Page 89 of Queen of Darkness
She was stronger. I wasn’t ready. There was no way I could win. I was leading everyone to their deaths. Nothing was going to change.
They circled me, pecking away ceaselessly, looking for holes in my mental armor, for places they could land, and feed off me, growing stronger until I finally caved.
Like they knew I always would.
“You’re ready,” Aaron said as up ahead half a dozen black- and gold-clad Nacht Bringers rounded a corner, taking up a defensive position.
Unlike the others, they waited for us to come to them instead of charging wildly at us. More noise behind us caught my attention. Another four vampires, as equally silent and foreboding, had emerged to block our exit.
“We’d better go forward,” I said.
Rifles barked as the team let loose, but the Nacht Bringers swiftly darted around the corner, using it as cover. I saw one of them get hit, but he didn’t slow, bending only slightly at the stomach where the bullet had entered his gut.
“We’re going to have to go through them,” Aaron said.
I nodded, then flagged down one of the Enkk. “We’ll keep them under cover while you approach. You take them down.”
The Enkk simply turned and strode down the hallway, two more following. Aaron’s team scrambled to keep up a scattered covering fire, driving the Nacht back around the corner while we jogged forward.
Blade met blade as the Nacht were finally forced to show themselves, and the Enkk drove them back mercilessly. They worked their four arms, slowly spinning the Nacht around.
“I feel like a coward,” Jaxton growled, but his rifle barked, dropping a Nacht as he shot it in the back.
“Remember, this isherfault,” Aaron snapped. “Elenia is responsible for all this. Everything we do is worth it if we can bring her down and prevent others from suffering like this in the future!”
With the Enkk on our side, they didn’t stand a chance. Our path was clear now, the throne room doors in view.
I strode forward, wrapping myself in a cocoon of what I hoped was courage and conviction. I was doing this for all the innocent vampires fighting on the plains above, fighting and dying for a queen they likely didn’t even know. A bitch who would order their deaths a thousand times over if it gave her another day on the throne.
They deserve better from their queen,I told myself as the last of the explosive charges were planted on one of the doors. Apparently, we didn’t have enough to blow both in.
“Okay, this is it,” Aaron said as we backed up.
Farther up the hall, two of the Enkk were still battling the Nacht that had blocked our retreat. More shadowy figures raced in from elsewhere in the palace, but for the moment, we were alone.
“Once we go through here,” Aaron said, “it’s no mercy. You shoot to kill. Unleash hell. We only get one shot at this. For the future.”
I nodded along, eyes closed, though I was mostly lost in my own thoughts.
For you, Mom.
Aaron looked at me. I felt his concern waver through our link, but I brushed it off. I couldn’t be concerned right now. Not for the team, not for him. Not even for myself.
Everything had to be put on the line to stop Elenia.
“Blow it,” I snapped, snapping my eyes open.
It was time.
Chapter Forty-Four
The bombs never went off.
Before Jaxton could plunge his thumb down on the detonator, the doors were flung open outward, one of them ripped completely from its hinges, forcing us to dive out of the way as it crashed down the hallway, taking out both the Enkk guarding our rear and the Nacht they were fighting.
I gaped as bodies and limbs were squished and separated by the flying chunk of metal before facing forward.
“Howdareyou!” Elenia screamed, her voice reverberating off the walls as she stalked toward us, her hair electric and wild, power crackling between the strands. “This is myhome. How dare you defile it like this!”
