by Harry Nix
“Have you,” she started to say and then lowered her voice to a whisper, stepping closer to Alex so her lips were by his ear, “Have you had any kind of blackout during sex at all? Like lost time?” she whispered.
Goosebumps crawled up his neck at the feeling of her breath on his ear. Alex had to pull away from her, feeling a sudden rush of heat, and started focusing on the lights hung up behind the bar rather than looking at her, her cleavage, and the way the dress fell on her body.
“Yeah, I did, not too long ago,” Alex said.
Nia gulped her drink down like she was taking a shot and then put the glass on the bar before letting out a gasp at the strong alcohol.
“I keep forgetting you didn’t grow up a werewolf,” she said, taking a few deep breaths. She looked around the immediate area, which was quite crowded.
“Finish your drink or bring it with you. I need to talk to you in private,” she said.
Alex gulped down the rest of his martini. He allowed himself to be pulled by Nia away from the bar and through the hall. As they passed some of the fabric partitions hanging from the ceiling, he saw that part of the hall had been set up as an art gallery.
There were exquisite statues and paintings and people wandering around, looking at them as waiters circulated carrying trays with food and glasses of champagne. There was a cluster of statues of naked young men all grinning, except for one with his hands out as though begging. Not far away was a tall man with sleek black hair in a suit that must have cost more than what most people make a year. Alex nearly stumbled when he saw Roma standing beside him. The last time he’d seen her had been behind the counter wearing a leather apron.
Tonight she was wearing a sleek black gown that fit her curves in all the right places. Alex felt the urge to howl at the moon in pure appreciation for it.
He saw the man put his arm around Roma and saw her flinch at the touch.
“That’s Prince, the vampire,” Nia muttered, tugging on Alex’s arm.
Mad thoughts swirled. What is that goddamn vampire doing touching his mate! Roma was his!
For a moment their eyes met. He saw Roma notice him and then Nia pulled him away. He wasn't quite sure how she knew where she was going, but after a moment she’d found a door out of the hall and had pulled him into a small corridor. That led to stairs going up and down. Without hesitating, Nia pulled him down the stairs, around the corner, and along a corridor. The floor was covered in a rich, red carpet that muffled their footsteps.
“Should we be down here?” Alex asked. He was still trying to find his equilibrium. Roma his mate? What nonsense was that?
“It's fine,” Nia said. They passed a door and from inside Alex heard a girl giggling and the sound of a man. He guessed they weren’t the first guests to leave the party to find somewhere private. Nia went to the next door down the corridor, but it was locked. The third along, however, was open, so she pulled him inside and closed the door.
Alex got the briefest glimpse of the room—a rich solid desk with an enormous leather chair, a world globe, bookcases, some paintings and a statue of a nude girl in fine marble—before Nia flung herself at him, her hand scrabbling for his belt. Her mouth tasted like fruit from the cocktail. Alex wasn't quite sure what was going on, but in the state he was in, he went with it. Nia soon had his pants undone, her hand wrapped around his cock, kissing him everywhere and then suddenly kneeling, enveloping him. Alex tried to stifle a moan as he half fell back against the door, hoping he wasn’t being too loud. He tried to keep his eyes open, but the pleasure was too intense, although the view was quite worth it; Nia in her spectacular red dress, on her knees with the gold necklace with a green emerald around her neck. She moved back and forth but it was only for a few minutes and Alex realized that while she was on her knees, she was trying to take her underwear off with one hand and having a hard time of it. He finally saw what she was doing, so he pulled her up, losing connection, Nia letting out a disappointed sigh.
Nearby there was an exquisite sofa in dark leather. Alex pushed Nia towards it and tried not to fall over because his pants were around his ankles. She got the hint and moved over to it, bending over the arm and lifting her dress. Alex managed to kick off his shoes and get his pants off, and although he knew that no girl wanted to see a naked man in socks, he just couldn't wait. He pulled up Nia's dress and grabbed her underwear. They were already half down so he completed the job and pulled them to the floor. As he did, he then kneeled down behind Nia, quickly giving her a kiss on one butt cheek before plunging his tongue in between them.
Now it was Nia's turn to moan as Alex began to lick. She bent further over the sofa arm, holding onto it and spreading her legs. Alex kept licking, feeling like a wild animal. Eventually he couldn’t hold himself back and he stood up, plunging into her. Nia had painted her nails bright red and now Alex saw they set off well against the dark leather of the sofa as she held on tight. She was slightly off-balance, having to hold on with all her might, her breathing in gasps. Alex felt that same madness again, that crazed sexual desire, that made him want to drag Nia somewhere and spend the whole day in bed with her. It felt a little like the rage that came, the wild, that threw him into the blackness but not quite.
Alex faintly heard a low giggle and the sound of the man's voice from the room two doors down the corridor, and instead of ignoring it, he felt a flush of anger. How dare another man be anywhere near his mate? Alex pushed it away, and visions of marching down there, kicking the door open, and ripping the man's head off.
Nia had begun moaning, and as Alex jolted back and forth, tiny flecks of red pulled themselves out of the air. There was a sudden burst as Nia came and the jolt of it pulled Alex over the edge. He was pulling her hips back and forth, harder and faster, not slowing this time, and Nia's low groan turned into a moan and she lost herself entirely. For a moment Alex could hardly see for the red hitting him. He knew it was being wasted, the sex magic bar was already filled to the top from earlier in the day. After a few moments he slowed and then stopped, stepping back, taking deep breaths to slow his heart rate. Nia tried to stand but was shaky but finally managed to get herself up. By then, Alex had found his boxer shorts, had put them on, and was working on his pants.
“I really needed that,” Nia said and then laughed.
“What was that about?” Alex asked, “Not that I'm complaining by the way,” he quickly added.
“We have to finish up our business in Baxter really soon. It's called the thrall or sometimes the curse. It’s a sexual madness that comes over an alpha werewolf and affects his mates too. When it does, they lose all consciousness of what they're doing. They just want to mate with their mates and that's all, and they'll kill anyone who gets close. So, it’s definitely not something that can happen in civilization.”
“How long does that last?” Alex said.
“A week or two. It’s one of those unknown things. Sometimes it can be twice a year, other times it won't happen for years. It happens most though to alphas with new packs and no children,” Nia said. Alex was just about to ask another question when Nia moved, ostensibly to pick up the high heel she'd kicked off when there was a sudden flash of green from the emerald around her neck.
“Did you see that?” Nia said.
“Yeah, what's happening?” Alex said. The emerald now had a slight glow to it. Nia took a step towards her high heel which had been thrown across the room and the glow intensified.
“I can feel it. It’s pulling,” Nia said.
“We still have time, we can follow it,” Alex said, checking the watch Ruby had given him. Nia picked up her high heels but didn't put them on. Alex had dressed, tucking in his shirt, getting himself back to some kind of respectability. He followed Nia towards the back of the room and it was only when they got there they realized that what looked like a bookcase was actually a hidden door. It swung open at a touch, entering a small alcove that led to a much larger room beyond.
They'd purchased another shifter ch
arm which Nia was wearing, and without warning, she shifted. her heels disappearing as well as her dress. The necklace remained, however, which was something Alex found odd. Nia sniffed the air.
“There’s no one out there,” she whispered to him.
Alex followed Nia out into the larger room. It was cooler down there, with flat marble floors and that feeling you get when you’re in a library or museum that you should be quiet.
“Wow, look at that,” Nia murmured, pointing at a nearby bronze statue. It was a Centaur, ridiculously huge, reared up on his back legs, holding a bow and arrow, and with a furious look on his face. The detail on it was exquisite. They walked over and Alex saw there was a small plaque at the bottom.
“Excavated in 1462 but dated to 8000 BCE. I didn't know they were making statues like this back then,” Alex said. As they moved into the room, they saw there were more artifacts spread around. Tapestries hung in glass cases along with stone tablets. Pedestals were scattered through the room with single items such as arrowheads and long fangs.
“How are we going for time?” Nia asked.
“We need to leave soon,” Alex said.
Ruby's plan was simple. Make an appearance at the party while she goes off to scout the grounds and check where all the guards were. Then they were to go outside and meet at the back corner of the mansion where they would scatter the sleep crystals to form a rough perimeter. While the three girls kept watch outside, armed with sleep crystals, Ruby and Alex would break in through the back window which Ruby said led to a treasure room where they would be able to find gold and jewels. She also said she had arranged a distraction but had declined to give any further details despite Juno prodding her.
They kept moving through the museum, Nia following the pull. Despite what they’d just done, Alex was having trouble keeping his eyes off his mate.
“So, what was with that anyway? You tell me it's the thrall and then suddenly drag me upstairs to screw my brains out?” Alex asked.
Nia shook her head with a smile.
“I don't know what came over me. It could be the idea of the thrall. For werewolves, it's intoxicating just to think that it might happen. I just suddenly had to; I couldn't stop myself,” she said. Then she gave Alex a quick kiss, which after a moment deepened before she pulled herself away before both of them started to pant.
“Let's just keep going,” Nia said, fanning herself.
Alex nodded, although he was already looking around to find something Nia could hold on to if she bent over. They kept moving and soon came upon a fragment of tapestry, torn from a much larger piece. On it was a werewolf standing on a pile of dead, golden sparks leaking from its sharp claws.
“Is this werewolf mythology? Like Ito the Trickster? Or is this something that actually happened?”
Nia studied the tapestry and then shook her head.
“I never heard a story of a single werewolf killing a bunch of mages. You know, apart from you.”
“How do you know they’re mages?”
“See that symbol there? That’s an old sigil of a destroyed mage enclave. What were they called... oh yeah, Lucret maybe? Something like that. Look at that mage under his foot—that’s Tradinium’s sigil on his robes, or an old form of it.”
“So this werewolf mage fought and killed a lot of human mages from various enclaves? But you’ve never heard a story like that?”
Nia moved closer to the glass, absentmindedly pressing herself against Alex as she did. He breathed in, her scent of warm life a welcome change to the cold marble and dusty relics.
“Our history is an oral one. Things don’t get written down much. This tapestry wasn’t made by a werewolf. I think those edge markings mean witches sewed this.”
Alex examined the spidery black scratchings running across the top of the tapestry. The witch, or witches, who’d made it had used exquisitely fine thread to create what looked a little like Norse runes. Even though they were ancient, they still glimmered in the light.
“Is that a message or just their names?” Alex asked.
Nia shrugged. “Sorta both. I kinda skipped rune class but I definitely know that word there. It’s means something like time or lifetime or maybe even eternity. I think this was made by the Tempus witches, which means this tapestry might not be telling an old story.”
Alex frowned in confusion.
“But everything here is old. Broken vases, parchment fragments. That looks like a cave painting over there chipped out of the cave wall and stolen. Why wouldn’t that be an old story?”
“Tempus means time but that’s not really what those witches were. They were... disconnected from time? Outside of it maybe? For all we know that werewolf is a thousand years ago, a thousand years from now or next week. They made all kinds of weird stuff before they vanished. I swear I saw a photo once of an ancient parchment that had an illustration of a guy eating a hamburger, right in front of the golden arches.”
“The witches saw the future and picked a guy gulping down a quarter pounder in front of McDonald’s?”
“Looked like it to me. I mean, check out that dead mage right near the bottom there. That sure looks like he’s wearing sneakers to me and tell me that thing on the ground isn’t a cellphone, like one of those old flip-style ones.”
Alex looked at the mage and saw his feet were encased in a sleek pair of white and black shoes. And yeah, in the right light it did look like an old cellphone sitting on the ground.
“Is that what the glow’s telling us to find?” Alex asked.
“No, it's still pulling,” Nia said. They kept moving, heading towards the back of the room. Soon they came upon the final glass case, and within it was another torn piece of tapestry. Unlike the rest of the room, which was lit in subtle indirect lighting, this piece was in near darkness, the lights above it out. As Nia moved closer, the green glow from the necklace lit up the area and then began to lighten, slowly turning yellow, the emerald itself changing color.
Alex stopped when he saw the tapestry. It was much like the previous one with the strange rune stitched around the edges. This one had another werewolf on it, standing atop a pile of corpses, and howling up at the great light in the sky. This werewolf also had silver eyes.
“Do any of the stories about Ito say he had silver eyes?” Alex finally managed to say.
“No, silver is never in any werewolf stories except as something bad,” Nia said. The light from the necklace was now a warm yellow glow and lit up the remainder of the tapestry. On it was a jeweled semi-circle, fragments of diamond, ruby and emerald sewn into the fabric itself.
“A doorway,” Nia whispered.
There was a single claw emerging from it. Even though it was rendered in stitching, there was something deeply wrong with it. It was unnatural; not of this world.
Nia shivered and then the gem around her neck brightened to intense white light, forcing them both to close their eyes. It came and went in a burst, like an explosion, and when Alex opened his eyes again all he could see were white glimmers flickering. Then three things happened quite quickly.
The black stitching, the witch runes, ripped free from the tapestry.
It burst into flames.
The fire alarm began shrieking.
For a moment the runes hung in the air. Alex, his vision still half-blinded by the white light saw them as dark letters cut out, a deep negative. Then they flew toward him, passing through the glass and hitting him in the face.
He went down on one knee as a sharp pain burst in his skull. Something was being forced into his mind and he could not resist it.
The agony came and went, leaving Alex gasping on the ground. Nia managed to get him to his feet and he saw the flames behind the glass were unnaturally hot, streaked with blue, as they climbed the wall like a living thing set free from a cage.
“We need to get out of here,” Nia said, hauling Alex by the arm. They ran through the museum, back the way they came, and out the door. Every time the alarm blared, Nia cri
nged, her hearing far more sensitive in hybrid form.
As soon as they made it back to the room with the desk and bookshelves, Nia shifted back to human, her dress and shoes reappearing. It was then that Alex noticed that the emerald on the necklace around her neck was now black and dead.
They kept moving, heading out to the corridor and running into a man and a woman, both disheveled, coming out of the other room, him still doing his pants up and trying to tuck in his shirt. Following the couple, they ran upstairs, hearing shouting from above. Before they could get into the main room, though, there was a sound of an explosion that shook the entire mansion, ringing it like a bell. Cracks shot across the roof.
“What the hell was that?” the man asked, looking to Alex as though he was in charge.
“I think the party is over,” Alex said and barreled his way through the door into the main hall. It was pandemonium out there with people rushing for the exits, shoving past each other, many screaming and shouting. Alex heard a woman bellow that there were werewolves attacking, and another man said it was mages. There was another dull thud from outside the mansion that shook the chandeliers high above that were swinging and threatening to fall. Alex looked around but he couldn't see April or Juno.
“Is this Ruby's distraction?” he asked Nia, thinking that if it was, the old witch was totally insane.
“She's a bit crazy, but not this crazy. I think we need to go out a window,” Nia said, pointing at the huge crowd that was blocking the door. Together they ran through the hall away from the main doors.
At the rear of the hall, the no-neck guards were shouting into their earpieces, milling in chaos. Skipping past them, Nia and Alex ran through one of the rear doors and found themselves in a corridor that ended with a high window. Nia ran forward without pausing, picked up a chair that was sitting in the corridor, and flung it at the window, smashing a hole. The pair of them shifted to hybrid form in unison, leaping up onto the ledge and outside. There was a long drop out there, the grass sloping away, but it was no more than a story high and both of them landed easily.
