As he walked into the livingroom, Ryan saw some people sitting in the corner, making out and just going at it. He rolled his eyes and walked over to the windowsill where one of those small mist-bottles was standing that he used with the plants strewn about the place.

  And without hesitation, he just sprayed at those guys, "Yo, if you're gonna do that, don't do it in the middle of the living room. Go into some bushes outside or something. But also, don't break anything," he sighed, and the people there glared up at him. One of them was particularly mad, though the other just seemed ridiculously embarrassed.

  He understood that, of course, but something felt off.

  "So you're a for real vampire? Like for real?" Ryan then overhead, drawing his attention away from those guys as they made their way outside. Sitting on the couch were some girls that were totally fawning over Liam, sitting there with a cup of water in his hands.

  "Mhm..." he carefully nodded, too nervous to make eye-contact with anyone, though that seemed to make everyone just even more excited at how cute the boy was being.

  "Urgh, seriously? You guys actually believe all that?" someone groaned loudly as they stepped up to the couch. It was one of Ryan's friends, a Magic Engineer that he wanted to introduce to Modak. They were upstairs until now, but Ryan figured with Yanna there, whatever conversation they had before was at the very least interrupted. The Magic Engineer, Nora, leaned onto the back of the couch, "There's no way vampires are real, are you fucking stupid or something?"

  "Language," Ryan sighed as he walked up to them, standing in front of the couch. Liam looked up at him with a slight smile, "And yes, vampires are very real. I know a good handful."

  Nora rolled their eyes, "Come oooon, that's just some weird sham to draw attention away from all the spirit week stuff, right? Like, just coincidentally, a few weeks after the shit that went down there, they announce that a whole new species has been living among us? Nah, don't buy it."

  Barely able to hold back a laugh, Ryan shook his head, "No, it was always intended to make the announcement during Spirit Week, but everything that happened forced them to push everything back."

  "And how would you know, huh?" Nora narrowed their eyes, glaring lightly.

  "Uh..." Ryan looked around a bit confused, "I know for a fact you know who I am. You- You know I'm the nephew of Runar Aglecard."

  "Ha-ha, so just cause you're rich, we've gotta believe everything you're sayin?" with a scoff, Nora stared back at Liam, "Plus, if this is your cousin, why aren't you a vampire, huh?"

  "Liam's adopted," Ryan said, holding out his hand to the kid, "And he doesn't have to listen to your stupid crap, so we're going outside."

  "Yeah, yeah, just go ahead and run away, won't'cha? Not helping your case at all!"

  Ryan let out a long sigh, kneeling down in front of Liam. He could tell that the boy wasn't doing all too well with so much attention, "Do you want to go outside first? Gaia is sitting outside, just go to her for now, yeah?"

  Liam slowly nodded, "Okay... just don't get into trouble because of me, yeah?"

  Ryan smiled broadly, ruffling up Liam's hair, "No worries, I'm not going to get in trouble."

  "Promise?"

  "Promise."

  With that, Liam rushed outside, and the attention of the group was put onto Nora. Not just Ryan, but all the girls that had been sitting on the couch, fawning over the cute little vampire boy′.

  "What's your problem?" one of them asked, "Are you jealous of a kid, or something?"

  Nora rolled their eyes, "No, I'm just shocked at how gods-damned stupid all of you are. Like... vampires? How come we didn't know they existed before then, huh? You think new species just pop up out of nowhere?"

  Though they wanted to refute that, none of the girls really knew the exact details of why vampires were kept hidden until now. So, they looked back at Ryan, hoping that he knew what to say. And of course, he did.

  "First, the stigma that people have of vampires is known, and it would be incredibly hard to properly integrate vampires into society without the proper methods to fighting that. By now, those methods have been developed, and it was time for vampires to come out. Like a way for vampires to survive without having to rely on actual blood, as well as governmental, legal support and protections," Ryan explained, crossing his arms. Everyone seemed to understand that part a bit better, "Second, we find out about new species all the fucking time."

  Nora, immediately just latching onto the last thing that Ryan said, scoffed out, "Yeah? Like what?"

  "Before vampires, there were Arachnids. They were just introduced to society a few decades ago. And a few decades before then, there were demons that lived in hiding. Hell, it's only been a few hundred years since land-dwelling species and aquatic species started interacting properly."

  Not having any way to refute that, Nora just started stammering, "Well, I... I, uh... I still don't buy it, it doesn't make any sense! Vampires are just mon-"

  Ryan heard the first syllable of that word and didn't hesitate. He grabbed onto the horn of shapeless water and immediately formed a long staff that he held over the couch right at Nora. Not to actually threaten them, just to startle them enough to not say that word out loud. Sure, Liam wasn't here right now, but... there was another vampire here in this room. Ryan was actually pretty damn surprised when that girl walked in here today. She was one of Silvia's friends back from school, though Silvia clearly hadn't realised she was a vampire. But Ryan, being able to sense that weird veil of the spirit of darkness looming over vampires, managed to figure it out at a glance. She was one of the girls sitting on the couch, fawning over Liam.

  Ryan glanced down at her, whose face had gone pale, and then looked back up at Nora, "Get out."

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  He pulled back the ice staff and returned the water back into the horn.

  "Oh come on! There's no need for you to get so pissed about it, I was just saying what most people think anyway," Nora said, rolling their eyes, "What, you think you can threaten me? Just because you've been to a few dungeons? I know very well that you're just a wuss that avoids a real fight every chance he gets."

  Looking around, Ryan was gauging the reaction of everyone else. Most of the people here were from university, and without exception, they knew what Ryan used to be like before he Awakened. The 'knight in scuffed-up armour' was pretty damn famous at uni. But the moment he awakened, all that stopped. There were plenty of people that abused their powers after they awakened, and many people thought he would be the same, but almost instantly, Ryan forced himself to overcome all that and figure out new ways to help people, taking out his anger in places where it was actually needed.

  "You know," Ryan stepped up to the couch, glaring at Nora, "For an Awakened person to attack a non-Awakened person, it's considered the same as them attacking someone with a 'dangerous weapon', like a gun or knife or whatever. You can get into some real shit for that, and I didn't want to deal with that. But when it's two Awakened folk, that's different."

  Nora sighed, not sure where Ryan was going, "Yeah, obviously I know that. But also only when they're both Awakened with the same combat grading. I'm a non-combatant, an crafting class."

  Ryan stare became deeper. For some reason, he just couldn't stop his anger from bubbling up right now, "And I'm a summoner. I, myself, have no extra combat capabilities."

  He reached out and grabbed onto Nora's collar, dragging them over the couch and dropping them onto the ground. People gasped, confused, as Ryan pressed his foot down on Nora's chest, "And I swear to all the gods and all the great spirits, if you ever say that word again, I'm going to make you regret it. Get the fuck out of here. Call a cab or something."

  Ryan pulled Nora up off the ground effortlessly, starting to drag them toward the front door. He watched as they angrily walked out of the driveway. Ryan knew they were sober, so there wasn't much to worry about. They had just been drinking soda all knight.

  As he walked back into the livingroom, he could see people awkwardly staring at him, but immediately turned away when he looked into their direction. Even Michael wasn't sure what to do, not daring to look Ryan in the eye right now. Feeling a twinge on his left arm, Ryan turned away and instead walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He pulled off the colourful hoodie he put on earlier and stared at his arm, where Tiar was wriggling around nervously and squeezing Ryan tightly. It wasn't visible outwardly, but Ryan could feel the uncomfortable tugs on his skin that pulled him out of his anger.

  "What's going on with you? I was just trying to stop them from saying something horrible like that," Ryan groaned, deciding to splash his arm, as well as his own face, with a bit of cold water to help him and the symbiote cool down a little. On the back of Ryan's hand, Tiar quickly displayed an angry, frowning emoticon.

  "Listen, I get it, you don't like it when I fight people or get angry like that, but... what did you want me to do? Just let them spout whatever bullshit they wanted to?"

  Tiar wiped away the emoticon and instead just put three small dots onto Ryan's skin, basically telling Ryan that they didn't know what to say.

  He sighed, "Thank you, though. It's not like I want to get into fights. So I appreciate it, I'm not mad at you or anything, okay?"

  A happy smiling emoticon appeared next, and Ryan laughed, leaning backward against the sink, "Seriously, I don't know what came over me. It's been a while since I felt angry like that. It just came over me before I knew it," he pointed out, feeling another twinge. But this time, it didn't come from Tiar, it came from his own intuition. As if he had just said something that he should look into more.

  His heightened intuition reacted almost randomly at times. He would realize that someone was about to spill a cup of water all over the table, but not when his friend nearly walked drunkenly into the middle of traffic on a night out. Ryan was able to pull him away from the road, obviously, but not because of his intuition. And now, it was only reacting just so slightly, as if even his own subconscious mind wasn't even able to fathom what just happened. To him, it just felt like he himself, and everyone around him, was slowly but surely getting a bit more... intense.

  "... I think I might need to investigate that a little bit," Ryan whispered, sighing lightly. He decided not to put his shirt back on. People were running around half-naked anyway since this was half a pool party, so since he wanted to just go upstairs and change, he figured it didn't matter much.

  He grabbed his hoodie and opened the bathroom door, but was surprised when he saw someone standing in front of him, close to trying to knock on the door.

  It was that vampire that was sitting on the couch. She saw Ryan and pulled her hand back startled, just looking him up and down instinctively, "I, uh- I just wanted to... holy shit you're ripped, what the hell? Is every Awakened person that ripped?"

  Ryan looked down at himself. He had built up a good bit of muscle over the past few months, and Tiar basically kept his bodyfat ridiculously low at all times, "Uh... no, I've got some special circumstances. Did you need something?"

  "I just... uhm..." she looked around to make sure nobody was watching, and then quickly pushed Ryan back into the bathroom, closing the door, "I wanted to thank you for what you told to that person earlier..."

  "Nora? Yeah, they're kind of uptight and a bit of a douche, but I didn't expect something like this. Actually, I feel like people are acting kind of weird in general today," Ryan sighed a bit, before looking back at the girl in front of him, "You were... Jade?"

  She nodded her head happily, "Yeah! I'm Silvia's friend!"

  "Right, I remember that part. So... since you pushed me in here, I'm guessing you don't want anyone to know you're a vampire?"

  Jade looked at Ryan surprised, "Wait, you- How do you know? Does Silvia know?"

  With a scoff, he shook his head, "No, she doesn't, don't worry. I think I'm the only one that knows. Well, me and anyone you yourself told."

  Even more confused, Jade frowned a bit, "Then how do you know?"

  "Oh, uh... it's just kind of a vibe, I guess? My 'intuition' stat developed in a pretty weird direction, so I can just kind of tell things like that," Ryan explained, not wanting to go into too much detail here, "By the way, uhm... do you mind if I ask, how did you... live until now? I guess? I'm sorry, I've only really met vampires through my family."

  Jade smiled lightly, "I got help from your family as well. Though I haven't met anyone directly... I live with my parents and my brother, and we just get a cooler full of blood packs delivered every week," she explained, "But I've tried that new stuff, the artificial blood? It's kind of a weird sensation, but it feels even more filling than real blood sometimes?"

  "Oh, yeah, it is. Every litre of the artificial blood has 1.5 times the nutrients of regular blood," Ryan thought about it again, "Or was it more? I don't quite remember, but it's something like that. Just annoying that the base flavour is so bland, huh?"

  Jade laughed a bit, shaking her head, "No, not at all, I actually really like the taste. I mean, it doesn't taste like a lot, but sometimes you get a pack of blood that just tastes kind of... yuck. It's hard to explain. You know what you get with the artificial stuff."

  A little hesitant, Ryan scratched the back of his head, "You know, I have some test flavours here for Liam... do you want to give them a try? I wanted to get a bite to eat from the kitchen right now anyway."

  With a big smile, Jade nodded her head, opening the door. The two walked out together, and Ryan skilfully ignored the surprised looks from people that were watching a shirtless Ryan leave the bathroom with Jade, just heading straight to the kitchen instead.

  Though, throughout it all, the feeling that something was going on here didn't leave the back of his head.

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