Behind him, the others didn’t fare so well.
David Cross the third in command of this troop was jumped fast. A vampire flew off her horse and tackled him off his. He tried to fight her, but failed to strike her with a heavy blow. She just came too fast. With him down, she ripped out his throat with a heavy bite. He didn’t have a chance as he died just as fast.
Another one of his guards, Daniel Jones, also fell off his horse as the poor animal had its side gashed open with an overpowering claw. The horse wheeled and fell to its side with Daniel still on it. The resulting crash pinned him beneath the horse. Trapped, the older looking vampire that struck him, the one with the bright white hair, pounced down on him so quickly that he couldn’t even scream.
Vincent tore off his head with both hands and killed him with relative ease.
Donte spun back around. He saw the man over the back of the horse closest to him, and realized what was happening. It is a raiding party. They are hunting humans. It made sense. The man was naked. The child had to be his. Watching his friends dying, he knew that he had to do something, and he had to do it and fast. The only thing he thought of was to regroup. He had to rally his troops.
“Pull together!” he shouted out.
His men did pull off, and formed a circle around their captain.
With everyone around him, Donte turned back to the vampires. His training, his experience, told him what to do next.
“Spear formation!”
They all knew what to do.
They formed on his right and on his left. He was the tip of the spear as he stayed in the center.
Seeing that his men were ready, he screamed, while holding his sword out in front of him. “Charge!”
They did. They kicked their horses. They charged the vampires head on.
Vincent watched them and hissed out. “Stand your ground!”
The horses came in.
The vampires spun from the spear and tried to flow outward towards the spear’s flanks.
Donte expected this, so he knew what to do next. “Collapse now!”
The ends of the line came fast forward, as Donte and the center four men slowed their rides.
The ends came in towards the center of the line. As they rode, they swung their swords wide out and brought them in.
Three vampires were struck almost instantly. Their blood spilled. Two of them lost arms as the swords sliced at them with abandon.
“Vincent!” Anna, now her normal self again, her brown eyes back, her soft olive skin smooth, her brown hair, long and flowing with her disguise now gone, watched her group collapse from the line. They had to do something, but she knew it felt hopeless. With the sun still up, with the day still on them, vampires were weak. They were also starving. They were no match for the humans and their swords.
Vincent already knew what they had to do. “We have to flee.” He stepped back as one his own, Martha Gorhan, fell to his left with her head cleaved clean off. They were losing too many. This wasn’t worth their losses. He looked back to David Gorhan; his second in command and found that he too was missing his head. He didn’t like this. David had the man strapped to his horse. He saw him and hissed. “No Walker, no matter how badly Devish wants him, is worth any of this.”
Anna agreed, but unlike Vincent, she didn’t intend to lose their prize. “Take the horse with the one on it. Do not leave him here.”
Vincent shook his head as another one of his people Glenna Gorhan fell to his right. She was stabbed directly through her chest. “We cannot risk any more of this!”
Again, she forced her master’s wishes. “Devish will not allow that. We must take him back to him.”
Donte listened to all of this, even within the fog of battle, and right then he knew that he had to do something about it. Devish wants this person. That is why they have taken him. If he wants him, for whatever reason, than I cannot allow him to have him. He rode hard to the horse. He put himself in between it and the white haired vampire and held his ground.
Anna feared this when she saw him do it. “Get to the horse. We are not leaving him behind!” She feared Devish and what he would do to her especially if she brought him back nothing more but an empty horse. She didn’t wish to find out.
Donte held his sword out towards Vincent’s throat. “Try and take him if you wish to die Walker!”
Vincent again wanted nothing of this, so he turned. He looked back to Anna. “He is not worth my blood.” He looked back to whomever he had left. “We flee now!”
Within a flash, every one of the vampires vanished out and back into the trees. They left their horses. They ran on foot.
Anna screamed, “No!” She watched with horror as they simply left her there alone. “Cowards!” She couldn’t believe their lack of loyalty. She hated their lack of a spine. Where was their beloved and precious strength?
Donte’s remaining men cheered with the sight.
Donte didn’t. There was one left. “Take her. King Jameson would like to speak with her ladyship Anna. I am sure that he will have a lot to ask her.”
Anna laughed with hearing this. “That will be a day long from now human. You will never get such a chance again.” She let her blue eyes flare. She brought her power forward, out and deeply into every part of her flesh.
Donte watched her instantly turn into a massive bird, maybe a hawk. Its brown feathers rustled. Its talons stood tall on the back of the horse. It was a magnificent sight.
With wide eyes, he dropped his sword. He couldn’t believe this. He had never seen anything like this before in his entire life. He knew she was a changeling but he never knew how far that gift went until now. He was just lost for words.
She pushed up off the horse and flapped her huge wings hard. She flew off before any of them knew what to do next.
With her gone, Donte looked back to his men.
All of them looked completely lost, and this made him feel somewhat better. At least he wasn’t alone with his disbelief.
“Should we go after them my lord?” Killian Groves, one of his youngest men felt the need to ask. They had won the fight, and surely, they should continue it. They had them on the run.
Donte just shook his head. “Our horses would never catch them.” He looked to his men, but quickly turned his attention back to the naked man on the horse. He rode up to the animal and studied him intensely. It didn’t take him long to notice that the man was bound with what looked like silver chains. This bothered him. Why would Nightwalkers subdue a human with silver? It didn’t make sense with everything he knew. Silver to a Nightwalker made them somewhat weak. It would bring them to their knees, so why would they use something that could affect them too? He looked through the chains and also saw that the man had been struck by at least two arrows. He saw his blood. Seeing them it also made him worried. They look fatal. He saw that the man wasn’t breathing. They killed him. He was too late. “I am sorry my friend.” He stopped short with this, thinking back to the silver chains. If they used silver chains to bind him, then maybe they also used silver tipped arrows. The thought seemed logical, so he gripped one of the arrows between his shoulders and pulled it out. He then brought it up towards his face. The arrow was likewise silver in color, and it again blew his mind. This is not a human. It cannot be. He looked back to the man’s head. If they used silver on him than he must be a Moonwalker.
Killian Groves saw his lord’s face turn pale. He saw his questioning eyes. “What is it my lord?”
Donte now felt true fear coming up inside his chest. “He must not be human,” he whispered. He swallowed. “Why would they use silver, the moon’s metal, on a human?” He reached down to the second arrow, hanging from the man’s chest and shoulder area, lying on the side of the horse and pulled it out. It too was silver. “Why would they hunt one of their own?” he asked to himself more than he did to the others. It just boggled his mind.
All Walkers were truly loyal to their own kind. He had never seen one of them hunted like th
is. It told him that something was very wrong with all of this, but he didn’t know why.
This all changed when the man suddenly breathed.
Seeing him, Donte pushed the horse back. “That is impossible.” He saw the man move. He had never seen a man come back from the dead like this before, especially one that he thought was a Moonwalker. They never recovered from a silver strike. It killed them instantly, but here he was, seeing just that, as he watched the wound on his back quickly close. Seeing this, he drew his sword. “It cannot be.” He turned back to his men.
23
“Where am I?” Kalima looked through the darkness. He saw what looked like trees. He saw what looked like an open flame just off to his left. Realizing that it was a fire, he turned and moved. He walked to the fire, and soon found it burning in the center of a large circular clearing. He walked straight to the flames and stopped in the center of the circle. He then realized that he wasn’t alone.
“Hello my son.” A young looking and rather beautiful woman stood just on the opposite side of the fire from him. It burned just in front of her, and just beneath her face. Her pale face seemed to sparkle. Her long and dark hair seemed to glow by the orange color in front of her.
Seeing her, he felt completely calm. “Who are you?” He had never seen her before.
He watched her closely. “I am your mother, Kalima. I am the one who gave you your life.”
He blinked. He also bowed his head. “My mother is Georgia of Glomar.” He looked back up. He of course was right. He knew of only one mother, and this woman, whoever she was, it was not her. To think anything otherwise would have demeaned the woman he loved. He was not about to do that.
Now, the woman bowed her head too. “I know that you believe this, my son, but I am what I say I am. I am your mother Lana. I gave birth to you. I gave you your life.”
He didn’t—he couldn’t agree. “I do not believe you.”
Her head came back up. Her face turned sad. He could see tears in both of her eyes.
“I am sorry for what had happened to you my son. I could not help it. You were taken away from me after you were born.”
He heard this and it made him choke some. Maybe he was crying some too, but he wasn’t sure. He stayed calm. He felt the warmth of the fire. He felt nothing that would make the tears.
“If you are my mother, if you are who you say you are, than how did I become what I am? What am I?”
She bowed her head again, and looked at the fire. “You are the child that is and should have never been. You are a wolf, but you are more than that. You are the son of Satar.” She looked back straight at him.
He felt nothing with hearing the name. He didn’t know him.
She saw this in his eyes. “Satar, your father, was a great and a very powerful being. He was the oldest and the strongest. He was a Blood Walker.”
This didn’t surprise him. “So that means that I am a Wanderer then?”
She just shook her head. “You are more than a Wanderer, my son. You are also my child, a child of human blood. No union of he and I had ever happened before you. Because of this, you are beyond what you believe you are.” She stared straight into his eyes.
He felt hers burn his.
“And your child is even more than this.”
Now he understood the burn. Now he understood something else. “Where is she?” In all of this time, in all of this place, he had seemingly forgotten about his little Sima. He had forgotten about his Alana. He had forgotten his reason for living.
She kept the stare. “They are back there.” And she pointed to the trees behind him. She pointed to the darkness.
He saw nothing.
“They are back on the world where you left them.”
He turned back to her. “What is this place?” He couldn’t grasp any of this, and now began to think that it was nothing but a dream. Somehow, he was asleep, dreaming this nightmare, dreaming his wife’s pain—living his child’s horror. Thinking this, feeling it, he calmed again. The feeling didn’t last long at all.
She told him the truth. “This is the world in which those who die come. This is the place where we all come and live. For you, it is the place that you will come to in between life and death.”
He shook his head. “What does that mean?”
She understood this. She didn’t understand it herself when she came here the first time. It was always so hard to explain something that one cannot see. He would not see the truth until he was there without a body to return to and be. But this was another time and another place for him. He had to know this.
“When the time comes, you will understand the truth, my son.”
Just then, a voice came out from the darkness, and it came from behind him. The voice came softly. It came calmly.
He recognized it instantly, as did she.
“Help me father. Help me. Do not let them take me to him.”
A second voice followed hers, and this one, he knew too.
“Help me Kalima. Help her.”
“Alana? Sima?” He turned back to the woman. “How can I go back? How can I help them?” His heart lost all of its calming force. He instantly grew restless, and almost unhinged. He had to help them. He had to leave now.
She gave him a subtle nod. “All you have to do is open your eyes Kalima. Open your eyes. Open your eyes. Open…”
A huge gust of wind came out from the tree behind her, and it smacked him hard in the face. Instantly he felt its pushing power, as it dragged him backwards through the trees.
“Open your eyes Kalima. Open your eyes.”
24
He opened his eyes. All of the pain in his back and chest were now gone. All he felt were the chains around his arms and chest. All he felt was the rage that blasted his heart and tore at his mind. All he saw was his wife’s face. He heard her calls, whether real or not.
“No!” he shouted.
The horse kicked, and spilled him down to the ground. He rolled several times and felt the full power of the eyes at the back of his mind as they came forward so fast that they felt like they knocked him down.
Donte watched the horse flee. It senses the beast. It has to have. And sure enough, he heard the growls after his screams. He heard his bones begin to bend and break. He heard the man’s body moan.
Kalima looked up with his yellow eyes blazing like fire. He could have spit it if he could have.
“He is a Moonwalker!” Donte shouted back to his group. He watched them circle around him. He watched them also circle the man.
Kalima’s skin turned instantly black as black fur spewed out all over his muscular frame. His back legs protruded out into long doglike paws. His hands formed into long claws. His face curled and flushed out into a large canine snout. His ears grew pointed and enlarged on the sides of his head. Within seconds, the wolf formed and stood up.
Donte watched him stand. “Bring it down!” He raised his sword, began to charge but suddenly froze in place. What happened next blew his very soul.
Once standing, the wolf pushed hard out with its arms and within the push, he blew off the chains. They shattered from the force and flew out from the beast in all directions around it.
He had never seen that before either, and right then, he realized that this beast, this monster, was something entirely different. It stood on its hind legs. It stood tall and massive with a full wolf’s head and face. It had black fur. It had a human’s frame, only twice as large as a human could ever imagine of being. It also broke silver from him like it was nothing but wood. It didn’t seem affected by it, and this feared him the most. This was no ordinary wolf. This was different all right; this was downright frightening to look at straight.
The wolf roared, trumpeting out a call that an ordinary elephant wished it could make. It blasted up and without stopping, it ran. The sound blared like thunder. Its size shook the very ground. It moved fast. It moved towards Donte before he could swing his sword.
It plowed through him a
nd his horse with utter power. The impact caused his horse to flare back, and spilled it to its side. Luckily, he fell from the animal with the same impact and he flew away from it before it could crush him to the ground below it.
All of his men watched this with total disbelief. They just stood there and marveled. They stood there and gasped. They couldn’t do anything else.
The wolf kept going and headed back into the trees. It ran hard, and left only a trail of broken branches and trees behind it.
With it gone, Donte picked himself back up to his feet. He gathered his wits. My gods, what are we going to do now? He looked back to the horse with the child still sitting there almost like nothing had ever happened. It didn’t cry. It didn’t whimper. I did nothing.
Seeing her, watching the man turn into a wolf he had never seen before, and knowing everything he now felt, he didn’t know what to believe anymore.
If the wolf and the child came from the same place, then I must give it to Jameson. He will know what to do with it.
His men circled him and did the same thing. None of them spoke. They were too far gone for even that.
25
Kenar and Rochie rode hard dodging trees the best they could, but when they saw a deep black object flying towards them, they stopped. The horse made the choice. It froze where it stood.
Rochie saw the black fur. He saw its size, and he held his heart. “My gods?” His mouth dropped open and his mind blacked out.
Kenar saw everything through his friend’s eyes.
A massive black wolf broke through the trees. It rushed hard but didn’t look at them once. It just pushed by them within a second of a second. It didn’t break its stride once.
After it flew past them, Rochie turned back to his friend. “I am guessing that was him.” He felt whimsical and was. He actually felt blown out of his mind.
“He must be heading back to his home. We must follow him.” He felt right with this. He could still feel a slight image of a woman in the back part of his mind. He felt her fading. He felt her dying, so it made sense.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 38