I was almost glad the dybbuk was possessing somebody else. I already knew these kind of spirits could be malicious, and that it was probably lying to me when it took over Atticus' body, but there was something that felt like relief when I understood that my brother wasn't the only available target, the only one who didn't put up defences.

Well, at least, until Matias showed me who the possessed person was this time.

"I feel much better in this body, you know?" said Jason. "There is not a lot inside of this head, so I can make myself comfortable."

It was almost laughable to hear it said aloud by Jason, but we knew that, as much as we hated the bully, whatever he was now was way more dangerous, so we didn't let our guard down and enjoy it.

"You are a troubled soul who got stuck here," I said. "Not unlike the souls I talk to every day, even though you have taken a demonic form. I can still help you go on, if you just tell me your story."

I tried to be as calm as possible, and I only rolled my eyes once, but it was a mistake, and I bet it was hardly noticeable.

"But why would I do it?" he complained. "First of all, I'm very... I don't know how to put it into words... I feel very disconnected. My own death is hard to remember, I have only glimpses of the person I was before... and then again, I feel a need for revenge. Who's going to revenge me if I'm gone?"

Matias was about to say something, probably that we were going to avenge him. It sounded like the kind of 'white lie' he would say to get rid of 'our friend' faster.

But I was a Speaker, and I didn't like the odds of promising a spirit something like that.

"Revenge is complete bullshit, dude," I said. "My brother Atticus always tells me to let go of the grudges. He says that people who start shit are already digging their own grave."

"He does say that, does he?" Jason mused, with a malicious glint in his eyes. "Yeah, I remember your brother Atticus quite well. Who knows if he really believed in what he was saying..."

"Stop playing your games!" I growled. "I don't care if Atticus believes in the things he says to me or not, but there's a reason why he says them. He raised me, and he taught me stuff, and maybe sometimes he had to make it up as he went along, but I'll always be grateful for it. And, at the end, so what if you want revenge? But it doesn't seem to me like you're taking it..."

That stopped him short. I knew enough about spirits to know he had most likely died a gruesome death, but his killer wasn't any of the people he possessed for fun. Why was he in the school? Who was the killer?

"The story of my death is a hard one to hear," he simply said. "I would spare two young Blood Drinkers like you from hearing it, as much annoying as I find you to be."

"I am a Speaker!" I flushed. "One day I'll be big enough and I'll bend you to my will!"

Jason sized me up. I was already taller than he was.

"Oh, I am convinced you'll get big enough. But don't confuse being a big man with being a strong, or a powerful man. I'm not corporeal, and neither are most things that walk through the night. We can't be intimidated by fists."

I suddenly felt embarrassed. Despite Atticus' careful attention towards my psychology, I was just a violent person inside. Like our father. And there was something else that made me sad -- the dybbuk was in Jason's head, and the way he talked made me understand he knew I had already punched Jason once.

"Stop harassing my friend and tell us your story!" Matias said. "There's not much I haven't heard yet, anyway!"

Even though I still felt bad, that made me smile a little. Matias had still to outgrow the phase where young kids think they have more leverage over people than they really do.

"Okay, but if it troubles you... Remember that I didn't want to talk about it," he said, sounding, for the first time, the right mixture of mysterious and dumb that it took to play Jason while staying in character.

"I was not a Blood Drinker, nor a Speaker, or anything else of the sort. I was simply human. I knew some things about Blood Drinkers, but I had only the knowledge of a common person. One thing I was sure of, you only drank animal blood to boost your powers. Only certain animals, that have to be wounded willingly."

"Well, that's right!" Matias interrupted him, even though I was pretty sure he had been the one to tell me we couldn't make sarcastic remarks during the sob ghost story.

"About two months ago, however, I was approached by a man who I had never seen before patroling the city, but who was unmistakably a Blood Drinker. You know, the way you look after you pass your Blood Task is not entirely human. Anyway, I was approached by this person, and before I knew it, I was out cold."

Matias was about to say something. I knew it didn't make sense to him that Blood Drinkers would harm an innocent civilian, and, while I absolutely agreed, I felt like there was more to the story.

"I didn't die from that," he went on. "I found myself in some sort of lair, with a different Blood Drinker this time. He sounded like he wasn't right in the head... I don't know how else to put it... and he drank my blood. I do not mean he cut me and drank a tiny bit. He drained me from my neck like a vampire would, except he didn't have fangs, so he had to slit my throat open before he could do that. If you don't believe me, you'll find my body drained of blood right in this school, hidden in a place where neither I could find it, for it was completely and utterly dark when I died, and I could never recognize it again."

"Then how do you know it's here at school?" Matias asked defiantly.

"Because he can't leave, can he?" I asked with a shudder.

"I think we should tell Minx Morris," I said then. This is too big. If it spread that certain Blood Drinkers do that...

"I'd tell Mira," Matias said wisely. "She's much more logical, Minx would probably pass out or make a scene, or start tearing his hair out."

When I glared at him, he said, "Well, he does that a lot."

I had to admit he was right. Mira, even if a little bit cold-hearted, had nerves of steel and the natural capacity to make the right decisions. It also had something to do with her Skill, Timing.

Even when she didn't use it, she would not be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Matias and I had agreed that we wouldn't mention to Mira the fact that it wasn't the first time that we met 'our friend'. There was no telling what she would think about the fact that we hadn't told her about it. I only hoped the dybbuk would play along, but he must have sensed it was the only way he could find his body and move on.

"I don't like seeing you possessing a student," she commented, after he recounted the story again. This time, I was half-hidden by the teacher and I could do all the eye-rolling I wanted. Matias just looked at me with a somehow murderous expression.

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"But I understand that for something so incorporeal as you are, it is the only way to be seen by us and to communicate.

The story you tell is a troubling one. You see, there is no adult living here except for Minx and I, unless they're in hiding. And we don't have taste for human blood, and we don't look like the man you described to me. But it doesn't mean I don't believe you."

Her mouth twisted.

"When ugly things that aren't supposed to make sense start to be the only logical explanation, it means that there's danger on the horizon."

"The creatures are crawling out from the dark..." I couldn't help but mutter. It was childish, a tale they told young initiates that would one day become Blood Drinkers. Atticus had told it to me.

It was about a time before the Creatures, when Blood Drinkers' services weren't needed. I couldn't help but think if this foreboding sensation of doom was the same our ancestors felt back then.

But it was stupid. Mira always said that all kind of demon-slaying techniques and those who practiced them were as old as time itself.

Matias smiled at me, though. I realized he must have been familiar with the story -- they probably told it to young children trained and sold to be future Blood Drinkers.

My stomach felt uneasy, like every time I thought about it. It was strange that, out of all the students, Matias had wanted to be my friend. The one I couldn't say no to, because I respected him in a way I couldn't even comprehend myself...

The idea of somebody hurting him...

In that moment, someone big crashed into me.

Minx looked all bones. I was almost sure you could see his ribcage when he stripped out of his clothes.

I felt my face flushing hot. Why did I have to have thoughts like that? Besides, ribcages aren't hot. I know because I have one I can see fairly well through my delicate paper-like skin.

Anyway, he was still a grown man of 6'4, so of course his body crashing into mine would knock me down.

"I'm so sorry, Roman," he said. "I know you don't like being touched, let alone shoved around like that... but I had a pressing matter that couldn't wait... and since you're right behind my wife, well I had planned to crash into her, see, but you were in the way and I'm a itsy bitsy clumsy."

He smiled encouragingly at me, like as if to say life wasn't so bad, cheer up young student, or something like that.

I tried to smile back, but couldn't. That's because, for the first time, I took a look at him. He looked like those scientists in the picture books for children, the ones that they're going crazy over an experiment gone wrong.

Atticus had told me that it was a stereotype, and it wasn't even an accurate representation of what a person having a nervous breakdown looked like, and I knew it was true.

But it was an accurate representation of what Minx Morris was looking like at the moment.

I hoped it had something to do with the pressing matter he had mentioned, and that he would go back looking like himself when everything was settled. Not that his usual appearance was fairly normal.

"What's the problem, Dominic?" Mira asked him.

Normally, only your partner or your closest friends would call you with a pet name, and everybody else uses your real name, but with Minx Morris it seemed to work the other way around.

"I was going to the cellar, you know, the one where we store the Blood that needs the aging process before it becomes drinkable, and... Gosh, I don't know how to put it."

"You found a body?" Matias asked cheerfully.

"Why? Yes, that's exactly what I did," Minx looked surprised with himself.

Mira's face darkened.

"It fits with what young Jason here was telling us," she said.

I chuckled. I liked Mira's humor. But most people didn't get it. It made me a bit sad.

"Did Jason went in the cellar before I did?" Minx asked. "Perhaps to try to drink the Blood. I wouldn't put it past him, even though he hasn't been turned yet. Those boys Athanasios sent us are pretty ruthless, eager to grow up and become warriors."

Matias flushed pink. I tried not to think stupid thoughts, like that it was the shade of pink the sky gets when it's dawning. My mind is so fucked up. It's just blood inside cheeks, for Lord's sake.

For the first time in my life, Minx Morris had disappointed me. Perhaps because he was so out of it, he did not care to speak that way in front of Matias, who had been trained against his will, and it wasn't his fault that he had grown up warrior-like. As for Jason, comparing them was just impossible. That boy had never seemed eager to do anything.

"No, darling," Mira explained. "Jason is possessed at the moment."

Then the demon told its story for the third time, and my brain just about exploded from the boredom of it all.

"Can you confirm the throat was sliced open?" Mira asked her husband.

He paled.

"Yes, it was," he couldn't help but agree.

"What are we going to do about it?" Matias asked.

"In my personal expert opinion," Minx said. "I think we should panic."

"No!" I couldn't help but say. Minx was the closest thing I had to a father figure. I wouldn't let this situation escalate just because he probably had a cold or something, and wasn't thinking straight.

Besides, if the situation went downhill, he would get blamed for it. Not even because he has to take care of everybody, just because he's a bit different.

"I'm sure that, if we dig deep enough, we can find some kind of demon who takes a human form and drinks human blood," I said. "We just might have happened to come across it."

"They already exist," Jason mocked me. "They're called vampires."

"I think it's time for the poor soul to go home," Minx decided, as if this jab at me was where he drew the line.

Maybe it was. It would be foolish, but also kind of nice.

I performed the spell Matias had taught me. Nobody asked me why I had come prepared to say it, even though I hadn't studied yet. I guess Mira and Minx might have known all along the demon was already acquainted with us, but they didn't say anything, because they also messed up letting a blood thirsty killer walk around the school.

"You know, the thing you said before..." Mira told me during lunch. "It wasn't stupid. We'd have to think about it. Of course we will tell the story to the other students, it's only fair that they know. And, if this thing, or person, is still on the loose...they better come prepared."

"With all due respect," I said. "After hearing his story one time I already knew it by heart. After hearing it three times, I also had time to analyze it. There's no way we could come prepared to an assault like that."

"Let them try," Matias replied. "If we're armed, we're hard to take down in a fight. With a spear, I might best him."

"Well, you might," I agreed softly. I had no doubt the guy was going to try.

"Roman!" Mira said. "You have a friend! That's so exciting."

"Of course I have a friend," I scoffed. "I don't punch people just for anybody. Not even Jason."

Matias laughed at that, even though Mira looked a bit disappointed.

I suddenly realized that Matias laughed at my jokes. Before him, only Atticus did that. And I thought it was strictly out of brotherly affection, like when I said that he looked good with reading glasses.

Well, it's not like he looked bad, but he looked a little less like some young hero from a Megleni legend, and a little more like someone whose eyesight had gone bad over staying up at night learning to write when dad didn't send him to school.

Which I guess is a different type of hero, but somebody I didn't look up to so much.

I thought about the dybbuk's words. Was it selfish of me, if I didn't want to see my brother being weak?

Atticus was the only thing I had ever since I could remember. I had grown to believe he was invincible. And then, I learned to lie to myself about it.

When he wakes up from a nightmare, and he calls my name, I pretend I'm sleeping.

The morning after, I only have a vague recollection of having had a strange nightmare in which my older, indestructible brother was having a nightmare.

Weird, right?

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't unaware of his pain, and I wasn't shutting him out. Well, maybe a bit. But I told myself I would learn to handle that, in due time.

I would be for him everything he had been for me, the brother who saved me.

The brother he never had.

Ever since Mira had told everybody about the dybbuk, Cypress and Jonathan had become insufferable. Truth is, I never noticed them much before, except when they were dancing together and they looked almost like a couple, but I had filed that thought away, not caring enough about either of them.

But Minx had told everybody to research which kind of creature could have done something like that to the man, and they couldn't stop announcing loudly all the news they found in the library. They seemed to believe they were the only one making progress -- truth be told, they kind of were -- and their weird theories about how the accident could have taken place amused the other to no end.

In moments like that, I wanted to tell everybody that Matias and I had found the dybbuk first, and battled with it twice, because it suddenly seemed unfair that nobody knew.

But I understood that keeping the secret was more important.

Anyway, everybody's mood was restless those days. The Blood Tasks were approaching, and they were serious tests, in which some of the students would officially become Blood Drinkers. The Tasks were also painful, and possibly dangerous.

As a Speaker, I didn't have something like that. But I still studied, which meant that the teachers were expecting some kind of progress that just... wasn't there.

It seemed that, once I managed the basics of Speaking as a young child, that was it. I had never been able to do something really outstanding. Minx and Mira didn't pressure me about it, but I knew that my role to the team was vital. If I couldn't protect the world from the trapped Spirits, that could go rogue, and hurt somebody, I was almost-human.

And I just couldn't fail my own expectations like that.