CHAPTER 29

JASMINES POV

“Stay close to me,” Caine said, his voice low and urgent. My legs trembled at the sight of the lifeless bodies scattered like broken dolls on the floor. The cold suddenly seeped into my skin, making my blood freeze and almost making me halt.

Caine’s hand found mine and squeezed it into his, and I could feel the temperature of his body rising with every step we took further.

“What happened here?” I muttered, scanning the bodies by the left. My mind was blurred with questions. Could Bryan have done this?

No…one person couldn’t wreak such havoc. So what or who was it then?

“This is no wild animal,” Caine said like he was answering my thoughts. Something about the scene was off. I could smell it, and I bet Caine could too given the way he was sniffing the air.

“This isn’t just blood or death…it’s something unnatural. Something new, dangerous,” he said.

“Which means we should leave and probably report it to your dad,” I suggested, beginning to feel the dread of the moment penetrating the courage I had summoned earlier to the wall into the camp with Caine.

Caine crouched beside a body and examined it. “Ears bleeding. Eyes bulged. It’s like their insides exploded. Yet I don’t smell poison. This was caused by something else,”

“A wolf?” I chirped, beginning to freak out. I inched closer to Caine because he was the only person keeping me safe at the moment.

“I doubt. I mean…look at the ears,” he said, shifting the ears of a corpse. I attempted to join him when a low guttural growled into me. It came from the woods opposite us. Caine snapped to his feet, his claws shooting out instinctively.

Wolves.

Their red crimson eyes glowed from the shadow of the trees. From a pair, to two pairs until there were about a dozen of them.

“A full leader pack,” Caine muttered, taking steps back. I was behind him, moving back as well but maintaining a reasonable gap between us. I didn’t want a situation where I would be drafted away from him without him resisting.

One after the other, they stepped out, their furs matted in blood and their mouths foamed like a rabid beast.

The Seekers.

I recognized those eyes, their unique furs and their size from stories told to me by my mother.

“Caine, “ I whispered, measuring the distance between us and the car and calculating our chances of survival.

“Stay behind me,” Caine barked as he took a defensive stance. I wished he knew who they were. How could he not?

“Caine, we can’t. They’re the pack of Seekers,” I blurted, clinging onto his shirt. I noticed his defense drop instantly. His eyes scanned the wolves properly, and he finally understood.

“Jasmine…run!” He ordered.

We tore into a race, going faster than our legs could take us. Caine stayed behind, guarding me all the way down. The snarls and growls of the wolves were getting closer, sending my heart racing faster than my legs.

We got to the car and got in immediately. Before Caine could ignite the engine, we were surrounded.

“Oh..,fuck!” I exclaimed, getting all sweaty.

“Hold tight,” Caine helped with my seat belt before doing his. He started firing the engine of the car and I hoped he was about to do what I was thinking.

“Are you running into them?” I asked.

“Not me, Jasmine. We!” Caine answered , giving the accelerator a great kick which sent the car speeding toward the six wolves ahead of us. I shut my eyes, tightening my grip on the handle above my head as the car went diving through the air.

The next time I opened them, we were out of that environment, now speeding down the express.

“Why are the seekers in this part of town?” I asked, still trying to recover from the shock. Caine didn’t answer me immediately. He still looked buzzed from the whole thing, his left hand running through his wet hair.

“There is only one way to find out,”

****

“Dad,” I hugged my father after getting down from the car. Caine believes my father should have answers because the last time the Seekers surfaced was twenty-two years ago, and as at then, my dad was in charge of the pack library, research and investigation.

“Jasmine. I’m not supposed to be seeing you until two weeks from now. What’s happening?” My dad asked amidst his excitement after seeing me. We exchanged kisses on the cheek before I helped myself to the kitchen.

“Caine wants to talk with you,” I said as I trailed off. Caine walked in and was offered a seat by my father. I wanted to leave the discussion to them, but the more I stayed alone, the more thoughts of Bryan hurled into my head.

I left the kitchen and returned to the sitting room where they were.

“The Seekers don’t just show up for no reason. Someone or something must have dragged them out of their place,” my dad said, dropping a green dusty book which he pulled from a shelf opposite the room.

“Could it be the massacre?” Caine asked, taking the book and blowing off the dust. He opened it and got choked by the dust inside.

“No, not the massacre, but what caused the massacre. It’s an old book. Contains years and events that brought the Seekers pack out of their hiding. You can take your time, go through it. Or my daughter could help,”

“No, thank you,” Caine and I chorused. We exchanged glances like we weren’t just the people who kissed each other before a large number of persons—-who are now corpses.

“When you find the cause of the massacre, you’ll find what the seekers are here for. The earlier you do it, the better. If you believe the wolves you saw last night are actually the seekers, then we are about to face worse than we already have,” my dad sounded more serious than ever.

I swallowed the horror brewing in me and stood up. “Thanks dad. That should be all for now,” I dismissed the meeting. He walked us to the car, and before I went in, he grabbed my arm and whispered.

“Go nowhere alone, Jasmine. The seekers have seen you, they’ll be on your tail. Caine too,” he said.

I wanted him to explain what he meant, but Caine honked the horn, sending me into the car. We drove back to the pack house, buzzing with life unlike the rest of the realm.

“Jas,” Caine called, halting me. “So…urm…the kiss,”

“Yeah, I know. It never happened. Good night Caine,” I turned to keep heading to my room, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

“No…not that,” he said, his eyes searching mine for the slightest clue of what he was about to do. Still I had no idea. “Maybe that happened off…”

“Caine, it’s late, and I’ve had a hectic day. If you don’t mind I would love to…” he interrupted me with his lips which crashed softly on mine. I froze, holding my breath in awe. That was two kisses from him in a day.

I wanted to pull him away, but my wolf wanted more of him, more than just a kiss. So I let him go further until I had a flash of my encounter with Bryan. Just as I was about to take him off, a voice did it for me.

“Jasmine?” Lucy called, walking into the corridor.

******