Chapter 28
The room erupted—tables flipped as people scrambled to get to the exit.
Coins from the gambling den clattered to the ground.
Glass cups shattered and metal mugs crashed.
The group of warriors were the first out the door.
It was their duty to protect the city and if vampires were inside, they’d failed.
We dashed to our weapons and followed Vander outside. The four of us apprentices waited against the red brick building for his command. We weren’t in uniform and should be for any combat.
I peered down the street, my heart pounding as groups of terrified civilians ran in our direction. Warriors rushed toward them. Horse hooves thundered on the cobblestone as mounted soldiers rode by.
Vander swore and fisted his hands at his sides.
“The attack must be coming from the entrance gate and that’s pushing civilians this way.
” He let out a sharp breath. “Here’s what we’ll do.
The four of you will follow me to fight at the gate.
There is no time to go back to Drakthar to inform the Commanders. Someone else will do that.”
I bounced nervously on my toes. I’d thought that Nighthaven was impossible to penetrate. “Has this ever happened before?”
He nodded. “Yes, but not in our lifetimes.”
I couldn’t help but question the timing of this attack. The assassins were planning to move on Dravyn Knox and his battalion of vampires and then the first attack in over twenty years happens the night before?
A screaming middle-aged woman ran toward us.
Scarlet glistened down her neck from large puncture wounds.
The blood stained the chest of her violet dress.
“Vander,” I choked out and pointed at her.
He turned and in two quick steps he cut her down with a slice to her throat.
Followed by a quick thrust to her heart.
She clutched at herself before she fell.
Beside me, Taewyn jerked back. Celine gasped and Camden’s mouth dropped open.
“Destroy the heart even if someone is only bitten. We can take no chances.”
“Sir!” Taewyn gaped at her body crumpled on the ground. “She’s, she was—”
“Bitten by a vampire,” he snarled. “Kill anyone you see with a bite mark. Weapons in hand. With me.”
“Yes, sir,” all of us said at once. My head spun as the screams rose and more people ran by us.
Everyone here, even me, had become accustomed to being able to go out in the dark.
There were no shutters on windows here. No warning horns to get inside before the sun set.
The people of Nighthaven didn’t hide from the monsters that would drown in our blood and smile.
The speed at how quickly this city could be overrun with vampires if we didn’t stop this soon chilled me to the bone.
I ran in step with Vander, keeping up with his fast pace.
Ahead, a man had a woman pinned to the brick wall with his face buried in her neck.
She screamed and clawed at him. I was the first there and drove my sword through his side, cracking ribs.
He arched, half his face covered in blood, and fell back, turning to stone before he hit the ground.
Without thinking, I stabbed her through the heart too.
Blades cracked blades, screams and shouts came from the top of the wall as archers let loose their arrows.
We were a couple hundred yards from the entrance gate to Nighthaven—and the doors were open.
Barely, but enough to let them in. Through the fighting I spotted a group of warriors struggling to push it closed while vampires rammed the other side.
“We must close the door!” Vander shouted over the chaos.
“We’re with you, sir,” Celine said.
“Stay close to me. All of you.”
My heart thundered as we pushed forward.
Most of the civilians were gone now. Golden warrior armor glinted in the torchlight but the vampires who fought them wore black armor.
My blood chilled. These vampires were not the wildlings from Lothleton, they were from Nocturnus.
Trained soldiers able to wield swords and weapons, not just their teeth.
Engraved at the center of their chest plates were two wolves snarling on each side of a crown surrounded by a wreath of belladonna flowers. The royal crest of Nocturnus.
The five of us weaved around the battles and shoved against the massive door. The warriors beside us grunted and groaned with the effort. With his shoulder against the gate, driving his legs, Vander said, “Celine, Aesira, cut down anyone that comes through the door.”
Celine and I weren’t as strong as the men, even as ducai, so we dashed to the opening a few feet away. I swung my blade with fury. This place was supposed to be a sanctuary, the only one in our world. We couldn’t let them ruin it. We couldn’t always live in fear.
I moved like a night wind, invisible and quick, ducking under sword swings and leaping over kicks.
I found weak points in their armor and cut into flesh.
A vampire shadow walked and made my heart skip.
I swung and missed a few times, cutting through his shadow, but thankfully he had to wait a few minutes between phasing.
Celine stayed next to me as we fought off those slipping inside. Her blade moved with blurred speeds. These vampires didn’t scream like wild animals. They were silent as they fought and killed.
Arrows thudded into bodies and bounced off the cobblestone around us. More warriors joined us on the ground. The door’s movement shifted in our favor. “PUSH!” a man roared. “PUSH HARDER!”
On the outside a vampire with long black hair and skin pale as the moon shouted at his soldiers, “Don’t let the door close!” I’d never seen Dravyn Knox, but he matched that description. Was it possible this was him?
I sliced open the throat of a female vampire and kicked her back out the door. My spine tingled as I caught the lead vampire watching me through the crowd. Beside him, I recognized the vampire Vander and I had fought in the woods days before. Was this attack revenge for killing his woman?
I ducked under a sword and punched my blade through another chest, piercing armor and pushing to drive a vampire back into the wall. He gasped and dropped his sword. It clattered to the ground, and he turned to stone.
The vampire I recognized moved toward the gate’s opening. I peered at Vander through the fighting. He was still pushing against the door. Celine fought off a female vampire a few feet from me.
The sound of stone breaking was victory music. Vampires dropped all over.
I wanted to tell Vander who I suspected was here, but I couldn’t leave Celine’s side. He kept his eyes on me as he pushed.
My dreams. My mind ability. I’d always accidentally sent him my thoughts, but if I could do it now... I concentrated on Vander, picturing who I saw outside the gate. The man with the long black hair and the familiar vampire from the woods.
The roar of a man charging broke my concentration. I side-stepped and swung my sword up to meet his. The force of his blow knocked me back several steps. My shoulder hit the closed side of the metal gate.
My blood boomed in my ears. It was the vampire from the woods.
“I recognize those strange eyes,” he rumbled. “Bonecarver. Viper’s little pet.”
Out of the corner of my vision, I found Vander rushing toward me. “Aesira!”
“You two killed my wife.” Madness overcame his face, and he swung his sword. I ducked and his blade hit the metal gate behind me, striking sparks. The other door was almost closed now, despite the many vampires fighting to keep it open on the outside.
A vampire in command shouted at them, “Keep it open, you dogs!” But only a few more feet and the city would be secure again. I was fighting close enough to the opening that I could drive my attacker out.
“Aesira, to me! Come to me!” Vander shoved his way through the battle. We weren’t far apart but there was a crowd of chaos between us.
The vampire I fought screamed again and hacked at me. I blocked his blow and pulled Viper’s dagger and shoved it into the vampire’s upper thigh. By the blood squirting out, I’d hit an artery. He wailed and was suddenly jerked away from me.
Vander slammed him to the ground and shoved his sword into his heart. “Now you can meet your wife in the afterlife.”
Before he could even turn, two vampires jumped onto Vander’s back, knocking him off his feet.
He roared from his knees and jammed a dagger into the eye of the man on his right.
A scream caught in my throat as the other opened his mouth wide and went for Vander’s throat.
No! A raging beast I’d never felt before roared within me.
They would not kill him. I hacked wildly at the vampire’s neck until his head fell off.
Blood pooled, so much blood everywhere. I slipped in it. The screams and bellows rang in my ears.
Pain seared on my scalp as I was jerked by my hair. I squealed, trying to pull away, and twisted to see the black-haired vampire. “Vander!” I shrieked.
Vander threw the body of the vampire off him and turned toward me, eyes wide. I stumbled and writhed as I was dragged out the gate, out of the protection of the wall, and a moment later it slammed shut with a boom.
No.
My heart stuttered.
No.
I jammed my dagger into the arm that gripped me by the scalp. He didn’t let go, didn’t even flinch. He jerked my head back, forcing me to look up at him. I gritted my teeth to hold back a whimper. There was nothing but emptiness in his black eyes.
“Open the gate!” I heard Vander’s voice from the other side.
But they wouldn’t. They couldn’t do that just for me.
I still had my sword and thrust it at my captor’s gut. He moved just out of reach and kicked it out of my hand. It whirled to the ground, getting lost in the shin-high grass.