And she decided that she would definitely choose life!

She closed her eyes deeply and her consciousness was illuminated by a bright light that showed her the way and exactly at the moment when she opened her eyes, she had a dagger in her hands, which she plunged into the vampire’s back without hesitation.

With the strongest agony, he screamed, leaned back, trying to throw off what was pressing against his back, but it was in vain. Each new attempt to pull out the dagger only weakened him more, as if pulling energy and vitality out of him, until eventually he dried up before her eyes and crumbled into dust.

She lay on the floor, completely motionless and only greedily inhaled the air that the phantom had taken away from her some time ago. She was already used to being met with a new challenge every time, but this was the first time when the phantom was not a natural element, but a person, and she realized that she still had not reached the strength that could fully protect her.

Finally recovering, she stood up and picked up the dagger from the floor, carefully examining it. It was strange that of all the items she created, this one didn’t disappear after use.

It was quite a weighty weapon, despite its small size. Its blade was made of some kind of silver metal that displayed images like a mirror. The hilt was golden in color, inlaid with many precious stones that shimmered in the glare of light. But most of all, her attention was attracted by the bright scarlet core, which stretched from the hilt to the tip, like a stream of blood.

- What are you looking at there with such curiosity? – the mentor’s interested voice was heard somewhere behind.

Still feeling soreness from the bleeding wounds, Thea turned around and saw Eugene, who was leaning against a pillar and carefully watching her student.

- I didn’t notice when you came back. – she replied.

- Just a couple of minutes ago. - Eugene smiled, coming closer. – It’s time for you to learn how to heal yourself, because I won’t always be around.

As Thea thought, Eugene was a very caring and good-natured woman. Of course, she had a difficult, and at times very demanding character, but Thea realized for herself that all this was solely for her own good.

Every time she got injured in a competition at school or at home with a phantom, Eugene treated her wounds like a caring mother. In those days when she was not at home for days, she left an errand for the housekeeper to take care of and take care of Thea.

It all came down to the fact that her health was above all.

And now they were sitting on the sofa in the living room while Eugene carefully healed every cut and bruise on Thea’s snow-white skin.

The mentor could not help but note with what frenzy her student approaches the educational process and she was inexpressibly pleased. But no matter how hard she tries, everything will still go on as usual. She created a phantom for Thea not in order to awaken her powers, but in order for her to gain experience. After all, her abilities are so unique that they do not depend on training, it’s just that the time has not yet come when they will be fully revealed.

And Eugene, having the gift of foresight, knew this like no one else. Although she had asked repeatedly about what had triggered her abilities, she guessed that it was the action of vampire blood that flowed through Thea’s veins. She couldn’t figure out exactly how it worked, but her visions always boiled down to the fact that his blood was somehow involved in it.

Could she borrow his powers?

Sometimes Eugene regretted that she could not see the answer to any of her questions.

- So what is this thing in your hands? - She repeated her question, reaching out to take the dagger.

- I do not know, he just appeared out of thin air like the rest of the items that I summon. – she replied, smiling gratefully for the healed wounds.

- But unlike those items, it didn’t disappear? - Eugene’s gaze was searching, as if Thea might be hiding something from her.

- Yes.

- Interesting thing. The witch muttered, taking the dagger from Thea’s hands.

But as soon as the hilt touched the mentor’s fingers, instead of a weapon, only a handful of dust appeared on her hand.

Thea looked at Eugene in fright.

- I didn’t do anything. - she hastened to justify herself.

But Eugene was silent and only stared at the small handful of dust that rested on her palm until her lips curved in a satisfying smile.

- What do you think it is? - She asked Thea.

- Dust? Ashes? Soot? – she listed the first thing that came to mind.

- My clever girl. – her mentor praised her. – It’s ash.

Eugene was surprisingly calm and pleased with what she saw in front of her, which puzzled Thea, because she could not understand what to be happy about here when such a beautiful dagger suddenly took and disappeared.

- Don’t pay attention, at the moment it doesn’t matter at all to you, but it tells me a lot. – the mentor answered thoughtfully.

- What is he talking about? - Thea couldn’t help but ask the question.

- How curious you are. - She flicked Thea on the nose. – Go rest, don’t worry your head. By the way, where is the phantom? I don’t feel his presence.

- Ahhh... Well, I stabbed him with a dagger and he’s lying there. – she nodded her head towards the hall.

Eugene put the ashes in a bag that she usually used to collect rare herbs and immediately went to where her student pointed, where she saw another handful of ashes on the floor, almost the same as what she had just held in her hands.

- Hmm, interesting. So you killed him. – she affirmatively stated the death of the phantom.

- Well, yes, As in the past times.

- Not really. This time you killed him unconditionally for good. - Eugene said, and then laughed. - I think that you are getting stronger, it pleases. That’s it, now go rest.

After Thea finally went to her room, Eugene headed to her office. Taking a bag of ashes from her pocket, she poured it onto a golden tray and placed it next to her desk, covering it with a cloth dome.

- You never cease to amaze me! – she said mentally.

She took out a pen and a piece of paper and quickly scribbled a letter, which she carefully folded into an envelope and sealed with a sealing wax seal. Then she took out a small box with multicolored stones and spread them out on the table, forming an ornament, after which she put an envelope inside this ornament. Barely audible, she whispered a spell and in an instant the letter disappeared from the table, as if it had never been there.

- Everything is developing too fast, will I have time to prepare her? - She dropped her head on her folded hands on the table.

For several days she had not slept normally and fatigue began to affect not only her appearance, but also her abilities, they were weakening due to lack of concentration.

A few days ago, she had a vision that almost ruined all her plans if she hadn’t immediately taken action. That’s why she disappeared so spontaneously, leaving a phantom through whom she could look after and train Thea. But who would have thought that she would be able to "kill" the illusion.

/A couple of days ago/

- Are you listening to me, Eugene? - Lillian’s voice was not able to reach her on the first attempt.

She hurried to return her attention to the supreme witch so that she would not suspect something was wrong.

- Did you have a vision? - Her gaze was like a knife blade, sharp and sharp.

- No, I was just thinking about what we should do with the vampire. – she lied very skillfully, not letting Lillian doubt her words.

- He’s not your concern. – she replied, not giving compromises. – Gather as many allies as possible, that’s what you should be concerned about right now. How are things with werewolves?

- I wrote them a letter, but I haven’t received an answer yet.

- Too long. Go there yourself. We need them, this is the main trump card against vampires and you know it, I don’t need to remind you about it. - her voice dropped a couple of tones, penetrating with coldness.

- I will certainly do so. - She replied dryly.

- What about faeries and elves? Eugene, don’t be silent, you’re starting to annoy me. - The Supreme witch said. - You’re too distracted today, it’s not like you.

- You know that elves think too highly of themselves to help anyone. They immediately refused. The Faeries have closed all the passages to contact them.

Lillian grimaced in displeasure, digging her nails into the armrests. Her irritability in recent months has begun to go beyond the bounds of reason. Eugene has long been noticing the supreme witch’s selfishness of her character, but now it has reached a new level. It was as if nothing bothered her except her own tasks, which everyone had to do without question, whether they were witches or other races other than vampires.

This was the only race that always went to confrontation with witches, so Lillian tried in vain to find a loophole to them, but to no avail.

- Have you found out where the girls disappeared? – she asked the question and the witch grinned, which made Eugene tense up.

Eugene was a very smart witch with a rare sensitive gift, so she could already put together a puzzle to figure out who was behind the missing girls. But the supreme witch’s chuckle unsettled her. There was nothing funny about the terrible death of young girls who were just starting to live. But how could she openly declare her unsubstantiated base, which is stored in her head?

- I’m sure you already know that. The vampire King is responsible for their disappearance. He became unbridled bloodthirsty and this should not be allowed to take its course, he crossed all boundaries, throwing us a direct challenge with this terrible abduction. Knowing his character, I assume that the girls are already dead.

Groans and sighs spread through the wall, along with the horror in the eyes of each witch. Some of the girls were relatives of the witches present, so this topic was frankly painful for them and the fact that the vampire was involved in this further hardened them to the upcoming confrontation.

- Riliya and their mages are on our side. We can fully rely on them, but this is still not enough. – she declared unsatisfactorily.

- Does the number of allies make sense when our enemy is an immortal vampire? - Tethys asked.

- It does when you need to distract his attention. They’ll be great cannon fodder to cover our witches, that’s obvious. – she answered, spreading her palms to the sides, showing all her disregard for other people.

- But what about him specifically? - asked Tethys again, who was still worried about her miserable life after she betrayed Raphael and he would surely come after her to take revenge.

- I’ve already thought about it. Lillian replied thoughtfully. – We have two ways that we can try to use against him.