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Overmaster Descallia doesn’t say a word, not a word about the consulate needing to approve such a thing, or even himself for that matter. Lucianna’s eyes glow bright. “Now she will be where she belongs, with us, by your side, Master Botosoni.”
I hope she’s not wrong, but right now we need to focus on the attack that is heading our way. “We won’t have long. They were already heading this way when I found Catina, but they’ll be trying to take out our men on their way into town.” I look to Campania, Sardinia, and Romano. “Is everything set inside?”
Romano, Campania, Raven, and Willow all smile. Campania raises his glass of blood. “Let them come. It will be the last thing they ever do. They will first have to get through the never-ending amount of soldiers we have guarding us between there and here.”
Embry looks from them to me. “What gives? I thought we were keeping all of this hush, hush. Not using our soldiers, but instead only the special ops team and the Masters of the Consulate?”
I finish typing a message into my phone to Silver, Clay, and Terrence along with the witches who have taken the lead with a few good men to guard the perimeter before answering Embry. “We did, and nothing has changed in that respect. We just have a few tricks up our sleeve,” I tell her.
Embry looks to Lucas and then to Lucianna, clearly curious, but for once she doesn’t joke. She’s as somber as the rest of us realizing that very shortly we could be in for the fight of our lives, and our very existence as we know it on earth today.
I read the message from Silver: They were not expecting so many soldiers; they’ve backed up to confer and regroup.
I pound out a response: Excellent.
Now we’ll see if they bring more men into the fight. Hopefully they will call them from all over and build their forces to combat ours in the night. I smile at the witches who are animatedly talking amongst themselves, clearly proud of their contribution in making the images of a multitude of vampire soldiers lying in wait for the rogues which does seem very real. A witch’s illusion that was necessary to draw more of the bastards in so that we can take them out at the very same time.
A waitress comes to the table and taps Lucas on the shoulder about a shortage of one of our drinks right in the middle of trying to communicate with some of the men in the field. As oversight manager for all of the Descallia clubs, Lucas sighs. “Duty calls. “Would anyone like anything from the kitchen while we’re heading that way?” He looks at me. “You look like you need some nourishment, my friend. Fresh blood, bacon, and eggs?”
I nod in agreement because he’s not wrong. I left a little of my blood knowing that I had to transport back and not knowing what may lay in wait for me once here, but that little bit of sustenance is now waning fast. “Please, and some steak.”
He closes the laptop in front of him and heads to the kitchen with the waitress, while I slide near Descallia and pull up the map on my phone. I show him where the lines of illusion are and where I judge the rogues and shifters to be conferring and gathering more troops for us to kill.
I can be a patient man, and I intend to hunt and kill every single one of them the minute they draw near.
Chapter 21
Catina
I toss and turn in a fitful state of unrest. The nightmare plays over and over again in my mind. Me, spotting the group and counting them out. Determined to stop them. Hoping against all hope that I can take them all out before one of them breaks free and gets the best of me. I come close, one after another, my arrows sent in swift and accurately finding the hearts of our enemies.
Now that they realize what’s happening, they move at lightning speed, zig-zagging across the open field right toward me, unable to even take another aim before they close in hard and fast.
The shifters snarl with gums laid back, ready to slice me open with their razor-sharp teeth as they overtake me in a flat out run for my life.
My head hits the ground as claws dig into my shoulders and back, and gnashing teeth rip into my neck. I try to keep my face and heart protected, but a strong hand wraps my hair in his hand. He yanks it hard, pulling my weak and draining face upright, leaving me no choice but to stare terrified at the red eyes and descended fangs of one of the vampires we’re looking for.
My eyes close, overcome and being drawn under by the pain of it all, but I hear faint voices all around me. “This is the one that Lucas calls the healer. End her!”
“No, leave her. Sheba said she has some sort of deadly magic curse that will spread to us all if we take her life. Leave the witch. We’ve stopped her from doing anything further today. She won’t be of any use to anyone this way. Better to avoid taking a chance. Let the gods in heaven decide her fate.”
My eyes stay closed, my life ebbing away, spilling from all the wounds in my body all over the freshly fallen snow. Too weak to even call out for help, I resign myself to how I was left. Repeating in my mind what I heard. Let the gods in heaven decide her fate runs through my mind as a light at the end of the darkness begins to shine.
But Botosoni’s voice cuts through the fog in my mind as I float toward it. “Catina!”
I force my eyes open, but they feel like weights are holding them down. I try to warn him, but no sound comes out. “Run, they are going to the club.”
And then the dream starts over again, but this time is interrupted by whizzing ghouls who dive toward me, trying to run me over with their zeal. I duck and weave, out of breath after the first wave and barely able to stand up straight before they begin their attack again.
The bright green monsters fly through the night, zipping this way and that, gathering speed, all in an attempt to run me down. But in my dream, I’ve gained speed and a different type of sixth sense. I no longer have to see them coming; I can smell the sheisty bastards coming the minute they turn and head toward me. And when someone comes in from behind, I can hear them before they get close enough to do me any harm.
A thought briefly flashes through my mind. A vampire’s sixth sense, sharp, intuitive, and agile, ready in a second to react to whatever the universe throws at them. And somehow, I have managed to acquire it all right down to the way I can read every thought they have as they plan to take me down.
The golden gates of entry loom in the distance. Intuitively, I know they must be reached, and I must be admitted through to gain entrance to a life of immortality. And I intend to do that very thing, even if I have to kill every single one of these green-eyed ghouls with my bare hands to do it. “Do your best!” I shout into the darkness of the night. “I will not let you keep me out of those golden gates without a fight! I will not allow you to keep me in the darkness instead of the light!”
A pounding in my chest gets harder and faster, my mind running over pieces of what happened, what I’ve seen over and over, until pieces of the puzzle slowly begin to drop into place, creating an urgency to get back to Botosoni as quickly as I can.
The ghouls slow, wary, cautious of the female who screams at them in the night, but still very much intent on their plan to keep me out. And I am intent on mine as well. They fly slower, closer, and I let them, without bolting or moving a muscle. I draw them in and make them feel confident that I’ve lost my nerve, until they are close enough to attack.
