Page 76 of Blood Sacrifice

“Different how?” Dominic queried, his gaze boring into the warlock, bringing my attention back to him.

“Lycans tend to be ruled by pack instinct, but he queried orders, and never responded to the call of the alpha.” He paused, eyes narrowing. “You managed to remove the spellbinding. Even in that you rebelled against the enchantment placed on you, and that takes a huge amount of physical and mental strength.”

My gaze met Dominic’s for a brief moment. “My wolf will not be enslaved by Balor.”

His laugh sounded bitter. “If he is still alive.”

That was something I hadn’t considered. In my head, he was the epitome of evil, a creature who needed to be killed in at least a dozen different ways to ensure he could never return.

“Interesting,” Dominic said. “It wouldn’t be the first time the leader was gone for years before anyone realised.” He rubbedthe bottom of his chin with the tips of his fingers, staring at the warlock as he spoke.

There was a voice in my head that whispered Balor was still out there somewhere. He hadn’t died, because instinct told me I would know if he had. That same instinct had constantly said Luna was alive, but instead I had believed Aisha since she had been connected to her as a priestess and sister. It was time to start listening to my wolf again since our senses had been cleansed to allow us to be ourself again.

I nodded to Jethro, who slammed magic-suppressing cuffs onto the warlock. “I have a family,” the magic user said, not even trying to bargain for his life. “They live among the humans but they know who they are and where to find them.” His gaze met mine and I saw his truth there—he didn’t care about himself, but his family was innocent.

“Give their details to my men,” I replied. “We don’t condone the torture and murder of the innocent.”

He sat back in his chair, sucked in a deep breath, and slowly released it, closing his eyes. I knew that look because I had felt it in my soul myself the moment I finally broke the chains of servitude, and knew I would never have to stand and say nothing while an evil man committed atrocities.

“Get him and his companion out of here,” I instructed, turning my back to them to study the map on the wall.

“What about him?” Jethro indicated the man sitting leaking in the corner.

“Is he saveable?” I asked.

“Not if what I’ve read is true,” Dominic replied. “Those curses were outlawed for a reason.” He wandered across the room and poked the cursed man with the toe of his boot. “I’ve read they can last in this state for years, in a limbo world of agony and distress.”

“Leave him,” I said to Jethro. “He can’t harm us, and it sends a message to whoever finds him.” That message would be accompanied by the scene in the rest of the complex.

I returned to studying the map, something about it made the hairs at the back of my neck rise.

“Problem?” Dominic asked.

I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye. “I’m not sure.”

The vampire appeared beside me. “Talk me through it,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.

I sighed, pursing my lips together for a moment. “This is an old map, the land demographics from about a hundred and fifty years ago.”

“So?” Dominic queried.

“So, why have an old map in one of your bases? Why not have a modern one with current borders and land structures?” The map appeared to be accurate, but something about it bugged me since a command base tended to only have the latest and relevant information stored in it.

“Did something happen around that time?” Dominic asked, and I saw his thought pattern, which sparked my own ideas.

Some of my memories were clearer than others, and the ones when I was spellbound were hazy as if I was viewing them through a mist. “I’m not sure,” I replied.

“It was the war with Chile,” Paulo said. “Peru was dragged into it because of the alliance with Bolivia. The map was redrawn because Chile claimed lands in their victory.” He looked like shit, but his wolf genes were healing him rapidly.

I nodded slowly. “The war of the Pacific,” I said, my memories returning. “But why the old map?”

“My guess would be because someone still sees the land borders as they were before the war,” Dominic said. “That the land that now belongs to Chile is still theirs.”

My gaze met Paulo’s. “My memory from that time is hazy,” I muttered, trailing my fingers through my hair.

“I’ve kept a journal for years, and I think we were all spellbound around two hundred years ago at the end of the Spanish occupation,” Paulo replied. “No one knew about my journals, so I was filling them in even when spellbound.”

“Shit,” Dominic said.

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