Chapter 241

“Hurry up,” someone said ahead of me.

I didn’t know how long we had been walking, but it felt so long. My legs were trembling underneath me, but I had to keep going.

“How much farther?” I asked, panting.

I leaned against the tree and looked ahead of me. The moonlight streaming through the trees looked like it was growing duller. They were several hundred feet ahead of me. They didn’t even look back at me. I saw Harper at the front with the radio.

Then, I heard the rumbling of a jeep coming closer. Then, I saw it and

“Rendezvous is a go,” Harper said. “We’re headed to you now.”

“Roger,” someone said. I lunged and stumbled forward, grateful to see the jeep.

Finally, I could rest. There were others in the back of the jeep. Most of them were unrecognizable, but none of them sneered at me. I guess these were people that were actually loyal to Candido and the werewolf cause.

“All units, come in,” Candido’s voice came through the radio. I scrambled to get closer as Harper climbed into the bed of a truck as it pulled up. “All units come in. Goal Alpha has been accomplished. Converge.”

Harper set his jaw. “Alpha Team to Gold Team. Requesting status of support?”

“… Support has returned to Lunae.”

I frowned. I didn’t get what they were talking about. It’s not much support if they’re not here for the final battle.

“Copy,” Harper said. “Awaiting secondary orders.”

“Red Team to Alpha Team, requesting transfer and personnel trade.”

“Roger.”

“What are we going to do?” Someone asked. Her voice shook. “T-That means that those vampires who were helping us are gone, right?”

My eyes bulged as I tried to climb into the back of the truck. Harper pinned the radio to his hip.

“Is the war over?” Someone asked. “Are the rest of the vampires still going to come after us?”

“Calm down,” Harper said sternly. “Don’t jump ahead. For now, we’re following orders.”

He thumped on the hood of the truck. “Head towards Red Team’s rendezvous point. Then, we’ll continue to Gold Team.”

“Roger,” someone said. The car began to move and we drove through the forest. The breeze washed over me, cooling me down. The rocking of the jeep made me a little sick, but I felt better just because I wasn’t walking anymore. We slowed as we went down an incline and someone broke through the trees. I heard someone screaming and gunshots.

Someone screeched and I saw a flash of light through the trees.

“Wait!”

The car stopped. Guns were trained on the person, but they lowered quickly. I leaned over the edge trying to see who we were stopping for. No one was more important than getting to Candido.

Several people leaped out of the truck and scrambled down to help the pair of people coming towards us. One of the men had wild eyes full of fear. There was blood running down the side of his face as he hobbled closer. The woman just behind him was pale and barely standing. She looked so sick that she looked already mostly dead. Several other people came through and I winced. There wasn’t enough space on the truck for many more people. I wasn’t going to walk no matter what.

Then, the trees moved aside again and another man, more familiar than before came through. It was the man with all the bandages. He was leaning on a rifle and hobbling along. He glared at me briefly as I recognized one of the women that was just in front of him.

She had been a part of the group that I left at the bunker at the estate. How was she here? I thought that I had gotten pretty far from there when I ran into these people.

“Quickly,” the man huffed. “I slowed them down, but it won’t last long.”

Harper and the others helped them onto the jeep and truck. They cried and shuddered. They pushed and nudged me aside to make room for the new people. All of them were covered in blood. The woman curled up in the corner of the jeep and brought her knees to her chest. Someone put a blanket around her shoulders and pulled her close.

“It’s all right now. You’re going to be just fine. Take deep breaths. “

The bandaged man climbed into the jeep and grabbed more ammo. He loaded the gun quickly and leaned against the side of the truck, aiming into the forest where they had come from. There was blood coming from his hair. He wiped his face and peered out into the darkness.

Then, the cars took off from the spot, hurrying away from the area. And while I didn’t hear anything in the trees, the man didn’t lower his gun.

“What happened?” Harper asked.

“We were split up,” the man said. “I found them running near where the old estate was. There were at least a hundred vampires there. They had gotten free. The rest of them were already being drained to death.”

I set my jaw. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I guess hat they hadn’t been kept busy for long with the bunker doors.

“A hundred?” Someone asked. “What are we supposed to do against them? They keep turning the people they kill and it’s never going to end, is it?”

Another person shuddered. I crossed my arms, listening. How many of the people I left in the bunker were alive? Did they know I did it on purpose? Were they going to get in the way of my marriage to Candido, too the way that the other members of his family would?

The man glanced at me before he fired a few shots. I heard two shrieks of agony. Bright lights flashed in the darkness and I gasped.

How had he seen or heard them from that far away?

“I’m glad you’ve healed up more,” Harper said. “We’re rendezvousing with Wren before carrying on to meet ‘D.”

He nodded. “Harper… When we get there, go with Wren.”

He frowned. “What?”

“Go with Wren,” he said. “If you don’t go, the others won’t.”

“What about you?” Harper asked.

He shook his head. “It’s… I still have things I need to do.”

Harper narrowed his eyes before he nodded. “Okay… But… know that I don’t want to.”

His lips twitched. He reached over and ruffled his hair. “You never want to follow instructions.”

I watched them closely. Harper shuffled to the front to help guide the people in the cab.

We rode for a long time. Every once in a while, the man would fire into the dark, but for every bullet, he’d hit a vampire. I shuddered. How could he be so accurate? The forest sounded so quiet as we drove through it. I watched him. Then, I saw a flash of red in his eyes and went still.

“He’s not safe.”

Harper stomped over to me and growled at me. “Shut up, or I’m going to throw you off this truck.”

My jaw dropped. “You—”

He grabbed me and yanked me up. His eyes were filled with red light, but he looked more sad than angry. I shut my mouth and glared at him. He shoved me back and stood up, lifting his radio to his mouth and murmuring something into it.

We slowed to a stop in the shadow of a small mountain. In the distance, I could see the mountain from my vision. There were several trucks and jeeps, newer and older than the ones I’d seen before. Wren was there, standing on the back of a truck. I scanned the area looking for Candido, but he wasn’t there.

The other members of Blue Moon climbed off the truck, including Harper and the man with the gun. He stumbled over to Wren. Wren leaped down and pulled him into his arms in a tight hug. Other werewolves climbed into the truck with me and a few others, armed with guns.

“Come on,” Harper said softly as he came back to get the quiet woman.

She didn’t move for a while, but he climbed onto the jeep and lifted her into his arms. He leaped down and followed to the other side

The quiet woman was hauled out of the back of the truck and taken into the little camp they had. I watched on as Wren gathered the rest of the people I had to kill to make sure that no one was in the way of me becoming luna. They talked for a little bit. I couldn’t hear anything they were saying. Each of them had glowing red eyes as they spoke. They leaned close before one of them broke away. Her teeth were bared as she seemed to growl and yell. Wren shook his head solemnly and said something. She turned to look at me with fury in her eyes.