Raiden bellied through the undergrowth, his heartbeat loud in his ears and the spiny branches catching on his clothes, skin and hair. They could see the tank and the gathering of soldiers that watched the streets for any trouble, weapons held with confident familiarity in their hands.
Raiden met his father’s eyes. Military trained vampires armed with machine guns were a worry. Bullets killed werewolves just as quickly as they did humans. Wade indicated with his head to withdraw.
“We can get around the tank easily enough,” Wade decided as they returned to the others. “It is more discouragement then defensive, too much for the purpose. It is the vampire army officers that are patrolling the gates behind it that concern me. They are well equipped, well trained, armed. We need to get around them without attracting their attention.”
“We need a diversion,” Raiden agreed eyeing Lia with worry. How was he going to get her past the gate?
“Where are the vampires?” Will murmured.
“Good question,” Wade replied, his eyes scanning around them. After his pithy instruction, Elior and his children had vanished from sight. “Let’s concentrate on getting ourselves to safety. The vampires can take care of themselves. Raiden, you have Lia.”
“Yes. Run for the first garden,” he told her. She nodded.
Will and Ethan were already undressing, preparing to shift, and Lia averted her eyes. Within moments, they were flanked by three oversized werewolves, the warm press of their fur against her skin comforting as she and Raiden edged through the gardens at the base of the fence that enclosed the werewolf estate.
As they reached the corner, the guards cried out in surprise, and Elior appeared briefly, lifting one by the throat with a snarling grin, before in a rain of blood, the man seemed to simply break apart, torn by movements too swift for sight, and Elior vanished again.
“Run!” Raiden hauled her to her feet, and kept his grip on her waist, running half crouched over her, through the gate, as the guards were distracted by Elior’s gory attack. They tumbled through the gate of the first house and crouched behind the hedge that edged the tidy lawn.
She saw Rebecca and Nate briefly as they seized one guard between them and tore him in half as they tugged him like a tug-of-war between them. She heard their laughter over the shrill scream of the dying man. Elior thrust his hand through the chest of another, tearing out the vampire’s heart, and crushing it in his grip. As the body fell, Lia wondered if the heart would regenerate, like a lost limb would.
“They are distracting them for us,” Raiden said grimly. “But now the vampires know that someone’s here and they will be on the lookout. Come on,” he decided. “Let’s go round the back. All the gardens are connected by gates. Hopefully the vampires are focusing on the streets, and we can get a clear path through to my house through the back yards.”
He took her hand and led her at half a jog around the side of the house, using his better vision to guide her around obstacles, keeping close to the greenery, and stilling on occasion, alert to movement. They made their way through four gardens, before she caught a glimpse of more than three werewolves tracking around them.
“There are others,” she gasped out. “Other wolves.”
“Of course,” he replied, pausing against the wall the house to let her catch her breath. “The pack is under attack. We are out in force, preparing to fight back. The young, old, and pregnant women will remain in the dens, but everyone else…” His grin was feral. “They are here in the shadows waiting for the command to attack.”
They continued through the dark gardens, until they hit a street corner, and Raiden led her around the side of the house. “Shit,” he pressed her back against the wall. “Lots of vampires on the road.”
“Are we far away?” She was sweating from the activity and nerves and shaking from fear and adrenaline.
“Have to cross the street, and then another four houses will bring us to my yard.”
“Not far then,” she was both relieved and fearful. This frantic game of hide and seek would soon be over, but when it ended, the real nightmare would begin.
He was silent and she glanced up at him. The shadows carved dark paths across his face, catching in lines and grooves that were new to him, evidence of the strain of the last two weeks furrowed into his skin.
“Raiden?”
The Other was golden in his eyes as he looked back to her. “Crossing the street will expose us. There are too many vampires to do so without them seeing us. The force seems to be concentrated here. I guess Lucian thinks we are in one of my family dens, which would be a good guess, because that is where I would like to be.”
“Okay,” Lia whispered. “So, what is the plan?”
“I have to shift,” he said regretfully. It would mean leaving her alone whilst he did so. “I can’t talk to the others if I am not in wolf form.” He moved her back around the house and opened the back door. “Inside Lia. Crouch behind the kitchen bench and stay there until I return.”
“Raiden,” she caught his face between her hands and kissed him, fearing for his safety. “I love you.”
He smiled and stroked her hair back from her face. “My mate.”
He edged his way out the door, and she saw him pull off his shirt through the windows as he walked towards the corner of the house. Once he was out of sight, she felt her way around the darkened room, her eyes gradually adjusting to the darkness until the furniture was darker blurs within the darkness. She continued forward until she was crouched behind the kitchen island in front of the fridge and could press her face into her knees.
This was her fault, she thought. This was because of her, her blood had given Lucian the strength and speed he needed in order to wage this war, first against the vampire hierarchy, then against humans, and now against the werewolves.
She searched within herself, within the knowledge of the grimoire, for an answer, but Evelyn’s descendants had spent generations creating the grimoire, and she’d had less than a day to distill the information into something usable.
Small spells rose to the surface, defensive and offensive magic that might help her hold her own if she and Raiden were discovered, but nothing sizable enough to balance out the powers her blood gave the vampires.
“Come on,” she whispered to herself. “Evelyn’s ancestors created vampires, surely there is something that you know, that will help?” Th knowledge of how to make and unmake vampires using magic rose to her mind, and she shuddered at the horrendousness of it, pushing that information aside. It was no use to her, she wanted to kill vampires, not make them.
Time. She needed time to learn from the information she had absorbed. But she had come into her knowledge too late, and the problem was already so big. Ultimately, she thought with a sigh, she was just a failed ballerina caught up in events too much for her.
The kitchen door opened, and she tensed, her heart stuttering until Raiden crouched beside her. He pulled his t-shirt on. His face was strained, and she drew in a sharp breath, realizing that something was very wrong.
“They have my mum,” his voice broke on his fear. She murmured and laid her hand on his forearm, offering comfort. “Tied her so that she can’t shift.”
“Lucian is…” He drew a deep breath through his nose. “Interrogating her. I guess they have discovered that we are not in the den of my parent’s house and are trying to determine our location. We have to move in before the interrogation progresses any further, Lia,” he met her eyes, his heart visibly breaking. “Before they hurt her anymore.”
“Oh god,” she realized what he was saying. Diedre was being tortured by the mad vampire and they were going to expose themselves deliberately in order to distract Lucian from her, enabling her rescue. “I should go alone,” she did not want him to die for her.
“No.” His Other flashed gold. “No, Lia. We do this together.” There was alpha command behind his voice. “Together, Lia,” he repeated.
“Okay,” she whispered reluctantly but unable to resist the alpha command in her mate’s voice. “And then what, Raiden?”
“I don’t know,” he said but his expression told her what he thought would happen. They would die together. She felt a tear track down her cheek. “We have to hope the pack wins.” He paused. “I won’t let him take you again, Lia, I promise.”
He would kill her, first. “Okay,” she rested her forehead against his, feeling the tears tracking down her face, the tightness around her heart an agony. “Raiden…”
“I know,” he pulled her against him and buried his face into her hair, breathing in. “Lia, I know. I love you. So much. There aren’t words enough to describe how I feel about you. You are my mate.”
She clung to him, pressing her face against his skin, capturing the last memory of his scent, his skin, the feel of his body against hers. “I love you.” They had been star-crossed from the beginning, she thought despairingly.
He kissed her, ferociously, his eyes fully golden, the Other at the forefront responding to the threat. “We fight, Lia,” he told her. “We fight, and we fight hard.”
She kissed him back, feeling the prick of his stubble beneath her hands.
As the kiss eased, he nodded, a muscle in the corner of his jaw ticking, and he took her hand. He was barefoot, she saw, knowing that he would probably need to shift before long. He led her through the house and out the front door.
On the porch, he caught her face between his hands again and kissed her, lingeringly, the kiss flavoured by her tears. “Fight, Lia,” he told her. “Fight and keep fighting.”
“I will.”
Golden eyes shimmered from the shadows as they walked up the front path and stepped out onto the road; werewolves watching, knowing what they were about to do, and why.
The vampires seemed puzzled by their sudden appearance, and a path opened before them as the vampires stepped to the side to allow them through. The road was lined with cars, doors left open as if the occupants had exited in a hurry, and Lia imagined that these vehicles had carried the invasion force into the packs’ territory. She could picture the abrupt arrival from how they had been discarded, could almost hear the roar of the engines, the screech of hard breaking tyres, smell the rubber that marred the road where tyres had bit.
Lucian had chained Diedre to the fence in front of her house spread-eagled. Her lip was split, and there was a bruise forming over her cheek, and her hair stuck to her head with sweat. The sleeves of her blouse had been torn from her arms, baring the skin to Lucian’s torture, and Lia had to look away from what he had done.
She could understand why Diedre couldn’t shift – with her arms and legs pinned like they were, the wolf joints and bones would break during a shift. Diedre had no choice but to endure the torture, or severely injured herself trying to escape it.
Lia tightened her grip around Raiden’s hand. She could hear his growl, deep in his throat.
Lucian turned from Diedre, and his face lit up as he saw their approach. “My darling Lia,” he purred. “So nice of you to join us. Come here,” he curled his fingers to summon her to him.
And, just like that, she was back in that little grey room. Her skin crawled, her blood turned to ice, and her hair stood on end along her arms and the back of her neck. She panted like a trapped rabbit, her heart racing within a rib-cage constricted.
Fear tasted a lot like blood, she thought.
“Lucian,” Raiden had stepped before her, physically sheltering her from the blonde vampire. “Mum,” there was question in his voice.
“Raiden,” Diedre replied lifting her chin, her eyes fierce, proud, and golden with her Other.
Lucian’s lips curled, and he laughed, but the tone of the laughter was mocking. “You werewolves have balls,” he sneered. “I will give you that much. Lia,” he said with increased firmness and held out a hand and gestured come hither with his fingers. “Come here, or I will rip your dog’s heart from his chest and eat it whilst you watch.”
Lia drew in a deep, shuddering breath and stepped in front of Raiden. Now was the time, she told herself, to fight back. “You could try,” she brought her power to her hands. “But that would just make me mad.”
Lucian’s eyes narrowed as he evaluated her risk to him. “Always so feisty,” he reproved. “This time, I think I will heed Alex’s advice, and rip your tongue out of your mouth. You will find it difficult to cast your little spells without it.”
Raiden growled as vampires moved to enclose them, leaving no path of escape. Lia’s power flashed as it created a shield around them, and the vampires danced back away from its perimeter as it sizzled and spat.
“Very pretty,” Lucian smirked. “But how long can you maintain it for? And how long can you watch me hurt Diedre?” He dug a finger into an open cut in Diedre’s arm and she flinched, her neck cording as she bit back on her teeth in a grimace of pain. He licked the blood off his finger, smiling at Raiden provocatively. “Werewolf always tastes so… gamey.”
“F-k you, Lucian,” Raiden spat. “Hold on mum.”
“I am fine,” she bared her teeth in a snarl. “Lucian ought to worry about what I will do to him when I get free.”
Lia saw a flash of movement from the corner of her eye.
Lucian reacted, his movement so swift that it seemed that he did not move at all, and suddenly Elior stood before him, his wrist, reaching for Lucian’s throat, caught in Lucian’s grasp. The two vampires bared their teeth at each other, and moved, blurring motion as they exchanged blows, and wounds appearing as the fight took pace too fast to track.
Lia saw Wade, naked, run up to the front fence, and use a bolt cutter on the chain that bound Diedre. She shifted immediately, tearing through her clothes impressively, landing on all four paws and snarling, her hackles raising, the wounds on her arms visible even in her shift as strips where the fur was peeled off showing raw flesh below. On the other side of the fence, Wade shifted and stalked to the open gate, until he stood beside his mate, growling audibly.
The vampire force that surrounded them were tracking the battle of Elior and Lucian with bewildered awe, and those few who had noticed the release of Diedre, obviously considered the alpha pair as lower risk than the fist fight that took place too fast to see except for momentary pauses when the combatants locked, snarling, and hissing at each other.
Beyond the semi-circle of vampires, taking advantage of their distraction, wolves stalked the shadows. After that first glance, Lia kept her eyes to the battle waging between the two vampires, so as not to give away the approaching werewolf force.
Lucian and Elior locked again, each holding the other’s throat in one hand, and the other arm by the wrist., panting. Lucian’s lip was bleeding, and there was a nail gouge just beneath Elior’s left eye, both men’s clothing showed the passage of the fight, torn and soiled with blood and dirt.
Lucian grinned. “Still weak, Elior. You might have had her blood, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are weak. Inbred. Bloodlines are telling, and what they produce,” he snorted his disdain. “Pathetic.”
“I am not even trying,” Elior replied, smugly. “Just feeling you out to see what you can do.”
His next move broke Lucian’s arm, and the vampire cried out sharply in pain. The bone pierced the skin. Lucian hissed, grasping his forearm by the wrist and pulling, the bone sliding back under the skin, and setting into place with an audible click. He raised his arm to his mouth and licked the wound closed.
Elior watched, just out of arms reach, his hand on his ribs, recovering from an injury that was unseen beneath his clothing.
“We could do this all night,” Lucian observed.
“I am certainly prepared to do so,” Elior replied with a sneering grin.
“I have more pressing matters to deal with than a relic like yourself,” Lucian replied archly. “World domination, for starters. And you forget, I have the advantage,” he gestured to the army around him. “I am not here alone.”
Elior laughed. “Neither am I.”
The werewolves snarled, alerting the army of vampires to their presence, ringing them, the vampires’ alarm rippling through the company, as they turned outwards, preparing to defend themselves.
“A dog pack,” Lucian chuckled. “One that is outnumbered and out classed. Dogs fall to gunshot, as much as humans do.”
“I wasn’t talking about them,” Elior said with relish. There was gasp of surprise from the army as two paths were shoved through the vampires, and Rebecca and Nate appeared at Elior’s side.
“Hi, Lucian,” Rebecca ran her tongue over her left canine, cleaning blood from the ivory. She snapped her teeth together in a ghoulish grin.
“Rebecca,” Lucian smiled slowly. “How interesting,” he looked back to Elior. “Because, neither am I.”
Toby and Alex appeared, flanking him.
Lia drew in a harsh breath. “Oh, god,” she whispered.
“Lia?” Raiden murmured. “How are they like Lucian?”
“They drank from me when they stole me that night. Not as much, though, if that makes a difference…”
Raiden grimaced. “I think we are about to find out.”
The six vampires sprung at each other with a roar, and as if this were a signal, the werewolves and vampire army leapt into action. The sound was overwhelming, a tidal wave of violence that triggered a primal instinct in Lia, turning her bones to water as gunshots, screams, and snarls combined.
Raiden crouched over her as bullets ricocheted off her shield.
“Lia,” he was panting, his Other rising, fighting back the need to shift. “We need to seek shelter.” He wanted to be fighting alongside his pack, she knew, meeting his eyes. But he couldn’t whilst he had to protect her.
A wolf, tossed by a vampire, struck the outside of the shield, fur smoking. Lia exclaimed and released the shield. Raiden ran to where the wolf had landed, his hands checking for injuries.
“It is Tara,” he looked up at Lia with fear in his eyes.
“Shit,” she dropped to her knees beside him. “What is wrong with her?”
A vampire fell over them, knocking Lia onto her side, whilst Raiden crouched over his sister protecting her from flying feet. The vampire had his arms crossed, fending off the snapping jaws of a wolf. His scream as the wolf, infuriated, sank sharp teeth into his forearm, was brutal.
Raiden and Lia’s heads jerked up as there was a flash above them, and Cael hurtled towards the ground, his wings tucked tight to his body, screaming, a shrill sound of anguish and fury that cut through the roar of the battle around them, drawing all eyes heavenwards, mouth falling open in astonishment and awe.
“Lia!” Raiden cried out, too late as Cael seized her by the waist, and surged back into the air, the force of his wing strikes carrying them above the rooftops before the vampires or werewolves had the chance to respond.
“No!” She shrieked kicking and flailing against the winged man. “Cael! No! Put me back down!”
Cael held her against him, his wings working hard as he lifted them upwards, ignoring her, his face angled upwards, and the cords of his neck standing out against the skin. He had stopped that terrible scream, but his mouth was still open, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a terrible grimace.
“Cael!” She ceased to fight and instead clung to his shoulders as the ground receded below them. “Cael! I need to help them…”
He hovered, so high that the battle between the werewolves and vampires was lost to sight, the houses like doll houses below them.
“This all happened because of me.” He was weeping, and the sight of his tears stole her anger at his interference and clenched her chest with panic. “I was stupid enough to believe I was meant to pull a little girl out of a burning car. I am the reason, and my people have worked it out – they know that this disturbance, this slave war, is because of me.”
“What has happened?” Something terrible, she realized, had caused that scream.
“They are hunting down my entire line down, and they are making sure we don’t survive the amputation of our wings,” his response was a sob, and she felt the shudder pass through him. “My mother… my father… Oh, f-k,” he cried it out, his hands gripping her so tightly it caused her to cry out in pain. “Oh, f-k,” he repeated, sucking in air, his chest heaving. “What have I done? My mother warned me.”
“I am sorry,” she breathed. His pain was terrible to behold. “But Raiden, his family, my friends… They’re fighting for their lives down there. You must return me.”
“I broke the rules and I interfered in the slave realm and now my family,” his voice broke and he looked away his face a rictus of pain. “My family is paying for my self-indulgence, for my weird addiction to you.”
“Cael,” terror stole her breath. “What are you…?” She looked down, suddenly realizing just how far from the ground they were. “Cael, please… No.”
“Because of me,” he said darkly. “I shouldn’t have saved you,” the tears tracked silently down his face. “Evelyn gave birth to a monster, and it created a mutant line, a toxic line, it’s no wonder that you have brought about the slaves’ Armageddon, you are cursed, you are poison.”
She gasped, clutching his shoulders, fear racing through her. “Cael, no… I am pregnant.”
“You are the reason for this, Cecelia,” he said quietly. “You are also the way to end this.” He released his hold on her and framed her face with his hands, kissing her savagely. “I am sorry.”
“Cael!” She shrieked it, struggling to hold herself to him as gravity tugged her down. He pulled her arms from his neck, her nails gouging the skin, the blood running in trails down his chest and then his forearms, as she fought for grip. For a moment their eyes met, hers desperate and pleading, and his grieved. And then he released her.
Her scream cut through the sky as she fell.