Unbound (The Captive #7)(95)
Before they’d left the barn, he’d given the order that none of her followers were to survive this night. They had chosen their course when they’d decided to join her. He understood some had been forced into it, but there was no way for him to know which vampires those were, not for certain, and he wouldn’t take the chance of any future rebellions. He was tired of war and fighting and death. Tonight would be the end of it all.
Their troops spilled from the woods and into the street to block Sabine’s followers from retreating. The ones who tried to escape into the woods were pushed back by the humans and vampires waiting for them there.
Around the house Sabine resided in, many of the guards charged toward the woods, looking to take out whoever was trying to attack their queen. They fell back, screaming, when more arrows were unleashed upon them.
The flames from the arrows on the house caught on the shutters and spread across the roof. Braith remained unmoving, watching, waiting for Sabine to emerge. She would be his.
Five vampires managed to escape the arrows and barreled into the woods toward them. Braith rose, his lips skimming back to reveal his fangs. Bloodlust raced through his body, but unlike the uncontrollable urge to kill that had driven him in the woods after rising, he was far more in control of himself. He would slaughter these vampires, and any others who stood in his way of destroying Sabine, but this would not be a mindless, compulsive destruction.
One of them was nearly on top of Aria when he swung out with the back of his hand. The blow caved the vamp’s skull in. He lunged forward and grabbed another vampire by his shoulders. Swinging him out, he bashed him into a tree, snapping his back.
He spun to the next vamp coming at them, but Aria released an arrow that pierced his heart and knocked him back. Another vampire rose up behind her, looming over top of her. Braith bellowed when one of the vamp’s hands skimmed over her shoulder. Grabbing hold of the hand that had dared to touch her, Braith yanked it back and slammed it into the man’s face, breaking his nose upon impact. He twisted the vamp’s head on his shoulders and wrenched it free.
The body dropped from his hands as he lifted his gaze to meet Aria’s. Firelight danced in her eyes as the roof of the house became engulfed by the flames eating away its surface. The crackle of wood and smoke filled the air; a beam within the house gave way with a loud crack. Cries of panic echoed through the town as the last of their army flooded from the woods at the end of the street, effectively blocking it off.
The potent scent of blood and the acrid aroma of the fire filled the air. He took hold of Aria, drawing her back as more vampires came at them. He punched one in the cheek before throwing an upper cut at another. The vampire launched ten feet into the air and crashed into a tree. Aria fired three arrows, taking out the rest of the vampires rushing at them.
Daniel and William were illuminated by the fire as Daniel released an arrow into the vampire William was fighting. Max and Maeve fired arrows at anyone trying to flee through the woods while Tempest and Xavier beat back some of the others.
At the front of the house, a flurry of movement caught his attention. “She’s going,” he growled.
He tore the arrow from the chest of the one Daniel had shot before he wrapped his arm around Aria’s waist and lifted her against his side. Her fingers gripped his shoulders as she clung to him. He ran through the woods, battering back the branches slapping and tearing at her. The others followed them through the trees as the roof of the house collapsed beneath the flames engulfing it.
Heat blasted over him from the collapsing roof as the fire rushed outward in a loud whoosh. Sweat beaded across his brow and dripped down his back, causing his shirt to stick to him as he moved. Twisting in his arms, Aria pulled another arrow free of her quiver and fired it at a vampire rushing headlong into the woods. The arrow caught him high in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Daniel drove a stake through the vamp’s chest before he could regain his feet.
Aria turned and fired at another vamp as William planted his feet and released a series of arrows. The arrows pelted the small wave of vamps trying to escape around the back of the house. Max, Daniel, and Maeve leapt forward to stake any who had survived William’s arrows. To the right of him, Xavier lifted another vampire and drove him onto the jagged, broken branch of a tree.
Bursting free of the woods, Braith surveyed the scene. The guards on top of the wall were firing down on the vamps running through the street. He spotted Gideon, Melinda, and Ashby on top of the wall near the gate, commanding the troops.
To his left, Jack, Timber, and Hannah had also broken free of the woods and were fighting to carve their way through the vampires trying to flee around them. Some of Sabine’s followers had shed their brown cloaks in an attempt to blend in, but many were too panicked to have taken them off.
Perhaps some of Sabine’s followers would figure out the black streaks on the faces of those attacking them also kept them from blending in, but not many of them would before it was too late. The guards on the palace walls focused on the vampires wearing the brown cloaks, the only ones they knew for certain weren’t on their side. No matter that those within the palace knew they had allies on this side of the wall now, the gates wouldn’t open before their enemies had been destroyed.
To his right, more vampires were being battled back by the small army blocking their escape at the end of the road. His eyes narrowed when he spotted Sabine walking casually down the street, her hair trailing behind her and her blood-colored cloak bright in the flames spreading through the town.