The Wayward Mate

Chapter Twenty- Two: Part Three.

“Rory!” Vlad strode towards me with quick, precise steps. Vlad was as tall as he was lean, standing at 6’1” and with the grace, build and agility of a cat- like being. He could’ve been mistaken for a were if it were not for the blood red eyes he possessed. “The witches backed off!”

He stood in front of me smiling, his teeth sharper, longer than the average humans, his true nature hidden until his thirst for blood became too strong. Blood called to him and his clan like a siren called to a sailor. Behind him stood his coven, made up of vampires of different origins and varying physical appearances. There were hundreds of them and I was thankful they’d agreed to help.

I pulled my lips back in a feral snarl as he reached out to touch me. His clan all stiffened, knowing there was nothing they could do to help their leader if I attacked him. No one dared stand against me.

“Ah I see the old Rory is in there. Are you still as ruthless as they say?”

I gave a feral smiled as two of my men walked through the compound, dragging a limp body between them. “We’ll soon see.”

I knew that the hunter wasn’t unconscious. I knew that he was a trained assassin and I knew that he was looking around for anything he could report back to Rieker. That is, if he got back, which he most definitely wouldn’t.

I nodded at the wolves as they dropped him on the ground. Bending down I watched as the muscle in his left arm twitched, smiling as he smoothly grabbed the knife in my boot, standing and holding me against him, knife against my neck.

“Rieker says he will leave and never return if you meet him in the clearing at 01200.” He whispered in my ear. I maintained a casual stance as the knife dug deeper into my skin. Wolves and vampires alike stood around us, tense and ready to attack. The only thing holding them back was me.

I gave a loud laugh and shook my head, the knife digging into my neck, a trickle of blood running down my neck.

“No he’d be back once I was dead. His word means nothing to me.” I grabbed the hand holding the knife and snapped it easily, stepping forward and kicking the knife away as the stupid man felt to the ground. “You could have lived if you’d stayed at home.” I said looking down at him, sneering.

He snorted and held his broken arm to his body. Rieker had trained him well, he wasn’t showing obvious signs of pain, I could see past it though. The sweat trickling down his forehead, the tightness in his jaw, the way he shook in fear and pain.

“My family would be alive if it weren’t for monsters like you.” He spat.

I smirked coldly and bent down next to him, balancing easily on my heels. “My family would be alive if it weren’t for parasites like you.” I hissed, grabbing a knife from my other boot and plunged it into his eye.

The wet sound of the knife sinking deep in his eye, the gruesome sight of his eye literally exploding would make any lesser man faint. It didn’t affect me though, this is what Rieker had made me into.  He’d regret the day he ever took my family.

Standing up I spat on the hunter’s body. “Toss him outside for Rieker and his men to see. The ball’s in their court now.”

-

“How have you been old friend?” Vlad asked as I stood, watching the field hours after the hunters body was dumped near Rieker’s camp. The men who had dumped it had come back covered in cuts and I knew that soon the hunters would attack again. We’d be ready for round two when they did.

I shrugged. “Family died, rebelled against Rieker, mated with two pain in my ass alphas, had a kid, found out my brother was alive, killed said brother and started a war.” I said my face blank as I stared into the night.