A loud bang crashing against the back window jolted Lucien awake. Fists rained against the glass as shouts filled the air.
“Get up! Get up!” Killean yelled.
Lucien bolted upright and scrambled for the side door. Callie sat up, and her cognac-colored eyes met his as dismay filled her face.
“Stay here!” he yelled.
He didn’t wait for a response before he flung open the door and leapt out into the night. He closed the door shut as a sword pierced his shoulder and went straight through to embed itself in the side of the SUV.
Lucien grunted and his vision blurred as the blade twisted deeper. The stench of garbage and blood filled his nose before his vision cleared, and he found himself staring into the cold, black eyes of his brother.
Though he wanted to deny there was any connection between them, there was no denying their resemblance. Yannis’s hair was brown instead of blond, and he was a little taller and leaner, but there were few other differences.
And he would love nothing more than to tear out his brother’s heart.
Lucien bared his fangs at Yannis. Seeing him again only brought Lucien’s hatred streaming toward the forefront.
“Hello, brother,” Yannis greeted.
With Callie’s blood inside him and his need to protect her fueling him, Lucien tore himself away from the vehicle. Yannis’s eyebrows rose as Lucien lunged toward him. Flesh and muscle tore, and the hole in his shoulder grew bigger as he pulled himself along the blade until he was within arm’s reach of Yannis.
The coward released the blade, and Lucien seized the hilt as Yannis danced back. Gritting his teeth, Lucien ripped the sword from his shoulder. Blood spilled free as he twisted the blade in his grasp and aimed it at Yannis.
Callie stared at the hole inside the SUV, where the tip of a sword had sliced through the metal. Lucien’s blood ran down the inside of the vehicle. Helplessness filled her as she pressed her face to the window to watch while Lucien spun the blade and pointed it at the Savage.
The man Lucien faced could only be Yannis as they looked so much alike it was a little unnerving. Yannis danced back with a grin on his face and his hands held high.
She didn’t understand his smile until she spotted shadows moving through the trees lining the rest area. Even as Lucien turned his weapon against him, more of those creatures were spilling from the woods.
She recalled how they ran over each other in the tunnel as they chased them, but there was plenty of room for them here, and there were so many.
The idea of crawling away from the window and hugging herself as she tried to shut out the image of those monsters coming for them was utterly appealing. However, she couldn’t do that.
There wasn’t much she could do, but she refused to cower. Going out there would only be a distraction, and she would most likely get herself killed within the first minute, but she couldn’t sit here and do nothing.
Scrambling over the front seats, she plopped into the driver seat and hit the lock button for the doors. She leaned over, opened the glovebox, and removed the stake and gun Lucien had stashed inside.
She had some experience with guns; her first boyfriend was an avid hunter and had shown her a few things. She wasn’t great with the weapon, but she could aim and fire. There were more weapons inside the vehicle, he’d shown her the location of them all, but she didn’t have time to dig them out.
She set the weapons on the passenger seat, turned the key, and started the vehicle. The headlights came to life to illuminate the Savages rushing toward the others. She didn’t stop to think about it before she shifted into drive and stomped on the gas.
For a second, the tires spun and debris pinged against the undercarriage. Then the tires caught, and she jerked the wheel to avoid hitting the SUV in front of her as the vehicle surged forward. Callie gripped the wheel as she shot across the hardpacked dirt.
Savages scrambled to get out of her way, but some of them weren’t fast enough, and she plowed into them. One of them came up over the grill and bounced off the window. Its impact created a spiderweb of broken glass before it sailed over the top of the SUV.
Another stuck to the front of the vehicle. Its hands clawed at the hood as it tried to gain purchase while more fell beneath the tires. The SUV crunched their bodies as it bounced over them.
That sickening crunch made her stomach churn, but she ignored her nausea and slammed on the brakes. The one clawing at the hood finally dislodged and flew backward to land in the middle of the road.
Callie stomped on the gas again and ran it over before it could recover. She turned the vehicle around, and her heart dropped when the headlights illuminated the spectacle before her.
Dozens of Savages were converging on the others. She spotted Simone and Killean in the middle of the fray, along with Asher and Logan. She didn’t see the others until a sudden burst of light lit the night, and a Savage exploded into ashes.
That was when she spotted Declan, Saber, and Willow closer to the wood line. She hadn’t seen the sword in action, but she’d heard about it. Seeing it was even more astonishing than hearing about it.
Savages fell back from Willow as she hacked her way through more of them. Every Savage the sword pierced erupted into ash until their remains were falling from the sky like rain.
Knowing she had to do something to help, Callie hit the gas again and aimed the SUV at more of the Savages.
Lucien spun the sword in his good hand as the bleeding from his wound gradually stopped. Yannis continued to grin at him while he backed away. Lucien would see his brother cleaved in two before this night was over.
Over Yannis’s shoulder, a burst of light caught his attention, and his mouth almost dropped when he saw Willow wielding her sword. This was the first time he’d witnessed the awesome might of the powerful weapon.
The rev of an engine drew his attention as Callie ran over a new group of Savages. He almost sprinted back to the SUV to tell her to hide, but it was too late for that. They already knew where she was, and they could scent her human blood as easily as him.
Yannis’s smile grew as his attention shifted to the SUV. “I’m going to enjoy killing her, brother.”
Yannis barely managed to avoid having the sword driven through his heart, but as he lunged to the side, Lucien brought the blade down across his brother’s arm. Yannis shifted in time to avoid losing his arm, but blood poured forth.
Lucien was about to go at him when a group of Savages swarmed him. He lost sight of his brother as the creatures spilled over the top of him. Staggered by the onslaught of their weight, he managed to keep himself standing by sticking the tip of his sword into the ground.
Callie watched in horror as the monsters piled on top of Lucien, but he wasn’t the only one they swarmed like a horde of pissed-off yellow jackets. Asher and Logan vanished beneath another wave, and Killean and Simone were barely fending off more of them.
The only ones who remained a little clear of the monsters were Declan, Willow, and Saber, and that was only because the Savages were afraid of the sword. She didn’t blame them.
Callie shifted into reverse as a Savage leapt onto the hood of the vehicle, pulled back its hand, and hammered it into the spiderwebbed glass. Callie kept her foot on the brake and lifted the gun from the passenger seat. She aimed at the Savage as its hand broke through the glass and pulled the trigger.
They were so close she couldn’t miss, and the Savage’s head shot back as the bullet hit it in the forehead. The deafening sound of the shot made her ears ring to the point where she couldn’t hear anything else.
Still, she took her foot off the brake and hit the gas. More Savages fell beneath the onslaught of the vehicle, but others grabbed the doors and pounded against the glass. When she hit the brakes again, the containers slid forward in the back, and the Savages swarmed like bees over the vehicle until she couldn’t see anything beyond them.
Her heart raced, and her sweaty palms could barely grip the wheel. She glanced at her container of horses. They were her last remaining connection to her father, her most cherished possession, but they may have cost them all their lives.
She should have let them go, but it was too late for should haves now. All she could do now was pray they made it out of this mess and fight like a rabid dog.
Keeping the gun in one hand, she grasped the stake in the other. She didn’t dare put the vehicle into drive again. She couldn’t see past the Savages enough to navigate it without risking hitting one of her friends.
When the window beside her shattered, she wasn’t surprised. Leaning across the passenger seat, she turned and fired the gun again. She’d probably be deaf for the rest of her life, but she would take as many of these fuckers down as she could.
She was still firing at the Savages trying to come through the driver’s side door when hands grasped her from behind. A scream lodged in her throat. She hadn’t heard them breaking through the passenger window, but they jerked at her arms as they pulled her from the vehicle. She kicked and thrashed as they dragged her across the earth.
Their brutal grip pinched her flesh. She didn’t realize she was still pulling the trigger until they tore the gun from her hands. Her fingers bent, and she was sure a couple of them broke from the wrenching motion. She’d been out of bullets, but she felt more exposed without the weapon.
She retained the stake in her other hand, but it wouldn’t do much good against these things. She was a mere mortal against supernatural beings.
They suddenly stopped dragging her and lifted her to spin her around. Callie thrashed against their hold, but her movements did little good as the creatures barely noticed her struggle.
Callie shook back her hair and lifted her eyes to glower at her captors. No matter what, she would never let them see her terror. She bit back a gasp when Yannis stepped in front of her. His eyes were a vivid shade of red, and his face was strikingly similar to Lucien’s.
How could this monster be related to the man she loved so much?
And he was a monster. There was no doubt about that as she took in the gleeful joy he exuded while he watched her. His eyes ran over her and his lips curved into a smile.
“So, we meet again,” he said.
His words barely penetrated the ringing in her ears, but she made them out. Callie didn’t recall meeting him the first time, but he’d been amongst the vampires watching her in the pit. When she lifted her chin, his eyes fastened on Lucien’s bite marks on her neck.
“And I was right,” he murmured.
Callie had no idea what he was right about, and she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of asking him either.
“I suppose you would be my sister-in-law, which makes it such a shame to kill you.” He leaned toward her. “But it’s going to be so much fun to watch my brother suffer.”
He held his hand out to another Savage and took the sword the monster handed him. Callie’s mouth went dry as her gaze fell on the blade. The sharp edge gleamed in the headlights from her abandoned vehicle. And staring at that edge, she knew she would not survive this.
An ache started deep in her chest, and she lifted her head to search for Lucien. All she wanted was to see him one last time, but a throng of Savages engulfed him. She refused to shed the tears burning her eyes as she considered everything she would lose tonight.
Lucien managed to dig his way out from under the crush of bodies and turned toward where he last saw Callie. They’d taken her out of the SUV. She stood, silhouetted against the glow of the headlights, in the center of a group of Savages. They restrained her as Yannis lifted a blade.
“No!” Lucien bellowed as Yannis lunged forward and sank the blade into Callie’s heart.