Chapter 4
Memories and werewolves
“You will call me master from now on” said Constantine.
Cristian had no way of stopping from doing any of the things Constantine ordered him to do. His beloved free will was now lost. And even if he would get the chance to try to hurt the monster into setting him free, he could not have killed him, for Constantine proved to be immune to bullets, immune to knives, immune to anything that could kill a regular human. Constantine had some protection against those too. The doctor realized that the duke was a lot more powerful, for he had the protection of the blood of the natural werewolf that survived in him, while Cristian and any of the werewolves sired by Constantine, did not.
Constantine sired ten more men the next day and asked Cristian to forge him papers that would give him an identity he could use now in the twenty first century. To make matters worse for the doctor, the duke chose the name Mihail. He presented himself to the people of the small city as being a businessman, born in the country, but who lived abroad and was now interested in moving there as he had had enough of the busy life of the large metropolis. He introduced himself to the city council on the 26th of December and, being very polite, and rather pleasant to the eye in his human shape, people welcomed him with open arms, especially after he promised he had the means to stop the brutal murders.
Inhabitants of the city were terrified now that they had witnessed the monster slay their friends and families. None of them had any doubt that the stories of the werewolves, from the past, were in fact true. On the 27th of December, Constantine killed one of his newly turned werewolves and delivered it to the council. People praised him, cheered, and organized an entire parade in his honor. The duke relished in the applause he received.
Constantine, or Mihail Gregorian as he was now known, was a tall man, his black hair contrasted starkly with his rather pale skin and, even though his brown eyes were rather terrifying, no one questioned his intentions. While in public, he presented himself as a gentleman, but behind closed doors he was ordering the slaughter of those he did not like. The first task of his newly sired werewolves was to kill two members of the Order. On the 27th, in the evening, he left for Prague where he sired ten more werewolves, each being given a certain task. He left the city in the morning and landed in Moscow where he sired others, also giving them a command. The werewolves’ senses were heightened and they all became veritable killing machines. By the evening of the 30th of December, Constantine had been to 3 other cities and sired werewolves which he sent all around the globe in pursuit of their victims. The duke was able to do so as, in the past almost 300 years, he collected information about the members of the Order and, by knowing what the Order was doing, he also knew where dracos were being held. Constantine used the priests of the Black Church to do the dirty work for him.
As werewolves arrived to the cages where dracos used to be held, they found their scent and realized that, even though everyone smells different, there is a certain element that is common to dracos. Werewolves could distinguish dracos from any other simple human, now.
On the 31st of December, in Paris, Ava and the rest were getting ready to go to a party to celebrate the New Year. They were trying to piece together what happened to the dead Constantines and dracos, but they had no leads. They hoped to go to where the deaths occurred to investigate, but they found no plane tickets as all planes seats were occupied.
“I feel silly going to a party knowing what happened.” said Alex.
“Relax, we will be in Prague tomorrow.” replied Ria. “And the rest will go to London and Tokyo. After tomorrow, we will have all the answers. For now, considering that there is nothing else to do, we might as well enjoy the party. Sitting and worrying helps no one.”
“You are right, you are always right.” he said.
Ria and Alex were half siblings, they shared the same father, but they did not live together. Ria’s father was a wealthy Nigerian in the oil business. He traveled often to Brazil and, after Ria’s mother died, he fell in love with a woman from Sao Paolo. The two got married, but the man died suddenly, a few weeks after the wedding. The widow was pregnant at the time and she stayed in Brazil and raised her son. Ria, however, was taken back to Nigeria where her grandparents took care of her. When Ria was twenty six years of age, her younger brother turning twenty three, she found out that her uncle killed their father because he wanted to devote tens of millions of dollars to implementing measures that would ensure the safety of the environment and the people living in the vicinity of the exploited region. She confronted her uncle and he then ordered her conversion into a draco. Alex was also turned and for twenty years, with the help of the ash of a white oak, they were used for whatever their uncle wanted. Once the two were freed, Ria killed her uncle and then, the two siblings, went after everyone in the company who was corrupted. They traveled three continents and helped bring down fifteen of the members of the board of the company which was now being bought by one of Jonathan’s friends, a woman vetted by him for the position.
When the clock turned ten, all of them left toward the large home of a friend of Rene, who now lived there. The house was tall, wide, sparkly, with many rooms and many hallways. As it was time for the final countdown, the twenty people there gathered in just one room. “Ten, nine, eight, seven,” they yelled “five, four, three, two, one, zero.” They applauded, kissed, and hugged. But as noises of joy were filling the house, the dracos heard something running in their direction and surrounding the building. People were standing in front of the window, when Jonathan noticed two werewolves heading straight toward them. Every window and every door was broken by beasts which started biting and scratching everything in their way. The dracos tried to fight off the monsters, but they were not as strong as they used to be. Humans were dying one after the other.
Jonathan took a large knife from the table piercing and slicing the skull of one of the beasts. Mark and the rest did the same, but not before they struggled with the creatures. At one point Alex was bitten by a werewolf and Ria, seeing that, took a large piece of the broken window and threw it into the neck of the monster hurting her brother. Aiko was also bitten, but Masaru was close to save her from being killed. Rene could not do anything as her powers were almost gone and Ava managed to kill one herself, but she noticed that none of the beasts actually attacked her. As all the werewolves were on the floor, dead, so were all the humans.
The dracos, the witch, and Ava were all close to one of the walls of the room, looking at the werewolves when the beasts grew back the heads and limbs lost and got back up. One of the hairy creatures tried to attack Rene, but Ava interposed and it moved back howling. Another one tried to attack Masaru and again Ava interposed and the beast moved back. It was clear: the werewolves would not hurt her in any way.
“We must get out of here…” said Aiko, but she was interrupted by two other wolves who jumped through the windows. Jonathan could swear he had seen them before. The two wolves ravaged the monsters, allowing the dracos, the witch, and Ava to run away. This time, the monsters did not get up, instead, they turned to ash. One of the beasts that attacked them managed to get out of the house and ran after them, but the two werewolves soon got to his neck and ripped it apart. He, too, turned to ash. Now everybody was looking at the pile of ash.
The two werewolves came next to Ava and what a sight they were to see. One was completely white with dark eyes, while the other was fully black with light eyes; they seemed like the complete opposite of each other. Both werewolves, as they moved next to the woman, howled slowly and she moved her hands on their furs feeling like they somehow were a part of her. When Jonathan tried to get close, the two showed their fangs as they interposed between them. Ava got down on her knees, caressing their fur and both wolves moved their heads close to hers.
“Why are you here?” she asked, but the reply was another howl.
“We must go! What if other of those monsters come here? We can’t be here much
longer.” said Masaru.
“I think they want us to go with them.” continued Ava.
“These are wolves.” added Alex.
“If that is what they want, then we shall go.” said Jonathan. “These wolves saved our lives.”
“They do not seem to like you very much though.” said Masaru.
“But they like her and that’s what counts.”
Then the wolves started walking away from the house. But, before leaving, Jonathan and Mark burned the house down so as to conceal the murders. They walked for over an hour; they got outside of the city and entered the wilderness. They walked for a few minutes more into the forest until they reached a cave. Inside, there were more werewolves: white, gray, brown, black. And there were two pups also. Unlike the beasts that attacked the dracos, these were more than beautiful and they were not bent on murder. When Ava got close to the pack of wolves, all of them got up and surrounded her, leaving the dracos and the witch aside. The wolves seemed happy, and Ava felt more at home there than anywhere else.
“What’s happening here?” asked Ria.
“I think they are my family. I know it does not make sense, but I think the white and the black are my brothers or at least that’s how it feels.”
“This would have seemed like nonsense to me over twenty one years ago, before I became a draco,” added Ria “but now, I tend to believe you. But how do you know?”
“I don’t, I just feel it. I don’t understand their thoughts.”
“I think I can help you with that.” said Rene. “You still can pierce through the conscience of others.”
“I can.” replied Ava.
“I will try to get you inside of their minds, to see all that they have seen. Maybe then we can figure out what all of this is. But my abilities have also shrunk. Sometimes they are completely gone, while other times they are at their peak.”
“And how are they now?” asked Mark.
“Low, unfortunately. They fluctuate and there might be a few hours until I can do the spell.”
“Then we should wait.” said Jonathan. “Henry will arrive to Paris at noon; let’s hope we’ll sort this out before he comes.”
“We should tell him where we are.” continued Ava.
“Knowing your father, he probably tracks our phones so he knows exactly where we are.” added Jonathan. And he was right. Henry was indeed tracking his phone and, when he realized, that instead of being in Paris, he was in a forest, outside of the city, he ordered his private plane to take him to France.
“So you trust your father now?” asked Masaru.
“I do, he does not know it, but I do, now. It took me over a year to finally believe his words again, well, two hundred years, if we count it all, but he proved he is worthy of my trust. Also, I did not see anything I did not like in his conscience, after Gutenberg’s death.” said Ava as Jonathan’s phone rang. It was Henry, inquiring about what was happening.
“So you really are tracking my phone.” said Jonathan.
“My daughter is with you, I looked for her for hundreds of years, and I have a short while to live, so yes, of course I am doing it.” replied Henry, from Morocco.
The two men talked and Henry assured him, he would arrive there in just a few hours. By the time he was at the cave, Rene felt her powers grow again. And when the wolves saw Henry, they all went close to him and he, too, felt like he was with his own kind.
Rene tried to help Ava get inside of the thoughts of the wolves but something stopped her from doing it. Every time she tried, Rene felt like she was hitting a wall. The last time she tried, she felt pain in her neck and chest. The woman screamed like a dagger had pierced her lungs and she fell, but Mark caught her before she could hit the ground.
“Your connection to them is severed. There’s something that does not let me take you into their thoughts. And it hurts.”
“You can’t do this again!” said Mark.
“No, not with her, but I can try with Henry.”
“You’ll just feel more pain!” said Mark.
“We do not know that. With Ava, there is a wall, a shield stopping the connection. Henry might not have it.” she replied as she moved toward the old man and putting her hands on the sides of his forehead. She then spoke words which none of the rest could understand and Henry was deep into the minds of the wolves.
In 1697, Iosiph went with his two sons to a witch so she could foretell when they would turn into werewolves for the first time. He wanted to be prepared before that would happen. He was not prepared when his daughter turned and she spent weeks as a wolf roaming through the forests and the mountains in the southern region of Transylvania. He thought the worst as he could not find her. The witch told them they would turn on the next full moon, but that was not all.
“Your daughter will build an empire with the foreigner who will come to town. He will come with others and many will come before him, but if you let them form a family, they will build an empire.”
“Who is this man you speak of?” asked Iosiph.
“He is of noble birth, that is all I know. But be careful, for there will be others who will come before him. If you pick the wrong man, into chaos you will plunge.”
A month from then, the two boys turned into wolves for the first time and their father was there to guide them. A week after that, businessmen, noble men came through the city and one of them even decide to stay there for a while. It was Constantine Burke. When Iosiph met him, he was convinced that was the man the witch told him about. Constantine fell in love with his daughter when he first saw her and it only took him a few weeks to ask for her hand in marriage. Iosiph accepted gladly.
“I do not want to marry this man!” said his daughter.
“You will marry him and you will be the happiest and the most respected woman alive.” he replied.
“How can you say that? Father, please, please do not let this happen!”
“You will do as I say or you will abandon this family. Think of your poor mother, think of what the people will say if you cancel this now.”
“The people will get over it and mother will also.”
“This man will make you happy!” continued Iosiph. “This will happen!”
Henry then saw haw the woman married Constantine and he saw Jonathan arrive there, right when the religious ceremony was over. But what he saw next, was almost impossible to bear. The witch met him and the two boys again after a few weeks and told Iosiph he chose the wrong man, that the one his daughter would build and empire with was, in fact, the lord, not the duke. Next Constantine ordered the murder of many of his relatives and took Jonathan and his daughter as his prisoners. He saw the murder of his brother, through the eyes of one of the wolves. Then he saw the murder of the two sisters of his wife and many more.
“You are a monster!” said Iosiph.
“I am soon going to be better than all of you. Your daughter’s blood will serve as my ticket to being superior to humanity. And now, it is time for you to die, for all those that betray me must die.” replied Constantine as he was putting a dagger in the heart of the man.
“Noooo!” screamed Henry as he fell and moved his hand on his heart.
“Father, what’s happening?” asked Ava.
“Constantine, he did this! These wolves are our own flesh and blood, but they can’t turn back into their human form. They have been cursed to spend an eternity as wolves. Even the little ones are at least 300 years old, but they can’t grow. Oh, my dear dear child, how I’ve wronged you time and time again.”
“What are you saying father?”
“You’re a wolf, I’m a wolf! And 1785 was not the first time you were born.”
“That’s impossible! I would have remembered it as I did with all my other lives.”
“Not this one. This happened when you could turn into a werewolf. You lost that ability the moment you died, just like I did. And Jonathan, he was there.”
“I did not die and I do not suffer from any memor
y loss, so I would remember this if it had happened.” said Jonathan.
“No, you can’t remember!”
“Why?”
“Because when you were turned, your mind was altered. What you think you remember are just images of what Constantine told you after you woke.”
“How can this be? Over three hundred years passed since his death, and the bastard still influences our lives.” added Jonathan.
“Oh, my dear boy, but I am afraid he is not dead. He is alive!”
“What? How?” asked all those standing before him.
“He does not know.” answered Rene. “When he was inside of the conscience of the wolves, they allowed me passage. My power cannot take him back into their conscience and into his own deep thoughts. I am sorry, but for now this will have to suffice.”
“How do we kill the werewolves? When we tried, they did not die, but the bites of the black and the white turned them to ash.” asked Jonathan.
“Werewolves regenerate except when killed by another werewolf.” replied Henry.
“So you are basically telling us you wolves are almost invincible.” added Masaru.
“Even if you would put a bomb on the body of a wolf, the pieces and even the vapors would still find their way back to one another.” added Henry.
“I thought you are supposed to die.” added Ria bluntly.
“In this form I am not a werewolf, so I most likely do meet my demise.” answered Henry.
“Ok. Let’s go back to the part of how to kill these beasts!” added Jonathan.
“We lived our first lives far away from here, we had vast lands, and we also used to travel to a small city called Brasov. We were cursed by a witch who was working with Constantine, but before my two boys lost their ability to turn back into their human form, they hid the only weapons which could kill a sired werewolf. The ones that attacked you were all sired. There are two possibilities: either Constantine found a way to become a werewolf, or there is another one who sires wolves. Either way, we will be able to kill them with those weapons.” said Henry.
Age of Extinction (300 Years of Sin Book 2) Page 4
