They had been investigating the infected citizens, the animals and the plants the whole day. But because almost everybody is infected, they don't know what exactly causes the infection, therefore, they can't break whatever kind of magic those poor lizard people are into. The sun was almost setting and Jonatan desperately wanted to give up, especially because he was surrounded by delicious looking food but wasn't allowed to eat and actual adult sided meal all day long because basically everything could be infected. Dustine wasn't feeling so bad because she was already used to long foodless missions, and even made an archive with all the information she got through the day. One of the most curious things was the fact that the lizard men whose beds were positioned in a way that received sunlight were tolerating the mysterious illness better.
William was apprehensive with Blair, he had brought a bunch of snacks for her but Jonatan basically ate half of the food in despair. William was outside, trying to investigate the animals, when Blair jumped out his arms and started running. William runned behind her, trying to stop her the moment he saw her going for the plantation. But she grew slightly faster again and was running in an animal-like way. She picked a tomato plant with her main mouth and drifted. William was in shock. Blair turned back to normal and tooked out the tomato plant of her main mouth.
- It's it! -
William was still in shock. -
- That's what's making everybody sick. -
- H-How do you know that? -
- Smells and tastes the same as that lady. -
- But what if YOU get sick? Also, how can we tell anyone about this without anyone asking how we discovered that? -
- Oh… -
Blair gets upset.
- I'm guessing we are going to solve this alone again. -
William is tired, nervous and upset, but Blair gets happy with that.
- YEAH! -
Blair smiles and jumps. William is annoyed with her happiness over threatening stuff.
- Blair, can you tell what cursed the tomatoes? -
- Uhum! It was… was… hmmm… I don't know. -
Blair gets excited and then confused. William is slightly disappointed.
- Blair. Lying is ugly, you shouldn't do that. -
- Oh, sorry. -
- The sun is almost setting. Drop this tomato! -
Blair throws the tomato on the ground. William holds her hand and they go meet Dustine inside Robert's house.
- Oh, Willy! So, we managed to get some information but I think the mission will get few more days. -
Dustine says to William and passes her notes for him. William picks her notes and holds her arm.
- Can I drink your blood? -
- Hmm… What? -
- I can try to use magic to track the cause of the illness. It's already night but I still need blood to use it -
- Ok… But just because I don't want to stay here for the next few days. -
Dustine offers her pulse for William with a slightly disgusted face. William bites her weirdly because of his missing fang. Her skin was quite thick so it took a while. After swallowing her blood, William's scars get a little smaller, his eye start glowing, he picks Blair up and leaves in superspeed. Dustine notices William's bite is getting stronger, despite the fact he has only one fang. She goes get a band aid for the little hole on her pulse that's still bleeding.
William stops at the dropped tomatoes and Blair picks it up and gets it closer to William's nose. His senses are sharper and his magical abilities are as good as they could be. He smells the cursed tomatoes and uses an uncasted spell to track the magical roots of the curse. He picks Blair up again and goes at superspeed to the middle of the forest nearby. There is a giant routine bulb with black roots coming from the top and going aggressively in the soil.
- Blair, can you see this? -
William points at the curse.
- The sky? It 's very pretty! -
Blair answers. William puts her on the ground and assumes only he can see that probably because of the spell and his vampiric powers. He first tries to analyze that thing. It was about 4 meters tall and 5 meters wide and slightly resembling a tomato, probably was because of that the tomatoes were either the only target or the most affected plants. As he's walking around that thing, analyzing it, Blair follows him. The black roots coming from the top probably means that thing was putted there by someone. And those roots aggressively going on the soil and breaking it means the roots went as fast as possible, again pointing to the fact that someone putted that thing there. That someone didn't matter for now.
William stops walking and tries to use a dark flames spell, but can only use around 10% of the flames he was able to cast back in the day. William attacks the bulb several times and uses his superspeed to try to get different angles, but it causes little damage. Blair sits on the floor wondering how long it would take and what he was doing. William gets disappointed at himself. But then noticed the roots covering the bulb were acting like some kind of shield and the bulb was quite softer than it looked like. Seeing that the bulb definitely wasn't going anywhere, William decides to draw a summoning circle for a trap type magic. He picks a sharpy stick from the floor and starts drawing the circle. Trap magic usually needs movement of a living thing to get activated, but William decides to trigger the circle another way. He mix 4 uncasted spells and shoots them on the floor as close to the bulb as possible. The trap magic gets activated and reddish spikes come out of the ground, impaling the bulb and turning it visible. Some black juice came out of the bulb and Blair went to try it, just to be stopped and picked up by her father. William goes back to the plantation, walking tiredly.
- Blair, can you sense any curse here? -
- No… Are you ok? -
- Yes… Let's just inform the group, ok? -
William sounded nauseous. They went to Robert's house and went straight to the bathroom. William hides Blair's tail again, fixes her bonnet and takes out a little of the dirt on her clothes. After that he says to Blair to stay outside for a little bit because he needed to use the bathroom. Blair stayed at the door quietly, she was sleepy. William throws up Dustine's blood. He doesn't know why but he can't handle consuming any blood anymore, so he only does it when necessary and tries to handle it for the maximum possible. The moment he throws up, his scars grow back to the original size and his eye stop glowing. His stomach hurts but he pretends it doesn't. He gets out of the bathroom and bumps into Blair, who had her head resting on the door, almost sleeping. He grabs her in his arms, picks her bag and goes to the car they came. He grabs a very tiny version of the light green screen he has at home and calls Dustine. That makes a hologram as big as the palm of his hand.
- Hi? -
- Dustine, I solved the problem. I think we should go back home now. -
- Why you're so dry…? Okay! I'm warning Jonatan and I think we're there in like 3 minutes or so. Bye! -
Dustine ends the call and goes right after Jonatan, who doesn't look at his best stage.
- Jonatan! Great news! William discovered and solved the issue! We're going back to the city and eat something! -
- What? FINALLY! I COULD EAT EVEN WALLS RIGHT NOW! LET 'S GO! -
Jonatan seems refreshed just by the possibility of eating something and goes running to the car. Dustine entered right after looking once again at all the houses of that small community just to make sure they didn't forget anything. William was tired and Blair was already sleeping on his lap, with her head on his chest. Jonatan was starving, excited about food and surprisingly full of stamina. Dustine was relieved that the mission ended way earlier than planned. Dustine configures the car to go to William's building and then to a restaurant.
- Sorry dude. You're amazing! -
- Huh? -
- Dustine told me you fixed whatever was happening! I misjudged you. -
- … Thank you I guess? -
- Are all vampires like that or is it just you? -
- Er… -
- Jonatan, that was kinda racist. -
- An elf can't be curious anymore? -
- You're an elf? That explains a lot. -
- That was kinda racist. What are you again? -
- If you guess before we get into the restaurant, I will pay your food. -
- Deal! -
Jonatan started shouting random species but was always wrong. William was feeling bad and tired, Dustine seemed calm and Blair was sleeping while William passed his hand on her back.
They stopped at William's building and William and Blair got out of the car.
- Bye Dustine. Was nice to meet you, Jonatan. -
- Bye Willy! Good night! -
- Nice to meet you too bud! Bye! -
William holds a charming but fake smile and goes inside. He takes the elevator and goes to his apartment. He took Blair's dress, band, bonnet and sunglasses out and put her on a nightdress, trying to not wake her up. He puts her on her bed and kisses her good night. Blair grabs his hand and mumbles something, William answers whispering.
- I love you. -
He takes his hand out and after looking at her for a little bit, he stands up and gets out of her bedroom. His stomach was hurting pretty badly and the parts of his scars that regrew were hurting as well. He takes his dirty shirt, his shoes and his pants off and throws himself at his bed. 4 years had passed, but he still wore most of the bandages. The wound on his back was the worst and the biggest one. Some nights, it was the main reason he didn't sleep, but using not only his powers, but spells made him extremely tired for some reason, something that wasn't supposed to happen, because vampires were supposed to be night creatures and have way more stamina at night. He finally fell asleep.