Too early, too much, too intense, too fast. Everything was like that since the wolves entered her life. It was late when they reached the outskirts of Sankt Petersburg. It had been a tense day, that she passed with Samira and Michael in a car, driving insanely fast as per, seemingly, wolf custom. 

Even in the middle of the night and as tired as she was, Mila couldn't help to notice the beauty of the city with its adorned buildings and opulent charm. The city lights were mirrored in the dark waters of the Moyka River that flowed along the walls of  Yusupov Palace. It was a quite picturesque image, but from the first breath drawn in that place, Mila felt the air heavy with danger and sadness.

Erik emerged together with Dahiru, Kiera, and Cohen from the darkness but her eyes could see only him, her strange aly, object of her even stranger but tremendously intense feelings. 

Erik embraced her and brushed a strand of hair off her forehead in a sublimely candid gesture. He didn't feel like an enemy anymore. Certainly not. Anything but that. 

"Why are they all here?" asked Mila.

"Because we are invading another pack's territory. It is a declaration of war. Kiril and his pack will sense it and will come to attack us. We better be quick. I and Dahiru will enter with you. Kiera and Cohen will stay here waiting for Kiril. We have to be very quick, as mentioned."

"Why didn't you actually try to recover your dagger instead of stealing his?"

"Because he knows that is what I would do and he would prepare. Like this, we hope to avoid an open conflict and only blackmail him into exchanging his for mine. Anyway, we go in there and you try to find it. Afterward, you exit with Dahiru as quickly as possible."

"But his relic will burn you."

"I know. Regardless, I can handle it."

"Why did you let Samira come? Are you not afraid for them?" asked Mila directing her gaze to Dahiru.

"I am. But Samira has no master; she does as she pleases. Try not to worry, my whole pack would die before letting something happen to her. I am trying too, with more or less success." His smile was enchanting despite the sorrow. 

"How about you? Convince her to go to safety," she said, looking at Erik.

"I tried. Samira is a warrior and extremely stubborn. We had a long discussion and she doesn't want to sit this one out, or any event for the matter."

Mila bowed her head in understanding. Samira seemed like a demi-goddess. 

"Guards are out," said Charlotte emerging with Yelena, Angel, and Michael from the shadows.

"Wolves indeed. It means we are at the right place," said Michael.

With uncertain steps, they entered the building that was clothed in danger and unknown.

Mila felt Erik's hand on hers. She had never held hands with a boy. It made her blush in the worst moment possible. 

"Do you feel something?" he asked.

"No." There was only a disappointing and frightening amount of nothing. 

His eyes lit up and a flame appeared in his left palm, cascading golden light into the building.

"Sorry, I forgot you do not have night vision."

Mila smiled and remembered unwillingly her time with Kiril in the graveyard. She had to think like him, be him, to find the relic.

Dahiru's spear shimmered in the torchlight. That was likely his magic weapon. Dahiru had earth power and could make objects move and the earth shake as far as she had seen, and that weapon could likely enhance that power.

"Nothing?" asked Erik.

She moved her head in denial and felt mortified. They were running out of time. Inhaling sharply she tried to visualize the place she saw in the dream. It had been a big room with marble floors and heavy golden ornaments. There were also a lot of books. It had been a library, it dawned on her. She stormed away not knowing consciously where until she reached the library from her dreams and kneeled in the middle of the room.

"It is here."

"Here where? Here is nothing," said Erik.

"In the floor," said Mila and touched a star-shaped marble piece in the middle of the room.

"The Moon Goddess, my father, devotion, power, love..." repeated Mila in her mind trying to channel Kiril's energy and aura.

The star started glowing, and a silver ax emerged from the floor. Mila touched it. It didn't burn. The weapon recognized her as its master. She grabbed it and pulled it towards her sighing in relief. 

Then she noticed something. Dahiru and Erik were not moving or blinking, not breathing. They were frozen. The weapon did not attack their bodies but their minds. Rasputin's ghost was in their minds trapping them.

"Fuck!" muttered Mila letting the ax fall and rushing to Erik.

She touched his face. It was cold as ice and his eyes were empty, his gaze lost.

"Erik, where are you? Come back, please!"

She should have known that. It would have been too easy, too fast. Mila knew nothing about magic but she was sure as hell that wasn't good. Closing her eyes she tried to channel the 'thing', the trace of Kiril's ability that was in her blood.

For a split second she was not in the hall anymore but in a different place, looking similar just that Erik and Dahiru were there fighting the monk figure from her dreams.

Dahiru's eyes lit up for a second but went back dark. He couldn't take his beast form.

They were both bleeding and panting. There were no claws nor fangs; it seemed all their abilities were chained or frozen. Mila blinked and everything was gone.

She tried to enter again that parallel dimension, or whatever it was, and for a heartbeat, it worked. 

"Erik, can you hear me?"

Erik got distracted and Rasputin's claws sliced into his arm.

"Mila, run away, quickly!"

Rasputin blinked and acknowledge her presence before she was gone again.

She was too weak, but if she didn't do anything, they would die. Dahiru would die; Samira was pregnant and he would die, the kid's father would die before it would be born. And Erik would die too; he would die and she would never see him again, never feel his touch, never talk to him again. All their fates were lying in her fragile human hands. 

She had to do something. She had to make that part of her stronger if it was too weak. Putting her hand on Kiril's ax she transited again to that dimension.

"Killing two alphas today with a trick. What an entertaining night it is," said Rasputin laughing madly. 

They were both bleeding and several deep cuts were visible across their bodies. Even if those were their minds, the pain was real. Death was certainly going to be real too. 

"You! It's you again. Who are you? I cannot see you but I can feel you."

Mila kept slipping in and out of the dimension. It was not enough. More, stronger! She needed more; she needed to be more like Kiril.

'You never said the words' she remembered him saying. But he did, even if mockingly.

"Sanguis sanguinem meum, pars animae meae," said Mila thinking about Kiril and praying it would work.

The scar reacted and shone in blue light signaling Mila that it had worked. She closed her eyes again and touched the ax one more time.

"I didn't think I would have the pleasure to shed another Wittfeld's blood," said Rasputin grabbing Erik's hair.

Blood was trickling down from his nose and from the corners of his mouth. He looked horrible. His pretty face was all bruised and torn open. 

"Mila..." he muttered, looking at her, barely able to speak. 

Dahiru's abdomen was clawed open but he was still breathing. Barely, but breathing. 

Unlike the previous times, Mila seemed to be visible to everyone.

"You!" said the mad man letting go of Erik and grabbing her head. "I can sense Kiril in you."

"Let them go. Kiril would want that too" said Mila calmly, hoping the situation would make the lie credible.

"I am not sure if he would. But he would not want me to kill you. I thought..." The ghost's voice showed an unexpected tremor of emotion. "I thought she cursed him to wander this world alone, but you, you bare his mark. It means he found a way. He always finds a way..." Tears shone in his eyes. "But there is also his mark, bigger and stronger," said Rasputin, with a change in his tone, sniffing and coiling his right hand around Mila's neck. "You are a liar and an imposter," he hissed, pressing harder. Claws pierced Mila's skin.

"Please, don't..." she whispered, out of breath. 

"How did you trick my son into giving you his blood and his mark?" he asked furiously.

"I... I didn't," said Mila coughing for air.

"Who are you?!"

"N... Nobody."

"Wrong answer. Try again! Who are you? You smell like a human and bear two alpha marks. How did you do that?"

Rasputin's voice was so deep it sounded like earthquake and thunder.

"P... please let us go."

"Wrong answer again. This was your last chance."

Mila's eyes fixed on Erik's. He was crawling towards her, leaving a puddle of blood behind on the marble floor.

"Despite everything, it... it was nice with you... I wish we had more time. I wish not have been so stubborn," said Mila while life was slowly fading from her. 

"No..." cried Erik out. His eyes lit up, claws and canines appeared suddenly, almost ripping his skin, and in an instant, he was cutting into Rasputin's flesh. But his voice was not the only one recoiling through the room.

'Niet...' Sounding like a howl and a curse pierced the air and made the walls shake and shudder.

Mila woke up in the middle of the library in Yusupov Palace with her hands still clutched on the ax. Erik was holding her whispering her name.

"It's all good; I am back. We are alive," said Mila touching his face and breathing heavily. "We might have an issue though..." she continued showing him the glowing marking on her finger.

Erik's eyes shone in savage anger. 

"Why?! How could you?! You are mine," screamed Erik, more the beast in him than Erik himself.

It took him a few minutes to collect himself, stop growling and make his fangs retract.

"I am sorry, but how could you?!" he continued in a calmer voice.

"You were dying, and I didn't want you to. Erik, I want to stay with you. I mean even after September, I want to stay with you if... If you'll have me. If you don't, that's okay too, I just wanted to tell you that because that is how I feel. life is short and good things are rare. I am happy when we are together, more than ever. I am happy that we found each other despite everything,"

His eyes became unearthly blissful and he pressed her against his chest whispering "We will find a way".

A happy circumstance, because the ceiling came crashing down and it would have crushed Mila underneath it otherwise.

"He is here. We have to go. Fuck."

Mila didn't remember much from the next hours except the smell of Erik's skin and the feeling she had when he was pressing her against his chest. Everything else's was gunpowder and ice.

In the end, they reached the border to Ukraine, tired hungry, and drenched in sweat and blood. Yelena went ahead and prepared a place to stay for them. It was a cabin this time, not a luxury mansion. 

Mila was terribly dizzy after what happened in Yusupov Palace. Her heart was racing and the first thing she did after Erik put her down was to vomit for minutes in the most ungraceful way.

She had told him she wanted to stay with him, be with him and he said ok ... Sort off. She didn't think it through, clearly not. The supernatural world made her actually so anxious she puked her soul out.

"Where are they going?" asked Mila as she saw the pack members walking away one by one.

"They will stay in their beast forms tonight, it is safer like that."

"Where is Kiril?"

"Not here yet. Not sure what he will do; it is probable he will come after us, but now without his relic, he is not so dangerous as he could be. If it comes to a fight Dahiru will have the advantage of wielding mashin ƙasa, unlike me, Cohen, or Kiril."

"I was afraid he was going to die. He is having a kid, and he will be a good father. I didn't want to let him die."

"I really hope he won't. I will do my best to keep that from happening. Samira will kill me if something happens to him," said Erik smiling a bit.

"You love her. Samira."

"She is the closest thing I have to a sister."

"Jeez... The interdimensional travel took a toll on me, my body still feels like after having been beaten up."

"I am sorry. I can try to heal whatever it is."

"Well, I suppose it will go away on its own after I sleep a bit."

"Do you want to do that alone? The sleeping I mean," asked Erik smirking.

"Depending on the options."

"Well with or without me."

Mila smirked back.

"Are you not afraid to kill me anymore?"

"...and rape. I am. But I am more afraid another will. And I have to train restraint if I want to keep you around."

Mila felt strange, stupid happiness blooming in her chest.

"It will be a strange life," she said but couldn't help to smile stupidly again.

"Indeed," said Erik taking her hand and leading her into one of the rooms of the cabin where they were supposed to sleep that night.

Crashing on the bed she sighed and looked at Erik while he took off her shoes and laid down beside her taking her hand. 

"Tell me about the magical creatures' routine."

Erik chuckled.

"What would you like to know?"

"I don't know... how a typical day is, a year, a life. Is it always this dangerous and with the shadow of war lurking over it?"

"It is more dangerous than a regular human life but no, conflicts like this didn't happen in centuries. We like to stay off the radar. My past thirty years were actually quite peaceful, much like regular humans with the difference that for a few days a month, I am a giant doggie."

"Where would we live?"

"Wherever you want in Europe. It would help if it is somewhere remote but must not be; I can be on a business trip once a month."

"You age much slower than us. One day you will have to bury me and in some years I will look like your mom, not your girlfriend. That's certainly not attractive."

"You will smell the same and in my eyes, you will be just as beautiful, just older. The day you will die is one I dread. Losing a mate is awful but until then we have many days together. I will always care for you and protect you. You can study medicine and we can travel all over Europe and the friendly continents but we can start by getting to know each other." 

"You know the important facts about me: broken Serbian family, poor, kind of ignorant..." said Mila.

"I don't know many things. I have no idea what your favorite color is, scent, or childhood memory, your likes, and desires... I want to know everything and I want to do my best to make all your wishes come true... Piece of my soul..."