Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Alexis

I could already see that there was no end to this battle if the two of them kept at it. It was like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Regardless of whether Will was the unstoppable force or the immovable object, I could see that he had tapped into his latent rage and strength and was not going to give up, even if it meant his demise.

I could just as well observe that for Griswold, this was not simply a matter of fighting over territory; this was about his legacy. He was willing to die for it, and so were the vampires that he was leading. I had never considered vampires to be so cause-driven. Seeing them in such spirits, falling for their fallen leader, made me think that there was perhaps more nuance to them than met the eye.

But what could I do? In the face of these odds, faced with a horde of vampires who had now grown more reliant upon their weapons, given that they were in close quarters in the forest, I could see no route leading to our redemption save one.

Kill Griswold.

Seeing him fall would break the vampire’s spirits.

There was just the matter of Griswold being surrounded by his loyal comrades. There was no way in.

Will, we can end this madness if we kill Griswold, I called out to Will.

What do you think I’ve been trying to do for the past hour? Will replied. He’s a mutated entity, one lacking fear and all manners of inhibition. Whatever Blair injected him with is working wonders on him.

Yes, but don’t you think that there has to be a downside to all the chemicals that are running through his veins? I knew from experience, having lived with a man who had been driven to the brink of insanity and death because of the chemicals that he was poisoned with. Whatever concoction was working its magic on Griswold had to have some sort of side effects.

His stamina, he’s overexerted himself. His body is showing signs of wear and tear. He’s overdrawing strength from where there is none. If pushed just a little further, he will collapse, Will said.

Then let’s do that, shall we?

We shall do nothing of the sort. I have singled him out. It’s only fitting that I defeat him alone, Will insisted firmly. But I need you to handle the vampires if things get out of hand. They wouldn’t want to see their leader fall. When the levees break, go berserk on the vampires.

Roger that, I said, getting ready to pounce upon the vampires should they retaliate. For now, they held the circle that had been formed around Will and Griswold. The way Griswold lingered, spear in hand, eyeless, fierce, and bleeding, he looked like some form of a grotesque character straight out of a nightmare. The fact that Will had been so bravely fighting him and continued to do so was admirable, at the very least. I could feel my respect and love for him growing in my heart. He deserved to be our Alpha.

The two combatants stopped circling each other. Will initiated the attack by leaping on Griswold and clawing the spear free from his grasp. Already eyeless, Griswold scampered around, searching for the spear with his one remaining eye but finding it impossible to do so because Will kept attacking him.

Griswold roared loudly and kicked Will. Will swiftly dodged it. At the same time, when he landed, Will kicked away the spear into the werewolf’s side of the crowd. Griswold, now panting loudly, tore off his clothes and stood there shirtless. His body bore many bruises, cuts, and scars. Some were not recent, giving me a greater understanding of who Griswold was. He was a mercenary, a fighter who had made it his singular purpose in life to get into brawls and come out on the other side, bruised but victorious.

However, Will had scars to match as well. And I knew this about Will that he had never backed away from a fight even when all the odds were against him.

The vampires were growing restless from observing Griswold take a brutal beating. But they did not dare attack as long as the werewolves held their side of the circle. The vampires hissed and flailed their weapons threateningly, but that was all they could do. At least now, the wolves and the vampires were evenly matched in numbers. This was the last leg of the battle, this much was certain, and it all depended on the outcome of the match taking place in front of us.

The match where Griswold was now on his knees, his skin breaking into a sweat as his reserves of stamina gave away and forced him to go on the defensive. He threw rocks at Will half-heartedly, all of which Will dodged as he raced towards Griswold in a zigzag, increasing his speed as he drew nearer. At the last second, Will pounced off the ground and tackled Griswold, causing him to topple and fall. The larger-than-life vampire stayed there on the ground, acknowledging his defeat.

Will shifted back into his human form and stood towering over Griswold’s defeated body.

“I hope that clears things up,” Will said. “I have beaten you fair and square. This could very well have ended in murder, but I am choosing to end it here. Leave with your vampires and never return to this area again. In this case, we will not seek you out nor will we harm you. Should you and any of the vampires ever come back, you will meet with nothing but your deaths. Agreed?” Will extended his hand to Griswold, who begrudgingly took it and yanked himself off the floor.

“You drive a hard bargain,” Griswold growled. “But it is a fair one. I agree. We shall never step foot in this realm again.”

Will turned his back and started walking to where Griswold’s spear had fallen, presumably to hand it back to him. But in that instant, Griswold threw his arm forward in a fast arc and tried to attack Will on his undefended back. Will turned immediately, lifting Griswold’s spear off the ground. And so it was Griswold’s momentum that caused him to become impaled on his own spear.

For a moment, everyone stood still and silent, even Griswold. Will stood with the spear in both hands and on top of that spear, Griswold was skewered and bleeding and groping.

He tried to utter something, but only blood came out of his mouth in spurts. Griswold slid further down till he was practically wedged against Will. Will let go of the spear, allowing it and Griswold to fall to the ground.

It was at this second that I knew what I had to do. The vampires, having just seen their leader fall to his death so suddenly, lost all control and tried to rush forward and surround Will. Instead, they came face to face with the front most rank of the werewolves barring their way. I led the rank, closing around the vampires and making them back off. When they saw that they were leaderless and outnumbered, they began to retreat.

We cannot let them leave, Will, I said. This is now or never. If we don’t end them and their bloodlines tonight, they will perpetually come back with more and more numbers bent on revenge. We have to kill them before they escape.

He looked into my eyes and understood the gravity of the situation, immediately shifting back into his wolf form and chasing the vampires alongside me and the rest of the wolves. We could all see that the vampires had given up all hope from the way they were running and leaving their weapons behind. They could have made a stand, but they didn’t.

With Vince and Will by my side, I led the charge on the retreating vampires. It was their fault that we were hunting them. Will had extended them a treaty. Griswold had chosen to attack Will behind his back. Will killed Griswold only in self-defense. All of the fault lay on the vampires’ side.

And it was with this thought that I hunted them as they fled through the forest. The wolves cornered them down and began slashing away at them, killing them one by one as the night deepened and the trail of the vampires became more and more scattered.

Even in defeat, they were heading somewhere. There seemed to be some secretive location they were all holed up in. It was this place that they had been using as their base of operations after the cove and the cave had fallen. It was a most opportune move that we were chasing them; now we could find out where they had been hiding and smite them there.

As the chase progressed and the vampires picked up speed, I understood that it wasn’t in any cove or cave that they were hiding. It was in an abandoned ship floating off the bay. It was derelict wreckage, half sunk in the shallow water. The vampires began flying in the air and across the bay onto the boat.

What do they think they’re going to do? It’s not as if there’s anywhere they can go from there, Will resounded in my mind.

Be that as it may, we have to finish them, or this epidemic will turn into a pandemic within no time.

Will concurred. He dove into the water, and I followed. The rest of the werewolves also jumped into the shallow bay water behind us, all of us swimming towards that giant ship wreckage. In another life, this ship used to be one of the biggest freight containers that carried cargo from Europe to America. Now it was a haunted ruin host to the remaining vampires.

We saw right away why it was that the vampires had chosen to retreat here with such haste. As I swam nearer to the wreck, I discovered that it was more than just an empty husk of a once-functional ship. It was armed to the teeth with guns and turrets installed on every nook and surface that hadn’t gone underwater. The vampires, even though they were without a leader, had decided that they would not go down without one final fight.

A fight that we wouldn’t give them.

Under Will’s direction, the wolves swam underwater and, instead of approaching the ship from the front, bypassed it and swam under it to where the submerged part was. Here, I swam up the long vessel’s length and came above water inside an undefended part of the ship, a part that the vampires had overlooked. They were all still standing facing the bayside, hoping that we’d emerge and they’d rain fire upon us.

Will climbed up behind me, and following him, all the remaining werewolves did so too. We still had the element of surprise on our side. The inside of this ship was as long as it was broad. There were beams of moonlight coming from where the metal had chipped off and from where the windows once used to be. In this moonlight, we headed up the desolated wreckage and came up behind the vampires stealthily.

They realized we were there a bit too late. Before they could turn their turrets and guns around, the wolves were upon them. I took charge and dismantled the most prominent turret in front of me so that no vampire would get behind it and unleash fire upon the wolves. I could spot Vincent and Will doing the same to the other guns on the deck.

As for the werewolves, they broke upon the vampires like a tsunami wave, killing the vampires where they stood, not giving them a chance to fight back. I joined the fray and broke the remaining ranks of the vampires, tackling them and snatching away their guns from them. I could not afford any vampires shooting at the wolves. Now more than ever, the werewolves felt like family to me—a family united by a common cause and a strong patriarch who is also destined to be my mate.

Now that the vampires were being taken care of, I slipped to the side and shifted back into my human form for one final task. The most important task, perhaps. Vampires, I had learned, were a lot like vermin or other pests. They operated out of a base. Take away the base, and they were left with nothing. For this to work, I’d have to destroy their ship. This very ship that we were all standing on. Inside it, I had spotted tons of caches that were undoubtedly filled with drugs, weapons, and smuggled blood. This was their last reserve. I could tell from the way they had defended this shipwreck with weaponry.

As the final vampire fell, I headed down to the cache and found a crate containing TNT. I began placing the TNT equidistantly everywhere, heading from room to room, discovering that this ship was more than just their smuggling hotspot. There were labs within this ship, labs where they were testing on blood and drugs. Also within this derelict ship were the remnants of Ralph’s legacy. One room had been built into a shrine with his paintings, clothes, and memorabilia. Presumably, the vampires came here to pay their respects to him.

After tonight, there would be no more fond remembrance of Ralph by any vampire.

Once I had strung TNT across the entire floor, I headed back to the top, where the wolves were waiting for me. They had all shifted back into their human forms. As had Will. Upon approaching them, I shifted back as well.

“We’re going to blow this ship up,” I said, addressing the wolves.

“Why? It’s a perfectly good structure that we can put to our use,” someone said from the crowd.

“Because,” Will spoke on my behalf. “This is the vampire’s lair. As long as it stands, the vampires can spawn nearby and come back to this place. This is not just their lair; this is their last resort for smuggling. Would any of you want to see more vampires running around Fiddler’s Green? No? Then I suggest we do what Alexis has suggested. We’re going to evacuate this ship, and Alexis will blow it up. This is the way.”

Murmurs of agreement traveled through the crowd as I lit the long end of the wire that had the dynamite connected to it.

“This ship is going to blow in five minutes,” I said, calculating the time it’d take for the spark to reach the first stick of TNT below.

“Well, ladies and gents, I suggest we make a run for it,” Vince said, and then, without waiting for anyone, he jumped headfirst into the water and swam towards the shore. When the rest of the pack saw him, they promptly jumped in behind him, all swimming behind each other, headed for the bay. Only Will and I remained on the ship.

“Did we do something rather extreme?” Will asked. “They had retreated. Was it fair that we killed them all?”

“Fair had nothing to do with it. They were vile creatures capable of extreme villainy. With his mouth, Griswold made the promise to surrender and retreat, while with his hand, he sought to strike you from behind. Ralph ran circles around the Grimm Abode for decades, trying to kill the wolves once and for all. They’re vicious and malignant. Well, not anymore. Now they’re all dead. We haven’t done anything extreme,” I said, reassuring Will.

“I concur,” Will said, nodding. “If it weren’t for the vampires, Fiddler’s Green would have thrived long ago. Here’s to hoping that now the city can flourish under the new mayor.”

“I’d really love to continue this talk, my love, but we’ve got to jump because, in less than two minutes, this ship is going to blow to kingdom come,” I said, breaking into a run, headed for the edge.

“Let’s see who swims faster,” Will said and then jumped off the boat.

“You’re on!” I shouted and jumped into the clear blue water.

We raced each other as we swam, passing the swimming pack members on either side. In the end, Will and I both reached the shore just a minute apart. He won, but that was expected. He was the alpha. The strongest of us all.

We all made it back to the shore in time to see the ship explode. By the time the last of the pack members had made it to land, the ship erupted into one humongous explosion that rose into the night sky, enveloping the clouds, the stars, and the moon in a plume of smoke, shadow, and flames.

“There it is, the end of the vampires as we know it,” Will said, holding my waist.

“The end of our longstanding foes,” I said.

All around us, the werewolves cheered as the explosion sank the ship to the bottom of the bay. The smoke dispersed eventually, leaving clear blue water in its wake. We could see the shipwreck at the bottom of the bay.

“I feel strange,” I said to Will.

“How so?”

“For the first time, now that there are no more vampires, I feel as if I’m getting closure over my parents’ death. I feel as if justice has been done,” I said, holding him close to me.

“And so it has,” Will said, facing me as he leaned closer to me and kissed me on my lips.

“Promise me this was the last of the vampires,” I whispered in his ears, mid-kiss.

“I promise,” Will said as he plucked my lips into his mouth and sucked them gently. “No more vampires.”

We held onto each other, embracing, kissing, and cherishing each other’s company as the crowd around us thinned and headed back to the commune. Tonight, I thought, I’d finally sleep peacefully.