RISE OF THE LYCANS - Mates and Bonds

Lukas

The confessional vanished, and a large opening appeared in its place. I looked down into the opening and saw a large, smooth stone slide.

“They must have found the trigger on the confessional,” Aunt Hazel told us.

“We would have heard something,” Rex said. “The shifting of wood, a scream of surprise, something. Grandma would not have gone silently.”

“No,” she shook her head and spoke softly. “The enchantment silences sound and is cloaked to appear and smell the same.”

“That’s why we didn’t actually see Erick disappear in the confessional,” Storm added. “The church was filled with tourists, and no one saw the confessional turn into a hole in the ground.”

“I’ll go first,” Ranger said. He stepped to the edge of the slide, and Uncle Zeus shot his arm out to hold him back.

“It could be a trap, and you’re thinking with your emotions,” he told Ranger.

“I can’t just stand here and do nothing, Dad,” Ranger urged.

“Lukas has all four elements, so he should go down with me,” Aunt Hazel stated.

“Everyone wait here,” I ordered. “Once we know it’s safe, you can join us.”

“Where you go, I’ll follow,” Uncle Zeus whispered to his mate. It was something I’d heard him say to her so many times before.

I pulled a ball of fire into my hand to light the way and slid down first. Uncle Zeus and Aunt Hazel followed, and without warning, Ranger also came down the slide behind his parents.

“Sol?” He called out her name. His gray eyes had turned dark, indicating his wolf had taken control.

Aunt Hazel was also an elemental wolf who controlled fire and could infuse magic into her flames. She extended her hand out and drew a small flame from the burning ball in my hand. I knew she hated dark and confined spaces, so I grew my ball of flames bright enough to light every crevice of this pit.

I noticed a small handkerchief against the wall, which I recognized. “Zane was here,” I told them, motioning to the handkerchief with the LaRue family crest on it.

Ranger picked up the square cloth and examined it. “I can scent Cynder on it as well.”

“That’s interesting,” Uncle Zeus crouched low. “A trail of breadcrumbs?” He picked something up off the ground and inspected it. “It’s fairly fresh.”

My eyes followed the breadcrumbs, and they seemed to disappear into a wall of dirt. I moved my hand over the wall, expecting it to open up or find something that could make it open up. There was no visible exit in this pit, and they didn’t just evaporate.

Hazel pointed to the footprints on the ground. “Hush Puppies.” Grandma’s favorite walking shoes had the words Hush Puppies carved in the soles.

“They were all here together, but there doesn’t seem to be an exit.”

Hazel walked in a circle around the small pit, trying to sense a hidden door. “There’s no other door and I’m not sensing a portal was used, but I could be wrong.”

“The bread trail just stops at the wall,” Ranger said. He moved beside me and started pressing random spots on the wall. “Are you sure there’s nothing here?”

Aunt Hazel extended her arms out, feeling the energy. “It’s a collapsed tunnel.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Ranger urged me. “Use your element to move the dirt out.”

“No!” Zeus warned and turned to face his mate, who extinguished the flame in her hand to sign.

“It could have collapsed after they passed to seal off the passage or…” she looked reluctant to say. “Or it could have collapsed when you destroyed the confessional as a way to cloak the magic used,” she continued. “If you remove the dirt, you could cause other parts to collapse on them if they’re still underground or the river to flood in.”

“Then how do we find them?” I suppressed my snarl as guilt flooded me. “I could have also caused the collapse when a tremor escaped me.”

“No,” Aunt Hazel said, shaking her head before her hands moved again. “This entire pit and tunnel system was designed by magic so it would have held up against an earthquake. Someone is using old, powerful magic… I can sense it.”

“Erick is a mage with a connection to Joan of Arc’s family, and who knows who else?” Ranger told her.

“Has anyone noticed a triple moon mark on him?” She asked.

“Yes, Grandma noticed the tattoo.”

Her hands started moving again as she replied. “The triple moon mark is no different than the crescent moon mark that appears on the nape of an elemental wolf. It’s not a tattoo, it appears when a mage has reached their full magical ability.”

“But…you don’t have one,” Ranger questioned.

“I don’t think your mother has reached the cap of her magic yet,” Uncle Zeus replied proudly.

“So if we’re not going through the tunnel to find them, where are we going?”

Hazel pointed up before she spoke. “Up. I can try sensing the trace of magic from above.”

The rock slide had disappeared, so I used large boulders to float us back up into the church. Hazel waved her hand again and the confessional returned in the same splintered condition I had left it in. There was no sign of the large open pit beneath it.

“They were all down there together,” Uncle Zeus announced.

“Are you sure?” Storm asked.

“My sister, too?” Flaym questioned.

“Yes,” I replied. “Zane’s handkerchief with the family crest was down there, along with footprints marked with Hush Puppy soles.”

“Grandma!” Flaym said. “Where did they go? Was there another door down there?”

“They left through a tunnel that had collapsed after,” I told him. “We need to see if we can find traces of magic from above.”

“Look at this,” Storm said as she examined the splintered pieces of wood from the confessional. “I think this was the seat.”

“Is that what I think it is?” Rex crouched for a better look at something.

The purple seat cushion was lying beside the slab of wood that served as the benched seat. “Fuck,” I growled, wondering how we could have missed it.

“The star of Ishtar,” Storm said.

“It’s the star of chaos,” Flaym corrected her.

“Ishtar is the one who brings chaos,” Storm told him.

“You’re both right,” Hazel said and started to sign again. “The mark of Ishtar dates back thousands of years before Christ. It’s been adopted and used to mean many things. Some believe that Ishtar may have had offspring with the Demon Lord, which is why it has become synonymous with chaos.”

“What is she saying?” Alpha Orléans whispered to Flaym.

“We’ve seen this symbol before outside the church.”

“This church?” Uncle Zeus asked.

“Yes,” Storm replied. “I’ll show you.”

We left the church without attempting to fix anything. I knew my mother would not approve, so I made a note to send a large donation after I found Selena. I felt a tiny bit of relief knowing that Zane was with them, but my beast wouldn’t calm until I held her in my arms.

Uncle Zeus looked to the dark sky, and the wind shifted. He used his control over the air element to stop the rain and break up the heavy clouds. The nearly full moon washed everything in light, and I looked back at the still dark cathedral as I remembered we forgot to turn the power back on.

“It’s just over here,” Storm said.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“I know what that is!” Hazel said in a shocked, slow tone.

“A sewer drain?” Uncle Zeus questioned.

“No,” Alpha Orléans replied. “That’s the marker for Point Zero. It marks the very center of Paris.”

Aunt Hazel shook her head, and her eyes went wide in disbelief. “It’s a portal to the dark realm,” she spoke faintly, but I heard her clearly.

“The dark realm?” Storm repeated.

“You mean a demon hole!” Flaym added. “I was right!”

“Yes,” Aunt Hazel said with a nod. “It’s sealed from the other side by a different kind of magic.”

“What do you mean, different kind of magic?”

“It’s a protection enchantment,” she said, then started moving her hands again. This time, Flaym read it aloud so Alpha Orléans could understand. “It’s a one-way portal. Something from the other side can get through, but nothing from this side is allowed to enter.”

“Can you open it?” Rex asked.

She nodded yes and continued signing. “I wouldn’t want to. Whatever is on the other side could bring chaos with it since it’s marked with the eight point star. I once read in an ancient scroll that demons who were kicked out of the dark realm were sent to this world to live as stone statues.”

“Stone statues?” Flaym asked. “As in… ugly, grotesque, scary-looking demonic statues?”

Her hands moved again, “At some point in the thirteenth century, stone workers started using them as the first-ever rain gutters on buildings. They carved a small canal along the back side of the statue, which allowed the water to run out of their mouths.”

“Wait, are you talking about gargoyles?”

Aunt Hazel nodded. “Thanks to their stone body, a gargoyle has the ability to hold itself so still that it appears to be a statue.”

“There used to be a lot more gargoyles in Paris, and some were rumored to move or disappear,” Alpha Orléans said. “I thought gargoyles were designed to look that way to ward off evil, not because they were actual demons who were expelled from the dark realm.”

“Do they all come to life or just the ones on Notre-Dame?” Flaym uttered in disbelief as he pointed to the cathedral.

A gargoyle resembling an ugly monkey with wings had taken flight. He opened his mouth and unleashed a shriek strong enough to project a wave that could knock a human to their ass. A second gargoyle with red eyes and pointed teeth swooped low and snarled at us before he circled around again. It had bison-looking horns but resembled a rabid tiger with wings. It swooped down again as it tried to take a swipe at Flaym, and Storm leaped for it without hesitation.

“Storm!” Hazel cried out.

Storm hooked one arm around the gargoyle’s neck and tore off a horn with her other. The gargoyle released a screech, and she plunged the horn into its open mouth before she let go and dropped thirty feet. The gargoyle fell and shattered into stone.

Zeus struck a match, and Hazel immediately drew a burning ball of fire from it in each hand. Rex did the same, and I shifted my claws.

“Move closer to the trees to draw them lower,” I told the others, and we moved to the bronze statue of Charlemagne beside the big open courtyard in front of the church.

The static electricity started building in the air, and Uncle Zeus prepared to strike. Several other gargoyles started slowly moving as if waking from a long hibernation. The monkey-looking gargoyle swooped back around and opened his mouth to shriek again. Uncle Zeus zapped it with a massive bolt of lightning, and it exploded.

“Whose flying monkeys are these?” Flaym asked.

A human skeletal gargoyle with bird talons soared overhead, and I used my earth element to swing a branch and knock him back into the church, where he shattered into dust.

Just when I thought they couldn’t get any more grotesque, an eerie devilish-looking gargoyle wielding a stone sword screeched by and swung his weapon at Storm. Her reflexes were fast, and she jumped out of the way before the blunt weapon could touch her. Storm and I hit it with a bolt of lightning at the same time, and it exploded into something similar to smashed concrete.

“They look possessed or something,” Ranger shouted as he sprang for a lizard with wings and ripped its head off.

Another sinister gargoyle that looked like an emaciated dragon dove for Storm, and Rex threw a fireball at it. To my surprise, it captured the ball of fire with its mouth and breathed it out at my sister. Storm leaped out of the way just as Flaym dove in front of the spot she was standing to protect her from the fire. The dragon gargoyle took flight and hovered high.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Aunt Hazel said with a low growl as the amulet around her neck started to glow.

Aunt Hazel launched a purple ball of flames and turned two more flying creatures into ash. Several lightning bolts met their targets with a crack, and I alternated between my elements. Alpha Orléans made an impressive leap and snatched an owl before smashing it into pieces. Storm stepped away from us and stood with her claws fully extended, and her lycan head shifted.

“What are you doing?” I linked my sister.

“Testing a theory,” she said.

“Which is?”

“Either the color of my hair in the moonlight is setting them off, or they’re targeting me.”

The flying dragon made another swoop for her. “It’s after Storm!” I yelled as the realization hit me. The strongest of the gargoyles kept trying to attack her while the weaker ones were distracting us.

“Storm move!” I yelled just as she sent up a gust of dusty wind in the dragon’s face to blind it. The creature roared, and Storm sprang for it. Her clawed hands went to work, slicing, gouging, and smashing.

The last of the gargoyles dropped from the sky, and the courtyard was covered in shattered pieces of stone. Tomorrow morning, Paris would wake up and notice all the gargoyles were missing. The authorities would assume it was vandals after finding the turned-over benches and smashed confessional inside the church.

“Well, that was exciting,” Flaym said, standing naked in the wind.

“At least you still have your shoes this time, Carrots,” Storm laughed.

“My Gamma is still at the door of the cathedral,” Alpha Orléans chuckled. “I’ll have him see if he can find something for you to wear.”

Ranger walked around the smashed and shattered pieces of the flying creatures. “Those must be the malevolent demons Grandma was talking about.”

“These are minor demons,” Hazel said with a nod.

Ranger crouched down to take a closer look at what appeared to be a big chunk of a boar’s head. “And they were kicked out of hell?”

“Yes and no,” Hazel replied as my uncle wrapped his arms around her. “Hell is believed to be a subsection of the Dark Realm, like Tartarus.

“So, why not just send them to Tartarus?” I asked. “Why send them here?”

“I wish I knew,” Hazel said.

“Maybe they come to life at night?” Flaym suggested.

“Whatever they are, they’re obviously working with the she-demon. That gargoyle didn’t just fall on Storm earlier by accident.”

A few moments later, the Gamma came jogging out of the shadow, holding a blue choir robe.

“Alright!” Flaym said. “At least it’s not a woman’s silk robe.”

“Now you can pass for an alter-boy,” Storm teased.

“We should leave this area before someone comes to investigate,” Alpha Orléans said.

We started walking across the bridge toward the first district. My beast was howling for our mate, and I was all out of ideas.

“Selena?” I tried calling through the mind link, hoping I’d hear her.

There was nothing.

“Princess,” I tried again. “Please!”

Silence.

Aunt Hazel put her hand on my arm. “We’re going to find them,” she spoke gently. “I need to know everything you’ve done and seen since you’ve been here.”