Prologue
The smellof smoke and dust coated my nose, eliminating one of my senses as I crawled across the burnt ground.
Bodies were strewn across the landscape, blood soaked into the dirt creating crimson mud pockets.
Dragging myself further, I climbed over corpses as I surveyed the area looking for her.
They had her. I was going to eliminate them all, even if it killed me in the process.
The fucking bloodsuckers ambushed me. Some of their decapitated heads laid on the ground beside me along with human bodies. I roared as I tried to put weight on my knee, then foot. Sharp pain shot up my thigh as I looked down to see the bone piercing through my flesh, exposed on the outside of my shin.
A compound fracture.Fuck.
“Inés!” I gritted through the pain. Another step and I fell over someone’s dismembered limb, falling onto my back with a groan.
Dust kicked up and I stared into the greyish white smoke filled skies. The smell of burnt flesh, excrements and spilled innards were dulled by the combination of everything around us.
I should have seen it coming.
I did, but not until it was too late.
The crunching of boot steps stole my attention. I quickly turned to my stomach to give myself a better position while hiding behind two corpses piled on top of one another. The dead eyes of the vampire on top stares at me, it’s fangs a reminder of war at stake.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are. I can practically feel your heart racing from here. It was always going to come to this Vik, wasn’t it?” he cackled and the hair on the back of my neck rose.
There wasn’t enough room for two madmen in this world and I won’t be the one eliminated.
ChapterOne
Vikram
“Two on theleft and five on the right,” Rhett whispered under his breath when he made it back to our location.
We hid under the brush since the evening, waiting for the sun to descend to watch the bloodsuckers from Clan Shaye move to their positions. We overheard rumors about this meeting the week prior when we accidentally stumbled about a group of them during one of our supply runs.
Angel sat beside me, her breathing even and steady, hidden in the tall grass. She knew as well as all of us, that we needed to keep cover until the time was right. A few abandoned cars littered the field, blocking us from their view. We made sure to stay downwind, in case their heightened sense of smell picked up our location.
Clan Shaye was dwindling. If the frequency in which they were hit were anything to go by, I would even venture to assume they were the smallest and weakest clan out there. We had to make sure to keep them that way. We didn’t need them running over on our territory when we butted up against theirs.
“They’re coming back to the main building, into a room,” Carson observed.
“I wonder what they’re meeting about,” Amir pondered aloud.
“Probably discussing how they’ll collect more of us for their damn dinner tables.”
Rhett slapped Carson in the chest. “Hey, that’s what we’re here for, right? They’ll never make it to our compound or find out about it. We make sure we take them out where they stand and leave their bodies crucified as an example for any of their other members that dare to think they’ll come after us.”
“Easier said than done. You know how that shit goes. Hell, we just lost Zi and Rowan in the last attack.”
A somber silence descended upon us.
“You guys need to shut your trap,” Carlos growled. “I’m going to make it home. I have a wife and kid that depends on me. Don’t get your minds in the wrong headspace. We’re going to go in, kill the bloodsuckers and come home. The way we always do.”
Carlos was the most serious in the group. Ever since he knocked up Lydia, he was never the same. Why anyone wanted to make a family during these times, I would never understand. It was hard enough trying to survive as an adult. Why would anyone subject their children to this?
Black Hollow organized six soldiers for this particular mission. All of which were known to lead individual groups on supply runs. It was a heavy risk Dean, Black Hollow’s command in chief, took when he sent us out. If the mission went according to plan, we’d only have to take out seven vampires we’ve observed thus far. The only problem was, we weren’t entirely sure if more were coming or if this was it. We had to move fast.
Two clicks of my tongue, and everyone’s head perked up. Angel’s tail wagged in anticipation. I signaled with my fingers for them to split, half to the left and half to the right. Angel was instructed to remain on the ground level to alert us in case there was an ambush we didn’t know about. We were currently hidden behind a rusted out old farm truck. With nods, the men went into action. All dressed in dark colors, we kept our bodies low enough to the ground, behind the tall weeds.
