Blood Sacrifice (The Astral Chronicles #1)

Chapter Twenty-TwoSalvator

Chapter Twenty-Two

Salvator

The spell had been aimed at me. I still couldn’t understand how Luna had appeared in front of me, but she took the full impact of the attack. Maia had kept her alive with mine and Dominic’s blood, but she was unconscious and non-responsive in the medical unit.

Our base had been searched from top to bottom, and we had found numerous surveillance cameras that were now destroyed. Dominic and his team had been relentless in their exploration, using equipment I had never seen before to detect some of the devices.

This was officially a magic-free zone except for those who had arrived to help my mate.

I stood beside the window staring at the world outside. Everything looked as it had before, people continuing about their business, but my entire life had been ripped apart, and regret consumed me from the inside. There had been hurt in Luna’s eyes, confusion at my treatment of her following my memories returning. What she didn’t understand or know was I internalised everything until I had time to understand it. She hadn’t had time to learn about the man I had become, only knowing the boy who had openly discussed his feelings.

“You look like shit,” Jethro said, appearing beside me.

“Fuck off,” I snapped. “Do you not have some witches to find and bring to justice?”

“Paulo and I have been chatting. We need to get out of this place and stretch our legs. Maybe assassinate a few of Balor’s priests along the way.” He paused for a moment. “You need to step away from this room and take your place as our alpha again.”

I stared at him for several seconds until he looked away. Then I turned my attention to the woman lying pale and still in the bed. “I was an asshole to her,” I finally said.

“You’re an asshole to everyone. She’ll understand.”

“Aisha made it sound as if we’d been lovers for years.” I paused. “I never touched her once in all those years. In my head, she was a sister figure since Luna was my mate.”

“She was a crazy bitch who had us all on leashes. I fucking hate everything she represents.” Jethro slammed his fist down on the desk beside the bed.

I returned to staring out the window. “I was made to catch, and then stand there and watch while they killed innocent women. What if there are more suppressed memories? If what Aisha said was true even though I don’t remember.” My skin crawled with the thought of being locked inside my body while Aisha violated me.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Jethro replied, his voice low. “They stole our free will. I no longer know what were my real thoughts and emotions, and which were forced on me.”

We stood in silence, my own thoughts in turmoil until they landed on one fact: we were free. “Luna ensured we could never be bound again,” I said. “Everything we feel now is our own emotions, everything we think is our own thoughts. I suggest we do what we thought we were doing all along. Let’s hunt these fuckers into extinction and eradicate their dark magic from this world.”

“Amen to that,” Jethro replied. “I’ll happily slit their throats like they did with some of those kids when they sacrificed them.”

“We take the fight to them. Ask Maia to check all our wolves to ensure none of them are spellbound. Call all operatives back to base. I need every tracker out there with their noses to the ground and ears at every doorway.” I sucked in a breath and slowly released it. “This time we leave none of them alive.”

Jethro stood beside me for several moments. “It’s good to be us again,” he finally said.

I nodded, my hand clasping at my side. “Give me a moment, and I’ll follow you to command.”

I watched Jethro leave the room in the mirror-effect of the window before I turned and made my way to Luna lying silently in the bed. I tucked her hair behind her ear, my thumb sweeping across her bottom lip when I cupped her face in my hand.

“Don’t you dare go anywhere without me,” I said, leaning forward to press a kiss to her lips. “My entire life, it was only ever you, it will only ever be you. I love you, Luna, now and forever.” I kissed her again, staring down at her and engraving every aspect of her features into my memory before I walked away without a backward glance.

With every step I took through my base, I buried my love for Luna since I needed to be a coldblooded killer to do what needed to be done. By the time I reached the command centre, all my emotions were locked down, and all that remained was my need to search and destroy.

Jethro was already briefing the top team, Tarrack typing on his keyboard, his fingers moving rapidly.

“You want the teams brought into a different location to be neutralised?” Tarrack asked, glancing up while still typing.

“Neutralised?” I queried, raising on eyebrow.

“Jethro said you want to ensure no one in the pack is still under magical influence. Maia has one of her people brewing another potion.” He stopped typing and gave me his full attention. “I will never admit to saying this, but that vampire was right. Every one of them needs to die for what they did. We backed down on our first law that we protected only the pack. We let them in because they said they had nowhere else to go and we didn’t want any more innocent blood on our hands. They bit the hand of friendship we offered to them.”

“I’d glad you recognise my greatness,” Dominic said from the shadows, and Tarrack groaned.

“I swear he hangs from the ceiling where none of us can see him and appears from the shadows,” Tarrack said, shooting Dominic a narrow-eyed glare.

“If we are going to war, then you need better weapons, and the element of surprise,” Dominic replied, ignoring Tarrack’s comment.

“There’s nothing wrong with my guns,” Paulo said, pulling his pistol out and pointing it directly at Dominic. “Nothing stays alive after several rounds to the head.”

“Vampires can survive bullet wounds, and hellspawn are barely fazed by them.” Dominic moved so quickly he had the gun out of Paulo’s hand and the magazine on the table before we even registered his movement. “One day, I must introduce you to a very talented lycan by the name of Radar. He created this majestic weapon.”

It was the strange object he pointed at me several days ago in the corridor.

“What can it do that my guns can’t?” Paulo asked, his expression dark as a thunderstorm about to hit land.

Dominic flicked the lever at the side and shot Paulo in the leg, who screamed and grabbed his wound. When he lifted his hand away there was no blood, even his jeans were unharmed. Paulo tried to stand, but he collapsed to the floor.

“What the fuck have you done to my leg?” Paulo demanded, dragging himself up by using the desk as a lever.

“I blasted it,” Dominic said with that terrifying grin he tended to use that made you fear for your life. “There are different settings that allow me to stun someone, incapacitate them, or kill them.”

“You should be thankful Dominic has the blaster on its lowest setting,” a vampire called Owen said. He had arrived in the attack on my base and seemed to be one of Dominic’s commanders. There was something about the guy, a predator contained in flesh and bone, and when he looked at me I knew he was calculating an attack in his head.

“I would rather he didn’t shoot anyone as we need Paulo out there. He’s one of my best trackers,” I replied dryly, rolling my eyes. “Maia and her team will test everyone being sent on a mission and also everyone coming back on base. Is that too big a task?” I asked her.

“It’s fine,” she replied. “I’ll set up screeners and someone to make the potion. I would prefer to be available for Luna.”

I nodded once, unable to mention her name or the composure I was hiding behind would break. “Tarrack, put our best trackers into the wind. I want Balor and his priests found. The witches who sat on our council are now to be treated as enemies. Don’t let them touch you, and if they won’t come in peacefully, kill them.”

I heard Maia’s intake of breath, but right now we didn’t have time to argue the intricacies of war. “Salvator—”

Dominic interrupted her instead. “None of us want to kill anyone, but Luna is somewhere between life and death because she hesitated and her sister didn’t. We can’t lose anyone else we love.”

My ears pricked up. Luna made Dominic sound like a superhero in her stories. He swooped in when she needed him most and saved the day. He flew halfway across the world because she asked for his help, and brought his warriors to protect her. Their bond was more than friendship, and that troubled me. Luna was my mate, but that visceral attraction to each other didn’t necessarily mean she loved me, it meant that our gifts were stronger together and we were compatible to have children. Wolves had refused their mating bond in the past to stay with a wolf they were raising a family with. I remembered the scandal of it in our village when I was young.

“I don’t want to hear any more,” Maia said. “I’ll return to the medical unit and arrange our people from there.”

“I’ll walk back with you,” Owen said. “I have a few questions you can help me with.”

I watched the two leave the room, an uneasy feeling settling on me for several moments. Sucking in a deep breath, I slowly spun to face everyone in the room. “We were betrayed,” I said in a low tone, giving them my full attention and making eye contact as I surveyed everyone standing here. “This organisation was formed for simple goals: to seek retribution for our fallen pack members and ensure tyranny was never allowed to prosper again. We failed.”

Silence so loud it screamed our frustration echoed around the room.

“We failed because those we trusted betrayed us. They took our protection and leashed our wolves.” I growled in anger and others in the room joined me. “Today we take back our pack, we re-affirm who we are, and we destroy those who seek to tame us.”

“Hell, yeah,” Jethro said. “I’m no one’s poodle.”

“More like a chihuahua,” Tarrack replied, ducking when Jethro threw a stapler at him.

“Dominic and his vamps will instruct you on these blasters, Tarrack will assign you into teams, and I want people on the ground by tonight,” I finished.

“Can I make a suggestion?” Dominic asked. “Put a vampire and magic user in every group. If I’ve learnt one thing over the past few months of being in the allied forces, it’s that each species has its own unique strengths, and together we make a formidable enemy.”

I studied him, evaluating such a team in my mind. I nodded at Tarrack. “Do it,” I said. “Whatever it takes to bring this to an end. We all deserve our lives back.”

Since there was nothing else to discuss, I spun on my heel and wandered through the base to one of my favourite thinking spots. Before I went into battle, I needed to know what it felt like to be in my own skin again without someone controlling me. My wolf howled in my head, his claws digging into my spine.

“Fuck it,” I said, making my way to the old tunnels Luna had questioned me about before this mission. They led to a forest area at the back of the base. Right now, I needed space and privacy, and my wolf could give me that. I shook myself until I stood on four legs instead of two, flexing my claws and opening and closing my jaws until I fit fully into my wolf form. Then, I ran.

There was something about the feral beauty of the forest that relaxed my soul. Everything was in perfect alignment because nature knew how to maintain the balance between life and death.

I ran, allowing the breeze to push against my fur, my claws digging into the ground and tree trunks while I twisted my body to push myself toward exhaustion.

Luna was my mate, and I hadn’t been able to protect her. I leapt through the air, dragging my claws down an unsuspecting tree. A suppressed violence simmered inside me, and I wanted to lash out and hurt everything around me. I stretched my spine, threw my head back, and howled until my throat hurt and I could barely breathe.

All my emotions bled out into the forest, absorbed into the trees and the ground. I released all the agony trapped inside, the memory of Luna collapsing in front of me as she accepted the curse meant for me. My claws dug into the forest floor, contracting until the pads of my feet bled.

Four hundred years I had walked this life without her, and she was ripped from me just as I found her again. Wolves were notorious for their sexual appetite, the full moon wreaking havoc on our senses, our hormones out of control when a female was in heat. None of that had ever applied to me. Luna had been the one and only love of my life. Both of us had been young when she arrived at the temple, and there was a strict law forbidding the wolves to take lovers as Balor didn’t want little wolves running around everywhere. We had broken all the rules to be together, and no one had interested me after she was gone, even when I thought she was dead. Looking back on it, I now realised my wolf knew all along that she was still out there somewhere, and that tore my heart to shreds.

How could I have been so fucking stupid?

I howled again, the pain in my heart overwhelming me.

No one could ever see me like this. I needed to find the strength to lead my pack, even as I fell apart inside. When I returned, this anguish would be hidden under the mask I wore to prevent anyone from seeing the real me.

The only one who had ever seen inside me was the woman who sacrificed herself for me.

I didn’t deserve her. I never had, and yet I had never been able to walk away from the magnetism that drew me to her. A helpless moth to her translucent flame.

“Luna…” Her name tore from me as my legs gave way and I was left lying on the ground.

In this darkest moment amidst my despair, I felt her presence, her touch as she stroked the top of my head. I had forgotten that she used to sit beside my wolf in the moonlight and run her fingers through our fur. Calm started in my chest and spread through my body, focus returning to my mind.

“I need you to get up and fight for us.” Luna’s voice echoed through my head.

My legs were weak under my weight, but I pushed myself to stand. She wasn’t there when I turned around, even though I still felt her presence. Luna had always been the strong one in our relationship, helping me to keep my faith and allow me to function when I had begged her so many times to run away with me. We should have had several lifetimes together, and enough love to earn ourselves a constellation to tell our story.

More wolves had arrived at the base when I returned, each of them screened by Maia and her assistants. Tarrack had assigned teams, and the majority of our soldiers were already dressed and ready for battle.

Jethro eyed me when I walked into the command centre. “Our team heads out in five minutes.” He paused, pursing his lips together as if debating what he was about to say. “Your head on straight?”

“Never better,” I snapped, striding over to the armoury and strapping blades and guns to me.

“Here.” Dominic handed me one of the blasters he had been demonstrating earlier. “Some curses need the witch of origin to help break them. Aisha can’t be used to save Luna if she’s dead.” His eyes met mine, and I felt a lump form in my throat.

I nodded once and added it to my arsenal.

We each had a communications device, and night vision glasses. Tarrack chatted to Jethro, and I heard the conversation in the room and in the aid in my ear.

“Where are we heading?” I asked when I could fit no more weapons on me.

“The old chapel on the outskirts of Lima,” Paulo replied. “There’s something about that place that has always interested me, but every time I went to visit it, I couldn’t bring myself to step inside.”

“Sounds like there were places that you weren’t allowed to nose around,” Dominic said, coming to stand beside us. “Those should definitely be top of our list.”

“Please tell me you aren’t on my team,” I groaned, already knowing that the annoying vampire would be coming along to aggravate me.

“Owen and his coven leader are on your team,” Dominic replied without even batting an eyelid at my insult. “I believe they are among the best vampire warriors to fight in the war.”

I turned to face him, giving him my full attention. “I thought you were the coven leader.”

“I am.” His fang-filled grin made me roll my eyes.

“Lovely.” I would never admit it, but I was wary of vampires and their sharp fangs, but at least I knew Dominic would be the least likely to bite me. I’d also fought him, even if it was a fake fight, and the guy had talent.

“I knew you’d be delighted,” Dominic quipped. “I have a specially designed light-proof vehicle for Owen and I to drive. It means that we can leave now with the rest of the team.”

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Can vamps walk on consecrated ground? What about holy water since there will be a font inside?”

Dominic laughed, and it was such an unusual sound, everyone in the room stopped to stare at the vampire. “How quaint, you have your knowledge of the vampire race from Hollywood. I have spent a lot of time in the Vatican in my long life, and was extremely good friends with several popes over the years. Neither holy water, the Bible, or a cross scare me, and I have no issues with any other religions either. I am a vampire, the only thing that can kill me is decapitation, removal of my heart, or possibly being fed to sharks. I haven’t tested the last one, but I’ve seen what they do to their victims and it looks catastrophic.”

“Sharks,” I replied. “Well, I don’t think they have any in the chapel.”

“Then, I believe I will survive this day,” Dominic said, moving his attention to the communication devices on the counter.

“The decapitation isn’t on your problem list today?” Jethro queried. “Maybe getting your head blown off with a grenade?”

Dominic waved off his concerns. “We are facing wolves and magic users, neither of them are fast enough to achieve that goal.”

I pulled my gun from the back of my combat trousers and pointed it to where his head should have been. Instead, I found myself pointing the gun at air while Dominic tapped my shoulder behind me. The fucker would be impossible to kill, and right now we needed that skill to finally get rid of the threat who had terrorised this area for centuries.

“Has anyone ever told you how annoying you are?” I grumped, putting my gun away again.

“Constantly,” he replied, placing the earpiece into his ear. “I only annoy those I become friends with. The others I kill and dispose of because life is too short to deal with assholes.”

I stared at him in vexation as he wandered off.

Owen caught my eye, his mouth twitching in a barely-there smile. “He grows on you,” he said.

“So does fungus,” I retorted.

“I have yet to see a fungus single-handedly seal a breach to the Hell domain,” Owen replied quietly. “Or slaughter an entire village of dark magic users. Dominic is the greatest fighter we have, and he never rests until he has achieved his aim. Today, he plans to save his friend Luna, and nothing will stand in his way.”

“Then we both have the same goal,” I said, and headed to the stairwell that led to the garage in the basement.

For too long, my wolf had been leashed.

Now, he was ready to tear the throat out of anyone who stood between us and retribution.