I wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Of course it will,” Hannah said. “And when we find Charlie, he’s going to need you. Stay safe for him. It’s what he would want.”
“Yeah, okay,” Angel said.
I wasn’t sure Hannah believed her own words, but it was what Angel needed to hear.
“There’s a smell,” Hannah said.
“What?” Angel asked.
“Chemicals. Something’s off. Worse than the tail. Something else—”
A loud bang cut through the noise of the boardwalk. Bystanders ignored it, or looked around, while others turned their gazes skyward.
“Fireworks,” a teen said as she clutched the arm of the boy beside her.
I wasn’t convinced. The sound wasn’t quite right.
“Get down,” Hannah said, and pointed. I did as she suggested, pulling Angel down with me, and scanned the crowd for whatever it was that Hannah saw.
Two more men in suits approached from a third direction. One held out his hand, in it was a gun.
Shots rang out into the crowd. Confusion stirred, but no one seemed to realize the danger that loomed. They needed to get the hell out of there before someone was hurt.
“Shooter,” I yelled. “He has a gun.”
A tall, thin woman to my right looked at me. Her eyes went wide as recognition of my words set in.
“Run!” she screamed. “Run!”
Hysteria spread like wildfire, people screamed and shoved and knocked each other around.
I spotted an empty wooden booth with a low front wall, but it offered some cover from two directions. I grabbed Angel’s wrist and looked to Hannah. She was determined, fearless, and ready to move.
We stayed as low as we could, and ran.
“Charlie!” Tears streamed down Angel’s face. “Charlie, are you there?”
Our enemies closed in, pushing deeper through the crowd. We reached cover, a stand with goldfish bowls on the counter.
I took Angel by the shoulders, and put my face in front of hers. “You stay here. Right here. I will save Charlie, but I need you to stay safe.”
As the crowd dispersed, gunfire rang through the square.
Angel nodded and curled up under the counter. She held her knees to her chest, then remained still. Perfect.
When I turned, I saw Hannah stripping off her clothes. Her blue eyes were set with determination, her resolution absolute. I loved her more than words could describe, my fierce wolf shifter mate.
“Screw it,” she said, and tossed her undergarments to the ground. Two teenagers stopped to gawk.
A bowl of glass shattered, splashing water and sharp fragments in every direction. I dove forward to put myself between Hannah and the gun, but I needn’t have. She dropped down to all fours. Bones snapped, and fur grew. Her ability to heal would be swifter as a wolf, and her strength would be greater. I admired her wolf prowess as much as her human beauty. For this, I needed the wolf.
Popping of gunfire rang out in different directions. Bluish purple goo splattered the wall, evidence a bullet had passed an inch in front of my nose. Too close. I squeezed the hilt of my seax in my palm, and I moved.
“Ahhh, a wolf!” a woman cried.
Closing in on our position was a brown-haired vampire and a blond. Hannah dove at the blond, tearing into his pant leg. He tried to kick her off, to no avail. The other had a gun, and the barrel was aimed at Hannah.
Fear welled within me, fueling my fervor. The vampire didn’t fire as his comrade thrashed between him and my mate. He wouldn’t pull that trigger—I wouldn’t give him the chance.
My blade cut deep, straight through my enemy’s shoulder. Fearful cries from the fleeing crowd mixed with his howls of pain. I listened to the movements of Hannah, to her snarls, to the grunts of her enemy. If she needed me, I would be there.
The brown-haired vampire dropped his gun and held the top of his arm, but the muscles were damaged. It would take time to heal—time he didn’t have. I kicked him in the stomach, knocking him off balance, and asked the question I had to ask.
“Who are you?”
He laughed. “It doesn’t matter. You’re too late.”
“Who do you work for?” I asked, allowing my anger to show, and shoved him to the ground.
“Nero Antonius,” he said. “We’re here from New York. Last time was just a taste. Every Ulfhednar dies tonight.”
It was as I thought, and worse. This wasn’t just about territory.
There was no more time. I had to find Charlie and Violet. I had to get to Tyr and Ashley, and Walter, too.
I thrust my blade into his heart, and turned to find the next. Hannah stood over the other, teeth held tight around his neck. I gave him the same quick death as his companion and scanned the nearly-cleared boardwalk for my family.
A rich, piney scent masked that of the salt water. Thick, heavy, and unnatural, a cloud of smoke rolled in with the breeze. Fire. Where was the fire?
“That smell,” she said. “It’s some kind of nasty chemical. Everything’s doused in it. We need to hurry.”
I looked to Hannah, who stood naked in human form, and nodded.
I raced from booth, to cart, to rides, in search of Charlie and Violet. The smoke thickened into a noxious fog that burned my eyes and made the search more difficult. Sirens rang in the distance.
Hannah retrieved her clothes from the ground and Angel from her hiding place. While Hannah dressed, I continued the hunt.
The air grew hot and dry as flames consumed everything around us. Wood cracked and tumbled, metal creaked as it bent, and Market Square burned.
As if in slow motion, the edge of the boardwalk howled, and flaming chunks of wood and metal rained from the sky. The boardwalk caved, swallowing the base of the Ferris wheel. The machinery sank down into the water below, tottering toward shore, before toppling out into the water, crushing boats and splashing sea water up over the edge of the harbor.
The market was clear of bystanders, and I hoped the Ferris wheel was, too. I ran to the edge of the deck that remained, and looked down at the seats in the water, and saw no one.
Flames licked the pylons, eating the wooden platform from above and below.
“There.” Hannah pointed down toward the water. There was a support beam standing out where the boardwalk had crumbled. Two heads stuck out of the water, barely visible amongst the burning debris. Violet’s soaked red hair was unmistakable—a beacon of hope in this dark night.
My leg grew hot, seared with pain, as the fire spread to my pants. I tried to shake it off, pat it out, to no avail. I turned to Hannah.
“Get Angel out of here.”
“Be safe,” Hannah said, and turned to go.
I leaped off the edge without looking back. Sirens blared beyond the fog.
“This way, Angel.” I heard Hannah’s voice as the flames seared my legs and the wind bit.
The crimson water felt like concrete as I crashed against the surface, like ice as I sank down below. The water itself burned, the fire riding across a marbled, metallic film.
I swam toward that beacon, toward Violet and Charlie, toward a small semblance of hope.
First Violet, then Charlie, too, moved. Their heads turned—they were alive. Relief washed over me, like the waves that crashed against us. I pulled the gags from their mouths, and it was Charlie who spoke first.
“Bennet!” he said, then coughed.
“It’s a chain,” Violet said. “Some kind of magic or tech or something. I can’t break it.”
I couldn’t see below the surface, so I felt between them, kicking my legs to tread water. It was metal, and tight, and wouldn’t budge.
The metal wouldn’t give, so I punched the wood. Once, and it gave, twice and it cracked. It was enough. Violent dove down, and freed herself. The chains sank, freeing Charlie.
I swam for shore, to find my amor aeternus.
The bank was steep concrete, but Hannah was there to help. She threw a rope over the s
ide, and we climbed.
Wet and beaten, but not broken, we emerged from the water—Violet, Charlie, and I. Angel ran to Charlie, wrapped her arms around his neck, and he lifted her into the air. The two giggled and basked in each other’s safe return. Hannah smiled at me.
“Nice work,” she said.
“Thanks for the rescue,” Violet said. “But where’s Walter?”
“We can’t celebrate yet,” I said. “Tyr, Ashley, and Walter still need our help at City Hall.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tyr
As soon as he said those words, I could see it. Lyra was Antonius’s daughter. It was the sharp jawline, the raven hair, and the high cheekbones. Hearing her name from his lips, and seeing that resemblance for myself, made my heart ache.
His shift was violent. That, too, was like Lyra.
Fur erupted from his skin. Thick, dark claws burst from his fingertips. Joints ruptured, and his bones reformed. When it was over, Antonius was three times the size of a wolf, with fangs that protruded from his long snout. His coat was silver, like he was plated in metal. Everything about the dire wolf in front of me brought forth memories of Lyra. Her coat had been soft and gray before the change, her wolf had been both gentle and majestic. After she’d turned, I hardly recognized her shifter form. More than the size or the coat, I remembered her eyes. They lost the brown I’d always loved, replaced in dire wolf form with vampiric red. I didn’t regret turning her, and I had loved her dire wolf form as much as her others.
“You found the doll that night,” I said. “I thought she’d had it when we left, but she dropped it somewhere when we fled the fire.”
“You didn’t take her,” he growled. It had been many years since I’d heard the shifter tongue spoken, but I’d not forgotten.
“I watched you tear my family to pieces, watched you murder everyone I knew and loved. Lyra died that night. You killed my daughter, just like you killed my wife. You killed every part of me that mattered.” His voice was half-growl, but I understood. I’d learned to speak shifter from Lyra. Even without words, I could imagine how he felt. It was exactly what I had felt when his pack had murdered my brothers.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I had to make him understand. He had to believe the truth that I hadn’t harmed his daughter. “Lyra—”
“It doesn’t matter.” He bounded across the concrete floor toward me. Thick muscles flexed. His lips curled as he seethed at me, but it was his eyes that made me pause. Fire red, and unflinchingly fixed, Antonius’s eyes were crazed.
I knew that look. There was no reasoning with him. I’d seen it countless times in battle. It was hate. It was thirst for revenge. It was unquenchable destruction, destined to ruin everything in its path—including the one who harnessed that rage. One of us would meet eternal death this night, or both of us.
Ashley held the flames at bay. She and Walter were safe, for the moment.
Sharp claws tore through the sleeve of my shirt, as I dodged the brunt of Antonius’s assault. For every swipe of his paws, and snap of his fangs, I moved.
I had to try, no matter how hopeless—I had to try to reach him. For Lyra. For me.
“I was like you,” I said. “It’s why I attacked your pack—for vengeance.”
“I don’t care.”
Antonius attacked again, tearing through cardboard boxes to get to me.
“That anger consumed me,” I said. “It drove me to hunt you down, compelled me to take my revenge.”
“This isn’t over until you die,” he growled. “I don’t care why you came. You killed my wife, my little girl.”
Three more vampires ran into the basement room.
Ashley broke the chair to which Walter was chained. He wiggled down to free himself, as Ashley threw back the onslaught of fire and attackers.
Claws cut through the front of my shirt and met flesh. The scent of blood only fed Antonius’s ferocity. He came back faster, and caught the hem of my pant leg between his teeth.
“I didn’t,” I said.
“Like hell.”
“She saved me,” I said. “Lyra saved me.”
“Shut up!”
I dove back, sidestepped, and tried to resolve the situation with words alone.
“When I saw her, everything changed. When she looked at me with those big, brown eyes, I couldn’t harm her. I couldn’t leave her to the flames. She changed everything. And I spared her.”
“If that were true she would have been there, alive, before the scavengers came. She would have been there after you left, and before the other vampires came and I was turned. I begged for them to make me a monster so I could find you. You can’t take this away from me. You can’t lie your way out of this, you bastard.”
“I took her,” I said. “I raised her. I turned her.”
Walter took over the fight with the three vampires in suits, as Ashley held back the flames. There was something unnatural about the liquid in the barrels. The fire would not be contained.
“Then where the fuck is she?” Antonius growled. “This sick game you’re playing, it’s lies. You just want to screw with me.”
“No,” I said. “And for her, you should stop this now.”
“Where is she?”
“She lived hundreds of years, and built so much before she died at the hands of a hunter,” I admitted. “It broke my heart.”
Antonius growled, a sound that shook the building around us. He tore forward and didn’t relent. I used my blade to catch his claws, moved back for every swipe he made.
“Liar!”
“Let go,” I said. “Do not suffer my mistakes, but find peace in life. It is the only option.”
Antonius charged once more. This time, I kicked his legs out from under him, and shoved my shoulder into his. The dire wolf slid across the floor on his side, and Walter stood above him, kicking him over and over.
“No one bludgeons me and walks away,” Walter spat. He pulled out his seax and raised it up for the final blow.
“Wait.” I grabbed my progeny’s arm, and held tight.
I understood his frustration. He was battered and bloodied, at the hands of this man.
“He orchestrated the assault on the estate,” Walter said. “He’s the leader of the New York coven. He killed Charlie, and planned the same fate for us all.”
Ashley stepped up beside me, and touched my hand. She understood. Of course, she knew I had to try.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Walter. “And to you, as well.” I looked down at the dire wolf, and I saw Lyra in her father. I needed him to agree to peace. I wanted to spare his life.
“Kill me now or I’ll never stop hunting you and yours. You’ll watch your city burn, your bloodline extinguished, just as you’ve done to mine.”
Walter looked to me for permission. I couldn’t give it.
“There’s nothing you can do to change this,” Antonius growled. His injuries held him still on the ground. The look remained in his eyes—hatred, loathing, revenge. I knew his words were truth, but it didn’t make it any easier.
The seax was heavy in my palm. I squeezed the hilt and wished there was another way.
“Do it,” he growled.
I hoped that in death Antonius would find peace, that he would know the truth of Lyra’s life—that I’d loved her, raised her, and cared for her always. I hoped perhaps the two would be reunited beyond the world they left behind.
“May you find peace in your next life,” I said.
The tip of my seax pierced his heart. The red of his eyes faded, returning the soft brown that reminded me of his daughter.
I would forever carry the weight of my promise broken, that which I had done for Lyra’s father as much as my family. For sometimes the solution wasn’t black or white.
Ashley wrapped her arms around me, and I took comfort in the embrace of my amor aeternus. After all of this time, after all of our losses, I’d won in a way I’d thought impossible. I’d found her.
The fire
that had carried across the ceiling and spread from the barrels where Walter had been chained—that fire disappeared with Nero Antonius. Whatever magic had been cast died with him.
“Where’s Violet?” Walter asked.
Through the hole in the wall walked Bennet, Hannah, Angel, Charlie, and Violet. Walter embraced his amor aeternus, and words of relief and joy were exchanged amongst those I loved. I was glad to see that everyone had survived, though I wished it hadn’t been at so high a cost.
Ashley’s green eyes were knowing as she looked up at me with compassion. Ash was smeared upon her face, and holes were burned into her sweater. Her hair hung loose, wild and mussed from all that we had been through.
She laid her hand upon my chest, and I took solace in her, cherished her touch, and made a silent promise to always be the best man I was capable of being—for Ashley.
She smiled at me with kindness and love. And she said the words I needed to hear. “It’s time. Let’s go home.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ashley
The gang was battered, but there was a sense of relief in the air as we walked back through the magical tunnel. It was finally over. Everyone seemed to feel it, except for Tyr. The way he carried himself made it seem like we’d lost, and my heart broke for him.
“There was gasoline or kerosene or something everywhere. Whatever’s the most flammable was probably what they used.”
“Hair spray,” Angel suggested.
“Could be.” Charlie smiled and pulled her in close. “They dumped the stuff all over everything.”
“Like it needed mega-hold for the entire day,” Angel said.
“So when the fire started, it was all swoosh, burning everything.”
Bennet watched Walter’s reaction with an amused grin.
“You already told us,” Walter said. His tone was dry, as usual.
It was true, Charlie had been going through the events of the night over and over as we walked back. Half of the group had witnessed it firsthand, the rest of us through the story the first time.
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