Chapter Five – Witchcraft and Trickery
The moment of truth was near. Theodore stared into the pine forest below, his mind filled with dark thoughts. Although his hands remained steady, he could tell that what he had been living for was about to become reality. Revenge was near. He could almost taste it in the back of his throat like ashes from an urn. Cassandra – that was the only name on his mind now. His pack would be avenged and maybe, just maybe, he would find his peace.
"Where does the clairvoyant live?" he asked, without paying any attention to the endless chatter that seemed to be taking place between the other people onboard. "I will face her immediately."
Nothing else mattered. He had no reason to care about the Luna's Sentinels or Asherman and his gaggle of friends. Especially the field mouse who kept throwing strange looks at him. Whenever that happened, it was only with great difficulty that Theodore maintained his composure.
The rodent was a clairvoyant. It wouldn't be impossible for him to attempt to throw a curse on Theodore, just to flex his witchcraft. Whatever he claimed those cards were saying, it had to be another ruse to keep him from his path.
Theodore had no plans to lend the clairvoyant an ear. No matter what his wolf wanted.
"You must first meet my pack," Ryder said in a cutting tone. "You need allies, because Cassandra is powerful. She might not be acting alone. Must I remind you, alpha, that she also tried to destroy me and my pack? She is still trying. This isn't only your fight."
Theodore pursed his lips, ready to put this alpha in his place. The rage growing inside him was blind. He needed to find an outlet for it and soon.
"Easy, easy, alpha boys." That was the city clairvoyant with his grating melodic voice. It was music to Theodore's ears, and he hated himself for thinking so. "My cards say that we must proceed with extreme caution. This isn't something you should rush into."
"I do not believe your bloody cards," Theodore grunted.
He would kill Cassandra, and then, he would proceed to punish Jack the clairvoyant for his audacity to assume that those cards ever told the truth. In his heart, there was no room for hope.
Only fury and desire for revenge.
***
Theodore watched with indifference as Ryder Asherman, followed closely by his mate, hurried to meet his pack. The calling howl made his heart squeeze painfully in his chest. It reminded him that dallying here was pointless. And he didn't need the alpha of this pack to tell him where Cassandra lived.
The smell of ashes tickled his nostrils. He knew that smell because of the nightmares endlessly plaguing his nights. They reminded him of why he could and would only live for revenge every single day of his life.
His wolf growled quietly, warning him that the enemy couldn't be far. Slowly, he walked backward, step by step, his eyes still trained on Asherman and his pack. No one would get in his path.
"And where do you think you're going all by yourself?"
Theodore frowned as he took in the human called Vince. No matter how good-looking they were, humans didn't interest him. But there was something about this one that irked him to no end. He was strong for a human with his broad shoulders and thick arms. Also, he was tall and built like he would be able to withstand a storm. Something about him made Theodore think of an old oak that would never bow to bad weather or lightning or years.
He was overthinking things. This human had no ancient magic in him. He just happened to be there because he was friends with Asherman's mate.
"Move out of the way if you care about your life," Theodore growled at him.
"I don't think so. If you're going to face Cassandra, you'll need help."
Theodore got in the human's face. He had deep warm eyes. They reminded Theodore of a distant thing called home. If he cared about his wellbeing, he needed to stop staring into those eyes that promised things that a lone alpha would never have again.
"Suit yourself. You're a mere human, and you're about to face a witch. It's your funeral. Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Far be it from me to say anything like that," the human said.
"Is your name Vince?" Theodore asked. He had heard the others calling him that. Only the clairvoyant called him something different. It made his blood boil to know that those two shared a special relationship. Theodore wanted to know why. The curse had to be strong.
"Yes, it is."
"Very well, Vince. You will soon die. Don't expect me to lift a finger to save you. My only goal is to destroy Cassandra."
"I understand."
Theodore's lips curled into a manic smile. "I don't believe you do."
***
Vince wasn't impervious to a healthy dose of fear, and as he followed Theodore through the pine trees with only the moon above to guide them he understood enough to know that the outcome of their little trip through the woods at night might not be the most fortunate.
Although he had known for a long time he was a guardian, he hadn't truly felt the power of his calling until a few days ago, when the current events had started unfurling. Once he understood that his role as Danny's guardian was approaching its end, he couldn't stave off a feeling of disappointment. Was this everything he was meant to be?
That feeling had faded the moment Jack started laying down his cards. Despite the warning ringing like an alarm inside his head, Vince knew that this was his role. Not necessarily to guard Theodore Pembroke, but to be close to him and help him in any way he could.
It looked like the lone alpha knew precisely where they were going. They arrived at a clearing, and Vince noticed right away the large boulder with a flat surface facing the moon. He didn't have to have the vision of a wolf because the moon was particularly bright tonight. It was obvious to anyone looking that the boulder, singular in its presence in the clearing, was no ordinary rock. Ancient runes had been carved on its face by the hands of giants from times long gone.
Vince approached the boulder cautiously. It called to him with the power of something greater than him or anyone else.
And when he reached it, a sudden apprehension gripped his guts. He could understand the runes. He didn't know how or why. But they were telling of an old prophecy, one as old as time. His fingers traced the runes, his lips moving of their own accord.
"Stop," Theodore warned him in a hissing voice.
But Vince couldn't. The prophecy spoke of an old battle between long-forgotten witches and wolves who had been sent to guard the realm of humans and prevent their evil spirits to spill into the world.
This was bigger than Ryder's pack being cursed to disappear at the next full moon. Vince couldn't understand everything he was reading, and his forehead was moving closer and closer to the rock, as if his eyes couldn't otherwise comprehend the meaning of those ancient words unless he made himself one with the boulder—
A banshee-like scream cut through the air. Vince froze where he was, bent over the boulder and its face full of runes. Behind him, Theodore was growling like a wild beast.
He couldn't move. He couldn't see. He was being trapped by the boulder and its magic, and at the last moment, his body moved by itself.
Vince threw himself over the boulder to cover the runes, aware that he couldn't allow whatever presence was drawing near to read the meaning of the ancient inscription through his mind.
His body was tense like a coiled spring as he hid the runes with his body. But he was no longer in control of it. Thin threads, fine like spun silver, cut through his skin as they caught him and turned him, wanting to flip him off the boulder.
It worked at first, but Vince managed to grab the edge of the boulder with one hand. His other searched for another anchor point and found it. He was on his back now, facing the moon, while the thin threads cut through the fabric of his clothes, turning them into rags.
Vince didn't dare breathe. He only knew that between a horrible evil and the world, he was the only guardian. To learn the meaning of the runes, the witch had to go through him first. If that cost him his life, so be it.
***
"Cassandra!" Theodore hissed at the sight of an old woman with disheveled hair, wearing a tattered robe that reached the ground, hiding her body.
"The alpha of Whiteflame," she said in a gravel-like voice. "Long time no see."
Theodore flinched upon hearing the name of his pack, lost forever, from the dessicated lips of the witch.
"I am here to kill you," he growled at her.
He stopped as he saw the silver threads running from the claws her hands had become. They were buried deep in the flesh of the human who had stubbornly insisted on following him. And now he was lying there, on top of that strange rock, looking like he was about to be cut into pieces if Cassandra did as little as flick her wrist.
Theodore set his jaw hard. He had warned the human about such perils. And now, he was about to die.
"Let him go," he ordered. "He is only a human who just happened to be here in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Cassandra howled with laughter, throwing her head back. She transformed from a mere old woman into something more vicious as she did that. The skin of her face stretched and thinned until the skull underneath became visible, and her mouth grew large, with jagged teeth like those of sharks, while the shape of her head changed, becoming elongated. It reminded Theodore of a creature he had seen before, but before he managed to trace that thought, it disappeared.
"He's no mere human," Cassandra warned him in a cavernous voice. "But he will die. Unless," she added slyly, "you don't mind taking his place. Your blood, alpha. Or his?"
The land beneath his feet was sinking. A tremor passed through his body, making his hair stand on end. This was power. He only had to wield it.
If only he didn't have to care about the fate of that dumb human. Theodore couldn't understand his heart. He had warned Vince about this outcome. He had told him that he wouldn't come to his rescue if anything happened.
Yet, he was standing here, unmoving, unknowing what his heart truly desired. The human's strong body was as good as naked now, his clothes cut into pieces, singed and burned. Vince's face was turned toward the moon, and Theodore's eyes followed where he was looking.
"What is he?" Theodore spoke without thinking.
"You haven't figured it out yet?" Cassandra said in the same sly voice she had used earlier. "He's a guardian. And right now, he's guarding a secret that should be mine!"
With a yell, her hand moved, the threads of her spell cutting deeper into Vince's flesh. But they weren't cutting too deep, Theodore realized. Why? And what is this nonsense about a guardian—
He had gleaned the message of Jack's cards, even if only a little. The field mouse thought himself clever to hide what he kept discovering. If they were lying, Theodore's life was forfeit. But it was that glimmer of hope that kept him standing tall.
Cassandra wasn't holding Vince down with her silver threads. No, she was trying to pull him off that rock, but her powers weren't strong enough.
Earlier, Vince had started reading the runes in the stone. Theodore had felt the air turning electric, like a brewing storm. He had asked the human to stop, not because he could wield any power over him, but because he understood that a terrible secret would soon be revealed.
"Have you decided yet?" Cassandra asked him, her snappy tone confirming that his lack of reaction troubled her.
"Kill him," Theodore said even as tendrils of cold fire coursed through him. "If you can."
Cassandra hissed like a snake in the grass. She pulled her claws together and toward herself, but to no avail.
Vince resisted. He continued to do so even as his body was stretched taut, offered like a tribute to the moon.
Theodore had yet to understand everything that was happening before his very eyes. But the revelation that Vince was a guardian couldn't be ignored. Cassandra would waste her powers trying to destroy him, and Theodore would only have to bide his time.
The corrupted land beneath them was feeding on his power. He couldn't release it, not yet. His eyes followed Cassandra, and he reveled in her growing frustration. A witch like she was should have been able to destroy a guardian, especially since he was only human.
It looked like there were limits to her powers. Theodore observed her in silence. From the corner of one eye he was keeping Vince under observation as well. If the guardian gave up, he had to be ready and throw himself between the witch and him.
It wasn't because of some misunderstood generosity or bravery he planned to do that. The witch could not see the runes and ferret out their meaning. It must have been her plan all along to draw the guardian here, but how could she have known that he existed?
No, that couldn't have been her plan, after all. If anything, Vince had meddled with it, making a tangle she couldn't repair. Theodore's mind was working hard, even as his wolf demanded that he be let free. If he shifted, here and now, would he be fast enough to reach Cassandra before she sank her claws in Vince?
It was all a matter of timing.
"You're resisting," Cassandra said, as if she couldn't believe what she was witnessing.
"I am an alpha. Do you think I'd fold before you?"
"You are a weak alpha. You have no pack," she said with unhidden disdain. "I still recall my great pleasure as your pack succumbed. Their cries, their whimpers. An entire pack reduced to nothing but ashes. Fire burns most beautifully against snow. Did you know that?"
Theodore growled like a wounded animal. They had all perished in a vicious fire that had engulfed everything. The throne of ice on which Theodore's father had always presided had been reduced to a puddle.
But he had remained untouched. He had been the only survivor. Although he had no recollection of that time beyond the screams of pain and then the quiet, he knew that he had survived.
And he had lived with that horrible guilt for far too long now. He had made a life for himself in the realm of humans to bide his time until he could find a way back and get his revenge.
His pack had accepted the clairvoyant in their midst as Theodore's father had strong faith in the power of prophecies. And Cassandra had sung a pretty tune, pouring poison into the ear of the alpha of Whiteflame.
"But you didn't kill me," he said, putting his chin up and provoking the witch. "Your powers failed."
"They will not fail again," she warned him. She pulled and pulled at the silver threads, but Vince still resisted. For a human, such strength was beyond merely commendable. It was unheard of.
"You weren't expecting me here," Theodore said, even as he sank another inch into the moving soil below. "You sent Ryder Asherman to finish me off. Your plan failed."
"That wasn't my plan," Cassandra said. "I thought you'd be strong enough to take out that self-righteous wolf. But you weren't even good enough to do that," she spat angrily.
"What gain could you have gotten from me killing the alpha of Luna's Sentinels?" Theodore asked, frowning. Cassandra's plans were vicious and went beyond her wish to see wolves dead, left and right. If only he could begin to understand what they truly were.
"You're nothing but a dumb beast, after all. Wolves need their lands to thrive and multiply. How is the city treating you, Theodore?" she hissed.
The foul smells, the decay constant and inevitable. The humans with their petty jealousies and greed. How had the city been treating him?
It didn't matter. He had survived and turned it into his domain. Oh, how he longed for the crisp air of the cliffs, the pinching cold that made the warmth of a fire feel even more like home.
He had known all his life that Cassandra would try to kill him one day. And now, he was finding out that he hadn't even mattered much to her. She had only hoped to use him as a tool to kill the alpha of Luna's Sentinels.
A growl began to rumble, deep inside his chest. Soon, he would have to consider his choices. Vince had to survive. He was a guardian, and even if Theodore died, he would continue on his path. He would be alone in his quest to keep the world safe from evil.
No, not alone. Ryder Asherman would help him as soon as he discovered the truth. He was a noble wolf, who always did what was right without asking why or having doubts.
Which meant that Theodore was here by the grace of faith. He began gathering his power. He could feel it expanding inside him. His wolf would reach Cassandra in a heartbeat and rip her throat wide open.
Any moment now. Vince had to survive.
"That witch!" A loud exclamation broke his focus. "How dare she do that to Vince?"
No. The field mouse. Why did he have to ruin everything?
TBC