I watched him continue drinking.“And who are you to teach me a lesson about anything?” I growled, my eyes burning. “You’re just a vampire! This is werewolf territory—Candido’s territory!”His lips didn’t even twitch, but someone nearby snickered. Then, there was laughter that filled the hall, mocking.“Stop laughing,” I growled. “Stop laughing at me!”“Are you not meant to laugh at something funny?” He asked and ducked his head. His eyes brightened. “Oh, look. It is nearly time to be done with this.”He stood and addressed the hall. “So sorry to take the entertainment for the night early, but my patience has worn thin.”The woman who had threatened me with a sword glared down at me. “There is nothing amusing about her… Lady Hedwig deserved better.”He placed an arm on her shoulder. “As we all know, but we must work with the hand we have been dealt.” He chuckled. “We all know how fickle our Goddess is.”“Willful,” someone said.“She would adore such blasphemy,” he said, a bit of humor
I looked up and almost cried as Candido came staggering down the hall. He looked hazy, clutching his shoulder. His arm hung uselessly at his side and unmoving. He seemed to be wearing a glove on that hand but not the other. It was weird.“Candido!” I cried, my eyes tearing up. “Finally, I—”I went quiet as he froze in his tracks, staring at me with narrowed eyes and suspicion. His eyes darted over me, but it didn’t feel like he was looking for injuries. It looked like he was trying to figure out if I was real or not. He leaned against the wall, but he got no closer.Then, his eyes got darker. “Who are you, and where is Hedy?”I flinched at his tone and sniffled. “What are you talking about? It’s me—”“Don’t lie to me!” Candido yelled. “You aren’t Hedy. I know what she smells like. You’re not her. Where is she?”I stumbled towards
He choked and spat out a mouthful of blood. It was thick and dark like his body was trying to expel the poison.The vampire chuckled. “Seems like they went the extra mile with a bit of wolfsbane. Bravo.”“Candido, answer me!” I cried, shaking him. “You have to wake up! You have to fight it! You have to!”But he said nothing. I kept screaming at him, telling him to snap out of it. Candido was too strong to be taken out by a bullet, to be taken out by anything. He promised to always protect me. How could he do that if he died? What would I do if he died here?I shook him again. “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”“He needs medical attention,” Vanessa said stiffly. “I’m calling for a medic.”“Good luck,” the vampire said. “They won’t make it in time, and I have no problem with letting him die.”Vanessa said nothing, but her expression loo
Again, he seemed oddly untouched by the falling water. Meanwhile, everyone else seemed to be getting soaked. Candido shivered as his clothes got wet and the sprinkler water started to wash away the blood.“It would seem that your crude defenses have finally failed,” he hissed. “Give me the Triskele, Vanessa. Now!”“No!” She yelled. “I’d rather die.”“Allow me to help you with that!” He hissed.“No!” I yelled, jumping, and trying to protect her, but there was no bolt of light. The guns exploded in the hands of the operatives, and Vanessa jerked forward. She screamed and flailed through the air. I tried to stop her, but I was swatted aside by a force and into the wall. I hit my head and the world blurred for a second. I turned over and slumped back against the wall as she stopped flying just in front of him.The vampire started patting her down. She tried to fight, but she
I kept falling and falling as if there was nothing but space beneath me, then I turned and realized that I wasn’t falling but flying up. Wind rushed over my face and I slammed into water. Bubbles drifted around me, but I could breathe even as I seemed to be surfacing.Slowly, I started to hear voices.“You’re sure?” Someone asked.“She mentioned silver coming from the ground and that golden-furred idiot on the cliff,” another person said. “I am certain. What that means only time will tell… Perhaps the elixir was a bit too effective.”What elixir? What were they talking about? Who were they? I could recognize them as… not a threat exactly but I didn’t know for certain what that meant.“But… I thought you said it was a long stretch. Wasn’t her dad like the weakest kind of werewolf?”I pushed against the darkness in my mind. They were definitely talking
I couldn’t say how long it had been since I had passed out. My mouth tasted terrible, like bile and blood. I struggled to breathe in the cold air and shivered. The world spun again and I landed hard on my front on the hard cold ground. I tried to curl up then a light drifted over me. I looked towards it and squinted into the brightness of the white-blue light.“Even children know better than to look into a light source,” Ian said with a clipped tone. The light shifted aside, illuminating him. “Honestly, you prove yourself to be dumber and dumber every time I see youHe was wearing something different. It looked expensive and old-world-like. It was nothing like the neat suits Candido wore. His cuffs were trimmed with silver and gold. There were sun and moon motifs in the tile behind him and between us was a line of sturdy black poles that looked like the door of a cell.“You…” A cold air drifted in as my breath turned to
Without the light, I had no idea how long I drifted in and out of consciousness. It grew colder in the silence. The blood that had soaked into my clothing turned stiff and cold, but that wasn’t the worst part.My stomach cramped with hungry. My mouth was dry. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself trying to focus. No matter what Ian said, I knew that Candido would find me. He’d find a way to get out of wherever Ian had put him and he’d come for me.I knew that.I had to believe it because there was no other way out.I thought I heard Shiloh or Messiah’s voice.“Can you hear me?” I called. “Let me out!”My voice echoed, then the world started to move around me. The darkness turned oppressive and my heart quickened. It felt it like a dark blanket over my senses the same way it had in the caves. The weight grew heavier, crushing my mind until I could barely breathe—barely think. All I could do was scream as the pain mounted in my skull. My ears were ringing and I could feel somethi
Time passed in the dark. Sometimes I heard noises, but mostly it was just my own breathing, the beat of my heart and the scuffle of my body against the ground as I tried to turn. I drifted in and out of hazy dreams that made no sense no matter how hard I tried to make them make sense.Fear filled me. The cold was making me sink back into memories I never wanted to relive. I drifted back into Wolf Fang for a while, then that cold night on the highway, but there were no cars coming in my dreams.“Candido,” I whispered to the dark. “Where are you?”“Hey,” Messiah’s came through the bars. I opened my eyes, blinking into the light and trying not to move.How many days had it been since Ian had come? I didn’t know. Messiah leaned on the bars as he plopped down on the floor.“You look terrible.”“Where is Candido?” I asked.Messiah shrugged. “Not my jurisdiction. I don’t track down missing daddies.”“Missing…”“Well, he hasn’t show up on the broadcast,” he said pulling out his phone and lean