Ariana followed last, reverently holding the crystal containing Lysander’s spirit. “High Priestess Mysti, I bring forth the cursed object for cleansing under the light of the full moon.” She held up the crystal for all to see and then handed it to the blonde woman. She and the high priestess walked together to the altar, where Mysti placed the crystal in a large bowl.
Mysti turned one full rotation, recognizing all members of her assembled coven, and then held out her hands. “We gather tonight to rejoice by the light of the moon. We celebrate the season of darkness, knowing that the next turn of the wheel will bring light. We use this time of darkness for thought, introspection, and growth. As the moon above, so the earth below.”
The assembled crowd responded, “Blessed be.”
Behind me, there was a snap of branches and a metallic click. I turned, and bright white light flooded my eyes.
CHAPTER 6
My eyes burned as if I had looked directly into sunlight, but no warmth hit my skin. In an instant, my vision failed. Everything became white, and for a brief moment there was complete and utter silence. Not even the chirp of a cricket could be heard. That moment was shattered by a loud explosion and the thunder of frantic footsteps heading my way.
“What the hell is going on?” Disoriented and blind, I stumbled around amid the sounds of screaming people and the discharge of weapons. Someone bumped into me and knocked me down.
Another loud blast went off as I hit the ground. The scent of blood permeated the air around me, rich, thick, and fresh. It was so close I could taste it, feel the spray of it on my skin.
I reached out, wondering if someone had fallen with me, when something hard and heavy crushed my left hand. It felt like the rigid bottom of a steel-toe boot. My eyes watered with pain. I bit back a cry, unaware if whoever stood on me was friend or foe, and waited until the pressure released to yank my hand free and roll away.
I waited a moment to see if I’d been spotted. No one, no sound indicated anyone knew I was there. More shots were fired nearby. Something behind me fell to the ground with a soft thud. Panic had me twitching in every direction, and being blind didn’t help. I sat up, clutching my wounded and throbbing hand to my chest. I tried to blink away the haze in my vision, needing to see what was happening. Everything around me was unbearably bright; shapes and figures were all washed out as if just a smudge on a flat canvas.
It was no use. My eyes refused to focus through the white haze. I knew I couldn’t sit still and be a target for whoever or whatever had attacked us, so I scooted backward, feeling the ground behind with my uninjured hand until I butted up against a large tree trunk. At least, I hoped it was a large tree. To my left felt like bushes or perhaps some low-lying branches. I ducked my head underneath, hoping the foliage and the darkness of the forest would keep me hidden until my vision returned.
Heavy footsteps approached from my right. I heard a male voice say, “Alpha team, to the north.”
My heart raced with sudden panic. I couldn’t run. I couldn’t see. The only thing I could do was make myself as small as possible. I crouched into a ball, hoping to remain hidden.
The footsteps halted. They sounded close. Right in front of me.
I held my breath and covered my mouth with my hand, thankful that as a vampire, I really didn’t need to breathe. My normally slow-beating heart thundered in my ears. I was surprised the man near me couldn’t hear it.
“Block their escape and push them east. Leave no survivors,” the man said.
A different, garbled, static-filled male voice replied, “Affirmative.”
“I’m going after the cargo,” the voice in front of me said, and then his footsteps began to retreat.
When I could no longer hear him, I let out a sigh.
Cargo? What cargo?
It took a moment to hit me.
Lysander. What if this had been planned? What if they, whoever they were, had been after Lysander?
A woman screamed in the distance, “We made a deal.” Her shrieks were followed by a quick burst of gunshots.
The male voice again called out, “Cargo secure. Holy Cross, cover me.” His voice trailed away. Whatever he had come for, he got it. I doubted he could have carried Lysander’s coffin by himself.
He must have been after something else. But what?
Another pair of footsteps came up slowly behind me. As they grew louder, so did the frantic beating of my heart. I thought for sure I had been found this time and braced myself for whatever might come.
“Alyssa, Crystal, Zuri?” a familiar voice whispered.
I let out a loud sigh of relief. It was Drew and he had to be close; he sounded like he was right on top of me. I reached out and grasped hold of fabric and pulled. “I’m here,” I whispered back.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and it sounded as if he’d crouched down to my level.
“The light… I’ve been blinded.” I tried again to blink away the haze in my vision and could almost make out his blurry figure.
Another loud blast went off nearby. This time, I saw the flash. It had the same intensity as the one that had blinded me. My good hand flew over my eyes to shield them from the harsh light.
“They are using some kind of phosphorous weapons to disorient us,” Drew said. “Whoever they are, they came prepared.”
“Yeah, I’d say their plan is working. I can’t see anything.”
“Try not to look directly at anything. Relax your eyes. Your vision should return soon enough.”
“Who did this? Was it the witches?”
“Witches use magic, not guns. No time to talk. We have to get out of here.” He yanked me up by my arm and pushed me forward.
I stumbled a few steps and caught myself on a large tree. “No use,” I groaned. “I can’t see where I’m going.”
“I’m not leaving you behind. Hold on to me and try to keep up.”
I did as he said and grabbed hold of the thick, pillowy fabric of his winter coat. He moved forward, tugging me in his wake. Drew’s pace was quick, and I stumbled over what felt like large tree roots or rocks, but as we moved I heard the sounds of the battle diminish.
“What about the others?” I asked.
“We scattered when the first blast went off. I can still sense Crystal and Nicholas. They can’t be too far away.”
Fast steps headed our way, crunching leaves and twigs behind us as they pounded the ground. “This way,” Drew whispered. He yanked me left, and took off running again.
In the darkness of the forest, my vision started to return. I was soon able to make out the trees as we passed and the rocks before I tripped over them. It was then again that I had the sudden eerie feeling of being watched. The cold prickling sensation tickled the back of my neck and made my hair stand on end.
“Do you feel that?” I asked.
“Shhh.” He halted, and together we ducked behind the trunk of a tree.
“I wouldn’t take any more steps in this direction,” a familiar gravely voice called out to us. “There are traps set up all over this forest.”
I knew that voice. At one time it had struck fear into my heart.
Santino
. Until recently, he had been the Acta Sanctorum’s best hunter. He had a reputation as the one man no supernatural creature could escape. But that was before he helped us fight his once and hopefully former masters.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked. “Join forces with your old religious buddies again?”
“You still haven’t learned to shut that smart mouth of yours. My old buddies, as you call them, want you dead. Would I warn you of the trap if that was what I wanted?” he replied, and though I couldn’t see it, I could hear the smirk in his voice. “I could kill you myself if that would make things easier.”
“If you have no business with our enemies, then leave us alone, Santino. We have a truce, remember?” I said.
Drew took a few steps forward, still tugging me behind.
“If you choose to ignore my warning, so be it,” Santino said coolly. “There’s an anti-vampire claymore mine with a special RF sensor three steps ahead of you. Trip that sensor, and if the blast doesn’t kill you, the silver-wire bolo rounds will certainly make you wish you had died.”
“Why tell us this?” Drew asked with a snarl. He and I both backed up a few paces. “Think you’ll earn more prestige by bringing us in alive?”
I squinted through the remaining haze in my vision and spotted a small red light not too far ahead of us. For whatever purpose, Santino had told us the truth.
Santino sighed. “We worked together to destroy the West Coast branch of the Acta Sanctorum, I save you from what might certainly be a bloody and painful death, and yet you still cannot trust me.”
“You’ll have to make up for more than five hundred years of slaughter before I will ever trust you, Saint,” Drew replied.
“We can settle our differences later,” I said with an exasperated sigh. “Santino, if you’re here to help us, then do that. Drew, we need to find the others, get Lysander, and get to safety.”
“Saint,” he laughed at the word. “I haven’t been called that in quite a while. It may have been my title once, but not anymore. I gave up that life when we destroyed Quentin. Now, unless you wish to be destroyed as well, back up three more feet, then turn and follow the sound of my voice.”
Drew grumbled, but did exactly as Santino had instructed. We backed away and headed toward the direction of his voice. When we reached him, Santino pointed back in the direction we had just come from. “See the light?”
It was the same light I had spotted. I nodded, and Drew grunted in agreement.
“RF trip wire. Cross the beam, and it sets the mine off.”
Nearby, I felt the sensation of another vampire heading our way. In the distance I heard gunshots and what sounded like a group of men running. I turned on my heel. My vision had cleared, and I was able to see the figure running with a healthy lead, and three men carrying rifles giving chase.
“That’s Ian,” Drew said with sudden alarm in his voice. “He’s heading for the mine.”
“We have to stop him,” I said.
“Get the soldiers.”
“No,” I heard Santino shout behind me as I took off at top speed with Drew at my side toward the three soldiers.
Whether they saw our charge or not, I will never know, but suddenly, they halted and turned to run away. I caught up with the straggler on the end. He wore an all-black uniform of cargo pants, flak coat, and helmet with night vision goggles. I pounced, jumping onto his back, tackling him to the ground. The heel of the rifle in his hands came back and smacked me in the chin, snapping my jaw closed. My eyes watered with pain, but I held on tight to his back. He squirmed and tried to roll and knock me off, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I clung to him tighter, like a rodeo cowboy riding his bucking bronco, while I looked for a good place to bite down.
I bent down, to the crook of his neck, finding my target. My teeth made contact, sinking like a knife through hot butter into the soft skin of the soldier’s neck. His adrenaline-fueled blood gushed into my mouth. He moaned in pain but quickly went limp under me.
“Take cover!” Santino’s voice boomed loudly.
I knew better than to ignore a warning like that, especially from him. Still latched on to the soldier’s neck and clinging tightly to his back, I threw all of my body weight to the ground, and managed to get him to roll on top of me.
I heard the sound of an explosion and felt the break of wind, like a rushing wave across both my and the soldier’s body. A moment later, Ian cried out in pain.
CHAPTER 7
I left my unconscious victim on the ground and headed toward the moaning and writhing form of Ian.
The scent of his blood weighed thickly in the air. Splatters of it dotted the surrounding trees, glistening in the moonlight. With all the blood around, I was surprised that Ian was still conscious.
I reached him, and though my inner beast begged for a sample of the life-giving fluid, my stomach lurched at the carnage. Ian’s left arm had been severed just above the elbow. It lay in pieces around him. So too was his right leg below the knee. The remainder of his body resembled something like Swiss cheese, it had so many holes. Blood oozed out on to the ground making it sticky and slippery.
“Oh God!” I fell to my knees beside Ian and pulled his head into my lap.
He wailed in pain as I moved him. Blood loss usually made a vampire fall into a comatose-like state. Something was different now. Ian was wide awake and though I had no connection to him, I could sense the terrible pain he was feeling, almost as if it were my own. He needed blood, quick. I bit into my wrist and held it firm to his mouth, stifling his cries of pain.
“Drink, Ian. It will be okay. Just drink.” Though I spoke words of comfort, I didn’t believe them. He’d been so badly hurt, and there were still so many unknown enemies around. We could be attacked at any moment, or worse, another one of those weapons could go off.
I felt the pull of his mouth on my wrist and let out a sigh. At least he still had the strength to drink. The pain I sensed from him lessened as he swallowed. Immortal blood was a powerful healing agent. I just hoped I could spare enough to help him before it took its toll on me.
Santino came up behind me. “He’s a lost cause,” he said coldly.
If I hadn’t had Ian attached to my wrist I’d have punched him for that. Santino never seemed to care for anyone or anything. How could he be so heartless? “Ian’s still alive, and he needs blood to heal.”
Santino huffed. “You’d be kinder to put him out of his misery. Not all of those wounds will heal.”
“Why is everyone so quick to give up?” I asked.
His words echoed the sentiments others had said about Lysander. Was I the only person willing to try to save someone?
“Do something helpful,” I snapped at Santino. “Grab that soldier over there—”
Before I could finish the sentence, I heard Drew approaching. I turned to see that he had one of the three soldiers we’d chased draped over his shoulder. He dropped the unconscious man to the ground near me.