Of Wolves and Dragons: Artifacts-Book Two

Chapter Seven

-Isaac POV-

My eyes slowly open to pitch-black darkness.

“Uh, f**k. Am I on the floor?” My back hurts as if I slept on the floor for a whole night.

I get up and see light coming from a door but before I move, I remember Zach.

“Zach?” I ask to the darkness but there is no sound.

(I want to f*****g punch him.) Is all I can think after remembering the last thing he said.

I go to the door and open it. Light comes in from a hallway. I can see now that I am in a bedroom. The room has antique furniture and it’s decorated in a Victorian style.

“This all feels so real. And where the hell is Zach?”

I sigh and head out of the room. The hall is lightened up by old looking sconces on the walls that flicker.

I look to my right where the hall looks like it keeps going and then I look to my left where the hall goes a bit longer but turns to the left.

“s**t, this is a big ass mansion isn't it.” I sigh. “And there’s not a single noise coming from anywhere.

I decide to go to the left hall where it ends on a window and then turns to the left. I walk over to the window and look out. I am on the second floor and all I see is a courtyard and some big gates but beyond the gates, there's just thick fog.

I hear a noise from my left. A door opens and Zach comes out of it.

“Uh, my head.” He says walking out and holding his head.

“No one said that this place was going to be creepy.” I say.

“Yea, it’s eerie here.” Zach says.

I squint my eyes at him for what he said about Vic before but decide to let it go for now.

“Where to now?” I ask.

“I don’t know, we just walk till we find Luke... or something else.”

(I really don’t like the way he said that.)

We start walking and there are many doors in these halls. We open some of them and they are all bedrooms. All of them look the same, same decoration, the same furniture, the furniture is even at the same spot in every room. We decide to stop checking the rooms but we call out for Luke as we go.

“This feels so real.” Zach says.

I nod. “Yea, it does.”

It seems like a few minutes pass but then I catch a scent. I cover my nose feeling nauseous.

“What is it?” Zach asks.

“Something smells horrible. It’s like something rancid.” I gag feeling like I am about to throw up.

We go around a corner and that’s when we see it. A humanoid-looking creature, its flesh is putrefied, it is skinny and tall and it has long arms on his side and two more on his back that looks like they don’t belong to it. Black liquid comes out from wounds that are all over its body and from its mouth. It stands motionless looking into the darkness.

Zach and I look at each other with wide eyes and then look back at the creature. We take a few steps back and hide behind the corner wall.

“What the hell is that?” I mouth out to Zack.

“I have no idea. Probably one of Dr. Edward's creations?” He whispers not sounding so sure. “Let's head the other way.” He says and I nod.

We start walking back but then we hear someone running through the halls. The footsteps come from the direction of the creature. Past him we see Luke come from the corner running looking panicked and out of breath. He runs in the direction of the creature and comes to an abrupt stop when he sees him. The creature, as if it was activated by the sound, moves its arms and swings at Luke. Luke dodges but looks exhausted and falls to the ground.

I run to him and Zach starts to chant, he throws a fireball at the creature. It catches fire immediately and starts swinging around.

I run to Luke and help him up.

“Are you... real?” He asks.

I scrunch my face at him. “Yes, dip s**t. You want me to punch you to make sure?”

“Maybe not right now.” He says.

We run to Zach and I stop but Luke keeps running.

“Dude, what the hell?!” Zach yells after him.

Luke stops and looks back at us.

“There were two more behind me, why did you think I was running.” He says out of breathe.

That’s when we hear the moaning and growling coming from where Luke came from. Zach and I don’t think twice and start running following Luke.

Luke is running in panic, he’s not thinking. I catch up to him and pull him to one of the rooms. We all go in and lock the door. It is dark, we can’t see anything. I put my ear to the door and hear the creatures run past the room.

I take a deep breath feeling relieved. I start to feel the walls.

“What are you doing?” Zach asks.

“Looking for a light switch. Here it is.” I push the switch and the room lights up with flickering lights.

“How did we get here? Where are we?” Luke asks sounding frantic. He sits on the bed and tries to catch his breath.

I look at him wanting to seriously punch him for getting us into this mess. Zach and I tell him everything that happened and what we are supposed to do to get out of here.

“But I got this watch from Vic.” He says.

“How?” I ask.

“I found it on my nightstand yesterday with a note that said ‘from Victoria’. I put it on this morning and nothing happened then.” He says.

“It only activates when you fall asleep.” Zach says.

“Well, all that matters now is how to get out. I’ve only been here for less than thirty minutes and I already want to get out.” I say annoyed.

“And how do we find this... whatever it is we are looking for... what are we looking for anyway?” Luke asks. Zach and I look at each other a little panicked knowing that we have no idea, we never asked.

Zach sighs. “Shit.”

“Goddammit!” I shout but quickly lower my voice.

“So you don’t know.” Luke says lifting an eyebrow up.

I turn away feeling like an i***t.

Zach snaps his fingers. “We know that spells work here right? So if I were to do a ‘Pertho’ spell, the spell I did to find the statue in Victoria's room, then it should work the same way.” Zach says.

“What exactly is that spell?” Luke asks.

“It finds magical items.” He says.

“And how is that going to work here, do you really think that there won't be other magical items around. We’ll probably be running around the house like chickens with their heads cut off.” I bark out.

He sighs. “I can focus the spell to find the most powerful magic there is here. And whatever the source of the magic that is keeping us here will have to be strong, besides... that’s all I have. Do you have a better idea?”

I roll my eyes. “No.”

“Ok.” Luke says. He gets up and we both look at Zach intently waiting for him to start.

He sighs and rolls his eyes. “I need sage, we need to find sage first.” He says.

“f**k! I want to get out of here!” I shout.

(I want to see Vic, her beautiful eyes, her plump lips. I miss her completely. I need her already.)

“I don’t want to go back out there.” Luke wines. “Those things... I can’t do s**t to them.”

“Only magic can hurt them.” Zach says and sighs. “We know so far that all the rooms up here are bedrooms. Our best bet would be to find our way downstairs.”

Now we look at Luke. “Have you found any stairs going down?”

He looks away and grunts. “Yes.”

“Good, now let's go.” Zach walks over to the door and carefully opens it.

We follow him out while Luke tells us where to go. After a few minutes, we luckily find the stair without encountering any of those creatures. We go down the stairs and land on a huge entryway. It's completely dark but we walk a bit more until we can’t see anything.

“Sowilo Dagaz” Zach chants with his hand in an upward motion. Light shines from his hand, lighting up the room a bit. However, that was a really bad idea.

We are surrounded by creatures just like the ones we encountered upstairs. They looked like they were in a sleeping state until the light hit them. They zone in on us and start to move.

“s**t! I can’t take all of them!” Zach shouts.

There are around twenty of them. We turn around to run back the way we came from but our way is already closed off by the creatures.

(We are so fucked.)

We start fighting them, me and Luke hit them with everything we have but it does nothing to them other than push them away from us a bit. We only manage to keep them back. Zach chants spell after spell but he is too slow.

(That’s the problem with witches and warlocks, spells take time to prepare for them.)

I know it's not going to do much but I am about to shift. Then one of the creatures spews a tentacle-looking thing from its chest hitting me and knocking me down.

I grunt but then from the stairs, bright light emerges. It runs directly to us and stands in the middle. When my eyes adjust, I am shocked.

“Victoria?!” I ask confused.

“VIC!” Luke shouts.

“What are you-" She cuts Zach off. “Later, now dock!” She shouts. Luke and Zach quickly do as she tells them.

(She looks different... what is it? I can see something on her back... like a golden image of something.)

Victoria inhales in a breath and when she exhales it out, a roaring fire spews from her mouth. She twirls around slowly incinerating everything around us. When she is done not one creature is left standing. She then lifts her arm and it gets cold, the fire simmers down.

(She is so powerful... and so hot... s**t! I’m so hot for her right now.)