July, 2019

"Erica!" I wailed, running to her.

The witch screamed at the bite, clawing at the Made attached to her. But within seconds, the creature released its hold, as my blood finally ran its course through it and stopped its heart.

The Made had become just a sack of skin and bones on the floor, yet Erica flailed in agony.

"Ahh! Fuck!" she howled, gripping at her ankle.

"What do I do?" I asked, hovering over her clearly punctured flesh.

"Take care of yourself first," she managed through gritted teeth.

"What?"

Before Erica could clarify, voices entered the vicinity, and I whipped my head around at Lukas, Emma, Loren, Ivan, and Drake storming in.

Lukas's eyes immediately sought mine out, before glancing at the scene.

At once, the group rushed over.

Without saying a word, Lukas snatched me up, his mouth landing on my neck as he licked at my wound until it was sealed.

It was then I realised how much blood had covered my clothes.

"Are you okay?" he then asked, eyes hovering over me in search for any more injuries.

"I'm fine. It looks worse than it is," I replied, turning both of our attention to the witch.

Emma gripped at Erica's ankle, putting pressure on the bite as she glanced at us. "What do we do?"

"I can try healing her," I countered.

"Won't that just close the wound though? What about the disease?" Emma asked.

"Does it impact Mutants?" Loren asked.

"We don't know," Lukas mumbled. "There haven't been tests before... and none of us have been bitten but the fairies."

"Given how much pain she's in... I'd say it's definitely effective on Mutants," Ivan grimly said as another scream tore through Erica.

"What on Earth can a Made Vampire cross witch do?"

"... that's not something we should find out," Drake muttered for all of us.

"I have to try healing her," I insisted. "Maybe there's a way I can extract it? If we can kill them... perhaps we can also heal them."

"It's worth a go," Emma agreed, seeming just as reluctant to see out the other fate for Erica.

Though as I shuffled over to the witch, her eyes narrowed and she growled, "Don't!"

"But you've been bitten! You'll turn into one of—" I started to explain, reaching for her leg.

She swatted me away. "Take me back to the house."

"Erica, we need to try healing you," Lukas insisted.

"Did you catch another one?" she retorted.

The room fell silent as we regretted hearing where she was heading with this.

"Did you?" she demanded.

"We abandoned the mission," Emma admitted. "Helping you two seemed more important."

"Then I'm all you've got," she managed to get out of her trembling lips as another wave of pain rippled through her.

Lukas was shaking his head though. "We need to try helping you now. What if there's only a certain time period that—"

"Then you better get me back to the house quickly and get samples of my blood."

A part of me considered ignoring her request. I even started to reach for her leg.

But the animal instincts in her had her growling at me as I came close, encouraging me to stay far away.

So, reluctantly, we complied with her wishes.

Lukas scooped her up, and we ran as fast as we could back to the Hammersmith House.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

The medical room was crowded with worried faces as Erica tried to steady her arm while Lukas searched for a vein. Alas, "You're shaking too much," he said.

"I can't... help it. It hurts so much," she hoarsely said, free hand clawing at her throat. "I'm thirsty... and Emma and Ollie smell so good."

"It's taking effect much more quickly than the studies said for humans," Lukas noted for us all, causing faces to grow more grim.

"Come, Ol," Emma whispered in my ear, "Let's give them some space. They'll call for you when they're ready."

I was reluctant as Emma teared me away, though knowing I was causing Erica more pain than good is what had me following her in the end.

Though just because we weren't by Erica's side, didn't mean we didn't still feel the gravity of the situation. Especially as we ran into Jayce on the way up the stairs. "How is she?" he asked.

Emma shook her head.

"What does that mean?" he demanded.

"I just... really hope Ollie can heal her."

Jayce's face flickered with despair for a moment before he pushed past us.

"It might be best to wait," Emma called out after him.

"I'm not leaving my sister's side until she's better or..." He didn't finish his sentence. He continued walking down the hallway to the medical room. Though we knew what we meant.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

The extraction and testing process took at least half an hour, but Lukas was quick to find us when they were done.

Hot on his heel, Emma and I followed him back to the basement as he briefed us on the discoveries.

"I have enough blood to run about ten tests for a cure. But if one is successful, it won't be made fast enough to help her." We had reached the front of the assessment room. "Give it your best go, Olivia," he said to me, eyes full of desperation and determination.

"I'll try," I promised before entering the room.

Erica howled at the sight of me, so Jayce and Loren pinned her down.

All the while, Emma chose to wait outside.

I cautiously approached her, checking with the guys on either side to ensure they had hold of her, before I reached for her ankle.

The bite mark was angry, with the two fang holes a clotted dark maroon, and vibrant red veins spreading up and around her leg.

As I glanced up at Erica's face—her eyes flickering between hunger, agony, and a plea—I gathered all my strength as I grabbed her leg.

Channelling magic from deep within me, I unleashed it into her.

I could feel the pain in her leg, throbbing, pulsing, oozing. Though I was reluctant to close it straight away in case I had to weave the venom back through the wound.

Instead, I followed it up her blood stream, taking note of how the disease danced with her magic in her blood, stealing the essences of her. The damage had spread extensively, mingling with every cell in her veins, crowding her heart, and starting to rot the tissue of her muscles and organs.

"This isn't good," I couldn't help voicing.

"Obviously. But try," Lukas snapped.

"I will... I just need to..." I tuned back into my magic in her, spreading it out as far as the poison had spread, trying to grip it. Yet every time I did, it extended further.

I followed its dispersion, searching for the ends again, but then it creeped forwards through my magic once more.

"Fuck," I muttered.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" Lukas demanded.

"I'm trying! It just keeps running away when I get a hold of..." I tried explaining, but explaining meant I wasn't focussing. Meant my gains on the venom turned quickly into losses.

I channelled back into Erica, looking for the disease's ends. And this time, the moment I found it, I tugged with all my might.

The poison pulled and protested as I coaxed it out of her muscles, down her veins, and out of her wound.

Black liquid broke open the clotted wound and gushed onto the floor, causing everyone around me to jump.

Then Jayce meekly asked, "Is that it?"

Shaking my head, I grabbed her leg, now gushing with bright red blood, and searched Erica again. The worst of it was out of her bloodstream. Her legs and arms were clear of the poison. Her body had stilled from the pain.

Yet her heart was still laced in the darkness, quickly pumping the disease back through the body, rendering my efforts pointless.

"No," I muttered, before repeating the same steps again, finding the poison's ends, and yanking it out of her. Though rather than observing the outside world, I quickly tuned back into Erica, searching right back to her heart.

It's still in here...

I wound my magic through every crevice of her heart, ignoring the venom now coursing through her bloodstream and instead trying to find its roots in the organ. Yet as I tried to tug it out, it gripped in tighter.

Erica wailed, and I faltered.

Too much magic around her heart could be dangerous.

"What's going on?" Jayce demanded.

So I explained as best I could while fighting with the stubborn poison. "It's got this strange... almost hook-like hold... on her heart. Like it knows if it clings there, it will keep getting spread. It's almost like a tick of some sort."

"Then keep trying to dislodge it," Jayce insisted.

"I am... But playing around her heart is hurting her."

"The disease is hurting her," Lukas said next.

I chose to ignore his retort, fighting through my heavy eyes and quickly deflating body as I tried to give whatever attention and energy I had left to Erica.

I laced my magic through every single molecule of her heart, looking for the claws of the monster in her, trying to ever so gently dislodge it...

But the moment I pried one side up, the other gripped in stronger.

I went back in, again and again, feeling my eyes starting to sting as my magic felt the poison slipping back into her muscles. As Erica started to writhe again from the disease starting to control her.

The only thing bringing me to a stop was a shaking hand gently touching mine.

"It's enough, Ollie," the witch whimpered with as much earnestness as she could.

"No," Lukas said for me. "Olivia can do this. She's going to help you."

"Either this disease kills me or the blood loss does at this point," she said to Lukas, causing all our eyes to look at the blood mixed in the black liquid pooling around the ground. "I should have let you do it sooner," she then said, calling my attention back to her. "It probably would have worked then. I think if you get them right when they turn, you can stop it. But... It's too late for me."

I shook my head. "I just need a few more moments."

I clutched her leg again, starting to force my magic through her murky blood once more.

But she shook my arm, diverting my attention, stopping me from focussing. "Give up, Ollie. I can't be saved."

"Don't say that," I croaked, feeling the warm hot tears pouring out of my face now.

"Look after Lukas for me."

"You can't go like this. I need you. We all need you. I just... one more go."

"You're too drained, Ollie. One more go won't do anything and you know it. You need sleep."

"But if I leave now, I definitely won't have a chance later."

"I know."

"But—"

"Can someone please take her out of here?"

"Erica, no," I growled this time, reaching for her arm.

"Someone... please." Her head twitched. "If she stays, I might bite her. And I don't want to die like that..."

"You're not going to die!" I screamed.

Though Lukas's arms wound around me, dragging me out.

"Let me go!"

"It's too late," he grumbled, voice croaking though.

"I can save her."

"She's right. You're too tired. You're only getting in the way now and causing her more pain."

Once we were outside, the door closed, and a magical seal shone around the door, prohibiting me from entering.

"No," I flailed against his hold. "Let me back in there. I just need one more go."

"You can't help her anymore." His own eyes were filled with tears, yet he stared at me with animosity.

"I need to try! She got bitten trying to save me!"

"And if you had just listened to me in the first place and never came along, this would have never happened!" he hit me back with.

I went limp in his hold, glancing up at him.

A thousand thoughts raced through my mind in that moment as his words hit me. She asked me to come. Emma asked me to come. It's not like I asked to be there. It's not long I threw the Made at her.

But I couldn't counter with any of it.

Because... perhaps he was right.

If I just stayed out of it... If I just...

A blood-curdling cry sounded from the other side of the door, cutting my dive into despair short, forcing both of our attentions towards the room.

"Are you okay in there?" Lukas called out.

But another cry came through the door.

Lukas released me and walked over, banging on it. "Jayce? Loren? Is everything okay?"

More cries sounded, no one giving us answers.

Lukas pressed his hands up against the door, his magic faltering a few times, until, finally, the door flew off its hinges, revealing the scene.

Jayce and Loren lay on the ground by an almost corpse-like figure. It had the same jet-black hair she had, some bronze skin she had, but the life was drained out of her. Her muscles had disintegrated. Her cheeks had hollowed. There was nothing left to Erica Choi.

"How did—" Lukas glanced at me behind him, and Emma now rounding my side, eyes wide and hands shooting to her mouth in shock.

Jayce held up a vial. "Loren still had one in his pocket... It's what she wanted," he sobbed. "She didn't want to go any further... she didn't want to lose herself and end up hurting anyone else."

Lukas fell to his knees as his hands wavered over Erica's body.

And I backed away, one step at a time.

His words ringing loudly in my ears.

If you never came... this would have never happened.