Mathias (#1 The Chronicles of the Demon Wolf)

“Mathias, wake up, dammit!”

Someone gave him a hard slap before he opens his eyes. His eyesight is reddening indicating his Lycan is close to surface. His breathing becomes irregular and quicker. Without looking to the person who slapped him, he looks ahead. It feels like everything is just a movie on a play and right now, someone paused it. Arthur isn’t moving. Same goes to Eva and Chelsea. He becomes confused.

Then, he turns to the person who slaps him. Enzo standing tall in his usual black long trench coat with a 2-piece suit underneath it. A cigarette pressed between his lips as he takes a long drag of it. He looks like a detective comes out of the detective movie they used to watch when they were kids.

“What’s happening? Arthur…he killed Eva…” Mathias stares at the painful scene before him.

Arthur’s hand still punctures through Eva’s chest, clenching on her heart. A straight-up nightmare for Mathias watching the woman he loves got killed because of him. Mathias still could hear Eva’s scream.

“Even with that demon eyes of yours, you’re still blind,” Enzo grunts, dropping the cigarette butt to the ground and stomps on it. “You hallucinated.”

He swings his right hand to the side. Then, the whole place shatters as if they were made of glass in the first place. Both of them are no longer near the cliff with Arthur, Eva, and Chelsea. However, this scene is another nightmare for Mathias. Blood pool on the ground. Bodies are everywhere. Smoke rises to the horizon. A child is crying next to a body—presumably his mother.

He spots Ryker dragging Tanto’s body towards a secure area. Their parents are nowhere to be seen. The Kane siblings are no longer providing the diamond dome. Everything is falling apart.

“This is what made you hallucinating.” Enzo picked a dead raven from the ground. “The explosion contained a powder that causes hallucinations if you inhaled it. Arthur is messing with your mind.”

“It felt so real.” His hands tremble at the thought of losing Eva.

But, what about Chelsea? Why didn’t he feel anything about his true mate? He was supposed to feel the fear of losing her. Mathias didn’t feel any of it. Not even a bit.

“Well, it wasn’t. This, right now, is real.”

“He was—”

“Get yourself together, will you?” Enzo disappears for a second before reappearing in front of Mathias. “How dumb could you get right now? You should have learned to control your bloodlust better.”

“You made it sounded like you were any better than me,” Mathias fires back.

Resentfulness enters Enzo’s eyes in a second, draining any sign that he’s alive and breathing. His facial expression turns cold and his jaw clenched together. Mathias knows he shouldn’t have brought that topic up. It’s such a sensitive topic for Enzo and they hadn’t seen the fourth brother for seven months. Now, he’s here to help, Mathias screwed it up.

“If you were any better, you should have killed Arthur when you had that chance but you didn’t,” Enzo spits out before walking away.

Nobody in the family actually knows the real reason why Enzo left a year ago after he finished college. The quarrel between him and Mathias waa growing each day and the only time they stopped getting on each other’s throat were when the whole family was around. Mathias vowed to keep Enzo’s reason to the grave. He didn’t mean to touch the topic. His anger gets the best of him.

“Enzo, wait up.” Mathias jogs after his younger brother.

“I have no time to spare for chitchat, Mathias. I’m here to look for the two girls and I know how to do it,” Enzo replies without looking back.

He crouches next to unconscious Tanto and presses his palm against Tanto’s neck. The latter wakes up with a loud gasp follows by a rough cough. Trixie appears next to him shortly after.

“The birds are no longer coming but we’re suffering heavy casualties,” she reports before her eyes land on Mathias. “What’s your order, Mathias?”

“He has no commands,” Enzo replies instead before Mathias could reply. “Ryker is in-charge as far as I could remember.”

“You’re crossing the line, Enzo,” Mathias growls.

The younger brother looks at him with his soulless eyes. Mathias couldn’t recognize his younger brother anymore. Enzo is not the brother he knows.

“You were supposed to be better,” Enzo says. “Look at you. You’re being pathetic right now.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Cynthia interrupts them. “Cut it out. We’re at war and let’s put aside our differences for now.”

Mathias takes a deep breath before saying, “You said you know where they are.”

“We’re going to the portal room.” Enzo walks again.

All of them follow the fourth brother into the administration building. Gurneys are being pushed here and there—bringing the fallen Enforcers. The witches are shouting along the hallway, giving orders to save the lives of those who are injured. The Kingsley siblings meet up with the parents. Enzo tells them about his plan but not even once he mentioned the place they’re heading to find Eva and Chelsea. Stefano gives a silent nod to Enzo as if the Daemon High Lord already knows where they’re heading.

He stabilizes the portal long enough for the siblings to pass with the exception of Bonnie and Rinzler. The siblings then realize where Enzo is taking them.

“De Vicenzo Cemetery,” Ryker reads the name on the large silver gate stands before them.

The wind blows softly and due to the time difference, it’s nighttime in the daemon realm. Fog covers the ground and the only thing they could hear is the sound of their boots stepping on the dried leaves. Enzo, once again, leads them towards the gate.

He places his hand on the silver chain used to bind the gate from opening. A demon wolf is immune to silver. It doesn’t kill them but it does affect them. However, Enzo is entirely different. It doesn’t affect him anymore.

“Enzo, your hand…” Cynthia says softly, looking fixed at his hand wraps around the lock of the chain.

He rips down the lock and unwraps the chain from the gate before pushing it open. He ignores her statement as he walks into the cemetery.

“Those are just mausoleums for the De Vincenzo family,” Trixie scans around.

Enzo glances briefly to the full moon on the sky. “I’ve been watching this place for six months now. The cemetery is more than just having dozen of mausoleums. There’s a large crypt underneath the entire cemetery and the secret entrance is through Baron Denzel De Vicenzo mausoleum, the first of De Vicenzo.”

“Why are you watching a cemetery in the first place?” Tanto asks.

“Six months ago, a large energy line suddenly directed to the cemetery. It goes in and never goes out. All the energy in that line stays within the cemetery.” he points to the mountains on the south of the cemetery.

Cynthia’s hand touches the tree next to the pathway that heads directly to Baron Denzel De Vincenzo mausoleum. “If the energy goes directly here and not leaving, these trees shouldn’t wither.”

All the oak trees on the cemetery withered and without leaves. Even the grass withered. Mathias crouches and touches the grass. The soil is too hot for a cold climate like this. Something is wrong with the cemetery. These only could be caused by a certain group of people.

“Necromancers,” he says before standing up.

Then, Enzo raises a fist as a sign for them to stop walking. Everyone starts to feel like they’re being watched by something lurking in the fog. They use their demon wolf’s eyes to look better. A four-legged creature is running around the cemetery, lurking and growling at their presence. A few seconds later, another creature, two-legged, walking in the fog.

“No heartbeat,” Ryker says after listening carefully. “They’re undead.”

“There are more.” Cynthia points ahead of them.

In a matter of seconds, they’re surrounded by hundreds of the undead. The undead is the former Lycans and werewolves as they were in their animal form. Some are still in human form—probably hinting they aren’t all werewolves and Lycans.

“Where’s the entrance?” Ryker asks.

“North, behind the enemy line,” Enzo replies.

“It would be boring if it’s too easy to get there,” Tanto says before turning into his Lycan form. He roars before charging to the enemy.

“We make a way through. You must find Chelsea and Eva,” Ryker orders Mathias before shifting.

Ryker and Tanto fight in their lycan form whereas Enzo and Cynthia remain in their human form. Trixie shifts into her pixie form and flies around before attacking the enemy using her power.

However, the more they kill, the more the undead coming. It seems like the battle is endless and the pathway to the mausoleum is blocked. The siblings are getting exhausted but keep pushing through to make a pathway for Mathias to the mausoleum.

As the fight gets harder and harder, a miracle happened. Clavier Hubert, an old friend of Stefano, comes with an army large enough to keep the undead busy for a moment. Mathias keeps pushing through the undead, making his way to the entrance of the crypt. After a long duration, he finally makes his way into the mausoleum. Mathias stumbles in with one hand presses against his right ribs.

Inside the mausoleum, there are twenty-four statues on the right wall and twenty-four name plates on the left wall. In the center of the mausoleum is the tomb of Baron Denzel De Vincenzo. Twenty-four insignias on the floor all circled around the tomb. Each insignia is the number of branches of De Vincenzo’s family. As the bloodline goes on, each branch of the bloodline has its own insignia.

“Only one insignia shines by the moonlight,” Enzo’s voice comes into his mind link. “The entrance changes by which insignia is shined by the moonlight.”

Mathias turns his attention to the floor. “The thirteenth branch,” he answers.

“Look at the name plates on the wall. First row, third column.”

Mathias’ eyes look at the name plates on the wall following Enzo’s instruction. “Emmanuella De Vicenzo.”

“Find her statue. The entrance is behind her statue.”

Mathias heads to Emmanuella’s statue and pushes it aside slight. The statue moves by itself to the side, revealing the hidden webbed entrance. Mathias gathers his courage as he takes a step into the entrance. Torches brighten the stone stairs heading underground. The statue closes as soon as he walks down the stairs. The stairs lead him to two separate directions. One on his left and another on his right. Both directions have a long hallway where on both walls are the resting place of the members of the De Vincenzo family.

“Ma—Mathias…” a voice calls for his name from the hallway on his right.

Standing far away from him is Eva. Tears stream down her face. Her clothes are torn. Her right hand is gripping her left upper arm. Blood flows down her left shoulder, dripping to the dirt floor.

“Eva, hang on. I’m coming.” he runs to her direction but stops when a loud growl coming from behind her.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Eva says, choking on her own tears.

Loud stomps come from the dark hallway behind her. A pair of red eyes glow in the dark before the torch on the wall shines to the creature behind Eva. Standing tall is a red-eyed Lycan baring its bloodied canines to him.

It’s not a normal lycan.

It’s a demon wolf type.

“Chelsea…” Mathias forces the name out.

She’s turned.