Sirens dragged Lia out of a deep sleep, and she lay for a moment staring blankly at the ceiling, listening without comprehending the origin of the sound. She had let Elior and his children feed off her five times over twenty four hours, and the blood loss had left her body feeling heavy and her head feeling light and foggy, recalling unpleasant memories of her time in the grey room with Lucian.
Raiden had insisted no more for at least a day, but she felt the pressure of time like a metronome ticking inside her head. Whilst they took their time, the world outside her house was being torn to shreds by the vampires. The sirens, she thought, were not a good sign. How many people had lost their lives whilst she had slept?
“I will go look,” Raiden pulled on his jeans and t-shirt and headed for the stairs. He paused on the first turret step, looking back at her. “Lia, I am sure it is nothing. Put some clothes on though, just in case.”
“Alright,” she pulled on her t-shirt dress and searched around for her underwear. Raiden’s struggle with his Other over the vampires’ drinking from her had resulted in several rounds of frantic sex.
“Ah,” she found them near the base of the table, and almost pulled them on before their state registered, the lace hanging off the elastic. “Shit.” She remembered that he had shredded them in his haste. It had not bothered her at the time, as eager as he in the moment, but now it was inconvenient. She sighed and contemplated the contents of her underwear drawer – at the rate Raiden was moving through her underwear, she would run out. She’d have to go to the walk-in-robe and hope to find another pair.
She made her way down the stairs and eased the secret door open. In the walk-in-robe, she pulled on a change of underwear, and her sneakers. She crept into the bathroom, and used it, before brushing her teeth and hair. When she opened the door, Raiden was waiting for her, tension evident in his face.
“We have to move,” he said. “I don’t want to, but there are rioters on the street outside. We have to move into pack territory again. Rioters won’t come there, because of the glamour on the area.” He grabbed her as glass shattered in the front room. “Shit. Because we need more broken windows,” he complained.
Smoke billowed into the bedroom door, and he cursed, releasing her in order to go into the hallway. She heard voices, and activity and followed. The front parlor was on fire, and Will and Ethan struggled to contain it with the probably out-of-date fire extinguisher and fire blanket from the kitchen.
“Molotov cocktail,” Raiden growled. “This house will be a demo job before all this is done.”
The werewolves had managed to put out the fire, but the smoke that rolled out of the room was thick and acrid, biting the back of Lia’s throat. Raiden hurried her down the hall into the lounge, where the smoke was only a shadow of scent carried in with them.
Elior, Rebecca and Nate were sober from their last drink and they and Wade were in the solarium, the lights off, pressed against the glass watching the back garden. Wade glanced over his shoulder as they entered.
“People in the yard.”
Glass shattered but did not fall free of the frame as someone struck the side of the solarium with a baseball bat. The repeated the action, shattering glass in a pattern of squares, like a chess board, and laughing as they did it.
Lia was not sure whether outrage at the wanton destruction or fear had precedence.
“Vampires?” Raiden asked quietly as Ethan and Will joined them.
“Humans,” Rebecca’s teeth were bared in a snarl. “We can take care of them for you.”
“We need to move,” Wade replied. “It is no use trying to protect this house. We need to fight the war, not pointless skirmishes. There are too many out there, and they are bent on destruction.” He plucked the fairy from his nest and put him into the pocket of his shirt. “F-king fairies,” he hissed wincing and examining his bitten finger.
“Sharp teeth,” Lia empathized.
“He will like my mate’s garden,” Wade explained. “Safer there for him.”
The laundry door rattled in its frame, and glass broke elsewhere. They heard voices inside the house as someone climbed in through the front window, and a heavy crash of furniture.
“Display case in front room,” Lia decided the origin of the sound. “Nothing valuable,” she reassured herself. “Just knick-knacks.” And memories, many, many childhood memories of dusting with her grandmother, when those sorts of knick-knacks were fascinating and being permitted to handle them held appeal. Now they were nuisances, just another thing to clean.
Raiden gripped Lia by the waist. “Time to go.”
“We will clear the way,” Elior signaled Rebecca and Nate, and when they moved, it was so swiftly that they blurred from sight, and the air disrupted by their passage lifted the werewolves’ hair.
“F-k,” Ethan said his eyes widening.
Lia heard cries from the front room.
Wade opened the door and led the run down the passage. Lia caught sight of Elior’s laughing face as they rushed past the front room, his teeth were bloody and eyes wild with the red glow of his Other, and then they were out into the night.
Her front yard was full of people, the cars in her drive had broken windows and were burning.
The vampires followed, their passage marked by a distortion of sight and the shifting of air. She heard someone cry out, and saw a body fall to the ground bloody out of the corner of her eye as the vampires fed.
Raiden propelled her through her front fence and out onto the road. She sucked in air, the impact of the chaos hitting her at once. Houses burned, the skyline was orange with flames, and red and blue lights glowed in the distance.
The night was full of motion, people wielding makeshift weapons, and torches. There were screams and yells as homeowners tried to protect their property, and hysteria exacerbated their altercations with the rioters.
“Hunting vampires,” Raiden murmured, hunching over her protectively as they made their way between the groups. “Fools. Don’t run, Lia, it will incite their prey response.”
“I thought they were human.”
“They are – but humans are predators too.”
“It is a cover,” Wade replied with disdained disgust. “They are not hunting vampires. They would have no chance against them. These are just the sort of people that will use any opportunity to cause shit, break, rape and take. It is in their nature, and any excuse to indulge in it, they will take. History is riddled with people just like them.”
The werewolves flanked Lia. They did not run but moved determinedly through the seething chaos. Occasionally they would attract the attention of a group of rioters, but a barked alpha command was usually enough to dissuade further action.
“Where are we going?” Lia wondered, skittering as a crashing sounded from a house, screams rising shrilly. Raiden drew her closer to him, putting his arm around her, offering shelter and comfort against his side.
“Pack territory. The glamour will stop rioters from entering our streets.” Raiden growled meeting the eyes of a man carrying a baseball bat who turned with a grin at the sound of a woman’s voice. “Don’t even think about it,” he snarled, his tone heavy with alpha command. “Go home.”
The man dropped his bat and turned, only to be seized by a vampire coming to a stop before him, crying out in fear and pain as Rebecca fed, finishing unnecessarily messily, tearing out his throat in a spray of blood. She dropped the man to the ground. He fell limply and did not move again.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Raiden was furious. “I had it taken care of.”
“We protect the font,” she replied, her eyes glowing red and her chin stained with fresh blood. She was revelling in the chaos, the violence and the freedom to feast as she liked without care or caution.
This was what was happening worldwide, Lia realized. Lucian had removed the need for secrecy from vampires, had opened the door for them to indulge in their Other nature, and removed any repercussion to doing so and the vampires were running as wild as the rioters, the two forces destroying everything around them.
Because of her.
“F-k.” Raiden put his arm around Lia’s shoulders and moved them forwards.
“What is the font?” Lia had a suspicion that it was her, but she was unfamiliar with the term.
“Vampire religion,” Ward replied between his teeth, unhappily. “Sometimes it means the source of vampires, sometimes the source of vampire power. Apparently, Rebecca has decided it is you.”
“Which makes absolutely no sense,” Raiden muttered.
“Religion rarely does,” Ward replied. “We worship the moon, for example.”
“That is because…” Raiden trailed off, distracted by a police blockade ahead under heavy attack from rioters, but giving back worse than they were getting. Blood splattered the clear shields the police officers wielded, from the inside as the officer’s teeth tore out the throat of a man. “Shit. Those police are vampires.”