The first breath was always difficult, moving recently collapsed lungs, struggling against the weight of death. Cassius’s chest burned- both his own, and that of the corpse he was controlling as he blinked it awake. Sitting up slowly, fighting the drag of an unfamiliar weight, Cassius turned his head… and looked at himself, sitting cross-legged, his breaths shivering from his lips in puffs of pale, glowing blue mist. The tips of his fingers were already tinted blue where his nails dug into his pants, his brow pinched with tight concentration.

Watching through another’s eyes, his vision misted slightly from the glaze of death, Cassius saw the first flutter of wings. A shadow in the air before it took form in a wispy, glowing blue butterfly. He stared in silent fascination at the only part of his power that he could find any beauty in: the dance of ethereal butterflies around his still form.

Sharp pain drove through him, a grunt of pain in an unfamiliar voice sounding in the alley as he pressed a hand to his chest; it came away with a dot of blood, Cassius quickly wiping it against the pavement beneath him. Checking the pristine white lab coat and the thin silver blouse beneath, he was relieved to find no other signs of injury; it would have been difficult to explain while entering a health facility, and if he were discovered… even his own body shuddered with the thought of Emrys’s rage.

Knowing he had little time before the effects of death began to show, Cassius got the corpse to sit up. Reaching for his own body, he withdrew a short dagger from an inner pocket of the cloak, tucking it into the waistband of his scrub pants. From the corner of his eye, he saw the blue tint creep further up the fingers of his own body- the price of his power advancing quickly. When he was merely a puppeteer, reanimating the dead cost little; to walk in their shoes, seeing the world through their undead eyes, came with a steep price. There was a time limit to his own endurance as much as the corpse’s.

Standing, Cassius brushed the dirt from the white lab coat, realigning the crisp lapels before he walked out of the alley. The bright fluorescent lights were nearly blinding. The eyes of the dead could never quite adjust to such intense light, and Cassius was squinting as he strode across the lush lawn. Taking a straight path for the entry to the health facility, he was only feet from the guards flanking the door when he was stopped.

“Doctor Greenlaw!” A jovial woman stepped in front of Cassius, holding a child against her hip; the toddler looked at Cassius with wide blue eyes, a thumb stuck in its mouth as it clung to its mother’s shirt with its other hand. 

Cassius flinched away from the child’s gaze, too knowing; something about the innocence of children made them keen to magic, and he prayed the child was too young to speak. When it only stared with an enraptured gaze, he forced himself to smile. “Yes, good evening. Can I help you?” The feminine voice rang in his ears, unsettling as he spoke through the corpse’s mouth.

The woman gave a slightly puzzled frown, blue eyes slightly narrowed. “Well, of course. We are here to see you. Jude has been doing better, but we have a follow-up scheduled in a couple of minutes. I assumed you would be preparing to see him…” There was a sharpness to her tone as her frown grew deeper.

“My apologies. There was a bit of an emergency situation, somebody had collapsed in the alley, and I was the only doctor available to help,” Cassius said quickly, his explanation confident- he assumed it was true, as Syrus had coaxed the woman into the alley.

The mother’s tight expression cleared up immediately, her gaze shining with worry. “Oh dear! I do hope they’re okay. It wasn’t...”

“They showed no signs of the Blight,” Cassius assured her, inching closer to the entrance as the concerned woman nearly stepped on his heels. “They wouldn’t have made it this close to the building if they were infected.”

The mother nodded emphatically, her free hand pressed to her breast as she gave a dramatic sigh of relief. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, Doctor Greenlaw.”

Cassius’s teeth were gritted as he reminded himself it was important to be civil; displaying an unusual temper for a doctor he assumed was typically polite would have him quarantined. “Why don’t we go inside? Before we’re both late for your appointment?”

Despite the slight sharpness to his tone, the woman laughed as if he had teased her. She continued to babble about Jude’s ear infection as they made their way to the entry. Cassius felt the eyes of the guards on him; it was hard to breathe under the pressure, his stomach in knots as he desperately reminded himself they had no reason to be suspicious.

“Doctor Greenlaw,” one of the guards greeted him with a stern nod. A firm hand around his upper arm drew him away from the woman and her child, who were guided toward a stricter set of tests. The guard brought Cassius to the expedited monitors reserved for the medical staff. Standing in front of a large, domed machine, Cassius felt the undead heart in his chest stir with a sluggish attempt at fear. Swallowing, he waited for the guard’s gesture before stepping into the metal cylinder, flinching as the door sealed shut with a hiss.

Bright lights filled the mirrored enclosure, Cassius closing his eyes against the burn- relieved that he knew it was a typical response. The machine whirred as it started, and Cassius listened to a robotic voice list off tests and checks. 

The Blight presented itself in its first stages with fevers, flushed skin, and a raised pulse- all of which a corpse was not capable of, and Cassius was easily cleared from those tests. As the illness advanced, the body began to decay from the inside; the lungs would begin to fail, internal organs beginning to shut down, and bruises without a clear source would appear as the body bled internally.  Cassius’s eyes squinted shut tighter as he remembered the horrid sight of a person in the last stages of the Blight. One’s skin slowly mottled purple and blue, releasing the putrid stink of rotting flesh. He had seen the sick cough up clotted blood along with chunks of tissue. Those infected with the Blight were living as a rotting corpse long before they reached the release of death- it was an agony the population feared with good reason. 

And while those who suffered from those latter stages were unlikely to make it to the health center, Cassius still opened his mouth for the scanner to check for traces of blood. Releasing a slow breath so it could ensure his respiratory rate was within normal constraints. The final quick scan of his skin would show no bruising thanks to Syrus’s cautious care as he lowered the doctor to the floor. Still, Cassius held his breath in the last moments as he listened to the machinery click back into place for the next scan while the unit remained closed.

With another hiss, the opposite side of the chamber opened, and Cassius was relieved to step into the health center. “Have a good day, Doctor Greenlaw,” the guard said with another stern nod.

Cassius forced himself to smile before he walked away. Glancing to the longer line reserved for patients, he felt his stomach twitch as he watched doctors draw blood. Had Syrus brought a regular civilian, he would have been caught in the inspection; and though he could have managed to infect a few people, it would have been quickly contained by safety protocols in place for positive tests.

Dragging his gaze away, Cassius focused on making his way to the center of the first floor of the health center; a large waiting room, crammed full of chairs, its center a huge round counter with massive screens blinking names and room numbers to call patients to their appointments. Reaching the edge of the quieter section reserved for medical personnel, Cassius slowed as he watched the flow of civilians into the building.

His stomach twisted as he realized the building was much busier than he had intended. It seemed hundreds of people were flooding the waiting room- far more than even the health center in Emrys’s sector would schedule. Cassius hesitated, wondering if it would be wiser to re-evaluate- and then he felt a sharp pain in his chest again, a shiver of cold air in his mouth, and he knew he had little time left.

Forging into the crowd, Cassius headed for its center, and quickly came to the chilling revelation of why so many were gathered in the safest part of the city. Standing on a raised platform on the northern side of the wide circular counter was a face Cassius had only seen on the paperwork attached to his mission briefs.

Raielle Ascelin was tall, intimidating as he towered over the guards standing on either side of him. A thick mane of rich brown hair was tied back from his face with a deep purple ribbon which seemed barely able to contain the unruly curls. Cassius tried to stop, to stay out of sight, but he was pulled into the crowd trying to get closer to their leader.

“Doctor Greenlaw!” The shout of the mother who had accosted him at the door drew attention, as the woman’s demanding hand latched around his wrist. Anger pinched her brow, her voice tight with anger as she began a tirade. “Your office is on the fifth floor! I understand there’s some excitement with our master’s arrival, but how dare you-”

“Is there a problem here?” A rich, smooth voice made Cassius freeze, what little blood still moved in his body running cold. The guard in front of him looked aggravated, his hand already on the small stun weapon at his belt- but he wasn’t the threat which made Cassius shudder.

The clamor had drawn the attention of the vampire lord standing before his people. Cassius trembled, pinned by a cold golden gaze. Though he knew he was too far for the vampire to catch the scent of death on him, he watched as a flicker of alarm crossed the man’s face. The mother’s rambling was a buzz in Cassius’s ear as he watched Raielle raise a hand, his mouth moving with an order Cassius couldn’t hear- but he could see guards push away from the walls, heading toward him with sharp expressions.

Fear lanced through him, his gaze meeting Raielle’s for a brief moment- and seeing a shimmer of magic pass over his golden eyes. Whoever stood on that stage, they weren’t the vampire lord; but they had likely sensed Cassius’s magic in the same way he had seen the traces on their face.

The mother’s grip on his wrist tightened, the breath cold in Cassius’s mouth again as he felt skin slip under her fingers. Her eyes widening with horror, she snatched her hand back. Cassius’s ears rang with his shrill scream as she reacted to the blood coating her hand- and the deep furrows she had dragged through the softening flesh of the corpse Cassius had borrowed.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped the words, grabbing her wrist as his free hand reached for the dagger at his waist. The flash of metal under the building’s fluorescent lights renewed her terror, the woman clawing at Cassius’s face- ribbons of flesh falling to the floor with sickening, wet sounds. Her eyes rolled back in her head as the guard dove to catch the toddler she had been carrying.

Listening to the building sounds of chaos around him, Cassius closed his eyes, knowing his goal had already been partially met. Swallowing, he raised the dagger, intent to fulfill his mission fully. The guard yanked the mother away from him- and Cassius made no move to stop him, hardly noticing the shock on the face of the man who thought he had recognized the aim of his attack.

Looking up, Cassius saw the double of the vampire lord trying to reach him through the crowd, barking orders over the screams of panicked humans. Cassius met his intense golden gaze again, seeing the silent plea, and raised the dagger to do the last thing the vampire lord must have expected.

The knife cut deep across Cassius’s throat, and he choked on rancid blood as it sprayed across the floor- splattering in thick, putrid drops over the mother and her child along with the stunned face of the guard who had tried to protect them. 

The smell of spoiled blood filled the air, and as Cassius fell to his knees, he found himself unable to look away from the vampire noble’s face. The last thing he saw was the shine of horrified understanding in Raielle’s gaze… before an infected corpse collapsed, leaking rotting fluids, and the Blight bloomed at the center of Sector 8.