Descendant (16 page)

“She provoked me,” I reminded him savagely.

“That’s beside the point. You’re lucky Markus is such an inexperienced fighter, or else you would’ve been facing Sera alone. This is getting old, fast. You need to learn to think before you do things like that, or you’re going to end up getting both of us kill ed.”

“I never asked you to die for me! Go ahead— stop saving me! Hel , you could’ve just let Sera kill me just then—I wouldn’t have cared.” My own words surprised me, and Kael, too, looked taken-aback.

“Shut-up,” he said, after a long moment of silence. “Don’t say things like that.” Most of the hostility had faded from his voice, but I wasn’t done fighting just yet.

“And what was all that about, anyway? What did you mean —things are different? What is it between Sera and you?”

“There isn’t anything between Sera and me,” he said, some of the anger in his voice resurfacing. “As much as she’d like that. And that doesn’t matter right now, anyway. Don’t you think you have more important things to worry about?” His words caused my thoughts to do an abrupt about-face.

Lora.

My mouth had already been open, ready to keep arguing, but now it just hung there, unsure of what to say. I glanced back over my shoulder, at the place I’d called home for the past ten years.

From where I stood, it looked just like it always had. The shattered back-porch door was out of sight. It was a nice day, so the blinds were pulled up in the windows along the side of the house, letting sunlight flood into our living-room.

The lawn needed cutting, which meant it was probably Lora’s turn to do it; she hated mowing the lawn, and it was always the last thing she did on her list of weekly chores. I wondered how long it was going to be before it got cut again.

Roses, hydrangeas, and some yell ow flower I didn’t know the name of were blooming in the fenced garden running alongside the house. I’d helped my mom plant that garden when I was younger and, up until the last few years, I’d helped her keep it up. But things had changed. I’d gotten caught up in my own life. I had school, and a car, and friends to worry about. I didn’t have time for gardening anymore.

Even without my help though, the garden stayed beautiful.

I’d always been amazed at my mom’s ability to keep it looking so good, in between her demanding shifts at the looking so good, in between her demanding shifts at the hospital and everything else she had to do. But over these past few weeks, weeds had started to claim the territory, and several of the rose bushes in the back of the garden were withering. Still , nobody driving by would notice. From the distance, everything looked normal at the Layton household.

But I was sure of it now. Things were never going to be normal again.

“They may come back,” Kael said, his voice bordering on gentle again. “We shouldn’t stay here.”

I nodded. I didn’t need telling twice. I’d never wanted to get away from a place as badly as I did right then.

I ran as fast as I possibly could, so my mind had to be focused on where I was going to avoid running into things.

That was the only thing that kept me going. I knew if I stopped and let my self think about everything that had happened, I would’ve broken down. So I kept running.

We ran into Will when we were about half-way back to the house. Apparently,

he’d

Despite Eli’s suggestion, Shane stayed behind with Emily and Jack. So it was just the five of us in the kitchen now; Will had rejoined us, after cleaning up and changing into clothes that weren’t covered in blood. Now he, Eli, Vanessa, and I sat around the kitchen table, while Kael leaned against the doorway. Vanessa had pulled some sort of casserole from the refrigerator, heated it up, set it in front of me, and commanded I eat, since—according to her— I looked like I was going to pass out. I didn’t bother telling her that had nothing to do with the fact that I hadn’t eaten all day. I didn’t want Vanessa to worry though, so I tried to stomach it. I managed an impressive two bites. Well , the second one was more like a half-bite.

Eli was insistent. He wanted to know what had happened at my house—every last detail of it. And I tried to tell him. I’m glad Kael was there to help, though, because I’m pretty sure nothing I was saying was making any sense at this point.

After Kael and me final y managed to get the whole story straight for them, Eli took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands together on the table in front of him.

“Do you remember the pact I told you about?” he asked quietly. “The one that prevents lycans from harming humans?”

“…I remember you mentioning it,” I said with a slow nod.

“I think you should know how it first came into being,” he said. Then he paused again, looking thoughtful, and final y nodded a few seconds later. “It’s kind of a long story, so I’ll try to give you the condensed version.”

Oh good. A history lesson. Condensed or not, given that every second was one more second Lora was in danger, I wasn’t exactly thril ed at the idea. But Eli’s face was so deathly serious that I was couldn’t bring my self to object.

So I nodded and sunk down in my chair, trying to muster up as much patience as I could, and waited for him to talk.

“The pact has been around for several centuries now, since the beginning of the sixteenth century,” he said. “As many books of folklore from this time period suggest, during this time there was a disturbing spike in the number of sightings and attacks by creatures which humans christened ‘werewolves’. Up until then, these monstrous creatures had been little more than legend. With the increasing attacks, however, people started barricading their doors at night, starting to believe that maybe there was more to these socal ed legendary creatures after all . The attacks began in and spread from the southern parts of Ireland, which is also the location commonly accepted as the first place werewolves were created.”

“Created…? By lycans you mean? So… lycans can create werewolves by biting people too?” I asked. I was mostly just trying to sort my thoughts by saying them out loud. But Eli shook his head, giving me a stern look.

“We are not the same.”

I got the feeling I’d offended him somehow. “I know,” I started to explain. “But—”

“Our bite brings nothing but death to humans,” he interrupted. There was a definite edge in his voice that hadn’t been there before. “And most of us had no desire to do that—let alone to create bloodthirsty monsters to do it for us.”

“So… how were the first werewolves created then, if not by lycans?” I asked, somewhat timidly.

“That is not what I said.” His tone was patient again, and most of the bitterness had slipped out. “It was a lycan, in fact. His name is Joseph Valkos, and he is ancient, perhaps one of the first of our kind.” Eli’s head dropped shamefully.

For some reason, the name struck me as familiar. And it was dumb, because I knew it was just a name—but the sound of it sent a tiny shiver down my spine “How did this man—this lycan— create them, then?” I asked.

“Different accounts wil tell you different things—although most agree on one thing: there was powerfull black magic involved. Most of our kind shun the use of magic of any sort, but it was common knowledge that Valkos reveled in it the darkest of it. Some say the first werewolves were actual wolves, and that he used his dark powers to breathe human spirits into them. According to this version of the story, the method of biting humans, or otherwise injecting them with werewolf toxin, did not come about until some time later—perhaps after those original y born of wolves proved too fierce to control.”

I couldn’t help but raise a skeptical eyebrow. Eli continued as though he hadn’t seen, even though he was sitting right across the table from—and looking straight at—me. When he spoke again, though, his voice was blunt.

“Regardless of how he actual y did it, in the short span of a few years Valkos created an alarming number of werewolves. He was rumored to have been building an army, one he planned to unleash on the human race.”

“What did he have against humans?”

“The human population was growing too,” Kael said, proving he was actual y listening to our conversation for the first time. “And humans are greedy—they thought the land was theirs for the taking, even though the lycans had been there way before any of them.” Kael spat out the words, like there way before any of them.” Kael spat out the words, like he was trying to rid his mouth of a bad taste. “And when the lycans refused to get out of the way, the humans turned to what they know best—violence.” He looked like he could’ve continued on that particular subject indefinitely, but at that moment Eli cleared his throat.

“Yes…that was likely a large component of Valkos’ motive.

But we are getting off track—do you want the condensed version or not?” he asked, looking at me.

I nodded.

“Good. We can fil in the details later,” he promised. “So where were we?”

“What did Valkoss do after he’d made this army?” I prompted.

“It was more what he tried to do.” Eli paused and adjusted his glasses, his eyes shining with anticipation as though we’d final y reached the part he most wanted to discuss.

“But he was met with opposition. Around this time, a savage underground war began. On one side, there were the lycans—like my parents— who wished to keep peacefull relations with the humans at all costs. On the other was Valkos, the handful of lycans he recruited that supported his cause, and their created army of werewolves— who, by whatever means, were growing in strength and numbers by the day.

“At first, Valkos’ operation had gone largely unchallenged, given that—even though they did not necessarily support his war efforts— most lycans were less than willing to jump to the aid of the same humans who were encroaching on their territory. As time went by the attacks against humans become more numerous, and more brutal. More and more lycans began to see the power Valkos was gaining, and many joined him. Out of fear, perhaps, or with hopes of gaining some power of their own. Who knows? For whatever reason, his army was growing, surely and steadily, out of control.

“At this point, the lycans who wanted peace with the humans were forced to take a more active role in the war against Valkos—before it was too late. At first, it seemed as though they had some advantage, since most of Valkos’

army was made up of werewolves which, while certainly no easy foe, were all newborns. As such, they were inexperienced, unpredictable, and there was little order amongst them. Those things all made them easy targets for most of our kind, many of whom had already been around for centuries and seen more than their fair share of battles.

“But it was still difficult, because for every werewolf they managed to kill off, Valkos, or one of the lycans loyal to him, simply created ten more out of innocent humans. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before the tables started to turn. And that’s when some started to consider taking drastic measures.”

“Drastic measures…?” I repeated.

Eli nodded. “Some suggested fighting fire with fire—that is, countering Valkos’ black magic with magic of their own. It certainly was not the ideal tactic, but things were getting desperate. And so a young lycan by the name of Cyrus Aurick stepped forward.

“I cannot begin to explain to you the ancient magic Cyrus commanded all those centuries ago—because I do not fully understand it myself. As I told you, magic is something of a taboo subject in our culture and most artifacts describing or otherwise providing instruction in the art have been destroyed. The common legend, however, tell s us that Cyrus performed a dangerous ritual, spil ing his own blood in order to create an involuntary pact amongst all who shared his ancestry—that is, all lycans.

“With this pact, Cyrus made it so that any lycan—Valkos included— who inflicted even a scratch on any human would suffer an instant, painfull death themselves. As you can probably guess, this evened out the odds considerably.”

considerably.”

“But… aren’t werewolves capable of creating more werewolves, too?” I asked. That was getting real y confusing.

“Not as newborns,” Eli explained. “It takes several years for their toxin to grow potent enough to infect a human.”

“So Valkos couldn’t create any more soldiers for his army, then?”

“Exactly. And it wasn’t long before most of the werewolf population was destroyed.” Eli fell silent for a few minutes then, as if all owing time for this new information to sink in.

That, however, would probably have taken weeks. So I went ahead and broke the silence with a question that had been eating away at me ever since I’d heard Valkos’ name.

“What about now? Where is Valkos now?”

“Hiding, for the better part of the last few years. Though he makes his presence known every now and then— whether by a murder here, or a string of kidnappings there.” Eli’s voice was chill ingly casual. “He has lost much of his support from his own kind, but most werewolves still in existence today have sworn all egiance to him. They refer to him as “The Creator”, and obey him as such. There are some who have theorized that their obedience is even, to some extent, outside of their control. I think the term they have coined is “Alpha-Syndrome”. An interesting idea if—”

“If we had the time to discuss it, maybe,” Will interrupted.

After having listened to Eli for so long, Will ’s sudden voice made me jump. “I’m still waiting to hear what any of this has to do with Alex,” he said.

“Of course….” Eli paused and cleared his throat, looking a little disgruntled. “Cyrus is no longer with us, but his bloodline still keeps the pact alive, and now his descendant is the only one who can break it. Cyrus himself died over a century ago—but not before he had a son. A son by the name of Benjamin.” Eli’s voice grew quiet as he spoke and, once he had finished, he looked at me expectantly.

And it was a long moment before I realized why—probably because I didn’t want to make the connection Eli was hinting at. I didn’t want to think about what his words meant.

But, like an unstoppable train, the realization hit me anyway.

It was several long moments before I could speak calmly.

“…My father’s name was Benjamin.”

“Yes.”

Silence. I froze. What was I supposed to say about this?

Vanessa seemed to notice my discomfort, and laid a hand on my shoulder. “You realize that pretty much everything you just said is only a legend, right Eli?” she asked with a frown.

“That does not mean there is no truth to it,” he said, returning her frown. “But I am happy to hear your theories,”

he added quietly.

“So…” I began uncertainly. “So you’re saying that I’m not a human or a werewolf? I’m…a lycan?”

“Exactly,” Eli said, looking pleased with himself.

“And that guy… what’s his face?”

“Cyrus?” Eli offered.

“Right. So, assuming I am this… descendant of this, Cyrus person… That’s why they’re trying to kill me then? To destroy his bloodline and end the pact?”

“Actual y…that’s the part I can’t figure out,” Eli said. “Since according to every version of the legend I have ever heard, eliminating the bloodline of Cyrus would do nothing except make the pact permanent—the last thing I would think Valkos wants. The only way to sever the ties of the pact is for the descendant to willingly do so.”

for the descendant to willingly do so.”

“That doesn’t make sense. If that’s true, then why did Sera try and kill me that day at the lake? How am I supposed to willingly break a pact if I’m dead?”

“You see the problem with my theory, then,” Eli mumbled.

“My only guess would be that kill ing you was not real y her intention.”

“She could’ve fooled me,” I said with a tense laugh.

“It makes some sense,” Kael interjected, leaving his post by the door and joining us at the table. “Sera’s not exactly known for her self-restraint—or for her ability to follow orders.”

“How do you know what—” I started to ask, but Eli interrupted me.

“You have a good point,” he said to Kael. “But back to the matter at hand…” He paused, and turned back to me. “If we overlook the incident with Sera, and assume that you are, in fact, Cyrus’ descendant... then the situation is even more difficult than we original y thought. The attacks on your family were far from random. If I had to guess, I would say Valkos himself has been in charge of this particular operation.”

“You can’t be serious,” I groaned, burying my face in my hands. “I don’t want anything to do with this guy. I don’t care about this stupid pact, I’m not trying to get in his way or anything— I just want my sister back.”