Inhumane experiments are turning Dante Gray, a werewolf, into a monster - can he and Chase, a hot-headed warlock, find a cure before it's too late?
*****
Dante Gray, a werewolf, e...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
-Chase-
"Do you have the ingredients ready?" I asked quietly, and Mom nodded.
"They're all here," she said, patting a small, wooden box under the front seat of the van. "Remember, we need to mix them as soon as we get the gland, and he has to drink it immediately."
"You don't have to remind me," I muttered, peering at Dante who was still sitting in the backseat of my car that was parked right next to the van. "I am a potion master, after all."
"Yes, you are," she smiled, shortly glancing over her shoulder. "You focus on the potion; let your father and I deal with the monsters."
"Absolutely not – I'm not sitting this one out," I objected, but she shook her head.
"You may be the potion master, but your father and I are hunters, and this is our hunting ground. I don't want you to get hurt."
"I've been here before," I said, trying not to get angry with her. "And I know how to fight."
"And last time I heard, one out of three of your spells are duds."
"One out of five," I corrected her.
"Oh, you have been improving! That's my boy!" she said with a motherly smile that turned into a dead-serious expression right after. "But my answer is still no. We already talked about this! You and Zane are staying here by the cars to protect Dante and the vehicles in case one of them slip past us."
"Keep your voice down!" I whispered, peering at the dark, dead trees all around us.
"Honey, we've been trying to find them for two hours now. I think yelling has become our best option," she spoke dryly.
I turned my back on her, trying to spot Roe, Paraz or Isha in the forest. They had been away for fifteen minutes already, trying to find the caraggas, and I was getting anxious. The caraggas weren't our only enemy around here, and even though the biggest and most dangerous creatures were living much deeper in the Death Zone, that didn't mean none of them didn't wander closer to the sunny side.
As the minutes passed, and the demons were nowhere to be seen, I started seeing horror scenarios involving ice giants, flesh-eating tundra worms the size of Eiffel Tower, car-sized shellfish that lived in hidden caves in the ice, waiting to lure their prey with colorful, poisonous tentacles... If something had happened to the demons, we would never find out what killed them.
Just when I was about to freak out, Roe appeared next to me, looking grim.
"Well?" I asked, taking a deep breath to calm down. Everyone else came closer to hear what he had to say.
"I couldn't find anything," he sighed. "A lot of worms around here, though. I'm guessing they ate all the caraggas in this area."
I tried not to fall in despair. "The deeper we go, the harder this becomes," I muttered, looking at Dante. "He's been staring at the ring for too long already."
