The Protectors

by April Hollingworth

  “No, it worked. Everyone can let go now.” I try and release my hands from the firm grips of my lover and friend. “Seriously, you can let go, it worked.” I laugh, shaking my hands free from their firm grip.

  A slight ping echoes around us, and a tiny beam of light pops up over my head. “See that?” I ask my stunned-looking friends. “Each one of us will have one of them flashing above your heads. Once, that is, you let go of each other.” I watch as they reluctantly release each other’s hands, and then they all ping as a light pops up over their heads.

  “And how exactly does this help us?” demands Jezebel looking crossly at her light.

  “The best way is to show you. Hold on a sec.” Quickly, I run down the street and hide in a doorway. I hear cursing coming from my group and recognize Victor’s voice.

  “Hey, it’s okay. Look, there she is,” Felicity quickly reassures him. The next instant, I’m grabbed and thrown over his shoulder and carted back to the group.

  “Seriously, Victor, you can put me down. I was only showing you that we can’t lose each other, no matter where we are,” I exclaim as my head bounces against his firm ass. Receiving no answer, I decide to just bite him.

  “What the—?” I suddenly find myself standing in front of him as he gives me an incredible look. “I can’t believe you just bit my ass!”

  “Can’t blame her. That is one fine ass,” T.T., mutters, not very quietly to Felicity.

  “Don’t do that again,” Victor growls at me, as he shakes me slightly by the shoulders.

  “Which, the biting you or the demonstration, ’cause I thought you liked me biting you,” I tease him, which is apparently the wrong thing to do. Who knew?

  Once more I find myself slung over his shoulder, his hand pressed firmly over my ass. “Seriously? Come off it. We can’t do what’s needed properly if I’m hanging like a sack of potatoes over your shoulder,” I scold him.

  “Victor, a word for just a second, please.” Vincent grasps hold of his elbow, gives me an apologetic glance, and leads us away from the others. “Guys, you need to claim each other properly, or this crazy behavior will only get worse.”

  “Claim each other properly how?” Victor and I say at the same time, causing Vincent to swear, then rub his hand down his face.

  “Seriously? Oh Christ, I’m not surprised the two of you are getting so emotional. You need to bite each other at the same time—”

  “We’ve done that lots of times,” interrupts Victor.

  “Have you then claimed one another as your other half through the link?”

  “Umm.”

  “I’ll take that as a no, as if it wasn’t obvious you hadn’t already,” mutters Vincent in exasperation. “Guys, fucking hell, how have you not either killed each other or someone else yet? Don’t you know that claiming each other is more than an emotional connection; it’s a matter of sanity. It’s about admitting to one another you’re soul mates. That you belong to each other and only each other.

  “Claiming each other through the link bonds you together through this lifetime and allows you to sense where you are even if you’re not together. It’s a primal force, and bloody necessary for your own peace of mind.”

  “Does that mean he can safely put me down now?” I ask. “Seriously, the blood is going straight to my head. I’m feeling slightly woozy.”

  “Christ’s sake, put her down!”

  Safely once more on my feet, I lean against my overprotective partner as I’m feeling lightheaded; thankfully, his arm is wrapped around my waist holding me up.

  “You can’t do it while linked to everyone else, but the moment you’re not, bite one another and through the link claim each other.”

  “Any particular words?”

  “As long as you say ‘I claim you as mine,’ you’ll be fine. Seriously, how did you not know this?” Shaking his head at us, he then escorts us back to the others. I feel like a naughty child coming back from the principal’s office. Going by the look on my beloved’s face, he does too.

  “Y’all sorted out now?” drawls Cedrix, raising an eyebrow in enquiry.

  “I’d be able to take you more seriously without your bobbing light,” I tease him, to which I receive a smirk in return. “We’ll be fine, once this is done and we’ve sorted something out,” I add, while rubbing circles on Victor’s back.

  “Okay, so what now? How do we…” Nancy trails off what she was saying as we hear the distant sound of feet pounding along the pavement. Glancing at each other, we head off down the street after we affix our link to the alley. No point being able to find each other if we can’t escape this world afterward.

  Chapter 38

  We hurry down the road, my light ball bobbing overhead illuminating our way. A scream of terror echoes through the night, shattering the silence, quickly followed by a laugh of joy and a taunt. “Here, ducky, ducky, come out and pllllaaayyyy. You’ll know I’ll catch you. And the longer you make me hunt, the worse it’ll be,” roars the voice of a laughing man.

  The shadows grow thicker, more intense, almost as if trying to protect someone. A little farther away, I hear the faintest sound of a stifled sob. Glancing at the others, I receive a nod of confirmation that they’d heard it too.

  Growing closer to where we’d heard the sound, I see a shadow come through the fog and a flash of a blade as if an arm is swinging it. “I know you’re there, and soon you’ll join the other specters of the night,” chuckles the man.

  A human form darts away from the thicker shadows, running in our direction, clinging as much as possible to the side of the houses, as if to take cover.

  “I see you now, little ducky. There’s no escape for you. My blade is dying to meet you,” laughs the man in joy as he chases after what appears to be a woman.

  “Oh, fuck this; I can’t see shit,” I mutter in disgust, not knowing if this is an elaborate game between two hunters hunting us, or if the figure coming at us quickly is truly a victim.

  I stand still in the middle of the street, bend slightly forward toward my toes. I gather power to me, rolling it up my legs from the ground itself. Crackles of light flash. Green, silver, violet, and gold swirls of raw energy merge together, spitting bolts of lightning, only to be drawn back into my energy ball.

  I hear the footsteps falter but pay no attention. With a feeling of raw anger washing through me, I throw the power I’ve gathered into the air, fling my arms wide open, and shout at my fullest volume.

  “Shadows of the night and realm take form once more. War has brought you here, and war will set you free.

  “Gather yourselves together, reclaim what you once were. Shadows of this land, it’s time to fight back against The Protectors!”

  The energy ball bursts apart, swirling and diving throughout the Shadow World. Streaks of lightning flash and spark, while thunder booms and ripples across the night sky gathering the mist and breaking it apart, until, finally, light fills the streets of a mirror image of Whitechapel London, as it would have looked in 1868.

  Gaslights now illuminate the streets, revealing the form of a man slightly bent over, clinging to the sides of the house, with a dagger clutched in his hand, startled and frozen by the sudden light show.

  “Well, that’s different,” mutters Dante from behind me.

  Behind him, the man who’d been swinging his blade looks toward his prey and says to us, “Well, duckies, you seem to have caught us at a slight disadvantage, haven’t you?” With a growl, he turns and flees back the way he’d come, leaving his comrade who’d been playing the victim to look nervously for a way to retreat.

  Scuttling backward, he turns and runs after his partner. He doesn’t get far.

  Chapter 39

  Swirling columns of mist land in the street, turning into people. A woman reaches out for the man who was playing decoy, grasps him by the shoulder, opens her mouth, and rips into his neck with her fangs. She only releases him once she’s drained him. His limp body drops to the floor like forgotten ru
bbish.

  In the distance, I hear taunting coming from the once shadow people, hunting the fleeing man, as he must have hunted them.

  “I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.” The woman bows her head ever so slightly while staring at us with open curiosity. “Did you mean what you said?”

  For a second, I wonder what she’s talking about. My puzzlement must show because she releases a low throaty chuckle. “You look cute when uncertain, almost like a demented squirrel.”

  Instantly, I place my fingers over my nose to straighten out the scrunched look.

  “I meant about what you said, about fighting The Protectors?”

  “Yes. I did mean it.”

  “You truly believe you can finish them off?”

  “Only with help,” I reply, while watching her closely.

  “To be free of them is a dream long prayed over; the reality, they are complex beings, more of a collective than an individual. I don’t understand how they’re formed.” Shaking her head, she looks at us with pity, as if we’re children she’s about to tell heartbreaking news to.

  “We’ve read the Prophecy, and we’ve also found out how they are so strong. They’re linked through blood ties, which will be their undoing,” I inform her. Taking a step closer, I watch her intently and see surprise in her eyes.

  “You’ve found it? Who are you exactly? Vlasim is the keeper—”

  “Vlasim? You know our sire?” demands Victor and Vincent who as one step forward, coming up on either side of me.

  “Yes, of course, wait…your sire?” Turning to a man nearest to her, she tells him to hurry and pass the information along. In a flash, the man disappears, literally disappears by turning to mist and seeping away. Seriously cool, but creepy as hell.

  “Well, that’s different,” mutters Dante.

  “You do know you’re saying that a lot, don’t you?” Selene whispers back to him.

  “What can I say,” he answers with a smile in his voice. “I’m getting a serious eye-opener, and everything seems different.”

  A few minutes later, two shadows transform into people. I’m stunned to see Vlasim. Going by the gasps coming from either side of me, I’m not the only one.

  “Sire? How can this be?” demand both vampires simultaneously.

  “Shall we say, there was a certain female vampire I was surprised to see, who lured me into a trap?” Vlasim smiles slightly to take the sting out of his words, though I notice that he does give Vincent a pitying look. “All this time you’ve been covering for her, you should have told us it wasn’t you. We could have been there for you,” he gently reprimands him.

  “You don’t blame me either?” Shock resonates in Vincent’s voice and his face, and I notice his shoulders sag in surprise at the lack of blame.

  “No, Vincent, you are not to blame for your mother’s actions. I’m just glad it wasn’t you,” Vlasim replies, then gives him a stern look. “Though if you’d told us about her, I wouldn’t have followed her into the trap. Now I have my body back, the next time I see her—”

  “There won’t be a next time,” I interrupt him.

  “What do you mean there won’t be a next time? Nice to see you again. Shame you’re dressed this time.” He wags his eyebrows at me and smirks, which is quickly wiped off his face when he hears Victor growling in warning at him. “Ah, you two are…?”

  “Yes,” we answer together, though Victor’s voice sounds like he’s crunching rocks and spitting them out. I quickly explain to him, “Hecate sorted her out. Now about this coming war, we need your help.”

  The woman who’d summoned Vlasim looks in confusion at me, turning to him she asks, “Who is she?”

  “My dear, she is the one from the Prophecies. The one with Double Magick.” I hear reverence in his voice, and feel stunned at his seriousness.

  “Truly?” Stepping forward, she quickly reaches out a trembling hand to me. “I can’t believe you’re real. I’ve always thought…”

  “Thought what?”

  “I’d assumed my sister was mistaken. After all, the chances of your being here are so remote. Never mind that my niece’s children would have survived.”

  “You’re Janna’s aunt?” Vincent demands, sounding as dumbfounded as I feel.

  “You know Janna?” demands Vlasim, while her aunt stares at Vincent.

  “She’s my wife.”

  “Why isn’t she here?” Staring over my shoulder, her eyes search my friends’ faces as if Janna is hidden amongst them. Disappointment flashes across her face when she realizes she isn’t there.

  “She’s with our daughter; they’re both safe.”

  “Daughter?” A stunned silence echoes through the street after the whispered word spoken in reverent tones.

  Janna’s aunt nods her head at us, looks at her people, and with a huge smile on her face declares, “It’s finally time to fight back. I never thought it would be possible, yet with Janna alive and a new generation born, let alone standing before us, and us.” Waving her hand to encompass all the shadow people, she continues, “I can’t believe my sister was right!” as if that’s the most surprising aspect of everything.

  Chapter 40

  In my wildest dreams, I’d never imagine I’d be sitting around the kitchen table of what is Victor’s house in our time, but is Janna’s aunt’s, Yvette’s, home, in the Shadow World. But this is exactly what I’m doing. Drinking coffee and pondering over the decisions and actions that have brought us to this point.

  When The Protectors decided to illuminate the Midnight Slasher, a rogue vampire on a killing spree, and failed, they unintentionally (I hope) ripped a hole in the ether and created the Shadowlands, where the dead rule, trapped in a nightmarish realm in 1868.

  I can’t help wondering where exactly the field of battle will be played out.

  “I’m confused,” I finally admit, turning to look at everyone. “Where exactly will this battle be fought? Hecate told us the battlefield has been chosen. But where is it?”

  “Child, you know where it is; after all, you saw it happen, did you not?”

  “Vlasim, I told you; it was a dream of one outcome of the war I saw.”

  “Yes, but that was the battlefield chosen, no matter what outcome plays out.

  “Great, so who exactly is going to tell Prince of Wallachia Vlad Tepes that we’re borrowing his land for a fight?” I ask, sarcasm dripping from each word.

  “I think she should, just for speaking like that,” Yvette informs the others.

  I feel my eyes widen and hope like hell she’s messing with me. I don’t fancy broaching that particular question with Vlad, even though he was exceptionally helpful to us, and nice. The idea of asking for a favor of this magnitude…not something I’m dying to do, especially with his prior track record for impaling those who pissed him off. After all, he wasn’t called the Impaler for nothing.

  “It’s okay, Candi; you won’t have to ask him,” Victor informs me. Taking hold of my hand, he informs me, “Vlad will be more than delighted to have his land used to kill The Protectors, and trust me when I say he’s been looking forward to tearing them apart for a long, long time.”

  “Who did they kill that he loved?”

  “What are the two main things you know about from all the stories about him?”

  “His love and devotion to his wife who tragically killed herself, and that he was turned into a vampire before he could tell her.”

  “Vlad’s wife was murdered by The Protectors; she didn’t kill herself.”

  “What was she?”

  “She was a vampire, and she is the one who turned him.”

  “Say that again? Wait, if she turned him, then why was she killed? That doesn’t make sense.” Waving my free hand, I almost hit Felicity in the face. “I mean, their killing never made sense, but this makes even less than normal.”

  “Do you remember in the stories about Vlad, that wolves answered to him, and even in some stories he could turn into a wolf?”
/>
  “Yes…why?”

  “Vlad was the alpha werewolf in his pack. Even once he was turned into a vampire, the wolves still obeyed him. No, he hasn’t the ability to shapeshift anymore. Part of the fear of your being born was that if, no, when the Prophecy is realized, all magick will come back.” Looking around at everyone, his eyes settle on Nancy. “Which means you for starters will once more be a necromancer, and a zombie.”

  “Fucking hell!” gasps Talia in awe, while staring wide-eyed first at Nancy before turning her gaze on me. “Feeling pressure yet?” she asks with a huge grin spreading across her face.

  I can’t help gaping at Victor. Reaching out, he places two fingers under my jaw and closes my mouth by gently pushing it closed, then strokes the side of my face.

  “You’ll be okay, sweetheart; we’re in this together, no matter what.”

  Leaning forward, he brushes his mouth against mine, just the barest amount of pressure, yet the kiss ignites a fire deep inside me, flaring brightly. So for just a second, I feel as if I’m going to combust and soar into the sky, like a phoenix from the ashes. Opening my eyes, for just the briefest moment, I see flames and hear the screams of the dying.

  “Come with me, Candi. There’s something we must do now before the coming battle,” Victor informs me while looking intently into my eyes.

  With a nod of my head, I agree. I know exactly what he’s on about, and he’s right. I need to claim him properly as mine. But more than that, I want him to claim me as his. Hand in hand, we leave the others behind and enter the sitting room, closing the door firmly behind us.

  We sit on the floor, facing each other, our legs crossed and knees touching. I take one of Victor’s hands, place it over my heart, leaving mine on top. Victor does the same to mine.

  With a trembling smile, I lean forwards, closing the distance between Victor and me. I feel the brush of his lips against my neck a moment before he sinks his fangs into me.