A Shield of Glass (A Shade of Vampire #49)(5)

“Well, we were hoping for a few more days here in peace. Until you came along!” Wren snarled, then moved back and nodded toward her succubi. “We’ll come with you to Stonewall. We can repair one of the ships in the harbor and take our mothers-to-be to Marton, where they can safely give birth.”

I’d figured she’d want to blame us for having to move the Green Tribe. We were the perfect excuse, if I thought about it. We’d brought Destroyers into their forest—there was no better reason than these slithering abominations to get her succubi to consider Stonewall. She didn’t seem that upset about it, either, despite her aggravated tone. If anything, she looked toward the east with bright eyes.

“If you’re serious about sailing to Marton, some of our group already in Stonewall may be interested in joining you and helping you along the way. We know of some young Druids, the last of the Grand Temple, living somewhere by Onyx River, and we need to reach out to them. Why don’t we help each other on this one?” I asked, thinking I might be able to convince her to leave some of her fighters with us and not send the entire tribe to Marton.

We needed as many of them as we could get, because the alliance required numbers for the assault on Luceria to work.

“How about we all get to Stonewall in one piece first, then hash out the details?” Wren replied, then pointed at the Destroyers lying dead in the grass. “These aren’t the last you’ll see of Azazel’s forces. More will come, in greater numbers. And soon.”

She whistled, and the succubi spread out, moving east. I watched as they vanished between the trees, while our shifters nervously looked around, one of them licking its wounded shoulder. Four had taken some hits, bearing deep scratches and cuts on their sides and legs.

“We need to move,” I said to Field. “Some of the shifters are wounded, and I’m not sure how many more hits they can withstand if there’s another wave of Destroyers coming.”

“There’s a stream several miles from here,” Wren said. “We can stop there to replenish our water reserves, and you can wash the blood off. From there we’ll have about a day’s journey to Stonewall.”

I looked down as soon as she mentioned the blood and saw it sprayed and smeared all over my body, darkened to a metallic copper shade. The sight of it made me slightly queasy, but nothing compared to the thought of becoming Azazel’s prisoner.

Field reached out and wiped some of the Destroyer blood off my cheek with the back of his hand, the corner of his mouth pulling toward a half-smile.

“You were quite the badass back there,” he said slowly. “I thought I couldn’t be more impressed, but you had to go and prove me wrong.”

“Good to see I can still surprise you,” I replied, feeling my cheeks burn under his warm gaze until Wren’s groan broke our moment.

“Time to go,” she said, with very little patience left.

“Okay, okay, we’re coming.” I walked past her, followed by Field, Phoenix, Anjani, and our shifters, while the others went ahead.

Soon enough, we began to run so we could maintain a safe distance from any other Destroyers, which were bound to follow from the mansion. Wren and a couple of her succubi kept their distance behind us, covering our backs as we darted through the forest.

Our shifters soon fanned out, and I could hear them growling and snapping their jaws at other wildlings eager to come at us. Only a couple of hours were left until dawn, and I could feel my body gradually slowing down.

I shook the thought away, taking a few deep breaths as I increased my speed, my new shield on my arm and my sword dangling from my belt as I put another mile between us and the Destroyers that would come after the ones we’d left dead by the white rock. There was no room for tiredness or fear. For now, there was only the rampant need to survive.

This time we had gotten incredibly lucky. The mutated shifters watched over us, and we had several dozen succubi running with us. At least the odds seemed more in our favor than they had a few hours back, when we’d watched the protective shield crumble in golden sparks around us.





Vita





As soon as the moon was out and bright at midnight, I took the tweezers I’d dug out of a beauty box to try to pick the lock on the double doors. I’d been lucky to find them, as Azazel had clearly removed all possible weapons and tools from my chamber. Leave it to the males to underestimate our ability to make do with the unlikeliest of vanity objects. I hadn’t seen Damion in a while, and there was silence outside my room, so it felt like the perfect time for me to sneak into the dungeons and set Kyana free.

I struggled with the inner mechanism of the lock until my fingers got sweaty and slipped off the tweezers. They fell to the floor with a high-pitched clang. I wiped my hands against my linen dress, picked them up, and tried again.

Bijarki was out there, coming to get me, and the others were doing their part in taking the war to Azazel. I was done being a prisoner anyway. I had to do something, and seeing Kyana downstairs had given me enough motivation to stop looking at risks and focus on a solution. At this point, getting the Lamia out of her cage meant giving Patrik the peace of mind he needed to break away from Azazel’s spell.

I continued fiddling with the lock, cursing under my breath when I lost my grip on the tweezers again. I took a deep breath, got down on my knees to get a better look, and tried again. Finally, I heard a click, at which point I turned the tweezers inside the hole and pushed until the much-needed clang tickled my ears.