Canaan Club - 44. Chapter 44

“So, is this a sleepover party, or…?” Blond Fohawk, who Andre learned was named ‘Niall’ while being dragged to a whole other island, drawled, slouched against the red velvet couch across from the young wolf.

Yeah. Fortunately for Andre, he knew he was still in the Ash Lands, but unfortunately, they were far from the Ironward campus. Its familiar scent of sand and rosé forestry gradually lessened in potency as he was smuggled blindfolded across a quarter of the archipelago.

Now, he found himself tied up with anti-magical binds­, as Caid called it, in an admittedly comfortable wing chair, eyes anxiously flitting between the three vampires and the fancy living room he was in. Honestly, he wasn’t expecting anything less. It was impressive how vain vampires could be.

“What do you mean ‘sleepover’?” Caid balked. “This is the bait-and-kill­ method I told you about. The puppy’s friends will eventually notice he’s gone and’ll come running. Then, the moment they find him, we’ll leap from the shadows and take them down one by one. An all-out buffet for us all.”

Pigtails, named ‘Daria’, sitting beside Niall, hummed in uncertainty. “But they won’t.”

“What?”

“They won’t find us. We’re off-campus in the Permelia Family suit. I don’t even think Zoel knows about this place. They’ll be headless chickens searching for the pup anywhere but here.”

Niall nodded in agreement, a hint of a smile on his full lips. “And also, killing? I know I want these nuisances out of the way as much as the next guy, but you know Gylarcan will have some words. And words on expulsion papers. And penitentiary ones, too. And maybe even some on our gravestones when-”

“Okay, fine!” Caid relented, then turned to flash the omé narrowed ruby eyes even as he continued. “We’ll just lead them here, then. Leave some breadcrumbs to manipulate their every step until they come here.”

The butter-haired undead settled his hands on his black slacks, standing proud at having just fleshed out a clearer plan on the fly.

That is until-

Niall grimaced, sharing a cringe with Daria. “That’s…”

“Not a good idea either, Caid,” the latter finished. “I don’t think Deyja wants anybody else to know about this place.”

Caid huffed indignantly. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was she the one who put you in charge? No. She chose me. I’m her right-hand man!”

The blond vampire slumped even further into the couch as he shrugged his broad shoulders. “Nah. Zoel’s got you beat in that department, nowadays, man.”

Andre considered himself lucky that the others didn’t notice him flush, their mocking stares too busy enjoying their friend’s(?) reddening cheeks.

“I told you, he’s just a phase,” came the ireful declaration. Someone was definitely jealous. “Once his usefulness has run out, she’ll be back by my side before you know it.”

That seemed to end that particular line of conversation, helped by the fact that he gave them both a serious death glare to drop it. Sinister eyes turned back to their captive.

“We got the wrong fucking brat, too. It was the supermonkey who saw you that night, not him,” Daria suddenly grinned, a salacious edge that made the omega’s inner wolf curl up in fear. “Although, I don’t mind it too much. He’s such a cute, little puppy sitting all tied up like that.”

Andre couldn’t help but shrink in his seat, which only made the vampire giggle, inspecting him from head to toe. “And shy, too. Adorable! Those kinds always have exquisite tastes.”

“Keep your pants on, Daria!” Caid rolled his eyes, then sighed in disappointment. “You know what? Fine. Let’s just get rid of him. We’ll erase his memories of us and dump him in the middle of one of the islands. Preferably the less populated ones.”

It took every bit of self-control not to freak out at that moment, his throat undulating to hold in a whimper. There was no possible way these guys had a method of manipulating memories. Jan once told him that memories were a link to one’s very own lifeforce. One of the strongest forms of power discounting almighty magic.

He didn’t exactly know how it worked, but what he did know was that a chunk of them taken meant a chunk of his himself gone.

“I dunno, dude,” Niall scratched his neck, doubtful. “Messing with memories is also a surefire way to get Head Dog’s attention. We aren’t supposed to use something like that unless it’s a last-resort type of thing, yeah? You could turn the kid into a vegetable.”

“Fuck him,” Caid dismissed the prospect of their principal’s wrath with a simple wave. “Once the Corpse Vice is all fixed up, not even our dear ol’ headmaster will be able to stop us.”

As the discussion petered out, Andre thought fast. He needed more time for… for what? To come up with a proper plan, perhaps, but he really didn’t want his head messed with.

“If, uh,” he stammered, speaking up for the first time since he was kidnapped, “i-if I may… cut in, you know, b-before I die and all, what… what is the whole plan here? Why am I here?”

The lead bloodsucker scoffed, taking a couple of steps forward. “You’re not gonna die, kid. And also, why would we even tell you that? You won’t even-”

“’Cause you might know where the satchel is.”

That killer glare came back to Caid’s face, and he gaped angrily at Niall, who remained laid-back in his slumped position. He wasn’t even looking at the other vampire anymore, finding more interest in the screen of his WardNav.

The easy answer gave Andre, so long as he ignored Caid’s face, the confidence to proceed. “And what’s in it if you don’t mind me asking?”

“We do mind and-”

The fohawk undead cut off his friend once more. “The ingredients to Corpse Vice.”

“Niall! What the fuck!?” Caid boomed. On the other side, Daria struggled to hold in a snicker.

“Man, I’m bored just sitting around here doing nothing. The pup’s gonna get his memories erased anyway, so let’s just humor him.”

“Then you go do something else!” the butter-haired vampire pointed toward one of the curved staircases behind him stormily, baring his gleaming fangs. “Not give important info away to the enemy! Haven’t you ever seen how these hostage situations work!?”

Niall just shrugged. “Apparently not.”

“The leaf. Th-The white leaf on Frodd’s club. That was it, huh? The end result? The Corpse Vice. It gave him a lot of power.”

Andre was already sure that was what it was, but he needed confirmation. And it came in the form of Caid’s scowl lifting into a self-satisfied, toothy grin as if he was the one to concoct the concept.

“And it was a success.”

Who knows? Maybe he had.

“But he got very sick afterward,” the omé muttered more to himself than anyone else.

“Sickness,” the lead captor whistled, sharp eyes on the chandelier hanging above them as he reflected on times past. “When’s the last time I ever got the flu? Man, it’s been so long. Of course, you mortals would respond in such a way to a drug that’s meant for the undead. And trust me, you don’t wanna know what else the Vice is made up of.”

Andre kind of did, but that was getting off track. “B-But why? Why do you need it to get stronger? Why does your leader? She’s already in the Abellon Club, right? She’s already at the top.”

“Yeah, but Cain is topping her,” Niall sniggered.

“Shut the hell up!” Caid snarled at him before turning back to address the young wolf. “You’re on the right track, little doggy. Do you know the Club is about to go official? Or, should I say, should have gone official.”

“What does that mean?”

It was Daria who took over the explanation, her voice carrying over from a nearby kitchenette while she fixed herself some kind of dark beverage. Whatever it was, it didn’t smell like coffee. “Five stages in the sport of Combat, pup – beginner, intermediate, seasoned, advanced, and professional a.k.a official. Like ‘NFL’ type official.”

The omé had a vague idea of what the “NFL” was, but he listened on.

It was Niall’s turn to speak. “Deyja’s Club is at the advanced stage. Had been since year four. And we just need a unanimous agreement to sign the team into the big leagues, but guess who’s holding us back?”

“Is… Is it Cain?” Andre answered, already knowing he was right.

“Ding, ding, ding! Give the doggy a treat,” Caid smiled mockingly, every word out of his mouth laced with bitterness and resentment on his master’s behalf. “The alpha, of all people, is withholding his agreement for some stupid reason. Seriously, the guy goes from being the life of the party to a dull sod overnight. And what’s worse is that he’s dragging everyone else into his misery with him! That’s why Deyja needs the Corpse Vice. She’ll use it to surpass Cain and snip him like a bad weed come the Championship game come the end of the semester. His humiliation for all the public to see! It’ll be glorious!”

“What's wrong with Cain? W-What happened?”

“That’s-”

Niall was about to spill, but Caid had finally had enough.

“No!” the vampire’s hand sliced the air dramatically. “No more freebies! From now on, we operate on the currency of secrets, and I know you have a big one hiding close to your chest, kid.”

Andre gulped as the undead leaned in close. “What do you wanna know?”

“Simple, really. How about you tell us where the satchel is, and we’ll let you go. Your body and mind untouched.”

“M-My body?”

Caid’s grin turned downright sadistic – if it wasn’t already. “Oh, don’t mistake it. Just because you have mutt blood in you doesn’t mean we don’t want it at all. It’s been a few hours since lunch, but we always have an afterschool snack before dinner. And you, my trembling little omé, are looking quite ravishing.”

Looks like stalling was no longer an option. The older undead student leaned toward the omé, his pointed nose nearly making contact with the slightly shivering latter.

“So, what do you say?” he cooed, malice lining every syllable, and Andre was pretty sure his heart froze for a second.

“Uh, I-” he stuttered, searching for the right response in hoping to buy another minute or two, right as his nose twitched.

The scents that he picked up on were…

Well, how could he put it? They were recognizable, but at the same time, they were not. Some force – probably magic ‘cause what else? – was muddling the aroma.

Not more than a second later, the entrance to the room slammed open, and Andre almost didn’t clock in who stomped their way in, their expression usually shifting between cold amusement and perverse enjoyment.

But a livid Deyja was quite the terrifying sight to behold.

Even his three captors thought so judging by the blanched, alarmed faces.

“That unbelievable bastard!” the strikingly beautiful vampire’s features twisted as she spat. “That ungrateful fucking rat! Fuck!”

“D-Deyja!?” Caid gawked. “Y-You’re back so s-soon!?”

She suddenly stopped dead still, finally realizing she wasn’t alone in the room. The silence, even if it was brief, was probably one of the most chilling moments of Andre’s short life.

“Oh, you lot are here.”

“U-Um,” Caid stammered as the other two shrunk behind him. “We caught the perpetrator just like you asked. Are-Are you alright? You-”

Those dangerous red-orange irises finally found their sights on the omé. Andre fleetingly thought how many moon goddesses he could get in a prayer to before he was inevitably turned into a blood bag.

He might not even have that small mercy based on the irritated look growing worse on the undead eigth-year’s face. “Oh, good. The small mutt is here, too. In my private suit.”

The metaphorical stomach drop could practically be heard in Caid. “W-We didn’t… have anywhere else… t-to put him, s-s-so I thought… I thought-”

“It doesn’t matter,” she waved it off, and a smile that split her head in half stretched upon her ruby lips.” At least, I have something to take my frustrations out on in the meantime. I’ll need a few custodians on standby by the time I’m done with this one here because things just might… get a little messy.”

Andre gulped audibly, feeling his heart in his throat as he watched a sharp, crimson tongue sweep across that evil, grinning mouth. “P-Please. I-I don’t know anything. W-We don’t know anything. I-”

An icy finger gently pressed against his lips, quieting him down into frightened whimpers. Deyja bent forward until she was in the exact same position Caid was in moments before she arrived.

“Hush. Dinner shouldn’t speak,” she whispered, then barely turned her head to address the audience. “Leave. I need to be alone with him. This shouldn’t take long.”

“W-What?” Caid blinked in shock. “B-But Dey, he-”

That dark anger came back quicker than ever, and this time, the butter-haired undead received the full brunt of it. “Are you… are you questioning a direct order?”

She sounded disbelieving. As if this was the first time any of her subordinates had tried to strike up an argument against her word.

It was possible Caid had made that mistake some time ago because his skin could not get any whiter than it was right now.

“N-N-No, ma’am!” He nearly tripped on his own feet as he and the other two stumbled up the steps in disorderly fashion. “No! We’ll be in the arcade room if you need us!”

It was like looking at a stampede of buffalo trying to barge their way through a narrow crevice. Honestly, it would have been funny if he wasn’t being left all alone in the room with-

Hold on a minute! The thought just hit him. Vampires don’t have scents.

That primal fear that just about settled in Andre’s chest gradually evaporated, turning to gaze at the person before him in confusion as the three awfully convinced undead trampled over each other to make themselves scarce.

When they were gone, not-Deyja smirked dangerously down at him, but the omé didn’t feel as intimidated as before.

“Now what to do with you.”

Andre pursed his lips. “You’re… you’re not Deyja, are you?”

Not-Deyja’s eyes flickered between him and the upstairs level, their smile a frozen thing. “What makes you say that?”

“You have a scent. Or several.”

Once again, those eyes traveled up to where his captors escaped before the doppelganger sighed. Doing so seemed to crack the visage, their body splitting into four shapes of static that stabilized into much more welcoming faces.

“R-Rexel?” Andre gaped at the rainbow-haired second year who wasted no time skipped over to him and began undoing the binds that held him. Behind her, a certain blond mage followed her lead. “Rudy? How did…? What…?”

Ferra, Lindsay’s other friend, and Garrett, one of the humans that hung around Rudy and his sister Sam, were present as well, watching the upstairs level like hawks.

“There’s no time to explain,” Rexel spoke curtly, she and Rudy pulling the anti-magic rope over his head. “That illusion took a lot of magic to hold, so we need to book it. Now!”

A rush of energy Andre felt go missing when he was being held hostage surged back into his body. It was like drinking a gallon of water after a week in the desert. His magic was returning to him.

“Anti-magical binds,” Ferra peaked an eye out during her lookout duty, sight dancing over the binds in fascination. “Maybe we should take this for safekeeping. You never know when it might come in handy.”

“Sorry for the scare, dude,” Rudy smiled apologetically, helping the young wolf to stand. “We had to be convincing.”

Garrett gave his friend a dry look. “It was Rudy’s idea just so you know. The rest of us disagreed.”

“But you went along with it, so you have no choice but to share the blame, too. Haha.”

“Less talking, more escaping, guys,” Rexel beckoned them from under the staircase, revealing a whole corridor Andre couldn’t see from his angle. “The front yard is full of vamps. Linds and I have snuck into this maze of a place before, so I know there should be a back entrance somewhere.”

No more was said. Andre was just glad to leave this place alive and with his blood still in his body. The corridor had a similar structure to the dorm halls, a door every few spaces on either side. Luckily, it was wide enough for a small group of people to hurry through.

That would have been lucky for them if it weren’t for other vampires quietly shuffling in and out of rooms like a busy day in the office. Was this some kind of hotel or what? Strangely enough, four humans and a first-year wolf in their midst only warranted a couple of weird looks before moving on with their business.

“Keep walking,” Rexel muttered as they slowed down. “Act like nothing’s wrong-”

“You filthy monkeys! You think you can play me like that!?”

Caid’s enraged shout put everything on pause. He was some distance away at the start of the corridor, a phone lifted in the air. Even from that far, Andre could see the frantic texts he had sent his leader even after being harshly sent away. And it was Deyja’s confused and alarmed replies that sold them out.

Yep. They were busted.

“Run for the hills!” Rexel grabbed onto Ferra and Garret as they bolted down the hallway, passing by bewildered bloodsuckers.

Andre and Rudy were fast on their own, keeping up the rear.

“Get them!” Caid ordered his fellow housemates, pointing at the group. “Don’t let them escape!”

Those bored and mildly interested glimpses immediately transformed into furious sneers and glowers. It was a fact that vampires had an uncanny speed ability, so when five or six of them lunged, anybody else would have been dead in less than a second.

On the contrary, werewolf instincts were second to none according to legends. Andre internally thanked Rotar for their class being a part of the curriculum because if not, the omé would not have been able to erect a translucent bubble around his friends. The lunging vampires simultaneously crashed into the magical shield, causing him to rock a bit, but it held up while the leeches flopped to the ground, disoriented.

“Let’s go!” the wolf urged them to keep running. All the while, he focused on maintaining the barrier.

And they ran.

And ran.

And ran.

“The hell is this place!? The Infinite Corridor?” Rudy huffed, starting to slow.

The sound of snarling followed them, the occasional bump making them stagger, but they were able to keep up the pace.

But while Andre was a wolf and could run for hours, the others were still human. And if there was a spell for increased stamina, it definitely would have been used by now.

And were doors getting closer together?

Rudy stopped and turned around, a determined expression Andre hadn’t seen a while dawning before outstretched his arms, aiming the palms of his hands at the space between them and their pursuers. With a grunt, he blasted forth a torrent of frosty arcane energy, raising his arms as the power solidified into one wall of pure ice. Andre shivered at the drop in temperature but gave Rudy an impressed nod nonetheless.

Vampires had an affinity with ice and all things frigid and winter, but it must have caught the bloodsuckers off guard, which bought them more time.

“It’s an illusion trap designed to trick intruders, but there’s a hidden, invisible door here somewhere. Keep running.”

The omé had just noticed Rexel’s eyes, which were now a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors shifting and morphing as she gazed all around her.

Was it some kind of third-eye power?

Before he could ponder any further, there was a short tremor on the other side of the wall of ice before a small spiderweb of cracks appeared at the edges.

“Shit!” Rudy cursed. “Everybody back up!”

Just as he finished, the frozen blockade exploded into shards that should have pelted the shield Andre quickly thought to reinforce, spilling more of his energy into it. However, the broken parts just floated, hovering before the assemblage of hostile vampires, the array of glowing colors of their eyes looking menacing.

With a collective battle cry, the undead extended their hands, and the ice shards were shot forward like bullets. A round of applause in an auditorium was deafening enough. In a narrow, tight space, though?

Andre could barely focus on the shield as each shard against it was like a sharp, ear-piercing clap. His enhanced hearing made it all the worse. He made a mental note to learn a muting spell if he survived this.

“I-I can’t keep this up for long!” he shouted.

The bubble was about to pop. Fragments shattered against it, but the broken-up pieces were then used as another round of ammunition. Even the tiniest shard could prove to be deadly.

“It’s right over there!” Rexel, starting to move again, pointed to a clear gap four doors away. It could have been a simple break in the stream of endless rooms if it wasn’t pointed out. “Keep to the right everyone-”

Crack!

Andre was forced to stumble backward as his barrier was blown apart. A few remaining, jagged pieces of ice made it past, and the omé instinctively ducked. One projectile caught him on the cheek, slicing a thin line across it. Fortunately, the others sailed harmlessly into the ceiling, but that reprieve was short-lived as the horde of vampires lumbered closer, dark and hungry glares and fanged teeth on display.

“Ah, shit,” Rudy swore, frost magic swirling erratically around his bunched fists. He wasn’t sure whether to form another ice wall or not, needing the extra time but not wanting to give their enemies any more ammo.

Andre couldn’t form another strong shield, having poured most of his reservoir into the last one.

“Nobody escapes the prism! It’s an endless stretch. Literally endless. You’ll die of boredom and starvation a couple of days in,” Caid made his way in front of the pack, grinning in triumph. “You may have been lucky last time, but it seems you’re all out of it now.”

A ball of blue energy formed above his left palm before it protracted in either direction, shaping a lengthy spike of ice. And to make it worse – or to show off in Andre’s opinion – several more frozen spears conjured out of thin air above the undead’s head, one each for the five of them and ready to launch.

“Let’s play a game of ‘either-or’. Either you tell me where the satchel is hidden, or…”

The spike in his hand suddenly set off at a speed the young wolf couldn’t comprehend. For a second, he thought he had been skewered, but self-preservation and an uncomfortable prick in his neck had him looking down without moving his head.

There was no distance between the spear and his Adam’s apple.

“We put down your pet.”

The surrounding vampires snickered wickedly.

Andre desperately wanted to gulp his fear down, but he was more afraid of accidentally cutting his neck open at the slightest of movements. And so, he tried toning down his terrified shaking.

“You’re not getting anything out of us!” Rudy exclaimed, though, the declaration sounded shaky and unsure.

Caid snorted. “Is that right?”

He connected eyes with Andre, awaiting his answer.

It’d be so easy to scream out scream that one name. To betray Lindsay to save his own life. If he were any other person, it might have seemed justified after leaving them in the dark this whole time. Heck, it would definitely get him back in Rafe’s good graces.

Rafe.

He still needed to apologize to his best friend, but it looked like he wasn’t going to get the chance. And there was so much that he wanted to tell him, too. Hopefully, this would serve as a suitable substitute.

“I will never sell out my friends,” Andre surprised himself that his voice came out so calm and resolute. “So go ahead. You’re gonna be real sorry after.”

A certain blond-haired, short-tempered superhuman boy with heated eyes of steel filled his mind.

“Sorry?” Caid giggled – yes. Giggled – like a demented creep, then sighed. “Well, at least you got a real good laugh out of me. I’ll make this quick.”

“No!”

The rebuff was synchronized, and the four others leaped to the omé’s defense, but only Rudy was close by, the others having moved ahead before the shield was destroyed.

Caid’s finger slowly inclined downward, the clock’s hand ticking down to Andre’s sudden end.

But when the hand hit nine, a thunderous crash rang out from above as chunks of debris burst from the ceiling, a big slab of it crushing the spear at Andre’s neck. The omé yelped as he was thrown backward, something huge and not-quite-humanoid dropping out of the five-foot-in-diameter, gaping hole and landing with a resounding clank.

The prism was silent save for the sound of crackling wreckage and rattling metal. In front of Andre and before the vampires was not unlike the animatronic raccoon that saved and healed Rafe when he, Joe, and Daeran barged into Bones’ place. Although, the last time Andre had seen it was when it was just a tattered stuffed bunny at the enigmatic boy’s side.

Weeny, in all its robotic animal glory, whirred loudly in the petrified bloodsuckers’ faces.

“What… the… fuck…?” Caid muttered, taking several trembling steps back in fear. His entourage did the same, equally scared.

Weeny’s hum went up a decibel before opening its maw, revealing a maze of metallic teeth and complex wiring. It got even stranger when plushy replicas, these ones brand new but smaller, dispensed from the animatronic’s throat like a waterfall, creating a pile of them right before the cluster of panicking leeches.

They frightfully backed up even more, but before Andre could witness the end results of the odd chain of events, his world was encased in a bright purple light that forced him to shut his eyes.

When he felt the glare dissipate, he reopened them to find himself and the others in some kind of… garage.

A whole, fancy and lavish maybe-mansion with pristine furniture, but an old, dusty space that he could see the working elder tribesman of Graybite laboring inside of? Talk about whiplash. Dustpans, brooms, and other used cleaning supplies littered the floors alongside either opened or unopened boxes on storage racks at the edges.

The little bits of magic in the air told him that it might have been glamour to cover up whatever sinister plot lay underneath-

BOOM!

Andre quite literally “eeped” as the muffled but still-roaring explosion reverberated from the other side of the wall of the garage.

Explosives, he thought. Those plushies were explosives. One could only imagine the fate of those vampires now.

“Yo! Is everyone alright?”

He omé was saved from picturing the current state of Caid and his housemates when a welcomed voice called out.

“Joe? Daeran?” He picked himself off the floor as the two made their way over from the entrance of the garage. “You guys are here, too?”

While Joe went to inspect him and the humans, Daeran nodded at Andre before sprinting over to the garage wall – the wall the wolf realized was where the secret, invisible door led to – and began drawing a couple of sizable and strange insignias on it.

Whatever they were, Rotar had never taught them any of it. He wasn’t sure they even got to that lesson yet.

“Why wouldn’t we be, bro?” Joe’s reply stole his attention again. “Though, don’t give us all the credit. We’re lucky this guy over here saw it all go down.”

The Ares superhuman thumbed over behind him, and Andre was greeted with the sight of Bones, gray shirt, jeans, and flip-flops all stained with soot, grumbling something to the animatronic Weeny, no small version of it in sight this time.

“Bones?”

The other violet-eyed first-year scowled at the omé in annoyance. “You’re lucky I hang out near Dalhia’s Diner almost every day, little wolf.”

Despite the reproachful tone, Andre couldn’t stop himself from bowing toward the boy, gratitude making his eyes go blurry.

“Thank you. Seriously.”

The action made Bones blink in shock before turning away with a scoff, ignoring the faint blush across his nose.

“Okay, I’m done,” Daeran let out a breath as he finished the last symbol. “I don’t think they’ll be able to get through that.”

Ferra sauntered close and stared at them in fascination. “Dark magic symbols. You must be a sorcerer or a warlock, then.”

The boy flushed slightly at the attention, shaking his head. “No. not really.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Bones huffed impatiently. “Let’s just focus on getting the hell outta here before they gain a few brain cells and take another exit, please. So tired of this shit.”

Nobody argued with that, high-tailing it through the exit like the devil was on their heels.