Curse of Stone

by Nikki Lockwood

  “I do not trust the words of a Tiefling. But there are other ways to determine that.”

  “Like being hunted by Radu?”

  “Yes and no,” Iktok said. “He hunts all female descendants of her blood line. We detected a healer in the city two years ago, that is why we stayed. The potent scent of her blood lingers in the air here. We have yet to locate her.”

  “But we don’t know if she is being hunted by him,” Vee said.

  “He haunts her dreams,” I added. As much as I didn’t like those winged bastards, if they thought she was a healer, which was ludicrous, they would help her. And Stone needed all the help she could get, to return to me.

  “That’s true,” Velkan said. “But if he is as powerful as legends say, why doesn’t he come and get her himself instead of sending demons?”

  “Because Iktok and his brothers know when he is here, they hunt him. The fact he is staying out of the action, is one thing working in our favour. It gives us time to rid her of the poison, if possible, before he enters the Earth’s plane and comes for her,” Cathwulf said.

  “He is here,” Iktok said, almost cutting her off. “A few days ago, he came down from the stars, and my brothers chased him. We have not seen him since, but we know he is here still, hiding in the shadows, and from us. This Ruth you speak of, we know who she is. We were there the night she was taken. We had been chasing Radu for two nights, and on the third, he sent several demons ahead of him, distracting us. That is when he took her. It was the first time he had done that. We were not able to confirm before she was taken if she was a healer or not, but I would say not, as one taken has never returned. We have been watching this woman since she returned. The night the grandmother was attacked, we took a blood sample from her. She shares the blood, but she is not a healer.”

  “What do we need to do then?” Vee asked.

  “We need to remove the poison from the girl. I have summoned an old ally.”

  “And what of Radu?”

  “He will know that the poison is in her veins, and she is weakening. We will watch over her. He will come, but he will be cautious. Zaire and Balam are to stand guard with your wolves tonight.”

  “And they are most welcome,” Cathwulf said.

  “We can protect her,” Vee said.

  “Hush now son, it is what is best for everyone.”

  “He does not know, does he,” Iktok said.

  “Know what?” Vee asked.

  “A wolf cannot stop him. He cannot be killed. My brothers and I, we are older than Radu, and have abilities given to us by the devil himself. This is our purpose. If we catch him, we can banish him.”

  Velkan didn’t respond. Iktok had just rendered us useless in the fight to save Stone.

  A rancid cadaverine stench filled the air. A loud growling bark reverberated from wall to wall. Every muscle in my body tensed. My ears pricked. A low rumble of a growl erupted into a series of aggressive barks. I ejected from the table, and ran out of the room, into the hallway, towards Stone’s room. Vee was right behind me.

  I could hear the vicious gnashing of teeth. A sudden ripping sound, like the tearing of flesh, followed by a weakened howl. I smelt it. Blood. My heart was beating a million miles an hour, my stomach knotted, and panic fuelled my limbs with adrenaline. The howl came to an abrupt stop as a thud sounded.

  I burst into the bedroom and halted. Two creatures with one-arm; round faces; long hair the colour of fire; and razor-sharp fingernails, curved like a crescent moon, stood across the room.

  They had Stone.

  A deep, gravelly growl vibrated from my throat. Fighting back my wolf, chomping at the bit to be free, my hands pierced with claws.

  A pungent metallic odour of fresh blood filled the air. Cora was lying on the ground. Her head severed, eyes open and mouth aghast. Blood stained her mousy brown locks.

  The creatures screwed their round pig nostrils up at the sight of us. One snarled in a gurgled, peculiar tongue. Zaire and Balam, who had transformed into gargoyle form, stepped around us, and Zaire said something back.

  They flew at one of them. It let go of Stone’s legs. Gnashing its teeth, its claws lashed at Balam, but Zaire grabbed its arm and thrust it back, snapping it.

  Three wolves burst into the room. King, Perry, and Cai. King stopped at the sight of Cora lying on the ground. The others bounded into the back of him. He dropped to his knees, snout pointed to the ceiling, and let out an echoing howl. Cora was his mate, his wife.

  Anger reverberated through me. Still fighting back my wolf. I needed to get Stone. The other creature holding her upper body, staggered towards the door. Her legs dragged along the granite. Blood. I wanted blood. No fucking way were they going to steal what was mine.

  I leapt forward; jaw open, ready to sink my teeth into its flesh. In mid-air something snagged me, like I had an elastic bungy cord around my neck and was being rebounded backwards. My arms and legs sprawled in all directions. What the fuck was happening? Flying backwards I passed King, with his canine limb, arm, outstretched, and eyes fixed on me.

  “It’s mine,” he growled.

  Smashing through the wall, back first, the wind knocked out of me. After the momentum stopped, I bent down on one knee, trying to stabilise my breathing, and looked up at King. Small lines of red formed in the yellow of his eyes. His teeth clenched, and paws with claws extended.

  King stood close to nine feet on his back legs in wolf form. Cora’s blood soaked his black fur, from the knees down. Steam exhaled from within him. His heckles raised, and his lips pulled back bearing his incisors. Without a sound, King leapt at the creature.

  It gurgled and dropped Stone’s body. The reverberation of her head, hitting the ground, flooded me with anger.

  To my right, Balam and Zaire pinned the one creature to the ground and were talking in that gurgling tongue. King had the other one held high over his head, and then threw it through the opposing wall. As he turned around, I heard it. Droplets one after the other, hitting the floor. The smell hit my nose like a wave crashing against the shore. My eyes fixed on King. His victory was short lived as he came crashing down onto his knees.

  “What treachery is this?” he asked. Across his arms, the wetness spread. Red splotches were on the floor beneath him. Changing back to human form, the significance of the wounds, could be seen. Gashes on his arms had already pustulated, and a fever taken hold.

  “What, what is this?” His eyes fixed on Iktok.

  Iktok responded in ancient Turkic. King’s eyes widened. Before I could get to my feet, Velkan rushed to Stone, and was carrying her away from the rubble of the smashed wall. As Balam and Zaire decapitated one, a warbling guttural scream, came from inside the destroyed wall.

  The fire-haired creature, with green oozing from its head, came flying into the room. With one swipe of its claws, King’s head went spiralling from his body. Without stopping, the creature leapt onto Velkan’s back. It sent Stone flying forward from his arms. I rushed and caught her before any part of her hit the ground.

  An outbreak of rampant, infuriated howls haunted the air, and I joined. Cai snarled and snapped his teeth as his howl ceased. My anger for my alpha beyond comprehension, but it was the woman that lay in my arms, that kept me from reacting. From a half-crouched position, holding Stone off the ground, I stared up, at King’s naked, headless body.

  Balam and Zaire pulled the creature from Velkan. Iktok remained calm, in human form the entire time, and walked towards the remaining creature. He spoke in a language that was foreign to me. His hand swelled, a grey clawed hand thrice the size of mine emerged. One swipe and the creatures head detached from its body, rolling sideways. Iktok turned, his hand human again, and held that cool expression. The sheer power of him, an elder, clear in that one motion.

  Cold, bruised and blackened, I stared down at Stone, examining her face. Thoughts ran back to the mornings in her apartment, and how the light from the rising sun caressed every curve, making her look even more angelic
than she was to me. Striding towards the bed, I lay her body down, head last, cupping the back of it in my hand. Stone. In that moment, I couldn’t hold it back, I missed her. Every part of me ached for her.

  Iktok appeared unmoved by the current events. I’d expected more of a reaction from Cathwulf, given that two of her right hands, including an alpha, had lost their heads, but she showed no emotion.

  “Son, are you okay? Did they get you?” Cathwulf asked.

  Velkan dusted himself off. “I’m fine.”

  “What just happened?” Cai asked. “What were those things?”

  “They are servants sent to retrieve her,” Iktok said.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “He knows she is here. He will try again. It is not in his nature to give up.”

  “How was one small creature able to kill and behead King, one of our strongest?” Vee questioned.

  Iktok stepped closer to the beheaded creatures. Their orange locks soaked in a putrid green ooze. “These creatures were summoned on purpose. They come from a small island in the Pacific, near the Solomon Islands. Interesting that he used them.”

  “Why is that interesting?” Velkan asked.

  “Because they are lethal to most all supernatural creatures, and they serve one that does not afford Radu any favours.”

  71

  It had been a long fucking night. King and Cora’s bodies were sent via pyre to Asena. Seeing the smoke bellow from King’s singeing flesh, hit home. He was like a father to me, as well as to Dassies.

  Dassies hated magic. It’s what killed his parents and left him homeless. As for Cora, for something so meek to take her out, was beyond me.

  Iktok didn’t leave during this time, he stayed to watch over Stone. He had his own agenda, but it was far from me to guess to what that would be. Before he left, he laughed, the most charismatic laugh I’d ever heard. Help was on its way. ‘The furrier the better’, he’d said. I didn’t know what or who he meant.

  After paying respects to King and Cora, I just wanted to get back to Stone. In a few hours, the sun would rise, and they would leave.

  As I walked into Velkan’s room, I froze.

  Spiders, lots and lots of spiders had started descending from every crack and crevasse. Small and big; brown, black, multicoloured, fluorescent; hairy. There must have been thousands of them covering each of the four walls.

  “What the hell?” I asked rhetorically, realising that this is what Iktok meant.

  Luciana who had been ordered to stand guard, was squirming atop a chair. I smiled. Now that was worth seeing.

  Perry, Zaire and Balam were more composed, having shifted their bodies to near the centre of the room.

  “They’re just spiders,” I said.

  Less than impressed, she snarled at me. “It’s not funny. One minute there were none, then the next, the walls were like this. I hate spiders.”

  Zaire and Balam stared at Luciana with steely eyes. Cathwulf and Iktok appeared. Scanning the walls, Iktok looked unconcerned with the spiders. Cathwulf although taken aback at first, remained unaffected until her eyes set on Luciana dancing round like a germophobe darting sneezes.

  “Lucky, what are you doing?” Cathwulf asked using her nickname. “Go on, get out of here.”

  She glared at her mother, and quickly obeyed.

  I walked into the room further. I didn’t mind spiders, but seeing this many at once, made my skin crawl.

  “Look at them, they’re just sitting there. What are they doing here?” I asked.

  “They are guarding her,” Iktok said.

  “Guarding her?” Vee asked. “Why have thousands of spiders come to guard her? Where did they come from?”

  Iktok walked over to the wall. “It seems my old friend is on their way. They command all spiders. These ones have been sent to clear the way and stand guard until they arrive. The tunnels will be emptying of spiders.”

  Great. Every fucking spider was coming here. I shuddered. This was disgusting. But they were here to help her? It was a far-fetched notion, and one that seemed unreal. I stared at the cracks in the corner of the room, where more spiders were spilling out. Something in me, made me want to comfort Stone. If she saw this, oh man, she’d freak.

  “Who is your old friend?” Vee asked, staring up at the roof. “Are you sure they can draw the poison from Danielle?”

  They were starting to cover the roof. If all of them dropped off the roof at once, we would be in trouble. I shook with an ick feeling. I’d never heard of someone that commanded all spiders.

  “If anyone can help her, they can. They are older than time itself, and they favour anyone that opposes the devil or his disciples, especially Radu.”

  “Kharachne,” Vee uttered.

  “Very good young wolf. Yes. Kharachne or her apprentice will come.”

  “How long will it take them to get here?”

  Iktok laughed. His pearly white teeth were so bright they nearly blinded me. “They can travel fast, like most supernatural beings. They have no comprehension of day or night, but they live in the dark, deep beneath the earth’s surface. They will not surface until after dark as they cannot see in the daylight.”

  Cathwulf accompanied Iktok as he left, making note that he would return tonight after the sun set.

  Vee and I looked at each other. It was extra furry in here. Zaire and Balam stood guard in silence. Zaire had pale white skin, shoulder length onyx-coloured hair; a silver hoop hung from each ear lobe; trimmed goatee and moustache; and jet-black eyebrows that shadowed his aquamarine eyes. He looked like he was the lead singer from a rock’n’roll band.

  Balam on the other hand, had dark olive skin; straight black hair that stopped halfway down his back; dark features; sloping forehead; strong nose; and was slimmer than Zaire. He had the whole Mayan god look going on.

  These guys were old, like millennia old. Trying to imagine the things they’d witnessed and seen over that time; it boggled my mind. If I’d liked them, I would’ve asked questions, but I didn’t, like them. A thought popped into my mind, it made me laugh. It was priceless, and I knew it would rub them the wrong way too.

  “You realise that you stones are watching over Stone,” I said with a proud chuckle.

  “Oh, my god, of course,” Velkan said. “Could it be? The curse of stone, and in this case quite literally.” He glanced at Zaire and Balam. Their faces drawn into a hard line.

  “What?” I asked.

  “The curse of stone, you remember from the fables my mother used to tell us.”

  “Fairy tales, Velkan. Come on man, that shit doesn’t exist,” I said.

  “But if the devil’s star exists, how is this any different?”

  “Fine, let’s say it’s possible. What is it?”

  “Oh, it was something about two stones… Wait, now, how did that go?” Velkan said, rubbing his forehead with his palm.

  “Three stones: one of blood, one of light, and one bound. It is the prophecy of the end,” Balam said. His eyes stared straight ahead with a vacant look, like that of deep in thought.

  “Makes no fucking sense. Stone isn’t a stone. Nor does this pertain to her,” I scolded, annoyed at the very thought of believing such rubbish. No fucking way was such prophecy real.

  “End? What do you mean?” Velkan asked.

  “When one mortal bound by three stones, passes into the realm of that which no light touches, the devil shall return to walk the earth without sacrifice. The great war for light and darkness will come to one final battle. This shall never be allowed to come to pass, as for all who stand against him will fall.”

  The words haunted me. An eerie silence filled the long hallway.

  “She cannot be said mortal. Radu does not keep them in a place that light does not touch. That has no relevance here, young wolf. I’m afraid it’s another ghost story.”

  “That’s for damn sure,” I muttered. It was absolute rubbish. Fucking Velkan.

  “I know this has got
to be hard for you,” Velkan said.

  “What?”

  “Finding your mate, but she has friend zoned you all these years, and now you might never have the chance to claim her.”

  He was provoking me, the bastard. Trying to pick a fight. I didn’t take the bait.

  “You know Jay, if—I mean, when—she wakes up, you realise, she might not want to see you right away.”

  What the fuck was he talking about? Not want to see me. Sure, we’d had some disagreements lately, but we moved passed that. Truth was, it was me that was afraid to see her. I’d let her down, not protected her when she needed me. Given she’d put herself in danger, again, it still didn’t appease the guilt. No matter how long it took, the rest of our lives, I would make it up to her. Fix what needed fixing, and spend the rest of my life, being everything, she needed, and wanted. Even without one bite, I would be Stone’s forever. And nothing would ever fucking touch her again.

  “So, when she does, it might be best, if you wait a little while before seeing her.”

  No. I didn’t like that one bit. I stared at him, unmoved. “No. Wouldn’t it be best if a face she has known for most of her life, was there, you know, just in case she has forgotten you,” I snarked, my words vicious and rubbing salt in his wounds.

  His eyebrows clenched together. “This is what’s happening,” Vee said. “I won’t tell you twice.”

  My nostrils flared at him. Fists clenched. Fucking hierarchy bullshit. He may think he was in charge, but I was destined to be alpha, and he was not. Stone had only known him a few weeks. This was the worst idea, ever. I folded my arms across my chest and straightened my spine. I glared deprecating his decision. I wanted to be the first person she saw when she opened her eyes.

  “It’s what’s best for her, Jay.”

  How did he know what was best for her? “You think you know, but you don’t know her like I do.”

  “We’ll see Jay. She’s known you for what, all your life, and never once has she chosen you. Yet, in one night, she chose me. It’s me that she wants in her bed.”

  72