Adam Peaks and the Living City

Chapter 23: A Friend in Need

"I want whoever did this dead!"

Camilla stood in front of the bench she had overturned, her green eyes radiating with power. Her claws and fangs were fully extended, and her breath was coming in long, ragged gasps. The newspaper she had been reading lay in shreds on the ground. Adam and Jake were standing nearby, not quite sure how to respond without having their heads literally torn off their shoulders. Onlookers watched her screaming incoherently and kept their distance as she ranted and raved at the torn newspaper. Adam took a step forward but Jake stopped him with a wave of his hand.

"I just want to see if she's going to be okay. We can't let her have a breakdown out here, can we?"

"Not a good idea, buddy," Jake shook his head, "the last person to get within a foot of Camilla when she looked like that got thrown through a friggin' wall. She cursed them with waking nightmares for a month."

"Jesus ... that's horrible. It must have been someone she didn't like all that much, right?"

"It was me," Jake gulped, "I sometimes wonder what she would have done to me if I wasn't her friend. Give me the heebie-jeebies just imagining it."

Camilla let out a guttural shriek of pure rage and then took a few deep breaths, her claws and fangs retracting slowly as she attempted to calm herself down. She walked back to the bench and flipped it back onto its feet, setting it down with great care. Her eyes flashed green and the torn newspaper rose into the air, its pieces fusing back together like a puzzle. She grabbed it out of the air, took another hateful look at the front page and sat down. She groaned and buried her head in her hands while her entire body shook with anger. Adam gulped and steeled himself before approaching the bench. He sat down on the far end and looked over at her to make sure that she wasn't about to rip his face off. After a few moments, and after confirming that her claws were no longer extended weapons of skin-tearing fury, he gathered enough courage to slide across the bench. He stopped only a few inches from Camilla, his heart racing partially in fear and partially due to her sudden proximity.

"H-hey, Camilla?" he stuttered, "w-what's wrong? C-can I help in any wa-"

She said nothing as she raised her head. She just stared blankly at the newspaper sitting in her lap. Tears swam in the corners of her unblinking eyes. Adam glanced up at Jake as he got closer, his arms outstretched like a zombie. The Cursed Undying placed a tentative hand on the newspaper and pulled it away, watching her for any sign that she was about to attack. When she stayed still he snatched the paper and flipped it over, his eyes scanning the headlines on the front page. Adam left Jake to his reading and placed a shaking hand on Camilla's shoulder. She flinched and opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it just as quickly. She glared off into the distance, but did not pull away. Instead, she relaxed and her anger seemed to vanish all at once, replaced instantly with soft sobs.

"We-" Adam tried to speak and was interrupted when Jake swore loud enough to turn the heads of Undying all over the Courtyard. He was glaring down at the paper, his face twisted with distress. "What is it, Jake? What happened?!"

"Another Undying's gone missing," Jake muttered, "and this time, people were killed. All of her bodyguards were ripped to shreds. The LCIT is investigating, but Adrian Chopkith has already started spreading propaganda. He's saying that it was a pack of werewolves that took her! God dammit!" he threw the newspaper to the ground and turned around, his face clouding over.

"Bodyguards?" Adam blinked, "wait ... who went missing, Jake?"

"Grace," Camilla's voice croaked with a mixture of despair and white-hot rage, "they took Grace Adarbu."