Page 92 of Claimed By Blood

Damn it. Now is not the time.

“Wait,”Mia says.“What shotgun incident?”

The silence from Morwen and Vane is telling.

“When you two get back, we’re having a family meeting. Babe, we said no family shootings.”

“Don’t be too hard on her, Mia. To us, torture is the basic family bonding method.” Immy laughs.

It wouldn’t be so funny if it weren’t true, but I keep that thought to myself.

The next vampires we come across aren’t alone. Frost takes out one with a light crossbow strapped across the back of his wrist, delivering a bolt straight to the vampire’s heart. I step over the rapidly shrivelling corpse, intent on taking out the second.

Vane gets in the way, ripping away the vampire’s gun before tearing his throat out with his claws.

He’s the only one of us without a weapon, and it’s clear why.

The hybrid’s strength and claws are just as deadly as silver.

It soon becomes apparent that my thralls are intent on keeping me from doing any of the fighting. Every time we come across an enemy, they take out the threat before I can. At first, I find it amusing, but it quickly gets old.

“Icanfight, you know,” I grumble under my breath as we pause amidst the carnage, flattening ourselves against the wall to allow a handful of fleeing civilians to pass us.

“You’re still recovering,” Gideon growls.

“Save your strength for the real fight,” Frost adds.

Vane isn’t so tactful. “I would’ve preferred if you’d stayed behind with Mia.”

Immy catches my eye and we share alook.

“You realise Morwen and I trained hard until I was back to full strength, right?” I check.

They shrug as one. “Still recovering,” Gideon insists. “How many years were you in that coffin? A month is nothing.”

The woman in me wants to call them out on it, but the general knows now isn’t the time.

“We’ll be discussing this when we’re out of here,” I inform them curtly, pushing off the wall and heading towards the command room.

We must be close now.

“Armin’s main force has broken through Samuel’s barricade,”Finn announces.

My blood chills. All of us speed up, heading for the command centre with a single-minded focus. We turn the corner and come face to face with the splintered, scorched, heavy doors. Beyond them, vampires and shifted lycans are fighting at speeds too fast for the mortal eye to follow.

This time, my men have no hope of shielding me from the brawling. The gunfire is deafening, and I duck out of the way before anyone has a chance to warn me.

Vane roars, shifting as a bullet catches him in the thigh. For a second, I just stare. I’ve never seen any of them shifted before, and Vane ishuge.Perhaps it’s a perk of being a hybrid, but he towers over the other lycans. His toughened grey skin, wiry fur, and lupine face are similar to the rest of them, but his fangs seem longer. Now they’re practically sabres slicing down from his upper jaw. His muzzle is slightly shorter, more human, and his eyes seem to hold more wildness than the others.

“Remember, the aim is to get Samuel and Bakari out,” Gideon hisses, and his voice echoes through the earpiece. “We get them, then we get the fuck out of here. No heroics.”

His plan makes sense, because we can’t possibly win against these numbers. Our group carves a steady path through the doors and into the room beyond. The carefully organised room beyond has been laid to waste. In the centre, Armin is wielding a grenade launcher, of all things, and each blast makes the cave shake.

The maniac is laughing like the idea of collapsing the tunnels on top of us is somehowfunny.

I can’t see Samuel.

Beside me, Draven is practically vibrating with eagerness. It funnels down our bond, but his expression never changes as he beheads a lycan with a cruel smirk on his face. But a vampire uses the opening to sneak past him. I’m forced to abandon my search for Samuel and I strike back, slicing his hand off with a clean sweep of my sword.

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