Secrets In The Bones: The Curse of Blood Bay

Forty-four

'Are you destined for the secrets that lay in wait? Or is a bloody pool going to be your fate. Only a person whose intentions are pure. Could wield what's made to help the world endure.'

Did I hear right? Too busy squirming against the grip. I should've been able to rip the arm clean off Anna's skeleton, but somehow, I couldn't lift my arm an inch as I dangled amongst the dirty cave floor. In a daze, my throat shrivelled without the strength to shout. I was in the middle of another setback on my road to hell when Anna's skeleton smashed through the eerie silence and sent me another wave of chills. It was like a 'Creepshow' story, and the voice was terrifying. Did not sound like a woman at all.

I couldn't believe I was even contemplating it; for the second time this early morning, my arm was being torn to shreds and having a skeleton do it was a new level of crazy that not even Michael would believe. But I was about to talk to the dead. A change from ghosts, but no less strange. With every wiggle or flinch in my attempt to at least get onto my knees, Anna's fingers squeezed deeper; my blood flowed down my forearm, sending my tastebuds crazy.

Another element I was hiding from since ripping through the vampires so far, especially Amos, my blood lust and to shred flesh had grown. Harking back to the count's comment, 'When a wolf is wild, they don't care; when instinct takes over, the beast embraces its primal urges and need to survive. How are your urges, George? Have you ever felt the adrenaline rush of the wild hunt? The winter solstice? No, because you scare yourself; once the genie is out of the bottle, the world will know what you're like.' I'm scared he may be right.

Looking at Anna, freaked out by her skull and chattering teeth, with my mouth primed to speak when an 'I wonder if she could see me without her eyes' thought crossed my mind. With every move I made side to side, Anna's head followed, but the eye sockets were empty, barring a few slimy worms and stray maggots slithering their way free.

I know a stupid thought at that moment; some of me still didn't believe this week was happening. Or didn't want to. So, in peak fear, my brain wanders elsewhere.

"I ... I, erm... I'm looking for something to help end the bloodshed and prevent the world from being overrun with vampires," I say, barely able to get my words through my raspy throat while trying not to feel or sound insane.

'Ah, the demon werewolf who struggles to believe what they are, who'd rather stay out of the way and watch from afar. Yet you find yourself on this path to save someone whose name you find too painful to mention. Fearing the end is near for someone you hold so dear. I ask you this: what makes you any different from the rest? What makes you so sure you can prevent a blood fest?'

Every word had my goose pimples jumping; we didn't have the time for twenty questions; was I any different from the rest? After all, I was another supernatural being capable of doing terrifying things. That's not what I wanted, though; as a pack, our abilities could do great rather than bad, and we had to strive for that. Far too much evil in the world; decks needed clearing.

"I don't know if I'm any different from the rest. I only know I don't want innocents killed or put in harm's way. This world balances good and bad, but evil could be about to tip the scales. We want to stop that, at least for now, until the next monster escapes from the shadows."

"You talk of balance and scales; there's no assurity over who prevails. As you say, 'the devil is in the details'. You have until midnight to write the wrongs of the past and present or become another sad footnote in history's irrelevance. I urge you to make peace with a preference over whose fate may be dire."

A sudden feeling of doom swept through me; for a while, I thought at least one of us might not survive, even resigned to the fact it could be me while praying it wasn't Ellena. Anna's words rocked my core; there was no way I could make peace with anyone's fate being anything other than safe. With all that's gone on, I should take the comment with a pinch of salt; I couldn't see the gain from dead Anna's remains playing games. That consuming, sick feeling was rising again; every move we made had ended with a kick in the balls. Now, I had to take the word of talking bones. Oh, how far my sanity had fallen to the depths of hell. Meanwhile, the old git Michael remained outside, oblivious.