Lycanthropy
Chapter Ninety-Seven

Aron, looking at his mate’s body, a few minutes earlier:

She was still gone, it was over an half hour now at least, that Marius had finished the ritual. It was taking too long, and I was dreading the possibility for her to return.

“Radu, stop fighting me! You can kill me if you want later, but I have to be certain that she isn’t coming back.” I roared at him.

“Fine!” He immediately said, surprising me with the immediate agreement of this idiotic truce.

I shifted myself back to human, and took her body in my arms, while sitting on the ground. Her body turned colder by the minute, and Amy gave me a blanket to wrap around her.

For a moment I looked at her mother’s body, that laid next to her, with a slit throat. Inwardly I thanked her, for putting up the effort, to sacrifice herself for her daughter, and I was hoping it would have been enough, for Emerson to come back to me.

Emerson had some hair in her face, so I put it aside and gave her a kiss.

“You better come back to me, or I will join you on the other side.” I whispered to her.

Suddenly I felt her body heat up, lightly, slowly, regaining the body temperature that was once radiating off of her, before she sacrificed herself.

Her fingers twitched and people around us started to see it as well.

Hope, from within everyone here sprung up, as I could feel their stares burning their way towards her.

Smiles, gasps and howls were heard, as soon as her heartbeat started to beat louder and louder.

A little moan.

Reddened cheeks.

And her eyes opened!

Beautiful silver eyes now stared towards me, and a smile came on her face.

“You don’t want to go where I have been, my King. The Goddess has no sense of colour.” She said, with a smile.

I couldn’t understand what the hell she was talking about, but I hugged her fiercely and kissed her beautiful lips, cheeks, nose, neck and what not more.

“My love.” She stuttered, and I stopped my mission to kiss her everywhere I wanted.

“What is it? Is there something wrong?” I asked her.

Looking at her mate, acting so happy that he didn’t want to let her go:

“Well, no. It’s just that I have a job to do.” I said.

“To come with me, so I can fuck you into next week?” He asked me, jokingly, yet lustfully.

I smiled, and actually wanted to do just that. But I have to save one more person. And in order to do that, I have to kill another.

I looked at the dead body next to Aron, and saw my mother’s throat had been sliced, carefully. She hasn’t been killed by the EMP, she had been the one who sacrificed herself, to save me! Her soul was meant to go to hell, because she wanted to save mine, and now I’m going to do the same for her. I'll make sure, someone else goes to that place.

“No, there is someone that needs to go somewhere else, a much brighter place. A place that doesn’t require an indoor architect to arrange for more colour, as the place I’m referring to has all the warmth that one could replace.” I said cryptically.

Aron couldn’t look more confused than he did right now, and I chuckled.

I wiggled myself free from Aron’s hold, stood up, clutched the blanket around me, and turned myself around.

From the moment I had woken up, I could feel this presence, this being who leaked so much monstrous evil out of the pores of his skin, that it was hard for me to not rush towards him instantly.

He saw me coming, looking at me directly, a smirk plastered on his face. Oh boy, was he in for a fun ride!

“Radu, do you know what place I’m referring to?” I asked him, while stalking closer towards him.

“My house? It has red in it, a warm bed, and if I may say so, it is well decorated. It doesn’t need an architect to change anything.” He replied cockily, as I now stood in front of him.

I could feel his breath fan onto my face, as he was that close to me.

I was pure fury itself, almost at breaking point to explode right in his face. But I wanted to see fear. I wanted for him to crumble apart, when he realised that he couldn't get out of this alive.

I raised myself on my toes, reaching out to him, as he lowered his face.

“No, I mean hell.” I whispered in his ear, and I could hear him gasp.

And when I lowered myself again his eyes had grown wide.

“You can’t kill me! I’m the strongest royal there is!” He shouted angrily.

“Oh, but I can, and I will.” I said calmly.

I had woken up with Dakota’s eyes, knowing that I had to use them this moment. Yet, I had the feeling that this little shift, of using her eyes, felt more permanent, as if her and me were more one.

We had always been two parts of a whole, working together in perfect sync, but ever since we had woken up, there was something else. Our return had awoken something inside of us, as not only I could sense which people were evil and which not, I could also sense something else.

A strong connection to an ancient power.

A power that my grandmother had only mentioned once, shortly.

She had said that in the old days, as in ten thousand years ago, there were other marks, other werewolf genes, that had now been bred out. Well not entirely I guess, as I felt a tingling sensation on my back.

I looked behind me for a moment, there where my grandmother stood.

She had gasped by hearing my thoughts, and flashed towards me. She pulled the blanket from my back, and gently touched the skin between my shoulders.

“This can’t be!” She whispered, and looked me in the eyes.

I focused on her mind, listening to what she was thinking.

“A circle, divided into two parts, one part wolf, one part empty. Yet the empty part, didn’t resemble nothingness, it resembled much more than that. The emptiness in that part of the circle, resembles that of raw, true power. As when you put all the colours of the rainbow together, it will merge into a white light. Which is the same with all the powers of a Lycan. The empty part shows that every power of a wolf, such as strength, agility, wisdom, exceptional hearing and eyesight, was made stronger and blended into one.” She thought.

“You can’t hear Dakota anymore, can you?” She asked me now, and Radu gasped, again.

“No, she doesn’t speak to me, but I can feel her nonetheless.” I said to her, and a tear ran over her face.

“Then I am sure that the Goddess has awoken the mark of my ancestors, inside of you. You are a descendant of the original Lycans after all.” She smiled.

Radu turned around my body and cursed in a strange language, when he saw the mark on my back. “How can this be!” He yelled, and then took a few steps backwards, in fear of what my capabilities now behold.

The coward flashed away, but I wasn’t going to let him go. His soul was needed for my mother to be on the safe side of death.

So, I shifted, while turning towards him, braced myself for only a single moment and launched myself forward.

I wasn’t flashing, like Nightstalkers could, I wasn’t feeling any part of my Nightstalker anymore, now I come to think about it. I was just freakishly fast in my full connected Lycan form, as I could feel Dakota’s blood running through my veins.

We were connected, beyond any level of partnership. It was her and me, no longer two separate parts, but one single being.

I ran after him, and with a loud crash I caught Radu mid-flash, and pushed him through several trees at the forest’s tree line, before I crashed his body against a boulder close to the river, south of my territory.

“You won’t get away now.” I growled at him.

He was terrified, but still found the strength to shift himself. His jaw thickened, his nails sharpened and blackened, and he pushed my arms to the side.

Then he flashed and pushed with both his hands against my chest, pushing me back a few yards, to give himself some room.

“Fine, then I’ll fight you right here!” He shouted, and his bones began to crack.