Travis waved to Douglas and Maddock. They turned away and circled around the house so that we approached from four different directions.
I held up my hand, signaling everyone to stop. Their voices were loud, and they boasted about their plan to take down the Mason pack once and for all and how pleased Xerxes would be that they were taking down some of Sanctuary’s residents in the process.
They were proud of it. Happy they had a hand in slaughtering innocent people. Their species.
Travis signaled for my attention, but didn’t speak. If we could hear them, they would be able to hear us if we weren’t careful.
“Are they all in the lodge?” one male voice asked.
“Except for the four outside that followed me,” another voice answered.
Travis stood from his crouched position, followed by myself, Douglas and Maddock.
“Shit,” I muttered. Douglas and Maddock moved toward Travis, and I did the same. We converged on the lawn, only a few feet from each other, as the front door opened and the six Lycans inside came out one at a time as if they had all the time in the world and weren’t concerned at all that we were ready to tear them to shreds. But mostly my gut was screaming to know where the rest of the group was hiding. Were they surrounding us? I couldn’t hear them. Smell them. Nothing.
My wolf paced, eager to fight and mad as hell that they’d threatened our mate. The alpha bond between Travis and I pulsed with energy, but he didn’t move, so neither did the rest of us. We all waited for his lead.
“We’re supposed to offer you a chance to come over to our side,” one of the largest Lycans said, his voice full of confidence. “Thanks for showing up.”
His disdain made me swallow nervously. It was all too easy. Too lackadaisical.
“Are you in charge?” Travis asked, his voice low and calculated. Douglas and Maddock were pretending to pay attention, but I knew they were completely focused on the fields, watching for even the smallest movement. If they had us surrounded already, though, we were dead.
Six we could take. But more tipped the scales in their favor. I couldn’t imagine not returning to Charlotte. It was the worst feeling I’d ever encountered, seconded only by the memory of watching my parents murdered by their neighbors.
“I am right now,” the man answered.
Wrong answer. My heart beat faster, and every muscle in my body tensed. If he wasn’t truly in charge, who was? And where were they?
“Travis,” I hissed. “The lodge.”
His eyes widened as realization struck us both at the same time. It’d been a ruse the whole time. They’d purposefully tried to lure us away from the lodge, leaving them with fewer guards, and it had worked. Fuck. We’d walked right into it.
“Kill?” Douglas whispered, taking a step toward the group of men who didn’t deserve to be a Lycan. No matter the pack, Lycans protected each other. The old families would’ve been horrified by such a lack of loyalty.
“Yes, Douglas,” Travis answered.
The mercenary soldiers lunged first, but we were only a split second later. Six to four were decent odds, especially since we had Douglas. His roar gave the hair on the back of my neck a reason to stand on end. If they weren’t shitting bricks at the sound, they would be soon enough. We were all seasoned fighters, but Douglas was fifty shades of crazy along with being a skilled soldier.
They drew handguns and fired off maybe one round each, hitting nothing. Within seconds, we’d disarmed them, and the guns lay scattered in pieces on the dusty grass. Douglas broke one guy’s neck in less than five seconds. I didn’t see it, but I heard his roar of victory and the distinct sound of vertebrae cracking.
He was a beast on the battlefield. An angry fucking beast who, at home, loved to hold newborn babies and sing them to sleep. He said he never got to hold his firstborn. His wife was killed while she was still pregnant. Most of us attributed that loss to his ferocity.
Travis said Rose gave him a house in Sanctuary years ago. His job was training the younger generations in fighting skills. But Travis said he doted on children every spare minute he had. Babies especially. Any mother desperate for a few minutes’ rest knew they could call Douglas. He had the touch. There wasn’t a baby in town that hadn’t been soothed to sleep by that man.
But he refused to date or even consider the possibility of finding another mate. He just said Mira was the only one and walked away anytime the subject was broached.
A rush of air across my face brought me back to the present. The guy lunging at me swung another right hook, but I caught his jaw with my fist first, sending him hurtling backward onto the old farmhouse porch. The steps creaked as I clambered up after him. I knelt over him, straddling his body and beat his face until I couldn’t see it any longer. There was only redness and swollen mounds of flesh. I grabbed his head and twisted violently, taking pleasure in knowing he would never threaten another Lycan.
Something struck me hard in the center of my back, and I heard Travis snarl as I peeled myself off the crusty, boarded up window. Blood trickled down my face where the exposed nails had torn the skin on my cheek. The pain was slight at first, but then it burned with a sting beyond the damage inflicted. I hated facial wounds.
Wood crashed, and an entire section of the porch collapsed as Travis threw the guy who’d kicked me into a support beam. The dude went straight through it and landed on the grass in front of Douglas. Splinters and shingles rained down beside him.
“No, no, no!” the coward shrieked, trying to climb to his feet and run, but Douglas grabbed his arm and twisted. The snap and crunch was as painful to hear as the man’s scream of agony. But they had tricked us and kept us from returning to our mate. They deserved every bit of pain we could dish out and more. They were traitors to their species.
“They’re all dead,” Douglas announced.
“Let’s go!” Travis shouted.
I leaped from the porch, and we took off over the hill. Even at a dead run, it would take us at least twenty minutes to get back. Right now she was safe. I could feel our link. She wasn’t scared or in pain.
But that could change at any moment.
Chapter 32
XERXES
She bowed. “Everything is set. The alphas and their men south are already inside the WR as migrating citizens. They merely await your command to cross the Roosevelt Bridge and move in on the White House. Apparently, the capital is not heavily guarded, only the borders of the Republic.”
I smiled. “Let’s go watch.”
Her eyes widened. “Watch, sir?”
I snapped my fingers, and two Djinn appeared through French doors that led into a small library. “Top of the Eisenhower building next to the White House.” A few seconds later, Manda and I were standing in a dark corner on the roof of the building next door to the iconic White House.
A cool breeze whipped through the flags along the capital garden. The blue field and five white stars represented the five major cities of the WR. No states, just metropolises that were filled with wealthy people hoping their advanced technology would keep them safe.
The White House had once been a symbol of freedom to all people in this country. Now it was just headquarters for one of the five Republics that the United States had broken into after the Riots. Of course, the Washington Republic liked to think of itself as better than the others because they took the nation’s previous capital and had more money and technology than they could realistically control. In all reality, none of the Republics were any more powerful than the next. They all had reasons for where the lines were drawn and who had stepped into power over the years.
Now it was time for a change. Because the supernatural leaders in Europe, England, and Asia had chosen to stay out of what they called “growth spurts of a baby country,” I had free reign to steal power right from under their noses. By the time they realized what I would accomplish, it would be too late. I would control what had once been a superpower on Earth, and under my instruction, it would
soon be again.
“Go give the order. Then return immediately. We will watch it fall together.”
Manda nodded, and the Djinn holding her arm blinked her away. Less than a minute passed before they returned.
Fifteen minutes later, I saw the first shadow on the White House lawn. It was followed by a dozen more and then another unit and another. No alarms had been tripped yet, and I watched with delight as my Lycan soldiers descended on the White House with a vengeance only a jilted supernatural could sympathize with. The guards never stood a chance, and neither did the man who called himself president of the Washington Republic.
An alarm blared for nearly thirty seconds, but was cut off abruptly as my men entered the White House. A few dozen screams split the air then stopped. The house and the surrounding area was silent as if nothing had happened.
As if I’d not just taken control of the Washington Republic’s capital and killed their president.
“One by one, they will fall. And brick by brick, I will have everything.”
“People will always fight you, Xerxes,” Manda said, holding her head up. She stared at the White House, her shoulders back and her voice calculated, reminding me of the old Mandana Farrok. How she’d fought for her people until I’d taken everything away from her, person by person.
“And they will lose,” I answered.
“But you will never find peace.”
A snarl ripped from my throat, and I reached for her neck with my hand, wrapping my fingers around her neck and squeezing until she gasped for breath. “I’m not looking for peace. I’m looking for revenge.” I waved my hand through the air, gesturing to the city around us. “All of this is merely a means to an end. The only woman I loved was stolen by my people. My own brother helped. Then the Drakonae stole the Veil from beneath our noses. There is no peace for me in this world or the next. But I will make them all pay for what they did. Every last one of them.”
She clawed at my hand for a moment and then stopped.
I squeezed harder, but not enough to do more than leave a nasty bruise. When the light in her eyes started to fade, I released her. She stumbled back a couple of steps and turned to run, but one of the guards caught her arm before she went farther.
“You try to run, Manda, but you have nowhere to go.”
“She will find you,” Manda hissed, struggling against the guard.
I laughed. “Your mother has been locked away for thousands of years. She’s in a big scary world she knows nothing about. It’s only a matter of time before my scouts find her and bring her back.”
“You’ll burn in Drakonae fire one day, Xerxes!” she screamed.
“Take her back to the mansion.”
The Djinn soldier saluted and then blinked away with Manda still struggling in his grasp. He wouldn’t let her go. They knew my wrath for making mistakes and none of them wanted to pay that price. I made sure everyone knew what I’d done to Manda. And that it would happen to every single one of them, or worse, if they were not flawlessly obedient.
One of my Lycan soldiers exited the White House front entrance and gave the all clear.
“To the front,” I said, reaching for the arm of the Djinn guard on my right.
He nodded, and a second later, we were stepping through a vortex and reappearing on the manicured lawn just outside the front door of the White House. He released me as we re-materialized, and the man who’d given the all-clear saluted.
“General Xerxes, the White House has been taken. The president, director of defense, and other heads of the major metropolises were all in session. We have the room waiting for you.”
General. I liked the sound of that. I hadn’t taken an official title yet, but that one sounded pleasant to the ear. “Just General; do not use my name.”
“Yes, General, sir.” The Lycan saluted again and took a step backward. He gestured to the door. “Please follow me.”
We strolled through the massive doors into an equally impressive foyer. The house was a beautiful mixture of architecture and had been maintained by the WR quite well. The floor shone, and the walls were spotless and filled with paintings from around the world, collected by men decades before the Riots closed the United States borders. Military personnel were allowed access to aircraft and ships, but no private citizens were granted permission to leave or enter the country.
When the borders closed fifty years ago, whoever was inside the country was trapped and whoever had been abroad never came back. Most thought they were the lucky ones.
I smiled as we climbed a large central staircase. They probably were the lucky ones. The rest of the world had avoided the political upheaval and social backsliding at the announcement that supernatural creatures lived on earth.
Armed Lycans lined the hallways. We turned a corner, and I saw blood on the floor and a stack of bodies beyond the smear. Another door was opened, and I found myself at the head of large conference room. Men sat silently around the table. Some were old. Some younger. But they were all running on pure adrenaline. The speed of their pulses raised mine in delight.
My army hadn’t killed them all, which meant I would get the pleasure of ending their lives one-by-one. The ultimate victory over the WR would personally belong to me.
I walked to the head of the table and sat in the single, empty high-backed chair. “I love what you’ve done with the place. It’s been nearly a century since I visited the White House.”
My gaze descended on the man opposite me at the far end of the table. His hair was cut short, and he wore the blue uniform of the WR military. His bright eyes flashed in anger, but not fear like the rest of the men seated along the sides of the table.
“I don’t know how you got through our border scans, but you better leave the same way you came. When the army realizes what you’ve done, you will die and so will all of your men.”
I lifted one hand from my lap and gestured toward one of the men seated closest to me. My magic flowed forward, wrapping steely tendrils around the poor bastard’s neck. I made a fist and his neck snapped, his body falling forward in a haphazard fashion.
The other men at the table took a collective swallow, but none moved from their seats. They knew their fate and were brave to not flee from it –resigned to the fact that they were all about to breathe their last.
Chapter 33
CHARLIE
“There are strange people outside chanting.” Brogan entered my room and walked to the window. He pushed aside the curtains, and I opened an eyeball to look at him.
“How long was I asleep?” I rolled over and saw an untouched tray of food on my nightstand. Grabbing the glass of water, I downed half before climbing out of my soft bed. The chanting was loud, but in a language I didn’t recognize.
“Do you know what they are saying?” I asked, joining him beside the window and peering down at the parking lot. Several people in black robes were spread across the parking lot… in fact—I pushed my face against the glass—it looked like they might be around the entire lodge.
“How long was I out?”
“Only thirty minutes or so. Not long,” he replied. “I don’t know what they are saying, but it sounds like witchcraft.”
It did indeed, and that was bad. The last time Xerxes and witches mixed, half of my pack died. “We have to stop them. Whatever it is, it’s not good.”
He nodded. “I’ll get Liam,” he said, leaving my side at the window.
I craned my neck, trying to get a better look, but when my nose touched the glass a second time, it electrocuted me and I saw a flash of red shoot across the window.
“Fucking hell,” Brogan shouted, doubled over next to my doorway. He sucked in a quick breath and straightened to his full height.
“What is it?” I hurried to his side.
“I can’t leave. It’s like there’s a barrier across the door.”
“But it’s open,” I said, picking up a shoe from beside my bed and tossing it at the open doorway. The invisible barrie
r lit up, scorching the bottom of the shoe before it fell to the floor—still inside my bedroom.
We can’t get out.
“Brogan?” Liam’s voice called from down the hallway at the base of the stairs.
Brogan moved closer to the doorway, but didn’t dare touch the electric barrier again. “Yeah? Where are you stuck?”
“I’m with several people down in the living area, but we can’t cross through the doorway into the kitchen, much less the doors leading outside.”
“The windows are hot, too. Be sure and tell everyone not to touch them.”
“Will do,” Liam hollered.
I looked up at Brogan and trembled. What the hell was going on?
Screams erupted downstairs, and we both rushed for the doorway, barely stopping before colliding with the invisible barrier. Brogan picked up an umbrella propped against the wall and poked it at the door. The electricity zapped through the umbrella, and he cursed again, throwing the umbrella across the room.
More screams. Then the word “fire” filtered up the stairs.
“Liam!” Brogan shouted.
No response. Just more screams.
A thump on the roof above us gave me goosebumps. Then another crash sounded downstairs, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when a flaming jar flew through the window in my bedroom. It exploded, sending the burning contents spraying through the rooms.
The flames grew quickly, and I coughed, covering my mouth with the neck of my shirt. Brogan lunged toward the bathroom only to curse profusely when the barrier in the doorway between the rooms zapped him, sending him stumbling backward.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he groaned. “It’s blocked every doorway. The inside ones, too. We can’t get to the bathroom away from this fire.”
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 88
