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The bodies Henri had sensed weren’t buried or hidden, just strewn about wherever they’d been drained of blood, above ground and inside of the property.

This was particularly fortunate for us as that made the order for execution easy and instant. We could take action that very day, preferably well before sunset.

It was also fortunate because with Henri on hand, those bodies became both weapon and shield as we stormed the bloodsuckers.

We met in the parking lot, as large of a force as the druids could muster on short notice, which was an impressive size indeed. The entire dragon task force was there, as well as a small army of druids and various other supernaturals that could be scrounged up on short notice.

I was surprised to even see a rare dark elf.

The fae are seldom seen on this side of the veil, let alone here and doing something useful. He was shorter than an average human, though with how thin he was he looked taller. He had sharp teeth and red eyes and didn’t speak to anyone. The fae are notoriously wary of outsiders and impossible to trust, but they are very good fighters. I wondered how he’d been talked into joining the battle. They rarely did something for nothing, or for the good of anyone but themselves.

Corbin saw me staring and commented, “Waylen’s half-vampire. He hates them more than anyone, something about avenging his mother, and I always call him when there are vampires to be killed.”

Fair enough.

Dom was a hands-on type of general, so he was striding through the crowd, checking with lieutenants and captains alike to make sure everyone was on the same page.

He’d placed all of the non-druid others in his unit, under his direct command, and I knew that was because of me. He wanted to keep me close and he wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore—one of the downsides/perks of dating a king, depending on how you wanted to look at it.

Caleb and Christian were flanking me, ready to roll and itching for a fight, as usual.

Sven was close, battle axe in hand. I’d never fought with him before, but we’d both been amused when we saw that we favored the same weapon. I tried to trick him into trading with me, but even with a still quiet Torst, Sven seemed to understand that there was something wrong with my weapon and politely but instantly declined.

Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Very few of the druids were using beast-call as they found it less efficient for fighting vamps. The way they needed to be killed was better suited to blades and pointy things.

The plan of attack was simple, though vampires never cooperated with plans.

Henri was the first wave, an entire dedicated platoon protecting him. He would raise a large army of the dead and use it as the frontline while we swarmed the place and killed the masters. There were likely twelve by Corbin’s calculations.

We were in the second wave, Corbin in front. We’d go in and wreak havoc, incapacitating as many as possible as quickly as we could as we carved our way to the masters.

It was the riskiest position, reserved for the stronger druids and supernaturals that could withstand a lot of damage, and we were sure to get the most action. And the most bites.

Sven and I had suggested using dragon fire, but druids hated fire as a rule, and it was decided that to target and stake the master vampires, we’d need more precision and manpower.

A raging, uncontrollable inferno didn’t exactly go hand in hand with precision.

And those masters needed to die today. They were responsible for several hundred recent human deaths that we knew of, and we were here to make them pay.

Wave three was for the more delicate supernaturals, and the weaker druids. They would follow us, a few careful minutes behind, to stake any vamps we downed. Tedious work, but necessary with the bloodsuckers.

Wave four was kind of overkill. They were positioned in a large, loose circle around the building just in case anything escaped, though it was hours from sunset so that was unlikely.

Between having Henri and the sun high in the sky for this battle, I was feeling downright optimistic.

Now let’s see how the universe could prove me wrong.

After we were lined up and ready, just before the charge, Dom halted everything to move in front of me.

I watched him, a little shocked, as he touched one of my battle-braided buns and brought our foreheads together. “Be careful, my love,” he said, his voice not at all quiet, not at all pitched low for my ears alone.

With Dom, I honestly didn’t know if he was just declaring his intention toward me or doing it to countermand his own rule, or both.

Either way, the results were the same.

He was planting the seeds of his abdication, far away as it was, likely years in the future.