The faint purple light pulsed weakly, softly casting its light throughout the darkened room. Faint whispers and quiet voices flickered in a spidery dance, bending and twisting the light. A deep inhalation disturbed the silence, followed shortly by a breath being let out slowly. The light pulsed again and flared up, promising a vision.
Leo sat cross legged in the middle of the magical circle, with a perfectly straight back and unblinking eyes. He stared deep into the light as he lifted the cigar to his lips, breathing the smoke into his lungs. With the spell now ready to be enacted, Leo tilted his head back and exhaled the smoke through his mouth and nose simultaneously. The gray fog swirled around swiftly, pulling the corporeal light with it into the air as the brilliance of the circle dimmed to give energy to the spell now pooling above the Warlock's head. The smoke and light mixed together and began warping, providing vision into an event far away.
As the spell completely consumed Leo's senses, his consciousness traveled to a location miles away from his body. When the fog faded, he was high in the air, surrounding by a dense blanket of clouds. The spell pulled his mind towards the earth, gently tugging him through the misty veil and into the forest below.
A silver light glinted in the distance, moving perpendicular to him at an incredible speed. The invisible force suddenly yanked him towards the silver streak, forcing him to travel a foot above the ground at an incredible speed. Trees and shrubbery turns to blurs as he twisted and turned to avoid crashing into the obstacles. Not that it mattered, as he was simply viewing the event as if through a non-corporeal camera.
As he approached the light, he began turning to the right to travel parallel with the light. Once he had mimicked the speed and direction of the light, he spun to the left, fusing with the light.
When the silver iridescence faded, the back of a furry creature came into view. The powerful muscles rolled underneath the dense fur, propelling the creature along at an immense pace. A series of deep gouges were noticeable on the creature's right shoulder, clearly indicating where it had been severely wounded at one point. The creature exuded an aura of masculinity, revealing its gender-
The creature jerked its head up as it detected the strengthened scent of its prey. He immediately increased the pace of his bounds, whizzing through the woods with his head low to the ground.
Faint laughter echoed through the trees, betraying the true location of the unsuspecting prey. The creature loosed the unmistakable howl of a werewolf and leaped forward, crashing into the campsite of a group of teenagers in a flurry of claws and teeth.
Immediately, two of the humans were on the ground, screaming in agony as blood gushed forth from their wounds. The wolf swiped its tail through the bonfire, immediately destroying the only source of light as flaming logs burst into the air.
The screams of the various prey pierced the night as they all dove away from the creature, engaging in a futile attempt to escape. In less than a second, another human had fallen to the wolf. As it turned to down a fourth victim, a shrieking cry rang through the night and burst the right eardrum of the creature. Blood gushed out of his ear as he howled in unexpected pain.
The humans took this opportunity to get to their feet and flee, calling out to the others to flee. The wolf was down for only a moment before its powerful haunches exploded from their coiled tension, propelling the creature through the air towards a pair of humans. The larger one, clearly a male, carried the smaller, most likely female, human.
The wolf landed on the pair and knocked them to the earth, grabbing the male by the leg and viciously dragging him through the dirt. After it finished mauling the poor man, it threw him with a flick of its neck, sending him crashing into the nearest tree as it turned on the weaker female.
Her dazzling pink hair shone brightly in the firelight as it prowled towards her, growling lowly. Just before it lunged to bite into her abdomen, a sudden force from the side knocked the wolf to the ground. A boy appeared between the girl and the creature, his mouth opened to release a deafening screech. The wolf didn't allow itself to be got off guard again; ignoring the pain in its ears, it snapped at the boy's leg.
With surprising agility and force, the human pulled his leg up and met the creature's jaw with a powerful kick, eliciting a sharp yelp of pain from the creature. Unfortunately, it merely gave the wolf the opportunity to seize the thigh of the boy's leg with its jaws.
It pinned him to the earth with its paws and tore the boy to shreds, ripping up his leg and torso with savage brutality. Once he had been sufficiently mauled, it turned and bounded towards the few remaining humans. They had attempted to flee, however in the darkness and confusion, they hadn't gotten far. One by one, it took them down, mauling them before moving onto the final human.
As the last human fell, the spell pulled away from its vantage point on the werewolf's back and floated back into the sky, allowing the creature and its' victims to hide beneath the canopy of leaves the trees provided. As the wolf became hidden from view, Leo's final view of it was of the deep scars along its shoulder.
Leo fell onto his back with a gasp, breathing heavily as sweat coated his body. The horrors of what he had just witnessed raced through his mind, momentarily disabling him.
After a moment, his disciplines kicked in, forced him back to reality. The Warlock stood on shaky legs and grabbed his phone off of the couch as he snuffed out his cigar. He quickly unlocked his phone and dialed an emergency number.
"911, what's your emergency?" A female voice crackled over the line.
"There was an animal attack in the mountains. A group of teenagers, east of OC&E Wood Line Trail and Justin southeast of Crater Lake. They had a bonfire. Hurry, there isn't much time." Leo spoke quickly, a very clear note of concern and panic in his voice. He stayed on the line just long enough Tom came inform the woman had all the information she needed before hanging up. His number was untraceable, a little trick he had picked up from a Druid in Canada.
Leo opened his messages and pulled up his conversation with Zoë, sending her Ann urgent message.
To:Zoe Florès
Werewolf attack on teens in woods. Police on the way. Get to SLMC.
Leo moved about his house as he used his phone, gathering his keys, shoes, and jacket. He attempted to dial Callie, however her phone rang through to voicemail with no response.
"Dammit, Callie." Leo growled, walking over to the corner of his bedroom and pulling up a plank with magic. A metal container approximately five feet in length lay under it, sealed with a rune. Leo's touch caused the rune to flare and release its hold on the box, giving the Warlock access to the contents.
Inside were various charms, amulets, gemstones, and other magical artifacts. Leo grabbed three amulets, one composed of the hexagon of a turtle'a shell. The other two amulets contained gemstones, however one was a metal construct that contained six different gemstones, ranging from sapphire to moonstone. It possessed multiple, powerful defensive charms that Leo had labored over for years. He had only worn it once before, as it was for the most extreme of circumstances. With a bloodthirsty, ravenous werewolf on the loose intent on hunting, Leo deemed it a worthy case. Especially for a wolf so powerful.
Leo finally grabbed a wand of Ceder Ash, etched with various tunes across its dark surface. An unrefined diamond was fused to the base of the wand, fueling its powers.
After tucking it into the back of his pants, Leo spun around and headed out the door, rubbing his bracelet. He was on guard for any danger. He figured it was highly unlikely that the wolf would attack him, but he wasn't taking any chances. After all, it was a full moon.
Leo attempted to call Callie again as he hopped in his car, pulling out of the parking lot as he once again was sent to voicemail.
"It's Leo. There's been an attack. Call me."Leo hung up and increased his speed, making sure to stick to well lit roads and populated areas. It slowed him down, but he was much safer in the light.
Leo's car pulled into the Inn's driveway half an hour later, the tires grinding the gravel underneath them. The odd path had delayed him quiet a bit.
He cautiously got outnumbered of the car and hurried to the doorstep, casting a glance into the shadows. When he neared the building, he became aware of the activated defenses. Clearly, Callie was aware of the threat, or she wouldn't have activated so many of their defenses.
It wasn't until Leo touched the doorknob when he realized the inn was completely sealed, preventing any kind of access. Leo muttered a few words under his breath and twisted his fingers, revealing a score of runes across the doors. He set to work, manipulating them to allow him and him alone access. It took a few minutes, and Leo felt terribly vulnerable in the open. Once he finally bypassed the runes, he opened the door, keeping a hand on the wand in his waistband, hidden under his jacket.
The entry hall was empty, however Leo could hear faint chatter from the living room. He quietly walked through the hall, wincing at every creak the floorboards gave. As he approached, he was able to make out Magnus' musing to himself.
Breathing a sigh of both relief and slight irritation, he eased his grasp on the wand and stepped into the room.
"Damn it, Callie, turn on your phone for once." Leo pulled her close to his chest and hugged her, sighing again, this time mostly in frustration.
"I've been trying to reach you, even though you apparently already know what's going on."Leo pulled away and nodded to Magnus.
"Magnus, good to see you. Why are you here?" It sounded a bit rude, but Leo didn't care.
Before Magnus could answer, Leo noticed the third person in the room. He didn't recognize her, however she seemed to have a magical aura.
"Oh, hey there." Leo was surprised at her presence, and wondered if Callie had brought her there for safekeeping from the danger.
"I'm Leo. What are your name?" The crisis was momentarily put in the back of Leo's mind as he introduced himself to the girl. He smiled as he looked her over. She couldn't not be more than eighteen, with a short stature and redish hair. She wore multiple amulets around her neck, most of them Callie's, however he didn't recognize an amulet shaped like a wave inside of a circle. The bone it was composed of revealed that it wasn't Callie's. The Witch disapproved of bone magic.
She was young, and that meant the world to Leo. She seemed uncertain and uncomfortable, and that made Leo want to comfort her all the more. He gave her a kind smile and nodded gently, encouraging her to introduce herself.
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