The trucks crashed through the ruined gates and only stopped moving once they reached the large open field, where we all piled out into the cool night air. I left Matthew and his werewolves to get ready, going over to talk to Olivia and Sky.
"You think they know we're here yet?" Olivia asked.
I shrugged. "Prepare yourselves either way. This is going to get really ugly, really quickly."
I turned round to find that all of the werewolves, including Gordon and Matthew had changed into their wolf-beast forms. Fifty-six killing machines, ready to help save Tommy and Kasey and end Peter.
I noticed one wolf had dark blue fur that mixed in with the light grey. She noticed me and nodded in my direction, a gesture I returned. Ellie might not have received Neil's life to take as she pleased, but I hoped that her need for vengeance would be sated after the coming battle.
"I'm going to speak to my wolves," Matthew said, his voice low and gravelly.
"Go do what you need to, we'll wait here," I told him.
The werewolves lined up shoulder to shoulder as Matthew stalked up and down in front of them. "My wolves," he bellowed. "You know why we are here tonight. Most of you know Tommy. He's helped you when you needed it; he's stood up for the pack and is considered a friend and ally. Someone has dared to cross our pack and take a wolf we consider to be our brother."
The wolves started to growl at Matthew's words, their violence barely contained.
"But they've not only taken Tommy, they have his daughter, Kasey. She's been at our pack meetings, she's played with your children, and you’ve watched her grow from a baby to a wonderful young lady. That bright and beautiful girl has been taken by the monster in that building and it will not stand." Matthew screamed the last few words and the growling grew louder.
"We will not let a child be tainted by evil. And we will not stand by and allow one of our own to spend another second in its grasp. Our enemy will try and stop us. Several hundred barren stand in our way along with a handful of ghouls, but we will tear them all apart. No one will stop us from ensuring that Tommy and Kasey come back to us safe and whole. We will not fail. "
The growls were now accompanied by several low barks.
"Some of you might be afraid and that's okay. Feel that fear; use it to make you stronger. But the ones who should be afraid sit inside that building. Because we have someone they never could, someone who will show them true fear. We have Hellequin."
The growls ceased, as Matthew motioned toward me and every single set of eyes followed his hand. I wasn't sure how I felt about my secret being laid bare for all to know, but that moment wasn't the time to argue about it.
"Every one of you has heard his name, maybe in whispers, and maybe you didn't believe it. But he's real and he's going to get Tommy and Kasey back. And by the end of tonight, people will know that to cross our pack is to cross Hellequin. Future generations will speak of tonight with reverence, your children and grandchildren will ask you to tell them about the time you fought by Hellequin's side to save one of our own. Here and now we make our mark, and we will not falter. On this field tonight, we will make sure that everyone remembers that werewolves are to be feared, and that retribution will be swift and deadly."
The wolves growled and barked as one, creating a huge amount of noise as Matthew knelt on the ground and started to pray. His entire pack quickly followed suit, kneeling in silent prayer.
"What is he saying? Olivia asked.
"It's Latin," I told her. "I've heard it before, although not for many centuries."
"Where?"
"The third crusade. It was a prayer uttered by some of the Knights Templar before battle. It basically says that the petitioner would gladly sacrifice his own body if it meant that innocents would be spared. He asks for a swift victory for his men and for the strength to overcome his enemies."
"So, let me get this straight," Sky said. "Matthew is a gay werewolf alpha, who used to be a Knight Templar. Nate, you have the most interesting of friends."
"I have not been a Templar for many years," Matthew said as he stood, followed quickly by his pack. "Nor do I subscribe to their philosophy. But some of their teachings are still worthwhile, and offering a prayer to whoever might listen eases me before the inevitable death and brutality that always follows."
I followed Matthew's gaze and looked up at the large building which loomed in the darkness. Most of the lights were still on inside, but it was eerily quiet and despite the darkness, none of the current inhabitants had bothered to join us.
Matthew walked back over to his wolves, who immediately gave him all of their attention. "It appears that our enemy is unwilling to come out and face us. Maybe they're afraid and are hiding under desks, or perhaps they know this will be their last day on earth so they've decided to sleep in."
The wolves chuckled, but there was no humour in it. Only menace.
"Maybe we should let them know we're here, maybe we should wake the dead."
As one, fifty-six werewolves stood as tall as they could and howled. Goosebumps rippled up my arm and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.
It certainly did the trick, as hundreds of barren flooded out of the headquarters. They stood together in front of the massive glass windows of the reception building. It was the most barren I'd ever seen in one place.
"Holy shit," Sky said. "This is gonna be a hell of a battle." She drew a knife and a small axe, twirling the axe's handle between her fingers in what I knew to be a sign of nerves.
"Be careful you two," I said.
Sky hugged me and Olivia nodded in my direction, both of them keen to get started. I watched as they jogged off toward the side of the building.
"Ready when you are," Matthew said to me as his wolves growled eagerly behind him.
I drew the two blades that Matthew had given me and held them low as I controlled my breathing in preparation for what was going to happen.
"Let's go show these bastards how to stay dead."
I was at the head of the charge, next to Matthew and Gordon, as the wolves moved as one giant wall of teeth, claws and snarling rage, ready to tear their enemies to pieces.
The barren rushed forward to meet them, but the end result was never in doubt. The wolves crashed into the barren like a car through a paper wall. Within seconds the wolves were carving their way through the hundreds of barren which had left the confines of the LOA building.
I sliced through the throat of one barren with a blade of fire that I'd created at the end of my hand, before spinning around and catching a second in the neck, decapitating it.
The barren never stopped attacking, even if they had to scramble over the bodies of their comrades to get at us.
I kicked one barren back and stabbed him in the forehead with the fire blade, extinguishing the weapon and using air magic to fling his corpse back into a group of his kin before they could reach me. They toppled to the ground like bowling pins, and were quickly swarmed by wolves before they could get back to their feet.
I killed two more barren with a whip of fire, cleaving them both in two and leaving their remains behind as I noticed that Sky and Olivia were being attacked by a large group of barren.
The two women had used the initial charge as a diversion to sprint off to one side of the building, but at some point some of the barren had become interested in them and that had forced Sky and Olivia to pause to fight them off, something they didn't have time for.
I sprinted toward the quickly growing group of barren and launched a wave of hardened air at them, throwing several away from their targets, giving Sky and Olivia some room.
One of the barren closest to me had avoided the wave and now turned to face me, but another, even more hardened wave of air removed his head from his shoulders, along with two more barren directly behind him.
Although neither of them had any apparent wounds, both Sky and Olivia were panting as a dozen barren lay at their feet.
"There are a lot more of these bastards then when we were in Montana," Sky said.
"There's about to be a lot more," I said as a large group of barren made their way toward us. "Just go, I've got this."
Sky placed a hand on my shoulder. "Be careful."
"I will, now go," I said.
The noise of battle can play havoc with your sense of perception, so it's much better to watch your enemy than try to decide their position based on sound alone. So, even as I watched Olivia and Sky run off to the side entrance, I kept one eye on the rapidly approaching hoard of barren. When they'd created a suitable distance between me and them I unleashed a plume of flame that engulfed a dozen of them. The heat was incredible, and I poured more and more power into the magic, turning a dozen barren to ash in a few seconds and scarring the earth for twenty feet in front of me.
The remaining barren didn't stop, or even slow down, they just continued toward me as if nothing had happened. I drew my sword and ran toward them, slicing and cutting through flesh and muscle with every strike.
I killed six before one got too close and I was forced to pierce it in the throat at an awkward angle, before managing to spin it around into a second barren and narrowly missing being racked with its nails. I pushed the sword further into the first barren until it sank into the head of the second. It took a few seconds to remove the blade from the two bodies, and in that time a further four barren had made their way toward me.
I readied myself to fight once again, but Matthew barrelled into them with a mighty crash, tearing the four barren into sodden chunks of meat before my eyes. He fought with such a ferocity and viciousness that I would have been very interested in seeing him fight when he was human.
"You fight like a wolf," Matthew said as he threw aside a barren's arm.
I turned to study at the carnage all around me. The wolves were destroying the barren in spades, but there were so many of them that the dense packs of barren stopped any serious progress toward the front entrance.
"How about your wolves clear a path?" I asked.
Matthew howled and pointed at the barren before us and within seconds a dozen wolves tore into them, carving a path through them to the entrance.
"Take care," I told Matthew, who ran off to join his pack in their fight.
I ran as quickly as possible, using air magic to make me faster, heading for the glass front door of the LOA building, dodging pieces of barren as I went. At some point they had been living people, but to think of them now in such a way would do no one any good. The living had been replaced with rot and decay. Ending their torment was the only humane thing to do.
I reached the glass door and kicked it open, taking one last glance at Matthew's pack fighting with everything they had, before stepping inside the first building of the headquarters.
I'd prepared myself for what was going to happen, for the complete loss of my abilities, but it was still a massive shock to the system. I made it to a group of leather couches next to the reception area before I finally succumbed to what the security had done and dropped to my knees. I'd worn a sorcerer's band before; Merlin had wanted me to learn how to operate without my magic. But the fighting I'd done outside tonight and then the abrupt removal of my magic forced me to pause and take a moment to get my breath back. You never realise just how much you rely on magic, until it's gone, and you're just left with nothing but a void inside you. If this was how humans felt every single day, then their life was not something I wished upon anyone.
After composing myself, I got back to my feet as four loud thuds sounded from outside the building. Four things had struck the ground with massive force, causing one of the large glass panes at the front of the building to crack slightly. And then I saw one of them. The ghouls had arrived to back up the two hundred or so remaining barren.
"Good luck, Matthew," I said softly, before sprinting toward the stairs that would lead me to find Tommy and Kasey.