A Shade of Vampire 41: A Tide of War(35)

The shadow wasn’t slowing down. Like the last battle, it didn’t seem to be getting much smaller in size no matter what we did.

Once again, I contemplated calling for back-up, telling Lethe to fetch the others to help. Before I could, I heard the rumbling of an army moving toward us. It was coming from the direction of Hellswan.

The entity and its queen were on their way.





Ben





I heard the rest of the army approaching along the path. Tejus tensed behind me, causing him to falter, a blow from his sword coming just a second too late. I could hear the sharp intake of his breath as the creature took a swipe at his arm before Tejus lashed out in fury, annihilating the soldier.

I was facing the path that led to Hellswan. It was difficult with the mass of shadow in front of me, but I could see the glare of the flaming branches that the ghouls were carrying, and the strange, translucent blue glow their skin gave off under the moonlight.

We were already surrounded by the shadow. If we had to stand and fight the rest of them, we were over. I kept battling, but my breathing had become uneven. I was starting to feel afraid. I didn’t want this to be my last moment. I wanted to see River, Grace and Field. I couldn’t leave my family; I’d promised River that I’d return.

“What do we do?” I called to my dad, knowing he would have heard their approach too.

“I’m thinking,” my dad roared, decapitating the head of another soldier. He tried to position himself so he could get a better look at the shoreline. I wasn’t able to see Ibrahim or Nuriya, or if they’d had any success yet in closing the portal.

“The portal?” I asked, calling out to the whole team—Lethe had a better view than any of us.

“Nothing’s happening,” the ice dragon called back.

Dammit.

If the entity and the rest of the army were heading this way, then we’d failed on all counts.

The screeching of the ghouls grew louder.

“Tejus! Ben!” my dad bellowed in our direction. “If things get…tricky, head back to the palace. I mean it—just get the hell out of here, okay?”

I agreed with him, and so did Tejus. But I knew that neither of us would leave. I wasn’t blind—I could see, even from the limited time we’d spent with the sentries, that Tejus was crazy about my niece, but he was also a warrior. One who wouldn’t leave his men behind.

I guess this is it, then.

The rest of the army kept drawing closer. In a few minutes, I would see them come into full view on the path, and then they would be upon us—a force that we couldn’t even hope to destroy.

“Lethe.” My dad caught the dragon’s attention. “Go and get backup. We need the rest of the army—”

The dragon roared in shock before my father could finish his order. I looked up to see his talons gripped around the head of one of the soldiers, a large and vicious-looking rip in his wing.

“Lethe!” I yelled, rushing forward as swiftly as I could to slice away the shadow that was rearing upward to drag the dragon down. Tejus joined me, and together we slashed at the darkness as Lethe disposed of the soldier in his grip.

He landed back on the ground, breathing ice and snapping at the shadow.

“Can you still fly?” I yelled.

“Not sure,” he replied. “I need to give it a few moments.” He fought on, just as deadly on the ground as he was in the air. My father turned to Sherus.

“Go and tell the others, we need back up, now!”

The fae king vanished instantly, while the rest of us fought on.

“If we’re not going to make it,” Tejus growled, “then I want to take as many of these down with me as I can. Are you with me?”

“I’m in,” I replied.

In the next moment, the ghouls were upon us. They dodged through the shadow, screaming, claws out and mouths open. They were easy to kill in comparison, but their sheer number made fighting both species at once nearly impossible.

I heard the laughter of the entity in my head once again.

My children will finish you off, while I finish the worlds you hold so dear.

I spun around to try to see if I could find Jenus, maybe to end this once and for all. Instead, the shadow thickened around me and a strong force—like one of the sentries’ barriers—blew me backwards. I went flying into Tejus. Both of us were knocked to the floor. My head slammed into the earth, my sight spinning while I urged my body to get up. The force of the blow affected my hearing. I crawled to my knees, the ground spinning beneath me, but all I could hear was silence.

“Tejus? Dad?” I tried to call out, but I couldn’t hear myself. I looked over to see Tejus scrambling toward his sword, looking as disorientated as I did.