ATTICUS

I was looking through the car window as the sun was almost setting. I hadn't drunk enough blood today to be able to walk under the sunlight for a long time. But, the shadows of the trees would be enough to protect me from the remaining sun rays.

"Rosemary is always getting us into trouble,” Lucas complained while driving. “I need to upload a new photo or my followers will be disappointed."

"I'm sure they can wait until we finish it. This could happen to anybody, it's bad luck," I sighed.

I was starting to regret having advised him to create a public Instagram account. I knew some influencers who get a lot of clothes and products for free, and I thought that my good-looking muscular dark-haired friend could benefit from these advantages, especially having five little brothers to share the rest of his things. Fifteen hundred followers and zero products after, I had to bear his new obsession with uploading shirtless photos of himself.

“She always has bad luck,” he said.

“I have to remind you of the incident of the last game against the Blue Pigeons.”

“First, it’s not my fault that the guy could support a small claw in the back. And second, do you remember the school festival?”

“No, I don’t wanna remember that moment for the rest of my life. But, this is my point, everyone could mess up.”

He signed. “Yes, but hers are worse.”

“Yeah, hers are worse,” I agreed. I knew Lucas well enough to know that agreeing with him was the best in this kind of case. Besides, my mind was focused on another matter and a discussion wasn't going to give me anything good.

I hadn’t seen her outside the school for one month. I wanted to speak with her so badly, but at the same time, I was scared, ashamed, or maybe it was another feeling. There were too many unprocessed feelings between us and I could name most of them. Admiration? Yes. Friendship? Of course. Love? the hard question. My hearts wouldn't stop beating out of sync, flooding my senses with the constant sound. She was the only one that made me feel that way.

"By the way, can you repeat for which you have broken up?" Lucas said looking at me, taking his eyes off the road, and making the car do an S. We almost got off the road.

"Do you want to kill us?" I said the sentence, grabbing the handle, and with a tone of worry that made both start to laugh uncontrollably. A minor road accident can’t kill a lord vampire and a shapeshifter. "Okay, you park on this side of the road, we'll walk the rest. They are a few kilometers inside the forest."

I outed the car rapidly when he parked, almost before he pulled up the handbrake. I wasn't in the mood to speak about my breakup with Rose and Lucas had been trying to get me to open up for a few days. That issue was something that I wasn’t prepared to share with anyone, not even with my best friend.

"Dude, you don't answer me about Rose," he said while he closed the car.

"It's not your business..." A chilly scream interrupted me.

The birds began to fly frantically in the opposite direction of the sound. Lucas and I looked at each other with determination. He turned into a shape half human half bear and I let my corrupted heart beat with more strength until my both hearts were synchronized. Then we started to run at full speed through the underbrush.

FENIX

I was very dizzy. It was like getting out of bed fast and feeling like the room would be Mario Kart racing. I looked at the sky. It wasn't yet night although the sun had almost set. My trick had worked enough. Point for me.

Strong winds that lashed around caught my attention. The witches were making the stupid ritual and the magic forces were collapsing. We had gone from heavy metal to a cat scratching a chalkboard.

The girls and Kevin were in the second circle in black tunics while Rosemary was in the center in a white tunic with golden embroideries. All of them sang together in a strange peaceful canticle. The aesthetics of a satanic cult from a bad terror movie were achieved, point for them. The truth was they were winning me by a landslide; however, I could give myself some points for… you know, normal dude against witches.

I tried to get up and a snake head started to hiss me. Well, a cord with a very bad spell of illusion started to hiss me. Most people would think this an animatronic or a toy before a real snake; I was dealing with amateurs.

Suddenly, they began to scream in unison. They were so synchronized that it seemed like one unique disgusting scream. The birds flew away and I got goosebumps. I began to push with my body trying to untie me. It wasn't complicated, who tied me needed to learn about knots.

They were in silence after that strange scream, with their heads towards the sky covered by a hood. I approached the closest to me, Kevin.

"Oh, shit" I yelled when I took off his hood and saw their eyes rolling and blood coming out of his eyes and running down his cheeks. The third disgusting thing of the night. The poor Kevin was going to suffer anemia after so much blood loss.

I checked the rest of them and there wasn't any difference. Rolled eyes and blood. I tried to move them but it was like they were glued to the ground and with the amount of magic that flowed from the summoning circle into his body, it was a possibility. The worst part of all was the magic getting more chaotic by the second.

I knew that I had to do something, and preferably, something that wasn’t running away and let the ritual blow out.

I checked the makeup case searching for something useful. Lapislazuli not, Himalayan salt not, little iron bars, maybe. I took the iron bars and a compass. The corner was orienting to the magnetic north as I had supposed, a rookie mistake on their part. Triple points for me, the comeback of the century, people.

I began to stick the bars into the ground, the magic surrounding me was overwhelming. I was having a horrible headache. But I could put the bars without problems until I needed to stick the last bar in the center, near Rose.

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I approached the center slowly. The magic was stronger there and I felt worse with every step. I fell to the ground and was dragging myself to get to my objective. I used my last strength to stick the bar in front of Rose's knee. The wing stopped and I felt calm for a sec until I saw a black shadow coming out of one multicolor crack in the sky.

We are screwed, was the last thing I could think before I passed out for the second time in a day

LUCAS

I had left Atticus behind. Although both of us were faster than humans, he didn't even come close to me.

My instincts were fully animal at that moment. My nose was my guide, but distinguishing a trail was complicated with that strong sulfur odor that spread throughout the forest.

I had the direction marked by the scream, but without any other lead, we would need hours to find them. Finally, I smelled Rosemary perfume, her spice rose scent was unique; the twins who always accompanied her were there too; someone I didn’t know; and a familiar smell, a mix between salvia and an excess of AXE. I felt a bittersweet sensation in the pit of my stomach because of the smell, but I was incapable of remembering whose smell it was.

I followed the track. I heard Atticus some steps behind me. He wasn't close, but he had noticed my change of direction. I arrived in the small glade. The scene was chilling. The satanic circle with people in bloody tunics wasn’t what I expected. The twins were helping to get up at each other, while Rose tried to flip a guy who was on the ground. The guy didn't smell like magic, but the familiar smell came from him.

"What the hell happened here?" I asked with a deep and animalistic voice produced by my half-transformation.

The only guy in the group who was trying to get up opened his red cover in blood and started to yell when he noticed me. My bestial form usually has this effect, but not in demonic witches.

"Shut up, Kevin!" Rosemary yelled, pouncing her eyes on the boy who got silent immediately. "It's a friend of mine,” she said, without the slightest attempt to appear sincere.

"Well more like a friend of a friend," I said, making our relationship clear to the rest. I didn’t need the tag of Rosemary’s friend in my social life. I turned into my normal form and stretched my extremities. Shapeshifting without warming up was the worst.

I noticed the cold dirt on the tips of my toes. I had broken my sneakers again. I never remember taking off my shoes when I changed. My father was going to kill me. I took off my shoes and threw them away, they were a useless rag.

"Where is Atticus?" Rose asked me when I approached her.

"He was following my tail, but I'm faster." I helped her to move the guy, then I realized why he was so familiar. "Shit, why the hell is Fenix here?"

"He followed us. for that, we called Atticus. Then the summoning got out of hand, and..." She stayed staring at a bar stuck just at her side. Then, she started to look around. "Who made this?" Everyone shook their heads. "It's impossible that it made him," she whispered.

I gave some soft slap to Fenix. He was breathing and alive but also totally unconscious. Atticus arrived with his red iris and marked black veins on the neck and arms for using his powers. This guy, Kevin, filled his lungs ready to scream again but Rosemary made an angry face which was more terrifying than a vampire or any other creature.

Atticus approached us, recovering his blue eyes and normal pale color skin, but not milk white anymore. "Thanks for coming," Rose said in a sweet tone which produced a chill down my spine.

"Always," Atticus answered with that silly lovebird smile.

I cleared my throat letting them notice that they weren’t alone, we had an unconscious human in our hands, and my followers were expecting a post. Not the time to reconcile and start making out. Especially, because if we didn’t fix that soon we would have a big problem, especially for me if my dad knew.

"We need to do something with him," I said, giving Fenix a shake that didn’t help in any way.

Rosemary moved her hands trying to make a spell "I have used too much power, I'm dry for a few hours."

“Great,” I mumbled, low enough that she couldn't hear me.

Atti approached his ear at Fenix's chest and made his eyes red for a sec. "His heart sounds fine. Although I could try to erase his memories when he wakes up, a witch has to check him.” I didn’t want him to say it. “We should go to the foundation," he said.

Again Lucas Garcia in a new problem with being a good friend. I sighed and took Fenix on my back. He was still a featherweight.

ROSEMARY

I cleaned myself with a wipe. It would be easy with a spell. How could I have screwed up so much? I changed my clothes rapidly and gave orders to pick up and go home to Mako, Juri, and Kevin.

“And remember. Don’t talk to anybody about the ritual. Understood?” I said. I knew I could trust Mako to keep Kevin and Juri in bay. But a threat never hurts.

Atticus and Lucas were waiting for me. Lucas kept Fenix on his back for some reason that I didn’t quite understand. I approached them.

“Your car is on the nearest road, is it?” I asked and Lucas nodded. “Then, what are we waiting for?”

We started to walk. The sun had set and it was hard to orient yourself without magic. Even Atticus looked around unsure of what path was correct; however, Lucas had a confident step. I stopped worrying about the path and followed the insufferable werebear. I would make him pay if necessary.

I let my mind free for another matter. The ritual has been a total disaster. Mother will be so disappointed, I thought.

Atticus rounded me with an arm and smiled at me with his white teeth. "Don't worry, everything will be alright," he said with his usual calm expression. I started blushing and I didn’t have any glamour over my face to hide it.

I left my head resting on his shoulder. I had missed him more than I could admit. I felt really myself when I was with him.

He was cold, more than the dark forest around us. Most people find the cold skin uncomfortable, but for me, it was pretty pleasant. It was like the cold wind in the morning which reminds you that you’re alive.

"You're a bad liar for someone who can manipulate people's minds," I joked and moved a few inches away from him. I couldn’t allow myself to get soft at that moment.

"Not really, I think that Fenix is fine,” he shrugged. “Maybe a little dizzy but we only need to erase his memories and everything will be okay. This kind of thing happens all the time."

"I need to find out what he did," I interrupted him

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I think he broke the ritual." Atticus raised an eyebrow. "The ritual got out of control. I don't know what happened, but the energies were so chaotic that we all went into a trance. These iron bars weren't our thing."

"I don't understand, he's human, isn't he? He cannot make magic."

"I don’t think he made magic. It was like he knew how to balance the forces in a way that I don't quite understand. However, I'll get my answers before the end of the day or my name isn't Rosemary Booth."