Chapter 85 Fire and Power

Fire and Power

Nikolai

I picked up the keyring from beside his cell and held it out for the little man.

"Lucas, I want you to unlock the door, I will drop them out and be right back." I handed him the key before I dashed out of the dungeon and place the boys on the floor. Guard two was sitting on the floor with the girls on his lap and he was talking to them, trying to make them smile.

He seems like a good man.

"Bring a couple of slaves in. Preferably those whose owners don't mind them dying. I want them here right now." I ordered before I ran inside.

Lucas had opened the door but he was standing outside, looking a bit scared to go inside.

I patted him on the shoulder, silently saying that he did a good job, and walked inside the cell. I knew he was Ava's father. But I needed to confirm it. How is he alive? Ava said he died. Mary said he died. All the pack members believed he was dead too. They must have felt his link break. Or maybe they stripped way his title somehow. I don't know how someone can do it to their superior but maybe a witch can do it.

"What's your full name?" I knew the answer before he opened his mouth. He was pale but his skin was naturally tanned—the Hispanic kind. Ava must have gotten her pale skin tone from her mother. And I recognized his features, I had seen him when I was a kid and still in Mystic Lupus. But right now, he looked...decayed. His skin was pale, almost greyish green. The skin around his eyes had sunken along with his cheeks, making his eyeballs pop out. His back was hunched and his t-shirt hung over him like it was hanging on a hanger. I'm sure he once filled it out perfectly. But right now, he looked nothing like the man I had met when I was a kid.

His lips parted but no voice came out. His hand trembled but he was unable to lift it.

"Alvarez?" My voice was rough as I spoke. This is fucked up. Avalyn will lose her shit if she sees her father like this.

The dim light in his eyes changed, displaying life. And then, with much difficulty, he nodded.

Goddamn.

"Let's get out of here, old man," I murmured and then put his frail body over my shoulder before I walked out.

Lucas walked on my other side and grabbed my hand as we walked towards the exit.

I frowned when I saw that the door was closed. I tried to push it open but it was... locked?

I growled. "Open the door or else I will kill you."

"I don't know what happened, Alpha." Came the guard's panicked voice. "Suddenly the door slammed shut and it isn't opening. I've been trying to open it since you went in." It was the truth.

"Fire!" I heard a scream.

My eyes widened and I looked down at Lucas. He looked at me with terror-filled eyes.

I bent down to his level. "I promise I will get you out of here alive, Lucas. But for that, I need you to not cry and do exactly as I tell you, alright?"

He nodded and wiped his eyes. "What do you need me to do?"

I placed Javier down and sat him up against the door. "Stay here and protect him, okay? And let me know if you hear any news from outside."

He nodded and I ran inside the dungeon.

And true to the scream, one end of the dungeon was on fire.

'Ava, I'm locked inside the prison and there is a fire burning here. I need your help to get out. There are a lot of people here that need to get out too.' I mind-linked at her.

'I'm on my way.' Came to her immediate response. I decided not to tell her about Javier until she sees him.

I'm pretty sure that most of the people here have not committed any true crime and I need to save everyone.

I first unlocked the cell closest to the fire. "The door is shut, it's not opening. Everyone will stand near the door." It was furthest away from the fire. "Give wide girth to the boy and the vampire or we will have a problem," I growl and opened the door. "Help the people in your cell to escape," I said when I saw the people at the end unable to get up.

A couple of people began helping them and started walking out. I decided that if I open all the cells right now, it will be chaos and I won't be able to concentrate on finding a way out. But then these wails and pleas were getting louder by the second.

I growled loudly. "Shut up."

The dungeon quietened down. "I promise to save all of you but if I open the cells right now, all of you will only come in my way."

"But the fire is spreading quickly. What if you won't save us in time?" Someone cried out.

I looked at the fire. I know it's spreading quickly. It was on the wall at the end of the hallway. How did the fire even start? It was away from the cells, no one could have lit it. And even if they did, no one had the supplies to light a fire, much less the ability to light it up over stone walls and make it spread so quickly without any flammable objects present. I'll dwell on it later. I need to find a way for all of us to escape.

"I'm unlocking all the doors, if the fire comes close to your cell, you will quietly walk out and stand near the door. Otherwise, no one will step out of the cell without my explicit permission." I growled and motioned to the young man in front of me to open all the cells. He nodded and set to work.

The first thing I did was comb the entire dungeon, looking for a way to escape. But there were no windows. Neither were the drainage holes big enough to fit a person.

'The outside of the dungeon is burning too, Nik.' Came Ava's panicked voice. 'I have evacuated the area. What should I do?' She seemed hysterical.

'First, calm down.' I told her.

I thought about it. And how the hell is the dungeon burning from outside too?

I went towards the end of the dungeon, where the fire was still burning, and pressed over the wall from where the fire first started. There has to be a secret door or a window or something.

The clothes on my back burned and fell in the fire I was standing on and turned into ashes.

I couldn't feel the fire or felt the burn. The heat almost... made me feel stronger somehow.

I pushed against the entire wall and felt nothing. If the fire was burning on the outside of the dungeon as well, the packhouse will immediately catch fire. It was made of wood.

Where the fuck did the fire start from? I punched my fist against the wall and the stone cracked slightly. And then an idea struck me.

'Ava, get out of there and walk outside, to the east wing of the house.' I told her as I ran out of the fire and saw the terrified eyes that were filled with hope watch me with fascination. I ran towards the east end of the dungeon that was away from the fire.

What I had understood about the pack house's structure was that this end of the dungeon lied exactly below the east wing of the packhouse. And this wall should be where the packhouse ends too. I'm underground right now but if I were one a level above this, on the other side of the wall would be the outside.

'I'm here, Nikolai.' Avalyn was breathing hard.

'Good girl. Now the dungeon is on the basement level. I want you to build a sort of tunnel that will help us get out of here.'

'I can't think straight, Nikolai.' She was having a panic attack. 'The entire house is on fire. Everyone is out and safe but the house is collapsing. I'm not sure how long the dungeon will hold up. I can't put out the fire. I can't focus.'

'Take a deep breath, Love.' I commanded softly. If the stone of the dungeon started collapsing because of the weight of the falling house, we were all going to die. I might be immune to fire but I'm sure as hell not immune to death by being crushed.

'Now take a couple of steps back and think that you are digging a hole in the ground. It should be diagonal, like a slide, the lower end about twelve feet below the ground level. Image all the soil coming out. A path is being created. A path that is wide through where a lot of people can walk out easily. Imagine me walking out of that tunnel to you.'

'It's done, Nikolai. I see a stone wall.' I fucking love this woman.

'Good girl.' I smiled. 'Now take out only one stone.'

A stone started coming out from the top and a little light shone in but the ceiling started collapsing.

'Nikolai!' She cried and out the stone back in its place. I looked at the ceiling to make sure it wasn't falling again. That's when I realized that with the way the stones were placed, the walls acted as a pillar of the packhouse. If they were taken away, the entire thing will start collapsing.

'Hold on, Love. Let me think.'

I looked back at all the people that were now huddled by the door, at the end of the hallway, looking at me with wide eyes. The fire was licking up the dungeon and slowly reaching them. The dungeon was already filled with thick black smoke.

But as ordered, they remained silent, except for the occasional coughing.

I looked back at the wall as I tried to think of something.

If the wall is destroyed, the entire packhouse will collapse.

'Ava remember how you turned those corpses into dust at the beach during the war?' I asked. 'Just like that, turn the entire house into dust.' The fire will be put out automatically when there will be nothing present there. I just hope it works on such a large scale. She hasn't worked on anything this big.

'It's done.' She whispered after some time.

'Good girl,' I smiled. 'Now start taking out the stones that are forming the ceiling now.'

One by one, the stones on top out heads started coming out and the thick black smoke started escaping from there. Once she had removed enough stones so that she could see me, she gave me a tearful smile. She was kneeling on the ground, her hands clutching the ground, her clothes half burnt and smudges of smoke on her worried face. I gave her a shaky smile.

"Let's get this done with quickly Ava. The people have trapped that side." I pointed towards the side of the dungeon where the people were standing.

Nodding, she got to work and started removing the stones from the other end.

I walked towards them and the people looked at me in awe, almost like one would look at God.

Once Ava had removed enough stones to create a decent-sized hole, I picked up Lucas and jumped, easily coming on the ground level and placing him on the ground. He looked at me reverently.

"I promised I'll get you out safely."

He gave me a smile through tears, "I kept him s-safe."

"Good job, Lucas." A patted his shoulder and he gave me a wide smile.

I looked at the gawking people gathered around. It looked like the whole pack was gathered here. "What are you waiting for? Those are your pack members and they need your help right now." I growled and as if they were snapped out of their bewilderment, more and more people started jumping in and jumping out, holding one person. The people in the dungeon were too weak to use their werewolf strength and jump out themselves.

I jumped in again and picked up Javier who was still slumped against the door. He had his eyes closed and his heartbeat was slower than before. I hope he makes it.

I put him over my shoulder and jumped out. I saw that Ava was removing the stones and the pack members were jumping in and carrying the people out. Some people wandered around, lost while some met friends and family. It was chaos at best. Innate happiness mixed with melancholy was almost tangible in the air. And black smoke obstructed our vision but people were happy.

I placed Javier on the ground and my eyes quickly fell on the guard who was out of the door. In his hand, he clutched the leashes of four slaves.

He quickly rushed to me, the slaves rushing behind him. "I swear, Alpha, I did not lock the door. Or set the fire. I had not—"

"I know." I grabbed a slave and pulled him towards me.

"You know?" He squeaked. Whoever is responsible for this is going to die by my hands.

"Yes," I growled and slashed the side of the slave's neck.

I pulled Javier in a sitting position and put his lips against the bleeding neck.

He isn't drinking.

"Drink damn it," I growled. "You can't give up now."

His tongue darted out of his mouth.

"Yes, drink!" I growled and then his mouth latched on as he sucked the blood. His red eyes snapped at mine as he kept sucking the blood out as his life depended on it. And it did.

He regained his skin color by the time he discarded the slave.

I grabbed another and slashed her neck before throwing her in his lap. His mouth latched on again but his eyes remained on me. It was unnerving.

Blood dripped down the sides of his mouth as he sucked voraciously. His body started filling out too and the decaying smell was finally gone.

He threw the slave away before his hand shot out to grab another one. I watched as he drank this one and the next one out. His body was filled out by the time he was done with the fourth. All the muscles were back in their place like nothing had happened at all like the last ten years hadn't happened.

"Another one?" I asked.

"I'm good for now." Javier shook his head before he stood to his full height. He looked every inch of the Alpha he was a decade ago, especially with the sharp ocean blue eyes and the blood dripping from the sides of his mouth, it made him look deadly. The guard's eyes widened when he finally recognized who the vampire was.

"What is your name, young man?" He looked at me with familiar kind eyes. Now, this is the man I had met when I was a kid.

"Nikolai Volkov." I extended my hand.

"Viktoria's son." He ignored my hand and took me by surprise by hugging me.

Over his shoulder, I caught Ava's confused but still teary eyes.

I beckoned her to come closer.

"I'm not just Viktoria's son," I took a step back and smiled at him. "I'm your daughter, Avalon's mate too," I said just in time for Ava to stand beside me.

She was just staring at Javier in bewilderment.

"Ava, it's your father, Javier," I said softly.

A tear slipped down her eye. And then another. And they were followed by many more.

Ava took a step towards her father but he shook his head, as if he was in shock, and took a step back.

Ava's eyes widened before she whimpered.

Without a word, Javier took off.

Ava broke down and I got mad. No, I got fucking furious at that ungrateful bastard. I ran after him and chased him through the woods before I caught him and slammed him against a tree. "What the fuck, man?" I growled.

Javier couldn't meet my eyes, he kept looking on the ground.

"Look at me," I growled. "That's your daughter who loves you to death." Literally. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Javier pushed me away. I stumbled back before I caught my footing and glared at his retreating back. A growl escaped my throat. He was still running away.

I caught up to him and turned him before I punched him, making him fall. "You called me son and hugged me. Would've been better if you could've done that to her."

Why the fuck would he do that? To his daughter? Ava said he was an amazing father. Sure doesn't look like it.

He looked up at me and his eyes watered. "I heard her, Nikolai."

My heart stopped.

Fuck.

"I heard her scream and cry out for help every fucking day for the last decade." His lower lip trembled.

My jaw clenched. This is messed up. No father should have to go through this, no female should have to go through what Ava did.

"That was the only reason Emmanuel kept me alive. So I could hear the screams of my daughter when his son raped my daughter over and over, only three stories above, while I was locked up, helpless and useless." A tear slipped down his cheek.

"What kind of father was I that I couldn't protect my daughter? For thirteen years, I entrusted the wrong man with my daughter, countless times I had him babysit her, let that bastard's son play with her. I thought he was a good man. And for a decade I did nothing while Ava's life was an endless cycle of nightmares. And when I stopped hearing her, I thought she was dead. And you know what? I thanked God for her death. Because it meant that she escaped this cruel world. That she will finally find peace and happiness with her mother."

"She has been with me for the last three months." My voice came out gruff.

"Do you love her?" His eyes turned sharp again.

"More than my own life," I told him the truth. I would die for that woman.

"Do you treat her right?" His voice shook.

"I would like to believe that I do," I replied and extended my hand.

He nodded and took my hand. I pulled him up.

"We need to find Mary." He told me when we were making our way back. He sounded pissed.

"Why?"

"Because that bitch was the one who planned the attack."