“Did you see what you needed?”
Meredith shrugged. She now knew where they were keeping Charu; although that didn’t help her much, it was something. The fact that it looked like the supernatural equivalent of Fort Knox wasn’t particularly encouraging, however. She still didn’t have any idea how she was going to get him out of there. Although Meredith didn’t consider herself a featherweight, she wasn’t much against hired muscle, even the human variety.
She’d probably have better luck against an unvesseled wulkwos as Apane called them. At least with them, though they were more likely to tear her to shreds, she would have a chance at distracting or injuring them with the fragment of light contained within her.
Leaving the conservatory, they rounded a corner that took them to a long hallway. The largest set of doors preceded all the others that dotted along its length and Meredith froze in recognition. That was the lauchume’s office. The lasa nudged her with a mild rebuke.
“Do not worry. The lauchume doesn’t spend much time here unless he is attending to business. His room is a large suite encompassing the entire top floor. He prefers to stay there when not delighting in the hunt.”
Meredith swallowed at how sinister that sounded—that he delighted in the hunt. It didn’t sound like a man with his faithful hound and a shotgun looking to bag a stag. She remembered all too well what the wulkwos enjoyed hunting and feasting upon. With great effort, she forced herself to step into the corridor.
The smell of lavender hit her nose almost instantly. She didn’t know for sure if it was from the floor wash that was used to keep the tiles shining, or if sachets were tucked in great numbers somewhere in one of the many rooms whose doors framed the walls. Apane didn’t seem to notice it, or if she did, she didn’t remark upon it as she walked a few feet ahead, opening doors. She waved Meredith in whenever the room proved empty so they could wander inside and look around.
Each room was much like the next. They were decorated in very similar schemes as if the owner decided every guest room should be like the others. The only thing that broke up the monotony was a room done in delicate feminine colors at the end of the hall. It was designed to appeal to women and had not only a cherrywood desk in one corner of the brightly lit room, but the shelves were stuffed full of well-loved books versus the somber display in the office.
Meredith walked around the room, allowing her fingers to trace along the worn spines of the novels with unfettered pleasure. When she was a girl, she’d loved the scene from Beauty and the Beast where the heroine was gifted with a library. This room looked like every little girl’s fantasy of such a gift. By a window, Apane leaned over a small table harp and began plucking at the strings, each vibration sounding sweet, clear, and very loud in the silence of the room.
Meredith almost felt like she could forget the entire nightmare as long as she was in that room. Humming to the music, she turned around a bookcase at the far end of the room and came to a stumbling halt. There, looming up from its stone base, stood a giant ferocious gargoyle. Everything about it was filled with such menace and hatred that initially Meredith refused to get any nearer to it, her eyes fastened on the monstrosity. The sounds of the plucked harp strings gradually died and eventually Meredith felt a familiar presence at her back. Apane slipped around her to stand at her side, her lips curving in a smile.
She glanced over at Meredith and waved a hand toward the creature.
“Meredith, this is Tiurma. Or rather, this thing, which is possibly as ugly as the real wulkwos female, is the vessel to which the lauchume bound his mate.” Apane leaned forward and regarded it closely. “Tiurma,” she called softly.
The stone didn’t move or respond in any definable way, but Meredith could feel the surge of furious energy from within the statue. It rose as if a massive spirit uncoiled, struggling to escape the confines of the statue. Meredith was fairly certain that if she listened, she’d be able to hear the shrieking of the wulkwos caged within the stone.
Whatever the case may be, the presence within the stone was aware of them, and especially focused on Meredith. She could feel the eyes boring into her from where she stood. She could feel all the anger and pain radiating off of the female. She reached a hand out to touch the cool stone but was pulled to a stop by Apane. The lasa shook her head and watched Meredith with a fearful gaze.
“Do not touch it, mistress. Although she is captured within the stone, I do not know if she would have any effect on you should you attempt it. Tiurma is an ancient wulkwos, and very powerful. Some say nearly as powerful as the lauchume himself, if not more. I do not know how he tricked her into this form, but it is best not to rouse her anger any more than we must.”
She tugged on Meredith’s hand, determinedly drawing her out of the room. Meredith traveled after the spirit as they left the main floor and entered the first floor which, from the few doors that were unlocked, contained little but a number of the same colorless rooms.
But the second floor, where her own room was, bore the most mystery. Every room with the exception of her own was locked. Apane looked knowingly toward the door and mouthed the word wulkwos. Here rested the foremost of the lauchume’s guard, his best warriors. Meredith felt a chill run up her back at the very thought of sleeping so near them. Her tongue pressed against the back of her teeth as she stared at the row of doors. If she tried to escape, would she be able to get off the floor? It seemed that, if the guards were aware, she wouldn’t get far at all. It was a depressing thought. Yet it made her more nervous knowing that just on the other side of her wall, a wulkwos was waiting.
That wasn’t even touching on the fact that just above her the lauchume dwelled.
Unwilling to linger in the hall for even another moment, Meredith sprinted the distance to her bedroom door. Apane was close on her heels, but Meredith didn’t stop until she was in the safety of her room with the door shut firmly behind them.
Panting, Meredith raised her eyes and met the understanding gaze of the lasa. The female smiled sadly and eased her back onto the bed before draping a blanket over her. The soft singing voice fell upon her ears, humming a sweet tune until it coaxed Meredith to sleep.
Chapter 26
The view in his cell never changed. The same walls surrounded him, the script glowing, unchanging in the murky light of the room. There was no way to track the passage of hours except by his increasing distress as time slipped by and he was separated from his mate.
At times he sat on the floor, staring as he seethed at the door. Other times, he paced the room, slamming his fists into the walls until they bled freely his aethereal substance. He wanted destroy everything around him, anything to get to her. And his anger increased even more by his inability to do so.
His thoughts always circled back to Meredith. No one brought him any news of her condition. No one saw him at all since the lauchume left Charu to his prison. He’d been surprised, thinking the wulkwos would have circled his cage with lust burning in them to see their hunter brought low. He’d expected them to mock his inability to keep Meredith safe from them. But no one came, and for a time he wondered if she was even still among the living, her dark purpose already served.
It wasn’t until she began to scream her terror and the lantern flashed with brighter light that he knew she was alive and suffered with her. Every cry pierced him, shredding into him until he was in a frenzy fighting against his bonds. He was pulled into her terror and he mindlessly fought against every restraint in his need to get to her and ease her pain until he eventually collapsed against the floor.
He didn’t know how long she suffered until she succumbed to sleep. He wouldn’t have known that the night had fallen were it not for the change in the sounds of the household above his cell. He could hear them, the wulkwos, as they emerged from whatever parts of the house in which they’d been hidden. They often fought during the course of the night and the house would rattle with their roars and the slams of bodies against wood. They never progressed too far befo
re the wulkwos slipped away from the abode.
As the night had dragged on, he’d wished for the bliss of slumber that other beings enjoyed. Even the wulkwos and similar lesser spirits fell into a kind of slumber after expending energy in their tasks. Never Charu, unless he required the healing following a battle or a lengthy manifestation.
The chains served their forger well. Not only did they keep Charu’s power repressed within him, they offered him no moment of reprieve. He could only sink gratefully to the floor when Meredith’s maddened screams finally died away.
Then he was left alone in the silence of the mansion with no company save the masses of large flesh-consuming beetles boiling up from the earth. They were not like any common beetle that humans were accustomed to. These followed the taint of death and were drawn any being of Aites. Charu had no doubt that the entire building was infested with them given the lengthy presence of the wulkwos and their entourage.
He’d ignored the creatures as they skittered around his legs and boots, his ears twitching at the clicking sounds they made. Though they were drawn to him, they’d swarmed over each other, keeping clear of the space in which he resided. Not once did they touch him in their eager frenzy. Eventually they’d subsided and seeped back through the cracks of the cellar.
Charu didn’t know how long he sat there, brooding from his place on the floor. His head shot up when he detected the scent of his mate nearby. An unfamiliar female accompanied her, and their voices washed over him. He ached for her to descend the steps and join him, but he also knew that was impossible. The guard who’d been lurking there since he took his shift over from the last guard spoke with undisguised hostility.
Wanting nothing more than to wring the life from the guard, Charu listened and waited. Eventually the footsteps of the women receded and the heavy footfall of the guard returning to his post echoed through the floor. Silence then descended once more, broken only by the occasional creak of a chair, or the sounds of the male going about his tasks.
When the door at last creaked open, a shaft of light pierced the room partially blocked by the silhouette of a human. Charu sneered, recognizing his visitor. The stairs creaked as Kessler stepped down them with a pair of other males following him that shared common features with their elder. Sons, Charu assumed. Their appearance struck a chord of familiarity in him, but he could not place it. Kessler, however, glared at him with undisguised hatred that Charu found amusing.
If the male thought to intimidate him, he chose the wrong adversary.
Kessler strode toward the cage, stopping within feet of it, his eyes narrowing with contempt. A smile tugged on Charu’s lips as he met the male’s regard with his own cold perusal. The human flinched and the stench of fear came off him in waves, but he did not retreat. Charu could almost taste the sweat rising from his pores. Despite the layers of fear, hatred burned in the human’s eyes.
“You killed two of my boys, demon.”
Charu settled against the wall at his back, his arm draped lazily over one knee, and smirked. This human was using others of his species to further his own means through service to the lauchume, killing indiscriminately and sacrificing the welfare of humanity as a whole. He felt no pity, though he now at least could place the familiar family trait. Two of the man’s young had been vessels for the wulkwos. They were nothing more than a sea of other faces he’d been forced to dispatch in his path over the earth.
“I have killed many,” he agreed, neither refuting nor acknowledging the claim.
His smile grew as Kessler’s face reddened with anger. He blustered and looked back to his other sons with mounting fury before turning hard eyes back to Charu.
“You had no right to kill them. We struck an agreement to live peacefully with the ravagers. You had no right coming in and upsetting it. We did not ask you to interfere.”
Charu’s smile dropped and his eyes narrowed on the pathetic human standing in front of him as if he were a victim and as if he were perfectly safe with the bars of the cell between them. The chains rattled as Charu stood and he took savage pleasure in watching the eyes of the males widen, their pupils constricting. He stepped casually to the bars and sneered.
He wondered if the lauchume was even aware that his guests had wandered where no other had dared trespass since Charu arrived. His eyes focused in on the nervous way that the younger males kept glancing back toward to the door.
Ah. He thought not.
He leaned forward until the curved edges of his horns brushed the bars of his prison. He held the other male’s gaze within his, bending his will upon him, drawing him closer. All he needed was the spark that would complete the job.
“I serve a greater purpose than the machinations of your greed, human. If you lost anyone, it is but a pittance of the price that is paid by the rest of the world. Those who collude with the wulkwos are not exempt from the burden shared by others. By your deeds, the sorrows of humanity grow deeper. The loss of yours is nothing,” he snarled.
Kessler rushed forward but was grabbed before he got within a foot of the bars by his sons. Charu smirked even as he cursed the vigilant brothers. The eldest of the younger males stared at Charu.
Charu bared his fangs in an approximation of a smile, every line of his face etching with the cruelty that all of Aites knew he was capable of. He would destroy anyone and anything... save for Meredith. She was the only one who would never need to fear him.
The male tightened his grip on the elder Kessler’s arm.
“Dad, don’t get any closer. We have no idea what he’s capable of. You saw, as we all did, how easily he kills everyone in his path.”
Kessler shook his son off, glaring wrathfully.
“Marcus, you are nothing more than a sniveling coward. You make me sick. Release me, immediately.”
Marcus’s face morphed into an expressionless mask as he dropped his hands away.
“I am not weak.”
“Please, if you and Percy were even half the men your brothers were, you would have volunteered to serve the lauchume rather than cowering behind me. We would have been stronger, and they might not have fallen to this creature. Does he look dangerous when restrained by the magic of the ravagers? Of course not. But neither of you possessed vision enough to fully put your faith in him and offer yourself to his work.”
Marcus paled. Charu watched with amusement, curious if it was fury or fear that struck such a change in his features. He inched closer to the bars while the humans argued amongst themselves. Such a ridiculous thing was pride. He barely restrained a ruthless chuckle as he pressed against the metal, feeling his skin heat with the supernatural flames of the restraint spells upon him.
“If you remember correctly, I was needed,” Marcus snapped, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a grimace. “You were the one who wanted me by your side, too terrified to deal with the ravagers alone. Don’t speak to me of being weak, not when there was nothing noble about what was done by the ravagers to Xavier, Anthony, and Jason. They consumed them and took their places. There was nothing left of my brothers except their flesh and bones worn as a mask by these creatures you’ve allied us with. I never wanted this. This is a waking nightmare that we are unable to escape, and yet you are content as long as you’re at the top of the heap. Well... are you happy now, Dad?”
“How dare you suggest any of this is my fault! I made the best decision possible for the welfare of our family.”
“What, to sit on a throne of death as everything around us withers away like victims of a wasting disease?”
“The lauchume protects us!”
“The lauchume does nothing without thinking of his own gain.”
Kessler snorted and waved his hand through the air.
“It is the way of businessmen. If you don’t understand that one thing about business, you aren’t fit to lead our family.”
“This is not shaking down the neighbors for a bit of goods. I don’t mind walking on the wrong side of the law, and yeah, I’ve do
ne some dirty shit, but this here is fucking evil.”
“He’s right,” the youngest murmured, earning him a reproachful look from Kessler.
“You agree with him? You’d disgrace me? The both of you deserve what you’ll earn at the hands of the lauchume,” Kessler bellowed, spittle flying from his lips.
Charu focused on Marcus, waiting until the male looked up and met his gaze. The male’s eyes dilated at contact and he stilled like a rat caught in a cobra’s stare. Charu could feel the resentment tightening within the human’s body. It would be such a little thing if he surrendered his father to Charu as Kessler was willing to give him to be subjected to the cruelty of the lauchume. He smiled darkly as Marcus’s expression hardened.
Kessler, amidst his rant, did not notice. His hands were lifted in the air and his face flushed crimson with anger. His eyes looked almost bright with fever as he began to babble to himself between his spewed rantings. He lifted a finger, and it almost hooked as it shook with his mumbled warning.
“The lauchume will punish you both grievously for this. I can no longer protect you.”
Charu outstretched a hand, sliding it between the bars, his claws extending as he gripped the end of his chain between his fingers. Marcus slid a glance toward his brother and Charu could almost see the decision as it happened. The love for his younger brother outweighed his loyalty to his sire.
It happened quickly and yet the world slowed down for Charu as Marcus rushed forward and shoved his father back into Charu’s grasp. The chain whipped around the fleshy neck of the human and he drew it as taut as when he’d been transported by Kessler. His claws dug into the flesh even as the chain cut off all breath. The body twitched violently, crashing against the bars of the cell until finally it expended the last of its life. The legs released the last of its spasms and nothing was left but the dead weight of a corpse.
Havoc of Souls Page 19