4. CHAPTER 4
It only took us three months to get assigned a mission. Even my mother claims it must be some kind of a record. Garren is still an Omega, but he’s working hard on becoming a Delta. Blaine took him under his wing, offering to spend whatever free time he had to work with Garren, who has highly benefitted from all the extra lessons.
A knock on the door gets my attention. I close my computer and spin my chair in its direction.
“Come in,” I call, sending the sound with a wave of darkness to get through the soundproof fortifications.
Garren walks in and stands awkwardly by the door. “You asked to see me?”
“Yes,” I confirm and wave him closer, gesturing to an empty chair. “Can you see? Should I turn on the light?”
“No need,” he replies, sliding into the chair that I’ve pointed at. “My Night Vision has returned to me.”
“Blaine has told me that you’ve made a lot of progress and that you’ve been working very hard,” I say, giving him the closest thing to a compliment.
He definitely looks hard, my wolf comments and I nearly choke on my spit as my brain immediately comes up with several dirty thoughts.
Naughty!my wolf exclaims, sounding amused. I was talking about his body in general. Geez.
“He’s been a very patient teacher,” Garren replies, keeping any emotion out of his tone and off his face.
“He informed me that you’ve done well with reconnecting with your wolf,” I continue, needing to gather information before I lead him into danger. “He also mentioned the abilities that you have mastered, but I’d like to hear it from you.”
“The transformation comes to me as easily as taking a breath does,” he says with a hint of pride in his voice. “We’ve started with the most basic of the basics. Blaine had me gently manipulate the shadows, then we went to controlling them, and finished with doing both of those things in pitch-black darkness.”
“Slow and steady,” I confirm, finding this the best way to improve while minimizing the risk of getting hurt. “Where are you at now?”
“As I said, we’ve done the manipulation and control of shadows and darkness,” Garren tells me, referring to the sub-ability of darkness called Umbrakinesis.
“Can you block the light out in a certain area?” I ask, wondering if he’s strong enough to master Light Absorption.
“I can, and I’ve also already mentioned Night Vision to you,” he confirms, and I give him a small smile. “We’ve been working on two more things that some days I do better than others.”
“Which two?” I inquire, quietly impressed with the number of sub-abilities he developed in a relatively short amount of time.
“Shadow Camouflage and Animated Shadow,” he replies, referring to the camouflaging ability of being unseen in the shadows as well as the animation of another person’s shadow to turn them into a puppet.
That’s only one less than us, my wolf comments, sounding just as impressed with Garren as I am. Besides all those sub-abilities that Garren has acquired, I’m also a master of Shadow Mimicry, which is a power to become one with the shadows.
“You’re on a fast track to become a Delta,” I tell him. “In fact, all you’re missing is to go on one mission.”
“After that I’m a Delta?” Garren asks, raising his eyebrow as if it seems too easy.
“I’m sure that Blaine has already explained to you that to become a Delta, you need to master three sub-abilities, which you’ve done, and you’re even on your way of adding more,” I say, going through the requirements. “You need to be successful on at least one mission. There’s a little loophole where you can have ten missions under your belt and only two sub-abilities. Not everyone is powerful enough to develop the three, but field experience counts as one.”
“Are we going on a mission soon?” Garren asks, his eyes gleaming with ambition.
His time here must’ve taught him to keep his mouth shut and only talk about what’s important or when he’s being asked a question. The first day’s punishments are always the worst because that’s when a tone gets set. Garren’s was particularly brutal, but it did its job.
“That’s why I’ve called you here,” I say and lean back into my chair to make myself more comfortable. “We’ve been assigned a mission of a routine sort of exercise to scout the outskirts of the area where we’ve gotten reports of the presence of the witches. The higher-ranking packs will go into the heart of the area while we keep guard on the so-called borders.”
“Doesn’t sound too dangerous,” Garren comments and absentmindedly scratches his chin in thought.
“It shouldn’t be,” I agree. “It’s just a formality, but it will help us bring you a promotion, which will bring us better missions.”
“When are we leaving?” he asks, giving me an eager look. We’re all itching for a change of scenery.
“We depart at sundown,” I reply. “You have five hours to get ready.”
“Understood,” he says and stands up. “Permission to leave?”
“Granted,” I confirm and watch him walk away.
He’s even yummier now that he’s not so annoying,my wolf says, but I do my best to ignore her insinuations. I don’t have time for this, nor can I afford to have anything with anyone inside the pack. It’s far too dangerous.
The next five hours pass in a blur. I take a shower, get something to eat, then talk to Blaine and Sarah about what to expect from the mission, so we’re all on the same page about the orders we’ve been given. When all is said and done, the time has come for the Dark Hunters to meet the other packs on the north side of the encampment where the storage facilities are along with the highly advanced training grounds.
My pack follows me in two lines, presenting a unified and impenetrable unit. We move and breathe as one, giving the impression of being robots. Other packs are more at ease and relaxed, but I like discipline and order, which is presented in Dark Hunters’ behavior.
“I’ve sent the Lightbringers ahead,” my mother tells me when we arrive, referring to my sister’s pack. “They’ll be doing the inside checks and searching for the witches.”
“We’ll take the van and go to the B-zone,” I say, gesturing with my head to one of the vehicles in our parking lot. “We’ll scout around and make sure that no one comes through there.”
“Sounds good,” my mother confirms, then steps closer and lowers her voice. “Is your Omega ready?”
“He is,” I assure her, truly believing it myself. “He’ll do well.”
“Okay then. Off you go and stay safe,” she says before moving on to the next pack to give them their orders.
I lock eyes with Blaine and indicate for them to follow me. Another Omega hands me keys to the van on the way to the vehicle, and I just pass them along to Blaine. Once the whole pack is loaded in the back like cargo, which I admit isn’t exactly the safest way to move around, but it’s not life-threatening thanks to our healing abilities.
The drive there takes almost an hour and a half. We’re not going toward the city, but further out, while still staying in the same state of New York, which means that these witches are our responsibility. I briefly wonder if any of the Lafayette’s packs might show up to help us clear out the area. Our borders have been rather blurred and confusing before, but now that Prince Gavin is married to Princess Leia, the two kingdoms are seemingly merging into one.
We’d be better under Prince Gavin’s reign, my wolf comments, and I make a low sound in agreement.
Prince Garren is the worst of them all, I reply. He’s a disgusting womanizer and an addict. I’m afraid to even think about what will happen to our kingdom once he ascends to the throne.
The Greys have been weirdly quiet, though, my wolf says, referring to the fact that before the Greys had been all over both wolf and human news, albeit under different titles; lately, they’ve been weirdly absent from any type of media.
“Park there,” I say to Blaine, pointing at the somewhat hidden spot in a back alley. While he maneuvers the van there, I turn to the pack. “Stay alert, keep quiet, and follow orders.”
“Yes, Alpha,” they say as one, including Garren.
We’re all wearing black shirts with long sleeves, black cargo pants, and military boots. None of us are carrying any weapons because we’re deadlier than anything humanity could ever manufacture. Besides, the witches and their spells can only be fought with our own wolf-given abilities.
“Wouldn’t we cover more ground if we split up?” Garren asks from the end of the line, earning himself a dirty look from both of my Betas.
The witches are strong adversaries that are deadly to lone wolves. If we attack them one by one, they’ll overpower us, which is why it’s extremely important that we stay together and move as a pack.
“You forget yourself, Omega,” Sarah hisses. “Stay alert, keep quiet, and follow orders.”
Garren reluctantly nods his head. His silence is thanks to the progress that Blaine made with him, but it’s normal that we can’t expect him to be perfect after only three months. Fortunately, he spoke up at the best possible time because we haven’t yet entered the territory that’s been marked for us.
There are a lot of abandoned buildings around us, most of them belonging to old factories. We’re in an industrial area, so it’s very important to keep our ears open and eyes peeled at the dozens of windows around us.
We clear them one by one, seeing no sign of anyone being here in a very long time. I plan on having us check the few buildings that are left until the end of the block and then double back to keep an eye out for any newcomers. In theory, this would be better done in wolf form, but we’re trying to keep a low profile, which would be a bit hard to do as a wolf.
Without a warning, Tom cries out, breaking the stillness of the eerie silence. I turn around toward where he is, just in time to see his eyes roll back into his head. His body crashes to the ground with a hard thump and begins violently convulsing. White foam comes from his mouth, mixing with blood from his nose and eyes. When the seizure jerks him to the side, I get a clear view of his bleeding ears.
“Don’t touch him,” I order, realizing that while it’s too late for him, we can still save ourselves. A faint chanting reaches my ears, solidifying the growing fear in my heart. We need to act fast. “Shields up!”
As one, the Dark Hunters put impenetrable dark shields around us, its thickness dulling down the sound of the chanting. The witches have seen us first and used the advantage of surprise to attack us. We should’ve put the shields up earlier, but we weren’t sure that they were here and the thickness of our protection dulls our heightened senses.
“Where are they coming from?” Garren asks, raising his voice to be heard above the weird vacuum of darkness we’ve created.
“It must be from one of the buildings,” Blaine replies, his eyes darting from window to window.
We have to take cover,my wolf says, keeping a clear head.
“Dark Hunters,” I call, getting the pack’s attention. “Follow me!”
Tom’s limp body stays behind, his eyes wide open and staring blankly into nothingness. Hints of fear and pain linger on his expression, forever marking the last things he would ever feel.
We enter the building closest to us, prepared to face the witches head on, in case that’s the one that they’re attacking us from. It’s important that they keep eye contact when weaving a spell, which is why the dark shield momentarily protected us, but have no doubt that they have other cards hidden up their sleeves. There’s too much that we still don’t know about witches.
Our only chance is to attack them straight on and force them to focus on only one wolf each. As a coven chanting together, they’re too strong, but if we overwhelm them and break their attention from one to nine or ten different wolves, we’ll be clear winners. That’s always the plan. It’s the only way to kill them.
“Looks clear,” Blaine says when we enter.
“Sarah, Esme, Patrick, and Alaysia, go with Blaine to make sure,” I order, splitting the pack into big enough parts that we’d still be strong enough to deal with witches. Hopefully, the coven that’s on our asses isn’t too big, otherwise, we’re fucked either way.
The chosen group departs, leaving me with Patrick, Jesse, Elliana, and Garren. To the newbie’s credit, his muscles are tensed in alertness as he stays close to the floor and carefully looks through the window without the need to be asked to keep guard.
A small noise gets my attention, coming from the other direction than where Blaine and his group went. I quickly lift my index finger and gently put it against my lips to make sure that the pack stays silent.
I point at Patrick, Jesse, and Elliana to take the lead, with Garren and I following a couple of steps behind to cover our backs. When they’ve advanced, I nod at Garren who comes to my side. We’re all straining our ears to catch anything, but except for our breathing and the gentle shuffling of our feet, there’s nothing else.
Something’s wrong, my wolf says, finding the eerie silence just as weird and unnatural as I do.
She doesn’t need to say it twice because, in that exact moment, something unexplainable makes a little clicking sound. We have just enough time to exchange a confused glance before a deafening explosion pierces the quiet air, the sudden boom hurting our ears. The forceful blast throws us in different directions. While Garren and I go flying back to where we came from, the other three disappear further into the now-burning and collapsing building.
My arm breaks at a weird angle when I awkwardly and painfully land on it. A guttural, animalistic groan escapes my lips as I try to control my breathing to keep myself from blacking out.
Hold on, my wolf urges, working hard and fast to heal me. You’re going to have to push the bone back in or I won’t be able to heal it.
FUCK! I yell, using my inner voice to stay off the witches’ radar in case they don’t know where I am.
Strong hands grab me under my shoulders and pull me backward toward the corner. I’m struggling to hold onto my consciousness, which makes my vision less than reliable. I catch a glimpse of black hair covered with dust, a chiseled jaw, and high cheekbones with several small scratches on one side.
“Garren,” I croak out, my voice full of pain.
“It’s okay. I got you,” he assures me, his pupils dilated.
“The others?” I ask through gritted teeth. I’ve lost sight of them in the explosion, and I’m too overwhelmed with pain to focus on my senses to try to locate them.
“I don’t know,” he replies, but something flickers across his face that makes me believe he’s lying. Before I can call him out on it, he tentatively reaches for my broken arm. “I’ll set it for you, okay?”
I nod and take a deep breath to ride out the uncomfortable wave. As soon as Garren touches the broken part, the agonizing pain spreads all over my body, further amplifying when he pushes the broken part in.
Hold on, my wolfurges again, her warm healings already weaving a tender but healthy tissue around the wound.
Black spots dance in front of my vision and my hearing turns muffled. I’m fairly sure that Garren’s lips are moving but the fog is too heavy for me to sort through.
You have to fight, my wolf orders, her voice on the verge of desperation. If you black out, we’re dead. Fight, Alyssa!
It’s too much. I’m too overwhelmed and the pain’s residue is still too strong. While I’m used to getting injured and can deal with pain, but this time it’s different. It’s almost as if the explosion had something else in it. Could it be a piece of a spell?
My eyelids flutter and my eyes roll backward. Even though my vision is now enveloped in complete darkness, I’m still somewhat aware of my surroundings. That’s how I know that Garren’s doing something to me.
Both my now healed and my uninjured hands are clasped between his. A slight tickle from what must be his hair makes me think that he’s leaning his forehead against our joined hands. I’m not sure what he’s doing, I just know what I’m feeling.
It starts slowly and gently, then all of a sudden, it grows into a rushing force that washes all over me. It’s as if I was dirty before and after its touch, I’m clean and refreshed. My body is strong again, and my skin and bones healed. My mind is clearing up and my senses returning.
What just happened?my wolf asks, just as shocked by a sudden fast recovery to a degree that even her healing process couldn’t achieve.
When I manage to open my eyes, Garren’s looking at me with concern in his gaze. He gives me a relieved smile, our hands still clutched together, but they’re now pressed against his cheek.
“What did you do?” I croak out, my voice hoarse and gravelly.
He shakes his head, his brows furrowing in confusion. He opens his mouth to reply, but I’ll never know what he wanted to say because, at that moment, we both turn our heads toward the front door. Someone’s coming and since the sounds are from the opposite direction that the pack went, I’m fairly sure we’re about to face our worst enemy.