A Shade of Vampire 63: A Jungle of Rogues
Page 24
I sighed. “I know.”
“I’m not sure you do, actually,” Lumi said. “This isn’t your run-of-the-mill villain, Druid. This isn’t Azazel. This isn’t Shaytan. This is a dense and fast-growing population of carefully designed killing machines who worship and adore their maker. Once we set foot on Strava, it’ll be open season on our asses. I am ready to do whatever it takes, no matter how hard, difficult, or ugly, to make sure we survive and get our people back. I am ready to burn that entire planet down if I have to. And I need you all to be with me on this one. Otherwise, we will fail.”
Her words hit me deep. I knew she was right.
Despite her often-unconventional methods, Lumi meant well. In this case, her ruthlessness could eventually save us all.
“The time to play nice is over,” Lumi added, as we all looked at each other. Serena could feel my pain, and I felt hers. Despite our peaceful natures, we both knew that the swamp witch was about to take us to a very dark place, and, in order to save ourselves and our worlds, we had no choice but to follow her. “We must be ready to do whatever it takes. I know, you’re all thinking maybe it won’t come to that. But it might. And I need you all to be there when it does. You can’t hesitate when the time comes. If you do, we all die.”
Good grief, that sounded so grim.
Then again, I’d once nearly sacrificed myself to destroy Azazel and to save my people. If I searched deep down inside myself, I was willing to bet that I could do a lot worse, if push came to shove. That’s the thing about the survival instinct: it makes you do things you never thought were possible.
Bastien cleared his throat, demanding our attention. “I agree with Lumi. I think all the elders do,” he said. “This isn’t a regular mission. You must be ready to torture and kill anyone who stands in your way, friend or foe. This… This is the one moment in time that will determine whether the universe gets to go forward or not. I know, it’s hard to think of it that way, but you have to. Even… Even if it means leaving loved ones—” He choked up, closing his eyes for a moment. He took a deep breath, then continued his most painful thoughts. “Even if it means leaving loved ones behind. As long as it secures the survival of this entire world, do it. Okay?”
Looking at Bastien, I knew exactly what he meant.
We were going to Strava to save our people. Including his parents-in-law and two of his sons. If the worst-case scenario were to come true, if we were to fail to get them back before Ta’Zan’s Perfects mastered space flight technology… we had to be ready to pull back and leave them all behind.
We had to be ready to let GASP and their supernaturals’ alliance do the unthinkable and destroy the planet completely. The clock was ticking. And this was about more than just our loved ones. This was bigger than all of us together. Hell, if needed, we all had to be ready to give our lives, if it meant stopping the Perfects from spreading out into the In-Between. I wasn’t going to let any of that happen. Not while I was still breathing, but I had to have that thought in the back of my head, just in case the worst did come to happen. At least then I wouldn’t be utterly shocked if the scenario came up.
“On a lighter note,” Bogdana chimed in, “we have something that Ta’Zan doesn’t.”
We all looked at her. She smiled, then nodded at Lumi, who nodded in return.
“You have a swamp witch,” Lumi said. “With no swamp witch in his possession, with no access to my craft, Ta’Zan is at a disadvantage, and I intend to make full use of that.”
“Of course, that doesn’t cancel anything you said earlier, does it?” I replied.
Lumi shook her head. “No. On the contrary, I, too, will have to do some pretty horrible things to make sure we win this. Whatever it takes.”
I found myself agreeing. “We may not even recognize one another or ourselves, when all this is over. Whatever it takes.”
“I’m ready,” Serena said. “Whatever it takes.”
It was becoming our motto, it seemed, as Taeral, Bijarki, Bogdana, Avril, and Heron stepped forward and said the same line at once.
“Whatever it takes.”
With that in mind, we bid our farewells to Harper, Caspian, Bastien, Field, Aida, and the others still at the base on Mount Zur, then climbed to the top of the building, where Lumi prepared an interplanetary spell around a medium-sized shuttle that could carry up to fifty people. We figured it might come in handy later.
Our hearts were heavy and our minds were filled with worry, but in the end, our objective was clear. With more boots on the ground, we had a better shot at saving all our people and stopping Ta’Zan from destroying the world as we knew it. We had to do it.
Whatever it takes.
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