Chapter 26: A White War

Very rough! Please don't judge!

"Ewe Ewe Ewe Ewe This is so gross!" I whisper yelled at Logan as he dragged me along behind him. We were in the sewer tunnels that shot out through the Underground. Apparently – according to Marco anyways – one of these tunnels was supposed to lead to the main statue in the small garden, the same fountain that I described to them. Logan had argued that the tunnel was sealed up and so they can't get out but Marco was sure that we could break through. And we bought Edward along just in case we mere muggles struggled with our power tools.

"Shut up Britney!" Marco scolded me as he looked back at me. "I told you we should have left her behind."

"I tried but she threatened to hit me over the head." Logan defended himself.

I smiled. I did too.

"Why are sewers so gross." I pouted as I looked at a spider web. "Oh my god, a spider is trying to eat a fly." I ran forward until I was now in front of Logan and just behind Marco.

The entire line came to a standstill. "Britney." Marco started, his face serious. "This is supposed to be a stealth mission, now shut up or I am going to gag you with the spider web."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I liked you better when you were behind bars."

"Keep going with that mouth of yours and we will all be headless soon enough."

I bit my bottom lip and nodded my head as Marco started walking away with the line of others marching behind him. I looked at Logan for some direction but he just put his finger over his lips, gesturing for me to be quiet while he laced his fingers with mine and started pulling me along behind him. Everyone came to a stop at the end of the tunnel and the three werewolves in front with Marco started drilling the fountain and trying to break through the seal that – as Logan had predicted – ran along the once opened door.

"Yeah because Britney was louder than the power tools." Dustan muttered next to me making me smile.

"Edward." Marco said making my great grandfather, slash, Marco's new favourite informant come forward. He rolled his eyes and continued with his bored expression as he watched the werewolves struggle with the power tools.

The Warlock rubbed his hands together for a few mintues, his fast paced actions were hardly seen in my vision but the smoke that started to radiate from his hands had me – and everyone else in the small sewer – in awe. He stopped rubbing his hands together and shook them by his sides before reaching up and placing them on the recently applied seal that was stopping us from entering the castle. Slowly the surface began to melt away until it was nothing but a pile of dust on the floor.

I turned to Logan and mouthed 'wow' as the rest of the so called 'army' began to move forward. He just chuckled and held me back until everyone had passed us by, the first of the soldiers had started to make the leap of faith from the tunnel opening in the fountain to hid somewhere in the tall hedges.

"Britney." Logan started, his tone full of warning. "If I ask you to stay in the sewer will you?"

"Nope."

"Even if I beg?"

"Not a chance. Look, I know I can't exactly fight except for the little I have been taught but I can help, a little anyways. I'll stay out of the pack, I promise."

"This," he started as he paced me a small dagger. "Is if you need to use it. Now stay in the gardens."

I nodded in understanding. I wasn't stupid enough to think that I could be the hero of this war because, let's face it, I didn't have the courage and I could barely keep Eliza from using me as her personal punching bag let alone fight a large collection of armed guards. And besides, this was supposed to be a stealth mission.

With Logan's hand clamped tight around my own we both made the jump. Looking both ways we ignored the spray of the water that was landing on faces from the fountain and saw that the coast was clear. Logan stepped forward, pulling me along with him and we both ran into the hedges, jumping and shielding our faces as the stiff small twigs cut us a little. The hedges were hollow inside, it was like they created a tunnel in side of them but the unkempt inside told me that no one really uses it anymore.

"This is where you were hiding that night you gave me my glasses back?" I whispered to Logan.

He smiled brightly. "Yep. Our mum told us about these secret tunnels made out of the hedges, no one else but she knew about them."

We moved through the tunnel silently as

Just in front of us one of the young vampires tripped, his unsure footing sent him stumbling out of the hedge and into the main foyer, right in the middle of the large collective of guards. We all stopped, out movements frozen as everyone tried to process their next move. They element of surprise had well and truly left us as the guards raised their swords and quickly began driving them into the hedges – where we were all standing. Logan pushed me forwards, sending me tumbling to the ground as he jumped out and quickly started to fight.

I didn't see the beginning of the battle, my head had hit the floor pretty hard and it took me a few moments to collect myself as the black spots in vision started to fade. As I pulled myself up I looked around the fight, I knew better than to walk out there now, in the midst of it. My eyes quickly found Eliza, flying around with two Volucris on her tail – her long sharp razor like nails were out and ready to damage as they crept closer and closer to her. Logan and Marco fought side by side, each one trying to watch each other's backs as they fought, their swords glistening in the commotion. Both the brothers were in two minds with their concentration, both focussed on the battle but their wings were twitching to be spread just under their light armour but they were struggling to keep them in control – they didn't want their enemies grabbing hold of them of for one of their friends and comrades to mistaken them for the enemy.

The vampires were hardly seen, their fast paced running allowed to almost appear to be in two places at once but I knew from the small briefing before that they were tasked with fanning out and securing the castle. The werewolves fought in great numbers but their strong beast like appearance was vulnerable to the Volucris, with the jaws snapping and deadly in front of them they were vulnerable to any air or behind attack, forcing them to work together in groups. Fighting in groups of two and threes the werewolves were a force to be reckoned with, their teeth baring and ripping the Volucris, wings to shredding in only seconds leaving them just as human as me to face down the big strong beasts. The white feathers of the fallen Volucris littered the floor like fallen snow, the only colour was the pools of red blood seeping out of the bodies of the fallen.

The sudden tug on my arm made me jump – almost as high as the hedges. One of the Volucris guard had stumbled back, into the hedge from behind me, somewhere in the gardens. I jumped back as he started to stand up right, his armour looking almost untouched except for the splatter of red blood on his chest plate. This was bad. I backed away slowly hoping that he hadn't yet noticed me hiding here but it was too late for that, he had seen me. Spinning around I started running with the guard hot on my heels, his sword was making a glowing light just in front of me as the light bounced off the shiny reflection. My necklace tightening around my neck and the crystal pulsed against my heart, telling me my life was in danger once again. The hedge began to end, leaving me with nowhere to go but out, out into the battle field, with a guard already within striking distance. I jumped into the wall of the hedge, my body tucking in on itself as I tried shield myself from the cuts of the small twigs before I finally landed back on the ground – stumbling a little on my feet.

Turning around I saw the guard had followed me through and now had me stuck between his sword and the edge of a werewolf and Volucris fight. My necklace started burning, almost as if it were trying to burn a hole in my chest and I knew this was going to be bad – for me anyways. Taking a deep breath I tried to remember my self-defence lessons with Eliza and just prayed that this big lump of a man wasn't nearly as strong as he looked. Swallowing hard I reached behind me and pulled out my small dagger that Logan had presented me with only moments ago.

The guard chuckled deeply at my lack of weaponry as he advanced on me. He rolled his wrist making his sword swing before he lunged it at my centre, I quickly tilted my dagger as Eliza said, the flicker of the light caught in the guard eyes as he lunged, slowing his movements and giving me a chance to move out of the way with a quick jump to the left. With the guard still trying to blink the light out of his eyes I bought my elbow down between his fore arm and bicep making him reflexively drop the sword. I went to pick up the sword hoping to use it for some leverage but the guard recovered quicker than I had hoped, his hands reaching out and grabbing hold of my wrists, freezing my movements. He pushed my back and tightening his hold on my right wrist as I struggled against him, his large size intimidating and immaculate. I panicked. I didn't know what to do, or how to get out of this one.

Squirming in his grasp I managed to pull my left wrist free, flattening out my arm I tense all my muscles and pulling on all my strength as I tried to karate chop his arm that had the tight grip on my other wrist – my face a vision of surprise when it actually worked. He moved to grab hold of me again but I successfully blocked him – much to my surprise. I only wished Eliza was watching this. Again he tried, and again I blocked him. I soon found myself falling into one of Eliza's routines. One, two, three, four, five, six blocks and then take a step forward with all your momentum building, strengthen your arms, flatten out your hands and push him in the chest. The guard went stumbling backward giving me room to finish off the combo just as Dustan had instructed me too. Raising my leg I kicked the guard where I knew it most hurt any man.

The guard hunched over and dropped to his knees in pain, his cries the only thing to be heard in the large hall that was suddenly very quiet. Wiping my pride off my face I looked up and around the room to see that the battle had stopped, Marco stood on the steps of the throne, Logan was just at his side – his eyes watching me carefully. As my eyes floated over the battle field I saw no happiness, not even triumph. Only sadness and loss. Although the Volucris lost, there was no celebration, too many had died for that. I saw Kyle standing next to his sister, he had barely a scratch on him but Lena was covered in blood as she leaned down over a body. If I didn't know her natural skin colour in that moment I would have sworn it was red. Her cries echoed through the hall as she clutched a body and held it close to her, it was only when Kyle tried to peer her away did I see the body belonged to Conner.

After so much destruction, so much death, there was one problem. Peter wasn't here.

---------------------------------------

I struggled so much with this ugh so forgive me for the terribleness (if that is even a word) of the chapter.

Please vote and comment!