"Come on, then." Jaden said, as the two started to walk, but he then paused.

"...hm." he muttered.

"Hold on." he told her, looking at the stained red patch on his shirt.

"Uh, before we go to dinner, I may want to wash my face of the blood, change my shirt, and deal with the wound that the little asshole gave me." he reasoned.

"Pretty sure it's still leaking blood." he went on.

"Thankfully I have some stuff that'll close it up quick, as he pretty much just nicked me." he continued. "But damn, it hurt."

Jaden thought for a moment at her offer.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Yeah, that can work." he said.

"Hang on." he told her.

He then stopped at a wall and placed his hands on it, causing two black holes to form that almost seemed to pulsate with mana. He then reached through one of them, and pulled out a container of some sort of salve, and a cloth which he used to wipe the blood off of his face. He tossed cloth back into the one as it closed, before reaching in the other and pulling out another shirt.

"All right, let's go."

Jaden did his best to keep his wound hidden, placing a hand over it as naturally as he could, and sighed.

"I've dealt with worse." he told her.

"And I'm sure this is karmic payback for SOMETHING I did in the past." he went on.

"Pretty sure my karma bank's gonna be overdrawn for a bit still." he lamented.

"So don't worry about it."

"Not sure if it's messing with my mana." Jaden responded.

"But it IS hurting like hell." he told her.

"Seriously, the pain won't go away." he went on.

"Hurts worse than any injury I've ever gotten in the past." he admitted.

"Seriously, it's frightening how much this stings."

"..." Jaden was silent for a moment.

"Sure." he then said, before pausing.

"...wait." he muttered.

"Like me..." he mumbled further.

"What do you mean by that? Hunter-born?" he asked.

"I'm a dhampir, born of a vampire and a mage."

Jaden looked to be extremely confused and concerned for a moment.

"What....? N-no...?" he stammered.

"That's... no, I mean... but..." he went on, clearly losing his articulation.

"No. No, I can't be." he said.

"How can I be a hunter?" he asked her.

"I don't even have a trait or anything."

"..........." Jaden seemed to be stunned by this.

She could see that his entire existence was coming into question now. Or at least, his identity.

"I... I..." he stammered.

"Right." he said.

"When we get to your place, I need to send a text." he told her.

"Just... need to text someone."

Jaden looked over towards the door, and sighed again.

"Know what? I really could use a shower." he lamented.

He looked at his bloodied shirt, and shook his head.

"Yeah." he mumbled.

"Thanks." he said to her, before going into the room and shutting the door behind him.

"I won't be very long!" he called out.

Sure enough, she didn't receive a reply by the time Jaden was out of the shower. However, to be fair, he was only in there for 10 minutes or so. When he stepped out of the shower, he was wearing nothing but his jeans and socks... as well as his knit hat. But it allowed her to see two things. The first one was the wound that he had received from Deryck. It looked as Jaden said, just a nick, but that damn dagger made the most of any injury it dealt. However, there was a weird translucent light blue film over it, and she could guess it was the salve he mentioned.

The second thing she saw was that Jaden was surprisingly ripped. He looked like a skinny boy with his clothes on, but she could see that his torso had definition to it, much like his arms.

"...oh! Sorry!" Jaden apologised suddenly.

"I fell into my habit of not putting a shirt on after a shower to just let myself air-dry a bit." he told her.

"Sorry if this is making you uncomfortable." he finished, starting to put his clean shirt on.

Jaden finished putting the shirt on, and nodded.

"I do." he said.

"And the water pressure's fine." he told her.

"I didn't leave a mess in there either, I assure you." he added, before grabbing his phone.

He then sent a text to his mother.

I'm not a hunter-born, right? it asked plainly and simply.

"Now. Food, yes?" he asked Desiree.