“And no one thought to properly seal the dirt floor to
a possible demon breach?”
“We didn’t realize he’d had time to spell-cast during
his short internment,” Garth said quietly, and bowed his head. “Silver Hawk.
if we might avail you of your services to put down a prayer made by a righteous
man.”
“Gladly,” Silver Hawk said in a quiet tone. “They will
not get through again.”
“My brother was down there with his wife,” Hunter said
between his teeth, pacing. “An hour earlier, Shogun would be dead and Amy would
be missing.”
“And where are my Griffin Dragons? Where was the
aerial support!” Sir Rodney shouted, now walking in an agitated circle.
“Pure stone, sire,” an injured palace guard rasped.
“Broken into a thousand pieces in the courtyard where they fell the moment they
stared at the beasts through the window. Killed two good men from the falling
rubble.”
“Aye,” another guard said in disgust.
Sir Rodney closed his eyes. “On the morrow, the
Vampires will know what a breached sanctuary feels like.” He turned to Garth
and gave him orders in a low, deadly tone: “Prepare all missives with my queen
for immediate delivery. Add this to the list of offenses once you tally the
dead and injured. A pox on Vlad Tempesh!”
A whimper from Amy’s mother drew attention to the
Chens. Amy looked up with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Is there any way to
allow them to sleep and to only remember the beautiful wedding, the feast, and
all that was good before it was ruined?”
“Of course, child,” Garth said with tenderness in his
gaze. He waved his wand and Amy’s parents slumped. Two guards rushed over and
lifted them as Rupert hurried behind them. “When they awaken, they will
remember all that was good and having too much wine and rich food..
Should any memories ever invade, they will be thought to be the dreams of the
overfed.”
“Thank you,” Amy murmured, and Shogun went to her.
“We’re going to make this right. I promise you.”
“Brother, if you have never heeded my words before,
please heed them now—stay with your new wife. If the castle comes under siege
again while Sasha and I are gone, you and Silver Hawk must be here.”
Shogun gave Hunter a nod, but Sir Rodney’s eye held a
question.
“Surely you’re not going out into the night, now,
after such an attack?”
Silver Hawk captured Sir Rodney’s gaze as he stepped
forward. “They must. Sasha’s family and Hunter’s pack brothers are on a human
military base that is ill prepared for a supernatural onslaught.”
“Get down!” Woods yelled, spraying the windows with an
M16.
Glass and wood became a hail of shrapnel. Two Vampires
bust into flames as hallowed-earth-packed shells riddled their bodies. Crow
Shadow sailed through the second-floor window, tackling a Vampire on the
ground, brutally savaging him. Fisher pulled a pin on a grenade and lobbed it
out of an adjacent window, creating a diversion so that Crow Shadow could get
away unharmed as two more Vamps touched down to assist their comrade.
Base sirens screamed. Pandemonium was in full effect.
Clarissa and Winters hunkered down under a lab table as Bradley quickly created
a brick-dust circle against possible demon incursion. Doc was pure motion,
sealing the doors and vents with holy water and prayers. MPs kicked in the
door, poised to burst into the room, but never even got to lodge their
complaints. Vampire mercenaries led by Caleb yanked the men off their feet,
snapping their necks. But the moment the Vampire tried to enter the room, a
blue-white holy water and prayer barrier scorched his leg.
Caleb drew back with a furious howl and fastened his
hatred-hardened gaze on Doc Holland. “Smoke them out! I don’t care if you have
to burn down the entire base to get to these rats, do it! But I want them
alive. An exchange for the girl—Sasha Trudeau’s entire family for one Amy
Chen.”
Instantly the Vampires disappeared and took up a
position outside the windows, staring up, waiting. Fire roared into the room
and soldiers, airmen, base staff, and commanding officers moved at a frenetic
pace outside, yelling at the Vampires to get out of the way while desperately
trying to extinguish the supernatural blaze that was impervious to human
efforts.
“We’ve gotta bail out, Doc,” Woods yelled over the din
coughing, “or we’re gonna burn alive!”
Bradley pulled Winters and Clarissa from beneath the
lab table and headed toward the windows. Smiling Vampires waited patiently, their
toothy smirks a promise of cruelty.
“If you jump,” Fisher said, coughing, “I’ll cover you.
I’ll try to scatter ’em so maybe you can get through that vamp front line to
the guys on the base working the hoses.”
“Then what?” Doc yelled, shielding his face from the
heat with his arm. “They’ll kill every man that tries to keep them away from
us.”
“Fish, put the rifle down before a sniper thinks
you’re their biggest problem!” Woods yelled, and then grabbed Clarissa’s hand
to pull her closer to the fresh air.
The trapped team looked up as the fire roared across
the tiled ceiling.
“We’ve gotta go, now!” Woods said, pulling Clarissa by
the waist as she doubled over, gagging from the billowing smoke.
Woods hoisted Clarissa over the window’s edge with
Bradley as Fisher helped Winters hang and then prepare to drop. Vampires leered
up, making gestures with their hands to let Clarissa and Winters go. Several
brave servicemen ran over, only to get murdered outright for their trouble.
Base personnel stopped dead in their tracks for a moment. Colonel Madison
leveled a revolver at the Vampire line.
“PCU! Those are supernatural hostiles! Cover those
civilians with silver shells now!”
Several Vampires turned back toward the direction of
Colonel Madison as Clarissa fell to the ground with Winters. Bradley bailed
over the edge of the window to try to put his body between hers and certain
danger as Doc came down with a thud right behind him.
Vampires rushed in, but a black blur leaped out of the
shadows, savaging the Vampires that moved toward members of the team. Doc flung
out a burning spray of holy water as Bradley blinded a Vamp with a fistful of
hallowed earth.
“Do not shoot that wolf!” Colonel Madison yelled.
“Those two men in the building are mine!”
Fisher picked up his M16 and went over the wall with
Woods, shooting at airborne Vamps. The two soldiers hit the ground, and watched
in horror as Vampires turned on Colonel Madison’s men. The team was trapped
against the wall of the burning building; Madison and his men wouldn’t be able
to hold off the onslaught for long. Then suddenly the moon went dark.
“Hold your fire!” Bradley called out.
Vampires scattered as white lightning bolts exploded
asphalt behind them. The team flattened their bodies to the ground. Military
personnel took cover, watching in awe and not sure what to fire on as huge
Dragons dive-bombed out of the sky. It was as though a supernatural cavalry had
arrived with what seemed like knights in medieval armor riding them and casting
white light charges from the tips of strange blades.
M16s, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Humvees, and
tanks sat poised, still, while servicemen looked up and gaped. A huge
fire-breathing Dragon touched down in front of the civilian team, pawing the
earth and snorting, daring a Vampire to come near its protected charges.
Then just as quickly a funnel cloud opened in the
center of the base yard, spewing up concrete, gravel, and asphalt with what
seemed like a thousand gargoyles. Two more wolves leaped out of the shadows,
one massive black beast and a slightly smaller one of exquisite silver.
“Trudeau, Hunter, over here!” Woods cried out.
The Dragon guard looked up, snorted fire, and then
scorched several gargoyles as it lunged into the air. Sasha and Hunter
immediately went on the offensive, attacking a downed gargoyle that was still
alive before it could rejoin its funnel cloud. They gave the team a glance.
Crow Shadow exited a shadow and joined them, and then the three wolves fanned
out to take a protective stance in front of their family members.
Above their heads the skies were filled with an aerial
dogfight that left the humans on the ground gaping. Gargoyles dive-bombed
Dragon riders, attacking each Dragon ten at a time, grasping onto the massive
beasts’ backs, legs, and tails in an attempt to scurry up close enough to kill
the Fae riders. But the Dragons scorched the incoming danger as though burning
locust swarms while swatting away some with slices from their deadly tails.
Standing, and held to the Dragon by the sheer force of
magick, gallant Fae riders hacked at interloping gargoyles that tormented the
Foe’s mounts with demon teeth and vicious claw slashes. Soon the military
ground forces were able to make out sides and, with Colonel Madison’s commands,
sent mortar fire into clouds of gargoyles to help the dragons even the score.
But not to be outdone, the Vampires made another run
at the human soldiers on the ground to stop their assists. Torn, Hunter peeled
off with Woods, leaving Fisher, Sasha, and Crow Shadow to protect the team. A
Vampire blur that was headed toward Madison was knocked out of the air. Both
Hunter and the Vampire hit the ground with a thud. Madison’s men leveled
weapons, but Madison shouted, “Wait!” Hunter stood up with the Vampire’s
esophagus in his jaws and then leaped into a base shadow to return to Sasha’s
side.
Dragons roared as gargoyles screeched a retreat and
headed toward the wide cavern in the middle of the base yard. Sasha looked at
Hunter, and as the last gargoyle tried to dive into the pit they both jumped at
it in unison, tackling the screeching, fighting-mad creature to the ground.
Dragons landed. Several Fae riders dismounted and ran over to the captured
demon.
“Let it go and we’ll fry this bastard back to livin’
hell,” a Fae air commander said, pointing his sword toward it as his men
shouted a collective, “Aye!”
Hunter transformed, using all the strength within him
to hold the creature down and then getting help from Crow Shadow. “No,” Hunter
panted. “Sir Rodney wants to send one back to Transylvania with a message
tagged on it.”
Colonel Madison came over with his men, gingerly
passing snapping dragons. “What the fuck.. ”
“Aye,” the Fae commander said, and then spit. “Oh,
we’ll tag the little bastard all right. Anybody need a lift back to the sidhe?”
Total fatigue liquefied Sasha’s bones. Every battle
injury she’d sustained in the last twenty-four hours cried out as her body slid
down into bubbles on the opposite end of the huge claw-foot tub that she and
Hunter shared. Sure, Silver Hawk had sealed up gargoyle gashes, fractures,
cuts, bruises, and scrapes. But her muscles and newly healed and extremely
tender soft tissue whined for regenerative sleep.
She could tell Hunter felt it, too, because the poor
man just laid his head back with a wince and remained very, very still in the
hot herbal water.
“You okay?” she finally asked.
“Yeah,” Hunter croaked, and then took in a deep breath
through his nose.
“Some ride, huh?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I’m still a little queasy.. I wouldn’t
care if I never saw another dragon again.”
“Nausea is not my issue,” Hunter said with another
labored breath. “The knights have special leather-reinforced gear designed for
their profession. We don’t.”
Sasha lifted her head and stared at Hunter slack
jawed. “Oh, baby. did you tell Silver Hawk?”
“I didn’t have to.”
“Did it help?”
“I suppose he healed any nerve damage or internal
injuries, but it’s all soft tissue down there. Need I say more?”
Sasha squinted and then sat up carefully, allowing the
hot water to swish around her back. “Aw. man. I promise to kiss
your boo-boo and make it feel better later.”
“Yeah,” Hunter said on a heavy exhale. “But right now,
just let me quietly die a thousand deaths in the tub, alone, for a while,
okay.”
“ ’K’.” Sasha slipped out of the water and then walked
around to his end of the tub and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. “I am so
sorry that happened to you.”
He kept his eyes closed and nodded. “I love you, too.”
But then he captured her arm as she moved away from him. “Are you sure you’re
all right?” He stared up at her and searched her face for the truth.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
He pulled her close to him and nuzzled her belly.
“Promise me you’ll tell me if you don’t feel well.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said, and frowned and then bent to
kiss the crown of his head. “I’m fine. I’m more worried about you, truth be
told.”
“The worst of it is over.. Dry off and get
in bed. I’ll join you in a bit.”
“All right,” she whispered, and brushed his mouth with
a soft kiss.
Sasha grabbed a large, fluffy white terry cloth towel
and slipped to the other side of the privacy screen. As usual, Fae hospitality
knew no bounds. The bath was infused with Fae herbal healing, and just soaking
in the water made her feel like she’d taken a sleeping pill. She pressed her
face into the fragrant towel and was almost lulled to sleep by its warmth while
still standing up.