Chapter 35
THIRTY-FIVE
Z
I ran out of the tent to see absolute fucking chaos.
“How the fuck did this happen?” I asked Stefan as I grabbed my sword off my back.
Fuck, I wished I had a gun, but they were rare and hard to come by. We reserved our few guns for those who trained with them extensively.
“They killed all of our sentries. By the time anyone could sound the alarm, they were already in camp.” The human’s eyes were wide with fear.
Everywhere I looked, I saw ghouls fighting against nightmares and humans alike.
Ghouls were hideous creatures, with papery skin tugged tight over emaciated bodies. Wisps of graying hair erupted from the top of the creatures’ heads. They had glowing red eyes and serrated teeth the size of my hand.
If you got too close, they would use those teeth to rip you to shreds.
And they were here.
In camp.
Attacking my people.
Anger reverberated through me, but I knew I needed to keep a sound mind. They needed a leader, not a warrior consumed with thoughts of battle.
I turned towards Stefan, only to see that Jolene and Mali had both joined him.
“Jolene, Mali.” I nodded at the two women. “Go to the school. Make sure there are adequate defenses protecting the children. If not?—”
“We’ll do what we need to do,” Mali assured me, already taking off at a run, her vampire speed allowing her to blur with the scenery.
Jolene nodded once and then hurried after her.
“Stefan, gather our forces. Take the south side. It isn’t about protecting our camp but about getting as many of us away from here as possible.”
Shock widened his eyes. “We’re abandoning our camp?”
“We don’t have a choice,” I said. “Aaliyah knows where we are. It’s not safe.”
Stefan looked as if he wanted to argue but decided against it. Without another word—and only a single longing glance in my direction that I ignored—he hurried in the direction I’d indicated.
All we could do now was fight the first wave of attackers and abandon camp before the second wave arrived.
I didn’t like running—it went against my very nature to do that—but sometimes, we didn’t have a choice. There were too many innocents here for me to feel comfortable starting an entire war. And if we sent the innocents away and left all our able-bodied warriors to fight, then they would be unprotected. However, if we sent them with our warriors, then this battle would be over in seconds, and those who stayed behind would be nothing but a sacrifice.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I wouldn’t.
The day was thick with smoke and the bitter tang of blood. Screams cut through the air, sharp and desperate, as the ghouls poured over our camp like a flood of darkness.
I didn’t have time to think, only to act. I already held my sword, its cold steel comforting in the chaos. The firelight flickered, casting twisted shadows over the tents as the creatures clawed their way through, their eyes burning with hunger.
With a roar, I charged into battle, swinging my sword at the approaching enemies with ruthless determination and single-minded focus.
A ghoul rushed at me, its red eyes burning like polished garnet stones, but I stealthily ducked out of the way and then popped up behind it. The sword caught in the fleshy part of the creature’s neck, and I watched with only a modicum of satisfaction as the head rolled in the opposite direction of its body.
There was no time to revel in the kill. More were coming—always more.
Another ghoul lunged at me, its claws slashing through the air. I sidestepped, raising my sword just in time to block its attack. It snarled, its breath foul, and I could smell the rot on its skin. I shoved it back with all my strength, hearing the sickening squelch as its body hit the dirt.
But it wasn’t enough. Another one came, then another, until they surrounded me.
I gritted my teeth and raised my sword again, my heart pounding in my chest. This was my camp, my people, and I would die before I let them fall.
Stab, cut, kill.
Stab, cut, kill.
I did this a few more times, my movements nothing but a repetitive dance, until the ground around me was cluttered with dead bodies. Only then did I allow my gaze to travel the battlefield, searching for my mates.
Everywhere I looked, a bloody battle between nightmares, humans, and ghouls raged. There must’ve been at least fifty monsters left. Maybe more. But we were pushing them back with a lethal intensity that we’d honed over the weeks. Our fighters weren’t perfect, but they could shoot, stab, and hit better than they could before we began our training.
I watched Jolene, the sweetest shifter I knew, dive at a ghoul in her tiger form. She ripped the head straight off the creature and then tossed it aside. A human, one of our soldiers, hurried by her, and Jolene?—
My breath caught, my feet glued to the ground, as a cold sweat prickled my skin.
She slashed at the human with her claws, sending him tumbling to the ground, bloody gashes running across the length of his back.
“JOLENE!” I screamed, but that one word was lost in the cries and screams of battle.
What the fuck was she doing?
Why was she attacking a human?
Directly in front of me, a mermaid and incubus fought side by side, the mermaid holding a gun and the incubus wielding a wickedly sharp sword. As I watched, horrified, the mermaid grabbed the sword out of the incubus’s hand with a hissed, “My sword.” The incubus, unable to defend himself, was swarmed by half a dozen ghouls.
Fucking hell.
I raced forward and slashed at the nearest ghoul, beheading him. I stabbed my sword through the second ghoul and then kicked out at the third. My moves provided just enough distraction for the incubus to wiggle free, jump to his feet, and hurry away, hopefully to grab another weapon and rejoin the fight.
I made quick work of dispatching the remaining ghouls around me. When the last one fell at my feet, its mottled mouth opened in a silent cry, I finally turned towards the mermaid who’d started this mess to begin with. I didn’t know what I expected to see on his face—guilt, maybe, or even fear.
But all that stared back at me was pure avarice as he eyed the sword I carried.
“I want that sword,” he whispered, taking a step closer.
What the hell?
I didn’t know this mermaid’s name, but I recognized him as someone who had been a part of the resistance for years. He was kind. Loyal.
Though you never would’ve expected it from looking at him now.
His hands curled into fists at his sides. “Give me the sword!”
His words were practically a bellow.
“No can do.” Then, because I had no other options, I hit him with the pommel of the very weapon he wanted to steal. “Sorry about this,” I said as he fell unconscious.
What the fuck was going on?
Jolene attacked a human because it got too close to her. This mermaid almost got an incubus killed because he wanted his sword. They were?—
Time stopped.
My heart plummeted to my feet, and icy dread ricocheted down my spine.
Aaliyah could exacerbate sins.
Amplify them.
Make it so it was all the nightmare could focus on.
Was she doing it to my soldiers?
But not everyone is under the influence, I reasoned to myself, trying to calm my pounding heart. Most of the nightmares are fighting, not giving in to their sin. They are ? —
Then I realized that everyone still fighting were of the sins that hadn’t completed the trials.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Shadows. Mermaids. Shifters. They still had yet to complete Lilith’s stupid trials, and they were the only ones who seemed to be affected by whatever Aaliyah was doing to them.
But did that mean…?
A flash of red out of my peripheral captured my attention. I spun, my heart racing, only to see a figure dash through the forest away from me.
Aaliyah didn’t just send an army.
She was here too.