Lucio Romano let out a breathy sigh and watched it turn into mist in the slight cold of the evening. He had been asked to pick up the boss's daughter from school. It was a task that was usually assigned to him, and he had long since grown accustomed to it. He even found it somewhat pleasant. The long periods of waiting for the last bell to ring normally provided him with some time to think. And there was a lot to think about this time. He had never really been much of a superstitious individual. At least that was until he had been shot and poisoned by an undead skeleton. His right hand came up to rub his left shoulder in reminiscence. It had already been days since the attack on Anna where he had been injured but he still felt occasional tingles of phantom pain in the arm. The wound had healed up nicely since then. The arrow had been needle-like in shape as it was never designed to kill immediately but rather to deliver its target to a slow cruel death by poisoning. After tha

The sensation of feeling the world around her change rapidly proved to be even more nauseating than Whitney had expected. She fell to her knees, her hands gripping at the grass to help her obtain stability-wait, grass? Amber eyes flashed around in surprise as they confirmed that she had indeed been teleported into a forest. Slowly she got to her feet and created a small flame above her palm to survey her surroundings. Night had since come but the partially thick canopy allowed very little moonlight to reach down to the rest of the forest. Whitney frowned and increased the intensity of the fire in her hand for a better view. Just as she made to step forward, the hairs on the back of her neck tingled and she immediately threw herself sideways in a burst of flame from her feet. Years of reflex training allowed her to control her movement and she rolled herself into a poised crouch several meters away. A cloud of smoke and dust had engulfed the spot she had just escaped from. Ev

Fire was considered the most destructive element for a reason. While wind and water both carried their risks in certain situations, and the amount of destruction that earth related disasters caused was nothing to scoff at, fire was still considered to be above them. Despite lacking in sheer force and maneuverability which the other elements possessed, there was no underestimating the terror that it could bring. It was not difficult to see why though. While all elements were perfectly capable of causing harm, fire seemed to be the one specifically designed to do so to humans in a much more painful manner. There were few things as terrifying as watching fiery red and orange tongues of flame reduce a living and breathing individual to little more than a pile of acrid smelling charred flesh and bones. The restriction was not limited to humans only. Across the world, one of the most common answers to getting rid of something inherently unpleasant was "kill it with fire". And because

'The demon's host! It's Melanie!' For some reason, Mia realized that she had not been too surprised by the news. In fact, when she thought about it, it actually made more sense for that to be the case. All the unprovoked antagonizing actions the school diva had taken against Whitney now seemed more understandable. Whitney's first encounter with Melanie had coincidentally occurred after the former had been cursed. In the same manner, the wealthy girl's hostility towards Whitney had seen a gradual increase with each passing day. Mia knew now that it was because with every day that went by, the inevitable showdown between them drew closer. She forced herself to focus her attention to the reactions of the people around her. The vampires had little reaction to the revelation, although Mia could see what almost looked like a faint smirk on Veronica's red lips. It was no secret that the vampire princess had long been in an unspoken struggle for social status dominance with Melanie.

"Are you sure that is the question you should be asking, Hunter? This city is about to suffer immense losses after all. Do you not wish to stop it?" Olivia shrugged in a carefree manner. "Of course I am. But that doesn't mean I'm going to start running around trying to fix this whole mess by myself. That's Michael's job and I expect him to have everything sorted out." The skinwalker snorted derisively. "Blind faith in one individual will not help you." "Why not? It's gotten me this far after all. Also, you haven't given me an answer yet. I know that you know Variants aren't able to use regular magic, no matter the type or nature. Yet somehow, you manage to become a skinwalker. Unless..." Her eyes flashed with a mixture of amusement and realization. "... you aren't able to transform, are you?" That finally touched a nerve. The skinwalker growled furiously at her and lunged forward, club raised up high to smash its target. It would have been easy for her to simply dodge o