“I can ask, but I don’t think that will make him any more reasonable.” Eva shook her head. No, Devon will not be enthused with that idea in the slightest. “But I have a question for you: Why?”
“Why?” she repeated with far more anger in her tone than Eva had used. “Why do you think? After what he did–”
“I know why you think, or I can guess. But in spite of your experiences, Juliana, I highly doubt that Willie is the worst demon around. Far from it, I’d wager. For all you know, a demon mentioned on the same piece of paper as a talkina could be a literal walking apocalypse.”
Juliana went quiet, leveling a glare at Eva.
“Spite,” she eventually said, dropping her glare to stare at the ground. Her hands, shaking at her sides, curled into fists. “I just want him to… to suffer.”
“Can’t argue with that. And I don’t have a problem with it either. We’ll have to talk with Devon, but after we’re done here, why not stop by the prison?”
“Maybe. If I can convince my dad and brother.” She slapped her face and shook her head. “Maybe I’ll just sneak out with Ylva the next time she comes by.”
“That’s–” Eva paused as someone entered the range of her blood sight, making their way towards the two of them. “They already almost lost it while you were in Hell. I’d at least leave a note so they don’t worry.”
Juliana didn’t have time to respond before their guest turned the corner.
“Professor Baxter!” A genuine smile appeared on Juliana’s face as she ran up to their teacher.
“Hello Juliana, good to see you again.” Zoe pressed a lock of brown hair back over her ear, trying to sort out the slight mess as much as possible. “I’m sorry that I’m late, I was… held up. How are you? How is Genoa?”
Eva wanted to slap herself in the face. She should have asked that the second she saw Juliana. Just because she had received a response from Carlos stating that he was fine–something that was probably a lie anyway–didn’t mean that she couldn’t be polite at the very least.
“I’m doing okay. Mother is,” her face took a slightly somber expression, “recovering. I guess she’ll be starting physical therapy sometime within the next six to twelve months, depending on the state of her heart and lungs.”
“Good to know that she is stable, but I’m sorry to hear that it will be so long.”
“She’ll pull through,” Juliana said, her voice full of conviction to the point where it brokered no argument. “And be back getting into danger in no time.”
“Your mother is a strong woman. I wouldn’t expect any less of her,” Zoe said with a smile.
Eva closed her eyes as she leaned against the wall. Zoe and Juliana had started to catch up, the former asking the latter much the same questions that Eva had already asked. There were a few new ones that Eva paid attention to.
“When are you coming back to school?”
“Barring any rash decisions on my father’s part,” she started with a roll of her eyes, “I should be back at the start of next year. I want to come back now, but at the same time, I don’t want to leave my mother alone.”
“Family should support one another in times like these,” Zoe said with a sage nod–it didn’t quite fit her. “I’ll see if I can’t get you homework packets delivered from all of your professors.”
Juliana groaned while Zoe let out a light chuckle.
“So, your father is in the room then?”
“And my brother is with him.” Juliana pushed off the wall with a slight scowl. “We should probably make sure they haven’t started fighting.”
“Now that you’re here,” Eva said to Zoe, “he’ll want to melt the ice to get a closer look.”
“Is that wise?”
“As far as I can tell, its blood isn’t circulating. Ergo, it’s dead. But between you, me, Catherine, Juliana, and maybe Carlos and Erich, we should be able to kill it again if needed. With the shackles, I doubt it will be able to escape anyway.”
Zoe placed her hand on the hilt of her dagger and nodded.
“Don’t worry,” Eva said, “Shalise took out two on her own, and I took out one with only having my foot bit off.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
Eva flashed a grin as she pushed open the classroom door.
It was mostly as she had left it. Catherine sat at her desk, growling at the computer set up on top. Carlos was mid-stride around the back of the ice. Erich sat in the seat nearest the door.
Eva did not miss Zoe and Erich sharing a moment of narrowed eyes with one another.
The professor turned away without a word of greeting, focusing on Carlos. Again, she started out with a few simple greetings and polite questions that Eva only paid tangential attention to.
Her thoughts lingered on the interaction between Erich and Zoe. They clearly knew each other. Not surprising as Zoe had known Genoa before Juliana started school. But apparently no one liked him. The tensions between him and Carlos, Juliana finding his presence to be overbearing, and Zoe’s glare. It made Eva wonder just what Genoa thought of him.
Though, Eva supposed, it doesn’t much matter. Not unless he hurts me or mine.
“Alright,” Eva said as the greetings died off. She clapped her hands together, igniting them at the same time. “Shall we melt this enigma down?”
Zoe stepped between Eva and the block of ice, drawing her dagger as she moved. “Why don’t we not use fire. It will make a mess and potentially damage the subject further. I may not be the greatest at hydroturgy, but even I can get rid of the ice.”
Eva huffed. “Fine.” Extinguishing her hands, she folded her arms and watched.
It was interesting. And somewhat alarming.
Not the disappearing of the ice and water. Eva’s classmates had done similar things often enough that it wasn’t interesting in the slightest.
As the enigma’s temperature increased, its blood started moving again. Slowly at first. But enough to put Eva on guard.
She reignited her hands.
That caused half the room to jump to attention.
“Blood is circulating,” Eva said. “I think.”
“You think? How could you think? Isn’t that your whole shtick? Seeing blood?”
Eva blinked at the odd word from Catherine, but shook her head. “I mean, the blood is moving through its veins, but its heart isn’t beating? Oh, wait. There it goes.”
“I’ll stop,” Zoe said.
Eva waved her off before she could start repairing the ice. She walked up to the front desk and found a yard ruler. Using it, she reached across the shackles and lifted one of the enigma’s freed tentacles.
It flopped back down without a hint of resistance.
Eva took a moment to prod it in various spots, including right in its mouth and eyes. It failed to react in any way.
“Brain dead?”
“Could be,” Carlos said as he rubbed his chin. “If it was in an improper state of suspended animation. Could be something else unique to the creature.”
“Maybe its brain just hasn’t restarted yet?”
“Leave it half in the ice and keep an eye on it.”
And so they did. By the time a full hour had passed, the enigma had restarted almost fully. It was breathing and circulating blood. And showed no sign of slowing down.
Through some equipment in his backpack, Carlos confirmed that its cells were alive in every sense of the word.
The real oddity was that he couldn’t find a single dead cell on the creature. Even if the creature as a whole could cling to life, individual cells should die. Especially when removed from the body.
Chapter 018
Eva rolled a bloodstone between her fingers. Aside from the bloodstone embedded in the hilt of her dagger, this was her last bloodstone. And it was one of the good ones, too. The ones from the museum that had a drastically longer shelf life than they should.