Chapter 123
Daniel POV
The longer I studied them, the more of the differences Hyacinth mentioned became apparent. She didn't tell me how she knew some would die soon without blood, but after spending a few moments really watching them, I could see it. They were all emaciated, and smelt like they were rotting, but the most feral, the most vicious ones, their skin was greyer, their eyes held no light at all, their veins were less pronounced from the skin, but darker, almost black, to the newer vampires’ blue. The newer vampires also appeared less obedient, getting clawed or shoved as the older ones worked together to ram the barrier before switching attacks and clawing at it and back again. I heard Kasa's howl, my 5 second head start, and took off towards the back garden, I watched the sparks dance across the sky, as the barrier fell. As predicted, the vampires in their lust and excitement at getting through he barrier, followed me instantly. It reminded me of my father breaking open some old crates in the barn when I was a kid, and what looked like thousands of insects tumbled out and scrambled away. The vampires who didn’t fall onto the grounds, crawled over the walls, and began chasing me, and quicker than I had anticipated. I focused in front of me, running as fast as my legs could move, approaching the circle quickly. I leapt, and turned in mid-air, skidding to a stop within the circle. Hyacinth grabbed Kasa’s hand and put her hand on me, she let out a furious scream, and the vampires that had been moments away from sinking their fangs into us, bounced off the barrier, and skidded across the lawn, tearing up the grass, before coming back to attack us again, until we were surrounded by vampires. I shifted back and threw on my pants, as Hyacinth regained her breath.
“How long do we have?” I asked her, looking over the grounds as more vampires scuttled over her house and into the garden.
“Long enough.” She said with determination, pushing herself up onto her knees. “You two, in your wolf forms, and stand beside me, I will do the rest. You just have to trust me, because this will not feel good.” She said as she drew something on the crystal and muttered something under her breath as she moved her hands through the air. Kasa and I stripped and did as we were told, trusting her with our lives. It wasn’t until I was stood next to Kasa that I realised how big my wolf had gotten, the last hunt we went to when we were kids, we had been about the same size, but now Kasa’s wolf only came to our shoulder. I didn’t have long to think about it because once I felt Hyacinth’s hand on my back, I was transported, like last time, but above where our bodies were, and back in my human form. The sun was weak, hidden behind clouds, but I could feel the energy coming from it, see it in the air, and then I noticed it gathering, around the crystal by the house. Tiny sparks of energy or sunlight, or who knows what were rushing past me to the crystal, so fast. The tiny specks started looking like glowing sprinkles, as they sped faster and faster towards the crystal, circling it like bees, but instead of just being one in a hive, the specks were joining together, getting bigger, and growing. I felt movement on my back, I turned around to see what it was, ready to defend myself, just unsure as to how. When I felt a cold chill move through my body, and a pink glowing symbol like two intertwining infinities, moved through my chest. “CLOSE YOUR EYES!” I heard Hyacinth cry, and immediately shut my eyes.
The next few moments were a blur of limbs and pain. I didn’t hear so much as feel the explosion, the blast shattered our barrier, and sent the three of us uncontrollably hurtling through the air, and along the grass. Both Kasa and I tried to claw at the ground, but we were moving so fast neither of us could tell where the ground was, as we rolled and skidded, continuously pushed by the blast, our wolves retreating, leaving us naked and in our human forms. Until we landed in one of the holes the vampires had dug, trying to get under the barrier. I could see small black flecks of ash dancing as it was forced over our heads, the light from the bomb only just starting to ebb, and the wind calming. I immediately jumped up to see how many were left, and breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the garden empty, until I saw movement by the now partially collapsed house. Like spiders fleeing a crack in the wall, they poured over and around the house, some were crawling out from under the ruins of the house, the lack of a limb barely slowing them. And to make matters worse, the bomb had taken down the town’s barrier too.
“We didn’t get them all.” It was all I needed to say, Kasa stood immediately, and climbed out of the ditch to make his own assessment, Hyacinth scrambling behind him. “Kasa, we have no time, I ask for your allegiance brother?” I said the ancient words that meant as much as any oath in the Lycan world.
“You have it, brother.” He replied, taking my right hand in his, we each bit our left forearms, drawing blood, and let it fall on our joined hands.
“I swear on the blood of my ancestors.” We said together, unifying our allegiance and joining our families, it also allowed us to link each other, but was only to be done in dire circumstances, as the oath was for life, and would only be fulfilled when one of us dies. The last time the oath was taken by two wolves, it had taken 3 weeks of negotiating the contract, without one, Kasa and I had just pledged to serve the other in whatever they needed, Ben was going to be furious, but it had to be done.
“Wait!” Hyacinth yelped, scrambling over to us. “Shift then! I need to spell your wolves so you can link me too!” She cried, as the vampires were beginning to notice us. Kasa and I shifted quickly, and Hyacinth drew a symbol on my head. “Open the link to me and Kasa.” She ordered as she did the same with Kasa.
“Can either of you hear me?” I asked, this link felt different, strange.
“Yes, I have you.” Hyacinth acknowledged out loud.
“...even done anything like this before?” I heard Kasa’s voice come through, I was about to confirm I could hear them both, when Hyacinth pulled a blade from her boot and flew over the grass to an advancing vampire. It lunged at her with its claws, sweeping them through the air in a wide arc, Hyacinth gripped the arm by the wrist, and span into the creature, stabbing it through the heart. Another lunged for her, reaching for her face, she yanked the abominations arm hard, forcing it to turn it's back to her. Using it's own momentum, she grabbed the other arm, forced them up behind the creature until they snapped, or dislocated at the shoulders, I wasn’t sure. She leapt off the ground planting her feet firmly in it's back, before kicking off, releasing it's wrists. She spun in the air, and shot a glowing orb of some kind from her hand onto another advancing vampire, burning it, almost like acid. Kasa and I after being momentarily distracted by Hyacinth's elegant fighting style, it was part ballet, part bloodbath, pounced onto the field, I forced a vampire down, ripping its head from the body, and spitting it out. A vampire tried to jump on my back, its claws like razors, slicing through my fur and skin, I rolled over crushing several bones, but it wouldn't release me, I felt its fangs graze my skin as it tried to bite me, but Hyacinth's spell hit it, dissolving it like the last one. I charged at a creature lunging for Kasa's throat, as he battled two more. There was still too many, and they just kept coming, I thought, as my claws tore through its torso, the ground beneath us was frozen solid, now littered with body parts and slick with the decaying sludge that is vampire blood. The sky darkened, and the rain began, as the afternoon slipped away, making matters that much worse.
“We need to get to the house before the ground gets to wet! I don’t like our chances on unstable ground, in the dark!” I called through the link, ripping the head from a vampire and pouncing on another so they could move closer to the ruins of the house.
“We can’t take the battle too close to my people!” Hyacinth cried.
“I don’t want to either, but if we have a choice between fighting in the dark, on wet mud, or a lit street? I’m choosing the street.” Kasa replied through the link, as he sank his fangs into a vampire’s chest, ripping it open and crushing its heart. “Fuck, these things taste disgusting!” He groaned, as his wolf spat out a mouth full of congealed blackened blood, and growled disapprovingly. A vampire leapt from behind him, sinking its fangs into his shoulder, Hyacinth blasted it with a spell, but the bite was bad. Kasa fell to the ground, blood pouring from his wound as he shifted back to his human form. And I could have sworn I saw Charlie, by the house. I shifted and picked Kasa up quickly.
“Hyacinth, can you throw spells at them, keep them away until we get to the house?” I asked as I checked there were no vampires in our path, for the moment.
“Yes, yes I can do that.” She said, immediately hurling the orbs at the vampires. After seeing what they did, they at least seemed to fear Hyacinth enough to be cautious to approach or attack her head on. I took the chance to dash to the west side of the house, having led them around from the east, and placed Kasa down against a solid piece of still standing wall.
“Just hold on a little longer, those bastards aren’t toxic, so your wolf will heal you soon enough.” I whispered to him, checking his wound, but his breathing was strained, and he was wheezing slightly, which had me concerned.
“Out of the way, the bite pierced his lung.” A witch I recognised as one of Dermot's daughters snapped, pushing me out of the way and placing her hand and a crystal on Kasa's shoulder. Her eyes and hands emitted a soft green glow, and he stopped wheezing, taking a deep breath.
“Motherfucker!” Kasa groaned as the witch continued to work on him.
“I’ll only be a few more minutes.” The witch said impatiently.
“Not you, the fucker that bit me, I’m gonna kill him slow.” Kasa vowed, panting with pain, through gritted teeth.
“Too late, Hyacinth melted him with one of her magic balls.” I said without thinking. “You know what I mean.” I said as Hyacinth joined us, still launching spells at the vampires, but visibly tiring.
“Niamh? What are you doing here? I told you to stay inside!” Hyacinth scolded her, as she threw one last spell, and collapsed on the floor besides me and Kasa, sweat pouring down her face.
“You can’t ask us not to help you, not when we can.” Niamh said, as she lifted her hand and crystal from Kasa's shoulder, no wound left, just a few pink scars of healed skin. “It will ache for a few days I'm sorry.” She said to Kasa before standing and running towards the front of the house, where her sisters, Dermot, Siobhan, Charlie and a few others were.
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