“I’m guessing they just figured out that the palace is under attack,” I muttered, concern for our friends eating at me as I watched the sky for a moment before the howl of a Wolf caught my attention and I looked back towards the ruins of the Nebular Inquisition Centre where the FIB were still on the hunt.
Nymphs raced towards us too and my heart lifted as I realised they were all still fooled by the illusion we’d created and that the others must have cloaked the real rebels and made it away from here as planned.
“Wanna lead the authorities on a merry little dance?” Seth asked, his eyes glimmering with mischief as he looked at me in the starlight and I smirked at him as I nodded, turning back towards the illusion of our escapees who were all still running and screaming in the opposite direction to the real Fae who were hopefully well on their way to The Burrows by now.
“Let’s see how well I do as the prey instead of the hunter,” I agreed, concentrating on my illusion and raising the volume of the sound they were making so that any Vampires who happened to be working for the Fae Investigation Bureau would be sure to hear them.
Seth cast an illusion around us, making it appear that we were nothing more than a patch of long grass to the side of the road, and my fangs tingled as I waited for them to come.
It took no more than a few seconds for the Vampires to arrive, six of them shooting across the open field towards the town where I’d sent my illusions running, their uniforms marking them out as first line agents.
But as they got close to passing us, I closed my fist, making the ground fall away from them in a massive crater, the screams of one of them filling the air while the others fought to save themselves instead of panicking.
Seth took full advantage of their distraction, flicking his fingers and stealing the air from their lungs as he raised them up to hang before us and we stepped out of our hiding place.
The agent closest to us widened her eyes as she thrashed and kicked against the magic which held her while the man to her right had the cheek to throw a spear of wood our way.
I dismissed the attack with a flick of my wrist and grinned at the six of them with my fangs on show, reminding them that they were in the presence of the most powerful Vampire of my generation as I tied them with vines of my creation.
The moment they were fully restrained by my earth magic, Seth let them breathe and dropped them on their asses on the far side of the huge crater I’d torn into the ground.
“Y-you’re Caleb Altair,” one of the men gasped, looking all kinds of fucking terrified which was actually a pretty nice ego boost.
“We’re just doing our jobs,” a woman pleaded, her wide eyes fixed on me.
“I’m also here,” Seth growled, drawing their attention for a moment but they all quickly looked back to me.
“Don’t take offence, buddy. It’s a Vampire thing,” I teased him and he growled like a Wolf, letting me know he was less than impressed about that. But I’d been with him around Werewolves plenty of times and had literally been shoved aside as they fought over the opportunity to suck his cock first, so this was nothing.
“Seems like everything’s a Vampire thing these days,” he muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked with a frown.
“You know what I mean. Me and Lance were supposed to be building a BFF moon friends bond and you and me already had our special only for us bond, but then you two had to go getting cosy in that temple and now I’m the odd Wolf out while you giggle about blood and biting and…fangs all the damn time.”
I arched a brow at him. “Are you jealous?” I asked and he huffed out a breath.
“No. What gave you that impression?”
“Umm…Mr Altair?” one of the FIB agents breathed and I turned back to look at them. “Are you going to kill us?”
A howl sounded from across the field and I looked past the agents we’d caught to see the second wave racing our way, Werewolves, Nemean Lions, Monolrian Bears and Manticores charging towards us in shifted form, taking up the hunt. Beyond them the Nymphs were charging our way too, but they were cumbersome and built for strength over speed so I wasn’t too concerned about them reaching us.
“No, we aren’t going to kill you,” I said, looking down at the agents before us once more. “I’m passing on a message. The false king will fall and those who stood beside him will be remembered. If you want to keep your positions once we reclaim our kingdom then I suggest you give some serious thought to aligning yourselves with the rebellion.”