“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 Twenty-Seven
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 Twenty-Eight
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.”
“You can heal him using magic?” Jack motioned to Aareth’s sleeping form. The big man was still on the kitchen table, his wounds cleaned and covered. “Why didn’t you just do that instead of wrapping him in gauze?”
“You understand how magic works; it drains you physically, but more so mentally. If I can get your friend to heal naturally, I will. Better yet, if I can do part of the mending process without magic, I can save my ability to help him the rest of the way.”
“I think I get it.” Jack nodded along with Amber’s words. “The more you can do with traditional medicine, the less of the lifting you have to do with your magic.”
“Yep, that’s right.” Amber reached for a white towel and began cleaning her bloody hands. “He’s infection free and clean now. This will only take a moment.”
Jack watched, wide-eyed, as Amber placed her clean hands gently on Aareth’s wounds. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in through her nose and letting it out through her mouth.
Slowly at first, but then beginning to grow in intensity, a dark purple light came from the bottom of her hands. Her mouth moved, chanting words that made no sense to Jack.
Aareth was still. Except for the rise and fall of his chest, he could have been dead all over again.
“Wait a minute. When you were pumping his chest before, when he had died, you were using your magic then, weren’t you?” Jack asked with a sudden realization.
“Shhh…” Amber didn’t open her eyes. “I’m working.”
Jack watched, enraptured, at the work the sorceress was able to call forward. The level of practice and energy it took to heal a body was far beyond Jack. He was still impressed with his ability to levitate and run in speed boots. He was years, maybe decades, away from manipulating life itself.
A moment later, the royal purple light coming from the bottom of Amber’s hands died. She opened her eyes, stretched her arms and neck.
“Did it work?” Jack asked, leaning forward on his tiptoes to get a better vantage point of Aareth. “Is he healed?”
“Look for yourself.” Amber stepped to the side. “Be quiet, though. He still needs his rest.”
Jack maneuvered around to the side of the table Amber had just left and looked down at his friend. Eyes closed, chest moving ever so slightly, Aareth looked like he was in a coma.
He was bare-chested, minus the large gauze pad Amber had placed over the wound that took up a large section of his torso. Jack touched the edges of the pad with his fingertips and lifted the gauze off Aareth’s chest to get a better look.
He couldn’t help a sharp inhale as he witnessed soft, new skin underneath. What before had been an open wound seeping blood and providing a view of tissue and bone was now completely gone.
Jack found himself in awe of Amber’s work. He would give his left hand to be able to perform such strong magic.
“How…?” Jack looked over at Amber, forgetting to lower his voice for his sleeping friend. “You’re amazing! How did you do that?”
“No, Brenda, come back,” Aareth murmured in his sleep. “Don’t leave me again.”
“Shhh…” Amber chided Jack. She motioned for him to follow her outside.
Jack obeyed, still amazed by the level of skill and the use of magic Amber had used in healing Aareth.
When the two walked outside they were greeted by various members of Marcus’ pack. Marcus himself wasn’t there yet, but the brown werewolf who had saved Jack on his run to Amber’s house sat waiting.
When she saw Jack and Amber exit the house, the werewolf female changed her stance from all fours to two feet. Hair fell in clumps around her as she made the move from beast to woman.
In a few seconds, she stood completely naked in front of Jack and Amber.
“Do they all get naked like that when they change?” Amber asked with raised eyebrows. “I’ll go inside and get her something to cover herself with.”
“Thank you.” The woman who had just transitioned from monster to human nodded toward Amber. “It’s kind of breezy out here.”
Amber disappeared into the house, leaving a red-faced Jack trying to look anywhere besides at the naked woman. Jack directed his eyes down, finding the dirt ground under his feet suddenly very interesting.
“Uh, thanks … thanks for saving me back there,” Jack said, still looking down at the ground. “You saved all of us, really.”
“I was just returning the favor.” The woman laughed as though she were aware of Jack’s awkwardness and was actually enjoying the conversation. “You saved me from your father. I don’t know what I was thinking challenging him anyway.”
“N-no problem.” Jack lifted his gaze, doing his best to ignore the curves of her body. He found her eyes. “We’re all in this together now. We need everyone on the same page if we’re going to have a chance at defeating the vampire army that’s marching on Azra.”
“I agree,” the werewolf female said, taking a step forward. She winced in pain.
“Come on.” Amber reappeared from her home and draped a robe over the naked woman’s shoulders. “Let’s get you inside and healed.”
As the women walked into the house, more and more of the wolves joined Jack next to Kimberly’s statue. They nodded to him, licking their wounds, lounging in the shade of the midday sun and resting.
“Jack.”
Marcus’ voice reached his ears and it brought a smile to his face. Jack looked up to see his father walking toward him still wearing his brown coat. Marcus looked as strong as ever despite the blood that trickled down his leg and dripped onto the dirt ground.
“Jack, how’s Aareth?” Marcus asked as he stood next to his son.
“Amber’s amazing.” Jack shook his head, trying to put what he had seen into words. Any explanation he came up with didn’t seem to do justice to what he had seen. “She’s able to heal through magic.”
Marcus slowly nodded, understanding his son’s awe.
“There are so many avenues, so many disciplines for wizards to follow, it would be impossible to master them all. Unfortunately, side by side with other disciplines like fighting, healing comes in near the bottom of the list.”
“Are you hurt?” Jack asked his father, trying to gauge if he was fine or, like Kimberly, he was hiding his true health. “You’re covered in blood.”
“I’ll be fine.” Marcus shook his head, looking around at the werewolves who had gathered in front of the home. “I need to see to the health of the pack. I need to teach them to harness their own beasts so they can make the change.”
“You are most definitely not fine.” Amber came out of the house again, strain on her face now. She looked around at the group of gathered werewolves, shaking her head. “I’m not going to be able to completely heal all of you. The best I can do is patch you up. Jack, I can use your help, if you’re willing.”
“Are you kidding me?” Jack said, practically jumping at the opportunity. “Let’s do it!”
“Don’t be so eager,” Amber warned him. For a moment a very serious, almost haunting, look shadowed her eyes. “Like every magic, there is a cost associated with the act, and the cost for healing is high.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Abigail
“I’m not leaving, Mom.” Abigail walked alongside her newly showered sister as they heard the first rings of the alarm bells echo through Azra. “I don’t think you want to, either.”
“Oh, really?” Elizabeth said, looking at her with a mischievous grin. “And how do you know what I want and I don’t want? I’m the one who can read minds, remember?”
Abigail laughed out loud for the first time in a very long time. She could see the subtle changes in her sister—the way she smiled, the dark lines under her eyes that were slowly fading, even the way she smiled and looked. After her shower she had been willing to wear a white dress with a gold cloak. Despite their being the colors of Azra, Elizabeth had put them on without a second thought.
“You’re not supposed to read my mind, though.” A
bigail stifled another laugh. Somehow it didn’t seem right to laugh while the alarm bells were going off around them. Men and women were running to get to their battle stations, preparing to put their lives on the line. “You remember the rules.”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember.” Elizabeth waved away the warning. “So Jack, huh?”
“You said you wouldn’t!” Abigail smiled in mock shock.
“I don’t have to read your mind to tell there’s something different about you.” Elizabeth strolled along the training area at the rear of the capitol building. They had the place to themselves; every able warrior was manning the gates.
“Yeah, me and Jack.” Abigail nodded along with her own words. She said a silent prayer for him now. She hoped he was safe somewhere far away from the bloody conflict at their doorstep. With any luck, he was days away and had found his father. “Wait a minute, were you lying about Marcus being alive?”
“I wish I was.” Elizabeth frowned, choosing a stone bench that looked out toward the ocean and the setting sun behind the waters. “Leah brought him back from the dead. She took his mage power and made him into a monster instead.”
“He was one of the first, then.” Abigail thought to Burrow Den when the creature created there had bitten Aareth and killed Marcus. “Tell me you didn’t help her do it.”
“What, help Leah raise Marcus from the dead?” Elizabeth shook her head violently. “No way. Leah manipulated me, but she wasn’t controlling me. I would never be able to do that.”
“Good.” Abigail took a seat next to her sister to look out past the ocean. “So, what are we going to do now?”
“Not much I can do with this bracelet on, but I don’t want to run, either.”
“No, I don’t think running is an option.”
Before Abigail could say more, a figure exited the back of the capitol building. Whoever it was was tall with broad shoulders, and carried a package in the crook of their arm.
The Complete Vampire Project Series: (Books 1 - 5) Page 77