Chapter 7

"Laughing is like singing. Anyone can do it, some are good at it, others not so much. But if you do it well you become a singer. Likewise if you do it well it's contagious."

Toya.

Upon his arrival at Coombe, Marx yawned and stretched his back. He'd woken up at two am, to get ready for training. Running on four hours of sleep after spending the night at the Library studying with Qi Lin.

Alavanz appeared before him, she chuckled when he almost jumped. "I can see that we're not as entertaining as you'd like."

His back stiffened as he shook his head.

"Poor me." Alavanz stated as Boise carelessly strolled in. "So my training drill didn't phase any of you?"

Boise paused mid step, and flinched as if her words scalded him.

"Good." She nodded at their reactions. "Now, drop and give-"

A call interrupted her. She took it grumbling a hello. A voice sounded from her phone, she blushed and left the hall. He exchanged a look with Boise, and they both sighed in relief.

"Healed up pretty well, alpha?"

"Had to, with the hell she's about to put me through." Marx responded while they stretched.

"Good." Boise joined him and they slowly got in sync. "Long as you don't pass out, and try to eat any one else."

Marx gave him a firm nod. He'd make sure he didn't. Soon, the rest of their teammates filtered through the doors. Alavanz was thirty minutes late because of the call. She came back still blushing and apologized to the team for her tardiness.

All that registered as she spoke was how could a mild mannered wizard, like Sandesh survive a relationship with a woman like Alavanz.

"Today we're doing water training." Alavanz announced as she guided them down a set of stairs, the whole team groaned and trailed after her.

They headed to Coombe's basement and found a large pool. It didn't look like one used for casual swimming. The water was split in two, one side a murky grey the other a deep purple. Sharp steel beams pierced through the water, pointed at the ceiling. A pungent smell rose up from the water to meet their nostrils. A small medical team occupied a corner of the room, like they weren't supposed to be there. Alavanz clapped her hands to draw their attention.

"The water has been invaded by psyacha plants. Your mission is to get them out, before the psyacha's poison paralyzes you."

"To anyone who can't swim, too bad." She pointed at the changing rooms. "Rest of you, go change and start swimming. Team up, in groups of four." Alavanz chuckled and shared a look with the medical team. "And don't ask me why the colors split in two."

Brianna and the human girl who'd laugh at anything-the last time she'd bent over laughing at a fly that relentlessly attacked their vampire team member- requested to join their team, her name was Toya. The Psyacha plants hadn't fully matured yet, but their poison had diffused throughout the water. The moment he sunk into the water, his whole body went numb.

The psyacha were sunflower-shaped with red petals that faded into a deep purple. The larger and more purple the petals were, the closer it was to maturity. Once mature, its vines became like limbs and its petals grew thin micro teeth.

A curious Toya used her steel spear to poke the center of the plant. Its petals trembled and released a green cloud. Startled, Toya swam backward while frantically waving her spear in an effort to avoid the gas. A strangled gurgle rang like the snap of a whip next to his ears. Marx's head turned and his gaze landed across the pool, where the cloud touched the face of a terrified vampire. Part of his face melted as he bled. Uncaringly, the Psyacha fed on that too.

Marx gagged, vampire blood was poisonous for werewolves. Lycans who'd come across it said it had a hideously pungent smell that they couldn't remove from their noses. Clan elders often said that the moon goddess had done it so that none of her children could become such a putrid creature.

Alavanz groaned in annoyance from above the waters surface. Marx flinched as the sound of her grumbles rang like a shotgun next to his ear drum. Underwater training was about to make his eardrums bleed. Though it seemed like the vampires had it slightly worse, this was proven by most of those in his line of sight as they flinched when Alavanz splashed into the water to fetch the vampire who'd fainted.

One Psyacha was in her way and Alavanz complained about wasting good weapons when none of the psyacha had grown vines yet. All while she drove a steel spear through its eye, it squirmed and convulsed until it was limp.

Suddenly, a spear filled his vision. Marx tilted his head and the spear tip grazed his cheek. At its shaft rested a smirking Toya's hands, her gaze fixed at the side of his head where a limp psyacha lay. Brianna appeared and took Toya's spear, in exchange for her own. She swam up to the waters surface and threw it into a large basket with their team name. Marx scowled at Toya. In the water, her thrust had sounded like a bolt of lightning right next to his ear.

"I'm starting to like this," Toya smiled unapologetically. She then painfully grabbed his head, unhindered, as if the water was air. "Focus, wolf boy. I'm not coming in last."

Toya swam up to the surface to take a breath of air and Marx joined Boise who was clearing a group of bush like psyacha. Soon, the plants he'd impaled covered more than half his spear. He reached for one and Boise held his arm mid reach.

"Don't, if you still want to use that arm for the rest of the week."

Marx nodded and they swam up to the surface and threw the heads of the psyacha into their team baskets. There were five large baskets with different team names. One team had already gotten disqualified because all four members had passed out in the water. A wet Alavanz stood above them as the medical team attended the injured. Another limp body floated face down to the waters surface.

"The fuck?!" Alavanz dove into the water and brought the fallen team member to the pools edge. "Okay, that's it all of you resurface every seven minutes. I'm not a life guard." She ordered. Their gazes locked and her face began to morph, and a chill ran up Marx's back. "Get back in the water!"

Boise didn't wait for the sound waves of her voice to hit them as he pulled him back into the water. They were met with Toya swimming up to the surface with a passed out Brianna. The water was murkier and his body tingled and grew heavier with each stroke. Most psyacha had turned purple and only a quarter of the pool had been cleared.

They were rejoined by Toya as they aggressively tried to clear their section of the pool. Marx had resurfaced twice. Each time the cleared section seemed to have regrown, he opted to try and clear a less arduous section near one of the steel beams. He resurfaced twice more when he'd scanned his surroundings and saw that every team had lost a member. One team had one member left, a closer look identified it to be Damon. All the others had two, theirs was in the lead with three. Another team fell.

Although it was easier to clear the red Psyacha near the steel beams it got increasingly more difficult to resurface. Vanessa and Trot's twin were the only members of their teams left. Damon was still moving and fighting the psyacha. He too had to fight.

A smirking Alavanz swam past him as she fetched a still bodied Trot, who'd been drifting in the water. Now, half the pool was infested with psyacha's and all of them were purple. His lungs were aflame as he gripped onto a steel beam. Toya appeared beside him and wound his shoulder around her own and they swam up to the surface.

**********

Marx woke up to the nurse's voice as he examined his aching body. His eyes were greeted by the familiar pale pink and green walls. He was at the infirmary - though he had no memory of passing out.

He groaned, and squinted to focus on the nurse. "What... day is it, again?"

The nurse chuckled- his voice sounded muffled in his ears-, "Still seven am, Friday."

Marx attempted to sit up, scanning the room. His non-vampire teammates were being checked, still out cold or groaning in pain. The room had no windows and he could hear the distant sounds of shovels lifting the dirt.

"Please be patient. We need to make sure you're okay." The nurse said, gently guiding him up. "Especially since you passed out after training."

"You mean I was able to complete training?"

"Uhh, some what, you passed out near the end," he clarified with a pitying expression.

He took a deep inhale, nostrils flaring as his jaw tightened.

The nurse released an exhale of his own. "At least we know your lungs still work."

Alavanz was going to be the death of him. Ever since he started training with her. There's always some part of his body that screams in protest with each motion. In Thatnmoor he was never the type to fall before training ended. Maybe that's why his wolf was forcefully pushing through. It knew the truth he'd been trying to deny. A week hadn't passed since he arrived and he was already hanging on by a thread. More obviously so since Mayo wasn't here.

Alavanz's footsteps sounded in the corridor, pulling him from his thoughts. She shoved the doors open, and stepped into the ward, her gaze travelled through the ward full of her injured non-vampire disciples.

"Well," she stated, her hands planted on her hips. "Seems like, I'll have to make you guys do more swimming practice."

Multiple groans of protest sounded at once- Marx included. One human girl who had been passed out woke up just to refuse.

"Look at the mutt, getting comfortable enough to say bullshit." Alavanz faced him, eyes closed, hand placed on her chest. It was the most inhuman, insincere impression of sincerity he'd ever seen. "We're glad you feel welcomed."

Marx's brows furrowed as he gave her a small head tilt, in an attempt to hide his disgust. "I don't mind." He said, voice low. "But I have a run next week. Gotta be in good shape."

"So? All the more reason to train harder." She flipped her hair. "Wait, next week. Shoot. You're saying, I can't ask Rowan to a team versus?"

The team responded with a resounding No.

"Okay. In order to help Marx prepare for his run and impress his alpha this coming week..." She smiled at them, and Marx felt a strange foreboding feeling at the sight of her glee. "We'll all be doing some intensive training."

Marx's back stiffened. The nurse who had been checking his heart rate, gave him a concerned look. The silence that fell over the room was audible. Only the nurses and the beeping machines seemed unfazed as they continued their health checks.

"Uh, um." Vanessa cleared her throat. "Ma'am, I think that I speak for the team when I say that we'd like to rest."

"Don't give me those looks. If he looks good during that run," Alavanz waved them off. "He's going to score points for me with the future Lycan king."

The nurse tapped his shoulder to let him know that he was done. Marx wore his shirt, stood up, and checked his phone. He received an email from Nurse Claire at the academic hospital, sent at five am. It requested that he come as soon as possible.

He also had fifty one missed calls from home, ones he still didn't plan on addressing. Most were from his mother and two from his father. He was sure his dad had told himself he wasn't going to chase after another alpha. Two calls was a lot, coming from his prideful father.

He left the ward and met Boise as he roamed the corridors.

"Thought you wouldn't pass out, wolf breed." A smirking Boise mocked while a nurse guided him to a room filled with dirt and open graves. One passed out vampire was being lowered into one.

"What?" the Screecher vampire complained. "We can't be resting in the same room as Nurthe!"

Marx gave him a glance and shook his head. His pace quickened as Boise's low chuckle faded behind him.

At the bus stop he boarded the bus, scrunching his nose as he sat down. The skin on his face wrinkled more than usual. The scent of humans seemed to be more vivid than usual. Marx groaned.

At the hospital elevator, the scent of ice lilies reached his nose. A messy haired vampire girl appeared before him and her tired eyes met his. She pursed her lips her gaze fell to the floor as she muttered a greeting.

"We have got to stop meeting like this, Sir Wolf." She muttered again, and hid her face. "I mean what are we? Hospital elevator companions? Buddies?"

"Marx," he corrected, his gaze locked at the screen that showcased the changing floor numbers.

"Well, Marx." She carefully repeated the name, and turned to face him chest puffed out. Marx looked down at her his own shoulders squared and he wondered if she wanted to intimidate him. You never knew with a vam- "Next time, you can text a girl before you give her a jump scare."

Marx's brows rose and he stood frozen as she requested he take out his phone and she typed her contact. She made him promise to call her that evening, then immediately got off. He wondered if it was her floor. At the receptionist - Marx asked for toilet paper and rubbed his phone. He may have trained with vampires the last few days, but he still didn't like the stench of the undead on him. He frowned when the scent of lilies disappeared- called nurse Claire immediately after he gave them his name.

Claire appeared with her familiar bright red lips and led him to the elevator. The elevator left them in a hallway with multiple doors. They walked along the hallway where they turned right and reached a door with a plaque written President E. I. Zavier. Claire knocked and went inside, he followed after.

Inside the room they were met with two men in suits, one was standing and the other was seated behind a desk. The standing man had thick brows with salt and pepper colored hair. He wore a less formal black suit with a blue shirt, collar unbuttoned, and his jacket draped on a chair. The other man with copper colored hair and a clean shaven face. He wore a full on fancy suit. Marx wondered if he had somewhere to be.

The salt and pepper haired man smiled and introduced himself as Sol, Dean of health. Marx remembered Claire saying that he was crucial in Mayo's health stabilization. He shook Sols hand with a grateful look. The other man gave him a dismissive glance and Claire introduced him as Zavier the hospital administrator.

The door opened. Marx snapped his head toward it as Mayo's scent drifted into the office. A small girl appeared at the door, she wore an almost cloak-like robe paired with a large pointed hat that was curled at the top. She craned her neck to look up at him and greeted the room.

Marx nodded down at her. Claire's voice carried a respectful tone as she said, "I present the school's chancellor."

The two men in the room bowed their heads at her with expressions full of reverence. The chancellor approached Zavier's desk. Marx's brows rose as he struggled to conceal his shock, he'd just nodded at the chancellor. If his father were here his head wouldn't be connected to his neck.

The girl pushed some of the documents on Zavier's table aside, stepped on a chair, and assumed a seated position on the table. She'd returned earlier than Claire had said to him the previous day.

"So you're Marx?" The slightly squeaky voice of the chancellor sounded.

He nodded.

"You're free for the rest of the day. Don't worry your classes will be sorted." Her eyes locked with his. Marx lowered his own in return. "I just need you, next to your mate for the next two days."

Marx's back stiffened as a sudden urge to gag climbed up his throat. He responded with an aggressive head shake.

The chancellors brows rose. "He is not your mate?"

What? NEVER! He wasn't into men. He never really understood why people thought that, when he wasn't afraid of jabbing Mayo's ribs at any sign of disrespect. His low voice carefully sounded.

"I'm his alpha. We grew up together."

"We need to take him somewhere so he'll be gone for the week...

"No," Marx interrupted the chancellor. Her brows scrunched as she gave him a careful look.

"My apologies, "he stammered, unable to stop himself. Gone meant away from him. A week was just too long.

"Interesting..." Sol's aged voice sounded scanning him.

Marx gave him a raised brow in return.

"From the reports since you first arrived." Sol went on. "Though altered magic overwhelms him, your visits seem to stabilize his condition. For his health, why refuse?"

The last time he'd been away from Mayo was when he had to go to an alpha camp. He lasted two days. On the third, the camp called his father stating that he had disappeared. His father had gone to wake Mayo up, so they could go and search for him. Only to find Mayo in Marx's bed. And a bright eyed Marx seated at a corner of the room. He didn't remember what had happened that day. But his mother had told him, that his pheromones had clung to Mayo like a second skin

Marx gave Sol another adamant shake of his head. Even his wolf didn't like this. He'd wanted to respond yet his tongue, felt too heavy. A glass of water levitated before him. It had come from the chancellor, to his shock he'd never seen anyone use magic without chanting or magical instruments. The water felt cool as it sloshed against his parched throat. Done, he gave the chancellor a grateful look.

"Lower your brows, I can't take you seriously," she commanded and he prayed to the goddess he wasn't blushing. "Your wolf is just beneath your skin," she commented, her scrutinizing glare stuck on him. "What of not seeing him for a week? It's what's best for his health. I don't want a dead body on my school grounds, and depending on how he heals up. He may be out before your run."

Marx gave her another adamant shake of his head. Not seeing Mayo was going to bring out dead bodies in the school. During the camp scandal, his father had tried to snap his neck. Marx's wolf had marked the pack house. Another alpha's territory, as its own. It had control for three days after that. Even a wandering fly was a threat then, and his wolf did not hesitate to rid it.

"What of it then?" The chancellor looked at Sol, pulling Marx away from his thoughts. "Because he cannot set foot in my tower."

Both Sol and Zavier, who hadn't shown any change in expression since Marx entry into his office, gave the chancellor surprised looks.

Sol cleared his throat. "I-, taking the sick boy to your tower, maybe a rash decision."

"It's no longer a suggestion Sol." The chancellor stated firmly -like she was shutting down a recurring argument before it began- and crossed her arms. "My mind is made."

Marx's jaw tightened. He placed his trust in Sol to speak some sense into the chancellor. Almost cringing as the memories of seeing himself in videos, growling when Mayo went to the next room, or disappearing from his sight, crawled to the forefront of his mind.

"We have to consider that we're dealing with wolves." They glanced at Marx. "We cannot take the northern alpha's warning lightly."

Marx's brows rose then dropped again when he noticed the chancellor glaring at his forehead. His family knew already. That's why his father had called him twice. Marx's mother must be panicking, he had to call her this evening.

"I am, that is why he will be placed in Travercraig." The chancellor looked at Zavier. "Until I am done."

"We cannot, they just arrived earlier this week. They cannot afford to miss any more classes." Sol warned.

Zavier's careful voice sounded. "Travercraig is mostly for students who've lost control of their power or wolves in rut." His wandering eyes lingered at Marx's slightly elongated finger nails. "He will belong there once he is feral, but no one will be able to teach him anything."

He gulped, although Marx would have liked to disagree with Zavier. A flashing memory of the videos of him following Mayo everywhere he went with glowing blue eyes, were enough. Even when he'd regained control of his own body, his wolf had become overbea