MIAKODA
The irony of an Alpha Wolf lecturing humans and Creatures on how Egyptians used hieroglyphics and how their Gods were symbolic wasn't lost on Miakoda as she navigated her way through the lecture. Running a hand through her shaggy hair, her nose flared slightly when confusion raised from Evdokiya that her Wolf always clocked in when the Bulgarian walked in.
Tucking the note to call her back, Miakoda continued her lecture. Fiona John, another girl in one of her tutorials put her hand up, "So why…images?"
"Good question," Miakoda nodded, absently sliding the clicker up and down in her fingers, "I couldn't begin to go into the intimate details of ancient languages, that would be a whole other lecture. But why images? The Greeks had an alphabet, as did the Romans…" her eyes scanned the crowd before she gestured, "What do you think?"
A Cherokee man spoke up, Benjamin Rook, "Perhaps it was easier to understand; even the illiterate could understand simple images.
Miakoda tilted her head to the side, "Maybe. But hieroglyphics were only one of the writing systems used in Ancient Egypt and it was a formal language," she moved her hand, "seen as holy. Yet we still have no idea why or how they came about. Yet they are an image conjured when people think of Ancient Egypt. And we have no real understanding of them, only guesses that we cannot tell are true or not."
Moving through the room, her Wolf locked onto Evdokiya, whose heart rate had skyrocketed in the next several minutes, panic and anxiety blooming like a sunflower in the room. The Bulgarian in question had made her way as if subconsciously into the middle of the back row of the room which had fallen silent at her movement. Evdokiya's scent had done the same thing back in her shop like it had become muted again and it drove her Wolf mad.
"Evdokiya?" Miakoda said quietly, resting a careful, calm hand on her pale forearm. "Evdokiya?"
The use of the Alpha Voice seemed to have drawn her out of whatever or wherever she was and her Wolf calmed whenever Evdokiya's scent became strong again.
"Evdokiya," the Professor whispered, after pressing her lips together, concern in her tone, "are you alright?"
Evdokiya's scent sharpened with shock and her blue-grey eyes sharpened back to the present. Sweat, Miakoda could smell, budded up onto her palms. The Bulgarian nodded sharply "F-fine."
Her Wolf scratched and snarled in her head as Miakoda got back into the lecture and could hear the whispers that some of the Humans were muttering to each other. Multiple times, Miakoda had to turn her head away from the crowd and focus back onto her computer to yank back her Wolf and retain her control again. She could hear the anxious bu-bump, ba-bump, bu-bump of Evdokiya's heart and the lingering bitterness of her anxiety and stress from the aftermath of her ordeal. The Alpha in her yearned to see if she was okay, wanted to check on the Bulgarian herself.
Once the lecture was finished, Miakoda quickly signed out of her account on the main computer and allowed her nose to follow after Evdokiya's scent even though there were hordes of students, faculty and some of the food truck vendors coming and going. Spotting the brunette in her long, blue flowy skirt and tank top, Miakoda could feel her Wolf pressing against her ribs, urgent, having caught the panic in her scent.
"Evdokiya," she called, catching the girl's attention before she left the main pavilion causing Evdokiya to spin around, grey eyes wide. Absently, Miakoda smelt her, her nostrils flaring a little. Wariness, exhaustion, tension, stress. She had to rein her Wolf in tight. Stupid Witch. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine," Evdokiya answered, wary and tension, her heart thundering in her chest, "Why do you ask?"
"I know you were attacked…" Miakoda gave sympathetically and held back from touching her. Humans weren't so into the whole strangers- touching-them thing for reassurance, "If you need a few days, I can understand."
That was probably the wrong thing to say as frustration erupted in the girl, "No." she gritted out, "I'm fine."
"Great," Miakoda smiled, "then you wouldn't mind having lunch with me?"
Encouraging the Bulgarian into the car took a little nudging but soon they were on the way to Dumpling House, one of her favourite places to eat near to the University. Miakoda had found the authentic Chinese in her first semester during her Undergrad years and had taken to studying there after appealing to the troop of old fox shifters. The Zhang troop had been in Harvard, or rather specifically Cambridge, for over three hundred years but as tourism had hit a boom, they utilised their culture's culinary skills and the Dumpling House was created.
Maybe not the most authentic of names but damn did they make good food.
Miakoda left Evdokiya to her thoughts and tried not to think about why the girl smelt of wariness and paranoia under the slightly cloying scent of those stick diffuser things that irritated her nose. Flicking the blinker on, she pulled into a parking spot and turned it off.
Surprise bloomed in Evdokiya's scent as she came back to herself and Miakoda couldn't help the smile that pulled onto her face. "Come on," she tilted her head to the door, grabbing her bag, "this is the place."
Within ten minutes, Miakoda had ushered her into one of her favourite spots – a booth near the back that still had some natural light but kept her out of the way of people.
Still getting the nerves coming from Evdokiya, Miakoda pushed the menu down. "Let me order."
After getting the go-ahead from Evdokiya, she made her way to the front bar where Marcus Zhang – a young 22-year-old in the beginnings of his honours specialising in his own family history but leaning on the more Folklore and Mythology side that couldn't help but make her smile.
"Hey Doc," Marcus grinned, flipped a glass around to clean the inside, "the usual?"
His own dark eyes flicked over her shoulder to where Evdokiya sat twiddling, "She's that new blood. Something Vankon?"
"Vankov," Miakoda corrected absently as she scanned the menu again, "but yeah, Professor Hardings wanted me to take her on. Can you put another serving of the lemon chicken and a small portion of the monkfish too? How's the paper coming on?"
"Urgh," he tutted, scrawling the double order down on the pad in his usual messy shorthand, "Doctor Frankenstein is kickin' my ass."
Rolling her lips to hold back the amused snort that bubbled when he mentioned the old Professor whose actual name was Dr Franovitz, a Polish refugee who had come over to the US just after the war had broken out. The man was nearly as deaf as a post and his hearing aids looked like bolts in his head – hence the nickname.
"He's a good supervisor," Miakoda tapped the bar, "I wouldn't have recommended you to him if I didn't think it was a good fit."
Marcus tapped the pen on top of the pad, his slightly crooked nose scrunching slightly. He sucked his teeth before answering, "Yeah, I know."
An idea came into her mind and she leant against the bar for a second, "If you want, if you come to my office tomorrow before 12 I can have a look at what you've got written. Give you a little help in looking for resources."
"Would you?" he gawped.
"You can't use me as a source however, that would be cheating but I have written more than my fair share of papers, Marcus."
"Doc, you are a gods-send…" he breathed and his mother called for him down the hallway to where the kitchens were. "I'll bring you your drinks soon. Your usual ice tea and…"
Miakoda turned her head and breathed deeply through her nose. Evdokiya had a flask in her bag, one with a rather relaxing scent to it.
"One of those green teas, get your Mum to pick one out."
"Want a teapot?"
"Yeah, she's a little stressed."
"One ice tea and a pot of green tea."
"Thanks, Marcus."
"Not a problem, Doc."
With that Marcus headed for the kitchen where his mother was still calling for him and Miakoda headed back to the table. The locking of a phone entered her ears and Evdokiya looked up when she slid in opposite her.
Leaning back into the fake leather, Miakoda subtly took in her scent and studied it. The Bulgarian still had the lingering scent of grief that she was familiar with, maybe a little bit of paranoia in there too, confusion as well but they didn't seem to be weighing her down. She was strong. It would take more than a witch to stop this one.
"How have you been? Since…"
For a second or two, as she gathered herself, Evdokiya found the tabletop and her hands rather interesting but after taking a deep breath, squared her shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. Not a lot of people could do that. Their natural fight-or-flight instincts made humans wary of her, to begin with. The Winchesters were a part of the rare group that didn't, knowing there were worse things out there than her.
"I'm doing better," Evdokiya admitted, her grey eyes glancing over her shoulders as she shrugged a little limply, "but grieving is a process, so is getting over the trauma."
The scent of their drinks came from the left and Miakoda looked up as Marcus brought the tray over, a metal tea-pot with the strainer and a small teacup along with her ice tea.
"I hope you don't mind," Miakoda said, as Evdokiya looked a little shocked at the drink in front of her, "I'm not much of a hot tea drinker, my preferred comfort drink is hot chocolate but I know that green tea has some relaxation to the consumer. And Marcus's mother, Annie, has a great selection."
"No, no," Evdokiya shook her head, "it's one of my favourites."
"Really?" Marcus bit back a grin as he left, sending her a quick wink as he left to serve other customers – the place wasn't too busy as it was only around 3 o'clock and it only really picked up around 5 for the dinner rush.
"Yes," she nodded, carefully swirling the teapot to infuse more before skilfully pouring it, "if I've had a terrible day, I usually go for a cup."
Letting her settle with her cup warming her hands, Miakoda then heard the kitchen doors open and the scent of their food and her stomach rumbled. The Dumpling House always did fill her up for a surprisingly cheap amount of money.
"Hello, Annie." Miakoda smiled as Annie, Marcus's mother began to set the food down onto the table, "Thank you."
"It isn't a problem, Alpha Hart." Annie smiled, her aged cheeks dimpling at her and Miakoda rolled her eyes at the use of her formal title.
"We're friends, Annie and I taught your boy, no need to be so formal. And thank you for Evdokiya's tea, I think you made the right choice."
"Always." Annie patted her hand and bustled back to the kitchen, leaving them to eat.
Turning back to her table mate, Miakoda began to pile her plate. And if she put a near river of Sweet and Sour, it was good. Maybe slightly addictive.
"I bring it home as well." Miakoda laughed, seeing the slightly daunted look in Evdokiya's eyes, "Found this place back in my freshman year and basically spent my finals week in here. They're good people, and they don't put those chemicals other places do. It's nice."
"What's in these?" Evdokiya pointed to the dumplings and Miakoda sniffed at them slightly and bit into one after she picked it up with her chopsticks.
"Chicken."
She stored the happy noise Evdokiya made as she stabbed one with a fork away for later.
"So what happened in class?" Miakoda broached carefully, taking a sip of her tea to help the dumpling and rice mixture go down, "I know that sometimes you get feelings, moments…flashbacks. It's okay, you can talk to me about it. I'm not going to judge you."
Nervousness was prevalent in Evdokiya. Her hands moved to her bag and she pulled out a documents holder as she explained what she had seen in class. The nerves turned to fear as her grey eyes zeroed in on the hieroglyphics. Miakoda cocked her head as she watched the girl fret over the piece of paper. It was as if her scent kept going in and out the longer she took in the images. Her Wolf whined in her head. What was going on in her head?
Miakoda took the offered file from Evdokiya and looked at the page she had just been asked to translate. The Egyptians didn't just have the hieroglyphics as a system. It was seen as a lesser language, those of the poor used it whilst the pharaohs and priests used what was known as the heretic writing system. They were also the first to write horizontal rather than vertical that had been used before. They were truly a fascinating culture and people. Her thesis for her Archaeology PhD was around how their use of language and symbols along with how their belief systems influenced modern-day Egypt and even into the Western World. She'd spent near a year in and out of the field, small dunes of sand settling themselves within her shoes and belonging.
She didn't regret a thing.
She looked back on her time in the Valley of the Kings and the Queens of Egypt with great pride. Miakoda wasn't the only Creature within her dig group but she may have been one of the oldest in the lineage. There were two practitioners of the god Heka – the Egyptian god of Magic – and one of fae blood. The four of them had done their best to not cause the gods discomfort or anger them so much that the humans of their group would receive the repercussions. During some nights, Miakoda could sometimes have smelt something old and seemingly otherworldly when she couldn't sleep nearing the moon. The four had made their mission clear to those at rest within the tombs – to tell their stories as truthfully as they could with the evidence they were given. Apparently, their wishes had been seen as trustworthy by the gods because they managed to get through the dig, uncovering some great things, with only some of the humans getting slight bits of heat exhaustion in the beginning.
After translating the hieroglyphs on the paper, stress and panic seemed to bloom in Evdokiya's scent; so much so that Miakoda couldn't help but ask. "Why? Why do you ask?"
Evdokiya played with her hair, she mused silently, her Wolf clawing at her ribs again to sooth the troubled woman. She was a woman, after all, Miakoda remembered, having seen her year of birth putting her in her ear twenties. Once someone had been through a trauma like Evdokiya had, there was no chance of her ever retaining the sense of naivety where everyone that one would come across would be a nice person. There were monsters out there; ones who didn't need fangs and claws to do monstrous things.
"Um," Evdokiya's slightly timid voice brought Miakoda back to the present – where the smell of smoke and burning flesh were unfortunate things of her past, things that could only hurt her in her dreams – "I-I can read it."
Miakoda felt her eyebrows raise. It wasn't uncommon for people who joined her unit to have dabbled in the idea of reading hieroglyphs, especially when they were kids, but that wasn't an easy piece to work through. "Woe. Why haven't you told me you could read hieroglyphics? That's an amazing skill."
"I can't read them." Evdokiya ran a ringed hand through her dark curls, disregarding the rings on her fingers. "I can barely read English at the best of the times."
Miakoda felt her Wolf cock her head. That wasn't necessarily human. Being able to read hieroglyphs wasn't exactly a hardship when one knew how – by the end of her time in Egypt, it was nearly as easy as reading the written word – but for someone to admit that they struggled to read English but could read an ancient complex coded language like her birth language. Well, apparently Miakoda was right when she thought Evdokiya wasn't human. Not really.
"Really?" she straightened, trying to not panic the woman across from her. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. Sorry, I don't mean to burden you with this."
Miakoda touched her hand gently, before bringing it back to hold her chopsticks. "No, it's okay. So can you tell me what happened?"
The more she knew about what happened to Evdokiya had…visions, she supposed, the fewer Creatures Miakoda had to dive through to figure out what the Bulgarian was.
Confusion, stress and anxiety were prevalent in Evdokiya's scent when she began to speak, shaking her head; food laid forgotten through her stress. "I, I'm confused. I am a liar." She confessed bluntly but knowing what she knew then, Miakoda wasn't so sure that was actually true to an extent, "It is what I do to the clients that come to me. I lie to them and most of the time I am right which is weird. But I'm not a psychic or anything. But I'm so confused."
The Wolf in her wanted to whine through her teeth at her Pack Mate's distress. That thought would've thrown her for a loop if Miakoda hadn't had several days to get used to the idea that maybe she could potentially make up a Pack again. She reached across the table again, grasping Evdokiya's skinny pale wrists and taking them from her hair.
"Hey, hey," she soothed, remembering how her Aunt Kasey – human as they came, but was the Emissary to the Pack for meetings as her mother was Alpha and her father was the Sentinel of the pack – protector and sometimes prosecutor when the pups didn't behave – as well as the other half to the Alpha Pair – used to soothe Sarah, one of Miakoda's cousin who had frequent panic attacks due to an acute diagnosis of anxiety. She began to rub across Evdokiya's hands. "Calm down and tell me what you saw."
"It's not possible," Evdokiya near panted, anxiety and maybe denial strong in her eyes. "I'm not a psychic."
"Hey." Miakoda put a bit of the Voice of the Alpha behind her command before Evdokiya pushed herself into a panic attack and she seemed to relax a bit. "Just tell me what you saw when you when into your trance. I'm here to help you, okay?"
"Thank you." Evdokiya gave quietly and looked as though her food had turned into sawdust in her mouth as she began to eat again. Miakoda began to eat her food again – at least the dumplings wouldn't scald the inside of her mouth anymore. "I just…none of this was real. It was all something for me to do whilst I made money and stayed in America. I can read people and that is why I chose such a degree of lying."
Miakoda thought that ability may have something to do with what she was but she ignored it for now. "Thank you for telling me. But as you know I study strange and mysterious things so I believe you."
The rest of the meal went by with some slightly awkward silences but her Wolf basked in the ability to potentially learn more about her new Pack Member. Miakoda was surprised to find out that Evdokiya was a mail order bride – it wasn't exactly uncommon but then again it wasn't exactly common to practise in Western society. The two talked about how she got into teaching when Miakoda realised that her question on Evdokiya's childhood wasn't exactly welcomed. That was fine. Not everyone was keen on revealing all their secrets.
Miakoda declined Evdokiya's offers to help pay for her bit with a smile and made her way over to Marcus, who was over by the till already. "Whatever you heard, stays here, Marcus."
"You got it, Doc." He nodded, serious. It wasn't cool when one revealed another's secrets. Especially in the Creature community in Massachusetts, not unless they truly deserved it. For example, that priest that had murdered several girls and nearly had done it with Evdokiya. "You have any idea what she could be?"
Miakoda inserted her card and put in her pin as she thought on it. Her suspicions needed to be narrowed down substantially first and she told him that.
"Well," Marcus nodded as his brother, Bryon, handed her the doggy bags, fortune cookies included, "I'll try and keep an eye out for her outside of class."
"Thanks, Marcus. Have a good night. See you tomorrow."
The ride to Evdokiya's was long and maybe a little awkward. She could see what the woman was thinking. Professor taking a bit of a fascination in a student. Giving her lifts home and giving her free food. Evdokiya probably thought she wanted something from her. Something sexual in response. Her Wolf and her recoiled internally at that thought. Miakoda knew Evdokiya wasn't her Bonded. That part of her was still unlinked and free but something had changed recently that she couldn't figure out. Wolves in general, were just tactile Creatures and Miakoda had been without a true Pack for so long that it was strange to have to remind herself that Evdokiya – whilst having been the near casualty of a Witch – didn't truly know what went bump in the night. Ergo, wasn't exactly in the know about what Miakoda was.
Miakoda pulled up outside The Rose Quartz and her Wolf snarled at the lingering scent of copper and bleach even though the cloying cloud of incense. Evdokiya said her goodbyes and snatched her things and hurried to the door. Miakoda waited till she was in the house, she heard it lock before making her way home.
Now came the hard work.
What was Evdokiya Vankov?
