I ran from one corner of the destroyed ruins to the next, searching frantically for any sign of him. I sniffed the ground, the air, and the small traces of magic he left behind that hadn’t completely evaporated yet. He was close. I dashed into the woods, faster than I even knew I could run. Having four long legs with supernatural power made it feel as though I was creating my own wind as I ran, leaping over fallen trees and throwing my whole body weight where ever I caught his scent.
‘Come on, Dirk! You coward! I never knew you would run from a fight!’
I could feel the rage inside of me building. The aggression. It wanted release. To tear Dirk limb from limb and watch the blood spill out of his body. I snarled my razor sharp teeth, hearing his footsteps running away.
I raced in his direction only to see a bright green flare flickering in the distance.
‘No. That’s not him. His magic is like mine. It’s bright red.’
I refused to allow what it was to stop me.
“Riley!” A voice shouted my name.
This time I did stop. That voice was one I instantly recognized. I knew it just by the sound carrying my name through the breeze.
‘Mum?’
Dirt flew up in the air as I came to an abrupt stop, digging my front paws in deep and breathing out a cloud of vapor through my nostrils. My ears twitched, trying to hear the voice once more. Only this time, I didn’t run away from the green light in the distance. I was drawn to it.
“Riley! Come closer,” the voice demanded.
I slowly walked through the darkness of the woods, scanning the area to see a woman in tight black jeans, a white blouse, and long blonde hair cascading down her shoulders.
‘No. Mum had brown hair. It can’t be.’
I growled at whoever it was standing in the distance. The person who dared interrupt me as I hunted down Dirk in the dead of night.
“Stop that this instant!” she scolded me. Only this time it wasn’t my mother’s voice. It was Adeline.
She appeared through the trees like a ghost floating in the darkness. I instantly felt a surge of embarrassment. My stomach turned into a stone weighing down my chest. I turned my nose downward and cast my eyes away as she slowly approached me with her magic weaving in a serpentine-like dance over her palm, lighting the way in the darkness of the thick trees.
Adeline got closer to me and stared me down. Quite the feat considering she was significantly smaller than me when I was in lycan form. That didn’t make me feel empowered. She was a vixra. And somewhere down in the deepest pit of my stomach, I knew I had to obey her.
“Shift back,” she ordered me in a stern voice.
I shook my large lycan head.
‘How could she ask that of me? I have to find Dirk! I’m already starting to lose his scent.’
“Do it this instant!” She wasn’t playing around this time. The vixra magic in her hand started growing larger. I knew she would use it on me if she felt threatened.
I shut my eyes and focused on shifting, trying my best to do so fluidly like in Professor Huxley’s class. It was getting easier. Regardless, I could still feel slight traces of the silver vapor I inhaled as my lungs started changing back into human ones. And the second I did, my body gave into exhaustion. I collapsed on the floor of the forest without a single ounce of energy left inside of me.
Adeline managed to catch me just before my head hit the ground. Then she knelt down with my limp body in her arms, holding me as if she was my mother and I was her cherished child.
“How?” I muttered as sleep started overpowering my senses.
She grinned down at me. “I cast a spell over your bracelet back at your father’s house,” she said. “It sent me a distress signal telling me you were in danger.”
“Vixra magic?”
She nodded. “It was meant as an extra layer of protection. I promised your mother I would protect you. Even if it meant protecting you from those you love.”
The green light that bolted out of the bracelet when Dirk linked our bodies saved me before he could brand me. Only it was too late to do so after he linked our lives. Adeline saved me in the end. If I had stayed a lycan and given into my anger, I would have killed him. And ultimately killed me.
Adeline lay me down gently on the ground then stood up. I watched with flickering eyelids as she dragged her finger down through the air, cutting through it as if there was a hole in the middle of the forest. A bright light pierced through the night. A strong breeze struck me just as it did inside Lothar’s chamber.
Adeline turned back to face me then helped prop me up into a standing position. “Come now,” she said. “You’ll have to get used to vixra tunnels if you’re going to work for us one day.”
She took me through the tunnel, stepping out of the creepy forest and into a bright light illuminating a bridge through time and space. Its glow felt like a blanket wrapping over my body and holding me tight.
“My mum,” I whispered as she helped me walk.
“Sorry about that,” she said. “I know it was a low trick but I couldn’t think of how else to get your attention. Lycan are stubborn once they shift. Especially after they catch the scent of potential prey.”
15
I woke up just in time to see an array of gold speckles retreating from my skin and flowing back into Nurse Roslyn’s hand. She took a wet cloth from a silver bowl of water and gently dabbed the moist material over my cheek. I jerked away as a sharp hot stinging struck my skin with vicious force.
“Ouch!” I shrieked.
“It’s going to hurt for a while,” she said. “It will remain red for a few weeks and then gradually turn silver. Unfortunately, it’s a Blackatter claw scar. It won’t ever fade entirely.”
“You’re alive,” I whispered.
She gave a soft nod of her head. “Yes. I heard there was an incident involving someone faking my death while I was away visiting my mum. I’ll be sure to leave word with others before I leave again so such a mistake won’t happen. In the meantime, you take care of yourself, Miss Blackburn.”
She gave the cloth a final squeeze and draped it over the side of the silver bowl. That was when I saw my reflection in the silver. There were four large claw marks going down my face from my eyebrow down to the corner of my lip.
“My god,” I muttered, leaning in closer to the bowl to get a better look.
“Don’t fret,” said Nurse Roslyn. “I have some creams that will help it heal over a bit. We can make claw marks thinner. They won’t disappear entirely but we can make them less noticeable. And lucky for you we live in an age of modern makeup for whatever is left over. I also got rid of the Dolch Erbe mark on your wrist. It was nothing more than a simple locater spell. Someone must have placed it on the bracelet knowing you would wear it.”
I sighed in relief only to find myself confused seconds later. A Blackatter claw scar? That was what she called it. I remember the scars cascading down Professor Huxley’s face. He must have been struck by a Blackatter as well. His scars didn’t heal over like other lycan wounds do. I wondered why. Now I knew. Having my skin torn open by a Blackatter was an irreversible event.
I shook my head in frustration. My own brother had scarred me for life.
“Don’t worry,” Rodrick said from the end of the bed. He had been so quiet as Nurse Roslyn treated me with her magic that I didn’t even notice he was standing there. “A scar like that will make a great story in the future.”
I scoffed. “No, it won’t.”
“How do you figure that?” he asked.
“Because it was tragic. Not heroic. My brother did this to me.”
Rodrick’s expression changed from one of concern to disgust. His brow furrowed. He stroked his chin over the stubble on his face and took in a deep breath. “I was afraid you might say that.”
A light snoring caught my attention and I turned to my other side. Lothar was sitting in a chair next to my bedside in the infirmary with his head propped up on his hand.
> “He’s been here all night,” Rodrick answered the question in my mind before I had a proper chance to ask it.
“But why?”
“He’s your mentor,” he stated as if it was obvious.
“For the trials. That’s over now.”
“It ceased to end when you announced your intention to become a Vontex. He’ll be your mentor until you’ve been formally initiated into the Order of the Vontex.”
Lothar looked exhausted. There were bags under his eyes. His skin was pale. Did he never go to sleep that night?
‘Of course, he didn’t. He must have been up all night searching for me. Just like he did the last time Devon kidnapped me.’
“I want to apologize to you, Miss Blackburn,” Rodrick said in a deep voice.
“Riley,” I interrupted when it looked like he would keep speaking. “Just call me Riley already. I feel too young for everyone to keep calling me Miss Blackburn.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he insisted. “You’re a student and I’m the Dean of L.I.T. Certain formalities must remain applied. Without formalities, our kind tends to let our impulses rule.”
I huffed in frustration. “What if I told you that I wouldn’t accept your apology for whatever you think you did wrong until you call me Riley?”
He didn’t reply right away. On the contrary. He appeared to be taking a second or two to admire my wit. “I should have begun training you in the ways of the Blackatter much sooner,” he said with his head hanging low. “Ellinor requested it and I put it off. To be fair, I was rather preoccupied with trying to get the shield over the fortress fixed. A quest that now seems ridiculous given that the enemy came from the inside. Regardless, Devon managed to get back in and I’m still not entirely sure how.”
“You won’t have to worry about him anymore.” I swallowed the lump building in the back of my throat in anticipation of what would inevitably come next. The part where I would have to explain everything that happened just as I did the last time. “Devon is dead. Along with a witch my brother was using to help him.”
“Help him do what?” Rodrick asked as he took a nearby chair and sat on the opposite side of the bed.
“I don’t know how I know but the second his magic struck me I had a solid idea of what he was doing. Dirk somehow managed to link our lives. If he should die, so will I. And vice versa.”
Rodrick twisted the thick silver ring on his finger back and forth as he considered my words. “He’s insured that he will survive should the Vontex hunt him down.” He wrung his hands together in quiet frustration. I could see the battle taking place behind his gorgeous blue eyes. Only they weren’t gazing at me with longing. He had murder on his mind.
I did my best to calm the knots rolling around in my stomach. Something about Rodrick being close to me still caused my insides to feel as if they were being turned into an oven, slowly heating up my muscles with a thick layer of tension. Then gradually, I started explaining everything that took place. Rodrick listened with acute patience, letting me explain certain things in detail and gently prodding me for smaller bits and pieces when I was too vague and he needed a deeper understanding.
By the time I finished, Rodrick leaned back into his chair and rested his arms in front of his chest. Almost as if he was preparing a defense. What did he think I was going to do? Or say?
“Riley,” he said my first name slowly, “I need you to prepare yourself.”
“For what?”
“For what very well might come in the near future. If what you say is entirely true then the vixra will hunt down your brother. He will be found, he will be tried before the vixra council in Hungary, and he will be condemned to a life of imprisonment. We clearly can’t kill him until the vixra manage to remove the spell linking the two of you together. But spells surrounding twins are extremely powerful. Especially with the both of you being gifted Blackatters. There are few vixra in the world who still hold enough knowledge of the old ways of magic during the times when the Blackatter line was gifted with traces of crowning magic. He may very well live out the rest of his days in a dark cell. Or you may be forced to endure the vixra’s attempt to unbind the spell linking the two of you. Either way, it won’t end well for him.”
I shook my head, knowing what was coming but still unable to process it entirely. “There was something so different about him,” I insisted. “It was almost like he was possessed. He didn’t seem like himself.”
“You assured me just now that it was, in fact, him.”
“Yes, but… it wasn’t all the same. He’s different. Something changed him. The brother I knew would never do something like this to me.” I pointed to the wounds running down my face. The evidence that the man I used to know and call my brother had either died inside something that was only a vessel or it had been replaced by purely evil.
“But he did.”
I wrestled with the sheets in my fists, trying my best to channel my frustration away from Rodrick. “You don’t understand. The way he was wielding his magic and the look he gave me, it wasn’t him. I need to find him and talk to him. There has to be more going on here that we don’t know about. Maybe the witch cast a spell on him or something to make him act this way or cause him to doubt his own reality. I don’t know but something deeper is going on here.”
“You say that because you don’t want to believe that your brother is capable of doing something so mad as to join the Dolch Erbe. But I’ve seen it before. Witchlings who devoted their entire lives to preserving their own kind go rogue and join them. Graduates of this academy in the past have joined them. I don’t know what their recruiting tactics are but they’re strong. And they convinced your brother to turn on his own blood. A grave offense that in any other scenario would result in his immediate execution. I told you this would happen if he joined the Dolch Erbe. If it’s true he’s leading them, it will make it more difficult to find him. Once the vixra manage to do so, they will make sure he suffers for his betrayal.”
“But Alina said in her lecture that the leaders of the Dolch Erbe are reborn every century or so. If this was his destiny at birth, he can’t possibly be blamed. I have to find him. I have to know the truth and at least try to save him. Or figure out if it’s too late to save him.”
“It is too late to save him,” Rodrick practically hollered at me. His voice was severe, demanding my attention and refusing to let go. “If Dirk has already managed to acquire luxra witchlings at his side then he’s succeeded in re-initiating the formal society of the Dolch Erbe with a proper hierarchy surrounding him. If that’s the case, there’s no going back. There’s no saving him.”
“You’re not listening,” I fired back. “He wasn’t himself! My brother wouldn’t do something like this unless he had a clear motive. I need to know what caused this.”
“That’s enough, Miss Blackburn!” He was back to using my last name. He spoke of having a shield around the fortress but at that moment I felt as though he was creating a shield around himself. One that would refuse to allow a casual discussion or informal pleasantries between us. “I’ve dealt with the Dolch Erbe much longer than you, as have many others who fought them over the centuries. Your words are archaic. The Dolch Erbe cannot be reasoned with. They can only be conquered.”
‘Training with you is gonna be fun.’
His posture stiffened as he stood up from the chair and showed me his backside, walking away from me and ending the discussion. Unfortunately for him, I had grown to find his coldness completely insufferable. He gave me glimpses of a real man behind his well-guarded metal armor, only to remind me of my father’s cold glare when a conversation no longer suited his desires.
“No! It’s not!” I hollered, removing the sheet from my chest and standing up a little too quick. I had to hang onto the rail at the end of the bed to stand firm but I refused to let the dizzy spell taking over me win. “Everyone gave up on my brother! We all thought he was dead. You gave up on him. I might be mad as hell and I might want to give
Dirk a bruised jaw but I won’t assume the worst. I won’t give up.”
Rodrick turned around and closed the gap between us so fast that I nearly shuffled a few steps backward. I knew it was his sore spot when I said it. That didn’t stop me. Few things did when I was on a tear. Especially now that I was a lycan.
“I’ve gone to great lengths to protect my own, this academy, and anyone who shows enough strength to survive the trials, Miss Blackburn. And I will protect a fellow Blackatter even if it means destroying one that’s gone rogue. We will begin training properly after you’ve recovered. I suggest you rest until then and don’t do anything foolish.”
With that, Rodrick turned around and walked out the door of the infirmary. I winced at the sound of the heavy wooden door slamming shut.
Lothar jolted awake, rubbing his eyes from a deep state of sleep.
I waited expectantly for him to stop pretending.
‘You and I both know you didn’t sleep through all that.’
“What?” he said as I placed one hand on my hip, letting him know he wasn’t fooling anyone. “I might have heard a little,” he admitted as he slowly leaned forward with his hands folded over his knees.
I squeezed the rail so hard that I heard the metal start to whine from my tight grip. “I know I must sound crazy to everyone,” I fumed. “I’m new here, I know next to nothing, and I’m sure you along with many others have lost people you care about to the Dolch Erbe. The very thought of my brother leading them probably makes your skin crawl. But the man I saw among those ruins wasn’t my brother. Or if it was, something has gone terribly wrong.”
Lothar stood from the chair. “You don’t sound crazy to me,” he said quietly, scanning the room to make sure Nurse Roslyn wasn’t within earshot. “You said your brother lost one of his luxra witches?” he asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Yes. I watched him and Devon burn alive with… well… I guess it was some sort of fire magic.”
Restrike: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 2) Page 15