The Revenge
Chapter 21

We stood in front of the mansion in Arlon cit, which we once called home. It was unrecognisable, walls without a roof were all that was left of it. Charred pieces of stone and half-burned wood were scattered everywhere. It was all dirty and black indicating it was set on fire. Once a beautiful garden littered with flowers was now full of debris and dirt from the mansion.

Memories flooded my mind, my first time meeting Nicolas and everyone. Isobel and Celeste, our constant chats, Sasha helping me train with Sin. I couldn't help but wonder what would we be all doing if they weren't dead.

Once again, they end up dead mostly because of me. I feared for my future if Torben would live if somehow we wouldn't be able to kill him. I feared for Sin's life, no doubt Torben would want to kill him.

The guilt I felt when my human family died never left my core. Now that I stood in front of the mansion where my vampire family lived, the reality of them dead, really struck me. My guilt got a thousand times stronger. I felt like I drowned in guilt and I would never be saved.

I glanced at Sin, he was standing a few feet away from me, just staring at the ruins. His face was hard to read but his body told me everything. His shoulders were slouched and he had his head bowed, his chest moved slightly with every breath he took. The pain he tried to hide away from me was unmistakable.

I walked over to him, put my arms around his waist and rested my head on his chest, inhaling his scent. He placed his hands around my waist and his face nuzzled the crook of my neck.

I knew all too well how hard was it to lose home and people you care about. I stayed at the mansion only for a couple of months, he has been there for more than a hundred years and Nicolas was one of his close friends.

"He is going to pay for this" I looked up at his grieving face.

"You bet he is, I'll do it with a smile on my face," determination along with fury flashed in his onyx depths "If he as much as break hair on your head, I will rip his head off."

I looked into his eyes giving him reassuring smile "let's go, we have a place to be" I grabbed one of his hands and pulled him gently after I pulled away from his warm embrace.

Outside of the city in the nearby forest was Erik with his small group of warriors. He waited for us while we went to see the burnt down mansion. We overlooked the valley where we were supposed to meet Torben.

The rest of the clans were informed of our plan two days ago, that night after we contacted Torben. I was hoping they would be here on time. I kept watching the horizon, fidgeting with my necklace anxiously. There was no sign of any of them.

"Maybe we should have given them more time" I stated to no one in particular.

"They will come" Erik's voice resonated from my left.

I let out a deep breath feeling frustrated, so far it didn't look good for us.

All of a sudden, a thousand small silhouettes appeared on the horizon. It was Torben and his army. The breeze that ruffled my hair, brought his unmistakable scent to my nose. My eyes widened and I gulped realising that we will have to fight them alone. There were around a hundred of us and thousands of them.

I met Sin's onyx gaze, fear flashed in them for a second before disappearing. The corners of his lips raised slightly as if to reassure me, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. He must have noticed the fear on my face despite the fact, I tried to hide it and look brave. Then his attention shifted to the werewolves rapidly approaching us.

It took about ten minutes for Torben to come to the valley. Ten agonising minutes of watching him getting closer and closer with each step he took. It felt like hours. At the end of the day, either me or him will stay alive. Today was either my last day on Earth or the first day of a new beginning.

He was in the front, his eyes scanning around him and waiting for us. He raised his nose higher sniffing the air as the wind passed us towards him, carrying our scent.

"I know you're here, I can smell all of you!" His voice thundered all around us.

"There's no point hiding," Sin slid his hand into mine and at that moment I was glad for the small gesture. His warm touch somehow calmed my nerves slightly. I didn't feel like the weak slave I used to be.

"Let's go," Erik gestured his werewolves to move out of the forest towards the valley.

Coming closer to Torben he had a murderous aura around him. From afar I could read his facial expression. He had a vicious, devilish smile on his face and murder in his eyes.

He scanned our group, his murderous eyes stopped on me for a second then he moved them again and stopped in the back. He looked for Diana and his son. Just as his eyes collapsed with mine, my breath caught in my throat and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

Without any word, he lifted his sword and let out a loud animalistic scream, permitting his army to start fighting.

They all began running towards us. Sin shouted at us to stay in our positions. I immediately got my bow and arrow ready and began shooting the werewolves in front of us.

I tried to shoot Torben but he jumped away and my arrow shot a werewolf behind him. I shot as many werewolves as I could until they got close enough and I got my knife ready. My throwing knives were waiting to be used at my thighs.

I got ready, bracing myself for the impact. As I watched the werewolves getting closer, all the shouts, the loud running footsteps and snarls vanished and all I could hear was my frantic heart beating in my chest.

A werewolf slammed into me, sending my body flying a couple of feet away. They were all in their wolf forms and Erik's werewolves shifted before the impact.

I quickly got up holding my silver knife. Everyone in our army fought with someone from Torben's. More werewolves ran towards us.

I jumped on the back of the closest werewolf and stabbed him in the neck. Next one I kicked off into the ground, landing on top of him and stabbing him into his chest.

Next, I saw Markus struggling with one of them, not far from me. I grabbed one of my throwing knives and with all my might, I threw it at the werewolf, hitting him in the side of his head. He stumbled to the ground and Marcus quickly glanced at me, nodding his head.

We were fighting like this for about half an hour. Our numbers quickly decreased. Through all the screaming and chaos, all of a sudden I heard millions of footsteps quickly approaching us. Relief washed over me. The clans were here. We had a chance.

Now that they were here, I could concentrate on Torben. My head whipped in every direction, my eyes scanning my surroundings, but I couldn't see him. Not in his human or wolf form.

Suddenly a big brown wolf with a lighter spot on his paw came up to me. It was Erik I recognised his wolf. He gestured for me to straddle him. I narrowed my eyes at him, not understanding why he wanted me to climb on his back, then it clicked.

I straddled him, and he took off running through the battlefield. Using the muscles in my legs, I held myself up making sure I wouldn't fall and with my bow and arrows, I began shooting Torben's werewolves around us.

After killing quite a few beasts, suddenly a sharp burst of pain seared from my side and I went flying across the field. Landing on my back it took me a second to get on my feet. I frantically looked for Erik and there he was. Torben stood in front of Erik snarling at each other both of them ready to fight.

He must have spotted me killing his soldiers and ran into me and Erik. I quickly grabbed my bow and arrow when I heard a loud thumping noise. I turned towards the noise, seeing another werewolf running towards me with murder in his eyes.

I quickly took my shot, my arrow landed in his chest mid-air as he jumped towards me. A whimper left his lips and his body collided with the ground with a loud thump.

My head shot back to Erik and Torben. After knocking Erik out, his golden gaze fell on me. Shifting into a human, with murder in his eyes, he wickedly smiled at me. He was completely naked, but my eyes stayed locked in his now blue eyes.

This is it. This is what I've been waiting for.

He soared towards me, throwing punches one after another, not giving me any chance to attack him back. I blocked or moved away from all his punches. He grew more agitated with every attempt to hurt me.

I took the advantage of him being angry, as I jumped away sideways from his punch, I kicked him in the back of his knee. He collapsed to the ground and while I grabbed my knife to end him, Sin's loud scream penetrated my ears.

I whipped my head towards him. A werewolf was on top of him, mauling his arm. Panic raised within me, I quickly ran to him momentarily forgetting about Torben. I kicked the wolf off of him and helped him to his feet, my eyes glued on his bleeding arm.

"I'm fine" he was panting heavily.

Before I could even say anything, two werewolves rushed towards us. I noticed another one running towards us from the opposite direction. I glanced at Sin and he gave me wicked smile. He seemed to read my mind and we waited until the right moment. When the time was right, we jumped high enough for the werewolves to crash into each other, all of them falling to the ground.

Glancing over to Sin he gave me a smirk.

We fought like this for hours both Torben's soldiers and vampires were decreasing in numbers.

Once we started winning and Torben's numbers were dangerously low, they ran away. Looking around there were dead bodies everywhere. The ground was covered in dead bodies or vampires and werewolves. The smell of blood that was seeping into the soil drowned my senses; death was everywhere.

"We did it!" One of the vampires said in disbelief.

Near the vampire stood Sin, his arm was now nearly healed. With a few large steps, he stood in front of me hugging me tightly. I melted into his embrace, not caring about the blood that covered his clothes.

"We did it" the breath that left Sin's lips as he spoke fanned the skin on my neck.

He put me back on the ground, the realisation hit me "have you seen Torben? Is he dead?" I quickly started glancing and walking around the dead bodies, not waiting for Sin's response. I tried to replace him among the dead and walked towards the forest not realising I walked away from everyone.

"This was my only chance" I held my forehead. My body shook with the adrenaline running through my veins but panic and disappointment started seeping in.

As I glanced at Sin, the air left my lungs, panic filled my entire body. An arrow protruded from his abdomen blood leaking out of it. He fell to the ground and I rushed towards him. "Nooo!" I screamed. I kneeled next to him pulling out the arrow. Tears spilt from my eyes onto my cheeks.

All of sudden a sharp pain seared from the back of my head, my vision went black and I felt the ground colliding with my body.

***

The heat pulled me out of my unconscious state and I slowly opened my eyes, only to quickly closed them again. The sun shone directly into my face.

Memories of what happened flooded my brain and a throbbing headache began to form in the back of my head. I touched the back of my head. There was dried blood in my hair and swelling in my skull. Panic took over my body as I realised Sin got shot.

Was he dead? Please God, tell me he made it.

Once I finally sat up on the bed, I glanced around. I sat on a mattress, stone walls surrounded me with metal bars to my right. It was the only way in and out. The smell of mould and urine was slowly suffocating me. The only source of light was a small window with metal bars. That's where the sun shone through into my face.

After hours of sitting there not knowing where I was, I finally heard a voice coming from behind the metal bars. I had an idea who took me I just didn't want to believe it. But hearing the voice I knew all too well, only solidified my fear.

My head whipped towards the voice. Torben stood there with a busted lip and scar on his eyebrow, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't seem to have any other injury.

"You're finally awake," his calm voice caused a shiver to run through my body.

"I've been awake for hours" hatred seeped out of me. I glared at him with so much hate, I wished at that moment my glare would kill him. Everything would be a lot easier.

"Why am I here?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Isn't that obvious? " he raised his eyebrow.

I thought he would want me dead after taking Diana and his son. I stared at him dead in the eyes.

He took a step closer to the metal bars and clenched them tightly "you're mine...always will be"

"I'll kill you first before I let you touch me"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk" amusement flashed in his eyes, the corners of his lips raised until a chuckle left his lips. He let go of the bars and left, his laugh resonating through the dungeon.

I couldn't help the frustrated scream leaving my lips. I couldn't believe a was exactly where I started. Tears filled my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. My thought went to Sin.

I will never see him again. I doubt Torben took me to his packhouse. Will Sin look for me if he made it?

I got to my feet, trying the window if it was loose. If I could break one of the bars, I could fit through. But of course, it was not moving. Then went to the door and shook it violently. It didn't even move.

Glancing outside my cell I noticed there were more cells across from me and next to me. "Hello," I called. But no response, not even movement. I was there all alone.

My throat began to feel parched, my fangs elongated and started to hurt. I was beginning to feel hunger. I must have been here more than a day to feel hunger like this.

Each minute the pain and discomfort increased. I paced around the room nervously, my mind began to numb and animal instincts were taking over. I violently kicked the bars, the stone around me, everything that was in my reach.

The mattress flew across the cell as I threw it, trying to distract myself from the undying thirst eating me alive.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps. I glanced towards the door, a man stood there with curled lip in disgust towards me. He threw a bag of blood to the ground and left. I jumped towards it, quickly opened the bag with my elongated nail and drank it greedily.

Once the blood hit my tongue, I felt relief washing over me and started taking big gulps. Finishing the blood, I let out a loud sign then threw it out of my cell.