Taming Darkness: Artemis Lupine #4 (18 page)

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Authors: Catherine Banks

BOOK: Taming Darkness: Artemis Lupine #4

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“Where is your mother?” father asked.

“On the west coast of America. You will sense her as you get closer. I will give you two days to head that way and then I will get rid of the evil beings and you must find mother. You will feel my disappearance as a death so you will need to help her cope.”

“Is this the only way?” Father asked.

I nodded my head and stood up. “It is.”

He hugged me and ruffled my hair. “You should have said hi to me at the arena.”

“What?” I asked in shock.

He smiled. “I remember you being in the stands.
Who else could look so much like me, except my child? You could have talked to me then.”

“I couldn’t risk changing history that much.”

“We will always remember your sacrifice,” father said as he gripped the back of my head and stared into my eyes with such compassion and love that I felt tears pricking my eyes. “You are a great man and I am proud that you are my son.”

I would not cry in front of my father. I dug my nails into my hand and said, “Be patient with mother but do not keep her in the dark, be open and honest with her.” I turned to Koda and said, “And try not to fall in love with her this time.”
His face was priceless and I hoped he remembered those words.

I looked at Matt and said, “Your pack is the most important thing
, do not forget that.” I stepped back and smiled at them. “You better hurry. Achilles is moving closer to her.”

I had one last stop to make and then I would see Maurice. I teleported to the day I was born,
just after my birth, but when my mother was still alive, breathing her final breaths. Victor looked up at me in shock, but I ignored him, my crying self in a strange werewolf female’s arms and only looked at my mother. She was so beautiful and even in these final moments she was so strong. I picked one of her hands up and she looked at me in shock, her nostrils flaring as she took in my scent. “You can rest easy, mother. I have fixed the past. Everything is alright now.”

Tears rolled down her face
as she looked at me. She smiled bitterly, her heart beating slower and slower with each struggled breath. “Thank you, Sotare. I love you so much.”

I kissed her cheek and whispered, “I know. I love you too, mother.”

I teleported before Maurice had met my parents, but two days in the future from speaking to my father. I had not told him everything I had planned to, but that was for the best. I teleported to the room where Maurice would have met my parents, but now never would, and found him sitting on his throne with his servants moving around him, getting the room ready for a party. The pain at seeing my mother’s final moments was almost too much, but now was the time to finish this. I could not delay any more. I stood before Maurice and waited for him to notice me. He stopped watching the servants and his eyes met mine. “Who are you and how did you get in here?” he asked me calmly.

Victor approached from the side of the room, sensing his father’s uneasiness. I
met his eyes and whispered, “Listen to my thoughts.” Victor had made me promise to show his former self everything that had happened to them. He gave me specific instruction to show him as much as I could before killing Maurice.

Victor
stopped walking and stared at me silently.

I looked at Maurice and said, “Your evil cannot be allowed to contaminate this earth. I have seen what you become and I will not allow it to come to pass.”

Maurice looked amused and leaned forward with his chin on his fist. “I’m the strongest vampire in existence and you are surrounded by my subordinates. Do you really think you could walk in here and defeat me?”

“All you had to do was leave my mother and father alone. If you had allowed them to live out their lives peacefully th
is would not have had to happen,” I growled.

“And who are your mother and father?” he asked me, seeming more amused than worried about my presence.

“I am Sotare, son of Artemis and Ares Lupine,” I said raising my head regally as I met his eyes and saw the fear there finally. “Today the world will be balanced and the tree of life will be saved from your disease. I am here to tame the darkness of the world.” I glanced at Victor who was silently crying and said, “Seek out my parents, tell my father that this was the only way.”

He nodded his head and I unleashed a light so bright that any who looked at it directly would be blinded instantly. The vampires around me hissed in fear
, trying to hide from it. I reached out with my mind, touching those around the world who were consumed with evil. Maurice, my grandfather Darren, Vampire Queen Isabella, and thousands more that included beings from each race, including humans. I took those who were consumed with evil and I opened the portal to the void where nothing existed and sent them all there. This act would erase my presence in this world, making it so that I had never existed so I had to ensure that I took all of the evil beings out of the world and sent them to the void in one shot.

Everyone was capable of good and evil, but the world needed a balance
and at the current moment it was dangerously overladen with evil. Those who had already chosen evil needed to be eradicated, but especially Maurice. With his evil gone the world would go on and my parents would not live such a horrifying life of death and lost love. My life was a small thing to pay for their happiness.

Maurice yelled at me, but it was too late for him, his body disappeared and I felt the happiness of the Earth return.

The world had been balanced and the tree of life would continue to grow in light.

My body immediately began to vanish. Having changed the course of history I had erased myself from this world.

“Well done, Sotare. Well done,” Victor said with tears in his eyes.

“
Verus amor vincit omnia
, true love conquers all,” I whispered as I disappeared forever.

ARTEMIS

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

I wasn’t sure where he had gone, but my father had disappeared. There was no note and his truck was parked in front of the house so he couldn’t have gone far, but it had been hours and he still had not returned. I would have been more worried, but he did this at least once a month. He said he liked to go on “walking journeys” to clear his head. I think he was getting drunk and didn’t want me to know.

I watched the television, but nothing interesting was happening. Would my father be home in time for us to go on our trip? Or was he going to cancel it? He had promised to take me
and Bret around with fake IDs as a final trip before we graduated, but maybe his parental conscious got the better of him and he was going to cancel now.

I thought back to the dreams I had been having about the man named Ares and then shivered. He was so handsome and the last few dreams I had had he said he was going to come
to see me. I was actually nervous and a little frightened about that prospect. Who was he? What did he want with me? Would he really come see me? And what did it mean that he changed from a wolf to a man? A large part of me wanted to believe these dreams were real, but my logical brain kept telling me that they were just dreams and meant nothing.

I grew bored with the television and the same boring things on it
. When would anything interesting happen in the world?! I decided instead to go outside and walk through the woods. The town was quiet, but then again this town was always quiet except for the occasional teenager yelling as he drove his truck through mud or down the road as fast as it would go on the gravel. Despite the quietness I still felt as though something had changed. It felt like the earth itself had changed. I breathed in the smells of the forest and listened to the birds chirping all around me. It was peaceful today. The horses grazed contently with the cows alongside them. The trees chirped happily, the squirrels played on the branches and the sun felt warm against my skin. It was a good day.

I took a
nother step and my heart suddenly hurt so tremendously that I dropped to the ground and clutched at my chest as tears streamed down my face. It felt as though a piece of me had disappeared and yet I had no idea what had happened. What was this pain? Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face and the feeling only intensified as I sat there.

A
wolf’s howl pierced the forest noise and my throat tightened. I struggled to breathe a moment as my throat quivered and then a howl sounded from my own throat in return. What the hell?!

I stopped howling and fell to my side on the forest floor, focusing on breathing through the pain.
My body shook and I felt the familiar convulsions take over. This time was different though. This time my body did not stop and I felt my body
changing
. I lay still after the tremors left my body and took inventory of myself. I felt warmer, stronger and smells were definitely easier to pick up. I heaved my body up and then felt fear and wonder ripple through me at the same time. I was a wolf. How had my body transformed into a wolf? I remembered the dream about Ares changing and wondered if it had truly been about me this entire time. Were my dreams trying to tell me that I was the werewolf?

I took one step and then another
, acclimating to the new body.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. What the hell was I? Did my dad know? Is that why he left? What the hell?!

Fear surged through me and I began panting quickly, sucking in air through my nose as fast as I could. I stumbled to the nearest creek and stared at my reflection. I was a freaking wolf with big ears and sharp teeth just like in Red Riding Hood. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Maybe this was a dream. If it was a dream then I wouldn’t feel it if I bit into my paw…
ow!
Okay, not a dream.

Fear made me run.
I ran off into the forest, dodging around trees and smelling everything for the first time in my new body. I am a wolf! My emotions wavered quickly for some reason. It was almost like I could not focus on one for too long. I ran and felt joy and eagerness and yet fear at this new discovery all at the same time.

“
Artemis!
” Ares yelled in my head.

I stumbled in shock at his voice inside of my head and turned to see a gorgeous wolf run towards me. He let his tongue loll outside of his mouth and gave me a wolfish grin.
You’re beautiful.
He said. He walked up to me and pressed his nose to the fur on my neck, inhaling loudly. He was so warm and it felt so good to have him so close to me, but I wanted him closer. I inhaled with my nose in his fur and it was the most amazing thing I had ever smelled. I stepped back from him, feeling shocked and frightened that I was feeling this way. All this time I had thought that I was human. Why hadn’t Darren told me? Had all of those seizures actually been me trying to change forms? What if I had changed when Bret was with me?! Or at school?! I started to back away from Ares, fear clouding my brain in a thick fog.

“
Run with us and I will show you what it’s like to be a halfbreed.”
Ares said. “
Join my pack and my family. You and I are meant to be together and you have been alone and without a pack for far too long.”

A halfbreed?
Pack? I had so many questions, but as a wolf I could hardly focus. The fear vanished as soon as Ares touched me with his nose again. I just nodded my head to answer him and then ran off after him and the two other wolves who had followed him. Ares. Ares was here! He was real and we were together!

“Verus amor vincit omnia
.” He whispered. “
True love conquers all. I will help you through this and together we will live happily, as mates and you will never have to fear anything again.
”

“
Verus amor vincit omnia.
” I repeated. I liked the sound of that.

The end.

Thank you for reading the Artemis Lupine Series.
If you enjoyed these books please tell your friends and check out my other books as well.

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About th
e Author

I'm just your average nerdy bibliophile. I love books, video games, music and movies. In 2010 I self-published my first novel and now I have several titles
written and under construction. I love fantasy and have an extreme love for werewolves. I spend my days off work writing one of my novels or with my husband and 2 children. I love writing stories and they seem to flow out of me constantly. I just want people to read my stories and enjoy them.

Ot
her Books By This Author

Please visit your favorite book retailer to discover other books by Catherine Banks:

The
Little Death Bringer Series

Mercenary

Protector

The Artemis Lupine Serie
s

Song of the Moon

Kiss of a Star

Healed by Fire

Taming Darkness

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with Catherine Banks

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