“He understands now. See? Sit, boy.” Knight shoved me over and laughed through his nose.
Alexander’s group was coming back in human form, and they stopped when they saw Knight transformed. His ears drooped at the sight of their frightened faces. They spared his life, but they still saw him as a monster. I took his clawed hand in mine.
“Status?” Arthur asked the Alpha.
“There’s a large building in town, seems to be the hotspot for activity. We’ve seen lots of vampires in and out of it involved in… various activities.” For humans, that meant booty. For us, it meant they were feeding, and openly.
“Security?”
“There’s a few with guns and some drones on the perimeter. I don’t think they’re expecting any attacks, it’s the perfect time to strike, while they’re… partying.” He glanced at me, and away.
“Alexander,” I told him. “We’ll set the humans free. I’ll wipe their memories and we’ll set them up in a nearby hospital until they’ve recovered.”
“I expected nothing less from you, I can assure you. It’s still unsettling to see.” Knight whined sympathetically, and Alexander noticed it thoughtfully. “I saw him when he was a prisoner, he was wild as a wolf man. I never thought I’d see him conscious like this. Must be you.”
Lisbeth, tamer of hearts, and wolf men.
Our objectives set, we moved the plan in motion. The other two packs joined us, reporting about the same as Alexander. Empty town, large crowd of vampires. We snuck down the empty streets that howled with ghosts of the humans that had been destroyed. This was not a small town by any stretch of the imagination, and the turned vampires had laid waste to it. Was this where the human drones had come from?
At the center of town was a coliseum made for things like graduations and nerd conventions. The lawn outside of it had bodies lying forgotten in the grass. Dead bodies. Everywhere.
I knew, I knew this was what the turned were doing, but seeing it was not the same. Tears sprang in my eyes, tears of anger. Knight whined quietly and put his claw on my shoulder.
Rage built inside me, the purest I’d ever known. I wanted to wipe the planet with the blood of turned vampires, to let it soak into the ground where the only thing that would remember it was the plants that sprang from the earth above it.
I was the daughter of a killer, and by god, I was going to follow in her footsteps now. I flung my hands out until my claws were the furthest they’d ever been. My teeth dropped, my eyes glowed, and I growled with such wrath that everyone near me responded with their own snarls until it was a chorus of animal roars that grew until I couldn’t stay still anymore.
I charged.
My feet pounded down the road, up the sidewalk, past the bodies, and into the center of demons. The coliseum opened out before me, and the inside made the bloodied lawn look like a Christmas party.
There would be no humans to save.
In the center of the room on a makeshift throne that looked like someone had been watching too many medieval drama, sat Wyatt. He lounged on the throne, one leg over the arm, and his back against the other side, and he sipped something in a metal goblet.
Blood.
Their revelries didn’t alert them to my presence for several seconds. By that time, my army had caught up to me.
“Kill them,” I growled over my fangs. “Decimate them into the earth. Get the humans to safety.”
Knight let out the mournful howl he’d been holding in, and we stormed the coliseum. Left and right, I sliced through the turned that came at me. I threw bombs up into the spectator seats on the upper levels and heard the appropriate screams when they exploded. Whatever came at me, I carved it to pieces.
My eyes only saw one man. Wyatt.
Wyatt was the leader of the turned from my house, the ones who had stolen Othello. I’d killed the vampire that led them to rebelling, and I enjoyed it. I would enjoy killing him too. He was still lounging on the throne, not a care in the world, and looked up when he saw me.
“Well, well, well. Look what the cat drag-” I cut him off by wrapping my hand around his throat. “Don’t be hasty, oh fearless leader. You kill me, and-”
“This ends,” I emphasized with a squeeze.
He laughed around my hand. “You always were narrow minded. When you killed Randall, you were terrifying. And beautiful. The long and short of it is, if you kill me, you won’t get Othello back.”
“What makes you think he wants to stay alive after what you made him do?”
Wyatt’s grin turned evil. “Hmm. You should’ve seen him. We always waited until he was close to madness. Close, but not there yet. Sometimes you could see the moral dilemma in his eyes, but in the end, he always-”
I cut Wyatt’s speech, and life, short with a snap of my fingers. You worthless piece of garbage. I hope there is a hell, so you can rot in it for eternity.
Our few numbers were no match for the hundreds of vampires in the coliseum, even with the bombs. The only method we needed to win was fear. I dragged Wyatt’s body to the center of the room and roared as loudly as I could to get everyone’s attention.
“Surrender to us now, or you will end up like your leader.” I hoisted his body over my head, and tore it in half with my claws. “You were all once human, and humans fear death more than anything else. Do you want to die? Because I will slaughter everyone here if I have to.”
Their answer was a resounding ‘no’ on the surrender. Arthur was knee deep in bodies and quickly making more, but he saw me nodding to him. It was time to blow the building up. Knight had been making the most headway in the ranks of turned and had gone to the second floor. I saw him on the edge of a balcony laying waste to five vampires at once. My man. I whistled to him and he jumped down from the balcony to my side. Mounting his back, I called out to our soldiers.
“Retreat!” We led the way out the doors with Arthur last so he could close the doors and hold them shut. He twisted a piece of metal to hold the doors closed and held up the detonator to wait for my nod.
Go time.
He clicked it, and the explosions started going off, one by one, all over the building. Arthur rolled down the sidewalk to stand with us. We watched the coliseum burn to the ground. Still on Knight’s back, I called Arthur and Cameron to me.
“There were too few,” I said.
“That’s all there ever was,” Cameron insisted. Merrick came to his side, trying to catch her breath from the fight.
Arthur understood me. “No, she’s not talking about that. She means there are more turned vampires than this. In the planet. There should be several thousand. That was barely one.”
“Maybe most just bolted and didn’t join the army. I do remember the alchemist making extra sunlight potion and sending it somewhere. He said we had other brothers that weren’t in the fight,” Cameron said.
I didn’t like it. I’d always assumed that every turned vampire had joined the rebellion against us. Now to learn that a mere percentage had, I feared the consequences if we were wrong. I had no evidence to believe I was, and I couldn’t keep an army together on a feeling.
“Check for survivors, vampire or human. Begin the coverup. Plan N.” N meant no humans left, the last ditch scenario. I didn’t know what it entailed, but it was thorough so the humans wouldn’t ask questions. “The cleanup crew stays. Everyone else, head out.”
CHAPTER 24
It was late, and we were exhausted. None of us wanted to stop until we got back home. We’d lost many warriors in the battle, but what I saw on everyone’s faces wasn’t just sadness. They were relieved. They all believed this was over.
I wanted to believe it. I did. With every ounce of what I had, I wanted this over. I couldn’t shake the fear, no matter how hard I tried.
The road led us home at the earliest light. Knight stepped back, lifted his bag from my hand with a claw, and nudged me forward to go on without him. He needed to shift back once the moon was gone. I let the army go ahead and waited until he
came out of the trees a man again. He didn’t say a word, just walked straight to me and folded me into his arms.
“Glad I’m me again,” he said as he pet my hair.
“You’re always you. Just sometimes you actually have body hair.” He chuckled at me and kissed my head. “What if the war isn’t over? What if the come again and again until there’s nothing left of us?”
“Ssh,” he soothed. “We won.”
“Today.”
“Today,” he conceded gently. He let me go and turned as he kneeled. “On my back. Let’s go home.” I mounted him and he secured my legs with his hands, and we were off. The warmth of his back, being up all night, I knew I would fall asleep, and I was right. When I woke up, I was lying on one of the couches in my office with a blanket over me and my shoes on the floor beside me.
Still hazy, I heard my name being spoken.
“We have no reason to believe that the other turned are part of the rebellion. You killed them, it’s over. Now we can live in peace.”
“You are blinded by fear. Look at her.” Her? Who her? “She has taken the entire race of Born vampires on her shoulders because all of you were too afraid to lead your people. You outcast her, and she still protects you with everything she has. I would rather trust her instincts than trust any of you with ordering a happy meal.” Who was that? He sounded like Arthur, but he was too emotional for the stoic warrior I knew.
“The Council has voted, and we will not continue asking the Lycans or the newly turned to stay here. They will attend the festivities in two days, and then they will leave. That is the end of this discussion, Arthur. And next time, make sure this meeting is exclusive. Good day.”
The haze started to lift once the room was quiet and I moaned as I tried to get up. Knight was there to assist me from falling over.
“How long did I sleep?” I yawned and rubbed my eyes. I heard Glenda whirring around somewhere.
“Not long enough,” he remarked with a sigh.
Arthur was there too, looking the tiniest bit sheepish. “You heard?”
“You singing my praises? Mm, yes.” I stretched. “They’re right,” I said, still yawning. “We have no proof there are more in the turned army.”
“There’s still the alchemist. I asked the Council if they knew him. Oddly enough, it was Olivier who recognized the handwriting. She said it belonged to a turned vampire named Alistair.”
That name sparked at least some recognition. Alistair was in the back of my memories, but I’d never spoken to him directly. Those days, the turned had to stay far underneath the castle in England, so any memory I had of him was him skulking around corners or catching my eye as he passed.
“Alistair was a turned vampire. He lived with us in England.”
“What happened to him?” Knight asked. I could only shrug.
“He didn’t come with us to America. I haven’t seen him since.” Standing, I picked up my shoes and wrapped the blanket around myself. “I want to believe it’s over. Maybe if I believe it hard enough, it’ll come true. Keep the scouts on alert, just in case. Lisbeth, out.” I shuffled out of the room and didn’t hear or see anything until I was back in my bedroom and could flop onto the bed. Knight was there for me to snuggle against and fall back asleep.
When I woke up later that day, Knight was gone, probably off getting food for himself. I was thirsty, but I could manage until I saw him. A bath, a change of clothes, and I checked on Kitty in her nursery. Balthazar held her against his shoulder in the rocker I’d gotten. He looked like he was about to fall asleep as she cooed and tried to wiggle away from him. I slipped her quickly from his grasp and held her in my arms.
“I wasn’t sleeping,” he croaked. Kitty looked happy to see me, and she wasn’t dead, so that was a plus. “She’s starting to hold her head up.”
“But she’s so young!” I marveled at her and like she knew what we were saying, which she probably did, she demonstrated her mad skills for me. She braced herself against my shoulder and held her little head up on her own. It plopped back down and she sunk her fangs into my shoulder, content with herself.
“She’s over a month old,” Balthazar noted. “Well past time for a young vampire to hold her head up. I expect her to know her letters before lunchtime. We won’t have slackers in this house.” She snorted at him as she ate. “You came in very messy this morning. Are we safe now?”
“That’s what they’ve agreed to believe.” I pet Kitty’s curls.
“If anyone can lead them out of this, it’s you.”
“Everyone seems to think that. I couldn’t prevent it from happening. I was right there in the cusp of it, before the word rebellion was even mentioned, and everything I did made it worse. Maybe it was the system, and not me.” I remembered something Lucas had said. “My father said something about the way life was before Anastasia did what she did. We were brothers with Lycans and they sat by our side on the Council. Maybe it’s time for a change. A Council where every voice is represented, not just Born vampires.”
“They’ll never go for it,” he said dryly.
“Perhaps not. Maybe someday, when the world is different. When we’re different.” Kitty rested her head against me when she finished drinking. “If they come. If we’re threatened again, I want you to take her away. Take Cameron with you to feed her, or make a new vampire baby with a really attractive librarian, someone who will stay with you and her forever. I don’t care what you do. I won’t have her pay for the crimes of others. I’ve given everything to this war, and I won’t lose her too.”
“It will not come to that,” he assured me, with empty words that meant nothing when real life peeked around the corner.
“I want you to promise.”
He sighed. “I promise.” I let him hug me. “I hope you’re wrong.” I did too.
Kitty spent the rest of the day with me before Balthazar took her again and I could work late. Olivier came into my office when it was almost midnight.
“Someone is waiting for you in your room,” she said.
A visitor? Castilla’s prediction came to me. I’d have three pairs of visitors, and two pairs had already come. Maybe… no. She wouldn’t come here. Even so, I was excited, and I raced upstairs to see who was there.
Slowly, I creaked the door open and heard Lionel Richie on a speaker. Was he who I was looking for?
The song played out and I marveled at everything in the sparse room that hadn’t been there before. There was a fur rug with pillows on it, and a tray of chocolate with strawberries. What in the world?
A large arrow of rose petals pointed to the bedroom, so I went there next. The petals danced around the carpet, leading this way and that in a very precise path. I followed as best I could without falling over. The bed had more rose petals, and there was a bottle of champagne chilling on the nightstand. Another arrow led to the bathroom.
Just as the song said hello, I stepped inside the bathroom to see Knight sitting in a tub of hot water wearing a very fancy tux. He sipped champagne like this was completely normal, and pretended to be startled when he saw me.
“Oh, I didn’t see you there. Come. Sit. Stay awhile,” he said in a weird voice. He flashed me a flirty smile and drew shapes on the water’s surface.
“I missed you.” He didn’t respond beyond flicking the water more. “Why are you sitting in a tub with clothes on?”
“Why indeed. You see, I was hanging out with the Lycans the other day. I’m surrounded by testosterone, and I realize there’s something I forgot to do before we attacked the turned vampires.” What had he forgotten? To not wear camo? “And then, I talked to someone about what I was planning, and he told me just how these things are done. Only, I’m not one of you, so I need to do things my way.”
“What things?” He flicked a finger to the counter where a wooden box sat. I eyed it with suspicion. What was in that… I picked it up, opened it, and found a pewter bracelet with three pink crystal hearts in the center. “A bracelet?”
> “For you. Because I’m your blood sugar daddy.” I tried, and failed, to not laugh. He simpered at me. “Sssh, no laughing. I’m giving you my best Deadpool impression right now.”
I laughed harder. “That’s what that was? It was pretty spot on. Keep going.”
He sighed happily and looked towards the heavens. “She knows who Deadpool is.” He squeaked. “Anyhoo, so I got you that bracelet, because an inside source said that vampires don’t wear rings.”
Rings? …
“I’ll wear a ring,” I said without missing a beat.
He was out of the tub and down on one knee in front of me before I could say, ‘you’re getting water all over the damn floor.’ Right then, I didn’t care that he was sopping wet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold signet ring with flowers on the sides and the initials EB on the top. It was old, but it shined like a star. He took my hand.
“Lisbeth. When I first met you, I said to myself, ‘damn that chick is hot.’ I kid you not. My first thought. And I hated that I was so attracted to you right off the bat when we were enemies, and you had just fanged me out of nowhere. Of course, I was repulsed by you, and that helped curb any attraction I felt for you. Totally not true now. Flag up the pole, I swear. But every day you changed my perspective, until I stopped seeing the vampire, and all I saw was you. The attraction came back and the only thing I wanted was to stay by your side. I knew you didn’t feel the same, and I was okay with that, until you did, and it was perfect. Kissing you was like… like I’d never really kissed anyone before. It was all pretend before you.”
He kissed my hand and studied it. “And then you were taken away from me. I was locked away and I knew, I knew the vampires would execute you. I drifted in and out of sanity, because I can’t live in a world without you. The only thing that kept me together was the hope I could be freed and then kill Arthur for capturing you. It’s totally cool, he understood.” I giggled. “Finally, I was free, and the first thing I did, after months of a freezing cold cage and only scraps to eat, I went back and I found the bracelet from Alexander. It would’ve been the only thing of yours I’d have if you were gone. Alexander ended up finding me afterwards, and he brought me to the castle, your home, where I saw you with a baby.”
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