CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

      Izumi knew the room they were headed to perfectly well, because it was KarlHeinz's studio. Although, even though it bore the name studio, it was far from what one would normally imagine. There was no desk or library, no pile of papers everywhere or a sofa somewhere. On the contrary, it was a completely white space. There was no furniture, no pictures, nothing that would give any sign that someone lived there.

      A spacious place, with marble columns and an ivory floor. So much white that it was almost dazzling. That was KarlHeinz's study.

      "I knew you were going to be my doom," Yuma murmured against her ear before returning her to the floor.

      Izumi gave him a small smile, partly innocent and partly apologetic. But before she had a chance to respond, the vampires surrounded her to shower her with questions. Are you okay? What happened? What did they want you for? What did they do to you? Do you know what they're planning? Remarkably, none of them waited to speak, so Izumi was left staring at them almost wildly.

      Of course, this only put her in a bad mood. She was about to yell at them, but Yui intervened when she noticed what was coming.

      "Give her space," the blonde asked, her voice loud and clear even if it was higher pitched than the others, "She can't even respond."

      The girl sent a glare at the vampires, practically screaming "Are you stupid or did you hit your heads?" Then, she adjusted her clothes and proceeded to answer.

      "I don't know what they want me for, I don't know what their plan is either," she revealed, "I just know they need me. As long as they had me, they kept sucking my blood. They said they had to "clean" me or something, but I don't know what they meant with that."

      Shu and Reiji exchanged a glance. Izumi arched an eyebrow, that interaction not going unnoticed, "Do you know?"

      Heads turned to the two brothers. Reiji pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, averting his gaze to the side, "I'm not sure. I've heard the term before but..."

      "It's an old term," Shu mentioned, crossing his arms, "I've only seen it in books that mentioned it lightly, and it's a practice used by the Founders with containers that were contaminated by the venom of other species, such as us, vampires."

      "Containers?" Izumi repeated, frowning.

      "That doesn't make sense," Ayato protested, "Izumi is a vampire."

      "The last pureblood besides us," Laito added, petting the vampiress' head as if she were a cat. Izumi slapped his hand away, "She is not contaminated, she is the contamination."

      "What if Izumi is not one of us?" Kanato suggested, lowering his gaze, "A pureblood vampire..."

      "Don't be stupid," the red-haired man roared, "She's just like us."

      "Actually, I think it makes sense," Kou suddenly interjected, catching everyone's gaze, "She doesn't seem as affected by the eclipse as you do," his eyes focused on Izumi, "Am I wrong?"

      The frown on the girl intensified, "I had to hit the wooden floor twice to break it, believe me, I'm weaker."

      "But you pushed those two aristocrats today when they drank your blood," Yuma pointed out, "You didn't seem to exert much force but you still threw them to the ground."

      Ayato opened his eyes in surprise, "Wait, it hurt when you hit me in the head. And it never hurts when you hit me."

      "Now you're just hurting my ego," Izumi scoffed before turning her gaze to Yuma, "That doesn't mean anything. It may have been because I was angry, and they felt it because of the eclipse effect."

      "You don't have a scar, do you?" Azusa raised his voice, surprising even his brothers. Izumi looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he meant. Then, the short vampire approached her and took her wrist, inspecting it, "Between the effect of the eclipse and all the times you cut yourself to give us your blood, you should have been left with a scar. But there's nothing."

      Izumi looked at her wrist before looking at Reiji, expectant for him to confirm the theory. Reluctantly, the dark-haired man nodded.

      "He's right. I'm afraid I didn't notice it before because I was too focused on everything else. I apologize."

      Izumi went to tell him that it wasn't necessary, but stopped when she met his gaze. His magenta eyes denoted that he honestly regretted not noticing before, and communicated to her to just accept his apology. So, she did. She nodded and gave him a small smile.

      "So, the question is: what are you?" Shu resumed speaking, condemning them all to a spectral silence.

      "Ha? Do you think you have time to talk?" Shin's voice echoed against the walls. Immediately, the vampires moved defensively, surrounding Yui and placing her in the middle of the makeshift circle they had formed.

      "This would be the perfect time for you to tell me that marvelous plan of yours," Izumi muttered under her breath.

      "About that..." Laito laughed.

      "Our plan only went as far as two minutes ago," Ruki said.

      Izumi suppressed the cry of frustration she wanted to let out. Of course they hadn't planned for the long term. She couldn't make much of a claim on them either. Not when she had done practically nothing and they had taken care of everything. Even though she recognized it, she couldn't help but feel annoyed.

      "Drink the blood!" The pinkhead suddenly exclaimed.

      "What?"

      "Drink it now! Shin and Carla drank, if you don't drink-!"

      "How cute," Shin exclaimed, finally appearing in front of the door of the place and smiling at the girl, "Just because they take a little of your blood, they're not going to outdo us. You scum should realize your place. Maybe if you get down on your knees and ask for forgiveness, I'll consider not killing you."

      The vampires quickly took the opportunity to empty the vials hanging from their necks. Of course, some did so more willingly than others but, within seconds, every vampire in the room had taken her blood.

      "I'd rather die than kneel in front of you," Izumi spat, glaring at Shin.

      The Founder smiled sadistically, "Too bad, I thought you'd make a pretty slave," he sighed and then his eyes passed over his shoulder, noticing Yui, "Oh, maybe she wants to be my slave! Hey, cutie, how are you?"

      The pinkhead stepped forward, standing in front of Yui and squinting at Shin, "Over my dead body."

      His smile widened, "That can be arranged."

      Shin lunged at Izumi, but Yuma stepped in and, catching him off guard, threw him across the room. Before he could hit the wall, however, the Founder scrambled to his feet and stopped the momentum with his own strength. The floor beneath his feet was scarred.

      "Shin, I thought I told you not to get involved until you received my explicit orders," Carla's voice bounced off the walls and, just as his brother had done earlier, remained hidden from the group's eyes.

      "Aw, Carla," Izumi whispered, "You and I both know that baby Shin is too impulsive for his own good."

      "Bitch," the salmon-haired one hissed, already kneeling down to jump at her again, but Carla stopped him. Making an appearance all at once, he appeared behind his brother and grabbed him by the shoulder.

      "Shin."

      "Brother, we must act," the younger one urged, "Are you going to let her go on talking about us like that?"

      "Patience, my brother," Carla muttered, turning his head toward the group of vampires, "We can still end this peacefully."

      Izumi's ears perked up at this, but she didn't let those emotions show on her face. Instead, she remained still in place, and her eyes settled on the elder Founder.

      "How?" she questioned.

      "You come with us, without a fight," he pointed at her, then motioned to the rest of the vampires, "And we'll leave them unharmed. It's up to you."

      Izumi pursed her lips but, before she could answer (or even think about whether to accept his proposal or not), Ayato launched against the Founders. Shin was the first to react, throwing the red-haired man against a wall and laughing derisively. However, he was promptly caught by Laito, who managed to land a blow on him, only to be quickly discarded to the side.

      Shu went up against Carla, fighting wide open even though the Founder looked bored. He was then joined by Yuma, and Carla seemed to have had enough because he disposed of both of them in a second.

      Ruki, Kanato, Kou, Reiji, Azusa, Subaru. They were all fighting.

      But through it all, the Founders still seemed to have the upper hand.

      Even though they had all taken her blood, even though they were working as a team... all those factors seemed to be of little importance.

      Carla's mollified face and Shin's mocking one made it clear that they were nothing to them.

      And in that moment she realized that, in fact, she couldn't defeat them. There was no way she could ever even dream of doing so. She had just been a naive little girl who thought she was special because her mom told her so. She may be a pureblood, but what was her bloodline when it came to the Ancestors? To the Vampire King? She was nothing. And nothingness could only ammount to nothingness.

      After all, survival was always possible for the fittest. And the fittest tends to be the strongest.

      Besides she wasn't even sure if she was a vampire anymore. The vampires around her had valid arguments to cast doubt on her, and her identity had been placed in question so simply that it made her blood boil. Not because she had an attachment to her vampirism or any sort of pride in it, but she knew that her parents were the descendants of two of the oldest pureblood vampire families. If she wasn't a vampire, then weren't her parents her parents? No. Now that she wasn't going to accept. She refused to.

      She was ready to accept her death. She didn't care. But she wouldn't allow anyone to question she was her parents' daughter.

      And then, a light enveloped her and blinded her. Izumi brought an arm to her eyes to stop the force with which it hit her, but her attempt to open her eyes was in vain. But, as quickly as it had appeared, the light had disappeared and left her in a place that seemed to be space. She looked around her, the infinite darkness illuminated by what seemed to be distant stars. She looked down at the ground, to find that there were none and that she seemed to be floating in the air as if there was no gravity.

      With another flash of light, this time softer and shorter, the man who would reveal the truth appeared in front of her. He would give her the reasons behind everything that had happened, and tell her what she so wanted to know as well as what she did not want to know.

      "My dear, it's been so long since I've seen you."

      KarlHeinz smiled at the girl he had last seen years ago, back to when he became her hero by saving her from her end. Unaware that he was condemning her to another kind of existence she could never have imagined.