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I watch her take out one shifter after another, fearlessly and courageously. She takes risks. She attacks even when she herself is open for an attack. But she doesn’t back down. I never expected her to.
I look in awe, thinking of the path she has taken to get here, to where she is now. She shied away from conflict. She kept her head down. That was all because others tried to convince her she was weak and powerless. In fact, she was anything but all this time. She was much more than all those shifters, and they couldn’t even see it. If they had, I’m sure they would have used her for their own advancement. Or maybe, they were just waiting for her to transform, so they could start using her.
The thought awakens more rage inside of me. Now that she is mine, I will do whatever I can to keep her safe, starting from now.
I join in the fight, and shifters start falling down like flies. I jump to Kano’s rescue, when a shifter tries to grab him from behind and stick a claw to his sides. I snap his neck, and let his body drop down to the ground. There is no room for pity here. This is a war, and there are only winners and losers in a war. There is no in between.
“Glad to see you back,” I hear Kano remark.
“Glad to be back,” I grin, as we stand with our backs to each other, waiting for another attack.
A small group of shifters surrounds us. There is about a dozen of them. We are only two. But we’ve been in worse trouble before.
“So, the girl’s a dryad then?” Kano asks, as if it was to be expected all along.
“Yeah,” I nod. “Can you imagine?”
“I could smell something different about her,” Kano says.
“Yeah, me, too,” I agree. “I just couldn’t put my finger on it.”
“Nice to have one of those on our side,” he points out.
Before I can say anything to that, the shifters start their attack. A few of our vampires join in, and together we take them out easily. I don’t even know what I am doing. It seems like my body has taken on a mind of its own, a new and improved mind of a warrior with a million years of expertise at his side, and he doesn’t even need to think about his moves. They all come naturally. They all come like second nature. All I have to do is listen to that inner voice, and I can’t make a mistake.
That is exactly what happens. I can’t see someone attacking me from behind, but I feel their presence. I feel their fist in the air aiming straight for my head or my sides, and something urges me to bend or move, therefore avoiding being hit. It is like I am following the instructions of someone who sees everything and even knows what will happen before I know it.
I have never been in a fight like this one. I think all the other vampires feel this way. Almost as if me having consumed the ghost flower makes them stronger as well. We are a clan, after all. We are all somehow interconnected. My power is their power. My weakness is their weakness. We work together as a team, in both cases. That is how it functions now as well.
I don’t know how long it all lasts, but what feels like a small eternity later, us vampires are all standing, breathing heavily, while the shifters are lying on the ground. Some are dead. Some were fortunate enough to be just rendered unconscious. Some managed to run away.
I turn to Kano. He’s got a few bruises and scratches, but nothing major. I check for everyone else. Through some fluke of good luck, we’re all here. All of us. Even the vampires I’ve seen lying down on the ground unconscious at some point. We are all here, all accounted for.
“Now what?” Kano wonders, looking into the distance, where the leftover shifters ran away.
“We go for the well,” I tell him. “After all, that is what we came here for. Not to prolong this war, although the shifters sure seem to want it prolonged.”
“The Elder didn’t come,” Kano points out.
“Yeah, the coward,” I nod. “I should have expected that he would send others to do his dirty work.”
“Should we attack the town?” Kano wonders.
“That is not our priority,” I say, although something tells me if we were to do that, we would have all the luck on our side. Luck, and of course, Bianca. She is more than just good luck. “Our target is and remains the well and the benefit of our clan. As for the shifters… well, you know that war will never stop. Not until both sides make a change, and I doubt that will happen any time soon.”
He nods, without saying anything. It is true. This war has been raging on for far too long, but no one has yet been willing to be the first one to make the effort at a treaty. I know that, as the wronged side, we won’t make that first step. And knowing the shifters, neither will they.
“Edmund?” I hear Bianca from behind me.
I turn around and wrap my arms around her, burying my face in her neck. She smells like trees, like the woods, like a meadow blossoming in wildflowers.
She smells like love.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bianca
