“I would have been brought here sooner? What do you mean?”
“All of our kind are brought here, the sooner the better. In any case, once the shadows took over the Whyte Plain we couldn’t use it safely. Our information network crumbled overnight. Those shadows kill us, like they almost killed you. Once a shadow kills someone they in turn become one of them. They have become perverted, disgusting versions of themselves.” William could hear the contempt in his voice. “They are led by their insatiable appetite to feed on the bodies and souls of those stupid enough to enter their realm.”
It took William a moment to digest everything he had just heard. If it wasn’t for Aceso I would be one of them right now, hunting the Whyte Plain looking to feed on the souls of others. The thought made his skin crawl and he shivered involuntarily.
William shook his head. He placed his hands on his hips and looked up toward the ceiling. He took a deep ragged breath and looked at the Elders that were still in their seats. As he did so he said under his breath, “The next thing you’re going to tell me is that Vampires are real too.”
Huan Li held William’s gaze with an even stare. Huan Li’s eyes held an immense power and strength. Looking into those eyes, William felt like he was trying to move a mountain. “William, you have so much to learn. Those weakling half demons are the least of your worries.”
There was a finality to those words, like a gong had just sounded. Jacob turned around and the Elders rose from their seats in perfect synchronization and exited the room through a previously unseen doorway. William watched as the Elders disappeared through the dark opening in the stone. When they were gone Mr. Davis moved from his place on the wall and led the four werewolves from the room. They exited through another doorway and William was left alone.
“Hey, just leave me here, why don’t you?” he muttered under his breath.
He looked around the room. The shiny reflective stone that made up the room must have been obsidian. He looked down and could make out an amazing amount of detail in his reflection. He looked like shit. His hair was long and dirty. His beard and facial hair was rough and unkept. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He hadn’t slept in a long time. He thought he could make out the shape of his sunken stomach in the floor as well. He rubbed his hands up and down his torso and felt the protruding muscles of his abdomen. If he didn’t feel so tired and hungry, he would have smiled at his six pack but now he just wanted some food and to sleep.
Stolen story; please report.
He looked around the empty room. Now that he was alone, he could make out various intricate artistic carvings of werewolves along the wall. On the wall behind where the Elders had sat, he saw a Darwinian like diagram that showed a standing human on the far left. Through the series of pictures, the diagram showed the various stages of a man turning into a werewolf. There were about ten different pictures in the mural all showing very distinct stages of the transformation that he had become very familiar with over the last two years.
The diagram did show something that he was not aware of. There was a stage in the transformation that he had never gone through. The diagram showed a picture of a still mostly human melt into a formless shape. The very next picture showed a full-grown werewolf. The formless shape scared him. That looks like one of those shadow things. He shivered again at the memory of what he had almost become. He looked away from the diagram and continued to study the room.
The portal where he had emerged from the room below was no longer there. Where in the hell did it go? Am I a prisoner here? They wouldn’t bring me here to just to keep me locked up, would they? The thought of being locked up in this tower without food or water was disturbing but he had gone hungry before. He would probably pass out before too much longer anyway. He noticed that there was no other exit from the room. The two doorways that had been used to let out the Elders and Mr. Davis and his cadre were not visible.
The room was still well lit, which was nice. There was no other furniture in the room aside from the chairs and raised platforms the Elders had used. The thought of a wolf being an Elder might have been funny in another setting. But here, in this impossible city, he took it as just one more thing he was going to have to get used to. He took a few steps and the soft sound of his feet on the cold stone echoed off the walls. He couldn’t help but notice that there was no sign of dust at all in this room. He couldn’t imagine the Elders climbing this tower just to have meetings here on a regular basis but if not, then why was the room so clean?
He sat down on the platform that the red wolf had been using. He was starting to get a headache and he just wanted to sleep. His mind turned to the red wolf and her reaction to his scent that had made her growl at him. Did it have something to do with those shadows and the Whyte Plain? So many things have happened to him in the last two weeks or so that he was still trying to catch up and process everything he had gone through.
He looked up at the ceiling and realized that there was no visible light source in the room. The room was being lit, apparently, by itself. This place was actually kind of cool. If he wasn’t so tired and hungry, he might be enjoying it a lot more. But right then he just wanted to sleep.
He pushed himself up from the platform and walked a few steps. He was just about to lie down and go to sleep when he was pushed into the wall. He crunched up against the smooth reflective wall and looked into its smoky surface. He saw a massive shape moving toward him.
He turned around and saw Ares almost running at him. “Ares? What the hell are you doing?” Without so much as a grunt the massive werewolf picked up William like a rag doll and threw him back across the room.