Donovan had mentioned it, but it was hard to wrap her head around this information. Roman said, "You would think that she's someone unknown, but she is someone who the Elders already know, but didn't know her true identity. You might have heard the name before. Avice Swan."

  The name did ring a bell in Julie's mind, and Julie asked, "Isn't the woman an Elder vampire like the others? But I thought she was resting somewhere."

  "Maybe she was, and she was there when the massacre took place, and later disappeared by going to rest in the coffin," responded Roman. "The woman doesn't associate herself with the likes of the other vampires, and likes to keep her to herself. I don't think Simon will tell us what is going on, but if I am not wrong, she is someone who isn't on anyone's side."

  Julie nodded her head, and noticing Roman's eyes flickering red, she walked up to him. Coming to stand in front of him, she placed her hand on his chest underneath it, where his heart was steadily beating.

  "Something feels very wrong in here," murmured Julie when she picked up his heart, skipping two beats. "How are you feeling right now?"

  "Very thirsty," he answered her truthfully. "My body isn't accepting the blood."

  Julie frowned and asked him, "Is it since yesterday?" Roman gave her a nod. It must have been because of her. She raised her wrist in front of him, and she reasoned, "Maybe you need someone's blood from the body and not the cans."

  "I don't think it would be helpful," said Roman, but Julie insisted without lowering her hand.

  To Julie, it was worth a try, and she didn't want Roman hungry. The longer he stayed hungry, it would only increase the percentage of him being ripper.

  Staring at her, he enclasped his fingers around her wrist. He brought it to his lips, and when he parted them, Julie caught sight of his canines that grew long, and he finally took a bite into her skin. The blood seeped into his fangs and mouth, feeling the rich taste of blood coat his fangs as he swallowed it.

  Julie watched Roman close his eyes as if relishing every drop of blood on his tongue. His hand around her wrist had tightened out of wanting to control his hunger, and he tried to keep a close leash of the ripper in him that wanted to drain her.

  Roman pulled away from her hand, and Julie was about to release a sigh of relief when his face contoured in pain, and he started to cough out black from his mouth. She quickly came to stand next to him and support him.

  "Rome!"

  Roman covered his mouth with his hand, but black blood sprayed through the gaps of his fingers, and it fell on his jeans.

  This was not good! Julie panicked at the thought of how things were turning dire with him.

  "Your body is not able to take in the blood. It is repulsed by it," whispered Julie, and she brought in a cloth to help him clean his hand and lips.

  "The forbidden side of the door is filled with dark magic that once belonged to the witches and still does. But the dead ones," wheezed Roman, sitting on the ground, and Julie sat down along with him. "The balance between vampires and witches is delicate, and I took in the darkness that was within you."

  More than his body accepting it, it felt like the darkness was trying to corrupt his body and kill him, Julie thought in her mind.

  "We should go to Elder Remy. He might know about it," said Julie, but Roman wasn't willing to go make a visit.

  "I just feel tired, Winters," said Roman before he leaned and placed his head on Julie's lap. "Let me take a quick nap here," he finished his sentence with a cough.

  Saying this, Roman closed his eyes while Julie stared at him. She noticed the subtle shadow that had formed under his eyes out of internal exhaustion.

  "I used to sleep like this on my mother's lap," murmured Roman, and Julie brought her hand towards his head before combing his hair through her fingers. "Sometimes like you, I wonder if it is possible to see her again, for I miss her very much and wish to speak to her."

  He was having similar thoughts like her, thought Julie in her mind. They both missed their mothers, as they had lost them too early. The more time she spent with Roman, pondering about them, the more she came to see how similar they were as if they were two pieces of one single puzzle.

  Julie ran her fingers through Roman's thick lock of hair, gently weaving through them while they sat in the dorm in silence. She heard him continue to speak to her,

  "Donovan has some very interesting theories about the dark stone that now resides in my heart. That it could be from the other side of the door… and it makes me wonder if I can step in like the other witches have."

  "But it isn't safe," murmured Julie.

  "I am already a dead person," replied Roman, and he turned in her lap so that his head laid in such a way that he could now see Julie's face while the back of his head continued to rest. "The probability of me dying is less compared to when it comes to you. You might be the Corvin's daughter, but you are still a person who is alive."

  Julie pursed her lips. She wondered if it was worth a try. If there was more to lose than to gain from the thought hovering on both of their minds.

  Roman brought his hand to Julie's face, caressing her face before it curled around the back of her head and pulled her towards him. She leaned forward, kissing his lips and feeling the softness of it. It was a tender and sweet kiss that was filled with a longing.

  The next day, all the students took a deep breath before they stepped into the halls and the classrooms to take up their exams. Like others, Julie sat down on one of the desks while Melanie sat on another one in the next room.

  "Do not cheat or talk. Sit in your assigned seats and raise your hands when you are done with your paper," announced Mr. Borrell, in charge of Julie's classroom. "Questions papers will be distributed in a minute."

  When the students received the question paper, Julie was glad that she had studied in the beginning of her year, even though she missed the second half of it. But then the questions didn't make much sense right now as she read it.

  Somewhere deep down in her heart, Julie had hoped to be spared from taking the exams and to graduate from her current year with ease. But who knew that they were serious, when they said that Ms. Dante didn't care even if aliens invaded Veteris to complete the students from taking their exams.

  She raised her head, looking at the students who were in the classroom. Everyone seemed to be busy writing the answers, while only a handful looked at the other students.

  This was not good, thought Julie in her mind. She was sure she had covered all the syllabus, so why didn't the question make sense to her?

  "Ms. Winters," came the firm voice in front of her, and Julie turned to notice Mr. Borrell stood next to her desk like a giant, looking down at her. "Keep looking at the students and waste your time, and you will have less time to focus on your own answer sheet. Eyes on your own paper."

  Julie awkwardly smiled at Mr. Borrell, and looked at the question paper. It couldn't be that bad, could it? She asked herself. There should be a couple of questions that could pass her. Her brown eyes started going through the questions.

  'Why does everything feel unheard?' she questioned herself in her mind, and she skipped to the next question. 'Nope, not this. Okay, next……'

  Five minutes later, Julie cursed herself. Did the professor decide to give all the questions from the chapters that she had skipped reading? Now this is why you don't pick your favorite chapters and read, she scolded herself.

  The first forty-five minutes passed with Julie wondering if she should perhaps explain things that she knew. But it was obvious to know the result would still be zero.

  Mr. Borrell, who stood at the front of the classroom, watched Julie struggle with her question sheet. Seemed like they would be holding an extra seat in the same class next year.

  A few classes away from Julie's examination room, Cillian stood in front of a class full of students.

  Some of the girls eyed him, as they hadn't seen this handsome professor before. The boys looked at him curiously, but only because they were a student full of vampires in this classroom. Trying to make himself more useful, the headmistress had apprehensively offered the former professor who was in charge of detention.

  Cillian didn't know what detention exactly meant in this place, as he had never taken up such a job before. But when he had inquired it with Evans, the counselor had said,

  'All you need to make sure is that if any student is out of line, you put them back in place.'

  The job didn't sound that odd, thought the Corvin, looking at the students before he glared at one of them. Raising his hand, he adjusted the leather glove that he had been given to hide his tree-like self. And while he did that, one of the students decided to cheat through and signaled his friend to pass the sheet of paper to copy it.

  The Corvin walked to the student, and pulled the paper from the other student's hand, "What do you think you are doing?" he questioned the one who had taken the answer sheet.

  The vampire chuckled, "That is not mine. I don't know how it even came here."

  Cillian stared hard at the student, and looked around the place to ask, "Whose paper is it?" When no one answered, he tore the paper in his hand and dropped it in the dustbin. "Any more papers that don't belong to you can be handed to me."

  Back in Julie's room, time was ticking and she didn't have answers for the questions in her hand. She wondered if Mr. Borrell was probably testing her.

  With just an hour more in her hand, she closed her eyes before opening it.

  Maybe it was time to use her ability in her daily life. Leaning towards her paper, she stared at it and touched its surface. She waited for Mr. Borrell to walk past her desk, and when she took a deep breath, a light circle and star formed beneath the paper.

  Julie mouthed the words, 'When no answer prevails, let the touch lead you to the answers, and the light shines in the darkness.'

  A second later, she heard very light whispering that reached her ears, everything that held answers and soon she started to write it down one by one as much as she could. When the bell rang, Mr. Borrell collected papers from every student, and he looked at Julie when she handed her paper in the end. Giving her a pointed look, he carried the answers sheets away from there.

  When she stepped out of the room, Julie felt she had come out from a war.

  "Julie!" Melanie called her, and they met up in the middle of the corridor. "How did it go? Felt like I was reading a new subject."

  "I think I will pass," replied Julie, somewhere glad that she wasn't the only one who felt that way, "How was yours?"

  "Yeah, same," laughed Melanie. "The paper was more difficult than most expected it to be."

  Far away from Veteris, in a mansion that had tall gates and the mansion itself, which was covered in darkness mostly, a man was brought in front of Joaquin and his brother Enoch.

  Joaquin stared at the man, a human, and he hummed, "You must love your life less to cut it so short by entering the lair of a vampire."

  The man had sandy blond hair combed backwards to show his rough face. One of his brown eyes was covered in an eye patch. Though his stance appeared to be confident, his eyes spoke otherwise. He replied, "I heard you were looking for the dark stone."

  Hearing this, curiosity entered Joaquin's eyes, and he asked, "What do you know about it? A hunter…… you must have come here on a purpose."

  "I have. I am here with a proposal, one that you might like," said the human. "The dark stone that you are looking for is in Veteris. And my sources cannot be wrong."

  Joaquin turned to look at his brother, "Seems like you missed the presence of the dark stone, Enoch." Turning to the look at the man, he questioned, "And where is it?"

  "I will tell you, if you agree to my terms," the man tried to bargain, and Joaquin clicked his tongue. In less than one second, the human's throat was being squeezed, and he tried to resist it.

  "If you have come here to me, don't expect I will listen to you," spoke Joaquin in a low, threatening voice.

  The man tried to claw Joaquin's hand and spoke, "If you kill me, you will not only have to leave this place, but I will tip the hunters such that they might come hunting for you."

  "Do you think you will be alive to see those hunters dead?" Joaquin's fingernails dug into the man's throat before he finally let him go, leaving the human to cough and catch his breath. "Speak."

  "The person who can make the stone and has the bloodline of the great witch is now there in Veteris. I want the witch, once she's done helping you," said the man.

  Enoch looked at the human with suspicion and asked, "You plan to use the witch for your own benefit? We cannot have her alive once she's done being useful to us."

  The man had a hard look, "You don't have to worry about that. I will kill her myself……" He was going to kill his so-called daughter with his very own hands.