by Gaja J. Kos
As for those who would survive the initial attack… She would fight. She would fight them with everything she had and try to take down as many of the treacherous bastards as she could to give the pack a chance to survive. To give Jürgen a chance to survive.
Even at the cost of her own life.
Chapter 28
The smell of vampires and terrified humanity filled Rose’s senses. It clung to her nostrils like perfume does in humid weather, thick and potent enough to stir a headache. Not that she needed another one. The pain already throbbing in her temples was distracting enough.
She crouched in the shadows at the end of the hallway, Zarja completely silent by her side, although the readiness to fight hummed and sizzled down the bond, as well as filled the air around them with deathly quiet electricity. They had already disabled and killed the majority of the vamps lurking on the lower levels, leaving only those few untouched whose takedown would attract more attention than they were comfortable with. While she didn’t doubt the ringleaders were well aware of their actions despite the ruined cameras, right now they still needed every bit of stealth they could get.
Even if it meant having a few threats at their backs.
We’re here, Tim said, his voice leveled.
Good. We’ll try to get closer and see what’s the situation inside the conference room, but be prepared to strike. She glanced at Zarja. You good to go?
The werewolf gave her a curt dip of her chin, then started prowling forward. The air circulating through the hallways gave them a clear trail to follow, so they moved steadily, keeping to the shadows where their dark clothes blended seamlessly with the environment.
As the smell of humans and vampires grew stronger, so did Rose’s anticipation.
The conference room was situated on the topmost level, smack in the middle with nothing but a single corridor snaking all around the floor. The setting made it harder for anyone to jump them, but it also impaired their ability to sneak up on the hot spot and its occupants.
The single uplifting fact was that she noticed several of the offices lining the outer side of the corridor were ajar or open, more than likely left that way after the vamps had snatched the unsuspecting humans away from their Saturday work. While a terrible reminder, the unlocked spaces at least provided a quick means of concealing themselves, should any of the vamps decide to patrol the hall. Not ideal, but it would do.
Yet despite her fears, the scents permeating the air remained homonymous in potency, indicating that the hostiles were, in fact, all still huddled inside the conference room. Loosening a quiet breath, she turned the final corner, then quickly pushed forward, halving the distance to that dreaded room.
A lounge chair rested next to a coffee table on the left, and Rose hunkered down behind it, while Zarja hid herself behind a large potted plant on the other side. Muffled voices filtered down from the hot spot, causing a silent streak of curses to erupt in Rose’s mind. Of course the bastards kept the door shut.
Not such easy prey after all.
Tim, Mark, she warned, we won’t get a visual until we barge in.
Fuck, Mark’s reply came at once, but the rest of his words were lost to her as another voice reached above it.
Jürgen’s.
Evelin. They went after Evelin. Katja’s there, but…
They also know we’re all inside, Jens added, filling in when a rush of emotion flooded the bond and cut off Jürgen’s voice. I told Tomo to keep his men away until we learn more.
Fury rippled down her skin, and for the hundredth time, Rose cursed her inability to identify individual souls. It would have been easy, so damned easy to just pluck the bastards out of existence from where she was standing now. But, as it was of late, easy wasn’t exactly part of her vocabulary. She let out a low growl.
As tempting as it was, she couldn’t risk dragging innocent vampires into the underworld just to get to those inside the room.
Having Damir’s death on her conscious was difficult enough.
Whatever they’re planning, they haven’t made their move yet, she said, then fell quiet as a shadow materialized at the end of the hallway.
Mark.
Her muscles relaxed at his familiar scent, but the unease didn’t subside completely. Where’s Tim?
Went to check something out, didn’t say what. The edge lining his mental tones suggested his temper wasn’t faring any better than her own. What do you want to do?
It was Tim who answered. Hold off on doing anything. The vampires rigged the building with bombs.
Cold sweat broke out on Rose’s brow, but, somehow, she scraped up the strength to ask, How much time do we have?
The timer isn’t activated yet. I suspect the vamps are waiting for us to show up, then trigger it via cell phone or some other remote device.
Why didn’t they detonate the moment we were all inside?
Tim hesitated for a moment, fear and anger coiling through the ethereal gates of the bond. It could be because they didn’t have time to place explosives on all levels. If they want to wipe us out, they do need to ensure we’re all mortally wounded in the blast.
The vamps—or rather, their two-souled leaders—knew the pack would have no choice but to come up here. With the dozens of humans they were holding hostage, there really wasn’t any other way things could go down. Shit.
Or—his disembodied voice turned a shade darker—they want us to play some sick game. The amulet is reacting to the bomb, Rose. It holds the taint of the Upir.
A growl rose in her chest, but she swallowed the impulse to give it substance.
This was far worse than anything they had anticipated. The bomb at Adela’s had been almost personal—they hadn’t even considered the possibility that the bastards would use—and expose—themselves like this. The idea of them bringing down the building with the pack and hostages inside was bad enough. But if Tim’s amulet was reacting to the bomb…
She didn’t even allow herself to think of the damage that the addition of the Upirs’ chaotic magic imbued within the explosives would cause if it were released.
Tim—she swallowed past her discomfort—could you keep monitoring the bomb? Let us know the moment anything changes?
The moment his agreement reached her, she channeled her words towards the twins. Notify Tomo to clear the grounds.
Won’t that let the vamps know we’re onto their plan? Jürgen asked.
You have their walkie-talkies, right? Zarja asked. Bargain with them to release the hostages, and we’ll show up. Hopefully that’ll keep them busy enough. At least for the time being.
Jens blew out a heavy breath that vibrated down the bond, but Rose felt him reach for the device at the same time she heard Jürgen’s warning to Tomo. Then, heartbeat pumping in her ears at a near deafening volume, she waited.
Seconds rolled by, beads of sweat sliding down her temples and her claws out, ready to strike. Just when she thought she couldn’t stand even a moment longer locked in this limbo of helplessness, muffled voices stirred within the conference room.
Only the sound wasn’t isolated. No, it was accompanied by two sets of footsteps that seemed to circle the room—and stop in front of the far wall, precisely where the windows were.
Fuck.
Rose didn’t move, she didn’t even breathe as she crouched there, listening to the static of the walkie-talkie through Jens’s thoughts. But it wasn’t his voice that filled her mind.
It was Tim’s.
The timer’s been activated. We have three minutes to get everyone out.
That one look at Zarja, that single look at the promise of blood and violence swirling in the were’s eyes told Rose everything she needed to know. She propelled herself forward, falling in step with her pack mate as they rushed towards the conference room, Mark closing in from the other side.
The three of them exploded through the door, wood splintering into a thousand pieces that slammed into the vampires who loomed over the huddled humans like vultur
es over their next meal. Every predatory instinct Rose possessed was now loose, yet the red haze of violence wasn’t without form. Instead, it was touched by icy death, honed by the calculative viciousness of a human mind that knew no morals. Only pain.
The vampires reacted, but golden light shot from her core, sending them flying backwards with such force, not even their preternatural strength could hope to combat it. Some crashed against the wall, some tumbled over chairs, gaining more cuts and scrapes as the plastic and metal broke, digging into their skin.
Cries of terror filled the room, but Rose only snarled at the humans, not caring if they saw her display of power, her sharp teeth, or the claws that were already reaching for one of the vamps.
“GET OUT OF THE BUILDING! NOW!”
Laced with the strength of a goddess, the words rammed into the hostages, the command overpowering the talons of pure terror she sensed gripping their limbs. They rushed towards the door as one, her energy shielding them from the vampires who tried snatching their prey as they fled. But the humans spilled out into the hallway like a torrent—sadly, not all of them fast enough.
The stench of mortal blood bloomed in the air, mixed in with the taint of the vampires Zarja and Mark had already brought down. Rose followed her pack mates’ movements in the back of her mind, while she channeled her focus on using her power like the weapon she had honed it into.
She couldn’t pull out the fuckers’ souls, but she could contain their bodies. Even if only for a little while.
Not being creatures of energy, but flesh, the vampires’ DNA hindered the strength of the barrier her golden light formed. A setback, true, but their partial immobility was all she was aiming for.
She lashed out with her knives, claws, and feet, shoving some of the pricks away while impaling and cutting up the others. Blood coated her in thick, warm layers as she transformed herself into the bringer of death she had been long before her ascension. But even as the floor became littered with corpses, the vamps just kept on coming.
Shit. There were even more of them than Dragan had predicted. A third more, at least.
A bitter laugh morphed into a growl. Why was it that they never got the numbers right?
Thirty seconds, Tim warned moments before the heavy thud of his footsteps prickled at Rose’s awareness.
The werewolf emerged into the room in a whirlwind of claws and threw himself straight into the thick of it. He took down a vamp with lethal swiftness, then hissed, We have to get out. I don’t think the bond was designed to withstand destruction like this.
Rose’s teeth tore into a tanned neck, tearing flesh and spraying the wall next to her in a macabre pattern. The window. Now!
She swiped at another vampire, her claws creating crimson gashes across his chest, before she ran up to Zarja and grabbed her hand. Mark joined her on her right, their fingers entwining just as Tim did the same at the end of the line.
Pain stung her back as a blade sliced across her shoulder, but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop.
The thick glass shattered when they hit it full force, their bodies suspended in perfect stasis for a brief moment that seemed to last far too long. Then there was nothing but the sky above them and the rapidly approaching ground below.
Rose released Veles’s name into the air and hoped with every fiber of her being her faith in his capabilities wasn’t misplaced.
Chapter 29
Reality seemed to still the second before the explosion threw them off course.
Heat and something far more vile pushed at Rose’s back, tearing at the already injured skin. Screaming, she held on to Zarja and Mark even as her fingers threatened to slip, even as her entire body twisted in pain under the force of the detonation that propelled them ever quicker towards the ground.
Tears wetted her cheeks, the presence of the bond letting her know she wasn’t alone in her fears.
Every emotion, every shudder and cry flowed freely down the ethereal paths, bringing the pack closer than they had ever been before. Rose latched herself onto the sensation, on the camaraderie she had almost believed to be lost. Thankful for all they had been through together, she braced herself for the impact that would come all too soon.
But before she could convey her gratitude for the life they had led, her mind swam, and darkness descended upon her world like a velvet curtain.
Darkness, carrying a faint olive tint.
Veles.
Relief washed over her, but the bliss was not long-lived. The soothing black dissipated as quickly as it had formed, and Rose groaned as her feet hit the asphalt, jolts of pain shooting up her ankles and knees.
Catching her balance, she pushed the now loose strands of hair from her face, but she hadn’t even managed to see if her pack mates were all right when another pulse of pure destruction threw her against the ground.
The instant the asphalt grazed her cheek, Veles covered her body with his, taking the brunt of the sinister, heated tongues of magic and dust.
They both jerked when the third explosion sounded, and, in the after-waves, Rose found enough strength to shimmy from beneath the god. She turned onto her back when Veles rolled off her, then braced herself on bleeding hands and took in the chaos raging farther down the road.
The Upirs hadn’t rigged only one floor.
Motionless and breathless, she watched as the entire high-rise cascaded down in a wailing, cracking cloud of dust, the firefighters and policemen trying to keep a safe perimeter from the cast off debris. But despite the work they put in, there was no mistaking the brush of chaotic magic that rode the air. And that was one thing no human force had the ability to block.
Someone else, however, could.
A gasp left her lips at the same time screams erupted from the people on the street—within and beyond the barricades.
Wings of a deep red cut through the thick layers of cinder, joined by ones of an exquisite fire-touched yellow. The two Perelesnyks circled around the building like coiling snakes, their mesmerizing movement not faltering even once as they swallowed fire and magic alike. Stunned by the sight, it was only Zarja’s touch on her hand that reminded her of the here and now.
“The twins made it out with the hostages. They’re alive. And so are Evelin and Katja.”
Rose looked into the were’s hazel eyes, her entire body shivering with relief and expelling the death grip of tension she hadn’t even been aware of locking up in her muscles. They were alive. She clamped down a sob. They had come so close to stepping into the realm beyond.
However, when her gaze trailed back to the two massive figures soaring in the sky, something inside her stiffened. They might have saved lives today, might have defeated the Upirs’ attempt at wiping out the pack. But looking at the two dragons, she knew there was a whole new line of problems amassing right in front of her eyes.
The Perelesnyks were out there for the whole world to see.
The single encouraging fact was the lack of gunfire. The police, although standing at the ready, weren’t shooting at the dragons. Whether it was Tomo keeping them from opening fire or not, the only thing that mattered was this fragile trust the men seemed to have placed in the dragons’ intentions.
Temporarily relieved, she searched the crowd, trying to spot the policeman and the twins when Zarja’s phone vibrated.
The number was blocked. Zarja stared at the screen for a second longer before she pressed the phone to her ear—and stilled as a familiar voice brushed against her senses.
“You did not play fair,” Adela chided.
“We—”
The line went dead.
Trepidation ran down her spine and pooled in her legs, nearly swiping the ground from beneath her feet as she clutched the phone, a thousand scenarios playing out in her mind. She swallowed and turned to Rose, knowing the were had heard everything.
The midnight blue and gold of her pack mate’s eyes were a perfect reflection of her own fears. “We got the hostages out. What is she—”
Rose’s words were lost as another explosion shook the pavement, reverberating through their limbs. Zarja twisted around, her stomach twisting into a knot as she saw the building adjacent to the demolished high-rise explode.
Then the next.
And the next.
Chapter 30
Debris batted at Rorik’s wings in a hail of destruction. The larger, heavier pieces created small tears in the leathery surface, but nothing so severe as to impede his ability to fly. He soared up while Enyan swooped in low, aiming for the smallest of the buildings—the single one the blast hadn’t taken out immediately. Trusting the confidence emanating from the sunset-colored Perelesnyk, Rorik focused on the demolished construction in the middle.
Although all four bomb sites emitted the vile taint of the chaotic magic, the pulsing coming from here was the strongest. Potent and thick, it spread like oil through the dust-filled air, poisoning the particles. Rorik circled around the crumbling construction, wings spread wide as he shaped the very currents into a funnel to keep the seepage to a minimum.
He wasn’t certain whether the Upirs’ taint could affect the world at large—or how—but given the sheer power of its presence, he didn’t dare wait to find out. Even the wisps he was unable to contain were strong enough to cause concern.
So he continued on his spiraling course, constructing a whirlwind around the bomb site. As more and more currents entered the winding dance, then gradually moved of their own volition, calling back those escaped vines like a magnet, Rorik inhaled.
The ancient chaos filled his nostrils, his lungs.
It would have been so much easier to just burn away the dust, the debris, and the Upirs’ touch with his fire, but he didn’t want to break the trust the authorities seemed to have placed in him.
