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"Venus Mort?" Istvan asked, he had moved the edge of his seat.
"Doesn't mortua mean dead?" I thought back to my Latin days when I still attended high school. Back in those days however, I was less interested in Latin and more interested in talking with my friends.
"Vivens Mortua," Madama Luna corrected is as she blew a piece of hair out of her face. "In short, the living dead."
"Like zombies?" Istvan laughed to himself sarcastically and I realized that him and I were finally caught up. We both were equally lost, damaged, and worried. Madam Luna was our best hope.
I thought this as I looked at her moving her feet around similar to a child before looking up at us.
"Better," Her smile was wild and in that instant she looked our ago. She pulled the leather bound book out once again and flipped through a few pages. " 'Those who see what we do not see, feel what we could not imagine, and know what we never would want to,' Professor Thorne."
My heart skipped a beat, the last few months of my life was just summed up in a sentence with some comas. I could feel myself deflate at this thought, my back settling against the hard stone bench. I finally had it, a name to this curse and a definition behind it, why did I feel so incomplete then?
"But, how did we get it?" Istvan broke the silence after a moment, it seems that he too had fallen into a trance of his own.
Madam Luna was curling a piece of her hair around her finger, "There was no answer to that question, I'm afraid."
"There has to be something," Istvan stared hard at Madam Luna for a moment then turned towards me, his eyes failing to hide his panic. "There has to be more, right?"
My hearted ached for an answer to give him, glancing back at Madam Luna I noticed she was smiling.
"What?" It came out harsh, unintentionally, but I doubt she noticed.
"Your future is playing out," She winked at us then opened the book again. My cheeks blushed as I tried to decipher what she meant but she continued before I could. "Anyways, I didn't say that was all. It had the sensitivities that you both have listed, plus some, iron and steel seem to be the two biggest issues."
"Does it say why?" Istvan asked, he had pulled his sleeves over his hands once again but I swear I could see him shiver.
Even though the sun was high the in sky the graveyard looked as though it was dusk, casting long shadows across the ground with leaves dancing around. A bird cawed in the distance and I was unable to hide my startled jump, the large tree behind us groaned deep within itself. There seemed to be so much life in such a darkened place.
"It does, and as I pondered the answers, I stumbled upon something most interesting." Madam Luna smiled again, wilder than before with eyes to match. Aggravation grew in my stomach, why couldn't she just tell us why? Why does she always have to do so much? Why can't she just be simple? 
"When Professor Thorne originally wrote this, it was in the time where they were slaying anything and everything. As you two both know, creatures and people of the night back then had different blood than normal people. My theory, that turned out to be the same theory of Professor Thorne, was that somehow that blood still existed. Somewhere." Madam Luna paused for a moment, another bird, or maybe the same bird, cawed in the distance again. "As you also know those same creatures had sensitivities-"
"Like us," Istvan spoke up, his eyes were glued to the ground as he worked his jaw. His lip was raw. "Monsters," He added in a mumbled voice, and this was he first time I saw that this had affected his just as severe as it had affected me. The pain we felt, we felt it together.
"Here is where it gets a little interesting,"
"Here?" I laughed sarcastically, because my life hadn't become interesting enough. 
Madam Luna ignored me. "During this time, Professor Thorne was trying to preserve the bloodline of the Night People, so he aided in their escape. Throughout this he found that many of them were trying to preserve it themselves but giving their children away to families. Some were even mixing bloodlines in hopes of saving some of their culture for the future." My skin began to crawl at the thought of this, these people bring children into the world that hated them. Why would anyone do this?
"Professor Thorne believes that Vivens Mortua people are what is left of those bloodlines." Madam Luna rucked the book away and tied her trench coat shut. "I believe, that is where you two come along."

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