The Golden Lycans (Ella) novel Chapter 100

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Summoning

*Will***

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Fabian darts around in the undergrowth, hunting for the rabbit he had just seen. There weren’t as many rabbits around here as some other places we’d been to, so it was a welcome challenge for

Fabian.

We hear a slight rustle…Fabian pounces…trapping the little rabbit under his large paws.

He is about to sever its head when an intense, searing pain spreads through us, like a high voltage

electric current.

Our nerves are ablaze and Fabian immediately shifts back to my human form, seemingly unable to hold his form. The rabbit takes its chance, darting away to safety.

I lay there writhing on the floor in a daze of excruciating pain, becoming aware of an increasing sensation-like my nerves are being dragged in a particular direction.

Erebus was summoning me, I just knew it.

He’d never done it before, but I could feel that it was his darkness that was trying to drag me

towards wherever he is.

I curse the blood magic, wondering if his hold over me would ever end as I start crawling on all fours in the direction my nervous system is being so savagely dragged in.

The further and further I crawl toward wherever he is, the more the pain was thankfully dissipating.

Soon I was able to stand and then I was able to run. I was still in pain, but I was at least of sound mind and body as I draw closer to him.

My mind is racing.

There is a lot I could potentially glean from him, but a lot I could also give away to him at the same time, if I didn’t have a mental guard up and kept my wits about me.

I needed to be very careful.

After half an hour I’d travelled roughly three miles, coming across a pub on one of the larger roads

in the area.

The pain stops as suddenly as it began and I pant with absolute relief. But now I am left standing in a pub car park, completely naked, in the darkness.

I hear someone clear their throat, and there, striding toward me, in the little car park, is Erebus,

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dressed casually in jeans, a red sweater and a dark brown leather jacket. He looks like any other

guy in his late thirties.

But, other guys his age don’t give off the feeling of being near strong static electricity. The dark magic I could sense within him now is wild. He had been busy. I tried to keep my feeling of alarm

under control; I needed to know what he was up to.

“Will. Good to see you. It’s been a while. You’re looking well,” he says sharply, dumping a bag on the floor and kicking it towards me. I kneel down and open the bag, finding clothes inside it.

“Get dressed, pub owners don’t tend to like it when people come in naked. It’s far easier for me to summon you when you’re in Fabian’s form, so I came prepared.”

I look back at the loathsome man and sigh, beginning to put on the clothes from inside the bag.

“Come on,” he says bluntly, nodding toward the entrance to the pub, once I’d pulled a tatty hoodie on over my bare chest.

I follow him inside and he steers us toward a booth in the back corner.

“Sit,” he orders me and I reluctantly take a seat in the booth.

“Is it still a coke, or have your tastes matured now you’re finally of age?” He asks casually.

“A coke is just fine, thanks,” I reply, knowing I needed to use every ounce of mental power I had to keep particular aspects of myself hidden from my aura. Erebus was nowhere near as gifted, but he had accessed enough power to read them too and I didn’t need him uncovering anything from it.

He returns after a few minutes with two drinks and two bags of crisps.

“So, new school, must’ve been daunting for you. How are you doing?” He asks, as if he were my dad or some kind uncle who actually cared about my existence.

Gone were the days when I believed that.

Now I knew better. I was just a means to an end.

He pushes a bag of ready salted crisps toward me.

“I’m fine. I’ve slotted in very well at Exton, more than I ever did at Howardian, at the very least,” I reply simply. I knew I needed to play along, but I needed to be really careful with what information I

gave him.

“And…her?” he asks softly, leaning forward a little. I exhale slowly before answering.

“She had only discovered that weekend what she was; just before I arrived. Her powers had been

almost- if not entirely – blocked by a talisman she had been wearing around her neck since she was

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around four years of age,” I began, before wondering with a chill- did Erebus know anything about the talisman…but if he did…how could he?

“Interesting, so why can I feel her now? What changed? What happened to this…talisman?” He asks, his a excited for a moment. A feeling of dread is starting to form in the pit of my stomach at his reaction to this.

“She stopped wearing the talisman. The Headmaster figured out what it was doing to her and was skillfully removed by one of his many contacts. There are enchantments that hide the supernatural aspects of the school to humans and they didn’t work on her, so he needed to figure out why, as she clearly wasn’t the human they and also she, believed her to be. He had a hunch and it paid off. She no longer wears it, now she knows about her real heritage. I think the wings that sprouted from her back that evening were also a bit of a giveaway,” I explain, starting to feel a little weary under the mental effort I am expending from hiding my thoughts about his knowledge around the talisman. He looks annoyed for a brief moment.

“That’s a great pity, I had hoped for a moment that the talisman had just…naturally stopped

working,” Erebus said, sighing with an air of annoyance. I try to keep my surprise at this comment

to a minimum. He did know about the talisman, and somehow it seemed like he might also know

about the break point?

“No, I believe it still works, I think the headmaster still has it in his office,” I reply calmly.

“So what is she like?” he asks. I am a bit taken aback by this question. Still, he ought to know the kind of person he wanted to hurt.

“She is as you would expect. She embodies

light. She is kind, she is funny, she cares for her friends,

she wants to become a doctor so she can make a different to people’s lives. She is an innately goo

d person. The kind we need more of, in this world,” I say truthfully, my heart sinking a little.

“Intriguing. And your progress?” He asks, casually taking a gulp of his beer.

“We are very close,” I sigh, which isn’t a lie, “I have been helping her access and grow her magic.”

“Excellent. I felt a large burst of her magic two weeks back, what was that?” He inquires. My mental control almost wavers a little at this unexpected question.

Was he talking about the tree?

Was there an event more recently when she was marked?

When the rogues came? I needed to say something.

“As she should be, she is particularly gifted in the earth element. She grew a large wisteria tree in

the school greenhouse, which expended a lot of her power, for a time. But it is not a normal tree, it

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is full of light. All I can see when I look at it, is light,” I explain, feeling my mouth going dry from anxiety. I took a sip of the bubbly coke.

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“Awisteria tree, eh? A natural instinct coming out, I’m sure. They used to grow them in key areas,” Erebus mutters with his brow furrowed.

He then looks deep in thought for a moment and I decided to take this chance to look at his aura.

It is dark and murky, as I’d expect from a malicious individual such as him. Deceit, anger…but with, a chill down my spine I realise there is something I recognise, and this causes my mental barrier to falter little. He suddenly looks up at me coldly.

“You’re trying to HIDE something from me,” he says with a dangerous edge to his voice. Shit…his instincts were so pin sharp. I needed to think of something to admit to, very fast…

“I have recently sensed my mate. It is making my task…very challenging.”

“Oh come on, Will; you don’t give yourself enough credit. You may be at the bottom of the heap in y our family and probably your pack as a whole…but you are still a good looking alpha, after all. We both know that bedding multiple women without the associated emotional baggage is something that comes very easily to alphas,” Erebus replies with a derisive sneer, “so whether you’ve found your mate or not I think you can more than get it up for your faerie friend. They’re meant to be highly attractive to alpha Lycans in particular, so I am sure this is something you can get over.”

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