Lycanthropy

“What do you mean you can’t tell me!? Gramps seriously, why haven’t you told us anything?”

“I can’t Em! I really can’t. You have to believe me that I’m not able to talk about… about… Argh! I can’t even say his name!” My grandfather complained.

“What are you talking about? Are you that afraid of him that you can’t say his name? This is ridiculous! We will talk again when this is all over!” I shouted and ended the call.

I can’t believe him! He let through that he indeed knew about the other attacks, yet he won’t tell me! I’m his granddaughter for crying out loud! I’m the next in line Alpha to take over from him and he can’t tell me? This is just unbelievable!

“Love, did he tell you anything?” Aron asked me after he came into my office and hearing me yell.

“No! He just said that he can’t even say his name! His name! As if the name ‘Radu’ is something so terrifying that you can’t say it out loud. As if saying it would kill you on the spot. Why is he so afraid?” I said while pushing my arms up in the air and making them drop again out of defeat.

Aron just walked over to me and gave me a big hug. “There must be a reason Em, because I know that your grandfather is not a coward.” He said and I hugged him now too.

“I know. I just… I need to let Dakota run for a while. I need to think.” I said.

“Need some company?” Aron asked me.

“No, maybe tomorrow, but I just need an hour to myself.” I said to him and he gave me a soft smile.

“I’ll be training the wolves then, see you in an hour.” He gave me a kiss and left the office.

Aron isn’t confused or disappointed towards me because I wanted to run alone. He just understands that I need this every now and then, in fact he understands me so much that I don’t have to explain myself thoroughly with each decision I make. He knows that I won’t leave him, and that at the end of the day, I’ll be sleeping in his arms.

Dakota was having fun, chasing after a snow hare, while I was thinking about all the things that were still unanswered.

Of course, I couldn’t get any answers while sulking in the back of my own mind.

“We should head back.” I said to Dakota and she nodded.

It took her a few more minutes before she caught the hare and took it with her to the mountain. Once shifted back and fully clothed I walked towards the snowy slope.

“Nice catch.” I heard someone behind me say.

I turned my head and saw Aron’s friend Dimitri sitting on a log, sharpening his blue shiny blades.

“Thanks.” I said while looking at the dead hare in my hand.

I looked at how the blades reflected the sunlight and I could admire the idea of using something strong and sharp like those blades. But it made me wonder why a werewolf, or a Lycan in his case, would decide to choose blades over claws.

“Why those?” I asked short.

“Because Radu fears them.” He replied.

Radu didn’t have any scars, as I have seen him walking around naked in the bedroom every now and then. So I guess those blades must have killed another strong Nightstalker, that he must have known.

“They killed his parents or some other relatives?” I asked him, while nodding to the blades.

“Parents? No, those bloodsuckers create others in a whole different way. No reproduction possible.” He said, and I got a sarcastic smile on my face as it reminded me that I couldn’t reproduce either.

“These blades have killed Radu’s master, and it’s the only way to truly kill royals. You can rip their heads off with your bare hands, claw their hearts out or tear off their limbs, it wouldn’t matter if they were in the near vicinity of fresh human or wolf blood. The only way to really get rid of them, is to stab them through the heart with one of these blades.” He continued his explanation.

I wasn’t really surprised that they were hard to kill, but it will be extremely difficult to get them killed with just his blades.

“Alright, good to know. But what about the ‘creating’ part you just mentioned?” I asked him.

“Oh that? Well you just have to drink their blood and die right after, by your own hand, in order to become one of them.” He said stoically. “And if you drink the blood of one of the royals, like Radu’s or Marius’, you become a royal yourself as well.”

So all of the people in Radu’s house have committed suicide after drinking the blood of another Nightstalker? They had to be either completely trusting, or indoctrinated by the one that told them to die, ‘knowing’ that they wouldn’t actually be dead after killing themselves. Or… they all had to be commanded by Radu or Marius to do it.

But no matter what the reason was, both ways were just crazy! Killing yourself in order to live forever, while having the need to drink blood. I don’t like that idea…

This explanation however, fit the words that Marius had said. He said that I had to willingly choose for myself to become one of them, and because he couldn’t command me, for still an unknown reason, he wanted to court me into it.

“How would you know about their methods, or about Radu anyway? I mean, Daniel had lost his memory about them, so why didn’t you?” I asked him, after shaking away those idiotic thoughts.

He shoved the sleeve of his leather jacket upwards, to reveal his lower left arm. It was wrapped around with a leather strap of which he untied the knot. Slowly he pulled the leather off his arm and after twisting the palm of his hand up, it showed a big tattoo carved on his flesh. ‘Radu’ it said, to remind him of every horror that he had caused.

“Whenever I put the leather around my arm, the memories of him wash away within a few days, so that I’m not always tortured by the things he had done to my grandfather’s pack. But each and every time I wondered what was on my arm again, and took off the leather to see what was underneath it, it all came back to me. So, I guess all the Alpha’s should have something in writing, that reminds them of who he is.” He explained.

All those things that Dimitri had said, made perfectly sense. Except for one thing.

“Alright, sorry for your losses and all, but there is still something bugging me, of which you can maybe explain to me. How is it possible that they can’t command me to do anything?” I asked him.

“What do you mean?” He asked in return.

“Well Marius, and I assume Radu as well, are not able to use their command on me.” I said again.

“But that isn’t possible. They can’t use it on one of their own kind, but if they look straight into someone’s eyes, either human or wolf, and think about what they want, it happens. There is just no exception to that.”

“Well clearly I am, because Marius said so himself.”

“But that means…” He stood up and pointed his blades towards me.

He took on a battle stance and was preparing himself to attack me.

“… you are one of them!”