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“Those three werewolves would have killed you if we hadn’t gotten here in time,” Cobra said. “Kingsnake and I can train you when we have time, but you just aren’t as skilled for battle as we are. It’s nothing personal.”
“Then what would you have me do?” she snapped. “Go eat a snack?”
“Just don’t put yourself in harm’s way,” I said. “Because then I’m going to have to save you. What do you want me to focus on? Winning, or protecting you?”
I knew she was offended by all of this, hurt that she wasn’t truly one of us because her skills paled in comparison to ours. But she took it in stride and gave a slight nod. “Fine. But if they bust through that gate, I’ll have no other choice but to fight.”
“Viper will be here before that happens,” I said, knowing nothing would stop my brother from reaching us when we called for aid.
“They’re here.” King Elias was in his full uniform and armor, his helmet protecting his head.
I looked over the edge and saw all the torches they carried. Werewolves could see in the dark, so it was an attempt to instill fear in all of us. It didn’t work on us, but it probably scared the humans shitless. “Light your arrows and prepare to fire.” I stepped on King Elias’s toes and ran the show, but he seemed too weak and incompetent to do it himself. “Light the trenches.”
We’d had little time to construct the trenches around the wall, so they weren’t very deep, but it was something. One of the archers lit the arrow and fired it into the trenches, and quickly, the spark turned into flames that sprinted down the trench to the opposite end. The flames leaped up high, and the heat was so strong I could feel it from where I stood.
Larisa came to my side, Fang wrapped around her shoulders.
“I can’t believe I’m fighting beside humans.”
“A part of us will always be human.” She turned her head to regard me, reminding me of a conversation we had in Evanguard. “Right?”
I stared into those brilliant eyes and saw a fire stronger than the one that warmed my skin through my armor. I bathed in her confidence, soaked in her intensity. If an army of werewolves weren’t marching on the gate, I’d cup her face and kiss her. “Right.”
They stopped behind the barrier of fire, a line of werewolves with open jaws, staring right at me as if I was the one they needed to destroy. The flames were as tall as they were, but that would only last for a couple minutes. The flames would recede with every passing minute, becoming weaker as the oil was spent.
“Fire.”
The archers shot their arrows through the flames and struck a few. The light from the blaze must have been too bright for the werewolves to see what was coming, because we hit a few of them and made them collapse right on top of the fire. The fire burned hotter as it consumed the extra fuel.
“Hoooowwwwwlllll.”
“Hoowwwll.”
They howled into the night, their battle cry.
“Now we pissed them off,” Cobra said from beside me.
“Fine by me.” I walked down the rampart in the opposite direction and peered into the darkness, hoping to see an army of vampires on horses, to hear the sound of a thousand hooves.
But nothing was there.
* * *
Our fires took out a decent number of the werewolves, but the flames burned too low, and the first one crossed the threshold. Then the next and then next. Soon, they were all running for the gate.
“Shit.” I hadn’t thought they would make it this far.
Cobra pulled out his bow and started to fire.
“Fire!” I shouted. “Fire as quickly as you can.”
Arrows rained down on the attackers, some aflame and some not, missing their mark and sometimes hitting them in the flesh. But now that they were close, they were invigorated to keep going, to scale the wall and rip off our heads.
Dozens of them made it to the wall and started to climb.
Protect her.
Yeesssss.
