Episode 2: A Bite, a Death, and New Friends: Part 1

Scott is about to find out how painfully a ghoul's bite can be.

Like everyone else who went to college, Gwen Nicole Duval hoped for a normal day in a dull life, not to come home with a half-dying boy named Scott Summer Day in her arms. Who tried to save Gwen from a ghoul, which was odd at best to be on a college campus in the middle of the night, but there it was, attacking Scott, leaving Gwen to deal with it. She killed it quickly.

She kicked open her apartment door, making her only roommate jump from the couch, turning to face her. He blinked a couple of times, seeing Gwen come stumbling with the boy whose clothes were dripping in blood. His normal shirt and uncombed, dirty brown hair darkened with sweat. His face went pale with agony as Gwen dropped to the ground with him.

"Rupert," Gwen groaned, looking over at him. Her amber eyes matched her long hair, some trapped in Scott's blood.

"You know most people bring homework after their first day of school," Rupert said.

"Not now," Gwen hissed. "Help me."

"With what?" Rupert asked, shaking his head. "He stinks with ghoul toxin."

"Yeah, because we were attacked by one," Gwen said, climbing out from under Scott's arm and shutting the door behind her, waving at Devon, the drug dealer next door. His mouth was open wide as Gwen smiled back at him. "He's drunk, you believe, that right?"

"Sure thing, cool cat, whatever you say," Devon said as Gwen shut the door.

Scott moaned from the venom tearing through his body, biting his muscles and trying to decay his bones. Dying from ghoul venom was painful to anyone; it is like someone pouring acid into your muscles while at the same time injecting bile into your bones.

Scott lifted himself, trying to understand where he was, but all he could do was throw up blood.

"I'm not cleaning that up," Rupert pointed at the floor while backing away.

"Oh, man, gross," Gwen gasped, jumping back from him.

"I'm ---," Scott threw up again, more blood, "dying." His face planted into the floor, letting his bladder empty, sending urine all down his jeans.

"Oh, come on," Gwen reacted, seeing the dark line inking down his leg.

"I say let him die," Rupert remarked, "this is vulgar."

Gwen sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of her nose and taking a deep breath. "I can't let him die."

"What happened to having a normal day?" Rupert asked.

"Went to hell when the ghoul attacked us," Gwen groaned, looking dead at Scott. "Get him to my bed."

"Me?" Rupert asked, holding his claw to his chest. "I have to pick him up?"

"Rupert, do it," Gwen ordered, pointing down at Scott.

Rupert dropped his shoulder, slowly walking over to Scott. "What are you going to do?" He asked as he bent down to pick him up with ease. Rupert hadn't worked out a day in his life, but he was stronger than any human in the world. He tossed Scott over his short shoulder, watching Gwen race to one of her many bookshelves.

"I'm going to find my spellbook," Gwen said, kneeling. "Do you know where it is?"

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rupert asked, taking a second to look at Gwen's bed. He put Scott on the floor, walking to the closet to dig out an old sheet or three. He put the sheets over the bed and then put Scott on it. He could hear Gwen racing around the apartment.

"Why wouldn't I want to do this?" Gwen asked. "I'm trying to become a doctor to save people."

"Not like this," Rupert said, stepping into the living room.

Gwen was throwing books off the shelf, looking for a single book, one only a Duval could read. All the females in the family had a spellbook bound to them and no one else. And she had misplaced her only spellbook, but it had to be in the apartment; she had to keep the book with her.

"You'll tell every Child of the Night and Sons of the Sun you are back on the board," Rupert said. "You understand this, don't you?"

Gwen stopped looking dead at him. For years, she had vowed never to walk in her family's footsteps. She wanted a normal life. She wanted a house, children, and to work as a doctor. She wanted nothing to do with magic, demons, or anything else. She had lost her twin sister, McKenna, to this life. Mckenna had gotten herself killed because she wasn't made out for this life. Gwen looked back at her books on the floor and then past Rupert to Scott, dying on her bed.

She couldn't let him die like she let McKenna. She moved her worried gaze down to Rupert. "I can't ... let him die. I can't."

Rupert sighed, walking over to a bookshelf next to the door. He moved a few books around and pulled out the spellbook, handing it over to Gwen. "You are not going to like what it's going to cost to cast the spell."

Gwen looked down at the book, watching the golden skulls coming forth on the edge of the cover. At the center, blooming before her eyes was her family's coat of arms: a shield with black roses around it, a breaking skull in the middle, and two scythes behind it. At the center of the skull was the sigil of Persephone, the first of her family's bloodline, or so the legend goes. She ran her finger over the sigil of Persephone, wondering if anything her grandmother told her was true. Her family words were written in Latin: "Death walks with us, We are the Master of Death."

Scott groaned from the bedroom and then roared in anguish as the venom marched on in his blood. Gwen opens the book, rushing into the room, flipping through the pages, looking for a way to save him from dying and turning into a ghoul. She didn't care too much to have a ghoul in her bedroom where she had to kill it.She could control it, but it would be easier to kill it. Rupert hates ghouls about as much as he hates cats.