I pushed those thoughts away as my eyes fell on Wolfgang again. We lost so many today. The ground was saturated in their blood. It didn't even feel cold yet. Fury raged like an inferno and there was nothing we could do to smother the flames. I didn't even know if we wanted to.
I watched my mate, memorizing him all over again. He stood with more confidence now than he did this morning. He stood stronger today than he had yesterday. The change in him alone made me see the leader he was going to be. I had no doubt that my wolf would do great things in our future, and it all began tonight.
Chapter 14 ~Wolfgang~
I called the leaders of every team over to me. There were twelve of us total, including the Vampires, but only eleven of us present. The Vampires decided their own two leaders because they didn't trust us enough. They were Cosmin and Gerza and had once been gypsies when they were alive, some three hundred years ago. I was grateful that there were some who were powerful and decided to join our mission to slaughter the Witches. Then again, maybe they joined us because they were old and powerful enough to know that they would be next if we did not win.
Each of us put on a radio and did a quick sound check to make sure they worked. Next, we made sure our watches were synced with each other. Afterward, we set up three lines where every volunteer would receive either two or three things: a color, a clip of bullets, and a gun if needed. Aside from the twelve of us, no one needed a radio or a watch. I had Riley run equipment to Richard when we were settled and explain everything to him so that he would be aware of the plan and approaching backup; a thing he was grateful for.
My fighters moved in an orderly fashion, which made the process of sorting them that much easier. Since the pregnant women and the children would have to stay here, they didn't bother trying to get into line. Ceres walked around to the women and handed those who were comfortable a gun so they could protect themselves, just in case.
While we weren't expecting the Witches to attack the house, we hadn't expected them to attack the Resting Grounds either. At this point, I wasn't going to put anything passed Brenda, so if added security measures seemed unnecessary, I'd rather look like a fool than have nothing at all.
We were right on schedule when the last of the group received their equipment. I began to feel good about my plan, which was a relief considering how tense I'd been all day. We were so close to ending this that I almost felt giddy with excitement. Holding my emotions in check proved difficult, but I managed.
I took some time to get to know my team as we let the minutes tick by. Everyone sorted themselves by color, so I went to my people with the black cards. I had six wolves from my pack and two Vampires. The final member was Declan, which I planned because I wanted a chance to see how he reacted under pressure. While Adamsville had more quiet years than chaotic ones, it was still considered a hot zone and I needed to know that the people around me could take care of themselves.
I discussed the plan with them and described the layout of Alan and Addie's house. "I want one person at the front door and one guarding the back. Three will go upstairs and three down to the basement. There are four rooms in the basement, so watch yourselves. Declan, you're with me on the main floor."
My team nodded. I looked at the Vampires. "Is entering the house going to be a problem for you guys, or is that a myth?" I asked.
"Myth," one replied. His name was Giovanni and he heralded from Italy with an accent that proved it. I don't know how he ended up here, of all places, but I assumed he went wherever his master said. That was usually how it worked. "We go in, nessun problema. We kill Witches, nessun problema."
I nodded. "Good," I said. I looked at Ceres and watched her as she told her team how she wanted to secure the house. Most of them were the volunteers from earlier, but there were a few new additions with white cards. When I saw Sophia standing next to Ceres, relief flooded me because she had someone on her side.
"Does everyone know what they're doing?" I asked. My team nodded. "I'll let you guys decide who is doing what," I said, launching them into asking who wanted to go where. I walked away from them and over to my mate. We had about five minutes before we needed to leave, and I wanted a moment with her.
I pulled her aside and hugged her tight. "Be safe," I whispered in her ear.
"Kill them all," she replied as she met my eyes. We gazed at each other for a moment, memorizing the other's face so that we would carry each other with us as we faced our greatest foe yet.
I kissed her in that slow, passionate way I knew drove her crazy. Memories of our time together came back to me as I did. Our first meeting at the diner, the first time we made love, the day we confirmed we were going to be parents, the nights I proposed to her–both times…. "When I get back, let's make a baby," I whispered in her ear.
She chuckled. "You don't think we did that already today?" she asked.
I shook my head. "That was practice," I replied.
She kissed me once more before the alarm on our watches sounded. I sighed. "I'll be back soon," I promised.
"You'd better be."
We loaded up and drove out to our destinations. I took my truck. Declan and Jeremiah, one of the wolves of Adamsville, rode in the cab with me while everyone else rode in the back. I parked a short distance away from the house because I didn't want anyone to suspect our arrival. I tried not to think of the terrifying memories of my last visit as we walked to the house. Shoving the image of Ceres's limp body in my arms out of my mind was difficult enough without thinking about Dr. Cyrus telling me that they'd killed our baby. Coming here reminded me that revenge doesn't always make a person feel better. It doesn't always lessen the pain. Sometimes, revenge does nothing at all.
We crept up to the house in silence. There were a couple of lights on upstairs, but it was mostly dark. One light on the ground floor was on, but dim. I scanned the front of the house and listened to see if I could hear movement from inside. Nothing caught my attention. Whoever was awake, they weren't partying anymore.
Four people moved around to the back door. I crouched down to make myself as invisible as possible. "Team one in position," I whispered through the radio. The other leaders echoed my update as they reached their destinations. Richard replied with "Team assembled," and Ceres said, "Home team ready."
I reached out and gripped the door handle. My knuckles turned white. "On my go," I said. "Three… two… one… go." I turned the knob until I heard the lock break and opened the door. We crept into the living room, making as little noise as possible. As a cohesive unit, everyone spread out to their area. Declan started searching rooms on the ground floor while three men went upstairs and three went down. The Vampires guarded the exits. If my father hadn't expressed the amount of trust we placed in them over the years, that would have worried me. Tonight, though, there were bigger fish to fry.
I opened the study door and found two Witches looking at a book on the desk. They looked up at me, frozen, for a moment before one shot a ball of witchfire at my head. I ducked and it hit the wall next to me. I rushed them and tackled one to the floor. When I stood, I held her head in my hands, ready to snap it if the other one didn't cooperate with me.
"Try anything, and she dies," I growled.
The Witch's eyes ticked to her friend and then back to me.
"Don't listen to—" my captive cried. I tightened my grip on her neck, cutting her off. The rest of her sentence came out in a garbled noise.
The other Witch held her hands up in surrender. Declan walked around me and grabbed her. We dragged them to the living room as the guys upstairs brought four witches down. We threw them onto the sofa and started tying up their hands. As we finished, the guys from the downstairs crew brought up another three witches.
I looked at them, but the one Witch I wanted to see wasn't here. "Where is she?" I demanded.
The one I'd grabbed stared at me with a cold glare. One of the Witches, a young initiate, started crying. A couple looked worried. Some resolute. They knew they were g
oing to die, and they didn't want to give me anything before I killed them.
I pulled my gun from my hip and pressed it into the forehead of the woman who looked like she could kill me with her eyes. The initiate screamed.
"I'll give you five seconds to tell me where she is before I decorate the wall with your brain," I threatened. She stayed quiet. I smiled. "You tell me where she is, and I'll make sure you don't suffer the way my pack did. Keep quiet, and I'll feed you to the wolves myself."
"You'll never save her," she said. Her voice was calm. There was no fear in her eyes. "You'll all die."
I moved my face closer to hers so that we were only a breath apart. Staring into her eyes, I moved and pointed my gun at the initiate, who screamed again and tried to hide behind one of the other Witches. Declan stepped up and held her in place. That was when I saw fear. "Do you want to watch while we rip her apart, limb from limb, starting with her fingers?" I asked. "She's young. Too young to be here. She survives, and she's going to become something. Is that why Brenda brought her?"
"Leave her alone," the Witch growled.
I chuckled. "Where is she?" I asked again. I pulled the hammer back on the gun. The girl screamed again. When I pulled the trigger, I was aimed at another Witch. The flash from the gun blinded us all for a moment. The sound of the shot was deafening. Beneath the scent of the gunpowder was blood. It took me a moment to realize that my ears weren't ringing—it was the initiate screaming.
The woman in front of me paled. The man I'd shot collapsed on the sofa. Now, I had their attention. I took in a deep breath and let the scent of their fear fill my lungs. I smiled at them. "That thing you feel?" I asked. "It's called fear. And that fear that you're feeling? It's only a fraction of what my pack felt when you fucking bitches surrounded and slaughtered them. Do not think that cryptic answers will satisfy me."
I brought the barrel of my gun back up and pointed it directly at the initiate again.
"I will shoot her," I said.
"You're going to kill us all anyway," the woman in front of me replied. "Why should I tell you anything?"
"Because I can either kill you quickly, or I can drag your sorry ass back to my basement and show you what we do to Witches who cross the line."
"You can't scare me," she whispered, her voice wavering.
I covered her face with my hand and started to squeeze. I knew I had enough strength in my grip that it would cause her more pain than she realized. She started crying out from the pain after a few seconds. A few more seconds and she started trying to get away from me. The more she suffered, the more I saw her companions exchange glances. She was the most powerful of them in the house. They would look to her for guidance before anyone else.
Finally, the initiate spoke up.
"She's at your house!" she cried. "Brenda's at your house!"
Even if they hadn't known who I was, even if I was just some lowly member on the totem pole, I would know what those words meant.
Ice filled my veins. My growl became a cry of rage and I twisted my wrist to break her neck. Her body, eyes still wide, slumped to the side, across the laps of two of the women sitting beside her. They screamed. The initiate screamed. The others decided to try to act.
The hysterical women were easy to kill. I didn't bother wasting my energy on them. I shot them both. The next Witch was ready for me and threw a ball of witchfire that grazed my shoulder. It made my whole arm useless as pain tore through me. I couldn't use it anymore, but as it was my left arm, I could still fight. I abandoned my gun because I was faster in closer range situations without it and I'd only brought it with me as a scare tactic.
The man I squared off against attempted to throw a silver chain at me while I recovered from his witchfire. I dodged the chain easy enough and came up under his extended arms with a fist to his chin. He flew back into the wall and slumped onto the couch. I followed him with a fist to his throat. He started to gasp for breath as his windpipe collapsed. I punched him again in the face, breaking the orbital bone. A second punch to the same spot exploded his eye. A final punch saw my fist go through his skull.
When I looked up, they were all dead. I wiped my hands on the shirt of the man I'd just killed before I put a finger to my radio. "Ceres?" I asked. "Come in please."
Silence. It stretched on for an eternity of seconds. "Ceres?" I tried again. I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that there might be trouble. "Unless you're at the clinic, get your ass back to the house when you're ready," I ordered through the radio before I raced back to my truck. My team was right behind me, so I didn't have to wait for them before I started the engine and sped off back to the house. I don't think I could have waited for them if they hadn't been right there. Hell, I'd have run back to the house if it would have been faster.
When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed we were the first ones back. I turned my attention to the house and stopped in my tracks. My chest tightened. I couldn't breathe.
Someone had blown away the doors. All the windows in the front of the house were shattered. There was a scream from somewhere inside.
I stumbled but managed to stay on my feet.
"What the fuck?" Declan whispered.
They were the words that propelled me into the house. I lurched forward and almost tripped over the debris in the threshold. Looking around, I saw that the outside of the house was just the beginning. The inside was where the real damage was.
A fire burned on the stairs. It was small now but growing fast. One of my companions rushed to extinguish the flames. There was so much smoke that I couldn't smell anything. The only doors I could see that were still standing were the doors to the library.
"Get everyone outside," I said to no one in particular. "Put out the fires."
"Where are you going?" Declan asked.
"Up."
I couldn't explain why, but I felt a pull. A need. As I moved through the patches of torn carpet and shards of wood and glass, I realized what made me move. As that understanding donned on me, I moved faster. Declan was right behind me.
When I reached the landing, I smelled her. I looked in the direction of Mira's room and saw the door hanging on its lower hinge. Someone had opened it with so much force that the top had broken away.
I raced around the landing and found the room in shambles. They'd overturned Mira's bed, blown open her closet doors, shattered her window. Her light pink curtains billowed in the breeze. Everything on the dresser was broken. The mirror above it was a web of fractures. Mr. Thumper dangled on a piece of broken glass in the window.
Under the remains of the bed, I saw a hand… wearing the ring my great-something grandfather made.
I might have shouted something as I leaped over broken furniture. I might have shouted as I shoved pieces of the bed off her, not caring where it went or what it broke. "Help me!" I cried as Declan rushed to my aid. I heard thundering footsteps on the stairs a moment later. My heart slammed against my chest.
Riley and Rodney arrived as I pulled the mattress away. They gasped and came forward to help me pull her out of the room without jarring her. "Watch her head," I said. The gash had already healed. Blood smeared her face and stained her hair. Her right hand clutched the sleeve of Mira's favorite pajamas.
Luke and the twins stood over me as I checked her condition. Her pulse was steady, and she didn't seem to have sustained any serious injuries. It was a matter of holding our collective breath until she opened her eyes.
"Ceres," I said, trying to rouse her. "Wake up, Baby."
It felt like an eternity, but it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Her eyebrows knit together, and she moaned from the pain. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around, confused.
After a moment, her eyes met mine. She studied my face as if she looked at me for the first time. "Who are you?" she whispered.
We stared at her. For almost a full minute, we sat in complete silence. "You don't—" My voice broke, so I cleared my throat. "You don't recognize me?"
I asked.
Ceres continued to stare at me. "I'm sure that if we'd met before, I'd remember you," she said.
"Fucking fantastic," Rodney muttered.
Ceres's eyes ticked to him before she looked back at me. "You know, if I could get your name, that'd be great. I'll look you up and thank you later. Right now, I think I need to go to the hospital."
"Sweetie," one of the twins said. I didn't care to see which one.
Ceres looked from me to her. "Sophie?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"
Sophia knelt next to us. She moved her finger in front of Ceres's eyes and watched for a reaction. "Do you know where 'here' is?" she asked. She put her fingers to my mate's throat to check her pulse. "Can you tell me the date?"
Ceres looked around and I saw the bewildered look on her face. "I don't recognize any of this," she whispered. She looked back at Sophia, shaking her head. "I don't know where I am or what I'm doing here," she admitted. "I don't know what today is."
Sophia nodded. "What's the last thing you do remember?" she asked. She covered Ceres's eyes with her hand and waited a moment before pulling it away.
"Um…" Ceres sighed and closed her eyes as she tried to remember. "I think… I sent my mom an email to tell her that I left Todd?" she guessed. She gasped. "Did I tell you about that?" she asked. "He's having a baby with Mandy. They've been sleeping together for years!"
Sophia sighed as she met her best friend's eyes. She and I helped Ceres sit against the wall. "Sweetie, you left Todd two years ago," she informed my mate. "This man here is Wolfgang. He's your fiancé. You're not in New York anymore either. You live in Adamsville, Utah now."
She stared at Sophia in shock. "What the fuck am I doing in Utah?" she asked.
"You came out here a few months ago to help Alan with a landlord-tenant dispute. Lena and I came out a month later because you decided to stay here with Wolfgang instead of going back to New York. We liked it out here, so we decided to live here too."
Vanilla Moon: Acrimony Page 14