Hellfire

Chapter Thirty-Six

The night was a long one, full of hacking and burning anything I could. The remaining Pendragon hunters put up a fight, especially without Lucius there to take control, but with me being allowed to run loose, armed to the teeth and dressed in my suit, I was a force to be reckoned with. Alistair would go from behind, I would take the bullets head on, my suit deflecting those that struck me and my flames burning those that got close to my head to ash. The moment I'd cut down a couple, Oliver would step in, his blood strings sinking into the fresh dead and puppeteering them into meat shields.

Actively doing something to find Ella appeared to help Alistair. He was in pain, that was clear. I'd never seen him so cold and rigid, worry thick in him that he'd lost and failed the woman he loved, and no doubt blaming himself for dragging her into this whole mess. I didn't know what to do to help him, other than making sure the hunters were focused on me and not on him. I could take bullets these. He couldn't.

We finally came to a stop when the last hunter was slain. We stood there in the midst of what had once been a bar, making sure the dead were dead. Blood was now sinking deep into the woodwork, bits of body scattered about and the gurgling of Oliver's zombies choking on the blood clogging their throats filled the silence.

I wiped Thorn over my thigh after wrenching her from the chest of the last hunter.

'Is that the last?' I asked Oliver as he sat heavily on the bar with a beer in hand, swiped from one of the surviving tables.

'I can't hear anymore heartbeats.' He said after tilting his head and inhaling the rank air into his lungs. 'Think that was the last of them.'

'We can't be sure.' Alistair said firmly as he whirled into existence beside me, his hands reaching for my face to place his cold palms against my cheeks and ensure I wasn't too warm.

I frowned up at him. 'Lucius said there were five pockets. This was the fifth.'

'He could be wrongly informed.' Alistair reminded me, and his teeth lengthened aggressively. 'Or he could be lying again.'

'Alistair...' I breathed out in frustration.

But Alistair wasn't going to listen to me. He was too hurt by Lucius' actions and utterly unaware that he was balancing between protecting Ella and Little One.

'Go home, Susan. See if he has any news or if he's still wasting time. I'll see if I can find Ella or anything useful.'

I wanted to point out dawn was coming, but I doubted he'd listen. Alistair was on a warpath and he'd stay out as long as he could.

'Don't do anything dumb.' I reminded him. 'And go to Tabitha's if you don't get to the manor before the sun's up. She'll shield you.'

He simply grunted and vanished, leaving behind an air of such fury and pain. He was going to run himself into the ground, either getting himself killed or stirring trouble and making things worse for Lucius. I looked to Oliver desperately who was mirroring the same concern.

'I'll watch him.' He agreed, downed his beer like it was air then slipped away.

I grit my teeth as I stared at the hunters we'd slain, thinking how they'd thought they were here to kill Lucius. They hadn't realised Pendle was puppeteering the whole thing, using them as fodder so she could do her job. And Lucius couldn't do much about her either. His hands were tied, all so Little One was safe. My stomach curled as Little One's face kept bobbing about in my mind, that child who had wanted to protect Lucius from himself and Morrigan, who trusted me instantly. But I also needed to keep Ella safe. I liked the girl. She was stupid, bull-headed, and an idiot, but she was our stupid, bull-headed idiot. She was family.