Reluctant Enemies

Chapter 5

Beth and Bernard were trapped inside the dark room.

For a time, there was nothing. No sound. No sight. Beth couldn't even hear her own heartbeat, or Bernard's slight shuffle. She felt it through his hand on her shoulder, but that was all.

She herself felt as though she had become a statue, unable to move or speak, while her mind raced in many directions.

Why had she done this anyways?

Because she needed answers.

Answers to her parents strange behavior. Answers to her dreams. And now she needed answers about what she needed to do. Why she was so special.

There was color forming in the distance. An image coming closer to her, then engulfing her, and she no longer felt Bernard's hand on her shoulder, though she was sure he had not removed it.

She was on a battlefield.

Wolves and vampires were fighting against humans armed with weapons of silver and polished wood.

The people were defending something. Someone.

Looking around she saw the meadow was the one out her bedroom window. And there in her window, on her balcony, was a gentleman in pale leather, his eyes and hair matching her own, his build slightly larger than average, his presence unnaturally imposing, as though he were a king.

Someone moved in the shadows behind him, and her mind spun in shock when she saw Bernard standing there.

No, not Bernard. This man was younger, with different eyes. Bernard's eyes often hid a twinkle. This man's eyes were blank, utterly devoid of emotion.

Her attention snapped back to the battlefield around her as a wolf leapt over her head, landing on a human soldier and tearing his throat out before shifting to bark orders to the ranks of wolves and vampires behind him.

Beth froze.

Amber-green eyes burned fiercely with the light of battle, bitterness etched in his features.

"FORWARD! FORWARD!" Throwing his human head back he howled, letting the sound rip through the night.

Beth was overwhelmed by wolves and vampires pressing around her from every side, rushing past her to wreak havoc on the troops trying to defend the castle.

The man looked directly through her and she screamed.

As sure as she knew that the man on the balcony was her ancestor, she knew; this was Taehyung's.

Despite his eyes, the savagery in his expression, the resemblance was undeniable.

She was turned to see what he was looking at.

Not what. Who.

A beautiful vampiress, thin, toxic fangs reaching to her chin, her lips blood red against white skin and hair. If not for her red lips and black eyes, she would have been an albino, she was so white.

And Taehyung's ancestor gazed at her with the passion of one whose mind was twisted from adoration.

Fight for me Taeron. You are right to fight for our future. The female's voice rang through Taeron, the wolf's mind, as though it were only for him, but Beth heard it as well.

Beth found herself on the verge of throwing up. What was this?

She was pulled from the battlefield the same way she had been pulled into it, and she found herself watching the fight from the vantage point of her own familiar balcony.