Chapter 107 The Bird

Nikolai

"We have the witch you were looking for." Max said as soon as I had picked up the call.

"Perfect. Make arrangements to send her here." I told him.

"She is unwilling to leave her house. She's strangely protective about it, almost lost a couple good warriors while trying to get to talk to her." He sounded annoyed by that witch. "You'll have to come here to talk to her, Kol. What is it about anyways?"

"I have affinity with fire. Since before I killed Zakyra. It's weird."

"Oh. That, I know." I could imagine him nodding. "Dimitri and I had talked about it. But oh well, it's fucking awesome."

"True," I half smiled.

It was cool to have that kind of power at your fingertips and at your disposal. I raised my pointer finger and a small flame lit up. It was super cool. I had been practising control everyday for at least thirty minutes. What good are powers if I don't know how to use them? "I have a lot of work to do, I don't think I'll be coming right now. Maybe later." Too much was going on. Mystic Lupus was up to no good and it was up to me to figure everything out. And the reason why I have the powers isn't important, the fact that I do have them is.

I can always look into the 'whys' later.

"Let me know if anything comes up. Things here are finally getting better, we've chosen the council members and if things go smoothly, I'll be home by next week."

"Sure thing. See you soon." I cut the call.

And it had been over a week since we had that conversation.

It had also been a week since Adrian showed me his bird and I had told him to make a newer, better version of it. I had asked Mikhail to help the kid with everything he wanted. And Mikhail was more excited than Adrian, he said that it could change the way the trackers and scouts worked. They had made a couple of prototypes, each one better than the previous one. The final product was finished and tested. We were now supposed to send it to Mystic Lupus.

I wasn't going to lie to myself and say I'm not anxious. If we get caught, we might as well just issue the notice of a war, it could turn that serious that fast.

I walked into Adrian's office—yes, his own office, I figured that after everything, he might need one.

I looked at the eagle like bird resting on top of the desk. We had a professional artist come in and make it look like a real bird. Goddess knew that all of us had the artistic abilities of a walnut. The first bird that Adrian made was coloured by Vanessa for Goddess' sake.

"We're ready, Nikolai." Adrian said, showing me the huge monitor screen that covered up half the wall.

"Let's do it." Mikhail and I took a seat on either side of him. Adrian used his remote control flew the bird out of the window. The screen in front of us showed us the bird's view in high definition.

The bird flew smoothy over numerous mountains and over the borders of Mystic Lupus. It was exactly like a drone but better. And then suddenly Mikhail took out another remote controller and pressed a button. The live video changed and now we could see the infrared vision. "We added the thermographic camera so that instead of going on a blind search, it would be easier to locate anybody in the woods."

"Good work. Both of you." I said, impressed. I looked down at Adrian who was very focused on controlling his bird. I knew the little guy was smart but I had no idea he was this good.

"It was all Adrian," Mikhail patted his back proudly.

"Thank you," Adrian's cheeks tinted pink.

And then we started seeing a lot of red in front of us. Mikhail switched back to the normal view and there was nothing in front of us. How is that possible?

"What just happened?" I asked. There was nothing in front of us except rocky hills and valleys.

Mikhail pressed a button and half screen was infrared vision and one was normal. The infrared vision showed a lot of red, which essentially meant heat. There were multiple red spots but there was nothing on the normal camera.

"Maybe they're underground." Adrian said and then the bird dipped low in one of the valleys and cruised ahead for a while. It was red all around us.

"Wait, there! A cave!" I pointed.

Adrian swiftly flew the bird into the cave. The cave wasn't too big or too small, just enough for about five people to walk shoulder to shoulder. It was getting dark as we ventured inside so Mikhail switched on the night mode. Only after a couple of turns the narrow cave opened up to a huge enclosure.

I took in a sharp intake. "Fuck."

"Fuck indeed." Mikhail murmured.

There were people. Hundreds of them. Standing in endless lines, one after another. This was it. This was Adrik's army. The bird flew in a circle over the top of their heads. Not a single person looked up. They all kept stand straight and looked ahead. I looked closely. They were standing unnaturally still. No one talked, no one made a sound. There was absolutely no movement at all.

"They don't look like werewolves, Nikolai." Mikhail said. I hadn't thought about that. We could normally smell anyone and tell what race they belonged to. Every race had it's peculiar smell. But we couldn't tell right now.

I looked more closely. Yes. They had a decent amount of body heat but not as much as a werewolf. And their built wasn't big enough. All of them looked like... humans. But why would Adrik keep so many humans? He despises them.

"Witches." Dread slithered in my heart. For the first time in a long time, I was scared. A million thoughts ran through my mind. And million possibilities followed.

"This is why the number of witches in the world is dwindling. And the reason why there are hardly any witches left in the world." Mikhail said, bewildered.

Yes. This was the only explanation. We were all fucked.

"Get the bird back, Adrian." I said.

The kid nodded and flew the bird out. As it flew down more hills, towards our pack now, we kept seeing more red spots. Every single fucking hill hid witches. Adrik was building an army of witches. He already had the largest pack in the world, which by default had the largest army. And now he has witches too. Thousands of them. He will be unstoppable.

I have to take him down. Before he comes for us, which I know he will.

"Are we in trouble?" Adrian asked in a small voice. And I realised that he was scared. He might be incredibly smart but he was still a kid.

We are too.

I placed a hand on his shoulder, "you'll be safe, kiddo."

And then suddenly, we were passing through an open area and I saw five red spots a little far away. "Go there," I said.

"We don't have a lot of battery." Adrian looked worried.

"Then we should be quick." I said.

Adrian nodded unsurely and turned the direction and flew the bird towards the red spots. As we neared it, on the normal camera screen, we spotted five people. Adrian perched the bird up on the branch of a tree nearby.

I instantly recognised Adrik. And there was a witch besides him. She was wearing a black cloak with the hood on which covered half her face. Only her lips were visible. Her long white hair falling from the either sides of the hood said that she was an old one. Her mouth was moving in repetitive movements which meant she was chanting something. And there were three witches in front of them, their hands cuffed behind their back and they were on their knees.

The old witch's hand raised, threw some red dust on them and then her chants increased. We unfortunately couldn't hear what she was saying. Dammit. And then Adrik stepped forward, took out a dagger and slit their throats. Blood spewed as they fell dead at his feat.

The old witch's chanting sped up and then the closed eyes of all the dead witches opened and they mechanically stood up again. Almost as if...as if they were zombies.

All the breath left my lungs.

It was definitely black magic. And they were sacrifices.

This is how he formed his army. His entire army is formed out of dead witches.

And then I saw his lips move. All three of them bowed down to him. A smirk formed on his lips. He spoke something and the zombie witches stood up again.

"Let's get out of here." I said. Adrian pressed the button on the controller but the view didn't move, which meant the bird didn't move. He pressed the button longer and harder and the wing of the bird came into the view but the bird still didn't move.

"It's stuck!" Adrian said, trying harder.

The bird must be making a lot of noise because Adrik's eyes snapped to it. My heart stopped for a second before I realised that it looked like a bird. Well as close to it as a machine can.

"Oh no!" Adrian kept worrying and trying harder. A few leaves and then twigs came into view and Adrik's gaze narrowed suspiciously.

"Stop. Move the bird to the side a little and then try to fly," Mikhail suggested. Adrian stopped moving it's wings and then walked the bird a little away and then it was finally able to fly away.

I let out a breath if relief. We could not afford for him to know that we had been spying. "Bring him straight home now." I said and Adrian complied.

"What do we do now?" Mikhail asked.

"Find a witch who would know about this stuff." I muttered. That was definitely black magic. And from what I know, all the books on black magic have been destroyed ever since it had been forbidden.

But there was a chance...

I called Max, "the old witch you talked about...bring her here with you."

"I told you Kol, she isn't going to—"

"I don't care, Maximilian, drag her by her fucking hair. I want her here." I snapped. If Adrik is trying to do what I think he is, we are all in deep shit. If we don't stop him now, we will never be able to stop him.

"Full name, huh? That serious?"

"What gave it away?" I asked drily.

"Give me a day. I am leaving for airport tonight anyways, I'll bring her with me." He said and cut the call.

'Small Council Room. Now.' I mind-linked Symon, Dimitri and Mikhail.

Mikhail looked at me in question and I eyed Adrian. Not in front of him. He nodded. 'I'll be there soon.'

It was high time I chose permanent council members. But first, I had a defences to built and a war to win.

A plan started forming in my mind as I walked to the small council room. The specialty of this room was that it was for situations like these...where not everyone's presence is important and neither is a big room. A normal sized room with a model of the entire supernatural island in the middle was exactly what I needed right now.

Dimitri and Symon were already waiting for me. So I filled them in on the little project of Adrian, Mikhail and I were working on.

"So you're saying that your father is forming a witch army?" Symon asked in disbelief. "Why would a witch help him?" It was common knowledge that all the witches hated Adrik and most werewolves. Now, we finally know why.

"Not witches," Mikhail entered, "zombie witches. And from what we could tell, they weren't exactly in control of their movements." I nodded at that. "I noticed something else too. There weren't any guards or other werewolves present." He noted. "Which could mean that the pack isn't aware of this." This could very well be true. He likes to keep his reputation clean in front of the pack. "I also believe that the dagger was enchanted. It had inscriptions on it."

I hadn't noticed that. I was too deep in my thoughts. But if that's true, it also means.... "Adrik wouldn't get his hand dirty so easily. He's killing the witches himself and if the dagger is actually enchanted, it has to mean that the one who kills is the one they follow."

"What's important right now is that we stop this." Symon said. "So many witches...fuck." He gripped his hair as he paced around in frustration. "We need to bring him down."

"Correct. I have a plan." I said and all of them looked at me in shock and hope.

"Already?" Symon asked.

"Sort of. We can get into details later. Right now, we don't have a big enough army, we need to get into contact with other Alphas and stand united."

"The only way to enter Imporia is to hike up mountains. And we also have numerous secret caves and paths in the mountains that not many know about. We need to open them up again get our pack familiar with it. It will be our hideout and a secret place to attack from. They won't know what hit them."

"Silverwitch Bay is too far away from him but we won't take any chances. We can put traps in the water, Javier will help." Now we will move to the tough part. I'll be able to convince these men but the other pack members? It's going to be a tough feat. "Killing witches is going to be tough, especially if they kill you before you can even touch them. But witches draw power from their dead elders."

"Are you saying you want to burn their graves?" Dimitri asked.

"I'm not above burning bags of bones to save the alive," I said.

"But what about the witches that are alive? They will lose their powers!" Symon opposed.

"I'm not saying we have to burn their graves, but we can tamper with it so their power is contained for the duration. But if it comes down it, I'll burn their cemeteries. There are hardly a few hundred witches alive and all of them are hiding from Adrik to save their lives. And I am willing to sacrifice the powers of a few hundred witches to save millions of lives." I replied.

"Millions?" He asked. "You are overestimating the numbers, Alpha."

"Are you actually that dumb to believe that Adrik just wants to kill me and take over Soare Luna? Or the just the four remaining packs?" I let out a humourless chuckle.

All three of them kept staring at me like I was going crazy.

"Did you really think Adrik will be satisfied with that? Do you really believe that's all he wants? Do you really believe he made an entire army of zombie witches to just take over the last remaining four packs on our island?" I know my father too well to believe otherwise.

Unadulterated fear and anxiety grew on their faces.

"What does he want then?" Dimitri asked.

The thought of Ava appeared in my mind at his question and fear reared his ugly head in my head and heart.

I really don't know what I will do without that woman. I can't lose her. I simply won't survive it. She might not have marked my body, but she has marked my heart, mind and soul with her sunshine smiles and kisses for slices of happiness.

I need to kill Adrik before he does any real harm. I don't know what the spell he had used is or how long will it take him to finish building his army. I don't know what kind of power those witches will yield and how it will affect us all. But I do know that it isn't good for us. Black magic never is.

Ava's face appeared in front of my eyes. The thick, arched eyebrows, the wide doe shaped eyes, the cute upturned nose, the plump, bow shaped lips, the sprinkle of freckles on the bridge of her nose from being under the sun.

She's my heart. She's my everything. She has to survive it. I will make sure of it.

I could feel the uneasiness that had encased us, I could see the apprehension on their faces. And it pained me to attest that their fear is credible. The truth that I was going to disclose was something they hadn't even imagined in their wildest dreams. But it was the truth and it needed to be said, it needed to be laid out in the open.

"World domination." I spoke in a low, deathly silent tone as my words slithered out of my mouth. "He wants to become the King of Jivan Dimension."