Creatures Of Witchery

Chapter 14 - Piercing Thorns

I felt weak. Like I didn't have enough strength to push myself off the cold rough cement I was lying face down on. My left leg was throbbing like something had pierced the skin and hadn't been removed. Slowly, my hearing came back, allowing me to listen to the panicking around me. Voices drifted in and out while I felt like I was drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Using the little strength I had, I pushed my body so I could lay on my back to only stare at another wall of grey cement.

"How long will it take?" A panicked voice said.

"These are thick bars, I'm not going to get through for a while."

"I want to go home."

"I'm sure we all do right now."

"Guys, I think she's awake!"

I turned my head to find I was in a small cell, alone. Across from me was Rem and next to him was Rina in cells identical to mine, except Rem's had more bars. Avernus couldn't be too far away. I tried sitting up, but that only made a sharp pain shoot through my body, making me hiss.

What the hell?

I slowly lifted the hem of my dress to reveal a dark purple vine twisted around my thigh, digging into my skin.

"Are you ok Adria?" Avernus asked from what sounded like beside me.

"Yeah."

"What's that around your leg?" Rem questioned.

"An Industria Vine. The thorns pierce the skin and suck the energy out of witches. They're rare to find and usually are kept far away from coven land."

"So that means you can't get us out of here?" Rina panicked a bit more.

"Not until this gets removed."

I wiggled my way closer to the bars and looked down the hall. We seemed to be in some sort of jail room, but who's is the question. This can't be a coven, we don't have cells... I don't think. The air was stale and musky probably due to the lack of windows and open doors.

"Rem, I thought you said you'd have first watch?" I said.

"Well... You see... I may have fallen asleep right after you had."

"Rem!"

"Ok, Rem messed up," Avernus started. "But how did none of us wake up when we were being taken a hostage?"

"They could have injected us with something." I finally figured how to sit up without pushing the thorns deeper into my leg. "I'd rather know who the 'they' is."

Rem tilted his head back and the sound of sniffing started coming from his direction. "It smells... Like an animal?"

"Oh my god, a bear took us in our sleep. I knew we shouldn't have slept without protection." Rina rambled.

"No not a bear... It's kind of like a wet dog smell."

"Shit," Avernus muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Werewolves. We must be in their pack cells."

"Werewolves!?" Rina gasped. "Oh my god, we're going to be killed. Shit, they took all our things, you can't use your magic, you two are pretty much useless — we have no way to defend ourselves!"

"Well, I'm offended." Rem rolled his eyes dramatically and leaned on the cell bars. "For all you know, I could be the biggest Kung Fu master in the world."

"You barely have knees."

"That doesn't matter. What matters is we're not going to die. We will probably just be interrogated and then set free with no harm what so ever."

"Nothing's going to happen to you, Rina," I reassured.

Metal crashing against metal rang through the room. A squeaking noise followed it along with footsteps from more than one person. I could feel something.

Power.

It rolled through the room, making sure we almost suffocated in it. It was so strong it even made Rem coward away from the bars. Three men came into sight from down the hallway. The one in the middle was taller than the others with a muscular build and dirty blond hair. He had a baby face but still looked ruff and older than the others. The one to his left looked similar to him, just skinnier and the other one looked like he wasn't related at all with his bark brown hair and shorter height.

They stopped calmly in front of our cells all with their hands behind their backs.

"Do you know who I am?" The one in the middle asked, his voice is the deepest I've heard.

"Nope. Not a clue." I replied. "Never seen you before in my life."

He glared at me and exhaled a deep breath. "I am Alpha Ezra of the Arcadia pack. This is Beta Nate," he motioned to the one on the left. "And this is our first in command, Conan." He motioned to the other guy.

"We are here to see if you're awake." Nate said.

"Why are we here?" Avernus asked.

"You trespassed on our territory."

"So what, you're going to kill us?" I say.

"Yes."

"What?!" Rina and Rem exclaimed at the same time.

We're going to get killed because we trespassed on territory that we didn't even know we were on. I knew werewolves were tough but I didn't know they were complete assholes.

"Listen here jackass,"

"Adria!" Avernus scolded me.

"We didn't know we were on any type of pack grounds! We were just camping out for the night so we could continue our peaceful travels in the morning. Why do you have to kill us because of that?"

"Well, witch." Ezra spat. "I'm not killing youse because you're trespassing. I'm killing youse because you specifically smell of dark magic and I don't want any part of that near my pack."

"She's a witch, they must smell like magic all the time." Avernus reasoned.

"Normal witches smell of light magic. Shes got energy wrapped around her soul that makes her damned."

"What does that even mean?"

"That I'm screwed." I sighed.

Sure, I dabbled in a bit of dark magic because I'm an idiot, but I was waiting at least ten more years until it caught up to me. I never thought my execution would be from a pack of werewolves. At least the good thing is that I now know we're no longer in Red River.

"Rest up now," Nate grinned. "The least we can do is allow you to have one last good night's sleep." They all gave us mocking smiles and turned to leave the room, closing and locking the vault door behind them.

"What was that about not killing us Rem?" Avernus glared.

"Well, they do say never trust a fox."

"They're wolves Rem. Werewolves."

"Holy shit we're going to die!" Rina freaked.

I'm starting to think we should have just stayed on the train.

x
Vote, Comment, Share