by Holly Hook
* * * * *
Two massive Wolves fight, one grayish-brown and one dark with striking blue eyes. The woman in the robe, Allia, screams at Remus over and over. Though I can't understand her Latin, I can: she's screaming at him to stop fighting. To stop trying to kill his brother. She's Noble.
The crowd of Savages close in on the fight, eager to see the outcome. Blood flies as Romulus, the grayish brown Wolf, locks his teeth around his brother's ear and rips part of it off. I can't smell it, but the red droplets shine under the ancient sun as they fall and find their mark in the earth. The dirt sucks up the blood as if thirsty. Allia stops screaming her mate's name and instead watches in stunned silence as Remus backs away, pupils widening. The wind blows her robe against her waist again and I understand why she's not jumping into the fight. She won't risk the child she shares with Remus or the Noble Royal line.
Remus growls at his brother as his ear drips blood. But the dark Wolf, instead of lunging again, takes another breath as if he's trying to calm himself.
Romulus spits out the bit of flesh and stares down his brother. His dark eyes hunger for the fight and for victory. They're calculating, unlike the simple animal eyes of his soldiers. Intelligent. And very, very dangerous. A decision flashes in his eyes and he faces the Savages that stand just behind Allia. A single growl emerges from his throat, low and dangerous, as his hackles rise. I don't know if the Savages can think to each other in Wolf form, but I get the meaning of the look and the growl. If Remus doesn't fight, they're to rip Allia apart and the unborn baby, too.
Remus takes one look at his mate.
Allia raises her hands to her face as he charges his brother, who dodges to the side and snaps at his tail. Remus crashes into some fallen armor, barely dodging the bite, and topples over.
Romulus salivates, turning towards him. I want to look away. He's going to die and leave his mate alone and it's going to be long and bloody. Allia pales and sways like she might pass out--who wouldn't--and patches of hair spring to life on her bare shoulders. She's about to join the fight. But the Savages growl warnings. She backpedals as the shift stops and retreats into her flesh. She's outnumbered.
Romulus leaps on his brother, who lies on his back, paws flailing.
Remus rises from the ground, teeth bared and blue eyes calculating. His brother falls towards him, claws bared, but the Noble King is faster. He springs up, letting Romulus's throat fall into his jaws, and bites down as the two collapse into the ground.
Droplets of blood fly and a shocked yelp emerges from the Savage King. He thrashes as his brother maintains the deadly grip on the soft flesh of his throat, but as the seconds pass and the Savages growl in shock, his thrashings get slower and weaker. Blood pours from around Remus's teeth and onto his muzzle. Onto the dusty ground. At last, the huge Savage King goes still, and Remus releases his dead brother. Romulus's dark eyes go blank, leaving nothing but a void within, as the Noble King gets up, panting and victorious.
Allia's jaw drops as she lowers her hands from her face.
The Savages go silent and then slowly back away.
And Remus stands above his fallen brother, who is already starting to revert to human form, with blood covering his snout and muzzle. He licks the corners of his mouth, eyes blank like he doesn't comprehend what he's done. But then he looks to Allia as terror widens the pupils of his eyes.
She stifles a sob. Behind her, the Savages all back away and scatter through the weeds, retreating towards the forest line.
I don't understand. He won. We won. Why is that a bad thing? I try to look around in my strange state of consciousness, but that's impossible. But though I'm without my sense of smell, I still have my vision.
Dark figures approach through the weeds even as the Wolves flee. They're coming out of the trees as if they were once part of the shadows and are now taking shape.
Men in dark robes and hoods--thirteen of them--approach and form a half-circle. One carries a scroll that shakes between his nervous hands. He has an old, mean face a lot like Artemis's and scars that run down the sides of his cheeks as if put there in some bizarre ritual. Remus looks in their direction, sniffs, and growls a warning at Allia. She's to run.
Romulus's cult has existed since the beginning. This fight was planned, and judging from the horror in my ancestor's blue eyes, it's gone exactly as Romulus wanted.
Allia protests, but Remus leaps at her and growls again. He's shaking. The cult's closing the distance. The two men behind the head priest carry burning bags of herbs. There's no attacking them.
She turns and runs, feet slapping the ground in hopelessness. Remus faces the cult and lies down as if accepting his fate. Why isn't he running? Why won't he try to escape?
Invisible darkness hangs in the air as Romulus's form continues to slowly shift back into that of a man. Remus lets out a breath and waits. And then I see why he's not running. The head priest holds a lock of dark hair in one hand, shifting the scroll to the other, as he reads low words. It's Remus's hair. He can't run from that.
The air thickens. The darkness comes into view now, like a million dark buzzing insects, and hangs over the Noble King, ready to take over and poison the other Nobles.
The chanting rises from the field now, energizing the edgeless cloud of darkness over the Noble King, who stiffens, trying to resist. But darkness forms around him, too, like a faint aura of sickness and guilt. I watch in horror as Remus's own inner dark rises, forming a link with that of his brother above. The buzzing of the spectral insects intensifies as they begin to swirl, draining down to merge with the energy of the Noble King. The sky above seems to darken from a bright blue to a sickly purple. The trees warp from dark green to almost black. The whole world shifts as if this ritual is infecting everything, turning all of nature dark. Though they stand near the trees, the cult's chanting gets louder and louder, filling my consciousness, and Remus begins to thrash and growl on the ground as his evil brother's spirit launches the real attack.
Other growling fills the air and approaches as Remus rolls on the ground, eyes halfway between blue and dark hatred. Other Wolves emerge from the weeds, surrounding Remus. He bares his teeth at them, lost in limbo. A blond Wolf surveys him in panic. A dark brown one with green eyes. A silvery, majestic Wolf and many others. A Noble pack. They surround their King, their alpha, and look to each other with serious death.
The cult chants faster.
Remus growls in desperation. Though I can't hear his thoughts in this state, I know what it means and I can't bear to look.
The pack leaps on him, biting and tearing.
They're killing him before the Savage King can finish taking over.
And Remus, being the near god he is, doesn't even growl or yelp in protest.
I try to turn away from the carnage, but I can't, as if this vision is punishing me for proceeding this far. This is what you get. I try to groan in horror but nothing comes out. More blood flies as the cult stops chanting. It's too late. They can't salvage Romulus's vessel now. The chanting stops, leaving nothing but the sounds of biting, clawing, and tearing--
I force my eyes open and take a sharp breath. The white, sparkling ceiling of the hotel room spreads over me and I push myself off the bed. A faint ringing fills my ears from my time spent in the vision. The room tilts like I'm adjusting to being in my body again. Trying to swallow is pointless. There's no spit left and my head's pounding with a massive stress headache.
"Well, we didn't wake you, but we wanted to," Everly says.
I turn and face her. She's sitting on the other bed, next to some cards spread out on the covers, and Leonora sits cross-legged on the other side of her. Callie also sits next to the cards, and amazingly, so does Karina, though she turns her stare away from me when my gaze lands on her. Outside the light is paling like the sun's going down. I've slept for hours.
I take a gasping breath.
"Did you see anything?" Leonora asks.
I take my gaze off Karina. No longer d
oes she need to stop clamming up about the victory site, because I know the truth now and I don't need her to tell it to me. I know what the cult's going to do and why they've taken Cayden. Why they cursed Callie. I'm playing right into their plan. I'm to stand in Remus's place, forced to fight someone I care about. Someone who's family. If I don't face my fate at the victory site, Cayden dies. And if I try to save him, Romulus wins.
"Brie?" Leonora asks, eyebrows rising in worry.
I have to choose between my mate and the rest of the Nobles.
Chapter Fourteen
"You think they're going to make you fight me to save Cayden?" Callie asks once we're downstairs in the hotel's dining room. She has a plate in her hands but ignores the food at the buffet.
"Why else would they curse you?" I whisper, keeping my voice low. The dining room has scattered tourists sitting around, pigging out on the food, and I don't want any of them to overhear. I almost drop my plate, which is heaping with local appetizers. The food doesn't smell good to me right now. Like stale, old garbage, even though that's my mental state coloring everything. I've just had all my expectations of the victory site blown away in a single, horrible episode.
The other Nobles had to kill Remus to protect their kind.
Just like how Alex, Edwin, and Abigail tried to kill me. I might die at the victory site. I might have to die and then Cayden will have to run. Aunt May was right to stay behind.
"To make you willing to take it upon yourself?" Callie answers, bringing me back to the dining room.
"I thought that at first, too." I gulp and heap some pasta onto my plate. There's lots and lots of pasta here. "They'll want to force me to fight someone I'll feel horrible about killing. That's how the door opened for Remus to get possessed. He did not want to kill his brother even if he was a dirt bag. And since he was twins with the guy possessing him, I guess that link was already there."
"But Remus didn't have Romulus's blood. It shouldn't have worked," Leonora says.
"But he did. They shared a womb," I say. "Maybe they did some kind of blood oath. I don't know."
"Can you move down so I can get some food?" Karina asks behind us.
I slide my plate down the buffet and heap some shrimp onto my pasta. Probably not right, but I need to eat something to keep my strength up.
"You don't have to be so rude," Leonora says. "We're feeding you, for crap's sake."
On the other side of the dining room, Brett nods. The guys, not being as affected by my awesome revelation, have already sat down to get some much-needed sustenance. Alex sits beside Brett and Remo. Mr. and Mrs. Russell have also sat down. Cayden should be there, waiting for me, but he's somewhere in chains, waiting to be bait. So I can get possessed and force all the Nobles to turn Savage. That is, unless Aunt May's plan to continue the line can reverse the damage. Maybe it can't?
"Brie, try to calm down. I know I'm telling you to do something impossible, but please try," Everly says. She pats me on the back and motions me over to the long table where the guys sit.
"I know. We need to eat," I say. The more I've seen, the more I understand why Aunt May's done what she has. She's even more selfless than me and doesn't have a mate to worry about. She might not know the real story of the victory site, but she does know the importance of our line continuing. And why she had to make the tough decision to send me off on my own. Aunt May must not be sleeping at night.
I force myself to sit and eat beside Callie. But Everly has a point. I feel better with every bite and I can chase the fatigue and pain away. Since getting to Rome, I've neglected my basic needs other than sleep. Karina also cleans her plate and doesn't complain, but she doesn't talk much, either.
I wonder how the others got her to play cards with them.
In fact, we don't talk much during dinner. Even Alex, who heard about my vision before coming down with us, doesn't eye me all that much. I can't bear to look at him, but I can't help but feel some relief that he's here. If we have to do the worst to protect the other Nobles, I have that option. He'll know what to do.
"Don't let him bother you," Callie whispers. "Brie, you need to blow off some steam. If what you saw was real, the cult won't kill Cayden. He'll be no use to them dead. Heck, he might escape. He's thrown off his curse before and he can find a way to escape the cult. And we've taken one of their most powerful members."
I look at her. Callie's still that energetic young woman full of hope. I know she could be right. "You guys keep telling me that."
"Well, it's true," she says. "We'll get him back without going into the cult's little trap. They expect us not to know about your visions."
"They might already have him at the victory site," I say.
Callie slaps me on the back. "Then we'll find a way to deal with that, too. I might be a Hunter but I can still fight creepy people in robes. Silver bolts won't just hurt Wolves."
"Don't. That could be part of the trap," I say. "If you kill people and feel bad about it, I'll have to fight you."
Callie fake frowns. "What if it's an accident?"
"If you could make it one, that would be great," I say. Her sense of humor is salvaging this dinner.
I really, really don't want to fight her.
Alex remains silent. I know what he's thinking and it's killing him, too. It's in the way he stabs at his food and won't look at anyone.
"Remo, do you know of any ways to free someone from a place we shouldn't visit after all?" I ask. While the victory site might be our best bet for contacting Remus, it's also the best bet for getting possessed. I've seen that and I fear going there will be inevitable.
"I've been thinking," he says, putting his arm around his girlfriend. "And aside from going there ourselves, I can't think of a way. Cayden's no doubt already out there."
Leonora looks to her parents. Her mother waves at her, indicating they're to talk right after dinner. Mrs. Russell glances at Brett and Karina. Duh. We have five magic users among us, one who can wield a lot of power if she decides to cooperate. They could get us in.
Karina's shell might have cracked a bit, but she's still putting a wall up. Even if it's just out of pure spite for everyone, including her brother, it's still there. She stabs at her food like she wants to murder someone, and I fear that someone is Cayden for turning her. She doesn't have any interest in freeing him. We've still got to get her on board.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" I ask, not expecting anyone to answer. "We weren't able to bring the whole Russell Coven with us or the Colling Wolves. And I can't think of any help we'd get around here if Brett's right that this area is mostly Savage. I mean, look at that apartment manager."
Karina cringes when I speak.
Brett speaks from down the table. "Any Noble Wolves would be tourists. And cities aren't places where Wolves of any type tend to be. That apartment manager must have just been here because the cult took control of him."
"Yeah. I didn't smell any signs of a pack," I say. The slave was alone. If other Savages had been in the building, I would have detected them. "We have to go to the victory site. I don't even know whose victory to call it after what I saw. But we don't go in yet and we don't go at night. We just stake out the area and no matter what we hear--" It kills me to finish the sentence, like I'm betraying Cayden. "--no matter what we see or hear there, we don't go in until we know for sure what we're going to do."
* * * * *
"Yeah, we definitely should not go at night," Brett says the next morning at breakfast. "That's a plan of yours I agree with. Dark spirits are always stronger at night and I bet Romulus is no different."
Anymore, I cringe at the Savage King's name and grip the table. "Can't we think of some nickname for him, like Cuddles? Leonora told me once that names can have power."
Brett leans back in his chair, stuffing a whole fried egg in his mouth. "Then she's been a studying girl, hasn't she?"
"Could you stop mocking people?" I ask, but half-heartedly. Brett's not my focus. I'm ninety-nine p
ercent sure he's with us now, even if we get rid of the cult, because he has nowhere else to go and we've been treating him like a person. Karina sits two chairs away from him, next to Leonora, and while he's around she doesn't open up much, except to glare at her brother and call him an idiot. While she's around us girls, she makes some small talk even if it's just to talk about a card game.
"Why? It's fun," Brett says. He leans over Leonora to poke his sister in the shoulder, but she flinches like she's an explosive ready to go off.
"Could you not touch me?" she shouts at him, drawing stares from tourists at the surrounding tables. This morning, we share the dining room with a few old couples who obviously have money to blow on trips.
"Geez, sis, I'm not--never mind," he says. "I won't even look at you. Happy?"
The air's thick and that's not just because we haven't come up with a good plan to save Cayden yet. My knees weaken as Brett, probably not knowing it, slips back into his energy-siphoning ways. He glares at his plate, drawing a sympathetic look from Everly who sits across from him. Though Karina hasn't tried to kill Brett again, not even close, she's still treating him like her everything bad in her life is his fault.
I miss Cayden, who could help me with this. My chest aches as I think of him out there, prisoner and hurting. Helpless. And if I can get him back, he won't be the same. The wounds will run too deep for both of us. I'll have failed him and I'll have made him feel like less of a man all over again.
And Aunt May...
I stuff a sausage in my mouth and chew with anger. Cayden would have told me that Aunt May never meant to hurt me.
"Brett, please stop draining us," I force. He's making all the bad thoughts come back.
"I'm sorry," he says, rising from the table and shoving his chair in. "I'll step out for a moment." I watch as he turns the corner. A moment later, a door pushes open and he steps outside with a sigh. Instantly the pain in my chest--and a pressure I hadn't realized was there until now--dissipates. Of course Aunt May still loves me and did what was best for the Nobles, even if she had to work with Edwin. Of course she didn't know what a true monster he was when she worked with him, even if he disapproved of my parents getting together. Maybe I should call her before we go to the site. But first I have to lay into Karina again before she unravels us all.
