Daphne watched John enter and refrained from wincing at the spike of pain that went through her mind. She tried to ignore it, but it only grew the longer she looked at him. John smiled at her. Part of her thought he was almost handsome, but there was a glint of duplicity in his eyes that corrupted his features, turning them just short of nauseating. The pain he caused her made her look away from him before looking at the duchess. The woman was beautiful and regal sitting in her seat with all the air of class and aristocracy, but her eyes were cold despite her warm greetings. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes as if she was incapable of feeling anything.Daphne took a shallow breath. Her nose tingled with the scent of blood barely hanging in the air. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, which made sense since they were all vampires, but there was something different about the scent of blood barely drifting through the room. She didn’t know where it was

No one had time to react much more than to dive out of the way as figures leaped out of the trees. Their eyes glowed red like rogues though they seemed like vampires. They swiped at vampires and lunged at werewolves without discriminating between the two. A few werewolves in their wolf forms jumped out of the bushes from the other side. The humans in the area screamed in panic scattering as Nicole issued orders to get them away and defend Daphne.“Circle up! Get them a clear path and protect the queen!” Nicole called, gritting her teeth. “Kill them if you can and make your way back to the carriages and back to the castle!”“What's the meaning of this?” A general cried, drawing his sword as a small group of werewolves in their wolf forms rushed towards them. “Those traitorous–”Nicole drew her sword and swung in a wide arch cutting through another werewolf that had leaped towards her. She turned to cut through

Daphne bent over and clutched her stomach. The scent of blood hit Nicole’s nose as Daphne began to cry in great heaving sobs. Nicole cursed as she approached and cast a spell over Daphne to get a sense of what was happening. Lights flickered and rushed around her, circling Daphne’s hands on her stomach, and fear rushed through her.There wasn’t a lot of time.As she thought, the strain had been too much. The baby was barely holding on to life as was Daphne from the rate she was losing blood. The twined violent red of John’s forced blood bond was cutting and tearing through her, causing havoc as it struggled with her bond with Arthur. Her magic was stronger now than it had been then, but it was so focused on preserving the baby’s life that she wasn’t healing herself. If it kept going, Nicole knew there was a chance that Daphne wouldn’t survive. She would be forced to murder most of the vampire nation if that happened.Not

After the meeting, John had taken Osborn and Owen into his office to tell them all about how glorious Daphne had been declaring war on the werewolf kingdom, swearing to take Arthur’s head for a trophy. John hadn’t even asked where all the werewolves had come from and Owen realized that he didn’t care.They left John’s office and returned to the manor to start organizing the forces there. Osborn took him into his office. As soon as the door closed, Owen grew tense as Osborn let out a cackle of glee, maddened and a bit horrifying.“I didn’t think she had it in her!” Osborn laughed. “To think that was all it took.”Owen said nothing, but he’d learned several weeks ago that Osborn wasn’t speaking to him. The vampires under Osborn’s command and the few werewolves that had followed him since the war were scrambling around getting ready to go to war. When Owen had heard about Daphne announcing war

Arthur woke up alone in the clearing. The humans of the village seemed to be all asleep and the only people awake were vampires. He struggled to his feet. Blood had dried and crusted on his skin. It seemed that he’d transformed back to his human form. Daphne’s blood still hung in the air, but it was old as if it had been at least a day since she’d been taken. He expected agony from the amount of blood smeared on his skin, yet he didn’t have any open wounds. It was almost as if Daphne had treated him. His heart sank at the thought of Daphne before he approached a tree to climb it, hoping to get a sense of where the castle was, yet he could see nothing but darkness and more trees. With a huff, he leaped down from the tree and transformed before following the scent of Blade, Rex, and the others. They had headed back to the canyon. He found them in a small camp just inside the canyon’s mouth, off the path that would lead them back to the werewolf kingdom. Many were cradl