Revelations: Cain and Abel, #5

By Magus Tor

Cain and Abel returns to Scotland, where it all began and where it would end. They will know the truth and the truth would sets them free. Follow their journey as it comes to a full circle and see what secrets lie awaiting for them. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Magus Tor
• Release date: Jul 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386362586

Magus Tor

Magus Tor is a dreamer who enjoys dreaming varied dreams of being a doctor, a lawyer, a police officer and a teacher but never in the wildest dream to become a writer. Since starting to write in 2007, Magus continues to explore creating worlds in his imaginative mild. Although he wishes to specialize in writing fantasy but his mind twisted his will and he ended up writing more Science Fiction than Fantasy. So far, his only fantasy novella is D-Nine: Protectors of the Crown.

Book preview

Chapter 1

A re you getting scared ?

Shhh! The girl hissed.

Why? The boy laughed. Will the vampire hear us?

It’s not funny! The girl punched him in the chest. "Millie told me that her boyfriend’s best friend saw him here! It’s for real!"

Then why did we come if you weren’t ready to have your blood sucked out? He asked her.

I’m an investigator by nature, she said. And because you dared me.

The boy wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear, I really just wanted to get you out here alone.

She tried to push her way out of his embrace, but stumbled on the crumbling blocks from the castle walls that lay strewn about the grounds. Later, she said and escaped his grip and ran toward the gaping open door of the entrance. He chased after her, but as they rounded the corner, they both shrieked.

Then they laughed, It’s just a cat!

The striped tabby stood with her back arched and all her fur standing up. She growled at them and twitched her tail.

I’ll take care of it, the boy said. Here kitty, kitty. Do you wanna go for a swim in the Loch?

The cat swatted at the boy and he swatted back trying to grab the cat’s arm.

Stop it! The girl said. Don’t hurt it!

Yes, do stop. A voice came from above them.

They looked up to see a dark figure balancing upon the railing of a crumbled stairwell, defying gravity. They froze knowing that they had come upon the vampire.

He jumped, but then floated down and landed light on his feet in front of them. He was dressed in a long, black overcoat and was as pale as the cloudy sky. The boy and girl froze in his presence. May I help you? He asked.

W-we were lost, but we’ll be going now, the boy said.

Are you the vampire? The girl asked.

A grin spread across his face before he said, Maybe. He started to circle them as they clung together. "Or maybe I’m just a murderer waiting for my next delicious....victims! He lunged at their faces exposing his fangs.

Both boy and girl screamed and ran blind by fear and stumbled. The girl tripped over the rubble and seemed to have twisted her ankle. She called to the boy and he looked back over his shoulder, but continued to run off toward the woods. The girl pulled herself back up and she limped off after him.

Esmerelda twitched her tail as she watched them disappear. You should have let me handle it, she said. Now they’re going to go tell all their friends that you’re real and they’ll come back with torches and pitchforks.

Well at least I got rid of them for now, Cain said. Besides, that boy was going to throw you in the lake.

I have five more lives left.

Yes, but you can’t keep using them up to keep us hidden. We can’t stay here forever, Ezzie. You know we’ll eventually have to leave.

And go someplace warmer, I hope?

I promise.

And will we look for Abel? Again?

No, Esmerelda. We will not look for Abel. He wants nothing to do with us. He would kill me if he could. Cain looked off as far as the foggy Scottish landscape would allow, and try to will Ruth’s ghost to appear to him again.

I don’t know why, after all this time, you do not listen to my council. I can sense the future. Those people will return with others. And you will see Abel again. Your stories will be joined once again.

Cain did not listen because both of Esmerelda’s predictions were things he feared. And he intended on staying right where they were until Ruth’s spirit returned to him.

Scotland had been their meeting place over the centuries. Whenever they got separated, they agreed to meet back here at the castle where Cain had rescued a vampire. Now he hid among the ruins of that very castle, abandoned but providing shelter. But most of all, it was a place for Ruth’s spirit to find him.

Cain had returned to their meeting place years after Ruth had died in the volcano. Running from Abel and from his own guilt, he returned to their place to hide out for the rest of his days as far as he was concerned, but on the first night he arrived with Esmerelda and wept at the memories of Ruth that the place conjured up, she appeared.

At first Cain thought his grief and longing for his friend had caused his eyes to play tricks on him because his friend, the woman he saw die by jumping into a volcano, was standing before him. She was faint, transparent even, but she was there.

Ruth? Cain asked the apparition.

Yes, she answered back. You came to our meeting place. I am glad I know where to find you.

Ruth, he pleaded to her, I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you! I’m so sorry!

I know you are Cain, but it was what had to be done. I came here to tell you that you need to release yourself from guilt. You did the right thing.

I miss you, he choked.

Ruth smiled at him. He hoped she would say she missed him too, but longing seemed to be absent in the spirit world. Instead she said, I also hoped to find you to tell you something very important. I came with a message.

What is it?

Cain, you did the right thing by letting me die, but you aren’t finished yet. You need to finish- Ruth stopped talking and looked all around with fear in her eyes. Someone is coming. I have to go!

Wait! Cain called to her, but it was too late. She was gone.

After she disappeared, her disembodied voice carried on the wind and said, I will be back.

That was three years ago and still he waited. When you were immortal, patience was yours. You had all the time in the world. He thought about how Liu, the Chinese princess, turned out to be an earth-bound angel charged with protecting the last Air Dragon and that she orchestrated Ruth’s sacrifice to the volcano to release the dragon, who would play its part in ending World War II. He had loved her and she had betrayed him, but deep down, he knew she made the decision to sacrifice a number of people in order to save many more. But it was Christopher who ultimately pushed Ruth into the volcano, but Cain was sure she was going to sacrifice herself anyway.

He thought of how Bohai, their weredragon friend saved them all several times. He hoped that Bohai was well and living a good life back in China.

He thought of Esmerelda’s lost kittens and hoped they were happy and safe somewhere. He knew she hoped the same and that she missed them as much as he missed Ruth.

She might not come back, Cain, Esmerelda said to him, pulling him out of memory.

But then she might. She had a message for me. It must have been important. She will be back.

If it was that important, she would have returned sooner.

Time might be different in the spirit world. She’ll be back. Besides we don’t have anywhere to go.

Esmerelda sighed. What she longed for was Portugal and the beautiful castle they had lived in for years over the cliffs of the Atlantic Ocean. The air was warm all the time and there was plenty of sun to bask in. But she knew those days were over. That was about three hundred years ago that they left. Now she was back in cold, cloudy Scotland. But at least they were settled near a loch and there were plenty of fish.

They boy and girl had come because rumors had spread around the nearby towns of the castle ruins being haunted by strange music coming from it and those stories morphed into that of an ancient vampire who once roamed the land had now returned and was hiding in the castle remains. It was one of those legends that were actually true. Not all tales are made up by active imaginations.

Cain wasn’t the only local legend in the area. Many years before they arrived, there had been talk of a monster in the loch. Several people claimed to have seen a creature with a long neck emerge from the water and sink back in again. But after three years, neither Cain nor Esmerelda ever saw such a beast. Scotland really was a land of mist and mystery.

The weather was suitable for Cain’s mood. He had never spent so much time in isolation and their days and nights were filled with fishing, sleeping, and to keep himself sane, Cain had acquired another guitar and spent hours reacquainting himself with the musical skills he had let slide over the years since he lived in the Portugal castle. He returned to his Spanish style of music and it came back quickly, but something about the Scottish landscape infiltrated his music with the jigs and reel time signatures of the region. The hybrid was something unlike anything anyone had ever heard. It was a haunting and frightening style of music played frantically and loud enough for people listening from a distance to hear enough to cause them to stay away.

The days and years stretched on this way with only the occasional thrill seeker making the trek to the isolated castle out of curiosity, until one day a large group of people arrived looking for Cain.

They emerged from the woods and materialized in the mist. At first Cain thought it was a giant creature, but as it approached the castle, he could see that it was a group of individuals keeping close together and moving as one. Esmerelda growled.

They moved with purpose toward the castle as Cain hid himself out of sight watching through a hole in the battlement. He could see that they all had long black hair and dark skin. They were dressed in blue jeans and button down flannel shirts, but they wore the look of warriors on their faces.

They stopped several yards from the castle’s crumbling walls and started to sniff the air. And then at once they all changed. Their skin disappeared under sudden black fur, their sniffing noses elongated and their fingers turned to claws. They’re werewolves! Cain whispered to Esmerelda.

They continued to sniff the air and then one of them stepped forward and spoke. Cain! Descendent of the Fire Dragons! Show yourself!

For a moment Cain continued to hide. He was too stunned by being called by name and lineage to move. Stand up! Esmerelda hissed at him.

He obeyed and stood tall above them behind the crumbling battlement wall. Who are you? He called.

We are the descendants of Ruth! We are from the lineage of the Fire Dragons! We have come across the ocean to find you!

Why? Cain yelled back at the pack.

Ruth sent us!

At this news Cain scrambled down from his vantage point and went out to meet them. Esmerelda held back at the castle door, not having the confidence in these strangers that Cain did.

He stood before the one who spoke to him. His fur was thick and black, but he still wore the clothes of the man he was just moments ago. What did she say? he asked him.

She came to us in a vision. She said you were here and that we needed to find you. She said there is important work for us to do together. She said there is sacrifice ahead for all the descendants of dragons.

What is it? Cain asked.

We thought you would know, the wolf answered.

She came to me too. It was her spirit. She said she had a message. But she disappeared before she could give it to me. Who are you, anyway?

I am Sharp Eye. I am a first creation of Ruth. We were Cherokee until we met her. She made us wolves. She is dead now.

I know, Cain said and could not hide his guilt. It would not leave him even though Ruth told him to release it.

How did she die? Sharp Eye asked.

Cain swallowed the lump in his throat. He had never given voice to the story before. She sacrificed herself for the greater good. She fed herself to a volcano in order to release the last remaining Air Dragon to end a war and to save many lives. It was sacrificing a few to save many more.

That sounds like her, a female wolf said behind Sharp Eye. She smiled and they all nodded in agreement.

We all felt it when she died. Somehow though we are still able to become wolves. Before she died, we only changed when she did, but now we are like one mind that changes together at will and against our will at the full moon.

My name is Strong Heart. We have travelled so far to find you, the female said. At great expense.

I am sorry that I do not have more information for you, Cain said. I don’t know what it is Ruth wants of me or of you.

Will her spirit return to you? Sharp Eye asked.

I believe it will. That is why I stay here. It was our meeting place. She knows where to find me.

But it has been three years since we’ve seen her, Esmerelda said emerging from the castle. She expected the werewolves to be shocked at a talking cat. But apparently she wasn’t the first one they had seen.

They all smiled at her when she spoke and one of them said, Just like Gabriel!

Gabriel? Esmerelda said stepping forward. My son?

You are Gabriel’s mother? Sharp Eye asked.

Yes, Esmerelda said. But I haven’t seen him since Ruth released the Air Dragon. We all got separated. That was many years ago. Have you seen him recently?

All the wolves smiled and Sharp Eye turned toward the tree line far away. He released a piercing whistle and soon a black and white figure emerged from the trees. Gabriel trotted out only hoping that his mother was with Cain.

Esmerelda saw her son and ran to him and nose to nose, they reunited. There was much purring and face rubbing. How did you get here? she asked.

When I lost you, all of you, I went to the only other people I knew. I went to the wolves because I could find them and I wanted to tell them what happened to Ruth. But they already knew. After I rejoined them, they summoned Ruth’s spirit and she told them of what happened and how to find Cain.

What was her message? Esmerelda asked.

Just what Sharp Eye said. That there are sacrifices to be made and important work for us to do together.

We are hungry, Sharp Eye said. We need to hunt.

There are many animals in the woods. There are deer and squirrels, Cain said. I hunt there myself.

Will you join us? Sharp Eye asked.

Cain moved through the group of wolves and said, Follow me.

The light was fading as the vampire led the wolves into the forest. They were silhouettes of mist that moved silently into the trees. The wolves sniffed the air and picked up a scent. Cain followed behind.

Ahead they spotted the shape of a deer with giant antlers. It froze in awareness of their presence. Then all at once the wolves lunged and the deer sprinted off into the trees. The wild chase began.

Cain moved to the side of the pack letting them have the deer while he sought out a rabbit for himself. In the distance he could hear the yelping of the pack. He thought it sounded like a victory howl. Then closer to himself there was a rustling of leaves. His powerful eyes zeroed in on what he was looking for.

Up against moss-covered rock formations there was a rabbit. It was large and appeared to be black. It knew it had been spotted and before Cain could make a move, the rabbit leapt around behind the wall of rock.

Slowly Cain moved around to the back of the rocks and he heard the rabbit scuttling away into the woods. Cain was ready to run in pursuit and to follow the trail of turned up leaves made by the rabbit, when he froze.

Up ahead, he saw no rabbit. What he saw was a very tall figure seemingly draped in black. It moved slowly and Cain approached it slowly. It was a person, but an unusually large person, cloaked in black fabric from head to the ground. It seemed to float through the woods.

Hello? Cain called to it.

The figure stopped and turned toward him. It had a face, but whether it was male or female, Cain could not tell. It was a mask of white. It’s mouth a pit of black and eyes that were dark holes. An unfamiliar feeling of terror swept over him as he looked into the abyss of those eyes. And for a moment, Cain could feel a heart beat within his chest. That was the scariest part of all. Cain had not felt his own heart beat since Eve the Fire Dragon turned him into a vampire all those centuries ago.

He backed away into the rocks, wishing he could dissolve into them and get away from this creature. But instead of coming after him, the creature smiled and turned away, slowly dissolving into the forest.

Cain! A voice called nearby. He responded by moving back around the rocks, shaken and dizzy. He could not feel his heart beating anymore.

Sharp Eye was there back in his human form, but with the blood of a deer smeared across his face and hands. Did you feed? he asked.

Cain shook his head. No. But I’m not hungry anyway.

Sharp Eye looked at him closely.