“You poisoned me?”
“Yes, wolfsbane.”
“Why?”
“As I said, I would be testing you in other ways.”
Her nonchalance was annoying. I felt this deep, simmering rage emerge in the depths of my heart. I was going to teach this arrogant wereheretic a good lesson. If I were to die, I was going to drag her to the depths of hell with me.
I don’t know how, but I was going to do it. It was high time, someone put an end to her atrocities. Now onwards, every word I spoke, every action I took would be to destroy her instead of saving my life!
She grabbed my hand and moments later I felt a strange, warmth tingling all over me, “I have absorbed the power of wolfsbane. It won’t hurt you anymore.”
I raised my eyebrow, “Does that mean I passed this test?”
“Not exactly. I just don’t have evidence against you.” Her gaze grew distant as she continued to speak, “I had expected your comrades to come to your rescue but no one appeared. However, I can’t rule out the possibility that your comrades were just being cautious.”
I was glad that Melinda didn’t show up. She had probably gotten the vial and must have gone to hand it personally to the Lycan King. My mind veered to the way I had gorged the sandwich without another thought. Now that I thought of it, the sandwich did smell funny but I was too crazed with hunger. This couldn’t happen again. I had to make sure that I was in the right state of mind at all times.
Letting out a sigh, I pulled out the pouch of candy from my pocket. Holding out an orange-flavored one, I said, “Will you accept my peace offering now?”
Her eyes narrowed as she took the candy from me. Throwing it over to Dreki, she stated, “Since you like candies, I will just give it to you.”
He took it and ate it promptly. She had at least taken the candy from me. I just had to keep trying until she became used to eating them. A dry laugh almost left my lips. How could the fate of our plan depend on some stupid candy?
My eyes twinkled as another thought formed in my mind. I could find other ways to get her to eat food and drinks together. “Now that you know you have treated me unfairly, can you let me eat something?”
She snorted and shook her head, “You are worse than a baby. You were just poisoned by a sandwich yet all you want to do is eat again. Can you be less of a glutton?”
“We are in the middle of the wilderness, Justin. There are no restaurants or houses nearby,” Dreki was the one who spoke up this time. My heart skipped a beat, “How do you know my name?”
“Since we gave you a mild version of wolfsbane, you were just a bit delirious and kept rambling about stuff.”
Great! That was the exact thing I needed. God knows what I had told him. The eclairs weighed in my pocket. I needed to get some alone time to gather my thoughts and read the message.
My eyebrows furrowed as I looked at the setting sun, “It is getting dark. Where are we going to stay the night?”
“Since there are no taverns, we will just keep walking through the night.”
Dang! What was with her and her walking? Did she have some obsessive walking syndrome? I grabbed the trunk of the tree and scrambled to my feet, “Please let us stay here for a while and eat something…. Since we are going to spend the entire night walking….”
Something flashed in her eyes; her gaze swept around before she sat down on a boulder in a careless fashion, “I will leave the arrangement of food to you then.”
“But, there are no restaurants nearby,” Dreki said, wringing his fingers. His gaze drifted to me helplessly. I don’t know what I had rambled in my sleep but I guess it had earned me the boy’s favor.
“Justin is a werewolf, Dreki. I am sure he can manage,” Hera’s gaze held mine for a moment. Something about it told me that this was another trap laid exquisitely for me. My jaws clenched and my expression hardened; recalling the extensive training session I had undergone. It was time to turn her own trap against her.
“I have heard that there are many golden elks in the wilderness of Ayu. I will go and catch one for our dinner.”
She dismissed me with a wave of her hand; indicating that I could leave. As I walked along the weatherworn path, their voices drifted into my ears. I walked with slow, light steps hoping to catch something important through their conversation.
“Shall I follow him, master?”
“No need.”
“B..but he is injured.”
“I am sure he can manage.”
“What if he escapes?”
“He can’t. There is nothing for miles. Even if he keeps running the entire night, he can’t get out of here….” There was a moment of silence, “I just want to see how he responds to the situation.”
“Master…”
“Dreki. You have spoken enough….” Her sharp voice made him go quiet. Realizing that they weren’t going to talk anymore, I increased my pace.
After walking for a mile, I pulled out the éclair hastily and unwrapped it. A small slip of paper fell out. There were two words written on it ‘Feed her.’
I buried the piece of paper under the ground and wrapped the sweet again carefully. Now, it was time to continue with the act. I didn’t want Hera to be suspicious.”
With a soft sigh, I started unbuttoning my shirt. Taking off, I folded it carefully and placed it on one of the lower branches. My gaze landed on the wound and another pained sigh escaped my lips; my fingers brushed lightly against the coarse material covering my wound.
Something sharp twisted in the pit of my stomach as the sense of betrayal stung me. They should have told me that the dagger would be spelled.
“Don’t look up,” A familiar voice sounded above me.
I picked up my shirt again and dusted it, my gaze drifting around warily, “Melinda?”
“Hmm…”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes, she is resting near the Tainted Brook.”
Melinda jumped down from the tree, landing with a soft thud in front of me.
“Did you get the blood?”
“Yes. It has been sent for research.”
“That is good news.”
“Why wasn’t I informed that the dagger was laced with a spell and I couldn’t heal for seven days?” I ended up asking despite myself.
“Would it have made a difference if we had informed you?”
“No, but I would have been better prepared.”
“Prepared to fail more pathetically?” She didn’t even try to keep the sting out of her voice. “Do you have any idea how badly you messed up our plan? If I hadn’t pushed you at the right time, we would have lost the golden opportunity.”
I stared at her defiantly, “I did fix my mistake later.”
She snorted and shook her head, “What is the point of fixing your mistake? You will just mess up everything again.” She ran her fingers through her hair, “I had told the Lycan King to choose someone more mature.”
She placed her hand on my shoulders and squeezed it gently, “The time for regrets is gone, Justin. You are all we have and you can’t afford to make any more mistakes like today afternoon.”
Dang! She knew about that too. I took a step back and massaged the back of my neck, “Did I blabber too much?”
“You didn’t.” Her expression grew somber, “That is the only reason you are standing here.”
A deep frown settled on my forehead, “What is that supposed to mean.”
She looked away and her fingers clenched, “Umm… It’s nothing. I should leave now.”
I grabbed her hand before she could make a move, “Don’t hide anything from me….please.”
“I have instructions to kill you if you reveal any discrete information to the wereheretic.”
Her words kept ringing in my head for a long time after she left. This was one hell of a twisted mission. Shrugging off all the gloomy thoughts, I decided to take one step at a time.
Pulling off my trousers, I shifted to my wolf form. My vision became clearer, and my hearing sharper. Intense pain seared through me the moment I tried to run, making me whimper. This damned wound. I had expected it to feel better once I shifted but it just got worse.
This was when my gaze landed on the shredded pieces of bandage. Oh, yeah… I totally forgot about that. Padding softly along the rocky path, I went deeper into the forest. Soon, my instincts took over and I hunted down an elk in no time flat.
I dragged it back to the tree where I had kept the clothes. I shifted back to my human form and started dressing up. I had just worn my trousers when the bushes around me rustled as if being shaken by a strong wind.
The next moment, four men dressed in smart suits emerged out of nowhere. One glance and I knew I was doomed. Their ruby red eyes with a blackish tint indicated that they were vampires and very powerful at that.
The man in the blue suit stepped forward, crossing his arms with a condescending expression, “Look what we have here. A wolf.” His eyes lit up as he added, “A bloody wolf.”
The man standing behind him drew closer, “Doesn’t he look all high and mighty after killing that poor elk?”
“Isn’t it our job to uphold justice brother?”
“It is.”
“Then, we must punish him for killing an innocent creature.”
Honestly, I was too flabbergasted to give them an adequate response. They were vampires who drank human blood and quite often than not; they ended up killing them too. If the vampire king hadn’t made strict rules, they would have wiped out the entire human race yet here they were taunting me for killing a deer. What exactly did they want to achieve?
The man in the blue suit grabbed me by my shoulders and rammed me into the trunk of the tree. The impact caused my lips to split; blood trickled down my chin. I dropped to the ground with a thud.
He grabbed my arm and dragged me to the center of the small circle they had formed. Then, they started kicking and thrashing me for no reason; their heinous laughter rang through the forest. Wounded, weak, and without my healing power, I could do nothing against them.