Music Recommendation: Phoenix - Paul Haslinger

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  Melanie, who reached the counsellor's office, knocked on the door a couple of times before pushing the door open. But when she took a look at the room, there was no one in there. Where could the counsellor be right now? She asked herself, and while hovering around the possible rooms, she was caught by one of the staff.

  "What do you think you are doing out of your dorms, when it is past eleven in the night?" questioned the female staff, walking towards Melanie.

  "I am looking for Mr. Evans. It is urgent," replied Melanie, but the staff, who wasn't involved with the current situations, stared hard at her.

  The woman said, "It looks like you are looking for a detention during the last days of your year."

  Melanie's eyes widened, and she waved her hand, "It is very urgent. I am here to help my friend, who needs Mr. Evans. Do you know where I might find Elder Remy?"

  Hearing the Elder vampire's name, the woman, who was a vampire, narrowed her eyes at Melanie, "You are no ordinary human, but a hunter's child. How amusing. You should know that humans are not allowed to have knowledge about a vampire's existence. A person who knows, is supposed to die," without another word, the vampiress went straight to grab Melanie's.

  But Melanie dodged from being grabbed by the woman, and she ducked down. She took a couple of steps backwards and said, "I am just here to speak and am not looking for a fight. Please call the headmistress and she will explain about me."

  The vampiress wasn't willing to listen to Melanie and, this time, went straight to attack her. But Melanie had a better reflex compared to the time when she had just left home. She doubted that the woman was going to back out, the next time the vampiress came to attack her, Melanie stepped to the side and twisted the woman's arm, which the woman hadn't expected.

  Melanie tried to hit the spots that she had learned to be weak points of vampires, but it was hard to get more than a meter closer, as she believed the woman could kill her. With the corridor quiet and no one to help or see what was going on, Melanie fell to her bottom on the ground.

  But before the vampiress could try to suck her blood dry, someone came from behind and snapped the vampire's neck.

  Melanie's eyes had turned wide, her heart pumping with adrenaline. She whispered, "You are alive, Cillian. Julie said you died."

  Cillian stood in front of her with the unconscious vampiress at his feet. He moved his gaze to look at the human and said, "I thought I taught you to snap a vampire's head during the worst time."

  When they had gone to the past, Cillian was the one who had taught her how to fight along with Julie's Uncle Ottis. She sighed, relieved, before saying, "Vampires have a better speed than us humans. I am not a wonder woman," and she pushed herself to stand up straight.

  "All you need to do is focus on their movements. Most of them don't think, especially ones like this," Cillian jerked his head towards the vampiress, who continued to lay unconscious. "I told you, you need to focus, but you still have trouble with it."

  Melanie cleared her throat while being chastised over her fighting skills. She had received a crash course from him, and when he was in the Corvin's appearance, she hadn't realized it much. But now that the witch was in his human appearance, did she realize that the man had been here all this while with them. Someone from the past.

  "How are you alive?" asked Melanie, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

  "Julianne's spell must have taken time to work," replied Cillian, looking around the place and said, "For some reason, I am unable to gauge the distance and direction, and I have been getting lost."

  "Is it because you were resurrected to life?" asked Melanie. But Cillian doubted it had nothing to do with his resurrection. This place, the dark magic which was forbidden, was drifting in the air. "I will catch up with you later, I need to find Mr. Evans or Elder Remy. Something happened to Julie," came the worried words of Melanie.

  "What happened to her?" asked Cillian in concern.

  "She's evaporating black fumes from her. It happened a couple of minutes ago, and I think she's in pain," replied Melanie.

  "Point me to the Dormitorium, and I will see what happened to her while you look for help."

  Back in Julie's dorm, she curled in the bed, feeling the ache starting to spread all across her body. She hadn't felt this intense pain in a very long time, and it made her want to claw her skin out until there would be nothing left in herself.

  She gasped for air, taking deep breaths and her vision clouded. How many seconds or minutes had passed since Melanie had left her?

  From her body, fumes continued to evaporate as if her body was on fire and being burnt from inside.

  "AH!" Julie screamed in pain, and the light in the room started to get affected.

  The lamp near her desk fluctuated, the light dimmed in and out, and soon the electricity in the other rooms near Julie's dorm started to get affected. Some of the devices that were plugged burst with the intense electrical energy, while the bulb's filaments were quick to spoil and stop working. And the next minute, the entire building's electricity had been blown out.

  Roman, who was talking to Donovan and Castiel, noticed the flicker of light at a distance. He said, "I will talk about it later."

  "Where are you going?" questioned Donovan as they were not done speaking.

  Castiel turned around, watching Roman sprint into the darkness of the tree, which led back to the buildings of Veteris.

  A sigh escaped from Donovan's lips, and he said, "He's always running away from me."

  "He must be worried about Julie," murmured Castiel, a small frown on his face. He said, "Our plan of attacking Joaquin first has failed because of the lack of our abilities. Do you remember what Enoch and Joaquin's abilities were?" he inquired, with an unhappy look with regards to the recent loss of powers.

  "Joaquin has similar ability as Griffin," answered Donovan, he dusted the front of his coat. "Enoch, well it is the ability of using water. I think it will come in use for you, Cas," pointed Donovan.

  With Castiel's ability of electrical powers, which was connected to the clouds in the sky, he could electrocute the vampire before he would come to harm the others, thought Donovan in his mind.

  "If we go there, it is going to be of great disadvantage. If Luciano hears about this, he is going to demand for Julie to create the stones. But I doubt any stone is going to work."

  "Actually there's one stone that still works. The dark stone, from the forbidden door," replied Donovan, and this got Castiel intrigued.

  "Tell me more about it," said Castiel, and Donovan finally explained something only he, Roman, and Julie knew. And also the Corvin who was no more now.? Donovan pulled out the stone which the Corvin had pulled out from Lilliana's grave. He handed it to the other Elder vampire. "By appearance, it looks just like the description people speak of dark stone."

  Donovan nodded.

  "Even though Roman's mother never mentioned it, I think she came here to Veteris. During her initial days before she worked in the inn," Donovan slipped his hands into his pockets. "And when she came here, I think the stone lost its abilities, and somewhere in between the time of her being alone and conceiving the child, she must have opened the forbidden door. Of course, I cannot be certain, but since I had a little chat with Julie, I cannot help but wonder if that is the root cause of why she fell sick. Most of the witches fall sick, they cannot handle the energy of what exists beyond the door."

  Castiel slightly raised his eyebrows, because this sounded more complex than he had expected it to be. He questioned,

  "It still doesn't answer how the stone in Rome still exists."

  "I have a theory for that too," replied Donovan, taking a deep breath as if he himself was wrapping the possibility in his mind. "I think Liliana got the stone from the other side."

  "That's impossible," frowned Castiel, because this was something completely unheard of.

  Donovan chuckled as if he found humor in the current situation. He said, "Only if we could step into the forbidden door. I think we can, but then we would need a witch to open the door for us. Bringing the stone from the other side, which went to Roman, and it explains how she became sick over time."

  The stone that existed in Roman was something strong, and defied the very laws of the living. And as much power it held when it came to keeping him alive and breathing, at the same time, it brought in darkness along with it.

  Near the girl's Dormitorium, Roman caught sight of the glowing light passing through the window of his old room. He dashed through the corridor, kicking the door open.

  He noticed Julie's body now floated above the bed, unconscious and her body glowed with a mixture of black and blue smoke all around her.