Chapter 25 THEY ARE COMING FOR US
/Edlyn/
The air between us had gotten too heavy, too charged, too everything. Nelson was staring at me like he wanted answers carved straight out of my soul, and Moon and Vamp were still clawing around in my head like two emotional squirrels with knives. My chest felt too tight, my thoughts tangled, and if this conversation went any deeper, I was ninety percent sure I was going to short-circuit.
So I did the only thing my overstimulated brain could manage.
“Can we… continue this conversation tomorrow?” I asked, forcing my voice to stay calm even though inside I was basically screaming. “I’m really tired and I need to sleep.”
It wasn’t even a lie. I was exhausted mentally, physically, magically, emotionally, spiritually and in every possible way a human or not-so-human person could be exhausted. But mostly, I just needed to stop talking before I accidentally confessed the entire supernatural chaos living in my bloodstream.
Nelson hesitated. Just a split second, but enough for his wolf to rumble through the bond I didn’t even want to acknowledge. Then he nodded slowly.
“Alright then.”
He leaned forward, clearly intending to kiss me. And not on the forehead. Nope. This man had real lips-on-lips intention behind that movement.
I panicked.
I stood up so fast I practically teleported off his lap. “Good night, Nelson,” I blurted, and before he could react, I leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. Soft. Safe. Neutral territory.
His eyes flickered with something unreadable, something warm and frustrated and confused all at once. But he didn’t push. He didn’t question. He just nodded again and walked out of my room.
The second the door clicked shut, Moon exploded inside my head like she’d been waiting to yell.
“Oh my goddess, the spark is like fireworks,” she huffed, breathless. “Do you have any idea what it felt like sitting on his lap that long? I can’t even think properly. Everything in us was screaming mine.”
I threw myself onto the bed and covered my face with a pillow. “I know,” I groaned. “Trust me, I felt every spark.”
Vamp scoffed darkly. She was pacing, claws tapping against the inside of my mind like a queen annoyed at her court. “Is that why you kept pushing us to tell him the truth? Because you’re lovesick and soft?”
Moon gasped. “Excuse you! I want us honest with our mate.”
“He hates people like us,” Vamp snapped back. “He literally said it tonight. He hates vampires. He hates witches. He hates fairies. He hates everyone whose blood runs in us. And you want to throw open the doors and be like surprise we are all three!”
I froze.
Because the fear in Vamp’s tone hit a nerve.
“It’s not that simple,” I whispered.
Moon went quiet.
Vamp’s voice softened just a fraction. “You know he won’t take it well. You know it.”
My heart twisted.
Because yeah… I knew.
Vamp crossed her arms in my head like she owned the place. Her tone went from irritated queen to smug queen in half a second.
“At least our other soulmate knows exactly what we are already,” she said. “And he wants us. No hesitation. No fear. No weird speeches about hating witches or fairies or blood drinkers. He knows, and he still wants us.”
I groaned into my pillow, because of course she’d bring that up.
“Vamp… do you have any idea how he was able to get into our head?” I asked, lifting my face just enough to breathe. “Like, seriously. What kind of stalker psychic nonsense was that?”
Moon cleared her throat gently. “I’ve been thinking about that,” she said. “And there’s only one type of vampire with the ability to enter a mind protected by wolf energy.”
Vamp hummed dramatically. “Oh… I know where this is going.”
Moon continued, voice steady. “It has to be him. The Vampire King. Or something very close to that level. No other vampire can breach a wolf pack’s mental barrier. Especially not yours, since you’re… well… you.”
I sat up slowly, my heart thumping hard. “The Vampire King,” I repeated, barely above a whisper.
Vamp made a satisfied sound. “He’s definitely the king. Everything about him screams royal. The power. The voice. His aura. And the fact he’s been inside a wolf pack territory for hours without detection?” She scoffed. “Yeah. That man isn’t some random night walker. That’s big throne energy.”
Moon nodded. “He shouldn’t even be able to get close to this place without triggering alarms. But he did. Silently. Effortlessly.”
Vamp chuckled darkly. “He stalked us through the forest, watched us like we were the only thing worth looking at, spoke into our mind, smelled amazing as hell and somehow kept every wolf in this entire pack clueless that he was even here.”
My heart dropped straight into my stomach.
“Which means,” Moon said softly, “your vampire soulmate isn’t just any vampire.”
“He’s the king,” Vamp finished. “The most powerful bloodborn alive.”
I shoved a hand through my hair, feeling my pulse race.
“Oh goddess,” I muttered. “Of course. Because why have one impossible mate when I can have two? One being the Supreme Alpha… and the other being the actual Vampire King.”
Vamp purred. “Honestly? We’re iconic.”
Moon groaned. “We’re doomed.”
I flopped backward on my bed like my bones were rebooting one at a time.
“I’m done. Completely done. I’m going to sleep before another supernatural revelation pops out and punches me in the face,” I muttered.
Moon hummed sympathetically. Vamp just snickered.
Dragging myself up, I forced my legs toward the bathroom. I turned on the water, letting the steam roll through the space until it felt like a foggy dimension where responsibilities didn’t exist.
The moment the warm water hit my skin, my whole body sighed.
I scrubbed off the dirt, the stress, the scent of forest and hospital and panic. Every drop that slid down my arms felt like peeling away another layer of chaos. But even with all that, my mind wouldn’t sit still. It kept jumping from Nelson’s arms to the vampire king’s voice whispering in my skull.
“Too much,” I whispered into the steam.
After drying off, I dug into my little pile of belongings. All the clothes Jasmine bought me today? No clue where they ended up. For all I knew, they were still hanging in the changing room with security alarms screaming in the background.
So I went with one of my old nightwears. A soft oversized shirt and shorts that had definitely seen better years but still felt more familiar than anything new. I pulled them on and crawled into bed, burying myself under the blankets.
“I swear, if any of you—Moon, Vamp, random vampire king voice—try anything, I’m blocking you all out,” I mumbled as I settled in.
Moon whispered gently, “Rest, Edlyn.”
Vamp muttered, “Don’t dream about wolf-boy again.”
I didn’t even have the energy to argue. Sleep dragged me under fast—too fast.
And then the nightmare slammed into me.
It didn’t start slow or blurry. It hit like a knife.
Blood.
Everywhere.
Splattered across trees, dripping from walls, soaking the earth until it turned black and sticky. Screams echoed—raw, sharp, endless. Bodies littered the ground in pieces, torn open, shredded as if something massive had ripped through them.
I stumbled forward in the dream, gasping, my breath fogging in the air as if it were winter. My bare feet sank into the blood-soaked soil. The air smelled metallic and rotten, choking me with every inhale.
The sky wasn’t a sky anymore. It was red. Like someone painted it with fresh wounds.
My heart pounded as I stepped past a fallen warrior. His chest was ripped open. His eyes were wide. Empty.
Another body.
And another.
Some were wolves frozen mid-shift, limbs twisted violently. Some were witches with symbols carved into their skin. Some were vampires burned to ash at the edges.
War.
Slaughter.
Massacre.
And then I saw her.
Me.
My own body.
Lying on the ground in a pool of blood so dark it was almost black. My hair was soaked in it. My eyes were open but lifeless. My throat…. Slashed. My chest… Stabbed.
My arms… Covered in deep claw marks that looked like they belonged to something monstrous.
I wanted to scream but my voice wouldn’t come.
I wanted to run but my legs were frozen.
All I could do was stare at myself dead on the forest floor.
Then the corpse version of me blinked.
Her eyes snapped to mine.
And she whispered, voice broken and echoing through the nightmare,
“They’re coming for us.”
My entire world shattered into darkness.