Alpha Leo and the Heart of Fire novel Chapter 112

111. A Forgotten Language

LEO.

“That’s the last one.” Li Sheng says tossing the deactivated device onto the ground. Four had gone off in total before we had managed to find the rest and disarm them. I had felt thirteen tethers snap, meaning we had lost thirteen lives. Eric and Emmet’s selfish plan had cost not only me but instead had cost the lives of many innocent people.

Those who had been trapped, and there had been many, had been accounted for and we had retrieved the bodies of our dead too.

They ranged from the ages of eleven to ninety-seven. 1

“Continue to comb the pack grounds until every area has been covered just in case there’s more detonators.” I say coldly.

I need to fucking go after them. I know there is a team out there, but I still need to do something too.

“Will do Alpha.” He replies, lowering his head before he runs off.

Alejandro and several others were now in one of my meeting rooms, gathered around a map, trying to find out where Azura and Corrado had vanished to, and the possible places they may have gone.

“There’s the forest there…” Elijah says, frowning deeply.

He, Damon, and several others are here too, but time is just moving too fucking slow. With each passing moment, who knows what she’s going through. I’m a fucking mess inside, but I’m fucking trying to keep my shit together. I can’t lose them, I need them.

I walk over to the table, and look down at the 3D hologram map that covers the entire table.

“I don’t know… isn’t that too close to your place? Maybe to the west, Dante’s gone to check that side out…” Alejandro mutters as I stare at the spot that the blimp of the tracker had last been, before it vanished.

“He’s misleading us.” I say quietly, feeling my anger rise. This is a fucking game to him … I want blood… I want to fucking kill.

“Meaning?” Alejandro asks.

“This is where Azura’s tracker went off radar … a place that’s got literally three dense forest areas around it… making it the ideal place for us to fucking search… I’m certain he went in the opposite fucking direction. Trust me, I know how fucking bastards work.” I say menacingly.

“Then where do you think they may be?” Liam asks. His anger is palpable, but I can see the worry for his sister in his eyes. 1

I look down at the map, zooming out and scrolling fifty miles in the opposite direction. “The caverns,” I say, tapping the map.

All eyes turn on me, and Alejandro cocks a brow. “Why do you think that?”

“It’s the last place he’d think we’d look… that place has magic that can cancel out a lot of shit. Azura’s tracker couldn’t have just blipped out unless she’s in a location that blocks the outside off…” I run my fingers through my hair, only for the strands of my hair to fall back in front of my forehead.

“How sure are you?” Damon asks, frowning.

“Pretty sure. Raihana wasn’t able to teleport to Azura either. She had something of hers and Judah doesn’t possess that kind of magic. So why the fuck did the teleportation not work? Unless ofcourse there is a power strong enough to counter it. Raihana is meant to be one of the strongest witches alive, so tell me what can fucking counter her? Trust me, this is the place to search.” I say confidently, turning away.

They seem to take a second to mull over my words before Alejandro slaps his hands together, rubbing them. “Right, let’s listen, he has the fucking brains.”

Yeah, I do.

“Remember, he’s fucking fast; from the footage, we can see that he seems to have a link with the shadows…” Elijah is saying.

I frown. Shadows… I suddenly remember an image from a certain book I had gone over. A book that contained drawings and symbols that no one was able to read because of the language.

I need to go over it again.

“So what’s the plan?” Ace asks and I’m brought out of my trance. My eyes flash as I frown deeply.

Oh, I fucking have a plan…

I turn back to the table, “We prepare to move out. I’ll fill everyone in as we prepare.

Gear up and move out. There’s something I need to check. I will catch up.” I command, turning away once more. I needed to check this…. “Delsanra, can you come with me for a moment?” I ask, turning to the white- haired woman.

She looks up and nods before hurrying over and we head towards my apartment.

That book may be gone in the fire, but I had scanned pretty much most of it onto the computer to look through them with ease. I had also tried to restore some that were pretty damaged.

Not sure why these idiots didn’t have all these books duplicated and saved. Who knows when we might need some information from them.

“You’re onto something.” She states.

I don’t reply. I can’t get overly confident until I am certain…

“What is it, Leo?” Delsanra asks. It’s about half an hour later and we are in my cave. A place that remains untouched. Everyone else has gone ahead, but something told me I needed to know what we are up against to win. He had thwarted us a lot of times and I plan to finish this once and for all.

My mind is spinning, the pressure rising as time slips by. I needed to find them. The longer I’m here, the longer they suffer in Judah’s hold.

I know I’m onto something… but fuck, knowing they are out there is messing with me. Fear of what may happen to her is rising as I keep on making notes, and the papers in front of me are full of my scribbles.

“This is…” She trails off, as she leans down.

I don’t reply, looking back at the page I have up on the screen. So that’s what you are…

She struggles to read my messy scrawl and I sit back.

“These symbols.” I say, pointing to the ones at the top. “Can work to decode the entire page… Shadow.”

She frowns before glancing at me.

“Shadows?” She asks.

“Yeah, by translating that word as Shadow it gave me enough to work with. I was trying to check if it would work if I took it as the key to crack the rest.”

“And has it?” She asks.

“Yeah… it fucking has.” I say, pushing the final sheet, which now contains full sentences that I had been working on, towards her.

She leans down, frowning as she reads the heading.

This was a language long forgotten… and although there are still parts of the passage that are too damaged to read, or simply not fully readable, it makes sense overall.

“Shadow Wraiths…” Her heart thunders as she scans the page. “Shadow wraiths are subspecies of the wraith family… What on earth… they don’t exist.”

“Are you sure?” I ask, sitting back and looking up at her.

She looks back at the page, as I stare at the image depicting a monster-like creature with smoke and shadows surrounding him.

Because the picture was so far from a human, we hadn’t paid it any attention when we had all tried to find out what we were dealing with.

“Shadow Wraiths take a host to survive and to gain a solid physical form… Resulting in them disguising themselves in the identity of their hosts. With incredible speed and strength, Shadow Wraiths are even stronger where there are shadows present. Wraiths cannot be killed unless their true names are found and taken, upon driving a weapon made of pure iron coated with Nightshade,

Ephedra and Harpagophytum into their necks.” She turns to me. “Do you think this is what he is?”

“I think so…” I say, standing up. I have a sword which is fully iron….

“What… how… did you… how did you even figure that out?” She asks.

“A little fucking late, though.” I say quietly, entering my weapon room.

“If the Shadow Wraith’s name is discovered, it can be called on for assistance, but its help is very limited. Wraiths feed on high levels of energies to grow stronger…” Delsanra says realisation dawning on her. “Wraiths sense beings with high levels of energy wanting to either simply linger by these beings or depending on the wraith’s intentions they will devour these beings… This is why he wants Azura…”

“Obviously.” I say coldly. “Can you get those herbs?”

“Yes! Right away, but… how will we find his real name?” She asks.

I frown, I had an idea about that… “Leave that to me… Can you call Janaina.” I say, looking at her sharply.

She nods and I hold out my phone…

It’s an hour later, and I am now near the caverns. I had made one last stop before getting here.

“You were right. Her scent lingers.” Dante says, smiling faintly at me. I can’t smell it, but his sense of smell is obviously far better than mine.

I nod as I glance back at Alejandro who is arguing with Skyla. She had shown up not long ago, and I’m not sure which one is angrier. Kiara had stayed at the Pack to heal those who had been injured in the explosions, but I think right now, they needed her to sort their shit out.

“Not going to interfere?” I ask Dante. He glances back at them and sighs.

“No… Dad won’t listen.” He says quietly.

“I’m not a goddamn child.” Skyla hisses.

“You fucking are. Now get the fuck out of here.” Alejandro growls.

“No, and you can’t stop me. At my age, you did a lot more than this.” Skyla shoots back, her eyes blazing a reddish purple.

“This isn’t up for debate. Take her home.” Alejandro snarls to one of his men.

“I’m not just going to sit by whilst Azura is out there! You are so damn sexist.” She growls.

He kinda is, since he only had an issue with his daughter being here…

“Yeah, I don’t have time for this. You causing a scene is delaying things Skyla, get the hell home.” Alejandro’s command rolls off him, and I see Skyla’s eyes flicker, rage and anger consuming her and she’s trying to stop herself from shifting.

He turns away from her and Skyla clenches her jaw before she looks at me, her heart thundering.

“Find her.” She says, her voice shaking with anger, before she casts one last look at her dad, and I feel a little bad for her.

I understand Alejandro’s concern. After all, she is his daughter… but smothering her isn’t going to do any of them any favours.

“The entrance to the caverns is half a mile from here.” I say, “He will have backup and they are armed with the bullets we created. Do we know how many men?”

“At least two hundred out front.” Jin replies.

“So how about we go get this damn wraith.” Jax growls.

The sword on my back is ready… and I have everything I need…

“Leave the bullets to me, I will handle those.” Dante says, frowning slightly.

“With me.” Raihana says, stepping forward, her power crackling around her.

I nod, as Alejandro walks over to us.

“Are we ready?” He asks, as Dad and Rayhan step forward.

I had already told them where exactly we are going to attack from.

“Let’s do this.” I say, giving them a nod as the Five step up behind me, and our eyes blaze as we all run forward.

Dante is the only one who stays with me, and even when the rest shift – aside from me, he doesn’t. 1

We reach the caverns pretty fast and my heart thunders when I catch the extremely faint scent. Azura’s scent. It is barely noticeable, but it is here. She is inside.

We come to a stop when I see the army of men bearing arms, surrounding even this entrance. It was meant to be a lesser-known one, but it is obvious Judah now knows the caverns pretty well.

“Keep going.” Dante says removing his glasses. He opens his eyes and I feel the sheer power of the energy surrounding him radiate off him in waves.

Well fuck.

“Shit, he’s a beast.” Jax curses as we run ahead, just as Dante raises his hand and slams the men lining the entrance aside. We leap past them, sliding through the entrance to the cavern. I glance back at Dante, just in time to see two magnificent wolves. They are huge, as big as my wolf, if not bigger.

One has a red aura around it, the other a green. Both are powerful and look different from one another. They leap from the sky, ripping through the enemy. But even as they fight, they seem to hold an other-worldly elegance and essence.

My eyes widen in surprise as I see Dante simply standing there, a red and green glow emanating from him. His feet are apart, and he’s barely recognisable. From the power that feels out of this world, and the power that I know he is still holding in, he just made all of us, including Alejandro, look like fucking pups. 2

So he didn’t shift… he simply summoned not one but two wolves. Wolves that looked far more intelligent than any I had seen, both had auras that were immensely different, just like their appearances…

The screams of the men as the wolves attack fill the air, and I turn away and run through the caverns.

‘We’re in.’ I relay to one of my men who wouldn’t shift and is standing with one person from each pack, they were the mind link between us all.

‘Alpha Alejandro says he’s in too.’ A reply came.

‘I’m in too.’ Dad’s voice came.

‘Alpha Rayhan has entered.’

‘Perfect.’ I say, speeding up as I run through the halls, the layout of this place was burned into my mind. It didn’t take long for everyone to scour the entire fucking place.

Every time I hear, ’empty’ or all clear’ my stomach twists, but even when the rest are beginning to lose hope despite the guards outside, I slow down, staring at the sealed entrance to the place we had never been able to open…

I don’t know how, but I can tell she is close. My wolf restlessly paces in my mind.

‘Azura?’ There’s a block, but I know she’s here.

I place my hand on the stone wall, feeling the rippling evil that lingers here. The temperature drops and everything seems to become silent.

A whispering wind blows past me, and I frown.

There is no place for a draft to even enter

when we are so deep in, and no gaps to allow air…

‘Azura!’ I call again, pushing harder against the barrier, but I’m only faced with emptiness.

I step back, looking at the entrance. This is the very same place that led to where Endora had kept mom for weeks before she ended up killing her…

My heart squeezes and I take a deep breath before stepping back.

‘I’ve found them. They’re in the sealed rooms.’ I say through the bond.

‘What? How the fuck is that possible?’ Dad growls. ‘No one can get in there.’

‘Well, somehow the bastard did.’ I reply coldly, when Alejandro’s voice sounds in my head.

Guess being a Lycan was ideal in one fucking way. He can mind link with any Alpha, although I know doing so gives him a headache.

‘Raihana and Delsanra are on their way to you, Leo. We can try this again.”

‘That might work. Back then we didn’t get them to try.” Dad says.

‘Will they be able to?’ I ask, frowning as I look at the symbols that cover the doors.

“They’ll try.’ Alejandro replies.

I nod, closing my eyes as I try to reach for Azura once again, hoping Corrado was with her…

Please fucking be ok.

I can’t hear anything and that makes me

uneasy… What if somehow she is no longer here?

The fact that I can’t feel any pain is the only thing keeping me going, telling me she is ok.

‘How long?’ I ask, turning as I see several werewolves jump at me.

They were part of a pack as they didn’t smell of rogues, but now that I know what Judah is, I wondered how they listened to him. Did they know that he isn’t what he fucking portrays?

I take out two foot-and-a-half-long daggers, and roll my neck. Well, until the witches arrive, I can use some targets to vent some of my rage on…