This Is Love

Rhodes Island.

Warfarin was savoring a vivid scarlet sweetness.

It was the blood of a certain Feline, fresh and fervent. She closed her eyes, her fingers trailing across her full, pale skin before winding around the tips of her hair and idly playing with it. Warfarin opened her eyes, her pupils a gorgeous crimson.

She heard a knock at the door.

"You're secretly drinking the operators' backup blood supply again. There's anticoagulant in there—it's basically like chugging cleaning fluid without getting any vodka first."

It was Kal'tsit's voice.

Warfarin had already sprung to her feet and begun frantically tidying away the blood bags, but upon hearing that, she relaxed again.

"Doctor Kal'tsit, what is it?"

"Silence went to Lungmen and collected some biological... fluid... that she had never encountered before. She's at a loss. She thought someone as knowledgeable as you might have an answer, so she asked me to seek your help."

"Hahaha."

Even Silence, that rigorous researcher, was at a loss?

Seeking my help?

Warfarin was somewhat taken aback. "Hasn't she always looked down on operators like me who don't follow procedure?"

"Special circumstances call for special treatment."

Kal'tsit heard the smugness in her voice and promptly put her down.

She told Warfarin about the report she had read in the files, as well as Silence's bold hypothesis, earning a stifled silence in return.

"Silence... I'll try to describe it in poetic, abstract terms." Warfarin spoke as she thought. "The shadows of the past have wrapped themselves around her. You're the head of the Medical Department—can't you see those things that flicker in and out of sight?"

"No need to hint at it. I understand what you mean."

Kal'tsit said seriously, "No matter what, this is Operator Silence's own affair."

While they spoke, someone peeked from the shadows in the corner. It was the clear, utterly harmless gaze of a child.

"Silence found a..."

The little fire dragon, Ifrit, racked her brains for the right words, only to fail regretfully.

Her vocabulary was severely lacking.

The more she thought, the hotter the air around her became. In the end, she stopped thinking altogether. In Ifrit's simple understanding, Silence had run into trouble and needed help from others.

She watched Doctor Kal'tsit leave.

A moment later, Miss Warfarin leaped out of the blood collection station as well. She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and revealed a strange, vampiric smile.

Ifrit charged at her.

"Take me with you."

Ifrit took a step forward, forcing Warfarin into a corner.

Heat and light were practically a vampire's natural enemies. With nowhere left to retreat, Warfarin began looking around for that dependable figure—the only presence in Rhodes Island's Security Department capable of suppressing Ifrit.

Unfortunately, she saw no one. Instead, the little fire dragon backed her against the wall.

"Take me with you,"

Ifrit continued.

Being pinned against a wall by a child who had not even grown up yet was far too humiliating for an old vampire, so Warfarin chose to surrender immediately.

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll take you with me. Sign a waiver first."

"What's a waiver?"

Warfarin could only patiently explain, "A waiver is a piece of paper that exempts someone from responsibility. If I take you out, I won't have to take responsibility. Only you will be put in confinement..."

"Just a piece of paper."

Ifrit lowered her head and muttered to herself, clearly thinking along very different lines from Warfarin.

Isn't it just a piece of paper?

She, Ifrit, had no idea how many sheets of paper she had already burned. Would she be afraid of a mere waiver?

Hoshino woke up in the shrine.

Ever since she had bluffed Silence, she had remained in her Queen of Thunder state after returning, all to guard against Rhodes Island doctors suddenly showing up at her door. She had studied Warfarin; Warfarin was best at doing the unexpected.

If Warfarin foolishly came knocking, Hoshino would not mind electrocuting her unconscious.

What Hoshino had not expected was that Silence would actually trick Warfarin into drinking her saliva. She was capable of something that shameless.

That evening, at the hotel where they were staying.

When Silence saw her visitors, her expression was unexpectedly grim.

Ding-dong.

Hearing the doorbell, Silence went to open the door and saw an eager Ifrit.

She instinctively shut the door, then opened it again.

It was still Ifrit.

After opening and closing the door several times, Silence, with a scientist's rigor, conducted multiple verifications before finally confirming that the person outside really was Ifrit.

She raised her head and looked at Warfarin.

"I only invited you."

Her gaze had never been so stern. It even carried a hint of murderous intent that did not suit a scientist.

"Why did you bring her?"

"Don't be mad."

Warfarin tried to smooth things over. "She forced me to bring her with flames and storms. She thought you were in trouble. Do you really think I'm some kind of lunatic?"

Silence nodded.

She and Warfarin had handled plenty of work-related matters together, not because their research projects overlapped, but entirely because of their lifestyles.

Silence was nocturnal, and vampires were nocturnal too.

It was that simple.

Seeing that the die had already been cast, Silence could only pull Ifrit into the room and sternly warn her that the people of Lungmen must never learn of Ifrit's existence—not even the slightest trace of her whereabouts could be revealed.

Though that was a little like deceiving herself.

She brought out a test tube filled to the brim with transparent liquid. Purple sparks of electricity danced within it, as though a violent thunderstorm were brewing.

"Try it. It's already been inactivated."

"Inactivated?"

Warfarin's languid gaze suddenly sharpened. "Seriously, Silence? You know me. What did I do wrong to deserve such disrespect?"

"Speak properly."

"Inactivated bodily fluid is like flat cola. It's just a cup of sugar water. It's an insult to vampires."

That peculiar analogy left Silence utterly dumbfounded.

Warfarin might have been unreliable, but her experimental spirit remained. She lightly licked a drop, and her initially disdainful expression abruptly changed. Silence noticed that her pupils had actually begun to lose focus, a sign that she had instantly spaced out.

"What does it feel like?"

"Ura!"

Warfarin collapsed to the floor and rolled around in wild excitement. Silence helplessly covered Ifrit's eyes.

"Don't imitate this old lady."

Warfarin got to her feet, downed the remaining liquid in the test tube in one gulp, and immediately plunged into an even greater frenzy. The rush from that mouthful lasted a full half hour. By the time the symptoms subsided, she was even slightly weak.

"What creature's blood is this?!"

"It feels like popping candy has filled everything from my lips to my stomach. Ten thousand bolts of lightning are dancing across my body. This feeling is... I'm going to die!"

Silence said helplessly, "It's precisely because I don't know the species that I asked you to come."

"Ah, well."

Her crimson eyes rolled around before Warfarin answered honestly.

"I don't know either."

"But I love this species. I want to enslave her, hold her in my arms, and drink her blood every day."