by Sara Snow
I turned in a circle, my ears ringing with the sound of hissing vampires approaching. I reached down into the earth, borrowing its strength. "Stand close together," I told everyone, and they came together in a circle, our backs to each other. “You’ll all want to act the second I release this. Kill everything that survives.”
Now I could see the vampires and the Resurrected, their forms moving quickly through the trees. I exhaled, releasing the breath I had been holding as I collected my power for the first attack. The earth shook beneath us, and all around us, spikes erupted from below and rolled through the forest like a wave. They moved forward in a circular form, with us standing in the center.
Trees were ripped apart, and so were the approaching vampires and resurrected supernatural creatures. Their cries rang through the night, and Darian charged first as Cyrus took to the sky and Will vanished from beside me.
Cyrus shifted into his demon form, growing twice the size of his normal form. His shirt ripped from his body, and horns appeared on his head as his wings created a strong wind that threw a few of our attackers off their feet.
Darian was on them in seconds, ripping them to shreds before moving on.
Beside me, Skye snarled and moved swiftly, killing two fae who had evaded the spikes. Her swords cut through their limbs clean and fast, and I stepped to the side, avoiding a vampire who had been barreling towards me.
The Skin hissed as he pivoted on his feet to face me again, saliva dripping from his mouth.
I held my hand out to the left while I kept my eyes on him. Then I released the bolt I had consumed, and its many hands struck countless Bleeders and Skins, frying them from the outside in. Their bodies turned to ash within seconds, which further enraged the vampire still facing me.
Will appeared behind him, and I watched as his mouth opened wide, stretching further than should be possible. He grabbed the vampire, pulling him back against him and his fangs sank into the Skin’s throat.
Since Will couldn’t hide behind his cloak while he fought, we'd have to make sure we killed every vampire and Resurrected present. Will was still our secret weapon against the Queen, and we needed him to stay that way. I witnessed that weapon in action when he released the vampire, letting him fall to the ground.
Black blood poured from the vampire’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. He gagged on it, clawing at his flesh as Will's poison coursed through his veins. In seconds, the vampire was lying lifeless on the ground, his red eyes fading to a pale, dull green.
Will vanished, and in his path, vampires and the Resurrected alike fell like flies.
I couldn’t look away from the vampire on the ground. Before he died, it was as if he had reverted back to being a human or a supernatural, his eyes no longer red.
I had thought Will's venom merely poisoned vampires, but a full dose like he no doubt gave this vampire seemed to purge his vampirism.
Why hadn’t he told me this?
Two vampires and a resurrected werewolf picked me as their target, circling me. I inhaled, tensed the muscles in my feet, then rushed at them. The world blurred around me for a moment, and the vampires and werewolf were beheaded in one swift move.
Around us, the stench of blood and death wafted through the air and overwhelmed my senses. But the vampires kept coming, and we kept fighting.
Skye came running towards me with three large Bleeders hot on her heels.
“Behind you!” she yelled at me, and as she leaped into the air, I dived beneath her.
The three Bleeders fell onto me, and my claws pierced the thin flesh at their necks. They fell, gagging on their own blood, and were all struck by a lightning bolt simultaneously.
I turned around as two Resurrected fell to the ground on either side of Skye, her swords through their hearts.
She turned around, and my heart skipped a beat at the bleeding gash across her right shoulder. However, before I could speak, she moved on, slicing her way through roots under the control of a resurrected fae.
I felt the electricity coming my way without looking. I allowed the bolt of electricity to hit me so I could absorb it.
When I turned around, a resurrected witch was behind me. Her violet eyes were lifeless, her face expressionless.
She was young, in her late teens maybe, and it struck a chord inside me.
She was wearing a white dress that was more brown than white from dirt. It was ripped in multiple places, leaving a sleeve hanging off her shoulder. She lifted her hand and sent another bolt towards me that I again consumed.
I began walking towards her, electrocuting a fae and werewolf approaching from my left and right using the bolts I’d just consumed.
The witch didn’t move as I stopped before her.
She lifted a hand again, and I grabbed her wrist. She was so thin, so frail, she looked as if she'd break if I even slapped her. I couldn't kill her as I'd done to the others, not the same way. There was nothing behind her eyes, but I knew there once had been.
She was a daughter, maybe a sister, a friend. Someone who once meant something to someone else.
My divinity burned under my skin, and in a swift movement, I placed my hand against her chest and electrocuted her, stopping her heart.
She crumbled to the ground, and I kneeled beside her. Lightning bolts rained down around us, preventing me from being attacked as I commanded the earth to accept her body. The soil crawled up her arms, legs, and sides, pulling her into the ground.
I stood up as the vampires kept coming, now more than fifty.
I called onto the wind, and it gathered around me, creating a vortex. Everything pulled into the vortex was killed, electrocuted by the bolts swirling around within it. Then I released the wind, and bodies fell to the ground all around me.
If there were no hybrids here controlling the Resurrected, then this was all Cain's doing. But why hadn’t he shown himself?
Will wanted to be the one to kill his brother. But if I saw him first, Cain would die.
Cyrus
If I had blinked, I wouldn't have seen Elinor kill the two vampires and werewolf that first attacked her. She had moved faster than any werewolf I'd ever met, as fast as Will, who could barely be seen as he appeared and disappeared, killing everything in his path.
Elinor’s powers had grown to the point that she was almost unrecognizable.
I could feel a force trying to enter my mind as my blue flames rained down on the earth in the form of daggers. I knew it had to be Cain's power, but my mind wasn't one he could affect.
My mother, the sin Lust, was a master manipulator, so I'd trained my mental barriers to keep her out at a young age.
Skye drew my attention when I saw a resurrected werewolf in his final form backhand her across the face. She flew backward, her swords flying in separate directions.
I acted without even thinking of it, diving through the air.
I landed behind the werewolf, towering over him. It turned on me, snarling loud with blood dripping from its teeth. I grabbed the wolf by the throat and snapped his neck, killing him quickly out of respect.
I had watched as Elinor had given that witch girl a quick death, and it had been deserved. We wouldn’t always be able to help how we had to protect ourselves against the Resurrected, but they didn't deserve the same gruesome deaths the vampires did.
After all, they were just puppets.
Black swords appeared in my hands, but before I could kill the Bleeder advancing on me, it disappeared into the swirling vortex created by Elinor. The vortex grew taller and swept up dirt, trees, and bodies along with the vampires and Resurrected—anything not strong enough to withstand the strong wind.
Skye rose to her feet and held her hands out. Her swords returned to her, and she sliced the arms off a vampire who moved to attack before removing its head. For vampires, beheading was the quickest death.
I eyed the wound on her shoulder, left thigh, and upper right hand. She walked over to me, taking steady steps to avoid being pulled in by Elino
r’s vortex. I looked at her wounds, now healing slowly.
“Are you—?”
“Don’t ask,” she said, cutting me off.
Elinor released the vortex, and I protected Skye as debris and bodies flew in all directions.
We stood up once the wind died down, but still, the vampires kept coming, now outnumbering the Resurrected.
A tree sprouted rapidly to the left of us, the work of a resurrected fae. Beside me, Skye stepped forward, her swords ready and waiting. She seemed to take to the sword naturally, as if she’d been born with one in her hand.
I had forgotten about her love for knives, probably because she hadn't practiced with them since we were kids. But she had loved knife-play back then.
Her swords were the perfect weight, which allowed her to throw them the same way she used to throw her knives. I took to the sky, confident that she didn’t need me to stand by and protect her. She intended to prove she could handle herself, and when she put her mind to it, my Skye could do anything. She threw her sword, and the blue blade created a wheel as it flew through the air and embedded itself in the fae’s chest.
The Resurrected flew back and slammed into a tree. It remained there, pinned by Skye's sword.
High above the trees, three portals opened, and an army of Bleeders poured out.
“Shit.”
They cascaded out of the portal like fire ants crawling over each other. I flew in that direction and took a deep breath to gather my power. I stopped just above the portal, feeling the energy radiating from them.
I tapped into it, taking control of the power being used to fuel them, then crushed it. Three resurrected witches looked up as the portals crumbled and vanished. I weaved through the sky as they sent bolts of lightning my way in retaliation.
A circle of blue flames appeared around me, and I used the energy to mold the flames into swords, then let them loose, raining them down on the vampires who had escaped from the portal. The witches died as well, but as they did, two more portals opened up on my right.
I wasn't sure how Cain had known we were here, but he’d come prepared to kill us all.
I felt that push in my mind again, and my eyes darted through the trees. A blur caught my eye, but it was only Will. It was fascinating to see his venom in action. Not only did each vampire he bit die, but they seemed to revert to what they were prior to being turned.
No wonder the Queen had forbidden him from making his gift known among his kind. Was a vampire who could cure vampirism even called a vampire?
24
Will
Cyrus swooped overhead, his shadow like a gigantic bird vanishing as he went by. Two portals opened in the distance to my left, and I hissed low in irritation because if things continued like this, we were going to be overpowered.
No matter how strong we all were combined, a horde of Bleeders would be too much of a challenge for just five of us.
Someone barreled into me, and Cain’s scent burned my nostrils as we both fell to the ground. I blocked his claws from slicing my face open as we both rolled to a stop. I kicked him off me and jumped to my feet.
He hissed, baring his fangs as his eyes shone brightly, like flames in a furnace.
“Traitor!” he spat. “You’re a fucking traitor! I didn’t want to believe your obsessed fiancée, so I said nothing to our mother, but Vivian was right!”
I tilted my head to the side. “You look upset, brother. What’s wrong?”
“I’m not your brother!” We charged forward at the exact moment and collided. Cain's nails pierced my side as I embedded mine in his right shoulder. “I knew you weren’t one of us! You never have been!”
My fist rocked his head back, and his claws left my side. I kicked him in the chest and moved swiftly, positioning myself behind him. He vanished, and my claws swiped at the air where he’d once stood.
“I told her! I told mother you couldn’t be trusted!” He reappeared before me, his face twisted with loathing. "I told her you weren't fit to take her place, but she never listened!"
“And I told you to take the throne. You can’t blame me for the fact that you have never measured up to me in her eyes—and you never will.”
Cain laughed as we walked around each other in a circle. “That’ll change once she learns of this. She gave you space, let you have your freedom, all the while hoping you’d miss her and return one day. But instead, you’ve given yourself to a wolf!” His blond hair was loose around his shoulders, and the front of his white satin shirt was open. Black veins covered his exposed chest up to his neck, stopping at his chin.
He looked me up and down with a revulsion he'd never bothered to hide over the years, but it didn’t upset me at all. I felt the same way about him. I’d always disliked his need to be seen, to be talked about . . . to be our mother's favorite.
He hadn't told the Queen about my betrayal, which was his mistake. Because now, he would never get the chance. He wouldn't be leaving here alive.
Still, he was being careful, keeping his distance. Cain knew he was no match for me physically. I'd already poisoned him with my venom once, and this time, I had no intention of offering him my blood as the antidote.
“And what will she do when she learns of your betrayal, Cain?”
He hesitated. “Why would I betray her? I’ve remained by her side all these centuries, long after you left, William.” He held his hands out. “Look at what I’ve helped her to accomplish!”
“You always have a reason for your actions, Cain, that benefits you, and you only. Everyone knows that." I stopped moving, and so did he. "Don't think for a second our mother doesn't realize that you want something out of this scheme you’ve talked her into. She just doesn't care enough about you to ask."
His smug expression faded. He knew I spoke the truth. A lanky Bleeder attacked me, and Cain acted quickly, killing the creature by ripping its head from its body.
“Your life belongs to our mother. You should worry less about me and more about yourself. I’m so going to enjoy watching our mother kill you.” He spoke slow, pronouncing each ‘s’ with a hiss before throwing the Bleeder's head over his shoulder. "How do you feel knowing that once the white wolf falls under our mother's control, she'll become mine?"
I stilled, my red eyes returning to blue. "Stay away from Elinor, Cain.”
His mouth curved upward in a sick smile and his tongue darted out to lick his lips. Since I hadn't fed yet, my pulse was hammering in my ears. I knew the perverted things he would do to Elinor if he ever got ahold of her.
The thought made me ill, and I could feel him clawing at my mind, trying to enter it as he had before.
“Mother has plans for her, Will, and those plans had included you. But you have no one to blame for what'll happen to your girlfriend now." Cain's brows furrowed as he pushed harder against my mind. "What was it like, feeding on a white wolf? Hmm? How were you able to stop yourself from draining her dry?”
The urge to rip him limb from limb consumed me.
The world around me distorted as I moved to attack him. Wherever I could bite, my venom would find a new home inside him. But suddenly, we were both thrown backwards as the earth split between us.
I looked to my left as Elinor pulled her hand out of the earth and stood up.
Her white eyes were on Cain, and as she snarled at him, but he smiled in response. Without warning, three portals opened around us, and more Bleeders poured from them.
Cain grinned. "Or on second thought, Will, maybe I'll kill you all here and take the girl!"
Four Bleeders tackled me to the ground, and I lost sight of Elinor. I knew she was there, however, as the sound of electricity crackled through the air like frying fat. The Bleeders on top of me ripped into my flesh with their claws and teeth until a sudden wave of blue flames engulfed them. The heat scorched my skin as they fell off me and rolled on the ground in agony.
Cyrus dove from the sky and held his hands out to the portals. They all grew unstable, shrinking in s
ize until they vanished. Five Bleeders tackled him, so he took flight again, though he had one of them hanging from his right wing.
Elinor growled furiously and I spun around to find Bleeders dragging her to the ground, one on her shoulder and the other on her leg. Lightning rained down on her from the sky—three bolts in rapid succession.
The Bleeders dropped like sacks of flour as she consumed the bolts, then released them.
I dodged back and forth, avoiding each Bleeder that rushed at me. I held my head back and roared. The Bleeders stilled in their tracks as if just noticing they were attacking a General.
Darian ran past me, charging into the Bleeders that were backing away in fear at their mistake.
"We need to get out of here!" Skye appeared by my side, and a Bleeder's body fell to the ground.
Cyrus landed, though one of his wings appeared to be broken. This was the first I'd seen him in this form. He held his palms out, and blue flames exploded from his hands, towering to the sky and trapping us inside a protected circle that kept the vampires at bay.
Several Bleeders, either starving or mad, ran through the fire, charging at us even as they burned to death.
Darian and Elinor made quick work of them with swords and claws. I could hear more Bleeders congregating outside the wall of fire, the nightmarish sound of their combined hisses and snarls filling the air.
“Cyrus, can you do that thing you did when the humans in the market tried to abduct me?” Skye yelled above the sound of dying Bleeders. “You opened a portal to hell, didn’t you? Can you do that again?”
"I don't think I can," Cyrus answered, his voice a thousand times deeper. "When I did that, I was using powers I couldn’t control. If I did it again, I might kill us all."
“I have an idea.” Elinor reached into her bosom and pulled out a flower.
I recognized it right away as the flower the forest spirit had given her in the Dragon Territory.
"What is that?" Darian, who had returned to his human form, asked. He was covered in blood.