War of the Chosen

by Elizabeth Dunlap

“I don’t want to touch you.” A man that loved me who didn’t want to touch me. Paradox city up in here.

  “Fine. I’m sure I’m being unfair just talking to you like this. I just didn’t want you to be by yourself at a party.”

  “I’m always by myself.”

  I bent to stare into his icy blue eyes. “No you’re not. I may not love you, but I’m here with you. I’m not saying we’ll go get perms and French manicures. It’s just a dance.” He hesitated, and took my hand. I led him to the dance floor and put my hand around his waist.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m leading. You don’t have to touch me very much, just my shoulder and my hand.” We moved side to side awkwardly, but smoothly.

  “I feel stupid,” he complained.

  “And you are. Stupid. Stop talking.”

  Being that close to him, with our hands together and his hand on my shoulder, I felt… nothing. No warmth. No love. It was only our friendship and bond that drew me to him. The knowledge comforted me and I started smiling.

  “Oh god, you’re smiling. You’re a terrifying woman.”

  “Aww, you say the sweetest things.” I waved to Knight and he gave me a thumbs up. My eyes moved up to look at the sunset when I saw something. I pulled away from Arthur to look closer. “What is that?” He saw what I was seeing and his earlier statement about not touching me was over. He grabbed me to him to protect me, but it was a useless gesture, as the objects in the sky were not aimed at us.

  They were missiles. And they were aimed at the castle.

  CHAPTER 26

  The explosion rocked the earth when the bombs hit our home. Chunks of stone broke off and fell to the ground. A second round of projectiles came, these were on fire. They followed the explosions and lit the castle in flames.

  Arthur still held me against him so I pushed away. Our ears were ringing from the blast. I got little breaks of sound now and then of people screaming and Kitty crying. Where was Kitty? Balthazar promised. He promised he would take her away to protect her. When my ears cleared up, I took Arthur to the group of Hunters that had been sitting in a group playing dominoes, Olivier and Renard among them.

  “Get the humans and children to safety,” I told them over the shouting. “Check the castle if anyone was inside.” They nodded and were off.

  More missiles came every second. I heard Kitty screaming again but her cries got quieter. Where was she? I searched everywhere and couldn’t see her. Knight was by my side in an instant.

  “You okay?” he asked me, and I nodded, still searching for my daughter. “Arthur, we need to find where they’re at. Maybe we can use the bombs on them.”

  “The bombs were in the castle,” Arthur told him. Our weapons, our bombs, everything was in the castle. Half of the packs had gone home, we had no army now.

  “We need to retreat,” I said. “We can’t fight them and win.” I saw Castilla’s body in a bloodied heap where Olivier and Renard had said their vows, a chunk of the castle on top of her.

  Olivier came holding Renard’s hand. “We couldn’t get the humans out. There’s turned vampires everywhere blocking the way.”

  Arthur looked this way and that, probably using his power to see what we were up against. “We’re surrounded.”

  “By?”

  “The turned. Thousands.”

  No. It can’t be. It can’t be where we end. I took Knight’s hand and tried to push past the overwhelming shock.

  “We uhh…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “We need to protect the humans. Make a circle with the benches for them to be in that we can surround. If we have to die, we will die protecting them.”

  We got to work with the circle and getting all the humans inside it. Kitty and Balthazar were gone, and it was my only comfort now. She could continue living long after we were gone. Lycan beside vampire, we stood outside the circle and waited.

  I kissed Knight one last time, just in case one or both of us died. Probably both. What did positive thinking matter now? We were done for. All that effort, all the planning, the alliance, all of it for nothing.

  Farewell, my heart. Our stolen kisses in the night were the second brightest thing in my life. The first was safely gone with her father, and I would never see her beautiful purple blue eyes again.

  First more missiles came, making very sure there was no part of our castle still standing. And then the turned came in waves upon waves to surround us. At their head, there was a vampire I didn’t know, wearing a coat that looked very expensive. Was he the one who started this?

  “Welcome all,” he said humorlessly in a British accent, “to the end of Born vampires. I trust you all had fun at the party? We saw a little slow dancing in front of the fire. Someone got handsy a few times, am I right?” He laughed. “You probably don’t know who I am, but that’s fine.”

  “Alistair?” Knight asked in my ear. I shook my head.

  “My name is Kent.” He waited for a reaction, and got none. “That’s fine, that’s fine. I am not surprised. Annoyed. Not surprised. You see, I came from this Order. This one right here, the one I exploded. This Order used to be in England, did you know that? They moved over during one of those silly human wars, I forget which. They were afraid they would be discovered. And while everyone was packing up their little bobbles and fancy clothes, my colleagues and myself assumed we would be coming with our vampire family. Only, when the time came, the leader of the Order told us we were mistaken. They weren’t taking turned vampires with them. Only the superior Born vampires, our betters, as it were.”

  I remembered that. We’d left the turned vampires behind because we couldn’t have assured their safety from the sun in the voyage and the building of our new home. We were trying to protect them.

  This was why the rebellion had happened. It all clicked into place for me. A simple misunderstanding about why we left the turned vampires in England. That idea had grown inside them for over a century until it had cascaded into full-blown war.

  Wars had been fought for less.

  “My vampire brother and I, Alistair.” There it was. “We asked ourselves, how can we punish such insolence. Such disrespect. Such callousness from the ones that made us what we are. We bring them to their knees, and we grind them into dust. A fitting end, for a fitting crime, don’t you think?” Was he James’s son? I felt the stink of that kind of crazy. “First, before we slaughter you, we have a special guest.” He flicked his fingers and someone brought out a very fragile looking Othello and dumped him at Kent’s feet. “Your fearless leader. The very one that gave the order to abandon us. We made him pay, I can assure you. All those values and rules all of you drummed into our heads, we made him break them all and watched as his humanity slipped further and further from him. It was quite enjoyable, I must say.”

  Othello didn’t move from the ground. He was broken inside from what they’d done to him. I felt sadness, but the rage overcame me until I was seething with it. If we were going to be killed, I wanted to take Kent with me.

  “Now comes the fun part. We’re going to kill you. We’re going to rid the earth of the stink of Born vampires, and then, when your bodies are lying on the ground and your blood runs cold, we will kill your Lycan friends. And after that, we will feed on the humans until they are dead too. Even the little ones.” He waved at the humans.

  “If you touch them, we will end you,” Olivier shouted to him.

  “No, sweet one. You’ll be dead. Did you not hear me? Must’ve been the explosions. I admit, we got a bit carried away on those.” He grinned sheepishly like explosions were adorable. “So, who’s dying first? Oh yes, I know. That one.” He pointed to me, but then his finger moved to Knight. “Kill their leader’s mate. I want her to watch all of this happen before I end her. Bring him to me.” I stepped in front of Knight and hissed, but that only made Kent laugh. Not one of his soldiers moved to take Knight. He noticed a few seconds after I did. “I said bring him to me. Are you all dead? I’ll get him myself.” He took o
ne step before he too was frozen.

  “What’s happening?” Knight asked, looking around. None of the turned were moving. They strained against invisible bonds.

  I felt something behind us. Something coming. A power like I’d never felt before. A being that radiated vampire force. With the levels I was feeling, this vampire could do anything. Anything. This vampire was holding the entire turned army captive, thousands of bodies frozen under their grasp. Every step this vampire took was a pulse through my body. I felt the approach like I felt hunger or pain.

  The turned army parted underneath the vampire’s power until a figure emerged.

  Mother.

  CHAPTER 27

  She entered like a strike of thunder. Everyone felt the power coming from her in a sickly wave. It was unnatural, like a dead thing in a forest of life. No one should have that much power. Her face flushed, her eyes sunken. This was Anastasia after a blood binge, and I was shuddering with terror at the prospect of her being near me. Would she be as unstable as James and I had been? She was already unstable, this might tip her over the edge.

  Even so, her power made her terrifyingly beautiful. Her skin radiated with it.

  Kent looked appropriately surprised at her arrival. “Who are you?”

  “I am Anastasia Bathory.” Her voice sounded strange, almost like an echo. “I am here to save my people.” Who better to save us than the one who almost destroyed us? Loving the irony, mom. She came closer to the center where we stood. For a split second, she caught my eye. “The humans can leave.” We moved one of the benches so the humans could get out. Olivier and Renard went with them to ensure they got to safety.

  Kent laughed under Anastasia’s control. “Not going to kill us all at once, love? Disappointing. I would’ve-” She held out a hand and cut him off with her powers.

  “Don’t speak again,” she ordered. “Your voice makes my spine rattle, and I dislike that. One word and I will snap your worthless neck.” I felt her power diminish only slightly. She couldn’t keep this up forever. “We will accept your surrender.”

  Kent laughed again. “You really think you are in a position to-” Her hand still out, she cut him off a second time, this one permanently, and when her fist closed, his neck broke with a crack.

  “We will accept your surrender,” she repeated, her strange voice echo growing stronger.

  “Release us,” one of them ground out. She contemplated for a moment, listening for something, and then she held out both hands. The turned were free, but they had no intention of surrendering. They started to charge at us, but Anastasia had her hands out for a reason. She made them both into fists and dozens of the turned fell with broken necks.

  My mom still sucked, but lame she was not.

  “We will accept your surrender,” I shouted. “Kneel and you will be spared.”

  Half of the turned had been frightened into submission. The instant they knelt, the vampires next to them made sure they would not get up again.

  “So be it,” I said. “Mom, smash ‘em.” She nodded to me, and as our enemies came, together we destroyed them, until nothing was left except the few left that surrendered, and our small army of survivors.

  The battle won and victory ours, Anastasia floated over to me. She said nothing, simply pressed a paper into my hand. Knight came up, dragging a survivor from the carnage. I pulled the turned’s face close to mine.

  “Where is Alistair?” I demanded.

  He coughed up blood and had the nerve to smile. “Gone. And you’ll never find him. The day you see him again is the day your world dies.” He laughed, and gurgled when my claw swiped his neck open. I dumped him onto the ground with the other bodies.

  Anastasia was gone into the night, the phantom who’d saved our skin. The paper was still in my hand. I opened it and inside she’d written:

  ‘I love you.’

  Lace and flowers reigned today. In a small white tent, I checked my small bit of makeup in the mirror and adjusted a few hairs here and there. I’d done it mostly by myself, with the unskilled help of Olivier and Merrick. My calf length dress was a simple thing, with embroidered flowers and sheer fabrics. Nothing fancy.

  Olivier was wearing black like she usually did, and Merrick wore green to go with her bright green eyes. She and I had come to a comfortable friendship, thankfully. I fluffed my curls one more time and breathed out some anxiety.

  “Jitters?” Olivier teased.

  “No. Not one bit.” I knew what, and who, I wanted.

  Finished, I stood and slipped on my silver flats, and we left the tent. Outside were the ruins of a castle that was once our home. Several months of work were turning it into a meeting hall for us to gather in. We didn’t live together any more. Instead, we were forming a community around the area with our new brothers, the Lycans. Some of the rogue packs had decided to stay and become our neighbors, Jesse’s among them, one of the many Lycans who had helped us along the way.

  One wall had been finished of the new meeting hall, a wall with three large windows that pointed at the top. I liked the bright open space and was glad our new designer hadn’t chosen hunter green to decorate it.

  Knight stood in the middle of the windows, looking very nice in a tux. I’d insisted he didn’t need to, but he insisted he did so I would tear it off him again. Still, he looked handsome with his hair slicked back and a smile on his face.

  Everyone stopped when they saw me. Olivier and Merrick stayed by the steps where there was no wall, only bits of stone left. I walked alone up the aisle to the man standing at the end.

  On the front row of the crowd was my father and aunt. Lucas sobbed beautifully into a handkerchief while Clara patted him consolingly on the shoulder. They were my third set of visitors, and after everyone had agreed to pardon Lucas and let them both stay, it had made me very happy, as Castilla said it would. Balthazar was next to them holding Kitty. She sat up in his lap and kept trying to climb into Clara’s, much to Balthazar’s chagrin. Toni sat on his other side and she gave me a blank nod. She and I would never be buddies, but Balthazar adored having her around so she tolerated me. Arthur was on the other side of the room. We’d been a good team since the war ended. We would never hang out outside of work, but having his feelings in the open hadn’t messed up our work relationship, and that was good.

  The most important person in the room, Knight, looked at me like I’d imagined a man looking at me on our bonding day. He held out his hand when I reached him and helped me up the steps to the platform. A table was there for us, with the goblets and the knife. I filled mine, and he filled his, and we drank our lovers’ blood. I knew what his tasted like, but he had never drank blood before. He smacked and looked like he was about to burp, then it passed. We put our wounds together, held wrists, and stepped in a circle. My blood flowing into his blood flowing into my blood. The circle ended, and we said the words:

  I pledge my life to you. I will spend every moment hereafter with you. You are my family, my hearth. And though the seasons change and the world renews, within your embrace is where I will stay. I will never take another, even should there be a day when you are not by my side. Our love will never fade. Eternal and unchanging we shall be. Together.

  We drew close and kissed tenderly, forever bonded. Everyone clapped for us and we stood before them as one. We had a party again, with good food and games and dancing. Our numbers were so small now, we had few friends left, and those that we did, we cherished.

  Knight and I danced to the song he’d played when he proposed, and I sang along to it with my head against his shoulder.

  You’re all I ever wanted…

  We left the party first and went to our new little yellow home down the road. Knight tried to carry me over the threshold, but I told him that was silly, so he picked me up anyway and did it. Then, after our passion was sated, we drifted off to sleep in our bed, and I fell into a dream.

  I dreamed of the house again, the one from my nightmare. I was frozen in fear of having
the same dream, but this time was different. The house wasn’t in shambles now. There was fresh paint on the walls, simple furniture, and the smell of bread in the air. I walked from one room to the other until I got to the front door.

  The screen door opened for me and I saw a party outside. I was wearing a white cotton dress and flowers in my hair. A woman approached me. She had dark curls and tanned skin. Kitty? No, Kitty didn’t have tanned skin.

  “Mother, we’re about to start,” she said. She tugged my hand to a table decorated with party things like balloons and cake. Another woman with dark curls saw me and smiled.

  “Mother,” she said too. Her eyes were purple and blue. Kitty.

  Then a man and another woman came. The man was tan with black locks that looked like they refused to be tamed. The third woman looked different from the others, with blonde straight hair and blue eyes.

  The man came and kissed my cheek. “Happy birthday, mother.”

  The third woman came too and did the same. “Happy birthday, mother.”

  Birthday? Vampires didn’t celebrate birthdays. And four people calling me mother? What kind of dream was this?

  “Give her some room, kids,” a voice said from behind me. Knight was here too. He set his chin on my head and held me tightly in his arms. “You know how she feels about birthdays.”

  I turned to look at him, and there was something about his face that made me believe he knew what was going on. “What is this?” I asked him.

  He chuckled at me and stroked my cheek. “Four hundred years of life and you still don’t know what a vision looks like.”

  “This is my future?”

  He shrugged. “Who wants cake?”

  The four adult children scrambled to get cake from him. The haze of sleep left and I slipped into the dream like it wasn’t a vision, like it was simply a dream. I joined them at the table and joked over who would get the biggest piece, and put icing on the boy’s nose with a laugh.

  If I’d slipped into my future, it was one I wanted to go to. When I woke up the next morning, I felt strange to be back in the yellow house instead of the farmhouse with the four children. Knight wasn’t there, but I smelled food cooking. I put on a robe and walked into the kitchen. Knight was at the stove making something. He saw me and smiled.