Jack called on his years of experience with the staff. Coupled with this, he used the new spells he had learned while in New Hope. Whenever he could, he caught a werewolf in midair with a thought and threw them to the side. The ability to move things with his mind and magic was still new to him and required too much energy to use lightly.
Aareth was lost to his view. He could see Kimberly’s large frame striking out with her wings and tail as well as her club. There were just too many. These powerhouses of muscle and teeth could take a beating. Jack had already thrown down and struck the same werewolf multiple times, and they just kept getting back up.
Then it happened. Kimberly screamed in pain as one of the werewolves found a hold on her right forearm. Jack moved to help her, but it had all been part of a trap the pack had planned. As soon as Jack’s concentration was broken, a grey wolf with wicked yellow eyes blindsided him.
It felt like the same collision that Jack had experienced with Kimberly earlier that day, but this one came with fresh claw marks to his chest. The wolf barreled into him, sending his staff flying into the forest.
Jack’s vision went blurry as the wolf landed on top of him. Pain exploded in his head. Breathing was impossible with the werewolf leaning on his chest. Lancing pain came from the area that had been ripped open. Through all of this, Jack looked for his hold on magic. He just needed to stay conscious enough to channel and use it.
He couldn’t; it was too much. Darkness hedged in on his eyesight. With a final thought of how sorry he was that he had led his friends into this slaughterhouse, Jack gave in to his body’s limitations.
Chapter 13
Sloan
“Do you really think this is the best thing for your daughter?” Sloan wouldn’t let Croft’s domineering attitude intimidate her from asking the question. “She’s in a cage.”
“And what would you have me do?” Croft looked over at Sloan with a glare. “She’s too dangerous to just let out and allow to run wild through Azra. The body count would be horrific.”
“I understand that, but there has to be another option than this.”
Sloan and Croft stood on the opposite side of Croft’s long room, the same room Sloan had woken up in when Croft had entered her dreams and given her the blood to quench her thirst.
Vampire and witch stood on one side near Croft’s large bed at the opposite side of the room of Elizabeth’s steel cell. Abigail had brought a stool and sat with her sister on the opposite side of the bars.
Sloan’s heightened hearing allowed her to listen to the one-sided conversation.
“I don’t know how this darkness took hold of you so fast,” Abigail said in a soft calm voice, “but I’m here now. Whatever you think happened, whatever wrongs you feel I’d committed against you, I’m sorry, Liz. Please, forgive me, and give me chance to make it up to you.”
Elizabeth sat quietly in her cell, staring up at the ceiling. She looked horrible. A red head full of tangles, baggy eyes as though she hadn’t slept in days, and dark clothes so crumpled it was obvious she hadn’t changed for as long as she had been in Azra.
“Do you remember when we were kids in Burrow Den?” Abigail chuckled to herself and shook her head. Her laughter was sad. “What I’m saying is we’re still kids. Do you remember when we were younger? You found that kitten in the woods. Dad hated cats and would have made you put it back where you found it, so you hid it in your room?”
Elizabeth’s eyes drifted toward her sister for the first time. She still didn’t speak.
“It smelled so bad in your room.” Abigail laughed again, but this time there was actual joy behind her words. “Every time it made a mew, you would cough or sneeze to hide the sound. You had Dad convinced you were coming down with a flu.”
“He made me go to the doctor’s.” Elizabeth smiled against all odds. “I had to convince the doctor I was fine, but Dad was convinced I was coming down with black lung disease. And my room reeked of cat poop and piss.”
Both girls talked in low whispers as they continued sharing their memories.
“She’s close,” Croft interrupted Sloan’s eavesdropping. “She won’t be ready to fight with us for the war that’s knocking on our door, but a few more days with Abigail and I think we can take her out of her cell, under supervision, of course, and with restraints that will hamper her magic.”
“Of course she’s not going to be ready to fight in this war.” Sloan looked over at Croft in disgust. “She’s a child and she’s been through more than both you or I. Give her a break. Let her take her time.”
“I don’t need advice on how to raise my daughters.” Croft looked menacing in the morning light that shown through her wall-sized windows. “And you can’t tell me the thought hadn’t crossed your mind of how much of an asset she could be if she were ready to fight on our side.”
Sloan remained quiet. The possibility had come to her, but she’d remained silent about it; as soon as the thought came about using Elizabeth as a weapon, she had silenced it. The youngest Ahab had been through enough.
“I see.” Croft read Sloan’s silence like a book. “When Leah comes, she will be beyond any of you, even Jack. I’ll deal with her. We’ll keep Jack in reserve if I falter. He’ll be the only one with a chance of taking her down if I fail.”
“You won’t fail.” Sloan shook her head. More than anything she understood warfare. There would be no room for doubt. “Have you heard back from the riders you sent to the other cities in the Outland?”
“I have. They’ve taken word to the cities that Azra will soon be under siege. We sent out the call for aid to everyone we can. The message has to travel in whispers, though. Leah already has her vampire soldiers controlling Term to Burrow Den. If we can convince any of those people to come, they will have to escape their own occupied city to come to ours.”
“And you’re still convinced that allowing them to besiege Azra is the right move?”
“They’ll have the numbers and the weapons. We have to keep the high ground.” Croft hesitated for a moment. “What do you think? You’re the former captain. How will they come?”
Sloan remained quiet for a moment, thinking on everything she knew of Leah Eckert. The woman was swift and decisive. She would use her new vampire army as such.
“They’ll come quickly. Once we see them, they’ll attack at once.” Sloan remembered the mage engine and the yellow eyes of the wolf head on the front of the machine. “She still hasn’t showed us what her engine can do. I think she’ll use that against our gates first. If she breaks them down. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to survive inside the walls.”
“Agreed. Cherub has ordered the gates reinforced and the walls raised. Still, that may not be enough, and we might not be able to get all of the work done in time.”
A harsh knock came on the door closest to Sloan and Croft.
“Come in.” Croft directed her attention to the door.
“Excuse me, but you asked to be informed of any troop movements.” Sasha walked in dressed in the Azra colors of white-and-gold. Steel plating that looked like dragon scales hugged her body, with a white tunic showing off the Azra symbol in gold. “We have reports that the vampire army left New Hope this morning. They’re traveling quickly with Leah. They have the mage engine carrying a line of cars behind it this time. We guess it’s full of supplies and weapons.”
“How many days does that give us before they’re at our walls?” Croft looked to Sasha and Sloan for the answer. “How much time do we have left?”
While worry etched into the lines around Croft’s eyes, Sloan saw her glance at her two daughters on the opposite side of the long room. As much as this woman wanted to act like a hard case, it was clear her first concern were her daughters.
“The vampire soldiers are capable of covering miles in minutes.” Sasha looked at Sloan for a consensus. “Two, maybe three days?”
“I think you’re right.” Sloan shared the information she had been thinking about since
she understood the attack was coming. “I’d say two days. Leah will push them hard. They’ll attack during the night when their soldiers are their strongest.”
“How many soldiers is she bringing?” Croft had asked the question as if she actually didn’t want to know the answer at all. “Scouts say nearly ten thousand.”
Sloan’s heart dropped in her chest. She knew Leah had been turning humans into vampires day and night; still, to turn so many in such a short amount of time was mind-boggling.
“We’ll be outnumbered nearly three, maybe four to one.” Croft took a moment to look each woman in the eyes before she continued. “It’ll be up to us as leaders to inspire courage. Two days. Two days left to prepare for a war the likes this world has never seen. Let’s make them count.”
Chapter 14
Sloan
“Are you sure we should be outside the city?” Babs looked back at the walls of Azra as they grew smaller and smaller in the distance. “I know the New Hope Army is still two days away, but still.”
“We’ll be fine.” Sloan walked in the lead of her vampire unit made of four. “We can use the time we have left to train, become comfortable with your new abilities, and above all, hunt.”
“Hunt?” Pia repeated the word as if she had never heard it before. “You mean drink the blood of animals?”
“If you haven’t felt the urge yet, you will soon,” Sloan said without room for question. “I’d rather you feed now and understand what it feels like before the battle starts. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience. The last thing you want on your conscience is tearing apart someone on the battlefield and feeding on a person like he’s a juice box.”
Talking about it made Sloan think back to the fight at Term when she had lost control of her desire to feed and cost a young soldier his life. She could still see his pale eyes, the way she drank his blood and stole the very life from him drink by drink would haunt her forever.
“I am feeling a little thirsty, now that you mention it.” Harrison massaged his throat. “Hey, these new uniforms Edison fashioned are awesome, by the way. Remind me to thank him once we get back.”
Sloan looked down at her own uniform. Edison and Elwood had been busy at work not only helping Jaxon through his transition, but also creating a new kind of Azra guard uniform that felt amazing.
Much like the under-armor Sasha wore, their uniforms were a skin-tight suit of closely linked iron scales that looked like dragon scales. Over it lay a heavier layer of steel plates placed on their shoulders, shins, forearms, and chest, overlaid by a white tunic with a golden bat in the middle.
Sloan flexed her muscles under the armor, amazed by how the tiny, steel scales stretched and allowed her to move in any way she desired.
“We should test this armor out first, though, right?” Doyle knocked with a closed fist on his steel armor. “I mean, just to be sure?”
Sloan unsheathed her mage sword. She didn’t turn on the switch that would channel the mage power into the blade, thus heating the weapon. For all intents and purposes it was only a sword at the moment.
“Shall we give it a try?” Sloan sliced the air between herself and her former lieutenant. “If you’re not too scared, I mean.”
“Let’s do it.” Doyle squared his stance and pushed out his chest. “Worst case scenario, my healing factor kicks in. I mean, if you do puncture the armor … right?”
“We’ll see.” Sloan started a light jog toward Doyle with her sword out in front of her.
“Wait a minute, what does ‘we’ll see’ mean?” A hint of panic laced Doyle’s words. He shifted his stance, looking for anyone else to help. “I thought for sure we heal. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea!”
Sloan kept her slash vertical across Doyle’s breastplate. Sparks accompanied the stroke that sent tremors into her arm.
Everyone, including Doyle, looked on, wide-eyed. The blow had cut through the white tunic, but left no more than a thin line across his dark steel breastplate.
A collective sigh escaped the throats of Sloan’s squad.
“Well, I guess that settles that.” Sloan sheathed her blade into the brown leather sheath that rested on her right hip. “We’ll begin with strength and speed training, and then end with our first hunt.”
The sea breeze did its best to comfort the group of warriors, but the sun’s heat prevailed as they began their drills. Sloan walked the group over to an outcropping of trees mixed with boulders and stones. The location was just within sight of Azra’s walls to the left of the main road. Sloan studied the four members of her company still coming to grips that they were all vampires now and soon would find themselves in a war with their own kind.
“You’re all stronger now than you know,” Sloan addressed them as they stood in a rigid line in front of her. “You won’t have the luxury of a learning curve. You’ll have to adapt on the fly and learn as you go. We’re two days away from an all-out war. Let’s make the best out of those days.”
Sloan looked into the small, forested area behind her, eyeing a particularly large boulder. It came up to her waist and sat twice as wide. It had to weigh more than three hundred pounds.
“Harrison.” Sloan motioned to the rock with her right hand. “I want you to lift that over your head. And give me fifty squats.”
Harrison moved to obey, jaw set, eyes determined. Sloan realized doubt was already telling him what he could and couldn’t do. Although his training as a soldier in the New Hope army curbed any chance of him arguing a direct order, he was already doubting himself.
“Don’t think you can.” Sloan walked up beside Harrison as he squatted down next to the rock. “Know you can, and get it done.”
Harrison gave her a rough nod. His eyes never left the boulder. He squatted down low, then jammed his fingers into the nonexistent space between the boulder and the dirt ground.
Harrison was a large man, over six feet tall and outweighing Sloan by a good hundred pounds of muscle. Still, the slate gray stone looked like it would be impossible to move, even to a vampire his size.
Harrison let out a huge exhale of air as he stood up from his squatting position. The stone came off the ground. Harrison’s eyes were huge as he realized what he had done.
“Come on!” Pia shouted her encouragement with her two other squad members. “Over your head! Don’t stop now!”
“You can do it!” Babs shouted.
Harrison threw the boulder up. He caught the base of the stone and lifted it over his head, despite his own amazement. The next moment he began doing the required number of squats.
“You’re are all capable of this and so much more, now that you have increased strength. The Vampire Project was created to usher in the birth of super soldiers. That’s what we are now.” Sloan motioned to the boulders strewn around the landscape. “Let’s get to work.”
The rest of the day was spent in strength and conditioning drills. The program was more to make sure the new vampires knew what they could now do, as opposed to actually trying to build muscle or speed. The fight was on the horizon. There was no time to teach them new techniques, only time to teach them how to use their upgraded bodies.
Sprints followed the weight lifting program, and finally the hunt. During their day outside the Azra walls, Sloan had spotted wildlife in the area consisting of squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional deer print. Although taking the lives of animals wasn’t on the top of Sloan’s to-do list, she understood the necessity. They would use the blood for nourishment, then take the rest of the animals back to Azra to be used as food and the pelts for warmth for the rest of the city.
“So how are we going to do this?” Doyle sided up next to Sloan. “Just grab them and bite in?”
“I guess so.” Sloan shrugged. There was no reason to lie to her squad now. They knew she had never fed from an animal before. “Let’s make their deaths quick. Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Sloan penetrated the forest ahead of the rest of her squad. Already she s
aw a squirrel to her left. Before she could give any thought to her actions, instinct took over. Sloan grabbed a lower rung of the tree and vaulted skyward, then she grabbed the animal, which was actually larger than she thought. From head to tail, it was as long as her arm.
Sloan snapped its neck and bit into the meaty part as she landed back on the ground. Her canines did her bidding, lengthening at the same time her vision turned red.
The feeling that came with the blood was one of pure bliss, as if life itself poured down her throat. All around, her squad was following her lead; some had disappeared, tracking their prey, while others, like Babs, were still in her line of sight a dozen yards to her right.
Babs had also caught a brown squirrel and was experiencing for the first time how important blood could be to them. Sloan thought of how much time they had left to train. The sun was already low in the sky. Maybe she could get one more drill out of them before the day ended.
“Once you’ve caught—”
SNAP!
Sloan spun to her right as two figures joined her party in the woods. One was Leah Eckert, the other a well-dressed man she had never seen.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your little feeding frenzy”—Leah smiled at Sloan—“but I was wondering if you’d just like to die now and get it over with.”
Chapter 15
Jack
A sound so horrific, so murderous, it couldn’t have been real reached Jack as his vision blackened.
So this is what the afterlife sounds like, Jack thought. That’s disappointing. I thought I’d get trumpets, or angels singing, or something.
Suddenly, the weight was gone from his chest, and the battle sounds died around him as werewolves whimpered in the presence of the terrible roar.
Jack was able to open his eyes. He was still lying on his back, the pain in his head and chest alive with agony, and he had to blink to realize what he was seeing as his eyes told him the impossible was taking place in front of him.
House of Wrath: The Vampire Project Book 5 Page 6