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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐄𝐍.
[𝟏𝟎]. 𝐖𝐄'𝐑𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐀
𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐀 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓.
【 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎 】
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❛ 𝘔𝘠, 𝘔𝘠, 𝘐𝘍 𝘐𝘛 𝘐𝘚𝘕'𝘛
𝘉𝘖𝘕𝘕𝘐𝘌 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘊𝘓𝘈𝘜𝘋𝘌𝘛𝘛𝘌 ❜
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𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐙𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐍 the attempt of bringing him the notion of the parasite going around in slug form, Nathaniel and Hope opted for going with plan B after making that failed effort- which turned out to be Dorian. And, funny enough, finding him was inherently easier than the Boarding School's principal-

Standing right before the dreaded unicorn.

"Mr. Williams, we need your help," Hope started off, coming to a stop just behind Dorian. "Doctor Saltzman's been MIA, and this creepy slug came out of my ear."

There was a small ominous silence as Dorian turned to look at the two. And Nathaniel nerves only began to calm themselves when Dorian brought up a glass jar with an identical slug to the one that came out of Hope.

"Did it look like this?"

Nathaniel groaned.

If there was another one, then that meant an epidemic was unleashing.

"Identical," Nathaniel responded, making an annoyed huff. "I was able to fry Hope's brain enough to expulse it, but it tried to get in my head too."

Dorian seemed concerned. "Are you okay?"

Nathaniel nodded. "We're fine, but if there's another one, then that means there could be more trailing around in the school. Everyone's most likely contaminated by now."

Dorian agreed without a thought. "I think our harmless friend unicorn brought it onto school ground to infect all of us."

And as if on cue, the unicorn snorted and brought in everyone's attention before desperately neighing. It sounded wild and it was followed by pained groaning. There wasn't much time between that and the creature falling onto its knees before completely spreading itself on the ground, instantly dead.

"See?" Hope stated nervously. "Harmless."

Nathaniel could only roll his eyes, but there was no comment made by the nephilim after that. Instead, the three made their way towards the school and into the library without missing another beat in the hopes of finding a way to stop the infection from spreading and getting rid of it indefinitely.

"Okay," Dorian started after placing a duffle bag on the wooden table. "We have no idea how long the unicorn was infected before it kneeled over, so we should figure this out right now."

Nathaniel nodded. "Going off on the fact that the unicorn is dead. It was the host for this thing, right? So, we're dealing with something else and the research I made won't help us in the slightest."

Hope grimaced. "Sorry, Nate."

Nathaniel rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"It hitched a ride in that Trojan horse," Dorian proceeded to change the subject, Hope and Nathaniel's attention instantly falling on him. "And then it moved onto us. So, from what Hope describes, it sounds like it latched onto the prefrontal cortex."

Nathaniel hummed. "We have multiple slugs. I'm willing to bet these things are multiplying themselves inside of people, which means there could be hundreds by now."

Hope huffed anxiously. "How do we stop it?"

Dorian shrugged. "That's the weirdest part. There aren't any ancient legends about a creature like this."

"Okay," Nathaniel quickly began thinking on his feet. "So, we do what we've already done. These things work on mind control. Hope wanted to take that urn to- I'm guessing- Malivore. And I fried that thing out of her. We just need to get everyone in the same room and shock the living hell out of them."

"That's your plan?" Hope inquired.

Nathaniel huffed in desperation. "Do you have a better one?"

Hope kept quiet.

"So," Dorian nodded. "Stage one, it makes you act out of character. Stage two, once you're susceptible to suggestion, you'll do whatever the slug wants-"

"And stage three," Nathaniel chimed in, leaning himself on the wooden table. "You're on your merry way to heaven- or hell, whichever suits."

There was a slight silence as Hope took the glass jar containing the slug into her hands before inspecting it. Something caught the tribrid's eye as she began to move the slug around in its cylinder container.

Hope's eyebrows furrowed. "Parts of this thing look bioluminescent."

That caught Dorian's attention as he extended his hand. "Let me check that out."

Hope handed the jar over to Dorian who took a small blueish flashlight out of his duffle bag. When it was on and reflected against the contents of the jar, it turned an aqua-like neon color, and instantly, Hope and Nathaniel were scrounging up their nose.

Nathaniel smirked. "I say we go slug hunting."

This time, it was Hope who rolled her eyes.

Two matching blueish flashlights later, and the two half breeds were on their merry way hunting down slugs. And if Nathaniel didn't think there was an infestation before, the nephilim began to in that very moment. Everything- walls, furniture, windows- were completely covered in neon slug trails.

Trails that lead them into Rafael's- subjectively awful- slam poetry. Where everyone seemed drugged up on Xanax's.

"Well, at least they're all cooped up in the same place," Nathaniel voiced. "One less problem to deal with."

Hope hummed. "How do we shock everyone without, you know, killing them?"

And just as the tribrid asked, Rafael's eyes turned a neon green Nathaniel had already seen over Hope's, and in seconds, head after head began to turn towards them with matching eyes. With that, a chill swiftly ran up Nathaniel's spine and Hope didn't seem any calmer than the nephilim.

"They're all infected," Nathaniel stated.

That's when they began to charge at them.

Nathaniel instantly pulled at Hope's arm until they stood behind the door frame, and the tribrid instantly used a spell to confine everyone else into the room. In seconds, the infected were pounding on the doors.

Hope sighed heavily. "Yeah, that's not going to hold for long."

"It's going to have to," Nathaniel added, his demeanor chillingly calm. "Because we need to hatch up a plan before we turn into them."

In the span of five to seven minutes, Dorian had chained up the doors to the room every single infected supernatural creature resided in, completely taking over the shocking-everyone plan as Nathaniel and Hope chained up recently-found-wandering-the-halls Lizzie, who, to that point, was deemed infected.

"Have you two gone crazy?" Lizzie scoffed, struggling with her chains.

Hope shook her head. "You've been infected with a mind controlling parasite. That's why you've been nice all day."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "That's not why I've been nice all d- hey!"

The Gemini witch exclaimed as Nathaniel put a hand up to her forehead. Another round of perception was implemented, as Nathaniel wandered in Lizzie's head. But the nephilim couldn't seem to find anything. Nathaniel was coming back with zeros.

Nathaniel furrowed his brows. "She's clean."

Lizzie scoffed, slightly tired from the intrusion from Nathaniel's abilities. "Yeah, I could have told you that before you went full angel dick on me, you sad half breed- ow."

There was a slight shocking sound as Nathaniel watched Lizzie lean forward in discomfort. With that, the nephilim noticed the gold bracelet on the Gemini witch's wrist before taking a hold of Lizzie's arm and inspecting it just a little bit closer.

Nathaniel rolled his eyes. "Why the hell are you zapping yourself, crazy pants?"

Lizzie sneered. "To stop me from saying anything mean. I'm turning over a new leaf."

Hope hummed disbelievingly. "Then what are you doing here instead of at the talent show like everybody else?"

"Because I was looking for Josie," Lizzie stated matter-of-factly. "She's been acting weird all day and then she just bailed on the performance."

Nathaniel's face tightened up in a sarcastic smile. "Well, genius. Maybe it's because of the fact that the favorite twin is infected- we've got to find her before she gets the urn."

Which wasn't hard.

The barrier spell Hope had put up around the urn was down by the time they had gotten to it. And inside was Josie- and oddly enough, Penelope Park.

"My, my, if it isn't Bonnie and Claudette," Nathaniel humored, bringing in the witches attention.

And before Penelope could cast a spell, Nathaniel was quick to use his telekinesis abilities to fling Penelope into the air and into the stack of canes sitting behind her, incapacitating the witch completely and putting her out of the fight.

"You shouldn't have done that," Josie stated, mustering up a fireball in her hands.

But Hope was faster.

In a second, the tribrid casted a spell that momentarily froze the brunette twin in her spot, giving Nathaniel enough time to place his palm over her forehead and begin, for the third time, his perception ability on the infected witch.

Josie chuckled hysterically. "Boom."

And with that, the nephilim was blasted away from Josie with a second fireball before Nathaniel hit the wall behind him. The nephilim's skin began to blister from the bottom of his chin, beginning of his chest and the start of his forearms.

As they began to heal, Nathaniel breathed in heavily before putting both his hands into fists. Instantly, the nephilim's eyes turned gold and white veins laced his cheeks and neck. Swiftly, Josie hunched over as she held onto her stomach.

It was a matter of seconds before Josie coughed up the slug and Hope stepped on it. And when the brunette twin looked forward, her eyes filled with tears.

"Nate," Josie's voice wavered. "I'm so sorry."

"You're okay, Jo," Nathaniel shook his head at her. "That's what matters."

There was a hug somewhere in between.

And truth was, Nathaniel could never hold a grudge towards Josie.

Post slug-infestation and as the talent show 2.0 occurred, Hope and Nathaniel sat on their fallen branch in the woods. There was a small silence, but the two basked in it. It was another day's work, and honest, the tribrid and the nephilim were tired. But they would always want to find comfort in each other.

"You did good today," Hope praised.

Nathaniel smiled softly. "You did too."

There was a slight pause.

And Nathaniel continued. "You know, it's been a while since we tested out any of my abilities- I miss that."

Hope sighed. "Yeah, me too. We haven't had much time with the whole monsters of the week thing."

"I know," Nathaniel hummed softly. "We should though."

"Agreed," Hope nodded.

Another peaceful silence fell upon them as Hope laid her head on Nathaniel's chest. They looked up at the stars, and Nathaniel never seemed to be interested in the romantic stuff, but with Hope, it was all he could think of. All the nephilim wanted.

It was cheesy and overrated.

But Nathaniel wanted it all the same.

As the thought passed, Nathaniel heard leaves crunching. And in an instant, the nephilim was on his feet and facing the side the noise had come from. As he did, the nephilim's eyes slightly watered.

"Jed?"

Before Nathaniel knew it, Jed was crushing his body into the nephilim's and all Nathaniel could do was hold onto the demoted Alpha in a disbelieving hug.

And maybe- just maybe, for a second, all was well in the world.

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unedited.
So, Jed's back!
Big yay on that.
BUT, things are not as they seem,
so, don't get too comfortable yet.
Anyway, chapter is on the shorter
side because it's mostly filler, but,
next few chapters will advance the
plot, and I am sad but also happy
to announce that we're almost
done with this book!
And there will possibly be a part
two to advance Nathaniel's
storyline into season 2!