34. Attacked

Jared ripped apart the neck of a marble-skinned being with his long canines and threw away the detached body, staining the muddy ground with its blood. His eyes then fell on another female knight speeding towards him with an unnatural pace. She jumped forward to crash on Jared's large lycan frame but her movements halted as soon as he wrapped his furry fingers around her neck and crushed it with a loud snap. She withered under his hold before finally giving in to death.

Jared let out a loud guttural growl, which lost its intensity under all other sounds of screaming and growling- coming from the surrounding. His nose was filled with the stench of blood and fresh corpses. Had he been made to face this battle a year ago, he would've surely passed out and mistaken as one of the deads. But a year of fighting beside Odis made him stronger... made him a warrior. His red orbs scanned the area of forest in search of his next prey.

His lycan was thirsty to kill more of these bloodsuckers.

Dimitri had always made sure to attack lycans by sending a large number of his sired pawns but tonight Jared noted that their numbers were lacking. Knights relied on their speed and numbers as their strength was lesser than that of lycans and wolves.

His comrades too were fighting and thrashing bloodsuckers viciously... but the battle seemed too easy compared to those that they had in the past. Not a single lycan was killed yet.

All the killings he had made till now were also convenient as if the knights weren't even bothering to put up a fight.

A hard jolt on his back was enough to bring Jared out of his thoughts. He turned around to see white, lifeless eyes staring back at him murderously. And once again the fight commenced but winning it was not much of an effort.

After slaughtering knights after knights, he lost count. His enemies were weaker but killing them was never this easy.

Jared concluded that this battle was one of Dimitri's tricks. The bastard had been known among them for his cunningness.

He scanned the woods around him for Odis to let him know, even though he knew that Odis must've figured it all by himself by now. His eyes moved in all directions but all they met was lycans who were ripping apart the vamps.

There was no sign of Odis.

The smell of blood was thick in the air, hindering Jared to detect Odis's scent. He started to trail the path where he had previously seen his leader fighting. He ran through the fighting lycans and knights, smashing and butchering the enemies who came in his way.

By the time he reached the less populated area of forest, he was bleeding badly. The claw marks-which were the courtesy of knights- on his furry chest were healing very slowly due to the lack of strength in his body. He was injured and tired, still he went on.

He was trudging through the ground when a painful howl reverberated through the woods.

*Odis!*

It was Odis and as on cue another howl echoed confirming Jared's suspicion and making him rush through the long trees. The howl wasn't loud enough to be heard by other lycans, who were fighting back near the mansion, in the midst of already loud battle cries.

As he reached the clearing, the scene in front made him almost puke his gut out. The number of knights were trying to claw, tear and rip apart Odis, and Odis's torn flesh and smearing blood showed that they were doing a pretty good job at that.

They were all surrounding the wounded lycan, who was now barely standing. Jared didn't count the vamps but there had to be at least 30 and they were all attacking Odis simultaneously. No matter how powerful he was, Odis didn't stand a chance against all of them.

The knights had cornered Odis to the secluded part away from all other lycans. Now Jared understood Dimitri's plan.

He wanted to kill Odis! And he wanted to be sure of that.

There was no time to call other lycans, also the knights were already keeping them busy. Without wasting a second Jared barged towards the horde of vampires attacking his leader.

Odis let out a feeble growl when he realized that Jared had joined him. It was an attempt to evade Jared from entering into this massacre, he didn't want Jared to sacrifice himself because of him.

All Jared replied with was biting his long canines into one of the knights. There was no way Jared was letting Odis die tonight.

The fucker had a Vampire king to kill.

*****

The knife almost slipped out of Marley's hold when an ear-numbing scream pierced through the air, robbing her of breath.

"Fuck!" Theo gasped, his eyes widening in horror. "What's going on out there?!"

They were hiding in one of the inside room of mansion. Theo and Marley had grabbed sharp objects from the kitchen before running to their hiding place. The humans would've preferred guns, but unfortunately lycans didn't have them as they believed in hand-to-hand combat or maybe modern weapons were simply useless against supernatural beings. Marley pretty much already knew that these knives were just as useless, but having some sort of weapon was better than having nothing.

"We should get out of here." Marley said, gripping her knife tightly.

"Are you crazy?!" Theo whisper-shouted. "You want to go out there!"

"No. I am saying we should get out of 'here'."

"Huh."

"How long do you think that those vampires or knights are going to be out there? They can break in," Marley explained. "What do you think is going to happen when they find us?!"

"This room is hidden," Theo countered, "and lycans have fought those knights many times." *At least that was what he had heard*. But hearing the shrill cries from outside made his confidence falter in his allies.

"I don't have much trust in them," Marley said, "They are fighting vampires! What if they lose and vampires break inside. This room is really not that hard to find, I knew about it already. We need to get out of here before they get in."

"And how do you think we are going to get out of here? By casually walking out there in the middle of fucking supernatural battle."

"There are two backdoors. We can use the one in the right wing. It's highly unlikely for knights to reach there yet because they have attacked from the other side... Plus that door leads in the direction of town. We can run there." Marley concluded to herself but loud enough for Theo to hear it.

"Wait, whoa!... There are two backdoors?!" Theo exclaimed. He had no idea about those backdoors and he had been living here for two months. "And how do you know that town is in that direction only?!"

"I was planning to escape," Marley revealed since it was no use to keep it a secret anymore. "I wasn't really strolling around this mansion for a leisurely walk. I kind of mapped the whole house. And about town, I have noticed that lycans were usually vigilant in that direction and also I have once spotted you and Jared coming from there. So, I made my guess."

"Only four fucking days and you have it all figured out." Theo gaped at her in astonishment. "Are you some kind of genius?"

"Theo, we don't have time to waste. Let's move." Marley sighed and stood up. She looked at Theo who was still sitting. Marley noticed he was trembling. "Hey, look at me."

Theo looked up.

"It's going to be alright." Marley reassured. She knew he was afraid, after all, he had witnessed first hand the knights slaughtering his people. He had every right to be scared. Marley was still ignorant of their savageness and this ignorance made her the brave one.

Theo nodded and hesitantly stood up. They both made their way out of the room and walked down the empty hallways with light steps, gripping the knives at their fronts. They could hear screams and growls from the outside, making Theo question their decision to leave the room.

"Marley," Theo whispered as they turned around the corner.

She hummed lightly.

"If you already knew about the backdoors, why haven't you escaped yet?"

"Like I said Theo, the lycans were really vigilant in that particular direction. So, there was no way I could actually outrun them. I was looking for an opening," Marley replied and Theo nodded understandingly.

"I am sorry. I really am." Theo's unexpected apology made Marley stop. "We abducted you and kept you here against your will for our own selfishness. And here you are helping me. I am so sorry."

"Apology accepted." Marley awkwardly patted Theo's shoulder gently. "By the way, it wasn't really you who kidnapped me and even if you want you cannot keep me here against my will. I can easily take you down," She joked, making him let out a chuckle.

Theo shook his head and looked at Marley with sincerity. "But I am one of them. I could've easily helped you out of here but instead, I decided to follow Odis."

"Well, you're helping me out now." Marley started walking again and he followed. She didn't really blame Theo, not since she found out his reason for being here.

"It's more like the other way around," he grumbled.

Soon they reached the said door and Theo was shocked with the way it was hidden from common eyes. You really have to be looking for it in order to see it. He could only wonder how Marley found it.

Marley gripped the knob with the hand in which she wasn't holding the knife and placed her ear on the wooden board. When she heard no vicious growls or screams, she turned back to Theo.

"Ready?" She asked him.

"Hell no."

With a deep breath, Marley pushed the door open and they walked out into the unfamiliar woods.

******