by J. L. Myers
“Will I?” His jaw clenched, reading between the lines. “What about you?”
There was no backing out of this now. “I’m staying.” Fully accepted as the Oracle or not, the vampires needed me. I couldn’t leave them to die. Not when I could help. A cold knot unfurled in my gut. “I can’t abandon them.”
Clear determination rippled through Ty’s eyes. Without even a glimmer of hesitation he said, “Then I stay, too.”
I knew that fierce look from the threats Ty had given Troy. Nothing I could say would make him change his mind. Just like nothing he’d said could have kept me from endangering us all to rescue him. I could never have left him to be executed. And he would never leave me here alone. He’d never abandon me. So there was no way to alter the future. I had done everything to escape the inevitable, but it couldn’t be controlled or changed any more than my love for Ty could.
“Okay.” I pressed a soft kiss to his lips that was over and done with way too soon. Tears blurred my vision but I held them back. “But promise you’ll stay away from Caius.” I paused for the briefest moment, but he had to know the fate I’d seen. “He’s going to try to kill you.”
With a roar and the crack of reforming bones, Ty transformed into the wolf. The strongest and most equipped form he had for battle. He threw a glance at me before leaping into the fray, canines bared and ready to tear flesh.
I bounded after him with my stake in hand and got caught in the mass of vampires and damned fighting to the death. Keeping low, I weaved between those already feuding and managed to take out a few damned with the tactic of surprise. As I staked my third damned, I sensed Kendrick watching me over the balcony. The spider-climbing damned were scaling up to their level. The only thing holding them back was Kendrick’s whirlwind and Dorian’s firing crossbow.
Kendrick. Get Marika and Dorian out. And don’t come back.
If you think I’m leaving you down there alone, you’ve lost your mind.
Kendrick lifted Marika and edged back with Dorian to the pitched window ending the balcony. As he went to kick the glass out, a damned broke through the maelstrom. Dorian pulled the crossbow trigger, but the canister was empty.
At the same instant, I swept under the clawed hands of a damned, my foot striking out to bring him down. Though not before he’d rent tracks across my ribs. My stake came down, piercing his heart.
When my eyes shot up from the exploding ash, I almost froze. Dorian had his hands out in front of him. The concentration straining his face was do or die. Then it happened. The damned stalking forward fell to its knees. Black oozed from its eyes, streaming down its murderous-turned-panicked face. As its mouth twisted open in agony, more blood gurgled up. Then it fell flat on its face.
Overwhelmed, but seeing more damned begin to break the wind barrier, I rushed my words. Kendrick, please. I can’t lose you, too. My stake pierced another attacker’s chest before my heart could skip a beat. The damned’s face contorted and then her entire body combusted into a smoldering pile of burning ash.
I’ll be back, Kendrick’s promise echoed through my ears.
Before I could argue, he leaped from the window with Marika slung over his shoulder. Dorian was right behind them, reloading his crossbow.
My instant relief at their escape came crashing down. They’d landed amongst a black and gray sea of damned. My mind screamed out to Kendrick. But it was no use. The link to his mind closed like a tunnel caving in on itself.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Torn. Like my body wanted to split in half and take off in opposite directions.
Before me, the damned had taken so many already that lifeless bodies littered the floor, slicking the marble with glossy red puddles. I wanted to make a run for it, to get past these walls to see if Kendrick and my brother were okay. But I couldn’t leave these people. And I couldn’t abandon Ty or Troy who were both now fighting for their lives because of me.
Caius was still MIA, but that wouldn’t last. Because this was the scene from my vision. The blood, the bodies, the damned. It was reality now. One I couldn’t change if I ran.
No, I needed to stay and fight. I needed to believe that if Kendrick or Dorian’s lives were destined to end that I would have seen it coming.
Decision made, I panned across the room, taking in the damage. Ty centered the assault, all muscle and raw animal power. Troy now flanked his side, snarling fiercely. For the moment they held their ground, dropping damned like bags of wet sand.
Outrage for the lycans from living vampires were lost to their screams as they fell to the ground. So many of them, although they were armed, had no idea how to wield their weapons.
I saw Marcus before me, his face streaked with black and red blood, fighting off the advances of two damned. And he was losing ground.
I sprung to his side, peeling off one glove. Then I freed my spiked whip from my back and rolled it out with the flick of my wrist. Static crackled along the silver weapon. “Got your back.”
Marcus smiled, total relief to see me brightening his face. “Perfect timing.”
The first damned surged forward. Its fangs snapped for my jugular, dripping red with someone else’s blood. I spun around, using my free arm to dodge his attack as I recoiled part of the whip. Then I snapped out the shorter length to curl around his throat. A little tug and the spikes embedded with a twisting squeeze, and voltage sparked down its length.
Behind me I could hear Marcus battling the second damned. But I couldn’t turn around. Already another damned was rushing my way.
With the first damned writhing on the ground, sizzling hands tugging at my embedded whip, I snatched a stake from my belt and pierced the launching damned straight through the heart. Ash exploded around me and I spun before inhaling its charcoal remains.
The first damned got free from my whip with burned and black-oozing hands. He leaped mid-air and I recoiled my whip. But I wasn’t fast enough.
The damned landed on my chest, drooling fangs snapping for my neck as we tumbled to the ground. Its claws tunneled into my shoulders, touching bone. The only thing holding back his bite was my arm locked against his chest. An arm that let out borrowed sparks from my whip-clutching hand.
Time seemed to slow to an almost standstill. My arm began to give with crippling muscle spasms. Then my resistance failed. The damned had me.
Except his fangs never reached my neck. Only the cold saliva of his anticipation did as his face froze, twisting before bursting into ash.
A broad, pale hand caught mine and pulled me up. Marcus, with a wide gash coming back together across his forehead, dusted off his hands. “Same fate goes to anyone who tries to kill you. I’ll take down this whole room if I have to.”
I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “Three more down. How many to go?”
A devilish smile crossed his face, the kind that made me wonder if he’d ever felt true fear.
A careless damned attempted to rush past and he sliced through her without blinking. “That’s six on my count.” His teal-flecked eyes shifted to the battling crowd. “The genetics of being warriors is coming back to them.”
It was true. Though unprepared and forced into battle, the vampires had gained some ground. Many of their bodies littered the veined marble, each new one piling on top of another fallen. Yet the number of ashen piles was growing faster by the minute, too.
I holstered my stake and held my whip ready. “Let’s even the odds.”
With a powerful jump, I immersed myself in the belly of battle, flanking Ty’s other side. Cuts and gashes tacked up both wolves’ fur, but they continued to fight strong as if their lives and everyone’s in this hall rested on their shoulders alone. They were an unstoppable force, protecting a race that hated them.
My heart swelled with relief and determination to get us all out of this alive. “Time to make it rain black.”
I swear Ty grinned, wolf canines and all. He licked my hand then struck out, saving a vampire from havin
g her neck shredded like soft fruit.
The relentless battle went on, more bodies and ash falling every minute. With our combined force and the perseverance of the living vampires, we were slowly making ground. With every dropped damned I felt a little lighter, a little more hopeful that we could make it out of this alive.
A close fighting royal, the balding council member, sneered over his shoulder at Ty and Troy. “They don’t belong here.”
I glared at him in disbelief. Full on battle still hadn’t curbed his racism. “We need them. Unless you’d prefer to die.”
Indignant, the royal turned up his nose. Then almost like I’d called down a curse from heaven, a damned girl with blue-black hair and bloody fangs shot forward. She launched, taking the royal with such ferocious speed that all that was left was a shredded, bloody throat and dead eyes.
Then she turned on me. I cracked my whip out and missed. The damned ducked and the spikes curled around her wrist rather than her neck.
And then she was leaping, straight through the air…at me.
Ty shot between us and clamped onto her arm. She shrieked, turning to slice her extending talons through his side.
My whip released and I cracked it out again. It sailed, tip snaking around the damned’s neck and pulling her off Ty.
But it was too late.
Her fangs had already plunged into Ty’s thigh. They ripped free with another yank of my whip to tear a fleshy chunk away. A howl scored through others’ cries as her extended fangs aimed for his neck. Troy returned the howl, but was barricaded behind his own advancing damned.
I went to yank the damned backwards again, but a falling vampire knocked the whip from my grasp.
With no time to think, my hand darted to my belt and my sliver stake. I cleared the bodies on the floor and collided with the girl, knocking us both to the ground.
Craze-blinded she flipped me onto my back, cold wetness soaking my clothes. The blood of the fallen.
Her mouth opened wide and her fingernails bit into my neck and chest, pinning me. “You’re dead.” Her mouth opened wide, her fangs closing in.
As her rank, cold breath touched my neck, my bare hand shot up. It drove the stake home into her cold, dead heart. An electric burst erupted through the silver, sending her flying back off my stake and into a heap of dead bodies. “No. You are.”
Far from needing to witness another body combust, I jumped up from the pool of blood and surrounding dead bodies. My sight skittered.
There.
Ty was on four paws, muzzle twisting to crunch around a damned’s stomach. Crimson leaked from his thigh where the chunk had been torn out. But he was alive.
As if sensing my gaze, his wolf eyes met mine and he let out a howl.
At that instant a fresh band of damned encroached, forcing me back and separating us. Over their heads I glimpsed Ty and Troy’s wolf backs. The beta was back at his side. More blood made Ty’s black fur glisten. But he was still on his feet, movements advancing with continued attack. “Ty!”
A level howl rose from the noise of battle. He was okay. For now.
I tried to rush forward, but I had to fend off my own attackers. Five in total. Snatching up my whip from between torn bodies, I struck out sure and true. But my static voltage was gone, snuffed like a flame under water.
My free hand ripped a dagger from the holster at my calf, lashing out.
The blows from my attackers came flying, and I returned each with the punishment for striking me. In what felt like hours of ducking, leaping, and lashing out with my weapons, I managed to drop two of the five damned.
I weaved on my feet, fighting exhaustion that filled my bones like putty. The unrelenting energy of the remaining damned held strong, and they struck out with as much force as they had started with.
One thing was dauntingly clear. I no longer had the strength to outfight my enemies, much less the speed. So I needed to be cunning. It was time to switch tactics.
One of the three sprung forward, cracking an elbow into my jaw. I dropped, feigning unconsciousness. My ears peeled past the endless warring around me. There were footsteps first, tracking through sticky blood. Bones crunched as the fallen were walked over like forgotten garbage. Raspy breathing neared, growing louder with anticipation. At last the chill of putrid breath brushed my cheek.
My knee shot up, connecting with the attacker’s groin. Dead or not, that still had to freaking hurt. And it did. The damned cried out, surprised red eyes turning even more vibrant with the pain.
But the true surprise was yet to come.
My arms shot up, releasing the concealed stake from my sleeve and driving it home. Smoldering ash exploded around me and I leaped through its wake, ready to take on the two remaining damned.
But one was already behind me. Its arms curled around my own, locking them behind my back. “You first,” it hissed at the damned in front of me.
The other snarled in response, seething with the need to tear me to pieces.
A distant voice drew my eye to the dais, where heavy thrones lay cracked and upturned. “Caius,” my mom cried out. “My children need me. Let me out!”
Caius slammed the steel door below the dais shut and bolted it. He mumbled something while dusting off his clothes. My mouth gaped at his words, “I will not let you die. You will be safe here.”
Before I could comprehend any reason for his act of protection, the damned stepped forward, hissing. “You’ll pay for that, bitch.”
A direct voice stopped his advance. The same voice I’d just heard, now loud and commanding. “Don’t kill her!” Caius stood on the edge of the dais. As if he’d been watching the whole battle take place from the start. Not hiding out to lock up my mom. “Restrain her!”
“Caius!” Uriel stared over the thinning swarm of battlers, mystified. She sliced a damned in two with a wicked-looking sword with a wavy edge and serrated tip. Now she advanced on him, the sword a warning in her steady hand. “What in heaven’s name are you doing?”
“Taking what is mine.” Caius’s wrinkled face flared with rage. Outing himself clearly hadn’t been the plan. With a single-handed motion, he set a band of three damned on his colleague.
Other vampires gaped, shocked at his treachery, but he ignored them.
With a point of his sword, he set another four damned on me and began weaving through the fallen bodies. “I need her alive.”
Caius still needed my blood to become immortal. And every drop he could drain from my veins was no use if I was already dead. Due to that underlying fact, for the moment I held the upper hand. I didn’t need to escape the vicious fangs of however many damned that now had their hungry red eyes focused on me. I just had to stay conscious enough to kill every last one that came my way.
With the soles of my feet aching in my Vans, an idea came to mind. I struggled against my restrainer and kicked out. The base of my Vans flew like a mallet into the damned’s stomach before me. The force sent him sailing back until he crashed into his advancing back up.
Without hesitation, I threw my head back. My skull connected with the damned’s nose with a splitting crack. His grip loosened.
Exactly what I needed.
With some motion to my arms returned, I spun, swinging the butt of the whip around the damned’s torso and catching it as it came around. I gripped the length and crossed the whip over itself, pulling hard. He wailed as the spikes sunk into his chest and back. Black blood gurgled out from the countless silver punctures.
The shock caught him by surprise, but I didn’t have a second to waste. The fallen damned were back on their feet and making a beeline for me.
I centered my stance, ready to lash out with my dagger in one hand and my retracted whip in the other. As I went to rush forward, Kendrick and Dorian appeared at my side.
“Oh my god.” I couldn’t believe it. “You’re alright!”
Since they’d jumped into the swarm lurking outside, my connection to Kendrick had been severed. I’d had no i
dea if they were okay, let alone alive. Now they stood right beside me. Both looked far worse for wear, but were still in once piece. Still breathing.
“We kicked some undead butt!” Dorian’s silver eyes were as wild as his mussed hair. His guard’s uniform was torn, and I could smell blood on him. Damned and his own. Still, beneath the torn fabric I saw healing lacerations.
Kendrick, in similar shape, ducked out of a damned’s way. As he dropped he stabbed through the creature’s back with a stake. A pile of crackling embers was all that was left in his wake. “Here to save your ass, by the looks of it.”
The remaining four damned closed in, surrounding us. We answered every attack with our trained line of defense, ducking, weaving, using each other as leverage, and striking out with every opportunity. Our attackers minded their kill strikes when coming at me, but were ruthless against Kendrick and Dorian. Still, even with their attempt to kill, Kendrick and Dorian’s kill or be killed response was in clear action.
While the battle forged on, I caught glimpses of Kendrick’s memories. Outside and swarmed by damned, their powers had been the striking queen on a chessboard. Whirlpools of wind cocooned Marika in safety while she healed. Batting gusts assaulted the damned, throwing them off balance or up against the outside of the building. Strong swirls, made visible with rock and tree debris, launched them up into the air, only to drop them from a splattering height. Dorian’s crossbow and ability to bleed out his opponents, along with Kendrick’s stake, made most of the kill shots, cutting their enemy’s numbers. The entire throng of damned outside had been slayed, all while managing to keep Marika unharmed.
Their powers were MIA after the exhausting expulsion, leaving weapons as their last defense. Still, they weren’t about to give in now.
As the fourth damned fell, another even larger group set on us. Around us, the ratio of damned to vampires was gradually leveling. Our resistance was almost on par with theirs. Uriel was among those still standing, fierce battlers. Marcus, who I’d just spotted for the first time since he’d incinerated the damned that had decked me, wasn’t far from her. Two damned were taking him on, but their attacks seemed weak and somehow deliberate. Around them other royal and turned vampires fought on, still consumed with the never-ending advances of remaining enemies.
