Coven of Wolves (21 page)

Alice says, "That's not fair! You're the ones who do the brainwashing, not us!"

Feng chuckles and says, "Then you better make sure that if our brainwashing doesn't work, that yours does."

Sharon angrily says, "So you're increasing our job duties too then."

Mei says, "Yes! Now shut up and get rid of this body! I don't want it stinking up the place, and be quick about it!"

Alice and Sharon angrily eye Mei, then walk over to Joshua's body. Sharon rips off Joshua's devotional amulet and throws it at the wall. When it hits the others, the amulet stops and slowly creates a space for itself among the many other amulets. Alice then levitates Joshua's body into the air, gliding it across the room towards the three main Initiators. The three of them then begin to chant in Mandarin. A few moments into it, Joshua's body begins to convulse and thrash around. Joshua's spirit is lifted out of his body's shell and gradually disappears into nothingness. When the chanting begins to subside, Alice lowers Joshua's body to the ground and covers it with a cloak.

"If you don't mind," Alice says, " I'll keep him in the hidden room until the club closes upstairs. It's really cool in there so his body will be fine for a few hours. Sharon and I will get rid of it before sunrise."

The three siblings then point to the hidden door and mutter a few incantations together. The door opens, allowing Alice to then levitate Joshua's body inside. Once Joshua lands against a far wall, they magically close the door shut again, with the body inside.

Sharon then sarcastically says to the Initiators, "Funny, I thought you said that only you three together were able to open and close that door." She and Alice move to the bottom of the stairway, ready to leave. Before she does, Sharon turns back to the Initiators and says, "I guess you were wrong."

Mei is about to lunge at the two girls when her brothers hold her back. Alice and Sharon giggle to themselves and leave up the stairs.

Wei says to the others, "She's right. By rights those two male witches shouldn't have been able to open the door. They must be exceptionally powerful to have broken our enchantments."

I can tell he is about to walk over to me so I close my eyes and pretend to still be unconscious. He grabs my face in his hand and moves it side to side, examining my features. "I sense a very large chi inside this one, more than the other two. The three of them are tied to one another somehow. It must be why they risked coming to get the female. I sense they could either bring us great fortune or great danger." Wei then releases my face, letting me rest my chin against the hexing stock around my neck.

Feng interrupts, saying, "There's a wildness about that one. Something is not right with him."

I hear Mei say, "What do you mean?"

Feng answers, "I don't know. There is more going on with him than just common Craft. What I fear is that these two knew exactly where to find her. What if more come looking for them? We can't afford for that to happen. It will be just like what happened to our parents years ago."

Mei says, "That won't happen with us. We're a lot smarter than they were. Besides, if anyone comes, we have Alice, Sharon and the paid guards here to help us. Nothing's going to happen. Wei, what are you doing?"

I hear the sound of someone shuffling a card deck. Wei then tells Mei, "I am going to see what the spirits have to say about what we should do. I'm going to let the tarot cards give us some insight."

I immediately think about what Anna had told me about tarot cards, about how only simple amateurs and those not fully trained in the Craft believe they can actually work for them. It hits me that for all of their power and cunning, these Initiators are as completely clueless as I was only a few years ago. They definitely have raw talent, but are still tied to false superstitious beliefs and lies. I then remember about how Wendy had told Tobias and I that the other witch ghosts would be willing to help us in any way they can. I slit open my eyes to try to see where the Initiators had placed mine and Tobias' swords. I finally spot both swords laying on the table in the middle of the room. I try to project my thoughts toward Tobias' sword, asking for any spirits in the area to help loosen our hexing stocks. Once I try though, my mind numbs a bit, disorienting me. I can't seem to focus on what thoughts are needed to project at the sword.

Mentally drained, I rely on the only thing I have left at my disposal: prayer. On a very basic level, I wish for a safe exit from the Initiators. That whatever help anyone can provide us, to happen soon. When my prayers are done I feel a slight bit of clarity to my thinking process. I then begin to feel a very light tapping on the back of my hexing stock. I have no clue who is doing it as the three Initiators are still in front of me, watching over Wei's shoulder as he draws various cards from the tarot deck. I look to my side and see that Tobias and Mika's hexing stocks are being lightly tapped as well. The tapping causes them to come to, but when they look in my direction, I silently shh my lips at them, telling them to remain quiet.

Suddenly a scream is heard from above.

Feng says, "What the hell was that?"

There are then more screams, and the sound of running, and things crashing from above.

After a couple minutes Alice comes running down the stairs and says, "A whole army of soldiers just invaded the club! They're everywhere and killing everyone in sight! My magics don't have much of an effect on them. They...they killed Sharon!"

Mei then says, "You fool! You'll lead them down here to us!" She then extends her arm and fires a destructive blast at Alice. The magic engulfs her, reducing her to a cinder in seconds.

Wei says, "What can we do? We can't teleport out of here. The ground level is too far up. We're not strong enough to make it that far."

Feng says, "The hidden room! We can hide in there until it's safe!"

After he says this I feel a latch somewhere on the back of my hexing stock come loose, causing the stock to open and fall to the ground. My proper level of thinking comes flooding back to me. The Initiators see that I'm now free and point their fingers in my direction. I quickly break free of the magic holding me to the wall and dodge out of their way. I barely miss a bolt aimed at my head. A black scorch mark is left on the wall instead. At that moment Tobias and Mika's hexing stocks fall to the ground as well. The Initiators are about to release a bolt in their directions too when I hold both hands up on a stop position, and focus all of my strength on a mystical shield appearing in front of my friends. The shield works, but barely. Still weak, I fall to the ground from the effort. I use the last of my strength to reach towards the swords on the table. I will them to fly into my hand. They do. I clutch them close to my chest and close my eyes, readying myself for the killing blow to hit me. Instead I hear a loud zap sound, but feel no effect from their magic. I look up and see that both Mika and Tobias had followed my lead and created a small magical force field around the three of us.

The Initiators begin savagely firing bolt after bolt at us, trying to break through. I then realize the reason for their need is because the doorway to the hidden room is now directly behind the three of us, also protected by the force field. I take a deep breath inward and find my spiritual center. I then use my own life force to help strengthen and support Mika's and Tobias' magic shield as best as I can.

At that moment the sound of many feet coming down stairs can be heard to our left. Everyone looks toward the stairway where we see a dozen Synoro werewolf assassins entering the room. Mei shrieks obscenities at them and begins firing bolt after bolt in their direction instead. Her brothers join in immediately after.

The Initiator's bolts hit the first row of wolves squarely in the chest and face. Instead of the magical bolts reducing the wolves to ash as they did to Alice moments before, the bolts only seem to completely anger the wolves. The bolts cause the Synoros to stop their advancement but not retreat. Soon the wolves in the front row throw their swords to the ground and howl on a guttural level. They then begin to transform into their full werewolf forms. The changing werewolves grow several feet taller and their standard black assassin clothing rips to pieces due to their now much larger body size. Their black fur and shining yellow eyes causes them to take on an especially menacing presence.

The Initiators look on in horror, but keep up their barrage of magical attacks. The bolts now bounce off of the fully transformed werewolves harmlessly as they lunge in for the attack. When they reach them, the werewolves take each Initiator and use their claws and mouths to savagely rip them to pieces. Mika, Tobias and I can only look on in horror.

When they are done, the werewolves turn to us and begin to loudly growl as they take several steps toward us.

"Wait!" I say, placing the swords on the ground. I hold my now empty hands in front of me. "I'm not going to attack you. None of us are. Adam is my father. The Archon Jason is my grandfather. We're not a danger to you! We won't fight!"

At this the werewolves stop where they are and look at each other in confusion.

"I need to speak to Nicholas.", I continue. "I believe he is in charge here. I need to speak to him immediately."

Slowly the fully transformed werewolves revert back to their human forms. One of them pushes his way through the squadron of Synoro assassins that have now filled the room and up the stairs. The remaining wolves stand their ground, watching over us to make sure we stay firmly detained. After several minutes, I can see two forms pushing their way through the troops. When the disturbance finally reaches us, I see that the now shirtless Synoro has returned with Nicholas.

Nicholas gets directly in my face, his facial characteristics shifting to resemble more lupine features. "You have a lot of balls sending someone to summon me after our last meeting. How the hell do you know my name?"

I hold back my fear and as best as I can, which is a very hard thing to do at the moment. I hope he will not notice how truly terrified I really am. I stare back into Nicholas' eyes to answer, "I know a lot of things. Like how you swore to my father that me and my mother would never come to any harm. I also know that my grandfather also swore to my father that we would be taken care of in every way as long as my father returned to the Synoro."

Anger fumes on Nicholas' face but he finally takes a step back, allowing his features to return fully human. "You know too much."

I take a step back as well. "Look, I'm not trying to make things difficult for you. I promise we won't fight you at all. I swear. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather not have any connection to the Synoro at all. But I know that you have orders to take us in dead or alive. I'm hoping that you will keep your promise to my father, as well as the promise made by the Archon, and take us in without killing us."

Nicholas mulls his options over for a moment. I look at Tobias and Mika and hope that my gamble has worked. Nicholas looks at the various Synoro members around him. It's then that I know he's realized that I've just limited his options. Too many of the wolves now know about his promise that he didn't dispute. They look at him to see which decision he'll make.

Finally Nicholas points to Tobias and Mika and says, "The promise was made that you will be left unharmed, not them. Emissaries, take them."

Several wolves step forward to follow his orders. Panicked, I block their way and say, "No! You can't!" I plead with Nicholas. "Please, they have become my family too. You can't do this. I'll do anything, just don't hurt them. Please!"

Nicholas looks at me and says, "The Sacred Law is clear: Any human who discovers our existence is to be immediately killed. Or is that something you didn't know about Mr. Know-It-All?"

"Yes", I say. "I do know about the Sacred Law. Any "human" who discovers the existence of werewolves are to be immediately killed. But Tobias and Mika aren't human! They're witches! They live in a hidden society just like the wolves do. They don't have anything to gain by revealing your secret to anyone. They're just at risk as you are. Please, take them with us to the Counsel. Let them decide their fate."

Suddenly there is a rustling among the crowd of wolves. A female Synoro member appears and approaches Nicholas. "Sir, one of the club members managed to call 911 before we could get to them. The police are on their way. We need to leave now."

Annoyed, Nicholas says, "Fine. Take the three of them and let's get out of here. Mason, handle damage control. The rest of you, disperse by the numbers. We'll rendezvous at the airport in exactly 45 minutes. Got it?"

The wolves nod in agreement and begin to approach us again.

"Wait!" I tell them. "I have to do just one thing before we go."

Angered and annoyed, Nicholas says, "We don't have time for this shit."

I turn to him and say, "The twisted fucks that ran this place were Initiators. I don't know if you have any clue what that means, but they did some pretty vile things to innocent people. Do you see those amulets? They each represent a soul that is cursed to this prison. Let me set them free. Let me do this and we'll go without any more fuss. I promise."

The wolves again look to Nicholas for approval. I give Nicholas the most sincere face I can. I subtly allow him to see visions of the countless trapped spirits I had witnessed before. I can see I hit some sort of nerve inside him. "You have 10 seconds."

"Thank you", I tell him. I then turn to Tobias and Mika and signal for them to assist me. Still completely shaken by everything they've just experienced, they stumble toward me and stand by my side. After taking a couple deep breaths, we each close our eyes and focus on the amulets surrounding the majority of the room. With the Initiators now dead, the curse attached to each amulet has been greatly weakened. We psychically see each amulet in our minds and will for the remaining curse to be lifted. Snapping sounds can be heard all around us as the amulet's jewels fall from their metal holdings and break into pieces on the floor.

When we feel the last few traces of the curse have been dissipated, we open our eyes. What we see shocks us. Transparent figures have appeared, each mouthing the words "thank you" as they rise into the air and disappear. Two of the figures we see are Wendy and Joshua. Wendy waves to us smiling before fading away. Joshua follows immediately after.