The Ancients (3 page)

              I swiftly move closer to him forcing him to meet my eyes, “You doubt me!”  I allow my power to circle him.  “I am more powerful than they all are, it would be best if you do not forget yourself, minion.”

              I watch as Martin falls to his knees, head bowed, as he wraps his arms around my legs, “I am sorry, my Mistress, my Samara, you are right of course.  Please forgive your humble servant.”

              I sigh inwardly, maybe a minion is too much work.  Martin will have to go soon, but not yet I still need him.  “Rise, Martin.  Of course I forgive you, it just hurts that you doubt me.” I help him stand and embrace him in a hug offering him comfort and reinforcing the spell.

              “I just could not forgive myself if anything happens to you, especially at the hands of my own mother,” Martin cries on my shoulder.

              “You just let me handle Martha,” I coo.  “Now let’s go or we will be late.”

              After another few minutes making sure Martin wasn’t going to freak out on me and grabbing the potions I made to incapacitate the witches, we exit my herb shop cloaked in a spell making others not notice us.  “See, no one even knows we are here.”

              The coven and Henrietta’s were about ten miles apart with several backroads connecting them.  I chose a place that would put the witches in the most vulnerable position.  “Now, Martin we wait until they pass just by us, then I will hit them with a spell to take down their wards and cause them to become unconscious.  You are going to be able to handle watching your mother go down, aren’t you love.”

              “Yes, yes, but she will be okay, right?”

              Killing Martha would not help my plans at this point so I would be able to appease his love for his mother.  I am almost certain the spell would crack around Martin if Martha died.  No now wasn’t the time.  “I would not harm you mother, for you, you must know that.”

              “I know you are a kind person who only wants to correct the wrongs of the past.  Someday we will convince Mother that we are on the right side,” Martin smiles at me.  I still my face to not show my disgust with him.  Martha will die, along with the others in a matter of time.

              “Maybe you are right.  They should be here any moment.”  I feel them coming rather than see them.  They are good.  The cloaking spell they have around them is really strong.                “Martin when I say now, throw your potion directly north.”

              “Now!” I yell and we watch the supposed leader of the mighty coven uncloak and fall unconscious behind the vehicles wheel.   

              “Wonderful!” I clap.  “Just as planned.”  I wait for the car to completely stop and open the door to smile down at Martha.  “Martin where is the tome.”

              I listen as he opens the trunk, “Here you go Samara.  Just as I told you, can’t you feel the power radiating off of this?”

              “Yes, well done.  Now I need you to hurry home so no one is suspicious of your absences.  The rest of the materials we need I will retrieve at sunset.  It will take a few days to break into the tome.  I will contact you when I need you again.”

              “Whatever you need, Samara,” Martin takes my hand to press a small kiss.  “Very exciting!  I will see you soon love.”

              I wait for him to disappear then rub my hand against my jeans, “Yuck!”  I stare at the vehicle for a few more minutes impressed with myself.  “Soon you coven bitches will be no more and the true leaders of the paranormal world will be here.”  I feel the smile on face broaden as I take off to decipher the text that will take me one more step further.

Rian

              I left the house without informing my sister where I was going.  Last night, Grams came over after the coven meeting.  If she noticed Kristoff’s scent she chose to ignore it or she was too distracted from the information discussed at the meeting.  The Coven keeps several of the more powerful tomes behind a protected shield.  They also move these tomes on a random basis so that even the coven members don’t always know where they are.  They are only brought out for ceremonies.  The problem is that during transport yesterday the witches were attacked and one of the tomes was taken.  No one knows how someone found out, but the tome that was taken held the true Rites of Weynard ritual in it. 

              This information is very unsettling.  What I told Kristoff the first time we met was true, the rites could be read by anyone, even a witch, but the components needed were never published.  The rites are dark magic, which require blood sacrifice and an abundance of power.

              I stroll up to Tiffany when I arrive.  Her attitude towards me today seems to have done a 180.  “Dr. Campbell so good to see you again.  Alpha Jamieson asked me to give you a staff badge so that you do not have to check in every time you visit him as well as access to his private elevator.”  She says this quickly exposing her neck in a sign of submission.  The young wolf was admonished, I assume, by Kristoff.  How did he know that Tiffany was rude to me?  

The sign of submission confuses me.  My wolf smiles inside of me knowing that she was more dominate that Tiffany even if I can’t shift into her form.  “Thanks,” I grab the offered badge and then completely dismiss Tiffany. 

The elevator ride is quiet this time.  I can only detect three scents in this one, Kristoff’s, Michael’s, and a female I never met before.  The scent of the female has my wolf agitated.  Jealousy?  No, that couldn’t be it.  I barely knew Kristoff.  I hadn’t thought that maybe he was in a relationship when we met.  I shake myself free of those thoughts.  “Think of the Ancients, solve the problem first,” I whisper to myself as I exit the elevator.

I make my way quickly to the same conference room as before.  Before I left the house, I called Kristoff to ensure that only the most trusted Council members would be present.  “Ah, Dr. Campbell please come in and be seated,” Michael, Kristoff’s Beta says. 

Unlike last time, the conference room only holds four Council members instead of all fifteen.  “Thanks,” I nod, “And please, call me Rian.  No need for formalities.”

He nods as I sit.  Kristoff is again at the head of the table.  “Rian, let me introduce you to, Kevin Marks, my head of security.”

Kevin smiles brightly which I find odd as security people are usually very stoic.  “Pleasure,” I reply. 

“It is nice to finally meet the woman that has my Alpha in an uproar.  Thank you for providing me with ample entertainment these last two weeks,” he states.

I couldn’t help but let a small smirk cross my face.  Kristoff stares at Kevin, “Oh, shut up Kev.  Across from Kevin, is Hunter Key, I am sure you have heard of him as he is the head of the North American Witches Coven.”

“Yes of course, I attended your Winter Solstice ball last year,” I say to him.

“I remember.  Good to formally meet you, your Grams keeps you under lock and key,” the older man replies.  “Do tell Henrietta I said hello.”

“I will.”

“Of course you know who Michael Quincy is, and last is Gretchen Islador, Hunter’s head priestesses.

The woman who was sitting across from me was very stunning, but did not present a friendly face my way.  In fact it looked like she was trying to stare daggers into my eyes. I caught a whiff of her scent and notice that this was the scent from the elevator.  I could feel her power like she was trying to show off.  I thought I would return the favor and allow my full extent to show as well.  As I started to release, I felt Hunter squeeze my knee under the table with a barely visible shake of his head.  He was right, it would be a childish move, but my wolf didn’t like her and I sure as hell didn’t. 

The standoff did not go unnoticed by all around.  Kristoff cleared his throat, “Well okay.  You called us all hear Rian, what updates do you have?”

My wolf wants to show Gretchen that we are more dominate.  But I try to calm her down enough to get through this meeting.  I make it a point to ignore the priestess as I begin looking only at Kristoff.  “Before I start, how much do you truly know about the Ancients?”

Hunter scrunches his face a little, “I may be the Coven head, but a lot of the history has been tangled up with legends or stories to scare young ones to do the right thing.”

Kristoff nods, “That is the extent of my knowledge as well.  I learned more from the documents you sent, but it was not all inclusive.”

“You are correct.  I didn’t feel the need for a full history lesson because, to be quite honest, I wasn’t sure the threat was too great,” I sighed.  “As you know my field of study is paranormal history.  My doctoral thesis was actually about the Ancients.”

Gretchen took this moment to pip in, “Yes, we are acutely aware of your genius.  Now tell us how to solve this problem so we can be done.”

I chose to be the bigger person and not tell her to shut up.  “Most of the legends about the Ancients, are just that, legends.  Back in the 13
th
century in the turmoil that was Europe, a great power emerged.  All documents from before that time were lost or maybe the tales were only told by word of mouth.  Whatever the case may be, that is the first time we have a recording of the group.  They did not identify themselves to the paranormal community.  They wanted to come out to the humans, but not in a good way.  They wanted to dominate society.  The Ancients were vampires and saw humans as only cattle to slate their lust.”

“I knew the legends said they were vampires, but I know plenty and for the vast majority they are not in the camp to come out to the humans,” Kristoff states.

“Yes that is true, but these were not just any vampires.  From all the studying I have done on the topic it appears the Ancients get there name for a reason.  They were the original vampires.  The ones said to have been created by Anubis, the Egyptian God.”

“Do I really have to sit here and listen to this rubbish?” Gretchen rolled her eyes.

Hunter gave her a stern look, “Yes, you do.”

I wasn’t sure if I should thank Hunter or not as he said nothing to defend what she called rubbish.  I continued despite the hard stare I received from Gretchen.   “Whether they were really created by Anubis or not is up for debate, but they were extremely powerful and had many followers.  Those followers were called the Priest of Weynard.  Weynard being the most powerful of the Ancients.  These Priests were witches who protected the Ancients when they slept for the day.”

“While they had many followers, there were those in the community that saw the bodies starting to pile up in the streets.  These community members join together to rid the world of the Ancients.  But as you all know, the witches’ creed to harm none, put them in a bind.  They could not directly kill the Ancients, but looked for a way to put them in a permanent state of stasis.”

Kristoff interrupted, “So it was just witches?”

“No,” I said shaking my head.  “The whole community was involved, witches, werewolves, and even some of the vampires worked together.  But it was the witches that were tasked to formulate a spell that could work on the Ancients.  They were very powerful creatures that were resistant to many spells.  There were several attempts and many paranormals lost their lives attempting to subdue them.”

“They worked at a solution, until it was finally found close to a century after the Ancients arrived in Europe.  They planned the ritual down to the last second.  Each type of paranormal had their role to play, and they executed the plan flawlessly.  The Priests were subdued and were eventually tried by the European Council.  They lived the rest of their days in a cell.  The Ancients were placed in a state of stasis, but their location was never revealed.”

“Well that story sounds preposterous,” Gretchen grunts.  “Why would they not tell anyone?  Surely the Council should have someone guarding their location.”

I shrug, “You would think, but they didn’t.  The tome that contained what they named the Rites of Weynard was entrusted to my Grams coven many centuries ago by the European Council.  When the coven move to North America, the tome came with them.  Sorry, Hunter, but I highly doubt they informed the North American Coven they had it in their possession.”

“Seems like the smart thing to do,” Hunter sighed.  “Let the history become a legend so that no one would be stupid enough to believe.”  He said the last point with his eyes directed towards Gretchen.”

“Yes, well, for eight centuries the coven safeguarded the tome that is until yesterday,” I admitted.

Hunter’s eyes snap back to me, “What?!”

I nod, “The tome’s location is periodically and randomly moved from one location to another with a very powerful shield around it.  The witches that were transporting it yesterday were attacked and the tome was taken.  That is the reason I phoned ahead to ensure that only the most trusted Council members were here today.  The only way anyone would have known the route was if they were on the inside or if they have an informant.”

“Kris, dear, please tell me we are not going to go with this ridiculous story of hers,” Gretchen says a she places her hand on Kristoff’s arm.

A low growl is instantly emitted from my throat as my eyes lock on where they are skin to skin.  Kristoff, in his great wisdom, removes his arm from under hers.  Looking at me with a small smirk.  “Easy, Rian.”

I try to put on a neutral face, but I think I failed.  Kevin and Michael up to this point had just been listening.  With the scene over, Kevin leaned across the table to face Gretchen, “I would tread carefully, Priestess.  You have never seen an Alpha female when she is pissed, especially if she feels someone trying to poach her Alpha male.”