We all dashed toward the Sigulda’s transit station. After all, I already instructed Hestia and Zafrina to meet us there. I’m hoping they will bring more vampires with them to supposedly escort me on my journey to Vienna. Hestia knew better.

I looked over my shoulder as the red Alpha wolf gave chase together with his pack. We were scattered. I could hear the wolves cry, hurt by the warrior priestesses. With our vampire speed, the wolves could still cope with us. That made them sickeningly amazing!

Shit! This scene is so familiar. I remembered my dream vividly. But at least I still had my boots on. The twigs, stones, roots and old leaves were slightly covered by snow. And yet, I could hear the crunching under my feet. The wind blew my hood, leaving my head bare.

“You can’t get away from me, Priestess Adri!” His voice was in my head again. Then I heard his order. “Kill them!”

That made me stop. I watched my companions on my left and right. Some of Eoghan’s men were attacked by the wolves, not only by one or two but more than that. I heard their screaming as they were torn into pieces. I heard Eoghan screamed in frustration and anger.

“You’ll pay for this, you bloody werewolves!” he promised. I saw him tear a brown wolf’s mouth and hurl the bloody carcass to its fellow wolf. The latter cried as it was hit in the face. The other wolves seemed to think twice before they would pounce again, prowling around him.

Meanwhile, my acolytes seemed to hold their ground for now. I saw Fen use her Chinese martial arts, kicking and punching wolves that came up to her. She hit them in the face or stomach. Her punches were forceful that the wolves were instantly injured, so others had to take their place and charge at her.

Phaedra’s dress was already soiled with blood as she killed more than a dozen of wolves. I saw the scratches on her face that started to heal. She yelped when someone assaulted her from behind, a black wolf. It was huge and I could feel the danger that its aura permeated.

“No!” I shouted, running toward Phaedra to save her.

“You’re too late, Priestess Adri. My Beta will now tear her into pieces!” the red Alpha wolf told me. But I didn’t listen to him.

My hand reached out to get to Phaedra but as she turned around ready to counterattack, the black wolf easily dodged. His head and front body were lowered to the ground before he pounced on her. His paws dig into her back, putting her down to the ground. Then his massive canine teeth sank into her nape and tear head away from her body.

“No!” I screamed and stopped just a few paces away. I watched Phaedra’s body turn into a skeleton. I balled my hands into fists, digging my nails into my palms. I could feel the skin break and blood trickled down. My eyes glowed dangerously as I faced the red wolf’s Beta. But the shitty wolf ran away like hell! It was if he was taunting me for completing his mission.

“Priestess Adri, watch out!” Fen shouted tearfully.

My attention was back to her, on my left. I kicked the oncoming wolf and I ran toward her. I grabbed her before the gray wolf could bite her head off. Instead, her arm was bit off nonetheless. She screamed in pain. Another wolf pounced on us that I barely noticed, resulting to shedding my facial cover off. It fell to the ground, and as I looked over my shoulder while I ran, I saw the red wolf look at it and pawed it before he looked up at me with blazing eyes.

Malka and Kezia followed me when they saw me. So did Eoghan and a few of his remaining underlings. They swept our retreat path, injuring some wolves on the way.

I looked over my shoulder again when Fen insisted that she didn’t need my assistance. I could see half of her arm was healing. I knew it was very painful for her but she just managed to groan a little.

“This way, Priestess Adri!” Eoghan urged me.

I followed his voice, so did the others. Some branches hit our face, arms and legs. Priestess Malka tripped, so I had to help her.

“Just go!” she said through gritted teeth. She took out the twig that went through her ankle. She just grunted and threw the bloody twig behind us.

We continued to run away as fast as we could. A few more wolves started to keep up with us, especially that red Alpha wolf. I believed he could attack me if he wanted to but it seemed that he just chose to chase. Why in God’s name is he doing it? Maybe just to taunt me until my companions are no more? Was that his plan?

A beige wolf tried to get closer to me as I ran. I gritted my teeth and snarled at her, elbowing her side, which sent her to the red wolf. They both stumbled down and fell behind. I smirked at my little victory.

Now and then, Malka and Kezia used their sorcery to stop the wolves. White light or red sparks came out of their hands. Unlike me, they didn’t have telekinesis. So I knew that they were getting tired in summoning their powers at this rate even though they were Ozym’s best warriors. I wasn’t sure if we could make it out of here safe. I even lost track of time. It was like we’d been trapped in the forest for an hour or maybe more. We had to circle back when numerous wolves were waiting for us near the Sigulda Castle.

“Let’s hide in the castle,” I suggested.

They agreed. We sneaked after we shook the wolves off our tail, using Malka’s powers to confuse the enemies.

The Latvian medieval castle was built in a neo-gothic style in late 1870s. It was the Kropotkin family’s manor at the time. Since 1993, it is resided by the Sigulda Region Council. It had a few remaining 18th and 19th century buildings, which were the Summer Castle, White Castle, the New Castle, the vagar’s house, the servants’ house, the laundry house, a barn and a vegetable and fruit basement.

From a distance, we could hear the howling of the wolves. Maybe the train was coming to the station in about thirty minutes or so.

“Damn it! They’re onto us!” Eoghan breathed, looking around us in alarm. I could see that his earlier immaculate suit was now torn in the arms, front and back. His pants were not even spared, and his legs were almost bared.

We were in the middle of the castle complex’s grounds. It was already matted by white flakes as snow continued to rain on us. The wind whooshed. With it, the red Alpha wolf with his pack members surrounded us.

“Not again,” Priestess Malka said in a tired tone.

“Save yourselves. They only want me,” I quietly said.

They all looked at me in protest. “No!” the two warrior priestesses said in unison.

I looked at them sharply. “You’ll die if you stayed! If you run away from me now, you still have a chance to live!” I turned to Fen. “You go with them.”

“No, Priestess Adri! King Ozym will kill me! I’d rather die with you.”

“Can’t you see? They want me, Fen! They won’t kill me but these shits will kill you!” I barked at her.

She stubbornly shook her head, refusing to leave me. I sighed and looked at the warrior priestesses. They also shook their heads.

“The king will have our heads if we returned without you, Priestess Adri,” Priestess Kezia told me.

I cursed. Either way, they were going to die. Shit!

I turned to look at Eoghan. “You retreat, Eoghan. That’s an order!”

He hesitated. I knew he’d rather save his life, but it looked like my blood that was in his system as his bond with me was working against him. With all my force as a vampire, I grabbed his collar and hurled him away from the red Alpha wolf. With that, I’m sure he could manage to fight off the other wolves that were not as strong as the Alpha.

“Protect Eoghan!” I ordered the other vampires.

“No! You stay and protect the priestess!” Eoghan said at the other end, fighting off a couple of wolves that pounced on him. He grabbed their necks each hand and slammed them on the ground. He jumped so high and twisted his body to kick an oncoming brownish wolf. He hit the latter in the face and hit its comrades. After that, Eoghan landed on the ground like a cat and escaped in a blurry speed.

“Fine. You saved your boyfriend. But you can’t escape from me!” the red Alpha wolf said in my head angrily.

If only I had no suppressor, I could’ve taken them on. I just knew it in my guts.

Malka and Kezia started to attack the wolves with their powers. Different colors of green, red, orange and yellow came out of their hands as they fried or hit the wolves. But it was like a never-ending battle. It seemed that the number didn’t decrease. It was annoying!

Fen could now use her newly healed arm. She twisted the head of a wolf and hurled its lifeless body against the castle wall. Meanwhile, I wrestled with a white wolf that had ash-colored paws. It was strong. I kicked it hard in its stomach. It cried and whined in pain. After that, I noticed Kezia climb a bare tree. From up there, she used her powers to attack our enemies. I thought it was a good strategy as wolves couldn’t climb trees. Just that they attacked the tree instead with their powerful canine teeth and paws.

On the other hand, blue-cloaked Malka tried to save herself from four wolves that attacked her at the same time. She raised her arms and shrieked. An unseeable force sent the wolves flying up in the air, and they hit the ground in a loud thud. The wolves cried and couldn’t get up.

When the tree was about to collapse, Kezia in her tattered black cloak jumped on to another one. From there, she hit the wolves with green-colored lightning bolt-like powers. The wolves were toast! Huh! Good for them.

“Leave us, Priestess Adri! Save yourself!” Kezia hollered in the middle of her fight.

“We’ll hold them for you,” Fen added, looking at me over her shoulder. She was busy grappling with two large wolves.

As I looked at her fighting for her life, I couldn’t help but feel the heat in the corner of my eyes. I remembered how Phaedra was killed earlier. I still couldn’t believe it. A part of me wanted to believe that this wasn’t real at all. But I knew it just wasn’t.

I got the attention of the other wolves when I ran away from the battle ground. But when I looked back, Fen was already torn into pieces as another two wolves bit each of her legs and tore her limbs. She didn’t scream in pain but tried to hold on. She looked at me with tears in her eyes. She smiled at me sadly before she turned into a skeleton. It was like she told me it was fine and that I should save myself.

I wiped the tears from eyes with my sleeve. It was like half of the pack attacked Priestess Malka at the same time and I couldn’t see her anymore. When I looked up at the tree where Priestess Kezia was perched, I saw the wolves attack the innocent tree. As it started to fall down, Kezia was breathless. She jumped off of it and landed on the back of a wolf. She quickly jumped onto another one and another, leaving them injured at the same time.

We ran away together, side by side, leaving Eoghan’s vampires behind, trying to protect our tail. But it was all for naught. They were all killed by the wolves that seemed to have bloodlust.

“Come with me, Priestess Kezia!” I urged her.

She nodded, barely dodging the wolf that was supposed to hit her face. But her cover was taken off instead.

We were on our way to the train station when we heard more cries of the injured wolves. When we looked behind us again, Zafrina, Hestia and many other vampires were there.

“Are we saved now?” I mumbled the question.

Kezia looked at me with her red eyes. “I don’t quite think so, Priestess Adri.”