Numen Chronicles | Nosferatu [Volume One]

Chapter Ten | The Amarok

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| Alucard |

Alucard hurried through Ardelean Forest. He suspected that the werewolves were scheming, and he was right. Of course he was. Why now? Why did they have to decide to crawl out of the woods while he was working on something for Damien? He couldn't afford to let them threaten the treaty, so he was going to kill them all before they could try to kill anyone else.

His scowl thickened as he tried to work out what he was going to do once he reached the abandoned village. The werewolf that attacked Elvin was stronger than any other he'd faced, and if every wolf in this rogue pack was the same, then he was going to have to be much more careful than usual.

The vampire used his ethos to shroud himself from detection, and as he approached the tree line, he set his eyes on the rubble up ahead. A campfire burned in the old village square and several Beta werewolves were curled up around it. He spotted three Etas on patrol, and inside the only building that still had a roof was the silhouette of a large, wolfish creature.

Alucard silently moved to the left, trying to get a better look inside, but judging by the beast's sheer size, he assumed it was the Alpha that Tobias mentioned.

He counted eleven wolves. He'd faced packs three times the size of this before; but he had to remember that these might not be ordinary werewolves, and if the Betas were as strong as the one he faced in Wrodiff, then the Alpha was probably much more dangerous.

The vampire set his eyes on one of the Etas and used the darkness to prowl closer. Then, when the wolf passed by, sniffing the ground, he snatched it by its scruff and pulled it into the brush. The wolf squirmed and tried to alert its packmates, but Alucard held its maw shut with one of his hands, and he plunged the other into the wolf's neck and tore its throat out.

One down, ten to go.

But the wolves smelled the blood of their packmate, and when they all climbed to their paws and raced towards the corpse, Alucard moved away from it, left the trees, and took cover behind a wall. He watched the wolves find and both mourn and anger over their dead friend, and then he shifted his sights to the Alpha. The massive creature emerged from its den, and it brought a look of dread to Alucard's face.

An Amarok. Huge, insane werewolves with no humanity and the strength of a hundred wolves. The creature's navy fur glistened in the moonlight as it prowled towards its pack, blood dripping from its gnarly jaw. Alucard could see inside the building, and the corpse of three humans lay inside.

The vampire clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He could tell from the smell that the bodies were no more than a few hours old, and he was certain that in the morning, there'd be an uproar.

"Find...them," came the Amarok's distorted, rumbling voice.

On his word, the pack spread out and started looking for their packmate's killer, just as Alucard hoped they would. If he could take them out one by one, this would go a whole lot smoother.

Alucard waited as a Beta approached and passed the wall he hid behind. He pulled his rapier from its sheath and stabbed the blade through the wolf's skull, killing it instantly. He dragged its body behind the wall, and then he used the shadows to mask himself and moved over to a mountain of rubble.

He peered through a small gap. The Amarok was prowling the village square; the stomps of its massive feet echoed through the tense quiet, and when it sharply turned its head and looked Alucard's way, the vampire backed away from the small gap between the bricks.