The War

Ryleigh

Ryleigh tensed as she and Lukas reached the outskirts of the pack grounds, snarls and chaos greeting their arrival. She gazed at Lukas and squeezed his hand. They’re here. His blue eyes were replaced with gold fire, his canines drawn. Kristopher had been a diversion to keep Ryleigh occupied, or dead, so Naomi could eliminate the next threat to her reign of terror; the Lycans. Lukas pulled Ryleigh against him and kissed her deeply.

“We stay together,” his dark voice whispered. He pulled away from Ryleigh, stripped off his clothes, and shifted into his wolf. His gold eyes burned into hers as he nodded at her. Ryleigh’s wolf nudged her to follow suit, and her magic flourished, tightening the cloak around her. “I have the element of surprise if I need it, Lukas, but you will always find me,” she answered. She stripped off her own clothes and allowed her wolf to surface, then she and Lukas sprinted toward the pack.

Bailey and Jackson were at the entrance of the pack, fighting vampires attempting to infiltrate the property. Jackson was in his Lycan form as he fought beside Bailey, snow dusting upon her skin as she summoned her magic. As she froze vampires that approached her, she hurled their corpses into nearby trees, shattering them into millions of pieces upon impact. Behind them, Lycans fought the vampires that slipped through the barrier and gained access to pack grounds.

There must be hundreds of them. Corpses of vampires littered the pack grounds, vampire heads tossed on the grass away from their bodies, blood painting the grass and the trees of their home. Some vampires’ chests were mangled, their chest cavities ripped open and their hearts missing. Lukas howled, and hundreds of howls immediately responded. He offered one last glance at Ryleigh, then pounced on the vampire approaching Bailey.

Ryleigh’s magic extended tentacles and wrapped around one vampire as her wolf tackled another vampire. She buried her canines deep into the vampire’s throat, her tentacles tightening their grasp on the other vampire and liquefying him. The vampire beneath her screamed and fought against her, but she clamped her jaws shut tightly and snapped through the vampire’s spine.

The vampire’s head separated from his body, and Ryleigh spat out the blood and flesh of her enemy, her tentacles releasing the melted vampire with a sickening plop. Another vampire prepared to attack Ryleigh, and she turned with a grin as her magic flared, rendering her invisible. Her tentacles ensnared vampires while her wolf delivered its cloaked attack, ripping heads from unsuspecting vampires as she melted others. Her wolf purred darkly as her crimson fur glowed, her magic heightening as the two worked in tandem, melting and decapitating vampires in a provocative dance of death and destruction.

Ryleigh fought back a laugh of joy at the look of pure terror that crossed each vampire’s face as an invisible force slew him. The power. The sheer power and dominance I hold over them. Her crimson fur glittered as it grew heavy and slick, saturated with blood, and her magic pulsed in response.

The crimson gore slipped through her fur and massaged her skin. Ryleigh groaned as her magic thrummed, her skin absorbing the blood upon it greedily, drinking in the blood as if deprived of thirst. Her wolf whined slowly in protest, but Ryleigh’s magic radiated through her skin and her fur. As it melted another vampire, her magic urged the vampire’s entrails to permeate into her fur, and once again, Ryleigh’s body consumed the blood of her enemies.

Ryleigh’s gold eyes became a blinding swirl of pink and gold, the fires of her magic and wolf so bright they created a newfound color as she continued to absorb the dead; a stunning, hypnotizing rose gold. Oh, the power. Unleashing her magic was powerful enough, but tasting the destruction that her magic wreaked stole the breath from her lungs and replaced it with raw devotion. She was at the mercy of her magic, basking in her magic’s lust for control. She gasped as her magic thrummed greedily, splattering the remains of another vampire against her. Magic within her stomach pulsed and immediately surfaced. Her magic siphoned the pulse within her stomach, and Ryleigh’s crimson fur blossomed into a red inferno.

As Ryleigh began to succumb to her magic’s slaughter and relinquish control, Bailey’s panicked voice snapped Ryleigh out of her drunken splendor. Ryleigh gasped as ice doused her magic’s control and the battlefield focused before her eyes, vampires surrounding Lukas and Jackson as Bailey fought the threat in front of her.

Ryleigh assessed the three of them, then shifted her eyes from one vampire to the next as she attempted to locate Nathan and Naomi. Ryleigh’s magic stretched onto the pack grounds, flinching as Lycans screamed, but she forced herself to ignore their cries as her magic searched for her targets. The vampires that made it past the barrier were just regular vampires. Vampires are here, but they aren’t. This isn’t the real fight.

Ryleigh dropped her invisibility shield and shifted into her human form. A vampire ran straight at her, but she disintegrated him with the flick of her wrist. Lukas roared at her, but Ryleigh kept her eyes fixated on the barrage of vampires as they halted their onslaught and shifted their attention to Ryleigh. They’re looking for me. “It’s me they want,” Ryleigh said. Lukas snarled in response, but Ryleigh shifted back into her wolf form and ran in the opposite direction of their home.

Hundreds of vampires thundered across the ground as they chased Ryleigh deep into the woods. Her wolf growled darkly and begged to fight, but Ryleigh calmed her. Lukas’ paws pounded against the ground in the distance, and she couldn’t help the small smile that formed on her lips. Of course he won’t just stay there. She turned sharply and entered the canopy in the forest, branches so thick that she couldn’t look up or around past the trees.

The vampires spread among the trees as they climbed for a better vantage point. She knew their objective was to trap and kill her, and she was counting on their attempt to fulfill it. The only difference is I’ve set the trap for them. Once she no longer heard the vampires on the ground, she stopped running. Her wolf snarled low as her eyes shifted from tree to tree. There was at least one vampire per tree, bright red eyes glaring at her as they waited for her next move.

Ryleigh shifted into her human form, and their eyes widened at the lack of blood staining her skin. Even though she had her moment of clarity, her magic continued drinking the blood of the enemy. She tensed as the vampires attempted to decipher how it was possible for her skin to remain untouched by gore. I need to end this before someone communicates to Naomi. Ryleigh’s magic slowly pooled into the palms of her hands. Even though her magic urged a quick slaughter, she knew if she drew on her magic too quickly, the vampires would feel it, and she needed the element of surprise.

A soft growl greeted her from nearby. Lukas. Her heart rate skittered at his proximity, but her dormant magic within him activated, and she immediately drew on the additional resource. Her cloak reinforced as the vampires’ eyes went from anger to starvation as her nervous heartbeat deafened them. She sent them out here hungry. One vampire jumped down from the tree toward Ryleigh, and her magic reacted.

She shot her hands forward, fire erupting from her palms. The vampire’s skin was an accelerant as her magic’s fire engulfed him in flames. The surrounding vampires shrieked in panic and started to shuffle out of the trees. “Nice try,” she whispered. As the vampires attempted to flee, Ryleigh’s magic slammed each vampire into the ground, allowing the flames of her magic to devour their prey. A vampire braved the wildfire of Ryleigh and ran straight toward her.

As soon as the vampire reached her, Ryleigh’s magic cast a bolt of lightning and obliterated him. An array of blood and skin splattered against tree bark, adding fuel to the flames of the dying vampires. Ryleigh inhaled a deep breath and birthed a storm cloud in the sky. She directed it to the pack grounds and commanded the lightning to target the vampires attacking the Lycans. She cocked her head as she felt the lightning strike each vampire and decorate the pack grounds with blood and skin.

Each lightning strike of annihilation sent a wave of satisfaction through her. Her magic pulsed eagerly, her skin throbbing as her magic threatened to burst free of its Karizma prison and bask in its own wonder. Ryleigh immediately locked her cloak tightly around her, a shudder of fear sprinting down her spine. She came too close before, allowing it to dictate her targets; she willingly gave up control of her magic to itself, and now it was demanding freedom again. It was demanding sustenance; it wanted to feed.

Ryleigh forced her worries to the back of her mind and urged the cloud to expand, searching within a ten-mile radius for other vampires. To her relief, none remained. She shifted her gaze back to the burned vampires before her and waved her hand lightly, extinguishing the flames of those no longer mobile.

Ryleigh’s magic finally settled beneath her skin, and she fell to her knees with a gasp. So much magic. Lukas shifted into his human form and ran toward her. He went to touch her, but she shook her head vigorously and retreated from him. “I need a minute,” she said. She could still feel the physical flames on her own skin, slowly simmering as her magic confirmed there was no remaining threat. She needed a second to calm down before she became a threat to her mate. Her magic longed for more victims, more sustenance; she needed to reign her magic in before she allowed her mate to touch her.

Lukas growled and walked around her cautiously. His eyes flicked between the burned corpses and scorched trees as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I think you got them all. I don’t hear any others. We were supposed to stay together,” he added with a glare.

“Staying together would have made it worse,” she shook her head as she gasped again. “It was me they wanted, not our people.”

“Naomi wanted an attack on the Lycans for helping you. They may not have been here just for you.”

“I know they were, because Naomi and Nathan weren’t here. If she and Nathan were here, they would’ve killed the Lycans like they planned. The mission was me. Her magic was tied to Kristopher, so she must have known that I…that he was gone. I think she wanted to start by eliminating our pack, but I surprised her, so she changed her plan and ordered it for me instead while she got busy finalizing her army. I told you before, I can’t stay here,” Ryleigh finished as she slowly rose to her feet.

Her magic was no longer hungry, only irritated and exhausted. She regained control of herself as her skin cooled and her magic settled. Fatigue soaked through her bones, and her knees threatened to buckle. Lukas immediately slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “It’s not safe,” she whispered. “Especially when she realizes she failed to kill me a second time. And now she knows where our home is.”

“Because they know where our home is, your departure wouldn’t make it safe, either,” Lukas said gently. “Vampires could be sent to finish you off while Naomi and Nathan begin annihilating the Lycan race entirely, not just our pack. You’re the threat that’s preventing our extinction.”

“For now,” Ryleigh smiled lightly. “She’ll get tired of waiting, and the vampire failures. I’m sure she’ll notice when a few hundred of her warriors don’t make it home tonight. Soon enough, she will come for me. For us.”

“How are you feeling?” Lukas asked softly, his eyes flickering to her stomach.

“Beyond exhausted,” Ryleigh smiled gently. “Accessing the magic of two Karizmas to kill hundreds of vampires takes a lot out of a girl.” Ryleigh needed to tell Lukas about her newfound fear of her magic, and the insatiable desire for death, but now was not the time.

“We may need you to do it again, depending on how injured our people are. But after that, you and I need a hot shower,” Lukas said, kissing her forehead gently.

“And a nap,” Ryleigh added. Fatigue drenched her body and silenced her magic. She nudged her wolf for assistance and she purred softly as she used her Lycan’s energy to help her walk. A spark of electricity tickled her fingers, and she smiled as she cupped her stomach. Barely a child, and she’s trying to take care of me.