darkness.

It wouldn’t last long, Miltia could hear the buzzing in the wiring as it fought against her presence soaking into the room, but it would last long enough for her to tear this invader to shreds. Butchering two old creatures was one thing, but fighting a Malachite in the dark? Miltia almost burst out laughing.

She was the weaker sister, the more timid one, which was a fact Melanie liked to remind her of constantly. The one who hadn’t fully matured yet, willing to wait until the edicts said she was old enough, unlike Melanie who had violated them. But surrounded by shadow she felt a pulse of confidence as she cracked her neck and allowed her beast fully out of its cage while she stared at Rosalia through the darkness, easily able to see.

But Rosalia simply watched in fascination as the darkness around Miltia grew deeper and darker with a mind and hunger of its own, answering the vampiress’s call, and she smiled with every tooth replaced by fangs that now should have been too large to fit between her jaws.

“I heard about your line; The shadow walkers. The ones that even Nightmares flee from.” Rosalia’s entire form rippled and shifted, her hair released from its ponytail as it seemed to turn into a liquid. “You’re magnificent. But…I'm suspecting not untameable.”

Miltia hissed, teeth bared and eyes black, and Rosalia simply smiled wider.

+=+=+

3:38am

Ruby woke to the sound of voices talking in the hallway, stressed and tight as her parents shot back and forth at each other. It was early enough that her room was still pitch dark, and she’d had nowhere near enough sleep after staying up late going over old records and bestiaries yet again, so she was groggy when she sat up at her door being knocked on loudly. 

Rubbing her eyes to clear them, she groaned loudly as permission to enter, and had to squeeze her eyes shut as light from the hallway streamed in and almost blinded her. After she had blinked her vision clear again with an annoyed whine, she frowned at the look on her mother’s face; it was locked up, tense and sharp. Her grip on Ruby’s doorknob was tight enough her knuckles were white, and she looked at her daughter quietly for a long moment to psych herself up before nodding.

“Gear up. Fast. We’ve got to go.”

Ruby jolted further up, swinging her legs over and her eyes widening in surprise as a thrill of anxiety went through her, speeding up her heart so the adrenaline hit whacked her even harder and had her twitch.

“Seriously?! But…I didn’t even actually-”

“That doesn’t matter.” Summer shook her head, drumming her grip on the door and biting the inside of her cheek before strengthening her resolve. “Gear up. Five minutes.”

“On it. I’ll be right out.” Ruby swung out of bed properly, standing and swaying on her feet for a moment, and the moment Summer closed her bedroom door again she pulled her tank top over her head and began the practised process of throwing on her dark and padded hunting outfit.

She heard as Summer knocked on Yang’s door while her father’s heavy footsteps vanished into the study, his stride large and anxious, and the fact her father was shaken was enough for her to speed up even faster. Pulling on her padded jacket and following it up with the tough utility belt, she patted each pouch to make sure everything was still fully packed.

Ruby sucked in a breath to prepare herself before opening her door and looking down the hallway, and she made eye contact with her mother as Summer hurried back in the direction of the office. She was fully dressed in her own kit, her hair tied back tightly and her jacket zipped all the way up, one of her more nervous habits. What had Ruby truly nervous, however, was how Summer had one of her handguns holsted on her thigh and her silver throwing knives lined up behind her hip.

Summer placed a hand on her shoulder to encourage her to keep moving as she hurried past and into the office, and Ruby nodded before running down the hall and taking the stairs leading down to the training room three at a time. She grabbed her brand new key to the armoury from its pouch and, with slightly shaking hands, unlocked the heavy doors.

After constant practice and rehearsal, not just under her family’s supervision and timing but also for herself, she didn’t even have to think about it as she rapidly and efficiently strapped her own sheaths to her belt and slid each of her throwing knives into place. Then it was the normal gear; a stake, a crucifix, two pairs of dark iron handcuffs, and her preference for close combat being a steel and silver stiletto blade which she strapped and sheathed on the sleeve of her left arm.

Ducking slightly so that Yang, fully dressed and kitted up, could reach over her head and grab her wrist launchers, Ruby gave her sister a nervous look as she stepped around her to run upstairs again, a look which Yang returned with a thin-lipped one of her own.

Her parents were talking in the study, Summer using the controlled voice she always used when she disagreed with someone, while Tai sounded far more frustrated and apprehensive. The man wore his emotions on the outside, just like Yang did, so Ruby swallowed a gulp at how hesitant he sounded and paused just out of sight so she could listen in.

“-aren’t ready for something like this. They’re too young. We agreed we’d ease them in.”

“We don’t have a choice, love. This scene is one of the most complex I’ve seen in years, and we’re running out of hours of the night. You and I can’t cover the entire thing on our own.” Summer placed her hand on Tai’s arm to reassure him. The look in her eyes was just as hesitant as his, but she’d resigned to the reality on the rushed drive home.

Tai shook his head slowly, still disagreeing, but he got moving again as he packed his own bag full of notes and his own Hunter’s Journal. “Once they see this, they’ll never unsee it. This will be the true start for them. There’s no going back.”

“...I know. I know…but we don’t have a choice.” Summer spoke softly, dropping her hand and stepping back so she could sit on the edge of her desk and cross her arms over her chest. “Li and An are out on highway duty with their boy Lie and the Nora girl, and Saphron and Terra aren’t back from The Grove with Pyrrha and Jaune yet. We’re it, Tai.”

Tai finished packing his bag, buckling it up as he quietly thought, his eyes likely closed in habit as he argued with himself. Logically he knew Summer was right, from her initial hurried photos it was absolutely the sort of scene that would require multiple hunters to comb through effectively, and they were running out of time before sunrise. It was too big for only one Hunter to cover.

But still. They were his little girls.

Most of the time he was proud of his work. It was a good purpose to have in life, a noble one, and it was shared with noble people. But some aspects of it put hot lead into his gut, and being forced to resign to this was one of them.

Tai nodded to Summer in resignation as he left the study, giving Ruby a strained smile and placing a hand on her back.

“You’re riding with your mother, Yang’s with me.” He took a quick moment to press a kiss to the top of her head, mostly for his own comfort, and rubbed her back before hurrying away, already grabbing his keys from his pocket and gesturing to Yang with his head for her to follow him.

Yang paused at the door to the garage and looked over her shoulder at her mother and sister, a concerned and anxious spark in her eyes and a paleness to her skin, and she managed a worried smile when Summer nodded to encourage her.

Looking at her eldest daughter for a long moment, taking in how well she wore her gear, as if it was a second skin, Summer smiled gently. “We’ll meet you there, honey. Go on now.”

“...right. You got it, see you both in a bit, I guess.” Yang’s eyes flicked to Ruby and filled with concern, but when Ruby gave her a determined nod she returned it with one of her own before vanishing.

It left Ruby alone with her mother, and she looked at her mum anxiously with her eyebrows tight together.

“What’s going on…?”

“There’s been…another incident. But this one is different. I wish we had time to introduce you to the darker realities of our work slowly, but we don’t.” Summer placed a hand on each of Ruby’s shoulders, forcing eye contact, and she gave her a gentle but determined look. “Just remember there’s no shame in whatever reaction you have. Throw up if you have to, cry while you work if that’s what feels natural, and take moments to breathe. But you can’t freeze. You know the protocol, force yourself to follow it, but you’re still human. Okay, love?”

Ruby’s eyes were wide at what her mother was saying, what she was implying, and her imagination was already rushing past with conjured scenarios, each one worse than the last. But she managed a nod.

“Got it. I’ll be alright. Promise.”

Nodding with a sad smile, her eyes sympathetic, Summer lovingly placed her hand on Ruby’s cheek for a moment. “That’s my girl. I’m just sorry that this is how you start. Now come on. We’re wasting darkness.”

Ruby followed her mother into the garage at a power walk and grabbed her helmet from the shelf where it was kept, almost identical to Summer’s own, and hopped up behind her on her bike. Her heart was hammering, pounding between her ears so violently she could feel her fingers twitching from her pulse, and she closed her eyes to brace herself as her mother pulled out onto the street.

Their destination was only fifteen minutes away, close to the centre stretch of town instead of having to cross over the train tracks to the suburbs on the other side, and Ruby’s eyes widened in surprise as they approached a gas station she was familiar with.

It was one she’d been to a hundred times, either drunk and with the munchies at an absurd hour, or on fuel runs for her own bike, but her heart froze and anxious nausea washed through her when she saw the streaks of red on the windows from the inside.

“...no goddamn way…” Ruby’s heart lost its rhythm as she saw the first signs, and her eyes widened.

Summer sighed as she pulled to a stop next to where Tai and Yang were waiting, Yang finally being allowed to look at the folder containing the photos from the first incident, and her face was pale with horror and her eyes flickering in confusion as she studied it. She and Tai were speaking to each other in low voices, and they both looked up when Summer and Ruby approached.

When Summer stopped next to her husband to do a final check of her own gear, Yang silently handed the file to Ruby as soon as Ruby was in reach, and bit her bottom lip for a moment as she squashed down the bile in her throat.

Taking the folder hesitantly, the curiosity about it that had persisted for almost a full week now battling with how shaken Yang clearly was, Ruby flicked it open and looked down at it only for her own eyes to widen and her face to pale as her blood retreated.

Ruby had seen records of the sort of scenes that supernaturals left behind in the past, studying them for her training, and she was confident that four times out of five she could guess what had done the killing just from the visual clues.

But this…

It had her battling with nausea as she snapped the file shut and handed it to her dad for him to put back into his bag.

Her parents glanced at each other once again, Summer committed while Tai still hesitated, and both looked at their daughters quietly for a moment before Summer turned and led the way around the back of the store and to an employee entrance she had picked open when she’d arrived for her first sweep.

The three others followed, but Ruby and Yang both slowed in surprise for a moment when Tai handed each of them a barf bag with a concerned look.

“Just in case. There’s no shame in it, you two. I threw up at my first couple, when I was your age.”

Ruby frowned, but she kept the bag in her hand just in case as she stepped through the door and entered the back rooms of the store.

The moment she was inside, her entire body clenched, and it was so sudden and so oppressive it brought tears to her eyes as she lurched over. The shadows were darker than they should have been to her eyes, and her pulse rushed through her ears as a dizziness she’d never experienced before clogged her throat and lungs and threatened to drown her.

Her knees wobbled and gave way, but Tai caught her before she dropped entirely, his other arm out to steady where Yang had collapsed against a shelf with wide eyes and shivering so badly her teeth were chattering.

The world was screaming into Yang’s ears, the shadows lying to her by turning innocent shapes into horrors, and she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head violently to clear it away.

Even Tai himself stiffened for a few moments before he shoved it into the normal box inside of his mind and was able to focus, helping Ruby stand properly again while grasping Yang’s shoulder and squeezing to bring her back.

“Breathe, you two. Focus, just like you’ve practised.”

Ruby nodded as she straightened up, adjusting and acclimating to how it seemed the fabric of the universe was poisoned around her, every atom perverse and toyed with, but with a few deep breaths to concentrate she compartmentalised it all.

With each step forward, it made less sound, as if the floor was cushioned and soft underneath her feet when it should have been hard tiles. But instead the darkness, the perpetual shadow, felt almost… pliable. The doorframe leading out into the main area of the store was slightly bent, the metal warped and distorted, and Ruby froze when she noticed the lack of any sort of reflection in it despite the shine.

It felt like a disconnection. A liminal crossing. And Ruby’s hands trembled slightly as she grabbed her flashlight and flicked it on. The powerful beam pierced through the shadows, banishing them and letting her see the storeroom clearly, gazing over every shelf.

But that changed the moment she stepped through the door and entered the store itself.

As soon as she crossed the threshold, the beam of her torch stuttered, as if struggling against interference. The light hit shadows but pierced straight through them, causing none to retreat, only bringing the contrast of them into sharper focus.

She swept the light over the dark space as she walked forward, her heart hammering in her chest as she was only able to illuminate a few feet in front of herself. And then she slipped, a foot losing purchase on the slicked tiles. But she managed to grab a hold of one of the shelves before she hit the ground entirely.

Aiming her light down at the ground beneath her feet, her eyes widened and her heart stopped at the large streak of crimson. The blood was fresh, barely even congealed, and still vibrant in its colour. The dark of the blood clashed with the white tiles and the pure black shadows, and the moment she saw it all she found the stench of it in the air.

The dark tang of iron, twisted up in every other smell.

Ruby’s stumble had caught her mother’s attention, and Summer turned around and flashed her flashlight at Ruby with a concerned frown.

“Easy, love. Take your time. But…be careful of the floor. The runes start over here, and we need as many photos as we can of them intact.”

Her mother’s voice was quiet, and almost sounded…. muffled… trying to get through the thick darkness. Like speaking through water, or a pane of glass. Vibrating, but not fully penetrating.

Ruby nodded as she recovered, and made sure to step over the rest of the large streak of blood to join her mother in front of the counter, with Yang and her father right behind her.

When the four of them were standing together, Summer scanned the floor and walls closest to them with her flashlight - as far as the beam of light was able to penetrate - before going almost rigid and turning to the rest of them.

“...it’s over here. Our body.”

Summer’s voice wavered slightly in hesitation at what she was about to introduce her daughters to, but she didn’t let herself freeze, instead leading the way into the middle of the store and into a section that had been entirely cleared out; shelves had been shoved to the side, deep scratches on the tiles showing how the heavy metal had resisted but given way regardless.

While one trunk fridge had been practically tossed to the side, the other had been shoved into the direct middle of the space and turned into a makeshift… altar.

As their flashlights all shone onto the body laying atop it, with the body’s long black hair still rippling slightly as it fought the light, Ruby immediately turned around and stumbled to the closest wall to vomit at the sight. Her flashlight dropped from a numbed hand, almost cracking when it hit the tiles, as the remains of her dinner came out with a horrified retch.

While Summer was immediately at Ruby’s side, an arm around her to steady her and hush her gently, Yang and Tai were only able to stare with wide eyes at the sight in front of them.

They couldn’t accurately use the term barbarism. It was too deliberate. Too refined and well practised.

Bile shot up in Yang’s throat, but she swallowed it down with a crunch of effort that had her grunt, and she squeezed her eyes shut and looked away for a moment until her stomach and nerves settled.

But they wouldn’t, and Ruby wasn’t in a much better state even once she was back at her sister’s side, her skin pale as she took some quick sips of water from a bottle Summer had given her.

Ruby took a hesitant step forward, even in her shaking state she was careful not to smudge the carefully scribed runes and sigils that decorated the ‘altar’ in delicate spirals, drawn with fingers that had been soaked in blood for the paint. With a great wrench of effort she forced herself to shine her flashlight onto the body and take a proper look.

Her mother was right at her side, one hand on her back to support her even as she looked down at the body herself, but the contact wasn’t as reassuring as Ruby wished that it was.

There was no comfort to be found here. Not ever again.

The girl’s light green eyes were still wide open, her killer hadn’t closed them, and the rest of her face was frozen in the last throes of her obvious final agony. With her lips open and teeth bared, her fangs were on full display, and all of her teeth were black with dark blood from a successful bite.

When a vampire died, the process began through desiccation; all the blood and fluids in its body vanished, turning to ash, making the skin grey and tighten almost like a rapid mummification. It locked them rigid, like statues, and they would then turn to dust entirely.

Normally it happened in a matter of moments, from Ruby’s readings apparently stronger vampires could sometimes last for over a minute, but with the weaker ones it often happened faster than their slayer could catch the body before it hit the ground.

And yet the girl in front of her, butchered and utilised, lingered. Locked and frozen, perfectly preserved, but nothing in her had begun to turn to ash yet.

It would make it easy for one of them to check over her condition and make notes, but it was also a marker of just how powerful the girl had been.

Ruby’s suspicions on who, what, the girl might be were confirmed when Yang gasped in horrified recognition as she joined them, her hand going to her mouth and her eyes widening.

“I…I know her.” Yang swallowed through her dry throat as she looked down at the body, forcing herself to avoid everything that had been done to her for now. “She and her twin sister were in our year at school.”

Ruby frowned at that, and she checked over the girl again. But she didn’t recognise her at all, she’d never seen her before in her life, and she raised her eyebrows at Yang and shook her head in confusion.

“...you sure?”

“Yeah! Yeah. But they dropped out last year, before you jumped those grades ahead.” Yang bit her lip, and she was bravely the first one of them to actually touch the body as she carefully moved the fabric of the girl’s utterly ripped shirt to find where her name was stitched on. “...Miltia. Yeah. This is Miltia Malachite…oh fuck.”

All four of them went rigid at the last name, Ruby’s mouth dropping open and a rush of numbness going through her entire body, starting at her forehead and reaching her toes so quickly she feared she’d faint.

A Malachite.

One of the daywalker families. Not just that, the Malachites were probably the most reclusive and private family in the entire town. They kept entirely to themselves even though they were one of the founding families alongside the Schnees and some others.

Their name came up in records, and Ruby could track their presence back through the centuries of the town’s settlement.

But that was it; just references.

Ruby didn’t even know where they lived.

A daughter of one of the daywalker families, a daywalker just like Weiss, was dead and butchered right in front of her. Dissected, utilised, and from the cavity in her chest… harvested.

It was hard to breathe, but Ruby did her best to continue doing it as her flashlight trembled in her hands.

Unsurprisingly, Summer was the first to recover, sharing a horrified look with Tai, before clearing her throat loudly.

“Okay…okay. We have to focus, because we don’t have long. We can come back later to fine-comb the place, but right now we get as much as we can before sunrise and find anything that might fade or vanish before we can come back.” Summer bit her lip as she reached into her bag and pulled out her camera, and she raised her eyebrows at Tai. “How do you want to do this, love?”

Tai sighed at the question, his reluctance still in his eyes from back at the house, before he put one hand on his hip and swept around with his flashlight again to get a general idea of the sort of space they were dealing with.

Each of the four of them had different specialties and things they were best at.

“Alright. Yang, catalogue the collateral; the damage to the shelves, the floor, anything. Photograph it, catalogue it, and we can try and assemble a timeline back at home. Whatever happened to her, she clearly fought back.”

That had been obvious to Ruby from the start, as she looked around again; the shelves were warped and dented, some of the metal ripped apart and shredded, and the front counter had been almost reduced to shards of plaster and iron.

Streaks of blood coated the walls with some splatters even reaching the windows, merchandise from the shelves were scattered everywhere as if tossed by hurricane force winds… Something had killed her, but she hadn’t gone down easy.

“Summer, you take the runes. Photos and sketches. I’ll handle the body and record what I can, she won’t last forever.” Tai gestured to the spirals and rings of symbols covering almost every surface, satisfied when Summer nodded, and he looked at Ruby last. “Ruby, I want you on material evidence. Whatever did this was clean at their first kill last week, but this one required a struggle. They might have left something behind.”

Ruby nodded in agreement, relieved for a reason to turn away from the body and get to her own work, and she began the slow process of starting at one corner of the building and slowly combing it. 

But considering it was a store, with merchandise thrown everywhere, food and drinks burst and scattered, and shards of glass from broken light bulbs piled on the floor like caltrops, it was like navigating a maze filled with red herrings and landmines.

In plenty of places, water from a ruptured pipe above had mixed in with the blood and turned it into a slick slurry that made it hard to navigate, and Ruby cringed in discomfort as the gory mixture ended up coating her hands and arms. She was thankful for her gloves, but the viscous fluid still stuck to her fingers like webbing.

The shelves and merchandise space was clear of anything useful, as were the backrooms and the small office, but it was while she carefully circled around the wreckage of the counter and began scrounging through the scraps of bent metal that she paused and her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Quickly pulling off her filthy gloves and putting on a pair of fresh and clean ones, Ruby reached in with a grunt at the stretch and pulled out the cellphone that had ended up underneath the counter itself. It was resting on a small shelf reserved for the personal effects of whoever was on shift, things they wanted close instead of kept in the office, and clearly the phone counted.

Spinning it around in her hand, Ruby tested the power button and grinned in victory when the screen lit up. She put it aside for the moment and kept moving pieces of plaster and metal to find more.

Another grand victory that had her cackle was a laptop, a brand new model, but the screen was cracked and it didn’t even spark when she tried powering it on. But the body of it wasn’t bent too badly, so there was every chance that Penny or her father would be able to get into the hard drive.

Ruby checked the phone again, pressing the power button and the lock screen coming up. There was no chance in hell that she’d be able to guess the password, but it was the lockscreen itself that interested her the most;

The phone had most of its battery, she’d clearly charged it just before her shift, meaning she likely came straight from home. The small symbol of a clock in the top right meant she had some sort of alarm set that was yet to go off too. And she had plenty of notifications.

Including two missed calls from a contact simply named ‘d1’.

Ruby’s entire body thrilled in a rush of curiosity as she stared at it, slowly grinning wider and wider, before she turned the screen off and reached for the laptop as well.

She wriggled out of the tight and collapsed space, before jogging over to where her father was still working on the body. His face was still rather pale at what he was seeing, but he was determined, and his movements were trained and sure.

When Ruby hopped over one of the runes that her mother had yet to get to, he looked over at her and raised his eyebrows at her find.

“Where’d you find them?”

“Behind the counter. If she was on shift, it meant they were both hers.” Ruby offered both over, and Tai smiled proudly and nodded towards the large bag he had brought.

“Good work. What’s their condition?”

Ruby sighed in annoyance as she grabbed a large evidence bag for the laptop before putting it into her father’s bag, but she hesitated with the phone, looking over at the body with a frown. She had a hunch, since there was a habit she didn’t share but Yang and plenty of their friends did.

“Laptop’s busted, but her phone…hang on.”

Even though every part of her gut and lungs thrashed against the idea, Ruby grimaced and stepped over to the body. She’d seen a lot of photos and sketches of dead bodies, but this…this wasn’t just a dead body.

It was a perversion. And as she had to swallow down another load of bile, looking away for a moment, she knew it.

But she had a job to do, and her father watched her in curious concern as Ruby gently angled around where the girl’s arm and hand had frozen rigid, and she pressed the phone against her thumb.

The phone blipped as it unlocked, and Ruby sucked in a breath of both surprise and excitement, and she looked over at her dad only to grin slightly at how his eyes had widened in surprise.

“...I don’t think I would have thought of that…”

“You’re an old man. Out of the times. Not your fault.” Ruby’s gut squirmed at just how easy it was beginning to feel to be right next to a body and making quips, so she stepped away with a final shrug to her dad. “I’ll go through it quickly. Won’t take long.”

Tai frowned for a moment and thinned his lips. “Bag it for the Polendinas. You’re working.”

“I’ve finished, promise. I saved the counter for last. Didn’t find much, but I bagged whatever was weird.” Ruby patted the largest pouch on her belt pointedly, with the bare few evidence bags inside. Her curiosity was struck, so her mind was already made up as she walked away with the phone in her hands. “Promise. I’ll just do a basic scroll. Maybe she grabbed a photo, or something.”

Before her father could push any further, Ruby walked into the back storeroom of the store so she was completely out of everyone else’s way, and immediately began to scroll through Miltia’s phone.

A lot of the notifications were basic and boring; twitter, facebook, other random and pointless junk, but it was the missed calls that had Ruby’s interest the most. Scrunching up the corner of her mouth, she tapped her fingers on the phone as curiosity warred with her patience.

The urgency and horror of what was around her. Of where she was. Of everything that was spread around the other room. The air was poisonous and heavy in her lungs, the shadows rebellious but… dead.

It twisted and curled around in her gut.

Something had killed one of the daywalkers, and then…done this. They had done the impossible, and then played.

Ruby scrunched her eyes shut in revulsion as her stomach churned and her lungs crushed in on themselves, and she growled in frustration before shaking her head to snap out of it and focus again.

With a quick decision made before she could talk herself out of it, she opened the phone’s call history and hit the ‘call back’ button on the missed call from ‘ d1.’

But, holding the phone up to her ear, the moment the first dial rang out she jumped so violently and spun on her heel at the sound of a phone’s ringtone.

It was almost immediately silenced, and the phone in Ruby’s hand beeped from the call being rejected, but Ruby had a blade in her free hand immediately as her eyes scanned around the room, before they locked on the open back door.

She slowly put the phone into her bag so she could grab a second blade, spinning one in each hand, and she sucked in a breath as she stepped over to the door leading back out into the night.

“...come out. I know you’re there now…”

There wasn’t a response, not that she fully expected one, and she shivered more and more with every step towards the door. The side of her neck suddenly felt cold, causing her to shudder as if ice was pressed against it, and she gasped at the sensation. But it blended in quickly with the pulses of adrenaline thrumming in her body.

Reaching the door, she kept her blades up, spinning one in her left hand nervously while the one in her right was steady.

But the moment she was at the doorway, breathing in the uncorrupted outside air, her wrist was grabbed too fast for her to see and with a strength that instantly caused her grip on her knife to break, and it clattered to the outside asphalt.

The world rushed by in an indiscernible blur as she was yanked outside and whipped around, completely losing her footing and being at the mercy of the momentum and strength which slammed her against the side of an abandoned car. Ruby would have yelped at the surprise and then pain of the impact, but a hand over her mouth sealed the sound, an arm across her torso applying enough pressure to keep her entirely off-balance.

Once the world stopped spinning, her eyes widened as she was staring into a pair of ice blue ones, though the blue of them was almost completely swallowed by black; predatory and animalistic.

Eyes which she recognised, but the rest of Weiss’s face was almost alien to her.

There was barely any humanity in her appearance, the visage that all vampires normally wore with ease instead completely abandoned in place of The Truth.

Her eyes were wider, with dark tendrils crawling out from them and spreading like spiderwebs, almost like a masquerade mask protruding from underneath her skin. There was no white in them either, instead only a swirling dark grey.

There was no softness to her jawline anymore, no cute curve to her lips. Instead her lips were plump and pure, and they would have been intoxicatingly inviting if Ruby wasn’t currently rigid in fear and surprise.

Ruby wasn’t looking at anything close to natural, but she herself was only human. It was like a three dimensional being trying and failing to comprehend a fourth dimensional one.

A being that came from somewhere and something ‘else’.

She was horrifying beyond what Ruby’s mind could process visually. She was intoxicatingly mesmerising beyond Ruby’s body’s ability to crave. She was omnipotent and undeniable and Ruby stared and froze and she squeaked into Weiss’s hand over her mouth as her mind tried and failed to process.

Ruby’s eyes and mind kept failing to interpret the aberration she was seeing as she stared at Weiss in a horror and terror that was slowly stealing her ability to think rationally or move a muscle.

Instead she was gradually going more and more helpless and limp underneath the stare of what wasn’t ‘Weiss’, but was instead her pure and unfiltered Beast. When the disguise of humanity was abandoned or no longer able to hold, and they instead showed what they really were.

Weiss simply stared at her, fangs so long she could barely keep her jaw closed, meaning her lips were parted. She wasn’t breathing, she’d dropped that forced part of the act as well, instead she was entirely rigid as she stared deeply into Ruby’s eyes.

The only movement on Weiss’s face were the slow drips of red leaking out of the corners of her eyes and sliding down her face.

Tears of pure blood, and from the streaks down her otherwise porcelain face she had been shedding plenty of them.

Weiss scrutinised her for a long few moments, clearly confident that Ruby was too immobilised and petrified to try and escape from her hold, as realisation slowly dawned and anger turned to shock. She briefly broke off her stare to glance inside where Ruby’s family were scrounging for clues, and then looked in the direction of the two parked bikes.

Her lips parted slightly further as she hissed again, and she shook her head slowly as the world made more sense and became harder to understand at the exact same moment.

“Ruby Rose…”

Weiss pressed her even harder against the car as she made eye contact again, and Ruby squeaked in pain as she felt some of her joints strain. But Weiss didn’t relent, simply staring deeper into her in realisation. Pieces clicking together and making the overall picture worse and worse.

“...you’re…you’re an Inquisitor.”

It was mostly a statement, a realisation, but there was the slightest inflection of a question at the end of it. Weiss didn’t want it to be true, wanted there to be another explanation that wasn’t going to turn the situation from heartbreaking to horrific.

But, underneath that bestial stare that had every muscle numb and a voice that made her head swim, Ruby couldn’t lie.

So…she nodded.

Weiss’s eyes narrowed, the final vestiges of light blue vanishing and instead being completely swallowed by black. She bared her teeth in a horrifying and silent snarl as she wrestled with herself, eyes flicking back and forth between each of Ruby’s, and she hissed again slowly.

“You come with me quietly, or your whole family dies and I take you anyway. Choose.”

Unable to move pretty much anything else, Ruby nodded, before suddenly slumping as the petrifying terror began to relent, releasing her body. Her head was still swimming, but she was at least able to stand on her own two feet as Weiss pulled back some of the pressure.

Once Ruby was standing again and her head was clearer, the power of Weiss’s sheer presence easing off by Weiss's deliberate choice, Weiss hissed again low in her throat in threat as she beckoned with a single finger for Ruby to come with her.

And, still too terrified to do anything else, Ruby followed.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

+=+=+

As Weiss led the way out of the side alley of the gas station, Ruby could only follow numbly and silently. It was like the air around Weiss was distorted, rippling like the surface of a pond currently experiencing an electric charge, and being drawn in the direction of it felt like being pulled down into the depths.

The world was darker around Weiss as she walked, but something in Ruby wanted to dive down and swim. So, at Weiss’s word, she did, following behind her quietly as Weiss reached the side door of the next store over and put her hand on the doorknob.

Glancing over her shoulder to pin Ruby with her stare, Weiss didn’t need to check if she was still there, she could smell Ruby so vividly and potently in the air that it was like being crushed by it. The glare was just to reinforce her rage, the unnatural angles of her face sharp and deformed, and she was satisfied when Ruby’s eyes widened upon seeing her true visage again.

So with Ruby still obedient, Weiss twisted the doorknob and made the metal groan and crunch as her enhanced strength easily snapped the lock and got the door open, and she stepped aside so that Ruby would enter first.

She was forced to hold her breath as Ruby walked past, with her grip on the door tightening so harshly that the doorknob crunched and crumpled. But even without inhaling, the scent of Ruby flooded into her senses, and she looked up at the sky with a grunt to compose herself after Ruby was indoors.

But with every true part of herself on the surface, no longer suppressed and muffled, the cage door wide open, every sense she had was dialed up to a thousand. And so was every emotion and sensation that came with it

Hence the rage. And the grief.

Weiss closed the door behind them after following Ruby inside, and while she could see perfectly she knew that Ruby wouldn’t be able to, so she turned on the light of the small storeroom they had found themselves in.

The small second-hand clothes store wasn’t particularly popular, so plenty of racks and boxes reeked of dust, and it had Weiss scrunch up her nose distastefully as she walked through to the main area of the store. Ruby followed behind her, twitching and nervous, and Weiss hated how satisfying it felt.

But she was far, far past the point of compassion and sympathy.

So as Ruby stood in front of the counter, her hands folded in front of herself, Weiss paced back and forth in front of her with slow and graceful strides.

“Explain. Who are you, Ruby? Who are your family? I could smell all of them.”

Ruby sighed at the questions, still trembling from nerves, but she closed her eyes for a moment and bit her lip as she tried to figure out how to answer. There wasn’t much point trying to squirm out of it now, since she’d admitted to it.

“It’s…complicated.”

The snarl that came out of Weiss was so visceral that Ruby’s knees buckled and she had to catch herself on the counter, with Weiss shooting her a glare. “More than you can possibly imagine! You and your family have lived here for years! And the whole time…”

Weiss hissed in an outrage that was getting harder and harder to swallow down, her Beast already too riled up and feral from the events of the night, and she stopped in her prowling, freezing into a statue as her mind raced.

It explained practically everything that had been bothering her about Ruby for a week now. All the things that had made her toss and turn, staring up at her roof with that pit of vulnerability inside of her chest. It meant that Ruby hadn’t figured out her secret on a whim, she’d noticed it because she was trained to.

This whole time Weiss had thought, had hoped, that Ruby looked at her and gave her so much attention because the craving that drove Weiss insane was mutual. Well, as mutual as any human stood a chance of feeling desire as much as a vampire did. But no, it hadn’t been interest.

Ruby had been hunting her.

On an ordinary night, that would hurt enough on its own, would scare her enough on its own. But tonight wasn’t ordinary.

“...it wasn’t you who…killed Miltia.” Stammering slightly over it, the words hard to say and put out into the open air, Weiss scrunched her eyes shut and clenched her fists down by her sides. “You don’t know how. Otherwise you would have done it to me.”

Ruby shook her head slowly, the trembling slowly subsiding as Weiss focused more on her own thoughts than on keeping Ruby immobilised. But it was still almost impossible to blink or look away from her.

“...no, we didn’t. We’re just-”

“Sticking your noses in. Getting involved. Studying us like animals.” Weiss shook her head rapidly to try and get back on track, opening her eyes again and looking over at Ruby with a curious glare. “How long ago did you figure me out?”

“About a month after I moved up to your year and started seeing you around.”

There was no way Ruby was going to tell her that the Guild had been tracking the Schnees for generations. That she knew about all of them. 

But it wasn’t a total lie either. It had only taken a month for Weiss to become Ruby’s first target. 

Ruby bit her lip again and leant back against the counter, resting her weight on it and causing her knives on her belt to press against her hip.. While one of them was currently on the pavement outside of the gas station, she had all of her others, and she knew just how fast she was with them.

But the very idea of drawing one against Weiss at this moment felt…impossible. Like a laughable dream. She was the prey right now, and every nerve and instinct in her knew it and had surrendered to it down to her core.

So she simply watched nervously as Weiss stood as a frozen statue in thought, her eyes narrowed and staring off into nothing.

When Weiss didn’t make a single noise or movement for almost a solid minute, Ruby sucked in a small breath to steady herself before risking speaking.

“...you knew Miltia, then?”

Weiss’s attention immediately shot back to her, eyes pinning her to the counter and a silent snarl curling in the corner of her lips to reveal the slightest glimpse of fangs.

There wasn’t an immediate answer as Weiss wrestled with it, but eventually she nodded slowly.

“Yes. Her twin is part of my…group.” Weiss closed her eyes again and took a deep breath in to calm herself and focus even as the knife in her gut twisted so brutally that her inner creature howled at the pain of it.

A fresh tear of blood trickled from her left eye, escaping to run down her cheek, and she clenched her jaw at the knowledge that Ruby was seeing it.

But it hurt. It hurt as badly as losing Cinder a year ago had hurt. It twisted and crawled inside of her bones and made her want to tear apart the world to make things even. To get her girls back in any way that she could.

And Ruby was in the way. A human.

Clamping a hand over her face as everything in her rushed to her eyes and fangs, Weiss stumbled back and crashed into a clothes rack behind her as she groaned at the strain of holding a door closed inside of herself.

Weiss’s nails almost dug into the skin of her face as she strained, hissing behind her palms, before she managed to straighten up slowly and open her eyes again to stare over at where Ruby was backed up against the counter.

Seeing Ruby’s fear felt so, so good. And she hated it.

So, scrunching her eyes shut once more, Weiss sucked in a breath and held it as she slowly coaxed herself back into her cage.

And Ruby watched as Weiss began to change.

It started off subtle; her cheekbones softening slightly, her hair turning platinum blonde again instead of pure white. But soon the black tendrils underneath the skin around her eyes faded, and her lips and eyelashes lost their menacing beauty and became sweet and cute once more.

Gradually, Weiss as Ruby could recognise her returned, and when she opened her eyes they had returned to their normal pale blue.

But instead of it seeming as if the creature she had looked like had retracted, now that Ruby had seen the truth she could feel that it was more like something was being pulled over that visage.

This was the mask. The temporary.

When Weiss spoke again, her fangs hadn’t vanished entirely, but had retracted down to the slightly pointed ones they had been when she’d fed from Ruby at the party, and her voice had lost its serpentine edge.

The deception had returned. The facade was back in place.

“We’ve known that Inquisitors were still out there in small independent clusters, my sister once encountered some on the coast of France. But…why are you here?”  

“...is it really any surprise? This is Silvercloud. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a monster of some kind.” Ruby crossed her arms over her chest nervously. Even with Weiss back in her mortal form it was still as if the air around her was squirming at just her presence.

Weiss flinched slightly, though it was mostly smothered and hidden by a scowl, and she rubbed her eyes in an expression of both frustration and utter helplessness.

“You and I made our little truce just between the two of us, and that was fine, but I can’t excuse this, Ruby.”

There was certainly hostility in Weiss’s tone, but what made Ruby bite her lip in thought was the sheer resignation in it as well. As if Weiss had accepted she had an unsavoury chore to perform, or a burden to carry. She certainly wasn’t getting any joy out of it.

The main emotion still on Weiss’s face was the grief that had sat in her eyes from the moment Ruby had seen her.

So Ruby sucked in a small breath to try and calm her nerves, even with her palms sweating and her legs tense in the instinctual preparation to run. But running would be fruitless, since Weiss would be able to catch her before she got to the storeroom door.

But she summoned as much courage as she could manage, in the face of Weiss’s grief and hesitation.

She made her gamble.

“...if you start a war, you’ll never find out what happened to Miltia.”

Weiss spun her head in her direction fast enough that her silver ponytail whipped around, eyes wide and eyebrow raised as she stared into Ruby’s bold but shaky expression. Her lips parted slightly in surprise, too caught off-guard by the gall of Ruby’s words to care much about how she was slowly growing to resist the aura Weiss knew was radiating out from herself.

“It wouldn’t be much of a war, my kind have experience when it comes to these things.”

“Against small breaches, sure. But…this isn’t tiny. I’m not the only one who knows, Weiss.” Swallowing a lump of nerves in her throat, Ruby straightened up from the counter, her spine practically rigid, and even though she was trembling she was able to clench her fists to remain stable. “You would ask the rest of your kind in town for help. So would we. It’d be a bloodbath. Are you really willing to tear your kind’s feeding ground apart?”

Weiss laughed, sharp and cold, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest.

“To maintain the Shroud? My kind have done worse in order to protect our secrecy in the past. We burned half of London to the ground to protect ourselves, I think we’d be fine scrapping Silvercloud and simply starting again somewhere else.”

It was true, and Ruby knew it. Far too many atrocities in history had been the work of vampiric society either protecting itself or advancing its interests. Humanity’s achievements were toys to be played with or shaped to serve other purposes. The vampires and other supernaturals saw humanity as cattle to be herded and domesticated, led to the slaughter without even knowing it.

And vampiric society was able to have something that the Guild didn’t have the luxury of;

True patience.

And yet…

“Is that what you want?? Us to tear our home apart??” Ruby managed to hold her stare as she pushed. “You may be a monster, but surely you give a shit about-”

“Of course I do! But to protect my family, to protect my people, are you really going to ask me to go against their best interests?” Snarling back and easily overpowering Ruby’s stare with her own, Weiss stepped towards her with a low growl in her throat at Ruby’s presumption. “You think you can ask me to sit back and let your order prepare for a war that can only result in your defeat, but not without collateral cost?!”

“Maybe, maybe not! But if you move against us right now then the supernaturals of Silvercloud would go on the alert, and whatever it is that’s able to kill your kind will disappear, and you’ll never find them.” Ruby’s clenched fist trembled from the tension she was holding in it, and she shoved it into the pocket of her pants to try and hide it. “You’ll never know what it is that’s able to prey on you. Or why.”

She knew Weiss could hear how hard she was breathing, and the hammering of her heart in her chest. But she had to try. The last time, Weiss had been at her mercy, but now it was the other way around.

Because this time it was bigger than just the two of them, and in a contest of influence the supernatural would always win. Ruby just had to hope that Weiss could be swayed by a different threat.

And from how Weiss narrowed her eyes in thought and ground her jaw, she’d hit a mark, but she wasn’t willing to let out any sign of relief just yet.

Meanwhile Weiss stared at Ruby intently as she racked her brain, her fingers twitching as if wanting to turn into claws down by her sides as she thought. She doubted that Ruby’s family were the only Inquisitors in town, they always took a mile if they found an inch and they spread like an infection, but they were a threat that could be dealt with at any time.

Unlike this new threat, which had gone from killing shapeshifters to somehow killing and butchering a pure-blood in only a week.

There were ways to kill Weiss’s kind, though they were few, but it was the fact it was Miltia that had Weiss trembling just at the thought of what her friend’s body had been left looking like.

She hadn’t been given much time to look around before she’d heard people arriving and she’d vanished, but a few quick glances had been enough for her to howl and her vision to turn red.

Whatever it was in Silvercloud, it was ambitious and had an overall scheme in mind. It wasn’t harvesting organs for the fun of it.

And from just how much blood Weiss had been able to smell indoors, the creature had taken a few human bodies too, but had left Miltia’s behind after it was done with her.

But could she really justify leaving the Inquisition for later just to put another threat first?

Considering that clearly the Inquisition didn’t know how to kill them, but this new threat was able to, it certainly threatened her priorities. And considering the fact the Inquisition was here investigating, and somehow the autopsy report from the shapeshifters had gone missing which Weiss was now willing to make a guess about, clearly they had taken an interest in it as well.

Weiss growled in frustration and rubbed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose as she thought.

“You’re implying that if I let you live, that if I let this happen, that I’ll get answers. That I’ll get anything.”

“If…if it gets you to lay off, even just while we deal with… this,” Ruby glanced pointedly in the direction of the gas station, where her family had certainly noticed her absence by now. “Then I can make sure you do. We want to know what’s doing this just like you are. Since it’s breaking the peace of Silvercloud on its own, just like you would be if you made a move against me.”

Weiss looked up at her and narrowed her eyes, taking a step towards her and crossing her arms over her chest. “Threatening me won’t do you any favours, Ruby.”

“It’s not a threat, it’s a reality, and you know it too.” Ruby took a step forward as well, raising her head defiantly as she almost entered Weiss’s personal space. But her courage was thin and hanging by a thread, and they both knew it.

If Weiss decided on it, then Ruby would be dead before her hand stood a chance of brushing one of her knives.

But the bait, if it was genuine, was good enough for Weiss to run the tip of her tongue along her teeth, the tip of it flicking out of her lips enough for Ruby to see.

“I let you live, I keep my mouth shut, and you let me in on your peoples’ progress on the trail of this thing. Is that what you’re offering?”

Ruby clenched her jaw as she tried to keep her nerve, but the strange hunger that had started to glisten in Weiss’s eyes had her heart miss enough beats her chest hurt. “...would you do the same? Share what you know?”

“Both of us become informants? Even just one of us would find it hard to keep it a secret, let alone both of us having to try, Ruby.” Even despite the playfulness in her tone, Weiss’s eyes sharpened as she thought over it, weighing it up in her mind.

She lets Ruby live and keeps the presence of the Inquisition a secret for now, she gets let in on the Inquisitions side of the investigation, she solves the problem and purges the threat, then she tells the Crimson Council about Ruby’s family and they deal with the Inquisition.

Easy peasy, right?

‘As long as the Council let us deal with Ruby ourselves, as a reward for dealing with the threat and rooting out the Inquisition in the first place.’ Weiss closed her eyes for a moment and cracked her neck at the intrusion, letting out a slow breath through parted lips.

That would be a fair ask, surely.

Weiss liked Ruby, she wanted Ruby, even standing in front of her right now was a unique kind of agony that had her clenched tight, but she knew her duty and priorities.

Her duty to her people and her coterie came before her desire and hunger for one individual human. No matter how much the memory of her blood made Weiss’s fangs extend and her thighs quiver.

It would work…but Ruby had deceived her before.

So Weiss tilted her head suspiciously as she brushed aside the flavour of the bait and looked for the trap in it.

“I want proof. That you’ll keep your end of the bargain.” Weiss tapped her foot in thought as she stepped even closer, forced to tilt her head up slightly to meet Ruby’s eyes, but the height difference might as well have not been there from how Ruby swallowed a gulp at the proximity. “...prove it to me.”

Ruby blinked, her mouth dropping open slightly as her mind turned to static, and it wasn’t just from a lack of ideas.

She remembered this scent; tints of vanilla, but also that intoxicating and fog-inducing something. And Weiss’s eyes were so damn blue, her skin unblemished and flawless porcelain.

The memory of Weiss’s true face lingered in her mind, and would haunt her the next time she tried to sleep, but the Weiss in front of her was hard to look away from. Even blinking was difficult.

It wasn’t fair how she could do this. And especially now that Ruby could remember what it had been like to give into her and give what Weiss wanted to take from her. What they had enjoyed right up until the moment Weiss had tried to make Ruby forget it all.

But she couldn’t think about it right now, even though her body pulsed hot and the side of her neck washed with tingles, so she shook her head rapidly to try and banish it. Weiss chuckled at the sight of the attempt, and the sound had Ruby sway and buckle, leaning her weight back against the counter.

Weiss was immediately in the few inches Ruby had just vacated, staring at her suspiciously even as amusement at Ruby’s futility lingered on her lips.

Racking her brain, Ruby sucked in a breath - getting a lungful of Weiss’s scent at the same time - and straightened up as much as she could with Weiss right in front of her.

“Tonight!” Ruby blurted out, before flushing slightly at how disoriented and off-balance she was, and how it earned her an amused raised eyebrow from Weiss. “I’ll meet you back here tonight, and I’ll bring you copies of what we’ve got so far.”

The offer clearly caught Weiss by surprise, both of her eyebrows shooting all the way up and her mouth dropping open in fascination at the idea. But before she could tease Ruby and drag it out longer, the sound of voices on the edge of her hearing had her hiss in frustration.

Ruby’s family were looking for her, they had maybe one more minute before Weiss had to have vanished.

“...get one of your knives out.” Weiss hissed urgently as she unzipped her leather jacket and pulled one of her arms out of the sleeve, before gesturing hurriedly at Ruby’s bewildered freeze. “I know you’ve got a silver one on you, I can smell it, and you had more than one steel one at the mall. Just give me a normal one. Hurry.”

As Ruby quickly grabbed out one of her normal knives from her hip, tossing it back and forth between her hands nervously, she watched in confusion as Weiss stared down at her own wrist for a brief moment of hesitation.

Frowning, Ruby tilted her head.

“...what are you doing?”

“Something…something I’ve never tried before. But my mother says it works... No time like the present, I guess.” Weiss muttered the last part to herself as she stared down at her wrist for another few moments, before grimacing and extending her fangs.

There were still things about herself she’d never studied. That she’d been putting off until she was older, so that they would never be temptations while she still had all the impulsiveness and hunger of an untamed and unrefined teenager.

Power, once discovered, was always impossible to resist and cast aside entirely. Weiss had watched what it had done to Coco and Reese in particular, who embraced themselves far too freely.

Every bloodline was different, it was perhaps the great thing that they each prided themselves on. The traits and talents that made them unique, passed down from generation to generation; The Malachites had their shadows, the Vanilles had their illusions, the Adels had their beauty, and so on for each of the main seven.

Including the Schnees. And it was their blood, her blood, that always had Weiss wince and hesitate. There were a few reasons why their orders were the final word whenever they spoke, why her mother sat at the head of the Crimson Council, and why she could assemble and disband her own coterie for meetings without being questioned while the others had to ask for it.

It all came back down to blood.

Everything was always, always, blood.

To Ruby’s shock, Weiss quickly bit her own forearm, digging her fangs in deep enough that blood dripped freely from the wound, and she offered her wrist to Ruby with an urgent glare.

“Drink.”

Ruby almost dropped her knife from surprise, her eyes widening as she looked between the bleeding wound and Weiss’s serious expression. “Huh?!”

“It should make you more likely to keep your word and your mouth shut. We don’t have time for you to make me the mother of all pinky promises. Now drink.” Weiss insisted with a hiss, all too aware that they were running out of time before they were found.

When Ruby hesitated once more she rolled her eyes and grabbed the back of Ruby’s neck, and pressed the blood to her lips.

It took barely a moment of Ruby getting her first taste, instinctually cringing at the idea, before her eyes fluttered closed and, with a moan and a shiver, she began to drink willingly.

Weiss couldn’t bite back her whimper and moan at the sensation of Ruby’s lips on her skin and her blood flowing into her mouth, and her head dropped back as Ruby sipped with increasingly desperate mouthfuls and pressure.

‘Okay, if this is how it felt for every Schnee, she could understand the appeal of doing this.’

It wasn’t a third as strong as the overwhelming sensation of Weiss’s direct bite, but it still had Ruby’s mind blank as she grabbed onto Weiss’s arm with her free hand to hold her to her lips tighter.

The taste was impossible to describe, it was like each of Ruby’s favourite flavours combined together into one cocktail. It was the smell of fresh baked cookies, the washing warmth of dark rum on a cold night, and the sensation of jumping into a pool to wash sweat from the skin.

It was how it felt to slam Weiss down onto Coco’s desk, the way her legs had trembled from the heat as she’d pulled down Weiss’s shorts, unable to stop herself. She hadn’t had a taste of Weiss, but it was like her mind filled in the blank and put it into the flavour currently washing over her tongue and into her head.

With each mouthful, something in her rippled, a seed blossoming and spreading petals inside of her chest, her mind humming at the sensation, and she couldn’t get enough as her drinking became needy.

The wound closed on its own, as all normal wounds did for Weiss, until Ruby was eventually unable to get anymore. So she swirled her tongue on Weiss’s skin, desperate for every drop, and the sensation had Weiss’s knee give out and she slammed a hand onto the counter to stay upright.

The loud sound had Ruby startle, eyes snapping wide open as if waking from a dream, and she immediately pulled her lips away from Weiss’s arm and ran the back of her hand over her mouth to get rid of every gross crimson trace.

But the taste lingered on her tongue, and her heart was hammering inside of her chest and head, the corners of her vision slightly blurry. Sucking in a deep breath, she shivered at the tingling rushing over her body, and she squeezed her eyes shut to straighten out her eyesight.

Weiss recovered first, and Ruby felt as her knife was snatched from her grip, followed by the sound of a blade piercing into flesh and Weiss grunting in pain. She immediately opened her eyes and watched as Weiss slid the blade deep into her own abdomen, having stabbed herself just to the side of her stomach, and coating the blade in red.

The sight of Weiss in pain should have either felt like nothing, or brought Ruby satisfaction, but instead something in her lurched in Weiss’s direction at the sight. Unable to stop herself, she grabbed the knife and pulled it out of Weiss’s stomach, her eyes wide in concern.

“What the hell?!?!”

Shaking her head to dismiss Ruby’s concern, Weiss grimaced at the pain as she explained to a baffled Ruby.

“Just say you ran into one of my kind who had been drawn by all the blood next door, and meet me back here at midnight. With everything your family has gathered so far.”

Ruby took the knife back numbly and nodded, just in time to hear the sound of footsteps from one direction while Weiss vanished in the other, the front door suddenly swaying on its hinges from being thrown open.

It was the first proof of just how fast Weiss had been the entire time, and it had Ruby shiver and her knees give out slightly in relief as all the tension that had been holding her body upright since Weiss had grabbed her wrist vanished in the one wash.

Dropping to her knees as the tension vacated her body and a thousand elastic bands inside of herself snapped, Ruby felt herself break out into a heavy sweat as she sucked in heaving breaths to try and wash the residual panic from her system, the threat of shock growing closer. But as she started to sway and fall onto her side, someone skidded to their knees next to her and caught her.

“Ruby!”

Falling into Yang’s strong arms, Ruby looked up at her panicked sister and managed a small smile, before limply gesturing with her bloodied knife.

The lie came easily to her lips, as if it was normal and natural. The thought of telling her sister the truth didn’t even cross her mind as she willingly followed Weiss’s instructions and kept to the deal.

“I scared ‘em off. I’m okay.”

Yang huffed in worry as she pulled Ruby into a proper supportive hug, looking up at where Summer and Tai had joined them, and she gave a reassuring nod to let them know her sister was okay.

Meanwhile Summer had her pistol in her hand as she looked around, before crouching down and taking Ruby’s knife from her grip.

She pressed a worried kiss to the top of her head, getting a hum from her exhausted daughter in response, and raised the blade to the light as she stood back up.

The blood was unnaturally dark, almost black, a shade she easily recognised after decades of hunting the species that was the source of it.

That was twice that her daughter had clashed with a vampire, and twice that the creature had survived but left Ruby alive.

But that could come later, once she had time to mull over it after organising everything they’d collected tonight and they’d all gotten some sleep. Whenever that would next be.

So she grabbed one of the larger evidence bags from the pouch on her belt and placed Ruby’s knife inside, before looking around at her family and thinning her lips.

“Come on. Let’s get home. If there's trouble loitering nearby, we should get back to where it's safe and look over everything we've found.” Summer holstered her pistol and looked between her daughters, and gave them both a proud but worried smile. "You did well, you two. Really well."

Yang beamed at the praise and stood, helping an equally proud Ruby to her feet, and Summer switched off the light as they made their way back to their bikes.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

+=+=+

After finally getting to bed at around eight in the morning, her parents agreeing that she and Yang deserved the day off school after working all night, Ruby’s sleep was anything but peaceful. She tossed and turned, grabbing at her pillows in a twitchy and restless state that grew worse every time she roused from another dream that she immediately forgot.

But even though the memories of those dreams were immediately vanishing, the effects they were having on her body lingered, as twitches slowly turned into trembling, breaths coming out in gasps as she squirmed.

She kicked off her blankets violently enough they slid to the floor entirely as her temperature soared to scorching, beads of sweat soaking the basic tank top and cotton shorts she’d worn to bed, and her eyes fluttered open slightly as she came out from another dream that immediately vanished.

All that it left behind was a single flash of white hair and the echo of a laugh, something hummed in words she couldn’t make out, but even that image faded as she managed to open her eyes and stare down at her mattress from where she’d rolled onto her stomach.

Every inch of her body felt like it was on fire, ripples of heat pulsing through her skin so viscerally it felt like her bones were warping. Each pulse started in her chest, building up like a charge before detonating outwards, sending the side of her neck into washes of flames and making her eyes tingle with electricity behind her eyelids.

It was like every fever that every flu had ever given her rolled into one, her pyjamas sticking to her skin uncomfortably enough that she whined in discomfort and pulled her top over her head, tossing it across the room hard enough it smacked into her closet.

Ruby flopped back down again, her eyes remaining open as she stared up at the roof while another tremor went through her, leaving her thighs quivering and her chest crushed in like a vacuum.

Letting her head flop to the side, she looked at the time on her alarm clock and sighed when she saw that it was almost five in the afternoon.

Nine hours of rest should have left her feeling completely rejuvenated and ready to face anything, but instead she was twitching and groggy from the sweat, and her dreams had felt like falling from the edge of one cliff only to land on another.

The slick layer of sweat covering her was too unbearable to handle without tearing at her skin once the inevitable itching would start, so Ruby dragged herself sideways off her bed and let herself land on the carpet with a thud. Just as it always did, the impact woke her up further, and she groaned as she pushed herself up and managed to stand.

Her legs wobbled beneath her, but she managed to stay upright as she grabbed her dressing gown from the back of her door and pulled it around herself to cover herself up before stepping out into the hallway and immediately stumbling into the bathroom.

The rest of the top floor of the house seemed to be silent, with Yang either still asleep or working in the office, and chances were that her parents were out meeting and talking with each of the other guild members at the end of the work day. It meant she had the privacy to groan loudly in discomfort as she shed the dressing gown and then her shorts, immediately stepping into the shower.

It helped immediately, the water washing the irritating grit from her skin and waking her up further, but her body temperature was still feverishly high, so instead of having the water as scorchingly hot as she normally did she knew she needed to cool down instead.

Every passing minute of the water cooling her off, her head throbbed less and her thoughts slowly cleared up and sharpened, and she hummed in satisfaction as she began rinsing the conditioner out of her hair.

But even with the sweat washed away and her temperature down, her thoughts clearer and focused, she still felt uncomfortable. Like she was sleeping on sheets with grains of sand mixed in, something in the mere act of existing was just itchy.

Ruby turned the water off and closed her eyes to think, letting her head rest back against the tiles with a dull thunk as her hair dripped.

The discomfort hadn’t started until she’d tried to sleep, but she’d felt off ever since her encounter with Weiss the previous night in the store next to the gas station. She wasn’t an idiot, she was able to put two and two together about what exactly had her system messed up. 

Weiss had said that drinking her blood would make Ruby more agreeable and implied it would coax her to keep Weiss’s presence a secret, and Ruby had then kept it all a secret from her family, but she hadn’t mentioned that it would make Ruby feel like shit only a couple of hours later.

Merely thinking about the act of it had Ruby’s tongue remembering the taste, and the way she immediately licked her lips had a ball of shame turn into nausea inside her gut, and she shook her head with a growl.

She’d drank a vampire’s blood. In a single sip, she’d begun drinking it willingly too. That thought in particular had Ruby grimace as she stepped out of the shower and grabbed her towel.

There had just been something about it that had made it irresistible, a fog similar to what had drowned her at Coco’s house when she’d heard Weiss moaning under her lips and fingers. Something that compelled indulgence no matter the morality of it, and rewarded Ruby with pleasure even as it changed her.

Ruby shook her head as she tried to process it, and stared at herself in the bathroom mirror as she wrapped her towel around herself and began to moisturise her face properly after scrubbing it raw to get rid of the sweat.

But as she stared at herself in the mirror, she frowned and paused at the sight of her own eyes.

Just like her mother, she had eyes of a rather soft colourless shade, almost grey from the paleness. It was the grey of storm clouds. And yet, staring at them in the mirror, Ruby frowned at the sheer vibrancy in her irises. They were practically metallic.

Her mother’s had occasionally seemed brighter than usual, seeming to be almost silver, but Ruby’s own had always been a pale grey. Until now.

Leaning into the mirror and opening her eyes as wide as she could to get a proper look, Ruby scrunched up her mouth in confusion as she took in how the glow of the ceiling lights reflected in the shine.

After studying them for a few moments, Ruby hummed to dismiss it for now, and quickly finished a stripped-down version of her routine so she could step out from the bathroom and dart back across to her bedroom, her towel still wrapped around herself.

The sound of voices downstairs had her pause before she closed her door, however, and she paused with her hand on the doorknob and leant back so she could look in the direction of the stairs.

Yang was laughing at something, and a low and amused voice spoke words that Ruby couldn’t quite make out, but she recognised the voice and it had her eyebrows shoot up. So she quickly closed her door to pull on underwear and a baggy shirt and her usual jeans, before swinging out of her room and hopping downstairs.

Just like she’d overheard, she gave Blake a wave and a smile, and Blake smiled back from where she was standing just outside their front door, with Yang leaning on the doorframe and speaking to her with the same grin she always did.

Blake was dressed in the clothes she normally wore post-gymnastics, Ruby had seen her in them before when they'd both had training with their teams on the same afternoons, and she had her school satchel over her shoulder. Like every personal accessory she owned, it was black and purple, just like the choker around her neck, and the metal buckles of her bag matched the multiple rings on her fingers.

Dark eyeliner sharpened her golden eyes, her jeans were ripped and taut on her powerful legs, and her leather jacket was immaculate in its black, while half-unzipped to reveal the white tank top she had on underneath.

Just like she always did, Blake looked effortlessly and flawlessly cool. As if she wasn’t even trying for it.

While the effort Weiss put into her appearance radiated how meticulous she had crafted it, which enhanced it even further due to the skill in the craftsmanship, Blake just simply was cool.

Hardly what you’d expect from the daughter of the longest serving member of the city council.

Skipping over next to her sister, Ruby gave Blake a smile.

“Heya! Whatcha doin’ here? You alright?”

“Yeah, of course. Just under strict instructions from Professor Lionheart to bring you guys the weekend assignment, since this place is on the way to Ilia’s.” Blake waved a bundle of papers she’d been holding in her hand, and passed them over when Ruby whined and reached out for them. Buckling up her bag again, Blake smiled. “She says hey by the way, and that she would have come too but needed me to drop her off first.”

Yang waved it away with a smile as she looked down at the papers Blake had handed her and scanned them quickly, before huffing at the tedium. Just another basic essay that she and Ruby would be able to knock out in less than two hours, and that was with time provided for them to inevitably get distracted.

While Yang read, Blake switched her attention to Ruby properly, and she immediately frowned in concern as she noticed Ruby’s bloodshot and baggy eyes, and the slight clamour to her skin from hours spent tossing and turning.

“Woah. You coming down with something? You okay?”

Looking up from the pages at the sound of Blake’s concern, Ruby raised her eyebrows for a moment before forcing a smile, and shrugged to dismiss it. “I’m okay. Just didn’t sleep much.”

Blake’s frown lingered as she flicked her golden eyes up and down to take in Ruby’s entire appearance, and she bit her lip to chew it in apprehension before managing a nod and letting her frown fade into a concerned smile.

“...fair enough. I hope your family stuff is okay, if it was bad enough that it kept you guys out of school. Everything okay?” Blake looked between the two of them, and she smiled again when they both nodded, before her smile faded and realisation bloomed over her face. Her expression fell for a moment as she looked away, her golden eyes losing their normal shine, before she sighed. “...that reminds me. Since you guys were here all day, you might not have heard. Yang, do you remember Miltia? She used to be in our year?”

The sisters immediately looked at each other, Ruby’s eyebrows shooting up as Yang thinned her lips, and Ruby left the conversation entirely in Yang’s control with a nod of her head that had Yang wince and look back to Blake.

“We heard. From our uncle.”

“Oh, right. Of course.” Blake nodded in understanding as she remembered, and she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and looked down, scuffing her boot on the doormat. “...it’s fucked up. I liked her.”

Yang was quiet as she thought, and she glanced over at Ruby and pointedly flicked her eyes in the direction of the living room. Taking the silent hint, Ruby nodded and stepped away to give the two of them more privacy, flopping down onto the couch close enough she could overhear and engage in the conversation if called upon.

Once she and Blake had a bit more privacy, Yang sighed and leant more of her weight against the doorframe, and nodded.

“Yeah. I did too. Do we know what happened…?”

“Not a clue. Cops aren’t saying anything, and I doubt my dad would give me the gritty even if he knew it.” Blake scuffed her boot on the doormat again before looking up and at Yang again. “Has your uncle said anything to you guys?”

“Nope. He told my mum over the phone, who told us. Sorry.” Yang scrunched up the corner of her mouth, the lies coming out so easily that it was like breathing. She hated this part of the job the most. But in this instance, the truth would be more of a burden on Blake than a kindness for her. “I can ask, if you’d like…?”

Blake considered it for a moment before giving a single sad nod, biting her bottom lip again as she looked between Yang and over at where Ruby was curled up reading the homework and trying not to listen in too much.

“Thanks. But, anyway, I should get home. Dad’s got a work thing tonight that he wants me to come to.”

“Oh?” Yang raised her eyebrows even as she bounced off the doorframe, and smiled. “Anything fancy? You getting all dressed up?” 

The playfulness in Yang’s tone and the slight flirt in her eyes had Blake laugh, and she gave a sultry wink as she stepped away and grabbed her car keys from her pocket to spin around her finger.

“You have no idea just what I’ve been keeping in the back of my closet. Have a good night, you two.”

Ruby simply waved with a smile from the couch, not getting up due to having little interest in entering the firing range of the look Yang was giving Blake as Blake continued slowly and teasingly backing away and holding eye contact.

Humming low in her throat as her smile ticked charming for a moment, Yang put a hand on the door to close it as Blake almost left earshot.

“The imagination does roam.” Yang’s smile widened when Blake laughed again, and she waved. “Drive safe.”

The moment the door clicked closed, Yang’s mirth vanished, and she looked over at Ruby with a contemplative frown as she tossed her assessment papers down onto the coffee table and slumped down onto her usual armchair.

“Shit. Everyone already knows. We didn’t get the normal forty-eight hour embargo.” Yang rubbed her eyes and sat back with an annoyed groan. “Nothing in the paper though, I’ve been in the study for a few hours and nothing online has pinged. So it’s just word-of-mouth.”

Ruby tossed her own assessment onto the table and swung her legs up onto the couch, crossing her arms in thought. “With it being the weekend tomorrow, it won’t be in the Silvercloud Star until the Monday edition. Where’s mum and dad? And what have you been up to?”

Nodding in agreement, Yang finished rubbing her eyes and let her hand fall onto her lap, folding it with her other and tapping her thumbs together in thought as she looked over at her sister and sighed tiredly.

“Dad’s gone to The Grove to go through the archive there again, and mum’s witch hunting. Literally. The runes are driving her nuts.” Yang pushed herself up to her feet and beckoned for Ruby to follow her, before leading the way up the stairs and to the family study, where the two massive desks were covered in papers and photographs.

Three of the wall monitors were on, one showing progress as photos of the runes were being scanned and checked against the entire Guild database while both others were dedicated to multiple tabs of notes that Yang was in the process of summarising and compiling to be distributed as a handout to the other Guild households in town.

Everything the four of them had recorded the previous night had to be broken down, a timeline constructed as best as Yang was able, and then all of the information put together. It was mentally gruelling work, and the thermos of coffee on the main desk had likely been refilled a few times over the course of the day.

Yang mindlessly gestured to her workload as she flopped back down onto her chair, her eyes flicking up to the database monitor and scowling at the lack of results so far. Surely it was impossible for every rune found at both scenes to be entirely unrecorded and unique, so it would just be a matter of time until they got a ping.

But not yet, apparently. So she scowled as she pulled the keyboard close and got back to work as Ruby began going through everything with fresh eyes after her sleep.

Ruby thumbed through the photographs quickly, having already looked at each of them that morning when they’d all first gotten to work on it all, but maybe the hours away from them had refreshed her mind enough that she’d be able to see something she had missed earlier.

Nothing jumped out at her though, so she placed the pile back down and began going through all the night’s bagged evidence slowly. Most of it were just random samples of blood, or a scrap of fabric, but the big finds were the phone and laptop that were currently at the Polendinas’ residence getting analysed.

Other than those, the gas station hadn’t given them much to work with. The scene had been such a colossal mess from the fight that any miniscule traces of evidence were buried in rubble and within thick streaks of congealed blood. Half of what Ruby had bagged was just optimistic.

So, annoyed, she placed them all back into their pile, before reaching for the box of notes her mother had compiled from the first case, with the murdered old couple. Eventually they had been able to identify the two victims as ‘sluaghs’, one of the darker subsets of fey that derived their powers from moonlight and broken promises.

Which meant not only was their mystery predator capable of killing a vampire from one of the ancient families, they were capable of killing fey as well, and the sluaghs hadn’t even managed a struggle.

Ruby flicked through the photographs her mother had taken at the first crime scene, her face locked in a grimace at the horrific details her mother had been forced to capture, and she placed the photos to the side and pulled out the single piece of bagged evidence her mother had found;

The pill bottle.

There was no label, no identifying markers, nothing. Her mother had found it in the smaller of the two bedrooms, and the dozen capsules inside weren’t any mortal prescription drug that they’d been able to figure out.

Ruby grabbed some disposable gloves and pulled them on, before grabbing the bottle from the evidence bag and unscrewing the cap so she could tip one of the tablets onto the palm of her hand to look at properly.

They were almost pure black, and had a shine to them that was almost like a polished crystal. It wasn’t a solid pill, but it wasn’t entirely a liquid capsule either, instead it gave in to pressure when squeezed before returning to its shape, like a jelly. Nobody in from the Guild in Silvercoud had been able to identify them, and that made them just as interesting to Ruby as the runes.

Frowning as she rolled the tablet between her fingers, Ruby scrunched up the corner of her mouth as she thought, before looking up when she heard Yang spin in her chair to face her.

Yang stretched her arms above her head with a groan, and gave Ruby a concerned look.

“How’re you holding up? After last night.”

“Uhh, I’m fine. A bit tired.” Ruby shrugged as she dropped the tablet back into the bottle and screwed the cap back on, returning it to the evidence bag. “Slept like shit. What about you?”

Yang sighed as she looked around at the work spread around them, everything they’d found and taken from her first ever crime scene as a Hunter, and she grimaced at it all. 

She’d been trained for this work her entire life, there hadn’t been any question that she’d end up doing it, but what had been an ambition had now become her reality, and it tasted like oil on her tongue when she’d hoped for wine.

“I’ll manage. But, you sure you’re okay? You just seem a bit…” Yang frowned as she tried to find the word, before simply shaking her head. “I dunno. Out of it.”

Ruby paused after placing the evidence back, and thinned her lips while she was looking away. Eye contact would have been her downfall, so she made sure to keep her eyes on the surface of the table as she nodded slowly.

Even though it would have been the right thing to do, she couldn’t tell Yang the truth. Not only because she’d made the deal to keep the family alive, but also because…she didn’t want to tell Yang. Something in her, some voice deep down, rebelled against the idea. And it was scarily persuasive.

So, looking over at her sister, Ruby gave a simple shrug and a tired smile, before gesturing to the monitors.

“I’m okay. Reckon you’ll be done enough to print off soon? Then I’ll start making copies of the photos for everyone’s packets, and I’ll put them together tonight.”

Yang stared at her for a moment, brow dipped in concern and her fingers tapping on the armrest of her chair, before she nodded slowly and turned back to the computer.

“Almost, but I can feel myself slowing down. I haven’t been to bed yet. So, gimme an hour to finish up, and then you can take over while I go and pass out.”

Even as guilt lodged itself in her chest painfully enough that Ruby had to take in a deep breath just to ease it away, she deflated lightly in relief.

With Yang off to bed in an hour, her dad out of town until tomorrow morning at the earliest, and her mum out scouring the town top to bottom, it gave her all the privacy she needed for her own mission.

No matter how much the word ‘mission’ tasted like ‘treason.’

+=+=+

Just as she’d expected, it wasn’t even necessary to use much stealth in order for Ruby to sneak out of the house with her backpack filled with a packet of their notes, filled with copies of their photographs and summaries of their reports. Her father was still out of town, her mother was working, and Yang had still been sleeping when she’d left.

Dressed back into her hunting gear, the mottled grey and black of the clothing camouflaged her in perfectly as she snuck through the center of town.

The streets were empty as the clock ticked close to midnight, so with her hood pulled over her head and making sure to duck through side alleys she knew she was well trained enough to be invisible as she made her way towards the gas station. Being a Friday, a few of the clubs and bars were still open, but passing through towards the main road leading out of town took Ruby away from the neon lights and noise.

There was no sign of movement as she approached the crime scene, the entire gas station taped off and sealed up by the police, and Ruby paused for a moment and rolled her shoulders as she studied the dark building. The mortal police had torn it apart to study what had happened, and it wasn’t a surprise that they were keeping the details hushed up considering the brutality of it all.

Ruby just hoped they’d left something intact and uncontaminated. The police of Silvercloud weren’t exactly a crack team.

Looking around as she ducked down the side of the building towards the side door where she’d encountered Weiss the previous night, Ruby sucked in a nervous breath at the darkness she was surrounding herself in. There wasn’t a single source of light, forcing her eyes to strain, and apart from the rustling of a breeze through the roadside trees it was completely silent.

People were avoiding this entire part of town, nobody even strolling through, likely making unnecessary detours just so they didn’t get too close. It was a blessing, since it meant nobody would stick their noses in, but also a curse from how alone Ruby felt as she stopped outside the side door.

Her hand lightly brushed along the knives in her belt, tracing the polymer and metal of the hilts, and she looked up at the roof of the shop she’d been dragged into.

“I know you’re here already, Weiss. I’m alone.”

The air was quiet enough that the quiet scoff from the roof was audible, and the shadows moved as Weiss straightened up from where she’d been crouched just out of sight. With the night sky completely sealed by the thick and dark clouds that gave the town its name, there was no moonlight to illuminate her white hair or the blue of her eyes, but even just her profile was recognisable.

Dressed in a plain outfit of dark pants, tall boots, and a zipped up leather jacket, Weiss flicked her ponytail back over her shoulder as she looked down at where Ruby was staring up at her and waiting.

The bag on Ruby’s back had Weiss’s lips tick up into a satisfied and eager smirk, and she hummed before stepping off the edge of the roof and landing easily on the concrete, barely making a sound. Straightening up, she settled where she had her normal satchel over her shoulder and resting behind her hip.

“I wasn’t so sure you would keep to your word. Evening, Ruby.”

“Isn’t that why you forced your blood down my throat?” Ruby shoved her hands into her pockets as Weiss approached, quickly flicking her eyes up and down the other girl’s appearance. She wasn’t expecting a vampiress to carry weapons, but plenty of her assumptions about Weiss had been wrong already. “Hey.”

Weiss hummed to concede the point, coming to a stop close enough that she had to tilt her head up slightly, and she raised her eyebrow with a playful quirk of her eyebrow. “So it worked? Good to know.”

“It felt like shit. I had a fever all morning and I barely slept. I’ve been itchy all evening.” Ruby adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder as she narrowed her eyes, before frowning when Weiss blinked in surprise. “But I’m here. I’m keeping my end of the deal.”

She slid her bag down her arm and dumped it onto the ground between them, the disdain in the action enough to have Weiss raise her eyebrows and look down. But before she gave into curiosity and grabbed it, Weiss flicked her eyes back up to Ruby again.

After taking in Ruby’s appearance, seeming to scrutinise her, Weiss frowned as she stepped to the side to circle her slowly, studying her from every side. Ruby didn’t react beyond her shoulders tensing, and Weiss raised an eyebrow in satisfaction when her hand didn’t even twitch towards the impressive knives on her hip.

But Ruby didn’t look to be in any sort of bad condition, she looked the same as she always did.

“...that doesn’t sound right. Every time my mother and sister do it, their thralls seem to find the experience euphoric the entire way through…” Weiss’s voice lowered into a thoughtful murmur as she reached Ruby’s front again and she took in the look in Ruby’s eyes. “...it didn’t just wear off?”

Ruby shook her head, her frustration fading as she took in Weiss’s confused concern, a flash of regret going over Weiss’s features as she noticed the small patches on Ruby’s neck that had itched too much for Ruby to resist tearing at without even noticing.

The fever and itching had worn off by dusk, but there was still a faint fuzziness inside of her head. And it wasn’t the usual one that was caused by Weiss’s proximity. It was a restlessness, a compulsion that didn’t have any direction and so quivered inside of its aimlessness.

When Weiss ran the tip of her tongue across her top lip in thought, Ruby scowled even as she shivered at the sight, and she nudged her bag with her foot to bring attention back to it. The tension in her shoulders relaxed when Weiss seemingly agreed to the request, and shifted her attention away.

Weiss pulled over Ruby’s bag and crouched down to unzip it, peering inside at the contents for a moment before grabbing out the thick folder of notes and photographs. There were far too many to speed read in the one go, a fact which had her hum in satisfaction, but she did grab out the pile of photographs to flick through them.

Just as she’d requested, her father had gotten her a copy of the police report and files for the first crime scene, but she was delighted at just how much more detailed and specific that the Inquisition’s was. Unlike the mortal police, whichever Inquisitor had investigated the scene had focused on the things that actually mattered.

The photos of the runes had Weiss slow down, and she flicked through each of them more carefully, her eyebrows dipping lower and lower in thought as she bit her lip. In fact the entire scene at the initial house had her growl low in confusion as she slid everything back into the folder and looked over at the door leading into the gas station.

“The runes aren’t all the same. The rituals were slightly different.”

“Yeah, we noticed that too, it’s on the fifth page of notes.” Ruby followed Weiss’s gaze over to the door, and the curiosity was shared between the two of them. So she was already reaching into one of her pouches as she spoke again. “Want me to get the door open, then?”

“Please. Let’s have a look. Though heaven knows what state the police left it all in.” Weiss scoffed, before she slid the folder into her satchel and then went back to poking through Ruby’s bag at the remaining evidence that Ruby had brought her.

There wasn’t much, Ruby hadn’t been able to risk bringing much bagged evidence since it had all been catalogued and anything substantial vanishing would be noticed, but she’d brought small samples from as many as she could manage.

The scraps of fabric could certainly be useful, so Weiss eagerly sorted those away, but what had her pause completely was the small bag containing a few strange tablets.

They were a strange dark colour, and even in the almost pitch darkness they reflected the small amount of light able to touch them. Studying them for a few moments, Weiss heard the door click from Ruby getting it open at the same moment as she reached into the bag and grabbed out one of the tablets to look at it properly.

Ruby straightened up from where she’d been picking the lock, putting her lockpicks back into their pouch, and she gave a helpless shrug as Weiss stared at the tablet between her fingers.

“We’ve got no idea what they are. They aren’t mundane. We don’t even know what they’re-”

“It’s blood. Mostly.” Weiss raised the tablet up to scrutinise it closer, peering at it, before she took in a deep breath through her nose and closed her eyes to study the aroma.

There was definitely blood within the composition, something concentrated, but there wasn’t a single note of life in the smell. It wasn’t the blood of a corpse, but it wasn’t from a living mortal either. In fact it was so purified and concentrated that there was no scent of what it had come from at all.

Underneath the scent of one type of blood, was another, which was the same result. Then another. And another.

Almost a dozen different varied types of blood, so concentrated they weren’t even a liquid anymore, instead able to be focused into a consumable tablet.

Weiss couldn’t quite prevent herself from smiling in absolute fascination. But the scent didn’t appeal to her. It didn’t rouse any thirst. The blood was too empty. Whatever process had created it had stripped it of flavour even in the scent.

Tossing it up and down in her hand, Weiss looked over at where Ruby was staring in confusion, and she raised her eyebrow smugly at being a step ahead so quickly.

“I’m not certain what the sources are, but there’s a few different kinds of blood in it. It’s just been concentrated.”

Ruby raised her eyebrows, her tone curious as she watched Weiss put the tablet away and then add the bag to her satchel. “Can’t you just…pop it into your mouth and taste what it’s from?”

Pausing in buckling up her satchel, everything transferred and put away for proper perusal and study once she was back home, Weiss gave Ruby a dry look, letting out an amused scoff.

“Different types of blood aren’t to us what different foods are to you, Ruby.” Weiss straightened up and put her satchel back over her shoulder, and grabbed up Ruby’s bag and offered it over. “There’s no telling what it could do to me if any of it is from the wrong thing.”

Ruby took her bag back silently as she mulled over Weiss’s answer, and stepped aside so that Weiss could enter the gas station first, before following in behind her and closing the door. Unlike Weiss, who could see perfectly, Ruby had to grab out her flashlight and flick it on in order to see through the absolute darkness.

Thankfully, compared to the previous night there was no wave of toxin in the air that made it hard to breathe, which meant the energy of whatever turned the building into hell had dissipated. It made it easier to look around, but it also meant a trail had gone cold before they’d had the chance to make use of it.

As she turned on her flashlight, she scowled at the amused smirk that Weiss threw over her shoulder.

“Oh shut up.”

“I didn’t say a word. Don’t trip over anything.” Weiss held Ruby’s annoyed gaze for a few more moments, her smirk widening when Ruby huffed and rolled her eyes, before looking ahead when they stepped into the main room, and she immediately scowled in annoyance. “Oh for god’s sake…”

The scene was almost unrecognisable to what it had been the previous night, the mortal police having gone over everything and shuffling everything around in their own search for any clues. She knew that Miltia’s body would be gone, it was turning to dust in the city morgue, but she’d at least hoped the runes would all be intact.

Luck was not on her side in that regard, and she hummed in agreement when Ruby groaned in the same frustration.

Ruby scanned her flashlight over the room, and sighed. “Well, great. Thank god we took photos.”

Humming in agreement, Weiss narrowed her eyes in thought when she looked around the room as she walked to the center of it. Her gaze easily pierced the darkness, and she looked around at the large signs of struggle, before pausing to stare at a patch of the tiles.

There were some shadows that were too thick even for her sight; the shadows left by a Malachite. Miltia’s power still lingered in the room, and it would for a while. She’d been strong. Far weaker than her sister, even weaker than Weiss, but not a pushover by any means.

The unnatural darkness still in some pockets of the room, were the closest thing to a ghost that Miltia would ever leave behind.

That thought had Weiss close her eyes for a moment and suck in an unnecessary breath, her fists clenching by her sides as she settled herself. The two halves of herself battled out with their independent types of grief, with despair warring against a possessive rage, and she clenched her jaw.

The rest of the coterie were in bad shape from it. Melanie in particular was inconsolable, and she’d had to be restrained just to prevent her from entering a frenzy in her grief for her twin sister. 

Even Reese was shaken up, and despair looked strange on the most reckless member of their group. But the sheer carnal rage that the normally quiet Arslan had been reduced to was very, very familiar to them all. They were all fighting it inside themselves.

Weiss had just always had the best control of them all. It was the only reason Ruby had survived the previous night.

And the fruits of that restraint, might mean getting answers on what happened to their stolen friend.

Weiss was thankful for the distraction when Ruby spoke up, as she swept her flashlight over the room and noted everything that the cops had disturbed.

“So some kinds of blood don’t work for you to eat?”

The question made Weiss blink, and she looked over her shoulder with a suspicious frown. Because while the tone Ruby had asked it with seemed mostly like she was speaking purely to fill the silence, Weiss knew better, and the way Ruby innocently shrugged in response to the stare was confirmation enough.

When Weiss didn’t answer, Ruby nudged her foot on a piece of one of the metal shelves that had been ripped off, and playfully spun her flashlight in her hand. 

“I’m just curious. That’s all.”

“...it’s complicated. Our relationship to blood is just as spiritual as it is physical.” Weiss answered slowly, clicking her tongue as she thought about just how much she should say. She turned back to the rest of the room, her attention going to the streaks of dried blood on the windows and the walls. “But, no. While most other creatures are fair prey, some blood is straight up harmful.”

‘And some blood is too good for me to ever forget. Everything has tasted like ash ever since you, Ruby.’

Weiss shook her head to clear those particular whispers away, no matter how true they were, before concluding.

“The crux of it is that we need blood that’s filled with a true essence of life. We call it the vitae. It’s why we can’t just feed from corpses.”

Ruby blinked as something clicked in her mind, and she turned in Weiss’s direction, sweeping her flashlight across to where Weiss was trailing her fingertips along the dried streaks along one of the walls.

“So our mystery monster isn’t a vampire, then. Since those pills aren’t exactly fresh blood.”

The same thought had been churning inside of Weiss as well, and it felt like a sense of relief as she was able to cross a specific name off the suspect list. Even though it deepened the mystery significantly, her shoulders still loosened slightly.

And she immediately tensed again when Ruby hummed in thought upon noticing it.

“You thought it might be one of your own?”

Weiss closed her eyes as she dropped her hand from the glass of the window, and she ran the tip of her tongue along her teeth as she considered it. She shrugged in the same movement as she looked over at Ruby with a look of frustration that wasn’t directed specifically at her.

“We have no idea. That’s the whole reason why I’m here. And the only reason I was able to justify letting you live. The mother of all silver linings.” Weiss gave a small smile when Ruby simply blinked in surprise at the second part of the answer, before turning back to the glass and taking in a deep breath.

Dried blood wasn’t a particularly appealing scent, but it was an easily identifiable one, and the entire building was slick with it. With every inhale through her nose, Weiss slowly picked apart the multiple unique sources of it, and she frowned.

“...there were five different mortals here. This blood didn’t all come from just the one person.” Weiss kept her eyes closed as she locked onto the scent, tracing the thick streaks and trails of blood and following them. Crouching down directly in front of the automatic doors, she ran her fingertips along the ground. “They were all ripped into. I can’t tell if it was deliberate or if they simply just got in the way.”

Ruby’s eyebrows had risen all the way up as she’d watched Weiss follow the trail around the shelves like a bloodhound, watching silently and following her with the beam of her flashlight. But when Weiss stopped in front of the doors, Ruby slowly made her way over to join her, stretching a leg over a fallen stack of shelves just to be able to get there.

“Is there enough here for them to be dead? Or did they get away?”

“They might have survived, but from the amount I can smell…none of them would have been capable of standing. They would have been carried.” Weiss finally opened her eyes, and she tapped her fingers on the thick streak on the tiles that ended at the door. “Or dragged.”

Ruby aimed her flashlight down at the tiles, before shifting it so that the beam was penetrating the glass of the doors and shining onto the concrete outside. If there’d been any blood there, the elements had banished it away, but while it would have been practically impossible for Ruby alone to follow now…

Well, she had an advantage now, and she gave Weiss a pointed look that immediately got a nod of agreement. Weiss straightened up again, brushing her hands off on her jacket, and led the way back across the room so they could exit the building the way that they came.

She was just thankful that it hadn’t rained, otherwise it would be hard even for her, but as she circled around to the front of the building and began looking at the ground she narrowed her eyes in concentration as she found the trail again. It was barely visible, but the scent was still strong, and she kept taking in deep breaths through her nose as she slowly began to follow along it.

The sound of metal leaving leather had her pause and look over her shoulder at where Ruby had drawn two of her knives and were spinning them in her hands, her flashlight back in her bag. Ruby shrugged at being stared at, unperturbed by the suspicion in Weiss’s eyes.

“I don’t have fangs. God knows what we’re gonna find at the end of it.”

“A fair point. But I’d appreciate it if neither of those ended up in my own body. Again.” Weiss nodded after a moment of consideration, before turning back to the trail and leading the way with her sense of smell.

Ruby snorted behind her as she followed.

“In my defence, you did that one to yourself, and you walked it off.”

“True. It healed quickly enough. But I wasn’t in my clearest mind at the time, it was the best strategy that came to me.” Weiss glanced over her shoulder once more, and smirked in amusement as Ruby pointedly spun one of her daggers again with a glimmer in her own eyes. “And in the moment it was rather painful.”

The reminder of the specific circumstances of the previous night had the sparkle fade from Ruby’s eyes, and she frowned as she thought over it. Weiss had been unrecognisable, and not just due to the shift in her appearance that had paralysed Ruby to a point she’d almost passed out.

It was also that Ruby had never seen Weiss in any state that emotional before, she was always so composed and proper. But last night she’d been an absolute wreck, practically unhinged.

Though considering the circumstances, it made sense.

Thinning her lips, Ruby sped up slightly so that she was shoulder to shoulder with the other girl instead of trailing behind. She kept her voice low, and as gentle as she was capable of while being so close with a monster.

“...were you and Miltia close?”

Weiss didn’t look over, and she clenched her jaw while deliberately focusing on following the trail. They’d been led out behind the gas station and into the back streets, a small labyrinth between closed shops that were completely dark. The only light was the occasional street lamp as they crossed over a small street.

Whatever had dragged the bodies along the ground, they’d taken multiple trips to get all five, and they’d picked their route carefully.

So, they got around on foot instead of driving. Otherwise they would have just loaded the bodies up into a car.

‘…they’d caught the train into town, maybe?’

Weiss kept her own voice low as she answered.

“Yes, very. We were friends since we were old enough to know what a friend even was. What makes you curious?”

“I’m just…” Ruby sighed and shook her head slowly, before looking ahead again and keeping her eye on each street they passed in case they were noticed. But everything was completely dark. “...I’m sorry then, for your loss.”

That had Weiss almost come to a complete halt, and she looked over at Ruby with a sealed expression. It didn’t convey anything at all, but Ruby didn’t feel anything that made her nervous from what Weiss was hiding. Instead Weiss simply ran her tongue along her teeth and narrowed her eyes.

“I would have thought you’d be happy that we can die.”

Ruby sucked in a small breath at the utter simplicity in Weiss’s tone, a resignation that she’d forced herself to accept. But, Weiss knew that she wasn’t just a teenager that had watched too many movies and made a guess, now. She was something more. Something that Weiss had clearly recognised the threat of the previous night.

And, from the slight flickering in her eyes as she looked at Ruby, it hurt her to know.

It was too much to look at, so Ruby forced herself to keep her eyes ahead of them, spinning one of her daggers in her grip to fidget as Weiss matched her and looked ahead again as well, and they started moving faster again.

“...maybe so. But, you still knew her. The people who didn’t know what she was are sad she’s dead.” Ruby remembered the look on Blake’s face that afternoon, when she’d believed she’d have to be the one to break the news. It had been burdened, and pained. “So, she must have been…I don’t know… nice.”

Weiss closed her eyes as her chest cracked slightly, and a shiver washed underneath her skin at the thought of it. At the sight of her friend in the state that she had found her in, forever locked in her final moment of pain before her heart had been ripped out.

Inside of her blood, her beast hissed as it circled inside of the cage that was her chest, and her fangs threatened to extend at the pain that gripped her heart. Grief wasn’t a new sensation for her, she’d grieved for Cinder too when her friend had disappeared alongside her father, but there was an agonising closure to Miltia that hurt like blades dragged across every inch of her skin.

Even if Miltia hadn’t been a part of her coterie, since that was Melanie's place, she’d been special.

“Miltia was lovely. Kind. Loyal. Funny. And...utterly irreplaceable. So, thank you. For your sympathies.” Weiss gave a single shake of her head to dismiss it, ending the subject before Ruby could open her mouth again. To her surprise, Ruby respected it, simply nodding and going back to looking around and checking for any accidental spectators.

They turned a final corner, leaving the commercial district and emerging onto a street of small homes, and Weiss narrowed her eyes as she ended up at the bottom of a driveway with the trail turning right and leading up to the closed garage door.

At Weiss stopping, Ruby looked up at the house as well, and clenched her jaw anxiously as she gripped her knives tighter for a moment in preparation. With Weiss staring at the house with a hostile glare, Ruby could make an educated guess, and she put a foot on the driveway as she studied the home.

It was a plain single story house, nothing special and likely just the one bedroom, with the curtains closed on the living room windows. There was no car on the drive, and the lawn was short from being recently cut, meaning somebody lived there.

Or had lived there until very, very recently. Which, considering the state that their target had left the last two places in, was the more likely and almost certainly messier option.

But there was no light on inside, and Ruby glanced over at Weiss with raised eyebrows in the silent question.

In response, Weiss rolled her neck, and right in front of Ruby’s eyes she allowed her fangs to extend in preparation, her appearance shifting slightly as her nails extended back into claws and the whites of her eyes bled black. The small tendrils underneath her skin from last night crawled out around her eyes once more, making the blue of her irises seem to pulse in contrast to the darkness.

However, unlike the previous night, Ruby didn’t feel any pressure threatening to crush her or drive her to her knees. Nothing gripped her bones and muscles and turned her to stone.

Instead, she shivered, her breathing stuttering and her eyes widening at the sight.

Weiss looked over at her, black eyes locking onto her, and at Ruby’s shocked expression she simply shrugged. When she spoke, her voice didn’t have the serpentine layer to it that she’d had the previous night either, instead it was still… her. Just smoother. More enticing.

“I think the cat is enough out of the bag I don’t need to be discreet anymore, no?”

Before Ruby could answer, Weiss led the way up the drive towards the front door of the house, and beckoned for Ruby to follow.

As they got close to it, both of them frowned at the state of it. The lock had clearly been broken, the wood splintered around it, and it was slightly ajar on its hinges from being forced open without much care.

Ruby immediately brought her knives up to be ready at a moment’s notice, and she kept her voice at a whisper as she ducked onto one side of the doorframe to be out of sight from inside.

“...who first?”

“Well, the circumstances have to be rather specific, otherwise I won’t be able to enter at all.” Weiss nudged the door open, cringing when it squeaked lightly on its bent hinges, and she slowly extended a hand indoors.

It passed over the threshold without issue, and Weiss nodded even as the tendrils around her eyes writhed at the confirmation at what might be waiting for them. Ruby was clearly aware of the significance of Weiss being able to cross the threshold as well, as her entire body went tense for a moment before she nodded back.

As the harder to kill of the two of them, the more likely to survive being ambushed, Weiss nudged the door open the rest of the way and stepped in.

The scent of blood was immediately strong, and she bared her fangs for a moment at the implications as her eyes easily pierced the darkness. No lights were on indoors, the house was utterly silent, and Weiss nodded in satisfaction when she caught sight of the thick stain on the originally pure white carpet.

But she came to an abrupt halt at the archway into the kitchen, and reached back to put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder and pull her behind her to keep her safe as she hissed so dangerously that Ruby’s heart stopped for a few moments.

“We aren’t alone. Something else is here. I can smell them.” Weiss looked around the small kitchen as she entered it, only releasing Ruby behind her when she heard Ruby spin around so they were back to back. “Stay close. And keep your ears strained. There isn’t anything human in this place.”

Ruby nodded behind her, keeping her daggers up and at the ready as she scoured the hallway and the kitchen. The tiles were streaked in blood, but it all looked old enough it was obviously from the night before, and there were no signs of any type of struggle.

The absence of runes painted on the walls was a relief as well.

“No bodies or anything??”

Still keeping her fangs bared, extending them to their full length, Weiss shook her head and whispered back. “No. They might have brought the dead here and dealt with the residents, but…they disposed of them elsewhere.”

Ruby followed behind Weiss with every step, back to back with only a foot or so between them as they passed through the kitchen and towards the living room. “But…something is here?”

Once they entered the living room, with its comfortable looking couch and an expensive television, Weiss looked down at the massive stain of blood directly in the middle of the room. Whatever had brought their human prey here, they’d kept them in a haphazard pile, stacked up like throwaway pamphlets on a coffee table.

But disdain for the casual cruelty would come later, for now Weiss closed her eyes and focused on her other senses. Taking in a deep breath through her nose, she pushed past the scent of blood for the first time, and sought out the other scent she’d noticed the moment they’d stepped indoors.

And on the edge of her hearing, far sharper than any mortal’s, she listened for a heartbeat. If it was another vampire, she wouldn’t be able to hear or smell them, but anything else would be easy for her to seek out in a confined space like a house.

She heard rustling from behind her, and opened her eyes to look over at where Ruby was pulling a strange circular device from her bag and twisting some sort of dial on the side of it, winding it up like something clockwork.

Ruby bit her lip as she pulled the internal wiring taut, and she slowly and carefully placed the device on the side of the archway leading back into the kitchen, before pulling a pin almost like a grenade’s from the side and quickly stepping away.

At Weiss’s confused look, Ruby shook her head and put a finger to her lips, before mouthing.

‘In case it comes that way. Stay away.’

Waiting until Weiss nodded cautiously, Ruby grabbed another of the strange disks from a pouch and wound it up just like the previous one, before pulling the pin and confusing Weiss further by tossing it above herself. The device stuck to the roof perfectly, the sound of it close to silent, and Ruby immediately stepped back from that entire spot in the room.

Weiss narrowed her eyes as she studied the devices for a moment, trying to figure them out from a distance, before dismissing it and taking Ruby’s warning seriously as she circled a berth around the one attached to the roof and focused on her hearing.

As she reached the entryway into the dining room, she stopped as she heard it.

‘Thump…thump…thump.’

The heartbeat was a solid rhythm, but impossibly slow, with a few seconds passing in between every pump of the heart. Far slower than any human was capable of. But it meant the creature was living. And living things could be killed.

So Weiss narrowed her eyes and bared her fangs in a silent hiss as she looked around the room, stepping in properly.

It happened in a flash, dark as a shadow and fast enough that Weiss’s own reflexes were too slow to stop it.

A shape shot out from behind a cabinet in the corner of the room, initially pounding on all fours like a crooked and black furred wolf before it pounced, a loud and savage growl ripping from its throat as it bared a mouthful of fangs and launched straight for Weiss’s throat.

But Weiss spun to the side, craning her neck out of the way as much as she could, but she still felt a tickle of the beast’s breath along her face from how close it was.

And then, as the shape sped past, her entire world became agony.

Savage claws, as long as the cutting edge of kitchen knives, pierced into her side and sliced deep, sending out a spray of dark blood as her hip was ripped and the force of the swipe sent her off her feet. She crashed to the dining room tiles and sprawled, rolling and leaving spurting trails of blood, and she gave an agonised scream.

The momentum of its attack had the creature slide past, and with Weiss on the ground its large golden eyes went to Ruby, who in a flash of movement had dropped her regular daggers to instead draw two of pure silver out of the sheaths on her forearms and spin them into her grip.

The lycan, because it couldn’t have been anything else, immediately scrambled backwards and away from the slashing range of the lethal metal as Ruby twirled one of them around and sent it flying over. Even as the beast twisted out of the way, Ruby was trickier than that, and her second dagger was already flying into the space she’d prompted the creature to twist into to dodge the first.

When the blade of pure silver pierced to the hilt into its abdomen, the cry of pain that came from the beast was gut wrenching, and the room filled with the sound of sizzling as its flesh scorched around the sacred metal. Risking the pain, it yanked the blade out before dropping to all fours, and sped towards Ruby.

But when Ruby drew her last two silver blades from sheaths on her hips, the creature pivoted at the last moment to circle around her and attempt to escape.

Right into the trigger range of one of Ruby’s springrazors.

The device screeched as the taut wires inside were released, and the thin and sharp metal strands fired outwards in all directions, shredding anything they whipped into. The fabric of the couch was practically eviscerated, sending cotton padding everywhere, and the plaster of the walls cracked under the whirling impacts.

But the fate of the lycan was far more tragic as wires sliced into it, the tension behind them easily piercing through its thick fur and cutting deep serrations into its flesh. The shock of it had it howl and tumble down, crashing to its side and leaving a streak of fresh blood along the carpet, and it had to roll out of the way as Ruby closed the distance and attempted to swipe down right at its neck with one of her daggers.

It managed to avoid the attack, and instead of scrambling to its massive bipedal height it instead chose to remain on all fours, its joints cracking and bending as it rapidly shifted to the form of a true wolf.

Taking in Ruby’s stance for a moment as blood poured from all over its body, limping on one of its front legs from where it had been savaged by the razor when in its bipedal form, the beast summed up its odds as it bared its teeth at the completely unharmed Inquisitor that was somehow completely calm and focused despite the danger as she stared right back.

It figured out its chances quickly, and turned to sprint away, bounding towards the main living room window and electing to smash through the glass and out onto the street, speeding away at a blur even despite the harm done to it.

Ruby waited until she couldn’t hear the sound of it running anymore, before sheathing her daggers and sprinting into the dining room, dropping to her knees in a slide as she reached where Weiss was violently convulsing on the tiles.

Every nerve and muscle in Weiss’s body seemed to be firing off at the same time, her eyes having rolled back in her head as if she was having a seizure, and Ruby’s eyes widened as she saw the flesh around the claw wound slowly greying as if it was rotting and turning to the flesh of a true corpse.

Helpless, she looked over the dying Weiss with her hands hovering and unsure where to go. Even as a dark thought whispered in the back of her mind;

She could just...let this happen.

Somehow, Weiss was dying, something that only a few days ago Ruby had begun to fear might be an impossible victory. Now, there was nothing stopping her from waiting this out.

But when Weiss let out an agonised and tortured squeal, barely capable of more than a whimper, Ruby’s heart lurched.

Maybe she did want Weiss dead, but like this???

And not only that, but Weiss was possibly her only chance of catching whatever new creature was prowling the streets of Silvercloud. And what was clearly enough of a threat that even one of the lycan packs had seemingly decided it was worth hunting their own way, tracking the smell of unnatural death.

Weiss thrashed, the convulsions growing more violent, and as she looked down Ruby felt a pit in her gut as she knew the only thing she could do that might help.

So, sucking in a breath to brace herself, she grabbed one of her daggers from her hip and unzipped her jacket to pull one of her arms from the sleeve in an almost perfect mimicry of what Weiss had done the previous night.

Taking the blade to the skin of her arm, she sliced deep, before dropping her dagger so she could cradle Weiss’s head and press her arm to her lips.

The moment the first drops of blood entered her mouth, Weiss bit down. Hard.

From the sensation of Weiss’s fangs piercing into her flesh, opening even more wounds for her to drink from greedily, Ruby couldn’t hold back the moan that bubbled up from her chest as her mind immediately washed with a pleasurable fog.

A violent shiver rippled through her body, ricocheting up to her eyes and then straight down to between her legs with a heat that made her rub her thighs together and slightly collapse from the sudden onslaught of sensation, dropping next to Weiss as the vampiress continued to suck deep mouthfuls of blood from her.

On the edge of her awareness even as her skin went hot and she almost broke out into a sweat, Ruby noticed as the convulsions gradually stopped and Weiss moaned as the power and flavour of Ruby’s blood took over the priority of how the wounds on her hip slowly closed.

As Ruby shuddered, she felt it. Rapidly, as if it had been waiting for it, her heart hammered as something squirmed and bloomed inside of her chest, the seed planted the moment Weiss’s blood had passed her own lips the previous night.

With a grotesque squelch, Weiss won in the almost impossible strain once again and pulled her lips and fangs from Ruby’s arm, throwing her head back and snarling at the roof in euphoria as crimson dripped down her chin and onto the leather of her jacket.

Looking down at Ruby, who was squirming as her entire body felt as if it was on fire, Weiss felt her features shift to their fully bestial form as her inner animal howled in a victory it never had before.

Something collared. Something claimed. 

Something now hers.

Just as, when Ruby whimpered with a gasp, the beast inside of Weiss herself howled at the moon as a collar of dark red shimmered into existence around its neck. And it didn’t protest at all.

She looked down at where Ruby was panting and squirming with her mind still numb, and smiled in gratitude and barely restrained hunger.

"Thank you..."

With a final glance over at Weiss, just the sight of her had Ruby gasp, but not in fear this time. In something just as ancient and animal, just as untamed.

Unbeknownst to her, the grey of her eyes turned to a bright and shimmering silver, just as Weiss’s turned fully black.

A smile, a shiver, an irresistible rub of her thighs when Weiss ran her tongue along the wound on her arm to close and heal it, and Ruby fell into unconsciousness.

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Chapter Text

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When Ruby stirred and slowly returned to consciousness, the first thing she was aware of was a cool breeze coming in from outside. It had her shiver where she was on top of the blankets of a bed, and she instinctively grabbed for one to pull over herself before her brain engaged and she remembered what had happened.

Her eyes flew open with a jolt of adrenaline, and she immediately sat up and looked around to take in her surroundings.

The room she woke up in was dark, the ceiling light off, with the only light coming in through the window where the curtains were drawn and it was open to let in the cool outside air. It was clearly a bedroom, the modest yet worn-in furnishings marking it as a personal room instead of a spare, with the closet full and random collectibles on the small set of drawers.

Ruby also wasn’t alone, as her eyes locked onto where Weiss was sitting on the edge of the windowsill and looking out into the night. Her white hair was immaculately back in its braid, her face composed and her eyes sharp. If it wasn’t for the massive tear in her jacket and the shirt she had on underneath, exposing the skin of her side, there’d be no way of telling she’d recently been in a fight.

But she had also returned to her more human visage.  No crawling tendrils, no sharp edges to her jaw or the slits of her eyes. Instead she was the façade that Ruby had always seen her as every day at school and every moment they’d ever encountered each other outside of it until the previous night.

Weiss had her hands folded on her lap as she stared out the window into the night, her eyes constantly moving around the backyard of the house and keeping watch on the fence. Being as alert as she was, it was obvious that her mind was racing at a rapid speed behind her bright blue eyes. But she wasn’t emotional, simply…contemplative.

A puzzle was on her mind. And Ruby had a pretty solid guess at what it was.

Ruby didn’t doubt that Weiss had known she was awake the moment she’d become so, with her breathing shifting in its pace, and she hadn’t jumped when Ruby had shot upright. So Ruby sucked in a deep breath and cleared her throat quietly.

“...hey. I’m up.”

Weiss looked over at her, the movement smooth and graceful even in the minutia of it, and she gave a smile of gentle relief that had Ruby’s skin erupting into tingles from the empowered sincerity of it.

“So you are. How are you feeling? Dizzy at all?”

Dizzy was a word for it, but Ruby shook her head slowly. Physically she felt…fine. She hadn’t taken any hits during the scuffle with the lycan, and the only thing that hurt was her arm. Even though the mark had faded, somehow healed by Weiss’s tongue just as the wounds on her neck had been the night of the party, the fresh skin was sensitive.

While frowning down at it, Ruby gently ran her fingertips over it and shivered.

Weiss spoke up from where she had shuffled in her posture to face Ruby properly.

“It will return to normal in about another hour. Nothing to be concerned about.”

Even the breeze coming in through the window was enough to tickle it, so Ruby looked around for wherever Weiss had put her jacket. It was folded up neatly on the end of the bed, and Ruby reached for it to pull back on and buckle up.

“How long was I out? And where are we???”

“About an hour. We’re still at the house, in their bedroom. I had a hunch that you wouldn’t be out for very long.” Weiss’s lips ticked up into a smirk in the corners of them, and her eyes sparkled for a moment. There was something in it so akin to admiration that Ruby felt her cheeks go slightly warm. “You’re far too stubborn.”

It felt weird to be complimented by her enemy, especially for it to have an effect, so Ruby simply shrugged while looking away. None of Weiss’s compliments ever felt like lies, whether they be flirtatious or sincere. It had been pretty standard when Weiss had been trying to get her at the party, but now that she knew what Ruby was it felt surreal.

Ruby was pulled out of her confusing train of thought when Weiss shuffled and winced at an ache in her side, her hand going to the exposed skin through the rips in her clothes, and Ruby looked down at the spot curiously.

There was no mark anymore, on a surface level the claw marks had healed and faded entirely. Once she was in intact clothes, there’d be no way of knowing Weiss had ever been hurt.

Except she had been. And it had almost killed her.

It wasn’t hard to guess what Ruby was thinking about, her stare was contemplative and her bottom lip was between her teeth, so Weiss sighed and stood from the windowsill so she could stand next to the bed. With Ruby still sitting, Weiss was just tall enough that the skin on her side was directly in Ruby’s view.

She wasn’t shy as she unzipped her own jacket and tossed it aside, revealing the plain cotton shirt she’d been wearing underneath. The claws of the lycan had shredded through the reinforced leather and then the cotton like it was nothing, leaving massive strips of pale skin exposed, and Weiss twisted her hip so that Ruby could stare at the spot properly.

“All better. I’m alright, Ruby.” Pausing for a moment as she thought over it, Weiss gave a grateful smile, but it was confused as well. “Thanks to you. But-”

“But why did I save you?” Ruby interrupted, looking up from where she’d been studying the pale and smooth skin, and up into Weiss’s eyes. She bit the corner of her bottom lip as she thought, and she watched Weiss follow the movement, but she didn’t let it distract her as she mulled over it.

It had been a spur of the moment decision. Weiss was a horror, one of the worst creatures that haunted the night and hunted humanity, but for now at least…Ruby needed her. They were temporary and begrudging allies against a worse and mysterious threat.

The logical reasons for why she’d saved her were easy to rationalize. Ruby’s quick mind had done the calculations in barely a few seconds before she’d even pulled her arm out of her jacket.

But they weren’t the only aspect of it, and both of them knew it as they stared into each other’s eyes.

Ruby clenched her jaw in frustration as she thought over it. At how it had felt to see Weiss like that; convulsing and rotting on the tiles right in front of her. The scratch had been eating away at her like some sort of infection, and the agony that Weiss had visibly been in had been…hard to watch.

Was that it then? Empathy? Compassion for a creature in pain?

“I don’t know.” Ruby sighed and slumped, reaching up to rub her eyes and then up through her hair to brush it back off her face. “I…I don’t know.”

Weiss stared at her for a long moment, the small smile never leaving her lips as she digested Ruby’s reaction and her answer. If she was disappointed by it, she didn’t show it, instead she slowly nodded. Her voice was gentle when she spoke, kind even though she was still confused.

“Well, regardless. Thank you. You saved my life.”

Meeting Weiss’s stare again, Ruby thinned her lips as she was caught in the sincerity of Weiss’s smile. The confusion was mutual between them both, and it was almost like it cancelled itself out, leaving just Weiss’s sincere gratitude and Ruby’s stranded helplessness.

“...yeah. Don’t mention it.” Ruby shrugged and smiled back, and she chuckled awkwardly when Weiss nodded in response. She didn’t allow the strange moment to linger, instead she gave into her curiosity. If Weiss felt indebted, it meant she might get answers. So she looked down at Weiss’s side again. “...what did it do to you?? You were dying.”

Weiss placed a hand over her side for a moment, stroking her thumb on the skin as if feeling for the ridges of a scar that hadn’t formed, as she frowned. She knew what Ruby was doing, but…she did owe Ruby something.

And if the lycans were now on the chessboard, it might help for Ruby to know what they might be dealing with.

So, she sighed and looked down at her side.

“Every animal has a predator, Ruby. Even creatures such as my kind. The food chain is cyclical, I’m afraid.” Weiss thinned her lips when Ruby’s eyes widened at the admission, and she rubbed her side one more time before crossing her arms over her chest. “My kind are unnatural. There’s no point debating philosophy of that; We are not natural. We’re cut off from the natural order of things; we don’t age, we don’t breathe, we don’t get sick. It’s why we can’t perform witchcraft; we have no spirits.”

Ruby tilted her head at that. It wasn’t something she’d ever considered before. All creatures could perform witchcraft if they truly practiced and dedicated their time and energy to the right studies and rituals. Humans were just the best at it, since they had the intelligence and sentience.

The Guild were forbidden from performing any kind of witchcraft. They’d been banned centuries ago when they appeared in their first iteration as Inquisition, and the ban passed down. 

But any person was capable of even small amounts of it.

Except…Ruby had never heard of a vampire performing it. 

In fact, witch covens tended to make it part of their mission to seal vampires away and place barriers that banished them. They were almost as good at killing vampires as the Hunters were.

So Ruby sat back in thought as she mulled. It was also a confirmation that it wasn’t a vampire performing the rituals they were chasing.

“But…what do lycans have to do with witchcraft?”

“The finer details of that is not something in my knowledge. You would be better off asking a member of the Sustrai clan about it. But from what my friend Emerald theorizes, it’s that lycans are…our exact opposites. They are linked so closely with the ways of the natural world that they are effectively our antithesis.” Weiss seemed to deflate at the thought, and she stepped around to sit down on the edge of the bed next to Ruby. They were close enough their thighs were brushing, but Weiss wasn’t generating any warmth. Her eyes were downcast as she stared down at her lap. “It’s…almost like they are nature’s answer to our existence. A scratch or bite from a lycan…is one of our weaknesses that are so few I can count them on my fingers. They are nature’s cure against us.”

Ruby was only able to stare as Weiss went silent and looked down at her lap, and her eyes locked onto Weiss’s expression and the weight in the tone of her voice as she deflated and curled in on herself. Weiss closed her eyes as her shoulders dropped, and she folded her hands on her lap for comfort.

There was an admission in the explanation that Ruby wasn’t sure that Weiss had meant to give. And it was a tendril that Ruby couldn’t resist the need to tug even as she absorbed everything else and added it to her inner files.

“...you’re talking as if you think vampires are some sort of disease.”

Weiss scoffed and shrugged, before turning her head to give Ruby a small and resigned smile. There was no sadness in it, nothing resembling regret or shame, instead it was a quiet and ancient acceptance. She didn’t need to say it, the shadows in her eyes were enough, but she shrugged again after a few moments in the hopes of pushing it away.

There was no way they were talking about the nights Weiss stared up at her ceiling with the taste of blood on her tongue but still unable to sleep, her mind racing and her heart wishing it could beat just so it could ache.

Even though Ruby wanted to push, she saw as the wall went up behind Weiss’s eyes, and she nodded slowly and distractedly as her mind raced.

It was something to think on later. To drive her crazy as she pounded one of the punching bags in her basement, soaking in sweat and processing how everything in her life kept changing. She’d lost hours to hammering into those bags while mulling about Weiss a lot in the past week.

But that was for later.

For now, she could focus on what was right in front of her. Weiss was requesting that mercy.

“So…what do we do now? Dead end?”

Weiss frowned and huffed as she considered it, sitting back on the bed and resting her weight on her hands behind her. It made her shirt ride up slightly, exposing a line of pale skin above the waistline of her jeans, and Ruby’s eyes followed to the exposed streaks of the rip.

With her jacket off, Weiss’s arms were exposed too. She wasn’t particularly muscular, she didn’t have to be considering her supernatural traits, but the demon in her chest had done its magic and sculpted her. Her fingers in particular had Ruby glance down when they drummed on the mattress. She knew that Weiss played piano, she’d performed at school performances a few times.

…they were very nimble fingers. Ruby remembered their accuracy in her hair and on her neck.

There was no danger like there had been when they’d investigated the trail of blood and then the house, and the awkward tension of the previous topic was gone, so Ruby was free to look as Weiss thought over their situation and would eventually come up with an idea.

Ruby was having trouble thinking of any plans of her own, as she had permission to watch Weiss for as long as Weiss was mulling.

Vampires were enticing predators. They lured in their prey, and Ruby struggled to blink as Weiss relaxed as they entered a topic she was far more comfortable with.

She stared for far too long, and Weiss’s eyes flicked to hers and stayed, a small smirk ticking up in the corner of her lips. It was obvious that she wasn’t bothered by Ruby’s staring, in fact she slowly crossed one leg over the other and shook her head to flick her long hair off her shoulder to display herself better, before going back to thinking.

It had Ruby shuffle in her posture as she waited for Weiss to come up with anything, and she was eventually able to wrench her gaze away to stare out the window at the backyard instead.

Only for Weiss to giggle at her, and the sound shot through her from her hair to her toes. The side of her neck rushed with pins and needles, and she gasped when her arm did too, as if pleasurable ice had been trailed along the skin. Cold electricity.

Both bite sites radiated a pulse that had Ruby close her eyes.

“You can look.” Weiss’s voice was a purr, low enough that Ruby was drawn in to strain to hear it. “It’s okay. Look.”

Ruby’s head turned outside of her own control, caressed over, and her eyes opened so she could stare at Weiss again.

And the way Weiss was looking at her…

Something in her chest… burned.

It made her suck in a small breath as it throbbed out of her chest like a growing blush, sending a pulse up to her skull that had her leaning forward slightly. She’d felt something similar to it before, she knew the sensation of Weiss’s allure by now, but this was different. It was from the inside out.

Like her desire was inside of her walls now, instead of assaulting them from the outside.

Weiss was toying with her. Encouraging it. Whispering it upwards as she smiled with white teeth and raised a silver eyebrow.

Clenching her fists on the mattress by her sides, Ruby grunted.

“Stop it.”

Weiss’s eyebrow went higher, and the smirk on her face twitched curious for a moment. She tilted her head as she considered where Ruby was practically vibrating in place, running her eyes up and down the tension in Ruby’s muscles.

“I’m not actually doing anything. Nothing more than you or any other mortal could do.” Weiss chuckled when Ruby’s eyes widened at the thought, and she shrugged playfully “This is all you.”

It was true. For the most part. But Weiss couldn’t deny she was burning too.

She wasn’t any hungrier than normal, since she was always hungry to a small degree, but her beast still prowled around its cage and brushed against the bars as she stared over at where Ruby was visibly struggling not to just fucking pounce at her.

Simply her proximity alone was having an effect. Just like Ruby’s presence had always had one on her.

Weiss had been using her gifts to enamor people for years, she was used to being desired and craved, but Ruby was vibrating from the inside out. There was no ribbon around her neck and winding her in, instead it was something gravitational to it now. Weiss could smell it on her.

In fact she couldn’t smell anything else, and the scent of roses was making her dizzy. But this was her game, and Ruby was just so cute when she was horny. How such a confident and seemingly aloof girl could go from cocky to a twitching wreck without even being touched…

She wanted to see it. Wanted to coax it out. Wanted to bathe in what Ruby was radiating more and more with every passing moment. It was like her scent and heat were screaming out to be enjoyed.

Weiss ran her tongue along her teeth, and was caught by surprise at the presence of her fangs.

What was going on…

Closing her own eyes, Weiss took in a deep breath to focus herself and calm back down. This wasn’t the right time to play. So why was she smashing against the bars of the cage inside of her chest????

She’d fed. She was sated.

In fact once again Ruby’s blood made her feel like she could crack the earth open, and this time she could move and exist while enhanced by it.

This wasn’t time to play. Self-control. Snap out of whatever this was.

Her beast strained against the bars in Ruby’s direction as Weiss forced herself up to her feet and grabbed up her jacket, straightening her shoulders and turning to face where Ruby was rigid on the edge of the bed.

Ruby was staring up at her with eyes that were blown black, and she wasn’t just twitching, she was quivering.

It had Weiss bite down a growl that wanted to crawl out of her throat.

“...we…come on. I think we’re done here.”

Ruby clenched her fists on the mattress so tight that her nails almost broke the skin of her palms, but she managed a nod and slowly stood to her feet, grabbing up her gloves and daggers from where Weiss had removed them so she could lay down comfortably.

It was a small consideration, but a welcomed one, so Ruby gave her a smile as she sheathed her blades again and pulled her gloves on. But it was a struggle to do both, from how badly her hands were trembling. Her fingers were practically numb as she fumbled with her gloves.

“So…where to now?”

“I…I think…that…” Weiss closed her eyes for a moment to focus, and it was almost impossible when Ruby stepped closer to follow her out the door. She could feel in Ruby’s entire aura just how badly Ruby was craving it.

And neither of them knew why. It was a feedback loop; Weiss enticed, and Ruby wanted to be enticed even though she didn’t want to give in, which made Weiss fight, only to lose and want her more.

But Weiss was a Schnee. Self-control was their place in the hierarchy. So she rolled her neck and marched out of the room with her hands in the pockets of her jeans.

“The pills. I’ll take them to my friend Emerald. See what she can figure out. She’s good at-” Weiss stumbled on the way down the hall as her blood pulled her back to where Ruby was following, and she came to a stop. “...that sort of thing.”

They were both frozen in place in the middle of the hallway, Ruby staring at Weiss’s back and Weiss feeling that she was. Over the past couple of years she’d gotten pretty good at feeling when Ruby was watching her, since she’d always done it so much.

The house was completely silent, Weiss not needing to breathe and Ruby holding her own breath deep in her lungs, before it was Ruby who broke it with a lost and shaky whisper.

“...what’s happening?”

Weiss shook her head slowly, still facing away. She wanted to turn, but she wasn’t sure what would happen if she did. Inside of her pockets, her nails sharpened into claws, and her tongue stung for a moment as a freshly protruding fang pierced it slightly. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t risk it, couldn’t risk the scent.

But she could risk a whisper.

“...I don’t know.” Weiss let her head fall back so she could look up at the roof. She heard Ruby shuffle slightly closer behind her. It split her in half like a guillotine; one half went rigid in hesitation, the other basked in the pleasure of the victory and grinned with fangs on the inside. “...what are you feeling?”

Ruby closed her eyes for a moment as her hands trembled by her sides, terrified of every intake of breath for how it brought Weiss’s scent into her system. It was in her veins, behind her eyes, scratching light nails along her thighs. The darkness didn’t matter, it was like she could see Weiss clearly anyway. Staring at the back of her.

She could tell that Weiss was fighting it too, and that made her feel a little better. It wasn’t just her, and Weiss wasn’t doing anything on purpose. But she wasn’t trying to spare Ruby. She was trying to spare herself.

She wanted Ruby so badly it was driving her rigid, and Ruby’s entire body hummed at the thought of that.

Weiss, with her incredible self-control that even Ruby had noticed, was at her thinnest thread, and Ruby hadn’t even done anything except resist her.

The rush of it had her smile even as she clenched down harder.

The heat in her body had her sweating as she took in a breath through her mouth so that Weiss’s scent would linger on her tongue, and her leather pants felt like they were stuck to the skin of her thighs as she trembled again.

The whimper was a mistake, she watched the tension of it ripple through Weiss, and she overheard the hiss from Weiss’s lips even with her being turned away.

…something was happening. Rebounding between the two of them. And it had Ruby’s knees shake as Weiss tried to take another step forward and away.

Weiss swirled her tongue inside of her mouth, running it along her teeth as if she was trying to find any final trace of Ruby’s blood that she’d missed. But she’d devoured every drop and streak after drinking her, she’d made sure of it as she’d wiped her face and jacket clean. There was nothing to take the edge off. Nothing except for the girl behind her, quivering and frozen still.

‘One more little bite. She’d let you.’

‘I can’t. I’ve already had some’

‘She can spare a few more mouthfuls. She’s strong. You know that.’

‘Please…’ Weiss let out a staggered breath as she swayed on her feet, resting one hand on the wall to keep herself upright. ‘Stop. I’ll eat something later.’

Ruby whimpered again behind her, and every thought in her mind suddenly went silent, blown away like dust against wind. Weiss felt her eyes go vacant for a moment as she stared ahead into nothing, before suddenly the darkness was so much easier to see through as her eyes rippled.

Slowly, she turned her head to look over her shoulder at where Ruby was leaning against the wall as well and taking in deep breaths to steady herself. Sweat was beading on her skin from the heat and the strain, and Weiss’s eyes followed a drop down her jaw and over her neck.

“...Ruby…”

Ruby managed to open her eyes and roll her head to look over at Weiss, and to Weiss’s surprise she didn’t freeze or shiver when she saw Weiss’s façade slowly slipping away again without her control. “...yeah?”

“...I’m…I’m sorry.” Turning to face Ruby properly, Weiss pulled her hands from her pockets and cracked her knuckles with a clench of her fists, her claws sharp.

They stared at each other a long moment, both of them wondering who was going to move first, before Ruby’s eyes sparkled in the darkness and her lips ticked up into a smirk darker than anything Weiss had ever imagined from her. Something bestial. Something hungry.

“...we don’t tell anyone.”

“God no we don’t.” Weiss stormed over to Ruby and grabbed two fistfuls of her jacket, before slamming her against the wall so hard the plaster rumbled. One more moment of pause, barely a blink, and Weiss crashed her lips onto Ruby’s with enough force they’d bruise. 

Ruby was strong, and she pressed back with all of her physical might in a challenge, pulling Weiss’s jacket open and her hands going to her hips to dig in and wrench her close. It wasn’t enough contact, so she let go for just long enough to pull off her gloves and toss them away so her fingers could dig into Weiss properly.

And Weiss was soft under her touch, but while she’d restrained herself and tried to act human at the party she wasn’t even trying to hide her nature now. No matter how much she pushed, Ruby couldn’t get Weiss to move an inch or even sway on her feet, she was simply too fucking powerful.

In fact the challenge just had Weiss growl and laugh at her in a way that instead of annoying her instead had her leathers stick to her thighs and her heart hammer inside of her chest.

The kiss softened after a moment so their lips could press and glide together properly, and Weiss grabbed the buckles of Ruby’s jacket and got it open in moments, practically ripping the leather as she pulled it down Ruby’s arms and left it on the floor before stripping off her own and dropping it too.

The height difference meant nothing as Weiss grabbed a fistful of Ruby’s hair and anchored their lips together while her other hand was already at Ruby’s belt and fiddling with it.

She should have been made nervous from the sound of blades leaving sheaths, but as Ruby dropped the blades to the floor harmlessly it made Weiss smirk in satisfaction as the Inquisitor disarmed herself underneath her touch. This time, Ruby was at her mercy, and Weiss was roaring to take advantage of it.

Normally she liked to be patient and playful with her lovers, but patience required straightness of mind, and Weiss wasn’t even able to think in more than just impulses and hunger. So nimble fingers tackled Ruby’s belt and tossed it away before immediately going to the buttons of her pants, and she growled encouragingly when Ruby grabbed the bottom of her shirt to pull it up.

They broke off the kiss just long enough for Weiss to pull her shirt over her head and drop it down onto her jacket, and she didn’t pause or ask permission before grabbing Ruby’s and pulling it up. Ruby helped her hurriedly enough her shirt briefly caught on her head, but with a quick tug it joined the growing pile on the floor.

Weiss immediately went back to Ruby’s pants. She was so fucking impatient. She needed it. Everything inside of her was screaming, the door of the cage bending under the assault, and Ruby was in an even worse state than she was.

They were never to tell anyone about this. Vampire and Inquisitor, and something about it made it all the sweeter as Weiss felt Ruby’s nails dig into her bare hips and scratch hard since she knew Weiss could take anything she could dish out.

Weiss was a partner that Ruby could give her absolute worst to and never break. And she didn’t have a soul that needed comfort or any softness in order to buzz.

When Ruby practically attacked her the moment Weiss had pulled her pants down her legs, revealing powerful thighs from a life of training to run and fight, Weiss gave up ground and let Ruby push her back in the direction of the bedroom they’d come from.

Ruby reached behind herself and fumbled with the doorknob, but Weiss didn’t have the fucking time, instead reaching past Ruby and slamming her hand into the wood so hard the door broke from its hinges and fell open uselessly. She didn’t give Ruby time to speak up, instead she grabbed a hard fistful of Ruby’s hair and yanked her down.

Under the supernatural strength that had her in a vice, Ruby had to choose; lose hair, or drop to her knees.

So she dropped, her knees landing on the floorboards with a hard thud, and she groaned when Weiss twisted her fist to jerk Ruby to be looking up into her eyes and into her fanged smile.

Weiss couldn’t help but admire just how pretty Ruby looked on her knees. Powerful and dangerous Inquisitor, hunter of supernatural kind and a student of an ancient order. And Weiss was about to grind on her pretty face.

And one of the best parts was that she didn’t even have to ask or voice it, Ruby was already tugging her pants down for Weiss to step out of, quickly followed by her underwear, and Weiss reached behind herself with her free hand to undo the clasp of her bra.

The moment Weiss’s bra hit the ground, Ruby quickly disposed of her own, leaving her in just her underwear and at Weiss’s gaze and mercy. And Weiss was staring at her, mouth open uselessly and eyes blown black as she ran her eyes along Ruby’s body on display below her.

Ruby was a warrior, it was obvious in her muscles and her build, but she was so much more than just that. She wasn’t curvaceous, but her curve and profile had Weiss burn with envy as well as hunger, and that said nothing for Ruby’s face and eyes. She was perfectly pixieish, with her short black and red hair, plump and curved lips, cute nose, and bright sparkling silver eyes.

Ruby was the most beautiful woman, the most beautiful person, that Weiss had ever seen.

She twisted her grip on Ruby’s hair and growled, before shivering at the willing and hungry smile that Ruby gave her as she gave into Weiss’s tugging and pressed her face forwards.

It wasn’t the best angle, but Weiss didn’t care as her eyes rolled back from the first flat stroke of Ruby’s tongue along her soaking slit, Ruby’s hands digging into her thighs to help anchor her in place while also digging her nails in at the same time in a torturous and perfect scratch.

Ruby lowered herself further, practically bowing in front of her, and craned her neck up further so she had a better angle, and she stared right up at Weiss as she swirled her tongue around her clit and gentle sucked it into her mouth for a moment. Her eyes were sparkling and smug as she watched the way Weiss’s fangs glistened when she moaned, her dark veined eyes fluttering shut.

She knew Weiss could take it, there was no such thing as sensory overload for a vampire as far as Ruby was aware, so she was ecstatic at the opportunity to be utterly merciless as she buried her face between Weiss’s thighs and plunged her tongue into her cunt. Just as she’d feared and hoped would be the case, the moment the taste of Weiss’s arousal hit her tongue, it turned off her mind, and she drank.

Long strokes of her tongue along Weiss’s slit slicked her lips and chin and left them shiny, and teasing and skilled swirls of her tongue around Weiss’s clit were immediately followed by steady and hungry glides so that the flat of her tongue dragged along every nerve she could tease. She felt Weiss getting close before she heard it in her moans and sighs, the way her thighs shook under Ruby’s hard grip were a solid sign, and she groaned when Weiss tugged her hair hard to keep her in place so she could grind her cunt on Ruby’s mouth.

All Ruby could do under Weiss’s strength was stick out her tongue and match the rolls of Weiss’s hips as Weiss grew closer and closer, panting turning into growls, moans turning into hisses, and Ruby gripped the back of Weiss’s thighs in preparation for when it would hit.

Because when it did, Weiss cumming hard with a final grind along Ruby’s tongue, her legs gave out perfectly into where Ruby had been waiting. Shooting up to her feet, Ruby’s grip was already in place to lift Weiss into the air and carry her the last few strides to the bed and lower her down.

Weiss rolled them over the instant she had the leverage, pinning Ruby down with an arm across her collarbone and pulling off her underwear with the other as she crashed their lips together again. Tasting herself on Ruby’s tongue gave her such a rush of satisfaction that she growled, and gave Ruby’s tongue the slightest nip with a single fang so that a few drops of Ruby’s blood joined the taste. She couldn’t help it. She needed it. And Ruby moaned as she gave it.

So, Ruby liked pain. Of course she did. She was a trained fighter.

Good. Weiss could work with that.

With Ruby’s underwear finally off and tossed across the room carelessly, Weiss roughly pushed Ruby’s thighs to spread her legs. She broke off the kiss messily, leaving a trail of saliva between their lips, before raising her fingers to Ruby’s lips and raising an eyebrow.

Like a good girl, helpless under the merciless assault of a vampiress, a creature of sensuality and sexuality barely below that of a succubus, Ruby opened her mouth and allowed Weiss to slide her fingers in to slick them.

Smirking as Ruby sucked on her fingers, Weiss pressed a line of kisses down her jaw and along her neck, her tongue lingering on her pulse point. She could smell the blood, could feel the hammering of it through her arteries. But…not yet. Not yet.

She had ambitions for a very specific taste in mind, and it had to be…coaxed.

Weiss leaned back up so she could stare into Ruby’s eyes as she pulled her fingers from her mouth with a wet pop, before sliding her hand between Ruby’s legs and, without anything resembling gentleness or softness, slid two of them in right up to the third knuckle.

She was putting the pieces of Ruby together. Figuring her out. And so she was willing to make a few guesses about how Ruby liked being treated.

From the way Ruby moaned and beamed up at the ceiling from the rough and impatient indulgence, Weiss smirked at a guess confirmed, and began to fuck her in earnest. Ruby could writhe and squirm all she wanted, whilever Weiss was pressing down on her with an arm across her chest she wasn’t going anywhere, and she seemed to like that as she pushed against Weiss’s strength only for it to mean nothing.

Weiss plundered her mouth hungrily as she slammed her fingers into Ruby’s cunt so hard that Ruby practically shifted on the bed with every thrust, fast and hard and without any human gentleness or intimacy. And Ruby, tough and confident and dangerous Ruby, drank it up.

It had Weiss smile as she sucked Ruby’s bottom lip between her teeth and pierced it lightly with a fang, swirling her tongue along the small wound and gathering the few drops of blood that she was given before the small mark closed.

Ruby’s nails were digging into her back so hard that Weiss knew that she was drawing streaks of blood, she could smell the drops trickling down her pale skin, but it didn’t matter, the wounds were closing before Ruby had time to leave more than a few at a time. Ruby could be as rough with her as she wanted, Weiss wasn’t going to break.

She was only going to enjoy the attempts. And encourage them by adding a third finger.

The added stretch and fullness had Ruby squeal into Weiss’s mouth, the kiss breaking so she could throw her head back onto the mattress and mewl up at the roof. Her hands went to her own hair to grip as she began to squirm properly, eyes wide and lips parted.

Weiss was merciless, and those nimble fingers knew when to curl, and when to thrust deep.

It was made all the hotter by seeing that Weiss knew how good she was at it, that hungry pulse in her almost entirely black eyes the sign of a predator breaking in their prey. And Ruby wanted to break.

So, her eyes rolling back when Weiss began pressing her thumb against Ruby’s clit in time with every thrust, Ruby broke apart, right down to her depths.

The sound she made shouldn’t have been possible from a human throat, all growl and mewl and scream, but she was rewarded for it by Weiss speeding up roughly even as her orgasm crashed through her so hard her vision went black and her ears began to ring.

She barely had time to come down from the first one before she felt the second one building. She had always had a bit of a quick trigger, but never this fast before. But she didn’t fight it as Weiss fucked her so hard she was pressing dents into the mattress. Instead, her vision swimming and her head lolling uselessly, she stared up into Weiss’s eyes.

Weiss didn’t try and hide the baring of her fangs this time, instead she let Ruby see as she prepared, putting her lips into position right over the skin of Ruby’s neck.

Just a little more…

It only took a few more seconds for Ruby’s quivering to reach a crescendo, just on the edge and staring over the side of a ravine that threatened to swallow her whole. But just before she fell off and into the void, Weiss withdrew her fingers.

Only to quickly shove them into her own mouth, gather up as much of Ruby’s arousal as she could onto her tongue, then immediately bite down onto Ruby’s neck and pierce her fangs in as deep as they could go.

The orgasm that rocked through Ruby set every inch of her on fire, it was like being thrown into a thunderstorm and struck by lightning from the clouds on every side of her. As her body erupted and she arched up, her mind was drowned in the fog of Weiss’s bite at the same moment, the two euphoric sensations rolling together and becoming something so much more that Ruby’s mind simply…turned off.

She collapsed. Limp. Spent. Broken.

She was, after all, only human.

Weiss drank greedily, a hand between her own thighs and her fingers torturing her clit as the taste of Ruby’s cunt mixed with the taste of her blood and sent her into a high. Mouthfuls of blood rushed over her tongue and right into the power of the demon inside of herself, and she didn’t stop until she felt Ruby’s pulse starting to stutter.

‘Is that…enough for...now?’

A laugh bubbled up inside of her chest as her cunt was so slick underneath her fingers she could hear herself fucking it. ‘Oh yes…that’ll do…for now.’

Weiss wrenched her teeth from Ruby’s neck, clenched her thighs around her hand, and came.

There was no sound, it went past that, instead it was just bared fangs as Ruby’s blood dripped down her chin and tears of blood leaked from her own eyes down her cheeks at the intensity of it as she collapsed into a useless heap.

Before she slumped entirely, she quickly leaned over and ran her tongue along Ruby’s neck, the wounds healing and vanishing entirely, and she enjoyed the final traces of crimson on the skin before allowing herself to slump entirely.

While Ruby was panting for breath and slowly coming back to herself, Weiss was instead still and silent as her body pulsed and her mind swam, both of them trying to put themselves back together but trembling as they picked up their pieces.

Ruby sighed and groaned as the pleasurable fog receded from her mind, and she knew she’d need to have something to eat as soon as she got home after giving Weiss so much blood in one night.

She managed to blink her eyes open once more, and even though her vision was still swimming she stared up at the roof.

“Well. That was kinky.”

Weiss laughed next to her, humming in agreement and rolling onto her side so she could lift herself above Ruby and look down at her with a smirk. She brushed some of her long hair back over her ear, and winked.

“Are you complaining?”

“Only about the ethics. The rest…” Ruby let out a long groan as she felt every inch of her body either sore, humming, or both. “Nope. That was certainly new.”

Weiss laughed again and nodded, placing a finger on Ruby’s bare torso and beginning to draw lazy patterns up and down the sensitive skin, causing Ruby to shiver as her nail lightly trailed between the valley of her breasts.

Right in front of Ruby’s eyes, Weiss slowly shifted back once more, her humanity returning and the temporarily sated beast withdrawing back into its cage to sleep off its meal. Both the blood, but also everything else that Ruby had given.

In only a few seconds, the other Weiss was back entirely, her sweet curved lips up in an admiring smile as she looked Ruby up and down, enjoying the journey of her gaze the entire way.

Neither of them wanted to break the moment by touching the elephant in the room of ‘What the hell just happened?’ just yet, instead Ruby reached up and stroked some of Weiss’s hair back over her ear from where it had fallen free, and admired the way the light coming in through the window streaked through the white strands.

Weiss continued stroking a mindless pattern with her fingertips along Ruby’s skin, before smirking in the direction of the door.

“...we should probably get out of here. Between the front window, and now this, we may want to vanish before anyone randomly out on the street notices that this house has seen some things tonight.”

Nodding, Ruby groaned sorely as she sat up, and stretched her powerful arms over her head to crack her shoulders. She smirked when Weiss watched the rippling of her muscles hungrily, and gave a nod as she stood to start grabbing her clothes and pulling them back on.

They dressed quickly, Ruby sheathing her knives once more when her belts were back on, and with a final lap of the house they left the way they came.

It was a miracle nobody had noticed, but it was the middle of the night in one of the rougher areas of town, and people made an effort not to notice the strange noises of the night in Silvercloud unless they had to.

But it would only be a matter of time, so the two of them quickly made their way back through the streets in the direction of the gas station, neither of them speaking a word until they were back in the shadow of the alley where their night had begun.

Even though they’d both been thinking over it on the walk, neither of them had the foggiest idea how to broach the subject. Ruby just knew she felt a pit of oil inside of her gut, a mixture of shame but also satisfaction, while Weiss knew that by morning her hunger would be back and she was getting far too addicted to Ruby’s taste.

Weiss clicked her tongue as she paced in a slow line back and forth in front of where Ruby was resting against the outside wall of the gas station with her arms crossed.

“We still need to work together on this. With one of the lycan packs involved, it’s getting dangerous for the entire town.”

“Yup.” Ruby nodded distractedly as she mulled, watching Weiss’s pacing. “...we shouldn’t do that again.”

Weiss shook her head, stopping in her pacing right in front of Ruby and crossing her arms over her chest. “Oh absolutely not. Just a one off.”

“Yeah exactly. Get it out of our systems.” Nodding, Ruby tried to force a smile, but it came out strained as her eyes took in the way the light danced across Weiss when hit by the streetlight on the nearby curb.

Just as Weiss was admiring how Ruby seemed to vanish into the shadows of the wall like a lethal ghost. A predator of a different kind. A predator that Weiss had-

She shook her head to banish that thought before it finished.

“...yes. Precisely.”

The two of them looked away from each other awkwardly, Weiss staring down the alley in the direction of the road while Ruby looked up at the cloudy sky and chewed the inside of her cheek.

They were both so full of shit.

But there was no room for that resignation tonight, not so freshly after…what had just happened. So Ruby cleared her throat and bounced off the wall to stand in front of Weiss and follow her gaze down towards the road, in the direction of home.

“You said something earlier about checking out the pills?”

Weiss nodded as the idea occurred to her again. If there was anyone from her world that would be able to help identify the mysterious pills, and study the runes she now had photographs of, it was Emerald.

She was out of town for the next few nights, collecting some ingredients from the nearest city that she was out of, but once she was back it appeared that Weiss would be visiting her most reclusive friend’s haven and asking for another favor.

“My friend Emerald. She’s…I suppose the best word is she’s a scholar of our kind. She isn’t back in town until Monday, I’ll go and see her then and have her take a look. That’s two days.” Weiss nodded to herself before looking over at Ruby and raising her eyebrows. “It’s the earliest that she’s available. Anything between now and then?”

In response, Ruby gave a small grin and drew one of her silver daggers from its sheath, showing where it was still coated in the dark blood of the lycan. The silver had cooked the blood to a tough black grit, but it was still blood, with all the markers needed for it to be useful.

“One more trail. I’ve been studying the lycans of Silvercloud my entire life. I’ll see what I can find out about our new friend. Meet somewhere tomorrow afternoon to exchange notes again?”

“I’ve got fencing at the school tomorrow afternoon, and I believe you have weekend practice at around the same time.” Weiss gave Ruby a playful wink at Ruby’s surprise that Weiss apparently had a general idea of her schedule. But, then again, Weiss knew everything that the school got up to on a rostered basis. Since she helped put together the rosters in the first place. “Meet me behind the storage shed after you’re done? I wrap up first, so I’ll meet you there?”

Ruby gave a single nod of agreement before stepping away in the direction of the road, pausing before she went beyond a few paces, and sheathed the knife so she could shove her hands back into her jacket pockets and fix Weiss with a wary frown.

“You going to be alright?” Ruby flicked her eyes down to Weiss’s side pointedly, but she wasn’t just asking about her wound, and the both knew it.

So Weiss nodded and smiled as she turned and stepped over to the wall of the shop she’d hopped down from at the start of the night, and with a wink she easily hopped up and grabbed onto the edge of the roof with one hand, the other keeping her satchel in place as she flipped herself up and landed elegantly.

“...I am sorry, Ruby. I didn’t…” Weiss trailed off in frustration and looked away, thankful that her face was hidden by shadows so she could sigh quietly without it being seen. “You’ve been more than generous tonight.”

Ruby had to crane her neck slightly to look up at where Weiss was standing on the roof, and she sucked in a deep breath to let out as a sigh before shrugging. If she thought about it much before she was back in the privacy of her room, she would have a manic breakdown on the side of the road, and that wasn’t for any audience.

So for now all she could do was shrug again and give a small smile.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Weiss. Get home safe.”

Weiss was silent for a moment as she looked down at Ruby, her face composed in a thoughtful frown as she mulled, before all she could do for now was nod and step back from the edge of the roof.

“You too, Ruby. Until tomorrow. You have my number if you need it.”

As Ruby stepped back out onto the street and began making her way back home, she picked up ever so faintly on the edge of her hearing as Weiss began stealthily jumping from roof to roof in the opposite direction.

She closed her eyes as they continued to tingle.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

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The piles of sandbags and haphazard logs spread around the backyard of the Arc family home made for perfect obstacles to dodge and swing around as Yang cackled to herself with a leap and a roll. The earth was churned up from the chaos, soft and pliable to land on, so she easily sprung up to her feet in time to dodge the shot fired at her chest with a simple pivot on her heel.

Straightening up and spinning her airsoft pistols in her hands, Yang winked at her opponent before firing a volley in her direction, and cackled again when Pyrrha was forced to duck behind a tree to get out of the way.

But Pyrrha wasn’t even slightly stressed as she reloaded her rifle, humming carefree to herself as she cracked the barrel back into place. Her ammo for this round was running low, a hand to the pouch on her belt confirmed that, but she knew that Yang was even closer to being out than she was.

This was going to end the way it always did for the two of them, it was just a matter of picking where in the makeshift obstacle course they were going to clash into each other. Both of them had been trying to guide each other to preferred terrain; Yang wanted Pyrrha to chase her into the tighter spaces of the sandbags where Yang’s hand-to-hand would be dominant, while Pyrrha wanted Yang out in empty space where her training sword had the advantage.

When there were no more rounds being fired her way, Pyrrha closed her eyes to listen for the moment Yang was distracted reloading, and as soon as she heard the telltale click of the magazines being ejected she spun around the tree and aimed at the sandbag nearest to where she knew Yang’s head was tucked away.

A burst of sand from the shot so close to her face had Yang yelp and instinctively dart away from the danger zone, only to gasp and have to duck out of the way of the training sword slicing for her neck. Pyrrha had closed the distance at an incredible speed, slinging her rifle over her back and drawing her blade with a smile, and Yang scowled as she tossed her pistols aside and brought up her fists.

With her hands free she was slightly faster than Pyrrha, but Pyrrha had reach and equal skill, so it became a dance around each other as Pyrrha twisted around Yang’s jabs and kicks, and Yang did her best to control the distance.

Eventually she managed to catch Pyrrha’s wrist and twist it to force her to drop the sword, but she paid for it when Pyrrha grabbed her arm in turn and yanked her into a lock which held her in place for Pyrrha to then drive her knee into her stomach hard enough it blasted the air out of her lungs and filled her vision with spots.

Yang sucked in a wheezing breath as she tried to recover, but she’d already surrendered to her legs being swept out from underneath her and landing heavily on the dirt before her vision had even cleared.

It took her a few moments to get in a solid lungful of air again, her eyes watering slightly from the ache of it, and she blinked her eyes clear so she could glare up at where Pyrrha was smiling down at her.

Grumbling, Yang reached up so that Pyrrha could pull her to her feet. “Ouch. That was dirty.”

Pyrrha laughed as she easily helped her up, putting her hand on her shoulder to steady her for a moment before stepping away and grabbing her training sword up from the ground to sheath on her belt.

“You’re a bit more aggressive than usual, this morning.” Pyrrha led the way over to the bench near the back door, where they had towels and their water bottles waiting, and she tossed Yang’s towel over to her before grabbing her own to wipe the sweat from her face. “Something on your mind?”

Yang shook her head slowly in thought as she wiped herself down and grabbed her bottle to take a deep drink, placing the pistols on the table to check over. She knew that Pyrrha was right, she’d been anxious and twitchy ever since she’d woken up, and it wasn’t even seven in the morning.

An ungodly hour for most teenagers to imagine being awake for on a Saturday, but Yang had known that Pyrrha would be willing to get out of bed early and train with her if she’d called. Sure enough, Pyrrha had been waiting with breakfast ready and the course set up before Yang had even arrived at the Arc house, slightly out of town.

She’d woken up tense, something tight in the back of her shoulders, and even though sparring and training normally helped her straighten her head out she still couldn’t put a finger on what felt off.

Yang swallowed her mouthful of water and screwed the lid back onto her bottle as she thought, before looking over at where Pyrrha was checking over her airsoft rifle to make sure it wasn’t damaged.

“Hey Pyr? You been having nightmares?”

Pyrrha raised her eyebrows and looked over at her, before placing her rifle down and putting her hands into the pockets of her shorts in thought. After considering it for a few moments, mulling over the previous few nights, she nodded slowly.

“Yes, a few. Not every night, but…more than usual, now that you mention it. You too?”

“Yup, and I don’t think it’s just me. I can’t remember ever seeing Ruby so tired before.” Yang sat on the edge of the table, tall enough her feet still brushed the ground, and rested her weight on her hands as she looked out over the backyard.

The nightmares had been strange, the past couple of weeks. They were never anything she could remember, but she woke up twitching and sweating. At first it hadn’t been that bad, mostly just annoying, but the past two nights it had been impossible to get a decent rest at all.

Initially she’d just assumed it was the experience of seeing the scene at the gas station that had her rattled, but if Pyrrha was having them too…

Yang bit her lip in thought, and when she glanced over she saw Pyrrha frowning as well, having reached the same conclusion just as quickly.

“What about Jaune?”

To her amusement, Pyrrha immediately blushed, coughing and looking away. “What makes you think I know how Jaune’s been sleeping? Just because we live next door to-”

“Pyrrha. Your collarbone is practically black.” Yang smirked when Pyrrha squeaked and clamped a hand over her neck, hiding the skin revealed by her sports top. But as fun as it was to torture Pyrrha, that wasn’t important currently. “But seriously, him too?”

Pyrrha’s blush slowly faded as she fell back into thought, and she shook her head. As far as she’d seen when they woke up together, Jaune was fully rested and nothing was out of the ordinary.

Same with Ren and Nora, who she usually saw in the morning because she lived with them. Everyone else seemed to be completely fine, if a bit on edge from the two killings that they couldn’t yet explain.

As Pyrrha took her long red hair out of her tight training bun and instead into her usual ponytail, Yang hummed and let her head fall back so she could look up at the sky. 

No matter how much she did love her home and living so close to everything in the town, there was something deeply peaceful and enviable about the Arc and Ren houses, which were slightly out the road leading out of the town.

Closer to nature, away from the streetlights, and no snooping neighbors.

It also meant there was enough privacy to train with airsoft guns at seven in the morning on a Saturday without causing a disturbance, and enough room for the massive obstacle course.

So Yang found as many excuses to come out here as she could think of.

But if Pyrrha was having nightmares too, it meant that something was out of the ordinary even away from the town center itself.

The two girls were content to sit quietly as they cooled down after the workout, the cold morning breeze refreshing on their skin, and the serenity only briefly broken when Pyrrha took their empty water bottles inside and returned with two glasses of juice for them to sip on.

It was the only friendship where Yang felt like she was able to be quiet, and while she loved making people laugh and getting stories out of them, sometimes she welcomed it as Pyrrha nudged their shoulders together but otherwise didn’t say a word as they watched the world wake up further.

But when Yang saw a black bird flutter over the back fence out of the corner of her eye, a thrill of lightning went through her skin so violently that she went rigid, straightening up with a jolt. Pyrrha had the reflexes and foresight to grab Yang’s glass from her hand so Yang could spring to her feet and sprint across the yard.

The large black bird flapped its wings and flew behind one of the massive piles of sandbags, and Yang had already closed the distance for when Raven emerged in human form.

“Mama!” Smiling widely, Yang leapt into her mother’s arms and hugged her tightly. “Hi!”

Raven couldn’t quite suppress her soft smile as she wrapped an arm around her daughter and pulled her in just as close. She pressed a soft kiss to the top of Yang’s head and took a moment to bask in the contact and the warmth.

“Yang…” Leaning back, Raven cupped her daughter’s cheek and ran her eyes over Yang’s appearance, checking her over. But when Yang seemed fine, just a bit bruised from her spar, Raven relaxed slightly and stroked her thumb on Yang’s cheek for a moment before dropping her hand. “Good morning, firelight.”

Yang didn’t resist leaning into the contact lightly, closing her eyes to enjoy it, before releasing her mother and stepping back so she could fall in at Raven’s side as Raven began making her way towards the back porch.

“It’s been weeks, mama. Where have you been??? A mission???”

The reminder of just how long it had been since she’d seen either of her daughters had Raven’s chest sting, but she didn’t let it appear on her face, instead placing her hand on Yang’s lower back for a moment and scoffing.

“Of a sort. I didn’t mean to be gone for so long. But I also didn’t intend on returning so soon. However, something has come up.” Raven gave a single shake of her head to stop Yang from asking just yet, before she nodded to where Pyrrha was standing and waiting politely. “Pyrrha, good morning. Apologies for disturbing you.”

“Not a problem at all, Miss Branwen. We were just cooling down anyway.” Pyrrha waved it off, before flushing slightly when Raven glared at her for the name. But no matter how much she’d tried, she just couldn’t make herself call any of the adults by their first names quite yet. “How have you been? Apparently you’ve been out of contact for weeks. Is everything alright?”

Raven sighed and gave a single shake of her head, unbuckling the satchel on her side and grabbing out a few folded papers and passing them over for Pyrrha to take. “The new chaos in town called me back, it’s taken priority. Here, copies of my most recent theories, add them to Saph and Terra’s files, would you?”

The dismissal was clear, and Pyrrha glanced at Yang in concern before obediently taking the papers and nodding. She grabbed up her towel and the two glasses, and gave the two of them a final smile before vanishing inside, leaving them in private.

Raven knew that she wouldn’t snoop or try to overhear, Pyrrha was a good girl, so she sighed and turned to where Yang was tense and concerned.

“I’m assuming you rode here?” Raven sighed when Yang nodded, and crossed her arms over her chest for a moment. “Head on home, I’ll meet you there. We need to kill your damn sister.”

When Yang blanched in shock, Raven cut off her inevitable question by reaching into her satchel again and pulling out a few different items, and laid them out on the table for Yang to peruse.

Yang frowned and immediately pulled her own bag over and grabbed the kit which was ever present, pulling on a pair of disposable gloves and then smiling shyly when Raven hummed in approval. But the items on the table utterly captured her interest;

A folder with a few papers in it, which she would get to, but what had her attention the most were the two springrazor traps. One of them had clearly been triggered and gone off, Raven had wound the wires up to fit it into her bag but some of them were coated in dark blood. But even though the other trap hadn’t been activated, the back of the disk had been prepped, the adhesive activated so it would stick to a surface.

Frowning in thought, Yang looked over at Raven confused, but grabbed up the folder when Raven gestured to it in response instead of answering out loud.

There were three small evidence bags and a handful of written notes inside, just standard descriptions and summaries of the scene where the evidence had been found, and she muttered the words to herself as she read over them;

A house in the darker suburbs closer to the edge of town, near the gas station. A massive broken front window, the front door had been busted, and the interior had been a mess of old blood and the sort of damage that the springrazors always caused. But no bodies.

Yang put the notes to the side so she could grab up the two evidence bags, with one containing scraps of what was clearly lycan fur, and the second with a closed petri dish with samples of the grit that lycan blood turned into when exposed to pure silver.

The third had a cotton swab of dark blood, which Yang didn’t have to look at any closer to be able to recognize as vampiric.

She frowned in thought as she put everything back into the folder and silently flipped it closed, her stomach dropping as she looked at the two traps again.

The untriggered one wasn’t active, so she felt safe to pick it up properly and turn it in her hands, studying the mechanisms of it and sighing as she confirmed Raven’s words; she could recognize Ruby’s soldering work anywhere.

Yang shook her head uselessly as she placed it all back down and Raven immediately began putting it all away, and she pulled her gloves off.

“How old was the scene?”

“You’ve been taught, you tell me. How old was the blood?” Raven raised an eyebrow as she tested, buckling up her satchel as Yang frowned and shrugged.

Yang began packing up her own bag, shoving her towel inside, and then swinging her bike jacket over her shoulders and zipping it up. “Looked like less than a day. So…not the one from the gas station.”

“Good. Very good.” Nodding in approval, Raven rolled her eyes fondly when Yang beamed at the praise, and she patted her on the shoulder to get her moving. “Get home. I’ll meet you there. Ruby’s got some questions to answer.”

Without another word, Raven turned away and hopped down from the porch before jogging a few steps and leaping up from the ground, leaving behind a burst of feathers as she turned into her bird form and flew away in the direction of the town.

Yang watched her go for a few moments, her chest in turmoil. It had been weeks since she’d seen her birth mother, Raven had been around less and less frequently in the past year, and despite her inquiry about it Yang knew that it wasn’t a mission that was keeping her away.

But none of her parents had said anything, and she didn’t know how to just upfront ask why her mother was avoiding them. Why she was avoiding her. She knew that Summer and Tai knew the reasons, but whatever was going on they were leaving it in Raven’s control and decision.

It hurt more than she would ever admit.

She sighed and shook her head, resigning to the knowledge she wouldn’t get those answers today, and pulled her bag over her shoulder before heading indoors and through to the front yard where she’d parked her bike.

The rest of the house was still asleep, only Pyrrha was awake, and she was waiting for Yang by the front door with her back against the wall and her arms crossed in concern. When she saw that Yang was dressed for riding, she opened the front door and stepped out with her.

“Everything alright?”

“...I don’t know, Pyr. I don’t know what I can say yet. Which I always hate.” Yang sighed, scratching the back of her head and getting her hair to sit right as she grabbed up her helmet from the back of her bike. “Thanks for this morning. I know it was short notice.”

Pyrrha smiled fondly and waved it off, her eyes still concerned. 

It wasn’t like Raven Branwen to be open with her bird form around any of the other Hunters. In fact Pyrrha suspected she was the only one of the new generation that even knew, other than Raven’s own daughters. Raven was just willing to slip it sometimes around her because she knew Pyrrha didn’t really have a leg to stand on when it came to the prohibition on magic.

But still, even despite that unspoken understanding, it wasn’t like Raven to be so blatant and upfront. It meant it was important. And if Raven Branwen considered something vital, then it was always worth being wary of.

So when Yang kicked her bike to life, Pyrrha thumped her on the back and stepped away with a cautious frown.

“Keep us posted, if you can.”

Yang nodded and gave a playful salute, before pulling out of the drive and heading back towards the town.

It wasn’t a long trip back into town and then back home, but it was long enough for Yang’s mind to race and her mood to gradually darken.

Just what had Ruby been up to? How many secrets was she keeping the past few weeks? What the hell was going on in that head of hers? First the party, then the parlay with Weiss, then wandering off at the gas station, and now this?

If the scene was less than a day old, it meant Ruby had slipped out of the house while she had the perfect opening; their dad was out of town at the Grove, Summer was spending her days out tracking down local covens and the nights out working, and Yang herself had been dead to the world after being awake for so long.

Every time Ruby slipped away, things were getting more complicated, and Ruby wasn’t telling. At least she’d opened up to Yang about the party, and brought her along to the meeting with Weiss.

But she’d gone out hunting last night, gotten into a fight with a vampire and a fucking lycan, and then just come home and gone to bed?

Yang growled angrily as she turned down their street and her home came into view, and grabbed her fob to open the garage so she could pull into her usual spot. She wasn’t surprised that Summer’s bike was in its place, it was a certainty that Raven had gone to find her first before coming for Yang, and the presence of the family car meant that her dad was back from the Grove.

Oh good, only her uncle Qrow was left and then the whole family were there to murder Ruby.

Turning off her bike and ripping her helmet from her head, Yang placed it away and then stormed inside, frustration in every muscle as she dumped her bag onto the dining table and unzipped her jacket with a flourish.

The inner door to the garage flying open had the rest of her family jump from where they were all around the living room already, with Raven raising a half-amused and half-reprimanding eyebrow at Yang’s temper. Tai beckoned Yang over and gave her a quick hug after being away for a couple of days, but otherwise didn’t say anything, simply keeping an arm around her shoulders as he turned back to the couch.

Where Summer, tired from a night hunting and her hair still damp from a fresh shower, simply nodded at Yang before turning her attention back to a very timid Ruby.

Her sister was practically folded in on herself, her hands crossed between her knees and her shoulders pulled in, and she only managed to hold eye contact with Yang for a second before looking down at her lap.

Yang knew her own eyes had shifted from lilac to red in her frustration, making her anger obvious no matter how much she could keep it out of her expression and posture. But while normally she would have felt bad, instead she was satisfied that the weight of her own scolding was added to the room.

The evidence from Raven’s bag was already laid out on the coffee table for the entire room to look at, with Tai turning the activated springrazor back and forth and studying it. The trigger had gone off from proximity and not a set timer, meaning Ruby had the time to set up the ambush before the danger had begun.

Which meant she’d been the one taking the initiative to be there.

The room was silent for an agonizingly long moment as they all stared at her, none of the entirely sure where to begin, before Summer thinned her lips when Ruby didn’t offer an explanation herself.

“It’s time for you to explain what’s been going on, Ruby Rose.” 

Ruby winced at being addressed by her full name, still looking down at her lap and wringing her hands together. There were no lies she could think of, Yang was watching her wrack her brain trying to think of a way out, but short of outright denial there was nothing she could do.

And Ruby wasn’t stupid enough to try denial in a room full of Hunters and a pile of evidence on the table in full view.

“I…it’s complicated. I’ve been working. Just…working.” Ruby shrugged feebly, wincing again when Yang scoffed and Summer hummed low in her throat. “I went back to the gas station and looked around. Followed a trail of blood, found the house, went inside…things happened.”

Raven shook her head at that, putting her hand on her hip and nudging the coffee table with her foot to bring attention to everything sitting on it.

“More than just ‘things’. If the lycan took pure wolf form, that means it’s one of the moon born, and not a turned werewolf.” Raven clicked her tongue in thought as she glanced down at the evidence on the table, before narrowing her eyes at Ruby again. “Where’s your gear? You got between a lycan and a vampire, and walked away. You’re good, but you’re not good enough to do that without a scratch. Gear?”

There was no point lying or hiding any of it, Ruby knew the jig was up, so she pointed towards the stairs and sighed without looking up from her lap.

“Armor's in its usual place, but most of my knives are back downstairs.”

Tai raised an eyebrow from where he’d been waiting quietly, usually content to let his wives take the lead when it came to discipline. He knew he was a bit too soft. But this was something he couldn’t ignore.

“‘Most?’ Where’s the rest?”

“...bagged in a box under my bed.” Ruby bit her lip, wilting under her father’s stare as he headed upstairs. As his footsteps faded, she looked up at her mothers and stared at them both, beseeching them quietly. “I was just…working.”

But she didn’t get any response she was expecting, with Summer’s eyes widening and then immediately looking over at where Raven had stiffened. The two women looked at each other, communicating silently, before Raven swore under her breath and her eye twitched in frustration.

“How did you two not-”

“We’ve barely been home. Neither have you.” Summer shot back, the jab fair and hitting Raven’s chest with a sting, before she turned back to Ruby and shuffled off the couch so she could kneel in front of her. She paused until Ruby looked at her again, and kept her voice gentle. “I’m going to have to touch your face, I need a better look at something, is that okay?”

Ruby blinked in surprise at the sudden softness in her mother’s tone, the concern that had appeared over the anger, and she nodded anxiously in permission. Summer made sure to keep her movements slow and her touch light as she cupped Ruby’s jaw and tilted her head further into the light, and then ran her thumb underneath Ruby’s eye.

When her suspicions were confirmed, Summer sighed and deflated, the situation growing a thousand times more complicated as she rubbed her own face. The sudden change in her demeanor had both Ruby and Yang blink in concern, but Raven’s own reaction was similar as she pinched the bridge of her nose and scowled.

Yang looked back and forth between her mothers, anxiety growing in her chest at the fresh type of stress in Raven’s shoulders and the resignation in Summer’s, before her father descending the stairs again caught everyone’s attention and they all looked over as he carried a small box.

It had been tucked underneath Ruby’s bed, and locked with a combination that he didn’t know, so he placed it down in front of Ruby and raised an eyebrow.

“None of us need to know the code, but show us what we need to see.” Tai crossed his arms for a moment, before noticing the shift in the atmosphere of the room and looking between everyone else in confusion. “...what did I miss?”

As Ruby pulled the box onto her lap and entered the code onto the dial, opening it up to grab her bagged silver dagger from inside, she frowned in confusion when Summer patted her knee and spoke.

“Her eyes, Tai. Look at the shade.”

The dagger coated in black grit was temporarily ignored as Tai frowned and crouched down in front of Ruby so he could gently tilt her head into the light and study the shade of her irises. When he noticed what Summer had seen, he froze for a moment and his eyes widened.

“...dammit.” Tai lightly released Ruby’s jaw, and sighed in the same way his wives both had. “How long have your eyes been reflective, Ruby?”

Ruby blinked in surprise at the strange question, and raised her eyebrows. It had only been twice that she could recall; the rest of the night after the party at Coco’s, and they’d been slightly metallic ever since the gas station and they hadn’t faded entirely quite yet.

They weren’t as bright this morning as they had been when she’d gotten home the previous night, but they weren’t back to their normal dull grey either.

“Two nights? Round about? Why does it matter? Mum’s get shiny sometimes too. Just like Yang’s turn red.” Ruby gestured to where Yang’s own eyes were shifting shade, turning from their angry red back to lilac as her own mood turned confused.

Summer nodded to herself, before turning to Yang. “The party, were Ruby’s eyes silver after she was fed on?”

“I mean…yeah, I guess. But like she said, yours get silver too.” Yang shrugged apologetically, spreading her hands. “So I just…I dunno. Just seemed like a thing. Why?”

The three adults were quiet for a long moment as they looked between each other, communicating wordlessly, before Tai broke the silence with a frustrated sigh and stepped back, raising his hands in surrender to a battle the girls didn’t understand.

Then it was just Raven and Summer, the two women able to talk entirely through twitches and pointed stares, with Raven eventually raising an eyebrow that seemed to win a debate. Summer nodded, pinching her nose and rubbing her eyes as she stood from her knees and sat back on the couch next to Ruby once more.

“What we’re about to tell you, we had initially decided to wait on until you’d both graduated and would be sworn into the Guild properly. None of your friends can know, none of our colleagues can know.” Summer looked between her daughters sternly, holding stares with them until they both acknowledged the seriousness in her face and nodded obediently. “I need to preface this by saying that not even I know everything. So, so much has been lost. The First Inquisition destroyed so many of their own records in the final days.”

At Summer using the word Inquisition instead of Guild, both Yang and Ruby straightened up in surprise, Yang’s eyebrows flying all the way up while Ruby instead felt a shiver of nerves go through her body. Weiss had called her Inquisitor too, but that was a title that the Hunters hadn’t used in generations.

It had been a part of their education, just knowing the basics of the original inquisition and where they had begun, but there were a lot of dark spots of that history that nobody liked talking about. The Hunters had distanced themselves from the memory of that original movement at the turn of the twentieth-century, just to cleanse themselves of it.

So just to hear the word at all was enough for Ruby to feel a lump of anxiety in her gut.

“...what does my eyes getting shiny have to do with the First?”

Summer bit her bottom lip for a moment as she put her thoughts in order, and shook her head as she decided where to start.

“We’ll get to that. It will be easier to digest if we start at the end and work backwards. At the party, when you were fed, did the Schnee girl try to compel you?”

“...I think so? She tried to wipe my memory. Make me forget what happened. But instead it just…hurt.” Ruby winced at the memory of the searing sting behind her eyelids, and the headache that had followed. Her eyes had felt blurry for hours afterwards. “Knocked her for a loop too.”

That was a detail she hadn’t mentioned so far, having dismissed it as just a failure on Weiss’s part, but Weiss had confirmed at their parlay that she didn’t know how Ruby had managed to resist it. From everything Weiss said, it should have worked perfectly.

Except Weiss had gotten blasted and staked for the attempt, and Ruby had been dizzy and headachey for the rest of the night.

Summer nodded in agreement, deep in thought as she tried to establish a timeline in her head. But there was apparently so much that Ruby was keeping from her, keeping from all of them.

“I imagine it did. It always does. I assure you, no matter how much you think it hurt you, she was in far more agony.” Gently raising a hand to cut off Ruby’s question, Summer continued. “As you both know, one of the original laws of the First Inquisition that has carried through to today, is that we are forbidden from the use of magic.”

Ruby nodded, tilting her head in curiosity. It was one of the main rules of the order, just one that wasn’t verbally mentioned very much. A written but unspoken law; no use of magic, enchantments, or rituals. Of any kind.

“Yeah, of course. But isn’t that because magic is too tempting a source of power?”

It was Raven that replied, interjecting in with a scoff and a roll of her eyes. Her own opinions of a lot of the Guilds rules weren’t exactly a secret, considering her methods.

“That’s…the reason that’s given. But it actually goes back to the way the First saw the world. The reason we’re forbidden from possessing magic is because it was a way for the First to try and make sure that only pure-blooded humanity could join up.” 

Raven scowled just at the mention of it, but that wasn’t important right now. Not compared to the looks that Yang and Ruby were giving her. Before either of them came to the inevitable conclusion, she shrugged.

“The problem with that idea is that magic somehow congregates. Look at Silvercloud; this is a hotspot for monsters. It’s self-perpetuating. Darkness exists here, so darkness is drawn here, and on and on it grows.” Raven ignored the exasperated way that Summer was staring at her for how blunt she was being, and shrugged again. Best to rip off the band-aid, they were big girls. “The First Inquisition was the same. But while the cause attracted plenty of supernaturals that wanted to protect the mundane world and fight evil, the Inquisition saw them all as abominations.”

Ruby and Yang knew that too. The purpose of the First Inquisition had been to erect a wall between humanity and the supernatural, and then slowly push that wall forward and force the darkness to retreat.

While the Hunters Guild were more lenient, tolerating the neutral creatures such as the skinwalkers and the fey, and even witch covens as long as they didn’t actively manipulate the mortal world, the First Inquisition hadn’t been so generous. Everything had ended up being considered a monster, and the leadership had started seeing monsters everywhere.

In that paranoia, the order had torn itself to shreds, until only small clusters had remained and been forced to rebuild. Over centuries.

But they’d been taught that the paranoia had been unfounded. A result of distrust and disunity, and a lesson that they all needed to trust each other.

If what Raven and Summer were implying was true…

Ruby and Yang looked at each other for a moment as they shared the thought, and Ruby looked to Summer.

“Were there a lot of supernaturals in the Inquisition by the end?”

“More than you might think, after enough generations. In fact by the end of it there were more half-humans with supernatural blood than full-blooded humans.” Summer gestured to Tai with her head, and gave her husband a small smile. There was an inside joke in it, but one that it felt like Ruby and Yang were finally being let in on. “The Xiao-Longs are quite the rarity.”

Even though Tai rolled his eyes with a small grin, neither of the daughters spoke up or reacted other than staring at their father, and then each of them turning to their corresponding birth mothers. The fact that Summer had only mentioned the Xiao-Longs sat heavy in the room, and while Raven nodded slowly when she met Yang’s stare, Summer was more hesitant.

Ruby was shaking from nerves as she mulled over it all, wracking her mind as she thought back over everything that had happened over the past couple of weeks. The way her entire life had changed, and all the little things she couldn’t explain or understand.

“So...what are we, then? The Roses, I mean.” Looking at her mother, Ruby blinked when Summer shook her head helplessly. “...you don’t know? How can you not know?”

“Whatever is in our ancestry, it goes back centuries. Those records were destroyed, or lost.” Summer sighed apologetically at the frustration that was briefly in Ruby’s eyes. But the way those eyes were currently shimmering silver instead of plain grey brought Summer back to the matter at hand. “But… traits of it remain. It’s a dominant ancestry, greatly diluted but still stronger than the humanity in us. Strong enough that it’s influence on our souls actually physically presents.”

Ruby bit her lip as she understood, looking down at the closed lid of the box and studying her face in the reflective metal surface. While she did have similarities to her father in some of her features, she could have passed for her mother’s twin at the same age. But she knew the trait her mother was talking about.

All of her life, her eyes had been a dull grey. But they were still slightly shining and reflective. It had faded enough to only really be noticeable from close scrutiny, but the difference was there.

They’d been shiny after Weiss had tried to compel her at the party, practically metallic after Weiss had fed her some of her blood at the store next to the gas station, and after feeding from her the night before the tingling was almost constant.

“...it’s just when exposed to the supernatural?”

Summer scrunched up the corner of her mouth as she tried to word the explanation, before tentatively nodding. “It happens when you’re under the influence of a supernatural. The humanity in you is susceptible, and folds. Leaving room for that other faint spot in your ancestry to become dominant and fight back. That's why it hurt.”

‘And why I felt so awful after Weiss fed me her blood. If Weiss told the truth last night, apparently it was meant to feel incredible to be under her influence. But I haven’t had a fever that bad before in my entire life.’ Ruby closed her eyes to think, mulling over it and putting more of it together.

If her analysis of what her mother was saying was right, then Weiss’s bite felt amazing because it affected her purely physically, only touching the human parts of her. Pure hormones and playing on the physical senses and sensations, same as Weiss’s aura of seduction as well.

But a vampire’s compulsion was psychic, and from Weiss’s words then being fed her blood should have been a mixture of psychic and spiritual as well.

Where Ruby apparently had… something else laying in wait.

Sitting up, Ruby buried her face in her hands and groaned as her mind was lost in static. She felt nauseous from it all. It didn’t make any sense. It was her job as a Hunter to, well, hunt the supernatural wherever she found them. If she was one, even just partially, then by their own rules she should be studied by the Guild instead of working for it. Especially if they didn't even know what the heck it was, all the way back in her ancestry.

“Why didn’t you tell us any of this earlier???”

Summer sighed and sat back, resting her elbow on the armrest and pinching her nose again tiredly. The decision not to tell either of the girls had not been a unanimous one of the three parents. They didn’t have many fights, but all three of them had ended up in different corners.

They’d reached a compromise, but now that had clearly fallen apart.

“We were waiting until you graduated and were joining the Guild full time. If any of your friends found out, and their parents found out, then you would be barred from joining and the rest of our family would be expelled.” Summer looked between her daughters and shook her head resignedly, but she wasn’t apologetic either. “Teenagers brag and secrets slip, I’m sorry.”

For the first time, Yang spoke up, finally losing her patience and spreading her arms in frustration as she addressed the entire room with a clenched jaw.

“How does that even work?? Sure, you can probably explain away your eyes, but one of you can turn into a bird!” Yang gestured wildly to Raven, who nodded to concede the point. But that didn’t placate Yang at all, instead aggravating her further. She shot her mother a glare. “And what about us, then??? What’s your deal???”

Raven sighed, completely unbothered by being snarled at, and slid her hands into her belt. This threatened to be a conversation she’d been deliberately putting off for as long as she could manage. In fact, it might not ever need to happen.

“You haven’t demonstrated any traits, other than your eyes changing. Your father’s ancestry seems to be far, far more dominant in you than the Branwens, which was already diluted even by the time it got to your uncle Qrow and I.” Raven shrugged, her expression resigned and simple. “It’s not so strange, Qrow doesn’t have any traits at all. Another generation or two and there'd be nothing special left at all.”

It was the truth, Yang hadn’t presented any of the Branwen traits yet. And hopefully she would never be in a position where she would. Some things were better off remaining dormant. And the only thing that might awaken them, would be far too high a price to risk paying.

Unlike with Summer, who was known to budge if she thought it reasonable, Yang knew that if Raven didn’t want to open up about something she blatantly wouldn’t.

So, seeing that Raven wasn’t going to say anything more, Yang snarled angrily and sank down onto one of the dining chairs, burying her face in her hands and groaning into her palms.

Tai sighed from where he’d been watching quietly, not really having much he could say, and he stepped over to place his hand on Yang’s shoulder gently. When she didn’t brush him away, he squeezed to ground her and then looked over at where Ruby was staring at the floor and completely lost in her own thoughts.

“If it will get you to give your mothers a break, then I’ll admit that it was my position to wait to tell you both. You both always wanted to be Hunters, ever since you were children. I didn’t want to put so much more pressure on you and put that dream at risk.” Tai looked down at Yang when Yang raised her head to glare at him, but she still didn’t pull away from his touch. 

Which meant that while her feelings were hurt, she did understand. She just didn’t agree.

Tai sighed and squeezed her shoulder again, nodding, before looking over at where Ruby was watching him quietly, her eyes still mostly vacant as her mind raced. “You have to keep it to yourselves. Truly.”

Thinking over it for a few more moments, trying to come up with a reason to argue, Yang ended up scowling and sitting back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest and nodding to show she understood. Considering the code of the Guild, any whisper of it would get them expelled, and it would all be for nothing.

The only person who might be safe to tell any of this would be Pyrrha, considering her own secret about being able to bend and resist metal. A secret which Yang had only found out by accident when Pyrrha had slipped during workshop and a bandsaw had bent around her instead of cutting her hand off.

As far as Yang had been aware of, Pyrrha and her mother were the only two Hunters who used any kind of magic at all.

So, yeah, she understood. But it sat like a type of betrayal in her gut as she closed her eyes and huffed.

Meanwhile Ruby was slowly finishing up in collecting her thoughts, and nodded. The explanation would definitely take some time to digest, and likely a day spent staring at her roof until track practice that afternoon, but she was getting used to having one mental crisis after another the past few weeks.

She jumped when Summer patted her on the knee, and looked over at where Summer’s expression had gone serious and firm, and she was immediately being scolded again. The explanation was given, but now it was back to the reason Ruby was imprisoned on the couch in the first place.

Ruby sighed and looked down.

“...I was just working. I messed up the lycan hardcore though. But no bodies.”

Summer nodded, her eyes going to the springrazors on the coffee table and the amount of blood coating the wires of the one that had been triggered. And the practically black silver knife that Ruby had retrieved from the box. She’d stabbed it in deep, and silver wasn’t a wound that a lycan could just walk off.

“And the vampire? We know one was there. And we know it did something to you.” Summer gestured to Ruby’s eyes sternly when Ruby blinked in surprise, thinning her lip. “You’re fighting off something’s lingering influence.”

Looking down at the table again, Ruby shook her head as she thought over it. She couldn’t sell out Weiss or let her family know that they were working together, it was something they would never accept or tolerate. But it was also the only thing keeping Weiss from having them all brutally killed.

“Yeah. One was there. The lycan had messed it up, and it fed from me. It wasn’t as fast as the Schnee girl, but…I was distracted.” Ruby shook her head again and winced, before pointing out where Weiss had bitten her on her neck. The marks weren’t visible, but she could still feel them. “It tossed me around a bit, but when it tried to force eye contact…”

Ruby made a motion of an explosion coming from her eyes, shrugging it off, and then folded her hands in her lap timidly. It didn’t feel great to lie to her family, ever. But this was the only thing that was keeping them safe.

They couldn’t be allowed to know that Weiss knew. It would start a war that could tear Silvercloud apart. When there was something far more dangerous crawling around in the shadows for now.

Eventually they would have to know. She knew that. And when that moment came, she would tell them everything.

But not yet.

Summer and Tai stared at her in scrutiny for a few moments, weighing it up and trying to spot any signs of deception, but Raven tilted her head from where she was watching and raised an eyebrow.

“Then it was gone, after the flash?”

Ruby immediately nodded, latching onto the lifeline that Raven was letting out, and shrugged again with a helpless expression.

“Makes sense for it to bounce. It’d hurt like hell.” Humming as she considered it, Raven nodded once before looking between Tai and Summer and shrugging. “Check the bite, but…at least she got away.”

As Raven seemingly made the decision for everyone, Tai nodded and beckoned with a hand for Ruby to come with him so they could take her up to the study where their medical gear was, to check her over. Just like they’d done after the party. So Ruby nodded as she stood, looking between everyone apologetically, and waited until Summer was standing as well before she started going upstairs.

Once Tai and Summer had gone up as well, Yang went to follow, only to jolt to a halt when Raven put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. The unexpected contact made her jump, but she let Raven spin her so she could whisper, and frowned at just how serious her mother looked.

Before she had a chance to speak, Raven shook her head and flicked her stare towards the stairs for a moment, and when she spoke her voice was just above a whisper.

“I don’t know what Ruby thinks she needs to hide from us, but she’s absolutely full of shit. Keep an eye on her. You’re the only one she might give an inch to.”

At the sharpness in Raven’s eyes, making it clear she was not joking around or exaggerating, Yang sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. She knew her sister better than anyone, and she’d noticed just how off Ruby had been in recent days.

Things were starting to pile up far too high, and Yang was keeping a big enough secret from her parents for Ruby already, when it came to the parlay she’d made with Weiss and Coco.

The thought of spying on her sister made her stomach churn. But the secrets Ruby was keeping kept almost getting her killed. And Silvercloud was enough of a powder keg already, at the moment.

So, hesitating for a moment as she weighed it up, Yang nodded.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

+=+=+

It was the first day in weeks that the sun hadn’t made an appearance, not even into the late afternoon, instead the thick cloud cover from the previous night was lingering and keeping Silvercloud in shadow. The temperature stayed low, cold enough that Yang’s breath was almost visible as she swung off her bike in the school parking lot, and she pulled her riding jacket tighter around herself instead of taking it off.

The Saturday had passed slowly after their little family meeting had broken up, and there were only so many chores and errands Yang could fill her hours with once her parents took over the work in the study, so she’d given into the itching restlessness in her mind and body and taken her bike out onto the highway.

All the nearest towns were too far away for a day trip, so it was only for the scenery of the thick trees and clearings for flowers, but it felt good to get away from home for a few hours to just let herself be frustrated and think.

A text from Pyrrha earlier in the day confirmed that none of their other friends had suffered nightmares, all of them sleeping easily, but even after getting home so late after a hunt Ruby had apparently tossed and turned as well.

None of Yang’s own nightmare from the previous night stuck in her memory, instead just being blurs and sensations. She wasn’t sure whether it was even something mystical at all, and even if it was there was no guarantee that it was related to everything else that was going on.

A safe assumption, sure. But the Hunters had a saying about making assumptions…

Yang scowled as she pulled off her helmet and shook out her hair, before shoving her hands into her pockets and making her way between the two buildings of the admin block to cut through the small campus to the sports field.

Even though the puzzle had her restless and twitchy, she’d made sure to be back in time to pick Ruby up from her Saturday training, and it wasn’t just Raven’s instructions either. Ruby was caught up in something larger than she was letting on, and for the first time in her life she was locking Yang out of it.

Everyone seemed to be keeping Yang in the dark about an increasing number of things, and it had her mood foul and her feelings hurt as she brooded during the short walk across the school campus.

A few different groups used the school on a weekend, and she could overhear small clusters of students meeting in classrooms, with the most noise coming from the gymnasium. It gave her background stimulus to try and distract herself with and stop herself from stewing further.

But it wasn’t working.

Instead overhearing the sounds of the other students having easy and light Saturdays as their meetings all began to wrap up, no care or concern in the world, had her close her eyes and let out a slow breath. None of them knew what was happening in Silvercloud, that was their privilege, and so they had no fear of monsters.

Their worries were far more mundane, and ones that Yang herself only occasionally indulged in. She knew she had more of a social life than Ruby did, but she still spent plenty of hours training that her non-Hunter friends spent hanging out or going on dates. While her friends were out late at night sneaking into bars, she was investigating murder scenes or killing a ghoul or two.

Sometimes she wondered what it would be like, to not have to. What it would be like to get to plan about what she’d do once she graduated and left town, going out into the big wide world. What college she’d go to. What trouble she’d try and find.

But she was a Hunter in Silvercloud.

Still, sometimes she let herself fantasize.

Yang looked around as she stepped onto the field, scanning over the small cluster of students that were using the space for weekend practice, and she hummed in satisfaction when she locked onto Ruby and saw her sister was actually at practice instead of off somewhere else.

About a dozen other students were present other than the track team, members of other teams that had finished their meetings and were just loitering to socialize, and Yang waved at the people she knew before pausing when she clocked where Blake was sitting in the stands.

None of the other members of the gymnastics team were present, and they would have been in the gymnasium and not on the field regardless, but there Blake was, as cool and composed as ever.

Except for the thick bandages wrapped around her arm from wrist to shoulder, and a patch on the side of her neck.

Yang’s eyebrows rose as she noticed, and she immediately detoured. She still had about fifteen minutes before Ruby would finish up anyway. So she hopped up into the stands and climbed the steps to Blake’s row at a skip.

“Heya!”

The sound of Yang’s voice had Blake’s head whip around, a smile already on her lips, but she turned her head fast enough it clearly made her neck sting, as she winced and rolled her shoulder to loosen a tightness. But she smiled again as quickly as possible and waved Yang over.

“Afternoon Yang. Here for Ruby?”

Yang didn’t hesitate before plopping down onto the bench next to Blake, close enough their knees were almost touching, and she lazily rested her arms on her thighs and almost immediately began to bounce her foot restlessly. She was a bundle of pent up energy, and it was getting annoying to try and vent, so…fidgeting was irresistible.

“Yeah, I’m her ride. What about you?”

Blake raised an eyebrow at the perpetual movement in Yang’s posture, and her smile widened in amusement, before she closed the book she’d been reading and placed it aside so she could turn and face Yang properly.

“Team meeting wrapped about half an hour ago, and I don’t really feel like going home yet.” Blake tried to shrug, but immediately winced as her bandaged shoulder spasmed. When Yang frowned in concern, she waved it off. “I’m alright. Had to sit out of training itself, which sucked, but I’m alright.”

“You don’t look alright. What the hell happened to you??" Yang ran her eyes up and down Blake with a concerned frown. "You look half-dead.”

“Such a charmer. My heart’s aflutter.” Blake smirked, pleased when Yang grinned back, before she sighed and shrugged, making sure to only use one shoulder this time. Hesitating for a moment, she looked down at her lap as she answered. “I…fell out of a tree.”

Yang didn’t respond, her mouth opening uselessly for a moment as she took in Blake’s adorable embarrassment and the utter ridiculousness of her answer. It was immediately followed by having to look away and bite down on the inside of her cheek to keep her expression schooled.

“...well. That’s…” Yang turned her laugh into a cough, then immediately had to again when Blake glared at her. “...that’s rough.”

“Thanks for the sympathy.” Blake’s voice was so utterly deadpan that it broke Yang’s composure, releasing her laugh from where she’d been trying to contain it. But Blake smiled at the sound and rolled her eyes, before nudging her intact shoulder into Yang’s aggressively. “Asshole.”

Yang tried to stop laughing, but it just made it worse, a perpetual loop of trying to swallow it down only to choke. And once Blake broke and laughed at the absurdity as well, Yang laughed harder.

It was a nice release of some of the tension Yang had been holding, and she shook her head in wonder as she calmed, her lips staying curled up in a wide smile.

“Okay, why were you up in a tree?”

“It was…okay, so…alright, look.” Blake scowled as her false starts made Yang smile wider, and she reached over to poke her in the ribs. “Stop laughing! I’m in pain!”

“Alright! Alright! I’m sorry. I just…can’t imagine you climbing around in branches.” Yang briefly took her eyes off Blake so she could check on Ruby, before looking at her again.

Blake snorted and shrugged to concede the point, and smirked. “If it makes it more reasonable; I wasn’t exactly sober.”

“Ah, I see. I see. Okay, painting a more believable picture now.” Nodding sagely, Yang grinned at Blake’s narrowed eyes, before checking over Blake’s injuries properly.

If the sheer amount of bandages up and down her arm was any indicator, Blake’s right arm had taken a massive brunt of it, but there was no splint or cast so it clearly wasn’t broken or fractured. Yang could also faintly make out the tops of dark red cuts on the side of Blake’s neck underneath the patch there.

While Blake was wearing her standard dark jeans, the lump of a bandage wrapped around her upper thigh was visible as well.

She’d clearly gotten utterly messed up.

Yang let out a slow whistle as she ran her eyes over Blake’s coverings, with Blake patiently indulging her and letting her. “Did you fall into a goddamn bramble bush or something?”

“Something like that, I guess.” Blake shrugged dismissively, content with that being the full explanation that needed to be given, and she smiled at Yang again. “How’s things with your fam, with what kept you home yesterday? Any dramas?”

“Not really. I saw my mum today though, which was nice.” Letting Blake change the topic, Yang smiled back and tapped her hands together between her knees.

Blake raised her eyebrows in surprise, before taking Yang’s positive reaction as a good sign and smiling happily. “Yeah? Raven, right? She’s in town? How is she?”

“I honestly have no idea, I just know she was there for breakfast.” Yang shrugged, her smile briefly flickering away as her mood threatened to sour again.

When Blake frowned at her reaction, Yang shook her head to dissuade her from asking. It didn’t matter how much she wished she could delve into it, there was no way that she could with someone who was outside of the Shroud. Frankly, it was almost dangerous just how much Yang had already told Blake about her family.

But when you text someone all hours of the day and night, eventually you talk about everything even if just solely so that there’s something to keep the conversation going.

And a few weeks in, sitting on a hill overlooking the lights of town on their first and only date, lit by lantern light and sharing a dinner picnic, they’d both opened up a fair bit more. Yang didn’t tend to kiss girls that she wasn’t comfortable opening up a little bit to.

Blake clearly wanted to pry, but she respected Yang’s dissuasion and simply placed her hand on Yang’s knee for a moment to give it a reassuring and supportive squeeze.

“Hey, if she’s around for a little while, maybe you two can catch up properly?”

“Maybe. I hope so.” Yang shrugged, her heart not in it, but she couldn’t prevent her cheeks from getting warmer when Blake squeezed her knee again and left her hand where it was for a few lingering moments.

But when there was movement on the field as the people began to disperse, Blake took the contact away and followed Yang’s gaze over to where Ruby was already jogging over to them with her jacket on and her bag over her shoulder.

Ruby always had far too much energy after her runs, so she took the steps three at a time as she bounded up into the stands and joined Yang and Blake, smiling timidly at Yang for a moment before frowning at Blake.

“Jesus, you alright Blake?”

“She fell out of a tree.” Smirking, Yang paid for it when Blake shoved her again with a scowl, but she barely even felt it. She stretched her arms above her head. “Ready to go?”

But Ruby was quiet for a moment, a smile still on her lips but her eyes briefly sharpening into a hidden frown as she copied Yang in checking over Blake’s injuries. Unlike Yang, there was no poorly suppressed admiration or enjoyment in Ruby’s scan, just analysis.

It had Yang blink, but Ruby hid her thoughts behind her smile unnervingly convincingly as she shrugged.

“Oof. Ouch. Been there, dude.” Ruby turned to Yang and bit her lip for a moment, instantly shy and hesitant. “You cool with waiting like…fifteen minutes while I help put stuff away? You didn’t need to come get me, you know.”

It wasn’t the most spectacular attempt at slipping away for some privacy, but Yang was willing to guess that despite her best efforts Ruby hadn’t been able to think of anything better or more convincing. And from the hesitation in Ruby’s eyes, she knew it too.

Just how much goddamn leeway was Ruby going to keep asking her for? And what was on campus that she had to do that would take fifteen measly minutes?

Yang stared at Ruby for a long moment, pinning her sister with her stare and taking in a breath to hold, and it was only once the tension had dragged on long enough that Blake was shuffling uncomfortably next to her that Yang sighed and nodded.

“Sure. Make it quick, though.”

Tension rippled through Ruby’s body as she got the message that if she took too long then Yang would come looking for her, and she nodded gratefully before shooting Blake one last smile and turning to speed back down the steps and out onto the field to cross it.

Both girls watched Ruby go, Yang’s eyes narrowed warily while Blake instead looked between Yang’s expression and Ruby’s back in concern.

“...are you two good?”

“She snuck out last night, and is very grounded because of it. So I’m on babysitting duty.” Yang scowled as she sat back and crossed her arms in frustration.

Blake nodded slowly, her lips pursed in thought as she watched Ruby go, before she stood and packed up her own bag. “...Ruby’s been a bit weird lately. I thought it was just me, but...”

With the rest of the field emptying of people, and Blake getting ready to move as well, Yang hopped to her feet and extended a hand for Blake’s bag so that she didn’t risk her injured shoulder.

“I dunno, Blake. I never know what’s going on in her head anymore.”

Blake blinked at Yang’s extended hand and the silent offer, before she smiled softly and handed her bag over for Yang to swing over her own shoulder, and she let Yang lead the way out and down the stands.

“Thank you. You’re always so sweet.” Blake took the steps carefully, her center of balance off from the bandages, and waved off Yang’s concerned look. Once they were on the flat ground of the grass, she frowned again. “Is she okay?”

There were so many possible answers to Blake’s concern that weren’t safe to give, no matter how badly Yang wanted to give them. But she couldn’t explain how it wasn’t just rebellion, or ordinary secrets and mischief. There was no convincing or compelling lie she could give that would help her vent her frustration while also being… safe.

Even though it had stung Yang when Blake had rejected a second date, part of her knew that eventually she would have likely had to end things if they’d progressed any further. There was so much of her life that Blake would never be able to know. And if she was ever told, she would look at Yang as if she was a complete stranger.

So, with that knowledge heavy in her gut, Yang could only shrug. There was nothing else she could do.

“I hope so.”

The answer wasn’t enough to be satisfying, and Blake visibly waited to see if she would get any more, but she didn’t look frustrated once she clearly realized she wasn’t going to. Instead she simply gave Yang a look of sympathy and nodded.

They walked slowly, eventually passing through between two of the classroom blocks and into the main quad, meandering slowly enough that everyone else had vanished now that the hour was getting later and entering early evening. The school was dark and empty, the shadows growing longer but the sun unwilling to surrender the last few inches of day just yet.

Blake grabbed her car keys from her pocket and looked at them for a moment, seeming to consider just how quickly she wanted to leave. But she didn’t look like she wanted to be anywhere else. Especially as Yang caught Blake glancing at her out of the corner of her eye.

The hesitation was an opportunity that Yang would never let slip by, and she gave Blake a hopeful smile.

“Shall we grab Ruby, and then…get some dinner or something?”

Blake looked over at Yang in surprise at the invitation, before immediately warming at the light pleading in Yang’s eyes for her continued company. So she hesitated, looking down at her keys again before quickly checking the time on her phone.

After considering it for a long moment, deep in thought with a light frown, Blake’s expression shifted into a smile, and she nodded just the once.

“I’d like that. I don’t have anywhere to be tonight.”

Yang beamed back at her in delight, her chest giddy as Blake put her car keys back into her pocket, and sped up slightly to lead the way towards the gym and school storerooms.

The school was practically silent as the pair took their time strolling around the parking lot, with Blake eventually changing direction slightly so that they were heading along the outer rim of the campus.

Blake looked over at Yang and beckoned with her head towards the now dark and silent gym once it was in view, where the only source of light was coming through the window of the main storeroom attached to the side, where a majority of the school’s random assortment of sporting gear was stored.

A storeroom which Yang had been forced to tidy up for detention quite a few times over the years.

As they approached the closed door of the storeroom, Blake paused and cringed, scrunching up her nose distastefully for a brief moment. But she shook it away quickly and ignored Yang’s curious frown. When Yang took in a deep breath through her own nose, she couldn’t smell anything other than the residual smell of old rain on the pavement.

So she shrugged it off and kept heading over to the storeroom, only to stop and look over her shoulder when Blake didn’t initially follow her.

Instead Blake was staring at the closed door, her bottom lip between her teeth as she mulled, and she rolled both of her shoulders as if testing the range of motion and the difference between them both.

But when she caught Yang waiting for her, she smiled and skipped over to catch up, before stopping at the closed door and gesturing for Yang to do the honors.

There was the sound of quiet conversation from inside, and Yang easily recognized Ruby’s voice even though she was keeping her volume low. So she tested the handle, before frowning and raising an eyebrow when she found it locked.

The conversation inside immediately ceased, and even Blake frowned in concern before straightening up and standing at Yang’s side.

Yang gave Blake a slightly anxious look, frustration warring with it in her eyes, before she knocked on the door heavily.

“Ruby! C’mon kiddo!”

Another moment of silence and a murmur of conversation, before Ruby called back and there was the sound of her swinging over an obstacle to get to the door.

“Hang on!”

It was only a few seconds, but Yang felt as Blake tensed in the interval between Ruby’s voice and the door opening, the other girl’s one healed hand clenching into a fist at her side for a moment.

Giving Yang a small smile, weirdly timid, Blake went to step away and in the direction of the parking lot.

“I’ll…meet you two at the-”

The door to the storeroom swung open, and everyone went still and silent as they looked at each other;

Ruby had gotten changed out of her workout clothes and was in one of her outfits that Yang knew was reinforced, her pants of choice having a hidden slit in the pocket where she could access a knife on each thigh. Her reinforced leather jacket was on as well, zipped up tight.

Meanwhile Weiss was just in a casual pair of jeans and a pullover shirt that was tight on her petite figure, her white hair tied back in a basic ponytail after fencing practice. 

What was the most out of place was how her features were only half human.

The dark of her eyes, the curve of her lips, and the sharp line of her jaw, were all beast.

The sight of the two of them together had Yang go rigid in surprise as answers and then new questions flew through her mind as a rapid noise, but Blake managed a single step back before freezing once more when Weiss looked right at her and took a deep breath in through her nose.

Her eyes went black, and Blake’s foot ground into the pavement.

Blake and Weiss stared at each other silently for a long and dangerous moment, both of them rigid and taut, before Ruby snapped the tension with two words as she stood at Weiss’s side and stared Blake down.

“Told you.”

The explosion of movement was so violent and sudden that the wind around Yang rippled enough her hair whipped in the gust of it, as Weiss vanished at a blur and sped right past her just as Blake became a black streak in the opposite direction.

By the time Yang had spun her head around to follow the streaks of color, Blake was two-thirds of the way across the abandoned quad, but in her injured state it was child’s play for Weiss to catch her. She collided into Blake with enough ferocity and momentum that the pair crashed into the door of a classroom so powerfully they went straight through it, and Yang could immediately hear the sounds of violence from inside.

She didn’t even glance over her shoulder at Ruby before immediately setting off at a sprint, Ruby easily catching up to her and passing her, but by the time the two humans got inside the room it was already absolute bedlam.

Most of the desks were either broken or scattered around the room, the whiteboard was cracked, and one of the ceiling lights was swinging limply on a single stubborn wire. It was a miracle none of the windows were broken, but with how viciously Weiss was lashing at Blake and her fangs were bared it was only a matter of time.

Blake, for her own part, was still recognizable as herself.

But her black hair had seemingly grown longer and thicker in moments, turning into a thick mane that went halfway down her back. The whites of her eyes were entirely gone as her irises expanded. Her pupils were large slits, wide and unblinking as she seemingly easily followed Weiss’s immense speed with her gaze.

One arm and hand were still wrapped in bandages, but the nails of her other had turned pure black and extended out into feral claws which swiped at Weiss. But she was injured, and slow, so she never made contact and all she could do was barely dodge as Weiss pounced for her.

Yang immediately ripped her jacket off and went to activate the bolt launcher on her right wrist, but she wasn’t sure who to even aim at as she watched the two supernaturals clash. Her natural instincts said to aim for Weiss, especially since the sun was still up so Weiss wouldn’t be at her strongest or fastest, but as Yang went to fling her wrist up she jolted when Ruby caught her arm gently.

Looking over at her sister with wide and stunned eyes, Yang could only manage an overwhelmed and confused gurgle, with Ruby shaking her head slowly in response.

“I’ll explain everything. I promise. But let’s-” Ruby cut off as a desk chair ended up thrown across the room. Wincing at the damage, Ruby took a step back, and guided Yang to follow her. “...let’s just…yeah. The sun is up. They can’t keep this up.”

It was true. Even to Yang’s eyes, the two fighting girls were starting to perceivably slow down as they started to run out of energy. Blake was wounded, and it was taking its toll, meanwhile with the sun still in the sky Weiss was burning through the small amount of blood in her system at a dangerous rate.

But with their strength and speed fading, both of them were starting to fight dirtier. Blake snapped a leg off a desk into a makeshift stake and flung it with enough strength that it embedded into the wall when Weiss dodged it. In retaliation, Weiss skirted around Blake’s injured side and drove a powerful kick right into Blake’s bandaged arm, causing her to cry out.

Watching for a few moments longer, Yang clicked both of her wrist launchers to get them ready and glanced over at her sister with a fierce glare.

“Immobilize them both?”

Ruby drew her silver dagger from her thigh and spun it in her grip, as she watched Blake start to weaken. But Weiss was tiring as well. If it was a couple of hours later in the day and the sun was lower, the fight wouldn’t be such a straightforward brawl.

“Only if Weiss can’t get her temper under control.”

Yang rolled her eyes in frustration and shot her sister a dark glare. “Oh, so you two are coordinated then?!”

The vitriol in Yang’s voice was enough for Ruby to look away from where Blake had slammed Weiss down onto the teacher’s desk hard enough all four wooden legs cracked, and she glared back at Yang in frustration.

“Can we not do this now?!”

Yang wasn’t deterred by her sister’s glare, instead more than willing to hold it as her eyes shifted from lilac to red in her anger, before another crash in the room broke the last of her patience.

“Alright. Enough!”

Storming away from her sister, Yang grabbed the cord keeping the blinds over the back windows, and yanked it to let in a stream of the final grey light of the day.

As soon as she was bathed in the last remnants of sun, even through the thick cloud cover, Weiss recoiled away from it as her skin burst into stinging needles. Every inch of her skin felt as if it was being stabbed and scraped. She scrambled back from it, forced to break off from her assault on Blake, and she immediately started forcing her bestial traits back under the surface.

Her humanoid appearance returned, and with it the light gradually became less painful, but she hissed furiously at Yang regardless. For her attitude, she grunted as a metal bolt from Yang’s launcher went through her hip. And from the glare in Yang’s red eyes, it was a deliberate warning shot, because she could have aimed it somewhere much nastier while Weiss was too slow to dodge it.

Weiss took the warning with a snarl, and parted her lips so Yang could see her fangs recede, the Hunter’s point firmly made. She pulled the metal bolt out of her body and tossed it aside.

But Weiss’s retreat didn’t give Blake much of a breather, and her attempt to turn and sprint out of the room now that she had the opening was halted immediately by Ruby loudly scratching her silver dagger along the wall and staring her down in a silent threat.

The moment that the sacred metal caught the pale grey light coming in through windows and reflected around the room, Blake froze, her eyes widening. It gave Weiss the opening she needed to grab up a chair and throw it into Blake’s chest with all of her strength, the chair itself shattering into splinters, and it sent Blake flying across the room and crashing to the floor with an agonized groan.

Two more metal bolts went Weiss’s direction, and she only managed to dodge one of them in her weakened state, the other sticking into her chest only a few inches away from her heart.

But it was Ruby glaring at her that finally shut her down for good, and after pulling the bolt out and dropping it she crossed her arms over her chest in frustration and glared over at where Blake was sprawled out.

As Blake rolled onto her front and went to stand, she coughed out a hacking breath while Weiss hissed at her from where she was hiding in the shadow across the room.

“The sun may still be up for me, but you’re in no state for this either. Stay down.”

Both Yang and Ruby felt it as the supernatural weight of the command rippled through the room, Ruby's eyes stinging for a moment, but Blake simply growled with bared fangs of her own and slowly tried to stand. Her eyes went up to Ruby’s dagger, lingering on the silver, and the others watched as she seemingly couldn’t stop herself from retreating back from it as if the metal itself was some sort of predator.

Still on her hands and knees from pain, she looked around like a caged animal to try and see a way out. She stopped when her eyes landed on Yang, and the way Yang had a wrist launcher aimed at her while her other was aimed at Weiss.

The look in Yang’s eyes was still shock, but her training had taken over her body, so her aim wasn’t shaking at all as her launcher pointed right at Blake’s wounded thigh, ready to take advantage of the injury to immobilize her if she tried to run.

Blake’s face fell as she saw it, and she sat back in defeat, only giving the door one final glance.

But Ruby spun her silver dagger again to catch Blake’s attention with the warning being clear. So, holding Ruby’s stare with a frustrated glare of her own, Blake collapsed back down onto her back and let her head fall back onto the carpet.

In front of the others, her eyes staring up at the roof in defeat, she triggered her appearance to slowly revert.

During the process of both supernaturals suppressing their traits and returning to their more human appearances, with Weiss doing the same and slowly able to come back into the sunlight without as much agony, Ruby sheathed her dagger again and looked over at Yang with a cold smile.

“So. We found the lycan.”

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Chapter Text

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2:04am

The moment that the trees began to thin out and her family home came into view, Blake collapsed so she could close her eyes and brace herself for the agony that was about to crash over her system. It hurt to shift even on a normal day, but with her body lacerated and one of her front legs scorched black from the silver it was going to be so agonizing she might pass out.

But she couldn’t put it off forever, and walking on her injured leg was painful enough her mind kept going white, so she tensed to prepare before slowly morphing her body, triggering the change out of her pure wolf form.

Just as she expected, the sensation of her joints cracking and her bones reshaping was far more brutal than ever, the sliced and scorched skin stretching around bulging bones and muscles as they rippled underneath her skin.

Throwing her head back, she tried to bite back her scream as her fur receded and she took human form once more, rolling onto her side to get off her torn arm and immediately clamping her one healthy hand over the cracked and burned skin of the right side of her chest.

As her night vision faded when her eyes changed back to a human’s, she was bathed in darkness while she violently shivered in aftershocks from the pain, her mind trying to battle its way through it.

It took her a few moments, but she eventually had the dexterity to put two of her fingers to her lips and whistle as high and as loudly as she could. The sound carried through the trees, loud and shrill enough that birds were disturbed from their sleep and took off in panic, but as bad as Blake felt for disrupting the peaceful serenity of the forest she knew she needed help.

On the edge of her sensitive hearing, she heard the back door of her home fly open hard enough it banged on the end of the range of its hinges, and the porch light flicked on as a pair of footsteps leapt down onto the back lawn and sprinted over to her.

Blake groaned and limply raised her healthy hand so she’d be easier to find, her eyes fluttering shut from the effort. The moment that her hand was being clasped gently, she relaxed at the familiar touch, managing to open a single eye when her mother gasped at the state of her.

“Oh honey!” Kali squeezed her daughter’s hand for a moment before crouching down and gingerly scooping her up, easily taking her weight as she looked back through the still open door. “Ghira! Help!”

When the heavy sound of her father’s footsteps sped out the back door and joined them, Blake hummed to signify she was still conscious as her father took her from her mother and cradled her against his massive form.

“Oh Blake…are you being followed? Were you chased???” Ghira held her close, protective and warm, as he carried her inside.

Blake shook her head limply, grunting in the negative. Even though she’d been in agony, she’d made sure to take the normal winding paths and vanish into the trees as quickly as possible. And in her wolf form her senses were powerful enough that she would have known if she was followed.

But they hadn’t pursued her. They’d simply let her run away.

“...sorry…dad…”

“Hush now. Save your strength while we get you cleaned up.” Ghira adjusted his hold on her as he carried her carefully to their living room, and addressed his wife from where she was anxiously following right behind. “We’re going to need-”

Kali was already running downstairs to the basement before Ghira even finished, shouting back down the hall. “I’ve got it!”

The ceiling light was painful on Blake’s closed eyelids, and she grimaced at the throbbing, which set off a painful spasm through her scorched skin that had her choke on her breath and lurch to try and get away from it. Her father placed a firm hand on her healthy shoulder to keep her down.

Her skin was slick with sweat where it wasn’t burnt, the thick lacerations from the razor sharp wires pouring blood freely down onto the carpet and staining the couch cushions even as they were gradually closing. The ones on her ribs and forearm had healed already, with just pink lines remaining, but the ones close to where the silver had sliced her were refusing to close.

None of her parents’ words were discernible as shock kept a tight hold on her, with pulsing spasms of pain making her tremble at random intermissions. The worst was when a towel was put over her chest and legs to protect her modesty, and the washing change in temperature sent lightning through every nerve.

It wasn’t long before there was a heavy and stressed pounding on their back door, and Ghira left the room to answer it while Kali carefully wiped away any leaves or dirt that had gotten close to Blake’s injuries. With every slice and burn exposed further, her mother gasped in growing horror at the state of her.

Blake managed to half-open her eyes when a familiar scent entered the house, and she gave a suddenly appearing Ilia a weak smile, locking onto the worried grey eyes of her best friend. Ilia’s skin was still partially covered in scales that were rippling and fading away from a mad sprint in her half-shifted form, but her features were returning to normal

Even while looking reptilian, the panic in her eyes was easy to discern.

It wasn’t surprising that Ilia had heard Blake’s call, she only lived a few houses down the street, and had likely just gotten back from her watch shift.

When Kali reappeared and walked around her, dropping a packed satchel on Ghira’s armchair, she said something, but her voice sounded like it was underwater. So Blake could only shake her head and whine in confusion. Kali’s golden eyes narrowed in worry, and she looked over to where Ilia was nervously standing back and began giving her instructions.

Ilia nodded at whatever she was told and jumped over the coffee table to drop to a knee at Blake’s side and took over in getting rid of the last patches of dirt from near the cuts while her mother grabbed the right equipment out of her bag.

The look that everyone gave Blake gave her a warning that she’d known was coming already;

This was really, really going to hurt.

So, Ilia grabbing her free hand and clenching it tight, Blake braced as her mother began the delicate work of removing the charred and cursed skin.

The world turned white behind Blake’s eyelids, a high pitched scream in her ears cutting off the rest of the world, and she barely felt as Ilia squeezed her hand tight to give her something else to focus on.

No matter how much Kali hated the pain she was causing Blake, it had to be done, the curse had to be removed otherwise none of the wounds near where it was lingering would heal.

It only took a minute of it for Blake to lose her grip on reality and her head to loll to the side, her eyes fluttering as the pain continued, and the sensation was numb when Ilia hovered a hand over the injured skin and began chanting under her breath.

The scent of new blood filled the air as Ilia allowed Kali to hesitantly slice her other palm, Ilia refusing to allow her matriarch to offer her own when she was right there, and Blake gasped at the pulsing warmth as Ilia allowed a few drops of her blood to drip onto the flayed scorch marks.

Kali grabbed the right jar out of her satchel and pulled out a few preserved flower petals, and pressed a few onto the streaks of Ilia’s blood, before guiding Blake’s head up and pressing a different petal to her lips.

“Come on, honey. Easy now...”

Barely aware of the prompting but recognizing the scent, Blake obediently opened her mouth and took the petal onto her tongue, making sure not to bite down on it or swallow it.

Ilia waited until Blake gave a single nod, before offering her palm to Kali again with a pleading expression. The first cut had already sealed, leaving only a faint line that was already fading, but it wasn’t going to be enough.

The short staring contest as Ilia offered herself as the donor and Kali wanted to refuse hurting her surrogate daughter ended when Blake whined again, and Kali grimaced before obeying and slicing along Ilia’s palm once more.

She was forced to cut deeply in order to get as much blood as they would need, and Ilia grunted at the pain while Kali got to work scooping up her blood from the cut and applying it to Blake’s skin in finely drawn runes.

It was quick and practiced work, though delicate, and once it was ready Kali nodded for Ilia to back up. As soon as the girl was out of the way, Kali placed her hand on top of the layer of petals and blood and murmured a few words to herself.

The pulsing sensation began immediately, and Blake grunted and twitched as it began to feel as if her insides were being squeezed and pinched, drawn towards the spot where the petals were layered onto her skin. The petal on her tongue began to dissolve, turning black on her tongue as it absorbed any silver that had gotten into her system, and the taste was revolting as it worked.

It was only a miniscule amount that had burnt off the knife and entered her bloodstream, but it was enough that the absence of it was a noticeable relief. A lightness overtook Blake’s mind as the scorched skin was cleansed and a few layers were grown back, sealing the wound as much as possible.

But silver left marks, and it would look like quite the horrific burn mark for about a week, and would be sensitive and sore for a few days even once her accelerated healing began to work. The lacerations from the wires that were close to the silver burn would linger as well.

They wouldn’t be her first vicious scars, but they would certainly have an interesting shape to them once they turned white, and her others could easily be hidden underneath her shirt.

Deep cuts on her forearm and bicep were going to be a bit more annoying to try and hide.

As the pain faded, Blake was able to turn her head to the side and spit out the remnants of the charred flower petal, cringing at the taste, and she gave a small and weak grin when Ilia snorted.

With the pain mostly gone and only a dull throbbing remaining, Blake risked opening her eyes, and grimaced when the light still hurt. But it wasn’t unbearable, and she lifted her head up to look down at the damage on her arm and torso.

It wasn’t pretty, but she’d known it wouldn’t be. The silver dagger had broken her ability to heal from that area of her body and scorched her flesh, and then the whipping wires had taken advantage and sliced her deeply. The blood loss still had her light-headed, but her main focus was on the layer of flower petals that had turned from a soothing white to a charred black.

The runes of Ilia’s blood had faded away as the cleansing ward had burned through them, leaving just a fine layer of burnt petals on her skin that Blake had to fight the urge to brush off.

Once she was properly lucid again, she looked around at the others and gave a small smile and a wince.

“...I’m sorry. I didn’t exactly intend on ending my night looking like this.”

Ilia shook her head, kneeling by her side and taking her hand again to hold it, while Kali sat on the armrest and began running her fingers through Blake’s hair in long, soft strokes. But Ghira’s concern always came out as a fierce protectiveness, and his eyes were sharp and angry as he looked down at Blake’s injured state.

“What happened, Blake?” Lowering himself onto one knee so he didn’t loom over his daughter, Ghira brushed some of her hair from her sweat-slick face with a concerned growl. “Who did this to you???”

The answer to that question was not a simple one, and it had Blake close her eyes and sigh as her mind began to speed up again now that the pain and shock were leaving her in peace. Finally lucid and the adrenaline gone, she was able to think back over the events of the night.

Everything that had happened. What she’d found. And then, who had found her.

If it had just been Ruby, she would have been able to avoid her and sneak out of the house before Ruby even knew she was there. After all, she’d avoided the sisters in the past. But it was the presence of Weiss that had ruined everything.

The two of them had been working together. At least, it seemed that way. But hadn’t Ruby actively staked Weiss at Coco’s party? That’s what she’d implied to Yang in her whispers, anyway. And even though Weiss had clearly walked away, there shouldn’t have been any kind of friendship between the two.

Even if Weiss had been able to wipe Ruby’s memory, it wasn’t like they were friends. Frankly, Ruby had never been able to look at Weiss without immediately reeking of a bloodlust so potent Blake could pick it up across a classroom.

So what the hell were they doing working together? Did Weiss know what Ruby was??? It wouldn’t make sense for them to work together if Weiss thought Ruby was just going to be deadweight.

Wait. Did that mean Weiss knew about Yang?!

That train of thought was a dark one, but it was also one that had to wait for later, when she was alone and could growl frustration and anxiety into her pillows. She’d known that Yang and her family would get caught up in everything, that was to be expected considering their profession.

But a leech deciding to play paranormal investigator was a massive problem, especially a daywalker.

Blake put a hand over her face in frustration as the jenga tower that was her life in Silvercloud grew taller and more precarious, and she sighed before lifting her hand  off her eyes so she could meet her father’s gaze.

“I went back to the gas station to see if the scent of blood was still there. I followed it, and found the house where whatever that thing is had taken the bodies. No runes, though. Thank god.” Blake tugged on Ilia’s hand to prompt her to help her sit up, and she groaned in pain as Ilia slowly righted her, swaying in posture for a moment before recovering. “...but trouble showed up before I was out. Ilia, grab me a tank top and some pants? I’m a bit…”

As Ilia only just seemed to realize Blake’s state of undress underneath the towel and proceeded to turn bright red and speed away upstairs to Blake’s room, Ghira and Kali shared a worried glance, Kali thinning her lips while Ghira’s eyes flashed paranoid as he came to the obvious conclusion.

There weren’t many people in Silvercloud who carried around silver blades on the regular, let alone who knew how to use them well enough to catch one of their kind with such a good aim.

Letting out a stressed breath, Ghira ground his jaw for a moment before looking at Blake again and thinning his lips. “Which one? Rose or Arc? Anyone you recognize?”

Kali shook her head at Ghira’s suggestions, and gestured to the injuries all over Blake’s side, especially the thick lacerations from the wires.

“If it was Summer, she would have been more merciful. She wouldn’t do something so direct unless she had no choice, and Blake knows better than to provoke her or her husband. Right?” Kali raised her eyebrow at Blake, and smiled in relief when Blake immediately nodded.

As far as the pack could tell, there were two, maybe three, Guild households in Silvercloud, far more than any other town of similar size would warrant. And of the small handful of professionals and the apprentices that they’d been able to identify, it was the Rose-Xiao-Long unit that the entire pack were under one specific order in regards to;

Stay. Away.

They didn’t know who all the apprentices were, though Blake had a few suspicions, but it had been an easy assumption that Yang and Ruby would be. Three parents, all Hunters? It was inevitable, surely. And they’d been right.

To the sisters’ credit, they’d both done a phenomenal job of hiding it for years. So well in fact that Blake had started to let her guard down and doubt it.

Sure, Ruby was quiet and reclusive, and her hatred for Weiss had been so palpable it had its own scent, but…just maybe it had been something far more teenager and trivial.

Then one day Yang had shown up at school still smelling of ghoul blood after an inadequate shower, with a bruised hand and a proud swagger in her step, and Blake’s heart had crunched in on itself.

At least it wasn’t Yang tonight. Whatever the hell Ruby was doing going rogue with a leech, clearly she hadn’t gotten Yang messed up in it after the events of Coco’s party.

But as happy as Blake was that Yang didn’t seem to be mixed up in whatever Ruby’s mess was, the reality was messier for everyone involved. If it had just been the sisters, that would have been acceptable. The wounds hurt like a bitch but she’d encountered a Hunter, she could get over it after a week or two of grumbling.

Instead it was a dumpster fire.

When Ilia reappeared with a tank top and loose cotton shorts, Blake smiled in thanks before waiting until everyone had turned away before sorely managing to pull the clothes on. Once she was decent, she cleared her throat and sat back again.

“It was Ruby.” She paused for a moment to let her parents look at each other in absolute surprise, before swinging the sledgehammer. “And Weiss Schnee.”

If the situation wasn’t so horrific, she might have found her mother’s mouth dropping open to be rather amusing, but instead she shared the horror and confusion that went through her. Meanwhile Ghira’s entire posture went rigid, his eyes sharpening into dangerous pins and his fingers twitching into talons by his sides at the news.

Ilia was still, but she was staring off into nothing as she processed. She went to school with Ruby and Weiss as well, she could pick up the animosity from Ruby just as easily as Blake. And while Blake condemned Weiss for what she was, Ilia actively disliked Weiss as a person, finding her obnoxious and arrogant.

Which was fair.

Kali lowered herself into her armchair slowly, sitting back with wide eyes as she processed the implications, but Ghira focused quickly and crossed his arms over his chest with a deep and dark frown.

“Together? Or coincidental?”

“They were together. They came in together, and they fought me together.” Blake closed her eyes in frustration at herself. When she’d gone to their house after school to check on them after they’d worked all night, she knew that Ruby smelled dark. “...I’m hoping Ruby’s just under compulsion, but even that has problems.”

Ilia frowned in thought as she came back to herself, and she looked between the three Belladonnas in confusion before raising her eyebrow at Blake.

“Is there any other explanation?”

In response, Blake gave Ilia a dark look and waited for her to come to the terrifying conclusion on her own, before turning her attention to her parents while Ilia’s face went pale just at the thought.

A Hunter and a daywalker scheming together? That was the sort of blow to the status quo that could bring the town into hell, no matter whether it was Ruby’s idea or Weiss’s.

Just how threatened were the vampire families by the killings in the town that they’d be willing to make a truce with the Hunters Guild? How out of their depth in their investigation were the Hunters to decide to tolerate the cooperation of one of the major predators?

Blake frowned as she mulled over it further and further, her thoughts spiraling into cynicism and paranoia. She’d been doing her own poking around since the killings had started, but she didn’t have any sort of resources like the Hunters or vampires did. Only whatever access her father had by being on the city council, and what she could collect from her own stealth.

It didn’t make sense for Ruby and Weiss to put their differences aside out of the blue. Frankly, it was astounding that Weiss had allowed Ruby to live after clearly finding out what Ruby was. And Yang was still alive too, meaning Weiss was leaving the entire family alone.

What the hell sort of deal had they made with each other? What did the two other factions know that the pack was running behind on?

She watched as her parents were just as confused as she was, especially since they had even less context than Blake did. Ilia was wracking her mind as well, but coming up with nothing.

Ilia shook her head slowly, and let out a regretful sigh as she sank down onto the other end of the couch in defeat. “I should have come with you tonight.”

The look in Ilia’s face was dark and guilty enough that Blake reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it firmly until Ilia looked over at her. Holding Ilia’s gaze, Blake spoke firmly.

“It’s okay. I didn’t exactly let you know what I was doing.”

“You should have! I’m your Second, now. I watch your back.” Ilia snapped, her worry giving way to frustration, but she immediately looked apologetic when Blake flinched at her tone. Taking a moment to calm herself, she sighed and looked down. “This isn’t just your mess, Blake. We’re all at risk.”

Blake hesitated at Ilia’s drop in tone, and the anxiety that caused her voice to waver. She looked over at her parents for advice, for any guidance on what to say, but Kali simply gave a soft smile and Ghira crossed his arms again and gestured to Ilia for Blake to handle it.

It was her job now. Or at least it would be soon.

The moment her father had started having trouble changing form and his hair had started showing spots of grey, so much more had become Blake’s responsibility. And that included being not just an authority, but a caregiver.

So Blake, still sore and weak, slid off the couch so she was on her knees in front of Ilia, and took both of her friend’s hands in her own to hold tight. She ran her thumb across the back of Ilia’s palm until Ilia looked up at her again with anxiety in every inch of her expression.

Forcing a small smile, Blake kept her eyes firm and certain as she squeezed Ilia’s hands tightly.

“Listen to me; I’m fine. You gave your blood to heal me, and I can feel myself getting stronger again every second. The moment I let myself need you, you didn’t hesitate. And you never would.” Blake didn’t blink as she stared deep into Ilia’s eyes, and she smiled again when she saw Ilia was fully listening. She raised herself up on her knees so they were closer to eye level. “I don’t know what’s coming. But I will find out. And once I do, it’ll be you and me. We will keep our home safe.”

The certainty and confidence in Blake’s tone was so potent that Ilia immediately nodded, the anxiety slowly fading away as Blake placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. She put her own hand on top of where Blake’s was resting.

“Together? Let me help. Let all of us. We stick together.”

“Together. But for now, I need you to stay the course, you’re the best at remaining hidden and the station has to be the epicenter. Trust me. Okay?” Blake nodded, and when Ilia deflated in relief she used her one good arm to pull Ilia into a light hug, and smiled when Ilia burrowed into the embrace and latched on tight. 

As Ilia hummed and relaxed, Blake turned her head as much as she could to look over at her parents and raise her eyebrows. Ghira nodded in approval with a small smile, while Kali was beaming and applauded silently, prompting her daughter to roll her eyes even as she smiled in thanks.

Once her best friend and second-in-command had her confidence back, Blake released her and struggled up to her feet with a grunt, before looking around at her parents and shrugging her one good shoulder helplessly.

“I…have no idea where to go from here.”

Ghira stroked his beard in thought as he considered it, turning to look out of the window so he could stare into the trees and mull. Everything had just grown far more complicated, and things were shifting out of his area of familiarity now.

If it had been one of the adults, like Summer Rose, then that was easier. Ghira knew the woman, and even outside of her noble profession he respected her greatly, and he had a great fondness for Taiyang Xiao-Long as well. He’d even go so far as to think of the man as a good friend.

The Belladonna family had worked for generations to master keeping their true natures a secret, and so far they’d had great success. While none of the Hunters they knew about seemed to suspect them, it had always been only a matter of time.

Blake was incredibly powerful, getting closer to entering the decade of her magical prime once she reached her early-twenties, but she was still young and inexperienced. What she did have, was familiarity with the next generation.

Including Ruby Rose herself, since Blake had never been particularly subtle about her attraction to Ruby’s sister Yang. And after meeting her properly when she’d taken Blake out, Ghira knew that Yang was a lovely girl. It was just a shame for her and Blake that she was part of the Guild.

Meanwhile Weiss Schnee was part of the next generation as well, but she was already an outsider in the next generation of the Crimson Council. From everything Blake had said, she didn’t sound as cold as her mother quite yet, or as monstrous as her sister had been at the same age.

There was one line she hadn’t seemed to have crossed.

Yet.

Ghira looked over at Blake and stroked his beard again. “What happened with the Schnee scion tonight?”

“I…well, I got a solid scratch in. She would be dead by now.” Blake frowned as she thought back over the short fight. It had been pure luck that Weiss had been so sluggish compared to most of her kind, and a single swipe had done the trick.

The magic had been eating her before Blake had even been sliced by the wire trap. So unless Weiss managed to get her hands on a proper drink of-

‘Oh. Oh god.’

Blake’s eyes widened as dread bloomed inside of her gut, and she immediately spun to stare at Ilia, enough urgent authority in her stare that Ilia shot to her feet to hear her orders.

“Get outside the Rose-Xiao-Long house as fast as you can! The moment Ruby gets home, you call me. Because if she doesn’t, it means Weiss drained her to heal. Go!”

Without another word, Ilia nodded obediently and turned to leave, giving Kali and Ghira a quick wave then sprinting down the hall and out the back door, stripping off her jacket and unbuckling her belt to accommodate for her form already changing before she was outside.

The back door slammed closed behind Ilia with a loud bang, and it jolted Blake out of where her panic had threatened to drag her inwards once more. Even though Ruby had stabbed her with silver and ripped her to shreds with one nasty razor trap, Blake certainly didn’t want her dead. Or even harmed. Ruby was her friend.

As much pain as she was in, and would be in for days, she couldn’t hold it against Ruby for reacting the way she’d been trained to, in the face of a fully shifted lycan. Ruby was a soldier on the right side of a dangerous war, and she was clearly damn good at her job.

So what the hell was she doing?!

Blake winced as her arm spasmed, and she tested the strength of her grip. It wasn’t great, the silver had chewed in deep and cooked her. But it would heal over the next couple of days.

As long as she didn’t get into any more trouble, she would be fine. And running on it in wolf form would only make things worse and potentially reopen all the cuts until they faded. So she was stuck in human form for a couple of days while she healed, which was annoying but tolerable.

It just meant she had to do things the boring way for a bit.

Blake growled low in her throat in thought as she joined her father at the window and stared out, feeling her mother’s eyes on her back as she tried to come up with something. But some situations she couldn’t have been taught how to handle, they required improvisation and adaptation, and her authority was so new to her that she had no idea just what she could do with it.

While she stretched her new limits, she had to keep doing most of it herself. It was the one thing she already trusted to catch her if she fell.

So she checked the time on the clock hanging on the wall, and growled again as she put a plan together with duct tape inside her mind.

“Okay. If Ruby gets home safe, I’ll swing by her training at school tomorrow and check her out. If Weiss isn’t at her fencing training, it means she's dead, and I won’t exactly grieve.” Blake crossed her healthy arm over herself to gingerly grip her wounded one and rub it, wincing at the lingering pain. The third possibility was by far the most complicated. “If they’re both there. Then…god, I don’t know. It means things are in absolute shit.”

Instead of reprimanding Blake for her language, Ghira simply grunted in agreement at the assessment from next to her. And that was far worse.

6:41pm

The position Blake was in wasn’t exactly a favorable one, as she looked around the wreckage of the classroom, sitting with her back against the wall as the bruises Weiss had left on her faded away.

Ruby’s dagger was sheathed, but with her hands on her hips Ruby’s fingers were close enough to it for it to be a threat, and her stare was cold and calculating as she pinned Blake with her gaze. Her normally grey eyes were shimmering slightly as they stared at her, and Blake couldn’t hold contact, and looked away.

Luckily Weiss was still on the other side of the room, even though the sunlight was bearable again, but with Yang’s wrist launcher still pointed at her chest she was taking the warning seriously. Even though Yang’s shots couldn’t kill her, they still hurt quite a lot, so she was sitting on the edge of an upright desk with her arms crossed and a foul expression on her face.

It was a glare that Blake was happy to return with a quick one of her own, resisting the instinct to snarl and seeing as Weiss fought the same urge. If she’d had both arms, Weiss wouldn’t have had such an easy time of it, even though she’d been caught by surprise. But instead she’d been at half-strength and in her human form, so Weiss had been able to toss her around like a toy.

The bruises and scratches were closing and fading away, Blake knew all three of them were watching as she visibly healed right in front of them, and it was another nail in the coffin as she looked away and crossed her healthy arm over her lap.

It took her active effort to look at where Yang was standing and staring at her.

Even though she still had one bolt launcher aimed at Weiss out of the corner of her eye, Yang’s stare was entirely on Blake, her lips in a thin line and her eyes their unique blazing red. Every muscle was twitching and trembling as she kept herself as steady as possible, but the muscles of her jaw were bulging as she ground it.

If there was a negative emotion to be found in the human spectrum, it was in Yang’s eyes; fear, despair, rage…but it was the pain of betrayal that had Blake’s torso crushed in a closed fist. She could smell it on Yang, and it was a scent that had her nauseous, and her throat clogged in shame.

“I…I can explain. I can.” Blake shuffled back against the wall further, before freezing when the movement had Yang’s fingers twitch closer to the trigger of her launcher. She raised her hands in surrender. “Yang, please. I’m…you’re not in any danger from me.”

Ruby snorted, tapping her finger on her waist as she narrowed her eyes down at Blake. Every drop of fondness and cordiality that was usually there was gone. Their friendship either put to the side, or gone. And it made Blake want to curl up further.

“You did try and kill Weiss and I, last night.”

“No! I would never have hurt you, Ruby. Not ever.” Blake shook her head fervently, her hands still raised. She gestured with her head to Weiss, who hissed at her quietly. “She, however, was fair game. I figured you’d thank me for doing your job for you.”

The sisters glanced at each other, Ruby’s lips in a thin line while Yang’s expression flickered paranoid for a moment. They didn’t need to say anything in order to reach the obvious conclusion, and Yang’s aim steadied slightly as she took a deep breath to focus herself and looked at Blake again.

“So you know what we are, then? What we do?”

Blake nodded, there was no point denying it, and her heart dropped when Yang’s eyes widened in fear before they pulsed a brighter red in rage.

Clenching her jaw for a moment, Yang’s skin felt as if it was on fire in her anger as she tried to keep her breaths steady. Losing her temper would be satisfying, but it wouldn’t achieve anything, not when she had to keep two lethal creatures in her aim at the same time.

“...how long have you known?”

“A few months. But…I’d suspected for a while. It’s complicated.” Blake bit her lip as she stared at Yang’s aim, knowing she wouldn’t be fast enough to stop a steel bolt going straight through her still injured thigh.

When Weiss didn’t react in any particular way from across the room, Blake narrowed her eyes in her direction as a dreaded suspicion was confirmed by her silence; Weiss had also known what Ruby and Yang were, that they weren’t just badass humans. And yet, there she and Ruby had been yet again, conspiring in the dark.

Blake stared at Weiss in thought for long enough that Weiss rolled her eyes and stepped out of the shadows, shooting Yang an annoyed glare when Yang’s aim followed her. When Ruby gave Yang a nod and Yang lowered her aim slightly, some of the tension left Weiss’s shoulders, and she folded her hands behind her back with her chin high.

“You didn’t miss last night. That hurt. Quite a lot.”

Yang’s head whipped around at Weiss’s words, more pieces clicking together and a more comprehensive and reprehensible picture appearing in her mind. Gaping at Weiss for a moment at the confirmation that she’d been there, that she was the damn vampire yet again, Yang’s stare went to where Ruby was watching her calmly.

Rage sparked to true life inside of her chest as she glared at her little sister, but Ruby stared right back at her without fear. She did look apologetic, her lips in a sad smile and her hands sliding into the pockets of her jacket, but she didn’t look remorseful.

The sisters stared at each other as Yang’s rage grew and Ruby knew she had no choice but to take it, and the tension reached a point where Weiss’s foot slid in Ruby’s direction and her eyes narrowed into slits.

“Easy, Yang. I didn’t give her much of a choice.”

Yang didn’t take her eyes off Ruby even as she snarled back. “It’s not like you could compel her. So she certainly did have a choice. Just like she chose to keep all this from us. From me.”

“It was to protect you, Yang.” Stepping towards her sister, Ruby put her hand on Yang’s arm imploringly, quickly glancing at Blake to make sure she wouldn’t move before looking at Yang again. “Weiss found us at the scene at the gas station, all of us. The only way she would agree not to tell her kind our secret, was if I let her in on the investigation. She offered the same terms.”

“So you two have been casually sneaking out and working together?!” Yang’s voice raised into a shout, and her glare switched to Weiss, who raised an eyebrow at her in response to it. “Have you been feeding from her, you fucking leech?!”

The term had Weiss’s eye twitch in offended disgust for a moment, and she had to clench down so hard on the door to her Beast’s cage that she grunted quietly. The insults did not combine well with the fact Yang’s wrist launcher could come up and aim at her again anytime Yang felt like it.

As her Beast growled, Weiss saw out the corner of her eye as Blake straightened up, likely able to pick up the shift in her scent, and she glared at Blake to keep her out of it. But Blake ignored her with a growl of her own, and slowly pushed to her feet.

Yang was too focused on glaring between Weiss and Ruby to care as Blake stood, with Weiss’s imperious silence and Ruby’s downcast eyes being enough of an answer on its own to her accusation.

“How many times have you fed from her?”

“Three. The first at Coco’s party, and twice last night.” Weiss initially shrugged as if it was of no consequence, before huffing when Ruby shot her a glare for being so blunt. But she did have some tact, so she wasn’t going to mention the specific circumstances of two of the three. Instead she looked at Blake again. “Why were you there last night?”

Blake rolled her healthy shoulder as the final soreness healed in it, as she stayed ready to move in as soon as Weiss showed any further levels of aggression. But it seemed that Weiss was deciding to be reasonable, and Ruby and Yang were currently much bigger threats to her health if things kicked off again.

“Same reason as you, I suspect. Something messed up is going on, and more than just your two groups are noticing.” Blake shrugged when the other three digested her words, before she frowned and looked over at Yang in confusion. “What do you mean she can’t compel Ruby?”

The sisters glanced at each other again, and Weiss also suddenly looked very interested in the answer. Which clearly meant she didn’t know either. But she didn’t outright deny it, meaning there was some level of evidence. So she had tried, it had failed, and she'd just rolled with it? Why???

It was starting to hurt Blake’s head.

What the hell had Weiss and Ruby been up to?!

Ruby eventually huffed underneath Yang’s stare, and looked over at Weiss with a sigh. “It’s…complicated. But, yeah, you can’t. You can’t enthrall me with your blood either.”

“You did say you felt awful when I tried…” Weiss narrowed her eyes as she mulled over it, seemingly forgetting that Blake and Yang were even in the room as she crossed her arms tighter over her chest and tilted her head.

It was the wrong thing to say, with Yang immediately raising her wrist again and aiming right at Weiss’s throat, rage suddenly all over her face again.

“You tried to enthrall her?!”

Eyeing up where the weapon was now aimed and fully aware of how much it would hurt, Weiss rolled her eyes again at the hostility. “Can you stop aiming that thing at me please? I’m not your enemy currently.”

“Bullshit you’re not!”

“Yang, enough! Please.” Raising her voice for the first time, Ruby put her hand on top of Yang’s wrist and glared up at her. “Right now she’s just as useful to us as we are to her.”

The glare didn’t do anything to lessen Yang’s anger, but after a few moments of considering her options she did lower her arm again with a furious snarl. It had been a long time since her eyes had been so red, she could feel it, and she aimed her crimson glare at where Blake had been watching cautiously.

“And what about you?? And me. Us.” Yang caught herself as that line of thought began, and immediately wrenched herself to redirect it. But not before Ruby winced sympathetically from next to her. “And what are you, anyway?? How did we not clock you??”

Blake sighed and scuffed her shoe on the carpet, putting her unbandaged hand into the pocket of her jeans.

“Generations of careful practice and seclusion. I’m also not forced into changes like a cursed lycan. I have full control over my changes, and I’ve been trained how to hide them since I was a child.”

That was a slip, and she knew it the moment it came out, with Yang’s eyes narrowing while Ruby’s eyebrows shot all the way up. If Blake had been raised to control her changes, and wasn’t forced to change at the full moon, it meant she was a moon born. Making it a pretty safe assumption that her parents were as well.

Yang turned her head and glanced at Ruby, raising her eyebrows in a silent request for her opinion, and Ruby shook her head. Any line of questioning about Blake’s nature could come later, especially now that they knew it was hereditary and they could work backwards from there. It narrowed things down, and they could do the research on their own time.

Assuming they all got out of the room alive.

It took a few more moments before Weiss reached her own conclusions about Blake’s slip, and she hummed curiously, a slight frown touching her brow as she quickly checked the time on her phone. The sun was setting and it wasn’t a full moon, so the later it got the more any odds swung in her favor and away from Blake.

“So the packs are investigating too, then? At least one of them, at least.” Weiss slipped her phone away as she mulled, not acknowledging Blake’s glare and instead taking it as an answer on its own. “You know just as much as we do, then. And just as little. If you’re still following the same trails we are.”

Blake narrowed her eyes at Weiss for a few more moments, but it was mostly performative as she instead processed everything. Weiss was just straight-up admitting that the two factions had no idea what was going on and were chasing trails instead of being able to take any sort of initiative.

It wasn’t like a vampire to just mention a weakness that could be exploited, so Blake looked for the teeth in it with a frown.

“You’re really shaken up that one of your kind died, huh?”

When Weiss’s eyes darkened and she took a step forward, it was clear that Ruby had been expecting it with how quickly she reacted as well, stepping in the way and placing her hand on Weiss’s shoulder to deter her and hold her back. Weiss initially seemed like she wanted to push forward anyway, but Ruby whispered something in her ear that had her pause and blink.

Leaning back from her approach, Weiss met Ruby’s eyes with a bewildered look, before taking Ruby by the sleeve and pulling her a few paces away so they could whisper to each other quietly.

Yang went to follow, only to freeze when Weiss shot her a glare so potent that the air in the room dropped in temperature, and when Ruby didn’t challenge Weiss’s request for privacy Yang growled in frustration and clicked her launchers again in a pointed threat.

But she didn’t raise them, simply reminding Weiss that she had them, before she turned back to where Blake was standing quietly and looking at her.

Once their eyes had met, Yang stepped over to her and crossed her arms over her chest angrily.

“If you’ve known for a few months, that means you knew when you let me take you out.”

“...yeah. I did. I thought I could…think of a way.” Blake sighed and looked away, only to feel guilty for it and immediately look back again guiltily. It had been selfish to say yes, it had been selfish to kiss Yang at their picnic, it was selfish to keep flirting ever since. But she couldn’t stop. “I thought I could think of a way to make it work.”

Yang took in a deep breath and held it, centering herself so effectively that the red started to fade from her eyes, returning to their usual lilac. Without the anger in them, it made the ache more pronounced.

It made Blake want to die as she saw it, but she sucked in a breath of her own and straightened up as best as she could.

“I would have ended up telling you. I wanted to tell you. The Hunters and my kind haven’t been enemies in… years.” Blake bit her lip as Yang mulled over it and nodded. It was the truth, the Hunters had unofficially left the lycans of Silvercloud alone for decades. “But my family has kept our heritage a secret for generations.”

Yang was shaking her head before Blake even finished speaking, having gotten to the end even before Blake had found the words. After all, it was the same reasoning she’d told herself as to why she couldn’t pursue Blake properly either.

“Well, the cat is out of the bag on that one now, isn’t it.” The rage and frustration kept bleeding out of Yang’s body, instead showing a level of exhaustion that she’d never imagined it was possible to feel. She jerked her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the other two. “Alright wereblake, I’m assuming you can hear them? Mind catching me up?”

Raising her eyebrows at the name and then the request, Blake grabbed for the chance of redemption that Yang was hesitantly offering to her, and nodded before closing her eyes and focusing her hearing.

It didn’t matter how quietly Weiss and Ruby whispered to each other, while concentrating on it Blake could overhear them as loudly as if they were talking right next to her.

She frowned.

“Ruby’s trying to convince Weiss not to kill me, which is…nice. Weiss is saying that she’ll keep her end of the deal as long as you don’t shoot her anymore, or else she’ll break your arm.” Blake grinned when Yang snorted, before focusing on the scheming on the other side of the room again. As she listened into Ruby’s words, her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “They’re trying to decide what to do about me. Weiss wants me dead, no surprise there. But Ruby…is insane. Okay.”

Blake opened her eyes and turned around so she could call out to the pair from across the room, catching their attention and making it clear their privacy counsel was over.

“Why the hell would I trust a leech???”

It didn’t seem to surprise Ruby that Blake had been listening in, and she shrugged helplessly. As far as she was concerned, her option was the most reasonable of all the possible options. And was also the only one that included all four of them leaving the classroom intact.

“Trust that she doesn’t want any more of her people dead.”

Weiss rolled her eyes at Ruby’s argument, plenty of her own objections on her tongue, and swept a gesture over where Blake and Yang were both glaring at her in open hostility.

“I don’t think either of them are reasonable enough to put the greater interests above their personal grievances with me.”

Groaning as her frustration threatened to reignite, Yang threw her hands up in the air in annoyance. “You feeding from my sister is a bit more than a personal grievance!”

The loud gesture didn’t manage anything more than causing Weiss to tut and approach properly, Ruby at her side as she closed the distance until she was close enough to Yang she had to tilt her head up to keep eye contact.

“Blake tried to kill me, yet I’m at least willing to consider putting that aside for now.”

Meanwhile Blake was frowning as she considered Ruby’s insane idea. Her initial instinct was to reject it without question, but Weiss had been right when she’d accused the pack of being just as lost as everyone else when it came to what was going on.

Her secret was out now. The other three knew what she was, so there was no longer any reason to lock Yang out of her life, especially since the pack and the Hunters tended to want the same thing behind the scenes.

It was just Weiss that was the main variable. Blake had killed a few vampires in the past when they’d crossed into the pack’s territory and hadn’t taken a hint, but none of the pack had ever killed a daywalker. The daywalker families were influential in the town, and they were powerful, their bloodlines having access to abilities and feats that typical turned vampires could barely imagine.

But the previous night, Weiss hadn’t been much more impressive than a standard one of her kind. A bit faster, a bit tougher, but nothing special. Nothing at all like Blake had been warned the daywalkers could be like when threatened.

If Blake had seen Weiss at her best, then she was confident that on a normal day Weiss wouldn’t have the power to kill her. But she herself wasn’t at her best either, and wouldn’t be again for a while. And without her proper claws or fangs from a shifted form, she couldn’t kill Weiss properly.

Any fight between the two of them would just turn into a slugging match fought out of spite and for the sake of hurting each other, which either one of the Hunters would be able to decide the outcome of. Blake had seen just what Ruby was capable of the previous night, her current condition was purely because of it, and she couldn’t help but get the feeling that Ruby had been trying to scare her off instead of actually taking her out.

So Ruby when she was seriously committed to killing a supernatural…was an ominous thought. And Blake had no idea just what Yang was capable of, but she was clearly someone who punched ghouls for fun, and a ghoul bite could mutate even one of Blake’s kind.

Blake wasn’t stupid, she could tell where a balance of power was falling. And until she healed back up enough to change form, she couldn’t kill Weiss. Just like unless Weiss was fully fed, she’d only be able to inflict heavy damage onto Blake and not without cost.

Clearly Weiss and Ruby had come to the conclusion of their own Mutually Assured Destruction situation a while ago, and it was just a matter of adding Yang to that equation and making it even more complicated. But the core problem remained the same.

Narrowing her eyes as she wracked her brain, Blake growled low in her throat as the positives of the arrangement began to outweigh the negatives, and she clenched her fist for a moment to steady herself before growling slightly louder and glaring at Weiss.

“Fine. Not like you and I can do much about each other anyway.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow at the growling, but nodded in agreement regardless. “Fine then. My thoughts exactly. Yang?”

Yang was still considering it as the others looked at her and waited, Ruby raising her eyebrows hopefully when Yang didn’t immediately reject it out of hand. But a faint ring of red around her eyes wasn’t fading, frustration and anger lingering and buzzing on the edge of her mind as she thought.

It was the closest thing to treason she might ever do, but it was either this or turn the town into a warzone while something new was going around ripping the hearts out of supernaturals for god knows what.

She looked over at Weiss with a glare.

“No more feeding on Ruby.”

“No deal.” Weiss shrugged immediately and went to step away, but stopped when Ruby caught her arm. She looked down at the contact and then up at Ruby with a raised eyebrow. “Three times isn’t enough to satisfy.”

Blake scrunched up her nose at the tone Weiss spoke with, nausea squirming in her gut, and Yang’s hands clenched into fists in anger, but Blake blinked when Ruby didn’t react negatively at all. Instead, unseen to the eye but detectable to Blake’s sensitive hearing and nose, Ruby’s heart skipped.

Wisely, she didn’t say anything, and when she glanced at Yang she could tell that Yang hadn’t noticed the reaction from Ruby at all. So she kept it to herself for now. The potential implications made her nauseous, but now was very much not the time.

Ruby bit her lip as she considered Weiss’s words, and Yang’s barely suppressed rage, before turning to Yang and thinning her lips.

“If she tries to feed from me without my consent, I’ll figure my eyes out and she’ll pay for it. But if I consent, well….then I consent.” Ruby dismissively waved Weiss and Blake’s curiosity away at the mention of her eyes, instead keeping her stare on Yang and holding it steady.

Blake could smell Yang’s disgust at the thought, her body temperature skyrocketing in her rage as her eyes bled red once again, but she mastered her anger with a surprising ease as every muscle in her body relaxed in the one motion. Her eyes remained red, her jaw was tight, but aggression left her body and instead remained only in her mind.

Clicking her tongue, Yang growled in disgust as she switched her glare to Weiss.

“The moment this is all said and done, I’m helping Blake kill you.”

“Correction, Yang.” Stepping over again, Weiss raised her chin and looked between Yang and Blake, unthreatened and unbothered even as her eyes remained dark. “You’ll help Blake try.”

Without giving Yang time to make a snarky quip, Weiss extended her hand to Blake and waited. As far as she was concerned, Yang was Ruby’s to handle. The main grudge was going to be between herself and Blake the entire way through, and both girls knew it.

But Weiss raised her eyebrows to prompt her decision, and Blake couldn’t think of any ways out of it.

So, Blake nodded.

“We solve this, get it out of town in a bodybag, and all try to kill each other later.”

Weiss hummed in agreement and extended her hand further forward, waiting for Blake to properly agree.

Hesitating for one more moment with bile in her throat and tension in her shoulders, Blake reached out and gave Weiss’s hand a firm shake, while making sure to grip it hard enough it hurt.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

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Something was very, very wrong with Weiss.

It was meant to be the easiest night in a while, the new… team… having split up and gone their separate ways once the sun was all the way down. Blake apparently had almost nightly obligations, which Weiss could relate to, and both Ruby and Yang had to keep up appearances by being home on time and keeping to their training and spending time with their parents.

Especially since Ruby was apparently grounded. Weiss shouldn’t have found that notion as oddly cute as she did. The idea of her own parents trying something as mundane as grounding her was laughable, and yet Ruby acquiesced to her punishment with a grumble and a pout.

Instead, Weiss was having her own problems, as she bent over and threw up again, fresh blood coming up black and foul when it had been perfectly ordinary when she’d consumed it.

There hadn’t been anything strange about the man she’d fed from. He’d just been wandering towards one of the several bars in town and had foolishly cut down a side-alley all on his own. A few mouthfuls, a stare into his eyes to make him foggy, and Weiss had been gone in a blur.

The nausea had started about a minute later, hitting her bad enough she’d stumbled around the back of a closed shop and dropped to her knees, throwing up dark blood onto the pavement. From the amount her system was purging, her Beast hadn’t consumed a single drop of what she’d taken, rejecting all of it.

Her head was woozy as she stumbled back and rested against the wall, closing her eyes and running the back of her jacket sleeve across her mouth in disgust. Even as she’d been drinking it, the taste of the man’s blood had been bland and grey, it had felt like the equivalent of trying to cleanse thirst by licking water from a puddle on the road. But she hadn’t thought much of it in the moment.

Sometimes people just tasted like shit, depending on their health and their personalities.

But this was different. This was wrong. And the back of her eyelids felt fuzzy as she groaned quietly at the ache in her gut, her Beast scratching hungrily at the walls of its cage and whispering to her.

Ever since her fight with Blake, her hunger had been growing, the voices of it on the edge of her mind becoming more incessant and the points of her fangs refusing to shrink entirely. It was pounding in her ears, her hands were shaking like an addict in withdrawals, and after the last of the blood in her body had come up with the rest she was growing more and more ravenous.

Normally she tried her best to keep her hunger sated, even though it wasn’t possible to be full. But she’d been this hungry before, and she knew the growing risks of it as she stepped back out onto the street and continued to make her way home. 

It was hard to see clearly, her vision blurry around the edges and pulsing in time with a heartbeat that wasn’t hers.  Scratching. Scratching at the edge of her mind as her eyelids fluttered and she looked around.

There were people around her, passing her on the street, tucked into restaurants or climbing stairs to their apartments. Living, breathing, filled with vitae and not in need of all of it. Not that it mattered if they were.

Weiss stopped and closed her eyes to calm herself, refusing to take a breath so that she avoided the scent, but she heard the heartbeat of a passing woman and suddenly her body was trembling. 

‘There was no harm in trying again…’

Her fangs elongated slightly as she spun on her foot and fell in-step beside the woman, brushing against her hard enough to get her attention but clumsily enough she could pass it off as an accident. As soon as the woman looked over at her in surprise at the contact, Weiss was ready with a perfect smile, her bright blue eyes large and beautiful.

“I’m so sorry.” Weiss watched her voice ripple over the woman, a vacancy appearing in her eyes, and she smiled wider. “Are you alright?”

The woman nodded numbly, and it was always so easy.

‘Like hunting cattle at an abattoir.’ Weiss clamped down on the whispers as she murmured a few more words and led the woman off the street. But her head was a pounding fog that would not be denied.

It wasn’t hard to find a private spot, the woman following her with a vacant and giddy smile, and Weiss was gentle as she brushed some of the woman’s long hair over her shoulder and her eyes locked onto her pulsing jugular. She could hear the woman’s heart racing, a result of being unable to resist arousal at the beautiful creature she’d followed the swaying hips of, and Weiss licked her lips.

With a final glance around to make sure nobody was coming down the same alley, Weiss grabbed a fistful of the woman’s hair and latched onto her neck. The moment the first rush of crimson went over her tongue, she felt her eyes turn black and the dark tendrils begin to crawl out and over her face, with her fangs extending to their full length.

So she bit down harder as she swallowed the first mouthful, gripping the woman tight enough she felt her bones creak under the pressure of the arm Weiss had around her back to anchor her still. But the Kiss had her victim too enraptured to respond to the pain, instead the woman was completely limp.

But then Weiss froze, and her eyes clicked open again as her Beast took one sip of the offering and recoiled.

Immediately breaking off the bite at the revolting taste, Weiss spat out the blood still in her mouth and groaned at the aching nausea in her stomach and throat. But she refused to throw up again, instead clenching her jaw and forcing her body to keep it down as she growled in frustration.

‘Deal with it. It’s what we’ve got.’

The Beast mewled and snarled, she felt it crawling underneath her skin and behind her eyes, but she growled at herself again before turning her attention back to the slumped woman.

A single lick along her neck closed the wounds and removed the traces of blood, though Weiss scrunched her nose up at the taste, and she forced the woman’s eyes open to remove the last few minutes from her mind and send her on her way.

She watched the woman numbly and vacantly sway out of the alley and return to her night, none the wiser apart from a headache. But a fresh wave of dark nausea had Weiss groan and rest against the wall with a heaving breath.

‘What’s the problem?! What do you want from me?!’

The answer came as an instinct as her hand dropped to brush her phone over the pocket of her jeans, and she startled as she caught it and pulled her hand back up to her chest. But now the thought was in her head. She knew what she wanted. Who she wanted. And she could feel inside of her cursed and feral soul that it would work.

This was really, really bad.

But the nausea slowly passed as her Beast resigned to debasing itself with the foul offering, and began to consume what she’d taken. It felt horrid as the energy washed into her system, like it was full of grit and old oil, but it would have to be enough.

It felt grey. Bland. Empty.

She had to get home, away from the smell and warmth of people. So she sped up, wishing she’d driven to the school instead of walking. But she’d gone out with the intention of feasting on the way back.

Instead it was torture, her system fed oil when it wanted wine.

The walk was slow, but one she’d done a thousand times before, and once she passed out of the main part of town and entered the nicer suburbs she had the privacy and quiet to close her eyes and think as she walked.

She’d always had a bit more of a refined palette compared to any of her friends except for Coco, but she’d never rejected blood before. At worst she’d cringe if it wasn’t to her liking, as if the blood was food that had slightly expired but had still been edible, and it had still done the trick. Nothing like this.

Weiss extended her fangs and ran her tongue along the points of them, checking to see if anything was different, but apart from feeling unpleasant at the inferior vitae she’d fed on she felt completely normal. All of her senses were normal, her body was responding as normal, and while the cravings and whispers were still constant they weren’t any louder or more intrusive than normal.

The only thing different was the taste, and how it felt to have to settle for less.

Sure, she’d been picky in the past at times. Feeding could sometimes be such a primal and pleasurable act that most vampires were drawn to prey that best matched their… preferences, so Weiss had always preferred other women. But she could drink from anyone if she needed to sate hunger. Not all meals had to be enjoyable to eat, sometimes a creature just needed fuel. 

And yet, Weiss’s gut squirmed at the foul flavor still being slowly drained of vitae and consumed. She knew what she wanted, of course she knew, it was on her mind constantly ever since the previous night.

She snarled at herself in mild judgement and rolled her eyes. Ruby was a snack, okay, fine, that was common knowledge in Weiss’s mind at least. She was beautiful, clever, passionate, dangerous, staggeringly good with her tongue, and she tasted like sex felt. And it had made Weiss’s insides howl.

Maybe Coco had a point the night of the party, about being so possessive so quickly. And apparently that had just been the first tier of what was threatening to become a major problem.

Weiss grabbed her keys from her pocket as she stepped through the gate of the Schnee estate and walked up the short drive. Her father’s car was parked, but he was almost certainly working, and her mother tended to hunt at this time of evening.

So there wasn’t much risk of being noticed or bothered as she unlocked her door and stepped inside, immediately making a beeline for the stairs up to her room. The entire house was quiet, her father in his office and no guests over, so Weiss felt secure enough to growl at herself once more as she entered her bedroom and locked the door behind her.

Tossing her bag down next to her desk, she immediately flopped onto her bed and pulled a pillow over her face. Her entire being felt like garbage as it consumed the vitae she refused to throw up, and she growled as her stomach flipped and rebelled once more.

But it was working, the cravings were lessening and strength was entering her body, and that was the main thing.

Luckily she had no plans for the next day, and was intending on spending it researching and unfortunately catching up on homework. She could brood over her new problem and try and get over it before Monday, when she’d have to be in the same vicinity as Ruby again without being able to just pull the girl into a cupboard.

“If I consent to it, then I consent to it.” Ruby had said. She’d agreed. She’d offered to let Weiss feed from her in the future, likely depending on circumstances.

Why had she done that? Hearing it had made Weiss tremble, and if Yang and Blake hadn’t been right there, then that classroom would have seen something far more animal than just a fist fight.

The pulse of anger and bloodlust she felt towards Blake had to be pushed to the side for now, she could brood through that and process it tomorrow so that she didn’t instinctively want to snap Blake’s neck come Monday. But she was a woman of her word, and she had agreed to play nice.

She’d known since they were kids that Blake wasn’t human, she’d been able to smell it on her, but Blake had already been known to spend so much time in the forest that Weiss had just assumed she’d been bitten young. It meant she was off the menu, since lycan blood was a great way for Weiss to be in agony if she consumed any, but Weiss hadn’t put any further thought into it other than sympathy for Blake’s parents for their only child being turned before she was even a teenager.

But no, things in Silvercloud weren’t allowed to be that simple.

Weiss allowed her visage to retreat and her raw appearance to shine through, her eyes darkening and fangs extending now that she didn’t need to keep a mask on for anyone around her. It made it feel more natural when she snarled at the entire situation and tossed her pillow across the room.

The pocket of her pants dinged and vibrated, and she disinterestedly grabbed her phone out to check it, before her eyes widened and a wash of tingling went through her entire body, starting from her face and rushing down to her toes.

RR: Something’s different. I don’t feel well.

Weiss sat up with a concerned frown down at her phone, before typing back her answer and sending it off, tapping her nail on her screen as she waited for the reply.

WS: What do you mean? Are you okay?

The barrage of responses came through in seconds, and Weiss could visualize Ruby sitting on her bed and keeping her phone in her hand so she could reply immediately. She was a one-hand texter, Weiss had noticed that a long time ago. Maybe she was chewing the thumb of her other hand as she was thinking? Although, now that Weiss knew the truth, she was able to imagine Ruby skillfully spinning a knife as a habit instead.

That wasn’t important, so Weiss shook her head and opened the texts.

RR: I feel…empty. Like something is missing. It just feels kinda ‘uncomfortable’, I guess.

RR: I don’t know why I’m telling you about this.

RR: Do you feel normal?

Weiss tapped her finger on her bottom lip as she looked down at her phone, reading the texts over and over again as her mind raced. Because empty and uncomfortable was a very accurate way of wording it, outside of the hunger for vitae that Ruby wouldn’t have as well.

Something was wrong. Something was wrong with them both.

And there were enough mysteries going on already, they didn’t need a new one.

So, Weiss knew she should lie. Her hunger was her own problem to deal with, it always had been. Just because Ruby was in on her secret and had agreed to a temporary truce, it was still clear that Ruby despised vampires and everything that they did and craved.

A good person would keep Ruby out of it, would separate her from more of what she clearly hated and reviled. She already thought Weiss was a monster, she didn’t need any more reasons or insights to validate that belief.

But Weiss wasn’t a person at all. She didn’t get to be, and she knew that. So she sent her reply and put her phone to the side so she could bury her head in her hands and groan.

WS: I feel empty too.

Even as her phone vibrated with an almost instant reply, she ignored it for a moment as she said the next part entirely in her mind while she stared up at her roof and clenched her jaw.

Because I don’t think I can be satisfied with anyone other than you. God, Ruby…what the hell have we done?

To Weiss and Ruby’s credit, they made it to between third and fourth period on Monday before they found themselves inside of a dusty storeroom and slamming the door closed behind them. Weiss took a moment to pull a rack of metal shelves in front of the door to block it, before turning to where Ruby was staring at her and breathing heavily, waiting with wide-blown eyes and slightly parted lips.

They hadn’t shared a single word, this hadn’t been a conscious decision, all it had taken was a single moment of eye contact in the hall between classes for Ruby to find an excuse to slip away from Penny, and for Weiss to not even bother to give an explanation to her friends before vanishing.

Ruby stepped forward as Weiss turned to face her, the vampiress flicking on the dull yellow ceiling bulb so that Ruby could see. They were suddenly close enough to each other all Weiss could smell was Ruby’s scent, and Ruby was barely able to blink as she stared.

Biting her lip for a moment as she tried to stay centered, Ruby let out a slow breath as her hands clenched by her sides in restraint.

“...this isn’t right. Something’s…something’s…”

“Wrong. Different.” Weiss nodded as she stepped back, encouraging Ruby to follow until her back hit the shelves and Ruby could pin her if she wanted. She could immediately see temptation in Ruby’s eyes, and her own eyes glimmered for a moment as a single corner of her lips ticked up. 

But her thoughts fell serious again for a moment as she mulled over what had been changing. She’d gone out hunting again the previous night, and had gone after someone of her usual exact preference. But all there had been was nausea and revulsion as she’d forced it down.

Now she was in front of Ruby again, and the scent of her skin and the feel of her warmth had Weiss trembling just from the proximity. Ruby didn’t look like she was doing much better, standing as frozen still as she could manage, but her eyes were disobeying her and roaming up and down Weiss’s outfit for the day.

They met each other’s gaze again and stared, studying each other and trying to solve it.

Weiss put a hand over her own chest to try and physically push the hunger away, clamping down on it, and she grimaced at the mental effort as she focused.

“What’s been different for you?”

Ruby blinked and shook her head as if waking from a dream, and she shoved her hands into the pockets of her pants so that she could clench them into trembling fists without it being noticed.

It had been a very, very strange Sunday. The feeling had started on Saturday after getting home, doing her evening training and pounding one of the heavy bags in the basement. The more she’d worked up a sweat, her blood roaring and her heart hammering, the louder the echo had been.

As if her pulse was pounding down a tunnel and waiting for an answer that never came. Just echoes and the void.

Laying in bed had made it worse, and sleep hadn’t come easily. What had started as an uncomfortable absence had turned into what she could only describe as an itch. An irritation to be scratched but that her nails couldn’t reach. Like her skin and organs suddenly didn’t fit into place, pulled into a vacuum that had no right being there.

By the time dawn had rolled around, her eyes had been such pure silver that she’d been able to see them in her bedroom mirror just from low moonlight coming through the window. But it was different from the fever from when Weiss had tried to enthrall her.

Instead it felt good to want to scratch, and agony to not be able to. Nothing was rejected, instead something was craved. And if the glow in her eyes was any indication, it was something supernatural in nature.

It had faded to something more bearable by morning, but the Sunday had seemed to stretch on forever.

Now, in front of Weiss, she was having trouble controlling her breathing, and the way Weiss was looking at her too wasn’t helping.

Ruby’s mouth opened uselessly when she tried to think of how to answer, but no words came to her, the instinctual squirming and discomfort something too primal to be summarized.

Yet Weiss seemed to understand perfectly anyway, as she grabbed two fistfuls of Ruby’s shirt and pulled her in hard enough that they bumped back against the shelves.

Their mouths crashed together violently, lips parting and tongues meeting roughly, and Weiss mewled as her insides shivered and sang. When her nails immediately sharpened into slight claws, she quickly took them away so she didn’t tear Ruby’s shirt, only to gasp when Ruby pulled the hem of her shirt out of her pants and grabbed Weiss’s wrists to place them on the bare skin of her sides directly.

The bell rang on the other side of the door, the final warning to get to class, but Weiss growled at it and hopped up so that Ruby had to catch her weight. Ruby barely even noticed it as she caught her easily, slamming her against the shelves hard enough they rattled, and she groaned when Weiss wrapped her legs around her waist.

Weiss had the fucking audacity to wear a white skirt today, and it had been a very long morning for Ruby because of it, so she shoved the fabric up further so that she could dig her nails into skin. Pulling her tongue from Weiss’s mouth, she bit down on her bottom lip with an indulgent hum, and smirked when Weiss gasped and tightened her grip with her thighs in encouragement.

Everything inside of Ruby’s skin was vibrating as she kissed Weiss and dug her fingers in, heat building in each vein and muscle in a way that had her groan when Weiss reached down to hurriedly try and pull her shirt over her head.

Putting Weiss back down so she could do it herself, Ruby pulled her shirt off and dropped it at her feet just as Weiss unbuttoned her own and revealed a lacy pale blue bra, the pale skin too much for Ruby to resist leaning down and pressing her lips to, cupping Weiss’s breast in her hand over the fabric.

Weiss sighed at the touch, her fingers going to Ruby’s hair to encourage her and her head rolling back, before raising an eyebrow playfully when Ruby’s movements grew rougher and less restrained. She could feel the heat growing under Ruby’s skin, could smell the blood rushing faster and hotter in her veins.

God, Ruby was so beautiful, and she didn’t even know it.

As lovely as Ruby’s lips on her chest felt, Weiss growled impatiently as she twisted her grip of Ruby’s hair to pull her face back up so she could kiss her again. Her hands went to Ruby’s belt and nimbly undid it, but she didn’t bother push Ruby’s pants down, instead simply popping the button and shoving her hand down the front of them.

The moment she felt how soaked Ruby was through her underwear, Weiss’s eyes widened and she felt them turn almost black.

Ruby wanted her that badly? Ruby craved her so dangerously that this was all it had taken to draw her in again?

Weiss snarled behind slightly protruding fangs, her lips in a smug and vicious smile, and she stroked a finger along Ruby’s slit through her underwear and giggled when Ruby gasped and shivered.

Another stroke, firmer but slower, and Weiss smiled as Ruby squirmed and scratched the sides of her neck in a clamor for touch and purchase. Her voice was a low purr, a growl. “Did you want to give yourself to me again, Ruby? Did you come to school today hoping I'd take you?”

“I’m not-” Ruby moaned as Weiss dipped her fingers under the waistband of her underwear to touch her properly, squeezing her eyes shut. “-yours. But…”

Weiss raised an eyebrow as she slipped the first knuckle of her finger into Ruby’s wetness and teased her, before baring her fangs and making sure Ruby noticed. When Ruby’s eyes widened even as she whined at Weiss slowly moving a finger in and out  agonizingly  slowly, Weiss growled with a smile.

“We’ll see about that.”

They didn’t have long, and they didn’t have the patience to drag things out even if they did have time to spare, so Ruby didn’t even think of protesting as Weiss began to fuck her in earnest, a second finger joining the first and growing rougher with powerful twists of her wrist.

Weiss burrowed into Ruby’s neck as she fingered her, inhaling deep breaths of Ruby’s skin and grazing the tips of her fangs along the line of her jugular. But she didn’t break the skin, didn’t indulge herself just yet, and she wouldn’t until she got permission.

As the minutes passed and Ruby’s ability to stand slowly began to falter from the trembling in her legs, and her breaths grew faster and deeper, Weiss knew she would soon get it. And she smiled against Ruby’s neck before pressing a soft kiss to her skin.

She didn’t need to ask in order for Ruby to know what she wanted, and she wouldn’t have known how to word the desperate request in the first place. But her hunger had been agony for too long now, and Ruby could clearly sense it and feel it in the extra ferocity in her touch.

A little less gentle humanity in how she was fucking her, slamming her fingers into Ruby’s cunt and laughing when Ruby’s pleas for more turned incomprehensible. Something bestial in the way she pressed messy and indulgent kisses and nips up and down Ruby’s neck while her grip on her hair tightened hard enough it stung.

Just as she was about to cum, the crest unstoppable and her world screaming inside of her ears as Weiss brutalised her, Ruby tilted her head and bared her neck for Weiss’s fangs in permission.

The moment that Weiss snarled and bit down, the pleasurable rush of the bite roughly shoved Ruby over the edge, and she threw her head back with a riskily loud but unstoppable moan as she came around Weiss’s fingers.

Weiss drank greedily and indulgently as Ruby spasmed and tightened around her fingers, soaked and needy, and the taste of the blood rushing over her tongue had her own eyes flutter shut. It was perfect. A delighted swoon bubbled up from the dark hole inside of her chest as she swallowed another mouthful, the creature inside of her soul devouring it greedily and baring its fangs at the world as it did so.

Every gap inside of herself that had been present since Friday night slowly filled with the perfect crimson, but she felt when to stop as Ruby swayed on her feet a bit, and she went to release her neck and pull back.

It was harder than usual. Harder than it ever was for any other victim. And Weiss’s eyes widened in fear as her body betrayed her and pulled Ruby closer to anchor tighter, and she sucked down another mouthful.

‘No!’ 

The effort it took to wrench her lips from Ruby’s neck and give up another taste almost had tears form in the corners of her eyes, but Weiss quickly ran her tongue along Ruby’s neck to close the wounds and clean up the escaping streaks.

Every nerve in her body felt electric, her eyes wide and pulsing as the ambrosiac vitae was greedily consumed and soaked into every cell and speck. Weiss felt the power soak into her body as she shakily pulled her hand from Ruby’s pants and fixed her up as Ruby slowly recovered from the fog of the Kiss and her orgasm, and it had Weiss want to laugh and laugh and break the fucking world.

Because she felt as if she could.

Others of her kind had thrown around the term ‘blood rush’ in the past, and Weiss had always rolled her eyes in amusement. And then she’d tasted Ruby, and suddenly it was the only thing she ever wanted to feel.

Even now, fed and neatening herself up while Ruby recovered, all she wanted was to latch back on and have more. The hunger, persistent and always whispering, wasn’t satisfied even as it dulled to a low tremor instead of shaking her to the core like it had been a few minutes earlier.

Weiss closed her eyes for a moment as she forced her fangs to recede and her features to soften, and when she opened them again Ruby had come back to herself and was shaking her head to clear it.

At the dazed and fuckdrunk expression on Ruby’s face, Weiss scoffed with a smile and snapped her fingers in front of Ruby’s eyes to jolt her out of it and bring her back properly.

Ruby jumped and came back, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment to stop the world from spinning, before straightening up and looking away.

“...so. Well. Shit. Shit.” Ruby scuffed her shoe on the floor as she buckled her belt back up, an aftershock causing her to shiver and then immediately blush slightly as she kept looking away. “...oops?”

“That didn’t feel like an ‘oops’ to me, Ruby. I’m certainly without regrets.” Weiss put a finger on Ruby’s chin to guide her to look at her, and Ruby obediently followed the guiding touch. “And you don’t exactly look displeased.”

Ruby huffed and rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t exactly deny it. Whatever itch had been growing inside of her had been scratched, and it was like her mind itself was purring in contentment as she bit her lip in thought and shrugged.

Flirting aside, both of them were silent for a moment as they thought now that their heads were clear.

This wasn’t normal. It wasn’t anything that Weiss had heard of or experienced before, this kind of fixation, and she couldn’t deny that the weakness in it had her nervous.

If she couldn’t truly stomach anyone else's blood now, then how was she meant to remain fed and sane? There was no way Ruby would let her monopolize her blood and keep her around for that, god no. Especially once this was all over and Ruby would be going right back to trying to kill her.

As much as that thought made Weiss’s chest twist and had her thin her lips tightly just to stop herself from frowning at it.

Whatever it was that was going on, it was dangerous, and Ruby didn’t look like she had any answers of her own either. With her head clear and her rational mind returned, she looked even more nervous than Weiss did.

It was almost like her body and soul were calling out to Weiss’s touch and temptation. It wasn’t being fed from that she had craved, though god fucking dammit did it feel good when Weiss bit her and drank from her. It was everything else that had soothed Ruby’s insides and satisfied her.

Ruby shook her head helplessly, no explanation or ideas in mind, and Weiss hummed in agreement before clicking her tongue as an idea began to form.

It would be risky, and Ruby might not go for it, and there were a thousand ways it could backfire. But there was only one place Weiss could think of where they might get any answers about what was going on.

They needed a blood expert.

Weiss grabbed her bag up from the ground and reached inside to grab out the bag of blood tablets that Ruby had given her and looked at them in thought for a moment before glancing over at Ruby with a cautious frown.

“Come on. I’m taking you to come and meet Emerald. She needs to see these, and she also might have an explanation about what the hell is going on between us now.”

Just as she expected, Ruby hesitated at the idea, scrunching up the corner of her mouth distastefully with a frown.

“Another vampire? And me? Is that a good idea?” Ruby was aware it was a stupid question as she asked it, and Weiss gave her a dry and helpless look in response.

There weren’t many good ideas left anymore, only desperate gambles as the world around them grew more complicated. If Weiss thought it would be too dangerous, she wouldn’t have suggested it, but she didn’t look ecstatic at the thought either.

Ruby had never met Emerald, at least as far as she could mentally place, but she knew the Sustrai’s were one of the daywalker families. There just weren’t any others in the town for her to track. According to the town census rolls, while there were a few other Sustrai’s that had been born here and had moved away over the decades, Emerald was the only one calling Silvercloud home.

So Ruby couldn’t deny that she was curious about the vampire that Weiss had described as a ‘scholar’.

And if it meant getting answers, and now not just about the tablets but about whatever the fuck was wrong with her and her attachment to Weiss now, then she was willing to risk it.

Ruby nodded in agreement, and helped Weiss pull the shelves away from the door even though Weiss certainly didn’t need the help.

It wasn’t hard to sneak out of the school and get to the carpark where Weiss’s simple blue four-seater was parked, and Ruby surprised herself when she didn’t hesitate to get in next to the other girl and settle in for the short drive out of town to where Emerald lived in privacy.

Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. But so much of it was feeling too fucking good. It made Ruby’s stomach churn as she drummed her fingers on the window and looked out as Weiss turned onto the road leading out of town.

Next to her, Weiss hummed in agreement. There was too much in Silvercloud to fear, now. She didn’t want to have to add Ruby to that list in more ways than she’d already had to. Wanting Ruby as badly as she did shouldn’t be a bad thing, it should feel good.

But instead it just made her vulnerable.

She glanced over at Ruby, and studied the curve of her jaw and the way her band shirt hugged her shoulders and waist. The perfection of her skin, the shimmer of her mysterious grey eyes, the pixyish curve of her lips.

As her chest turned when something bubbled inside of it, her grip on the steering wheel tightened, and she forced herself to look ahead at the road again.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

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The small house that Emerald owned and used as her haven was a short drive out of town, down the highway and then a turn onto a gravel road leading into the trees and out of sight. It had been passed down in the Sustrai family for generations, rebuilt and modernized every few decades to suit the new owner’s preferences, and the structure that Emerald had initially inherited had been a large and gaudy structure compared to the modest cabin it was now.

It was completely peaceful and quiet as Weiss pulled up to the iron gate blocking the final few yards down the muddy drive, a high and simple stone wall setting a perimeter that Weiss knew was far more than meets the eye. At first glance it was just a plain and moss-ridden barrier with a tall gate of dark iron, mundane and normal, but Weiss had seen what happened to anything that tried to get in that wasn’t welcome.

She pulled over to the side of the gravel trail just outside of the gate and turned off the ignition, before glancing over at where Ruby was studying the exterior of the building with a cautious frown.

But there wasn’t anything for Ruby to fear as long as she stuck close by, so Weiss cleared her throat to snap Ruby out of her thoughts and then opened the door and stepped out into the cool forest air.

There was very little sunlight able to pierce down into the clearing through the barrier of trees on all sides and the jagged canopy above, bathing the entire space in a low shadow that had Weiss relax without any pain as she led the way to the gate and stopped in front of it.

When Ruby was right next to her, Weiss extended her fangs and bit down on her own arm with a quiet pained grunt, then scooped some of her blood onto her fingertips to smear onto the thick iron bars.

Ruby’s eyes widened next to her in surprise, her attention initially on the wound on Weiss’s arm that was already healing, but then flicking to the gate when there was a quiet groaning sound as the metal warped under some sort of pressure. The bars seemed to shiver in place as Weiss’s blood was accepted, before the thick lock holding the gate shut rattled as it unsealed and unlocked itself.

The gate swung open on rusted hinges, creaking loud enough that Weiss winced. She kept telling Emerald to fix them up, but Emerald had always said that the hinges acted as a form of doorbell. It was practically impossible for her to sleep through a screeching sound that grating and loud.

When it was open just enough for them to fit, Weiss beckoned with her head for Ruby to follow her, and led the way inside the invisible barrier. Ruby shivered at the sensation as she stepped inside of some sort of magical circle, able to feel the slight discrepancy in the air itself, and she jumped when the gate closed behind them and locked once again.

She looked over at Weiss warily.

“Are you sure I should be here?”

“It’ll be okay. You’re not in any danger from Emerald. You’re not…her taste, I guess is the way to word it.” Weiss thinned her lips as she considered it, and slowed to spin on her heel when Ruby stopped to stare up at the house in front of them.

The home, by all external appearances, was simply a modest cabin. There was only one floor above ground level, a home of modest size that wouldn’t be able to fit more than just the one bedroom and one large living room. But Ruby could see a cellar hatch around the side made of thick wood, and she looked over at Weiss with raised eyebrows.

Weiss raised an eyebrow of her own in response at the obvious explanation.

“She’s one of my kind. Just because she can survive sunlight doesn’t mean she enjoys it. We all need a refuge.” Weiss smiled slightly when Ruby scoffed, and waited as Ruby continued studying the numerous gardens and flowerbeds that covered most of the clearing that was protected by the walls.

There were flowers of every variation that Ruby could think of as she looked around at them all, with dozens of variations of herbs and mushrooms as well, all dotted around in their own individual plots so that they didn’t interfere with each other. 

Every plant was cared for carefully, but Ruby could also tell that they were all… different. The stems were all a little too dark, the colors either too dull or too vibrant for what they should have been. Whatever was helping them to grow, it was changing them as it did so. Mutating them and purifying the special properties of each one.

As she crouched down next to a flowerbed to study a blossom of dark silver flowers, she startled when each individual flower slowly turned as if drawn to her in the same way sunflowers followed the sun in the sky. Weiss grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back hurriedly, her arm around her protectively as she clamped her other hand over Ruby’s mouth and nose.

“Stop! Don’t breathe. Hold it.”

When she felt that Ruby was going to obey, Weiss relaxed her grip and uncovered her face so they could both watch the flowers slowly turn back away and face up to try and chase the sun again.

Weiss released Ruby entirely as soon as the flowerbed was dormant again, and gave her a firm and worried glance.

“Nothing growing here is friendly. Currently the safest thing in sight for you is me.”

“You keep strange company, Weiss.” After glancing at the flowers again and stepping back further, Ruby huffed and shoved her hands into her pockets. “And...thanks.”

It didn’t make sense for magical plants to be here. Cursed and mystic plants were the domain of witches, not vampires. So why the hell would one of Weiss’s kind be actively growing and cultivating such a wide variety? It wasn’t like vampires could perform magic, they didn’t have souls.

She shook her head slowly to come out of her thoughts when Weiss went up to the front door and, after hesitating for a moment and drawing in a deep breath to cement her decision, knocked firmly.

Ruby stepped up next to her and waited, her bottom lip firmly between her teeth. She was nervous, it was pulsing inside of her chest. But instead of making her want to change her mind and run it had her bouncing her foot and her mind racing.

The only other daywalker she’d ever had any actual conversation or interaction with had been Coco, and she at least knew Coco from school and the Adel family from their lineage. Meanwhile Emerald and the Sustrai family were complete mysteries to her.

A few moments later, the door unlocked and swung open, and a thrill of nervousness went through Ruby’s body as she came face to face with the new stranger.

Taller than both Weiss and Ruby herself, the girl was blessed with the same seductive beauty of all vampire kind. She was more openly muscular than most other vampires were, but with smooth dark skin and vibrant blood red eyes she was just as alluring and mesmerising to look at as any other.

With short shoulder-length hair of a pale mint green shade, the girl was certainly deserving of the name Emerald, and the black streaks through it made the green stand out even more. In fact her entire aesthetic seemed to be to bring attention to the shade, with a white jacket over a green crop top, and dark jeans tucked into tall buckled boots.

Meanwhile Weiss internally sighed in relief that Emerald’s human visage was in place, but she’d assumed it would be since Emerald only tended to release her Beast even an inch while she was working or feeding.

With Ruby studying her and Weiss smiling at her apologetically, Emerald raised her eyebrows and rested an arm on the doorframe with a curious hum.

“...alright, I’m officially curious as hell.” Emerald grinned as the tension relaxed slightly, and she stepped out onto the doorstep and closed her door behind her so she could rest her back against it lazily. “Afternoon ladies.”

Her attention lingered on Ruby for a moment before flicking to Weiss. She was still grinning, but Weiss could see the demanding question and the caution in Emerald’s eyes. It was quite a taboo to bring a stranger to someone else’s haven without asking first, and Emerald was far more reclusive and private than most considering her lifestyle. So her silent demand for an explanation had Weiss straighten her shoulders and inch closer to Ruby’s shoulder.

“Emerald. I’m sorry to barge in like this, especially with…company.” Weiss looked over at Ruby, nodding reassuringly when Ruby’s caution began to rise, and turned to Emerald again once Ruby settled. “But…we need your help. Quite a lot of it, actually.”

Narrowing her eyes, Emerald looked between the two of them as she mulled, her mind already racing.

The fact Weiss had brought the girl here meant that the girl wasn’t worth keeping some secrets from, but she had warm blood which meant she was a mortal, so she was a human at least partially under the Shroud.

Similar age to Weiss too. And from how close they were standing…

Emerald’s eyes widened, and she closed them for a moment to concentrate. When they opened once more, the red had grown more vibrant and her pupils had expanded, with slight dark tendrils crawling out and underneath her skin, and she immediately went back to studying the two of them.

The shift in her appearance breaking the facade of humanity had Ruby tense up and a hand twitch towards her pocket, but Weiss placed a hand on her arm to calm her, instead letting Emerald study them both for a few more moments.

She’d expected this. Emerald was by far the smartest member of the coterie. It was in her blood.

It only took a few seconds for Emerald to let out a slow breath of realisation as she straightened up from the door.

“...this is her. The girl from the party. The one you couldn’t compel.” Emerald took a step forward, making sure not to enter Ruby’s personal space, but she leaned forward slightly to peer deeper. An awed and fascinated smile slowly ticked up the corners of her lips. “You…have silver eyes.”

Emerald’s attention briefly went to Ruby’s neck, right to where Weiss’s freshly healed bite was, but she kept returning to Ruby’s eyes. Excitement and apprehension flashed through Emerald’s expression as she studied the shade of them.

Fascination was not a rare smile for Emerald, but Weiss always enjoyed seeing it when it bloomed. Because if something caught Emerald’s interest, it meant it would only be a matter of time until she understood it. So as the mystery in front of her clearly caught Emerald’s attention, Weiss deflated in relief.

If Emerald was already on the hook of her curiosity, she might not charge as much for her services.

Before Ruby could ask what it was that Emerald was seeing in her eyes that had her so excited, and god she wanted to, Emerald gasped and pulled back in shock as she saw something new. Something deeper. Staring at Ruby for a moment, Emerald looked over at Weiss with an expression that could only be described as dread.

“Weiss, what the hell have you two done???” Emerald reached back to turn the handle of her front door, and she kicked it open behind her. “Definitely not here for a social call. Okay. Come in.”

As Emerald vanished inside and left the door open behind her for them to follow her, Ruby and Weiss looked over at each other with the same concerned and confused expressions. Ruby got the impression that Emerald wasn’t an easy person to rattle, and Weiss silently confirmed it when she bit her lip and shook her head helplessly.

But the fact that Emerald had reacted at all meant that she knew something was wrong, and that was a good start, so Weiss put her hand on Ruby’s arm for a moment before stepping into the shadowed interior of Emerald’s cabin.

Ruby followed quietly, zipping her jacket up the rest of the way to find comfort in the protective padding, and her hand dropped to her thigh where she could feel one of her knives in its sheath underneath her pants. It wasn’t the most accessible spot, but it was the best she was capable of while at school, and it would have to make do now as well.

Something about Emerald was different to being around Weiss, or even Coco. There was an aura to the new girl, something about her presence that filled the space around her and distorted it in a way that only the very edge of Ruby’s subconscious could sense. Like the world around her was tilted a degree off its usual axis, and it was giving Ruby’s soul vertigo from proximity.

She looked normal enough in her human visage, but Ruby could feel on the air as she stepped inside the cabin that Emerald was a very different type of creature than Weiss was. There was none of the bloodlust in Emerald that Ruby could pick up in Weiss or Coco, nothing hungry in her gaze, and somehow that made her even more nervous than if it had been right in her face.

The interior of the cabin was dark, which wasn’t surprising considering vampires could see in the dark pretty well and Emerald was the only person who lived here, but Ruby was still able to make out the numerous tables and racks of shelves lined with buckets, vials, and jars.

Plenty of it was standard and harmless, such as cuttings and harvests of the plants grown out in the yard along with wrapped bundles of others she’d collected from elsewhere, but the thick smell of blood and flesh in the room had Ruby’s insides seize as her eyes ran along the bowls and vials of animal parts and insect specimens.

Eyes, organs, brain matter, raw flesh, vials of blood, sometimes entire animal corpses sealed in preserving liquid and kept in jars for later use, the sheer collection of blood and flesh based components lined a dozen bookshelves all on their own.

But none of it were displayed like taxidermized trophies. They were neatly sorted to be in easy reach, with labels written onto each shelf in a personal organizational system. They were ingredients and components, and nothing else. 

There was no denying it as Ruby stopped in the middle of the large central room and turned in a steady circle to take in the vast morbid collection; she was in a witch den. And not one for a natural witch or a white witch, which were the normal type to travel to Silvercloud and set up shop.

This was dark magic. Just being in the same room as where spells had surely been cast felt toxic and heavy, the air thick and humid with the corruption of it and pressing a weight that had Ruby’s chest struggling to expand and bring in air.

Ruby’s hands shook slightly as she looked around, before she startled and spun to face the movement when Emerald flicked on a light switch and illuminated the room to make it easier for Ruby to see.

It was clear she’d been watching Ruby’s reaction, her red eyes sharp and analytical but that same small smirk on her lips, and she chuckled when Ruby glared at her for finding her discomfort amusing.

“Relax, man. Everything in here is dead, it can’t hurt you.” Emerald shot Weiss a grin at her joke, raising her eyebrows, before pouting when Weiss rolled her eyes.

Weiss slapped Emerald on the shoulder harmlessly as she walked past, returning to Ruby’s side. “The ambient energy? I forgot about it since I can’t exactly…feel it. I’m sorry, Ruby.”

With the room properly lit and Weiss’s hand resting comfortingly on her waist to ground her, Ruby found it easy to grab for her training and slowly calm her mind with slow breaths. As bad as it felt to be in here, the aura of the gas station had been a thousand times worse, and yet she’d handled it easily enough to make jokes and get distracted.

This was nothing. And by deciding that, it became nothing. The air became easier to breathe, despite the smell of death, and she straightened up and shrugged off Weiss’s apology with an appreciative hum.

“I’m fine. Just very, very caught by surprise.” Ruby frowned as she did a quick scan of the room again, her eyes locking onto a casually leaning Emerald. “I thought you were a vampire, though. You’re a Sustrai.”

Emerald raised her eyebrow at Ruby’s choice of words and the insinuation of them, and glanced at Weiss with a dark curiosity. This absolutely wasn’t just a simple girl that Weiss had bitten at a party. Not with those eyes, and not with how at ease she was with all of this.

Instead of speaking to confirm or deny anything, Emerald decided to push her luck and test Ruby’s reaction, as she stared right into her eyes from halfway across the room and completely removed her human face.

The whites of Emerald’s eyes turned completely black as the red of her irises began to pulse and glow, infected with black tendrils that spread outwards as well and underneath her skin. Unlike Weiss’s, which were fine and delicate, Emerald’s were thick and dark spiderwebs that spread almost to her hairline and down over her cheekbones.

And unlike Weiss’s tendrils which were still and set, like cracks in glass, Emerald’s writhed under her skin. Like they were alive, and they were hungry.

Parting her lips slightly, Emerald showed her fangs extend and sharpen, the rest of her features shifting and deforming as she revealed herself as a predator. But again it wasn’t like Weiss, where Ruby could look at Weiss’s bestial form and still see her. This was different, as the humanity of Emerald completely melted away.

There wasn’t an inch of her that was remotely natural as her façade shattered, the muscles of her body flexing and growing while her curves grew more tantalizing. Power and sex were in every aspect of Emerald’s being even though she didn’t twitch a muscle, still leaning against the wall and staring.

Ruby’s eyes widened so far that they hurt as she stared in horror, unable to look away as a far greater predator than Weiss showed itself, and even Blake in her full lycan form the other night hadn’t made Ruby so petrified that her heart stopped.

This wasn’t like looking at a predatory creature. It was like looking at the moon going black in the sky, where nothing would ever be light again.

When Weiss stepped in front of Ruby and bared her own fangs in a dangerous threat, Emerald tilted her head as she took in both reactions.

Weiss was a Schnee, it was her place to be at the top of the Crimson Council and any coterie she formed, but she never started power challenges if she could help it. She was too weak to win them against anybody except for Miltia, and it would drive her Beast into frenzy to lose one, so she never tried.

Yet here she was, fangs bared and half in front of where Ruby was in Emerald’s sights.

And Ruby, because Weiss had called her that, was reacting in a way that had Emerald’s curiosity piqued and sharp. Most mortals would have lost the ability to breathe entirely and passed out, with any others instead being at the mercy of the purest animal instinct to run away from danger.

But no, not this girl. Instead Ruby was standing firm even as terror rocked her system, and the flood of adrenaline was being held in her muscles ready to be used the moment she needed it. She was a fighter who knew how to handle a supernatural terror.

Emerald raised her hands in surrender and allowed her features to rapidly shift back, being fully fed making it easier to wrangle the beast inside of her blood to behave itself and return to its cage even after a teased release and hunt.

It was a far quicker reversion than Weiss was capable of, the connection between Emerald and her monstrous nature far more harmonized than Weiss’s perpetual struggle with her own, so Emerald’s human mask quickly rebuilt and returned. As it did, the room became easier for Ruby to breathe in once again, but her hand never left where her knife was strapped to her thigh.

And Weiss let her snarl linger for another moment before retracting her fangs and crossing her arms, unimpressed with her friend.

“You could have just used your words, Emerald.”

“Maybe. But that was an easier way to ask some of my questions.” Emerald shrugged and tucked her hands into the waistband of her jeans, before looking at Ruby and raising her eyebrows. “And I liked those answers. That was impressive. Really impressive.”

When Emerald’s human appearance returned and the tendrils underneath her skin vanished, her eyes finally returning to normal, Ruby let out a slow breath to finish steadying herself.

This was a bad idea, to come here. And yet, even when Emerald had revealed her beast, there hadn’t been a single air of bloodlust to her. There wasn’t a single moment where Ruby had felt like she was prey.

Ruby stepped forward, around where Weiss was half blocking her, and closed the distance to Emerald with steady and confident strides. She stopped just out of arm’s reach, and looked the vampire up and down once more.

“You’re far, far stronger than Weiss is. And stronger than Coco. Just how old are you?”

Emerald’s eyebrows shot up at the question, and she smiled at it for a moment before glancing over to Weiss in a silent request of just how much Weiss wanted Ruby to know. When Weiss shrugged from over Ruby’s shoulder and crossed her arms, Emerald hopped up on the edge of one of her tables and rested her weight on her hands behind her.

“So you know which questions matter, that’s something. And I’m twenty-two.” Emerald smiled when Ruby blinked in confusion, and shook her head. “The Eight Lines are different from lesser turned vampires. Our power isn’t dictated by age.”

“The Eight Lines?” Ruby glanced back and forth between Weiss and Emerald, before she quickly realized and nodded. “The daywalker families. Boy, you’re all so dram-… wait a minute.”

At just how quickly Ruby had caught on and was realizing the discrepancy, Emerald gave an impressed hum and winked at Weiss in approval. But the girls weren’t here to have her answer twenty-questions about vampires, so Emerald hopped down from the table and went to one of her bookshelves even before Ruby asked.

When Emerald turned away and disengaged from the conversation, Ruby looked over at Weiss instead with a confused frown. “But…there are nine daywalker families. Aren’t there? Not eight.”

Ruby frowned deeper when Weiss glanced over at Emerald’s back and thinned her lips in response to whatever the explanation was, biting her lip as she looked over at her friend for a moment before shaking her head.

“The Sustrai aren’t considered to be among the Lines. But, they are like us. Technically.”

There was a dark and disdainful snort as Emerald kept grabbing books from her shelves, and she visibly rolled her eyes when she turned to carry the tomes in her hands over to one of the few clear tables and placed them down. Weiss winced at Emerald’s reaction, sighing in apology, but Emerald simply waved it off with a huff.

“And that’s about as nice as anyone is when it comes to wording it. But you’re both here for a reason, I’m guessing?”

The door on that particular topic was slammed shut by Emerald so bluntly that Ruby flinched at the tone, and she looked at Weiss with a confused shrug. This was entirely out of her wheelhouse, for now. All she knew was that Emerald was clearly far more dangerous than Weiss, and she was also showing she was intimidatingly clever.

It would be too easy to slip up, so Ruby looked to Weiss to take the lead, since Weiss was more familiar.

Weiss nodded to Ruby with a small smile and mouthed ‘later’, putting a pin in Ruby’s questions for now, before stepping over to Emerald’s table and reaching into her satchel on her side to grab the bag of tablets.

“We’re here for two things, actually. The more important one first. We need you to identify these for us, if you can.” 

Weiss offered the bag of tablets over with a grim expression, letting Emerald know that it was time to get down to business, and she nodded when Emerald obeyed.

The girl didn’t even need to get one of the tablets out before her eyes narrowed and the corner of her mouth scrunched up in thought. She tipped one onto the palm of her hand and rolled it between her fingers to test it, and looked up at Weiss in curiosity.

“Where did you get these?”

“The first killings that this new creature did; the moon fey. Apparently a bottle of those was left behind.” Weiss raised her eyebrows when Emerald hummed and went back to studying them. “Do you know what they are? I can smell that it’s all different blood, but it’s dead.”

Emerald raised the tablet up to her eyes and studied it closely, turning it around to catch the light as much as it could, and breathing in to study the multiple layers of blood that was in it. It was about as firm as a jellybean, able to return to its shape, instead of being a liquid capsule, and Weiss’s assessment was right in how the blood inside it was dead.

But just because it was dead, didn’t mean it was useless. A Sustrai knew that better than any other vampire.

“It’s a supplement, I guess is the laziest term?” Emerald tossed the tablet up and down playfully, and couldn’t help but grin at the baffled looks Ruby and Weiss were giving her. But she caught the tablet properly and went serious again after a moment. “Not all predatory supernaturals have a diet for mortals. To some, mortal flesh would be empty. You’re right, Weiss. There’s no vitae in it. But you’re not dealing with a vampire, so that doesn’t matter.”

Both vampires looked over when Ruby took in a jolted breath as she thought, her eyes locking onto the tablets before running over the rest of the room. She stepped over and grabbed one of the tablets from the bag as well to study again, before looking up at Emerald with surprisingly sharp eyes.

“So whatever we’re dealing with is usually forced to satisfy its appetite with mortal creatures, but unable to get everything it needs from it. So these are like…multivitamins? A cocktail of mystic blood for it?” Ruby bit her lip as she mentally rummaged through all of her years of research, and the thousands of entries in other hunters’ compendiums and records she’d gone through and monsters she’d memorized. “It takes these, then it can eat mortal creatures without starving. Like how some human diets work best with supplements to cover the bases that the food doesn’t provide.”

Emerald tilted her head and looked up as she considered the summary for a moment, before nodding slowly. There were a few supernaturals that functioned that way, and in the modern era it would be far easier to gorge on mortals and supplement with everything else instead of expending so much time and energy hunting the supernaturals directly.

The comparison to humanity made her chuckle though, and she grinned when Ruby shrugged with her own small smile at having not been able to think of anything better.

Weiss had grabbed her own tablet and was frowning at it in concern. She was willing to accept that compared to the other two her knowledge of the supernatural was extremely limited, but something had been itching in her head since this had all started with the first killings.

She just couldn’t get the paranoia out of her head.

“It could still be a vampire.”

Emerald sighed and dropped her tablet back into the bag, before looking at Weiss sympathetically. “Look, Weiss…”

“No, it could be, Emerald. One of our kind twisted enough that mortal blood disgusts them. They could take one of these and then force themselves to drink from a mortal, trick their Beast.” Weiss insisted as she stared back at Emerald firmly, her jaw set and her eyes sharp as she dropped the tablet down onto the table and put her hands on the surface to put all of her weight behind her stare.

The two girls held each other's gaze as Weiss insisted and Emerald wracked her mind trying to think of a gentle way to word her disagreement. She knew what Weiss was thinking, because each member of the coterie had allowed the thought to pop into their minds at least once and felt the cold shiver at the possibility.

But it wouldn’t do to focus entirely on it, not when there were so many other trails that Weiss could be following instead, since she was clearly going full detective with her plucky somewhat-human sidekick.

A sidekick who was very much lost and out of the loop of the silent argument going on, so Emerald sighed and shook her head.

“Winter’s not back, Weiss. Your parents said she was still in Europe.” When Weiss went to protest, Emerald shook her head again and firmed her stare. “If she was back, she would have let everyone know. This far into the Calling, I doubt she’s even capable of discretion.”

“A gas station was butchered, Emerald! After two fey hearts were ripped out and runes were painted in blood! Where’s the discretion?!” Weiss growled in frustration when Emerald sighed, and she pressed her hands harder onto the table.

But Emerald shook her head once more and spread her hands helplessly. “Weiss, she’s a Schnee at its worst. If she was back, she’d feel forced to fucking write her name in blood on the walls of city hall so that everyone knew it was a Schnee that did it. It’s not her.”

The staring contest resumed, but Weiss knew that Emerald was right in that particular argument. So, unable to think of a retort but also unwilling to concede defeat, Weiss huffed and turned away to cross her arms in thought.

Ruby looked between the two vampires for a moment as Weiss fumed and Emerald watched her friend sympathetically, but Ruby wasn’t aimless as she observed. Instead she lightly drummed her fingers on the surface of the table as she thought, tapping out a mindless rhythm.

The existence of Weiss’s older sister was something everybody knew, however Winter hadn’t been a resident of Silvercloud for years, having left before Ruby had entered high school. But even the mortal population of Silvercloud had developed rumors about the girl to explain her ‘behavior’ in the final months before she left.

A lot of the stories that Ruby’s parents had told them about Winter had helped cement Ruby’s initial distrust of Weiss so sharply in the first place. The sheer number of bodies that the elder Schnee sister had left around town had started to become impossible to cover up, especially with the state she apparently left them in.

It was the closest threat to the Shroud in her parents' lifetimes. But then one day Winter had simply vanished, the story the Schnee family gave being that she’d gotten a job overseas and moved away. The problem had been solved by the daywalker families internally, since the threat Winter posed to the entire system threatened them too.

But now another threat to the Shroud was just getting started in the town, something brutal and bloodthirsty. So Ruby couldn’t blame Weiss for dreading the worst. Though the idea of dreading the return of a sister was an alien one to Ruby. She couldn’t imagine reacting to Yang coming back after years away with anything other than jubilation.

Instead, Weiss looked haunted by the thought. Rigid and terrified.

So after looking at Weiss in concern for a few moments, Ruby turned her attention to a patiently waiting Emerald instead.

“What’s the Calling, exactly? There aren’t many terms I’ve never heard before.”

Emerald sighed heavily and ran a hand over her face, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. As interesting as it was for Ruby to reveal that she was very well-informed, and the more that Emerald’s suspicion about the girl was being confirmed, the subject matter at hand was heavy and draining enough to warrant her focus for now.

“It’s…something only the Eight Lines suffer. In the simplest of terms; instead of our power being dictated by age, it’s influenced by how much vitae we’ve consumed. The more we drink, the stronger we get. But the stronger we get, the hungrier we become. Conversely, the less we’ve consumed, the weaker we are, and the less we need.” Emerald gestured to herself and then to Weiss as if that gave some sort of explanation, and Ruby frowned at it. But Emerald didn’t notice, her eyes still closed as she rubbed them, and she continued. “It’s a snowball, and it always ends the same way if one of us isn’t careful; it escapes our grip and rolls too far ahead. The balance between adequate feeding and appetite growth is gone forever, and no matter how much we feed we’ll be ravenous for the rest of eternity. The call to blood becomes our entire identity. And it drives us into insanity.”

When Weiss scoffed from where she was still facing away, Emerald finally opened an eye to look over at the heavy and haunted look on her friend’s face, and she hummed sympathetically.

It had been awful to watch it happen to Winter, when the girl had started to lose her balance. One of the most polite, clever, and ambitious women that Emerald had ever met had become something so abhorrent in only a few months that the entire town had been an inch from buckling.

She couldn’t imagine how much harder it had been for Weiss to watch. Winter had been her role model, the perfect older sister. Now the fate of Winter existed solely as a warning for what was to one day come.

Emerald thinned her lips as she looked back at Ruby, and she nodded in silent agreement when Ruby shot Weiss’s back a sad look. Emerald handed her back the bag of tablets, keeping one for herself for later study, and then clapped her hands to snap everyone in the room out of the dark of the topic.

“Right. Well, I don’t know a lick about the crime scenes, outside of what we’ve talked about at our councils, and I can’t identify runes unless I’ve seen them. If you leave a tablet or two with me I’ll figure out what unfortunate beasties they’ve extracted.” Emerald gave Weiss a soft smile when Weiss returned to the table, and she relaxed when Weiss managed to smile back slightly. With the first part out of the way, Emerald’s curiosity reared its head as she looked between the other two. “...you both reek of each other. But there’s something more to it, isn’t there? You’ve done something stupid.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked between the two as Weiss and Ruby stood shoulder and shoulder and glanced at each other silently, Ruby’s face flashing concerned while Weiss’s was tight and anxious. Whatever it was, it had them even more nervous than the mystery of the tablets did. And that had Emerald narrow her eyes as she studied them both.

The signs were all over both of them, Ruby’s skin marked and thick with traces of Weiss in the form of bite marks and scratches, but only Emerald’s eyes would be able to see them. And Weiss radiated the smell of powerful blood somewhere in her system, something far more potent than a human’s, yet underneath it was a mark on her bones themselves now.

Weiss sucked in an unnecessary breath and straightened her shoulders, before biting the bullet and looking at her friend with a tight expression.

“I can’t feed on anyone else without rejecting it, now. I can force it down and force myself to absorb it, but my beast doesn’t want it. It doesn’t want anyone except for her.” Weiss gestured to Ruby next to her, who was looking at her with wide eyes. But Weiss deliberately didn’t look over at her. She didn’t want to see it as she said the next part. “And when I’m not around her…something feels wrong. Empty. I’m protective of her, and I’m getting far too possessive.”

It felt a lot like telling a doctor the symptoms of a disease, as Weiss crossed her arms insecurely but managed to hold eye contact with a deeply thinking Emerald. Her friend looked concerned, but she didn’t look surprised, and there was relief and dread to be found in that.

With Weiss finished, Emerald beckoned to Ruby for her to say her own symptoms, because Emerald knew that she would have some.

After hesitating for a moment and glancing at Weiss shyly, Ruby slid her hands into her pockets and scuffed her shoe on the floorboards, trying to ignore a dark streak on the wood that Emerald hadn’t managed to entirely scrub out. It was hard to maintain eye contact, but it was a better option than looking at Weiss.

“I need her to bite me. If I go too long without it, I start to feel… wrong. If I go too long without her touching me at all, it’s like I start to get uncomfortable in my own skin. But if I’m around her and we give it even an inch…”

Ruby trailed off as her cheeks tinted pink, and she looked down at the floor when Emerald raised an eyebrow.

So with Ruby giving into her shyness, Emerald was able to finish for her, and despite the seriousness of the problem she couldn’t entirely hide her amusement.

“You jump each other’s bones and fuck the shit out of each other?”

Weiss rolled her eyes at the blunt crassness, but she also couldn’t refute it, so she nodded. Every time she and Ruby had been close to each other without any dangers to distract their instincts, they’d ended up slowly moving towards each other as if drawn by gravity. They’d had sex twice now, but only so few times due to a lack of opportunity and great self-control on both of their parts.

If Yang and Blake hadn’t interrupted their talk in the storeroom at the school, they’d both felt it in their blood and souls that they would have given in then too. And neither of them had cared very much. Not that it was in Weiss’s nature to resist it at all.

Despite not looking, she could feel the body heat of Ruby’s blush next to her, and she couldn’t help but smirk slightly at the sweet reaction. But Emerald’s face killed her amusement immediately, with Emerald biting her lip in a concerned frown and her red eyes focused and anxious.

Emerald approached the two of them, circling around the table so she was able to get close, and peered at them both again as she inhaled through her nose and studied the scent of their blood. She was looking for something, studying the notes in the scent in the same way mortals studied the layers of wine, and she found what she was looking for. But she wasn’t happy about it.

Clicking her tongue, she raised a hand to Ruby’s chin and paused before touching it, waiting for consent, and when Ruby gave it with a shaky nod she cupped Ruby’s chin and tilted her head to the side so she could look at Weiss’s bite mark properly. She sighed as she saw it, and released Ruby’s face gently before moving to Weiss and gestured to her arm.

Weiss frowned as she unzipped her jacket and pulled her arm out of its sleeve so Emerald could study it, waiting quietly as Emerald ran her fingers along the skin of her wrist and studied how it looked to her unique kind of vision. She’d never been able to understand it when Emerald had tried to explain just what she was able to see that other vampires couldn’t, but clearly what was invisible to Weiss was clear as day to her.

With a hissed inhale through her teeth, Emerald released Weiss with a shake of her head and crossed her arms again as she stared the other vampiress down with an exasperated and frustrated look.

“You fed her some of your blood?” Emerald raised an eyebrow until Weiss nodded, and sighed at Weiss and Ruby’s confusion, biting her lip again and releasing it with a pop. “Then you drank some of hers less than a full day and night cycle later?”

Weiss tilted her head as she thought over the timing between both events, with their encounter at the gas station followed up with feeding from Ruby to heal from Blake’s attacks the next night. It was within twenty-four hours, but only barely. So after glancing at Ruby to confirm it and getting a nod in response, Weiss nodded to Emerald.

“Yes. I needed to enthrall her so she would…follow some instructions, and then the next night I fed from her to heal after clashing with a lycan.”

“Oh I bet the enthrallment went well, with those eyes of hers.” Emerald snorted even as she filed away the lycan encounter to mull over later, but her suspicion about Ruby was on the brink of being fully confirmed. Waving away Ruby immediately perking up, Emerald growled in frustration and leant back against the edge of the table. “Well done. You blood bonded. You fucking idiot.”

Weiss blinked and leant back at the words, before frowning in disbelief. Blood bonds were an old myth, a legend about how the vampires of old used to bind their human servants to them for life back when they needed to be even more discreet than they did in the modern era. But Weiss had never known one to happen in her lifetime, and even her mother had said that they were just a story.

Yet Emerald looked confident and certain in her diagnosis, so Weiss shook her head and looked over at where Ruby’s eyes were wide, before back to Emerald.

“Blood bonded…? That’s not-”

“It’s real. It’s just not what you think. The reason why they don’t happen anymore is a simple one, Weiss; we can’t blood bond a mortal. But it’s obvious Ruby here isn’t that, am I right? ” Emerald immediately turned back to the table and grabbed for the books she’d prepared from her bookshelves, and began flicking through them rapidly to find the right sections. She spoke over her shoulder. “Mortal spirits aren’t strong enough to tie a bond to another, they’re too focused just remaining attached to their own physical forms. You fed her your blood and then drank hers, you’ve claimed her in the most intimate way our kind are fucking capable of.”

With Weiss staring at Emerald with her mouth open and her mind in static, Ruby sucked in a deep breath and held it for a few moments as she processed as quickly and efficiently as she was capable of.

There was a certainty and familiarity to how Emerald was talking about it that had a glimmer of hope appear in Ruby’s chest. So she stepped forward to try and get a glimpse down at the books, but wasn’t surprised when Emerald glared her off and slammed a hand over a page to cover it.

“You’ve seen it before then?”

Emerald’s glare faded instantly once Ruby stopped trying to peek and instead looked at her to talk, and she nodded after a quick glance to where Weiss was suddenly very interested in the answer as well.

“Only once. Our darling Coco formed one by accident, about a year ago.” Emerald winced as she remembered, and thinned her lips for a moment at the guilt in her gut. She wasn't surprised by Weiss's bewildered expression. It wasn't something Coco had ever mentioned to anyone but her, in the end. “But she never came to see me about it during it, I only figured out what happened when she came to me after the fact.”

If Coco had only trusted her as much as Weiss did, she might have been able to help from the start. But Coco hadn’t come to her and told her anything until it had been too late, and all the doors had been closed.

The inevitable question from Weiss had Emerald sigh and click her tongue as she kept flicking through the pages of her book, glancing at Weiss every few moments to keep an eye on her expression and the flashes behind her eyes.

“A kitsune. Velvet, remember her? She came into town on the train for a weekend away, and she was exactly Coco’s type. Coco found her mugged in an alley and gave her some blood to heal her, and later that night when they were in bed she fed on her. That was all it fucking took.” Emerald sighed in sympathy for her friend, and nodded when Weiss gasped in recognition of the name.

They all remembered Velvet, and the weeks she’d been practically glued to Coco’s side. She’d followed Coco around like a lovesick puppy, all wide doe eyes and asking how high when Coco told her to jump.

But the devotion had been reciprocated just as fervently. Coco had kept Velvet close, and snarled away any of the others who looked at her for even a second too long.

At the time the rest of the coterie had thought it to just be young love, and were happy for them both. Love had looked interesting on Coco, but she’d seemed happy, and that was all they cared about.

But then Velvet disappeared, and Coco hadn’t been the same for months.

Weiss and Emerald both looked over when Ruby hummed low in her throat, her eyes narrowed as she also recognised the name. Because unlike Weiss, who knew how the story had begun, Ruby unfortunately knew how it had ended. 

She’d read over those reports as well, even though the case had been Jaune and Pyrrha’s. And from Emerald’s face, she clearly knew the truth as well, so Ruby fixed her with a hard stare and narrowed her eyes.

“What happened, as far as you know? What did the ‘blood bond’ do to them?” Ruby glanced over at Weiss and thinned her lips in concern. “What’s going to happen to us?”

Emerald finished finding the right pages in her compendium, her journal entries and research from a year ago when she’d started keeping track of all the changes in Coco’s blood and behavior, along with her observations of Velvet. It had been an interesting couple of months.

Interesting in a way that she knew Ruby and Weiss weren’t going to like, if her theory about Ruby’s expertise was correct. She didn’t know why they were working together considering being on opposite sides, but it posed a thousand problems, and this was a catastrophe that made so many of them worse.

So she sighed and made sure to keep eye contact with them both as she answered, her eyes flicking between them equally.

“Velvet was Coco’s obsession. It wasn’t that she couldn’t drink anyone else, she just didn’t want to. The thought disgusted her. Velvet was her drug, Coco’s Beast following her on a collar and leash. The longer it went on and the more she indulged, the worse it got. Eventually Velvet was all that Coco could think about.”

Emerald held her stare on Weiss as she watched Weiss wilt further and further, looking guiltier and guiltier and more and more shaken, before she switched her attention to where Ruby was staring at Weiss with wide eyes and her lips parted slightly. She almost looked as if she wanted to blush, but was just too terrified at the harder parts of the truth to get there.

But it was about to get a lot worse for the girl, so Emerald sighed to get Ruby’s attention and thinned her lips grimly as she drummed her painted nails on the page of her book, over the list of her observations of Velvet over those few months.

“The same happened right back. What started as Velvet thinking she had a crush…well, eventually just being physically apart from Coco caused her discomfort. Like withdrawals. And she liked how obsessed Coco was with her.” Emerald sighed as she remembered how Velvet had looked at Coco, the light in her eyes that had slowly become something poisoned and dark as the blood had slowly taken over her heart and sense of reason. “The corruption of a Beast had taken what was an innocent crush that Velvet had on her, and deformed it. You may be something pure and light, Ruby. But when you’re messing with a pureblooded vampire’s Beast, blood always wins. And that’s all a heart is.”

Both of them were absolutely silent as they processed, Weiss not even bothering to force herself to breathe and instead standing as frozen as a statue, and neither of them looking at each other as they studied themselves over the past few days. The way their behaviors had been changing, how they couldn’t stay away.

How they wanted to trust each other, despite how they knew their partnership was going to end once Silvercloud was safe. The way Weiss looked at Ruby sometimes, and how Ruby had immediately rushed to tell her about Blake.

The way they touched. The way Weiss grabbed for her. How Ruby’s nails felt on Weiss’s skin. The way they filled each other’s lungs and how it was never enough. The way it was getting easier to tell each other secrets, because they somehow knew the other one would keep them even if they shouldn’t.

It wasn’t something spiritual in the pure sense. It wasn’t something that Ruby could shine her way through with her eyes. Instead it was written into the blood, something carnal and animal and not even close to spiritual or divine. A darker type of magic that carved its words onto the bones.

Weiss knew what she had to ask, because from Ruby’s expression out of the corner of her eye it seemed she was the only one who didn’t know the answer. And she dreaded it with a stomach full of dark oil.

“…what happened to Velvet?”

The look Emerald gave her said all it needed to, her lips thin and her eyes apologetic and resigned as she let it click. Weiss’s eyes widened in horror and she put a hand over her mouth with a gasp, and she stumbled a step back only to bump into another table and rock it slightly.

It had been about a year ago that things had evolved and escalated for Coco.

“It was her.” Weiss breathed out with a small voice, pulling her hands to her chest as she remembered how Coco had changed. “...Velvet was Coco’s first kill…?”

Emerald nodded slowly, biting the corner of her lip as Weiss curled in on herself at the answer and the way everything started to click together. But when Ruby frowned as her eyes flashed in hatred, Emerald winced.

“...our first kill changes us. It ‘awakens’ us. We’re supposed to wait until we graduate university in our twenties. But most of us didn’t. Or, in Coco’s case, she couldn’t. She was the first of us.” Emerald sighed and crossed her arms over her chest as she watched dark red tears form in the corners of Weiss’s eyes, and she gave Ruby a grim look as Ruby clenched her hands into quivering fists at her sides. “She tried to resist. For weeks. But the blood always wins for us. Always.”

They both jumped when Weiss slammed a hand down on the surface of the table she was leaning against, the impact hard enough the wood slightly cracked, and her eyes were dark and angry as she straightened up and shook her head with a snarl.

“No! That’s not true. I won’t let it be.” Weiss stormed back over and slammed her hands both down onto the table, every inch of her taut with fury and determination as she glared. “I will not give in. Is there something you can do? We’re here before things are too late, they aren’t that bad yet. Is there a way to stop it? Tell me, Emerald!”

Emerald was completely unbothered by Weiss’s anger, she knew she wasn’t in any danger, but a Schnee’s rabid grasp for control when they feared they were losing it could always cause more damage than it solved. But Weiss was desperate, and Ruby was silent and terrified as she feared the possible future.

The way their partnership could end if Weiss slipped up for even a moment, and Ruby might not be ready because she’d possibly let her guard down. Her eyes could apparently stop Weiss’s powers, but those fangs weren’t dissuaded by them, and when Weiss bit her she could barely move from how good it felt. It would be too easy for Weiss to fail to stop.

But Weiss was radiating determination and protectiveness as she stared at Emerald with a sharp and pleading expression, and Ruby blinked at her in surprise and awe.

Emerald was thinking as she took in Weiss’s desperation, her attention briefly flicked to Ruby’s own slight trembling, and her red eyes pulsed as a small smirk ticked in the corner of her lips.

“There’s a way I can think of. But I won't do it for free.” Emerald smirked wider when Weiss’s eyes widened in outrage, and she shrugged with a single playful shoulder. “You know how our kind work, Weiss. I can help, but I’ll do it for a price.”

The table groaned as Weiss pressed down harder on it in frustration, but she also knew that Emerald was right. Nothing from a vampire was for free, and a Sustrai’s services were so valuable and special that there was always one hell of a price. So, closing her eyes in resignation, Weiss’s head dropped as she sighed.

Ruby raised her eyebrows at Weiss’s strange reaction of defeat.

“Uhh, aren’t you super rich, Weiss?”

Even though Weiss didn’t react, Emerald laughed sharply as she circled the table to start going between the shelves and grabbing up vials and bowls. “Oh I don’t take money, Ruby. That’s your sort of thing. No, I charge things that actually matter to me.”

Ruby frowned as she watched Emerald scooping up ingredients, balancing them in her arms with unnatural grace and ease as the pile grew higher, and she looked back when Weiss straightened up and neatened her skirt.

With her dignity and composure back intact, Weiss looked over at Emerald with a cold raised eyebrow.

“What’s your price? And what can you do for us?”

“Think of it like a little illusion, of sorts. It’s simple in principle but deliciously complex in execution.” Emerald returned to her main table and placed out all of her ingredients, before going to a corner of the room and pulling back a small rug to reveal a trap door. She paused after pulling it open and revealing a dark drop down into her cellar, and gave them both an eager and sharp-fanged smile. “I can make you something that will make Ruby’s blood borderline tasteless to you, while making your Beast think all other blood you taste is similar to hers. It’ll put everyone back on the menu. Back in a moment.”

Emerald vanished down into the dark, dropping down instead of taking the ladder, and with her gone and leaving them in privacy Weiss and Ruby were able to look at each other with similar expressions of fear and shame.

This was worse than either of them had been able to suspect, especially if Coco’s own bond had been strong enough that the normally cool and suave Adel had given in and let it turn her rabid and obsessed. So what would it do to Weiss if it kept going on for too long?

And it was changing Ruby too, they both knew it. Even though her eyes were constantly shimmering slightly now as her soul tried to fight it off, it was inscribed into her vitae and not simply trying to taint her soul. An infected wound, not a one-dose poison.

It all depended on their individual willpower, for Ruby to stay away and for Weiss to keep her bloodlust in check.

Ruby looked down, unable to keep eye contact, and put her hands into her pockets again as she asked a question she dreaded, but would help her make some guesses as to Weiss’s limits.

“How long ago did you ‘awaken’? Shortly after Coco?”

There was no answer, she didn’t even hear Weiss twitch or shuffle, and after it dragged on a few moments Ruby looked up in confusion to see Weiss staring off into nothing with a cold and dead expression. She’d touched a nerve, one that had Weiss clench her jaw hard enough the muscles bulged slightly, and Ruby’s eyes widened as her mind clicked.

It was why Weiss was the weakest. Why she could handle the sun better than others of her kind, even other daywalkers. It was why she’d barely been a threat to Blake at the school, and had been so easily taken out by Blake in her lycan form at the house.

The reason why she sometimes had a semblance of body heat. And it was why Ruby had been able to catch her by surprise at the house party in the first place.

“...you haven’t, yet. Have you?” Ruby’s eyes widened in shock when Weiss simply clenched her jaw again and thinned her lips, and her own mouth dropped open as she stepped close and turned so she was standing in front of Weiss properly.

Weiss was willing to meet her stare with her own, her blue eyes unblinking and her body carefully composed and relaxed as she let Ruby study her in absolute disbelief. When Ruby didn’t say anything, Weiss gave a single shake of her head, the movement slow and strained.

“No. I haven’t. I’ve never killed anyone, Ruby. Ever.” Weiss folded her hands behind her back so that Ruby wouldn’t see them trembling as her great shame was revealed, the weakness that had her pitied by her friends and judged by her parents. “I’m the last one. Now that Miltia is gone.”

“But…why not? What are you waiting for?” Staring at Weiss incredulously, Ruby stepped back as she waved her hands in confusion.

If she was the last of her friends to be waiting, then why wait at all? All it meant in the meantime was that she was the weakest, and Ruby imagined that was a very dangerous and vulnerable place on the totem pole to sit at. Predators killed, or they died.

The question had Weiss close her eyes for a moment to center herself, and she answered without opening them again.

“Because I don’t want to do it, of course. I would rather be a nobody with clean hands, than the next leader of the Crimson Council but with red ones.” Weiss opened her eyes again when Ruby simply stared at her uncomprehendingly, and waved her off with a scoff. “Your surprise is warranted. Believe it or not, I know very well what I am. You have never been in on some secret that I am ignorant of. I know what I am.  But who I am is mine to decide. For a while longer at least."

Ruby flinched at the impact of the words, the hurt in the tone and the biting snarl of the delivery, and she looked away so that she didn’t have to see the way Weiss was standing with her shoulders tight and clearly resisting the instinct to fold in on herself.

The response seemed to satisfy Weiss, or at the very least it didn’t bother her, and she hummed in acceptance of it before looking over at the trapdoor when she heard Emerald climbing back up the ladder.

Returning with a small crate of filled vials, some empty beakers, and a small cauldron, Emerald stopped when she noticed the tension in the room and raised her eyebrows as she looked at how the two girls were standing apart and deliberately not looking at each other.

But even though she’d overheard, it wasn’t any of her business except for how it could benefit her, so Emerald shrugged it off and began laying out her equipment on the table. “So, are you both interested?”

Weiss nodded slowly as she walked over again, staying back slightly so that Emerald could work, but Ruby chewed her thumb as she studied everything on the table in confusion.

“...how are you even capable of witchcraft, anyway?”

The term witchcraft actually had Emerald scoff, and she sneered in contempt at the very thought before shooting Ruby a smug wink.

“Oh please. A witch would beg to be capable of something like those of my Line are.”

Emerald emphasized her point by flicking a wrapped bundle on the table to unroll it, revealing a wide assortment of engraved knives of every imaginable size. 

Each was covered with fine runes carved into the metal, razor sharp and with handles of what Ruby could immediately recognize as bone, and her eyes widened as she looked at them.

But she hadn’t answered Emerald’s question, so when Emerald paused and raised her eyebrows pointedly, Ruby looked at Weiss for reassurance before stepping forward and biting her lip.

“What’s your price?”

The smile that Emerald gave was anything but friendly, as she picked up one of the smaller knives and began to play with it, rolling it between her fingers with the tip digging slightly into one of the fingertips of her other hand. Her lips parted to bare slightly pointed fangs.

“Nothing you’ll miss. From you, Weiss, I’ll take a vial of your blood.” When Weiss’s eyes widened at the prospect, Emerald shrugged as if it was nothing, but no angle in her face was authentically innocent.

They both knew there was immense power in a vampire’s blood, and the blood of one of the Eight Lines was a high step above. Schnee blood was dominance, and authority, and power. It was the blood of control. Kingship was in every drop in their veins.

The average witch could do plenty with vampire blood, but not even Weiss knew just what a Sustrai as powerful as Emerald was capable of with her unique brand of magic.

So she hesitated, causing Emerald to shrug and go to roll her knives up again.

“Suit yourself, I’m sure Ruby will forgive you when you kill her.”

“Okay, wait!” Weiss took a half-step forward as Emerald went to pack up, and when Emerald raised an eyebrow at her it was only another few moments before Weiss wilted and gave in. “Okay. One vial.”

Emerald nodded in agreement, already grabbing up an empty vial and pulling out the knife again. “That’s all I’m asking for, from you.”

But she didn’t take it yet, instead she looked over at Ruby and waited for Ruby to nod in encouragement before she smiled once more and made her request.

“And from you, Ruby, I’ll take…some tears.”

Ruby stepped back at the request, a shiver of fear going through her body at the idea, and she instinctively blinked rapidly a few times. Even Weiss straightened up in concern, looking between Ruby and Emerald with a sharp frown, but Emerald didn’t even twitch as she waited.

Biting her lip, Ruby stayed back warily as she eyed up Emerald’s knife.

“...do you know what I am? Why they’re silver?”

“Not a clue. But I know magic when I smell it, and your vitae radiates it. You’re a walking nuclear reactor of power, and that’s a rare and yummy thing.” Emerald grinned with a shrug, and twirled the knife again in a slow and playful spin. “I want some. Just to play with.”

Ruby’s mind rushed into static as Emerald’s words sank in, and her eyes widened as she stared. She looked down at her hands, as if she would somehow be able to suddenly see a difference from the veins underneath her skin. But there was nothing.

And Emerald was asking for some of her tears. From her eyes. The key physical manifestation of a supernatural nature she was still adjusting to. A nature that none of them could identify, apparently not even Emerald from a glance.

But there was a possible solution there that had Ruby bite her lip and mull over it, before she stepped forward again with a suspicious and wary stare.

“How bound are you by the deals you make?”

That sort of question always led to receiving an offer, so Emerald’s eyes widened in excitement as she took the knife and mimed drawing a cross over her heart with a smile. “Bound by blood. My Beast will eat itself if I break a vow. What are you asking? And what are you offering?”

Ruby took a deep breath to hold it for a second and brace herself, but her curiosity was growing stronger every day. It was starting to drive her insane. It wasn’t like she knew any other witches who’d be able to help, and certainly not a vampire like Emerald who surely specialized in blood magic. Emerald clearly already knew she had something in her.

“...can you find out what type of supernatural ‘vitae’ is in me, with your magic?”

“Of course I can. That’s one of the first things my bloodline learns.” Emerald scoffed and shrugged it off, before tilting her head as she considered the ritual. “ That takes the right phase of the moon, and I’ll need to prepare some things, but I can do it. But what are you offering as payment?”

There was only one thing that Ruby could think of to offer, since it was something that Emerald had already expressed that she valued. She knew that Weiss wasn’t going to like it, but it mattered.

So Ruby squared her shoulders and unzipped her own jacket, so that Emerald would be able to collect some of her blood from her wrist.

“I’ll give you twice the amount of tears.”

“Done!” Emerald pounced on the deal quickly, eyes wide and teeth bared in her smile, before giddily pulling out more empty vials.

Meanwhile Weiss spun on her heel and grabbed Ruby’s wrist with a stern look, her lips set in a focused line as she tried to make Ruby see just how serious she was. “Are you sure? A Sustrai’s blood magic isn’t neutral like witchcraft is. Not in the slightest.”

Ruby let Weiss hold her wrist since the grip wasn’t tight enough to be painful, and she let out a desperate sigh. All she could do was shrug, lost and out of any other ideas that were any safer.

“Whatever is out there has only killed supernaturals. I’m a supernatural, but I don’t know if I have what it might be chasing. And if we find out what I am and why you find my blood so special, maybe we can suppress our… ’bond’ for good instead of just hiding it behind some sort of charm.” 

Weiss was silent as she thought over it, her eyes narrow while she wrestled, but Ruby’s decisions were her own no matter how desperate the gambles might be. So she released Ruby’s wrist gently and looked over to where Emerald was waiting patiently and still playing with the damn knife.

“Add to the deal that you’ll do nothing with her tears that will harm her.”

“That’s fair, and not a big ask. Besides, if I harmed your blood-bonded, you’d hunt me to the ends of the earth. Nothing I do with her tears, once I figure out what the hell they can do, will hurt her. You have my word.” Emerald shrugged at the request, and stripped off her own jacket so she could extend her fangs and bite the palm of her own hand.

Having done this part before, Weiss bit her own hand and extended it for Emerald to shake, their blood mixing as their Beasts sealed the vow and locked the Sustrai nature into it.

It was set. If a Sustrai broke their deals, it would be a type of agonized frenzy that only ever ended with a painful and ravenous death. And Emerald was far too fond of her existence. So she’d always kept her deals in the past, following them perfectly to the letter.

Emerald grinned as her wound healed, and she flipped the knife in her hand so the handle was extended to Weiss, who took it so she could slice her arm open and hold it out to pour the blood into the first empty vial.

The nearly black blood filled the glass quickly, and Emerald hummed happily as she corked it and added it to a collection on one of her shelves, before gesturing for Weiss to give the knife to Ruby.

As a living person, Ruby had a natural hesitation to pain that the dead didn’t, but when Weiss nodded in the silent offer to heal her afterwards Ruby sliced her arm open and allowed Emerald to collect some of her blood for her ritual.

Emerald corked the vial as soon as it was full, and added it to a rack designated for blood she had to study and that wasn’t for use as an ingredient. She looked over her shoulder and smirked at the pleasurable look on Weiss’s face as the girl licked Ruby’s arm to heal the wound, before addressing Ruby.

“The right phase of the moon I need is in less than a week, but once I start the ritual takes like twenty minutes at most. I’ll call Weiss when it’s time and she can send you my way.” Emerald smiled when Ruby nodded, before picking the two remaining vials up and offering them over for Ruby to take. “Alright, have a bit of a cry for me. A deal’s a deal on both sides. I’m not asking for much.”

Ruby took the vials from Emerald’s hand nervously and looked down at them, but a deal was a deal, and it would keep her safe from Weiss while they saved their home. It would also make fighting Weiss afterwards easier if Weiss wasn’t as driven into frenzy by her blood as well.

Though if Weiss really hadn’t killed before, despite being over eighteen and all of her friends having cracked and given in, then her willpower really must be something else. Either her willpower, or her conviction.

She wasn’t sure how to feel about that revelation about Weiss just yet, putting it aside to process later. Because she wasn’t sure how to even begin to believe it. Every vampire slipped up and killed sometimes, it was in their nature. They were beings of pure bloodlust and self-indulgence. And yet…

But that was for later.

Instead she looked down at the vials and bit her lip, before looking between the other two.

“I don’t exactly know how to cry on command.”

While Weiss hummed at how that might be a problem, Emerald shrugged and stepped around the table so she was in front of them both, and gave Ruby a small smile after glancing at Weiss in expectation.

“Then I’m very sorry for this.”

Before there was any time for Ruby or Weiss to react in any way, Emerald punched Ruby on the nose.

The response was immediate even as Emerald did pull her punch enough she didn’t even break anything, but the tear response came naturally as Ruby clamped a hand over her nose and groaned at the throbbing pain. As a few tears escaped her eyes and fell down her cheeks, she remembered to make sure to catch them in the small vials, and kept blinking to shed as many as possible.

But though her eyes were blurred and squeezed shut from the pain, she could hear a few moments of snarling and crashing in the room near her, and she blinked her eyes clear again and looked over to where Weiss had thrown Emerald down onto one of the tables with a hand firmly around her throat.

With bared fangs and black eyes, Weiss tightened her grip around a completely unflustered Emerald’s throat, her nails digging into Emerald enough that drops of black blood were trailing down her dark skin and dripping onto the surface of the table. But Emerald was still, her hands raised in surrender and her human face fully intact to show Weiss’s Beast she wasn’t a threat.

The instinct and reflex had been so sudden that Weiss hadn’t even caught herself doing it until the sound of throwing Emerald onto the table, she’d been a blur to her own mind in her rush to protect Ruby, and she blinked back to lucidity and managed to release Emerald’s neck to step back.

But she kept her eyes narrow in a furious glare as Emerald stood up again and rubbed her already healed neck.

“You couldn’t have given us a warning?”

“That was more fun.” Emerald grinned easily, before she took the vials from Ruby and stared into them in absolute fascination. There weren’t many tears, but there would be enough. “You good, Ruby?”

“Ow.” Ruby glared as she rubbed her nose some more, but the pain was already fading. “I’m fine. But ow.”

Emerald laughed while she walked back to her setup, placing one of the vials of tears away but keeping the other next to the rest of her ingredients. When Weiss and Ruby both settled and turned to her again, Emerald stretched her arms above her hand and gave an eager sigh.

“Alright then. Let’s get started, shall we?”

Before either of the girls could protest or delay any further, Emerald spun one of her knives into her hand, and slashed her own wrist with the engraved knife. Dark blood sprayed across the surface of the table, and she held her arm over the cauldron so as much blood as possible would get inside.

The moment that it began to pour, the ceiling light flickered and began to struggle, the sounds of the forest outside falling silent and vanishing away. It was a strange absence to suddenly lock into place, Ruby no longer able to hear the ambient sound of the breeze or of birdsong, instead it was just a wall of silence but for the whirring electricity in the struggling wiring and the grotesque dripping of Emerald’s blood into her cauldron.

With her wound closing on its own, Emerald gave the two of them a feral smile, before surprising Ruby when she grabbed up a large vial filled with black blood and popped the cork. It was clearly vampire blood, Ruby could recognize it on sight, but instead of pouring it into her cauldron she horrified Ruby by raising it to her lips and drinking the entire lot in a few large gulps.

Emerald cackled as her Beast roared to life when the black blood rushed through her system, her human visage shattering violently as her appearance deformed, and she got to work.

A dark red flame the color of fresh blood appeared under the cauldron, burning nothing for fuel but still letting off searing heat, and Emerald grabbed the first jar and pulled out some sort of extracted mammal muscle from inside to drop in.

Ruby had never seen any kind of witchcraft of magic before, so she could only watch in horror as nausea grew in her gut while Emerald worked, the lightbulb above eventually blowing and the room going dark except for the red flames.

Jars were opened and contents either sliced into smaller portions or fully poured in, Ruby having to look away as Emerald juiced a small eyeball with a smile and tossed it in, but Weiss simply kept an eye on Emerald’s face the entire time. She didn’t stand a chance of fighting Emerald off if she went into a frenzy, but she could at least get in the way to buy Ruby time if they needed to run.

But Emerald was thoroughly enraptured by her process as she opened a small box and retrieved two small stones, one pure white while the other was rich red, and dropped them into the mixture as well with a wide smile. She’d tried to describe the pleasure she got from her art in the past, but attempts to describe it always devolved into growls and shivers and a lack of words.

And from the look on her face as the dark magic soaked into the room, she was enjoying herself far too much. The rush pulsing through her had her Beast howling in delight as she grabbed another vial of dark blood and drank it in the one large mouthful, tossing the vial to the side carelessly and licking her lips in pleasure.

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest uncomfortably as Emerald giggled maniacally to herself, the air growing far too thick with the poisonous presence of the magic. It felt like being back in the gas station in the aftermath of whatever ritual had defiled Miltia’s corpse, but somehow livelier.

It had her tense and struggling to take deep breaths as she watched, and not even Weiss’s hand on her lower back properly grounded her or calmed. But she looked over at her and lowered her voice to a whisper.

“...she’s drinking vampire blood.”

“Remember how I said the Sustrai aren’t truly considered one of us?” Weiss whispered back as her fingers traced circles on Ruby’s back over her jacket, the touch just as much for herself as it was for Ruby. “...all of this is why. Like I said; you’re not her taste.”

Ruby let out a shaky breath as she understood, and she looked back over at where Emerald was working with her Beast fully exposed and rumbling from being well fed. A vampire that fed on other vampires, and not living beings?

“Jesus Christ…”

Weiss hummed in agreement, but didn’t say anything further as she watched Emerald work.

It was never pleasant watching Emerald do this, and not just because of the clear pleasure that Emerald got from doing it, but because of the way the world around Emerald warped and distorted from doing it. Blood magic in the way that only Sustrai’s could do it was a perversion of druidic magic and a blasphemy against vampire kind, and yet they did it.

So everything in Weiss felt wrong as Emerald’s ritual began to reach its climax, and she slid her hand from Ruby’s back to around her waist in need for her own comfort at Ruby’s proximity.

To her surprise, Ruby didn’t protest or pull away, instead shuffling closer as she watched Emerald with wide eyes of her own.

Emerald grinned down at the concoction in her cauldron, seeing something she liked, before she took a small rod of pure iron and snapped it in half to drop the pieces inside.

But then she added the final ingredient, as she picked up the vial of Ruby’s tears and tilted it just enough that a single drop fell.

As soon as the tear dropped in, the flames underneath roared high, becoming bright enough that Ruby and Weiss both had to shield their eyes as they reached high enough to tickle the roof.

The sound of the bubbling mixture shifted, instead sounding more like suction as it pulled in on itself, focusing and condensing as Emerald’s dark blood swirled around it as a binding agent, infusing into it.

To add the last amount needed, Emerald sliced her own wrist again and, instead of letting the drops go in on their own, simply shoved her arm down into the mixture with a wild laugh at the agony of the burn.

Ruby’s eyes boggled at the sight, and Weiss winced as well, but Emerald didn’t look bothered as the flames grew higher one last time before suddenly extinguishing.

The room was bathed in darkness for a moment as the energy settled and the cauldron cooled, before a snap of Emerald’s fingers restored the lightbulb in the ceiling and the light turned back on.

With Ruby and Weiss staring at her in wordless shock, Emerald pulled her hand out of the now empty cauldron, and opened it palm up. Two rings sat on her palm, one with a pure white gem while the other had pure red, and Emerald smiled at them proudly before offering them over to the girls.

It was Ruby that braved it first, stepping back over so she could look down at it. Emerald’s hand seemed entirely unburned despite having shoved it into boiling liquid and wreathing it in what Ruby could only describe as blood fire, but the rings were smoking slightly as they cooled in the air.

Once the smoking stopped and they looked fine to touch, Ruby tentatively picked up the red ring and lifted it up to study it.

The band was a simple iron one, made of one of the halves of the rod that Emerald had dropped in, but the red gem was fascinating to look at as it rippled underneath the surface, pulsing like a heartbeat.

Emerald handed the white one over to Weiss and stepped back, smiling smugly as her Beast slowly receded and her human mask reappeared. It was slower than last time, everything inside of her desperate and clamoring to do more, but this was an arrangement she and her monstrous half had come to years ago, so she rewarded it with a final vial of black blood as Weiss and Ruby studied their rings.

Smacking her lips in satisfaction at the taste, Emerald placed the empty vial to the side and crossed her arms.

“Aww look at you two being in sync, you picked the right ones. The red will make your vitae smell dull, Ruby, and also magically simulate Weiss’s proximity so that you won’t itch being away from her. And the white will lie to Weiss that everyone else tastes a bit like you.” Emerald chuckled as Ruby and Weiss looked at her and then each other, a hopeful light in Ruby’s eyes while Weiss instead looked relieved at the prospect of being able to feed again. “Give them a try. It’s a glamour, think of it like a bubble wrapped over you, so it shouldn’t mess with any magic already cast on you.”

Weiss studied the white ring for another moment before slowly sliding it onto her finger and looking at it. She didn’t feel any different, but she likely wouldn’t notice a difference until she was around other mortals again.

But then Ruby’s scent disappeared from next to her.

It didn’t disappear entirely, but it faded down from being the overwhelming aura and temptation that it normally was. Weiss looked over at where Ruby had slid the red ring onto her own finger and was studying it.

Ruby still smelled good, but it wasn’t overpowering like it was meant to be. The sight of her jugular throbbing slightly in her neck was tempting, but Weiss could still think rationally as she stared at it. The hunger wasn’t anything more than it was for any other meal in the past.

And for her own part, Ruby blinked when the strange discomfort in her head from it being so long since she’d indulged in Weiss vanished. The gap filled, the craving fading away, but she could feel the faint difference. It was a substitute, and her blood could tell it wasn’t the same as from the real Weiss, but it still did enough to keep her clear.

The ring worked.

They both looked over at Emerald when she laughed and clapped in victory, rubbing her hands together with thrilled eyes and a hungry smile, the power still echoing in her blood and her Beast purring inside of her head.

“Well alright. With our business done, I’m afraid you did interrupt something I was up to. So, with some new pretty jewelry and some answers for Ruby on the way, it’s time for your doom-destined duo of Half-Daywalker and Baby Inquisitor to get back to the hunt, I think.” Emerald didn’t acknowledge Ruby startling at her accurate guess, because god it had gotten so obvious that Emerald had gotten bored looking for all the clues. She didn’t give them a moment to respond before raising her fingers and smirking. “You get what you pay for. I’ll be in touch. Good luck on your search, ladies.”

With a final flash of Emerald’s teeth and a snap of her fingers, Weiss and Ruby stumbled as they found themselves bumping into the side of Weiss’s car, with the thick iron gate leading into Emerald’s yard closing shut and locking behind them.

Emerald stuck her head out the window when they both looked over at her, and she gave a large mock bow before pulling the curtain and vanishing.

They stood silently for a moment, both of them looking down at their rings and feeling out the difference, before Ruby thinned her lips and straightened up first.

“Well. Fucking...Christ." Ruby didn't normally swear, but everything that had happened over the past hour certainly warranted it. When Weiss hummed in agreement next to her, she sighed and looked over at her. "Let’s get back?”

Weiss nodded and grabbed her keys from her pocket, and unlocked her car so they could both get in and buckle themselves up.

Neither of them spoke on the drive back to town, Ruby spending almost the entire trip staring at the ring on her finger with an analytical frown. It would make it easier to work with Weiss. Easier for them both.

But as she clenched her fist and looked at the ring, aware of Weiss next to her but nothing in her needing to call out to her, she couldn’t help but feel like something had been lost.

And from how Weiss kept glancing at her own ring, her lips in a thin line and her eyes seemingly sad, she felt the same way.

+=+=+

Chapter Text

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3:31am

There was always something strangely calming about being inside of the Old Porter Mall in the middle of the night. With all the lights off except for the green glow of the exit doors, and the air conditioning silent and dormant, it was a completely serene place to spend a few hours in.

It also helped that Pyrrha and her friends were paid to be there, that was certainly an incentive, as Pyrrha spun her flashlight in her hand playfully as she stuck her head inside of one of the closed shops and swept the beam of light over everything to make sure it was all still in order.

Nobody had broken into the Old Porter Mall in months, and even if anyone did it was always just for a dare or a goof and it was always harmless, so Pyrrha wasn’t worried as she reached up to a top shelf and straightened where a toaster was on display to neaten it up. It wasn’t her job, but she could never resist.

Frankly, little acts of help for whoever would have to open each shop in the morning were just great ways to pass the time on her shifts, while also feeling somewhat productive. Security work was tedious and dull, but it was a job where she could still get her homework done in-between late night patrols, and the pay was pretty good. 

Stepping back out of the store and back into the central hall of the second floor of the massive mall, Pyrrha swept her flashlight over all the shop entrances once more and nodded to herself in satisfaction.

It was strangely nice to have a boring mortal job, to go alongside her far more stressful other one. Still, she wasn’t lazy about it, so she pressed broadcast on her radio as she began to walk back in the direction of the escalators.

“Everything’s fine up here.”

The reply came through accompanied by a suppressed yawn, and Pyrrha grinned to herself at just how cute Jaune was when he was sleepy.

“S’all good. Cameras are fine, so, false alarm. Something hit the door, maybe?”

Whatever had made this wing of the second floor blip on the alarms, clearly nothing had come inside, and everything was still locked tight. So Pyrrha looked up at the nearest security camera and shrugged, knowing Jaune would see it from where he was sitting in the security room. 

Her radio crackled as Nora spoke up from her own route, on the other side of the mall where she and her partner Ren were doing a sweep of the rooftop carpark.

“Jaune, I’m so sorry, but…a bird shat on your car.”

Pyrrha immediately had to swallow down a snort, covering her mouth with the back of her hand as she kept walking, but she immediately failed at the horrified groan that came through in response.

The escalators were off, but she didn’t feel like descending them normally, so she hopped up onto the handrail and shuffled into place on the steel slope between the two escalators and gave herself a small push to slide down to the ground floor.

A regular person wouldn’t have been able to keep their balance, but Pyrrha was completely at home on the steel surface as her red hair whipped behind her from the brief trip. With nobody around, she indulged herself by performing a perfect roll for the dismount, and bounced up to her feet to imaginary applause.

Only to freeze when her radio crackled, and the voice of her best-friend-but-also-kind-of-boyfriend-maybe came through.

“That was beautiful. Also you have grease all over your butt now.”

Pyrrha squeaked as she looked up at the security camera she’d forgotten about, and immediately craned her neck over her shoulder and aimed her flashlight at the back of her pants. Sure enough, the steel panelling hadn’t been as clean as it looked, and she’d done an excellent job of wiping it down for the janitors.

So she sighed in frustration, no fun deed unpunished, and brushed as much of it off as she could as she walked back to the staff door leading to the back corridors of the mall. Unlike in the main areas, all the ceiling lights were on so that the skeleton night crew could see, so she slid her flashlight back into its slot on her belt as she got to the door to the small security office and swiped her card to unlock it.

Music was playing quietly from a small phone dock kept on the plain coffee table, where all of their personal belongings were currently haphazardly piled, and Pyrrha rolled her eyes with a smile at Jaune’s taste in music whenever he had the office to himself for any length of time. But her attention was immediately given to the man himself where he was spinning on a squeaky chair in front of the numerous monitors overlooking the entire mall.

Pyrrha put her hand on the back of the headrest to catch the chair mid-spin, before playfully nudging it around so that Jaune was facing her and having to tilt his head up to meet her eye. The moment he saw her, Jaune smiled happily, and quickly checked to make sure the door was closed before putting his hands on her waist and pulling her down onto his lap.

It caught her by surprise enough that she gasped, but she settled gracefully, following the prompt and swinging a leg over to straddle him with a low and playful hum.

“Jaune. Surely the others are on their way back…” Pyrrha smiled shyly when Jaune brushed some of her hair back over her ear.

Jaune craned his head around to look over the security monitors to see where the others were, and grinned at how Nora and Ren were both still halfway across the complex and slowly meandering their way back. So, with a few minutes of privacy, he cupped Pyrrha’s cheek softly and brought her in for a kiss.

One which she was all too happy to reciprocate, tilting her head encouragingly so Jaune would slide his grip around and anchor her more possessively. She smiled against his lips when he tried to press deeper against her, but she kept back slightly just for the tease, her smile growing when Jaune huffed with a smile of his own.

When his hand slid down to grab onto her thigh through the dark pants of her security uniform, Pyrrha found herself actually considering it and shuffling in place, before her sense of discipline overpowered her temptations and she slid back off his lap and onto her feet.

“Later. We’re working.”

“You sure are.” Jaune grinned as he looked her up and down, but his confidence only lasted until she raised an eyebrow. Immediately blushing, he spun back around to look at the monitors again. “Sorry…”

“Don’t be. I find it rather flattering.” Pyrrha stepped over so she could lean on the chair and look over the monitors herself, and pressed a kiss to the top of Jaune’s head. “Anything?”

Jaune shook his head as he tapped on the keyboard to flick through the different cameras, practised eyes studying them as they both got a good view of the entire mall in a few button presses. Cycling through the cameras was pure muscle memory as he gave each view a quick glance, and then moved on.

But then he stopped as his mind twinged, something out of place, and he tapped on the keyboard to go back to the previous viewpoint.

The massive food court on the third floor had one of the three emergency doors that led up to the roof, a door used almost solely by maintenance to get access to the air conditioning and upper skylights.

None of the maintenance crews were in tonight, but the emergency door was swinging closed on its hinges regardless.

Jaune frowned and glanced up at where Pyrrha had the same expression, and he immediately switched through viewpoints on the second monitor until Nora and Ren were visible on their way back, while Pyrrha grabbed up her radio.

“You two, the emergency door in the third floor food court was just opened. The rooftop access. Can you hear anything?”

They both watched on the monitors as Nora and Ren stopped walking, with Ren turning in the direction of the escalators. After exchanging words for a few moments, Ren shaking his head and Nora shrugging, Nora pulled her own radio out and looked up at the nearest camera.

“Nothing. Is it stuck open?”

“Nope, it’s loose. Something moved through it. We didn’t see what.” Pyrrha drummed her fingers on the headrest of Jaune’s chair as she looked between the two monitors, biting her bottom lip.

Jaune kept Nora and Ren up on the second monitor while he quickly went through the cameras again on the first, trying to find a different angle on the food court, but each of them simply showed a door slowly swinging closed.

Something had the hairs on the back of Pyrrha’s neck stick up, and she watched as Nora and Ren independently decided to go and check it out, quickly heading towards the escalators.

She kept her radio in her hand as she watched, with Jaune switching through the cameras in time as Nora and Ren passed from one to the next on the way to the food court. Neither of them looked worried as they climbed the still escalator, both of them visibly keeping an ear and an eye out but nothing sticking out to them.

All four of them were trained Hunters, not exactly the average security guard, so Pyrrha wasn’t worried about the two of them as they approached the food court. It was most likely just some kids, it wouldn’t be the first time and it would certainly not be the last, and Pyrrha would get to watch Nora go into scary mode.

Because goddamn could the hyperactive ginger be terrifying when she wanted to be.

Pyrrha chewed her lip as she watched Nora and Ren sweep their flashlights around the massive open court, checking each fast food counter and all the booths of chairs. Seeing nothing, Nora and Ren nodded to each other, with Ren stepping back to do a quick check of the surrounding stores while Nora went over to the door itself.

The entire room was completely dark and still as Nora nudged the door with her foot, confirming that it was unlocked, and she looked up at the nearest camera and raised her radio up.

“None of us unlocked this, right?”

After a quick glance at Jaune just to make sure, Pyrrha took in an apprehensive breath and clicked her radio.

“Neither of us did. I was there less than fifteen minutes ago, before I had to check the second.”

Nora nodded slowly as she digested it and mulled, before craning her neck over to the other side of the food court to where Ren was on his way back. She didn’t speak into her radio, so Jaune and Pyrrha had to watch the exchange silently as Ren shook his head in the negative before joining Nora at the door.

Giving the door another nudge with her foot, Nora looked up at the camera again.

“We’ll pop up and check it out.”

Pyrrha and Jaune glanced at each other in concern, both of them aware of the same thing; There were no cameras in that stairwell, it was just a maintenance corridor leading up to the roof. A section of the roof which also had no cameras, since nobody ever went up there.

Something about it had Pyrrha clench her jaw for a moment, before nodding even though Nora couldn’t see it.

“If you’re not back in two minutes, I’m coming to check.”

“You’re such a worry wort, Pyr.” Nora waved off Pyrrha’s concern dismissively as she slid her radio back into her pocket and let Ren lead the way into the stairwell.

The moment that the stairwell door clicked closed, Pyrrha began to count down from a hundred and twenty in her head.

Something didn’t feel right, and it had her step back from Jaune’s chair and pace a slow circle around the room while Jaune kept an eye on the monitors. The sound of Pyrrha’s anxious footfalls on the tiles were concerning enough that he spoke over his shoulder without looking away from the cameras.

“What’s got you so rattled?”

“I don’t know. I just…” Pyrrha came to a stop and sighed as she tried to word it. But it escaped her, so she rubbed her eyes and sighed. “I’m not sure. Aren’t you three at least the slightest bit paranoid these days?” 

Jaune hummed as he sat back and crossed his arms, tapping his fingertips on his bicep. He knew what Pyrrha was referring to. It was all that the Hunters were able to focus on while working, anymore. But apart from Ruby apparently clashing with a lycan a couple of nights ago, everything had been relatively quiet ever since the gas station.

A scene which Jaune was thankful he hadn’t had to see, if the photos were anything to go by.

He let out a slow breath through pursed lips, a breathy whistle, and shook his head helplessly.

“I’m paranoid, but we’ve been trained for the times the towns we’re stationed in will go through periods like this. All we can do is work the problem, and be careful. Until we aren’t just reacting, anymore.” Jaune looked away from the monitors for a moment to give Pyrrha a reassuring smile, his eyes set and confident, and he nodded when Pyrrha settled at his certainty. “We’ve been trained for dealing with the quiet and tense lulls in-between the big explosions of action.”

Pyrrha mulled over his words for a moment before nodding, and she stepped over again to go back to watching the cameras as her timer slowly approached zero in her head. She knew that Jaune was right. But while he was an investigator, she was a fighter.

When she finished counting down in her head but Nora and Ren were yet to reemerge from the stairwell, Pyrrha grabbed her radio from her belt and raised it to her lips.

“You two. Talk to me.”

There was only static, no response coming through, and Pyrrha’s grip tightened on her radio as she clamped down the transmit button again and grit her teeth.

“Nora. Ren.”

Still nothing, the cameras were still, and the door remained closed as Jaune and Pyrrha both stared at it and waited breathlessly. When another half a minute passed without any response, Pyrrha nodded determinedly and headed for the door, calling out over her shoulder to Jaune.

“I’m going to get them. Keep watch.”

The office door closed with a beep behind her as she stepped out into the staff corridor and turned in the direction of the shortest route back to the escalators, one hand resting on her radio on her belt while the other clenched and unclenched over and over again nervously.

Something wasn’t right, she could feel it in the back of her mind. A tickling on the back of her neck. And the feeling was only growing stronger with every passing moment.

She sped up into a jog, bursting through the door out into the main area of the mall itself and then up the still escalator onto the second floor. That wing’s escalator up to the third floor was tucked away around a corner, and Pyrrha almost skidded on the tiles as she turned it and ran up the incline without breaking a sweat.

It was halfway up the escalator when her radio crackled, and Jaune’s voice came through.

“I’ve got them, they’re out.”

Pyrrha slid to a stop as she reached the third floor landing, and deflated, letting out a stressed huff and then pinching the bridge of her nose as the tension released from her body.

Deciding she might as well meet the duo halfway, since she was closer to them than she was to the security room now, Pyrrha hit the transmit button on her radio as she began to power walk towards the food court.

“What gives, you two???”

The answer she got was a burst of intense radio static, and garbled syllables that she couldn’t quite make out but were clearly in Nora’s voice. After a pause, there was another attempt, this time Ren’s voice, but it was equally indistinguishable.

So Pyrrha huffed in frustration as she turned the corner into the food court, and she waved her arms in frustration at where Nora and Ren were slowly walking in her direction.

“Did you both drop your radios off the roof at the same moment???”

Nora whined helplessly, her radio in her hand from where she was fighting with it, twisting the tuning dial back and forth and flicking the small LED screen pointlessly. She shook it violently, and Pyrrha winced when she then banged it on the counter of a kebab shop in an attempt of percussive maintenance.

It was apparently fruitless, so Nora shoved it back into her belt and shrugged as Pyrrha reached them.

“I dunno! We stepped into the stairwell and they got funky, which is normal, but when we went up and onto the roof they didn’t go un- funky.” Nora looked over at Ren in a request for support, and Ren nodded.

But he had a frown on his face that had Pyrrha wary, and she tilted her head in concern.

“What’s wrong? What was strange?”

Ren shook his head slowly as he thought over it, his frown growing deeper. “Nothing was strange. At all. That’s what’s bothering me. It wasn’t somebody going from inside the mall up to the roof, which means…”

Even though Ren trailed off, the unspoken part had Nora look at each other and then turn so they could sweep the food court again, each of them taking a different section and peering through the dark.

Nothing was moving. Everything was as it had been their entire shift, when they’d shown up at ten. The only thing causing any noise was the three of them, as they each moved their flashlights over the dark, instinctively shuffling in their positions so they were back to back.

But the building was as quiet and still as a crypt.

Pyrrha jumped when Nora growled behind her, and she looked over her shoulder to watch as Nora shook her flashlight to get it to behave, the beam randomly flickering and fading as the batteries struggled and the bulb began to suffer.

“Don’t you change those???”

“I did! Like, last shift.” Nora grumbled as she whacked the light on the palm of her free hand, and glared down at it as it gave in and died. “...great. We’ve got spares back at the office, yeah?”

Ren hummed in the affirmative as he continued his own look around, eventually satisfied that everything was clear, and he put a hand on Nora’s back to nudge her in the direction of the office.

The two led the way, with Pyrrha happy to take up the rear and keep glancing back, staring into the dark they were leaving behind. But nothing moved, the only source of noise was their footsteps.

Pyrrha grabbed her radio as she turned ahead again and began descending the first escalator, Ren and Nora already at the bottom.

“Anything on cameras, Jaune?”

The sound her radio immediately made was high pitched enough that her head swam, and she held it away from her face until the feedback stopped, before immediately looking down at where the small screen was stuttering.

As Pyrrha stepped off at the bottom of the escalator, Nora reached over and tapped her radio.

“That’s what ours sounded like whenever you tried to talk.”

“That is… really unpleasant.” Pyrrha grimaced at the glitching device in her hands, even as her muscles pulsed from within as anxiety sparked to life inside of her chest.

So when her flashlight began to buzz and stutter halfway down the next escalator, she stopped entirely.

The three of them all stopped and looked down at the dying beam of light, watching as it dimmed to a struggling yellow and began to flicker and die. It was like the bulb was being suffocated, desperate to continue but unable to struggle through.

After a few pitifully stubborn moments, the light died entirely, leaving Ren with the only source of light as the three of them looked down at the dead device.

Nora’s tone was deceptively casual and nonchalant as she spoke, but her voice was far quieter than usual, and that was a heavy indicator on its own.

“So…when did you last change your batteries?”

Pyrrha stared down at her dead flashlight, and then flicked her eyes between all three dead radios.“...I changed them tonight.”

“Y’know, I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.” Nora smacked her lips and raised her eyebrows, before looking at Ren’s flashlight expectantly. “Second question, just out of curiosity, what are the odds your weapons are in the office? Y’know, next to ours.”

The question didn’t need to be asked, they all knew that the few weapons they were able to bring out in public were currently either in their bags or, in the case of Pyrrha’s handgun, freshly reassembled on the small coffee table after a clean. The thigh holster hidden underneath her pants was very empty, and suddenly it was all she could feel.

“Odds are high, Nora. Odds are…very, very high.”

Nora hummed as she continued watching Ren’s flashlight, but when she went to make another comment all three of them violently lurched as the escalator moved beneath their feet. Power briefly went through it, almost knocking them from their feet, before they each had to shield their eyes as the ceiling lights all flickered before the bulbs immediately cracked.

It was almost like a wave washing through the building, Pyrrha able to make out the echo of it as lights flickered and then bulbs shattered, the escalator rumbling beneath her feet as it steadied again.

They all looked at each other in surprise, comprehension dawning at the same time. There were only two rooms that had any influence over the power; the main management office, and the security room.

Both were down the same corridor.

Pyrrha grabbed her radio again, bracing for the potential whine even as she began to sprint in the direction of the security office. She heard Nora and Ren start to run after her, but she had always been far faster, and she swung over the escalator railing and dropped down the rest of the way.

“Jaune! Are you okay????”

Landing easily, Pyrrha braced herself for her radio to screech at her, but instead there was only static. So, adrenaline hammering in her ears, she barged the door leading to the back corridor and went straight through it.

She entered darkness.

The low ceiling lights that permanently illuminated the hall were dead, and with no windows the hallway was in absolute darkness. But she knew the way by memory, knowing the exact number of steps to the security office door, and her security pass was already in her hand by the time she got there, so she could slam it against the scanner.

Nothing happened initially, and terror seized her chest, but the door beeped and clicked on the second attempt and she shoved the door open.

With the ceiling lights in the room extinguished, the only sources of light were the security monitors, bathing the room in a staticky and inconsistent grey and white as Pyrrha’s eyes widened in horror as she looked around.

Red coated every surface, not even the roof had been spared, but all the furniture in the room was completely intact. Not even their belongings on the couch had been disturbed, their bags still haphazardly piled together.

Music was even still playing from the small speakers where Jaune’s phone was connected to it.

But Pyrrha didn’t even acknowledge it, her entire attention was on the chair, which had been spun to face the door.

Drips of crimson were heavy and dull enough that the sound of them hitting the tiles was audible, as they ran down the leather and collected in streaked pools by the wheels. Skin was torn, ripped into like an animal, but so much had been left intact. Enough that Pyrrha could hear something laughing in the sight of it.

Pyrrha couldn’t blink. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t do anything except stare at her best friend and manage a limp and weak step forward. All of her training vanished as knives plunged into every inch of her skin, each inch of the sight scratching into her bones to live there forever.

The only thing that had her attention waiver, was movement on one of the security monitors, and her eyes were drawn to it despite the blurriness forming in them.

A sound that was a mixture of a gurgle and a gasp ripped from her throat as she saw Nora and Ren standing in place, Ren aiming his flashlight directly ahead as they were both looking at something right in front of them.

But nothing was there, on the cameras at least. Pyrrha could see Nora glaring at something, she could see Ren’s lips moving as he talked to something. But there was nothing.

Pyrrha almost slipped on Jaune’s blood as she scrambled over to the controls. She didn’t let herself acknowledge it.

Grabbing up the main transmitter for their radios, Pyrrha watched on the monitors.

“Nora, Ren, get out of there! Now!”

If their radios were still malfunctioning, they wouldn’t hear her. But she tried again, her voice desperate and high as she pressed the transmit button down so hard her fingers hurt.

“Please! Please get out of there!”

Nora and Ren continued staring something down, before looking at each other for a brief instant in concern, Nora grinding a foot into the ground to brace herself.

A second later, the monitor went black.

Pyrrha’s desperation came out in a panicked cry as she hit the controls to try and get the cameras back up, before her heart stopped as she saw every other camera was working perfectly.

It was just that one.

But she knew exactly where it was.

Pyrrha didn’t let herself look at the chair as she grabbed up her handgun from the coffee table and ripped back out into the corridor, breathing fast and her heart pounding in her ears as she grabbed her phone from her pocket with her other hand and brought up Saphron’s number.

Despite the hour, the woman answered after two rings, and Pyrrha didn’t even give her time to speak before shouting at her.

“Saph! It’s here! The new threat is here, at the mall!” The bottom of Pyrrha’s boots were still slightly slick with Jaune’s blood, causing her to skid for a moment as she turned in the direction of the escalators and sped up.

“What?!”

“No time! I’m sorry, Saph. I’m so sorry. Just get back-up here! Now!” Pyrrha hung up and shoved her phone back into her pocket.

The mall was completely silent as she sped towards the corner leading to the escalators, almost skidding again as it came into sight, before she came to a complete stop and froze at the sound of footsteps coming around.

Only one set.

Pyrrha brought up her gun and cocked it, aware it was fully loaded, and kept it up as she slowed to turn the corner. Green eyes locked onto sickly emerald, and Pyrrha’s heart cracked in her chest as she stared at the new woman. 

Even as the woman was wiping blood off her fingers, she raised her eyebrows at Pyrrha’s sudden appearance, and paused as she looked Pyrrha up and down for a quick moment and took stock of her.

A small smile, satisfied and relieved, appeared on her lips.

“Finally. You’re Pyrrha Nikos, right? Please say yes.”

Instead of answering, Pyrrha pulled the trigger, and watched as the woman’s head rocked back from the impact as the bullet hit and went straight through. But the woman didn’t drop, instead she simply groaned and shook her head as the wound began to crawl closed, the back of her head sealing up the exit wound with the grotesque crunch of bone moving back into place.

The woman shook her head again as if shaking off a dizzy spell, and nodded as if Pyrrha had just answered her question, her shoulders losing some tension as she smiled again.

“Okay, that was for your friends. That’s fair.” The woman took a step forward, and when Pyrrha fired three more rounds she took them just as easily as the first. It was just annoying enough that she gave Pyrrha an exasperated look. “Can you please stop doing that?”

Pyrrha tried her best to control her breathing as she took a step back, her eyes flicking around at her options. But she didn’t have her sword or her usual rifle, just her handgun and whatever she decided she couldn’t keep hidden.

But if this creature really had destabilised the nearby camera, and…they were now completely alone…Pyrrha had a chance.

So she extended her free hand in the direction of the escalator and grabbed for some of the steel plating to wrench off and slice in the woman’s direction. The screeching of the metal ripping from its bolts was enough warning for her target to snatch it out of the air, but it was meant to be a threat as much as it was an attack.

The woman raised her eyebrows in surprise, looking down at the steel sheet and then over at Pyrrha. She smiled once again, showing teeth, and Pyrrha’s eyes widened at the sight of them.

But the woman didn’t acknowledge Pyrrha’s reaction, instead simply running her tongue along the twined tips of her thousand fangs. “So it’s true. Thank the dark mother, I’ve been looking for a natural-born mage for weeks.”

She took another step forward. Pyrrha immediately took one backward as she conjured more metal up into her free hand and began to will it to change shape

The makeshift sword bent and warped into existence, fitting perfectly at home in Pyrrha’s grasp, and the woman raised her eyebrows at it before running her tongue along her teeth again and sighing.

“Oh! Thanks! I’ll use that after this. Because I’m afraid I’m…going to need something from you.”

4:14am

It was the knock that every Hunter feared.

Something about it just sounded different, something in the echo on the wood, as Yang’s eyes clicked open and she was roused from sleep by the sound of her father’s knuckles on her door. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes tiredly as she checked the time on her clock, and grunted in permission.

The door opened, swinging slowly and hesitantly on its hinges, and illuminated her father standing in the hall. Still dressed for sleep and his own hair still ruffled and messy, Tai’s eyes were wide awake, but even in the low light Yang could see they were bloodshot and red.

That would have been enough for alarm bells on its own. But the sight of Raven just behind his shoulder, dressed in her hunting armour and her normally unbreakable revolve instead pale and gaunt, had Yang’s eyes widen in panic as she scrambled upright and looked between the two of them.

“What is it???? What’s going on????”

From down the hall, she heard Ruby start to cry, muffled from Summer bundling her up in her arms.

Yang shot up to her feet, adrenaline and terror blasting through every nerve ending as she looked between her parents, before taking a step back in denial when Tai sighed and approached.

As her legs bumped into the edge of her bed, Yang lost her balance and fell back, landing in Tai’s arms as he quickly caught her to steady her. His face was even worse from up close, tear streaks on his own cheeks and his jaw tight and flexed.

But it was Raven sitting down on her other side and taking her hand in both of hers, the most maternal gesture she had done in as long as Yang could remember, that made the world begin to scream inside of her ears.

Her bottom lip quivered as she looked between the two of them, the sound of Ruby’s grief-struck wailing down the hall slicing deep into her heart.

“...who? Who was it????” Yang looked between her parents manically, her neck aching from how fast she was turning her head back and forth, and she felt her eyes begin to shift to red as her heart rate sped up until it was agony in her chest. “Who???”

“Yang…oh honey…” Tai reached up and brushed some of her hair from her face sympathetically, bracing himself, before he cleared the lump from his throat and met her stare. “...Pyrrha was working at the-”

The world turned silent in Yang’s cognition as her mind ground to a halt, everything around her turning into slow motion as her eyes widened and the blood left her face and went somewhere. She didn’t know where, since everything was suddenly frozen cold.

She shook her head slowly, her bottom lip quivering as she looked between her parents. Tai was still talking, but it was muffled. On some level she was still able to understand him. Enough for all four names to come through, crawling through mud and slime to get into her head and set her insides on fire.

It burned like ice, the world turning dark as she shook her head again, more and more violently and urgently as a cold reality shoved itself against the walls of her chest and screamed its way through until it would pierce deep.

She didn’t know she was crying until Raven wiped her cheek, her mother taking over for Tai in explaining the few things they knew.

‘Saphron called me when Pyrrha-’

‘-we got there too-’

‘We found-’

Yang just shook her head more and more violently, eyes blazing red and her body cold as she began to sob, only resisting for a few moments when Tai bundled her up and pulled her in tight to hold her.

She screamed into her father’s chest.

At least, she thought she was screaming.

She couldn’t tell.

She wasn’t even there.

Because neither were Pyrrha, Jaune, Ren, or Nora.

6:47am

Yang hadn’t moved from the front porch in almost an hour, her dressing gown discarded and her mug of hot chocolate cold and untouched next to her leg. With her knees pulled up, she was resting her chin on them as she looked out at the sky numbly. According to the weather report, it was going to be a beautiful day, sunny and lovely, not too warm and not too cold.

Perfect training weather.

The reality of that thought hit with blunt edges, grinding its way into her chest like a dull saw blade, chewing into her bones, and she closed her eyes for a long moment as a few fresh tears appeared and went down her cheeks.

She should have been inside. Just because her parents had made it clear beyond all reason that she and Ruby would not be going to the scene at the mall, didn’t mean she shouldn’t be doing some sort of work.

Summer was indoors, she’d remained behind to be with them. But Saphron was inside too, unable to handle investigating the scene that took her little brother. Yang could hear the three of them, because Ruby was there too, sitting in the living room and alternating between talking quietly and just sitting in broken silence.

Yang wanted to go. She wanted to find the clues that would be there. To fix it. To solve it. To find it and kill it.

This was what they did, wasn’t it? This was the point, wasn’t it?

This was what they were meant to… stop, wasn’t it?

Yang kept her eyes closed as her chest twisted, and she let her head fall back and thump against the outer wall of the house.

The sound of a car pulling up was almost interesting enough to have her open an eye, but she didn’t care, instead hugging her knees to her chest. As she sniffled again, her next breath came out stuttered.

Footsteps came up the drive, slow and hesitant, and a stride she recognised. But she didn’t care enough to smile, didn’t care enough to open her eyes, didn’t care enough to even exist in the same world.

But she also didn’t fight it when Blake slowly sat down next to her, pressed close for comfort and company, but without smothering her.

Blake didn’t say anything. Yang didn’t either.

When Blake took her hand and raised it to her lips to press a light and sympathetic kiss to her knuckles, all Yang could muster was to squeeze.

They were going to solve this.

But not this morning.

Instead, Yang let her head fall forwards again, and wept.

Chapter Text

9:33pm

The moment the sun was completely down and the town of Silvercloud began to fall asleep, Blake ran off into the forest. In her half-shifted form she was fast enough to be a blur to any observers, causing a slight breeze as she passed, and sped through the trees at a pace not even her father could have kept up with in his prime.

She needed to get away. To escape the maze of concrete and metal that the human world was imprisoned by. She needed somewhere she could take a breath and hold it in for so long it burned her lungs.

So she grit her teeth as she stood in the middle of the small clearing she had found years ago, and squeezed her eyes shut as the pain built inside of her chest. Pressure crushed her lungs and made her head foggy as her instincts tore at her to breathe, but she held it for as long as she could force it.

Blake barely registered the sound of fabric ripping as she shifted further without meaning to, splitting her shorts, but the flexible material of her band shirt handled the swelling of her muscles for long enough she could quickly peel it off and toss it aside.

Even as her eyes leaked tears from the agony in her chest, she quickly kicked off her boots and the remains of her pants, discarding them to the side.

This was going to hurt, she wasn’t fully healed again yet. But she was already in agony anyway.

Underneath the clouds, in the serenity of the forest, Blake reached for the animal inside of herself and embraced the change. The familiar shock of her joints crunching almost broke her resolve and made her exhale, as her shoulders dislocated and shifted, and the feeling of her skin sprouting fur and the bones of her face extending and sharpening was nausea inducing. 

But it was a discomfort she owned, and had gotten used to years ago. Even though her arm hadn’t fully healed, and so protested painfully at the weight being put onto it as one of her legs, it only got a single flinch before she adjusted.

It was only once she was in her full wolf form, tall and powerful enough she would have been eye-level with an ordinary person, that she let out the desperate breath that had been tearing at her chest.

Raising her head up towards the sky, she howled.

The forest rippled as the sound echoed through it, leaves shaking on their branches and the soil itself vibrating from the sound. She’d made sure to be far enough away from all the other lycan communities that the new authority in the depths of her howl wouldn’t force any of them into their own transformations, but every ordinary animal in earshot awakened and perked up.

Blake closed her golden eyes as the sound ripped out of her lungs and throat and up into the sky, with tear streaks in her dark fur as the howl ran out of air and was wrung down into a whine. Then a whimper, as Blake sucked in another deep breath to clear the pounding from her head.

It hadn’t made her feel much better. Instead the comfort of going wild felt selfish and self-indulgent. There were a hundred other things she could have been doing instead, back in town.

With fresh killings, and these ones so brazen and in public, more clues would be available. And these ones had taken place completely exposed to the human world, right in the halls of one of the busiest buildings in the entire town.

Whatever was chewing its way through seemingly random creatures and people, was getting either bolder or desperate. Either reaching the final stretch of its plan, or running out of time. Neither was a good possibility.

And these killings were… muddy.

Four teenagers, torn apart in the mall so late at night. And of the four, only one’s heart had been removed, the other three had simply just been slaughtered and left behind.

…it didn’t feel right to think of them namelessly, as if they were separate from her soul like the fey couple and the leech had been.

These four were different.

Blake had seen them practically every day. She’d gotten drunk with Nora at parties. Had bumped into Ren a hundred times at the school library. Jaune and Pyrrha had been in different social circles than Blake, but Pyrrha had always been lovely and sweet, and Blake had known just how close she and Yang were.

Now they were gone, because Blake wasn’t working fast enough. Because she wasn’t smart enough. Because she was inexperienced. Because she wasn’t ready. Because the years she’d spent taking her father’s presence and authority for granted, she hadn’t paid as much attention to his lessons as she should have.

And now because she was too slow, too stupid to solve it all and to have caught whatever twisted fucking thing was doing this by now, things were getting so personal and so close to home that she felt like her insides were bleeding.

The look on her father’s face when he’d told her would haunt her for a long time. But it was nothing compared to how Yang had looked sitting on her front porch, and how Ruby’s tears had sounded coming from inside.

The dynamic duo that had been Yang and Pyrrha had been glued at the hip since daycare. So Blake wasn’t surprised that Yang was entirely extinguished and grey as she had sat down next to her that morning.

She’d never seen Yang so empty, utterly devoid of anything. But Yang had barely even been on the same plane of awareness, her eyes vacant and far away except for brief flickers of lucidity whenever there was a noticeable sound from indoors.

But she hadn’t rejected Blake’s company, even though her hand had been cold to hold, so Blake had simply held it against her own warmth and sat close enough that hopefully Yang got something from it.

There wasn’t much else she could offer, and that felt like a true betrayal.

Blake had hung around for as long as she felt like she was welcome, simply sitting quietly while Yang zoned in and out, and eventually Ruby had joined them on the porch to sit and simply be. From Ruby’s quiet words, they weren’t allowed to be anywhere near the rest of the Hunters having meetings about what had happened.

Things were too personal for them, their judgements would be askew, and apparently the adults had ruled that neither Ruby or Yang had the mental resilience to be able to handle it yet. They were too young.

So the three of them had simply sat on the porch as the sun had moved to midday, until Summer had stuck her head out to mention that Ren’s parents were coming over. A quick nod to Blake and a small smile had been an unspoken request for her to leave, so Blake had hugged Ruby one more time, pressed a final kiss to Yang’s silent and cold forehead, and then scampered.

To the credit of her own composure, she’d managed to drive halfway home before she’d needed to pull over to the side of the road to lean against her steering wheel, and cry for the first time that day.

It had then built like a pressure as the hours had passed and Blake had been either meeting with the other members of the pack, speaking with her father, or keeping up appearances as just a regular teenager who had lost friends. The moment the sky was dark, Blake had taken the first opportunity, and fled. 

A few stolen minutes was all she could justify, as she slowly shifted back to her human form and stood underneath the moonlight battling its way through the perpetual cloud cover. The wind was soothing on her naked body, the soil comforting under her feet, and her hair was loose enough to swirl in the slight breeze.

It was the most normal she ever felt, anymore. Ever since she was a kid, her parents had warned her that shifting too often could become addictive, and that as she reached her prime her connection to the wilds would start to mess with her human mind. But she didn’t care right now, as she crouched down to dig her fingers into the ground and grab a fistful of rich and dark earth.

The soil was soft in her grip as she squeezed it tight like a stress ball, the specks of dead leaves crinkling as they snapped, and after holding it for a moment she tipped her palm and allowed it all to drop back down silently.

While the Hunters had been charged with the protection of the human world, it was Blake’s people that were the wardens of the natural one. And right now, a perversion was spreading through both of them, tearing open wounds that were bleeding at the same rate they grew infected.

Blake looked down at the ground beneath her feet again, grinding a foot into it for comfort, before resigning herself to getting dressed and returning home. It was annoying to ruin another pair of pants, but her wardrobe was well stocked out of that exact necessity.

After pulling her shirt back on, Blake enhanced her form by partially shifting it again, and then sped back in the direction of home at the same speed.

When lights of civilization began to glimmer faintly in the distance, Blake slowed in her sprinting as her phone began to go off now that she was back in reception range. Plenty of the notifications were messages she’d expected; two updated reports from her father, a check-in from Ilia that she was ready for her patrol in the streets surrounding the train station, and two more members of her pack sending empty updates from their own patrols.

But the single text from Yang had Blake pause in her run entirely as she swiped it open and read it properly;

Little Dragon: Do you think I’m strong?

Blake frowned as she read over the message a few times, biting her bottom lip as she tried to figure out what sort of answer Yang was actually after. It wasn’t like Blake had seen her fight yet, so it obviously wasn’t about that. And everyone knew that Yang had always had a fiery temper, even though her fuse had lengthened as she’d grown up.

This was about the same sort of strength it had taken to give Blake a chance after finding out her secret. The strength it had taken to swallow down her hatred and agree to work with Weiss, trusting Ruby’s judgement. Which was something Blake knew she would never have been able to do in the same position.

It was about whether or not Yang was going to make it out the other side of all of this intact.

So Blake released her lip as she typed out her response and sent it off.

Lil Miss Kitty; You’re far stronger than I am. Definitely one of the strongest people I know.

While she waited for a reply, Blake walked the final distance to her backyard, her phone in her hand so she’d feel it vibrate the instant the text came through. But the minutes dragged by without anything, long enough that she was back in her bedroom changing into a pair of jeans when her phone buzzed where she’d tossed it down onto her unmade bed.

Buckling up her belt with one hand, Blake swiped the message open.

Little Dragon; Then I need your help. You free tonight?

Blake stared down with a blank expression for long enough her phone screen went dark, and she drummed her grip on it in response as she let her hand fall down by her side.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what Yang was planning. Just like it wasn’t hard to imagine the damage it would do to her psychologically if she wasn’t able to focus and stay on target. She was grieving, and her grief was turning into anger and desperation.

Which led to foolish decisions that could border on suicidal depending on the person. Blake knew that.

Just like she also knew that if she said no, Yang was going to do it anyway, with or without help or backup.

Blake clicked her phone unlocked again without raising it from her side, able to type out her reply without even looking at her screen as she instead closed her eyes and let her head fall back.

Lil Miss Kitty; Where am I meeting you?

Tossing her phone down, Blake was already mentally planning the break-in as she immediately undressed once more, to switch to darker clothes that were more flexible for if she needed to half-shift. She heard her phone vibrate on her bed as she pulled on a pair of strong boots, but instead of checking it straight away she took a moment to open her window and stick her head out.

She had a promise to keep, and responsibilities to fulfil and hold to. 

The hour wasn’t too late, and she knew everyone’s schedules, meaning it was a safe bet that she’d be overheard. So she put her fingers to her lips and let out a whistle, knowing it would carry through the air to whoever she was trying to call.

Thankfully neither of her parents were home, otherwise the sound of her sending out a Call would have made them curious, but Blake was completely in private. Her parents were busy dealing with the town council, as the chaos began to seep through the Shroud and become impossible to smother.

It was where she was meant to be as well, even just in the background to watch how it was done, but her parents hadn’t stopped her when she’d reached the end of her composure and needed to take off.

As she waited for either an answering call or her request to be obeyed, Blake quickly checked Yang’s message and sighed in concern.

Little Dragon; Down the end of my street? Ping me when you get there and we’ll head down.

Blake thinned her lips as she read it over, before sending off a simple agreement and sliding her phone into her pocket just as she heard the sound of someone scrambling up the tree outside of her window.

She stepped back to make room for Ilia to leap from the high branch and easily fit through in a motion she’d done a hundred times, landing on the carpet gracefully.

As Blake closed her window again now that she was through, Ilia straightened and looked Blake up and down, before raising her eyebrows at how her best friend was dressed. 

If Blake was in a set of her mission clothes, and she’d called to speak to her…

Ilia smiled excitedly as a rush of nerves went through her body, and she crossed her arms as Blake grabbed a leather jacket to throw on.

“Are we patrolling or hunting?”

“One for each of us.” Blake zipped her jacket up with a flourish, and checked that Ilia was dressed properly.

With it almost being time for her usual patrol, Ilia was thankfully already dressed in some of her own flexible and shadowed clothes, waiting for the time to head out. But Blake was already picking out who’d be taking her place tonight, and she pulled out her phone to reassign someone to Ilia’s post.

Ilia waited as Blake texted, but her foot was tapping nervously on the carpet, and her patience didn’t even make it ten seconds before snapping. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

“So it left a trail after... after last night?” Ilia’s voice caught as she mentioned it, and both girls paused in the same wave of grief, but they forced themselves to recover, Blake finishing the text as Ilia scrunched up the corner of her mouth. “What’s the plan? You actually going to tell me this time?”

It was a fair blow, but it still sank into Blake’s gut at the hurt and frustration in Ilia’s voice. Blake knew that she wasn’t supposed to act alone anymore, and that it was wrong for her to lock her family and her Second out of it all. But while before it had just been her nature and habit, now that Weiss was involved she didn’t have a choice.

The very notion that she was collaborating with two Hunters and a leech would horrify her people, even though it was necessary and for the good of the entire town. If it was just her secrets, then she would let Ilia in. But it wasn’t.

So she sighed and thinned her lips apologetically, and winced when Ilia growled in frustration. But there was an olive branch she could offer.

“There are some things I can’t tell you, not without permission from the other people involved. But if you do what I say tonight, I’ll get that permission so that I can bring you in properly.”

Blake meant it wholeheartedly, as well. If there was anyone she could trust with the details of what she was up to, it was Ilia. Hopefully Yang would be easy to convince and happy to accept more help, but Ruby and Weiss were going to be much harder. Especially because of whatever they had going on just between themselves.

But she would do her best. Frankly, they could use all the help they could get, and Ilia was perfect as Blake’s second in command for a multitude of well deserved reasons.

The sincerity in her eyes had Ilia pause to consider it, but she would obey regardless. It was just a matter of weighing up whether she’d do it willingly or just out of duty. Thankfully, they’d grown up together, so Ilia knew Blake well enough to eventually scowl and roll her eyes.

“Alright, fine. As long as you promise.” Ilia snorted lightly when Blake nodded in assurance, and relaxed, letting the frustration leave her shoulders. She placed a hand on her hip and gave Blake a nod. “Okay, so what are we doing?”

Blake sighed in relief when Ilia smiled, and she grabbed her car keys from her desk to spin around her finger as she led the way out into the hall and then downstairs, talking as she took the stairs two at a time.

“I’m heading to the mall to do my own sweep. But this is the least contained scene so far.”

Grunting in agreement, Ilia ignored the stairs to instead hop up onto the bannister and slide down, beating Blake to the bottom with a casual dismount. It was a habit she knew Blake’s parents would scold her for, but that didn’t make it less fun.

“Sure is. Not exactly the privacy of a house, or a place as small as a gas station.”

After giving Ilia a playfully reproachful look for sliding down the rail, Blake stepped aside so that Ilia could go through the front door first, before closing and locking it behind them. 

“Unfortunately. God this thing is getting bold.”

The air was dropping colder, the evenings always chilly now and the nights frigid enough that Ilia could see her breath with every exhale, so her nervous huff was visible as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket to keep them warm.

“Bold, or desperate. And both suck.”

Blake couldn’t help but feel a small comforting warmth as Ilia mirrored her thoughts from earlier. Ever since they were kids, they’d been on the same wavelength, though Ilia had always been slightly more emotional. Which she demonstrated with how anxious her grip was as she opened the passenger door to Blake’s car.

As she buckled up, Ilia looked over and bit her bottom lip as she watched Blake sort out her own thoughts. “So what am I doing, while you’re doing that? Do I get to come with?”

“There are some people I need you to track down for me tonight. To make sure they’re all where they’re supposed to be. People who you can’t let see you.” Blake gave Ilia a stern look as she turned the key in the ignition and her car rumbled to life, holding the stare as Ilia slowly nodded and took it seriously. “Four kids are dead, and my guess is all four were Hunter apprentices, and not just Jaune and Pyrrha. The adults aren’t going to be handling it as calmly as they have the others. I need to know where they all are.”

Ilia’s eyebrows shot up sky high at the instruction to actively track down and spy on full members of the Hunters Guild, but it wasn’t a totally unreasonable thought. While the Hunters Guild had been embedded in Silvercloud for years, this was a complete threat and attack on their status within the town.

Four kids were killed in one night, including the younger brother of Saphron Arc, one of the people the pack knew for sure was a fully established and sworn in Hunter. It had also always been an easy guess that Pyrrha was an apprentice, that was just a given. But if Nora and Lie Ren had been apprentices as well, that meant four members of the Guild had just been killed.

It didn’t matter how composed or disciplined an organization was, their behavior wouldn’t be the same now after that sort of blow. And if they went on the offensive and became actively aggressive in the town, that put every supernatural in danger.

Ilia let out a slow breath as she caught up to Blake’s own train of thought, and she slumped back in her seat.

This creature, this thing, was taking a wood axe to the status quo. If the Guild went on the offensive, the pack would have to defend themselves and some of the other communities. And who the hell could predict what the actual monsters would do if given any cracks to slither into.

Ilia shook her head numbly as she stared out of the window and watched the houses go by.

“...I really don’t envy you for having to think about all of this shit. Alright, I’ll track them all down.”

Blake didn’t reply, but her grip on the steering wheel did tighten.

This whole ordeal was her first conflict as the next leader of the pack, now that her father would soon be stepping back. And the universe hadn’t given her an easy transition or a simple first test.

Instead people were dying, and the Shroud was already on the edge of collapse. The mortals of Silvercloud wouldn’t be able to turn a blind eye forever, humanity wasn’t stupid, and soon they’d start asking questions. It was only a matter of time until whispers would start.

They had to stop all of this before the Shroud fell. And it seemed that the only hope they had was for the three major sources of tension that usually held the Shroud taut to put aside their differences and work together.

Once they reached the center of town on the way to the suburb where Yang lived, Blake pulled over to the side of the road so that Ilia could hop out and pick a direction to start her work in.

Ilia looked around the busy commercial street as she stretched her arms above her head and cracked her shoulders, sighing in satisfaction at the pops, before giving Blake a confident and reassuring nod.

“I’ll be at your place for dawn. Hourly check-ins, as usual?”

Blake nodded, tapping her hand lightly on the steering wheel, and tried to relax her own shoulders and release the tension that was determined to build up. “Every hour, on the hour. Start with the Cotta-Arc couple first.”

“You got it. Be careful, Blake.” Nodding, Ilia closed the car door with her foot and spoke through the open window, resting her weight on it for a moment. “Whatever this thing is, it hasn't taken one of our kind yet.”

That was a thought that had occurred to Blake already, and one she was refusing to dwell too long on for now. But the monster hadn’t done two attacks within the same twenty-four hour period yet, so it should be safe.

Blake nodded, when Ilia tapped a hand on the door in farewell and stepped back, and she pulled away from the curb to take the turn in the direction of Yang’s house.

10:17pm

The large dining hall of the Schnee mansion was completely filled, with only one chair at the long table left empty. It had been vacant ever since Rhodes Fall had vanished, leaving one chair unfilled, an absence that Weiss noticed every time there was a gathering of the Crimson Council.

But every other family was in attendance, the Primogens of each bloodline talking quietly amongst themselves as they sat and waited for Willow Schnee to light her candle and call the meeting to order.

Weiss watched silently from the side of the room, the rest of the Scions gathered together and used to pretending they hadn’t had their own meeting a few hours earlier. With Coco still twitching anxiously at her side, adjusting to the news of the demise of the beloved Pyrrha Nikos and three other classmates, Weiss risked the light movement of reaching out an inch and brushing her fingers along Coco’s as reassuring as she could manage.

They didn’t glance over at each other, instead standing to attention for if they were called upon by their parents for any reason, but Coco gratefully stroked Weiss’s fingers back just as gently for a moment as she settled. The rest of the coterie were shaken as well, with only Neopolitan and Ciel having any steadiness to their postures.

Every time there was a death it was slowly creeping closer to home. First Miltia, the twin sister of Melanie Malachite who was the scion of the Malachite line, and now four classmates of the coterie members yet to graduate.

Nobody knew what to think, the Primogens confused enough they’d actually called the Scions to come in for a meeting of the Council, just in case one of them somehow had pertinent information.

But Weiss knew that none of them had anything. Melanie, Arslan and Reese were scouring the town every spare hour they could snatch, but they hadn’t found any trail that Weiss hadn’t already beaten them to.

The only member of the coterie missing was Emerald. The Sustrai family weren’t formally recognized as one of the Lines, so didn’t have a seat at the table, meaning Emerald was free of any of the more political intricacies and obligations of their world.

It was a freedom that Weiss sometimes envied. Eventually she would inherit her mother’s position as the head of the Crimson Council once Willow decided to retire, and she would also inherit the business side of the Schnee estate and all of its wealth and assets, and then she would never be free.

That wasn’t important right now, considering it required making it out of the threat that was lacerating the town and taking a razor to the Shroud, and the security it provided.

Weiss clenched her jaw for a moment as a flicker of anxiety went through her, only to then mildly startle when she felt a hand on her back. Slowly and discretely glancing over her shoulder, she gave a small smile to Ciel, who smiled back sadly and rubbed for a moment before dropping her hand again.

The larger movement seemed to give the rest of the coterie momentary permission to look around at each other, making eye contact one by one as they took in each other’s expressions. All of them were tense and uncertain, and Weiss tried her best to reassure each of them with a set stare.

It didn’t work as much as she wished it did, and her head whipped in the direction of the head of the table when her mother tapped her fork on the side of her glass to gain everyone’s attention.

At her mother’s nod, Weiss reached back and flicked the lightswitch off, plunging the room into darkness. One by one, the Primogens of each family struck matches and lit their candles, speaking the same words;

“ Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.”

Luckily none of the adults heard as each scion whispered the words to themselves as well and made the same pledge. It wasn’t their place, not yet, but the coterie had seemingly stopped caring about tradition a year ago when each of them had started taking their first kill a few years too early.

Weiss whispered the words to herself, closing her eyes as if she was speaking a prayer, before opening them and folding her hands behind herself to listen as her mother called the meeting to order.

The news wasn’t surprising; the Eight Lines had absolutely nothing. No new clues, no new leads, absolutely nothing to offer. The frustration on Willow’s face was clear as she called upon each Primogen one by one to speak their mind, only to get nothing new to add to their small pile of intelligence.

There was only one new thing to consider; the police report from the mall, and the photos of the scene. 

When Willow nodded to Weiss again, Weiss picked up a pile of folders from the counter behind herself and walked around the table, handing one to each Primogen. Everyone watched her quietly as she moved around and silently handed everything out, and despite how much she tried she couldn’t fully ignore the looks.

Every Primogen all looked at her the same way the past year.

They all knew their scions had all awakened and were fully embraced, now. Even though they had all broken the edicts, and had certainly faced consequences, now the scions were all held in almost equal regard by their Primogens.

Except for Weiss.

The Schnee scion. The weak scion. The one who was supposed to one day inherit her mother’s chair since Winter was banished, but barely held enough authority to act like a secretary at a council meeting.

With every passing month as their own scions grew more powerful from feeding and training with their abilities, the pity and dismissal for Weiss grew more palpable as she fell further and further behind.

When the scions had all been like her, Weiss had been more than capable of taking on even the stubborn likes of Reese or Arslan in a battle of wills, easily dominating and reaffirming her position. Even in the few times it had required violence.

In fact she had taken on each one of the coterie on more than one occasion growing up, as hormones and petty teenage disagreements had occasionally made them forget their place.

But now the thought of baring her teeth at any of them felt like a suicide mission that would only end in utter humiliation.

Every Primogen looked at her in either pity or dismissal as she quietly obeyed her mother’s silent command. Even if she had been awakened she would have obeyed, but apparently the distinction between obeying as a weakling and obeying as an equal mattered.

Weiss finished handing out the folders to the Primogens, ending with her mother who didn’t even give her a glance, and then quickly returned to her coterie.

Where, for the first time, they were being let in on things as well without having to ask permission.

Weiss gave each of them a folder, meeting their eyes one by one, before keeping one for herself and returning to her place. When her mother opened her own folder, it was permission for everyone to do the same.

Only Weiss and Melanie hesitated before opening the folders and peering through the reports and photographs inside.

The images, captured raw and fresh, had Weiss clench tight as horror and nausea rushed through her body and danced together like a cocktail of rot and venom. She closed her eyes tight and turned her head away slightly, but the images had seared onto her eyelids and refused to fade.

The sight of Pyrrha’s open eyes, blank green, stared back at her.

A few places down from her, Reese swore audibly to herself as she flicked through the photos with shaky fingers, the first member of the coterie whose composure properly broke. Her eyes were wide in horror as she took in the state that each of the four had been left in.

Melanie was the next to fold, the sight of Pyrrha’s face too fresh a reminder of how her sister had looked, and she closed her folder with a flick of her wrist and placed it back on the counter they were all in front of. The moment Melanie’s hands were back by her sides, Neopolitan reached out and took one to squeeze tightly, their own folder discarded so their other hand could hold one of a silent and wide-eyed Arslan’s.

It wasn’t a surprise to any of them that Ciel held steady, her eyes quickly reading through the reports with a speed and comprehension that none of the others stood a chance of keeping up with. But Weiss could see the tightness in her jaw all the same.

Meanwhile none of the Primogens flinched, instead murmuring between each other. Weiss tried not to judge them for the uncaring coldness, and she failed miserably, a spark of anger hitting her chest.

Their kind were hunters of humanity, of course. But did that really mean they couldn’t have any compassion for a death so cruel? The four teenagers hadn’t been killed for food or survival, instead they’d been killed to be used.

But none of the adults, the heads of the ancient families, showed a speck of empathy as they whispered to each other.

Weiss had to fight not to crumple the folder in her hands as her fists wanted to clench in anger, dark tears beading in the corner of her eyes until she managed to force them back with a deep and steadying breath.

It took a force of will that almost buckled her knees, but Weiss forced her rage and grief away, and looked down at her folder again to flick through the reports and start reading properly. Cross-referencing with photos of the scenes, Weiss’s lips moved silently along with the words as she frowned.

For the first time, there were no runes. Nothing neat or ritualistic. Instead Nora and Ren had simply been dispatched, and poor Jaune had been brutalizer and seemingly displayed. And as for the scene around Pyrrha…

The girl had somehow put up one hell of a fight, from what the photographs showed. Scraps of ripped metal, bullet casings, and splatters of blood littered the scene at the escalators where Pyrrha’s body had been found.

She hadn’t won, and just like those before her…her heart had been removed.

But there were no runes. No markings left. Her heart had simply been cut out of her chest with a jagged piece of metal, the job rushed and unclean.

Weiss glanced down the line of her coterie at Reese and Melanie, both girls whispering to each other, and when they felt Weiss’s stare they looked over at her with the same expression. They didn’t even need to hear the instruction, they simply both nodded in agreement.

As soon as this meeting was dismissed, they were breaking into the morgue to look at Pyrrha properly, with a vampire’s eye and not a mortal’s. Something was different about Pyrrha that had made the creature take her heart while leaving Jaune, Ren, and Nora with theirs.

Only Pyrrha had been harvested that way.

Also unlike the scene at the gas station, where the bodies of the human witnesses had been taken and were yet to be found, the three other victims at the mall had been left behind. Jaune’s body was found in the security office, and Ren and Nora were found near one of the other escalators.

Weiss closed her eyes to think, trying to piece it all together. But this wasn’t her specialty, she wasn’t any sort of investigator or crime scene expert. This was Ruby and Yang’s area of expertise.

The thought of the sisters had Weiss clench her jaw to suppress a sympathetic sigh as her chest briefly ached. Everybody knew how close Yang and Pyrrha had been, and Pyrrha was one of the few people that Ruby openly lit up when socializing with.

Ruby hadn’t answered Weiss’s call that afternoon when she’d tried to reach out to check on her, and there hadn’t been any replies to her texts, but she wasn’t surprised or offended.

It just made her sad.

One by one, the Primogens offered their opinions of the reports and the scene;

‘It’s disgraceful.’ from Coco’s father, the Primogen of the Adels.

‘It’s bizarre.’ from Ciel’s older brother.

‘How wasteful, how strange.’ from Melanie’s mother. A woman who had been shattered by the death of her daughter, now utterly indifferent to a human suffering the same fate.

Weiss grew angrier and angrier as they circled the table, getting everyone’s opinions, and her eyes lingered on the empty chair of the Fall family. She’d known Primogen Rhodes Fall well, from being close friends with his daughter and scion Cinder, so she knew in her chest that Rhodes would have been the most sympathetic of the bunch.

But without his voice of empathy, the Crimson Council had grown colder and more detached than it had been in generations. A level of coldness that Weiss was trying her best to stop her own coterie from sinking to, so that when they took over the Council they’d fix it.

Her anger for the disregard had her clenching her jaw so tight her teeth ground together, and Coco looking over at her in concern didn’t do anything to assuage the fire in her blood and the snarling of her Beast.

Maybe she and Pyrrha hadn’t been friends, but they’d always had a good word for each other. Pyrrha was invited to every party and always showed up, even if just to make a polite appearance with a donation to the food or drink stock and then popping out again with a smile. She had been on the student council, always neat and friendly even when the dumbest arguments broke out.

It wasn’t just the fate of Pyrrha that had her burning. Weiss felt anger and grief for the others as well. She’d barely known the three of them, barely ever spoken a word to them, but she’d seen them almost every day since she was five years old.

Even on the periphery, they were threads in the tapestry that was her life story thus far. And now those threads had been severed, too early and too unfairly.

Nausea and rage broiled in her chest, her Beast shifting restlessly in its slumber as it threatened to rouse. She’d fed before the meeting, knowing she’d need the strength, and she was thankful that the ring from Emerald worked, but anger was always enough to cause her monster to stir.

Weiss was jolted out of her thoughts when her phone vibrated in the back pocket of her trousers. Considering the sanctity of the meeting, she’d turned it to silent, but the vibration still made enough of a noise that the coterie members closest to her looked at her because of it.

Frowning in confusion, with pretty much everyone who ever called her currently being in the same room, Weiss felt a shiver of anxiety as she pulled her phone from her pocket and glanced down at the name on the screen.

The moment she saw Blake’s name, her number only recently added after their meeting and the arrangement being made, Weiss’s eyes widened. There would only be two things that Blake would ever call her about; the mystery, or the sisters, and both possibilities had Weiss look over at Neopolitan and nudge them to get their attention.

Completely unbothered and seemingly unstartled by the sudden touch, Neopolitan took their attention off the meeting enough to glance between Weiss’s face and where she was clutching her phone to her chest, and they then narrowed their eyes.

All of the coterie had been growing increasingly suspicious of her, and Weiss knew that. But for now at least they all still respected her more than they doubted her. So when Weiss thinned her lips in a silent plea, Neopolitan rolled their eyes in resignation before nodding slowly. 

With barely a twitch from them, small tendrils crawled out of the corner of Neopolitan’s eyes as they roused their beast, and they let out a quiet exhale as they called upon its power.

Silently, a slight shimmer went over Weiss’s skin as if she was momentarily made of stained glass, and when she stepped back she deflated in relief when she left an illusion of herself in her place. She gave Neopolitan a grateful nod as she stepped away, and silently left the room and went out into the hallway.

Closing the door to the dining hall as quietly as she could, Weiss called Blake back and raised her phone to her ear.

“You caught me at the most awkward time imaginable. What’s going on, Blake?”

Blake didn’t bother with any pleasantries or apologies. Instead she sounded tense, every word bitten off anxiously. “Awkward enough you can’t get away?”

“...it would depend on what for.” Weiss frowned as she glanced at the dining hall door. None of her coterie had been sent to check on her, which meant her escape hadn’t been noticed. “Is something wrong?”

There was a pause, but Weiss could hear Blake take in a slow breath as she considered the situation herself, and when she spoke again her voice was so rich in uncertainty that Weiss’s eyebrows shot up.

But despite the uncertainty, Blake’s tone was firm.

“Meet us at the mall. We’re going in.”

Weiss’s eyes widened at the idea. The thought of seeing that horrific sight in person, even though the bodies had been moved, made her stomach churn. And it was immediately followed up by horror at the thought of Ruby being exposed to it so quickly.

“Is that a good idea?? Ruby-”

“Is following Yang, who won’t change her mind.” Blake gave a frustrated huff, clearly recently defeated in that exact argument. “We either go with them as back-up, or she and Ruby are going alone. Are you in?”

Weiss bit her lip as she thought about it, glancing at the closed door again where her superiors in the Council, and the members of her own coterie, were on the other side.

This was the first time since the Fall line had disappeared that Weiss and the other scions had been called into a council meeting. It was a big step given to them, a chance to speak up and make their voices heard, and prove themselves.

Despite the dark reason for it, Ciel had been practically salivating for a chance to speak as an equal of her brother for the first time. And Melanie also had choice words for them, at their failures at avenging her sister.

But the council didn’t need Weiss.

They’d all made that clear in their own ways. None of her coterie intended to demonstrate it, she knew that. And she knew they all loved her and respected her, they’d all been friends their entire lives.

But the attitude of their Primogens was starting to leak down to their scions, as they all watched Weiss fall behind.

While Coco wasn’t the strongest or fastest, that position easily went to Emerald with the only slight competition being Reese, she had started acting more and more like Weiss’s equal. And Reese and Arslan had both been disobeying occasional orders again as well.

It made Weiss’s beast livid and borderline feral at times, but it wasn’t a fight that Weiss would win if she challenged them on it and it came to that. They had her outmatched in terms of power. Far outmatched.

She was the last one to awaken. The last one still following the rules, despite her mother’s permission and active pressure to do it just so she would be able to reassert her control again. And until she did, she was the weakest. Just her mother’s occasional secretary.

But if she could solve the case, catch the monster, and dispose of the threat, that would cement her position properly. The Crimson Council would listen to her, just like they were meant to. She could earn their respect without damning the thin shreds of a soul she had.

Weiss closed her eyes, a pained lump briefly in her chest as she nodded.

“I need to organize a distraction, but I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Alright. See you soon, then.” Blake didn’t wait for Weiss to reply before hanging up, which didn’t bother Weiss even though Blake likely wanted it to.

It was petty, and Weiss couldn’t help but smirk for a moment as she slid her phone into her pocket again and rolled her eyes. This dynamic between her and Blake was certainly going to be an interesting one until this was all over and it was time to find out whose town Silvercloud really was.

For now though, they had mutual interests, so Weiss slowly opened the door to the dining hall again and slipped inside, hopefully unnoticed.

It was time to ask Neopolitan for quite the favor when it came to holding the illusion in place for the next few hours, and thankfully it was almost a certainty that Weiss wouldn’t be called upon for the rest of the meeting.

After all, it wasn't like they needed her.

11:20pm

The entirety of the mall was still taped off and closed up, without even a humming from the air conditioning or the flickering of some of the parking lot lights normally left on at all hours. Instead the normally bustling complex was dark and silent in the night, abandoned and avoided.

It was like even birds and rodents had fled from the dark aura that was wrapped around it, repelling anything resembling life or normalcy. The sight of it was just different now, despite the exterior having been completely untouched. But there was something disconcerting, something simply wrong.

Ruby bit her lip as she stared up at the building, sitting on the hood of Blake’s car as they waited for Weiss to arrive. Dressed in her complete combat gear, with all of her knives and the pouches along her belt, she would have cut an intimidating figure to any outsider who got a view of her.

There was no longer any pretense that she was a normal girl. No tatty jeans and band shirts. Her black and red hair was combed back to stay out of her face, instead of being allowed to stick up messily. Dark lines of makeup went along her face to remove glare from her cheeks and help her night vision, while also obscuring her pale profile.

Next to her, clicking bolts into the launcher on her right wrist, Yang was dressed similarly in her own armored leathers. The stripped bare versions of her wrist launchers she was able to wear under her casual jackets had been replaced by the reinforced ones she hunted with, powerful enough to pierce concrete and accurate enough she was able to hit a bullseye from across their basement.

Yang’s eyes had been dark red since dawn, not a speck of lilac to be seen, but the rest of her face was sealed and blank as she kept her emotions as buried as she could manage. They were going to need every drop of self control they could wrench from themselves, to survive this.

While the bodies of their friends had already been moved and taken to the morgue, and the mortal police had swept the scene, the mall was going to be closed for a few more days while every inch was picked over.

But they wouldn’t be able to keep the mall closed forever, so the Hunters only had a brief window to work. Yang and Ruby knew that Tai, Raven, and Ren’s parents had done their own sweep the previous night, but they hadn’t shared what they’d learned.

They were determined to keep the sisters out of it, for their own mental wellbeing. This case was simply too close and personal. The loss was too real and raw.

There wasn’t any time for that, as far as Yang was concerned. It was naïve, and condescending, and unwarranted. So hurt and anger at her parents and tutors boiled in her chest as she clicked the final bolt into the magazine, and then loaded it into her launcher for it to snap into place.

The sound was loud enough that Blake looked over from where she was pacing quietly, her arms folded and her eyes were closed in thought as she instead focused on her sense of hearing. She’d given up the fight to make the sisters change their minds, it had been a losing struggle from the start that had only served to piss Yang off and make Ruby glare.

Blake sighed as she opened her eyes and looked over at where the two of them were waiting silently, Ruby not even twitching or fidgeting at all. She hadn’t said a word unless one of them addressed her directly, her eyes a dull grey and her lips in a thin and pale line.

Neither of them were going to budge, and Blake was absolutely not going to let them go in alone.

All three of them turned to look over the length of the completely empty parking lot as another car pulled in, the driver not even bothering to pull into a proper space before turning off the ignition and stepping out.

For the first time, Weiss wasn’t dressed casually. No tidy trousers or cute skirt, no blouse or simple pull-over. Instead her own dark grey leather jacket was tight on her body, her black boots still expensive but tough and tall instead of fancy, and Blake could tell that Weiss’s pants were just as flexible as her own.

Weiss was dressed to move at her full supernatural capability if she needed to, and even her long white hair was tied back in a tight bun so it didn’t hang free and in the way. 

There were traces of makeup still on her face, and Blake’s sensitive nose picked up the faint scent of perfume that Weiss had mostly washed off, so whatever they’d interrupted her in had clearly been formal. But she didn’t look bothered or put out, instead her face was tight in pure focus as she crossed the parking lot at a walk slightly faster than a human would be capable of.

As she got closer, all three of them saw that her bestial traits were already mostly exposed, with her eyes pitch black and her fangs extended enough to be dangerous. Weiss had no intention of spending precious energy locking herself away, not in this.

It was a sentiment that Blake agreed with, considering her own eyes were in dark feline slits, and her teeth felt slightly too large for her mouth. But she wouldn’t shift any further unless she had to.

Weiss and Blake met each other’s eye for a moment and shared a simple nod of agreement; no point pretending to be normal, considering the sisters weren’t trying either.

While Weiss’s arrival simply had Yang stand and tighten the final strap of her right launcher, giving the vampiress a single nod of welcome and managing a miniscule smile of gratitude, Ruby instead stepped over quietly and let out a shaky breath.

“...hey.”

Weiss sighed sadly at the emptiness in Ruby’s tone, the sheer weight in it, and she hesitated for a moment before placing a hand on Ruby’s arm and squeezing. “Hi. Are you ready?”

The lack of pity or doubt had Ruby relax slightly, having braced for it, but Weiss’s eyes were determined and trusting. So she nodded slowly, a hand dropping to brush along her knives, and looked over at the dark building.

But she didn’t move, instead waiting for Yang to break the limbo.

They had to let Yang set the pace.

So, Yang took a deep breath, and led the walk over to a staff entrance, before gesturing for Ruby to grab her lockpicks and get it open. They were both capable lockpickers, but Ruby was slightly faster at it. While Ruby quickly got to work, Yang looked to Weiss and gave another nod.

“...thanks. For coming.”

“Of course, Yang. Thank you for the invitation.” Weiss nodded back with a small smile, before sobering and stepping back to look over the outside of the mall with a frown. “So, what’s the process for this? You’re the professional.”

Yang raised an eyebrow at what was almost a compliment, and smirked when Weiss rolled her eyes. But there wasn’t time for anything jovial, so she frowned deeply in thought as Ruby got the door open and she stepped through, patting her sister on the shoulder in thanks as she passed.

Both humans grabbed flashlights from their belts to click on as they entered, meanwhile Blake and Weiss simply focused on their eyes and shifted them further.

Blake’s night vision was brighter, but she saw in greyscale, meanwhile Weiss could make out color but the outlines weren’t as sharp. Both came in use, and they let themselves share an amused look as they took in each other’s appearance.

One strange benefit of their partnership was how abilities that they would normally take advantage of in each other, instead covered shortcomings they might have. So Blake scanned the ceilings, and memorised where each dormant security camera was, while Weiss instead kept her eyes on the floor tiles, and peered through shop windows.

Yang and Ruby swept their flashlights in careful beams as they took in everything, refusing to dismiss a single detail as irrelevant. The entire mall had been shut down, of course, but the police had swarmed over it and there was no telling what they’d disturbed.

They had entered from the west parking lot, which meant crossing the entire complex to get to where they knew the bodies of their friends had been found, and each step was absolute torture as the sounds echoed through the empty halls.

Still with the same deep frown, Yang bit down on her tongue to ground herself as her breaths began to catch and the flashlight began to tremble in her grip, and she sped up in her pace.

As the escalators leading up to the second level came into sight, the four of them stopped, each of them knowing what sight was waiting for them first;

Where Ren and Nora had been found.

They all turned to Weiss, who bit her lip and stepped forward, before closing her eyes and breathing in through her nose. As she picked up the scent of blood, she felt ill when her beast stirred even despite the source, and clenched her fist by her side even as she nodded.

“They didn’t clean up everything.”

Yang nodded, clenching her jaw for a moment and holding it so tight it bulged, before looking between the others with as much determination and focus as she could muster despite the approaching circumstances.

“Okay. Weiss, smell out the traces of blood and map the perimeter of the spread. If they put up a fight, we need to know how much movement they got. Blake, you know their scent so backtrace their steps. They were on security but I doubt they just got surprised on a patrol route.” Yang nodded when the two girls straightened, Blake immediately nodding in agreement while Weiss instead raised an eyebrow at being ordered around but otherwise didn’t protest. Turning to her sister, Yang sighed resignedly. “I’ll handle sketches and scene reconstruction, you’re on-”

“Forensics and evidence scrounging, as per usual.” Ruby rolled her eyes with a shrug.

It didn’t really bother her, she knew Yang was better at scene analysis and had a better eye for it, meanwhile she had the slightly more delicate hand and better knack for finding the smaller clues.

When it came to actively tracking down monsters on a patrol, Ruby knew that she had the edge, but when it came to analyzing scenes and actual occult lore Yang left her in the dust.

So she shrugged and nodded, before following silently as Yang put the first foot on the still escalator and hesitated for a final moment.

No turning back. No saving the last dregs of their innocence, past this point.

Yang closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh as she shored up her resolve, the corners of her eyes stinging as an agonizing poison tried to crawl up from her gut and swim between her ears and underneath her skin.

The grief felt like her body was hesitating right on the edge of developing a fever. Uncomfortable and painful, but with nothing to scratch or burn off.

But her innocence had been doomed the moment she’d chosen this line of work, and she knew that, so with a squaring of her shoulders and without looking back at the others she led the way up to the second floor.

As soon as the four of them emerged and had to duck under a barrier of yellow tape, they froze as they looked around at what had been left behind after Ren and Nora had been torn apart.

The bodies had been taken away and the worst of the gore had been cleaned up after the initial scene investigation, but almost everything else had been left behind, with streaks on the tiles and the window of one of the nearby shops shattered. Not even the spray of glass shards had been swept away.

The smell of blood was palpable even to Ruby and Yang, so Ruby wasn’t surprised when Weiss suppressed a pained whimper and gasp next to her as she had to swallow down the desire to lick her lips and drown in the scent.

She couldn’t help it, and Ruby knew that. But Weiss held strong and simply forced herself to straighten up, her eyes dark and sealed tight. While Ruby was battling nausea, she knew Weiss was battling hunger. And as monstrous as that was, as sick as it made Ruby feel, she watched as Weiss slammed a thick door over that part of herself and slid the deadbolt.

Even though instructions had been given, none of them moved. Instead they simply stared around at the scene, each of them unable to stop their own minds from reassembling things.

They saw the blood, the carnage, the frozen imagination of the state their friends had been left in.

Ruby closed her eyes as a sob crawled up her throat, and she turned away, putting a hand over her mouth as she squeezed her eyes shut as tight as possible. The blood all around her wasn’t like that of the gas station or the abandoned house, this wasn’t the blood of strangers or monsters.

This was the blood of two friends she’d grown up with. Friends she’d sparred with, sat in class with, gone on roadtrips with. Friends she’d convinced herself she’d grow old fighting evil with.

There was no way that Nora Valkyrie, strong and talented and a force of nature, would have died so easily and so casually. There was no way that careful and composed Lie Ren would have let himself be so easily outmatched, and tossed aside.

Bile shot up from her gut, but she clamped down on it with a sob and a grunt, her legs buckling under the weight of it as she put all of her weight on the nearest wall.

Meanwhile Yang’s eyes remained wide open as she looked around, blood red irises sweeping over every spot of crimson she could find, imprinting it all onto her memory. There was no nausea in her body, only rage and fire as her grip on her flashlight tightened to the point the metal creaked.

She glanced over when Ruby straightened up and stepped back over, and the sisters shared a long and agonized look for a moment, Ruby’s face pallid and ill while Yang’s showed only barely restrained wrath.

Yang reached over with her free hand and placed it on Ruby’s back, digging her fingers in and anchoring for a moment.

“You okay?”

“No. God no.” Ruby sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, straightening up as the air left her lungs, and raised her flashlight again even as she kept eye contact. “Are you?”

Yang’s silence was answer enough as she thinned her lips and slid her grip from Ruby’s back to around her shoulders, pulling her in for a moment, and she looked over when Blake placed her hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

The werewolf was keeping an eye out, constantly scouring so the sisters were safe to take a moment, but she gave Yang a quick glance filled with enough compassion and pain on her behalf that it was almost suffocating to look at.

As the three of them took a moment to find comfort and ground themselves once more, Weiss stepped forward and looked around, turning in a slow circle as she took in the amount of blood that was splattered and where it was concentrated. Her sharp sense of smell picked up every streak and drop, her mind painting a picture of it around her with splashes of red on canvas, and it had her bite her lip.

There was blood from Nora and Ren, but nothing else. From the blood evidence alone, neither of them had managed to land a single hit on their adversary. Not enough to cause it to bleed, at least. And the blood was concentrated, the splashes weren’t particularly violent or massive, nothing savage in the slices that had scattered it all.

The attacks had been controlled, more like what something like a vampire or mimic would do instead of something more bestial like a lycan or ghoul. Immense damage, but focused and direct.

Blood had poured from deep wounds, not been sprayed from large lacerations.

Weiss chewed her lip harder as she slowly walked around the scene, barely noticing as the other three got to work, with Blake slowly wandering off in the direction she could track Nora and Ren’s scents.

The photos of the bodies that had been in the folder had shown first sights of what had been done to Ren and Nora, and Weiss could recognize the sort of attacks. So she wandered over to where Ruby and Yang were crouched and working, with Yang jotting down a constant stream of notes in a notebook.

When Weiss approached, Yang looked up from her notes and raised her eyebrows, before a shiver of anxiety went through her at the apprehensive and hesitant wince on Weiss’s face.

“What did you find…?”

“Yang, I’m sorry, but…” Weiss looked around one last time before shaking her head slowly. “This wasn’t a fight. Not really.”

Yang blinked in confusion while Ruby straightened up from nearby as she overheard, and she flipped her notebook closed so she could give Weiss her full attention as she frowned deeply.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…look around, Yang. You’re the expert.” Weiss slowly gestured over the space with a single hand, her face tight as Yang narrowed her eyes and looked around. “Whatever this was, they didn’t hurt it.”

As soon as Weiss pointed it out, Yang’s mind began to reconstruct the scene as she looked around. The glass from the broken window flew back into place, a broken garbage can righted itself, and she stepped into the center to look around at the most obvious splatters and dried streaks of blood.

Slowly walking a circuit of the perimeter that Weiss had confirmed, gradually tightening it in a spiral as she worked her way inwards, Yang knew the others were watching her as she worked. Blake had returned at some point, having backtracked Ren and Nora’s scent to the food court.

Pyrrha’s scent was present as well, but only faintly. She’d passed through, and apparently she’d been radiating adrenaline according to Blake’s senses, but she hadn’t been with Nora and Ren when they’d died.

They were one floor away, one escalator, from where Pyrrha had died. Whether or not she’d been trying to get away from the danger, or get to it, they’d figure out once they moved on to that spot.

But for now the three of them watched as Yang worked, her mind racing and clicking everything together, and when she reached the bloody spot where Nora had been found she dropped to a crouch and reached down to run her fingers along the tiles.

Every muscle was shaking, her entire form quivering as she finished reconstructing it, and she closed her eyes as tears pooled in the corners of them.

Weiss was right. Ren had been cut down where he’d been standing, and Nora had only managed a few paces before something had intercepted her with enough opposite momentum that blood from the wound had been carried by it, causing a splatter.

When she crouched where one of her best friends had died, Yang’s fingers scratched into the tiles underneath her touch as she trembled, her breaths reduced to pathetic rapid gasps that were giving her such little oxygen her head began to swim.

The moment she heard a footstep of Ruby taking a step forward, she shot up straight and barged past the three of them in the direction of the escalator.

The others knew where she was going, and after glancing at each other for a split second they all raced after her, Ruby grabbing onto Yang’s hand to pull her to a stop violently enough that Yang pivoted on her foot and jolted.

“Yang! Stop. Take a moment.”

“We can’t. We don’t have time.” Yang growled as she pulled against Ruby’s grip, before stopping at the sight of the tears running down Ruby’s own cheeks. 

While Ruby didn’t have her level of skill at reconstruction, she’d seen enough of the grief on Yang’s face to make a few guesses. And it had her insides tearing themselves apart as she thought over it.

She had sat next to Nora in half a dozen different classes over the years, they’d trained together as regularly as Yang trained with Pyrrha, and she’d been cut down without a struggle.

It had every blood cell wanting to turn to sludge inside of her veins, and she used a burst of strength to pull Yang in and wrap her arms around her middle tightly, resting her forehead on Yang’s chest.

Yang immediately bundled her up and held her tight in response, the instinct and reflex more powerful than her rage and grief, and she squeezed her own eyes shut as she pressed a kiss to the top of Ruby’s head and held her tightly. She didn’t resist when Blake began running fingers through her hair, instead leaning into the touch in a need for the comfort.

The moment shattered when Weiss sucked in a gasp, and they all looked over at where her eyes were wide and her fingers were twitching into claws at her sides.

Ruby extracted herself from Yang and stepped over.

“...Weiss?”

The sound of her name snapped Weiss back out of where she’d been taking constant deep breaths in through her nose, and she shot the others a feral and eager look as she stormed up the escalator.

“I can smell something. I can smell blood. She got it.”

Weiss vanished from sight up the escalator, Ruby right behind her, and Blake and Yang glanced at each other for a moment before Blake simply shrugged helplessly and took Yang’s hand for her to lead the way.

Even though the contact was a warm surprise, Yang only gave a light squeeze as she tugged Blake up the escalator, already sucking in a deep breath to brace herself for what she knew was coming as she emerged into the small corridor.

Blood was far more present here, with splashes on the walls and a dried pool of it right in the middle of the floor. Weiss was frozen as she stared down at it, but her eyes didn’t have any hunger, simply sadness as she took in the outline of it.

The sisters hadn’t seen the crime scene photos, not like she had. They had no way of knowing just what Pyrrha had looked like when she’d been found laying in that spot, her eyes still open wide and a savage hole in her chest.

Bullet holes were dotted around the walls, and metal plating was ripped from one of the escalator casings. Tiles had been cracked, the roof was dented, every square foot of the small corridor showed signs of a fight.

It was a scene just as violent as the gas station, without quite as much collateral due to there being far less to smash or shatter.

But Weiss could tell that Pyrrha had somehow put up a fight almost as ferociously as Miltia had managed.

When Ruby began to tremble next to her, she immediately grabbed her hand and held it tight, and she didn’t complain when Ruby squeezed back with all of her strength. She was mostly just surprised that Ruby had accepted the touch at all. So, turning to face where Ruby was staring around with wide eyes and her bottom lip between her teeth, Weiss pushed her luck by pulling her into a hug.

“Oh Ruby…I’m sorry…” Weiss spoke quietly, humming in permission when Ruby latched onto her and clung tightly. “I’m so sorry.”

There was an unintelligible mumble as Ruby whispered into her jacket, the words impossible to make out, but Weiss could guess the gist when Ruby grabbed her tighter and burrowed into her neck.

Weiss closed her eyes as she held her, before freezing when she felt Ruby twisting her fingers behind her back. A comforting twitch, a mindless fidget, as Ruby mindlessly played with the ring on her finger, turning it back and forth on her skin.

The ring on Weiss’s own finger was a constant presence, a touch she couldn’t quite ignore or stop feeling, and knowing Ruby felt the same had her let out a staggered breath and hold her tighter, selfishly and greedily.

Yang was in just as bad a shape as she looked around, still holding Blake’s hand, and her notebook hanging down by her other side. The sight of the affection between Ruby and Weiss hadn’t even entered her consciousness as she looked around, immediately dismissed as utterly useless information compared to what was splashed out in every direction.

Her skin was pale, the blood drawn out of it and making the red of her eyes stand out even sharper, as she numbly looked around at the hall where her best friend had been murdered.

Her best friend’s blood covered the floor and walls, damage on the tiles and in the plaster where she’d been thrown around and broken. There was a pool of blood almost directly under Weiss and Ruby’s feet where she’d laid dead.

Even though she hadn’t seen the photos, since Summer and Tai had locked them away specifically to make sure neither she or Ruby got a glimpse, Yang’s imagination was all too willing to conjure up its own interpretation and shove it behind her eyelids to sit there forever.

With a numbness to the movement, Yang released Blake’s hand, dropped her notebook, turned to the corner of the corridor, and violently threw up.

She dropped to her knees heavily enough it was a thump as loud as a hammer, causing Weiss and Ruby to jump and pull back from each other, and their attention shot to where Yang had started violently shaking on her knees as she sobbed.

Blake was by her side, but her touch wasn’t even registered as Yang buried her face in her hands and screamed her horror into her palms, the scent of Pyrrha’s dried blood thick in her nose and festering in her throat as she wailed into her gloves. Her eyes were bloodshot and wide as they stared into nothing, her teeth chattering between each loud and agonized exhale.

Everything in her felt like it was melting from an electrical current that somehow felt poisonous, as she trembled and strength began to sap out of her limbs. She couldn’t stop crying as she clasped her hands together in front of her lips, whether to pray or gag herself she wasn’t sure, but another sob wrenched from her lips.

A stream of words, useless and disorganized, babbled out of her when Ruby slid to her side and grabbed her, and she pushed her sister away violently before shooting to her feet and stumbling back. She almost tumbled down the escalator, but Weiss was immediately holding her arm and pulling her upright again.

The moment she made eye contact with Weiss, time seemed to stop.

It was like the world around her turned into jelly as she was caught in Weiss’s stare, the blue ring of color around Weiss’s otherwise black pupils pulsing soothingly and hypnotically.

As soon as she’d completely captured Yang’s attention, Weiss placed her hands on her shoulders and held her stare as she spoke, her voice slow and calm.

“It’s going to be okay. It’s not okay right now, but it’s going to be okay.” Weiss made a large show of taking in slow breaths, her power nudging Yang’s mind to mimic her, and she nodded encouragingly when Yang slowly fell into breathing rhythm with her. “I know it hurts, Yang. I know, and I’m sorry. But breathe. Just breathe….there we go…”

Blake and Ruby watched as Weiss held Yang completely hypnotized in her stare, every hair of Blake’s standing on end at how Weiss’s presence had taken over the entire room and was surrounding all of them like a foul blanket. There was a well-suppressed grunt from next to her, and she looked over at where Ruby was rubbing her eyes, but otherwise hadn’t moved.

When she opened her mouth to whisper the obvious question, Ruby shook her head violently and put a finger to her lips, before looking back at Weiss and Yang.

With every low word from Weiss and deep breath, Yang fell further and further under her sway, completely listening and taking in everything Weiss was saying to her with a voice so soothing and calm that it was melodic. Everyone knew that Weiss was a trained singer, but she’d never heard her speaking voice to be quite so musical before.

So she hung onto every word as Weiss rubbed her shoulders comfortingly.

“I know it hurts. It’s allowed to hurt. But we can solve this. We can solve this, Yang.” Keeping the same tone, Weiss was yet to blink, and she hummed gently and encouragingly as the red slowly began to fade from Yang’s eyes, turning to a duller crimson but not completely fading. “Feel what you need to feel. But don’t give up. Not on yourself. You didn’t fail her. None of us failed. We can solve this. Easy now…there we go. Deep breaths.”

When a faint ring of lilac appeared around the red of Yang’s irises, Weiss smiled again, and relaxed. With a dull growl, her beast curled back up inside of her soul as its influence was no longer needed or tolerated, and in Yang’s eyes Weiss’s presence slowly faded.

It was like waking up from a light doze, a pleasant dream well-remembered but the sensations of it forgotten, as the comforting and warm blanket was pulled away from Yang’s mind and the rest of the world returned.

Weiss’s words lingered. Her encouragement and reassurance stayed firm and certain in Yang's heart, and she slowly nodded as her true faculties returned.

Weiss was smiling, but there was an incredible apprehension and nervousness in her eyes as well, from what she’d just done. But she waited patiently for Yang’s reaction, and whatever the consequences would be.

Slowly shaking her head to clear the last of the fuzziness, Yang felt her heart rate stay calm and controlled as she looked around at the corridor and everything in it. The grief was raw and painful in her chest, nothing locked away or hidden, everything she was supposed to feel.

But the guilt was gone, and the doubt. Instead only determination remained, and she narrowed her eyes fiercely as she clenched her fists by her sides for a moment.

Yang gave Weiss a slow and deep nod, before slowly reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. “...thanks.”

The gratitude had Weiss flounder for a brief moment, but she gave a small smile and dipped her head. “Of course. Back to work?”

“You’re damn right.” Yang dropped her hand from Weiss’s shoulder as she looked around again, and she walked over to grab her notebook from the ground, giving Blake and Ruby the same determined nod. Her eyes were still pained, and her lips thinned, but her steel had returned. “Okay, let’s do this."

Yang stepped away to get back to work, looking around at the damage, and Blake was immediately at her side to check on her and stick by. So, taking advantage of that opening, Ruby approached Weiss with her hands folded in front of herself surprisingly shyly.

The demeanor had Weiss tilt her head in concern as she looked up from where she was studying some of the damage to the wall, and she straightened up, blinking at the vulnerable and gentle look on Ruby's face.

Before she had a chance to speak, Ruby caught her by surprise by leaning in and pressing her lips to her cheek softly. Warmth immediately radiated out from the spot, and Weiss knew she would have turned bright red if she had the bloodflow, but her eyes still widened as she gasped at the touch. Ruby's lips lingered on her skin for a moment, gently pressing a follow-up kiss, before she pulled back and gave Weiss a look filled with so much confusion and gratitude that it had her eyes practically shimmering.

"...thank you. For that."

"I...of course, Ruby." Blinking as she tried to get her composure back, Weiss raised her hand to trace her fingers over the spot where Ruby's lips had been. "...of course."

Ruby smiled softly, but her brows dipped in confusion. There was so much about Weiss she didn't understand, so much that kept confusing her and catching her by surprise. So much that went against everything she'd seen before all of this had started.

She opened her mouth tentatively to ask, before both she and Weiss jumped when Yang called out from down the hall.

It took a lot of effort for Yang to ignore the 'moment' she had just witnessed out of the corner of her eye, but aside from the absolute interrogation Ruby was going to get later she knew she had to put it aside for now. "Weiss, you said you could smell something else?”

Weiss nodded as she closed her eyes to take in another deep breath, before opening them again and looking over at Blake pointedly, and gesturing up at the section of roof she was standing directly beneath.

“What can you pick up?”

Blake still regarded Weiss warily for a moment as she approached, unsure what to think. Everything in her instincts opposed any form of hypnosis or suggestion, it was one of the few supernatural traits she actively despised. One she herself would never use, even though she was capable of using it against the members of her pack. It felt wrong, like it went against nature itself.

But, if Yang was clearly grateful, then Blake would put it aside after keeping her eyes narrow as she approached. She took a deep breath at the spot where Weiss indicated but immediately frowned, tilting her head curiously and taking in another deep breathing, before shaking her head slowly.

“...nothing. I don’t smell anything at all. Just Pyrrha.”

Weiss hummed curiously as she looked up at the roof, and raised an eyebrow at the air conditioning vent they were underneath, with how crooked it was. After considering for a moment, she smirked at Blake.

“I’ll give you a boost?”

The request had Blake choke on her breath, the mental image of it as amusing as it was embarrassing, but Weiss seemed entirely serious as she nodded and pointed up at the damaged vent.

So, letting her head fall back and groaning at it, Blake took a few steps back and extended her claws properly, before waiting for Weiss to get ready. As soon as Weiss had braced herself and cupped her hands, she sped over and jumped.

Height wise, she practically towered over Weiss, and had far more visible muscle, but that didn’t matter as Weiss easily heaved her up and propelled her into the air. Blake cleared the height to the ceiling easily, Weiss hadn’t even strained to throw her this high, and she drove her claws into the sides of the duct to anchor herself in place.

She looked down at where the others were staring up at her, Weiss smirking in amusement while Ruby looked impressed, but Yang was putting aside being impressed for now and instead nodded encouragingly.

Blake nodded back, before gripping with her thighs so she could release one hand from the grip and reach up into the vent to scramble around.

It didn’t take much of a stretch for her fingers to wrap around the jagged edge of a piece of metal, and she blinked in surprise at the slickness on it before pulling it out and looking at it curiously.

The metal was a jagged edge ripped from the escalator plating, razor sharp and bent, with one end crumpled up into a makeshift grip while the rest was a long makeshift sword’s edge.

And every inch of it was coated in impossibly black blood. It wasn’t the same type of dark as vampire blood, which was actually just an incredibly dark crimson, instead the blood on the makeshift blade was just pure and utter black.

It was like a thick and viscous oil, still slick even after a full day, and Blake held it carefully as she nimbly dropped down from the roof and landed completely gracefully.

As soon as she offered it over, she was caught by surprise when Yang barked out a wondrous and awestruck laugh, and she blinked at the strange smile on Yang’s face.

Yang reached out and took it in her hand, making sure to touch the grip and none of the edge that was covered in blood. She laughed again quietly, chuckling in wonder, but it came out wet and sad as her eyes teared up once more.

“...she really was brilliant. Fuck, Pyrrha…you brave bitch.” Yang waved an urgent hand to Ruby, who immediately grabbed out her forensic gear for them to take a massive sample of the blood.

When the others looked at her in confusion, Yang sadly yet confidently swept a hand over the entire scene as her mind finished clicking everything together. She could practically see Pyrrha getting a single slash in, only to then immediately disarm herself by tossing her blade up into the vent while her enemy was distracted.

“...she knew she was going to lose. So she hid this. So we’d have some.” Yang looked down at the crude sword almost reverently, biting her bottom lip for a moment.

Ruby reached out for the blade, and hummed in thanks when Yang let her take it, and carefully studied it herself with narrowed eyes as her own puzzle continued to confuse her.

“But why would it come here at all?”

With an equally thoughtful voice, Weiss answered, her eyes flicking between the blade and up to the vent. It was one hell of a throw, especially to give the blade the perfect arc in the air needed to go up and into the vent instead of just sticking straight into it.

An impossible shot. For a human.

“...it wanted her heart. Because she was the next supernatural it needed.” Weiss raised an eyebrow at where Yang’s eyes had widened in realization, and she took it as confirmation. But even Ruby looked surprised. “Do you know what she was?”

Yang nodded slowly, giving Ruby an apologetic look for keeping the secret from her, and she looked around at all the damaged metal in the hall. “Yeah. She was an iron mage. Natural born. Somewhere back in her dad’s lineage, she’d figured.”

The fact an iron mage had been living in the town right under the pack’s noses had Blake snort and roll her eyes as, yet again, everything grew more complicated. Iron mages could manipulate more than just iron, they were also capable of manipulating and shaping pure silver.

They were the perfect solution to rabid werewolves, on behalf of humanity. And one of them hadn’t just been in Silvercloud, but had been a Hunter Apprentice.

Which was the factor that had Ruby snort out a laugh and give Yang a resigned look, thinning her lips. “Mum wasn’t kidding about the mixed bloodlines, huh? The Nikos family have been Hunters longer than the Xiao-Longs.”

Yang grunted in agreement as she finished sealing up the sample back now filled with wads of black blood, but then looked over at where Weiss was staring up at the corner of the roof with narrowed eyes.

“What’s up?”

“...fascinating revelations about the bloodlines of the Inquisition aside for now….” Weiss gave Ruby a long and stern look, with a message in it so firm and indisputable that Ruby immediately folded and nodded. As soon as Ruby agreed to her demand, Weiss pointed up at the corner of the roof.

They all followed her gesture, and Yang blinked at the sight of the security camera, before her mind raced as she caught up to Weiss’s own train of thought and then rushed past it.

“Oh. Oh.”

Yang licked her lips to wet them as she grabbed out her journal and began flipping back rapidly to old notes. “...the gas station cameras. The power.”

Yang navigated her notes quickly as she got to the information about the gas station, and then went back further to her copies of Summer’s notes on the slaugh house, before tugging Ruby close by the sleeve and practically shoving the two pages into her face.

After yelping at the jolting pull, Ruby stumbled as she put the sword to the side and grabbed Yang’s notebook to read over the scene reports, and she then immediately looked up at the lights in the ceiling and then over at the camera.

Realization bloomed, before she then turned to Yang properly.

“The power was out at the house we clashed at, as well.” Ruby gestured to Weiss and Blake, who both scowled slightly at the reminder of the scuffle that had almost gotten Weiss killed. But Ruby brushed past it as she gave Yang’s notebook back and then grabbed her own journal out of its pouch.

Blake and Weiss were completely lost as they watched Yang and Ruby work, the sisters comparing notes and whispering back and forth so quickly and all over the place that Weiss’s mind was jumbled just trying to listen in.

They both looked at each other with the same confused expression, but Blake could only shrug helplessly, and Weiss hummed in agreement as they waited for the sisters to finish.

The end to the work was punctuated by Ruby and Yang closing their journals at the same time, the thumps of the covers closing practically in sync, as Ruby waved for Blake and Weiss to follow as she began to jog in the direction of the security room.

Yang explained the theory as they followed, with Blake and Weiss easily falling in and keeping up with her as she spoke.

“We’ll touch on the First Inquisition bloodlines stuff later, but for now…we think we know how to find the fucking thing. This is now the fourth time that this creature acting monstrously has made the power go out in the vicinity, but I doubt it’s blowing street bulbs as it walks past on the street, right?” Yang looked between them both with raised eyebrows, waiting to see if they were keeping up, and when Weiss rolled her eyes at being patronized she grinned and kept speaking. “So, maybe it only drains power when its true nature is uncovered. Like how you can only give off your petrifying aura when even slightly vampiric, Weiss.”

“Well, it takes quite a bit of active effort on my part just to look ‘normal’, Yang. You try juggling and doing Rubik's’ Cubes at the same time. Doable for a rare few, but tiresome even for them.” Weiss shrugged at the baffled look Blake was giving her from how open she was being, meanwhile Yang laughed at the comparison.

They caught up to where Ruby was already picking the lock to the security room, having taken the cover off the card scanner to fiddle with the wiring, and Ruby took over the explanation as they skidded to a halt right next to her.

The tip of Ruby’s tongue was between her teeth in a way Weiss found utterly endearing as she concentrated on the wires, fiddling with a pocket knife as she peeled a circuit board free to get to the soldering work. But she sucked her tongue back in so she could take up where Yang left off, without looking away from the dismantled scanner.

“And Weiss, we know it’s moving around on foot. It isn’t driving. Otherwise it wouldn’t have dragged the bodies from the gas station.”

After looking at Weiss, who nodded in confirmation that she’d come to the same conclusion, Blake frowned as she crossed her arms in thought and tapped her pursed lips with a finger. She’d also found that strange, during her own investigation of the gas station and then the house.

But also, why take the bodies at all? The owner of that house had been taken as well. But there hadn’t been a ritual, there weren’t any runes. Yet the monster had dragged the bodies to that house regardless, and the power had blown.

So what was the connection there?

Seeming to guess what roadblock Blake had gotten to, Ruby smirked over her shoulder at her before giving Weiss a slightly gentler look, something soft in the layers of it that had Weiss blink.

“Miltia managed to hurt it, just like Pyrrha. It didn’t simply vanish from that kill like it did the fey, it limped.”

As Weiss couldn’t help but smile at the pulse in her chest, pride in her friend and also something fierce in how it had apparently given them something to go off, Blake was still frowning as she tried to figure out what the sisters were getting at.

In response to her continued confusion, Ruby simply looked at Blake’s freshly scarred arm, and then jerked a thumb at Weiss’s side before gesturing to her own neck.

Supernatural healing.

In order for Weiss to heal, she had to partially reveal her nature and feed. And while in human form Blake’s injuries healed slowly, while even partially shifting helped them.

So what if this monster was the same?

Blake’s eyes widened as it all clicked together, and Ruby cackled both in victory at defeating the scanner and also satisfaction as Blake and Weiss both put it all together.

There were only two parts of the puzzle in front of them that Blake and Weiss could see, and they looked at each other silently to confirm they were both still confused and apparently a mile behind Yang and Ruby.

Weiss chewed her lip in thought as Ruby straightened and put a hand on the handle leading into the security room, and took the opportunity to voice her question before they went into the third crime scene.

“Okay, so in order to heal it needs to remove the façade like I do, which drains electricity from everything near it enough to cause a blackout. But how do we track it? And Ruby, it healed fast enough from fighting Miltia that it was gone by the time we got to the house.”

Conceding the point, Ruby had a counterpoint ready, and she drummed her grip on the door into the security room as she looked around at everyone.

“Which was around twenty-four hours later, and a fair amount of the blood on the carpet was still fresh. We missed it by a handful of hours. Blake?”

All attention went to Blake, who was frowning as she thought back over the house and the scents inside. Ruby was right, the bodies had been moved a few hours before she’d arrived. The creature had camped there most of the day. But they’d missed it regardless.

So she shrugged helplessly as she looked between the two hunters.

“Wherever it went after fighting Pyrrha, it’s got to be gone now even if it was hurt, right?”

Yang shook her head as she drummed her hand on where her journal was in its pouch, having gone over the notes of each scene. “Pyrrha did more damage to it than Miltia did, enough to leave blood. And it didn’t have time to conduct the ritual on Pyrrha’s…heart. A ritual it has to find somewhere careful to do, if it doesn’t want the magic to be felt.”

At the reminder of how the gas station had felt to be inside of, all three of the others grimaced, Weiss scrunching up her nose at the reminder of the toxic taste just in the atmosphere. Her mind then went to how Ruby had practically buckled over being exposed to Emerald’s magic, which Emerald could only do far out in the trees.

Magic left traces, and dark magic could spread like a miasma, infecting a space in a way that even mortals could detect. The more sensitive a being was to magic, the more that dark magic could make them either ill or intoxicated depending on the soul that was touching it.

She counted off on her fingers.

“A house in the human suburbs and a gas station on the edge of town, and it performed the ritual. But here at the mall...it didn’t.”

And Yang had an explanation for that too.

“Because it didn’t have time. Pyrrha called for backup before she fought it.” Yang tapped her journal again, where her own copy of Summer’s notes of the first killing and ritual had taken place. “Also, the first site was discovered because a dog across the street woke up.”

Blake gasped as she understood, her eyes widening, and she immediately began pacing back and forth as she caught up and her mind accelerated. While Weiss was still completely lost, Ruby and Yang watched patiently as Blake’s own knowledge filled in some of the gaps for her.

She turned to face the others, her arms crossed and tapping a finger on her lips again.

“Animals are sensitive to magic. It’s what had the forest so on edge lately, which is why we started paying so much attention in the first place. If it wants to escape too much notice for these rituals, and have somewhere it can heal, that narrows its den down.”

Finally, Weiss caught up as it clicked, a hand unconsciously going to her chest to press over her stomach as if she could wrap her fingers around her own beast. When Ruby hummed in satisfaction at her catching up, Weiss gave her a playful scowl but otherwise didn’t take it personally.

It wasn’t her fault that she wasn’t a trained Inquisitor.

But there was one last problem.

“But how has it been getting around, then? It’s not driving, and if injured then it would drain a car’s battery dead anyway. It moved bodies, and it wouldn’t have just carried them down the street.” It was Weiss’s turn to pace back and forth, before she took her phone from her pocket and opened a text she’d spent far too much time staring at since she’d gotten it.

The last words she ever got from Miltia Malachite, the cry for help she hadn’t been in time to save;

‘It’s lost. It’s here. Help me.’

Until now, it was the cry for help at the end that had plagued Weiss, but she stared at the first two with narrowed eyes as she mulled.

The only other way into Silvercloud other than by car was the train station, almost in the dead center of town and functioning as effectively its heart. It was on the same street as the town hall, town utilities administration, and public library.

If you didn’t know how to navigate Silvercloud and wanted a straightforward way to do it that wasn’t just the roads, and you had just arrived in town, there was a network that had been necessary for the town back at its founding. A town constantly covered in clouds, where more than half of the year it stormed every single night. Sometimes a light shower, but often a downpour.

The only places it didn’t reach were the far suburbs, and the main way in was just a short walk from the train station.

When Weiss closed her eyes and nodded, Yang hummed in satisfaction as everyone was about to be on the same page.

“It’s using the retired storm drains. Nora and a few others had to deal with a few ghouls that had come to the surface, about the time this all started. At the time we didn’t think much of it. But something drove them up and out.” 

Yang put her hands on her hips as she let out a sigh, clicking her tongue on the back of her teeth as the urgency of the situation became so palpable it almost beaded like sweat on the back of her neck.

“It’s injured, but able to get around using the old storm drains that aren't in use anymore. It’ll need to find somewhere with a decent amount of space, we all saw how large those ritual circles were, so it’ll come to the surface to do it. Wherever it goes, it needs to be far enough away from a supernatural cluster so the magic isn’t felt, and it will also blow the power wherever it does it.” 

As she rattled it all off with a surprising amount of calmness and composure, Yang counted off on her fingers. Coming to an end, she looked around at everyone, waiting for anyone to disagree or protest, but when everyone was in silent agreement she sucked in a deep breath and straightened up, inflating as much as she could muster.

They had a few final clamps of intel needed to close the fucking noose and narrow down wherever this thing was hiding, and they might only have a few hours to do it in.

“It took twenty hours to heal from what Miltia did to it. Pyrrha did far worse, and it has a ritual to do. We have a bit more time, but we might not have until dawn tonight. So far it’s always gone to ground during the day, so the moment the sun is up we might as well consider it gone.” Yang started pointed around at everyone, delegating without naming names as she laid out the plan. As rudimentary and rough a plan as it was. But it was the best they had. “We need to cross-reference a map of the old storm drains with where we know supernatural communities to cluster, eliminate those areas since this thing needs to avoid supernaturals, and check for power outages in the spots left behind. Process of elimination, narrow the town map.”

While the raw information was easy to gather, each of them already thinking of how they could get their hands on what was needed considering their unique knowledge bases and skill sets, it was the time crunch that had everyone pause and stare into nothing as the pressure threatened to turn into panic.

If they worked fast enough, splitting up if they had to, and then Yang was brilliant enough to be fed data like a computer and then do what she did best, they might just manage it. But they only had until the ritual was complete and the creature was healed enough to move.

The moving pieces all had to come together perfectly, and they all needed to trust each other to keep up and be just as capable as them.

Weiss checked the time on her phone and thinned her lips. It was just past midnight.

When nobody protested or dismissed it as completely impossible, even though it was a race against the dawn, Yang drove a fist down onto the palm of her other hand and gave a determined and urgent nod.

“Let’s get to it, ladies. We’ve got a monster to get vengeance on.”

As Ruby turned the handle of the security door for her and Yang to check inside and do a rapid sweep, the other two scattered. Weiss and Blake simply vanished as black and white streaks down the corridor to get to the town hall.

The sisters looked at each other for a moment, Yang’s journal out as she grabbed out a town map from where it was folded up close to the beginning, and Ruby nudged the door to the security room open with her foot.

Ruby’s voice was quiet. “...any word from mum and dad?”

The entire behavior of the Guild had been different all day, the entire dynamic and balance completely broken and thrown off by what had happened. With four kids dead, four apprentices, it wasn’t just a matter of dealing with grieving families, it was a matter of the politics of the guild coming into things.

Tai had been gone from the house all day, and for the first time in months Summer had left town with Ren’s father to go to the Grove and check in with headquarters to file the reports and get their new orders in person.

Leaving the house hadn’t even required sneaking out. Normally someone would have been keeping an eye on them to make sure they behaved, but the entire structure of the guild in Silvercloud was falling apart.

But with no contact from their parents, their fellow apprentices dead except for Penny who was a non-combatant, and the other adults inconsolable after the loss of family members, the sisters were on their own.

It was up to them.

A chance to prove themselves was everything they had wanted for years. But with it right in front of them, Yang wanted to be sick, and Ruby simply looked down at the ground and swallowed.

4:50am

Yang looked up from the map in her hands at the small rundown apartment building in front of them, scrunching up the corner of her mouth as adrenaline blasted through her body so violently that she could feel her pulse in her teeth. The map in her hands was a mess of circles and crosses as entire neighborhoods and districts had been crossed out, and then the remaining roads were considered and removed one by one.

The Guild had a constant up to date file on just where the supernatural communities in Silvercloud were clustering, which Ruby had a copy of in her own journal due to her obsessive nature. Blake had easily grabbed a map of the original storm drains from the town hall, familiar enough with the building to know where to go, and Weiss had smiled and fluttered her pretty eyelashes until a tired night shift supervisor had given her information on all the most recent power fluctuations on the Silvercloud grid.

The information had all fallen into Yang’s hands, and then she’d done what she’d been trained to do. The skill she had mastered so deeply that even her father had started deferring to her on it during investigations.

And so she had her map, and the four of them had crossed out a dozen streets over the past hour.

Now they were here, and Yang could feel on the edge of her skin that they were in the right place. Even standing on the street, she could feel the taint of dark magic in the air, caressing her with slimy and slithery fingers and scratching lines into her.

Next to her, Ruby’s eyes were sparkling slightly at the magic touching the edge of her psyche, but her face was otherwise completely determined as she spun two of her knives in her hands.

Weiss and Blake had started losing control over their forms the moment they’d stepped down the street, with Blake’s hair growing longer and thickening, and her golden eyes thinning once more. Meanwhile Weiss’s hands were clenched so tightly into fists that she was trembling, but her eyes were blown fully black and her fangs so long and revealed that she’d pierced her own lip.

They stood in a row as they stared at the building, and the complete absence of any light coming from it. The power was entirely out, but there were no sounds of life coming from inside either. Blake strained her hearing to the very furthest limits, but she couldn’t hear a single breath.

And Weiss could smell the blood.

So. Much. Blood.

This was the place.

Yang folded the map and put it away, her movements as calm as she could force them to be, before she violently and aggressively cocked her wrist launchers and gave the others a wild and hateful stare.

“Let’s get this fucking thing. I'm done with this shit. Blake? Door.”

Blake didn’t need to be told twice as she marched up, already stripping off her jacket and tossing it aside to accommodate for her shifting form. She wouldn’t go fully wolf unless she had to, the confines of the building would be too tight. But the form she used against Weiss was back within her control as fur sprouted from every inch of her body and her height and bulk increased by half.

With a low growl and bared teeth, she brought back a fist and smashed the door to splinters.

Yang led the way, and the others followed.

Chapter Text

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The scent of blood was so thick in the air that it felt like it was caressing Weiss on all sides like a blanket, as she walked through the small ground floor lobby of the apartment block. A small sitting area, the letterboxes, a door to the stairwell, and an elevator, were all that made up the plain entryway, boxing the four of them in as they looked around in every direction, Yang and Ruby flicking on flashlights so it was easier to see.

Weiss could practically see the allure of the blood as if it was a miasma coming down the stairs, with the closest source of it barely a few paces away. The small lobby itself was completely clear of any bodies, but she suspected it was because nobody had managed to make it that far without being caught.

All she could hear was a faint dripping, the sound of liquid trailing along plaster and spreading across tiles at a rate that had her suck in a stuttered breath. There must be so much of it.

Outside of her control, her tongue ran along her lips as she shivered. It was fresh, still faint traces of vitae to be found in the scent, and she stepped over to the bottom of the stairwell as silently as possible. Every inch of her skin felt uncomfortable, wrapped around something that was squirming to get out, pushing against it from the inside like it was a net.

Weiss stopped and closed her eyes to take a quick breath and steady herself, but the breath only served to flood her mind with the scent.

There was so fucking much waiting for them, it was the scent of a slaughter, and while half of her recoiled in dread, the rest of her tried to whimper through her clamped throat. Shame hotly rushed to her face, but she couldn’t pull her human mask back over even though it would lessen her weakness to the crimson call.

Instead she was at its mercy as she scratched her fingers against the wall in the attempt to steady herself. When Ruby placed her hand on her shoulder and squeezed, she shook her head slowly. There was no calming down this time, no straightening her shoulders with poise and dignity.

All she could do was let it lure her as fuel to keep going, so she knew her eyes were black when she opened them again. She didn’t glance over at where Ruby was looking at her and expecting her to settle. The sight of Ruby’s disappointment in her would only be a hammer blow.

But disappointment in her didn’t come in any form, even when she lightly brushed Ruby’s hand from her shoulder and began to lead the way up the stairs. Ruby simply sighed and followed.

The four of them were as quiet as possible as they made their way up the stairs, eventually emerging onto the second floor landing, but their silence was broken by the slick sound of Ruby’s boot landing in a puddle. All four of them froze as soon as they heard it, and Weiss clamped her eyes shut even as the creature inside of her perked up and raised its head.

It wasn’t just the blood, it was the aura of dark magic, seemingly infused into every brick. The tendrils of it crawled inside of her head, wrapping around her bones to try and puppeteer her, and it forced her eyes open so she could look down at the thick pool of blood on the tiled floor.

Both directions of the hall were the same, with apartment doors thrown open and streaks of blood decorating the walls. A bloody handprint dragged along the way as someone had tried to stumble to the elevator before falling, but his body was gone.

No matter how much blood was splattered and collected in puddles, there were no bodies to be found.

While Weiss struggled, trembling in place, Blake stepped forward to be at her shoulder and looked up and down the hall with a dark frown. With an incredible strain, she forced her animalistic traits back as much as she could, returning to her regular appearance except for protruding claws and large golden eyes easily piercing the darkness.

There wasn’t a single body, and that had Blake’s curiosity win out as she began to stealthily make her way down one of the halls towards the first open apartment door. She stepped over as many of the streaks of blood as she could, biting her bottom lip, and peered inside of the small home.

Each apartment were small one-bedroom abodes, comfortable and cheap, and Blake was able to see the entire space just from the doorway when she peered around. The scent of bloodlust and gore was thick in the air, but the strongest scent of all was the oppressive aura of dark magic.

It felt like an infection, growing on each strand of her hair like a fungus and trying to crawl into her pores. Whatever had ravaged through the entire apartment block, it hadn’t pretended to be even slightly human. Something had been unleashed here with such a potent ferocity that it had infected the stonework.

Blake returned to the hallway and gently placed her hand on one of the walls, stroking her fingers over the plaster and brick as if tracing the shadows. It was firm underneath her touch, just as it was meant to be, but the skin of her fingertips tingled like static electricity.

She looked over at the others and watched as Yang was doing the same thing, having just emerged from another of the apartments. The blonde peered closely at the bloody streaks on one of the walls and her fingers hovered over it for a moment, but before she gave in and touched it properly she shook her head and pulled her hand back.

They shared a look and both shook their heads slowly with no answers, and returned to where Ruby was peering up the stairwell while Weiss had dropped to a crouch next to the largest of the pools of blood.

Weiss clenched her jaw for a moment to brace herself, before running her fingertips through the blood and raising them to her lips to suck the crimson off and taste it. Closing her eyes, she rolled it around on her tongue and felt her chest squirm in response, letting it sit and the anticipation grow for a moment like an owner teasing a dog with a treat.

As soon as she swallowed, she raised her hand to the others to stop them in place, and waited as the blood reached her insides and was consumed. It was only a faint trace, a simple lick along her fingers, but it was enough to send a warm jolt through her veins and make the tendrils around her eyes pulse and briefly darken.

Just as she’d expected, the vitae was still there, but it was changed. Something in it had shifted. Not enough to hurt her or for her nature to reject it, but enough that she noticed the difference in her body.

It was dark. Something tainted and cruel. The tantalizing taste was something she yearned to savor, but she had work to do, and she knew that Ruby was watching her. So she opened her eyes again and stood, running the tip of her tongue along her lips to gather any stray drops.

“They weren’t normal anymore, when they bled. Something was done to them.” Weiss shook her head slowly as she whispered.

Blake nodded in agreement as she walked over, the four of them reconvening by the stairs, and she clenched her fists by her sides tight enough her claws almost pierced her own palms.

Something was wrong. This hadn’t just been a butchering. There had been a purpose. Some sort of intent dark enough it lingered just in the air and ground.

Meanwhile Ruby frowned at Weiss for a moment as she studied her expression, but Weiss’s composure held even though Ruby could see her eyes darken, and the flash of Weiss’s fangs through her lips when she spoke had the same thrill of anxiety go through her as the sight always did.

But even though Ruby knew Weiss must have been in agony trying to resist, the vampiress didn’t weaken, simply trembling in place with restraint.

It was only going to get worse as they kept going up, but it was where they had to go, so Ruby put her hand on Weiss’s arm for a moment to bring her back, and led the way up the stairs to the next floor.

Even though her daggers were a comforting presence in her hands, Ruby’s entire body was throbbing with anxiety as she joined the others in going from apartment to apartment, sticking their heads in and seeing the same results. It was like every living thing had been bled dry, the floor coated in a thick layer of red.

They went floor by floor, but nothing was any different until the fourth. The second floor from the top.

It was Weiss who noticed it first as they stepped up into the hallway, and she froze rigidly in place with wide eyes as she looked down the corridors. The change in smell was overwhelming, but it was the sound that had every muscle of hers clench and freeze.

A heartbeat. But not of any sort of creature, there was no barely alive body laying on the tiles. Instead it sounded as if it was coming from every direction, the bass of a concert ringing out with low pulsing drones that made her skin vibrate.

Slowly, she turned her head to look at Blake, who had gone still the moment she’d noticed the same thing. The two creatures looked at each other in silent horror, eyes wide and jaws clenched, before they gave in and looked at the walls.

A heartbeat. Pulsing, squirming, thumping. The walls were breathing. The walls were feeling.

When Weiss placed a terrified hand on the surface, she immediately retracted it when the wall was pliable under her touch. Squishy and soft, and warm in a way so familiar that the horror forced her eyes wide.

Her reaction was enough to prod Ruby’s curiosity, and she stepped up next to Weiss with her lip between her bottom teeth, and sheathed one of her daggers to free a hand so she could slowly reach out and press her hand against the wall.

Warm to the touch. Warm and soft and slick with sweat. Ruby’s fingers grew shiny from the mucus as it dripped onto her skin, but she grit her teeth as she ran her touch along until she felt it.

Underneath her fingers. The hammering of a pulse. The throb of blood through an artery.

With her other dagger in her hand, she stared down at it for a moment in consideration before looking over at Yang in the silent request for her opinion. But Yang had nothing, her eyes wide in horror as she stared around at the surfaces of the building around them.

So Ruby stepped closer to the wall and carefully pressed the tip of her blade into it, the razor sharp edge easily piercing the flesh and opening a cut.

A cut which immediately began to bleed.

The tense silence was broken by Weiss clamping her hands over her mouth and nose the moment the scent of the blood was in the air, and the other three spun on their feet to look over at her. Weiss’s eyes were wide and black as she stared at the wall, and the other three heard the slight creaking as her fangs escaped her control and extended properly.

Everything in Weiss’s body was trembling so violently it was visible as she stood in place, transfixed on the blood leaking from the wall of flesh. Her foot ground slightly on the tiles as she fought the need to step over, but she held steady and managed to close her eyes and force her head down.

Ruby took a step closer so she could place her hand on Weiss’s arm and squeeze tightly, and she looked over at where Yang was staring at the walls again while Blake was watching Weiss warily.

“...we’re almost there. The building’s-”

“Infected, yeah. This is…this is bad, Ruby.” Yang let out a forcibly slow breath as she pressed a hand against the wall again, feeling the warm flesh, before pulling it back when the sensation became too repulsive to handle. “...this is much stronger than the gas station. Every ritual’s stronger than the last.”

Finally taking her eyes off a calming Weiss and instead glancing between the sisters, Blake crossed her arms in thought before peering at the stairs leading up to the top floor.

“...either that or we’re here right in the middle of this one. But what would it need the bodies for?”

They all jumped when Weiss answered, her voice quiet and cold as she lowered her hands from her face.

“It didn’t. That’s not what it did with them.”

Weiss slowly stepped over to the small cut on the wall that Ruby had sliced in, and after staring at the blood for a few moments she reached out with a hand and shoved it into the opened gash.

The sound of her hand sliding into the dense flesh was abhorrent enough for Yang to cringe as Weiss coldly scrounged around inside, her eyes closed as she felt out for what she was trying to find. Eventually her fingers closed around something, and she looked over at the others with a broken expression as she pulled out the fistful of flesh and tossed it to the floor in between them all.

Just like she’d been able to smell, a blackened human heart dropped to the tiles, laying limply and still squirming as it tried to beat. But without any blood or veins, it simply twitched uselessly. The flesh was black and deformed, dark tendrils underneath the surface like the roots of an infection, and the smell was enough even Ruby and Yang recoiled from it.

Weiss raised her now blood-soaked hand and arm and showed how the blood covering her skin had a dark hue to it as well, the streaks that were running down and dripping onto the tiles shimmering and squirming almost as if they were alive.

The smell of the power in it had been enough that Weiss had almost lost the ability to rationally think, as soon as Ruby had revealed some to the air. But underneath the potent flavor of the shadows, Weiss had immediately known what it had once been.

So her face was cold and resigned as she looked down at the heart on the ground, before gesturing around them to every surface of flesh that was spreading through the building, growing like moss.

“It’s using their flesh. Molding it like clay.” Weiss nudged the still twitching heart with her foot, sighing.

Ruby looked away from the gore, closing her eyes, but all it did was make it easier to hear the heartbeat coming from all around them. There was no escaping it, and she clenched her jaw tight.

“...and the bodies from the gas station and house?”

The heart finally stopped beating as Yang took a knife from her belt and crouched down to stab straight through it. She stared down at it for a moment before looking up at the others helplessly. “If we’re dealing with some sort of flesh shaper…god knows what it created out of them.”

The only answers available to them were up the stairs, and all four of them turned to look at them in unison, silent and anxious. Yang and Ruby both adjusted their weapons to prepare themselves, with Yang’s wrist launchers clicking quietly as she did a final check, and as Ruby spun two of her knives into her hands she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

Just being in the building had her eyes stinging, surrounded by puppeteered flesh that had been lathered onto the walls like paint.

Blake’s knuckles cracked as she clenched her fists, her hair lengthening and her eyes turning a brighter gold, and a growl crawled out of her throat as the joints of her shoulders and pelvis cracked so they could shift and accommodate for the extra muscle.

In another time, she would have found amusement in how she was suddenly Yang’s height and even more muscular, but instead she turned all of her attention to the stairs and took in a deep breath through her enhanced sense of smell.

The entire building smelled rotten, as if the profanity of what was being done was so pure it was a physical presence. Every hair stood on end as she looked around the walls and saw the bulges where organs and flesh were imprisoned now that she knew to look for them.

When Weiss stepped up next to her, Blake felt her more than any other sense. The air around Weiss was thick and poisonous, foul with the scent of her nature as she gave up pretending to be anything other than what she was. Her features were deformed, sharp and unnatural, as every angle in her body became lethal, and dangerous allure leaked from her like radiation.

It made Blake’s insides churn as she felt it. Weiss wasn’t much stronger than a regular one of her kind, for some reason, but unlike a turned vampire Weiss’s beast sat comfortably within her skin. It wasn’t an intruder trying to forcibly make room in whatever gaps it could carve out, instead it was at home in Weiss.

The other two could feel it as well as Weiss looked around at them, her black eyes dead with only the slightest ring of blue. Tendrils bulged under her skin from her eyelids, almost reaching to her lips, and it made her stare paralytic to be caught in.

But the dark anger wasn’t for her allies, as she gave them a nod and began to lead the way up the stairs to the top floor. The walls of the stairwell were fleshy and bulbous, the floor slick with gore and moisture, and it was hard not to slip as they navigated up the final stretch.

Yang and Ruby glanced at each other, their mortal natures fighting against the idea, before they turned off their flashlights so they could hide in the darkness. As soon as they were locked in the shadows, both of their heart rates spiked, and the anxious change was enough to be noticeable by the other two, with Blake looking over her shoulder as she heard Yang’s breathing hitch.

The sound of Ruby’s hammering heart had Weiss immediately reach over and put her hand on her back to steady her, but she knew Ruby didn’t really need any reassurance. She watched as the fear shifted into adrenaline, Ruby’s eyes sharp and excited, and they shared an eager nod.

Weiss rubbed Ruby’s back with one stroke of her fingers before dropping her hand and continuing forward, 

It was the first sign of any light, as they turned the stairwell corner and looked up the final dozen steps to the top floor landing. The dancing light of a flame bathed the landing in an orange glow, and the sign of life had Blake and Weiss immediately reach out with their senses.

Every hair on Blake’s body stood on end with a ripple of nervous static as she felt it, and Weiss couldn’t help but hiss anxiously at the threat in the air just from the smell. It was everywhere, omnipotent and suffocating, and Weiss hissed again quietly as anger and hatred spiked in her chest.

Against the walls of its cage, walls which were thin and frayed after everything so far that night, her beast scratched and bared its fangs, pressing against the bars and driving her forward.

Whatever this creature was, it had ruined everything. It had threatened the Shroud, attacked her home, killed and mutilated her friend, and it did it with complete indifference and impunity.

Weiss trembled in place as Yang decided to go first, the blonde ducking low and moving with a surprising level of stealth as she ducked from wall to wall and carefully peeked around the corner into the hallway.

The sight of the runes scribbled on the walls and floor in finger streaks of dark blood had her tense up, and she closed her eyes to listen, trying to peer past the crackling of the fire in one of the apartments. Something was rustling, shifting things around with the indifference of someone completely relaxed and used to being alone, and Yang clenched her fists as she waved the others forward without looking away from the hall.

Ruby appeared next to her like a ghost, her knives in her hands and her silver eyes narrow and ready, and she met Yang’s stare with a grim expression.

Their first hunt together as blooded Hunters, and they were completely out of their depth. But there were no reinforcements to call, nobody to reach out to. The rest of the Guild was in shambles, and their parents were unreachable. It was just them, and allies they had made in a lycan and a daywalker.

If she wasn’t currently absolutely terrified and high on adrenaline, Yang would have laughed until she passed out.

But instead she nodded to Ruby and then snuck around the corner as quietly as she could manage, refusing to press against the wall of flesh and instead keeping to the shadows as much as she could.

The walls and ceiling watched the four of them as they moved, stolen eyes obscured under a slick and thin membrane turning in profane sockets to stare. A pulse hammered, two dozen homes worth of hearts beating as one and growing faster and faster.

The walls grew excited.

The walls grew hungry.

Of the four of them, Weiss was the most silent as she ducked behind a wall and pressed against it, trying to ignore the sensation of the flesh behind her as she took cover against it. None of her movements made a single sound, and she was confident she was unseen as she slightly poked her head around the doorway to look into the apartment where the light was coming from.

Inside the apartment was an abomination.

Every wall was thick with writhing flesh, red and alive, as tendrils pushed out of it like hands trying to reach for their master. The floors were slick with thick layers of runic circles, drawn in blood that was in copious supply. There wasn’t a single surface not slick with the intoxicating crimson, and it had Weiss’s head swimming as she looked around.

Her eyes locked onto the lone figure in the room, kneeling down in the middle of the circle and humming to itself as it scribbled notes into a journal. A backpack was within its reach, unzipped and open, and Weiss saw the slightest reflection of glass jars inside.

Three or four, and none of them were empty. Weiss could smell the blood on the lids.

The other three slowly joined her, sneaking as stealthily as they could, and Weiss kept her eye entirely on the creature to make sure it didn’t react or notice.

It looked like a young woman from behind, in her early twenties with curly brown hair and gentle features. Its denim jacket was covered in patches, the jeans it wore were tattered yet clearly loved, and she wore tall combat boots. By appearances she looked just like a young hitchhiker, dressed to wander.

But Weiss could smell it, and the odor radiating from it was enough her lip curled up, and Blake narrowed her eyes from next to her. There was a darkness in its aura that permeated the entire space, noticeable even though it was smothered by the stench of the dark ritual that had been performed.

Because there was no mistaking it; they were too late to stop its ritual, the dark magic was set and firm from completion. But the creature had yet to move on. Its bag was packed, and it was taking notes, but it looked ready to leave.

They were just in time, and the thought had Weiss run her tongue along the tips of her fangs and smirk to herself.

She looked at the others and raised an eyebrow in question, and Yang tapped her wrist launcher in response with a nod. Yang was determined to take the lead, ever since arriving at the mall earlier in the night everything had been her plan.

So Weiss nodded back and pressed tighter against the wall so that Yang would have a clear shot, as Ruby brought up two of her silver daggers and flipped them in her hands at the ready to move the moment Yang did.

They were completely still for a moment, waiting for the first movement, and holding their breaths as they all looked at their target. Yang brought up her launchers and aimed directly at where the creature’s heart would be in its chest, while her other aimed for the top of its neck to sever its spinal cord.

The moment Yang’s launchers were up and aimed, the creature stopped writing in its journal and paused, still facing away. Blake tensed as its scent changed, its relaxation fading, and her eyes widened at the hot bloodlust that started to leak into the room.

Before Blake could do anything to intervene, Yang pulled the triggers on her launchers, and two reinforced bolts fired into the room.

The first one struck home, piercing completely into the creature’s back and through its chest with enough power it emerged out the other side and embedded into the far wall, carving a perfect line through it, but the second missed the creature’s neck as it twisted its head out of the way.

In a blur of movement, Blake tackled Yang out of the way just in time to avoid the large claws suddenly slicing where her throat was, both of them sprawling to the floor from the force of Blake’s grapple and rolling a few paces away.

Weiss easily kept up with the speed, and caught the creature’s leg as it had tried to drive its foot into Ruby’s chest to send her away. With her grip tight and powerful, Weiss glared into the creature’s writhing green eyes with a satisfied smirk as Ruby shot upwards, firing up from her crouch with enough momentum from her powerful legs to slice both of her blades through the creature’s leg.

A spray of dark blood decorated the floor as the creature snarled and pulled away, yanking out of Weiss’s grip and hopping back a few paces, and then twisting out of the way to dodge another of Yang’s darts.

With the distance settled, it looked around at the four girls, eyes narrowed as it took each of them in while they studied it and slowly moved to circle it, each of them taking an edge of the room. Blake guarded the doorway, being by far the hardest to shove if the creature tried, and she growled in a dare when she was looked at.

But the creature didn’t seem to have any interest in running, instead frowning curiously and licking its lips slowly as it took each of them in.

The lycan at the door was interesting, and certainly powerful, but the other three…

“So the Inquisition finally caught up.” Raising an eyebrow as she took in Ruby and Yang, the creature tilted its head. “But you’re something different. You’re both….hmm. I’ll get back to you.”

Yang and Ruby almost gave into the impulse to glance at each other in confusion, but they held steady, neither of them taking their eyes off their target as Ruby spun her bloodsoaked knives and picked her target.

There was a strategy to this; her blades could pin the creature’s legs, and Yang would have free aim to take whatever shots she wanted once it was slowed. But taking her shot while the creature’s attention was on her would be pointless, it was too fast. So she waited.

The creature looked over to Weiss and scrunched up the corner of its mouth, frustration flashing in its sickly emerald eyes.

“Meanwhile you’re Weiss Schnee. The scion. You shouldn’t be here. Why are you here?” Gesturing to the other three, the unlikely and impossible allies, the creature shrugged absolutely helplessly. “What are you doing, kiddo?”

It looked genuinely baffled, and the reaction had Weiss blink in surprise even as her beast snarled in outrage at the name. But she didn’t lower her guard or give into her anger, still in a low crouch ready to pounce and her fangs extended to their full length. She bared them in a hiss, but the creature didn’t even twitch, still looking at her in confusion.

“So you know who I am? Who are you then, creature?” Weiss spat out the question hatefully, her tone soaked with disgust, and her eyes in a lethal glare. “Introductions. I want the name of what I’m about to rip apart for everything you’ve done.”

“Everything I’ve-” The creature straightened up, looking even more confused, before comprehension bloomed over its face and it relaxed. “...none of you actually know why you’re here. You have no fucking clue. That’s…huh.”

The sheer level of condescension in its voice had Ruby growl in anger and tighten her grip on her blades, taking a single step forward, and the sound had the creature turn to her and give her full attention.

Before Ruby could say anything, before she could snarl out any of her hatred and grief, she was cut off dismissively by the creature raising its eyebrows and its mouth dropping open in surprise.

“...you have silver eyes. Holy shit. And you, Blondie... Okay. That…Jesus Christ, you four are fucking wild.” The creature grinned to itself, looking around at them once more, before stepping back and leaning against the back wall of the room, drumming its fingers on its thigh. After taking a moment to consider, it shrugged with a lazy hum. “Well, I’m Rosalia, for now. I’m gonna guess that this is about last night?”

Weiss hissed and stepped forward with enough anger in the movement that the floor cracked under the pressure of her footsteps, entering the perimeter of the ritual circle slightly as she bared her teeth. When she spoke, her tone had shifted, deforming into something vicious and large.

“It is about so much more than last night. It’s about everything you’ve done. Everything you’ve…everything you’re destroying! Our home! The Shroud! Our friends! ”

Weiss clenched her fists as her beast smashed through the door of its cage and rushed to the surface. It was like a ripple went through her entire body, before it detonated and filled the entire room with its pressure. Under the force of Weiss’s presence, the sheer level of bloodlust and ancient rage, even Blake took a step back, and she watched as the flesh on the walls squirmed and recoiled.

Hate, rage, and grief filled every sharp angle in Weiss’s body as she snarled, the tendrils around her eyes turning darker and more prominent than the others had seen yet. It was like she was suddenly three times her normal size, and everything in the room was wrapped up in the pressure of its weight.

Ruby and Yang stared at her with wide eyes, Ruby’s eyes sparkling violently enough they were stinging, tearing up in the corners, as Weiss’s presence battered her psyche. But while her nature held it off, protecting her in a way she didn’t yet understand, Yang wasn’t so lucky as her legs wobbled and threatened to give out in the instinct to drop to her knees just by being in Weiss’s presence.

The room vibrated as Weiss unleashed herself, the human façade not so much receding as it instead shattered, ripped to shreds by vicious claws on the inside of its wearer.

Everything in Weiss screamed apex as she stared Rosalia down with bared fangs and her fingers bent into claws. Rosalia’s eyes widened slightly at the display, her mouth dropping open in surprise. But Weiss’s presence had nothing to attack in her, nothing to suffocate and strangle.

Its pressure and potency was powerful, but it wouldn’t achieve anything beyond finally showing what Weiss truly was.

At Weiss’s hateful and predatory glare, bloodlust and grief pouring out of her as if a dam had crumbled, everyone knew that the conversation was close to over. There was only one way this was about to go.

Rosalia smiled, the corner of her lips ticking up enough to show a glimpse of her thousand long and thin fangs, and placed a hand on the wall behind her.

The moment she made contact with the flesh, the entire building rippled around them, a squirming shiver going through the deformity as the building quivered. Blake spun around on her heel and watched as the grotesque tremor went along the wall and out into the hall, travelling down to the lower floor where it had began.

Every inch of flesh began to move, crawling and squirming, bulging outwards like gestation sacs as twisted claws and fingers pressed against it from within. The room filled with the wet sound of tearing flesh as parts of the wall peeled out and burst through the membrane.

Pale bones, warped and deformed, pulled in lumps and curves of twisted fat and muscle tissue, wrapping themselves in a child’s imitation of humanity as they stumbled out. Thralls of flesh, skeletal and perverted, moved dumbly and awkwardly outwards.

None of the four girls gave them time to cluster.

As soon as a fleshy thrall started to pull itself out of the wall right next to her, Blake had a clawed hand around its throat as she yanked it out, leaving chunks of half-attached mismatched flesh behind as she slammed it down onto the ground. The makeshift bone structure within it cracked and splintered, leaving it broken, and she spun with an arm extended to smash it straight through the body of another.

The weak and twisted flesh broke under the power of her arm, crunching and crushing, and blowing it into a position where she could tackle it and shove it out into the stairwell. Blake grabbed the back of its head and smashed it down onto the railing, and tried her best to ignore the splattering of squirming blood along her arms and face as the creature’s head burst.

Movement down the stairwell caught her attention, and she widened her eyes at the clustered mob of the thralls stumbling their way up the twisting stairs, fresh from the walls on the fourth floor. She glanced over her shoulder inside at where the other three were fighting, and then down the corridor to the other apartments on the top floor.

Trusting Weiss to unleash herself just as much as she was having to, and Ruby and Yang to be the hunters they had revealed themselves to be, Blake cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders.

The odds weren’t great. She was more than a bit outnumbered.

But she was in a bad mood. So she bared her fangs, and got to work holding down the stairwell.

Inside, the floor was slick with blood as Weiss twisted one of the creatures under her arm so she had the leverage, and with an easy and effortless twist she broke its spine as she kicked another in front of her with enough force its ribcage splattered and sent gore flying.

Both bodies were still in the process of dropping to the ground as she was suddenly across the room grabbing fistfuls of another to throw over to Ruby, who noticed it in time to have a dagger ready to drive right through its neck purely on reflex.

Ruby stole a fraction of a moment to stare at Weiss with wide eyes, her mouth open slightly as she saw for the first time what Weiss had been capable of from the start.

There was barely any effort on Weiss’s part as she ripped another thrall’s head off and crushed it against the surface of the apartment’s dining table.

According to her own words, she didn’t kill, and never had. So she had always held back, had played nice with Ruby all this time, But these creatures were already dead, so she had nothing to lose and no risk of compromise.

Weiss picked up one of the dining chairs with one hand and smashed it into another thrall, just like she had hit Blake with a chair when they’d fought in the classroom, and she was left with half a chair in her hand as the rest exploded on impact.

There was a small clear space around her, surrounded by bodies, and it gave her the freedom to look across the room and stare death at where Rosalia was twisting out of the way of Yang’s barrage of darts.

Every counter attack and counter swipe from Rosalia was dodged as Yang bent backwards and twisted out of the way, driving her foot into Rosalia’s back and then skirting back out of range. Rosalia was insanely fast, moving at a blur, but she wasn’t as fast as it felt she should have been.

There was a slight delay on her left side, Yang could easily see it. So, Pyrrha really had fucked it up enough it hadn’t recovered yet.

A jolt of pain went through Yang’s chest even as she smirked and charged back in, twisting out of the way so that Rosalia’s claws scratched along her cheek instead of finding purchase. She ignored the sting of blood now dripping down her face from the cuts as she drove a fist into Rosalia’s side and fired darts at the same moment, puncturing her deep.

Rosalia snarled and wrapped an arm around Yang’s waist, and twisted to throw Yang against the wall, before swiping her legs out from under her. Looking down at Yang, whose breath was knocked from her lungs, Rosalia brought her hand up to slam down and crush her head.

A white blur crashed into her at full speed, the power behind the shove sending her into the kitchen doorway with enough force she crashed through the plaster and hit the stove, dropping to a knee. She looked up into Weiss’s furious eyes, the vampiress quivering with rage and hunger.

Without looking away from her prey, Weiss snarled to Yang over her shoulder.

“Get Ruby clear, then come help. Blake’s got the hallway covered, she’s having fun.”

Yang nodded, agreeing with the plan even outside of the weight of Weiss’s presence smashing into her mind and sending her free will blank, and she charged over to where Ruby was slowly being pushed back.

Dropping to a slide and using the blood on the ground to help, Yang slid between two thralls and grabbed their legs to pull them down, then hopped up to her feet with a skid so she was back to back with Ruby.

The moment Yang was at her back, anxiety left Ruby’s chest, and the sisters shared a nod before charging forward. Rosalia was a force of unholy nature unto herself, but these sorts of things?

This was child’s play. This was the sort of thing Nora used to fight for fun.

So Yang, in a mimicry of Weiss’s move but with her own trained precision, twisted a creature under her arm to snap its neck. It took far more strain from her, not having Weiss’s level of raw strength, but training had her get the angle perfect for leverage as she snapped.

Another creature was immediately in front of her, and she simply shoulder barged it over to where Ruby had a free hand. With one dagger deep in the chest of a thrall, piercing it's unfortunate heart, Ruby barely needed to turn her head in order to slash out to the side and perfectly sever the tossed thrall’s spinal cord from the top of its neck.

They had a moment, but more thralls were peeling themselves out of the walls, and Yang looked over to where Weiss was on the retreat from Rosalia pressing against her. Weiss’s order pressed on her mind, so she grabbed Ruby’s sleeve and pulled her in the direction of the fight.

Ruby followed the movement willingly, and spun her daggers in her grip to hold them properly so she could send them flying across the entire width of the room. They stuck true, one of them going straight through Rosalia’s injured thigh, because of course Ruby had noticed too, and the other went right to where she knew Rosalia’s neck would be as she stumbled.

The spinning blade sliced along Rosalia’s throat, pitch black blood immediately spurting from the wound.

And the Inquisitors watched as Weiss froze rigid at the sight of it, eyes wide as she stared at the dark blood, and her hands dropping limply by sides as if hypnotized by the sight of it.

Ruby swore loudly, frustrated at her own stupidity and the bad luck, as she got close enough to Weiss to roughly shove her away so she was away from the tantalizing smell of the dark blood.

As soon as she was far enough away that she couldn’t see it or smell it, Weiss shook her head as if rousing from a dream, and blinked to herself for a moment to clear her head. But she didn’t have time to mull over what had happened, instead yelping in pain as a pair of mutated teeth sank into her shoulder and pierced her skin.

The thrall that caught her in her surprised state paid for it when she reached back and grabbed it so she could pull it over her shoulder and in front of her, slamming it into the ground hard enough it practically burst with a dull crunch.

Wiping her hands off on her jacket as she found her next prey, Weiss paused as a wave went through her.

A pressure, a taint in the air and space around her.

Something familiar, but in a way that…that was impossible.

Weiss paused in her fighting as movement caught her eye, and her attention flicked over as something moved in the corner of the hall. Darkness rippled, dancing like a water’s current, and her eyes widened as the shadows looked back at her.

Familiarity crawled through her system like ice, a pair of mischievous pale green eyes and a flirtatious fanged smile flashing in her mind.

It’s not possible. It can’t be.

It was only her knowing what to expect after years of experience with it that had her leap out of the way in time of the shadows as dark hands crawled out of them and grasped for where her own shadow was cast onto the ground.

As soon as she landed, she knew she immediately had to move again, her back against the wall and her shadow so dark it would have been irresistible, so with all of her speed she moved, a blur too fast to cast a solid shadow.

Of all of her friends, she had always feared fighting the Malachite sisters the most.

They were the perfect predators, the embodiment of every campfire story about their kind. At home in the darkness, the gods of dark alleys. The apex predators in the realm of Nightmares and Wraiths, able to tear all other darkness to shreds with barely a twitch and then devour it for themselves.

And the shadows under Weiss’s feet were ravenous as they scrambled for her, every surface unsafe. It was a dancing act as she had to navigate around the thralls of flesh scrambling for her on the surface, while also dodging and avoiding being stationary anywhere her shadow fell near any other form of darkness.

Not every shadow was a Malachite’s pet. But any shadow could be a potential danger.

Weiss ground to a stop as she had to grab the bulbous fist of a thrall and crack it, twisting the limb until it tore off the creature’s torso, and she tossed the rest of it away to knock over two others that had been lumbering their way towards where Ruby and Yang were smashing themselves against an increasingly frustrated Rosalia.

Weiss’s instincts screamed at her to duck, and she immediately dropped in time to avoid the television that had been tossed at her head. Weiss shot a feral glare to the mindless thrall who had attempted it, and closed the distance in a blur so she could drive her fist all the way through it’s chest and rip out a chunk of the imitation of a spine holding it upright.

It crunched in her fist, and she kicked the creature’s limp body away.

But eyes were suddenly upon her as Rosalia took her attention off Ruby and Yang for a moment to stare over at her. The creature narrowed her eyes in a mixture of curiosity and frustration as she watched Weiss tear through her enemies while also dodging the shadows she knew to fear.

Rosalia had known upon arriving in Silvercloud that Weiss was going to be a problem, especially once she got into the momentum and her self-doubt faded, but she was an interesting one.

Interesting, but also frustrating. So she had to go, before she caused anymore problems.

With the werewolf out in the hall keeping the stairwell practically locked down, and Weiss working hard to clear the room, Rosalia didn’t have time to work. Originally she’d thought she could just keep the Inquisitors distracted until the other two were subdued.

But it appeared that Weiss wasn’t quite the pushover everyone said she was.

Rosalia sighed in frustration as she changed her priorities, and as Ruby slashed at her with her blades Rosalia grabbed her wrist and tossed her over in the direction of the nearest wall. It was worth getting the painful darts from Yang’s wrist launchers, as Rosalia watched Ruby impact the fleshy surface hard enough the breath was knocked from her lungs.

Before she could recover and scramble out, Ruby gasped as something wrapped around her waist, and she looked down at the arms that had crawled out of the wall to grab at her. Slick and partially digested fingers dug into her torso, and before she could slash down with her knives to cut herself free another tendril wrapped around her throat and pulled hard enough she lost the ability to breathe.

The sound of Ruby struggling and gasping for breath had Yang look over at her in alarm, and her eyes widened as she watched Ruby struggle helplessly against the limbs holding her so tightly it was almost crushing her ribcage.

With Ruby incapacitated and Yang temporarily distracted as she rushed over and drew her own knife to cut her sister out, Rosalia turned her attention to Weiss Schnee.

A window smashed as Weiss slammed her heel into a thrall’s stomach with enough power it shot a few feet and straight through the glass, plummeting to crash to the pavement below, and she flicked her hair over her shoulder in satisfaction as she turned to face the rest of the room.

The sight of Ruby being crushed as Yang slowly managed to cut her out, a slick hand over her mouth and nose and keeping her silent and suffocated as she thrashed, had Weiss’s eyes go wide, and she took a step forward to sprint the distance. Yang was strong and was making quick progress, but Weiss knew she’d have no trouble pulling Ruby free.

One moment of distraction, one moment of Ruby being in trouble, was all it took.

As soon as she ground a foot to sprint, a scream ripped from her mouth as every bone in her leg snapped at the same moment.

From her toes to her pelvis, her left leg crunched in on itself, dropping her to a knee as the agony drove her mind white. She looked down at her leg in confusion only for her eyes to widen at the sight of the arms made of shadow wrapped around it.

One moment of distraction, one moment, that was all it took, and even as she tried to crawl away and pull her leg out of its grip she knew it was fruitless. This was always how Melanie had won, the style of shadows that Miltia refused to lower herself to. Hands crept along Weiss’s pants and up to her torso, and she closed her eyes to brace for the crack even as she dug her fingers into the tiles to try and pull herself away.

When her lower spine fractured, no sound came out of her lips, her eyes forced to be wide as thin fingers of shadow crept along her neck and face and pulled her skin taut. They gripped her cheeks and jaw and kept her mouth open so she couldn’t bite, they pressed down on her wrists to pin her down to the floor.

There was no moving, no looking away as fingers dug into her eye sockets to hold her eyelids open and force her to stare across the room silently as a very real pair of hands cupped her face from behind.

It took all of her strength to turn her head a few inches so she could look up into Rosalia’s eyes as the creature looked down at her with the corner of its mouth scrunched up as if conflicted. Rosalia sighed, a frustrating decision made and a plan adjusted, and the pressure on the sides of Weiss’s head from her hands began to grow.

Weiss scrambled and thrashed limply and fruitlessly against the captivity, unable to make a sound as she looked over at where Ruby was finally free and grabbing up her knives again to fight while gasping for breath.

The sisters looked around to find Rosalia, and both of them locked onto the sight across the room at the same moment, Ruby’s eyes widening in horror as she immediately sprinted, trying to shove her way through the few remaining thralls lumbering for her.

It was like the world was moving in slow motion as she ducked under a swinging arm, her eyes locked onto Weiss’s terrified ones as Rosalia stared over at her coldly, the muscles in her arms slowly bulging as she pressed harder onto the sides of Weiss’s head, gripping it so tight that Weiss could barely see straight.

Ruby shoved another thrall aside, barely noticing as a dart went through its head to put it down, as she swung over the table.

She watched in slow motion as Rosalia leant down to whisper something into Weiss’s ear, something that made Weiss’s eyes somehow widen even further and true terror enter her expression.

As she drove a dagger into the chest of another thrall and pushed it out of her way, Ruby watched in dragged out horror as Rosalia met her gaze, and with a simple strong twist of her wrists snapped Weiss’s neck.

Weiss went completely limp, eyes open and vacant and her lips parted, as Rosalia dropped her to the ground and the shadows released her. The tendrils around her eyes faded, the black receding and blue emerging. But there was no life, no sharpness in them. Simply a dulled emptiness.

A mix of a scream and a groan ripped from Ruby’s lips as she watched Rosalia straighten up from Weiss’s body. All of Ruby’s training, all of her discipline, all of the patience her mother had tried to drill into her over and over again, vanished as her eyes widened and she bared her teeth in an agonized snarl.

Leaping over, Ruby ducked low to avoid Rosalia’s claws before spinning up to try and slit her throat. But she expected the miss, so with the room to do so she spun on the ball of her foot and crescent kicked Rosalia on the side of her head with all the carried momentum.

It was like kicking concrete, and Ruby’s world turned to dark spots at the pain, but she recovered quickly and hopped back out of the way of Rosalia’s retaliation. The back of her foot bumped into Weiss’s body, almost causing her to lose her balance and trip, but she stumbled back up in time.

A pained shout from the stairwell got everyone’s attention, the yelp of a wounded animal, but neither of them could do anything about it as Yang instead shoved aside the final thrall she’d been dealing with in order to fire two shots at Rosalia to drive her back from Ruby.

The sisters slid into place together, Ruby going low while Yang went high, but Rosalia simply frowned at them for a moment before her eyes went in the direction of the stairwell.

If the lycan girl had been doing as well as her kind always did, then it wouldn’t be much longer until she’d feel confident leaving her pile of corpses to come and back the Inquisitors up. And that would be a problem.

Once again, time was running out, and Rosalia groaned in frustration as she looked between the sisters. She had to pick one, she wouldn’t have time to do them both, and she scowled in annoyance as she weighed them up.

The silver eyed girl was by far the more interesting of the two, but she was something that Rosalia didn’t have time to study. And with her clear level of tenacity, there was no way she’d go into hiding. She’d be back, and there would be another chance.

With the decision made, she stopped retreating, and got on with her job.

Ruby yelped as her wrist was caught in a blur of movement and twisted so that her dagger dropped from her grip, and Rosalia growled with the exertion as she threw her across the room as far and as hard as she could manage.

Crashing into the dining table and sent sprawling, Ruby rolled onto her torso to push herself back up as she watched Rosalia drive a foot into the back of Yang’s knee and then shove her with one hand to blow her down onto the ground.

Once she was back on her feet, Ruby grabbed another dagger from her belt and brought both up in a stance, before having to spin on her heel and duck under a thrall attempting to grab her in a bear hug to crush her. She slid through its legs and carved her knives along the back of its knees, severing the muscles, and leapt over its down form.

A fist drove into her stomach with enough force her skin went numb, and her knees gave out as she dropped, her body forcing her to dry heave and spasm in response to the impact. Rosalia kicked her in the side of the head and sent her down, before simply flipping the dining table with one hand and dropping it onto Ruby’s head and torso.

The world went dark for Ruby as she went limp, barely managing to breathe, and was stolen into unconsciousness.

With Ruby down, Yang’s eyes widened as she managed to kick up to her feet, but she could see Ruby’s chest rising and falling. Meanwhile Weiss was completely still, her head twisted at an unnatural angle and her eyes open and vacant.

When her attention went to Rosalia and she snarled into a hateful glare, Rosalia simply rolled her eyes and vanished into a blur.

Yang’s honed reflexes got her out of the way of the first swipe for her throat, but the second strike sank deep into her stomach with all of Rosalia’s strength.

The room was perverted by the sound of bones cracking and flesh tearing, before there was a moment of undeserved silence as Rosalia cradled the back of Yang’s head and drove her fist further into her torso. Yang coughed, blood splattering down her chin as her knees gave out, but Rosalia easily held her up as Yang twitched and coughed again.

Deja vu went through Rosalia for a moment, and she blinked at it before pulling back so she could look into Yang’s eyes with an amused hum.

“Hey, I did the short ginger at the mall this way.”

Another pained yelp from the stairwell was followed by a crash as the battered remains of a thrall was thrown straight through the wall, and Blake stepped through the new hole, blood pouring from a savage gash across her hip. She cased the room quickly, barely registering Ruby’s unconscious form and Weiss’s corpse, before her entire body went cold as she stared at where Rosalia had a hand deeply embedded into Yang’s chest.

The arm of one of the final thralls in the room smashed into her back and sent her stumbling forwards, and she had no choice but to grab it to rip it apart, taking her eyes off Rosalia and Yang to defend herself.

Blood poured down Yang’s front onto the floorboard as Rosalia twisted her claws and grip inside of her torso, feeling around, and she nodded in satisfaction when she found what she was looking for.

Just as she’d done numerous times, Rosalia closed her eyes for a moment as she felt it in her hand, the pulsing power of it, and she smiled giddily at the sensation of yet another unique one, the feeling slightly different every time.

While Yang’s kind had been on the original list, they’d had to cross it off, thinking her kind extinct. But the bloodline in the girl might be just strong enough for it to work.

It meant their plans were accelerated a great deal, since they didn’t need to find a substitute. And combined with what the other Inquisitor on the ground had to offer…

They were almost done. They were so, so close.

Rosalia pulled Yang’s head back with a fistful of her hair so she could stare into her eyes even though Yang was barely conscious, and she forced her stare so she could give Yang a nod.

“Thanks. This has actually been helpful.” Rosalia gave Yang a nod as if mockingly telling her to brace herself, before she closed her eyes and spoke the prayer. “ Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.”

With a grotesque crunch and a practised twist of her wrist, Rosalia pulled Yang’s heart from her chest, and dropped her body to the ground.

She studied the organ in her grip for a moment, tilting her head as she considered it, before a roar and a scream unlike anything she had ever heard tore the room apart.

“Get away from her!”

Every bone in Blake’s body crunched and cracked as she bared her fangs in a mindless howl, her golden eyes bloodshot and wide as she was forced into a hunch. Her skin ripped and tore as much as her clothes did as her form grew and shifted, growing tall and feral as dark fur emerged and her mouth elongated.

The room was dark as Blake turned to her true form for the first time in months. The great wolf inside of her, black fur and as large and tall as a horse, bared her fangs and roared powerfully enough it sent a ripple through the building that shattered every window.

Rosalia took a step back as she stared up at the towering beast in front of her, a pack leader in full ferocity and close to the height of its power, and her eyes widened for a moment as she took another step back.

Sunrise was approaching, and she hadn’t had the time to fully heal her old wounds, let alone the new ones, meanwhile she watched as Blake’s injuries pulled closed right in front of her.

So Rosalia did something she hadn’t done before;

She turned on her heel, and ran.

With her full speed, she scooped up her backpack and journal from where they had been resting near the table, and with the heart still in her hand she leapt out of the open window and dropped to the pavement below with a pained grunt.

A blur across the road later, and she was gone, Blake only able to watch through the window as heaving growls came out of her chest.

Rosalia was gone, Blake couldn’t smell her at all anymore, so she looked around in horror at the scene around her, with all three of her allies tossed aside and dealt with. They’d given Rosalia one hell of a fight, Blake could smell the streaks of blood from Rosalia’s cuts, and the room was filled with the corpses of thralls.

But it hadn’t been enough, and worst of all…

Still in her full wolf form, Blake stepped over to where Yang was lifeless on the ground, her chest an open cavity and her lilac eyes half-shut. Blood poured from her in a thick pool, the only sign of any sort of movement.

The only sound was Ruby’s laboured breathing in her unconsciousness.

But the quiet shattered into splinters as Blake howled once more, the grief and horror ripping out of her entire being, sending the sound out as far as she could manage to push it, letting it pour out of her chest.

On the horizon, the sky was beginning to lighten as the sun rose into the sky, the nightly clouds already starting to blow away and fade. The first beam of sunlight came through the window and bathed the room in early yellow light, but Blake didn’t even notice.

Instead, looking up from where she’d been nuzzling Yang’s body hopelessly and sobbing with pitiful whines, Blake’s attention was drawn to a black speck on the horizon, a dark streak flying through the air towards them with flapping wings.

Underneath her and unnoticed, now bathed in a beam of the first morning light, Yang’s golden hair shimmered.

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Chapter Text

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When Raven had been eighteen, it was the night before high school graduation when she’d found herself in the bathroom at the house she shared with her fellow apprentices, staring at herself in the mirror with narrowed eyes. Overall she liked her appearance, she was proud of the muscle she had built, fond of her tantalising curves which she’d learned how to show off, and she enjoyed how intimidating her red eyes could be.

There was only ever just one part of it all that she’d never liked, even though it was supposed to be special and sacred.

Raven had never enjoyed being blonde.

It didn’t suit her, and it never had. Her twin brother Qrow had dark hair, almost black, and clearly that was what their genetics were best suited for considering how well it complimented him. But Raven’s was a sunny gold, long and curled, and it always had been.

Of course, she knew it wasn’t always going to be. That in the line of work waiting for her, it was inevitable that it was going to change. But for now it had always looked alien to her.

Maybe it had something to do with the style she carried the rest of her personality in; all band shirts and leathers, thick eyeshadow and dark lipstick. It clashed, no matter how many things she had tried in the past to make it suit and fit in.

Her girlfriend Summer adored her hair, and loved how soft it was. She said it was like being able to stroke sunlight.

But Raven wasn’t sunlight. So she scowled as she looked at it. With graduation tomorrow, it was the last chance she had to be remembered by her high school and the city she’d grown up in for who she really was.

It was inevitable that the apprentices would be moved away as soon as they graduated, deployed elsewhere, and they wouldn’t see any of their classmates again. This was Raven’s last chance.

So, a towel wrapped around her torso, she grabbed up the bottle of black hair dye and got to work. Luckily she’d dyed people’s hair in the past, remembering Summer’s dark purple phase with a smirk, so she had a general idea of what she was doing.

When there was a knock on the bathroom door, she jumped and then immediately swore as a squirt of the mixture got onto her back. So she shot a glare at the door even as she grunted in permission for whoever it was to come in.

The door opened slightly, enough for the person to see in but to hide Raven’s modesty from the hallway in case she was entirely naked, and Summer gave a smile just at the sight of her. Just seeing Raven was enough to make her happy, it always was, and Raven still wasn’t sure why knowing that made her insides feel so… squirmy. But in a good way.

Summer stepped in quickly and closed the door behind her, before immediately giggling at the streak of dye going down Raven’s back.

“Oh honey, I’m sorry!”

“Ugh, it’s fine. Make it up to me by getting it off.” Raven grumbled even as her eyes sparkled at the sound of Summer’s mirth, and she got back to work as Summer grabbed a washcloth and wiped the streak off her bare back. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. I just missed you.” Summer hummed sweetly and pressed a kiss to the back of her shoulder, sending a rush of goosebumps over Raven’s skin. With affection given, she finally raised her eyebrows at the dye. “Need some help?”

Raven raised her eyebrows in surprise and paused in her movement, before handing the dye over her shoulder for Summer to take. “You’re not going to try and talk me out of it?”

“It’s your hair, baby.” Smiling, Summer nudged the side of the bathtub with her foot for Raven to sit down on, and hopped in so she was behind her and had the right angle to pick up where Raven left off.

They sat quietly as Summer mixed the dye through Raven’s hair, humming to herself gently as she did, and Raven’s eyes gradually fluttered shut under Summer’s gentle touch.

Their cluster of apprentices hadn’t been moved in together until high school, each of them from different towns and cities until the Grove had decided to train the next batch closer to headquarters, so Summer and Raven hadn’t met until they were fourteen.

And they had all been very different from each other. Summer, Tai, and Terra had been trained out in the countryside, dealing with road hauntings and forest predators. Meanwhile Saphron, Qrow, and Raven had been trained in one of the largest cities in the country. Back alley killings and sewer slaughters had been their first crucibles.

It had turned them into two very different types of people.

Despite that, Raven had first snuck into Tai’s bed at sixteen, and Tai kissed her first. With the seal finally broken and feeling like she finally had a degree of permission, Summer had lost patience less than a week later and kissed them both at the same party.

Summer had also given Qrow a quick kiss when he’d playfully grumbled about being left out, platonic and playful, which had left the man beaming smugly. Right up until Tai had kissed him too an hour later and he’d almost fallen out of his chair, his face bright red but not displeased.

Raven would have rolled her eyes at the time, but she’d been too busy having Summer’s thighs wrapped around her head in their hosting friend’s bed to notice or give a shit.

Two years later, and they hadn’t calmed down much, which Summer proved when she playfully nudged the back of Raven’s towel to loosen it enough it almost fell. Raven growled back playfully and almost went to catch it, before taking the challenge and letting it drop with a smirk.

Summer’s movements stopped immediately, and Raven heard the sharp intake of breath. “...that’s mean.”

“You did it. A shame you aren’t finished.” Raven shrugged innocently, her smirk unseen but audible in her voice, and it grew larger when Summer whined pitifully but went back to finishing Raven’s hair.

There was just so much of it, the locks long and thick and gloriously gold, and Summer revelled in the feel of it between her fingers as she worked through it. Raven’s hair could have passed for supernatural just for its beauty, let alone for what it represented.

For now, its natural state was a bright gold. But in their line of work, Summer knew just as Raven did that it wouldn’t stay that way.

They all knew it. The reality of what it would mean, what it would cost, went unspoken and unacknowledged. But staring down at it even as the colour was fading had Summer think of it.

High school graduation was tomorrow, and then it would only be a few weeks of holiday and reprieve until they’d be packing up and moving into the barracks at the Grove until their first proper deployment as full Hunters.

After that, they had no idea what was coming. Supernatural activity was at an all time low in most of the country, from all reports, but there were a few places that were still highly active and needed a constant presence.

One of the cells in the town of Silvercloud was retiring, each of them now in their late fifties and no longer at their best to deal with a town so utterly corrupted and besieged that some supernatural races based themselves there permanently.

The timing was convenient enough that the apprentices could make an educated guess that it was where they were heading. With Raven and Summer being what they were with the gifts they had, even though they had masterfully kept the higher ups from ever knowing, they were the perfect choice.

As long as they were sent there together as a family, Summer could survive moving to hell.

When she placed a stressed hand on Raven’s shoulder, leaving a dye stain but not caring, Summer sighed when Raven silently reached up and placed a hand on top of her own.

Raven hummed in agreement, knowing they were both thinking about the same thing. They almost always were, these days.

“We’re gonna be fine, baby. I’m going to be fine.” Scoffing at a thought, Raven turned her head to look up into Summer’s silver eyes. “Frankly, I’m going to be better off than the rest of-”

“Please don’t. I hate it when you joke about it, you know that. Let me care, damn you.” Summer sighed as she went back to running her fingers through Raven’s hair, the dye applied and now just mixing it in. “...do you really think you’ll be the last one?”

It had been a theory initially brought up when Tai had lost himself in the archives at the Grove and had backtracked the Branwen bloodline as far as he could. But so much had been lost during the final purges of the First Inquisition.

They could only guess. Blood tests could only predict so much for supernaturals.

There was no way of knowing. And the only way they’d find out would be if Raven ever had a child. But she was a free spirit, wild and untamed, and there would never be any exceptions or changing her mind on that. No matter how much being with Summer and Tai felt like home.

Luckily the apartment window was already shattered, making it seamless for Raven to glide through the jagged glass and twist in the air, pulling in her wings and shifting back to human form. She hit the ground at a slide, grinding to a stop as a hand immediately went to the hilt of the unique sword on her waist.

Things were bad enough that her stealth outfit had been abandoned, the dark leathers locked back in the family armoury and instead replaced with her studded armour. Dark red plates of thick leather and steel studs covered the right side of her body as her gloved hand grabbed the hilt of her blade.

She stared down the giant wolf as she pulled the trigger on her hilt, and the chamber of her custom built sheath rotated to replace the steel blade with a pure silver one. All she had to do was draw it a single inch, exposing the silver to the wolf’s sight, for the creature to back away from her daughter.

Raven narrowed her eyes as she half drew her blade, lips in a snarl, and she watched in satisfaction as the wolf recoiled from the silver like a ghost from a crucifix. “Get the fuck away from my little girl.”

As soon as the wolf had retreated to the other side of the room, ancient instincts forcing its movements no matter how badly it clearly wanted to remain perched over Yang strangely possessively, Raven slid her blade back into the sheath and took a rapid moment to scan the room and absorb the battle.

Trained eyes studied her surroundings for any dangers, briefly locking onto Ruby’s downed form, but when she saw Ruby’s chest rise she felt reassured enough to drop to her knees next to Yang’s body and look down at her.

Everything in her entire body turned to ice, and her eyes widened in horror at the state of her daughter, her lips dropping open and a low broken groan coming from her chest as she grabbed up her daughter and pulled her close.

“Yang…oh firelight…” Raven squeezed her eyes shut as she clutched her daughter tightly, not caring how blood was getting onto the front of her armour. “Yang…”

Across the room, the wolf watched silently, its head drooped in guilt and despair, before it slowly shifted in full view. Returning to two very human legs, its wolf features retracted, dark skin revealed and fur shortening into long black hair that fell down her back.

Blake Belladonna was revealed, tear streaks down her cheeks, and she dropped to her knees with a heavy thud. Sobs wracked her chest, and she slammed a hand down onto the tiles hard enough they cracked under her strength.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I was… we were…”

Blake’s voice cut off with a squeaking sob, and she clenched her jaw to hold herself steady. But she couldn’t raise her head, not enough bravery in her to look over at where Raven was holding Yang’s body close, cradling her like she was still a child.

As soon as she saw it was Blake and recognition flashed through her mind, Raven dismissed her entirely for now. The crush Blake had on her daughter had never been a subtle thing, and that meant she was an ally, so Raven was able to ignore her as she instead scooted back slightly so that Yang was bathed in the sun.

Then she closed her eyes, her head buried into Yang’s hair and holding her close, and wished with all of her heart. For the first time since she’d given birth to her firelight, she hoped that her gut instinct was right and true.

In her arms, bathed in the morning sunlight, Yang grew warm.

Too warm.

Raven’s eyes shot open as she felt Yang’s warmth begin to grow, gradually building, and she immediately shot up to her feet and scooped Yang’s body into a bridal carry. She looked over at where Blake had startled in alarm.

“Where’s the roof access, girl? We need to get up there now.”

The urgency in Raven’s voice had Blake scrambling back up to her feet to point limply to the door leading out of the apartment, and as soon as Raven vanished at a rapid sprint Blake numbly watched her go in shock for a moment. But she snapped out of it as soon as Raven was out of sight, and without any more hesitation she scooped up Ruby’s unconscious form in her arms and followed.

She left Weiss’s body behind, there was nothing she could do for her at all.

Raven took the final steps up to the emergency door to the roof three at a time, Yang’s body heavy in her arms but desperate urgency forcing the exertion. With every passing second she was out of the sunlight, Yang’s body was growing cooler once more, and Raven pushed herself faster.

A hard kick into the emergency door almost knocked it off its hinges so Raven could run out into the pure sunlight and drop to her knees, before carefully placing Yang’s body down so it was bathed in as much as possible.

When Yang’s hair immediately began to shimmer and glow, Raven sucked in a breath. All they could do now was wait and hope, praying with everything in their hearts that there was enough Branwen in Yang to be more than just a taint of her human heritage.

Footsteps joined her a moment later as Blake emerged, Ruby in her arms, and she carefully placed Ruby down on the roof as well. With her chest rising and falling steadily, Ruby stirred slightly from the movement and grunted, the sound snapping Raven out of her desperate staring at Yang and making her look down.

The sight of Ruby stirring was encouraging enough for Raven to stand and rush over, reaching into one of her pouches to grab out a small container, and she gave Blake a warning look as she toyed with the lid and dropped to a knee next to Ruby.

“I’d back off and cover your nose, werewolf. You won’t like this.”

Blake nodded and took a few steps back, her hands clamping over her face as Raven opened the container of smelling salts and held them underneath Ruby’s nose.

As soon as the aroma went into Ruby’s nose and lungs and hit her with the blast of nausea, her eyes clicked open and she shot upright with a desperate gasp for fresh air, only to be caught in Raven’s arms and held steady.

“Easy, little thorn. Easy now. Now come on. Easy.” Raven helped Ruby to her feet without any time to be gentle, but Ruby was tough and pulled herself up easily. “That’s a good girl.”

Ruby shook her head to clear it, her eyes swimming and her head pounding with quite the headache, and she looked up at Raven in shock. “...mama? What are you-”

“Later. For now… don’t turn around, thorn.” Raven bit her lip to chew it as her eyes flicked to where her daughter was glowing brighter and brighter as the sun bathed her.

Just as she always did, Ruby disobeyed and turned around, and her eyes immediately opened in horror at the sight. Yang’s chest was entirely ripped open, revealing gore and insides, and blood leaked weakly from the wound as it ran out and her body practically drained. Her eyes were half open as well, dead and vacant.

She went to rush over, a desperate whine coming from her throat that vaguely sounded like her sister’s name, but Raven caught her around the waist and pulled her back firmly.

“Stay back, and brace yourself. Both of you.”

The reminder that they weren’t alone had Ruby look over at where Blake was standing, the lycan’s eyes narrowed in bewilderment as she watched Yang glow. There was no surviving the wound on her torso, and Blake could smell that there was no life in Yang’s body, nothing but the scent of blood.

And yet, she shimmered, and it was glowing brighter.

Ruby blinked in confusion, before part of her brain realised that Blake was entirely naked, her clothes ripped when she had changed form. Numb instinct took over Ruby as she looked back at Yang, and she unzipped her leather jacket and tossed it over for Blake to catch.

There were no words of thanks as Blake pulled the jacket on to cover as much of her modesty as she could, instead she only had eyes for Yang’s body, so she jumped out of her horrified and confused fugue when Ruby startled.

“Wait, where’s Weiss?!” Looking around desperately, Ruby’s breath caught in her throat as her memory returned, and she froze rigid.

The look on Weiss’s face, her head in Rosalia’s grip, the flash of horror in her eyes, the desperate scratching of her nails on the floor as she had tried to pull herself free but hadn’t managed to move an inch. And then the snap of her neck, and she was gone, empty and broken.

Something in Ruby’s chest cracked. It was practically audible. And suddenly breathing was impossible.

Blake’s voice was quiet and empty as she answered, her eyes locked onto where Yang was laying and starting to glow. Tears leaked down her cheeks even through her confusion, the hole in her own chest throbbing and sore.

“She’s inside. I’m sorry, Ruby.”

Ruby whipped around to stare at the door leading back indoors, knowing where Weiss’s body was laying, before whipping back to stare at Yang in horror.

Two of them were dead. Including her sister.

Her knees gave out as she started to sob, and Raven let her sink to the ground, following her to hold her close but keeping her eyes firmly on her daughter and blinking as rarely as possible. Under her breath, Raven begged the universe in a constant stream, the word ‘please’ coming out of her in a chanted prayer.

It was taking too long. Far longer than it should. But Yang was glowing brighter and brighter, ripples of fire within the strands of her hair starting to ebb through her body in pulsing waves. A heartbeat of a sun, the pulse of the magma of the earth, the heat of the planet’s core and the scorching light of every star soaking into her body.

Eventually she was too bright for Blake to look at with her sensitive eyes, squeezing them shut and covering them with her arm as if she’d been staring at the sun, a bright flare radiating glowing incorporeal flames in every direction as the light escaped Yang’s body.

Ruby had to narrow her eyes to handle the glare, her heart pounding in her chest as she looked at her mother helplessly.

“What’s going on??”

“You’ll see, thorn. Stay close.” Raven ground her jaw as she watched, ignoring the glare of the light and instead simply watching.

The heat coming off Yang was immense, a glowing bonfire as the light obscured her body entirely. Light shot out of her, flickering in translucent flames of gold and vibrant red. It was as if the sun was aimed through a lens to scorch her as she immolated, the fire roaring and crackling.

Raven’s breaths came out rapid and shallow as she watched and hoped, and she held Ruby close so tightly it was surely painful, but Ruby didn’t complain as she stared at Yang as well.

Behind them, Blake gasped as Yang’s scent changed. An aroma floated out of her, filling the air with gentle swirls on the hot breeze, and Blake swayed on her feet as something else began to float inside of her.

The wolf in her perked up, golden eyes wide and fur shimmering under the glow, and Blake felt the birds in nearby trees perk up from their nests and stare towards them. The trees swayed in the hot breeze that Yang was stirring around her, even the insects making their home on the roof wriggled and shifted in response to the pulses.

With her eyes slitting canine, the next breath of air into Blake’s lungs was so fresh and pure that she felt lighter, as if she might rise into the air weightless and free. Each breath of air was the same, as hot as it was and as much as it dried her throat.

The flames reached high into the sky, a beacon and a wildfire. Each flame was translucent, and Blake felt in her chest they wouldn’t bring her any harm if she touched them. But the heat…

It grew too much to bear and she folded, doubling over slightly as sweat began to bead on her skin and trickle down. Ruby’s jacket was stifling on her skin as she felt as if she was inside of a sun.

Everything was too bright to see through, so she squeezed her eyes shut. The heat was too much for her body to bear, so she dropped and slumped, resting her weight on her hands and knees. The broiling crackling and roaring of the flames was so loud she barely heard Raven shout at them both to hold on.

Then, with a final scorch into the sky, the flames vanished.

They sucked inwards like a vacuum, concentrating on a single spot, pulling together into a beacon of light so pure it was starlight just above the roof. Blake managed to open her eyes to stare up in awe at the shape.

A figure of pure light, the spread wings of the golden bird rippled flames from its feathers, its head tilting towards the sky and letting out a birdsong so pure and vibrant that it rippled through Blake’s entire being.

Unable to stop herself, and finding herself unwilling to, she tilted her own head back and howled through human lips, smiling at the perfect feeling of falling into harmony. Raven shot her a glance over her shoulder with a rare smile on her face and approval in her eyes, before she looked back up.

The shape of the bird faded, wings retracting in on themselves and folding to change its shape, pulling into a humanoid form that gradually lowered to the ground. As soon as its feet touched down, Raven released Ruby so she could rush over and catch it.

The light slowly dimmed, turning from a star to a lantern, and Blake and Ruby watched in mindstruck awe as Yang sucked in a violent heaving breath and every muscle in her body awakened. When she exhaled, flames wisped from her mouth like dragon fire, and something in the feeling of it made her beam a smile and let out a manic laugh.

Every cell in her body felt amazing as she trembled, flopping backwards and landing in her mother’s arms, and she raised a hand above herself to look at her golden skin before immediately unbuckling her ruined jacket and looking down at her chest.

There wasn’t even a scar, and when she placed her hand on her skin and felt for it she gasped at the heartbeat and the warmth. Blood rushed healthily through her veins, and she put her hand to her cheek to check the deep scratches from Rosalia’s nails, only to find nothing.

Yang shot upright, scrambling up to her feet and immediately patting herself down, checking every muscle that had been sore and every cut that had gotten through her leathers. But there was nothing, everything felt perfect.

She looked over at where Raven had risen to her feet with a smile of such pure relief that it was a star in itself, and Yang beamed back completely speechlessly before letting out an ‘oof’ when she was hit by two people at full speed.

One pair of arms went around her waist as Ruby tackled her around the middle and squeezed her with all of her strength, tears running down her face and relieved sobs wracking her body. And Blake wrapped her arms around Yang’s shoulders and immediately nuzzled into her neck, pressing her nose against the skin and inhaling Yang’s scent.

Every part of Yang was alive, vibrant and pure, and Blake found herself crying in relief as Yang bundled both of them up and held them both close with her crimson red eyes closing in relief as she squeezed. The last she had seen, Ruby had been unconscious on the ground and Blake had been out in the hallway.

And Weiss…

Yang startled, her eyes shooting open again, and she looked around at everyone with adrenaline and seemingly infinite energy blasting through her.

“Where’s Weiss?! Where’s Rosalia?! What happened???” Yang looked around manically, and her eyes went to where Raven was waiting patiently with her arms crossed in satisfaction. Yang looked down at the hole in her shirt as reality actually hit her, and she blanched. “Did I fucking die?! What the bleeding Jesus is going on?!”

The last question was one important and relevant enough that Blake and Ruby both released Yang and looked over at Raven as well, who took in a deep breath and looked between the three of them with a curious and stressed sharpness in her eyes.

It wasn’t just her that had questions to answer, clearly. The fact that clearly all three of them cared about the wellbeing of Weiss Schnee hadn’t slipped by her, and there was also the monumental amount of circumstances that had led to them being here and suffering what they did in the first place.

So Raven gestured towards the stairs with her head.

“Back downstairs. Now. We have a lot to talk about.”

There was no disobeying the stern authority in her voice, so the three girls immediately nodded and headed for the stairs, Blake refusing to let go of Yang’s hand while Ruby was close enough behind her she kept bumping into her. It made getting down the tight stairs a bit awkward, but Yang certainly wasn’t going to complain.

Frankly, in her adrenaline blasted mind, she was dedicating a lot of her focus on ignoring how Blake's legs were bare and exposed. The girl’s proximity was a delight, but with the endorphins currently sending Yang into a high it was a hindrance as well.

The moment they were back in the apartment, Ruby gasped and rushed over to where Weiss was still laying, her head twisted and completely limp. She dropped to her knees next to Weiss’s body and looked over her for a moment, her hands hovering, before she bit her lip in determination and grabbed one of her few remaining knives from her belt.

Before anyone could protest or stop her, she sliced a cut along her forearm and awkwardly cradled Weiss’s twisted head and neck so she could press it to her lips. A snapped neck was a death sentence for a living creature, it severed the spinal cord and nervous system, but the bodies of vampires were dead already.

Their flesh was just the puppet of the demon that lived inside them, so Ruby was braced and ready when the first drops of her blood falling into Weiss’s mouth had the girl’s corpse immediately bite down on animal reflex.

Ruby sighed at the increasingly familiar wash of pleasurable fog, closing her eyes and letting herself bask in a few moments of feeling nothing except contentment and euphoria, none of the stress or soreness from the night in her mind. For a brief few moments, everything was peaceful and clear, until the serenity was broken by the grotesque sounds of Weiss’s bones snapping and cracking back into place.

When her neck snapped and reconnected, the sudden movement was enough to dislodge Weiss’s fangs from Ruby’s arm, and crimson streaked down her chin and onto her jacket as she grunted. But Ruby’s blood tasted…different. It was her first time drinking from her since Emerald had given them the rings, and true to Emerald’s word…Ruby didn’t taste the same.

She was just blood now, and something in Weiss’s chest stung for a moment before she was distracted by the sensation of the bones in her left leg snapping back together.

With her body rapidly healing, she nodded at Ruby before running her tongue along Ruby’s cut to seal the wound, the bite mark vanishing as it always did, before she gave into exhaustion and slumped back onto the tiles as if she was boneless.

“That…was very, very painful. Thank you, Ruby…” Sighing in relief as the pain faded, Weiss pushed herself up again with a clear mind, and then froze as she took in the rest of the room.

It was absolute carnage, somehow even worse then when she had been taken out of the fight.

Blake was mostly naked, and Weiss could smell the wolf on her and on the shreds of her clothes on the other side of the room. Clearly she’d shifted into one of her animal forms at some point. But the main concern was Yang, whose jacket and shirt had been ripped open in a very specific spot that had Weiss’s eyes widen.

Not to mention Yang’s scent. If it was possible for blood to smell like pure flames, it was radiating from Yang in waves. Something had absolutely happened once she’d been killed, and with no body of Rosalia in sight…

The sight of Raven Branwen was a surprise, a woman who Weiss had only glimpsed a handful of times around town and she knew to be one of Yang and Ruby’s mothers. And here she was, dressed in full combat gear and glaring a warning at her.

A full Inquisitor in all of its power and certainty.

Weiss scooted back along the tiles slightly to create even one more foot of distance, before raising her eyebrows when Ruby stood and extended a hand downwards for her to take. The silent act of reassurance that it was okay was a surprise, but the firm warmth and relief in Ruby’s eyes was so sincere that Weiss smiled and took her hand to pull up to her feet.

The joints in her left leg still felt a bit strange as everything reconnected, but she was able to walk steadily as she and Ruby went over to where Blake and Yang were watching quietly. Weiss gave Blake a nod of relief that she was okay, getting one in return, before turning her attention to a very, very strange Yang.

Studying the girl with wide eyes, Weiss shook her head slowly in confusion.

“...what on earth happened?”

“I died! Rosalia, she uhh…” Yang cleared her throat with a frown as she remembered it, the feeling of Rosalia’s hand in her chest. The smug and almost bored look in the bitch’s eye. She put a hand over where the injury had been. “I appear to have been down a heart, for a hot minute.”

Weiss blinked, her head tilting almost birdlike as she looked Yang up and down, and then over at Blake for confirmation. When Blake nodded shakily, Weiss sucked in a wondrous breath. With no other response coming to her, she gave a small smile.

“Well, I’m glad to have you back, I suppose. But…how?? And what’s happened to your hair??”

“Huh? My hair?!” Yang immediately grabbed a handful of strands and pulled them in front of her face so she could look at them, only for her eyes to widen in confusion.

Weiss bringing attention to it had Ruby and Blake finally truly notice as well, now that Yang was out of the sunlight and seemed to have returned to a mortal form.

While up until now her hair had been an almost impossibly vibrant blonde, a true bright gold as if sunlight had been captured, the golden hue was now slightly dimmer. The blonde was darker, and slightly faded. Less vibrant, less intense. It wasn’t quite faded enough to be considered ashy, but it was close.

Yang looked over at her mother, who had been watching the interaction studiously with narrowed eyes as she put together all of her childrens’ actions over the past few weeks. At Yang’s confused look and study of her hair, Raven thinned her lips and reached back to untie her own tight ponytail, and brought attention to how her own hair was a pure black.

“I’d hoped, foolishly and naively, that we wouldn’t have to have this talk, firelight. That your blonde was from your father and not me. But, I suppose not. So we can either do it alone, or with your… friends.” Raven pointedly looked between Blake and Weiss, with Ruby’s presence being a welcomed given.

When Yang hesitated, clearly indecisive, Raven hummed low in her throat. Whatever on earth this strange coalition had been up to, there was clearly some degree of trust or at least transparency that was cementing. There was a difference though, while Yang regarded and evaluated Blake herself she looked to Ruby after glancing at Weiss.

So, they’d paired off. Yang with a moonborn lycan, who Raven was willing to guess was the lycan Ruby had fought if the same dark fur was any indicator, and Ruby had paired off with the Schnee scion.

‘What in the everloving fuck had her daughters been up to while she was away working?’

Every moment of thought from Yang was another moment Raven had to theorise, but Yang eventually nodded and gestured to all three of the others.

“They can stay. Best to know what…what we’re working with. And, like, they kinda already know something’s weird anyway.”

After considering it for a moment, waiting to see if Yang would change her mind, Raven nodded before gesturing to the hall leading to where the bedroom was, and raised an amused eyebrow.

“Would you like to find Miss Belladonna some pants first?”

Blake immediately turned bright red and buried her face in her hands, having completely forgotten. She barely noticed her state of dress anymore after being so used to shifting around, the lycan pack didn’t have much need or place for something as human as modesty, but when Yang went rigid at the reminder next to her she whined into her hands.

Meanwhile Weiss simply rolled her eyes and then vanished down the hall, and Ruby's blood in her system gave her the speed and reflexes to tear through the wardrobe and dresser until she found a pair of sweatpants with a band Blake would be able to tie tight enough.

She tossed it over to Blake when she returned, and shrugged as she sat down onto the couch, ignoring the splatters of blood, and she shuffled over slightly when Ruby joined her and flopped down close enough their legs were pressed together.

Which didn’t escape Raven’s notice. Nothing much was going to.

Blake tightened the band around her waist so that the pants would fit comfortably on her hips, and she gave Yang a mortified smile that had Yang laugh in amusement even though her own cheeks were pink.

But it wasn’t important, not even slightly, not compared to the answers Yang knew she needed and finally deserved. So, sobering, she drummed her fingers on her thigh and looked over at where her mother was studying them all silently.

“So…what am I? What are we? How did I do that?”

Raven raised an eyebrow, and hummed with an expectant shrug. “We both know that you know, Yang. You’re too clever and studied not to.”

The guess sat in the back of Yang’s throat as she stared across at her mother, raising a hand and placing it over her chest where her heart had been ripped out of her. She bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes to remember how it had felt. The heat, the flames, the way her body had felt like it had turned into fire only to come back together stronger and more energised than ever.

There was only one answer, obvious and undeniable, but it still came out as a whisper.

“We're part phoenix."

Weiss and Blake both jolted, whipping around to stare at her in bewilderment, meanwhile Ruby gave a small smile. Even though Yang was far better at occultism and her monster lore was far deeper than Ruby’s own, it wasn’t a particularly difficult conclusion to come to.

But it was an impossible one.

When Raven simply smiled, Yang’s eyes widened and she stepped forward. “But…but phoenixes are extinct! They vanished from the world centuries ago.”

“Sure. Wild ones who had been going it alone were either found and killed, or went into hiding. But the Inquisition attracted all beings that wanted to protect the world from the darkness. And somewhere back along the line, a long time ago, the first Branwen managed to infiltrate. To fight the good fight even alongside people who hated their kind.” Raven shrugged and tightened her arms across her chest. No matter how much they had torn through the archives, she and the others had never managed to go far back. “There were others, I’m sure. But the purges at the end…”

The explanation trailed off, but Ruby and Yang slumped in defeat as they reached the end of it. The First Inquisition had burned most of their own records and texts as ‘heretical’ towards the end. They’d gone insane, fanatical and borderline rabid. And it had cost them so much knowledge, and most of their membership.

Yang’s fingers dug into the skin of her chest over her heart, stroking along the strong and healthy skin. She frowned. “...can you do it too? Or can you just change into a bird? Can I do that?”

Once again, Raven gestured to her black hair and then to Yang’s, but when that didn’t ring any bells she sighed and stepped over, grabbing her phone from her pocket. Yang watched curiously as Raven opened her photos and swiped through until she reached scanned old ones from her own teen years.

The sight of a young Raven, goth and edgy, but with golden blonde hair, had Yang’s mouth drop open in shock as she processed. But then she laughed, and gave her mother an amused smirk.

“Oh it suits you, mama.”

“Shut up. At least it’s not something I have to deal with anymore.” Raven returned Yang’s smirk with an identical one, the expression inherited and passed on. But the second part of her response had her sigh.

Yang frowned while she looked at the photo, and then up at her mum’s black hair.

“So, wait, you dye it? How have I never-”

“I used to. But these days I don’t have to. And eventually, because it’s always the way, you will likely be the same.” Raven waited for Yang to process, watching the gears turning in her elder daughter’s brilliant mind, and she gave a resigned shrug at the same moment Yang figured it out. “Sorry firelight, no infinite fire for us. We’re too thin blooded.”

Processing, Yang nodded slowly as she figured it out. It made sense, with the blood as diluted as Raven had said, especially if she was right the other day that Yang would likely be the last one with any traits at all. She looked down at her hands, studying the muscles in her forearms, and clenched her fists as tightly as she could.

The next question came out strained, she almost didn’t want to hear the answer, but she needed to know no matter how horrific the reality of it.

“How many times have you…” Yang lost her nerve and had to swallow a lump in her throat. “Y’know. How many?”

It hung in the air for a moment, even Ruby sucking in a breath as Yang asked it, and Raven was silent and tight at it when the memory of each time flashed through her mind. The sensations, the reality of it, how it had felt. Pain. Loss. Emptiness. The void.

But then, always, light.

“Three. And I don’t think I can get much darker, so we all made a solid guess a while ago that this is my last go around.” Raven thinned her lips and shrugged, forced to resign to it.

The first death had been the scariest experience of her life, up until half an hour ago. Meanwhile the reality after the most recent, studying her hair in the mirror looking for any strand that wasn’t pure black, had sat in her gut.

What had helped was by embracing the fact she was having to deal with the reality that every other creature on the planet reckoned with every day of their lives;

Mortality.

“Don’t gamble on how many you might get. Don’t take them for granted. And don’t waste them. Every life is precious, firelight. Every moment of every single one.” Raven reached up and placed her hand on Yang’s cheek, holding her stare firmly even as she stroked affectionately with her thumb. Her daughter was warm under her touch. “It’s not worth less just because you know you might get more of them. Every second in a minute is worth the same as every second in an hour.”

Yang nodded numbly and reached up to place a hand over her mother’s. It wasn’t often that Raven gave much affection, it made each time special, and Yang nodded again as the words sank in. It was already pretty close to the life philosophy she had reached on her own.

But now it had more meaning. The mythos of her kind, what was apparently her kind, had passed down even without intending to.

When Yang nodded, Raven sighed and slid her phone back away so she could look around at the other three as well. Her voice dropped into teacher mode, which had Ruby straighten up slightly.

“As you all saw, it’s not instantaneous. It only happens during the day when we’re touched by direct sunlight, got it? If she goes at night, she won’t rise until dawn.” Raven looked around until everyone nodded, before rolling her eyes and stepping back, crossing her arms over her chest again. “And don’t let her go all gung-ho now. The world is better with my daughter in it. Much better. So even though clearly she’s got at least one or two more in her, let's not throw it away.”

The words of affection had Yang blush slightly and smile, and she shrugged cockily before pausing for a moment, only to slowly look around at the others with a specific grin growing on her lips that had Blake and Ruby brace.

“Don’t worry guys, no matter how much my world changes and if being occasionally immortal gets to my ego, I promise to keep my heart in the right place.”

Ruby immediately looked ready to murder her, with Blake squeezing her eyes shut and groaning at the comment, before they all looked over when Weiss snorted and clamped a hand over her mouth and nose in horror at her own undignified reaction.

Finding a target, Yang hopped over and sat on the arm of the couch, before patting Weiss on the top of the head with a wide grin.

“Aww, Weiss, it’s okay. We won’t tell a soul about that. I promise to…keep it close to the chest.”

In a burst of movement, Yang was suddenly falling off the arm and crashing to the floor with a cackle as Ruby threw a cushion at her, and she giggled manically as she felt her world shift around her.

Life had tilted on its axis now, and she took some strands of her hair to study the subdued gold in them.

‘Okay. Two more goes around, but let’s cherish the fucking things. It’s like a video game!’ Yang grinned and closed her eyes for a moment, taking in a relieved breath as life filled her lungs, before kicking up to her feet with ease and looking around at the others.

Everyone was looking at her in exasperation except for Raven, who had rolled her eyes up to the roof as if questioning god why he’d given her Yang as a daughter. But the moment passed and the joviality faded from the room as the reality of their surroundings returned and they all looked around at the carnage.

Raven clicked her tongue as her face lost all signs of amusement or softness, turning hard and sharp and professional, and she glared at Blake and Yang as she pointed at the couch for the two of them to sit next to Weiss and Ruby.

Knowing the look she was getting, Yang immediately obeyed, smiling guiltily at her mother before sitting down on Ruby’s other side and throwing an arm over her sister’s shoulders. But Blake stayed standing, narrowing her eyes into a glare as she bristled at being ordered around.

At Blake’s resistance, Raven raised her eyebrows with a small hum of approval, and she let her hand fall.

There was no pause, no hesitation, not a single moment of self-doubt as Blake stepped over to Raven and stared her down. She was slightly shorter than the Inquisitor while in her purely human form, but it didn’t matter at all to either of them as she was shorter in stature but far larger in presence.

Raven nodded slowly as she took Blake in, studying the intense gold in her eyes, the animal barely within her skin. She’d heard the wolf’s howl while in bird form and felt the power imbued in it in her feathers, it was what had told her where her daughter might be in the first place. And it was not the howl of a turned werewolf, the power in it was too great.

This girl in front of her wasn’t just a simple moonborn either. She was so much more.

Studying the girl who had been a near constant presence in Yang’s life and mind for well over a year now, Raven hummed. “So, you’re the alpha. The pack leader.”

Blake immediately nodded, determined and firm, without stammering or wavering.“I am, as of a couple of months ago.”

“And yet you pursued my daughter anyway.” Raven raised a hand behind her when Yang groaned in frustration at it being brought up now of all times. “Despite your secret. Why?”

It wasn’t an immediate answer as Blake tightened her jaw and ran her tongue along the back of her teeth to try and word it. She knew that this wasn’t just a typical shovel talk, Raven had caught the four of them working together, which meant she knew that Blake knew what Yang and Ruby were.

There was a wide array of intentions that she could have for Yang, in Raven’s eyes. Blake knew that. And, honestly, she could respect it. Raven wasn’t an energetic and enthusiastic newbie like Yang and Ruby, she was honed, experienced, and paranoid.

So Blake chose the truth, because she was standing too close to Raven to be able to tell a convincing lie.

“Because I want her. Because…because she has been the brightest presence in my life since we met. And because when my life got so much more complicated…she was with me, even though I didn’t tell her anything. She never pushed.” Blake glanced over her shoulder at where Yang was staring at her with wide eyes, and she smiled gently. “She’s kind, stubborn, and utterly chaotic. I’m a moonborn, my life is confined to the night. But Yang is a firework. She’s been…the best campfire there is.”

The look the two of them were sharing was open and warm enough that Weiss shuffled awkwardly just from being so close to it, meanwhile Ruby was smiling softly at how sincere Blake sounded.

Yang’s smile was soft and pure, and she gave a modest shrug, and that was enough for Raven to nod slowly and let out a sigh.

“You’re in for the most complicated dynamic imaginable, wolfie. Especially with the Shroud so close to being in tatters.” Raven didn’t linger on the beaming smile Yang gave her when she gave Blake her approval, instead moving past it quickly to instead look at everyone with an expression that cut so sharp it severed every soft emotion in the room. “Speaking of, you four need to tell me everything. Ruby, Yang, your grace time is up. And frankly, be fucking thankful it’s me and not Summer. So Ruby? You and Schnee are definitely going first. Talk.”

By the time the four of them had caught Raven up on everything leading up to the moment they had walked into the apartment complex, the sun was high enough in the sky to light up the entire apartment and illuminate the gore and horror properly. The sight was abhorrent, but the smell was already worse.

Ruby paced back and forth across the living room, nibbling on her thumb as she talked, it being her second turn to tell everyone everything after everyone else had been forced to go.

There were definitely things Ruby and Weiss had left out; no mention of dealing with Emerald, no drawing attention to the rings, and absolutely no mentions of the blood bond and the sex. But the rest of their theories and collected evidence were out there.

Yang was keeping notes of everyone’s reports in a few pages she had ripped out of her journal, jotting them down as dot points, and as the pages filled up she was biting her bottom lip tighter and tighter until she faintly tasted blood.

Still next to her, Weiss had an elbow resting on the arm of the lounge and was pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly. None of the information about her own people had needed to come out, but they’d told Raven about the meeting at the gas station and their arrangement, and their investigations ever since.

It was incredibly hard to get a read on Raven, she was a blank wall, but Ruby and Weiss admitting that they’d made an agreement that included betrayal had been the closest to anger that Weiss could pick up from the woman. And it had clearly been a familiar enough twitch that Ruby had wilted.

Raven was not an emotional woman, that was easy to tell, but being betrayed by her daughter, their order being betrayed by her…it had hurt, Weiss had seen it. It really hurt. Raven hadn’t allowed it to linger, instead gesturing for the two of them to continue, so they hurriedly had.

They also hadn’t gotten much out of Blake about what her own people were doing, but they hadn’t expected her to tell and nobody could blame her for being tight-lipped. From what she’d said, the pack were keeping an eye on the different supernatural communities, but for the most part they’d closed ranks.

Even though her father had tried to talk them into actively intervening and trying to actively help, the others had hesitated. They’d grown comfortable with the status quo over the past few decades. Complacent. And with Blake’s father no longer being as much of a figure of authority, eyes had turned to Blake, and they didn’t trust her enough yet to obey her word without reason.

Reasons which she had been trying to collect evidence for and put together, just to get the others off their asses.

When Blake’s phone had rung halfway through Ruby crossing the room, everyone looked over as Blake grabbed it from the tatters of her pants on the floor and looked down at the name, forced to wipe blood from the screen.

She had sucked in a breath and swore quietly before stepping away and raising the phone to her ear, and Weiss heard her immediately getting shouted at in frustration from the other end of the line.

Blake had vanished out into the hall and closed the apartment door behind her, leaving the other three facing Raven alone.

They had reached the point in their investigation when they had been making their way up the apartment complex, Ruby doing her best to describe the fleshy walls on the fourth floor, and Raven had some of the flesh between her fingers to study it.

Raven frowned as she grabbed an evidence bag from a pouch and put a few samples inside, clicking her tongue in thought as she processed everything the four teenagers had told her and caught her up on.

“A flesh shaper. Not many species can do that anymore. What happened once you got up here?”

At that, Ruby looked over at Yang and spread her hands in a silent request for Yang to take over, and Yang sighed and sat up so she could fold her hands between her spread legs and tap her thumbs together.

“We found the fucking thing. She said it’s name was Rosalia. It…knew something about Ruby and I was different, just from looking at us. And it also knew Weiss by name and face.” Yang gestured over to Weiss next to her, the vampiress still nursing her tired eyes as she pondered over that exact detail.

There was so much of how the creature had treated her that made no sense, as she watched it in her mind over and over again. Every part of the conversation, the way Rosalia had spoken to her so informally, as if she had the right to. So casually, and dismissively. Right up until Weiss had been too much of a threat to ignore.

And then the shadows had come for her to get her out of things.

When the apartment door opened again before Weiss opened her mouth to answer, and Blake returned while shoving her phone into her pocket with a frustrated but guilty wince, Blake waved the others off but nodded that she would tell everyone later.

Weiss’s hand dropped and landed on the arm rest with an informal thud, exhaustion and stress draining her normal manners and posture, and she opened her eyes again to look between the others.

“It had the powers of a Malachite. Shadow dancing. As for the flesh shaping, I think…I think it stole that too.” Weiss bit her lip to think as her eyes flicked over to where Rosalia’s bag had been sitting open, and the smells coming from the jars. “...I think there are bodies we haven’t found.”

The three other girls glanced at each other, the very idea of that horrifying, meanwhile Raven leant back against the wall with a thoughtful hum and silently gestured for Weiss to explain.

Weiss released the corner of her lip and straightened up, neatening her posture as best as she could despite the exhaustion in her body. Sitting in sunlight was incredibly draining, even with some of Ruby’s blood in her system.

“She had jars in her bag, and I could smell them. Strongly. There were more than we’ve found the sources of, blood of species we haven’t found bodies for. Rosalia, whatever she is, has been busy.” Weiss frowned again in thought as she wracked over how Rosalia had treated her and spoken to her.

But no answers came, no explanations. She’d never met Rosalia in her life, she knew that for certain.

She shook her head helplessly and looked around at the others.

“Then she snapped my neck and my body died, and I don’t know anything from that point.”

Ruby let out a frustrated breath, but the frustration was directed at herself, and she sank back down onto the couch next to Weiss and looked down at her knees. “I got knocked out barely two minutes later.”

It was Blake’s turn to look guilty, glancing over at the hole in the wall she’d thrown the thrall through. She didn’t regret her decision to hold the stairwell and hallways, it had stopped the others from getting swarmed as they had to deal with Rosalia, but it had meant she hadn’t been in the room.

Even though she fully believed it had been the right decision, she knew what the cost had been, so she shook her head with nothing to say. She hadn’t entered the room until the damage was done.

Yang sat in silence, staring off into nothingness as she forced herself to think about what had happened immediately after Ruby had been taken out, leaving her to face Rosalia alone. The memory of the pain was fresh, and her hand went to her chest where Rosalia’s fist had gone straight through.

A clawed hand had wrapped around her insides and twisted, grasping onto the source of her life, and Rosalia had been such a casual fucking bitch about it. Mocking her. Talking to her.

Wait. Talking to her.

Yang frowned and closed her eyes to try and remember what Rosalia said, trying to hear it through the screaming pain that had been filling her entire head at the time. But the words stuck out, reverberating in her mind.

“ Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.”

The moment Yang muttered them to herself, the entire lounge moved from the speed and force Weiss spun to stare at her with wide eyes, her mouth dropping open slightly as she somehow went even paler.

“Say that again.”

Yang blinked at the shocked reaction, but obeyed.

“It was what she said before she…yeah. Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.”

Everyone jumped back from the sudden movement as Weiss shot to her feet and stumbled back, her eyes wide, and she spun to stare out the window for a moment. But the view wasn’t distracting enough, so she turned back in to face the others with her lips so thinned they were the same paleness as the rest of her skin.

“That’s not…it can’t be.”

Ruby frowned in concern and stood up from the couch, stepping over slowly so Weiss didn’t startle, and placed a hand on her arm. When Weiss calmed, Ruby nodded in a prod for her to explain.

“What are those words? You know them?”

“Of course I know them. They’re ours. The Council’s.” Weiss pushed Ruby’s hand off her arm gently as she stepped forward again and began to violently pace back and forth across the room, her hands folded behind her back as she closed her eyes in thought.

Even as she’d opened up to Ruby and let her in on a lot of what the council had been investigating, she had been incredibly secretive about the structure of the Council itself, for obvious reasons. So the others watched her in curiosity as she paced back and forth and tried to collect her thoughts.

Those words. Those ancient and strange words, passed down from generation to generation, to each head of the Lines. One of the few things that vampire kind could ever refer to as ‘sacred’.

“It’s…a prayer, I suppose. A pledge. A request. Any. All. Pick your word for it and it sticks.” Weiss bit her lip as she spun on her foot and stopped in her pacing to face the others, looking between them all and where they were all watching and waiting eagerly.

This was it, for her. Letting the others in on the investigation was one thing, but this was the entire structure of the Council.

But she straightened her back and made her decision, resigning to it. The Shroud was practically in shreds already anyway, everybody’s secrets were coming out and mixing together into the worst kind of powder keg.

“Every species came from somewhere. Humanity evolved, fey are supposedly originally from the fifth dimension, I believe lycans follow the teaching that the spirit of the moon chose them as guardians and created them?” Weiss glanced at Blake for confirmation, and got a shrug in response. 

The werewolves all believed different things. Turned werewolves thought it was a curse, moonborn tended to believe it was a blessing. Blake had never been sure which she believed yet.

Weiss knew that the vampires would have a similar divide depending on who created each one and passed the philosophy along. The Lines thought themselves to be princes among insects. But most vampires were just victims.

But this legend was older than any of those beliefs.

“Naturally, it makes sense that at some point back in history…there was the original of our kind. The first vampire. The progenitor. The most pure of our kind to ever exist, with the powers and gifts of all the Lines put together. Before any blood and curse got diluted and spread.” Weiss tilted her head as she tried to think of how to word it. Not even her own kind could entirely agree on the history of it, naturally the answer depended on which bloodline was asked. “ We know nothing about them for a fact, but we have our own stories I suppose. The accepted belief is that it was a woman. The Malachites call her the Dark Mother, the Altans call her the Sanguine Queen. But when we pray as a group, we call for her by her name. Salem.”

Everyone was listening completely enraptured, Yang not even bothering to make notes as she listened. Nobody knew anything about the Council and the Lines, no matter how long the Guild had studied them and tried to get any sort of loose theory. They just knew the Lines were ancient, older than the First Inquisition by centuries.

The Guild had its own theories as to how vampires had come to exist, the most common being that vampires were simply a form of contagious demon that could spread itself. But that had never sat right in Ruby.

Vampires, to her, were too… composed. They weren’t rabid animals drawn to spread a disease. They were careful, cunning, and insidious. They infiltrated communities and leached from them like parasites.

They killed far more people than they turned, by a ratio of thousands. That wasn’t the behaviour of a disease, even if demonic in nature.

So the thought of a progenitor, a patient zero, was a fascinating one to consider.

Weiss sighed and ran the tip of her tongue along her lips as she thought back to every time her coterie had come together and spoken the words, the ones meant to be restricted only to the Primogens of each line.

“ Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose is a prayer, of sorts. ‘When torn hearts wept, beloved Salem rose anew and true.’ or something along those lines, the true translation is lost but that's our best estimate. It’s the hope that one day Salem will return, and bring about the Time Of Darkness.” When the others looked at her all expecting the same explanation, Weiss rolled her eyes as if having to explain the obvious and waved a hand dismissively. “The age where vampires can hunt with impunity, and will drain the world dry, turning it dark. It’s why the Lines believe they exist, spiritually. We’re to get the world ready. Our blood is permanently potent enough that those we sire can beget whole new branch lines, and keep the species strong. Otherwise the blood would have thinned out to nothing centuries ago.”

Everyone was entirely silent as they processed, the words running through each of their minds and clicking. None of them were stupid, they could put it together, and the thought of the original pure vampire being somehow resurrected had Raven stiffen where she was standing.

Vampires were an old species, but there was a point in history where stories about them stopped, marking it as the beginning. They’d spread slowly at first, but as the ages had passed they’d seemingly grown lazier and more arrogant. Either that or they’d lost their way, forgetting why they had originally been so subtle. Histories get forgotten, but instincts remain.

They were one of the initial reasons the Inquisition had formed and marched in the first place, and the culling across the world had been brutal. But the Lines survived, and had somehow and for some reason established Silvercloud as their home settlement a few centuries ago.

Raven clicked her tongue as she grabbed out her Hunter’s Journal and flipped to the massive amount of pages she had on vampires, her own dot points of what she considered important details over the years.

The sound of the pages rustling snapped everyone out of their daunted dazes, and they looked over as Raven ran her finger down a page and hummed.

“From what the Guild thinks, it’s almost as if each ‘ generation’ of vampire is weaker than the last. Every vampire is weaker than the one who turned it. So if this legend is true, that means it’s like a genetic bloodline. Each ‘generation’ is further away from this…Salem, and so weaker. More human.” Drumming her fingers on the pages, Raven looked over at Weiss, who nodded slowly in confirmation.

“Yes, pretty much. But the Lines are different. We’re the original bloodlines, the pure lineages. We believe we’re the descendants of the first seven that Salem turned, and bestowed some of her gifts onto. Pure and true. The Fall and Sustrai families came later. But the others were the first seven. That's our belief.” Weiss shrugged to indicate she wasn’t a full believer in it, unsure what to think and what to decide. She paused for a moment as another part of the legend occurred to her, which she knew was something Ruby had always been deathly curious about. “We think it’s why we can have children, and can survive being staked, and the sunlight. Because unlike the diluted of our kind, who in the modern day are practically fragile imitations, we need to exist. To facilitate the return to darkness. So Salem made her true children stronger, and able to pass down the gifts directly through lineage. But we don’t know for sure.”

That had always been a major part of the mystery for Ruby. Why the Lines seemed to be so similar to humanity, and she frowned as everything Emerald had told her as well sank in like jigsaw pieces. A picture began to assemble in her mind, an idea of just what it meant to ‘awaken’ and why the daywalkers had to go through that in the first place, born dormant and inferior. 

But that wasn’t for the others to hear, that was just for her and Weiss, and she’d need to talk to Emerald and see if she could get some more answers. Some secrets about Weiss she would keep. And that included the fact that Weiss actually had a good heart for now.

As soon as the words and acknowledgement went through her mind, Ruby froze and a shiver of static went over her body, erupting her skin into tingles.

Did she really think that?

Weiss clearly wanted to have one. She resisted blood as much as she could, radiated guilt every time she gave in even an inch, had helped Yang, had put aside her differences with Blake for the good of the town, and had protected Ruby herself as much as she could.

Despite her own belief that she was descended directly from some sort of true demon, the black magic pure in her veins, Weiss had said herself she would rather be a nobody with clean hands than a ruler with bloodied ones.

And she’d done nothing but prove she meant it. Even right now she was betraying the secrecy of her people just to give them a fighting chance.

…even though if Rosalia somehow achieved her objective, then legend and myth apparently implied that Weiss and the rest of her kind would be able to carve the world apart.

Was that why Rosalia was so confused why Weiss was trying to stop her?

Ruby clenched her fists on either side of her, shoving them into her pockets so nobody would see as she practically vibrated in her tension, confusion twirling around inside of her mind. She didn’t understand. Every passing day she understood Weiss less and less.

After the silence had dragged on, each of them brooding on the horrific conclusion, it was Yang who put it out into the air for them all to have to acknowledge.

“So Rosalia has been collecting hearts for some sort of ritual that will in theory bring back the original vampire. That’s our running theory?” Yang looked around at everyone, every hollow nod from them making her shoulders tense up further and further, and she asked the follow up that Raven had been mulling over as well. “But… she’s not a vampire, is she? So what the hell is she? And why is she doing it?”

Blake and Weiss both immediately shook her heads, looking over at each other with the same grimace. They’d seen Rosalia in person now, Weiss had smelled her blood and it wasn’t possible for vampires to smell each other’s kind, and Blake knew the scent of a vampire anywhere.

Because that was the problem for her; Rosalia didn’t have a scent, to her nose. Even in the mall where she’d been surrounded by her blood, there hadn’t been a smell. The black magic in the room had a horrific scent, but Rosalia herself had been completely and utterly empty.

Just vacant. It was like she wasn’t even there. No scent, no heartbeat, nothing.

Weiss turned away from everyone again as her own mind raced, and she narrowed her eyes at the wall as she thought of the final words Rosalia had whispered in her ear.

“Before she broke my neck, Rosalia…she said ‘time for a regime change’.” Weiss drummed her hands together behind her back as she stared out into nothingness. “A regime change.”

The others looked at each other, the three teenagers shrugging helplessly, and Raven drummed her fingers on her journal again and looked over at where Weiss was rigid in her paranoia and anxiety.

“The Schnees are the leaders of the Lines, aren’t you? That’s your mother.” Raven tilted her head when Weiss nodded without turning away from the window, and she stood up from the wall properly and slid her journal back into her bag. “I think your original creator coming back would certainly count, kid. But I do have a question for you.”

Raven’s tone shifted so quickly between sentences, turning from curiosity to certain death, and Weiss turned at the cold hostility in it only for her eyes to widen at the casual grip Raven had on the hilt of her sword. And unlike Ruby, Blake, and Yang, who were still a bit intimidated and unsure of her when they had any kind of stand off, Raven looked so utterly comfortable and confident threatening her that Weiss felt ice.

This was a woman who had been killing monsters far stronger than her kind for about twenty years, if Yang’s age was any indicator, so Weiss simply nodded anxiously for Raven to ask.

Without tightening her grip on her sword, but keeping the threat obvious, Raven tilted her head in a slow movement.

“Why are you trying to stop it?”

Ruby sucked in a quick breath when Raven was the one to ask, but she shouldn’t have been too surprised that her mother had gotten there too from her own train of thought. With curiosity burning through her body, she still felt sympathy for the look of fear on Weiss’s face as they all looked at her and waited for an answer.

It went unsaid that if Weiss gave the wrong answer, or Raven didn’t believe her, she wouldn’t be leaving the room. Blake’s suspicion of her was still high enough that she looked ready to follow Raven’s call, and she was between Weiss and the door.

She could lie. A thousand different ones came to her lips. A thousand deflections. A scoff. A flick of her hair. Something about protecting the Schnee hierarchy. Something about not believing stupid legends and instead caring about the Shroud and the food supply. Vampires were perfect liars, they were the best in the supernatural world, and a thousand combinations came to mind.

But then she looked at Ruby, who was watching her with eyes so curious and desperate that all the lies evaporated from Weiss’s mind. Because Ruby wanted a reason to believe in her, she was waiting for it, she was ready for it.

It had been the worst year of Weiss’s life, almost to the day. She had watched her friends descend further down, leaving her behind. Twelve months ago, the only other true rebel in the coterie had vanished. Cinder had been the louder voice of rebellion, without Weiss’s authority but with far more anger.

Anger at the Crimson Council, at their ambition, their greed. It had been her, Weiss, and Miltia trying to hold the others together. Trying to hold them to the moral mark. Even as each of them grew more addicted to vitae one by one. It had only been a matter of time, but Weiss and Cinder had been determined to make it last as long as possible.

But then Cinder and her father had gone missing, and Coco had broken first soon after. One by one, they’d all given in. All surrendered. Until only Weiss and Miltia were left. And now Miltia was gone.

She loved her friends, as much as a vampire was capable of love, but for a year they had been leaving her further and further behind as they sank deeper into the sway of the monsters living inside of their blood.

And yet she was considered the failure. She was the one who was mocked and increasingly disregarded and ignored.

Because she was the only one who didn’t listen to the creature inside of herself that whispered to her every moment of the night. That made her toss and turn in her bed desperate to taste the Final Heartbeat and become what she was doomed to be.

The last one trying to be better. Trying to be more. And with the Shroud falling and Rosalia attempting to raise darkness, the past few weeks and next few days were maybe her last chance to leave some sort of mark that she hadn’t always been a monster.

The Beast wins. The blood wins. It always does. Emerald was right about that. There was no resisting it forever.

But she would last as long as she could, no matter the cost.

So Weiss told the truth, even as the corners of her eyes stung with tears of blood. Tears of shame. Tears of hatred.

“...I don’t want us to win. I don’t want that world. I can't imagine a world more lonely. A world without laughter, or art, or love. Just darkness. Just nothingness until the end of all things." Weiss’s head dropped, unable to stand looking at any of them, and she squeezed her eyes shut as her throat tightened. Her fists trembled tightly by her sides.

She felt her beast screaming at her, rebelling against her words, snarling at her and thrashing. But she didn’t care, there was no struggle to accept this as the truth. This had been the truth for her for as long as she could remember.

“I don’t want to be one of them. Not the way we've become. Maybe there was a time where we kept to ourselves, and silently bided our time. But now? Now it's ambition that fuels our people. The worst kinds of hunger. And opposing that, opposing the Crimson Council, opposing their greed, their hunger, and their cruelty…is always the right decision.” A lancing pain in her body as her Beast scratched her from the inside, an echo from her soul being lacerated, had her clasp her hands to her chest. “It’s wrong to be the way they are. It’s wrong. And I choose not to do it. I don’t want to end up a monster like my sister Winter, or to vanish like Cinder Fall. I don’t want a time of darkness. I want a world where beautiful things are still made. A world where the sunrise means something. I want a world where I can keep being one of you. At least pretending. Holding onto the...the delusion. As long as I can.”

The ability to speak fractured as she instead began to tremble in shame. Shame at her weakness, at not wanting to be more like the others. At the fact she couldn’t stand being one of her own kind, even though she carried the blood of kings and queens inside of her. It was her duty to lead the Council one day, just like it was inevitable she would give in to her Beast and slip up eventually.

Footsteps across the room had her ready to jump back and defend herself, but she was suddenly being pulled into a warm pair of arms and held tight. The familiar scent of Ruby surrounded her, dampened by the rings but still present, and she froze and went completely rigid as Ruby properly hugged her for the second ever time, this time being the one to initiate it.

They had kissed, and fucked, and teased each other with nudges, but now Ruby was holding her. And after a long pause, eyes wide and confused, Weiss latched on with as much of her strength as she thought Ruby could stand, only to squeeze harder when Ruby’s fingers went to her hair. Hair which she had yanked in the past, but she now stroked with long and gentle movements of her fingers.

“Ruby…I…” The words choked out, and Weiss shivered for another moment. “I know what I am. I know I’m wrong. I know I’m doomed. I told you. But I don’t want to be.”

Ruby hushed her quietly, holding her tighter and stroking her hair in a steady rhythm, and she gradually calmed. Even once she stopped trembling, the embrace lasted, both of them holding each other close. Even though Weiss knew she was cool to the touch, as cold as a corpse, Ruby didn’t complain. Instead she was warm. She was so fucking warm and soft.

Metal and leather creaked across the room, and they pulled back from each other enough to look over at the source, and watched as Raven released the grip she had on the hilt of her blade and let her hand drop down by her side. The other was resting on her hip as she considered Weiss was a perfectly sealed expression.

Blake and Yang were simply staring, the corner of Yang’s lips in a miniscule smile as she watched, but Blake’s face was harder to read.

She was sundered.

There wasn’t a single lie coming from Weiss, she could tell in her scent. It was true. All of it. And so, as the world-shifting shock faded, all Blake felt was guilt. She’d almost killed her when all Weiss had been doing was trying to help.

Looking away, Blake bit her lip and nodded for Weiss to see. She believed it, and Weiss needed to know that she did.

Weiss was safe from her.

It was just Raven that was left, the older woman staring at her sharply and pinning Weiss and Ruby with her gaze. She looked at Ruby for a moment and raised an eyebrow, and Ruby immediately nodded confidently.

The silence moment dragged out as Raven considered, all of her thoughts hidden, until she chuckled in wonder and shook her head slowly, properly moving her hand away from the hilt of her sword.

“Well alright then. On your head be it, kid. The balance of it all is fucked at this point anyway.”

Weiss deflated, and she didn’t resist when Ruby pulled her into another hug and held her close, running a hand up and down her back.

When Ruby’s breath tickled her ear in a whisper, a shiver went through her as she listened.

“My mum says the main part of being a good person is in deciding to be.” Ruby pulled back again as soon as she said it, and she gave a wide eyed Weiss a gentle smile before releasing her entirely and turning back to the others.

The moment needed to pass, mostly for Weiss’s sake but also because they had another priority as Blake frowned and then looked over Raven.

“Speaking of the balance, I had someone check out your Guild last night. I…didn’t rendezvous with her this morning, and she’s pissed, very, but she said that most of your houses are being packed up.” Blake bit her lip when Raven shuffled uncomfortably. “What’s going on?”

Ruby and Yang looked over at Raven in alarm, eyebrows raised and eyes concerned, and Raven sighed and crossed her arms when she looked over at her daughters and clenched her jaw so hard it bulged.

“We got orders from high up. Most of the households are being pulled out. With three apprentices killed and the Shroud as weak as it is, they want to regroup.”

Yang rose to her feet in shock, and her face bloomed into outrage immediately. “What?! They can’t! Everything’s about to kick off, we can’t pull out now!”

“Saph lost her little brother, Li and An lost their son and adopted daughter.” Raven spoke firmly, gesturing with a hand for Yang to steady herself. “They’re shaken, messed around, and disorganised. And the Polendinas are non-combatants in a town where the Shroud is failing. They’re out.”

Yang growled in frustration as she stepped forward, her voice rising as she clenched her fists by her sides. “And what about us?! The Guild making us run away like cowards too?!”

The silence was agonising as Raven and Yang stared each other down, anger burning in Yang’s eyes while Raven’s went cold and hard. Raven clicked her tongue a single time and spoke without breaking eye contact.

“Schnee, Belladonna, I’d like a word with my daughters in private.”

Raven’s voice was firm and blunt enough that both girls immediately stepped over to the door, Weiss giving Ruby a quick worried glance and then thinning her lips when Ruby gave a stressed shrug. But she left with Blake regardless, the two of them looking at each other in worry as Blake closed the door behind them.

Once they were alone, the atmosphere of the room changed as Raven stared down Yang so sharply that it was inevitable that her daughter folded first, and Yang blinked and looked away. As soon as she did, Raven bit her tongue for a moment in frustration.

“You have no idea what happens now, Yang. What they’re going through. Neither of you do. None of us like this, retreating does feel like running away. But Saphron lost her only remaining sibling and a girl she loved like another sister, and the Ren family lost their two children. You have barely an idea what that can do to a person. You think you know what it feels like? You can’t comprehend Saphron and Terra, let alone Li and An in this moment.”

Raven stepped forward as she hammered into Yang, staring at her unblinking and her voice hard and scolding as Yang looked more and more berated and regretful of her words. Even Ruby wilted, having been internally feeling the same anger but letting Yang voice it.

With Yang looking away ashamed as she thought over it, remembering how Saphron had looked at her house when the news had broken, she felt bile rise into her gut and she had to swallow it down with a painful gulp.

The reaction was enough for Raven to sigh and lay off her glare.

“The Ren family are leaving today, the Arcs leave tomorrow. But Summer very, very boldly demanded that we stay at least until the next rotation arrives and we can switch. Fresh faces who aren’t compromised or in emotional distress.” Raven sighed again, showing her own exhaustion with how heavy the sound was, and she briefly looked out of the window to stare into her own mind as she mulled. The Guild had a specific way of doing things, and she didn’t always agree. “The last thing Silvercloud needs right now are more Hunters going rogue for revenge. You’re damn lucky you’re our children and have that leeway, otherwise you would have been reported and extracted as soon as we got suspicious.”

Yang had deflated entirely, having completely memorised the rules and codes of the Guild and knowing it was true. By all dictated reason and response, she and Ruby should have been taken back to the Guild for disciplinary action a while ago.

Especially Ruby, which was why she was suddenly receiving the entirety of Raven’s glare.

Shifting guilty, Ruby didn’t stand a chance of holding eye contact, she knew she didn’t have a leg to stand on, and she looked down like a scolded child. But that wasn’t good enough for Raven, they weren’t children when standing here in this room surrounded by this carnage with a vampire and a lycan outside as allies, so Raven stepped over and looked down at her with thin lips.

“I’m hurt that you didn’t let us in, Ruby. You’ve become too much like me at times, but with your father’s hubris and Summer’s cunning. You’ve taken an axe to every code you grew up obsessed with.” Raven glared down at her for another moment, letting it sink in, before deflating slightly and closing her eyes tiredly. “If the town and the Shroud wasn’t so fucked regardless, god knows the damage that you and the Schnee girl alone would have caused from all this.”

That had been the risk and the cost, and Ruby had known that from the start, it had been one of her main reservations when she and Weiss had made the deal. But it had kept them alive, and they had made enough progress to catch up to Rosalia and get a bucket load of answers that might help.

So even though she nodded without argument at Raven’s point, she still straightened her shoulders and raised her chin to meet Raven’s eye confidently.

“I’d do it again.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re definitely my daughter, you stubborn little thorn.” Raven rolled her eyes with a scoff, unsurprised by Ruby’s defiance, but she nodded in approval that Ruby clearly took the reprimand to heart and didn’t argue or disagree. She crossed her arms and looked between both of her daughters. “Summer’s at the Grove helping to organise the roster transfer, and your father is transporting the Polendinas and their equipment there tonight and giving her a lift back. They’ll be back in a couple of days with fresh gear to tide us over until the new groups arrive to switch us out. Sit on your goddamn asses until then. We’re on the defence now.”

Yang rolled her eyes with a frustrated groan, her anger reaching its limits and shifting her eyes back to red, and she flapped her arms exasperatedly as she turned to Raven again and growled.

“We’ve been on the defence this whole fucking time! At least Ruby and I are doing something!”

“You’re being reckless.” Raven snapped back, turning to face down Yang and narrowing her eyes. “I get that you’re pissed, I am too, I liked those kids and I like this town, but we have no idea what we’re dealing with. We have to move carefully.”

“We don’t have time for ‘careful’, mama!” Walking over to her mother until they were eye to eye, Yang gestured to Ruby and then to herself. “Something is on the brink of hell, and you want us to sit and twiddle our thumbs just as we’re catching up? To hide?”

“I want you to be safe!” Raven raised her voice properly for the first time, shouting down Yang as she stepped forward angrily, her red eyes burning. "Sometimes being brave is the wrong choice, Yang. Sometimes you have to be smart. But last night you weren't, you were impatient and angry and overconfident, and look at what happened!"

They stared at each other furiously, red eyes burning into red, and Ruby could only watch in complete silence as her mother and sister glared and silently pushed back and forth. Neither of them showed any signs of budging, the battle of wills and clash of mutual anger dragging out until Yang narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw stubbornly.

Raven shook her head slowly at what she saw in the expression, thinning her lips pleadingly, and her voice was soft and quiet.

“Don’t go rogue, Yang. There are consequences that I can’t guard you from. Please don’t do this. Either of you.” Raven looked over at Ruby, but she didn’t find an easier target, with Ruby’s own eyes firm and determined.

She didn’t feel the same rage Yang did, but she knew in her heart that she had made the best decisions she could given the circumstances. And despite how bloody a road it had carved, they had been making progress that nobody else had.

All four of them were on Rosalia’s trail, they had answers, they had clues. And now the Guild, who was sworn to protect the Shroud and protect humanity, wanted to retreat and waste time keeping them in reserve and eventually pulling them out?

Was that really the order that Ruby had signed up for? Did the ghosts of the First Inquisition’s aggression haunt them so much that cowardice and paralytic caution was the way?

Ruby and Yang looked at each other, both of them thinking the same thoughts but Yang’s were tinted red with rage while Ruby’s were hurt and sharp. They nodded at each other slowly, and faced Raven again silently.

Raven let out a deep breath in a quiet sigh as she saw it in their faces that they’d made up their minds. They weren’t going to stop no matter what she said, and she knew them well enough to predict that even if she and the other Hunters tried to extract them early they’d just try to escape and do it anyway.

With them both making the decision they just did, and the Schnee in her own weird world, all it would take was the lycan somehow betraying her pack and it would be quite the squad of four traitors all putting their morals above their discipline. Raven scoffed, and then her shoulders dropped in defeat.

“...you’ve got until the fresh reinforcements get here to fall back in line. And when Summer and your father have their two cents to say about all this, I assure you I won’t be on your side of that debate.” Raven shook her head in defeat as her daughters watched her silently, Yang blinking in surprise at her resignation while Ruby’s eyes were narrow and curious. Raven thinned her lips and raised her eyebrows as she gave the final warning. “There aren’t any reinforcements right now, you two. With the others retreating and regrouping, I’ve got to cover the entire town on my own until Summer and your father are back in a few days, and the other monsters have been getting bolder. I’ll do my best, but if you go rogue then you’re on your own.”

But Ruby simply huffed and shook her head, a small smile ticking up in the corner of her lips, and gestured to the doorway with a determined glint in her eye. “No. We aren’t. And the four of us will do it entirely ourselves if we have to.”

The reminder that the other two had been waiting out in the hall, and almost certainly able to listen in given they both had sensitive hearing, had Raven sigh and close her eyes for a moment to centre herself.

If they didn’t put an end to this soon, the people wouldn’t be able to ignore the chaos anymore. Questions would be asked, paranoia would spread, old superstitions would rush to the surface, and the Shroud would fall and people would know. And the resulting panic and paranoia would do what it did last time. Humanity hadn’t changed much when it came to handling fear, in the centuries since.

And in the meantime, while Silvercloud tore itself apart, Rosalia would finish her little ritual and it would either be a failure and all the death was for nothing, or it would all be true and the world would be thrown into darkness.

Raven ground her jaw, another habit Yang had inherited from her, and stepped over to open the front door with a frustrated and resigned growl.

“Dammit, you two. If you could be a little less like Summer and I when we were your age, that would be great. You’ve got a matter of days to fall back in line, or you’ll be facing the Guild and not just your family.”

Those were the last words she could say, the last warnings she could give, before stepping out into the hall and shooting a quick look to where Blake and Weiss were down the other end of the hall talking between each other quietly. They both looked up when they noticed Raven, and they waited apprehensively for either approval or dismissal. 

Even if it was dismissal, they would both ignore it and work with the sisters anyway. Raven knew it, they knew it, and the sisters knew it, so Raven simply shrugged at them in resignation and sighed, before making her way down the stairs to check out the fourth floor on her way out.

Yang and Ruby emerged from the apartment to watch as Raven vanished downstairs, before glancing at each other and sharing the same anxious look. Once the formal reinforcements arrived from the Grove, if they had gone rogue it would be hell on earth for them. But for now it was just their parents they had to disappoint.

But they were right, and they both knew it. So after briefly taking each other’s hand and squeezing, Ruby and Yang let go and stepped out into the hall to approach the others. Ruby raised her eyebrows at where Blake and Weiss had been clustered in a dark corner of the hallway and talking quietly, close enough it must have been a whisper.

The conversation was clearly over now that the sisters were out, and both sisters blinked in surprise when Weiss placed a hand on Blake’s arm and gave a reassuring squeeze and a small smile before stepping away. Blake nodded confidently, her own smile still apologetic, but Weiss waved it off.

Weiss gave Yang a smile and a nod as she walked past on her way to Ruby, her eyes worried but trusting, and when Yang nodded back she relaxed slightly. Yang rolled her eyes and wasn't surprised when Weiss guided Ruby away to be on their own to catch each other up, but then Blake turned to her and Yang sucked in a breath at the look Blake gave her.

Weiss leaving them alone and keeping Ruby away was clearly for more than just their own chat, when Blake simply stared at her for a moment, her bottom lip between her teeth, before she roused her confidence from inside of her chest and stepped over until she was almost chest to chest with Yang, her head tilted slightly up.

“...I meant what I said. To your mum. About you.”

The reminder of it had Yang’s face warm, and she looked down to scuff her shoe on the ground shyly. It felt weird to be talking about this of all things after everything that had happened overnight, but when she caught Blake glancing at the rip in her jacket and shirt she understood why it felt important.

So she smiled and nodded, her face pink.

“You were pretty convincing. It was…sweet.” Yang smiled brighter to herself for a moment before raising her head again, and her eyes widened at the intensity in Blake’s stare. The energy in it. “But…what do we do now?”

Blake stepped closer, chests pressing together and close enough she could feel Yang’s surprised and nervous breaths on her skin. And it made her smile, showing the slightest hint of sharpened teeth she couldn’t manage to retract entirely. Her eyes slitted slightly canine as she took in Yang’s state.

“Well…do you want me, too?”

The question came out as the most tantalising growl that Yang almost passed out, and her hands found Blake’s hips to steady herself but also to finally dig in. It was the easiest answer in the fucking world.

“God yes.”

Blake smiled wider, her hair rippling thicker and darker for a moment as the wolf in her swooned just as much as the human did, and she leaned in just enough her lips were barely grazing Yang’s.

But they weren’t going to do this here. Not what Blake needed to happen next. How she needed it to happen. What she craved with both of her spirits to do, and had wanted for months. But now it was so much more real, right in front of her. Yang wasn’t mortal, her spirit was stronger and larger.

And that meant…

Blake growled eagerly as she placed a hand over the tear in Yang’s jacket and shirt, and pressed it against her skin so she could feel her racing heartbeat. It was hammering under her touch. She knew how badly she always turned Yang on, she could smell it and see it and practically feel it in the fucking air around her. She knew how badly and achingly Yang wanted her.

So she smiled with a purr, and her other hand grabbed onto Yang’s wrist to pull her in the direction of the stairs. They had to get to her place. Because she was willing to bet Yang's wasn't soundproof enough.

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Chapter Text

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The only time that Yang had been to the Belladonna house had been to pick Blake up for their one and only date, and she’d only seen it from the outside. It was in one of the furthest suburbs from the town centre, a cul de sac wrapped by trees and backed by the dense forest.

While the locals simply thought of it as one of the most expensive and prettiest areas to live in, now that Yang knew the truth of its residents she understood the real purpose of its placement. Every house had large backyards that opened directly into the trees, no fence or barriers at all.

Straight lines from the door to the wilderness.

Blake’s house was a rather modest two-story home, and looked normal enough from the outside. But as Yang pulled up next to it on her bike and Blake immediately leapt off, she gave the outside walls a study as she swung her leg off and stood. The moonborn were sometimes known to be quite the witches as well, so there was no telling what had been carved into the bricks.

But she didn’t have any time to study properly before her wrist was grabbed and Blake practically dragged her up the drive, golden eyes blazing and her tongue flicking out to wet her lips as she grabbed her keys from her pocket with her free hand and got the door open.

The house was silent as Blake pulled Yang in, her parents either already out and about or still asleep, and Blake didn’t seem to care as she kicked the front door closed with her foot and grabbed two fistfuls of Yang’s jacket to slam her against the nearest wall and press in close.

Yang’s hands immediately went to Blake’s waist when Blake crashed their mouths together messily, the impact hot and heavy. It was like kissing the power of an earthquake, Blake’s desire a force of nature as she pressed Yang against the wall so hard that it was almost impossible to take in a breath through the kiss.

There was no way in hell that Yang cared though, pulling Blake in as hard and close as she could and letting Blake overpower her. Not that she had much of a choice, Blake could bend metal in her bare hands, it didn’t take much effort at all to step back and pull Yang with her by the collar of her jacket.

“My room. Now.” Blake released Yang’s collar and took her hand again, and led her towards the stairs.

Eyes wide and her chest close to exploding, Yang followed eagerly, stumbling slightly when Blake looked over her shoulder with a stare filled with a hunger and want deeper than any mortal was capable of feeling. The heat in her eyes struck Yang and shot through her blood like liquid gold, sending her so fuzzy her lips tingled.

So she followed Blake up the stairs without a word, letting Blake have total control as she was pulled roughly into a bedroom and Blake swung the door closed heavily with a flick of her wrist.

Then she paused, her hands going to Yang’s shoulders, and stared into her with eyes that she was trying to keep looking normal. But the slits of her pupils had Yang suck in a gasp, and the dark of her hair was unnatural as Yang ran the fingers of one hand through it while her other went to Blake’s waist.

“What’s going on?? Where did this come from??” Yang couldn’t help but look Blake up and down at the proximity so close that Blake’s chest was almost brushing hers, an inch away from warm contact.

Blake was still wearing Ruby’s jacket and the stolen sweatpants, and Yang had to admit that Hunter’s gear looked good on her, and Blake smirked at the appreciation in Yang’s indulgent gaze.

“This is what you’re in for if you stick with me.” Blake slid her hands down from Yang’s shoulders so she could push her back slowly but firmly, backing Yang against the wall again and dislodging a hanging picture frame.

The glass cracked when the frame hit the ground, but Blake simply kicked it aside dismissively and dug her fingers into the muscles of Yang’s biceps. Yang was so fucking powerful for a mortal, it had always made Blake drool to watch her exercise, and watching her fight had almost been erotic.

But it turned out Yang wasn’t a mortal at all, and that made it perfect.

Blake smirked playfully, showing the barest hint of teeth, and roughly pulled Yang’s jacket down her arms and off in a single pull. Even if she’d wanted to resist, it was too strong for Yang to stop, but she let the protective layer drop willingly and then immediately went for the zipper of the jacket hiding the smooth dark skin of Blake’s chest and torso from her.

She didn’t get a single finger on the zipper before Blake caught her wrist with the same smirk, and with her far superior strength she pushed Yang’s hand up and pinned her arm to the wall next to her head.

‘So, it was going to be that kind of game.’

Straining against Blake’s powerful grip was fruitless from the start, but Yang put on a show of trying to break free regardless, her own lips curling up playfully as Blake pressed closer. Their lips were an inch apart, close enough they could feel each other’s rapid and aroused breaths.

It had been a very, very long night. But Yang felt like she could run a marathon after her rebirth, and while the human side of Blake wanted to curl up and sleep a thousand years…

Blake’s eyes shifted to a brighter gold as her teeth elongated the slightest amount, her hair darkening and lengthening down her back.

“You really want to play with a lycan, Yang Xiao-Long?” Smirking, Blake drifted in the slightest distance so she could run the tip of her tongue along Yang’s jaw, the touch light enough it was a ghost but still enough Yang gasped. “Just like we were told, we’re going to be complicated. But in ways you don’t even know. But you will...”

The light trace of Blake’s tongue along her skin had Yang’s eyes roll back and flutter, and a whimper come from her slightly parted lips. Her free hand slid from Blake’s waist and around to grab her ass tightly, pulling her in to grind against her. Blake shivered at the boldness and the stimulation, and grinned against Yang’s jaw at the clear answer.

Blake pressed a featherlight kiss to the edge of Yang’s jaw and ghosted her mouth up along her cheek until they brushed Yang’s parted and desperate lips. And then she waited, breathing in Yang’s scent and sighing at the pure aroma of flames.

As if aware of what Blake had just basked in and enjoyed, Yang smiled against the ghostly touch of her lips and met her stare with a fiery one of her own. The red of her eyes was yet to fade to lilac, instead they still pulsed vibrant with the heat still lingering in her body.

“You sure you want to play with a phoenix, Blake Belladonna?”

The response was immediate and violent as Blake growled and crashed their mouths together again, practically shoving her tongue through Yang’s lips and then whining when Yang pushed against her with just as much enthusiasm. Still holding Yang’s wrist against the wall, Blake cupped the side of her neck with her other and dug her nails into the skin.

It was so hot under her touch, as if the slightest grazes of her sharpened nails released wisps of flame. Everything in Yang was burning, the flaming feathers underneath her skin awakened and a part of her now, and Blake wanted to scorch herself. If Yang was brave enough to let her.

When Yang grabbed for the zipper again with her one free hand, Blake nodded into the kiss in encouragement and let her, before moaning when Yang’s touch immediately went to one of her revealed breasts.

Every inch of her was quivering, tight and taut and barely wrapped around the howling animal inside of her, and Yang’s touch stroked along the bindings of the tight leash it was always kept on.

Blake took a fistful of Yang’s already ruined shirt and tore the rest of it, dropping the shreds to the floor and smirking when Yang playfully groaned in annoyance, and she slid her hand down Yang’s bare torso to tuck into her belt.

Using it to guide Yang like a collar, Blake backed up and pulled Yang with her, refusing to break off the kiss that had her lips slick and her body desperate for more. Yang followed eagerly, pushing against Blake just as hungrily as Blake pulled her with, and she let Blake push her down onto her bed.

But she used a bit more strength than she intended, and instead of getting Yang down onto the edge of the bed she sent Yang through the air and crashing directly into the middle of the large mattress.

It gave Blake the opportunity and distance to open her eyes again and look down at her, drinking in Yang’s powerful and curvy body as she untied the band of the sweatpants and tucked a finger in to threaten to push them down her hips and to the floor.

Yang stared at the teasing finger with wide eyes, before getting the message and reaching behind herself to undo her bra and toss it aside, and then going for her own belt and starting to undo it with hands so eager she struggled with the buckle for a moment.

When Blake shook her head slowly, she stopped and raised her eyebrows up at her, smirking with one corner of her mouth at the playful hunger in Blake’s eyes.

“No?”

“Mine to do. I’ll get you ready to fuck when it’s time to.” Blake sashayed her way over to the bed with a sway of her powerful hips, and ticked her finger enough to send the loose material of the pants to the floor.

With Blake naked in front of her, Yang simply stared with wide eyes. She’d been half naked at the apartment at first, but the atmosphere hadn’t been right for Yang to ogle. But now Blake cocked a hip in front of her and raised an eyebrow to let her drink her in and admire.

She hid it well under the clothes she wore day to day, but seeing Blake naked made the power just underneath her skin perfectly evident. With an intoxicating curve to her hips and thighs, and her naturally sharp face and rich lips, Blake would have been the most beautiful thing Yang had ever laid eyes on even without her muscle and definition.

But now that Yang could see it, she couldn’t stop her mouth dropping open. Every muscle on Blake’s body was defined and strong, the power of the wilds coursing through her veins and shaping her as she came into her prime.

Yang knew that Weiss was strong, but looking at Blake and seeing what her bloodline had built even when she hadn’t shifted…it wasn’t a fair contest at all.

And Blake demonstrated her comfort in it when she stepped forward, smirking at Yang’s braindead arousal and staring, and parted her lips just enough that Yang could watch her run the tip of her tongue along her teeth.

Then, in front of Yang’s eyes, she shifted, the wolf inside of her opening its golden eyes and narrowing Blake’s pupils into canine slits. Her teeth turned to pointed fangs as her hair finished turning pure black and growing down her back, and it took no strength at all to hop up and land perfectly, straddling Yang’s hips.

Before Yang could make any sort of remark, be it sassy or desperate, Blake kissed her again hungrily and let her own hands roam over Yang’s exposed skin. Her nails had sharpened into slight claws as they scratched in, and Yang gasped at the first feel of a slight breakage of her skin in a playful graze as Blake slid a hand up smoothly to cup her breast with the perfect amount of pressure to make her moan.

Blake waited for her reaction, her tongue gliding along Yang’s gently and indulgently, and when she felt Yang shift her hips in blatant encouragement she growled into her mouth and dug her claws into her side again as she deepened the kiss once more.

The light rip of Blake’s claws along the skin of her hips and waist had Yang shiver at the sting as her own hands went to Blake’s back, and she traced along scars new and old before digging in her own nails and pulling Blake flush against her.

One hand went to Blake’s bare ass to shift her, and Blake raised an eyebrow when she predicted what Yang was about to do. She hummed in permission, and smiled when Yang easily rolled them over so that she was on top and Blake could wrap her legs around her waist.

Yang broke off the kiss for a moment so she could look down at where Blake was panting beneath her, eyes glowing gold and lips parted to show sharp teeth. She bit her own lip as she took in the sight.

This wasn’t something she ever could have predicted in the times she’d fantasised about Blake in the past. Back before she knew the truth, she had always thought Blake would be gentle, a bit reserved but with a list of kinks she might blush to think about exploring but had only just begun.

Not this. Instead the way Blake was looking at her made it clear that Yang had only ended up on top because Blake had allowed it. The scratches on Yang’s sides stung as Blake had left her mark, and the way Blake licked her lips slightly as she glanced at the side of Yang’s neck wasn’t subtle.

But then again, she wasn’t trying to be subtle. This was the boldest and most open, the most raw, that Yang had ever seen her. Enough so that the wolf was starting to emerge.

Yang grinned and leant down, running a hand up Blake’s side while her other boldly wrapped around Blake’s throat gently, dancing her fingers along the skin directly under her ear. Blake’s eyes blazed at the threat and had her grin. But Yang didn’t squeeze, not yet.

“Is this what every time is going to be like?”

“You haven’t even seen what it’s going to be like. And you’re yet to fuck me good enough to make me consider there being more than one time.” Blake growled up at her, the tease obvious as a sparkle in her eyes.

It was an empty threat, but the challenge mixed in with it had Yang take Blake’s bottom lip between her teeth and bite down hard, the sting pulling out a groan, and she ran the tip of her tongue along the sensitive skin before seamlessly turning it into a proper kiss.

They simply kissed for a while, Blake cupping Yang’s cheeks with both hands while Yang scratched light patterns along the side of Blake’s neck and gently cupped a breast with the other to tease.

This had been a long time coming. Something neither of them thought they’d ever have. And something that had almost been stolen from them just before dawn. So they indulged with an endless patient hunger, smiling and moaning against each other’s lips.

Yang shifted in her position over Blake so she could slowly tease her fingers down the planes of her stomach and the dip of her hips, to scratch lightly along her inner thigh in an offer and a request. The light touch had Blake shiver, and she sighed happily against Yang’s lips as she nodded slowly and dreamily.

But the moment that Yang’s fingertips grazed along her soaking slit, Blake trembled as a pulse went through her, and her eyes flew open as she growled from deep within her throat. Yang’s eyes opened as well to look down in surprise, her fingers pausing in their teasing, but Blake snarled at her the moment that she stopped.

Every throb of arousal through her body had Blake’s eyes pulsing gold as she wrapped up fistful of Yang’s hair and pulled her back into the kiss, and ground her hips to get Yang moving again.

The ferocity pouring through Blake’s body had her feel as if she was swimming as Yang finally gave her what she wanted, sliding two fingers inside of her far too slowly for her preference but getting a guttural moan out of her and a tremble of her hips.

Luckily Yang got the fucking message when she snarled into her mouth at how slow she was being. Wordlessly and without any further warning beyond a tremble going through her own body, Yang slammed her fingers in roughly with a smirk against her lips.

Blake moaned encouragingly, tugging Yang’s hair hard enough it was surely painful, the message and demand clear as the claws of her other hand went around to Yang’s back to latch on and anchor so she could shuffle her hips and give Yang easier access to her cunt. An angle which Yang exploited to perfection as she curled her fingers up inside of her with every rough and powerful thrust.

There was no ability to hurt Blake, this was a girl who could partially lift a car and take bullets, so Yang didn’t feel any remorse or concern as she fucked her. Instead she focused entirely on making Blake thrash and grind, moaning viciously into her mouth until eventually she had to break off the kiss to growl up at the roof with her eyes closed.

And then, Yang made the best mistake Blake could think of.

With her head tilted up into her pillows with the arc of her back as she moaned, Blake had left her neck exposed, and her eyes flew open when Yang’s teeth latched onto it and bit down. Every muscle in Blake’s body went rigid as her vision swam and went blurry around the edges for a moment, before a shockwave made every colour in sight vibrant almost beyond her ability to stand it.

A rippling wave went through her body, originating from where Yang was doing her damndest to leave a dark mark on her neck as she fucked her, and every nerve lit up like lightning as Blake cried out at the sensation.

Yang sighed happily from hearing it, the sound the perfect combination of erotic and wild, and she bit down harder to leave the dark mark as she shifted her knees to tilt up Blake’s hips, and give her the best angle possible to fuck Blake down into her mattress with her fingers.

With every thrust of her fingers, Yang tensed her jaw to send jolts of pain through Blake’s neck and up to her brain, the two pulsing sources of stimulation making her vision blur and white noise pitch in her ears.

Her claws dug deeply into Yang’s back without her control, drawing streaks of blood with a pain that had Yang hiss and then immediately moan against her neck at the throbbing sting. As her climax crashed towards her, Blake twisted her head as best as she could to not dislodge Yang’s teeth while also being able to tease Yang’s shoulder with her own.

The moment right before she was going to cum, the electric sensation firing back and forth between the two sources of pain and pleasure, Blake opened her eyes wide and latched her bite onto Yang’s neck.

Blake tried to keep it gentle, by her standards at least, but she felt Yang stiffen and heard her surprised squeal at the pressure and pain. And yet Yang certainly didn’t seem bothered, if the way she ground her hips down was any indication.

Slowly, Blake’s orgasm faded, washing through her in gentle pulses as Yang pulled her fingers out and released Blake’s neck from her teeth. It took a few more moments for Blake to do the same, every instinct screaming at her to make the mark black and large, but she flopped down onto the sheets with a smile.

Perched above her and resting her weight on her hands on either side of Blake’s shoulders for a moment, Yang took in a deep and content breath and rolled her neck. The intensity of the sting from Blake’s teeth had her let out a bright, amused laugh, and she could feel how deep the bruise was going to form.

The mark on the side of Blake’s neck was dark, but it was already showing the slightest signs of fading. Blake’s traits were only showing to the barest degree, but it was enough for her healing to kick in, and Yang pouted as the hickey started to fade before it had time to form properly.

“That’s not fair. You’re gonna leave me a mess, I hope, and yet walk away unscathed and perfect.”

Blake hummed as she considered it, a slight smirk lingering in the corner of her lips, and she raised a teasing and challenging eyebrow.

“Well I heal fast when I’m like this. But I don’t think it’s as one-sided as you think…” Blake gave a toothy grin, showing fangs, and she caught Yang by surprise as she dug her claws into Yang’s side and scratched deeply.

The sharp points properly punctured Yang’s skin, making her gasp in pain as blood began to trickle down and drip onto Blake’s sheets, and Blake shivered in excitement as Yang’s blood was scorching hot to the touch. Far, far too hot to be mortal, anymore.

To finish proving her point as Yang grunted at the sting, Blake strained over and grabbed the pull for the blinds covering her window, and tugged to pull them open. The late morning sun beamed in and bathed the bed, basking over their skin, and Yang gasped at the sensation as the scratches on her side slowly sealed closed under the coaxing of the light.

Blake hummed in satisfaction as a theory was confirmed, and she smiled encouragingly.

“You reincarnated so recently that you’ve still got fire. I’m willing to bet you could take almost my worst and walk it off with a very happy limp. Unless you’re afraid, of course.”

Yang looked down at her side as the scratches healed, her scorching hot blood leaving trails and drops down onto Blake’s sheets. She bit her lip as she felt it inside of her skin, the flames still rushing through her and fueled by the sun touching her.

It wouldn’t last forever, but for now she would still heal while the morning sun made her tanned skin glow.

And from how the dark bite mark on Blake’s neck was already fading away, they were on equal footing in the most tempting and indulgent way imaginable for this moment, with Yang’s fingers still slick with the arousal from Blake’s cunt and her own neck hot from Blake’s forcibly gentle bite.

Gentle by Blake’s standards, anyway.

Raising her fingers to her lips, Yang stared directly down into Blake’s eyes as she sucked off the last taste, and she smirked around her fingertip when Blake growled up at her.

“Alright then. If that’s the case…” Yang grinned as she leant back down to ghost her lips along Blake’s ear, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Come on then. I’m not afraid of you.”

The only warning she got was the first moment of a growl before suddenly she was twisted off by Blake’s powerful hips and thighs and suddenly pinned to the bed, Blake rolling her body so she shifted between Yang’s thighs instead of straddling her.

There was something about Blake when her traits began to show that always made Yang’s heart race, something to do with seeing Blake when she was real and raw and gloriously wild and feral. The composed bookworm persona, cool and mysterious, was only one half of her. It was the half that Yang had kissed on the hill by the light of a lantern.

But this Blake wanted to fucking ruin her, Yang could see it all over her face and feel it in the sharpness of her claws. It wouldn’t take much more pushing until she snapped, Yang could see it in her eyes as she strained against her own composure.

So Yang smirked and slowly crossed her own wrists above her head, putting herself entirely at Blake’s mercy purely to goad her and torture her, and licked her lips slowly.

The last vestiges of calm and rational humanity vanished from Blake’s eyes, and she pounced.

By the time that Weiss finally opened her eyes again, curled up on her bed after a long day of catching up on sleep and resting off all the stress and adrenaline from the previous night, the sky was completely dark. The sun had vanished, and the moon was completely hidden by dark clouds already rumbling with thunder, leaving her room absolutely black as she sat up.

There was another knock on her door to follow up the one that roused her, and she quickly swung out of bed and plodded over to open it just enough she could see who wanted her. The sight of Coco and Ciel, standing dressed in their best and both of them tense enough they were rigid, had her blink.

“Girls? What’s wrong?”

Coco stressfully ran the tip of her tongue across her painted lips to wet them, and then looked over Weiss’s groggy, disheveled state with a grimace.

“The Council has been called. Nobody knows why.”

“Wait, now? At immediate notice?” Weiss blinked in surprise even as she stepped back and pulled her nightgown off and over her head, with Coco and Ciel politely waiting outside as she quickly pulled on underwear and then shuffled in her closet for some nice trousers and a shirt. “Who called it?”

“Not sure, I just know my mum practically dragged me away from homework by the ear.” Shrugging as she shared another anxious look with Ciel, who had her bottom lip between her teeth, Coco stepped aside when Weiss emerged fully dressed. “So no ideas on your own, then?”

Weiss shook her head, thinning her lips as she led the way downstairs while quickly tying her hair back into a braid. It wouldn’t be the best appearance she’d ever had, not on such short notice, but if the Scions were being called into another council then there was no way she was going to be late.

After getting home in the mid-morning after possibly the most stressful night of her life, Weiss had flopped straight onto her bed and passed out. The idea of going to school was a laughable one, frankly she’d be surprised if many people at all were still going considering how scared the town was with everything happening, so she’d turned off her usual alarms and hidden under her covers.

Blake and Yang had vanished, because clearly Blake had taken her advice to heart, and Ruby had messaged her when she’d safely gotten home. So with no more plans until they collected themselves a bit, needing to rest, she’d thought she’d have a day to recover.

The voices of the other Primogens and Scions were audible from the meeting room, all of them already in attendance, and from how most of them were only semi-formal they had all been caught by surprise by being called.

What had the three girls completely stop in their walk and freeze in the doorway in surprise, was the sight of Emerald. The only Sustrai in the town was standing over with the other scions, talking with them quietly, and she looked just as nervous and surprised to be there as Weiss was to see her.

Emerald was never invited to Councils, the Sustrais didn’t have a formal seat. But Emerald was dressed in some of her neatest clothes with a quick application of basic makeup on her face, and had her hands nervously in her pockets as she spoke with Reese quietly.

The rest of the coterie looked up when Weiss and the other two reached them, and they all shared a completely baffled look at each other, all of them eventually looking to Emerald in the obvious silent question.

But Emerald shrugged high and let out a confused whine.

“I don’t know either. But someone who has my number messaged me and told me to come.”

Weiss frowned as a pulse of anxiety went through her chest, and she looked around the room to count everyone in attendance. Everyone else was already there, gathered around their chairs but none of them were sitting just yet, and they all looked confused and nervous. Even her parents, where the two of them were standing off in a corner talking with Melanie’s mother and Reese’s father.

But from the looks on the two Primogens’ faces, neither the Malachite or Chloris families had any ideas either, despite being the two families known for spying on pretty much everyone and everything else in Silvercloud.

While Weiss and Ciel were looking between all of the Primogens, studying their faces and trying to find something, Arslan nudged Emerald on the shoulder to get her attention and raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t know who messaged you?”

Emerald shrugged again and grabbed out her phone, unlocking it with a quick type of her password, and handed it over to Arslan for her to look at.

Sure enough, the number wasn’t in her contacts.

‘The CC is being called. The Schnee Estate. Attend. Now.’

Not recognising the number, Arslan poked Reese to get her attention and passed the phone over, with Reese being the most likely to recognise it. But Reese raised her eyebrows and shook her head as well.

“No ideas, dude. Don’t worry, if anyone bitches about you we’ve got your back.” Reese tossed Emerald her phone back and gave her a wink.

Emerald caught her phone with one hand and slid it back into her pocket, then gave Reese a grateful smile and a playful wink. Of all the coterie, they were the two strongest in terms of power. Reese was not a restrained hunter and Weiss couldn’t hold her back anymore, and Emerald consumed a vast amount of blood for her magic.

Everybody knew it, even the Primogens had been growing wary of just how much the two of them had been feeding, so when Reese gave Emerald a protective nod the others followed her lead with smiles and nods of their own.

The Primogens could loathe her and insult her all they wanted, but Emerald was one of them.

So Emerald relaxed slightly, her shoulders dropping, but nerves still pounded in her veins as her agonisingly curious Beast prowled in anxious circles inside her head.

With no answers coming from any of the low conversations that Weiss and Ciel could overhear, they looked at each other and shook their heads with the same defeated frustration, and looked over at where Coco was staring across at Willow with narrowed eyes.

“Your mother looks far, far more stressed than normal.”

Weiss hummed in agreement as she glanced at her mother again and saw the tightness in every muscle of Willow’s face. As the head of the council, Willow had to be composed and in control at all times, but something had shaken her enough that she was as rigid as a marble statue.

Everybody was in attendance and ready, so Willow nodded to Melanie’s mother to end the conversation before stepping over to her chair and tapping a fork on the side of her glass. The ringing prompt immediately had everyone obediently take their places, the Primogens lowering into their chairs warily while the Scions retreated to the side of the room to stand in a formal line.

This was the second time in the past year that they’d been allowed into a meeting, and it was twice in the same fortnight. Weiss bit the corner of her bottom lip in concern as she watched the Primogens all look at each other.

When Willow struck the match for her candle, the others all immediately did the same, and she nodded at Weiss to turn off the light. The room was plunged into temporary darkness but for the faint flickering of lit matches, as Willow put hers to her dark candle and spoke the words.

“ Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.”

Everyone repeated them as they always did, with even the other scions breaking tradition yet again by whispering it themselves, but Weiss hesitated before they came out of her lips. The words tasted different now, after everything the previous night. After Rosalia, and after Yang.

It sat uncomfortably in her chest, paranoia and uncertainty wrapping around them like tendrils to try and hold them in. Something didn’t feel right about them anymore. They no longer felt…empty.

But she knew the others would notice if she stayed silent, and if they started asking questions and getting suspicious then everything would fall apart, so Weiss kept her voice as calm and controlled as possible.

“ ...Ahi Leytu Salemesh Prirose.”

The chant was said by all, and the room fell silent for a moment as Willow stared at her candle with her mind briefly far away. But she recovered quickly and nodded to herself, straightening up and looking around at everyone with raised eyebrows.

“Well? Who here wished to speak?”

Something was wrong. Weiss could feel it in the air, a swirling pressure that clamped down on her chest with a frosty grip that threatened to tighten. She didn’t know what, but her Beast and mind was wary of something.

Next to her, Coco shuffled anxiously as well, clearly feeling something similar, and they risked the small movement of glancing at each other in concern. But Coco shook her head in a miniscule movement, lost and confused just as Weiss was.

Nobody spoke, none of them took the lead, and Willow raised her eyebrows higher.

“I see. Whoever had something to discuss between us has apparently changed their mind. How…bothersome.” Willow glared around the table, fixing each Primogen with a frustrated scowl. But she waved a hand dismissively once everyone had been scolded. “Well then. Regardless, does anyone have something not so vital to discuss, while we’re all here?”

Willow glanced over at Emerald with narrowed eyes, suspicious and wary, but Emerald shook her head slowly and looked down. Every Primogen turned in their seats to stare over at her, and none of them were pleased or trusting of her presence. Weiss and Coco immediately shifted in their postures so they blocked Emerald as shields and stared back at the elders defiantly.

Her daughter’s defiance had Willow let out as silent a sigh as she could manage, and she turned her head to share a disappointed look at where Jacques was sitting next to her. Even though he lacked the blood of one of the Lines, instead being a regular vampire, Jacques commanded enough respect that when he hummed to dismiss the problem the attention of the table went back to Willow.

Even as the Primogens looked away from Emerald and the tension eased, Weiss still felt something growing inside of her chest. Inside of her essence, her Beast roused, black eyes opening and narrowing into slits.

Weiss’s breaths threatened to come out fast and anxious, but she simply killed the instinct to breathe and instead stood as still as a statue to hide it. The rest of her coterie weren’t so composed, each of them shifting uncomfortably as a pressure grew in the air. Something dark and heavy.

The sky rumbled outside with the first roll of thunder, and the rain began to pour. The sudden downpour was jarring enough that Weiss looked over at the window when rain began to batter it, and her eyes widened in horror.

Numbly breaking decorum, she broke ranks with her coterie and stepped over to the closed drapes, and Coco followed right behind her. With shaking hands, she took the fabric in her hand and pulled it aside to study the glass.

Dark streaks ran down it from every drop as black rain poured from the sky like oil, bathing the stones of the front drive in darkness. Thunder broiled again, threatening the first crack of lightning, and Coco sucked in a shocked gasp when the twisted light broke the sky. A bolt of dark red lightning cracked through the clouds, turning the sky to crimson for a flash.

Everyone in the room was silent in shock as they watched the weather, Reese swearing loudly as she joined Weiss and Coco to stare out. Nobody reprimanded her, all of them watching dark lightning rip the clouds once more as the black downpour grew heavier.

When a set of lights came up the drive with the glare battling through the oily black blanket of rain, with one final car arriving and coming to a stop right outside the doors, Weiss tried to crane her head against the glass to see who emerged. But she couldn’t quite see, so she stepped away from the glass and urgently pulled Coco and Reese with her by their sleeves to get them back into place.

The coterie grouped up, clustering together nervously, and every Primogen stiffened as they all heard the gorgeous double doors of the Schnee house be pushed open with ease.

A roll of thunder, a crack of lightning, and Weiss’s beast prowled around inside of her chest in fear as the air changed. Danger permeated every hair on her skin, and she extended her fangs on instinct and ground her foot into the ground as she stared at the closed door.

Before any of the Primogens could rise to answer it, the thick door leading into the sacred meeting room was pushed open, and Weiss’s eyes widened in terror, her Beast screaming inside of her and curling up into a bundle as if playing dead.

With long white hair tied back in a tight bun with a few strands loose to fall perfectly over her face, dressed in a dark blue button-up and a white vest, black trousers, tall boots that reached her knees, and covered by a flawless white tailcoat, Winter Schnee looked around the room with dead blue eyes.

Willow and Jacques shot to their feet, Willow’s chair falling over as she took a step back, and every Primogen recoiled in their own seats. The room was entirely silent but for the thunder and the fluttered wisping of the lit candles as Winter took a single step inside, and the door clicked closed behind her.

The attempt at a human facade was entirely in place over Winter as she looked around, the marble mask so flawlessly and unnaturally seraphic that it was too perfect and beautiful to be mortal at all. But every step, every move of Winter’s body, every flick of her eyes, paralysed the room.

When Winter took another step inside, her hands by her sides, Willow hissed low at her eldest daughter and took a pace towards her. “Winter. You have no business here.”

“ Wonderful to see you too, mother.” Winter drawled, her voice as angelic as the sirens of legend. She looked between her parents, taking in how they had aged, how Willow looked so comfortable compared to when they had last seen each other.

But then she looked over at her little sister, and raised a perfect white eyebrow.

Weiss couldn’t look away, she couldn’t blink, she couldn’t breathe. Her vision went blurry at the edges as she was locked in her older sister’s gaze. So Winter studied her with open impunity and no resistance, her eyebrow still raised.

The first sign of an emotion appeared on Winter’s face as the corner of her perfect cupid’s bow lips ticked up for a moment so quick and brief that only someone staring at her with supernatural vision would catch it.

None of the Primogens could say a word, Winter’s presence was large enough it shoved them down onto their chairs as if they were shackled. It wasn’t like being under the hand of a giant like Willow.

It was like being under the hand of a god.

Schnees were not defied or disobeyed, so all the room could do was watch as Winter dismissed Weiss and turned her attention back to their parents.