INTERULUS

LING

People looked at Ling a little funny as she rode the elevator back up to her dorm, but wearing a towel over a wet swimsuit wasn't really that big a deal. The only reason they were surprised at all was because she had been swimming at night. Generally, it was a good idea for non-vampires to avoid doing things like that.

It wasn't that late, only a little after nine. Ling had just always enjoyed swimming in the dark, especially after practice. This was the perfect time: Vampires didn't come out until later, and everyone else was already gone, so there was no one around to bother her. Sure, normally she liked being... bothered, but everyone needed time to unwind.

But she was already done swimming. She hadn't spent too much time doing laps, just enough to cool down from soccer practice.

When she finally reached her floor, she didn't go to her room. Instead, she looked at the door across from hers—Derek's door—took a deep breath, and opened it. Derek always left the door unlocked when he was inside. Probably so that Akane could come and go as she pleased.

“Oh, hey Ling,” Akane greeted her warmly. “Back from your swim?”

Ling blinked. Derek and Laura were sitting on his bed, Laura leaning against the pillows with her laptop across her knees. Derek was at the foot of the bed, closer to the door and not actually touching Laura at all. Akane was sitting on Adam's bed, trying not to mess it up.

Ling dropped her towel in surprise.

Laura looked up. “Nice. I'm not sure black is your color, but not bad.”

Ling blushed and scrambled for the towel. Derek finally registered her presence, and frowned. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah,” she stammered, trying to ignore her flaming face. “I'm fine.”

He shrugged and proceeded to ignore her. It seemed like he hadn't even considered why a girl might walk into his room in a swimsuit.

Laura just shook her head and went back to her laptop, though Ling noticed she touched her necklace briefly, as if to remind herself it was still there.

Ling had to agree with her. Velvet hells, that man was stupid.

But weren't they always? If the hero understood women at all, he always had a girlfriend. Because despite what men seemed to believe, girls eventually got over their desire for “bad boys.” And if the hero didn't have a girlfriend, it meant he didn't understand women. Simple as that.

Ling finally managed to get the towel wrapped around her body and fled to her own room, locking the door behind her.

She had been prepared when she opened the door, but nothing like running into a couple love rivals to put a damper on that. Okay, Laura wasn't really a love rival... not important. She had thought they would be gone.

Ling dressed quickly. She didn't really spend as much time as she should have, so she ended up putting dry clothes over her wet body. At least they were dark colors, so she wouldn't be giving anyone a view of her underwear, but they still clung to her uncomfortably. She headed back downstairs, virtually running.

Emily barely glanced at her when she passed her in the lobby—did she sleep there?—but Ling nearly crashed into Lily and Adam coming in.

“Hey Ling,” he said. “What's up? Wasn't there a study group or something?”

Right, that was why the girls were there. Ling had assumed they were going to do it without Derek. Well, she couldn't go back now.

“Yeah,” she said. “But I can't...” She shook her head. “Just tell Akane I'll be back tomorrow morning at the latest, and not to worry.”

“Fair enough,” he said, although he looked concerned. “Have fun.”

Ling caught a light rail going to South Middle, and rode on it for almost an hour. They could go far faster in an emergency, but kept to slower speeds most of the time. Stupid little facts like that kept bouncing around in her skull as she got off a few blocks from her destination. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and started walking.

It was a relatively nice part of the city, as far as the residential areas went. Tall apartments lined a clean street. There were a few trees here and there along the sidewalk, but most of the greenery came from the hanging wall gardens lining the trellises. Nearly every wall was covered in plant life, vibrant and bountiful. This time of year, the fruits and vegetables would be out of season, but there were a few herbs and vines that sustained the area.

It didn't take her long to find the place she was looking for. It had wider balconies than the other structures, since the building was rented as a whole rather than as individual apartments. She heard children laughing, and teenagers yelling at them to knock it off. There wasn't anyone in the street, but it was getting late, so that made sense. Honestly, everyone should have been in bed already, but no one had ever managed to enforce that rule.

She knocked on the door with as much confidence as she could muster, and waited for a response.

And waited.

And waited.

She knocked again and waited for another five minutes.

Eventually she gave up and just started pounding on the door as loudly as she could. “Open the door, you damn brats!”

She heard someone approaching loudly, and the door swung open. “Who the hell—Ling?”

The matron of Ling's orphanage was a tall, plump woman of undetermined ethnicity. Well, she looked black, but she changed her skin color every year or so, so that didn't mean much. She also looked about forty, but she'd looked like that for as long as Ling had known her.

She blinked, then grinned broadly. “Ling! You didn't say you were coming home. Come in, come in, it's cold outside.” She ushered her in. Ling hadn't even noticed the cold, despite her damp clothes. She must have been more distracted than she thought.

“Turgay called,” Matron said happily. “Said you and a friend stopped by his warehouse a few days ago.”

“Yeah, Adam needed some ammo.” Ling cursed under her breath.

In response, Matron cuffed her lightly on the back of the head. “No swearing.”

Ling rubbed the spot where she had been hit. “Sorry, I just remembered that I had wanted to get some body armor too, but I completely forgot.”

She sniffed. “That's still no cause for swearing.”

She led Ling into the dining room, empty now. Dinner had probably ended hours ago. Matron liked to put the little ones to bed early. Of course, for the vampires it was an early breakfast, but who was counting?

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Why are you gearing up so much, anyway?” Matron asked. She pulled out a chair, and Ling sat. She then sat at the head of the table, kiddy-corner to Ling. “Sounds like you're preparing for a war.”

Ling looked at her, frowning. “Have you... been listening to the news at all?”

Matron waved her hand. “Angels killed Baal. Nosferatu having another civil war. Zombies running amok. Butler has everything in hand. You're overreacting.” Well, things were getting worse every week, but Ling figured she didn't need to know the full details. “But somehow I don't think that's why you're here.” She gave Ling that long, level look she had, usually reserved for when someone had done something especially stupid. “It's a boy, isn't it?”

Ling flinched away from her gaze. “Well... yeah.”

Matron leaned back in her chair and sighed. “When are you going to learn? Even before your hormones kicked in, you used to sneak into the boys' rooms whenever you got the chance.”

Ling shrugged, still not meeting her eyes, and picked at the table. The heavy wood was scarred in a thousand places, including one spot where Ling had tried to write her name in Chinese. That hadn't worked out so well.

“This is different,” Ling said. “Derek's something to work for.”

Her Matron just raised an eyebrow. “That's what you said about Tamaki, Kyouya, Hikaru and Kaoru...”

“Hey, I never said anything like that about the twins.”

“Fine. Still. This is hardly new, my dear.”

Ling sighed. “You never understand.”

Before Matron had a chance to cuff her again, a half dozen kids, maybe ten or twelve years old, swarmed into the room.

“Ling!” a young vampire cried out, hugging her leg. She was the leader of this little gang. The rest had baseline eyes, and would need to go to bed soon, while her day was just starting. “Matron said you wouldn't be coming back!”

Matron whacked the orphan lightly on the top of her head. “No, I said she wouldn't be coming back to live here. She's welcome to visit whenever she likes.”

“It's been fun without you,” another of the kids said. “Mitchel's been going crazy. It's hilarious.” He changed his voice, imitating the surly boy one year Ling's junior. “'Matron, why'd Ling have to leave? Matron, did Ling call?'” He snickered evilly.

Ling flicked him in the nose. “I don't want to hear that from someone who still wets the bed.”

He flinched away from her finger. “I do not! You're the one who got caught fuc—”

Matron whacked him hard this time. “That's enough. Go to bed. Now.”

They ran off quickly, knowing better than to tempt her wrath.

She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you kids fight more than a devilfish swarm.”

Ling bristled. “Hey, I haven't been a kid for a long time now!”

“I know. I was there when your kids were born, remember?”

Ling felt her face flush crimson, and she laughed.

“I'm sorry, dear, I didn't mean it like that. I know you're off at college now, living without me watching over your shoulder.” She smiled. “Tell me about it. Let's start with this Derek character. What's he like?”

Ling warmed to the subject. “Kind, and strong. Everyone loves him. He's a high-level monster slayer. He saves lives.”

“Wait, you mean Derek Huntsman?”

Ling turned to see a boy standing in the doorway, a toothbrush in his mouth. He was wearing simple flannel pajamas, of a red and green pattern.

He was seventeen, and tall, with the ruddy skin of a pacific islander, and garish green hair. That color looked bad in general, but contrasted with his skin it looked horrific.

“Mitchel,” Ling said, frowning. “I thought you would be at the server farm.”

“It was in Triple I,” he said.

Ah, yes, she remembered now. Derek and Laura had used that 'scraper as a back door into the redoubt. It burned near the end of the fight, when the screamers made a final push.

“The company promised me another job at a new location,” he said. “But that hasn't gone through yet.” That explained why he was back here. He had moved out before she had.

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. “Wait, back up a bit. You know Derek?”

He shrugged. “I read a lot of monster mags. Like you said, he's pretty high-level. Just the other day, he killed a pair of oversized alley crawlers.”

Ling laughed genuinely. That was pretty rare for her, at least around Mitchel. “I think oversized is a bit of an understatement. They were two hundred feet long each.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You were there?”

“It sounded fun. Besides, we all thought there was going to be one, normal sized. It didn't sound too risky.”

“You shouldn't involve yourself with those kinds of things,” Matron said. “It's too dangerous.”

Ling rolled her eyes. If only she knew. “I was fine. I can take care of myself, and like I said, Derek is reliable. If something had gone wrong, he would have protected me.”

“She's right,” Mitchel said, which surprised her. He had always been jealous of anyone Ling was interested in. “Huntsman is well-known for putting the survival of allies and bystanders above all else.” He shrugged. “It's the only major criticism against him, actually. They say the only reason he ever fouls up a hunt is because he's trying to rescue someone instead of getting the job done.”

Ling smiled. “Yeah, that's him. He's definitely got a bit of Chronic Hero Syndrome.”

“From the way you're talking, I still can't see why you'd run over here,” Matron said. “He sounds like the understanding type.”

Ling wriggled in her seat uncomfortably. “He is. He's just... a bit of an idiot when it comes to women.”

Mitchel sighed. “You tried to seduce him, didn't you? Same as ever.”

Before Ling knew what was going on, she had thrown the chair aside and pinned him to the wall.

He hadn't said... it. But she knew it was on the tip of his tongue. He had said it before. Even now, his back literally against the wall, his eyes were filled with anger rather than fear.

“Let me go,” he hissed. “Or I'll tell Derek what you are.”

“Used to be,” Ling snapped back.

The bastard grinned. “No. What you are.” He moved his face uncomfortably close to Ling's, until his toothbrush poked her cheek and she could smell his breath. At least it was fresh. “It takes more than a couple runs through a toy box to remove a strain like that, my dear. It's like they say: You are who you are. The toy maker just lets you show it.” He shrugged. “Or hide it.”

The entire orphanage was made of reinforced titanium, as it was originally designed as a bomb shelter. The foundation was concrete, but a thick carpet separated Ling's feet from it. Good thing, too.

If she had been touching any kind of stone at that moment, she would have used her powers to kill Mitchel St. John.

Ling had never killed anyone before. She wasn't even good at killing animals. It made her all fluttery inside. But...

Ling was not what she had been.

And she would not let anyone say otherwise.

Who knew what would have happened, if they had been left to their own devices. But thankfully, Matron whacked Ling hard upside the head before anyone could do anything too stupid. She really should have seen that coming. The tension in the room deflated like a popped balloon.

“That was uncalled for.” Matron pointed angrily at Mitchel. Ling released him. “Mitchel, go make sure the kids are getting to bed.” He obeyed, muttering the whole way.

“Sorry,” Ling said, once he was out of earshot. She didn't mean it towards him. But starting fights in the orphanage was just... off-limits.

“He has a point, despite his rudeness,” Matron said, apparently choosing to ignore Ling's actions. Maybe she just didn't realize how close Ling had come to murdering him. “You always choose the worst moment to jump a couple dozen steps ahead in the relationship. And it never ends well. I thought you were over this.”

“It's different this time.”

“It always is.”

Ling stamped her foot in frustration. “Dammit, it is. Why is it so hard for you to believe that I might have actually found someone right this time?”

Matron smiled at her sadly. “Because you came running back here, sweetie.”