Exsanguinate (37 page)

I ran towards the dhampirs who had Dakota. A hulking, sandy brown, curly haired wolf ran up beside me with snarling fangs. I ducked, thinking it was getting ready to attack me, when the wolf jumped over my head and landed on the three guards behind me knocking them over as if they were bowling balls. The wolf chomped one dhampir by the neck and shook it violently. One of the guards grabbed his katana and raised it for a death strike against the wolf. I jumped over the werewolf, grabbed the katana in full swing, and reversed its direction and chopped off the dhampir’s head instead. The last dhampir was caught under the back end of the wolf. The guard pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed the wolf in the back. Without hesitation, I skewered the bastard, and his knife clamored to the floor. I grabbed the knife and shoved it under my belt.

Dakota plucked several more guards up in her gaping jaws. It helped that they had cloaks, they were easy to snag as they tried to run away.

An energy vortex surrounded Dakota as she was entrapped inside a cage with no walls. Her body floated up and away from us and out the hangar doors. I ran toward her but more guards fought against us blocking our path. Dakota was loaded onto the back of a green dragon which spewed forth flames torching everything in its path. The guards began to retreat and follow the dragons outside.

The wolf nudged at my hand.

“Harris? Is that you?”

He woofed at me.

“C’mon. They just took Dakota.” We ran after them. I shouted, “She’s wrapped in silver bindings. Be careful!”

We ran, cutting down dhampirs with almost every step. Khaldon was right beside us trying to catch up to her as well. Briggs swiped his massive tail to take out more of the guards and ease our path to the other dragons. We finally made it out past the hangar doors.

They were securing Dakota onto the dragon’s back as she screamed out my name. “Cheyenne, Cheyenne, help me! I can’t get out. I don’t want to go!” she screeched and thrashed her body against invisible bonds.

I knew my little sister was in there. “I’m coming Dakota, hold on! Try to break out of those bindings.”

“I can’t. They’re locked onto me,” she cried back.

I ran towards her. Amicula and the general were already on top of the other dragons.

My head slammed into the ground as my feet were pulled out from underneath me. A dhampir sideswiped me as I fell back into the grass. I crawled up on top of the jerk and bit his throat. He flipped us. I landed on my back. I felt the air in my lungs explode out of my chest.

The dhampir punched my face. He was about as strong as the flower delivery guy, and I threw him off. I pulled the knife I had sheathed into my belt and slammed it into his heart.

Torchy flew overhead as Briggs took off. I prayed they would be able to catch them and free Dakota.

Harris jumped at the tail of the green dragon. The wolf’s sharp teeth gnoshed on to the dragon’s fleshy tail as they lifted off the ground. The dragon roared. They were airborne.

Khaldon jumped in the air after them and missed Harris’ paw by a mere hair. He fell back to the earth and landed in the marshy lake.

We had lost her as quickly as we had found her. I stretched my hand out to the starry sky –
Dakota!

“
H
old on
, Harris!” I yelled up at him. The dragon vigorously swished his tailed back and forth. Harris flew off and must’ve fallen over two hundred feet out of the night sky.

I heard him yelp. He landed with a splash into the swampy mud. The dragons flew off with Dakota, Amicula, and the rest of the dhampir soldiers.

I ran to Harris and found him face down in the water. He’d already shifted to human form. I grabbed him and gently turned his head to get his face out of the water without risking damage to his neck. His backside was covered in deep knife slashes across his back and buttocks. With so many hearts wildly beating around me, I had trouble distinguishing his. I laid my head against his back to listen closer. His pulse was weak, but he was alive. His cuts were healing before my eyes, and I noticed a chunk of green dragon flesh by his head.

Way to go, Harris. Tore a chunk right out of the dragon’s hide!

Snarling werewolves padded up around me. I was surrounded by dozens of glowing eyes. Did they think I was the one who hurt Harris? Now I had a different threat to deal with. I protectively covered his bleeding body with my denim over shirt.

“Harris is my friend. I’m Cheyenne O’Cuinn. Do you understand me? I need to get him to a doctor. Who else in the pack is hurt? We need to help each other. I don’t know how many more vampires are coming. Please, we need to work together.”

A blonde werewolf cocked her head up at me in a sideways glance and morphed into human shape. She wore a jeweled crown made of sticks and moonstones in her blonde waves. I couldn’t remember ever seeing such a beautiful naked woman before. Obviously not shy about her lack of clothing, her hair draped down cascading over her body.

“I am Naomae, werewolf pack leader of the Southwest region. Harris called upon us for assistance against the vampires. How am I to know you are who you say you are?” she huffed.

“Can’t you smell her? She stinks to high heaven.” Harris smiled at me and turned over.

I looked down at him and hugged him to my chest. “Oh thank the Goddess you’re all right!”

He licked my cheek.

“Ewww.”

I stood up and put my hand out. “Thank you, Naomae. Thank you for your help and assistance. I apologize for what has happened here. Your help is immensely appreciated, and we hope to find a way to repay your kindness one day.”

Naomae looked me up and down and huffed at me again. “All right, troops, let’s secure the area. Pull together the bodies, and determine if we’ve lost anyone.”

“Here’s the last of them,” shouted Khaldon from a distance. He pulled himself out of the marsh, dragging Ludovic behind him by the ear. “Caught this one trying to get away at the boat ramp.”

I looked at Khaldon, not sure of what to say. I was still seriously confused by everything that just happened between him and Amicula. “Naomae, this is Khaldon. Khaldon Seters. And this idiot is Ludovic. The reason why you were called here to help us.” I spat on him. “Why aren’t you dead?”

Naomae nodded to Khaldon with a wry smile on her face.

He acknowledged her with a guilty glance. “Ahh, yes … we’ve met before,” he said.

They each took a slight step backwards away from one another.

Are you feckin’ kidding me? Another one? Who hasn’t this guy been with?

Khaldon dangled Ludovic like a sack of old rotten potatoes. “We have to keep him. He’s the only one who can help find Dakota again. If we kill him, we’ll never find her.”

A couple of towering figures swept through the moonlight overhead. Briggs and Torchy were on the ground and immediately by my side. In an instant, they had transformed back to human form.

Briggs grabbed Ludovic by the shirt and roared in his face, “I’d rather eat him and use his bones to pick my teeth.”

No one made a move or said a word. Ludovic’s heart rate doubled.

Briggs continued in a controlled, but deadly tone, “But I’m a patient man, and if he’s our only connection …” Briggs pulled him closer until they were eye-to-eye. “I’ll wait until after we have her back. Then I’ll eat him.” Briggs threw him back to Khaldon. Ludovic landed in a pile at Khaldon’s feet.

Harris stood up and wrapped my shirt around his waist. “So what happened?”

“We lured Dakota back, the plan worked. But Ludovic tipped off the Priestess somehow and now Amicula has stolen Dakota away. She’s gone again!” I turned to Ludovic and kicked gravel at him as he stood up. “Why didn’t you tell us Amicula was the Priestess?”

“Who? Amicula? I honestly did not know her name. She has always been the Priestess to us. She comes and takes the newborns. I can’t believe she left me to be killed by the very men whom I helped birth.” He looked around at us. “Look, she betrayed me, too. She promised me I could leave the breeding facility and all this mess if I handed you all over to her. I want nothing more of this.”

I smacked his face. He stood there looking at me. The face smack wasn’t nearly as satisfying as I wanted it to be, so I punched him hard in the mouth, and that sent him to his knees.

Sheridan ran up to us with a fire extinguisher clutched in her hands. “I’ve been able to keep the fire away from the last of the breeders left in there. I found a ventilator fan and cleared out the smoke. Their machines seem to be working, but we’ll need to check on them again soon. I need Ludovic to help make sure they’re stabilized.”

Torchy walked over to Sheridan and offered to hold the fire extinguisher.

She looked down at her hands as she handed it over to him and gave him a half smile. “What happened with the dragons? Torch, Briggs – where did they take her?”

Briggs looked down at his feet. Torchy looked away out over the water.

“Briggs?” I pushed.

“I don’t know, Chey Chey.” He looked down at me and touched my arm. “It was like, one minute they were in front of me and the next minute – they were gone.”

“It was insane,” Torchy added. “No scent trail. No nothing. The sky opened up a hole, and they flew right into it. It closed behind them. They were just … gone! I’m so sorry.” The look in his eyes pleaded with us for forgiveness.

Sheridan and I looked at each other, both of us on the edge of tears. “It’s not your fault, Torchy. You did your best.” I heaved over and put my hands on my knees. My ribcage still ached.

Naomae asked, “Who are these guards?” She gestured to the bodies the werewolves piled alongside the building.

“These are the dhampir soldiers,” Ludovic explained. “This is what the breeding facility is about. The Vampyre Queen is creating an army. But now she wants super soldiers so she can wipe out the rogues. That’s why she is taking Dakota.”

“That’s genocide.” Khaldon grabbed Ludovic by the shirt. “Why would the Queen go through with such a ridiculous plan?”

“It’s not crazy as far as she’s concerned.” Ludovic tried to wriggle out of his grasp. “She feels the rogues are a blight on society and need to be eradicated.”

“But why?” I pressured.

“She’s afraid there isn’t going to be enough food supply soon at the rate the rogues are reproducing. There’s too much nuclear activity on the planet. She’s preparing for an apocalypse.”

“Nice! I like this Queen.” Naomae laughed. “Anyone willing to get rid of a few more vampires in this world is fine by me. But what worries me is what will she do with this army after she purges her rogues. Will she attack the Were Community next? I need to contact Queen Ayame about this. Come, boys, let’s get out of here and let them sort out their own problems. Harris, we’ll need to talk later. Keep us informed.” She turned and morphed back into her blonde wolf form once again and fled into the darkness. The rest of the pack followed her into the night. We could hear them howl as they faded from sight.

“I’m sorry, Chey.” Harris hugged me. “Naomae can be a little, intense.”

“So what’s next? What do we do now?” Sheridan asked.

I kicked a dead dhampir with my toe and looked at my sister. “I guess we plan for a baby.”

Everyone stood silent for a few moments.

“I don’t know,” I finally said, “We need to find some way to locate where they’ve taken Dakota. I wish I had thought to tag her with a GPS device. She called out for help when they were taking her away.” I turned to look at everyone. “Did anyone else hear her cry out for help?”

“We all heard her, Cheyenne.” Khaldon stepped closer to me and put his arm around my shoulder.

I shrugged him off. “No matter what she’s turned into, she was frightened and didn’t want to go.”

“Other than obvious, what’s wrong, Cheyenne? Are you hurt?” Khaldon stepped back with a look of surprise on his face.

“What’s wrong? You have the balls to ask me what the hell is wrong, loverboy?” I stepped into his face and poked my finger hard into his chest. “Reward you later? So pleased you have delivered all of the sisters … does any of that ring a bell?”

“But I told you that was all lies. You can’t believe what she said?”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Overcome by grief, I finally had to let it out. “How could you be in cahoots with this … this weasel?” I pointed to Ludovic. “How could you be lovers with Amicula? How could you do this to me, to us? Why would you betray your race?”

“What? I don’t understand.” He winced. “I didn’t know anything about this, Cheyenne.” Khaldon grabbed my arms and tried to pull me in close. He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “You have to believe me.”

“Oh, do I now, really?” I exploded out of his grasp.

“Cheyenne, I can explain.” His palms up in surrender. “Or I think I can explain. I’m just as shocked as you are about this. Honestly, I am.”

“Why is that? Because she outed your relationship?” I said with a sneer. Disgusted, I turned my back on him and to hide my bloody tears.

“No, not at all. I told you that first night, in complete transparency, that we were once together, but that was over three hundred years ago.”

I bit my lower lip and started to walk away. “What does that have to do with me and my sisters and how you have betrayed us?” I yelled out at him.

“Bollocks, Cheyenne. I didn’t want to have to tell everyone this, but Amicula drugged and raped me the other night.”

I one-eightied on my heels, and everyone else looked up at him. The collective look on our faces reflected my shocked surprise.

“From what I understand, it’s the second or third time she’s done it to me, and I had no idea that it had happened.” Khaldon ran his hand back through his hair and rubbed his neck. He looked at each of us. “That’s the only reason why I can figure out how Sheridan is pregnant with my …” he swallowed hard, “my children.”

Sheridan made the “T” sign with her hands. “Time Out! What the hell are you talking about?”

“Okay, there’s a lot to tell you, but you gotta hear me all the way out, okay? You can’t jump to any conclusions – do you understand?” Khaldon took another deep breath. “Regardless of what I’m going to say – we need to keep in mind that we’re dealing with sick, lunatic vampires.” Khaldon pointed at Ludovic.

Ludovic looked at the ground.

Khaldon continued, “We all know that Amicula works for her Aunt, Queen Civetateo. The Queen is located in the Amazon Rainforest somewhere. They keep her hidden for her safety against other supernatural beings who would like to dethrone her.”

“And this Amicula chick, the Priestess, is her niece?” Briggs asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” Khaldon continued. “That night when I didn’t return from Mordez Moi, I didn’t tell you the complete story. Amicula drugged me and took me to her beach house out on Cocoa Beach.”

A hard lump began to grind inside my throat. I didn’t like where this was going.

“At the bar, she did tell me about the Queen’s plan to purge the vampyric race, but that wasn’t all she revealed.”

“I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I don’t understand why it caused you to be alone at her beach house.”

“Cheyenne, you need to hear the whole story.” Khaldon grabbed my hand, but I wrenched it away. He furrowed his eyebrows at me.

“It’s all right, mate. Just tell us what the mental bitch did to you.” Torchy touched his shoulder.

“She slipped the lunar blood to me at the bar. Once she drove me out to her place, she bound me up with silver bindings – arms and legs to the four posters on the bed.” Khaldon breathed in a huge breath and exhaled forcefully. “All I can figure out is that she must have given me more of the Solunarae lunar blood, just enough to make me lose control. When I woke up, she was gone. I found myself tied with one arm to the bed, and I had been … ridden.” He looked at me sideways. “She left this note on the table.”

Khaldon pulled a crumpled piece of violet stationery out of his pants pocket. The letter reeked of her perfume.

I crinkled my nose from the pungent spice.

Harris sneezed.

“Basically it says, thanks for the little swimmers. I’m off to go take care of the sisters.”

“Fuck me, I dinna expect that!” exclaimed Torchy.

“Are you fuckin’ with me, bro?” Briggs snorted. “You mean the bitch slipped you a roofie and milked you dry with a cock pump?”

“What the holy fuck?” Harris grabbed both sides of his head and nervously pulled at his hair. “She seriously raped you?”

I looked at Khaldon for a long breath and began to laugh out loud. I pointed at him in my hysteria. “You … you honestly expect me to believe that? That you, a man, could be raped? You know you had me buying your story for a minute.” I laughed so hard, it made my ribs ache. Nobody else joined me in my doubtful laugh.

“Fine, whatever, Cheyenne. You know I’m sick of this bullshit myself.” Khaldon raised his voice, and bitterness stamped every word. “Bloody hell, I sure as fuck don’t need this kind of shite from you, or anyone else, ‘cause I didn’t ask for it!” he screamed at me. “It is what it is and that’s it.” He poked his finger hard at me but didn’t touch me. His furious energy exploded all over the rest of his words. “I don’t like this any more than the rest of you. You can refuse to believe my rape if you want. But the truth remains …” he pointed at Sheridan, “she is pregnant with my progeny, and there’s no telling how many more eggs they took from her, mated them with my sperm, and impregnated those other women we rescued last night with our children!”