Ten

Jessica sits on the floor, and next to her is a half-eaten plate of her favourite breakfast. And around her are books regarding the history of the Nytheri and other supernatural creatures she got from Miles' study. She could have been studying there, but the place was so neat she didn't want to mess it up.

Nytheris are warriors; there are drawings of them in cat-like human form fighting off demons and nocturnes, protecting the human race from harm. Nytheris are knights, warriors, soldiers, protectors. While creatures of darkness lurk in the shadows. Nytheris are there to bring them to light and destroy them.

There are two Nytheri symbols; the first one is a two vertically stacked diamond or almond-shaped eyes, with a dot or a pupil in the centre of each. This symbol represents spiritual protection, supernatural surveillance and a connection to the unseen world.

The second one is three interlocking loops forming a triangle. This symbolises eternity, fate. Or the interconnection of the three elements, like the mind, body and soul or love, destiny and danger. Commonly associated with magic, ancient power, or binding force that ties people together.

They are the protectors of the supernatural world. They're the guardian angels that people always talk about.

Jessica can't help but smile and be fascinated at every page turn. She's always met a fascinating story or a fact about Nytheri's

Milk makes Nytheris so much stronger.

"Makes sense," Jessica says to herself.

She's reading the story of the Nytheri prince in a kingdom of Uganda that didn't want to fight demons. He didn't even want to be king one day, and all that changed when his human friend was possessed by a powerful demon. The witches couldn't bring the demon out, and the Nytheris could barely fight the demons because it was that powerful.

So they had to kill his friend; he had to watch as they drove seven magical spears into his body.

It was at that moment that Prince Akello vowed to protect humans and his subjects from the creatures of darkness. He would also make sure people took their training seriously.

Jessica wipes the tears off her eyes after reading that story. Because she felt like she knew the prince and his best friend, the chemistry was so raw. You could tell from the way the story is told that they loved each other.

Jessica can't imagine seeing… oh, she forgot she's no longer friends with her best friend.

Whatever, fuck her.

She flips through another page, and there's another story, and this one is about how the Nytheri people found out that a single kiss can bring a dead human back to life.

A lot of humans knew about the supernatural world in the past. So humans and Nytheris were allies.

This story comes from Egypt. A nytheri lost his human friend through drowning. He kissed her on the lips as a form of goodbye, and after that, the man became weak. And he didn't know the reason why he became weak was because he had given one of his lives to the human. The human girl woke up, and her brown eyes were replaced by green eyes at that moment.

The people were in awe, but they were also confused. When they got to learn more about this new phenomenon, they were happy because they thought the Goddess had given them another gift to help humans.

Little did they know that cheating death was not a gift. The humans that they brought back turned out to be evil and vicious, going about killing humans and stealing the power from other Nytheris.

They were even worse than the demons whom Nytheris haunted. The Nytheris had to kill them all and send a warning to other Nytheris from all over the world to never bring a human back ever again.

That is why there's a rule against bringing humans back to life.

Jessica closes the book and furrows her eyebrows in confusion.

"What the fuck?" she mutters.

Did Miles know about this? Is she going to become a monster? Why would he kiss her and bring her back to life if it's going to make her go rouge?

Was that his plan all along? To create an army of rogue Nytheris for what? Take over the world or just cause trouble?

She opens the book once more and flips the page, and that's when she sees that it's not all humans that become crazy when they get turned into Nytheris, but it is very rare to see a sane Nytheran (A human turned Nytheri) not exhibit the traits of evil and viciousness.

She closes the book once again.

"That mother fucker. Why would he do this to me?" Now she's a bit scared. She doesn't know what to do. What if she starts killing people? What if she hurts the people she loves the most? She cannot stay here, she simply can't. She gets up from the floor and heads over to the room to get her phone.

That's another thing. he helped her charge her phone while she was asleep. If he were truly evil, he would not have done that. So what the hell is his problem? Why did he bring her back knowing that death could come for her for tricking him?

Is she cooked?

She doesn't know what to do; she needs answers, so she has to stay here and get those answers, but first, she has to check in on her dad.

She picks up her phone and there it is, the fifty missed calls and voicemails he left her. If Jessica doesn't call him now, he's going to go straight to the cops to file a missing person's report.

She braces herself before calling him. Her dad picks up immediately, not giving her the time to come up with a lie to tell him.

"Jessica Amelia Amaka Humphrey! Where the hell have you been? I have been worried sick about you. Your best friend Sofia called, and she was also worried. She said that you ran out of the cafe after pinning a guy to the ground. At first, I was like it has to be a joke because my daughter would never do that, but then I remembered that Sofia doesn't joke about things like this; she'll say it's unladylike."

Jessica knows she shouldn't be laughing because this isn't a funny situation, but she laughs anyway, silently, so her dad doesn't hear her.

"Oh, you think this is funny?" her dad says, and of course, he heard her.

"No… Dad, I'm sorry it's not like that. I was just going through something, but I'm fine now. I'm at a friend's house."

"What friend?"

"You don't know him, Dad."

"A he. Are you sure you're okay, Jessica?"

"Yes, Dad, I'm fine. I promise. I've got to go, but I'll talk to you later."

"Jessica!"

She hangs up, then she sends Sofia a quick text. And Sofia sent a dozen worried text messages. Jessica thinks Sofia and her dad are dramatic.

J: Sofia, hey, sorry you had to worry about me, but I'm fine, I promise.

She sends the text and then walks out of the room and moves toward the living room to continue her research and wait for Miles to come back and explain to her why he brought her back to life, knowing that there are side effects.

On her way to the living room, she jumps when she sees a hot woman sitting cross-legged on the couch. She smirks at Jessica like she knew she was going to be here.

"Why hello, you must be Jessica," she says confidently.

"Uh, yes?"

"Wow, you're even more beautiful up close," she says, looking her up and down seductively. And surprisingly, Jessica isn't intimidated by her; if anything, she likes this lady's confidence. The way she sits, legs crossed, in someone else's house on someone else's couch, not caring if someone notices that she's admiring their beauty.

Jessica knows she's beautiful. She's gotten loads of compliments from people. But the woman sitting before her is even more beautiful.

Her brown skin glows effortlessly, and it's going to glow more under the summer sun. Her full lips, luscious fit her diamond-shaped face; her cheekbones are so high it could slice a watermelon, and her legs are so long and sexy. Her hair is in perfect neat braids.

Is she a model? Jessica asks herself, because she has to be.

Jessica folds her arms. "I'm sorry. Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she says, pouting her lips. Then she rises from the couch slowly and seductively. And then struts toward Jessica. Normally, Jessica would fold, be intimidated or something, but she's not; she likes her.

"I'm Pilar Gonzalez, Miles' older and hotter sister." She brings out her hand for a handshake. Jessica takes her hand.

Of course, this is Miles' sister. Does beauty just run in the family?

"Nice to meet you," she says, shaking her hand that has nice red polish on it.

Pilar doesn't let go of her hand. She continues shaking them, then she looks at the space where Jessica was reading.

"So you're doing your research."

"I have to know what I'm up against."

"Smart girl." Pilar looks at her hair, then she begins to play with it. "Do you like your hair straight?"

Come to think of it, no, she doesn't. Jessica has long curly hair. She only used to straighten it because having curly hair would cause people to look at her weird, but now she doesn't care.

"No, actually," she answers.

"Hmm." Pilar looks her up and down. "You need a break. I'm taking you shopping, and we are going to do something about that hair," she says, strutting away, on her way to the elevator. Jessica just stands there confused.

Pilar presses the elevator button, and she turns her head.

"Well, chop chop, we don't have all day."

"Oh." Jessica puts on her sneakers and then runs toward the elevator.