Chapter Ten
Valentine’s Indignation
Maverick couldn’t look into Valentine’s eyes. With his knees trembling, he couldn’t stand still and avoid showing his anxiety. His heart stopped as he heard Valentine’s voice.
“Haven’t I been good to you?” The dark lord asked with a remark in his tone.
He couldn’t open his mouth but forced himself to say something. “Your goodness has extended beyond measure, my lord to which I am so grateful for.”
“So then what the hell are you doing?” Valentine yelled, spitting at Maverick’s face. “I have given you enough time to develop a weapon to kill the lycans, but it seems you take no regard to my words.”
“Edward and I have been working tirelessly on getting the formula right, but the lycan’s DNA structure is so complex that none of the initial experiments have worked so far.”
He didn’t speak a word and instead stared at him deliberately.
“I assure you that we’ll come up with the right formula.”
“How soon?”
Maverick’s mouth completely froze. His lips tingled and his tongue seemed to have been twisted with his lies.
Valentine walked around him, sensing whether he was telling the truth. His eyes and sharp fangs were enough to send him to the underworld. Maverick stood still and shut his mind from any thoughts, disallowing the dark lord to read his mind.
The rest of the dark shadows stood around the room; they were the leaders hired to spread their population and train the assassins to eliminate the lycans. They stood in horror for Maverick. His ultimatum was running out. If Edward failed to develop a formula, death was certain to come upon them. The chemical substance to be developed would be incorporated into the bullets like the blue liquid with silver particles Lucas had found in Vincent’s wound.
In spite of Maverick’s effort to hide his thoughts, Valentine could read his mind through the window of his eyes. He grabbed Maverick by the jaw and pulled him closer as he looked into his eyes and traveled into his memory. Visiting his past gave him all the necessary information to decide whether to sentence his death and get someone else to develop the formula. But as he looked deeper into his past, he’d seen something he didn’t expect.
“Lucas,” he whispered under his breath. He pulled out and pushed him away. Seeing Lucas’ face brought so many memories – memories that he’d long buried. He was shaking and he looked so troubled that it shook his disciples.
Maverick frowned and swallowed, sweat dripping down his forehead.
“Where did you find him?”
Maverick looked puzzled. “Who, my lord?”
He turned around and glared at him. “Lucas, where is he?” he said with great indignation.
Everyone looked at each other with horror. Lucas was no stranger to them; he was just the one who killed Lucius, Valentine’s brother, decades ago. No one could ever forget that day when the whole clan of dark shadows mourned for him. But Valentine had a different view on the story. To tell the truth, he actually let his brother die by hiding in the lake while Lucas beheaded Lucius. He knew that without his brother he could now rule the dark shadow kingdom and put his dark plan into action – and that was to overrule the world and enslave humans, sucking their blood to sustain his kind.
“I don’t who’s talking about, my–”
Valentine cut him off sharply. “The lycan you’ve seen on the street, stupid cunt,” he yelled, the veins on his neck were popping up as his eyes flamed with anger.
“He wasn’t born at that time, my lord,” Levi said. He was Valentine’s right hand, the one performing all the critical tasks, the most trusted person whom the dark lord used as a weapon to plot out his plans and put them into action.
“Useless!” He struck Maverick on the face, throwing him into the far corner of the room. “I should’ve never turned you into a dark shadow and let you die as a human. Had I known you are weak and useless!” he said, his saliva was spitting out into the air.
Maverick stooped down and stared at the floor, ashamed of himself for letting Valentine down.
“Find him.”
“Yes, my lord.” Levi bowed his head and gave his men the look to follow him. He was the head assassin, the one responsible for the death of most lycans on both the mainland and forests. They headed straight to the security lounge where their weapons were kept in the walls, floors, and furniture. Levi took his precious bow and arrows from under the cushion of the couch while his men grabbed guns, bombs and of course, bullets for a refill.
Levi let his men take off first. None of them used the door. They shifted into shadows and let the wind drift them like a tornado.
“Bring him to me alive. I want to feel the pleasure of crushing him under my foot and beheading him like what he’s done to Lucius,” Valentine said as he gazed out the window, imagining Lucas begging him to death.
“I’ll do as you say, my lord.”
Just as when Levi was about to take off, the door swung open. An assassin he’d sent to hunt down lycans had returned with a troublesome news. “My lord, forgive me, I have failed to stop them.”
Quickly, Valentine turned around with a grimaced expression on his face.
“They’ve killed most of the assassins and there are only a few of us left. They were beyond our capacity…” the assassin reported as he tried to catch his breath.
Levi stepped back so did everyone in the room as they sensed Valentine’s temper reached the boiling point; his eyes turned red and his glare was enough to burn them alive. Without warning, he turned into a shadow and disappeared. Before they knew it, he was already standing in front of the assassin. They held their breath as he grabbed the poor guy on the jaw and blew his breath into his mouth.
“Such a useless piece of shit,” he said slowly as he let go of him and turned back around.
The assassin’s eyes were wide open, feeling himself burning from inside out. A drop of tear fell from his eyes before he was completely consumed by the flame and turned into ashes. Everyone watched in awe, realizing how powerful Valentine really was.
Maverick kept shaking his head, unable to accept the fact that he almost turned into a dust of ashes.
“Who wants to follow?”
No one answered. They were all tamed shut. Silence took over as the ambiance had grown even more frightening…
“The lycans have come out of their nests and trespassed our territory. Go and kill them. Sucks their blood and show them who we really are. The war has to end and we will stand victorious.”
In a great hurry, each of them turned into shadows and headed to all corners of the city to find and kill the lycans.