Alpha Asher By Jane Doe

Chapter 167 — Many hit the trees, rocks, and earth, but even more hit the Vampire's that stalked us, wrapping around their limbs, and tightening their grip much like a snake would. It was both beautiful and deadly, watching them pierce their skin, seeing the looks of apprehension and confusion as they realized I was capable of so much more than their previous ruler.

“Lola, remember you don't want to k**I them.” I heard Tristan murmur, barely registering the sound of his voice over the roar in my ears. His hand ghosted across my shoulder in a gesture meant to soothe me, but all it did was break the haze the addictive power I wielded had over me.

The tendrils of shadow that had been tightening around their throats, turning their faces various shades of black and blue, loosened just enough to allow them air.

Rather than show my emotions and express the ripple of doubt and regret that passed through me, I steeled my spine and faced them the way a true Queen would.

"You have all made a grave mistake coming here tonight.” I assured them, looking each one in the face from where they hovered several feet above the ground, wrapped almost entirely in darkness and shadow. "K*****g all of you is well within my power, and well within my rights, but I vowed long ago that I would be a different kind of ruler. Tell me, (why) have you come here and where is Lars?" With eyes of varying shapes and colors, each Vampire stared at me. Two of the males, both Hispanic with heads of curly hair spat at my feet, while the other three remained silent. The only female of the bunch, the one nimble enough to evade my first a****k, snarled freely.

“You are not their Queen, Luna Lola.” A voice both masculine and feminine said, pulsating from deeper within the forest, like an echo that rippled and spread across the earth. “Their true ruler resides within the Land of the D**d. For now, anyway.”

Tristan sank into a crouch beside me, all too easily snapping out of his surprise.

I saw his face first, pale and covered in dark veins as his blank eyes stared at me through the night. The way he moved, hobbling as he pushed past the bushes and hanging foliage, unflinching even with the knife protruding just below his left eye, struck a chord deep within me.

His arms and legs moved as though they were heavier than the rest of him and dredged up a seemingly unimportant memory from my childhood.

Back when Mom and I had gotten along, she'd taken me to one of those puppets shows kids seem to love. I remembered all of the other children enraptured with the little dolls, ignoring the wires that controlled their limbs and jaws, ignoring the puppet master behind the curtain, directing their every move.

“You're not Lars.” I stated, taking a step to the left as I began circling him, keeping my movements slow and steady.

Tristan’s apprehension was practically tangible in the air between us, which I promptly ignored. The pull in my gut told me keeping my cool and feigning this indestructible confidence was the right move. Both my Vampire protector and Cassidy stuck by my side, watching the corpse I spoke to and my back incase any new intruders wanted to make an appearance.

I lifted my chin ever so slightly and spoke in a voice free of fear or doubt. It was one I only partially recognized. "Who's pulling your strings, puppet?”

Lars's lips split as they widened, dragged across his face in a grin that made the dark veins along his cheeks bulge sickeningly. His laughter was wet from the substance that coated his teeth, much thicker than blood even though it carried a similar scent. His laugh sounded both male and female, like two voices layered over one another. One belonged to a cocky biker, the other a woman. "Where's the fun in asking a question you already know the answer to?” He mused, his body uncomfortably still and his eyes unblinking. “Such incredible power, yet you lack the wits to put it to proper use.”

Anger swirled in my chest, threatening to melt the ice that held the six Vampire's in place. Another gut feeling told me that if I lost my cool, I'd also lose control of whatever magic it was that gave me power over the shadows.

His words chased themselves in my mind, only it was the voice of the woman I heard. Round and round they went, staining my thoughts a bright shade of crimson and bringing the scent of fresh blood to my nose.

“You're the blood-witch.”

Lars's grin remained rooted in place, a b****y g**h across the lower half of his face. “Well would you look at that, you're not entirely hopeless.”

“Why have you come here?” It was Tristan that sent the question hurling in her direction. “Why orchestrate this a****k?"

"Why? To speak with Lola here, of course. I had to wait until that mate of hers left, but he’s a bit busy handling a mess I made. Not to worry, he'll make it unscathed... for the most part.”

I shifted from foot to foot, feeling the icy magic I was somehow using sapping my strength. Slowly, the shadows were becoming restless, frustrated that I'd confined and enslaved them. Lars's grin widened ever so slightly, as though the witch controlling him could feel my hold slipping.

“You went through all this trouble to speak with me?" I scoffed, my expression giving nothing away. “I went through all of this trouble to warn you.” She corrected. “Your failure is inevitable. It's been written into our history for longer than even I can remember. For centuries young witches have read the prophecies foretelling the unification of Witches and Vampire's, and it all begins with you. Your d***h will be the beginning of a new world order and will ultimately mark the end of the Werewolf species.”

It didn’t matter if what she was saying was true, or that it frightened me to my very core. What was important was this pack and the Vampire's I swore I'd protect. Even the ones suspended in mid air, watching our conversation with conflicted eyes, were important. As I always had in the past, I let my stubbornness win out and spoke without a I**k of common sense.

"You expect me to believe that?” I raised an eyebrow, nodding up at the six Vampire's I currently had trapped. “If I'm capable of this, I wonder what else I can do. You won't win, I promise you that much, and we will not go peacefully. Try and k**I us all, I dare you. I'll personally make sure that every single witch dies along with us, including you.”

“You would've made a decent Queen, and an even better High Priestess. Perhaps if there is anything left of your soul, you'll choose to be reincarnated.” She mused, the grittiness of Lars's voice meshing with the silkiness of hers. “I suppose it's time I take my leave, those dimwitted warriors of yours have finally snuffed out the presence of these here Vampire's. Speaking of which, they cannot be allowed to live, unfortunately. I do hope you put their blood to good use though, considering I can't while in this body. Oh, before I leave ...do give my daughter my highest regards.”

"NO!" Tristan bellowed and lunged at Lars, both of us coming to the same realization at the same time.

Lars slashed a hand horizontally across his throat, and the throats of the six Vampire's suspended in mid-air were slit, raining crimson blood on the four of us.

The rotted, decomposed corpse that had once been Lars fell to the ground, lifeless once more. Instantly, my hold over the shadows snapped. They scattered into mist, vanishing within the darkest parts of the forest as they fled. All six of the Vampire's fell to the ground, and I was nearly crushed by one as I rushed to their sides.

It was Tristan that pulled me out of the way.

I fell to my knee's, barely registering the moisture within the soil seeping into my jeans. The heavy drumbeat of my heart rattled against my ribcage, ratcheting my adrenaline higher and higher with every pair of glossy, lifeless eyes I stared into.

They were helping her, and she k****d them, sacrificed like their lives were nothing-like their families were nothing.

A garbled, wet breath pulled me out of my stupor and towards the trembling form of one of the Vampire's. The lithe female that had darted out of the way during my first a****k, she was curled up in the grass, her hands clawing at her slashed throat.

“Tristan!” I called out, scrambling to her side. The blonde-haired Vampire knelt beside me, wrenching her hands away and forcing her down when she tried to tear my face off with her stiletto nails. I stared down at her, at eyes the same shade of brown as Sean's. “Stop trying to k**I me. Only one of us is d***g, and it isn't me. You'll have another chance (after) we save your life.”

Her mouth opened, revealing blood-stained teeth and a sparkly tongue ring.

“Luna Lola, we're nearby! We caught the scent of six Vampire's and followed once we realized they were tailing you. We have the witches with us, they're going to help!’ One of the many warriors on patrol tonight said through the mind-link, followed by countless others, all jumbling into one mess I couldn't even begin to sort through.

“Hurry.’ I told him, increasing my pressure on the Vampire girl's throat whilst sending every bit of my urgency through the mind-link.

I counted the seconds it took until they burst through the forest in a sea of fur and teeth, repeating the same plan over and over in my head.

We would save her life, and after she was stable and thoroughly questioned, I planned on asking Cordelia exactly why that security spell of hers hadn't worked.