The Wolf's Call to the Moon Ch. 03

Winter nights were most punishing to the human body. He had learnt that the hard way. Stripped of all but their most basic clothing, many of his little cousins had died as they were not strong enough to fight the cold.

They didn't even have shoes to keep their feet warm.

His mother had huddled him close, sharing her warmth with him even when he could see the tips of her fingers turning black from the frigid ice encasing them.

He longed to shift, to let his wolf care for his body... but they had put a collar of spokes around everyone's necks. To shift was to die.

From the corner of his eyes, he caught hints of blonde.

"What do you want?" His voice was sharp and iced; betraying nothing of his psychological turmoil.

Sophie leaned her back against the cold metal bars.

"I thought you might want some company."

Clay was too tired to argue. With his body slumped against the brick wall, he shrunk further in the shadows. He could escape; fight his way out of this hell hole but he knew that the remaining trackers left on duty in Cambridge would jump on Mallory the instance they were given the go.

The only reason why they have not touched her was because he had exchanged his life for hers. It was an unspoken trade that occurred in the chambers the moment Sophie had claimed Mallory as his mate.

She would be safer without him and knowing that the Elder Risen had his eye on her was an additional albeit disturbing comfort. Scouts with no attack capabilities would have their throats ripped off by the Elder in a blink of an eye.

Clay was counting on that.

***

Yuli

That was the third time he was calling for the damn Risen. Resisting the urge to punch his fist into the wall, Jamie decided to compose himself.

Mallory could scent anger from a mile away and any attempts to penetrate into her mind would be futile once her blocks were up.

Raking his fingers through his blonde hair, Jamie checked himself in the mirror a last time before stepping outside to find her.

He was barely halfway across the lawn when he spotted her -stumbling over her own shoes; her hair slick with sweat, sticking to her neck.

"Are you alright?"

She took his offered hand but her mind was a complete blank to him.

Her expressions said otherwise -brows knitted, cheeks rouge-tinged and lips slightly blue and cracked, likely from the heavy breathing of the cold morning air through her mouth.

Jamie didn't like not knowing what she was running from.

"Stop that," she chided out of a sudden, her eyes flashing accusingly at him.

Her words made him step back in genuine surprise; one hand on his chest as reassurance that he wasn't dreaming. She was indeed regaining back her autonomy; her resistance towards him merely increasing by the day.

But how did she know he was trying to read her mind? That was what she meant earlier right?

Deciding that it was best not to push that button, he went straight to the point.

"It seems that the sarcophagus requires a second layer of code breaking."

For the first time, her face bore no expression. She stood completely still and just looked at him for what felt like an eternity before narrowing her eyes at him.

Her silent stare felt like pin-pricks on his skin that for a moment, Jamie was sure he had physically felt the pain.

She was definitely pissed off at him.

"Yes, fine! I had to demonstrate the code-breaker to the funders. They were clamouring for answers and we are taking too damn long. I'm sorry I didn't wait for you." His arms folded crossly. "I didn't think it would have been that complicated. We were both there when we received the X-ray scans - there was no indication of further layers to the tombs."

Relaxing her stance, Mallory pulled back her hair into a ponytail to help her think better.

"I'm not surprised actually." A casual shrug. "Alright, let me see this next code."

When she saw the opened sarcophagus, Mallory felt a lump lodged in her throat.

They were beautiful -at least one of them was.

She could feel that so much love and detail had gone into this tomb and it only made her all the more eager to find out who it was.

The only issue was that the hieroglyphic inscriptions were scattered so randomly that she had to crouch down to have a better look at them.

"What? It's not Lycian?"

"It is..."

"Then what's the problem?" Jamie's voice racked up a notch; his feet tapping impatiently.

Since he was being such a dick, she decided to decipher the code in the isolation of her mind. Shutting out everything around her, she took in each inscription to memory and then closed her eyes.

It had to be a puzzle. Always another puzzle.

Piecing words together, she tried one variant of the sentence.

"No, I'm missing something." Her voice barely a murmur as she trailed her fingertips across the textured surface of the tomb.

And felt it.

So miniscule, it would have been missed by the naked eye.

Like braille, this time the clue had to be read using her sense of touch - each embossed dot a signal for the reading order of the hieroglyphic.

Blooms this seed. Lost as it grows. Over time, becoming stronger

O! But it knows no death. Deep is this love, so pure.

When Mallory read it out loud to him, Jamie couldn't help but scoff. "I already tried my blood."

"I thought you couldn't read ancient Lycian?"

"I made a good guess. Most of these ancient artefacts always require some form of sacrifice; almost to weaken those who dared to enter it."

"Which one?"

Mallory was surprised that he pointed to the one with the single crack on it.

While she agreed with his logic, there was something about the tomb he chose that didn't feel... normal to her. The poem in its native tongue hung heavy with a sense of so much death, loss... and blood. It was a running motif that she couldn't just seem to shake off her mind.

Mallory had been around tombs of great conquerors in the league of Genghis Khan but this one just reeked of a... killer.

"Jamie, I want you to be honest with me. Who does this body belong to? I know you know."

"I... can't." Jamie tried his best to divert his gaze away from her piercing green eyes.

"Then I can't help you. Goodnight."

Twirling on her heels, she marched out of the research lab and was slightly disappointed that he made no move to stop her.

"Wait."

Mallory took her hand off the doorknob. She didn't know how he could have covered that distance in a heartbeat but he was now looming over her; his body heat so perilously close to singeing her.

"What difference does it make to know who he was?"

He.

Yes, this tomb definitely belonged to a 'he'. The other one, the adorned tomb was definitely the female. After all, the purpose of a conjoined sarcophagus was to house a couple.

Running her fingers over the ugly neglected tomb, Mallory could see no marks of any kind that indicated the finishing works of an entomber. In fact, it appeared more plausible that the sarcophagus was locked from the inside.

Mallory had a gut feeling that the tomb of the wife had been so intrinsically decorated because it was done first and then the partner had laid down in his own tomb next to her, leaving nothing but a single crack -for air?

That was just crazy.

Unless...

Of course.

"Tell me. Who are they?"

She stepped closer; her breath just inches away from his lips. Looking up, she could see that he was watching her carefully.

Palms resting on his chest, Mallory gave him her most defiant look.

"Are they... non-human? A Vampire perhaps or a Werewolf?"

She picked up on his increased heart rate and the startled fluttering of his eyelashes.

Jamie frantically tried to break past her mental defences. He needed to know if she was... one of them. A Light Walker spy.

Nothing.

"I don't know where you got that idea from Mallory but I can assure you that there are no such things as Vampires and Werewolves." A slight pause as he gently pushed her away. "But I can tell you this. In one of the tombs lies my ancestor. That is why I tried my blood, thinking it would work."

Mallory contemplated his answer. Yes, that made sense but Jamie had miscalculated severely.

"You're not a direct descendant of this person or it should have worked."

"What do you know?" He gave her a suspicious look. She was only human. What does she know about Risen lineage?

"The poem calls for a sown seed; a child lost -at birth? I don't know. I can't tell you much until I know more background about this person, of which you refuse to enlighten me with."

Jamie had had enough. How dare she insinuate that the Forbidden One had a living flesh and blood! He may have Sired the 13 bloodlines but he never had a child - how was that even possible?

A Risen was made, as their namesake implied.

"If that is all, thank you Mallory. I will take it from here."

Mallory wanted to argue. After all, she knew history and lineages better than he did. But she understood a dismissal when she heard one.

Exiting the room, she decided it would be best to leave Jamie to his own conclusions. She would work on hers, right after she made sense of Clay and of everything that had happened since this morning.

***

At that very moment, Yuli was smirking at the exotic female Shadow Lord speaking to him. She was stern but underneath all that control and authority, he could tell she was a feisty one.

If she wasn't a Light Walker and a bitch, he might just fuck her.

Alkina seemed to have caught his train of thought for her hands went straight for his throat; the edges of her sharp claws slightly pricking around his tender neck.

"Charming."

"Screw you!" she spat as the back of her hand slammed against the side of his cheeks.

Clearly entertained by her show of prowess, he merely shrugged and leaned back in his seat. His abilities allowed him to escape easily but he was more curious than anything. He understood that this was his 'in' to understanding how much the Shadow Lords knew of the Risen project.

He had no qualms about cutting off his mental link with Jamie - the Risen may think he had a hold over his mind and power, but the Elder knew nothing. Besides, Yuli didn't want to handle the drama that would arise should Jamie had a hint that he was in the hands of the Light Walkers. The light creak from one of the chairs jolted him from his thoughts.

Ah, Alexander the Great.

"What is the nature of your relationship with the Light Walker prisoner?"

Yuli didn't understand. Surely these Alphas were not stupid, nor blind to tell that he was chasing Clay? What were they playing at?

"What business do the Shadow Lords have of Risen interests? Or who we choose to associate ourselves with?"

Alexander smiled. "It does, when the Light Walker in question is a fugitive. We have every right to protect our own interests. I am asking you politely and simply -whatever it is that you both are planning, now is a good time to spill it."

Yuli's thunderous roar of laughter echoed within the eight walls of the chapter house.

"Or...?" The rhetoric was a clear warning in itself. Killing him would lead to an immediate war. They all knew that.

To his surprise, it was Alkina who spoke, her feminine voice emerging from the dark corner of the room as she approached him.

"Believe me. No war ever started, with a nobody." The scathing tone of her words scratched at his insides. "Besides, you are not the utmost concern of the Elders at this time."

When she caught the slight flicker in his eyes, she knew she was right. Turning away from him, she signalled for Jean-Pierre to her side.

"Don't think for a minute that I have any real use for you."

Offering her hand to Jean-Pierre, Yuli almost choked on his bile at the person staring back at him.

"Jean-Pierre here is you."

"Fuck you!" Yuli lunged forward; the chains around his hands and feet wrangling defiantly to hold him back. Even when the metal started cutting his flesh, Yuli continued to struggle to break free. He should have been able to disappear like smoke but there was something about the shackles that impaired his abilities.

"Noticed that did you?" Alkina tilted her head towards the chains. "I'm afraid you're not going anywhere Risen."

"I'll kill you bitch! I'll personally rip your skull open!"

Yuli never got to finish his verbal abuse for his jaw dislocated an instant later; knocked out of place by an iron-hard fist. He fell knees first to the ground but remained partially suspended due to the restraints holding him back.

"Speak like that to me again and it will be the last words you'll ever say in your life."

As Alkina disappeared into the shadows, Alexander got to his feet. Things were never going to progress with her aggressive tactics.

"Perhaps... it would be more fruitful for our discussion if this was more... beneficial for both sides."

Yuli looked up at the Alpha; his lips dribbling blood even as he tried awkwardly to smile. The crookedness of it didn't last long for he was slowly healing himself - at a speed that was fascinatingly efficient.

If Alexander was impressed, he made no show of it. Instead, he gestured to the guards to help their prisoner back to his chair, noting that the wounds around his shackled hands and feet had healed too.

"So... where were we?" Yuli swiped a hand across his mouth, smearing blood across his cheek.

"I am willing to give you whatever possession you want for every useful information that you can give us. Name your price."

The dark eyes of the Risen glintered. It wasn't the money that he wanted. No -he wanted recognition and autonomy.

There was no such thing as loyalty in his dictionary.

"Fine. Send me back then. I am more useful to you this way."

Unconvinced, Alexander merely raised his eyebrow.

"How does that work?"

Yuli gave a careless shrug. "You have control of what info you want me to leak to the Risen and I give you what info you need from them."

"What's the catch?"

"Nothing. I am my own agent."

"Is that so?" Alkina responded, her face still hidden in the shadows. "Very well then. To test this proposition, why don't you tell us what you know about Mallory the human and this research project she's doing? From what I understand, she was in your midst when... the capture happened."

Yuli considered his answer carefully. He didn't really care about a war between the races but he didn't want the sarcophagus to fall into the hands of the Light Walker either.

"Mallory and her team discovered a twin sarcophagus. She is still deciphering the codes to it but I do not know the contents nor am I interested in it."

Alkina didn't buy his half-baked answer. He had deliberately left out an important element to it.

"Who funded this? The Risen Council?"

"It was funded privately. None of my concern."

"Then what is yours?"

Yuli leaned forward so that his face would be fully in the light.

"I am to keep watch over her. She is deemed a threat to the Risen community, especially with her association with your fugitive."

The room broke into an uproar. Yuli leaned back and crossed his legs as the Alphas around him started to shout random questions at him -who is she? How do you know him?

Only when it got too much for him to bear that he clapped his hands in a bid for attention.

"It's simple really. The Elders are... concerned to know the findings of this excavation. The fact that the human is a Light Walker suspect makes the Council wary of what the tombs may contain. I mean you gotta admit. It is suspicious. Light Walkers generally do not have a major role in historical artefacts. If I recall, you're more the progressive type."

Oh he was good. Yuly silently congratulated himself. Twisting reality to look like it was the Light Walkers who started it? Check.

"Preposterous!" Alkina shouted before turning to Jean-Pierre; her command a sharp wail in his mind.

Well? Go and grab this woman then! She's about to start a war, whether she knows it or not.

The tracker was leaving when Alexander interrupted their thoughts.

Perhaps... it's best if we sent you back with Yuli to watch over this. Taking in a human without solid evidence violates the co-existence code.

Locking his thoughts only to Jean-Pierre now, Alexander gave his final instruction. I want you to be there at the opening of this tomb... but I only want you to report this to me.

"Very well then," proclaimed Alkina. "We shall send you back with our scout but do not be fooled by this generosity." Approaching the Risen, she uncuffed his shackles only to enclose another brace around his neck -the metal slowly disappearing until all that could be heard was a gentle'click'.

"As you said, we are a progressive lot. So I hope you like your new dog tag. I'll be watching you."

***

Mallory was slumped over a pile of old books and some of her hand scribbled notes. On her left was her laptop showing carefully digitized copies of even older books that she had painfully copied over the years.

She had started with the legends dating to the oral histories of the Vikings and then trickled down to the modern France. Werewolves, or Loup Garou as they called it had always existed in legends and even historical recordings. But to postulate that they existed well into the modern times of scientific advancements?

Mallory shut her laptop forcefully.

"Fine, I suck. I mean... I've know the guy for what? One month and I still did not get his number?" Her forehead thumped on the desk in front of her. "Why? Why do I always get myself in a mess?"

She was still wallowing when she heard a knock on the door.

Frowning, Mallory got up. It was past seven in the evening. Who could possibly be knocking without calling first...

"Clay?"

"Hi Mallory."

"Oh!" The frustration melted from her face instantly as she jumped and pressed her lips flat onto his.

However, her exhilaration was matched by a lukewarm kiss. Was he not into her anymore?

Putting some space between them, Mallory went to the kitchen and offered him a drink instead. She recognised him and yet he was just so aloof that she felt slightly suspicious.

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm just worried about you." Clay stepped closer to push a stray hair behind her ear. "That...man that chased us? He was after you. Why is that?"

Repulsed, Mallory took a step back.

"What! He was? But why?" Her head shook in disbelief. She had never met that guy in her life! "Am I safe?"

"You're working on something that is valuable isn't it?" He ignored her inquiring look. "I mean, people kill for treasure."

Eyes narrowing, she studied him closely. "The sarcophagus has no treasure. We covered the x-ray scans of it in class remember?"

"Yes... but I mean beyond that. Who does it hold? Is it someone important? That could be just as valuable."

Mallory was about to burst with the need to share what she had witnessed with Jamie earlier but something about Clay's behaviour made her hold her tongue. She didn't know why he was suddenly so interested. The Clay she knew love the puzzle of it more than the content - just like her.

Maybe he just had a long day. After all, she could tell that he was in some sort of trouble earlier that morning during the confrontation. Deciding that he needed to get her thoughts off her chest anyway, she continued; trusting that Clay would give her a fresh perspective.

"Yes... I think... well since I now know you're a Werewolf and all, I do have my hunch that this contains someone important..." Her voice went down a notch. "And not of the human kind."