Scam

So, Mei, before you tear me apart, here's the next chapter * cough * Sorry for the confusion. I hope she will at least settle down a little, although the aha-effect will probably not happen ... Myaa * makes himself small *

"Something is wrong here," said Nick when I stopped the motorcycle and told him to get off. I had spoken of a café, but now we were in the middle of a private property, the center of which was a traditionally Japanese-built house that reminded me a little of that of Ronga. I compared the address on the slip of paper with the point indicated on the navigation system, which I had attached to a shock-proof linkage on the handlebars of my motorcycle. Shockproof because I knew how I was driving.
"I read that right, didn't I?" I asked Nick and gave him the note. Japanese addresses were still anathema to me, although I had lived in Tokyo for quite a while now.
He nodded and grew a little more suspicious."There's supposed to be a café in there? I don't smell tea or coffee." He started to get back on the motorcycle.
"You should have known that I had ulterior motives," I let the cat out of the bag and pushed him off the saddle so that I could finally get off. "Have I ever done something for you without getting anything in return?"
It amused me that he actually bothered to think about it for a moment. "No," he finally came to the expected result, "but ... you just apologized to Rick!"
"And?"
I removed the ignition key, plucked the navigation system from the rack, and made my way to the main house. The heaped gravel path, which led in slight curves to the building, made every step crunch. Nick followed me, I was pleased to find out.
"Well, I didn't think you'd first apologize to your boyfriend and then fool the next one in the same breath!"I laughed uproariously. "So first of all we're not friends and second: Nick, how long have you known me now?"
"I don't know, so two months I guess."
"And then you are still in such good faith! You are really to be pitied. I could probably put a stick in your hand and you would eat it if I told you it was a pretzel stick."
"I may be trusting

(naive, I thought, smiling inwardly)

but definitely not blind! "
"A handicap is enough," I replied matter-of-factly and involuntarily thought of Nicolai. When this was over, I would ask Nick about it. Maybe only when I knew a little more about my relationship with him. Somehow I wasn't entirely comfortable with the thought that I'd gotten on so well with someone who might have been cut from the same cloth as this annoyance.
"Where are we here anyway?", The nuisance glared at me when he remembered that I had driven him into nowhere."And why are you dragging me here? You want something from me, otherwise you wouldn't voluntarily drive me somewhere ..."
"You finally understand how I think", I said affectionately, "I actually had a plan that I needed you for, but ..."
That had vanished the moment I saw the house. Along with my anger that had given me the crazy idea of ​​coming here so unprepared.
I wanted to create the same conditions, two against two, in the hope of being able to intimidate the two tearseekers so far that they left the ashes to us. A house this size, however, undoubtedly housed more than two of the bloodsuckers. And as if they had only been waiting for their cue, I saw two of them scurrying past us through the large garden out of the corner of my eye.
"You can go back if you want," I offered Nick restlessly while my heart slipped in my pants. "I'll even lend you the motorcycle."Could we even turn back now that we had been seen?
Well, maybe, but that's not what I came here for. I wasn't planning on going home without a few answers. There had to be a reason they needed the ashes so badly. One who might be more likely not to give it to them, given Rick's behavior. If they wanted the girl's remains, they'd have to tell me why.
"There should be ... uh ... vampires or demons or whatever in there," I continued, "and I'm not a good diplomat."
He stopped suddenly. "Vampiresor demons?" he suddenly asked with a seriousness in his voice that I had never heard from him.
"Is that important?" I asked puzzled and at the last moment resisted the temptation to turn around to look at him.
"Not for you," he snorted, surprisingly angry, "But vampires can drink my blood! I'm going home.And you should do that too, otherwise they might divide your blood! I heard a liter of dragon blood sells pretty well too! "
In a rage, he turned on his heel and stomped over to the motorcycle. "I'll see you later then!" I whistled and went on.
"Definitely not if you go in there!" He hissed, stopped and looked if I would finally give in and follow him.
I just ignored him, listening to his crunching footsteps and mine, pulling me in the opposite direction until I reached the porch of the wooden house. I waited there, listening to the noises on the other side of the paper-covered sliding doors. Nothing could be heard and yet I was one hundred percent sure that we would be properly received inside. I stopped quietly. It couldn't be long before he came. In my mind I started counting to 10.
I didn't get any further than four when I heard Nick's stumbling footsteps on the gravel."Back already?" I grinned gleefully. This guy really was as predictable as the multiplication table. Was that why I decided to take it with me? Or because I just didn't cling to him and could easily get over his loss?
"You knew that!", He moaned, "You knew that I would forget the key-aah!"
In a single fluid movement, if anything but elegant, I'd grabbed Nick, threw open the sliding door, and got us both through. "Before you get any stupid thoughts ... I have the ashes with me, but you definitely won't get them if you tap me to greet you!" I thundered and covered Nick's mouth so that he wouldn't accidentally betray me. "That's why I was so free to bring a teleporter with me to be on the safe side. Mind you, one that speaks the Old Language. Better pray that I don't take my hand from his mouth!"
Nick opened his eyes. For a moment I feared he would ruin my bluff and just start shaking with fear.But he remained rigid in my rough embrace and stared into the circle of about thirty pale faces in the middle of which we were. I could hear my heart racing, but outwardly I was just as calm as ever, while I purposefully sought the gaze of the ice mage who was in the crowd, flanked on the left by the cheeky giant I had got to know in the elevator.
"And you think the little one there will help you?" The henchman mocked and subjected Nick to a disparaging examination. He was as if changed by the remark. Clenched his fists, he tried to free himself from my grip. "Hh-hmmm hm hmm-hmm!" He made angry behind my hand.
"He says he's not a girl," I translated kindly, "and he can be quite useful. You must know that he moves magical objects. Gladly over long distances. Unfortunately, the poor guy is pretty clumsy and occasionally loses something ... "Nick gave an annoyed growl. "It's especially bad when he's irritable, by the way. There is a lot going wrong with him," I added with a grin, not paying attention that Nick bit my hand for this comment.
The cheekbones of the cheeky giant protruded, he had to hold on so hard and clench his teeth. I could tell that he wanted to turn my neck by hand. The ice mage gave him a warning and he calmed down a little. "You're telling the truth, I can feel the ashes," he told me. All of a sudden I was struggling to keep my composure. I held Nick's head convulsively as he pressed my hand. He wanted to look at the backpack on my back. I felt like it too, but I stayed silent.
"But why are you making it so difficult for yourself? You could just give it to us and you two went away unscathed. Instead this show.What do you want?"
"Know why," I said firmly, "What is it about this stuff that makes it so important to you?"
He narrowed his eyes and made a scornful face. "You have probably lived a little too long among the right people, curious how you are," he stated. His tone was so compassionate that I involuntarily pressed my hand tighter over Nick's mouth. "Hm!", He protested against the rough treatment, revealing that I wasn't quite as unimpressed by his words as I was.
My counterpart paid no attention. "You'd better stay out of these things," he continued admonishingly. "It's unfortunate that she of all people attacked you, but our business needn't concern you. You are a dragon. Whatever the ashes mean to us, you need it You don't have to worry about it. There are only a few crazy people among us who consume dragon's blood. "The telling look he gave the giant at these words made me smile."For the fact that it is none of my business, you were quite unfriendly to my roommate," I pointed out anyway, "I also drag the ashes here against his will, so it cannot be that unimportant to us."
Nick swallowed and shifted restlessly from one foot to the other. The guy couldn't even let other people's lies slip by. I drew his wrists behind his back with my free hand before he could tidily tug at his sleeves again.
The ice mage gave a low sigh. "It's not for the little centaur either. After all, it is part of our food staple, like the rest of the humans." I frowned and waited. I felt as if I had received information here, the scope of which I did not quite understand.
"That's what this is about," he continued, and took a tentative step towards me. I grabbed Nick a little tighter and pulled him in his direction."That means?" I asked threateningly.
"That girl ..."
"Noriko", the giant interrupted sharply.
"... she" - he seemed more than ever to avoid her name in order to annoy his subordinate - "possesses - well, rather possessed - powers that could make us others of our kind superior. Demons, more precisely. The men and women around belong to a subspecies of vampires. You can imagine that