What I saw in the next moments rocked me to the core.
Instead of Cato running with us toward the door, to escape the crush of the rock and burn of the fire, I watched as he plunged in headlong into the heat and ash. He found the attackers in the moving debris and grabbed the flying bodies out of the air. All four of them. And in his death grip, he pulled their forms to the side, out of the way of the crushing rocks.
But he wasn’t saving them.
Two of them, he viciously ripped their heads off their shoulders and tossed them to the ground. The third, he snapped his neck, ripping the skin and sinew away to let him bleed out. The last, he dug his fangs into and sucked the blood from his veins as it pumped wildly out of the body.
We turned the corner, and there was no view of what was going on. Just the air pressure of the explosion, the chaos of the sound of crashing rocks. Smashing ourselves into the far wall as rocks, debris, and dust was vomited out of the opening to what used to be a massive amphitheater.
I scrambled to my feet and tried to run for the small opening left to the once cavernous room.
“Why the fuck didn’t you move?” Lord Belshazzar grabbed my arm and pulled me back. He shook me inside his hold, slamming my chest against his to gain my full attention. “You guys could have been killed.”
“We didn’t know he was yelling at us,” Lord Pippin said. His eyes found my struggling form, as I tugged on my captured arm. He muttered, “Relax. We’re all alive. And they should all be dead now.”
Nial rested back against a wall and dusted off one of his sleeves with his free hand and shrugged, agreeing with him.
Lord Otto and Lord Pippin weren’t arguing either.
“That attitude got us here,” I snapped, and I finally yanked my arm out of the Lord Belshazzar’s grip. I did a onceover glance at the lord I’d just escaped from, making sure he wasn’t hurt. Lord Belshazzar appeared fine, so I pretended as if I wasn’t worried for him and hadn’t just checked him out. “There are five overlords here who were basically drunk and useless because of a blasé attitude. Someone attacked our stronghold, and you’re trying to keep me from going back in to make sure all the bad guys are dead?”
Nial crossed his arms. “No, but you don’t need to run into the line of fire.”
“Stop. Now.” Lord Belshazzar growled at everyone. “Lord Cato is taking care of it.”
That exact man crawled out of the hole to the former room. He was covered from head to toe in blood and dust and truly looked like a nightmare in vampire form. Dusting his hands together, he tipped his head at me.
“Kept the crown, eh, girly?”
I walked over and smacked him straight across his dirt-smeared, smug face. I was going to have to find a new way to express my anger at people, but not right now. “What the hell was that hero crap? You’re an overlord!”
Cato’s brows rose on his gruesome features, while he rubbed the side of his face I’d whacked. “Gwynnore, despite your assumptions of me, I can handle myself. And others.”
“Let’s all try to pretend we like each other for a short second.” Nial ran his fingers through his delectable hair, voicing what I really wanted to know. “Anyone want to explain why they think the vampire stronghold was attacked?”
Cato, through the blood, gore, and grime covering him, stared at the filth on his hand, then looked up at Nial and me standing there. One side of his lips quirked up in an unamused grin, and he stated, “You have no idea what’s coming…”