Chapter 28 – Locheran
It’s time.
Nearby buildings have been evacuated. Humans in the area were relocated with the excuse of a gas leak.
We have shifters, witches, vampires, and other human-appearing supes in place in case the media shows up to report on the fake gas leak.
We also have supes infiltrated in the local utility company as well as law enforcement agencies, so we’re not worried about police and fire arriving.
Shields are in place to hide the pending battle. We can’t have this face off witnessed or leaked when we’re about to reveal our world to humans. We’re trying to convince them we’re not violent and dangerous creatures.
Never mind that humans are possibly more violent and dangerous than monsters, but they’re skittish beings that easily believe fearmongering. A supernatural battle would only solidify those fears.
Thorne, Xander, and I wait at the back of the small army, which is being hidden by a spell the witches implemented. We didn’t want the hunters to know just how many of us there are. The element of surprise will be in our favor.
We stand across from the building where the hunters are holed up. Farrah’s presence grows stronger with every passing minute, and I wonder if that means whatever she was given is wearing off.
Werewolves and shifters have been scoping out the place throughout the day. They reported that there are at least a dozen hunters on patrol, which is more than we expected… but still not enough to fight and win.
“Drop your shields!” a feminine voice full of power yells from the building across the street.
Instead of revealing our army, Saoirse crosses into the open with Rorik by her side.
“I have something you want,” the coven leader says.
A bitter laugh sounds ahead of a figure emerging from the entrance door.
The woman is beautiful. Dark red hair in loose curls fall over her shoulders, and her green eyes glow—literally. Her light skin is dotted with freckles. She’s slender, wearing black pants and a black tank top.
“You think I want that abomination?” The witch sneers. A light bounces off what appears to be a nose piercing and necklaces she wears around her neck.
“He’s your creation, is he not?” Saoirse asks.
“He was a mistake.”
“Give us the hunter’s daughter,” Rorik demands.
The witch chuckles again. “Sure. Hand over the sphinx and a gargoyle, then you get the plump blonde woman.”
Xander holds me back because I was seconds from flying over there to snap the witch’s neck.
I notice he’s also holding Thorne back. Vara and Layla stand with us at the rear, prepared to join the battle if needed.
Before we made our way over here, Thorne literally got down on his hands and knees, begging them not to participate.
Aside from being his mates, Layla is royalty, and Vara is wanted for her golden feathers.
Neither should be here, but I knew they wouldn’t agree to go into hiding.
This fight is just as much theirs as it is mine.
“You are outnumbered, Ciara,” Saoirse says.
The woman smiles. It’s sinister. Evil. “Finally! Some recognition. How did you know?”
“I always suspected it was you, great-great-great-grandmother,” Saoirse explains.
Ciara.
We have a name.
And she’s related to the coven leader for New York City witches.
Ciara lifts her arms and jerks her fingers.
Hunters emerge from the building and surround her.
There’s dozens of them, still a fraction to how many supes we have prepared to fight.
They hunters are armed with guns that I have no doubt are adapted to fire wooden bullets or can shoot ammo that’s infused with UV rays.
A few hunters have swords, and I can smell the iron from where I stand at the back.
“Why are you doing this?” Saoirse asks.
“Boredom.” She shrugs. “Or maybe it’s to prove a point.”
A burst a black light shoots from her hands like a lightning strike, zapping the shield put in place to mask the battle from the human world.
Fuck.
The hunters seem confused and nervously fidget on their feet but fail to stand down from fight mode.
“What are you doing?” a man who appears to be in his late forties growls at the witch. “This wasn’t the plan!”
“Oh, Dean, did you really think I’d listen to a powerless human like yourself?”
Dean. That’s Farrah’s brother. I scan the line of hunters, but I don’t spot Mally, the patriarch.
Dean’s face turns red. He’s a big guy like Mally, with light red hair that falls to his shoulders. He’s got the same nose and round blue eyes as Farrah.
“We’re stronger. More powerful. Humans are beneath us!
” Ciara yells, making sure the hunters and supes can hear.
Our shield is down, which is something we anticipated.
The witches on our side are already working to restore it.
“Do you really think this plan to reveal our world to them and become equals will work? They will always be the prey.”
Ciara tries to shoot an electric current at us, but the front line of witches blocks it. The black stream of light bounces off like a trampoline, fizzling out the rest of her beam.
“Impressive,” Ciara says with a smirk. Though I don’t miss the flicker of concern that crosses her face.
Maybe she wasn’t expecting us to gather such a large army.
“We will not become the monsters they believe us to be,” Xander says, joining Saoirse at the front of the line. The coven leader holds up her hands, palms faced out, ready for another attack. “We will not allow you to harm innocent souls.”
Evangeline stands just behind him, her right palm with the hexafoil mark given to her by her mother faced out and ready.
The mark is a weapon holding the power to turn gargoyles to stone.
We’re not sure how it’ll work on humans or other supes.
It’s only been used to take down Xander’s brother, but we believe she’ll be able to wield the sunlight on any evil entity.
As king of the New York City gargoyles, it’s Xander’s duty to be on the frontlines. Our destiny is to protect humans from supernatural beings like the black magic-wielding witch before us.
Thorne and I would be next to Xander if it weren’t for the plan to slip away and sneak inside to find Farrah.
“Xander Basque. It’s a shame your brother failed to take over. He was a promising ally. Him and that rogue vampire that tried to kill the former vampire queen’s mate. Sadly, both were too stupid and weak to follow through with our plan.”
Our plan?
We knew Magnus had a witch helping him. He admitted as much. Now it’s all coming together.
Ciara is the mastermind.
She’s leading the charge to reveal supes to humans, but she doesn’t want unity. She wants to capture and enslave them, or worse… kill them.
Now she’s using the hunters to help her. She deceived them to form her army. I’m surprised there are no other supes helping, but I suppose after two other failed attempts, she either didn’t trust another supe to get the job done, or no being was willing to help her.
That might be because most monster species have created strict laws to prevent traitorous acts in response to the unveiling plan. Punishment for breaking such laws is automatic death.
Now the unveiling plan is in jeopardy with the shield deactivated. The witches are frantically working to repair it, but any nearby human can witness this face-off and impending battle. They could easily whip out their cell phone and upload the footage online.
Then the conspiracies will begin.
Will people believe it’s real?
We just have to hope we didn’t miss anyone in the evacuation order and there’s no one around to hit record.
“What will the humans think when they see all these mortal men and women here beside me killed by a bunch of monsters?”
That’s all the warning we get before Ciara whistles, and the hunters take off running, their weapons perched high over their heads while yelling at the top of their lungs.
The battle begins.
I don’t waste time and bolt, not caring if Thorne is following.
I pass by hunters being taken to the ground by magic and left unconscious.
It’s what we planned. Mira suggested striking them with spells to avoid killing them.
They’ll be left in a magic-induced coma until the fighting ends, and they can be locked up.
A few hunters, like Dean, reach the frontlines and Xander steps up to go one on one with him. Rorik has disappeared, and I assume it’s to follow Ciara who is also nowhere to be found.
It’s all the battle I see before I disappear down the side of the building.
Determined to save my mate.