Chapter 23:

“Where have you been?” Yeri questioned.

 “I was out with Hyun today. Where else will I be?” Tiffany said.

Yeri ran her eyes on her and grabbed her risk. “Did you use ‘Her’ power again?!”

Tiffany’s eyes shook. “I-I didn’t! You told me not to use it, right? Why would I go against you, auntie?”

“I told you already Tiffany. Unleashing her will only shorten your lifespan faster. Other than feeding times- that's the only time you should let Her take control! Do you really want to be with Hyun? If you keep doing this…” Yeri just trailed off of her words, they’ve been through this a hundred of times already- And that wasn’t even an exaggeration. Tiffany pulled her wrist away from Yeri. “I know. I know what I’m doing. Don’t worry about me.”

Joy came out of the shadows and put her arms around Yeri, “Go ahead and take a rest Tiffany.”

Tiffany made a curt nod thanking the devil and as soon as Tiffany was out of sight, Joy pulled Yeri to do a shadow travel and they went to Joy’s chambers’ on the underworld. On Joy’s bed lay a girl with a short hair. Yeri recognized her as the girl in her class, Amber. “Why is she here?” She questioned her other half- ready to unleash her wrath just in case. Joy pointed at the hellhound lying at the feet of the bed. “I came across this dog during shadow travel and I saw her carrying her on his back. I asked him what happened-. “Joy let out a heavy sigh. “Tiffany bit her. There’s nothing we can do with this werewolf anymore. But I figured we should send her to your sister. Her family will be looking for her body to burry.”

Yeri had a complicated expression on her face. “Save her, Sooyoung. I know you can!” Joy glared at her. “You can’t save every life you want to save, Yeri!”

“You’ve done that for me before!” Yeri insisted.  Joy’s face was pain. “If I save her, you’ll die.” She came forward to hug Yeri’s petite body. “…and I don’t want to lose you.”

Yeri wanted to retaliate more- that it didn’t matter but she knew she can’t die yet- not until she sees the end of her race, so she freed herself from her lover’s embrace and went to see Amber. She held her lifeless body to give her a hug. She was nice to her. What a pity… “I’ll take her to my sister.”

"You're wrong auntie... I need to use Her power to be with Hyun." As soon as Tiffany closed her room, her eyes glowed red once again and whispered, “Accipere figura.” Yet her voice didn’t sound like her own husky voice. From the floors of her room, clay figures of wolves came to life. They were muddy and pungent. “Two fairies dared to snoop around my past. I want you to kill them and bring me their heads.”

The clay wolves dissolved and sank back to the gap of the tiles in her room. She threw a glare on her door. “That Yeri’s keeping an eye on us.” Tiffany’s voice shifted to her own. “We can’t let her know.”

Victoria and Luna have been roaming around Beijing China for days now; they decided to camp the night on the hotel as planned. They decided that camping on a mountain near the city to recharge their fairy powers. Being close to nature is the best for them. Even if they have this title under their belt regarding about how fast they collect information, they were having a hard time retracing their lead about the kid Dara have bitten. “I’ve been trying to reach Amber but she isn’t picking up.” Victoria said as she was fixing their magical tent and packing it to her belt bag. “I have a bad feeling about this Lu.” Victoria said. “Me too, I have a bad feeling about this, Qian. Our leads about her activities are very limited. All we know is that she lived Downtown alone then went to Paektu Mountain.”  Luna chuckled, “I can’t believe I’m saying this- but this is the hardest job we ever took up ever since we became Intel collectors.”

Victoria tried to reach for Amber’s phone again. “It’s not even ringing anymore now.” She bit her lips. “Something’s off… Something is definitely up. The downtown is famous for auctioning spell books- and we’ve also confirmed that three most dangerous of them were sold to this kid.”  Luna counted on her finger as she recited the books' titles;

"exitium est vinculum spell book, commixtione adunatati spell book, vel sanctificare me spellbook..."

Victoria smirked in amusement. “The biggest question is how the hell did a kid afford to buy all those? Even a grown up vampire would have a hard time trying to acquire those books at the auction.”

“Not to mention that the Mt. PaekTu from the past is known as witches’ lair. It doesn’t make sense. What would a borderline E Class vampire have to do at a witches’ lair?” Luna assessed her holographic map projecting from her glasses.

“Possibly- she’s there to get herself cured by a witch?”

“…and what about the books, what is she going to do with them?”

“Maybe she was going to trade them for her cure.”

“It still doesn’t make sense, Qian. We’re back to square one. Where did she get the money to have her hands on those rare spell books?”

There was a rustling of bushes heard.

Victoria jumped on her feet, her senses sharp; moving so fast to put Luna behind her. Clay formed wolves were snarling at them. “Oh ,” She snarled looking back at Luna. “I didn’t touch anything! I swear!” Luna answered; it was always like this. Luna ends up always triggering protective spells when they’re snooping around. Victoria knew Luna was telling the truth and knows that Luna didn’t really trigger anything this time. “Where the hell did they come from?” Victoria hissed. Luna was fast enough to whisper under her breath, "Protego!” A barrier separating them and the clay wolves appeared. Luna held on to Victoria’s arm. “Let’s go. We can’t beat those! If we attack them, the injury will appear on our body too!”

Victoria didn’t think twice and made a run for it with Luna, both of them shifting to their wolf form. They ran and ran until their paws were tired. Victoria looked back to check on the clay wolves. ‘I think we’ve lost them already.’ Victoria said through their link. Luna was panting. Her stamina wasn’t on par with Victoria. ‘Not for long- they’ll be materializing next to us if we don’t go somewhere surrounded by water. We need to get off land...’  Victoria turned her head left and right. ‘Shift back. I’ll carry you to the pier.’ Luna didn’t need to be told twice. She switched form and rode Victoria’s back.

**

It was already night time when they reached the pier. “This is good, still no signs of them.” She said as she ran her hands on her mate’s fur. Victoria shifted back to her human form. “Let’s board a boat and go back to Michino. At least we have a powerful vampire to protect us there.” Victoria said as soon as she shifted back.

Just right after Victoria finished her words the clay wolves materialized a foot before them. “There’s no time to get on a boat!” Luna shouted. Luna tried to use Protego again but it was ineffective now. The clay wolves have developed and were now unaffected of the spell. “RUN!” Luna shouted to Victoria. Victoria looked at the sea and then at Luna. “Don’t worry! I’ll be right behind you!” Luna shouted at her, pushing her away. Victoria grimaced but did as told. She jumped at the sea and produced a big leaf from the garden’s of Nereides from her belt bag that turned into a make shift raft. As she went up the raft, she searched her bag of the thermos air given by Queen Boa. “Luna, let’s go!” She shouted as she was trying to open it up.

Luna threw 3 magic beans on the ground thick vines with thick leaves materialized but one of the clay wolves’ claw reached Luna and had her chest wounded. Disregarding the pain she’s feeling she dived to the sea and swam to Victoria clutching her bloody chest. She looked back at the wolves that tore apart the vines; they were looking so lost- trying to catch scent of their prey.

“You’re hurt!” Victoria screamed. “You really love stating the obvious sometimes, don’t you love?”  Luna said trying to lighten up the mood as she winced, and then pressed her palms on the wound. “Open up the thermos already and sail us home.” Victoria did as what she was told, her shaky hands uncapping the thermos as she was worried of Luna. Luna on the other hand reached for her phone. “Damn! It’s wet! It’s not working anymore.” She winced. Victoria looked back at her as they sailed. “How are we going to call for help?” Luna continued. Victoria temporarily capped on the thermos and whispered to the water, “Vocant naides!” then she looked at Luna again. “We can pass messages through nymphs. We'll tell them to pick us up.” Luna laughed humorlessly. “Water nymphs are forgetful, barely reliable!”

Victoria looked at the puddle of water that started bubbling, “We have no choice! I need to try it… If not- I might lose you.” She said with teary eyes.

“Accipere figura.”  - Taking shape

"exitium est vinculum spell book, commixtione adunatati spell book, vel sanctificare me spellbook..." - Destruction of Bond spell book, Fusing spell book and seperation spell book

Protego - To protect

“Vocant naides!” - To call on water nymphs

Author's note: Now... to kill or not to kill?

ps. I did not proof read... again