She got up and called out to Mitch, “Come here and get behind me!”
Mitch ran for her, dragging the stampede of ghouls with him. It was almost frightening, the sight of it. They were still pale but seemed very much alive with their skin intact and healing, and limbs moving. Their feet stomped the ground hard enough to minutely shake it and she could feel the vibrations under her feet. Mitch got behind her and Viria immediately moved her body in precision that drew a protective barrier around her. With that in place, she sent a blast of paralysis energy that still the ghouls in their place.
“What exactly happened?” she demanded. He opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was garbled sentences that made no sense.
Viria shook her head. “All right, no, it’s okay.”
She turned to the corpses and carefully stepped out of the barrier. Nearing them with hawk like observation, she took in their following eyes. They were clouded, just like Mitch’s. Their skins were emblazoned with the marks that popped up whenever a witch or wizard performed their magic. Their fingers were glowing with magic waiting to escape. She removed the paralysis from their mouths
“Can any of you talk?”
“Well, obviously,” a witch spat. “Who are you?”
“Assistant to the High Council and community head,” she replied, “ViriaSchovsky.”
“Someone from my family in the High Council?” an old man cried from the back.
“I’m adopted,” she called out to him and moved to get to him. “Ivanna Schovky is of your bloodline and she’s the head of the council and community.”
She came to face a man with rust colored hair and cloudy green eyes. He really did resemble Ivanna. The shape of his nose and brows matched perfectly with Ivanna’s.
“Ah, Count Richie Schovsky?” she asked uncomfortably. “I know a lot about you.”
“You know lies!”
“I would hope so.” She crossed her arms and looked at the rest. She turned to Mitch. “You only summoned five?”
“Be grateful!” he said and she rolled her eyes and turned back to the crowd.
“I take it you guys remember your past.” They nodded and Viria contemplated further, “You have free will?”
They shrugged.
“If I let you go then you have to promise to not attack and sit down.”
“Only if you won’t attack us!” one of them said.
“Y’all are already dead, Martha.” Viria rolled her eyes.
“I’m not Martha!”
“Were all heads this crazy in the head, though?” She sighed and let them go with a snap of her finger. They fell to the ground in a heap. “Mitch, try taking control.”
The ghoul was unsure, but the look from Viria egged him on. Looking at one of the ghouls, he took control of the dark energies and tried to manipulate his body like one would with a normal ghoul. He couldn’t. Instead ,he felt something completely different, as if he was sharing his strength and power without any depletion in his own. That’s not how ghoul control worked. It drained energy from the source, not multiplied it.
He stopped.
“They have free will but I can stop the dark energy consumption in them at will. That should be impossible without a ritual,” he told her. “Also, I can multiply and distribute my strength and power to them if I wish despite them having their own.”
Viria looked at him confusedly. “That’s new…”
They looked at the ghouls Mitch had summoned from the ground, staring at their hands and at each other’s faces.
“We’re alive again…” one of them whispered, “What… how?”
Mitch came forward. “It’s me. I’m responsible for that.”
Something in the atmosphere changed and the witches and wizards got down on a knee with a low bow. “If that’s the case then we’re indebted to you for it.”
Mitch and Viria looked at each other in confusion. Viria shrugged. “Looks like you have a loyal undead teamof your own.”
“Seems like it,” he said unsurely/ “Raising them did take a lot of energy, though. I’ll have to process some now.”
“Nap time?”
“Nap time.”
Her phone rang.
“Luke, what’s up?”
“Viria?” Cassie’s voice came trembling through the speakers, “Luke and Fergus need help. They’ve been attacked in another pack’s territory and are having trouble holding them off.”
“Which pack?” Viria demanded as she got up and started to move, drawing a portal in place.
“Golden Mane.”
“All right, I’m going.”
****
Viria teleported right in the middle of the battle ground and called upon Yin and Yang. She pulled a barrier over herself and entered into her full-potential, eyes glowing silver and marks spreading about her body. She inspected the scene in a fraction of a second.
Chimeras.
It was the Morbus attacking.
She started to narrow down her targets, moving to combat them and knock them out unconscious with magic. She’d only taken down two before she was abruptly pushed off her next target. She was sent rolling on the ground and could swear she’d never taken such a blow from anyone before. Nevertheless she got up onto her feet and faced her opponent. A large wolf standing upright on his hind legs, limbs muscular and chest defined. His arms were human, but large, covered with fur. Sharp claws jutted out of his knuckles. His mane was large and greyish blue.
“Ahh.” His lips pulled back, revealing an intimidating set of yellow- and red-stained teeth. “ViriaSchovsky, the warlord of the new generation.”
“I’m flattered,” she said as she moved her fingers and conjured a spherical cage of symbols around her. “And you are?”
“Sad.” He cocked his head. “I thought I was very popular.”
“It always seems to be on the contrary to what we think,” she said with a hint of pity. “Don’t worry, though. You won’t live long enough for anyone to remember your name anyway.”
He growled and charged at her. Viria easily let loose a series of cannonballs of magic from the symbols that enclosed her, hitting him square in the chest and throwing him back a little. But it wasn’t enough to faze him.
This one seems powerful than most, she noted and changed her tactic, taking herself to the trees. She wondered if he would tire if she gave him a chase and take him and his people away from the main site. She wanted the battle to take place where it wouldn’t cause too much destruction to the pack’s infrastructure.
But she realized she couldn’t yet assume anything about them. Looking around the battle that raged, she figured this would be more than difficult to win than ever before.
She looked at the wolf that had started to scale the tree she was on. “Don’t underestimate my abilities, ViriaSchovsky. This really might be the last time you ever go into battle.”
“Don’t count on it.”
Chapter 6
Ammara was quick to get up once the meeting had adjourned. She did not feel like talking to anyone. It wasn’t clear they would be removing Nina from the position of power, but their preference for Viria was obvious and it was a large possibility that the Caillaghs would be pushed away from the role.
“Ammara,” Cole called out to her, a gentleness in his voice. She stopped and turned to look over her shoulder. Cole walked over to her carefully.
“I know you must be upset with the way the majority of the members feel about Nina and Viria’s case,” he said.
“No, it’s all right,” she lied through her teeth. “Our people’s safety is more important, and in need of more focus than such differences in opinions.”
“Letting go of power is not an easy thing,” he stated, “and I can see it unsettles you to have Nina be removed from it. I know you are the Caillaghs, and I assure you your worth will not be lessened by anything to come.”
“I feel this is all moving too fast and that everyone needs time to think it through properly,” s
he said firmly.
“We have the whole year ahead of us,” he said with ahint of amusement. “The real change will only take place after the system I’ve laid out is approved of by majority of the council should they see efficiency and results.”
“That’s more than enough time.” She nodded.
“And I hope by then…” he eyed Kalen who was going around greeting people, “your mate also comes to a proper reasoning.”
****
Kalen approached Samuel purposefully.
“It wouldn’t have hurt to tell us what was going on,” he hissed to him whilst dragging him away.
“Nothing was really decided yet, then,” he insisted. “He proposed a few changes and we accepted it as test run. Then it just stuck. He just officially became a stand in now. Please tell me you signed the acknowledgement.”
“Or what?”
“You’re in the video recording of the meeting,” Samuel explained. “Your presence has been marked. If your signature is not in there then it will be seen as a sign of resistance.”
“I didn’t sign it,” he claimed. “I resist. What can they do?”
“Well, nothing too intrusive,” came the repl., “You have the right to an opinion. You will be asked to record the reasoning for your response, though. It needs to go into the documents.”
“Are you guys really going to keep track of every single thing that happens in here?” Kalen scoffed.
“It’s for security purposes and to make sure political conflicts are kept under the radar.” He sighed. “You can’t deny the Council will face instability with all that’s happening outside. We can’t let it interfere with our priorities.”
Kalen groaned under his breath and Samuel put a hand on his shoulder. “Cole’s a good man, Kalen. Give him a chance.”
“I still want to talk to Gael for assurance,” Kalen stated firmly. “I want a guarantee he will be of good use to us.”
Samuel’s face turned thoughtful. “Understandable. I’ll lead you to where he is tomorrow. Let me get in touch with him first.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I better get back to Ammara. We need to call up Nina and see how things are going at their end.”
****
Nina followed Agatha out quietly. She kept a reasonable distance and made sure she couldn’t be sensed nor had any locator spells on her. Nina had never really left the Inner Circle. When she’d escaped, she teleported through the portal to the High Council and stole a jeep to get out of the community from there.
She was met with large walls of the hedge maze. They were green under the dreary sky. The sun was setting and Nina hoped she wouldn’t get lost in the place.
Totters, she called, I’ll need your help.
About time, his adolescent voice came in, How can I help?
I need you to fly over the maze when I ask you to and guide me out.
Totters nodded in her pocket. With that reassurance, she set on after Agatha who was no entering the maze.
Nina tried her best to remember the directions. Left, right, right, leave a cut, left, but she lost track. Agatha stopped suddenly, then entered through and arch. Nina stayed behind and listened quietly.
“What progress?”
“None,” someone said. “We might have to go for an ambush and get everyone under control by force.”
“What about the updates from the vampire communities.”
“They’re searching for us still, obviously.”
“And they want no compensation, except your head.”
Nina wondered what Agatha did to the vampire community to put her in such a position. That would be another mystery to solve.
“That won’t be such a problem when I have all of the communities under my control to send into battle against them. Not only will I have control over the witches, it will be over those vampires as well.”
Nina frowned. So that’s why Agatha was so adamant.
“Then you can take over the shifters and get them out of our way, too?” someone mentioned. “We have contracts to fulfill with the Morbus. You promised to help get to the young ones.”
“It’ll all happen,” she promised. “I gotta get rid of Nina, first. Have her hand over the throne to me. Can any of you get to her?”
“Tonight,” one of them said. Nina knew she wouldn’t be going to sleep now.
****
Ivanna was busy checking off aims from Viria’s priority list. And one of the waschecking up on the Morbus’s HQ she’d found. She’d been very quiet, blending into dark corners, avoiding cameras, and keeping high off the ground while keeping an eye on everything.
“Subject 2113 has failed,” a man said as he pulled on his gloves and pushed back the sleeves of his lab coat. “No heartbeat, brain and liver deformation, missing arm and mutated leg.”
“Let it have the snip.” Sighed the woman next to him. The man walked to the large glass cylinders aligned by the walls filled with green liquid and holding fetuses, formed babies, and grown men and women that were suspended by their umbilical cords as they floated. There were many cylinders placed two feet apart from each other on all sides across the whole room.
He pulled off the sticker label and pressed a button at the bottom, draining the cylinder off the liquid. The deformed child slowly floated to the ground with the liquid and reached the bottom as the last of it disappeared. The glass cylinder rose into the wall and the man picked up the child, going to another end of the room where a metal flap was built into the wall. He easily tossed the child through it. Ivanna knew the child’s fate and did not bother wondering lest she may throw up.
“Check 2118,” the woman said. “Check its genetic algorithm.”
“I don’t understand how some of them are still turning out wrong despite it,” the man said, visibly frustrated as he walked to another cylinder. “Years spent on research and we’re still being pushed back each time.”
“It’s better than before at least,” she said. “We have an eighty-two percent success rate, and if that isn’t good enough for you then what do you want?”
“You know what I mean.”
“You need to be a less hard on yourself andbe proud on how far you’ve already come,” she explained distractedly as she tapped away at her keyboard.
“The founder of Morbus is visiting in three days, Chloe,” he snapped. “I have to give results. I have to give reports!”
“According to the latest release of chimeras your success rate went up to eighty five so calm down,” she said, annoyance seeping into her voice. “You’ll be fine.”
“But—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” she hissed and looked at him. “Just stop, okay? Please. I hate doing this and you whining about this only makes it worse!”
The man grew silent, awkwardness growing in the air. Ivanna noted it. Chloe was not happy doing this. Some of the other workers here were most likely doing this against their will. Something compelled them to it. Job security, money problems, whatever else it could be.
She copied the woman’s name and face into her memory. She also got vital information on how chimeras were being produced. She was sure they got their hands on sex cells from captive beings. And they were still getting a supply, which meant there were still active bases around. Knowing Viria, she would want Ivanna to get into the computers and ruin the algorithms and steal all the original data and destroy back-ups. Ivanna wasn’t particularly skilled with technology as Viria was, though. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell Viria about this. Messing up the algorithms to ruin babies’ formation was as bad as throwing them down the chute that would kill them at the end. Maybe if she could find out how the supplying worked, a checkpoint of sorts, she could disable that, too. Make sure the messed up algorithms didn’t take effect on the new fetuses. Nevertheless, she would have to tell Viria everything.
She silently moved away and got into another room. She found nothing new elsewhere and soon took to the basement. The sight shocked her and she wasn’t sure i
f she could stand the horror of it.
The room was cold. Absolutely frigid, walls tiled with grey, the ground made of concrete and stained with brown patches here and there. Lumpy, black garbage bags were thrown against a wall, fully grown limbs hanging out of the tops or tears. A steel table stood at the center of the room, clean and shiny, a table of sharp and nasty equipment close by. Tall refrigerators were lined against the other end of the room, blood trailing out from below the doors. Ivanna was dead sure now that selling chimeras to the military was not the only thing the Morbus were doing. This room screamed illegal organ trade.
Do chimera organs even work, though? Another thought hit her, What if it’s not just chimeras who are suffering?
Viria was bleeding profusely through her clothes. And she kept using her reserves to heal as fast as she could. The wolf chimera was in no better shape. Worse even. Viria had never had to put up such a fight. Well, she did fight three other chimeras at once and was joined in by Luke and Fergus soon enough for help. But even they were scarred to no end. The chimeras were very powerful. But they weren’t smart enough and Viria used it to her advantage. It seemed as if the other shifters had caught on and followed what she did. The chimeras fought no differently from the shifters. They only attacked. They hardly defended themselves. Their human parts were open to attacks. Mainly their chests, calves, and biceps. There was little to no fur to protect it. If they had to attack efficiently, they’d have to abandon fighting from a distance and get in very close instead. Dodge and defend until they neared enough to attack. That is something the chimera could not catch up on. They relied simply on their strength, not brains.
Luke understood now why Viria was called the warlord of the new generation. Because she didn’t just win, she knew how to. She wasn’t the strongest on the field.She was the smartest. It wouldn’t matter how powerful her opponent was. It wouldn’t matter how powerful anyone was. She’d overpower and outlive them all. She knew people like the back of her hand within minutes.
Hunting the Rogues (Shadow Claw Book 8) Page 4