“No, I wouldn't. That only happened to me twice.”

  My brother was in denial of how much of a sissy—he really was. I walked away smacking my lips.

  The place was in high alert and most of the people and vampires had been up all day and night. Christian walked next to me, playing with Aaron's gold eagle ring.

  “Too bad you couldn't find Aaron in Italy. What's he doing now?” I asked.

  “He's in the yacht, talking to Patrick Connelly and Charlotte. I haven't seen Adrianna. Which is odd, because she is always with her.”

  “Maybe she's joining the Russian vampires, and Mikael will get a chance to pay her back.”

  “Wouldn't that be a sight to see,” he said with a smirk.

  “I have faith in you brother. You will find Aaron,” I said, padding his back.”

  “Salazar said this war will be recorded in the history books of the Covenants, and we are going to be written in them as the Watcher and the Guerriere.”

  “The female warrior,” I muttered. “I like that.” I smiled with pride.

  “Me too.” Christian nodded with approval.

  I placed the crystal glass in front of Zachary. “You need a break. Drink,” I demanded.

  “Thank you, my Guerriere,” he said and looked up at me.

  “Oh, you heard that,” I said and smiled.

  “Paul has picked up a hint of Rachael's scent. She has traveled to Norway, and I think I know where she is heading,” Zachary said, looking at a map on the monitor.

  “Where is that?” I asked.

  “A cabin she has taken me to. It belongs to a friend of hers in Lillehammer, Norway, where she likes to go skiing,” Zachary said and then emailed the address to Paul with directions.

  “Is Paul traveling by car?” Christian asked.

  “He rented a Land Rover for offroad driving. The cabin is in the middle of nowhere,” Zachary said, pointing to a vast forest on the map. “Paul's sense of smell can track someone fifteen miles away from him.”

  “She's shit out of luck,” Christian said. “Do you think Paul can smell someone fart from a mile away?” Christian whispered in my ear and laughed.

  “You are so stupid,” I said.

  Zachary shook his head and chuckled. “I think he can,” he said.

  “Can you?” Christian asked him.

  “Yes, unfortunately, I smell you fart all the time,” Zachary said to Christian.

  “I don't fart all the time,” Christian said.

  I was hysterical laughing.

  “I don't,” he whined.

  “Hi everyone,” Hazel said.

  Christian turned to face Hazel. His cheeks instantly turned pink. I was surprised to see her. I had forgotten that we came to Barcelona with her.

  “Where have you been?” Christian asked and gave her a big hug. “Mmm, you smell good,” he said.

  Hazel's scent was mood-lifting and sensual, mixed with lavender, rose and gardenia. She was dressed like a runway model, wearing a silky black suit and open toe heels. Her hair was braided on the sides and pinned up, revealing her long neckline.

  “I was working on an architectural project. We are building homes in Valencia, Spain, for some of the vampires to live in. I am the head architect,” she said.

  “That's what I love about you, you're smart, talented and beautiful,” Christian said and flirtatiously smiled at her. She approached him slowly and kissed his lips. It took me by surprise. Hazel was not shy—at all.

  “It's almost time. Let's prepare ourselves,” Salazar said, through the loudspeaker.

  The Guardians in Saint Petersburg were wearing spy earpieces that establish wireless communication with most of the Guardians in the dome room wearing thin headphones with microphones. They will be warning them on the dangers we see from the satellite images. Ludivico and John sat next to each other with their headphones. Vivian and Charlie sat at the far right of us, setting up their headphones and facing six monitors.

  “The Siberian Guardians have arrived and are watching Saint Petersburg's perimeter. We are about to begin,” Salazar announced through the loudspeaker.

  Zachary changed the screen on his monitor to view an alley that was a quarter mile away from the west side of the white mansion. “Mikael, can you hear me?” Zachary asked.

  Mikael and the Guardians with him were hiding in a yellow abandoned building that faced an alley. There were two beige buildings across from them, and along the sides were green trash bins.

  “Loud and clear. Is Skye with you?” he asked.

  We could hear Mikael's voice through the headphone. Zachary lowered the volume until we could not hear him anymore.

  “Yes, she is standing next to me,” Zachary said and handed me the headphone.

  I placed it around my ears and fixed the microphone. “Hi...Mikael”

  “How are you?”

  “I'm good. It's great to hear your voice,” I said.

  “Is Zachary looking out for you? Because if he isn't, I will gladly kick his ass for you.”

  “He's doing a fine job,” I said with a laugh.

  “I want you to watch carefully and see me win this battle for you,” Mikael said.

  Zachary chuckled.

  “I will...I want you to rip them to tiny pieces.”

  “If I do this, I expect a kiss when you get home,” Mikael said.

  Zachary gave me the look of death with dark blue eyes.

  “Okay, just get back home—safe,” I said and handed the headphone back to Zachary before I get myself in more trouble.

  “Would you please stop flirting with my girlfriend,” Zachary said.

  Mikael responded back, making Zachary laugh. “Yes, she is now,” he said, then he covered the microphone on the headphone. “He said he doesn't care—he's still getting that kiss,” Zachary said.

  “It's begun,” Salazar said through the loudspeaker.

  “Focus, Mikael,” Zachary said sternly.

  Charlie hacked into their security network with the help of my brother, who gave him the gadget to infiltrate their system, letting us control their cameras. Now the vampires could only see what we wanted them to see, and Charlie had all their cameras on his monitors.

  Christian and Hazel stood behind me. We watched the dome's screen. It split into six views of the white mansion and its surrounding area.

  The sun was setting in a couple of hours, and the woods were covered in snow as flurries came down. A cabin with two floors, a long balcony, and a lit fireplace was hidden on the east side. Another cabin located on the west side had one floor and was next to a frozen lake with steep sides. Dried patchouli herbs covered the cabins wooden exterior and patchouli incense burned around the grounds, making it difficult for any vampire to be detected.

  “Carlo—it's your time to shine,” Vivian said into her microphone.

  Aaron's vampires were guarding the woods and the back of the mansion. They wore white snowsuits, covered with all kinds of weapons, and some carried firearms with silencers on them. Carlo climbed a tall tree and propelled his body, doing a flip over the high brick wall, landing on top of a tree. He was dressed in a leather white ninja suit with a white bulletproof vest. There were hundreds of sharp weapons strapped to his clothes and on his split toe boots. His head was covered with a white veil, revealing only his bright greenish-yellow eyes.

  “Why is he alone?” I asked.

  “He's a ninja—he has impeccable vision and is gifted with strength. He will clear the woods by taking most of those vampire's down, quickly and quietly,” Hazel said.

  My adrenaline was pumping fast watching Carlo jump from tree to tree, doing flips and throwing curved blades. I couldn’t see the sharp blades, like quick flashes they flew and decapitated some of the vampires with great force, making their heads tumble eight feet away from their bodies before turning into ashes. No wonder he spends hours sharpening the blades to his daggers.

  Carlo landed on the ground, running swiftly through the woods. He threw sharp thin daggers and ninja stars as fast as bullets into the vampire's eyes, throats, and hearts then he used a samurai sword to cut their heads off. He quickly retrieved the sharp daggers from their ashes.

  Charlie was making sure none of the vampire's surveillance cameras faced Carlo's direction. I counted the vampires he had killed—eighteen in total. He was near the cabin on the east side when a beastly vampire, built like a football player with short dark hair, grabbed his dagger in mid-air and threw it back at him, penetrating deep into his left shoulder, pushing him back with aggravating pain that showed in his cringing eyes.

  As Carlo pulled out the bloody blade, I recalled the pain of Bari's dagger in my shoulder. I touched where the blade had injured me. Zachary had completely healed it, but I could never forget the excruciating pain.

  “Now, Mikael,” Zachary said.

  The rest of the Guardians ran toward the brick wall, jumping over it from the east and west side of the grounds, but they were far from Carlo.

  Carlo was viciously fighting this beast, getting hit hard on his face and chest. He did acrobatic moves and used different Ninjutsu style techniques while penetrating sharp daggers into the beast's body. The blades were thrown with great speed that I only noticed them after they penetrated the beast’s legs, throat, and chest, but he missed his heart.

  The ferocious beast did not feel any pain and kicked Carlo hard on his stomach. His body soared ten feet and crashed against a tree. Carlo fell to the ground—disoriented, and the snow from the branches covered his face.

  The beast was coming straight at him, full force, and gripping a thick dagger.

  “Move!” Vivian yelled at Carlo into her microphone.

  Carlo shook his head, removing the snow from his eyes. He tried to focus, and in a second the beast struck his dagger at him.

  Carlo moved swiftly, the blade missing his chest as he jumped on the beast's shoulders. He pulled out a naginata weapon that was strapped to his right leg—a Japanese blade with a long wooden handle. He punctured it into the beast neck, slicing his head off and covering his white ninja suit in blood.

  “Yeah!” Christian grunted, clenching his fists.

  Within a minute Carlo was surrounded by the beast’s ashes as a gust of wind blew the fiery remains around. He quickly pulled out a clear plastic packet from the inside of his pants pocket. It was filled with clear liquid. He ripped it open with his canine teeth and squeezed the liquid on his wound. It stopped bleeding.

  “Is that—vampire saliva in the packet?” I asked.

  “Yes, clever...isn't it?” Hazel asked.

  “It's brilliant!” Christian said.

  Twenty vampires from the cabin near Carlo heard him and exited through the windows, the balcony, and the doors, heading toward him. They had warned the rest of the vampires in the second cabin and in the mansion. The grounds were now surrounded by Aaron's vampires. There were fifteen exiting from the west side cabin and at least thirty coming from the white mansion.

  “Run to the east side. Kemen is coming to you,” Vivian told Carlo.

  Kemen, Tristan, and Enrique were getting close. They had a Guardian woman with them. Her strawberry blonde hair had thin delicate braids that reached her belly button. Her deep-set eyes glowed silverish violet, and she had thin lips on her triangular face. She looked like a Viking princess with metal arrows strapped to her back, and she was holding a silver bow. I guess she was from the Covenant in Iceland. All of them were wearing white Guardian gear with many weapons. Except the woman, she wore a metal heart shape top that revealed her cleavage with a short white skirt and white leather boots that reached her long thighs. Her neck had a metal armor collar.

  “Who is that?” Christian asked.

  “That is Svana Hauksson. She is nine hundred and eighty-one years old and can see for miles away, bringing the images up close, making her the best toxophilite. She never misses her targets with her arrows,” Hazel said.

  “An expert at archery,” Christian said, smiling.

  I looked at the far-left screen on the dome ceiling. Mikael was coming from the west side with five Guardians from Barcelona. They were getting close to the second cabin, and Ismael with three husky Guardians from Iceland, entered the front of the white mansion, crashing through the oval-shaped windows.

  “There are more of them than us,” Christian said.

  Fernan approached us. “Do not fret. We have enough, most of their vampires are young,” he said to Christian.

  Carlo moved with rapid speed through the woods, heading toward Kemen. Ten vampires were a few feet behind him, using automatic weapons, throwing sharp daggers, and shurikens at him. The other ten vampires were spread out and advancing quickly.

  Carlo dodged the fiery bullets and blades by running fast, passing trees, crouching, and flipping. His eyes glowed and with his impeccable vision, he glanced while running and brought down three vampires, throwing sharp daggers into their hearts.

  In an instant two bullets hit Carlo in the back. The bulletproof vest protected him, but he tumbled on the ground, getting up swiftly. A dagger was aimed at Carlo's head as he was shot again with bullets on his back.

  Kemen came out of nowhere, grabbing the flying dagger that missed Carlo's head by a foot. He did a flip, and with a forceful throw, he penetrated the dagger into the mouth of the vampire that had aimed it at Carlo.

  The young vampire fell to the ground, struggling to get up, and trying to pull out the blade from his bloody mouth. Kemen used his samurai sword, and with a vigorous blow, he cut his head off.

  Suddenly, vampires approached Kemen and shot bullets from their automatic weapons at him. His bulletproof vest was hit many times in the chest, and he was shot in his right arm and legs. Within seconds of each other, metal arrows pierced the vampire’s hearts, and they dropped their weapons.

  Kemen did not feel any pain, and the bullet wounds did not faze him. He cut a vampire in half as his body fell to the ground. In a quick flash, Carlo came around and decapitated the other two vampires.

  Svana was shooting sharp metal arrows at every direction, aiming at the vampire's hearts, and those that wore bulletproof vests, she aimed at their left side ribcage. Tristan and Enrique were assisting by decapitating them afterward. The vampires hiding behind trees had no chance for survival. The second they moved from the trees, Svana's arrows pierced their hearts. Hazel was right, she never missed her target, even if it was two hundred feet away from her.

  Kemen picked up a bloody dagger and aimed it at a vampire's throat that was striking him with a sword. He crouched, grabbing the vampire's sword and threw it at a vampire aiming a rifle at him.

  The sword penetrated the vampire's heart, making him slowly fall. Carlo jumped high and in mid-air, he gracefully executed the vampire.

  Within minutes the twenty vampires that had chased Carlo were dead. These Guardians made killing look easy. Carlo opened clear packets of saliva and healed Kemen's bullet wounds. I wasn't too sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but the embedded bullets seemed to be falling out of his skin. I glanced at my brother, and he was watching the screen where Mikael was fighting.

  I was now focusing on Mikael, who was using his large fist to crush vampire's jaws, then he used a Katana sword and turned them into ashes. The vampires weren't able to injure Mikael, and some tried to avoid him. The brave ones that fought back, and did not run from him, cried out in pain from broken bones and torn limbs—before they met death.

  The other five Guardians were spread out and viciously fighting, using handguns and swords. A Guardian with an angelic face, short black hair, and yellow eyes was elegantly fighting a husky young vampire with long brown hair. He was beautiful to watch as he moved smoothly, striking his sword, but the young vampire had strength.

  The vampire blocked the blade and instantly retrieved a black dagger from his vest, stabbing the Guardian in the heart.

  The Guardian fell to his knees at the edge of the frozen lake by the steep side. Blood gushed from his chest, instantly turning his white jacket—crimson red. He fought the unconsciousness that was taking over his body. Blood dripped from his mouth, and his eyes became glazed and pale grey.

  The young vampire kneeled next to him, watching him closely, and laughing. He stood up, pointing his medieval sword at him, and with a forceful blow, he beheaded the Guardian.

  “Huh,” I said.

  My brother grasped my left arm, and we both glanced at each other in shock.

  I looked up again and noticed Mikael yelling with fury while running toward the vampire by the lake. He placed his sword in its sheath and was prepared to tear apart the vampire with his bare hands.

  The vampire turned to look at him. He was twenty yards away. He pointed his bloody sword toward Mikael, laughing, then grunted, “Come on!”

  Another Guardian was sword fighting nearby. His opponent was the size of a bear, but Mikael was focusing on the vampire by the lake.

  “Help Antonio,” Zachary told Mikael.

  Antonio looked young...in his teens and wore a white motorcycle jacket with white jeans and grey motorcycle boots. His black hair was spiked, and his eyes were beaming yellow. He was fighting with a unique curved sword, but he struggled against the massive vampire, who was stronger.

  Mikael turned and intervened by grabbing the vampire's arm that was about to strike the Guardian. He tore it off, blood gushed, squirting high, landing on the white snow as Mikael continued to run toward the vampire that wasn't laughing anymore but standing by the lake in fear.

  The vampire sprinted away frantically, running on the lake until he fell and began sliding on the ice. Mikael was fast. He caught up to him, sliding his body toward him. He gripped his long brown hair and ripped the vampire's head off with both hands. Mikael was covered in a massive amount of blood, holding the vampire’s head. His glowing emerald green eyes had intense rage, and blood dripped down from his face and dreads. He stood up and kicked the vampire’s body away from him and threw the head far across the lake with a loud grunt filled with hate. The pale decapitated head and body turned fiery red like coals and then into ashes.

  Mikael began to walk back when the ice under him slowly started cracking. He tried to get away but disappeared into the freezing water.

 

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