A Stranger in the Night
Chapter 36

Luna's POV

Lilyanna's blank expressions gave no comfort or mercy to the ache that was swelling in my heart. I had to replace Alex. My instincts were telling me something was wrong and I couldn't fight that feeling off anymore. "I beg you! Please help us replace him. Leave Lucas alone.". Lucas' facial expression and body was now frozen stiff but his eyes were darting around the place, trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. Draven took another step forward towards her, placing his hands on her shoulders, "Lily...please....". I heard Jess gasp suddenly as he touched her. These two had history and you could see it. Her glowing amber eyes shifted to a soft grey as she stared at Draven before lowering her head and nodding. "I will help you." She whispered. "But you must hurry, Father will replace us soon.". Lucas dropped to his knees as I rushed over to lift his head to check him over. "I'm ok.". He spluttered out, wiping his face with his hands and stumbling to get to his knees. "They are down here. All 3 of them.". Lucas pointed down a dark hallway, that seemed to go on forever. With one wave of her hand, the dark hallway lit up. Draven was the first to bolt off, "Silvano! Alex! Marco! Where the hell are you!" He shouted as he ran and rattled on each cell door.

Jess, Lucas and I followed close behind him with Lilyanna bringing up the rear. He stopped abruptly at one cell door and tried to rip it right off the hinges. "Marco is in here!". Lucas came rushing to him the both using all their strength to pull the door off. "Lilyanna, you need to unlock it, get him out!". She shook her head. "I can't! My magic does not work on these doors.". I stood opposite the door, envisioning the whole cell, if I could freeze the bars, it might make them weaker and the boys could maybe break it. "Get back!", I shouted. I held my hands out in front of me, and shot the biggest blast of ice I could. The ice covered the cell bars and froze them instantly. "Try now!". Lucas and Draven began to pull on the bars, a slow creaking sound began to wail through the air before the door came crashing down. Draven and Jess rushed up and picked Marco up off the ground, followed by Lucas who ripped his chains out from where they were attached to the wall. His body was pale in colour and he looked like a fading skeleton. "He needs to feed, but we can sort that out once we get Silvano and Alex.". Jess heaved Marco over her shoulder as we exited and continued to look for Silvano and Alex. Marco began to mumble something but he was too incoherent for us to understand.

Lucas shifted back into his wolf form and raced down the hallway, he howled outside another cage. As I reached the door, I spotted Silvano was laying face down on the floor. Draven screamed and shouted at him but he did not move. "Luna! Freeze it! I need to get him out! Lily what's wrong with him?". Draven used all his strength to pull on the door as I finished freezing it. "They've poisoned him I'm afraid. I can try to heal him but he needs to feed as well to build up his strength.". Draven ripped the door off the hinges whilst Lilyanna rushed in and began chanting a spell. Trickles of electric blue drained from Silvano onto the floor. "Draven....you have to help Alex.....they've done something to him and he's changed....". Silvano's limp body flopped to the floor. Draven scooped him up and tossed him over his shoulder. He looked at Jess and smirked before letting out a small cackle. "What?". She asked him inquisitively. Draven smiled back at her. "Look at us, all matchy matchy with these 2 on our shoulders. It's a good look for us, wouldn't you say!". Jess shook her head at him. "Now is not the time Draven! We need to replace Alex and get them all back to Ventrue House. We can talk about that later.", she chastised him before laughing at his childishness.

As we exited the cell, Lucas howled loudly and began to charge to the end of the hallway, with us following closely behind him. That's it. We are going to rescue Alex. I felt a surge of adrenaline race through my very being as I followed Lucas as quickly as I could. I could hear my heart beat pounding harder and harder with each step as I ran. I came to an abrupt holt as Lucas stopped infront of a cell door. Chains covered the heavy wooden and iron belted door. Lilyanna paused, slowly raised her hand towards it and waved it at the door. A few loud clicks later and the chains all fell to the ground. "I can't believe you are helping them Daughter! I always knew you would betray me, and your family. Why am I not surprised? You have done nothing but brought dishonour and shame to our family, since the day you were born. I will end you for this.". The King raised his hand in Lilyanna's direction and squeezed it into a fist. Lilyanna's face changed suddenly as she began choking. Draven and Jess put the boys down and and leapt at the King. With a flick of his wrist, the two of them flew into the air, but their impromptu attack was enough to distract the King and give Lilyanna some relief. I rushed to her side and helped her up after she collapsed to the floor. "You!". I froze as I hear King bellow at me. Too scared to turn to face, I continued to help Lilyanna to her feet. "This is all your fault! Now you will regret ever being part of this!".

I heard a loud creak begin to echo through the corridor, as I looked up to face the cell that Lilyanna had just removed the chains from. The door slowly began to open as the King cackled loudly, "Stupid girl". Lucas snarled at the door rearing his teeth and snapping viciously. Two hands slowly emerged, pushing the heavy door open as far as it would go, a figure began emerging from the darkness of the cell. Their body hunched over, greyish toned skin, long claws and large stature, made my body tremble with fear. Their breath was loud and shallow as they adjusted themselves to stand up straight and tall and stared at me before storming towards me. "Alex! No!" Draven cried as he rushed towards us. Alex did not look like himself and this new version was completely terrifying. Lilyanna held her hands up and began chanting, but Alex did not slow down. From out of no where, Lucas pounced on his back and bit down hard into his neck. The roar that Alex let out was ear piercing. He grabbed Lucas from his shoulders and slammed him into the wall. Lucas let out a wail as his body slid down the wall to the floor. Alex was still storming towards me as I slowly backed away from Lilyanna, his eyes completely focussed on me and only me. I thought I had backed into a wall, but quickly realised that I had backed up into someone when they placed their hands on my shoulders. It was the King.

"I told you, you would pay! Here you go boy! Finish her!", he shouted as he pushed me towards Alex, causing me to stumble and fall to my knees. Alex was mere feet from me and I could feel the tears rolling down my face as he approached me. With my hands in the air, holding them out, I began begging him to stop. "Alex, it's me! Please! You need to stop! We are here to help you!". Alex's eyes were a fierce, glowing black and gold and stared into mine. I continued to beg him to stop. He picked me up by my shoulders and held me tightly in his hands, high enough that my feet were off the ground. Draven came out of no where and slammed into Alex, causing him to drop me suddenly. I let out a high pitched scream when I fell on my arm as I hit the floor. I'm pretty sure I even heard the bone break as I fell on it and couldn't move it anymore. Alex turned his attention to Draven, and had picked him up by the scruff of his neck. Draven began laying blow after blow on him but it wasn't making much of a difference. "He's under a spell! It's released his demon!" Lilyanna called out. The King stormed over to her and threw her across the room, knocking her out. "Finish her boy! You're next you insolent child!". Alex came back to me and picked me up again. He reared his fangs for a brief moment before driving them deep into my neck. My heart began racing before it began slowing down. I could feel energy and essence draining from me as he fed hard on me. I placed my hands on his head with the last bit of energy I had in me, and hit him with a blast of ice, causing him to pull away and drop me again.

I laid on the floor, unable to move from how weak I was. The King laughed loudly and mocked us all. "Pathetic. I told you, you would all pay, and now none of you will leave this place!". Marco popped up from out of nowhere and began attacking him, the King literally flicked him like a bug he found on his shirt across the room. The King began to laugh loudly now but hadn't noticed the rest of the wolf pack had found us. Shiloh, Carter and Bronson now stood behind him and pounced on him before he had a chance to react. The King fought them off and bit into them several times, whilst swiping at them with his long claws. Bronson howled as the King connected with him as he almost sliced through his forearm with his claws. This pissed Carter off even more as he jumped on his back and with one quick, solid movement, ripped the King's head off and threw it across the room. Our attention returned to Alex as he screamed and began to shift to his normal form. Jess and Draven moved to him quickly but he threw them away from him. "No! Leave me alone!". His eyes began glowing red and he stood up tall, scanning the room and began to approach Lucas. He lowered himself swiftly down and bit his neck. Lucas' body spasmed as Alex began feeding on him. The rest of the pack charged Alex and tried to pull him off but with his recent energy boost from feeding of Lucas and I before, he threw them away like pieces of rubbish.

He must have been pissed off by their attack as he spun around and scanned the room again. He spotted me and began making his way to me. He picked me up and held my neck forcefully. He tilted my head over roughly and began feeding on me as if he had never fed before in his life. I could feel the energy within me fade and felt my eyes begin to grow heavy. The last thing I remember hearing was Lilyanna chanting loudly, approaching us and holding her hands up at Alex, before I felt the coldness of the concrete as my body connected with it again.

"LUNA!".