The Hunger of Wolves

by Ashley Ruggiero

  "What was it that you said before about glass castles and stones?" Victoria chuckled and sat back taking a long sip from the cup. She lowered it again when her ears twitched at a sound above them. Nicolae heard it, too. There was shouting and the sound of metal against metal as if there was fighting. Nicolae laughed.

  "It seems your rescue team has finally arrived. How lucky that it's just in time to see their new princess of Sangera."

  Victoria slashed her claws across his face leaving his skin in ribbons. She drained the cup and listened closely. Yes, those were vampires that she smelled, vampires and gargoyles. Her heart stopped as she realized that there might be a certain gargoyle among them and immediately felt nervous at the sight that he might see. She had to think fast. The less people who knew what she could do, the better. She thought back to that dream she had so many days ago and remembered what that girl who looked so much like her now had said.

  "Loose lips sink ships," she said to herself.

  Nicolae shook his head. "And people call me crazy."

  Victoria gave him a look that said she'd cut out his tongue if he kept talking. Looking at him sitting there, she got an idea. She moved over to his arms and placed her hands on either cut. She willed that light to appear again, but nothing happened. How had she been able to do it before?

  "Suddenly have a change of heart?" he mocked. She snarled at him. Again she put her hands on his arms and focused. She imagined that light from the Beyond. She could feel the connection and knew that the light was indeed life itself. She willed herself to feel that Aether, those particles of life, and she felt something like wind sweeping over her and stretching out through her fingers. When she opened her eyes again, those arms were healed except for two long scars. Even Nicolae was shocked as he said, "The things you can do aren't right." He looked nervous. "I've never heard of a Draconis with the kind of powers that you have except for the ancients from millennia ago."

  "Then you'll know that it's in your best interest to keep your mouth shut." Nicolae gulped in fear. Victoria then took his sword and turned the blade on herself reopening the scars that Nicolae and those weeks of battle had inflicted on her. "If you suddenly feel like my rescuers need to know the truth about me, she said as she approached him with that sword aimed at his chest. "You'll suddenly find yourself without the ability to speak, and I'll make sure your death is slow and painful." Victoria didn't know if she was even capable of doing those things, but Nicolae certainly seemed to believe it. She chuckled lightly. "Looks like you killed the wrong twin." She threw his sword back at his feet before pressing herself against the far wall, eyes wide in mock fear. Nicolae had just managed to gain enough strength to rise to his feet, sword in his hand, before the door to the dungeons burst open.

  A man burst through that door in regal Noctis armor and a sword in his hand. His golden eyes held nothing but blind fury. Sheer power seemed to ripple through and around him. In a flash of light, his arm transformed into a beast’s claw pinning Nicolae to the wall, his claws as long as daggers wrapped around Nicolae's throat. The deep well of magic under her rescuers veins was undeniable and marked him as one of the greatest powers of Terrarum. He wasn't just a powerful man, he was power. The man was the older, male version of herself, and Victoria's tears of joy were in fact real as she sprinted to him.

  "Father!" she cried burying her face into his chest in a tight embrace. He kissed the top of her head but never failed to take his eyes off of Nicolae who stared at them with a fuming hatred. Another familiar face was through that door next, his sunshine blond hair and sky blue eyes a ray of light in the darkness of the Underground. She crushed herself against Alex and he held her so tightly that she thought he might never let go. It was then that she finally allowed herself to break. Everything that had happened in the last few months caught up with her and tears began to stream down her face. She gripped onto Alex, acknowledging that, for the first time in a while, she was safe. When he at last pulled away, there were tears in his eyes too as he looked at every inch of her making sure she was okay.

  "Alex," her father said from where he stood in front of Nicolae. "Get my daughter out of here."

  Alex nodded, "Yes, sir." He took Victoria's hand and began pulling her out of that dungeon. Before she left, with Alex and her father's attention turned away, she smiled at Nicolae and pointed to her mouth. If you talk, I'll know, she seemed to say. He snarled at her, but she was already leaving that terrible place behind.

  Alex placed a blanket around her when they were outside of the warehouse with the rest of the members of the Noctis and the Guard. "That's an awfully strange prison uniform," Alex mentioned. She had forgotten that she was still in her Noctis uniform. The proof that she had fought someone was all over the many slices across it, to include the hole over her heart made from Nicolae's fatal blow.

  Victoria shook her head. "I do not wish to speak about it, tonight." It was the truth. She had spent so many nights fighting for her life that all she wanted was a little bit of normalcy. She had changed but had replaced her new self with that solemn meekness of before, concealing the monster that lived within. She didn't think she would ever get a normal life back. Not when she had become so much more down here, as well as so much less.

  Victoria looked out at the people who had surrounded the warehouse. They were a sea of unrecognizable faces in black and gold. At last, she spied a familiar face, his normal pristine white hair had become shaggy. He saw her at the same moment she saw him, and Victoria was sprinting across the dirt street towards him. "Uncle Peter."

  He wrapped her up in a big bear hug. "I'm glad to see you in one piece, kid." He leaned back to get a look at her. He noted the scars along her armor and frowned. "Well, kind of."

  Alex was behind her and frowning at the man. He still didn't seem to like him after the way Peter had treated him on Stransura, but he didn't say anything. Peter looked behind her and Victoria followed his gaze to where her father was emerging from the warehouse. The three of them walked over to him and her father put an arm around her as he said to Peter, "Get rid of the body. I don't care what you do with it, burn it or dump it in a shallow grave, but just get rid of it."

  Peter bowed to the king and went to do as he commanded.

  Victoria's father looked at her with emotion filled eyes as he said, "Let's go home."

  Victoria jumped back as she remembered a promise she had made. "There are slaves!" she cried. "There's slaves in the arena!"

  "Victoria, I don't have any power—"

  She cut her father off and burst into a sprint towards that dark arena. This time, there was no spitting on her or throwing rocks. The people who were there hid from her in the shadows, too frightened by what they had seen her do.

  She ran at an incredibly fast speed that was beyond the speed of an average vampire. Her father was behind her and he would catch up to her soon enough. Victoria shifted into a swarm of bats and flew the rest of the way to the arena. She shifted back into her human form and walked into the dungeon cells.

  Despite her speed, she could still hear her father's voice close behind her, calling out to her. She didn't care. She had promised the wraiths that she would free them. Olvir was too young to die a slave.

  Victoria suddenly stopped short when the smell hit her nose. No. No, it couldn't be. She dashed into her old cell and saw them there, their bodies limp and lifeless on the floor. She knelt down and ran her fingers through Olvir's leafy hair and gently shut his eyes. Tears dripped down her face and she took a shuddering breath before saying, "He killed them all."

  She knew her father was behind her. "Victoria, what happened here?"

  She buried her face into his chest and sobbed. "He killed them all. He killed all of the slaves."

  "How did you know this was here?"

  She looked up at him and he saw the answer in her eyes as she said, "Because I was a slave here, too."

  Victoria's father shook his head as he said, "I'm so, so sorry. I'm so sorry you had to
endure this." He looked at her Noctis uniform that had been badly cut up by Nicolae's swords and it all made sense. "You fought here?"

  She nodded. "I fought here and…" she debated saying that she fought Nicolae but thought better of it. "And I won. That is all I wish to say about it."

  As they made their way back into the decrepit halls of the arena's prison, Victoria took a look back to the dining area. Still a mess of broken furniture and soiled rags, she spied the hooks and chains still nailed to the ground. In the center of it all was the stain left behind from a too big pool of blood, her blood. She wanted to cry. There was a hole in her chest that was filled with nothing but sorrow and hate, but she couldn't bring herself to tears. It was in that dining room that Nicolae ripped her open, taking apart anything that was still good and moral in her, and replaced it with darkness.

  Turning back to where her father waited, she took his hand as the two walked out of the arena and left for home.

  When they returned to the others, Victoria's father said, "It would seem that the people of the Underground have as much of a taste for slaves and blood sports as those in Teren City."

  "What are your orders, your grace?" Peter asked as he returned from disposing of Nicolae's body. His face was drawn. Whatever her father had done to Nicolae must have been truly terrible. She just wished she could have been there to see it.

  "We will leave the arena as it is. This is not our territory and the slaves have all been slaughtered anyways. No doubt to cover up something more going on there." Victoria felt the tears prick at her eyes and allowed them to fall. She was what they were covering up. If anyone had known what the king had made her do, there would be a war between Sangera and the Underground. All of those slaves had been murdered to keep the king’s secrets about her. "We leave and thank the king later. It was he who allowed us to bring forces to come and get you, Victoria." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Even now, Azazel was still playing games with her. "We should go before we've outstayed our welcome."

  While cries of outrage and hate swirled around in Victoria's mind at the injustices that had taken place, she acknowledged that there was nothing that could be done about them. Not now. Not on this night. Taking a look around herself at the horror that was the Underground, she swore that she would find the justice that the victims so desperately deserved. For the wraiths, for Olvir, for everyone who had been down there with her. It seemed so wrong that she should be the one to live, while the others died. She was a monster; Nicolae had been right about that. He had been killed down here, but not before turning her into something wholly other than what she had been before. Darkness personified, that's who she was. And she would have an eternity to live with it while innocent lives had been lost.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The Family We Choose

  Victoria had been really wary about going to a healer. She was afraid they would see that monstrous magic roiling around beneath her skin.

  "This is…" the healer said examining her. "A lot of scars."

  "Yes, I am aware," Victoria growled. There really were scars all over her body. The scars on her hands were like rings around her fingers where they had grown back. The healer looked at them with sadness in her eyes. "Let's just get this done."

  Victoria had to refrain herself from grabbing the healer by the throat on multiple occasions. She didn't like being touched by strangers anymore.

  "Here you go, princess. I'm sure you're starving." The healer handed her a cup of blood before she exited the room.

  "One would think," Victoria said to herself. She sniffed the blood and grimaced. She had to be some kind of monster to want to turn it down. On any other night, Victoria would have gladly drunk every last drop of the deer blood, but now it smelled dull and bland. She took a sip and immediately spit it back in the cup. Getting back into the flow of daily life was going to be a lot harder than she thought. Steeling herself and plugging her nose, she quickly downed the thick blood and pounded on her chest to keep from vomiting it back up.

  Settling down in the warm blankets, Victoria closed her eyes to sleep, but she only saw images of clawed hands ripping open corpses to stay alive. The worst part of it was that she craved it. She craved the taste of the creatures she had killed. Her stomach grumbled at the idea and she realized why it had been such a dangerous thing for her ancestors when they were forced to stop eating other magical creatures. Victoria curled herself into a ball and sobbed until she had tired herself out and fell asleep.

  Ω

  Victoria never liked dreams. Ever since she had been young, she only ever had nightmares. They had all started after Antonius had died and they'd never stopped. Victoria figured that after everything that had happened, this would continue, but all she dreamed about that morning was a memory that had taken place a lifetime ago.

  She remembered the smell of pine and lavender as if it had happened yesterday. Victoria stood on a footbridge over a small river. The water was impossibly blue and made small bubbling noises as it spilled over rocks shining in the starlight. The wind whispered her name, as it always had whenever she Antonius, and Albert would go into the forest together. The boys never noticed, too caught up in whatever they were doing, but she did.

  Victoria walked across that footbridge over to a small pool that she knew fish frequently fell into. It was there they would normally fish for their lunch before they begged their mother to cook it up for them using her fire magic. She sat down on the rock that she always did when she was younger and removed her battle-worn boots to soak her feet in the water. She looked to her right where there was a small mushroom circle. Within the center, there was a creature made out of sticks and leaves. She thought it looked kind of like a dragon. Victoria couldn't ever remember a time when she was as happy as she was then. They played together at this same river just days before Antonius had been killed. In her dream she remembered what the Beyond looked like. If Antonius found a place as grand and beautiful as that, she knew that he would have loved to fish all day long.

  There was a crying sound that broke through the peaceful ambiance of nature, and Victoria looked over to that footbridge to see that there was now people there. There were three children in total huddled together with a man consoling a red-haired boy. Victoria laughed to herself remembering what it was that had occurred. That was the night that Albert would no longer have two blue eyes, but instead one blue and one gold one. Antonius was in tears beside him mumbling apologies. All the meanwhile, the younger version of herself stood too intrigued by what had happened to say anything.

  "Calm down, Albert," Victoria's father said. "All will be okay. Your eye will grow back."

  "What if it doesn't?" Victoria asked. Albert's remaining eye went wide and he began to wail even more loudly.

  "Victoria," the king said with a sigh. "Don't scare him. There's nothing to worry about. You'll heal in no time. Listen, all of you," the three of them gathered around the king waiting for what he was going to say. Victoria's mother always claimed that he spoke too maturely for the kids to understand, but they had always loved to hear what he had to say. "There may come a night when you might have to deal with worse things than plucked out eyeballs."

  "Really?" Antonius asked.

  "Yes, but I want you to remember that we all have choices to make. We can lay down and let the bad things happen to us. We can give up, or we can get back up and fight. What you do when that night comes will be up to you."

  The memory began to fade, and Victoria watched Antonius one last time. His curly golden hair bobbed in the wind and those golden were filled with so much light. She knew that he would have liked to live in a place like Home. She knew that he would love the mismatched house and getting to fish in crystal rivers and ponds all night.

  You can either lay down and die or get up and fight.

  Victoria scrambled to the bridge, but the memory had already faded, and her twin was gone again all too soon. As she looked out at that river on the bridge, she realized who
that man in the Beyond actually was.

  Ω

  Victoria awoke with tears in her eyes. She wished she had realized who he was while she was there. How could she not recognize her own twin brother? He had grown up, she realized. He had grown into a man who lived his days of eternity under the sun.

  Victoria sat up and saw three vampires and a gargoyle sleeping on the furniture around her room.

  "They haven't left your side since you got back," her mother said walking into the room. "Prometheus tried to make them leave at one point, but you have some very powerful friends. I think they scared the stars out of him."

  Victoria smiled. "They're definitely people worth living for."

  "Are they who you thought of while down there?"

  Victoria nodded. "The idea of them waiting for me to come back is what kept me going, fighting."

  Her mother smiled at her. "I am glad. I was worried about you finding friends."

  Victoria let out a chuckle. "I think they found me. Not to mention," she gestured to Alex. "I was kinda forced into friendship with that one." Her mother let out a small laugh. "What?"

  "It's just… you don't speak the way you used to. You're very relaxed." Victoria waited for the insults to come, but instead she said, "I like it. You're more lively this way."

  She made to leave the room but shook Raduta on the shoulder before she left.

  "Wha—?" Raduta asked groggily.

  "She's awake."

  Raduta's eyes sprung open as she looked up to where Victoria lay. Victoria waved at her awkwardly and Raduta bolted up out of her seat. "Victoria!" she exclaimed jumping into the hospital bed. She covered herself in the blankets and hugged her best friend tight. "We were so worried." Victoria hugged her back and tears began to flow out of both of their eyes. The rest of them woke up and crowded around her bed.

  "Let's try to cut the hospital room get-togethers down to zero next year," Albert said with a yawn. "I think we could all use a little break from these crazy adventures."