章節 10: Chapter 10- Paper, Scissors, …
POV- Dominic
The morning classes were a little weird, especially as both Hope and I were being stared at pretty much all through the first two classes, and glared at by Lizzie and Penelope who were fuming at Hope and me respectively. I knew Penelope was pissed because Josie was a little quiet during the class and was sat with Liz, though that was mostly to comfort her codependent blonde twin and stop her from attacking Hope if she snapped midway through class. Penelope had spent spellcraft with her head flipping between me and Josie, but understood when I kissed Hope's jaw under the ear, simply sighing and becoming more worried about her.
Josie spent her lunch break helping Emma take care of the younger students in the garden, while Hope and I spent the break getting to know each other better, verbally. It wasn't until we heard a scream and shouting for Dr Saltzman that we returned inside, following the noise until I saw her.
Lying still and unable to move, was Josie, my Josie. A large claw mark cut through the bottom section of her shirt and left grey cuts along her stomach, though the grey seemed to be spreading incredibly slowly. "Shit Josie, what happened? Does it hurt?" Hope asks, while I read her emotions, the fear a dark purple haze that encased my little witch queen.
"Josie, I'm going to take your fear okay, just breathe and relax. We'll fix this." As I fed on her fear, I was internally stressing out. Hope was attempting the spells she knew, but nothing was working, the grey still expanding across her smooth skin. "Did anyone see what did it?" A small child I'd seen talking to the twins occasionally raised his hand.
"A statue did it. We were in the garden but it kept getting closer and closer until it chased us here." Alaric arrived and took the spot opposite me, Liz by his side. The kid described the statue that had vanished somewhere inside the school. "A head like a dragon with wings but made of stone."
"How many creatures made of stone are there? Golem and Gargoyle are the only two I can think of," I spit out, still looking down at Josie who although much less panicked, was still unable to move. "Why can't she move? Is it shock?"
"I think it's paralysis from the cut, while the spreading grey seems to be turning her to rock herself. Petrification. That should narrow down the options." Alaric took off towards his library, the same one Dorian used to identify the dragon, hoping for more information, maybe he'll just call Dorian himself. 'The dude has spent all his time since the dragon reading up on different magical creatures just in case they turn out to be less metaphorical than we hoped.'
Emma's voice calls out through the speakers warning students that the school will be on lockdown until the creature is dealt with. While I pick up the stiff as a board Josie and place her in one of the protected rooms around the school, hidden from all senses to all but students and staff. Looking at the spreading petrification, I can barely breathe, and while Hope is aware of my concerns, she stays back, thinking on how to deal with the creature. "Josie, I'll be heading off to go hunt the statue thing now." Her fear grew again along with the magenta plume, but I needed to go kill this fucking thing. "I've killed a dragon, this'll be nothing," I say softly, leaning down and kissing her forehead. "So when I get back I want to see you fixed up yeah?" I turn before I feel compelled to stay, and both Lizzie and Hope follow behind, both equally determined to kill the thing that hurt Josie.
Making our way to where Alaric had run off to, I yank a broadaxe off the wall, Lizzie following suit. "Do you not have magic?"
"Well yeah, but it likes to get in close right? Then I smack it with this." I couldn't argue with the logic and continued trekking towards the reliquary, which held Dorian's weird monster library, finding Alaric reading an old book, and talking to Dorian on the phone.
"Yes, petrification and paralysis from a scratch. Looks like a dragon-human statue. "Gargoyle you think? Okay, then we know it's not connected to a witch and is a living creature of stone. Thanks." He then looked up at us, "Where's Josie?"
"With Emma. She's safe Dad." He came over and took the axe from Lizzie, though I gave her mine, picking up a mace-looking thing that I figured would be more effective against a stone creature.
Alaric took the cursed dagger Landon stole and tucked it into his waistband, "The gargoyle was rumoured to defend humans from monsters, but if it's after the knife, it will have to come after me." The four of us moved down the halls, not bothering to be subtle, and I felt a chill run down my spine through my tail. Moving at a blinding pace, the gargoyle charged at me, claws outstretched, giving me only enough time to bring up the mace to block its claws, locking us in a contest of strength. I was surprised that I didn't instantly lose, as its red eyes met my blue ones, the struggle broken by Alaric smashing an axe into the creature's ribs, ruining the axe-head and forcing the damn beast off me.
"It really hates you, Dom," Liz said teasingly, as the red eyes swirled back to me, and the wings carried it off the ground and back at me in an aerial charge. I was more prepared this time, sidestepping as it swooped and swinging the mace with two hands like a bat into the back of the gargoyle's head, driving it into the wooden floor for a few metres. The creature's skull had a crack in the back, but it didn't seem to provide much damage. Hope cast a spell that bound its arms and wings, but it only lasted a brief moment.
"It seems a little eager to hunt me down, so maybe-" I get out before unfurling my own wings, throwing myself into the air above the stoned intruder. "do something about it?" The two of us were now involved in a game of tag with extreme consequences, diving, twisting and clawing at each other, though I hadn't been scratched yet, a small scrape from the beast's horns across my leg my only injury. "My claws and tail aren't doing much."
Looking down briefly, I can see Hope talking to Liz, explaining something fervently while Alaric was waiting on the ground anxiously, watching the winged dogfight between mythical creatures of wings and claws. My lack of focus comes back to bite me, however, literally, as the creature's arms grab the mace and bit my calf, extracting a pained scream from my lips. With new-found strength accompanying the adrenaline, I tear the mace from its grip, smashing the very badly dented weapon against a stone wing, diving down towards the floor myself lest the bite provides the same toxic injection of paralysation and petrification. I catch myself with my wings, lowering myself to the floor, landing on my non-injured leg. Luckily, the rocky fucker hadn't torn out the flesh, which increased the likelihood of it injecting something. Now on the ground, I didn't have to worry about falling several dozen feet onto my head, but now on the ground in the entrance hall, there was little I could do to move effectively. The creature dove at me again, having crashed to the ground, now missing a wing, but was blocked by Alaric, whose presence woke the gargoyle from its frenzy, cutting off its momentum.
Alaric took the opportunity, cutting again against the creature's stony skin, knocking it down to its knees as Lizzie cuts at the gargoyle's cracked head, hoping no doubt to burst its head to shards. Her cut meets her target, but the rounded shape bounces the blade, redirecting the force along the curve, and into my waist. "AH, FUCK LIZ." She dropped the handle, forcing the weight of the axe to drag open the wound as I recoiled, holding the wound shut with my hands. "Girls kill it," I cry out, refocusing Hope who had frozen at the sight of my blood.
The two sprinted together, clutching each other's hand, channelling a bright red glow between their palms, so bright my eyes were forced to squint. "Fluctus Inpulsa. Fluctus Inpulsa. Fluctus Inpulsa." The girls continued to chant, their hair flapping wildly as if a strong breeze had picked up inside though I couldn't feel one. The creature roared, changing its focus from me to the girls, standing tall with an aggravated look on its face like when someone wakes you from a good dream. As they continued to chant, the look in its red orbs changed from predatory, to pained, its stony back arched in pain as the existing cracks spread over its skin in the same way as its petrification was now creeping around the surface of my bitten calf. Its roar became a hollow howl before with a final chant, the gargoyle exploded, showering us with shrapnel.
Hope and Liz are ecstatic that the creature's dead, but I can feel sensation come back into my leg. "Good news, I'm no longer rock hard," I joke, drawing the trio's attention to me. "Dr Saltzman go see Josie, she got cut and may need assistance."
He ran off while Hope rushed to my side, a very guilty-looking Liz kneeling on the other side of me, "What about you, you stupid bastard?" Hope yells, pulling my hands off the bleeding mess to examine the degree of the wound. "There's so much blood I can't see." Liz waves her hand washing the gore off my pale skin, causing the two girls to gasp and me to burst out laughing.
"I can heal? That's wicked."
"It seems so," Liz said with a great deal of relief as she tackled me in a hug, sobbing her apologies into my ear.
"I wondered why it felt weird a few seconds after I pulled the dropped axe out."
"Seconds?" Hope asked. "That's almost at vampire speed, and considering how far the blood covers the axe, she cut you deep."
"I said I was sorry. It's not like we couldn't have healed him anyway," Liz said with a small pout." Shaking off the last of the weird feeling in my leg, which also had no marks on it besides the tattered track pants, I rise to my feet, taking the axe off Liz.
"Liz, you're banned from carrying weapons within 10 feet of me," I joke, headed off towards the safe room Josie was left in. As we enter the room, I'm barrelled into by the brunette witch. "Did my little witch queen miss me?" Teary-eyed as she traces the tear in my shirt with her fingers, Josie faintly mumbles into my chest.
"I kept up my end of the bargain, all fixed up," I hear as the ex-statue smiles up at me, looking over at Hope and Liz, "It's dead?"
Hope gives a small smile, "Well and truly. Basically, just chunks of rock now."
"That's now two creatures that wanted the knife, though it was more interested in killing Dom than the knife after it spotted him," Liz commented with a huff, her own relief turning into exhaustion as the adrenaline faded.
Alaric, who'd been sweet talking or discussing with Emma, hard to tell, approached at this moment, closely observing Josie who was still clinging to my chest, her hand on the absent wound. "The girls heal you okay?"
"Actually Dr Saltzman, it healed itself in a few seconds, which is good to know. I was just too distracted to notice and the blood covered it."
"Interesting, but I think I know why it was more interested in hunting down Dominic than retrieving the dagger. Dorian sent me a photo from a text he had on gargoyles, and in 14thcentury France, a gargoyle named Petrotho, or Guardian, protected a small village from threats, mortal and supernatural. It was also described as having killed two witches while protecting a dagger."
"That dagger?" Josie asked, though it seemed almost redundant.
"Most likely. I think it didn't hurt me, because I'm human, and hunted Dominic so fiercely because he is a demon, something so greatly feared by humans at the time. Especially back when people were more religious. It deemed Josie, Agatha and Johnathan risks because they were supernatural, scratching them, and hunted you because you are the human bogeyman."
"More people were injured," Josie asked, having been the first attacked and thus unaware.
"Yes. Two other witches in the younger years were attacked shortly after you, but everyone was taken to a safe room. They're fine." 'Even in moments like this, she's still worried about the welfare of other people.' Josie let go of me eventually, moving beside Liz and comforting her, as despite her relief that I had healed she was still embarrassed and tired from the surges in emotion and hormones. Emma had been watching Josie the entire time from a distance, coming over to Hope and I when I thanked her for putting down the oversized garden gnome. I'd just gotten to promising to thank her privately, my cool breath on her neck, when Emma interrupted.
"I overheard you were injured."
"Yeah, but I'm alright now. Not a scratch on me…yet." Hope smacked the back of my head at my joke, though the flirtatious grin she wore told me she was equally down.
"I just wanted to ask if you were doing okay. The last time, I heard you were rather upset at having to kill the dragon."
"The dragon was a scared and confused woman who was only seeking the knife. The gargoyle hurt Josie for no reason, then attacked me. If it had used the sword the kid described, it would have been a shitshow." My mood dropped as memories of the human form of the dragon, a dirty, but scared woman came to mind, desperate for the knife. Hope sensed it, and held me tighter against her, her hand rubbing along my lower back, and I thank her with a smile, however forced.
"So… are you two?"
Hope answered for me, her blazing smile brightening my mood like magic. "We are dating, but we actually have to thank you for that." Emma was quite obviously startled, not understanding her involvement in the newly formed relationship. "If you hadn't decided to question him with the truth orb, I wouldn't have found out he liked me for sure."
I wrap my hands over her shoulders, my chest tight to her back, " I don't think I was being particularly subtle though. Maybe I should have had another naked conversation by the lake to be clearer." I cop another swat from Hope, who was embarrassed hearing me talk so openly in front of Emma, who was her counsellor.
"Shut up dumbass."
I leaned down, my voice but a whisper in her ear, "Make me," before I bite her neck and kiss the bite mark, leaving a flushed and stunned Emma staring at us. "Is there anything else you wanted from me, Miss Tig?"
"Uh, I-I wanted to ask if tomorrow, now that we know you heal, we could test for weaknesses and immunities that could help you prevent serious injury later." Seeing no reason to complain, I agreed, shaking her hand without moving from my position, waving off the mildly embarrassed mature witch as I drag Hope to my room.
I crash on my bed, but as I pull off my tattered shirt, ripped from wings, close calls against claws and grazes against horns, not to mention Liz's attempt to eviscerate me, Hope stiffens, standing at the foot of the bed. "Why?"
"Why what, babe?"
"Why did you fly off and fight it alone? You could have died."
"Because I thought you needed time, and I didn't want you two being scratched by it."
"So you put yourself in danger instead of us? You didn't even know you could heal."
"In my defence, I didn't know you could either, but yes. And I would again. I can guess what you're thinking." The guilt and fear battled for supremacy while her love hung in the background, probably thinking about the loved ones she'd lost. Those she'd mentioned last night, and those she had yet to mention, but I needed her to understand. "If the situation was flipped, would you stay still? Or would you distance yourself to protect me?" Her aggrieved expression and clenched fists spoke her answer, and I scooped her into a hug, holding her as we lay on the bed.
"I know I'm being a hypocrite, but I don't want to lose you. I can't lose anyone else." My plan to thank her for killing the statue died as I lay with her, hugging her face to my chest as I stroked her hair, feeding on the guilt and the fear, lulling her to sleep as naturally as I could.
~~~
I woke to Hope pinching me, though the windows showed it being dark outside still. We'd fallen asleep at around 2:30-3, and I doubted we slept for long.
"It's dinner time, and as comfortable as this is, we really should eat." Hope fetched me another set of clothes to replace the damaged ones I'd worn this morning, and apart from the stone dust still coating my hair, despite my efforts to shake it out, I was relatively normal looking, horns and tail aside. Hope asked me last night why I often had them out, and to be honest it was more comfortable. I assumed having my wings out, stretching them and having the wind grace the leathery skin would feel euphoric, but they were also incredibly large, and kind of in the way unless they were magically retracted. At least the tail could be wound around my waist or leg, and the horns were more of an accessory than anything, despite their razor-sharp tips.
Meeting with Liz and Josie in the dining room, we tuck into a pasta that I was genuinely thankful for. My body was craving carbs and would not be denied. Josie had apologised to the two younger witches for not being able to protect them, while Landon and Raf were sitting with the wolves rather than with the witches, as if this were some variation on the Hogwarts houses. After dinner, both Liz and Hope moved off to go talk to Alaric about including combat magic in the curriculum, in order to protect the students against the appearance of dangerous supernatural creatures that seemingly had no issues with killing humans or supernaturals such as themselves. While Josie was hearing out some complaints from her 'subjects,' as I liked to call them, Rafael and Landon called me over to a couch in one of the entry rooms.
"I heard you fought against the gargoyle, how was it?" Raf asked, obviously wondering how it compared to the dragon we'd faced before.
"Impenetrable skin, being bitten or scratched paralysed you and slowly turns you into a garden statue, and the thing was determined. The dragon could breathe fire, but at least I could cut it, and I had to be really careful about being hit back this time."
"I heard you were covered in blood though?"
"Liz accidentally hit me with a broad axe, but I heal apparently." Raf burst out laughing at the irony of being careful against the dangerous gargoyle only to be injured by the petite blonde.
Landon however, did not, too distracted by his own envy anger and fear. "I know I heard you two this morning, but I needed to ask you…are you really dating Hope?" Raf slumped as the positive atmosphere vanished and I leaned back into the leather sofa. "You knew I had a thing for her."
"I knew you had a crush on her, but the two of us clicked."
"You've kissed three girls in the first week. You could have dated any of them." Raf was being quiet, neutral, almost as if he didn't want to get involved. 'Which I guess he doesn't.' "Finding a girl that likes me is rare."
"And finding a girl I wanted to date was even rarer until I died and we came here. And so what if I have? Do you think she doesn't know? I straight up told her. I tried not to get in the way of your thing, however pitiful, but Hope and I ended up together." I could see him doing that annoying constipated pout he always does before he cracks it and runs away for a few hours, coming back and sobbing the next morning, but I ignored him. "Sorry you have to deal with him Raf, but I'm not anymore." 'The chicken can go cry himself a river elsewhere, while I look for something to do for a bit…Like flirt with an evil temptress.'
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