49

The scrutiny of the creatures in the great hall was as heavy as if someone had forced the whole weight of the Hospital on Mikhail’s shoulders. The table was more crowded than ever, with every single member attending, plus the vampire Diana, perfectly fine and alive at the far end beside Constantine, and Alex, who was present due to the latest events and discoveries.

Mikhail announced that Diana had come to him with her brother’s story, according to which Kaliope Gazis’ head was delivered to the Hospital through a portal. Mikhail kept to himself the bit about the trip to Italy and the mass murder of the witches, in case any of the creatures around decided to report to Agent Kane what they discussed at the meeting.

Following that, Mikhail gave Diana the floor, and she filled in the blanks for the other Council members. Alex then took over and read excerpts from The Journal of C . – it was what they’d started calling the mysterious book. In contrast to Diana’s discomfort in front of such a large audience, Alex lapped up the attention she received.

When she got to the part with the eighth kind, the Council members shifted their gaze from Alex to Mikhail and back, with suspicion. They observed his reaction, expecting his opinion. And whatever he said or did not, they would judge him. Harshly. Unfortunately, there was nothing much he could offer. And every time he tried to focus, his mind drifted to Amelia.

He had long been used to venturing past what others considered moral, but this time he had damn near crossed his own boundaries. He didn’t trust himself to go back to her. Amelia was too enticing a conquest for his beast. For a very short moment, it hadn’t been Mikhail pressing tight against her. It had been an animal, chasing its primal desire to conquer. He’d wished to dominate her body and subdue her mind. He’d craved to punish her with an equal dose of pleasure and pain. And as much as Mikhail had been struggling to put sense into his other self, the demons from his past rebelled, fuelling his darkness.

Until he found the strength to fight it, he would only trust Zacharia with her.

But… He slouched in his chair, wincing. That same beast who had coveted her was now whispering inside his head for him to go back to her. And Mikhail was more than tempted to. This time, however, another strong compulsion overpowered both of them. It was the need to protect. To make sure Amelia was fine.

She had admitted she was starting to like him, because she had given a chance to the man behind the manticore. Why hadn’t he seen beneath the face of an attractive woman who had concealed something from him? She had more than one reason to distrust him. Besides, her visions must have confused her. What the hell had he expected? She wasn’t Valeria. Her goal was not to harm him. She was just scared of all the changes occurring to her.

Changes.

The word struck him. He had dismissed the idea once, but the signs were prominent. The right age, change in dietary preferences, acquiring new skills. These were all pointers of… A transformation.

Amelia could be in the process of turning into an immortal creature. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she was a New Generation creature, regardless of the species. If she attempted to unlock her secondary form, in case she had one, she would die. And that—the idea of her dying—

Stop winding yourself up!

Mikhail was just now realising what a grave mistake he had made. Maybe that was what the Oracle had meant. Maybe his role was to help Amelia with her transformation. He should warn her, and teach her how to handle her body’s changes.

“Mikhail, what do you think about that?” somebody asked him.

He searched around the table, noticing that Alex had stopped reading. He still had obligations here. He cleared his throat. “A theory about an eighth kind sounds implausible, but there are some strange coincidences between the vampire’s sketch and the book. I am inclined to pursue the topic further.”

“Mikhail, I’m sorry I have to say this, but I believe this to be a complete waste of time.” It was Elisanda. Of course. The woman seemed to have forgotten how to keep her mouth shut.

“I’ll go down to The Seven Horses and talk to the Righteous about those gentlemen,” Constantine offered.

Elisanda huffed. “As if he would talk to you, after you cut off his good hand.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I have my ways.”

The nymph raised her eyebrows. “Since you’ve got time on your hands… Why don’t we talk about how to improve our work here, at the Hospital, instead of wasting breath on fairy tales? Quite frankly, I don’t believe the box with the witch’s head was delivered through a portal, as this woman claims.” She threw a side look at Diana. “The stories about witches opening portals through time and space are just that. Stories.”

Mikhail tuned her out. If he was right, and the Oracle did intend for him to help Amelia with her transformation, then he needed to get to her…

But Elisanda’s next words drew his attention once more. “At the last Council meeting, we talked about reducing the number of patients.”

He definitely heard that. “You’re still on about that?”

“Yes. And as you’ll recall, many supported my idea.”

“This is not something I intend on discussing today.” He regretted his sharp reply the moment it passed his lips. He couldn’t lose control in front of these creatures.

“What about the vial’s contents?” Jaguar asked. “You said it should allow the vampire to unlock her secondary form, even though she is of the New Generation.”

They had got to the part that worried him most. The substance worked.

“There is no ‘should.’ It works. The vampire drank it and unlocked her secondary form,” Mikhail replied. “If you’re wondering whether it’s a forever kind of thing, it isn’t. We checked. The regeneration was restored only for the time needed for a complete first transformation. We have no idea what the principle is, however.”

How long would it take them to figure out what his words hinted at?

Not long, it seemed.

Jaguar clued in first. “This means that whoever these creatures are, reptilians, eighth species or whatever, they know how to fix the issues with our regeneration. Meaning…they know what is disrupting it.”

Mikhail nodded. “I am considering the possibility that they are responsible for it.”

“Strange shit!” Vladislav slammed his fist onto the table.

Those had been Mikhail’s exact thoughts as he’d witnessed Diana transform. For the umpteenth time, he forced back the urge to leave this meeting and go to Amelia.

“We need to find them and torture them until they spill everything!” Lyla Lee exclaimed with enthusiasm.

For once, Mikhail couldn’t help but agree with her. “We’ll start with The Seven Horses and—”

Someone knocked on the door.

Mikhail followed the sound to the entrance, at the far end of the room. The other creatures also turned their heads that way in confusion. All twenty members were around the table, including the two additional guests. They expected nobody else.

Knock-knock.

Mikhail held his breath without being sure why.

Knock-knock.

“Someone open the fucking door, damn it!” Vladislav shouted, running a nervous hand over his wrinkled-up forehead.

Mikhail obviously wasn’t the only one who felt the inexplicable tension.

Knock-knock.

Whoever was at the other end of the door, they were getting impatient.

Diana’s chair creaked against the floor. Under the stares of the Council members, she strolled over to the door, opened it, and stepped back.

“Thank you,” a female voice said.

Mikhail’s heart somersaulted in his chest and dropped to his shoes. Amelia walked in with a calm stride. A million thoughts ran through his mind for a fraction of a second. The unexpected visit in the hall, the familiar features of her face. She was divine, but tense, sad…

Amelia stood between Diana and some other vampire, whose name Mikhail couldn’t recall at this instance. She looked around the table at the creatures to the right, then to the left, then to the far end. Her gaze finally rested on him.

Mikhail stared into her blue irises, expecting to perceive the darker centre that brightened at the corners, creating the illusion of burning flames. He saw them, Amelia was still in there, but he identified something else as well…

“Hello.” She waved at them in greeting. “I am Amelia, the new Oracle.”

The voice was hers, Amelia’s, but a bit softer, prettier… With a hint of uncertainty?

Amelia took another look at the others, who were motionless as statues. Mikhail himself found it hard to breathe. He dug into his mind to find the right words, but his lips refused to move.

Lyla Lee giggled. “Lady, is that some kind of joke?”

“The Oracle died, goddamn it! These types of jokes are completely inappropriate!” Nyavolsky exclaimed before gaping at her. “Of course! I was wondering where I knew you from. I gave you a check-up on the nineteenth floor. Only you were human then.”

“She slipped away from me in Radiology,” his wife Helena added.

“A human ? A human is the Oracle!” Platinum chimed in, starting a wave of exclamations and questions.

Mikhail tuned them out, his attention focused on Amelia, whose expression indicated she wasn’t feeling well.

He had to do something.

He was the leader.

And this was Amelia.

He’d finally figured it out.

***

Amelia was lost. The energy in the room was too demanding and exhausting. She had made a grave mistake, thinking that she could handle the immortal world. Surrounded by so many creatures, all she craved was to hide and relieve herself of this hurricane of visions that engulfed her every time she attempted to see something specific. Or something , period.

After waking up from her encounter with the Creator, an idea had dawned on her, or maybe a wish, an impulse to speak. To creatures. The words reverberated in her head. The image of each individual was like a picture in her memory.

Following that, the torture began. Faces, voices, scenes, emotions, and sensations merged into one another and changed in a fraction of a second, excruciating to her senses. How could she complete her duties as the Oracle, if she couldn’t distinguish the different events from each other and every struggle to do so nearly killed her, mentally and physically?

At last, she had discovered she could turn it off. Just as she had conjured up the dreams about Mikhail, she could summon or dismiss her visions. Only, the dreams had come clearly and one by one, whereas everything now was a mixture of hazy events. Hundreds. Thousands. All at once.

‘You can do it, little seeker.’ She would survive this, and once she had a chance to reach a secure and isolated location, she would figure out her next steps.

Amelia still wondered why she had accepted the Creator’s deal. It wasn’t just the threat to her life that had swayed her decision. It was the realisation that her family had sacrificed everything for her to be in this position. And at that moment, a surge of warmth had spread through her chest. For years, she had thought pursuing medicine was her way of making amends for surviving when her loved ones hadn’t. But perhaps fulfilling the Oracle’s task was her true path to redemption.

Not that it was an easy task. Because those visions she was supposed to experience? Well, they didn’t work.

She straightened her spine, remembering Mikhail was in the room. She couldn’t focus on him just now – not when his mere presence drew all her attention. This time, she had something bigger to accomplish, something beyond the two of them. And she would sort everything out. But not before completing her task and sharing those first words she had received after waking up.

The room continued to fill with ever-rising and ever-louder chatter. The creatures talked over each other and bombarded Amelia with questions she could not answer. Mikhail had once told her Council members were like a pack of wolves who needed a steady hand and a firm voice to keep them under control. She had imagined him as that firm, leading voice, maintaining a tight rein over everyone else. But when she darted a glance at him, all he did was sit back in his chair and watch, a tortured expression on his features.

Amelia averted her eyes from his once more and tuned in to the discussion.

“I didn’t know the position of the Oracle could be inherited,” a young woman said. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Alex Volk, healer and scientist.”

“Not many creatures do,” a man to Amelia’s left chimed in. Dark eyes, striking features, expensive male perfume, low voice… For some inexplicable reason, the hairs on her neck stood up. “My name is Constantine. Necromancer. I’ve been waiting to meet the new Oracle for a long while.”

On instinct, Amelia looked at Mikhail – he was clenching his fists on the table, his gaze intense. Still, he had not yet moved. Did he expect her to silence everyone on her own?

“Oracle, do you know who is behind the murders at the Hospital?” asked a black-haired woman with shaggy pink highlights.

“Shut up, witch! There are far more important questions we should ask the Oracle. Like, how do we prevent the ageing?” a beauty with platinum-blonde hair spoke up.

“Damn it! Again with this?” the surgeon yelled.

“Show some respect, creatures!”

“Anything about the Changes?”

“I have a personal question…”

The redhead woman Amelia had seen around the hospital addressed Mikhail. “And you were aware this whole time, but didn’t inform the Council?”

The hostility in her words stung. Amelia wanted to tell her that nobody knew or could have foreseen this, but she found no strength to rise above the noise.

Mikhail’s deep voice cut through the commotion, his tone commanding silence. “Silence, creatures!” He rose to his feet, his expression transformed from tortured to stern. His eyes gleamed with a golden intensity, reminiscent of her childhood dreams. Amelia’s heart swelled with a sudden ache.

Whether due to her improved senses, or something else, Amelia perceived him differently. The energy of the beast surrounding him was more palpable than ever. The others must also be able to detect his power, because the room fell quiet in a heartbeat.

Mikhail’s gaze roamed over each one of them, and settled on her. “I would like to know what the new Oracle has to tell us.” Was it her impression, or did his intense gaze soften ever so slightly when it landed on her?

Focus. Amelia straightened her shoulders once again. “As I said, my name is Amelia. And I was a human until recently, but now I am… the Oracle.”

“How is this possible?” someone interrupted.

She pursed her lips. Luckily, the necromancer answered in her stead. “The Oracle is the only immortal species that could be born as a human, in a family of humans.”

“How do you know this when nobody else does?” Mikhail asked.

“I’ve been to places nobody else has, and thus I’ve heard things nobody else has.” The necromancer shrugged. “But as far as the inheritance of the Oracle’s ‘position,’ if I could put it like that, it’s no secret, just something forgotten a long time ago. After all, the last Oracle was chosen six thousand years ago.”

Amelia nearly fainted. Six thousand years? Did that mean she would live that long, too?

The necromancer, as if reading her thoughts, added, “But it’s possible that nowadays things would be different. The last Oracle was also affected by the Changes of 1744, so it’s unlikely for any creature to live this long, with the active ageing processes and risk of disease.”

Amelia nodded, feigning confidence, to confirm what he’d said. She couldn’t control her sight and visions, but she didn’t intend on showing weakness to the others. She observed the table once more, searching for the faces she had come for.

The man to Mikhail’s right. He wore his baseball cap backwards. A golden chain with a massive cross hung around his neck. She recognised him as Viktor from her visions, although his modern dressing style surprised her.

Amelia looked straight at him and spoke the words the Creator had given her, but whose meaning she couldn’t understand. “When the three times merge into one, you will become one.”

“Are you talking to me, darling?” He smiled.

“Fuck!” the surgeon yelled. “She speaks in the old Oracle’s riddles!”

Amelia had a message for him as well. “Love is the brightest light, even where the sunrays don’t reach. If you follow that light, you will find the right path.”

“Follow, love?” He glanced at the creatures around him.

“So, you follow me!” the redhead next to him exclaimed.

Amelia recognised her as the one who had promised to pull out her nails one by one slowly if she tried to escape. Good thing her status as the Oracle protected her – she hoped.

Amelia continued speaking the words that raced through her head like the lyrics to a song. “Because where the most cherished lie, it is dangerous for others to approach.”

“Are you implying my husband is cheating on me?!”

Amelia sighed. She had no idea what she was implying, if anything at all. “But sometimes it is necessary—”

“ Necessary ?” The woman bared her teeth at the man.

“Hey, hey!” He lifted his hands. “She didn’t say I let anyone else in my bed. Maybe she meant you!”

“Yeah, right.”

Amelia faced the necromancer to her left. “The blood that flows with magic will always be blood that flows with magic,” she said to him and to the brunette who was sitting next to him.

The woman stared at her, but didn’t speak. The necromancer only curved his lips in response.

“Oracle…” A man at the far end of the table turned to her. “With all due respect, these were some interesting riddles, which, I can’t help but notice, are personal. Would you mind telling us more about the Changes and how to… hm… deal with them?”

Though the question reached her, Amelia didn’t register its meaning. She was bewitched instead by the man’s eyes. Unusual, memorable eyes. One sea-blue and the other emerald-green.

“Could you give me a pen and paper?” At her question, the heterochrome irises filled with surprise. “I need a pen and paper,” she repeated, louder.

“One second,” he replied, pulling out a black briefcase from under the table.

He dug into it, grabbed a pen and paper, and passed them to the creature next to him. They kept handing the objects over until they reached Amelia. Dead silence fell over the room while every single face followed her, waiting to see what she would do.

She was wondering the same thing.

Amelia stood before the empty paper. Her vision blurred. She blinked a few times, forcing her sight to focus, but the haze grew more and more intense until it rendered her blind. The white swallowed her.

“Amelia!” Mikhail shouted.

Through the white, as if on a film strip, numbers and letters swirled around, one after the other, after the next, ordered and faint. Amelia stretched out her hands, groping the space in front of her, and reached for the pen and paper. Without seeing it, she wrote down every number and letter she had noticed in the white, her hand moving furiously to keep pace. After the last one had been transcribed, her vision cleared.

Mikhail was standing next to her. “Are you all right? Your eyes turned white.”

Amelia handed him the paper. “Here is your answer.”

He took it, frowning. “What is this? Coordinates? You know what, it doesn’t matter. Amelia, let me take you to your room.”

She leaned on the table, noticing that the space around her had been emptied. “Mikhail…”

It was time for the message Amelia needed to pass on to Mikhail. She didn’t want anyone else to hear, so she drew closer, her lips barely moving as she whispered the words that made her blood run cold. Despite convincing herself that she felt nothing for him, and passing on this message would not affect her in any way, her proximity to Mikhail dissolved her composure. At that moment, she was not the Oracle, but simply Amelia – the girl who wouldn’t have captured his attention under different circumstances.

Mikhail pulled back, confusion etched on his face. “What?” he asked, his gaze searching hers. “Amelia, I know you’re upset, but let’s talk.”

But there was nothing more to say. Amelia’s task was done.

“Call Zacharia. He will give me a ride to the city,” she said.

“I cannot let you go. Not before, not now.”

Amelia glanced around the room. The members of the Council were watching them intently. She was losing her ground.

“Someone call Zacharia!” She raised her voice at them.

Mikhail grabbed her hand. “Amelia, you will be in grave danger. I know you’re confused. But if you allow me to help you adapt—”

“I need to be alone.” She pulled her hand away. “Please, call Zacharia.”

“No.”

“Mikhail…” The necromancer cleared his throat. “This is the Oracle. It would be best to do as she asks.”

Mikhail stared into the other man as if he had just woken up from a dream. Seconds passed until he finally faced her. “I’ll drive you, then.”

“Mikhail, I don’t want you to,” Amelia whispered, her voice laced with despair.

He held her gaze for a long second. And another. She was tempted to count, but she couldn’t think past everything left unsaid between them.

A muscle ticked in his jaw. Then, with abrupt movements, Mikhail yanked out his phone and barked an order into it, his eyes never leaving hers. “Come to the hall!”

Amelia sighed, and her shoulders slumped in defeat. “Thank you. Please, tell Dave that we’ll meet soon and…take care of him.”

She braced for his touch, but it never came. Only his words, delivered in a whisper meant for her ears only. “Amelia, I apologise for my blindness and for blaming you. I…”

He trailed off. The silence between them became oppressive. She only looked up when Zacharia appeared, his expression detached.

“Take Amelia wherever she wants,” Mikhail commanded.

She headed for the door, but Mikhail’s voice followed her, firm and gentle. “Reach out to me when you’re ready. I’ll be waiting.”