Branches of Life

"Fuck!" I spun around disoriented by the sudden darkness, and all of us shouting over each other.

"Great plan!" Harmony's voice came somewhere to my right.

Ari's voice was the loudest of all of us. "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate you two?"

"Damn sorcerer!" Ander immediately jumped to the conclusion Wyatt was involved, and so did Starling.

"I think it's safe to assume he's helping them!"

"We need to stand backs together!" Koa's loud command broke through our yelled swears and complaints and had us immediately forming a circle, facing out into the eerie darkness.

On my right, I felt Harmony calling the elements to her. The faint mixing scents of the elements filled the air. To my left, Ari pulled her bow off her back and notched an arrow. Using a bow when you couldn't see more than a few feet away, was an incredibly ambitious move in my opinion, but Ari was never one to back down from a challenge. I opted for a slim dagger. Much better for close-quarter combat, and easier to wield than the retractable sword strapped to my thigh. The scent of blood permeated the air, informing me of Ander's casting.

'Be aware, there are vampires here too.' Rowan's presence reassured me—we had a badass wolf spirit familiar on our side—that was until I registered her words. Now the cloying darkness made sense, not only were we at a disadvantage with a limited range of vision, but now the vampires could be out here in the early morning without the worry of being disintegrated by the sun.

"It's not just demons, vampires are here too," I murmured, scanning our surroundings, using all of my senses to try and find anything out of the ordinary. Not even a couple of minutes ago, the forest had been alive with the sounds of its inhabitants, but now it was eerily silent. Prickles of unease trailed down my spine.

The cloying silence remained for several minutes. My eyes had completely adjusted to the darkness, but the visibility still wasn't great. Tension filled my body as we waited for the demons or vampires to attack. What kind of fucked up game were they playing? Why weren't they attacking us yet?

Finally, I picked up on faint sounds of tearing flesh, growling, and snapping branches. The noises grew in sound until eventually fighting began behind me. From the corner of my eye, I saw a blast of fire light up the darkness, followed by a strong burning stench and screeches. I continued staring out into the darkness, waiting for those that thought they could try and sneak up behind us. They tried to remain quiet, but I knew they were out there. While I wanted to check over my shoulder and make sure none of the screams and tearing sounds came from any of the others, I knew better than to allow any distractions. I had to trust that they could take care of themselves.

A vampire came hurting out of the darkness, giving me only a split second to lift my dagger and stab him before he crashed into me and knocked both of us to the ground. Air whooshed from my lungs upon impact as I landed flat on my back. Using my legs, I flipped him off of me and ripped the dagger out of the right side of his chest. He lunged again, but this time I was ready for him and when I stabbed him, I didn't miss. His body crumbled into dust, abruptly cutting off his screams.

For humans, there were only three ways to kill a vampire; beheading them, stabbing them in the heart with a wooden stake, or forcing them out into the sunlight. For us Mythics, there were numerous ways we could kill them. One of which was stabbing them in the heart with a weapon made by the elementals.

I ducked an oncoming strike, his momentum propelling him past me. A mistake I used to my advantage as I popped up behind him and quickly dispatched him. Once his body started disintegrating, I spun around and blocked a clawed hand swiping at my throat. My visibility may not have been great, but the vampires weren't even trying to be quiet, especially this one. I heard him approaching before I even killed the last vampire.

Twisting the vampire's arm, I kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying backward. While I was distracted by him, an arm wrapped around my neck, cutting off my air supply. Apparently, not all of the vampires were unable to sneak up behind someone.

As soon as the darkness descended on the forest, I had cleared all of thoughts from my head. I refused to let any fears or doubts cloud my mind and now was no different. The vampire had a good hold around my neck, one that if I didn't get out of soon, I'd eventually pass out. Summoning claws to my left hand, I dragged them down his arms. An angry curse followed as he loosened his grip, enough for me to suck air into my lungs.

Using his moment of distraction, I broke his hold and whirled around to stab him in the chest. The vampire I kicked before snarled before charging. How nice of him to wait his turn. Grabbing one of my of the throwing daggers from my belt, I spun around and let the dagger fly. My aim was off, hitting him in the stomach. He yelled as he ripped the dagger out and threw it aside. Dumbass. His yell changed to a growl as he charged again. I dodged his attempted strike and swiped his legs out from under him. He clumsily landed on his back, and I drove my dagger into his chest.

I spun in a slow circle, waiting in tense anticipation for the next attack. Around me, the sounds of fighting filled the air. As did the smell of overturned dirt, a sign of Harmony's use of earth magic. All I was able to make out was a few vague shapes in the darkness, but I had no clue if they were vampires or one of us. To my right a flash of fire lit up the space, momentarily blinding me.

Whatever small range of vision I had before was now gone as bright spots took up most of my vision. While furiously blinking my eyes, trying to get rid of those annoying bright spots, I picked up on the sound of a vampire sneaking up behind me. Once they were close enough, I threw my elbow back, cracking her in the face, earning a furious scream. Her sharp ass nails grazed my cheek when I didn't move fast enough. She attempted the same move again, but this time I caught her wrist in one hand while stabbing out with the other.

I took a step back and held my breath as she crumbled, knowing better than to breathe in that shit. Mythics didn't get sick as humans did. And when we did it was most likely from an injury, a spell, or a curse. Breathing in vampire ash was one of the causes of Mythic illnesses. It didn't kill us, but those who inhaled the ash would have a nasty cough for several days.

A vampire approached from behind, and this time I wasn't fast enough to avoid the blow to the side of my head. Pain exploded in my temple, distracting me enough for them to wrap an arm around my throat and lift me from the ground. What was with these vampires and chokeholds? I mean, I know they had a thing for necks, but this was getting ridiculous. This vampire was more determined to maintain his hold, not loosening his grip even when I clawed at his arms and kicked at his legs.

Bracing myself for the pain, I threw my head back into his face. Fuck! I knew it would hurt, but the pain was worse than I thought. My feet slammed into the ground and collapsed under my weight after being unexpectedly dropped. I sucked in sharp breaths, relishing being able to breathe, as the vampire howled and cursed. At least my new throbbing headache wasn't for nothing. My vision had returned to normal and I was able to see the vampire as he lunged for me.

I no longer had my dagger, having lost it sometime either during the fall or being held. Grabbing the handle of my sword, I pulled it from the harness, pressing a rune to release one of the blades as I did so. He reached for me and as he did, I swung out with my blade, slicing through his neck.

We were always taught, that while vampires were strong and fast, they lacked both training and patience. It was a relief my instructors were right, otherwise, we'd have been in some serious trouble, with the sheer number of vampires attacking.

Fighting the vampires became almost a routine; one or more attacked, and I fought them off until I killed them. Several times, while I was distracted by one vampire, another would try and take advantage of my distraction and attempted to sneak up behind me. More than once, I hadn't been fast enough, earning my fair share of scrapes and bruises. This continued for what felt like a half hour. With the suffocating darkness, I had no hope of knowing how long we'd been fighting or how much longer we'd be here.

How many damn vampires were there?

A ball of light appeared floating above our heads, faint at first, but quickly growing in brightness until I had to turn away and shut my eyes. The only sounds I could hear, were the screams of agony before they abruptly cut off.

Peeling my eyes open, I observed the now brightly lit forest. After being in the dark for so long, the light stung my eyes making them water. Thankfully the throbbing in my head was gone.

Relief eased the ball of tension in my chest at the sight of Ari hurrying around the space, collecting her discarded arrows from the piles of ash. Splatters of blood covered her clothes and were smeared on her cheeks and down her right arm. My focus was drawn away from her to my left, where I met Koa's gaze. A quick once-over told me, his shirt, arms, and neck were covered in blood. My stomach pitched at the thought of it being his blood, even though I knew none of it was his.

His eyes tracked over my body stopping on my face. A muscle ticked in his jaw as his nostrils flared.

A gust of wind blew through the trees, moving the piles of ash around. Gross. Moving out of the way of the tumbling ashes, I turned my focus to the light still floating above us. The light was unbearably bright, to the point I had to look away. I knew what this was, and I knew there was no way any of us could've conjured this. Only a sorcerer or a sorceress could.

Through the trees, I caught sight of a blue light followed by a distant explosion. We raced through the trees knowing there were still demons on the loose, and a sorcerer—most likely Wyatt. Ander and Koa were at the front of the group, followed by Starling and me, with Harmony and Ari close behind us.

The guys abruptly stopped and I just about ran into Koa's back. I tried stepping around him, but he held out his arm, blocking my way. Ducking under his arm didn't work either. He just grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him. I huffed out an exasperated breath and shoved his back.

"You're the one that wanted to use me as a shield," he murmured, using my own words against me. The bastard. Not ready to give up, I peered around his body and my jaw dropped.

It was a demon, and he was fucking huge. He had to be at least seven feet tall. His arms were probably the size of my thighs, the skin was midnight black with yellow markings covering his entire body, including his face and bald head. Black horns the size of my forearm curled up from his temples. The only clothing he wore was black pants. In my opinion, the reason he wasn't wearing a shirt was probably because unless it was a button-up, there was no way he was getting it over his damn horns.

He deflected several balls of purple energy, sending them off to the side. Where they exploded and set a tree and some foliage on fire. "Absolutely not," Harmony muttered as she used her elemental magic to extinguish the fire.

More energy balls and spells were thrown at him. Every one of them was deflected by him, with the use of shields or his own blasts of energy. Sparks flew as the energy balls collided, sending waves of tingling energy out in every direction.

He was one scary-ass demon. At some point during the fight, I had clung to the back of Koa's shirt, fisting the material tightly in my hands. I didn't release my grip since he wasn't complaining.

From my vantage point, I wasn't able to see the sorcerer, even when I tried leaning to the side. A thick tree stood in the way, blocking where I believed he stood, throwing spell after spell at the demon.

The demon dove out of the way of streaks of purple energy. In retaliation, he threw a ball of black-tinged blue flames at the sorcerer. The ball of fire bounced off a blue shield and flew off to the side, hitting the tree and blocking the sorcerer from me, where it instantly caught fire.

Harmony groaned. "It's hellfire." She sent a pleading look at Ander, holding out her arm. "Ander?" He lightly held her wrist and drew blood. After drawing several sigils on his arm, he coated his palm with Harmony's blood and cautiously made his way to the burning tree. He held his bloody hand inches away from the fire, where it slowly burnt out.

Hellfire was something only demons knew how to conjure. Elementals couldn't control it, just as they couldn't control dragon fire. The only kind of water able to put out hellfire was enchanted water.

Harmony's sigh of relief was premature. By putting out the hellfire, we had drawn the demon's attention. His red eyes tracked every single movement from us, and I had never been happier to be standing behind someone.

A blur of black and white came hurtling through the trees and barreled into the demon, sinking her teeth into his leg.

The demon tried to pull Rowan off his leg, but she stubbornly clamped down even harder, shaking her head as she did so. The stench of sulfur permeated the air as yellow blood oozed down his leg. She rolled out of the way of a blast of darkness, disappearing from sight. Only to reappear behind him moments later, dragging her claws down his back. He let out an inhuman roar, turning around with hellfire ready on his palms.

My stomach sank with dread, and it took everything I had to stay where I was, not wanting to distract her. He never had the chance to throw the fire. Instead, a purple energy ball slammed into his back. His body tensed as he dropped to his knees, the flames extinguishing. Rowan lunged forward and clamped her teeth around his throat, thrashing her head side to side. Another energy ball hit him, followed by a wave of energy. Rowan dropped his neck and his body convulsed before he stopped moving completely.

I held my breath, afraid he was faking it and was lulling us into a false sense of security before he attacked. 'He's dead.' Rowan's confirmation had me exhaling the breath I'd been holding

"I should just kill you all and be done with it," a deep voice drawled from behind us.