Part 12 (1/2)
Mikjall had signaled a group of guards was approaching. A big enough unit that I couldn't take them all out by myself before someone sent up a warning. Alek and Jared were with Mikjall on the other side of the cross street, leaving Killian and I with Travis and Garrett.
The soldiers pa.s.sed our cross street, armed to the teeth with automatic rifles. My hand went to the hilt of the sword at my shoulder. Alek whispered, ”Go,” and I lunged forward, the others following behind me.
My sword slipped through their bodies easily. Men fell left and right. Killian's blade did the same, and the few men we hadn't eliminated were taken out by Travis, Garrett, Alek, and Jared. Mikjall crossed our paths, touching the lifeless bodies as he pa.s.sed, turning them to ash.
Sixty seconds later, we were standing in the center of the cross-streets surrounded by bodies. Mikjall was moving as quickly as possible to burn away the evidence that they'd ever been there. The scent of blackened flesh filled the air as the ashes began to rise into the breeze.
Alek and Jared picked up several of the soldier's rifles. Following suit, Travis and Garrett each s.n.a.t.c.hed up one before Mikjall turned all the weapons into puddles of liquid metal on the asphalt.
Jared shook his head. ”I have fire to burn, but d.a.m.n, dragon fire is just...”
”Magick mixed with fire,” Killian answered.
Mikjall glanced up from the last body with a wicked grin. ”This is what I plan to do to that mother-f.u.c.king a.s.shole. Except I'm going to just burn off his arms and legs first so he has to feel every second as long as I can draw it out.”
I shuddered and took a step backward. The story of how Mikjall came to Sanctuary wasn't a secret, but the young man did his best to stay out of sight and out of mind. According to Diana, Rose had a.s.signed Jared and Alek to mentor and teach him what it was to live in this century.
He seemed to be adjusting to life. It was the revenge brewing in his soul that I worried would cost us lives on this trip. Anyone so consumed by hate was not long for the world. It clouded judgment and made you sloppy until death became inevitable.
We started down the now quiet alley. Killian and I crouched behind a sign as Mikjall and Jared moved a little ahead.
”I've been where he is,” Killian whispered. ”I've been there a long time. If you hadn't shown up in my barn, nothing would've ever changed for me.”
I glanced over, catching my love's blue gaze. The moon was showing just enough to catch the slightest hint of color in his irises. They sparkled like a star. I knew he had struggled. I knew he wasn't done struggling, but something that any person who lived as long as we did knew was... life always moves forward. Time was your friend when you experienced loss.
Eventually, the pain lessened. Eventually, you find something else to give meaning to your life. At least, that was what I hoped would've happened.
In a thousand years, I'd never been able to feel love again. Never felt as though I could connect with a man the way I'd connected to Killian. h.e.l.l, I'd adopted a pack of crazy Lycans that risked their lives to save their kind. The rush of sneaking in and out of the closed Republics of the former United States gave at least a little satisfaction and some feelings of worth. I had a connection with members of the pack that simulated family, which was more than I'd had in centuries.
”I'm not going to rush him. But we have to watch out when we get there. The Masons are family to me. I won't endanger them because of his vendetta.”
Travis and Garrett scooted closer to us. ”You think he'll lose it when we get there?” Travis whispered.
The men ahead motioned us forward, and I rose, the three men beside me following in tight formation. It was sweet how they protected me, though I was probably the least in need of it.
”I don't know what to expect. But I'm glad Alek and Jared are here with him. Our priority has to be rescue, not going after and trying to kill Xerxes.”
I heard a gasp to my right and blurred from the group, snapping the neck of a guard who had exited a nearby building and seen us running down the street.
”Eira,” Killian growled under his breath after noticing I was gone.
I took a deep breath of the guard in my arms. He was clean and strong, and his still-warm blood called to my inner beast. A drink would calm my nerves. My fangs descended, and I pierced his neck to drink. The warm liquid poured down my throat and began to burn. Dropping the body, I coughed and gagged, desperately trying to vomit out the blood I'd just taken. I tried to blur, but only moved a few feet back toward the group.
f.u.c.king h.e.l.l.
My vision swirled, and I fought to see straight. ”Killian.” I moaned in pain as the fire spread through my body. What in the f.u.c.king Republic had that guy had in his blood?
A few minutes later, the entire group was at my side. I knew one of the Lycans would've heard me.
”Eira, what did you do?”
I shook my head. Pointing toward the dead soldier. ”There was something in him... poison,” I muttered, coughing up more blood.
”Why did you drink from him?” Killian's voice rose in decibel.
”Shut it, dude!” Travis hissed. ”You'll attract more attention.”
”I'm a vampire. Blood is kinda my thing, and his smelled really good for a human's,” I whispered, fighting through the cramping pain in my stomach and the shooting pains now running up and down the length of my arms and legs.
”He was on something chemical,” Mikjall said, crouching above the dead body of the soldier I'd killed and bitten. ”It's faint, but I smell the difference. It's sweet-smelling even to me, and I don't drink blood.”
I nodded weakly.
”It was a trap,” Jared said. ”She needs fresh blood to recover.”
”Mine is the most powerful,” Mikjall answered.
Killian stiffened next to me. ”She's not going to drink from you.” Anger laced his voice, but my consciousness was fading. Whatever they were going to do, it wasn't happening fast enough.
I used the last bit of strength I had and grabbed Killian, yanking him to the ground with me and sinking my fangs into his neck.
”Holy s.h.i.+t!” Travis jumped.
Killian's blood brought me out of the encroaching darkness, but his magick wasn't enough to clear out the chemical. I sealed where I'd bitten and shook my head. The world around me still spun.
”Eira?” Killian's voice held the question they were all dying to ask.
I shook my head. Unless I could heal myself right now, I was a liability to this mission. ”If Mikjall is willing,” I said, coughing, ”I need more.” The pain had dulled to a throb, but I was seeing double of all the men around me and felt like I was on a tilt-a-whirl from an old fairground before the Riots.
”Lean her head backward.” Mikjall shouldered closer as he withdrew a small dragon steel blade from his belt.
Killian's hands cradled my head and tipped it backward, which was good because I couldn't feel which way was up or down.
”Hold her down,” Mikjall said. ”Or the same thing will happen to my arm that just happened to Killian.”
The Lycans beside me chuckled, and I felt their hands wrap around each of my wrists.
The first scent of Mikjall's fresh blood made my fangs descend again and a growl rumble from my throat. I jerked against Travis and Garrett and nearly lifted them, along with Killian, upward toward Mikjall's bleeding arm.
”s.h.i.+t,” Garrett snarled.
Mikjall brought his arm closer, and the blood began to drip into my mouth. G.o.ds, it was good! I breathed deeply and growled again, wrestling against the three men holding me down.
Then two more sets of arms took hold. One set wrapped around my waist from behind me. The other grabbed onto an arm with one of the Lycans. Even Killian wrapped one hand around my ponytail, using the other to keep my mouth steady. If he hadn't, my head would've been swaying every which direction.
More of Mikjall's delicious and magick-laden blood poured into my mouth, and energy surged through my body like a lightning strike. My head cleared more with each pa.s.sing second, and the pain in my limbs and stomach receded. Sweat beaded on my forehead. My body was cleansing itself. It was working.