Chapter 127 Bomb

Andrei

Silverwitch Bay

Fourteen minutes ago, Nikolai had told me he would be here in fifteen minutes. Algebrus, Symon and I, along with forty other pack members laid flat on our stomachs on the terrace of the pack house, waiting for him to come to our rescue.

We had been up here since the last hour and it had been the most excruciating hour of my life. It had been an ambush, they came out of nowhere. Most probably with the help of witches because our patrol wolves hadn't seen anyone until they were already inside.

The entire Silverwitch Bay population, which consisted of about a hundred people, had come to the docks to help us as we awaited the arrival of the ships from Kingdom Prajini.

We were wildly outnumbered when we realised that the enemies had encroached our pack. I knew that engaging in a fight would be the death of everyone so we had to seek shelter, gather our ammunition, strategize and then fight. And since we knew our land the best, we took the shortest and safest route to the pack house. Despite that, I saw twenty of my friends die and thirty of my friends barely escape near-death situations before reaching and securing the pack house.

We had already emptied our store of bullets by shooting any wolf that came in range. But they quickly figured out that coming closer would only lead to their death so they resorted to staying out of range and taunting us by raiding our houses in front of us. I am simply thankful that all the kids had been sent here, to the pack house earlier in the day and were being babysat by the older wolves. Both of the were the vulnerable groups and would not have survived it otherwise.

In the next minute I saw a thick blur of armour run past the dense trees near the shoreline and in the next three minutes, every single one of the enemy wolves were dead. Every single pack member on the terrace could only gawk in shock at what just happened. Each and every vampire moved with agility and strength underneath the heavy metal. All of them moved with such coordination, such precise moves and fierce strength that watching them fight felt like it was a part of rehearsed show. Sure, there were thousands of armoured vampires in comparison to a mere one thousand wolves from Mystic Lupus, but I had to give credit when it was due.

And in the next minute, all of them arranged themselves in rows and I saw a figure walk past them towards the pack house.

Mikhail.

Fucking hell. Who the hell were these people? How did Nikolai and Mikhail pull this off?

I stood up and the rest of the pack followed.

When he came closer, I noticed his dejected expression. Something was clearly very wrong.. I hope Avalyn is alright. I opened the pack link that I had shut tight a while ago to be able to concentrate on the situation at hand.

That's when I realised that a link was missing.

Someone in our family was dead.

Javier.

My heart dropped. What the fuck happened? How the fuck did it happen? Javier was one of the strongest vampire walk this earth. How did anyone manage to even kill him? And be should have been at Voda? How could this even happen?

I jumped off the terrace and ran towards my brother. "What exactly happened?"

He shook his head in dejection. "He died saving Luna."

My breath got caught in my throat. "And Avalyn?" I hope be managed to save her.

"She's alive."

"But?" I pressed, sensing it.

"Not doing good." He replied, his jaw clenching. "Nikolai is taking her home, he has something in mind."

I'm sure he does. He always has a plan.

"Who are they?" I motioned towards possibly the largest and the best army I have ever seen.

"All ten thousand of the Neos Army." He replied. "They're from the Slave Island of the Kingdom Ovzdusia. They foll—"

I've heard about them and know exactly know who they are and what they can do. I've heard stories about them and that they were to be sold for the first time in this century. This was Ovzdusia's longest, most intensive and possibly the most profitable project. He was going to sell one warrior for thousands of dollars. They were born to be made into fighting machines, they were taught how to become warriors with no weaknesses, to follow every command of their owner and die for them if command so.

And to see them in real life... "I know who they are." ...was mesmerising. They knew how to shed blood like it was art. One that I would definitely learn. And teach the entire army of Soare-Luna too.

"Well, they belong to Nikolai now. They are a part of Soare-Luna's army." Mikhail sounded smug.

"Damn." I replied. Trust Nikolai to pull something off like this. "Y'all just flipped the odds to our favour, brother. Let's get ready to win the war."

He nodded. "Nikolai has already given the orders. I'm to take half of the army to Alvar and Imporia and you're to take the other half to Wintercrown and Red Moon."

With a jerk of his head, a warrior stepped besides him, "this is Ratmir, the General of Neos Army." Ratmir bowed before he took out a pouch and began handing all of us the stones that would protect us from black magic. "He's the best, take him with you."

I nodded, putting the stone in my pocket. "How do you plan on travelling to the city?"

"We're taking the planes and helicopters, the rest will come in cars and on foot." He said and I nodded, "We will be travelling by road and on foot too."

"Go save some lives," he clasped my hand.

"Go take some lives." I nodded and then we said together, "Zaschitit' Korolya. Zaschitit' Korolevu. Sem'ya prezhde vsego!" Protect the King. Protect the Queen. Family above all.

And then we went out separate ways. It took us about thirty minutes to round up any and every mode of transport we could find—trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles and divided ourselves into all of them. The fastest Neos took it upon themselves to go there on foot. Apparently the human city was bombed so I'm pretty sure they would find themselves vehicles there.

Ratmir, I and other two warriors got in a car and led the rest to the Wintercrown Pack. We were on the expressway in ten minutes and then in the next two and a half hours, we entered the city. We needed to find vehicles for the rest of the army so instead of using the expressway to bypass the city, we had to pass through it. The vampires on foot were behind us and they'd take any parked car they found on the way.

I could smell the fire from the explosion, the blood and the smell of death and destruction. The closer we reached to the main part of the city, the worse it got.

I could see the dust particles in the air, the black smoke had covered the sky and the visibility had reduced. We could hear the cries and the screams of the people from kilometres away. The smell of the blood nauseated me.

I looked at Ratmir who was sitting in the passenger seat, looking outside through the window. It looked like the smell of blood wasn't affecting him at all, which was good considering the last thing we needed was five thousand uncontrolled vampires running around killing injured humans.

"They bombed the human city too." I spoke, "the Mystic Lupus Pack."

"Why?" His voice was rough. Maybe the blood did affect him.

"My best guess is, Nikolai owns an office here and makes a lot of money—something they had a dispute over earlier. It's a way of establishing dominance. And it could be to make humans vulnerable and most probably increase their number of slaves." I replied.

He nodded and turned his head to look straight at the road. He was wearing a visor, just like the entire army did, so I couldn't see his expression but his eyes looked unaffected. Like this was all an everyday thing for him.

They're trained to be this way all their lives.

We were further into the city and there were more vehicles on the road now, most of them parked in garages, moving around frantically or carrying injured people—most probably to the hospital.

"Tell them to not take vehicles that are being used." I muttered.

"Yes, Field Marshal Andrei." He replied.

The smell of the toxins, smoke from the fire and blood got more pungent in the air. More and more humans started filling the roads, all of them driving frantically, moving like headless chickens.

For some reason, I felt bad. This isn't a war humans should have been involved in. They didn't deserve to be dragged into our mess. They didn't deserve to die. This explosion must've easily killed half of the city's population, handicapped the economy and rendered the humans helpless.

I had never seen an explosion first hand. Especially not one up-close. I could feel the devastation the humans around us were feeling, like I would of a pack member, I was feeling sympathy for them like I would for someone I cared about.

And I knew exactly why. Because I had a human half-sister out there in America. And while she didn't even know I existed, I had made sure she was taken care of, I had hired people who made sure that she was doing good.

And caring for a human like that, so deeply, came with consequences which included feeling connections with humans as well. It was the sole reason I was more affected by this destruction than most supernaturals would ever be.

We passed through the decimated area and I could hear the screams of the people trapped under the debris. There were injured, people being out on stretchers and taken away, dead bodies put in bags. There were paramedics on sight offering first aid to the people.

I saw a little girl crying on the side of the road as she looked at her legs—leg. The other one was gone and she was bleeding profusely. I saw a paramedic rush to her before she was out of my view. She looked as old as Adrian, if not younger. And after her, I saw more injured and handicapped people than I have in my entire life. Which was already a lot considering I was used to after-war situations.

All I wanted right now was to stop the car and help these humans, despite the fact they they weren't our people. At the end of the day, what did it matter? They were people. Ones who didn't deserve this. And regardless of the reason, they felt like my people.

Each life I saw taken away, each injured human, each life wasted fuelled fire into my veins. It gave me a new sense of purpose to be more cruel in killing the wolves of Mystic Lupus.

I had orders to fulfil. And the damage here was already done. I could still salvage something in Wintercrown and Red Moon. In the next hour, we were out of he city and the entire army had gotten themselves a vehicle. And then I picked up the speed of the car and drove further down south, towards Wintercrown and Red Moon.

I promised myself that after things were taken care of there, I'd come back here with the entire army to help those humans. It was the least I could do.

And winning the war there wasn't going to be an issue, I knew it. Since we had the stones that would protect us from black magic, all those zombie witches had over us was their numbers. But the coordination and agility of the Neos should be enough to tackle that. And as for the wolves from Verdura pack, we would crush them like fucking worms beneath our feet.

Avalyn

Imporia

I don't remember how long Nik had been running through the dark, cold tunnel. It had been a never ending way up the tunnel. It was dark and I was cold. And I was in pain. My wolf was in pain, to be precise.

She had been feeling weak since a very long time but right now, she felt... sick. Like extremely sick.

My fingers clutched Nikolai's soft fur tighter, "h-how much lo-longer?" My throat felt dry and scratchy. I could barely speak. And whenever I did, it hurt.

His chest rumbled as he let out a low growl. I couldn't feel our link. He couldn't mind-link me anymore. Tears appeared in my eyes. What is happening to me? Why do I feel like this? Why is it always me?

After what felt like an eternity, Nikolai stopped. It was so dark that I couldn't see, my wolf wasn't here to help enhance my senses anymore. I felt his leg shift and then he moved backwards.

I felt the ground he stood on vibrate and the sound of rocks shuddering grated my ears. Bright light suddenly hit my eyes and I had to squeeze them shut. Too much at once.

Nikolai took off again.

I slowly fluttered my eyes open and saw we were inside the palace now.

How?

I looked around. We were surely home. There were a lot of people here, more than usual. There were hundreds of people here and most of them were children and old people.

Nikolai let out a loud growl as he ran from one hallway to another and the people jumped out of his way.

He ran into the empty throne room and then went to the side, placed his paw on the door of the observatory room with the bonsai tree in it.

The door open and Nik trotted in, his pace slowing down considerably.

He lied down on his belly and let out a low growl. Taking the hint, I slid off his back and sat on the floor. I didn't even have the energy to stand up at this point. Even breathing felt like difficult task.

I felt like my insides were burning, like my blood was on fire and yet, my veins were ice cold. I was going crazy.

I want this pain to stop. Please. Please. Please.

Nikolai shifted into his human form and plucked a white fruit from the tree before he crouched in front of me and pressed it to my lips.

Last time I was sick, this fruit had healed me.

So this was Nik's plan. It was perfect. It would heal me again. Hopefully. I ate it. Just like last time, it tasted divine, almost like it was the moon itself. I had never had anything like it. I wanted more.

Nikolai sat down beside me and cupped my face, brushing away tears that coated my cheeks. "I was so fucking worried, Moya Lyubov."

I know. I could see it on his face, feel it in his touch. His worry was almost tangible.

"Do you feel better?" He asked just after I gulped it.

I shrugged, my eyes lowering. I felt like a burden. I know the pack is under attack. I don't know the details but I could feel it. It was extremely far away in my mind but the agony of it was undeniable. A lot of people were dying and a lot more were wounded and in pain. It was hurting my heart.

Nikolai should be out there, doing what he does best—protecting and saving lives.

Instead, he was here with me. Taking care of my weak self.

"I love you, Avalyn." He kissed me. Softly, deeply. Even though we couldn't feel each other through our link, couldn't feel each other's emotions, he knew what I was feeling anyways. "You are the most important person to me in the entire universe. You are everything to me. Everything." He caressed my face soothingly, a look of pure torture all over his face. "I just need you to be okay."

I don't feel okay at all.

In fact, the pain was increasing. I wanted to rest a little. I wanted to go to sleep. For a long, long time.

"Do you feel better now?" He asked again but I felt like my throat was too closed up to speak. I felt like I had almost lost my voice.

"Y-you sh-should go." I managed to croak. My throat hurt. My head hurt. My soul hurt. I felt like I was... dying.

Now Nikolai will leave. He will leave me alone in pain.

But he'll save many more lives.

Was this it? Was this going to be the end of me?

Could my body not take Papa's powers? Was him sacrificing his life for me a waste? Was all of this for nothing? Was my wolf too weak to even fight to live? Thousands of thoughts passed my mind.

A wave of searing pain shot through my chest and I felt my heart contract agonisingly. A sob choked in my throat and more tears slid down my cheeks.

Dying would be better than this pain.

"Never tell me to leave you." His voice trembled as captured me in a hug. It felt good. Just being in his arms felt good.

My eyes slid shut. Yes, I can sleep now. I can finally rest now.

"I will let everyone die if it means I can stay here and make sure you are okay again. I can take every life in this dimension if it means you'll be all well again," his voice was thick with emotions and I knew he truly meant it.

I was making him cry.

I want to sleep. I want to be free of this pain. I want peace.

"Your heart is slowing down, Avalyn." Nik's panicked voice hit my ears. But he seemed too far away.

I just need to rest a little, I need to go away from this pain.

"Breath for me, Avalyn," Nikolai begged, his breath caught in his throat as he rocked us back and forth. "Breath, breath, breath," he cried, pressing me against his chest, hugging me harder. "Please, Avalyn!"

But not breathing felt so good. It hurt to breath, it hurt to live.

And then I just...let go.

Another searing pain shot through my heart and I almost cried out. But then I was pulled away from the pain into an all-consuming brightness.

"Avalyn..." Nikolai's heartbreaking scream was the last thing I heart. It urged me to open my eyes again but it felt too good here. If I opened my eyes, all the pain would come back.

It was peaceful here. I didn't hurt here. I felt...light.

The pain that lasted for what felt like an eternity finally ceased.