Chapter Seventeen
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Tessa
Midnight doesn’t just arrive, it falls, heavy and relentless, swallowing whatever peace the night might’ve offered. The courtyard erupts into motion, every detail a carefully planned maneuver.
Bikes glide into formation with the precision of soldiers lining up for war, headlights flaring through the drifting snow.
Engines rumble beneath the cold, their growls vibrating through the ground, through my boots, through my bones.
Brothers move with purpose, checking magazines, snapping holsters shut, adjusting armor that looks far too thin for what we’re about to face.
Their breath fogs in the air, mixing with exhaust until the whole world seems to pulse with heat and frost. Somewhere off to the side, someone whispers a goodbye. Gloves clasp. Shoulders are clapped. Promises made in low, rough voices fill the spaces between heartbeats.
The scent of fuel and winter bites at my lungs, but beneath it thrums something sharper, fear, stark and metallic, braided with a fierce, unshakeable determination this club wears like a second skin. It settles over all of us, humming beneath the roar of engines and the crunch of boots on the snow.
Movement catches my eye, Blade, doubled over slightly, not from pain, but because Hannah has thrown her arms around him.
I can’t hear what she’s saying, not over the engines and the chaos, but I don’t have to.
It’s all there in the way she holds his face in her hands, in the way his forehead drops to hers as if he can’t bear to break even an inch of space between them.
Whatever their words are, they’re stitched with love and fear and something so raw it makes my throat tighten.
He kisses her softly, reverently, a promise, and for a moment the whole brutal world seems to quiet around them.
A blur streaks across the snow.
A gray cat barrels straight toward Vex like a guided missile.
He crouches without hesitation, scooping her up as she chirps in a bossy little voice.
The terrifying vampire who could tear monsters apart with his bare hands melts instantly, rubbing his cheek against her head as she headbutts him like she owns him.
Maybe she does.
I walk toward them, and he turns, cradling her with ridiculous gentleness. “Tessa,” he says, “this is Grace.”
Grace looks at me.
Then at him.
Then lets out a low, disgruntled growl as if announcing that I am intruding on her territory.
Vex blinks. “Grace,” he murmurs, offended but amused, “be nice.”
She growls louder.
Despite everything, the fear, the looming battle, I laugh. A real one. Short and surprised and painfully needed.
“Looks like she’s claimed you,” I say.
His smile is small but soft. “Seems like it.”
Hannah finds me as I’m putting on the heavy leather jacket Vex gave me, her eyes red-rimmed but dry. She takes Grace from Vex and pulls me to one side as her furball growls continuously.
“You bring him back,” she says, gripping one of my shoulders. “You bring all of them back.”
“I’ll do everything I can.”
“I know you will.” She pulls me into a fierce one armed hug. “You’re stronger than you think, Tessa. Don’t forget that when things get dark.”
Then she’s gone, disappearing back into the clubhouse where the those who aren’t coming with us are hunkered down behind wards and weapons.
Vex appears at my side, his presence a solid anchor in the swirling activity. He’s dressed for war, leather reinforced with kevlar, weapons strapped to every available surface, his eyes already white with vampire intensity.
“Ready?” he asks.
“No. But let’s go anyway.”
His mouth quirks in something that might be a smile if we weren’t about to ride into hell. He hands me a helmet, it’s matte black, fitted with communications gear and helps me secure it. His fingers linger on my jaw.
“Stay close to me. No matter what happens, you stay close.”
“I will.”
“I mean it, Tessa. The moment things go sideways—”
“Already planning on staying glued to you. I heard you.” I catch his hand, pressing it against my chest where my heart hammers against my ribs. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Through the bond, I feel his fear for me, his love, his absolute determination to keep me alive even if it costs him everything. The depth of it steals my breath.
“Let’s move out!” Blade’s voice cuts through the noise. “Chrome, Fury, you’re on point. Prophet rides with me. Vex and Tessa, center position. Rooster, Scout, take the rear. We ride hard, we ride fast, and we watch each other’s backs.”
“Nobody fucks with the Kings!” someone shouts, and the cry is taken up by every brother present.
“Nobody fucks with the Kings!”
The words reverberate through my chest, through the bond, through the very ground beneath our feet. This is what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself. To have brothers, a family, willing to ride into death for you.
Vex swings onto his bike, and I climb on behind him.
The moment I settle against his back, arms wrapped around his waist, the world narrows to just us.
His strength, solid and reassuring. His scent or leather and winter and something uniquely him.
The steady presence of him through the bond, a constant reminder I’m not alone in this.
The engine roars to life between my thighs, vibration traveling up my spine.
Then we’re moving.
The convoy rolls out of the compound in perfect formation, headlights cutting through the darkness. The road is empty at this hour, snow-covered and treacherous, but these men know how to ride. They’ve been doing it for decades.
We leave the compound behind quickly, civilization falling away until there’s nothing but wilderness and winter and the distant mountains rising against the star-studded sky.
The temperature drops with every mile, cold seeping through my layers despite the leather.
But Vex’s body is warm against my front, and the new vampire traits coursing through my veins helps me regulate better than I could have before.
The mark on my shoulder pulses in time with the engine.
At first, it’s subtle, a gentle throb that could be mistaken for the vibration of the bike. But the farther we ride, the more insistent it becomes. It’s not painful, not yet, but I can feel the pull. The seal site calling to the mark, or maybe the devourer calling to me through it.
Soon, something whispers in my mind. So soon now, little warden.
I press closer to Vex, and he must feel my tension because one hand leaves the handlebar long enough to squeeze my thigh in reassurance.
We’ve been riding for maybe an hour when Chrome’s voice crackles through the comms.
“Contact ahead. Two hundred yards. Multiple signatures.”
“Formation delta,” Blade orders. “Stay tight.”
The bikes shift, creating a defensive pattern with me and Vex at the center. My heart rate kicks up, and through the bond I feel Vex’s predatory focus sharpen to a razor edge.
Then I see them.
Ice shades. Dozens of them, materializing from the snow like they’ve always been there.
They’re not solid, more like suggestions of form made from frozen mist and malice.
Humanoid shapes with too many joints, too many angles, faces that shift between familiar and alien depending on how the moonlight hits them.
And they’re not alone.
Animals move between the shades, wolves and bears and things that might once have been moose but are now twisted into nightmare fuel.
Their eyes glow with cold blue light, frost coating their fur in crystalline patterns.
Steam rises from their mouths, but it’s not warm breath.
It’s cold exhaust, like they’re breathing out winter itself.
“Here we go,” Fury mutters over the comms.
The first shade lunges for Chrome’s bike. He swerves, raises his sawed-off shotgun, and blasts it apart in an eruption of snow and shrieking frost, only for three more take its place.
Then everything explodes into violence.
Bikes scatter as the creatures swarm. Vex accelerates, weaving between shades with precision that would be impossible for a human. I cling to him, feeling every shift of his body, every adjustment of balance through our connection.
A twisted wolf leaps for us. Vex doesn’t slow, he draws a gun with his free hand and fires three rounds. The wolf explodes into fragments of ice and corrupted flesh.
“Left!” I shout, seeing a shade materializing directly in our path.
Vex banks hard, and I lean with him, our bodies moving in perfect synchronization. The shade’s clawed hand whistles past my head close enough that I feel the cold of it against my cheek.
Behind us, Scout’s wings burst from his back, gossamer and iridescent even in the darkness. He rises above the chaos, silver light gathering in his hands before he releases it in a wave that disintegrates half a dozen shades at once.
“Keep moving!” Blade’s voice is steady despite the carnage. “Don’t let them bog us down!”
But it’s easier said than done. The shades keep coming, pouring out of the snowdrifts like an endless tide. And the animals are coordinating with them, herding us, trying to separate the pack.
Rooster goes down first.
His bike hits a patch of black ice, and he skids out. He’s rolling before he even stops, coming up with both guns drawn, but three shades are already on him.
“Rooster!” Scout dives, grabbing his brother and hauling him into the air just as corrupted jaws snap shut where his head had been.
“I’m good!” Rooster fires down into the mass of creatures below. “Bike’s fucked though!”
“We’ll double up. Keep fighting!”
Vex brings us around, positioning so I have a clear view of the battle. He presses a gun into my hand, the one I’ve been training with, it’s weight familiar now.
“You’re not a passenger,” he says through the comms, voice fierce. “You’re a fighter. So fight.”
The words ignite something in me.