Gabriel Elder book II of the Warlock Series

Zeus had scrambled some eggs, onions and peppers. Along with a piece of pumpernickel toast and a cup of strong, black coffee, he had made a meal of it. He knew Oz was busy and it would be moonrise soon and their training session would begin. It would be the first time he had trained as a shifter. He had no idea if he would even be able to control himself to the level needed for an actual training session. He was also worried about his friend Oz.

In his shifted form he might do some serious damage to the little man, he might even kill him. Zeus had seen Oz do some amazing things, even some unexplainable things, but this was different. Zeus understood he was much stronger and much quicker than the average shifter. He was confident Oz could handle an average shifter, but he was not so confident Oz could handle his shifted form. It wasn’t ego, it was fear. If he ever hurt the little man, he’d never forgive himself.

Zeus went to his room and began his meditations. Oz had taught him how to use them to calm the beast within him and to give him some small level of control over his wolfish instincts. In his room, he found Oz had removed what was left of the destroyed door to his cell. Everything was cleaned up and except for the gaping hole where the cell door had been, it looked like nothing had ever happened.

Now, in the waning light of day, Zeus was shocked at how he had been able to destroy the cell door to begin with. It had been built to withstand the estimated forces of at least three shifters combined. From the reinforced steel alloy core to the solid titanium hinges and lock, no expense had been spared to ensure the master warlock couldn’t get out and harm other humans. So how had he managed to destroy it so easily? It had to be the serum.

Once he had decided to allow his daughter to fulfill her dream of becoming a warlock, he had begun to experiment with a cocktail of drugs and liquid metals to boost the human capacity for speed, strength and endurance. There wasn’t time for ‘clinical’ trials, not that any would have ever been approved, so he tested them on himself. Many of the first mixes either had no noticeable effect or made him violently ill.

Finally, after several years of testing, he found a combination that made him feel superior in every way. His overall speed was greatly enhanced, and so were his reactions. His strength was almost immeasurable as he could easily move any amount of weights available at the compound. After several lengthy discussions with his wife, they finally agreed he could administer the cocktail to Stazia.

Just like Gabriel, she was given small doses at first and monitored for any side effects. Over time, the mix became a part of her and she no longer needed anything but an annual booster to maintain her superior abilities. The formula had worked wonders for Stazia, but it had worked miracles for Gabriel. Neither Oz, nor Zeus were sure why, but they suspected it might have something to do with the natural interaction of the formula to large amounts of male hormones. Both Zeus and Gabriel had been tested and found to have unusually high levels of testosterone even before starting on the cocktail.

Another of the regrets for the master warlock was not realizing he could alter the formula and possibly provide an immunity for the shifter virus sooner. For Gabriel and Apollo he added small amounts of silver nitrate along with a suspension solution to reduce its poisonous effects on the human system and he had created a serum that would enhance the user and at the same time make their blood deadly to shifters. From the reports filed by Gabriel, it was working exactly as predicted for the grey wolf Apollo. If only he had thought to do the same thing for Stazia.

As the sun began to drop below the horizon, Zeus could feel the urge within him growing. Even before the moon was visible, he could feel the urge, but it was more like an itch that needed scratching. He could ignore it, but it was always there. As the moon climbed in the night sky, the itch became an insatiable urge that he no longer had any control over. He would respond to it, whether he wanted to or not. Tonight, he had no plans to fight it, instead he would welcome it.

The master warlock stopped his meditation and stood. He slowly removed his tailored, silver long-sleeved shirt. He folded the shirt neatly and laid it on his dresser. Next, he removed his half boots and socks. Then he walked into the open cell and sat with his back against the wall. Thinking he might as well try his control and see what happened, he opened his mind and body to the shift. Instead of fighting it, he was calling for it!

For the first time since he became infected with the virus, the shift from human to wolf-creature wasn’t painful or lengthy. In fact, it seemed to happen almost instantaneously. It was also the first-time Zeus didn’t have to wonder about what was going to come next. Where he had always had a deep mental fog during his previous shifts, this time there was absolute clarity. He almost laughed because he was so totally aware and able to focus, he could have done algebra if there was a need for him too.

The image of a massive white werewolf sitting and doing algebra was comical. He could still remember his middle school math teacher, Mrs. Denham, telling him he would never know when he might have to use algebra in the future and he needed to always be ready. He was sure she could never have imagined this scenario, but he had to admit she had been right.

Zeus stood and headed for the gym on the bottom floor of the compound. He walked slowly and steadily to the door of the gym and then walked inside. Oz was waiting for him. On the opposite side of the room, the little man was sitting with his legs crossed and appeared to be meditating. Near to the door, on a sewing mannequin, was the vest created by Dr. Connors.

Zeus saw the vest and knew it was a test. If he was still in control, he would know to put it on, so he did. Unlike when he tried it on in his human form, it was no longer huge on the shifted Zeus. In fact, it was a very snug fit. Zeus filled every square inch of the vest with his massive form. As he slid the garment over his shoulders and pressed the front Velcro closed, Oz was smiling. It looked there would be a training session after all. The little man rarely got to use all his strength and he was looking forward to seeing what the shifted Zeus could do.

The ancient man stood slowly and began to glide gently around the outer edge of the heavy wrestling mat that made up the center of the gym’s floor. Zeus nodded his head and slowly mimicked the little man’s moves, all the while staying on his side of the room. He liked that he couldn’t even feel the vest wrapped snugly to his torso. He wasn’t sure what ‘improvements’ Oz had added to it, but he was sure he would find out soon enough.

Suddenly, Oz glided straight across the mat and right for him. The movement was so sudden and direct that Zeus barely saw it. Instinctively, the shifted warlock reached out with his right front claws and raked them at the little man suddenly in front of him. Where Oz had been just a second before, there was now only air, that and a piece of the little man’s shirt sticking to the shifter’s claws.

Even Oz was pleasantly surprised at the speed the shifted Zeus could muster. He had known what was coming and he could dematerialize as fast as a person could blink, and yet he had still just barely avoided being scratched by the shifter. Good, very good.

A second after he disappeared, Oz was back, but this time he was behind the shifter. He pushed the master warlock in the back with a large amount of force. The shifted Zeus should have been knocked forward and onto his chest. Instead, the shifter barely moved and the silver spines of the vest were raised instantaneously. Oz knew they would be deployed, but they still almost impaled his right hand. Yes, very good.

Zeus turned to confront the little man, but he wasn’t there. As he turned again to try to locate his mentor, he saw Oz materialize directly in front of him. He was right next to the massive shifter and right below his rib cage. Oz drove his right palm into the middle of the shifter’s chest with even more force than he had used on his back. As soon as his hand contacted the vest, hundreds of tiny, super-bright, LED’s turned on. It was as blinding as the mid-day sun.

Oz was prepared and wanted to see if they would activate as fast as the sensors on the back had. They did, and he was pleased. Even Zeus was happy. The lights were bright enough to blind anyone trying to attack him from the front, yet they had little effect on the master warlock. The LED’s were positioned on the vest in such a way they caused very little of the light to shine upward toward him.

As Oz disappeared, Zeus thought he would try something. He used his left front paw and formed a crude fist. He struck himself in the chest with a solid blow and the lights were immediately gone. Good, that meant he could control them. He couldn’t help but think how ingenious it was for Oz to use something as mundane as lights to create a highly effective weapon. Once blinded, his opponents would be easy to deal with. Even worse for them, he could blind them with light and then plunge them into darkness at his leisure.

Oz was in the corner watching Zeus think through the process. This wasn’t the shifted Zeus Oz had dealt with for more than a decade, this was the master warlock Zeus, only in his shifted form. Oz watched as Zeus went through a series of complex movements associated with Aikido, one of the most effective forms of Japanese Martial Arts. Only a being with the senses of Oz could have fully understood what the master warlock was doing. His movements were so fast and yet, so fluid, few could have seen what he was doing.

Oz was getting ready to attack the shifter in earnest when he realized they were getting visitors. There was one upstairs and one coming to the gym. Oz would check on the one upstairs and leave the other to Zeus.

As Zeus continued to train, Oz disappeared from the dark gym corner where he had been watching. As the ancient man faded away, the door to the gym opened and in walked Anthony.

Oz materialized outside of Zeus’s room and even though the door was shut, he already knew there was someone inside it. Someone that shouldn’t be here.

The little man materialized inside the room, off to the side, away from the door. The intruder turned away from the opening to Zeus’s cell and Oz was both shocked and slightly pleased to see that it wasn’t one of the mercenaries he had expected. Instead, he found himself looking into the eyes of Jaida, the American master warlock.

“Why have you broken into a home you would have gladly been welcomed into?” Oz asked her.

“Where is Zeus and why isn’t he locked up?” Jaida asked.

Oz continued to look at her, he wasn’t going to answer her question until she answered his. To emphasize the point, he floated over until he was now in front of the door, blocking her from leaving. He would let her leave when she answered what she was doing here unannounced.

Jaida wasn’t going to answer anything! Didn’t this little servant understand that he had just signed Zeus’s death warrant? Her brother would be looking for him now and he would most likely have to kill him to bring him in as a shifter. Even if he survived, being out during moonrise was enough to get Zeus sanctioned and placed on the Angel List. Either way, he would be killed for this!

Without thinking, Jaida rushed at Oz. She wasn’t going to hurt him too badly, but she had to get out of here and find her brother before it was too late. As soon as she was close enough, Jaida grabbed the front of the little man’s grey robe. She attempted to throw him out of the way, but he never budged.

While still amazed, she took a half step back and attempted to strike him in the chest a blow intended to bounce him off the door and out of her way. She might as well have been hitting a mountain! The little man couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds but he was completely impervious to anything she did. How was that possible?

Oz looked directly into her eyes and asked, “Why are you here?”

“I need to find my brother before he kills Zeus,” Jaida pleaded.

Instantly, Oz knew what had happened. While he was seeing to the threat in Zeus’s bedroom, the brother had been looking for Zeus elsewhere. He may have already found Zeus and was already attempting to bring him down.

“Then your brother is in grave danger,” Oz replied.

“My brother might not be a match for Zeus the master warlock, but he is more than a match for a shifter. Where are they so I can save Zeus?” Jaida screamed.

Oz stepped out of the doorway and replied, “In the gym.”

Jaida was already bounding down the stairs as the thought hit her, why would a shifted Zeus be in the gym after moonrise? How much crazier could things get here?

As soon as she ran past Oz, he was already gone from the upstairs bedroom and instantly he was once again in the corner of the gym. This time the scene was quite different than the one he had left. In the middle of the mat, Anthony was attempting to strike the shifted Zeus with one of his short swords. He wasn’t having much luck.

Every move he made, the shifted warlock countered. As the tiny man watched, Jaida came running through the door. As she stopped to take in the scene before her, Oz was instantly behind her and pinning her arms to her side. She tried to wretch herself free, but she was in a grip that felt like iron. She couldn’t move her arms or torso even a little.

She tried to deliver a strong rear kick to the little man’s leg, but for some reason there didn’t seem to be a leg for her to kick.

“Why are you here?” Oz asked her.

“We were given the mission to confirm that Zeus was not locking himself up and if that was the case, we were to bring him in,” Jaida answered.

“And when you say you were to bring him in, that means dead or alive, correct?” Oz asked.

“We only wanted to see if the report was true, nothing more,” Jaida responded.

“I am having a hard time seeing how your actions agree with your words. You could have simply asked to see if he was in his cell, but instead you break in. You say you want to bring him in, yet your brother is trying with all his might to kill him,” Oz declared.

Even Jaida could see the truth in what the little man was saying. They had come about this all wrong and from what she was seeing, it may very well be her brother that was going to get killed, not Zeus.

“Who sent you?” Oz asked.

“I told you we were given the mission by the American Warlock Council. We were supposed to be working with the approval of the Canadian government and their Council,” Jaida answered.

Oz wasn’t sure what the truth was, but this wasn’t it. The Canadian government, nor what was left of the warlock council, would ever have agreed to sending the Americans. One of Oz’s secrets was that an agreement was reached years ago, that if Zeus ever had to be brought in or put down, it would be done by Oz. The fact that he had heard nothing from the Prime Minister or the Cabinet for National Defense, meant that the twins had been lied to.

“Please, let me go, he’s going kill him,” Jaida pleaded.

She had been watching every move the pair made. Her brother had lost both of his short swords, three of his throwing knives and was now attempting to use his katana to cleave Zeus in half. If her brother was using that blade, he was no longer interested in just trying to wound the shifted warlock, he was trying to kill him in earnest.

Oz too had been watching the pair and he had seen just how easily Zeus could counter every move the younger warlock made. The master warlock was in complete control. He could have disabled Anthony, even killed him, anytime he wanted, but he was getting in a workout. Unlike the one he might have had with Oz, this one was real. It was deadly and it was against an opponent who was not holding back. To the shifted warlock, it felt good to be moving and fighting again.

He was being careful not to hurt the younger warlock in any way. He was still trying to figure out why the American had attacked him. As soon as he had seen Zeus in the gym Anthony had rushed forward and attacked him. Now, Zeus was aware his sister was here as well. That made sense because the two always worked together, but why was Oz holding Jaida by the door. Obviously, she wanted to get in on the attack as well, but why? The two of them shouldn’t even be on Canadian soil without an invitation.

“If you’re not going to let me go, then stop them before someone gets hurt,” Jaida pleaded.

“Zeus will not hurt your brother, he is in complete control,” Oz answered.

“It’s Zeus I’m afraid for,” Jaida started, “I don’t want anything to happen to him… at least… not until I tell him I love him.”

Oz was taken aback. It took a few seconds for what she said to sink in. Now, he understood. It wasn’t her brother she was afraid of getting hurt, it was Zeus. That’s what he loved about humans, they were so unpredictable!

“Zeus, you should end this before our guest ends up getting himself hurt,” Oz said loudly across the gym.

As soon as he said it there was a blinding light from the center of the gym. Then the light was gone and so was Zeus. Anthony was on his knees in the center of the mat. He was soaked with sweat and there on the ground in front of him was his katana thrust six inches into the wooden floor. He was very aware that it could have just as easily have been his skull the sword was sticking out of.

Jaida rushed to him. She was relieved to see that although he was exhausted, he was otherwise unharmed. She knelt and hugged him.

“What were you doing?” she asked her brother.

“I was hoping to end this before you had to see it,” Anthony answered.

“Why were you trying to kill Zeus?” Oz asked Anthony.

As the younger warlock stood on shaky legs, he answered the little man.

“You know the law! He was supposed to be locked up, he wasn’t, so he was fair game for any warlock that found him!” Anthony screamed.

Oz wasn’t fazed by the warlock’s rant.

“And this is why you are nothing more than a tool young man. You don’t have the sense to understand what you see, instead you jump to conclusions and prove your ignorance at every step,” Oz replied.

“I don’t have to take that from you, old man…” Anthony started.

“Yesss you do!” came the gnarled voice from the corner of the gym.

As one, they all looked over to where Zeus was now standing. Even as a massive white shifter, Jaida thought he was the most magnificent creature she had ever seen. She could only stare at the shifted warlock. His single black lock of hair running down his back from his forehead only added to the image.

Even Oz was glad to hear the warlock speak. Shifters could speak when they were in shifted form, but it was usually hard to understand. Zeus’s speech had been deep and raspy, but it was very easy to understand. Now that they had the younger warlock’s attention, Oz was determined to try to get some sense into him.

“The main purpose of having shifters lock themselves away, is because they have no control and can’t be held liable for what they do in shifted form. The second reason is to keep the public from finding out the truth about the virus. It would be obvious to even a blind man that Zeus is in complete control. Furthermore, we are in the compound and no one in the public can discern there is a shifter on the loose inside this building. Therefore, your reasons for breaking into this compound and attacking this shifter, are not valid. Anthony, you are guilty of breaking several laws, internationally, locally and even within the warlock community,” Oz stated.

“Wait a minute, we have a mission, we were…” Anthony tried to say.

“Brother, please don’t embarrass us any more than you already have. Everything Oz is saying is true and you know it! Even if we had a valid mission, what we have seen here tonight should have made us re-think what we were doing,” Jaida insisted.

“We are sorry for the way we approached this situation,” Jaida said to both Oz and the shifted Zeus. “the one thing I must point out in our defense, this is the first time we have ever seen a shifter in control after moonrise. We’ve seen a few try hard to resist their natural impulses, but none we could say were truly in control.”

“You’ve never seen a warlock shifter,” Zeus snarled from the corner of the gym.

With that, he walked to the door and headed upstairs for his room. Oz followed and left the Americans to sort things out for themselves.

“I think I dislike the shifted Zeus even more than I used to dislike the warlock Zeus,” Anthony declared.

“I’m just glad he was in control. He could have killed you anytime he wanted to,” Jaida said.

Her brother just hung his head. It had been a long time since he had tasted defeat. Worse yet, this was the first time he felt like he could have been killed if Zeus had not been in control. The beating he just took from the shifted form of Zeus, was worse than he could have ever imagined. It was like watching a two-year old take on a heavyweight champion. He had been outmatched for strength, speed, skill and even cunning.

Jaida left her brother to contemplate his mistake, while she went after Zeus. She found him in his room, laying on his bed, and apparently already asleep. He barely fit, but she was determined to make sure he was truly in control of himself. As the giant shifter laid there, she gently laid beside him on the tiny strip of bed left. At first, she was afraid, but after a few minutes, she turned and wrapped her arm around the huge beast next to her.

It was so strange, after spending her life fighting to the death with so many other shifters, to be lying next to one and trying to sleep. Try as she might though, Jaida couldn’t see the creature beside her as a shifter. It was Zeus, and no matter what form he was in, she would always see him as the only man she would ever love.

Downstairs, Anthony was finally beginning to see the logic in Oz’s argument. It was time to use his head instead of his muscles.

“Do you have a computer and a secure line I could use?” he asked Oz.

“Just promise me next time you accept such a foolish assignment, you will check it out very carefully before you make such a mistake again,” Oz remarked as he led the younger warlock into Zeus’s office.

“I’m just glad I didn’t hurt him,” Anthony responded sheepishly.

Oz opened the door to the office and waved his hand toward the desk. Once Anthony was seated, he looked up to ask the little man one more question, but Oz was already gone. The warlock could only shudder. He couldn’t help but feel that in his own way, Oz might be even more powerful than the shifted Zeus.

It took three phone calls for Anthony to confirm what he already suspected. Not only was there no record of the assignment, the American Council Member who had notified him directly, was nowhere to be found. How could anyone infiltrate the council? Who had that much power?