A/N: lord this chapter is a mess. feel free to ask any questions if something doesn't make sense - or if you hate it altogether. enjoy!
Surprisingly, Akila was already back at my apartment when I returned from speaking with Cudi. She and Ra were talking on the couch, so I assumed he let her in to wait for me. I had to discuss some shit with her but I wasn't in the mood for talking. I wanted to shower to get this blood off me, and I wanted to sleep until this fucked up nightmare was over. But as luck would have it, Akila followed me into my bedroom. "Iris?"
I sighed as I tossed around discarded clothing in my closet. "What, Akila?"
"Are you okay?"
I shot her a look. "I'm peachy. Why?"
"Because you look like you're ready to snap someone's neck."
Don't tempt me, I thought.
I tossed my duffle bag out of the way and heard a loud thud - much louder than an empty bag was supposed to make when hitting the floor. The sound froze me in my spot and I looked back at Akila to make sure I wasn't hearing things. Sure enough, she heard it too so I unzipped the bag and nearly dropped that shit to the floor. My fingers wrapped around .9mm handgun.
"The fuck is this for?"
Akila, who didn't even flinch, shrugged her shoulders, "If the bullets in the magazine are pure silver, it's to only be used to protect yourself against other vampires."
I knew how silver worked. To us, it's like how kryptonite is to Superman. Aside from the sun, silver is our only other weakness.
"Do somethin' with it, I don't want it," I muttered to her, tossing it in her hand. "I don't like guns." She raised a brow at me. "What?"
"I'm not asking you to kill innocent people with it, Iris. I'm telling you every vamp isn't nice like we are. There's no telling who you'll encounter. Ra has one just like it. Keep it, just in case."
I walked around her and placed it on my dresser, grabbed my clothing and closed myself in the bathroom to shower. I wasn't gonna touch the gun. It would collect dust on my dresser for as long as I wanted, and she and everybody else was just gonna have to deal with it. They couldn't make me shoot anybody - vampire or not. It's bad enough I torture my victims - which is sometimes out of my control - but now they want me to shoot? Hell no. I'm not the one.
I slipped into bed after my shower, and to my surprise Akila joined me, but she wouldn't look at me. She was tense, but not as much as she usually was. "They're gonna be okay."
Hearing that settled me. That's all I really needed to hear. "Kane is gonna have to wipe their memory, ain't he?"
"I told him to hold off on that. I knew you'd want to talk them first, but they're still unconscious. Dr. Black said they're lucky, they were missing the majority of their blood."
"Cudi said it's the same guy who blew up the tattoo shop, Zero." I looked up at her, and her bottom lip was bitten into. "I know why you wiped my memory after he attacked me and I know why you had to tell me somethin' else happened. I get it." I rubbed my hand down my face. "I understand a lot of shit now."
She nodded, didn't say anything at first. "Iris, you weren't supposed to go see Mijo. It's good that you did, but I want you to be careful, okay?" Her eyes finally drifted to me, her pupils dilating.
"I was gonna wipe their memory afterwards."
"I know," she offered a small smile. "But next time, just tell me before you go visit them. Please? Just so I know where you are."
