Chapter One
The Cascades, Oregon…
The bright moon lit Thorn Andreiko’s path as he sped down the empty road on his motorcycle. His massive, tough, rough around the edges body leaned onto the handlebars, gripping the throttle as he gave the machine more gas for power. He raced toward his men who needed him. They were surrounded by pure, steadfast evil, a Bolnav or as some would call, a turned vampire. One of the deadliest creatures to be here on this plain.
With the steady beat of the rain coming down, it made the road nearly impossible to travel for an average human. Thorn was anything but an ordinary man. With the agility, strength, and skill of a werewolf, a Lycan leader, he was able to maneuver the open road with expert ease.
Normally, he would have trusted his men to execute the Bolnav, but apparently, this one had friends, other Bolnav. What the hell was going on in this world of theirs? He questioned his own sanity. It was unheard of for vampires to hang in packs, especially a turned one. If you killed a human while draining them of their blood, your soul would be exchanged for greatness by Satan, in exchange for eternity on this earth today.
‘What is this shit?’ Thorn whispered through the mind-path leading directly to his men.
Aiden MacPherson answered him back, ‘Don’t fucking know, Hoss. These assholes are everywhere. We’ve already killed a half of a dozen or more, and they keep coming.’
He heard Dante, his son, step in, ‘Dad, they surprised us during the arm’s deal with the Ghosts.’’
‘The Ghosts? I thought we could trust those humans,’ Thorn frowned as he kept his eyes on the road. He didn’t want to believe the men he’d learned to trust had betrayed him. But there was the possibly the Bolnav was controlling the humans.
‘No, it wasn’t the Ghosts. The Bolnav, they’re running in numbers right now. Sorry, got to go, they’re everywhere,’ Aiden cut their mind-path.
Thorn gave the bike more gas and sped up. He needed to get to his men and help, even though as leader, he should let his men protect their race. Although sometimes, control as Alpha forced him to put himself into the danger alongside the men. They tended to take after their counterparts, the wolf.
Putting his head down, he let the windshield protect his face from flying debris. The fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife, making the road nearly unpassable.
He pulled into the entrance of the national park and found his men’s bikes parked and lined up. They must have gone in on foot, leaving their motorcycles here. He quickly, with a Gypsy spell, waved his hand to stand there naked, his leathers and clothes folded neatly on the seat of his bike. He leaned over, opened the saddlebag, and stored them away for later when he came back out of the woods. He loved the spells his daughter, Najha, had taught him. Everything went so much faster and smoother.
He didn’t have time to dwell on the necessities of life, he ran swiftly, shifting as he entered the woods. His oversized black wolf, strong and steady on his four legs, raced through the forest to reach his men.
Thorn yipped then howled to announce his arrival as a wolf. He didn’t like surprises and knew his men didn’t either. With large strides, he jumped and weaved his way through the forest, fog, and the dark easily enough with his sharp senses of sight, smell, and feel. He ran easily after finding a small deer path and the scent of his men. He tracked them to the ceremony circle in the middle of the Cascades in Oregon. Hitting a more tangled underbrush area, he had to slow down enough to travel more carefully, or risk getting injured, which wouldn’t help his men.
He stopped, lifted his head, inhaled, and listened. Nothing. Once again, he headed toward the battle raging inside the forest. The further in, the more he scented a foul odor. His skin quivered, and fur stood on end as the evil surrounded him.
Reaching out to Aiden’s mind, ‘I’m close, what’s going on? I feel the evil lurking everywhere.’
‘I know! It alerted us right before they attacked. We had no warning. Though, now, I believe it’s Mother Earth trying to stop this.’
‘I agree! She’s pissed off that’s for sure. Can you feel the rumbling? If that mountain blows and the volcano ruptures, who knows what the hell kind of evil it will bring. Our entire world will be gone. Let this be a warning, God is angry, and we need to fix this.’ Thorn used his powerful legs to veer to the right, crash through more brush, jump a tree, and race up the rocks. He changed direction by traveling down another steep hill of only rock.
‘There’s more coming, Thorn!’
‘I’m almost to you.’ He felt the earth tremble. The humans called it an earthquake, but Thorn knew it was Mother Earth screaming in pain as the Bolnav tore up the ground and burrowed their way through the earth. Their evil surrounded the Lycan coming from every direction, and he could feel the warnings.
A Bolnav could dig through the earth, fly in the air, run as fast as or faster than an animal and use water, air, fire, and earth to do their bidding. They could shift to anything with consistency as well as use their evil as mass destruction and kill mankind. No one knew this but the others. All the natural disasters labeled by the humans were demons fighting from heaven and hell.
People believed war meant humans fighting humans, Thorn knew this to be evil killing off mankind. They made the humans believe they were running the world, but this wasn’t true. It was the fallen angels, Lucifer, the most feared of them all, controlling the gates to his own personal playground. When and if he would open them, hundreds of demons poured out of the earth. He was afraid his men had stepped into one of those nests.
Gazing up at the darkened sky, he prayed his God would send down his army of angels to help in the fight. Never knowing when and if they’d come, Thorn hurried his ass to the men running as a wolf, which was much faster than trying to maneuver these damn woods with a bike.
‘This is something I haven’t seen in a long time,’ Dante shouted through the mind-path for all the warriors who were fighting. ‘Do you remember the Wars between the States?’
‘Oh, yeah! The Civil War?’
‘Yes, I think that was what they called it.’ Dante tried to keep track of all the conflicts around the world. There were so many they literally kept scrolls and journals recording every incident.
‘Dante, Aiden, do you see a port that opened between earth and hell?’
‘No! It was the first thing we checked. I don’t think this is the end, Hoss. I think these creatures developed a brain.’
‘I hate the way Mother Earth is unhappy and ready to blow the top of that mountain off. Can one of you get over to the other side and make sure that portal is sealed tight?’ Thorn and his people had found a tomb or what appeared to be a gravestone in front of a large opening in the eastern side of the mountain. There were rumors of an evil so great, they believed it to be one of many portals to hell.
‘Already thought of that. I sent out a message to Lucien and his people. They were heading there already. He’ll report if there’s a problem.’
Thorn knew his good friend, Lucien Dazaraski, the King of the vampires would come to his aid. They’d been friends since they were children, over four hundred years. The man was fucking amazing and would help keep mankind safe while they figured out what the hell was going on.
Thorn heard the mountains moan and felt the earth shake as the volcano heated up. He just hoped Lucien arrived in time to stop that fucker from blowing its top off in a tantrum. What might be inside nobody knew for sure. The rumors and myths were many as most were tales and made up stories people told around the campfire or worse, in bars and parties. Thorn knew the truth though, something happened a long time ago, but nobody survived to tell anyone what.
He howled to the moon, mourning the death of his sister, Vera. She’d hung herself hundreds of years ago trying to save mankind from an evil she believed was her mate. Thorn had hunted for centuries, and Lukas Dazaraski had vanished.
He prayed to his God there wouldn’t be another volcano eruption. The last one nearly destroyed his entire world. Their hometowns and the Cascade Range housed the hundreds of Vampires and Lycan. They wouldn’t be able to survive another eruption, especially on such a larger scale and allowed those things to escape.
He raced harder to get to his men. ‘Aiden, I need to get to you, and we have to stop them. I’ve made a promise to my people, parents, and the close humans who know who and what we are. They are all counting us to stop this thing from happening.’
‘Gotcha. Move your fucking ass, Thorn. I’m getting my ass handed to me here.’ Aiden never called him Thorn unless he was injured or really pissed.
With each paw striking the hard surface of the forest floor, he could feel the trembles. A few times, he stumbled just enough to slow him down but not knock him over. He needed to be able to see what was happening. Going in blind wouldn’t be a smart thing to do. ‘Aiden, show me!’ When the Lycan warrior connected their minds, he opened his human eyes, not as clear as the wolf, but it would have to do. Long like dagger nails swiped at Aiden’s abdomen. Concentrating on what was in front of his friend, Thorn stopped dead in his tracks, shifted to human, and raised his arms into the sky. His men were surrounded, and unless he did something, he would be too late. ‘Aiden, listen to me. Look up at the sky,’ Thorn could see the same darkness being only a few miles from his men. Immediately, he started the spell, “Terra, ignis, ignis, aqua. All three elements of elements of astral, I summon thee. Earth by divinity, divinity by Earth. Give the enemy the power to see the strength of the elements by my side. When my enemy meets his downfall, this spell will have no power left at all. In no way shall this spell reverse or place upon me any curse.”
Thorn shifted and took off at a dead run toward his men. Screaming in his mind, ‘Close the circle around the men quickly. They can’t get to them unless they want to die. I’m almost there.’ His large wolf stormed the bloody battleground, finding all his men inside a large circle they’d drawn in the dirt, with what appeared to be a sword.
Aiden quickly jumped the line and sidestepped a Bolnav. Using his sword, he beheaded yet another Bolnav.
Torment, his full-brother, joined Aiden and yelled out, “Welcome to the party, brother. Aiden cook that one.” The Lycan weaved a spell.
Thorn made out his lips moving, but no sound was needed. He shifted back to human, uncaring of his nakedness, his large muscular human legs carried him to the center of the field. “Hey, anyone got a sword?”
Aiden turned, smiled, and tossed a sword directly toward him. “Thanks for the help earlier. We were slowly being surrounded. It was nice to catch a break.”
Thorn gazed around at the sacred ground they were using as a battlefield. Saddened the ground was bloodied by the turned toxic blood. They would have to cleanse it and please Mother Earth, or she wasn’t going to be kind to them. They needed her, or their lives would virtually end. No animals to feed, crops to raise, or water to drink. The Lycan, humans, and vampire would be extinguished and the earth as they knew it today…would end.
These things were like the plague. Their blood poison, contagious and spreading just like the flu. The warriors were trained to clean up after every battle and didn’t want to miss even a small drop of the stuff or who knows what could happen.
Jumping right in, Thorn immediately started killing the Bolnav. They were strong and powerful but half-starved and craving blood. They weren’t very smart with only feeding on their minds. He watched for an opening to help someone in trouble. Spying Logan Troy, a highly trained warrior who was fighting off a Bolnav, had another one coming at his back.
Thorn leaped toward the blindside of Logan and beheaded the Bolnav.
Logan beheaded the Bolnav in front of him as he spun around and saw Thorn for the first time. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“What kind of greeting is that for a brother? I came to party. You think I’m going to allow you to have all the fun?” Thorn chuckled then ran toward another Bolnav who’d come in from the woods.
Logan shrugged. “Stay alive, fool, we need you.”
Both Thorn and Logan reached Blade, another young man, still a pup under twenty years of age but old enough to be a prospect to the MC as a human. Thorn and the others always watched the younger warriors to make damn sure they made no mistakes and got themselves killed.
“Blade, watch and learn,” Logan taunted the poor young man. The older warrior Lycan stabbed upward, his dagger entered the throat, and with his other hand, he cut the head off with his sword. Then he spun on his booted heel. “Blade, you take that one out.” He pointed the tip of his sword toward the next Bolnav coming up behind the pup.
Thorn’s body stiffened, he waited. If the young pup had trouble, he would step in and kill the evil creature. No way could he lose another Lycan to the foolishness of the warriors taking these kids in the field. He would have to have a sit-down and forbid yet again, these young pups out in the field. At least until they reached adulthood, which was well into their thirties in human years. During their training, they were between twenty-two and twenty-nine years old. These pups, in his thoughts, were still too young. He also knew it was the way the young would learn and understand how dangerous these things were.
Logan, a captain, had been training the young forever. He felt proud of the older man and wanted to commend him, but it would have to wait. Thorn gathered his strength and went for two more Bolnav coming out of the woods. “Where the hell are these all coming from?”
“I don’t fucking know,” Torment, his biological brother, answered.
Thorn left Logan, he trusted him to keep the young safe. He turned his attention to fighting off one of the Bolnav, while Torment took the other. Off to his left, he caught sight of Vlad, another experienced warrior, fighting, stabbing, and basically getting his ass handed to him by three Bolnav.
Thorn knew he needed help, so without a second thought, he beheaded the one in front of him, shifted and leaped across the space, knocking one of the Bolnav away from Vlad’s back. He swiftly and efficiently ripped out the throat with his powerful jaws.
Vlad sliced through the neck of a Bolnav, then turned to Thorn. “Hey, Thorn, welcome, glad you could make it. This is crazy stuff. Already killed six of these bastards.”
Torment stabbed another one in the heart with a wooden dagger. An invention by his natural sibling to fight the Bolnav. A cool contraption, with a push of a button it opened up with barbs which actually attached itself to muscle and when pulled, it tore out the organ or body part it was stabbed into. Torment pulled out the heart stuck on the stake and chucked it toward him, “Hey, buddy, take care of that for me, please?”
Thorn shifted to human and spun a spell at the same time taunted, “You sure? You seem to be doing well on your own, brother. I don’t think you need me anymore.”
“Ah come on, Thorn, of course, I need you.” A charming smile showed his white teeth.
Thorn nodded. “Suck up.” He weaved his hands and chanted, “Fire, water, air and earth, come to me, to help me rid this world of evil. I blow onto you a heat hot enough to scorch and burn this body and soul of the Bolnav. No longer keeping them in the in-between and sending them straight to hell to burn forever.” A large orb of fire turned around in the palm of his hand. He pitched the fire toward a small group of Bolnav, turning them to dust.
“Thanks!” Torment yelled out. His brother was a younger sibling but experienced in battling the Bolnav and rogues even better than he could.
He continued fighting alongside his brother, both matching in size and speed. Torment was his almost identical brother with his large body, honed to the perfect proportion of muscle, length, and build. “Love it! Glad our mom taught us the fire spell,” he yelled out.
“It is cool. At least the Gypsy humans on Mom’s side were worth something.” Thorn groaned as another three Bolnav joined the fight.
“What’s the matter with you, Thorn? These things got your panties in a bunch? Come on, pull out the cotton from between your ass crack and start chopping their heads off. Here, take this.” Torment threw another sword.
Thorn easily caught it. “Thanks, brother, love that you can spell up these weapons.”
Torment nodded but moved slowly away from Thorn as he fought other Bolnav who joined them.
He watched his brother out of the corner of his eye, while he stabbed one of his own. After finishing up the third one, Thorn turned to Torment, a large muscular man, head to toe tattooed and dressed in expensive clothes, covered in his leather for riding. He knew from experience the man wouldn’t shift because of the cost of his outfits. If he ever lost leathers to a Bolnav, he would bitch about the cost to replace them. Thorn reached over and beheaded the Bolnav his brother was hacking away at and teased, “Still protecting the leathers, yeah?”
“Fuck you!” Torment threw a punch, hitting the Bolnav square in the face. He spun around and grinned. “Ruby would kick my ass for wrecking another pair.”
Thorn assessed the scene in front of him. The entire battle looked contained, so why did something feel off? He moved slowly forward, but in front of him the earth opened up as snakes crawled up and out. “Ah shit!” he yelled out. He weaved a spell, the ball of fire in his hand increased to a tunnel similar to a small tornado. He threw it toward the ground, it struck across the entire area, as a flash flood would take out large areas. Nothing burned. “Snakes!” he shouted.
The Lycan jumped back, away from the Bolnav they were trying to stop. Never, in over four hundred years, had they encountered this kind of situation.
Thorn couldn’t figure out what this all meant. A normal situation would be a single vampire, seeking the darkness and freedom. They would either walk into the sun, instantly seeking an honorable warrior’s death or they drank the blood of a human until the person died which then turned them to a Bolnav. Then all the thing would crave was his next meal. These things seemed to be attacking with a rational state of mind.
Another one came at them. Thorn instantly jumped back into the fight. With his sword, he beheaded the one closest to him. He shouted in his mind to Aiden, ‘I’m not sure what this is, but I don’t like it.’
‘I know; the end game is not going to be pretty.’
Thorn threw the sword and shifted. He leaped at a Bolnav Aiden defended himself from. Thorn ripped out the throat and shook his muzzle. Blood and tissue flew out and landed on Aiden and Vlad.
“What the fuck!” Aiden tried to brush off the blood off as it burned holes all over the leather.
Vlad, another Lycan warrior, yelled out, “Thorn, what the fuck did you do!” His jacket and chaps were literally melting from the blood on them.
Vlad and Aiden both stripped and shifted. They ran to the river and jumped in the water.
‘What the hell just happened?’ Thorn asked.
Aiden responded, ‘The blood was burning my leathers and skin. What the fuck…’
Thorn needed to figure out what just happened and why. He gazed around and found his men were all suffering from the blood that was spilling from the new batch of Bolnav that had joined in the fight.
Where all of them were coming from remained a mystery to Thorn. Although, he intended to find out. He needed to capture one of them and make it talk. He shifted back to a human and stalked his next prey. Shifting, he leaped on the Bolnav and grabbed him by the throat. He shook him slightly and dropped the thing to the ground. He shifted back and grabbed him by the neck. “Speak! What the hell is wrong with you?”
The thing shook his head. “I don’t know anything.”
“Yes, you do. What the hell is wrong with your blood?” Thorn demanded.
“You’ll never make me tell you.”
Thorn felt disgusted with the thing, he shifted, grabbed the neck with his teeth and tore out the jugular vein. The burn in his mouth hit him immediately. He tried to shake it out, but it burned his tongue, mouth, and teeth. He jumped in the river and rinsed it out. He healed the inside, immediately feeling the relief. ‘What the hell is that shit?’
‘I don’t know, but whatever the hell it is, it’s bad.’ Aiden met him on the bank of the river as he came out and shifted to human.
Thorn heard the desperation in Aiden’s tone. ‘I know, that’s why we’re fucking losing. What the hell did they do?’ Behind him, something brushed the back of his neck, a gentle wind perhaps stirred his thick hair lifting it ever so slightly. He knew before he actually heard the whispery voice of a Bolnav. He spun around, Thorn came face to face with a familiar face. “Kevy fucking Andrews,” Thorn taunted. He tried to figure out the mystery of the blood, but now he had a more dangerous situation. This man was one of Lucien’s best warriors, and he’d turned. “You couldn’t fight off the bloodlust, could you?”
“I didn’t want to. Not with the new order. I love this better than following around that pansy ass leader Lucien. He couldn’t even protect his own parents.” Kevy attempted to taunt and tease Thorn by saying shit about his friend, Lucien Dazaraski’s, leader of the vampire and president of the Dark Tribal MC, the vampire version of a cover.
Thorn waited for an opening. He wanted to capture and question this man. Being one of the strongest Lycan in the world, he felt confident he could make this man talk. He danced around taunting, “You’re a coward. You seek fame and fortune this way, Kevy? How could you betray your people, your king, and your beloved country?”
Kevy frowned. “You mention honor, I know you killed our king, who else would be strong enough to murder Lucius?” he referred to the death of Lucien’s father. “Lucien is stupid, believing you were his best friend, a dirty rotten dog. He was a fool to trust you. I told him not to. You would stab him in the back the first chance you got. Lucien keeps you close because you are the enemy. I seek my own happiness, not to be a puppet following around the snot-nosed brat of our king who,” he pointed to Thorn, “you murdered.” Kevy lunged, scraping his long nails right across Thorn’s ribs.
Thorn tried to move out of the way, but Kevy was too quick and powerful. Something about all this was wrong. Normally, the power of the Bolnav made the creature stronger, but not like this. The truth of the matter was, the Lycan were the only thing stronger than a vampire in this world. But he did not kill Lucien’s father, someone else did. Not wanting to break his concentration, he shook his head to get the thoughts out and capture Kevy. From wherever he could, Thorn pulled together his strength to execute the death of this vampire.
‘Thorn, watch your back. I’m coming, he’s too strong for you alone,’ Aiden called.
‘Aiden, Logan, Vlad, Torment, and Blade, take out the others, this one is mine. It’s Kevy Andrews, and I need to capture him, keep him alive to tell us what is going on. This is bullshit how they’re living as a pack. These are Bolnav vampires, they don’t do this.’
‘Okay, but be careful!’ Aiden’s voice carried doubt through their personal path in their minds.
‘Dude, keep your head in the game, don’t fucking worry about me,’ Thorn scolded. Not wanting to taunt or take his chances, he shifted to his wolf, lunging and hitting Kevy hard, knocking him to the ground. He stood on top of him as he snarled, snapped, and growled at the Bolnav. His saliva dripped on Kevy’s widened eyes.
‘I’m here if you need me. We are having a hell of a time trying to take out these last four. You stay safe, boss.’ Aiden mocked.
Thorn wasn’t worried. He’d been a warrior for a long time before he’d actually taken the position of Alpha from his father. The role of the pack leader had been fairly fought and won against his father, a long time ago. He ripped, shredded, and then wrapped his teeth around his neck. He growled until the Bolnav stayed still.
Kevy held up his hands. “I give, Thorn.”
Thorn shifted to a human and wrapped his hand around Kevy’s neck, pulling him up onto his feet. “Stand there and don’t move.”
Kevy kicked out, hitting Thorn’s hip knocking him to the side. Then he jumped up, kicked both feet into Thorn’s chest and knocked him on his ass.
Thorn rapidly recovered and flipped up landing on the balls of his feet. He reached out and tried to capture Kevy by the neck.
Again, Kevy he moved too fast and avoided him, jumping backward. Then he crouched down and taunted him, “I’m going to kill you, Thorn, and make me the leader of your people, don’t you think? It’s the winner if I kill their pack leader, then I take your position. Isn’t that how a doggy pack works?” Kevy taunted Thorn hoping to unbalance him enough to where he would actually make a mistake.
No way would he lose the calmness of the natural born leader he was known to be. “Not hardly.”
“Oh, I think you’ll make a mistake, just wait. We have so much more than we did before.”
Thorn couldn’t figure out what Kevy was talking about, and he needed to know. First, he had to get ahold of him. He moved toward Kevy, as he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, but it was too late. Another Bolnav hit Thorn hard and knocked him to the side.
Kevy lunged forward and slashed his long nails across Thorn’s abdomen, laying open his stomach.
Blood poured out, and he had to hold his hand over the gaping hole to keep his intestines from spilling out. Thorn instantly dropped to his knees to grab dirt, moss, leaves and packed the wound himself.
Kevy then took off with the other Balnav and headed into the woods.
Thorn wanted to chase after him but leaving the rest of his pack, a hole in his body, and Bolnav everywhere, he would have to be stupid to follow the man blindly away from here. He yelled out, “Coward, you really think—ah, hell.” With Thorn’s abdomen already healing, he shifted and lunged toward the spot the Bolnav escaped to.
Right before he entered the woods, he spotted Aiden who was in trouble. He twisted his body and raced toward his friend. ‘Do you need help?’
‘Yes! This vampire is strong, and he’s blood thirsting.’ The evil surrounded the sickened creature. Aiden was strong, but this one seemed to use super strength. When he continued to try to kill him quickly to end the soul’s troubles, he would move two steps forward and be shoved back five steps.
Thorn needed no direction, as he lunged and hit the Bolnav, knocking him off Aiden.
This gave Aiden enough time for him to hit the chest with a wooden spike and push the barbs out pulling the organ free as he yelled out, “Burn the fucker!”
Thorn created the spell and burned first the heart, then the body. He brushed off his hands. “Done.” He shook his head and continued to help fight off several more. Still in Aiden’s mind, Thorn asked, ‘What the hell? Why are these creatures over on our side of the mountain?’
‘I don’t fucking know!’
He couldn’t believe these things traveled this far south. He should call Lucien Dazaraski, leader of the vampire, to help them but they didn’t need him. After they were done, he would call Lucien and report their findings. The Lycan warriors were trained to kill the Bolnav and rogue Lycan whenever one of them turned evil. However, all of this was something entirely new and unusual.
He shifted and grabbed a Bolnav by the head with his muzzle, shaking it back and forth he decapitated the sick vampire. ‘Logan!’ Shifting quickly to human, Thorn dug deep into the chest wall, pulling out the heart of the vampire. Without removing the organ, the vampire could heal himself.
Shifting back to a wolf, Thorn didn’t see the other Bolnav until it was too late. The thing, using long sharp fingernails, slashing his side completely open. Thorn still in the body of his wolf tried to turn away, but the vampire saw his opening.
“It’s the great Thorn Andreiko! I never thought I would have this chance to kill such a powerful opponent.”
Before the Bolnav could do more damage, Thorn shifted to human. Trying to stem the flow of blood coming from his abdomen, he protected himself by covering it with his hand and moved quickly away. The pain so intense, he swiftly threw up shields blocking it out of his mind. Turning to the evil one, Thorn recognized him. He was another vampire from Lucien’s MC. This one had disappeared years ago. “Louis O’Riley. I can’t believe you let the bloodlust take you down.”
“You’ll never know until you taste the sweet blood of a human. Instead, you hunt animals out in the woods, just like the dog you are.” Louis moved too fast and slashed open his side toward his back.
The wound was too large for Thorn to fix on the fly. Then as blood poured from the cut, Thorn tried to move away, but Louis moved too rapidly for his injured body. He hit him again. This time, the slice was to his chest and too painful. Thorn hit his knees and almost went down.
“You’ve chosen your destiny by being here. You will die tonight.” Louis grabbed Thorn by the neck. “I will enjoy killing the leader of the Lycan.”
Thorn had relaxed just enough for Louis to be convinced he wasn’t a threat. So, the moment his hand relaxed, Thorn came up from the ground, his hand stretched out and punched a hole in Louis’ chest as he grabbed his heart. The burn started immediately in Thorn’s hand, wrist, then up his arm. He moaned out loud, “What the fuck?”
“You like that, don’t you? A new invention of our leader,” Louis taunted, saliva dripping from his mouth.
Thorn tried to yank on the organ but the burning moved up his arm so rapidly, he had to let go. Staggering backward, he held onto the injured hand. He shifted to his wolf and licked the wounds as his tongue met the flesh, it instantly started to heal the burnt flesh, muscle, and bones. Something all the Lycan could do as part of their powers of their race. If he didn’t figure out what the hell this thing had just done to him, they could be in trouble.
Thorn needed to end this tortured soul’s life. First, though, he wanted the information about how they were able to turn their blood into a weapon. He remained the steady and calm pack leader as he shifted back to human. He wrapped his hand around the neck of the Bolnav then pulled him close. “Why do you speak in riddles? There is no one who could respect something as vile as you.”
“There’s too many of us, and we grow stronger every day. Putting poison in our blood will kill anyone who tries to kill us.”
“How?”
“We kill humans, and their blood is the key. We found a lab full of diseases in their plasma. Once we drank it, this happened.” Louis peered down at his perfect body.
Thorn did feel shocked at the evil but completely perfect skin in a Bolnav. This never happened before. Typically, when a vampire turned, their appearance changed and the body started to decompose. “When did you turn?” He squeezed his hand harder, choking him.
Louis coughed. “I turned a female, she was a doctor, scientist or whatever you call them. She’s helped us understand what a gift she was. She used this powerful blood to make us into stronger warriors.”
“I know you want me to end your miserable existence. I won’t until you tell me everything.” Thorn knew he didn’t want to live this way; no one asked to be turned, it just happened. As they each struggled with the growing darkness and evil before they found their true mate. It was a fact they all suffered with.
“She was my mate! I tried to save her, but master wanted her too. He killed her, and all I wanted was to save her! Lucien wouldn’t understand, without Amy, I would have died. She was the one who could love me!”
Thorn didn’t understand what Louis was babbling about. He turned to find Aiden behind him, and he’d just killed another Bolnav. “Aiden, do you know what he’s talking about?”
Aiden shook his head. “Sorry, Thorn, pre-occupied. Didn’t hear a thing.”
Thorn remembered this man. It had been a long time since Louis had disappeared. No one, including Lucien, knew where he’d gone to. They all figured he’d walked into the sun and took the warrior’s way out. To see him like this was disturbing to Thorn. As a necessary evil, he needed to put the poor soul out of his misery. He’d been one of Lucien’s best men. They’d fought, protected, and partied next to each other many different times over the past four hundred years.
Thorn suddenly felt claws digging through his chest wall, he didn’t break eye contact but knew if he didn’t fight back and kill Louis, he would end up dead. He’d been close to killing Louis, but now the tables were turned, and his life hung in the balance. “Aiden, help!” Thorn used what little strength he had left to fight against the pain and burning sensation in his body. He punched through Louis’ chest again to have the blood surround his limb and burn the hell out of him. Pushing nausea and the smell of his own burnt flesh aside, he yanked.
“You’re not going to make it out of here alive, Thorn,” Louis taunted as his own claws ripped at Thorn’s chest. “Why don’t you give me your life? Let me use your power to take down the entire world as we know it?”
“Because you know I can’t do that. You’re not walking away, and if I go, you go too,” Thorn growled between clenched teeth.
“You’ll go with me then, Thorn.”
He felt the claws digging into his chest. Thorn sucked in a mouth full of air as he plunged further and pulled—nothing. He grabbed his wrist with his good hand and tried pulling but couldn’t budge. He grabbed Louis’ arm and twisted it away from his chest, breaking his wrist then the funny bone, shattering the strength of the Bolnav.
Louis let go and tried to turn away from Thorn.
He grabbed his hair and pulled, flipping Louis to the ground. Thorn knelt down and punched into his chest. Gripping his heart, he pulled and separated it from his body. He’d finally killed the Bolnav, his old friend, but it didn’t feel right, it actually fucked with Thorn’s head. “Take care of it!” He walked away and let Aiden destroy the remains of the man who’d nearly taken his life.
Torment, his brother, raced to his side, “Thorn, you okay? Hey, man? Someone help!”
His brother seemed to swim around in front of his eyes. His vision fucked up, Thorn heard himself mumble, “Hey, dude, I’m okay. Really, Tor why you making a biiiiggg deall… over—” Thorn fell, his knees hitting the hard-packed ground. He then fell forward and tried to grab the ground.
Aiden was yelling out, “Pack the wound! Someone call in the healers!”
His voice sounded far away, and when Thorn tried to open his eyes, all he saw was movements in front of him. ‘Fuck! What the hell is going on? Aiden!’
‘Thorn, you’ll be okay. You’re gravely injured we’re trying to help you, but they keep coming.’
‘Who!’
‘The Bolnav!’ Aiden stayed connected to him.
Thorn wasn’t sure what he saw in front of him. His men were trying to help him, and it was hurting their fight against the evil ones. He needed to do something to help himself and take away the distraction. His men couldn’t die trying to save him.
“Hey, buddy?” He heard Torment yell next to his ear.
“Hey, I'm okay,” he whispered.
“Thorn, you’ll be okay, I promise.” Torment leaned over him.
Thorn rolled to his side and sat up. He coughed and tasted the metallic flavor of his own blood. “I’m not doing…” He pushed himself up from the ground and staggered toward the woods. He could see the path in front of him as he focused on the ground and putting one foot in front of the other.
Thorn needed to get home. Where was he? He swung his arm. “I think I need to go that a’ way?”
Nobody answered him.
He coughed, and his ribs tightened instead of expanding. When all his movements slowed down, he felt sluggish, and his body didn’t want to cooperate with his brain. He knew he needed to shift. When he started forward, his legs weren’t working like they should. He stepped, stumbled, tried to catch himself to steady his spinning mind, but after a few seconds of trying, he gave up and fell forward hitting the ground hard, landing on his knees.
Torment grabbed his arm. “Come, brother, let’s get you away from the fighting.”
“Thanks.” His words sounded far away.
“Come on, brother, you’re injured.” Torment led him away from the scorched area they were fighting in.
Once they were further inside the woods, Thorn felt somewhat better, he was using his own healing spell to try to gain some control over his injuries. He pulled away. “I’m not a weakling, leave me be. Go help the others.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Torment, go. I’ll be okay.” Thorn’s words were strong and sure.
Torment left him, rushing back to the others.
Thorn leaned against the tree. “I can do this, right?” He needed to shift, his wolf would give him strength. With the little bit of energy left, he shifted, his clothes shredded and fell off. The wolf larger than the human pushed off the leather and material.
He staggered on his four legs, moving forward through the underbrush, to rush back to help his men.
Everyone seemed to be staring at him, he didn’t care. There was no way in hell he was going to be carried out of here. ‘Aiden, I’m fine.’
‘No! You’re not, Thorn. Look at you. Your wolf is going to bleed to death.’
‘I can heal myself in this shape. Let me be.’ The pain in his abdomen felt like fire running rampant through the rest of his body. He staggered slightly. Then shifting back to human, Thorn stood up but trembled. He needed to prove to those around him and himself, he was a leader. A Lycan Alpha didn’t show weakness. He hit the first Bolnav in front of him, snapped his neck and chucked the body aside. “Cook it!”
Trusting his right-hand man, Thorn shifted, grabbed the neck of another Bolnav with his powerful jaws and tore the skin and jugular. He flung the body toward Aiden. He watched the Bolnav cook, the pain worsening as he walked a few feet and staggered, hitting the ground hard.
Aiden yelled out, “Hoss!”
His men were safe, but he’d fucked up letting that Bolnav best him, he was injured badly.
“Why? Thorn, come on, brother,” Torment called out.
He saw Torment and Aiden’s expressions, his injuries were severe. He knew this by the emotions crossing their face. ‘Don’t worry about me, brothers. I’m going home to my keeper.’
‘Thorn!’ A female voice screamed in his mind. Connected to the others, he quickly threw up his mind-blocks to protect her. He closed his eyes and laid his head on the ground.
“Dammit, he needs a healer!” Torment shouted.
He sensed the strong arms lifting his wolf’s head up…Aiden. He opened his eyes a slit and stared up into the worried faces of his men.
“You stupid fucker! Why in the hell did you come here? You need to survive; we can’t do this without you, Thorn.”
Torment’s voice sounded so far away. He managed a whine inside the body of his wolf, he had no human strength left, he survived only by his wolf. Thorn needed to stay inside this body it was where he’d been the happiest. The wolf would take care of him, right?
‘No!’ He heard a female voice again scream out. The crazy woman was powerful enough to break through the walls he erected or was she? Maybe it was a dream?
The wolf in him snarled, growled, and forced him to push himself up off the ground. To show weakness and the pack would take over his position. He had to prove to the female he was the leader, right? Wait, she wasn’t actually here. Was she?
“Lay back down,” Aiden sneered and shook his head.
Thorn couldn’t let his pack down. It’s a little injury, move your feet one in front of the other. He forced one paw at a time moving forward. Once his back caught up to his front legs, he trotted away from his men. Slowly increasing the speed, he headed in the same direction he’d just come from retracing his steps to his motorcycle. His animal’s tissue, muscles, and bones protested, working against him.
Thorn concentrated on healing what he could himself as he traveled. Only making it as far as the river, he leaned forward and took a few licks of water. The cool liquid felt good on his raw throat. He sat down hard on his hunches, leaned back, lifted his head, and howled. After he had rested a few minutes, he started off again. The haze of darkness of the night made it nearly impossible for an ordinary man to see. His wolf’s sight made it easy.
The multiple wounds riddled throughout his body were slowly killing him—this he knew. He couldn’t believe how strong Kevy had been. If he didn’t get to a healer soon, he would die. Slowing slightly, he looked back to see a wound in his abdomen was losing more blood than before.
Stupid!
He needed to get home before he died. It was time to walk into death. He’d lived so long without ever finding his mate, the darkness and evil had finally caught up with him. Changing direction, he headed toward his land. The decision made it easier for him to continue.
His eyesight dimmed, his heart slowed to a snail’s pace with the loss of blood making it beat dangerously slow, but he continued on. When his body started to feel sluggish, he pushed on fighting off sleep it would take to try to heal what his brain knew was no use. Thorn felt ready, a warrior’s honorable death was the way to go out. He’d protected his men from the Bolnav. His limbs staggered as he tripped over branches, leaves, and rocks. He glanced around to find he’d made it to his land in the Cascade Range.
The blood loss had been so severe his legs refused to cooperate any longer. He lost the struggle to stay upright and couldn’t recover enough to keep moving—he gave up.
What the hell am I doing? Fuck this.
Thorn stopped, his wolf done as well as his human. He sat down, put his front legs out and laid down. He curled his body up, his tail came around and covered his muzzle. He closed his eyes and prayed death would take him quickly.
‘Thorn!’ He heard Torment and Aiden yell out on their mind path.
‘Know, I am dying as a true warrior. Tell my children I have fought and won as any true Lycan warrior could.’
‘No! We are not ready to let you leave this world, Thorn!’
Torment’s angry words barely registered. He needed to reassure Torment he could continue on by leading their people, ‘Brother, you can lead. Teach Dante to take over when you are no longer able.’
‘That’s your job, you son-of-a-bitch!’
Torment’s heated words had no impact. ‘Brother, I have searched this world and can’t find my true mate. It is destiny for a mated male to lead our pack. You have Ruby, she is a true mate and loves you very much. Go, lead our people. Leave me to die a warrior’s death, please.’
‘Thorn, no! We’ll call in Layla, Taraji or even Myra or Najha, the healers want to help you. They’ll bring the truck. You’re dying!’ Aiden demanded.
Thorn didn’t respond back. He felt happy about his decision and prayed for death to take him quickly.
‘Stop being so stubborn. You're impossible!’ Torment wailed.
‘I will not allow you to die this way. I’ve taken your blood, and I will find you!’ Aiden called to him.
It was, by far, too late for his men to find him and save him. They’d all taken each other’s blood, so if this did happen, they’d search and would easily track them by the scent. Thorn hoped he’d gotten far enough away from the rest of the pack so they wouldn’t find him in time to save his sorry ass.
Right before the darkness took him under, he heard once again, that female’s voice inside his mind. ‘Don’t you dare die on me! I need you!’
Thorn tried to appease, comfort, and tell her it would be okay. He’d tried over the years to find this specific woman he’d always referred to as his angel. But she didn’t exist and had probably been a figment of his imagination.
His body now seemed ready to move into the next life. One of peace and happiness. Thorn closed his mind off to everyone but that one person. ‘Love, I’ve tried so many times to search for you. I have never been able to find you. It’s been awhile since you’ve come to me, why?’
‘I always thought you were in my imagination, and I never dreamed you could be someone real. I chose to forget you and our connection. But you must not die on me or how will I ever know you are real?’
‘Just know I’m ready to let myself die a warrior’s death. I have fought hard and kept my people safe from harm. They are ready and trained to take over for me. Goodbye, my love.’
Thorn closed his mind and thoughts off from everyone. He closed his eyes, slowed his heart down until it stopped. This time it was forever…