I cameto with a foggy memory of what had transpired. Why was I being carried and why was the person carrying me running? Then it hit me.
Sawyer. The war. It was all my fault.
“No, take me back!” My voice croaked as I pounded on Eugene’s back. My ribcage slammed into his shoulder with each step he took. He had me in a fireman hold and was running so fast I felt dizzy. A loud bang ripped throughout the space and I jerked my head back to see Sage and Walsh running behind Eugene through the dense forest. Their arms were outstretched as they shot into the darkened trees with sleek black guns. Bursts of light fired from the muzzles as adrenaline rushed through my system and I felt more alert. Arrows rained down around us, sticking into the wet ground with thunks as Rab and his men created a tight circle around me.
“Astra!” I yelped, my eyes scanning for the young girl.
“I’m here, Alpha!” she said to my right, running balls-out, her short-cropped hair bouncing behind her. Rab put a horn of some type to his lips and blew, loudly.
The deep horn resonated inside my body. My entire head felt like it was going to explode.
Another horn responded off in the distance and Rab yelped out in relief.
‘War horn. The village will be ready to defend against the oncoming attack,’Astra told me as they ran.
My head was still foggy, but it was clear that someone was chasing us. Vampires didn’t use bows and arrows, so it must be fey or Ithaki. I was just wondering which when an ultrasonic pitch slammed into my ears and Eugene stumbled.
That was a fey calling card, and if it was bows and arrows, my guess was dark fey or Ithaki. Or both.
“Put me down, I can run,” I told Eugene, and he obliged, letting me fall to my feet before he covered his ears.
Without a second thought, I let my wolf free. I wasn’t going to let this fey weaken our group and then take us out one by one. No way.
My wolf was semitransparent one second and then solid the next.‘Find the screamer and rip their throat out,’I told her.
“Rab! Cover my wolf!” I then barked to the Paladin leader, screaming so that my voice could be heard over the shrill noise.
We’d stopped, and everyone covered their ears as the trees rustled and my legs went weak with the effects of the fey noise weapon. My brain felt like it was being put into a blender.
I winced as I watched my wolf take off into the trees and Rab and his men ran with her, shooting arrows left and right. I blinked, and then I was looking out from her perspective. My wolf, she smelled him.
Ithaki.Fey-warlock. A deadly combination.
My wolf’s head was low to the ground, ears flattened as she locked in on where the noise was coming from. Cutting to the right, she took off faster than Rab and his boys could follow. Trees passed in dark blurs as her paws pounded the damp, packed earth. As she neared the fey Ithaki, my entire head felt like it was going to explode both in human and wolf form. He was hiding behind a thick tree trunk, and my wolf howled as she leapt. The ear splitting ultrasonic sound cut off with a yelp as her teeth sank into his neck.
I snapped my attention back to my human form and the half dozen warriors surrounding me. “Be ready for anything,” I told them. My wolf had just taken out the Ithaki’s precious brain melting sonic howler; there would be repercussions. The trees rustled as a blur of a figure zoomed toward us.
Vampire Ithaki.
I rushed forward, using my own freaky super speed, and met the figure halfway. We crashed into each other and I suddenly came face to face with a snarling male. His ears were pointed like a fey’s but his teeth distended like a vampire’s. It was freaky and he needed to die immediately. With a furious growl, I made a fist and slammed it into his throat until I heard the crunching of bone.
I followed up with a knee to the groin as his wrist snaked out and grasped me by the throat. Rage flooded through me. I could simultaneously feel my wolf ripping into the Ithaki fey as I felt this vampire try to kill me.
Enough is enough.
We had too many wars going on, and I still had to go into the Dark Woods and prove myself as a Paladin alpha. There was no time for this bullshit. Reeling my head back, I headbutted his nose with surprising force. The sharp crack splintered the air and my head throbbed. But the move worked; he let up on my windpipe, so I went for the kill. Reaching up, I took his head into my hands and cradled his jaw with my fingers. One swift crack to the left and I snapped his neck. He fell to the ground in a heap.
I’d heard stories about vampires reawakening after a broken neck or bad accident. I wasn’t leaving that to chance. Sage appeared on my right just in time; she came down hard on the center of his chest with a silver stake. The hollow thud made chills rush up my spine as his skin started to crumble into black ash.
My wolf trotted over to me, looking pleased with her kill, and the sound of the Ithakis’ retreating footsteps was music to my ears.
“Well done.” Rab appraised the dead vampire and I noticed his spear was dripping with purple Ithaki blood.
I frowned. “They’ll be back with more I’m sure.”
How had things gotten so bad so fast? This was one hell of a honeymoon.
“Come on.” Rab, Eugene, and Walsh tucked Astra in the center of their little circle next to me and we jogged the rest of the way to the Paladin Village.
