The Dormant Queen of the Hybrid

Book 1,Chapter 8 Dook

“I got you the ring back.” He put it on the white table beside her bed. Fingers pressing on the ring pendant. He also gave her a basket of fruits and then opened the window curtain to let the afternoon amber sunlight in.

“You could’ve just stole it and hid it from me stupid. I would think it was lost in the excavation site. How are you okay and uninjured unlike me?” Asterids tried to sit up miserably. Her face, specially around the eyes, is aching. Perks of having your first time semi-shifting.

“No. You need the ring right?”

“Boss I’m starting to think that you need it the most. I didn’t know you’re a hybrid too.” Dook was not able to respond to her. Both of them fell silent for a few minutes trying absorb the events yesterday.

“Electric-Alpha-Hybrid.” Asterids whispered in a childish tone, which made Dook smile in a way of saying you are so weird assistant.

Asterids grab the ring and held the Alpha’s hand. “I’m returning it to you,” she said, putting the necklace on his palm.

“No.” Dook left the necklace on the table again.

“ I realized that the outburst is something I need to face myself.” He looked at her, expecting a counter rejection but Asterids kept silent. Dook took the chair beside the white table and faced Asterids.

“Being an adult. I am able to manage the tiger inside of me. But it was overwhelming for a kid of seven years old. Father and Mother was good to me. They were my world.” He felt like he’s about to throw up, but he is compelled to tell Asterids everything, and he doesn’t even know why.

“December 2001 was my seventh birthday. My first time shifting day. We were prepared and I was able to properly manage it with the help of the ring. Mother and father would keep the ring with them from time to time. Back then I didn’t know what was happening to them yet. They were very secretive. I was curious. If I only knew the ring was saving them, I wouldn’t have selfishly ask them to give it to me permanently. Father kept it in his office. Called me the day of my eleventh birthday December 2007 to surprise me.. but it was gone when I arrived. I just found out recently a footage. The CCTV camera showed your father Edward stole the ring.”

“My gods. But my mother she—”

“It’s okay Asterids. I feel that it doesn’t matter anymore. A few weeks after the ring was gone, though. That night, I found my parents on their secret basement. New shifter, I have heightened sense of smell. Used it to my advantage to locate my mother. My father and mother shared a distinct smell.” Dook chuckled looking at the bed, as if trying to difuse the tension in the room, but his eyes shows grim expression.

“When I got to their hide out. I found the reason for that distinct smell. I transformed. And—Byakko attacked them to death.” Dook felt the hands of Asterids held his. He heard her sobbed quietly.

“I blamed my tiger for a long time. I cursed myself. I feared for a long time.” Dook brushed his hair up with the other hand, sighing deeply.

“A few years after, I found out that both my parents were member of a cult. This insane cult strongly believe the law of nature’s survival of the fittest. This included hunting. Prey vs predator. They believed that absorbing the prey makes them stronger.” Dook closed his eyes.

“They were cannibals Asterids.” He blinked several times looking at the ceiling, trying to control his emotion, as his newbie assistant gasp for air.

“My parents were eating another shifters flesh. I don’t know who’s the real monster between me and my family at that point. The scientific community isn’t supporting the notion of those cult, but they are not denying it either which made the group believe more.”

“I.. I’m really sorry to learn that boss. You’ve been through a lot as a kid. I don’t think that it’s really your fault.”

“You might be right Asterids. Byakko was only protecting the victims of my parents. But it really hurt and damn traumatizing to find the blood of your parents on your hand. He is a freaking self righteous tiger. I don’t want him controlling me any longer. I’m not afraid.. Asterids.” Dook felt like he have a lot to say but does not have a word for them.

“Hey do you remember the time before you blacked out yesterday? You called me. Rather, you called Byakko within me. You spoke to my soul. And I-I felt it. How did you do that?” Dook remembered a skill that only few alphas have. The Haku or the roar of the leader. It’s the capability to command a feral animal using a commanding aura. Only a born alpha leader can develop such ability to influence others and that’s how the shifters community elects their leaders. But Asterids is a confirmed omega. Both of her chimera DNA are omega which doesn’t make any sense.

“Boss, I’m as clueless as you are.”

“You called me your child.”

“Boss.” Asterids tone is dim. She started wiping the tears in her eyes.

“To tell you the truth—” she paused again.

“Is it possible that I am your mother in our previous life?”

“What?!”

“And it’s also possible that during that previous lifetime as mother and child, we were doing incest s****l activities.”

“What the?!” And then he saw his assistant hiding a laugh covering her mouth using the blanket.

“You know that Oedipus thingy,” Asterids added, eyes squinting.

“Ass!” Dook threw Asterids a small grapes from the fruit basket that he bought earlier.

“Hey that’s bad manners. Don’t injure the sick and don’t play with your food!”

“Lady you’re a lot you know that right?”

“Come on boss I’m just lightening the mood! “ Dook felt relieved opening up to her. It felt healthy to do so.. which, is why it is the worst scenario for the young alpha. This moment is very confusing for him. Something inside him is compelled to be truthful to the young lady, but Dook does not get close to anyone. No deep friendship, nor love, nor intimacy. Any kind of relationship is a dangerous game. After all, his inner tiger Byakko’s expression of righteousness is to kill. The love for his parents did not stop his outbursts from murdering them. That same love was the most cruelest thing that hurt him as a child.

“Gods! You as my mother? I rather us be cousins so I can ignore and hide away from you during family gathering.”

“I can do that. I can be your cousin,” Asterids agreed.

“Cousin Asterids it is,” Dook said as he stared at the free floating clouds in the amber sky, outside the window.

*** *** ****

“Boss apparently I might be a hybrid too. The doctor said. Cool isn’t it?” Dook was not paying attention. He is noticing though that Asterids is wearing the necklace again, hidden inside her t-shirt. Most importantly, ever since Asterids spoke to his inner animal self, all the creeping anxiousness subsided. It feels like Byakko, his tiger became tamed. It’s been a week since the excavation site incident and they are continuing their private investigation for the Madrigal killings. As usual the local police doesn’t have any update about the killer, a.k.a. the shadow curse specter. They were expecting Mr. Jo, the coroner, has submitted the autopsy report and has already reached the MCCDS but they are silent as well. Give us our tax money back you lazy vultures.

“Boss?” Dook did not reply.

“Are you looking at my boobs?”

“Don’t flatter your self lady. I’m not into A cup.”

“How dare you!”

We have arrived at the Sta. Cruz Pasig station! A robotic announcement interrupted the two. They get off the train, out of the station and started walking the M.H. Del Pillar Street.

“I could’ve driven us there using my comfortable car.” Dook is secretly appreciating the commute though. There are trees shading them against the strong sunlight. It’s fun to hear the noise of the busy public places. Yep fun to observe but never to interact with or his anti-social ass will get tired easily. His people skills are reserved for client meetings only. Besides, the goons in his construction sites are all his friends. He interacts with them from time to time. Yep I’m not introvert.

“Boss it’s called committing to the role. We’re on disguise remember?”

“Stupidity.”

“Rude!” His assistant was about to argue with Dook again, but it seems that she noticed his stoic smile which changed her mind.

“Hey, Boss. Do you have any news about the guys from site excavation incident?”

“They cleared me of it.” Dook’s face is neutral. He can feel the guilt inside him.

“It was self defense after all and no one died,” Asterids responded. The Hotel properties did not receive any damage. Dook however was summoned by those damn Shifter Council. Outbursts are known mental health issues. Apparently there have been studies that was made about it by previous scholars in the field of medicine. According to the Shifter council, Outbursts are common among guardians and they are requiring him to manage it by therapy and healthy lifestyle. Things that he’s doing since day one, except the f-ing therapy.

“Boss we are here. Is this really the Pasig library? It looked like a day care center. I was expecting pantheon like monument. You know posts and lintels. Where are our taxes going?” the young lady complained.

“The facility was build for kids and students alike, not for the US president. Come on inside assistant.”

“Oh look! They have a swing set for toddlers boss!”

*** *** ***

The inside of the building looked wider. The walls are cement and polished wood while the floors are marble in which some parts are covered by thick blue carpet. Bookshelves almost filled the room except the common spaces and reception. The middle of the lobby is accented by a huge chandelier and a hallway leading to a narrow stairs going down to a darker narrower hall.

“You say that this building is for kids, so why would they put the reference materials for curses here? Gods that hallway down below looks like the entrance to hell. Are the kids reserved as offerings?”

“We don’t really know if there are documents about curses here. There’s a museum and historical section below this building. I usually go here to admire the artifacts but I do some light research there for historical designs and building code. Jo said that the curse made out in public during war. We might find some info that can help us identify it in the historical books. We could’ve gone straight to the witches district to view their library of curses but—”

“They are racist bastards, I know.” Asterids replied in a comical way by making face, cutting off Dook.

“Correct.” Dook pretended to cough this time, to hide his smile from Asterids. “They recently made the ground level private and won’t accept visitors unless you’re a higher education student or a scholar who works for an academe,” he added. They headed to the main reception and was given direction to go straight the dark hall to meet the head librarian there. Arriving at the lowest floor, two story below, Asterids greeted the tired looking old librarian and then provide her old college ID. Dook was introduced as a senior student who failed his thesis and had to start over a new research.

The ground museum is a particular world of reddish-brown wood displays and collection of items and documents depicting the historical antiquities relating to the shifters. Fifty to maybe a hundred of book shelves are perpendicular to the wall arranged in a Dewey decimal system and in chronological order from the ancient to the medieval histories and some books during the industrial revolution.

The duo started digging the books for any articles about curses or spells but only found nonsense like : Cooking a deer with Basil Volume 1, How to cook a bird and other flying animals. How to cook with your enemy during war. How to cook the enemy. Dook flipped some page about the history of Philippines economic decline. He also found the print for the popular book ‘I fed the enemy with my breastmilk, a biography’. They went further at the corner of shelves seven and found the histories of trading. Shelve sixty nine is the worst. It’s a collection of books about how to serve and glorify the witches masters. A.k.a the racist bastards. By lunchtime, the librarian is already peeking from the door to see if the visitors already went home. Asterids and Dook hid behind the shelves away from the prying eyes of the old lady. They continued to the art section for any possible helpful information related to magical arts, pentagram, spells, golden ratio, etc. They only found paintings of known artists, and other stuff not related to their investigation. Dook noticed his assistant got immersed looking at the pictograph collection of the Shifter Monarch Maria Clara. Maria Clara is one and only reincarnation of the Queen Monarch who was born and lived in the country of the Philippines hundreds of years ago. The shifters monarch have the power to influence the world but they are not immortal unlike the other magical creatures race’s monarch (Fairies, Witches, and Vampires). The shifters Queen and King only allow themselves to live for a century. After that, they will join the cycle of life and reincarnate in a different place. Different nationality and appearance but still a shifter. Dook observed Asterids flipped the pages further, examining all the collected paintings of the graceful monarch. Most of the time, Maria Clara is depicted as a beautiful maiden in the rice field helping the farmers, or in the river or oceans helping the fishers. Dook got just curious on how Asterids’ eyes resembles Maria Clara’s. After spending hours in the library until dark, the boss and his assistant decided to dismiss the day without any supportive information for the case. Tomorrow, they will have to go to the Pasig City Police department to meet Edward’s insider.