I knew she would resist and yell at him. I knew she was going to attack me, and he would have to see exactly what kind of person she was and what her ultimate goal was. He would see that she was just trying to come behind us.I tensed, waiting for the moment. Then, Estella met his gaze. They seemed to share a conversation silently. I wanted to lung across the space and claw her face off for daring to have such a relationship with Candido. She didn’t even look at me before she nodded.“If that’s what you want, ‘Dido.”“Stop calling him that stupid name!”She ignored me and limped away. She stopped beside where Moth was. He struggled to his feet, and they leaned together, walking away from us. I set my jaw. There’s no way I would let someone that close to me physically when Candido was so focused on me.She didn’t deserve his attention. I turned back to tell him that as he turned back to me. He skimmed his gaze over me. There was nothing caring about it. He would never look at Estella l
I didn’t remember going to sleep. I didn’t remember anything. I heard screaming and the sounds of jeeps. I heard deep sighs and I smelled Candido.Candido was nearby and that made me relax. I let my mind drift and relax. I fell into a vision of a battle. I saw Candido standing on top of the mountain. Lightning striking bubbling up and overflowing.Then, I saw Estella rushing up the side of the mountain. She cut through the forest and shifted into a large golden wolf. She was just a bit smaller than Candido. When she reached the top, their eyes took on a brilliant red glow. The moon turned red above the battlefield and the vampires dropped through the cracks as the molten silver filled the cracks. The earth moved like it was liquid, folding in on itself and devouring the vampires and the silver until it seemed completely gone.Then, the dawn started to come. The clouds pushed back and my heart felt like it was being crushed. They shifted back into their human forms. Then, Candido pulle
I turned toward her voice. I heard the pounding of her feet on the ground just as she dropped to the ground seemingly out of the sky and ran towards me. I had barely realized she was heading my way when she leaped and shifted midair into a wolf. Her mouth opened in a snarl and aimed for my neck.I screamed, throwing my arms in front of me, but the bite of her jaw never made it. I lowered my hand and saw Candido in front of me. He’d leaped in between us, catching her in midair, subduing her with his strength as she thrashed and struggled to get out of his arms.“Candido, don’t let her hurt me!” I cried. “Protect me!”Candido grunted, stumbling forward and away from me. Other people came closer.“I have her,” Candido said. “Stay back.”She howled in his arms and shifted with a shriek. Fur turned into feathers, fluttering around. Her sharp talons dug into Candido’s shoulders as she tried to get free. He held onto her as she cawed and kept aiming for me. Feathers flew up as she flapped he
I wanted to call out to him, to demand a personal apology, but he started talking again.“I am sorry to have failed you all so much and in such a little time. If you choose to withdraw from this war and retire to Lunae, I will understand and hold no grudge. You have stood with me thus far, and you will always be welcome under this full moon. If I manage to reclaim the lands of Full Moon and all of the other territories, you will still be welcome. I will still and always consider you all allies, friends, family….” He paused and looked toward a group of vampires. “Welcome and honored allies and equals.”He looked up at the moon. He looked troubled and beautiful as the moonlight seemed to focus on him, bathing him in its light. I could almost see the hands of the Moong Goddess drifting over him. He closed his eyes, and the moment seemed to end. Then, he bent down and grabbed the shovel that was on the truck beside him.“For now, we bury the dead, we honor them, and we get some rest.”He
It was the first time I thought someone might care about my life as they should since I would be luna, but the look on her face said she didn’t care what I did.“You’re supposed to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’ll be queen and luna, you know?”She rolled her eyes and hustled onto another jeep, and grabbed another gun. Shiloh and Messiah join the efforts to fight while Ian was maintaining the shield that was keeping everyone alive.Where were they before when we were being ambushed? This is what I meant by it was their fault. If they were real allies, they would have been here helping us. If they were really here to help us, they would be helping us from the start, not just when it seemed like a good idea for them. I’d have to talk to Candido about getting rid of them altogether. We were werewolves. We didn’t need the help of vampires. We should be trying to kill them too.Then, I saw Damien coming out of the forest with a large group of vampires that ran at the wall. The jeeps star
I looked over at Estella as she aimed her gun in my direction and kept firing. My heart raced as the bullets flew through me. I screamed for Candido to stop her from killing me, then the hissing of vampires behind me filled the air. They screeched, and I felt their ashes drifting over my back.I turned around to look as the ashes vanished and gritted my teeth. Again. She’d saved me again. She was just doing it to look good in front of Candido. To make her seem less like Sibyl, but I knew better.She wanted to get rid of me. She wanted to take my place as the future luna, and I wouldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t le t that happen. Candido was the only one I wanted. He was mine, and I had to make sure he knew that we were meant to be together no matter what Estella said or did. I pushed myself to stand and stumbled further into the fight, ignoring the calls for me to come back.I wasn’t going to hide behind the barrier. Candido was going to protect me. I headed through the fight until
The vines turned hard and brown like tree bark. Then, Ian picked up his head and set it on his shoulders.I had never seen a vampire revived before, but it was kind of horrifying. The blood stopped, his face slowly began to regain color then his eyes popped open as if he had just been sleeping. He let out a scream and looked around before gnashing his teeth.“Of course, the little welp’s mother was the one.”Francia backhanded him, and I saw a tooth go flying out of his mouth. A bruise started to bloom on his face as he grunted. He panted and turned back to look up at her with a leering, bloody smirk.“Don’t you think you should buy me dinner before foreplay?” He chuckled. “I thought you old ones were all about the old ways?”My face heated. What did that mean?Francia grabbed a hand full of hair and jerked his head up.“That wasn’t even a warm-up,” Francia said softly. Her eyes filled with red light. “And if you’d like me not to get serious and beat you into your second afterlife, I’
Ian cast a thick wave of light between us and the forest as bullets started to rush toward us.In the darkness, I saw a man with glowing golden eyes. His hair was as blonde as mine was. He looked older than Ian, older than Candido, but the way he moved made him seem longer.“Maker, I—” Damian choked as Francia stabbed him through the heart, and he screeched as fire seemed to consume him from inside.From the look on Candido’s face, he hadn’t been the one to do it.“I can hold them for a bit, but you have to go now,” Ian growled. “Shiloh!”“Raven’s opened the caves for us. We’re getting them through,” he looked at me. “What the fuck are you doing here? Get going!”“I’m not leaving Candido!” I cried, turning, only to find him already hustling back toward the rest of the camp. He lifted someone off the ground onto his shoulder and shouted.“Five minutes top. Get moving!”My jaw dropped as Estella got down from the truck, taking the person from Candido and getting off the truck. I couldn’