The fox braked rather sharply, knocking me off her back with an easy movement of her furry ass. My flight through the edge of the thicket was short-lived, and with the shield working, I wasn't even particularly afraid of it. Therefore, I safely fell out onto a bald patch with a couple of cars and several humanoid figures. I was feeling dented, but quite intact.
Clutching my sword in my hands, I walked towards the assholes who were literally posing for each other. The wonders of the drama club of the Daisy kindergarten nursery group.. If the nursery group had a drama club, that's exactly what it would look like, yeah.
"Who's that?" A vampire girl with red hair and a bitchy expression on her eternally young face hissed, closest to the edge of the forest.
"If you don't call your half-wit away from my contract, then it's death of yours," I decided to play the trump card and start bluffing recklessly.
My whole body, emotions, and tone of voice were supposed to show only irritation and confidence - these scum are very good sniffers, so they should be able to distinguish when they are being lied to due to the gitters, and when the truth is being told.
All I need to do here is make sure that I don't get my guts twisted when not complying with my obligations to protect this brainwashed idiot. I did not intend to save her from this vampire family and their bullshit. I'd rather save myself in the event of the craziness of this lady, who is currently staring at me in a hungry way, in the good sense of the word. If her cuckoo nature comes to play, the roof goes off, and she decides to turn me into their like for further usage.
The fox is clearly not going to show herself, but there is hope that if I am really in danger, she will protect me. Well, at least take revenge if necessary.
The vampire turned his head towards me with an animal grace, deliberately lazy, as if he were on a high. He took a deep breath and grinned.
"What a delicious smell! I just have to get you..."
"The only thing you're going to get is a punch in the face, asshole," I said with unexpected anger, disgusted at his slimy tone.
"What can you do to me, you know who we are..." The freak replied in a dreamy tone. "I wonder how the Volturi will react to violation of the most important law? I really have to tell them about you... And about this defenseless cutie in the hands of a red-haired brat."
"We'll turn them!" the main papa doctor shouted from his place in the center of this linear formation of theirs. "And we have the advantage in numbers, so get out of our territory!"
"No one will be turning me. And you'll get the hell out of here and forget your way back."
My statement caused a sharp turn of all the heads in this clearing, and I just gnashed my teeth when I found my ex peeking out from behind Ed-dick's not-so-wide back. I couldn't see her from here, but I could tell by her tense figure that she was thinking about my presence here. Rosalie was next in line for my gaze, and I couldn't doubt her intensity here - she was hunched over predatorily and looking not at me, but at danger. Well done, m'lady, at least her priorities are straight.
I tightened my grip on the katana's hilt with my right palm and brought the blade to my left hand. I remembered vixen's advice and had a rough idea of what would happen when he smelled my blood, especially after the books and movies Tomiko and I talked about, just to introduce me to this, hm-m, let's say, fandom. If she expects me to distract him and then attack from under her illusory magic, I understood everything correctly. If not, she would try to save me anyway, we're still friends. Or that's just my hope.
"What could you possibly do to stop me, girl?.."
He stepped forward as he said this, but it was as if he was struck by frost, and his face bared in an inhuman grimace when I cut the top layer of skin on my palm and ran my palm along the blade.
My face was also not without predatory features at that moment, I'm sure, because my cheeks were sore from the wide grin. I also kept looking into the darkened bloody eyes of this bastard.
Oddly enough, Edward was the first to take off.
Everything started happening at speeds that I could only perceive in my current condition, but not fully react in any proper way.
Rosalie slammed into Eddie, protecting me from his attack.
The red-haired vampire grabbed her third companion by the scruff of the neck and jumped away from me - a huge dark-silver fox landed in her place and fluffed out her tails. The appendages blazed with an otherworldly, but definitely scorching fire - the grass under the fox shrivelled into ashes.
And the lunatic, without noticing anything, rushed to the call of my blood.
Yes, I didn't have the slightest opportunity to fully react to all this, but I managed to start a spark - the very thing that Tomiko had barely been able to teach me in all this time. Only this time I wasn't squashing bugs, but I shared this spark with a sword covered in my blood. And blood was, unimaginatively enough, a magical substance, if anything. I just realized how useful it was of Tomiko to mention this property of blood - to accept magic and enhance it. A mention that happened very briefly, and it wasn't what we were originally talking about.
So I just took a small step forward, when this psycho had already stretched out his paws, and put the sword under his conveniently flying body.
The sword blazed and sparkled, and I felt like a hero of some third-rate anime, because could there be anything more trivial than a katana blazing with righteous fire, dissecting the undead as if they were made of sponge cake? This lightness of the cut is not even wax, plasticine, or clay, it's just like a wet sponge cake. Except that the crunch was unexpectedly loud.
The fox stopped bloodthirstily staring at the remnants of the hostile group when she heard the plaintive howl of a man who had his nuts set on fire. There was even some amusement in her gaze at me, and I even twitched slightly in sympathy when I realized where my blow had landed. Just below the waist. All that remains is to finish him off, to be honest, it's a pity to torment the poor guy. He's still burning, not just writhing on the ground. And he screams like hell. It's too loud.
I adjusted myself and the blade more comfortably in order to put my thought into action.
"Wait! No!"
The redhead screamed in alarm, almost screeching, and started to move toward me, but something seemed to stop her. She could only curl her fingers in some kind of tension, but she couldn't take even an extra step towards me. It's like she'd run into a wall. Curiouser and curiouser.
"Well? What do you want, he attacked first," I sighed and stepped away from the dipshit. "And anyway, he threatened me. He should say thank you that I didn't stick this skewer in his ass and twist it."
I'm putting on a brave face, of course, and all that, but I didn't expect such wonderful niceties from myself, as if I had burst out because of the background nervous overexertion.
"Izzy?" Lillian called out to me in a weak voice, taking a couple of steps from behind Rosalie's husband, this kind soul bull-dude Emmett.
Well, yes, it makes sense, Alice is calming down Jasper, who was flattened by the general bloodlust, and the main couple of this menagerie was nearby as well, because Jasper seemed the most dangerous here. Rose took over to intercept Ed-dick. Accordingly, only Emmett remained out of job assignment. And this guy could easily tank several vampires who wanted a feast if it came to that. Well done in general, what to say. If only I didn't know that my ex was probably brainwashed, then I would even be happy for her.
"Hm-m-m?" I drawled and lowered the sword, however, not knowing how to remove the flame from it.
I felt like a moron, but I sure looked unreasonably cool. Even though I posed while wearing sweatpants and a gray T-shirt stained with earth and grass. Some of us can look cool while dressing like a bum, yeah.
"Who are you? And what is..."
Carlisle very oddly looked at the fox, who was in no hurry to take on human form. The man had an indescribable expression on his face. Something told me that me giving up her disguise would be fraught with the fact that she would sulk, at the least. That's why I decided to keep silent about Tomiko, but to enlighten them about myself.
"I felt the imminent danger that my accidental contract found herself in. I'm here to fulfill my duty," I exhaled and looked at Lillian. "And for you to give it up, since we're not going to be together anymore."
"What kind of contract?" instead of my ex, who should have asked this, Edward barked out the question. The boy had already calmed down, but was still glaring at me. "What are you?!"
"When I first met her, I had the temerity to make a promise of protection if she doesn't get in the way of it," I looked back at Lilian and pursed my lips. "I would like to ask you to release me from this promise. Just say out loud that you're freeing me, and I'll go. You have a lot of other protectors now, you don't need me."
After all, I decided to wash my hands of the whole situation, I was not on the same lifepath with Lilian, and even more so not sharing that path with the ghouls who brainwashed people like that. Because as soon as she opened her mouth and started talking, she started with the word "okay", that is, everything was almost decided. But the asshole intervened, and no one actually asked his opinion.
"No!" Edward bellowed and, twisting out of Rosalie's strangely loosened grip, jumped up to Lillian. "Until you explain what you are!.."
"I wasn't actually asking you."
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement from the side and barely managed to hold up the flaming blade, but the redhead girl was wary of it and managed to jump away. And drew attention to herself, yes.
"For what you did to my beloved, I must punish you," she said in a seductive tone that was completely unsuitable for threats.
"Actually, you're welcome!" I shrugged and took a stance, pointing the tip of my sword in her direction. "Find yourself a less fucked-up lover, maybe life will finally positively kick in, and not kick your head in."
"You..." the man croaked, tired of yelling and finally ceasing to burn.
"I'll finish you off if you don't shut up, even your voice irritates me to the point of cramps," I turned my head to the redhead, who again seemed to run into an invisible barrier, although it was obvious that she wanted to tear me to pieces. "So, do be so kind, take his pathetic half-corpse on your fragile lady shoulders, and carry it somewhere to Canada. If you're still in the country in the next half day, my fox will taste your guts. You don't even defecate, so maybe she won't throw up, since she's definitely not going to get a taste of your head. Comprende, ginger?"
"You…" The redhead had the gall to hiss at me.
The fox decided to jump up to me, shrink down and wrap around my shoulders. The collar wasn't very comfy, as she was still burning. An illusory flame? But cool? Cool.
The shameless redhead followed my unostentatious advice and ran off somewhere into the woods. I was a topographical idiot kind of being, but there was hope that this was the side that led closer to the Reservation. And the wolves will finish them off, first, dismembering and, second, setting fire to their heads, I hope. To dream of good things isn't very harmful, or so they say.
I grunted and stuck the burning sword into the ground.
As soon as my palm left the handle, it stopped burning. Convenient, very.
"Back to our sheep," I grinned and tilted my head to the fox's muzzle, rubbed my cheek against her flame and looked at Lillian. "Tell me that my promise is fulfilled, and I'll go."
"Wait," Chief Cullen interrupted me and stepped forward. "First, tell me, who are you?"
"Kitsune," the fox's tone was different from Tomiko's, so I became convinced that she wanted to separate these two disguises for the ghouls, I don't know why, but I was ready to support her in this endeavor. "The promises made by our kind must be fulfilled at all costs.
"And why this promise is so... How exactly does it work?" Carlisle asked slowly, choosing his words.
"That's our magic," I shrugged and turned back to my ex. "I don't want to be associated with you, you refused it yourself. I didn't imagine that my rash promise to protect you would result in me being dragged into danger in case of danger. You could have done okay without me, I may as well worsened it. So please be so kind and say the words."
She sighed, opened her mouth, and..
She obeyed Edward's hand, who decided to turn her towards him and start saying something.
I frowned and pursed my lips.
It wasn't like her usual behavior - she wasn't herself at all.
Do I have to try to save her from this family, or was I right after all, and it's better to leave everything as it is?
After all, without a split in their family, I simply won't be able to defeat so many. And Tomiko has already told me that it's more taxing to get seriously involved in this plot. Right now, we have Tomiko's own protection from the Volturi, because they have some kind of non-interference agreement there. And if I start acting actively, then something will definitely go wrong.
After all, I already had friends - or rather, good buddies on the Quileute Reservation, and to attract the attention of the vampire elite here, whose conscience and kindness are the size of a grain of rice? A very questionable decision.
So I closed my eyes and found Tomiko's warm fur with my cheek again.
It's going to be a long day.