A/N: Hey guys, sorry for not being active for a pretty long time. Exam leave is coming up soon, and I've been getting stressed with all the upcoming exams and assessments. I haven't had time to update and writer's block has been hitting me hard on Mona Lisa. This is just a new idea that I got while travelling around Russia for the school holidays!
I've only stayed in St Petersburg for two days before moving on to Moscow and then to Beijing in China, so some of the locations in the book would probably not be 100% accurate. Back to the fic, this is my first time writing a fantasy with vampires, faeries, werewolves and those kinds of creatures, so I hope you like it!
WARNING: PROFANITY, MILD VIOLENCE AND REFERENCES TO ALCOHOL IN LATER CHAPTERS.
Prologue - vision
The stone walls of his cave were only illuminated by one single light - the flickering candle that he had left out on the table beside his sofa to burn away the night. His three hamsters were already settled in their cage, fast asleep together in three intermingled heaps of fur. Phichit Chulanont blinked his feline eyes owlishly, yawning widely and showing sharp teeth in his mirror. His hair was turning a darker color and his vertically slit pupils were growing larger, more dilated, showing how badly the onslaught of visions and prophecies had gotten to him. He was the only seer in Russia, so paranormals that lived all over the region always flocked to his cave to see him, to hear about the particular fate of someone, or for him to provide a prophecy.
He peered outside his frosted window, watching the late night snow fall across the city. He closed his eyes and listened as he settled into his bed, which was floating several feet about the floor. The human side of the city was asleep, with only a few stray car lights passing through the streets. But if he strained his ears and really concentrated, he could almost hear the familiar clatter of beer cups and shot glasses a few miles off in the Millennium Lounge. It had been a few decades since he had had a drink there with some of his friends. Victor Nikiforov, the silver-haired faery and his short-tempered vampire friend, Yuri Plisetsky, would be fun to grab a beer with someday.
A quick image of them standing at his doorstep flashed through his head. Phichit chuckled as the vision passed. Looks like he won't be the one to find them, he thought as he drew his phone from his pocket.
He scrolled lazily through his Twitter profile, commenting and retweeting some posts of Guang-Hong, a friendly Chinese mermaid that he had the pleasure of meeting roughly twenty years ago. His latest post from seven hours ago consisted a blushing Leo de la Iglesia, descendant of the Muses. The young Muse was dressed in his usual white robes and the golden lyre necklace hung from his slender neck. Guang-Hong was sitting on the riverbank with him, his black and pink tail half in the water, his chest bare, pressing a kiss onto Leo's cheek.
*heart eyes* Out with the new bf! *rose* leo-deLaIglesia-
Phichit quickly typed in a congratulations and retweeted before closing his phone. The bed was cozy although he had made the frame and headboard out of stone. His duvet settled comfortably over his shoulders as he stared up at the dark ceiling of the cave, rubbing circles with his thumbs as he lulled himself to sleep.
But what he had hoped to be a peaceful and dreamless sleep soon turned to an eerie darkness.
When his vision cleared, he could see St Petersburg, but not what he usually sees it as. Two large reptilian shapes were crouching by the Bronze Horseman statue, scales gleaming in the rising sun, roaring and spraying fire and water. A battalion of armed paranormals fought them, climbing the relics to try and get at the large beasts. Phichit squinted into the sunlight and saw the Neva river, the waters tainted red, silver and black with blood. He cringed as he saw the head of a sorceress, floating face down in the bloody waters, red hair fanning out in a wet halo around her disembodied head.
He ran forward, his feet touching the ground, but him not feeling it; in a movie-like trance. Phichit's knees buckled as he came face to face with two large dragons, majestic and glistening in the light.
Not them... not them again, Phichit squeezed his eyes shut, opening them and seeing the monstrosities biting the head straight off of a charging werewolf. Red blood sprayed out in a fountain from the bloody stump that was the neck as the body collapsed on the floor. Anything but them...
Phichit knew all those faces that those dragons are fighting. Georgi, being knocked sideways by a strong blast of fire, falling at the foot of the statue. His face was burned, black blood running down his face. Mila's disembodied head floating face-down in the Neva river, Sara Crispino clutching the rest of the burnt body, crying. Phichit watched as one of the dragons, blue and iridescent scales covering its entire form, marched towards her crying figure. Sara opened her deep purple eyes and stared into the ocean eyes of the dragon towering above her. Phichit opened his mouth, tears streaming down his face, yelling for the stupid demon girl to move, but only to see her smile and caress the hand of the dead body in her arms with her thumb. And then jet of water engulfed her, killing her with a single blast. The seer screamed as her body fell into the water with Mila's, finally reunited in the river, in death.
He looked up into the dragon's glazed over eyes, and the vision shifted, turning everything dark.
He saw a single tendril of smoke curl up from the darkness, disintegrating into nothing. There was a song drifting through the air and the crackling sound of burning logs. A small girl appeared in the darkness, who danced around the campfire, her mouth stretched into a smile. She had long black hair flowing down her back, with ocean blue eyes glowing with joy as she danced around and around, the flames licking at her bare feet.
Phichit's eyes zeroed in. He saw the potential the girl had, the life that she had laid out in front of her. He saw her accomplish so many things within her short 76 years of life, dying with a loving family around her. The girl yawned, stretching her arms up, then lying down next to the fire, fluttering her eyes shut.
The fire went out.
A cold blast of air brushed past Phichit's right cheek, leaving a trail of water and a bloody cut behind on his tanned skin. A blue glow floated on top of the little girl as she slept, her mouth parted. Phichit watched as the blue glow flew into her mouth, basking her body in ocean blue light. The image of a coiled blue dragon settled on her pale skin, burning and sinking into her body.
The silence was pierced with a single scream, turning into a high keening as the girl blistered and burned in the darkness. She faded away, the only thing that Phichit could hear being quiet whimpers in the dark. As he woke, he could still hear the whimpering echoing in his ears.
