Elwood was yammering away in his native dialect, still struggling to free himself from Sloan’s grip. It was useless. With her foot, Sloan opened the door to the cellar and placed Edison inside. She set a tearful Elwood beside the inventor.
“I’ll come back for you when this is over.” Sloan felt her heart ache at the tears coming down Elwood’s tiny face. He reached up for her, still mumbling. “If I don’t come back, stay here until the vampires leave the city.”
That was all the advice she could give him. She knew if she stayed any longer, her resolve would crumble. Sloan shut the cellar door behind her and ran back out of the estate to Term’s main road.
It was completely dark now, with no one to light lanterns or posts along the city streets. The only light that came now was from the stars and the moon overhead. Sloan skidded to a halt as she reached the main road into town. She wasn’t alone. A large group of three or four dozen New Hope soldiers stood at the entrance. Even from this distance, she could see the pale nature of their skin.
Sloan unsheathed her sword. Her thumb reached for the switch that infused her blade with the humming red mage power. She bottled her fear and embraced the rage that lay just under the surface. This time, she could feel her top canines lengthen.
“Charlotte Sloan.” One of the vampire soldiers took a step ahead of the rest. He was still a block away, but his voice carried over the calm night air. “For treason to the queen of the city of New Hope, you are ordered to lay down your weapon and surrender yourself.”
The voice of the commander wasn’t familiar to Sloan. But that was no real surprise; the queen’s army was massive. She would choose a leader with no personal ties to Sloan to bring her in.
“I am not a man of patience,” the vampire leader barked again. “Lay down your weapon!”
Her senses were on overdrive, so much so, she heard someone approaching from behind. Of course they would surround her.
Sloan’s vision went red as she felt adrenaline soak her veins with power. “Come and take it!”
Chapter Forty
Sloan
Sloan adjusted her stance to provide herself a view of the main force of vampires in front of her, as well as whoever was walking up the road behind her. When Sloan caught sight of the approaching figure, she had to do a double take.
Through the darkness, Ashley Brookhaven’s familiar form came into view. The undead woman’s two-handed sword dragged in the dirt road behind her as she approached. The blade of her weapon cut deep, leaving a waving line in her wake.
“Thought you might want a hand.” Ashley hefted the heavy sword over her shoulder, looking from Sloan to the group of enemies in front of them. “It just didn’t seem right to leave you alone.”
“But, Aareth?” Sloan did her best to put into words what she was feeling. A surprising amount of relief had come when she realized she would not be fighting alone. At the same time, a deep feeling of sadness penetrated through to her heart. “You two were supposed to be going to Azra.”
Ashley shrugged. “He’s a big boy. He made his decision; I made mine.”
While the women spoke, the leader of the vampire soldiers moved his unit closer. They now stood on one end of The Shifter; Sloan and Ashley stood at the other end.
“Commander Ashley Brookhaven, I presume.” The leader of the vampire soldiers looked her up and down. “My name is Captain Hunt. You are ordered to lower your weapons and turn yourself in to the crown for your crimes against the queen.”
He was close enough now that Sloan could see his face. He was middle-aged and wore the same black-and-grey uniform that all of the queen’s soldiers did, with two alterations: his uniform came with a deep-set hood to cover his head during the day, as well as thick, black gloves. This was true for all of the vampire soldiers. It seemed they were prepared for the rise of the sun while traveling in the Outland.
Before Ashley could answer the captain, the swinging bar doors of The Shifter creaked open. Everyone was caught off guard. Sloan, Ashley, and the entire vampire contingent pivoted to brace for an attack.
Kade walked out into the cool of the night. His orange eyes looked like tiny lamps glowing in the reflection of the bright night sky.
No one was more surprised than Sloan to see the shifter. She was so sure he had gone with the others to Azra for the time being, she had blocked his face from her memory. Seeing him here now, and smiling at her, sent her heart racing. She couldn’t help smiling, herself.
“Hey, beautiful.” Kade walked down the three short steps of The Shifter. He made his way to stand by Sloan’s side, opposite Ashley. “I feel like I owe you an apology. People are allowed to change. If the woman I’ve gotten to know over the last few days is the real you, then I’d like to get to know her better.”
In that moment, Sloan felt like she could have taken on an entire army of vampire soldiers. More than anything, she wanted to lean over and kiss Kade, but their precarious position made that all but impossible. She managed a nod, and that was it.
“Well, if you don’t have anyone else joining you”—the vampire captain rolled his red eyes—“then let’s get this over with.”
Kade winked at Sloan before beginning his shifting process. He fell to all fours as his clothes and skin turned into short, golden fur. His body elongated; his teeth grew along with his mouth. The ears on the sides of his head transformed into short, perky triangles at the top of his head. A long, swishing tail grew out of his tight butt.
In the space of a few seconds, a giant saber-toothed tiger took form beside her. His head came up to her breasts; he was the size of a small horse. Only one thing remained the same during Kade’s transformation: his eyes. The same orange orbs looked at her, and then to the gathered vampires. A low growl rumbled from his chest. Two giant fangs curved down from the top of his mouth, passing his lower lips and ending at two sharp points.
“Well, you don’t see that every day.” Ashley shrugged at the massive saber-toothed tiger.
“Second squad!” Captain Hunt shouted. It seemed the vampire leader had seen enough. “Prepare to attack!”
All around the trio of Term defenders, black shadows separated from the dark. They emerged from behind them in the street, in alleys to either side of the main road, even on the tops of the surrounding buildings.
Sloan’s heart sank. Not only were there dozens in front of them now, there were also at least as many to their right, left, and rear.
Sloan gripped her mage saber tighter.
Ashley switched on her own mage weapon, holding her broad sword with both hands. She assumed a position with elbows locked, both hands on the pommel, blade in front of her body. The blue light emanating from her weapon bathed her expressionless face in a dull glow.
Where Sloan’s blade was meant for parlaying and quick, easy, maneuvering, Ashley’s weapon was designed for brute force and strength.
“First Squad!” Captain Hunt barked orders to the vampires he had walked into Term with. “Present weapons!”
The sound of swords being unsheathed peppered the air. The vampires around the captain flipped on their own mage weapons. Each blade was bathed in a faint white light.
“Stay away from the ones with swords as much as possible,” Sloan whispered to Kade. “Let Ashley and me deal with those. You take the others behind us.”
Kade bobbed his feline head. His body quivered with anticipation. His chest and stomach were low to the ground as he prepared to pounce. The muscles between his shoulder blades bulged.
“Kill the other two if you have to.” Captain Hunt raised his own sword and flipped the switch at the handle, bathing his pale face in white light. “Take Sloan alive.”
In one smooth motion, he lowered his sword, signaling the attack. What followed could only be described as bloody chaos.
Chapter Forty-One
Aareth
As soon as Ashley left, he knew he had to go back. It was only his sense of pride that made him hesitate for the slightest bit. He
couldn’t, wouldn’t, leave his wife, no matter what the cost. If she died in Term, then he would die by her side. Living life without her again was no option at all.
The main question, as he trudged back the way he had come, was how he was going to transform back into the monster that had singlehandedly dismantled the queen’s men once before. Did he even want to turn back into that monster?
A whoosh overhead interrupted Aareth from this internal debate, and the stars and moon were blocked out for the slightest moment by a massive figure.
“You are going back, as well, Beast Man?” Kimberly thudded to a stop beside Aareth. Her wings folded on the back of her massive shoulders. “Although it would be better if you transformed out of your human skin for the job. I suspect there will be a fair amount of killing and dying to be had.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking about that. Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be taking the citizens of Term to their new home?”
“My men are capable of the job. Besides, I’m a warrior and a leader. I don’t send others to do my fighting.”
“Fair enough.”
“You, on the other hand, are going because the human you love has, are you not?” Kimberly didn’t wait for an answer. “You humans and your love. What dramatic creatures you are. You see, when a male gargoyle falls in love with a female gargoyle, the process is quite simple. He shows her his—”
Aareth heard the sounds of conflict at the same time Kimberly did. The wolf and the gargoyle looked at one another with wide eyes.
“Hurry, Beast Man. Change into your hideous form.” Kimberly unfurled her wings to take flight once again. “The battle has started without us.”
“I’m trying,” Aareth grunted, contorting his face.
Come on, Aareth thought as he tried to locate the animal that now lived within. Where are you when I need you?
Whether it was his own voice talking back, his imagination, or the new part of him, a voice in his head growled: Oh, now you need me.
We’re one being now. We have to learn to coexist. Help me. Please.
“Are you having a bowel movement, Hideous Beast Man?” Kimberly took a step back, gauging Aareth’s expression. “You do not look well.”
All right, but you owe me one, the voice grumbled.
A howl ripped from Aareth’s throat as he transformed into the wolf for the second time. His clothes shredded around his growing body. Long, black fur rippled across his bulging muscles. Within seconds, Aareth stood looking out through yellow eyes.
“You are an abomination.” Kimberly admired Aareth, who was now large enough to look her in the eye. “Come, horrid one. I will give you a ride into battle.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Sloan
This time, when the fog of war settled over Sloan’s senses, she was ready. Her vision was red, her fangs had already elongated, but this was now to be expected. Her transition into vampire was becoming easier and easier to accept.
Sloan met Captain Hunt’s men head-on. Ashley kept stride with her as the two women cleaved their way through the vampire ranks. As instructed, Kade fell back to engage those vampires without mage swords.
The two women were polar opposites when it came to fighting, but each was twice as deadly as any warrior in the queen’s service. Sloan was faster than the vampires who struck out at her with their glowing white swords. For the most part, Sloan was able to dispatch them to the afterlife with single strokes, or at least wound them badly enough to remove them from the fight. When her shimmering red sword made contact with one of her assailant’s weapons, a shower of sparks would erupt onto the battlefield.
Sloan didn’t waste time with trying to pick apart her enemies; she went for killing strikes. Soon, blood filled the air just as much as the showering sparks of their engagement.
Sloan could only keep track of Ashley out of the corner of her eye, but the undead woman was managing to hold her own. The upper hand in both speed and strength belonged to her opponents, but Ashley made up for her handicaps with the brute power of her weapon compared to her opponents’, and her superior fighting style.
The swords the vampire soldiers from New Hope had been given were simple, single-handed weapons that were neither as long as Ashley’s nor as heavy. When Ashley’s weapon struck theirs, the weight of her superior blade knocked their own either out of their hands or back onto them.
On one occasion, Sloan witnessed Ashley bring her heavy weapon down onto a vampire soldier who tried to block the weapon with his own. The two blades erupted into a shower of sparks before Ashley’s sword bore down on the vampire, sending both of their weapons into his body.
Blood was so prevalent as Sloan fought, that the final transformation into her new identity begun to twist her desires. Sloan was drenched in red from her brow to her boots. A yearning nothing like she had ever experienced before overcame her to drink the wonderful, red liquid that oozed out of her enemies’ wounds.
Sloan shook her head in vain, trying to ignore the need. Hunger like she had never known twisted at her stomach. Sloan parried a blow from behind and, moving to her right, she lopped off the arm of an oncoming swing. She was moving so fast, she had no time to plan her next strike; there was only time to react.
No matter how fast she moved, there was no escaping the urge to satisfy herself on the abundant amount of blood that soaked the battlefield. Hunger turned into thirst, and thirst turned into need. Sloan honestly thought that if she didn’t drink some of the blood soon, she would die.
Unable to stave off the desire any longer, Sloan gave into the thirst. Grabbing one of the soldiers by the neck, she swung him around and sunk her fangs into the thick part. Immediately, the soldier went slack. The red hue Sloan saw through deepened to a dark crimson as the gloriousness of hot liquid soaked her throat. Her stomach was soon satisfied with the wonderful feeling of being filled.
What’s more, Sloan felt a burst of energy. She’d been beginning to tire, but with the introduction of the blood, Sloan felt like she could take on the queen’s entire army. It wasn’t until she had drained the unlucky soldier dry that she realized the battle had come to a standstill.
Ashley was backed up against the side of The Shifter. She was surrounded by a group of mage sword-wielding vampires. She didn’t look like she was wounded, but her sword was sagging in her tired arms, sweat dripping off her brow.
Kade was bleeding from a dozen different wounds, also surrounded by a group of vampires in the center of the street. The superior speed of the vampires compared to the shifter was proving to be too much for him to handle.
Sloan sunk to her knees, the horror of what she had done finally sinking in. Despite their best actions, only a fraction of the vampire soldiers from New Hope had been dispatched. Captain Hunt stood in front of a defeated Sloan with his contingent of soldiers encircling her.
“Surrender. You must realize now you are not the hero in this story.” Captain Hunt sneered down at her. “Your friends are wounded and exhausted. If you refuse to surrender for yourself, then do so for them.”
A rush of wings sounded overhead. A howl Sloan had heard before ripped the temporary calm in half.
One moment, it looked as though the soldiers from New Hope had managed a victory; the next, their smiles were torn from their faces in a flurry of teeth and claws. Aareth dropped from the sky directly on the top of those soldiers surrounding Ashley. Kimberly landed on top of Captain Hunt, folding him in on himself.
All around, the battle raged on. Everyone besides Sloan was caught in the madness war brought. She still slumped on her knees, the withered face of the soldier she had sucked dry directly in front of her. What was she now? There was no other word for it than “monster.”
Kade limped his way to her side. A muzzle brushed past her face as he tried to wrestle her from her daze.
Seeing the shifter distracted, a vampire soldier, gripping a white mage sword, leapt in to deal a killing stroke to Kade.
Sloan caught the woman’s wr
ist in her hand. With a simple twist, she tore the woman’s arm from the rest of her body. She brought her own red sword up and through her head. If she was a monster, then she would have to deal with that later. In the meantime, no one else she cared for would die.
Once Aareth and Kimberly had entered the fight, also bringing about the end of Captain Hunt, the tide of the battle tipped in the opposite direction. Aareth’s hide was so thick, he could wade into the vampire ranks, slashing out with maw and paw. The only weapons able to pierce his hide were the mage swords, and there weren’t many of those left.
Kimberly was fresh and, using her wings, fists, legs, and tail, was a maelstrom of punishment. Sloan felt like a goddess incarnate. All around the main street of Term, vampire soldiers fell under her blade. Invigorated by the human blood, she was invincible. In minutes, those soldiers who could still run retreated into the dark.
Sloan flicked off her mage sword. The weapon dropped from her hand. Her eyes took in Aareth transitioning back to his stark naked human form and embracing Ashley. Kimberly pressed a hand to a wound on her arm and wrapped it with the cloak off a fallen soldier.
Kade turned back to his normal human form. He was bleeding profusely from a cut over his right eye, his lip, and somewhere on his shoulder. Instead of trying to attend to his own wounds, he came to Sloan and wrapped her in a hug.
“Don’t,” Sloan said as hot tears splashed down her cheeks. “You saw what I did. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” Kade whispered into her ear. He hugged her tighter. “I’m here. Whatever’s happening to you, you’re not alone.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Sloan sputtered. “I don’t know what happened. I—”
Kade pulled away, briefly pressing his lips to hers. He held her face in his hands, using his thumbs to brush away her tears. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to find out what’s happening to you. I promise.”
House of Spells: (A Paranormal Urban Fantasy) (The Vampire Project Book 3) Page 15