Lycanthropy

Looking at the Monarch:

I hadn’t been expecting him to be like this. He was suddenly all open about himself and about his ability. But why? Why has he only been taking me, instead of all the others as well? He and his men were strong enough to take them all along with them.

And the bullshit about me being unable to die isn’t the reason anymore either.

“Well? Why only take me? You were able to take all of my wolves with you, so why didn’t you?” I asked him again.

“I don’t know.” He said in all honesty, as I could tell that he was, as he wasn’t looking away or hesitating to say it.

“So, not killing me, not even draining my blood, not torturing me, not forcing me to have sex with you, not letting me go…” I dragged out my sentence, summing all the facts up, waiting for him to answer my silent question as to what is going to happen now.

But he didn’t say a word. He just stood there, looking into my eyes, but not making eye contact. His mind is wandering off in thinking and I could tell that he was confused with himself right now.

“What is going on with him?” Dakota asked me, and I mentally shook my head unknowing.

“Radu? Why am I here?” I finally asked him softly, making him snap out of his thoughts.

“I- I don’t know! Just…” He yelled and flashed away.

I stared at the empty door, for a few moments longer, there where he had sped through it. He was confusing me as hell and I truly didn’t know what I was going to expect from him. He knows everything about me, as he told me that he could see all of my past, so what is there to confuse him?

As he knows that I have been lying about me being immortal, I would have expected from him to go and gather his men to attack Aron’s pack once more, and take every wolf with him. But somewhere I know that he isn’t going to do that. I’m not sure how, but I’m positive that he won’t.

My stomach growled and I turned myself to see the food still on my plate, at the small side table close to the bed. It’s probably cold now, but I’m hungry and I should eat.

I haven’t seen Radu in almost a week now, and nobody stopped me from exploring the house. Nor did anyone attack me or talk to me either. Besides his brother Marius, as I have come to know about his name in a later conversation.

After a day or two I had found ‘The Forge’. A terrible name for what happened in there, as there were no weapons made by any blacksmith. No, this name stood above the door that purposed as entrance for the hellhole behind it. Decay had filled my nose where rows and rows of cells drenched in dried up blood, body parts, hair and bone lined up inside the room.

In the back stood large tables with big draining machines, as I recognized the device to put on the wrist. Next to the machines were some crude chopping equipment laying around as well, and next to the tables stood a huge cauldron that lead to six taps. Each tap had the same logo as the ones in the kitchens, and upon looking back at the empty cells and the tables and cauldron again, I vomited of disgust.

No one needed to explain to me, what happened in this room…

Marius had found me after a few minutes and dragged me out of it, to put me in the shower at my own room.

“Why do you have to kill us, when taking our blood?” I asked him after taking the shower and sat on my bed with clean clothes.

He sighed but decided to answer my question.

“Have you ever heard from us? Like in stories?” He asked me.

“No, which is another question I wanted to ask.”

“It’s the same answer. If we don’t kill our victims and let’s say, take only half of their blood, their relatives or other connected persons would remember us and try to find us. But if we take and drink all of their blood, their connections will forget about us and what we had done, in matter of days.” He said.

“But how does that work?” I asked him with much confusion.

“How can Radu look into your past? How can we teleport? What is the origin of werewolves?” He kept on questioning me, making a point about the magic in the world.

He doesn’t know why it does what it does, it just simply did.

Days continued as ‘normal’ and food had been brought into my room three times a day, as well as fresh clothes, clean sheets and what not more. Of course it all happened when I was outside the room, to avoid making contact with others. It was a lonely existence like this, so I was glad to be allowed to at least train myself and keep being fit.

Which was easy to do as I wasn’t being drained to death twice a day anymore. I don’t know why Radu had decided to not kill me another time, as I would assume him to need my blood. But he has been hiding himself for me to ask him, and Marius hadn’t told me what was going on with him either.

I had become stronger than ever, because Marius trained me with skills I have never used before. And I was happy he was willing to do that, as it kept me from thinking about Aron and the disability of leaving this place, as I still hadn’t found a window or a door to break through to.

“So, Marius, do you have any special abilities, just like your brother does?” I asked him.

“Special abilities?” He asked me, while avoiding all my punches, kicks, grips, bites and swipes.

“Yes, can you read my past as well?” I asked him, half panting and in between a few other punches.

I was getting faster and stronger, but still he was able to avoid all my efforts. Nightstalkers are freakishly fast but I wasn’t one to give up on myself.

“Wouldn’t you like to find that out? Alright, if you can land a single punch, I will tell you.” He said with a smirk on his face.

“Challenge accepted.” I smirked as well.

He was continuously teasing me with flashing away and bending backwards or to the sides. I was starting to sweat as I was fighting with the air around Marius for almost an hour now.

“Use me.” Dakota said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well you can shift partially where you transform only your hands into claws for example. But what if you transform your eyes into mine? Maybe my sight can detect something that you can’t on your own.”

“Only your eyes? Let’s see if I can do that.” I replied to her and smiled.

Immediately I stood still and I could tell that Marius was curious as to what I was doing now. I’ve never tried this, nor had the need to think about trying such a thing like this, but I’m curious as well.

The eyes of a werewolf in human state could turn black when we consulted our wolf or when our wolf almost took control of us. And when we shifted into our wolf, our eyes turned brighter than in human form or even changed colour, depending on what the wolf looked like. But now that I wasn’t going to transform into her, and not letting her take control either, I wasn’t sure as to what colour they would become. Not sure either if I could manage to take control of Dakota’s eyes only.

But still I wanted to try, so I closed my eyes and focused on Dakota.

Dakota and I have an understanding, of which is not common between other people and their inner wolf. Besides sometimes wanting to shut her up for her witty comments, I never had to push her into the back of my mind, like many other werewolves had to. I heard that most people had to train their wolf into submission, and if they couldn’t do that, their wolf took over. But we didn’t need to do that, we accepted each other like we are one, never needing to push away one part of another.

Not like where Daniel pushed Winston to the back of his mind, because they were conflicting each other.

No, Dakota stepped back herself now, to let me take control of only one part of her.

I looked into her eyes, knowing that they are stronger and have more power to focus on the little things. She had looked through my eyes and saw it when the scout had come close to us, even before I did. So I was desperately hoping that I could see more, when I took control of her sight.

We zoomed in closer, and Dakota closed her eyes now. I felt a rush of light going through my mind and when I opened my eyes, hers, I was stunned by my vision.

Everything around me moved as if it was in slow motion, dust whirling around my fingers as I looked closely and a fly in the distance flipping its wings. I could see everything just like I could when I would fully shift into my wolf. Not my Lycan, but into Dakota’s form.

Becoming a Lycan makes use of the strength and speed of your wolf, and together with your human part, you become a humanoid wolf. But if you shift into your wolf, your wolf takes control and your humanoid part stays back, completely, until I took back control and shifted back to human again.

But this was different. I am in total control of my actions, yet I have the eyes of Dakota. This was a combination that I’ve never heard of, of being used ever.

Looking through the room with her eyes, control where I wanted to look to, was odd and exhilarating. I know that Dakota’s sight is amazing, as I had looked through her eyes plenty of times, but using it myself now was another level of fascination.

I looked behind me, turning to look at Marius and he gasped.

“Wow.” He simply said amazed, and I smiled.

I took a swing at him, surprising him slightly but he flashed away.

But this time I was prepared to focus on what was happening. I saw his body blur but it didn’t disappear completely. I could see where he was going to, and I quickly put my hand forward, interrupting his track and punching him in the guts with plenty of force.

He flew a few yards back, hitting his back against the wall behind him, and dropped himself on his ass.

His eyes became large and his mouth dropped open. His breathing hitched and he just sat there for a few moments.

At last he stood up as I walked closer to him, while I relaxed my eyes again and changed them back into my own.

“Shit woman, can you see me move when you shift your eyes into those bright silver ones?” He asked me.

“Silver? And yes, I suppose I can.” I replied to him.

“Beautiful girl.” I said to Dakota, realizing I had never asked her to look straight into a mirror once, to let me know what she looked like.

“Thank you.” She replied, confidently.

“Now, keep your end of the bargain.” I said to Marius, referring to me winning the challenge.

He has to tell me now if he has an ability as well. And I’m truly curious to find out what he can do.