Unbound (The Captive #7)(74)
“If they were smart they would,” Xavier replied.
“They would,” Aria agreed. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
She turned and walked back to the main room. Everyone within remained eerily silent as she strode into the center of the room. “We’re going to go after them,” she whispered. “We can’t take the chance they’ll remain after the storm. We’ll take at least twenty with us.”
Men and women rose to gather their weapons as they worked it out between them who would go and who would remain. Aria waited for them to decide, before striding down the back hallway, passed the rooms lining it to the door at the end of the hall. The humans who would be coming with them, followed her.
William opened the door and peered into the hallway beyond before entering it. She followed him down the dank-smelling, ten-foot long hall to the wall beyond. William’s fingers searched over the wood before he pushed on something and the door swung inward to reveal the root cellar beyond.
The sharp scent of mildew and dirt wafted over her as she stepped into the abandoned cellar. The wood over her head sagged beneath the weight of the earth trying to reclaim it. She warily examined the bowing beams as she walked over to another small door, sagging on its hinges and splintering down the middle.
She waited for everyone else to fill the room. The last woman in closed the door behind her, briefly plunging them into complete darkness until Aria turned the rotten handle and cautiously pulled the door open. Rain lashed against her, stinging her face and numbing her skin as she stepped into the storm.
The wind howled through the trees. From somewhere deep in the forest, a branch cracked and plunged to the ground, taking more branches with it in a cascading, thundering crash as it fell. She wiped the water from her eyes to focus on the barn a hundred feet away from them. Behind her, the others filtered out into the storm.
She gazed over the humans and vampires surrounding her before jerking her head toward the barn. They moved silently across the muddy, slippery ground, or at least they couldn’t be heard over the whipping wind and pelting rain. As Aria gripped the handle of the barn door, she held up a finger to halt everyone before putting it down and sliding the door open in one fluid motion.
She pulled her bow from her back and grabbed an arrow as five of the vamps within leapt to their feet. The other five remained asleep, for now. Shock registered on the vampire’s faces before William’s arrow struck the first one and sent him reeling backward. Aria unleashed three arrows in rapid succession, killing two vamps and catching a third in his shoulder.
More arrows whistled around her as the humans fired at the vampires. The other five vamps woke and leapt to their feet. The vamp’s confusion didn’t last long as they took in the dead bodies surrounding them and the group standing in the doorway.
They charged toward them with murderous expressions on their faces. Aria aimed at the one barreling toward Tempest. Before she could fire, William swung his arm out, catching the vamp in the back of his head and sending him spiraling to the ground.
He pounced on the vamp, jerking his head back and to the side before wrenching it from the vamp’s shoulders. One of them leapt at her, but Xavier dove at him. His arms encircled the vampire’s waist as Xavier slammed the vamp into the ground with enough force to shake the building.
Three left. Aria released another arrow, taking down one of the three.
“You!” the word was spat at her from her left.
Turning to face the new threat, she didn’t get a chance to fire before something crashed against her temple and the side of her face. Her head spun as she took a stumbling step to the side and swung out with her bow at the same time something else cracked against the back of her head. Blackness swirled up around her. She tried not to lose consciousness, but her vision was becoming smaller and smaller as it crept down to a single bead of light in a world of shadows. She tasted blood in her mouth, her blood.
“Aria!” William bellowed as something else hit her and she saw no more.
***
Jack
The low growl on his left caused Jack’s lip to curl back and his hand to tighten around the rabbit he’d caught to feed to Braith. Blood dripped from the rabbit and into Braith’s mouth as claws clicked across the rock floor toward them.
“Enough already,” Jack grated and tossed the bloodless remains of the rabbit to Keegan.
Despite his new meal, the wolf glowered at Jack as he settled in at Braith’s side and rabbit bones crunched within his jaws. Ever since the wolf had arrived the other night, apparently drawn into the cave by the scent of his former master and Jack, Keegan had refused to go far from Braith’s side. Jack hadn’t seen Keegan since he’d returned to the wild after the war with Atticus. The wolf’s loyalty to Braith remained as true as ever though.
Jack could still recall the disbelief that had run down his spine when he’d poked his head around the corner of the cave wall to find Keegan’s emerald eyes blazing at him through the darkness. The wolf’s hackles had been raised, his head bent low as he eyed Jack like a meal. If he hadn’t recognized him as Braith’s wolf, he would have killed him before the wolf could try to feast on them.
Instead, he’d opened the gate for him. Keegan had given him a disgruntled look as he’d trotted by, his claws clicking over the rocks until he’d arrived at Braith’s side. The wolf had settled beside Braith and only left him to go to the bathroom in one of the other side tunnels or to eat.