Chapter 105 They are here for her

Chapter 105 They are here for her
/Luca/

The moment I stepped outside the palace, I knew this was not a normal attack.

The air smelled wrong. Not like blood. Not like wolves. Not even like magic, which had its own particular scent I’d long since learned to recognize.

It smelled old. Ancient, in a way that made something instinctive inside me want to retreat.

My monster was already awake, pacing restlessly as we stood at the top of the palace stairs.

They are not here to conquer.

I know.

They are here for her.

I looked out across the battlefield. Edlyn stood several steps behind me with Nelson beside her, close enough that I could hear her breathing even over the chaos. Warriors were already running through the palace grounds, grabbing weapons and scrambling into positions along the walls. The war horns kept sounding, warning every corner of the kingdom that something had breached our borders.

Then I saw them.

They were coming through the eastern forest. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands, stretching back into the tree line farther than I could see.

At first, they looked like people. Then they came closer, and the illusion fell apart entirely.

Their bodies were covered in dark armor that seemed to shift and move like it was alive, breathing along with them. Their faces were hidden behind silver masks, expressionless and identical, and each of them carried a strange weapon unlike anything I’d encountered in centuries of fighting.

My monster growled low. Collectors.

I looked toward Seraphina, who stood calmly near the palace entrance like the approaching army was nothing more than weather.

“You know them?”

“I know what they are.”

“Then tell me how to kill them.”

Her eyes moved toward me, steady and unbothered. “They cannot be killed the way you kill vampires.”

I almost laughed despite everything. “Everything can be killed.”

“That confidence may get you killed.”

“Good thing I’m difficult to kill.”

Nelson stepped up beside me, his eyes never leaving the approaching line. “What’s their weakness?”

Seraphina looked at him. “They don’t have one.”

Nelson’s jaw tightened. “That’s not an answer.”

“It is the truth.”

I watched the creatures continue their advance, unhurried, like they had all the time in the world and knew it. One of them suddenly lifted its hand, and a strange wave of energy shot across the ground toward our line. Several vampire warriors screamed as they were thrown backward, their bodies crumpling against the earth.

My eyes narrowed. “They’re draining them.”

Seraphina nodded grimly. “They feed on supernatural energy.”

My monster snarled. Then don’t let them touch us.

I didn’t need to be told twice.

I disappeared into the shadows, and the next second I was standing in the middle of the enemy formation, surrounded on all sides.

One of the masked creatures swung its weapon toward me. I caught it with my bare hand, and the metal burned against my palm instantly, pain shooting up through my arm like fire. I grinned through it anyway.

“Interesting.”

I twisted the weapon free of its grip and drove my fist into its chest. It flew backward, hard enough that the impact should have ended it.

But instead of dying, it simply stood back up.

I stared at it. “Annoying.”

Three more came at me at once. I moved through them quickly, using speed and shadow to strike from different angles before they could anticipate me. One fell. Then another.

But the third caught my wrist, and the moment its fingers closed around my skin, my strength started bleeding out of me like water through a cracked vessel. My vision blurred at the edges.

My monster roared. BREAK ITS ARM!

I twisted violently and heard something crack beneath my grip. The creature released me instantly, and I stumbled back, breathing hard.

The wound on my palm was already healing, the skin knitting back together, but the weakness underneath it remained, hollow and unfamiliar.

“They really do drain power.”

A wolf suddenly crashed into the creature beside me. Nelson, shifting back mid-fall and landing hard on the ground in human form.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better.”

He looked at my hand, still faintly trembling. “They touched you?”

“Briefly.”

His expression darkened. “Don’t let them touch you again.”

I laughed despite the exhaustion pulling at me. “Are you worried about me, wolf?”

“No.”

“Of course not.”

“I just don’t want to explain to Edlyn why her other mate died.”

I smiled, something warm cutting through the pain. “There he is.”

For a second, the tension between us actually eased. Then a scream came from behind us, and everything else stopped mattering.

Edlyn.

We both turned at once. She was standing in the middle of the palace courtyard, both hands clutching her head. Moon was screaming inside her, the sound almost audible even from where we stood, and Vamp’s presence had exploded around her like dark smoke curling into the air.

I started toward her without thinking.

Nelson grabbed my arm. “Wait.”

I turned sharply. “Let go.”

“Look.”

I did, and what I saw stopped me cold.

The battlefield had gone completely still. Every Collector had turned toward Edlyn. Every single one, their masked faces all pointed in the same direction like something had pulled their attention at once.

Then, together, they dropped to one knee.

My blood ran cold. “What the hell?”

Nelson stared, disbelief written across his face. “They’re bowing.”

Seraphina walked toward us, her voice barely above a whisper. “No.” She shook her head slowly. “They’re recognizing her.”

Edlyn slowly lifted her head. Her eyes were glowing, silver and black at once, and the ground beneath her feet cracked in spiderweb patterns radiating outward.

The Collectors rose as one. One of them removed its mask, and what lay beneath was not human. Its skin was pale and almost translucent, strange markings crawling across its face like living ink.

It looked directly at Edlyn. Then it spoke, its voice carrying easily across the silent battlefield.

“The First Daughter has awakened.”

Every warrior on the battlefield went silent at once.

Edlyn looked confused, her brow furrowing. “Who is the First Daughter?”

The creature pointed at her without hesitation.

“You.”

Edlyn shook her head. “No.”

The creature tilted its head, studying her like something precious. “You carry the blood of kings.”

Another Collector stepped forward. “The blood of witches.”

Another. “The blood of fairies.”

Another. “The blood of gods.”

The final one looked at her, its voice dropping lower. “And the blood of darkness.”

My monster went completely still inside me. I felt something shift, some understanding settling into place that I hadn’t been ready for.

I had known Edlyn was powerful. I had known she was different from anyone I’d ever met in all my centuries.

But this?

This was something else entirely.

The creature continued. “We have come to collect what belongs to the ancient ones.”

Nelson moved in front of Edlyn without hesitation. “She belongs to no one.”

The Collector looked at him, unimpressed. “Supreme Alpha.”

Nelson’s expression hardened. “You know who I am?”

“We know all kings who stand in her way.”

I stepped beside Nelson, matching his stance. “And I’m guessing you know me too.”

The creature’s masked face turned toward me. “Vampire King.”

I smiled, cold and sharp. “Good. Saves me the introduction.”

Its head tilted again, patient and unhurried. “You will surrender the First Daughter.”

“No.”

Nelson answered at the exact same moment. “No.”

I glanced at him. He glanced back. For once, neither of us cared who had spoken first.

The Collector raised its weapon. “Then your kingdoms will fall with her.”

Edlyn stepped forward before either of us could stop her. “Enough.”

I turned toward her immediately. “Edlyn.”

She ignored me completely, walking until she stood directly between Nelson and me, facing the entire line of kneeling Collectors alone.

The wind suddenly changed, shifting direction all at once. Her hair lifted around her face as though caught in a storm only she could feel. The clouds above us began spinning slowly, and the light beneath her skin grew brighter with every second.

The Collectors stepped backward in unison.

For the first time since they’d arrived, they looked afraid.

Edlyn looked at them, her voice strangely calm given everything happening around her.

“You came for me.”

The ground shook beneath all of us.

“You wanted my power.”

Her voice dropped, steady and unshaken.

“Then come and take it.”

My monster practically leapt inside my chest with something like pride. That’s our kitten.

Nelson looked at me, disbelief and awe tangled together on his face. “She’s insane.”

“Completely,” I agreed, unable to keep the admiration out of my voice.

Edlyn raised her hand. A wave of energy exploded outward from her body, hitting the Collectors so hard that dozens of them were thrown clear across the battlefield, scattering like leaves in a gale.

The warriors around us stared in stunned silence. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.

Edlyn slowly lowered her hand. Then she looked at both of us.

“I told you both.”

Her eyes shifted between Nelson and me, fierce and unwavering.

“I’m not choosing.”

Nelson smiled, something soft breaking through the intensity of the moment. “Then we don’t make you.”

I stepped closer, meaning every word. “Never.”

A roar came from the forest, and my smile disappeared instantly.

That wasn’t one of the Collectors.

It was something much bigger. Something powerful. Something that had been waiting behind them the entire time, patient and unseen.

Seraphina looked toward the forest, and her face finally showed genuine fear for the first time since she’d arrived.

“The second army.”

Nelson’s hand tightened around his weapon. “Already?”

Seraphina nodded, her voice tight. “They came faster than I expected.”

I looked at Edlyn. Then at Nelson.

The first army had barely entered our kingdom, and already the second was coming behind it.

My monster laughed inside my head, something dark and eager. Finally.

I smiled despite the dread pooling in my chest. “Looks like we’re going to have a busy day.”

Nelson shook his head. “You really are crazy.”

“And you’re still standing beside me.”

“Because we’re mates to the same woman.”

I looked at Edlyn. She was staring toward the forest, completely still. Then she suddenly whispered something too quiet to catch.

“What?”

She turned toward us slowly, something like horror dawning across her face.

“I know that roar.”

My smile vanished completely. “How?”

Edlyn’s eyes widened, her whole body going rigid.

“Because I’ve heard it before.”

The forest exploded outward.

And something enormous stepped out of the darkness, massive enough to blot out what remained of the moon.

Edlyn stared at it, and then whispered, her voice breaking on the words: