"What were you thinking, Emira?!" Odalia chastised.

"I'm sorry, Mom…" Emira had her gaze turned down, while Edric stood next to her with a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I…I just…"

Odalia huffed as she pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Honestly, with everything that's going on, you decide to go out into the night, and for what?! To see some girl?!"

"She's a friend of mine from school, she's a great witch, Mom," said Emira. "She's studying both Beast Keeping and Healing magic, and she's really good at it!"

Odalia raised an eyebrow when she heard that. "Wait, she's studying both?" The matriarch of the Blight family rubbed her chin as she hummed in contemplation. "I see…when she recovers, you'll have to introduce her. But we're not through talking about this."

"Yes, mother," said Emira.

"Be back before the sun sets, or I'll have our Abominations come and drag you back." With those loving words, Odalia left the Healing Coven.

Emira moved away from her brother and leaned against the wall, sliding down until her rear touched the floor. The Blight girl brought her legs close to her chest as she hugged them to her, prompting Edric to sit down next to Emira, his twin sister leaned against her twin brother, seeking comfort in his presence. Amity was there as well, looking upon her older sister with empathy, she knew all too well how Emira felt, it was the exact same way as when Luz was here.

"Amity!"

And speak of the devil, thought Amity as she braced herself.

Luz came running in and skidded to a halt when she saw the Blight kids, she walked up to Amity and asked, "I heard something happened to Viney, is it true?! Is she okay?!"

Amity looked to Emira, who was still down. "Maybe you should follow me…"

The two teenagers walked for a bit, as they did, Luz noticed that Amity's cast was gone. "Oh, congratulations."

"Hmm? For what?" Amity asked.

"Your cast, you're able to walk again," Luz clarified.

"Oh, yeah, like I said it wasn't that bad," said Amity.

Luz rubbed her right arm, "Still, I'm sorry it happened."

Amity showed Luz a small smile, and then blushed before turning her attention back to the task at hand. Amity led Luz down the hall to a pair of double doors. The youngest Blight child pushed open the doors and that's when Luz saw it, at least a dozen girls, from what Luz could tell, they ranged from girls her age and higher. Among them was Viney, eyes closed as she rested upon the cot. There was an I.V. line attached to her arm, sending a steady stream of blood into her body. The other girls had bags filled with fluid.

"How long have they been here? I thought they were only drained of blood?" Luz asked.

"So did we, but they gave her transfusions and she's still out cold. Just like the rest of them," said Amity as she gestured to the rest of the unconscious girls. "They think it might be a spell of some kind, but they can't seem to find any trace of what it might be…Do you think it might be one of those Phantom things?"

Luz gave a nervous chuckle, knowing full well that the answer was "yes", but she didn't want to make it sound as if she knew that for a fact. "I mean, we've already seen two so far, one at the market, and another at school. Who's to say that there aren't more?"

"I guess it was too much to hope that those were the only monsters," said Amity. "Titan, what's going on here…?"

Luz patted Amity's shoulder and gave her a confident smile. "Hey, it'll be okay, Viney will wake up and she and Em will go and have secret dates again."

Amity looked at Luz with confusion. "Wait, you know about that?! How long?!"

Luz put her hands up in a stopping motion. "Easy, easy! I accidentally caught them yesterday, but I haven't told anyone I swear!"

The slight panic that was forming in Amity's eyes faded quickly, the last thing that was needed for everyone, and by everyone Amity meant their mother, to find out that their sister was dating Viney. "Thank you, Luz. I just don't want our mother coming between Em and Viney like she and my dad made me stop being friends with Willow."

Luz nodded, thanks to their little venture into Willow's memories, Luz knew exactly what she meant.

"I just don't get why she went out that late at night? I know they have their secret meetups, but why that late?" Amity questioned.

That is weird…Everyone knew about the attacks, and most people were getting home early because of it. So, why would Viney ask Emira out? Luz thought.

A thought popped into Luz's head as she bolted from the ward and headed back to Emira, which caused Amity to hurry to catch up to Luz. The Latina made it to where Edric and Emira were, she slowly approached her and got down on one knee in front of the older teen.

"Hey, Em, I need to ask you, why did you and Viney go out that late at night? No judgement, just asking," said Luz.

Emira raised her head slightly and looked up at Luz. "I…I got a letter from Viney that said she wanted to meet me last night. She said it was important and that we needed to talk. I…I thought she was going to break up with me or something, so I grabbed a cloak and rushed out. But, when we got there, she asked me why we needed to talk?"

Luz, Edric, and Amity raised an eyebrow.

"Hold on, she asked you why you needed to talk?" Amity asked.

"Yeah, apparently she also got a letter saying that we needed to talk, but I never sent one, and neither did she."

"So, neither of you sent a letter, but…then who did?" Edric asked.

Luz's brow furrowed as she said, "The Phantom."

Emira's eyes widened.

"Luz, you can't be serious?! You think that monster was targeting them?!" Amity asked.

"The last one targeted Willow, who's to say?" Luz turned to Emira and said, "Em, you need to stay at your house tonight, and whatever security system you guys have, set it to maximum kill mode."

Emira took this information in, so too did her siblings, but this got Luz thinking. I wonder if the others were lured the same way?

It took a few hours, but eventually, Luz was able to compile all the information about the attacks thus far, as well as talking to some of the siblings of the comatose teens. Afterwards, Luz assembled in the secret clearing that used for training. There was a blackboard with some notes and pictures scrawled onto it, and Luz, holding the chalk, was pacing back and forth in front of it.

"Okay, after some lengthy interviews and some footwork, I was able to find a common pattern between all twelve cases!" Luz proclaimed. She paused for a moment when she saw Willow raise her hand. "Yes, Willow?"

Willow, who had conjured a seat from a huge leaf, pointed to her left and asked, "Um, Luz, is it okay that King's here?"

King was sitting on the ground while munching on some snacks. "Oh, I already know she's Witch."

Luz chuckled nervously, "Yes, he does…complete accident. Anyway, I've found the common thing amongst all the girls who were attacked." The human girl pointed to a doodle of Viney, Luna, Emira, and a couple of other girls from Hexside. A picture of an envelope was drawn above them with arrows pointing to each girl. "Luna got a note from her mother saying that she needed her to pick up some things from the market, and it was a full list. Another girl was asked out by her boyfriend to meet her, and more recently, Viney got a letter from Emira, and vice versa. But the kicker here is, none of them got it from the person they said it was from."

"So, this new Phantom's stalking its victims and writing these little letters to make them come out?" King asked.

"Yep, and from what I've seen, it can move around through the shadows. I was only able to see it thanks to my Sight Ring, but to anyone else who wasn't using a spell to enhance their eyes, all they would've seen was just a shadow," Luz explained.

"So…does that mean all these girls are Gates like I was?" Willow asked.

Luz pointed to the word "Gate?" on the chalkboard. "That's the bigger mystery here. Why is it targeting only girls? And if they were gates, why haven't they showed any signs of cracks like what happened to you?" The human sighed with frustration. "Ugh, this Phantom's whack! I don't know what Dracula's trying to accomplish! That Wendigo one was straightforward enough, the flaming one was manipulative and conniving, but this one?! I don't know…"

"Are you even sure it's one of these 'Phantom' things? It could just be some witch who's pretending to be one, using illusion magic or something?" King suggested.

Luz had to admit, King might have a point. She thought she had destroyed him when Dracula turned into a swarm of bats, but they must've been an illusion as Dracula attacked Viney while she was busy.

"Has the Wizard given you any advice on how to stop him?" Willow asked.

King looked up at Willow with confusion. "Wait, Wizard what now?"

"Oh, it's this thing in Luz's mind that gives her information on the Phantoms and how to use her powers," Willow explained.

King looked at Luz with a worried expression. "Uh, okay, do…do we need to see someone about that?"

"It's hard to explain…For now, let's brainstorm and try to figure out what this thing could be after!"

1 HOUR LATER

"I can't believe we couldn't come up with anything…" Luz groaned.

Willow, Luz, and King decided to take a break after not being able to come up with anything in the last hour about the motivations of Dracula. King headed back to the Owl House, while Willow and Luz decided to head into town, thinking that they might find something by going to the scenes of the crimes.

"There, there, Luz, we'll figure something out," said Willow as she patted Luz's back.

"It's just…why?! Why is this thing doing all this?!"

"I get that you're frustrated, Luz, but calm down a little. I mean, we can't expect the answers to just come walking up to us," said Willow.

"You guys!" Luz and Willow watched as Gus walked up to them, looking a bit out of breath. "I think Reven Darwick, the Blood Count, is back!"

Luz and Willow blinked and then said at the same time, "Who now?"

Gus conjured a copy of a newspaper. "Reven the Blood Count, he was a notorious witch criminal! According to reports, he was in the Potion Coven, he came from a wealthy family, but was labeled an 'eccentric'. But really, he was insane! Reven injected himself with blood from a vampire, after manipulating it, which turned him into a half witch, half vampire monster!"

"WHAT?!" Luz exclaimed as she grabbed the copy of and began reading the article.

The article told of a promising witch in the Potion Coven, named one Reven Darwick. He would experiment with different types of demon blood, trying to find a way to impower witches, to break their limits. However, the more he delved into his experiments, the more insane they got. He saw that vampires, as primal as they were, had a unique power that allowed them to get stronger with the blood they drank. Although they didn't like witch blood as much as they did human blood, they found that magical energy was laced within the blood, and because of that it did make them stronger than most other demonic creatures on the island.

One day, Reven decided to go beyond and used himself a test subject. After injecting himself with the blood of a vampire, he mutated. Afterwards, he began a spree of attacking other witches in the dead of night, sucking their blood and gaining power from the act. Eventually, the Emperor's Coven brought him to justice, but not after he had attacked several young witches, and put up a grueling fight against the Emperor's Coven Witches that had come to take him. Apparently sucking all that blood did make him stronger.

When they questioned Reven about why he only attacked young female witches, he was quoted saying, "And why not? If I have to drain a body of blood, I'd rather it be that of a beautiful, youthful witchling. Besides, the blood of young witch females has greater potency than that of a male witch's blood."

Luz lowered the article with a disgusted look on her face. "This guy was a total creeper."

Willow looked over the article and said, "It says here he was imprisoned and given a life sentence with possibility of petrification. This was almost ten years ago. Why would you think he was responsible for this?"

"Because it's his M.O.! The twelve victims so far have all been young female witches! The attacks only happened at night, and they're nearly drained of all their blood! It's gotta be him!" Gus insisted.

Luz read over the article again. It could be, but the article says he was a Potion Coven witch. Unless whatever he did to himself allowed him to bypass that mark that Eda said seals a witch's other magics. If that's the case…then it might be the reason why he was able to do all that stuff?! "Did this Reven guy go by any other name? An alias? Code name? Nom de plume?"

Gus shook his head. "Nope, he didn't need to since all of his victims were – Eeeck!" Gus made a head slicing gesture with his hand. "And also because he was gone before any of the authorities could get to him. It took a while before they were able to connect him to all of that."

Willow looked at Luz, already taking notice of that expression on her face. "Luz, what are you thinking?"

"Hmmm…Say, Gus, it says he had a mansion, is it still around?" Luz asked.

"Yeah! It's not too far from here, it's been abandoned all this time because, well, nobody really wants to live in the house of a notorious killer," said Gus.

Luz rolled up the newspaper and said, "Then let's bust this case wide open!"

When you think about the home of a vampire, some expect a grand castle, or a fancy mansion. In this case it was the latter, but since no one bothered to keep up maintenance on the home, it had fallen into disarray. The entire structure was half the size of Hexside, with a wrought iron gate that had rusted over the years. There was no lock on it, as the property had been completely abandoned as Gus said. What topiary was present had shriveled up and died, leaving dead branches that jutted up from the ground like angry, jagged thorns. There was a water fountain out front, but years of neglect had left the water stagnant, moss grew from and around it, along with having different flying insects buzzing around it.

The house itself had windows that were broken, possibly from young witches who came to throw rocks at the building. The shutters had either fallen off or were hanging on by their rusty hinges, waiting for the slightest breeze to blow them off. There were holes in different places, evidence of woodland creatures seeking shelter from the elements, as well as damage from insects eating at the wooden parts. In summation, the mansion was the classic, picturesque scene of a haunted house.

All three of the young witches gulped aloud at the sight of it. All that was missing was some rain, lightning, and thunder.

"Soooo…who wants to go in first?" Willow asked.

Luz sucked in a breath and exhaled it. She marched towards the front door and kicked it in without fear. The human girl jumped through the threshold and entered an attack stance, prepared to fight whatever was to come at her. In this case what she found was a pixie demon that was flying in place, it then screamed and fluttered away.

"Huh…Guess no one's home?" Gus pondered.

"We should still be on our guard, if it this Reven guy, then he might be using this place as his hideout," said Luz.

Willow moved closer to Luz, hugging her right arm and "pretending" to be afraid as she whispered, "If Reven is here, or if he really is a Phantom, then you'll have to transform and fight him! In front of Gus!"

Luz glanced to their friend who was already snapping pictures with his scroll of the delipidated mansion. "If it comes to that, then I will. No secret is worth either of you getting hurt."

Feeling a little better after hearing that, Willow let go of Luz and the trio began their careful exploration of the abandoned mansion. The air inside was musty and filled with dust, cobwebs took over almost every nook and cranny of the inside, and the occasional rat would scurry across the floor, making the kids jump at the sudden sound before relaxing when they realized what it was. The kids happened upon the study, books lined the walls, along with other objects from the past of Reven the Blood Count. There were some pictures of that weren't completely deteriorated by time, Luz picked one of them up and inspected him. The man in the picture looked to be in his early to mid-twenties, short blue hair, kind of lanky, with a dapper suit, and light skin tone.

The first thing Luz noticed was that he didn't look at all like Dracula, the Phantom she saw was taller, a lean kind of buff physique, had long black hair, and was pale. Although, this was most likely what Reven looked like before his transformation into the monster he would eventually become. It was sad, he looked like a nice person in this photo, almost meek, the kind of guy that Luz could see herself befriending in school.

"Anyone find anything?" Luz asked.

"Just some moldy old books, a lot of them on potions and beast keeping, looks like he was trying to do multiple tracks like Viney, Jerbo, and Barkus. But I guess he might've done that a little too late since he got his Coven seal," said Gus.

Luz wondered what it would be like for those three. Sure, Principal Bump allowed them to study multiple tracks, but when the time came, Luz doubted that the Emperor's Coven System would allow for them to continue along that path. Eventually they'd be forced to choose one or the other, and to Luz that seemed unfair, to learn how to use two different types of magic, to excel in both, only to be told that you can only choose one.

Maybe Eda has a point about this whole Coven System, thought Luz. "Let's keep looking around."

Luz, Willow, and Gus continued their search upstairs, rummaging through one room after another, which was both tedious and time consuming as the mansion had many of them. The trio didn't know exactly what they were trying to find, but at the very least, they were hoping to find some evidence that Reven, or Dracula, was staying in this mansion.

"How long have we've been in here?" Willow asked.

Gus rolled up his left sleeve and checked the time. "At least an hour and half."

"And we just barely finished the top floor. Does this place have a basement?" Luz asked.

"It's a creepy mansion, it more than likely has one," Willow answered.

"Alright, let's take a break and grab something. We can try again tomorrow."

Just then thunder roared in the sky above, the trio of witches-in-training sped right to the nearest window and looked outside. The clear sunny day was no more as storm clouds rolled in, and a moment later, rain started to fall from the sky. But unfortunately, since this was the Boiling Isles, this was boiling rain. Scalding hot water that burned almost anything that didn't have a hard shell, skin, or built up a resistance to it like some plants. Unfortunately for Luz, Willow, and Gus, neither one of them fell into those categories.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Willow lamented.

"Boiling rain?! Right now?! While we're in this place?!" Gus exclaimed.

"Perfect…" Luz moaned.

"It's okay, it's okay," Willow assured. "We just need to send a message to our parents to let them know where we are." Willow emphasized this by taking out her scroll.

Gus nodded and took out his scroll, while Luz lamented the fact that she did not have one and had no way to communicate to Eda where she was. Luz turned to her right and froze when she caught sight of a shadowy figure rushing past the door, along with the sounds of footsteps.

"Wait!" Luz called out.

The Latina hurried to the door and looked down the hallway, but there was nothing.

"Luz, what's wrong?!" Gus asked.

"I thought I saw something…and maybe heard some footsteps?" Luz explained.

Willow glanced to Gus and then back to Luz, their eyes met for a moment as Luz made a silent plea to her friend to take Gus somewhere so she could try something. "Hey, Gus, let's take a look down there, just to make sure we're alone here."

"Yeah, good idea," Gus agreed.

Willow and Gus headed down the opposite way where Luz thought she saw the shadow move, and before Gus could say anything, Luz called out, "I'll check down this way!" After getting a nod from the young witch boy, Willow and Gus headed down the hall and into another room to inspect it.

Now that she was alone, Luz put on the Sight Ring and placed it over the Hand Author buckle.

[Sight, Please.]

Luz's eyes shined for a moment before her irises changed to yellow. With her enhanced vision, Luz walked quickly in the direction she saw the figure. Her eyes roved over everything, trying to pick up on even the slightest hint that there was someone here. As she concentrated, she could see footprints, she recognized them as both hers and her friends' footprints, which were color coated green, indicating Willow, blue for Gus, and white for her. However, it was the next set of footprints that gave Luz pause. There was a brownish hue to these footprints, and judging by how bright they were glowing, they were made recently. But that wasn't the most disturbing part of this. Oh no. What made Luz worry more was that those footprints weren't just on the floor, but on the walls and ceiling.

"Esto no es Bueno (This isn't good)…" Luz whispered.

After seeing that, she quickly switched out her Sight Ring for the Connect Ring and activated it.

[Connect, Please.]

Luz reached into the pocket dimension and pulled out her WizarSwordGun. Right now, she couldn't afford to take any chances, if something was in there with them, in an abandoned home that was once owned by a killer, then she doubted that it was someone of reputable standing like the three of them. Holding her weapon in gun mode, Luz descended the stairs, alert, her Sight Spell remaining active. Lightning flashed outside as thunder continued to roar around them, the wind had kicked up, causing the shutters outside to slam against the house repeatedly.

A skittering sound made Luz jump, twirl around and point her WizarSwordGun at what made the noise. A rat was sitting at the wall, munching on some insect that it had caught. Luz released a sigh of relief before continuing her walk around. She made it into the livingroom, but Luz paused when she saw Viney sitting on the couch. She was just sitting, still wearing the gown that the Healing Coven Hospital had put her in. She was so still, and not making a sound. It honestly disturbed Luz a bit.

Slowly, but carefully, Luz inched her way closer to her friend. She kept her finger on the trigger, ready to blast whatever it was that brought Viney here. "H-Hey, Viney…What are you doing here? You should be back at the hospital." Luz was about a foot away, she gently placed her right hand on Viney's right shoulder and said, "Viney, c'mon, can you say something to me?"

Viney's head slowly rose, her eyes opened and what she saw made Luz jump back and assume a defensive stance. The Beast Keeping and Healing Track witch's eyes were red, with yellow irises and black pupils that were in the shape of slits. "Oh, hey Luz. I'm glad you're here. Master is always on the lookout for young, vibrant, and strong witches like you, and us."

"Us?" Luz parroted.

"Yes, all of us."

Screams were heard from upstairs, making Luz turn her head towards the stairs in worry. "WILLOW! GUS!"

That moment was all that Viney needed as she lunged at Luz with a speed that the young witch did not normally possess. The sudden attack caught Luz off guard as Viney tackled her, throwing both of them to the floor and sending Luz's WizarSwordGun sliding across the room. Luz and Viney wrestled on the floor, but Viney managed to grab both of Luz's wrists and pin them to the floor, sitting right on waist to keep her from escaping.

"VINEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Luz cried out.

"It's okay Luz, it only hurts for a moment, but then you'll feel so good to be one of us," said Viney in a dreamy tone.

Luz's eyes widened when she saw Viney smile, she now sported two long vampire fangs, which she licked with anticipation.

"Heh, heh, I can't wait to see what human blood tastes like. I'll make sure not turn you right away, it'd be a shame if Master didn't get to enjoy you for himself."