Raptio: The Ritual Abductions of Humans by Werewolves

Chapter 34

Eric POV

Jamie never answered her phone so we drove throughout the night to get to the Florida pack and take everyone back home. Carl insisted that we drop him off in Arizona, but we refused.

'I have associates in Arizona, you know. They can help me start up again, perhaps another church somewhere in San Diego.'

'Carl, you are never going to step on foot back in California. There will be a price on your head higher than mine by now.' Grayson growled, focusing on driving the car as fast as he could.

'Wanted in over 46 countries and by 73 different organisations and individuals. I'm hardly going to be stopping now because some abominations want me dead. They can join the long queue of those that would rejoice in my death.'

'Police car, 500 metres ahead.' I spotted. Grayson slowed the car down so that we wouldn't get pulled over for speeding.

'Besides,' muttered Carl,  'Those creatures of Lucifer are nothing compared to those henchwomen from England.' 

Grayson kept glaring at Carl by the rear-view mirror for the next 60 miles. I understood his anger. Carl saw being hunted down by supernatural hitmen, bounty hunters and apparently English henchwoman as good thing; it meant that the work he was doing was so important that he was making someone's blood boil somewhere.

Meanwhile, Grayson had actually been caught and he'd suffered for of it. The scars were enough to show that. 

Carl had now brought out a book and was reading the inscriptions inside, carefully, mumbling in some foreign language. The car ride had let me think a bit more about the ritual, about what I'd done to Amalia. I knew it wasn't right, abducting a young girl, taking her away from her life, but it all seemed so perfect. Amalia had nothing, she had no family or friends. She was living in the middle of nowhere and was living nomadically, never staying in one place for too long. It was like she was looking for something, and I'd been kidding myself all this time, that it could've been me. 

'I've made a mistake haven't I,' I said, getting both Grayson and Carl's attention. 

'Not necessarily' said Carl, peeling his eyes away from the book in his hands. 

'A long time ago. Nobody would have blinked an eye, a woman being taken to be mated . Reproduction has always been the way to ensure the survival of all species. If anything, you got the ritual perfectly right. Your mistake, was applying a 2,000 year old ritual to a woman who was born in the time of Feminism and Beyonce's 'All my single ladies.''

Grayson snorted. Carl shot a dark look before continuing. 

'The ritual though was never an answer to a problem, it was always meant to be a challenge.'

'The challenge, being that Amalia has to fall in love with me......... or I die.'

'I assume so.'

'You assume so?'

'Well, the ritual is old, there isn't enough texts to be able to explain what specifically happens if the werewolf is rejected. But based on this drawing, I'm assuming it's not good,' Carl opened the book in front of his head, showing the macabre hand-painted werewolf, dying, with arrows stuck throughout it's body. A beautiful woman stood at it's side, a notched arrow in her bow.

'Who's the woman?'

'Artemis, goddess of the hunt.'

'The picture is telling us that if Eric doesn't bed Amalia, he's going to get arrowed by a Greek Goddess,' said Grayson sarcastically. Luckily, it looked like Carl was used to his behaviour, because he continued on in good spirit.