The Alpha Princes Duty

Chapter 7

Una

These last few months have been the hardest of my incredibly long life. Knowing Cormac is so close and yet out of reach for me.

Aldous has kept him busy working him harder than any other under the guise of his future. As for me, I have been stuck in this room, in this horrible disguise, never daring to return to my oasis for fear of running into him again.

I genuinely don’t know if I would have the strength to walk away from him if he caught me off guard again.

My intuition has been screaming at me in recent days, it feels like something is coming and it has me agitated. Fighting with myself about hiding here in this disguise. Up to now it has been the sensible option.

Our intel has told us that Kier is still weakened but is in active control of the vampires again. There have been some sightings in places we would not expect them, like they are getting bolder again, more confident.

We knew this day would come, that they would not stay down forever when I failed to end his life. The world thinking I was a powerless faded old crone has served us but I wonder now if they are emboldened thinking we are weak and the werewolves are without protection.

I am not oblivious to Cormac arriving at this particular time and what it can mean. I know what it means. The final battle is imminent. One last fight to endure, a promise to my goddess to fulfil and then I can finally be at peace.

I close my eyes and think back to that day when I almost fulfilled my promise. The battle field was set, thousands present on each side. The air thick with menace and foretelling of death.

An eerie silence descending as I brought the mist to surround the battlefield. The vampires were faster I needed to give the wolves an edge. The roar of the werewolf King breaking the silence, heralding the start of the battle.

Thousands of feet thundered at once sounding like an enormous earthquake shaking the world as they crashed into each other, teeth and claws everywhere. The wolves brave and fierce but I could see the vampires faster than even they should be, stronger, bolder, filled with fresh blood.

I knew Kier had done something, this was not a fair fight, the wolves would be slaughtered. I looked up to Aldous, another Aldous of another time, a great wolf himself who was set to fight beside me.

His eyes told me everything I needed to know, our part had been to hunt down Kier and take him down but there would be no point if the wolves were all wiped out.

I stop and pull the mist in thicker, heavier, making it impossible to see. Then I call on my connection to the slumbering witches tapping into their power, lending it to the wolves giving them the ability to see through the mist, giving them a chance to fight.

I watch for a moment and the battle begins to turn, I have given them a chance. Wasting no further time Aldous and I barrel into the fray, I keep feeding them magic as I go. Letting my magic seep out to locate Kier it would be impossible to find him without it.

Finding his aura I turn in that location, cutting down any vampire who tries to block our progress. I see him in the distance, two large wolves circling him, snarling and snapping. He seems unperturbed, too relaxed. He creates a circle of fire around himself. I watch as they stalk around it trying to find a way through to him, he laughs at them from the safety inside, taunting them.

As I reach him I summon the rain and put out his fire, he looks startled at first. The wolves about to attack notice Aldous and I and change tactic to defending our approach.

Time seems to slow, I am aware of the chaos of the battle around us but I lock eyes with him and everything else begins to fall away.

His beautiful blue eyes now surrounded by a ring of red, his skin pale a stark contrast to the auburn, that thick hair I used to love running my fingers through. He smiles at me and I could almost forget what he is now.

In that moment I know my heart is still broken, I feel the loss of him so profoundly. Slowly purposefully I walk towards him, each step his smile widens and he holds his arms out to me. ‘Come to me my love’ he whispers it aloud but I hear it in my mind too.

It feels like a dream as I make my way to him, so this is what compulsion is. Only the most powerful of vampires are capable of it I shouldn’t be surprised that he has mastered it so well, even in the height of battle it seems effortless for him.

The final few steps are the hardest being this close I could truly forget he is not my beloved Kier anymore. I walk into his embrace and he circles his arms around me, capturing me to his body. He lifts a hand and traces my face with his cold fingertips.

A gesture that used to be so warm and loving, now leaves me dead inside. He dips his head and pauses as his lips reach mine “We will rule them all my love, you will be magnificent” he whispers against them before crushing his lips on mine.

A deep desperate kiss, I force myself to respond in kind, holding back the tears that are desperate to burst from my sad eyes. ‘How I have longed to have you again, everything I have done was to bring you back to me’ he tells me proudly in my mind.

Everything inside me wants to turn and run but I hold steady. Allowing a hand to tangle in the back of his hair as I used to and sliding one over his heart I play the part of the lost love biding my time.

Eventually his lips leave mine and travel down to my neck finding the vein there he wants. Desperately I try not to tense I have to time this perfectly. I move my head to the side in a gesture of submission and I feel his lips curve in a smile against my skin.

Time suddenly feels like it starts again with a vengeance, it all happens at once. I feel the brush of his fangs on my skin and tug back hard as i can on his hair, as I whisper to activate my spell “Cridhe Briste” and plunge my fingers through his chest into his heart. I begin to squeeze.

I dare to look at him and his eyes are wide with shock and broken at my betrayal. He does not try to fight back or get away from me. I freeze for a moment wondering if I am truly doing the right thing. Could I not have saved him any other way?

“Do it my love” He whispers and closes his eyes. I recover myself and begin to squeeze and just at that moment I feel the whoosh of Aldous’s huge wolf at my back ripping apart the vampire who was about to take me down from behind. I risk a glance at him and he is oblivious to the three vampires descending on him as rips the others head off.

I can not let them kill him, I pull my hand out of Kier’s chest and whip around summoning a wind to push them back giving me time to use my magic to create a fire within them and burn them. There are only a few things that can end a vampire but fire is one, if there is no body it can’t regenerate.

Aldous nods his gratitude and I turn back in time to watch four vampires speedily retreating with Kiers body between them, already too far away. I had crushed his heart to practically nothing but I hadn’t gotten it out of his chest, he was down but he was strong and I had a terrible sinking feeling I had failed. That this was not over.

An unnatural scream works its way through the vampires and they all turn on their heels and run from the battlefield. I pull back the mist and the sight before me makes me drop to my knees.

Too many fallen wolves, much more decapitated or heartless vampires lay strewn across the ground now soaked red with the blood of the fallen.

We had won this day and dealt a deadly blow to the vampires but the final battle was still to come. I let my tears flow freely now and with it comes the rain washing away the crimson like a river of blood.

I force my eyes open to end the memory, wiping away the fresh tears on my face. It is like reliving it every time I remember that day. The wound as fresh as if it was yesterday.