Falling For Storm

Storm

The vampire was almost halfway near the border when the four of us were finally able to catch up and trap him in the middle. There was no way we were going to let him leave, or, in my case, let him live.

“Out of my way or pay the consequences!” The bloodsucker warned with so much fury, and none of us had the patience to respond, but instead, we stood our ground and prepared for another onslaught.

This time we attacked all at once from every angle. Dakota latched on to his newly attached arm, Hunter did the same to the other, and Eric threw quick and hard punches while I bit down on his shoulder. As Eric was about to punch a hole in his father’s chest, the unexpected happened. All four of us were pushed back about 10 feet away as he spun around.

“What the hell is this?!” I groaned out of frustration.

“Why won’t this sucker just die already?” Dakota complained, and we all set off charging once more.

Hunter took an elbow to the face really hard, which sent him crashing towards the fields. I screamed at Dakota to stand down, but it was already too late. The vampire caught her by the neck and slammed her to the ground before kicking her stomach, making her lose her breath. Yelping in pain, she tried to stand back up, only to fall again.

My heart fell, and another level of rage from within me kicked up a notch, but I wasn’t the only one who felt those emotions after seeing what he did to my little sister. Eric rushed past me, determined to break his father’s neck. He was at full speed, and if you didn’t have the kind of eyes or senses we do, you wouldn’t even know that two vampires were trying to kill each other.

Eric pushed his palm against his father’s chest, and the blow made him lose his footing. I took that as a chance to sweep his legs from behind, making him fall on his back. In an instant, Eric was on top of him, raining hard blows on his face and slashing his neck a couple of times. It was brutal watching the father and son tear each other apart. I stood close by, ready to pounce in case Eric couldn’t finish the job. I’d thought about getting in on the fight, but it seemed to me that Eric had his score to settle, and I understood that more than anything.

“Hunter? Are you okay?” I called out to my second-in-command and friend, wondering if he’s fine or if he’s sustained injuries as bad as Dakota and Wyatt’s.

“I’m good, right behind you,” he answered, and relief washed over me as I saw him walk slowly, but he was walking in full alert.

I looked at the old vampire struggling to break free from Eric’s hold, so I made another necessary decision to have Hunter bring my sister to the doctor immediately. Actually, they could both use a thorough check-up right about now. Both were reluctant but didn’t argue because they knew staying here would either injure them more or be used as leverage.

Once they left, I stood closer to the fight, knowing full well that I should be on my guard, thinking that something would happen again, and I was right. The old vampire gathered all his strength and pushed his son off before quickly standing up to grab Eric’s neck. I saw in slow motion what he was about to do, so I grabbed the other hand that almost had Eric’s heart within its grasp. With my powerful jaws, I yanked it out of his chest. A loud, piercing scream came out from the vampire, but I refused to let go.

Eric then grabbed the other arm with both of his hands, successfully removing the one around his neck, and I pulled towards the opposite side. It was now or never. All we had to do was yank in opposite directions, so both arms would come off. As we were about to do that, a vision of a blur approached at super speed, and in an instant, Amara was standing in front of the vampire with his heart in her hand, and six pairs of eyes grew wide in shock at what had just transpired. Then a few things happened simultaneously in the next few seconds. The first was when the old vampire fell knees-first to the ground with his eyes and mouth still wide open. The next was Eric breaking down into subs as he knelt beside his dead father’s body. The third was having all the air sucked out of my lungs at the sight of my mate alive. And last, Amara was gathering her brother in her arms to comfort him while she stared into my eyes with so many emotions I couldn’t fathom.

“Forgive me, brother; there was no other way,” Amara whispered as she held her brother tightly.

“I understand, he killed innocent lives. He killed our mother and your father. He tried to kill both of us, but what saddens me the most is he’s still my father,” Eric admitted, breaking into soft sobs.

They held each other for a while, and no matter how much I wanted to rush over to her, I stayed where I was in my human form, just staring at her. She was alive; that was all that mattered now.

When our eyes met, she let her brother go and ran towards me. I held out my arms to catch her.

“Storm,” she whispered.

I inhaled her scent as tears fell from my eyes.

“I thought I’d lost you,” I whispered back.

“Never,” she answered.

For a moment, neither of us said anything; we just stood there in each other’s embrace, relishing the feeling that we both made it. I couldn’t imagine going back to my life without her. There were no words to express how devastated I felt when I thought she was dead. I even thought about taking my own life after everything was done. When she probably had enough of our hugging, she pulled away a bit just so she could look at my face. She held it between her palms and gave me the sweetest and most loving kiss, which I eagerly returned.

Minutes later, the three of us headed to the pack hospital to check on the rest. We were all relieved to know that everyone was recovering well, including Wyatt and Dakota. Amara and I stayed for a few more hours before we headed to my cabin by the lake, which I had lying around for no particular reason, but I was glad I kept it since the packhouse burned down to ashes. Eric insisted on staying at the hospital, which neither of us questioned. We were tired and literally beaten up, so resting for a few hours to recover sounded like the best plan before we had to work on restoring what the pack had lost over the war. We needed to rebuild and bury the ones we lost, but tomorrow was going to be that day.