Lucien tried to convince himself it wasn't that different. He wasn't that different. No one would notice anything was different as he moved down the hallway. What was a ghoul to a moroi anyway. Nothing had changed. Being who he was, of course, it was something he internalized and hadn't discussed in much detail with anyone since it happened. He'd been reading books, research was always the best way to learn for him and by doing. Never one to have a mentor during his formative years in scientific research he certainly wasn't going to take one for magic not deeming any at the castle up to par with his standards, well one was, but Raphael was too much of a distraction, even the thought of the other made his face heat.
He headed outside the castle not realizing he'd gained a tail on his way out of the castle, too focused on what he was going to be doing and running through all the items in the book he'd committed to memory not wanting to carry it with him and draw any suspicion. Apparently Lucien going outside on his own was suspicious enough, which was to be fair. The former moroi wasn't the outside type unless forced to and usually it was to go somewhere not arbitrarily near the edge of the forest.
Fire was the element he was most comfortable with. As a neko spirit it was his only magical element. Now he had more at his call should he want them. He thought of Cairo who primarily wielded electricity and wondered if it was something he could conjure as easily and then came the hard part. The clearing his mind and being in the moment, all the things with magic that were completely counterproductive to having it.
The focus he wasn't channeling was detailed when he heard the step behind him. How the body got so close without him noticing, Lucien was never a good predator. It was why during the second war he made creatures and biological weapons to fight against perceived enemies and stayed in his lab behind impenetrable walls.
"Hunter." He hissed. What came from his hands was not electricity instead it was fire and it did not have the exact effect he wanted in producing a powerful ball of flame that pushed the other away. Instead it burned up the fabric that the other wore forcing him to strip it off as he started it on fire not actually putting much distance between them and leaving the cut chest and stomach exposed to him. "Why are you..." Lucien trailed as his eyes did the same flickering down and back up the younger before he remembered he was annoyed. "Why are you out here?" He harshly whispered like they weren't completely isolated where they were.
