Page 98 of Mated By the Alphas
It injures the vampire but doesn’t kill him. I leap on his back, pin him down, smash through his ribs and rip out his heart, but the time it takes gives the other one the chance to advance on Ansley. She swings the sword wildly. It’s light in her hand, but she’s not trained on how to wield it.
But she doesn’t have to be. After parrying a few attacks, she lowers the tip.
“Come on, bite me! I dare you!” she taunts.
The vampire doesn’t hesitate. In an instant, its fangs are on my mate’s neck. I snarl and jump at him, but Ansley drives the sword upward, piercing his abdomen and embedding the blade in his heart.
“Don’t fucking let them bite you,” I almost yell, even though I just did the same thing. “It still hurts.”
“A dead vampire is a dead vampire,” Ansley sasses back.
My brothers are still fighting with the others, so I join the attack. Being immune to their bites is a blessing, especially with this many, because their venom would eventually cause paralysis if we get bitten too much.
“This one’s dead,” Hayden declares, tearing out another heart.
“This one too,” Storm transmits.
One by one, the vampires fall. Ansley and Daisy don’t engage with any others, but my brothers and I easily corral the remaining few and finish them off.
“Now it’s starting to look like my vision,” Ansley assures us. “Dead vampires everywhere.”
“More are coming!” Remy calls out, and I look up to see them approaching.
There are too many for us to fight them practically. A couple of them are a little older, too. I can tell by how their skin has started to wither. Old enough to show their age, but not old enough to disguise it, like older vampires do.
We fight like the beasts we are, tearing off limbs, ripping out throats, crushing hearts with our fangs. The bodies pile up until we’re slipping on them. We’re covered in blood, gore in our fur, and viscera from our mouths.
“So much easier when we can just tear their chests open without shifting,” Remy observes almost casually while fighting another one. “This strength is incredible.”
I couldn’t agree more. I wade through the vampires, tearing pieces from the ones that are still breathing, if you can call what they do breathing. It’s more of a guttural rasp with the older ones, but they die just like the rest, nothing left of them but pieces and black blood when we’re done.
“Let’s search this floor before we go upstairs,” Hayden says, sprinting ahead.
“Are you two still okay?” I ask, glancing over at Ansley and Daisy. I get two quick nods in response, so I continue on.
More vampires. Makers, and these are older. These are the ones who would have fed at a blood bank. They need more age and blood to learn to wear an illusion. That’s what Wyatt said theirkind does. It’s not shifting, it’s just a trick to hide the aging monster underneath.
They rot slowly over the course of many, many years, and this period of their existence is when they aren’t young enough to pass for human, but are grotesque in their decaying appearance, so hiding and stalking in the shadows is their existence unless they have a blood bank set up by younger vampires.
“Getting tougher to rip out these hearts!” Hayden yells. “Slowing us down!”
“We know that,” Wyatt says, strain in his voice. Then I see him hit the ground, pinned down by multiple vampires that can’t bite him, but they’re figuring it out and just punching. “Fuck!”
“I got you,” I yell, barreling into the vampires with all one thousand pounds of my rage. Two hearts get crushed because I just bite down, instead of trying to rip them out.
I’m getting stronger.
“Brothers,” I call out, cackling under my breath. “We’re not even done transforming yet.”
“What?” Wyatt gasps, shaking off blood and punching a hole straight through a vampire’s chest, his fist emerging from the other side holding a heart. “Holy shit! Did you see that?”
“Uh-oh, guys!?” Ansley yells, and we all spin around to face her, biting at vampires as they try to attack. “My sword is…”
The amber in the hilt glows, and sparks trail up the blade. It is engulfed in flames in an instant and Ansley’s hand trembles. Then the fire spins down the blade, turning into a circle of light that sweeps around her, enveloping her in a bright orb of gold. She squeezes her eyes shut.
“What in the holy hell?” Wyatt whispers, killing another vampire without even looking away from our mate.
Ansley’s hair shimmers, red highlights emerging from the brown. Her bodywidensslightly, then gets taller, almost seven feet before she staggers back and the glow fades.
