Chapter 13: The Disadvantages of a Bad Partnership

Thankfully, the situation did not get any worse. Even after being hit in the face, Shoto-sama did not lose his composure, simply looked resigned to it. He bid everyone a nice day, excused himself, and walked away commenting about letting dangerous teachers influence students. Delilah merely stuck out her tongue at that. Kaname did not need to berate Aido as he had started berating himself. He looked thoroughly ashamed and his cheeks were as red as ripe tomatoes. Kaname did not say anything. His attention shifted to Delilah who had started walking towards Aido with a grave expression on her face. She put her hand on Aido's shoulder which made something flaring inside Kaname. She said in an absolutely serious tone with various pauses in her sentence.

"Never in my life,"

Pause.

"Have I ever encountered,"

Pause.

"Such a display."

Pause.

"However, Aido,"

Long pause.

"You have exceeded my expectations."

Aido looked to the ground thinking it to be a sarcastic comment. Then Delilah burst out laughing again. "I should have done that years ago. That was ingenious."

"Okay, so currently Senri and Seiren are in the lead. We will continue this a bit later. It is a lovely night out. Let me take off your wristbands and we'll go take a walk outside."

The grounds were mesmerizing. The moonlight made the white flowers decorating the path glow. In the distance, you could hear the wolves howling to the moon. Ruka suddenly remembered Delilah's words and flushed. They sat at a gazebo and chatted. No one was silent. Everyone participated, either making fun of Aido or teasing Senri and Shiki that they had found a perfect partner in one another. Delilah observed them, trying to understand how much the exercise had worked. She knew all of them were undeniably strong, but to face the enemy's strength and power wasn't enough—at least not against this particular fiend.

She had been shocked when the chairman had sent her an owl pleading for her to come help train them. She had been unsure at first, saying that she could simply get rid of the enemy. But the chairman reminded her of her own battles. One person was never enough and she couldn't stay forever. They needed someone who knew how much teamwork was important to guide them. She thought it would never work when she arrived here. Believe it or not, the group was full of weak links. Not individual people but certain characteristics of them. But now…now it just might work.

She was once again pulled into the conversation by Rima. They spent quite some time talking, recalling funny stories about Takuma and Aido and trying to find the mystery as to how Shiki could fall asleep regardless of time and place. Then Delilah announced that it was Kaname and Zero's turn to complete the task. So they headed back to the gymnasium. The wristbands were put on.

Unfortunately, they had major trust issues. They argued about who was going to lead which led to a full-blown debate about how a lowly scum like Zero should be eradicated and how purebloods should be wiped off the surface of the earth.

After cooling them down with a deadly glare and icy words of warning (you will not conduct such drama in my presence), it was decided that Zero would lead by rock-paper-scissors. (Delilah's idea. She had to spend quite some time explaining the game to the clueless vampires.)

The game started and they easily hit the first two pots. But then Zero began to grumble about the pureblood's snail pace and Kaname walked faster to prove him wrong and both of them fell headfirst on the ground, smashing the two nearby pots with their bodies.

"Kiryuu, are you so incompetent that you cannot manage to keep up with me?"

"Well bloodsucker, if you didn't forget that our legs were tied together maybe we wouldn't have fallen." He replied with his customary scowl etched on his face.

"You know that this is precisely why Shizuka took your twin and not you. Because she knew you were utterly incompetent and the foul tasting blood of yours would never sate her thirst."

Zero recoiled as if he had been struck. "Rich coming from someone that lets this lowlife feed from him."

"That is only to keep Yuuki safe."

"Safe? SAFE? She will never be so as long as some century old pedophile is with her every night melting her innocent heart with sweet words. You are sick and disgusting and an embarrassment to the Kuran name." Zero practically shouted out.

Kaname was flabbergasted for a few seconds. Then his eyes flashed red. "You are the one craving blood all the time, you hypocritical imbecile. Where is your pride as a hunter? You hail from a family that is closest to royalty that hunters can get. If it were me, I would have shot myself by now."

They were panting and glaring at each other. Delilah cut the game short and came forward to take off their wristbands. There was no amusement in her eyes, no spark of mischief, simply plain anger scorching like the sun. She did not speak a word to them, announcing that Senri and Shiki had won, strode past the great doors and up the staircase to her room.