The Dormant Queen of the Hybrid

Book 1,Chapter 6 Dook

The morgue is standing on a holy ground. It was once blessed by a faithful priest of the humans. A catholic church hidden under ground. When the Spaniards colonialized the Philippines hundreds of years ago, they immediately looked for the lay lines and set up their foundations there. The lay lines maximize the effectiveness of their chants and prayers casting away any local creatures of the night. This helped them overtake the whole country. Dook remembered Jo telling him about the history of the old church. In reality it was also a torture chamber for the magical creatures. They would even experiment on them, extract their mana so the humans can create new weapons. Fast forward, one day, following the scent of blood after visiting this exotic tropical country, Jo found the ruins of the under ground church and this sparked the idea of creating a new business.

Dook caught himself deep in thought and forgot his surrounding. He noticed that Jo is gone and so is his assistant. After looking around a bit, he saw her back to the pool altar trying to dip her hand in the water. “Hey, Asterids. where’s Jo?”

Dook noticed Asterids is also deep in thought trying to reach the water with her finger tips. Perhaps she is shaken being its her first séance. Seeing the inbound spirits can be quite scary at first.

“Asterids?”

“Huh? Oh sorry boss. I’m just trying to figure out what’s in the water. Jo received a text from a client and he needed to call him immediately. He went upstairs for good reception. He might be back after a few minutes he said.”

“You saw Jo’s hand burning earlier and you thought of touching the water yourself.”

“What? He said it was holy water, so I’m just double checking if it’s true.”

“What a tomboy,” Dook whispered.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing.”

“Uhm hey boss, are we supposed to leave Mr. Sandro here? You know that this room is not cold enough to keep the body from decaying. My shifter nose is already smelling it.”

“Anybody’s nose can smell it. It’s a dead body for goods sake.” This made Asterids smile a little.

“Hey, Asterids.” Dook started to change the topic in serious tone.

“You know—I had a lot of good memories involving that ring. That artifact has serve me and my family ways to connect with each other. My father and I, we didn’t have much in common. But we would spend hours talking about the history of the ring.” Dook was surprised of what he just told his assistant.

“I really wish that I can give this to you. But—”

“I get it. I think.” Dook chuckled a bit. Even in the dim room, he can see the hesitation on Asterids face. He sat next to his assistant.

“I have outbursts. It was worst when I was a child. I didn’t have control with my inner tiger. The tiger will take over my body and will attack someone. A few days after getting used to it, I was finally able to best the tiger. I was able to control it a bit, But then—” He was not able to continue the story. Instead he chuckled again weakly.

“Anyway, I found the reason for my outburst much later on. Apparently, I belong to the rank Guardian Alpha.. On top of being born an Alpha clan leader, I’m also one of those knights who directly serves the Monarchs. My inner Tiger is one of the four Ancient Mythic species. A Byakko. The white tiger who serves justice with iron fist, or maybe iron fangs.” This time it’s Asterids turn to chuckle.

“Byakko can detect any anomaly or injustice between the shifters and it will not hesitate to punish the wrong doers.. What an awful black and white creature. Can’t even see the gray area.”

“Dook.”

“You know what? Let’s bring that cadaver back to the cold room. I can smell Mr. Sandro from here.”

“Alright boss,” Asterids said, tapping Dook on his shoulder. “You know—I’m starting to think that we just started at the wrong foot when we first met at the Madrigal’s house.” The tiger Alpha silently agreed.

*** *** ***

A few minutes later the duo found themselves stuck holding the slimy cold body of Mr. Sandro without gloves. Both swore never to talk about it ever again. Dook was secretly amused though. Asterids does not mind being dirty. Definitely not the princess type. She’s one of the boys. They were able to load the corpse on the gurney and was ready to leave the room except they will also need to open the heavy stone doors.

“Hang on a minute.” Dook begun undressing.

“Boss what’s happening here?”

“I need to shift. My human form is not strong enough for that igneous doors.”

“Okay, I get that. So I guess that’s your favorite set of clothes?”

“Indeed. I don’t want it destroyed once my body expands.” Dook shamelessly removed his blazer followed by the well fitted white shirt. Asterids looked away and stared at Mr. Sandro’s eyeless face instead. She can still hear the young CEO undressing, though.

“Okay boss, I can hear you unzipping your pants.”

“Shifters are not body conscious. We’re both adults here.” Dook smiled mockingly while focusing on the doors.

“Still twenty years old.. Oh! The briefs too?”

“Aren’t you a shifter too? Why are you having a culture shock? Come on let’s be professional here. Help your boss.” The Alpha ware tiger changed to his humanoid tiger form. Bone forcibly elongated. Fangs extending out of his lips, nails changing to claws, and furs coming out of his skin. Biceps, chest, leg muscles expanded. The black stripe pattern covered his back and buttocks.

“Gods, something’s wrong.”

“Come on Asterids we don’t have the whole day here.” His voice is of a growling tiger but with human words and intonation.

“Boss it’s standing up!”

“Don’t flatter your self lady, I’m not into hardcore gothic stuff, to get aroused in this kind of location and scenari—” Dook faced Asterids.

“No, Mr. Sandro is moving!” The body is definitely dead, except for some reason Mr. Sandro is able stand on his own two feet moving in an eerie unnatural way. His jaw is open wide as if a screaming pantomime, in a hellish bloody and decaying face way.

The animated body of Mr. Sandro suddenly attacked Asterids, except Dook is faster than the cadaver, having his Tiger Humanoid form. The alpha blocked the impact and kicked Mr. Sandro away from his assistant. Asterids went and get the gurney in the middle of the room, then pushed it towards Mr. Sandro to pin him in the corner of the wall to stop him from moving. Dook went straight and strike the zombie in the rib cage, blood splattering, the impact also put a huge crack on the wall. It did not stop the body from moving though. It became more violent. Though they were able to pin it’s legs and body to the wall, Mr. Sandro continued to move it’s hands and head trying to claw and bite it’s way out of the entrapment.

“Erm.. Should we splash some holy water on the poor fellow or something?”

“That won’t work my lady. What’s in front of you is not an evil being. Just a poor inbound spirit accidentally trapped in the carcass of Mr. Sandro.” His voice is echoing across the room but he is no where to be found. The stone doors burst open with Mr. Jo entering the room, eyes are blood red and glowing. Suddenly shadows covered the body of the bearded coroner. The shadows move as if squirming bats on his body.

“What a naughty spirit, making me end the call with my favorite female client earlier.” With one stretch of his hand, Jo emerge from the shadows with a different younger face. His eyes changed to black pupils but still emitting the red aura, his pale skin is whiter as if a mannequin. He got a somber demeanor and a cold echoing voice. His fangs are sharp and long, jutting out from his lips. The shadow is still covering his body as if a cloak and he is floating in the air. In a blink, Jo went in front of the Animated Mr. Sandro.

“You have angered me spirit.” His eyes with red aura exploded into a bloody flame. He screeched like a bat pushing the spirit out of the corpse which immediately wobbled like a used clothe and fell from the wall. The spirit looked like a white mist forming a woman with long hair, it was trying flew away when Jo caught it by the hand, then slamming it down onto the floor as if a bag of rice. He then drag the spirit, still holding her hands, to the middle altar. Jo kneeled and prayed opening the portal of the souls once more. Again, a lot of the spirit spiraled down focusing in the altar. Jo then toss the woman spirit to the typhoon of her misty friends from the afterlife screaming, finally exorcising the inbound ghost that hijacked the body of Mr. Sandro. “Okay now children, let’s go back to our official business.” His face is back to the cheerful bulky bearded Santa Claus that he is.

*** *** ***

“So you're a vampire? I thought you’re just a fifty years old wizard. You look like one.” Asterids clarified with Jo. They are currently in the washroom removing the grimy stuff left by Mr. Sandro earlier. Dook is fully clothed again.

“Quite rude my lady. I’m not just any other vamps, I'm a Primogenitor. One of the ancients since after the Noah's, Ark.”

“Wait! Are you Joaquines Lithos, the royal vampire?” Asterids mentioned reading about him as a child. Joaquines Lithos is the secret direct descendant of Noah’s family. The survivor of the great flood after one of the gods punished the humankind. Sadly the magical creatures was also affected by this great calamity. Joaquines is one of the founder of the kingdom for the vampires In the North Eastern part of the world. They govern forty percent of the undead population. During the crusade by the Catholics, most undead and witches were hunted down. It was one of the world war that greatly impacted Asterids memory reading her favorite dark histories of the pasts. Humans vs the undead and witches. With their technology and battle prowess, humans were the great oppressor of that time. Even this day, humans population covers more than sixty percent of the world while the magical creatures, shifters, vampires, fairies combined covers less. Humans are deemed to be the sleeping giant of this century. Though they are much more peaceful nowadays, magical community is still wary of their hidden armed force and technologies.

“Possible. I'm just Mr. Jackstone now. Call me Jo. Also yes, I'm a doctor. But Jo will do.”

“Boss how did you know him?”

“He’s a client. Didn't you noticed the signature work of our construction and supply company? We specialized on high-rise buildings yes, but we also do magic fortification.”

“I did notice that boss. I thought it was just patch work.”

“See? Still green.” Dook made a smug face which Asterids hated.

“Well this ancient part of the building was already here before we erected the morgue above.”

“Ha! He said erect!” Jo laughed.

“K that boss. So may I know what happened to Mr. Sandro?” Asterids changed the topic. Dook lead the group back upstairs to go to somewhere else comfortable.

*** *** ***

“Okay so you know us vampires are your Orthodox psych right? Telekinetic, empath, psychometric, and etc.” Jo continued the conversation as if he did not take one hour cleaning and bathing himself while Dook waited in the resto near the morgue with Asterids gloating about his smugness earlier.

“Being closer to death since we are basically dead ourselves, Some vamps have special connection to the afterlife. Few of us can communicate with the dead, some are mediums even, but me I like sending the souls back to the afterlife. You can say it's a special hobby of mine.”

“So Mr. Sandro's soul is missing. And what’s up with that woman ghost!?”

“Yes my lady, it's a unique case. We all know that after dying, the soul would linger in the body for seven days before it starts it's forty-day-journey to the after life. So during the séance, I tried to send his soul back via priority shipping to where it belong but the shell is empty. At the same time, I tried calling his soul from the other side to double check but he's not there either. That woman ghost is just a random d**k soul that got away from the afterlife and snuck inside the body of Mr. Sandro to play a prank. Apparently the afterlife is a boring place. There is a long line before you can get reincarnated.”

“So that specter somehow took or maybe ate the victim’s soul?” Dook interjected.

“I'm not sure my boy. Specter don’t eat soul. They are just regular vengeful spirit after all. Luckily you found the body on time so I was able to check the black ether using this eye of mine.” Jo is pointing his finger to his eyes and Dook noticed Asterids get stiff while sitting.

“I concluded that the ether contains a narrative or some kind of programming, you can say a command. Oh yes, it’s a curse!” Finally remembering the correct terminology.

“Curse huh.” Dook absorbed the info. Witches invented sorcery or the science of magic. With tools like pentagram, wands, alchemical materials, ancient symbols and language, the witches can convert the mana or magical aura from their body into Matter or miracles that bends the reality temporarily. Most of the witches only have few mana reserved in their body so casting magic is limited. Hence they invented and specialized in curse commands which use less mana and have lasting impacts.

“Yes. The curse is unique. It have the ability to shatter a soul and prevent reincarnation, the real definition of death. Because possibly the summoner is a genius, creating and adding a special spell to it. Or it's possible that the specter already had that unique knowledge when it was still a living witch.”

“Is there any recorded details of such ability? Any books about a curse that can destroy a soul?”

“Yes my boy, I heard such curse was made in the past. I might have been in my slumber at that time so I don't remember any details of it.”

“Wait, if you are able to send a ghost back to the afterlife. Would you be able to do the same on the specter?” Asterids asked.

“Yes my lady, but then I’m guessing the summoner will just summon the specter back.”

“Why would a witch summon such creature?” Asterids looks worried.

“The only thing I could think off is revenge. Or possible conspiracy—Hey, you’re worried.” The last sentence, he said as a statement not letting the lady deny it. Asterids’ face became neutral.

“Edward is a tough Alpha. I know it. He’s my business partner after all.” Dook added.

“He’s tough. I give him that. But I would like to believe that he deserved being hunted by a killer. After he did to me and—" Asterids stopped herself.

“I don't know what happened, but He's still your family.” Asterids did not reply. It seems her mind is already somewhere while her expression is stone cold.

“But I definitely need to save the clan, though. Besides we don't know if he really is the focal point of all of this. I just can't believe that they tried hiding all the details about the killings in the past years. And now he is nowhere to be found, abandoning the clan. Was he like this back then?” Dook figured that the lady is not really asking a question so he did not answer her.

“That just got heavy, Haha! You might want to visit the library in Makati.” Jo's mouth is covered with spaghetti sauce as if he just sucked someone's blood, but there's definitely room for meat balls and so the bulky vampire kept on talking while shoving more of that oily delicacy in his gullet.

“The witches district. Since those guys specializes in incantations, enchantments, spells and curses, they can easily help you with the case. Gods I really like this red goodness. Waiter! Can I have more of this meatball pasta?”

“You know that place am I right Asterids? Shoot! This week will get busier though. New clients, biddings.”

“Yes boss. That’s where I am residing currently. I can take care of that.”

“Okay. I'll be in the Pasig library then next week.” Dook ended the meeting.