Today's chapter is small. Spent the day in the printing office.

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  Julie, who had been missing out on the news that had taken place when she was asleep, now stared at the two people in the dorm. With the way they stared at each other, both Roman and Corvin looked like they were ready to tear the other one apart, each of their hands stretched in front of them. One with sharp wooden fingers, and the other had a ball of fire in his hand, which now held a tint of blackness in it, ready to engulf anything that would come in contact with it.

  "Lately, you have been getting on my nerves," remarked Roman, his eyes glaring at the Corvin, who made a hissing sound. "Time to fry the bird."

  'Stay away from her,' warned the Corvin.

  "Can you both please calm down already!" asked Julie, feeling Roman push her behind so that she wouldn't end up getting hurt by the fire. "I am going to be just fine!"

  The Corvin brought its hand right near Roman, but at the same time, the fire in his hand turned bigger, engulfing the Corvin's wooden hands, and it caught fire for a few seconds before the creature blew out the fire and regrew its fingers.

  'You supposed to be dead,' stated the Corvin, a hissing sound appearing from it. It said to Julie, Stay away from him.'

  "She's not going anywhere. Winters, stay right here," Roman didn't appear like he was going to tolerate the Corvin anymore as the flame increased. "She's mine."

  'Vampire and witch never together,' came the words from the bird-like creature.

  "Rome," Julie tried to get his attention, where he hadn't let go of her wrist as if someone would take her away from him. "Can we please talk? You too Corvin?"

  The Corvin taunted Roman, 'A corrupt heart in the making. No soul, no emotions. Darkness is coming to cloud rapidly and will engulf everything near you. Not fit to be with her.'

  "For a dead bird, you sure like to talk a lot," remarked Roman, who was provoked by the creature's words. The flames in his hands turned bigger, making Julie look away for a moment. At that moment, Roman directed the flames at the Corvin, and the Corvin caught fire, its body and cloak burning started to burn.

  Not knowing how to stop, as Roman looked more than pissed at the creature, and the Corvin seemed trapped in flames, Julie said, "Rome, for a long time now, there is something I have been meaning to tell you."

  Though Roman didn't look away from the Corvin, she noticed the sliver of annoyance pass through his features.

  The Corvin made gibberish noise as if it was in pain, and with Roman not responding to her words, she said, "I have been promised to marry a boy named Tomas Frewell."

  Roman turned to look at Julie, his eyes narrowing at her, and he said, "You aren't good at jokes, Winters."

  Julie shook her head, noticing the way the flame in Roman's hand wavered and reduced in its intensity. She said, "Why would I joke about such things?" her frown leaning on worry. "I didn't know how to say this before and only recently remembered it."

  "Stay quiet now. I will talk to you once I am done dealing with this thing here," stated Roman, looking at the Corvin, who fell on its knees on the ground.

  At this rate, she would be sweeping the Corvin's body in a few minutes, which would be nothing but dust. She had never met and dealt with a ripper before, and she didn't know how exactly to handle the situation.

  "Tomas has pale blue eyes, dark hair and is as tall as you. We met when we were young and when I was in school. My father wanted it to happen……" said Julie, and Roman gritted his teeth before swishing his left hand that blew out the fire, and he turned to look at her.

  Somewhere, while concentrating on the Corvin, Roman had let go of Julie's wrist, and she now stood there holding it close to her chest.

  When Roman took a step forward, she took two steps back. It wasn't that Julie was scared of Roman, knowing deep down in her heart that he would not hurt her, but the wild look on his face turned her wary.

  Suddenly out of nowhere, the Corvin used its hand by extending the wood and ready to pierce Roman, but he caught it in time.

  "Tell this little pet to leave so that I can speak to you. Alone," said Roman to her, and he then snapped the wood of the Corvin before throwing it on the ground.

  'Will not leave you alone with him,' the Corvin was fearless as ever, wanting to keep her away from him.

  "Can you take a step outside and wait for me?" asked Julie to the creature, who hissed at Roman. "Roman doesn't mean to hurt me."

  'Ripper always kills. Ripper not good, downfall of witches,' replied the Corvin.

  "Did you not hear what she said? Out," Roman's words were blunt with not a spec of emotion in it.

  The creature turned to look at Julie and then finally stood up, 'I be out.' Julie nodded her head, watching the creature pass through the wall of the dorm.

  When she turned her head to look at Roman, he had already moved closer to her, lessening the gap between them. He placed both his hands on the wall trapping her there. He brought his right hand up to her face, holding her chin before he lifted her head.

  "Where can I find this Tomas?" Roman questioned her with his eyes narrowed at her.

  "In my imagination…" Julie's voice trailed, feeling a little relieved that nobody was fighting anymore. She could sense that Roman's emotions had intensified, and he moved closer to her.

  "Let us hope he's not real. I will fucking kill any person who will try to take you away from me," his eyes looked straight into hers, "You know that right." His thumb brushed against the length of her jaw, and Julie nodded her head.

  When Roman finally let go of her chin and took a step back, an inaudible sigh escaped from her lips. She closed her eyes, taking a moment before opening them, to find Roman in front of the fridge. He pulled out another can of blood. She heard the harsh sound of the ring on the can being pulled before he gulped down the blood down his throat.

  Roman ran his tongue across his lips, watching her, and Julie saw his gaze on her.

  "Will you tell me what happened?" she asked him, noticing his deamour appeared too laid back and it was hard to know what was running on his mind. Not that it had been easy before. "You… you turned into a ripper. What happened during the time when I was asleep?"

  Roman stared at Julie, the look in his eyes as hollow as the presence of light in the dark tunnel.

  "Piper is dead," Roman said in a curt tone, and Julie's eyebrows furrowed.

  She was dead? Julie felt her hands turn cold and numb. She found it hard to believe that Ms. Piper was dead. She had always liked her. After a few seconds of silence, she said, "I am sorry about it, Rome…"

  Roman brought the can back to his lips and sipped the blood, "That's the only news that you have missed. Now you are up to date with it."

  Julie didn't know how to lessen what Roman was feeling, but the problem was that he wasn't feeling anything. His words and the way he behaved appeared nonchalant as if it wasn't a big deal. Her heart ached for him, knowing how he was close to Piper as she was his brother's love. There was an obvious switch in his behaviour, as if his heart had suddenly turned cold over the matter. Walking to where he stood, Julie put her hands around him.

  "You're sad," commented Roman, he placed his hand on the back of Julie's head, and petted it. "Don't be."

  How could she not, questioned Julie to herself. The person who was close to Roman had died, and she could tell the emotions that the emotional switch inside him had turned as if he hadn't been given enough time to mourn for Piper's death.

  She heard the light growl coming from Roman's chest vibrate. When she pulled away from him to look at him, she saw the look on his face had changed. His fangs had appeared, and his breath was heavy. The ripper made its appearance known, and now he looked at her with hunger in its eyes.

  "Does it scare you, that I might suck you dry any moment now?" Roman questioned her with a hint of glare in his eyes.

  Julie shook her head, "I don't think you will do that to me."

  "Why not?" Roman tilted his head to the side, "I killed a person before coming here. What makes you think that I don't want to suck that warm blood from your throat," his hand reached to place it on the crook of her neck.

  A shiver ran down Julie's spine when one of his fingers grazed on her skin. Did he kill people before meeting her? Even though the person in front of her was Roman, there was a certain edge to the way his eyes raked over her appearance.

  "Are you trying to scare me?" asked Julie, not batting her eyelashes.

  "Are you scared?"

  "Not today," came the quick reply from Julie. The back of Roman's fingers grazed Julie's skin before he dropped it down. "I just trust you too much, knowing you wouldn't do something to hurt me."

  "Did you know that promises are hard to keep up along with expectations?" questioned Roman, and Julie didn't know what he was trying to get at. "Your Corvin believes I will suck you dry."

  "What do you believe?" asked Julie, watching Roman step away from her and he removed his shirt.

  "I think there's a possibility," responded Roman, and Julie pursed her lips. Her eyes fell on the wounds that he had received tonight. One on the arm and the other on his shoulder. The wound on his arm seemed to look in a worse condition. She noticed similar imprints like the roots of a plant stretching away from where his heart was located.

  When Julie went to touch his chest, Roman caught hold of her hand with a glare, "Don't."

  One minute he was sweet, and the next second it felt like he was creating distance between them. She felt her heart squeeze, but then this was only the ripper side of him talking to her.

  Before they could exchange more words, someone knocked on the dorm door outside, and a look of irritation passed through Roman's face. He walked to the door, and opened it. Julie, who stood behind, noticed Elder Donovan standing there with a pleased look on his face.

  "What do you want?" questioned Roman, without bothering to be polite to the Elder vampire.

  Roman's words didn't affect Donovan, and he said, "I wanted to grieve with you for the loss of one of your close friends. What kind of person would I be, to not be there for you, when you need me?"

  "I will pass," came the curt reply from Roman.

  Donovan lightly laughed, his eyes falling behind Roman, where Julie stood in the room. His eyes then shifted back to Roman and he said,

  "Why don't I take you out. It has been a while since both spent some quality time together and I can treat you to wonderful drinks," the word wonderful had a double meaning which Julie didn't miss, and she frowned. This was what bad influence meant, she thought in her mind. "What do you say, Ms. Winters? Don't you think he needs to take a break away from here?"

  Julie didn't know what to reply when she heard her name being called, until the Elder's gaze turned to look as if he was drilling holes into her head.

  "He needs time to……" she said, and Donovan nodded his head.

  "There, let us go now. I have already arranged the vehicle for us. You can come with us too, Ms…… Winters," Donovan had a generous smile, and Julie wondered if the Elder vampire had something up his sleeve.