Chapter 197

I looked over at Estella as she aimed her gun in my direction and kept firing. My heart raced as the bullets flew through me. I screamed for Candido to stop her from killing me, then the hissing of vampires behind me filled the air. They screeched, and I felt their ashes drifting over my back.

I turned around to look as the ashes vanished and gritted my teeth. Again. She’d saved me again. She was just doing it to look good in front of Candido. To make her seem less like Sibyl, but I knew better.

She wanted to get rid of me. She wanted to take my place as the future luna, and I wouldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t le t that happen. Candido was the only one I wanted. He was mine, and I had to make sure he knew that we were meant to be together no matter what Estella said or did. I pushed myself to stand and stumbled further into the fight, ignoring the calls for me to come back.

I wasn’t going to hide behind the barrier. Candido was going to protect me. I headed through the fight until I could see him shoving a vampire back and cutting through him with his sword. The vampires that were rushing towards me from behind screeched and turned into Ash. I turned and ran further into the fight towards where I knew Candido had been heading.

I wasn’t going to let her show me up. I was far more loyal than anyone else, and he had to recognize that. I would make him recognize that, even if it killed me. I pushed that thought away as I pushed through the battle. I knew Candido wouldn’t let that happen. He’d rather die than let me die here.

I was his mate. I was meant to be his for the rest of our lives. I had been at his side all this time. He had to see that. He would see that.

“Candido! Candido, I’m here over here! Look this way!”

He tore through another vampire with a snarling growl, but he still hadn’t shifted into his wolf form. He hadn’t used his powers either. What had Estella done to him? He should have been able to cut through all these vampires easily.

“Candido”

I shrieked as something tore through my shoulder. I wasn’t sure if it was a blade or a bullet, but I fell to the ground and cried. I knew that this was probably going to be what brought Candido back to me. I didn’t move to feel my blood staining the ground beneath me. He would come for me. He would save me. Candido would make sure nothing ever happened to me again.

Just seeing me so injured would make him remember what I meant to him, how much he loved me, and how much he needed me. He needed me. He knew that. I knew deep in my soul that he needed me. I kept listening for him, listening for when he came And that moment, he would take me to his arms and assume that everything would be okay, that he still loved me and that we would be together, but all I could hear was the battle.

All I could hear were gunshots so loud that I couldn’t be sure that he had even heard me cry out. The battle raged on seemingly without noticing that I was bleeding and hurt. Where was Candido? Hadn’t he been listening for me? Wasn’t he worried about me?

“Francia!” I heard his voice cut through the air.

I gritted my teeth and jerked my head up. How could he be worried about that woman when I was injured?

The caw of an eagle cut through the air, and I saw her drop to the ground in her human form. Several others followed her and began rushing into the fray. I saw other people appearing with weapons, and more gunshots filled the air. Francia rushed through the battle, drawing a glinting blade. Gunshots flew around her clearing the path for her, but it didn’t really look like she needed it. She moved so quickly that it was hard to follow her. She moved like the wind and seemed unstoppable. The anger that had been directed at me earlier seemed focused on something else, but I couldn’t see what she was looking at.

She cut through several vampires in her way, and I tried to find where she was headed just as I saw Candido cutting his way toward the same area. They seemed to converge. Then, I saw Damian. He threw up his hands as if he was trying to conjure a wall between them, but Francia darted right at him.

“Fuck!” He cried and started to run.

With a scream that shook the air, Francia swung her sword, and his head went flying before he’d managed to even take a step. Gunshots rang out, cutting down the vampires that were rushing toward him. I saw a few vampires and werewolves scamper into the darkness. Other members of Moon Shadow darted after them. I heard the sound of struggle and blood. They came back panting and bloody a few minutes later as Francia shook the blood off her sword and sheathed the blade.

A cheer of victory went through the group as the gunshots died down, and I realized that the last few vampires and enemy werewolves had either run away or been killed. I grit my teeth looking around as no one looked my way. Then, I caught sight of Estella with a member of Moon Shadow leaning together on the back of the truck and taking a break as if they had done a bunch of work.

They’d just fired a gun and hid behind a barrier. Candido should be the one looking tired! I should be looking tired, and I was. I’d been attacked, and no one had even thought to try and protect me. Estella had shot those vampires, but that was all. She should have been in the fray too. It would have been easier to get rid of her that way.

I pushed myself to my feet and hurried over to them as fast as I could. He had to know that I had been on the battlefield in a way that mattered. If he saw how hurt I was, he would definitely feel bad that he hadn’t protected me, that he hadn’t been there to stop it from happening.

“Candido, I–”

Fire appeared in his hand as I looked down at Damian’s decapitated body, still twitching. Francia picked up his head and dropped it on top of the body.

“Do it.”

“Wait,” Ian said, coming over though I hadn’t seen where he’d gone or where he’d come back from. Shiloh and Messiah came up right behind him and looked down.

Shiloh let out of low whistle and crouched down beside the twitching body. “Beautiful work, Francia. He’s going to be feeling that for a while.”

“No, he won’t because Candido is going to burn him to ashes.”

“Not yet,” Messiah said. “We have a few questions for him. He might have been a frontman, but he’s probably the most useful one.”

Francia set her jaw and whirled on him. She looked pale.

“You don’t mean….” She shook her head. “You can’t mean what I think you mean. He’s—”

“The only person strong enough to have sired so many,” Ian said. “And kept them alive is him.”

Whom were they talking about? The Vampire King? I grit my teeth. Was all of this just a ploy? Had they known he was alive all this time?

“What do you mean by that?” Candido asked.

“Sorry, Francia,” Messiah said. “Uncle Ian saw him in a vision. Damian’s probably the only person who can give us some more concrete information about where he’s been skulking all this time. After that, he’s toast.”

Francia didn’t look happy, but she stepped back. “Fine, we get answers. Then we torch him.”

“I do so love a sensible woman,” Ian said, cupping her cheek fondly. I glared at their interaction. It was like everyone got better treatment than I did.

Damian’s body and head floated into the air. “This way.”

They walked ahead of me, not even turning to look back, but I followed because I deserved to know what was going on. If I was going to help Candido and be a real luna, I deserved to know. I had to know. It was my right to know what was happening next with the war. I felt smug because Estella wasn’t coming; she probably didn’t even know that there was something going on. How could anyone call her a good luna for Candido if she wasn’t here?

We stopped at the edge of the clearing, and Ian dumped his body on the ground. Then, vines, as thick as arms, twined around Damian’s shoulders and arms and set his body up straight.

I watch unsure of what would happen next.