The Black Wolf

Chapter Thirty

Alice POV

I let out a small whine as we had literally been running for hours. My paws were sore and my legs ached. I wanted to stop and lay down. I think Uncle Luke heard me because he came to an abrupt stop and I almost crashed into him which earned me a chuckle from Alaric as he climbed down from him.

The cracking of bones filled the air as my uncle shifted back which gave me my que to shift too. This time it was quicker, and didn't seem to hurt as much. My bones shifted under my skin, and cracked into place to form my slim human body. I didn't fall to the ground this time either. Instead I stayed standing but I still felt weak. I gave my uncle a smile and looked over to Alaric.

His skin looked more haggard, and he looked even more weak. What was wrong with him?

"Ar...are you o..okay?" I asked him. Tilting my head. He gave me a weak smile and sighed out as he leaned up against a tree.

"Its been some time since I drank human blood, its made me weak," he panted out. That made sense to me. In the hall when I first saw him, his glass lay full. Untouched. I scrunched up my face wondering what I could do to help.

"Is there nothing we can do to help?" My uncle asked him, Alaric shook his head as he sunk to the floor, looking over to Uncle Luke I saw the sadness in his eyes. Had they been friends for some time?

"Will m..my bl..blood help?" I asked without even thinking. Regina hissed in my mind. She didn't approve of us helping a vampire but he had helped us so I wanted to help him.

"You're not human," he sighed out.

"What about a blood bag from a hospital? You won't feed from humans, but what about humans who have donated?" Uncle Luke suggested, Alaric perked up at that suggestion and it looked like some life had been found inside of him. "Were not far from a town, I'm sure there will be a hospital there. If you guys stay here, I'll be back soon. I promise."

Anger burned through me at his promise.

"Don't make promises you don't intend to keep, you made a promise once that I would be safe,"  Alaric flinched at the power that irradiated off me from the anger I felt.

"Same could be said for you! You've been living the life of luxury, being an obedient little pup," Luke snapped back at me. I bared my teeth and let out a low growl. How dare he!

"Not exactly how I planned for it to go, I didn't want to be his little wolf, I did what I did to survive," I hissed out out. Thea was grumbling in the back of my mind. She wasn't a fan of being challenged. 

"Yeah well, I waited eight months to see if you had anything planned," Luke mumbled before he relaxed, "but I guess you're still just a child, it was too much to expect of you."

"Can you guys discuss this later," Alaric interrupted, his voice sounded weak. With all my attention focused on my Uncle I hadn't noticed Alaric's breathing getting heavier.

"I'll be back shortly, don't go anywhere," Luke mumbled. I just nodded my head in defeat before helping Alaric getting comfier on the ground against the tree. I sat down next to him and looked over to my uncle, the cracking of bones filled the clearing before he disappeared into the trees. I hoped he would be back soon.

"He didn't mean it, he knows of all the pain you've had to endure from the training and all the other shit that Candide put you through," Alaric panted out. His eyes were now closed, if it wasn't for him talking to me I would have assumed he was dead from his haggard appearance.  

"Why do you not drink blood?" I asked suddenly without thinking. 

"I didn't want this either, it was forced on me over a hundred years ago," his voice was barely a whisper as he spoke. I could feel Thea's sympathy run through my mind, I felt sorry for him too. I could relate to that. 

"You survived this long without any blood?" I questioned. Was that even possible for vampires? I always saw them drain their glasses like their lives depended on it in that grand hall of there's that Candide dragged me too every night. 

"No, at first I was blood thirsty as any new born vampire is, but since the day your uncle was brought into the castle ten years ago, I've only taken sips to keep me alive, they drain the humans in the castle till they are near death, some even feed on them like cattle, I could no longer bring myself to do this." Memories surfaced in my mind, I had seen Candide often have some of the humans brought to his room to feed on. It wasn't a pretty sight. I threw up the first time I had seen it. He had often fed on them to the point the heads had been torn off their bodies.

"Why did my uncle cause you to stop?" 

"His strength of being able to resist the training to begin with gave me the strength to resist the blood, when they finally broke him I just knew I had to help," Alaric's head began to droop and I knew he needed to rest, so I didn't ask any more questions. Instead we just sat there in silence. I listened out for any sign of movement, we had to be careful in case the vampires caught up. 

***

Luke's POV

Stupid. I should never have snapped at her. Storm grumbled in my mind in agreement as we raced through the trees towards the hospital. It had been so long since I had been free, since I would have been in human population. It was exhilarating running through the woods without a command running through my mind from the vampires. I couldn't wait to rebuild my pack and take my revenge. No more would they take control of the black wolves. 

It didn't take me long to reach the hospital, the strong smell of sterile equipment stung my nose. I hadn't exactly thought this through though. How was I going to get the blood? I couldn't exactly just waltz in there. 

The shadows. Storm muttered. 

It had felt like an age since I had actually used any of my black wolf powers. Since Alice arrival in the castle, I had barely trained. The only training I was allowed to do was to keep my strength up. 

Taking in a deep breath, I reached out through my mind and made my body become one with the shadows around me, I could feel the darkness of the night become one with body and I was able to move forward towards the hospital silently and undetected. Sneaking in through the window I could smell the humans through the hallways, I could detect and determine who were the nurses and patients. The sickness coming from the humans was strong and the sadness intertwined through my mind. I hope no one would miss the blood I take for Alaric. 

Thankfully, most of the lights were dimmed through the halls so there were plenty of shadows that my body could stay in contact with which made me easy to stay undetected. I could feel my energy depleting though, I would probably not have enough to escape the hospital. I only had to sneak in though. Once I had the bag, getting out should be easy. 

It didn't take me long to sniff out the room containing the blood bags, looking through the window, I could see the fridge containing them. They were all lined up neatly in rows of deep red, the idea of me carrying one of them made me sick but I had to do it. 

I couldn't get through the door as a shadow so I had to change back to being human and withdraw my energy. Closing my eyes I withdrew back and I felt my bones begin to crack. Within seconds I was standing back upright and staring at the door. It was locked. This didn't stop me. A quick glance around and I quickly rammed my shoulder into it. 

All this for a vampire. Storm growled. 

He helped us. I mumbled back at him. It was weird to have him speaking back up in my mind to be honest. It was like I had my privacy invaded all over again when I first shifted.

You missed me really. Storm chuckled. Well he wasn't wrong. 

The door swung open, but not without making a sound and I knew I was going to have to be quick someone would have heard it. Running over to the fridge, I quickly grabbed a couple of the bags and ran out of the room. I was right, a security guard came round the corner and stared me down.

"Stop!" he shouted at me before running towards me.