Chapter Sixteen: Daffyd

“We rebuild underneath or around. There doesn’t need to be a gap in our attacks,” I say in reply to Hamish’s question on what we’re going to do, standing in the tunnel that once leads to the resting grounds. “If we go underneath, then there is nothing stopping us from appearing out of the dirt beneath their feet. They wouldn’t expect it. Otherwise, we run parallel to them, pulling them out of the fight, again without them expecting it. We do not need to fight head on. That’s never been how we’ve played it. We’re not the kind to show ourselves in the light. We’re creatures of darkness for a reason. We can use that to our advantage.”

Hamish is thinking long term. I’m thinking of the here and now. We lost a tunnel leading to our resting grounds, and we need to get it back. We need to show the wolves that their actions have consequences. A small thing like this pathway has a huge negative impact on us. Hamish isn’t considering this in the same regard as the rest of the war because he is thinking of the bigger fights that we’re going to face. Small battles are what win big wars.

“So, we take the resting grounds back. We get the wolves out of our domain. Who do they think they are, coming into our world and running amok?” Hamish means well. His intentions are to preserve troops for a bigger fight. We have lost a place for them to rest, however. We can’t just let that go. The vampires, now more than ever, need to see that their leader cares about them. More than just as a soldier. They need to feel like we are all in this together, moving to something bigger without a distinction in class.

“You were ready to drop the castle to the wolves a few weeks ago. I don’t understand why you’re making such a fuss over a resting ground now,” I laugh.

“I didn’t see the value in my actions. Giving up Torrine meant admitting defeat, and that, my friend, is not something we do.

What was it that Winston said? “We will prove ourselves once more able to defend our home, ride out the storm of war, and outlive the menace of tyranny. If necessary for years. We will defend to the death our native soil. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and strength. We shall defend our home whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.”

A speech has never been more apt, and with a few embellishments, it fits my cause better than I could have ever imagined.

“I know it, Hamish. I lost myself. I became a man that would not befit the position of a pauper, let alone a king, but I fully intend on remedying the time I wasted hiding behind the Veil. Now is not the time to drop everything and have a one-upmanship between the vampires and wolves. It’s time for us to bite down. Force victory out of their reach. Take back what is ours and slaughter anything in our path. We are not going to sit in silence, and we are not going to live in fear. We are going to fight them to the death. It’s us or them, and I will not let it be them. Do you under–”

“What do you think?” Hearing the voices out in the distance, my thoughts are distracted, a conversation transpiring behind the crumbled rock that rests before myself and Hamish.

“Do you hear that?” I ask over muddled words. Hamish nods, trying his best to listen in to what is being said behind us.

I can’t pin the first voice, but the second is no doubt the wolf alpha, Romulus.

They’re discussing their own plans. How close we are, but how little they know. Hamish and I listen. I can’t help but snicker as they speak, giving me the insider information on a plan that would have otherwise had a good effect on us. The tunnel systems in town are massive. They connect our own railways and sewers. They only have one way in if they follow the tunnel that was destroyed into the city and then to one of my tunnels. This is where we will trap them.

And to my surprise, Romulus himself will be there.

We remain still, completely so, until we are certain that they are gone.

“So, they want to fight us in the trenches?” I tap my chin.

“Then we will fight them there. Those who enter our system will die. Those on the surface, while facing the loss in the town, will end up facing the same fight that night. Have a few vampires in the tunnels now. Watching and waiting. No attacks. When they enter, we must have knowledge of it. They will not see us coming.”

Hamish turns with the information and jets off to fulfill the order. I stay a moment. Alone. The first time in months that I am truly alone. My mind, so deeply engulfed in this war, has now been steered in the direction of Olivia, a pure ray of distraction I find myself fascinated with.