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Izzy bore her fangs and her hands clenched once more when Cutter made Trevor choke, but she stayed where she was, one foot further in front of the other. Her snarl deepened at his threats of destroying Trevor’s brain.
“Some ‘man of God’ you are,” she growled through clenched teeth. “You’re as bad as the things you hunt. I haven’t hurt anyone, killed anyone. But you? How many innocent bystanders have you killed, Guillotine Cutter?” She snorted and shook her head. “But I suppose that doesn’t matter to you, does it? People like you don’t care whose blood gets spilt in their conquests. They could kill a nation of innocents and not bat an eye as long as they destroyed that one person they’re after.”
She looked to the ground beneath her as Cutter requested to begin, then to the manicured grass between her and Cutter, quickly gauging the distance between them as she took a couple slow, deep breaths. She raised her gaze slowly back to her opponent with a stony expression. It was now or never.
“That’s what you wish, then?” At last, Izzy let herself look to Trevor, her eyes locking with his. “The only thing you have to be sorry about, is not backing off when I told you I didn’t want friends.” She placed her feet together and loosened her fingers with an exhale, trying to release her cares and worries with the single breath. “Like I said. They only bring you pain. Sometimes,” her words slowed slightly, wondering how well he remembered their first conversation, trying to give a discrete warning to be ready, “avoiding people altogether is the best plan there is. Especially when you can still enjoy the sun while doing it.” She spread her arms out to her sides, as if basking in nonexistent sunlight... or, perhaps, the first sign of surrender.
With that, she took another deep breath and dug her heels into the dirt. She tilted her head toward the sky, eyes closed, arms reaching toward the sky and wrists crossing above her head as she willed herself to transform into one of the things she had felt a connection with for as long as she could remember.
She felt her body change. Her form grew and shifted until, in the blink of an eye, a mature oak stood in her place, its thick foliage a lush, summery shade of green. Izzy felt more than saw the world around her, the roots that had sprouted beneath her thick and strong as they snaked through the dry earth toward the wetter dirt beneath. It took her a fraction of a second to remember her mission, but, even to a tree, Cutter was still a threat.
She drove her roots through the ground. They shot toward Cutter and Trevor just beneath the earth, and surfaced beneath Cutter’s feet to wind up his body, to pry his grip from Trevor. She needed to separate them, to loosen Cutter’s hold enough for Trevor to escape without giving the hunter time to harm her friend.

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Izzy felt Guillotine Cutter’s body grow limp within the snares of her roots. As quickly as they had engulfed him, the roots sunk back beneath the ground, leaving holes in the earth surrounded by clumps of grass and dirt.
She had succeeded. The foliage above quivered slightly in triumphant ecstasy before a gentle, warm summer breeze ruffled through the leaves. It was certainly the right choice, a tree, and part of her would have been content to stay that way. She felt a sense of strength, of immovability as the roots found their way into the deeper, cool earth below and settled in a tangled, complex system. But she had not yet finished what she had started. She had things to do, and promises to keep. Trevor’s presence at the base of her trunk was a solid reminder of that.
Thankfully, no sooner had she simply thought it, did she turn back to her human form, her arms still raised above her head. She lowered them and took a deep breath, refocusing on the night around her. She looked to Trevor, and hurried to him, carefully pulling him to his feet. Though she suspected he may have a couple bruises on his neck upon the morrow, he looked otherwise unharmed.
“You’re okay,” she breathed. Before she fully thought the action through, at having him safe once more, she wrapped her arms around him in a hug, forgetting to be careful.
“Oh!” Izzy pulled away at his statement, and gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry.” She looked him over again, this time taking in the dirt that dusted him. She glanced to herself. Slowly, a smile spread over her face. After everything and against all odds, it was finally almost over. She had defeated the hunters. Retrieved Cerasus’ limbs--at least, she would soon, if Cutter cooperated. Saved Trevor. So, she did the only thing she could do; Izzy let out a long, relieved laugh that echoed around the dark athletic field.
“I can think of much worse to be covered in right now,” she said once her laughter came to an end. “C’mon. Let’s get you home. I’m not letting you out of my sight until you’re safely behind a locked door!”


Izzy groaned irritably when she felt someone shaking her, trying to wake her. With Trevor back at his home, when she returned to the abandoned school, she had called it a night a bit early, even before Cerasus, yet she still had no desire to wake. But the shaking persisted. She forced her eyes open with a scowl, expecting to find Cerasus, but she startled to semi-alertness and lifted her upper torso when it was Riley’s face she saw instead, displaying his usual demeanor. Which, as annoying as it was, at least meant there was nothing life-threatening to worry about. For the moment, anyway.
She only blinked as he bid her good morning, trying to banish the heaviness of sleep that still clung to her. She watched him leave, momentarily contemplating going back to sleep. With a soft sigh, she sat up and stretched. She stopped when she noticed Cerasus in an envious slumber not far from her. Izzy looked at him for a short moment longer than necessary, her head cocked slightly as she wondered why he had chosen the same room as her for the day. After all, the last time they had shared a room was when he had turned her.
Pushing the thought aside, she got to her feet as quietly as she could to keep from disturbing Cerasus, quickly fixed her hair into her usual, favored style, then groggily made her way to the rooftop.
She paused at the door at the end of the dilapidated staircase, the sound of a light drizzle pattering against the roof sharp yet comforting. Slowly, tentatively, she opened the door and stepped out into the gray light with cautious steps, testing the protection the clouds granted.
The fresh, crisp scent of the rain was greatly welcomed after the dank mustiness of the school. She inhaled, relishing the smell and letting the cool wetness it brought with it wash away the little of slumber still lingering about her.
Easily spotting Riley, Izzy made her way to him, the raindrops slowly soaking her and creating dark spots on her clothes. She stopped when he noticed her, hands in her jeans pockets. When he tossed the bag to her, she blinked at it in surprise and took a half step back.
“That,” Izzy answered. She looked from the bag to Riley, suspicion in her eyes and tone, “and there’s gotta be another reason you wanted to meet on the roof. In the rain. During the day. At least, there’d better be.” She raised her eyebrows. “Because that," she nodded to the bag, "could’ve waited until we were both awake.” She crossed her arms and stifled a yawn. “What is it you wanted to 'chat' about?”

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Izzy glared at Riley. Though most of the clouds of sleep had worn off, it was still a bit too early for what little tolerance she had for him to arrive at working order. Her brows furrowed at the concept of Guillotine Cutter apparently caring about her return to humanity.
“Because a yellow card from a guy he’ll probably never see again means so much.” She brushed away part of her hair that clung to her face from the rain as Riley sought what little shelter he could find on the rooftop.
She snorted at his poor attempt at sharing her feelings. “Sure you do. I’m still alive, which means you’ll still get your pay.”
She looked once more to the duffel bag, the rain slowly dampening the fabric, and frowned. From the get-go, everything had been questionably convenient, had been too simple in the long-run. She had put only a little stock into it, but now, with the end of her mission staring her in the face, it was pushed to the front of her mind once more.
“This was too easy,” she said slowly, looking askance at him, her head to the side and slightly bent. “I’ve only had like two weeks of experience in all this. All of you have had a lifetime or twelve to master it. There’s no way I should've been capable of beating them. And Cutter... I saw how fast he could move. He should’ve had some chance, even with the element of surprise, but he was the easiest.” Then there’s you, she added to herself. Always popping up at just the right moment. “Could they have done something to the limbs?” She nudged the sack with the toe of her shoe. “Something that could hurt Cerasus?” Her gaze bore into him, watching for any micro expression that may give him away.

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“I think you’re overselling it.” Izzy blinked away a drop of rain, then adjusted her weight as she ran the past week-and-a-half through her head for the thousandth time. His presence had been suspicious, at best, from the beginning. If Riley could balance her situation, then could he--had he--helped even out the playing field for the hunters?
She looked Riley in the eye as she continued, her voice low. “How long have you been following Cerasus for? Don’t deny it,” she snorted. “You know things you could only know if you’ve been watching both him and, now, me, since at least when he was attacked. I doubt it was pure chance you were there to tell Cerasus about this place, or that you just happened to be passing by at just the right time to save me from the hunters. So tell me, Riley." Her voice darkened. "How much of all of this,” she swung a hand around at waist-level, gesturing to herself, the duffel bag, and the school, “was your doing in the first place? Have you been helping 'balance' things out for my sake, or to fix something you started?" she finished in a growl.

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“Like I’d ever want your job.” Izzy’s hands clenched. The smile on Riley’s face only made her angry scowl deepen. She listened to his story, watching him with wary eyes. He had started this, then. He had pushed over that first domino and gotten the chain falling until one happened to crash atop her.
“Me?” she began after he pointed his cigarette at her, her hands moving to her chest. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have even been in the equation!” Her hands sliced through the air with her rage, emphasizing her words. Her voice rose to a shout, the rain little more than a background irritation. “And low and behold, it’s all come to this, with the hunters defeated, like it would’ve probably been from the beginning without you!” Her gaze bore into him with a vengeance.
“Something you took?” she snarled. She took a step away from him, moving her hands defensively in front of her when he reached into his shirt, unsure what to expect. When he removed his hand, she stared at what he held, trying to figure out what, exactly, it was he had taken. She gasped when, at his provocation, it let out a single beat.
“You took his heart?” she hissed in horrified astonishment, her eyes widening. “You evened the odds by ripping out his heart?” She said the last slowly, enunciating each word. “I thought you didn’t intervene, only ‘helped someone help themselves?’” She glanced between the detached organ and Riley’s face, her voice rising an octave as she continued. “How is that not intervening?” Her eyes narrowed. “Did they pay you, or did you simply just want to see Cerasus dead?” She shook her head as she looked to the heart again. After three battles, the only thing that now stood between her and becoming human again was Riley. “What do you want for it, then?” she asked stiffly, her arms tense at her sides.

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Izzy stared at Riley dubiously when he said he had taken the heart without being noticed. How could anyone not notice someone removing something like that? But she promptly received an answer to the unspoken question.
“What?” She looked to her hand, the heart now clasped within her fingers. She took another step away from him as she looked up, shocked, just avoiding the reaction to drop the organ that had essentially appeared in her hand. She had figured he could hide his presence from her, but she had not looked from him, and there was still a fair distance between them. “What are you?” she could not help asking, her voice quiet. “And I swear, if you say anything even remotely resembling the word ‘mysterious...’”
She inhaled at the prospect of a fourth battle with him, a man who could move without her detection, could discretely remove a heart, could stop three hunters with little more than something like a dance pose, and who knew what else.
“I-I’ve never called you--” she breathed, but he continued speaking. She swallowed hard when he called himself “the last boss.” She had what she wanted, but, if he wanted to fight, he could easily stop her from running. And even if she managed to escape him, he could still follow. But her fears were proven to be in vain. She gave a heavy sigh of relief, quite glad to “forget it.”
She glanced again to the heart, a shudder running down her spine at the sight of it, raindrops dripping down the pale, pinkish brown muscle.
Though she agreed about Trevor being odd, she glared at Riley for saying so and found herself quickly defending him. “You don’t so much as blink from stealing someone’s heart, but he creeps you out? He’s a guy who likes the supernatural. Just like probably 80% of the high-school population.”
“A ‘trusting relationship.’” Her brows rose slightly. “After everything that's happened. Right,” she drew out the last word.
She frowned slightly when he finished. “I’ll feel happy when all this is just a bad nightmare from my past,” she grumbled. She picked up the duffel bag with her empty hand, trying to not think about what occupied the other, and slung it over her shoulder, her attention never leaving Riley, though it made no difference whether she kept him in her line of sight or not. She turned and took a couple strides to the door before looking back to him.
“How will I contact you when I have your money?” she asked with a slightly exasperated air.

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Izzy startled back slightly when, in response to her question, Riley laughed. Has he finally lost it? she wondered.
She turned her head, looking at him sideways. “‘Paid and done?’” Her eyes narrowed. “Why?” Her brows rose at his answer. "Okay," she said slowly.
She stifled the chain-reaction yawn that wanted to pull at her own mouth. Her head cocked curiously as she waited to hear what he had left to mention.
At the first, she frowned and her shoulders slumped a fraction as she looked to the roof beneath her. So, she would still run into aberrations. Be looking over her shoulder, no matter where she went, ever on alert. Only then, she would have no way to defend herself, and once she moved, there was no telling who--or what--she would encounter. She looked up out toward the only town she had ever called home. And that fact went for Trevor as well as her.
At the question of the second, she glanced to her stomach, and moved her hand from the pack to it. Was that how a vampire’s need for blood manifested? As an actual hunger? She nodded in a silent, sober thanks at Riley’s warning.
At the last, she returned her attention to him. She rolled her eyes to the side and nodded. She could not blame him for not wanting to say the entire, lengthy second epithet.
Izzy inhaled when he told her the third. “The King of...” she echoed just as quietly. She held her breath. She opened her mouth to inquire as to how much truth rang in that, but Riley left before she could say anything else, leaving her alone on the rooftop.
She slowly exhaled, then ran a hand through her hair. She stood there for a moment, looking out once more toward the town, the only sound the pattering of the light drizzle. The rainwater dripped down her face and soaked into her shirt, but she scarcely payed it any attention.
She had reached a three-way crossroads so close to end of her dangerous voyage. One path ended with Cerasus returning to his full power, and her returning to humanity, only to live a life of watching over her shoulder for any aberrations she attracted, and only hoping she could hold her own against them. The second led to the option of remaining a vampire, and not returning the limbs and heart, keeping her strengths while preventing Cerasus from reaching his. The third brought her to giving Cerasus what he wanted, and remaining a vampire, capable of defending herself against whatever came her way. With a few exceptions, she suspected.
She sighed heavily and turned toward the door with its short overhanging. She placed the heart and duffel bag beneath it, glanced to the sky to try and guess how long the cloud cover would last, then pulled her phone from a front pocket. Wiping the hand that had been holding the heart on her pants and leaning over it so her body prevented a majority of the rain from splashing it, she texted Trevor:


She paused, thinking again to the slight hunger that, with its mention, she now had difficulties ignoring. She returned to her text:


She turned her phone to vibrate and shoved it back in her pocket. Gathering her “winnings” once more, she stole back into the school as quietly as she could, hoping Cerasus had not woken yet. She needed a safe place to hide the bag for the time being, and she had stumbled upon a perfect spot in the basement the other night.
As silently as possible, she hurried through the school, waiting to feel the vibration of her phone indicating Trevor had responded, every slight sound making Izzy jump and turn toward it, expecting to run into Cerasus at any moment.

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Izzy let out a slow breath that was quitter than the gentle vibration of her phone. She placed it back in her pocket.
Casting a last, long look at the sad lump of Cerasus laying on the floor, she turned from the classroom and headed to the basement. She could not stay inside. The outdoors always helped her think.
As quickly as she could, she went to the basement. She paused, contemplating putting the heart inside the bag as well, but thought against it. If she decided to not return his limbs, and he found the duffel bag with everything in it, it would not matter. That, she decided, she would keep separate. No one except for her and Riley knew it was missing, not even Cerasus.
She placed the heart down and hid the duffel bag between a couple old, rusted water heaters. At first, she thought the bag might not fit, but she managed to drop it into place among other odd bits of garbage long since abandoned there. She stepped back, making sure it would not be easy to spot, then hurried back upstairs and crept into the classroom. Concealing the heart as well as she could in case he stirred, Izzy carefully and quietly grabbed her walking staff and her jacket-turned-vest.
She shrugged into the camouflage garment as she made her way to the front door, and carefully placed the heart in one of the front pockets. It thumped once at the change in pressure, making a shudder step down Izzy’s spine.
At the exit, she looked up, checking that the clouds still hung thickly in the sky, then stepped out into the rain.
Though she did not dare stray too far from the school in case the cloud cover let up, she walked around the building, avoiding looking at the school and keeping a careful eye on the sky. Though she did not need its aid, she used her walking staff, its familiar presence comforting. She went deliberately slow. When she rounded to the back, the rain, which had grown slightly heavier, already drenching her, she ventured into the overgrown schoolyard, stepping around a couple bits of what remained of the equipment that had once been well-loved by children.
She slowed at the edge of the area, then stopped, staring out at the flat plains studded with weeds and trees.
She placed the rubber tip of her staff against the ground in front of her, and rested her hands just beneath the gnarled top with the owl carved into it. She took a deep breath as she stared unseeingly out at the landscape. She needed to figure out which path she was going to take.
Option One: Both she and Cerasus got what they wanted, and went on their own separate ways. She could spend time with Trevor. Go to college. See the world, and not be bound by the sun or being discovered. There would be no hunters to worry about, no concerns about having her limbs ripped off because someone like Riley felt like “evening the playing field.” But then, she would still not be completely rid of the aberrations. She would be weak against any she encountered, unless she decided to devote herself to learning the skills to fighting them. And then there was Cerasus. If she let him get back to full power, there was no telling what he would do, what she would unleash back into the world. She knew next to nothing about him, the King of Aberrations. A pure-blood vampire, someone who had never been a human, if what Cutter had said indicated that as she thought.
Option Two: Betrayal. Keep him from getting his legs and heart. Cerasus would remain in his weakened state, and his reign would come to an end. She would have the strength and abilities to defend herself from aberrations, and could blaze her own trail, leave him to fend for himself. However, all her work would have been for nothing. Cerasus could easily be a good guy, albeit callous, someone who took down his own kind for more than just his own well-being. She could be eliminating an important factor in this side of the world. Then, she would be on her own, left to find things out by trial and error. She would be a vampire for eternity... or at least until she made a single mistake or a missing piece of information brought about her death. Her promise to Trevor would be broken, and she could never see him again. Her life as a human would be nothing more than a bittersweet memory.
Option Three: Nix the betrayal, but stay a vampire. Cerasus would have his powers back, and she would be capable of defending herself. Even keep an eye on Cerasus, get an understanding of his ways, learn the ropes of being a vampire. If he was a bane to the world, she could do everything in her power to bring him down. But then, she would still be a vampire, and had no idea what implications were involved in being the thrall--just the thought made her scowl--to a restored vampire of his reputation, let alone if she could even someday overpower him.
Izzy took a deep breath, then exhaled with a conflicted growl. There had to be another option. She stood there in the rain, a statue against the horizon, until finally, a fourth came to her.
Option Four: Give him the legs, but not the heart. Cerasus would not return to full power, at least until she could figure out whether he did more good or harm in the human world. If he was a blight on humankind, she had a chance of bringing him down. If he did more good, she could return it to him, make some sort of excuse, maybe even still return to being human. If she could pull it off and keep it hidden for that long. If she failed, she would have to face his ire. But at least she would not have been the cause of the downfall of someone potentially helpful in protecting the line between humans and aberrations. She could still learn from him, if he ever bothered to teach her what she needed to know. But she would still be leaving behind her humanity. She would be leaving Trevor.
She closed her eyes. Option one was out. As much as she wanted it, wanted to sleep in her own bed, to see her parents again, to spend time with Trevor and get to know him, her first friend in what felt an eternity, not only would she still be in danger, but she would be a danger to anyone else around her when an aberration found her. And if Trevor also attracted them now, it would only mean that much more trouble. The second was risky, and likely ended in her death after a few months, if she was lucky, and the third held little appeal. The fourth was still not without its peril, but at least she had a chance. Though she would be giving up what she had fought for so ardently, she could do more good for others that way, not just, hopefully, herself.
Izzy swallowed hard as the darkness of the setting sun crept over the world in gray shadows, the beginnings of night brought on prematurely by the clouds. She looked up, and her chin jutted out and her expression steeled as she made her decision. She gripped her staff slightly tighter, careful to not splinter the wood.
With a shaking hand, she reached into her pocket for her phone. Again using her body to shield the electronic and leaning the staff against her shoulder, she typed out her last message to Trevor, to the only person she felt she would truly regret leaving behind:


She sent it, then quickly started a second.


She made sure the message sent, then, eyes closed and vision watery, powered the phone down. She swallowed against a lump in her throat, then took a couple deep breaths, in through the nose and out quaveringly through the mouth.
Cerasus would be waking up soon, and a heart-sized bulge in her jacket pocket would be suspicious.
She hurried back into the school and retrieved the duffel bag from its hiding place, before hurrying to the classroom where she hoped Cerasus still slept so she could slip it in among the other few clothing items crowding her pack.

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Izzy inhaled when she caught sight of Cerasus in the doorway, her steps--and resolve--faltering when he smiled. She blinked and shook her head, the depths of his first words to her deeper than she suspected he realized.
Her neck twitched at being called “my servant,” but she closed the distance between them nonetheless. She leaned her staff against the wall beside the doorway as he reached out to her for the bag. Her decision had been easier made while outside, alone, with only the rain to whisper its advice. Here, staring at Cerasus, listening to his voice, made her want to leave this side of things that much further behind her. Her phone felt like a heavy weight in her pocket. Her breathing quickened slightly, and she let the strap of the bag fall from her shoulder. She caught it in her hand, not quite meeting his gaze.
“Breakfast,” she muttered, handing it to him. She turned to leave him alone while he consumed the limbs, a hand going to the pocket with the heart. She took a deep breath and hung her head, her fangs biting into her lower lip. She suspected if her heart still beat, it would have gone into overdrive.
“Cerasus,” she said quietly, bending her neck to look at the ceiling as if it could solve all her problems. She exhaled and closed her eyes. It was not too late to change her mind, to not have to deal with Cerasus any longer.
The image of Trevor's face when he read his messages crossed her mind, of when he tried to text back or call and received no answer. Then, her parents, their panic when she simply did not come home. It’s not like it’s my duty to do this, she thought. The world's survived this long without my involvement.
She reached into the jacket pocket and gently gripped the heart inside. “You know, you really should have listened to my concerns about Riley.” She hung her head, took another deep breath, and tried to wipe all but a look of self-satisfaction off her face as she turned to face him. “Immortal or not, you aren’t infallible. Riley’s the reason the hunters defeated you.” Her fingers curled around the strong muscle. “He was helping them, and...” she glanced to the floor, then back to him. “And he took this.” She pulled the heart out and brandished it in front of her. Holding her breath, she tossed it to him, watching it sail through the air in a perfect arch.

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Izzy looked at Cerasus curiously at his mellow reaction to Riley’s involvement. When he took a bite of the heart, her stomach did an uneasy flip and she turned away from him.
“I’ll leave you to it, then.” Her face twisted in disgust, she hurried a bit further down the hall, leaving her staff against the wall.
She paced the halls for what felt an eternity as he ate behind the closed door, her mind reeling. Home. She was so close to getting home, to being capable of putting everything behind her, to getting what she had wanted from the beginning. But had she made the right choice, giving him everything he needed to return to power for her own gain? She glanced down once, partially surprised she had not worn a trench into the floor.
With pacing doing little for her, she sat heavily against one wall, pulled her knees toward her chest, and laid her arms and head atop them. She took a few deep breaths to try steadying both her thoughts and impatience at the time it was taking Cerasus. She busied herself instead with thinking of the things she would do as soon as she was human again, of her plans, both old and new.
Izzy inhaled and sat up straight when the atmosphere in the hall changed with the renewal of Carasus’ power, making her second guess her decision once more. What had she allowed to return?
Her gaze darkened when he called her from the classroom, the strong voice familiar.
“I’m not your servant,” she muttered almost automatically under her breath. “And I have a name.” Still, she stood, albeit slowly, and hesitantly made her way back to the classroom.
She paused with her hand on the knob, ignoring the small, grimy window in the door, inhaled deeply, then entered. What she found waiting for her stole her breath away.
Izzy stared at him with both dread and awe. She swallowed hard, and pried her gaze from him with no little effort, casting it instead to the floor.
“You..." she cleared her throat. "You’re looking better.”