The treehouse was boisterous when I returned. The kids were running around, screaming and fighting over a toy. Mimi was clattering in the room I expected to be the kitchen. Isabelle and her brother were setting up something in the courtyard and were constantly climbing up and down the ladder.

My hands were rubbing each other, the way Kate had done when she had walked away a few minutes ago. I didn't know what to make of her. One time she was nice and warm, the next she kept her distance like I had some rare disease she didn't want to catch. 

Speak of the devil. The princess entered the hallway. She hovered behind the blonde witch with the piercing green eyes, eyes similar to the ones that I had once seen in my dreams, eyes that reminded everyone exactly how powerful the slim woman really was.

"You know I still see you as my sister, right?" Kate asked with a careful voice. She sounded so vulnerable. 

Heather only half smiled in response, not stopping in her quest to reach the end of the hall.
Kate rambled on, desperate to keep the conversation going. "How is your headache? I heard you -"

At this, Heather turned around. Her eyes connected with Kate, then traveled above the princess's shoulder, connecting with mine. They seemed bigger now, less green. It only lasted a minute, then they shifted back to Kate, not in time for it to go unnoticed. The princess had already picked up on her line of sight. The vampire's brown-red eyes turned on me. Her posture tensed. My heart turned heavy in my chest, but I didn't find the strength to look away.

"How peculiar," Heather murmured, breaking whatever was happening between Kate and myself. I was thankful for it. 

"What?" Kate's voice sounded strained, as if the most of her tension had moved to her vocal cords.

"Until a moment ago, this constant ringing was driving me insane, yet now I don't hear anything. It's just ... quiet." Heather sighed at the revelation. 

That was until her green eyes, looking a lot sharper than moments ago, traveled between Kate and myself. Was she investigating us? Kate seemed to sense it too, because she moved out of the way and was now the one walking away. It didn't seem to stop Heather's curiosity, which in turn sparked mine. What did she see that we, non-witches, didn't see?

Only a step in front of Kate, Jason slammed the door from one of the many doors open. The door nearly collided with Kate's face. Unfortunately, her jump to the side came too slow and she knocked right into Jason's muscular body. Where had her head drifted off to, because there was no way someone with her reflexes would walk into someone? 

With an awkward fumbling of hands, Jason held her before she could fall. They stared at each other for a second too long, before Kate pushed herself out of his strong arms. Next to the small vampire, Jason looked very broad. His arms were twice the size of Kate's and he towered so much above her, it was almost intimidating. They formed a strange duo, I realized. Both good-looking, but in a completely different way. 

"You're already back?" Jason asked a bit too loud. He flinched at his own volume before he toned it down again. "That didn't take long. That's new."

Kate ignored the jab at her, and simply answered: "We've never been this close to an answer. We can't give up now." She didn't sound particularly happy with the task.

"You realized that only after you decided to run away again?" He scoffed. "Not that I'm surprised you ran off again of course, that's what you do best, right? Run away."

Kate flinched, taking a deliberate step away from the alpha. Her jaw visibly tensed, which made my heart squeeze.

"Seriously?"

I felt obliged to be on the alpha's side, considering he had saved my life only a full day ago, and well, the princess hadn't been overly friendly. Yet all I felt was protectiveness towards my supposed enemy. An uneasy feeling crawled along my skin, making it itch. He was too hard on her. She had every right to go for a run, to change her mind. Not to forget that me being near her, and her staying quiet - something she had done multiple times by now - made her betray her own people. She said it before, and it hadn't changed since then. Us being here, under the same roof, made my situation - and definitely hers - a million times worse. Of course, she felt fidgety, and wanted to run away as far as possible. 

Realizing that I had judged her for the same reason not a minute ago, made me feel guilty. It was time that I became more forgiving and more grateful towards the other girl. She wasn't a monster, she was simply a girl in a difficult situation.

Didn't change the fact that we shouldn't be together. My mind reminded me.

Internally, I shook my mind awake. Trying to focus on something else and not my growing confusion, I directed my attention to my strange saviors.

An unwelcome irritation crawled its way along my skin and towards my heart. It could've been the distance between them that was closer than necessary, or maybe it was the easiness by which they called each other out on their bullshit, or perhaps it was the clear tension between them that was impossible to go unnoticed.

My fingernails dug half moons in the palm of my hands. When I looked away in discomfort, it became clear I wasn't the only one feeling nauseating. The tall blonde was trying just as much to divert her attention to ... well, anything else really. Her magical green eyes jumped restlessly around the items in the hall until they finally landed on my sky blue ones. For a split second, I got a glimpse of the emotional and caring girl everyone but me seemed to know, but the pain in her eyes was just as quickly gone as it had appeared. Instead the glimmer in her eyes turned cold and her focus was back on her actions.

Her long, slender hands that constantly reminded me that she was more of a scolar than anything else, gripped the handle of the nearest door. She was through it before I even realized she was trying to sneak away. 

My eyes averted back to the squabbling duo who hadn't even noticed any of it. It made me sigh. I decided Heather was probably nicer company right now, even though she didn't seem to like me that much.

Following the witch inside the unfamiliar room, I gasped at the complete chaos. Whereas every other room thus far had been tidy and quite empty of material, this room was like a bomb had gone off. A bomb made of books and paper. Piles and piles of old, yellow paper were scattered over the floor and desk. Leather bound books were pressed into a cabinet. On the wall, a map hung, sharp metal pins stuck on it in various places. It made me wonder what the reason for it was. 

Heather was making her way over to a small cabinet that reached her hips in the back of the room. She stepped over and around piles and boxes filled with little bottles of liquids and herbs.
She reached in one of the drawers, fished out a long heavy key and turned around to face me. She let the key dangle from her fingers.

"Want to go with me?" She asked.

Before I could answer, the door opened behind me with a little too much force. I didn't have to turn around, to know who had joined us.

"Yes, show us what you've found." Kate passed me, her arm brushed mine and made my skin tingle. If she had felt it too, she didn't show. 

The princess walked with deliberate steps towards Heather, who was now clearing a staircase leading towards a door in the ceiling. In the chaos of the room, I hadn't even noticed its presence.

"Come on, you'll want to see this too," Jason spoke softly. He seemed even more tired than yesterday. Was Kate the cause of that? With a strong hand, he led me to the staircase. 

One after the other, we climbed the steps and disappeared into the roof. A dark room welcomed us. It smelled moldy and stale, the temperature was too cold to be enjoyable and the humidity of this room made the air sticky. 

Taking a step forward into the dark so Jason could join us, I bumped into the soft form of the smaller girl. Standing so close, made me catch a sniff of her natural scent. It was much more enjoyable than the one in the room. The scent of fresh grass and pine trees swirled around her, and I closed my eyes to figure out the third smell.

Heather mumbled a few words in an unknown language. With a painful velocity, my hairs straightened. A flash of green eyes, and a prick in the side of my neck made me gasp out. My eyes opened with force and I grabbed towards my neck. Again, there was nothing there. That annoying mental wall pressed inside my head, giving me a headache.

Yellow-green glowing lights flicked on around the room, revealing a large room with a single table in the room.

The rest of the room disappeared behind the worried brown eyes filling my peripheral vision. Kate had turned towards me, scanning me up and down with a pressed-together frown. Her right hand reached towards mine, which was still stroking the side of my neck.

She didn't ask anything, but I could see the pleading question. Not feeling the need to pull even more attention toward me, I simply smiled and nodded. My hand took hers on its way down and gave a comforting squeeze. That seemed to be enough to make her relax.

Now that she seemed satisfied that I was alright, she pulled her hand away. With quick steps, she crossed the distance of the room. Heather was gathering material from a wooden box she had pulled from under the table. 

"So, what do you know?" Jason asked, while he walked past me, joining the others.
Heather's heavy sigh bounced off the dark walls and low ceiling. 

"Nothing."

"Nothing? How is that possible?" Kate replied.

"Because I'm not an expert in forensics, Kate." She grunted annoyed. Her reaction was a bit extreme, even if she was clearly annoyed at something Kate had done. "I'm a witch, I do spells and potions and keep my pack safe. This is a bit above my skill level." 

"Jeez, sorry for asking." Kate stepped back, away from the table. Her hands trailed up her arms again, clenched into fists before they settled back on her legs where she thrummed her fingers restlessly.

"Not to interrupt, but what is happening?" I asked, taking a protective step in front of Kate.

"This is the creature that attacked you in the forest. The first one we actually caught," Jason explained. Indeed, underneath the folded blanket, lay the unnatural body of the creature that had tried to attack me. My eyes took in its body. Underneath the tough skin, rash and pluks of wild-growing hair was something very human-like. 

"If we know what they are, perhaps we know where they come from or how to stop them. Because right now, they are causing problems." 

Kate had moved next to me again. Now that she had her confidence back, she seemed to have eased on the restless movements again. 

"The human ambassadors are starting to point fingers in our direction. My father doesn't deem them a big enough threat, considering you still walk around," she nudged her head at me, before she shook her head in disapproval. "All the while, I feel very restless ever since that ritual."

"I feel it too, something else is going on, something bigger and much more dangerous. The world doesn't feel right anymore," Heather agreed. "It feels like nature is preparing for a storm."

"The tremors of the earth started not long after these creatures started to appear, and everything that makes Heather and Kate restless, I don't trust." Jason said, his voice clear and slow.

"You all think it is related?"

"You don't?" Kate asked, surprised.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it like this."

"But you were investigating that site in the woods, the first time we met."

"Yes, but I was simply investigating it because Marx, the Hunter that was babysitting me the day before, acted suspicious. I had no idea about these creatures, until you told me about it. And only then, I started to notice humans talking about it too."

"A Hunter was acting suspicious at the place where there had clearly been a clean fight with one of the creatures?" Kate repeated.

Everyone stayed silent for a minute.

"Okay, that's weird," Heather broke the silence first. Then everyone was talking at once.

"What do the Hunters have to do with this?"

"Is it possible they are involved?"

"Do they know anything?"

"They have to be involved somehow, right?" Kate eventually said.

Everyone looked at her, not entirely knowing what to say or think.

"They were present at the ritual, they clearly knew the witch that caused this imbalance Heather and I keep feeling."

Heather shook her head. "It doesn't mean anything. Magic needs to be paid, she didn't. So nature is finding a way to make us all pay. It always finds ways to balance things out. If you don't do it, then nature does it for you. This could easily be nature correcting a wrong. The Hunters might be part of the cause, but there is no reason to think they are behind these creatures as well. Why would they? They are hurting humans. Isn't their sole purpose to protect humanity?"

"It is. Hunter's would never do anything to hurt humans. They would do everything to destroy every vampire in existence, but there is no way they would pay it by letting humans die," I confirmed.

"So," Kate breathed out. "We still don't know anything."

She turned around and started pacing up and down the room. Her hands combed through her long auburn hair.

Heather turned towards the body, her hands floated above it, moving from head to toe - or at least above the parts that were still present. The wolves had done a nasty good job. Her eyes glowed green, her mouth gasped. She pulled her hands back, as if she just got burned. The creature's body started to deteriorate so fast that there was only ash left after just a blink of an eye.

"H-how?" Heather mumbled. 

Her fingers tried to touch the ash, but nothing happened. Her eyes glowed green, still nothing. With a slow step, she turned towards us, her eyes still glowing. She stared a little too long in our direction for it to be reassuring. 

When her eyes finally dimmed to their normal green, she said: "We know something now: it is definitely protected against magic."

"What does that mean?" Kate stepped forward, her voice was curious and excited. 

"It means that it isn't entirely natural. It also means that I definitely can't help anymore."

"So a witch is involved then?" Heather shook her head. "Not necessarily. These days there are a lot of ways to protect yourself against magic. It only means that there is someone behind the creation of them. Who that is, you'll have to find somewhere else. I can't help with that."

"Who can?" Kate asked.

Heather sighed, she sounded tired all of a sudden.

"The Ahr a Donn."

Kate twisted around, her shoes making a high squeaking sound against the wooden ground. Her face had paled.

"You're kidding, right?"

"What are the Ahr a Donn?" I asked.

"The Speakers of Death," Kate answered, her voice sounding distant.

Heather took a step towards the princess. "They're religious folk, worshippers of Donn - Death himself. They're the only ones capable of talking to the people in the Otherworld. They have skills we, witches, can't even dream of."

"They're tainted. Dark and wrong."

"I agree that they have very unique ideas about how to live your life, but that doesn't take away the fact that they know more about Death than anyone else. If you have questions about the Death, they are the only ones that can provide a truthful answer."

Kate grunted, but still shook her head.

"Where are those Speakers of Death?" Jason asked.

"Tech Duinn, a town you rather not walk past," Kate huffed. 

Even though she was clearly not looking forward to this change of plan, she was already scrambling through the glass bottles stuffed in the wooden box standing next to the operating table. With a bottle in hand twice the size of her palm, she started to sweep the ashes together and into the bottle.

"Tomorrow, we ride towards the south-east of the Green Lands." 

With that, Kate left the room, the bottle of ash carefully tucked away in one of the large compartments of her cape.