Age of Extinction (300 Years of Sin Book 2)

by Cristina M. Sburlea

  “Good! Damn it, man, why aren’t you driving?” asked Constantine while getting out of the car and heading toward the driver, but when he got in front of his door he saw the man was like a statue. He did not move, he did not even blink. It became clear to the duke: Ava could bend minds. He then turned to the back of the car where the women were. “Your mind tricks won’t work on me, I have protection!”

  “But my tricks will work on them!” she replied as she forced the driver to get out and attack him.

  Cristian tried to stop the driver, but he was pushed aside. Constantine had to kill his own sired and he felt huge pain in his heart. “What the hell?” he asked.

  “Oh, you did not know? This is something every wolf should know, but I guess you never got the memo. When you kill one you create, you feel its pain.” she screamed as she forced another beast to attack Constantine. The duke was forced to kill that one also and the pain intensified. She then made another one attack and the result was the same, but now Constantine felt crippled with pain. However, Ava could not enter Cristian’s mind anymore or anybody else’s for that matter. But Constantine did not know it so he and Cristian jumped into the second car and ran off, leaving the two women behind, tied, in the back.

  The two tried to untie themselves but it was impossible to break the metal around their hands.

  “What do we do now?” asked Rene.

  “We wait! They are coming for us.” answered Ava.

  “Other cars might pass by. What if they will stop? I can see how weak you are, do you think you can just make them go away and not look at us?”

  “I hope so! If not, it will be pretty damn difficult to explain the chains around our hands.”

  Still, no car passed on the road for half an hour until two arrived and, then, three more.

  “Why are so many cars stopping?” asked Rene, but she did not need an answer as she saw Jonathan and Mark getting out of one and heading toward them. Rene could not feel happier and she got out with Ava. “We’re tied. We need something to break this or unlock them.”

  “No problem, we have the necessary tools.” answered Mark smiling.

  “Where are they?” asked the woman, but in that moment all the rest started laughing.

  “Here!” said Mark as he showed her his hand and broke the chain.

  Jonathan also broke the metal around Ava’s hands and hugged the woman, kissing her passionately, causing her to turn red. Mark also hugged Rene and kissed her, also causing her to fluster. But then Ava looked at the rest of the hybrids and Mark explained to Rene what happened to them. Ava felt tears to her eyes as she saw her brothers. The twins then hugged her and Stefan said “It’s been too long. It’s good to see you!” While Radu added “I never thought this moment would come and, once I saw you and father, I hoped with all my spirit this would happen.”

  In all the pain and the suffering caused by Constantine, there was something good that came out: the wolves could now finally turn back in their human form which meant that they could lead a life fit for them, not just one of a prey animal.

  “We won’t be able to catch them and, even if we do, do we kill them in the airport and cause a scene?” asked Jonathan. “The guards will come at us with guns. Then what do we do? Do we show them we can’t be killed by bullets? The humans will come hunting for us next. No! We have to regroup!”

  “They won’t be lost!” said Rene. “Ava’s mind just needs rest. She crushed a shield that has been with her for hundreds of years. That takes almost all of one’s strength and she still managed to help you and free us.”

  “We need to prioritize.” added Jonathan. “We need to reach as many dracos as we can and warn them of the impending danger. Many of them have probably turned human during this night’s full moon. In their human form they will be even weaker and they will have fewer defenses against the werewolves. Radu, Stefan, go help the hybrid mother with getting rid of any evidence of the presence of the werewolves in Brasov. The rest of us will try to contact the dracos that we know of. And you, Ava, you need to rest.”

  “I need to help!” she replied.

  “You’ve done enough for now. Rest and you will help even more, once you get your strength.”

  “And maybe you can even turn into a wolf or a hybrid, sister.” said Radu, the second born of the twins.

  They all headed back toward Brasov and did as Jonathan said. As the hybrids were letting the dracos know of the danger that was after them, the news spread fast. Each draco also took it upon itself to let others of their kind know of the werewolves.

  When they got to the city, Ava entered Cristian’s thoughts, who was boarding a plane, and sent him a message: “We’re coming, the wolves and the dracos, nobody is dead, not even the two witches. We’re coming for you and all your werewolves should hide as the news of their hunt spread to all dracos!”

  Cristian got scared and told his master, but for Ava, to send the message, it took her last ounce of energy and she collapsed. Jonathan placed her on a bed and, before closing her eyes, she told him of what she had done and he informed the rest.

  “Werewolves must be on high alert now that Ava told them we are all after them. Constantine is one to plan ahead. He must be in contact with his sires.” said Jonathan after making the last call to a known draco. “It is very unlikely that they will hunt in the next few days. They will probably stay out of sight, until they will feel safe enough to go hunting again.”

  “We should split!” said Masaru while looking at Aiko’s body.

  “Masaru is right. If we split we will cover more ground, we can hunt more of the monsters.” added Ria, also while looking at Alex’s body.

  “You are both right, but where would you go.” said Jonathan.

  “Anywhere! They are spread out so maybe we should go now. Maybe I have enough time to burry Aiko next to her favorite place, before I start to hunt. If we are in different places, we will be able to reach further points faster.” continued Masaru.

  “He is right again.” added Ria.

  That was when Ava appeared from behind the door. She had an hour of rest, she was still weak but she heard the hybrids talking. “You can’t go, not yet, at least not you two. Others can go!” she said while looking at Ria and Masaru.

  “Why?” asked Jonathan.

  “For the same reason why my reactions were always delayed, since I broke the shield.” she added.

  “What do you mean, love?” asked Jonathan, confused.

  “Look!” she said as she pointed toward the bodies of the two dead dracos.

  “What’s happening?” asked Masaru as he saw Aiko get back some color in her cheeks.

  Then the two dead dracos moved their eyelids. They did not open their eyes, but they moved them. And they even moved a finger each.

  “I have been struggling to keep them alive since you were all in the complex beneath the Black Church.”

  “How?” asked Ria as she went next to her brother and held his hand. “How is that possible?”

  “When Jonathan was attacked, I entered his body and forced it to regenerate fast. I could not do the same with Aiko and Alex, but the neurons in the brain do not die even minutes after the heart stops pumping blood. It is only when the neurons die, that a being is truly dead. I knew that so I tried to keep their neurons alive by introducing part of my own energy in the bodies of the two dracos. Therefore, they kept regenerating as all dracos do because their neurons were still functioning. I am sorry it took so long for them to show a sign of life.”

  “You’re sorry?” asked Ria with tears in her eyes. “You kept my brother alive, I don’t care how, I don’t care why. You kept my brother alive!”

  Masaru was also moved to tears as he held Aiko close to his chest.

  Chapter 7

  There is more power when there are two

  As the hybrids were expecting for the two dracos to fully awaken, Ava wanted to talk to Rene, but she could not risk the others hearing her so she entered in the witch’s mi
nd and they exchanged a few words. “We both know what I saw in Cristian’s mind.” she said.

  “The werewolves won’t attack anyone for a few days, but Constantine will continue creating werewolves and he will use the other mind bender.”

  “Your magic worked on me!” said Ava.

  “If I were just a witch bound to dracos, it would not have worked at all, not on you and not on Henry. We have both been silent about this until now.”

  “If we tell them, they won’t let us do it! It is better to keep the secret for now. We will find the other one alone or we risk endangering everyone we care for.” added Ava.

  “What do you want to do next?” asked Rene.

  “They all have to feed at some point. When they do, you must be ready. I will call for you and we will leave.”

  “I will be ready!” replied the witch.

  While the hybrids were now the strongest creatures, they still needed food if they were to go on. The two dracos, Aiko and Alex, when they woke up, they also needed food, even the pups. So, when they all went out to hunt, Ava and Rene took advantage of the situation and they left the city. They went to the airport and boarded a plane for Moscow. The two women landed three hours later, leaving everybody else to wonder where they went. In the Russian capital, they looked for someone whom nobody that they knew heard of before and they found him: Vladimir. The man looked a little over forty, but he was older than four hundred and, when Ava saw him, she saw his true self. His soul was ugly, wrinkled, darkened, and putrid.

  “You have arrived!” he said, while opening the door to his house to the two women.

  “You said you can help.” added Ava.

  “You have turned into quite the beautiful woman.” said the man. “The last time I saw you, you were only a year old and then your mother banished me from your side.”

  “Can you blame her?” asked Ava.

  “No, I cannot! Your mother was right to do so. My daughter was a woman worthy of praise. Unfortunately for her, I was not. I was blinded, I was weak!” answered the man.

  “He is your grandfather?” asked Rene. “I did not know he was related to you!”

  “Yes, he is. He is also the reason why mind benders were hunted into extinction and why they could not see their hunters.” replied Ava.

  “Why did your mother banish him?” asked the witch.

  “Go on, answer her!” urged Ava.

  “Her mother did not just give birth to her that night, she gave birth to twins.” answered Vladimir.

  “You have a twin?” asked Rene while looking at the woman. “Is the other mind bender your brother?”

  “Yes, yes he is!” answered Ava.

  “So he is also a wolf!” continued Rene.

  “He never transformed into a werewolf. Her mother was half mind bender, she got that from me, and half wolf, she got that from my wife. Aron seemed to only inherit the mind bending traits.” continued Vladimir.

  “Did the shield on Ava affected him also?” asked the witch.

  “They are twins, they are connected. Whatever happens to one, also happens to the other.” answered Vladimir. “So, until now, he could not alter anyone’s mind, not in these almost three hundred and twenty years.”

  “So when you broke your shield, his broke too and that is why I was able to sense him since then.” said Rene.

  “Yes!” said Ava. “My brother was snatched by my grandfather at birth. Henry, or Iosiph, never knew about him. He was away on an expedition when we were born. My mother was not able to see through the conscience of others like I can, she could not alter their minds in almost any way so she did not realize what Vladimir wanted to do.”

  “But why?” asked the witch.

  “That was my fault.” answered Vladimir. “I made a pact with a witch. She helped me get the power of all mind benders, therefore making me invincible.”

  “What did you have to give her in return?” asked Rene.

  “The other mind benders.”

  “You mean, you had to have them killed.” she added.

  “I located them all and she had them hunted. With every mind bender dead, I would get his or her power. When I had enough power to even alter the mind of another mind bender, I did it to my daughter. She could never see inside the thoughts of another human and she was not killed, as hunters could not determine if she was more than a regular human. She was left alone, they never even suspected her as they did not know I was her father.”

  “Why spare her life?” asked the witch.

  “She was my daughter! I could not take her life. She was too precious.” answered the man.

  “But the other lives were not?” asked Rene, angered.

  “No, they were not, not back then. All I wanted was my throne.”

  “What?”

  “I was deposed by the people I trusted most.”

  “You were a king!” added the witch.

  “I was! And, because I trusted them so much, I never dared to look in their thoughts. So you can imagine how crushed I was when I realized what they had done.” said Vladimir.

  “And that is how you justified the slaughter of your own kind?” asked Rene.

  “Tell her why you needed my brother!” said Ava.

  “So much power came with a price. The more power I gathered, the more I started to lose a bit of myself. Mind benders do not die by natural causes. But the accumulation of so much power was killing me.”

  “He entered in the mind of the witch, even though she cast a veil around her mind. And, in her mind, he discovered that he would eventually die. That was her plan all along. She wanted him to die. She wanted all mind benders to go extinct for she thought that such beings were too powerful for the world in which they lived. But he also found out that, if he could share his power with another mind bender, he would be fine.” said Ava.

  “So you took a child from his mother’s side to keep you alive!” added Rene, appalled.

  “I took him to give him power, to share what I had with him.” added Vladimir. “But yes, also to keep myself alive. I wanted another soul near me as I got tired of solitude, but mostly I wanted to live. I raised him, I taught him all that I knew and then, one day…”

  “Aron tried to kill him!” added Ava. “My brother tried to kill his mentor.”

  “Aron decided he did not want to have another one as powerful as him in the world so he tried to kill me. It was then, that I realized what I had done. All my past actions, everything I had done was coming back to haunt me! In his attempt to kill me, he showed me all my demons. I saw and I felt the death of all the mind benders and all my victims.”

  “That crippled him!” added Ava.

  “When he tried to murder me, Constantine was killing Ava.” said Vladimir.

  “And that is why Aron did not succeed in taking your life.” added Rene.

  “Yes! But his curse has stayed with me since then. I have not slept a night in the past almost three hundred and twenty years of my life. Every time I try to close my eyes I feel the pain of all the victims. And I see their eschewed faces every second, there is not a moment of peace that I’ve had since.”

  “His soul is putrid and while I would not want to give him the satisfaction of getting some rest. It is either him getting what he wants or us being hunted by the army Constantine is building.” said Ava. “My brother is the most powerful creature in this world. My grandfather used to be his equal, but his spirit has become too weak to use the power he has hidden inside.”

  “What does Aron want?” asked the witch. “Why would he work with Constantine?”

  “Aron wants to make sure nobody will ever be able to work against him.”

  “You raised him in your image!” said Ava.

  “Before he tried to kill me, he made a pact with Constantine. The pact was that Aron would help him strengthen the Order which he so much cared for while Constantine had to share Ava’s blood with him so he could also become a werewolf and therefore not die from the power he would take fr
om me once I was dead.” added Vladimir.

  “But things did not go according to plan as Constantine took my life. He did not mean to do it, but he got too carried away by the idea of becoming a being far superior to what he was.” said Ava. “In all his faults, the bastard loved me.”

  “What do you mean by getting carried away?” asked Rene.

  “The witch who helped him, also loved him. She carried his child. When she realized how much he loved me, he cursed him to not be able to stop when drinking my blood.”

  “So Aron, now that he can bend minds again, he wants to use Constantine to become a werewolf.” added the witch.

  “Aron already has wolf blood in him, he just needs something to activate it.”

  “And I think that, next, he will try to kill me and Vladimir.” said Ava.

  “But he will not stop there. He will just use Constantine and then he will kill all beings that he perceives as a threat.”

  “Werewolves, dracos, hybrids.” said Rene.

  “And he will be able to do it from the comfort of his home. He won’t have to move an inch to do so.” continued Ava.

  “Then, what are we waiting for?” asked the witch.

  “In order to find him, to locate him, we need a spell.” added Ava.

  “I have the power somewhere locked inside of me. More than 300 years of constant pain, of feeling the victims, of seeing them non-stop, of not being able to sleep for a second, have taken a toll on me. I am not able to use it anymore. It’s here, inside, but I cannot access as much as it is needed to find Aron.” said Vladimir.

  “Aron is protecting himself from being found. He rejects any of my attempts to locate him. To defeat his protection I need more energy than what I have.”

  “No, I will not do that. I see what you want now, I understand. Ava, there has to be another way. Aron has practice, he knows how to control this much energy, you do not!” said Rene.

  “I will be coach her.” added Vladimir.

  “How long did it take Aron to get used to the amount of energy he has in him?” asked Rene, angered.

  “Not long.” lied Vladimir.