Page 34 of Fated Protector

"I’m coming with you,"Anna says, hands on her hips.

I shake my head at her as I sharpen Lucky, my dagger. "You are staying right here," I say, pointing Lucky at her. "This is between Will and me and the vamps.”

"It is not. It's about all of us, and if I'm your Mate, then it's about me as much as it is you. This is my pack now."

Her fiery temperament sends sparks dancing down my spine, but fear trumps pride. "I don't want you to get hurt.”

"And I don't want you to get hurt. We’re partners. We’re doing this together."

I sigh in defeated exasperation and hand her Lucky, hilt first. "You stay hidden until you can't hide anymore. If you have to fight, go for the neck, not the chest. It's just too hard to find the heart in a hurry. Go for the neck, drive it in the jugular, and then cut off the head."

"This little dagger can cut off the head?" She examines the blade with her nose scrunched in disbelief.

"It can, and it has."

Will comes into the cabin, a single sword strapped across his back. It's a dramatic, outdated weapon, so it fits Will perfectly.

Time to go," he says, nodding at Anna. "Twilight is approaching, and I want to get there when they wake up."

We’re silent as we head out of the pack, but as I look back, the other Rougarous have formed a line. Each and every one of them has their head bowed, but whether it is in thanks or in prayer, I can’t tell. They’re sending us off to meet their salvation or our own deaths.

We walk until we find the hidden area where my motorcycle is parked. A little further into the trees, we also find Will’s bike.

“We’ll meet you there,” I instruct. “Park at the bar three blocks away, in the back alley. Don’t let anyone see you.”

Will nods and revs the engine before taking off down the dirt path. I turn to Anna and strap the helmet around her pointed chin. “Safety first, princess,” I murmur. She gazes at me with fear and love in those doe eyes.

“Nothing about today is safe,” she whispers. I chuck her under the chin, and we mount the bike, driving away.

* * *

The sun is stilla ball above the horizon, but it is dropping fast, shortening the time we have to surprise the vampires. I park in the appointed alley, just behind Will’s bike, where he sits waiting for us.

“We’ll come from behind,” I say, not bothering with a greeting. “There’s a service entrance near the back gate. The vamps have blood bags delivered there twice a month, but they don’t use it for much else.”

Keeping our heads down, we set off down the sidewalk towards the old mansion the vampires call home. Their estate, built in the mid-1800s, is just a few blocks away from Huey Long’s own extravagant home. I guess crooked politicians call to each other, even in death.

Only one guard stands at the service entrance, and he isn’t a match for an Alpha Rougarou and his second. I pin him against the crumbling stone wall, and Will drives his silver sword through the neck, cutting through sinew until the creature’s head falls at our fleet. Anna watches with an unflinching gaze. I’m saddened by the fact that she isn’t upset. Anna’s introduction to our world comes at the cost of her innocence.

The gate can only be opened with a fingerprint ID, which would be a problem if we didn’t have a dead guard at our feet. Will lops off the vampire’s hand and holds it up to the scanner. It blinks green before we hear the cylinders inside the lock adjust and open.

“Why didn’t he turn to ash?” Anna asks after we’re inside the gate’s perimeter.

“He’s young,” Will says. “Or, he was, anyway, probably turned in the last decade. The older they are, the more their body disintegrates. There’s something human in there, if only on a cellular level.”

Anna dismisses the corpse with a shrug. We sneak around the back, sticking to the service entrances and paths. In a mansion this old, it’s easy to see the difference. The master’s doorways and passages are lined with elegant flowers and marble. The servant paths, when visible, are nothing but dirt and faded stone. If there’s any vamp that loves a big difference in social class, it’s Louie Hayes.

I realize that all our sneaking around makes no difference when we trudge up the back steps and find the back door unlocked and unguarded. Louie has been expecting us.

“Do we turn back?” asks Will, having noticed the same fact.

“There’s no point,” I say. “They know we’re here. We could run, but it shows weakness. Let’s keep going. No matter how it ends, it ends tonight.”

We march through the door; heads held high. Inside we are met by, of all things, a vampire butler. He sniffs at our appearance but has no other reaction. Clearly, he was expecting us.

“Master Hayes will see you in his office,” he says, looking down his nose at us. This is all a ridiculous facade, a game they all play to please Louie. The previous Alpha, Michel, lived in this mansion too, but he didn’t play along with ridiculous pretenses of former lifestyles. Michel was a creature of cunning and precision, which makes it all the more disturbing that Louie was able to get the drop on him.

The butler leads us down an opulent hallway. Hand-woven tapestries hang on each wall as if Louie were some Baroque nobleman and not a criminal politician who didn’t run fast enough from a vampire’s bite. At the end of the hall, twin doors swing open, and the butler leads us in.

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