Wulf's Redemption (Borne Vampires Book 3)

by W. M. Petzler

  They followed him.

  God, please let us find Harklee before its too late, Kai prayed fervently, fighting the fear of losing her entire family to a vengeful human.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Endless miles passed as they poured on the sped to get to Berlin before dawn. Between not feeding and the fight at Club Vampyre, she was running out of energy.

  And Lisle.

  Unsure how to feel about her strange compulsion to forgive her and the remorse Lisle exhibited at the end, her willingness to have her life ended had her wondering what she had said before she died. Was there cure for humans infected by the Damned?

  Feeling nauseous, she reached out to Alex. “I’m sorry, Alex. I need to feed. I’m burned out.”

  “I am starting to weaken, too. There’s a gas station to your left. We’ll rest there and find us a donor. Tell Mina.”

  She passed on the message. Mina was relieved, needing blood, too. Same with Sin. Behind the building, they landed. Her legs buckled under her and she was saved falling by Alex’s steadying arm. He held her to his side.

  “Kai, why don’t you stay here, and I’ll bring a human here for you to feed,” Alex offered.

  “Okay, I’ll wait here for you.” Kai took a seat on the pavement, leaning against the warm brick wall.

  Mina sat down beside her. “I’ll keep you company.” She smiled at Sin, who knelt before her, worried. “I’m fine. Just drained from the last couple of days. Go on with Alex and bring a donor back, please.”

  “I love you.” Sin brushed her long, black hair from her face.

  “I love you, too,” Mina whispered, leaning to kiss him.

  Awkward moment, Kai looked away, finding Alex staring at her. She longed for a private moment with him, uncomfortable expressing her feeling for him around others. Alex winked at her, understanding her more than she did.

  “I love you, Kai Jordan, and later, after we have saved our people, I shall show you how much I love you.”

  Hiding her smile behind her hand, Kai liked the way Alex knew just what to say. “I will hold you to your word.”

  “Just as long as you hold that beautiful body against me,” he teased.

  “Oh, I intend to and much more,” Kai promised huskily.

  Clearing his throat, Alex squirmed a bit when she flashed images in his mind what she wanted to do to him. “Uh, I’ll be about bringing back a human.”

  “Right with you.” Sin caressed Mina’s upturned face before following him.

  In silence, Mina and Kai sat, too tired to chat. Kai held out her hand to the woman who was more a sister than a flesh and blood one could be. Taking it, Mina rested her head back against the building. They didn’t have to wait long when two men walked up to them, vacant expressions on their faces.

  Starving, Kai grabbed one and sank her teeth in his neck, hungrily drinking his blood. She continued to feed, stopping only when she heard the flutter of his heart. Jerking back, she closed the wounds and blurred the bite mark. Hunger sated for a while, Kai gazed deep into the human’s unfocused eyes.

  “You will remember nothing of what happened here. You are woozy from the heat. Drink plenty of water and find somewhere to rest.”

  “Yes. Drink water. Rest,” the human repeated. The man stiffly walked back to his car. The man Mina fed on followed him.

  Alex and Sin returned. “Ladies, are you ready?” At their nods, Alex leapt in the air.

  Speeding faster, Kai felt the air change, warming with the sun’s impending arrival. Alex sensed it, too, and sped up. Another hour gave way and the sprawling metropolis of Berlin came into view. Goal in sight, Kai searched with her mind for any way to warn the Borne of the danger they were in.

  Nothing.

  “Alex, where is the castle? I haven’t had a chance to see any pictures of it yet.”

  He pointed to his right. “We have to travel another ten miles. You can’t miss it. It’s literally a fortress with ramparts and a moat.”

  “We have to find Harklee! He’ll detonate the bombs right before they go to ground. He’ll want to catch them gathered together, when they are vulnerable.”

  “The great hall is where Faeroes and Anya planned to hold meetings and entertain company. That’s in the main keep.”

  “What the bombs haven’t killed, the fire will finish the job.” Sick to her stomach at the thought of her family burning to death, dying so horribly, Kai closed her eyes briefly. Opening them again, she sped up, flying side by side with Alex.

  Situated on a hill, the castle rose majestically in the predawn hour. Flood lights illuminated the grounds, the main keep. The ramparts stretched around the entire fortress. The moat was not what she expected. Void of water, the deep trench was green with grass, shorn short and meticulously kept.

  Where were the patrols? Why weren’t the Slayers walking the ramparts, protecting those inside the castle? Searching for any Borne, Kai came up with nothing. She switched her search to finding Harklee. Strange, nothing from the human.

  Surely Harklee would be close. Wouldn’t he?

  “Kai, tell Mina and Sin to search the other side while you and I search the lower road. I don’t see any of the Slayers.”

  “There’s no one outside. We need to find Harklee and any humans he might be using for the attack. Time is running out.”

  “Hey, look over there. Do you see the van?” Alex asked, flying toward it.

  Confused, she searched below and found it parked behind a stand of trees. Mina and Sin saw it, too, and changed course. A human sat in the driver’s seat. They dropped from the sky and cautiously surrounded the vehicle with their guns drawn and ready to fire. Alex went to grab the human out of the front seat and froze.

  “Nobody touch the van!” Alex shouted. “The human is wired with C-4.”

  The man held a cellphone in his hand, his thumb hovering over the call button. She tried to link with him, hoping to force him to drop the phone. Emptiness was all she could find. Whoever got to him made sure he could not be tampered with and he would push the call button when the time programmed in his mind told him to do it.

  She had to warn her mother about the danger they were in, but how?

  Gaeta said she would have the power of the gypsies once she drank her blood. After a couple of days would the influence of Gaeta’s blood have worn off? There was only one way to find out.

  Kai faced the castle. She ‘pushed’ against the mental walls her mother and those in the castle had erected. Closing her eyes, she thrust her mind out with the same effect as punching a wall, the invisible wall barring her from saving the vampires.

  In her mind, she heard the old Gypsy woman say, “Kai, we are with you. Take our power and send your message to the ones you love.”

  Stretching out her hand, Kai focused on Faeroes, Anya, and her mother. Instead of pushing, she mentally screamed, “Run! There is a bomb.”

  No response. Stretching out both hands, she threw all she had out, breaking past the barriers set up by her family to protect those gathered. She saw her family; they were seated behind Faeroes, who delivering an impassioned speech to those seated before him, at a huge round table. Twenty-one council members were listening to Faeroes, who paused in the middle of his speech. He tilted his head in confusion. The great hall was organized with fold up chairs occupied by men and women watching their leader in confusion as he glanced around him.

  “Faeroes, you were betrayed! Send everyone out of the castle or they will die,” she mentally shouted at him, forcing him to hear her.

  “Kai? How is possible? You ....”

  “The Damned have planted bombs at the castle. You must run.” She looked at the human in the van. Through her eyes, Faeroes say the human’s thumb tremble.

  Faeroes shouted for everyone to run. Those nearest the tall, double doors leading to the courtyard found it would not open. They broke the windows out and jumped. Rathe joined Faeroes and they slammed their shoulders into the doors, trying to break it down to help others
escape. Faeroes yelled at Rathe to take Mariah out the window, he would follow with Anya. He picked up Anya and helped her out the window, then he hesitated.

  The human pressed ‘send’.

  First explosion rocked the ground, sending Kai and the others stumbling in the fiery wake. Another explosion followed and her connection with Faeroes broke. Explosion after explosion claimed the keep, the bombs focused mainly there. Vampires were caught in the flames, the fire intensifying. Helpless, she watched as they burned to death.

  “Kai,” Alex yelled at her.

  When she failed to respond, he swung her into in his arms and leapt up in the sky. The van exploded in ball of fire, flames chasing them. At a safe distance, Alex slowed to make sure Sin and Mina were with them before he flew on to the castle. The screams of dying vampires broke over the roar of flames. A handful of vampires grouped together in the courtyard, forced back by the raging fires. Kai sought out her mother, relieved to find her and Rathe helping Anya to her feet. The whole side of the keep was gone, the ground covered in the rubble.

  “Alex, put me down!” He did and Kai ran, stumbling over broken glass, broken mortar blocks to her, yelling, “Mom!”

  “Kai?” Mariah ran to her and they hugged, crying in relief to be reunited. Alex, Sin, and Mina were right behind her. Mina went to Anya, who was held by Rathe. The tall blonde struggled to run back into the keep.

  “Rathe, release me,” Anya cried frantically. “Faeroes is still in there. I know he’s alive. I can feel it!”

  Rathe shouted, “Alex, I need your help. We have to find my brother.” To Anya, “We’ll find Faeroes, I promise. We’ll go inside together. Understand? We must stay together. There is too much structural damage and smoke. Watch where you step.” He released her when she understood they were forming a rescue party.

  “Rathe, meet Sin Dracula,” Alex introduced them, ready to stop Rathe if he attacked Sin.

  Sizing each other up, Sin extended his hand out to a wary Rathe who accepted it. Rathe grabbed Mariah and kissed her hard before heading back inside the keep. Anya followed. Sin and Alex brought up the rear.

  Kai, Mariah, and Mina watched anxiously, holding each other, fearful for their loved ones. She mentally searched for survivors. To her relief, she found Faeroes. “Alex, I found him. He’s not far from where the window once was. I get only images of dust and broken blocks. I think Faeroes is buried under mortar and wooden beams.”

  “Are there any others alive?”

  Scanning the entire castle, Kai bit her lip from crying. “No. Only Faeroes is alive. The ceiling fell on him. He’s right under where Anya searches.”

  “No one else?” Alex repeated, stunned by the death toll.

  Regretful, she replied, “No.”

  “Rathe and Sin are fighting the fires in our area, pushing it back so Anya and I can help Faeroes. I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Be careful. I can’t lose you.”

  “You can’t get rid of me that easy, honey.”

  “Hurry. Faeroes is weakening. I can hardly hear his heart beating.”

  A vampire rushed over to them. “Mariah, the main door was barred by a steel beam!”

  “Where are the Slayers who were protecting us while we held our meeting,” a woman demanded, cradling her broken arm, too weak to heal herself.

  Another answered, shocked by what he found. “They’re dead. All dead.”

  “How?” Mariah asked, stunned by the news.

  “They were beheaded.”

  Unable to comprehend a legion of Slayer taken by surprise, Kai sought to link with Faeroes and somehow connected with him and Anya. Anya fought to breathe, choking on smoke and dust, desperate to dig him out. Unable to release him from his grave of stone and wood, Anya’s anguished cry ripped the air, alarming everyone. Alex joined her, carefully removing heavy blocks, mindful of the unstable floor above them.

  “Alex, hurry,” Kai cried to him, “Faeroes is slipping away from us. His injuries are bad and he cannot heal himself.”

  “Kai, we need more help!” Alex grunted, heaving a heavy wooden beam from where Anya directed him to uncover Faeroes.

  Casting around her, Kai tried to figure out who to call when the answer came within her. Facing the city of Berlin, Kai focused her will and broadcast to all the Borne, to the gypsies, to the humans.

  “We need you aid! Our king is trapped and is dying. Come to the castle and help us free Faeroes.”

  From where she stood, vampires streaked toward them, uncaring if the humans saw them. Fire engines wailed, police cars were speeding toward them. Kai ran inside the castle, ignoring her mother’s cry to stop. Mina was right behind her, Mariah on her heels. They reached the ragged hole in the stone floor. Peering down it, Kai saw Alex working with Sin to move the rubble covering Faeroes. Rathe held his hands out, sweat pouring down his brow, his face contorted in agonizing concentration as he fought to keep the fires back.

  “Help is coming,” she yelled to them.

  “Careful,” Alex shouted back. “Where you are is unstable. The whole thing could come down on us.”

  Anya wept, her elegant features covered in soot and grime. “Faeroes, my love, hold on. Please!”

  Sin and Alex were moving more mortar and debris when a groan of pain reached their sensitive hearing. Alex rolled his hand for Anya to keep talking to Faeroes.

  “Call to him again. I almost had his location.”

  “Faeroes, sweetheart, talk to us, tell us where you are!” She paused, listening.

  A ‘boom’ rocked the entire keep as the gas line caught fire. Alex covered Anya with his body, protecting her. The wreckage they were clearing shifted. From under the broken wood and rocks, a hand was exposed, lying there motionless.

  “Faeroes,” Anya screamed, rushing to take his hand in hers.

  “My love, forgive me,” Faeroes whispered faintly. His immense strength gone, he was bleeding to death.

  “No! Faeroes, don’t you dare leave me,” she wept, clutching his hand to her heart.

  Silence.

  THE END