Fight Back
Lucien Virell POV
The scent of iron and rot was almost euphoric.
I reclined on the crimson velvet throne we’d claimed from the last noble family foolish enough to resist, swirling a goblet of still warm blood and watching it catch the candlelight. The bodies hadn’t even cooled, and already their screams had become background music in my mind.
Perfect.
Across from me, Vaela paced like a beautiful, bloodstained predator. Her lips were dark with her last meal. Her eyes, those ruby flames I adored, glinted as if she felt it too. She was fucking perfection. My delicious, evil, corrupted monster.
That electricity in the air. She paused mid step, her spine arching like a cat as the air around us trembled. The goblet in my hand shattered as blood mist hissed upward, twisting, pulsing, and coagulating into a shape of divine, ancient hunger.
A voice slithered out of the void, thick as tar and twice as cold. “My children.”
Ah, Raelith. Our goddess. Our mother. Our madness.
I dropped to my knees in one fluid motion, tongue heavy with reverence and arousal. “Speak, my queen of crimson ruin. We are yours.”
Vaela followed, fangs bared, pupils dilated with ecstasy. “Command us, Mother of Suffering.”
The voice echoed in our skulls, drowning everything else.
“The seal has cracked. The fae realm is open. The dragon lands bleed.”
I gasped, grinning like a madman. “You did it. You brilliant, monstrous goddess, you did it.”
“The blood sirens rise. They sing the waters red. My leechworms crawl beneath their forests and will infect the roots themselves. Any who are bitten will carry my song in their veins. My will. My madness.”
Vaela moaned with a full body shudder. “Goddess, it’s beautiful.”
“They will walk as corpses. Puppets. My crimson choir. Every corpse that falls to the sirens will rise again under my call. The moon whores think they’ve won? I’ll drown their realm in rot.”
Chills danced down my spine. “And the mortals?” I asked, trembling with desire.
“My loyal cultists are already among them. On the outskirts. In the shadows. They’ll recruit, corrupt, and collect. Villages without protection will be harvested first. Blood for me. Flesh for the worms. They will beg to belong to something… and they will belong to me.”
Vaela’s nails carved crescents into her palms. “And what do you require from us, Mother?”
Silence fell. Then, a hiss so sharp it felt like a blade between the ribs.
“Vampires. I want more children. I want the worthy turned. Every soldier, every mage, every feral stray who can survive the bite. Build me an army. A bloodbound legion.”
My fangs ached. Vaela leaned into my side, breathless. “We’ll turn them all. The strong, the smart, the cruel. We’ll drain the weak and elevate the rest.”
“Find those with nothing left. Feed them purpose. Seduce them with power. Sink your fangs into the future and bring me sons and daughters worthy of the end.”
The blood mist swirled into a maw of endless teeth and vanished, the echo of her laughter dancing in the chamber like a thousand dying heartbeats.
I stood slowly, my skin buzzing with holy corruption. “Vaela,” I purred, turning to her, “how many do you think we can turn before moonrise?”
She licked her lips, blood still clinging to them. “All of them.”
I laughed, full and unhinged. “Then let’s make the realm scream.”
Vaela POV
Later that night
Small fox shifter village
Near the Crucible, Montana
We came like dusk falling, silent, and inevitable, choking out every last breath of light. The fox shifter village unfolded below us, nestled in a grove like a secret they thought the gods would protect. Fools.
Lucien stood beside me, with his arms folded like a king surveying cattle. I licked my lips, feeling the hum of Raelith’s blessing in my blood. My power pulsed in time with the blood moon rising over the treetops.
“It’s almost… too easy,” I murmured.
Lucien chuckled, his voice like silk wrapped steel. “They’re fat on false safety. We’ll fix that.”
We descended without warning.
The wards cracked under my magic like brittle old bones. I barely had to flex. Just a thought, a breath, and they shattered like glass beneath a hammer. I grinned as I felt them fall.
“Go,” I ordered the Lock. “Take the fit. Leave the weak.”
Chaos bloomed like a plague. Fox shifters spilled out of homes, snarling and half shifted. Mothers clutched kits, elders stumbled, confused and blind in the dark.
I didn’t flinch. I targeted. The strong. The healthy. The warriors. The young adults. The ones with muscle, with purpose. Those were ours. The rest?
Not worth the oxygen. Damael and Valira swooped through the trees like hunting shadows. Kareth crushed a fox male’s windpipe with one hand and dropped him when he realized he was too old to bother with.
Lucien was laughing. Fuck, he looked beautiful in this light, his black eyes glowing, his teeth red. My heart pounded like a drum made of bone and rage. We rounded up the adults, binding them in enchanted chains soaked with Raelith’s blood. They screamed and fought. Some begged.
“Shhh,” I purred to one female struggling against me, “You’re not dying. You’re just… becoming. Isn’t that beautiful?”
She spat in my face. I backhanded her so hard her teeth shattered. The old and the young were herded into the empty granary. One of the elders whimpered, “Please… don’t hurt them…”
“Oh, we won’t,” I cooed, motioning for Valira to bolt the door. “We’ll just let nature take care of it.”
Lucien tossed a single loaf of bread onto the dirt floor. “For the gods,” he said with a mocking grin.
Then we locked them in. Their cries were delicious. We pulled forty three strong adults from the wreckage of that village. Forty three new subjects for the Crucible.
This was just the beginning. As we marched our captives into the forest, their chains clinking in rhythm with their sobs, I glanced back only once.
The village burned slowly behind us, smoke curling into the stars. I smiled.
“Now that,” I whispered, “is fucking devotion.”
Soria POV
My boots crunched over frost laced pine needles as I walked beside Varek, my heart pounding like a war drum in my throat. The scent of ash and blood still clung to my skin, even after we’d left the fox village hours ago. I couldn’t scrub it out if I tried.
I could still hear the children screaming. My heart clenched and I felt like I might be sick. Elowen would save the children, I had to warn them.
Vaela thought she’d won. I don't even know who my sister is anymore. She's twisted. Beyond recognition. She thought I was hers. That I was as twisted and hateful as she was. Loyal to her. She didn’t know shit.
Varek glanced at me, his sharp eyes flicking toward the trees, checking for scouts, drones, anything that might be slithering through the dark on Raelith’s orders. He gave the barest nod.
It was clear. I pulled the comm crystal from beneath my cloak, my hands trembling as I whispered the message.
“Fox shifter village… near the Crucible… Montana… HELP.
PS: Raelith has infiltrated fae lands. Blood sirens. Blood leeches. Underground. Beware.”
The crystal glowed faintly, pulsed once, then dulled. Message sent. I shoved it back into my bra just as Varek gently reached out and squeezed my fingers. “Breathe, baby,” he said softly, his voice warm and steady. “You did good.”
My throat burned as my eyes filled with unshed tears. “She’s killing them,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “She’s starving elders. Locking up children. And now Raelith wants more vampires? What the actual fuck are we doing?”
His jaw ticked. “Surviving. So we can burn this place down from the inside.”
I nodded, even though I felt like crumbling. “Varek…” My voice cracked. “What if I die before we can warn them all? What if this is all for nothing?”
He stopped. Turned. Cupped my face in those calloused, familiar hands. “Then I’ll carry on for you. But you’re not dying. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not until every bloodsucking psycho in that fortress is ash under our boots.”
I let out a shaky laugh that turned into a sob. “You always know what to say, asshole.”
He grinned. “You love it.”
We kept walking, pretending to be good little blood cult scouts. But every step felt heavier, like guilt and fury were stacking bricks on my spine.
Hours passed. The woods grew thicker, deeper, and quieter. And then we found them.
A lion pride. Hiding.
They’d cloaked their camp well, it was buried in an overgrown glade with magical shielding that shimmered if you stared too long. Children peeked from canvas tents. Warriors kept low and silent. They weren’t attacking. They were surviving.
“Shit,” I muttered, crouching behind a boulder with Varek. “We’ll have to report this…”
“But not yet,” he said. I looked at him. His expression was unreadable. Dangerous.
“We say we didn’t find anything today,” he said, his voice low. “We bring them one step further from danger.”
“We can’t protect them all,” I whispered.
“No,” he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “But we can buy them time.”
I rested my head against him, exhaustion seeping into my bones. One lie at a time. One secret signal. One stolen warning.
That’s how we fight back.