28. Poe
Poe
I grabbed the bond between Lycan and me with my claws, pulling the tether tight and guiding the pack to the old Victorian manor twenty miles outside of London. The closer we got, the more his anguish radiated through my soul.
Ava twisted her fingers in between mine and gripped them tight to ground me with her presence. I couldn’t have made the drive without her. My vision kept blinking in and out, and the more I tried to draw Lycan’s pain out of him, into me, the more agitated my wolf became.
“There,” I growled. “There!”
The house loomed out of the woods like a Goliath, some kind of monster from a twisted fairy tale.
The shutters were falling off the windows, and the roof had giant gaping holes from disrepair.
Still, the pull from my mate inside screamed over my terror, willing me to hop out of the vehicle when Aquila put it in park.
Orion, Ren, and Maeve climbed out, circling to the front as the rest of our pack arrived behind us.
“You’re sure?” Orion asked, glancing up at the decrepit house.
“Yes,” I said. “Certain.”
“It doesn’t seem like anyone’s in there,” Aquila said. “The lights are out. It doesn’t look big enough to hold a horde.”
“That’s the glamor magic,” Bridge explained.
“Why aren’t they guarding it?” Sol asked. “It’s almost like we could just—” She almost took a step forward before Orion yanked her back.
“It’s warded,” Bridge said. “I can feel the magic from here. Give me a few minutes.”
She grabbed Leander’s hand and held her other one up, chanting and whispering to herself.
“She’s already doing something to him,” I said. “It’s…Gods, it’s fucking terrible.” I wanted to keel over, vomit in the dirt, and curl into a ball until it stopped.
“Poe, we’ll get him.” Ava rubbed my back. “Hang in there a little longer.”
I didn’t know how I would. Soft white light emanated from Bridge’s hand; her eyes closed while she worked. An electric charge of magic ghosted over my skin, raising the hairs on the back of my neck, but I couldn’t focus on that.
I had to get inside. I had to drag him back from whatever hell Evelyn inflicted and make him swear never to force me away again.
“Maybe I should call out to her,” Ava suggested. “Maybe she’ll lower the wards if she knows I’m here.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Guin said. “We stick to the plan.”
“Two teams,” Orion said. “Once we’re in there, Mill’s team goes for our brothers. Ava and Poe, you’re with them. Everyone else, you know your positions.”
Minutes passed like centuries while I waited for the wards to break.
Bridge’s energy pulsed and whipped around us, growing heavier, rising higher, until suddenly…
it snapped. A translucent veil dropped from around the manor, revealing an ivory building fit for a queen.
It was twice the size of its glamored version, with big, gaudy windows and turrets on each corner.
The gardens had grown wild, crawling over the terrace, and despite its grandeur, it had fallen into disrepair.
“Go!” Bridge shouted through gritted teeth. “You’ve got ten minutes. Maybe less. Go now!”
Orion took the lead, holding up his rifle while Ren and Mill fell in behind him. Sol, Maeve, and Guin took the middle, each loaded down with guns and steel bullets. Ava and I went in after, the rest of the pack behind us.
We made it two steps inside before the first wave hit us. Vampires poured in from every direction. Five jumped from the second-story landing, taking Orion down under their weight. Sol screamed and shot at them. Ten more came at us from the left, nearly as many from the right.
Gunshots rang out, echoing through the dark, desolate space, but I had my orders.
Get to Lycan. Get to Moose. Get to Locust.
I’d tacked on my own priority at the end: Kill Evelyn.
Orion wanted her breathing. He could have whatever was left of her.
I wouldn’t have this bitch thinking she could come after us again.
No matter what happened here today, no matter what it cost, I’d take her out or go down trying.
Still gripping Ava’s hand, I weaved through the action, shooting a vampire between the brows as it raced toward us.
I ripped another off Orion and blew its brains out before helping my VP to his feet.
We worked as a team, slicing down the undead in quick, efficient movements. The battle echoed around me, shrieks mixing with curses and the wet slap of blood on plaster.
My wolf plowed to the forefront, infuriated at being kept from his mate, determined to get through this wall of fucking bloodsuckers. I aimed and fired at one climbing the walls, barely waiting for him to fall off before turning right and decimating another.
In my periphery, I saw Ava doing the same. She’d grown up on a ranch. She knew her way around a gun, but her hands shook with adrenaline and shock. This didn’t stop her from wiping the floor with these idiots.
Just as I took another one down, a female vampire flew at my mate from behind, claws and fangs extended.
“Turn!” I shouted telepathically.
Ava reacted quickly, facing the vampire and firing just as it collapsed on her, taking her to the ground. I rushed over and yanked the fucking thing off, tossing it to the side.
“You okay?” I asked, helping her up.
“Fine,” she answered, but her voice broke, and I knew the feeling. None of this was fine. This was carnage and chaos. This was violence on an unprecedented scale. What I wouldn’t give to be back in that cabin with her and Lycan.
Once we’d cleared the vampires in the foyer, we pushed on. The pain surging off Lycan tugged me to the right, and I followed it down a narrow hallway, holding Ava’s hand, listening for my pack’s footsteps behind me.
We came to a split in the hallway with two options: left or right. My instincts told me left.
“This way,” I said, taking a step in that direction, but as soon as I did, all of the doors opened on either side of the corridor, more vampires spilling out into the narrow area. “Fuck.”
That rampage in the foyer had cost us. We’d come fully loaded, but ammunition wasn’t infinite. We’d have to cut down to hand-to-hand soon, which meant closer contact and the potential for more casualties. How much time did we have left? Five minutes? Maybe less?
“Right,” Orion said. “Time to split up. Ava and Poe, go. We’ll draw them back.”
I hated the thought of leaving them to fend for themselves, but I’d agreed to the plan.
We all did. If we couldn’t get in together, we’d prioritize and delegate.
I was the one connected to Lycan, the compass leading the way.
Evelyn wanted Ava. If she wouldn’t stay back to save herself, then she’d stay with me the entire time.
I fired my last two bullets at the closest vampires before tossing the gun away and grabbing the steel machete on my belt.
One hand in Ava’s, I sliced through vampires, cutting their heads off, blood spattering the walls and my clothes and my face.
My pack rallied behind us, but we kept going, dodging and ducking through corpses as fast as we could pile them up.
“Ren! No!” Guin shouted, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Lycan’s sister go down, clutching at her midsection. A lance of pain shot through my chest from the pack bonds, and I hesitated, almost turning back.
“We have to keep going,” Ava muttered. “The pack has her. C’mon.”
Lycan might end up hating me for leaving his sister wounded, but Ava was right.
We all knew the cost. We all knew what might happen if we came here tonight.
We’d done it anyway, and we were running out of time.
I turned right at the end of the corridor, leaving the chaos of the fight with my pack in the rearview.
My heart stammered with every step I took, my veins burning and my chest tightening.
The closer we got, the more the bond rattled with fury.
It should have surprised me, or at least warned me, that we didn’t encounter any more vampires on our own, and some small voice whispered, This is what she wants.
But my focus had narrowed to finding Lycan, to stopping whatever fucked-up ritual had begun.
We ran to the end of that hallway before turning down another.
If it weren’t for this primal instinct yanking in my gut, I would have already been lost in this labyrinthine shithole.
But once we made another left, I pulled up short outside a huge set of wooden doors, intricately carved with swirls and floral designs.
The static charge of magic coated my tongue as I panted, trying to steady my heart.
I didn’t know what we’d find on the other side. Perhaps Lycan was in pieces, mutilated by perverse magic. Perhaps we wouldn’t be able to stop it, no matter what we tried.
“Remember the plan,” Ava said. “I go for Lycan. You cut down anyone in the way.”
I took a deep breath, wondering how much longer we had on Bridge’s countdown, before steadying myself on one foot and kicking open the doors with the other.
Vampires stood around a white circle on the ground, all clothed in pale capes with hoods drawn over their faces.
They chanted in low, drawling whispers while five witches held their hands up, swirls of mist and light beaming from their palms. Evelyn stood in the center with her arms stretched up, her head back on her shoulders, her mouth open as if awaiting divine sustenance.
Black veins protruded from her neck and disappeared under her clothes, seeming to undulate in time with the vampires’ chants.
I found Moose and Locust first, kneeling around the inside of the circle, their wrists bound, their mouths gagged, pools of blood under their legs.
Lycan sat opposite Locust, a piece of cloth around his mouth, and the sight of his beaten, bloody flesh sent my wolf into a rampage.
Snarling, I bared my fangs and sliced at the closest vampire, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Ava sprinted toward Lycan, but the commotion seemed to wake Evelyn from her trance.
“Ahh, Avalon,” she said, dull crimson eyes settling on my mate. “Good of you to join us.”
“We don’t have much time, ma’am,” one of the witches muttered. “The sacrifice is here. We need to move fast.”
Fuck. That.
Evelyn nodded, and I’d just been about to descend on these motherfuckers like a wild beast when a hard kick to my knees sent me to the ground.
My face slammed into the hardwood, my vision blacking out as ringing silenced my ears.
My machete flew out of my hands, skittering out of reach.
I pushed the floor away and tried to stand, to shove the weight on my back off me, but it did no good.
Two vampires grabbed one arm, two more grabbed the other.
I struggled against them, and I would have broken free.
But one of the witches came closer and grabbed my face, holding my gaze up to hers.
My bond to Lycan went taut, then wrenched. Every muscle in my body froze. My magic seized. She held my bond in her fist and with it, my free will.
No. NO!
Fingers twisted in my hair and yanked my head up, forcing me to watch Ava walk into the circle. She dragged her feet like she was being compelled, like the magic had taken over her willpower.
“Watch what happens, Wolf,” the vampire holding my head said. “Watch as we bleed her dry. Your mate, too. Maybe, if you’re lucky, we’ll kill you once this is done.”
My eyes burned as tears streaked down my cheeks.
My wolf bucked against the mental hold, snarling and struggling to break free.
It couldn’t have come to this; I wouldn’t accept it.
Everything I’d done. Everything I’d been through.
All of it boiled down to helplessly watching as some rotting vampire used her crony witches to tear apart my mates.
And I could do nothing…nothing…to stop it.