Chapter 57 The Offensive

Chapter 57 The Offensive
We bury Gabriel at midnight.
The ceremony is small. Only a handful of vampires remain after the attack, and most of them are too wounded to stand for long. Thad speaks words I don’t fully hear, something about loyalty and sacrifice and the debt the clan owes to those who gave everything. When it’s over, they lower Gabriel’s body into the ground beside a row of other graves I never knew existed.
The mansion has its own cemetery. Of course it does. Five hundred years of death has to go somewhere.
Afterward, Thad retreats to his study and doesn’t come out. I give him an hour before I follow.
He’s standing at the window when I enter, staring out at nothing. The curtains are drawn back just enough to reveal the damaged grounds below. Crews have been working since dawn to clear debris, but the scorch marks remain. Some wounds take longer to heal than others.
“We can’t keep doing this,” I tell him.
He doesn’t turn around. “Doing what?”
“Waiting. Hiding. Letting them come to us and pick us off one by one.” I move further into the room. “They attacked while we were gone, Thad. They knew exactly when to strike. They’re always one step ahead.”
“And what would you have me do?”
“Fight back. Take the battle to them instead of sitting here like targets.”
He finally turns to face me. The grief is still there, etched into every line of his face, but something else lurks beneath it now. Exhaustion. The kind that comes from centuries of carrying a burden no one should have to bear.
“You want to attack the Primigenii directly,” he states.
“Yes.”
“They’ve existed for millennia. They have resources we can’t imagine and allies in every corner of the world. We’re a fraction of what we were before the attack. Half our soldiers are dead. The other half are wounded.” He shakes his head. “It would be suicide.”
“Staying here is suicide. They’ll keep coming until there’s no one left.”
“At least here we have defenses. Walls. Territory we know.”
“Walls they’ve already breached twice.” I plant myself in front of him so he has no choice but to look at me. “I’m not saying we throw ourselves at them blindly. I’m saying we plan. We strategize. We use whatever advantages we have.”
“What advantages? We’re outmanned and outgunned.”
“You have me.”
The words hang in the space between us. Thad’s jaw works like he’s chewing on something bitter.
“I won’t use you as a weapon.”
“It’s not your choice. It’s mine.” I hold his gaze. “Dr. Voss said my blood could destroy the Primigenii. That makes me the biggest advantage we have. We’d be stupid not to use it.”
“And if something goes wrong? If they capture you?”
“Then at least I went down fighting instead of hiding in a mansion waiting for them to come finish the job.”
A knock at the door interrupts us. Dominique enters without waiting for permission, with Elias close behind her.
“We need to talk,” Dominique announces.
“We’re in the middle of something,” Thad replies.
“I know. That’s why we’re here.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “The clan is restless, Thad. They’re scared and angry and looking for direction. If we don’t give them something to fight for, they’re going to scatter.”
“And you think attacking the Primigenii is the answer?”
“I think sitting here waiting to die isn’t.” Dominique glances at me. “She’s right. We need to take the fight to them.”
Thad turns to Elias. “And you? Do you agree with this madness?”
Elias takes a moment before answering. “I think we’re running out of options. The Primigenii won’t stop until they have Thelma. Every day we wait, they grow stronger and we grow weaker. If we’re going to make a move, it needs to be now, while we still have the element of surprise.”
“Surprise?” Thad barks out a humorless laugh. “They have spies everywhere. They knew we were at the Obsidian Court. They knew exactly when to attack.”
“Which means we need to be smarter about how we plan this,” Dominique counters. “Small team. Minimal communication. Hit them where they least expect it.”
“And where would that be?”
“Their stronghold in the Carpathians,” Elias answers. “It’s where Cassius retreated after the attack on the mansion. Our intelligence suggests he’s regrouping there, consolidating his forces before the next assault.”
“You want to attack Cassius in his own territory.”
“I want to end this war before it ends us.”
Thad is quiet for a long moment. I watch the conflict play out behind his eyes. The protective instinct warring with the strategic mind. The desire to keep me safe battling against the reality that safety no longer exists.
“If we do this,” he finally says, “we do it my way. No reckless heroics. No unnecessary risks. We go in with a plan and we stick to it.”
“Agreed,” Dominique says.
“And Thelma stays in the rear. She’s our secret weapon, not our frontline soldier.”
I open my mouth to argue, but Dominique cuts me off with a look. Pick your battles, her eyes seem to say.
“Fine,” I concede. “But I want to be part of the planning. I’m not going to sit in a corner while everyone else decides my fate.”
Thad nods once. “Fair enough.”
He moves to his desk and clears away the papers cluttering its surface. From a drawer, he pulls out a large map and spreads it across the wood. The Carpathian Mountains stretch across the center, marked with notations in a language I don’t recognize.
“Elias, what do we know about their defenses?”
“The stronghold is built into the mountain itself. One main entrance, heavily guarded. But there are tunnel systems throughout the region that predate even the Primigenii. If we can find a way in through those...”
“We’d need someone who knows the layout.”
“I might be able to help with that,” Dominique offers. “I have contacts in Eastern Europe. Old friends who owe me favors.”
Thad studies the map with narrowed eyes. “How many fighters can we spare?”
“Twenty, maybe twenty-five. Any more and we leave the mansion vulnerable.”
“It’s not enough.”
“It’ll have to be.” Elias leans over the map and points to a spot near the mountain’s base. “If we hit them here, at the supply route, we can cut off their resources before the main assault.”
The planning continues for hours. They debate entry points and timing and contingencies I can barely follow. I listen and learn, absorbing everything I can about the world I’ve been thrust into.
By the time the sun rises, we have the beginnings of a plan.
It’s risky. It’s desperate. It might get us all killed.
But for the first time since I woke up in this mansion, I feel like I’m fighting for something instead of running from it.