CHAPTER 203

[POV: Argent House]

A lot of things had happened in the last few hours and unfortunately for the inexperienced Kira, she was caught up in the middle of it all. And it was to her great relief that Tristan was at least considerate of her mental state to compel a cab driver to take her home.

He couldn't follow her home as he had to deposit the young Huntress flung over his shoulders to her parents house, and that was what he did.

Which was what led to the current stare off he was having with Victoria, Allison's mother.

With how she was glaring at him and how roughed up he brought back Allison, he knew for certain that she'd have attacked him on sight had he not fed Allison his blood on the way here. Only it was a bit unfortunate that she wasn't completely healed up by the time he arrived at her house.

Chris was still removing the wolfsbane poison from Malia's body, even doing a little blood transfusion to kick her immune system into gear, when Tristan had arrived so the irate vampire had no choice but to wait for him to finish his treatment.

He also checked on Boyd, who he'd dropped off here before searching for Allison, and was inwardly glad that he was doing all right. Some of the wounds weren't completely healed up, oozing contaminated black blood, but he was (grudgingly)assured by Victoria that it was a normal reaction and rather than regenerative blood, what he needed was a blood transfusion as Tristan's blood needed a base to work off on.

"I'm assuming that the blackout was caused by the fox girl."

"Allison caused the blackout by exploiting Kira's abilities." Tristan corrected, but his words turned out to be something that the worried mother didn't appreciate as she was immediately up in Tristan's face with a threatening tone to her words.

"My. Daughter. Did. Nothing." She stressed. "If she never hung out with your kind she wouldn't have been possessed by that dark spirit, who if I remember correctly is after you and the fox girl, and controlled to do these despicable things."

It was apparent at first sight, or rather when their identities were revealed, that Victoria was not a fan of them nor was she of the continued friendship with her daughter.

"Get your words straight the next time you speak of it; my daughter did absolutely nothing." She stressed further before stepping back and creating a comfortable space between them.

Tristan, who was already spent, both mentally and emotionally, half listened to Victoria's rant and couldn't be bothered about her opinions on anything, least of all what happened today.

"It's still inside her, right?" She asked after a lengthy period of silence which she had used to give Allison her 7th examination, all while standing a good distance from her and wearing the sternest face Tristan had ever seen on a person.

The doors to the guest room opened and revealed a downright tired Chris who was breathing softly and slowly to help keep his focus from being overwhelmed by the head splitting migraine he was feeling.

He took the glass of water his wife gave him with mumbled thanks and emptied it, took another and emptied it once again, before acknowledging Tristan's presence.

"She's still healing, but other than that she's fine." Victoria assured her husband who had been critically analyzing Allison's condition with his eyes.

Confirming for himself that it was as his wife said, he finally regarded Tristan and addressed him on Malia's condition.

"Like I'd said, she'll be fine once we get the poison out. Will probably wake up in the next fifteen minutes. As for Boyd, you might wanna get him to the hospital as soon as you can before his situation turns worse."

"I'm about to."

Even if he said that, Tristan had no intentions of admitting Boyd in the hospital but instead had decided to just compel one of the nurses to bring him the required blood bag type and he'll do the transfusion himself.

"If that's all then I'll be leaving." With that, Tristan took both Malia and Boyd, the former in his hands while the latter strapped to his back, and left the Argents house, first going to the hospital to get the blood bag before returning home in record time.

"Are you okay?" He asked upon walking into his destroyed living room.

Malia groaned, both from how crappy she was feeling and the state of the house. "I've felt better."

She stumbled when she tried to walk on her own and needed an extended limb from Tristan to support her from falling.

"I'm fine. I'm not that helpless that I need you to help me walk." She snapped harshly at him and pushed away the extended limb and forced herself to walk without falling over. "See!"

When she looked over at Tristan, she saw that he wasn't even looking her way and had just created a blood limb to support her as his whole attention was zeroed in on the small pool of blood he was controlling and the thin strands he was slowly injecting into different parts of Boyd's body all at the same time.

He spent the next ten minutes in complete silence wholly focused on the delicate task of pushing the pool of blood into Boyd's veins, drop by drop.

"Care to get anything off your mind?" He finally spoke when the remaining blood was now smaller than a tennis ball.

"I know I'm reckless, brash and sometimes completely disregarding danger and blindly rushing in, but I'm not easily beaten, you know that right? It's also really hard, damn right almost impossible even, to get the jump on me, be it from Hunters or werewolves – Alpha and beta alike – but Allison, she… she—"

"You got ambushed by your best friend, someone you never expected to attack you. It's okay Malia, I completely understand." Tristan replied, his words genuine and honest, and still it failed to placate Malia who was now overcome with an unjustified sense of failure.

She stomped towards Tristan with her hands spread out in frustration and half shouted in response to his reply.

"You don't get it, Trist. I let my guard down for a second even when I was aware of the fact that it could possess those very close to us. I should have been more cautious—"

"Malia, trust me, I get it. You did nothing wrong—" He tried once again to console her but the only effect it had was stoking her emotions negatively.

She let out an exasperated groan, believing that Tristan wasn't really getting how she was feeling on the inside. She couldn't even make sense of the turbulent waves of emotions she was feeling deep down.

"You are only saying that to console me, Tristan." Malia cut short his words, now feeling really vexed at his insistence. "You know that you wouldn't have fallen for something like that had it been you in my shoes."

With the last drop of blood safely deposited in Boyd's veins, Tristan turned around to face Malia with a surprised look on his face.

"You think that… I wouldn't have fallen for something like that?" Tristan's face bore a mask of unbelief and mild shock at the insinuation of Malia's words.

Malia looked at him with her two brows raised, a silent question of that asked if he really said the words his mouth uttered.

Pulling himself up from his crouched position, Tristan's eyes stared back squarely into Malia's.

"Admittedly Boyd isn't the most subtle in surprising others and there's a small possibility that I might notice if he starts acting a little out of character. He's my best friend, Malia, which means I usually don't have my guard raised around him, excluding now with the possibility of him being possessed." He clarified with clear and precise words so that Malia would really understand what he was saying and not just think of his words as baseless consolation.

"But I will tell you this, Malia… Allison could just have easily taken me down the way she did you."

Malia's eyes slowly widened as she realized that Tristan was telling the truth. He was telling no lies, nor was he hiding it from Malia's senses.

"I just want you to understand that. Not because you let your guard down, but because I trust her and Boyd just as much as you do, and sometimes it completely skips my mind that they might be possessed."

It was somehow hard to believe considering how radical and logical Tristan's character is, but the main point is that there are notable and obvious differences between the current Tristan and how he was in the past.

He trusted more now. He felt and showed more emotions now. He has formed tight bonds with people who weren't part of his family.

Yes, he still remained cautious due to the possibility of the Nogitsune possessing his dear friends, but all it takes is one moment of vulnerability due to being comfortable in their presence and what happened to Malia would happen to him. And given how smart the thousand years old dark fox spirit was, there was no doubt that it'd know the right time to strike.

He told himself on numerous occasions that should there come a time where he was forced to, like a scenario where he had to make a choice between both girls with Malia's life at stake, he would kill Allison without hesitation. And yet when it came infinitely close to such a scenario, he hesitated. Not once. Not twice. He repeatedly questioned his actions when he came close to doing it.

For Tristan who was relatively new to the emotional spectrum compared to other teens his age, tackling the matters of the heart will never come easy to him.

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