Wolves in the Shadows (The Wolf Clan Chronicles) (8 page)

She would weep whenever I had to go away, and beg me to protect her family.  I hated to leave
her even for a moment, for she was forever in danger from those who should have been my own comrades.  It vexed me that while I could see to it that she was physically safe; I could not prevent the anguish that she felt from Demetrius’ constant attention. 

Oddly enough, it was Augustus, the captain of the Wolf Guard who came to our aid.  He was completely loyal to Lady Selina and the W
olf Clan, but he pitied Anya.  I think it grieved him to see such a gentle creature confined to a lonely garden by day and a tiny cottage by night, for he was directly descended from the ancient and noble line of the Dire Wolves, who rejoiced in running far and wide beneath the full moon.  He watched with growing admiration and respect at how bravely Anya would resist Demetrius’ attempts to seduce or frighten her.  He could not see what was so wrong with a vampire prince loving her.  He could clearly see that though she had been born the daughter of a poor smith, she had a nobility and grace to her that could not be ignored. 

One
night, after weeks of observing her from afar, he approached the cottage while she tended her garden as I watched over her.  He could not enter the garden because of the wolfsbane, but he stood outside the gate and asked her why it was that she would stay with me when her life and her family would forever be in danger.  She smiled and walked to where he stood.  She took his hand, laid it on her belly and told him that she would love me forever and that the child she bore in her womb would serve as a testament to that love for all time.  From the moment, Augustus understood and became our friend and ally. 

Augustus grew to love Anya, not as I loved her, but as a brother loves his sister.  He loved her quiet strength and loyalty.  He became her constant friend and companion, her daytime protector.
  He would bring different members of the Wolf Guard to visit her, until the entire guard had come to know and love her.  Anya uprooted all of the wolfsbane in her garden, for she no longer needed its protection, and she wished for her new friends to come and go as they pleased.  Many of the vampires of the clan, seeing the devotion that the Guard had for Anya, became curious and began to visit her as well.  She was such a gentle soul that none of them could keep from loving her as well. 

Soon almost the entire Wolf Clan had come to accept Anya as one of their own. 

When Marcus was born, I rejoiced along with all of our friends and allies.  Even when I had to leave on clan business, my wife and son were well protected and cared for.  It warmed my heart to see my wife so happy.  She was forever surrounded by friends and no longer confined to her cottage and garden.  But it grieved me that her own family did not dare to visit her, even though I would gladly have given them safe conduct. 

I did not wish for her
to visit them.  Lady Selina had recently sworn to the people of their village that no member of the Wolf Clan would set foot on their lands as long as they would not shelter any hunters or members of any other clan, but it was too tenuous an arrangement for me to risk sending Anya alone. 

But while the majority of the Wolf Clan was with us, Sir Demetrius was more enraged and bitter than ever.  He begged Lady Selina to rescind my title and name him her successor rather than me.  For myself, I would have welcomed being set free from my responsi
bilities as prince of the clan, but Lady Selina would not be swayed.  She told me that while she still deplored my union with Anya, she would finally accept it.  She said that she could see that the clan would follow me with even more loyalty and respect than they ever had for her and that they would be willing to sacrifice their very souls for my sake. 

Deme
trius’ anger was so great, that he left Wolf Clan forever and swore fealty to Lady Laila of the Bat Clan.  It was the beginning of the end, though I did not know it. 

Why must it always be that from such joy, sorrow and
pain are always doomed to come?” 

Lord Reginald trailed off into silence and shook his head.  His expression was troubled. 

“Without sorrow, there can be no joy,” Sir Marcus said sagely.  “Without suffering there can be no peace.” 

“Speaking like Lorican?” Lord Reginald said with a humorless chuckle.  “You think they’re a bunch of religious fanatics.” 

“But you don’t,” Sir Marcus replied. 

Lord Reginald ran his fingers down the scar on his cheek.  Elizabeth realized for the first time that in the visions that he had shown her, his face had been perfectly smooth
.  Before she could give it any further thought, Lord Reginald continued to speak and the vision of his memories swirled around before her eyes. 

She could see Anya smiling and laughing as she played with her rosy cheeked, blue-eyed son in the garden.  Lord Reginald spoke of the great pride that he felt as his son grew into a strapping young lad who aspired to be a knight.  Under the watchful eye a
nd brilliant instruction of Augustus, young Marcus would became the first mortal man to be made a part of the Wolf Guard. 

Elizabeth laughed as Lord Reginald
told her about the birth of his second child, thirteen years after the birth of Marcus.  She could see her chubby little legs and tiny fingers curling and uncurling.  She could hear the baby cooing and giggling as Lord Reginald held her close and breathed in her essence. 

Little Marcus looked at his little sister with a sort of confused awe.  He nodded solemnly as his father told him that he had to watch over and love his sister forever. 

“But our happiness was to be short lived,” Lord Reginald said sadly.  “For Demetrius and Lady Laila where gathering rogue masters together to strengthen their position, and there were whispers of ancient enemies returning to take their vengeance against the Greater Clans.  The unrest amongst the clans grew even more when word began to spread of a new threat, mortal hunters who had learned to slay vampires and their allies with silver blades and consecrated stakes and sacred relics.  Though even more disturbing was the fact that these hunters could somehow resist all but the most powerful masters through some unknown means. 

The Bat Clan along with all of their new allies was clamoring for the Clans to unite once again and wage war against all humanity.  Lady Laila insisted that it would be the only way to prevent our ancient enemies from returning, for they needed mortal blood before they could walk the earth. 
But the other Greater Clans did not want to go to war.  They were comfortable within their own borders and were not concerned by rumors of old fears.  Frustrated by the reluctance of the other Clans, Lady Laila led her allies against the stronghold of my old friend Lord Godfrey as a statement of her power. 

Of course I rushed to his aid wi
th Marcus, who had become a strong young warrior, and the Wolf Guard at my back.  Little did I know that the danger was much closer to home that I had thought possible.” 

Lord Reginald fell into a brooding silence. 

“I shall not speak of that danger tonight,” he said after a long time.  “Nearly 700 years have passed, but still it weighs too heavily upon me.” 

“Then I will speak of it,” Sir Marcus said.  “For I the vision is forever seared into my mind.  The enduring memory that I witnessed when I was still mortal.” 

“No,” Lord Reginald said.  “Forgive me, young Elizabeth, but I cannot speak of the death of my true love.  But I do not want you to hear of it from the lips of my firstborn son.  Not yet.”  

“It is not right to kee
p it from her,” Sir Marcus said, his voice thick with emotion.  “The blood of my mother flows truly in her veins.” 

Elizabeth’s breath caught in her throat.  She looked wildly from Lord Reginald to Sir Marcus
and back again, her eyes wide with astonishment. 

Romulus lifted his head from between his paws and whined. 

Sir Marcus quailed at the expression on Lord Reginald’s face. 

“I’ll just go wait outside,” he said sheepishly as he stood and hurried to the door. 

“Stay!” Lord Reginald said in a voice sharper than Elizabeth would have thought possible. 

“Is it true?” Elizabeth whispered. 
She looked down at Romulus, unable to meet Lord Reginald’s fearsome gaze. 

“Yes,” Lord Reginald said softly.  “You are descended from my daughter Mallory
.  I did not wish for you to know until you had heard the full extent of my deeds.  For as the last mortal alive who bears the blood of my Anya, you are the one who must judge me, and I cannot have you blinded by filial loyalty.” 

“With all due respect,” Elizabeth said, still looking at Romulus.  “It seems impossible that I could be even remotely related to you and Sir Marcus.  And how can I judge you for anything
?” 

Had she been brave enough to look up, she would have seen Lord Reginal
d and Sir Marcus exchange meaningful glances. 

“You
r insistence on your unworthiness and guilt grows tiresome, father,” Sir Marcus said.  “You cannot bear the blame for my mother’s death.  She foresaw her fate long before we left to fight the Lady Laila and Demetrius.  You cannot expect Elizabeth to become your Lorican confessor.  She is more blinded by your sheer power than by the ties of blood that until this moment she was completely ignorant.  And beyond that, her mortality alone should be just cause of why she has no reason to condescend to name your penance for something of which she can have no understanding.” 

Elizabeth got the distinct impression that Sir Marcus had wanted to say all this for quite awhile. 
She massaged her temples and lifted her eyes to look at Lord Reginald. 

“I didn’t really understand anything that Sir Marcus just said, but he sounds like he’s right.” 

Lord Reginald smiled as he looked at her. 

“Of course I’m right,” Sir Marcus said impatiently. 

“Once again, my own damnable pride has made me a fool,” Lord Reginald said. 

“I would say it’s more you
r damnable devotion to those foolish Loricans,” Sir Marcus said under his breath.   

If Lord Reginald heard, he did not reply. 

Elizabeth looked back down at Romulus and saw that his eyes were blazing blue. 

Chapter 10

Elizabeth gasped as a sharp pain shot through her temples.  She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth.  A strange new vision filled her mind’s eye. 

She saw
Lord Reginald in battered armor with a deadly fire burning in his eyes.  A huge bloodstained sword was gripped in his fist.  He stood atop a hill as blood flowed from under his feet.  Elizabeth realized with a pang of shock and terror that it was not actually a hill but rather a huge mound of corpses.  She could see the mangled bodies of vampires and wolves and men in a chaotic jumble of flesh and fur and bone.  She could taste the hot metallic blood that dripped from the vampire lord’s fangs and smell the horrible stench of death on this ancient battlefield. 

Lord Reginald threw back his head and howled in a voice so filled with fury and grief that the heavens above seemed to quiver with fear. 
Elizabeth found that she could somehow understand his words even though she could not recognize what language he was speaking. 

“I am Lord Reginald
Wolfrick, Master of the Wolf Clan.  Come forth you demon of the abyss and face the one who you sought to destroy.  The one who has spilled the blood of those he held the most dear.  Come and face justice!” 

As if to answer, the earth rumbled and shook and cracked opened up at the foot of the mound.  With a mighty roar, Lord Reginald leapt down into the abyss and vanished from sight.  Elizabeth’s eyes were stung by the thick black and yellow smoke that billowed out from the darkness.  She watched in horrified fascination as the bodies that
had lain dead under Lord Reginald’s feet began to stand up and follow their master.  Proud looking vampires with rent armor and notched swords, their faces pale and bloodless, fierce looking wolves with their fur matted in blood, bizarre half-wolf half-man creatures with gaping wounds, steely eyed men with blood stained weapons of all description.  They all rose and went down into the earth. 

From the abyss a terrible voice was calling to them all.  Elizabeth felt herself being drawn towards the darkness under the earth, but she turned and saw on the shadowy shape of a huge wolf appear in the distance.  It was growing rapidly as if approached at impossible speed.  As the last of the bodies disappeared from sight, the wolf leapt down into the chasm.  The earth shook again, and the walls of the abyss slammed shut with a deafening clash. 

Elizabeth felt certain that her head would burst.  She was suddenly buried deep beneath the earth, trapped in eternal night.  She could hear moaning and cries of agony all around her in the darkness that pressed against her.  There was no escape from this pit of despair.  She closed her eyes and waited for death to take her. 

Romulus, enough.” 

Elizabeth could hear Lord Reginald’s voice as if from a great distance. 

“Elizabeth, open your eyes.” 

She could feel Marcus shaking her.  She shook her head.  How could she face the darkness that she knew awaited her?