73

Felix and I spent the next nine months on the road searching for rogue packs and eliminating them after getting the information that we needed to move on to the next one. We would call Wentworth to send in a cleaning crew after we were done and we had specific orders not to leave anyone alive.

I hadn’t spoken to my father again after that one phone call and it had already been three months since the last time I phoned Chase. I couldn’t call him now as we were on the road heading to the location of a vampire coven.

Felix was driving as I checked my two guns and strapped my other weapons to my legs and arms. I had started adding tattoos to my arms, one for every ten kills and I had almost completed my second sleeve. Felix had laughed as I sat in the tattoo parlor and then to my shock he sat for one too and our arms looked almost identical.

We had become best friends over the last nine months and we had declared ourselves brothers of other species. We had vowed to always have each other’s backs and to never back down from a challenge. It was two months before my nineteenth birthday and we had big plans for it.

Felix stopped the car in a small clearing off a dirt road about five miles from where we needed to be. We would both be on Abeloth’s back as he flew us into the location so that our scents wouldn’t be picked up by anyone patrolling the area.

“Ready?” I asked him as he strapped his final weapon on his body.

“Yeah, I just love flying dragons,” he said as Abeloth flicked him with his tail.

“You can always run vampire,” Abeloth said to him as I scaled his tail and settled on his shoulders. Felix slid in behind me and then kicked his heels in.

“Giddy up Abe,” he said as I laughed.

Abeloth took off into the night sky and I closed my eyes, feeling exhilarated by the freedom of flying with him. We had done this many times and the first time I had suggested it Felix had clung to me like a little child, digging his sharp nails into my sides as Abeloth showed off.

He soared over the mansion and I spoke to him in my head to drop us on the roof. He turned and I stood up on his shoulders and Felix mimicked my moves. As Abeloth went over the roof of the house again Felix and I jumped and as I rolled across the flat part of the roof Abeloth merged with me once again.

I was up on one knee with my gun drawn as Felix dusted off his combat gear. We listened to the sounds around us and made our way to the edge of the roof. Right beneath us was a patio encased in darkness and we slid down and landed on it.

There was a sliding door half open and I nudged Felix forward. We crept silently to the sliding door and Felix stepped into the darkness first. I followed behind him letting my eyes adjust as I scanned the room. It looked like a normal bedroom, very lavish but still just a bedroom.

“Something feels off,” Abeloth whispered but we kept going forward.

We cleared the bedroom and then exited into the hallway. We were making our way downstairs where the smells were originating from and I got the overwhelming sense of wolves, not vampires, just wolves. Their scents were all over the place and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

“Wolves,” Felix and I said at the same time.

The house seemed too quiet as we made it to the ground floor without finding anyone and we spread out slightly. Felix’s shape blurred as he quickly checked the downstairs rooms and I scanned the open living area waiting for him to come back.

“Felix! No!” I yelled as I saw him trip the wire and the room started filling with gas.

“Get out!” Abeloth yelled in my head and Felix was next to me in an instant.

“They know what we are and they were waiting,” he said not taking any breaths.

We ran to the front door together Felix slowing down to ran as fast as I could and we barged through it to the outside. We had already inhaled enough of the poisonous gas, Angel’s Trumpet and Dragon Lily. I had smelled it clearly.

“Well, well, well, uninvited guests,” a man’s voice echoed around us as we stood up straight.

We were surrounded by wolves and a few vampires, they were now working together to get rid of us. Felix and I turned at the same time and stood back to back facing the men. Abeloth separated from me quickly and he trampled three of the men directly in front of us as I lunged forward and started shooting.

Our bullets were laced with a special mixture that would slow down any supernatural being. It had been made by witches that worked with us and from the sudden yells I knew I was hitting my targets. Abeloth was up in the sky now fighting with us.

I heard a sickening crack and I turned to look at Felix’s body as it slumped to the ground. I wasn’t worried, that was only temporary and he’d be out for about five minutes or less. I started shooting at the vampire that had broken his neck and he swiftly moved away. I had already killed most of the wolves and only two of them remained.

I threw the two empty guns to the side and slid my knives out as the wolves came for me again. Abeloth had gone after the vampire. The wolves were trained and it was them against me, they countered many of my moves but I got a few stabs in here and there.

I was on my back as the second wolf lunged at me and I buried my knife deep in his throat and his blood gushed all over me. I looked down at the syringe that he had stuck in my arm and I could feel the poison as it entered my blood stream.

The first man had shifted into his wolf form as well and he was on top of me biting and snarling as I pushed his dead friend off of me. His teeth was currently buried in my side as I kicked out at him and he changed his tactics and bit down deeply on my shoulder from behind.

He was dragging me towards the trees and I could feel myself weakening. I slid another knife from the pouch on my arm and mustered up the energy to turn my body towards him as I drove the knife deep into the side of his neck. I stabbed him four more times as he let go of my shoulder and I slumped down on the ground.

I got to my hands and knees as a kick from the side made me stumble again and I lost the knife. I stood up shakily and looked around, calling out to Abeloth in my mind. I had no idea where he was but I could smell him, he was close.

The vampire rushed past me and cracked a few ribs as I gasped for breath, my eyes starting to glaze over. I was bleeding, poisoned and I knew I wouldn’t win this fight with him. I had too many injuries and the poison was taking over my system.

I saw Felix stand up and I tried to yell out that the vampire was behind him. He noticed him too late and I saw the vampire as he bit out a chunk from Felix’s neck. His blood sprayed to the side as his hand went up to his neck.

“Felix!” I yelled and the vampire turned towards me laughing.

I took a step forward and the vampire was right in front of me. He turned me so that my back was against his chest and he held my head at an awkward angle. He was going to bite me and I shuddered.

“At least you fought and died like a warrior,” he whispered in my ear.

My hand found the third gun that was strapped to my thigh and I pressed it against my shoulder as his teeth grazed my neck. I pulled the trigger until the gun clicked and I heard him scream in pain as the poisoned bullets went through me and into him.

I turned around and broke his neck as his eyes widened and I heard Abeloth roar as he landed next to me. I sank to my knees knowing that I would lose consciousness soon. He looked at the vampire next to me and crushed his skull. There would be no healing from that.

“I must merge with you so you can start to heal,” Abeloth said and I screamed out in pain as he merged with me.

I turned onto my back and I lay there until dawn, Abeloth kept me awake as he nudged me and kept talking until I could see the faint rays of the rising sun. I got up to my hands and knees slowly, feeling nauseous, my head was spinning and I threw up twice.

“We need to move,” Abeloth said as I made my way towards the side of the house and found a car parked next to it.

I opened the car door and found the keys in the ignition. It started on the third try and I let out a breath of relief as I drove away from the house. I drove the five miles to where we had left our car and I switched cars. I couldn’t leave our car to be found.

“You can do it halfling, just stay awake,” Abeloth said in my mind.

I made it back onto the road and started driving. My eyes blurred every now and then and my head would droop as Abeloth yelled at me to stay awake. The car swerved across the road and I switched the headlights on. I had been driving for close to eight hours and I really had no idea how much longer I could carry on or where I was headed.

The car swerved again and I jerked the steering wheel too hard and I realized too late as the car turned and started to roll. I lost consciousness at one point as my head hit the window and I felt my arm and leg break.

My eyelids fluttered open as I groaned and Abeloth was speaking to me softly. He was weak too but I was weaker as I had taken the brunt of the punishment. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been lying there next to the road as the car had crashed into the trees.

“You need to move halfling or we’ll die here,” Abeloth said to me in a soft voice.

“We need help,” I said as I pulled myself out of the front of the car. The windscreen had broken and had been pushed out. The car was oddly bent out of shape and I slid over the bonnet and fell to the ground next to the car.

“Halfling, stand up,” Abeloth nudged me.

“I can’t Abeloth, I have nothing left,” I said to him as my eyes closed again.

I felt intense cold as Abeloth separated from me and I could feel him lifting me. His clawed paw provided warmth as he held me and I could hear the flapping of his wings. I felt the wind on my face as Abeloth raced through the darkening sky.

I had no idea where he was taking me and I didn’t even know if I was still in Colorado or not. I was in and out of consciousness as Abeloth kept flying and I could feel him slowing down as he used all the strength he had left to get us to safety.

He circled twice and I felt him land roughly as we rolled and he grunted in pain. I had screamed out as my broken leg and arm made contact with the ground. I hit my head against the ground and I rolled onto my good side as Abeloth rolled over and pulled me closer to him.

Neither of us had the energy to do anything else and everything around me went dark but strangely enough I felt contentment and I wondered if we would die soon. My last thought as I heard voices was that I still hadn’t called Chase.

I would die alone somewhere in a field with my dragon covering my body with his wings and Chase would keep on wondering why I had never made contact again. Abeloth’s wings left me and my body shivered involuntarily as the voices got louder and I felt hands touch me.

I was covered in darkness and there was an annoying beeping sound in the back of my head and everything hurt. I tried calling out to Abeloth but he wasn’t there. I didn’t recognize this darkness and I knew that I wasn’t in the realm of dragons with Abeloth.

I felt dismay that we had died and gone to separate places. It was probably my punishment for rejecting my family and leaving them. I had no idea how any of this worked but I did know that I didn’t want to be stuck here alone in the darkness.

“Ryder,” someone whispered my name but I only saw a cascade of blonde hair as she stood with her back to me.

“Come back Ryder,” she said and disappeared.