Chapter 5
Faith and Axel drove me home. “I can’t believe Marcus just left you there,” Axel huffed.
“He was probably caught up in everything the elders said,” I countered.
“Maybe,” Faith answered, even more skeptical than her brother. I couldn’t shake the strange feeling that something was off. After the meeting, he’d been preoccupied, almost cold.
“Do you think the slayer will be active tonight?” Faith asked. She clenched her hands around the steering wheel.
I laughed. The slayer seemed to be the local attraction at the moment. The more resistance that arose, the more she became a hero, an invisible one, that many thought lived in my house. This must have been how it felt to have a famous parent without any of the perks. I wasn’t Sunny. I was supposedly the slayer’s daughter. But never confirmed. My role was always to deflect. It was what was supposed to keep us safe. Never confirm anything.
I’d never really considered my mom to be more than just Mom. Sure, she was physically fit, but so were most of the women in our community. The elders of Hidden Lake also revered her, but I assumed that had to do with her role in helping to keep the neighborhood on the right side of the Oligarch. Like the mayor, she worked with them to create opportunities that Underwood might not have had.
We lived in the community of Underwood, under the prince consul’s kin. “I don’t know why everyone assumes my mother is the rumored slayer. No one knows anything about this person except that she kicks ass and doesn’t seem to care if it’s a vamp or not.”
“I think there’s more to it than that. Think about it. That would make you in line for the slayer position. I’ve been doing some research.”
I frowned and turned in the seat to look at both Axel and Faith. “What do you mean, Faith?”
“You don’t know the legend of the slayer?”
“No. I’ve never looked into it,” I lied. But I’d heard whispers for years.
“We know the slayer as slaga. When the Old ones arrived here, we fought back against them. They kept mentioning the slaga, or slayer. Their old texts mention a nameless woman who fought back using their huntsmen. They say that she was endued with the powers to combat in body, mind, and soul, with three fated mates.”
“Huh?” I wasn’t one to look down on polyamory. “How did that go? I can’t see three males just agreeing to be with one woman and share.”
“That’s the thing, though. They were all tied to the slayer. All equal, they created a family, a community, and ruled and fought together. The first three who helped were shifters from the same tribe, but the ‘who they are’ is irrelevant. The main thing is, they will be drawn to the Slayer and she to them.
I rolled through my memories and shrugged. I never thought about my mother’s love life, and I wasn’t going to start questioning it now.
We arrived at my house to find all the lights on. The front door was thrown open. “Tom?” I heard my mom calling my brother’s name.
“Something’s wrong.”
I jumped out of the car and raced up the small slope to the house. The place looked ransacked. What had once been orderly, now showed cupboards and their belongings ripped out, furniture toppled over. I raced from room to room. “Mom? Tom?”
“Tom’s not here.” My mother rounded the corner, her face grief-stricken. “He told me he was going to go feed his two turtle doves and would be right back. I thought they were in his room, but after a while, I got concerned. I’ve looked all over this house, even the barn, and he isn’t here, Sunny. He isn’t here.” Her voice cracked.
My knees grew weak, and I crumbled to the floor.
Ryder rolled into the room. For the life of me, I wasn’t sure why he was there. He’d never been one to stop by my house. Yet, he swooped into the room and glanced around. Staring at the floor, he shoved things around even more. Things flew across the room, and a massive snarl resounded.
“What the hell?” I asked, and Faith and Axel tackled him.
“Get off of me.” He pushed back, sending Faith and Axel across the floor. His canines now elongated, his eyes blood red, he stepped to me and raised his hand as if to touch my face. Power and electricity punched me in the gut. “I have not come here to hurt but to help. I could smell it in the air; I could smell your panic, Sunny. And you should never panic like this.”
Suddenly, Ryder was pinned to the floor by the two growling wolves; their bodies were three times the size of a normal wolf, with Faith appearing even larger as she was an alpha. “You may wish to hurt me but hear me out. Tonight, when I returned Kelsea, I learned that all of you are in danger. That is why I am here. Word on the street is, a powerful vamp wants an Underwood and has placed a large bounty on getting one.”
“Which vamp is this?” Mom asked, and I noticed the stake in her hand. There was no denying it now. She was the slayer and sought to stake my friend.
“Mom, no! He’s a friend,” I said and darted between her and Ryder. “Let him up, guys.”
It would have been easier to control the room if I’d been playing with magic. Instead of Sanguine Day, it was like All Hallows’ Eve—the wolves were trying to take a bite out of a seething vamp, and the rumor of who my mom was came crashing in. There was no hiding the stake, made not of the Cyprus wood, but titanium and carved with runes.
A part of me wanted to curl up and allow it all to happen. My mother had lied to me, but even more, she’d kept me in the dark, unable to protect myself. If a parent was a boxer, you’d expect to learn how to jab. As the slayer’s child, I should have had some tips and tricks up my sleeve, but instead, it was empty.
I averted my gaze. I didn’t know how long I sat there on the floor, cold and unmoving.
The truth was glaring. She was the slayer. I was just a fool.
My fingers tingled as if frostbitten, my mouth cotton dry, and my eyes welled. I pinched the bridge of my nose. My muscles tensed, practically vibrating with anger.
“You all should close the door.” In floated Neo, skulking into the shadows of the room. “I could hear the ruckus from far away. I’ve come to confirm what Ryder asked of me.”
I looked between Neo and Ryder. They usually barely tolerated each other. Why would they suddenly be okay with helping?
“What have you found out?”
“Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, Mrs. U., but all of the kids in the community, those who’ve reached eight years old, have been rounded up to register.”
My heart sank. The national registry seemed like a menu for the vamps, where they could order their daily meals, or a service to find their latest ghoul, or subject to be raised to become a sexual servant.
I’d never seen my mother cry. Not that she was weak but pissed. If she’d been magical, she would have cast ball lightning all over the room and probably burned the entire town down to get to Tom. Instead, after the clicking closed of the back door, peace moved into the space, that of my father, David. I watched my mother’s fury lessen, and her tears dry up.
Papa had always been the calm one in the family. He glanced around at the scene but seemed to ignore the chaos he saw. “They are culling the town, Ceri, and unless we do something, we fall.”
Mom nodded and turned to me. “Sunny.” She wiped my hair away from my forehead. Her hands trembled. “I know you’ve never listened to me, but tonight you have to. Leave here with your friends and head across the border with Axel and Faith. They will keep you safe.”
“I’m not running.”
“I don’t have time for this. If I don’t return, you will have a sacred duty.” She took my hand and pulled me behind her.
We moved to the kitchen, and she knelt on the wooden floor, pulled up a floorboard, and lugged out a parcel that resembled what I’d brought home earlier today: blessed stakes.
“If I shall not return, you will be chosen to replace me as our blood has decided our fate in this world. With that, the gods will send you the three who are to be your soul. You can’t do it alo
ne and will need your team to achieve anything.” She opened the satchel, pulled out a stake, and gave it to me. “I wish I had time to share more. But as the more time I spend arguing with you, the more likely it is that I will arrive too late. Just listen for once. Leave, go hide.”
How could I have been so blind not to see that she was indeed the slayer? Even more, how could I not recognize the dangers coming our way? I tried to keep the things she said straight in my mind. What did she mean by the three, and my soul? Why would the gods wave a wand, or speak some magic over me and make me into something that my mother should have trained me for?
I gritted my teeth while mom continued to flurry around.
“Are Renault and Cole on their way?” Mom asked and moved towards the door.
Those were the names of my uncles, at least that was what I knew them as, but with the mentioning of the three, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were her other two.
I waited until she and Papa stepped out, and turned to my friends, who’d watched it all go down.
“You will say nothing of this night. But we have a plan and will make our way to the square. Tonight, we will strike and save our town from being culled!”
It was the best speech I could come up with. The thought of losing everything scared me and chilled me to the bone—I would not go down without a fight. Ryder came over and squeezed my trembling hands.
What would the night require of me?
Chapter 6
In that whirlwind, I felt something different. This was not just my mother, but tonight, her hug had power, her skin practically vibrated, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to rise.
Mom, Dad, and the uncles ducked out into the night, leaving my friends and me in the house behind. It was as if the wind, energy, and peace left with them.
Everything was uncannily still. No one moved, and the entire house was silent. We all must have held our breaths waiting for the supernatural to pass by. They were gone.
“Did you all hear that, too?” I asked the room. Faith stared at me head on, while the guys all looked down at their shoes as if they were wearing the most interesting sets of footwear available. “Hello?” I waved my hand to get their attention.
“Yeah, we heard it all, but that isn’t anything new to us,” Axel responded. His voice was calm, too calm, like it was the layer of shit-filling in a perfectly pink-frosted birthday cake.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“What he’s saying is, that there is a mythos with our people,” Faith began. “When the vamps came, they sought to wipe out all resistance. The elders knew this. It is said that Mother Earth and Father Sky took pity on the man and compelled the dragon goddess for one drop of her blood. They blessed the droplet and placed it in mightiest woman’s bloodline to be passed down from mother to daughter, one generation, one guardian active at a time.”
“Uh, what?”
“Listen,” Faith chastised. “But one woman should not have to save the world alone. Mother and Father believed, and allotted her the power of three others, who would all work with her in conjunction with the inherited gifts from the dragon goddess.”
“What does that even mean—the power of three?”
“It means that should you be the next slayer, that three men will be bound to you, and you to them.”
“Like a reverse harem?” I quirked a smile. What woman wouldn’t love adoration, security, and so much more?
Neo laughed at that. “I’m sure it would be more than just you picking three partners, but a ceremony, an exchange where the soul tie is created.”
My head started to spin from information overload.
“That might be the case, but I’m not the slayer, and we need to help them.”
“You heard your mother,” Ryder said, finally pushing himself up off of the floor.
“Yes, but I must think about my family—Tom, Mom, and Dad. I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
“Well,” Neo chimed in, “We need to head to the town square. That is where they are keeping everyone.”
We all piled into Faith’s Mustang, and she gunned it toward town. This was the moment that could either make or break me, I knew. I never thought I’d encounter that one moment when life would put me at such a crossroads.
In silence we rode, the engine’s revving matching my breathing. Too much was on the line. Too much that I couldn’t control.
And here I was in a car filled with vamps and were-shifters.
“Calm down, Sunny,” Axel said and reached over the seat to cup my shoulder.
“Yeah, I can smell your panic,” Faith said.
“Can you all smell my emotions?” I asked. It might have helped to know if my emotions were like blood in the water. Would they give me away? Would they make it so the cleaning crew of vamps at the town square would smell me coming before I got there?
“You’re worrying too much,” Neo said. “You’ll know how to react.”
“The only problem is, I’ve never even picked up a stake. How am I supposed to do anything besides run, scream, or punch one of those things? No offense. I don’t mean you two—but they are stronger, more agile. They can do things that I’ve only heard about.”
We arrived at the area, and Faith cut the engine.
“Children to the left, and parents to the right.” The overhead female speaker announced.
My mouth hung open in horror as the vamps in the distance yanked the children from parental arms, despite the wailing, cries, and sniffles. The children waited in a queue, snaking across the parking lot, with posted armed guards watching over them. A doctor wearing a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, stood at the front of the line with his nurse.
In groups of five, the nurse led them to the waiting doctor. The doctor walked before them, and with a simple nod, the child was sent either left or right—left to return to his parent’s custody, and right to be taken away by one of the supervising guards to the waiting truck.
Four of the five were sent right.
The Judgment wasn’t anything new, but this was the first time so many were to be chosen.
Bastian knocked on the glass. “I wondered what time you guys were going to get here.”
“Tell me you know something?” I pled.
“Yeah, the truck is bulletproof, and the children are being taken inside to a chamber, where they’re placed in stasis.”
“How do you know all of that?” Ryder argued. “They could just be seated on a bench waiting.”
“True, they could, but my gadgets don’t fail.” Bastian passed me a pair of binoculars that he’d pimped out. I watched the guards, who showed up in blue, lead the human child, whose energy was red, into the truck. Up the stairs, the child walked to an entryway and came to a stop at what looked like a small pod. Then the pod door was opened, and the child entered and remained standing, completely still.
“How do you know about the stasis?” I asked.
“The biometrics. Once the child enters, the heart rate and breathing rates decrease. And there has been confirmed intel that they’ve been using these trucks to haul away those children healthy enough to endure it.”
“Are they judging them?” Axel asked.
Bastian shook his head. “That is not the worst of it, though. They are taking most of the children.”
It was almost like they’d been fattening us up for such a day as this to make us easy to slaughter, just as I’d suggested earlier.
I scanned left and then right, until my gaze found Tom standing in line. I scanned the area again, and in the shadows, I noticed my mother’s figure, as well as that of my father and two uncles.
“I see them. They are fanning out to the right.”
“I say we cause a distraction,” Axel suggested.
“Like what?”
“There is nothing like a good howling—that should scare those sons of bitches,” Faith snarled.
We didn’t have time to come up with a better plan. This w
as the moment to save the entire town.
My heart thwacked against my ribcage. I could feel them all looking at me. What if I made the wrong decision? I was the one who had the most to lose, the only thing to lose.
I nodded.
There was no way I wasn’t going to help. I had to get to Tom.
“Axel, you and Faith make a diversion, and Ryder, try and see if you can sneak up and get a weapon to fit in so we can free the kids. Bastian, hand me one of your communicator devices. Head to the roof and be our eyes. Neo, I need you to channel some of Bastian’s inner pyromaniac and create a circle of flames. Fire still scares vamps, right?”
Bastian handed out the silicon communicators that fit into our ears. Once situated and in agreement, we nodded our heads and headed toward the preordained positions.
After a couple of minutes, an unearthly howl rang out.
It was Faith.
And our signal to begin the mayhem.
“This was a shitty idea,” Axel complained.
“Glad you think so,” Faith chimed in, breathless. “I’ve led as many away as I could. Returning in your direction from the south.”
“Nothing will go wrong,” I responded. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince them or myself.
Both moved to my side—one protecting my left flank, and the other my right.
It wasn’t that I had a lot of options at this point. I spotted Tom closer to the front of the line, and despite Faith’s howling distraction, it had only pulled away a couple of guards to investigate.
Before my mother, covered in a black cloak, could react, I stepped forward. She must have seen us, as she paused a little too long. Too long, because one of the vamps shouted, “Slayer, Slayer,” and pointed his weapon at her.
Time stopped for the briefest of moments.
Two wolves and two vampire friends wouldn’t be enough to take on the elite vampire soldiers, no matter how I longed for more.
Holidays Bite: A Limited Edition Collection of Holiday Vampire Tales Page 27