BLOOD DRIPS FROM VIKTOR'S  SKULL as Clayton winced fallen on the once hard and earthy clay, now they quarrel turned to a pit of mud. A yowl rose above all other as Alric stiffened on the ground while Eliza sulked and struggled deeply through the riddled soggy ground--Death filled the air in a grim quarrel that took place.

    It was the night death had caught them in a wave of torment and loss. A loss that dealt great damage.

    A day earlier.

    Clayton reeled from his drunken state, so did Alric. Eliza took kindness to them and they joined her in her home--It was small and enough for one person with fire. Candle light flickers from a near window and the deep smell of insents flourished.

    Viktor opened up to Eliza about Blaine, her Alpha--The man that wanted to see him dead at his feet. "It won't take Blaine long to catch up with us here," Viktor reminded Eliza of her cruel Alpha.

    "You can't be sertane, how do you know he'll find you here?"

    "He's a man of great determination, after all he did hold a grudge for fifty years." Viktor's tone was bereft. "He won't rest till one of us lays beneath his feet."

    "Why didn't you take his life when you had the chance?"

     "One of my many regrets darling."

    "Why did you leave?" Eliza pauses with empathy, her question shaking Viktor in his standing position. "Why didn't you stay with your siblings?"

    Viktor shut his eyes and drew in the delightful smell of inscents and burning logs. "Clayton had worries of fine Hunters, they had been alerted since I fed on the first full moon, two weeks since our deathly blessing." His eyes open to reveal Eliza's figure. "And without Clayton I didn't know how much longer I could've stayed here, my grief for my brother grew to be too much for me to handle."

    "And you still miss him," Eliza clears gaining Viktor's nod in slow motion.

    "Very much, you can't forget deaths price in fifty years, dear."

    Viktor and Eliza could hear Clayton stirring awake followed by a dull groaning sound. Viktor grinned and bounds off the wall and heads toward Alric and Clayton who lays slumped in chairs.

    "Rise and shine beautiful." Viktor's call bellowes out from a safe distance with a chuckle. Clayton simply growled loudly and rubbed his forehead. Alric had risen aswell, his head red and throbbing painfully. Viktor was amused by their drunken regrets and painful, blury memories from hours ago.

    "What happened?" Alric slurs and attempts not to slip from his seat.

    "Nothing interesting, I shall tell you that much" Grinned Viktor. "Two drunken Idiots stumbled in."

    Eliza handed them a drink of a strange liquid with her finger tightly wrapped around thin, murkey glasses. "You'll feel much better if you drink it."

    They both eye her evily and purse their lips into a fine line. Alric downs it first with an awful expression as Clayton follows behind. They didn't question--they didn't want to know.

    "Now that I have your full and undrunken attention," Viktor beings coldly. "We need to prepare for Blaine's arival, he'll be here by tomorrow as the sunsets and there's no telling what fun toy he's brought this time."

    Alric growls, "He'll bring a wet-dog,"

    "Eliza, did Blaine ever mention to you a Simon fellow?" Questions Clayton.

    "Simon Gael?" She stated as a cold breeze brushed across Viktor's skin. "He was the Delta in the pack, he was weak and frail, couldn't catch a rabbit. Everybody said Blaine killed him a few months before the pack broke."

    "Someone needs to," Bickeres Alric as he rose from his seat with heavy footing.

    "I'm willing to fight along side your pack," Elkza turns to Viktor kindly.

    "I cannot risk your life aswell," Viktor snarls. "You shall forget about our comings,"

    Eliza didn't like the words Viktor spoke grimly. "I shall fight at your side. " Eliza perswayds with a deep rumbling tone.

    "As you wish," Viktor glowers down at her frowning. "We shall speak more of this before the sun rises above the mountain range. All of you get some rest."

    They did as Viktor wished them to--Get some well needed rest. They all were fast asleep as Viktor paced franticly around the Cottage with worrisome nerves.

    The scenery outside grew darker and colder with each minute that passes. The wounds Viktor suffered from Blaine's claws subsided and Clayton and Alric shook the woosey feeling. The moon was far from full, it flickers with yellow light and appears on broken glass, it spills on the ground and casts deep shadows that were highlighted with glistening silvers and shades of canary yellow.

    Viktor can hear anothers heart beat from behind as a hand lightly grazed across his shoulder blade.

    "Why won't you rest?" A soothing voice echoes in his ear.

    "I do not need it," He replies. "I worry for my friends."

    "They will be fine, you need to rest."

    "You don't understand." Viktor lashes with a tone suit for any darkness. "I have seen thing you have not!" His eyes widen and shine brightly like a robins breast to face Eliza's emerald gaze. His hand wrap around her writs as he held them forcefully. Viktor's pupils then faded in a brilliant hue of a chilly blue.

    "You have taken an innocents life." Eliza points out with care and a soft tone, Viktor loosens his grip around her slim wrists.

    "I have killed many innocent lives, Eliza. I am nothing more than a beast who lurks in the shadows." He sulks, recalling memories that he shall never speak of again--Cruel with an even darker past.

    "If you are such a monster then why do I not see you as one?" Uttered Eliza.

    Viktor took her hands and lifted them to his face as they landed on his narrow cheek bones."Because you are merely a fly in my web" Whispers Viktor. "Leave, go back to bed, you will need your strength." Viktor pushed her away as he watched her shilouette fade away in to another, small room.

   Just before dawn, the eastern sky fills with blended tones of rosy pinks and sandy yellows. The sun rose as did Clayton and Alric, the glowing orbs sent a shimmering pathway through fall leaved as it highlight their umber and chestnut blotched browns

    Clayton's umber, mottled gaze locks on Viktor from a chair he stumbles in. "You plan to kill Blaine?"

    "That's what I said," Grumbles Viktor who stood by Alric's side.

    "You'll need a dagger," Alric comments with folded arms. They had been wide awake for some time just before dawn.

    "No," Viktor Argues with his friend. "I'll only need the drive to kill him." His eyes wonder around at Alric and Clayton. "I can't risk your lives for a little quarrel with a cub."

    "If he is such a cub then why do you worry for their lives?" Eliza stepped dimly from a sharp corner, she paced evenly towards Alric with a nod of her head.

    Viktor's lungs expand as he drew in the warm scent of the room that stood before him brightly lit. "They're my family. I shall always worry for their safety, and I am their blood is on my hands."

    "You do not have to watch us like we are sheep," Alric stepped up and took a seat in an old oak chair. "We have each others backs,"

    Eliza agrees with Alric's calm words as so does Clayton.

    Viktor's head fell to the floor hastily in a pondering state and furrowed brows. "Blaine will be here in merely hours," He reminds, his tone was stolied. "Eliza have you acquired any Lycan books over the years? I wish to read of Elder ash."

    "Yes, many." She muttered. "I shall collect them from the cellar if you wish."

    "Please do so, I shall ocompany you," 
    Viktor and Eliza slipped easily through the entrance and came to where the cellar was, the door was old and dead leaves were like a veil to the entrance. Eliza shifted the leaves with her palm as a lock  guarded it.

    "Would you," She stood and brushed out her garment, motioning for Viktor to step forward. Viktor broke the lock as a cold wind winded through, they climbed down dust and crumbling steps to reveal stored canned foods and hanging game.

    "They should be over here," Eliza voice was raspy as she blew a thick layer of dust from the pile of books as her fingers grasped one easily.

    "Is there anymore Lycans in the Village?" Question Viktor with a grim tone as their subject shifted.

    "Not many, I have been aquanted with most." She smiles gingerly. "There's a man--Jesper is his name. Most of the others are dead, killed by fine Hunters, a family line if you will."

    Viktor's gaze squinted and his mind raced. "Jesper?"

    Eliza's head shook. "Jesper Waterhouse."

    Viktor tightened his jaws before speaking, when he did a cold air flowed from his lips. "His name is Jesper Sullivan." He paused. "He's my brother. He took my mother's name merely as a con,"

    She turned to face Viktor's saddened gaze. "He doesn't deserve the pain I have brought onto him," Viktor broke down and weakened with a pang of grief. "Who turned him?" He asks angrily, his voice grew unstable.

    "I do not know Viktor," Eliza told.

      "Forgive me," Viktor's gaze focused on little light that shown through the cracks in the cellar door. "I must see him,"

    "I can send after him if you'd like, we're old friends."

    "I cannot risk you going out and Blaine be here without out notice."

    Eliza ignored Viktor's eagerness to protect her and his Beta's. "I shall fetch him, help me carry the book back to the boys?"

    Viktor gave a nod of his head toed the mound of book back--There was no more than five, old and worn out spines and ripped pages.

    Clayton sifted through dirty pages as Alric grabbed another. Eliza had sent for Jespers return, it had fifty grueling long years since Viktor seen his brother and his sister had since long gone.

    "What's this?" Alric motioned glaring down at a dusty, ripped page.

    "Syclas," Clayton mocks to himself, his fingers ran smoothly across the aged paper while reading it.
°
• SYCLAS •
°
    Granting an Alpha worthy enough the power of mind-melting, to process memorizes from another being and to gift memorizes by digging their claws into the nape of the beings neck. WARNING Potentially deadly if not performed with proper care. Venom from an Alpha Lycan's claws may kill the individual if not inserted correctly.

    "It doesn't seem like I'd want blood on my hands," Alric addressed painting a grim image.

    "There's nothing in here about Elder ash," Viktor scolded slamming a book shut with force, pages ruffling downward till the spine closed.

    "Found Wolfsbane," Comments Clayton scanning hastily over the book in his hands.
°
• WOLFSBANE •
°
  A toxic plant identified by brilliantly hued purple and blue flowers that grows near streams and lakesides--Deadly to Lycan's in massive quantities.

    "I've been aquanted with it one too many times," Viktor's tone was causious and weary as he replied to Clayton who still folded through long pages.

    Viktor caught a scent of another man, being--Another Lycan's smell that wavered in the air fully, he could smell Eliza on the other side of the entrance--It was Jesper.

    Viktor stood in a hurry as Eliza struts through the entrance with Jeaper quietly behind her.

    "Brother?" He pauses at Viktor sight, it had been many grueling years since their last encounter and few exchanges of written letter.

    Viktor took two long strides and wrapped his arms around Jesper as he pulled him tight. "I've missed you Brother,"

    "And I you," Viktor pushed away Jesper with long, muscular arms. "You has life treated you my brother?"

    "Well, very well." Jesper's head shook in a nod as he exhaled the stale air that loomed in his lungs. "And you? It's been many, many years."

    "Since Henrik's departure." Viktor soothed recalling the longful years. "You're a Lycan." He mentiones.

    Jesper's gaze fell heavily to the ground and up once more. "I suppose, Eliza has took pitty on me and has tought me all of my knowladge."

    "She's a fine lady, after all she took gracefullness on those two bafoones," Viktor motioned over his shoulder to feel Clayton's unthankful eyes piercing through him.

    "Have you been well, Clayton, Alric?"

    "Very much Jesper." Replies Alric firstly as Clayton's tone melts together with his. "Greatly Ol'friend."

    "What brings you back Brother?" Jesper morphed around to fixate on Viktor kindly.

    "A bad habit,"

    "What might that be?"

    "Two week after our departure I fed, twas the first full moon. After fifty longful years it's came back to haunt me in my sleep." Viktor's words drug out lengthy. "A man wants me dead."

    "What?" Snapped Jesper leaning forward, before he could speak once more Viktor stopped him.

    "Calm down!" Viktor growled and knitted his brows with a hand outstretched. "He held a dagger dipped in Elder ash."

    Jesper calmed and filtered Viktor's strange words and absent tone. "Isn't that deadly to Lycan's?"

    "It's the only way to kill a primal Lycan." Alric adds over Jesper's shoulder while his head twists and eyed him around his back.

    Jesper's gaze overflowed with confusion as they spiraled with a natural blue hue. "Why would a man want you dead?"

    "You left out the part where you ate his Sister." Grins Clayton earning himself a death glaire through hazy marbled eyes.

    "You ate his sister?" Jesper cut wildly.

    "Yes I did and I shall continue, but that is beside the point." Viktor spat angrily.

    Everyone was amused by Jesper and Viktor's brotherly bickering and rivalry words.

    "The man's name is Blaine Coldwell," Told Alric who had risen and was standing.

    "Coldwell?" He sinks.  "Coldwell was the man who turned me, I barely survived the toxin but managed to pull through all ablidges go to Eliza."

    "He turned you?" Viktor snarls with what had grown to become a pulsating rage.

    "That's what I said,"

    "Give's me an even stronger drive to have him lying at my feet." Viktor storms, his voice was lighting as it cracked. "He shall be dead by sunrise!"

    "If you kill him it will make you a no better man than a murderer!" Jesper raged words flying at his dear Brother.

    "Brother I am already a monster, you do not know the darkness in my soul and blackness that fills my heart while the blood in my veins pumps with venom." He growls with a heavy rasp.

    Darkness began to set and gloomy shadows infiltrated silver shining windows and the dull moon rises gentle to its peak. It was a New moon--A new beginning.

     It had been hours since the glow of dawn and Eljza sent after Jesper. Owls were heard through dark hollow trees that have stood for over a hundred years and wolves cried to the moon to tell it of their grief.

    Viktor's heavy mind melted away and left  nothing but a mixture of sadness and rage as he storms from the Cottage entrance with a pulsating pain wavering through his brain. He rubbed his forehead stressfully and drew in a chilly breath of hazey mist as it rolled in swiftly.

    Jesper slipped out and fell at Viktor's side. "The forest grows into darkness beautifully." He comments gazing at scene of thick pine trees and thin, straying clouds swirling overhead.

    "Very much," Viktor sighed. "I remember some of our earlier days when we were just young children, I remember paying with you and Henrik, aswell as Alric somedays. Sister always complained when we would tease her." He chuckled watching the smile in Jespers eyes as they lit brightly.

    "Yes, Henrik would run and chase her down the through the meadows and corn fields, she would always scream for Mother's help." Jesper's lips gently curved in a gentleman's smile to expose his pearl-white teeth. "How come we were always the ones getting punished?"

     "That has been over seventy years ago Brother and I am still unclear." Viktor gave an amusing chuckle as he gazed at Jesper watching swirling, steady clouds.

    "It looks like a storms brewing over the mountain range," He observes quietly with furrowed brows and a  slanted gaze.

    "More than likely a rain storm has shifted over and between the hills," Viktor told simply without thought, it was the first time he had sat down and apreshiated the time with his younger Brother.

    Then their ears catch a shrill sound in the forest of a bellous howl, deep and bloodthirsty--Blaine had come. It sounded as if there was no more than three. Viktor's eyes widen as Jesper ran to greet Alric and Clayton, his words panicked and shaking.

    "They're here!" He cries out loudly.

    The howl was heard by many--It was a howl of war and a challenge Viktor was dire to accept. Everyone gathered and raced to the edge of the forest that crawled with shadows and silhouettes lurk about.

    "This is my fight not yours," Viktor told through bared teeth to Jesper who rested at his side perpaired.

    "And you are my Brother,"

    Viktor's forehead pressed against his as Jesper gave him a good pat on his aching shoulder. Alric fell to Viktor's other side while Eliza and Clayton covered his back.

    A loud roar surfaced from Viktor as they march deeper in the weary shadows and their skin crawled with uneasiness.

    "I smell you brought a friend," An outcry riels up from the trees and winding leaves. "Long time no see, Jeaper."

    Jesper feircly snarled uncontrollably through a flickering gaze as two more eerie silhouettes emerges at Blaine's side, one that of a wolf, massive with killer claws and a bloodthirsty snarl. Another a broad man with longer hair and torn garments, who appeared to be a rouge.

    Alric recognized the wolf that was riddled with scars and tattered fur--The scars and pieces of flesh he tore with his own teeth. He was thin as his ribcage shown through his hide and thick pelt.

    "Welcome back furball." Grumbled Clayton from behind as he shifted to the front.

    Thunder cracked and the rain began to fall across bare land and riddled stretches of tall Pines trees and lighting lights the clouds in a dark gold.

    "You'll die tonight." Muses Blaine. "Say your goodbyes Alpha."

   "I shall rest with the devil then, bring me to my knees and send me on my way. Dig my grave wide and deep." Viktor's expression arrogant and dim.

    Blaine moved first and gave the signal to attack. Blaine's wolves attack like the pawns they were on a suicide mission.

    Jesper shifted with a wild jump flailing through the air as he threw Simon back with a shove of his overlysized body. Viktor's feet implanted heavily through thick mud as he slides backward from Blaine's force, Alric lunged and ruffled with Simon, his  jaws clamped around his neck in a grusome picture with Jesper salivated at his side.

    It was a bloodbath of fur and claws as the rain beats down with an exaggerated force and thunder roared, turning the earth into a mud pit where they struggled. Yowls shouted loudly and yelps echo through the hollow of forest. Viktor slams against a tree as he struggles for a breath that flew from him in an instant.

    Viktor staggers forward in a drunken sway after managing to his feet. Blood dripps from his skull as Clayton winced from the rogues painfully blow. Viktor's crimson gaze narrows in on Blaine's arms, it was marked with a Witch's bind.

    "You have a Witch's bind!" His ribcage stung as his arm fell across his stomach, his eyes blured and his head spun, his ears defened with a ringing sound.

    "Didn't think I'd bring a little extra fun with me?"

    Viktor sunk to his knees as Eliza assists Clayton with the rouge and killing him where he stood. Blaine strided evily toward him with a spring in his step, his hand clenched around the dagger covered in Elder ash.

    "You-" Viktor gasps for air while his teeth stained with warmth of blood.

   "I'll make sure I dig the grave under my feet," Blaine kneals to Viktor's struggling corpse with his knee goudged in his flank. Viktor yells in extrodinary pain. Blaine readied his dagger and drew it through the air at a path that would lead to his chest.

    Blaine swiftly shift around as the knife dug in to another being, the sound it gave was terrifying as it tore through flesh. The figure stiffened and Blaine drove it deeper as the beast slumped over his shoulder and gave a weasing breath---It was Alric who gave his life and collapses in the mud as he morphs into the human he was.

    Blaine spun back around to Viktor struggling through heavy mud. "I want to watch you sunk in the pain and grief another day child, I want to watch your life fade away as I slowly poision it." He jeers.

And like that it was over--Blaine was gone once again and corpse's riddle the forest floor.

    "No matter how hard you beat us down and how many lives you take we will rise up once again, we are the dogs of war!" Viktor yelled into the winds, his hands thrown outward. "I hope you're listening Blaine! I will kill you."

    Viktor crawled to Alric's weasing side, his breaths were few. Clayton, Jesper and Eliza reeled from the shock and noticed Alric's body in the mud through a heavy veil of downpour. Blood ran and trickled from his cold lips and weak grin.

    "Alric's listen to me," Viktor wept and winced from eternal damage. He pulled the dagger from his friends chest and dug it through the ground soft ground as he flinched at the sound it made. "It's going to be okay Alric, you'll be fine. Listen to my voice." Viktor's hand grazed across his wound with gentle care while the Pack gathered around Alric's slipping body and mourned.

    Alric's eyes opened at Viktor's slight touch. "Dig my grave wide and deep," He choked weakly. Alric gasped for one breath to hold for the lasts seconds. "Let me go ol'friend." He choked as his words were yet the flutter of a butterflies wings. "Goodnight,"

    Clayton sat at his side and so did Jepser as they gather tighter in a comforting embrace. "You have served well, friend." Viktor spoke. The spark in Alric's gaze extinguished.

   What is smoke to the air without the flames to accompany it? Those were the last words anyone would ever say to Alric Hawthorne. Death caught them, they ran for years, but every good thing ends and has it's time. Death is permanent and it is forever.
 
    A funeral was held, a time that you weep and cry. Alric lays motionless in the bed of soil and earthy clays. His grave was dug near Henrik's as forest enclosed it deeply. Mournful howl's ring out through the air and cry to the Moon as the Moon cries back and the tree die inside.

    The pack drug back to the Cottage, they separated and enclosed themselves from one another.

  "You mentioned the dagger was dipped in Elder ash, correct?" Eliza's expression still held tears and her cheeks turned pink.

    "Yes," Clayton sinks in his skin with grief fixated on her. "He held it in his pocket when he fought Viktor a few days ago"

    Her brows snapped togeatber with curiosity. "Only Witches carry Elder ash." She stated.

    Viktor stiffened for a moment and cleared his throat that swam with sadness  "Blaine carried the mark of a Witch's bind,"

    "The Six Sisters?" Jesper questions, his shoulder ached and his mouth was still stained from where he helped Alric take down Simon. "The last Salem Witches?"

    Eliza nods her brown locks. "He would have to have one of the Sister's blessing to kill an original Lycan."

    "Five out of Six of the Sister's want me dead." Viktor swallowed, his pride aching.

    "Who doesn't want you dead Viktor?" Huff's Clayton angrily pushing away the sorrowful glance that clouds his eyes.

    "Circe Black," He told shrugging. "But she's fairly close to digging my grave."