At the Witches’ Coven,

Cillia smiled when she saw the work off her hands, her hard work hard work had paid off. She smiled as she stared at the new breed of Abominations locked in cages. She had put a lot of work into making them. The first few sets were unsuccessful but with more tries, she with the help of the other witches had made the perfect bread of nominations using humans that were made available by the vampires and the rogue shifters.

They were more than happy to capture humans and bring them as lab rats for the witches. They preferred doing that than watching themselves be taken and turned.

"Send for Dmitri and Leroy, they would love to see this," she said to a male witch who stood beside her.

"Yes, leader," the witch said and left her side to deliver the message while she remained there admiring her hard work.

It was not easy turning humans into Abominations because their blood was different from that of the nonhumans. They didn’t have magic compositions in their bodies and she and her witches had never turned into a human before so it proved exceptionally hard for them.

Some of the humans could not endure the pain of transformation and died. Others turned into things that could not be characterized at all and were left to die on their own or to kill themselves. Some were successfully turned into Abominations but they could not move making them useless and were killed off without a second thought.

But now that it was successful, she could smoke and take a breather. She turned around and found the witches standing waiting for the next instruction and nodded. It felt good to be the head. Though stressful and with a lot of burden to bear, it came with its perks too.

"Remember the process for the successful transformation, we will have to do this again another day, for now, you may all retire to your homes," she said, dismissing them all.

"Yes, leader," they said simultaneously and began leaving the cave.

Cillia waited for a few minutes but Dmitri was nowhere to be seen. She grew impatient but still waited in that cave for him. After some more minutes, she saw the witch whom she had sent out coming with Leroy and Azrail following closely behind. Not seeing Dmitry there annoyed her.

She felt like stomping her way to him and grabbing him by the collar to question him as to why he would treat her that way. She sent for him and he only sent his underlings to answer her call.

"Coven leader," the witch said with a bow of his head.

"You may leave," she dismissed him after acknowledging his greetings. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Where is your Lord?" she asked after the younger witch was gone. She looked angry and they could see that very clearly. "I remember calling for him,"

Leroy and Azrail stared at her and then at each other before Leroy spoke. After all, he was still the second in command assigned by Lord Dmitri himself. "We can’t find him," he said and the frown on the woman’s face only grew deeper.

"What do you mean?" she asked. A red glow could be seen flashing across her eyes and they knew she would hurt at any moment if they didn’t give her an answer.

"Lord Dmitri left a few minutes before your messenger came to get us, but he didn’t tell us where he was going," Azrail replied and received a glare from Leroy.

Where on earth could he have gone to? Cillia wondered. He didn’t tell her, Leroy or Azrail, his newfound best friend. It was not long ago that he decided to do something stupid by going to the enemy territory without backup. Did he go there again? She tried to trace him but it seems he had hidden himself and didn’t want to be found.

"Fine," she said and moved forward. She will deal with him later. "Look at them and know how to give your report to him," she won’t be seeing him anytime soon even if he came for her. He wanted to hide from her so she would also hide from him. And as for these two, they could see for themselves and make their reports, she was not entitled to explain anything to them.

***

At the Blood Moon Pack,

Kora walked into the cave and let Gaia take control of their body while she remained partly conscious so she would be able to understand what Gaia was about to do.

She traced her hands in the painting on the cave’s walls as if searching for something on it. When she didn’t find it on one side of the cave, she moved to the other side and began tracing her fingers across it too.

She stopped at a painting of a paw and stood for a moment before partially shifting, slowing fur to cover her body.

["Is this what you were looking for?"] asked while they shifted. She had seen that many times in the past but never knew the use of it.

["Yes,"] Gaia replied and placed her paw on the paw print and it glowed, emitting a white light that could be seen even outside of the cave. She pulled back her paw and it turned back into a palm as they took their human skin back.

"What was that?"] Kora asked but Gaia remained silent for a long time, making her even more curious and worried. She finally understood how Emily always felt when she didn’t answer her questions and kept her waiting.

["You will know later,"] Gaia replied, which confused Kora. She didn’t know anything and just wished Gaia would tell her. If anything happens, they will both be affected so she didn’t see the need for any secrets between them. ["I will tell you later, right we need to meet with Dmitri,"] Gaia assured her and Kora relented.

["Okay,"] she said.