Lover's Soul: Werewolf Sexy Romance (Biwole Wolves Book 2)

by JP Vasha

  Mike was quiet, too. He sat next to the railing, watching the glinting sea as we sailed from Stonehill to Mooncore. The sun was shining happily above us, not really warming, by nice nonetheless. Mike seemed to be basking in it, trying to find answers to his gazillion of questions, but probably finding none.

  Shell was talking to Zack on the other end of the deck. The two were speaking in low voices so no one could eavesdrop, and I was glad that Shell took Zack's attention from me now, because I was stuck in my own head and probably wouldn't be able to help had something happened.

  Ambery was sitting with me as I munched some strangely flavored sandwich. Lunch had passed, but I was only now hungry. After what happened with Orpheo Jaxrel, I felt kind of out of it for a few hours, but since we were about to reach the Dark Kingdom, also known as Mana, which possessed some seriously vicious magic, I needed to be at my best, and so eating was it.

  "Cleromancers are usually spot on in their predictions," Ambery told me as I ate away, "and for someone who's dual-specialized with two divination categories, Orpheo is one of the best."

  I mulled it over sullenly. "That means that if I keep on trying to find my body, something bad will happen to those around me."

  The Deity sighed. "I think it best not to ponder it farther. For now, we continue in this path. If something makes this path veer dangerously close to a catastrophe, then we can start thinking of different ways to approach it."

  Ambery was right. And so for the rest of the trip across the Eastern Logia Seas and into Mana Reef, we all talked about anything but what Orpheo Jaxrel told us, and focused on our upcoming arrival to the Dark Kingdom of Mana.

  When we reached the shore of Mooncore, my stomach somersaulted at the new sight before me. In both Barolia and Urram, it seemed that nature was blooming, that everything was lighthearted in its simplicity, in its colorful beauty. Here, it was the opposite.

  Much like its namesake, the place was Dark, with a capital D. If it was afternoon in all other places in Logia, in here the sky was dark blue, almost black, as though it was already night here. There were also an abnormal amount of stars, so many tucked together, it looked almost like a brilliant sheet of silver on top of the darkness in the background. On the ground, the houses were built in a more Victorian kind of way, but each one seemed ominous on its own. The greenery here, too, might've been as beautifully colored as in Barolia and Urram, but instead was darkened by the fact there wasn't any sun. Their colors were more dully hued, more faded, and what should've been pink looked like wilted brown.

  There was also the magic in this place. It felt akin to that of Snow, when she touched my psyche with hers, but while Snow's magic – or mana, as she called it – was more on the pure side, in her it felt like the magic, or mana, had a heavy, sinister undertone.

  It was also cold here, much colder than all the other places.

  "I thought the source of all magic was nature, and that was why everything's blooming in Logia," I said as we go on a carriage in the port. "So why's everything so dark and weird here? And why the heck is it night here already?"

  Ambery, who sat before me and next to Mike, gave me a somewhat sad smile. "Mana is a place like nothing you would ever encounter, whether on Earth or in Logia. The magic here, as I said before, is mana. Do you know what mana is?"

  "When magic is inserted into an object, it becomes mana, or something like that," I answered, frowning. "It can also be considered an endless well of magic, or something of the sorts."

  "Both are true, but not fully," the Deity spoke like a teacher or a scholar, which was quite fascinating, to say the least, and so I wasn't the only one listening; the three wolves with us were preening to hear, and I could feel even Khloe's mind moving silently in my mind, listening. "Mana is a form of magic, usually embodied in an object, and very rarely in a human being. I know of Snow Knox, Eve and Ralph's daughter," he added, and I felt Zack and Shell tensing on both sides of me, "and she's the only current example for magic who'd been embodied in a person. This happens only when the circumstances are precise, like those of the Knox girl were. She was born as a hybrid daughter of a hybrid vampire-Sorceress mother and an immortal werewolf, she grew up in Antarctica with only Barron Von Logia for company, and the magic in Antarctica, the most magical place on Earth, turned here into a sort of a vessel, like a new channel of magic, which gave her an access to mana."

  "That doesn't explain what mana is, exactly" Zack prompted, while I tried to process what he'd just said about Snow. I had no idea who Barron Von Logia was, but I guessed he was a Deity, and must've been almost as bad as Michelangelo.

  Ambery nodded solemnly. "Just think of it as a different form of magic, which in parts similar and in parts different than actual magic. Take this land, for example," he gave a grim chin nod to the outside, where it was all dark and ominous, "mana took its grip on the place, because of certain circumstance I wouldn't get into right now. Mana, unlike magic, rooted its sources in magic, while magic's sources are routed in nature. Don't confuse the two things."

  "I think I get it now," I said as finally it clicked with what Snow told me about her own mana. "it's like a chain. Nature is the source of magic, magic is the source of mana. Nature cannot be the source of mana, because mana is purely magical."

  Zack frowned. "I'm still confused."

  "Think of it as a metal box," Ambery elucidated, "if you place the box in the middle of a cornfield, it's exposed to everything nature has to offer; if it rains, the box will be wet; it it's sunny, the box will be warm. But then you place a smaller metal box inside the first box. The new box has no access to the nature around it, but when the bigger box gets warm or wet or cold, the smaller box will be affected too, only because the bigger one is affecting it, but not because it has a direct access to the weather."

  Mike scowled at that analogy. "I understand this shit, but it's way too fucking complicated still."

  Ambery shrugged as he began brushing his long silvery hair with his fingernails. "Mana is not an easy concept to grasp."

  "So back to this Kingdom land," I said, "it's like an incubator of mana, which makes it basically an omnipotent kind of land, right?"

  "You're still thinking of it as an endless well of magic, which is not wrong," the Deity said slowly, "but don't confuse omnipotence with mana. Omnipotence is an unimaginable, endless access to magic. Mana, on the other hand, is a practical form of magic, and while mana can be endless if placed in the right object or the right person, it's still just a specific form of magic."

  "What exactly does mana do, then?" Zack inquired. "How can it be that it affects this place so much that it's already night here, that the greenery is different?"

  "It's always nighttime in Mana," the Deity explained, "because mana has been used here for thousands of years, ever since the Logia war occurred, and that separated this land, making it both unique and dangerous. Only natives of Mana can bare to stay here for long. If we do, then we'll begin feeling the mana, and since no normal werewolf or human can adapt to mana, can gain access to it, it would eventually swallow us all.

  "You see," Ambery smiled humorlessly, "mana is dark and bad. If magic is meant for defense and offense, meant to protect, meant to be mostly natural and pure, then mana, while derived from magic, twists it into something much darker and wicked. Magic builds and protects. Mana destroys and kills."

  From the unease glinting in the Deity's golden eyes, I realized he didn't want to tell us about what mana's true nature was. Because Snow Knox had mana inside here, and that information, that mana was in fact a dark form of magic, a bad form of magic, meant that Snow was, in fact, down to her very core, a very dangerous living being.

  I could see on Mike, Shell and Zack's faces that this new tidbit did not sit well with them. Mike even looked slightly ill. I could relate. I felt nauseated too.

  Silence reigned for the rest of the ride, and no one dared breaking it. We all processed this new information about mana, about Snow, about the Dark Kingdom, and
the longer the horses dragged our coach, the more I wanted to get out of the place, get out of Logia, and return home.

  We stopped in the only inn the small city of Mooncore provided to outsiders. Ambery said that since not many people ventured into this land, there weren't many places for tourists to reside in. It was just a guess on Ambery's part, but he believed Tollier was in this inn.

  The inn was Gothic in decorations, with theme colors of red, black and white. The innkeeper, a burly man called Jisto, scratched his head when Ambery asked him if someone named Haykon Tollier checked in lately. "I can't be sure," the man responded to that, "and I don't have such a name in my lists."

  Ambery tried describing the man, telling the innkeeper he was supposedly in his fifties, with dark hair, scruff, and possibly a black cloak with a faded Red Order insignia, a usual attire for magic-users who were working for the Order in Logia. When the innkeeper still couldn't remember someone like that, Ambery sighed and we walked out, back at where we began.

  "Mooncore is more like an enlarged town," Ambery said as we got back on the coach, "so it's possible he might've taken shelter at any of the houses here. I wouldn't be surprised." He scowled.

  "Since he's running away from you, it seems legit," Mike murmured, groaning. "Why can't it be easy to find some Necromancer?"

  A sudden idea came up. "Why don't I try to locate him?" I asked, turning my eyes to Ambery just as we all sat inside the coach. "Maybe, like Cleromancers can't predict each other's future, including themselves, Necromancers can somehow locate other Necromaners?

  The Deity looked doubtful. "The rule regarding a clash of specialized Sorcerers of Necromancy is that Necromancers can raise each other and, like in your and Khloe's case, can make a dual-revival scenario. I don't know if they can locate each other."

  "It's worth a shot, though," Shell's sudden low voice interrupted, and he glanced at me, dangerous green eyes slanted. "Try it, Carla."

  Gulping, I nodded, and closed my eyes. I opened my consciousness to my sixth sense, my power, my Necromancy, and felt out for the nature around me, like I'd done when I resurrected the bunny, like I'd done when Kimberly instructed me the first time I reached out for my magic.

  What I found around me made me gasp. And I understood what mana truly meant for the first time.

  Where magic was life, even Necromancy like mine, mana was a different story. My power cringed from it as I tried to reach out with it to touch the air, and an uncontrollable shiver trickled down my spine. Mana was, in a sense, like Snow described it; a bottomless well of magic. But it was more accurate to Ambery's description, because while this well was bottomless, it was also extremely dark, and falling into it would make one end up dead, if not worse.

  I was about to stop spreading my power and drew it back in when I saw a small light in the pool of darkness. The light was small, almost dim, which probably indicated it was far, and I went with an instinct. Since my power was practically screaming at me to sheath it back, I did as it asked, and opened my eyes.

  "It worked," I said, and realized I was sweaty, breathing heavily. One of my hand was in Zack's, and the other in Shell's. They both seemed to had caught me for some reason. "It was like I resurrected that bunny, finding that specific bunny's soul among all other souls. I found him. He's here, in Mooncore. He's heading south." I was almost sure it was south, but the almost part was kind of lame, so I didn't say it.

  "Shit," Ambery cursed, "he wants to get to the City of Stars. We need to stop him before he does."

  "Why?" Mike asked, eyes wide. "What's the City of Stars?"

  "It's on the other end of this Kingdom," Ambery gritted his teeth. "It's the capital of Mana. It's a place no one, not even magic-users, venture into. The mana there is worse than it is in this place."

  Since my power was afraid from the air here, I didn't want to imagine what I would feel if we wouldn't stop Tollier from arriving to the City of Stars. "We need to stop him, then. Now."

  No one argued after that.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The south part of Mooncore was almost deserted. There were mere house out here, and most of land was of long field leading to faraway mountains. Ambery asked me to try and find the Necromancer again, and as I did, it was almost harder than before. The mana put pressure on me, as though trying to help Tollier hide from us, but I pushed through despite my power's instinct to flee, and found him again.

  He was almost at the mountains.

  Once I announced that, we got off the carriage and got on the horses. "It'll be faster this way," he said. Since we had only two horses, Ambery and I took one each, and the wolves discreetly took their clothes off and shifted to their wolf form.

  That was a sight magnificent all by itself. Zack, his big dark-chocolate fur and narrowed quicksilver eyes, was running next to me, making sure I was steady on the horse. It wasn't the first time I rode one, so I knew what I was doing, but his gesture was touching nonetheless.

  Mike's wolf was more to the pretty side, with golden fur and electric blue eyes looking even sharper in his animal form. He was as big as Zack was, but we all knew who would truly win if a fight erupted between the two again.

  Shell was a different story from both Zack and Mike. While he was big, he was ruthlessly built, and his wolf was, for my utter astonishment, pretty much ugly, so unlike his human form it wasn't even funny. His left ear was bitten, his eyes were a murky seaweed color, and his fur was thin, almost like he was growing bold or something, and its color was somewhere between gray to light brown. On his almost bear skin there were evident scars. He looked like a wolf who'd been attacked by an entire pack and the damage that was done couldn't heal right.

  It made me wonder if, in his human form, his skin was just as marred by scars. Since I'd never seen him naked and probably never would, I filed this thought for much less stressful times.

  The horses galloped smoothly, unfazed by the presence of three predators with them. My horse, a black one with a surprisingly white tail, whom I named Checkers, was especially compliant. I kind of liked Checkers. She was a badass. Even Ambery's horse, whom I called Sunny due to his almost yellow mane, was pretty awesome.

  As we were running after the Necromancer, Ambery yelled at me, "Try to locate him again!"

  I did so, and through gritted teeth barked back, "He's only a few Mike away!"

  And I was right. In a few Mike, we suddenly saw another horse in the darkness, this one as black as mine but without a weird white tail, just jet-black. I deemed him to be Blackie. On Blackie rode a man, I could see, with a long cape waving behind him in the breeze.

  Feeling in my guy that this man was Haykon Tollier, I hissed-screamed, "It's him!" and we all ran much faster after that.

  Blackie's rider must've heard us because he was starting to speed up even more. Ambery's face turned murderous then. "Stop," he barked the order, "I need you all to stop so I can teleport to him."

  We listened to him and slowly came into a stop. He didn't wait once the horses were steady and the wolves were prepared for a lunge, and blinked out of existence, only to appear in front of our hunted rider. Blackie made a distressed sound, coming to an abrupt stop, and the rider, who immediately jumped off her, was about to attack Ambery, when the Deity gave him such a hard smack across the head, its sound echoed in the entire field.

  Once the man was down, Ambery motioned for us to come over. Mike herded Sunny forward while I made Checkers move, as well, with Zack and Shell for protection. We arrived the Deity and the Necromancer and stopped. I got down from Checkers and crouched before the passed-out man, while the wolves went slightly farther away to change back into their human form (they held their clothes in their teeth this entire time so they wouldn't be naked once they turn back into human).

  "That's him?" I asked Ambery as I checked the man's face. He didn't look older than thirty. "You said he was supposed to be in his fifties."

  "That's how people in Logia look when they're old," Ambery said and when I loo
ked at him, I could see weary lines marred his face. "Magic here is used to make people look younger when they're old. It also doesn't cost as much as cosmetic surgeries cost on Earth, let me tell you."

  I returned my gaze to the man. He had short black hair and a square scruff around his mouth. He could've looked like a ranger had it not been for his black trousers, leather shoes, and buttoned shirt. His cloak, which was part of his wavy cape, was black and the insignia of the Red Order, the one Ambery had talked about, was stamped in its front in faded red. It was circle in shape with some complicated drawing inside it I couldn't really determine since it was that worn-out, but it looked regal.

  "Is he going to wake up soon?" Zack asked when they returned, fully clothed. He looked at the man with an unfathomable expression. "I want to beat the shit out of him."

  Mike snorted. "Me too."

  When Zack's eyes snapped to the other male, shining silver at once, Shell put a hand on his shoulder. "Despite what he's done by leaving Carla and Khloe to deal with their situation," Shell spoke quietly, gravelly, "he did raise the two of them back to life, which means that without him, you wouldn't be here today, looking out for your mates. You need to be grateful before you get angry."

  "Mr Shell here is right," Ambery rose from his crouch, sighing. "Despite his faults, Tollier did bring both Carla and Khloe back to life. Now," he glanced down at the unconscious man, "when he wakes up, we can ask him all kinds of interesting questions."

  Ambery hoisted the man into his arms and said, "Take charge of the horses and let's go. The forest's not far away from here. I think we all need a rest."

  He was right, of course, so I got back on Checkers, while Mike took Sunny and Zack took Blackie, and with Shell bringing up the rear, we followed Ambery, who was holding the fated Necromancers who may or may not have the ashes of my body with him.

  We made up a camp in the forest, and while Ambery was keeping an eye on the Necromancer, Shell and Mike helped pulling some woods together and start a fire. Zack, on the other hand, was tasked with hunting some food. When he was about to set off, I decided to come with him. No one needed me in the camp, and I felt like I needed to be next to him. Not just for him, but for myself.