MIAKODA
She blinked. Once. Twice. Three times.
"That could be why I'm on edge…" Miakoda muttered, turning back to dinner – she was thinking spaghetti.
"How so?"
"'Bout two months ago there were a couple of murders not far from here, turns out it was a Witch that had been possessing this priest and with how keyed up Massachusetts is…well, long story short, the Winchesters rolled into town, came to my Meso lecture – thanks for the sources on that by the way – asked me to translate a couple of sigils that were found on the floor of a psychic's shop where another potential victim was taken and they managed to get her before she was killed. She's not human, Elias, I don't know what she is but I think I've narrowed it down."
"How do you know?" Elias murmured in his deep, eloquent tone, dark eyes serious.
"Her scent, every time she would go into a…it isn't a vision but we'll call it that for now," Miakoda explained, waving a hand as she slid the diced up red onion, garlic and a bit of oil into a big pan, "her scent seems to be muted. It's like she's physically in our time but not with everything else. She's a native Bulgarian, English isn't exactly something she's comfortable with but she's well equipped enough to run a business and get a degree involving it, but here's the catch. She can read hieroglyphics like its second nature."
"Hmm…" he thought on it, "what is your hypothesis then, Doctor?"
"Something to do with past lives." Miakoda chucked in the mince and stabbed to break it up, cutting into the container with a claw absently. "She says she's just a professional liar but…"
Elias noticed her eyes drift away as if caught in a memory. "What is it, my child?"
Shaking her head back to the present, and pouring in a jar of passata with tomato paste along with various other spices, Miakoda told him what she'd seen. "She made me see the Fire… it was unintentional, I got that because the fear in her scent was real. But it was…" she swallowed the whine in the back of her throat barely, "I never thought I'd have to relieve that pain again, Elias."
"Has her visions happened via a touch from anyone else?" he coaxed her back as she focused on her dinner for the next few days.
"Vincent said that she'd done the same thing today." Miakoda flicked the heat to low and put a lid on it to let the sauce simmer for a while. "But he's human, it's…Daniel." It clicked then. "Maybe the visions only really occur when they have either something to do with her past or because the person she's come into contact with is either a Creature or personally connected to one."
"It would seem so." Elias glanced off-screen – he seemed to be in his study in the Californian vineyard. Rather strange for some maybe, but to him, Miakoda knew, the heat reminded him of his homeland. "I may have a few tomes around here somewhere for you that may be of some help. I'll have them send to you."
She nodded in thanks before taking the laptop of the library of her own, sitting on the sofa. "How are things with you?"
He gave a disapproving hum. "The Winchesters have been doing a marvellous job at keeping the precipitous children from ousting us, which I can't exactly falter. It means that I do not have to do it myself."
"But?" she knew the Ancient One well enough that she could tell something was bothering him.
"There has been…activity in the Homelands, specifically England, that has me concerned."
Immediately worry seemed to root itself in her gut. Matthew, Marcus and Miriam were over there. "What activity?"
"The newly turned haven't made it as far as London docks without being captured and dealt with by Hunters."
"Hunters aren't that clean-cut though. From what you're saying, it's as if there are alarm systems…" she tapered off when it seemed to click with the both of them that there was in fact, alarm systems in place to let the humans know where the vampires were.
Miakoda snatched up her phone and dialled Matthew's number, international call be damned. "Hunters have managed to put alarm systems specifically for vampires around the docks. I won't hesitate to say that they probably already have some for wolves and other creatures. Hurry up with what you're doing and get out."
Matthew, having heard her tone, replied. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," she nodded, "I'm talking with Elias now. He's the one that let me know. Get somewhere safe, Matthew, the lot of you should."
"I'll keep you posted."
"Good."
With that, he hung up and Miakoda ran a hand through her curled hair. "Matthew has a good head upon his shoulders, my child, he and the others will stay vigilant."
"Why can't Hunters just leave us alone." She growled, feeling the shift influence her teeth as stress, anxiety and the fact that the Apocalypse had started finally got to her. Miakoda let her head rest against the arm of the sofa, calming herself down before she broke her laptop.
"It is what they do, child."
They spoke for a while after that. Elias lived with a select few vampires in his Californian vineyard but apparently, he was thinking of moving to his Moroccan castle come to the end of the year, if they hadn't been killed by the Apocalypse that is. He had another less ostentatious abode near Cairo where he'd stayed when she was in the field for a year. Something about being readily available for information about certain pieces that they found. Miakoda knew it was partly because the dig sites where her group were – in the Valley of the Kings specifically – was where he'd been changed.
They hung up when it was time for Miakoda to cook her pasta. Elias had done a lot for her; she knew she wouldn't be there at that moment, stirring her pasta around a pot, with two doctorates to her name at the age of 27, if it hadn't been for him coming across her when she was 16, freshly though unwanted – given status as Alpha. She'd owed him a lot. She didn't know if she owed him a debt though. Over the years, they'd helped each other out more often than not.
Miakoda chucked on a random episode of The Big Bang Theory to have mindless chatter as she ate. Fuck, she felt exhausted. Not only had the Apocalypse started but also some Hunters were trying to eradicate vampires – and who knew what other Creatures – from the United Kingdom where some of her friends were. Added to the fact that she still had to start drafting out the midterm, well, she wanted to do a Cap and sleep for 70 years.
Deciding to leave her bowl in the kitchen for tomorrow – which she'll regret in the morning, she was sure – Miakoda made her way up to her room and collapsed onto her bed. Morpheus decided to give her a break this time around and she quickly found herself asleep.
Fridays were free days for Miakoda, which meant a long weekend. She couldn't be bothered going anywhere though; shit had to be done.
Coffee in hand, along with the required textbook and some snacks, Miakoda dedicated the majority of the day in drafting, redrafting and finalising the mid-term, emailing it to Professor Hardings to gain his approval. After making herself some late lunch, she decided to go for a walk. It wasn't a bad day for it – brisk and just on this side of nippy where you needed a scarf and coat to fend off the cold. There was a park not far from where she lived and she dandered down, sitting by the duck pond, book – A Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett – in hand. She hadn't read his work in a while and had thought about grabbing Good Omens but she didn't want to have to read about stopping Armageddon when she could do fuck all to stop the real one.
When the cloying scent of one Dave Knowles entered her nose, she wanted to pitch her book at his head. But that would be mean to it. She couldn't do that. But honestly, Dave, could you please fuck off? Just because she was in public did not mean she wanted to have human interaction today. Oh, and of-fucking-course, he had his damn camera.
"Hey M!" he grinned at her.
"Hey." She said curtly. Maybe if she was bitchy enough, he'd fuck off.
Wondering why she was being particularly bitchy that morning, Miakoda mentally checked when the Moon was – oh that was why, her human monthly fell just before her furry monthly, wasn't life just fucking swell? Wow, this month was gonna be a doozy.
"What'cha doing?"
"Reading." She flicked the page to put across her point and began to read the next chapter. She forgot how funny Pratchett was. Now if only Dave could fuck off.
He settled way further into her personal space that she would've liked. Miakoda stared at a tree across from her, taking a deep breath. She wondered what she looked like at that moment. She didn't think she looked all that warming. She wondered what Dave would look like, slung up by his intestines in that tree. Would that get her point across that she didn't like him? Probably. Would that not only encourage the Winchesters back into town as well as the actual FBI? Most definitely.
She snapped her book shut and got up. "Hi, sorry, Dave. Just came out to get out of the house for a quick minute. Got slides to prepare for class. See you."
Ignoring him, she stuck her earphones and mimed putting music on before striding away. She could hear him muttering as she walked away but couldn't catch it. He should honestly, just go out with Sue – she'd find the attention appealing. Locking the door as she stepped away from the door, Miakoda hung her coat up and kicked off her shoes. Did she go and finish her book in bed or the library?
"First, snacks," Miakoda muttered to herself, filling a bowl with a mixture of the bag of crispy M&Ms and salted pretzels. On an impulse, she also nabbed the bag of Cheese Puffs. Because she was a grown woman, damn it.
She'd be able to have dinner later.
