Dawn Released

Torr turned away from the spray of Kacie's blood. "Damn you, Father!" He tugged fruitlessly at the chains that held him fast. "Damn you to hell!" He bellowed as his father's whip, stained with Kacie's blood, hit home and exacted a pound of flesh from his back.

Kacie screamed as the whip cut a deep, wide, gash in Torr's back. "No!" She floundered in the restraints, kicking out at Seff with every bit of strength she had left. Wasn't her death enough to satisfy the bastard? Torr wouldn't last long beneath the force of his father's whip. So much of him, his soul, was already dead and just waiting for the rest of him to join it. She realized that perhaps, the dead piece of him was what made him always seem less human than he actually was. He knew part of his soul was dead and he was just biding his time for the rest of him to catch up with it. His blood splattered her face and rolled down her cheek. Torr hung there from the restraints biting into his wrists and slouched, defeated and giving up. Maybe, he was the smart one. She had too much fight in her to simply surrender and die this way. She'd go out of this world exactly as her mother claimed she'd come into it, screaming and fighting to survive.

"Kacie, you have the power to make it stop," Seff cooed. "Tell me what I need to know. Just say the words and I'll stop." He gently stroked her pale cheek and lifted his bloodied fingers to his lips. "Who came with you? How did you get past the fence? Just tell me," he said softly.

"Fuck you!" Kacie rasped with all the courage she could muster. She was going to die. At this point she had no doubts about that. She wanted her death to mean something. Perhaps, with her last breath she could accomplish more than she had in her short lifetime. Spitting in his face, she lifted her gaze to meet him in the eye. "You can't kill everybody."

Seff balled his fist and landed a hard punch square in Kacie's ribs. The sound of crunching bone and her stifled whimpers of agony roused the crowd to the point of violence. The crowd gasped and hissed at him angrily. It was all the guards could do to maintain order and force the mob of bodies away from the platform. Oh, the little hellion, every bit her mother's daughter, was wrong about that. He held the power of life and death in his palm and he'd start with her. "Yes, Kacie, yes I can."

"You think I'm unjust! You find my brand of discipline harsh!" Seff cracked his whip. The tip of it lashed out at the crowd. "You think it's easy for me to stand before you and condemn this beautiful young woman and my only son to death? Its not! I'd rather spare their lives than destroy them, but I must have obedience. The law must be obeyed. We are a pack. WE must act as one for the common good of all. I can't have lawlessness destroy the peace we have worked so hard to achieve."

He was losing the crowd. Pack unable to control the shift paced in wolf form along the outer perimeters of the unruly gathering. This whole thing was as volatile as a powder keg about to explode. He had to maintain order and he knew exactly how he was going to do it. "I will spare no one, not even my beloved son from the letter of the law. But, I am not without mercy or compassion. I'll give you a choice, her life for my son's. You have five minutes to decide."

Carter crouched behind a row of tents horrified at the scene. Nash growled at his side, struggling to control his wolf at the sight of senseless torture. He'd survived revolutions before and freedom came at a bloody cost. Against all the firepower and men that Seff possessed at his beck and call. They didn't have very good odds of success. Vampires weren't bulletproof as myth would have humanity believe and neither were werewolves. A bullet through the brain would kill any living thing. "I can help her. I can help them both."

Taking Seff out would be too obvious. He could only drop one person at a time. He didn't possess the ability to take control of an entire legion of soldiers. The guards would simply think that Kacie and Torr had succumbed to the pain of their tortures and passed out. It wasn't much, but it would give them a respite from the pain and make their deaths easier. Carter focused and locked onto Kacie's mental signature. "Sleep, Kacie, sleep."

Kacie's eyes grew heavy and the world narrowed in around her. A heavy sensation weighted her arms and legs with numbness and her pain faded into blissful nothingness. She floated in this peaceful place of quiet and respite, sinking deeper and deeper in to it until she drifted away. She'd miss so many things about this world. Root beer floats in the summertime, the nip of frost at the tip of her nose, her wolf's warm fur pelt, her mom and sister, all the friends she had back home, and Tristen...Tristen, she'd miss him most of all. Her body went limp. Her weight suspended from the shackles around her wrists. It should have hurt, hanging like she was from the tendons and ligaments holding her together, but it didn't. Death was calm, dark, and so welcome.

Kacie went down so easily, as if she had no resistance to him at all. She welcomed the oblivion of darkness and the end of her suffering. Carter focused on Torr. The man's mind was strong, fighting him with every ounce of strength he had left. Carter honed in on the synapses firing through the man's tormented mind. This deep into his gray matter, he could sense Torr's thoughts. Torr hid something beneath his thoughts of death, though. Something buried so deeply that Carter couldn't read the thoughts. A secret that was so big Torr would willingly give his life to protect it. And there was nothing Carter could do to override what the man clung to in the depths of his soul. "I can't reach him," Carter huffed. "He's blocking me."

"Why?"

"He wants to die, like this," Carter replied. "He thinks he deserves it. Torr has a secret, one he would die to protect. One that is so important that even he doesn't dare to think it into reality and one he is willing and prepared to take to the grave to protect."

"We're going to have to move in." Nash pulled his dagger from its sheath, readying for action. He pinned Carter in his steely stare. Carter's icy arctic eyes locked on his. There was a silent understanding between the two of them. Nothing stopped them from completing this mission. Nothing.

"I assumed that was coming." Carter followed suit and pulled free the long sword strapped across his back. "I'll work on getting Kacie and Torr out of there. You go find Eloise."

"But..."

"Trust me. You may be faster than me on four legs, but on two, I definitely can out run you. Seff isn't going to want to face a pack of angry, out of control, werewolves. There's no way he'll risk letting the pack shift."

"I'll meet you at the rendezvous point?"

"You can count on it." Carter grabbed Nash's arm in a gesture of solidarity. He stared down at Nash's fingers clasping his bicep and wrapped his own around them. He'd found a friend in Nash. Something he hadn't expected when this journey began what seemed like a lifetime ago. Perhaps, that was why he kept on living and living and living. Life, for all its blended day after day, sometimes had a few surprises left to be discovered. "Good luck," Carter said as he melted into the darkness.

The boys settled on their course of action and rushed to dress for battle. The put on their new, stiff, black fatigues and hurriedly laced up their boots. Their little group had a lot of talent and plenty of big ideas. Ideas that Tristen hoped wouldn't get them killed. One of the boys was going for the power grid. Wolves could see very well in the dark, but eliminating the power would cut the juice to the fence and take the main security alarm and cameras off line. Hopefully, catching Seff and his band of Merry Marauders with their skirts up and their panties down.

Another boy had a bout as a closet pyromaniac during his wilder days. He was going straight for the ammunitions locker and blowing it sky high. At least that would even the playing field a bit. Once Seff's men ran out of bullets, they'd have to duke it out the old fashioned way with fangs and fists. The boy who had befriended him right from the start had worked in the Grand Manor before getting drafted into Seff's service. He claimed he the house and the grounds like the back of his hand. He and another one of Tristen's bunkmates were going in to find Kacie's mom.

The rest were accompanying Tristen. Their job was to work the crowd into a fevered frenzy. Kacie didn't have a whole lot of time left. Three minutes to be exact. Her life and Torr's were in his hands. The boys were going to strike at once, the power failure, the explosion, and the uprising of the crowd should create enough of a diversion for him to free Kacie, and if he had time, Torr. "All right, let's hit it."

The voices in the crowd rose to a singular, indiscernible roar of noise. His plan had backfired. Instead of subduing the mob, as he'd intended, his threat had worked them up into an even more frenzied desperation. "Three minutes!" He swung his pocket watch from its chain and flicked his whip. Torr was barely hanging on and so ready to give up his miserable life. Kacie was unconscious, dangling from the restraints by her wrists. She had a little more of a spark in her than his son, but that wasn't saying much. If the crowd wouldn't decide, he'd decide for them. Torr, he could stand to lose, but Kacie and the damnable promise of perfection in her DNA was something he needed.

"Are we really going to stand by and watch him commit murder!" a voice shouted from the crowd.

"A life for a life! What choice is that?" Another young male voice cried out from the indistinguishable throng of onlookers. The crowd responded, rising to an angry fevered pitch. Heads bobbed and fists rose into the air. The singular voice of the crowd gained in volume and in fury.

Seff motioned to his guards to move in and subdue the crowd by force. He couldn't back down now. If he did, he'd never be taken seriously and he'd never have the fearful obedience he longed for. "Two minutes! What will it be? Her life or his?" The guards did their best, but the crowd was like a tidal wave crashing down on a wall of solid rock Unstoppable in force and fury as they drove his guards back crushing them against the platform.

Seff quaked in fury. How dare these people defy him? "Get your asses back or I'll kill them both!" He shouted over the din. He unholstered his sidearm and clicked off the safety, firing a warning shot into the air. The result was silence, stunned, deafening silence. The booming sound from the barrel of his gun got their attention. With a steady hand, he pointed the muzzle at Torr's head.

Torr met the smoking end of the gun with an icy gaze. So, this is how it was going to end for him. Shot in the head at point blank range. The man who brought him into the world was going to be the one to take him out. In a way, Torr supposed it was poetic justice. Peace and payback finally fulfilled. His father had murdered his grandchildren and now he was going to murder the son who had fathered them. At least, the child he dreamed about, his beautiful, redheaded little girl was safe. The secret was no longer his burden to bear. "Do it," he hissed.

There was the smell of burning circuitry and then a harsh electrical buzz and then the complex was thrown into darkness. The crowd scrambled in confusion. The guards could no longer contain them. Gunshots rang in the air. No one knew from where or who had fired the shots. Screams pierced the night. Feet pounded into the hard packed earth in a stampede of rushing bodies. There was a deafening rumble as the ammunitions locker went up in a flaming blaze of glory, throwing brick and debris and hot flames high into the night sky. Shouts bellowed in the night as people scurried for cover. The fire spread, chewing up the neatly manicured lawn and what little remained of the elaborate gardens. Flaming debris shot up into the sky and landed on the eaves and roof, eagerly consuming the Grand Manor as they licked at shingles and timbers with hungry tongues.

Chapter 40

Nash cursed as he saw the flames. From what Shayla had managed to gather. Eloise was trapped inside on the second floor, on the east wing of the house, in one of the rooms facing the lawn. The Grand Manor was a stately old building, a relic from happier times and genteel grace, and it was going up in a shower of flames and sparks. The fire spread at a remarkable rate, chewing through the roof and attic space. He had to get to her out of there before it was too late.

With no concern for himself, the fire's heat, or the thick crush of billowing clouds of black smoke, he crashed through the unguarded back door and ran haphazardly into a group of boys holding a handful of Seff's soldiers at gunpoint. It was nice to have help for a change. The boys were herding the men toward the back door, to safety. The guards could have easily outwitted the inexperienced boys. Instead, they complacently shuffled along. He grabbed the collar of the kid closest to him. "I need to find Eloise."

The boy lifted his weapon from its resting place at a guard's temple. Tristen had been very careful in his detailed description of the people they weren't supposed to shoot. The man with the braids and eyes, dark and sharp as a hawk's, fit the deets. "I know the house. I'll help you find her. Baker, take these pieces of shit outside. If they so much as fart, kill 'em."

"My pleasure."

"We don't have much time. This house is old and it's about to go up like a roman candle," the boy said. "I'm Tucker, by the way."

"Nash."

"Welcome to the team," Tucker beamed. God, he was Jonesing for this hero stuff. But, there wasn't much time to revel in the thrill of being a hero. From somewhere above their heads there was a loud boom and a crash. The roof beams were starting to give way. They didn't have long before this whole damn place fell like a house of cards around them. "Tristen said there'd be others coming."

"Tristen set this up?" Nash asked in surprise at his grandson's originality. He trotted along side Tucker. The smoke was beginning to drift down the main staircase in a thick fog from the upper floors. Shayla had said that Eloise was being held in a room on the second floor. He pulled the boy up the staircase. "She's up here somewhere!"

"I can't smell anything but the damned smoke!" Tucker ran haphazardly, pulling open doors, kicking in locks, searching room after empty room. The problem was that there were so many rooms to search and so little time. The smoke was thick and choking, rolling down the walls from the third story. The heat was intense as the flames gobbled up everything in their path. Nash pulled him down to the floor and they crawled from room to room. Maybe, he was a little crazy. After all, his instincts clamored for him to abandon this insane man and get his ass out of Dodge before the place fell down around him. Nash wasn't any saner than he was, apparently. He was here with him, searching the rooms on the left as he searched the rooms on the right.

Eloise paced the room in a panic. Smoke drifted in lethal tendrils from under the locked door. No one was coming to get her out. The fucking house was on fire and no one was coming. She was going to be burned alive. She struggled to think. The hormones clouded her mind and her panicked wolf muddied her reason as surges of pure lust crashed into one another. "Think damn it!"

She tore the thick, velvet draperies from their rods and flung a chair into the aged, brittle leaded glass window. The glass shattered into thousands of tiny pieces letting in a welcome gust of fresh air. She tugged at the ornate bars blocking her only exit with all her strength, but old as they were, the bars held firmly in place. Smoke was beginning to fill the room. She didn't have much time. Rushing for the bathroom, she plugged the bathtub drain, filling it with water. She soaked towels, blankets, sheets, anything she could find and stuffed them into the cracks at the bottom of the door and in the floor vents in hopes to stifle the smoke.

The ceiling above her head groaned and the plaster rained down in chunks pummeling her shoulders. The crystal chandelier shimmied and gave way, crashing to the floor inches from where she stood. The shaft of the fireplace billowed thick, choking black smoke. She closed the damper and stuffed the soaking wet comforter up the flue. Heat that had nothing to do with her hormones and everything to do with the flames lapping at the floor joists on the third story and caused a fresh sheen of sweat to blossom across her skin. "Shit!"

The door was still cool to the touch. The fire hadn't made it down to the second story yet. Her ancestors had designed the place well, but not well enough to withstand a fire of this magnitude. Although the Grand Manor was made of brick and mortar, it was still constructed of wood, aged and dried with time, and it would burn to the ground. She twisted the doorknob and pulled furiously on it with all her strength. The door was locked tight. She got down on the floor, pounding on the hard wood and shouting for help with everything she had. Given the confusion going on outside. No one would hear her cries. She was as good as dead unless she came up with a way out.

Carter raced on to the platform at a breakneck speed that was so fast, even the wolf didn't see him coming. He was grateful for the confusion and the shroud of darkness around him. Seff stood guard over Kacie's limp body. She was the one he wanted, not his son. Torr lifted his head and cast Carter a look as he slid up behind him and placed a finger to his lips, silencing him. He ripped at the steel links that held Torr to the beam, breaking them free. He didn't have time to wrestle Torr completely out of the cuffs but at least he was free. "Run."

Torr shook his head and whispered, "My days of running in fear of my father are over. I'll stay and face him like a man. You get Kacie out of here"

Tristen scrambled onto the platform, inching as quietly across the blood-slicked wood as he could. He glanced at Carter and Torr, unsure of what the plan was. Carter flew at him and flung him off the platform, crushing him beneath his weight.

"Let Torr handle his father. While Seff is busy, we'll get Kacie free," Carter said. Pinning the youth face first into the dirt, he watched the two alpha males circle one another. He knew one thing for certain. One of the two men wasn't walking away from this fight.

"Father, It's over. Look what your greed and lust for power have done."

Seff pointed the gun's barrel at his son's head. "I am still in control." He squeezed the trigger. Torr dodged unexpectedly to the right, and the slug aimed for his head had buried itself deep into his shoulder. Seff would pick apart his boy piece by piece, if he had to. A nice clean shot to the frontal lobe would have been better, for the both of them, but either way, Torr was going to die. "After all, I am the one holding the gun."

"Really? Are you?" Torr gave himself over to his wolf. The wolf tore free, immediately changing from man to animal in the blink of an eye. The wolf growled low in his throat. Teeth bared and muscles coiled, ready for attack, his sleek brown fur bristled as he pinned Seff with the trademark yellow eyes of his forefathers.

Seff dropped the gun and chuckled. He didn't need a weapon against his son. If Torr were foolish enough to challenge him with his wolf, Seff would be happy to play along. He felt the powerful surges pulse through his body as his wolf ripped free from his human flesh. The wolf bristled and launched an attack, going straight for the younger less experienced wolf's throat.

"Now!" Carter flung Tristen onto the platform and sprung, landing loosely on the balls of his feet. Wrenching Kacie free from the chains that bound her. Gently, he lowered her unconscious body into Tristen's arms. "Take her. Go back to the fence. Shayla is waiting there for us to return." He leapt from the platform, leaving the battling wolves to their own devices. He had to find Nash and he had no time to spare. Through the dense, acrid burn of the smoke, he could not get a lock on Nash's scent. He was going to have to hunt for him and hope he found him in time before the house burned to nothing but cinders around them.