Page 41 of Witches Be Damned

Electricity hummed in the air as the crystals charged with power and radiated a soft white glow that branched out into a circular aperture in space.

“Proceed,” Ford announced with a hand signal for us to cross.

Serena took one final glance back at us and grabbed the case containing Styx’s head stored on ice, her neck muscles straining from the weight.

“Let me take that,” the chivalrous part of me prompted.

She shouldn’t bear any weight.

“I’ll be fine, Knoxe. Really.” There went that stubborn streak. She patted my arm and vanished through the white-blue shimmer of light.

“Get your asses moving.” I jerked my chains, dragging the vamps forward, and they hissed in protest at the cuffs biting into their wrists.

The seven of us crossed time and space, emerging into a darkened cave. Two guards flanked three high-ranking vampire officials waiting off to the side, their skin waxy and unnatural in the low light. The pungent scent of copper clogged my lungs. Vampire guards hung from the ceilings, ready to apprehend any gantii attempting to stray.

“Greetings, High Council.” Serena bowed her head as was custom in both our worlds. “We come bearing the ziker prisoners of Styx’s faction.”

Ziker was the gantii word for criminals and used across every world since they created its meaning at a gantii council meeting thirty years back.

The officials reciprocated the gesture when her bracelet translated her words into the vamps’ language.

One official lifted his bloodshot eyes and said, “Thank you for bringing them to justice.”

“Our pleasure.”

“Verarie?” The robust guard demanded.

Serena handed him the official documentation to transport a gantii prisoner. Vamps didn’t use paper for records and relied on feeding information into their sacred plant that stored their history and afforded them a hive mind.

Which meant she had to translate for him. “Styx perished in a battle to apprehend these prisoners.”

“Perished?” The guard’s eyes slid to the four captives.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Serena set the case by her boot and tapped its side. “His head is stored in here for you to verify.”

The official stretched out spindly fingers tipped with claws to lift the case. “Thank you for returning the traitor.”

“No problem.” Serena tucked her arms behind her back. “I thought you’d also want to know that one of our team found a cure for your breeding problem, and we’re manufacturing a vaccine to administer to repair the damage in your blood.”

We brought Dr. Jeffries, the geneticist, in to the prison’s laboratory to extract blood samples of the vamps caught in Astra’s magical explosion. We wanted to get the jump on it, forge a cure and prevent any of Styx’s remaining soldiers from assuming control of the rogue faction and plaguing us again. Thankfully, the doctor was up for the challenge. Sunset wouldn’t be happy that it stole her thunder. I’d have to make it up to her.

A collective hiss went around the group that sounded different from the threatening one we were used to when confronting vamps. Relieved, perhaps. Filled with hope. If I were them, that was how I would feel.

The first official spoke for them. “We are grateful to your team and appreciate any assistance we can get to save our race. Maybe now we will finally end this division with the rogue faction.”

Vamp society split in two when the government failed to get answers for their breeding problem. Styx’s wife was a scientist, and when she lost her child, her soldier husband established a task force to investigate why their race faced extinction. Desperation for solutions drove him too far, kidnapping scientists and threatening to take the lives of their families if they didn’t comply. That bastard met his undoing when he took Astra and Raze.

“We’ll take the prisoners from here.” The official concluded our meeting.

Fine by me. I wanted to be free of the vampires. Free of Styx. My heart lightened at the prospect of never having to encounter his cruel eyes ever again. To release the pain of losing Jaz, and the guilt for dragging my team for a ride on my rollercoaster of grief.

Serena stepped aside, and Loco and I went with her.

The guards seized the prisoners, and Loco and I released them from the cuffs. They weren’t our problem anymore if they broke free. We got them back here, and it was up to the officials and guards to see that they were charged and imprisoned. Whatever happened here on out, we got our points, but the fact that we didn’t earn our release tainted the prize.

Serena stared after the guards as they escorted the vamps away down the long cavern. I waited for her to cut tail and march back through the portal, but she lingered for some reason. Maybe she wanted to revel in this historic moment. It wasn’t every day that Guardians got to take down a prisoner as ruthless and cunning as Styx.

“Need another minute, Serena?” I voiced when she didn’t make a move after two minutes.

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