Chapter 399 - 399

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He was running and so was his mind. It was quite peculiar, this sense of being hunted even though no one was behind him. The wounds on his skin were slowly healing from the glass shards that had scraped him. He was faster now, stronger but the weakness of his soul hadn't been cured yet.

He was scared of the Council, scared of the stories he had heard as a child about them and Dionysus with his mental eyes and his lack of interest in picking a side made him freeze.. He breathed in heavily as he jumped up, avoiding a tree root. His feet landed steadily on the mud and he felt his shoes dive in the soft ground. 

Alexander looked back for a second, sick of everything around him. He had ran to the back of the castle like a child that was playing hide and seek and was trying to escape through the thick garden. It was so big it almost reminded him of an actual forest. Once he realized that he wasn't being followed anymore he stopped, wanting to catch his breath. Allias would be very mad, he was sure of it and the image of the angry king flashed in front of his eyes. That would be traumatizing. He mumbled as he rested underneath a tree. 

He had no idea what he was supposed to do now. Hide? Run? Return back to the palace? The last one sounded the most difficult and risky, the second was simply tiring so he decided on the first. He would just sit here like a five year old lost in the supoer market waiting for his mother to pick him up, in his case Luke. 

He wasn't very fond of himself and that showed by the way of his thinking. He grabbed some grass that grew around the tree and ripped it from the ground angrily. 

"You always cause problems" he scolded himself staring at his lap. His hands were shaking faintly, a sign of how anxious he was. He flipped his hands, looking at his palms and sighed. They were rough, filled with scars and wounds. He had gotten them while he had been trying to control himself. He had thought of exhausting his body so he wouldn't be able to turn, inflicting pain but nothing had worked. All he could feel was pain and the raging anger inside of him, this need to shred someone's flesh. It was disgusting, he thought as the urges creeped in once more. The taste of flesh, the coldness of the blood and the skin underneath his nails. Every little detail that was always vivid in his mind. How he wished he could forget, get the beast to sleep inside of him once and for all. That would be for the best. Many times he had thought he had been wrong. Awfully wrong about waking him up but he had to. If he had to protect Luke he would do it again and again even if he ended up imprisoned in the end. 

"Well you look gloom and sad." He heard an unfamiliar voice and flinched. Right in front of him appeared a young boy, pale like the dead with dark eyes. He was hanging upside down, his eyes glued on Alexander.

"What...who are you?" He asked him confused.

"I am me" he answered. "But you, who are you?" He asked him back and the young wolf slowly stood up. He looked like a child but he obviously was not human. Suddenly he felt really wary and his eyes began scanning the place. Was he being ambushed by something.

"What do you want?" Alexander asked, denying to answer.

"What do I want? What could I want? I know though that you want something. Am I wrong?" He told him and jumped down. He landed on his feet perfectly like a black cat and tilted his head to the side. His eyes were void of any kind of emotion as he parted his pale lips. "So? What do you want?" 

"Stop scaring him Kage" the beautiful and soft voice of a woman echoed through the forest and soon she appeared. Tall and elegant with a sly smile on her face she circled Alexander, a playfully look in her eyes. "Well hello. I heard that you will be spending some time with us" she told him. "I am very excited. I always liked disfuctionsl things. The process of fixing them is very self satisfying.", She said and Alexander couldn't help but frown. What was she talking about? He wondered. The way they stared at him, her smile, everything she said, the wolf had no idea if he should feel threatened or not. They hadn't made any movements against him after all. 

Rustling was heard. Like someone was approaching and the two strangers looked towards the source of the sound. Loud panting began reaching closer and through some pushes a red head appeared. He pushed through the thin brunches and dark green leaves and made himself known. It was Mark.

"How many times have I told you not to leave me behind!" He scolded the creatures and the woman laughed.

"We found him though" the boy said, not faced the slightest bit by Mark's words.

"We could have done that together" he mumbled annoyed and landed on the ground, sitting on a huge grey stone that he found. During his first try he slipped a bit, almost finding himself burried in the mud but the woman helped him. He smiled at him and she smiled back, cunningly. The second time he found the right spot on the rock and sat properly, his eyes landing on Alexander.

"Running away like that makes it hard for us to find you" Mark told him and Alexander raised his eyebrow.

"What is going on here?" He asked.

"Oh, these are my familiars. You probably have seen them before but don't remember them. This is Kage and this is Arpaia. They are the demonic spirits I control together with Ignis and Asmodeus. Asmodeus is a full fledged demon though and an accident." He mumbled. Alexander's eyes were wide with shock as he heard the number of spirits Mark controlled.

He didn't know many things about exorcists, not a lot of people did but he had read about the basics. The different categories and the energy control. Their powers and all these things. Four spirits an and an actual high ranked demon in between them. Mark had contracts with all of them, he realized as he stared at his marked hands. 

If he wanted to be honest he would have to admit that Mark didn't look like it. He was always the kind of person that stood to the side, the human that needed to be protected so when Luke had proposed the plan of asking for his help he had been skeptical. How could he help? He was a nobody. He had told Luke and now he felt horrible about it. He had misjudged him. 

"Are you there?" Mark asked, waving his palm in front of his face. 

"I...yes. Why are you here?" Alexander asked.

"I did say I was going to help you didn't I?" Mark told him. "The Council will be looking for you. I don't know the details but lucky for you Allias took them away.", He informed him and Alexander exhaled in relief. He had bought sometime. Now he had to think about what he should do. 

"Thanks."

"It wasn't me. It was Allias. So, now, what do you have in mind?"

"What do you mean?" 

"Were you planning to simply sit here until...when?"

"Well, kind of, I don't know.", Alexander said and awkward scratched the back of his brunette head. Arpaia giggled and he noticed the young boy roll his eyes. He was being judged right now, he realized. 

"That is, excuse me for the expression a shitty plan." Mark stated and Alexander frowned. He crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his foot on the ground.

"What do you think I should do then? My options are not really that many, considering the fact that I am a fugitive even back home. No matter where I go they will come after me. For that I am sure. They'd love to take me back so the Council could experiment on me." 

"I guess we will have to save him then" Arpaia said, unfazed as she stared at her long nails.

"Sometimes I do wonder why our Master is so nice. It's very annoying you see, helping all these people." Kage said and Alexander stared at them confused.

"What are they talking about?" The wolf asked and Mark grinned.

"You and I dear wolf. Will be running away together." He announced and Alexander stared at him in disbelief.