Chapter 185

I knew she’d say something. She was a woman too, and she had to know that Candido wouldn’t stand for me to be treated like this.

“Falcon to Armageddon—”

“Armageddon to Falcon. No, you cannot injure her in any way unless she attacks you first.”

“Permission to boot her off the moving jeep in self-defense.”

“Granted.”

My jaw dropped and she clipped the radio back on her belt. “I’d suggest you shut up. Your voice is an assault on my intelligence and honor.”

I couldn’t believe they would treat me like this, but more than that I couldn’t believe that Candido would let them treat me like this.

We arrived at the clearing. The jeeps circled around. I got up and scrambled off the jeep as I saw Candido. He didn’t come toward me. Instead, he helped Estella unload the boxes that were on the truck. I marched across the clearing towards them, furious.

“… we’ll go in the west flank of the city. The rest of your team will stay here. We’re far enough that—”

“Candido!”

He turned back to me. “Get back in the truck.”

“No,” I said. “I’m a part of Moon Shadow! I’m your partner and I’m not getting left behind just so she can take my place.”

Estella rolled her eyes behind her mask. She didn’t say anything and kept unloading the truck.

“Get out of the way and go back to the truck,” Candido said.

He turned back and pulled another box down. I got in his about to slap him again when he caught my wrist. I yelped as he wrenched it painfully and hauled me up.

“Put me down!” I yelled, beating his back.

“I’m officially revoking your position as Pandora,” Candido said. “And declaring you unfit for duty. You are retired from Moon Shadow. Vanessa, update her profile.”

“You can’t do this to me!” I shrieked and glared at Estella. “I’ll never forgive you for what you’ve done to Candido! You’ll pay for this! Just you wait!”

“Get down!” Someone yelled. Candido threw me to the ground and fell on top of me, covering me with his body.

“Crawl towards the jeep. Keep your head down.”

“I’m not leaving you,” I said. “I’m not leaving you alone with her.”

He rolled off me and crawled away from me towards another jeep. “Open fire when you can! Hedy get back to the jeep!”

I didn’t listen to him, crawling after him. I meant what I said. I wasn’t going to let them be on this mission alone.

“How the fuck could they have known?”

“The meeting’s been compromised,” Candido said. “Or…”

He glanced at me. “Where’s your phone?”

“What?”

“Your phone!” Candido snarled. “Do you have your phone with you?”

“OF course I do!”

“For fuck’s sake,” Angel said.

“Permission to kill her, sit,” Falcon growled.

“Denied,” Candido said, “Cover me. I’ll turn the truck and—”

A burst of light shot through the air. I turned back to see Estella and the group of people from Lunae’s Circle behind a glimmering golden barrier. The gunfire stopped.

“What the—”

“Fire!” She said and another volley of light cut through the air. Vampires shrieked in the trees and burst into flames.

I burned with envy as Candido’s face filled with hope.

“Retreat behind Starlight’s barrier!” He opened the door to the jeep nearby and pulled out a gun. He lifted it and began to fire.

“Left and Right Wing, advance!” Estella called above the sound of gunfire and screaming.

I watched helplessly as Candido fired into the trees, providing cover as they started to retreat. Two of Estella’s group broke off from the main group before she leaped from the truck and rushed forward through the barrier. She dove forward.

“Brace!”

The golden wall broke and reformed cutting off the gunfire between the trees and the jeeps, surrounding the entire encirclement. Gunfire continued to pound against the wall.

“How long will it hold?” Candido asked.

“At least a few minutes,” Estella said, wiping her face.

“Get back in the jeeps. Organize the caravan to maximum coverage if you can sustain a moving barrier.”

She nodded. “On it.”

She darted off and Candido turned on me. He lifted me from the ground and hauled me into a jeep despite me fighting against his hold. It wasn’t the jeep I had hitched a ride on.

“Vanessa,” Candido said, “Get Hedy as far away from here as you can.”

“No! I’m staying with you!”

“Barrier’s coming down.”

“I’ll give you cover,” Candido said.

“But, Candido, you’re—”

“Incoming!”

I heard one of the jeeps revving and trying to take off as the barrier came down. Then, vampires rushed in from everywhere.

“Floor it!” Someone yelled. The jeep jerked away from Candido but it didn’t make it far. He leaped away from the jeep and into the fray, slamming vampires into the ground with his immense strength. I got out of the bed of the jeep to follow him.

“Hedy!” Vanessa yelled at me. “What are you doing?”

I wasn’t going to leave him behind. I was safest with Candido. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me, and I definitely couldn’t chance leaving him alone anymore with Estella. After that hug, there was no way I could trust that more wasn’t going to happen between them.

If they had sex, or if they were already having sex, there was only so much I could do to really keep them apart any longer.

I dodged another person. The jeeps seemed to stop.

“Fuck! They’re going for the tires!”

“Flip it over!”

I smelled something. Gasoline I was sure. Someone from Moon Shadow lifted a truck and flipped it over sending it toward a group of oncoming vampires.

“Brace!”

“Fire!”

The truck exploded into a high, hot wall of flames beyond the short band of golden light that kept it from spreading toward the rest of the fight. I saw someone, a vampire from Lunae’s Circle turn and the fire followed her movement. Estella turned in the opposite direction and the fire followed her, spreading around the clearing and blocking off the incoming vampires.

The other vampire lifted her arms and the wall of flames grew higher than the trees, making sure no other vampires would be able to come through. The golden wall followed the circle.

“We don’t have a lot of time!” Estella yelled pulling out a blade.

“On your left!” Candido yelled. “Forget the boxes—Falcon, your right!—We just need to deal with them and clear a path!”

He swung and Estella seemed to be cutting through the few vampires on her side, working her way across the battlefield toward other people. I darted through the area until I came upon a vampire in my path. I swung at him, but he sneered and leaped at me. I dodged and tried to swing again, my strength was seemingly gone, as if I was just a normal werewolf or worse. The vampire clawed me across my chest, splitting my dress open. I fell back and barely rolled out of the way.

“I like my meals tender,” he hissed and rushed at me. He slammed his fist into my gut in the same place Angel had. I felt my bones cracking and the force of it made me breathless.

I tried to fight him off, but I wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t strong enough. Another vampire came towards me as I saw Candido pushing through another group of vampires away from me.

“Candido!” I called, but he didn’t turn.

It was as if he couldn’t hear me. The vampire kicked me over, sending me flying through the barrier and into a burning tree. I screeched as the fire burned across my back, but they didn’t come after me. I fell to the ground, rolling as the pain was all I could feel. It was all I could think of as I rolled around trying to put off the fire that had caught on my back and my hair.

When I rolled to a stop, one of the vampires struck me in the face and then got down over me. He opened his mouth, baring his fangs.

Then, his head went flying away from his body. Blood splattered over me, soaking me and his body went limp over me, crushing me. My eyes welled with tears.

I knew Candido would come. I knew he would rescue me. He cut through the other three vampires that had surrounded me with ease.

“Candido—”

“West side clear!” I froze and turned slowly toward the sound of Candido’s voice. He was on the other side of the clearing, turning his newly acquired gun on the vampires who still remained. “Assist the center flank! We don’t have a lot of time left.”

If… Candido was over there, then how…

“East side clear!” I turned back and my blood started to boil as Estella yanked her shining silver blade out of a vampire’s head.

The ashes fluttered away as she panted. Then she looked at me.

“Are you alright?”