Page 122 of Blood and Trouble

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Guin said. “We stick to the plan.”

“Two teams,” Orion said. “Once we’re in there, Mill’s team goes for our brothers. Ava and Poe, you’re with them. Everyone else, you know your positions.”

Minutes passed like centuries while I waited for the wards to break. Bridge’s energy pulsed and whipped around us, growing heavier, rising higher, until suddenly…it snapped. A translucent veil dropped from around the manor, revealing an ivory building fit for a queen. It was twice the size of its glamored version, with big, gaudy windows and turrets on each corner. The gardens had grown wild, crawling over the terrace, and despite its grandeur, it had fallen into disrepair.

“Go!” Bridge shouted through gritted teeth. “You’ve got ten minutes. Maybe less. Go now!”

Orion took the lead, holding up his rifle while Ren and Mill fell in behind him. Sol, Maeve, and Guin took the middle, each loaded down with guns and steel bullets. Ava and I went in after, the rest of the pack behind us.

We made it two steps inside before the first wave hit us. Vampires poured in from every direction. Five jumped from the second-story landing, taking Orion down under their weight. Sol screamed and shot at them. Ten more came at us from the left, nearly as many from the right.

Gunshots rang out, echoing through the dark, desolate space, but I had my orders.

Get to Lycan. Get to Moose. Get to Locust.

I’d tacked on my own priority at the end: Kill Evelyn.

Orion wanted her breathing. He could have whatever was left of her. I wouldn’t have this bitch thinking she could come after us again. No matter what happened here today, no matter what it cost, I’d take her out or go down trying. Still gripping Ava’s hand, I weaved through the action, shooting a vampire between the brows as it raced toward us. I ripped another off Orion and blew its brains out before helping my VP to his feet.

We worked as a team, slicing down the undead in quick, efficient movements. The battle echoed around me, shrieks mixing with curses and the wet slap of blood on plaster.

My wolf plowed to the forefront, infuriated at being kept from his mate, determined to get through this wall of fucking bloodsuckers. I aimed and fired at one climbing the walls, barely waiting for him to fall off before turning right and decimating another.

In my periphery, I saw Ava doing the same. She’d grown up on a ranch. She knew her way around a gun, but her hands shook with adrenaline and shock. This didn’t stop her from wiping the floor with these idiots.

Just as I took another one down, a female vampire flew at my mate from behind, claws and fangs extended.

“Turn!” I shouted telepathically.

Ava reacted quickly, facing the vampire and firing just as it collapsed on her, taking her to the ground. I rushed over and yanked the fucking thing off, tossing it to the side.

“You okay?” I asked, helping her up.

“Fine,” she answered, but her voice broke, and I knew the feeling. None of this was fine. This was carnage and chaos. This was violence on an unprecedented scale. What I wouldn’t give to be back in that cabin with her and Lycan.

Once we’d cleared the vampires in the foyer, we pushed on. The pain surging off Lycan tugged me to the right, and I followed it down a narrow hallway, holding Ava’s hand, listening for my pack’s footsteps behind me.

We came to a split in the hallway with two options: left or right. My instincts told me left.

“This way,” I said, taking a step in that direction, but as soon as I did, all of the doors opened on either side of the corridor, more vampires spilling out into the narrow area. “Fuck.”

That rampage in the foyer had cost us. We’d come fully loaded, but ammunition wasn’t infinite. We’d have to cut down to hand-to-hand soon, which meant closer contact and the potential for more casualties. How much time did we have left? Five minutes? Maybe less?

“Right,” Orion said. “Time to split up. Ava and Poe, go. We’ll draw them back.”

I hated the thought of leaving them to fend for themselves, but I’d agreed to the plan. We all did. If we couldn’t get in together, we’d prioritize and delegate. I was the one connected to Lycan, the compass leading the way. Evelyn wanted Ava. If she wouldn’t stay back to save herself, then she’d stay with me the entire time.

I fired my last two bullets at the closest vampires before tossing the gun away and grabbing the steel machete on my belt. One hand in Ava’s, I sliced through vampires, cutting their heads off, blood spattering the walls and my clothes and my face. My pack rallied behind us, but we kept going, dodging and ducking through corpses as fast as we could pile them up.

“Ren! No!” Guin shouted, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Lycan’s sister go down, clutching at her midsection. A lance of pain shot through my chest from the pack bonds, and I hesitated, almost turning back.

“We have to keep going,” Ava muttered. “The pack has her. C’mon.”

Lycan might end up hating me for leaving his sister wounded, but Ava was right. We all knew the cost. We all knew what might happen if we came here tonight. We’d done it anyway, and we were running out of time. I turned right at the end of the corridor, leaving the chaos of the fight with my pack in the rearview.

My heart stammered with every step I took, my veins burning and my chest tightening. The closer we got, the more the bond rattled with fury. It should have surprised me, or at least warned me, that we didn’t encounter any more vampires on our own, and some small voice whispered, This is what she wants. But my focus had narrowed to finding Lycan, to stopping whatever fucked-up ritual had begun.

We ran to the end of that hallway before turning down another. If it weren’t for this primal instinct yanking in my gut, I would have already been lost in this labyrinthine shithole. But once we made another left, I pulled up short outside a huge set of wooden doors, intricately carved with swirls and floral designs. The static charge of magic coated my tongue as I panted, trying to steady my heart.