the dark days (book one of the darkness saga)

Chapter 52 - The Return

Chapter 52 - The Return 

Xavier POV

Present time - 

I planted my paws firmly on the ground as the ground started to shake. The Alphas of the Northern Hemisphere flank my right and left. We have our strongest warriors behind us. Everyone is exhausted from the fighting. Here, in the middle of the forest was where we will make our last stand. It is time to put an end to this fight, or at least bend it to our favor.

It's been two years since my mark as the Lycan prince appeared. At the start there has been a shift in power in the mystical world. It didn't take long for the demons to feel the shift. They felt the threat and since then, they have started attacking us.

First it was little by little, attacking the smaller packs. They wanted to draw me out from the safety of the spell Micheal placed over my pack. 

I couldn’t just stand back though, knowing that I was who the Fallen One wanted. He was out for revenge. And I think he knew Alex was no longer here. That made him more desperate. 

Despite asking the Elder Witch to remove the spell, the Fallen still wanted our kind to fall. He no longer cared that Alex, his weapon, was gone. 

The only solace I find in all this was that he didn’t have Alex. Which means she could still be alive. I would feel it if she wasn’t, right? I only had my faith that she was still alive. 

With the help of the other Alphas we have drawn out the Demons attacking us. We have managed to chase them down to here; in this forest at the northern region between the border of Alaska and Canada.

Who would have thought demons like the cold? But these past two years I’ve been learning more and more about the world around me and the creatures that exist. 

We have an opportunity to corner them—or so we thought. When we got here the demons apparently had other creatures we have never seen; or only knew in myth from stories.

We seriously needed to start thinking of legends as history. It might just help us in the fights ahead. 

The worst of the creatures was the Minotaur. The very same one from Greek mythology and looks exactly as depicted in books. It has the head and tail of a bull, the body of a man, or rather more like a behemoth. The creature killed enough warriors and Alphas to set us back, all on his own. 

The battle felt like an eternity, but we finally got to kill the creature and mostly all of the demons in our path. We thought we have won, only to be surprised by the army that now stands before us. It was all a ploy, a trap that the Fallen One has laid out before us. 

Dameon did mention this; that it might be a trap. I couldn't risk my entire army, but I needed to know what we were up against. So I only asked the warriors and Alphas who knew what they were getting into to come. It was a death trap—but we had no choice. It was either the fight comes to us and we risk losing our numbers, or we bring the fight to them. 

What the Fallen One doesn’t know, is that we were all prepared to die when we came here. We have deputized warriors who can lead and put our Betas in charge. They were busy hiding what pack was left with the White Witches—half human, half witches that have deserted the Fallen One. 

They were so far the only dwellers that have resurfaced since my marking. I've learned there were more, but mostly waiting in the shadows to see which side they should pick. Most are too afraid of the Fallen One's wrath even if they believe they should stand with us. 

It was Dameon who found the White Witches when he was gone for a year trying to find Alex. He was weary when he returned, more wild than man. It was the White Witches who saved him. Dameon doesn't talk about much about what happened to him during that year he was gone, although he does share what he has learned of the mystical world he had traversed into. 

I mind-link the werewolves around me to hold their ground and to wait to attack until the army was in the right spot. The demons and creatures charge towards us. The ground trembles. We hold our ground, waiting until they reach the clearing. As soon as they do we charge towards them. 

I take the first bite from the neck of one of the demons and throw him to the side. Before I could even recoil my head back another demon is upon me. I push him down using my paws and bite onto his jugular. I rip out his throat and pounce on the next demon closest to me. 

The other Alphas followed my lead. Around me Werewolves and Demons clash in a rain of blood. Everywhere you can hear the howling of werewolves that have fallen, and the grunts of the orc-like looking demons. 

As soon as I see the end of the line of the demon army, I howl. By this time, Dameon has already led the other half of the army behind and around the hill to the left of the battlefield. My howl was his signal to attack.

Not soon after, they were charging down the hill towards the surprised demons.

In the center of the battle, a Minotaur was killing more of our werewolf brethren than anywhere else. I mind-link Dameon to meet me there. We needed to bring down the biggest creature the demons had. Dameon lunges from behind and I the front. I bite its shoulder and Dameon knocks his legs from under him. 

The creature grabs me and throws me a few feet away. I land on the ground on my back. Dameon circles the creature. But before he could attack the air of the battlefield starts to crackle, and dark clouds seep out from a tear in the sky.

I had to blink twice. Is that Alex standing in front a creature holding a spear pierced thru its head? 

Was it really her? 

Before I could call out to her, she was already lunging at the Minotaur, which was running towards her with its horns pointed at her. She slides under it, an axe was on her hand instead of a spear now. As she slides under it she swings the axe, chopping off one of its legs. It falls forward. Alex pushes herself up to turn back, and in one motion swings her axe, decapitating two demons trying to attack her from behind. 

She runs towards the fallen Minotaur with the axe held to her side in both her hands. She jumps up, raises the axe above her head and decapitates the Minotaur in one swing as she lands on the ground. The head rolls off towards my direction. She gives me a strange look, raises the axe and throws it with force towards my head. My wolf reflexes allowed me to react fast enough to duck, and the Axe hits a demon that was right behind me. 

Alex? I tried to mind-link her but there was no answer. 

What this really Alex? 

It didn't look like her. She seemed—taller. Or was it just that her posture is more straight? Her bob hairdo frames her face, she has no glasses; instead she had a crystal crown on her head. She looked like she just came from a costume party with a white tunic under a gold plate chest armor with matching gold arm and shin guards. She looked like a warrior princess, with her toned muscles and glowing skin. 

Without breaking eye contact she lifts her hands above her and a lightning storm above us brewed. Lighting crashes down, hitting multiple demons around us. Each strike burns demons into ashes, the boom of thunder punctuating their deaths. The attack was precise, no werewolf was harmed with lightning. 

The light show stopped everyone in battle. Werewolf and demon both stood in awe of her. When she spoke, her voice reverberated through the battlefield. "Enough! I do not wish to end all of you. Leave now and your life will be spared.”  The remaining demons scramble away and vanish into puffs of dark smoke.

With the Demons have all gone, the werewolves start cheering, oblivious to the moment happening between Dameon and myself.

We both quickly shift into our human forms. I just stood there, transfixed, while she stares incredulously back at me. Dameon on the other hand, runs towards her. I take a step forward but stop again when she raises both her hands towards us. “Stop," she calls out. I realize we are naked.

Before I can say anything, from out of thin air, a white cloth appears and wraps itself around my waist twice. A leather strap forms into a belt that holds everything in place. The same thing happens to Dameon. 

“What the hell?” Dameon utters.

“Alex.” “Lexie.” Dameon and myself both say at the same time. We’re both too stunned to do anything else; fearful that this was just a hallucination from all the fighting, that she is just a vision that will disappear again. 

“Yes, I am here. But I am also not her right now.” As she spoke I start to notice her demeanor was different, how she stood, and there is a slight tilt in her head. Even how she looks at me is different. She is clearly not Alex.

Who the f**k is this impostor? Dameon mind-links me. 

“I won’t ask this again. Who are you and what have you done to Alexandra Matthews?” I growl while taking a step closer. Now that I was a only a feet away I could only faintly smell my Alex. The scent of Michael was stronger, and something else entirely. 

“Micheal! What has he done to you?” Dameon snarls, smelling the same things I did.

“This is unexpected—I didn’t realize you would recognize I wasn’t her, so soon. Michael was right and so was my assumption, your pull towards her is very strong. It masks what we could see. This is rather interesting, even for me. And something I haven’t seen for a while.” Alex answers rather amused by the whole thing, unfazed by the entire situation. 

“Answer his question. Who the hell are you?” Dameon growls at her and takes a step closer.

“I have just rid you of your enemy, in a fashion that I hoped would strike fear. It seems I have failed. I have made it clear that I command forces beyond your comprehension, but still you have the gall to threaten me?” She smiles. God dammit, how could this not be Alex? Her resemblance to Alex strikes closer when she smiles.

Is she a witch? I ask Dameon thru mind-link.

She doesn’t smell like one, he replies. 

“There will be time to explain everything, but not here. We don’t have much time. Lucifer will come soon, especially now that his legion has failed, his army broken by my hands. He already senses my arrival, we must go now.”

With that an invisible force pulls me towards her. My body is flush close to her. Electricity erupts in every inch of skin that touches her. Awkwardly Dameon was by her side as well. She places one hand on each of our chest.

I could see the same effect she had on Dameon, he was fighting over his wolf to touch her, he longed for her as much as I did. The pull was evident, something I was not sure was true until now. The very same pull that ignited inside me just being this close to her. “See I am her, your mate bond doesn’t lie,” she whispers. 

As she does the air around us swirls and everything disappears into a blur. I am familiar with this as Michael has done the very same thing years ago once, although not as intimate as how she is doing it now. 

Shit! I fall on my hands and knees and start vomiting. This part I remember all too well, f*****g astral travel! 

When I look around, we are back at the house. She lifts her hand up and a cloud of darkness covers everything outside. thunder roared and lighting lights up the sky. 

I tried to talk but my throat is dry. I look back at Dameon who was also on his hand and knees. Obviously suffering the same effects of astral travel. 

“Not used to astral travel I see.” She smiles at me. “The effects will not last long.”

She walks towards the couch. Not breaking stride, her armor vanishes and a white, open-backed, sleeveless tunic falls from her shoulders to just a few inches past her ass. A gold choker with chains falls over her chest. As she turns to sit, I catch a glimpse of her bare back, and it was scar-free. 

“What...” I clear my throat, “What happened to you Alex?”

“Alex—yes, she is I—but she isn’t here at the moment. Like what I said earlier,” she says casually. 

“What do you mean?” Dameon was carefully eyeing her.

This is a trick, Xavier, he mind-links me.

“It's no trick, Alpha Dameon” she turns her attention look to him.

Dameon’s eyes widen. f**k. So much for mind-links. It’s useless if she can hear our thoughts.