The Immortals of Sumer

Chapter Thirteen

“I truly do detest the manhandling, though,” I muttered and he glared down at me. “Yeesh, grouchy, much?” I asked and it made him shove me forward, towards the tents entrance. I saw my brother standing there, looking healthy and smirking. I smiled and ran at him! He opened his arms and I jumped on him for a hug! “I thought you were dead, for sure!” I told him and he hugged me tighter before setting me down.

He looked at my neck and then glared at Vlad before saying, “It’s okay, sis; Vlad just has an interesting way of doing things.” I scoffed but noticed he really was okay. He had been turned completely but he was still my brother completely too. My brother asked if I was okay and I nodded. Then I smiled, looking back to Vlad, who seemed to go expressionless at my glance back at him.

So I smiled back to my brother and explained, “He certainly does have an interesting way of doing things. He made my brand heal! It’s gone, brother!” My brother looked shocked, looking between Vlad and I, before I nodded again.

“Like…gone?” He asked and I nodded yet again. He too was afraid to believe it was really gone. I couldn’t blame him. “Why?” He asked Vlad.

Vlad scoffed, stepping closer to the both of us, warning us: “You’re both seeming to forget who you are talking to. I am the King-your King! I do not need to explain myself to you nor do I have to listen to this insolence! Uri, you are officially an officer and you, Selena, are my BloodBonded mate so you will both do well to remember your places from here on out or there will be punishment.” Uri was shocked at the last bit but we both stayed quiet for Vlad.

I didn’t know the first thing about even addressing a king so what the hell could I even say? Then I realized I was concerned for what my brother might have to endure to become…an officer? Uri straightened up though and said, “Alright, my King, what does an official officer even do?”

“You are to report to Radu for personal training for the next couple of hours before dinner,” Vlad answered and Uri nodded, shrugging down at me.

“Just add ‘my king’ or ‘sire’ or some s**t to your sentence and make it sound like a question-never a demand. Do that and you’ll be fine for the next couple hours, sis,” Uri said as he left the tent. I gaped at his casual ass exit for a moment before turning back to Vlad. He was still half way across the tent from me but the distance was speaking volumes somehow. Ha, some mates we were!

“Thank you for letting me see my brother…my king,” I added on and he scoffed.

“You’re terrible at addressing people respectfully,” he said and I scoffed this time.

“Oh, my bad, Sire, I never got etiquette lessons while I was busy running for my life and being disrespected by every vampire I’ve ever met!” Realizing I’d gone ahead and mouthed off again, I rubbed my temple, cussing. “s**t! I apologize.” I muttered quickly. I expected him to be mad but, when I looked back up at him, he was about to laugh.

“Like I said, terrible at it,” he muttered, walking up to me. I thought to take a step back but he growled at the first move I made backwards. I stilled as he said down to me, “The generals are coming for a council meeting. You will behave and, when I say behave, I mean silent as the dead!” I sighed at the idea of more vampire men being in this tent what but did I expect? He is the King and this was a war camp.

I nodded and went over to the cot, not wanting to be in the way at this point, as a few men entered the tent. Yeah, I truly did want to blend into the tent canvas as more vampires poured into the tent in Kevlar and pistols on their belts, much like Vlad. They all cast glances at me before ignoring my very existence as they poured over the map on the screen.

Bogdan came in last and nodded to me with a smile. I wasn’t trying to but I couldn’t help but listen in and watch the map move over the terrain. I caught the word, “werewolves” and perked up. What?! I knew witches were real and vampires were too but werewolves were supposed to be extinct! At this new knowledge, I looked at the map to see where they were when the map started to blur-

The map zoomed out and I watched a blotch of almost like ink spill over the terrain before forming into a wolf and splitting into several wolves and spreading across the map to several locations. 13 total. Then a blood red bat formed from the maps red dot of our camp, miles and miles away. Then I watched the-

I gasped at the outside contact, blinking back to reality, to see Vlad in front of me. Oh s**t! So much for blending in. I was grateful he got me out of the vision before I got too deep though. “What did you see just now?” He asked very calmly and I looked at the map and the generals watching me behind Vlad. Now that I knew the vampires had an opposition, I did not want to hand them all over. Maybe he would believe me if I just gave up one or two werewolf camps…?

“I saw the map zoom out,” I said and he snapped his fingers at the map. A general went to it and put a hand on each side before bringing them together, literally pulling the map out a distance. How crazy was technology?! No, focus! I started to walk up to the map when I paused and looked at him, “Can I…May I just show you?” I asked. He nodded slowly before I walked to the screen and touched it. I gasped at the energy thrumming through but didn’t let that distract me.

I needed it; I focused on its energy as I imagined the wolf and bat symbols showing up on the map. My mind starting remembering the first couple of camps that were the closest to the camp. The men behind me were muttering and I opened my eyes to see that the red dot had turned to a bat on the screen over us and the four camps I was debating over all were on the screen as wolf symbols. s**t! I meant to show two! I just wasn’t sure which two camps to commit to exposure and here I f****d up the technological energy and showed all four!

Great job. Some witch I was…I sighed, feeling so guilty. Vlad walked up to me and looked over my head at the screen. “Good job, little nymph,” he said to me so distractedly that I knew he was already focusing back to the new information. I went back to the cot as they kept talking, but I was feeling so guilty I was restless enough to start pacing.

Vlad cast me an irritated look and I shook my head, irritated myself, as I walked out of the tent. I saw two soldiers standing at the tent entrance and hesitated for a moment before deciding to keep walking. I knew I wasn’t able to leave camp, as every man was watching me as I passed, but I did get a clearer conscience with the fresh air.

.(•).

He was ignoring her as hard as he could, focusing on the men like he should. It was bad enough she had just smiled at him for reuniting her with her brother and she practically broke him right then and there. He had been thinking about her smile and how it made her eyes so alive. It wasn’t until Bogdan said his name in a panic that Vlad turned to him. Bogdan pointed behind him at Selena, who was seemingly frozen!

He ran to her side to see her eyes wide open, unblinking, and milky white. Whoa! He was unsettled by it, realizing that she was a rare Seer, as he grabbed her arm. She gasped in a panic but seemed relieved to be-I don’t know, awake. He was burning with curiosity so he just asked as calmly as he could, knowing the men were still behind them.

She stuttered, unsure what she was and wasn’t allowed to do, before showing them just what they needed to know. The last four settlements! The werewolf packs could be obliterated now…and all thanks to her! But he could sense her guilt as the men planned to go destroy each pack, so much so she wound up pacing the tent. Finally, he got frustrated at her emotions nagging him and she was aware enough to notice, casting him a mirrored version of frustration.

She left the tent and part of him wanted to chase her down but he didn’t even falter in his instructions to the generals as she vanished from his senses. He couldn’t even hear her anymore in the chaotic camp sounds.

Bogdan just pushed the thorn into Vlad’s paw more as he interrupted to ask, “Aren’t you going to go get her? She shouldn’t leave, so we can protect her properly and all that?!” That’s what he thought with Elena, that she’d be safe at home, properly protected. She ran off to do her own thing just like this one was.

Vlad scoffed, saying, “I couldn’t give a s**t less about what that little savage does. If I need her, I’ll summon her.” The generals all muttered about keeping their bitches and witches contained but Vlad detested such an overly compensating attitude about women. He detested the look of incredulity Bogdan was giving him even more so. He ignored it all and stuck to business for almost an entire hour until there was a message alerting over the screen.

ID: M-2082-WSCM

Status: Decoded

Alert Status: Imminent

RE: Royal Family will be at Camps. Induction Ceremony. Attack at Nightfall.

Well, f**k! He growled, looking to Bogdan, who had the same look of concern. Selena! “Find her no-” The king didn’t finish his sentence as an explosion erupted through the camp. He snarled, truly worried about where the hell she was now! He cast out the BloodBond to feel her fear and a rush of…anger. Then he felt her pain…as she was fighting something! He ignored the men that were concerned for their King and ran out of the tent to see the chaos of war right on their doorstep.

These animals! He saw the soldiers confronting huge dogs and was shocked at their gall. Bogdan and Radu were beside Vlad at the edge of the battlefield, by the fire of the explosion. “Uri left me immediately. I thought he would be here by now,” Radu said before asking where Selena was. Vlad growled as Bogdan said she was missing. They looked over the fight to see some winning and some losing.

The gore of battle as werewolves tried to rip the head off of the soldiers and the vampires gaining the upper hand by killing the wolves like you would put down any other dog. However, Vlad snarled as he realized Uri was in the thick of it all. Surely, it wasn’t because-Vlad’s heart actually constricted at the idea of her being in danger in the middle of that all.

He hadn’t felt this kind of fear since he was human, in his first battle, thinking his brother had been blinded and killed. There was a spear thrown at Vlad but he merely sidestepped it and kept searching for her. Bogdan finally pointed her out, not far from her brother, fighting a wolf. They immediately plunged into the mass of bodies and, for a gut wrenching moment, he lost sight of her entirely.

There was a part in the bodies enough for him to see her get flung off of a werewolf. She landed in the dirt, skidding one leg out to stop herself. She was crouched, staring the werewolf in the eyes, as they sized each other up. Vlad used his gun to put down any wolf that tried to lunge at him and get in his way as he got closer to her. He lost her for a moment before he got to see her again, slowly reaching down to her boot. Sorry, Beautiful, it’s not there, Vlad thought as he watched her eyes go wide with realization. He had her knives. Realizing she had nothing, she looked a little worried as the werewolf snipped at her and then lunged.

Vlad shouted her name and threw his lucky blade as hard as he could. He prayed, for the first time in centuries, that no one get in the way. He watched, entirely distracted, as the blade sunk into the wolf’s side with a howl from him. Vlad sighed as she immediately ripped the blade from the wolf’s side and slashed at the wolf as she ran to her brother. Vlad got swung at, pulling his attention back to his current situation, but Radu had his back as he blocked the sword. Vlad and Radu worked with Bogdan to cut and shoot their way through the masses.

He finally saw her up close and personal as she ran at the back of a werewolf man that held her brother in a chokehold. She jumped onto his shoulders and Uri used the distraction to elbow him in the ribs to be let go. Uri instantly seemed to forget about the werewolf and his sister as he attacked more werewolves in front of him and Vlad realized why. She clenched her legs around the werewolf’s head and seemed to swing herself to the right. She snapped his neck as she spun in front of him and she landed crouched again, low to the ground.

She had Vlad’s lucky blade in her right hand as she pushed off the ground and attacked another werewolf about to attack her brothers back. She latched onto his back and growled as she stabbed the knife into his neck, not once but three times. She remained standing as he crumbled in front of her and still Uri didn’t react.

He didn’t react because…he was used to her having his back like that. Radu had said that Uri left him immediately and he didn’t come find Vlad, asking for his sister, like Radu had. He had gone into the middle of the fight, looking for his sister, because he knew that’s where she would be. That little savage…oh, she was going to hear it from him when this was over! How dare she put herself in the middle of all of this?! For what? Fun?! A tiny voice in his mind spoke up, reminding him that he was the one that let her go.

She had even hesitated at the tent entrance but he was too busy telling himself he didn’t care. He knew now just how much he cared. Vlad reached her, wrapped his arm around her waist and she tensed, swinging her elbow backwards at his face. “Selena!” He said, stopping her elbow just before it hit him. He realized that was the second time she had or almost had hit him and he wondered just how fast the little hybrid could be. She realized who had grabbed her and she relaxed in his arms. He started to tense because, now that he had her with him, he needed to protect her.

Radu and Bogdan seemed to be blocking her on either side and Uri noticed so that together they boxed her in between them as the battle waged on around them. Radu took out a wolf that tried to lunge at them and she clenched her fist into the back of Vlad’s shirt silently. He had taken off his Kevlar vest in the tent over an hour ago. He had let her out of his sight. He was messing up. This was his warning to stop slipping up. He would get her out of this, they would recover, and they would get revenge.

Vlad was observing the wolves, knowing werewolves in the past had a hierarchy like the vampires. Where Vlad was King, the werewolves had an Alpha. Find the Alpha and kill him, the pack becomes disoriented. He told the men around him such, shouting it to them. That’s when he noticed two wolves in the fray had stopped what they were doing to look at Vlad. They were the Alpha and most likely the Beta, looking Vlad’s way in such an animalistic confrontational manner that Vlad grinned back at them. He looked back at her and told them to protect her as he stepped away.

She let him go as he stepped away and he realized the wolves eyesight hadn’t followed him. They were still looking back at her! Had they seen her holding onto him? Would they assume she was his mate like they had mates? f**k! He snarled at them and finally the Alpha looked over to him. The Beta still watched her though and he was so unsettled that he plunged into the few groups of remaining fighting men as the Alpha shifted into his human form. Odd…Vlad wondered why he would do that? Would it give him more weaknesses?

Suddenly, there was a grenade thrown over Vlad’s head and all he could think was to turn around and tell his family to get her out of there! That son of a….Enraged, Vlad and the soldiers regrouped and reengaged the enemy. He lost sight of the Beta all together but the Alpha broke through the ranks and tackled Vlad, out of nowhere, from the side. Vlad lost the upper hand but landed the first punch. Snarling, he reached for the Alpha’s throat, snagging on his black chain necklace as he choked the Alpha, getting ready to rip his throat out.

Suddenly, the Alpha growled as he shifted just enough for his throat and shoulders to be too big to choke with one hand. He needed both. Vlad raised his hand from holding off the Alpha’s hand only for it to be stabbed into the ground! Vlad snarled at the pain! The Beta male was there, holding the hilt of the knife, and for a moment Vlad thought that they might have the upper hand. Until his men swooped in and the Beta was distracted again.

The Alpha looked down at Vlad, long enough to say, “Did we kill your woman, Vlad?”

Vlad scoffed, “No, she is very much alive still.” And terrified right now.

The Alpha began shifting fully into his werewolf form, saying one last thing, “Only way you could be so sure was if she was more than your lay for the night. Your mate is as dead as you are!” He growled down at Vlad and Vlad knew better than to be under a werewolf after it was fully wolfed out. He grabbed her small little knife and slashed the Alphas leg which made him rear up on his back two feet long enough for Vlad to move.

When the Alpha landed back down, he had swiped his claws on nothing but grass and dirt. He roared at Vlad but stayed where he was, watching Vlad’s every step. The men had all reconvened and were facing off with each other, waiting for the first one to make a move. But the movies always had it wrong, the kings never attacked first usually, the soldiers would get antsy and attack each other first.

It was only a matter of time. But Vlad wanted to buy Selena time to get away. Little did he know…

.(•).

Uri took my hand and we ran as soon as Bogdan engaged another werewolf. They were systematic attacking, it seemed. Keeping Radu and Bogdan on their toes, Uri was smart to use this time to get away from them all. But we didn’t make it far until Uri stopped dead in his tracks and I practically ran into his back, panting. I was looking behind us at a werewolf sauntering ever so slowly at us.

“Uri, there’s one behind us. Just go!” I panted out and then looked in front of him quickly before I gasped. A man was shifting back into his human form and I looked away, back at the wolf coming towards us from my direction. Okay, one on one fighting again, I can do this! I gripped the knife Vlad had thrown me and I readied myself for a fight when I heard the wolf in front of my brother speak.

“Another Alpha has confirmed she is the Kings’ mate! Kill her slowly, my Alpha,” was all he commanded and I gasped as the wolf lunged. Uri practically threw me off to the side as they came crashing and thundering at us and I screamed for my brother. I sat up from the dirt to see a new wolf, a completely black wolf staring me down, and I was as still as a dead person as the wolf leaned forward.

I heard it sniff my throat and I flinched when it licked Vlad’s bite mark. “Just rip her throat out!” I heard someone growl behind the huge wolf blocking my view.

I heard my brother shout, “No!” before there were more sounds of fighting. The wolf had pulled away from my throat to look me in the eyes and…

I don’t know why or what came over me but I nodded, saying, “It’s okay. I deserve it.” I raised my head to the sky, letting him have my throat and waited for the pain. The pain never came. I flinched again when I felt the wolf’s cold nose under my wrist. I looked down to see the wolf nudging my arm for me to lift my hand. I didn’t know what else to do so I raised my hand for him.

The wolf stretched forward to push his nose against my hand up to the space between his ears. I was shocked he was so soft. I instinctively pet him. “I had a vision of all the werewolves, but I only told Vlad about the four closest werewolf camps or whatever they are. The king knows where you are now. It’s why I deserve it because he is planning to attack you too. You should warn them,” I said quickly and quietly. The wolf growled but otherwise just pressed his head against my hand again for more pettings.

What the hell was happening here? There was a growl behind the black wolf and he turned around slightly to bark back at the wolf growling. The black wolf turned back to me and stepped up close to me so I lifted my head again but again no pain came. The wolf seemed to lick my chest up my neck to my ear and I gasped, laughing at the sudden tickling contact. What the f**k? I rubbed my neck, shivering, as I glared at the wolf questionably.

Suddenly, there was a stampede of wolves coming my way and I gasped, thinking about standing up when the black wolf hovered over me. He towered over me, unlike a normal dog, and seemed to growl at the rest of the wolves. They sniffed me and huffed out their noses but otherwise no one moved much. I glanced over to see my brother pinned to the ground with a grey and white wolf standing their front paws on his back. He was a bit bloody but he was in one piece.

“Sis!” He shouted, “Don’t trust that thing!” And the wolf standing on him growled down at him.

I looked up at the wolf standing over me and said, “Go! Go warn the other four camps! Please? I know it doesn’t matter what I want or say but it would ease a lot of my guilt if I knew that the camps had some warning. I mean, what if there are kids there?” I asked the wolves and a few of them growled. The black wolf seemed to bark back at them and everything went silent until the black wolf looked up to the sky and howled.

The rest of the wolves started to run off until it was just the one standing on my brother and the black one looking at me. I looked into his eyes with relief and I thought I could actually see a relief in his eyes too. How odd! The wolf got off my brother and then the black wolf followed him. I ran over to my brother to assess his injuries but my brother was more concerned about me.

“What the hell were you thinking?” He asked and I shrugged.