Silence woke him. The bed under him was softer than he remembered and the blanket on top of him was thicker. The room temperature was perfect; not too warm, not too cold. There was this cold air blowing right into his nostrils. This was not his room.

But he wasn't supposed to be in his room either. He's supposed to be in...

He turned his head. Ariane, who was sitting right next to him, put her phone away and leaned forward. 

"Hey," she whispered. "How are you feeling? Can you hear me? Are you hurt?" 

Luka noticed the room he's in. It was surrounded by glass walls and white curtains. There was a monitor on the right side of his bed and a drip on the left. An oxygen mask covered his nose and mouth. Various hoses and cables were connected to his body. He's in a hospital room. But not your everyday hospital room.

"What happened?" his voice was hoarse. "Why am I here?" 

"Calm down. Let me call the nurse." 

"No," Luka grabbed her hand and pulled her back to her chair. "Ariane, what am I doing here?" 

Ariane gulped. "You escaped from The Vaults."

His heart pounded.

"The security team cast immobilization spells and shot you with an alien bioweapon. As soon as it's daylight, they brought you here to take the chemicals out of your system." 

The machine beeped faster. His breath became heavy. His vision went blur. 

"No," he grunted. "No. NO!" His face turned red as he fought the burning sensation in his eyes. "They said I'd be secure here. They said it's the only place that can contain me. Miss Wakefield even said that it's the safest place on Earth and Odevlar. How did this happen?!" 

Ariane rushed to the door and shouted to call the nurse. Two women dressed in white came running in. They told Luka to calm down, but he kept groaning and crying as the werewolf's memory flashed. The guard's face as he lifted him to his face. The yellow powder. The cut. The metal doors. 

One of the nurses snapped her fingers right next to his ear and he instantly stopped as if being hypnotized. They both helped him to lie down comfortably on the bed. Then the other nurse pulled out a syringe with a silver needle. She gave him a shot before the other snapped her fingers once more. Luka began to breathe regularly. 

"He's been sedated," Nurse Hallie spoke to Ariane. "I'll get Dr. Oxendine. You better stay and watch him." 

"Okay," confirmed Ariane as the two nurses left the room. She glanced at the boy who was lying weak on the bed. A drop of tear fell down his face.

"How many?" he whispered. 

Ariane sighed. "They're fine." 

"Dammit, Ariane, how many?" 

"It doesn't matter, okay?" she barked back. "They can't be harmed. At least not permanently. What matters is how you got out and how we can prevent it from happening again." 

"I don't remember." 

"Not even a flash?" 

"No." 

Ariane put her hands on her hips. She'd never thought that this kind of problem would happen on their very first semester. Luka was supposed to lay low in Erebus. But look what's going on right now. 

Somebody knocked the door. 

"Come in," she said. 

The door was opened. A man came in. He had average height, curly black hair, super straight nose, round chin and a pair of sharp dark eyes. His brown suit showed that he's not just another faculty member.  

Luka remembered where he had seen him. It's on the werewolf department page on Erebus' website. He's the dean of werewolf, Minnelaos Karageorgis.

"The nurse just informed me that he's awake," he reported to Ariane. "Is he alright?" 

"I'm perfectly fine," answered Luka, startling the dean. "Are the guards alright?" 

"Yes, quite," Dean Karageorgis nodded. He cleared his throat. "Now that you're awake, I'm sure you can answer a few things for me." 

"He doesn't remember anything, Sir," responded Ariane. "You've seen the footage from the thermal camera. If that's what he did, then it must be how he did it." 

"Oh, no, I'm not here to ask about that. It's Professor Xan'odath's concerns, not mine." 

"So what is it that you want to ask?" inquired Luka. 

"Did you know this was going to happen?" 

Luka almost chuckled on that stupid question. 

"Because Miss Wakefield said you asked for a more secure vault," added Dean Karageorgis. "I know about your case with the Parliament of Werebeasts."

His face burned up. Half of shame, half of anger.

"In fact, they just asked me to send them a report about your full moon," continued the dean of werewolves. Of course. They suggested his parents to send him here so they could monitor him. What were they going to do when they found out what happened? "Did you ask for a tighter security because you knew this was going to happen?" 

"He asked that out of trauma, Sir," explained Ariane. "Clearly none of us has predicted this. If we have, we would have insisted for a safer vault. Besides, these are two different cases. One happened in an open space, the other in a closed confinement. No one could have predicted that he would break out of an alien prison." 

Dean Karageorgis tapped his fingers together, clearly considering all of his options.

“Alright,” he said. "We will rule this out as an accident and a result of an underpreparation. Erebus will take the responsibility over the damage, including his post-conflict treatment." 

"Thank you," muttered Ariane. 

"Therefore," the dean wasn't finished, "we need to be prepared for the next full moon. Any detail you'd like to share about the moment before you entered The Vaults? What did you eat? Did you eat enough?" 

"Yes," Luka recalled that day. "I was fully prepared not to feel hungry. So I ate all the red meat I could find. Nothing out of ordinary." 

"Did you sleep well?" 

"Yes." 

"I heard you're pledging for Brayden's fraternity. Did they force you to do something you don't want? Maybe you're unhappy there?" 

"No. They're all great guys. I mean, I am a pledge and they do what they do to pledges, but I never feel unhappy." 

"Did you meet someone that made you unhappy?" 

The cousins glanced at each other. 

"Not throughout your lives, obviously there are many, but just before you entered The Vaults. Those dire minutes just before the wolf woke up." 

Luka wet his lips. "Yes," he answered truthfully. "I met a vampire. He... he hurt Ariane. There was a bit of tension, but we got off without a fight." 

Dean Karageorgis turned to Ariane. "Then how come it wasn't you who broke out to find this vampire?" 

"So you mean I broke out because I was looking for this vampire?" asked Luka. 

“It’s the only explicable reason,” answered Dean Karageorgis. “Unlike the werecats who live side by side with each other all day every day, our wolf is in altered state of consciousness and can only be awakened with certain stimulations. Even so, they can't take over the body, not even after you transform at will. They can only take over the body during full moon and during full moon only.

“When you saw him hurting Ariane, your anxiety stimulates the wolf that he was awakened. But you didn’t go for it. You didn’t attack him. So naturally, once he got a hold of the body, he went out to finish it."

Ariane gasped. "You said you're going to kill him!" 

Luka could only blink. Yes, he had done that, but he couldn't be breaking out of The Vaults to actually go and kill Raoul d'Auvrecher, could he? 

"I was just... overreacting," Luka stammered. "I didn't mean that." 

"Maybe you didn't, but I believe the wolf took it seriously," answered Dean Karageorgis. He focused back on the girl by the bed. "Are you okay, Ariane? You know you can report this to Dean Winnick, right?" 

"Yes, yes, I'm okay, it was nothing," answered Ariane. "I agree, he was overreacting." 

"Okay," Dean Karageorgis nodded. "It's settled then. Next full moon, both of you need to stay away from that vampire. Check in earlier, if you can." 

"Sure," the platinum blonde haired duo understood the instruction. 

"Rest well, Luka," told the dean. "And don't think about it too much. We'll be in touch. Good night." 

"Thank you, Sir," said Ariane and Luka at the same time. 

Just when Dean Karageorgis opened the door, a man with green short hair, green eyebrows, green lips and even green fingernails came into view. 

"Oh, Professor Xan'odath," said the dean. "I just told him to rest. He doesn't remember anything. Maybe you should talk to him tomorrow." 

"But... but..." the illustrious Odevlarian stared helplessly as the dean closed the door. 

Ariane giggled as the dean dragged the chief engineer away from the room. Her smile faded when she caught Luka's blazing blue eyes. Dean Karageorgis' conclusion only made things worse. 

"You shouldn't be kept in a cage," she resolved. "We need to find another solution." 

Meanwhile, Finlay and Matthew just read a text from Ariane that told them that Luka's awake. They met each other on the Main Lane and began discussing what they found out about the whole incident. There were two guys and a girl who were walking in front of them. And their voices were a bit too loud. 

"I mean, it's not Erebus' fault that the werewolf had escaped," yakked the girl. "But it's their fault that they accepted him. They should've known which werewolf is okay and which werewolf is messed up. This one must be a homicidal maniac or some snob with anger management issue." 

"I heard werewolves do inbreeding in order to keep the bloodlines pure," jabbered the guy. "Maybe this one's an inbred." 

"What are they, Targaryens?" the girl laughed. "That's insane! They better work this out. I'm not here to get threatened by an inbred man-eating beast every damn full moon." 

"Maybe they finally do something once this asshole eats someone," prattled the other guy.  

Matthew clenched his jaw. That’s it. “Hey!” he called out to them.

The trio stopped walking and turned around. They glared back against Matthew’s sullen face.

“You dropped something,” Matthew said.

His mind had still connected to Finlay when the fairy thought, “No, Matthew, they’re werecats and a warlock!”

Luckily, nobody saw a paper floated out of the girl's bag and landed on the ground. The girl picked up the paper, said thanks and walked away with her friends.  

Finlay let out a deep breath. “What where ye thinking?” he clamped his fists in front of Matthew’s face, halfway to punch his teeth out. "Ya know, according to the Laws of Deeds, ye could’ve...." 

"Save that to your professor," Matthew used his telekinesis to pull his fists apart the way he used it to take out the paper. "I know the law only applies to humans. And you're not sworn yet. It's all bullshit. Now let me ask you this," he grabbed Finlay by the collar, "I was that close to throw hands with two werecats and a warlock to defend Luka. What about you?”

“What?”

“Will you do something with your magic to help Luka out? Like, I don’t know, turn him into a cute white puppy?" 

“Look, Luka’s a tremendous lad, but I don’t see why I need to get involved.”

“You heard what they did to him. Surrounding him with extra-terrestrial weapons. You have no idea what our devices can do on their own. I trust you more than I trust those things.”

“Who? Me? A fairy who was born yesterday?”

“You know Luka would get involved if it’s you who’s in trouble, right?”

“No, Luka would leave any trouble to those who is more capable to fix it. He’s a logical person, not a sentimental one like you.”

Matthew shook his head, “Ugh, I wish I could trade powers with you.”

“Please renounce yer wish.”

“No.”

“I’m bloody serious, Matthew.”

“Okay, fine, I renounce my wish. What even is the point of being a fairy if I can’t do whatever I want with that power?”

“It’s not just about the rules, alright? That’s simply not how my magic works. It's not about how many spells I know. It's about my own strength and depth in magic. I'm a wee fairy who just starts digging that depth with me tiny ice cream spoon. I'm not and never will be strong enough to contain that manky wolf.”  

"That's nonsense." 

They turned around to find the source of that taut voice. There was a girl wearing striped sweater and black mini skirt, showing off her milky white thin legs. Her face was stern with her straight eyebrows pointing downward. 

Eunyoung.