Lycanthropy

The attacks had stopped, fear on my pack had washed away, everyone had continued their chores and life was normal again.

For them, not for me.

I know that Emerson did what she had to, in order for us to be saved, but my mind was tearing me apart. I was angry, devastated and lost without her. It was only three days now, that she had been taken, but I couldn’t keep myself together anymore.

Her life had been taken twice a day, as I could feel her presence leave my mind, and come back again after an hour or two. Úlfur had been howling each time, and I had let him take control over my body as he ran for hours straight, until he was calmed down again. Only to face the torture of her being killed once again.

This monster was draining her from her blood, over and over again, just as she had suggested towards him.

But how long was the Goddess going to grant her another life? How many times were there left?

The thought of really losing her, was tormenting me as well. And in between the moments where Úlfur had to run off his guilt and pain, I had gone to the dungeons to see if Kari had found more information about the Nightstalker in the cell.

The scout which Emerson had snapped his neck off, wasn’t truly dead, only incapacitated. Emerson had glanced at me at the last moment, before she vanished, only to let me know to take the scout with me. She had purposely grabbed the neck of it so tight, that some of the bones had cracked but were not broken completely. She made him fell unconscious due to the loss of air, and to only make the sound of his vertebrae the same as when you would crack your own knuckles.

So now he was with a chain around his neck, and every once in a while he tried to teleport himself way. Only to remind himself that he still wasn’t able to leave. I had seen the flashes of the other Nightstalkers as well, and I knew that when Emerson had her claws around his neck, he couldn’t leave. So I did just the same as her, but then with the chain.

“Do you see him in the corner of the cell?” Kari asked me, and I nodded.

“Well he won’t die from the sun, but he certainly can be injured from it. Let me show you.” Kari said.

She walked to the barred window and took the wooden plate, that stood in front of it, to the side. The sun came pouring in, and immediately shone upon the skin of the creature. It hissed and screamed in agony, and tried endlessly to crawl even further into the corner. His skin sizzled and even turned a little black, the longer the sun was on it.

Kari placed the wooden plate back in front of the window and carefully put a needle-less syringe filled with blood, in the cell.

The creature knew what to do with it and instantly squirted the blood into his filthy mouth. He enjoyed the taste of it so much, that he tried to suck the last drop of blood from the syringe. Then he stood up and I could see that the wounds on his skin had been fully healed again.

“So, they need our blood to regenerate.” I said to Kari.

“Yes and that’s not all, I have tested it and can confirm that he has perfect eye sight in the dark, and when he tastes the blood from a creature directly, the first few seconds he is distracted by his own bloodlust.”

“How would you come to know about that?” I asked her, referring to the distraction she just mentioned.

Kari pointed towards a dead reindeer a few cells further.

“I had tried several things, including using the sunlight, but he didn’t seem to care in those first few moments.” Kari explained.

I don’t know if we can use that to our advantage, but especially the sunlight that could hurt them, and knowing that they need blood to heal, could really come in handy.

Kari walked over to her desk and continued writing down her discoveries. She said that it was important to document all of it, that if they would return later, maybe even after decades, others would know about it too.

“And have you found anything about the Monarch?” I asked the King, when we were at the meeting room again.

“No, not yet, my historians have been searching through documents from the last couple of thousand years, but so far have found nothing.” He said disappointed.

Frida translated everything towards Amy, and she just kept on listening to her, with a sad face. Amy was devastated to lose her sister like this, and it was truly hard for her to accept the fact what Emerson had to do, in order for us to be safe.

Frida however had known what Emerson was up to, the exact moment that she had said those things.

Suddenly Amy shot up in her chair and told Frida her idea, at which she smiled.

“Brother, Amy is mated to the Beta of her King, and he happens to have an amazing big library and history section as well. Why don’t we call him, and ask to search through his documents?” Frida asked.

The thought of that had crossed my mind already, but I’m reluctant to ask Emerson’s ex-mate for information.

“Men!” Amy scoffed, and that single word I did know it’s meaning of, so I growled to her.

Amy glared my way and said more in her own words, and Frida laughed out loud.

“What’s with men and asking for help? You have marked each other, she is yours, so cut the crap.” Frida translated, and the King laughed as well.

He was starting to like Amy and her attitude.

I waved to both of the girls, and Amy instantly took out her phone and started dialling him. They talked for about ten minutes and Amy consulted with Frida as well about something. They both nodded and Amy finished the conversation.

“Amy’s King has agreed to grant access to his library. We are both going to Amy’s home, brother. There is too much of documentation to go through for their historian alone, and together with us, as we have seen the creatures, we can search through all of it quicker.” Frida said.

“I understand that Amy has to help, but why would you need to go?” I asked her.

“You really can’t think of any reason that I want to get away from here, for a while?” She asked me, while peaking a glance towards Berrant.

“Right. But you keep a phone with you at all times, understood?” I demanded of her.

“Yes Alpha.” She chuckled and I rolled my eyes. They both got up and went off to get their bags ready to leave soon.

“Berrant and Terrence, it will be your job to come up with defensive measures. Armor, weapons, traps, I don’t care how, but find something to get us an advantage. Go and talk to Kari, she can help you with it too.” I said as a dull ache was starting again, in the back of my mind.

“No, not again.” Úlfur whined.

Emerson was about to die again, I could feel the same pain soaring in. Without saying anything to anyone in the meeting room I walked out and Úlfur shifted halfway through the halls, and we stormed outside.

Within a few minutes, we had lost her again, and we both howled into the air. We ran until our feet couldn’t bear our weight any longer and we crashed ourselves on top of a hill.

We waited until we felt the connection coming back to us again. And each and every time she got killed, it felt as if it took her longer to come back. I didn’t want to think about how many times she had left, to get back at all, but it was constantly in the back of my mind.

Her emotions of confusion, pain and exhaustion, came to us again, and I felt relieved that I could feel those terrible things once more. I hated that I didn’t know where she was, all I knew was that she is too far away for me to talk to her through the mind-link.

And then I got another idea.