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IT HAD BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE THE PARTY. Everything had gone back to normal; Victoria was facing her school work, Jason had become a little bit more friendly, Liz and Parker had been helping Anika, Bruce and Mark had suddenly started spending time together, and, Diego and Victoria had gotten closer — so...normal. Rita, though, hadn't still forgiven Jason and Victoria for sneaking out.

Friday night arrived rapidly. Everybody in the house had already gone to bed. Not Victoria, though. At least not until twelve o’clock at midnight, when she was too tired to continue her homework.  But how could she think about school when she had other matters to attend to. Something was going wrong with her and she didn’t know what. She had suddenly become stronger, faster, and now had magical powers. She didn't how she could handle this catch-22 with school.

Victoria finally coerced her body to collaborate. She laggardly but incontrovertibly fell asleep in her room, the only place other than home she regarded herself secure from jeopardy.

Wholly into her slumber, Victoria appeared in the hallway of the school: The dark walls and neon lights. Just then, a door appeared at the other end of the hallway. It looked normal: made of wood and painted red. Victoria approached the door and opened it. Behind the door was darkness, nothing but pitch darkness. Then, like a vacuum cleaner, the darkness sucked her in, the door shutting behind her.

Victoria felt herself falling, the pitch-black darkness enveloping her. All she could do was hold onto her body. Victoria thrashed and turned in her sleep, holding herself as she did in her dream.

She felt her feet hit the hard ground, and stood, wobbling, as all the indistinguishable forms around her came into focus.

Victoria knew where she was. The tall shadowed trees stretching up into the night sky, the dark tree trunks, the clusters of bushes, and the slightly observable black paths creeping through the undergrowth, was the forest. The air smelt of fertile earth, decaying leaves, and a slight scent of flowers.

Just when Victoria thought her dream was starting to make sense, the lights turned out. All around her was darkness and… seconds into her emotional tangle, the lights turned back on, but this time everything was darker. Not completely dark, just darker. She could hear the sound of moving water behind her. She turned and almost swallowed her tongue.

In front of her, was a stream — the stream that held the sarcophagus of Nikon. She took several steps back in shock and slammed into someone… or rather something. Victoria turned once again to be faced with a ribyllin. Then suddenly, out of thin air, more creatures started to materialize out of thin air, surrounding her. Victoria could see other ribyllins, werewolves, werejaguars, werefoxes, wizards, and even lacertas.

She was completely enclosed by the creatures, leaving only the way to the stream open. The creatures moved forward, pushing Victoria closed to the stream until she was fully in the water.

One of the witches walked up to her and made a swift hand movement. “Diatagi!” Victoria's body suddenly started to move on its own. She could control the movements it made.

She knelt down in the rivulet, putting her two hands in the water. She knew what she was going to do, but she couldn't stop herself from doing it.

“Y...” Victoria tried fighting the words, but it wasn't working. “Ypsó.”

The water began to bubble as if it was being boiled. Victoria stepped out of the water but stood at the bank. Not surprisingly, the stone coffin rose from the water.

“Aposýndesi!” She shouted.

The cover of the coffin began to move, uncovering the evil that laid within. Victoria started to approach the coffin, as tears trickled down her cheek. She wanted to wake up, She wanted the nightmare to end.

When she stood beside the sarcophagus, she peered into it. The skeleton of Nikon laid there, bound by chains. The chains were glowing and were inscribed with marks that Victoria understood to be magic runes. This most prominent of them was one that looked like a straight line with two smaller ones fixed at the top and stood angled upwards.

Victoria unsheathed the claws on her right hand, and cut with it, her left wrist. She raised her left arm over the skeleton, and blood trickled into where the mouth of the skeleton should have been.

Abruptly, the ground began to shake violently, the chains binding Nikon turned red hot, until they finally exploded, sending Victoria flying feet away from the coffin. When she regained herself, it was too late. The skeleton began to rise from the coffin, slowly regenerating until a red layer had formed on it.

Victoria bared her claws and fangs. She had to stop it from rising. She had to kill Nikon. She slowly rose up, as the creatures surrounding her focused on the coffin. She charged—

And aroused from her slumber, hyperventilating, her chest moving up and down at an unnatural speed. Victoria still laid in her bed, the morning sun filling the room. Her hair was plastered to her face, which was heavily beaded with perspiration, and her body hurt. She checked her left wrist, but there were no marks. It was just a dream.

* * *

When she marched into the kitchen, fully dressed, she found Jason already at the table.

Victoria walked over to the dining, and sat down at the edge of one of the chairs, placing her two fists on her cheeks. She couldn't get the image of the skeleton out of her head. It was like the more she tried to make it disappear from her mind, it became more vivid.

Rita was clacking around, cooking breakfast, slightly willy-nilly. She was clearly still furious with them. She hardly even looked their way. Every now and then, She occasionally murmured, but Victoria caught things like “sneaking out to a party like that,” and “don't know what got into them.”

She gave Victoria dirty looks as she angled blood-covered bacon and eggs onto her plate and normal bacon and eggs for herself for Jason and herself.

They ate their food in silence, occasionally staring at each other. Then, Jason dropped his fork loudly on his plate.

“I can't take it anymore!” He shouted, looking at Rita. “We've been begging and pleading, but you're still angry.”

Rita remained silent.

“I'm sorry Rita,” he apologized. “It's not like we were hurt.”

Jason's last statement made Rita look at him. “What if it did?” She fumed. “What if you were hurt? What would I do if something had happened to you two?”

Jason expression turned glum. “But we've promised to never do it again. We could never let you worry about us?” He said. “We love you too much.” He smiled. He was buttering her up, and it was evidently working.

Rita chuckled,  staring at the two teenagers by her side.

“Alright,” She laughed. “I admit, I kinda overreacted, but you both started it.”

“Rita, seriously?” Victoria asked.

“Okay… I call a truce.” Rita announced. “We'll all behave ourselves from now on, and you're no longer grounded.”

They all cheered to that, laughing as they continued eating their food. They engaged in small talks until all three plates were clean, which took, not surprisingly, a short time.

“Victoria would you mind?” Rita inquired, gesturing at the dirty dishes in the sink.

Victoria flicked her hand at the dishes. “Cureo!” The sponges suddenly came to life to life and began cleaning the dishes, clangoring dully in the background.

“Right, magical powers,” Rita said in a catatonic voice. “Just make sure the foam doesn't spill on the floor.”

Rita walked over to the staircase, began to ascend it. Just then, she stops and turns back to face Victoria and Jason.

“I almost forgot,” said Rita, suddenly. “We're going to the dome today.”

“Awesome!” Victoria sang. “A whole day without Jason.”

Jason returned. “But, I've got plans.”

“I don't think you understand. I meant that we're going to the dome. The two of us— you and me. Jason has other things to do.”

“But Rita!” Victoria groused. “I want to stay home today. I have a lot to catch up on. With Potions, Enchantments, Study of Ancient Magic, and Runes classes, I'll never finish.”

“Stop fussing. You've had your nose in your books all week. You need time off, and that is settled.” Rita said.

Victoria suddenly slammed her hand in the table. “No, I want to stay home!” She slammed her hand on the table again, but with more strength, breaking it into pieces. “You can't tell me what to do. You're not my mother!”

Rita looked scared by Victoria's reaction. What had she said? Victoria attempted to carry the chair.

“Victoria, enough!” Rita yelled, putting her powers in her words. Victoria dropped the chair, under the influence of Rita's siren powers. Jason sat, watching Victoria with a puzzled expression on his face.

“We are going to the dome and that is final!” Rita shouted, her eyes blazing and her face reddening in anger. “Now, fix the table.” She said before proceeding up the staircase, stomping her feet loudly.

“Diorthono!” Victoria thundered, flicking her hand at the table, and the shattered pieces began to rise up from the ground, joining together piece by piece until the table stood as it was.

She wanted to stay away from the dome. The Order might be there, and she wanted to avoid them as much as she could. She also needed to get help; her dreams couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

At least the Aeon dome kitchen will keep me busy.

* * *

The kitchen of the Aeon dome was many things, but most importantly, it was crazy hot. Victoria was very confused from the entrance to the kitchen.

Rita had led her through the Doorway Foyer to a brick hall around one of the ground floor corridors. She tapped a certain beat on the wall; after which, a passage was revealed leading to the kitchen.

They were preparing lunch for the warriors that resided in the building. It was a hectic job. Victoria wondered how Rita managed to the do it every day. Rita had her tenderizing meat all morning long. This was, Victoria supposed, her punishment.

The majority of the residents were shapeshifters and that meant pounds and pounds of meat. Victoria could only spot about a quarter of the kitchen workers chopping vegetables and kneading the dough.

Victoria raised her head, as she removed sweat from her forehead. The kitchen was a large, high-ceilinged room, lit up by long windows and lanterns that floated above. They were several long tables, and the stone walls filled with almost fifty large baked clay fireplaces, where several pots and pans were placed, cooking.

She never knew a vampire could sweat so much; she didn't even know what she was again. This morning at breakfast; Victoria didn't mean to yell at Rita. She was just filled with so much anger, that she couldn't take it.

It wouldn't be the first time. It had been happening a lot. Like the other day, she almost lunged at Mrs. Stark, the Runes Class teacher, when she had failed Victoria. And, she had picking fights with her friends for no reason. She had been breaking a lot of things; if not for magic, Victoria would have been expelled.

For small matters, bad feelings would start to churn in Victoria's stomach. Rage, envy, hatred. She wanted to smash a wall. She wanted to rip someone apart, feel their bones crunch in her hands, eat their—

What is wrong with me?

Victoria punched the meat so hard, She was surprised that there wasn't a hole present in the table.

“I think that's enough tenderizing for today...”

Victoria turned to see Rita smiling at her. Isn't she angry anymore?

“…Why don't you run along? I can handle things from here.”

Victoria wanted to apologize. “Rita—”

“No question.” objected Rita. “Surely, this building is big enough for you to find something fun to do.”

Victoria nodded, and pulled off her apron, hanging it, as she made her way into the passage. When she got to the wall, it simply opened up for her.

What would she do? She could go to the courtyard and get in some training since she had been too busy. Victoria decided against it: anything that could make her heartbeat fluctuate wasn't a good idea...at least for now.

Then, She did want to figure out what was going wrong with her. So, maybe she could go to their library (if they had one), and check out books that could help.

* * *

The Library was massive, and looked more like a maze than a library, with three long arms stretching to the left, right, and, straight of the entrance, each lined with bookshelves so high, there were several ladders placed at intervals, like the ones at the school.

There were study tables emplaced throughout polished wooden floored rooms intersected and walled with full bookshelves. Books could be seen flying around the library, from shelf to shelf, some almost hitting Victoria in the head.

Victoria climbed one of the ladders. “Ladder, take me to the section on transcendental breeds.”

As if the ladder was listening, it began to move, dragging Victoria along with it until it got to its destination.

Here, Victoria pulled down every book on cross-breeds and outcrosses; which were very few. She found a study table and set to work browsing through the pile.

“ ‘Cross-breeding your pets... How to germinate hybrid plants…’ This book is not helping. I don't want to learn how to supernaturally cross-breed a dog and a goat...”

“ ‘Pyromancers are wizards with divination in form of fire or flames… The Art of Transfiguration... History of Outcrossed Monsters…’ ”

“I am done with cross-breeding!” announced Victoria, tossing aside The 101 To Kicking A Monster's Rump.

She went back to the table, holding a pile of books on dihybrids and trihybrids. She put them down and commenced turning the pages, looking for anything to explain her...condition.

Victoria later went down for lunch but ate ferociously quick, and then left for the library again.

Her head was filled with various question, none helping her condition. She stared pessimistically into the pages of Signs You Are A Hybrid. So far, she had only obtained the fact that increased strength was a symptom. Teeth loss… but she hadn't lost any teeth... Inexplicable desire to walk in the forest at night... She hadn't been in the forest, except in her dreams... Indecipherable dreams and visions...

Victoria froze. Her mind wandered back to the stream, the skeleton, the monsters. What if it had happened and it wasn't just a dream? She hadn't seen any marks on her wrist, but they could have healed. Still, they had been an earthquake and no one had mentioned anything about any tremors.

Victoria closed the book loudly, frustrated. She felt like the library was playing a prank on her. Out of a thousand books, not a single one had anything about a vampire with magical powers. Was she the first?

She hopelessly began to return the books, and when she got to the last book, she was interrupted.

“I see that you are a lover of books.” A low voice said from behind her.

Her attention was diverted to angry returning of books, that she hadn't noticed Alpha Marcus also returning books behind her. She was so surprised, that she fell off the ladder, landing on her buttock, no less.

Marcus helped her up as she tried to see straight.

“Are you okay?” He asked, concerned.

“I'm fine your…Alpha-ness.” Victoria was so confused, She couldn't think straight.

Marcus chuckled. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Of course, not,” Victoria answered. “I'm just a little bit dizzy.”

Marcus set her down on one of the chairs of the study table.

“Having a bad day, are we?” He asked.

Victoria looked at him expressionlessly. “How could you tell?”

“Wouldn't you mind tell me about it?”

Victoria liked at him, I sure of what to say. “Seriously?” She finally uttered. “I'm surprised you're talking to me. I am the enemy, aren't I? And you probably have other important matters to attend to.”

Marcus let loose his luminous smile. “I insist.”

Victoria launched into the story, beginning with the dream she had about Artemis, then her magic powers. She didn't mention her second dream about Nikon. That part would probably send to the dungeons.

“—so that's why I'm in the library.”

When Victoria finished, Marcus simply soughed.

“I agree that your presence in the city has caused some trouble within The Order, but I don't see a problem with it. This wouldn't be the first time we had a hybrid.”

Marcus's reaction was better than what Victoria had expected.

“Why did you bring me here?”

Marcus sighed, again. “There are many reasons. You are a vampire making you an adversary to the city. There is the fact that your...late father-” This just got awkward. “-was sending spies into the city, somehow, and the members of The Order demanded immediate attention.”

“So you decided to kidnap me?”

Could this get any more uncomfortable?

“Not you exactly,” Marcus explained. “Anyone related to Reynold would have been sufficient.”

Victoria stared at the table, drawing an imaginary circle as she processed what she had just heard. Her father had warned her to stay behind. If... If only she had listened. Victoria gasped as something popped into her head.

Victoria grinned widely. “Well, my father is… late.” She beamed. “So, that makes me the next in line to rule the clan. If you let me go, I can make sure the spies stop.”

Marcus looked at her sympathetically. “I wish I could, but that decision is now in the hands of your captor.”

“Jason,” whispered Victoria.

This was good news. All she had to do was ask Jason to officially release her, and she'll be fine from the city. How hard could that be?

“By the way,” Alpha Marcus vocalized, drawing Victoria's attention back to himself. “How can you be the next in line for your father's position? Why not your mother or your elder siblings?”

Victoria remained silent.

“You don't have to tell me—”

“No...” She cut him off. “It's okay. I'm an only child and my mother is dead.”

“Oh,” Marcus suddenly felt awkward, unsure of what to say next. “I'm sorry.”

Victoria rested her chins on her two arms, watching as a book whacked someone in the head at the other end of a long bookshelf.

“I never understood why people said sorry for what wasn't their fault.”

Marcus looked more confused. “Uh... Well, that's deep!”

Victoria laughed, her once dark eyes regaining its spark.

“What was her name?” Marcus smiled. “Your mother, I mean.”

“Venus Law—”

Victoria raised her head. Who was this man? Why was he being nice to her? He was the one who ordered Jason to abduct her. That anger started boiling in her stomach again. He had no right!

“Why are you talking to me?” Victoria asked rancorously.

A visage of dreadful pain appeared on Marcus's face. He acted as if he expected Victoria to burst out like that. “I deserve that.”

“Of course, you do!” She thundered, earning dirty looks from other people using the library. “You brought me to this city! You are the reason I almost died at Liz's house! You are the reason I'm a freaking weirdo! You are the reason my father is dead!”

Marcus looked antsy. “I don't expect you to trust me so easily,” he whispered.

“Good. Because I don't.”

“Victoria…” Marcus began when Victoria's phone, in her pocket, began a tenacious dinning.

Victoria fished out the phone and tried to answer it, to no avail.

“What's wrong with this phone now?!”

Marcus nervously responded. “The... The amount of magic in the library affects technology negatively.”

Victoria ignored him and put the phone to her ear. “Hello!”

“It's Liz.”

“Liz?”

The other girl's voice was wobbly as if she wanted to cry. “It's about Jason.”

Victoria removed the phone from her ear, and stared at it, confused. “Jason? What happened to him?”

Liz's voice became brittle. “Jason is... He is dying.”

* * *

Author's Note

Hi there! Cliffhanger...dun dun dun.. Sorry for the long wait. This chapter was originally six thousand word long, but I decided to split it into two. I haven't quite finished with the second part. The end is killing me. Anyway tell me what you think?