Kimberly’s skin was already changing, her body transitioning from dark grey to a lighter stone color. Her body went from toned muscle to rock in a matter of seconds.
“I swear, if you let even one bird poop on me, just one bird…” Kimberly glared at Jack even as her eyes turned to stone. “I’m going to—”
“Aaaaaand she’s out.” Marcus smiled at the stone gargoyle and patted her on the shoulder. “Rest well.”
“I guess I’d better stay here, then.” Jack looked at his father for consensus. “Just in case anything could happen to her while she sleeps.”
“I won’t take long,” Marcus encouraged his son. “I’ll be back just as soon as I can with the pack.”
“I know.” Then Jack remembered something his father had said earlier about losing his ability over magic. “Is it really gone? I mean, your magic. You can’t feel it at all?”
“It’s gone, but in its place is the beast.” Marcus pushed back his long, greyish white hair as he thought. “I do miss it, but it’s been replaced in a different way. It’s like being emptied and refilled. I don’t know if that makes sense.”
“Do you miss it?”
“It was a part of me that I’ll always miss.”
“I’m sorry. We’ll make Leah pay. She’s coming with an army against New Hope now. They might even be there already. As soon as Aareth is able to travel, when Kimberly wakes up, we’ll have to go back.”
Marcus nodded along with his son’s words. “We’ll go with you. Most of the members in the pack—in fact, all of the members in the pack, minus the brown female you saw—have no love for the queen. She wasn’t honest with them. Instead, she gave them an ability that turned them into monsters and chained them with magic.”
“Good.” Jack thought about what it would mean for an entire pack of werewolves to join Azra’s side. “We’ll have to find a way to heal them along with Aareth. If we can bring them all back to fighting condition, it could mean the difference between victory and defeat.”
“Werewolves heal fast, but not that fast.” Marcus pursed his lips. “See what you can find out from Amber. Perhaps she has a way to accelerate their healing.”
“I will, and Dad? … The brown female who challenged you for power over the pack … she saved us while we were carrying Aareth. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have made it.”
“I understand.” Marcus reached out and squeezed his son’s shoulder. “I’ll bring the wolves here. Find out what you can from Amber.”
With that, Marcus walked away, barefoot in Jack’s long, brown coat. His feet made indentions in the dirt roads of Term. Now that the fighting was over, the few residents of the town were peeking out of their doors or windows with fearful intrigue.
Jack spotted an elderly woman who saw him looking at her. He waved, but she shut her window the next instant and drew the blinds.
Really, what could Jack expect? Term was a town that had been attacked by New Hope soldiers when Sloan arrived. Since then, the bulk of the citizens had migrated to Azra while the city was occupied by vampire soldiers, only to be the site of another battle between werewolves and vampires.
Sadness for those forced to leave their homes mixed with the need to take action and find a cure for Aareth and the wounded werewolves in his father’s pack.
“Amber,” Jack called into the house. “What do you know about accelerated healing techniques?”
Chapter 26
Sloan
“To the gates! To the gates!”
The shouting started from a dozen different throats, then multiplied as the warning was picked up from the rest of the guards inside the Azra walls.
“Wait just a moment longer.” Edison fitted a fabric breastplate over Sloan’s chest. He brushed against her body, slightly looking at her with fear in his eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t meant to touch your— I mean, I’m not trying to be inappropriate—”
“You’re fine.” Sloan looked over to the three other members in her vampire squad who strapped the heavier armor over the skin-tight compression suits Edison had already made for them. “We need to get going soon. Hurry.”
Sloan looked down at her suit, admiring the body armor Edison had come up with. The black scales they wore as a first layer allowed them to move any way they wanted to, while still offering protection. Over this, Edison had fitted a new type of cloth armor he had weaved into breastplates, shoulder pads, shin and knee guards and gauntlets.
Their uniforms were still black, but now a blood-red bat stood front and center in the middle of their breastplates.
“Don’t forget your helmets.” Edison looked around the room, searching for his assistant. “Elwood? Elwood, where are you?”
There was a loud crash from somewhere deep in the room, and a moment later, Elwood came from around a corner, carrying three black helmets with pointed bat ears on the top. He wore the fourth one on his head, a huge smile plastered across his lips as he stumbled forward.
He chattered away in his native gnome tongue, looking at Edison with a silly smile.
“No, you don’t look like a superhero. That would be ridiculous. What kind of a hero goes around dressing like a bat?” Edison shook his head, motioning from Elwood to the four members of the vampire unit who stood ready. “Give them their helmets. They have to be going.”
Elwood obeyed, going around doling out the helmets.
“As for weapons, you have your mage sword.” Edison looked over to Sloan. He drummed the finger on his right hand over the top of his chin as he took in the three other vampire warriors. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to fashion weapons for the three of you, but perhaps a more traditional approach will do?”
Edison walked over to the side of his laboratory where he opened up a huge wardrobe, displaying a variety of weapons from maces to sabers and crossbows.
“Harrison would have chosen this one.” Doyle walked over and lifted the largest mace off the wall. It was more of a metal club than anything else. “This is for him.”
Pia picked up a pair of knives and placed them in a holder that rested on her lower back. She lifted the crossbow and a quiver full of bolts, as well.
Babs was next. She immediately went to a silver shield and an axe that sported a menacing half-moon blade on one end and a hammer point on the other.
Bells were clanging in the distance as the alarms went off all around the city. Shouts were being drowned out by the noise.
“We need to go—now,” Sloan ordered before she looked over to Edison and Elwood. “Thank you both for all the work you’ve put into our armor.”
Elwood beamed, chirping away in a high-speed tongue that sounded like a squirrel hyped up on caffeine.
“Let’s move ou—”
The door to Edison’s laboratory banged open, and Jaxon, the young werewolf, walked into the room. Just recently having learned how to change into his human form, he was a wild card, to say the least.
“I want to go,” he shouted over the clanging of the bells. He looked at Sloan for her answer. “I have a stake in this, just like all of you. I have a family to protect. I have more to lose than any of you.”
He’s young and ready to fight and die. He’s so young. Sloan breathed out through her teeth. So young.
Jaxon was young enough to be in his early twenties, tall with dark hair and brown eyes. His muscular physique was tense and ready.
“You have a family, you said?” Sloan asked.
“A wife, Debbie, and a son named Kadryn. I have a responsibility, now that I have the werewolf DNA inside of me. I can help. I’m going to help. Edison even made me armor to wear in my werewolf form.”
“Wow, wow, wow.” Edison ducked around Sloan’s vicious glare. “You have to get the okay from Sloan first. Don’t put me in the middle of this.”
Sloan rolled her eyes. “You would get along great with a shifter I know named Kade. Gear up, and meet us at the wall.”
“Thank you!” A huge grin spread over Jaxon’s lips. “You
won’t regret this!”
“I’m already regretting this,” Sloan walked past him and out the door, followed by her squad. “Let’s go. We have a war to fight.”
Sloan turned her walk into a jog. Pia, Babs, and Doyle followed close behind. The city of Azra was in turmoil. The streets were packed with citizens who were instructed by Croft and the city officials to move into the capitol building and the back side of Azra where the guards’ barracks were normally found.
The sun was just beginning to rest behind the ocean to Sloan’s right. Leah had pushed her army even harder after the attack the night before. She had made better time than anyone expected.
Sloan ran down the hill with her squad and found the bulk of the Azra guards at the front gate. Cherub was there, barking out orders to the men and women under her command.
“We’re ready for this. Our city is ready for this. Our bodies are ready for this. Do your jobs and we will not be broken!”
A massive roar of approval erupted from the throats of the Azra guards around them. Shifters, humans, gargoyles, and even the few gnome guards, all shouted in unison.
“You all know your jobs,” Cherub continued. “Now do your job!”
At once, the courtyard was a maelstrom of churning boots and running bodies. The Azra guards with their silver under-armor and the white-and-gold tunics that swirled around their bodies ran to obey their commander.
“Croft and Theo?” Sloan went up to Cherub as she finished instructing a small group of gargoyles. “What’s the latest report?”
“Theo’s still too injured to fight. He’s taken a unit of shifters to guard the rear door to Azra. It’s small and easily defended by a handful of warriors. Croft is on the wall.” Cherub threw a thumb behind her to a wall that had been raised in preparation for the invasion. “Last report has Leah and her army only a few miles out. You should be able to see them now.”
Sloan nodded. She extended her right arm forward to shake Cherub’s. The gargoyle caught her forearm in her hand, leaving Sloan to do the same.
“Make them pay,” Cherub growled. “If I don’t see you in this world again, I’ll see you in the next.”
“We’ll make them pay,” Sloan agreed, giving the gargoyle one last squeeze from her hand. “We’ll make them regret the day they arrived at Azra’s gates.”
The sounds of the clanging alarm had died down now. Shouts and the movement of so many soldiers at once was the white background noise that now existed. From nowhere, a rumbling filled the air, like the heavy footfalls of a machine’s heartbeat.
The mage engine had arrived at Azra.
Chapter 27
Sloan
Sloan ran up the Azra steps two at a time. The wall had been raised and now stood five stories above ground level. Sloan made the trip in under a minute. What greeted her eyes as she glanced over the stone battlements would have tested the resolve of the most stalwart warrior.
Out down the road that led to New Hope, the first signs of the New Hope army could be seen, a swirling mob of black uniforms in the lead. To Sloan’s right and to the army’s left was the mage engine, a throbbing sound coming from the machine. Purple smoke muddied the sky above the mage engine as it pumped from the smokestacks.
The face hammered into the front of the steel machine was still in the form of the wolf, but instead of yellow light, a purple illumination now shone out through the eyes.
An army of what Sloan guessed were slaves labored to lay track and rails in front of the massive machine as it chugged along. They were still too far away to tell for sure, but the workers used heavy pieces of machinery to complete in the space of seconds the task that should have taken hours.
The heavy breathing from the army of soldiers drifted on the wind as they moved forward at a trot—a deep, unified grunt like an ancient military unit from the times of Roman soldiers long past.
Sloan took all this in before looking for Croft. The witch wasn’t hard to find. She wore her own armor: silver metal pieces with a white flowing cloak emblazoned with the Azra symbol.
Her hair was tied in a tight braid that fell over her back like a line of fire.
“Archers and rifles first.” Croft looked to either side where soldiers lined the walls. “Wait until they’re in range. Don’t waste your time trying to take down the mage engine that is beyond any of you. Focus your fire on what you can hit. Strikes to the body will be useless. These are vampire soldiers who will heal faster than you can reload. Our best bet is to hit them in the head and hope that kills or at the very least stuns them.”
A grunt of approval told Croft the men and women on the wall heard and understood her orders.
As soon as Croft was finished doling out commands, she turned to Sloan. “What do you think?”
“I think she’ll hit us now.” Sloan eyed the mage engine and the tiny ant-sized men and women scurrying in front of it to lay the track and allow it to make progress. “She didn’t march non-stop from New Hope to suddenly arrive and wait.”
“I agree.” Croft rested both hands on the stone wall that came level with her chest. “But there’s another angle to this we haven’t considered. She’ll use those slave workers as shields. She’s going to lay the track all the way to the Azra gates, betting on the fact we won’t kill her slaves.”
A hollow feeling twisted the pit of Sloan’s stomach. As soon as Croft mentioned the tactic, she understood she was exactly right. Not only that, but Sloan could also tell what Croft’s answer to this tactic would be. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill the slaves laying the track if it meant protecting her city.
“You can’t.” Sloan looked over to Croft, trying to come up with a way for the leader of Azra to see the reason in her argument. “They’re being forced to lay the track. We can’t kill them.”
“We can and we will.” Croft turned to fix Sloan with a stare so menacing, Sloan almost looked away. “I’ll watch the world burn before I let Leah take Azra. We’re it, Sloan. If they take this city, the Outland will belong to her, and everything I’ve worked for over the last decade will be for nothing.”
“If you kill those slaves being forced to work, then you’ve already lost.” Sloan’s mind raced overtime, trying to think of a way that would pacify Croft without slaughtering the slaves. “You have to see that. You can’t become the monster you’re fighting.”
Croft held her gaze for a moment longer. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. Her eyes said it all. Past the intensity was an internal struggle, one Sloan understood all too well. It was the choice she had made many times as a soldier. How far did you go? Where did you draw the line in war? Was there a line?
“Then give me an option—quickly.” Croft wrestled her gaze away from Sloan and set her jaw as she viewed the progress the mage engine had already made. “You have a good half hour before they will be in range.”
“In range for what?”
Kade’s voice interrupted the woman. Croft didn’t bother turning around.
Sloan turned to give the shifter her full attention. He was dressed in boots, heavy pants, and a white shirt, and he carried a massive backpack on his shoulders.
“The slave contingent laying the track has to be dealt with without killing them.” Sloan raised an eyebrow in Croft’s direction. “We’re coming up with a plan.”
“Count me in.” Kade shrugged off his backpack and it fell on the stone floor with a loud clang.
“What’s in the bag?” Sloan asked.
“Apparently, Edison and Elwood are on an armor-building spree. They’re giving out protection like candy.” Kade motioned to the bag on the ground beside him. “I’ll need some help getting into my armor when the time comes. So, we’re going to swoop in and kidnap the slaves?”
“What?” Sloan asked, shaking her head at the same time. Kade was more than a boyfriend—she was pretty sure she was in love with the shifter—but at times, his teasing nature popped up during less than appropriate times. “Kade, I need you to be serious.
We have a narrow window of opportunity here.”
“I am being serious.” Kade scowled in mock indignation. “Let’s pull a massive kidnapping. We go in under the cover of Croft and her guards—in and out just like last night. The gargoyles can drop us in to wreak havoc while they pick up the slaves and carry them back over the wall.”
“That’s insane,” Croft said, finally speaking to the shifter for the first time. She turned to him shaking her head. “While the gargoyles bring back the slaves, you’ll be out there alone until they can get back. Alone, with an army of vampire soldiers.”
“That’s why you’ll be covering us with your men on the wall.” Kade pointed to the long line of archers and riflemen. “And you can use your magic wand to send yellow bolts at them and all that good stuff.”
The more Kade talked, the more Sloan was beginning to understand his plan. With such a short time and no other options on the table, she was beginning to wonder if she was going crazy for giving Kade’s plan actual thought.
“It’s the only plan we’ve got.” Croft shook her head as though the words left a bad taste in her mouth. “God help us, are we actually considering this suicide mission?”
“Aww, come on.” Kade leaned down to unzip his bag. He began taking out various pieces of armor. “Now come on, girls. I can’t put this on while in my shifter form. I’ll need an adult.”
Chapter 28
Jack
“You’re a sorceress, too?” Jack stood back, shocked. He looked at Amber with new eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“Oh, when would that be?” Amber looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow. “When you were pounding at my door? When you dragged in your dead friend? Or maybe when Kimberly fell to the ground from her wounds?”
“Okay, okay, point taken.”
“I’m a sorceress of healing. I’ve seen and done enough killing to last me a lifetime. I promised myself I’d work to save life now instead of taking it, so I’m not exactly your traditional sorceress.”
House of Wrath: The Vampire Project Book 5 Page 11