A Dawn of Strength

A vampire Rose had introduced me to by the name of Landis—Xavier’s brother—ran up to him. “You recovered quickly,” Landis said, gripping Xavier’s shoulder. “We’re about to head to the beach. Grab a gun and put some armor on.” He hurried with Xavier into the building.

Aiden turned to address the throngs of vampires and werewolves. “To the beach!” he shouted.

Everyone launched into a sprint. Running at the head of the group, Aiden said to me beneath his breath, “It looks like we’ll just have to get started without our king and queen.”

Chapter 22: Caleb

By the time we arrived at the beach, the scene was already far worse than Aiden had described. There were only a couple of dozen white witches left.

“Gather round me!” Mona yelled to our witches, her eyes filled with panic.

As the vampires and werewolves lined up along the beach, Corrine, Ibrahim and the other witches huddled around Mona.

“Lend me whatever powers you possess to help reinforce the spell,” she said, closing her eyes and reaching out her hands. The witches took it in turns to step forward and touch palms with her before they all shut their eyes tight and formed a circle.

I turned my gaze back toward the ocean in time to see the last of the white witches cave in and vanish. Hovering above the waves like a dark cloud, the black witches swept toward the island. In a shaky voice, Mona began mumbling a chant. Sweat dripped from her forehead as her face contorted in concentration.

I knelt down on the sand, tightening my grip around my gun as I adjusted my helmet. I stared at the black witches beginning to assault the boundary with curse after curse. I scanned the crowd until I caught sight of Rhys at the forefront, Isolde and his two sisters by his side. Rhys was the first warlock I would aim to take down, followed by Isolde. That witch, I would take particular pleasure in taking down. She had been one of the major influences on Annora.

The next hour was passed in tense waiting. We barely dared speak to each other lest our voices disturb our witches’ concentration. As the black witches’ assault intensified, the ground beneath me began to tremble so violently I had to spread my feet out to avoid losing balance.

Finally, Mona’s panicked voice pierced through the air. “I’m losing it!” she cried out. “Prepare yourselves.”

Each of the warriors aimed their guns as Mona’s protective spell gave way. With a deafening crack, the black witches flew forward, crossing the boundary. I braced myself, expecting the sun’s deadly rays to come streaming down on us, but to my surprise, the spell of night remained. I couldn’t understand why the black witches wouldn’t remove that too—it would be much easier to end us vampires with the sun blinding us and digging into our flesh.

As the witches approached within thirty feet of the shore, they all vanished at once. I staggered backward, spinning around with my gun raised. Black witches were bad enough. But invisible black witches?

A hushed silence fell about our army as everyone wondered the same thing.

“Into the ocean!” I yelled out. Some looked confused, but none hesitated as they hurled themselves toward the waves. At least, being submerged in the waves we’d be better able to hide ourselves. Our witches, it seemed, had made themselves invisible already.

I was about to dive into the sea myself when I sensed a whirring near my right ear. Dropping to the ground, I pointed the gun upward and fired. There was a low grunt, and for but a second I caught sight of a short blond warlock, wincing and clutching a bloody shoulder. I lost no time in shooting toward his palm before he vanished. I remained low on the ground as I fired bullet after bullet.

A storm of bullets went off suddenly in the water. I caught a glimpse of the surface of the waves to see vampires and werewolves being lifted out by invisible forces and dangling in midair, while I saw more flashes of injured witches as bullets made contact with their flesh.

Something was strange about the scene. Why did the witches keep the spell of night upon us? Why weren’t they hurling curses at us? Their curses would be almost impossible to dodge while they were invisible.

Having shaken off the blond warlock, I ran to the water and dove in. It was as I entered the heat of the struggle that the reason for their odd conduct hit me.

They don’t want to harm us. At least, not yet.

They’re trying to capture us.

I knew the value their kind placed on werewolves and vampires—the type of roles we could play in their rituals. They were trying to take control with as little damage as possible. It was clear to me that this was our only advantage in this battle, and we had to play on it all we could.

I ducked beneath the waves and emerged again beneath Saira, who was being swept into the air. Careful to avoid hitting the werewolf, I rained bullets toward the spot in the sky just above her. But my attempt at harming another witch was unsuccessful. Saira kept drifting higher and higher until she was carried away from the ocean and placed on the beach, where she struggled and twitched but was unable to move from the spot, apparently strapped down by some invisible force. Now that my gaze fell on the sand, I realized that half a dozen other members of our army had already been put there.

I locked eyes with Aiden, who was floating a few feet away from me. “They don’t want to hurt us,” I hissed. “They want to subdue us.”

His face tensed suddenly as he looked over my shoulder. “Duck!” he roared.

I ducked beneath the ocean as a wave of bullets thundered above me. I surfaced again once his firing had stopped, but to my horror, it was to see Aiden being carried into the air, his gun knocked from his hands.