Wolves springing into action, human shapes jumping in front of her to cut her path toward me, the pack joining with thunderous paws against concrete with their teeth bared to strike—I watched them all dive into the nightmare untamed by fear.

And I wondered what it was that I could do now when all plans had fallen apart.

The sky above heaved, clouds gathering overhead as if some invisible hand was pulling a blanket on top of us. A bolt of light followed by the roar of nature blasted down the earth, revolting against this fate the same way we were. Despite fear or probably because of it.

The flash of lighting dying out a few meters from where the line of ghosts had been mere seconds ago, the wildlings were met by wolves stepping unafraid onto the blackened ground as they collided with their bestial relatives.

Blood splattered on black. She laughed looking at the mess her servants were creating out of mine and Regan's. The mocking sound carried to my ear, it echoed above the commotion like a chant of horror.

I wanted to crash my fist against her jaw so she never laughed at us again, never laughed at all.

Regan was throwing off the wildlings that came at him, making a bloody path as he tried to reach her, screaming her name, "Leila!" again and again.

A king after his retribution.

Not much different in his change than they were in their unrelenting reality now that he was in full on Apex mode, his body was as much beast's as it was a man's. Still just a body, every strike wounded him and added new gashes to his flesh.

To remember or die covered it them, it was all because, unlike the wildlings, this man wasn't trying to hurt me but to spare me, to keep me safe, to protect me.

Save me when I was the one who was supposed to do this for him from the beginning.

Oracle's words replayed in my mind.

'In reverse,' she had said then later taught me how and this was what I had to do.

She was flanking my mate. Her eyes blind to the monsters launching toward her, yet somehow she knew exactly where to find them as fragile, wrinkled hands pushed them away to ward them off.

Some of them still managed to cut through her defense, biting onto her to tear her texture and rip the flesh from the bones. Her lips never parted to let out a scream. Her movements never faltered.

If anything, she looked like she barely noticed the sting of teeth and claws as if they had no effect on her other than maiming her body.

Moving my eyes off of her, I saw Lucas—resting on his knees still, palms clasped in front of himself, eyes closed in deep concentration almost like he was praying.

Which gods he sought out inside the hell unfolding I didn't know, but there was not one that I wanted on his side of this battle.

"What do I do, Oracle?" I shouted jumping to the older woman's side to help her with her two attackers and hoping her hearing was sharp enough to pick up the words through the clashing of sounds.

"Follow the plan," she hollered back the moment her palm connected with the wildling's chest to push the beast-man off. Her other hand that held a small dagger slashed the air barely inches from the wildling's face then came back slicing the side of the man's face.

Throwing a punch at the other one, my gaze flickered to her for a split second before I directed my knee toward the man's jewels as my hand shot to retrieve the blade striped to my right hip.

"We will protect you, Scarlet. Do what you're supposed to do now and don't miss this chance!" Oracle shouted, pushing me behind herself to take on the next body that flew toward her.

The vampires were singing all around us, katanas raised in their hands and slicing through the flesh of the monsters that came at us. But moving my gaze a few feet away, I could already see the soulless' approach, Leila waiting for them where the ghosts' barrier had stood once.

I had to act now before they joined the fight or I might never get another shot.

And by the looks of them skirting closer, hissing on their way, the time of foreplay was quickly running out and the real thing was about to begin any moment now.

I shivered, taking a step back into the circle of people who guarded me with their lives and tried to compose myself, get a hold of my grated nerves and just breathe.

I had to breathe deeply, imagine I was anywhere but here in this doomed battlefield, distance myself from the world and the fight all around me just so I could be...

A hero. The hero they believed that I was when I didn't even know if I had it in me to be one.

Was I even worth the hope?

Closing my eyes to the shapes struggling to restrain the enemy's advance, I let the sensation flow.

It was hard. Harder than impossible when every once and then I'd jump from the sounds of growling and jaws snapping, cracking of bones as they broke and cries that ended in pained whimpers or dying gasps. Steel meeting flesh. Claws tearing flesh. Men dying as wolves and monsters only for more to replace them in the fight.

Hands would reach through the cracks of space made by my guardians' as they were distracted to fend off their attackers. Sharp talons would stick into my body, sinking into my flesh, pulling cries of my lips. Then they would retreat, leaving my body stinging and burning with the taste of the wounds inflicted on it.

I could feel warmth trickling down my arms, knowing it was blood that saturated the fabrics covering my body.

I would feel him, close and distant, and he would be hurt worse than I would.

And every time I would try to take a step away from the world holding me a prisoner inside itself, I would come back crashing.

The pack bond was wide open and calling for me with its flow. Too much, too strong for me to wade through, there were too many sensations, feelings, pain, whispers born of desperation.

The tide spat me right out of it. The hope evaporated in darkness.

"It's not working, Oracle. I can't go inside of it now," I cried out, begging for a miracle, for something that could help me do it.

Sink into the sea the bond had become.

I opened my eyes to see Oracle turn toward Michael. "She needs a direct link," she said.

I didn't understand what she meant at first but as soon as I followed her line of sight, it hit me.

Lucas. Her answer was Lucas.

"But Oracle—"

"We need to get to him," she interjected, cutting my objection. "This is the only way and she's going to need him later as well."

Need him for what exactly? I wondered but never got to ask since just then, Oracle stated, "We need a path, Michael."

The vampire nodded.

I gulped when a hand clasped around Lucas' shoulder—Leila's hand.

"He's mine now, Ophelia, so to get to him you'll have to get through me first," the soulless said, her hand stating her ownership the same way her cry did.

Ardently.

Sticking her chin out, Oracle' shoulders stiffened as three words tumbled out of her mouth.

"And I will," she said and when the first of vampires moved, bringing our group closer to where Lucas was kneeling in a trance on the ground, I prayed that this idea she had now was going to do the trick and get us rid of the soulless once and for all, but most of all, I prayed that she could go through a woman without a soul.

"I'm so fucking bored of your goody-two-shoes attitude, Ophelia," Leila screamed, taking a leap to meet Oracle in the middle. "Aren't you?"

She swung, bringing her booted leg toward Oracle. The other woman jumped back, avoiding the kick by a hair. "No."

Eyes popping in surprise, Leila pushed forth, screaming, "You never wondered what it is to be like the rest of us. They never rejected you like they did us so you have no reason to embrace your nature or fight for yourself! Why are you doing it now for them?"

Oracle's feet brought her back a step and then suddenly, a fist flew up Leila's way, catching her jaw. "It's their time and their world now and you damn well know I've always fought for what I believe in, you stupid bitch!" Oracle snapped.

I cringed at hearing the foul language of the older woman. She'd never spoken in this way and seeing that she did now I could only guess these two had some unresolved matters between themselves, and truthfully that worried me more than them fighting.

Leila stumbled and held a hand over her jaw. "Only because they took our place. Traitor!" She spat out, blood dripping in a small trail from the corner of her lip.

With Oracle distracting the soulless, I took my chance and slowly started inching toward Lucas. Baby steps.

"If abiding by the laws makes me a traitor then so be it, but what breaking them makes of you, Leila? Did you ever think about what would happen if you continue to do what you've been doing? Did you ever wonder what they'd do once they decide they've had enough of your insolence?" Oracle asked in an even tone, springing her arms wide in a gesture that could be translated one way and one way only.

Come at me.

I didn't know what or who they were talking about, but the rage that swept over Leila's face was evident just then. Her face morphed into an ugly grimace, her lips pressed into a thin narrow line that twitched in synch with her slits of eyes as her hands squeezed into fists at her sides.

Shaking with unreleased fury just as the rest of her was.

The fires burned more brightly, more fuel added to the glow with Oracle's words hitting their mark.

"We were just sinners to them. They never cared about us, Ophelia," Leila said gravely. "All they ever cared about was their favorite creation. They let them"—She pointed toward the pack.—"replace us, but no, it wasn't enough. Then they let them summon us back here so they could use us."

Oracle shook her head. "It's just a test to us, Leila. They wanted us to prove we'd learned from our mistakes. And we needed to be replaced. We grew complacent and reckless. We gave the divine the reason to do what they did."

"The divine can go fuck themselves!" Leila snarled and jumped at Oracle, this time hitting her mark right on.

I nearly screamed when the women crashed onto the ground inches away from me. Bodies rolling as they struggled to overpower one another, their hands reached to hold the other and claw their nails into the skin.

And just seeing the scene unfurling, I could almost find it hilarious if the situation was not as dire as it was.

Taking their leader's launch into the offensive as a sign, the soulless didn't hesitate to follow.

Shadowy forms descending upon us, the whirl of katanas wooshing in my ears, Oracle's words came like a distant echo in the chaos of sounds and bodies lunging into the battle. 

'Maybe tomorrow but not tonight,' she'd said when I asked her if the Moon was going to show us kindness for once.

Sending a silent prayer that the sun would rise earlier, my hesitant steps turning into a sprint, I ran.