Page 41
Mathias
The fragile peace they had carved in the remote cabin shattered on a gray, mist-heavy morning when the first feral howls tore through the woods like shattered glass. Failed turns—twisted, mindless remnants of botched rituals—rampaged towards them, drawn by the potent scent of their symbiotic bond. Behind the ferals came the camp pursuers with Gina at the forefront, her youthful face twisted with jealous resolve, flanked by scattered whelps hungry for any scrap of stability. Human hunters followed in their wake, UV lights slicing through the fog like false dawn, silver blades glinting with lethal promise.
“We run,” Mathias growled, voice edged with roughness and urgency.
They fled deeper into the ancient forest as the sky lightened, the sun’s jealous whisper rising to a deafening roar in his mind. Come to me. Find peace in my light. End the defiance.
Carson stayed glued to his side, the subtle powers granted by their shared blood lending him unnatural speed and sharpened senses. But the bond thrummed with dire warning—Mathias’ emotional vulnerabilities had accelerated the Sun’s Call to a breaking point.
The sire’s steps began to falter as the first golden rays filtered through the canopy. Blisters rose instantly on his exposed hands, angry red welts bubbling into weeping, scorched husks.
“Mathias—down!” Carson tackled him into a thicket as a hunter’s UV beam sliced overhead. The vampire hissed in pain as another feral burst from the underbrush, claws raking deep across his side. Carson drove a scavenged branch through the creature’s chest with desperate strength. The feral howled in complaint—a guttural, agonized sound—before thrashing into smoking cinders.
Gina appeared through the trees like a vengeful shadow, flanked by two whelps. “Brother, this ends here,” she called, her lilting voice cracking with twisted love. “The sun harvests you faster because of him. Let us take the human—sever the bond cleanly before it destroys us all.”
Mathias snarled, shoving Carson behind him as silver flashed. Pain bloomed hot across his shoulder where a hunter’s blade grazed. Blistering spread rapidly now, skin cracking and oozing under the strengthening daylight. Howling complaints filled the air as more ferals rampaged closer, drawn to the chaos like moths to flame.
The escape turned into a desperate, brutal flight. They broke into a small clearing just as the sun fully crested the horizon. Mathias staggered, the Call overwhelming—those whispered seductive promises of release, his body yearning to step fully into the light and let the centuries burn away. “Carson...you need to go. Save yourself.”
“No.” Carson’s voice broke with raw, unshakable determination. He wrapped himself around Mathias, shielding the vampire’s larger frame with his own human body. Blazing heat scorched his back where sunlight struck unprotected skin, but he held firm, arms locked tight. Shared essence surged between them—Carson’s warmth flowing into Mathias like a defiant lifeline, quieting the sun’s siren just enough to keep him grounded. “We do this together. Symbiotic. No surrender.”
Gunfire cracked. A hunter’s UV lance caught Gina’s arm, searing the flesh with a sickening sizzle. She screamed, staggering backwards as smoke rose from the blackened wound.
In the melee, Mathias caught sight of Zeke blurring in from the tree line—loyal to the bitter end. “Go, brother! Take your soul mate and run!”
The steadfast vampire threw himself between them and the closing pursuers, taking a silver blade meant for Mathias straight to the chest. His howl of complaint rose high and terrible as the metal burned like acid through undeath. Ferals swarmed him instantly, tearing and ripping with mindless savagery even as Zeke fought on, buying them precious, bloody seconds.
“Zeke!” Mathias roared, grief and fury twisting his features. But Carson pulled him onwards with everything he had, dragging them both deeper into shadowed ravines where ancient, dense trees blocked the worst of the merciless light.
Behind them, the brutal showdown raged—howls, snarls, the wet tear of flesh, the acrid stench of blistering husks and burning vampire flesh. Gina’s pained cries echoed as she fought her way free of the fray, clutching her seared arm, her dark hair matted with blood and ash.
Mathias and Carson finally collapsed inside a deep, moss-covered cave as the sun climbed higher. Mathias’ blisters were beginning to heal from the benefit of Carson’s shielding warmth and the careful, desperate exchange of blood that followed. The bond pulsed strong between them—reckless, alive, and forged in fire.
In the dim sanctuary, Mathias cradled Carson close, fingers tracing the angry burns across his back with trembling reverence. “You risked everything,” he whispered, voice raw. “Proved the legends true. But the cost...Zeke.” He swallowed hard. “And Gina...she still lives. I feel her. She’s wounded but alive. This isn’t over.”
Carson leaned into him, body aching, soul reckoning with the violence, the loss, and the terrible price of their defiance. The Sun’s Call had been beaten back but not silenced forever. Hunters and rival shadows would come again—and Gina’s survival meant the fractures in the camp would continue to fester.
Yet in this hidden moment of reckoning, their eternal bond stood unbroken—tangled, ecstatic, and worth every shattered illusion and howling loss.
They had survived the dawn.
For now.
***
Gina
Gina staggered through the trees, frustration burning hotter than the pain in her seared arm. She had been so close—close enough to taste the chaos she could have turned to her advantage—only for Mathias and his precious human to slip away again. The missed opportunity made her careless. She stepped too far into a patch of dappled sunlight, hissing as it seared her shoulder.
A shift of motion came from her left. Something heavy slammed into her side, and a brutal blow struck the back of her head. Pain exploded through her skull, rattling her brain like dice in a cup. The world spun violently, then went black.
***
She woke to damp stone and the sharp, intoxicating scent she’d been hunting for weeks. The rich, dark, enthralling essence wrapped around her senses, making her fangs ache and her pulse give a sluggish, involuntary thud.
The sire.
Gina pushed herself upright, ignoring the vicious throbbing in her skull. She was in a narrow cave, cool and shadowed, deep in the same cave system she had glimpsed during the chaos. She hadn’t realized it at first—but the scent confirmed it.
