25. Chapter Twenty-Five

We planned to Change together, shoving our clothing into Jabari's bag. He tucked it away in a bush, covering it with foliage to stop curious hikers and animals.

"There's no food in it, so it should be fine," he said. "Remember the plan. We're going down there together, and even if it takes all day, we're going after them one at a time. Incapacitate them, drag them out here, then burn them. If one of them offers information, I will go into my human form and get it." He eyed us both. I rubbed my hands together, nervous. "Then I can communicate with both of you, and Jacky, you can tell me what Heath has to say."

I nodded quickly. "Can do."

Heath nodded beside me, remaining silent. I knew he just wanted to get this over with. He looked like he was doing fine, but he was a little pale in the light. He would follow orders if it meant never seeing these vampires or Jabari ever again.

"Good. Let's Change and get through this. We'll be out of this forest by nightfall."

I fucking hoped so because I was done with stomping around the woods in the rain.

We Changed, bones cracking, growls, and grunts accentuating the pain and transformation our bodies were going through. Jabari was done before me, and we waited the few minutes it took for Heath to finish. He was fast for a wolf, just like I was fast for a werecat my age. I wondered if there was some similarity between us that caused it, or maybe we were just both lucky.

Jabari walked into the caves first with Heath and me able to walk beside each other behind him.

"He's a big motherfucker," Heath pointed out. "Every time I see him, I wonder if he can crush my damn head with those paws."

"Probably. He would wipe the floor with me, that's for sure." There were reasons I never got physical over the insults my siblings threw at me. Mischa and Zuri were more my size, maybe a little bigger, but they were older, more powerful, and more resilient, so size essentially didn't matter. Davor was the smallest of the guys in the family, still bigger than me, while Jabari and Hasan were the biggest werecats on the planet. I didn't think anyone would ever match them in size.

We entered the cave, going down. It smelled of dirt and water, along with some other choice things like decay. They had left bodies down in the mud, apparent to anyone with a nose. Even humans could have walked down here and known there were dead bodies of some sort—it reeked.

Heath growled softly. There was one problem with the reek of dead for our noses. We knew they were dead wolves.

"Do you think they're asleep?"I asked Jabari and Heath, wondering what they thought about the welcome we weren't getting. Jabari's big head nodded, and Heath provided more information.

"Most vampires feel an undeniable urge to sleep once the sun comes up. From what I know, as they get older, they can resist it but not well. It's just safer to hide and sleep."Heath sniffed the air. "There's a small draft, and I can smell…a wolf on it. I think the last one is still alive."

"Then we'll find him,"I promised. My nose, not being as sensitive, couldn't discern that. All I could smell was earth, death, and wolf. Unless I was missing some key way death changed scents, I had no idea how he came to the conclusion the last wolf was still alive. Maybe it was just hope.

Jabari continued in the lead, deeper into the caverns. We walked silently, placing our paws carefully to keep from causing too much of a disturbance. If we hadn't woken them up already, there was no reason to wake them up now. Sleeping vampires had to be easier to kill.

We cut into a small passageway, a thin, narrow walk into what seemed like a back chamber. Jabari crouched, which allowed Heath ahead of me to see over his head. And I could see over Heath's head.

Inside the chamber, there were mattresses and furniture. Couches with throw blankets and pillows. A power generator, probably using gasoline to run electrical items like the TV I saw. The vampires had set up a nice home in their cavern.

The only reason it wouldn't be a cool little clubhouse was the werewolf in human form on a small blanket in the corner. Even from where I was, I could see how gaunt he was. Heath pawed at the ground, anxious. I sniffed and realized he was right. This werewolf was alive. How I didn't know, but he was still fucking alive.

Jabari began to walk again, low to the ground. Once he was out of the small passage, Heath moved out faster, though still very silent, and went toward the werewolf.

"Don't. He could wake up and wake them up,"I said.

"He's going to die if we don't get him out of here now,"Heath snapped.

I shook my head. "Let Jabari and I get into position, then you can run him out. We can handle the vampires, but you have to wait for the right moment."

Heath looked from me to the sleeping, half-dead werewolf, then nodded. I moved toward Jabari and saw what he was focused on. In the corner of the cavern I couldn't see from the narrow passage, the vampires had set up an impressive bed and were sleeping together on it in a tangled amalgamation of bodies and limbs. They looked peaceful and clean, nearly harmless. They must have washed the blood and mud off themselves when they had run from the trap we had set. Now, injured and sleeping, they were easy prey.

Jabari and I stalked to the bed. We didn't touch any of the pieces hanging off, not yet. The leader was in the center, the hole where her arm used to be closed up. The younger woman looked perfectly fine if a lot paler than she had been the night before. I couldn't see most of her, which annoyed me. The man had vicious claw marks all over his chest, where Jabari had nearly cut him in half.

Jabari sat on the other side of the bed, and it looked like he smiled for a moment, his teeth bared and his eyes on me. He nodded his big head, letting me know he was ready for me to make the call.

"Heath, are you by the wolf?"I asked.

"Yes. I'll wake him up the moment you get started on them. Hopefully, I can get him on my back and run him out to daylight before any of them divert their attention from you."

I took a deep breath, flexing my claws into the dirt, feeling it between my paw pads.

"Now!"I ordered. Jabari and I jumped onto the bed, attacking the first bodies we could sink fangs and claws into. The werewolf screamed across the room, but I didn't hear Heath's response. Underneath me, the vampires screamed and struggled. One of them punched me in the head. One was able to scramble away and ran somewhere I couldn't see. Jabari pulled one off the bed, dragging it by a leg.

I focused on the one beneath me, the leader. With her remaining arm, she clawed at my face as I shook her by the shoulder, not connected to an arm. My five-inch fangs were buried into her, through bone and muscle. Tired of her clawing at me, I jumped back, yanking her along with me off the bed. Once I was on solid ground, I pinned her to the ground with a paw and tore, taking a giant piece out of her. Her screaming wouldn't stop, so I flexed my claws, letting them dig into her chest and tore down, tearing bones and muscle open.

Some part of me knew I should be sick from the carnage. Vampires had a human face, and it was disturbing when you could tear off pieces and cut them open, and they kept screaming, still ‘alive.' Their animated corpses continued to fight as you pulled their intestines out.

"I'm dragging this one out,"I told Jabari as I grabbed her good arm and yanked, listening to her scream further. She tried to stand, so I swiped at her legs, listening to the bone crunch, probably one of her femurs. She fell to her knees, yet she still tried to pull her remaining arm from my mouth.

I yanked her and was able to get us to the narrow passage. Instead of fighting to drag her alongside me, I walked backward down the little hall of stone. Once we were in the main area of the cave, her screaming picked back up, probably realizing how we intended to kill her. A howl came from behind me. Heath probably letting me know he was there, out and free with his saved werewolf.

The stupid bitch of a vampire pulled her arm hard, and I felt muscle and tendons tearing apart. I released for a second, let her gain an inch, then slammed my jaw closed again, snapping the bone in her upper arm in half and making the hand fall limp. With a snarl, I yanked her harder, making her fall to the ground. As I approached the mouth of the cave, Heath appeared before me, his ice blue wolf eyes watching me carefully. He ran in and grabbed one of the vampire's legs and turned her to go into the sun, feet first. We were big enough, we lifted her off the ground and slowly marched outside. I halted before her head was exposed to the sun. The light felt good to me.

It did not feel good to her. In Heath's mouth and broken on the ground, her legs went first. Beyond him, I could see the freed wolf, eyes wide with terror and awe, watching as the bitch that had tortured him melted, crusted, cracked, then crumbled as dust into the wind and rain. I didn't feel sick this time, forcing a vampire to suffer this. She had helped torture the poor werewolf for a month. The poor thing who had to watch his friends die and was probably would've died soon if they hadn't rescued him.

I dropped her arm once I knew there was no hope for her. The screams echoed around in my skull, though. She never stopped screaming until her lungs were dust. Heath nudged the arm and shoulder into the light, which quickly went to dust.

We were left with just her head, which I carefully pawed back deeper into the cave.

"There's one more left. Jabari is bringing the man. I'm going back in for the other woman. Keep an eye on him."I pointed with my nose at his saved werewolf, who shook weakly. The poor young man looked to only be skin and bones, but at least he was out in the sun and not down there being torn apart any longer.

"Be safe,"Heath said, bumping his head to mine. I nervously danced back from him and went into the cave once more. As I traveled back down to the narrow passage, Jabari passed me with the man, who was missing both his arms and one leg. I didn't let it faze me; Jabari had done what he needed to.

"I'm off to find the last one. Heath will help you position that one to burn,"I told my brother as he went closer to the sun. Jabari, holding the man's remaining leg, nodded.

I went through the narrow pass, hoping there would be another one inside the caverns that could show me where the little bitch fled. They had brought this on themselves. I understood now what it meant for Jabari and my siblings when it was said they were Hasan's judges, juries, and executioners. There was no oversight. We knew the Law, and we fought to avenge those werecats whose lives were lost unnecessarily. While the execution was gruesome, seeing that poor werewolf made it worth it. We were all monsters, but that didn't mean we had to be monstrous. We could live wonderful lives, have fucked-up families, and still be monsters.

There was no reason to do what they had done to that werewolf. They should be thankful. Their deaths were quicker than the one they had wanted to give him, wasting away as leftovers for them to snack on.

I snarled as I prowled around the little mansion they had set up for themselves. I sniffed the air, realizing the dead werewolves' bodies weren't being kept in this area, which meant there had to be another. They weren't buried because the scent was too strong, too pervasive.

No, they had stashed the dead werewolves somewhere, and that was probably where the little bitch had gone to hide.

I found a small opening and growled into it. A whimper came out the other side. I listened harder, tilting my head to hear everything.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die," the younger vampire whispered to herself.

I pawed at the stones and realized she had half-buried herself in while we were handling her friends. I went on my hind legs and shoved my paws against the loose rubble, knocking some over on the other side and digging to clear out the side I was on. Her breathing grew heavier inside as I dug out stones, some nearly as big as my head.

Finally, I could see her and swiped a paw inside. She screamed, backing away and curling into a ball.

I roared, trying to dig her out and get my body inside. I was nearly in a frenzy with it, desperate to take my prey to meet its end. I snapped and snarled, wanting a piece of her.

"Jacky, back away," Jabari ordered behind me. I hissed, turning to see him in human form. "I need to ask this one some questions."

"I'll tell you anything!" she screamed inside. "Please don't kill me! I don't want to die!"

"I won't let you die," he promised, smiling. The little vampire relaxed immediately. "How long have you been a vampire?" he asked, grabbing the scruff of my neck. I resisted, but amazingly, he was able to pull me back from the hole. I pulled and tugged, trying to get free from his grip, fury pumping through my veins. I wanted this bitch's blood. I wanted her head to roll. I wanted her dead.

"Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan, you will let me question her," Jabari snarled down at me before pulling me further away and swinging us, so his body was between me and the vampire. I roared in his face, but he seemed unfazed. "You can't beat me, little sister."

I could. If I wanted to kill him right then, in his human form versus my werecat, I could kill him. I snarled until he released me and backed away.

I didn't want to, and he nodded slowly as he recognized that as well.

"Now, vampire, how long have you existed?" He turned back to the little bitch in the hole. I paced behind him, waiting, frustrated something stood between me and it.

Soon. He'll let me have her soon. He better.

"Twenty…twenty-two years," she answered softly.

"Then you know the Laws," he said professionally. "And you know how you've broken them."

"It was just so good, you see?" She dared to lean out a little. "And who cares about the Laws anymore? They can be changed. I heard it. But it doesn't matter. My Master thought he could teach me better, and I said no."

"Why?" he asked gently. "Why did you tell your Master no?"

"Because I'm a fucking vampire. I can do whatever I want. I didn't think…" She looked at me, her eyes going wide. "I didn't think this would happen. It started, and I just wanted to try it out. They said it was so good, you see?"

"See what?" Jabari asked, kneeling. I didn't like him so close to her, so vulnerable.

"Killing! The blood tastes so much better as they get closer to dying, then they die, and you get all of that…good shit from it. It was just going to be some humans. No one had to make such a fuss about it."

"Ah. Did someone make a fuss?"

Jabari sounded like a caring uncle or an older brother who just wanted to know why his little sister got into so much trouble.

It tore at my heart because he had never spoken like that to me.

"Yes, my Master, but Essie, she said we weren't killing anyone important, and it was so good, and he was just jealous. Then he threw us out! He made all of us, and he tossed us out!"

"So, your Master knew before you left. Why did you come out here? There are much nicer places."

"He suggested it! He said no one would miss some campers. He couldn't bring himself to hurt his precious children. Seattle wasn't safe for us anymore, he said. We didn't know there would be werewolves or werecats. We didn't think they would care about us, but the werecats did. We had to kill them because we had to stay here."

"You didn't think to stop what you were doing?"

"Why? They're just humans, and I'm a vampire. They're food. Who gives a fuck—"

Jabari reached out and grabbed her neck so fast, I barely saw it happen. With a single twist of his wrist, he broke her neck.

"She was Changed young," he said as her wide eyes stared up at the ceiling, her body unmoving. "And she's not…right. They indulged her and never taught her better. She couldn't have been more than fourteen," he whispered, running a finger over her face. "A waste. At least she told me everything we needed to know. Come. She can heal that. We must burn her before she gets back mobility."

I grabbed onto her arm and dragged her after Jabari, who didn't spare her another glance as he walked away.

When we reached the mouth of the cave, he took her from me. Heath had already Changed back into his human form as well and held my clothing as I Changed, turning away while I dressed. The starved werewolf was asleep in the dirt now.

The last vampire, her neck broken, didn't scream as her body went to dust, and only her head remained.