Jack Templar and the Lord of the Werewolves (Book #4 of the Templar Chronicles) (2 page)

The man stopped smiling. “One of us would end up dead. It wouldn’t be me, but it wouldn’t be pretty.”

Ren Lucre sneered. “It’s enough to see your infernal smirk gone. The reason I haven’t killed you is so I can make you suffer. And I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that, don’t you?”

“I only suffer when you come down here and stink up the place. It takes weeks for your odor to clear out of here once you leave.” He looked around to the Creach in the cells around him. “We all talk about it behind your back, don’t we, guys?”

The other Creach hissed and growled at the man, but they cast worried looks at Ren Lucre as well.

The vampire simply smiled. “I’ve struggled to decide how much I should tell you about what’s happening in the world. Not sure if the news I have will give you hope or despair.”

“Try me,” the man said.

“How long do you think you’ve been in here?” Ren Lucre asked.

“Hard to say, time flies when you’re having this much fun. I’d say about –”

“Fourteen years,” Ren Lucre said. “Just over actually.”

For the first time, a flash of concern passed over the man’s face. “Impossible,” he whispered.

“I’m afraid not,” Ren Lucre said. “As you said, time flies.”

“Fourteen years,” the man mumbled, making the connection. He looked up suddenly, not saying the name filling him with dread.

Ren Lucre smiled, showing his long canines.

“Oh yes, Jack. I went to visit him myself on his fourteenth birthday.” He paused, enjoying the fear on the man’s face. “But he escaped.”

The man let out a sigh of relief. “So… he’s still alive?”

Ren Lucre nodded. “Yes, the little fool sought out and found my daughter, the Lord of the Vampires. Somehow convinced her to give him one of the Jerusalem Stones from what my spies tell me. Father-to-father, I can share with you that this little indiscretion really disappointed me.”

“Why does Jack want the Jerusalem Stone?” the man asked as much to himself as to Ren Lucre.

“My guess is that he’s going after the others next to reunite the Stones like the legends say.”

“No,” the man said, slumping to the ground on his knees, head hung low. “Oh, Jack, no.”

“Ahhh…” Ren Lucre said, smiling broadly. “That’s it. That’s the moment I wanted to see.” He leaned forward and poked a finger in the man’s direction. “That very second when you fully understood that you and your kind will be completely defeated… and that your own son will be the one who brings it upon you.” He closed his eyes as if savoring the taste of his favorite meal. “Thank you for that. That’s all I needed. Thank you.”

Ren Lucre spun around and stomped back the way he had come, leaving the man kneeling on the floor.

John Templar shook his head and, for the first time in his life, hoped desperately for his son to fail.

Chapter 1

It seemed impossible to digest that Ren Lucre, the Lord of the Creach, the one raising an army to destroy the world, the monster who most wanted me dead and who kept my father prisoner in his dungeon, was actually my grandfather.

But I knew my friends deserved the truth, so on the first day on the boat leaving Paris, I told them everything. They were shocked, of course, and didn’t know what to say.

Will, my scrappy friend from Sunnyvale, put an arm around me. He’d stuck by my side during my whole crazy adventure into the world of Creach, monster hunters, and ancient prophecies. “Wow,” he said. “And I thought my family was messed up.”

It was the perfect comment. Five out of six of us laughed, including T-Rex, my other friend from middle school, along with Xavier and Daniel, who I’d met at the Monster Hunter Academy. Then we spoke openly about what my monster relatives meant to our mission – stopping Ren Lucre from destroying human civilization – and how each of us felt about it. Not that it solved anything, but it did make sure we all had the same information. Everyone felt better afterward, everyone except the sixth member of our party who stood silently staring out into the night. It was an unspoken understanding that the best way to handle that situation was to just give it time and leave it alone. She would come around eventually. We hoped.

But that was three days ago and, with night closed in around us, the stress of our situation made the companionship of that moment seem far away.

I turned my back on my friends and stared up at the moonless night sky. I felt the gentle movement on the river as it carried our boat west, away from Paris. The bank slid by silently on my right, just a dark shadow of trees.

“I can’t take any more of this endless debate,” Daniel said behind me. “I say we fight, and the winner chooses our next move.”

I clenched my hands into fists and wondered whether I should just let them give Daniel my answer. I turned to gauge whether the comment had been a joke to release the tension or a real suggestion. Neither would have surprised me.

Daniel stepped toward me and, by the look on his face, I don’t think he was sure either whether he’d been joking or not. He was taller than me by a foot and built like a star high school quarterback, with broad shoulders and thick twists of lean muscle. His once ridiculously good looks now had the blemish of a fake nose attached to his face where a swarm had screechers had chewed off the original. Even though I’d saved him from dying that day and we’ve been friends and fought side-by-side ever since, some of the old tensions between us still leaked out every now and then.

He and I hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot when I’d arrived as the new guy at the Monster Hunter Academy. The ancient school in France served as the training grounds for the Black Guard, the secret society tasked with protecting the reg, or regular, world from the Creach. He was already top dog there when I showed up with everyone whispering about the prophecy, about how I might be “the One,” how I was the last Templar knight. There’s nothing a top dog like Daniel appreciates less than another dog showing up and peeing in his yard. Well, peeing in his front yard and then trying to steal his ex-girlfriend is worse. Yeah, that happened too. Worst of all, he still had a thing for her.

All that was supposed to be behind us now. We were friends, comrades-in-arms who’d faced down screechers, dragons, goblins, desert djinn and even an entire vampire horde together. Still, under the stress of the last few days, we were at each other’s throats.

“Back down, you idiots,” said a voice from behind us. It was Will. “You guys are acting like morons. You’re just tired. We all are.”

He stepped between us like the mini-pit-bull he was, pushing each of us back with a hand. Because of his small size, enemies often underestimated Will, and sometimes his friends did too. But I knew no one tougher or more loyal. Out of respect for him, and because neither of us really wanted to fight, Daniel and I backed away from one another.

Will was dressed in the same gear we all had, black pants, black t-shirt, and a jacket with multiple pockets. Exactly the same outfits we’d all been wearing three days earlier when we battled the vampire horde in the catacombs of Paris.

Three days ago.

It seemed like a lifetime.

Especially since that was how long it had been since any of us had more than an hour or two of fitful sleep.

“That’s better,” Will said. “We’re all tired and more than a little grumpy, so let’s just assume people are going to say dumb stuff they don’t mean, okay?”

“Like when I said I wasn’t hungry,” said another voice. “I was just kidding about that.”

T-Rex, piped up from the opposite side of the small steering house in the center of the boat. He stepped out, hand on his oversized stomach, looking unhappy. I smiled at him not because of what he said but because his presence on this adventure always reminded me about the strength of friendship. He was here because he would do anything to help his friends. And if that meant traveling halfway around the world to battle monsters, so be it. He was along for the ride.

“’Cause, honestly, I’m getting really hungry,” T-Rex said.

T-Rex had thinned down since leaving Sunnyvale, and he’d kicked his habit of picking his nose when he was nervous, but he still didn’t look like an obvious fit to be a monster hunter. His round face, freckled nose and wide waist had made him a perfect candidate to be a Ratling at the Academy, working the kitchens and serving the food he loved. But as soon as I decided to seek out the five Jerusalem Stones from the five Creach Lords who had them, he’d stood right next to the others with his short sword clutched to his side, demanding that he come along.

“That much we can agree on,” I said. “I think we’re all hungry.”

Xavier, the brainiac of our little group, gave a nervous glance to the boat’s bow. “We better hope she doesn’t get too hungry.”

While most of the Black Guard relied on their swords, crossbows and other weapons to fight the Creach, Xavier’s brilliant mind was a weapon in and of itself. He was only twelve, the youngest of our group, but his inventions had saved our bacon more than a few times already. His brilliance made him a little socially awkward though since he didn’t see the need to filter anything that came to his mind. You never knew what was going to come out of his mouth. This comment about the last member of our group only said exactly what the rest of us were thinking but were too polite – or afraid – to say out loud.

My eyes flicked towards Eva, the proud fighter who’d been the first to tell me about this whole undiscovered world swirling around me. Eva, the fourth level monster hunter who was one of the most feared members of the Black Guard even though she only had one hand. Eva, the first girl who I’d fallen for but who wisely had kept us focused on our mission, which was so much larger than either of us. She was all these things, but since the events of the catacombs under the streets of Paris, she was one other thing as well.

She was Eva the vampire.

Her transformation was one of the reasons I hadn’t slept in three days. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Eva lying on the ground, covered with blood from where the evil vampire Pahvi had skewered her with a sword. It had been a wide, gaping wound. And it should have meant her death.

Only I’d made a bargain on her behalf. Every fiber of my being told me it was the wrong thing to do. That Eva would want to die with the dignity of a soldier. But, in the end, I was weak. I couldn’t let her go.

With my permission, Shakra, the Lord of the Vampires and my aunt, saved Eva with the gift of her vampiric blood. In a whispered warning, Shakra let me know that Eva wouldn’t only be a vampire, but she would be one of the most powerful vampires in the world. Gifted with the blood-gift directly by the Lord of the Vampires herself.

There hadn’t been time for questions. The rest of the vampire horde chased us in an uncontrollable frenzy that even Shakra couldn’t stop. As my group decided what to do next, our quiet conversations had only hinted at the most important question.

When would Eva need to feed?

When that time came, what would she eat?

So when Xavier blurted out, “We better hope she doesn’t get too hungry,” we all froze to see what Eva’s reaction would be. The old Eva would have simply walked up, cuffed Xavier on the ear, and told him he was being rude. I hoped she would do something like that. I even wished she would get angry. Something. Anything.

But she didn’t. She only continued to do what she’d done for the past three days – stand at the bow of the boat, staring forward at the swirling waters of the river, unmoving, wrapped in a cloak taken from one of the vampires.

“Nice one, X,” Will said, punching him in the arm.

Xavier looked confused. “What’d I say? It’s just a fact. She’s a vampire now. Vampires feed to live just like we do. It’s just a matter of time before –”

“We all know that,” I blurted, cutting him off. “That’s why we should go find Aquinas. See if she… I don’t know… whether she can…”

“You know the law,” Daniel hissed. “A hunter who has been turned into a Creach must be killed or imprisoned.”

“Great,” Will said. “So you want to kill her or throw her in prison. Nice.”

“Of course not, you little mugpug,” Daniel said. “I’m saying that if we take her to Aquinas, that’s exactly what will happen. I know Aquinas better than anyone here. She will follow the old ways.”

“Guys, this is the same argument all over again,” T-Rex huffed, sounding like a kid trying to get mom and dad to stop fighting.

“You said yourself that the Jerusalem Stones can change her back,” Daniel said. “Then we go get the Stones as fast as we can. End of story.”

I sighed. T-Rex was right; Daniel and I were right back into the same argument. The hard part was that I didn’t know which one of us was right. Maybe it would be better to go find the Stones as quickly as possible. Take Eva with us so we could watch out for her. But she hadn’t spoken in three days. She hadn’t really even moved in all that time except to pull up the hood of her cloak during the day and lower it at night. I knew from dealing with vampires before that they could walk around in the daylight without a problem, so that didn’t surprise me. But outside of that, this was uncharted territory for all of us.

“Eva is one of us,” I said. “She will get special treatment. Aquinas will help her.”

Daniel must have sensed the weakness in my voice. He jumped at my self-doubt. “You don’t know that,” he said. “These are dark times, and Aquinas will do anything if she thinks it’s necessary to protect the Black Guard. She kept the truth about Ren Lucre from you. You’d think mentioning that the Lord of the Creach was actually your grandfather would have been important for you to know. What else has she lied to us about?”

I turned away so he wouldn’t catch the expression on my face. At first, no one except Eva knew what I’d discovered in the catacombs. Shakra’s revelation that she was my mother’s sister had rocked my world.

I wondered if Aquinas knew.

If she did and hadn’t told me, how could I ever trust her? If she didn’t, how might she react when she discovered it for herself? Based on that, maybe Daniel was right, and the best thing to do was take our chances by going after the Jerusalem Stones by ourselves. I hated to say it, but I hoped Eva wouldn’t get too hungry along the way.