Chapter 111: Other Enemies

Blood filled the air, familiar and acrid, yet he shoved it away following the scent of the wind drifting over the border. The colder air of the vampire lands carried the scent of rock and dead trees. It was a scent that would likely haunt his dreams well into his old age.
The first time he’d gone over the border. He’d lost ten men in total to the vicious vampires crawling and hissing over the craggy rock. It had been an ambush that had awakened a darkness in him and stained his aura with the scent of blood. The werewolf who had leaked the plan to the vampire forces had been a part of the conspiracy that had ended his mother’s life.
The werewolf had ended up dead after a near week of torture, and Adolph had walked back to camp with the surviving men smelling of blood and burning flesh.
Anger and grief had consumed him then. Now, it just bubbled at the back of his mind urging him to go over the edge again.
The border was up ahead and a part of him drew back from going in fear. They were going over the border again. Laurel was getting farther and farther away. What if he never found her? What if he never found his way back to sanity? What would happen to his son? His family? The kingdom?
Adolph pushed those thoughts away. Laurel was his mate and wife. He had already told Chasel that if they found Laurel dead he was to do everything in his power to kill him at the first sign of instability. Chasel would couch it as a valiant death, or the fact that his mating bond with Laurel was too strong to survive. Chasel had given his word that he would stay by Basil’s side until he found a beta of his own. Nearly losing Laurel had nearly driven him insane. There would be no hope that he would come back if she died.
If he had any hope of seeing her again and maintaining his grip on sanity, they had to keep going. He wouldn’t let Laurel be taken from him. The edges of his vision shook and melted into darkness as he shifted back into his human form and mounted his horse.
The madness was coming. He had to keep moving and get away from the scent of blood if he was going to keep his sanity. He knew the signs well enough to be wary.
Why was it coming on so much faster now? Their bond was completed, even if it was being blocked somehow.
He heard Chasel and the others following him away from the battle. The few vampires who were recovering or had survived were hot on their heels, hissing and screeching after them. They weren’t speaking words, but the pace they pursued them with spoke of a methodical plan to slow them down.
The horses were fast, but the vampires following them would catch up to them if they didn't get onto flat land soon. Even if they outran them, the vampires had been basic roadblocks. Expendable pieces on the board to hinder Adolph enough to frustrate him and for some other purpose that Adolph had no way of knowing.
"Up ahead!" Chasel cried as the road began to draw nearer. Hope swelled in him at the sight of the caravan, irrational as it was as his wolf growled in frustration.
The horses of the caravan startled and jerked as they neared and the people guiding them cried out in fear and alarm.
“Quick!”
“Break left!”
"Seize them!"
Adolph and his forces fell on the caravan with a snarl of fury, blocking their paths. The werewolves turned, frozen in fear. No doubt the scent of the blood aura had only grown stronger from the fury in his heart.
They turned sharply, untrained and a bit clumsy on their horses. These men weren't mercenaries or trained the way the other werewolves had been, and he could not smell Laurel’s scent among them.
"Don't let them escape!"
Before they could break apart and run, Adolph and his men circled the caravan forcing them to surrender or fight. The leader leaped forward and Adolph plunged his sword into his chest. The man choked, trembled, and died with little more than a gasp. Blood pooled around him as he gasped his last breath. He glanced back to the vampires in the woods and found them gone. Had their only goal been to slow them down?
"Where is Laurel?" He growled at them.
They seemed confused, fearful as they looked at him. The leader may have been a loyal servant, but the rest were silent and nervous. None of them smelled like they had been around any vampires. Scents from the southern sides of the kingdom lingered on their clothing as well as the east and west.
Adolph growled, brandishing his sword, "Answer me!"
"Your Majesty," Chasel said, his voice calm and pointed. "This caravan is only werewolves. This isn’t the caravan that left the city."
Adolph grit his teeth. Chasel was right. They hadn’t been in the imperial city. They had come from elsewhere to get to this road. That didn’t mean they weren’t in league with Eden and the vampire queen. Sam grabbed one of them and slammed them against the side of the carriage.
"Where were you headed?"
"T-The border… into the neutral zone. We’re just–"
“No, wait!”
Gold coins spilled out of the carriage as one of the knights opened the carriage door. He kneeled and picked up one.
“Kingdom minted,” the knight hissed and peered inside. “Food, clothes. Could be an escape.”
"Why were you heading into the neutral zone with a carriage full of gold?" Adolph asked.
No one answered for a while, but Adolph didn’t need them to. Sam growled pressing a dagger to the man’s throat.
"P-Please, don't kill me. I-I'll tell you anything you want to know!"
The kingdom’s minted gold was only useful inside the kingdom and a few villages that bordered it. There was too much food inside to be for the members of the caravan. It smelled of conspiracy if nothing else.
"We don't have time for this," Adolph growled. "You seven, escort this caravan and these miscreants back to the Imperial city to be interrogated. The gold is to be seized and placed in the treasury. Have it counted."
"Yes, sir!"
"Everyone else, we press on to the border at full speed!"
"Sir!"
Adolph urged his horse onto the road at full speed, listening to the horses that followed him. There were no vampires on the road following them, but he kept his eyes on the road searching for another vampire to jump out.
They hadn't lost much time dealing with the vampires, but he had no way of knowing if it was enough to make it impossible for them to catch up.
He sent a prayer to the moon goddess in his mind to keep Laurel safe and to grant him the speed he needed to reach her.

Laurel wasn't sure how long they rode, but she knew when they had passed into the vampire's lands by the scent of the air and chill. The scent of fresh grass and wild forests died away turning cold and earthy like uncarved stone. She'd heard that the vampire's land had been cursed for generations to be cold and desolate. The sun never broke over the land so very little growed in the vampire’s territory.
She had thought once that they attacked the werewolf kingdom for resources, but now, she knew it was more malicious than that.
She shivered as they rode through an outcropping of rock that stretched towards the sky around them. The air was slightly warmer between the walls of stone.
They rode on in silence before reaching a turn. Around it was a river, babbling below the cliffs. The horses neighed as they climbed up an incline and turned into a cave. She wondered how far into the vampire lands they would go. This cave was quiet, but she could trace the turns they took by the shifts of the light around them as if there were multiple exits in this cave network. Soon, they exited into the bright sunlight. She gasped as it broke over them. She looked up, blinking up at the sun.
In the distance was a high wall of gray and dark blue stone with a tall gleaming iron gate. Around it, grass grew in vibrant green, trees billowed in the wind.
She couldn't believe that this place was in the vampire lands.
"Surprised?" Eden asked. Laurel looked up at him. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"
"It is... where are we?"
"We call it Annwn," Eden said as they walked towards the citadel. "It's the only protected city in the vampire lands outside of the queen's sphere of influence."
"... a rebel territory?"
Eden chuckled, "You could call it that. It's home for now."
Home. This was where Eden was from? They approached the tall wall and Laurel tried to keep calm as they neared the gate.