Blood of The Beast: Revelations

There's Something In There

Ne-yo ft. Juicy J- She Knows

Alastair: 

    "You have to come back," her tone of voice is alarming. She's scared. This isn't something that happens too often. I've only ever heard this tone three other times. The night she told me she was pregnant with Naloc, the night Astra was born, and the day Astra's heart stopped. 

    "What's wrong?" I asked. We still haven't made it to the school campus to check Astra in. 

    "Something is happening, Stir. Something really f****d. I had to put two kids down today. That f*****g things we got from Astra's school. It bit Gerard. He was fine for a while but then he wasn't and he attacked Jenny from the kitchen. She was his mate. Alastair, I killed her and she got up. I had to take her head off in order to stop her. Please, come home. Bring Astra back. I need you two here," 

    "Baby," it's all I can really say. It sounds like a rant, however, Scylla isn't the type. "Alright, I'm going to talk to her. I'm going to cancel her classes for now. I'll let you know when the next plane takes off," 

    "Thank you," she seems slightly relieved, but the tension in her voice is still there. 

    "How is Naloc? Has Brandon arrived yet?" 

    "Yeah, he got here a little early. My dad is trying to cancel his flight. I'm bringing everyone in. Felipe and his guys should be arriving in a couple of hours. He's issued a lockdown on the pack lands and the capitol is shut down and since we have the advantage he's bringing his guard here. We're trying to get the word out but the humans aren't taking this seriously," 

    "Of course not," I sighed. "Okay, stay put then. We should scout too. Call Allison and have them see if we can get a location. I'm going to do the same here before I go," 

    "Be safe. Keep her within eyes range at all times, Alastair," 

    "Yes, ma'am," 

    "I love you," she said gently. 

    "I love you too. Try to keep calm. We don't know what's happening," 

    "I'll try," 

    The line went dead. Astra is on her phone playing video games. I remember the first time I traveled with Scylla. She had been playing a game similar to the one Astra is playing. She has a smile on her face as she moves her colorful little character around what looks like a spaceship. 

    "That was your mother," I pulled the earbuds out of her ears. 

    "Yeah?" she answered completely uninterested. 

    "We're going back. As soon as possible," I declared. She sat up putting her phone down. 

    "What happened? Did they attack again? Did she kill the Lycan?" she rushed out all at once. 

    "No, no. Your mom likes the kid. She doesn't see him as a threat. This is about the things that attacked you at school. One of them bit-" I paused knowing how close she is to Jenny. "it bit Gerard and Gerard bit Jenny. Your mother had to put the three of them down," 

    "What?" she shook her head. "Why? What did they do?" 

    "I didn't get the details. Your mom said she killed Jenny and Jenny got back up as if nothing had happened and tried to attack. Your mother isn't the type that scares easily, mostly because she's usually the scariest thing in the room. She put Rogue Creek and the Pack Lands under lockdown," 

    "Because of the prisoners? I was bitten. Nothing happened to me," she looked down at her arm where the crescent-shaped scars are. Does that mean we're immune but not everyone?" she has a point, but there's also the fact that she still has scars.

    "I don't know, baby. Let's just get settled for tonight. We go home as soon as I can get us a flight back," 

    "What about school?" 

    "It can wait," 

    She didn't argue. She never does when it involves Scylla's direct orders. There was a spark of fear in her eyes when she mentioned the Lycan. Scylla must know as well. Astra, while she's always been a little demanding, she would never ask for something so reckless. 

    The night of the University raid, Scylla was more than prepared to rip those kids to shreds. Astra was completely enthralled by the choices of the boy leading the raid. There was a smile on her face I had never seen before. Sure, it wasn't the boy we met in the woods, but her interest was peaked. The boy did an amazing job leading his small group of vandals into the school. It wasn't until they tried to hack the school's system that Astra moved in on her own and stopped them. She let them all go. All except for their little ring leader. The boy claims to have wanted to be captured, but to us, we know that Astra picked him for a reason. 

    "Dad?" she came out of the room on the other side of our suite. 

    "Yes?" I asked looking up at her. I found us tickets for four in the morning. I called the school to cancel her term this year, but I have to go see the headmaster in a bit. 

    "You know don't you?" she asked sitting across from me. "Mom has a pretty good idea," 

    "Why didn't you say anything before I let him bait you into what you did?" I asked. If she needs to talk to about it, I'm her best choice. Scylla isn't the type not to blow things out of proportions. 

    "You heard what he called us and while I'm a lot like mom, I'm just like you. I give into my vampire side more than the wolf. I don't have a problem shifting because I don't care for it. Not like mom and Naloc do. Everyone hates us and I don't want him to take one look at me and then tell me to go f**k myself," 

    "Princess, why would he do that? Look at you. You surpass the terms of the ideal dream girl. You're smart, elegant, poise, you have the heart of a Queen," 

    "You see that. You know who I am. Who we are. I don't know if you know this, dad, but they consider us monsters. The monsters consider us monsters. While I don't care what they think or why, I care that he does. I don't want to be the one thing that stands in his way of greatness. Because from what I've seen, his potential seems to be limitless. Mom likes him. Mom literally hates everyone," 

    "If he doesn't see you for other than what you are, he's an i***t. Because who you are is beautiful. Sure, it's a little gross when you have flesh in your teeth-"

    "Dad," she laughed. "I want to figure this out on my own. I feel like if this is truly the path we're meant to be on, things will work themselves out. There's no need to rush them. Besides, it's illegal for us to be together right now. I'm seventeen. He's twenty-one," 

    "It couldn't have been the brother? The kid charmed his way out of prison. You know your mother hates most prisoners," 

    "Aeneas seems like he just goes along. I don't think fate would pair me with someone like that. I don't even go along with Naloc and he's to be my alpha," 

    "Point made," I smiled at her. 

    This is a different side to her. This is the side that Scylla insists for her to use more. Astra does like to press Scylla's buttons when it comes to certain restrictions. Naloc is usually the one who follows to the extent of his training. Dylan said Scylla went through a stage where he couldn't even ask her to do her homework politely without her sassying him with some smart ass remark. Astra has been this way since before she was able to speak full sentences. I figured this is who she's going to be, always. It makes me happy that she can be reasonable even if her reasoning is just as insane as her mother's. 

    "I just wanted you to know that. Since we are going back. I'd like it if you just kept that to yourself," 

    "Request approved," I assured her. 

    She smiled back at me and excused herself into the room. A-part of me wishes I can share this moment with Scylla but Astra and I both know if she were to try and sit down and have this conversation with her, the boy would be on Astra's lap bound and gagged by sundown. 

    I ordered dinner and left a note on the tray when it was brought up. The walk to the University is a short one. It's a six-mile run at best. I chose this distance to help her blend in with her surroundings better. She'd run the whole way if we were any closer. I'd like for her to have some casual human interactions. Maybe take a liking to tea or coffee. Not that it's relevant anymore. 

    The University is oddly quiet for a place run by vampires. It's ten-fifteen this place should be overrun by younglings. I made my way to the main building and walked in. The lights are all on but I can't see anyone here yet. There was a bump in the room behind the front desk. I jumped when her hand met my arm. She put her index finger to her lip and shook her head. 

    "Dev, where the f**k did you come from?" I whispered. 

    "I was going to be one of Astra's professors. Silly's request. Something is wrong, Alastair. The human that sits there. I can smell her blood," she pointed at the door behind the front desk. 

    "I don't smell any human blood" I shook my head. 

    "You aren't familiar with this kind of blood yet. A new dormant wolf type. Not new per se, but different. Smells like them,"  she shrugged. "We should get out of here," 

    "I want to see what's behind the door," I scoffed. She grunted and pulled one of the Rogue Creek standard handguns out of her back holster. 

    "You're supposed to turn those back in when you leave," I shook my head as I went around the front desk over to the door. 

    "Why didn't you turn yours in?" she asked when I reached for my gun. 

    "Scylla gave me these. I told her I didn't need them, but she said that they were a more effective threat against humans and people run when they see a gun. They don't post it on the internet with that hashtag I see fangs," 

    "Smart," she nodded. I knocked on the door. We both flinched when a growl responded. I stepped away before the crash. "That doesn't sound like a human," 

    "Back up," I put my arm out for her to stay behind me. With another crash, the door gave in, and out came a woman dressed in formal office attire. 

    "She's definitely not human anymore, Alastair," Devina whispered. "Ester?" 

    "Hungry," the woman answered. Her voice was followed by a low wolf-like whine. 

    "Ester? What happened to you?" Dev tried to get closer. The woman pulled away. 

    "Hungry," she repeated a little more aggressively. I stepped towards her, she back away. I looked into the room she had just plummeted out of to see that there were three others in there with her. All dead. 

    "She ate them," I aimed my gun at her head. Scylla said she had to take Jenny's head off. 

    "What's happening?" she asked. The woman growled and came at us when I stepped away from the door. It think my sudden movement startled her. I fired hitting her once in the head. She fell and didn't show any indications of getting up. 

    "Scylla called. She said they had a similar situation back home," I answered. From inside of the room a few growls echoed. I stepped in front of the door and shot the two bodies closest to me and the one that had just come back. 

    "We have to go home," she rushed out. "Go get your kid," 

    We walked out to see that there are a few students walking around campus now. They looked us over and then at one another. 

    "Are you four okay?" I asked. 

    "Did you just kill them?" one boy asked. 

    "Good," I sighed. I think Scylla is rubbing off on me. I didn't want to kill these kids. "Go home. If you see anything suspicious. Do not engage. Go straight home. Do you understand? Now," 

    "Who are you?" one of the girls asked. 

    "You'd think they'd recognize us from all the Malcacoda memorabilia," 

    "I f*****g told you," the other boy beamed. "Lady Malacoda, your-" 

    "Kid. Shut the f**k up. There's a f*****g jackal apocalypse about to break out. Go home," Dev scolded them. 

    "Jackals? On-campus?" they all looked at one another before they disappeared. 

    "f**k," I groaned when she took my hand and began to pull me away. I pulled my hand out of hers. 

    "Okay, you're like my little f*****g ass hole brother and I love you but if you say that we have to evacuate everyone before we leave. I will f*****g shoot you in the leg, Alastair," 

    "Dev," I shrugged. "They're kids. Like Astra, Evie, Nancy, and Dom. We can't just leave them like this," 

    "Alastair," she complained. "They're not Astra, Evie, Nancy, or Dom. Please, please, please consider leaving them so we can escape. You saw them. Those things are ghastly," 

    "Dev," I laughed. 

    "I know. I know. They mean the same thing to their families. I'm punching Scylla when we get home. Fucknuts," she shouted the last part. "Okay, I don't know s**t about hacking. That's Astra's weird thing. Call her," 

    "I'm not calling my daughter into danger," I shook my head. 

    "Right, I'll do it," she rushed away before I could take her phone. I turned around to look over the open space behind me. In a matter of seconds, Astra appeared in the distance running for dear life with a laptop under her arm. "There," 

    "I hate you," I sighed. 

    "Hey," Astra greeted us. "What's going on?"

    "Those things back home. They're here. We need to evacuate as many students as we can," 

    "Oh, so the scary alarm," she nodded. "I've wanted to activate it for a long time back home but Naloc always catches me somehow," 

    Astra dropped down to the floor with her laptop. I looked over at Dev to see her digging into a backpack. She pulled out a bag of beef jerky before she put the backpack on and began to look around. I can't believe Astra just said that or that Dev can eat with everything happening right now. We all jumped when the loudest emergency alarm I've ever heard went off. After a few rings, an automated message began to play. 

    "Please, evacuate the campus. Jackals are on the loose," it repeated it again before the alarm when off again. 

    The campus flooded with students. They all disappeared as fast as they had come out. The sound of growling is growing around us. I picked Astra up off the floor. Now that she's here with me, all bets are off. Every kid for themselves. My kid and Dev are now my main priorities. I looked down at my watch to see that there's an hour left for our plane to take off. 

    "Back to the suite. We need to get the hell out of here as soon as possible," I took her laptop and started pushing her in the direction we had come from. 

    "What about my stuff?" Dev complained pointing in the opposite direction. 

    "I'll buy you everything, new. I know you have backups to your video games," I scolded. 

    "I have backups to your video games, Aunt Devina," Astra nodded. 

    "How?" she asked. 

    "Not important," I growled at the two of them and pushed them again. I let Astra lead the way. We were at the airport and ready to board in thirty minutes. I had to buy another ticket for Devina who is way too calm for my liking. 

    "I can't day walk," Dev raised her hand. "It still really hurts," 

    "You can sit in the middle. I have snuggy," Astra suggested. 

    The two of them made their way towards first-class as I looked around to make sure there weren't any of those things in here with us. The pilots are fine. The stewardists are fine. The handful of guests are fine. I'll check again in a few minutes. Once we were in the air I made my way to the front again checking on the passengers. I walked into the restroom and let out a heavy sigh. 

    This is not happening. There is no way in hell this is happening. It's like something from a movie. s**t like this doesn't happen in real life. What the hell are those things and how the hell are they able to turn others. Jackals can't do that. Also, once a jackal, they turn into something else. That woman looked fine. She was fighting the thing inside of her when she saw Dev. She didn't attack until I started moving.

    There's also the incident from the school. Astra was bitten. Could that have been what triggered her earlier affinity? Is it because she died that wasn't turned into one of those things? I got out of the restroom and did another walkthrough. Everything seems to be going fine. Just fine. 

    "Dad?" I looked over at Astra before taking a seat. 

    "Yeah?" I answered. 

    "I don't think we're equipped to handle an outbreak like this. I doubt it's a coincidence that they were there the night we were meant to arrive. The school might have been a coincidence back home, but this is the second time I'm meant to be somewhere and they attack," she shrugged. Dev sat up looking between the two of us. That hadn't crossed my mind yet. 

    "Why would someone want these things to get to you?" Dev asked. 

    "I think the first time was a coincidence," I agreed. I sat back thinking the situation over. "This one wasn't. You picked that thing out of the shadows. You didn't turn into one when you were bitten. You could potentially be a threat to the person who says she's the real Queen of the werewolves," 

    "That would be Evie," Dev declared. "Her father was the King before we snuffed him," 

    "What?" Astra looked her over. 

    "He succumbed to his wounds. We didn't snuff him," I glared at her. "He didn't want to become one of us   so, we let him die," 

    "Does she know that?" Astra asked. 

    "I doubt it. It's not something easy to tell someone. Especially when their mate is Brendon," 

    "Anway," Dev interjected. I glared at her daring her to spill something stupid like that again. "She's the real werewolf Queen. Glory and Felipe were appointed by your mom. But I doubt she'd want to kill you. You two grew up together. My money is on the shadows wolves," 

    "My son is mated to their daughter," 

    "Your daughter isn't mated to anyone of their sons or the other young shadow freaks," she shrugged snuggling into the blanket thing Astra had given her. Astra's reaction to Dev is the same as everyone else's. 

    "Dev, why don't you go to the restroom and let me talk to Astra alone for a second?" I suggested.

    "You do know I'm older than you right?" she asked. 

    "You do know I'm stronger than you right?" 

    "The audacity," she scoffed as she got up and moved past me as obnoxiously as possible. Astra giggled. 

    "I'm sorry about her," I apologized. "She's kind of everyone's favorite because she's by far the most talented sister. Picks up hobbies like it's her hobby to do so. Arrogance and entitlement made her that way. I'm sorry you had to find that out. We would appreciate it if you kept that to yourself for Evie and her brother's sake," 

    "I figured," she smiled. 

    "Also, don't tell your mom she did that. She already treads lightly around her," 

    "Right," she laughed. "I'm going to try and get some sleep. Something tells me that the Jackal Apocolypse is going to take its toll on all of us and sleep is one of my favorite extracurricular activities," 

    "It's not an extracurricular acitvity," I laughed. 

    "One can dream," she smirked. 

    "Was that a pun? From you?" I laughed. 

    "Shh, don't tell the other adults I'm funny," she winked before pushing her seat back to get comfortable. That's my daughter.