Jack Templar and the Lord of the Werewolves (Book #4 of the Templar Chronicles) Read online

  “I can’t take any more of this endless debate,” Daniel said behind me. “I say we fight, and the winner chooses our next move.”

  I clenched my hands into fists and wondered whether I should just let them give Daniel my answer. I turned to gauge whether the comment had been a joke to release the tension or a real suggestion. Neither would have surprised me.

  Daniel stepped toward me and, by the look on his face, I don’t think he was sure either whether he’d been joking or not. He was taller than me by a foot and built like a star high school quarterback, with broad shoulders and thick twists of lean muscle. His once ridiculously good looks now had the blemish of a fake nose attached to his face where a swarm had screechers had chewed off the original. Even though I’d saved him from dying that day and we’ve been friends and fought side-by-side ever since, some of the old tensions between us still leaked out every now and then.

  He and I hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot when I’d arrived as the new guy at the Monster Hunter Academy. The ancient school in France served as the training grounds for the Black Guard, the secret society tasked with protecting the reg, or regular, world from the Creach. He was already top dog there when I showed up with everyone whispering about the prophecy, about how I might be “the One,” how I was the last Templar knight. There’s nothing a top dog like Daniel appreciates less than another dog showing up and peeing in his yard. Well, peeing in his front yard and then trying to steal his ex-girlfriend is worse. Yeah, that happened too. Worst of all, he still had a thing for her.

  All that was supposed to be behind us now. We were friends, comrades-in-arms who’d faced down screechers, dragons, goblins, desert djinn and even an entire vampire horde together. Still, under the stress of the last few days, we were at each other’s throats.

  “Back down, you idiots,” said a voice from behind us. It was Will. “You guys are acting like morons. You’re just tired. We all are.”

  He stepped between us like the mini-pit-bull he was, pushing each of us back with a hand. Because of his small size, enemies often underestimated Will, and sometimes his friends did too. But I knew no one tougher or more loyal. Out of respect for him, and because neither of us really wanted to fight, Daniel and I backed away from one another.

  Will was dressed in the same gear we all had, black pants, black t-shirt, and a jacket with multiple pockets. Exactly the same outfits we’d all been wearing three days earlier when we battled the vampire horde in the catacombs of Paris.

  Three days ago.

  It seemed like a lifetime.

  Especially since that was how long it had been since any of us had more than an hour or two of fitful sleep.

  “That’s better,” Will said. “We’re all tired and more than a little grumpy, so let’s just assume people are going to say dumb stuff they don’t mean, okay?”

  “Like when I said I wasn’t hungry,” said another voice. “I was just kidding about that.”

  T-Rex, piped up from the opposite side of the small steering house in the center of the boat. He stepped out, hand on his oversized stomach, looking unhappy. I smiled at him not because of what he said but because his presence on this adventure always reminded me about the strength of friendship. He was here because he would do anything to help his friends. And if that meant traveling halfway around the world to battle monsters, so be it. He was along for the ride.

  “’Cause, honestly, I’m getting really hungry,” T-Rex said.

  T-Rex had thinned down since leaving Sunnyvale, and he’d kicked his habit of picking his nose when he was nervous, but he still didn’t look like an obvious fit to be a monster hunter. His round face, freckled nose and wide waist had made him a perfect candidate to be a Ratling at the Academy, working the kitchens and serving the food he loved. But as soon as I decided to seek out the five Jerusalem Stones from the five Creach Lords who had them, he’d stood right next to the others with his short sword clutched to his side, demanding that he come along.

  “That much we can agree on,” I said. “I think we’re all hungry.”

  Xavier, the brainiac of our little group, gave a nervous glance to the boat’s bow. “We better hope she doesn’t get too hungry.”

  While most of the Black Guard relied on their swords, crossbows and other weapons to fight the Creach, Xavier’s brilliant mind was a weapon in and of itself. He was only twelve, the youngest of our group, but his inventions had saved our bacon more than a few times already. His brilliance made him a little socially awkward though since he didn’t see the need to filter anything that came to his mind. You never knew what was going to come out of his mouth. This comment about the last member of our group only said exactly what the rest of us were thinking but were too polite – or afraid – to say out loud.

  My eyes flicked towards Eva, the proud fighter who’d been the first to tell me about this whole undiscovered world swirling around me. Eva, the fourth level monster hunter who was one of the most feared members of the Black Guard even though she only had one hand. Eva, the first girl who I’d fallen for but who wisely had kept us focused on our mission, which was so much larger than either of us. She was all these things, but since the events of the catacombs under the streets of Paris, she was one other thing as well.

  She was Eva the vampire.

  Her transformation was one of the reasons I hadn’t slept in three days. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was Eva lying on the ground, covered with blood from where the evil vampire Pahvi had skewered her with a sword. It had been a wide, gaping wound. And it should have meant her death.

  Only I’d made a bargain on her behalf. Every fiber of my being told me it was the wrong thing to do. That Eva would want to die with the dignity of a soldier. But, in the end, I was weak. I couldn’t let her go.

  With my permission, Shakra, the Lord of the Vampires and my aunt, saved Eva with the gift of her vampiric blood. In a whispered warning, Shakra let me know that Eva wouldn’t only be a vampire, but she would be one of the most powerful vampires in the world. Gifted with the blood-gift directly by the Lord of the Vampires herself.

  There hadn’t been time for questions. The rest of the vampire horde chased us in an uncontrollable frenzy that even Shakra couldn’t stop. As my group decided what to do next, our quiet conversations had only hinted at the most important question.

  When would Eva need to feed?

  When that time came, what would she eat?

  So when Xavier blurted out, “We better hope she doesn’t get too hungry,” we all froze to see what Eva’s reaction would be. The old Eva would have simply walked up, cuffed Xavier on the ear, and told him he was being rude. I hoped she would do something like that. I even wished she would get angry. Something. Anything.

  But she didn’t. She only continued to do what she’d done for the past three days – stand at the bow of the boat, staring forward at the swirling waters of the river, unmoving, wrapped in a cloak taken from one of the vampires.

  “Nice one, X,” Will said, punching him in the arm.

  Xavier looked confused. “What’d I say? It’s just a fact. She’s a vampire now. Vampires feed to live just like we do. It’s just a matter of time before –”

  “We all know that,” I blurted, cutting him off. “That’s why we should go find Aquinas. See if she… I don’t know… whether she can…”

  “You know the law,” Daniel hissed. “A hunter who has been turned into a Creach must be killed or imprisoned.”

  “Great,” Will said. “So you want to kill her or throw her in prison. Nice.”

  “Of course not, you little mugpug,” Daniel said. “I’m saying that if we take her to Aquinas, that’s exactly what will happen. I know Aquinas better than anyone here. She will follow the old ways.”

  “Guys, this is the same argument all over again,” T-Rex huffed, sounding like a kid trying to get mom and dad to stop fighting.

  “You said yourself that the Jerusalem Stones can change her back,” Daniel said. “
Then we go get the Stones as fast as we can. End of story.”

  I sighed. T-Rex was right; Daniel and I were right back into the same argument. The hard part was that I didn’t know which one of us was right. Maybe it would be better to go find the Stones as quickly as possible. Take Eva with us so we could watch out for her. But she hadn’t spoken in three days. She hadn’t really even moved in all that time except to pull up the hood of her cloak during the day and lower it at night. I knew from dealing with vampires before that they could walk around in the daylight without a problem, so that didn’t surprise me. But outside of that, this was uncharted territory for all of us.

  “Eva is one of us,” I said. “She will get special treatment. Aquinas will help her.”

  Daniel must have sensed the weakness in my voice. He jumped at my self-doubt. “You don’t know that,” he said. “These are dark times, and Aquinas will do anything if she thinks it’s necessary to protect the Black Guard. She kept the truth about Ren Lucre from you. You’d think mentioning that the Lord of the Creach was actually your grandfather would have been important for you to know. What else has she lied to us about?”

  I turned away so he wouldn’t catch the expression on my face. At first, no one except Eva knew what I’d discovered in the catacombs. Shakra’s revelation that she was my mother’s sister had rocked my world.

  I wondered if Aquinas knew.

  If she did and hadn’t told me, how could I ever trust her? If she didn’t, how might she react when she discovered it for herself? Based on that, maybe Daniel was right, and the best thing to do was take our chances by going after the Jerusalem Stones by ourselves. I hated to say it, but I hoped Eva wouldn’t get too hungry along the way.

  I was about to say as much to Daniel when Eva turned around and faced us. We were so surprised at her sudden movement, after being still for so long, that we all just stared back at her. I was caught, as usual, by how beautiful she was. But on this night, her eyes seemed to burn from some inner fire. She cocked her head to the side like an animal listening to a distant sound on the wind.

  Then she turned to me and whispered in a barely audible voice.

  “They found us.” She nodded to the sword at my side. “Get ready.”

  Chapter 2

  Right after Eva gave us her warning, things went downhill in a hurry.

  Clawed, scaly hands jetted from the water on the port side of our small boat and grabbed onto the edge. It was perfect timing, and my mind registered that as a problem. Someone was in command and had trained these Creach well.

  A bigger problem was that our boat tipped precariously to one side from all the weight hanging on it.

  I lost my balance and staggered down the slope to the port side, hit the gunwale, and nearly fell into the water.

  As I leaned over the edge, desperately pulling myself back on deck, I got a good look at what we were up against.

  At least ten gillmongers hung on the boat. If you’ve never seen a gillmonger before, just imagine what a half-man/half-fish would look like, and you have a pretty good starting point.

  Humanoid in size and shape, they are covered in slimy, scaled, green skin. A single heavy, armored spike sticks out along each long bone, from wrist to elbow, elbow to shoulder, knee to hip. But it was their heads that really threw me off.

  Though it wasn’t an actual fish, it was close. Tight green skin stretched over elongated faces with gaping mouths and hardly any chin at all. The mouths all hung open, gasping for air in the foreign environment. They had rows of sharp teeth, too long to fit in properly behind the thin lips.

  Huge eyes completed the fishy image. Big, black, lifeless discs the size of baseballs with no white to them at all.

  Unfortunately for us, the gillmongers’ bodies were muscular and wiry. This was going to be no easy battle.

  “Jack!” Will shouted, grabbing my shirt and pulling me backward away from the edge.

  Even as he did so, the gillmongers pushed upward. The boat rocked in the opposite direction, sending us flying against the starboard side. They continued like this, pulling, pushing, pulling, pushing, until all of us sprawled out on the deck, holding on for our lives.

  Everyone except Eva, that is.

  I glanced up and saw that she remained on the bow of the boat, watching us with an expression of only mild interest.

  Then the rocking stopped… and things got really bad.

  The hands on the railing disappeared, and for the barest second I felt a surge of hope that something had scared them off. But all they were doing was plunging to the bottom of the river to have a firm surface from which to jump.

  In a small explosion of water, the first gillmonger burst from the river, soared into the air, and landed on the deck of the boat, cracking the old wood planking with the impact. Then a second and a third rocketed over. Soon, there were five gillmongers on our small boat, each gripping a short dagger in its teeth.

  Daniel got his wits about him first. He was right next to me on the deck, and I heard him say, “Sorry, but no one gave you permission to come aboard.”

  He stood, produced his sword from his side and, with a battle cry, plunged into the enemy.

  I jumped to my feet and joined him. The gillmonger in front of me greeted the downward thrust of my sword with his wicked little dagger. The collision produced a rain of sparks that reflected in the Creach’s black eyes. But it didn’t faze the monster. He pressed the attack, dagger flying, his mouth gaping open and shut as he moved.

  “Enjoy your bath,” Will cried next to me as he forced the gillmonger he battled backward into the river.

  In the split second I glanced over to see Will, I let my guard down just enough for the gillmonger I fought. He feinted with a direct knife thrust to my head. I blocked it easily enough, but my footing was off. When the gillmonger kicked at me with a webbed foot, I stumbled backward and found myself up against the pilothouse in the middle of the boat. On reflex, I ducked and felt the gillmonger’s left arm fly just over my head. The Creach’s spikes hammered into the wood on the pilothouse, trapping him there.

  I used the opening and slammed my shoulder into his exposed ribs, churning my legs as I hefted him into the air. With a yell, I chucked him over the railing and back into the water.

  A quick look across the deck told me we were in trouble.

  More gillmongers were launching out of the river and landing on the boat. All of the guys were fighting hard – even T-Rex and Xavier double-teamed a gillmonger together.

  But to make things worse, the slow current of the river had spun us around and was taking us directly toward a sand bank curving out toward the main channel. That’s when I remembered that nobody was steering the boat.

  We hit the sand bank with surprising force, the current carrying us faster than I thought. Everyone on deck, both hunters and gillmongers, lost their balance and fell. I used the opportunity to dispatch the nearest gillmonger with my sword, lifted his legs, and tipped him overboard. The body hit the sandbank with a thud and lay there, unmoving.

  Too bad the sand around the body did move. Claw pinchers made of black, shiny armor rose up from the sand, snapping at the air. Big crustacean bodies followed, dozens of them appearing along the sandbank, each as big as a large suitcase.

  “Pincer-crabs,” Xavier shouted. “They can bite through armor. Be careful.”

  “I was planning on it,” was all I could manage as the gillmongers redoubled their attack, savagely swinging their swords and body spikes at the nearest one of us they could find. Anyone except Eva, that is. They left her completely alone as she stood silently at the bow.

  The pincer-crabs crawled from the sand straight at us. The sound of splintering wood filled the air as they tore away chunks of planking wherever they touched the boat. They appeared to be unstoppable and mindless, ready to consume anything that stood in their path.

  This proved true as I managed to trip the gillmonger I was fighting. I kicked him toward the pincer-crab just coming over th
e top of the railing. In the blink of an eye, the crab grabbed the gillmonger by the arm, dragged him over the edge and back to the sandbar. The pincer-crab detached itself and fell on the gillmonger. I looked over the edge of the boat and saw the monster crab feeding on the body.

  There was a scream and then I heard Daniel bellow, “Xavier!”

  I turned and saw Xavier with a pincer-crab on him, one of the thing’s sharp walking legs impaled through his shoulder.

  “No!” I shouted.

  But there were four gillmongers between me and Xavier, and more springing from the water. Pincer-crabs crawled up the side of the boat. Daniel had lost his sword in the battle and now fought with his fists. T-Rex stood next to Will, waving a short sword in front of him as the creatures closed in. Will pulled at Xavier’s arm, doing everything he could to keep him from being pulled over the side to certain death. Screams of pain and terror filled the air.

  We were lost. This was the end of our adventure.

  Then I felt a breeze as something large flew by me so fast that it was already past me by the time I raised my hands to shield myself.

  Three of the gillmongers in front of me flew through the air and off the far side of the boat, their arms and legs cartwheeling out of control. The pincer-crab nearest me shattered into pieces like someone had taken a massive hammer to it. Slimy pieces of glossy black shell covered the deck.

  The thing causing this wreckage paused for a moment, arms raised, muscles tense, lips pulled back to reveal two fangs in her mouth.

  Eva.

  Only it wasn’t Eva, not really. It was her body all right, but her eyes were like those of a wild animal. She looked right at me, and I could have sworn she had no idea who I was at that moment.

  The world spun back into gear and everything happened in fast motion. Eva whirled across the boat deck, destroying everything in her path. Gillmongers crumbled from her furious salvo of punches and kicks. She dispatched the pincer-crab trying to pull Xavier off the boat by breaking off its leg. She used that to spear one of the gillmongers before landing a brutal kick on the crab’s body that cracked it in half.