He found the king’s elite forces near the blood mobiles, fighting off multiple assassins who were trying to get inside them, most likely to destroy the results of the prophesy.
With the Volkov alphas mentally incapacitated, half the battle was already won.
Fueled by adrenaline, Adres charged forward and used his wards to shield the legion as he blasted a force of his wind at the assassins that knocked them off their feet. Before they could flash away, he shot his sword out again and watched it sail through the air at its targets, severing their heads, their crossbows falling to the ground.
The scent of demon blood invaded his senses, and the light within his sword burned brighter.
“Protect the king’s beloved and his home,” Adres ordered the legion.
“We will stay and guard the mobiles.” Asa and Azriel stood back-to-back with their daggers in their hands. “Our officers will protect the cabins.”
Adres nodded and turned towards the forest, trying to trace the source of the evil. He would need to cut off the head of the snake, or else they would fall. Already multiple shifters and vampires lay on the ground with poison coursing through their systems and killing them slowly.
A pained howl wrenched the air, and Adres spun in time to see Wrath fall to the ground in Belleron’s arms with two darts piercing his hindquarters. Either fight to the end or be killed on the ground beneath his cherished, Belleron leapt to his feet, striking and killing all who surrounded him with his cane-sword, his movements so fast and precise they were a blur. His waist-length onyx hair flew around his face as he swung his blade in powerful strikes, making dark, foul-scented blood spray in arcs across the grass.
Gods help us, Adres prayed. He needed to get to the cowardly sorcerer, wherever he was hiding, while he possessed vampires to do his evil, but he found himself at his friend’s side, shielding him and his mate. The evil looming over their heads was familiar in an unsettling way. He’d combated this kind of wickedness before… and he’d lost years of his life as a result.
He could not lose his young wolf. Not now. Not ever.
Wick appeared at their side and joined in the fight, the three of them surrounding Wrath while he lay prone on the ground.
“Can you use your waves?” Adres gritted out, flashing back and forth between two vampires with blank, unseeing eyes and decaying, pointy sneers as they attacked him from both sides. Their screams were cut short in a gurgle of blood as bone crunched under his blade.
No. It is Aleksei, Wrath answered, his voice laced with pain. He grieves for his sister. He has separated from me, wanting to be by her side.
Adres dropped to one knee and put his hand in Wrath’s dense black fur, his fingers knocking off embers of fire as he felt for his pulse.
I can burn off the poison from the darts, but… Wrath grunted. I cannot project my heat.
La naiba! Adres ducked as a vampire dove towards him from behind. Belleron caught the vile creature in midair with one hand and crushed his throat before he tossed it to the side like garbage. They were beginning to get overwhelmed, and Adres didn’t know how well Asa and Azriel were faring on keeping the assassins from getting to the cabins. He had sworn an oath to protect this pack and to guard Belleron and the king with his life.
Until the end.
He felt his cherished invade his mind and wrap his strength around his, targeting his soul. I am with you, mate.
Adres looked towards the angry sky as he searched for an answer.
Pray to your brothers, Wrath growled. They will feel the distress in your wind. Just as they did when the sorcerer last came for you. But now you have connected your light with the righteous one. Belleron was struck across his back before Wick swiped his massive claw out and tore open the assassin’s chest. Wrath roared in Adres’s mind, searing his thoughts with battle rage. Call for your brothers!
It was their last chance. Adres pulled on his wind with all of his might as he whispered into the steel of his blade, “Horsemen,” and shot his energy in the remaining three cardinal directions.
It was seconds before a blinding light pierced the darkness from the north, south, and east. A whirlwind formed in the sky as three hooded figures on horseback exploded through the veil of evil. Their combined winds enveloped the sorcerer’s wards until it disintegrated and rained over the compound like ashes. The possessed vampires crumpled into heaps of bone and ash, no longer controlled by sorcery.
Adres watched his brothers approach from all directions, until they came together and landed on the ground with such force that the earth quaked as far as the peaks of the mountaintops.