“Ask your question.” He was in no mood for such a fight. He was also no longer in the mood for the formalities of state and clan. “And stop referring to me as your lord. I am no longer anything of such.”
Kenar accepted this without question, so he asked his question. “Why are you convinced that she is Permona? What is it that draws you to this conclusion?”
Satar kept his eyes down. “I have no other choice but to believe that she is.”
“The Seer had told Lady Sharlia that no such thing is possible, and told her that she had told you this, but yet, here you are. Here we now stand.”
“She told me more than that.” He looked up.
Kenar’s curiosity was peaked.
“The chain has begun. The world has turned to a different direction. A child will be born to do it all.”
Kenar saw his mind. He saw the Seer. He saw her as clear as day.
“A trinity shall be borne by you Satar. The trinity will one day unite your world, the human world, and all of the life on this world. This birth is by you. He will bring salvation to all of life.”
Kenar closed the thought.
Satar was now staring directly into his eyes. “You saw it. You saw her.”
He nodded.
“She told me to find her again. Find my Permona and begin it.”
Kenar understood, or at least he thought he did. “That is why you wanted to elevate her. You are trying to fulfill this trinity thing.” He had never met the Seer. He didn’t know her character, but now, if they survived the night, he truly did want to meet her. He wanted to know why she told him such a thing. What was in it for her?
He nodded. “My Permona will regain her seat, and with it, a new child will be born, my child, a child of light to start over again.”
Kenar had a chill roll through his body like ice rakes the skin. “Does Devish know of this?” he had to know.
Satar grinned. He also nodded slyly. “He does, but does not care.”
Kenar didn’t like any of this. Inside him, he could see the look in the Seer’s eyes. She is up to something, what I do not know, but I will have to find out.
Satar heard him but paid him no mind. He had other concerns.
Kenar blocked out his thoughts of the Seer, and turned back to the matter at hand. “When your son and brothers arrive…,” he began.
Satar cut him off. “I will stand with her. I will do anything I have to, to make her safe.”
He did want to know this, but there was more. It was the most serious question of all. “Will you stand against your own son?” This pressed him like a vice, and surprisingly, he felt Satar answer him as calmly as he ever felt him.
“Yes.” He looked at her. She had moved further to the other side of the flames, which made it difficult to see her, but she was still there. She was right there just so close to being touched by him.
Kenar hoped he was. He still wasn’t sure, but he also knew that he didn’t have the choice either way. The fight was coming soon, and when he heard thoughts blaring through the sky and coming from the trees, he now knew how soon it was. He felt them. They were almost there. He turned to Satar and saw his face. He saw the same look.
“They are here.”
Satar looked up. “I hope you know what you are doing Kenar?” He looked back down and their eyes met.
Kenar could only shrug. “So do I.”
45
They roared from the trees, and as expected, the wolves led the charge. Satar knew their ways well. He expected their attack.
Four tanned colored wolves came to the road at full run. Their four legs kicked and pegged. When they reached the side of the road, not five yards from the fire, Donte and his five men stepped out from the other side of the flames.
They led with their spikes. They pushed forward with their arms fully engaged.
Two wolves were instantly plunged with the silver spears.
Donte took out the left wolf with almost relative ease. He stuck it right between its neck and both shoulders. He watched its blood spray out in an overpowering and splattering ooze. He watched it instantly turn back into a human shape, a young woman who looked younger than he was. He then watched her die.
The second wolf was stuck directly in its side, just behind its left front leg. It too sprayed out blood just as it fell over from the blow and turned back into its human form. This one was a male, maybe in his early twenties. His black hair flattened at his death.
A third wolf, this one running between them, jumped their line. It landed behind the group. In doing so, it struck to the back of a young human’s leg. It bit down onto his calf and tore his flesh from bone.
The young man screamed with so much pain that it seemed to shake the very earth beneath their feet.
Donte turned and saw whom it was.
Junat, a young man that he knew very well, grabbed his leg. He took a hold of his knee and found nothing but blood below it. This made him scream again, as this time the wolf came at his face.
Donte saw this, and rushed to help.
He was too late.
The wolf took Junat by the chin and with one strong pull, pulled half of his face clear off. It left only part of his tongue. It left nothing but a tattered and shattered blood.
“No!” He took his spear and pushed it hard at the left side of the beast. He plunged the silver blade into the small spot between the wolf’s shoulder and jaw. “This is what you get!” He pushed harder until the pike protruded out the other side of the animal’s face.
No sooner than it had, a young woman’s body fell to her right and died.
He removed the blade. He stood back up, turned to his friend, but saw nothing but a deep dark gray color moving fast towards his face.
Adollo had arrived and joined the fight.
He grabbed the human by his right arm, snapped the wooden pole with his left hand, and brought his snout down towards his face.
Donte saw the black nose. He saw the white and sharp teeth. He saw a pink tongue as its mouth opened wide.
The large gray wolf went in for the kill.
Patrice watched it from behind the flames. Fire was the one true danger to most animals. To some, it burned them. To others, it frightened them. To a Walker, an animal that hunted by the body’s heat and by the blood flowing through their victim’s veins, it blinded them from anything moving around it. Seeing the young human grabbed hard by a Blood Walker wolf, she took her chance. She reached in and found him through the air of time. She found his body. She felt him move. She felt him bend. She felt his heat. She grabbed at him just as strongly as she could.
Instantly, Adollo froze in place. His opened jaws and teeth were only inches from striking home.
Donte accepted the strike. He saw his death, and when it didn’t come, he truly felt astonished that he was still alive. Looking at the animal’s sharp teeth, he felt even more than that.
Patrice had him, but she knew of Adollo’s gift. She knew he could break her spell rather easily; it would just be a matter of time, so she didn’t hesitate but to force his hands to release the human, and after he was back on his own two feet, she lifted the wolf off his paws. She then threw him in her mind.
He did fly.
He flew hard back into the darkness off the road. He completely disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Free again, Donte did turn. He saw the Wanderer standing by the fire. He saw her blue eyes flaring and glowing in the fire’s dim glow. He knew that she saved his life. He didn’t expect it, but now seeing it, he would never do so again.
Patrice gave him a quick smile. Doing so, she lost her grip.
Kenar stayed with her, saw the humans regroup at the tree line, and took a deep breath. He watched the wolves retreat back into the trees. He felt five of them die. He also felt three humans also fade out. Junta was the first, followed by Gan, a young man not yet twenty, as he had his head removed by a wolf’s bite from behind. The third was Mirtha, a man in his thirties. He felt him ri
pped apart with his chest torn open by two wolves at once. Feeling their deaths was strong. It was fierce. There was more.
“Shades are coming!” He looked up, seeing through their eyes as he saw them coming from behind them. They were coming from the other side of the river. He turned back. “Rochie?”
He stood on his left.
“It is time to light the sky.”
Rochie let his eyes flare to blue. He felt for the rocks, the hundreds they piled neatly along the river’s edge. They were large. He made sure they were jagged. He felt all of them, one at a time, and then he felt them move.
The Shades came, swooping, hissing, blasting, as they came down.
Seeing only about four of them, it was all he needed. He took one rock, and lifted it off the pile. He let it loose.
It flew off.
A second one followed it, then a third, and a fourth.
He kept throwing them in his mind.
A Shade came down, aiming towards them, but it didn’t reach the ground.
The first rock found its mark, and struck it hard to the left side of its head. It screeched out with a high hissing sound as it lost control. Blood ebbed down its face as it fell hard directly into the river’s dark water and disappeared beneath the waves.
A second Shade was then hit, then a third, and then the fourth. The rocks struck them hard. They were direct hits. All of them fell just as hard, with one smashing into the other side of the shore while the others fell into the water.
Kenar watched them fell. Their red auras sparkled and then vanished into the blackness. Seeing all of this was only the beginning. Another mind came into his. Another voice echoed from the dark.
“Devish.” He turned back to the trees. He heard their speed. He heard the heavy gust of wind as it blew around their bodies. He saw the bright red of their auras as they blazed through the night.
They came fast. They blurred straight to the flames.
Kenar held his heart. Unlike wolves, human vampires were not deathly infected by silver. It only hurt them, but it wouldn’t kill them. Only one thing could do that, and it was the time to use it.
“The gold, use it now!” he shouted out to everyone who held them in their hands.
Jameson’s time had come. The four men with him surrounded his sister in a circle to the right of the fire. When the order came, he and his group lifted the golden braids out in front of them and swung.
One female vampire struck a band held by Jerod, a friend of his from a very young age, and she immediately screamed out in pain. The band struck the side of her face. It forced her to stop.
When she did, he saw a deep black burn stretching out from her left eye down to her chin.
Seeing it, Jerod laughed. He couldn’t help himself. “I will be damned. It works.” He gripped the band tighter, now more confident than he ever felt in his life.
“Keep swinging them. Keep them back.” Jameson understood his reaction, but this wasn’t over yet, not in a million years.
They did stay back. Some of them stopped around his circle. Three of them stood their ground.
They didn’t move. They didn’t come. They just stood there, and now seeing them, Jameson laughed some himself. “Keep them there. Keep them in front of you.”
Kenar smiled. Everything was going as planned. But they were still outnumbered by a lot.
“We are not going to win this.” He turned to Rochie.
“We have to do something.” Rochie was now running out of rocks. They may be hurting the Shades, but they were not killing them. All Walkers have a gift for healing fast from wounds. He just didn’t have enough rocks.
Kenar agreed. “Yes we do.”
He turned, looked behind him to Shandra and gave her a nod. “We need your winds.”
She blinked hard. She didn’t want to do it, but she also knew it was her time. She had to, because only she could. So she closed her eyes. She brought her power forward, and when she felt all of the air around her, she opened them again.
Instantly, the air around all of them turned cold. It also moved.
Her blue eyes sparkled. She opened her mouth, and screamed, “Hold your breaths!”
Everyone who knew the plan did.
All around them, the very air shook. It moaned.
Suddenly, the coldness flashed as all of the air flew out from them like a sharp and gusting wind. It moved out from the flames. It pushed out through the trees. It pushed out to the water. It pushed out in a large circle of vacuumed air.
The Walkers around the flames didn’t expect it. They might have been strong. They may have been powerful, but they were not immune to the lack of breathing. Like all animals, they needed oxygen. They needed it to live. When it vanished, they all collapsed hard to their knees.
Seeing them down, Shandra pushed in her mind. “Hold on!”
The humans fell to their hands and knees.
The Wanderers gripped the poles that were through their pants and planted in the ground behind them. They held on as the air blew.
The wind grew rakishly as it jumped.
Every Walker felt their feet leave the ground and then suddenly they flew. Even the Shades were pushed off course as they flew backwards out into the night.
The wolves all tumbled back into the trees; some hitting them, others just missing them, but all of them vanished back into the dark.
Now alone again, the humans and Wanderers took an everlasting breath as the air returned. They then gathered their thoughts.
“Now I know why they feared you.” Satar stood at the back of the flames along the river. He too stood his ground, with the help of a pole. Watching all of this, well, it blew his mind.
Rochie blinked.
Shandra dropped her eyes.
Patrice grabbed her knees.
“We won this round but they will come again.” Kenar heard the Walkers scream. He heard their rage. He heard their pain. He saw their intentions to do just that.
Rochie shook his head. “You are right.” He looked to the river and heard the hissing coming from the blackness. They sounded far away, but he could also tell they were moving again. They were coming back. “We cannot hold on like this forever.” He looked to the humans and saw only eight of them reform in their circle. “We are running out of people to fight with.” He didn’t concern himself too much with them. All Wanderers possessed a soul. He would return one day even if he died. The humans, however, possessed no such gift. When they died, their souls didn’t return.
Kenar couldn’t agree more, so he looked at Satar instead. “It is time that you end this.” He moved to his side. He stared him down.
Satar didn’t move. “How am I to end this? They will not stop until I face my end.” He knew he was right.
So did Kenar, but there was more. Satar could do so much more than this. “These are your people. They are your brothers. You must speak with them.” He thought about the young woman, and a thought came to him fast. “If you do not try to do something, they will eventually take all of us, and where will that leave her?” He took his left hand with his right. “Can you watch her die?”
Satar felt his tears again. One streaked down his left cheek and chin.
“I will not let her end. I will die for her.” He knew how this would have to end. He knew what all of this meant. He now understood what she truly meant to him. Realizing this, realizing what the Seer told him, he now completely knew what he had to do. “My life is meaningless now.” He turned to Jameson, a few feet behind him on the other side of the fire, and saw her standing on the other side of him. “I would die for her.” Another tear swathed down his right cheek as he looked at Rochie, and then to Kenar. “I will try.” He finally acknowledged his own fate. He was right. He did have to try something, and if that were not enough, he would die for her to set it right.
Rochie listened and completely understood.
So did Patrice, and the others. All of them couldn’t believe it—couldn’t believe him, and what he
was intending to do, but they did accept it. If they had not witnessed it, right then, right here, they would have never believed it was true.
Satar nodded, and pulled the stake out from his waistband and left the flames. He closed his eyes, and opened his mind. He reached out into the night.
Devish, do you hear me my son? He looked out to the trees. He saw his son’s mind staring back at him from far away.
Odan, I will submit myself to your judgment now.
And the world held its breath.
46
Odan was the first to hear him; at least, he was the first to understand what he meant. When he did, he flew back to the river, and landed on its opposite shore. Once there, seeing them from the other side of it, he turned back into his human form. It was time to talk.
“Do you mean this Satar, my friend?” He almost couldn’t believe it. In some ways, he didn’t understand it, but in the end, he wanted it, more than ever.
He watched him land. “I cannot continue this fight. I cannot allow you to destroy these friends. This must end.”
Odan placed his hands on his hips. “They have turned against their families my friend. We cannot allow that to go unpunished.” He felt the need to stress this, even though a part of him didn’t think this at all. He too just wanted it to end.
Satar saw this and smiled. “You are a generous person Odan. Surely, you can forgive them for standing against you for what they believed to be right. Surely, you can understand this and why they did it.”
Odan lowered his head. “I can.” And he did.
Satar felt grateful for his friend, but when the voice of his son came to him from trees, all of his good feelings vanished fast.
“You know what will be done here father.” He stepped back through the trees. Unlike most of the others, he found a sturdy tree and held on to it through the wind. He was quicker in getting back to the road.
Satar turned to his voice.
“You know what we have to do to set this right.” Devish stepped to a point to where everyone could see him. The orange glow of the fire lit him up just enough.
Satar heard the hatred in his voice. He saw it in his mind. “This has to end Devish. This cannot continue. They are so like us that we do not need to fear them.” He had to make him understand this. If he could do anything at all, this was it. He had to see the truth.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 24
