Chapter eighteen

Genevieve stormed into the conference hall and her red eyes went to Damien immediately. “Care explaining the meaning of this rubbish?”

“Genevieve, calm down,” Malachi said from his seat and sighed. “We can’t solve anything with a fight.”

“What do you mean by we can’t solve anything with a fight? They started this, so by right they should provide us an explanation. Only the rogues were turned before and they didn’t give a damn because the rogues are the rejected ones but what about us, no nightwalker council is rejected but every second of the day now, a council leader reports that their citizens are being turned. Malachi, they are bigger than us in number and reproduce more than we do and even earlier than us, if this continues then very soon nightwalkers will be history, don’t you understand it?” Genevieve demanded.

“I understand what you are trying to say lady Genevieve, but you are forgetting something. Night howlers are not the ones that made Nightwalkers deranged,” Damien said.

“Oh don’t give me that crab. Your kinds were being turned into something they were not and instead of you as their general leader to fight for them and know what could possibly be going on, you ignored them and not just that, you tricked us into killing our own leader!” Genevieve yelled.

“Lady Genevieve, I agree with everything you said except the one of tricking you into killing Prince Edward. You were there that day when that witch appeared and you were there when the decision was made, I didn’t see you trying to go against us and so just because things didn’t go as plan doesn’t mean you are going to dump the blame on me. Besides, my daughter is still lost and nowhere to be found since that day. Do you know the courage it takes me to look at her father every single time?” Damien challenged.

“Look at us,” Genevieve pointed at the High chiefs, “we have been dwindled to just five or should I say four and half.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Malachi interrupted.

“Oh face it Malachi, you are not as strong as you used to be and you know it. You can’t even heal that damn wound on your waist, so what can you do?”

“Genevieve,” a high chief shunned. “You may be a high chief but Malachi is still our leader, so you speak to him with respect.”

“Are you guys totally blind?” She yelled, “or you are just dumb and stupid? Killing Edward did not change anything and it won’t until that damned brat has been killed. You think I don’t know what you have been up to?” She turned to Damien. “You killed Edward and now you are reluctant to kill one of your own. Everyone heard when the Witch said that both of them will have to die especially that thing she is carrying as a child. But you, what effort have you made in killing your daughter as you said, huh?”

“Lady Genevieve,” a high howler spoke up, “we understand where you are coming from but everyone knows that right before Prince Edward died, he had carried Aliyah out of the woods in a tornado, so tell me, what should we have done? We have warriors surrounding her pack to know when she comes back. Even our alpha had gone through the trouble of performing a ritual to give the warriors the ability to hear any conversation made in the mind link as long as they as much as concentrate. Being the alpha, he is the only one with that ability but he had shared it with the warriors just to apprehend Aliyah and co, and doing that had greatly deteriorated his strength. He is doing his best if you ask me, and you know it.”

“Oh please,” Genevieve scoffed with a roll of her eyes. “If he is trying, then he is not trying hard enough. Everybody and I mean everybody know that when a soul is not in this woods, there is only place they will be and that is the Human realm. If Edward wanted to protect her, don’t you think he would take her to the one place where your kinds hardly stay, huh?”

Damien nodded, “you are right but as we know, the witches are already looking for her in the human realm, so if she is there, I am sure that they have caught her by now. Please, let us not forget the main reason we called for this meeting. The rogues are attacking almost everyday now…”

“And the deranged nightwalkers,” a high chief added.

“Yes, and the deranged nightwalkers,” Damien continued, “and with each attack, almost a dozen of wolves in each pack is infected. At this rate, in the next twelve months, we all, and I mean we all will be deranged. It was fightable when it was just the rogues, but with the nightwalkers, the poison is spreading fast like wildfire and this time, it doesn’t take a few days to start reacting. Any wolf that is bitten is being transformed instantly. The last attack in the Black wind pack five days ago cost them twenty wolves and they were only able to restrain three as the rest ran away with the rogues, back to whoever that sent them. Catherine is working day and night but no potion she made has been able to heal the infected wolves. The Red Wood pack was attacked last night and they lost fifteen wolves, thankfully, they were able to restrain ten of them. But at this rate, they won’t be rooms in their dungeons anymore. We have to figure out what is happening and fast.”

Malachi sighed, “the Nightingale council were attacked last night and nearly thirty nightwalkers were infected.”

“It was thirty-one,” someone corrected.

“Oh,” Malachi said, “and like Genevieve said, we don’t reproduce as fast as you do or in large quantity. At this rate, we Nightwalkers won’t even last twelve months.”

“Five months tops,” a woman said.

Damien said, “then we have to do something. As the leaders, we can’t just sit back and fold our arms, we need to get a solution.”

“What do you propose we do?” Malachi asked.

“I say we find the witch or any witch that can tell us what is going on. I have been doing some scouting and I discovered a coven hidden in the Westwood mountain,” Damien announced, glancing from one man to the other. “I say we pay them a visit and demand a meeting with their leader.”

“You mean ask for a meeting,” a woman corrected.

“Yes, that.”

Genevieve scoffed after a while when it seemed like everyone was considering the suggestion. “Seems like you all are forgetting something.”

“And what is that Genevieve?” Malachi asked, slightly annoyed.

“It’s the witches we are talking about here, they have always hated us. What makes you think they are going to welcome us into their coven with open arms?”

“At least, we can still try,” Damien said. “A lot of my packs lost their alphas and the ones in charge now are their inexperienced sons, and if anything happens to them, I will have to choose new alphas all over again. But that’s not the problem, if this continues, I will keep changing alphas and very soon…” he paused, feeling the weight of the situation weighing down on him. “We have to try, please.”

No one said anything until someone whispered, “why do I feel like things wouldn’t have escalated to this extent if he was still here?” Everyone heard it but no one said anything or counterattacked it because deep down inside them, they were all thinking the same.