by Cloe Cullen
Remus’ attention swung back to the two Changelings charging him seconds later, pretending to limp heavily until the two Changelings become overzealous and slid past as he jumped out of the way. Fighting through the flaring pain, Remus barreled forward to snap his jaws around the thinner neck of the cougar, who roared one last time before going limp in Remus’ mouth. With red hot adrenaline pumping through his veins, Remus turned his attention back to the wolf, limping forward as he spit the cougar from his mouth. The Changeling didn’t wait for Remus to howl in its face before charging him one last time, toppling him onto his side, clawing and biting at his belly. Remus howled out, trying to fight back, but found his position to be restricting. As panic set in, Remus called out for help, finding it in the form of Keanu hitting the wolf off with one swing of his massive paw.
Rolling to his feet, Remus panted and glanced at the Changeling, who ragdolled on the ground and then went limp. He noticed its neck bent awkwardly, a result of hundreds of pounds of muscle smacking into it.
Puffing out breaths and rising to his feet, Remus felt his head pound as he looked to Keanu in thanks. Swiftly turning back, he saw Magnolia and Lenna rushing towards them both, more lifeless Changeling bodies on the ground behind them.
Remus shifted back to his naked human form, sitting on the ground as he winced and held his wrist, blood still freely flowing from the tear in his skin. Keanu and Lenna did the same. Keanu crouched, with a hand clutching at his chest and another touching his hip, where a large gash reddened; Lenna’s arm wound reopened, but other than that and a few scratches on her cheeks, she looked fine.
“Is everyone okay?” Lenna asked, eyeing Remus. Magnolia came forward, the only one uninjured, kneeling next to Keanu and inspecting his hip wound.
“Keep your guard up!” Remus called, all eyes snapping to him. “We go back to the manor now. We clean and wrap up our wounds, and then we rest for the time being.”
“But -” Lenna said.
“No buts,” Remus said, his mind reeling. A single, sneering face came to mind after the attack. Maybe he thought of Lord Cadogan out of desperation, or frustration at this second attack. This couldn’t have been a random occurrence. “We can’t let these attacks keep happening...but first we need to find Finn, and so far there’s only one place that comes to mind.”
Keanu, Lenna and Magnolia all exchanged glances before nodding to Remus.
Rising to his feet, wiping at the blood on his wrist, Remus turned to stalk off towards the manor, his thoughts revolving around Lord Cadogan.
Chapter Eighteen: Remus
The next morning Remus snuck out of Bronwen’s bed, luckily without waking her.
She’d come home late the previous night with Nyx and Lowell, her fatigue evident in her slouch and slow walk through the manor. She’d barely noticed Remus’ wound and collapsed in bed before even talking to Remus. Even when he snuggled up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist, she remained quiet, her eyes fluttering as she drifted off to sleep.
And now, as Remus crept from the bed to the bedroom door, she continued to silently sleep, her body curled up in the bed. Remus watched her for a few moments at the door, mouthing a ‘sorry’, and then ducked out and slowly shut the door.
In the entrance hall he found the other three waiting for him. Keanu leaned against a wall, his arms crossed and staring down at Magnolia as she whispered into his ear. Clothed in a white cloak and pacing near a window, Lenna looked up as Remus came forward, motioning for the group to follow him outside. Once outside, Lenna closed the distance with Remus. “Are you sure we shouldn’t tell the others? At least bring Nyx and Lowell?”
“I’m sure,” Remus said. “Sneaking in and out should only be done by a small group. I’ve done it before with Amara and two other shifters when we stormed Orpheus’ manor. This time shouldn’t be any different.” He threw her a smile to counteract the frown plastered on her face. “Besides, those three are exhausted. Nyx and Lowell have been in meetings with the other Lords every other day, and Bronwen has a lot on her mind. All we’re doing is sneaking in to see if we can find any sign of Finn. We don’t do anything else, and we don’t need to the worry the others in the meantime.”
Lenna wrinkled her nose, but didn’t disagree.
“Bronwen has looked a bit pale recently,” Magnolia said, chuckling.
“Funny,” Keanu simply said. “But I actually already talked to Nyx about our little trip.” Remus mimicked Lenna’s frown and turned it on the bear shifter. Shrugging, Keanu continued, “She and Lowell will cover for us, distract Bronwen while we sneak in and out. It’s better than none of them knowing where we are if things go sour.”
“Nothing will go sour. We’ll find Finn. We’ll find him,” Lenna said, more to herself than anyone else.
“So, we shall,” Magnolia echoed. “But first we need to get there, and sneak past the dozens of guards, and then make sure that Lord Cadogan himself doesn’t find us while we dive into that maze of his.” She glanced at Remus. “You know the way there, correct? If you do, I may have a way inside.”
Cocking an eyebrow, Remus nodded. “I guess you can tell us on the way there.”
“We have a few hours, plenty of time to speak of our plans!” she said.
As they trudged along, Remus gazed back at the manor, eyeing the top floor, hoping beyond hope that he’d come back with Finn in tow, and that Bronwen’s stress wouldn’t go into overdrive while he was away. He didn’t want her to go through what Lenna was going through with Finn.
Turning his back, he and the others left Bronwen’s manor behind.
***
“So, what’s your plan to get in?” Remus asked quietly as they squatted on the misty hill overlooking Cadogan’s manor. To Remus surprise, the sheer number of Vampires that surrounded the manor two days prior had dissipated, and the few that remained fanned out to guard the edges of the manor. From the hill they squatted on, Remus could spy two or three possible routes in without being seen, but since the guards constantly wandered and mingled with each other, he supposed it wouldn’t be as simple as just sneaking past.
“We make a distraction...make some noise in one direction while we go in the other,” Magnolia replied, a glint in her smile. “It’s simple, but tends to work on my kind, especially on the less powerful.”
“That seems too easy,” Remus muttered.
“It’s fine,” Magnolia said, swinging her gaze over at Keanu. “Right, darling?”
Keanu frowned, not paying attention to Magnolia’s devilish smile. “Well, it does seem risky. Would every guard come to see one commotion?”
At Keanu’s disagreement, Magnolia’s smile dropped, and she went back to scanning the Vampires below them once again. Her eyes narrowed as she sighed and rose to her feet. “Then I’ll do something else.” As she descended the hill, Remus reached for her.
“Wait! What are you planning on doing?” he asked.
Ripping from his grasp, she kept on descending. “Just wait and see. When I give the signal, come down and follow me.” With that, she silently flitted down to the forest floor.
The rest of the group watched as Magnolia casually strode up behind three Vampires, her voice ringing out softly and alerting the three to her presence. Swiveling on their feet and unsheathing their short swords, the guards eyed her suspiciously.
“What the hell is she doing?” Keanu growled.
Remus remained speechless as Magnolia began to speak to the guards one by one, pretending like nothing was wrong. The three guards appeared to relax, slouching and loosening their grips on their swords. Suddenly, she moved close to one, whispering in his ear, and he suddenly sprang to life, running off into the woods. The other two did the same as Magnolia whispered to them as well, and the group watched in hushed silence as the two Vampires rushed off to follow their friend. Soon enough, the three Vampires began to attack the four guards at the gate wildly, their bodies leaping and swinging without hesitation at their comrades. Chaos began to form a
t the front gate, with one injured Vampire guard calling for reinforcements. The whole of the Vampires roaming the forest converged on that one spot, attempting to calm the three wild ones.
Whatever Magnolia had done, it had worked, and as Remus glanced back down he saw Magnolia waving at them, so the three rose and slid down the hill, trotting up to her, their eyes still lingering on the Vampires going feral.
“What did you do?” Remus breathed.
Magnolia shrugged. “Most Vampires have strange powers...mine involves controlling certain individuals with my voice for a period of time. Come, the effects won’t last forever. We need to get inside before they realize another Vampire is messing with them.”
“Okay, then, let’s go,” Remus said taking off and veering as far from the chaos at the front gate as possible.
Sneaking to the side of the manor, Remus found a window, peered inside and then lifted it up, climbing in. Finding himself inside a corridor, he helped as Lenna and Magnolia slipped in, and struggled to pull Keanu through when he got stuck. The dark corridor they found themselves in curved inward, and as Remus took the first few steps forward, Lenna caught his arm, throwing up a single finger to her lips. Voices droned on farther down the corridor; a pair of Vampires, complaining about Lord Cadogan. The group listened with bated breath, finally relaxing when the voices faded.
“We’ll need to be stealthy in here,” Lenna said. “That’s my specialty. You all just follow my lead.”
Agreeing, Remus whispered to her. “We go through each room one at a time, looking for any clues. We take our time, okay? There’s no need to rush any of this.” The only acknowledgment he received for his words were looks from Lenna and Keanu, and a smile from Magnolia. Before he could say anything else, Lenna had already crept to the first room, placing her ear to the door and listening to make sure no one was inside. “Okay, lead the way,” Remus said, slightly ticked at Lenna’s eagerness. As long as the girl could reign it in for the rest of their search, Remus was content to let her lead as she pleased.
One by one the group snuck through Cadogan’s manor, breaking into the rooms that crossed their path, with Remus doing his best to maintain a mental map of their progress. Room after room revealed nothing that could help them, with each generally being some sort of parlor, or strange rooms full of books, or eating areas with a myriad of food Remus had never seen or smelled before. A few times the group had to hurry and hide behind wardrobes and under desks when the stray Vampire strode by, glancing into the rooms. Only once did a Vampire actually get suspicious and cautiously walked into the room they were hiding in; Keanu had strangled the Vampire to the point of knocking him out, though the Vampire still breathed. Remus had to stop Lenna from delivering the killing blow.
As time slipped by, and no signs of Finn arose, both Lenna and Keanu began to become agitated, with their heads snapping at the smallest of sounds, and each growing bolder in their movements, sometimes not even caring whether their footsteps echoed off the walls or not.
“We should just catch one of these Vampires and question them,” Lenna suggested suddenly while they searched the fifteenth room. “This is going to go on forever. We might as well beat a few up along the way.”
“I agree,” Keanu said, feeling his way through a cabinet, looking for anything of Finn’s that he could recognize. “All we need is one or two, and we could have more answers than simply searching.”
“Terrible idea!” Remus hissed. “We need to keep ourselves hidden, at all costs. If we capture a Vampire, he’ll tell Lord Cadogan about it after we release him.”
“Then we don’t release him,” Lenna said angrily.
Shuffling from out in the hallway grabbed Remus’ attention, and he waved at the others to be silent, but after Keanu and Lenna exchanged a glance they both rose and gently crossed to the door. Remus tried to stop them both, by rising to try and pull them back, but as he walked forward he tripped on a loose floorboard, tumbling forward into the door and rolling into the hallway. Quickly, Remus raised and rubbed his head, gazing into the wide eyes of two Vampire servants, each gawking as Remus grinned embarrassingly up at them.
“Can you two pretend like you didn’t see me?” Remus asked.
“Intruder!” one of the Vampires screamed, reaching for the short sword hanging from his belt. Before he could pull it out, Keanu slammed into him, kneeing the Vampire in the face as he rebounded off the wall. Magnolia came sliding forward to the other one, gripping his head and snapping his neck, the Vampire crumpling to the floor.
But it was too late, and Remus’ ears pricked as more voices sounded from further down the hallway, the clopping of feet running towards them. Remus cursed, yelling at the others to move as he sprinted down to the opposite end of the hallway. Hearing the others following him, he turned down a number of hallways, but the shouts of Vampires only got closer and closer. Before long he shot out into a large open chamber, the other three following close behind. A line of Vampires blocked Remus’ escape, and when he turned back he saw the hallway was flooded with even more guards, so he came to an abrupt stop, Keanu and the others standing back to back with him.
“Guess we have to fight,” Magnolia said as the Vampires closed in around them. “It’ll be cramped, but if we all -”
Her voice was cut off by the war-cry of the first few Vampires to charge them. Remus found himself shifting into his wolf form, but bumped into Keanu and Lenna, and moments later Vampires were all over him, punching and kicking and stabbing with their swords. He went wild, thrashing about, destroying walls and stray couches and all sorts of furniture while he tried to shake off the Vampires. But there were just too many, and soon Remus’ energy ran out as he collapsed on his side, trapping some Vampires beneath him as others began to tie his legs together with ropes.
He shifted back to his human form, eyeing Lenna and the others as each was either being tied like him, or held at sword point, a myriad of steel blades glinting in the firelight.
“Looks like we have a few snacks for Lord Cadogan to devour,” one Vampire said as he strode forward, gripping Remus’ hair and painfully pulling him up. The Vampire peered down into his eyes, right before Remus passed out from exhaustion.
Chapter Nineteen: Bronwen
Bronwen did something she hadn’t done in years: bite her nails. It was an old habit she thought she’d gotten rid of decades prior, a trait she had picked up to deal with the odd nerve or two. She only ever bit her nails now when something really bad happened or was about to happen, something she knew would send her mind over the edge. The last time she’d bit her nails was the day she’d killed Ambrosia in Orpheus’ manor. That day she’d killed another Vampire; no matter how evil and mad with bloodlust Ambrosia had become, her death had plagued Bronwen’s dreams.
And now that strange feeling was back.
It came over her the moment she’d awoken to an empty, cold bed. Normally the cold didn’t bother her, but she’d gotten used to Remus warming the other side. Absently she had reached over, still half asleep, her hand clawing for Remus, and found nothing. Finding him not there had scared her, her mind instantly thinking of how Finn vanished from sight. It was silly, she knew, to instantly leap to that conclusion, but something just felt...off.
When she came down from the third floor to the first-floor dining room, where Nyx and Lowell huddled together, holding chunks of meat and tearing into their food wildly, she spotted their darting glances. Asking the two about Remus had revealed nothing, and they guessed he had just been outside or wandering through the manor, exploring like he usually did. He could never sit still, and at the time she’d accepted that explanation, simply going back to the entrance hall and peering out the front door.
As the day moved on, though, and Remus remained at large, she began to worry uncontrollably, biting her nails and walking through her manor, looking for the others. She meant to ask them all about Remus, but she found Keanu’s door ajar, and neither Lenna or Magnolia anywhere to be found in the man
or. Letting the stress of Remus’ and the other’s absence swing her mind back to worryville, Bronwen traveled back to the entrance hall, spying Nyx and Lowell once again huddled together by a window, speaking in hushed, excited whispers; Lowell shushed them both as she approached, the two nudging each other nervously.
“Where the hell is Remus?” she asked, her hard tone causing the two to jerk back.
They exchanged a single glance before Lowell spoke, “We don’t know for sure...he said he was going to walk around outside.”
“Well, he clearly isn’t,” stepping forward, she glared at the two. “Look, just tell me where the hell Remus went, and where Keanu, Lenna, and Magnolia are as well. You two are hiding something, aren’t you?”
Sighing, Nyx tapped Lowell’s shoulder with her knuckles. “Told you it wouldn’t take her long to figure us out.”
Lowell snorted, staring at Nyx. “It’s not my fault, you just gave us away.”
“Don’t blame just me! It was equally our faults.”
“Enough!” Bronwen nearly shouted, startling the two. “Come to the parlor, now, and tell me everything. Okay? I need to know where the others went off to, and why you’re covering for them.”
Bronwen spun on her heel and marched off to the parlor only a couple dozen feet away. Lowell and Nyx followed behind, moping and poking each other. Bronwen wanted to scream.
Inside, Bronwen sat and watched as the two shuffled and sat in chairs opposite her. They both squirmed under her angry gaze, but they still managed to hold their eyes to hers. “So,” Bronwen asked, “What exactly are you hiding from me?”
“Well…” Nyx began glancing at Lowell. “Remus led the others off to sneak into Lord Cadogan’s manor, hoping to find something related to Finn.”
“Or Finn himself,” Lowell added.
Bronwen wanted to scream as she leaned forward. “They did what!?!”