One from the group had drawn close. He had no eyes, mouth stuck open in an endless scream. Each hand was missing digits but still manipulated the air into heating fire. My new clothes now harboured tiny fires that I patted out halfheartedly.

Grahame made his entrance.

Markus whistled appreciatively as the vamp exploded through the fire-wielding opponent in front of me with a squelch. He paused to scowl at me, holding the two arms at arm's length, not a speck of rotten flesh on him.

Behind me, I heard the crunching of metal as Markus hoisted a car. It flew overhead, smashing into another attacker. The car alarm activated angrily.

"Bullseye!" I complimented him. It took me a moment to realise that his shaking was laughing, his voice had become so deep he now operated at a rumble.

"Need a hand?" He asked Grahame, pointing at the extra limbs he'd acquired. The vamp dropped them and sped off to the other side of the car park,

I couldn't hide my grin. Markus was the new coolest person I knew, sorry Grahame.

Rot wafted over the wind. "Behind!" I shouted. The remaining humanoid and the first wolf I'd injured came close and started buffeting him with magical waves and bites. He staggered, the wolf's broken teeth having little effect on his stony hide. Ripping free the closest tree, he used it as a bat to catch both figures and send them flying in a puff of twigs.

With both gentlemen handling the corpses I decided it was time to make my retreat.

"Willow?" I called, looking for her. She was nowhere to be seen. Where was she? Immediate panic set in, the rush of adrenaline flooding as I tried to recall if I'd seen her leave after going back into Members Only.

Without another thought I ran into the club, the bitter smell of rot had already seeped into the surfaces. A scream cut into the room.

"Willow!" I cried, shooting through the club towards her.

Furniture was in disarray, and she was huddled against the corner, her coat shredded. The figure before her raised its arm, almost double the size of its transformed human body. Like the lycanthrope from the store, now dead, its reanimated body didn't seem to process magical energy correctly. Its transformation was a mess, the spine not fitting back into the smaller body and jutting out. Bowels hadn't sealed back into the flesh and trailed behind, its legs mismatched sizes threw an uneven gait.

I wouldn't get there in time.

Pulling air in, filling my lungs, I roared.

Glass burst, the ground trembled, and Willow clutched at her ears trying to back further away. The ground began to crack and the rotting figure stumbled, finally moving its hand away from threatening the fae girl. Leaping across the room, I smashed a foot into its back, grabbing the top of its spine sinews.

Like the wolves, I'd expected the body to slam into the ground, so when my leg went straight through the body, we fell awkwardly together.

Squealing, I tried to dislodge myself, immediately detecting the crawling maggots investigating the new supply. "Gross!" The empty sockets fixed on me, and magic around it shimmered, arms rapidly growing larger in preparation to squish me. Gritting teeth, I pulled at its spine, snapping it with a crack and attempting to squirm my leg free.

With a last wrench, and defining squelch my leg escaped. I liked rolling in body parts, but not with maggots keeping me company. The living corpse seemed to recognise that I wasn't going to keep still, this time lunging towards Willow.

"Oh no you don't!" Pushing magic into my hands, they ignited, charring the bones I held. Launching it like a javelin, it held the shape long enough to lodge through the thing's cheek and distract it enough for me to envelope its waist with both my arms, pushing the fire through my joints.

"Willow! Tree!" She didn't need to be told twice, her back erupting, vines tangling and knotting to form a large mass. Roots grew into the tiles, distorting the ground. She grew so large that she began to run knitting vines along the ceiling, her branches dropping to fill the club. Her skin became bark as she partly melted into the tree until she appeared as nothing more than a carving.

Focused on the flesh in my arms, I pushed even more heat through the rotting meat. The smell of burning meat was accompanied by the sour pungency of off-meat. Combined with the dregs of my magic reserve my head erupted into a dagger of a headache.

The skin began to slide off of its bones, the fire scorching the floor and singeing some of Willows leaves. The creature gave one last growl, fading away into the crackling of flames until only embers were left.

Job done, the tree around me rustled in appreciation. I patted a branch. "I'm going to see what's going on outside. Stay tree until it's safe, okay?" Since she was a tree, I didn't get an answer but I took it as an affirmative when the branches moved away from the cindering pile of corpse on the floor.

Gloop was layered thickly to my leg, running down over my foot as I walked.

Gross.

To top it off, Markus was back to his boring form, albeit shirtless. That was one plus, even if he was smaller. Grahame was photographing the remaining bodies.

"All good?" I asked.

He grinned at me. "I haven't smashed anything for a long time." He flexed his arm.

"My hero!" I fake swooned.

"Babe, any chick that can smash through concrete is my hero." Damn straight. Markus knew brilliance when he saw it. "However, this is gonna be a nightmare to explain to the club's insurance."

"You realise that guy is from the SPCC right?" I pointed to the vampire. "I'm sure as part of the covering story they can help you sort something plausible."

He quirked an eyebrow. "You know the SPCC?"

"Yeah, that guy's name is Grahame. Also, if you can take the hit for literally everything that happened here, I'll owe you."

"You mean take the credit for personally destroying six zombies?" He smirked.

"Wait until you see the seventh inside." I let a little tooth into my smile, testing the waters.

"I'm expecting great things." He called from over his shoulder as he was already leaving to investigate.

"Hey!" I called after him. "Willows a tree in there, will you keep her company?"

"A tree?" He was visibly confused. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Bed."

* * *

After the carnage caused by the impact of Leofstan's magic interfering with my own, my house still contained a large opening to the outside world; so I was forced to share it with a few unwelcome wild visitors and the morning bird song was a little too close for comfort. Resting all the aches and pains, it was wonderful to catch up on sleep. Mostly I spent the slumber in dreamland, chasing the birds through the clouds.

Eventually, my imagination took me to a field, my toes catching pollen and the richness of fresh grass tickling my nose. Dandelion seeds floated overhead in the breeze and I swore I could feel the sun kissing my skin. From the distance, someone I knew shouted my name. The voice was familiar, but from so long ago I couldn't recall...

"Celandine." This time my name was much closer.

"Ms. Doukas."

I snapped awake, to see two familiar golden brown eyes peering over me.

"GAH!" Surprised I dragged the covers into a makeshift shield, launching myself halfway up the bed. My heart hammered as I took some deep, calming breaths. Why was he in my room?

Lowering the duvet, Leofstan stood scowling at me. After a few more seconds of processing that I was no longer dreaming, I finally managed to talk. "You're trespassing!" I accused. I didn't care if he was council, this was my territory.

Muscles popped as he clenched his jaw. "The back of your house has a humongous hole."

"There's still a front door." I pointed to where it was visible through the bedroom, clearly in the line of sight, in the living room.

Slowly, the man smiled as the air around him shimmered with summoned power, "Veot'say." He answered in response. Outside my bedroom, the unmistakable sound of splintering wood erupted with a deafening crunch, shards blasting across the floor.

For the first time in my memorable history, I was lost for words. "My front door." It was neither a statement nor a question.

He was still smiling. "Magic lesson one, expect the unexpected."

My voice was calm but my mind reeled. Climbing from under the tangle of covers, and marching past him I peered around the bedroom door, seeing only useless wood shards.

Aghast I told him, "That was completely unnecessary."

His smile never abated, "Did you want my ID number? You're welcome to raise a complaint." His eyes narrowed in a challenge.

"To the council?" I asked in disbelief.

"Of course. Maybe we could even stop by." He was still smiling, but his tone was too matter-of-fact to match and it set alarm bells ringing. With a start, I realised he wanted me to contact the council.

"Forget it." I snapped.

He raised a brow. "Why not?"

"It's just a door, hardly worth the effort."

His smile slipped. "Or your avoidance of the council is because you are more than aware of how much power you're capable of holding, and for some reason, you want to hide it."

I took a long, hard gulp.

He took a step closer, "Grahame informs me you were present again during another revenant attack."

"So was he." I pointed out.

He took another step closer. "Have you even an inkling how suspicious the council is of you presently?" He whispered.

Refusing to back down I argued, "Well, I can assure you, I have better things to do than spend my time trying to raise the dead."

He scoffed. "Like trash a nightclub? Expose us to mortals?" He grew louder. "Do you realise how much beclouding has needed orchestrating because of you? I have been awake all forsaken morning. We have two teams trying to contain the news outbreak that could be investigating the sorcerer instead!" He ended in a shout, standing right in front of me.

I let out a snort. "So you aren't that suspicious of me then."

"What?" He snapped, rant diffusing.

"If you're still searching for him, then I'm obviously not a suspect."

He began to puff up, turning red. I half expected to see him steaming like a kettle.

"You are impossible." Leo threw up his hands. "How much of that damage was you?"

"None." I was a complete bystander. Liar liar pants on fire.

"The pile of ashes in the club?"

"They don't usually have a barbecue indoors but must be the season. Human customs escape me."

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "This is exactly what I mean. Celandine Doukas, mark my words, as soon as this perpetrator is caught I will be taking you in for retesting." We locked eyes. "And this time it will be thorough."

The threat sent a spark of excitement through my spine.

"I'll look forward to it. Now get the hell out of my house." And as an afterthought, I added, "And fix the door." I wasn't sure if that was even possible, but it was worth a try.

The man didn't move. "I've just spent the entire morning trying to conceal the chaos you caused, patch magic leaks you started and enacting memory blocks in mortals that should have never seen anything in the first place." He shrugged off his blazer.

"We are getting your magic under control before you completely rip a hole between us and the Fae-lands."

"What?"

"You can't continue channelling all of this raw power without distributing it correctly, otherwise this;" he gestured to my shambles of a house, "is going to happen on a much larger scale."

"Channeling raw power?"

He gave an exasperated sigh. "Where do you think magic comes from?"

"That I just made it?" He sighed again. "This is why I need to train you; now. We all possess the ability to pull power from other realms, albeit some of us are better conduits than others." He kicked off his shoes. "You are distributing pure, unfiltered power through from the realm of the Fae at a rate I can't even comprehend."

I was? Cool. "So how many of these 'realms'," I air quoted the word, "are there?".