Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted - Chapter 459

Chapter 459: Lucas: Mastermind
LUCAS

A flash of fire erupts across the battlefield, and we snap our attention toward the source. Lisa stands with her magitech brace extended, her face fierce with concentration as a vampire falls back.

Kellan’s mate is more than just talk. Good to know.

Magister Orion extends his hand, and the same vampire’s head explodes.

Huh. Ava can really choose her friends.

Another vampire lunges at us, teeth bared. Aurum drives his shoulder into the creature’s abdomen. The momentum carries us to the ground, but we’re on top, pinning it with our weight.

Aurum drives our claws deep into his chest before ripping his heart out with a strong snap of his jaws. Bone and organ come out together. Bloodsuckers might be strong, but their bone density isn’t any different than an average human’s.

But Aurum’s bite has far more force than the average shifter, thanks to his alpha bloodline.

Something else is here, my wolf says, his hackles up as he bounds to the next victim, knocking down a vamp with an arm through one of an unshifted wolf’s chest.

Justin slides to the ground, eyes already glazed in death. But there’s no time to mourn in battle.

Something’s watching. Something powerful.

A chill crawls across my skin despite the heat of combat. I trust Aurum’s instincts without question, but I don’t sense what he does.

Stay together, I call out through the pack link, but orders can only do so much at this stage.

There. Aurum turns his head to the eastern edge of the clearing. I can smell it.

A figure stands, watching the carnage from a safe distance. Tall. Despite the cold, he’s dressed in a suit, his shirt bloody and torn and one of his pants legs ripped clean off.

His face is unnaturally beautiful, and silver hair flows over his shoulders. Vampire, obviously.

He’s smiling.

“You keep taking my things,” he says, his voice somehow carrying across the carnage. “How terribly rude of you.”

Even at this distance, his presence hums in my bones. Aurum growls, teeth bared and hackles high.

There’s a strangled sound of pain behind me; Lisa. As expected, then, this must be the Mad Prince.

The stranger’s smile widens. “There she is.”

Lisa’s in trouble, Kellan says, sounding as close to panicked as I’ve ever heard him. Even when he first learned of his mate bond to Lisa.

Orion steps forward, standing by my shoulder. His hands glow with a faint red light. “I suggest you leave, vampire. You are outnumbered.”

“Am I?” The so-called prince gestures lazily. From the trees emerge more vampires—dozens of them.

“Fuck,” Clayton mutters. He’s come up behind me.

We’re surrounded, Aurum observes unnecessarily.

A choked cry slices through the noise. The vampire crooks a finger and pulls—and Lisa screams again.

Kellan howls, his anguish overpowering his pain as he speaks through our link. She’s dying. He’s killing her!

The Mad Prince’s hair shifts colors, from silver to black, as his eyes glaze and lips curl with rapture. “Come to me, kitten,” he croons, and there’s no doubt who he’s speaking to. “You belong at my side.”

“Never.”

A bolt of fire flies toward him, only to dissipate midair. It misses me by mere centimeters, leaving my skin with the memory of its heat.

“Magister—that’s him,” Lisa hisses, sounding as if she’s only half alive. I can’t spare the time to look back and see if she’s okay; I leave her care to Kellan.

“I know, child.” The Fae raises his hands. “He is not like the others.”

Bodies litter the battlefield, both wolf and vampire, and blood has stained the snow crimson. We’ve reached a strange stalemate. Wounded vampires have retreated to join their reinforcements, and I can sense my pack behind me in tight formation.

Too many are already gone, but none have lost their will to fight.

“Keep your wolves close,” Magister Orion says, calm despite the odds we’re facing. “The spell I’m preparing won’t discriminate between friend and foe if they stray.”

Aurum flicks his ears to show we’re listening.

The Mad Prince’s now-black hair shifts in a wind known only to him. No one else’s clothes flutter, and there’s no breeze; it’s eerie. Some strange vampire magic, I presume, though I can’t fathom the point of it. Intimidation, perhaps.

Everyone stay tight, I command. Break formation and you die.

Acknowledgement rolls in from all sides.

Aurum’s hackles are still high as he prowls. Two paces toward Orion. Then three paces toward Clayton. Back and forth, fighting the urge to rush toward our prey.

This Mad Prince has haunted my mate for too long. I want to feel his blood on my tongue, rip his skin with my teeth. Crack and crush his bones with the force of Aurum’s bite.

I release the tight control I’ve been maintaining, letting my alpha power flood outward. The air around me thickens.

Behind me, Clayton’s energy rises in response. Not challenging, but defensive. He’s using his own alpha aura as a shield, wrapping it around his Aspen wolves. Smart. I can sense the slight resistance where our energies meet, but we’re aligned in purpose.

Half of the vampires stagger under its weight, and the Mad Prince’s eyebrows lift. “Oh? You’re an impressive dog, but it won’t be enough to save your people.”

Lisa makes another strangled sound. I can’t look back to check on her, but Kellan’s anguish overpowers even the scent of blood and death.

The vampires surge forward as one, fighting back despite the dominance I’ve released.

Hold positions! Aurum and I roar. Do not break rank!

Magister Orion takes two steps forward, his hands rising as if conducting an orchestra. The air around him shimmers. Red turns to purple. Then blue. Then slowly into green, until bursting into a kaleidoscope of color. His lips move with the musical syllables of an otherworldly language.

And then he shouts.

It’s a sound transcending vocality, and for a moment it feels as if he’s stolen every bit of air from this space. My lungs constrict with the absence of oxygen, and every sound across the battlefield silences at once, as if the world itself has been muted. My ears pop painfully as pressure builds, crushing and expanding simultaneously.

The spell erupts from the Magister in a forward arc of golden fire, ripping outward with the force of an explosion. The ground cracks beneath the magical onslaught. Roots burst through the earth. Trees splinter. Snow evaporates in an instant—feet of it, gone without a trace. And the vampires don’t even have time to react.

They simply disintegrate, bodies turning to ash that’s swept away by the magical current.

In seconds, the battlefield is transformed. Where moments ago dozens of enemies stood, now only scorched earth remains, a valley starting only steps away from my feet. Trees have been stripped bare, their trunks blackened and smoking.

Only the Mad Prince remains standing at the edge of the destruction, atop several feet of packed snow. Untouched. Protected.

His smile has vanished, replaced by cold calculation as he stares at the great Fae.

The broad-scale recoil is immense, knocking most of us to our feet. Aurum’s legs tremble beneath us, and somewhere in our shared soul, our alpha dominance has temporarily shattered. Not gone; just thrown back with such force, it might take some time to recover.

Clayton pushes himself upright beside me, blood trickling from his nose and ears. He’s the only Aspen affected, likely due to the same blowback I’d endured of our dominance being shredded by whatever strange magic the Magister wielded.

“Well,” the Mad Prince says, dusting an invisible speck from his bloody shirt. “That was quite the display, old man.”

Magister Orion plants his feet, his voice still booming as he speaks. “Leave. You won’t be able to block it twice.”

The Mad Prince tilts his head, considering. His gaze slides past me, and Kellan snarls. We both know who he sees.

“This isn’t over,” he says softly. “She still carries my mark. She will always be mine.”

His head tilts a little as Kellan’s rumbling warning grows louder. “Don’t you worry, little dog. I’ll let you have her tonight. Let her think your mate bond will protect her.”

His laughter is unhinged, maniacal even, but his face remains impassive, discordant with the amusement he feigns. “One week, kitten. Then you’ll be the reason they fall.”

His eyes finally meet mine, and Aurum snaps at the air. He bows with mocking elegance. “Give my regards to your mate, Alpha Westwood. I hear she’s quite special. I won’t let her go a second time.”

We lunge across the scorched ground, but the vampire’s already disappeared, his strange laughter echoing in his absence.