Luce had awoken too, her wide eyes met mine as she leapt from the bed and strapped her weapons to her body.
“What do you think it is?”
“Could be anything in the woods,” I told her as we rushed to the door, my sword thumping against my thigh as the screams continued. My stomach lurched. Even if I had left this pack behind, they were still my pack.
My people.
A fire burned in the center of the village as chaos erupted around it. Bodies lay on the ground, blood oozing from the gashes covering their bodies. Wolves emerged from their dens, moving to attend to the fallen. I doubted any of them would live judging from their puncture wounds and scratches gouging their mutilated forms.
“Astria’s fucking tits,” I swore as the all too familiar snarl of a Dhampir pierced the air.
“They’ve made it all the way out here?” Panic laced Luce’s tone as we took off toward the sounds.
Up until this point, Lennox had only received reports of Dhampirs in the Star and Blood Courts, giving us all some sense of safety.
That sense of safety quickly vanished.
We rounded the corner, coming face to face with the horde of Dhampirs. There had to be close to twenty of them. Bodies littered the ground, their blood staining the grass crimson as others continued to fight back.
“Decapitating them is the best way to kill them!” I shouted out over the fray.
My grandmother’s braid swung as she turned to look at me as my ax cut across a Dhampir’s neck, its head falling to the ground with a thud.
“There’s too many of them.” Luce called out as her blade found home in a Dhampir’s side. “Where are the rest of the wolves?”
“Dead,” my grandmother said, not shifting her attention from her opponent. “We’re short adults in the first place, themajority of our pack is children for the time, and the other adults have traveled with your parents.”
We’d protect the younglings. We had to.
These were my fucking people. The Panateia and the Vanir—their reach wasn’t supposed to be here.
I turned as a Dhampir slashed for me, it’s claws gleaming in the moonlight. A flash of white light blinded me as my grandmother shifted, emerging as a black wolf, her coat streaked with gray. A deadly snarl fell from her lips before she ripped into a Dhampir. Its black blood blending with her own fur as she spat out flesh.
I readied my body to shift, pulling at my magic—it rose to the surface, tingling against my skin.
Luce’s scream pierced the air, causing me to freeze—my transition coming to a halt as my body went cold. I looked over my shoulder as her sword clattered to the ground. She held her bleeding arm to her chest as she glared at the creature.
“Where the fuck did that come from?” I ground out. It had attacked her from behind—the Dhampir she had slain lay at her feet as she stared down the next. There must have been more of those fuckers.
I pierced my sword through the Dhampir in front of me, my sword slicing through its flesh easily. I left it to die as I surged toward Luce.
The Dhampir attacking Lucy swept out again, she ducked, avoiding its deadly claws as I ran toward her.
She kicked out with her leg, sweeping the Dhampir’s legs out from under it.
I paused as I realized what Luce was doing. Magic crept up her arms, like black vines. It grew thicker, like a web coating her skin as she rose to stand.
For fucks sake.
The Dhampir snarled at her, slobber flinging from its fangs before it leaped toward her on allfour of its limbs.
“No!” I took off toward her again, stopping as the ground rumbled beneath my feet.
Luce took several measured steps backward, crumbling the ground where she once stood.
The Dhampir shrieked as it fell into the hole, only for them to be hushed as she filled the hole back in with dirt.
“Good one, Lucy.”
