The Original: Book 6

Chapter 15

"You know, for someone who organized this little summit, you're woefully short on details," Nik declared, lighting the last of the candles. "So, I'm going to ask you one last time. Where are you keeping Hayley?" Greta remained silent and Nik sent me a look. Using my speed, I quickly pulled her up into a sitting position, stabbing large iron nails through both of her hands. "You knew we'd have this little chat. No doubt you binged on vervain 'til your throat was red and raw. And now, sadly, drip, drip, drip – all over the floor it goes." Greta said something in German and I looked over at Nik, my eyebrows furrowing. "His lack of vision will be his downfall," Nik repeated in English.

"That's what he always said about you," Greta declared.

"He?"

"You and I have a friend in common."

"Oh, I sincerely doubt that."

"It's true. August Muller." Nik's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her. "I don't blame you for forgetting. It was a long time ago. Rostock, Germany. Spring. 1933. Do you remember him now?"

"As an elephant considered a gnat – merely a trifle."

"That trifle is my Bodhidharma, my Guru Nanak, my Jesus! August is the touchstone to everything that I believe, and the reason that I and my friends have taken your sweet Hayley."

***

"So, who exactly is this man she was talking about?" I questioned as Nik paced in the study.

"The man was a forgettable artist, a virulent fascist, and a murderous slob who slaughtered werewolves by the pack," Nik remarked.

"And what did you do to him?" Marcel asked.

"What makes you think I had any piece in this?"

"Oh, I don't know, a couple hundred years of history."

"That hideous Greta woman with her reverence for a dilettante who made no mark upon the world. I will not entertain her hateful ask and bind my child."

"All right, look, shouldn't Hope get a say in this?"

"No," I replied simply.

"This fate which she demands, the curse which I bore for a millennia, I can't put my daughter through that," Nik stated. "It's a pain worse than death. No, I will see that woman roast upon a pyre before I give in to the demands of these cultists."

"Look, all right, I got your back. I do, okay?" Marcel reassured. "But if they kill Hayley, and Hope isn't given a chance to save her, she will not forgive you."

"And if I impose this shame upon my daughter and then they kill her mother anyway? I won't forgive myself."

***

"Will he survive?" I asked Marcel as he made his way through the tunnel toward us.

"Josh? Yeah. He's lucky to still have his face, but I think so."

"Does he have any idea where Greta's gotten off to?" Nik questioned.

"Do you remember that part where I said he's lucky to have his face?"

"What I said earlier, I was angry."

"Yeah, well. You weren't wrong. I'm off my game. Your sister really did a number on my head."

"Absent Elijah, my temper gets the better of me. It did today. And it did a century ago, with August. I am far from blameless, Marcel," Nik explained, his eyes focused on the ground. "Although he got nothing less than what he deserved. In fact, I think I took it easy on him. But the rest never saw it coming. Some of them were guilty of hate. But most were innocent. And they all became victims of that part of me I'd been forced to suppress. So, you see, in the end, I was the match that lit the fuse. My mistake was that I humiliated them, and in doing so, I empowered them with the most potent form of hate – that which has fueled my rage for a millennia. Shame. I gifted them shame."

Okay, so this is a crap chapter. Sorry about that. 

Also, sorry for the late update. I've been working on homework all afternoon. Homework is important! (Or so they say)

My character and her story are of my own imagination. They belong to me and nobody else. Please do not steal. Copyright 2018.