The Curse of Oberon (The Inglewood Chronicles Book 3) (6 page)

**Cristof**

“I am glad you two are with me and not that insufferable Marquis Lemoyne.”

The married couple, Rachael and Chris Swertfeger, were with me as we began our search of Jonathan’s home in London.  The council had split into two groups and I was feeling immensely sorry for Anders and Kai.  They pulled the short straw as they say and were partnered with Lemoyne.  Suffice to say, he was still on his witch hunt to prove Roderick’s involvement.

The three of us were currently in the dungeon.  It was cold, damp, and reeked of dried blood.  Rachael was taking in the scene with her keen eye.  “According to our notes, this is where Jonathan killed one of Pan’s followers and framed a newly formed vampire.  I do not see any evidence to the contrary from what Roderick told us.”

“Because my dear,” Chris walked over to her, looking into the cell, “Roderick was not lying to us.  Marquis Lemoyne is wasting our time in investigating claims that have been solved.  We need to discover more about what his plans are.”

“I agree Chris.  This is a colossal waste of time, yet important if we wish to prove without a shadow of a doubt Roderick had no involvement.”

Feet hit the hard, stone steps behind us.  Entering the dungeon was a young girl with red hair that had black streaks in it.  She looked terrified, but that did not stop her from approaching.  Her accent was lower class British, but she presented herself well.  “I might be able to help you out.”

I walked up to her; she was obviously a vampire and a fairly new one at that.  “I am Cristof Rollins.  Who do we have the pleasure of being acquainted with?”

“My name is Marissa Crosby, but you can just call me Rissa.”

I knew the name right away.  “You are the young woman Gregory saved.  I thought you were in Seattle with him?”

Her voice stuttered a little, still scared of being in front of the three of us.  “H...He asked me to come and help you out.  I figured at some point someone would come here.”

It was Rachael’s turn to try and comfort the young lady.  “You were the one Jonathan framed for the murder that occurred here?”

“Things were such a blur during that time.  Between finding out vampires and werewolves were real and then becoming one, I could barely keep my head on straight.”

She took Rissa’s hand.  “No one blames you.  In fact I respect what you were able to endure and come out much stronger from.”

This seemed to help Rissa’s confidence.  “To answer your question, yes this is where it occurred.  I don’t remember much, just waking up here, covered in blood with a dead body beside me.”

Chris Swertfeger was an imposing man, but when not enraged, his voice was soft and soothing.  “You said you could help us figure out what Jonathan’s plans are?  How is that young one?”

“Liz asked Gregory not to tell anyone, as the consequences would be bad, but against his better judgment, he is going to trust you Cristof.”

I was not expecting Elizabeth, or Gregory for that matter, to be holding something from me.  “What was I not told before?”

“Jonathan is trying to free someone named Cain.  That’s what he needed the witch from the O’Byrne clan for; to break the seal that surrounds the tomb.”

It was apparent that Rissa did not know just how terrifying the news was she had just passed on, but Rachael, Chris and I could not hold back our collected gasps.

“This isn’t good is it?”

I shook my head no.  “This is very bad indeed.”  I felt ill; Elizabeth, what else are you hiding from me?

**Jonathan**

“Calling yerself somethin’ fancy like the Hammer of Jehovah’s not gonna win ye any points here.”

The witch was beginning to test my already limited patience.  “Anita O’Byrne, your clan holds the information I desire.  What must we do to barter a trade?”

She looked up from the pot of water she was boiling over the open fire.  “Ye got nothin’ I want.  If ye want one of my witches, ye better start providin’ a reason ta make a deal with ye.”

The displeasure could not be kept down any longer.  “How do I know what you want unless you tell me?!”

“That’d be yer problem, not mine.  Yer as daft as that daughter of mine Rosette be.”

“You are Rosette’s mother?”

Her beady eyes gave me a look full of hate.  “Yer damn right I’m her mother!  No matter what that girl gets herself inta, I’ll always be her mother!”

I wonder how much she knew of her daughter’s current location.  “Did you know she is working for a vampire in America?”

Fire flew from her fingertips and I had to dodge out of the way.  “One that took her from me through deception and trickery!  Vincente Divas be a dead man walkin’!”

This was too easy.  “Divas is dead I am afraid.  No, she is working for another one currently.”

“Who?”

“I am afraid it will not be that easy.  You provide me with a witch to help my cause and I will give you a name I promise.”

The witch stroked her chin for a moment.  “If yer information be good, I’ll assign one from the coven to assist you in whatever it is ye plan ta do.”

Oh my dear sister, this almost is not fair.  “Her name is Elizabeth Swansea.  My promise is that she will come to you, on my word.”

“How can ye guarantee that?”

“You should not worry about how I do it and just prepare yourself for her arrival.  She is the oldest known born vampire and she is not to be underestimated.”

Anita licked her chops.  “Very well, I accept ye information and seal the deal.  If it turns out ye be trickin’ me, you best be prepared for the consequences.”

“I know very well what a witch can do and this is no trick, I promise you that.”

This wasn’t the most ideal spot on the island, but for the time being it’d have to do.  It put some distance between us and Pan, but not too much.  We were close enough to potentially keep an eye on them.  The cave we found kinda sucked though, to be honest.  Cold, dark, smelly, and wet, this place just plain sucked.  “Why’re we hiding from them?  Surely the two of us could put the three of them down.”

“I appreciate your faith in our abilities Victor, but there are two Alpha werewolves and a vampire whose true strength is greater than you think.”  Was there awe in her voice?  “No offense to you, but without your modern weaponry, I do not think you would be much help.”

Ouch.  Apparently the general thought here was without my gun, I was useless.  “Gee thanks Sphinxy.  Nothing like having your ego kicked around and torn up.”

“I do not mean to be disrespectful.”  I could tell she was trying to think of the right words as to not hurt my pathetic feelings.  “If you continue to allow me to train you, we will unlock so much untapped potential.”

“Untapped potential?  You mean those nasty curses I got saddled with unwillingly?”

“The very same.  Whether you wish to believe it or not, the power within you is yours for the taking.”  With a quick hand, she snapped up a lizard and swallowed it in one bite.  “Would you like me to catch one for you?”

The cave was probably home to a lot of creepy crawlies, but I was okay.  “Nah, I’ll let you enjoy the abundance of food options here.”

“Beggars should not be choosers.  You will need sustenance and soon.”  Another swift hand motion and a poor frog became a chicken nugget.  “But if you wish to act like a child…”

I was irritated because hiding was never my first option.  “Where do we go from here?  All I’ve done is talked to things that are apparently inside of me, and let me tell you how freaky a thought that is.”

It was hard to keep looking at her while she continued to eat amphibians.  Getting the clue to stop, “That is just the first step, making contact.  I too at an early age had to seek the approval of the magic inside me.”

“How’d you do that?”

“Much the same way you did.  I ventured into my mind and confronted them.”

Her body language said a lot.  “I bet those weren’t pleasant conversations.”

She sat down beside me.  “Some of us are more assertive than others.  I went in full of confidence and demanded obedience.  After a few tense moments, both the light and dark bent to my will.”

“So you bullied them to do your bidding?  Wouldn’t it be easier to make friends with them?”

For some reason she looked at me with pity.  “Oh Victor, they are not your friends.  For all we currently understand, one could be a daemon actually trapped inside of you, as dreadful as that sounds…”

Wait, curses or daemons?  Hell, I was plum confused over all this jibber jabber.  “I’ll take your word for it.  So, how do we get them to give me cool powers like you got?”

“That’s the first sensible question you have asked in a long time.”  She walked over to the cave wall and with her nail; she carved a symbol into the wall.  It looked like a marijuana leaf.  “This is Oberon’s mark.  Using your mind’s eye, focus on that shape until you can feel his power pull towards you.”

Well I nailed the last exercise pretty good, so I had high hopes.  Unfortunately, nothing happened.  I sat there for a good while, first trying to force it to come to me, other times I just sat there peacefully hoping it would do so on its own.  When the Sphinx kicked my foot, I knew I’d failed miserably.

When I opened my eyes, she looked down like a teacher looking at a kid who was rather dumb.  “Were you even trying?”

“Of course I was!  I wasn’t sitting here for my health!”

She folded her arms and continued the cold stare.  “And you focused on this mark?  What went wrong?”

I stormed up to my feet.  “One, I focused on your stupid mark and two, I don’t have a freaking clue what went wrong lady!  If I knew that, don’t you think I’d fix it?”

My little temper tantrum shook her a bit.  “I am sorry Victor; I did not mean to press you.  This is not as easy, but I assumed since you made contact with the curses previously…”

“You know what happens when you assume?  You make asses outta you and me.”

“You and your colloquial sayings… you are a source of much amusement Victor.”

I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but it strayed from the point of this exercise.  “Well whatever I tried to do, it didn’t work.  Without getting pissy here, I hope you have a better idea.”

The Sphinx walked back over to me and circled me.  Sometimes she reminded me of the predator that I knew was just under the surface.  Maybe I’d watched too many Shark Weeks, but I got the feeling those guys must get when there in the cage.  When she stopped, her eyes flashed.  “How did I miss this earlier?”

“Miss what?”  She didn’t say anything, but just kept looking at me.  It was beginning to creep me out.  “Hey, you plan on filling me in, or just leaving me in the dark all day?”

The way her head snapped up was almost like she hadn’t been staring at me (she was).  “You have no external way of calling the power.”  The blunt way she put that was like a doctor giving a terminal diagnosis.  “In some ways, you are more human than anything else.”

“Well ain’t that a punch to the gut.”  Being called ‘more human’ wasn’t something I was going to upload to my online dating profile.  Not that I had any need for one of those.  “What does that mean?  I thought Oberon’s curse already helped me out?”

“To be honest, I do not know what it means.  This is uncharted territory.  The only thing we can do is experiment.”

My eyes narrowed.  “When you say experiment…?”

“I am not going to dissect you or anything along those lines, so calm down.  What I meant was we need to push you to your physical limits and see what happens.”

“I guess that’s not as bad as I thought.”

A rumble of thunder shook the cave.  “It appears more bad weather is instore for us.  This might be the perfect opportunity.”

I noticed the sparkle in her eye.  “What’re you thinking about over there?”

“The rain and all the foreign scents from this island will obscure the werewolves senses, which are not even close to what yours are.  Under the cover of that, we can begin testing my idea.”

A flash of lightning lit up the opening to our new home.  It wasn’t even a second later before the cave shook again under the clap of the thunder.  “Yeah, I might be safe from the wolves, but the storm itself ain’t no picnic.  Did I upset you by being a failure?”

“You will be safe in the storm, trust me.  When have I let you down?”

“You haven’t yet, but the day is still young.”

A howl ripped across the forest, cut short by another burst of thunder.  “That’s odd.”

“A wolf howling; how is that odd?  That is all your kind does.”

That just went to show how little the Sphinx actually knew about werewolves.  The howl, from the female, was one of sorrow and loss.  I kept listening until they were cut off again, not by thunder this time, but probably by Pan.  “Those two are here against their will.”

“What makes you believe that?”

“That howl was one of anguish – the female was mourning the loss of her cubs.”

A mortified look crossed the Sphinx’s face.  “Are you saying…?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying; Pan, or maybe that asshole Jonathan, killed their family before bringing them here.  We gotta save those two wolves.”

She put a hand on me.  “How do you know this is not a trick?”

“Because not just any wolf can make that cry.  Unless you’ve lost a cub, it’s impossible to replicate.”

“I do not like this idea.”

That was her problem not mine.  “You wanted to test my abilities, what better way than to go on a rescue mission?”

As if the island itself thought this was a good idea, the clouds above opened up and let loose torrential sheets of rain, giving us the perfect cover.  “You going to stay behind or are you with me?”

Looking out into the storm, “Against my better judgment, I am with you.  I pray you are right about this, so help me, if this turns into a trick…”

“Lighten up Sphinxy; this’ll put Pan on the run!”  I smiled and practically ran out into the storm, giddy to find some action coming my way.