C2 Chapter 2

Lilith dozed off in her quiet favorite corner of the college library where people rarely went to and where she could stay unnoticed and undisturbed even by the librarian or the library assistants. Her head lolled sideways and downwards until she leaned forward slightly and her head went crashing down painfully on the wooden surface of the partitioned table. She moaned in pain, startled and then scrunched up her nose to the thick smell of burning in the air. She looked around but she couldn’t find any trace of smoke or a fire but before she could properly investigate the horrible same disappeared as quickly as it came.

She frowned slightly but she couldn’t find the source of the sharp smoky smell. She rubbed a palm to her head only to find a small bump forming. She turned her phone on and began to pack up her things ready to head for her next class.

As she walked out the door, she bumped into to someone and her books fell to the ground. Lilith cursed under her breath and bent to pick up her things.

“I’m so sorry. I should’ve watched where I was going”, came from the person opposite her who also bent to pick up their things. The voice was so silky and smooth that Lilith had to look up at the person who had just spoken and when she did, her breath caught in her throat. She was staring into the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen and she squat frozen as a small smile pulled at the girl’s lips.

“Are you okay?”, The girl said and Lilith snapped out of the trance with a jolt and she blinked rapidly, trying to get a hold of her self. Her cheeks were stained with a pink hue as she cleared her throat and stood up.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m sorry, your eyes are very… beautiful”, Lilith struggled to say as she blushed in embarrassment.

Thankfully, the girl shrugged it off with a grin. “So I’ve been told. I’ll be careful next time. Could you, please point me towards the administration building? I’m a transfer student and I am so confused”.

Lilith laughed and pointed out a building in the far left and the girl smiled her thanks, patting her on the shoulder as she left with a wave. Lilith watched her go until she entered the building and then she realized that after having had contact with her, she didn’t have the usual flashes of images or the slight headaches that came with them.

She’s an odder, Lilith concluded as she made her way to class avoiding as many people as she could.

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Mikhail sat on the mat on the floor of his personal gym in his home with a sigh as he placed his outstretched hand down on the ground beside him. He had caught it too, it seemed. The ‘bug’ that had been affecting the powers of werewolves in the city. He tried again to summon his elements of fire and lightning but all that came out of his palm was a little puff of smoke. He buried his head in his hands and got up, this time, he moved away from the punching bag in front of him, trying as much as he could to infuse all his energy into his right hand. Whenever he did this, it would create a burst of blue flames that would consume whatever was nearby but all that was produced was fire in the shape of a tiny teardrop that wasn’t even enough to properly light a cigar but this attempt was followed by a stuffy feeling like his head was filled with cotton and a slight metallic taste in his mouth.

He held his hurting head and in a split second, he saw a familiar person with long brown hair and hazel eyes before it vanished right before his eyes. He staggered with a small groan and remembered where he had seen the face, the day before when he had glanced at the mirror.

Who was it?, he mused. Was someone trying to tell him something?

Before he could delved deeper into his thoughts, his phone rang on the table in the corner of the room. He schooled his features and picked up the call.

“Anything new, Kevin?”, He said, walking out of the gym into his spacious and elegantly decorated living room.

“Nothing especially new or good, Mikhail. We’ve got two more cases of the werebug. Or at least that’s what their calling it around here”.

“Are the affected persons strong and powerful people in the community?”.

“That’s the thing. The people who have weak abilities have less issues than those whose abilities are significantly stronger. If their powers are not too strong, they might experience weakness when they try to forcefully effect their powers but the strong ones begin to bleed and are unable to move until their powers slowly begin to recover. It’s an incredibly strange phenomenon and affected people are being quarantined to see if the bug is contractible and if a cure can be made. That’s pretty much everything”.

Mikhail heaved a frustrated sigh, “Alright, continue according to the plan for now to see if there’s anything that can be done to slow the rate at which the abilities fade and quicken the rate at which they return”.

“I’m talking with Charles Higgins, who’s the best and most highly placed professional medical practitioner in the werewolf community and he and his team are working round the clock to find a cure or at least an improvement on these cases. Are you okay, though? Your voice sounds a little off”.

Mikhail panicked slightly but still managed to maintain his composure, “I’m fine, I got out of the gym. I guess I might’ve overworked myself”.

“Cool then. I’ll call you when there’s new development”.

With that, Mikhail hung up and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. He could feel a headache coming on. He couldn’t let anyone know about his having the illness because then the members of the pack would gradually lose trust in his leadership or he would be termed as weak and unfit to lead. And leading the pack had always been a responsibility of his and his family, his father had been the alpha of the pack before he was born and he was obligated to make the pack stronger than it was under his father and he had prepared for all twenty eight years of his life to lead the pack. He had to find a way to cure himself before anyone found out that there was something going on with him. He just hoped the symptoms would come to play when he was on an import quest with others or a fight.

His thoughts wandered back to the lady he had been seeing. Was she involved in some way with what was happening or was she trying to pass a message across to him? He had to find her to see if she was actually human and if there was something she wanted to say to him. He picked up his phone and dialed a number.

Lilith tossed and turned in her sleep and she seemed to be struggling desperately to get away from something, someone. In her dream, there were flashes of bright light and her hand was enclosed tightly in another’s who held unto her when she stumbled as they ran together. There were flames everywhere around and everywhere she looked seemed chaotic and she held up her hand to her nose to prevent breathing in the smoke as debris and ashes blew into her face. She wanted to stop running but she wasn’t in control of her body and all she could do was run. From the left and right sides of her came panicked and painful screams that tore at her heart yet she couldn’t stop to help them out. Tears streamed down her pale visage and as she ran she heard a loud voice call her name. She knew she shouldn’t turn because whoever was behind was definitely the person chasing them and obviously didn’t have any good intentions but the voice sounded so familiar that she felt a strong impulse to prove herself wrong and so she turned around to glance at the caller and her heart went cold in her chest. She felt a stinging pain in her heart when she saw who it was. She was filled with an overpowering sense of sorrow and betrayal as her eyes met with theirs.