Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 616

Chapter 116 : Tell Her I Loved Her

*Xander*

We'd hatched a practically impossible plan. It was a last-ditch effort, but there was a slim chance it could buy the allied forces a full night to rest and regroup, and to hold onto Breles. Oliver was sitting next to me in Gideon's truck as we bounced over the rolling hills on the outskirts of Crimson Creek, a massive tank of fuel jostling in the bed of the truck behind us. One wrong move and we'd tip over, potentially blowing the truck, and ourselves, up.

Oliver and I were absolutely covered in blood root. I glanced at him, seeing nothing but his multicolored eyes as he peered through the windshield. I'd left my warriors and Gideon behind, so it was just me and the fire-obsessed cousin of my mate.

We were nearly at the outcropping of dead trees and the dilapidated temple where both Lena and I had been held captive and tortured. I could see the portal now, wide and rippling with energy. It reflected all of the colors of the incredible sunset behind it, but upside down, which was the only way to differentiate it from the landscape beyond.

“This is going to work," Oliver remarked, more to himself than to me.

“You just want to play with fire again," I mused, and Oliver smirked, shrugging one shoulder.

“My uncle Keaton had me light all of his cigars as a kid. He thought it was the most useful trick, but my parents thought differently. I caught the palace on fire more than once."

I arched my brow at him, and he turned to me with a wry grin.

“Mischief is a family trait. No one can fault me for that."

“A family of menaces," I breathed, shaking my head.

I wondered what my daughter would be like, who she would be like–Lena, with her striking intelligence and beauty, but a flair for the dramatics and an affinity for acting without thinking, or me, damn near perfect in every way?

I chuckled to myself as I pulled the truck into the clearing near the temple. Oliver sighed deeply, looking around.

“We have about twenty minutes to do what we need to do," I said in a whisper, a feeling of unease rippling up my spine. Oliver was out of the truck before I'd even finished the sentence.

I stepped out of the truck as Oliver connected a hose to the fuel tank and began dragging it over to the portal. I hissed at him to be careful, noticing how his copper curls seemed to drift toward the portal the closer he got to the opening, like he was being pulled inside. Oliver waved his hand at me in dismissal as he began to spray fuel in front of the portal, and within minutes he'd soaked the area.

The smell of gasoline was sharp and made me slightly dizzy as I watched the fuel gauge drain.

“A little more," I shouted, and Oliver continued to spray until the ground was so saturated with fuel that Oliver's shoes made sloshing sounds as he walked through the grass and blood root back to the truck.

“Let's get the tank out," he said, removing the hose from the tank and tossing it nonchalantly toward the portal. It took us several minutes to push the tank out of the bed of the truck, letting it fall and rest where it landed.

“We gotta get the hell out of here," I said, motioning towards the sky. It was turning a rich violet, the first stars peaking through the ribbon like gray clouds as the sunset faded over the horizon.

Oliver walked past me and started yanking on one of the dead trees, pulling off several dried out branches before we got back in the truck and drove onto a nearby ridge. I looked down at the portal, my hands gripping the steering wheel as Oliver stepped out of the truck.

“Drive it down there a bit so they can't see it sitting on the ridge," he commanded, dropping his bundle of branches on the ground.

I did just that and had just shut the driver's side door of the truck when Oliver used his powers to ignite the first branch like a torch.

I ran up to him, taking the first branch from him as he lit another, then another, until we were both holding two.

We waited. The flames were catching on the branches, turning that initial dull glow into raging embers that made the branches burn like torches. Dusk faded into night, and through the portal, I saw the first ripple of movement.

A group of vampires, Death Walkers, as Gideon had called them, stepped through the vortex and looked around. Their expressionless faces could have been harboring shock based on the rigidness of their bodies. One of them was dressed in red robes made of fine fabric, and I slowly nudged Xander with my elbow. That Death Walker must be a commander of some kind.

Another group came through the portal, then another, until at least a hundred vampires were gathered in the clearing.

Oliver opened his mouth wide and let out a howl so shrill it made the hair on my arms stand on end. The vampires snapped their heads at us, their teeth shining in the moonlight as hissing and screeching filled the clearing. Oliver threw the first torch, and within a heartbeat the clearing erupted into flames.

Chaos ensued as the fire licked up the robes of the Death Walkers, the lot of them thrown into a panic. Another wave of them stepped out of the portal into the flames and were immediately engulfed in wave after wave of fire as Oliver and I began throwing the rest of the torches.

The entire valley was on fire now. The dry grass and blood root soaked in fuel set a black cloud of toxic smoke into the air, making it almost impossible to see what was happening below. But I knew more vampires were coming through the portal right into the fiery fray, and before they even had a chance to react, they were lost to the choking swell of the smoke, and then surrounded by flames.

An explosion rocked the valley and echoed through the surrounding landscape. Debris shot high in the air as the fuel tank we'd left in the clearing exploded, sending a shower of metal and heat down on the vampires. None of them had been able to escape the chaos, at least not yet.

My ears were ringing from all the noise. I looked at Oliver, who was panting, his eyes reflecting in the flames as he looked down at what we'd done.

Another wave of vampires came through the portal and tried to turn around, but were met by the next group of their comrades trying to come through as well. Some of them began climbing up the hill toward us. Covered in blood root, we were damn near camouflaged against the night sky behind us. We charged them as they got near, throwing them back into the flames. Their screeches of surprise had alerted a fresh group of them coming through the portal, and at least a dozen vampires were now heading in our direction.