“I am,” he replied crisply.
“I’ve been informed we have an uncle too,” Jack said, seeming to realize he was walking into treacherous territory and deciding to steer the conversation elsewhere.
“We’ll welcome him to the family by killing him,” Braith replied.
“Killing family members has become a tradition.”
“That it has. How many troops have been recruited?” he asked.
“There are well over twenty-five hundred now,” Daniel said. “There will most likely be more as those people are also recruiting others, and by now word has spread of the missing humans and the villages where vampires are brutalized and tortured. Where the children are murdered in cold blood. More will join the fight.”
“They will,” Braith murmured as he studied the x’s on the map.
They’d all been busy while he’d been dead. Fury slid through him at the reminder of all he’d missed and all they’d been left behind to try to accomplish.
So many things could have happened to Aria while he’d been gone. So many things had happened to her while he’d been dead. She’d been beaten and her soul battered, yet she’d also been steadily working to create an army.
“Easy, Braith,” Jack said.
His head shot up; he stared at his brother as his muscles flexed and his fangs pricked. He was far more in control of himself now that their bloodlink was reestablished, but the reminder of what Aria had endured rattled him. However, he hadn’t realized his control had slipped to the point where they would notice it. They all looked between him and the door to where Aria slept as if they were debating on waking her.
“If anyone wakes her, I’ll kill them,” he promised and their eyes shot back to him. He removed his hand from the table and stepped back. “Who is going to gather the rest of the troops here?”
They glanced nervously at each other. “Timber, Max, and Daniel will go,” William answered.
“I’ll go too,” Maeve said.
“We’re not giving you a chance to escape,” Daniel said.
She gave him a scathing glance. “I am a fighter. I don’t back down from that, ever.”
“Take her with you,” Braith said. “Give her a chance to further prove herself, and kill her if she tries anything.”
Maeve gave a brisk nod. “Fair enough.”
“Will the humans be ready for this fight?” he asked.
“We never stopped being ready,” Maeve replied. “We always suspected one day we’d have to fight again. It’s all we’ve ever done.”
“That’s true,” Timber said as he rocked back in his chair.
“They follow Aria. They like and trust her. She was once one of them, and even when she was teetering on the edge, she managed to put up a strong front for all of them,” William said. “They’ll fight for her, for themselves, and for their children.”
A shimmer of distress radiated over him. He turned toward the room where he’d left Aria as the door opened. Her reddened eyes turned blue when they latched onto him, and she took a step forward.
“Even if the storm is still raging, leave at dawn,” he said to them over his shoulder as he strode over to her, lifted her up, and carried her back into the room.
CHAPTER 34
Max
The rain pelted Max’s skin as they made their way through the trees toward the last safe house location. He felt as if he’d been out in the rain for weeks instead of the two days it had taken them to traverse the distance to all of the safe houses. They would have made much better time, but the storm continued to lash the earth.
At his side, Maeve shivered and pulled the hood of her cloak closer around her face. Despite their brutal pace and the punishing weather, she continued onward without once complaining about the travel conditions. One of them had always stayed by her when they arrived somewhere new, but never once had she attempted to tell anyone else what she knew. Timber and Daniel were beginning to trust her more, and Max firmly believed she would not betray them.
He stopped outside the tree hiding the final safe house and pushed the button, opening it up and slipping inside behind the others. Within, they discovered well over three hundred people gathered and waiting for word it was time to move on. Max accepted the food and ale as well as the dry clothes offered to him.
The occupants of the safe house informed them there were more humans and vampires waiting in some nearby caves. At every safe house they’d gone to, they’d been told the same thing. Their numbers were more than they’d hoped for, and their recruits were ready to wage a war.