The Waking (The Upturned Hourglass) (43 page)

The lights above reflected off of the sweeping mist, obscuring Valie’s sharpened vision and making her more uneasy. Her sense of smell, too, was dampened by the wet, leaving her with a distinct sense of foreboding. She needed to keep moving.

Before she could once again pick up the pace, new scents assaulted her awareness. Those of the wood, she was familiar with—though not with their intensity—but others were familiar in a different sense. They were
similar
…and close.

Lycans.

Her thoughts sped at lightening speed. Like a person on a constant rush of adrenaline, the world seemed slow. The monster behind her sanity’s veil snarled. The thing struggled for more control, scratching and tearing at her inner-self’s front. Her defense was thinning. The revolution in her mind was becoming inevitable. She had tapped too far into the foreign power.

It was taking over.

She tried to move her feet, but was unable. Her body began to seize, first in small areas like her shoulder and hand, but it spread until her legs, too, began to spasm. Her muscles contracted painfully in simultaneous convulsions and she fell to the ground, crying out in agony. The very fabric of her body seemed stretched to its limits. All the while, the beast rejoiced.

“Control it,” a voice said nearby.

Valie’s eyes rolled haphazardly in their sockets in search of the sound’s owner as she rolled on the ground. She began to think she’d imagined it, her mind’s last ditch attempt at fighting the monster.

“Valentine, dear, you
must
control it. Harness the power.” The encouraging words were spouting from a beast of a different origin.

Isaac jumped off of one of the elevated wood piles and into the floodlight five yards in front of Valie’s writhing form. He came to Valie’s side and knelt beside her, stroking her cheek with what could have been mistaken for paternal affection. His eyes—the same glowing golden eyes that haunted Valie’s dreams—dispelled the thought; they revealed the eager thrill Isaac felt as he beheld his daughter’s suffering.

“Fight it, Valentine. Fight it and come with me.”

“I’d…rather…die,” Valie choked out. She gagged on her own bile.

Isaac leaned away from the girl. “You realize you will be nothing without me. You will be less than nothing. As the Abomination you will be despised, abhorred. You will be a monster among monsters. You, the odd man out in an odd man’s game.

“But if you come with me, follow me, you will be exalted! Your position in the Lycanthrope nation will be greater than any before you since the time of the Trinity. Together we can rule!”

Valie cried out in pain, but composed herself for one word.

“Never.”

Isaac growled and took hold of Valie’s shoulders eagerly. “Do not be difficult. Do not fight Fate, for it has destined us to work together to better this declining breed, to lift it up. Fight it, dear one. Fight it and come with me.”

The girl tried to do as her father commanded. He believed she could do this. She would not yield to either monster. This was why he had chosen her and let her
live. If Isaac was right, this was her fate.

A stronger, crueler fit afflicted the whimpering girl as the beast retaliated against her efforts, demonstrating how truly wrong it was of her to hope.

A defensive roar of anger and menace erupted from behind Valie. Jack, in wolf form, sprung, knocking Isaac back, pinning his shoulders to the dirt. In a flash, the Fated had thrown the man-sized animal from him. Jack landed on his feet, panting, a wild look in his dark blue eyes.

Within seconds, the whole area broke out in glowing eyes and violent snarls. Valie barely noticed as the honey and gray-colored wolves that were Shane and Noah took their places beside Jack. A pale-skinned and lithe, Maxine stepped gracefully to the free side of Shane. Her look, too, was fierce, but she appeared unaffected from the long run.

Terrence and Eliza, red and black-haired—the wolfish color of blood and shade—stood behind Isaac, their teeth bared, but their posture diffident to that of their leader.

“You finally arrived,” Isaac sang to Jack as the wolf growled. He smiled and outstretched his arms in feigned welcome. “You may all be witnesses of my new power.” His eyes looked disparagingly to Maxine. “Even
you
, Vampyre,” he spat. “For your kind, in time, will be the first to taste of it.”

Maxine hissed, her fangs extended.

“You have created a power you cannot control, Isaac Quinn. Such power will never topple the Vampyre kingdom. It will only undermine
you
.”

Central to the stand-off, Valie screamed. A sickening crack was heard, followed by another as her bones began to break to accommodate the invading abuser. Reddish-brown hair began to sprout from unused pores. 

The excited expression in Isaac’s eyes began to fade as he witnessed the girl begin to transform. His jaw clenched. His eyebrows furrowed in disgust.

Valie’s
face began to morph and expand, giving way to an expression beastly and unnatural. Her limbs became contorted, her skin dark and durable, her hair shaggy and coarse. Her clothes ripped as muscles tore and re-grew, bettered.

Valie rolled to her hands and knees, the front of her cranium cracking and enlarging into a snout with sharp, dagger-like teeth sprouting from both the upper and lower jaws. With a bone-chilling howl directed at the moonless night, the beast was born.

The surrounding onlookers stood as statues in the face of the creature that rose upon twisted limb. Its knees were bent back, it’s weight placed on the padded balls of its elongated feet. Nothing was human about the animal, particularly not the amber, brightly glowing eyes with contracted pupils glancing wildly about for blood.

The pain and rage encased in the being was nothing compared to that abiding in the eyes of the chocolate-colored wolf. He stared in horror at its feral aspect. It had taken the one he loved. It had torn her apart to make way for its malignant verve without remorse. He hated it. He wanted noth
ing more than to snuff out its malevolent spirit, to exact revenge. . .but to hurt the monster was to hurt the one he had sworn to protect.

His eyes flashed to Isaac who stood, harsh and angered at his failure. There was no control in the beast’s eyes as he had imagined. There was no room in that heart of bloodlust for him to reign.

Heart rent, Jack launched himself at the Fated. Before he could reach the real monster, Eliza and Terrence moved to subdue him. With snarling and snapping of jaws, a tussle broke out. Shane and Noah jumped to help their out-numbered friend.

Maxine remained motionless, her eyes fixed on the beast that had once been Valie. It breathed wetly, as if unused to the action. It seemed overwhelmed by the events surrounding it and gradually became agitated.

The thing turned its heedless sight to Maxine. She would be no match for the colossal thing. It was pure brutality and rancor.

Isaac stood to the other side of the beast, by all appearance backing it, and sneered.

“You, Isaac Quinn, have done nothing deserving of pleasure,” Maxine hissed under her breath. She would have glared at the man, but she couldn’t turn her crimson eyes from the monster who leaned as if to approach, its bright eyes fixated on her comparatively breakable form.

“To the contrary, Miss Heart.
Our species were never meant to coexist. Your pitiable efforts at changing that fact have annoyed since our meeting. Your death will relieve such irritation. Though, I may have created this
thing
, this ogre, this unbridled force, I will truly enjoy watching you die by its hand.”

The beast stopped mid-step. Its head jerked in the direction
of its creator.

One of the others yelped in pain. Noah flew to the side, unconscious.

Maxine quickly moved to pull the wolf-boy from the brawl before he was further injured, receiving a four-clawed score for her efforts.

Meanwhile, the beast took to all fours, its teeth bared toward Isaac, the created betraying its creator.

It jumped, pouncing at the Fated that had born it. Before it could sink its massive teeth into Isaac’s throat, Terrence, mid-battle, fighting beside Eliza, noticed the action and jumped from his own fray to take the blow intended for his leader. The beast’s jaw clamped down on the base of the dark wolf’s throat, severing his jugular and snapping his neck with the one brutal bite. The wolf looked like a chew toy as the beast landed, Terrence clenched in its mouth. It shook the interloper like a rag doll splattering gore on the surrounding tarps and equipment. The rain immediately began to wash the stains from the surfaces, dripping red as it pursued ground.

With a cry of anguish unfit for beastly lips, Eliza jumped to the back of her mate’s murderer, sinking her teeth deep into its shoulder. The wound was merely that of flesh.

Reaching behind, the brute grabbed the red-headed she-wolf from its back, tossing her to the side. She would not stay down, however. She attacked again, charging the monster as it single-mindedly tried to reach Isaac. Again, the she-wolf was repelled.

Isaac, taking the opportunity of Eliza’s distraction to save himself, made for a calculated retreat. His withdraw, however, was delayed by Jack and Shane who, unhindered by Isaac’s henchmen, began to circle him, preventing his escape.

“You think you two can stop
me
?” Isaac laughed. The two did not balk, a thirst for retribution rooted in their lethal gazes. “You are too weak to destroy he who Fate has chosen to deliver the Lycanthrope people. Fate has chosen
me
to lead. Me!”

“No,” A commanding voice declared, cutting through the harsh noise of the battle nearby.

Three guards, dressed in the rough green garb of the Council’s army, burst from the wood and sprung on Isaac, wrestling him to the ground. Three more appeared and made to assist.

The entire party was surrounded by the Council’s men. Mid-circle stood Daniel, who had made the exclamation. Seven or so of his soldiers transformed to surround the bleeding beast that would not tire. Eliza stood panting in front of it, her muzzle bloodied, her body scored.

Daniel stepped toward the restrained Isaac, who knelt wild-eyed and confused under the weight of a handful of Lycanthrope soldiers. The man began to transform, but two guards shoved and twisted him until pain checked him.

“Fate has chosen the
Council
to lead its people,” the young lieutenant censured coldly. “You are nothing more than a man whose mind was long ago undermined by hubris and conceit, the deserving father of
that
.” Daniel pointed to the beast as it knocked three of his men to the ground with ease. Cries of pain were heard all round.

Daniel rose, signaling his men to take Isaac away. With angry cries, the Fated was dragged away from the bloody scene. When he was out of ear shot, Daniel spoke to the two wolves at his side.

“It cannot be subdued,” he murmured pensively as he watched the beast.

Frustrated by his imposed silence, Jack transformed, rising from the ground, naked, but human.

Daniel handed him a cloak and ordered one of his men to take out one of their spare articles from their packs.

More men assaulted the beast without success.

“I don’t know how to stop her,” Jack whispered as he dressed listlessly.

Maxine walked up, having tended to Noah. Shane took the Vampyre’s place by his side.

“Here.” Maxine held out her cold hand, a filled syringe in her palm. “My brother said it has enough of a sedative to take down a young elephant. It should work.” The Vampyre looked to the oncoming dawn. Even through the fog, it would harm her. “I have to go.”

Jack nodded. With a look that held a sentiment somewhere between remorse and thanks, Jack took the syringe. Maxine glanced once more on the thing that was Valie before taking again to the woods.

Jack fixed his eyes on the brawling beast as it roared. One of the wolf-soldiers hung from its arm, hanging on by its teeth. The monster grabbed it around the rib cage. All cringed as the soldier’s bones audibly snapped in the beast’s grip.

“I’m sorry,” Jack whispered.

He ran at the distracted brute, springing from the ground to its back. He plunged the needle into its neck. The pain of the injection was minimal for the hellion, but it bellowed in annoyance. It reached for Jack, its claws sinking into his flesh, sharp and ridged. It tossed the boy harshly. He flew through the air, striking a piece of machinery with a horrible metallic clout.

Consciousness fled him as the battle raged on, the spirit against its breed.