Chapter Seven

 

 

Finally, I crawled into my bed, wishing my tent warmer. Everyone else’s homes always felt as if they held more heat than mine did. I had no idea why.

I shoved all thoughts of Jason from my mind. He’d be back in a week, or so he claimed. We’d deal with each other then, even if it meant saying goodbye to what had been the most important relationship I’d ever had.

Exhaustion overtook me and I don’t remember falling asleep, but the jarring vampire alarm blaring through the tent-city made me bound out of bed before my eyes opened. I stared out the tent flap. We had a lot of false alarms, but the way my arms tingled alerted me this was no mistake.

My heart pounded hard against my ribs. I hadn’t slept very long since it still looked dark outside.

I grabbed on to my stake, glad I’d fallen asleep in my clothes. The presence of vamps this close to our camp meant they’d broken through our defenses, which hadn’t happened in a very long time. I tore through the tent flap, nearly breaking it off as I lunged forward into the night.

Panic sounded everywhere. We’d had practice drills for just this scenario but they didn’t seem to be helping now. I heard the roars of wolves in the distances and the shivers up and down my spine told me vamps approached.

I heard a growl up the hill, and I turned to see a vampire slithering around Tiffani and Keith’s tent. Fury surged through my blood. Tiffani had been a Warrior but having Levi had taken her off active duty, and she hadn’t wielded a weapon in well over a year.

My legs moved fast even as fear clouded my vision. I heard Tiffani scream as I burst through her tent flap into her home.

Levi lay in his crib, face red, howling at the top of his lungs. Tiffani stood in front of him, stake in hand, putting herself between her son and a vampire twice her size. Like me, she had the genes that let her fight the creatures but what I saw in her eyes told me she wouldn’t be taking down that vampire, no matter how much she tried. Utter terror. I’d never seen that look in Tiffani’s gaze before. She’d been a fierce fighter, a strong teacher—but not now.

I leaped forward and threw my arm around the vamp’s neck. I wanted his attention on me, not on Tiffani and Levi.

“Run.” I screamed at her and hoped she listened. I had no time to stop and see if she did.

I clung to the creature’s back, hanging on for dear life. I hoped I’d be able to manipulate it out of her tent. We fought. The vampire tried to get me off his back, while I tried to avoid getting scratched by his long claws that swiped backward, searching for me.

A vampire scratch had almost killed me once. I didn’t know if I’d gained immunity to the effects but I had no interest in finding out.

Finally, the vampire and I stumbled out of the tent together. I let go of him, falling backward onto my rear end. The arm I’d injured in our vampire raid burned.

The vampire crouched down. His forked tongue flung out of his mouth, and he hissed at me. His red eyes became huge with the desire to drink my blood.

“Do you still talk?” I jumped to my feet. “Or have you been a blood sucker long enough you’ve lost the ability?”

The hiss of his snake-like mouth was the only answer I got.

Stake in hand, I moved, knowing he would lunge at me as soon as I did. We both leapt, meeting in the middle of the air. I pushed forward with my stake, hoping it would meet its intended target. If not, this would be my end. I’d never been this exposed before in a one-on-one fight with a vamp.

Experience made me strong, even as my hand shook. I plunged my weapon deep into the heart of the vampire, and I had a moment to watch its disbelief before it dissolved into dust around me. I hit the ground hard, nothing to brace myself against my fall since my opponent had dissolved into dust.

I let go of my stake and it rolled away. The boom and cracks I heard had to be my bones smashing against the ground beneath me. I didn’t care. I closed my eyes and let my face stay planted into the cool mud beneath me. Tears swam in my eyes but not from pain. If I had discomfort from the assault, I didn’t care or, in truth, hardly noticed.

The first time I’d faced this scenario I’d been Levi’s age. The adults told me my mother had fought back the vampire that finally killed her, who had wanted to eat me. Then the Warriors, who eventually had gotten to us too late to save my mother, rescued me. Her body had been burned within minutes in the crematorium in Genesis. She’d always been a hero in my eyes. Fought back, saved me. How did I live up to that expectation?

Now I wondered more about that night. Had she been terrified? Had becoming a parent made my assault-ready mother weak and trembling so we’d never stood a chance?

It seemed ridiculous to allow the victimization of our home to continue. Breeding new Warriors for ongoing violence? Levi, whom I had just rescued? Nero, whose own mother hadn’t been able to make it through the fight without having a breakdown, but who carried the genes and who had most assuredly passed them on to her son? When did we get to say enough?

“Rachel.” Tiffani’s voice penetrated my haze, and I opened my eyes before I raised my neck to look up at her. “How badly are you hurt?”

With only the light of the full moon to see her, I could still tell she looked pale. Levi wailed in her arms. She needed to get the child to safety before they both got eaten.

I pulled myself upward, finally rising to my feet. “I’m not hurt. Much.” I shrugged, feeling the tug of the newly reopened wound on my arm. “You need to go.”

“You saved us.” Her voice shook and, to my utter horror, she sobbed as she spoke.

“Don’t mention it.” I seemed to only be capable of short responses. “You need to go. To safety. Now.”

“What is happening?”

“Took tonight off.” I pointed at the safety zone. The last resort when our defenses were breached. She needed to go below ground. They could be blown up if we hadn’t found all the explosives. But even that risk seemed preferable to what she faced here. “Go.”

“I’m a Warrior, and I couldn’t get it together. All I could see was that thing eating Levi.”

“Go, Tiffani. Please.” Because the siren still sounded, which meant we weren’t out of danger. I could feel the vampires in the distance, and I couldn’t do anything about them if I had to look after her.

“I’ll never forget this.”

“Don’t make a big deal out of this.”

“Rachel.” Her eyes looked wounded as if I’d just struck her. “This is a huge deal.”

“I’m taking your machete.” I’d left mine in my tent, as I’d run out the door. I needed one. There were wolves to be killed.

“Why are you acting so strangely?” She held out her hand, imploring me to give her an answer. I wished I could walk away without speaking. A braver person wouldn’t burden her with my issues. Not when she had to keep her son alive and had to know she’d almost failed.

But I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “All I can think about is how if I had been two seconds later, you’d be dead and Levi would be me. I love your son. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

Not that I believed Keith would start drinking himself into a nightly stupor as my father had, leaving Levi basically parentless. Still, it had probably come as a shock to the general population when my father had done so. And I couldn’t be exactly certain Keith wasn’t dead right now. I couldn’t believe we’d be in this much trouble if he and Patrick were still okay. My heart clenched at the thought.

Tiffani grabbed and pulled me into her arms. “When you showed up, I knew he’d be fine. My only thoughts were for Levi and you. I don’t care about me anymore. Do you understand? You matter to us. With or without a mother.”

I pulled back. “I’m taking your machete.”

She nodded, running a hand through her hair. “I want to talk about this later.”

I didn’t. Turning my back on her, I walked quickly to her tent. Entering it, I was struck by the sheer mess of the place, most of which was probably my fault. I hadn’t exactly been neat when I’d leapt onto the back of the vampire. Shaking my head, I wondered what had ever possessed me to do such a thing. I’d never piggybacked an undead monster before. Why did I even think that would work? Why had it?

I rubbed at my eyes as I moved toward Keith’s weaponry cabinet. So much of fighting the monsters came down to instinct. My genes compensated better to stressful paranormal situations than that of a regular human. Somewhere in the past, one of my ancestors had survived beating up a beast and passed down the skills to me.

Even knowing that, I grimaced as I thought of just how dumb a move it had been to leap onto the backside of a vampire. No one had ever taught that to me in class.

I opened the cabinet and pulled out Tiffani’s machete. It felt slightly heavier than my own, which meant it hadn’t been standard issue. Keith liked to make custom weaponry when he had the time. Stakes for vampires. Machetes to kill werewolves.

I had a hard time killing werewolves. Or, at least I used to. Every wolf I struck down reminded me of Jason. Every bit of blood splattered felt as if I’d destroyed my beloved. Tonight, I felt no resistance.

I stopped to practice with Tiffani’s machete, swinging it over my head, letting the cold steel whish through the air a few times until I could control it. My own machete had been sadly neglected lately. I’d have to take it out and polish it when this was over.

Jason’s father had left us here to die. He’d moved his pack because he’d sensed danger. He’d moved his pack to allow for this attack to happen.

I was a Warrior.

These were my people and my attack on the vamps might have caused tonight’s attack. An assault of this magnitude could only mean retribution.

I had to keep my promises to Genesis and destroy any beast that got in my way.

As I ran toward the woods, I could hear screams marring the night. The sirens smothered most other noises. I felt the snow fall on my cheeks and nose first. The horror of snow had begun. We could be sidelined by the white monster while the vamps and wolves had no trouble managing it.

I saw my first wolf seconds later. Big and gray, he looked at me in the way only werewolves could: as if I was prey. Even the vampires didn’t have the same hunger in their gaze. They wanted our blood. Wolves wanted our flesh. Both were bad predicaments, but maybe because I had survived a vampire attack, the idea of being eaten alive by a wolf bothered me more.

Or maybe it was just, again, about Jason. I lunged forward, swiping as I went. In two seconds, I’d removed the head of the creature. I stepped back to look at my work. A severed head of a werewolf lay a distance from its body. That had been easy.

A cry to my left made me move before I could spend any more time examining my kill. Micah Lyons fought two wolves by himself but they were flanking him and clearly had the advantage. As I got closer, the brown one on the left snarled at me, baring his fangs. Drool spread down from its mouth.

“Rachel,” Micah called out, but I only had eyes for the wolf in front of me.

I swung my machete and with a sickening vibration that I could feel from my fingertips to the tips of my toes, I sliced off another head.

“I’m machete-free, Rachel.”

Micah’s voice pulled my focus. I’d missed that when I first came onto the scene. It had looked like Micah had been fighting the wolves but, in reality, he’d been shoving the wolves back using only a large branch. I would not lose another Lyons. Not tonight, not ever.

I took two running steps before I leapt in the air. Like I had with the vampire, I landed on top of the wolf. It shuddered beneath me as it tried to adjust to the sudden onslaught of my weight. I had no time to play. There wouldn’t be any time to pull my machete out. This wolf would be faster than me. I was going to have to resort to old-fashioned means, the kind of maneuver they taught us in school but I hoped never to have to apply to real life.

With a twist of my arms, I broke the wolf’s neck. He fell to the ground. This wouldn’t kill him. He’d regenerate if I didn’t take off his head completely. But at least he was down and still enough for me to end him with the machete.

When I’d done the deed, I blew out a long breath. “You okay, Lyons?”

“Nice of you to show up. Hell of a time for you to decide to take a night off.”

“What’s happened?”

“They came in such large numbers, Clancy.” He shook his head. “They just overwhelmed us. Keith sent several of us off to break up the crowd. I lost Deacon and Glen a while back. Not sure what happened.”

My heart rate kicked back up. “They okay?”

“They were the last time I saw them but who knows by now.” Micah shook his head, his black hair falling over his eyes like Chad’s used to. The movement made my throat clench in its unexpectedness. “You know what this is.”

“Revenge for what we did. But we hardly wounded them at all. It wasn’t even a major operation base. They’re just pissed we got past their defenses to begin with.”

Micah and I had gotten good at being a team, and we picked up in our raid manner, moving as a unit. His eyes scanned the trees for potential threats. The vampires loved to hide in the branches and leap down on us. I looked in the woods for movement. “There.” Micah pointed upward, and I flinched. There was a vamp in the tree, and I’d missed it? I followed the direction of his finger and gasped. It wasn’t a vamp but, instead, a wolf staring down at us.

“A wolf.” I swallowed, my mouth going dry. “In a tree?”

I’d no sooner uttered the words when several wolves descended on us from up above. Leaping like they shouldn’t have been able to, they came down in large balls of destruction aimed right for our heads. Micah dodged being hit by one and lost his balance. He landed with a hard thud as I swiveled to avoid the same fate.

He was on his feet in seconds. “I still don’t have a machete.”

“I’m aware.” I could hear the fear in both our voices.

I did a quick headcount of the wolves. Three growled at us, lined up in a semi-circle to cut off all retreat. If we ran, they would chase. We didn’t have the smallest chance of outrunning them. Our only recourse with the wolves was to fight back.

And now Micah couldn’t.

I swallowed. “You have to get help.”

“I’m not leaving you here with three wolves.” He spoke as if he couldn’t be argued with. I’d never been very good at following his orders.

“We will either both die here where we stand, or you can go get help. I can hold them back until you return with the others.”

“Rachel, I’m not even sure where to find help.”

The wolves in front of us started to growl even louder, moving forward in small steps. They were in attack formation. There wasn’t much time.

“Go. Now.” Moving in front of him, I shoved him backward. He had two choices—run or fall on his face.