Chapter 42
FORTY-TWO
SLOAN
This time, when the fog of war settled over Sloan’s senses, she was ready. Her vision was red, her fangs had already elongated, but this was now to be expected. Her transition into vampire was becoming easier and easier to accept.
Sloan met Captain Hunt’s men head-on. Ashley kept stride with her as the two women cleaved their way through the vampire ranks. As instructed, Kade fell back to engage those vampires without mage swords.
The two women were polar opposites when it came to fighting, but each was twice as deadly as any warrior in the queen’s service.
Sloan was faster than the vampires who struck out at her with their glowing white swords.
For the most part, Sloan was able to dispatch them to the afterlife with single strokes, or at least wound them badly enough to remove them from the fight.
When her shimmering red sword made contact with one of her assailant’s weapons, a shower of sparks would erupt onto the battlefield.
Sloan didn’t waste time with trying to pick apart her enemies; she went for killing strikes. Soon, blood filled the air just as much as the showering sparks of their engagement.
Sloan could only keep track of Ashley out of the corner of her eye, but the undead woman was managing to hold her own.
The upper hand in both speed and strength belonged to her opponents, but Ashley made up for her handicaps with the brute power of her weapon compared to her opponents’, and her superior fighting style.
The swords the vampire soldiers from New Hope had been given were simple, single-handed weapons that were neither as long as Ashley’s nor as heavy. When Ashley’s weapon struck theirs, the weight of her superior blade knocked their own either out of their hands or back onto them.
On one occasion, Sloan witnessed Ashley bring her heavy weapon down onto a vampire soldier who tried to block the weapon with his own. The two blades erupted into a shower of sparks before Ashley’s sword bore down on the vampire, sending both of their weapons into his body.
Blood was so prevalent as Sloan fought, that the final transformation into her new identity begun to twist her desires.
Sloan was drenched in red from her brow to her boots.
A yearning nothing like she had ever experienced before overcame her to drink the wonderful, red liquid that oozed out of her enemies’ wounds.
Sloan shook her head in vain, trying to ignore the need.
Hunger like she had never known twisted at her stomach.
Sloan parried a blow from behind and, moving to her right, she lopped off the arm of an oncoming swing.
She was moving so fast, she had no time to plan her next strike; there was only time to react.
No matter how fast she moved, there was no escaping the urge to satisfy herself on the abundant amount of blood that soaked the battlefield. Hunger turned into thirst, and thirst turned into need. Sloan honestly thought that if she didn’t drink some of the blood soon, she would die.
Unable to stave off the desire any longer, Sloan gave into the thirst. Grabbing one of the soldiers by the neck, she swung him around and sunk her fangs into the thick part.
Immediately, the soldier went slack. The red hue Sloan saw through deepened to a dark crimson as the gloriousness of hot liquid soaked her throat.
Her stomach was soon satisfied with the wonderful feeling of being filled.
What’s more, Sloan felt a burst of energy. She’d been beginning to tire, but with the introduction of the blood, Sloan felt like she could take on the queen’s entire army. It wasn’t until she had drained the unlucky soldier dry that she realized the battle had come to a standstill.
Ashley was backed up against the side of The Shifter. She was surrounded by a group of mage sword-wielding vampires. She didn’t look like she was wounded, but her sword was sagging in her tired arms, sweat dripping off her brow.
Kade was bleeding from a dozen different wounds, also surrounded by a group of vampires in the center of the street. The superior speed of the vampires compared to the shifter was proving to be too much for him to handle.
Sloan sunk to her knees, the horror of what she had done finally sinking in. Despite their best actions, only a fraction of the vampire soldiers from New Hope had been dispatched. Captain Hunt stood in front of a defeated Sloan with his contingent of soldiers encircling her.
“Surrender. You must realize now you are not the hero in this story.” Captain Hunt sneered down at her. “Your friends are wounded and exhausted. If you refuse to surrender for yourself, then do so for them.”
A rush of wings sounded overhead. A howl Sloan had heard before ripped the temporary calm in half.
One moment, it looked as though the soldiers from New Hope had managed a victory; the next, their smiles were torn from their faces in a flurry of teeth and claws.
Aareth dropped from the sky directly on the top of those soldiers surrounding Ashley.
Kimberly landed on top of Captain Hunt, folding him in on himself.
All around, the battle raged on. Everyone besides Sloan was caught in the madness war brought. She still slumped on her knees, the withered face of the soldier she had sucked dry directly in front of her. What was she now? There was no other word for it than “monster.”
Kade limped his way to her side. A muzzle brushed past her face as he tried to wrestle her from her daze.
Seeing the shifter distracted, a vampire soldier, gripping a white mage sword, leapt in to deal a killing stroke to Kade.
Sloan caught the woman’s wrist in her hand. With a simple twist, she tore the woman’s arm from the rest of her body. She brought her own red sword up and through her head. If she was a monster, then she would have to deal with that later. In the meantime, no one else she cared for would die.
Once Aareth and Kimberly had entered the fight, also bringing about the end of Captain Hunt, the tide of the battle tipped in the opposite direction.
Aareth’s hide was so thick, he could wade into the vampire ranks, slashing out with maw and paw.
The only weapons able to pierce his hide were the mage swords, and there weren’t many of those left.
Kimberly was fresh and, using her wings, fists, legs, and tail, was a maelstrom of punishment.
Sloan felt like a goddess incarnate. All around the main street of Term, vampire soldiers fell under her blade.
Invigorated by the human blood, she was invincible.
In minutes, those soldiers who could still run retreated into the dark.
Sloan flicked off her mage sword. The weapon dropped from her hand. Her eyes took in Aareth transitioning back to his stark naked human form and embracing Ashley. Kimberly pressed a hand to a wound on her arm and wrapped it with the cloak off a fallen soldier.
Kade turned back to his normal human form. He was bleeding profusely from a cut over his right eye, his lip, and somewhere on his shoulder. Instead of trying to attend to his own wounds, he came to Sloan and wrapped her in a hug.
“Don’t,” Sloan said as hot tears splashed down her cheeks. “You saw what I did. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” Kade whispered into her ear. He hugged her tighter. “I’m here. Whatever’s happening to you, you’re not alone.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Sloan sputtered. “I don’t know what happened. I?—”
Kade pulled away, briefly pressing his lips to hers. He held her face in his hands, using his thumbs to brush away her tears. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to find out what’s happening to you. I promise.”
Sloan didn’t want to say more, even if she had the words to do so.
Instead, she embraced Kade. Whatever the future had in store for her, whatever she was, would have to wait.
For now, it was enough to know her friends were safe and she was in the arms of someone she cared for and who cared for her in return.
End Book Three