The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  I didn’t expect them to answer, so I wasn’t disappointed when one of them leapt at me. I ducked and rolled to the left to avoid being struck by its sharp claws or bit by sharp teeth.

  It was a determined Wolf because it barely paused before it came at me again. My machete was ready so I had no choice but to be as well. I struck and tried not to think about what I’d just done.

  The second Wolf attacked. I whirled around to face and heard other growls approaching in the distance. Deacon shouted my name but I didn’t have time to see what he needed.

  I ducked, narrowly avoiding a collision with the Wolf who wanted to kill me. Growls sounded through the air as the Wolf in front of me practically smiled through his drool-infested teeth.

  I looked behind him and knew immediately what had caused his sudden joy—he had back up. At least six—and I couldn’t be sure it was exactly six since most of my attention had to go to not getting killed—other Wolves arrived at the scene surrounding my current nemesis.

  “Damn.” There was no way I could take six Wolves on my own. “Deacon!” I yelled, hoping for a little bit of help.

  “I’m stuck here, Rachel. I’ve got some non-Warriors and we’re surrounded as well.”

  A voice called from behind me. “I’m here, Rachel.”

  It was Micah. Still, Deacon, Micah and I were not going to be enough power to overtake these Wolves.

  “There are more of us coming.” Micah tried to sound reassuring but I knew that tone, it was the one he used on Warriors who were about to fight their last battle. I wished he hadn’t used it on me. It did nothing to fuel my confidence.

  I looked back at the Wolf rapidly approaching where I stood. The battle had gone impossibly still. It was like everything hinged on what happened next.

  I raised my machete. I knew I could take off his head. It was what would happen afterwards that would be the problem. Like time slowing down, I could remember watching Patrick Lyons play chess with Chad. He’d explained about sacrificing a piece called a pawn. The pawn would take out the other player’s knight, a much more dangerous character in the game. But the pawn would be taken out immediately afterwards. Patrick called the move a needed sacrifice. Was that what I was?

  I would take out the Wolf and be taken down myself, leaving room for the others to take down the rest of the pack attacking us. My body ached and I felt ancient.

  I supposed it was time to meet my destiny.

  From behind me in the distance, I heard more growling. Loud, furious sounds.

  Great, more of them.

  I stepped forward but never made it to my Wolf. No, instead another Wolf leapt out of the woods onto the one that attacked. I had a moment to see its blue eyes—which I had once called frightening—before it was lost in a Wolf fight the likes of which I had never seen before.

  Jason.

  The woods came alive as Wolf attacked Wolf. Jason must have brought his whole pack back with him. I backed into the tree. I wanted to help but I couldn’t be sure exactly which Wolves were on our side.

  I could easily tell Jason and his sisters. The others I wasn’t as sure about. I didn’t want to accidently take the head off one of Jason’s pack mates.

  Deacon rushed over grabbing my arm. “Can I assume these Wolves are with you?”

  “They are,” I shouted over the growling.

  “I never thought I’d be happy to see a Wolf pack.” He pointed at the fight. “Any idea who is who?”

  “I can tell three of them apart. That’s all.”

  Deacon may have said something else. I’m not sure. All of my attention was completely focused on Jason. He growled and tore at the Wolf who’d wanted to attack me. Where had he come from? He wasn’t supposed to be here for days.

  Not that I was complaining. He was strong and clearly more capable than I would have given him credit for. Anxiety threatened to overtake me and I danced from one foot to the next. I really didn’t want him hurt. My worry was for naught, as fast as it started it ceased. Moments later, the Wolf he’d fought was no more.

  I blinked as I watched Jason step over the carnage. He shook his head, blood flying off his snout as he regarded me. He looked like a Wolf but in that second, his blue eyes were all human and filled with questions. I nodded at him hoping he’d know that I wasn’t at all disgusted by what he’d done. Grateful would be the right word.

  He turned and watched the battle, which seemed to be ending rapidly. Jason’s pack was either much stronger than the other Wolves, or they’d had the advantage of surprise. I’d have to ask him later.

  Micah shouted from across the clearing. “Are these ones with you?”

  I looked up at Micah. He stood surrounded by other Warriors, his father and mother flanking him on both sides. It jarred me to see Carol with the other Warriors. In all of the time that I had been alive, she hadn’t been fighting. Perhaps losing your oldest child to the Vampires gives you the right to get back in the field.

  Jason shifted and stepped in front of me. His eyes hid his emotions, not a look I was used to seeing from him. I wondered if it was because he was uncomfortable.

  I took a step forward, taking his hand. “Thank you for showing up when you did.”

  “I had a feeling you might need me.”

  Deacon cleared his throat and I turned to regard him. Like Jason, he masked his emotions.

  I sighed. There was no point putting off the inevitable. “Jason this is Deacon, Deacon this is Jason.”

  They nodded at each other. I knew why Deacon disliked Jason but I wasn’t sure what the instant anger I felt steaming off Jason towards Deacon was about. Maybe he could smell that Deacon liked me.

  I heard movement and looked over Jason’s shoulder. His pack had shifted and they stood in the woods silently regarding the Warriors around them. I suddenly felt awkward and out of place, like two worlds had come together that had both belonged to me but had never belonged to each other.

  “Um.” I let go of Jason’s hand and stepped forward into what amounted as the center of both groups. That was when I saw him. It was Jason’s father, Andon Kenwood, and it was the first time I’d seen him since he’d abandoned me in a Vampire cavern. Anger filled my veins and I had to swallow it back down into the pit of my stomach.

  I looked over my shoulder at Jason. “You brought him?”

  “He wanted a chance to apologize to you.”

  I looked at Andon but didn’t speak to him. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to accept an apology from Andon Kenwood and I didn’t want to listen to it here. Not while I was this exposed.

  “Okay, everyone.” I cleared my throat. I’m not used to speaking publically. “These Wolves are with me. They just saved our lives.”

  I hoped they got my meaning. It would be really, really bad if my fellow Warriors decided to attack them after the Wolves had rescued us.

  Patrick Lyons stepped forward. He spoke to Jason directly. “Are you responsible for bringing Rachel back to us?”

  Tears sprung to my eyes. Jason had brought me back but hadn’t been able to help Chad.

  Jason nodded. “I am.”

  Patrick extended his hand and I gasped. I had wanted there to be no more killing, I hadn’t expected Patrick to extend that large of an olive branch.

  “Then we all owe you a debt of gratitude.”

  Jason took his hand. For a moment there was silence until Andon spoke.

  “I hate to interrupt this, but I can hear better than almost anyone else here and right now someone up at your camp seems to be in a tremendous amount of pain and dying.” He sniffed the air. “Childbirth?”

  I ran forward. “Tiffani.”

  It must be happening. Keith’s wife would be dead soon.

  “I can help her, Rachel.”

  I turned around to regard Andon.

  “You know I can.”

  I nodded. Before Armageddon, Andon had been a doctor. Maybe he could save Tiffani’s life. Of course if he couldn’t, and he made things worse, Keith woul
d kill him. Either way, I was willing to let him try.

  Chapter Nineteen

  A group of us stood outside the tent with Keith while he paced wildly back and forth in front of the flap. Andon had come out muttering something about pre-Civil War medicine and instructed the medic on duty to come back with whatever ether they had in supply. I gathered there wasn’t very much left. Still, it must have been enough because Tiffani had stopped screaming a few minutes earlier and Andon was still in the room.

  Jason stood a distance behind me with the rest of his pack. I couldn’t blame him. This wasn’t a comfortable situation by any means. Keith had been in a fury about the idea of Andon even touching Tiffani and he’d threatened to skin a Wolf more than once.

  As for me, I hoped I had done the right thing. Deacon was nowhere to be found—I wasn’t sure if this was because of Jason’s presence or because he hated anything medical in nature—so Micah stood to my side taking in this scene.

  Patrick had long since stopped trying to calm Keith down and had moved off to the side to watch and observe. He looked like a statue of himself, his face worn and pale. What he really needed was days and days of uninterrupted sleep. I knew he’d never get over Chad’s death.

  “I’m never having children.”

  Micah’s voice jarred me out of my thoughts, and I stared up at him. There had been a time—a very long time—when my world had revolved around him. If he spoke to me alone, it was good day. If he treated me as nothing more than Tia’s friend, it was a bad one. Even though it had only ended six months earlier, it felt like a lifetime of experience had passed through me since I’d held those feelings for me.

  “Yes, you will.” I nodded, sure of what I said. “Your whole family will. You’re all designed to be caretakers. You’re all made for love.”

  I didn’t want to mention that Tia was already reproducing. That was news for her to share. I’d given the Lyons enough life shattering information lately. I felt like some prophet of doom.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  My eyes followed Keith’s movements even as I answered Micah.

  “Sure.”

  “You can answer me. I won’t be mad at you, either way.”

  I shifted to look at him. “That sounds dire.”

  He smiled, his eyes still sad. “It’s not.”

  He paused and I wondered if he meant to keep speaking at all. Finally, he found his words. “Did you love Chad as much as you love the Wolf?”

  He motioned toward Jason with his chin.

  “I loved Chad as much as it’s possible to love someone.” I looked down at my feet. “And I loved him differently than I love Jason. And even though it shouldn’t be possible, I loved them both at the same time.”

  I realized those answers seemed to contradict each other but I couldn’t not say both things. I had loved Chad. I still did, and that was why fury invaded my body every time I thought of him running around as a Vampire. I had loved him as a new boyfriend. Everything had been fresh and untried. I had loved him as a friend that I had known my entire life. Just going through day-to-day life here was going to be hard without him. I had loved him as a leader. He’d taken care of all of us.

  I had loved him as a possibility. With Chad there had been the chance that I could have all the things I’d never thought possible for myself.

  I had loved him completely and totally differently than I loved Jason.

  Micah seemed to be considering this for a moment. He sighed loudly. “That makes no sense to me, but then I’ve never been in love so maybe I’m not getting it.”

  “You will be someday.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “I am.”

  He shook his head. “Just remember I was your first love.”

  Gasping, I grabbed his arm. “You knew? I always wondered if you did and you actually knew.”

  He smiled, this time his eyes lighting up. “I knew.” His grin immediately fell. “Chad wanted to kill me.”

  I let go of Micah’s arm immediately. It would always be like this, I realized. There would never be a time when we could discuss our joined past and not think of Chad.

  I drew in a sharp breath to clear my head. I wouldn’t leave Chad out there as a Vampire. I never made promises or vows, having been let down endless times by my father when I was growing up. But right then and there I swore to myself I would find Chad and I would do for him what he would have done for me. I would stake him. Even if it meant I left part of my soul behind when I did it.

  Jason moved forward to us. “It’s ending.”

  “How do you know?” Patrick might have shaken Jason’s hand but Micah still regarded him with an air of suspicion.

  “I can hear it.” He shut his eyes. “And I think….”

  Jason was interrupted by the shrill cry of a newborn baby filling the air. Keith gasped mid-stride and darted into the tent.

  Micah’s eyes got huge. “He did it.”

  His words, said with an air of wonder, matched my thoughts. I had hoped Andon would be able to accomplish it. I wanted him to more than anything, but in my heart-of-heart’s I hadn’t really thought he would be able to. Things didn’t go my way. Boyfriends left or they died. And yet….

  This had happened. Andon had saved Keith’s child.

  I grabbed Jason’s arm. “And Tiffani? Is she okay?”

  He smiled, his dimples illuminated in the sunlight. “She is. She’s waking up.”

  I felt like a weight left my shoulders. Tears filled my eyes and they weren’t from unhappiness. Tiffani had lived—somehow—through the birth that was supposed to kill her, and her baby had lived, too.

  Keith burst through the tent flap looking like ten years had left his face. His grin was infectious and we all smiled.

  Patrick stepped forward embracing Keith in a quick hug. “She’s okay?”

  Keith nodded. “Yes, he did it; he saved both of them. I don’t know how he did that. I didn’t believe it was possible. I thought it was over. I thought everything that was good in life was going to be over.”

  I called out to him. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

  Keith grinned as he turned on his heel to go back into the tent. “It’s a boy. We didn’t have any names picked out. We thought there was no way we would ever be naming our baby. But it’s a boy and he’s perfect.”

  Micah walked up to his dad. “We should tell Mom.”

  “Micah,” I called after him.

  “Yes?”

  “Can you gather together the people we’ll need? It’s time to get started.”

  He nodded. “Sure.”

  I turned to Jason and took his hand. We hadn’t had any time alone since he’d saved my life. I hadn’t gotten to thank any of the members of his pack. There still wasn’t time now but some things needed to be said.

  “You saved my life. You saved all of our lives.”

  He leaned over, his mouth close to mine. “You’re my mate. I will always protect you.”

  I closed the distance between us, my mouth pressed lightly to his. He tasted like…Jason. For the first time since he’d stood me up six months ago, I was actually able to revel in that fact.

  He is here. He is mine.

  I pulled back and stared into his eyes. “Your father saved someone very important to me.”

  “Whatever else he may be, before Armageddon he was a really good doctor.”

  I leaned into Jason letting his arms come around me. “I have to tell you something.”

  “Deacon.”

  I pulled out of his arms. “What?”

  “You have feelings for Deacon.”

  “Um…no.” I took a step back. “Not like you mean. He’s my friend.”

  “So what you want to tell me isn’t about Deacon?”

  “No.” I took his hands. “Chad is a Vampire.”

  He didn’t speak for a moment; his eyes swirled with emotion. “You’re sure?”

  “Icahn sent him after me.�
��

  I had to tell him all of it. I couldn’t take off and be with him. There was too much I had to do before we could there. If we ever could.

  “I can’t let him stay that way.”

  Jason took a step back. “I understand how you feel. I want to go find my Mom and….” His voice trailed off.

  I knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to shove a stake through her heart and see to it that she never sucked the blood out of anyone ever again. But how do you do that? How do you drive a stake through the heart of someone you love…even if they aren’t technically that person anymore?

  The answer was that you did it because you loved them, because you believed they would do it for you.

  Jason finally finished speaking. “How are you even going to find him? I can’t scent one Vampire from another. They all smell the same to me. Out of the thousands of Vampires out there, how are you going to locate Chad?”

  “Well, I kind of think Chad will find me again. He’s been sent after me. He didn’t get me. I don’t think he’s done.” I stepped forward, taking his hand again. “And then we’ll go find your mother. And my friend Deacon’s parents. And everyone else who is missing or taken or whatever.”

  His smile looked loving even as his eyes bore into mine with questions. “Those are big quests, Rachel Clancy, and you are but one sixteen year old girl.”

  “I’m not going to do it alone. You’re going to help me.” I smiled because I knew he would even without my ever asking him, too. He didn’t deny my assertion so I kept speaking. “Deacon will, too. So will Micah, and anyone else who wants to. I’m tired of always just pushing the monsters back. I want to bring the fight to them.”

  “You’ve been down below. You see how well defended it is. You may be able to take them by surprise, once, but after that they’re going to know you’re coming.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going to be coming. The bombs I make are.”

  His eyes got huge. “The bombs you make?”

  “I need to go see my father.” I moved away from him. “I need to get set up for this before I say anymore.”

  “Do you want me to come with you?”