Pack Wars

Chapter 5 - The Stand-Off

The air in the basement chamber had suddenly become much thicker as Master Harold finally stepped out of the crowd entirely, cautiously stopping about a metre away from the incredibly dangerous intruders as he bravely maintained their menacing stare.

He knew the danger that he and the others were currently in.

Sure, they were extremely powerful as a whole, but many of their witches were inexperienced and unable to hold their own against a powerful adversary such as a werewolf. Plus, wolves were swifter and far more ruthless.

“Alright, I’m here. So what do you want?”

Wren narrowed his eyes in frustration at the idiocy of this man. He was clearly stalling for time.

“Now you’re just wasting my time.” the Delta growled under his breath.

“Tell me where the rogue is… NOW!”

His last command seemed to startle everyone in the room as they appeared to jump in unison, each waiting intently to see what would happen.

As tension filled the air, Lady Sabitha’s eyes darted downward to see the glowing green orb now formed in Master Pallius’ open palm. It remained hidden by the crowd of fellow witches in front of him.

His eyes slowly moved up to meet with hers and she nodded her head in agreement at his obvious and yet dangerous plan.

They would not stand for this intrusion, nor for the threat on their kind…

It was time for them to fight back.

-

Zara could feel her pulse thudding loudly, as if attempting to break out of her chest. Her breaths were coming out in shallow pants as they had finally reached their destination.

They were in some kind of darkened chamber of the castle, one that looked much older than the rest of the castle. Positioned in the centre of the room was the large Viewing Window and her brown eyes instantly darted to peer at it in amazement.

“What’s that?” she pointed as she stepped down towards it, slowly.

“That… is not your concern.”

He spoke vaguely with his back to her as he appeared to be doing something on the surface of the desk.

Mixing potions, it looked like.

“So… are you gonna tell me what’s going on here? Why there are werewolves now chasing us?” she queried walking across to stand beside him at the desk.

He was mixing potions, but for what reason? She had no clue. The ingredients that he was using, they didn’t appear to make any sense to her.

No one would ever mix red-earth powder with oil of crow’s feet!

“Xandaar?”

“Werewolves are in the castle Zara. They’ve come here for someone and they won’t stop until that person is found. That’s all you need to know.” he explained with a frown as he worked fast to finish his potion.

He raised the glass vial up to get a better look at it as he shook it vigorously in his hand for a while.

“Ok… so who are they after?” she raised her left brow in question.

He suddenly stopped shaking the vial and appeared to pause, thinking in silence as his face fell. He tried to hide it from her, but Zara was a lot smarter than he had ever given her credit for.

“Once again, it’s not your concern.”

Swallowing nerves down, Xandaar turned away from her and made his way across to one of the walls at the other end of the chamber.

She glared at him now.

He was obviously hiding what he knew from her and she could somehow sense that he was lying. She didn’t know how, if was almost as if he had given off a smell, a certain scent of betrayal and she could smell it on his sweat.

Finding the idea strange, she merely brushed the thought aside and refocused her thoughts on their current situation.

“What are you doing with that?” she asked, following him across the chamber to stand at the large stone wall.

“Keep your mouth shut and watch…” he warned her, “This might come in handy one day.”

Xandaar began pouring the mixture onto his gloved finger, then painting several symbols onto the stone bricks in some strange order that not even Zara understood.

He was creating a doorway.

Once all symbols had been drawn onto the bricks, smeared with the strange mixture, Zara noticed that they had all been drawn in one big circular shape.

The Grand Master then held out his gloved hand, open palm facing the wall positioned right in the middle of the circle and began to chant aloud.

“Havus Luvaar Meriit-Domane…” (translated as “Open the doorway”)

Zara’s eyes widened in surprise as suddenly each of the markings began to glow a bright red shade, almost rising up off of their painted surface. The space inside, once solid stone brick suddenly began to change consistency into a more liquidy kind. It rippled like water would!

“Whoa!” she couldn’t help but smile at this.

Xandaar quickly turned to her, placing his gloved hand onto her shoulder as he began to explain what he could. His expression showed just how serious he was.

“Zara, listen to me. You and I need to leave the castle immediately, I can not explain. We will travel in secret through the Hallow Woods and make our way to a neighbouring Coven at Brindle Manor.”

“Brindle Manor, you mean the Brindle Coven? That’s ridiculous, why can’t I stay here?”

His grip on her shoulder suddenly tightened as he pulled her in closer, his expression cold now.

“We haven’t time-”

“-I’d say your time’s up, Xandaar.”

The unfamiliar voice caused them both to turn around and meet the glassy silver pairs of eyes staring back at them from the darkness of the entryway.

“s**t… they found us.”

Xandaar’s voice was but a whisper as he forced Zara behind him with his outstretched arm.

Stepping forward into the light was a tall, well-built man with white-blonde hair. It was Beta Patrick himself, accompanied by several members of his pack, now standing either side of him.

“I like what you’ve done with the place.” Patrick grinned playfully.

“This is a bold move Patrick, even for you.” Xandaar announced.

“You do understand there will be repercussions, consequences for such an open breach to the treaty between werewolves and witches.”

Patrick smiled, lowering his head as his hands came up to rest on either side of his hips. If Zara knew any better the treaty had meant nothing to the wolves. They clearly had no issues with breaking it.

“Come on Xandaar cut the crap! I know the wolf’s here… I can smell it… the room wreaks of the rogue’s scent.”

Xandaar fanned ignorance, his expression never changing.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, I will kindly ask you to leave my castle before I am forced to send you on your way.”

The other wolves standing beside Patrick began to chuckle loudly, as if they didn’t for a second believe the Grand Master’s obvious warning.

“Is this guy serious?” one of them pointed toward them with a wide-mouthed grin.

Zara knew just how powerful Xandaar was. She had seen examples of it in the past.

But they were clearly outnumbered in their current situation and she knew now would be her best chance to step up and prove her abilities, the growing level of her power.

“Xandaar, we can take them-” she suddenly spoke up, focusing each of the wolf’s attention on her, even as she stood behind the Grand Master.

“-Silence!” Xandaar’s reply was stern but with good reason.

He was trying to keep their attention focused on him, not her.

“Who’s that you’ve got there?” Patrick asked, tilting his head as he tried to bend far enough to see her face.

“No one.”

Xandaar’s reply was like a punch to her heart and she frowned.

“No one?”

“No one, huh?” the Beta took a step closer, testing the waters, so to speak.

“Then why won’t she show her pretty little face, hmm?”

“She’s shy.”

Xandaar’s quick response a clear attempt at dry humour, but the wolves were not having any of it.

Patrick suddenly took another step closer and paused. He lifted his head up and took a deep sniff in through his nostrils, taking in the rogue’s scent.

His eyes immediately began to glow brightly as he grinned at the Grand Master knowingly.

“Is that her?” his brow raised confidently.

He already knew the answer to his question. He could hear Xandaar’s pulse rate quickly increase, even from their distance away.

And Xandaar already knew what he would have to do to keep Zara safe. His eyes closed as he willed himself to do it.

Xandaar took Zara by her upper arm and pulled her in close as he looked her in the eye with a pained expression and spoke.

“Run!”

With that he gave her a hard shove, sending her hurtling towards the open doorway. Her eyes were wide as she was suddenly sucked into the liquidy substance and disappeared from sight, all in the fraction of a second.

“NO!”

Patrick roared angrily, just as he and the other wolves charged toward the Grand Master and the glowing doorway, still apparently open beside him.

Zara landed hard on her right shoulder on what appeared to be a leaf-covered ground. Glancing upward she saw the open doorway, still glowing in front of where she lay.

And the last thing she saw was Xandaar’s pained expression as he stood staring at her, with the wolves rushing towards him, their claws bared, and their mouths open wide…

She couldn’t hear him, but he mouthed something to her before the doorway closed.

“I’m sorry.”