The Devil's Wolf

Elior's phone began to ring without pause. He answered several calls, giving interviews over the phone to various news stations reacting to his social media release, speaking to the heads of several countries in their own languages as they assured him that they were not involved, and, in a different tone of voice, giving orders to vacate certain sites anticipating attacks.

Ashlynn was not sure what alerted her to the road ahead, a change in the light, a ripple of air across the tarmac, but she gripped the back of the driver's seat in alarm. "Watch out!" She barked out her voice sharp and hoarse.

A car ahead of them hit something, the speed and force lifting it and spinning it in the air, tiny shards of metal flicking out like raindrops, reminding Ashlynn of her own car accident, and erasing any doubt that what had caused the accident ahead had also caused her own.

Rebecca jerked the steering wheel and applied the brakes so that the car spun in a circle before coming to a complete stop, and the airborne car struck the road where they had been a moment before, causing the traffic behind them to hit their brakes and skid out, rubber smoking and the squeal of tires loud.

Ashlynn heard the impact of the cars, and something struck the rear window, shattering the glass, as fragments of cars shot out in every direction.

"F-k," Rebecca cursed, pulling their eyes forward as the road before them tore itself apart forming a gaping maw of a chasm. "Out, out!"

Elior released Ashlynn's seat belt and had her out of the car before she could blink, tearing the passenger door off its hinges in his haste and casting it to the side. The four vampires stopped in the grass just off the road, and watched the car disappear into the chasm as if an earthen monster had swallowed it.

Ashlyn threw up a shield around the four of them and saw it spark as spells rebounded.

"Wingless," she gasped out to Elior. "Or warlocks. Incendium," she cast out a roar of flame, that curved around the shields of their invisible opponents exposing their positions. "I can't hold a shield this size for long."

"Revelare," she cast out again, and the spell that held their attackers hidden failed. There were only three, she saw. A woman and two men.

"Oblido," she smacked her fist against the palm of her hand and saw their shields flare and spark as a force from above pounded down upon them, driving them into the ground. They staggered under the impact and one of the men fell to his knees.

Her shield sparked as they hurled spells at her in retaliation but held firm. "Haha," she smirked. "I learnt my shielding from my mother, and she is the almighty font."

She cut her hands through the air without the verbal command, something her mother had insisted she learn to do, and saw one of the men's shields fail beneath the slice. She forced the earth up in a wave to crash over them and baked it dry. For a moment, it seemed that they had been defeated, and then the earth sprayed up in dust and the three Wingless leapt free. The man whose shield had failed was covered in mud, and collapsed onto the ground, injured. "And I am just warming up," she snarled at them. "Come on then puppies, let's play!"

They pushed their power at her, and she threw hers back at them, the two energies meeting with a flare that burnt hotter than fire, turning the grass beneath it to dust, and rippling the air as it super-heated.

F-k, Ashlynn thought. Her response had been instinctual, she had never used her power this way before - it was something she had thought only her mother could do. She could feel her energy ebbing, and she realized that this was a battle of endurance. One side would cave, and what would happen then, she did not know.

Just as she thought it would be her, there was a flash of light as a portal opened, and the Wingless leapt through it, disappearing. Her shield crumpled away as her energy depleted. "F-k," Nate said eloquently what she was also thinking.

Elior caught her as she fell.

She awoke in a bed, the sheets starched to within an inch of their life. Where the embassy had been tastelessly opulent, this room was austere, the walls painted grey, the bedclothes like hospital bedding, and all surfaces ruthlessly empty. She fingered the coarse edge of the crisp sheet and the weave of the blanket that covered it. The bed had the appearance of a hasty making, and she imagined that Elior's children had thrown it together upon their arrival so that her mate had somewhere to lie her down.

Her mate, she closed her eyes again. Her vampire mate. Was it possible? She was certain that Cael was her mate, her every instinct told her that it was so, and yet, what she felt for Elior was far more than a casual f-k, and he was insistent that she was his. Could she have two mates? Unlikely, she told herself, which meant that Elior was courting her for another reason, one that she could not entirely trust, because of the heritage of her blood.

It hurt her heart to think of. She wanted the vampire to want her, she realised, just because of who she was, not whose child she was or what her blood offered him. She wanted to be Elior's, just because she was. She sighed heavily. Trouble, Jacinta had called her.

The grey curtains were pulled back but there was a semi-sheer privacy blind over the window through which she could see the night sky. Hours had passed, she thought. She had slept through most of the day. She sat up, her muscles feeling weak and sore, and her head aching. "F-k." Whatever she had done to repel the attack had not been without cost.

She was in her underwear, and she wondered if Elior had fun stripping her whilst she was unconscious. She hoped he had done it, and not delegated it to his children. If he had done it, there was a tender care to it's doing, but if he had left the job to his children, there was a careless disregard. She wished she knew which one applied.

She threw back the covers and stood on legs that didn't want to hold her weight, groaning as she stretched out her sore muscles.

The door opened and the blonde vampire, Jacinta looked in. She must have been waiting for some sign that Ashlynn had awoken, Ashlynn thought.

"You are awake."

"Yes," Ashlynn put her hand to her head. "I have a killer headache. I don't suppose you have any pain relief?"

"I will look," the vampire turned and strolled unhurriedly from the room, leaving the door open behind her.

Ashlynn could hear the TV in the background, a news report, the reporter's voice tight and urgent, and Elior's voice, either on the phone, or being played back on the TV, calm, factual and reassuring. The voice of a leader, of someone in charge, someone that a person could trust.

There was a small en suite attached to the bedroom, and Ashlynn used the toilet, coming out to find that Jacinta had returned, leaving a bottle of water and two pills sitting on the bedside table. Ashlynn sat on the bed to take the pills, after checking the stamps to ensure they were what she had requested.

Her dress and coat hung in the closet. She put both on - the house was cold. The vampires, of course, were indifferent to the temperature, but the hair on her arms stood on end in the chill of the air. She took out her mobile phone and checked the display.

"Shit." Her parents had been blowing up the phone and the charge was redlining. She plugged in the charger to a power point and sat on the bed with the phone on charge, dialing her father after a mental coin toss. If she rang her mother, the conversation would go easier, but her mother was also in the habit of forgetting her phone in her handbag, and Ashlynn might be calling the handbag lining and never reach a person.

"Ashlynn," it was her mother who answered. Ashlynn wondered what her father was doing that he could not answer his phone. It normally only happened when he was mowing the lawn, and had left the phone on the kitchen island whilst he did so.

"Mum."

"Are you safe?"

"Yes mum. I think we are in a vampire safe house. It certainly looks vampirey. One of the extremes of vampirey. You should have seen the last place, it was like a horror movie. This one is more comfortable jail-cell in decore."

"Yes, I know exactly what you mean," her mother murmured. "I have been in a place like the second. Don't feel... safe in such place, Ashlynn. It is institutional, but it is that way as the worst things they do are in such places where everything is easily replaceable. Don't relax your guard. She is safe," she said over her shoulder. "At least for the moment. Are you alone, Ashlynn?"

"Sort of. The phone is on to charge, and you are on speaker. The door is open. You are seriously creeping me out mum," Ashlynn added.

"Close the door, Ashlynn." Cecelia said firmly.

The hair standing on end on her arms and the back of her neck, Ashlynn walked over to the door and looked down the hallway towards the origin of the noise. There was no sign of vampires. She closed the door. "Alright," she barely whispered it as she picked the phone back up. "What is it?"

"The three people that attacked you on the freeway are Wingless."

"How do you know about that?" Ashlynn sat on the bed again, frowning at her phone, cautious alarm forgotten in her surprise.

Planning your weekend reading? Ensure you're on 0005s.org for uninterrupted enjoyment. The next chapter is just a click away, exclusively available on our site. Happy reading!

"There are recordings," Cecelia explained. "They are all over the news channels, social media, the internet... Passengers from the other cars involved, took recordings of what occurred, Ashlynn. They were from a distance, so we believe you may not be identified, but magic has been exposed to the human world."

"Oh my god," Ashlynn felt her chest constrict and rubbed the heel of her hand against her sternum to ease it. "I am sorry. I f-ked up."

"You did not have any choice," Cecelia replied. "If anyone f-ked up, it was the Wingless." It was odd to hear her mother swear, and the word sounded uncomfortable on her tongue. "No one blames you, Ash."

"F-k," Ashlynn closed her eyes.

"Your father and I are glad you are alright," her mother said fervently. "And so proud. You did so well. That was an admirable display of power, to defeat three Wingless alone."

"Mhm, thanks mum," Ashlynn wanted to curl back into the bed and sleep until the drama passed, but she suspected it was not an option. What was her vampire doing? If her parents were reacting to the political fall back of the fight, he had to be doing likewise.

"At the moment, your father and I agree, that you need to stay with Elior, Ashlynn. The Wingless are obviously tracking you, which means that they know who you are and can scry for you. We don't believe it is coincidence that they are hunting you now, just as the humans have turned against the vampires. We don't know what it means, but it means something."

There was a tone in her voice that caught Ashlynn's attention. "You don't know what it means, doesn't mean you don't suspect you know, mum."

Cecelia sighed. "The Wingless know that Evelyn's line's blood gives vampires greater speed and strength. They may be trying to prevent the vampires using you to improve their position in this war. Considering that the Wingless attacked you before the humans attacked the vampires, we think they knew, somehow, in advance."

"They knew - as in they are... They are working with the humans? You said war. Is it a war?" Ashlynn felt a chill crawl over her at the word.

"It is a war, Ashlynn," her mother confirmed quietly. "Over half the world's governments have risen against the vampires. They have not yet declared it, but we all know what is coming.

"There is something else," Cecelia paused, and sighed. Ashlynn heard her father's voice in the back ground. "It may be unavoidable," she replied to him.

"What's unavoidable?" Ashlynn asked.

"I have been supplying Elior with my blood," Cecelia's voice became quiet. "The effects wear off after a month. The supply I give him is minimal, and I know he shares it with his children. It will be wearing off soon." "Oh, shit." Ashlynn realized where this was going.

"You will need them to return home. If they begin to weaken, you may need to give them your blood."