A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga (12 page)

As she neared the door, the window beside it
shattered open, sending glass flying in Emily’s direction as a
werewolf barreled through the window. The fragments of glass sliced
through her skin effortlessly, sending the werewolf into a bloody
frenzy.

Panicking, Emily darted out of the hallway
and into the bathroom. Her hands glided over the metal lock, hoping
that would hold the werewolf at bay. Placing her back to the door,
she braced herself as the door began to shake violently. It pounded
and pounded away at the door, each shockwave sending shivers down
her spine.

And suddenly, just as it began, the shaking
ceased. Slowly, Emily moved from behind the door and waited
patiently for the sound of paws to scurry away.

The werewolf didn’t leave. Drawing a large
claw, he lifted his front paws up and ran the nail sharply down the
door, sending a bone-chilling message to Emily, stuck inside the
bathroom.

And then, without warning, the werewolf
trailed off, his scent taking him to greener pastures.

“No, no, no,” panicked Emily, dropping to her
knees as she watched the werewolf’s grotesque paws scamper away
from underneath the door. She knew exactly where the demonic hound
was going, upstairs where a frightened Tyler was keeping vigil over
her unconscious brother.

It took every ounce of strength she had, but
Emily unlocked the bathroom door and placed her hand on the knob.
The cold brass washed over her fingers as she thrust the door open,
and stood defiantly against her menacing attacker.

Emily told herself she wasn’t going to keep
watching, as her friends and family risked their life for her. She
had powers; powers that everyone seemed to fair. While she still
couldn’t control her abilities, Emily knew that was the key in all
of this. And right now, she could feel those powers soaring within
her.

Higher and higher the energy started to build
inside Emily, the warm stream of power caressing every fiber of her
body as it shot out from her mouth and eyes. The room lit up with
strands of white light, skipping and flowing as they danced around
the room.

Startled, the werewolf let loose a low rumble
as he charged ferociously towards Emily. He ran full bore, cutting
through the living room with terrifying speed and
aggressiveness.

Instead of a scared little girl, Emily stood
her ground, a powerful woman with limitless potential. Holding her
arms out, she unleashed all of her rage. With a triumphant roar, a
shining white stream of energy shot out from her hands.

Unlike the first time, Emily was in control.
She could sense thousands of creatures, all calling her for to give
them life; and give them life she did, sending forth a hulking
rhino, transparent and gleaming with the same white luminescent
light swirling all over Emily’s body.

The werewolf stopped in his tracks, throwing
his paws out in front of him as he dug deep into the floor. With no
time to reverse his course, the once frightening wolf was now
wide-eyed with a sense of panic running through his entire
body.

Emily actually enjoyed watching, as the
creatures that had been terrorizing her received what was coming to
them. She was not a hate filled person, but when it came to her
friends and family, she was a fierce protector; or at least, she
always wanted to be.

The summoned rhino enveloped the werewolf in
the same blinding white light, tearing him apart with vicious
swipes of his horn. Helpless, the werewolf shrieked in agony, his
pain echoing throughout the cottage home. The rhino disappeared,
sending the werewolf crashing to the ground, already dead and
smoldering from burns covering his singed body.

“W—what are you?” asked Samuel, standing
behind Emily outside the opened front door.

Emily’s eyes returned back to their natural
state, her milky gaze turning towards Samuel as she readjusted her
focus back on the situation at hand.

“What are you staring at me for?” asked
Emily, motioning to the door. “Xander needs you!”

Meanwhile, Xander and the alpha werewolf were
wrestling on the ground, grappling at one another ferociously as
they battled for dominance.

“It’s hopeless, vampire!” shouted the alpha,
pinning Xander’s arms as he dug in deep with his razor-sharp
fingernails. “I can hear your heart racing… you know it, too; the
end is near.”

Xander responded with a cool smile, the crook
in his mouth sending the alpha into a snarling rage. Still, he
continued to smile; his eyes wandering past the werewolf and up
into the night sky.

“What do you find so funny, dead man?” asked
the alpha, drawing closer to Xander’s head.

“In over 500 years, I never thought I would
see the day,” replied Xander, letting his body go limp, and the
werewolf tear into his skin with no resistance.

With a disgusted look in his eyes, the alpha
barred his teeth, and said, “I’m going to eat your heart while you
watch, defenseless and afraid. I’m going to enjoy watching you
suffer. When I’m done, your girl is going to suffer. We have big
plans for her.”

“N—no,” stuttered Xander, the heavy wolf
pressing down on his chest, constricting his breathing. “In over
500 years… I never thought I’d see… a vampire hunting saving the
life of a vampire.”

The alpha tilted his head inquisitively,
unable to see the attack coming for him. He howled out in pain as a
sharp dagger tore through his skin and into his belly. Writhing on
the ground, he rolled off Xander, desperate to remove the blade
lodged into his gut.

“Wow,” grinned Samuel, standing over Xander
triumphantly. “In over 35 years, I never thought I would see a
werewolf beat down a vampire.”

Xander was bloodied and barely able to move,
but he laughed. The first time he had laughed in a long time, he
thought to himself. They may have been enemies by blood, but he
couldn’t bring himself to hate the vampire hunter; and if it wasn’t
for the man’s occupation, he could even see the two of them
becoming friends.

Samuel eventually extended a hand, helping
Xander to his feet. He looked over to the country home, noticing
that Emily had exited the home with her friend Tyler. Together they
were carrying the now semi-conscious Steven over towards the battle
scene.

“Who sent you, werewolf?” asked Xander, his
skin slowly healing as he stood over the werewolf, bleeding out on
the grass. “Who sent you?”

Xander kicked the alpha werewolf viciously in
the ribs; the sound of bone snapping rang out through the night as
the werewolf cried out in misery. He could have taken the high
road, and let the devilish hound die in peace, but he had questions
that needed answering; and the one thing that a werewolf
understands is pain.

“I—it matters not if you know the truth… the
end will soon be upon you,” choked the alpha, blood spewing out his
mouth as he spoke. “Amata Gemeti sent me.”

“Who the hell is Amata Gemeti?” Samuel
asked.

The alpha let loose a low rumble, his throaty
laughter carrying across the property. They all looked nervously at
one another, awaiting the alpha’s answer.

“He asked you a question, beast,” said Emily,
barging past Samuel as she joined Xander overtop the dying
monster.

“Why don’t you ask your vampire bedfellow?”
asked the werewolf, his eyes turning towards Xander. “She has
bigger plans than you could possibly imagine. They may begin with
your precious little summoner, but they do not end there.”

“What is he talking about, Xander?” Emily
asked. “I don’t understand.”

Xander ignored Emily’s question, his mind
wrapped firmly around the alpha’s dire words of warning. His
friends may have had no idea who Amata Gemeti was, but that was a
luxury Xander did not have. For the first time in his second life,
he was afraid.

“Xander, are you listening to me?” inquired
Emily, pulling on his tattered shirt. “Who is Amata Gemeti—?”

“You’re working with a vampire?” asked
Xander, interrupting Emily with questions of his own. He didn’t
mean to be discourteous to the woman he cared so deeply for, but
the grave situation weighed heavily on his mind. “The paranormal
races haven’t united since the last culling. You realize what
you’re saying?”

“Oh… I realize exactly what this means,”
replied the alpha, gasping for air as he spoke his last words.
“Dark times are coming for the people of this world. We should have
taken our rightful place as rulers of this world, millennia ago.
Amata will give us that opportunity.”

The werewolf continued to laugh, his hoarse
voice sending a unsettling reminder of the gravity of the
situation.

Xander grabbed one of the swords lying on the
ground, his cold hands wrapping firmly around the hilt of the
blade. The cutting edge of the sword dragged along the grass,
closing in on the alpha panting and wheezing on the ground.

“Do you have any last words, werewolf?” asked
Xander, hoisting the sword high in the air. The steel gleamed in
the moonlight, shining down on the wounded wolf.

“Enjoy this moment, vampire,” the alpha
snickered. “For what’s in store for you shall be a fate far worse
than mine.”

The sword came crashing down, severing the
werewolf’s head from his body. Even as his head rolled, his face
continued to laugh, the contortions of his face slapping together
in the absence of vocal chords.

Turning towards Emily, Xander wasted no time
moving to the next matter at hand, Emily’s safety. With a sadness
that encased his eyes, he looked at Emily, and said, “There is
little time. If Amata Gemeti has united the paranormal races, than
we have little time.”

Xander grabbed hold of Emily’s arm, but she
pushed him away sharply. It had been a gruesome ordeal and Emily
was finally started to grow into the woman she was meant to be. A
woman that her mother would be proud of; and she remembered her
mother’s warning, burning a fire deep in her heart.

“No,” Emily said. “I’m not going anywhere
with you.”

“You will if you want to live,” Xander
replied, his stern words a forewarning of the danger that Amata
would be unleashing upon her and everyone she cared for.

“Then you better start by answering some
questions,” Emily said. “I am the summoner, and my powers are
growing. And unless you want those powers directed at you, you will
answer my questions. My mother warned me about you… prove her
wrong.”

“Anything, if it gets you far away from
here,” replied Xander, gritting his teeth. He didn’t like the idea
of sharing the horrors the past, but if it meant saving the
summoner’s life, than he had little choice in the matter.

“Good,” Emily said. “Then let’s start at the
beginning.”

Chapter Seven

It is said that the summoners were the first
paranormal race, created in a time when humans still lived in
painted caves. They lived amongst the people of the land in perfect
harmony with their environment. Ageless and born with limitless
power, they were seen as gods by the fledgling human race. Your
mother was one of those people.

The bright sun washed over Amanda, her
fingers running through her dripping wet hair as she lifted herself
out of the mountain oasis and looked down on the valley below.
Flourishing green foliage swathed the area, their beauty matched
only by the sparkling ocean in the distance.

“Every day you come here,” said a man,
placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Have you not seen all that
you wish to see?”

Amanda smiled, turning her head to gaze upon
the man she loved. They had been together for thousands of years
now, their love burning through the ages. She grabbed hold of his
hand, and said, “I hope that day never comes, Lars.”

The summoners were unsatisfied with merely
living among the humans that inhabited the land. The desired more
for themselves and more for the world they so genuinely loved. And
so, they began construction of a temple, where they could channel
all their power.

“Come on, you just have to see it,” Lars
grinned. “We’re almost there!”

Rushing through the dense plant life with
their hands entwined, they approached an entrance of a cavern. Lars
tugged on Amanda’s hand, asking her to go forward with him.

“It’s… so dark,” Amanda mumbled. “You know
how much I detest the dark. Are you sure you want to go down
there?”

“What are you so afraid of?” Lars asked. “The
temple needs to be kept hidden, far away from curious eyes.”

Emily trusted Lars, and knew she would always
be safe with him. They made their way down the narrow path, going
lower and lower into the ancient mountain.

“What temple?” Emily asked. “And why does it
need to be kept hidden?”

“The Temple of Prometheus,” replied Lars, as
they came to the end of the constricted tunnel. “And this holy
place is a shrine to our people, built from powers that must never
be claimed by those impure of heart.”

Amanda looked on in awe, for the Temple of
Prometheus was the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes on.
With sweeping roofs and pillars on every corner, not a single stone
had been transported, instead being created from illimitable
imagination; the entire structure intricately carved out of large
limestone deposit. The temple’s majesty was unparalleled, their
boundless power radiating from its design. It could have been
considered the first wonder of the world, if any human eyes had
ever laid eyes on it.

In the Temple of Prometheus, the summoners
breathed life into not just one species, but many different forms
of life, all unique in their own glorious way. Of course, the
summoners couldn’t have guessed the horror they would have
unleashed upon the world. The summoners thought they were creating
something beautiful, but instead, horrifying monsters emerged,
creatures of the night. The fiend’s sprang forth, a plague upon the
world. The summoners mourned for their children, but refused to end
their existence. From whatever evil dimension they may have came
from, the summoners could not bring themselves to destroy their
creations.