Chapter 118 – A Logical Decision.

Diana's hand stayed half raised. The vampire was still pointing at her.

Behind her, several pieces of the wall finished falling onto the road. Diana heard them shatter against the ground and glanced briefly at the hole that girl had just punched through it.

She could still use more magic.

There was enough mana around to freeze a much larger area. She could cover the road, reach her legs, pin her from the ground before she got close again.

But she didn't know how long it would hold her. The wall had barely done anything. And the spell she had used to stop her blood had cost her far too much for the few seconds it lasted.

Diana glanced sideways at Alfred. The boy was still on the ground, one hand on his chest. He was trying to breathe normally, but every time he drew in too much air he curled up a little.

She couldn't count on him getting up and preparing another attack that quickly.

'And that's against just one...'

Diana looked back toward the forest.

She couldn't see anyone else.

That didn't mean there weren't others.

If that vampire had followed them since today's attack, she could have brought company. They could be surrounding the base while Diana wasted time trying to stop the only one who had bothered to come up the road.

The thought made her go cold.

For the first time since leaving the tent, Diana stopped thinking about which spell to use.

She looked at the vampire's face. The girl was waiting. She had given her time to answer. Diana stopped gathering mana and raised both hands, open.

"All right."

The vampire slowly lowered the arm she had been pointing with.

Diana swallowed.

"What do you want?"

The girl studied her for a few seconds before starting to walk again. Diana had to force herself to stay where she was. Every step closed the distance between them, and after watching her go through that wall, she didn't much like having her that close.

"What are you all doing here?"

Diana opened her mouth. The answer she had prepared during the fight no longer seemed so useful.

"I was hired to protect this place."

The vampire kept coming. Diana raised her hands a little higher.

"In case any threat showed up."

The girl stopped a few steps away. She looked over Diana's shoulder, toward the tents, and then focused on her again.

"Is that all you know?"

Diana felt her stomach tighten.

'It's not enough for her.'

If that was all the information she could offer, the vampire had no reason to keep talking to her.

She could push her aside. Or follow through on what she had just said. Diana hurried to go on.

"I'm not in charge of this operation. Neither is Alfred. We're sorcerers hired to defend the base."

The girl didn't answer. Diana gestured briefly toward the boy, careful not to make any sudden movement.

"We haven't taken part in the attacks on your kingdom. We stay here while the planes go out."

The vampire looked down at Alfred. Then back at Diana.

She was still silent.

That was turning out to be worse than the shouting.

Diana could hear a vehicle moving behind the tents. Someone gave an order and another person answered from farther away.

The evacuation was still going.

And she was standing there with her hands up in front of a half-naked vampire who seemed to be deciding what to do with the two of them.

The scraps of burned clothing stirred a little in the wind. Diana tried to keep her eyes on her face. The girl didn't even seem to remember what state her clothes were in.

Her eyes were still fixed on Diana, and Diana started to wonder whether what she had just said had made things worse.

Maybe it had sounded like an excuse. After all, a few moments ago they had tried to burn her alive.

"Do you want to keep fighting?" she asked at last.

The vampire frowned.

"I didn't come here to fight."

Diana closed her mouth. She looked for a moment at the remains of ice at her feet. Then she looked up again.

"Then... what did you come for?"

"I want to find out some things about the human world."

Diana took a while to answer.

That wasn't what she had expected.

She had imagined a threat, a demand that they stop bombing the kingdom, or some order from the queen of those creatures. But investigating the human world was much broader. It could mean far worse things.

"What things?"

The vampire didn't answer right away. She was looking at Alfred again. The boy had taken his hand off his chest and was trying to heal his other arm. His sleeve had torn in the fall, exposing a cut on his forearm.

Diana hadn't noticed it before.

She had been too busy with the fire and with the girl who walked out of it.

Alfred kept one hand over the wound. A faint light appeared between his fingers and went out every time he lost concentration.

The edges of the cut began to close. Then they stopped. The boy clenched his jaw and tried again. Diana looked back at the vampire.

The girl was still watching the arm. There was blood on the skin. On the sleeve too. Diana moved half a step to be a little closer to Alfred.

"Are you going to eat him?"

The vampire raised her head. Her expression changed instantly. She looked at Diana with such obvious indignation that Diana felt she had just asked a stupid question.

"What?"

Diana didn't lower her hands.

"You're staring at him."

"I'm looking at the wound."

The girl studied her a moment longer. Then she pointed at Alfred's arm.

"If he keeps closing it like that, it's going to scar."

Diana looked down at the cut. The skin was knitting together unevenly. Alfred had managed to stop some of the bleeding, but he was still pressing hard with his hand as if that would help the spell.

The boy stopped when he noticed both of them looking at him. The vampire spoke again.

"Someone should step in before he finishes."

Diana felt her shoulders tense again. She hadn't expected to hear that. Much less from someone who had just threatened to kill one of them.

"What are you going to do?"

The girl opened her mouth. Diana waited. But the answer didn't come. The vampire looked at Alfred again, this time with a slight frown.

◇◆◇

Matt had been about to tell her that a little of his blood would be enough.

The idea had seemed simple enough.

The boy was making an enormous effort to close a wound that, on his body, would have vanished before he finished looking at it.

He could help him. Besides, he was the one who had knocked him down. It didn't make much sense to stand there watching him heal badly if he could fix it in a moment.

The problem showed up just before he answered.

'Wait.'

Matt looked at Alfred.

He was a man.

A human.

'What if it transforms him?'

Matt looked down at his own hand. He had been thinking about regeneration. Not about everything that might come after. He didn't know how much blood it would take.

Or whether drinking it would be enough, whether something else had to be done, or whether his blood would work the same way Elyra's did. And he had no intention of testing it on the boy.

'Could I turn him into a vampire woman?'

Matt looked at Alfred again. The boy was watching him from the ground, one hand on his arm and the other braced behind him to keep himself sitting up.

He looked fairly worried about the conversation.

With good reason.

Matt had just threatened to kill him, his partner had asked whether he was going to eat him, and now Matt had spent several seconds staring at him without saying anything.

'Great first impression.'

Matt closed his hand.

There were already enough people dealing with the consequences of his decisions without adding a stranger who only needed his arm patched up.

He looked back at Diana.

"Do you have a healer?"

The sorceress blinked.

"A healer?"

"Yes."

Diana lowered her hands a little, although she still looked ready to raise them again.

"No. We're the only sorcerers at the base."

Matt looked at the boy. Alfred looked away.

"I know a little healing magic," he muttered.

"I can tell."

The boy looked back at him. Matt pointed at his arm.

"You're trying to close all of it at once."

Alfred looked down at the wound. He didn't activate the spell again. Diana stepped in before the silence dragged on.

"If we go back to our world, they could treat him."

Matt raised his eyes to her. The sorceress was still watching him carefully. She had said it as if she were testing whether she had permission to bring up the possibility of leaving.

"There are people there who can take care of him," she added. "Here, it's just the two of us."

Matt looked toward the base. He could hear engines. Also crates hitting the ground and people trying to hurry. No one seemed inclined to come over and ask him what he wanted.

He had arrived unarmed.

He had asked to talk.

Now his clothes were in ruins and a woman was looking at him as if he were about to start chewing on her partner at any moment.

'Should've stayed a bat.'

Alfred shifted carefully, trying to sit up a little more. He winced and brought his hand back to his chest.

Matt watched him. The blow had been enough to break the spell. He didn't need to hurt them any more, but he also wasn't going to let them keep throwing things at him every time he tried to ask something.

Diana lowered her hands a little more.

"So..."

Matt looked back at her.

The sorceress fell silent immediately.

He let out a sigh.

"Fine."

Diana waited.

Matt looked at both of them before continuing.

"I'll spare your lives if you grant me one request."