Chapter 4

Blossom stared at her sisters and shrugged sheepishly. "My leg started to hurt, that's why he brought me back. Nothing else!" She explained. She has been pulled into a round of interrogation when Brick had left because it was weird that Brick just had carried her twice a day.

Buttercup rolled her eyes. "That might be an explanation but I don't trust him that much." Today was extremely weird for the girls. Not to mention, the boys were acting out of the norms in the club and everything. "Since when he would be so caring enough to bring you back?"

"But you can't judge them by their past. Maybe they really did change." Bubbles spoke up, which got her a look from her green sister. Well, at least Boomer did change a lot. For the better or the worse, she wasn't sure.

Blossom nodded. "Maybe they just wanted a peaceful life."

"There is absolutely no way that can be true! You saw how suspicious they were acting just now." Buttercup protested, thinking back to Butch. He was definitely up to no good.

"Well, let's not debate about this any longer." Blossom held up her hand. Buttercup getting agitated was not a good idea in the middle of the night. "Get some rest, girls."

Buttercup couldn't argue with that.

"Brick, I said no!" The speakers were loud as the brothers stiffened at it.

Brick bit his lips. "I got to get some information! Dad, this will greatly help in the investigation!" He argued as he stared at the older male.

"And what? Risk your brothers and your lives into this? Not only will it be dangerous, that unknown coven will be alerted as well!" James, the father of the boys, pointed out. "I am serious Brick, stop your actions right now. Or I will let your mother visit you to take some sense into you now." He threatened.

Butch whistled at that. Their father often respected Brick and his decision. This was the first time that Brick's proposal was declined. It was understandable that Brick was angry at that. Meanwhile, Boomer bit his lips. All of them knew. If their mother were to appear, it would be anything but good. They would literally die from her care.

"Your mission was to get an estimate of what was going on in Townsville. All you three had to do is to report to us and we will inform you of the next orders. I do not want the three of you to do anything that would get the suspicions of them. Do you understand?" He stressed on that idea which got Brick irritated.

"Understood." Brick gritted out. His tense posture and clenching fist gave away his annoyance that not being able to do anything.

"Butch and Boomer, watch over your oldest brother. Stop him if you must." The two of them nodded their head at that. "Two versus one. I doubt the fact that the both of you should lose." He pointed out.

An older lady came on the screen, possessing extraordinary beauty. "You have to stop making the boys do your missions. Can't you see that they are too young to do this?" She complained, not very happy with her husband. "Also, you know I don't appreciate being used as a threat. The boys would welcome me with open arms, isn't that right?" Natalie asked.

The three boys paused at that statement. "Mum, of course we would welcome you but you know that you are pretty famous in the vampire world so your appearance here would definitely give us away." Boomer explained sheepishly.

Their mother pouted. "I miss the three of you though." She sulked as the three of them smiled at their mother's antics.

"We miss you too of course. We promise to spend more time with you after this is done all right?" Butch promised.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "That would take ages!" Brick smiled at their mother, his bad mood disappearing. If their father was a stern father, their mother would be the sun that brighten their days.

"We will finish this quickly and come back." Brick promised.

Natalie paused at that statement. "Wait, no. Stay there longer. Since you boys could not find your mates here. Try finding them there. After all, you boys came from there right?" The boys groaned at that she was saying.

She had been wanting them to find their mates ever since she realised that the fact that they should have mates as well, being a vampire and all. "Mum, you just said that we were young. We should be studying instead of dating." Boomer pointed out, not wanting to debate this with her.

"Nonsense! You boys are already nearly 19. It has been two years since you guys know of the existence of your mates. I know tons of teenagers who date and study at the same time. It's time to find your mates and get married already." She commented. "I am not getting any younger. I want some grandchildren to play with." She added on which made the three of them blushed at that topic.

Due to the fact that vampires had their pre-destined mates, most of them got bonded before the age of 20 due to the small number of them. Mating after 100s were practically scandalous even though it was already the 21st century. There were others who had their mates in very late in their lives, but that was because they had various reasons, so it was fine. Vampires stressed on the importance of a mate and often had to find them before anything else once they had turned 15.

Another thing that had the mate system so attractive was that more than often, Vampires do gain some extra boost if they had mated with their destined one. If their mate were humans, once they were turned, there was a chance of them become a Reign though it was extremely rare.

Butch coughed, trying to retain his normal composure. "Mum, you are hardly old. You barely look a day over 30s.

"I don't care, flattering me would not help. I remember the day when your father told me that I was his mate. I was of course shocked at first but look at me, living happy ever after with your father." She stated, the boys nodded their head at this. It would do them nothing good to interrupt their mother when she was talking about her story. It had happened far too many times for them.

"Anyways, if I found out that you three found your mates but hid it from me, you know the consequences." She threatened by narrowing her eyes for effect. The guys looked away in avoidance. The female of the house could be scary whenever she wanted to.

"Anyways, we got to go. I want to check out something else." Brick changed the topic before she caught something. She was terribly good at this kind of things.

This got his father's attention. "Brick." He warned.

"I am not going to do anything. I am just going information seeking." He growled, challenging his father. Normally he would consider that he was being too rude but he would care less now. He wasn't exactly in the mood for this.

"Oh! Alright, quickly go and meet some girls. If not, it would be a pity all of your good looks." She smiled. Brick waved his hand and kept his phone quickly, thankful that he had an excuse to end the call quick.

"I swear, if mum found out that we found our mates and failed to inform her of that, all of us are going to die without a doubt. Especially since someone had gotten so close to his mate." Butch commented and got the phone slammed into him.

Brick ruffled his hair. "Shut up and get ready to go."

"To where?" Butch asked.

"I don't believe those bloody vampires doesn't go out during the weekends." Brick argued as he got himself presentable enough to leave the house.

"It's bloody 3am Brick!" Boomer pointed out. Each of them were tired after seeking for more information on that coven.

"You won't die from lack of sleep." Brick pointed out which his brother rolled their eyes at him. "I am going out for a second to find some lead." He stated.

"You guys make yourself useful too." Brick stared at his brothers before going out. "Slave driver." Boomer muttered until his breath.

"I heard that Boomer!"

"You got to be freaking kidding me." Butch hissed as he looked at his phone. It was already noon time.

Boomer shook his head. "No news at all. No one in the streets saw him or anything. Although, they heard noises of a fight in the middle of the night. No one paid much attention, thinking that it was just purely someone drunk making a dim."

When Brick had asked them to go along with him on that walk of his, the both of them just chose to sleep instead. After all, the lack of sleep accumulated from the several days got to them and they didn't want to bother since Brick was in one of his fits.

However, when they woke up in the late morning, they realised that there were no traces of Brick in the house the past few hours anywhere. Brick, although reckless at times, he was extremely responsible. He would contact his brothers if he was staying out or whatsoever but nothing.

There was no news of him.

Worried, the two brothers were searching for him.

Boomer looked around, thinking where he should suggest his idea. "Think we can enlist Blossom's help for this?" Butch stared at him. "Seriously? We might get killed." He hissed.

Boomer shrugged his shoulders. "Considering how they have been following for the past few minutes and them listening to our conversation, we might as well."

Butch looked around to confirm what was going on, spotting them with ease now that he was more relaxed. "Freak. I forgot they live in this neighbourhood too."

Three girls floated nearby. Boomer pulled down his hood and looked down while Butch stared at the three of them.

"You know, this was not how I was planning to spend my weekends. Haven't we seen each other enough in school hours?" Buttercup growled, currently annoyed. Indeed, she was annoyed, she arranged to watch a match with her friends but got interrupted by the mayor's call and had to be sent out.

"We received calls that there were multiple blue and green streaks everywhere in the city. Everyone was wondering what was going on." Blossom elaborated, looking the two brothers to notice one missing.

Bubbles nodded in agreement. "Also, the lack of red streaks made others worry." She bit her lips. "You know your appearance can make some people worried."

"What are we? Murderers? What's wrong with just flying around?" Boomer glared at the pink leader.

"This wasn't what the citizens meant." Bubbles immediately tried to make the situation sound better but it was apparent that Boomer was already affected.

Butch nudged the blue brother. "Focus. We have no idea how is Red doing now." He whispered which Boomer folded his arm in response. "It was your idea anyways."

"Blossom, if you want us to stop, help us with something." Butch negotiated, watching the three girls as they floated down to stand instead.

Blossom rose an eyebrow at that. Since when did they asked for help? "What's it?"

"Locate Brick for us." He stated which got the girls surprised.

Brick JoJo was missing?

Buttercup laughed at that. "You guys lost your older brother? How stupid can you guys can?" She sneered, relinquishing in the fact that they were asking for help despite acting so arrogant the previous time.

Butch growled at that. "Mind your words." The anxiety of wanting to find Brick as soon as possible was making him more irritable than usual.

"What about you mind your attitude? Aren't you guys asking for our help?" Buttercup rebutted.

Butch rolled his eyes. "You know what, forget about it. Boomer, let's go." The blue brother nodded to that, ready to go elsewhere to find Brick instead.

"W-wait, what happened to Brick?" The pink leader asked, making Butch look at her.

Boomer grinned at his brother who shrugged, before turning back to face the worried girl with a calm face. "Since sending you back, he met us for a bit before leaving again. Haven't been back at all."

Blossom seemed to consider for a moment despite the disapproving stare that her green sister was giving her. "Do we split up to find Brick?" She asked. Boomer smirked, knowing that she would definitely help them.

Butch shook his head. "We need something from you. Leave us the rest to us would be alright."

"What do you need from me?" Blossom asked, wanting to help out if it was possible. After all, Brick did help her occasionally.

"Your blood."

Blossom paused at that statement. Perhaps, she had heard wrongly. The expression of her sisters hardly indicated that she had heard wrongly.

Boomer seemed to realise what was surprising the sisters so much as he tried to quickly recover the situation. "Brick technically was created by your DNA so we are hoping that it would help." He stated calmly, which was a contrast with his inner self.

"Even so, can't saliva or something wrong?" Buttercup questioned irritably.

Butch narrowed his eyes. "How are we going to get large quantity of that to try to locate Brick?" He argued, glaring at Buttercup.

Buttercup seemed to be provoked as well. "Even so, who knows what will happen if we were to give you some blood?" She crossed her arms while Bubbles looked in between her sister and the boys.

The blue puff tried to meditate the situation between them. "Is there any alternative than that perhaps?"

Boomer shook his head. "Forget about it then. Butch, let's go."

"Wait!" Blossom stopped them in between the take-off that the boys were about to do. "Take it." She smiled at them unsurely.

That time, the two boys froze. They were suggesting but they had never thought that Blossom would actually offer.

Brick cursed for the endless time for the day. He had spent the night walking normally. Until he heard a scream.

Being the curious him, he immediately went to investigate about the sound. He thanked the gods that he had brought a random mask out of the house. The least that he needed was someone to figure out who he was.

Putting on the mask which covered his mouth, he pulled down the hat down slightly.

His suspicion was proven right. A group of trios was sucking blood from an unconscious girl. A quick look shown that they were just born.

Perfect.

Newly turned vampires had yet to control their urges which could cause a lot of accidents since they were unable to stop themselves. Although their blood thirst was very strong, their combat abilities were less than ideal since they had no training at all.

The blue and red veins that were spread on their neck proved that for him. As a vampire aged, their body would show different signs. The older a vampire was, the stronger he or she would be.

"Mind if I were to join?" He smirked, getting their attention. The nagging voice in the back of his mind made him roll his eyes.

The hostility was apparent now that they were growling at him. He walked calmly towards them and smile, although they would not be able to see it.

It didn't take him long to deal with them of course, especially since he was far more superior with chemical X as well. They were clearly inexperienced with fighting and was only planning to rely on their own brute power without even clearly evaluating him or their own ability well.

Brick wasn't the leader of his brothers for no reason. He had spent several years training himself well instead of fooling around. He finished that match well without much effort need on his side.

"You bastard." One of them cursed at him. "Get lost if you don't want to die!"

Brick rose an eyebrow at that. Did they really think that they could hurt him? No matter what, Brick was still a trained combat warrior. "What if I want to die?"

It was apparent that the three had noticed that they were talking to someone who had connection in the vampire world. The aura and reaction that the red leader was giving clearly stated that he was not just a simple human who had chanced on them. "Who are you?" The other one questioned.

He shrugged his shoulders. "No one important. Tell me, did you kill those women?" He interrogated as he stared at the three of them, composed. The trio immediately shook their head, definitely trying to wash their hands of this matter. "We just merely imitating them. We were told to! That's all."

"Who did?" Brick demanded. One of them shook his head. "We have no idea." Brick growled in frustration at the lack of evidence again. "How can you follow an order that you had no idea who said that?" He nearly shouted.

The three of them looked at each other as though considering if they should say anything. "It was given to us by our Maker! That's all we know. In fact, our Maker told us nothing but this!" The first one protested as Brick sighed, pressing the bridge of his nose.

He expected as much since they were all just lackeys but it still annoyed him no ends with no leads and whatsoever.

"Guess we are done here then." Brick muttered which the three caught on. "Are we allowed to go then?" The last of the trio asked. Brick smirked. He had no plans of letting anyone know about him being here.

"What do you think of dying?" Brick asked, squatting down to look at the three of them who were at one corner of that alley.

The three of their eyes widened but it was too late. Brick made use of his telekinesis to pin them down. It didn't take him long to set them on fire with a lighter that one of them were carrying.

Brick stared at the huge fire, mesmerised by it. He must have clearly let his guard because the next moment, he found himself pinned on the wall with a hold on his neck.

"A Reign?" He found himself staring at a similar glowing azure eyes.

Reign. That was the term that was used on vampires who had gained some special ability after they had changed. Reigns were rare and everyone would get do anything to get a Reign under their orders. Even within Reigns, there were ranks depending on their own abilities. Of course, Brick was one of the few Reigns.

Brick used his power to get the man off which worked as the man released his hold. "I haven't seen another Reign in a few years." Taking a few steps back, Brick took this time to stare at this attacker.

Another?

Brick glared up to see the unknown man laugh. "What's your ability?" The man asked with a smile on his face. Brick bit his lips. That man was also a Reign. Whenever a Reign fought with another Reign, it would never end well.

"Mine's Wind." The man looked extremely excited, something that made Brick refuse to combat with him. He simply refused to battle a person that he had no data on. However, he never thought that there would be one in the coven. "Come on, answer me!"

A strong gust of wind attacked Brick as he held his arms out to resist against it. That unknown man was using his powers in an alley? He was serious. It was only natural for Brick to get serious as well.

He wasn't surprised to find himself in cuts after that attack. His clothes had slits all over him, drawing blood from him naturally. However, what surprised him was that his cuts were not healing.

Focusing on the nearby items which was an abandoned furniture, he threw it at the man to have it cut up. "Is that all you can do?" The man taunted.

In a flash, Brick was thrown into a wall, crashing it.

For the first time ever, Brick panicked. It was apparent that the unknown man was powerful, perhaps even more powerful than any of his brothers. The mark on his neck was showing that he was an older vampire.

"Where was your arrogance just now?" The man demanded as he walked towards the injured leader. His hand was churning out the next attack.

Brick knew that he had almost no chance of winning. He did have experience. However, the man that was standing in front of him was a full-fledged Reign. One that had mastered his powers to an extent that he had perfect control over. Meanwhile, Brick was indeed a Reign, but one that was still a fledging.

Taking his chance, he made use of the pipes to pin the man down on the wall. Water spilled everywhere, effectively stopping the man's view of Brick.

The red leader used this chance to run. It was shameless indeed but he had no plans on dying tonight. He had more to achieve and more to find out.

He ran as far as he could.

He had no idea how far he went. Cursing the fact that he won't stop bleeding, he sat down somewhere dark after he lost the man.

Once noticing that he was safe, he blacked out.

Brick was awakened by a familiar smell. Growling at that, he tried to stand up only to fail. He must have gotten much damage than he had thought. However, he had no idea why his injuries were not healing, especially since they were supposed to with his natural healing abilities.

Blossom.

Someone got to bloody explain to him why was Blossom bleeding again.

Pushing himself, he took off his mask and pocket it. He would rather not get into another conflict. Forcing himself to stand up, he shot up in the direction of the blood to find Blossom.

Imagine his surprise when he saw his brothers along with the three sisters staring at him as though they had seen some monster just when he stepped out of somewhere he was.

Getting over his initial surprise, he went over to Blossom. "Blossom, you are alright?" Brick asked, scanning her for any injuries. "Brick—" Blossom protested.

"Brick!" Boomer called out as he shot towards his injured brother.

Meanwhile, Butch frowned when he noticed the injuries on his brother. "What the fuck happened?" He demanded, pulling one of Brick's arm over his so that he could lean his weight on the green brother.

He was about to spill until he noticed the other three audience that was there. Shaking his head, he looked away to prevent more questioning. "Not here." He replied, gesturing for his brothers to go back. Butch nodded, getting an idea of what he had wanted to convey. "Thanks Blossom, we owe you one. We got to get Brick back first."

"Tell me what is going on." The pink leader protested as she took a quick look at her counterpart who was adamant on not looking at his mate.

Boomer immediately shook his head. "Nothing of your business, Blossom." He snapped, clearly not in the mood. The blue puff frowned slightly at that, it seemed like Boomer was extremely irritable today and she could assume that it was due to Brick.

Blossom opened her mouth to protest but was silenced by the green brother's glare. "Leave it. The three of you have nothing to do with this." He warned before shooting up with his brother.

"We are grateful to you Blossom for your assistance but don't tread too near the line." He warned before shooting up into the skies to follow his green brother.

Buttercup was about to follow until Blossom stopped them. "Brick promised to tell me."

"Don't be stupid. Do you really think that they will just tell you like that?" Buttercup argued, trying to pull away from her sister to chase after them. This is a good chance for them to find out through using force now that one of them was injured.

However, by the time Buttercup had managed to get Blossom to loosen her grip, the brothers were already out of sight.

"Spill, what the freak happened?" Butch demanded in front of his parents. Brick sighed as he felt that his younger brother was making a big deal out of nothing. He was just injured.

The two of them had even went to the extent of video-calling their parents again. Brick groaned that the four pair of eyes that were staring at him right now this instant.

"I just was walking around the area where the incidents had happened, and I caught a group of them on act." He started, fully knowing that there was no way that the he could escape without explaining. "I stopped them and killed them. However, suddenly there was another Reign."

It was fully obvious that all of them had tensed at the last statement.

"That Reign did this to you?" James demanded as Brick nodded. The atmosphere was heavy now.

Brick knew that this kind of reaction would happen. After all, the boys, although are fledging Reigns, they had Chemical X pumping in their body. Just based on that fact, their abilities were still regarded as one of the higher ones in the Vampire Society. To be able to reduce Brick to this state, their opponents were more powerful that they had presumed in the very beginning.

"Pull out. Come back." Their father demanded. All three brothers' head snapped out at that.

"No need! We can do this." Brick protested. To go back just because of this injury, Brick and his brothers cannot stand that fact.

James shook his head. "To be able to hurt you till an extent of the wounds are not healing, your opponent is one that is highly experienced."

"We know that!" Boomer stated agitatedly. However, to pull them out for this mission was too much for them.

"We definitely can do this!" Butch added in as he growled. "Did you send us here for the experience? Since you thought that this mission had that risk too!"

"Father, mother, please." Brick stared at his parents.

His parents looked at the determined looks in their own sons and then stared at each other as though to see what each other was thinking about. Their mother reached out to touch the father's hands, begging the father to let them.

"1 month. If you guys cannot figure out what is happening in a month, come back. Also, if anyone of you guys had gotten hurt again. Come back as well." He ordered after staring at his wife who supported this decision. The three of them quickly nodded. They would take the most that they could currently.

Brick glared at the two brothers that was in front of him. "What is the bloody meaning of having a bottle of Blossom's blood on your hands right now?" He interrogated as he crossed his arms.

Tapping his finger impatiently, he waited for an answer. Butch gulped as he tried to find the right word. It was painfully obvious that Brick was angry, perhaps due to the fact that they had even asked for such an item from the pink leader or due to the fact that they had to hurt the leader to get it.

Honestly, all of them had no idea what was making the red leader that angry. In fact, Brick had some idea but he wasn't about to share it.

"We needed to find it as soon as possible and we didn't know where to find you at all." Butch started, looking at his brother to see if there any moves of attacking hem.

Boomer spoke next. "The only thing we could thought of at that time to get you to react and respond to us, it was her blood. It was so happened that she was there as well. She willingly gave it to us." He clarified.

Brick looked stunned. "First of all, why did you even suggest it to her?" He growled. "And, even if she willingly gave it to you guys, you guys shouldn't take it!" He shouted, as he looked around to calm himself down.

"She cut herself straight immediately on the wrist after she said that we could have it. There was nothing we could do but retrieve it." Boomer explained.

He couldn't help the high tension in him right now. That vial of blood that was on the table right now. That was his mate's blood. To a vampire, that would be the most delicious and tempting blood there was in the entire world for them.

Right now, it was in front of Brick. Brick who had just gotten injured and became hungry as a result of that. His eyes were glowing which hinted that his body truly wanted that blood. It was taking all of Brick's willpower to not grab it and drown it.

Compared to his brother, the green and blue ruff had a better way of dealing with it. Even though it was blood, it didn't have the same effect on the two since they were well-fed and Blossom wasn't their mates.

"Drink it." Butch proposed. It wasn't easy watching his brother struggle at the existence of this vial. This got him a dart thrown at him which intentionally missed him and landed on the wall. The youngest ruff widened his eyes at that. It seemed like this time Brick was truly enraged, especially since he just did that.

Waiting for Brick to talk, the other two looked at each other. The outburst that they were waiting for didn't appear as a red streak appeared on the sky.

"He must have left this room, since the blood was too much for him. Let's throw it away?" Butch suggested which Boomer quickly agreed towards.

Boomer looked at the table to notice the missing vial. "Do you think we need to chase after him?" He bit his lips, worried about his brother.

Brick hardly cared the moment he entered their rooms through the open window. It obviously had gotten him some screams from Bubbles. Buttercup threw something at him by reflex, which he had managed to avoid thankfully. Blossom just sat on her bed, her face struggling to convey shock and dropped her book.

Thankfully the professor was out, he thought when he saw the Professor leaving the house a few moments ago.

It was only then he noticed how inappropriate that he was being. He coughed, trying to redeem himself. "I'm sorry but Blossom, could I talk to you for a while?" He asked awkwardly, looking elsewhere. The girls were dressed a bit too casual for him to take a look actually.

"Brick JoJo! Get out!" Blossom shouted as she pointed to the door and pulled the blanket over herself.

Brick immediately nodded at the order and shuffled out of the room. He coughed as he tried to erase what he had just saw and wanted outside patiently.

It clearly didn't take long because 10 minutes later, he was sitting in the living room with Bubbles serving him tea. Buttercup and Blossom were opposite of him and staring at him as Bubbles joined them.

"Talk." Blossom said as Brick looked at her sisters. Were they really going to have a talk in front of her sisters as well?

Blossom sighed as she seemed to understand what Brick was trying to say with his eyes. "Girls, go up first. I will catch up later." She smiled as her sisters listened and left, one reluctantly while the other one joyfully.

It was only when he saw no signs of the sisters, he pulled on her arms. "What were you thinking?" He demanded, looking at the visible cut on her wrist. That must be where his brothers had obtained the blood from.

Quickly throwing down the medical supplies that he had gotten during his trip here, he poured antiseptic over it quickly. He had been so absorbed with trying to bandage it that it was only the hiss from Blossom that got his attention back.

"Your brothers said that they needed it to find you." She stated, while Brick rolled his eyes at that statement. "The fact that you even bother listening to them amazed me." He said sarcastically as he kept dabbing antiseptic on it.

Blossom seemed to be offended by that sentence. "We managed to find you didn't we!" She argued as she allowed Brick to continue treating it. "It was a stupid idea, you have to agree with that." He retorted as he glared at them.

The pink leader glared at him. "Of course, I am the idiot. I was a fool to think that I could even bother helping you!" Her voice raised. "If you had the ability, you shouldn't have disappeared in the very first place!"

Brick paused. "I'm sorry for the trouble." He mumbled as he focused all his attention on the wound. "I wasn't being responsible and as a result, you had to deal with my brother instead."

Blossom's anger dissipated at Brick's apology. Brick had never apologized, not one so far towards her. However, he was apologizing now.

"I'm sorry but can you not get hurt in the future because of me?" He asked, carefully placing the medicine on the wound. Usually, Blossom would have said something but now she was too stunned to feel the pain or to say anything. What could be wrong with Brick?

She blinked when she saw the red orbs that was waiting for her reply. "T-this is just a small wound." She hastily stated, trying to understand the situation better. Was she dreaming? Brick was being nice and kind towards her right now. That was enough to be classified as a miracle.

He chuckled softly. "I realised that you are always getting hurt." He completed the bandaging and was proud of his works. "Just make sure to change it regularly. I will leave these with you." He gestured to the items that he had brought.

"Well, I will go now." He stood up as he got ready to leave through the door. Blossom stood up as well as a reflex. "Wait! What was this supposed to mean? A thank you?" She asked, holding up her arms to show the bandage.

Turning back to look at the pink leader, he remembered why he was there. He took out the blood vial and passed it into her hands. Although Brick might look emotionless on the outside, but he was having a hard time of letting go off the vial.

This was necessary, Brick persuaded himself. If he were to drink this blood, there would be no turning back from the other leader. That was something that he never wanted.

"This is your blood. Thank you for that and I'm sorry." He trailed off. Sorry for running away from you. Placing a calm face on, he looked up at Blossom. "Just make sure not to get hurt again." He stated, noticing the many injuries on the pink leader.

In fact, ever since meeting her, she had been nothing but hurting herself.

He had been in his thoughts that he failed to notice that Blossom had opened the vial as she tried to look at it. The eruption of the tempting smell surprised him and his first reaction was to flung it across the room.

It appeared to be a bad choice as he immediately covered the lower half of his face to cover up the smell. The vial had broken and the blood was covering the room.

To a normal human, there might not be a smell but to him, this was like a devil's candy. It was constantly tempting him and challenging him.

"Brick?" Blossom called out, surprised at his reaction. He had clearly heard his counterpart calling from him but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the red substance that was in front of him.

"Brick!" She shouted as he looked at her. From her pink eyes, he could see his own eyes. Glowing eyes.

Blossom had seen it as well, he could tell.

The next thing he knew, he bolted out of the house.

Bubbles waited impatiently as she looked out for a particular blue ruff. She was waiting beside his locker this morning as she knew that he definitely would pass by his locker to get his things.

"Boomer!" She called out when she saw his figure walking towards his locker. He responded to his name being called and paused when he saw the blue puff waiting for her. He had this half a mind to turn back and pretended not to see her. However, he needed his art materials for the upcoming class.

"Good morning!" She greeted, being cheerful as she usually was.

Boomer immediately walked towards her unconsciously. Stupid mate system! Whatever happened to avoiding Bubbles for this time of period?

"Morning." He greeted rigidly. He wasn't expecting an ambush from her so early in the morning.

Meanwhile, Bubbles had thought of this carefully over this past few days. According to how Boomer acted at that time, he was definitely worried about her. So, she believed that she would be able to get him back to the time when they were friends if she put in more effort in getting to know him.

"Boomer, I got something to talk to you about." She announced happily, getting some attention from the nearby crowd. Since Bubbles was rather popular in the school, along with Boomer's newfound popularity in school, they were gaining quite a fair bit of attention. Boomer believed that part of this attention had to do with the fact that they used to be enemies.

He nodded, waiting for her to continue her topic. The sooner they finish this conversation, the sooner he can leave.

Bubbles was nervous, something that was rather apparent from how she was playing with her hair. It was a habit that only made Boomer pay attention to her even more.

"The thing is-there is an upcoming project in our Art class and we need to partner up. Would you be my partner?" She asked swiftly, showing almost no sign of nervousness.

"No." He replied immediately. He was really restraining himself to say yes physically by clenching his fist together to maintain his self-control. The question nearly made him loosen all the guard around him. However, he wasn't about to take this chance. If he were to spend more time with Bubbles, he would definitely go crazy with the desire to bond with her.

Bubbles looked extremely downcast at his response. "Why not?" She asked, with this saddened look. Boomer really wanted to hug her and to comfort her at this stage.

He tried to make up an excuse. "I-I agreed to pair with Tom." He blurted out a random name.

Bubbles looked at him. "There's no one called Tom in the class." She pointed out, stepping closer to confront him. Boomer might have changed drastically over the years but there were still some points that remained, such as the fact that Boomer was really bad at lying.

Boomer stood back in a flash. "Anyways, I don't care. I told the teacher that we are pairing up already." She grinned and stuck out her tongue playfully. "I am informing you about now!" She cheered up.

She heard the bell rang. "I got to go for my lecture. See you in class later!" She smiled and quickly ran off. He could barely protest before she just went off in a rush.

"Bubbles!" He tried to argue but failed miserably. The other girl had already disappeared from his sights.

Noticing that many students were rushing to their own classes, Boomer sighed and opened his locker to get the things that he needed today.

He saw a bottle of apple juice with a post-it stuck on it.

"I noticed you like this!
So, this is the bribe for being my partner!

-Bubs!"

Despite complaining about it outwardly, he couldn't resist the smile that was on his face as he pocketed the apple juice.

Butch stared at the girl who was lying down on the rooftop. "What's up, Butters?"

He was searching around the school for her once he had noticed that she did not come in for the math tutorial classes. Since he wasn't particularly interested in the class and the fact that a green puff was not in the class made him bored, he ditched the class and went to search for her instead.

Buttercup stared at him unhappily when she turned to look at him but he quickly turned back after that. "Why do you have to be here?" She said irritated before turning to look somewhere else.

"I can't be here?" Butch questioned as he took a seat besides her without even asking for permission. He didn't need one.

Buttercup shrugged her shoulders at all. "This is a public place. Who am I to stop you?" She questioned as she closed her eyes, attempting to sleep.

Butch smirked at that response. "I honestly thought that I would get beaten up for just sitting here." He commented, lying down as well.

"Want to fight then?" She suggested, peeking an eye open to look at the sky in front of her.

The emerald guy scoffed before shaking his head. "I rather not be trashed."

Buttercup paused at that statement. In a flash, she had an energy ball on her hand and near Butch's neck. What surprised the green puff the most was that Butch did react but all he did was just to stand up such that he was looking at her straight in the eyes. He didn't even flinch when he saw that sneak attack.

He held out both of his hands innocently and stared at the female. "What's wrong, Butters?"

"You have the ability to kill me, don't you?" She demanded, glaring at the taller male.

She had sensed it the first time they had met, when Butch had caught her fist. That time, she had unable to resist or do anything. She had originally brushed it off as a mistake of her own part. However, the previous time at the club that confirmed her suspicions when Butch so easily pulled her away.

She had once prided herself in her strength. Yet, she had lost to Butch, to an extent that she was unable to resist at all.

Butch fully have the ability to kill her if he wanted to now.

In fact, she could assume that not only Butch, the rest of his brothers had improved severely. Even if the three of them were to take three of them, there was hardly a chance of winning. She hasn't seen the rest of their abilities due to the lack of chance but it was pretty obvious from the other two as well since her sisters were unable to do anything.

She didn't have the mindset of wanting to test her theory but then since Butch was here at this moment, she just had to find out. She stared right into the emerald orbs.

Butch smiled instead. "Butters, what makes you think that I can and will do that?" He questioned, not moving once at all.

Buttercup glared at her counterpart. She was never the one to play mind-games. That was more of Blossom's forte but with this vague answer, how was she going to find out?

When Butch saw that the puff was not responding, he continued. "It is not that easy to kill to kill you, considering that you are made of Chemical X."

"Cut the crap. Answer my question directly!" She demanded as she held the energy ball closer to his neck. She had neither the time nor the energy to deal with him now.

Seeming to consider that option for a short while, Butch made his move. It was rapid, which caught her off-guard. Before she had knew it, she was pinned down on the ground and staring right into Butch's eyes. Her energy ball had shot up to the sky and went off.

The male was directly on top of her. His hands were gripping on her wrist while his legs were pressing onto her to prevent her from retaliating. Furious, she attempted to struggle in futile.

"I have absolutely no plans of even harming you." He stated, looking at her earnestly. A slight smile appeared on his face as he stared at her. That reply got the struggling puff to pause for a while and looked at the ruff. "In fact, more than anyone I wouldn't let—"

This statement seemed to surprise the green ruff himself even more. The smile was gone as he immediately widened his eyes to look away. His bangs hid his eyes such that Buttercup was unable to see anything else.

The sudden laughter from him made the green puff surprised. "What was I about to say even?" He smiled bitterly as he quickly got off and moved far away from her.

She immediately sat up and looked at the back of Butch that was facing him. "Anyways, stop skipping classes. Didn't anyone told you that your grades are going to suffer?" Brick asked before stretching himself.

Buttercup nodded, she couldn't see the expression of her counterpart as she tried to process what had happened just now to no avail. "You did too!" She protested. What's with Butch treating her as a little girl?

"I got something to do so I will see you later." Before Buttercup even had the chance to reply, the emerald streak had already appeared on the blue sky.

Boomer nearly let out a yelp when he felt that he was being pulled.

"Bubbles, I said no." He reacted immediately at the sight of a blonde hair. The fact that he had not had warning bells around him meant that he was familiar with that person. Currently, the only one that fulfilled that condition was Bubbles.

"Who's Bubbles?" That cheery voice made him froze. He knew that voice, especially since he had just heard it this morning. "That girl that you interacted with this morning?" He gulped at that question.

"Mum?" He whispered, not really believing his eyes. Since he had seen her just a few moments ago in the phone, he couldn't believe that she was here. She had perfectly disguised herself though, wearing a hat and a pair of sunglasses. Despite the cover up, her blonde hair and her red eyes gave her away.

However, she mixed with the group of high schoolers though, wearing a jean and a simple top. Due to the never-aging features of the vampires, she looked like she belonged here.

"Boomer, you and your brothers are in so much trouble." She hissed while he gulped. What was going on? What kind of trouble was he in?

"Mum, what are you doing here?" He demanded, pulling her to a corner.

"This is a school, you can't just randomly come here and stuff like that. Not to mention, Dad would freak out seeing you missing!" Boomer protested, still clearly not really believing his own eyes. The previous town they stayed at were a reasonable distance away.

However, their mother had a special ability which was teleportation. It was useful for her as well as she liked travelling.

She waved it off with her hand. "Your father is used to this kind of things. I do it pretty frequently. As long as I don't stay out overnight, he wouldn't say anything." She explained, as if she was an expert at sneaking out.

"Mum, can't you at least wait till school's over to meet up? Brick and Butch are not in the same class as me that much. Today none of us had the same schedule. It is going to be troublesome to find us." Boomer explained.

Then he remembered what his mother had said.

"What trouble are we in?" He asked, "You are the one who decided to visit without saying anything!" He accused indignantly, not appreciating the fact that he was informed that he was in trouble when he did nothing wrong.

"I saw that girl before this class and just now too! You thought I was her!" The mother of the two seemed to remember what she was going to say as she placed her hand on her hip.

Boomer looked away once he understood what his mother was now trying to hint him. "Bubbles is just a classmate. Don't think too much about it."

"Still thinking of lying to me? I saw you smile at her. Since when does my stoic son ever smile at everyone?" She folded her arms, proving her point.

"I just like apple juice." He argued. "Wait! You were here since the very first period?" He questioned, mirroring his mother's action of folding his arms as well.

She shook her head. "Don't mind about when I came here! We are talking about how you only like blood packed in apple juice packet but you actually drank that normal apple juice packet!" She exclaimed, adamant on not losing this argument with her son.

Boomer's eyes widened. "What the heck are you thinking about talking like this in my school?" He whispered harshly, looking around for no one.

"Anyways, get your brothers here." She ordered, not seeming to care if she blew their cover. Boomer sighed. "What makes you think that I can get them here?"

"Do whatever it takes. I know you can do that."

"If I don't?" Boomer challenged.

She smiled. "I am very curious about this Bubbles girl, don't you think?"

He faced away in frustration. It was hard dealing with his mother like that. "I got it." He growled.

"I will grab the girls." She smiled brightly which made him froze. "What girls?"

"What do you think?" She winked before teleporting away.

"Mum!" He shouted but it was too late.

Blossom bit her lips as she waited for a red ruff to appear in class. She had been thinking over the weekend, even after they had met. He had promised to tell her and she wanted answers. She needed them actually.

She was trying to distract herself with this assignment that she had started early. She jumped when she realised that the chair beside her was pulled. When did Brick came in?

"Brick." She greeted, looking at him and smiled.

Brick stared at her for a while. "Blossom." His reply was curt.

Blossom's smile faltered. What was going on with Brick?

"How have you been?" She asked, trying to get the conversation starting. Although she had tons of experiences with talking to others, she had no idea of how to converse with Brick.

"Fine." He shrugged his shoulders. "You just saw me a few hours ago Bloss."

Blossom was about to continue on this conversation and had half the mind of asking what the ruff was doing. Her chance of doing so was interrupted by the appearance of their teacher and their classmates as well.

Any chances of talking flew out of the question as the both of them listened to the class. Brick made no attempts to talk to her while Blossom tried to think about the situation more closely.

She wanted to get to the know the situation with Brick and what happened in the club better. That's was the first reason why she was approaching him. Secondly, she had to ask about what had happened in her house. The reaction of his was too serious to be classified as a joke or something else.

To think that she had thought they became closer after the previous visit he did and perhaps could come to a truce.

Blossom tried to shrug off the fact that her conscious was telling her something was wrong. It was her principle to not get involve with the boys at first but she was breaking the rules herself. Something about Brick attracted her attention, made her want to butt in and talk to him properly. She was holding hope in becoming something decent such as a friend.

However, it doesn't seem to be the case for Brick.

He was adamant on not talking to Blossom. The recent incident with the Reign and the calls with his parents reminded him about what he was supposed to be doing exactly in Townsville. The girls, mainly and only Blossom, was distracting him from it. Therefore, he had to ignore Blossom, no matter how hard it was. This mission was not allowed to be a failure. He can't allow a distraction to cause him to fail his mission.

At first, he was praying that he would be able to avoid Blossom properly. The fact that he could not ignore her was hard, especially since she was just beside him during the class. He reminded himself that he had to resist, no matter what, especially when he was not planning to let something like fate to control his life for him.

With many thoughts in each other their minds, the class ended faster that day.

Once the bell had rang, Blossom tried to talk to Brick once again. She stopped him by grabbing his hands to prevent him from continue packing.

"Brick, is there something wrong?" Blossom looked at the red ruff and trying to find the reason for the sudden change in attitude.

"Nothing." He replied casually. Brick felt off today, she thought and immediately Blossom slapped herself mentally for that. This was clearly the real Brick. How could she assume that he was off? However, she persuaded herself. If she could get the nice Brick out once, she could do that again.

Narrowing her eyes at that reply, she stared at him with determination. "Brick, what's going on?" She demanded, getting sick of how he was acting. She moved in closer to get the attention of Brick which was quite close, considering how they were only a few centimetres apart.

"What do you mean?" He narrowed his eyes. Blossom was acting weird today, she was approaching him without a thought towards him compared to the usual cautiousness. He knew that he definitely had screwed up then. After all, he was doing a prefect good job that maintaining a distance from her just before the talk.

Blossom glared at him. "You are back to normal." She stated which made Brick even more confused. "Of course, I am. On the other hand, I can see that you are not normal today. What the freak is wrong with you?" He questioned, "What's with you being so close to me?"

"What's wrong? You even carried me but you are commenting about this short distance?" She argued, folding her arms to make herself look stronger. It was true. By carrying her, there was closer contact and she was barely even touching Brick at all. Brick hardly had the rights to complain about that.

Brick coughed at that statement. He leaned back in an attempt to put more distance between them. They were facing each other, Brick looked calm while Blossom looked annoyed.

The female didn't know where she got her courage from. However, when she noticed Brick was moving back, she just moved and sat on his legs.

"What the heck are you doing?" He protested once he got his senses back.

"Making sure that you can't run away." She stated, crossing her arms firmly to prove her point. Originally, she was embarrassed but she maintained that firm composure. She was going to sort this out with Brick, whether he liked this or not.

She was not planning to continue to take this from him. He was clearly messing with her. However, she was serious about this. If he himself wanted this Brick would become her friend and he would definitely tell her what she wanted to know.

"Are you not scared of anyone entering?" He pointed out, trying to keep his cool. He looked down to stare at his own hands. He could definitely bet that his eyes were glowing. How could it not when he could literally smell the perfume that Blossom was using? It was assaulting him and he had this urge to just bit down on Blossom's neck right now.

Blossom shook her head. "This classroom isn't going to be used till the sixth period and we are currently the only one left in this classroom. No one else is going to enter this classroom for now." She stated, clearly having done her research.

"We are going to miss class." This was the last-ditch effort that he was making right now.

Blossom seemed to consider a while. She had a perfect attendance that she refused to break no matter what but at the same time, she had the perfect chance of getting Brick to tell her things. This decision was similar to getting a child to pick between her favourite chocolate or her favourite candy. She definitely had to sacrifice something.

At last, she made her decision. She was staying right here. "It's just attendance. Who cares about that?" She tried to say it properly but ended up sounding like a whine.

Brick let out a loud sigh at that. "Blossom, do you even know what you are doing now?" He faced her straight.

Be damned with this.

Blossom let out a gasp. "Brick, your eyes." She paused at that. "It's—" She tried to think of word to phrase it properly.

"Glowing?" He added on, looking at her straight in the face. "Glad that you can see it because this is the response that I have with you." He answered. "After that incident."

Blossom paid no attention to that last bit as she stared at Brick's eyes. It was the same thing that happened previously at her house. She froze as she tried to understand it better.

Seeing that Blossom froze, he laughed bitterly. "Are you scared of me? The fact that I am currently having such a reaction to you? I've changed Blossom, more than you can ever thought of."

Waiting for the harsh response that he thought he would be receiving, to say he was surprised was an understatement of what he was experiencing now. "Beautiful." Blossom reached out to touch his cheeks, to trace his eye shape. His eyes widened at that. What kind of a response was that? That was a far cry from what he was expecting.

"Bloss, do you even know what you are talking about?" He looked away, trying to prevent Blossom from seeing it anymore. However, Blossom seemed to have no plans of stopping.

"In fact, all of us changed. None of us can be the same anymore." He bit his lips, knowing that it was the same for his brothers.

Ever since the incident had changed them to vampires, they had changed more than they thought. The fact that they could no longer stay in Townville or the fact that they had became a bloodthirsty monster. The incident had done more than changing them physically, even mentally, they had changed drastically.

"But—" Blossom was cut off clearly.

"Brick JoJo and Butch JoJo, I would head for the principal's office if I were the both of you now." A male voice that they recognised that it was Brick's brother, Boomer, making that announcement. Brick narrowed his eyes at that announcement.

What was his youngest brother up to now?

"Oops! I didn't see anything!" A female voice called out, surprising the both of them the second time as Brick snapped his head up. He looked up only to be surprised enough to push Blossom away. Blossom gasped when she lost her balance, only to be grabbed by Brick just in time, pulling him into his embrace.

At the sight of another person in the class, she realised what kind of action she was engaged in with Brick and immediately tried to move away from Brick but Brick held her firmly.

He only let go once he realised that she had her balance back.

"Mum, what are you doing here?" He called out as Blossom looked at him.

The lady that Brick had called "Mum" turned and looked at the both of them. "I wanted to see the hidden girlfriends that my boys were hiding from me!" She threw her hands up. "You said that there was no one! Here I find you, having a girl in your lap. Brick, I didn't raise you to be a liar."

Blossom blushed at the hidden girlfriend part and grew even more embarrassed as she continued on. She must have left a bad impression on that lady, what kind of a proper lady would straddle on her son's lap? Blossom just wanted to bury her head on the ground now.

At the same time, in her embarrassment she took this chance to look at the lady. She was extremely pretty and it seemed like they do look similar, which was what that surprised the pink leader. The lady carried herself with elegance and had an aura around her. Gulping, Blossom wondered when did Brick had such a lady as his mother.

"She is not my girlfriend!" He protested. "You are still lying to me? Your eyes just told me everything I need to know! Also, I heard all from Boomer." She replied back angrily.

Brick paused at that. "That fucking traitor."

"Brick, language!"

Thank you for reading so far! Honestly, I had completed this chapter but the flow seemed wrong to me so I took a longer time since I had to rewrite. However, this is no excuse too QQ I will accept all punishment. . Also, pardon me for any mistake that I might make ^^ I hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know how is it like in the reviews ^^ It is always so nice to read them ^O^

-Krys