The guards started advancing and shouting. The baby whimpered and Mabel and Iris clutched onto his legs. Silas wondered why the baby wasn’t crying and then he remembered reading something about abused babies never crying because they had learned no one ever comes. Or if people do come, it’s a bad thing.
“Fuck it,” said Silas and let his magic explode.
Chapter twenty-eight
Deanstoodonthesame little hill he had stood with Silas when they had first seen the lab, except this time he was surveying a battle scene.
Silas had created some zombies and left them with Dean, telling him to simply tell the undead to attack when the time was right. Dean had been highly dubious that they would listen to him, but Silas had been confident that they would. Whether that was because of Dean’s death experience or some spell of the necromancer’s, Dean had been too afraid to ask.
Secretly, Dean had made a back-up plan in case the zombies ignored him, but he hadn’t needed it. Silas had been right. The guards had rushed out at the sight of their fence collapsing, Dean had shouted “Attack!” and the zombies had lunged forward.
Unfortunately, the guards had silver bullets and Dean had soon learned that one silver bullet hitting a zombie anywhere was enough to take it down. Permanently, by the look of it.
So now it was a deadly game of avoiding silver bullets whilst trying to get close enough to the humans to rip their throats out.
It was chaos and violence. The shadowkin refused to help but stood there ominously watching. A few miles down the road, Dean knew Luca and his coven were stopping any human reinforcements from getting through.
Dean surveyed the scene, his heart hammering. It could go either way. There were far more humans than they had been expecting, and the seemingly unlimited supply of silver bullets was an unpleasant surprise. Whoever was running the so-called medical research lab had clearly planned for just such an attack. It didn’t bode well at all. For the battle, for the future. These humans knew far too much.
Suddenly, Baltazar darted past Dean to shelter behind the hill, dragging a wailing guard with him. Dean turned to see what the hell the vampire was doing when Baltazar latched onto the human’s neck and the guard screamed.
Dean winced and looked away. He didn’t need to see that. He ignored his flash of outrage, he didn’t have time to berate Baltazar for taking the time to eat in the middle of a fight.
Out of nowhere, an almighty explosion had Dean instinctively crouching on the ground, arms protecting his head. The noise was deafening and the very ground shook. Bits of rock and dust whizzed past him.
He froze in place for a moment, silence ringing in his ears, along with the aftershock. Carefully, he stood up and stared. There was nothing left of the building. Nothing but smoking black rubble. The human guards were sprawled motionless on the ground.
Dean frantically cast his gaze over his paranormals. Everyone looked fine, baring some minor injuries. Whatever had taken the building and the humans out, hadn’t harmed them.
“Check them!” shouted Dean, gesturing at their fallen foes. “If they are not dead, secure them!”
Then he was running towards the rubble. His heart trying to escape his chest and his stomach flipping over in knots.
“Silas!”he called frantically through the mate bond.
Nothing but silence answered him. Dean whined from deep within his throat. He frantically climbed over the rubble, casting his gaze around. It was hopeless. He whimpered and started digging into the rubble with his bare hands where he stood. There was no way to tell where to start, so he might as well start anywhere. Dimly he was aware of others coming to help him in his search, spreading out and digging in different spots.
Black, hazy smoke filled the air. Small fires littered the scene. The atmosphere was dark and heavy. It was a hellscape, a post-apocalyptic world of no light and no future. Dean didn’t care. Didn’t care if the entire world was now like this. Through all the misery, grief and terror threating to drown him, was the bright white hope of finding Silas alive. Surely if he was dead, he’d feel something through the mate bond. As long as his mate was alive, Dean could live happily in a destroyed world. He just needed Silas.
Dean started digging faster, throwing rocks over his shoulder frantically. He’d move every piece of rubble in this place if he had to.
His wolf wanted to howl and howl, to sing out his fear and desperation. To call for his mate. Dean surrendered to his wolf. Something might have happened to the bond, but Silas might be able to answer a howl. It was worth a try. Anything was worth a try.
Dean threw back his head and let out his anguish. His howl filled the air, mournful and full of desolation. Several pack members picked up his song and added their voices to it, carrying it further into the night air.
A vampire digging in the rubble to Dean’s left, paused and looked up at him wide-eyed. Clearly spooked by all the howling. Dean didn’t care, he shot the vampire a look that hopefully clearly said, ‘get back to work!’ The vamp flinched and hastily resumed his digging.
“Here!” called someone from right on the other end of the smoldering ruins.
Dean bounded over as fast as he could, slipping and sliding as he went.
“I’m fine,”said Silas before Dean could see him.
A wave of sheer euphoria washed over Dean. He could sense his mate was dazed and disorientated. He got the impression the omega was just coming around from being unconscious.
Dean’s joy was tempered. He couldn’t trust Silas’s words before his eyes and nose could confirm the truth. He needed to see his mate. Needed to sniff him all over for injuries. Needed to hold him in his arms and never ever let go. Then, and only then, would he believe Silas was really okay.
He got there just as Brendan and Jasper were pulling the last piece of debris away from a door that was still standing at the end of a corridor that looked like it was mostly intact. The only part of the entire building that was still somewhat standing. Dean rushed over and helped them yank it open.
