Jack
The plan was set. Kimberly and Jack made a crude stretcher from Jack’s coat Marcus didn’t need anymore and long branches they cut off trees. Marcus had turned back into the giant, white werewolf, snapping and growling at his pack, motioning with his head and scratching the ground with his paws.
From what Jack could tell, most of the pack seemed to be in line with his wishes. They looked attentively at him and bowed their heads. All except for one—a large, brown female that stood off to the side. Without warning, the brown female began to change. Her thick hair fell off her shoulders and head, and long, shapely legs took form leading to a thick waist and shoulders.
Jack blinked a few times, reminding himself to focus on her face. She was breathing hard. Her first transition from werewolf to human had not been easy.
“Why do you get to tell us what to do?” her voice was clear. The sneer on her lips spoke volumes to the way she felt about Jack and his friends. “We should have an alpha whose main priority is the pack, not his son and two friends. How does it impact the pack one way or the other if the black werewolf over there dies or not?”
Marcus rose on his two feet, towering over the woman by nearly double her height. For a moment, Jack thought his father had given into his beast within once more. He thought for sure he was going to reach down with one massive paw and end her life. Instead, Marcus also transitioned back to human form.
“This is my pack, and I am the leader here.” Marcus glared at her through dark brown eyes. “I am thinking about the betterment of the pack. The more allies we have, the stronger we are. There’s a war happening around us, if you haven’t noticed. There is strength in numbers. If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
The woman let a smug smile play over her lips. She wasn’t saying anything, yet her body language told Jack she already had a plan in place. Instead of looking at Marcus, she directed her attention to the rest of the werewolves waiting to see what would happen.
“Marcus and I were the first ones to learn how to change back into being human. I can teach you how to do the same. This cost comes with my being your alpha. We can worry about ourselves instead of these outsiders. We can join whatever side of the war we want, or let them kill themselves and be done with it. I was once an officer in the New Hope army, but things have changed. I say we look out for ourselves now.”
There were a few scattered yips and howls of affirmation, but the majority of the pack seemed undecided. They looked from Marcus to the woman and back again.
“Teaching you to turn back into humans is something either of us can teach you.” Marcus placed his hands on his bare hips, glaring at the woman. “Keep the rest of the pack out of this. If you want to be alpha, you know what you have to do. The strongest should lead, not the one most able to manipulate. If you want it, come and get it!”
Brown fur sprouted across the woman’s body once more as she called on the monster that raged inside. Muscles rippled as her face changed from smug to terrifying.
Marcus wasted no time, already lunging at her as she transitioned into the lupine monster now as much a part of him as anything else. The two werewolves crashed into one another with such ferocity Jack felt the ground tremble underneath his boots.
Marcus was larger than the female werewolf, but she was much faster and that, in and of itself, came with its own advantages. She twisted out of his grasp, and her sharp teeth found his rear left leg. She bit down hard.
Marcus let out a roar of pain that twisted into anger even before it died in his throat. He tore his leg out of her jaws, sending a splattering of blood through the air that painted the ground in crimson droplets.
The combatants circled one another like a pair of heavyweight boxers in a championship fight.
The rest of the pack howled and growled around them. The other werewolves in the pack had formed a circle around the two alphas.
Before Jack realized what he was doing, he felt pain in his hands. He was clenching his fists so tightly, his nails were digging into his palms.
Come on, Dad, he said to himself. Hurry, Aareth doesn’t have much time.
Chapter Seventeen
Sloan
She was smug. Leah wasn’t the type of enemy to overreach. If she was confident in taking on Sloan and her squad of vampire soldiers with only her and the man beside her, then there was much more to her companion than met the eye.
He was well-dressed, maybe even handsome, if it weren’t for the devilish grin that twisted his lips. He stood on Leah’s right-hand side; no wand that Sloan could see, just a malevolent stare in his eyes. Sloan was sure she had never seen him before, but she had a feeling that somehow he was different.
“Oh, I’m being so rude.” Leah motioned to the man who stood beside her. “This is my friend, Dominic Drencher. I’m sure you’ve heard rumors of the Fallen? Well, this is one of the humans they’ve chosen to do their bidding on Earth.”
Sloan had heard whispers of the Fallen but they were nothing more than bedtime stories. Tales of angels cast out of heaven to live on Earth. They chose humans to do their bidding for them and granted the abilities.
What he was doing interfering in their war was beyond Sloan, but one thing was certain: it couldn’t have been good.
Sloan drew her sword and flipped the switch on the handle that bathed the blade in a dull red light. Out of the corners of her vision, she saw the rest of her squad take up positions beside her. They were red-eyed and ready to charge at her command.
It was difficult to tell who was more deadly. Should Sloan take Leah and leave the rest of her squad to handle the unknown entity Leah had brought with her, or should she attack this Dominic Drencher? At least leaving the rest of her squad facing Leah they knew what they were in store for.
The decision was made for them a moment later as Dominic shrugged off his coat and stepped forward.
“This would usually be the part where the villain says he’ll give you one last chance to give up. But I don’t really want you to give up, this is going to be fun.” Dominic opened his hands where balls of flashing light began to form. “I want you to think you have a chance before you die, too, so I’ll take it easy on you at first, and then I’ll kill you.”
Sloan had seen her fair share of witches and wizards using magic, but whatever Dominic had in his hands was not anything what she was used to experiencing. Magic in their world looked like fire. Different wizards and witches used different colors of magic when they fought, but they always looked the same, like fire, maybe even energy.
What sparked in Dominic Drencher’s hands now was something like an explosion ready to go off, a swirling mass of static and sparks that looked as unstable as a bomb.
Sloan’s heart beat in her chest like a war drum. Years of training kept her head clear despite the adrenaline that came in the presence of a fight.
“Let me see how he’s going to attack first,” Sloan said just loud enough for those beside her to hear. “When you understand how to best counter his form of fighting, attack him from the sides.”
“If we can move this along?” Leah looked at the placement of the sun in the sky. “I have an army to get back to and an invasion to finish.”
Sloan stalked forward, her sword trailing in the forest ground behind her. The mage-powered blade cut a line through the dirt in her wake. Sloan was breathing easy, her entire body like one giant spring ready to take action in any direction.
Dominic winked at her before hurling his first attack her way. As Sloan expected, the conjured balls of energy in his hands were, in fact, explosives. Dominic hurled them at her with speed she wasn’t anticipating.
She ducked under the first attack.
BAM!
The ball of explosive power blew up a tree behind Sloan. The massive oak groaned under the attack, coming down to rest on the forest floor with a massive crash that made the ground shake.
Sloan felt tremors from the impact race up her legs.
Another mass of en
ergy came hurling through the air at her. Instinct made Sloan bring up her sword to block the blow. Bad idea.
BAM!
Sloan was lifted into the air. The next thing she remembered was fiery pain across her chest as she crashed into the ground a dozen yards from her previous position. Pain exploded across her body as light danced at the edges of her vision.
Her hearing was gone for the moment, replaced by a loud buzzing. Her mage sword was gone, lost somewhere during her impromptu flight. Sloan winced as she propped herself up onto her elbows. She could guess at what her stomach looked like, but she didn’t want to look.
A glance down told her what she’d expected: from the top of her chest to her stomach was a mess of bloody skin and tissue. Already her vampire DNA was mending her wound, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less.
Her hearing gone for the time being, Sloan relied on her vision to tell her what was happening to the rest of her squad. She looked up just in time to see Pia hurling through the air and become lost in the forest.
The rest of her squad was dancing around Dominic, dodging his attacks, all the while getting closer and closer to his position.
Sloan struggled to her feet. All thoughts of finding her mage sword were gone. But she needed to get back into the fight. Already the pain surging around her torso was lessening, so she found the pain that remained and buried it down deep.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Dominic was a madman hurling the explosions in every direction. Sloan had to duck under a few. All around the battle scene, trees fell as explosions shattered them into a mess of bark and splinters.
Speed was the only thing saving the other three members of her squad as they ducked and weaved their way closer and closer toward Dominic.
With a bone-breaking thud, Leah entered the fight. She moved forward and, with a flick of her wand, sent a beam of purple magic slamming into Doyle. The force lifted him from the ground and sent him head over heels, crashing into a thick tree. Doyle crumpled to the ground and didn’t move.
Steel glinted from the sun’s rays as Sloan made her push to reenter the fight. Her hearing was back, but what she heard was the last thing she wanted. Babs and Harrison had made it within striking distance of Dominic; however, it seemed the power to conjure up explosive energy wasn’t the only trick he had up his sleeve.
Already Harrison and Babs were trading blows with Dominic. It was clear he was the better fighter. The vampires were able to keep their edge based on the fact that it was a two-on-one fight and they were faster than their enemy.
Sloan grabbed the hilt of her sword. She flipped on the mage blade once more, headed right for Leah.
“Nice blindside,” Sloan shouted at the witch, more to take her attention off Harrison and Babs than to actually start a conversation. “I was wondering when you were going to throw in a cheap shot or two.”
Sloan’s ploy worked. Leah had zeroed in on Babs and was about to send another spell toward her, but Sloan’s words caught her off guard. Instead of striking Babs down, she turned her attention to Sloan.
“I was inspired.” Leah grinned as she began moving toward Sloan. “I didn’t want Dominic to have all the fun. Plus, five on one isn’t fair at all.”
“Since when have you been about fairness?” Sloan was within ten yards of Leah now. She would have to choose her plan of attack carefully. The grunts from Babs and Harrison as they fought, the explosions still let loose by Dominic Drencher, would all have to be ignored for the moment. Leah demanded her full attention. “You killed your own sister.”
“Yes, I know. You two shared something of a connection.” Leah scratched the underside of her jaw with her wand. “She still liked you for some reason. Up until she died, her order was always to take you alive.”
“Yeah, well, I can see why, given her current company.” Sloan looked Leah up and down. She readied herself. What she was about to say was going to begin her battle with the witch. “With a sister like you, the bar was set pretty darned low.”
Leah’s lip curled in indignation, which was ironic, because she was the one who had killed her sister in the first place. With a scream befitting of a banshee, Leah reached high over her head, and as her wand came down, a purple blast of magic followed with it.
The blast came so quickly, Sloan barely had time to dodge the attack. Hot energy caressed the right side of her face as she sidestepped the spell just in time. Leah used her wand much like a sword of her own, but instead of striking with steel, she was striking with magic.
Blast after blast collided with Sloan’s mage sword as Sloan blocked the attacks just like she would another physical weapon. Her mage sword was unable to absorb Dominic’s explosives; however, it was able to turn blasts from magic attacks.
Each time Sloan deflected an attack, a loud crack accompanied an explosion of purple sparks. Sloan battled her way forward, inching closer and closer to the witch.
Sloan gained ground, coming so close now she could almost reach out with the sword to strike Leah. It did occur to her that something was very wrong, though. The struggle with the queen of New Hope had been far too easy.
A moment later, she found out why.
Chapter Eighteen
Sloan
Sloan brought her blade to the right side of Leah’s smiling lips, stopping just short of taking the queen’s head off. Still, Leah smiled.
A feeling in the pit of her stomach told Sloan something was terribly wrong.
“I’m sorry.”
The voice came from Harrison. Sloan had to turn slightly to get him into view. Babs was a bloody mess on the ground, struggling to regain her feet. Harrison was on his knees, with a smiling Dominic Drencher behind him.
Dominic leaned down behind Harrison, both of his own hands pressed against either side of Harrison’s head. The explosive white energy that heralded the deadly power Dominic could conjure glowed in his palms.
Harrison was only looking at Sloan. The bridge of his nose had been cut open, and the left side of his face was swelling at the same time his vampire DNA worked to heal him.
Leah began to chuckle. It was the single most annoying sound Sloan had ever heard. The witch took a few steps back, folding her arms over her chest.
“Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte … I hear you hate being called by your first name.” Leah shrugged as if she couldn’t care less one way or the other. “We all hate things about ourselves. Learn to live with it and move on, child.”
“Let him go,” Sloan said, nodding toward Harrison. “You want me anyway. Take me.”
“Oh, you are so wrong.” Leah clucked her tongue like a teacher would at a small child who just couldn’t grasp the day’s lesson. “I want you all dead. You will all die, but not yet. You, Charlotte, still serve a purpose.”
“Yeah, and what’s that?”
“You need to fall in front of everyone on a very large battlefield. Your death will take the fight out of the Azra army. You’re no good to me unless you die in a very open and public place. What fun is it if no one here witnesses you fall?”
Sweat from the fight and now her panic began to pour down the back of her neck. She needed to act quickly if she was going to save Harrison’s life. She was fast, but not fast enough to travel a few dozen yards and pull Dominic off Harrison before he detonated his attack.
“Tell your vampire minions to stand down or else his brain is going to splatter all over the ground.” Dominic motioned over his shoulder as he continued in a singsong voice, “Good vampires, easy vampires.”
Sloan turned to see Pia and Babs back on their feet. Doyle was still crumpled on the ground where he had been knocked out by Leah’s blindside attack.
“Wait!” Sloan looked at Babs and Pia. There was only one chance at getting Harrison out of this alive, and it would be through words, not action.
Babs and Pia remained still, their red eyes darting back and forth from Sloan to Dominic. Both were pictures of fear and anger.
Leah swirled her purple-tipp
ed wand in a large circle in front of her and a doorway opened. Sloan could see thousands of black clad figures running across the landscape toward Azra.
“Oh, I know what you’re thinking.” Leah stepped through the portal and looked back at Sloan. “Why not just create a portal into Azra and have my troops attack the city from within? Well, seems my younger sister is cleverer than I thought. She’s created wards to keep me from doing so. Plus, holding a portal open for more than a few seconds at a time is draining. Dominic, shall we?”
Sloan had seen that look in Leah’s eyes before. When a predator was just about to send a killing strike at its victim, a glare of pure malevolence would widen its eyes. Leah had that look now.
“No!” Sloan whipped her sword through the air, sending a prayer with her actions.
The mage sword flew like a javelin in a perfect line toward Dominic, but it was too late. Dominic detonated both of the explosives he held in each of his hands against either side of Harrison’s head.
White hot light seared Sloan’s eyes as the explosion went off, and instinct brought an arm up over her face. Her heart moved her feet forward, despite the cost. She had to get to Harrison as fast as she could.
Sloan sprinted toward him, her vision dancing with white spots. When she was finally able to get a view of what had happened, her heart tore.
Dominic was screaming in pain even as he limped his way to Leah on the other side of the portal. Sloan’s mage sword stuck out of his right shoulder like a flower springing up from rich soil. Thick red lines dampened his blue suit.
In one motion, he ripped out the blade and threw it to the ground. Dominic peppered the air with groans of pain and promises of retribution.
“You’ll pay for this!” He stepped through the portal. “I’ll see you dead!
SNAP!
The portal closed behind Leah and Dominic, leaving Sloan and her squad in the wake of the destruction. Sloan slid to a stop beside Harrison’s body. Both sides of his head were a mess of blood and skin, and his white skull was visible. Underneath cracked bone showed brain matter.
The Complete Vampire Project Series: (Books 1 - 5) Page 73
