The Demon Wolf (Book 1 of The Devil and the Huntsman)

Chapter 88

"As soon as your father proclaims himself as the new king, so shall you take your path... like a queen—a queen of the night. A queen of the wolves," Rollo said.

"I neither need nor want the night. I don't want myself to deal with anything about any wolves nor night creatures. I hate them!" Lagertha said.

"I'm afraid you have no choice. Everyone hates the demons for what they've done. But with your power, you can stop them and protect your people. You want that, don't you?" He asked.

"Of course. But I will not be like him. I'm not my father. I'm not whoever it is you say I am."

"I'm here to help you, Lagertha. I'm here to make sure you right all wrongs. And I will do whatever is necessary to make you succeed."

"So... your only method of saving me is to make me become your servant? Your slave? I am not an object, and I will not be treated thus."

Rollo knew what Lagertha wanted for herself, and he had no other way of protecting her than lending her his power. Throughout her life, Lagertha wanted to know what fate had in store for her and the consequences of going on that path. The hands of Fate gave her the life of a demon hunter and a slayer of night creatures. Then Rollo gets up from the ground and leaves Lagertha behind to let her bathe alone. He understood that he had no other choice but to let her decide for herself as she starts her new journey.

"Very well. You'll be on your own in your new life of hunting down the night. But you cannot leave this place without a sword. That alone, I will make sure you have," Rollo said.

"Fine. I'll do whatever you want. Just so long as you don't do something creepy such as stand behind me while I'm taking a bath," Lagertha said.

"Have it your way, then. I'll be waiting for you outside if that's alright with you. Don't worry. When you come to your senses, I'll have the answer to your every question," he said.

"Fine by me."

Then, Lagertha and Rollo said nothing more to each other, and the horrible night is slowly fading away. A few seconds later, Rollo started walking away from Lagertha and left her behind to bathe all by herself. The pool water was cold and unnerving as she remained alone to be clean before a new day began. Lagertha looked down at herself and started thinking about the choice she made to continue surviving. Half of herself told her she had done the right thing, yet her other half said that she chose poorly and just threw her humanity away for the sake of protecting those she cared about.

Lagertha lifted her hand and thought about what she will do and what kind of dark fate she will have to endure.

"Don't look at me like that. I had no choice. I did what I had to do. I did what had to be done," she said. Then, she began looking deeper into her hand and saw a few black veins but not too many.

So long as only a few veins were visible to her skin, she still had her humanity inside her soul.

Then she spoke to herself, saying, "It's not my fault. It's not like I asked to run away. My mother did what she did to save me. My father did everything he could to protect me, yet he now has a hardened heart. Giving me wolf-blood? What does that achieve? What kind of person am I becoming? It's all happening too fast."

Lagertha could not agree with any of the things that Rollo has said to her so far. She has not enjoyed the first few hours of her time with Rollo; she had difficulty bringing herself to realizing her new abilities. She has not tested out anything new that she could do because she believed she should only do it during the night when demons are abroad. Then, Lagertha looks up at the ceiling and tries figuring all of this out and being particular about what else the elder wolf had in mind. At the moment, he was the only person she could look up to for questions and answers.

"Brant, I wonder what you've been doing all this time. How are you and your mother doing? I hope... we can see each other again," Lagertha said. She missed her friend, and since they got along with each other more than they expected, she wanted to make sure that he is still living through such a nightmare.

But she needed to be extremely cautious about how she would get along with him because of her dark power. People with wolf-blood and demon-blood had to be warned of such dangers they might bring to other people. They might bring either fear to the people or death to all who oppose them; those were the type of people some villages and cities shun out. Then, Lagertha stays in the pool for about ten more minutes until she decides she is done bathing herself. She then gets out of the tub and grabs a nearby towel to dry herself, and she looks all over her surroundings to see if someone may spy on her.

This was her first time being in a castle and did whatever seemed necessary for the master of the home to be pleased. As she kept the towel wrapped around her body to dry herself, she could feel as if the paintings stared back at her. People of ancient times always had an ironic taste when painting on walls, and they could put up pretty much anything into their paintings. The paintings in bathing rooms had either nude subjects or making love behind a tree. Lagertha started back at them and became fascinated with how artistic the backgrounds and the people looked on the walls.

This was a remarkably intact place for a castle that has been abandoned for many centuries and only one person living in it. Rollo lived in a home where her wife and children would prosper and live together as there was no madness during those days. Eventually, Rollo began having vengeance in his life after the deaths of his family by wild beasts. Little did he know that he would delve deeper into darkness if he kept killing those he deemed a threat. He lives by himself to not only pay for all the wrong deeds he made, but to give guidance to anyone who is found by destiny and fate.

Lagertha puts her clothes back on and walks out of the bathing room to find out where Rollo was. It was a massive place for even one person to live in, but he got used to living alone with nobody beside him. Rollo still appeared as his younger self, but he lived for far too long and experienced way too much trauma inside the lives of many. Lagertha could hear Rollo sitting down and looking at a chimney fire, which was pretty weird by her standards. She had to get used to the idea of being able to hear from a thousand feet and see more clearly in both day and night.

Lagertha found it very bizarre that she could do anything that she could not do before she drank the blood of the wolf. She could hear Rollo's every thought and hear his mouth speak about things she should not be listening to. But he told her he would need her for one last thing before he feels as if he should set her free into the world. Lagertha opened the door and saw Rollo sitting down in front of a chimney fire with a library of books. It appears as if he was waiting for her to find him and have more conversations with him.

"I am here, Rollo," Lagertha said.

"Approach, Lagertha. I want to speak with you," Rollo said. Lagertha slowly closes the door and walks to him, and she gazes upon the books for a few seconds.

"What more do you want from me? I've done your bidding ever since I came here. Now I'll need something from you," she said.

"Where on earth did you get that idea? You mistake me for someone else I've known since the beginning. I needed to obey every command that was given from my master," he said.

"You mean you're not the only elder wolf? There are many more like you?" Lagertha asked.

"Yes. But they have all died. And when they die, their human souls are lifted into paradise. In death, they are free from this power and never feel pain ever again."