Chapter 47 The Cavalry Arrives
The Cavalry Arrives
Sage
Ifelt the shift in the air immediately. Victor’s fingers tightened around my waist, like he’d sensed a threat on the horizon.
From behind Premier Hellmora, a demon leaned forward.
Not just any demon
Ronan.
I’d known it was him immediately—all the charms in Lundaria couldn’t have hidden my mate from me.
But what was he doing here? He was going to get himself killed!
The glamour faltered. The sharp planes of his face, the familiar angles of his jaw, the curve of his horns, and the golden eyes I’d memorized… they all emerged, flickering in and out like a light bulb at the end of its days. Then the illusion shattered completely.
He was him, my mate, bare and unhidden.
Victor froze, his grip on me tightening even further. His eyes darted over Ronan, confusion twisting his features.
“What… what is this?” Victor hissed. “Blackthorne? Asmodiel, you… why did you hire this bounty hunter?”
Ronan tilted his head, smoke curling out of his nose. “I find it a little odd that you worked so hard to scrub the world of Sage’s existence, and yet you never even bothered to look into the man you hired to bring her back.”
The visage of the guard to his side melted away next, revealing an older man so similar to Ronan he must have been family. A man I recognized from somewhere.
“Oniguro…” Victor growled.
Oniguro… the crime family from Ignareth.
Did that mean…
Was Ronan in the mafia?
“You have no claims here, no debts to collect. Explain yourselves.”
“We don’t need to explain anything to a fucking bloodsucker,” the elder Oniguro stated, his voice low and controlled. “Now, you can either hand over my future daughter-in-law and we leave you with your life intact, or…”
Balls of flame burst to life in Ronan’s palms, skittering along his hands and forearms like mice along a wall.
“Or we make your poor wife a widow,” Ronan finished.
I felt Vorthain’s cold, dark power begin to surge behind us. “So you’re the one Sage couldn’t forget.”
Victor’s head swiveled between me, the dark priest, and the demon threat across the small coffee table. “For the love of Sanguiel, someone explain to me right now why the Oniguros are in my office demanding my mate!”
“They’re here because you’re not my mate,” I replied, smiling at Ronan.
He winked, making my heart flutter.
Victor grabbed the hair at the nape of my neck, forcing my head back. “What was that, darling?”
“I said,” I gritted my teeth, holding out my hand to stop Ronan from intervening. The pain was nothing compared to the joy of finally seeing the look on Victor’s face when I told him the truth. “You’re not my mate. Ronan is.”
Victor’s expression blanked, and then his jaw clenched. “Ronan…” He whispered his name like a curse, then faced my demon mate again. “This is impossible. She’s mine!”
“She isn’t yours,” Ronan said, stepping forward. Orange sparks licked the ceiling as the flames grew larger. “And she never was.”
The room detonated.
Asmodiel ducked and moved out of the action as Ronan leapt over the couch, kicking the small table between the couches, splintering wood that slammed into Victor’s knees. I shrieked as Victor shoved me off his lap, and barely caught myself on the arm of the chair.
Victor then roared, moving faster than my eyes could follow. He pushed into Ronan with such force that the couch groaned under the impact. Ronan grunted, fire flaring in his hands, throwing Victor off balance.
I ran behind the desk, hoping that would be enough to shield me from the fiery shrapnel.
“You think a few flames will stop me?” Victor spat, leaping and grabbing a hanging light fixture as leverage to fling himself at Ronan again.
“A little more than a few,” Ronan growled.
The rest of the demons joined the fray, and they all collided in the center of the room, a violent inferno threatening to consume everything in its path.
Victor escaped the arms of the demons holding him back and slammed Ronan against the floor, knocking the wind out of him, but Ronan rolled, flames snaking up the marble columns, and shoved Victor back into the bookshelves.
Victor snarled, swinging with his enhanced strength, and Ronan ducked, rolling under the blow. Fire shot from his fingertips, burning the floor where Victor had stood moments before.
The vampire guards finally poured in, teeth bared and claws extended, but the demons answered in kind. Fire met fang, and the room became a blur of heated motion. I could barely keep up with my eyes, let alone think, as chaos swirled around us.
One figure, however, stood stationary, simply observing the melee with vague interest. Why wasn’t Vorthain helping Victor?
Not that I wanted him to, of course. But his decision not to intervene was troubling.
Victor swung again, catching Ronan by the shoulder and hurling him into the far couch. It cracked under the force. Ronan sprang up immediately, flames flaring around his hands, and tackled Victor backward, slamming him into the wall.
The impact split the air with heat and power, and I ducked, my heart hammering in my chest. Demons and vampires collided, the sound of ripping fabric, shattering furniture, and snarls filling the room.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted him—the vampire from the hallway. Calm, precise, and utterly composed amidst the madness, walking straight through the fray like it was a scene choreographed just for his entrance.
Was he actually whistling?
When the time comes, stick with me.
He reached behind the desk for my hand, steady and sure, and I took it without hesitation as he exchanged a secret nod with Ronan.
Victor’s dark gaze swung toward the vampire guard. “Take her to the rooms!” he barked, assuming the vampire was loyal to him. “Now!”
But I knew who he was really working with, and it wasn’t the Premier, and I wasn’t going back.
No. I was getting out.
His grip guided me through the wrecked office, past broken furniture and scorched carpets.
Ronan blocked another blow from Victor, fire flaring, fists smashing into super powered flesh. Each hit sent shockwaves across the office, shaking me to my bones.
We reached the hallway, smoke and brimstone stinging my eyes. The vampire’s hold on me was sure, leading me away, keeping me low and away from debris, and I dared a glance back at the fight still raging, Ronan and Victor colliding like unstoppable forces.
“What’s your name?” I asked, my voice nearly a whisper.
He paused for a moment, and I wondered if I’d get a real answer from him.
“Draven,” he finally replied. “Colleague of your mate’s. Well, former colleague now, apparently. Guess his old man finally found a way to drag him back to Ignareth.”
Oh, Hecara, I hadn’t even processed that information yet, but everything Ronan had told me about how much he hated his family and his hometown… It all made sense now. He was an Oniguro, one of the major crime families of the demon city-state.
But he had gone back, all because of me.
When I whimpered at the realization that Ronan had sacrificed the life he’d built for himself just to rescue me, Draven looked back, his face scrunching in discomfort.
“It’s not your fault, sorry. You’re his mate. He would have done anything for you. Just like you did everything you could to save his stupid ass, right?”
I nodded, tears blurring my vision.
His lips flattened, and after checking to make sure we were alone, he pulled me into a hug and started up an alpha purr to calm me.
And oh, did it. I knew Ronan’s would be better, especially tuned for me, but Draven’s was practically lyrical.
Once the distress melted from my body, he stopped, hands on my shoulders and pushing me back so he could inspect my face. “Good?”
“Good. Thank you.”
The corner of his mouth lifted, and I had a feeling that was as close to a smile as he ever got.
“Come on, let’s get you out of here. The twins are waiting for us in the car, and then we’ll rendezvous with—”
“This isn’t the way to the Premier’s rooms.”
A shadow, dark and cold, fell over us.
Vorthain. Now he was stepping in.
He was silent as he moved, a living ghost floating above the carpet. Draven pulled me behind him. “I still don’t know what you are, but it’s too late. Ronan will take care of Corvane, and Sage will go home with him. This fucked up experiment is over.”
“Over?” He came closer, his power nearly smothering. “Oh no, I’ve invested far too much time into this omega. This is only the beginning.”
The hood to his robe slipped back, like he had simply decided the disguise was no longer necessary.
His face wasn’t as monstrous as his teeth, but that somehow made it worse.
His skin looked thinned, as though something underneath it pressed outward, stretching it just enough to remind me it wasn’t normal. His eyes were pitch black, the absence of sclera glaring in their wrongness, like holes punched straight through the world.
Every instinct I had screamed at once.
This wasn’t a vampire.
It wasn’t a demon, or a seraph, witch, merfolk, werewolf or elf. Not anything I had ever felt in a ritual circle, spellwork, or whispered warning.
It wasn’t an alpha, beta, or omega
This was something else.
Something old enough that my magic didn’t recognize it. It only recoiled.
Draven shifted subtly in front of me, his stance widening, shoulders squaring.
Whatever this thing was, he felt it too.
Other.
Wrong.
Vorthain lunged with speed, striking at Draven with a force that rattled my teeth in my skull as I was propelled backwards into the wall, the paintings shaking behind me.
Draven met him blow for blow, fangs bared and strikes precise, sparks flying as their powers collided—vampiric strength against a void that threatened to suck him in.
But soon Vorthain’s hits began to land harder, pushing Draven back, forcing him to retreat step by step.
My heart slammed as I watched the duel escalate. Draven was giving it everything he had, which should have been enough against even Victor. And yet Vorthain was hardly winded, as though he were merely indulging a child in their useless efforts.
A wet scream followed by deep growling and snapping broke through the tension, and the light of the full moon appeared from behind a cover of clouds. Its silver glare shone through the corridor window, illuminating two shadows growing in size behind Vorthain.
Werewolves, blood dripping from their snarling jaws.
Draven barked a laugh, the relief on his face putting me at ease. Thank Hecara, these two were on our side. “About time you assholes showed up.”
The alpha I recognized, even in his shifted form. It could only be Garrick, Ronan’s handler. The one who’d caught us at the rest stop and forced Ronan to bring me back.
I should have been mad, but considering he’d unknowingly saved my mate’s life, I supposed I could let it slide.
Next to him was a beta I didn’t know, albeit one nearly large and strong enough to be an alpha himself.
They stalked their prey, and Vorthain focused his attention on the new threats.
The big one lunged, claws slashing through the air, catching Vorthain across the chest and sending him staggering.
“Move!” Draven hissed, urgency threading his voice. He grabbed my hand, yanking me forward, twisting us around corners as Vorthain roared in fury and turned to face his new attackers.
Smoke and debris flew around us, but Draven moved like he’d been born for this moment, sliding me behind him, keeping us low and out of the fray.
Finally, we exited the mansion to find more chaos. Demons and vampires fought, demons and vampires fell, with blood and pain spilling into the air. We leapt over bodies, no time to mourn the loss of life over a battle started for me, and headed towards a gate at the back, open and ready.
On the street, a garishly pink car waited, its engine running. I spied two winged figures already inside.
We dove into the back seat, Draven slamming the door closed behind us. “Drive!” he commanded.
The twin seraphim looked at each other before turning around to face Draven. The alpha behind the wheel lifted an eyebrow. “Bossy tonight, aren’t we?”
“So bossy,” said her omega sister, smacking gum and grinning widely. Then her brows furrowed, and she reached towards my vampire protector. “You got a little something on your cheek.”
He knocked her hand away with an annoyed scoff, causing her to laugh. “Ella, text Ronan the rendezvous point. He had no idea we were coming tonight, and he’s going to rip us apart if he thinks we’re hiding his mate.”
She grinned again, giving him a mocking salute. “Aye aye, captain!”
The tires screeched, burning rubber on stone, and we were gone.
From the back window, I saw the mansion engulfed in flames, and I worried for a moment about Ronan. He could survive his own fire, couldn’t he?
When I finally turned around, and a pair of blue eyes found mine in the rear view mirror, then shifted to Draven’s as she spoke. “You look a little shaken.”
Draven released a heavy sigh and looked at me. “Yeah, I’m fucking shaken. What the hell was that guy?”
My arms instinctively rose to hold myself. “I have no idea. All he ever told me was that he served an old god.”
Ella, the omega, shook out her wings as she shivered. “Well, that’s not creepy. Anyway, it’s nice to meet you, Sage! Mates with Ronan, that’s… wow, you have my condolences. He’s a moody fucker.”
I laughed. “He’s not so bad.”
The sisters looked at each other, identical, knowing smiles on their faces, and I tried and failed to smile back.
I was leaving. And Ronan… my mate… was still in there. I wouldn’t, couldn’t, relax just yet.