Knowing the nothing
~
Lycus
~

Lycus kept his mouth on her, for however long she would allow and danced his lips across every area of her body that showed skin.

Inner wrists, along her bare arms that reached to her shoulders and her neck, his canines preparing to break into the skin to finally mark her as his.

He didn't get the chance those weeks ago, to lost in the very heat of Accalia and all that he could take from her.

Accalia ripped away from him, shooing him off with a wave of the hand and Lycus stifled a growl.

"Come back here," Lycus ordered.

Accalia looked back with a stunning smile gracing her features and Lycus lost it, walking back to her.

Placing his hands on Accalia's hips, he reared her into his chest where she belonged and dropped a kiss on her lips. "Where do you think you're going?"

Accalia kissed him just as fiercely, but steered back, a look of seriousness etched on her face. "They'll be here soon, we have to go to the dungeons."

Lycus groaned, wanting the world around them to burn into ash.

He wasn't smart at hiding it, he wanted Accalia all to himself and displayed that by sweeping his tongue across her lips, wanting to taste more than what he was given.

His Luna was delectable but collected — a master of her own emotions. She would only show Lycus what he needed showing and right now, she was gifting him a deadpan look that said, don't go there.

"I want you again and again," Lycus said hoarsely in protest.

Accalia laughed against him, her sweet tune bleeding into his black heart. Stepping up to her tippy toes, she swept a whisper by his ear, "You already have, and you will again."

Accalia departed from his hold and slipped away from him like a ghost.

Groaning to himself, Lycus stalked out of his room and came downstairs, following Accalia's floral scent that led outside. 

The cellar was prepared for the Alpha and all that would be left would be binding him in chains and metals.

They didn't know what it would take to confine him so they had to round up all they had. From handcuffs, chains, and weaponry they may have to be used.

It wasn't a matter of possibility to Lycus, although, he would be inflicting hell on Cole the first chance he could. Accalia's stitches may have been taken out, her wounds have healed and all that was left were scars, but her hurt still lingered.

If Accalia hadn't stabbed Cole in the neck that sacrificed her back, she would have endured an even worse fate by being in his pack.

They had Cole, but it didn't erase all he had done and all he set out to do. He had his time of game playing, stringing along wolves to the Fenris borders and now Lycus had the upper hand.

No thanks to hunters.

Lycus clenched his jaw and stalked after Accalia's scent that travelled across the woods to the underground dungeons.

They were built when Lycus first gained his title centuries ago. Digging into the earth and moulding the underground into necessary use for when the full moon came and went. There were many stationed around the pack, cellars within cellars as if it was a hell within the earth, a place for torture and misery.

If his father wasn't going to exact control, Lycus had to.

Before the Alpha could take another step, a gush of air swept past him and he didn't bother hiding his malice. "Fuck off, Alexene."

The teenage vampire offered Lycus a leery smirk that looked grim. She wore clothing that reminded him of the nineteen-hundreds, a long skirt that brushed by her ankles and a button-up sleeve shirt.

Insufferable times.

"Good evening, Lycus," Alexene greeted promptly, tipping her head as a flicker of sarcasm crossed her haunting features. "And I have no intention of leaving, your brother contacted me on Cole's arrival, have you forgotten the Alpha's correlation to a vampire? I need to know why that is."

Lycus blinked at the vampire. She hadn't been here for five minutes and her presence was already intolerable. He didn't forget such pieces of information, especially when it involved the very kind he tried to wipe out decades ago.

"What's it to you?" Lycus spat.

Alexene traced her footing silently, taking in the sight around her as she acted unbothered by Lycus's staggering glares.

"My kind is older than yours but we are rarer. You don't cross paths with a vampire these days, you made a point in that, Lycus." Alexene clipped.

Lycus would typically make a jab or at least relish in his triumphs, but instead, he said, "Your point?"

Alexene paused and laced her fingers together. "Vampires don't randomly connect with lycans, hardly even the diabolical species, werewolves. Some vampires did with Cole and that raises questions — especially with the very few vampires I know."

Lycus understood that. It was the same with lycans and hunters. That was what ignited fights and mayhem these recent months. Two polar opposite beings interconnected at random. Unions such as these were never encouraged.

"You randomly connected with Rexton," Lycus recalled, dismissing his thoughts.

He remembered seeing Rexton and Alexene in the woods for the first time. The pale skin and her spill of black hair danced along the wind as Rexton watched her in the night.

"Rexton was and is different, I knew that from the moment I first met him. It wasn't every day you see a lycan feed on a human like a vampire."

Lycus recoiled, rolling his neck at the distant memory. It wasn't a pleasant sight to see that night. Watching his brother feed on an innocent human girl that was nothing but a blood bag to him.

Lycus and Gabriel were at a loss, too welled in confusion on what was unravelling their little brother into bloodlust. Alexene came then, prying the hybrid off the limp girl and controlling him even as he appeared too far gone.

That was the first encounter Lycus and his brothers had with a vampire.

"And here we are," Lycus snapped coldly. "Just as before, you still helping my brother from himself and me trying to control what he is."

Alexene's face remained passive. "Stop controlling him, Lycus. Let him be."

Lycus couldn't possibly do that. He couldn't allow the hybrid to be what he was when no one knew what that entailed.

"You don't know ... do you?" Lycus mused, watching the calculated vampire shift uncomfortably beneath his gaze.

"Know what?"

Even though Lycus knew Rexton wanted his secret kept in the shadows, he at least expected his brother would tell Alexene, his dearest friend.

Lycus chuckled, wiping his mouth and didn't hide the amusement dancing across his eyes. He didn't have to hear her dead heartbeat to know she hadn't the faintest clue of where this conversation was heading.

"I value the number of decades you put into finding Rexton, Alexene. Truly admirable. I hid my brother so well, but you found him, with everything you had. I guess, where I'm trying to go with this is I think you should know I didn't just lock Rexton away because of what he is, I did it because something was after him."

Alexene staggered back with wide eyes that made her out to be a frightened little girl.

"You should have told me!" Alexene snapped.

Lycus rolled his eyes, cocking his head to the side as he observed the nerve on the vampire. "He is my brother, not yours. You helped him with his bloodlust all those years ago, but I had to fake his death to prevent the prophecies from coming true and you fucking know what? It worked. Whatever was after him backed off, as did the prophecies."

Alexene bared two pointy fangs and she was in Lycus's face, reddish and bluish veins pooling across her pallid skin.

He had forgotten how demonic vampires were.

"I claimed him as a brother! Not by blood, not by relations, but for who Rexton was. A kind, humane being worth more than the abuse and neglect of his parents. You should have told me! You forget I have connections, Lycus, I did then and I most certainly do now." Alexene snapped venomously.

"What are you saying? You could've helped us?" Lycus rhetorically questioned, no trace of acceptance or gratitude in his demands. "These prophecies were told since his infancy, every year, same oracle, different words — I wasn't going to allow something bad to happen to him."

Alexene's eyes were seared with bloody malice. "So in turn, to help him, you locked him away. I would have helped! I would have searched high and low for an answer and asked the oldest and youngest of vampires if they knew anything. I still would."

Lycus's claws ripped from his nails, a growl tearing from his chest but he stopped, the sound of an engine sounding through the woods.

"This conversation is done. I've already told Rexton why he was truly confined, but say nothing to him. He hates himself more now because of it." Lycus growled.

"He should hate you and Gabriel, Lycus." Alexene countered pointedly.

Lycus walked away from her, knowing her final words to be the truth and nothing more.

The car parked and Rexton was the first to jump out, dashing to the back and lifting the boot.

And the anxiety seeping out of Rexton was too suffocating to ignore. Lycus traced his steps to his brother and gently clapped his shoulder, trying to catch the expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Lycus asked.

Rexton said nothing, grabbing a motionless Cole by the shoulder and dragging him out of the car.

It was pitiful to see Cole captured by the wits of hunters.

"I'm going to head back home, Erisa. You coming?" Franklin Jaeger said to his niece.

Lycus watched the hunters from the other side of the car, slight murmurs of conversation passing through. Erisa and Cadence stuck closely together as they spoke with Franklin, mentioning the current state of things and where that could lead.

The end of a war, Lycus concluded to his inner thoughts.

Franklin Jaeger stepped back from the girls with a subtle nod and gave a goodbye wave to Rexton. "I'll see you around, Rexton."

Rexton smiled brightly at the ageing man, an act Lycus hardly received from him.

Erisa didn't look ready to leave just yet, even if her part was done and made the conscious decision to stick with Cadence.

Franklin gave the girls hugs and left in his old car, the engine sounding off in the distance.

Cole's human form was the same when Lycus last saw him many years ago, slender and strikingly wasting away.

Rage burned up Lycus's throat and a menacing growl slipped between his lips, the tarnishing memory of his claws laying into Accalia replaying through Lycus's head like a broken record.

"Let's take him to the cellars, who knows when the sedative will wear off," Lycus muttered and ripped Cole's arm up, dragging him across the mud and dirt like the filth he was.

The girls stayed back and trailed behind at a slow pace. Rexton and Alexene on the other hand, stuck close to the Alphas, sniffing and inspecting Cole as if a light was drawing them to him.

"What is it?" Lycus snapped at the both of them.

Alexene shifted on her feet, jutting her face in Cole's direction and gave an inquiring look to Rexton.

"A vampire scent is on him," Alexene answered.

Lycus clenched his jaw, wanting to throw Cole's body around like a rag doll in anger.

"Why didn't you say anything Rexton?" Cadence's voice snapped from behind Lycus.

Rexton shook his head shyly and peered at his brother. "I didn't want to frighten any of you."

Cadence scoffed and Erisa slapped at her shoulder, sending her into silence.

"Same vampire?" Lycus demanded, knowing their vampiric senses would be able to capture something his lycan abilities could not. "You sure this isn't just Cole being an unhinged cannibal?"

Rexton cringed, but Alexene remained neutral, observing the dead-looking Alpha with bloody eyes.

Alexene wiped her nose from discomfort. "This vampire consumes human blood daily, and their scent is all over him if you understand what I mean ..." Alexene trailed off, raising her brows at Lycus.

Lycus laughed, scratching his beard and tapped Cole on the head with a bitter grin on his face. "Getting it on with vamps, I wouldn't put it past the freak."

"Let's not worry," Lycus muttered and gripped Cole's motionless arm, waving it around for everyone to see, to ensure calm. "Vaela will look into his mind, we'll have our answers then."

~

Accalia
~

Accalia's voice left her once she saw Lycus and Rexton dragging Cole down the stairs, dropping his body to the floor.

Tala had finished lighting up the torches that stuck to the rocky walls, illuminating the area in a fiery glow and lighting everyone in an orange hue.

Erisa and Cadence strolled over to Accalia, passing on firm and deliberate looks of comfort that couldn't help even if they tried harder. It was as if solid metal was down her throat and into her stomach, hardening her body into knots. 

Tala didn't hesitate in coming to her Alpha's aid and helped guide Cole to the metal chair that was bound into the hard rubble.

Lycus and Tala cuffed Cole's ankles to the chair's legs and gave the same effort to his wrists, tying silver chains around and around. Silver wasn't life-threatening to lycans, hardly anything was but it would be enough to sustain him, keep him in a limbo of staying human.

Chains upon metal were wrapped around Cole with no chance to be taken and no offer at hand. Shackled by iron and silver, he wouldn't get the chance to flee.

It's what he deserves, Accalia told herself and tore her watchful eyes off him.

Accalia found Alexene settled by the dreary corner with Rexton being the only one to acknowledge the vampire and nestled by her side, speaking in whispers to her.

Accalia chanced a curious glance at Cadence and hid her surprise when she found her already looking at the vampire and hybrid, watching them like a hawk preparing to strike down from the clouds.

"You don't have to be here if you don't want to be." A voice trembled by Accalia's ear making her jolt.

Amber irises stared achingly at her and for a brief moment in time, Lycus drew her out of the fields of wars and pain. He seemed to be good at doing that. Making her forget the worst of situations and losing her body to his, since the day at the waterfall and every day since.

"I have to be," Accalia cleared her throat and looked head-on at the cellar Cole was confined in. "I'm the one that wants revenge for what he did, I can't just turn away now."

It would only show how weak she was, and Cole would feed into that, relishing in her fear of him.

"I hope I came at the right time," a voice wallowed through the dungeon in a mystical tune. "All of you look ready to slaughter the Canus Alpha."

Vaela clutched the end of her plum-coloured dress as she swept downstairs, her silver eyes taking everything in with a scrunched-up nose. Her thick locs cascaded done her small frame, whooshing with her every movement and her gold jewels glistened beneath the flaming lights like raining crystals.

"Hello, Vaela," Lycus greeted the oracle with a curt nod and guided her down the rest of the rocky steps, making her feel as welcome as an oracle in a dungeon could be.

The cellars were filled with decay and filth, silver bars to cage the wolves and bricks evading the light of day.

Vaela nodded at the Alpha, her lips downturned as she wiped at her nose, displeased by the state of the place. "Well, you certainly didn't make this welcoming for the lycan."

Lycus's lips crooked into a wicked smile. "Why would we?"

"I'll have to touch him to access every memory. With his claws, I was only able to access the information of his lycan inside, now I'll be able to see everything because he's here and present." Vaela explained to Lycus, but everyone could hear what was being said.

Tala creaked the cellar door open for her and Accalia held her breath as Vaela stepped inside, no stray of fear to falter her.

"Rexton and Alexene could smell a vampire on him again," Cadence whispered to Accalia in explanation. "They wanna know why that is."

"And rightfully so, why would he be in contact with a vampire?" Erisa muttered at their side, a grim look on her face. Her face was clear of the light-hearted makeup she would wear for Cole and she appeared eerier than before.

Vaela came behind Cole and without a moment to waste, pressed her fingertips against each side of his temples.

Lycus and Tala stuck closest to the cage, waiting for anything to happen — if Cole were to wake up unexpectedly.

Vaela's eyes rolled back and her hands trembled as the pads of her fingers touched Cole's skin, passing memories filtering to her own as she took all that she could from him.

The oracle trembled, goosebumps spiralling up and down her skin as everlasting fear blanketed her features like she was petrified, her face carving into stone from the mere touch Cole gave off.

Agonising it appeared to be as if Vaela's energy was taking in every hurt Cole had inflicted and every pain he had spent on others.

But she continued, no doubt in her bones even as hurt showed on her face.

Cole remained unconscious as the minutes passed by, his body slumped against the chains and his gaunt face fell forward when the oracle pulled away from him.

Vaela backed into a wall, her shaky hands cupping her lips as her eyes widened in terror.

"We—we can't kill Cole, Alpha Lycus," Vaela announced feverishly, stumbling out of the cage and putting as much distance as she could between her and the Alpha.

Accalia's heart galloped in her chest and she felt the girls tense up beside her.

"Why?" Lycus demanded, asking the question Accalia wished to know.

Vaela's head swivelled over to the Alpha of Alphas for a short moment, but not before she looked to Rexton, her face falling into utter despair.

"Because Cole knows what's after Rexton."

~

Only a few chapters left of Blood Ties.

— Caranyx.