“Oh? Is he not feeling well? We have some fruit juice in our cooler if he wants some,” Athina pointed out, but Ryan immediately shook his head.

  “No, no, please don’t give him anything. He, uh …” Ryan glanced over to Runar, briefly locking eyes with him. Realizing that his uncle probably wouldn’t do it, Ryan let out a long, quiet groan. He didn’t want his friends’ parents to think they weren’t treating Liam well, and Runar had said the announcement was coming soon anyway, so … “He’s a vampire.”

  Though Athina let out a slight chuckle, laughing at that statement, Dimos’s eyes widened, “V-vampire? What do you mean? Those aren’t …”

  Confused, Ryan furrowed his brows. “They very much are real. They’re supposed to be slowly integrated soon, and Liam is at the forefront of that.”

  Athina’s laugh slowly died down, especially seeing Dimos’s concerned expression. The minotaur turned toward his wife. “Would you excuse us for a second?”

  “I … guess so?” Athina responded, watching as Dimos pulled Ryan a few steps away. Luckily, there weren’t many people on this private beach, especially not yet. Most people would probably show up later on during the actual big events at the lake, so there was plenty of privacy for now.

  Once they were far enough away, standing against one of the large rock walls encasing this private beach, Dimos looked down at Ryan with a deep frown. “You know about … vampires?”

  “Sorry, you know about vampires? No offense, I just thought you were … you know, a therapist.”

  Dimos let out a long sigh, nodding. “And I used to work rather closely with the police, I— No, that’s not important. Does Silvia know he’s a vampire?”

  Ryan carefully replied. “Uh, yeah, she found out the same time I did.”

  “Is your uncle …”

  “No, Runar obviously isn’t a vampire. I mean, he’s pale as hell, but that’s for another reason. Liam is adopted, if that’s what you’re asking. But I don’t know what the deal is; he’s just a slightly frailer—and extremely weird—kid. He gets along with the others at school, too. He befriended Modak’s siblings all on his own, for example,” Ryan explained, but Dimos seemed to grow more and more nervous.

  “And … you know what vampires are like? What does the boy … what does he feed on? Are you letting him …” The minotaur seemed to be glancing at Ryan’s neck, as if he were looking for bite marks, but obviously there were none to see. Rolling his eyes, Ryan crossed his arms. He wanted to be a bit more respectful toward his friends’ parents, but when they were acting like this, his patience ran thin there as well.

  “There’s a type of fake blood that was just finished being tested that is maybe even better for them than real blood. The company that invented it is supplying us with as much as we need, and they’re going to bring out some supplement-drink thing that vampires can just buy at the store,” Ryan said immediately. “And, by the way, most vampires don’t ‘feed’ like that anymore. They either make do with animal blood from a butcher or get it supplied from the charity that paired Liam and Runar with each other. And that blood also is just excess from blood drives. So, it’s totally ethical.”

  Looking into Dimos’s eyes that were filled with pure concern, Ryan glanced back at Liam. Seeing how silent the minotaur was, as if he were judging whether or not Ryan was telling the truth, honestly just annoyed Ryan more and more.

  “Listen, you clearly have some kind of history with vampires, and … it sounds like it has something to do with vampires that do feed on people, but … Liam is just a kid. Vampires live in clans, right? Well, he’s the last of his. And ever since then, he’s been sheltered and hidden and … He deserves to live like a normal kid. Because, really, he’s just a normal kid.”

  “I just need to make sure that you are careful. Vampires can be tricky fellows. They hunt through seduction and trickery instead of—”

  Ryan could feel his heartbeat act up as he stared up at the mountain of a minotaur standing in front of him. “You may be my best friend’s father, but you don’t you dare finish that sentence.”

  Pulling back, realizing what he just said, Dimos nervously stuttered back. “I-I do apologize; that was absolutely inappropriate of me to say. I … Let’s just say I used to work with the police to track down people like vampires. I know the dark side of these people, and it’s … well, it’s dark.”

  Feeling a knot form in his throat, Ryan instinctively formed a fist. Not because he was actually about to strike at Dimos, of course. He had managed to let himself unlearn that habit. Instead, he replaced that with something a little more self-destructive. As Ryan tightly squeezed his fist, his fingernails dug into his skin.

  Without another word, Ryan turned around. He couldn’t get out another word right now, so he just stomped back to the rest of the group, leaving Dimos standing there, concerned.

  Seeing him come back, Silvia stopped Ryan. “Whoa, what’s going on? What did you and my dad talk about?”

  Still not able to speak as the emotions overwhelmed him, Ryan just silently glanced over at Liam. He wasn’t sure if Silvia would understand, but it was clearly enough for her to at least get a rough idea of what this was about. Also realizing that Ryan wasn’t in a state to talk right now, Silvia instead walked past him and approached her father instead.

  “What did you say to him about Liam?” Silvia asked, and now Dimos became even more nervous.

  “I— You … you know that he is a … vampire, correct?”

  Confused, Silvia looked up at her father. “Yeah, so?”

  “Well … vampires are …” Dimos muttered, and Silvia’s expression dropped immediately.

  “You knew about vampires already? Really?”

  The minotaur slowly nodded. “Yes, I … You know I used to work closely with the police, right?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  Dimos closed his eyes for a moment. “I used to assist in tracking certain criminal groups. Sooner or later, I ended up finding out that the organization I was helping them keep track of was a criminal vampire clan. They hunted people all over the city and even kept a … farm of sorts,” the minotaur explained. “I saw how horrible vampires can be, how they treat people like nothing but food.”

  “Yeah, but that’s not all vampires. I get why you’d be a bit worried, but Liam? Really?”

  “You haven’t seen the things I’ve seen, honey. It’s more complicated than just—”

  “I don’t really think it is … Vampires aren’t inherently bad people, and claiming that they are is just kind of, well … shitty.”

  Dimos sighed lightly. “Honey, they are the ones that attempted to …”

  Silvia looked at her father, trying to understand what he was trying to say. Only a few moments later, she mentally caught up, and raised her eyebrows. “Okay, so … that is … new information. But … what does that change?”

  “That doesn’t make you think differently about them?” the minotaur asked, surprised, but Silvia shook her head immediately.

  “Not really. I mean … I’ve been facing all this stuff a lot more recently, and it does make me feel icky to think about, but … being food for a group of vampires doesn’t really sound worse than the alternative of what I thought a ‘regular’ gang would have bought a little girl for,” the young elf explained, holding her own arm anxiously. “That doesn’t really change that much for me, to be honest.”

  “Silvia, I just—”

  “No, Dad, it’s fine, I get it. Just … don’t be shitty to people. Especially not a little kid,” Silvia replied, turning around as she did so. Her face had gone pretty pale after having all that information given to her, and the middle-aged minotaur stood there and watched as his daughter returned to the others. Meanwhile, he was left standing there for a while, thinking.

  As she made her way back to the group, Silvia and Ryan locked eyes, stepping aside together for a moment.

  “You alright?” Ryan asked. He had managed to calm himself down a little bit by now, and Silvia just shrugged.

  “I guess.”

  With a slight sigh, Ryan pulled his friend into a hug and felt her return it. The two stood there for a few moments like that, then let go of each other again. Silvia smiled lightly. “Yeah, now I’m definitely alright. I don’t know; what my dad just told me is kind of … wild, but the way he’s acting is kind of weird. Not really what I expected from him.”

  Ryan scratched the back of his head. “I mean, if his only experience with vampires is that kind of stuff, then … I guess I can’t totally blame him for being nervous. It’s the whole reason why they’ve been in hiding in the first place.”

  “Sure, but Dad has always just been this really good, kind guy, and hearing him just blanket-judge people like that feels weird.”

  Ryan shrugged. “Parents aren’t really infallible, huh?”

  Nodding, Silvia glanced over at her father for just a moment. “Yeah, I guess. As long as he gets it, it’s fine? Maybe? He was just really worried because of me and my past stuff.”

  Connecting all the dots with what he knew, Ryan raised his eyebrows., “Oh, okay, that … Yeah, in that case, I definitely get it. But I’m sorry, if your dad keeps acting like Liam is a violent man-eater, I’m gonna clock him.”

  With a scoff, Silvia turned around. “Yeah, sure, I wanna see that. You can’t even reach his face.”

  “I’ve got my ways.” Ryan laughed. “Anyway, let’s just chill, alright? I’ve been in a hell of a shitty mood for a while now, and I wanna change that.”

  “Same. I’ll go join Yanna by the water,” Silvia replied, and Ryan nodded. “I’ll put down my stuff and join after.”

  “Cool!”

  With that, the two very briefly split up. The elf went over toward the river while Ryan walked to the blankets. His mother and uncle, as well as Silvia and Yanna’s mother, were sitting there talking for a bit, getting properly set up. Since he didn’t want to interrupt them, Ryan just took off his sweat jacket and dropped it on the side of the blanket. Immediately, both Mary and Athina stared at Ryan, taken aback.

  Athina hadn’t seen Ryan’s scars before, so seeing something like that on a boy her daughters’ age really took her by more-than-unpleasant surprise. Mary was surprised for a similar but different reason.

  “Ryan, are those new scars? What happened? Are those … Ryan, were you shot?” Mary asked, startled, and Ryan stared back down at her. He glanced at his torso and leg, where the scars of the gunshot wounds from just a couple weeks before were obviously very clearly on display.

  “Uh … no? Th-these aren’t bullet wounds; they’re just my regular old … stab … wounds,” Ryan started, looking over at Athina. “That sounds a lot worse than it should, uh … I wasn’t, like, stabbed stabbed, just poked a little bit. Nothing serious. Yeah, anyway, old wounds, nothing new. But what is new is that tattoo thing; it’s from a skill. Looks kind of cool, right?”

  “Ryan …” Mary stared up at her son and pushed herself off the ground. “What’s going on?”

  Closing his eyes for a few moments, Ryan took a deep breath. “It’s nothing, Mom, I’m fine. Legitimately, these aren’t a big deal. Everything is healed over; I’m not in any pain. You know how things are with me.”

  Mary looked her son in the eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you start it?”

  “No, of course not. I don’t start things,” Ryan replied instantly, and Mary just let out a long sigh that honestly kind of broke Ryan’s heart. Because he could tell that his mother’s heart was breaking too.

  “Alright, if you say so,” she replied, patting her son on the shoulder. “But you’ll tell me if—”

  “I will. If anything’s wrong, I’ll tell you,” Ryan said, though he knew he was lying. He wanted it to be the truth, of course. Lying didn’t feel good, but it was just part of this. Telling his mother the truth would just hurt her even more, and Ryan didn’t want to see that happen.

  Seeing his mother sit back down on the blanket, Ryan turned around. He figured he should head over to his friends for now. Maybe try to forget about this. Forget about the fact that he had absolutely disappointed his mother with that.

  Chapter Fifty

  Seafoam

  Ryan stepped down into the lake’s water. It was fairly still, as it was a clear and windless day, so the ripples created by his body felt almost overly exaggerated, like he was forcefully trying to disturb the surface.

  “Come on, you two; I don’t know what happened, but just take it easy! Spirit Week is only once a year!” Yanna exclaimed. “Just enjoy the day!”

  Turning his head to the elf standing next to him, Ryan locked eyes with Silvia. They were both in a bad mood, but Yanna was absolutely right. Being all mopey over things they couldn’t do anything about right now wouldn’t help anyone.

  Silvia sighed. “I guess we should just talk to them later? Maybe I can get my dad to understand things a bit better.”

  “… Yeah, alright, I’ll talk to my mom and explain some things to her as well,” Ryan responded, hoping that was all, but the elf’s stare made it very obvious that it wasn’t all. “Okay, fine, I’ll talk to Runar, too. Happy?”

  “Yup,” Silvia replied with a smile, turning back toward her sister., “Now, let’s get—”

  Before Silvia could finish her sentence, Yanna had already struck the water, splashing the pair without them even realizing.

  “… You made a massive mistake, Redhorn,” Silvia grumbled, closing her eyes for a moment, and Yanna just laughed in response.

  “Did I? And what’re you gonna do about it?” Crossing her arms, Yanna drew herself up to tower above the two in front of her even more than before. “I’m bigger and stronger than you, so what do you think you two will be able to achieve?”

  Looking at the two sisters, Ryan scoffed inwardly. Those two were able to switch to playing around like this far too easily. Silvia moved the wet hair out of her face, grinning broadly. “You may have the benefit of strength, but we have numbers! Ryan, get out—”

  “Nope,” Ryan responded immediately. It was fine to play along, but he knew that Silvia was about to ask for something he couldn’t do.

  “Wh-what? But you’re the card up our sleeve,” the elf whispered, glancing back at Yanna. “If we don’t have the spirits, we can’t fight against someone as strong as Yanna.”

  “Gregor and Maximus are made of metal, so they might rust. I know I can fix them up again, but I don’t want to put them through that. And Gaia has too much dirt on her body that could be washed away, not even mentioning the plants. The state of her body does affect her garden as well, so I don’t know what will happen if she’s submerged like that,” Ryan explained, and Silvia groaned loudly.

  “Then what are we supposed to do? Can we take her on all on our own?” Silvia wondered, and a solemn smile formed on Ryan’s face.

  “Even if we don’t think we can, we just have to try. Even if we’re not physical Awakened, it’s still two versus one …”

  “I-I’m a production type; I can’t do battle!”

  “And I’m a summoner; I’m useless without my summons, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give it a shot!” Ryan retorted, turning back toward Yanna. “Give it your—”

  This time, Ryan was interrupted as Yanna once again struck the water and splashed a wave at them. Spitting out the bit of water that got into his mouth, Ryan stared at the minotaur as she laughed. “What, fey got your tongue?”

  “Hey, leave my girlfriend out of it!” Silvia said, pointing at her older sister before striking at the water herself. It was smaller than what Yanna had produced, but the minotaur was still quickly splashed with some water herself. Silvia and Ryan looked at each other, briefly nodding, as the battle truly began.

  Stepping out of the water, Ryan’s feet pressed down onto the mixed sand and gravel. It was rather pokey at times, but it wasn’t that bad, so Ryan just continued. Silvia, who was trying to follow behind him, was struggling a lot more.

  “Urgh, why does this hurt more than it did getting in?” Silvia grumbled, and Ryan turned around to his friend.

  “Stop being a wuss.” He scoffed, then continued over to the blankets where the others were sitting. Ryan squatted down next to Liam, since he had left his backpack with him, and grabbed a protein bar from his bag. He knew that the plan was to have a barbecue later on, but with how hungry he was these days, he would be fine to eat however much was served to him.

  Ryan looked over at the game that Liam was still playing. He was still at the same place he had been when Ryan went into the water earlier. “You sure you don’t need any help?” Ryan asked.

  Liam looked up at him and grumbled slightly. “I … may be a in a bit of a pickle here.”

  With a smile, Ryan sat down next to the kid and held out his hand. Liam handed him the game console. “I actually played a lot of this when it first came out. There’s a bit of a trick to it,” he explained, moving the player character around. The part that Liam was stuck at was a boss monster toward the middle of the game. Ryan remembered getting stuck at this same spot when he had first played it. He ended up having to look up what he had to do, and that was when he learned there was a trick to beating it. “Okay, basically, when the boss stomps its foot, you can see these small cracks form on the ground for a moment. That’s the hint. You get similar cracks when you throw a bomb down on the ground.”

  “Huh? So, what, do you need to blow the monster up?” Liam asked. “I’ve been trying to do that the whole time, though—”

  “Actually, that’s not what you need to do at all,” Ryan explained. “You can beat the boss like that, just whittling down at its health and all, but if you do that, it’s going to take forever. Instead, you need to make the bomb explode somewhere and then, while the ground is still cracked, lure the boss over there and have it stomp down in that spot.”