Turn me. Part 1. Altar Coal

a minute, Venya,» Lyudmila said, alarmed. «That is, you want to say that Andrey and Lera not only got lost, but were abducted by aliens, and they experimented on them, and then threw them into a bale of hay?»

      «Yes, and also, probably, their memories were erased. Only now, I don’t really believe that these were aliens. Although, who can say, who can say? Here, look, a trace. You see? Here is my hand next to it.»

      He showed a picture on his smartphone, where a wolf print was clearly visible, almost the same size as the hunter’s palm.

      «What a horror!» Marianna covered her lips with her palm.

      «So, what are we going to do? We urgently need to call Peter,» said Lyudmila.

      «You, call, neighbor, you call,» Veniamin took up the mug, «and for now I’ll savor your noble tea. Eh-eh-eh, Lyudmila, what secret thing are you putting in there, to get such a taste?

      Usually, from such statements, the Lyudmila blossomed with pleasure, but now she was not up to it. With an anxious expression on her face, she dialed the phone of her eldest son.

      * * *

      As soon as the initiation rite was over, Kanny managed to independently turn into a wolf and return to human form several times in a row, a black raven, much larger than a normal bird, flew up to the sorcerer and dropped a note into his palm. After reading the note, the master spat and said gloomily, «This is bad. So, listen carefully, wolf cub. You may need a few more times to pass the spell, and then you will get used to it and be able to transform simply by the strong-willed order of your thoughts. And now, catch up with me, I’ll be waiting for you in the house. There’s something else that needs to be taught to you.»

      With these words, the sorcerer disappeared right in front of Kanny, leaving behind himself in the spot where he had just been, a kind of bluish haze of a human form, slowly dissolving into the air.

      «Master!» shouted the werewolf and took a few steps towards the place where his master stood a moment ago, and then, coming to his senses, confidently cast a spell and, in a completely eerie way, immediately turned into a huge wolf. He picked up the bag of clothes with his teeth and rushed into the forest in the direction of the forest-house, noting to himself that the transformation had become much less painful than it was before.

      A great feeling of pride and malevolence filled his being. He is no longer a slave to the Spell. Now he can become a man at any moment, and at any moment, if necessary, become a wolf again. The feeling of power intoxicated and turned his wolf’s head. At the same time, he understood that something must have gone wrong, and he needed to hurry, because there were still a few kilometers to Alex’s house from where he was. He ran, crouched low to the ground, as if he were creeping along it, enjoying the inner feeling of flexibility and strength, while not forgetting to scan the area with his incredibly sharp sense. Intuition told him that the reason why the master was so upset was precisely these two teenagers whom he needed to kill, and that everything would not be as simple as it seemed at first glance. However, it was precisely this strange invulnerability of theirs, which he felt in an incomprehensible way, which challenged the very essence of his wolf nature, that forced him to bare his teeth and look forward to a possible future reprisal.

      Chapter 5

      A huge black raven landed on the small attic balcony of base No.18 and, folding its wings, awkwardly stepped into the attic. A few seconds later the door leading from the attic into the house opened, and a squat man dressed in a black robe came out of it and, having examined himself, shook himself a little, and hurried down the stairs. After a short time, the sorcerer Alex, just as he disappeared from the place where he was together with Kanny, appeared in the center of the pentagram in the room where the ritual of transformation was usually performed. Here he had an unpleasant conversation with his master Tennius, about which he was informed by a werewolf messenger. To the more dedicated, Tennius was a powerful magician of the highest level. It was he who taught Alex everything he could, and therefore the guard was ready to go to great lengths to please his powerful patron and justify his trust.

      The sorcerer left the ritual room and, going into a spacious kitchen, sank into a small but comfortable chair, there he waited for his boss to be free and able to give him some time. For some, such concepts as witchcraft and science were completely incompatible, but not for Tennius. Being a man endowed with extraordinary power and authority, a consecrated magician. As a sorcerer and a man of a very extraordinary mind, Tennius believed that since the time of the very first alchemists and the so-called seekers of the philosopher’s stone, real science and witchcraft always walked side by side. An Italian by birth, he not only practiced magic, but in his circle of initiates was one of the five honorary owners of the so-called «rings of power». These were known to science in the form of the traditional symbol denoting an atom. However, only a few scholars knew what this symbol actually meant, and even more so, what power those who reached the level of the «Lord of the Rings» wielded. But for Tennius, each discovery of quantum physics only confirmed what he already knew and successfully practiced.

      He was not at all embarrassed that for some of the so-called witchcraft tricks, spells were needed, which in essence were nothing more than the call of the so-called «gods». That is, those whom Tennius considered the progenitors of mankind, who «arrived» on earth at the dawn of formation of people. When this «powerful race of gods’,» taught people the first basics of science and witchcraft, which was essentially the same thing for Tennius, and those who were in the same business as him. He considered it an honor to be on this side of the conflict and part of the «Great Opposition» to the One whom he considered the Main Enemy, that most powerful God named Yahweh, who in ancient times expelled the race of lesser gods to Earth because they challenged Him. They wished to reach the same high level of power that He himself had. Tennius understood that those whom he himself served and obeyed were still far from the power that Yahweh possessed, but he believed that it was only a matter of time, and the moment would come when, by joint efforts, they could not only reach His level, but even surpass the enemy with their might.

      However, now was not the time to go into all these details. Using a space portal opened for instant travel, Tennius’ ward, the sorcerer Alex, the guard of the 18^th base, had just arrived at the place, and he had already been informed about it by electronic sensors, by his own intuition and by a messenger in a black robe. Tennius had to talk to his ward and discuss some details, but first he needed to explain himself to the rest of the holders of the Rings of Power, the members of the council, the so-called Pentagrammaton, knowing that they too, were already here and waiting for him to join them. They had a lot of questions to discuss, and very little time, so the magician knew that his colleagues would not at all want to return to the case of the missing Ch-15 microchip, which in itself was a trifle, but their own privacy policy required them to take the matter as seriously as possible, so he was very annoyed that he still had not been able to resolve this issue.

      Coming out onto the veranda, magician greeted those gathered with a proud nod of his head and sat down in his place at the third letter. Saurris, Alyette, Tennius, Ounn, and Nonnie, they always sat in this order at the round table, each according to his own ray of the pentagram drawn on the table, and the letters that denoted each ray.

      «So, what do you have to tell me, gentlemen, besides what was already said in your message? By the way, I am grateful that your messenger delivered it to me and my ward,» Tennius said, nodding slightly towards Saurris.

      He replied with the same proud, barely noticeable nod, and said, «I would like to deal with this issue as soon as possible, because we still have a lot of much more important things on the agenda. So, as we’ve been informed, Mr. Tennius, your Ch-15 microchip had detected its location for a very short time. According to the information provided earlier, we learned that one of your two uninvited night guests named Andrey, left alive by your ward, found a chip in his pocket