Ava held his hand with more force and told him one last thing before his mind could not be reached anymore: “I love you father.”
It was a time of sorrow, Henry was dead, Ava and Rene were in chains, and Jonathan and Mark were being experimented on somewhere far. Nothing felt right, nothing was simple. They tasted happiness only to soon be left without it. The once mighty dracos were now hiding all over the world as werewolves were hunting them and those who had just been freed, over a year ago, were horrified at the thought of not even getting the chance to live. The news spread that they were all being hunted into extinction.
The light of day was fading again, night was soon to envelope the city when Masaru, Ria, the wolf, and the newly arrived draco came to the burned building. Masaru looked at the sky and said “We will have a full moon tonight.”
“So soon?” asked Ria.
“Yes, it is very odd.” answered Masaru.
“Almost impossible.” added Chen.
Next, the three were led, by the wolf, to the plain covered by snow. They got to the same tree Jonathan had previously found and they noticed the platform move, opening the way to the underground. There, they were met by men who, as they were turning into werewolves, were killed by the dracos with swords. Even Chen had one, as the dracos grabbed a few more on their way out of the complex beneath the Black Church. While the witch tried to stop them, she did not see the wolf coming and she got bit before she could subdue it. Ileana’s hands were tied to the back therefore making it impossible for a wolf bound witch to make any magic for she needed her hands free to do so.
Masaru, Ria, and Chen untied the wolves and the two dracos on the tables and stopped the transfusions which clearly had no effect on any of them.
“What shall we do with her?” asked Masaru.
“She will lead us to Constantine’s hiding.” replied Jonathan. “Where is he?”
“I do not know!” she answered.
“Do not lie to me woman! Where is he? Tell me or I will kill you!”
The witch had nothing left to do but to give them what they wanted. “Fine, I’ll tell you!” she said.
“No, you will personally take us there!” said Jonathan angered and feeling a bit weak from having his own blood mix with that of a wolf. He then grabbed the witch, took her to the car with Mark, and urged her to guide them all to the werewolf’s hiding. The other dracos followed in a second car.
After driving for half an hour, they ended up in the middle of the mountains and they got to the ruins of old houses. There was nobody there and the ruins looked beautiful, but, in their place, it seemed as other constructions were being built, identical to what used to be there. When Jonathan got to what used to be a barn, he felt like he had been there before. His feeling was precise, for that was the old barn of the Gregorian family who lived there until 1699. There wasn’t much left of the barn, but the house looked like it had just been rebuilt.
“What is this?” asked Jonathan.
“This used to be a town until 1699. Then it all burned down and everybody left it. This is where Constantine’s wife used to live.”
“Ava!” exhaled Jonathan.
“Yes, I think that was her name!” replied the witch.
“No,” said Jonathan “I mean she is in my head again!”, but the wolf bound witch did not really understand what he meant.
The mind bender had finally found enough strength to get into his thoughts once more. “I can feel you close.” she said. “Constantine has guards behind the entrance and Henry is dead!” and then she disappeared from his mind.
“They are here!” said Jonathan. “Search for anything suspicious!”
The dracos checked the surroundings and the Gregorian house and, inside, they found a door in the floor. “It’s here!” screamed Jonathan. “I found it!”
Then all of them headed to the door, opened it and went inside the basement with the witch.
“This is just an empty basement.” added Mark, angrily.
“Was there anything what it seemed to be, until now?” asked Jonathan.
“No.” answered Mark.
“Then feel the walls, this can’t be just another basement!” continued Jonathan as he was touching the bricks with his hands.
All dracos did the same when Ria found a small crack and pushed it. The entire wall moved and the dracos found what they were looking for: the entrance to Constantine’s hiding place. But, as the wall was moving, the witch noticed something peculiar to the back of Jonathan’s neck: small hairs were growing grey. The dracos did not see it as they were not paying attention to that, but the wolves suddenly all gathered around him. Still, it did not seem peculiar to the rest.
“It works!” whispered the witch, but before she could say anything else, the entrance was fully opened and monsters attacked them all.
In the back of the room, Ava and Rene were chained, Henry’s body lay on the ground and Constantine, Cristian and a few other werewolves were watching the spectacle. The doctor’s eyes widened as he saw his wife there. When he tried to get to her, Constantine stopped him saying “Wait! Let them fight! She can take care of herself, she is a witch and not the woman you think she is!” But her hands were tied.
The wolf pack showed its teeth and used them to pierce the skin on the necks of the beasts, the dracos killed with their swords, but then, their agility faded, their eyes which were black and the deep blue veins on their faces and necks quickly disappeared. the dracos, with the exception of Jonathan, all turned human and they were out powered by the monsters. Also, Ava’s brothers shape shifted, but they were so weak that they both could not move, they stat face down to the floor.
“Stop!” said Constantine being overjoyed with what he saw. He realized that the dracos, with Jonathan’s exception, were now fully human.
The wolves stood in front of the new humans, showing their teeth toward the monsters and Jonathan was right between them.
“When you disbanded the Order, my Order, you knew the day would come when you will no longer be dracos. Well it seems that the day has come.” said Constantine grinning. “Now you have a choice. Those of you still wolves and you, Jonathan, can continue fighting, but we will kill the humans or you can declare yourselves the losers and I shall show you some mercy.”
“You do not know what mercy is!” said Jonathan.
“You haven’t heard what my offering is.”
“What do you want?” asked the only remaining draco while looking at Ava.
But before he talked about the deal, Constantine asked the witch “Did your attempts work?”
“No! What I wanted to do was impossible and it will be impossible.” answered the witch to the bewilderment of Cristian who was still trying to understand the situation.
“That is not what I wanted to hear.” replied Constantine. He then looked at Jonathan and said “I want you dead. You let me kill you and I let all of them live, the humans and the wolves. However, if you continue fighting us, I will kill the humans and Ava. And this is what you want, you want Ava alive, you want her safe.”
“I can still kill you Constantine. I have enough wolves here right now and you only have five of your monsters left.”
“If you try to kill me,” said the man while putting a knife to Ava’s neck and one to Rene’s “I will kill them.”
“Jonathan,” tried Mark to speak while begging him with his eyes to not let anything happen to Rene “I promised I would take care of her. She can’t die, please!”
The draco was in an impossible situation. He knew that if Constantine lived he would not stop until he would hunt all dracos in the world. And then, Ava got in his mind again.
“Let him go!” she said.
He did not want to think this way, but a thought is instant “I will die.”
“No, you won’t! You’re losing your draco abilities, but you’re turning wolf.” said Ava. “Your brain is rewiring at this moment When a wolf is caught while turning, he can’t be killed. The knife wi
ll pierce your skin, but, as you turn, your entire body will regenerate in a different form. I saw part of what the witch tried to do. But you had blood in your system, long before she gave you that of my brother. I gave you some in 1698, to help you heal. I got in Cristian’s mind and I now know that wolf blood stays in the system of the one who receives it, it merges with his blood. I gave you too little so you never turned into a wolf, but you have it in you. Now, with that taken from my brother, by the witch, and given to you, you will turn. You’ll be both wolf and draco, not just for a week as it happened to Constantine. All werewolves can turn people or any other being into werewolves, but the werewolf has to want that. Constantine stayed werewolf only for a week because my will was transmitted into my blood and my blood fought his desire to be one so he turned back human. Find me again and this time, destroy the monster!”
The whole conversation took place in an instant in their heads and so Jonathan replied quickly, while throwing the sword away “Fine, you’ll get what you ask for, just know that if you do not leave the humans alone, the wolves will jump to your neck.”
“Cristian, hold the knives to their necks!” said Constantine with an authoritarian voice. “If they make a move, kill the witch first.” And then he moved toward Jonathan. His hand grew long, large claws and he told the draco: “Come to the center!”
As Jonathan walked to the center, Constantine put his left hand on his shoulder and then, as he was about to pierce the draco’s chest to squash his heart, the werewolf remembered that Jonathan did not die beneath the Black Church, or that he somehow came back from the dead. But he knew that there was one method of killing a draco he had tested many times, back when he was still the leader of his Order. Constantine headed toward the sword Jonathan threw away. Ava got scared as she knew the werewolf killing sword would indeed take Jonathan’s life and, he would not be able to regenerate while turning into a wolf, he would just stay dead. So the woman tried and succeeded in getting into the mind of the wolf next to the sword. It was the mother wolf and she put her paw on it while growling. That determined Constantine to turn around and take the knife the doctor was holding to Ava’s neck, rush to the draco, and throw it in his heart.
“That shall stop you from breathing!” said Constantine and, as Jonathan fell bleeding, the duke ordered his mutts to take the two women and leave.
“What about Ileana?” asked Cristian?
“Leave her! She is good for nothing.” said Constantine as he made the wall behind him close, leaving no exist for those in the basement.
As the werewolves were leaving with their leverage, inside of the basement, the pack and the humans stared with sadness at, what looked to them, just a corpse. But Jonathan began to shape shift and, as the process ended, he was fully healed and turned back into his human form.
The witch, seeing Cristian so tied to Constantine got more upset than she expected. She looked at Jonathan as he turned back into a human and said “You are a hybrid, a true hybrid. It worked on you, but not on him.” pointing to Mark. “I don’t understand why.”
“So you know where they are going?” asked Jonathan.
“No, this time, there is nothing I can do. You can believe as I too was betrayed by him, he left me here. But why did this happen to you and not to them?”
Jonathan was looking for a way to make the wall move again, but he explained “Because I have Ava’s blood in me.” He then continued to explain all that the mind bender showed him and he saw a little crack in the wall and pushed, just like Ria, when she first found it. The wall began to move.
“Wait! Werewolves can create others and you are now a hybrid, it means you are half like them, then you can turn us.”
“If I do this, then you can say goodbye to the normal life you’ve always craved for.” replied the hybrid.
“If I don’t find Rene then I have no life to return to.” said Mark.
“Aiko is dead, I also have no life to return to.” added Masaru.
“Neither do I.” continued Ria.
“Nor have I. I went home two days ago only to find my daughter dead, killed by one of those monsters.” said Chen. He was one of the very few who was turned into a draco along with his child, his daughter. She was nineteen when she was turned and her father was forty four. That was a hundred and fifty years ago.
Then, Ava’s younger brothers, Radu and Stefan, felt a rush through their bodies. Their eyes turned black and their veins turned deep blue.
“It is working on you too!” said the witch and the wolves began to howl because they saw this as a way for them to shape shift again.
“The wolves what to turn into hybrids.” said Stefan.
“Dracos feel the need to feed on human blood, your first years will be dreadful.”
“Do you feel the need for blood, brother?” asked Radu.
“Not stronger than the hunger I felt while being a wolf.” answered Stefan.
“Turn us!” urged Mark as Jonathan was hesitating.
“Turn us now so we can finish the damned monsters!” said Masaru.
“You might be sired to me!” replied Jonathan.
“Even if they are now human on the outside, their blood is still that of beasts and dracos have free will. They won’t be sired!”
“What if they will be?” asked Jonathan.
“They won’t be! Witches also can’t be sired if turned into hybrids. That is why I wanted to use Constantine, at first, to become one,” answered the witch “because he can’t take away my free will.”
Then Radu and Stephan bled their palms and let the wolf pack lick the red. And, in the frenzy of the moment, Jonathan also bled his palms and let Mark, Ria, Chen, and Masaru drink. Then they all got out of the basement and, while going into the house, the process was accelerated in them and they all began to shape shift into wolves and back to human form, causing the clothes on them to tear. It became a bit awkward as they were all naked, but they quickly searched for clothes in the house. It was obvious to them that Constantine rebuilt the house for a reason: he wanted to live there once his plans were whole. And, indeed, it was so, for they found clothes in the house.
Now, there was a witch in the house, five hybrids turned from dracos and nine turned from werewolves. All of their senses were heightened; they were as agile as a draco, as strong as a werewolf, and faster than both. And, even though Cristian sprayed the cars in which he was in and that of the other sires of Constantine with something that would make them and their transports odorless, the hybrids could still feel a hint of their scent.
“What happens to the witch?” asked Mark.
“She might be of use to us someday, but for now we should set her free.” replied Jonathan.
“She might try to hurt us.” continued Mark.
“How? She can only do magic that has something to do with wolves.” answered Jonathan.
The woman widened her eyes when she realized that they might leave her alone, but also because the man seemed to know that she can’t perform magic on a hybrid. Now, Jonathan was starting to recuperate some of his memories from before his turning into a draco. He recollected the day when Ava told him about the existence of wolf bound witches.
“They can only perform magic on humans and werewolves.” she said.
“You are a werewolf.” he added.
“But I am also a mind bender, a very weak one for now, but I still am one. By being a mixture of different kinds, the spell of the witch can’t affect me, in fact, her spells can’t affect any other being other than werewolves, normal wolves, and humans. All witches can perform magic on humans, but they are also of different kinds, just like dogs are of different kinds. You have domestic dogs like the shepherd, and you have wild dogs, like the wolf.” she explained.
And now, Jonathan explained to the other hybrids the same. “She can’t do anything to us, the same way Sorin could not do anything against the werewolves. And that is also why Rene’s powers do not work on them. They worked on Ava and Henry because, in
this life, they are both human, they haven’t turned into werewolves.”
“I’ll stay here and destroy the laboratory she has. I will destroy all evidence of any supernatural being in this city and I will take care of the pups and the bodies. Then, I can come after you and help.” said the mother of the werewolf pups.
“No, you can’t come after us! Take care of the pups. I am sure they are confused for they have been children for over 300 years. It will be more difficult for them to adjust and understand the world in human form.” added Jonathan.
“Thank you!” she replied.
“Do whatever you deem necessary with the witch, if she acts suspiciously.” added Jonathan.
“How do you feel brother?” asked Stefan.
“Like I could hunt a thousand beasts!” answered his twin, smiling.
“Well then, let’s get our sister back.” added Stefan.
All hybrids did not fit in the two cars so some had to run to get a car, but they were extremely fast, more than they ever were. The witch and the mother hybrid were left in front of the laboratory so it could be destroyed while the rest followed the trail of Constantine, out of the mountains.
As Constantine’s car was advancing on a mountain road, Ava was fretting. She was trying to enter in the conscience of the driver, but she was still too weak to do it as the breaking of the shield put great strain on her mind and her body. However, if she did not want her friend dead within the next hours, she had to do it, for Jonathan would not get to the airport before their plane would take off. Ava could not pierce Constantine’s mind as he was still under that veil of protection cast upon him by the witch who loved him in 1699. But she pierced for a second through Cristian’s mind she found out that the command was to kill Rene before they would get on the plane. “No,” thought Ava “she won’t be another victim of the bastard!”
“What’s happening?” asked Constantine as the car suddenly stopped. “What are you doing man? Keep driving. We need to get to the airport and leave this country. Cristian, is the plane ready?”
“Yes, your sired at the airport has everything on standby.” answered the doctor.
Age of Extinction (300 Years of Sin Book 2) Page 8
