Walsh drove us to a big daddy mansion that I assumed was his parents’ house. It was perched right behind the school and there were a dozen black Range Rovers outside. This must be where Sawyer was.
‘Are you in this giant mansion Walsh just drove me to?’ I asked Sawyer mentally.
‘Yes, love. I asked him to bring you to me. Come inside.’
We all popped out of the car and Sage and Walsh started to talk to the two guards stationed outside while I stood there like an idiot.
“Step inside, go left, and he’s in the office probably. Meet you in there in a sec,” Sage told me, and I nodded.
I walked up to the doors, about to knock, and then figured that was stupid since his mom was probably resting and Sawyer had just told me to come in.
The porch was large, lined with a deep oak wood, and I stepped up to the two giant glass doors and turned the handle. Walking inside the travertine lined foyer, I turned left and immediately came face to face with Roland. His eyes were red rimmed and glassy like he’d been crying. “Oh, Miss Calloway, it’s so good to see you are alright.” He pulled me into a hug and my throat tightened as I hugged him back.
Sawyer told me that this man was a member of the family, and I could tell by how sweet he was to me that it held true. “Thank you, Roland.” I squeezed him tightly before we both let each other go.
He brushed a few stray tears off of his cheeks and nodded. “Come on in. Mrs. Hudson is resting, but Sawyer has requested you join him in the war room.”
War room.
He said war room.
Shit. This was real. This was really happening.
I gulped and walked down the long dimly lit hall. As we neared, I heard screaming voices. Well, one screaming voice. My fiancé.
“Do I look like I fucking care about money right now? Just do it! I don’t care what it costs,” Sawyer growled.
Roland opened the door after a light knock, and I stepped inside.
Whoa.
The room was large and completely bare but for a huge desk made of glass that looked like it was a giant tablet. Around it stood five men. Eugene, Brandon, Quan, some big dude I didn’t know with black dreadlocks, and a scrawny secretary dude I’d seen follow his dad around.
“Demi.” Sawyer rushed forward and pulled me into his arms. “You okay?” He looked down at me as if assessing me for any wounds he might have missed before. “Shit, our engagement party was ruined, I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head. “I don’t care.”
He nodded. “I know but… I wanted it to be special for you.”
His freaking dad died! The last thing on my mind was a special engagement party, but I knew he was a romantic and just wanted me to feel like a queen, and was probably still in shock.
He pulled out a folded piece of paper and slipped it into my back pocket. I frowned.
“I might be up late. Read that later when you’re alone,” he whispered in my ear.
I just nodded, confused as to why he would write me a note.
“Sir…” Eugene cleared his throat. “With the witches on the blood sucker’s side, our technology will be no match. Tankers, guns, helicopters, they can all be disabled with the flick of the wrist.”
Sawyer sighed and I’d never seen him look so old and worn down.
He turned to face Eugene. “I know that.”
“Are all of the witches against us, or just some?” I asked, assuming Sawyer wanted me in here to share ideas and not just look pretty. Not that I looked very pretty right now covered in blood and ashes.
“Reports are that the large majority wants to side with the vampires. We border Witch Lands, and Queen Drake has promised them our land if they help defeat us in the war,” the shrimpy secretary dude said. “And our army is holding the wall at our northern gate for now, but it won’t keep. There are more of them than there are us.”
Sawyer sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
I raised my hand and everyone looked at me. “Why not offer the witches who want to defect a place to live here? Surely we have extra land and housing we could offer to witches willing to fight on our side? Raven said it’s pretty bad over there. Everyone can’t love it.”
Raven’s family had been cast out for speaking ill of the high priestess and calling for a public vote of new leadership. The high priestess had been alive for over a thousand years, and so she stayed in power indefinably. Some of the people were ready for change.
If you spoke ill of the high priestess, your electricity would get shut off or your food rationed. They were very controlling of their people.
“Witches come live here? In Werewolf City. Permanently?” Brandon asked, scrunching up his face.
I looked to Sawyer, who was stroking his chin. He was covered in blood; his hair had flecks of soot in it, and the entire room smelled of smoke. Shit was dire but here he was war planning, trying to save his people from harm. I loved him so much in this moment.
“If we can put aside our… obsession … with having a certain territory…” Sawyer nodded. “That could work. Pull up the map. Where could we put them?”
The secretary looked like he’d been smacked in the face. “You want me to find an area in Werewolf City to move in witches?”
Mr. Dreadlocks growled. “Yes, are you deaf? Your alpha gave you an order, now make it happen.”
Sawyer placed a hand on Dreadlocks’ shoulder. “It’s alright, Commander, it’s going to take some getting used to.”
Then he looked at me. “Is there a leader of their opposition? Can we get Raven over here to consult with us?”
Holy shit. He was actually listening to my idea. I nodded.
“Tell her I’m sending a car for her and her family,” Sawyer told me, and then started barking more orders at other people.
I pulled out my phone and texted my bestie.
Me: Umm so we’re at war, the alpha is dead and I need you to come to Werewolf City for a consult… Sawyer is sending a car.
Raven: WTF! Are you okay? Okay… can my parents come?
Me: Yes. Pack for a while. Miss you.
I was hoping to talk Sawyer into letting them stay here long-term, especially if he was letting other witches come.
“Raven and her parents are packing,” I told Sawyer.
He nodded, rubbing his face and looking more stressed than I’d ever seen him.
“I think we should—”
A siren went off and a walkie-talkie at Dreadlocks’ belt squawked.
“Vampires have breached the north wall. Orders, sir?” a voice came over the line and my eyes widened.
Dreadlocks looked to Sawyer, who peeled his lips back, his canines lengthening to points and pressing in on his bottom lip. “Kill anything that steps over that wall.”
Dreadlocks nodded. “Shoot to kill. I repeat, shoot to kill.”
The siren lessened to a low wail and Sawyer paced the room.
“How many in the reserves?” he asked, just as Sage and Walsh walked in.
“Three thousand,” Commander Dreadlocks said.
Sawyer stopped dead and spun on his heel. “That’s it?”
Dreadlocks swallowed hard. “Your father wasn’t keen on war.”
Sawyer shook his head. “Well, war is keen on us.”
Dreadlocks nodded, his back going rigid. “If I may be relieved sir, I’d like to get to the front line with my men.”
Sawyer nodded and Dreadlocks left the room.
Sawyer looked at the scrawny secretary then. “Please check on my mother, make sure the war siren hasn’t woken her.”
The man nodded and scurried from the room.
“We’ll go help at the north wall. Sorry again about your dad.” Quan and Brandon both gave Sawyer a quick bro hug and then left. Now it was just Walsh, Sage, Eugene, Sawyer, and I to stare at the map of Magic City that stood open on the tablet. He’d set up an imaginary battle where all of the magical races turned on us, and it didn’t look good.
“Someone give me some good fucking news,” Sawyer growled, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
Sage pulled out her phone and showed him something. “I’ve gotten at least a thousand responses from the emergency text you sent out of wolves wanting to enlist,” she told her cousin.
“It’s not enough! I need at least ten thousand more.” Sawyer reached up and pulled at his hair.
My eyes flicked to his the moment he said ten thousand.
The Paladins had ten thousand warriors and we’d just done them a favor.
“I know where we can get a couple thousand more warriors,” I said boldly.
“No,” he growled, as if he could read my thoughts.
Everyone in the room looked confused.
I swallowed hard, stepping up to kiss his cheek. “Sawyer, I can get you thousands more warriors.”
He grabbed the sides of my face, peering into my eyes. I saw so much emotion there. Anger, agony, possession. “Not in a million fucking years, Demi,” he growled.
“How?” Eugene’s voice came from behind me and I stepped back from Sawyer.
“Paladins. They are over ten thousand strong. I can ask for warriors and they will give them to me.”
Eugene looked impressed. “Do it. With those kind of numbers we could actually have a chance to win this thing.”
Sawyer spun on Eugene. “The Paladin don’t have phones and I have an ankle bracelet on. That means she would have to go there alone. NO.”
His eyes went yellow and I waited for Eugene to lower his head in submission.
He didn’t.
Eugene shouted, “Son, if we don’t secure these walls, we are looking at total annihilation within two days, and they’ll steal your fiancé and drain her blood!”
The veins in Sawyer’s neck bulged. “Or they find her on her way to the Paladin lands and just drain her there!”
I cleared my throat. “No one is draining anyone, okay. I can handle myself! I’ll go and be right back. I will meet you at the school with thousands more men by morning,” I declared.
If I really was the Paladin alpha, then they would come with me and help me out, right?
Sawyer shook his head. “No.”
There was a finality in his voice, and I could hear his teeth clamp together and nearly crack as his jaw set.
I sighed. “Trust me. I’ll be right back.”
He needed to see reason or my parents and everyone we cared about were going to get killed.
“No,” he growled again, and this time alpha power lashed into the room wildly.
“We have to put our people first, Sawyer. Before our own needs.” I stepped closer to him.
“No.” This time it was a whimper. With a sigh, I slipped his dad’s ring off my thumb and then I stepped forward and placed it on his ring finger.
“I’m going to be back by morning, with warriors, and we’re going to win and get married.”
He clamped down on my fingers, a sob forming in his throat.
I didn’t want to do this to him. He’d just lost his father and he was vulnerable, but the north gate had already been breached. Soon it would be the east and the south, and what about when the vampires recruited the Ithaki? We were no match for the entirety of Magic City.
I looked to Walsh and Eugene, who’d been watching our passionate display from the sidelines.
They knew what this look was and they both nodded.
I nodded back.
They rushed forward and pulled his hands behind him, pinning him back as I stepped away from him. His eyes went wide at the betrayal.
“I’ll be right back,” I told him, heading for the door. “We’re going to win this fucking war.”
Then I did the hardest thing I’d ever done. I ran down the hall and left him there screaming my name.
‘Not again, don’t do this to me again. I can’t follow you with the ankle bracelet on!’ Sawyer yelled desperately in my head.
‘I got this. You have to trust that I am capable without you. I love you and I’m coming right back,’ I told him as I reached the front door and burst out into the night.
‘Demi, I swear to God if I cannot be there to protect you, I will die from heartbreak. Don’t do this to me. I already lost my father, I can’t take losing you.’
My chest constricted at his words, but I pressed on.
‘I love you. I’ll see you in the morning with Paladin warriors. I promise.’
Someone pounded the ground behind me, and I looked back to see Sage.
“You sure?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Bitch, you’re not going alone.”
With a smile we slipped into the woods of the alpha’s property and took off for the border. I knew you couldn’t take a car into the Wild Lands; there were no roads.
Sawyer’s parents’ house was close to the border between the campus and the northeast border wall where the Vampire City coven and the Wild Lands met. I could run vampire fast, and the sound of cracking bones behind me told me that Sage was shifting to catch up. It was dark out, with the moon high in the sky, and I felt fatigue pull at my muscles as we ran as fast as we could.
Curt was dead.
We were at war.
Sawyer was alpha… early.
So much raced through my mind as Sage and I pounded the ground to the border. It only took about ten minutes to reach the little row of orange flags that demarcated the Wild Lands beyond. A small four-foot cobblestone wall stood there with gaps every twenty or so feet. I could hear yelling and gunfire off in the distance to the north, and I wondered if I could make it to the Paladin and back in time to help.
Sawyer’s emotions slammed into me like a tornado; my stomach lurched into my throat as I felt his despair overwhelm me.
“Demi, don’t you dare cross that line!” Sawyer’s broken voice came from somewhere behind me.
I whimpered in pain as the emotion of leaving him left a gash on my heart a mile wide. Looking over my shoulder, I saw him burst through the trees. I couldn’t meet his gaze. He was panting wildly, torso covered in blood and red marks from where Eugene and Walsh had held him. The red blinking light on his ankle bracelet flashed a slow steady rhythm as if reminding us it was there. When I finally looked up into his eyes, they were bright yellow.
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered, and backed up into the Wild Lands and behind the markers. Sage followed me over with her tail tucked between her legs.
“Demi!” Sawyer roared. “You don’t understand how dangerous this is!” He ran toward me and I backed up further into the woods, slipping behind the gap in the wall with tears running down my face.
“Sawyer, stop!” I screamed, but he didn’t. He ran full speed into the woods, but instead of crossing over the flag line, his entire body seized up and I heard the crack of electricity from where I stood ten feet away. He fell backward, teeth clacking together as he shook on the ground, convulsing.
A sob ripped from my throat at seeing someone I loved in so much agony.
Eugene and Walsh came into the clearing then, panting and taking huge lungfuls of air as they surveyed the scene.
A siren ripped into the night and Sawyer sat up groaning, holding his stomach. He looked at me through the gap in the fence and I paled when his broken blue eyes hit me with utter betrayal.
Eugene thrust a cell phone at Sawyer. “Witches have taken down all of our aerial assault. The eastern wall has fallen. What do we do?”
Fuck.
I backed up a few more steps, knowing now more than ever that we needed the Paladins’ help.
Sawyer lowered his head, speaking into the phone, “Put the women and children in the underground bunker and arm every man over seventeen.” He hung up and then looked up at me with a haunted expression. “Come home with me now, Demi. Get in the bunker where you will be safe.”
That was just the thing. This didn’t feel like home anymore, nowhere did. And I knew that if I didn’t get help, there would be no home to return to.
“I’ll be right back. Please forgive me,” I managed to say without falling into a blubbering mess. Then I turned my back on the love of my life and ran into the darkness of the Wild Lands.
Sawyer’s earsplitting howl, half human, half man, split my heart in two and I wondered if our relationship would ever be the same after this.
It had to, right? We were true mates…
