Twenty-Three

Mircea

This… this was a terrible idea. Maybe not the worst I’d ever had, but definitely not the best. It could either end with my ideal goal in mind, or my body in shreds.

There’s only one way to find out.

The guards were unconscious on the ground, and I was standing at the end of the hallway that connected every cell we held wolves in. Between here and the surface was a layer of hecatolite to stop any part of the moon’s will reaching the wolves. The cells were overcrowded at best, and it was hard to tell exactly how many of them were down here.

There were probably close to two thousand if Vali’s statistics were right. And I was about to do something extremely reckless with them.

I walked down the hallway, waiting to reach a specific cell. One that held a survivor from last years Hunt, the only survivor really. He was someone who rallied the wolves together. If my people were sane, they would have killed him to prevent him from doing the same again this year. Instead, they kept him alive… because he made things interesting.

If I was going to make this plan work, and I needed it to work, he would have to help me. He would have to get his people to work together.

I lifted my hand towards the lock, using my mind to move the mechanisms and push the door open. When it did I saw gold eyes glowing in the darkness, six pairs floating in the three by three metre cell. I didn’t know how they slept in here, but I guess that wouldn’t be a problem for them anymore.

“And who the fuck are you?” A voice growled from the darkness, one pair of eyes walking towards the door.

“That’s the Prince…” Another trailed off as the moving wolf reached the light. He was pale, his skin unused to sunlight anymore. His hair fell to his shoulders in deep brown curls. As the light hit his eyes the gold faded away, but the blue irises weren’t focused on me, they were focused on the scarf in my hand.

“I’m a friend.” I said as a snarl came from the wolf’s throat.

“Then why do you have the White Wolf’s scarf?” His voice was deep, a threat lacing the tone.

“She gave it to me.” I said as he ripped the item of clothing from my hand, and I felt a part of my chest ache with it’s removal.

“A likely story.” He said, his voice also raspy. When was the last time any of the wolves down here had regular access to water?

“I would never hurt Selene’s Chosen.” I said, watching as his eyes flicked up to meet mine. “I would never hurt Vali.” I added, and he flinched at the name.

“What do you want?” He asked, still not stepping any further than the door.

“To get you all out.” I answered, he shook his head.

“You want a distraction, you don’t want to help us.”

“I’m working with Vali to bring down my father, we were going to end the Hunts… I thought I could bring him down from the inside, but he has more allies than I thought. Figured that if I’m going to run I may as well fuck up the Hunts for him.” I kept a close eye on the wolf as he finally stepped into the hallway. His clothes were in tatters, dirt covered every inch of his skin and the stench of not bathing overtook my senses.

“There are one and a half thousand of us down here in hundreds of cells. Unless you have hours up your sleeve, you won’t be able to help all of us out. But you came to me first, why?”

“Because I can get all of you out, and you can lead them out. They won’t trust me to do that, which is very reasonable given our people’s history.” I said, which was when he sniffed the air. When he took in my scent.

“You smell like her…” He said, looking over his shoulder at the other wolves who had made their way to the light. One of them nodded at him, she wasn’t as dirty as the others which meant she hadn’t been here for as long. Even so, the way he looked at her and placed importance on her approval meant she had a good standing with the wolves.

“What time is it?” She asked me.

“Midday.” I answered, she nodded once more.

“Good, we might be able to control our shift then.” He said, turning to look back at me. “You can get us all out?”

“Yes, but there’s no guarantee there won’t be a fight.” I made sure he knew, and all he did was smirk.

“We’d be happy to spill some blood if necessary.” The woman said, her eyes glowing. “Free them, we’ll make sure they don’t riot too early or tear you to shreds.”

“That would be ideal…”

“Not just for you, Vali might kill us if you get hurt.” The male said.

“I can take care of myself.” I said, lifting my hands to point both ways down the hallway.

“Not against one and half thousand wolves.” He retorted, and I wished that he made a good point, but I honestly don’t know exactly what I’m capable of. My Uncle… my father used to say he felt great power growing in me, my mother used to say the same. They both said that Traian was either too obnoxious to feel it or too afraid to mention it, to train me to use it.

“Yeah, probably not.” I decided to just agree, it would be faster and I didn’t really want to put myself to the test right now. Well, I guess I was already going to do that. Blasting all of the cell doors at the same time was already going to be a push.

“What are you doing?” The woman asked. I answered by letting my power run through my veins.

Each door down the hallway simply popped off of the hinges and fell to the ground. I slowly lowered my hands and turned to look back at the two who were clearly in charge. They directed their people out as quickly as they could, making calm lines to get us out, while I dealt with any vampires we came across both quickly and quietly.

It was only when we were sure every wolf was out and in the forest around Bran castle that I found the original two wolves again.

“What are we doing from here?” The male asked, which was the part I hadn’t really planned for yet.

“Everyone needs to run, as far and as fast as they can. Find the nearest packs and boost their numbers, ready the alphas to join Vali when she calls. I’m going to find her, we need to figure out what to do next.” I said. It made the most sense, and the way they both nodded meant they agreed with me.

“I’ll go around, make sure everyone knows. Dallas, it’s probably best you go with the Prince here, take a few other wolves with you. We’ll need to keep him safe, for the Prophecy if nothing else.”

“I’ll let Vali know that you’re okay, Kira.” Dallas responded before she left. Dallas.

“You were Vali’s second…” I trailed off as he turned towards me, he furrowed his brow.

“She told you about me?” He asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Mentioned you in an argument we had. Used you as a prime example of why the Hunts no longer work.” I explained, he nodded.

“Did she tell you everything?” He asked next, I shook my head. “I guess that’s up to her then.”

“What prophecy was Kira talking about?” I asked next, he furrowed his brow once more. Maybe he was questioning why I didn’t know about it, but decided to ultimately tell me about it anyway.

“The first female White Wolf and the Vampire Prince are meant to bring our world into peace. Vali knew what she was meant to do from when she claimed her title as our Chosen, she’s been planning this for a long time now. Been waiting to find a good way to integrate your lives together, I guess she did it.” I guess she did. “Now, do you know where she is?”

“No clue. I was hoping that I would have an epiphany once we got out.” I told him, double-checking I had everything that I needed with me. My moonstone was obviously on my person since I wasn’t turning to ash in the sun, my scent-inhibitor was in my pocket, my phone with me as well.

I didn’t bother packing a bag, didn’t bother with clothes. Those things could be sorted out later, what was most important was getting the wolves out of imprisonment and getting to Vali.

“There’s a pack in Slovakia, they are the closest to us. No packs reside in Romania, it’s far too close to danger.” He explained, which made sense. Although I was hoping that she wasn’t that close, that she wasn’t putting herself in danger for me.

“We’ll go there first then.”