Bad Moon Rising

[Teagan]

"What?" Teagan sputtered, having completely forgotten her friend beside her. "Oh-right, um...yeah, I'm fine."

Idiot. She couldn't go around slamming things and taking out her aggression in ways that she had back in Portland. There she would just head to the shooting range with some extra ammunition or to the forest and whack a tree with her staff. Not quite the same.

Teagan realized that Lucas was still waiting for an explanation. "I...I have this headache that's killing me. And it won't go away." Right, like that made any sense as to why she slammed the notebook. She sighed and looked down. "Motrin isn't working. That would be my luck on the first day of school."

[Lucas]

“Motrin ain’t worth nothin’,” Lucas replied with a nod. “Straight up T’ is what you need. And not a wimpy dosage either.” He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. Had the professor not waltzed in at that moment, his feet would have hit the top of the desks as well.

The frail elderly man made his way to the front of the small classroom, setting his books and bag on the desk before taking a quick inventory of the situation. His eye moved from student to student, judging each pupil to try to get some sort of idea of how the year would progress. When he looked at Lucas, he scoffed as if he didn't think the boy would last long. The demon's eyes narrowed. I could break your tiny neck a dozen ways before you knew what hit you. Watch your step, meatbag.

This class was going to push him to his limit. In more ways than one.

"Welcome to Math 225," the professor gave a toothy-grin to the group. His voice was old and raspy, putting a frown on Lucas's face. "This class can be counted toward your general education requirement in the category of..."

Ignoring the professor, Lucas reached down to his binder that lay tossed on the floor beneath him and grabbed a sheet of paper. Hastily he scribbled a message with the pencil, folded it up, and tossed it toward Teagan. Without another word he stood and quickly walked out of the class. He had more important things to do, like gathering reports and ironing out difficulties.

[Teagan]

"I'll try that, thanks," Teagan tiredly smiled back at her friend. "But I don't plan on OD'ing on it."

The door slammed opened behind her and a small, older man strolled to the front of the room. Drowsiness suddenly gone, she bolted up and straightened the papers on her desk. For real now, Teagan was about to start college. What had someone told her once? 'The first day of the rest of your life.' That's exactly how she defined this moment. She followed the teacher's movements, paying careful attention to everything the professor said.

Beside her, Lucas started acting uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat, sending the man dirty looks. What on earth did the teacher do in the first minute and a half of class to offend him? Teagan knew back from camp that the slightest wrong look could send the teen into a sour mood, but the record time had been five minutes.

She curiously watched as he scrawled a message on a piece of paper and passed it to her. It landed at the corner of her desk. Hesitantly Teagan reached for it, hoping no one else in the class had noticed.

Just realized I forgot to eat breakfast. Grab me a syllabus, aight? I'll see you later tonight in the caf' for dinner. Seven.

-L

What? She looked up, but the seat Lucas had occupied was now empty. A look of confusion passed over Teagan's face. Breakfast couldn't be as important as the first day of class. A tinge of disappointment traced her eyes. She had hoped that they could go through the entire class together. After all, he was the only one on the campus that she knew.

"See you later then," she muttered to herself, turning her focus back to the teacher.

The rest of the day passed by without incident. Teagan sat through each of her classes, taking rigiorous notes, double-checking syllabi, and making sure she arrived at the right classrooms at the right time. Her cold grew worse, to a point where she could barely talk. Luckily on the first day the professors did most of the rambling. The didn't need any other information than the acknowledgement that she was indeed present during roll.

To her exasperation, Teagan noted that the entire school buzzed with gossip regard the previous night's attack. All the students murmurered their own theories and cautions to each other before the start of classes. By five, when her last class ended, she had heard every idea from serial killers to Big Foot. She stormed out of the room, extremely annoyed. For one day, could she not leave the mindset of a Hunter? Could she not live a normal life without strange events tracing her footsteps?

"I can't take this anymore," she growled as she unlocked her door and stormed to her bed. She threw herself on top of it again, not even caring that her backpack didn't quite land on the desk she chucked it at.

"Rough day?" A voice asked.

Teagan opened one eye. Her vision focused to reveal a girl laying on the bed across from her, looking up from a textbook. "Slightly." She lifted herself up on her elbows and stretched out a hand. "Teagan Cassidy. You must be the roommate."

"Brianna Miller," the girl returned, accepting Teagan's handshake. The room was small enough that they could reach each other without leaving their beds. Brianna was a tall red-head with perfectly manicured fingernails and a very stylish attire. Impressed, Teagan noted that everything matched on the girl, from her earrings to her socks. That took effort, and lots of free time. "Where are you from?"

"Seattle," Teagan replied. "What about you?"

"Nampa," Brianna grinned with pearly teeth. Teagan wondered how many years she spent in the orthodontist's office for a set like that.

"Not that far," Teagan mentally did the math. "Just a couple hours drive, right?"

"Close enough to call, far enough not to get in trouble," she winked.

"Sounds perfect." A hint of whistfulness entered her tone. Perhaps she should try calling her parents again soon. No, there were more important things to be done first. "I was um, just coming by to drop my stuff off before heading to the library. I'll be back later."

"No problem, dolls," Brianna nodded, turning back to her text. "Just take care late at night. There's been some strange reports about things that go boom in the night."

The hunter in her cringed. "Will do, thanks." Teagan grabbed her sweatshirt off of her desk chair and tucked her wallet in her back pocket before hurrying out the door. She knew all too well about those topics.

"One last thing," Brianna called right before the door closed. Teagan reluctantly opened the door back up and peeked her head in. "What can I do for you?"

"There's no chance you'd want to switch sides of the room, is there?" The girl sweetly asked. "The light comes in at a strange angle and affects my pores at night. It'd be a small sacrifice."

Teagan frowned, wondering if, indeed, her roommate fit the classic dumb-rich kid stereotype. "Ah, I think we should leave things the way they are. Karma and whatnot." She quickly disappeared out the door, not wanting to have to deal with a pouty girl. That was the last thing she needed when she was sick.

[Lucas]

Lucas sat in the corner booth by the window in the cafeteria, only a bottle of Coke in front of him. The host had loved this drink and the urge to satisfy the craving finally grew too large that he decided to relieve himself of it. It was quite difficult to concentrate on incoming reports from his underlings when he couldn't focus on what they were saying.

Not that any of it mattered. No new information had surfaced, rendering this despot location his best chance at finding Casey. And then Lilith.

He closed his eyes and massaged his forehead, contemplating the current situation. To get to Casey, he needed to get closer to Teagan. Eventually he needed have her reveal her life as a Hunter to him so the next natural step would involve Casey. But the only way to do that would either be to expose himself as a demon and hope she wouldn't run or pretend to be a Hunter as well. That could backfire very quickly if they came across other demons. Or she muttered that one, disgusting word.

The scent of oranges drifted through the air, mixed with the stingy smell of sanitizer. Lucas looked over to the door, mildly impressed she had shown up at seven on the dot. "Sorry about bolting earlier. I didn't mean to just run off like that."

[Teagan]

"It's alright," Teagan replied hoarsely, sliding into the other side of the booth across from him. She pulled out a paper from her back pocket. "Here. Your syllabus. Sorry that I had to fold it. If you want another copy, he posted in online for us."

After leaving her roommate earlier, Teagan had visited the library to find out if they carried spare copies of her textbooks she could check out at leisure. She also had inquired about the whereabouts of the folklore sections, but only briefly. Just as a precaution, she convinced herself. "Oh, he also assigned the homework for tonight after going over the first lesson. You'll find the details on the back of the paper." She waved her hand tiredly.

Lucas accepted it with a thanks, then gave her a once-over. "You okay, Cassidy? Did you beat your first day or did your first day beat you?"

"Ha ha, Lucas," Teagan sarcastically laughed, rolling her eyes. "I managed just fine, thank you." And for the first time, Teagan felt more hopeful than she ever had. The first day of school was officially over and that meant that no matter what happened the next day, the future wouldn't take the same course.

She and Yuki and Aiden wouldn't die.

They'd be around to keep Art from turning maniac on them.

"I just wished this dumb cold would go away," she complained.

"You sound absolutely terrible," Lucas agreed with her. His dark eyes searched hers questioningly. "Did you take the medicine I recommended?"

"No, mother, I didn't." The end of her statement trailed off, scratchy and barely audible.

"Sounds like you should have." He abruptly stood and grabbed his drink off of the table. "C'mon Cassidy. We'll get you some magic powder and then get that math homework done back in my dorm. How's that sound?"

"That sounds like doing homework while I'm sick," she glared at him. "It couldn't wait until tomorrow, could it? I want to sleep." Her head fell on top of the table in defeat. She felt him grab her hood and pull her over until she was forced to stand up before falling to the ground. "Thanks for nothin'," she growled at him, readjusting her sweatshirt.

"That's what friends are for, right?" he teased, smiling down at her. "You don't want to miss the first homework party. Look, no one else is around, the moon is high in the sky; it's prime time for a study night!" Teagan reluctantly glanced around the cafeteria, finding a lack of people around.

"That's because it's only the first day. Half of the school doesn't have class until tomorrow. Who would show up until then?"

"Whatever," Lucas shrugged. "Now you're just stalling. Get it in gear; we're heading out, yo." With a playful shove he pushed her to the door.

As she entered the cool air, Teagan rubbed her aching throat. It stung, but that didn't matter. She was in college, hanging with a friend, and not a care in the world beside her studies. No more dumb risks or dangerous weapons. A study party sounded like the funnest thing in the world at the moment, and she found herself happily walking beside her friend -that's right, her friend- across the open expanse of grass in the quad. Normal. That's what described the moment: normal. The campus was quiet at the moment, and dark as well. To conserve electricity, all but the necessary lights turned off at sunset. It seemed that Lucas was well aware of his way despite the lack of lighting. At least one of them knew where they were going.

Fallen leaves crackled behind her, and Teagan paused in footstep to see what had made the noise. A large, dark shape lunged toward her and the next thing she knew she was screaming and tumbling on the ground with a massive weight pinning her face down. Instinctively she tried to push herself up or roll over, but whatever it was wouldn't allow her to move an inch. "Get out of here Lucas! Run!"

What a time to leave her freakin' gun in her dorm room. Snarled breathing from above her and sharp claws digging into her back ensured the decision that she would never make that mistake again.

[Lucas]

Getting Teagan back to his dorm was actually a brilliant idea. Humans and their immune systems, he thought, shaking his head. While they could be quite bothersome at times with things like phlegm and other excessive bodily fluids dripping out of every crevice imaginable, being ill had its perks, at times. If the person was sick enough, they could be manipulated and become delirious enough to spill just about anything, like, oh say, knowing someone named Casey. While he knew that trading information for medicine wouldn't be the best method, if he could keep her up long enough doing homework, he might have a chance. You know, a little bonding over hating math and consoling her while she didn't feel well, that sort of thing. At least outwardly.

It was also a good thing that Lucas didn't have a roommate, that the scholarship his host had gotten into the school on allowed him his own private room. Otherwise pesky roommates would be in the way, and everyone knew how fraternity brothers acted. Like useless imbeciles that should be used as meat puppets before they degraded their brains so horribly with alcohol. A stupid host, while intelligence didn't matter for the demon, was still irritating when the demon let the host have control for a while.

Lucas also didn't know anyone on the hall, or rather, hadn't had a conversation with anyone. He knew everyone, as a precautionary measure. He didn't care how it would look, him bringing a sick girl into his dorm where they would be alone. In most cases, that meant people would leave them alone. While all of this went through Lucas' head, he maneuvered across the campus as if he had trekked it every day for the past three years. He almost let the crunch of the leaves pass until he heard Teagan's footsteps stop behind him.

He turned just in time to see a shape--human, but augmented--tackle Teagan to the ground and begin to attack her. Not. Cool. He could tell what it was, most supernatural beings at least knew of each other. With another glance at the moon, the one he used to motivate Teagan back in the caf, he confirmed it. May the wrath of Hell....I'm the only supernatural baddie around here, he thought, listening to Teagan trying to tell him to run. As if. He couldn't let his only link to Casey get killed. That would get him nowhere.

Frowning and trying to figure how he could best pass it off as looking human, but doing as much damage to the werewolf as possible, Lucas took a step back, and then charged at the shape. He couldn't tell if it was male or female, not since the muscles were augmented, but he didn't care. He collided with the shape, throwing it off Teagan. It looked like a display of force, but in reality, he had pushed it with his hands once they were pressed against the creature's body. It went toppling off, rolling across the sidewalk. Lucas, now standing in front of Teagan with his back to her, let his eyes flash black, not knowing if it saw or not, and then took a step forward again. It charged him, and he let his fist fly into the werewolf's head, again with more force than appeared.

Once it was sprawled on the ground, Lucas whipped around and pulled Teagan to her feet, dragging her to the nearest building. "Let's go T!" he yelled, pulling her behind him.

[Teagan]

The dry taste of concrete and dust swarmed her senses, and Teagan spat, still trying to resist the force holding her down. The worst part about the situation was that she couldn't even tell what pinned her: some sort of ghost, demon, or other mythic being. If she managed to catch a glimpse of it, at least then she'd have some idea of where to begin attacking it.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Lucas's running footstep, but a sinking feeling erupted when she realized they were heading toward her. "Lucas, what the heck are you-"

He collided with the being and the powerful grip vanished. Teagan scurried up, coughing to get the dry concoction out of her mouth. Wiping her mouth, she turned her attention back to Lucas. To her surprise, he stood his ground against the dark figure. When it charged him, she thought for sure that he would collapse against it. While Lucas did have some stamina, his body build wasn't quite that of a decent fighter. The nickname Bean-Pole didn't suite him distinctly enough, but lean and not muscular did a decent job. Yet Lucas stood the assault without batting an eye and returned the kind gesture with a gift of his own that sent the creature flying back to the shadows.

Teagan's eyes narrowed, intuition screaming that something wasn't right with the scene. No normal person willing faced a supernatural oddity and brushed it off like a piece of dust.

He turned back and helped her up. They flew out of the view of the quad, feet echoing loudly against the hard surface. Teagan's throat threatened to close and her breathing grew ragged. Fortunately they reached a building and Lucas threw the door open, closing it behind her once they reached inside. The library. She had dedicated a few hours here already and knew the layout fairly well. There were some study rooms on the second floors with no windows to the outside they could stay in. "Follow me." She turned left and bolted up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Within a minute the duo reached the private study room, number 3, and Teagan shut the door behind them.

"What the Hell was that, Lucas?" Teagan sent him a non-mistakable glare, furious at the boy. "You could've been killed! I told you to go and you didn't. Which either means you are a complete idiot or there's something you're not telling me." She placed a chair in front of the door and planted herself firmly in it. "Spill."

[Casey]

Not much happens in a library of interest. The whole place is dreadfully boring almost eighty percent of the time. Ten percent is momentary chaos of people all picking the same half hour to check out a book. The other ten percent is more boring than the other eighty and makes you want to stab out your eyes with a plastic spoon. This is because working in a library is nothing like going to one. Most notable difference is you can’t leave when you want to, you have to stay there. If you like books the job is bearable for the first few weeks, down time grab a book. Everyone soon succumbs though. Even those starry eyed few soon realize the library is a meeting place or only used for free net access. Kids these days just didn’t appreciate text like they used too.

Sitting behind a desk with a plank of wood and metal with “John Miller” on the front was a man contemplating these thoughts. He wasn’t in the best of moods, obviously. Flipping through something old and European he sighed when he realized he had lost his place. Then he wondered if he had been reading at all or just staring at the letters on the pages.

It was at that time a pair of, what he assumed where, students ran through. Most librarians would just recognize it, maybe call security but mostly just stay where they were in there boredom. Thankfully he wasn’t most librarians. He stood and casually followed the two to the study rooms. The girl was talking adamantly at the boy and for a second he wondered if they were breaking up or something.

He knocked before opening the door, “Is everything alright here?”

[Aiden]

For months, Aiden had been tracking the lunar cycles and a particular killing streak that seemed to be moving. Usually, werewolves stayed in one place, feeding on the civilians in one town, but this one, this one was smart. Probably aware that it was a werewolf, maybe conscious. Most weren't aware of what they were doing, a lot of the time their subconscious was taking revenge on people that they had some vendetta against, or they thought were immoral, things along that line. This one appeared to be at least smart enough to keep on the move, each lunar cycle its kills moving westward out of Idaho. Usually Aiden would just refer another Hunter, but now it was getting uncomfortably close to the west coast.

Or rather, one area of the west coast. Technically it was already there, and 'there' was someplace Aiden had just been, just a week ago. Seattle area, there had been an attack at the college Teagan had left to. "Son of a..." Aiden trailed off, double checking his notes. Yeah, it was the same werewolf, or pretty damn close to it. Shoving all of his notes back into their folder, he pushed off of the bar stool, and walked over to the doorway that lead to the stairs. "Yuki! We need to go, now! We have a job!"

Once they were in the car and driving, Aiden sighed. "There is a werewolf at Washington State University, where Teagan is. I don't know if she has the materials needed to kill it, and I'm not going to wait to find out." Dammit, this was the part of me that didn't want her to go, he thought hastily, as he changed lanes and sped up--nothing outrageously fast though. Teagan now knew how to hold her ground, and if she was aware of what was going on, by the time they got there in a few hours, she might just know who it was, and then the job would be simple.

By the time they got there, it was early morning. He was a little surprised that Yuki hadn't throttled him when he told her they were leaving so late at night, or rather in the early hours of the morning. Dawn had been broken for a few hours, and after stopping at a local and popular restaurant for breakfast, Aiden and Yuki arrived at the campus just as students were getting to class. Aiden pulled into the parking lot and killed the engine, getting a few guns and a box of silver pullets, and placing them in a backpack--it never hurt to try and fit in the crowd.

"Alright, let me go into the administration office and find out where Teagan is, you stand out here, look for anything suspicious." Aiden walked inside, holding the backpack by one strap. He approached the woman sitting under the sign that most made sense for finding Teagan, with a smile.

"Hi, uh," Aiden started, glancing down at the name plague, "Phyllis. My cousin, Teagan Cassidy, she left some text books at home," he said, motioning to his backpack. "Can I get her dorm number so I can drop it off for her?" With a smile and his practiced charm it was hook, line, and sinker. Outside he tapped Yuki on the shoulder. "Come on, room 409 in that building," he said, pointing to a large one not too far away.

Once inside, it wasn't hard to find the room. Four floors up, and with a sign on the wall telling you which way to go the college almost made it too easy for them. Once outside the door, Aiden tried the knob slowly, as not to make any noise. From the front pocket on the backpack he pulled out a lock picking kit, and began working on the door once he was sure no one was in the hall. With a click it opened, and he opened the door.

"Get out of my room! I'm calling security!"

Inside was a girl, not Teagan. If it was Teagan, she would have flipped the intruder, as was ingrained in her now. Aiden held up his hands, looking her over. She must have been Teagan's roommate, Brianna. Phyllis also told him her roommate's name. "Brianna, right? I'm Teagan's cousin, she forgot some textbooks at home, I brought them to her," he said slowly, watching her carefully. "Is she in class?" It was either that or she was doing something else, seeing as she wasn't in the room, and she didn't have a mode of transportation other than walking.

[Teagan]

Brianna frowned at the reflection in the mirror, not quite sure if the sweater she donned accented the right areas. Personally, the cashmere rag never would have made her top 100 list of things to buy at the mall. But, as a gift from a boyfriend back home, something she would wear once. All she had to do was make sure there was photographic evidence that she wore it, and then it could fall into oblivion in the bottom of the closet. And if she accidentally left it here over the break, well, it was a simple mistake.

Her gaze returned upward, resting on her hair. What kind of boyfriend gave a red-headed girl a pink sweater? That was like, one of the most basic fashion "don'ts" of all time. She and Charlie were going to have to have a little chat before Christmas if he wanted to continue buying her clothing. Or anything colored, for that matter.

Her fingers rubbed the bottom of the sweater thoughtfully. Perhaps straight to the Goodwill with this one. Brianna lifted the bottom of it and started to take it off before the sound of the door opening reached her ears. She quickly shoved it back down. Who on earth could that be? Had her roommate -what's her face- come back? No way, she would've knocked, knowing Brianna was in there. Her classes didn't start until later today, and the squirt knew that.

A glimpse of brown hair entered her view. Hell no. That wasn't the kid sleeping across from her at night and hogging the good side of the room. "Out of my room! I'm calling security!" she yelled at the pervert, racing to grab her phone off the desktop to her right.

Whoa-hold the phones-wait one second. The boy raised his hands up and started babbling about being Teagan's -right, it was Teagan- cousin, with some story about dropping off textbooks. Brianna stared at him for a moment. This was no boy. And, since her boyfriend was lame and had no taste in fashion, she was technically single. And available. And hopefully, not for long.

"Right, I'm Brianna. You gave me such a start there. Sorry about that," she smiled apologetically. "You know, I didn't quite catch your name." She took a step forward, before remembering that little detail about her roommate. "Oh, right. The squir-your cousin," she amended instantaneously. "Haven't seen her today. She never came back after she left last night. Not sure what happened." An afterthought. "I hope she's okay. There's been some attacks at the school. Admins sent out some warning. Last I heard she was at the library. But I don't know who'd want to spend nearly 12 hours cooped up in there. I'm certainly not that kind of girl." That last part she looked directly at the boy, choosing to ignore the girl behind him. If that was his girlfriend, she would give him some competition.

[Aiden]

It was some turn around, from yelling for security to asking for his name. Aiden looked at her with a hidden puzzled expression, trying to figure her out. Was she really calm? He doubted it, she must have had some ulterior motive. "I'm Aiden, this is my friend Yuki," he said, motioning to his faction mate who stood behind him. He entered the room and stepped to the side so Yuki could enter. He could see the minor alterations to the dorm that had been made; a thin, nearly hidden salt line, for instance. He hid a smirk before turning back to Brianna, who continued to speak.

"What do you mean she didn't come back?" Aiden asked almost instantly. He knew that Teagan didn't just waltz off to who knew where, with who knew who. She was smart, and if she knew something was up, that meant she most likely went after it. He frowned, and walked over to Teagan's side of the room. He looked over her desk, pulling at a piece of paper that looked promising: her class schedule. As of right then, she would have been in math. He noted the room number, and then set the schedule back in its place.

"Attacks? Like what?" Aiden knew what, but he had to be sure. If this was a werewolf and Teagan knew, that meant she was either fighting it, searching for who it was, or was off getting silver from somewhere. This is why he shouldn't have let her leave.

[Teagan]

Brianna smirked in delight as Aiden introduced the girl behind him as a friend. Good; that meant less competition for her. As if the Asian girl had half a chance. She gave the girl a once over as Aiden made his way across the room, pleased with the results. Or lack thereof, rather.

"How many different ways are there to say it? She never came back into the room. Never slept in the bed. Never brushed her teeth. As far as I know, she never came into the building." If Brianna had known that Teagan would be a no-show for the entire night, she would've claimed the other bed. Terrible karma on that half, and it couldn't be good for her pores.

As for the attacks, Brianna didn't understand why the kid cared about them. "Some girl attacked by animal, or so they said. Couple nights ago. Another kid registered an incident last night as well, but no injuries. He at least managed to scare the nasty thing off. So nothing to worry about. Besides," she batted her eyelashes teasingly. "There are more interesting topics in the world."

[Aiden]

Brianna's smirk confirmed his thoughts; her seemingly random pleasure was in fact her own flirtatiousness. Unfortunately, Aiden wasn't ready to be pinned down and endanger the life of a romantic interest by hunting, so he would politely decline should she try anything. Besides, back in Portland Lori did a wonderful job of supplying him with such romantic interests when either wanted. Still, there wasn't any time to dwell on romantic happenstances, they were on a job and they needed to make sure Teagan was okay, and not doing anything stupid.

It troubled Aiden that Teagan had never come back, but at the same time he knew that she was now able to hold her own. He wasn't quite sure as to how to proceed, but he knew that whatever he did, finding Teagan was at the top of his list. She was a Hunter, but she might not be able to do this alone, not to damage her credit, but this thing, this werewolf, it meant serious business.

Aiden disregarded her attempt at trying to talk to him, and inwardly smirked as he knew how to kill her mood. "Yeah, yeah. Hey, can you point me in the direction of the local morgue?" he asked, without explaining or giving some reason to validate his question. Her face became horrified, and she scoffed before sending them on their way, something about needing to change clothes. Once the door was closed, Aiden let out a short laugh before looking at Yuki. "Alright, so there is no way that someone just scares off a werewolf unless they're a Hunter or something supernatural themselves. Something is up. I say we pay Teagan a visit in class, tell her she forgot her lunch," Aiden said, holding the backpack by one strap once more, and setting out.

[Yuki]

Following Teagan's departure, things had been relatively quiet at the tavern. Most of Yuki's time had been spent in her room, reading once again upon the supernatural. A lot of her research had consisted of material on werewelves, per Aiden's instruction. This was due to the fac that they had been on the track of a werewolf that was getting dangerously close to the vicinity of the west coast, as a week predating the present, there had been an attack at the college where Teagan was now attending. Concerned for their friend, the two remaining members of the faction set off to find their ex-teammate. Yuki knew that Teagan was now educated enough to defend herself should she ever come upon such a being, but she couldn't help but want to make sure. Additionally, if such a dangerous creature was indeed close to Portland, it was their mission to take care of it.

And so, within a few hours, the two hunters found themselves standing at Washington State University. Yuki eyed the school grounds wearily, following Aiden with arms crossed. School. It didn't hold any fond memories for her, and the people there--mostly vile scum. Yuki scoffed to herself as they proceeded through administration, acquired Teagan's room number, and then successfully arrived at her dorm. Aiden opened the door, and they were "greeted" by the yell of a girl inside--the yell of a girl that was not Teagan. Before Yuki had a chance to speak up, Aiden began to talk, and the girl immediately changed her attitude. Yuki raised her eyebrows in surprise. Odd. Somehow, the girl was sporadically at ease, although the more she spoke, the more annoying the girl--Brianna--seemed. However, after some idle chit-chat, Aiden (thankfully) got straight to the point.

Finally, after enduring the mundane conversation, they exited the room. Aiden laughed, and Yuki furrowed her eyebrows, for she saw nothing funny about the situation. She nodded at Aiden's suggestion, then followed in suit once again.

[Teagan]

Unbeknowest to Aiden and Yuki, if they had given one grain of salt to what Brianna told them of Teagan's location, they would have discovered the poor teen nodding off on the second floor of the library, a pile of worthless books acting the part of her pillow. A deep tiredness weighed her down, and on top of that, her thoughts raced at a disturbing pace; that last twelve hours had given the girl much to think about.

Most importantly, it seemed as if she would never break free from the life of a Hunter. No matter where she went, what she did, and how hard she tried to avoid anything supernatural related, Teagan Cassidy would be a magnet to trouble. I get it now, Fate, she silently muttered to whatever deity cared enough to bother. No more running. I'm stuck here. 'This is the way it was meant to be.' She smiled, bemused by her reference.

And then there was the matter of what supernatural being had decided to take residence at the university. Teagan pulled herself up, wiping heavy eyes with page-imprinted arms, and stared at the collection hopelessly. She didn't have a knack for research- it cramped her 'let's do it now' style. This was her best mock-effort at it though. She had every book the library had to offer on things that went boom in the night; ghosts, witches, spells, ancient lore and myths from different cultures. In addition, she picked up literature dealing with the history of the area to cross of any past event conflicting with the interest of the future. So far her search had been fruitless. Nothing turned up that would explain the attacks at the school: no hints of a coven or signs of a curse lay on the campus. While that was good news, of a sort, Teagan didn't stay up all night to be no farther than when she had started.

Teagan looked out the window to her right, wincing at the brightness of the sun before returning attention to the task at hand. Her eyes threatened to close again, the warmth of the library enticing her to rest. She had what, another two hours before meeting up with Lucas again, right?

If she still planned on doing that, of course. What he had told her hours before still shocked her. A singe of betrayal bitterly rested on her tongue, and she couldn't help but frown. After they had politely told the librarian that they were fine and he could leave, Lucas revealed something to her that should've been mentioned back at the summer camp. Given, introducing himself as a demon may have turned Teagan against him instantly, but the thing Teagan hated beyond anything was to be used and lied to. Both of which Lucas had done. Of course, he claimed he just wanted a friend and whatnot, and that he thought he could help her out, but she wasn't a complete screw up. Teagan knew that demons weren't to be trusted, but she couldn't figure out for the life of her why Lucas would chose her to help. Teagan was a beginner, not some know-all-secrets pro that could be useful to a demon.

She groaned aloud in frustration. It was too early to be thinking about problems like this. What she would give to have her only worry be the math class she was missing at the moment. Her head returned to the books. This matter was hopeless.