by Elon Vidal
“Anwar!” Lucy grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the danger zone standing near Wolfe had turned to. They stood against the wall while more and more werewolves piled down on Wolfe, completely ignoring them.
“What do we do?” Anwar asked, gripping her hand so hard it hurt.
Lucy tried to concentrate on her thoughts, instead of what she was sure were the crunching of bones and howls of anguish coming from the fight scene.
They could leave Wolfe and run, but they had no idea where they were, and would definitely meet vampires who would kill them. Lucy didn't know how to help Wolfe, though. What were werewolves’ weaknesses?
Then she remembered. Magic. Wolfe had told her she would need it to ward off vampires, but what if it worked on werewolves, too?
Using her powers in an effective way could help scare werewolves away. She had to be fast and smart on how she used her Light magic as her energy was low. She also had to use a strong form, as Light would probably not scare wolves away like vampires.
Drawing water from the air, she slowly began forming a rain cloud. In her mind, though, her sidhe had other plans as it scoffed and took hold of Lucy's hands.
Her inner self whispered, “This is only for this moment.”
Lucy wondered what she meant by that, then saw glowing green control bars attached to everyone in the scene, apart from Crick. At first, her heart skipped a beat, thinking that maybe Greed had come back, but when she realized she wasn't losing herself in an effort to gain control over everything, she knew it wasn't Greed. She discovered that this would work more effectively than her rain.
Taking hold of the bars, she lifted a couple of wolves, forced them to stand on two feet, and gave each other a tight hug they couldn't pull away from.
“Are you out of your minds!” Ranger, who seemed to be the leader of the group, thought at the hugging duo.
“I think so... ” one of them cautiously answered.
“It's magic!” the other cried in panic.
At the sound of the word, all wolves stopped and jumped off Wolfe from the pile they had made in an effort to hold him down. All eyes were stationed on Lucy, and she fought with everything in her not to let go of the hugging duo and run. Instead, she kept her hand stretched towards the two. Everyone could tell she was behind the spell.
“She's a witch!” she heard some wolf think to the others.
Ranger sent a telepathic order to his pack. “Retreat. Retreat now!”
Great, they better. Lucy’s energy was quite low, judging from how drained she felt and the slight dizziness that was beginning to mess with her vision, and if she used her powers any longer, she might not be able to have a hold on anything.
Lucy let go of the wolves she had control over, and they all turned and fled. All except Ranger, who was still staring at Lucy, then turned to Wolfe.
“You won't get away with this, Wolfe,” Ranger thought to him. “We will track you down no matter where you hide. You and this witch.”
With that, he turned and fled with his tail high up in the air and his black fur blending into the dark.
“Coward.” Wolfe licked his bleeding paw, before looking up at Lucy. “Why didn't you do that sooner?”
Lucy shrugged. “I'm not sure. It just seemed like the right time to do so.”
Well, after recovering from her fear.
“Anyways, thank you for your help,” Wolf offered her a paw as he thought this. “I'd be happy to repay you anyway I can. Those wolves back there were bent on dragging me back to their pack, where I'd definitely be killed.”
Lucy hesitated before taking his bloodied paw and shaking it for exactly one second.
“We have to move,” Wolfe said. “The Eclipse Pack will be back once they get back to Alpha Damon. They won't stop tracking us down for this.”
Lucy wanted to move, but what about the rest of her team? She could get more lost than she already was and they wouldn't know how to find her. Madge and Phoebe were elemental powers, but Lucy wasn't sure they'd locate her in this vast land. They didn't seem too familiar with the land of the dead.
Anwar folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. “First, Doyle, now a pack of werewolves?”
“And Druids, and Sidhe,” Crick added.
“Yeah, Lucy doesn't have the best of luck. Enemies, enemies everywhere,” Anwar said with a mirthless chuckle.
Lucy frowned. She hadn't done anything wrong, right? Why would the werewolves come after her?
“You're the one the pack has a thing against. Why would I be in danger, too?”
Due to his wolf's emotionless face, Lucy couldn't read what Wolfe was thinking from his non-existent facial expressions.
“They think you're my ally now. The best thing to do is to hide away until it's safe. I can help with that if you come with me. I live among the shadow dwellers where wolves never visit.”
Lucy could either turn down the offer and go on a search for the rest of her team, or she could trust this werewolf not to kill her and follow him to his supposed safe place. Maybe he may even be of help in finding her friends. Werewolves had great senses of smell and could track people down, right?
“How do we get there?” Lucy asked Wolfe.
He got down on all fours. “Get on my back. It's a long run from here.”
Lucy couldn't tell if it was her imagination, but Wolfe's voice in her head sounded happy with the turn of events.
Magic was a werewolf's weakness. Lucy seemed to have enough of that as she soaked in the light from the lamps hung around the large living room. She could use her powers against a werewolf, but was that enough and reliable, especially in this world where darkness seemed prevalent?
Sitting on the soft velvet sofa, Lucy thought of what Wolfe was really up to. Why had he brought her, Crick, and Anwar to his house and then gave an excuse about running over to the store to get some milk?
“Who knew the land of the dead had stores, or milk, anyway?” Lucy asked Anwar out of the blue. “Weren't they supposed to be dead and not needing food to survive — What would they survive for? Were they planning to re-die or something?”
“Calm down, Luce. Let's wait and see what happens,” Anwar said, reaching out to pat Lucy.
She moved her hand towards his and received the pat, pouting and frowning. Each passing moment heightened her anxiety and suspicion that Wolfe might have set them up. She half-expected a pack of werewolves to burst through the door and probably turn her into minced meat.
Why was Wolfe so willing to help? How had he known what she was and what she could do? Lightbringers were rare people, not to mention their powers.
What had he taken from the pack? Why was he different from the other wolves? Who was he? Would he hurt the two Lightbringers?
Lucy doubted he would hurt them at this point, but you could never be too careful, especially when you were the Chosen and he knew about it.
All that thinking bloomed into a dull ache in her head, and Lucy felt like turning back time and holding hands with Madge at the gate. She hated being lost on her own, in a land she was informed that they didn't welcome what she stood for. Anwar was practically helpless and only added to her concerns; she had to keep him safe too, as he couldn't do much on his own now.
With a yell of frustration, Lucy got on her feet and swept the little ceramic birds arranged on a low shelf to the floor. She glared at them as they lay in shattered pieces, trying to transfer her upset feelings into them. Her Sidhe side approved of this, as Lucy now felt a bit calmer. She needed to let out all that pent up energy.
“What happened?” Anwar asked, turning his head in Lucy's direction before looking the other way as if to see where the noise was coming from.
“I don't know what to do, okay Anwar? We're lost,” said Lucy with a shaky voice and hands buried in her golden hair.
“But Wolfe —”
“We don't know for sure what his motives are. I shouldn't have let him bring us here.”
“Now are
loster than before...” Crick muttered, hugging his knees on the sofa, next to Anwar.
“Who's lost?” The door opened to let a young man in, followed by Madge and the others.
Lucy widened her eyes so much she thought they would pop out of their sockets. She felt relief, happiness, and confusion all at once. How had they found her and Anwar? Who was the man with them?
The young man repeated, “Who's lost?”
He was taller than everyone, standing above six feet, and had dark hair like Molly, but longer. His facial features were sharp and angular, but he gave soft, positive vibes. Taking off a fur coat and hanging it by the door, he now stood in only an oversized cardigan and jeans, with winter boots. His blue eyes seemed familiar…
“Wolfe?” Lucy asked.
“Right here,” he answered, then cockily added with a wink, “I know, I know, I look better than you expected in my human form.”
He walked over to the open kitchen and began tinkering with pots and pans. “Make yourself comfortable. I'll get dinner ready in no time.”
“Madge? Lady Phoebe. Ivar,” Anwar called out as he reached towards them. “How did you find us?”
The sides of Madge's mouth were turned downwards, and her eyebrows were almost meeting at the center. With folded arms and a harsh whisper, she asked Lucy, “Where on earth did you two go? I was worried sick!”
“Uh… technically, we're not on Earth anymore,” Didi added.
“We got separated by accident,” Lucy tried to explain, to dodge the scolding Madge had probably stacked up for her. “Wolfe found and saved us from vampires and brought us here.”
“Right, I did,” Wolfe said from the kitchen, mixing something in a bowl. “You would have been blood-sucker snack by now.”
“How did you find us?” Lucy asked Madge, leaning forward.
Madge's forest green eyes glanced at Wolfe. She stared at Lucy for a long time, and Lucy seemed to read the meaning of her silence. Years of having a disguised Mother Nature as her teacher told Lucy that Madge wanted to speak with her privately.
They both got on their feet and Madge announced, “We'll be taking a short stroll.”
“Why not stay and eat first? Dinner is almost ready,” Wolfe suggested. “Besides, I wouldn't advise you to wander these streets at night. Shadow dwellers will cause trouble.”
“It's only a short walk and we'll be back. We'll be careful,” Madge said with a tight smile. Turning to Phoebe, she motioned with her index finger that she should come with them.
Molly squinted at Wolfe and then used his eyes to assess the room. Lucy knew she didn't have to worry about the safety of her friends in Molly's care. If anything happened, he'd bring down the house without a second thought, as long as it meant keeping the good guys safe.
A blast of chilling air hit the three faces as Lucy and Phoebe followed Madge outside. They shut the heavy metal door with little difficultly and marched down the street in silence. The nearest neighbor to Wolfe was two minutes away, and so on, making the long street scanty. There were no tree or plants Lucy could see, not that they could grow in such perpetual darkness.
Lucy subconsciously touched the pearl necklace hanging a bit higher than the tear-drop crystal on her neck. At least that was one way to remember she was still a living soul in the land of the dead.
“That Wolfe man… Something doesn't seem right about him,” Madge broke the stillness as they walked.
“What makes you think so?” Phoebe asked, her pale hands behind her back.
“He knows who we are. Who I am,” Lucy blurted out. She had been contemplating this since the moment Wolfe called her a Lightbringer. When he brought the group together, without Lucy saying a word about them beforehand, it was certain that he knew more about her.
“He called me a Lightbringer, and then he brought you guys here,” Lucy continued. “I never told him anything about the Quest or you guys, yet here you are, directed by him. He told me he was going to get some milk.”
“Why would they need milk in a place like this…?” Phoebe said, more to herself.
“He walked right up to us and said he knows where Lucy is,” Madge recalled.
Chills ran down Lucy's back and her knees felt weak. “I never told him my name.”
Phoebe stopped walking, shaking her head. “This is wrong. He shouldn't know —”
“Hey!” Wolfe's voice echoed down the street, startling the three. “Dinner's ready!”
Madge turned and gave him a forced smile, though Lucy doubted he could see it from more than forty feet away.
“Let's go,” Madge said to them. “We'll talk about this later. Be vigilant for signs that raise red flags, and don't let him know we suspect a thing.”
CHAPTER FOUR
For one shall become two,
the aim is to deceive you.
Excerpt from the Lumenary Prophetiae
Plates and forks clattered as Ivar and Didi helped Wolfe set the table. Crick tried to carry a stack of almost five plates, and nearly dropped them, but Molly was quick to catch them before they hit the gray carpet. Anwar was busy snacking on a bowl of assorted berries.
Despite Wolfe supposedly being the only one living in the house, he had everything the size a big family would have. Was he not actually alone? Several times, Lucy locked eyes with him, trying to find an emotion on his face that would betray him, but all she could see was a neutral expression, and a small kind smile every now and then.
He looked a bit younger than Molly, and a bit older than Ivar. He was of a bulkier build than both though, and much taller. Lucy wanted to know more about this werewolf and his uncanny knowledge of who she was, and she wasn't going to quit till she was satisfied with her answers.
“Lucy, is anything wrong?” Wolfe asked.
Lucy noticed that she was the only one still standing. The rest had taken their seats around the table and there were two chairs left between Ivar and Didi. She pulled out the one closest to Ivar and sat down, running a finger over the bandage Madge had wrapped around her broken pinky finger earlier.
While they ate, Madge told Wolfe, “We're beyond grateful for your hospitality.”
“I'm honored to have you here, to be honest,” Wolfe said with a smile as he cut through his medium rare steak. “I've always wanted to meet the Chosen.”
“You know who I am?” Lucy asked, feigning ignorance.
Wolfe smiled and nodded. “Ever since I was a pup, my mother read the Lumenary Prophetiae to me at bedtime. We tried to guess what each verse meant together...” He dabbed at his eyes. “Gosh, I miss her.”
There was a moment of silence at the table, before Didi broke it with a whisper. “Oh, I'm sorry about that.”
Molly was tactless as he asked, “She's dead?”
“Dude,” Ivar said, kicking Molly under the table.
“But, aren't we in the land of the dead already?” Anwar asked. “How do you die again?”
“It's different,” Wolfe explained. “This world is divided into three parts. There's the land of the undead, where werewolves, vampires and zombies live. There's the land of the wandering souls, where shadow dwellers and jinn live in a gap between life and death. Then there's finally the land of the dead, where souls rest. You'll find ghosts there.”
“So you mean we're in the land of the wandering souls now?” Lucy asked after taking a sip of water.
Wolfe nodded. “Yup. Only shadow dwellers and jinn can survive here, with an exception of you guys because you have life pearls on you.”
Lucy touched her pearl and looked down into her glass of water. “You sure know a lot.”
Wolfe shrugged and said, “I guess my curiosity drives me to learn as much as I can. Hey, have you heard about the shadow dwellers?”
“Yeah!” Didi answered before anyone, with a big grin plastered on her face. “We even met them on our way here.”
“Why did we meet some trying to leave their world?” Lucy asked Wolfe.
“They're trying to relocat
e to the real world,” Wolfe said. “They've been trying, but luckily the keeper of the Dracoterran gates keeps them in check. If not, the real world would be doomed.”
“What harm do they pose if they make it into the real world?” Lucy asked. Apart from spoiling the balance, she didn't see anything threatening about them, unless they attacked humans and made them blind like Anwar. Okay, that was bad.
“They'd bring an end to life, at least in the real world,” Wolfe said in a grave voice, clenching his fists. He looked up at Lucy and held her gaze. “You can't let that happen, can you, Lightbringer?”