Velera didn’t like the sounds in his voice. He was up to something, she was almost sure of it. “Where were you Vincent? Is what she told us true?”
He looked at her next. He gave her a full smile. “How odd it is of you my dear Velera to want to follow me like this. What business is it of yours?” He looked back to Maxwell and then to Dorna. “If you all must know, well then, I suppose you do, then I shall give you what you wish.” He looked up to the chandelier. He looked past it to the glass window all around it. He raised his arms to it in a welcoming gesture and nodded.
All of them each looked up, just as glass shattered all around them in a smattering spray of chards. Before any of them had an idea of what was happening, a large thing—for the lack of a better word—came down with the glass. This thing, this creature then landed on the table directly in between all of them. When they were able to focus on it, they watched a large bat-like shade folding its wings back up to its sides. The shade, larger and far paler than most of them were, moved up to its feet.
Maxwell, back in the chair when the glass came down, gathered his thoughts back together again, and stared at the nightshade with aw. He instantly knew what—or who—it was. “Devish?”
The large pale bat looked right at him after hearing his name.
Dorna, Velera, and the others heard this and collectively winced. They all then stood up and backed away from the table and formed into a circle around it.
Devish moaned and let his wings form back into human looking hands. His clawed feet slid back and his nose bent out. His pointed ears then went round. Within seconds, he was back into his normal shape, a half bat, half wolf, human shaped form. He then turned to Maxwell and smiled. “Oh my dear Maxwell—has it been a long time since we last saw each other?” He looked to his left. “And Dorna, you look well also. I see time has given you a little weight as well.”
Dorna sighed heavily, almost coughing some after it. He almost didn’t know what to say at first, but when he finally did breathe, he swallowed before beginning with something. “Devish? Is this you?” He smiled, trying to anyway, but failed at it. Inside his mind was breaking. His head was swimming, and he felt like he was losing his control. He was never that good with fear. He hated the feeling. It fit him too well for him to like very much.
Devish moved across the table and towards him. A heavy thudding sound moved with him. “It is me. I have returned.” He spun around to all of the others. “I have returned to take back what is mine.”
Everyone took another step back.
“My lord Devish has come back to see who is worthy.” Vincent moved around the side of the table and stopped when he reached Dorna’s side. He stayed behind him. “He has returned to set things right.”
Dorna turned towards him but then looked back to Devish. “How my lord?” He swallowed again. “How did you escape your tomb?”
Devish laughed some before answering him. “I awoke not a hundred years ago after the wood in my chest rotted away.” He moved from the head of the table and over towards Maxwell where he stopped in front of him. “And it is a great thing that I have. For I have returned to see my great families weak. I have returned to find them soft, living off the scraps of those that were once their prey. I have come to find all of you alive but dead inside. Dead to what you once were—dead of purpose—the purpose that once ruled our lives and brought light to our kind. You?” He knelt down to Maxwell and raised his right hand to his face. “You have grown soft with your deals with our once human pests.”
Maxwell watched his hand and bowed his head from it.
Seeing this made Devish smile. He lowered his hand and stood back up to his pawed hind feet. “I have come back in great time to set this right again.”
“Devish?” Velera moved back towards the table and towards him. “We have found a new way of controlling the humans. We have found a better way at protecting ourselves.”
Devish turned to her and this made her take another step back.
He saw this and his smile widened. “And this is what, my dear Velera? What possible lives do you live by being their slaves?”
She bowed her head. “We control them my lord. We control them from the darkness. We pull the strings.”
He shook his head. “You call this living Velera? You call this life?” He knelt down in front of her. “You hide in the shadows, pulling the strings that they allow you to pull. You follow their rules, and play their games. Is this what you mean? Is this what drives you now, being their pets?” He stood up and looked back at Dorna. “You have grown fat on the human teats. You have all grown weak by playing their games. I only wish to see us standing once again in the light of our lives. I only wish to see us get what we deserve.” He looked around the table and met all of them with his stare. “We are the masters of this world. We are the true rulers of the humans. By living within the shadows you have denied yourselves the truth of who we are.”
“Does this have anything to do with the wolf Kalima?” Huna lifted her head. Being the head of Devish’s family gave her some amount of strength. She believed that he would see it. She believed it would hold some amount of weight for him. The fact that she wanted to know also gave her strength.
Devish turned to her feeling surprised by the question. The fact that one of them had the courage to ask it also gave him such a feeling. Seeing Huna, the head of his once proud family, made him turn from surprise to something that was closer to pity. “Huna? My dear lady.” He moved towards her with a slow and steady stride. “My family goes well, I presume?” He stopped right in front of her. He knelt down to her and smiled.
She stepped up to him and stopped at his knees. “You sought the wolf before. Is this what brings you back now?”
Devish admired her strength, but at the same time, wished that she hadn’t attempted it. He hated being questioned like this. He hated that she was the one that had the courage to do it. “You are in no place to question me, my dear Huna. What have you accomplished over these many years? What strength have you shown against the human menace?”
His voice made her flinch. His words flared fear through her mind. She did fear him after all.
He liked the feelings that he gave her, and it caused his smile to flare over his entire face again.
Dorna stepped back to the table. He didn’t like where this was going and knew that he had to stop it. “My lord Devish?” He rose out his hands to his master. “Forgive us for this indiscretion. We were all doing only what we felt that we needed to do.” He bowed his eyes. He feared for his life.
Devish stood back up, moved towards him, and stopped only inches from his hands. “I am sorry my friend but you are all guilty of this. And for this, you must all pay for that guilt.”
This brought Dorna’s eyes back up. “My lord?” He now knew that there was nothing that he could say to stop what was about to happen.
How right he was.
Within a second, a hand came at him so fast that he couldn’t react.
With his claws enlarged, Devish swung at his throat.
He felt his nails tear through his flesh. He felt them plunge into his spine. Within another second, he even felt his head come clean off.
Everyone standing there watched as Devish struck. They screeched out with a high-pitched sound that shattered through the room.
Devish didn’t stop with Dorna, so he turned right just as fast.
Velera went next. He rushed at her with speed. Likewise her throat went first. Her head flew off with ease. She died before she truly knew what happened.
They all watched as her head disappeared, and with it, some of them tried to run.
He pounced fast, left the table, and went at each of them in turn.
Some of them he tackled to the floor. Some of them he just flew past them with his claws exposed and removed their heads.
Within a minute, all of them were gone. All of them were now lying on the floor. All of them were now missing their heads.
When h
e finished his killing rampage, Devish stood at the side of the table and turned back to Vincent. He gave him a smile.
Vincent watched everything with wonder. He couldn’t believe how fast and strong he moved. To him, it was like watching a blur. To him it all happened too fast to see it clearly.
Devish allowed his body to flow back into his human form. When he was, he looked down at his hands and to all of the blood that covered them. He then took the time to clean them off with a large and long flip of the tongue. When they were clean, he looked back to Vincent. “We must remove our other threats my friend.” He dropped his hands back to his sides.
Vincent nodded. He understood and already put the plan into action. “Samantha is already moving against the Sharlias. She will take the home with all of her strength.”
Devish smiled. “Very well my friend. You have done well.” He looked around the room, smiling, seeing everything he did. “We will now move against this world. We will turn the humans against each other.” He turned and looked back to Vincent. “But first we must bring Kalima to us, and he will come. He will come to us and give me what I wish to have. He will give me everything I need.”
Vincent bowed his eyes. “He will not give you this freely my master.” He still had doubt. He still doubted that the black wolf would do this without a fight. After all, that’s what he did before. “He will fight you my master. He will try to kill you like he did before.”
Devish heard his doubts. Because of them, he did regret the feelings. “I do understand your fears my friend, but I will tell you this—he will give his life to me. He will give me what I wish.” He left Vincent and headed to the door, through it to the hallway, and left the room. He had to step over three bodies as he did so.
Vincent watched him carefully. “Where shall we go now my master?”
Devish stopped in the center of the hall. “We go to the flames my friend. We go there and wait for him to come home.”
Vincent nodded, looked one last time around the room, and then turned to the door. He followed his master, and together, they left.
33
Sharlia stepped off the elevator and instantly heard the screams. She heard the blood fly. She smelled their deaths.
Slowing her stride, she walked to the doors and stopped in front of them. From there, she could hear the deaths and dying suddenly stop. She then heard two voices speaking. The first one she knew was Vincent, but the second one sounded different. It sounded hoarse. It sounded deep. However, it did sound familiar. Devish? She recognized the growls within the deepness of his voice. Hearing him, she instantly realized what it meant. He took out the elders. He killed all of them. She now didn’t know what to do. If he killed all of them then he will next come for me. He is not just trying to take over the families but he is taking all of those who will stand against him out. That means that he will come after my family next. He will come for all of us. Realizing this, she turned from the door, flew with a blur back to the elevator and headed back down.
If he is going to come after me, he will come for the family first. None of us will fight with him, he knows this now.
She arrived in the lobby, headed across it quickly, and flew through the front doors.
I have to get back to the house. I have to warn them. I have to fight.
She headed down the street to her waiting car.
She hurried to the back door as Winston, her driver, held it open for her.
“We have to get back to the mansion Winston. The family is in danger. We have to get back before it is too late. We have to warn them.”
She climbed inside.
Hearing her, Winston hurried as he shut the door, ran around the front of the car and climbed behind the wheel.
They drove off heading east.
She could only hope that she wasn’t already too late.
34
Jewel waited for her sister at the front door. Outside she looked calm, but inside she felt torn apart. She couldn’t wait to hear back from Sharlia. Would the elders understand what she was going to tell them? Would they team up with her and fight Vincent and his family? None of this she knew the answer to, but she could only hope that they would. They had to do something. As far as she was concerned, they didn’t have the choice.
Standing just outside on the large front steps that went down to the driveway, she smelled staleness on the air. The smell of decay came in with it. The smell of a heavy mustiness was also on the trees. All of those scents multiplied ten times over as they seemed to be getting closer to the house. Smelling them, she looked across the front yard and to the trees.
That was as far as she could see. The trees were the last things she saw.
Something came straight at her face and struck her directly in between the eyes. What it was, she didn’t see that much. All she felt was a burning, popping sound as it smacked her forehead and instantly took away her life. A banging gunshot sound followed the blow to her head. Her own death followed the sound.
Blood sprayed out from her head as several gunshots rang out around the house.
Dozens of black uniformed people carrying rifles stormed the steps. They ran past Jewel’s lifeless corpse and ran through the front doors.
They shot everyone. They spared no one.
They moved on, moving from room to room, firing, controlling their fire, shooting anything that moved.
When they finished with the first floor, they moved onto the second and continued with the same routine.
When they finished with the second floor, they moved to the third.
When they finished with every floor, and they were sure that they cleared the entire home, they all rejoined each other on the first floor. They met in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs.
Samantha watched everything from the trees. She watched her teams enter the house. When the firing stopped, she left the trees, made her way up the driveway, and headed for the steps. She entered the home and found all of her people there waiting for her.
“The building is clear my lady.” The leader of the twenty-person team removed his hood from his head and dropped it to his side. Calmly he let his red eyes go and they became his normal brown again.
Samantha smiled with hearing this. “You have all done well my friends. Vincent will be pleased.” She looked down at the floor, seeing three bodies lying in front of the stairs. All of them showed signs of the attack. Their bodies were riddled with blood.
Seeing them, she nodded with satisfaction, but that wasn’t everything. She needed to see one more person. She needed to know that they destroyed everyone. “Have you found the lady Sharlia? Is she among the dead?”
The nightwalker that led the attack, Jerome, bowed his head. “No my lady. She was not among the ones that we found. She must have been away from the home.”
She hated the answer and it made her cringe. “We must find her. We must hunt her down.” She turned, began heading back to the front door but the sound of a ringing song came up from behind her. She could even tell that it came from the floor.
She turned back to the stairs, watched another of her team members bend down over one of the women on the floor and watched him search her until he found a cellphone on the body.
He picked it up and looked at the phone. “It says Lady Sharlia as the caller.” He held the small phone up to Samantha.
She walked to him calmly, took the phone from him, and pushed send. “Hello my lady Sharlia.” She smiled. “How are you?”
35
Moving along in the car, Sharlia soon realized that they were not getting there fast enough, so she decided to call the house instead. As soon as she dialed the number, the number that would go to her head of security Georgia; she realized that she was already too late. Georgia didn’t answer the phone, and the voice that did, she recognized her instantly. It made her heart sink heavily in her chest.
“Samantha?” She swallowed, trying to force her fear back down. It obviously didn’t work. “Where is Georgia?”
Samantha laughed. “I am afraid that she is a little preoccupied at the moment.” She walked to the front door and there she stopped, looking back across the driveway and from the driveway out to the road. A part of her hoped that Sharlia would pull into the driveway and come home right then. The stronger part of her didn’t believe she would. She wasn’t coming home. She would never do that again.
“What have you done Samantha? What did you do to my family?”
Samantha laughed again. “You should have taken Vincent’s offer my lady. You should have joined us.”
“You killed them. You killed my entire family.” Sharlia held her breaths. She almost couldn’t believe what she just said. It seemed hard to comprehend what most likely happened. She couldn’t believe that Vincent would do such a thing, but he had. He did it. It was done.
“You cannot stop the change that is coming Sharlia. He is too strong for all of you to fight him.”
Sharlia felt a cold chill race through her soul. “He will destroy you too Samantha. Just like he did all of those years ago, he will lose this fight.”
This made Samantha laugh again. “Are you referring to the black wolf Sharlia? You know that he is nothing compared to Devish. You know what he will do to him in the end. You cannot stop this. You cannot stop the inevitable.”
Realizing that Samantha was not going to be dissuaded, Sharlia pushed end on the phone. Exhausted, she dropped it to her lap. Inside she wanted to rush back to the house and fight them. She wanted the blood. She wanted the vengeance that Samantha and her kind now deserved. However, she knew that she couldn’t do it. Her entire family was now gone, and with them, so was the chance that she had for that vengeance. Instead, she had to stay calm. She had to stay relaxed and there was only one person that could now give her what she needed.
Finished, understanding what she had to do, she turned her attention back onto her driver. “Take me up north to 157th street, and hurry.” Only Kalima can save us now. Only he can help me with this fight. She took another deep breath. It was all that she had left.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 4, 5, & 6 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 2) Page 39
