Unsnuffed

Devina

~Ahh. My young acolyte. It has been too long.~

For ten years, I had reached through the realms of magic in search of her energy, but all for naught.

The last time I saw her, she’d been swallowed by the flames that scorched the Royal Werewolf Palace.

It came as a relief that she survived the blaze, but it pained me that she and her talents had been left to decay in the confines of that cursed prison in the Bermuda Triangle.

But a few nights ago, when I sent out the call for the dark magic-wielding witches of the world to unite, I had felt her vibrations for the first time in over a decade.

She had been freed, all in accordance with my plan.

I only hoped that the facilitator of these plans had taken care of her.

If anything happened to her, no creature would remain untouched by my wrath.

And now, it was time to see where my apprentice had flown.

In an old kettle above an open fire, I stirred a malodorous concoction of roots, plants, and carrion.

Smoke from the pot rose high into the sky as I chanted an ancient spell.

The bubbling brew began to swirl in a supernatural vortex.

As the sordid stew circled faster and faster, a faded image appeared on the surface.

Once the picture came into focus, I saw a gathering of my greatest adversaries.

Alpha Ekon, his Luna Bambi, Alpha Vladimir, and Alpha Leonardo in the back of a limo.

I had tapped into Tyler’s vision. I now saw the world through her eyes.

As my old protégé looked around the car, I realized that the party was accompanied by two well-armed guards.

Even though this was all part of the plan, it worried me to see my Tyler surrounded by so many of my enemies. But if everything went as intended, her captivity would be brief.

Soon, the car came to a stop in front of an understated stone hut in a shadowy mountain pass.

I recognized it as the seasonal residence of Chair Fakari.

I took a deep breath as I watched the group of wolves file out of the car.

This is where things would get interesting…

Bambi

One by one, we filed quietly out of the limousine into the well-hidden mountain passage.

Alpha Vladimir ordered the guards to keep Tyler in the car until the deal was closed with Chair Fakari.

He didn’t want to run the risk of our party being seen with the infamous witch in the daytime.

However, that didn’t seem very likely here.

A brisk wind howled ominously down the large chasm.

Practically inaccessible to direct sunlight and isolated from the main road, this was the kind of place that couldn’t just be happened upon.

The only sign of life in this forbidding environment was an unassuming stone cabin built into the rocky, mountain walls.

A thin wisp of smoke rose from its chimney.

It was difficult to believe that this was where a renowned MP such as Chair Fakari would choose to live during the parliamentary season.

Cold, cramped, and isolated, it was the complete foil to the lavish mountaintop mansions and trendy bungalows where most members of the Supernatural Parliament seemed to base their operations.

But I had to admit, it was ideal for our purposes.

The eerie surroundings didn’t help to ease my current apprehension.

The entire ride, I had been trying to figure out where my feelings lay about our deal with Fakari.

Initially, I had been all for it. It seemed the only way our kind had a chance at stopping the Rogues and saving the packs from imminent displacement.

But then I realized that, in Tyler, we had perhaps the best chance at finding Devina and solving our problem at the source.

The ideal solution would be to have Tyler to bear testimony to the Supernatural Parliament about her insight into Devina’s latest plot. As the legislators prepared to respond to the growing crisis, she would remain a top advisor.

But her reputation made that an impossible fantasy. And our reputation as werewolves simply confounded matters.

My only hope was that if we turned Tyler over to Fakari as promised, it would prove to him that werewolves were more honorable than he had thought.

Given this show of good faith, he might listen to reason if I presented her case and revealed the young witch’s potential power in tracking down the supernatural world’s most infamous fugitives.

Admittedly, this too seemed like a pretty unlikely possibility.

But it was the best I could do at the time.

A short time later, Chair Fakari emerged from his austere stone hut attended by two staff-bearing guards. The regal-looking statesman managed to maintain his dignified air even in a large, furry parka.

He approached our small contingent of envoys, quite intentionally avoiding eye-contact with Ekon and me.

However, this didn’t bother me in the slightest.

It was the first time we had seen him since the disaster at the siren pool party.

If ignoring us would prevent a rehash of that mortifying experience, I certainly didn’t mind it.

He approached Alpha Vladimir with a grim expression on his face.

“Well, Alpha, do you have what I asked you for?” the stone-faced witch doctor asked with business-like economy.

Vladimir nodded and motioned to the chauffeur still seated in the cab of the limousine.

A moment later, Tyler emerged from the car under the vigilant escort of her two armed guards.

A look of dread commandeered her face as she locked eyes with Chair Fakari.

It was clear that the two had a history.

It was not one that she had shared with me.

Tyler put up a struggle to climb back into the car, but the guards dragged her along the snowy ground until she lay at the feet of Chair Fakari.

The intimidating old witch doctor glowered down at her with contempt in his eyes.

Tyler gazed fearfully back up at him.

“At last I have you exactly where I have wanted you for the past decade,” the witch doctor said with impassioned satisfaction.

“W…what do you want with me?” Tyler shivered in response.

“Only to see justice done to the wicked hellion who set fire to my ancestral home and mercilessly ravaged my people’s population with her rapine.”

Then I remembered.

Chair Fakari had made mention that many in his tribe had perished in a fiery ambush by Devina’s forces. Tyler always seemed to be thrust into the center of these particular cases of mass arson.

My heart stopped as I realized what Chair Fakari really wanted with Tyler.

~Revenge.~

“What are you going to do?” Tyler asked timidly.

“What should have been done ten years ago,” Chair Fakari grimaced. “Make you stand trial in South Africa and leave you to be judged by the people whose lives you eradicated. Let them decide your fate.”

Tyler gasped, and her eyes widened in horror.

She knew what Chair Fakari meant.

He was sending her to imminent death.

The African wizard looked toward Alpha Vladimir, who stood with a satisfied grin.

“As per our agreement, I will vote in favor of your aid proposal during the War Council hearing today. Once it passes, I will make a motion for debate during this afternoon’s convening of Parliament.”

The witch doctor sealed the transaction in resolute handshakes with Vladimir and Leonardo.

The two alphas seemed very pleased with the deal they had just struck.

But my heart was heavy.

I couldn’t stand by and watch Tyler be carted off to her demise. But if I spoke up, I might not only aggravate any chances Tyler had for survival but lose the faith and trust of my pack for siding with the perceived enemy.

My heart was in conflict. I didn’t know what to do.

Maybe I was wrong.

Maybe Tyler really had been lying to me.

How could she get to be one of the supernatural world’s most hated criminals if there wasn’t some truth to all the things that had been said about her?

I had almost talked myself into ignoring what I knew and buying into Tyler’s guilt.

But then I glanced over at Ekon.

He wore an expression on his face I’d never seen before.

~Guilt.~

His posture was slouched, as if weighed down by the reality that he had condemned an innocent person to death.

And it wasn’t another werewolf for whom he bore these feelings.

It was for a witch.

I knew he could never say anything. His position as Alpha made that difficult.

But seeing that we were on the same page gave me the courage to speak up.

“Chair Fakari,” I blurted.

The old witch doctor eyed me indignantly. “What?”

“You can’t take Tyler back to Africa and try her on just the evidence that you have.”

Vladimir, Leonardo, and Ekon turned to me with admonishing expressions. I was entering dangerous territory.

Fakari scoffed at my protest. “I’m afraid the legal proceedings of my people are none of your concern. Besides, since when does a werewolf care about the well-being of a witch?”

“Since this one is innocent,” I asserted. “She was under Devina’s spell during the burning of your village. A victim of one of her manipulative charms. What she did wasn’t of her own volition.”

Chair Fakari shook his head. “Is that what she told you?”

I nodded.

“So you would take the word of a condemned witch over someone who had been victimized by her wrath?” Chair Fakari walked up to me.

I didn’t know how to respond to the wizard’s question.

The answer wasn’t so cut and dry.

But I did know one thing…

“I know I believe what Tyler says.”

Tyler’s eyes illuminated with sincere pride to hear this.

“Then I fear for your people.” Chair Fakari sighed and turned around to start back towards his hut. Tyler looked helplessly back at me as the chairman’s two guards dragged her through the snow.

The three Alphas regarded me with angry expressions, pissed that I nearly messed up their deal.

But the deal didn’t matter to me now.

Tyler was innocent.

And no matter what, I couldn’t let her die.