Page 57 of Widow

Reve chuckled and leaned back against a rock. He crossed his feet and let out a frustrated sigh. "I feel like my days are numbered. Last night my father had the talk with me."

Mike groaned. "Is he pressuring you to take a wife? I say screw that. Sew your wild oats while you still can."

"He has sewn his oats enough." Reve was mine to protect. I often offered him my two-cents worth. He was the future king, and I was the future head of the Royal Guard.

Reve grunted. "My mother would love nothing more than a bunch of mini-mes running around. My father wants me to start taking over some of his duties as king. I don't even have my phantom form yet. Plus, my daydreams are still a little sketchy. You know what happened the last time I tested them out on a large group of people."

We all laughed. About a month ago, we had gone into the village right next to the castle, and Reve had practiced his daydreams. That was where he pushed visions to people while they were awake instead of while they were asleep. Instead of people seeing each other as giant pieces of candy, they saw Dulcis Fiends, which were really hideous looking demons that smelled like cotton candy.

We all relaxed against the rocks and began smoking. I immediately felt the buzz hit my head and started giggling like a chick. "I really need to find a piece of ass. It's been way too long."

"You just slept with one of the maids last week." Reve looked thoughtful and let out a huge breath of smoke. "If anybody needs to find some ass, it's me."

"A week is a long time for a young, strapping lad such as myself." And by young, I meant a century old.

"Did you hear that?" Seth said.

I shifted my ears and listened carefully. I didn't hear a thing. He was probably hallucinating from the pungent aroma of what we were smoking.

"Maybe you smoked that a little too quickly." I goaded him. "Are you sure this isn't tainted with anything else?"

As soon as the words left my mouth, a large group of vampires surrounded us quicker than I even had time to track. Maybe Seth hadn't been hearing things.

I immediately lunged in front of Reve and took a protective stance. Sam and Mike spread out in front of us, our backs to the rocks.

"We've come for the prince," the one in the front said. He didn't look familiar to me, and I knew all the bloodsuckers in the area.

"Sorry, buckaroo, no can do," said Mike. He shifted his hands into his claws, but as he did so, two of the vampires struck together, and Mike's head flew off his body.

I had been in some tense situations with vampires before, but never where they had so brazenly killed someone in front of others.

Reve was muttering to himself behind me. He was trying to send visions to the vampires. With his inebriated state and the fact that he couldn't quite do it one-hundred percent yet, he wasn't getting through to their brains.

The vampires knew they were stronger than Reve. Newer powers didn't work on them. The only powers that would work on them were the king's.

"Now, wolf, are we going to have an issue, or are you going to hand over the prince?"

There were ten of them surrounding us. I could tell they were more mature vampires because of the way they held themselves back from attacking. A younger vampire would have attacked with bloodlust at the sign of Mike's blood.

I shifted into my wolf form and growled at them. They laughed and stepped closer.

Serve and protect. Serve and protect.

I repeated the phrase over and over in my head as my fear ratcheted up to a level I had never experienced before.

One of the vampires lunged for me, and I scampered away from his grip. Another caught Seth around the waist and took him to the ground. He couldn't shake the vampire off, and his throat was ripped out.

I was taken down next.

This was it. I was about to die. Hopefully, they would make it quick.

I clawed my way away from the vampire and saw that Reve took out his knives. He slashed at several and hit them, but that just made them angrier.

I let out a whimper and watched as two vampires grabbed his arms and held them behind his back. It was over for us. There was no way I could take out ten vampires on my own.

I sniffed the air. It didn't smell like help was coming. Reve looked at me with fear in his eyes, and I shook my head.

A few of the vampires lunged at me again, and I ran off to the side where they couldn't reach me. They laughed at my move.

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