Alliances (Guardians of White Light, #1) (26 page)

“Go! Now!” he commanded.

He watched them hurry to the door and leave hastily. He lifted his sword and glared at it. “Tonight you pay the price for your treachery, Mathias,” he breathed.

“You always have been ambitious,” a voice came from behind him.

He spun around to find Mathias thirty feet away beside the balcony doors, his broadsword at the ready. Silas watched his arrogant grin as Mathias stepped into the room.

“You should have brought back up. You think you can take my fortress alone?” Silas called.

“No, I don’t.”

Ah, so Legion has already penetrated the building. Well, they won’t get far.
“Legion is outnumbered.”

Mathias scoffed. “They are more skilled than your soldiers. I trained them myself.”

“Your arrogance will be your undoing,” Silas warned, watching Mathias carefully for signs of a sudden attack. He could move faster than any warrior Silas had ever known. He’d have to be ready.

“And your hatred will be yours.”

Silas could feel his agitation mounting. His words were doing nothing to unnerve Mathias. He needed to affect him, to throw him off his game. And that was when it hit him. He remembered his age-old weakness.

“I’ve dispatched my Day Walkers to kill The Hunter,” he announced. He watched Mathias’ hand flinch, his sword shake. He saw reaction all over his face.
Too easy, brother.

“They'll never find her,” Mathias shot back. Eternus’ base was a well-kept secret. It had been for centuries. Silas had never known its location.

“Eternus’ march drew the attention of my spies. All the Day Walkers have to do is follow that intel to retrace your steps and the location will become clear.”

“You have truly lost your honor, Silas. You know she's weak now. Helpless. It's unlike you to take on such a worthless target.”

“I have my reasons.”

“Retribution for Arthur.”

Silas shook his head. “That was just an added incentive.”

“What?”
What is he talking about? What other reason is there?

Silas saw the confusion on his enemy’s face. He failed to suppress a laugh. “You really have no idea, do you?”

“What are you talking about?” Mathias snapped, growing increasingly agitated by Silas’ cryptic comments. He forced himself to remain calm, to focus on the task at hand. He had to best Silas tonight. He wouldn’t kill him. He would bring him to Jenna and help her to kill him. She had to be the one to do it in order to fulfill her contract with the Sorceress. No one knew that was his true intention. They wouldn’t have understood.
I can’t let her die.

Silas approached him slowly. Cautiously. “You won’t survive past tonight, so I might as well tell you. If I were in your position, I'd have never formed an alliance with someone without
thoroughly
researching their background and, in this case, their lineage.”

Mathias glared at him.
Her lineage?

“I killed her great-grandparents, as you know. That’s how the family’s quest to destroy me began. She was the first one to take it further, to actually endow herself with supernatural abilities and compromise her humanity. But rage and hate cloud one’s judgment and rational thought. That hate was carried from generation to generation in her family and they never questioned their quest, never even questioned
why
? Why did I kill their ancestors and that entire fucking village? Humans see us as monsters, so perhaps, the notion that there was a reason didn’t even reach their consciousness. After all, monsters don’t need a reason, do they? Humans don’t understand that we aren’t monsters—we're a step up on the evolutionary ladder!”

“You
are
a monster, Silas. But not all of us are. And not all humans think that way. If you’d taken the time to know some of them, you’d have seen that.”

“They're fools! And The Hunter is no better. I killed her family for a
reason.
They were Keepers!”

Mathias was stunned. “Impossible.”

“Why? Because the Sorceress never told you? She didn’t trust in her most beloved Guardian?”

Was Silas telling the truth? He was a manipulative son of a bitch. But Mathias wasn’t sure that even he would stoop so low as to lie about something like this. Keepers were beings entrusted with powerful secrets that had the potential to harm civilization if obtained by the wrong people. The Sorceress had told him about them. She knew and saw everything that was. She saw what
had
been, although she could not see the future. Not anymore. She had known all the secrets herself. But she had recognized the risk of one person possessing so much knowledge and centuries ago had severed the secrets from her mind and entrusted them to those she deemed worthy—supernatural and human beings alike. A handful of Keepers existed. They safeguarded the secrets that had once been hers. She had no memory of them now. The Keepers were to contact her should anything threaten the secrets they kept. To the best of his knowledge, none of them had. But she had a connection to each Keeper. She would have known that two had been killed by Silas. Why had she not told him?

“Keepers can’t reveal their secrets. They're bound by mystical forces that make that impossible,” Mathias said.

“I’m aware of that,” Silas snapped.

“How did you find them? No one knows who the Keepers are.”

Silas scoffed. “You just have to know where to find the information. I have a lot of powerful allies, Mathias. I was informed that the secret they kept would have threatened my agenda and that it would have caused the human and supernatural worlds to pull together against a mutual enemy. The two would have become united. I didn’t want that. It would have threatened my life’s quest.”

“You're the fool! Killing them doesn’t mean that the events they were keeping secret won’t come to pass. It only means that now no one will ever know what the secret was, or how to stop this ‘mutual enemy’ from becoming a threat!”

Silas stopped short, taken aback by Mathias’ revelation. “What? But my information—”

“Was wrong!” Mathias bellowed.

It took Silas a moment to regain his composure. The secret could still come to pass?

“Killing The Hunter won’t make that any less true! Her death gains you nothing!”

Silas locked eyes with him and smiled, baring his fangs as he did. “Wrong. It will destroy you.”

Those words ignited a fiery rage deep within him. Mathias lost control. He roared and lunged.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Jenna stared at Silas’ estate. It was a colossal charcoal-grey brick monstrosity built into the side of snowless mountains. The building spanned half an acre. It looked like a castle without turrets. The entire property was protected by a twenty-foot high wall and a cast-iron gate led to a mammoth courtyard. She could see the battle raging just beyond it. She located Valta, who was deep in battle. She scanned the scene quickly, but she couldn’t find Mathias. Where was he? She knew he hadn’t killed Silas yet. She would have felt it if he had. She just hoped that it didn’t mean the worst had happened. She wanted to believe that it hadn’t, that she would have known had something had happened to her lover.

“I’m gonna approach from the mountains at the rear. See if I can get into the building that way,” she said to General Clark.

He nodded and made some sort of hand gesture to his men. “We need to get Eternus’ attention so we can access the courtyard. We're soldiers, but we’re not vampires. None of my boys can jump this damn gate. Scaling it will expose us for too long and we’ll be picked off by Immortalia before we even get inside.”

Jenna watched as the first row of soldiers each lit a flare. They sparked into life and then were lobbed through the gaps in the gate, exploding into a bright, blinding light. It was a brilliant strategy, because vampires feared nothing more than daylight. They would immediately pick up on anything that resembled it. Like a bunch of flares suddenly appearing on the battlefield. The vampires closest turned to them. One of those vampires was Valta.

The General caught his eye. “Open the gate!” he yelled.

Valta fought his way through the sea of Immortalia soldiers to reach the gate.

“General, your timing couldn’t be better,” he greeted. “How did you find the estate?”

“Jenna has the ability to track vampires.” He turned to her, but she wasn’t there.
How did she disappear like that? Like a vampire.

“She’s gone for Silas,” Valta said.

“Not good. Who else is inside?”

“Legion,” he reported, watching the General’s expression as he added, “and Mathias.” To Valta’s surprise there was no negative reaction. Instead, the General seemed relieved. “So, you're now allies?” Valta pressed.

The General eyed him soberly. “This war is all that matters. Now, open the gate so we can destroy these sons of bitches.”

Valta smiled and reached for the bars.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

“No bars on the windows? So cocky, Silas,” Jenna whispered to herself as she studied one of the first floor windows. She’d had no problem vaulting over the gate at the rear of the property. There were no guards patrolling the perimeter. With the battle raging in the courtyard and the need to protect the interior, she deduced that Silas couldn’t spare any more soldiers.
Lucky for me.

She clenched her gloved fist and thrust it into the glass, easily shattering the window. She breathed, grateful that her power had been restored. By what or whom she didn’t know, but now wasn’t the time to analyze it. She’d worry about that after/if she survived this battle.

She peered through the open window into the room to ensure that she wasn’t about to barrel head first into trouble. She needed to make sure it was deserted. She climbed through the window and planted her boots quietly on the marble floor.

She was in a study.
Silas’s study?
She was about to make her way to the door that she hoped would lead her into the main building when a sudden feeling assaulted her. It was powerful enough to cause her to stay rooted to the spot.
What was it? Curiosity?
No, it was more than that. It was need. Pure and instinctual. She had never felt anything like it. It was as though the need possessed her body, forcing her to walk to the desk.
I have a mission;
she tried to tell herself. But the urge wouldn’t yield. She wasn’t sure if she actually had a handle on her own free will at that moment.

Walking behind the desk, she found herself reaching for the middle of three drawers.
There’s something you need to see,
the feeling
seemed to urge. She gripped the drawer and yanked it open, destroying the lock mechanism. The strength of The Hunter.

Inside there was only one thing: a skeleton key. Eight inches long and made of stone, the four-inch wide head was fashioned in the shape of a sun. She picked it up. It was heavy for a key, maybe ten pounds. It was covered in thick dust, which she blew away. She gasped. There, on the shaft, was one word: KNIGHT. Her family name!

“What
is
this?” she choked out, her words echoing around the room. She chided herself for talking so loudly when she was supposed to be remaining stealthy in the home of her enemy.

Suddenly she heard the sound of heavy footsteps nearing the door.
Dammit!
She had led the enemy right to her! She hastily stowed the key in the inside pocket of her leather jacket and rushed to the door, drawing a stake from her leg holster as she went.

Before she made it to the door it flew open and someone barreled inside. She didn’t wait to find out who. She reacted instantly and thrust her stake forward.

“Jenna!” the intruder screamed.

She recognized the voice.
Friend, not enemy.
She managed to halt the stake a fraction of an inch before his heart.
Thank goodness for my supernatural abilities.

She lowered the stake and stepped back.

Luke took a moment to compose himself after his near-death experience. He stepped into the room and scrutinized her, a look of confusion blanketing his face. “I’m glad your reactions aren’t purely human,” he breathed.

“Fortunately for you,” she shot back, tersely. He might be an ally, but she didn’t care for him in the least. His persistent animosity towards her had seen to that. He still couldn’t accept her as an ally.

“How are you...here? Last I saw, you were bed-ridden.”

“It’s a long story,” she said, resting her hand upon her hip. “Do you really care?”

Luke locked eyes with her, his gaze cold. “No,” he admitted.

“Where’s Mathias?”

“He went to locate Silas.”

“Alone?”

“He’s a big boy, Jenna. He can handle him just fine without your help.”

“I’m not asking for your opinion. Just tell me where he is.”