Awakening (2 book series)
Awakening – Following Fate Chapter 95

I've never seen them die this way and the howls below as many perish instantly send the ones shaded or shrouded in shadow reeling into tunnels to escape. Only more wolves await them, in every nook, due to our sheer numbers present as the entire pack have filtered in now, and their death is imminent.

I spy Colton when I look down into the drop off, standing proud in the center, light shining on his black fur as the throws his head back and howls a successful call. The shadows around him are eerie but only make it look like he's standing in a spotlight. That long blood curling message to our pack, that we have overthrown an enemy's leader, and even if it confuses me, I still focus on what he's got. Holding up high, a dead vampire corpse in his claws before he tosses it aside and I don't hesitate in making my way down to where he is. Confused that this is a leader when I know the source should be Varro. I don't doubt his call, I just don't understand.

He isn't my gentle loving Colton at this moment. Standing huge and formidable on hind legs, towering over all around him. A sight to behold as an enraged black Lycanthrope, his eyes glowing so bright they look like flames. A battle cry in his throat and his fur caked in the blood of our enemies which just adds to his sheer warrior like power.

He's Alpha of the Santo pack, a once feared and unrivalled pack who began crumbling under Juan's reign, but has hope in a new leader. I get goosebumps staring at the king who will make our people great again and know when he's in control, there will be no stopping our people from taking back what's rightfully ours. Losing him made me realize how capable and invincible he can be, and I won't let anything take him from us again. I am wowed by his presence, pulled to him by my need to be with him once more and not at all swayed by his filthy furred body, or the pile of carcasses around his feet, that build him higher on a podium made from death.

Wolves take off after the escaping few, but I can already tell that compared to what we have seen in the forests, this mountain has way less than I anticipated and wonder where the hell they all are. The stench in here reeks of thousands of crammed vile souls, but all I see is a mere hundreds in terms of bodies scattered all around. Not even high in that count either.

"Where are they all?" I turn to Leyanne feeling her on my heel as we carefully descend and keep scanning where I'm stepping so I don't fall as her light once again shines the way. Carmen pushes in front of me to watch my step, while Sierra stays on our rear, both femmes close and forming a shield. Sierra seems quiet, lost in thought and I wonder if this brings back unwanted memories of battles of old.

"It seems this mountain only held a small amount in recent days... I'm guessing Lord Varro has pulled them where he needs them, and it wasn't here. It was half empty when we got in and made replaceing the witches way easier. Your Meadow, is quite the soldier." Leyanne seems impressed by that and not at all phased by her first statements. Although I spin on her in alarm.

"And the witches, they are where?" I blink, reeling thoughts splaying out, remembering that she had to take them on alone to break the spell and as of yet I've only seen vampires. If they are a threat in here, I want to know about it. Will they now be something else to have a showdown with?

"Dead.... They weren't much of a challenge. Took all seven of them to make that spell, but faced with me, and panicking, they didn't achieve much before I disintegrated them. Such pointless wee beasts they were. Quite disappointing really." She sounds almost guilty for a second, or maybe truly deflated, and I flash a look her way, catching an odd moment of somber I wasn't expecting and then it's gone. It also confirms that despite not seeing much evidence of it, she is obviously as powerful as Sierra told me. Seven witches who managed to hold so many of our pack hostage for a week, and yet she blows in and takes them out without messing up her outfit or her hair.

"I'm sorry you had to kill your own kind." I try to console, feeling I should, but she shrugs with one shoulder. That cool demeanor back in place and that care no less expression firmly on that attractive face. She still reminds me of Carmen in a way, only brunette, with dark eyes.

"You have to weed out the bad to benefit the many sometimes. They were practicing things they have no place to mess with. They were no sisters of mine; they were something the world could do without and the high council will agree when I present them with my replaceings on why I rid them of an entire coven."

She seems to want to end the conversation and moves past me fast to flash bomb a creature in the face as it stuck out its stupid head into where we are moving. So fast Carmen didn't have time to react even though it was right at her side. It's semi shadowy here, it obviously didn't expect a blinding light to expand its face all over the wall in a dramatic and disgusting fashion.

I recoil in 'ewww' and dodge the flopping body before I make the last speed dash down to the final floor below, skipping over and seeing even Carmen grimace with the up-close body showering she just got from its blood.

"Thanks for that!" Carmen mutters sarcastically, back at the witch and shakes herself to try and remove the worst of it. I jump back so her spray doesn't get to me then realize it's pretty futile. I am covered in my own blood and god knows what else, I can't even imagine how I truly look from all angles.

"You're welcome. It's not like you could smell any worse." Leyanne bites right back and I eyeroll at the constant power struggle of personalities. Sighing at Carmen's snarling growl and push her onwards to stop them.

When we get lower, Colton is already gone and heading down tunnels in hot pursuit of what's left of the enemy. When we get to the ground floor fully, I gag on the smell down here. It's thick, vile dust, overwhelming stench, that coats every surface. The ashy remains of fried vampire and I notice the throne, crude, and carved without skill, as it sits in one corner and seems to be the one form of seating in this place. I gesture towards it and Leyanne narrows in on it too, Carmen walking over in wolf form to sniff at it and recoils as though the scent is painful.

"Covens have lords. This one was no different, but he was another halfling and your mate already took care of him. I think he was newly promoted." Leyanne points at the unbreathing evidence and I turn to the lifeless body slumped in the corner that Colton discarded. Still intact due to not being in direct light but it has no head. One sure fire way to end a vampire is to take its head clean off its shoulders and I know from experience it's Colton's preferred method. He's strong enough to do it with just a little flick of the wrists. It's also why he's covered in blood as it's probably the messiest way to kill one.

I also note how most of these vile creatures are naked and nothing like the ones we encountered in the woods who were more human than these. They are nothing compared to Darrius in any way and I wonder how many sub species these things have. I thought from what he said, there was them, and these. Yet, this is something entirely different. We have never seen them fly at all.

"These are different, and some have wings." I point out, in a questioning tone, leaning down to peer at the so-called leader, then straighten up to push it over with my foot and have a proper look. It has remnants of clothes that look like they were shredded from its body a long while ago, and all ribs and protruding bones all over as though it was malnourished. The ones we have fought were dressed and not like this, I'm sure. Well maybe, but we never saw them naked. From memory they definitely didn't seme this skinny and almost alienlike.

Long nails, yellow and brittle looking, but fiercely sharp. Waxy white skin, covered in a soft down of ugly hairs, on arms and legs and weirdly oversized rib cages that are not in proportion to their bodies in any way. They're uglier than I thought like this. Bony, no connections to the human qualities of Darrius.

"Various degrees of DNA dilution. These are mongrels. Or as Darrius would call them, Gutter rats." Leyanne points out as Carmen and Sierra turn to human to join us. "Wings are common in pure, just not so much in rats."

"Meaning?" Carmen asks with genuine curiosity as her and Sierra replace their places by my side once more and look down at the mess at our feet with pinched expressions. The smell is so bad in here it's hard to breathe properly and we all shield our faces with palms to cut out the worst of it. Not that it helps much but it's better than inhaling ashes of remains.

"Built for one purpose alone... mass making an army. Lord Varro didn't care about the purity of their breed, or even fixing out the flaws. He wanted numbers and feral instincts. The perfect instant way to fill your ranks and create killing machines." Leyanne steps over and prods one with her foot as though checking out if it's truly dead, or god knows what witches do with morbid things like this. She's a weird one even on a good day and seems fascinated to be able to inspect so close.