Chapter ten

A woman walked into a prison and bowed on seeing the man standing there. “I’m sorry for being late,” she bowed.

“It’s okay,” Damien shook his head, “the good thing is you are here. Can you take a look at him?”

Catherine nodded and walked to one of the cells there. There was a wolf in there, its eyes were white like it has been glazed over with a white paint and spittle drooled from its jaw. One look at it, one would know that it has gone derange but it is not a rogue, after all, everyone knows now that only the rogues look like that. “Another one?”

“Sadly yes. And it’s really tiring since nothing has been done about the others. However, I’m surprised that it’s happening here. Yes I have heard the news of the rogues biting and infecting some wolves but it has never happened here, not here.”

“It doesn’t matter where it is happening, the most important thing is that we have to find out how to treat them. It’s a surprise since the rogues can shift into their human forms despite being like this but the other wolves can’t. It’s just like they are stuck in this form, never to access the other one.”

“Well, the only rogues that turns to human is the one Alan reported being the mouthpiece of whoever that is causing this.”

“That’s true, that fight in the meadow that night.”

“Yes, the night it all began.”

Catherine nodded. “I have been handling some tests but all I could find for now is that there are traces of Garuda flower and wolfsbane in the mixture that results to this.”

“Of course, Garuda flower and wolfsbane. The two things that are really dangerous to us,” Damien sighed. “Well, should we find you some to make an antidote?”

“You do know that there is no treating wound infected by Garuda flower, right?”

“I heard that you treated Aliyah when she was wounded in the human realm. Even after staying so long to be found, you were still able to detoxify the poison and saved her leg. How did you manage to do that then?”

“I’m sure that the high alpha also heard that the she was marked then by the vampire prince which increased her healing speed. Yes, I did help in detoxifying the poison but even after working on her for two days straight, she still had to limp when she woke up and was only able to use her leg again after being marked. Also, in this case, there are still some unidentified ingredients and if I don’t know all of them, making an antidote is futile.”

Damien nodded with a sigh. “So what do you propose we do?”

“We keep the infected wolves away from the normal ones to stop the spreading of the infection and also, warn everyone to be careful when they would be another rogue fight because trust me, something tells me that they would be more.”

“It’s hard now knowing that we are facing this and yet the High Chief’s are just ignoring us.”

“Well, in their defense, you only made a temporal alliance, so, it’s shouldn’t be a surprise to you that they have withdrawn like they used to be.”

“I know but…” he shook his head, “a part of me tells that they are blaming us for the death of their prince, but it shouldn’t be so. We weren’t the one that wanted him the dead, the witch came and said all sort of things and they also agreed to it. It’s not like I am regretting what happened but I am beginning to think that Alan is right, we should have been more worried about how to settle the rogues but…”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we will find a way through this. We always do,” Catherine said and Damien nodded before turning and walking out of the dungeon, followed by Catherine.

***

“Hello Edward, how are you?” The voice said and Edward sighed. He had stopped counting the days —not that he could— or the hours that has passed. He knew what she had come for, to ask him if he had recovered his memories but he already knows the answer because it’s the same thing it has always been since he woke up in that godforsaken place. “Anything new?”

“Maybe there will be if you let me out of here.”

“Oh Edward, you are not even trying. Somehow, you are making me regret even going through all the troubles I did to bring you here.”

“Here as in where? I know that you have me locked up here but you just wait and see when I finally recall my memories. Trust me when I say that I won’t go easy on you.”

The voice chuckled, “you should know that I like that instead of being threatened. You don’t know what I did today,” she giggled. “I paid a visit to someone. Do you want to hear about it?”

“Why would I want to hear about the second person you are torturing?”

“Ouch, that kind of hurt you know. Anyways, I will tell you. She is strong, or I should say that he is making her strong, very strong. It’s seems like they are surviving well without you.”

Edward frowned and his head sprang up, finally interested in the story. “They?”

“Oops, did I say too much?”

Edward stood on his feet. “Who is they?”

“Oh come on, do we have to go all over this again? You know that I am not going to say anything else now, don’t you? Well I must say, I’m impressed,” he chuckled, “oh, I so love my creation.”

“Your creation? Who are you?”

“All in due time my prince, all in due time. I will be more concerned about who that snow-white wolf in your dreams is other than wondering about a voice.”

“Wait, how do you know about my dreams?”

“Ciao my prince, until next time,” she chuckled and the voice vanished.

“No, wait,” Edward screamed but deep inside him, he knew it was futile, she never waits. He shook his head, the snow-white wolf’s face flashing in his mind. Those bright blue eyes, why do they look familiar and that wolf, what does it have to do with him? “Ah,” he groaned, placing his hands on his head and turning around, crouching over and landing on his knees as he forced himself to remember. He knew that he had seen those eyes and that wolf before, he knows there is something linking him to that wolf but no matter how hard he tried, he gets nothing and that only made his head hurt the more.

Eventually, he fell face flat on the floor and lost consciousness. In his dream, he saw a girl sitting across from him and there were dancing bodies around them. She turned and looked at him, those blue eyes captivated him immediately and he saw his vison moving closer to her until it stopped and then she was running away from him. The scene changed to him dropping her and her clothes were torn with blood and wounds on her body. He didn’t know what happened but she was glaring at him in shock and there was a blood red rose on her neck. He cringed on seeing that mark and his head hurt making him moan.

The scene changed again to the snow-white wolf leaping up to where he was and then turning into the girl. He saw her putting her wrist to his mouth and him burying his fangs on it. Fangs? The dream was ridiculous, why would he have fangs and why would he be sucking her blood? However, the dream changed as well as the settings. The girl was dressed in a princess attire with a silver taira on her head. She looked at him, those blue eyes seemed like they were burning into his soul. He groaned, even in his dream, he heard himself groaning. Then he saw her lying on the bed, moaning in what appeared to be pleasure and then looking through her lashes at him, her bright blue eyes coated in lust.

And then they were back in that meadow again, the wolf was staring at him as always and he was fighting some people. He suddenly leaped, slamming into someone, his eyes going to the wolf and for once, he detected the look in its blue eyes; fear. He turned then to be impaled by something. It may be a dream but he felt the pain that coursed through him and then the screaming from the girl, ‘No.’

Edward jerked up from his sleep, his eyes opened wide as he sat on the floor.  Sweat caked on his face and his body was drenched. He could feel the immerse pain on his chest but he wasn’t worried about that now. Different scenes of memories flashed in his mind and it was like someone had opened a tap of memories nearly driving him insane. Finally, when it stopped flooding him, he looked up and his eyes flashed red as he whispered, “Aliyah.”