Chapter 90

Arthur and Blade led the group of alphas through the forest. Many of them weren't happy about it, but Arthur didn't care. Murmurs about going to their deaths rippled through the ranks behind him, but they were alphas under his command and as long as they wanted him on the throne, they had to obey him.

He’d be happy to let them live out the rest of their days squabbling with each other as soon as he had Daphne back. It was taking everything in him to restrain the deep well of fury and madness that was boiling inside him. He was doing only slightly better than Blade who was a nervous, short-tempered wreck when he wasn't with his son.

They reached the edge of the werewolf lands and look up at the canyon’s walls. The mists hadn’t appeared again and Arthur was starting to suspect that the mists had always been an illusion of some sort. What other powers did vampires have? Could Daphne do any of that? He looked up to the clear blue sky and sighed. It was cloudless. If vampires were weaker in sunlight, what were the chances that they were in the canyon now?

“What now?” Someone asked.

“We take the path through the canyon to the other side,” Arthur said. “From there we head west towards the castle.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Research,” Arthur sneered before leading them into the canyon. The wind howled but he smelled nothing to alarm him.

They walked quietly through the canyon, keeping their senses searching for any stray sound nearby. Soon, they heard a voice.

“How much do you think he’ll pay us for this?”

“Not enough.”

They rounded the corner. The group of vampires seemed younger than the ones who were in Nicole’s battalion. They were dressed differently as well. They froze several feet away from Arthur and hissed.

“What are you mangy wolves doing here?”

"It's been two weeks, where are Daphne and her escort?"

One of them lunged forward, swiping at Arthur. Arthur growled, catching him by his head and slamming him to the ground. The other rushed towards him as Blade leaped forward, and soon the rest of the alphas had joined them in battle. Blood splattered against the canyon walls. They howled and shrieked, but the alphas he’d brought with him had completed the training and could shift between their two forms quickly and efficiently to maximize their strength. The vampires hadn’t stood a chance.

Arthur wiped his face and continued down the path he and Blade had plotted out until they heard the almost silent sound of battle. Vampires darted around and bounced between the walls of the canyon, meeting in midair to trade blows. Vampires in green and red were slammed to the ground and bound in quick, sharp movements that Arthur had never seen. Their combat style was nothing like the style he and the others had been learning since the attack on Sharp Armor.

“They’re so fast…” Blade said in awe.

If this was how Nicole’s battalion fought, he could understand how the tide of the battle had only turned when she’d left the field. He wondered what had pulled her away from the battlefield and who had been left that had cost the vampires the war.

“Catch him!” Someone screamed as a red-clad figure leaped and disappeared up the canyon wall. Another black-clad figure went up and after the figure, but Arthur heard nothing.

“We should kill them all,” an alpha hissed behind them.

Arthur held up his hand to stop them and watch the battle. There were three groups of vampires. The smallest of the three were familiar, dressed in all black like Nicole’s battalion. One of the groups wore red. The other wore green like the group of vampires they had just faced. The green group seemed trained to fight werewolves, but against the black group, they seemed slow and uncoordinated.

Watching them, Arthur understood more of the importance of their training. Vampires were naturally faster than werewolves in their wolf forms were but less powerful. The vampires were trained to try to get werewolves into their human form where they were less coordinated and take advantage of the time it took for a wolf to shift.

The red group seemed more vicious than the green group; their combat style reminded him of the books he’d been reading about vampires. They also seemed older than the green group. They were fast, but not fast enough.

One of them struck out, slamming his fist into the ground and creating a crater beneath him. A black-clad woman Arthur recognized as one of Nicole’s subordinates twisted in the air and slammed her elbow in the back of the man’s neck, slamming him to the ground with enough strength to shake the ground.

Then, she was up, flipping and whirling onto her feet and tackling a green-clad vampire with such speed, Arthur had nearly missed the movement. If werewolves could move like that in their human forms and shift seamlessly,

Though they were outnumbered, the group in black were efficient and powerful, but it didn’t seem like they were aiming to kill them. They shoved them to the ground and bound them with chains.

“We’ll get them back for interrogation,” one of the men said. “Is that all of them?”

“No,” a woman said with a huff. “One of them escaped. One of the duchess’ men.”

Kayley hissed, kicking one of John’s soldiers with a growl, “You’re going to answer me, you prick.”

“Never!” She slammed him into the canyon wall. It shook and cracked above them and the man fell silent.

“Captain, contain yourself!”

“I haven’t burnt his body,” Kayley said, throwing him aside and turning towards the werewolf envoy who was walking towards them. “And look at that…the werewolf king has come.”

The others turned as Kayley walked ahead of them, “What happened to the other idiots?”

“We killed them, but their bodies are still intact.”

Kayley nodded towards the direction they came and two figures in black rushed past them. He heard them skid to a stop and start another scuffle with the few. It lasted only a few moments before they called out that they had all been subdued.

“I assume you’ve come about Her Highness?” Kayley asked looking at Arthur. “I’m impressed you figured out how to get through the canyon.”

“It’s the end of the two weeks,” Arthur said. “War will come if Daphne and the rest of the envoy aren’t returned to us.”

Kayley sighed, “She said you’d say that.”

“Who?”

“The general.”

Arthur narrowed his eyes. If she knew how he would feel not having Daphne back when they had agreed on it and not having seen her in all this time, then why wasn’t she here?

“I know Valon is supposed to deliver the message, but since you’re here, I may as well tell you. Her Highness will be at the human village just beyond the canyon in three days, hoping for peace talks between our nations.”

Arthur’s heart lightened though he regarded her suspiciously, “What about her escort.”

Kayley shook her head, “Still no word or trail of them. Are you certain they haven’t returned to your lands?”

“I’m sure,” Arthur said.

Kayley shook her head, “The only people who know for sure what happened as Her Highness and the perpetrators… Her Highness isn’t herself and is still recovering and we haven’t found the culprit yet.”

Arthur growled at her, “What do you mean she’s not herself?”

Kayley sighed, “You’ll just have to see. Hopefully, seeing you will change things… As for your question about Owen and Osborn.”

Arthur stilled as the rest of the alphas gasped in shock and horror.

“It’s confirmed that they’re both working with the vampire we think is responsible for the missing escort and what happened to Her Highness.”

Arthur clenched his fist, “How do I get to the village?”

Kayley pointed behind her, “Out of the canyon then head north. You can’t miss it. It’s a fully human village, so they’ll be pretty welcoming if you want to stay for a while.”

She turned, grabbing one of the vampires, “For now, I have to get these idiots back to the castle and start interrogating them.”

Before Arthur could speak, Kayley and the rest of the group were rushing down the path. Arthur shifted.

“After them!”

It was the fastest way to find their way out of the canyon. He thought they would lose them because of all the turns, but it felt as though Kayley and the rest of the group were running only fast enough to get to their destination quicker and not lose them. They were guiding them out.

Arthur wondered if it was a trap for a moment, but if it was, he had to charge into it, just like before. Daphne was hurt or injured or something. Being apart from her was driving him insane just as being apart from Mamie was driving Blade insane.