The Devil's Wolf

"He grows on you," Ashlynn told Alister. "In time. Can you really take them single-handedly, Cael?" Having seen him fight, she believed it, but she also did not want to risk her mate unnecessarily.

"The humans are the least of the slaves," he replied confidently. "Even in number and with technology and guns, they are no challenge to a devil."

"Don't underestimate them," Alister cautioned, but he paused where the passage branched off. Ashlynn saw his thoughts play across his face. "I want to retake our nests," he said softly. "And we need as many allies as we can get. But I do not want to risk you falling into enemy hands, mate of Elior and child of the font."

"Ashlynn can shield herself," Cael was unperturbed. "As she did in the previous battle. Your concerns are unfounded, vampire."

Alister released a heavy breath. "Very well."

"You should let him drink from you," Cael suggested as they followed Alister along the second narrow passageway.

The idea had occurred to Ashlynn, but she was also cautious. She had let Serena drink because of her injury. Alister was not injured. What if the vampires turned traitor? She would be arming the enemy with her blood. She wished she had a way of speaking with Elior - he would know if she should trust the vampires.

"You do not trust me," Alister observed correctly interpreting her silence. "Either with your blood, or with Elior's location - although that I can guess from what I know of him and of you. Distrust is wise. We are surrounded by treachery and traitors. I will not take your blood until I earn your trust."

Ashlynn sighed and glanced over her shoulder at Cael.

He shrugged. "I will kill him if he betrays you."

"Take my blood, Alister," she decided. "Elior needs his allies to be strong." She held out her wrist.

The red Other in Alister's eyes picked up the glow from Cael's sword as he raised her arm to his mouth. He was gentler than Serena had been, but his bite still stung more than Elior's - she wondered if her vampire was more skilled, more careful, or whether their relationship offered some pain relief for his bite.

Alister's groan made the hair along the back of her neck stand up and her muscles tense, it was so blatantly aroused. "That is enough I think," she told him, eager to free herself of him. She was relieved when he released her without protest. "You will be intoxicated for a while," she added surreptitiously wiping her wrist against the side of her trousers to remove any trace of him from her skin.

"Yes, I can feel it," he replied, his voice hoarse. "It is incredible."

"Let's keep going," Cael encouraged and began to move along the hallway again propelling them before him due to the close press of the walls and the expanse of his wings.

"Your friend is as bloodthirsty as a vampire," Alister observed dryly as he led the way.

"I think it is more of a case of vampires being as bloodthirsty as Cael's people," she replied. "Cael's people created the Others."

"Hmm," Alister either didn't care, or was too intoxicated to want to discuss history. "We are here."

There was a keypad on the door, and Alister hesitated a moment before entering a number. "My eyes aren't focusing right," he complained under his breath as he pushed the door open. "I haven't felt this drunk since I was human."

He looked around cautiously, inhaling deeply. "We are clear."

"Are you too drunk to locate the people in the basement?" Ashlynn asked him.

"I am no untried youth," Alister's lip curled in a sneer. "I can handle myself intoxicated."

At least, she thought, he did not seem to have the lusty side effect that Elior experienced. That would just become awkward, and Alister would probably lose his head beneath Cael's blade. "Okay, then. Give us directions."

"Not much to it from here," he replied. "Straight ahead, and up the stairs. Once I have located anyone down here, I will join you above in order to activate the retreat siren."

"Where are you retreating to?" She wondered.

"Stronghold," he replied. "The passages all lead to it eventually. It is like a larger safe-room, capable of housing several hundred, and stocked with blood. Doors are keypad accessed, and once closed, impenetrable." "Sounds like something Elior would come up with," she noted.

Alister grinned with appreciation. "Indeed."

"If I were your enemy, I would allow you to retreat, and then kill you all in one place," Cael observed.

"That is a good point, devil," Alister murmured. "Something I will give thought to. Caleb and the other traitors would know the codes."

"Ouch," Ashlynn grimaced. "Not so secure, this stronghold then, eh?"

"I guess not," Alister agreed darkly. "We did not plan for a traitor amongst us."

"Let's go," Cael grew bored of the conversation, and began to make his way towards the stairs.

"I guess we are going," Ashlynn said to Alister and hurried after Cael before the light cast by his sword was too far ahead to light her way.

"So," she said. "You are quite into fighting, Cael." His wings from behind only had a few splatters of blood, his shield having protected him from attack and blood spray.

"It is what I am trained to do," he replied.

"Was that, like, your job, back on your realm?"

"We all train to fight. It is how we keep the slaves docile. That, and the occasional games to cull them."

"The occasional games to cull them?" She repeated, horrified.

"Annual games," he said with relish. "The players gather at the portals, which drop them in a variety of realms. They must fight or survive what they find within that realm and make their way to the exit. The games go all year, and each starts after the one before. The champions are richly rewarded."

"Sounds lovely," she decided she did not like the sound of his people at all. "But the angels don't have slaves?"

"No."

"So, they are more slave-friendly?"

"No."

"But they wanted the slaves freed?"

"That is a misinterpretation of their actions," he replied as he approached the top of the stairs and placed a hand against the door. "Many people in this next chamber, I can hear them," he said in a low voice. "But is peaceful for the moment." "For the moment," she repeated. "So, the angels, Cael...?"

"The angels detest all slaves and wanted them evicted from the realm. That is why they wanted to end slave labor."

"Oh," she guessed that made sense. "Your realm sounds pretty horrible."

"Only because you are slave bred." He shoved open the door and exploded into the foyer, the spread of his wings massive, and carrying him in one leap into the center of the human force.

She watched the human's faces shift from wonderment to terror as the blood-coated winged man landed in their midst, his burning sword cleaving through their assembly, felling them like trees.

She put up her shield and offered her small contribution of attack spells, more because she felt she should do something than because Cael required her assistance. Her little spells did, however, confuse and disorientate the humans.

The human military in this building had bunkered in, constructing a sand-bag wall between them and the lifts and stairs, so that any vampires seeking freedom would be bottle-necked, or, Ashlynn thought grimly, forced to seek shelter in the subterranean passages and the stronghold.

She rather suspected her devil was correct - the traitor Caleb Roth intended to force Elior's supporters into the stronghold and would eliminate them all at once there.

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She wondered how many vampires had sought the safety of the stronghold already.

Cael's laughter rang out above the staccato of the machine guns, the crow of a berserker, and his shield flashed like lightning under the constant volley of bullets.

She aimed her spells at any that she saw wielding the larger weapons, until the room was reduced to cries of agony and the strike of the sword through flesh, and then to Cael's heavy breathing, as he came to a standstill.

Blood obscured the tiled floor and flowed in rivers towards the street. The bodies had ceased to resemble people, their pieces scattered in a gory jigsaw puzzle around the devil.

"I hope you are immune to blood-born diseases," she commented, as Cael turned to her. "You have blood in your mouth, and I am assuming it is not yours." His teeth were pink with it. He must have caught a spray across his face during his laughing fit, she thought.

"I have a superior immune system," he declared.

"That is great," she replied. "Because I don't want to contract anything nasty from you."

"Hmm," he looked over his shoulder at the street. "I want to fight out there."

"Not a good idea," Alister entered the foyer. "They have tanks, and things like grenades. They haven't used them yet as we're in the center of the city, and that sort of weaponry would illicit panic from humans in the area, but if a blood-soaked sword bearing winged man appeared in their midst, that might change, and I would think even you would be wounded in an explosion."

"I don't know," Cael admitted. "It is not something I have experienced, but I have read about these weapons, and seen them on the TV, and they do appear to be formidable."

"What we need is a shield around Vampire Square," Alister said. "But that would require witches and warlocks to aid us, and Others tend not to co-operate with each other in such ways."

"It is a very good idea," Ashlynn stared at him in surprise. "I know a warlock who might be able to help with that. Unfortunately, he was just taken prisoner by the humans a short while ago..." Along with her dad, she thought. They would be fine though, she assured herself. Her dad was an alpha werewolf, the strongest, toughest man she had ever met, and always knew what to do in times of crisis, and Alatar was a quick witted and powerful warlock. Between the two of them, they could handle any situation they found themselves in. "But my mum might be able to locate them." And she would go and give them a helping hand, just in case.

"As to the stronghold, I think you are correct," Alister said grimly. "But I am unsure as to what other option we have. We cannot leave via the road as they have all routes blockaded, and we cannot remain in the buildings as we will be sitting ducks to their attack. The subterranean passages are the only other option."

"There is another option," Cael said, somewhat reluctantly. "I could cast a portal."

"Why does that sound like a bad idea?" She asked him.

He stretched out his neck muscles. "I don't know how much you understand about portals."

"They make a hole between one place and another," she replied. "And people use them to travel quickly."

"In a way, yes," he agreed. "But it is not like punching a hole through a wall from one room to the next. I told your mother once that the realms were like the petals of a rose, overlapping and touching. A portal is like punching a hole through the bloom, from one side of the rose to the other."

"Crossing through many other realms," she realized what he was telling her.

"For only the briefest time period, normally, but holding a portal open for long enough to evacuate a large number of vampires..." He raised his eyebrows. "It will attract attention from my realm."