by Jeff Gunhus
“Besides, it was not the Creach that ended Rome’s glory,” Kaeden said sadly. “It was me.”
“You told them how to do it,” Eva whispered. “That’s how you got what you wanted.”
“They wanted to amass an army and march on Rome,” Kaeden explained. “No matter how many tree giants and rock ogres they fielded, the legions of Rome were an unstoppable force. Vitus and I knew this, and we saw that they were doomed to failure. I took heart in this because I loved Rome, but Vitus saw this as his chance.
“He strode into the middle of Conclave, pulling me along, and announced who we were. I thought they might kill us out of hand, and the Lord of the Demons nearly did, but in the end, they listened to what Vitus had to say. He explained how he would do it. How he would cause Rome to rot from the inside. How he would destroy everything that made Rome special. How he would destroy the Republic by putting a Creach dictator on the throne.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, thinking through my world history. “Are you saying that Julius Caesar was a Creach?”
“Of course. He was a werewolf, to be exact,” Kaeden said with some pride.
“But Caesar was killed in the Senate,” Will said. “Stabbed like twenty or thirty times.”
“More than it takes to kill a man,” Kaeden replied. “But necessary to kill a werewolf. By then, it didn’t matter. All the Caesars after him were Creach monsters, leading Rome down the path to its destruction.”
“And for your treason, you got what you wanted,” Eva said, the disgust showing in her voice.
“Yes, the vampires and werewolves had ancient hatreds between them, so each side took one of us for their own. After the transformation, Vitus and I worked together for centuries, protecting our own, pushing back the rise of man when necessary. All was good until Ren Lucre killed my friend. Because of him, vampires and werewolves have been mortal enemies ever since.”
I wanted to tell him that my mother actually killed the old vampire, but I held back. I needed him to keep hating Ren Lucre.
“Then help me defeat him,” I said. “Help me take the fight to your enemy.”
Kaeden laughed, but it was a dark, brooding sound with no joy in it. “The Jerusalem Stones are a power you can’t begin to understand. I was the one who insisted they be spread among the Five Lords for safekeeping after the defeat of the Templars. Why would I ever entrust them to a mere boy? A Templar, no less?”
“Because you know Ren Lucre’s war will be a disaster,” I said. “Just like you knew all-out war against Rome would be.”
Kaeden shook his head. “Ren Lucre has his Creach everywhere. In governments. In the military. When the war comes, the President of the United States will give the order to attack, and half his army will turn on him and fire in the other direction.”
“Surely you can see now that what you did with Rome was wrong,” I said. “Mankind didn’t just step backward, it plunged backward. We went from building the Coliseum and writing poetry to the Dark Ages of savage living and ignorance. Think of what man could have accomplished if we hadn’t lost a thousand years of progress. Can you imagine where we could be now?”
Kaeden’s expression softened, and I felt a surge of hope that I might have a chance reasoning with him.
“I don’t want the Jerusalem Stones to conquer the Creach,” I said. “Only to stop Ren Lucre’s war.”
“And free your father?” Kaeden asked.
The question caught me off-guard. I didn’t imagine he would know about that. I could see he was evaluating me.
“If it came down to it and you had to choose between saving him and stopping Ren Lucre, which would it be?” he asked.
“I would find a way to do both,” I replied. “Just like I would find a way to stop him and still find security for the Creach that want it in the human world.”
“Bah!” Kaeden spat. “That is a fool’s answer. He who tries to have it all ends up with nothing.”
“He who never tries never fails but also never succeeds,” Eva countered. “Not trying, just to avoid failure, that is the coward’s answer.”
Coming from her, it hit Kaeden like a slap on the cheek.
“Help us,” I pleaded. “Don’t let Ren Lucre make the same mistake the Creach Lords wanted to make almost two thousand years ago and start a war in the open. People have so much good in them. Who knows where the world might have been by now if Rome hadn’t fallen. Give humans a chance. They deserve it from you.”
Oops.
And I was doing so well before that last sentence. As soon as it crossed my lips, I had an idea it might be a mistake. It was.
“Deserve,” Kaeden sneered. “What do they deserve? Man has become a disease, rotting out everything that was once clean and pure. The air, the oceans, the soil, all contaminated amid this so-called progress. The Creach cower in shadows, forced into living as myths and ghost stories just to survive. Deserve!” He spit in the floor at my feet. “If I gave them what they deserve, they would already be dead.”
“I’m sorry,” I stammered, “What I should have said was ¬¬–”
“Enough!” Kaeden bellowed. “I’ve listened to this prattle for too long. You invoked the old ways, and so you will have your battle with the Boros. And you and your friends will meet your deaths at its feet.” He grinned at me. “If, by some mystery of fate, you survive, then you can have any one wish in my power to give you and safe passage from my lands. Let’s find out exactly what you deserve.” He waved a hand to his guards. “Lock them up. We call the Boros in an hour.”
The guards moved and manhandled us away from the throne toward a side door. I struggled against them, feeling my chance to convert Kaeden slipping away.
“You’re making a mistake, Kaeden,” I yelled.
“No, you made the mistake by bringing your companions here. And now they will all die because of it. Live with that, Jack Templar.”
As the guards forced us through the doorway and into the dark passage deeper into the mountain fortress, a pit formed in my stomach. I realized Kaeden, Lord of the Werewolves, might be right.
Chapter 26
We sat in our dingy prison cell, a torch with a small, smoky flame the only light in the room. By my estimation, we only had ten minutes or so left of our hour-long wait promised by Kaeden. So far, we really didn’t have a strategy.
“Okay,” Will said. “Let’s go through it again to see if we missed anything.”
Daniel groaned. “Saying the same things over and over isn’t going to do anything for us. We need a plan.”
I ignored Daniel’s comment, mostly because it was about the fifth time he’d said it without actually coming up with any ideas.
“So the Boros is a Lesser Creach, but only in name. It’s supposed to be an unstoppable armor-plated beast that fights dirty, moves quick as lightning, has teeth the size of my leg, and likes to eat its victims whole,” I said.
“See, that’s helpful,” Daniel muttered.
“Maybe we could feed you to the Boros so it could choke on the taste of you?” Will said. “You are smelling a little ripe with no shower for the last couple of days.”
Daniel didn’t laugh. This was hard on all of us, but I knew being around werewolves was harder for him than for most because of his father and brothers.
“I hope T-Rex and Xavier are smart enough to stay away from this place,” I said.
“Except that they’re our last trick to play,” Daniel said. “If they can somehow get past the defenses using Xavier’s bag of tricks, they might give us a chance.”
“From what I’m hearing, it would only add to this Boros thing’s dinner menu,” Will said.
“What do think, Eva? Any ideas how to beat this thing?” I asked.
She had stayed huddled in the corner since we’d gotten there and hadn’t said much. When she looked up at me, I saw a strange fear in her eyes.
“I can see the Boros if I try,” she whispered. “I know I should do it, but I can’t bring myself to… to… g
o there.”
I crouched down on the cold stone floor next to her. She was trembling. “What is it? What’s going on?” I asked softly.
Eva put a hand on either side of her head as if she had a terrible headache and rocked back and forth. “I have all of their memories in here,” she said. “All of Shakra’s, all of Ren Lucre’s, all of Vitus’s. Sometimes images bubble up to the surface. Things that I couldn’t possibly know except through them. When Kaeden told his story, I saw the cave where he and Vitus met the Lords. I could hear him speak.”
I put my hand on her arm and was surprised to find her skin hot, almost feverish. Daniel and Will came closer, careful not to crowd her, but craning to hear what she said.
“They must have seen the Boros at some point, right?” Eva said. “So if I go into those memories, then I can find it. See if I can find a weakness.”
“But it scares you,” I said.
She nodded and drew in a shuddering breath. “I think all of their victims are in there too. When vampires feed, they’re not drinking blood; they’re drinking life. All the memories, the triumphs and failures, the joy and sadness. They consume a soul.” She wrapped her arms across her chest, hugging herself. “If I go looking into the memories, I’m going to see every one of those deaths all over again. I don’t know if I can do that.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to do it,” I said. “We’ll find another way.”
“No, I have to try. I know that,” she said. She grabbed my arm painfully hard and looked up at me. “Just make sure I come out of it.”
Without warning, her eyes fluttered backward, and only the whites of her eyes showed. Her body sagged as if all of her bones had suddenly disintegrated, leaving only a sack of muscles, organs, and skin.
“Help me,” I called.
Daniel and Will rushed forward, and we laid Eva flat on the floor. Her eyes remained open, but still rolled back, giving her a creepy look in the torchlight. No, it would have been creepy even in the full light of day.
Her body began to twitch, and small whimpers came from her open mouth. She reminded me of someone having a bad dream, except I knew she was seeing actual memories of the ancient vampires whose blood filled her veins.
Her legs kicked out straight and her body went stiff. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream.
“That’s enough,” I said, shaking her. “Wake up. Eva. Come on. Wake up.”
Her legs kicked as if something was attacking her. Her arms flailed. She found her voice and screamed, “NO!”
“Eva!” I cried. I looked to Daniel and Will. “What do we do?”
They both looked terrified.
“I don’t know,” Daniel said.
I took her by the arms and shook her. Gently at first, and then harder and harder. “Eva. Wake up. It’s Jack. I’m right here. Eva!”
Then she was back. Her eyes rolled down into place, and her body relaxed. She sat up and stared at the flame on the wall as if the light would chase away the darkness where she’d just been.
“Was it as bad as you thought?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “It was worse than I could have imagined.”
The iron door to the prison cell rattled open.
“On your feet, vermin,” the guard yelled. “You four have a date with the Boros to keep. Single file line. No talking.”
Eva stood, and we all did the same, but I kept my eyes on her. “Did you learn anything?”
“You there,” the guard barked. “You hear what I said? No talking.”
Eva nodded and turned to me with a slight smile. “Yes, I think I did.”
The guards pushed us forward down a long, wide tunnel carved into the rock. A few of them dropped down into werewolf form as we walked. They separated us, forming a long line with werewolves between each human so I wasn’t able to get anything else from her. All I could do was follow the werewolf in front of me and hope that whatever Eva had discovered was going to be enough to get us through the upcoming fight.
I like to consider myself an optimist, but I have to admit, I didn’t feel good about what was about to happen. I had every reason to be scared because there was nothing good waiting for us at the end of the tunnel.
Chapter 27
We entered an enormous circular pit with a sandy floor and walls of black granite extending twenty feet straight up before widening into dozens of rows of cut-stone seats for spectators. The cavern rose at least a hundred feet from the floor, and massive stalactites that looked like giant canine teeth covered the ceiling. Only the first couple of rows around the arena were filled, reinforcing the sense I’d gotten since coming here that this place and this group of werewolves had seen better days.
Kaeden stood in his human form on a rock platform that bowed out into the arena. In front of him lay a pile of weapons. Swords, spears, axes. I recognized the weapons the werewolves had confiscated from us among the others.
Seeing him there, I realized what this place was. It was a copy of the great Coliseum of Rome carved into the solid rock of the mountain. Kaeden played the role of Caesar overlooking the games, and we were the gladiators sent out to entertain the masses with our deaths. It wasn’t a role I looked forward to playing.
“Jack, look,” Will hissed.
He pointed to the sand in front of me. I hadn’t noticed the white sticks half-buried in the sand when we first came in. Now that I saw the ones nearest me, I realized these white sticks were visible around the entire arena floor. I didn’t think much of them, just filing it away in my mind as something to look out for in the battle ahead.
Will must have not been satisfied with my reaction because he walked up to the nearest stick and kicked it with the toe of his shoe. The sand fell away, and I saw that it was part of a rib cage half-buried in the sand. I turned and saw Eva nudge something with the bottom of her foot. The object rolled forward. It was a human skull, sand pouring from its eye sockets and its gaping mouth.
The white things weren’t sticks. They were bones. Hundreds and hundreds of them. And that was only the top layer. As far as I knew, the bone pile might have been thirty feet or three feet deep. There was no way to tell.
What I could tell was that the werewolves had played this game here for centuries and, based on the amount of bones, they were likely not very worried about us winning against the Boros.
I scanned the werewolf faces around the arena edge, mostly in animal form, some choosing to appear as humans. They stared at us with all the excitement of a crowd watching fish about to be shot in a barrel. They clearly did not expect this to be a very entertaining fight. I hoped they were wrong.
“Any sign of them?” Daniel whispered.
Before he asked, I didn’t realize why I’d been searching the crowd – I was looking for T Rex and Xavier. I felt a weird mix of relief and disappointment that they were nowhere to be seen. I half-expected some kind of sign left for us to know they were there and waiting for the right moment to help. But I found nothing. They were safely outside the Keep’s walls where they should be.
“Eva,” I said. “Were you able to see anything in your memories? Anything that might help? Like how Kaeden and the Boros are linked?” I should have asked as soon as we stepped into the arena, but my brain was overloaded.
Eva’s eyes scanned the sand surface. I thought the sight of the bones had gotten to her, maybe reminded her of the catacombs in Paris with its millions of dead inhabitants. But when she looked up, she looked neither panicked nor scared.
“I don’t know the connection,” she said. “No vampire witnessed that. But I know how it attacks. It’ll come from under us. Up from the sand.”
The three of us backed up, watching the surface of the sand more carefully.
“Is it as bad as the stories?” Will asked.
“No,” Eva said. “It’s worse.”
“Brothers and sisters,” Kaeden intoned, holding his arms wide. “We gather to bear witness to a challenge. This vampire…” He paused as the spectators
broke out of their eerie quiet with a sudden eruption of howls and snarls. Kaeden smiled at the reaction, clearly pleased by it. “This vampire is newly made but carries the blood of our ancient enemy, Ren Lucre.”
This time the growls were twice as loud and angry. Kaeden waved his arms to get the others to fall silent.
“And these humans, who call themselves members of the Black Guard, one of them with Templar blood in his veins, wish to try their luck against the beast of the mountain, the Boros.”
Kaeden pushed the pile of our weapons forward with his foot until it tipped over the edge of the rock promontory and fell the twenty feet to the sandy floor below. The werewolves erupted in a frenzy, snapping the air with their fangs, scratching their claws against the rock where they stood.
“He makes us sound like we wanted to do this,” Will grumbled. “Last I checked, it was this or be killed back in the forest.”
“It’s part of the theatrics. Either way, we’re here,” Daniel said. “Come on, let’s get our weapons and make a fight of it.”
He took a step forward, but Eva shouted at him, “Wait! Don’t move.” She turned an ear toward the center of the arena and listened, head tilted.
“What is it?” I whispered.
She pointed toward the sand out in middle of the floor.
“It’s already here,” she said. “And it’s hungry.”
Chapter 28
We hung back, staring at the floor of the arena, searching for any indication of where the Boros might be hiding. I glanced back at the entrance to the tunnel we’d used to enter the pit to size up whether escape in that direction was possible if we needed it. A heavy metal gate had slide into place behind us.
“How do you know?” I whispered to Eva.
“Can’t you feel the vibrations?” she asked. “Or smell it?” She held a hand to her mouth, looking nauseated from some kind of stench.
I drew in a long breath of air through my nose. There was the dampness from the cave, the gritty smell of the sandy floor, and the not-so-pleasant smell of my own clothes after two days without a shower. But nothing that would have warned me of a giant monster nearby.