Page 86 of Veradel
“Shit.” Just as three more sentries charge at me, I use my own stolen blade to clash against theirs, twist, and morph back into a werewolf. The remaining sentries freeze in place, eyes popping out of their heads. A few of them shriek and back away. But my canine teeth bare themselves in a grin, because that electric bolt of Saskia’s presence floods my veins.
You okay?I ask her.
Yeah, she answers immediately.Diggory’s with Gaia now. But Lucan—they must know we’re here.
The alarms overlap now that we’re connected, as if I can hear them through her perspective from the end of a long tunnel. My teeth grind together at the sound, but honestly, I’m only surprised it took the Guardians this long to notice our invasion.
Satisfied that Saskia is momentarily safe, I dissolve my mental block until I’m streamlining with the entire pack.
Everything good in the catacombs?
Yes.The voice belongs to Gabriel, which tells me that Vivian, Merrick, and Soren must be busy talking to the prisoners in their human forms.We’ve freed most of them, and Ashe and Kyra are on guard right outside the prison.
No signs of any more vampires so far?
None.
Good. That means they only know about me and Saskia.I can feel the authority in my voice threading through the connection that binds us all, a strategy unfolding itself in my mind.I’ll try to lure them out here in the open if you and the pack want to sneak out of the catacombs and divide into groups of twos. Surround the city if you can, then slowly close in.
You’ve got it, alpha,Gabriel says, and my heart swells for the bastard. Despite all the times he tried to fight me for this position in the past, now that the moment has finally come, he’s all in.
Just in time, too, because aBOOMsounds in the distance, overpowering even the alarms. When I look up, it’s to find three humanoid shapes bursting through the doors of the Blood Moon Palace up ahead and whizzing toward me with a speed that blurs their features.
I stand my ground, tail flicking, digging my claws into the road beneath me.
For a moment, I’m certain they’re going to maintain their speed and pounce on me at the same time, but then they screech to a halt right in front of the enormous pile of sentries at my feet.
The alarms die with one last echoing blare.
“Well, well, well,” one of the Guardians huffs, his long throat lengthening even more as he lifts his chin. From all the times I’ve been in Saskia’s mind, viewing the world from her perspective, I know they call this one the Eleventh. “If it isn’t the Monster in the flesh.”
I chance a glance at the other two Guardians, both of them giving me eerie smiles with crimson hate dripping from their eyes. One of them is the Fourth, a female with skin and hair whiter than her fangs. The other is the Tenth, a male with a dark skin tone as smooth and alluring as silk.
All three of them begin to stalk closer.
“And would you look at that?” the Eleventh Guardian continues, his voice growing loud enough to reverberate up and down the road. “You’ve killed our people, just like we knew you would if you were ever able to claw your way in.”
He jerks his head at the pile of bodies between us. I don’t take the bait, don’t feel the need to tell him that every single sentry is still alive when I know he can hear their hearts beating as surely as I can—until the Eleventh Guardian cranks his head left and right and I notice the people watching from the alleyway.
Dozens and dozens of Xantera’s citizens have crept out of their housing units, still clad in their identical issued nightgowns, to investigate all the commotion. And now hundreds of eyes widen at me in horror as they bounce from me to the bodies before me.
No, I want to tell them.I’m here to save you.But in my werewolf form, all that comes out is a growl that makes several of them gasp. Somewhere to my left, a baby begins to cry.
Well, fuck. That didn’t have the effect I was going for.
“Don’t worry,” the Eleventh Guardian continues, and I catch the smirk lifting the corner of his thin lips, even though he tries to keep his face a careful portrait of concern. “We’ll protect all of you from this vile abomination. Just like we did before.”
And all three of them pounce.
I throw myself forward, leaping over the pile of bodies and catching them by surprise as I slam into the Eleventh.
The collision of our bodies sends acrackthrough the air, and he slams into the ground beneath me. I don’t waste time sinking my canines into his chest to rip out his heart…
But before I can, razor-sharp nails dig into my shoulders and spine so hard that I roar.
A pair of fangs sinks into the back of my throat, tearing through my flesh. Vampire venom shoots through my veins like hot poison, setting my body on fire. I thrash, twisting to tear the two other vampires off of me just as the Eleventh scrambles to a stand again.
“You really think one Monster can defeatthreeGuardians?” the Fourth Guardian laughs in my face.
