Chapter 51
-Angie-
Our little gathering quickly dispersed Ignatius took Dorothy aside to speak when her face had paled at
his words.
She looked terrified at the idea of the new responsibility that was to be thrust upon her. But I was
convinced she would make a great Luna. And I was willing to follow her anywhere
Gideon excused himself to make a few calls to his family to let them know of the ns Gideon’s family
was a loyal bunch. As the youngest of seven brothers. Gideon was the golden child and they would do
anything that he asked of them
Fae and I headed out onto the porch, prepping to search for Geranium before taking up watch in shins
around the mansion. Rita stopped me at the front steps with a gentle hand on my shot der. “Ang 1
have to ask something of you.”
I still didn’t entirely trust Rita but Dorothy seemed to be convinced that she was on our side so I
stopped and let her speak.
“If you do run into Johan Rita said quietly, keeping her voice l es so as not to be overheard by neither
Dorothy nor Ignatius “If he is out there and you are able to track him. Would you do what you can to
take him down?”
1 stared her down for a moment. “Why is Dorothy so important to you?”
Rita lowered her head “She’s like a daughter to me. It’s difficult to exin and there isn’t time for it now.
I just need you to promise that you will do what you can. Johan is after Dorothy, there’s no doubt about
that. You have to promise toprotect
her
“Of course. I’ll protect her. She means a lot to me toel
I pulled my shoulder away and followed Fae down the stairs. When I looked.
-shoulder, Rita was still staring after
I brushed the conversation aside for the time being. And directed my gaze to the woods.
Geranium was out there somewhere, whether he was dead or alive was hand to say, I could’t imagine
someone taking down. that beast of a man but Johan was different. He was smarter than the other
Tally attackers. Stronger too it would se
Somewhere out there, Johan himself could still be lurking. If we were to run into him. I vowed to myself,
he would never leave the woods alive.
J followed Fae to thest ce we had found Johan’s tracks – the indentation in the ground by arge
tree that looked out onto the cliffs where Dorothy and Ignatius had run that morning.
“This must have been when Dorothy heard something in the woods I said to Ear who was inspecting
the ground around us. turning in small circles with her eyes on the upturned dirt.
She nodded. “Seems that way. There was movement here. There are two distinct heel marks on the
ground. He took a tem steps around the area before climbing back into the trees.”
She scanned the bark of the trees around us before picking up on a small abrasion on one of the sandy
cherry birches
“Bingo
I followed her through the woods as she tracked Johan’s progress. Fae who was usually so
lighthearted and cheerful with a kr ack for grinding Gadeons’ gears, was apletely different person
when she was on the hunt
She took pride in her skills and rightly so. I didn’t know what I would do without her. Ourtte team of
three would be iplete
Far led me deeper and deeper into the woods, moving along slowly whenever she picked up on the
slightest irregrity an the trees. Eventually, as we walked a new strange odor hat out notes
simultaneously
It was difficult to decipher at first but as we moved along the stench became more and more apparent. I
swallowed the nausea that was threatening to have me hurling as my mind raced I was bing less
and less convinced that Geramum
10:50 Fri, Jan 26
might still be alive.
62%
After walking further and almost gagging as the scent filled my nostrils and choked my throat, my fears
were confirmed.
Fae gave out a small cry of rm, pausing suddenly in front of me and then turning to bury her face in
my chest. She clung to my sweater as I looked over her shoulder at the sight before us
I wanted to turn away too. I was grateful I hadn’t eaten any breakfast that day because it would have
been making at reappearance at that moment.
On the ground before usy Geranium, or at least what was left of him. His chest looked like it had
been opened up and unfolded. It was a scarlet-streaked flower blooming from his b*dy. His rils were
exposed and pointed skywards.
His insidesy in straggles around him. It looked like something had burst out of his chest rather than
torn into it, but the w marks on his face said otherwise. Blood had soaked into the soil surrounding
him and stained the ground a darker shade of brown. It was a horrific sight.
Fae was crying quietly against my chest and I wrapped my arms around her, ncing around us as if
the monster responsible would jump out at any moment,
But from the scent of the corpse and the color of what little skin was visible, Geranium had been here
for a while, cooling in the dark shade of the forest. He must have sensed Johan’s presence early that
morning and set out to inspect it. Needless to say, he never made it back.
I was furious, we had all loved Geranium. He had been aforting presence in our lives since we
were children, arge, muscr guardian angel who said little but felt a lot.
“Come on,” I told Fae. “We wille back for him. We have to keep going, we have to know where
Johan went from here.”
She wiped tears from her eyes, avoiding looking at the macabre cene before her. “Okay,” Her voice
was small and h oa rse as she fought to hold back her tears.
I felt guilty asking more of her when she had already done so much. But we had to find Johan, I needed
to know where he was hiding. This attack had only happened this morning. He had to be close
Fae studied the trees around her but could see none of the marks that we had followed thus far.
Furrowing her brow she turned her attention to the ground instead and inspected the din, taking care
not to step on the darkened soil soaked with blood.
She walked a little way off and then looked up at me. “He couldn’t make it back into the trees. He was
hurtTM
I walked over to her, avoiding the grisly scene myself, and looked down to where she was pointing with
one quivering finger. There was a thick spattering of dark crimson over the dead leaves on the ground.
It formed a perfectly clear trail into the woods
“He’s bleeding.” Fae said, her voice cracking slightly. “Geranium must have hurt him pretty bad.”
“He did good,” I said in low tones. “This helps us a lot. He weakened him slowed him down.”
–
“Yeah.” Fae said bitterly and we began to follow the trail, trending deeper into the darkening woods.
It was already reachingte afternoon, but the final rays of the sun weren’t enough to break through the
thick treeline above our head. The forest was dark and full of rustling leaves and hastening small feet
scurrying out of our way as we moved along
Both of us were on guard. If Johan had managed to do what he had done to Geranium there was no
telling just how powerful he had be. I considered turning back and returning with backup
I didn’t want to endanger Far just because of my own personal qualms with the monster we were
following. But to turn back would mean more time passing and more chance for Johan to escape
further than what we could track.
And so we pressed on. I did, however, send a text to Gideon to let him know where we were and what
we were doing. He
2/1
10:50 Fri, Jan 26
wasn’t stoked to hear that we were going after Johan alone but he agreed to not tell Ignatius until it was
absolutely necessary.
I vaguely exined our location and where we seemed to be headed. There was a quarry up ahead
and by the looks of the tracks, that was where Johan was headed. The tracks were messier the further
we walked.
Johan had been losing a lot of blood and he seemed to have gotten s loppy. It was clear he wasn’t
even bothering to try and
hide his tracks. Maybe he had banked on the assumption that no one would follow him after witnessing
what he had done to Geranium. He clearly didn’t understand the Bielke people at all,
Eventually, we broke through the clustered treeline and into the open air. The cliff ahead of us looked
down into the quarry below. The water was murky and the drop was a steep one. The ring rays of
final daylight hit my face and Esquinted.
“We’re 100 exposed here,” I whispered to Fae and the two of us shuffled back into the shadows of the
forest, sticking close to the treeline as we followed the trail of blood along the edge of the quarry
Fae guided us down a steep incline and our footsteps sent small pebbles rolling and bouncing down
around us. If Johan was nearby, he would surely be aware of our presence. We wouldn’t have the
element of surprise.
We rounded a sharp jagged corner and Fae drew back. “I can sense him.”
Her voice was stricken and after a split second, I understood why. It was a terrible scent. It smelled of
blood and decay but something more than that. Something worse than death.
It was as if we were hunting a walking corpse. It alluded to dark magic and a warped sensation. Like
someone had dabbled with the flow of nature itself and skewed it into something ugly, evil, and vile.
I stepped in front of Fae, putting a guarding arm out before her as I inched forwards around the edge of
the jagged rock.
“I’m surprised you managed to track me as well as you did.”
Gravely and disconcerting like iron grating iron, or the breaking of dense bones. The voice came from
behind us and we whirled around in horror.
Johan stood behind us. Only he did not look like the man I had heard so much about. He didn’t look like
a man at all. He looked like a monster. A nightmaree to life.
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A nightmare that currenity had us cornered.
-Dorothy-
One by one, younger members of the Bielke people began pouring into the house. People our age and
younger, all waiting 10 hear about what exactly was about to go down. The influx started as a trickle of
people turning up in their cars but eventually, the entire mansion was parked and we had to move
outside in order to amodate everyone.
The young Bielke people were nothing like the Khall who had grown up with. Theyre were skilled in
I spotted quite a few people who had been a part of the crowd that had surrounded me at my new
college and kept very close to Ignatius’s side. They too, however, seemed wary of me and either
looked at me with unease or a fearful kind of reverence. It would seem I had made a good impression
for myself afterall. If not good then at least an impressive one. I had no issues with any more bullying
and people had bigger issues on their minds.
There were a few who werent too keen on the idea of taking down the elders-individuals who were
connected through family blood Hot Ignatius prassured them that this would not be a bl oody battle He
wanted no real harm toe to the elders only to squeeze them out of their seats of power.
To go in with our axes swinging.” Ignatius said both to those hesitant to join as well as those lusting for
blood, “To murder for the sake of power, we would be making the same mistakes as our predicessors.
“We want this to be as peaceful as possible,” I piped up, standing beside Ignatius, “The point of this
takeover is to reform the Bielke pack and fix rtions with allies. We need to stand as one hunt against
the Tally and ensure that this never happens again.”
10:50 Fri, Jan 26 G
Some people were still skeptical but for the most part everyb*dy seemed to be onboard for the n.
Rita was alos a useful source with her knowledge of the elders and exactly how we would manage
kicking them out of their seats.
The sun was already beginning to set and the first stars were alrely visible on the h orizon. The n
was for Rita to summon the elders for an emergency meeting at the coucillers hall. Once everyone had
arrived, h oards of our people would be waiting outside. Ignatius predicted that we wouldnt have much
trouble with most of the council members. They had already nned to leave us anyway and turning
them out would be easy enough. They would be given the night to pack up and clear out. Anyone who
was still around by dawn would be dealt with swifty.
Ignatius’s only concern was his own father. Nob*dy was aware of where exactly Elliot was but when he
caught wind of the operation he was sure to put up a fight. Elliot was the Alpha afterall. Neither I nor
Ignatius wanted to see him dead, reguardless of how terrible he had been to the both of us, but we
might have no other choice.
Suddenly, Gideon approached us throuhg the crowd. His face was pale and it was immediatly clear
something was wrong. I scanned the crowd. I couldnt find neither Angie nor Fae in the mass of
determined faces. I couldnt pick up their scent either and they were supposed to be back already.
Gideon approached ignatius, distraught, “I wasn’t supposed to tell you but they’ve taken way too long
now. Angle and Fae went after Johan. They found Geranium’s b*dy in the woods. I think theyre in
danger.”
I slipped my hand into Ignatius’s and he held it tightly. It was going to be a long night.
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