Chapter 11

He didn't see Josie again that day. The cheek kiss she had given him had come out of nowhere and, having no experience with the opposite gender, it had left him confused. He spent the rest of the second guessing every action he had taken or rather not taken after the surprise kiss, considering he had just stood there like a petrified idiot. Luckily for him, she had made her way out of the room rather quickly, so she never managed to see the befuddlement plastered on his face.

To get his mind off it he went to the barn and cooked Raf his multiple steak dinner. The kitchen staff had offered to prepare meals for Raf, but he had decided that he would be the one to take care of Raf while he was stuck as a wolf, just like Raf had taken care of him for much of his life.

Raf for the most part just lay on the floor of the barn and listened to Landon while he rambled on each day. This day in particular he just so happened to decide to ramble about Josie.

"So what if she decided to give me a kiss? It's not like it was a real kiss, right? It was more like a thank you kiss. It doesn't mean she likes me; I was pretty sure she hated me actually, and that's all kinds of overwhelming and just really confusing. I mean she just broke up with Penelope too, and I'm not really a rebound guy…. Am I? I mean I don't even know what kind of guy I am! I mean, I know what kind of guy I am, but not like in a relationship sort of way." Landon had been talking himself in circles for close to half an hour, long enough that Raf decided to pick up one of the steak Landon had managed to avoid incinerating and leave the room.

Upon noticing his best friend leave Landon decided to finish cooking the steaks and head back to the library. He had recently discovered that when he finished reading a book cover to cover it was added to the Notes section of his system, so he had taken it upon himself to read a different book from the Salvatore Library whenever he ran into a dead end with his werewolf research. Eventually he would finish the entire library and effectively always have one of the greatest repositories of magical knowledge available to him. After a few hours of reading, and he decided it was time to call it a day. Hopefully, his search would be more fruitful tomorrow.


It wasn't. Nor was the day after, or the day after that. The cure for Raf's condition continued to evade him no matter how hard he looked. On the bright side, if one could even call it that he had managed to read approximately a quarter of the contents of the library. His reading speed having dramatically risen after spending so many attribute points in Intelligence.

He made it a point to start with everything he could find on the Merge and the Gemini coven. The library didn't offer any new information, but he did find an alternate trail to follow from a rather unlikely source.

He had been cross-referencing his Bestiary's contents with a book on folklore to ascertain accurate the book was when he accidentally stumbled on an entry for Gemini in his Bestiary.

Gemini - A supernatural species with a predilection for separating into multiple bodies whenever they were beset by diametrically opposed opinions. Once separated the creatures could only return to a singular body by killing each other until only one remained or by coming to a consensus and merging. As should be obvious killing parts of themselves left those who took that route diminished while merging increased both their mental and physical faculties.

Note: The Gemini Coven took inspiration from this and used Gemini blood and magic experimentation to imbue the Gemini's ability into their own bloodline while attempting to mitigate the detrimental side-effects to disastrous results.

He immediately told the twins what he had discovered.

"Is that all your magic monster library, Flynn Carsen?" Lizzie snorted.

"Lizzie!" Josie admonished quickly before turning to face Landon. "Is it possible that there might be something more about Gemini witches under other categories?"

"It's possible." Landon responded completely ignoring Lizzie. "But the Bestiary doesn't really come with a search function, I'd have to individually go through every entry to see if it made any mention of the Gemini Coven. The only reason I even found this is because I was scrolling through entries that began with the letter G."

"How expectedly disappointing." Lizzie replied, annoyed at being ignored. "How about you come and get us when you find something that actually useful?"

Lizzie attempted to leave with Josie only to be rebuffed.

"You go, this might be important. I'll go do some research with Landon and I'll tell you what we find." Josie told her twin as she began walking towards the library.

Landon hurried to catch up with Josie. Anything was better than being left alone with the unrelenting stream of snark that was Lizzie Saltzman.

As soon as he arrived at Josie's side she softly asked, "Is there any way to find out more?"

She was worried, but she wanted to put on a strong face for her sister. Landon could respect that.

"If it's got an entry in the Bestiary, it's most likely got a bloodline unlock condition in the system. If I can figure out how to trigger it, I should receive an intuitive understanding of the Gemini creatures themselves and we can probably figure out a lot by seeing what powers I get."

"So, we need to get you one of those bloodlines unlock quests for a Gemini?" She asked.

"Not necessarily." He replied. "I think I can unlock any bloodline at any time assuming I meet the conditions for it, the quests are more like a How-to-manual that specify exactly what needs to be done. Especially considering I only get the option to choose a quest every five levels."

"And are those options randomized?" Josie asked. He liked the logical and methodical way she was going about this. Like Irene Addler once said, smart is the new sexy.

"I don't know. The Malivore memory wipe erased most of that day for me, but I woke up with the Dullahan quest and there was a headless horseman in the same room as me. I don't think that's a coincidence." He answered her.

"That means it might be the most recent monster you came into contact with, or just the one you had the greatest exposure to depending on how much of the day you spent in proximity to it." She replied.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Landon sighed. Regretting, not for the first time, his loss of memory. They halted their conversation upon entering the library until they found some secluded seating they could use while they continued their conversation.

"According to your Bestiary, Lizzie and I are at least partially gemini creatures." Josie stated.

"That's what it said, or at the very least that blood magic using gemini blood was used to create or modify your coven." Landon agreed.

"Then I guess that means I need to stay as close to you as possible until you get to your next level." She told him.

"Two problems with that." Landon retorted. "One: I'm not going to go on a killing spree to raise my level, so unless Dad decides to send some monsters after me, unlikely if the past few monster-free weeks are anything to go by, I'm stuck at level 9. Two: Summer break is coming up in three weeks, aren't you and your sister supposed to be traveling all over Europe with your mom this summer?"

"I'll talk to my dad and we'll see if we can figure out how to deal with the level issue. Figuring out a way to live past 22 is more important than a single summer trip but you're set on me going…. I'm sure I can convince Lizzie to stay behind…." She threatened with a mischievous smile he didn't often see on her face.

"Nope no-no-no-no-no-no, I'm good thank you. Lizzie can go. I would love to spend my summer with you." He stuttered out before the words he had spoken registered in his mind.

"Good." She replied as a blush made its way to her cheek. She stood up hurriedly an began before he could say anything she told him "I have to tell my dad about this, last minute change of plans and all that…."

She left the library in a rush before he could get another word out.

Landon for his part slumped back and repeatedly smacked his head against the back of his chair while he muttered to himself, "Smooth, idiot. Reeeeeeeeeal smooth."


If he thought that he was lacking some personal space before, that was nothing compared to the weeks that followed. Apparently, Josie had discussed their hypothesis with Lizzie and together the twins had come up with the brilliant idea that he needed to be accompanied, at all times, by one of the Saltzman sisters. He thought they were exaggerating at first until Lizzie almost followed him into the bathroom when decided to go for a shower on the first day of Guard Duty as he had taken to calling it.

It had taken him threatening to burn all her clothes to ashes to get her to relent. He felt self-conscious enough around her due to her constant mocking, Lizzie Saltzman seeing him naked was the last thing he needed. Afterward his shower he gathered the twins and had a much-needed discussion about personal boundaries that basically amounted to "Stay outside when I'm in the bathroom!" Josie for her part was much more understanding and willing to acquiesce than the much more reticent Lizzie, but with a European tour with her mom coming up Lizzie wasn't willing to risk him carrying out his pyrotechnic threat. After that the school year progressed much the same as it had previously. He divided his time with class, which he'd already finished all the course work for, in the library, committing book after book to his Notes section at a prodigious rate, or in the barn with Raf. The main difference was that he was rarely further than 3 feet from a gemini witch at any given time during these activities.

To no one's surprised he vastly preferred the time he spent with Josie. It helped that she didn't spend every second of their time together verbally abusing everything about him, but that was the least of it. It turned out that they had a lot in common, they were both musically inclined, they were interested in other cultures, they both tended to put the needs of other people before their own, and every day that passed he felt himself growing closer to her. His initial attraction blossoming into something more. Lizzie…. Well, Landon spent a lot of time internally debating the merits of setting her hair on fire. He didn't do it, obviously, but no one other than he would know how close he actually came.

He had been counting down the days until Lizzie left, or rather until school ended, for weeks now even though Josie had been taking up the majority of guard duty time recently. He had reached an impediment in his consumption of the library, namely that quite a few of the books were written in different languages. Not trusting google translate with accurately translating…. well, anything really, he decided to learn the different languages himself. He had expected to develop skills for the tongues he was learning, so he was surprised when after managing to teach himself Latin, Spanish, and French within a week no new skill popped up. It wasn't until he had finished learning his 8th language that the prompt for the skill Omniglot (Beginner 1) was generated.

Josie had offered to teach him the basics Japanese when he began studying different languages leading to the increased frequency of her company as opposed to her sister's. He may have downplayed just how quickly he was able to pick up the language, both to spend more time with Josie and to spend as little time as possible with Lizzie.

When he couldn't hide how far he had progressed anymore without arousing suspicion, he announced the "development" of his new skill and quickly improved his Japanese.

"Ok, that's really not fair." Josie pouted. "I spent years going to classes and in five days you're already nearly to my level of comprehension and fluency. Kaleb is right, your powers are so broken." She let out a sigh before smacking the desk with her forehead in exasperation.

Right then and there he swore to himself that he would never reveal that he was exhibiting the comprehension level he had achieved after his second day of study.

"It's not that bad." Landon complained, knowing full well that, yes it was indeed that bad. "How about this, in honor of your excellent teaching how about we got out for some sushi tonight and fully embrace Japanese culture through their cuisine."

Her head still on the desk he only managed to hear a nonsensical, muffled, and mumbled reply.

"Sorry, what?" He asked.

She lifted her head up, frown plastered on her face, caught his gaze and repeated herself, "I'm allergic to seaweed."

"Ok, no sushi then, or anything with avocados for me." He said, following up with. "Anything in particular you're in the mood for?"

"Depends on whether you're asking me out on a date or not." She mumbled to herself, only this time Landon had managed to hear her.

Before he could trap himself in a cycle of over thinking everything he had just said, or could have said, or could say, he blurted out "YES, ahem, I mean…. Let's assume I am, in fact, asking you out on a date. What are you in the mood for?"

"I could go for a burger." She replied while smiling.

"Mystic Grill it is!" He exclaimed excitedly, standing up and pulling out her chair for her.

"Can you give me 20 minutes to get ready?" She asked.

"What are you talking? You look great." He replied.

"Thanks, but a school uniform isn't really a great first date look." She said as spread her arms so he could take in her attire.

"You may have a point." He responded, realizing he was also still wearing his uniform. "Right… well, meet back here in in half an hour?"

"Deal." She said, already walking towards her room.


The date was not perfect by any means. It was uncomfortable for them at first, trying to make the mental switch from friend to paramour was not as easy as Hollywood made it seem, but over the course of dinner they relaxed and defaulted back to familiar topics they both knew the other was interested in. From then on everything flowed effortlessly. On the walk back home, Landon noticed Josie shivering slightly due to the cool night air. She was wearing a thin summer dress, so he wasn't too surprised that the breeze was uncomfortable for her.

In typical Josie fashion she was suffering in silence, unwilling to put a damper on the night due to her own needs. He called to the fire inside himself, but instead of summoning it he circled it throughout himself internally until he was several degrees hotter than the surrounding environment.

To Josie's surprise, Landon walked up to her wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side as they continued walking forth.

"One personal space heater, as ordered." He joked in response to the look of confusion on her face.

That was all the prodding she needed to realize what he was doing, the fact that she could feel the heat rolling through him in waves helped to make it plainly obvious. With a smile, she leaned into him without a word as the continued their walk.

For once Landon didn't mind the silence. It was calming and peaceful, something he didn't have much experience with, but was coming to find that he enjoyed more and more.

The kept on that way until they made it to the front steps of the Salvatore School, where they paused. He didn't have any experience with dating, but movies had taught him that this was typically where you kissed your date goodnight. The only thing holding him back was that unlike most high school couples who went out on dates, they lived together.

"Fuck it." He thought as he brought his hand to her cheek, her eyes met his and before he could think about what he was doing, he brought his lips to hers.

He wasn't sure what he expected to happen but was pleasantly surprised when she took a half-step forward, reached around his back and pulled him closer to her.

They continued like that, ignorant of the world around them, finally breaking apart after what could have been minutes or hours.

"Woah…" Landon muttered catching his breath.

"Yeah…" Josie replied just as out of breath as Landon.

Unsure of what to do next he glanced around and saw a rose in full bloom in the corner of his vision. Moving instinctually, he pulled the rose from the bush, and with an effort of will called to the fire inside him. This time he didn't call for the destructive powers of an ordinary flame but reached out to the Fire of Life.

"What are you do….." Josie broke off her half-completed question when she saw Landon begin to burn the rose. That wasn't quite right though, he wasn't burning the rose but infusing it with a blue flame she had never seen him create before.

The cobalt blue fire didn't eat at the petals of the rose, they merged with them. The vibrant red of the petals mixing with potent blue of Landon's fire to create a violet rose of living fire. The fire didn't consume the stem but remained where the petals had originally been.

He held the rose out to her, It's petals entirely replaced. She reached out and the first thing she noticed was that the flower wasn't generating heat and even cupping the petal-shaped flames, she wasn't burned.

Her gaze moved to Landon, curiosity evident in her expression.

"According to my system it's called an Everflame Rose. I permeated it with the Fire of Life, it'll never wilt or die. It'll just stay in fiery bloom forever." Landon told her sheepishly.

"How did you even know how to do that?" Josie asked exasperatedly.

"I wanted to give you something special, so that you'd always have a reminder of tonight, and I just did it. I wasn't sure what I was doing or making until it was finished, but I knew it was for you." He replied.

Josie still cupping the rose in her right hand, the stem between her ring and middle fingers, moved it to that it was out of the way. This time she was the one who reached up, her left hand grabbing the back of his head and pulling him in for another kiss.

"It's perfect. I love it." She told him after breaking away from the kiss she had initiated. She then turned and without looking back made her way through the front doors of the school.

Landon for his part was still stupefied by what had just occurred. He looked over the system prompt again, more to calm his racing heart than anything else.

Everflame Rose- A rose infused with a Phoenix's Fire of Life. This rose will never wilt or die until the phoenix that granted it their fire dies their final death. The Flame Petals of the rose cannot burn those whom it has been gifted to.

Not being able to contain himself any longer Landon did a standing backflip and letting out a cheer of pure jubilation, before the realization that every vampire and werewolf in the school had just heard him sank in.

Deciding that he was not ready to face whatever waited for him inside, now that he'd loudly announced his presence, he made his way to the Barn. He needed to talk to someone about his first ever date, and Raf would likely kill him if he talked to anyone about it before him. Well…. Maybe not kill, but now that he was stuck in werewolf form Landon wouldn't put a gruesome mauling past him.