Chapter 277

NICOLAI'S POV

I looked around at the army of twenty people following me and I pinched myself.

Just a few months ago, I was a nobody. A useless weakling with power and knowledge that was locked away, hated by everyone.

And now?

Now I have a chance to change my story, to make a name for myself, and redeem my name from the black dot my father had blotted my identity with.

We were standing by the Portal and Kelly's hand was still raised in the air, looking at the time on my mate's phone.

She couldn't fight, but we'd decided that Hazel would help make her invisible, as her role was vital.

One second delay in movement was enough to save one from getting killed so that was one of the things she was doing.

Also, her potion was ready and it made us all feel more confident in our plan.

Well, I wasn't overly confident; I feared that many things could go wrong and my fathers-in-law's warnings in my head were one of them.

Indeed, even without their threats, if anything were to happen to my mate, I would be a goner but far be it from me to limit her in any way.

She wanted to fight, so I'll make sure she doesn't get hurt.

I mentally checked all my weapons, my dart gun, my poison-coated knives, guns, and the blood supply in my backpack. Elly had double checked so I was sure everything was complete but while we waited for the go-ahead, it was all I could do to calm my frayed nerves.

“Now!” She yelled, pulling me out of my head and straight into action.

With a loud yell, I jumped into the portal and my warriors followed suit, our shouts scaring the villagers even before we appeared on the ground.

Already, the vampire soldiers were running towards us, they didn't even know there was a portal there and I could see they were caught off guard.

There weren't many of them in this place, their confidence in their vampire-killing powers making them relaxed.

That was their undoing.

Kelly poured the powder into the air as they ran towards us and I held my hand up for everyone to hold on as they all soaked in it, I didn't want to be weakened by our own poison.

“Arrows!” I commanded and Kathleen and her twin positioned immediately, firing darts at the vampires who were recovering from the potion.

There were probably a hundred of them but the arrows took down fifteen before they got too close for comfort.

We didn't need them getting anywhere near that portal.

So we launched ourselves at them, claws, knives, and poison darts plunging into vampire flesh.

In seconds, I found myself enjoying this. It was so easy to just slash at an exposed neck, a protruding leg, or an arm coming towards me, and with just a slash of my knives, they were heading towards the ground.

When the knives were finished, the poisons in them thriving in the blood of the vampires on the ground, I switched to the darts.

I just pulled them in my finger crevices, injecting as I went; everything was a blur and I didn't even care who got what.

I was drowning in the euphoria of pulling down my enemies and the blood that was all over my body probably made me look like a bloodhound.

Finally, there was no one to poison or push down.

That was when I realized I'd not been checking on my mate.

I turned around in search of her and all I saw were my soldiers staring at me like…

“What's wrong?” I sounded terrified.

“You didn't even need us here,” Asher muttered,

“You're strong enough to take down a fucking army!” Adrien exclaimed but beyond that was a nod of respect.

I'd proven myself to them.

But none of that was a priority in the moment.

“Where's Eleanor?” I asked them clearly this time, ignoring the talks about my power.

It was great that they weren't talking about it with fear and revulsion as the soldiers back in Fort Valor but nothing made sense to me in that moment.

Especially them ignoring me in an odd way.

“WHERE'S MY MATE!?!”

“I'm over here you brute!” She yelled from the human camp and I zipped towards the direction her voice was coming from, my heart nearly leaping out of my chest.

Then I saw her.

There she was, tending to a human child who was injured.

“Baby…”

“Those bastards were drinking from children,” she hissed, pouring her blood into the boy's mouth.

“You're changing him,” I gasped.

“It's the only way he'll survive,” she sighed, “and his parents were devastated so when I gave them the option, they didn't object.”

I didn't know what to say, it wasn't an easy feat converting a vampire and if we got attacked again, she'd be in danger.

I still haven't figured out what happened to me earlier but I completely zoned out, unable to look out for her or protect her.

“Where's Kelly? I need the other witches to come up now and seal off this place,” I breathed.

We needed to head back immediately.

I knew something was happening to me but I feared speaking about it. I mean, I was on a positive streak, everything was going good and great so why would I ruin it by telling somebody I was getting possessed by some dark force?

It was probably from my father so I just had to kill him and get it over with.

Then I'll be free again.

In the meantime, I had to begin taking precautions before each battle to protect her.

We still had five more before the major one and with each location, the numbers would be higher.

I needed to figure out a way to keep her away from the main action without making her feel bad.

“Hazel has informed them,” she brought me out of my reverie. “They'll be here any minute now. Meanwhile, you need to sit down, you're scaring these poor children.”

I nodded and did as she said, my mind whirling in different directions.

“You should be doing this rather than getting your clothes bloodied with all that fighting,” I began tentatively, sounding caring but not in a possessive way.

“Caring for the injured always comes after the battle Nic, not before,” she sighed as she gave the boy back to his mother. “Give him these blood packs. But make sure he doesn't finish it all at once, we wouldn't want him to go after other humans,” she instructed them.

With tears in their eyes, they hugged and thanked her before she came back to me.

With that plan in the mud, I decided to try another route.

Her parents might be trying to give her freedom now but they were also hoping on me to protect her. I'll have to tell them half the truth about what happened so they can try and get her to stay back.

Hopefully, it doesn't ruin the relationship they were currently working on repairing.

But whatever it is that needs doing, I'll do it to ensure she's safe from this monster crawling out of my chest.