~

 

“Tomorrow is the full moon – we can’t leave anyone behind and we need to kill the alpha tonight.” Nathaniel reminded them.

“Why don’t we just kill everyone we find?” Julian asked, inspecting the claws that he’d already drawn down, although, he did have the good grace to keep his fangs at bay.

“Because we don’t do that…” Nathaniel gave him a scathing look. “Rinse the humans and let them go…”

“What if we find a human that can’t be manipulated?” Michael asked with a small shrug off his shoulders.

“That’s different…” Nathaniel said, but Morgana snorted her contempt for that answer.

“No, it’s not. Bring them to one of us, we can find out why and work around it. No human has to die tonight if they haven’t already gone through one change under the full moon.” Morgana shot a dark glare at Nathaniel and he sighed and half rolled his eyes.

“Oh, fine. What she said…” he muttered.

“Ball and chain…” Julian muttered and Michael grinned.

“It does none of us any favours to have werewolves out there…” Nathaniel reminded the vampire. “And just remember – they’re messing with our food supply too.”

“Nathaniel…” Morgana shook her head.

“I’m just saying … who wants to feed from a werewolf …” he expanded his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

“Can we just get on with it?” Daniella was back to being Miss Superior attitude again, and Morgana eyed her, finally figuring her out…

It was a cover for her fears. Inside the witch was still that teenager who was dabbling in things that scared her – outside; she was Miss Frosty the Ice Queen.

“Daniella’s right. Let’s just go kick furry butt and get the humans back…” Morgana said.

She wasn’t exactly excited to be there either, but Claudia was on the premises somewhere, she could just feel it in her bones.

“As good as done,” Nathaniel promised her and she nodded.

She was trusting him with her life – there couldn’t have been a more profound bond between them in that moment than that.

 

~

~

~

 

It wasn’t brain surgery. It was a pretty basic idea of surround the area and move in from all directions taking out what or who they needed to on their way to getting into the warehouse.

Each witch had a vampire. Jessica was with Michael – Daniella was with Julian, and the Professor was tagging along for the ride with his trusted gun full of silver bullets – and Morgana and Nathaniel were together.

It had been agreed that until the witches had no choice but to use their magic that they did so as a last resort for fear that they would give away their approach if the dark witch picked up on it. Morgana didn’t much like that idea – it made her feel vulnerable – even with her magic right at her fingertips to call upon the second that she needed to.

Michael had already run the external perimeter all the way up to the fences around the disused plant, and he’d taken out any sentries that had been posted. Now they were methodically working their way forwards towards the entrances that Morgana knew would be guarded by wards…

Nathaniel reached out and snapped the guard’s neck, and Morgana was certain that she heard the bones break even from her hiding place a few feet away. She swallowed down that queasy feeling.

“Wait…” she hissed as Nathaniel reached for the door handle. She was at his side in a few short steps.

“Do your thing, little witch…” Nathaniel whispered, picking up on her fear that the door had been secured with magic.

“Or you could use that guys hand to open the door…” She pointed down to the dead body lying behind him. Nathaniel frowned…

If there were wards around the building then they weren’t designed to keep the werewolves out.

“Why did I bring you again?” He asked, turning and bending at the waste for the man’s arm.

He had a moment where he thought about ripping it off, but due to the witch’s sensibilities; he decided against it, and dragged the man the few feet towards the door, slapping his hand down over his on the handle and opening the door…

“Because I’m the brains…” she whispered with barely a sound.

“That’s a conversation for another time.”

“Let’s hope we get to have it.” She motioned for Nathaniel to go in first and the man was happy to oblige.

They’d got that far. Now they needed to deal with what came next.

 

~

~

~

 

The moment that they were inside the warehouse all hell broke loose. Human mutts came from every direction attacking the individual groups.

The alpha had built himself an army, and it was bigger than Nathaniel could have imagined.

The mutts that they were facing were full blown, howl at the moon shifters that had already gone through the first change, and Nathaniel had no compassion for them – ending them as swiftly as he could, but not sparing a moment’s thought for whom they had once been.

Those lives were gone – their personalities changed forever – and once a month they would become mindless beasts intent on killing. He couldn’t let them live.

Morgana followed in his wake. She used her magic to seal the fate of those that attacked Nathaniel – keeping the fight an even one on one as he systematically took them out.

They made a good team.

 

~

~

~

 

Joseph’s head came up at the sound of fighting. In the short time that he’d been there it hadn’t been unusual for his captives to fight among themselves, like rapid dogs fighting over territory, but he knew that sound was different – people were dying…

“What’s going on?” Claudia had been brought out of her stupor and now she looked panicked once more.

She’d gone from scared before the alpha’s attack to something close to accepting her fate as the venom went through her system and changed her DNA at a molecular level, but now she was fidgeting again. Her eyes taking in the dark area around them as the sounds grew louder and closer…

“Hopefully – a rescue…” Joseph could dare to hope, because he knew more than she did…