CHAPTER 88

The three of them sat around a table in the cafeteria and silently looked at each other, waiting for the other to break the tense and awkward atmosphere that surrounded them.

At the end of it all, it was Malia who finally took it upon herself to break the ice. "Soooo, no one wants to say anything, or are we just going to continue looking at each other's faces?"

Allison held a scoff and looked between the two of them and stilled her heart. "Who are you- no, what are you?" 

The question was mostly meant for Tristan and though she had an inkling as to what he was, she held back and waited for him to admit it. 

"Well you already know Malia is a werecoyote, so the question is mostly meant for me. The answer to that is 'vampire'. That is what I am."

Her heartbeat spiked up for an instant as he said that but her facial expression remained calm, betraying nothing of what she felt inside. Unfortunately for her it had no effect on the two people in front of her. 

"So you, like, suck blood from people?" Her voice strained as that question left her lips but Tristan didn't notice, or he didn't show it if he did. 

"Not counting yesterday's night, all my drinks come from Malia. Have I killed before? Plenty."

"What of the people you killed? Don't you care about the innocent lives you've taken?" She almost shouted but remembering that they were in the cafeteria she kept her voice down. 

Even with her hushed outburst, neither Malia nor Tristan showed any hint of remorse as Malia spoke. "Apart from the single incident that turned our eyes blue, the rest of the people we've killed are all Argents. So no, we don't care about the lives we've taken from them."

Allison's next statement hitched in her throat as she was once again reminded that they were living in two different worlds. The values she was being trained with in respect to being an Argent Hunter was the exact opposite of what they were. 

"I-I… It's." She let out a despondent sigh. All the questions she had wanted to ask suddenly fizzled away from her mind as soon as she confronted them about it. 

They were what she was taught to kill on sight. Now she was stuck between her own thoughts and her sense of duty. 

'What are even my thoughts on this?' Everything about this was confusing because nobody bothered training her in the event that such a scenario comes into play. 

"So what now?" She asked with a weary smile. 

Malia looked at Tristan and they both shrugged before turning to Allison who actually chuckled upon seeing how in sync they were, exactly as they've always been. 

"Honestly, at this point it's up to you." Tristan said. 

Allison definitely didn't believe that and she made it known with the skeptic face she gave him. "So if I decided to tell my dad about you guys…"

"Your dad will come after us and we will be forced to defend ourselves which will ultimately end with either or both of your parents dead. Obviously, plagued with grief over losing your parents, you will then come after us and while Malia might hesitate, I will not in killing you." Tristan narrated as if reading from a script. 

"And like any twisted B-rate friend x enemy story, it will end with your family being dead, Malia in depression while I'm forced to pick myself back up to look after her."

Allison looked at Tristan with color drained from her face, looking on in shock as if Tristan just grew another head as he perfectly narrated the thoughts that had been plaguing her since two days ago but the way he phrased his made it a little different from her own dark thoughts. 

"What makes you so sure that you'll be alive by then?" The thought itself was morbid from her point of view and coupled with the fact that she was currently sharing a table with two people her family has killed and hunted down from centuries. 

Tristan just shrugged and replied. "That is based on what is currently going through my head. In such an event, factoring your own death sounds stupid."

He then paused and saw how Allison's emotions were all over the place and she was this close to having a panic attack. 'Did my words really unnerve her to such an extent?' He thought as he clarified further so as not to give her the wrong impression. 

"It's not a threat, Allison. It's just that this is the current gutter that my mind is submerged in."

Whether his words made any sense or whether she actually felt safe from it could be argued since all she felt when hearing him talk was a biting cold in her heart. 

"T-then, what if we try to remain as we've always been?" She almost had a nervous breakdown as she stuttered that question out. 

Upon hearing that, Tristan's answer was to merely smile at her whereas it was Malia who answered the question.

"Hopefully nothing changes."

No matter how nonchalant they tried to play it, the three of them have been together since the first day of school and while the circumstances were bizarre to say the least, none of them were that eager to sever the hind they've created, Tristan included. 

"How?" Allison asked in a soft whisper. 

Malia copied Tristan's smile at that point. "Easy. We change nothing. I mean what's different? I've already been a werecoyote and Tristan's always been a vampire, and you? You've always been a pale princess/hunter. See? Nothing's changed."

That, that did bring a laugh out of Allison. 

In her mind, she was thinking how someone as strong and hard-headed as Malia could also be this cute. 

"Yeah, but you forget the part where I now know that you guys probably howl at a full moon and rip out people's hearts just for the feel of it." Allison chuckled with what was supposed to be a jab but… 

"That's all Tristan. I prefer just ripping their neck out. I don't get my hands too bloody that way."

Allison and Tristan looked at her with a stunned look on their face that said, 'really?', thought meaning different things with the same words. 

"Listen Allison, you put it at the forefront of your head that at the end of the day, we're supernaturals with a pack. Being at odds with the Argent is something that can't be avoided. You can't continuing playing the center field."

Tristan's words doused the atmosphere that was about to bubble with a cold fact that they were all conveniently forgetting. 

"I'm not saying you should choose us or anything like that but that you should be aware that now that we are at this point, it's only a matter of time before this all ends and you go back to being a Hunter. You can't also forget that we've killed a lot of Hunters, your people. You can't just ignore that."

"Trist, are you seriously playing bad cop right now?" Malia chided but he shook his head. 

"I'm not playing anything but just letting her know." He then turned back to Allison and continued his rant. "Think it through, Allison. Are we worth it? Well no rush, you can take the next few days to cool your head off and think everything through."

"Is this you trying to tell me to stop being friends with you?" She asked. 

"No." He replied. "This is me trying to help you make a choice based on what you think is most important."

"Okay both of you stop!" Malia stopped the two of them from talking further, wondering why they were actively triggering the other, or at least trying to. "No more werewolf/hunter talk for the rest of the day. Cool?"

The two of them nodded their heads while still staring in the other's eyes. 

The three of them then fell silent as they absentmindedly started picking on the food on their tray. It continued that way until Malia couldn't take it any longer and made a suggestion. 

"Anyone wants to talk about what they did during the weekend? No? Probably not a good time."

She smiled at both of them and focused on her food. For Malia, this was the best outcome after what happened on that night. Allison being here in the same table as them, to her, meant that she wasn't just going to up and leave them just from finding out that they were from a different species. 

She looked at Tristan and pursed her lips together as she knew why he was being the pragmatic one whenever he addressed Allison's issue today. In his own grumpy way, he was caring for her and helping her make a decision that won't come back and hurt her later down the line. 

'Why can't everything ever be simple?'

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