Seeing him listening to both of them, both Sasha and Brandon relaxed.
Robert saw this too, but that wasn’t the only thing that was rushing through his mind. He changed when grievously injured. How did he do that? How did he change so quickly too? I haven’t seen anything like that since Kalima himself. He looked into his eyes and realized what he saw. He even looks like him. He has his eyes. He couldn’t believe it but it did give him something else. There’s more going on here than I ever thought was possible before. First he survived a silver sword to the chest and now this. Something very special is happening here—something very special. “Jimmy?” He would have to find out everything else soon enough, but now wasn’t the time. Right now, he had to defend himself, so he held up the small piece of silver between them and showed it to the wolf.
The black wolf took a deep breath. He looked down at the silver and let out a low ebbing huff of air from his snout.
Seeing this, feeling the air caress his face, Robert looked back to the chard. He instantly relaxed. Thank you God. Now that that was over with he now knew what he had to do. It was time to find out. “Jimmy old friend, it’s now time to talk.” He smiled.
The wolf tilted his head again to his right. He moaned a subtle sound.
Everyone took a deep and exaggerated breath as they all relaxed.
7
“I do not like this Jewel. They should be here by now. It is getting late.” Sharlia walked up to Jewel, her sister and closest confidant, and stopped right in front of her. To say that she felt worried would have been an understatement if there ever was one. In fact, she felt terrified. She could feel her world crashing down all around her. Everything was happening too fast. Things felt like they were spiraling out of control. Now the boy didn’t come home. Something felt very wrong in deed.
“It is still early my lady. They might be running late some, but there is still time. They should be here shortly.” Jewel paced with her sister around the entrance to their mansion. What she told her sister was true, she did have hope that all was well, but at the same time, she didn’t feel that way at all. She worried too that something was wrong. She felt scared as well that she might be right.
“I should not have sent the boy. I should have gone there myself.” Sharlia walked to the two large front doors of her home and then moved back to Jewel again. “I should have known how dangerous this was. I should have known that the boy was too weak to do it.” She crossed her arms over her chest. She felt the need to hug herself tightly. She knew that she was smarter than this. She knew how low Vincent would go, especially being that it wasn’t all that long ago that they tried to kill her.
“You cannot blame yourself for any of this my lady. They will be here.” Jewel followed her sister and master by crossing her arms over her chest. She stood still in front of her and smiled.
“No. Something happened and I am convinced that Vincent had something to do with this.” Sharlia uncrossed her arms and slid them back down to her sides again. She now looked calm, but wasn’t. Her mind was now racing and her thoughts felt ragged. She hated both feelings. If she did make a mistake, one that she feared she did do, then she knew what she had to do about it. She had to plan their next move. She obviously had to do more than what she was now doing. Hell, she had to do something.
Jewel could see everything that her sister was feeling. It was written all over her face. “What are your plans my lady?” She had to help her if she could.
Sharlia shook her head. “I am not sure. I just hope that when the elders arrive they will help us with all of this. We cannot do this alone.” She turned back to the door, hoped to see the boy come through it, didn’t, so she turned back to Jewel. “Something is coming. Something bad is about to happen and only all of us standing together can fight it. Only all of us together can stop it.” She met Jewel’s stare. “We must prepare our home. We must get ready for it when it does come.”
Jewel nodded. “I will call together the family. We will need everyone here at our home.”
Sharlia nodded. She also shrugged. “It will not be enough. We need the black wolf with us, and now, I am not sure what his answer is. Without him, I feel that we made lose this fight.”
Jewel flinched with this idea. A cold shiver raced down her spine. “We have fought many times before my lady. We will fight again. You must not underestimate our strength.”
Sharlia scoffed. “And you must not overestimate it.”
Jewel didn’t like this. “My lady? Why is the black wolf so important? Why do we need him? He fought against us before. He turned against out kind so why would he do differently now? This does not make sense to me.” Hearing her sister’s voice quiver like this sounded strange to her. It didn’t sound like the woman that she always knew and she hated having to hear this now.
Sharlia shrugged heavy and sure. “He has a place in all of this. He was there before. He fought on both sides before but there is more to than that. With Vincent playing this deadly game and now having the black wolf back again it all tells me that something is moving along here that we do not understand. He has a part to play in this game. He must mean something more to all of this. He has to be more important. He is special somehow. He has his place.”
Jewel shook her head. “What would you wish of me?” She could never argue with her sister about her beliefs. She knew she would never win such a fight. All she had left was the only thing that she always did. It was her only option to take. She waited for her orders.
“We need the other families. We need so much more than what we now have.”
Jewel was about to say something else, but Sharlia turned and left her before she could say anything else. All she could do is watch her head to the oval staircase behind her and disappear to the second floor. When she was gone, she felt nothing but confused.
As for Sharlia, she needed to get ready for the meeting with the elders. She needed to plan what she was going to tell them. She could only hope that they would believe her. If they did not, than may the gods help them with everything else that was about to come.
8
It took Samantha only an hour to make it back to Long Island. She flew there with pride in her mind but she also felt fear. She wasn’t sure how Vincent would take the news that the black wolf was still alive. Worse than that, she feared Devish’s reaction to it even more. When he asked her to see if he did, she felt strongly that he wasn’t, but now, well, he was and that could mean anything to him. She could only hope that her information would help him either way. Quite frankly, she didn’t have the choice and worse yet, Vincent was waiting for her when she arrived to the house.
She landed, transformed back into her human form, and walked up to him with caution in her strides.
He obviously already knew what her answer was going to be. “The black wolf has survived then.” He met her at the steps to the mansion, just by the driveway, which wrapped around the front of the home. As for how he knew what he did, Devish had already told him about it. He knew much more than any of them ever would. He explained that much before she ever hit the city.
“He lives.” She felt a slight chill strike her naked body. Luckily, he handed her a robe just as she reached him. Even though the chill wasn’t because of the air, she was still thankful for it. As for the chill, Devish always gave her one. “Our lord Devish has seen it then?”
He dropped his right hand back to his side now that it was free of the robe. “He knew as much yes.” He turned and walked back up the steps as she covered herself. “I do hope they did not give you any trouble my dear. I do hope that they died well.”
She didn’t understand this. “Then why did we have to find them? Why did he send us? If he already knew what the answer was, then why did we have to kill all of them?” She followed him up the steps and continued as he went through the overly large front doors of the mansion, and into the foyer.
They continued through a long hallway until they reached an area just in front of a large a
ngled staircase, which went up to the second floor.
From there, she could hear a ghastly, growling, echoing sound flare around the house. It sounded worse than pain. It sounded downright evil in its shrilling agony tones of power and death.
Vincent stopped just after the stairs. He could now see the hallway that led to the back of the house. “A message must always be delivered to those who need it my dear.” He turned back to her.
She stopped with him and tried to understand what she just heard. “He wanted them dead. He wanted them to know that we killed them.”
He nodded. “Now that he knows that the black wolf lives, he can now move on to the next part of his plan. The black wolf has returned and soon he will grow powerful again. He will come like he did before, but this time things will be different.”
Hearing this it blasted her mind. Of course she remembered what she was told about all that happened before, but even with that said, why would their master wish to end this the same way that it did back then. This didn’t make any sense. Knowing this, not expecting it, the idea made it hard for her to understand everything further. “Why would he want to repeat what happened before? That doesn’t make any sense.” She had to ask those thoughts.
“He has his reasons my dear Samantha. Have faith in him. Have strength with his power.” He took a deep breath, letting the air of the hallway flush his mind. “He knows what he is doing.” He could hear the screaming and growling suddenly stop. For him this was a good thing to hear. It meant that they were finished with the procedure. He could only hope that it was over. How his master could continue with the pain was always on his thoughts.
She nodded also hearing that the screaming had stopped. “How much longer does he have to go through that? It must be painful.” She, like Vincent, could only hope that all would soon end. She knew how long he waited for all of this to happen. She knew how patient he has been. She couldn’t wait to have everything back to the way it was. Just the thought of living in a world without restrictions made her feel pleased. She couldn’t wait to live within it.
“It should not be that much longer, all of the gods willing. They must be getting close to removing all of it.”
She nodded with a heartfelt grimace crossing her face. “I do hope so, for all of our sakes.”
Behind him, Samantha could see a door open halfway down the hallway and watched as Devish stepped out through the door. She then watched him walk towards both of them.
Even from where she stood, she could see how well he was beginning to look. The wounds were beginning to clear across his flesh. The holes in his skin were no longer there. He looked better every time he did what he had to do.
“Ah Samantha, I see you have returned to us.” Devish smiled. He stopped directly to Vincent’s right side. He felt better already. He could tell that he was healing again. He felt stronger too.
She bowed her head when he reached them. “My master Devish.”
“My master?” Vincent also bowed his head some before lifting it again. “You were correct in your thoughts. The black wolf still lives. He is also growing strong again, just as you told us he would.”
“Ah yes. He is.” Devish bowed his head some. “He is returning to his full glory and soon he will be able to challenge us again, and with it, he will come here soon.” His smiled widened as he lifted his head again, but suddenly it faded again just as fast. “Soon we will have to give Rana back herself again.” He met Vincent’s stare. He was so tall that he had to look down at him to do it. “With her back by my side, all will be as it should have been since the beginning. Things will be as they should be.”
Vincent looked up to him. Even though Devish was looking complete again, he was still in his natural state. He still looked like the monster he always was. He could still see several open wounds along his arms. Seeing everything, he knew that he still had some ways to go before he was back to himself again. “How much longer must you endure? How much longer will it take you until you will be able to clear her mind?” The sooner he did than the sooner they could begin with their plans.
“Soon I will have the strength to move with her to the flames. Soon I will be able to free her mind.”
Vincent nodded. “Are you sure that she will be able to assist you again? Even with a lifetime’s passing many times over between now and then?”
“A millennium of time may have passed us but she will only remember the past. She will assist me as she had before.”
Again Vincent nodded. He had nothing to argue with his lord about so he didn’t. He only knew that he had to follow him, just as he told Samantha that she too had to do it.
“Well, I think we must inform our friend of her lover still being alive.” Devish turned and left before Vincent and Samantha could say anything else.
They just stood there and watched him leave them.
When Devish disappeared around the end of the hallway, Samantha turned back to Vincent. She had other things on her mind. “My lord Vincent, should we not prepare for the black wolf?” She knew of his power. She knew that he did all of this before and feared him truly because of it. “Should we not prepare?”
Vincent bowed his head. “Not until our lord Devish orders us to do so my dear. Until then, we must stay patient. We must stay calm.”
Before she could say anything else, he turned and left her standing at the stairs.
He moved on towards the direction that Devish had left.
She watched him move down the hallway and vanish at the end of it, and when he was likewise gone, she nodded. She now had to wait for her next orders. She didn’t mind. She felt that they had the time.
9
Rachel sat in the room alone until she finally fell asleep. She didn’t want to but eventually the exhaustion overtook her and she didn’t have the choice. How long she slept, she wasn’t sure about that either, but when she heard the door to her little cell open, it woke her up instantly.
The sounds of thudding on the floor told her who it was.
Devish walked in and found her sitting on the floor. She looked asleep but he knew her better than that. “Hello my dear Rana. I am happy to see that you are resting comfortably. You do need your rest.” He smiled but stayed at the door. He looked down at her with a gentle stare. Right then, more than ever, he knew that he missed her. He missed her scent, and soon, he wanted to miss her strength. He just couldn’t wait to see it again. She was stronger than anyone he had ever known before, and because of it, he needed her once again by his side.
She lifted her head and instantly noticed how much better he looked. “I see your wounds are healing.” She kept herself from looking at his eyes. She couldn’t bear to do it. She didn’t want to give him anything more than what she already had.
With this, his smile grew stronger. “The pain that I must endure is making me stronger again. I am pleased that you noticed it.” He left the doorway and stepped directly at her feet, which she kept her legs up against her chest. “Soon I will be able to change again. Soon I will be whole again as well.”
His smiled made her grimace. “You still look like crap.” She kept her eyes on her own knees. “I don’t think it’s working all that well.” She smiled. I’m enjoying hearing you scream. It makes me happy.
That made him laugh strongly and sure of himself. “I see that you still possess that spunk from your past existence.” He placed his strong and clawed hands onto his hips. Beneath his palms, he could feel that his flesh was growing soft again. This pleased him more than anything else ever could. “Oh how I missed this of you. You really were the best ally that I ever had.”
“I will never help you with anything.”
His smiled grew larger. “Oh of course you will my dear. You will absolutely be by my side again. All it will take is giving you back the truth of who you are. By then, you will do anything I wish of you.”
“If that’s true then why don’t you just get on with whatever you’re going to do? Why make me suffer like this?�
�� She huffed with one giant exhale of air. She was obviously much more tired of this than she ever thought she was at first.
“I do not wish to see you suffer like this my dear Rana. I truly do not wish it.”
“Will you stop calling me that,” she puffed harder.
Those words made him laugh again. “You are what you are my dear. You will remember that name soon enough. As for, how did you put it? Doing what I will do, that will happen soon. I must have my strength back again before I can visit the flames with you. You must have patience my dear. I have heard that your people envy such an emotion.” He took in a deep sigh. The air rushed through his lungs with a deep cool blast, which only added to his feelings of calm. He cherished the feeling. “I hate how lost you must feel. The time is coming soon enough before you will feel it no longer.”
She now lifted her head, but kept her eyes from meeting his. “What flames? What are you waiting for?”
“The flame of memory my dear is a place where all of us must go in death. It is a place that I will take you to when I am ready—when I am strong again.”
“That sounds like nonsense to me.”
He laughed again. “You will enjoy it. After you do, you will live again.”
“I won’t help you with any of this.” Her eyes blazed some. She could feel the heat of them as they burned her cheeks. “I’ll never help you with anything.”
He dropped his hands back to his sides. “I know that you believe this now, but rest assured my dear, you will not feel this way when you are you again.”
“Keep dreaming.” She lowered her head again.
Seeing her, hearing her defiance, he smiled again, firmly. “How wrong you are my dear. How wrong you will know you are when the time comes.”
Unable to convince him, she turned their little conversation onto something more comfortable for her. “I heard your screaming. It sounded painful.” She obviously heard it as she slept. No one could have missed such a thing.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 4, 5, & 6 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 2) Page 25