The Squealer

The next morning the trio headed out to the woods to search for another victim, when Jayden felt as if someone was following them, he avoided, thinking maybe he was wrong but then Emric sensed it too.

"Where's your weapon?" Emric stared at Jayden from every angle.

"It broke!" Jayden felt embarrassed.

"Then it is time for you to put your hand-to-hand combat to the test!" Emric said and Jayden got ready to fight, but he noticed something when he eased back.

"I've smelled this scent before, come out now?" Jayden asked nicely when some guys and girls walked out from behind the bushes and some popped down from under the trees.

They were the same people who transformed into humans and bent their knees before Jayden.

"I know you all, why are you here?" Jayden asked and shook his head slightly to give Swan and Emric a signal to put their weapons away.

"We will always be watching you from a distance, it is our responsibility to even lay down our lives if we have to, just to protect you" The guy who said that was once the leader of his pack, he was an alpha, but he was not an alpha anymore since he bowed down to Jayden.

"Listen, buddy? I appreciate you looking after me but I don't need you to do that. See…" He approached him and held him with his shoulders waiting for him to tell him his name.

"Richard! You can call me Rick" He exclaimed.

"Rick, listen. It is not that I don't need you all, I might need every wolf by my side, and by every wolf I mean every single wolf lurking out there to come and join hands with me.

Because we have an evil on the loose, and our enemy is also planning a big war against three clans, vampires, witches, and us!" Jayden looked him in the eyes.

"Come here!" Rick called a girl from his pack by waving two of his fingers, she had black curly hair and big eyes.

"Find the Sigma! Tell him that the Reegan has been born and tell him to gather all the wolves in the woods of the Deep Lake town by tonight!"

The girl nodded and jumped on a tree branch, she disappeared within a few seconds running from branch to branch.

"The evil you are talking about? Does that have to do anything with the black smoke? By any chance? And with that screech?" Rick asked.

When Jayden nodded Rick shook his head while looking at one of his pack members, a man with curly black long hair to call him closer "Tell him what you saw!"

"Before you found us I saw a man walking toward the woods calling out 'Who's there? Who is it?' and when he got closer, a shadow came in front from behind a tree, it brought its face closer to the man and their faces kind of merged together as if there was a veil covering their faces.

Well, that shadow flew higher and so did the man, his nails sunk in, it felt as if it was vacuuming his skin inside the shadow's body or whatever it was.

And within the next few minutes… There was nothing left of that man except for a meat loaf" That guy told him everything he saw "I'm still having goosebumps" He rubbed his arms.

"Can you explain what that shadow looked like? I mean obviously, it was a shadow but does it have any shape or height?" Jayden wanted to gather as much information as he could before leaving.

"No, no! I get it and it is a good thing you asked, This shadow was dark, very dark, it looks like a woman's, and its fingers are long, and the area below its waist is faded as if it is broken or missing!" The guy explained further.

"Thank you so much for your help! What is your name?" Jayden asked.

"My name is Shane, Shane Reed! And I am always at your service Reegan, You saved us all from the darkness that was consuming us, thank you!" He bowed down.

"Please! Don't act like that, if you want me to be your leader I will be but on my terms, no bowing down, no spying on me, and definitely not guarding me!" Jayden pleaded with a smile on his face

"I just want you to stand by my side when the time comes" It was hard but Jayden made them understand.

This act made them respect him more but they did as he said "Remember you can call us whenever you want, all you need to do is focus!" Rick and his pack left them on their own.

"Whatever the heaven that means" Jayden shrugged then he felt vibration in his pocket when he took out his phone he saw it was Patricia calling him.

"Brigid wants to talk to you," She said and handed over her phone to Brigid.

"Listen, be very careful around the Reaver" She was still saying when Jayden interrupted her.

"Slow down… The what? Tell me everything" Jayden spoke.

"We don't have time to slow down Jayden, This thing you are finding is called a reaver" Brigid explained.

"Wasn't that a squealer?" Jayden was confused.

"No! Squealer can't leave a body until it is transferred to another, but Squealer casts a reaver every night before the screeching starts, which wakes up just before dawn finding itself in any area that is exposed to sun, having less time to find a cover from the sunlight.

Each day a reaver finds a body and drains it leaving just a pot made of flesh, bones, and muscles leaving a hollow inside them, a hollow that can't be filled.

Each night the reaver dies, it dies exactly before the Squealer casts a new reaver.

Squealer wakes up stronger each day, but so does its hunger, and because it is irresistible that's why the vessel drinks the blood of ten bodies throughout the day to defeat the hunger.

Squealer consumes the parts that its hunger requires from the blood consumed by the vessel and when it's done, the vessel throws out all the blood, also because squealer can't digest the blood.

Keep two things in mind, one: once it gets strong it will take over Rose's body forever, it will learn her language her style everything, and two:… it can mind control" Brigid explained everything.

And with her last words what Jayden saw in the goblet replayed inside his brain, the way that shadow was mind-controlling Felix.

He turned off the phone and fell numb on his knees, he was feeling like a loser, a failure, who was trying hard to save everyone and everything, but ending up losing more and more.