Page 26 of Raven's Dawn

I whipped around. Luci stood behind me, winded, typical golden skin a sickly shade of green.

“Where are they?” It came out as a bark. Not a question. Luci said nothing. “Where the fuck are they?!”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!” I hurried to my feet. “They were right here! They were with you?—”

“They were with you, too.” Tone far too calm, his eyes shifted behind me. He reached for the blade at his hip. “We’ll take care of this. Then we find them.”

He started past me.

I spun around and grabbed his shoulder. “We find them now?—”

Luci raised his blade faster than the speed of light. I was sure it was headed for my face. If it landed, it would kill me. Graham had informed me of that. I’d always thought that only silver could kill a Vampire. Apparently, so could Elvan ore.

But the blade swayed past me. It landed with a clunk. A groan followed. Wrenching the blade back, the scent of hot iron filled my nose.

But it wasn’t right. It didn’t smell like blood. It didn’t smell like Angel blood, or Fae blood, or any other blood I’d smelled before. It was something different. Something wrong. Dirty. Like a dead animal.

It was the same scent I had smelled since I’d woken. I didn’t know what it was, what these people were, or what the fuck they were doing here. All I knew was that they were killing my people. Trying to, at least. So I got to work, like I always did. Instinct kicked in, and I did what I had to do.

As I looked at the man behind me, the one Luci had just stabbed in the eye, it all came back, though. These weren’t people like I had ever seen before. They were wrong. They were barely people. They looked like people, just as ordinary as my face in a mirror, but scent never lied.

They weren’t right.

“If we go looking for them now, our people die.” For the first time, I saw fury in Luci’s eyes. Nostrils flared, he spoke through gritted teeth. “Rain’s a big girl. Ezra’s not as weak as you believe he is. If they were dead, you would feel it. They’re not. We have teleporters. We’ll find them.”

I wanted to argue, but he’d already finished.

When I turned to look at Graham, he was already running at one of them with a sword in hand.

And suddenly, standing in that small clearing between pine trees, in a campsite now littered with blood and bodies, I started to see. I’d seen their souls a moment ago, but now I saw this for what it was. Saw what my time here would truly be.

Saw why my instinct had been right when I told the others to stay on Earth.

Crimson covered the patches of clover and all those black pebbles beneath us. Even the pine trees were speckled in red. Everywhere I looked, someone was on the ground. Every inhale, I breathed in the intoxicating scent of blood paired with the nauseating rot and decay. The wind had been so cold last night, but now it felt like fire over every inch of my skin.

Who was ours? Who was theirs? I knew those close to me by heart, and they were all there. Laila, Jeremy, Graham, Luci, Ramona, Connor, Naomi, and Jake. Rain and Ezra were gone. But at least they weren’t here. At least they weren’t one of those bodies on the ground.

All those bodies on the ground.

When it was only their souls I saw, it wasn’t so hard. Now that I saw the blood and the bodies almost everywhere I looked, my stomach gurgled.

“Warren,” Jeremy called.

He was on my right, back-to-back with Laila.

When our eyes met, he held up a knife. Then he threw it.

Again, only out of instinct, I caught it.

In my mind, Jeremy said, Ours are in armor, except the ones you know by name. Take everything you’re feeling and use it against the rest of them. Don’t stand there frozen.

A man ran to him with a sword raised. Simultaneously, Jeremy and Laila ducked. The man stumbled over them, landing on their backs. Laila swept herself out from under him and he fell to the ground. Jeremy dropped the blade into his chest.

As the blood sprayed across his cheeks, his eyes met mine. “Don’t stand there frozen.”

Footsteps peddled behind me.

---