Age of Extinction (300 Years of Sin Book 2)

by Cristina M. Sburlea

  “He did. He was, indeed, a very bad man.” continued the woman.

  “It was you, wasn’t it mommy?”

  “Yes, it was me! Does that upset you, my little princess?”

  “No! I know why you did it. You were afraid he was going to hurt me or Radu or Stefan.”

  Radu and Stefan were Ava’s younger brothers, they were twins.

  “Mommy, why can I see what others think, do other wolves feel it too?”

  “No, darling, others cannot do it anymore, not like you can! But this must stay between us. Can you keep the secret for mommy?”

  “Yes, I can, but why?” inquired the child.

  “Because if others find out, it will be dangerous for us. It is dangerous enough that we are wolves. People want to destroy anything that is unlike them, for fear. But if anyone finds out you and can get into their minds, their level of panic will only increase. Our ancestors and those of your father were hunted.”

  “Can we tell daddy?”

  “No, my darling, not even him. This will be our little secret.”

  “Can you enter in other people’s minds?”

  “I used to do it very well, but I lost almost all that ability.”

  “Mommy, what are we? We look like any other human, but we turn into wolves, and we also get in the minds of others. So if we are not, human, we are not entirely wolves, then what are we really?”

  “We are mind benders. Our ancestors could alter the thoughts of humans, they could make them do things they did not want to. But, by being hunted over the years, we began to lose this power as our kind lost more members. Now, you and I must protect each other, we cannot let others suspect us in any way.

  “Can you make someone do what it does not want to do? Can you bend the minds of people?”

  “No, I cannot, nor can I pierce through their conscience like I used to. I once was able to see the thoughts of hundreds at a time, but now I can barely understand half a thought of a single human. I will try to help you develop your ability, but you must promise me nobody will find this out. Promise me, Ava!”

  “I promise, mommy!”

  “You can do great things, with guidance. Do you want that?”

  “I do. That way I can stop my brothers from taking away my apple pie when I am not looking.” said the girl.

  “Oh, my dear,” laughed the mother “by the time you will be able to do so, your brothers will be too old to still be playing games of such sort.”

  Next, Ava entered Rene’s thoughts. “You need to set your mind free!” thought Rene.

  “How? How can I do it?” asked Ava.

  “I can’t figure out the way. Constantine must be to blame for your inability to bend the mind anymore.”

  “The witch you asked about? The one bound to werewolves?”

  “It is possible she did something to you. Now, try Ava, try, for the sake of all of us, try!” urged Rene.

  In the complex of tunnels and rooms, under the Church, and under the basement, Aiko could also feel Masaru getting close. Jonathan and the other dracos were in a tunnel parallel to that in which she was, and large rooms separated them.

  “I hear werewolves close by!” said Jonathan while no other of his kind could hear any noise.

  Then, Masaru’s eyes got wider as Aiko was under attack. Two beasts opened the doors, of two opposing rooms, right when the woman was between them. The creatures grabbed her and one threw his claws into her shoulder. The other dracos ran as Jonathan was guiding them to the noises. Aiko was now badly hurt and she was thrown to the ground right after the other werewolf pierced her calf and ran his claws through the muscle. The draco was left on the floor, bleeding while the monsters stared, deciding how to finish her. They howled, but Aiko, felt something take over her body and she regenerated faster than any time before. She jumped back up, grabbed the heads of the monsters and hit them together, causing them to crack. The draco then ran to a door, opened it and closed it behind her. Right then, the other dracos entered.

  “We must go, now!” she yelled.

  Masaru grabbed her and they all left the room, entered the hallway, then entered another room, and another tunnel, locking all the metal doors behind them.

  “You are hurt!” said Masaru as he wiped the blood from her shoulder, only to see her skin was intact.

  “I almost died, they threw their claws inside my body. Something happened there. I had no more strength. Something took over me. I did not regenerate this fast nor did I get that much strength by my own. It was like someone was inside of my mind, controlling it, and my body!” replied Aiko. “I am telling you, what happened there, was not me!”

  Back in the church, Rene looked at Ava, realizing, the shield enveloping her mind was cracking, but the woman felt weak now. “You can do this, Ava.” whispered Rene seeing that the attempt had rendered her body and mind with less energy. “Don’t give up now, you can do it!” she then sent her the thought.

  Constantine got close to the woman, noticing her turning tired. “Does this upset you so much, my love?” he asked, mistaking her fatigue for sadness. “Well then, what comes next will upset you even more. But do not worry, I will then make you happy again!”

  “Constantine, you were never able to make me happy, nor will you ever be capable of it. The only thing you care of is yourself. If you would truly care for me, you would let us all go. Selflessness is not in your nature.”

  “And is it in you, dear wife?” he screamed angered. “You caused me so much pain, it almost killed me. You broke me! You broke me!”

  “You were broken long before we met!” she yelled back.

  Enraged, Constantine turned his hand into a paw and pierced her shoulder with one of his claws. He then realized he hurt her and he pulled back the long thick nail from her body. “I am sorry, but you made me do this. It is your fault. Trust me! You will soon come to realize that you will never do anything to cause me so much fury.”

  “What do you mean by that?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry love, you’ll find out at the appropriate time!”

  In the complex of tunnels and rooms, the dracos were trying to find an exit. They hoped to find the swords, but they had no instructions where to find them and the only ones who knew how to find the weapons were not there with them.

  “Maybe we should split!” said Alex.

  “At this point, our best option is to stick together. If we end up meeting more than we can handle, there is a greater chance for at least a few of us to survive if we stand together and fight.” replied Jonathan.

  “The youth, all they want is to do things on their own!” added Mark.

  “I think the best thing we did is that we stuck together.” said Jonathan next.

  “You hear werewolves, don’t you?” asked Mark.

  “There’s six of us and twelve of them.” answered the oldest draco.

  “What?” sighed Alex. He had just finished healing and he dreaded the idea that he might get hurt again or even die. He had not even lived as long as a regular human does. He was only forty four years old, barely younger than his sister, but hundreds of years younger than the other dracos.

  “Brace yourselves, for we are about to fight them.” replied Jonathan as the werewolves were running through a tunnel and then entering the same room, the dracos had just entered. The room was large, barely lit, made out of concrete, not of brick, and it was cold. Cameras were installed on the ceiling, at every corner.

  A beast tore out Masaru’s left hand muscle, another one threw Ria to the wall, one pushed Mark into the door, while Alex was thrown to the ceiling and fell. Aiko ruptured the veins in the arm of the beast that hurt her lover. Jonathan ripped the head of the monster who kicked his oldest friend. Ria got up and punched the beast in the face, twice, but, as she was doing that, another werewolf grabbed her brother in his hands, lifted him then pushed him hard on his knee, breaking his spine.

  “No!” screamed Ria seeing her brother unable to move. “No!” she yell
ed as she tried to get to him, but, right when she was close, the beast ripped out the boy’s heart causing him to turn blue. Ria was so blinded with pain that she started hitting the monster as hard as she could and did not notice the werewolf behind her, preparing to grab her by the head.

  “Behind you, Ria!” screamed Jonathan, noticing the danger she was in.

  The woman then turned around and, right when the monster wanted to throw his claw through her chest, she moved away, causing the moving hand of the beast to pierce the chest of the other werewolf. He squashed his heart and he turned it to ash. “We must try to pull their hearts out!” she screamed, but as every draco tried to do it, their hands could not penetrate the hard cavity of the monster’s chests.

  “It’s impossible!” yelled Mark, struggling with one of them.

  “We need a diversion. One of us has to get out!” screamed Jonathan who, every time he tried to pierce the chest cavity of any of the beasts, was interrupted by a monster. He was the only one who could do such a thing and yet, there were too many of the werewolves there to grab the chance to do it

  But as he was speaking, Masaru was immobilized to the floor by two beasts and he was forced to watch as Aiko’s neck was broken and then her heart was taken out. “Aiko!” he yelled.

  Mark and Ria had almost used all their strength so they were immobilized as well and then, Mark let out a wide shrike as he saw his best friend, his mentor, his savior, having his lungs pierced by claws.

  “Nooo!” screamed Ava with tears in her eyes.

  Rene and Henry both felt lost, but then the witch came in contact with the woman’s fingers again and she also touched Henry’s and yelled in Ava’s thoughts “Now, you have enough rage in you to break the shield, do it, now!”

  Ava sensed her entire mind and body breaking into millions of tiny pieces. And Henry, through Rene, sent the remaining part of his spirit into his daughter. Ava’s head felt like it was about to explode. She got into Jonathan’s mind and forced his body cells to regenerate. As the werewolves were now all closing in on the immobilized dracos and as Constantine was laughing hysterically, Jonathan woke from the energy that was storming through his body like never before. He moved, without making a sound and the beasts did not notice him as they were all facing the other dracos. He threw his hands and pierced the chest cavities of two werewolves, pulling their hearts out through the back. The monsters fell in two piles of ash. Next, having the element of surprise, Jonathan hurled himself toward two more ripping their blood pumping organs. He did the same to another one and, by this time, the other dracos managed to free themselves and attacked the beasts making it easier for Jonathan to grab and squash their hearts. When the monsters were all turned to ash, Masaru grabbed Aiko’s body and Mark grabbed Alex’s. Then, they all ran out.

  Constantine stopped laughing and ordered other werewolves to get in the tunnels and finish the dracos. Twelve were dead, but now, thirty more monsters were on their trails. The dracos needed the swords! They passed through tunnel after tunnel and room after room and they got to the end of the complex. There was nowhere they could run to. Jonathan looked back. Behind them dozens of pairs of eyes similar to those of snakes, claws, and enlarged fangs were closing in. Constantine started grinning again.

  Henry’s breathing got slower and weaker, but Ava and Constantine were too busy, with their eyes glued to the screens, to notice it. Ava’s thoughts reached those of her brothers in the forest.

  “They’re at the end! They need the swords!” said the woman and the two wolves showed her what they did to hide the blades. The dracos were right over them, they were on the platform above them. Just by walking over, it would not break. The dracos needed to do so. The next person who had a visitor in his mind was Jonathan. “Jump, jump and push the ground beneath you as hard as you can!” she told him.

  “We need to jump! Now!” urged Jonathan and they all jumped over and over again, until the floor beneath them broke and they all fell in a new room. It was the lowest of the rooms under the Black Church, large, dark, and cold. Mark touched a candle and he took a lighter he had to fire it. Then he noticed the whole room was filled with candles and he lit a few more. Jonathan headed to the vaults. There were five of them and all were of heavy metal.

  “Now what do we do?” asked Mark as he was lighting the room.

  “We won’t be able to break them! We need the keys, but we have none. There are thirty of the monsters approaching, we need those damned swords!” answered Jonathan.

  “Then we have no hope.” said Masaru as he lay Aiko’s body down, next to a corner of the room.

  “We can’t punch through the metal, but the werewolves can. You’ve all seen the way they punched through walls. Let’s fight them close to the vaults and let them break all.” replied Jonathan.

  “There are thirty of them, we are only 4, this is madness!” said Masaru.

  “It is, I agree, but it is the only way.” said Jonathan. “Four more are behind the thirty.”

  “Ten more will come!” was a thought sent to Jonathan from Ava.

  “Ten more after the thirty and the four, she said.” continued Jonathan.

  “Who said that?” asked Mark.

  “It’s Ava, she is the one who woke me, the one who told me to break the platform, the one who is telling me the numbers.” he replied.

  “How is that possible? It might be just a mind trick.” said Ria.

  “Possible or not, I am not dead, and that surely is not because I am a draco.” answered Jonathan. “Now prepare yourselves, they are close.”

  Right then, one after the other, werewolves jumped through the hole in the broken platform and began attacking the four. While the agility of the dracos far outweighed that of werewolves, they had a lot less power than them. A draco’s hit was not even half as powerful as that of a werewolf so they mostly had to rely on avoiding the hits and take advantage of their swiftness.

  Jonathan was in front of a vault when a monster attacked him, but he ducked and the beast threw its fist through the metal. Ria almost got hit by a werewolf, but she moved right in time to make him break the vault.

  “You want to kill me don’t you beast?” asked Mark as he threw a punch toward the flesh eating creature. Then, his enemy hit him hard in his stomach, but, when he wanted to squash Mark’s head, the draco moved and the beast struck one of the metal doors of the vaults.

  Masaru also managed to make one of the werewolves pierce through a vault, but, even so, no swords were found.

  “The swords must be in the last vault!” screamed Jonathan as he pulled out the heart of a vicious killer. He then jumped toward the last door which was right in the middle of the others. The werewolf right next to him tried to punch him in the face. But Jonathan got down and the werewolf threw his hand in the vault. The swords sparkled from the light of the candles, but they were not within reach so Jonathan attracted another werewolf to the vault and he managed to get the beast to crack it even more so he grabbed a sword and threw it to Ria who was now captured by a creature. Ria was held up by a beast and she struck it right in the head. The werewolf turned to dust. Jonathan also threw a sword to Mark and one to Masaru and he also grabbed one for himself. The werewolves howled loudly to them and two jumped on each draco at once.

  Masaru cut the neck of those who tried to rip him to pieces and screamed “This is for Aiko!”

  “Rene, I’m getting out of here alive, just wait and see!” said Mark as he pierced the chests and hearts of those that jumped him.

  “Brother, I’ll avenge you!” said Ria as she cut the limbs of a monster then the throat of another one.

  The dracos were under constant attack in the complex beneath the Church, but they were slaughtering the flesh eating creatures.

  “Go, now! Sire more werewolves!” yelled Constantine to Cristian. And the doctor did as he was told.

  Constantine turned many and he ordered each of his sires to turn ten more so, by now, there were hundreds of werewolves roaming
around freely. In Prague and Moscow alone were two hundred of them in total and all were hunting ex-Constantines, dracos, and witches. In Brasov, Constantine decimated the population of tourists coming there to spend the holidays. He had sixty werewolves, but now they were almost all being killed.

  Outside of the compound, the wolves slaughtered the monsters and they were now running toward the Church. Cristian stopped two tourists who were walking close to the church.

  “Excuse me. Does any one of you have a lighter?” asked the doctor in his human form.

  “Yes, sure mate, here, take mine!” replied one of the tourists.

  As Cristian got close to them, he turned into a beast, his muscles ripping the clothes on him. He then turned the two men into werewolves. After the tourists changed their shape, they followed the doctor to the door of the church, but wolves were expecting for them. They jumped to the necks of the two newly turned and they broke into ash on the spot, while Cristian managed to get through the pack and entered the basement, closing the door behind him. “The wolf pack is here!” he said.

  “They will be able to break the door soon!” said Constantine.

  “We must leave!” yelled the doctor.

  “Make them all sleep!” said Constantine as the doctor injected the three prisoners with a solution that made them fall asleep. Their bodies were taken by other sires and Constantine and Cristian led the way through a secret passage. When they came out to air, they got into black cars and drove away.

  The wolf pack felt them and they ran on their trails, but the cars were too fast for them so they returned inside of the church to wait for the dracos. Meanwhile, Jonathan, Ria, Mark, and Masaru ripped throats, pulled out hearts, cut limbs, cut heads, and bleed dry all the beasts. Then they ran out of the room with the bodies of the two dead dracos.

  “She’s fading! Her thoughts are fading. Something is happening to them!” said Jonathan, referring to Ava, Rene, and Henry.

  The dracos kept trying to find a way out, but it was difficult, until Jonathan saw a strange code on the video cameras installed. He noticed a pattern and he followed the pattern until they ended up to a door that led straight into the laboratory where Cristian conducted his experiments. Then they went into the main room of the church hoping to find the three, in there, they were just greeted by the wolf pack.