Den of Sorrows (The Grey Wolves #9)(26)

With a plan brewing in his mind, Sincaro melted back into the forest. He would retreat to the cover of the underworld, the place where his kind was most at home. It would be the last time he would be aboveground for a very long time.
Jen leaned over with her hands on her knees, panting as she tried to fill her deprived lungs with air. The second day of operation vampire genocide had begun much like the first, and they’d just finished wiping out the first coven. She'd begged Decebel to let her fight. She'd fallen apart the night before and she was so raw inside that she just needed to stab something. He hadn't really liked her outburst of 'Just let me kill something already.' She'd realized that had been the wrong thing to say, but after another thirty minutes of pleading with her mate and Vasile, they'd agreed to let her go in.
The adrenaline running through her veins was like a drug to her. It kept the other emotions at bay and made her feel like she had some sort of control over the chaos into which they were running.She'd let Decebel take the lead but she'd been right on his heels as they’d rushed into the cave like room. There had been no pause in her feet, no hesitation, as she began swinging the two blades Peri had given her—fae blades that seemed to know what she wanted before her arm was even moving. She couldn’t hear the sounds of the dying or fighting over the pounding of her heart. Her arms moved gracefully, the way her mate had shown her, and she barely even saw the bodies that dropped when she was done with her work. The only vampire she could remember had been a blonde who'd taunted her. 'Your males allowed a weak little dormant female to fight the big bad vampires? Why didn't they just put you on a platter like the others? Of course, you won't be as sweet as they are. Their blood isn't tainted yet. It's pure, clean, and goes down smooth.' Just remembering the sound of the woman’s voice grated on Jen’s nerves. The female vamp had pissed Jen off so royally that she'd tucked the blades down in the boots and phased her fingernails to the powerful claws of her wolf.
Jen knew the smile on her face probably looked a little sadistic, but the calmness of her voice when she responded to the vamp was even worse.
"You aren't worthy of a death by my wolf. But since I’m pissed, I’ll show you how us weak, little, dormant females fight." Jen moved with her wolf’s speed as she lunged forward and ran her claws across the woman’s face. She flipped around just as the woman passed her and Jen raked her claws across the woman’s back, leaving deep lacerations that stretched from shoulder to hip. The vamp screeched like a wounded cat and came at Jen as though she was possessed. Jen stood her ground as the woman ran full speed toward her. Just before she would have reached her, Jen held her hand up, claws extended and muscles locked. The stupid vamp ran herself through on the wolf’s claws. Jen didn’t think about the fact that her hand was imbedded in a vampire’s chest and wrapped around its heart. Instead, she allowed her wolf to lift the woman and slam her onto her back against the blood covered ground.
Jen leaned down over the female vampire, making sure the last thing she would see was the eyes of Jen’s wolf, and she whispered, "And that's how we dormants do it." And then she pulled the heart from the vampire’s chest. It wasn't near as easy as they made it look in movies.
The cold Philadelphia air burned her lungs as she continued to breathe it into her body. She shook her head and arms as though she was shaking off the memory of the fight. There were just some memories that had no business taking up space in her mental files.
"You okay?" Jacque asked.
Jen stood up and looked at her very pregnant friend. Everyone thought Jen was the tough one. They were clueless. Jacque was the beast in their little trio. She was one of the strongest people Jen knew, and she proved it as she stood outside a vampire coven about to pop out a baby. 
"Or she’s just foolish," Decebel’s words filled her mind. Of course, he wouldn't think Jacque’s actions were a show of strength because like all male flea motels, he expected her to hide from danger like a mouse hides from a cat.
"Is it really foolish for the mouse, which is physically smaller and weaker than the cat, to hide in order to stay alive?"
Jen ignored him long enough to address Jacque. "I'm good. Not even a scratch on me."
"If you'd have gotten a scratch on you, Decebel would have flipped more than just his lid," Jacque quipped.
"True," Jen sighed. "Perhaps, I should allow the scratch just for that reason."
Jacque laughed. "You are unapologetically diabolical."
"Hey, I could be a lot worse things."
"Like a mouse hiding from a cat?" Decebel asked.
"Stay the hell out of my conversations you freaking hair ball," Jen growled out loud, not even giving him the luxury of the bond.
Everyone froze as they looked from Decebel to Jen. Jen thought their heads looked like they were at a tennis match.
Decebel was standing next to Vasile and Peri as he stared at Jen. She didn't see any anger in his gaze. In fact, she couldn't read his expression at all, and that just pissed her off more. He didn't get to say aggravating comments in regards to a conversation that he hadn't even been invited into and then stare at her blankly while she tried to keep from throwing her fae blades at him.
"There have been enough fae blades used to mark my skin, female. There's no need for you to add to them," he said in his cool, detached voice.
"Female?" Jen growled as she took a step towards him. "Female!"
A voice that wasn't hers or Decebel’s interrupted the massive ass chewing she was about to give her mate. "Everyone needs to calm down, take a breath, and think before they speak."
Jen's head turned slowly to look at Cypher. She was surprised that he was the one who was attempting to defuse the situation.
"I am calm," said Decebel as he looked at Cypher like he had suddenly sprouted horns.
Cypher met her mate’s eyes and gave a slight nod. "Then maybe you should focus on the thinking before you speak part of my suggestion."
"Burn," Jacque whispered to Jen.
"I'm liking this warlock king more and more," Jen chuckled.
"Jen, I'm speaking to all of you," Cypher scolded her.
Her mouth snapped shut, not because of her own choice. Her eyes shot to Peri, who gave her a shrug. “Damn, meddling fae,” she thought.
Cypher turned away from her and addressed the whole group. "I've been watching everyone since the third coven we took out yesterday. I’ve noticed your behavior changing. At first I didn't understand it. But this time I felt it."
"It's the magic," Alston spoke up.
Cypher nodded.
"What magic?" Costin asked.
"The magic that lived inside the vampires," Cypher answered. "We aren't all called supernatural beings for nothing. We each have magic in us. Vamps, trolls, warlocks, wolves, all of us. When the body that no longer contains that magic dies, some of the magic is released. Though it fades over time, the way we are killing these vampires in groups like this…"
"It's like walking into a sauna of dark vampire mojo," Jen finished for him.
"Exactly," Cypher agreed.
Jen nodded. "Okay then, B, I totally forgive your lapse in judgment because of the dark vampire mojo."Decebel started to speak but Fane rested a hand on his shoulder. "Just go with it, man."
Jen winked at her mate, who didn't look like he just wanted to go with it.
"So that's number three today," Jacque said as she took the offered water bottle from her mate. For being such a supernatural group, they sure didn't look too super. The wolves and faes’ clothes were clean, thanks to Peri’s handy dandy fae magic, but not even fae magic could wipe away the emotional filth that seemed to be collecting on them with every encounter.
"I think we can get four more in today," Peri said before taking a swig from her own bottle.
They were standing in a city park in the great city of Atlanta. And with Nissa’s assurance that she was using fae magic to glamour them into not looking like a group of supernatural killing machines, they'd all kicked back on a bench, tree, or the ground to rest.
"Four more?" Sally asked, looking slightly green.
Peri nodded. "One of the cities is in Colorado. So instead of us going there, I'm going to contact Dillon’s" —she glanced at Jacque— "mate, Tanya. Nissa is going to flash to them and lead them in an attack there. Then there is a coven in Missouri."
Jen groaned. "What the hell? I feel like we're chasing hordes of cockroaches all over the freaking nation with no end in sight."
"Alston will go to the Missouri pack," Peri continued, as though Jen hadn't just had a four-year-old moment, “and lead them in an attack on that coven while we are going to continue on to New York City and then to Dallas.”
Jacque leaned back against Fane who was leaning against a tree behind her. “How are we going to take out all of these covens?” she asked Peri and then looked at her father-in-law. “It will take us months to find them all, and they are probably going to start catching on, if they haven’t already. Who’s to say they don’t move or just start multiplying? Wait.” She narrowed her eyes. “How do vamps come into being? Are they born, made, or what?”
Alston was the one who answered her. “Actually vampirism is a disease caused by a virus. The human myth that a vampire must drain a human and then give them their blood in return is merely that—a myth, as are most of their ideas about supernaturals. The vampire does indeed have to bite the victim with an intent to infect them. They then inject the virus into the victim’s bloodstream. But biting to feed on them will not turn a person into a vampire.”