The Nightwalker Chronicles

by Nancy A. Lopes

  “I want everyone to line up. On my whistle, you will move throughout the course. And…go!”

  He raised the whistle to his lips and blew on it, signaling the start for the first group to begin. They broke off at a run and moved swiftly through the course. The only group that completed the course just shortly after then was the group that had Mackenzie in it and that was because they were the only one who wasn’t a mortal.

  ♦♦♦

  Finally, at the end of the day, their group headed back to the village, waiting for them when they arrived, was a delicious array of food in the kitchen. Grabbing a few plates that were stocked there, they began to fill them with the food that had been spread out for them. After they had eaten, Mackenzie, Ronan, and, Theo got to their feet and walked over to Miles.

  “We’re going to head to bed. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Ronan said, smiling.

  “Alright, see you guys tomorrow,” Miles replied.

  A few minutes later, the three of them arrived back at their home and got ready for bed. They said goodnight to one another and promptly went to bed.

  ♦♦♦

  The following morning, Mackenzie awoke and walked deliriously into the kitchen where they began to make themselves a cup of coffee. After they had their breakfast in hand, Mackenzie went on a search for Theo. Finding him, several minutes later having a sparring match with Miles they decided to watch them fight for a bit, taking a seat. They had been locked in a bout when Mackenzie had arrived, for a while, they surveyed one another until Theo smirked and lunged forward using only a bit of his strength to tackle Miles.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” Miles asked, with a laugh from under Theo’s boot.

  Theo shook his head, chuckling.

  “Is that better?” he asked.

  Rolling his eyes, he grinned.

  “Help me up, will you?” he asked.

  Chuckling, Theo stuck out a hand and helped Miles to his feet. Just then, Laura rushed over to where they were, anxiously.

  “Miles, you have to come quick, it’s Chase, he’s gone!” she exclaimed.

  “How, did you see who took him?” he asked.

  Laura shook her head.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Growing frustrated, Miles stormed into the village and went up to different people and began to ask them if they had seen Chase, which unfortunately they hadn’t. Finally, when it seemed that everything felt hopeless, someone spoke up.

  “I may have seen something,” a young man with short light brown hair and blue-green eyes said.

  Miles turned around, his gaze suspicious.

  “Oh, what did you see?” he asked.

  “Um, well…there was this guy who showed up and said that he wanted to see Chase,” the young man explained.

  “You let a complete stranger go into the infirmary?”

  The young man nodded slowly.

  “I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it,” he said, with a shrug.

  “Nothing wrong? You let someone who you didn’t know who basically kidnap one of the people here,” Miles said, “did you at least get his name?”

  The young man nodded.

  “He told me his name was Dylan.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “You let the man who killed the majority of the people who were living here into the village?” Ronan asked, furiously.

  “Yes,” the young man asked, nervously.

  “How could you be so irresponsible and stupid? He could have come in and decided to finish what he had started, you’re very lucky that he didn’t!”

  “I know, sir. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

  “It had better not.”

  Miles turned towards the others.

  “Alright, we need to get Chase back. Do we have any idea where his camp may be?” he asked.

  Everyone shook their head except for Theo who appeared to be in thought. Finally, a few minutes later, he realized something.

  “Hey Ronan, where did Damien have his camp, do you remember?” Theo asked.

  Ronan nodded slowly, thinking carefully.

  “I think so. If I remember correctly, it wasn’t that far from where my father had our castle built right before the uprising took place. Wait do you think that’s where Dylan’s camp may be?” he asked.

  “Yeah, probably.”

  In that case, we should hurry before Dylan does anymore serious harm to Chase,” Miles replied.

  “Definitely, I’ll round up my group and you should gather yours,” Ronan said.

  “When do you want to head out?”

  “Give me a few minutes and then we can go. We’ll need to take the boats in order to reach the mainland.”

  ♦♦♦

  About an hour later, both of their groups were on a couple of boats and headed for the shore of the mainland. The weather that evening caused small waves to appear onto the lake’s surface.

  They got to the shoreline about 15 minutes later with everyone who had come with all in one piece. Getting out of the boats, they began to make their way throughout the city and slowly towards the camp. It had turned out that Dylan’s camp really wasn’t that far from Damien’s former grounds. Ronan thought as they walked through the streets, that it was pretty strange that for a man claiming to be “Jackson’s son”, he seemed awfully stuck with this crazy story that somehow, he was “his son”, when he’s certain Jackson never fathered any children, given his age at the time.

  Finally reaching the building that Dylan had chosen, they noticed that it was a large, rundown, decrepit-looking building that had been broken into a couple of times.

  ♦♦♦

  Walking in, Ronan, Mackenzie, Miles and, Theo began to look around the main atrium. Exchanging glances, they knew that they had to be careful when moving through the eerily quiet vacant halls. Ronan remained suspicious through the entire time which turned out to be proven right when they came across two young men draped in those familiar dark robes.

  “Keep running. I’ll catch up,” Theo said, shooting Ronan and Miles a sharp look.

  When they ran off, Theo shifted and stood before the two as a wolf, growly lowly. He continued to stand that way until one of them, a young tanned man with light brown eyes and short wavy light brown hair moved closer as if to grab him. Theo lunged forward and managed to mildly injure the first and severely injure the second when they tried to hurt him in turn. Once he was sure they weren’t going to follow him, Theo ran off and shifted only when he was sure that he was out of earshot of the two boys.

  Meanwhile, the others were two floors above where had left Theo. All of a sudden, as they were moving throughout the halls they heard two very distinct voices coming from behind one of the doors.

  ♦♦♦

  “Master, what’s going on?” the younger of the two voices asked from behind closed doors.

  “Hush child. Remember what I told you, you must remain quiet,” the other voice replied, a clearly older voice than the first.

  “That’s Chase!” Mackenzie exclaimed, in a whisper.

  “Are you sure?” Ronan asked.

  They nodded.

  “I recognize my brother’s voice anywhere.”

  “So that must mean the other voice is Dylan’s then,” Theo replied, looking between both Mackenzie and Ronan.

  “Must be. And if that’s the case? Then we need to be very careful because if they’re together, something’s changed,” Ronan replied. “How are we going to do this?” Theo asked.

  Thinking carefully for a few minutes, Ronan’s eyes widened as he realized something.

  “Wait for my signal,” was all he said, as Theo and Mackenzie exchanged glances with Ronan.

  Nodding, they watched as Ronan intently watched the doors for the next little while, which they continued to do until the moment he finally got his chance.

  ♦♦♦

  Slowly straightening up, an excited look appeared on Ronan’s face. Seeing Ronan’s stance change, Mackenzie, Miles and,
Theo exchanged glances with one another. Miles looked over at the others indicating that Ronan had given his signal.

  Once the coast was clear, they once again moved until they were standing in front of the doors where Dylan and Chase’s voices were coming from. Taking a hold of the doorknob, Ronan quietly opened the door and carefully walked into the room, the others following closely behind. He soon found himself at a loss of what he saw; Dylan was watching them as Chase was kept close.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “What’s going on, Master?” Chase asked, gazing up at

  Dylan in anxious confusion.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t let them you,” he cooed, bringing him closer.

  “Hurt him? You kidnapped him from us!” Mackenzie yelled.

  Looking back at Dylan, Chase bit his lip in confusion.

  “Is what they’re saying true, why do they look so familiar?” Chase asked, pointing at Mackenzie.

  “They’re lying. Don’t you remember what I told you? They kidnapped you,” Dylan replied.

  “No, we didn’t! Chase you’re my brother. I looked everywhere for you, every day. Don’t you remember Miles taking the both of us in and raising us after mom died?” Mackenzie asked.

  Chase frowned, slightly as he thought over what Mackenzie had told him. He found himself torn about what Dylan had been saying and now what Mackenzie had told him. It didn’t help that now he was being bombarded by a colossal onslaught of what were memories that he was trying to make sense of. He clutched at his head as the onslaught of memories continued, finally after a while, Chase dropped his hands from his head and looked over at Mackenzie again. As he took in their features, Chase found himself realizing who they were.

  His jaw dropped as he got to his feet and closely walked over to Mackenzie, tears filling his eyes.

  “Mac? I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have believed what he told me,” he croaked out.

  Pulling him closer, Mackenzie hugged him desperately trying to calm him down.

  “Shh.. shh.. it’s okay. I don’t blame you for what’s happened you were being brainwashed,” they replied, “I’m just glad that you’re safe,

  Chase.”

  ♦♦♦

  As they were speaking, Dylan who had watched everything in an escalating rage, got to his feet and sped over to where Chase and Mackenzie were. Coming from behind Chase, Dylan shot a hand that went through Chase’s chest. He went pulled it back out, just as sharply. Mackenzie screamed as they caught Chase as he collapsed into their arms. Rushing over, Ronan took a hold of Mackenzie’s sleeve and turned them to face him.

  “Mac, you need to listen to me. I can save your brother, but you need to listen,” he explained.

  Mackenzie turned towards Ronan, appearing lost but with traces of hope swimming in their eyes. He noticed that their face was red and that they had tears streaked down their cheeks.

  “Y-you can help?”

  Ronan nodded.

  “How?”

  “I’m going to have to turn him,” he said, gently.

  “But, why?”

  “Because that’s the only way that Chase can be saved, Mackenzie.”

  “Okay,” they replied, carefully handing over Chase’s now broken body.

  Taking him from Mackenzie’s arms, Ronan laid him down gently and took a glance at Chase, he then turned towards them.

  “Could you please prop his head up, Mackenzie?” he asked them.

  Nodding, they gently took a hold of Chase’s head and raised it just a bit. Once they did, Ronan took a brief glance around the both of them, making sure that everything was safe. Once he deemed everything safe, Ronan raised his wrist up to his lips and extended the sharp row of teeth that lay just behind his original set. He lowered his head and sank them into the flesh of his wrist. Once he’d done so, he brought it just over Chase’s mouth and let his blood drip into it. Once he finished doing so, Ronan pulled back his wrist and watched Chase closely as knit itself back up again.

  ♦♦♦

  Finally, a few minutes later, Chase slowly opened his eyes and made to sit up. Noticing what he was about to do, Mackenzie gently took a hold of his shoulders and lightly pushed him down again. Confused as to who was touching his shoulders, he turned his head and was met by Mackenzie’s reassured gaze.

  “What happened?” he asked them, his gaze curious.

  “We thought we lost you Chase. Dylan nearly killed you, if it wasn’t for Ronan turning you, you wouldn’t have made it,” Mackenzie explained.

  “Ronan turned me?” Chase asked, realization dawning on his face, “that’s why everything feels as different as it does.”

  Mackenzie nodded.

  “Thank you, Ronan. I really appreciate it,” he said, meeting Ronan’s eyes.

  “My pleasure,” Ronan replied.

  ♦♦♦

  “Hmm…maybe you aren’t as useless as I thought,” a voice mused from behind them.

  Getting to his feet, Cole who had overheard Dylan’s words turned slowly and saw him standing behind him, arms crossed and a smug smirk on his lips.

  “What did you just say?” Cole asked.

  “The boy? Oh yeah, I was just going to do away with him once I no longer had a use for him.”

  “How dare you, he idolized and cared about you!”

  “Did he? Well that’s his fault not mine. To tell you the truth, he was really weak and small.”

  Enraged, Cole flexed his neck from side to side and in doing so, extended his razor-sharp canines that lay just behind his mortal teeth.

  Lunging forward, Cole went for his throat; which he side-stepped.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked with a laugh, as he watched Cole scramble to his feet.

  “I haven’t even started,” Cole replied.

  Razor sharp teeth still extended, he lowered himself into a crouch and began to survey him carefully. He was considering exactly how he should act, he needed to be careful since Dylan was unpredictable.

  “Are you gonna stay there all day?” he asked, irritated.

  Shooting Dylan a brief smirk, they continued to survey one another until finally Cole saw his shot and got to his feet and leapt forward intending to once again go for his throat.

  Just when he thought he’d successfully caught a hold of his throat, Dylan grabbed Cole and pulled him into a chokehold. Locking eyes with Mackenzie, he smirked briefly, his grip tightened on Cole’s neck.

  He twisted his neck, breaking it and killed him almost instantly.

  ♦♦♦

  Once he was done, Dylan dropped him unceremoniously and broke off at a run, attempting to get away. Seeing what had happened, Mackenzie, Xavier and, Theo quickly both joined Cole’s side and desperately tried to revive him. When they failed though, Mackenzie collapsed on Cole’s body, and sobbed.

  Seeing a small group gathered that looked upset, Ronan ran over to them, curious as to what had happened. He felt his blood run cold and his heart pumping in his ears when he saw his son’s prone body strewn awkwardly on the corner of the street.

  “What happened?” Ronan demanded, his voice breaking slightly at the end.

  He knelt down to where his son now lay and gathered him into my arms. Tears began to stream down his face as anger, confusion, loss tore through him.

  “It was Dylan,” Mackenzie explained, watching as Ronan took the utmost care when tending to his son’s body, “he and Cole had been fighting when suddenly Dylan grabbed him and got him into a chokehold. After that he just snapped his neck.”

  As he processed Mackenzie’s words, Ronan began to feel a slow burning rage fill him. He would get his revenge but first he had to find Dylan.

  “Did you see where he ran off to?” he asked Mackenzie, turning towards them.

  Mackenzie pointed towards where the doors were. Leaving them behind, Ronan got to his feet and ran off hoping to get his chance at revenge for his son’s murder. He ran down the halls and was soon past the doors and searched the abandoned streets for Dylan.<
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