While I can sense the moment my little gift leaves my body, both in terms of mana control and physically pulled along with my blood, it does little to prepare me for what I see. As the first burst of heat hits my arm, it is accompanied by a small burst of steam and smoke. It is quickly joined by a second. The third and fourth almost seem to overp where whereas the fifth, sixth, and seventh are hard to distinguish. Within a few seconds, dozens of the little things pop. Within a dozen seconds, hundreds make themselves known.

  At first, he doesn’t react. Not until the little things go off one after another. No longer giving him even a moment of calm between each outburst. His cheeks bulged at almost the same moment his eyes did. The steam vanished soon after, repced by nearly pure smoke and sparks of fme. Each spark that escaped his mouth reminded me of a spark from a fire. It fluttered in the air, bright and full of life until it suddenly winked out.

  His teeth ripped out of my arm, leaving jagged tears through my flesh and muscle. Blood poured from the wounds, carrying with it yet more of my little gifts to the doctor. As the rate of my blood loss increased, it took with it my ability to focus. Each bundle of mana in my blood, ready for their chance to shine, was released. Surprisingly enough, the bundles did not explode.

  Okay, they did explode but something suppressed the bursts of mana and guided each back into my mana pool where it collected. Throughout this, I could do little more than watch. Even now, I knew that I needed to staunch the bleeding but I just couldn’t seem to move my arms to put pressure on the wound, let alone apply any sort of first aid.

  “Ah, Titania’s tits. You just had to go and make things worse didn’t you.” A voice that sounded vaguely familiar cut through the haze that was slowly overtaking my brain. “If you had simply let the poor man feed then you would have been fine but now, you had to go and nearly kill both of you.”

  A pink-haired woman with pointed ears seemed to appear out of nothingness as she pulled at my damaged arm. Or at least that was what I assumed she was doing based on the jerking I could somewhat feel past the growing numbness. One such jerk let me see just beyond where she stood and to the doctor. A doctor that was staring right at us, at my blood. With a ton of effort, I managed to get a warning out to the woman. “Watch out…”

  When she ignored me, I figured that she either didn’t hear me or didn’t understand. With bated breath, I waited, expecting to see the monster in a man's body bite into her neck. A neck that, now that I had an up-close view, was covered in a multitude of tiny scars. Each round and evenly spaced out. They almost reminded me of bite marks, but surely no one would agree to be someone’s chew toy…right?

  However, right before I could work up the energy to ask about them, my arm went from cold and nearly completely numb to a burning pain. I screamed as I felt the flesh on the limb writhe. It felt as though bugs were crawling around under and inside my skin. Pulling and pushing one another as they fought to get from one spot to another.

  My mind ran wild. Trying to figure out if I had somehow been bitten by one of the horrific creatures without noticing. Or if not them, then maybe the doctor somehow infected me with something simir. Hell, for all I knew I was starting to become like him. How would that even work? Would I be a Vampire Kitsune hybrid? Was such a thing even possible? Would I be forced to only drink blood or could I eat food?

  Almost as fast as the pain had appeared, it vanished. The crawling sensation stopped as the fires that raced up and down my nerves dimmed and vanished. As I watched, the nurse leaned away from me, moving so that she was no longer leaning over me and my wounded arm.

  It took me a moment to realize that everything around me looked fine. Well not fine. Truthfully it looked as though the pce had been through a war. Many people were leaning against something or simply lying on the ground. Their clothes were covered in blood and some even looked to still be bleeding. There were a few people that seemed to be going from one person to the next, checking on various wounds and healing them as they went.

  But that wasn’t what caught me off guard, it was the fact that I could now make everyone out without issue. My vision was no longer blurry and all the dark spots that had, not even a minute ago, been creeping in, were all gone. As I looked down at the sticky and itching arm, I found that jagged wounds were no more. Gone. Vanished. If not for the blood covering the majority of my skin I would have assumed that there had never been an injury, let alone one serious enough to nearly kill me.

  My gaze lifted to look at the nurse to find her back turned. Her head was bent to the side, hair pulled out of the way, as the doctor leaned down. His movements were slow and his eyes were locked onto me, as if challenging me to stop him. I stayed still, simply watching as she gave herself willingly to him to drink from.

  His teeth sank into her skin without so much as a sound, even to my enhanced hearing. I heard his throat gulping as the blood rushed out of her and into his mouth. Given the way his eyes rolled back into his head, her blood must have been just what he needed. That or it tasted amazing, but I wasn’t going to go there. Not when it reminded me of a certain pair of demons.

  A shudder ran down my body at the very reminder of that group and the events they had caused. Which, of course, got me thinking. In some ways, what was going on here had simir traits to what had happened there.

  Case and point, while many people were dying, no one could or would stop it. Slowly, the trust in the guards were eroded by this fact. Unlike Proxima, where the guards were left in charge and simply did the demon’s dirty work, the guards here were repced as those doing the investigation work. Well, it was likely they had been removed from other jobs but the only one I knew for sure was the investigation aspect.

  Then again, maybe I was just seeing things that were not really there. Maybe what was going on here was not linked to the demons at all. Still, that did make me wonder who had the power, connections, and skill to pull off even half of what had happened. While it didn’t have to be one single person, every single person would have to have a reason to be in the area. Which means that they had to have at least one mastermind. Someone with the connections to set everything up. This likely meant that the person had to be on the inside.

  But if it was someone on the inside, then why was no one looking for them? What was I missing because I had to be missing something. I have only been here a week or two and if I could figure something like this out then anyone could come to the same conclusion.

  Before I could ask myself any more questions, something sparkly caught my eye. Whatever it was pulled my attention from the space between me and the embracing pair and pced it squarely on the center of her back. Two slits appeared out of nowhere. Given that the edges were clean and looked well done, I had to assume that they had always been there, unseen for some reason.

  As I watched, the slits both moved slightly as a pair of green and gold gossamer thin wings slid out. Fluttering in the air as they made their way outward. Each movement sent a small burst of glittering dust to flit in the air.

  My eyes lifted from her wings to look back at her pointed ears. While it wasn’t definite, I was fairly sure that she was some sort of fae. Which made this situation even odder than it had been before. Why would a fae of any kind ever let another have control over them? I don’t recall any story or tale telling of a fae letting themselves be put into a disadvantageous position, let alone where they were at some creature's mercy.

  As if he had been waiting for me to look in his direction, I found my eyes locking on to the doctor’s. While I watched, transfixed by his gaze, his teeth slid out of her neck. Blood dribbled out of both wounds. Neither stream made it far before his tongue licked both up. When he pulled his tongue back, I noticed that the two puncture marks were nearly closed.

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t what had my attention. That was locked onto the man whose gaze was drilling into mine as he growled out one simple word. A word that said everything I needed to know. A word that I could feel in my chest. “MINE.”

  Sure, he could have meant that she was his food, his prey, and that he would kill anyone that tried to take her from him, but I had a feeling that it was more than that. That she was more than that to him. Like he was ciming her as his from now until the end of time. While I knew that shifters and other bestial species could have mates, it hadn't occurred until now that there were others that might have mates of their own.

  He kept his eyes locked on to me as he comforted the fae nurse. His kisses were slow and deliberate. Trailing from the spot he bit, up her neck, to her pointed ears before trailing back down to her mouth.

  While I kept my eyes locked onto him, in case he decided to do something stupid like attack me, I quietly asked my AI a question. “Just how many species have mates?”

  It responded immediately, “As far as the local government census can determine, every species has a mate, including humans.” Before I could say thank you or ask another question, it continued. “However, it is noted that no human has been recorded as having a mate before the use of the SoulStone. The researchers went on to hypothesize that it is a part of the system and not predetermined.”

  “Wait, that means that someone is assigning us mates then? Doesn’t it?” I asked, a bit taken aback by the idea that someone was pying matchmaker. Oh who was I kidding, with how many other gods existed, surely there was a Cupid-like god, if not then there were likely one or two gods that would take the job on gdly just so they could fuck with everyone.

  “That is likely,” the AI responded. “Though the possibility of the system searching for nearby unmated bonds cannot be ruled out.” But that would mean that my mate would be back in that stupid town. The town I would never return to.

  Slowly, as if he had determined I wasn’t a threat, the vampire closed his eyes and focused on the woman in front of him. Seeing as how I was dismissed, I got up and made my way toward the doorway. Sure, the light on the other side was nearly non-existent, but that didn’t mean that the little there was wasn’t enough to give me a general idea of the damage.

  The walls that I had been told were nearly impossible to damage, were melted. Smooth, perpendicur walls were now bowed and curved. Bulging in pces as parts sloughed downward. Whatever spell had generated that light had created enough heat to damage the undamagable. At least I could say that, as long as none of the creatures were behind simir shields as we had been, they were all dead.

  For the first time since the arm had gone off, I found my body rexing as I let out a sigh of relief. This fight was over. Now I just needed to get the doctor to give me my bone so that I could vanish into the masses. No need to stick around here anymore after all.