Age of Extinction (300 Years of Sin Book 2)

by Cristina M. Sburlea

  300 Years of Sin:

  Age of Extinction

  Published by M.C. Sburlea

  Copyright M.C. Sburlea 2013

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: The werewolf

  Chapter 2: Paris and Tokyo

  Chapter 3: Christmas and a wedding

  Chapter 4: Memories and werewolves

  Chapter 5: Let the hunt begin

  Chapter 6: Hybrids

  Chapter 7: There is more power if there are two

  Chapter 8: The twins' meeting

  Chapter 9: Where is she?

  Chapter 10: War between the species

  Chapter 11: It’s time to live!

  Other books by Maria Cristina Sburlea

  Connect with the author

  Chapter 1

  The werewolf

  Lights shine bright in the houses of the small city of Brasov. The streets are filled with people shopping for Christmas and children giggle at the thought of all the presents they will soon receive. The city, in all its glory, buzzes with joy and laughter.

  “Mommy, mommy, I have been a good boy haven’t I?” asked a child of only seven years of age.

  “Yes you have son, why?” said the mother, smiling and looking toward the boy who was holding her hand.

  “Well, because I want a toy pirate, lots of chocolate, and a car that I can drive all by myself.” he answered.

  “I don’t think Santa can bring so many presents in his bag.”

  “Mommy, I am not a baby, I know Santa does not exist, just as I know fairies and monsters don’t either.” said the child. “You and daddy will buy the gifts. So please mommy, please, can I get a toy pirate and a car?”

  “Well, we’ll see what we can do about that.” said the mother as she noticed two of her friends approaching with their daughters. The adults started to speak, while the three children wanted to play with snow.

  “Kids, don’t go too far!” said one of the mothers.

  “We won’t!” answered the boy while he was running toward the end of the street. He then stopped to grab some snow so he could throw it at the two girls who had previously bombarded him with it. The child bent to grab the sparkly white flakes and heard a faint noise coming from behind the house in front of him. The boy was right next to the left end of the building and he turned his eyes toward the source of the noise. Someone took a step, and then another, but the boy still could not see who it was as the street light could not pierce the darkness to such distance. Suddenly, the child froze with fear. The creature lurking in the shadow showed its long, thick, greyish nails. Then its elongated greyish-brown mouth appeared and opened to let out the most hideous of fangs.

  From the child’s mouth came out the loudest of screams “Mommyyyy!” but, by the time the three adults turned their heads toward the child, he was gone, grabbed and pulled by the creature. The child’s eyes got wide and he kept screaming for a few more seconds, leaving the whole town in wonder. The two little girls got so scared that they immediately started crying. Their mother rushed them to the car, while the other two adults ran toward the place where the screams were coming from and what they saw was harrowing: bones, blood, mutilated flesh, and the child’s head severed from the body and petrified with pain. “Nooo!” screamed the boy’s mother while falling next to the remains. “No, no, no!” she continued screaming. “No!”

  The screams alerted the patrols and, soon, police cars were at the scene. They used yellow tape to surround it and the myriad of people who were behind were pointing and twisting their faces.

  “Werewolf” said one of the people. “The werewolf is back!” he then screamed. “Lord help us, for we are doomed!”

  It was the year 1715 and the man was thought to be dead for over sixteen years already. He was in pain and blood was erupting out of his skin. His clothes were torn, he had no more sleeves, and his shoes were missing. The man was running through the snow and black blisters had spread on his feet forming a web. He was hungry and cold, wet and tired, but he could not stop for he knew that, if the draco would find him, he would die at his hands. He created the first draco and now that same creature was out to destroy him and his legacy. The man framed his own death in 1699 for fear of what the draco would do to him. He was more afraid that the beast would keep him alive just to torture him for an eternity, than he was afraid of death. No, death at the hands of the draco would mean mercy and that was not something the beast was ready to offer. But the man knew that if he could just find Mihail he could gain enough strength to face his worst enemy: Jonathan Tudor, the first draco.

  His name was Constantine Burke, his age was around fifty, his long hair and beard went white with worry, and his grace was long gone, he shed the last ounce of if when he lost his throne as the leader of the Order that bore his name: the Order of Constantine, the most powerful and elitist society in the world. Now he was nothing more than a man running for his life, one who would get scared at the faintest noise he would hear. No, grace was not in his nature anymore, he was lost.

  As the night went by, he kept running and hoping he would reach the Black Church in time for the full moon. He still had a long road ahead, but he had to get there before the moon could show all its glory on the sky. But he tripped and fell in the water of the river, hitting his head hard on one of the rocks and a dash of read sprung out. His conscience was lost and his mind reverted back to 1698 when he owned ships, he lived in a resplendent palace, and was the master of entire colonies. His power was so great that even the king of England did not dare speak a word against him. Kings and emperors feared him and stories ran across the globe of a man so powerful, so cunning that there was nothing he could not do. Some even believed him to be a god in disguise of a man.

  Then, he opened his eyes and, as he was getting up and out of the water, he said “No, I will not lose this game Lord Tudor. One day, one day I promise we will meet again, and when that time comes, you will scream at my feet just as I screamed at yours!” The man ripped a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around his head. He continued walking, faster and faster, and when the moon was about to shine, he entered the confines of the Black Church, a tall dwelling getting its name from being left with walls blackened by a fire. He almost crawled to the altar and then a priest came and said “He has arrived. We have been waiting for your arrival.”

  Another man came and gave an order to the priest: “Take him to his room!”

  The priest took him into a chamber under the church and helped him rest on a bed. Constantine reeked of blood and pain.

  “You should sleep now and I promise that when you will wake up, you will not feel any more pain.” said the priest.

  “Are you Mihail?” asked Constantine looking at the one who seemed to be in charge, but not being able to recognize him as his sight was almost lost.

  “I am, now hush and sleep!” answered the man while giving him a yellowish liquid to drink.

  Constantine fell asleep and woke up only a year later, in a different room, in a comfortable bed with white pillows and a candle burning to give him light. When he opened his eyes, another man was sitting on a chair reading, next to the bed and asked “How do you feel? You have been sleeping for a year. Do not worry, it was necessary.”

  “I feel
fine.” he replied confused.

  “Good, then we can start the process. You slept so long for you had muscles and bones broken and even your skull was leaking. You needed to heal as a human completely before we could start the process. It took too long for you to heal.”

  “What process? I was told you are the only one who can help me, but much detail was not given to me.”

  “I will help you and you will help me. But before that is possible, we need to complete the process.” added Cristian. “The two of us will create a new species, a greater one than any other, a superior one.”

  The entire city of Brasov was mourning after the gruesome death of the child. Now, right when the sun showed the first signs of falling from the sky, parents would call their children back in the house. It used to be a peaceful city, a safe city, but that was not true anymore and the old stories of a werewolf lurking in the shadows were beginning to resurface.

  “It is just a myth that our silly ancestors used to tell kids. This murder is the act of a human, a psychopath, not of a monster.” said Cristian while being at home, speaking with his wife.

  “This murder is exactly like those that occurred a hundred years ago and two hundred years ago and three hundred years ago. This cannot be a coincidence.” said Ileana.

  “It is just a copycat. The Black Murderer is still as famous as he was when he lived 300 years ago. Newspapers of the time ran the story of his killings all over the world, at that time. Books were written about him. Anybody who read a little about him would know how he committed the murders. That is why the murder is so similar. Even I always knew of him and I did not live in this country until two years ago. My father told me the stories just as his father told him when he lived here. It is a copycat, nothing more, but be sure that the police will catch him.”

  “And how many people will die until that happens?” asked Ilena. “If this is a copycat, then he will continue killing as the Black Murderer did after his first victim, and his second, and his third, and so on.”

  “Hopefully, nobody else will get hurt. I have confidence in those who dedicate their life to keeping us safe.”

  Cristian’s wife thought his parents left the country right when they found out that they were about to have a child. They did not want to raise a child in a country plagued by the lack of freedom and by the fear instituted by communism. But, as the country became a democracy and fear was no longer the norm, the boy became more and more curious of his roots. The people who remembered his father, Victor, all said that he bears a striking resemblance to him. They all praised Victor for being a good man, a person whom they could rely on if they were in need. Cristian soon became as respected as his father, but even though they resembled so much, their voices were very different and, while Victor spoke the language of the country perfectly, Cristian could barely mutter a few sentences in it. He could only use the most basic of words. Luckily for him, most people there spoke his language also.

  What people did not know, was that Cristian was in fact Victor and he used many names, faces, and voices, in the past. While he could not alter his brown skin, brown eyes and black hair, he could alter the features of his face whenever he wanted. Cristian changed his face every four to five years and, every time, he would also change his voice. Right before he would turn into a different person, he would notify the hospital he was working in that he was leaving the country so the board needed to find a replacement. And every time he would find a replacement and the board would approve his choice, not knowing he forged documents and that it was still him who took the job, he just added a different face. He left the country a lot of times, but only for short periods and only for experiments. Now he knew the time had come for him to tell the hospital he would soon leave. But this time, it was a first in over two hundred and eighty years, he actually had feelings for the person who, unknowingly, helped him create this new identity, and he was not about to leave her in the dark.

  When night came and Ileana was asleep, Cristian woke and went to the basement of the Black Church.

  “How many more until I reach my full strength?” asked Constantine.

  “Just one more full moon.” answered Cristian.

  “I have been waiting for three hundred years, one more full moon is not much and yet it seems an eternity.” said the duke saddened.

  “You need to enhance your power. Ten more lives taken shall suffice so that, when that full moon hits the night sky, the process of turning into a werewolf can be completed. Then, I will turn as well, through your sire. If you do not turn me I will die. I am already almost three hundred and fifty years old. I can’t live more than that in human form. And you will need me, in case something goes wrong after you turn.”

  Next, Constantine, in his decrepit form, changed his shape into that of a beast: long hair, long ears, thick nails and teeth, with eyes similar to those of a snake. In his human form he was a man of three hundred and fifty years old looking like he was a hundred and ten. He had deep wrinkles, dry skin, even scaly in parts, his legs were bent, his back was arched. He moved with difficulty from side to side, but he was spared from feeling any of the pains of age. “Soon,” he said, while going back to 1716 in his thoughts “soon I will no longer be this walking corpse. Soon I will be myself again.”

  “Why are you helping me?” asked Constantine.

  “Because you helped me once and I have never forgotten it. You do not recognize me for I was only a child when you saved me.” answered the man.

  “What did I do?”

  “Do you remember Paris, over twenty nine years ago? I was only a boy of ten and my father took me there with him while on one of his business travels. The most brilliant doctor in this part of the world and he was summoned there along with other great doctors to a medical convention at Sorbonne. The man took me there with my mother and my three siblings. We thought we would see France, we thought we would have a nice time as a family.”

  “I remember now! He experimented on you all. I remember you now.”

  “The convention was just a front, a cover, so that others did not suspect what really happened behind closed doors. They were trying to create immortals. They were trying to make a new species and all of them used their families as lab rats. My father thought we would thank him after his experiments were over. He believed that, once we would turn, we would owe him a great debt. The poor fool actually thought he was doing the right thing for us. He was that blinded by his actions. None of us accepted of our own free will. We were taken there by force and we were put in chains and cloth was pushed in our mouths so as to not scream.”

  “I wound up there by accident.”

  “Yes you did, but if you hadn’t, then I would not have been alive now. My father knew of my ability to change faces, my mother was just like me and my siblings as well. He thought that, because we had these abilities, his experiments would succeed on us. Instead, none of the doctors there had the proper amount of knowledge to do as they planned. They ended up just torturing us. I watched my mother die at the hands of my father and I watched my siblings lose their lives at the hands of other men just like him. When you arrived I could feel my soul trying to leave this body.”

  I was on the first floor of the building. I was mesmerized by its architecture so I wanted to see it all, but then I heard weird noises coming from somewhere. I did not know what they were so I searched and searched. And then I found a secret passage and I climbed down. I walked through the hallway and I saw a door. I opened it and there was another hallway, but at the end of it there was a barely opened door. I peeked through it. I saw the men, the tables, the bodies and the blood. My first reaction was to run, to tell the others who were in the building and we all came rushing there. The men in white coats tried to run and some even escaped.” said Constantine.

  “One of them was my father.”

  “You were taken away by the French authorities.”

  “One of the police officers took me in. He and his wife raised me along with t
heir children. I lived a good life with them, I even went to university and studied medicine, but I never forgot what happened when I was ten and I went to look for my biological father. I found him.” added Cristian.

  “What happened when you did?”

  “I found all his life work and I realized that what he tried to do to me was in fact possible. But I knew his work was full of errors. I took away his documents and then I ripped the bastard’s throat. Next, I took his face.”

  “You are not Mihail.”

  “No! I am Cristian, his son. But, since two years ago, I have lived here and pretended I was him. I worked with his colleagues and I am trying to correct his work.”

  “So the witch was right, you can help me become what I need to be.”

  “My father’s work, which is now mine, is not complete. It might take a long time until I can refine the process, but yes, I can help you.”

  “I do not have much time and I will get old.” said Constantine.

  “Well, I did not tell you the whole truth about myself.”

  “My ancestors did not have a normal length of life. My mother’s father lived for 350 years and my mother would have also, if she weren’t killed by her husband. I will also live as long.”

  “What does that have to do with me?”

  “My mother never told my father about how long she can live, she never intended to tell him about her many faces either. But he witnessed my little sister change her face by mistake one day, so she felt compelled to tell him about this quality of ours. She never imagined that he was capable of doing something so horrible to us.”

  “I still do not see the connection.”

  “My blood will also keep you alive. You will age, but your organs will not fail. So the faster I refine the process, the less you will age.”

  “What if it will take a hundred years until you will refine it?”

  “Once you will turn into a werewolf you will return to the physical shape you were most fit. So do not worry, you will be alright. We will both be alright. I have offered this opportunity to others, but everyone refused. I spoke to convicts in prisons. I hoped they would choose to take my offer but they all laughed in my face, saying it is impossible. Unlike my father, I will never experiment on anyone who does not offer his or her consent. I will not take your free will away. Now that you know that it might take a long time and that it will be painful, are you still willing to go through it?” asked Cristian.