Brianna and Dove wanted to report back to Olson, so they decided to give him a call Mika was not privy to.

Now he was on his way to a vending machine posted just at the entrance of the main door, to get the bitch a coffee.

“How long are you going to just stare at the machine before choosing?” Mika turned and glanced at the sweaty, carrot top guard that looked like he was cosplaying for a sheriff in a bad western B movie.

The man twirled his mustache like a cartoon villain and adjusted his belt that was slowly puffing out his large belly. Mika wanted to take a picture of the guy and send it to his friends, laughing at his expense, but they probably didn't want to talk to him right now.

“There are no decent energy drinks, so I’m choosing between rat poison and bee semen.”

The man raised an eyebrow and pointed with a long fingernail at one bottle “Choose this. Its sour aftertaste goes well with its fruity flavor. I’m Ronny.”

Mika shrugged and inserted a coin. He grabbed the can of coffee for the bitch and made sure he spat on it before taking his drink from the slot.

“You’re that kid that came with the agents. From which bureau?”

Mika’s expression soured as he tasted his drink

“This tastes like twenty year old cough syrup.” he spat out the mouthful and wiped his mouth. He handed the can to the wannabe cowboy and walked away.

“You got rotten taste buds, buddy. You can have it if you want.”

The man didn’t stop him but followed him with his eyes until he got back out to the parking lot.

Mika growled to himself. He really wanted to explore this place. It smelled like a proper party, one he wanted to be part of, but he couldn't fail this assignment.

If he did, then he flunks, and that means spending more time with the people from the Academy. Not only that, but his mother would probably disown him.

He frowned and kicked the main door open that was leading to the parking lot.

Bastards, the lot of them.

His eyes landed on Brianna’s car, and he stopped. He took a whiff of the air and clicked his tongue in annoyance. Her sound barrier was muffling his senses. His father would scoff at the barrier.

It was obvious the agents were shook.

He wondered what was so bad about having oneiris fucking around regulars’ prisons. Didn’t vampyres kill them all the time? Werewolves and sirens too. They would definitely get reprehended, but that never stopped them.

The sound of water dribble startled him. He turned around but found no source of it anywhere. A chill ran down his spine, and his feet suddenly weighed a ton.

The sound of the water grew louder. It picked up speed until it blended with its echo.

His irises jerked around while his body strained to move a muscle, his hand went limp around the coffee and when the can clanged on the floor, his world went back to normal.

Sirens screamed inside his head. His vampyric instincts are telling him to just flee; he did.

He could hear the yells of the guards again, the sound of the forest nearby, and engines running.

It took him a second to gather his wits and half that to jump inside the car.

“You okay? You look pale.” Brianna stopped her conversation to address him.

He eyed the locks on the car but decided to leave them. If he mentioned the sudden burst of intense bloodlust, then this assignment would get more complicated. Captain Olson might even assign him to another unit or case, and that would just prolong the annoying assignment.

His smile slowly appeared “Dandy, your coffee.” he gave her the can and pushed his head down. Plugging in his music again which drowned the agent’s conversation, his eyes wandered outside.

Dammit, this attribute gives me more problems than it solves them.

There was a reason his attribute was ranked as legendary. He did not just ‘smell’ things no human detector can, but he also got feelings—warnings.

His father had mastered those, and he could tell immediately which businesses would be good to invest in. That’s how he got himself the position of their race’s patriarch and a seat at the hybrid council.

He remembered the day before he got his acceptance letter to the Academy. Wherever he went, the tangy smell of old books followed.

He should have ripped the paper if he took the warning seriously, but he didn’t. And for the next three years, he spent most of his time cooped up in the Academy's library.

That bloodlust he felt was obviously not subtle. People will die soon, and Mika would be affected by it.

His eyes locked with a Soulbound’s who suddenly appeared; they called her Jasmine.

She also smelled like a rogue.

“She’s here.” His voice cracked, and he embarrassingly coughed, hiding the red of his cheeks.

Luckily, the agents were not paying him attention and slowly got out of the car. The woman stopped and smiled at them. Mika turned his head and swallowed a pill that dulled his senses.

He would always get blindsided around powerful presences, especially Soulbounds who liked to flaunt their Soulprint everywhere they went. Just like that woman. It usually gives him nausea and headaches. He fainted a couple of times too, but he doesn’t like to talk about that.

This will all change when he meets the eye of the world and gets assigned a powerful class like a [Spirit conjurer], [Death augmentor], or even [Mind shaper]. His father would be so impressed that he would finally agree to teach him how to control his attribute.

Mika smiled proudly at that thought.

“Jasmine, it is always lovely to see you.” He almost raised a brow when the pompous agent offered his hand.

“Dove... It’s a surprise seeing you here. Weren’t you working in District 1?” The jasmine lady’s smile dropped slightly.

He instinctively switched his attribute from his nose to his eyes. An overwhelming splatter of color appeared, and he squinted. He led his vision between the threads of feelings attached to everyone around until he peered into Jasmine’s heart. It was engulfed by two layers: her soulprint and her soulenergy.

He wiggled past them easily enough but winced and closed his eyes, unable to go past that stage.

His attribute affected his eyes, nose, and touch. Not in the physical meanings, obviously.

He smelled lies and truths, saw emotions and feelings, and felt warnings and omens.

Since his bloodline attribute was extremely rare and only seen specifically in his family, the academy didn’t have enough data to give him the best techniques to manage it.

It worked differently than usual attributes, while other races’ were more passive, his was active.

He had to mentally will himself to focus on a person to be able to get past the natural barrier of SE that entangles their soul. That part took him the better part of 3 years to achieve.

Once in, he has to pick out that one tell or that one emotion with just his sight and isolate it to dissect it.

And once he achieved that, he had to strip away all the unnecessary emotions so he wouldn’t get a false read.

In his mind’s eyes, emotions were sticky things. A person wears not only the emotions they’re personally feeling but also the emotions others had for them. So when looking for that one emotion in the sea of clingy feelings, it gets mind-boggling, literally.

Three wasted years in the academy.

He remembered how he would sit face to face with professors and be tasked to tell what exactly they were feeling about a specific event.

It would usually take hours upon hours of sitting idly, as he focused his eyes to search between the million random emotions plaguing one’s soul. He learned to hate the Academy because of those mind-numbing exercises.

His professors have stopped training his eyes and focused more on his nose as they lost hope. Alas, this internship was his final project, and he was still not ready. The ceremony of the world’s eye was two weeks away.

His half-brothers were almost hitting 80% of their own attributes’ evolution while he was still stuck on 38%.

Time was running and if he doesn’t catch up before one of them hits 100%, then he fails. And his mother will be very disappointed.

He swallowed hard and refocused on the conversation.

“–He can’t come. I hope you understand. We already scheduled for the entire staff to be here for your inspection.” said Jasmine.

“We understand. Are you going to be guiding us?” Brianna asked.

“Yes. Follow me.”

Dove frowned “You are the psychiatrist here, am I wrong? I apologize, Jasmine, but that’s Santiago’s job.”

“Oh c’mon, Dove. Let the pretty lady guide us. Would It make a difference? “

Brianna continued, “ Would you give us five minutes, though?”

The woman nodded “I’ll be waiting in my office. Please don’t keep me waiting.”

When she was out of sight, Dove turned to Brianna.

“She’s Miriam fane’s grand-niece. We went to the Academy together but never really knew each other much since we hung out with different cliques.”

“This is circumstantial evidence at best. Her working here and being a fane relative is a huge stretch as to incriminate the whole family. The kid’s hunch about an oneiri's involvement is not better, his accuracy is 30%”

“38% and it isn’t a ‘hunch’. It’s a legendary attribute, not that you've ever seen one in play.” Mika replied with an edge in his tone.

“You’re right, kid. I never had, and I probably won’t ever. It’s only a legendary attribute when it reaches its full potential.”

Mika’s brows furrowed, her jab hitting a little too deep.

“Mika, can you tell us something about her? Was she lying about the warden not being here because of a family emergency?”

He bit the inside of his cheek “I wasn’t paying attention to that part of the conversation.”

“Dammit, kid! We need you laser focused, and spreading your sinuses wide open for any lie.” Brianna said as she jotted something in her notebook.

Mika swallowed “I get it. Chill out.”

‘’I can tell you she’s a rogue, at least." he continued.

“Which class?”

“I don’t know… That’s above my capabilities.”

“ That gives us nothing, then. We’re going.”

.....

A couple of hours prior,

“Doctor, shouldn’t we wait for miss hope?” Stevenson fixed his mask and gloves before turning to Carl.

“No, she won’t approve of what I am about to do, so I sent her away.”

Jackson lined the sterilized utensils on Stevenson’s metal plate and pushed them away from the inmate’s body.

“Are we not going to observe the effects of the runes by overloading his body with the pills?”

Stevenson shook his head at his second protégé. He was quick-witted during an operation, but daft enough not to see what was dangling in front of him.

“No. That would only result in organ failure. There is no need for senseless murder. Jasmine is confident the thralls won’t go past the first outpost, but I am a skeptic. I need a contingency plan.”

Jackson nodded “So we will hide it.”

The Doctor smiled. That was why Jackson was his first protégé.

“Yes. I will hide it inside Vols. The shard will be secure there until the thralls are taken care of. We can’t keep it on us since that would be the first place they’ll visit. “

Carl paled when he realized they were talking about the real prize sitting inside this room.

“But what if he dies in a cross-fire?” He asked.

Stevenson shook his head “Doesn’t matter. The shard won’t be destroyed by mundane means.”

“Did Jasmine tell you who the thralls are working for?”

“No, that’s the whole point. We’re still here because of that. Let us start, now.”

.....

Two hours have passed, and Leon was still standing next to him. Gus kept wiping his gleaming brow and looking anxiously around him for any sign of guards taking a stroll near Stevenson’s block.

The needles hidden inside his pants felt like they weighed a ton.

“Will you stop squirming?” He snapped at his partner.

“I can’t. I need to take a shit. Bad.” Gus almost sighed in relief.

The laxatives finally kicked in.

“Then go shit. Isn’t as hard as you might think.” He replied with an eye roll.

Leon shot him a glare “I can’t leave post.”

Gus waved a nonchalant hand “It’s fine. I’m here, plus what will happen? We don’t want the Doctor coming out to see shit in front of his playground. Again.”

Leon cringed as he remembered an unsavory memory.

“Right... You’re right.”

Leon walked with legs pressed together and ass clenched tight. Gus smiled in relief.

Step 2 is over.

.....