Chapter 70 - We'll Do What We Can

— Kaden —

I had opened the window on the way. The wind was glacial, but it allowed me to smell the air. It was the most horrible thing that I could have done to myself as I smelt it before I arrived, still in the car, unable to do anything but drive and try not to crash myself into a tree.

It didn’t take long for Mishka to smell the it too.

I sent a mindlink to everyone I could that would be relevant to this but it wasn’t long until I realise as I got closer than the links were now cut.

“Take your phone and call the cavalry,” I ordered Mishka. I had already contacted many, but I wanted more.

“Jammer,” he said. “Phone lines cut.

I just squeezed my jaw tighter as the smell of blood got to us.

Everything was a mess.

I could smell Elaeya blood on the grounds as I parked the car.

It didn’t smell like a massive amount but my heart was beating at thrice the normal rhythm already.

“Fuck,” said Mishka.

I turned around to look at the massive amount of vegetation in the middle of the driveway.

“Ylva is in there,” he said.

Which is when I realised there was a car in the middle of what amounted to half a kilometer of vines wrapped around the metal frame.

People came in joining us into trying to get Ylva out. Some guys found a chainsaw somewhere.

“I want to know what has been going on here,” I asked a few of my detective as they came in and I gave the same order to Alik the second he joined us.

We found bodies.

Every time someone called for a body, my heart stopped until I was told it wasn’t her.

Nine children—the oldest was seven, the youngest eight months old—laid at my feet.

My throat was tight.

I watched, numb as they brought more bodies.

Most women. A few men.

They found one that had jumped into the well to hide, but had been shot regardless.

In the end there were two kids who ran further into the wood towards the inner territory and were found late in the evening, tired, dehydrated, but alive.

One man had hid a toddler under his body, saving the child. The man had been shot, but I would learn the next day that he would survive.

When Mishka took Ylva out of the car, she was a bloody mess, and he rushed her out of there in his arms. She had been breathing, but given the amount of blood around, I wasn’t sure if she would make it.

Elaeya had not been in the car with her, but I was sure she had been the one putting Ylva there, using the conjured vines to protect her.

We found the rest of her security details.

Dodson was dead.

Finn was dead.

Hugo was dead.

Anders was found alive. He had wrapped fabric around his lashed neck, paled as a sheet. He died on his way to the hospital. The doctors tried everything they could. I saw it in his eyes before he left. He knew it was coming.

I tracked Elaeya’s smell to the swamps until the water hid her smell along with that of those who took her.

Were found more than a few of them dead.

Six had been mauled by a wolf, two had no heads, one has had a massive brain hemorrhage. Three were burned alive along with a lot of trees. We also found one floating in the water with a broken spine. Three had been shot dead, but we found blood of more of them.

They had been ready to discard their men to get to what they wanted.

At least half of their corpses had been ghouls, a few shifters, others I was not sure.

They took her away from within my own territory.

It was the first attack within the land of Blakewoods or Blakemore in the last one hundred and nine years. Over a century of peace. I own one of the most dangerous and well-protected packs in the world, and they took our Luna.

“They took my wife,” I spat, punching the side of the car. It moved sideways two meters.

Everyone around me cleared.

“They fucking took my wife,” I cursed kicking the car door that dented further. The car was pushed into the ditch, landing sideways.

“We’ll find her,” said Sam coming closer, but keeping a safe distance regardless.

“I will lay waste to this fucking continent,” I said dangerously.

“Kade,” said Sam very carefully. “I think you should calm down now,” he said with the same tone you use to a mad shooter with a gun.

“Calm down?” I seethed, my voice even lower.

Sam pointed at the ground at my feet.

There was a thick black opaque mist like squid’s ink floating low on the ground and spreading around me.

It should have disturbed be at the very least, but I just looked at it curiously for a few seconds.

I saw someone approach in my peripheral, but stopped dead in his tracks.

I looked up, it was the wizard.

“Oh, boy,” he muttered, his eyes a little big.

“What is this?” Sam asked him.

“He’s growing into his new found power,” he replied. “And he’s really, really angry,” he added taking a slow step back.

“What do you know?” I tried to make my voice a little softer. It was probably not the best idea to terrify those that could help me find her.

Alik nodded but didn’t step forward. I noticed distractedly that the mist was slowly dissipating.

“I found a series of crystals,” he said. “They used them to limit magic. She managed to use some regardless, but it limited external connections. She couldn’t call up spirits, for example. They couldn’t use mindlinks either. They probably prepared for a vitteraï, not a sorceress. A lot of their dead were killed by magic, so a good guess is that she fought back hard.” He walked a little closer now that the mist was mostly gone.

“Your guys found tranq darts. That’s probably how they got to her, that and attacking everyone else, making her defence spread thin.

My joints in my hands creaked as I contracted my fists.

“The good thing is that they put a lot of effort into getting her alive. No one found a lot of blood from her. Not even enough for me to use it in a tracking spell.

“Could her track her?” I asked, desperate.

“They took her over water. They had some magical defences too, I’m sure they plan for all sorts of tracking. We’ll do what we can,” he said.

“You can use blood to track?

“Yes, But I need more than a drop.

“Some of them have been injured, could you track them instead?

“I already tried. Either they’re dead, or they took serious measures.

I looked away. I needed another idea.

“We’re not out of options yet,” he said.

I turned sharply. “Like what?

“We’ll figure it out.

Useless wizard.

I knew the type of things that were done to her kind. The words I had read on pages months ago were resonating in my skull. What were they doing to her? Had it already begun? Even if I could find her, would there be anything left for me to save?

I walked away, deep into the woods. I didn’t want any of them to see my fall apart.

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