William

“This way,” William said and fled down the center of the gulch after his sister’s footprints. On her own, Aria barely would have left a mark behind in the snow, but Braith’s weight on her shoulders had made her normally agile step far more pronounced.

He kept hold of Tempest’s hand as he ran through the snow in pursuit of Aria. Her hand warmed his as he slid his fingers across the delicate bones in the back of it. Tempest was strong, nimble, and smart, but he’d felt the power of the vampire woman claiming to be the rightful queen and experienced her cruelty when he’d allowed himself to be captured in Badwin.

He shuddered at the possibility of anything happening to Tempest. She was his; she’d made him forget the wrath that had festered inside him after he’d lost his mortality and become a vampire, one of the creatures he’d spent most of his life hating.

But with Tempest, his life as a vampire had finally made sense. He would have endured the agony and uncertainty of his death as a human and transition into a vampire a thousand times over again to have her in his life. Now he may lose it all if they didn’t get away from their trackers soon.

He glanced over his shoulder as the vampires in white chased them down the hill. At least the hill was too steep for their followers to get a good shot off with their bows, but it didn’t mean some of them weren’t still trying. The others in their scouting party were close behind him, laboring to keep up. He had no idea how Xavier was still on his feet, as blood covered him from head to toe.

William couldn’t fully process what had happened, and how quickly it had all unfolded. They had to regroup, plan, and get away from their attackers.

Braith looked dead. William winced as the image of the arrows protruding from Braith’s back went through his mind once more. Many of those arrows were clustered around his heart. If Braith had been lost, then that meant Aria would be too…

Don’t think it. Just keep moving.

The whistle of a fresh wave of arrows being released filled the air before someone else grunted in pain. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Xavier tear an arrow from his thigh and toss it aside.

The trail of Aria and Braith’s blood in the snow suddenly disappeared, but Aria’s footprints continued. On the hillside opposite of the one they’d fled down, he spotted beads of blood amid the snow and his sister’s footprints going halfway up the hill.

“Which way?” Jack asked hoarsely from beside him.

“Aria didn’t continue to the top of the hill here, but she’s trying to throw them off her trail. I’d be willing to bet the footprints continuing through the gulch ahead of us stop at some point too. She wouldn’t have led them straight to the cave. We have to find where her tracks end, then go up the hill there.”

He glanced at Daniel to find his older brother’s blue eyes on him. Sweat plastered Daniel’s wheat blond hair to his flushed face. Bruises shadowed his eyes and jaw; blood seeped from his nose and bite marks marred his neck. He was beaten and battered, but his gaze was filled with steely resolve.

“You’re right. We can’t continue on this way to the cave once her tracks stop. We’ll go up the hill then,” Daniel said.

William’s heart sank at Daniel’s words. Daniel was faster than most humans. Their entire family had always been faster than normal, thanks to what was most likely partial vampire DNA from a distant ancestor. However, as humans, they weren’t fast enough to evade a pack of vampires for much longer. Daniel knew it too, knew going up the hill could spell his death, but he was much like their father with his unfailing devotion to doing what must be done and protecting those he loved. Their father was gone though, and William would not lose his brother too.

“Standing here isn’t helping,” Ashby said impatiently. “The king and queen must be protected above all else, no matter what.”

William inhaled deeply, a habit he still hadn’t managed to break from the days when he’d been a human. Gripping Tempest’s hand tighter, he fled further down the gulch. When he found where Aria’s tracks ended in the snow, he turned to face the steep hillside. Thick trees covered the embankment, allowing only a little snow to have slipped through during the last storm.

The ground would be loose beneath their feet, but at least it wouldn’t be slippery, and the trees would help shelter them from any arrows unleashed on them. Hopefully the top of the hill would be as thick with trees so they could hide their tracks and lose themselves in the forest.

Tempest’s almond-shaped, doe brown eyes were apprehensive when she tilted her head back to look at him. Her silvery blonde hair tumbled about her shoulders. The press of her full lips had caused them to thin out, and her pretty face radiated strain, but she remained stoic as she watched him.

“We’ve been in worse than this before,” he said and drew her forward to kiss her forehead.

“Yes,” she agreed.

Releasing her, he stepped back and gestured toward the hill. He kept Tempest in front of him to shelter her as he nudged her up the hillside. “Don’t look back.”

Her feet slipped in the leaves and loose dirt, but she kept her gaze focused ahead as she climbed before him.

“We’ll carry you once we get to the top,” William said over his shoulder to Daniel.

“I’m not riding anyone’s back,” Timber grumbled as he struggled up the hillside.

“I don’t think anything short of a horse could carry you,” Ashby replied. Placing his hand on the small of Timber’s back, he propelled the man faster up the side of the hill.

William had to agree. Timber was by far the largest man he’d ever seen at nearly seven feet, if not seven. His broad back and thighs the size of tree trunks made him the biggest target. Despite his massive size, he moved with relative ease up the hill, though his permanently crooked nose whistled with every ragged inhalation he made. His shaggy brown hair fell forward over his shoulders to nearly trail in the snow as he remained low to the ground.

They made it to the top of the hill as the twang of more arrows being released filled the air. Diving forward, William enclosed his arm around Tempest’s waist and shoved her to the ground. He rolled toward a white pine. The needles pricked his back when he came up against it, but no arrows pierced his flesh.

Rolling over, he discovered Ashby and Melinda rising to their feet beside him. Usually immaculate, Ashby had leaves and pine needles sticking to his face and dark blond hair. His green eyes were flashing with red when they met William’s. Melinda’s knee-length, golden blonde hair was a tangled mess as she pushed it back from her forehead. Her normally dove-gray eyes were the color of rubies.

“They’re coming,” Melinda said as she stared down the hill. “When the time comes, I’m going to enjoy killing every one of these bastards.”

“All in due time, dear,” Ashby replied in his unruffled manner as he slid his arm through Melinda’s and hurried her forward. “But first let’s work on getting you away from them.”

William glanced back down the hill at the vampires already making their way up. Their white cloaks were far more noticeable in the growing night. They were as loud as if they were riding a dozen horses through the trees.

“You won’t have to carry anyone. We’ll lose them easily in the dark,” Daniel said from beside him.

“Yes,” William agreed. “Let’s go.”

He reclaimed Tempest’s hand and fled through the forest. All of those with him were accustomed to having to move through the trees with stealth. He barely detected their movement. Behind him, trees and branches snapped as the vampire’s trailing topped the hill and came for them.

***

Aria

It took Aria almost two hours to safely navigate all of Daniel’s traps inside the cave with Braith across her shoulders. Despite the cool air surrounding her, sweat covered her body and adhered her clothes to her skin. Every inch of her hurt in ways she hadn’t believed possible, but her physical discomfort was nothing compared to the growing pain in her chest.

Finally, she reached the end of the narrow cave. The iron gate built into the wall there was closed and locked, but like all the cave systems in the area, she knew there was a key hidden nearby. Unless someone took it with them…

She broke the thought off. There was no need for humans to hide within these caves anymore. Or at least there hadn’t been a reason before that vampire woman had arrived. If that woman won, the humans would be forced into a life of slavery or back to a life hidden in these caves once more.

Her father had given his life in the last war to help attain peace. Many more would die and the peace would be shattered if that woman had her way. Aria wouldn’t allow her father’s death, and all of the other lives lost during the war with Atticus, to be for nothing.

Walking back ten feet, Aria bent and pushed aside a small rock tucked within the cave wall. She reached her fingers in and pulled out the key hidden behind the rock. Drawing it out, she kept her ears attuned for any hint of someone approaching, but the cave remained hushed. Not even the drip of water could be heard amongst the rocks enclosing her.

Enclosing… Stop it!

She’d gotten much better with her fear of confined spaces. However, every once in a while, it would creep back in. She couldn’t allow this to be one of those times. The mineral scent of the rocks surrounding her filled her nostrils, but she kept her attention focused on her task and Braith’s limp body around her shoulders. Her hand enveloped Braith’s wrist, seeking comfort from touching him.

Turning away, she walked back to the gate, slid the key into the lock, and pushed it open. The hinges squeaked from disuse and she had to shove at the gate to get it to open enough so she could slip past. She put the key back in its hiding spot before returning to the gate, slipping inside, and closing it behind her.

On the other side, about twenty feet in, she shifted Braith’s weight as she knelt to retrieve some matches hidden within a small hole years ago. She pulled the matches free of the hole and pulled back the protective, waterproof canvas they’d been wrapped in. Rising, the jagged, cool rocks brushed roughly over her fingertips as she made her way forward until she came across a torch propped against the wall. With her enhanced vampire vision, she could see far more than she ever had as a human, but no light penetrated this deep into the caves, making even a vampire blind.

She could navigate the rest of this cave by memory and touch alone, but she much preferred to have a torch with her. For some reason, the idea of light made her feel not quite so alone.

“Please work,” she whispered as she pulled a match from the box and struck it against a rock.

It took a few fumbling tries with her numb fingers, but eventually a flame sputtered to life at the end of the small head. She held it up to the cloth around the torch and watched as it blazed to life. Walking back, she replaced the matches in their hiding spot in case someone else, who had once lived and survived within these caves, might one day need them.

She adjusted Braith on her shoulders, before dashing down the cave. The flame of the torch flickered and danced over the walls as she held it before her. Shadows danced sinuously over the gray rock surrounding her. The crackling fire warmed her chilled cheeks, but it did nothing to warm the rest of her.

The next gate she came to was open; she closed it behind her. After traveling another quarter of a mile beneath the earth, she stepped into a large cavern and gazed at the small, smooth bottom of the cavern fifty feet below her.

Along the edges of the center, black and gray rocks rose up from it like seats in an auditorium. The jagged rock formations circled the flat center all the way around and offered more protection from anyone looking to enter. It was impossible for someone to descend the rocks quickly, and anyone in the center would have plenty of warning and time to getaway if someone entered from above.

The shadows created by the torch lengthened and swelled imposingly with each flicker. Sniffing at the air, she detected the feral, musky scent of wild animals within, but she didn’t smell humans or vampires. No footprints could be seen in the dirt within the cave, only the paw prints of some fox, raccoon, and opossum showed.

Her head tilted back to take in the stalactites forming on the ceiling above her. No bats hung from the ceiling, something Ashby would appreciate, as she knew from past experience he hated bats.

That was if her brother-in-law made it here.

“Don’t think it,” she whispered to herself.

Turning her attention back to the chamber, she carefully picked her way down the rocks to the open space beneath her. Arriving at the bottom, she carried Braith into the center of the cavern. Gently, she set him on the ground and propped his side against a rock to keep him from falling back on those arrows.

She had to get the arrows out of him so he could begin the healing process, but first she had to make sure they were safe here. With the torch in hand, she ran down each of the three side tunnels branching off from the lower level. She checked for keys before shutting the gates behind her.

William, Daniel, Max, Timber, and Jack would know where to look for those keys if they made it here. The others wouldn’t, but the others would never make it this far into the cave without someone to guide their way. Returning to the cavern, she raced up the rocks with far more ease than she’d descended them and closed off the gate in the one other tunnel up there.

Once they were secure within, she ran back to Braith’s side and fell to her knees before him. She pulled her bow and quiver from her back and set them on the ground within easy reach. She couldn’t look at the pallor of his skin or the way his cheeks had hollowed out, as she broke off the feathers of all the arrows going straight through his body.

Her fingers shook when she gripped his shoulder and wrapped her hand around the first arrow head protruding from his chest. With a swift jerk, she yanked it from his body. She cried out as if it had been torn from her flesh. He, however, showed no reaction to the arrow being pulled from his body. Fresh blood trickled out of the hole, down his pale skin and broad chest.

“Keep going,” she whispered.

He showed as much reaction to the next arrow as he had the first one, but her entire body shook uncontrollably. With a bleeding bottom lip that she bit to stifle her cries, she removed the seven arrows going completely through him, except for one. She couldn’t bring herself to pull that one yet.

By the time she was done with them, she couldn’t stifle the flow of her tears. They slid down her cheeks and dripped off her chin as she stared at the six remaining arrows in him. These six still had the arrowhead embedded inside of him. She would have to pull those arrowheads out through his body from behind. It would tear at his flesh and bones, and it was going to hurt him far more than anything else she’d done so far.

Or at least it normally would have.

She wiped her tears on the end of her cloak and moved around to his broad back. More blood trickled from the holes of the arrows she’d already pulled out. Bending, she kissed his flesh and rested her cheek on his back as she took a minute to stabilize herself before going back to work on removing the rest of the arrows.

Grabbing the first arrow below the feathers, she bit her lip again as she pulled it out. Her body jerked as if it had been pulled from her and pain bloomed through her chest. Braith showed no reaction that the pointed end of an arrow had just been torn from his body.

With a surprisingly steady hand, she inspected the still intact arrow before slipping it into her quiver. At some point in time, she would put an arrow tainted with Braith’s blood into that bitch claiming to be queen. The idea caused her fangs to prickle with anticipation as bloodlust rolled through her.

Aria gripped the five remaining arrows and pulled them free. She didn’t realize she was crying again until her tears dripped off her chin to land on his back and trickle down his pale skin. Her tears mixed with his drying blood, creating pink rivulets over his battered flesh. She ran her fingers across his skin as she lifted him so his back rested against a rock.

Making her way around to his front on her knees, her gaze fell on the arrow she’d broken the flight off of and left within him. The head stuck an inch out of his chest, the shaft directly through his heart. She stroked her fingers over the metal before dropping her hand away. He wouldn’t be able to heal if the arrow remained within him, but what if the arrow was all that kept him alive now? What if pulling it out killed him?

She crept closer to him and rested her cheek against his shoulder. Normally his arms would wrap around her, dragging her against him as he enfolded her in his warmth and love. Now his arms remained unmoving at his sides, his palms turned up as his chin rested against his chest.

“Braith,” she whispered as she fought to keep from screaming and cursing anyone and everyone who had ever lived or died. “Can’t fall apart now. Get it together.”

However, she didn’t know how to get it together right now. They were supposed to be living in peace, humans and vampires finally united and working together. Instead, their world had crumbled in the blink of an eye.

“And it has before,” she said aloud and forced herself to sit back away from him. “It has before and we’ve gotten through it. We will get through it again.”

She had to keep the faith that would happen this time too. The bloodlink was still between them, which meant he still lived. She would know the second it was severed.

Tilting her head to the side, she studied the arrow, her fingers rising to wrap around it again before falling back to her side. Once she pulled it free, she had no idea what would happen. Together, they may all be able to stop that woman without Braith, but he was the only one strong enough to go head to head with her and the only one Aria knew for sure the vampires and humans would follow without hesitation. If she removed the arrow and he died, the peace could be lost forever.

Or maybe not forever, she thought. After what I saw today…

A crunch behind her had her snatching her bow from the ground and spinning with an arrow nocked and ready to fire.