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Another seven of the elder’s people joined the rebels’ cause.
It was always better if they could convince the ones they were fighting to join them, unless they were diehards and there was no convincing any of them.
Then Stasio realized there was no elder fighting among them. “Where’s the elder?” he called out to the woman who had switched sides.
She pointed with her sword to one of the rooms.
Stasio and Jasmine immediately headed that way, Arman and Gareth quickly joining them. They knew that if they took him down, anyone he had turned would be eliminated too.
The elder was waiting right at the door for them and Stasio pulled Jasmine out of the way so she didn’t get hit, unprepared for the onslaught. The elder was fast and his strikes hard. He knocked Stasio’s sword from his hand, but Jasmine stabbed at the elder’s shoulder, forcing him back and allowing entrance to the others who were trying to reach him.
Levka was struck across the shoulder, but it didn’t stop him. They had to take down this elder and make sure that he didn’t escape. Stasio did have the fear that they would call on other leagues to come to their aid. So far, though, no one else had come to defend them. Since vampires could be so arrogant, Stasio wondered if they figured they hadn’t needed anyone else’s help. Or maybe they didn’t want to owe allegiance to another league if they’d asked for their assistance and would have to reciprocate at some point. Maybe they had even been afraid they would have been turned down. Or they just hadn’t had time to contact anyone else before they hid in the safe house.
If Stasio and his friends tried to free their own Welsh League, would their league have learned from the Scottish League’s example and call for help?
If it came to that, Stasio hoped not.
13
Jasmine knew this was going to be work when she signed up for this mission, but she had to admit she had never been so exhausted after only part of the job was done. In the past, she’d survived a battle when she’d gone after one rogue vampire and then three more showed up. So it had totally been a fight to the death. That’s the way she felt with these battles. Except that she had others watching her back. But never had her mission taken this many hours to complete. She was exhausted but she was determined not to show it and to continue the fight.
Unless there were very few vampires in the last of the elders’ lairs, Jasmine wasn’t sure they would win. But she knew they had to finish this tonight and prayed that Scotty and the rest of his people had taken out the rest of the elders so that this would be a done deal. She kept worrying one of these elders would call in reinforcements that maybe he had sent to battle Scotty and his entourage.
For a moment, they paused before the last door, preparing to fight their last battle. At least she sure hoped that it was their final battle. She was perfectly willing to fight more battles, but after she had some sleep!
As soon as Gareth opened the door into the main room, everyone there who was chilling—sitting on couches, standing together in small groups, talking, drinking laughing, but it all stopped when they looked in his direction. Stasio was right behind his cousin, quickly protecting his flank. Unlike the other room full of vampires like these, the vampires quickly engaged them, not waiting for the fight to start, realizing at once they were the enemy.
Eleanor immediately targeted a man who was nearer the back of the main room, dodging vampires and Jasmine was trying to keep up with her, fighting one vampire then another. What was she doing? There were plenty of other vampires to fight who were eager to engage her.
“Lawrence LaFevers! You are a traitor!” Eleanor said to him, her voice furious.
Jasmine realized Eleanor targeted him first for setting her up to take the fall when they went to rescue William. Jasmine didn’t blame her at all because if they hadn’t believed her words, Scotty would most likely have eliminated her.
“You will never succeed and I went for a sure thing,” Lawrence said. “As we speak, the others are taking down Scotty and his rebels.”
Jasmine sure hoped not as she fought another vampire. Rebel fighters were calling out to drop their weapons and join the cause, but none of these would wield, too brainwashed by their elder, she figured.
All of the rebels were struggling. They were sword weary, making mistakes they could ill afford. Levka was going after the elder, knowing that taking him down could mean automatically taking a few of the vampires there down with him that had been turned by him.
Ruric and Arman went with him. Gareth was protecting Caitlin. Jasmine had heard them speaking about how she had only recently started sword training for this mission, so she wasn’t very skilled against extremely skilled fighters. So everyone in their small group was constantly working to cover for her, to ensure she wasn’t killed. Since she wasn’t an ancient vampire, she didn’t have their skills of movement and she didn’t like to expose her fangs. But also, she didn’t have the heart to kill—like the vampires did who had fought forever to keep their own lives during a battle. She’d been human and that hadn’t been a part of her life.
Caitlin was the true innocent among them. She had tried to use her magic, but nothing she seemed to be trying was successful. No one fell asleep. No one turned on the elder’s people. No one walked out, unwilling to fight any longer.
Jasmine was trying to stay close to Caitlin to protect her too. She bumped against Stasio again for what seemed like the hundredth time. Jasmine knew he was sticking close to her to protect her too. She had to love him for it. But then she was fighting a female vampire. Jasmine swore they could be wilder and more vicious than the males. The males were more conceited, laid back, with an attitude that they were far superior to anyone else that they didn’t have to fight that hard to win. But the rebels, male and females, fought as hard as they could to turn the tide because they hadn’t had time to rest for long periods in between fights.
Jasmine figured she would have already taken the woman down by now if she hadn’t been so tired. She barely missed some sword strikes as the woman repeatedly struck at her that normally Jasmine wouldn’t have had any trouble deflecting. She thrust her sword at the vamp’s heart but missed it again!
* * *
Stasio had made somany missteps. He had bumped into Jasmine’s back so many times and he knew she was just as tired as him, but he was sticking close to her and Caitlin to protect both of them. He hadn’t meant to keep bumping into her. Then he heard Jasmine cry out and the sound of her pain sent his heart beating more wildly than before. He finished off the vampire he was fighting and whipped around to terminate the vampire who had sliced her arm. But she had already killed whoever it was and all that was left were the woman’s ashes and her sparkly black leather gown and heels.
“How bad is your injury?” Stasio asked Jasmine, concerned she might need blood if she was bleeding too much.
Jasmine was holding her arm, not letting him see the damage. “It’ll heal. Don’t worry about it.” She dismissed his concerns, but he wasn’t buying it when he couldn’t see the wound.
They healed quickly, unless the cut was too deep and it could take several hours, or even days. Just like what had happened to Levka when he was shot in Dallas, Texas. Stasio guessed that was too fresh in his mind and that was why he was so concerned about Jasmine’s injury, besides the fact she was hiding it from him.
Stasio swept her up into his arms and carried her out of the room—despite her protestations—and into the hallway. He set her on the floor so that she could rest against the wall.
