As if someone had turned the volume up on the television, the sounds of fighting behind her came back into focus, and she spun to find the bear swinging wildly at Aleksi, Claude, and the other boy, still in dog form, barking and biting at the enraged animal. She had no charge left. In fact, she was having trouble standing at this point.
Claude picked up a pitchfork, hefted it over his head, and slammed it down right between the bear’s shoulder blades. It gave a roar and rose on its hind legs, towering over Aleksi, sword still in her hands. The dog bit its heel, and as it dropped to all fours, Aleksandra thrust up with her sword into its chin, driving the blade all the way through the beast’s skull and out the top of its massive head.
Elena turned away, unable to watch the transition as it turned back to a man, but what she saw instead, was the dog shifter resuming his human form, then throwing himself over his friend’s body. She closed her eyes, surrounded with the smell of blood and the faint whimpers and whines of the surviving boy. Was this the world she was condemned to live in now? A world of violence and hate?
Shouting came from outside. “More are coming,” Aleksi said to the surviving boy. “Shift and run, Iosif! Get out of here.”
“No, Lady Aleksandra. I will fight for you. For Simion.”
“Now. Dammit. Obey me. Out!”
Iosif shifted into a dog and loped to the back of the barn and squeezed under a board at the back of a stall.
“You should have teleported out,” Aleksi said, scooping Elena’s sword from the ground and handing it to her. “Claude can’t and I’m not healed enough yet.” She wiped the blade of her sword off on the bale of hay beside her. “Why did you stay?”
The shouting grew louder as the new enemies approached. “It never dawned on me to teleport out.” Everything was still too new. Stefan was right; she needed to stop thinking like a human. Though, she would not have left them to fend for themselves against two of those creatures. She would have remained regardless.
“They’re in the barn!” a gruff voice shouted.
“Fuck. I’d know that voice anywhere,” Aleksi said. “That’s Commander Mihai.”
A quick glance at Claude confirmed this was bad news. “Leader of Fydor’s Elite Slayer Force. We are as good as dead.”
No. They were not going to die. “Not yet.” She hadn’t seen this ending here. If the visions were correct, she still had to hug the vampire and take an item from the elf. “Whatever happens, I need you to remain here. You must go back to the fortress and act like you were against me. I have a plan.”
The first three Slayers, swords drawn, filled the wide opening at the front of the barn. Backlit by the rising sun rendered a dramatic silhouette effect, like something from a horrible second-rate action movie. Only this was real.
“Get out, E!” Aleksi whispered from behind her.
“I’m too weak to teleport,” she answered under her breath, standing perfectly still.
“In here,” one of the Slayers shouted over his shoulder.
There was no way they could fight off the Slayers. Their only hope was to buy some time. “Overtake me,” Elena whispered. “Act like you’re my hostages and are turning the tables.” Not a great plan, but it was all she had since she had no clue how she would get out of this.
“Move and die, parasite!” Aleksi said, yanking Elena back by the hair and placing her sword blade against her neck.
Claude caught on to the ruse and pointed the pitchfork, still slicked in the bear’s blood, at her chest. “Tell Fydor we’ve got Arcos,” he shouted to the Slayers. “She killed the bear shifters and the boy.”
“You should consider a career in acting, there, Claude,” Aleksi murmured.
Heart hammering, Elena closed her eyes and searched for a vision showing her how the hell she was going to get out of this one, but came up blank. If only she had freed the vampire and had him come up here with Claude. Stupid mistake.
“Not stupid.” The deep, rumbly voice behind her caused her to flinch. “What was stupid was broadcasting your location by calling out to me in your mind with Borya in the fortress. It’s how they knew to come here. He is telepathic, too. Now, hum.”
She did. It was a shrill version of “We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place,” and the vampire actually chuckled as if they weren’t facing Slayer Armageddon.
“Send word that the vampire escaped the dungeon!” one of the Slayers shouted.
“They already know,” he replied calmly. “Well, those I left alive, anyway.”
Aleksi pulled Claude close and whispered in his ear.
When the first three Slayers began to advance, swords raised, the vampire moved within inches of Elena. “Touch me. Do it now. You must choose to come, or it doesn’t work.”
Without hesitation, she did as he instructed, and the moment her fingers met the cool skin of his arm, everything blurred and the pressure of teleportation wrapped her body like a cocoon. She had no idea where the vampire was taking her, but wherever it was, it beat the hell out of a barn full of angry Slayers.
Chapter Twenty-Nine