I quick-summon Shadow Fang and drop into a ready stance. “What the hell are you doing here?” I ask in a huff.

The shrouded woman extends her hand toward my katana and gently pushes it aside. “I have come to deliver a message to you from my master, Hezukael.”

I release Shadow Fang and drop my stance. I keep my guard up in case she decides to pull a fast one.

“Say your peace and begone! I don’t have time for your bullshit!”

The shrouded woman waves her hand, a piece of paper appearing in it.

“Very well, then, here you go. My master says to meet him at this location in one week. A battle will take place there. Bring as many allies as you feel comfortable with. Or come alone. Either way, you will meet your fate.”

I take the paper from her hand and look down on it. I look back up and the figure is gone. I walk back into the living room where the girls are still sleeping. I hear Aaboli call out me sleepily.

“Come back to us, we need our pillow.”

I look down at the pile of naked flesh before me. “Okay, I will.” I take off my robe and nestle up in the pile of girls and drift off back to sleep.

Sunday morning comes, and we all wake up. As we shake the sleepiness from our heads, I ask, “Who wants breakfast?”

All of the girls raise their hands. “Alrighty, then, let’s all go get dressed and after that, I’m makin’ waffles.!” I happily say.

We gather up all of our dirty clothes and head to our bedrooms. Sofie, being the only one who didn’t have a change of clothes, was offered one of Shizumi’s kimonos while her clothing went through the wash.

After we’re all dressed, we meet in the dining room. I walk into kitchen, which is right off of the dining room.

I start prepping everything that I need to make waffles. As the waffle iron heats up, I start to cut up fresh fruits for toppings. The batter is resting next to the warming waffle iron. I open the iron and place my hand just close enough to feel whether the heat is coming off of it. I definitely feel the heat, so I spray a little bit of non-stick cooking spray on the grid. I dollop a small portion of batter on the iron and close the lid, making sure not splatter any batter outside of it.

Once the first waffle is done, I repeat the process until all of the batter is gone and there are enough waffles for everyone to eat their fill.

“Hurry up! Is it done yet? We’re starving out here!” Jesi yells at me.

"We’re gonna riot out here if don’t hurry your vampire ass up! Jeni quips.

“Well, then, somebody come and help me carry this shit out to the table,” I yell back.

Hanneke and Rebecca waltz into the kitchen and bow sarcastically. “We’ve come to serve you, master,” they say jokingly.

I laugh at their joke and motion to the food that’s sitting on the counter top. “Go ahead and take it to the table.”

As both girls turn around to take the food out, I gently and lovingly smack their butts. They giggle as they walk off.

After cleaning up in the kitchen and washing the dirty cookware, I join the girls in the dining room. As I sit down at the table and stab at the pile of waffles in front of me, Shizumi looks at me with a questionable expression on her face.

I stop mid-stab and furl my eyebrows. “Something wrong, Shizumi?” I ask.

Shizumi shakes her head in disbelief. “I just thought that you got up to talk to smoebody last night.”

Aaboli turns her head to me. “I thought so as well. Were we dreaming?”

I set my fork down and clear my throat. “No, I did talk to someone last night. Do you remember the shrouded figure that showed up in the park last winter when we were suspended?”

As soon as I asked that question, all of the girls except Sofie bolt upright in their seats.

"What the fuck?” they all shriek in unison.

Sofie looks around the table. She is obviously quite oblivious.

“What do you mean? We had an intruder? Sofie asks.

I look over at Sofie. “I’ll give you the long and short of it.”

I explain to Sofie how the shrouded figure appeared to me in the park and how Hezukael would eventually want to challenge me in the future.

Once I finish catching Sofie up to date, I let out a deep breath. “And now, on to current events.”

I explain to the girls how the shrouded figure appeared and how she gave the meeting place for the battle that was to occur in a week.

“You’re not daft enough to fight him on your own, are you?” Rebecca asks.

I look Rebecca squarely in the eyes. “No, I’m not. I have all of you, and we can rely on help from Sofies team. Right, Sofie?”

Sofie nods her head. “Oui.”

I pick up my fork that’s in the stack of waffles and put some on my plate. I slather them all in peanut butter and syrup.

We finish breakfast and run the dirty dishes through the dishwasher. We then head outside as Sofie calls her team to meet us on the training field.

We meet Sofie’s team on the field and power up. With auras glowing and weapons ready, we start running battle formations and tactics. We also spar with each other to gauge our strengths and weaknesses.

I match up with Adam, since Ince I need to practice defending against strong magic attacks. His projectile attacks are on par with Jeni, maybe even a touch better.

Adam fires off a gravity bomb followed up with a lightning strike. I barely dodge the gravity bomb, but part of it manages to slow me down just enough so that the lightning strike knocks me off of my feet. He then makes a third attack by using a twin tornado to toss me in the air. The tornadoes disperse, and I crash back into the ground.

I signal my defeat by raising my hands.”okay, you win. Maybe we should take a break.”

Adam smirks at me. “Tucking tail?” he asks jokingly.

I smile back. “Nah, I’m just worn out from the great workout. Okay, maybe I’m tucking tail just a little bit. You’re such a badass!”

Adam smirks at me once again, tips his hand in a mocking bow, and says, “Thank you sir, I aim to please.”

We both get a laugh out of his comment and shake hands. I call out to everyone on the field.

“Yo, time for a break! Let’s go eat!”

We head over to the university dining hall to get some food. As we’re eating, we talk about that morning’s practice. We discuss the different formations and strategies that we will use in the upcoming battle. We strategize where the best ally placements should go, and the best attacks to use that will assure us victory.

Once we finish eating, we head back out to the field to continue training. The clashing of weapons and explosions from magic carried on well past sunset.

Our training sessions carry on like this for the entire week. Every day after classes we meet up to hone our skills faster and better until we are a well-oiled machine.

Finally, Saturday comes around once again, the day of the battle. We are ready for the rematch. Ready to take on the forces of hell and come out victorious.

Hezukael appears with his forces on one end on the field. Mine and Sofie’s teams at the other.

Hezukaela flashes an evil grin. “So, vampire, are you ready to do this?”