Page 38 of Her Reborn Mate

I tried hard to stare at the surface of the water, hoping to see something mystical or ethereal, but all I could see was the reflection of the moon on the water. Until that is, I saw something that had no business being there.

Fiddler’s Cove was a mile to my left. Fiddler’s Green rested silently to my right. From where I stood, I could see all the ships leaving the harbor in Fiddler’s Green. Those ships I could account for. But what was this little ferry coming out of Fiddler’s Cove? Hadn’t all the vampires been driven out? Or, rather, hadn’t they fled after their leader died at my hands?

It amazed me how my eyesight had improved since I unlocked the wolf within. Even though I was as far away from that boat as one could possibly be, I could make out the outline of two men wearing long coats. Vampires, who else? They had crates tied to the ferry. This could only mean one thing. The smuggling operation was still somehow continuing. It was not a difficult deduction to make. With Ralph dead, it was without a doubt Maurice who was still running this operation, and his greed had just made him commit a fatal mistake.

I now knew where he was. It was not clear to me if Alexis was with him or not, but at least this way, I’d get to tie up one more loose end.

After descending from the cliff, I shifted into my wolf form and gradually entered the deepest part of the forest, which led to Fiddler’s Cove. Even though I knew the vampires were not there anymore, I couldn’t help but be wary. This was, after all, my enemy’s territory. The last time I had entered an enemy’s territory, I had gotten shot, injected, and ended up dead. This time, I was not going to be so brash.

But it turned out there was nothing to be brash about. The cove was empty from the inside. The vampires had turned this place into a hanging city of sorts, with metal containers serving as makeshift rooms and storage spaces for the drugs and blood shipments that they had been smuggling.

Even though it was abandoned, the place smelled of vampires. The very air reeked of blood and death. With my hand on my nose, I sifted through the mess and tried to uncover any signs that might lead me to Maurice. I had seen the ferry leave from the cove’s inner harbor. This meant that the vampires were still using this place in some capacity.

As I walked from one corner of the cove to the other, I couldn’t help but feel that there was some unnatural heaviness dwelling in the air, as if the place had been desecrated with dark magic. I could sense that dark magic pressing on me, causing my head to spin. It was as if the vampires had written sigils on the walls to ward off others from this place.

The vampires were not known to use ancient magic. Their only magical distinction was the corrupted and perverted nature that beckoned them to drink blood. It was their only tether that joined them to the world of the supernatural. This was not prejudice that was making me think along these lines. This was the truth, as had been stated in books and as I had observed firsthand.

If the vampires were using magic, it was because someone had shown it to them.

It did not take me long to uncover the first rune that was etched on the cove wall. I immediately recognized it as belonging to the Elder Futhark, the runic language of the Norse folk and the Vikings. This only served to confirm my suspicions. We, the werewolves, had descended from the Norse folk, who had been the original shapeshifters. Loki, Odin, Freya, and several of the gods and goddesses possessed the power to shapeshift. Through our worship, veneration, and meditation, many of our ancestors unlocked this power. That is how the werewolves had propagated throughout the world. Shapeshifting was, however, not the only ability that had been carried through the generations. Runic magic and divination were two other forms as well.

What I was seeing on the cove walls was runic magic. Inscriptions were made to ward off trespassers and to hide the cove from the outside world. I could read these inscriptions, understand their meaning, and follow their trail throughout the cove. From wall to wall, I continued reading the warding spells till their tracks led me out of the cove. Someone had meticulously carved these runes furtively along the forest path. It was only a matter of following these runes to see where they ended.

As the night darkened, I found it increasingly difficult to look through the forest and find the runes, so I shifted. With my beastly vision, I could discern the markings much more easily.

Now, I was well out of the jurisdiction of Fiddler’s Green. Even the cove was several miles behind me now. Yet the runes were still scattered here and there, written on the rocks, carved into the trees, etched into the forest floor itself.

When my tracking led me down a steep path by the sea, it finally dawned on me. Everything clicked into place at once as I saw the cave entrance and the ship tied to it.

Of course, it was Maurice. Maurice must have given the vampires a book or two from our library, allowing them to use this runic magic to ward the werewolves off. It felt blasphemous, knowing that the vampires had taken our magic and had used it against us.

Now I knew what had been happening. The reason I was not able to connect with Alexis through my bond was etched in front of me in the form of a dissonance spell written in the old Norse tongue. This was a much more recent carving, done haphazardly and in a hurry. Without a doubt, Maurice was in there along with Alexis.

I took a jagged rock and began to scratch away the runes carved in front of the cave entrance. As soon as I did that, my bond with Alexis reawakened with such brute force that I was caught off balance.

Immediately, I could see a much clearer vision of Alexis, a vision that showed her alive but trapped. She was in a prison of sorts, and it looked like she had been badly bruised. My blood boiled upon seeing her in such a compromised state.

Alexis, I reached out.

Will. I tried to feel you. The bond didn’t work, she said.

Are you okay?

I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. It’s Maurice, Will. He’s kept me in here,she said.

And he was shrewd enough to use runic magic to counter our bond. That’s why we couldn’t get in touch with each other,I said.But I took care of that.

Are you near?She asked hopefully.

I am at the cave’s entrance, but I’ll need your help. Make some noise so I can track you down,I said.

I realized the very second that I had gotten into the cave that it was an intricate web of smaller caves, all of them joined together in the form of a labyrinth. It was immense and stacked with boxes and crates. I tore open a crate and confirmed my worst suspicion. Maurice was running the smuggling business from here. These crates were filled with drugs and blood.

Before I could dig deeper, a shrill scream rang through the caves. I could recognize that voice anywhere. The scream resounded again, this time in the form of a single word: “Help!”

I raced forward into the cave, trying to locate the source of the sound.

“Quiet down, you fucking bitch,” Maurice yelled from somewhere deep within the caves.

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