155. My brother

155. My brother
ALLISON.

A choked gasp left my lips, and I clamped my hand over my mouth. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Four dozen bodies lay strewn across the ground, their forms twisted in agony. Their skin was scorched, blackened as if burned from the inside out. My breath caught in my throat. There was only one person who could have done this.

I swallowed hard, dreading what I would see when I looked up. And then, I saw him.

Sullivan. My brother.

He sat in the middle of the carnage, legs crossed as if waiting for us. His shoulders were hunched, his head bowed. But he wasn’t alone. Standing beside him, smiling wickedly, was Celestine.

“You finally made it here. I almost got bored waiting for you,” Celestine said in her usual sickly-sweet voice.

“What have you done?!” I growled in fury.

“Ask your brother. He was the one who did the dirty work,” Celestine shot back.

Sullivan’s face darkened. His expression was a mixture of anger, grief, and guilt. He looked as if he still couldn’t comprehend the blood on his hands.

“Y-You! You evil witch, you did this! You made him do this! How dare you!?” my whole body was shaking in anger.

My brother wouldn’t murder anyone with no particular reason, he was loyal to our kind. He wouldn’t murder his fellow lycans on his own will!

Celestine just let out a laugh that grated in my nerves. Around them, fifteen masked guards remained, a pitiful number compared to the overwhelming force they had last night. Still, something about her expression left me unsettled. It was like the fact that they were greatly outnumbered didn’t threaten her at all.

Daniel, Wesley, Liam, Mason, and River immediately formed a protective circle around me and Amaris, all of them snarling at Celestine. Quinn, still in her wolf form, froze. I followed her gaze and saw her eyes locked onto Sullivan. Her entire body stiffened as though she had been struck by lightning.

Sullivan turned to her, and in his eyes, I saw everything. Love. Pain. Desperation. Every fiber of his being wanted to run to her, to hold her, but something held him back, something stronger than his own will—binding vow that forced him to stay by Celestine’s side

Celestine’s smile widened. "We’ve been playing this game for far too long, Allison. Now, it’s time to settle the score." Her gaze darkened. "I’ll get what I want tonight. Even if I have to carve your heart out right here and now."

Liam growled and immediately lunged at her. His attack signaled the other four to charge as well. All of them went after Celestine, their massive forms crashing forward in a blur of fury. But before they could reach her, the masked guards surged to block them.

The masked guards didn’t stand a chance though. It only took a few minutes until the boys had ripped through them. Their pitiful lifeless bodies were left in heaps of mangled flesh. Now, only Celestine and Sullivan remained. They were more outnumbered than they were before.

But Celestine didn’t flinch.

"Give this up. Your greed will lead you to your own destruction,” I spat, my voice laced with venom.
Celestine’s laugh rang through the night, high and unhinged. It was like she had lost her mind. Maybe, she did. Her laugh sounded like rabid animal. It was unsettling. She wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes and grinned at me wickedly.

"Oh, poor Allison, I haven’t even played all my cards yet,” she said.

Then, she clapped her hands together, and mumbled something I couldn’t quite understand. It was like she was uttering some foreign language. A spell? A prayer? I wasn’t sure. But what happened afterwards made my skin crawl. The ground beneath her glowed. A massive magic circle appeared, pulsating with a deep crimson light.

What the hell was that?

Right then, the forest trembled. At first, I thought it was an earthquake. I gripped Daniel’s fur, struggling to keep my balance while holding Amaris. A frigid wind whipped through the clearing, and when I looked up, my blood ran cold.

The moon was bleeding. A dark red glow spread across the sky, casting everything in an eerie light, as if the strange crimson light had bathed us in blood.

But my eyes snapped back to what was in front when the mangled bodies of the falled masked guards suddenly twitched, their limbs jerking unnaturally. One by one, they rose.

“Holy shit…”

After the masked guards, the lifeless bodies of the supposed reinforcements that had littered around us began twitching to life as well. They rose up as if an invisible string was controlling them. Their bones snapped into place, their scorched skin stretched over reanimated muscle.

I cursed under my breath, breathing had. "What the fuck is that?!"

Celestine let out another shriek of laughter.

And then I heard another sound. This time, it was a rustling in the trees behind us. I turned just in time to see figures emerging from the darkness. My breath hitched in my throat. The vampires we had fought and had killed surged towards our direction.

Holy shit. No this couldn’t be possible. They were back!

Elara and Valentina stood among them, their throats still slashed open, their skin pale and lifeless. Yet, they moved. Like zombies.

"Now, let’s see you deal with this." Celestine smirked.

The undead army lunged at us and our force quickly fought them. They tore through them, but it didn’t matter. No matter how many times they were ripped apart, they pulled themselves back together like marionettes on invisible strings.

“You can’t kill the dead. You can try, but you’ll only end up one of them,” Celestine said maniacally.

How were we supposed to deal with this if we couldn’t kill them?!

Amaris wailed in my arms, the noise and violence too much for her tiny body to bear. Then, Quinn’s voice echoed through my mind.

“Allison, run! Take Amaris and get out of here!” she screamed through the mindlink.

I turned, my heart hammering. Quinn threw her head back and howled. Daniel understood. He spun and bolted away from the carnage, carrying me and Amaris with him.

"No!" I screamed. "Daniel, we can’t just leave them!"

But he didn’t listen. He was focused on one thing, getting us to safety. We had barely made it a hundred yards before Celestine’s voice rang out.

"Sullivan! Bring me your sister! I don’t care if they’re dead—bring them to me!"

A shadow moved behind us. I looked back and met Sullivan’s tortured gaze. He was chasing us. Bound by Celestine’s command, he ran in his human form, his hands igniting with fire. Balls of flames shot past us, scorching the ground and blocking our escape route. Daniel narrowly skidded to a stop before he turned away from the wall of flames. We were trapped.

We’re fucked!

Then, Sullivan approached us. I could see the anguish in his eyes. He didn’t want to do this. But he had no choice. Sullivan inched closer, his expression twisted in agony. His flames raged in his hand as he threatened to shoot it to our direction. But before he could do that, a huge brown wolf pounced on him, knocking him to the ground.

I gasped when I realized who it was. It was Quinn!