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Your eyes will adjust, and the moon will get brighter. If not, you have a fearless vampire master to protect you,” he jokes.
“Ha! And who says I need protecting from you? I can take care of myself. Didn’t I already prove that once today? We don’t need to count the shock of finding out I have these mysterious powers. That will be our little secret,” I tell him, giving him a little wink.
He grins, but then puts his finger to his lips, sniffing the air, and pointing through an open field. “There,” he says, picking up his pace and causing me to walk double time to try to keep up with him.
We make our way through miles of the barren field and into the woods, twigs snapping beneath our feet as he holds brush from the undergrowth up and away from us. Suddenly he puts a finger to his lips again, takes my arm, and pulls me with him behind the trunk of a large tree.
A branch snaps in the distance. The moonlight illuminates a large powerful white wolf who stalks through the underbrush with his nose to the ground.
Master Calabrea gestures for me to stay where I am and steps from behind the tree. "Sheba, it's been a long time, my friend.”
“Master Calabrea, good to see you.”
Sheba's bright blue eyes shine bright as he takes both of us and our surrounding in, his nose twitching as though filtering scents in the air to ensure danger doesn’t exist.
Master Calabrea points to the area where Sheba stands. “I think your wolfpack bedded down here, probably on their way to my estate, waiting for the optimal time to attack. Two were killed, but one escaped. We believe he came back this way and is making his way to wherever Isala is hiding."
Sheba nods and gestures in my direction.
Calabrea puts his arm protectively around me. “This is Tansia; she is with me.”
Sheba takes me in with outright curiosity yet gives me a nod. "The wolves you mentioned used to be mine but defected from our pack. All I can do is apologize for their behavior and offer my assistance. I heard these three were running guard for Isala now, and we’re trying to find them too. They killed two of our brothers, as well.”
Calabrea nods. “Indeed, it’s time to put an end to Isala and all the rogues she’s creating from the underground. Every faction out there is experiencing her sabotage. Her armies are growing while distrust grows in its stead from the groups she pilfers from. We aim to find all of them and put an end to this for good, before a war between all the groups break out.”
Sheba paws the earth and looks at us with big blue crystalline eyes. “I will help you find them, but on one condition. The one you track, the one who got away? When we find him, he will not die at your hands, vampire; he will be taken back to the den and dealt with by his brothers. We have a deal?”
Calebrea nods. “We have a deal, Sheba.”
Sheba nods, his intense eyes still taking me in with curiosity, the white mane of hair glistening in the moonlight. “I picked up his trail a way back but wanted to see where the other two went before doubling back. We'll let you lead the way, Sheba," MasterCalabrea says just as my mind begins to swirl with stalking grey wolves and twigs snapping in the distance.
Chapter
Eleven
Ipush Tansia behind the tree trunk and wait as the four sets of yellow eyes approach, prowling carefully but unable to keep the dead wood of the tree limbs from crunching beneath their paws.
“What do you want, traitors,” Sheba calls out.
They stop mid-step, clearly not having expected the fearless leader whom they betrayed to have partnered with the vampires in the quest to bring them to their knees. “Go home, Sheba. This doesn’t concern you.”
Sheba growls so fiercely that the birds nestled in the tree above fly from its crown in a flock, fleeing from the sound and into the safety of another. “You dare look in my eyes with your lies and deceit? How many of your righteous brothers have you killed in the name of that woman? Isala will not bring your troubles to an end, only make it worse. Instead of fighting for our place in the underworld and adapting as the world does, you fight for her cause? For money? For power? Surely a servant at that bitch’s knees will have neither?”
The leader who stands slightly in front of his pack leaps, but Sheba anticipates it, and the two go muzzle to muzzle, growling and snarling with teeth gnashing, each trying to tear the otherone to shreds. I watch the others closely, waiting for them to attack, but they hold back as their leader and Sheba fight a ferocious battle.
A flash of fur flies into the air and a high-pitched howl emanates from the pack leader. A call for help from the mangy wolf who now knows he’s about to get bested by Sheba sets the others into motion.
Step by step they stalk, all three of them, and when the first one pounces, I’m ready, arcing my long sword the minute he lifts into the air, thrusting it right between his chest bone and sinking deep as he comes down from his jump. I twist the sword and withdraw it from the dying wolf to face the others.
But now they’re wary…
The wolves watch carefully instead of leaping without hesitation. Smart, because I’d be ready if they did that, but I’m also ready for them now, watching every step of those paws, listening to both of their heart beats, waiting for a sign of attack, and the moment they rush, they lose every chance of staying alive another day.
Sheba’s patience has come to an end. He severs the head of the wolf who betrayed him, and now his foe lays on the ground in a pool of his own blood at Sheba’s feet. Sheba watches to see if we will need help.
But he will be as impressed as I was with Tansia’s skills.
She does exactly as we trained, waiting for them to get past her and closer to me before stepping out from beneath the cover of the tree trunk. I charge the wolf closest to me, thrusting and jabbing as he shifts this way and that, leaning away from the steel of my blade, while Tansia doesn’t miss her mark. She lays a dagger in the back of the other wolf’s neck, severing his ability to move with one precise toss of her blade.
