"Okay, you can let go."
Contrary to Josie, who was a little reluctant and slow to retreat her hand from holding Hope's, Lizzie quickly dropped her hand.
"So, how is it?" Lizzie asked John, expecting more from the answer than she should.
Blinking a few times, John turned to her. "Your magical constitution is just like your sister. Both of you seem capable of absorbing magic from superficial areas of your body. However, due to lack of use, it is atrophied and thus you can't use it."
"Oh, okay." Lizzie said, a little bit taken by the answer.
But different from Lizzie, who was uncaring about such life-changing knowledge for her, Josie now could only think about that.
"And how can we solve it?" Josie quickly asked, looking between John and Hope.
Sadly, the answer she expected came quite lacking.
"Unfortunately, we don't know yet." John replied, crossing his arms. "We are talking about a biological magical system here. As far as I know, there isn't a treatment for something like it, even more so regarding one as rare as yours."
As he worked on his words, John remembered something. "When we were planning this meeting, didn't you say you would take a look at your family's grimoires? Did you find something?"
"Uh… well…" Josie thinned her lips. "I forgot to do it."
"Okay, no problem." John pursed his lips. "It's not like you can't look them up later. Also, although we are not sure, Hope here gave a good suggestion on how we can solve it."
Following his words, Josie and Lizzie looked up at the young woman with curious eyes, even with Lizzie forgoing her usual animosity towards her.
"It's not really a genius idea." Hope said. "I just suggested we can infuse these areas with magic and expect it to slowly come back to life. Maybe even cast some healing spells on it to see if it works somehow."
"Would healing spells even work? I mean, they are for physical treatments, not this… magical thingy." Lizzie chimed in, her opinion dragging everyone's eyes to her.
Upon her words, John titled his from one side to the other. "We can try to change the spell's structure."
"Sounds like a dangerous idea." Josie said, with everyone – even John – knowing she was correct.
Changing a spell's structure could result in a dozen different outcomes. Be it through how you spell it or how you conduct the magic, the unexpected could happen if you weren't careful enough.
"I will try my best to see if there is something like that already. And if I don't find it, we can try altering the spell and using it on me first since I can heal by myself." John said to comfort Josie.
"Are you sure?" Josie asked, a little bit of worry resurfacing on her eyes.
"Yeah, no problem on that part." John curtly nodded, a wide smile on his face. "I'm very curious about this magical system of yours, so consider it as me putting my skin on the table."
"Okay…" Josie accepted, though a bit reluctant. "Do you want me to go get the books? To see if you can find something."
"You can do it after we are done here." John said, uncrossing his arms. "After all, we came here to try something as well, right?"
"Yes, we did!" Lizzie exclaimed, her expression beaming with excitement. "I want to know how I can control magic without siphoning!"
"Calm down, lady." John chuckled at her excitement. "It might sound like a simple thing to do, but it's far from that. Even more so since you can't innately do that."
Lizzie frowned her forehead. "How hard could it be?"
"Well, if what I have been thinking is right. Chances are that you might be able to do it as long as you get a grasp over your soul. But, if you are not capable of doing it…" John didn't need to finish his words for everyone to understand what he meant.
At the same time he gave them some hope to remove an innate weakness of them and make themselves stronger, John must also be clear there are chances of them gaining nothing out of it.
And despite their young minds, Josie and Lizzie understood it without him having to say much more.
Seeing that his words sunk in their minds, John took a deep breath of satisfaction. "Okay, then. Since everything that needed to be said was said, let's sit down and start with our tests."
As John sat down on the grass, the sisters looked at each other before sitting down as well, with Hope sitting down as well.
"Everyone holds the hands of whoever is close to you." John reached out his hands, one to Hope and another to Josie.
Josie quickly held Lizzie and John's hands, with Hope also holding John's right hand. However, when it was time for her and Lizzie to hold each other's hand, the two girls stared at each for some time before they slowly held the other's hand.
Yeah, they are frenemies. "Now, what I am going to do is simple." Well, I hope it will be. "First, I will resonate with the environment's magic and then, through our physical contact, I will try to share the sensation with you. This is just one of the ideas and the most secure of the ones I had. So, are you all ready?"
"Yes."
"Uhum."
With Hope nodding at last, John took a deep breath and unconsciously, the girls did it as well.
"First of all, try to clear your mind. It will help you sense the changes in your body better…" John muttered, his soft tone and slow voice making him similar to a yoga instructor.
With the passing of time, the field where the group was sitting got quieter and everyone tried to concentrate only on the experience the young man was trying to transmit through them.
But as this place got quieter and calmness governed, screams and violence took over somewhere else.
[Scene Break]
Boom!
Due to a small explosion, more of the wooden walls of the establishment fell and part of the roof was sent somewhere else.
Across the bar, flames spread and embers scattered through the wind as parts of the structure fell more.
Laying and spread over the wooden floor was debris and blood, with the viscous liquid flowing to every corner of the burning bar.
The bodies where the blood flowed out were scattered, with some still breathing while others having long gone to the other life.
What was strange about some of the bodies wasn't the fact that some of them had head ripped off with clean precision or holes in their torso. What called attention were the claws on the tip of their fingers or fangs escaping their mouth, giving them an animalistic appearance.
Thud.
Despite the wind howling, fanning the flames and making them more widespread, a single step's sound echoed out.
Walking through the bodies and stepping on their blood, a single figure stood alone.
By the shape of his body, the figure itself wasn't intimidating. He wasn't exceedingly tall or unnaturally muscular. However, his presence alone seemed to fend off the flames themselves, as if the very natural phenomenon knew it couldn't do anything to that existence.
"My, you were more entertaining than I expected." The figure announced, walking a few steps ahead.
With every step taken by the man, one bloodied and disheveled figure on the floor tried to crawl more distant from him. However, with his broken fingers and one leg missing, escaping from the approaching figure was nearly impossible.
"Just stay still, please." The man, despite his incoming brutal actions, he still exuded elegance and finesse.
Crack!
"Arrrghhh!"
Breaking the remaining leg of his fugitive by stepping on it, the man not so gently picked her up by the back collar and dragged her back with him. "Come on, let's see if you have some decent things here to drink."
When coming to the front of the bar, a place barely devoured by the flames, the man threw the woman on one of the sits and walked to the back of the counter, taking a few looks at the bottles on show.
"Not unexpected, but nothing decently good to drink." The man carelessly said, throwing one bottle of alcohol drink on the fire, making the flames burn brighter. "Even your blood sucked due to the vervain in your veins."
"You despicable… existence…" The woman muttered, barely since her jaw wasn't in the best state.
"Good, you can talk. I thought I hit you too hard. You know how it is, a little bit more strength and I send one of you mutts to see my brother-in-law. It will be only when you meet him that you are gonna understand that I am still being civil for the sin you committed." The man turned around to face the woman, ignoring her hating stare at him. "That if you don't meet her mom. Then, you are fucked up."
"You know only… how to threat?" The woman bloodily smiled, mocking the man. "I guess I expected more from the King of New Orleans."
"That sounds so cliché coming from someone else." Marcel muttered to himself. "And it's the former King. Now, my land is somewhere else."
"Right, I forgot. You are just a loser who lost his crown."
"Whatever you say to feel better in this situation, miss." Marcel picked up a small fork from nearby and started playing with it by spinning it around his fingers. "Now, I think we've had enough of this chit-chat and now we must go back to what I asked earlier, right?"
"Go fuck-! Urgh!"
Letting go of the fork now staking the woman's hand into the counter, Marcel cleaned off his hands. "Can you say it again?"
"I will kill you!"
"I very much doubt that." Marcel said, his figure vanishing.
A moment later, he stood behind the woman, but with something–or better yet–someone in his hands.
Turning around to see what was happening, the woman widened her eyes and gritted her teeth at the scene.
"Let him go…"
"Sure, I can do that. No problem at all." Marcel said, holding a man, barely an adult, by his neck. "However, you have to answer my questions. If you don't."
Tss!
"Aaaargh!" The man screamed, but he couldn't reach out to where his ear once was as both his arms were broken. As a werewolf, he unfortunately lacked a vampire's fast healing.
Throwing the ear away, Marcel continued. "Relax a little, would you? You can still stitch it back if your pack leader here answer my questions." Calmly, the enhanced vampire looked at the woman once again. "So, ready to give me some answers or will you wait for me to rip this man apart and every other still living member of your pack?"
"I can't tell you anything!"
"Oh, I think you-"
"No, I can't!" The woman interrupted him, her expression of defeat while looking at the man profusely bleeding. "I literally can't! So, please. Just…"
"Hm, I think I get what is happening here." Marcel muttered, thinking of something.
Without much else to say, Marcel approached the woman and carelessly ripped her shirt open.
Not so surprisingly, he didn't bat an eye at the upper part of her torso. Instead, all he paid attention to was a small symbol engraved on the woman's skin, beside her navel.
"Well, this was a very good shot." Marcel said, surprised as well. "Let me guess, is this the reason why you can't give me answers?"
"…" The woman didn't say anything or even expressed herself otherwise.
However, her silence was enough to confirm Marcel's suspicions.
"You know. Some time ago, a few individuals thought it was a really good idea to invade my home and try to take it from me by barging into my house and attacking me. It was strange, really. I mean, my reputation must still be pretty good, right?" Marcel let his grip loose on the man's neck, making him fall on the floor while he paced around.
A few steps away from the two werewolves, Marcel continued his words. "I thought it was strange. Even with large numbers, there is no way a group of normal vampires could ever think of killing me or my wife. There is a certain level of stupidity even among this new generation of vampires. However, all changed when I met an interesting fella. It all became clear."
Memories flashed in Marcel's mind, his expression becoming more severe as they unfolded. "By meeting him, I was capable of learning how dozens of stray vampires bonded together and decided to attack a city where an Original lives. I finally understood how they passed through my borders without anyone noticing and even why those vampires fought with such passion in front of certain death."
From a nearby table, Marcel picked up an iron knife and tested its sharpness on his own finger. "And you know what was interesting about that man? He had a very similar symbol tattooed on him. Right, it was on his solar plexus instead of his belly, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that two groups targeted my family and both of their leaders have the same symbol on them. Don't you think that is such an absurd coincidence?"
Ptu.
Taking a seemingly slow step to the side, Marcel dodged the spit thrown at him. "Really? I am pissed with you and you think of spitting on me? It only makes me want to rip that boy's tongue and make you eat it."
"Good luck with that, you beast…" The woman murmured, using Marcel's alias not as others respectfully and fearfully do, but with extreme disdain and scorn for the man.
She fell from the chair and crawled to stay side by side with the young man, cleaning off his face from his own blood.
"You despicable bloodsucker that used our kind's blood to strengthen yourself…" The hate in her words was a complete contrast to the tenderness she showed the young man.
But Marcel didn't even faze under that gaze, he had seen way worse looks in his life. "I guess since you've noticed you have no value to me, you gave up on living."
"Which is the greatest regret I will carry on to the other side."
At the end of the woman's words, Marcel felt a slight tingling sensation at the back of his right ear, a sign he was capable of recognizing in the past decades of his life.
It wasn't death's embrace calling him yet, just a courteous warning of what was about to come.
The flames burning down the walls slowed down and the woman's last words became distorted to his ears as he vanished from within the building.
"I'll at least take a piece of you with me! For the-"
Not even finishing her own words, an incandescent orange glow surfaced from the woman's skin, with the symbol on her burning with a crimson scarlet light.
From her eyes and mouth, light escaped and her screams consumed the surroundings.
Alongside her screams, the temperature inside the crumbling bar exponentially increased, enough for metal to melt down and wood to turn into cinders in a moment.
BOOM!
In less than a moment, the bar was engulfed by crimson hot flames that turned the hot desert into a place almost impossible to live.
Smoke arose from the concentration of the fire and cinders scattered along the air.
A few dozen meters from the epicenter of the explosion, Marcel grunted as he tried to stand up, having been thrown on the ground by the shockwave of the explosion.
"Fuck…" He gritted his teeth, feeling an intense pain on his back and belly.
Looking down, he noticed a stake of wood bathed in his own blood coming out of his stomach, with his regeneration trying to close the injury even with the object impeding it from closing.
When he was finally up, Marcel took hold of the stake and casually pulled it out of his torso, making his blood flow out in relatively large quantities.
However, impressively enough, the injury of a few centimeters of radius on his torso quickly braked the bleeding and closed his injury. All of it in under a dozen seconds.
"That hurt." He muttered, looking up at the result of the woman's last actions. "Shit, and there goes my lead." He sighed profoundly, kicking the sand beneath his feet in irritation.
Despite the uncommon situation, Marcel remained calm and casual while he grabbed his phone and quickly called someone.
"Any news?"
"More or less." Marcel replied, not bothering to skip right to what mattered. "It seems they are related, dear."
"What are?"
"The attacks on New York and these werewolves targeting Hope. Apparently, they are all orchestrated by a single entity. It seems to be like a group from that woman's last words. She had the same tattoo as that guy that was leading the strays into our territory."
"Bloody hell…" Rebekah sighed on her phone, rubbing her forehead on what Marcel just said. "Can't we have just a couple years of rest without anyone trying to kill us?"
"You know how it is, darling. Our strength attracts all kinds of individuals who wish for more in this world. They know that to reach the top, they must go over us first." Marcel said as he walked forward, ignoring the rising temperature with every step.
"Yeah, yeah, I know that. Elijah used to say the same thing sometimes." Rebekah got up from her couch and walked around, too uneasy to stay still. "By your words, I might assume that whoever you were talking to is dead now, right? Is there someone else you can make to cough out some words?"
Standing amidst the fire, Marcel shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Everyone who was still alive in the building got scorched to the death by their leader exploding herself in a ball of fire."
"That is concerning."
"I thought the same. It also points out this group of theirs possibly has one or more witches on their side.You can't just pick up a witch off the street that can do something like this."
"Depending on where you live." Rebekah dryly chuckled to her own words, knowing well a place where you can stumble against witches that could end a town if they wanted. "Now that this lead is gone, what else do we have?"
"The company in Washington Hope's boyfriend told us. Even if they weren't paying most of the bounty, the money they were offering is still great. I will run up there to see if I learn something else."
"You should take Davina with you. You know that witches are way more complicated to deal with than some texan mutts."
"We know that is not possible since she is helping your brother guarding up the west." Marcel denied the idea, even with a longing look in his eyes as he remembered his daughter-figure. "We can't simply forsake our roles while investigating this. I'm already feeling bad enough by leaving you alone at home."
"I can take care of myself."
"That wasn't what I meant."
"I know, but it's what I want to say." Rebekah replied while pouring something for her to drink. "You don't need to worry about me while you are on this little adventure. You are doing it for a special reason, after all."
Momentarily, Marcel was silent before saying something else back. "Do you think we should bring her back home while we are dealing with this?"
"Only if you are the one who explains everything to her, because I don't have the guts for it." Rebekah humorously said, knowing well how her niece would react if she learned about their actions all these years. "And lying to her won't work much in a situation like this. She wouldn't leave that school unless something really serious happened." After pouring something for her to drink, Rebekah drank the scotch in one gulp. "Besides, we don't need to worry much about her protection. Even if Alaric hates us to the death, he will protect her. Also, if it comes to worst, I'm pretty sure that boy is willing to risk his life for her."
"Do you think so?"
"I do. You had to see how he looked at her when on that video call. It reminded me of when you were just a boy." Rebekah joyfully chuckled when revisiting those old memories.
As for Marcel, he simply snorted and shook his head. "Okay, then. I will trust your judgement on him."
"I'm never wrong on matters like these, or at least most of the times."
"I pray so, dear." Marcel said, kicking a bolder away. "Hey, I will call off now. I will try to see if I find something here before heading to Washington. I will warn you if I find anything."
"All right. Take care and return in one piece, okay?"
"I love you." Was Marcel's reply.
"I love you too."
With that, the call ended and Marcel put his phone away in his pocket before looking around.
Even if the entire place was on flames and very possibly authorities were already coming to check what was happening, he knew he still had time to take a look around.
"Okay, let's see if they left anything useful for me."
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A/N
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