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Large sacks filled with gas masks were thrown out of the now open window. She could see the figures of the Ghosts up there. If they were doing this, then Harmiston was ready, and so was everyone else. Nadia hurried to pull her mask on, and then her hood over her head to protect her skin as best she could.
“All of you!” she kept on yelling to get the donors’ attention. “Grab a mask. Put them on, or you’ll die!” Being so blunt had them react at once and they scrambled to get the masks from the sacks.
Nadia ran over and grabbed one herself, which she handed to Darrow upon her return. He looked at her in honest confusion.
“Put it on,” she said and took her silver chain in her hands. This time, she coiled it around Kassemyr’s throat and tightened. Despite his two wounds, the beast twisted and fought her. Darrow put the mask on and then ran to the window. “Wraiths! They’re attacking.”
Nadia couldn’t answer. She had all her focus on controlling Kassemyr. He was still a threat to every donor in that throne room. He clawed at her legs in desperation, the claws of a vampire sharp enough despite being shorter and more like hardened nails than the claws of werewolves. It still hurt.
Sounds of fighting came from outside the throne room. Everything happened so fast now. It was only a matter of seconds before more hybrids or the Wraiths came in first. Nadia didn’t know if she could hold on.
Then Darrow bent down in front of Kassemyr, a mask in his hands, forcing it over the vamp’s head.
“Darrow! What are you doing?”
“Trust me!” he implored her. She could hear it clear as day in his muffled voice behind his mask.
And for the second time in nearly ten years, despite the madness around her, she did.
Chapter 14
Vampiric screeches tormented everyone’s ears. Werewolves snarled and growled. The occasional human shout was muffled behind masks. The sounds came closer by the minute. Nadia could hear the noises of the fight out there. With the Ghosts spread out elsewhere, and the hybrids themselves calling back those who’d been outside the Palace, most of them should be inside now. Inside Harmiston’s trap.
“Darrow, listen to me!” Kassemyr wheezed from behind his mask, the silver chain almost cutting off his air supply, weakening him, but not killing him. “The masks. They’re going to use Lerah’s bomb.”
“Of course they are,” Darrow said, hunched down, face turned upward, looking at the broken window. No one was visible up there now, but Nadia knew they’d set up everything right to the side of it, behind the wall.
“They will kill all my creations,” Kassemyr pleaded with him. “Stop them.”
Darrow shook his head and laughed. “I don’t care, Kass. Certainly not about the army you created behind my back.”
Nadia remembered the look of genuine shock on Darrow’s face when the hybrids had shown up the day of Kassemyr’s initial attack. Her assumptions had been right. He hadn’t known.
“You will do as I say!” Kassemyr snarled and Darrow twisted sideways, slamming one hand on the floor for balance while shaking his head profusely.
“Stop it, Kass!” he yelled, though no one heard him through the screams of terror from the donors and the loud noise out in the hallway. “You can’t control me anymore.”
Kassemyr tried gripping the silver chain behind him, but it burned his skin. “We’ll see about—”
The doors to the throne room were kicked open. Several unmasked hybrids in all forms came bustling inside, followed by dark-clad humans in gas masks.
Nadia drew a sigh of relief despite her strained situation trying to control the old vampire.
The Wraiths were here, despite their misgivings toward the Ghosts and herself, ever loyal to the city and the Queen. Their blades swung fast and unforgiving. From what she could see, they outnumbered these hybrids three to one. It was likely the same in the rest of the Palace.
Kassemyr twisted desperately, and Nadia hung on for dear life. The vamp tried shouting a warning to his hybrids, telling them to take the masks from the donors, but he wasn’t heard over the clamor echoing between the walls. He was in too much pain to compel any of them.
“Now, please, Harm,” Nadia whispered. Darrow got his bearings back and pulled his sleeves down to cover his hands before he grabbed the chain and helped pull it tight. The added pain forced Kassemyr back. He reached out a hand in desperation. To whom, Nadia had no idea. And that was when a sharp blue light emanated from the upper gallery. She saw parts of the dome up there, the bright white sigils in place. Then it contracted out of view, before a crack sounded, like a muffled explosion. Next thing, a pressure wave flew out, followed by a wind that tore at everyone’s hair and clothes.
Then it all calmed down.
The fighting stopped. The hybrids stepped back, looking around them. Something was wrong. She could tell from the worry in their eyes.
“Now watch your creations lose, Kass,” Darrow said. There was no happiness or glee in his voice. It was a mere fact. He knew what that bomb could do. Had likely helped plan the last attack himself. What he didn’t know was what poisons it held. The hybrids would not only lose.
Kassemyr shouted in despair when they all began choking. The silver in the air would damage a vampire, but it was lethal for werewolves. The hybrids fell and died there, surrounded by their victims and enemies both.
“I’ll kill you, Darrow!” Kassemyr hissed. Nadia didn’t need to see his face to feel that hate. It spurred the vampire on and despite the great pain in his neck and side, he twisted around, almost breaking said neck in the process. Darrow hadn’t expected it, and the clawed, cold hand of his maker landed on his throat, clawing into his skin before he could react.
