Rise of the Lycans: Shadows And Secrets

Chapter 30 – Louvre

Rex

The Parisian Grand is part of a worldwide chain owned by my LaRue family and part of LaRue Enterprises. As a five-star luxury hotel, the security is top-notch, but my father always travels with added security when Mom is with him. With everything going on in Paris, he’s insisted that we take point on security while we’re here.

“Anything interesting?” Zander asked, entering the security command suite.

“Nothing,” I pushed back from the table of monitors and computers I had spent all night at. “I thought Zane was relieving me this morning?”

“You know how new mates are,” he smirked. Zander had taken his brother’s security detail so Zane could spend quality time doing the horizontal tango with his newly discovered mate.

“Guess this means the newly mated Alphas won’t be returning to club Ouh là là,” I chuckled. One of the French Alphas recently opened the hottest new lifestyle clubs in France, which my brother and cousins visited last week.

“The setup is great,” he told me. “We should go tonight. They’ve got these hanging rubber strap cages in the dungeon you’ve got to see.”

“I’ll have to take a rain-check,” I dismissed with a yawn.

The only naughty little thing I want to see in a hanging strap cage is Maeve so I can tease and punish her for staying away so long. I’d edge her to no end before allowing her a sweet release. A low rumble in my chest let me know my frustrated beast felt the same.

“You okay?” Zander asked just as a knock came from the door.

I expected it to be one of our warriors or a human security guard, but my senses didn’t pick up anything. “I don’t sense anyone,” I told Zander, who moved for the door.

“You’ve also been awake all night,” he replied. “It’s just my breakfast being delivered.”

“Bonjour, monsieur LaRue,” a stocky man with dark brown eyes and a short beard pushed a food trolley into the suite.

That was a lot of food for one person, even for a shifter. “How much did you order?”

“I’m going to be here all day,” Zander chuckled.

“Would you like me to take anything to the laundry for you?” The man asked.

“Not today, thank you, Mars,” Zander replied.

“And for you, monsieur Crow?”

I was surprised he could tell us apart, especially since I don’t recall meeting him. The LaRue jet black hair and blue eyes were prominent in my family line, and we were always mistaken for one another. I took another sniff and stepped closer. There was almost an Omega scent to him, but he wasn’t a shifter.

“I’m sorry… have we met before?” I asked, extending my hand for a handshake so my lycan could get a better read on him.

“I’m new to the hotel,” he lowered his head and extended his hand. “But the hospitality manager has tasked the entire staff to be extra attentive to our most important V.I.P’s.”

“Mars?” I murmured. He wasn’t French, and his English was perfect. “That’s an interesting name…” I wondered if he was with the candy bar crew from yesterday.

“My father was an astronomy professor,” he told me. “My sister is named Venus.”

“Kind of like Poseidon naming Caspian and Coral after a sea,” Zander chuckled. “Thanks, Mars. I’ll let you know if I need anything else.”

I waited for the man to leave before I spoke again.

“Did you pick up anything odd about him?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Zander said. “He came around with the maid to collect laundry from our rooms yesterday.”

“Laundry?”

“He was honest enough to return the roll of cash I left in the pocket of my jeans.”

“He checked your pockets before leaving with your laundry?”

“Yeah,” Zander said. “You should get some sleep. Your dad and Balthazar have already left for the Darc Pack. I expect we’ll get an update later this afternoon.”

Eager to see if I could return to my dream, I returned to my room and stripped off my clothing before slipping into bed. I thought about her sleeping peacefully in that big bed, under that fur blanket. I thought about holding her naked flesh against mine and kissing every inch of it.

Visions of the dragon-like gargoyles swam through my mind before I drifted asleep.

To my disappointment, I opened my eyes late in the afternoon from a dreamless sleep. I took a quick shower, got dressed, and reached into my pants pocket from last night to retrieve my little reminder of Maeve. The pendant had hummed with energy in my dream when the oak tree started glowing. I turned it over and studied it closely. The energy was dormant, or I had simply imagined it in a dream… A dream that felt a bit too real.

I had spent most of the night on my security detail trying to narrow down locations that would be cold enough for a fire and fur blankets. Then I researched citadels, castles, fortresses, alcazars, kasbahs, and anything else that resembled the structure in my dream. I was starting to think she was somewhere in the Nordic region and wanted to narrow down possibilities before the next postcard arrived.

“Storm?” I mind linked my sister, but couldn’t feel her through the link. Then I tried Lukas, Grandma, Flaym, and Caspian. Everyone was out of range.

I checked my cell phone, and there were no messages, so I dialed Lukas. He didn’t answer, and the call went to voicemail. I shoved the phone in my back pocket, tucked the necklace in my front pocket, and left my suite.

“Cleaning service?” A maid pushing a cleaning cart stacked with freshly laundered towels asked.

“Yes, thank you.” I turned the Do Not Disturb sign over to Please Makeup Room.

I swiped into the security suite to check in with Zander and felt the tension in the room when I entered. He was on the phone with my father.

“Rex just arrived,” Zander said, handing me the red security phone.

“I want everyone under lockdown until I return to the hotel,” my father’s voice rang out. “Alpha Darc and Alpha Orléans are both missing. Balthazar interrogated the Darc Beta—well, he read his mind. Darc had planned to lure Selena closer to learn about lycans so he could abduct Storm and breed lycans of their own. When she didn’t show up at the ball, they took Persephone instead. They believe her blood or saliva can turn others into lycans.”

“So they don’t know about lycan venom,” I replied.

“No, not yet, but we need to ensure all the lycan pups are safe and that your sister is always guarded.”

“Where’s Xena?” I asked. My father’s cousin was a turned lycan and had always been a fierce protector of my sister.

“She’s at the Orléans pack. We’re unsure of Alpha Orléans' involvement, but both Alphas have gone missing.”

“I’m assuming the Beta of the Darc pack is dead?” I don’t know why I was asking. A lycan could read minds if they sank their long claws into someone, and if Uncle Balthazar read his mind, the Beta was guaranteed to die for his attempt to steal Persephone.

“Balthazar made an example of him in front of the pack warriors,” my father told me. “A few lost their breakfast from the carnage, and one fainted. The Gamma and Delta submitted the moment Balthazar shifted.”

Most werewolves have never seen a fully shifted lycan, and Balthazar’s aura was scary. He was born human over two thousand years ago in Mesopotamia and lived as a shepherd. An ex-lover named Ishtar, who happened to be a Goddess in disguise, turned him into a lycan. As if turning him into a beast he knew nothing about wasn’t enough, she had cursed him with immortality until Aunt Demeter broke the curse. Uncle Balthazar was proof that the Gods could be overly sensitive, jealous, and cruel.

“Are we hunting Alpha Darc down?”

“I have a feeling once he hears that Balthazar claimed his pack, he might try to challenge him.”

“His funeral.” A werewolf Alpha was no match for a lycan shifter, and Alpha Darc would be foolish to challenge Uncle Balthazar. I heard Zander’s cell phone ring, and he stepped away to answer it.

“Rex, I don’t want your sister alone until after we’ve found the French Alphas, understood?”

“She’s with Lukas right now,” I assured him.

Zander spoke rapidly with Lukas, filling him in while I finished the conversation with my father. Zander pressed the speaker phone button on his cell phone when I ended my call.

“Lukas?”

“We’re here,” he replied.

“Don’t let Storm out of your sight,” I urged him. “Where are you?”

“I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself,” my sister snapped. “I just need to decide if I’m going to kill Darc quickly or slowly and painfully.”

An hour later, Storm arrived safely at the hotel with the others, but Caspian seemed to have disappeared with Selena’s human friend, Jose. They had stepped into a sandwich shop and vanished without a trace.

“We’ll find him,” Zander assured my brother. “I have the guys at LaRue Enterprises tracking his phone right now and looking through the city’s security cameras.”

I heard Lukas recount their day, trying to figure out if Caspian had discovered something. They had taken a tour of the catacombs and encountered the same she-demon from the cemetery. Then they visited Notre-Dame and a sandwich shop in the third arrondissement.

“You should have just returned to the hotel after the catacombs. There’s something brewing here in Paris, and you know that.”

“Well, we’re not going to run from it,” Lukas replied.

“I keep seeing the church spires and gargoyles in my visions,” Storm told us.

“I’ve seen Notre-Dame too,” I admitted.

“Maybe I should go back to the church and look closer,” Ranger suggested. “See if I pick up anything.”

“Fuck, I’ll have to call Dad,” I groaned. “Alpha Darc and Orléans are missing… They could have Caspian.”

Two hours later, Lukas and I checked Jose’s apartment for anything unusual. He seemed like a typical fashion student from California living in a small apartment with a fluffy white cat in the Montmartre District. The most exciting things we found in his apartment was a trove of sex toys, wigs, and an autographed photo of Lady Gaga hanging on the wall.

The second apartment belonged to Jose’s boyfriend and was a little more exciting. We discovered the body of Alpha Darc and his mother, who had plotted to take Storm from the mating ball. The most unusual thing we discovered was the big BOOM from the bomb that went off as we left the apartment.

“That’s the second time this week,” Lukas sneered as we staggered out of the smoke-filled building.

“What are the odds it was coincidental?” I coughed. People were rushing out of the building, while others were racing closer for a better look.

The wind shifted, and a strong gust blew in our direction. Lukas was trying to air out the smokey smell that clung to us, and I couldn’t help scanning the corners and shadows. A sensation rippled through me, and I knew we were being watched.

“What is it?” Lukas asked as we walked quickly.

“That man across the street,” I locked eyes with him, and my beast snarled.

“Where?”

“The one with the salt and pepper hair in the three-piece suit at two o’clock. I saw him at the art institute.”

“At Selena’s graduation?” Lukas tensed.

“Yes. He was with a woman, and they both seemed to vanish into thin air. I think his name is Cadbury.”

“Like the chocolate?”

“Cadbury!” I waved my arm as we crossed the street, and he quickly slipped inside the bookstore behind him.

Lukas broke out in a run, and I followed. We entered the store, and there was no trace of him. The woman behind the counter eyed us curiously, and I asked her if she saw where the man in the suit went. She pointed to the stairs leading to the bathroom in the basement.

The bathroom was a single-stall toilet about the size of a closet and was empty. There wasn’t a window down here, let alone another exit. I listened carefully for any sign of life, but there was no movement, breathing, or footsteps. A vapor of smoke drifted from under the broom closet door, and I pulled it open. A large mop fell forward, but the tiny closet was empty.

“What is it with people vanishing into thin air,” Lukas grumbled just as his phone rang. The call was quick, and he was annoyed.

“What happened?”

“Flaym just called. Storm had another vision and took off on a stolen motorcycle with Grandma. He’s tracked them.”

We met up with my sister, Grandma, and Flaym first. Grandma was still excited about riding in the sidecar of the motorcycle Storm had stolen, and Flaym was excited about the bag of shawarma he discovered in the basket of the food delivery bike he had commandeered. Ranger, Selena, and Sol joined us, and Lukas updated them on our apartment search and the second apartment explosion.

“Any luck finding Caspian?” I asked Ranger.

“Not yet.”

“Dad wants you to try meditation while thinking about Caspian,” Lukas told Storm. “He thinks you might be able to see him or his surroundings.”

“That’s what I suggested,” Grandma replied. “She tried that, and here we are.”

“Did you see Caspian?” Selena asked.

Storm shook her head and turned to me. “No, I saw the tower.”

“This tower you’re seeing. Is there a castle?” I asked as it started to make sense. “With a stone wall around it?”

“Yes,” Storm looked surprised.

“I’ve seen the castle before in a vision,” I told her. She saw the same things I was seeing, but her vision was focused on smaller details, and my visions were broader. Like two halves of a whole , as my father had believed.

“There was a fortress beside the river long ago, built by King Philippe-Auguste,” Selena told us. “The woods nearby were home to wild wolves, so they built a watchtower.”

“Wait just a minute!” Grandma interjected. “We saw it in the basement of the Louvre.”

“You saw what?” I asked.

“When Caspian took me to the Louvre, there was a medieval fortress underneath it. It’s been dug up nicely, and it has wooden walkways.”

“Turris Lupara!” Selena said.

“Taurus, what?” Grandma asked.

“The Louvre was once called Lupara, which came from Turris Lupara,” Selena explained. “The remains of the tower are under the Louvre.”

“Turris Lupara.” My sister's lycan eyes swirled. “Wolf Tower!”

We slipped into an evening tour of the Louvre, hoping to make sense of the visions we were seeing, but we ran out of time. Our last stop was in the Mesopotamia wing when I felt a strange shift in energy. One side of the room seemed to be filled with dark energy, and the side closest to the exit had a positive light energy.

The air was charged like a magnet, trying to both repel and attract. My sister stood near a glass display, listening to the tour guide explain the eight-point star.

“Ishtar was the goddess of love, sexuality, and fertility,” the guide said. “She was also the goddess of war, so she is often depicted winged and bearing arms. She could cause chaos, so it’s not surprising her eight-point star is a symbol of chaos.”

A voice rang over the loudspeaker in French and then in English, telling us to make our way to the exit because the museum was closing.

“I’m afraid our tour ends here,” the guide said just as the glass casing suddenly shattered.

“That wasn’t me,” Grandma declared her innocence.

I pulled Storm into a hug, making sure she was okay. Museum employees and security personnel immediately rushed into the room, trying to make sense of the shattered case. A female in a black pantsuit with her short hair slicked back seemed to be in charge and motioned for us to leave through the side exit.

One of the security guards asked Lukas if we had seen anything that could have caused the glass to break, but Lukas just shrugged. “We didn’t see anything, but it’s possible the glass had cracked during the earthquake yesterday and finally gave out.”

“Oui,” the guard nodded. “I suppose it is possible.”

“Au revoir,” Grandma said as we left the commotion behind us.

“Keep moving,” Ranger whispered under his breath.

“Either my eyesight is going, or I just saw Father Fontenay scamper off,” Grandma said.

I didn’t know what the priest looked like, but I knew he was the one they came across at Notre-Dame earlier that Grandma didn’t like. I couldn’t help but feel that something bigger was happening here. I turned to see the woman in the black pantsuit watching us. She looked familiar, and it took me a moment to remember where I had seen her.

“Kit-kat,” I muttered, recognizing the woman from the shadow.