Fractures of Eternity

A soft sigh left my lips as I watched Thea struggle with the fact of taking a life, yet in this world, it was something that happened every day.

“Look, if all you want to be is a hindrance, that’s fine, but this girl is about to make sure you and your sister survive this. I don’t care if I have to kill insignificant bugs like them to get to that goal.” I huffed, staring towards the door, hoping the wolf was nowhere around us.

“But…” She shook her head, following me along.

“All that matters is that we survive, and for that, I’ll crawl to that victory if I have to!” I declared, grabbing onto the door.

Before I could open it, Gerta spoke up behind me. “I don’t want even to imagine what a young girl like you has lived through to come to that, but you’re right. We had to do everything to survive. These people won’t spare us in return.”

Her words caused me to gaze at her as she smiled at me.

This old woman has the fire, after all.

“That’s good to know. Since I need you to keep Luna and run if we get caught, that’s the likely scenario. As long as one of us gets out, the search party will be able to find us.” I informed them, turning towards the exit again.

Luckily, there were only four keys in this holder, and sadly, none of them seemed small enough to fit Thea’s collar, which meant the warlock probably had it.

“Shouldn’t Thea do the running?” Gerta questioned, holding onto the little hybrid, who clung tightly.

A stupid gesture to try to sacrifice yourself for us.

“No, I need her strength, even though it’s limited. If we encounter that wolf, we need to keep him off you two or the vampire thralls if we run into them.” I informed her that I was trying different keys until I found the right one.

Hah… That’s a lie. If everything goes right, the wolf will only find me.

“Alright.” The old woman sighed, turning her head slightly to the little girl, “Luna, keep your head down and don’t look at anything.”

The little Luna shivered, which caused a switch to flip on, Thea finally.

“Fuck this! Fine, I’ll try!” The Lycan slapped her cheeks, finally showing some fire in her gaze.

“Good, I hope the eye patch doesn’t fuck up your sight when the time comes,” I smirked.

She scowled at me, puffing herself up a bit. “I’ll be fine.”

I couldn’t help but cackle at her response.

Your entire family is one of a kind.

I handed the tranquilizing gun to her, “Here, I hope you can use it better than I, since your mom actually works for the people who make it.”

“Uh… I’ll try!” She assured me, taking it.

Slowly, I unlocked the door. “The warlock is full of himself so that he won’t expect this. After all, what can a disabled Lycan, two humans, and a baby Luma do?” I declared, opening the door, revealing no souls behind it.

A boon emerged within the chaos we found ourselves in. There was no way to know where we were headed, yet the only way to continue was forward, and again from the source, disrupting our rescue. Without hesitation, we ran down one hall of the many in this labyrinth, and it wasn’t long until we ran into our first hurdle, a thrall, who was surprised when Thea jumped him, slamming him to the floor. Another fortunate thing was how the thralls didn’t seem to be of royal descent, as the warlock had taken poor citizens, who didn’t know what had hit them until it was too late.

The vampire was out cold before he knew what hit him, as Thea failed to kill him again—something I could quickly remedy, but before I could finish him, voices erupted from down one hall. It soon startled us as we recognized them.

“Why the fuck are they taking so long?!” The warlock from earlier yelled.

Crap… Not now!

Without a second thought, we dragged the unconscious vampire into the hall next to where we were.

“I don’t know, Jin. Do you want me to take a look? Scents in these catacombs are hard to follow because of all the mold everywhere, but I know where the cells are,” The wolf asked, bringing a plethora of problems.

His voice caused my heart to drop as my gaze darted around, and then I noticed a room near us. It was the one the thrall was guarding. Instinctively, I reached for it, opening it before we ran inside. Thea dragged the thrall in with us, closing the door behind, careful not to make much of a sound to alert the Lycan that was nearby. We found ourselves in a storage of some kind, though what was more worrisome was the fact that we weren’t alone. Inside was a human who seemed shocked to see us.

“What are you people doing here?!” The man questioned, yet triggering myself to grab a nearby cloth before slamming myself into him and jabbing the dagger into his mouth, as with little hesitation, I stabbed the knife in his chest, muffling his screams as his eyes slowly lost the light, before releasing an odd green shimmer.

Another thrall…

I didn’t have the time to think; instead, I acted, yet part of me was glad it wasn’t a random hostage I had ended before giving him a chance to speak. The lifeless body slumped over to the side as I noticed Thea, shocked by the door. No matter how many I killed, it seemed to shake her, which was a normal reaction. After all, I was the only one who seemed abnormal in all of this. I peered around the room, realizing we were in chemical storage. There were vials filled with different liquids everywhere, along with other herbs on every corner of this room, too.

It made me wonder how long this rogue faction had called this home. What worried me more, however, was the fact that they had an alchemist in their midst. Alchemy was an art that humans possessed and practiced, which was responsible for inventing the drug to take down Lycans, as well as many other valuable tools for every race. I knew little about that branch, yet it was common knowledge that the chemicals used were usually extremely flammable.

An idea popped into my head as I searched for a lighter, with barely any time to spare. Luckily, it wasn’t long before I found one, while the girls watched me as I flipped the switch and set the herbs ablaze.

“Vivian, what are you doing?” Gerta asked.

Her worry was justified, as we found ourselves in a dungeon with barely enough space to escape the smoke of the fire. However, that wouldn’t be the first thing to reach us once we left this room.

Oliver is probably getting to the cells soon, which means…

I turned to her, smiling. “Our time is running out, and this may give our rescuers a clue of where we are, if not a distraction for our getaway. Either way, we need to mess with the Lycan’s sense of smell more than the old walls and mold are doing. Sorry, Thea.” I informed, grabbing a few vials in my hands.

This wouldn’t be pleasant for her either, since smoke was one of the most irritating things to breathe, and with their sensitive sense of smell, well, she was about to have a harder time at this.

“Wait! Is this really necessary?!” She frowned, wincing at the thought of it.

“Well, I’m only buying us seconds at most. Maybe a minute. Surely, Oliver’s coming for us already.” I shrugged.

This is probably our only hope of getting out of this.

“Urgh! Fuck it. Do it.” Thea shook her head, focusing on the door..

By now, the warlock and wolf had to be by the cells, which meant this was the perfect chance. Opening the door, we ran outside, giving Gerta a few seconds to distance herself from us before we hurled the vials into the fire behind us, triggering a chain reaction. Thea and I then ran for our lives, knowing it was a long shot for any outside influence to notice. After all, we were deep down beneath the city, but it was better than the Lycan tracking us all by our scent. Even if the mold and dust had hampered it, he could fix it with ease.

A second after we bolted, an explosion came, causing us to tumble onto the ground.