Chapter 201

Peter carried me for a long time. While Peter walked, I kept thinking of ways to get Candido away from Estella and focused back on me. I was still sure that getting rid of her and everyone else who was on her side, everyone who didn’t respect me, was the best way. But how? If I could get my hands on the Heart of the Moon, I could make Candido want me, make him unable to think about anything but me.

The walk was quiet. The jeeps and trucks rattled on. It looked like some people traded off with the people on the

I thought we'd be okay until someone up ahead started to call back that there was trouble, they said something about people coming our way.

Peter sighed. “Sounds like Cillian had the right idea. None of you are in fighting shape.”

He jogged further up the line towards the trucks and lifted me into one of them. It was a tight fit, people grumbled, but at least they gave me the seat I deserved.

“Stay here, and we're going to try and get out of this.”

Peter turned away, leaving me draped in his cloak.

I sighed. If only Candido would be so concerned about me then everything would be perfect. Then, I realized that among the people in the truck, there was also Estella. I looked around, searching for Candido, but he wasn't there either. I was upset. I didn’t want to be on the same truck with her, but I guess I was grateful that it seemed like he had his mind on something other than her. She was asleep leaning against the back of the truck with a rifle in her arms.

Then, gunshots started, and the attack began. I wasn't paying attention to much of anything going on around me, but I heard Candido further up in the caravan. Then, I heard other people shouting, and the few people who were awake in the truck started to get up get out and join the fight with whatever weapons they could grab. Eventually, it was just me, a bandaged and bleeding man, and Estella.

I stared at her, waiting for her to wake up, but she didn’t move. Light rippled across her skin and through her hair. It made me think of Candido, and I clenched my jaw.

However, he was doing what she was doing. It had to stop. She wasn’t a golden wolf. That vision had to be fake. She was tricking Candido into thinking that she was. I looked at the mark on her chest that should have been on mine, and anger boiled in me. Sometime in the madness, someone had taken the gun she had been holding and laid her across the truck bed. She was asleep, maybe even unconscious. The man that was with us was also unconscious, I was sure of it. There was no way he was going to wake up if the sound of gunshots and everything else wasn't going to. There was no way that Estella would wake up either.

It was the perfect time to get rid of her for good.

Once, I thought that maybe I wouldn’t be able to do it, but this war and seeing Candido with Estella taught me that there wasn’t anything I would give to be with Candido. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to be with him. Killing a traitor, killing all those other traitors, would be easy.

Candido would see everything I’d done to make sure we ended up together and be happy. He’d understand. He’d know how much I loved him and wanted to be with him.

I glanced around, checking the surroundings no one was paying attention, and the man had remained sleeping. The truck was still moving forward, but the tailgate of the truck was gone. I didn't remember it being gone when Peter put me in the truck, but it had probably been torn off or broken a while ago.

Vampires hissed. I smelled more blood. Gunshots kept breaking, but this was my only chance. The truck dropped a bit, and she rolled a little enough for me to be able to get behind her as it bumped again. I gave her a little bit more of a nudge closer and closer to the end of the truck bed, careful to make sure no one was watching me. The man hadn’t moved at all, still sleeping. Then, the truck picked up speed. I pushed, and she started to roll freely. I waited, expecting her to go bouncing off the truck bed and probably get run over by another truck further back or another Jeep. Maybe the vampires would descend on her and drain her to death. I smirked, feeling a bit of my fears about Candido start to ease. With her gone, there would be nothing to distract him from me.

She was just at the edge of the truck bed. The truck bounced, tossing her into the air.

Then, her body grew stiff she twisted in the air, threw her arms out, and stopped herself before she tumbled over the edge of the truck bed. I grit my teeth and slid towards her, about to kick her off. She turned and looked at me. Her eyes were wide and open and conscious, her jaw firm as she looked braced, but there was nothing she could do.

One kick in the face and she would be flying away from the truck. She glared at me as I got just close enough to kick her. I kicked at her. She shifted just out of the way.

And before I could try again, something grabbed my arm. I turned and saw the unconscious man fully awake, holding me in place and looking at me with a stiff jaw. His other hand was cupped over his rib. His eyes glowed red as he panted. I set my jaw as I looked into his face. I looked down at his face and tried to pull away from him, but his grip was much firmer than I expected it to be. Estella grunted. I turned to look at her as she pulled herself away from the edge of the truck. I tried lunge toward her, to shove her back, but the man didn’t release me. Then, someone jumped into the truck behind us.

“For fuck’s sake, where are they coming from?” The man huffed. “There couldn’t be that many of them skulking around in the caves all these years!”

Estella pulled herself up into a sitting position, never looking away from me. Then, she looked up at the person behind me and the man who had stopped me. I pulled away from him. He let go this time. I grabbed onto a handle on the other side of the truck as the truck bounced and rattled down the road. I pretended to have a hard time holding on to the truck as Estella, and the injured man struggled to hold on. I watched closely the truck was going fast, and the road was bumpy, but it wasn't that bad.

“Where are we headed? Where are—” Estella looked around, and her eyes grew wide. “This isn't the right way! We have to return around!”

“We can't turn around,” the man said, shoving bullets into his gun and wiping at his brow.

“We're currently being chased by vampires. Who knows how many there are. We don't know how powerful they are. We're barely holding up the barrier.” He hissed. “If Peter’s battalion hadn’t come–”

She pulled herself closer to the truck’s cab. “We're going to have to ditch the jeeps.”

I whirled on her. “Are you crazy?”

She panted she looked pale and a little sickly. I should have pushed the man off and kicked her when I had the chance. Maybe I should have just pushed him off too since he’s on her side.

“If it's too late to turn back, if it's too late to change course, if we've already passed the river, then we're going to be heading into a gorge,” Estella said. “We’ll be at the bottom and heading to where it's not wide enough for any vehicle drive-through, and it’s almost too far from the Lunae border for us to hope for a cave passage.”

The man who joined us went stiff and said, “We haven't passed a river. I'll try to get us to change course.”

I growled. “You're just going to believe whatever she says? She's probably trying to lead us into a trap!”

The man leaped away, not listening to anything I had to say, and Estella pulled herself closer to the cab, bracing herself and the man against the corner of the truck. She checked his bandages before turning to glare at me.

"I might not be armed, and quite honestly, I'm exhausted, but it will be a cold day in hell before I let you kill me.”