The Dormant Queen of the Hybrid

Book 1,Chapter 4 Asterids

The sepia light of the afternoon sun almost blinded Asterids after she went out of the house. Everything is a mess. She had plans, but now its just.. nothing. It all went downhill after hearing that gun shot. Despite how evil the Madrigal family is, her instinct made her run towards that door behind her to save them without thinking through. Tia saw her, and recognized her. This removed the element of surprise once she begun stealing the clan and the company from them. They deserved her vengeance. They need to know she exist in the right timing. She imagine it being epic and satisfying but now it seems that all those hatred that she was cultivating in the past year was just so petty and trivial. Suddenly she is lost of direction. What about the death of her Son? The death of Maruha her mother? The hardships that she faced. The humiliation of living a cruel dog's life until the death of her son under that acacia tree. The Madrigals deserved an agonizing end.

She took out the ring pendant necklace tucked inside her shirt out and prayed to it. She needed to calm her mind. But her calmness was interrupted by the door being opened and shut closed , then some rustling bushes and leaves. She is no longer alone outside the Madrigal house. Immediately, a huge being, probably seven footer blocked her way out of the estate.

“My.. What a big ears you have?” Asterids coolly retorted, but then she remembered that the story little red riding hood had wolf in it. What stands before her is a silver white and black tiger.

The ware tiger growled at her when he saw the ring pendant she is holding, but then it seems like it sigh after looking at her face. Immediately the shifter changed his form back to the 5’11” size human. Gods! it's the groin guy. Shirtless, pants torn to shred, abs, big chests, gorgeous body, brown skin and handsome face with piercing eyes and fashion model hair. All of it was noticed by Asterids but her face remained neutral. She won’t be mesmerized by an enemy.

“That's mine.” Dook is now pointing at her necklace.

“No. This was given to me by my mother when I was a kid. Yours might have been a different one.”

“That is an artifact. One of a kind. Look at the engrave, it bears our family—the Sordlak clan's crest. It was stolen by someone I trusted few years ago.” Asterids saw the tiger head with thunder symbol around it. She decided to hide the necklace inside her shirt, which made the groin guy walk towards her.

“It's a magical item that prohibit you from shifting. It blocks your inner animal from taking over. Will you please give it back?” Dook is now standing in front of her, inch closer and staring her straight in the eyes.

“No. I'm sorry. I don't know how my mother got this, but this is very important to me.”

“How important?”

“Enough to die for or to kill someone.” The guy seemed caught off guard by her sincerity, because she is not lying. She will do everything to keep the ring. But it seems that the guy won’t back out and he begun opening his mouth, but then, they both heard a scream from the adjacent building, left of the Madrigal's main house.

*** *** ***

Asterids and Dook immediately went for the source of screaming and found a maid on the floor looking at a corpse of a man. The guy was a visitor waiting for Tia to arrive. He's a business owner and a client and Dook also knew him. Now he is just a cadaver in a sitting position in the bar of the Madrigal's annex home. The guy is wearing a formal attire and is still holding his vodka tunic glass like he was about to sip his one last alcohol. Except now his face is covered of blood oozing out from his two eyeless orbit or the eye socket. Not only blood, the orbit has some black smoke thing coming out of it, as if the inside of his head is burning. Dook immediately took a cloth from the bar and covered the face of Mr. Sandro and start dialing the number for the ambulance. Asterids was guiding the maid to a near sofa, then handing her a glass of water she got from the water dispenser near the bar.

“A-another clan member within the last fourteen years,” the maid said.

“No! Not Sandro!” Tia gasp.

“Another clan member?!” Dook irritably asked Tia as she arrived in the scene with her guards and Dook's goons. Tia is silently crying. Asterids took a note of how genuine her tears are. This made her angry for some reason. Tia never shed real tears for her, in her last life as her step-daughter.

“You mean those killings in the news that happens every few months was all Madrigal?” Asterids is now curious.

“Apparently.“ Dook agreed with her, then his call got answered and so he begun talking to the first responder requesting to send an ambulance.

“Mrs. Madrigal? What is happening with the clan? Where's Mr. Edward?” Tia flinched and looked back at Asterids to answer her.

“Your fath—Edward is missing for three months now. I'm so worried about him,” the old lady said. She seemed a bit wary on how to approach her. Asterids concluded that Tia never even cared to find her after the news from St. Lukes Hospital.

“So Mr. Edward is missing.” She stated again trying to sound cold as if she does not care. This eased her hatred towards the Madrigals a bit.

“Of course he will abandon the clan and save himself first. How typical of your Lion alpha. How come the killer is still on the loose? And why only you Madrigals are being killed?” Asterids voice was about to break, it's a good thing that she was able to immediately change the topic.

“You are unsympathetic towards me and Edward. We deserve that. We were cruel to you. We did not had the courage to talk to you again, and you always ignored our letter even the representatives that we sent for you in the orphanage—”

“I could almost believe you. Except all of them are lies. I’m sure it’s another way to manipulate me. Given that I did not received such letters Mrs. Madrigal.”

“But it’s true—Please Asterids, I have changed! I was not able to have a child with your father and it made me feel lonely and incomplete. But I had you a daughter, it's my fault sh—”

“Gods stop with the fake tears and answer my question! Listen to me. From now on, I will take over the Madrigal clan. I will become its new leader. I am the child of the Alpha. That should merit for something. I will fight for my right to lead the clan! I will save them. I will take over the company if I have to. Mark my word. That’s my revenge.” Tia was speechless. However, she understand the point of the young lady. Asterids hate her family, not the clan.

“Okay, I understand. What I know is for the past years the killer only target the clan members of the Madrigals. Most of them of high position alpha or hybrids.”

“Only Alphas and Hybrids?”

“Y-yes.” Tia explained further about her knowledge of the hybrids and alphas. Across the globe, the shifters are grouped in different species: Birds, wolf, tigers, lions, cats, etc. Some are rare like dragons, sharks, snake, and other more. However, all the species follows the same category of social ranking. There are the Omegas which are the worker bees, who takes most of the shifter population. The Betas are the strong individuals of the shifter pack, most of them directly follows an alpha male leader as his subordinates. The Alphas are the warriors and hunters. For every few alphas, there is only one natural born leader that becomes the center of a pack or clan. This alpha leader, develops a special skill to influence and subjugate the other shifters. The said commanding skill is what separates the leader alpha among the commoner alphas. Only a male alpha leader can be elected to create a new pack or manage an existing one.

The Monarch or the king and queen of the shifters, are beyond the social rankings. They are not just a magical creatures. They are literally the offspring of the gods who created the world. Last but not the least among the shifter’s rankings, are the Hybrids. Five percent of the shifter race have the capability to manifest and control elements, fire, water, wind, ice, earth, etc. Apparently Hybrids are what they are called. Wendigo, basilisks, sea serpent, etc, some of these creatures are the content of ancient mythologies, folklores and even religious belief like in Taoism (immortal phoenix or fire breathing dragons, or the zodiac animals), but in reality they are just life stories of those powerful hybrid shifters, told in a distorted version. The hybrids or the mythical creatures often have significant supernatural abilities and unique characteristics that helped the progress of the civilization. Some hybrids are born Alpha, but not all Alphas are born to be a hybrid with this talents. The element that a hybrid control differs individually. Nowadays most of those people earn a better place in the society. Asterids already know about such details, though, since that’s common knowledge.

With Tia’s unsatisfying answer, Asterids demanded more info about the case. At the same time, few minutes after the call made by Dook, the medics arrived and immediately took Mr. Sandro away. The guards was about to clean the blood stained bar but Dook stopped them since they will need the evidence not contaminated. He then sent his goons home.

*** *** ***

“For 14 years, no one has solved the case,” Dook started, trying to continue the conversation again when only him, Tia and Asterids are left. Now they are in the dining table of the main building. Asterids took noticed of Dook looking at her way of eating as if mockingly amused, she stared back at him with a snarling face. She also noticed that the house did not change much. It was only a few months and a year since she was casted away after all. The dining room is elegant in design. More on modern architecture style. Thick glass dining table, dark wood wall and lighter ceiling. She does not feel attached to this familiar surrounding though. This is no longer a home for her.

“Y-Yes. Some of the death were deemed a cold case.” Tia said.

“Why?” Asterids followed up trying to go back to the present.

“Identifying the culprit and the weapon used to kill the victim is the problem. But based on what we, saw on.. Mr Sandro today,” Tia paused, still shaken from the death of her friend. “I-I can say that possibly it’s a summoned creature. I’m a bit knowledgeable about incantation and pentagrams. As far as I remember, a mentor during my college years taught me that a creature like that can not stay here in our plane for some limited time. Once it kills.. it will vanish back to it’s own dimension. My Edward hired a police officer in private to give him the updates about the case, that same police is giving me the leaked documents and information. So far no one has figure out anything. From all the killings in the past years, if the killer is really a summoner, MCCDS or the Magical Creatures Control and Defense Squadron should take care of the case. Though it’ll be hard for them to confirm what type of creature is being summoned. Well except—”

“Except what?” both Asterids and Dook said at once, which made them snarl at each other.

“Dear, do you remember the black smoke from Mr Sandro’s eyes? It's the remaining ether of the creature. After it attacks, that ether or bit of mana it expended will stay for a few minutes then vanish. Only one creature has that trait. A specter mage.”

“A ghost of a dead witch.” Dook added.

“Yes.”

“Specters are sentient ghosts. They have their mind of their own. They do not respond to any summoning ritual. Ever. Demons yes, in exchange for a contract but specters does not make any deal. ” Dook mansplained. Asterids and Tia raised their eyebrow. Dook shut his mouth immediately.

“There is always one exception.” Tia hesitated, but there should be no harm done if she reveals the info now to the two person in front of her.

“Specters responds to the summon of a family member. Or a descendant.”

“So a witch is trying to kill the shifters? What am I missing here?” Asterids asked.

“For thousands of years, witches had treated the shifters as their familiar. A sub-species. Few great wars has been written in history book because of those racist bastards. Shifters had long agonizing struggles to fight for their freedom and a witch this century trying to kill shifters again might spark another feud between the shifters and witches. Do you want to start the world war 4? Go exposed this information to the media.” Dook responded.

“Witches.” Asterids looked at Tia and it seemed that she also have the same thought about the matter. They both knew a witch.

“Is it possible that the specter is doing it on his own free will without a summoner involved?” Asterids followed up.

“I'm not sure. And—I also don't like the sound of that,” Dook said. “Fourteen years and the police can’t find a single summoner? Unreliable vultures.. What about the MCCDS? Or the shifter council?” he added.

“The MCCDS think the killer is a human. Mr Sandro is the first and only victim that provides the proof for the black ether theory. For fourteen years, All the dead bodies found only showed the eyeless face and burnt flesh but no ether. This is the very first time that the specter left a very condense ether. The specter did not have any common pattern of attacks. The shifter council partnered with the human police and created a taskforce to hunt a human. A human! Whoever that poor fellow is.” Tia complained.

“The justice and security system of this country is awful.” She swore to herself that she will do what she can to save the clan. But first she needs to attend to the most pressing matter of the day. “Gods! I need to go to work. My boss will get mad at me. I will have to do this later.” Asterids stand up preparing to leave.

“No that's okay. You can be excused from work. This matter is more important. Being the head of our clans, the Sordlaks are already involved with the Madrigals.”

“Dude what are you on about? I'm just a new hire, clan leader or not I have to go to work.”

“Well it's too late to try impressing your boss anyway.”

“How rude! And why is that?”

“Why? You know—Lady, I’m actually your boss. And oh! By the way, Thank you for kicking me in the nuts! You're fired!”