Chapter 51: Chapter 51

“What made her improve so fast after that day?” Caden asked.

“The adults explained that it was the way things happened when Prometheus granted someone a Prometheus gift. The gift enables them to reach new heights quite quickly and without having to do much, however, it eventually seems to hit a limit. A limit that can only be broken with intense training or so I was told. It was most likely that she was granted her Prometheus gift on that very day she took down the werewolf.”

“What was a werewolf doing there at that moment?”

“The wolf was being transported and one of its harnesses happened to get loose and it escaped. The wolf was being taken to the dungeon for interrogation. Intel suggested that the man was a close accomplice to the Rogue King. When he escaped, the hunters had been ordered to capture him alive and the first ones to come close to catching him found him dead at the hands of a twelve-year-old,” Sandra said.

“What happened to Katie after that?” this question had a different context from the tone Caden used to ask.

“Didn’t escape you, did it?” Sandra sighed. It was true that Katie was different after that, “All I can say is that she got quieter after that and showed less emotion as was required of her as a pro hunter. She was officially given licence when she was fifteen years old to prevent causing too much contempt amongst the younger kids, but she was a pro hunter far earlier than that. Nonetheless, even after she got her license, she asked us to restrain from throwing the title around.”

“Sometimes I don’t what to think of the tales of Katie Chase,” Jason chuckled, “It’s nothing to laugh about, but I can’t help it when a human seems too talented.”

.....

“I would say that I got lucky,” an alien voice interrupted the conversation. The three looked about frantically for the source, “Relax, it’s just me. I didn’t think I’d find anyone here. Where’s Cole?”

“He went out on a run. I’d say that he should be back at the hotel by now. Are you okay?” Sandra asked, remembering the tears on her friend’s face when she left the Hunter’s Agency.

“Yeah, I am. I just came here to do some thinking. I see you found some new opponents to train with,” Katie chuckled. “Can I spar with them for a bit? Though both of them because I don’t want to get bored with just one.”

“Won’t you use your Prometheus gifts?” Caden asked.

“Well, if you want to limit me, then choose one gift that I shouldn’t use,” she said.

“That still means we’ll be facing a pro hunter,” Jason groaned.

“Scared, I’ll go easy on you,” she coaxed. Just as the boys were about to get ready, a buzzing sound came from one of their jackets that lay in the shade under the trees by the treeline. Sandra ran to check on it and found a text that made her smile drop.

“It’s Cole. He needs the guys to return to the hotel,” she said. That was their cue to leave. “Katie, are you?”

“No, let them go. We’ll do this another time. I’ve been meaning to talk to you Sandra,” she replied, letting her muscles relax. The boys bid them farewell and left the cabin shifted in their wolf forms. The atmosphere changed between the two friends. Sandra hadn’t planned to be found out this soon by her friend, but coming back to train at this cabin had proved irresistible. “You’ve taken a liking to those boys.”

There was no doubting that. The speed with which they had gotten familiar with the werewolves was unnatural, “Yes, I guess I have. I also didn’t intend to let you find out about this extra training for a while.”

“It’s nice to see you pushing yourself even further. I would have thought having you in charge of protecting the school in my stead was enough training, but if you’d rather do this, I am not against it,” Katie said, turning to go to the cabin. Sandra looked at her friend and noticed immediately that her gait was slightly laboured.

“Are you okay?” her voice took on an informed tone that demanded the truth from Katie. Katie noticed this and sighed in response.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice. Come inside... I’ll tell you while we check out something,” Katie replied. Sandra followed her friend in anticipation. Something was going on with her and she wanted to know what it was. “Earlier when I ran off, I might have lost control of my emotions and triggered my wolf to come out. I didn’t shift, but I nearly did. The result was a whole bunch of muscle pains.”

Sandra gasped on hearing the news, “Are you okay? How did you stop the shift?”

“I didn’t stop the shift. Considering the drugs I was taking, I don’t even know if I would have shifted,” Katie said, leading her friend through the threshold. Katie got to moving the sofas in the living room so that she could free the carpet on the ground. Something beneath it sparked her interest. The underground bunker that was built below the cabin. It was considered off-limits to them until Katie got her license at the age of fifteen.

“What do you mean you didn’t stop the shift? How then did everything end?”

“I mean someone else stopped the shift from completing,” Katie said, getting to work on the lock and snapping it open. Sandra noticed Katie’s reluctance to finish the story. The way she’d arrived alone was cause for so many questions. Something drastic had happened and induced this state she was in.

“Who was it... was it Cole?”

“I wish it was Cole. Everything would be much simpler then since he’s supposed to be my mate, but no... someone else did it,” she said.

“You throw that point around like it’s something meaningless. Who was it?”

“The moon goddess...” Katie’s hand stopped at the handle losing all energy to follow through the motions. She dropped to her knees and put her head in her hands. “The bloody moon goddess saved me from death claiming something about destiny and a prophecy. Who does that?”

“A prophecy... Katie...”

“There is too much behind how I got to this town. Too many things are revolving around me. I know I have to be strong, but why couldn’t it stay the same as it’s always been?” she whispered. This was Katie disabling her emotional shield. It was moments like this that reminded Sandra that she was Katie’s best friend.

“Looks like we adapted well to the simple fact that you’re a werewolf, not to mention a Royal that managed to attain Prometheus gifts at such a young age and was put in charge of security for her school,” Sandra began, walking up to her friend and sitting cross-legged next to her, “You’re not alone in this you know. Don’t make me watch you.”

“I know, Sandra, I know...” the two stayed silent for a bit, allowing the comfort of their company to seep in. Katie’s finger kept tapping the latch nervously. Something had drawn her here and the nervous tick was now raising Sandra’s curiosity.

“Umm... what’s in the basement?”

“That’s what I’d come to check out. My guardians said something about some modifications for tomorrow night,” she said.

“What about tomorrow night?” Sandra asked. “Isn’t that the time of the dance during the Founder’s festival?”

“Yes, that is about it. It is also the time that will be near my birthday. I came to see where I’ll attend that from,” she said, lifting open the trapdoor.

They climbed down the stairs leading into the darkroom. A flip of a switch snapped the room into brightness. It had been cleared and one thing stood in the centre of the room. A large steel table very similar to what Katie never thought she’d have to be strapped to. The table bore steel cuffs designed to hold werewolves. The only other place such tables could be found was in the dungeons that they used to hold rogues.

“How the tables have turned!” Katie mused as she slid her fingers lightly across the table.

“Feels poetic...”

“Something that should be said by someone who is against me, don’t you think?” Katie pointed out.

“Yeah, that is true. Do you think that idiot was telling the truth though? About students going missing and yet in actual sense they had been killed in secret,” Sandra asked.

“The mission of the rogues is to eradicate all signs of humanity in the world, but they don’t do it freely. I thought of it and realised there is a possibility that he was lying. I went to school and checked for the students that have been missing. They are all fine. Chandler was hoping the clues that he was giving me about the perpetrator would get me to snap, but when that failed, he resorted to attacking what he knew that I cared about the most so that he could pile up the stress and get something out of me,” Katie explained.

“What would drive someone to have such a motive in the end?”

“Rogues have a twisted way of thinking that’s unlike our own. Their pointless ideals are drilled into their minds at a very young age so that they mindlessly sacrifice themselves to achieve those same ideals. This is something that Ash survived. I don’t know how, but she wasn’t tainted by those ideals and was capable of being redeemed. To avoid giving in to such a dark life is much harder than to do so, but once you’re in, there is no going back,” Katie explained.

“You sound like you’ve thought of this a lot...”

“Yes, it is to help me figure out who it is that I need to take down...”

“You don’t even know how many of them that we are facing. We could be looking at so many more than the ones we faced that day,” Sandra pointed out.

“While that might be true, I will follow my gut on this one and find the last rogue. I know one is left and I’ll do everything necessary to catch them,” she said.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you. What happens after you shift tomorrow?” Sandra asked her friend, worry seeping into her voice while she said it.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om