Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (31 page)

“Can you continue?” Valentine said and Prophecy nodded and stepped back. She looked at the open side of the house, her eyes wide with shock. Hadn’t she realised what she had done? Had her magic been in control? Valentine took hold of her right hand, pressing his palm against the rich purple stone in her amulet. Magic flowed around their joined hands, calm now, smooth red ribbons that fluttered as though in a breeze. “I will be your anchor and give you my strength.”

Venturi stepped forwards. “Let me lend you my strength too.”

“I have already weakened you too much,” Prophecy said, her brow furrowing as she looked at the Tenebrae lord’s bloodstained throat.

“I am still strong, Prophecy. Let me help you.” Venturi held his hand out.

Prophecy opened her mouth, her expression saying that she would refuse his request, but Valentine nodded and moved to make room for him. Venturi placed his hand over theirs, clutching them both.

“Together we will give our side the darkness we need to defeat the hunters,” Prophecy said and closed her eyes and held her other hand out, her palm facing the broken wall.

Sophis again wished that she had her power when the world outside turned as dark as a moonless midnight. It was incredible even though it seemed to be as dangerous to the wielder as it was to those around her.

“You six remain with the love birds and protect them.” Hyperion’s voice was loud in the entrance hall, jolting Sophis into awareness of her surroundings. More Watchmen had joined the others and there were Venia guards lining the back wall behind Prophecy, Valentine and Venturi, awaiting orders. Hyperion grinned at Commander Winter where he stood beside him, dressed head-to-toe in black, with his cloak obscuring part of his chest armour and the lower half of his dragon-like helmet raised to reveal his face. Commander Winter handed Hyperion a staff tipped with a long blade. “The rest of you follow me to glory.”

With that, he was gone and so were the rest of his Watchmen, leaving the Venia guards staring after them.

“Move out,” Commander Tynan hollered and the guards drew their swords and sprinted as one into the darkness.

Vivek squeezed her hand and she nodded. They ran together over the rubble in front of the mansion and then across the grass, reaching the perimeter of the fight within seconds. Hyperion and his Watchmen had already carved a path into the heart of the battle, leaving dying hunters littered across the ground. Vivek released her and readied his dagger. Sophis drew her sword.

The four Law Keepers passed her, all dressed in their elegant black uniforms and holding their swords at the ready, and she tried not to get caught up in watching them fight. She focused on the hunters closest to her, dealing swiftly with a woman by decapitating her. The sky lightened again and Sophis hoped that Lady Prophecy could hold off the witch in the hunters’ ranks.

She didn’t intend to die here today.

Sophis fought through into an opening in the battle and stopped dead when she saw down the gently sloping lawn towards the rubble and twisted iron that used to be the wall of the mansion grounds. There were so many hunters. Hundreds of them. Vivek came out of nowhere and cut down one she hadn’t noticed.

“Pay attention. I will not lose you here.” He spun and stabbed another hunter in the shoulder before swiping the dagger across his throat. The man’s garbled scream died when Vivek plunged the dagger into his heart. Sophis shook herself and leapt back into the fight.

It was vicious and chaotic, both sides fighting frantically. The hunters kept swarming in, replacing those that had fallen, and whenever she had a chance, she looked around, hoping to catch sight of Izabella or Aleksis. Vivek remained close to her, fighting at her side, protecting her as promised. He was going to stay with her and ensure they both made it through the battle. That warmed her inside, chasing away some of the fear in her veins. With Vivek beside her, she would be safe and so would he.

Hyperion’s small army of Watchmen were merciless, pressing ever onwards towards the boundary of the mansion grounds like black shadows in the night, their foes falling silently in their wake. The werewolves moved with them, all in animal form, tearing the fallen to shreds with tooth and claw. Sophis hung back, closer to the mansion, intent on protecting it and the one person who was critical to their side. The six Watchmen hadn’t left Lady Prophecy and her two men. They formed a barrier around the three, black spears at the ready and the visors of their dragon-like black helmets down, covering the lower halves of their faces.

No hunter had reached them yet but Sophis didn’t doubt they could deal with any who managed to break through the ranks. Hyperion had raised and trained his personal army well and was proving here tonight that the Validus were by far the most powerful bloodline out of the seven. Her family’s guard couldn’t come close to comparing with the skill, strength, speed and ferocity of the Watchmen, but they fought valiantly, risking their lives to protect their bloodline and the others. She was sure that together they could defeat the hunters and win this battle.

Lady Lilith of the Vehemens swept past Sophis, dressed now in jeans and a dark jumper more suited to battle, her long blonde hair down around her shoulders and her eyes vivid red, the colour of her bloodline. She buried a knife into the neck of a female hunter close to them and drove her hand forwards, slicing deep. The female dropped to the floor and the Vehemens vampire moved on. Lincoln followed close behind her, head-to-toe in black, blending into the darkness and like his mate’s shadow as he dealt deadly blows with his sword, killing any who tried to near her.

Sophis clashed with a dark haired man and she hesitated for barely a slither of a second as she recognised him as one of the men from the warehouse.

He moved in that instant, thrusting a stake at her, and she came to her senses and dodged it. The man’s momentum drove him forwards and past her, and she turned and brought her sword down hard. Another sword blocked it and she snarled when she found herself facing Izabella. The raven haired woman glared at her, dragged the man by his arm, and pushed him behind her. Sophis lunged at her and Izabella blocked again, their swords clashing, and drove her backwards. Vivek came forwards with a snarl, bloodied from his fight against another hunter, and cut Izabella across the arm of her short black coat. The woman let out a brief grunt of pain, scowled icily at the dagger in Vivek’s grip, and turned tail. Sophis tried to pursue her but the dark haired hunter was in front of her before she could move more than a step, blocking her path.

“She will come back,” Vivek said on a snarl and attacked the man.

He was right. Izabella would return and she wouldn’t be alone.

Marise passed her, a dark blur in her black Law Keeper’s uniform. Only the bright silver arc of her sword as it sliced through the hunters gave her away. She fought them back with deadly efficiency, her face a picture of calm, making her the epitome of a Law Keeper—emotionless, powerful, and amazing to Sophis. Jascha battled close to her, his long dark hair wild and a vicious glint in his ice-blue eyes as he snarled and struck with his sword, driving back the hunters and keeping them from reaching the mansion.

It seemed they had the same idea as Sophis. They had to form a defensive line and not allow any hunters past it. It wasn’t just for the sake of keeping Lady Prophecy safe so she could maintain whatever spell had turned day to night. There were young vampires in the mansion who wouldn’t last in a fight against these hunters. They were all enhanced and all of them were strong, skilled in fighting, and experienced in dealing with vampires. Several guards had already fallen to them. There was another reason for protecting the mansion too. The lords and ladies were fighting but at least one out of their Chosen Son and Chosen Daughter would be in the mansion, shut safely away, the next leader of their bloodline if their current ruler fell to a hunter’s stake or blade. It was imperative that those in the mansion survived.

Commander Tynan came up beside his brother Jascha, his sword bright in the darkness as he dealt with the vampire hunters, forming another link in their defensive line, his snarls as vicious as his brother’s and the violent look in his ice-blue eyes enough to have most weaker hunters thinking twice about attacking him. Vivek moved off to block the way a short distance to her right and beyond him were three Watchmen, all of them fighting with spears, skewering and hacking at any who dared to come within their reach. Together they would defend the mansion and the future of their bloodlines.

A group of hunters broke through the vampires ahead and swarmed towards them, too many for them to deal with whilst holding the line. Sophis concentrated on those heading for her, her sword at the ready. Her senses sharpened as she allowed her eyes to change and her true face to emerge. Silver threads outlined the hunters charging towards her, her preternatural abilities showing her the course they might take by forming ghosts of them ahead of their physical bodies. She brought her sword up in a fast arc as the first man reached her, cutting him down, and then twisted her wrists and swung at the next.

Danger sparked across her senses but she was so absorbed in the enemies before her that she didn’t react in time. She heard the whizz of something cutting through the air, sensed its fast approach, and tried to evade it. A low grunt and snarl echoed in her ears as the crossbow bolt struck someone close to her and she turned, her ears ringing as her eyes fell on Vivek. He stood a few feet in front of her, one hand clutching his thigh close to the arrow protruding from it and the other flexing around the dagger.

“Vivek!” She reached for him but another hunter seized the chance to attack her while she was distracted. She knocked his sword away with her own and then Vivek was there, slicing deep into the man’s chest and snarling as he drove him backwards into another vampire. The guard dealt the killing blow, thrusting his sword through the man’s back and out through his chest.

Vivek continued to fight, snarling and swiping wildly at any who came within reach. Her heart clenched when he stumbled and righted himself. The bolt was poisoned. He fought on, his jaw clamped shut and ice-blue eyes full of pain, and Sophis knew that he was doing it to protect her. Each lunge and thrust he made was only quickening the poison’s invasion of his body and hastening his death.

“Vivek,” she said and he tried to swipe at her as she grabbed his arm. The blade missed her throat by bare millimetres and the momentum of his swing sent him crashing onto his backside on the grass. She was by his side in an instant, her knees pressing into the ground, and pulled the dagger from his grasp. He snarled, his breathing hard and fast, scaring her. She didn’t relent. She pressed her hand hard against his shoulder, pinning him to the ground, and yanked the crossbow bolt out of his left thigh.

He roared and bucked up, thrashing wildly.

“Don’t you die on me,” she said and bit her wrist. She pressed the bleeding puncture wounds to his mouth and he drank some but no matter how much he took from her his condition didn’t improve. Her blood wasn’t strong enough. Tears stung her eyes.

Sophis looked around, searching for someone who could help her, and froze when her eyes met Izabella’s across an open patch of ground. Sophis growled at the crossbow the woman held and the vicious smile on her scarred face. Bitch.

Sophis held Vivek’s hand, her senses scouring the people around her, fear crawling through her. Aleksis was nearby somewhere. He was waiting for her to lower her guard so he could kill her. He was making her suffer, making her choose between defending herself and trying to tend to Vivek. Was this how Vivek had felt all those years ago? She was scared that she was going to have to watch him die, could do nothing to save him, and she would lose him now that she had finally found someone to love and someone who loved her.

Her senses blared another warning and she reached for the dagger as Aleksis came at her from her right.

A black staff struck Aleksis across the side of his head, sending him crashing into the earth, and then the blade came down fast, narrowly missing the hunter as he rolled away and slamming into the lawn. The swirl of a black cloak blocked Sophis’s view and the sense of danger receded. Aleksis must have run away. She looked around and saw that Izabella was gone too, and then looked up at her saviour.

Dark blue eyes met hers as the man turned and looked down at her, the only part of him visible in the dragon-like black helmet he wore. Black armour shaped to mimic muscles covered his torso beneath his cloak.

“Is he poisoned?” Commander Winter said and she swallowed and nodded.

He crouched beside Vivek and laid his spear down. Three more Watchmen filled the area behind him, fending off the hunters. Her heart squeezed tight in her chest when Vivek convulsed against her legs, growling and snarling.

“I saw Aleksis,” a familiar female voice cut through the din of battle and Sophis looked up at Lady Lilith and Lincoln. The dark haired male was bloodied and sporting lacerations in his black shirt. Lady Lilith herself was untouched except for a few splatters of blood on her pale skin but something told Sophis that it wasn’t because the woman was a superior fighter. It seemed Vivek wasn’t the only one being valiant. Lilith’s red eyes fell on Vivek and then she turned to Lincoln.

“Aid!” Lincoln shouted and Sophis didn’t dare hope that some might actually arrive. The battle was manic, with both sides taking heavy losses, and every guard was involved. No one would come to save Vivek and her blood was useless. She wasn’t old or powerful enough to give Vivek the strength he needed to fight the poison, and everyone who could deal with toxins was probably fighting the hunters.

Sophis looked at Winter. Would he provide his blood if she asked for it? He wasn’t of her bloodline and had no reason to help her or Vivek.

A cold breeze washed over her skin and then Lord Hyperion was there, smiling as he crouched close beside Vivek.

“Does your love have a problem?” His purple eyes skimmed over Vivek and settled on his leg and the blood creeping down it. “Nasty little wound. Come along now, hold him for me, and do the decent thing and tell him you want him to stay with you, just as he said to you. He can still hear you.”