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Avid pitched his voice into something infantile. “Aw, did the Doctor get his world view shattered? Was academia wrong the whole time?”
The last frayed strand of self-control Legundo had within him snapped. He rammed forward, trying to hit Avid in the chest, to knock the wind out of him and shut him up. Instead, his shoulder crunched into Avid’s face. The shorter man was flung back onto the ground and his hands flew to his face as blood sprang from his nose.
“Oh my gosh! OW!”
The shock of red over Avid’s fingers snapped Legundo out of his furious haze and shame filled his chest. He was better than this. He stepped forward, crouching, and reached his hand out. “Avid! I’m– let me see. Let me help you.”
Avid scrambled back to his feet, backing away with fire in his eyes. “Oh no you don’t!”
His hands clenched into fists at his side, letting the blood drip down his mouth and chin onto the forest floor.
“Vampires are real! I was right! I told you!
You wanted empirical evidence? I saw one with my own eyes! Then I saw the signs with Scott, but it's not real proof to you. Nevermind that I’m a monster hunter. Or all the research I did with my partner. I don't have a fancy degree, so nothing I say counts, right? I'm too loud. I'm too scared.”
“Avid.” Legundo tried to cut in, sounding more aggravated than he was trying to.
“You made me think I was going crazy!” Avid's voice broke.
“You made me think I killed–” He couldn't finish that thought. He flexed his hands open, a fine tremor running through them. “T-that everything I'd done was for nothing! So no thanks. You’ve hurt me enough. I can take care of myself.”
As if to prove it, Avid smeared the scarlet blood on his face with the back of his sleeve and spit. An ugly bruise was already forming across the bridge of Avid’s nose with a hint of a black eye. The bloody nose continued to drip, but it wasn't pouring anymore.
Legundo clenched his teeth, hard enough to make his jaw hurt, to keep himself from shouting all the ways Avid was dangerous. All the ways Avid had made the town’s situation worse. He was feeling cruel and he’d already violated his oaths enough as it was.
Whatever look he had on his face, it made Avid’s shoulders curl forward, the man shrinking as quickly as his outburst had arrived. His voice turned thin and wrung out. “Uh, sorry, I mean–”
“Fine then.”
Legundo turned on his heel and strode away before Avid could babble any paltry apologies in the spirit of human solidarity. The man was not completely wrong. He hated it. Vampires were real and none of Legundo’s schooling or practice had prepared him for this.