His Blind Mate

Chapter 18 At What Cost

Luan

    I mustn't let my guard down. Their disturbed breathing and erratic heartbeats gave away their anxiousness. They were ready to fight, to follow through with their orders until their end as the gammas that they were, but this didn’t have to end like that.

The rotting smell clung to my skin when we made contact earlier, the brief brush of his skin against mine hard and deathly cold like everything about him. I knew from the stickiness that blood smeared my sleeve, and it wasn’t his but a werewolf’s. And if I had to guess, it was from the captured gammas.

I inhaled deeply, trying to clear my head of the growing stench of decaying meat. I’d heard that vampires carried the scent of death’s balm around them, but this was beyond expectations.

The team was rattled. None of us had ever faced off with a vampire before. We knew what killed them though. It was only a matter of how. Raphael, who I imagined was a hard man to faze, was trying to calm himself down by evening his breaths. Fear clouded reason. And without reason, we’d already lost.

“I’m surprised you haven’t burned to ashes yet,” I said aloud, keeping my calm despite the boiling rage that came from my wolf when he showed himself. She’d been agitated since the start, growling at the scent of blood around us. I didn’t realize she was onto something or rather someone and instead sided with Raphael’s judgment. Tsk. I suppose this is good for me.

He laughed, and replied in a manner that grown ups did when explaining something to a child. “Luan, the Goddess has given me her protection. The sun is no different from the moon as long as I have her blessing.”

Blessing? More like sunscreen.

It felt like Leila rolled her eyes at the absurd statement which was impossible for her.

“Why me?” I questioned, ready to shoot an arrow should he dare make a move towards either of the gammas who flanked him.

His answer was clipped, bearing more behind them that further confused me. “Pity she never told you.”

Raphael growled, but he remained in his human form. The vampire kept talking, still in that relaxed and amused tone. “I suppose this is more exciting, like a game of cat and mouse.”

“Kill it,” Leila snarled. A surge of power thrummed in my veins as she shared her energy with me and brought herself closer to the surface, ready to shift at a moment’s notice.

“We need more information, Leila,” I reasoned, my voice on edge. “Please stay calm.”

“It will kill them,” she growled. “You have to kill it now.”

“What did you do with the gammas?” I asked. “This is a breach of the treaty. Why start a war now, vampire?”

“The war never stopped,” he said condescendingly like it was a matter of fact. “The gammas were just a warning. Unless you don’t want your friends to suffer the same fate, I suggest you turn yourself to us, Luan.”

Us?

“Raph, wait!”

A growl resounded before Raph yanked me back as he charged towards him. Bones cracked from around me. Within seconds, paws dug the earth and growls threatened the vampire.

A small hand wrapped around my arm and from the female’s scent, I knew it was Rose.

“We have to go,” she said in a calm voice, the nervousness and shock from earlier gone. “They’ll hold him off until they return.”

She was wrong. There was no holding him off. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill every last one of them if it meant he got to have me, for whatever reason. He had no reason to lie.

A pained howl gave me no time to think further as I shook away her hold and shot an arrow towards the vampire. I caught the fresh scent of blood; heard it spray on the grass. Unfortunately, a sharp vibration was headed towards me a split second later. I dodged my own arrow, trusting Rose to do the same. A warning growl from Raph had him running around again.

“Is he okay?” I asked Rose.

“His side got slashed but he’ll be fine,” she answered in a tone that masked every emotion it should’ve had. No matter. She was a straightforward person and she delivered an answer.

His footsteps were light. They sounded like soft thumps - he reminded me of a butterfly. He circled every wolf, including the one who stood despite his oozing wound. Blood dripped. One drop followed another in quick succession, which meant the cut was deep.

Although Rose and Peter stood protectively behind me, I could tell that they were still distracted. If they paid more attention, I’d no doubt their bullets would all find their marks. After all, these two had always been the best at shooting things.

“Don’t.” I warned them off, just in case they accidentally shoot one of us.

“You don’t get to tell us what to do,” Peter grumbled.

The vampire laughed as he slowed down just enough for them to see him, only to speed up again. When it felt like he was targeting the kids in the car, I missed his heel by a second.

“It’s a pity you can’t see. You’re more interesting than I thought you’d be.” I could practically hear the smile in his voice.

Peter cursed. “Goddess, stay put!”

“Calm down, he’s -”

“Shut the f**k up, Luan! This isn’t your problem!” he retorted, cutting me off. “You’re not a Moonstone anymore!”

This was hardly the time to nurse the sting his words caused. Leila growled, her anger directed at him.

“Stop it, Lei. We are different now.”

I had to believe it, in order to live.

Our enemy was toying with us, riling us up to distract us. They were too … agitated. The wolves were growling, Peter kept muttering curses under his breath, and Rose’s impatience showed with how her feet kept changing directions as she tried to closely follow every change in mine.

“Your friends should be here soon.” The vampire circled the three of us this time, moving further away then coming closer, a continuous change in his speed to keep me guessing. “Let’s wrap them a present as a surprise!”

Peter stepped forward. “I said ‘stay put’, damn it!”

He suddenly made a full stop beside Drake, which had Peter shooting.

“No!”

Too late. The wolf’s body was a huge target. It growled from the many bullets that hit it, and as soon as it fell, the growls turned to groans. Peter gasped, the guns falling from his hands.

“That’s two,” the vampire laughed. “Do you really want to see them like this, huh, Luan!”

I let go of Peter’s shocked muttering and Rose’s words trying to shake some sense into him. I nodded at Raphael, hoping he saw and was confused enough to watch what I was about to do.

Another thud. The other was losing blood quickly. They both needed medical attention now.

I prepared to take another shot as soon as he decided to approach Rose. I let arrows loose, only to miss him every time. He moved in a zigzag pattern in order to avoid my arrows. He was too arrogant to think of me as a “blind girl”, too arrogant to see who he was heading to. But his worst mistake was hurting those around me. He made a quick cut from the pattern and changed course, going for Raph.

I released the arrow with a slow exhale before his arm came down on the massive wolf. A single moment’s hesitation, a single miscalculation, and Raph would’ve been horribly slashed by those claws the vampire was so proud of. He grunted as the tip sank in his right thigh.

“Now!”

Gunshots rang. The growls grew louder as the screams rang in my ears.

Too loud. Leila chuffed in satisfaction. My body slowly relaxed as I felt her lose her grip on me, taking back her own energy. I heard what sounded like wolves coming closer; hopefully they were all safe. I swayed a little to the side. Peter held me steady by the waist.

“Thank you,” I whispered as I peeled my body away from him. Now back to normal, the sensations around me weren’t as amplified as before.

“We took it too far this time.”

“It’s worth it,” I replied with a smile.

Any second now and my body would give. I trudged forward, wanting to hear an answer.

“What do you want from me? Who put you up to this?”

He spat blood on the ground, his breathing heavy. Raph had ripped off parts of him because his scent was strongest from various areas. “Soon,” he said with that arrogant laugh of his.

I pulled the last arrow and aimed at him.

“Soon, everyone around you will fear what you can become.” His tone was cold and sharp, cutting through his earlier persona. It raised goosebumps in my skin. “You’re one of us, Luan. We accept you for who you are.”

“Who are you working for?” I asked, shaking the uneasy feeling in my stomach.

Someone yanked me to the side. He seemed to have lost his balance because we both fell, with me on top of him. The vampire’s scream came again, this time not from pain but one of panic, of fear. And then it stopped.

Before I could process what had just happened, I was surrounded by Raph, Rose, and Peter. I rose to my feet, a little dizzy from overexerting myself.

“Leila!”

“This was more than enough,” she growled.

“Whoever that was, we’ll meet him again,” said Raphael.

“What happened?” I asked as the three gave me space.

“Someone shot him,” he answered.

“In his heart,” Rose added. “Silver.”

I took a step back from the group as they studied what was left of the vampire. I had no strength left in me to pick up the radio, which was spouting static, or to let Reire into my head and warn her. Everything around me was spinning. Their voices drowned into a dull echo, and as I staggered to keep myself upright, I dropped my bow.

Shit. I really pushed myself this time. At least they were all breathing. I felt my legs give away as I surrendered to the exhaustion. Somebody caught me mid-fall. Tingles erupted from where he touched me. They felt pleasant, safe even, but I was too tired to care.

XXX

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A/N:

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