She approached him with her yellow eyes flaring, seeing Anna, Michael, and Vincent with him, only made her angrier. She couldn’t help herself.
Again, Devish admired her show of strength. “My dear Bethany, I am happy to see you well.” This was why he loved wolves. Their anger could never be quenched, and with it, he could always use them to the bitter ends. Besides, they were so easy to make. He could always make more.
Bethany snarled. “Why did you not tell me that you had Nightwalkers coming to fight him? We could have taken him together.” It took everything she had to keep herself relatively calm. In fact, she still wasn’t sure if she could at that. Sometimes, the animal had to come out whether she liked it or not.
He laughed with this, but kept it simple. He didn’t intend to kill her for a lack of control on her part. After all, he still needed them for the game ahead.
“I am sorry my dear, but I could not risk any of your group exposing our plans to the blind one. His gift is so much greater than your wolf’s lack of thoughts—or your lack of control.” He, like all of them, knew this about Moonwalkers. In their animal forms, they lacked the human’s ability to think straight. They acted on instinct only. Their thoughts were as wild as the form they took.
She didn’t like this, but she could agree with him. He was right. They lacked many things when they were animals, so she left it at that.
He admired her even more for her ability to subdue herself when necessary. It showed him why she was the Alpha of the pack.
Concluded with all of this, he turned to Michael Gorhan. “I am going to need you to come with me Michael. I am going to go and see this black wolf for myself.” He gave him a nod.
Michael just shook his head. “He may not be able to control himself with you my lord. I cannot see his thoughts, but I can understand his rage for what happened. He obviously never intended to join this fight. He may not be able to choose either side in it.” In all of his life, he had never come across a being like this. He could always break into the mind, but now, he was a mystery to him. He didn’t like mysteries.
“I do believe that he will at least listen to what I will have to tell him, my lord Michael. One has to have faith with such things.” Devish felt determined anyway. Deep inside, he felt he was right. They had more in common than any of them would ever know.
Michael heard his voice, and understood him. He was determined to do this and he would never be able to tell him anything else. He also could hear some of his thoughts, but not all of them. Rana was responsible for this, he was sure of it. So, he nodded to him with a soft bow.
Devish returned it. “Very well then—we will head out after dusk.” He turned back to his throne and again sat down. He felt good about all of this, but he also felt somewhat nervous about it too. This was the first time he would see him, face to face. He didn’t know what to expect, but he did know a few things. He couldn’t wait to see him. He couldn’t wait to talk with him. He couldn’t wait to feel him by his side.
29
He took his time. In all fact, he just had trouble moving. He couldn’t let her go. He couldn’t bring himself to think she was gone. It took him hours to clean her from all of the blood. It took him another few hours to dress her in clean clothes. The fire took almost everything, but he made do. She had a few things placed out in the air to dry after cleaning them. He used what he had left.
He broke down several times. He cried as he did everything and only finished when the sun finally went down. Then, he cried again. He just sat there beside her, beside their once peaceful home, and stared at her through his tears.
Devish came behind him, and stayed there. Seeing him, smelling him for the first time, he lost all true thought. He looked so powerful, even from behind, that he nearly felt like he would lose his mind. He was so beautiful to see right.
“I know who you are.” Kalima smelled him easily. He smelled the scent of decay. He smelled the blood. He smelled someone so different that he already knew who he was without even seeing him. In all honesty, he didn’t even care.
Devish felt admiration with this. He accepted it. He accepted him. He looked past him to the human lying on the table, sitting outside this burned out home. She looked clean. He didn’t care. Only one thing did.
“I am sorry for your loss, my friend.”
Kalima grimaced with this. He couldn’t laugh. None of this was funny. “I am no friend to you.”
The fact that he stayed there with his back towards him like this, ignoring someone so dangerous, well it only made Devish love him even more. Well love was too harsh of a word for it really. He needed him, and that was all.
“I am a friend to you, whether or not you wish to see it, I am. We are alike in more ways than you will ever know.” He stayed at the side of the house. He stayed out of his way. He stayed in his human looking form. He didn’t want to frighten him. He didn’t want to scare him. He couldn’t take the chance, even though he believed he wouldn’t care. No, he would never be scared of something like him. Not if what he heard from the woman tied to the bed was true. He would never fear him. Why would he? “We are the same. You and I are the same.”
Kalima shook his head. “We are nothing alike.” He bowed his head.
Devish also bowed his. He knew that he was going to be difficult to persuade. He would be if he was in his place, but he still had to try. He had to make him understand the truth. He had to make him believe.
“We are so much alike. We come from the same blood.” He thought he should go further than this, but then at the last minute he decided against it. The boy wasn’t ready for such things—at least not yet.
Kalima scoffed with a hearty exhale. “What do you want Walker?”
He looked up. “Your friendship, your skills and your gifts.”
“What gifts do I have?” He looked down at her face, felt the tears again racing to his eyes, so he looked back away. He stared at the ground instead.
“You have so many, my friend. You are gifted beyond imagination.”
He huffed again. “I do not care.”
“Oh you should, my friend. The humans want it too.”
This brought his head up. It also made him feel his anger move. The eyes, those same eyes he always felt just before the change, roared in the back part of his mind. He could see them move. He could feel them slide.
“Your kind came to attack us and started this. You brought the humans here.”
Devish laughed with this. “I had to test you, as I did before.”
Hearing this, he did look up. “Before?” He also stood up. He then turned.
Seeing how tall he was, taller than he was himself in this form, Devish loved him even more. He looked stronger too, and when he turned, he nearly lost his heart. He saw the black hair. He saw the broad face. He saw the crème colored skin. He saw his face. He looked just like him that so much so it nearly blew his mind. Realizing it, he had to shake his head. He had to blink several times. He had to pull himself back together again.
Explaining himself, he figured would do the trick. “I had heard about you a few years ago from a very special lady.” He straightened the long coat over him. He tried to continue to straighten his mind. Both seemed to work so he did it again. “I was told of what you were and where you came from.” He finished and looked back into his eyes. The eyes, he even has his eyes. He blinked again.
Kalima suddenly knew what this—well—thing was trying to tell him. He knew what all of this meant. “You sent the wolves back then.” He saw them attack from across the fields. He saw them come to his parent’s house, and saw the one smash through the front door. He remembered what he heard from her mind. “You did that.” It made complete sense.
Devish tried hard not to smile. “I did.” He turned slowly and looked around the small house. Even blackened, even burnt, even charcoaled, it still looked so human. It looked so simple. It looked so dreadfully sad. “As I have said, I needed to test your abilities.” He turned.
&
nbsp; The rage gripped him hard with everything flying through him at once that he pounced on him even faster. He rushed this creature, grabbed him by the collar of the coat, and pulled him off his feet. He held him up to his face.
“You made me change into that thing to fight them off. You made them force me from my home. You did that. It was you.” There was so much there that he couldn’t contain his thoughts. He couldn’t contain the animal inside him from wanting to show itself through his now yellow eyes.
Devish saw them turn. He felt the strength in his arms. He felt the power of the wolf grip him harder yet. “I see you have strength. I see that you have the power to go with it.” He of course loved him even more. He now, more than ever, wanted him on his side. Oh, the things we will do together. Oh the blood we will spill. He just couldn’t believe how much he wanted him now.
“You are still testing me.” He could hear it in his voice. He saw it in his eyes. He smelled it flow through him like a snake flows through tall grass. He reeked from its stench, and because of it, he calmed down. He took a deep breath and relaxed. The eyes of the wolf faded back to the darkness of his stale mind.
Devish nodded. It was hard to do. The grip around his collar kept him from doing a good one at that. “I needed to know how strong you are, my friend. I needed to know what you could do.”
That wasn’t enough. “You brought the wolves after me today. It was your wolves that brought the humans here for me.” He growled. He stayed in control.
Devish noticed this too. “You have such control over it. Your strength has not been realized yet.”
Kalima squeezed tighter. His rather large hands wrapped around his neck. Now, all he had to do was squeeze if he wanted to. All he had to do is say something that he didn’t want to hear and he would do just that.
Devish felt it pinch his neck. “I am not the one that killed your woman. I am not the one that took your child from you.” He had to say something before he strangled him. He didn’t think he could, but he didn’t want to find out either.
Kalima did lessen his grip. He still kept him off the floor though. He wasn’t going to let him off that easy.
“Why? If you knew about me, then why did you not come here yourself? Why send them?”
Devish pouted some with this. He let his face go somber too. “I did not know what you were. I did not know what you could do. I had to find out. I had to let the wolf show its teeth.”
“Why? Why would you even care about it—about me?”
He laughed again. It was still hard to breathe but he did manage one with the lessening of his grip. “You are not what you think you are. You are greater and far more important than you can ever imagine you can be. You are the one.”
“The one what?” He didn’t believe in any of this. He was getting too tired for the games this creature obviously wanted to play. He had suffered far too much pain for such a thing.
Devish tried hard not to grin, and he did succeed with it. The strangling helped him with it too. “You are the one to stop this war. You are the one that can end it—end the bloodshed. You can end the pain. You can end the ceaseless death.”
“And how am I to do that?”
“You are the one that will.”
He shook his head. “And how do you know that?”
This time he did grin. He couldn’t help himself. “It was told to me by that very special person who told me of your life. You are the prophecy that said that would come to us. You are the one that will do it whether you believe in it or not.”
Again, he shook his head. “You cannot be serious.” He let go of him and let him fall back to the floor. Inside, he no longer seemed to fear him. He sounded crazy. He sounded foolish, and he never feared a fool.
Devish again straightened his coat. He also straightened his neck. Both didn’t seem to fit right anymore, so he had to do it before he started again.
“Whether you know what you are or not does not matter to me. All that matters is that you can avenge her, and take back the one they took from you. You can end your pain. You can end the pain of the entire world as you were foretold to do.”
Kalima looked back to the bed. “And if I refuse to do my destiny?” Again, he didn’t believe in any of this. All that mattered was that she was gone. Both of his reasons for living were now gone from his life.
Devish agreed with his attempts so far. He could hear nothing inside this man’s head, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t attacked him yet, so at least he was listening to him. Knowing that was enough to continue with the way he already was.
“Join with us. Join with me and take your revenge. Do it for the woman you loved.”
Kalima saw her and this was enough to bring the tears back again. His heart broke again too. “Why would I join you?” Somehow, he knew that she wouldn’t agree with any of this. He couldn’t argue with her now. He never could, and now he never would.
Devish turned back to him. He watched him look down to the human. He heard the tears in his voice. How could anyone like us feel so much for something like them? It truly sickened him. He didn’t understand it then, and surely didn’t understand it now.
“You are like me, Kalima. You are one of us. You are a Walker, and need to come to our kind. You need to come to our family and let us help you.”
He looked back up, but didn’t turn. He couldn’t let this thing see his face. He couldn’t let him see the tears. He could hear it in his voice. He would never understand such feelings, so why would he even try to show him the truth now.
“You may leave now Walker. There is nothing else left for you here.”
Devish heard the defiance raging in his voice and could easily understand it. He wasn’t here to kill him or to fight him. He was just here to plant the seeds and that he has done.
“Very well.” He turned back towards the trees. The entire place smelled like smoke. It smelled like death. It was time to leave, but he had one thing left to say. “You may hurt now Kalima. You may wish to stay out of this fight, but I can tell you this now. The humans will not allow your daughter to live. You are not like them Kalima. Your kind would never harm you as they just did.”
He heard him and smelled him leave the area. Once he was gone, he looked back to her soft and now overly pale face. He had to reach and caress her cheek. Even though she was now completely cold, he still felt her warmth. He could still feel her love. Feeling everything again, he broke down, and fell back to his knees at the side of the table. He carried the tears down, as he cried himself into her chest.
30
Donte and his group rode on until they reached Jameson’s camp not far from the Highlands. The camp was surrounded by a wooden pike wall and had only one gate. An empty field surrounded the walls a good hundred yards from the trees. A hundred foot deep ravine was on the backside of the camp, and it protected the exposed flank, opposite the gate. Four guard towers, also made out of wood, and standing several dozen feet high, guarded the four corners of the walls. The camp itself was enormous, and easily fit Jameson’s thousand-man army very comfortably. All in all, it looked imposing for something they threw up with such short notice, but it suited them well. Everything about it fit them perfectly for defense.
Donte went through the gate first, and left the others behind him so that he could go and see the king. He brought the child with him in his arms. She didn’t fight him once. She didn’t even cry. This bothered him some, because a normal child would. It would cry when they were taken away from their parents like this. It didn’t feel right to him and that told him that she wasn’t what she seemed to be. He didn’t like the idea of what that could be either. He would still leave it up to his king to decide what to do about it—about her.
Jameson’s tent was by far simple. It looked like all of the others did. It had simple wooden poles fastened together with rope and formed a square outer frame. The frame was covered with an equally white and a heavy cloth. They meant it to look this way. Shades would know which one was his
if it looked differently. It would put him in danger, and they couldn’t let that happen. After all, he was their king.
Donte stopped at the door to the tent. The two guards on each side of the cloth door which was tied up at the top corners of the opening, told him to hold there. He did so without questioning them. The king made people wait all the time, and even though he had known him since they were children and they were the best of friends, he was no different from anyone else. He took his turn as everyone else did.
After several moments, a voice inside told him to come in so he did.
A small table was set up in the center of the tent. The peak of the tent stood tall and gave them ample space. To the left of the table stood a simple cot, not two feet from it and the door. The place looked just as simple inside than it did outside.
Jameson was standing behind the table and watched as his friend joined him. Two other men, Mantha, the General of Jameson’s army, and his father’s closest friend too, stood on his left. General Anthony Todd from the Etruscans of the south was on his right. The two men noticed him but didn’t look up. They were too busy trying to persuade the king of their plans for the coming days.
“We have the chance my king to drive at them now. The longer we wait, the stronger those bastards will become.” Mantha had changed a lot over the past few years. He, like everyone else, had grown to hate the Walkers. Like everyone else, he was also tired of this fight. This was the time to end this. They had the opportunity to do just that. They had to take it now.
Jameson noticed his friend Donte with the child. “What is this?” he felt compelled to ask.
The others now had to look up too.
“I wish I knew, but I am not sure my king.” Donte stopped just by the front of the table. He didn’t know where to start so he kept his answer simple. He kept it plain. “I need to speak to you my king. It is important.”
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 40