We reached the room she was resting in, and we were just about to go inside when the door opened and Eli stepped out.
“She is sleeping,” he said, glancing at us as he shut the door. “Jack is in there with her. I don’t think she needs anymore company at the moment.” He turned to me as he spoke. “Alex, I know it has already been a difficult day for you, but…”
Dark circles had formed underneath his eyes since the last time I’d seen him, and maybe it was just the dim light of the hallway we were standing in, but Eli suddenly didn’t look like a kid anymore. His face was gaunt, with every bone clearly outlined beneath his pale skin. His eyes had a weight about them—like someone who’s witnessed something traumatic and had it burned into his memory. He looked old. Older than me. Older than anyone standing there, maybe.
“But?” I encouraged.
He looked up abruptly, like he’d forgotten we’d been in the middle of a conversation. “I have been doing a lot of research. I have learned some things, and Shane and I have been talking about other things. And I’m very interested to hear what happened at your house, and with your mother…” He hesitated. “Anyway, let’s get away from here so Emily can have some peace, shall we? We can discuss this someplace else.”
He turned and headed off down the hall without waiting for a reply.
I followed slowly, feeling like a wrongly-convicted criminal walking in to hear my death sentence, and that hallway seemed to stretch endlessly on before me.
13
descendant
Despite Eli’s suggestion, Shane stayed behind with Emily and Jack.
So it was just the five of us in the kitchen now; Will had rejoined us, after cleaning up and changing into clothes that weren’t covered in blood. Now he, Eli, Vanessa, and I sat around the kitchen table, while Kael leaned against the doorway. Vanessa had pulled some sort of casserole from the refrigerator, heated it up, placed it in front of me, and commanded me to eat.
I tried to stomach it, mostly for her sake.
I managed an impressive two bites.
Meanwhile, Eli was insistent. He wanted to know what had happened at my house—every last detail of it. And I tried to tell him. But I’m glad Kael was there to help, because I’m pretty sure nothing I was saying was making any sense at this point.
After Kael and I finally managed to get the whole story straight for them, Eli took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands together on the table in front of him.
“Do you remember the pact I told you about?” he asked quietly. “The one that prevents lycans from harming humans?”
“I remember you mentioning it,” I said with a slow nod.
“I think you should know how it first came into being,” he said. “It’s kind of a long story, so I’ll try to give you the condensed version.”
Condensed or not, given that every second was one more second Lora was in danger, I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of a history lesson.
But Eli’s face was so deathly serious that I couldn’t bring myself to object.
So I nodded and sank down in my chair, trying to muster up as much patience and focus as I could.
“The pact has been around for several hundred years now, since the beginning of the sixteenth century,” he said. “As many books of folklore from this time period suggest, during this time there was a disturbing spike in the number of sightings and attacks by creatures which humans christened ‘werewolves’. Up until then, these monstrous creatures had been little more than legend. With the increasing attacks, however, people started barricading their doors at night, starting to believe that maybe there was more to these so-called legendary creatures after all.
“The attacks began in, and spread from, the southern parts of Ireland, which is also the location commonly accepted as the first place werewolves were created.”
“Created? By lycans you mean? So lycans can create werewolves by biting people too, same as werewolves?”
Eli shook his head, giving me a stern look. “We are not the same.”
I got the feeling I’d offended him somehow. “I know. But—”
“Our bite brings nothing but death to humans,” he interrupted. There was a definite edge in his voice that hadn’t been there before. “And most of us had no desire to do that—let alone to create bloodthirsty monsters to do it for us.”
“So how were the first werewolves created then, if not by lycans?”
“That is not what I said.” His tone was patient again, and most of the bitterness had slipped out. “It was a lycan, in fact. His name is Joseph Valkos, and he is ancient, perhaps one of the first of our kind.” Eli’s head dropped shamefully.
For some reason, the name struck me as familiar. And it was dumb, because I knew it was just a name—but the sound of it sent a tiny shiver down my spine.
“How did this man—this lycan— create them, then?” I asked.
“Different accounts will tell you different things, although most agree on one thing: there was powerful black magic involved. Most of our kind shun the use of magic of any sort, but it was common knowledge that Valkos reveled in the darkest of it. Some say the first werewolves were actual wolves, or some kind of otherworldly beasts like wolves, and that he used his dark powers to breathe human spirits into them. According to this version of the story, the method of biting humans, or otherwise injecting them with werewolf toxin, did not come about until sometime later—perhaps after those originally born of wolves proved too fierce to control.”
This just kept getting crazier and crazier.
I couldn’t help but raise a skeptical eyebrow.
Eli continued as though he hadn’t seen, even though he was sitting right across the table from—and looking straight at—me. When he spoke again, though, his voice was blunt: “Regardless of how he actually did it, in the short span of a few years Valkos had created an alarming number of werewolves. He was rumored to have been building an army, one he planned to unleash on the human race.”
“What did he have against humans?”
“The human population was growing too,” Kael said, proving he was actually listening to our conversation for the first time. “And humans are greedy—they thought the land was theirs for the taking, even though the lycans had been there way before any of them.” He spat out the words, like he was trying to rid his mouth of a bad taste. “And when the lycans refused to get out of the way, the humans turned to what they know best—violence.” He looked like he could have continued on that particular subject indefinitely, but at that moment Eli cleared his throat.
“Yes, that was likely a large component of Valkos’s motive. But we are getting off track—do you want the condensed version or not?” he asked, looking at me.
I nodded.
“Good. We can fill in the details later,” he promised. “So where were we?”
“What did Valkos do after he’d made this army?” I prompted.
“It was more what he tried to do.” Eli paused and adjusted his glasses, his eyes shining with anticipation like we’d finally reached the part he most wanted to discuss. “But he was met with opposition. Around this time, a savage underground war began.
“On one side, there were the lycans—like my parents— who wished to keep peaceful relations with the humans at all costs. On the other was Valkos, the handful of lycans he recruited that supported his cause, and their created army of werewolves— who, by whatever means, were growing in strength and numbers by the day.
“At first, Valkos’s operation had gone largely unchallenged, given that—even though they did not necessarily support his war efforts— most lycans were less than willing to jump to the aid of the same humans who were encroaching on their territory.
“But as time went by, the attacks against humans became more numerous. More brutal. More and more lycans began to see the power Valkos was gaining, and many joined him. Out of fear, perhaps, or with hopes of gaining some power of their own. Who knows? For whatever
reason, his army was growing, surely and steadily, out of control.
“At this point, the lycans who wanted peace with the humans were forced to take a more active role in the war against Valkos—before it was too late. At first, it seemed as though they had some advantage, since most of his army was made up of werewolves which, while certainly no easy foe, were all newborns. As such, they were inexperienced, unpredictable, and there was little order amongst them. Those things all made them easy targets for most of our kind, many of whom had already been around for centuries and seen more than their fair share of battles.
“But it was still difficult, because for every werewolf they managed to kill off, Valkos— or one of the many who were loyal to him— simply created ten more out of innocent humans. And that’s why some started to consider taking drastic measures.”
“Drastic measures…?”
Eli nodded. “Some suggested fighting fire with fire—that is, countering Valkos’ black magic with magic of their own. It certainly was not the ideal tactic, but things were getting desperate. And so a young lycan by the name of Cyrus Aurick stepped forward.
“I cannot begin to explain to you the ancient magic Cyrus commanded all those centuries ago—because I do not fully understand it myself. As I told you, magic is something of a taboo subject in our culture, and most artifacts describing or otherwise providing instruction in the art have been destroyed. The common legend, however, tells us that Cyrus performed a dangerous ritual, spilling his own blood in order to create an involuntary pact amongst all who shared similar blood—that is, all lycans.
“With this pact, Cyrus made it so that any lycan—Valkos included— who inflicted even a scratch on any human would suffer an instant, painful death themselves. As you can probably guess, this evened out the odds considerably.”
“But… aren’t werewolves the ones capable of creating more werewolves?” I asked.
This was getting really confusing.
“Not as newborns,” Eli explained. “It takes years—decades, sometimes— for their toxin to grow potent enough to infect a human.”
“So Valkos couldn’t create any more soldiers for his army, then? At least not without the use of difficult magic, or via the older werewolves in his army…?”
“Exactly. And it wasn’t long before most of that werewolf population was destroyed.” Eli fell silent for a few minutes then, as if allowing time for this new information to sink in.
That, however, would probably have taken weeks.
So I went ahead and broke the silence with a question that had been eating away at me ever since I’d heard Valkos’s name.
“What about now? Where is Valkos now?”
“Hiding, for the better part of the last few years. Though he makes his presence known every now and then— whether by a murder he arranged here, or a string of kidnappings there.” Eli’s voice was chillingly calm. “He has lost much of his support from his own kind, but most werewolves still in existence today have sworn allegiance to him. They refer to him as “The Creator”, and obey him as such. There are some who have theorized that their obedience is even, to some extent, outside of their control. I think the term they have coined is “Alpha-Syndrome”. An interesting idea if—”
“If we had the time to discuss it, maybe,” Will interrupted. After having listened to Eli for so long, Will’s sudden voice made me jump. “I’m still waiting to hear what any of this has to do with Alex,” he said.
“Of course.” Eli paused and cleared his throat, looking a little disgruntled. “Cyrus is no longer with us, but his bloodline still keeps the pact alive, and now his descendant is the only one who can break it. Cyrus himself died over a century ago—but not before he had a son. A son by the name of Benjamin.” Eli’s voice grew quieter toward the end and, once he had finished, he looked at me expectantly.
And it was a long moment before I realized why—probably because I didn’t want to make the connection Eli was hinting at.
But like an unstoppable train, the realization hit me anyway.
“My father’s name was Benjamin.”
“Yes.”
I froze.
Vanessa laid a hand on my shoulder. “You realize that pretty much everything you just said is only a legend, right Eli?” she asked with a frown.
“That does not mean there is no truth to it,” he said, returning her frown. “But I am happy to hear your theories to counter mine.”
Vanessa pursed her lips, but she said nothing else.
“So…” I began uncertainly. “So you’re saying that I’m not a human or a werewolf? I’m a lycan?”
“Exactly,” Eli said, looking pleased with himself.
“And that guy… what’s his face?”
“Cyrus?” Eli offered.
“Right. So, assuming I am this… descendant of this, Cyrus person… That’s why they’re trying to kill me then? To destroy his bloodline and end the pact?”
“Actually, that’s the part I can’t figure out,” Eli said. “Since according to every version of the legend I have ever heard, eliminating the bloodline of Cyrus would do nothing except make the pact permanent—the last thing I would think Valkos wants. The only way to sever the ties of the pact is for the descendant to willingly do so.”
“That doesn’t make sense. If that’s true, then why did Sera try and kill me that day at the lake? How am I supposed to willingly break a pact if I’m dead?”
“You see the problem with my theory, then,” Eli mumbled. “My only guess would be that killing you was not really her intention.”
“She could’ve fooled me.”
“It makes some sense,” Kael interjected, leaving his post by the door and joining us at the table. “Sera’s not exactly known for her self-restraint—or for her ability to follow orders.”
“How do you know what—” I started to ask, but Eli interrupted me.
“You have a good point,” he said to Kael. “But back to the matter at hand.” He paused and turned to me. “If we overlook the incident with Sera, and assume that you are, in fact, Cyrus’s descendant, then the situation is even more dire than we originally thought. The attacks on your family were far from random. If I had to guess, I would say Valkos himself has been in charge of this particular operation.”
“You can’t be serious,” I groaned, burying my face in my hands. “I don’t want anything to do with this guy. I don’t care about this stupid pact. I’m not trying to get in his way or anything— I just want my sister back.”
“Don’t you understand?” Kael said, quietly. “This is why he took your sister. He knows who you are, and he needed a way to get you to do what he wanted.”
My stomach dropped.
Of course.
Why else would he have taken Lora?
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
“Well how do I do it then?” I asked quickly. “How do I destroy the pact?”
A reluctant look crossed Kael’s face before he turned away.
So I looked to Eli instead. He didn’t look particularly enthusiastic to say anything, either, but after several seconds of my glaring he finally spoke: “Different versions of the legend say different things.” He gave me a hard look. “But it does not matter—you can’t do it.”
“If that’s what it takes to save my sister then I—”
“Bad idea,” Will interjected. “That pact is the only thing that’s prevented all-out war these past few centuries. Listen: most lycans don’t live peacefully among humans because they want to. Especially not anymore.”
Eli nodded in agreement. “We are of a select few… but these days more and more of our kind are of the opinion that the race of man has more than worn out its welcome.”
“Valkos knows that,” Kael said. “I’d be willing to bet he’s banking on that. And I also bet you anything that his plan is to get you out of the way—once he’s used you to sever the pact, of course—and then make sure everyone knows he did it so they’ll follow him to whatever end
. And trust me: you and your sister are going to be a lot worse off if all of the lycans around here turn on the human race. It’ll be like the middle ages all over again.”
“How did you even figure all this out?” I asked Eli. My words came out a lot more harshly than I’d meant for them to, but I couldn’t help it—I felt trapped, like a dog backed into a corner and provoked until it snapped.
“The circumstances surrounding your father’s death, and those surrounding your attack, were very unusual,” Eli began in a careful voice. He was watching me closely, probably wondering if he could continue without me freaking out and turning the table over on him.
My fingers were curled around the edge of the smooth oak— and flipping it was a tempting thought, I had to admit.
“For Sera to have attacked you in broad daylight, days from the full moon…it seemed like a risky move. A desperate one, maybe. I was curious, so I have spent the past few days gathering as much information as I could about you and your family, hoping I could uncover some answers about Sera’s motives.”
“Speaking of my family, you said I was the last of my bloodline,” I reminded him. “But what about my mom? And what about Lora?”
“I do not think the one you know as “Mom” is your actual mom,” he said.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.
My heart deflated even further as Eli continued: “If the records I consulted are correct, your actual mom died a long time ago.” He bit his lip before adding in a hurried voice: “Although, according to those same records, so did you—so they could be wrong.”
“Records? What records?”
“The government keeps tabs on us,” Vanessa explained. “Although they’re terribly inaccurate for the most part. And incomplete, too, since a lot of our kind aren’t especially cooperative.”
“Wait, so there are humans who know about you guys?”
“Very few,” Eli said. “It is highly classified information, of course—and not very believable information at that. A small department of the government is responsible, and I would say half the people who work in that department don’t even believe we exist.” He shrugged. “Anyway, my parents use to work fairly closely with a higher up in this department, a man by the name of Joel Geist, and I was able to get a hold of him. He pulled a few files for me, including one on a family of three that went missing over seventeen years ago. According to his information, all three of them were officially reported as dead a few years back.”
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