AUTHOR'S POV
"Alpha, it could be a trap", Cory whispered over Scott's shoulder.
"No shit, Sherlock!", Lucas grunted. There's never an easy way to find the Luna. Not as easy as going in the basement and waltz out of the mansion in the middle of nowhere. "What are we waiting for?", he asked. Of course it is trap, Scott thought. But somewhere below the mansion, he could sense Diana's scent. And as always, faint but there. It was enough to take one step in, and follow Alva's clacking heels beyond the descending stairwell. "Here we go", Lucas made a side eye glance at Cory, before they both followed in. They reached the end of the stairs and found an entry door widely opened. Scott flinched at the touch of his palm on the door. Silver. He tightened his jaw at how it was deliberately placed there to either keep a strong beast in or… out. A beast hiding under his skin. A beast like a lycan.
'Watch your backs', Scott mindtalked Lucas and Cory as he carefully go beyond the doorway. Blue flames lit the narrow hall. The air changes as soon as he steps in. Colder. And the reeking scent of the Nagual have completely filled in. He was unsure why the Nagual is no longer hiding itself. 'Let's make this quick', Scott then found three doors. All red. Not painted, but stained. One door with a moonstone and a moon caught his eye, a coveted item to entrap an original vampire. In there, a strong scent raged the wolf in him. Diana's blood. A chill crawled his spine… slowly. Like pins and needles. It twisted his stomach, narrowing his vision as he step forward. Too careful for a creature like him. She's alive. He had to be right. From the doorway, he could see the room totally empty. Even though trails of her were splattered on the floor, Diana is nowhere in that room.
Then, another sound was heard.
Help me…
Not from the moon door, but from the one to his left. A voice like hers. Like Diana's. It was weak, trembling.
'I'm not feeling this', Lucas uttered through mindtalk as he look behind. A scent of pearwood and wolf flower bloomed upstairs as he sniff the air. A deadly pair known to trap supernatural souls when it touches one's blood. 'Smell that?', he told the two.
'That ain't good', Cory answered. 'She's trapping all of us'.
"Help me… ", there it was again. It was loud enough to draw in Lucas and Cory too. The voice cried. Weeped. Then, started to wail. The voices layered over each other, blurring into something unbearable. Pulling Scott at something that almost felt like guilt. "Please ~", a voice choked from beyond the red door. "It… hurts".
Scott's body reacted before his thoughts could catch up. He reached for the handle with the willingness to save, stop and end her suffering. "Don't", Lucas gripped Scott's arm, hard enough not to push that door. "That's not her".
"Let me go, Luc!", Scott argued. He had to see with his eyes if it is Diana or not.
"Diana got hurt! Almost died several times. Chased by wolves and beasts. And never… never have I ever heard her scream in fear, or in pain!", Lucas reassured, making sure no more doors will be opened in that basement.
"Look, Alpha!", Cory pointed at the floor. Scott reluctantly looked, as he listen to the cries from inside the room. And then, his gaze dropped. At first, he didn't see it. Another thin red line traces at the base of the doorway. Subtle. Straight. Like a boundary drawn with a steady hand.
Despite Diana's essence is all over the basement, it was certain that she's no longer there. A reality that was hard to grasp. "What's that...'", Scott asked, though a part of him already knew.
"A threshold", Cory answered. "Not for humans, not nagualli. For wolves. If we get in, we won't get out".
The screaming behind the door tore through the basement. Louder, and more convincing. Then, it twisted as if it sees Scott moving away from the door. A low chuckle bled through the cries. Until grief unraveled completely, stitching itself into a jagged, rising cackle that filled the basement walls. It wasn't pain. It wasn't Diana. It was a performance. Then, a voice slipped through the cackles. Slick and venomous. "You will never get out from here", the knob turned with a soft click, and the door opened just enough for everyone to see. Three pairs of slit molten gold orbs burned in the dark. Pupils narrowing.. adjusting and recognizing. The scent of wolf hit them and something feral answered back. The door slowly opened with no resistance. And then, they poured out.
Nagas.
Though in human form, their skin had patches of scales all over their bodies and their movements aren't fully human, not fully serpent. Mouths curling to reveal a narrow split tongue, and teeth too sharp and too many. They lunged. Fast! But not faster than an Alpha with a mind only to find his Luna. Scott's hand shot out, catching the nearest Naga by throat mid-lunge. The impact rattled up his arm, but he didn't slow. With a snarl, he twisted and threw its body slamming into the others hard enough to slide them all back into the room. "Move!", he clapped the door shut, forcing it into the frame. The door shuddered violently along with the deafening screeches against it. The wolves knew that no containment can't stop the Nagas from breaking out. Not too long, their facts started to blow on their faces. A crack suddenly split in the middle of the wood. Then another. Clearly, the door won't hold for too long.
"Let's go!! Scott!!", Lucas urged as he stand by the door way, pulling the heavy door close.
Scott rushed to Lucas, and gave him a hand to close it. Immediately, fire tore his palms. He hissed, teeth bared as the silver burn his skin. Every pain made it known what he was. Cory, who was mid stairs, jumped down to help the two. All together, they forced the door to close just in time when the red door's hinges snapped, and the wood splintered. Outward, it exploded as the Nagas spill out again in the now empty blue lit hall with a tightly shut silver door. They banged it. Relentlessly. Lunging and surging against the metal as if it doesn't hurt their fluid bodies.
"Go up! Go up, go, go!!", Scott took the rear as Cory and Lucas ran up. Boots thundered against the stairs, breath tearing in and out of their lungs that refused to slow. Cory reached the top first. Without delay, he ran through the open door followed by Lucas, then Scott. However, something unseen slammed on their faces. Their bodies jerked back like they hit a wall of glass.
"Damn it!", Lucas cursed, punching the invisible wall with his fist. Claws scraping uselessly on the unseen barrier. Grunting heavily until his knuckles felt nothing but sharp pain forcing him back. Scott pushed forward and still, nothing out of the wolf in him can get through the threshold. "Now what?", Lucas hissed.
"Nothing more left to do but…", Cory peered through the barrier and took one deep exhale. "Heyy!! Allen!! Daveeed!!", he yelled. "Guys!! Pearwood and Wolf flower!!", Cory called desperately, leaving Scott and Lucas staring at each other, face palming, thinning their mouths in a fine line for such humiliation.
"A little… bit busy here!", David answered, strained. Followed by clanging of metal and glasses breaking.
Cory widened his eyes at the spark of hope brought by David's voice. "Damn it, Daveeeed!! Faster! This is life and death situation!", he demanded. However, his optimism was instantly shattered when the loud banging on the metal door down the basement continued. Much louder than before. "David!!", Cory could almost beg, smashing the barrier.
"Coming! Co-ming...", Allen answered, but in high pitch. Squeaking and wheezing, almost seemed like choking.
"I'll be your slave for a year! Free beers at Lucas'! And… and… no more late night calls from Alpha for a week!", Cory cried negotiating, ending getting knuckled on the top of his head by Lucas and Scott.
"Why don't you just fucking erase it?", Lucas knelt on the floor, squinting at the crimson line on the doorway.
"The containment is on our side", Scott answered, scratching the red line with his thumb. "Should be erased from outside". The banging downstairs went on, until the metal door bulged. The three looked down getting a hunch that their time is up. The pounding turned slow. Uniformed. Like pulse beating. Then, there comes silence. A kind of silence that doesn't give relief. Listening closely, a wet sound slithering wafted beyond the door. Followed by bone shifting, flesh folding... stretching as if the Nagas are rearranging to something new.
"That doesn't sound so good", Cory nervously, his face hardened.
"Get that door opened", Scott mumbled as he descend mid-stairs. His eyes squinted at the metal door, fixed on the frame. Something pressed against it from the other side. Slow, and steady as if testing its strength. Suddenly, the door bent from the top. A strong force peeled the metal door open like it was not even what it is made of. Coming out from it were half human and half snake creatures with scales like bristles. Jagged like shards. With sharper vertical eyes glowing in deep yellow. Set of serrated teeth which have doubled.
"That's new", Lucas' eyes went round seeing the snake shifters. Eyes ahead, he clawed the metal railings of the staircase that have embedded on the stone wall. Taking one long panel of the railing, he broke it into two and descended down the stairs closer to Scott as they watch the creatures creep out.
The nagas from the basement upgraded, when they shouldn't. As a first to witness such incredible change in such creatures, Scott's chest heaved scanning the Naga's body for its weakness. Their old version had a tiny slit under their ears, vulnerable to any weapon. Yet now, their slender bodies seemed unknown to frailty. "Get ready", he said.
Gliding on the walls, the three nagas spiraled their way up the stairs. Hissing, and relentlessly pushing upward. The basement air felt smaller now, like it was folding inward. "Lycan... Your soul is ours...", one of the Nagas shrilled.
Lucas hurled the metal panel of the railing against the other Naga, pinning it right through its chest on the ceiling. With the other metal panel, he incessantly stabbed the Naga wherever he may please. The edge reached its face, its neck, and down its belly while he dodge its tail waving in the air, writhing in pain along with its screeches that filled the stairwell. "Hurry David!!", Lucas called, figuring that these Nagas doesn't have weaknesses at all.
Scott countered the lunge of one Naga with a punch on its face. It slid down a couple of plight down the stairs, rippling like water but it purred as if it was only tickled. Unstoppable, the Naga crawled back up, seething with its split tongue going in and out of its mouth. Scott pounced forward tackling the serpent, both sliding back down the edge of the stairs.
"Scott!!", Lucas and Cory both hailed. They broke the floorboards and took as many shards of wood that they can get. They flung each one like daggers aiming for the Nagas' eyes, completely blinding the one stuck on the ceiling, and the other one aiming forward, as it coil around turning its tail as a shield.
Beyond the stairs, the naga's tail curled on Scott's leg, as the spines of its scale bury in the fabric of his denim piercing his skin. Scott winced, holding down its arms on the ground. A slight heat boiled under Scott's skin. Burning at the sense of perilous exigence. A sudden surge of power that he never felt before grew stronger within him, radiating down to his hands. His eyes sparked rage. And like an instinct, he ripped the naga's limbs off. Easy, and brutal. The Naga's sharp wails lingered for a while, until it's out of breath. Scarlet resin splattered everywhere as the air in the basement smell of copper and something fishy.
"I don't think we have to hurry", Lucas saw how effortless Scott tore the Naga into pieces with his bare hands, realizing that the lycan in Scott have begun to own his wolf.
Finally, David came with water cupped in his hands. He tripped, and spilled a few on the floor. Then hurriedly went back on his feet with what's remaining in his palms. He poured the water on the red line by the door way, erasing a small part of the threshold. "Come on!!", he called, in a rush.
Cory could hardly fit in on his first try to go through. "Get more water!!", Cory said.
"That's the last of it from the tap!!", David frustratingly admitted, as he reach for his friends' hands. "This'll do! Come on!!".
Cory, being the smallest, didn't had problems squeezing himself in the narrow opening of the invisible barrier. Lucas got stuck in a bit, before finally getting through the crevice. "Scott!! Let's go!", Lucas called, half way through the opening reaching for Scott.
Scott ran up the stairs, dodging the blind Nagas - one serpent hanging on the ceiling and the other coiled mid-stairs. On his way to the top, the Nagas seemed to have regenerate their senses of sight as they hiss angrily. Quivering the sharp jagged scales all over their tails. The one on the ceiling forcefully slid itself off the metal panel pierced through its chest. It fell on the stairs shrieking with its fingers curled in the air. Squealing, the other waited no time as it lunge forward for Scott.
"Scott!!", Lucas's face twisted as he watch Scott gets chased by the Nagas. Forcing himself out, he not only hoped Scott makes it on time, but also trusted his friend to fit in the narrow exit of the threshold. "Come on!!".
Everything slowed. Scott raced to the door where his friends were wide-eyed calling and waiting for him. His legs spared no mercy as he clamber up. He won't die in there. Not until he finds his Luna.
Scott reached the crevice, slipped through the tight space out of the basement, and made it out. With hearts refusing to slow, the wolves panted on their knees in the hallway. None of them even noticed the shift in the mansion's facade. "Alpha we got a problem.. ", David started. "NAGAS!!".
"WE KNOW!!", Scott, Lucas and Cory all yelled at once, backing away from the basement door as the two upgraded Nagas claw out from the split in the threshold.
"Incoming!!", Austin got himself rolling down the corridor towards the pack, as more Nagas flock the mansion.
Earlier
Roman and his pack were quickly on the move to penetrate the mansion in the forest. For what it's worth, tailing Scott finally paid off. Despite working side by side with the other Alpha, he made a different strategy of the same goal making sure he finds Diana first. His pack chose to fan out the mansion getting in. Leaving no tracks, or noises. He then climbed up the wall to a window, right where the Luna's scent trail is strongest. Broke the glass in one strike, then welcomed himself in a room where his wolf never relaxed. Diana's scent curled through the walls. Soft and unmistakably hers. However, a vague feeling stirs in him. Troubling, keeping him wondering.
The large bed was disturbed in a way that someone slept in it. Her scent clung in the pillows and blanket, just how it did in the entire room. He pressed his hand on the soft fabric, feeling her warmth that's no longer there. Then, he turned to the corner of the room and found her soiled clothes that she wore the night he lost her from the Valley of the Falls. As if they were left there to be noticed. He held them in his hands, firmly gripping the cloth. Diana's scent lingered all around, but too shallow beyond it.
Scott enters the room and catches Roman staring at a piece of clothing in his hands. He already knew whose were they, seeing the longing in Roman's eyes. "She was here", Roman uttered. They both knew it, but still... it sounded like a wound for neither any of them still found her. Wordlessly, Scott just left.
As he was about to move onto the next room, a scent too sweet pressed into Roman's senses. It was cloying, smothering. He looked around, and found an ember where the scent is coming from. An incense burning in a vessel that doesn't fit in the perfectly affluent room. Its smoke curled lazily, threading through air like fingers. Then something hit him. Anxiously, he went over Diana's things. Cabinets. Drawers. Closets.
They were all empty.
He then followed his instinct, and slowly approached the incense burning. Little by little, it was muting his wolf and at the same time smoothing the edges. He took the burner, smashed it under his boot in one stomp making the cold clarity settle in. The moment the ember died, the room inhaled.
In fact, it decayed.
The mansion is just a display. Silk yellowed. Gold dulled. The scent of the florals curdled into mold. The walls crack as if remembering their true age all at once. Everything practically rot. Diana was never meant to stay in there. It was a holding stage, and they were being led. Stepping out of the room, he realized the entire mansion was a total illusion of deception.
In the hallway, which have also stopped pretending, the shadows seemed to be occupied. He walked through the dark and rotting passages listening to the silence. Tilting his head, a whisper of movements hissed against the wood. Low, slithering and careful. Roman followed it. As he go along, the scent hit him next. He turned to a room where a strong scent of feral linger. Turning the knob, the door could hardly push open. It hit something hard that he had to yank the door forward. A vibrant red resin run the floors, and a body of a snake-like shapeshifter bathe in it. "Alpha", Gunner breathed, a voice barely more than a fracture in the silence. "Nagas".
The mansion shook, as if it is breathing on its own. In every hole there is, in the floor and on the ceiling, the nagas started to appear. No warnings made as they strike. Coiling into whatever they could catch on, with hisses that split the air. The wolves in Roman and Gunner surged against the scaled flesh writhing all over the walls. Catching on their limbs, twisting within their grasps. They both met them head on with no ounce of hesitation. "Don't shape shift" Roman warned, as he stab the head of a Naga with a shard of wood. "Easier to kill them with hands".
Shattering the entire mansion into a complete scene of violence, they met with the other members of the pack in one of the receiving areas of the rotting mansion. Flynn got caught, coiled with the naga's grip. He was one venomous bite away from his demise when Troy snapped the naga's neck between his legs. From almost losing a pack member, the Black Creek pack tore through themselves in a heart beat as they let fury reshape themselves into something built for war as they collide with the swarm.
"They keep.. on coming", Matt grunted, crushing a naga's rib with his elbow.
"Burn the fucking house down, now! The Luna is not here", Roman ordered, as Gunner start to light up the place with a lighter.
"And the… others?", Aaron catches his breath as he take off his bloody shirt.
"Pray they make it out", Roman slammed one from the air, slamming it on one of the marble column hard enough to crack its spine. "Or not".
Instantly, the mansion ignited from within. Strewn about every corner, Roman and his pack poured flames on the wood as it quickly eat everything it touches. They made sure all exits are ambushed by the flames, that no Naga could ever make it out. Screeches and shrills loudly overlaid with the crackles of the flames. The Nagas, tormented by the fires, violently roamed the unscathed parts of the mansion, trying to escape the wrath Roman created. Quickly, the fire curtained the windows, and easily blanketed the floors. With the flames in his hands, Roman trapped all the Nagas inside the mansion, burning them all down as he play with fire once again.
Roman and his pack made out of the mansion just in time, hearing the wails of the Nagas as they burn alive. His eyes gazed at the dancing flames, turning the entire mansion in a blazing crimson-orange inferno. He stood there, waiting. Not for the wails to stop, but for something else.
Then suddenly, the front door bursted open. Scott and his pack stumbled out, smoke curling around them, eyes wild. Roman hardened his jaw seeing Scott empty-handed... and somehow, alive. Their gazes refused to meet, perpetually radiating a sense of defeat. He sighed deeply at how wasted the day was, not finding Diana once more.
In the midst of being torn and catching breaths, a shadow slipped through the trees. Subtle and quiet, but clumsy. Quickly, Scott changed his form to the wolf that he is, and hounded whatever that fled to the forest. Like an impulse, Roman shape shifted to his wolf form too as he tail Scott. The air burned with the scent of one thing alone - the Nagual. It was then that the Alphas instantly erupted a chase among the wolves of both packs. A dozen of wolves tearing through the forest in pursuit of the nagual escaping.
Ahead, Tamara ran. She didn't looked back. Nothing would stop it from running away. Because if she gets caught, everything she planned for over the years will be for nothing. She ran on all fours against branches snapping like bones. Her breath ragged, desperate. Her movements were fast, and precise. Somehow, the past threaded into the present. And the feelings of how it all began washed all over her. The pain from the savagery of hunting her kind. The humiliation from the crushing insults. And the endless chase by the… wolves. Always the wolves.
Paws devoured the ground, making paths to each one. Thundering through the forest made by two wolf packs. One of Scott's who blazed between the trees like wildfire after the Nagual. Cold, rushing. And another of Roman's who chose to flow. Crash through the barks and bushes, threading like he knew where he would be. He stayed outside of the chaos, eyes fixed on the path the Nagual is heading. Surely, she's not running blind. And so, he decided to arrive first.
Rage seethed into Scott's bones, as his feet did not tire. He raced against the wind until he catch on the Nagual who's in its version of wolf. Smaller, weak and scarred in one of its paw. Out of the blue, Tamara's weak leg betrayed her as a sharp jolting pain zapped making her stumble on the ground. She dragged her life, running crooked away from the wolves. But then, a large shadow surged beside her.
A massive wolf crashed into her, with its paw striking across her ribs with the force of a falling stone. She hit the ground hard, with her world spinning into dirt, sky and pain. A sharp cry tore from her throat, before she could swallow it. Scott loomed over the Nagual curled on the ground. Furious. Dangerous.
"Where's Diana?", Scott fumed at every breath. His growl wasn't just a sound, but a threat. Troy and Cory arrived, circling Tamara forming a living cage. "Where is she?".
Tamara wheezed, scrambling as she stood. Slowly backing, with her injured leg buckling beneath her. Her eyes flickered once, on her right. A gap. A big hollow gap inside a tree extending to a possible escape. Then, in a quick sudden movement, she lunged sideward, twisting itself in ignoring the scream ripping through leg and squeezed through the narrow opening just as Scott was about to snap her throat. His teeth grazed her fur. Such a great miss.
The wolves got wild, while the Nagual crawled up the hollow tree until it reaches the opening to a thick branch. Then, she leapt to another tree and then to ground and ran. Not fast. Not clean. But alive. Just right behind her, the forest erupted again. They were faster now. Angrier.
Farther ahead, the ground sloped. The trees thinned. Roman snuck behind the Nagual breaking through the tree line. His ears flicked. The river's roar reached him before the clearing did. The trees then broke as the river reveal itself, wide raging, splitting the land like a verdict. Tamara staggered into a halt on the edge. She turned her head slightly. Her eyes weren't afraid, they were calculating. Roman realized she wasn't trapped. She's deciding. Measuring the distance in her glances. She wouldn't dare. "This is it, no where to go", Roman growled.
Scott stepped forward, slower this time. Certain. One by one, twelve wolves closing in on one prey. Then, Tamara ran toward them which flickered confusion among the wolves. "Wait", Roman snapped too late. The wolves surged, confused for a half a heartbeat and then...
She leapt.
Midair, Tamara's fur collapsed and reformed into feathers. A jet black bird freed from gravity beating its wings unevenly fly across the unforgiving river. Scott's muscles coiled then he charged. As he was about to make a great leap, Lucas and Cory slammed against him mid-stride. Knocking him sideways before the jump could happen. They all skidded near the edge, claws carving into the earth. "You can't make that!", Lucas growled, low and sharp.
The river roared against his anger. "She's getting away!", Scott snapped back, fury incandescent. "Argh! Diana!!", he threw his head back and howled - a sound torn straight from something breaking inside him.
Across the river, the Nagual crashed into the opposite bank, skidding across the mud, shifting to its true form. Human-like. Hairy all over. With tonal abdomen. Barely holding herself together, she stumbled into the trees not looking back at the wolves left on the other side. Roman stood on the edge of the cliff watching until the Nagual completely disappears into the trees.