Chapter 34
Sloan
The New Hope vampire army swirled at the gates like a ocean of ebony. The Azra guards on the wall were doing their best to repel them, firing everything they had, even hurling rocks and black pitch followed by fire.
For all of the vampires they struck, in seconds, they were back on their feet, their healing factor mending them in minutes. It seemed the only way they stayed down was with the fire or extreme trauma to their heads.
Past the army, still confronting the mage engine by herself, Kimberly weaved in and out from between its steel legs. Her blue sword cut through the metal beast like butter, but had no apparent effect on the monster.
“We’re not going to do anyone any good from here!” Sloan yelled to her vampire squad. “Kimberly needs the most help now. If that monster makes it to the Azra walls, it’s all over for us!”
“Yeah, but how are we going to get through the army between us and them?” Doyle shouted back.
“Hold on!”
Sloan recognized the voice, but didn’t believe who she was hearing. She turned to see Elizabeth and Abigail standing at the gates. Abigail reached over and tore a metal bracelet off her sister.
“Elizabeth! Abigail!” Sloan looked to each, grateful to have them enter the fight. “Are you two sure about this?”
Before they could answer, there was a boom in the sky and a massive wave of purple magic tore over Croft’s body. The witch was hurled to the ground under the torrent of Leah’s attack.
“I’ve got to stop them.” Elizabeth rose into the air. “The rest of you, hold on.”
“Hold on?” Pia looked to the other members of the squad on the wall. “What does she mean ‘ho?—’”
Sloan, her vampire squad, and Abigail were lifted into the air one moment, and hurled off the wall and toward the mage engine the next.
The sensation of flying enveloped Sloan once more.
Unlike being lifted into the air by Cherub, this time it felt oddly horrifying.
One moment, a sense of elation enveloped her, only to be replaced by the thought of having to land.
In seconds, the group traveled over the New Hope army.
To Sloan and everyone else’s relief, instead of plummeting to the ground, they were lowered.
“Aareth?” Ashley reigned in the unicorn she rode. The beast foamed at the mouth. “Is he all right?”
“It’s good to see you, too.” Sloan drew her sword and flicked on her heated blade. “As far as I know, he’s fine. He left with Jack to go look for his father a few days ago.”
Ashley’s tired, sweaty face somehow seemed to brighten with the knowledge. Despite their dire situation, the thought of her loved one safe and far away from the events unfolding around them now gave her a sense of peace.
BOOM! BOOM!
The mage engine with the glowing wolf head looked down at them. If its metal face was capable of expression, Sloan imagined it would be angry right about now.
“Its legs are too thick!” Kimberly prepared herself for another assault. “We need to bring it down and sever its limbs somehow.”
The ground shuddered under its heavy footfalls as it got closer to Sloan and her group.
“One leg at a time, then.” Sloan looked over to Abigail, who had taken her pair of mage katanas from their sheaths on her back. Her blades shown with bright white light. “We have four mage swords instead of one.”
Sloan looked over to her vampire squad. She hated having to ask them, but she knew they wouldn’t hesitate to follow her orders if she marched them into Hell itself.
“We’re going to relieve that beast of its legs.” Sloan nodded to Ashley on her right and Abigail on her left. Then she turned her attention to the three members of her squad in front of her. “Buy us some time.”
Hard stares of pure determination looked back at her. With head nods and grunts, her three vampires were off, already racing to put themselves in the way of danger.
“Go for its right leg.” Kimberly reached down to offer Abigail a hand onto her unicorn. “That’s where I’ve done the most damage already.”
“Don’t stop until it’s down.” Sloan began her run. “If it reaches Azra’s walls, we’ve lost the war.”
This is insane, a voice inside Sloan’s head told her. You’re racing toward a metal mage monster a hundred times your size, with a dead woman and a kid.
The idea was so insane, it even brought a brief smile to Sloan’s lips.
But the smile was short-lived. Babs, Pia, and Doyle had already reached the beast. With weapons they knew couldn’t injure it, they put their bodies on the line so Sloan and her group could have a chance.
That took guts. No, more than guts. It took a courage Sloan admired.
The metal beast leaned down, swiping with powerful steel claws the size of swords. It lifted its feet, trying to stomp them down. Just as Sloan reached the steel beast’s right leg, Doyle got too close, and with a sound of cracking bones, he was caught by a backhand from the mage engine’s right paw.
Doyle lifted off the ground, flying so far out of view, Sloan wondered if he would land in the ocean itself. The cover of night hid his exact landing spot, but the morning sun would not be far off.
As Sloan began hacking away at the monster’s leg, a horrible thought emerged: What if the gates weren’t closed by the time the sun rose? Morning was less than an hour away. Without Cherub’s gargoyles able to defend the open gate, the battle would be over.
This thought gave power to Sloan as she hacked away at the steel appendage in front of her. Ashley was right. Each leg was like a massive steel tree trunk. Abigail joined her, jumping off Ashley’s unicorn. Together, the women sunk their mage blades deep into the steel mass over and over again.
Kimberly joined them a moment later, allowing her unicorn to flee the deadly scene. Red, white, and blue mage swords sunk deep into the metal, turning the material to molten gashes.
“Don’t give up!” Sloan screamed as the monster took a wobbling step forward. “We’ve almost got it!”
Sloan was right. With the three impromptu lumberjacks hacking away at the section of the mage engine’s leg just above his foot, they had already cleaved halfway through its leg.
As soon as hope emerged, though, it was taken back.
The mage engine ignored Pia and Babs, deciding to focus on the women at its legs.
Sloan didn’t even see the blow that sent her sailing through the air toward the New Hope army.
One moment, she was rearing back to send her mage sword at the mage engine’s leg again; the next, her entire body felt numb.
She flew through the air, head over heels, her sword lost some time during her flight, and she fell in a heap in the middle of the vampire army. All the soldiers looked stunned for a moment.
Sloan was still trying to figure out what was going on when a voice she recognized yelled through the black uniforms about to descend on her, “Get back! She’s mine!”
Sloan struggled to her feet past the pain. She was sure she had broken bones upon landing, but she had to trust that her vampire DNA would heal her.
As soon as she stood, Commander Steel hammered her with a blow across her temple, and the pommel of his mage sword sent a wave of blood over her eyes. Sloan tried wiping the sticky red substance from her vision, when a boot caught her in the stomach a moment later. Sloan doubled over.
Searing pain like she had never experienced in her life cut through her shoulder. A scream so loud, so unlike her, burst from her lungs, it took her a moment to realize she was the one doing the screaming.
Commander Steel had pinned her to the ground with his white mage sword. The weapon stuck out of the front of her left shoulder. With a smile, the scarred commander looked down at his pinned prey.
“Hope is lost to you and the city you fight for.” Commander Steel sneered, twisting his mage sword deeper into Sloan’s shoulder. “The sun’s almost up, the mage engine is nearly to your walls, and you are about to die.”
Sloan was doing everything she could to not lose concentration. She focused on controlling her breathing and coming up with a plan, any plan.
A howl—no, an army of howls—found their way to her and Commander Steel’s ears. A moment later, a massive rumble that could only be the mage engine crashing to the ground shook the earth beneath them.
“You’re wrong!” Sloan screamed at the commander who looked around in confusion even as the werewolf howls gained velocity. “That’s the sound of hope!”
Sloan reached up, grabbing Commander Steel’s hands that rested on the hilt of his sword and, with a scream of rage, drove the blade deeper through her own body. The act took Commander Steel off guard and off balance and he stumbled forward on top of her.
Sloan grabbed his neck with her right hand. In one motion, she tore out his throat, leaving him gagging, blood pouring from the wound, eyes wide as he died.
Complete and utter chaos took over the next moment as a dozen giant werewolves hammered into the ranks of the vampire army.