Page 8 of Blood Sacrifice

Salvator

My footsteps echoed as I made my way down the corridor toward the underground facility that had become home to those who stood against the tyranny of magic, especially the man who declared himself emperor a long time ago and never relinquished the title.

“Report,” I demanded as I walked into the control room.

“Police records indicate unusual deaths of two tourists. Both found dead in their bed with no cause of death,” Tarrack replied, typing to bring up the report on a screen.

There had been a time I believed magic was the greatest gift in the universe. It could help the harvest grow and bring bounty to the land. Then I witnessed the horror behind the true power of it, the evil that hid in the shadows, and now anything to do with magic repulsed me. I had seen a spell killing a thousand people, and also something like what was in this police report.

“Are any of our people in the area?” I asked, trailing my fingers through my hair.

“Yeah, but you’re not going to like who is also there.” Tarrack brought more images up on the screen.

Two of the hotel visitors who had been interviewed were two dire wolves who had sided with Balor for power and wealth.

“Fuck!” I muttered in disgust.

“Exactly. There is no coincidence those two were there and deaths mysteriously followed.” He leaned back in his chair to study the images on the screen.

I sat down and started to flick my way through all the witness statements and reports. My finger hovered over an image that sent a shockwave ricocheting through me. It couldn’t be. Aisha had sworn centuries ago that she had felt her sister’s death. It had been the reason I had stopped looking for her, and was the main reason that I broke the shackles that bound me to the man I believed had killed her.

“Everything okay?” Tarrack asked, sensing the change in my body language.

“Yeah, I just hate anything to do with Balor and his goons, you know that.” Each of us had suffered and lost in the war that had created our group. We were no longer slaves to the self-imposed emperor, instead reclaiming the land of our ancestors, and protecting it with our strength and resilience. Dire wolves were the oldest of the lycans, larger than the common lycan and infused with our own unique magic. It was why the old magic users had bound us to them.

Now they trembled at the sound of our name, stepping out of our way before they lost their heads. No one survived without a head, and it was the reason why we were named the deathly dires.

“I’ll maybe head out myself to check this out since I’m free at the moment.” Both of us knew I wasn’t free since I always had a massive list that needed my attention.

“You need me with you?” Tarrack asked.

“No, I need you to monitor the situation. If they are in the area, it’s because they’re chasing another priestess. It’s the only reason Balor releases his trackers.” I kept the tablet with the reports on it in my hand, my grip threatening to break the screen.

I turned on my heel, and walked out of the room, following another underground tunnel to the sleeping quarters, my thumbprint granting me access to my room. This was the only place that I could let my true emotions out.

Her image was still on the screen, and I zoomed in and out over and over again, studying it from every angle. Four hundred years had been a long time, but the image of her face was engrained in my brain.

Dire wolves were driven by the need to find their fated mate, and Luna had been mine from the moment I set eyes on her when she arrived at the temple. Before that she had been the annoying little sister of my closest friend. The mating link had activated since both of us had reached puberty when she had been collected by the priests.

I saved her and risked my own life, but there had never been a question that I would. She had been my entire world, and loving her had been the only reason I had been able to do my job and save those we had in the early days of the war.

Aisha was her older sister, and I caught up with her a few years after the night of the mass slaughter. She told me she had searched for Luna, but stopped when she felt her death. We had never completed the mating ritual, so I trusted her. Aisha still worked with our organisation to help locate each new area Balor tried to invade and take over. In exchange, we kept her and some others she had befriended along the way safe and hidden.

The woman in the picture had eyes that contained the sadness that only living too long could put in them. She had been about twenty the night she ran for her life, and her face had matured from girl to a woman.

I had my wolf under control ninety-nine percent of the time, but right now I could barely control him. A primal need to find our mate pulsed through my veins and exploded in mychest. My claws dug into my hands, and my canines elongated in my mouth as I suppressed the urge to punch the wall.

My mate was alive.

I paced my room, trying to contain my rage and failing. Eventually, I threw clothes into a bag, stomped to my favourite car, and threw it in the boot. I could have taken one of our helicopters, but I needed time to calm down before I reached Luna.

“Damn it!” My fist slammed into the steering wheel. I told her I would find her, and I had failed her.

I turned the radio up to drown out my wolf who was howling in my head. He had constantly muttered in my head that she was out there, and I had stupidly put it down to wishful thinking.

The miles drifted past me, and my heartrate slowly returned to normal along with the bits of my wolf that had escaped.

My phone rang as I was driving into Cusco.

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