Thoughts churned and frothed in my head. Most of them were not my own.
My Century cried out and pleaded within my mind. More, now, since we'd collected a few survivors. As our minds mourned, our bodies fled. Between the distant mountains we'd just escaped from, a ruby glow pulsed silently, lethally. A fire that burn for days to come.
"Calm is the mind, Calm is the Spirit," I spoke aloud in casting-tongue; in ancient Latin.
They took up the mantra. It buzzed out in ripples from mind to mind. Despite this, beneath me, my monstrous mount keened a whine.
His patchy, wolfish fur scratched my palms as I braced over his withers. Withers that towered over the heads of my unmounted subordinates. He turned his head and met my gaze with a set of familiar gray eyes. His face was wrinkled and beastly, his limbs long and bent although they grasped as man's would.
My brother, Bruno, inspected me a moment longer and I felt his sudden wish to detransform and hug me. I desperately needed one. After all the death we'd just witnessed...
"Now is not the time," Mama reminded me in our usual mother-tongue, Italian. Father, also in werewolf-form, lumbered up to our right flank, bringing Mama within range. Her shaking hand grasped my shoulder bracingly. "You are the Centurion. You must lead the evacuation."
Abandoning the homeland... it was our only option.
"I trust you," Mama said, "Lead us."
Her voice rang out clearly from behind her painted mask and across our mental connection. The shadowy lunar robe she wore was a mirage in my now-blurry vision, but her warm touch smoothed my jitters.
"Listen closely," I spoke aloud.
The dual-tone of Authority radiated in my voice, forcing a shiver of obedience down the spines of my subordinates. Their masked or wolfish faces lifted to me.
"We'll notify the Legate of our evacuation. Then we make for and secure the teleportation hub."
Defeat rippled through the group: unmounted soldiers, the Battlers, shifted their footing, Beasts let out low, keening whines, and mounted riders, the Mages, slumped.
"Escape is not defeat," I barked. Their postures snapped back upright. "It is hope. Now, focus.
"We dead scouts upon the usual paths. They're unsafe. So we take unusual ones. It will be perilous, but we have trained in these mountains. We know them."
There was a jolt in the mental dynamic.
"Enemy! North, northeast!"
The mental voice, pitched with anxiety, was still familiar: one of my little cousins. A Battler scout from Mama's subunit.
"Move out!" I called and, as one, the group moved.
Watery light washed ahead, barely illuminating our path from the thin, wolf's claw moon above.
"Demons gaining!"
Mama buoyed cousin Sebastian's voice. His mind's eye was thrust to the forefront of mine and I saw through his eyes. Mounted upon the back of cousin Claudia, he threw frantic glances backward over his shoulder. Sure enough, black demon smoke hissed through low shrubbery like sharks darting beneath waves.
Tighten formation, I ordered, anxiety buzzing in my fingertips. I need scouts ahead, too.
I knew who to send. My cousins had grown to be the most skilled of their generation and, for all we knew, the teleportation hub could be overrun just as the stronghold had been. They moved at my thought: Mama's subunit within my Century, her Contubernium, consisted of my eight remaining cousins and Father. Anxiety shivered in my stomach as they moved ahead.
I'd already lost four precious cousins. Two whose bodies I'd witnessed ripped-open and strewn over our front stoop. Two whose bodies were missing, that I'd likely never find.
The steep, slanted gravel and trees morphed into a series of sheer rock-faces, yet we continued. Clawed werewolf fingers were well-suited for grasping tiny nooks and the humanoid Battlers flipped nimbly from ledge to ledge. As for us Mages, we clung aptly like packs upon our mounts' backs.
"Any minute now..." I muttered, "We should be getting in-range of the main-forces' telepathy-"
It crashed into my mind. With a taut swallow, I reigned the flow of information.
This cacophony was not what I was expecting, but the rhythm was horrifically familiar. A was a chaos pattern. My mind surveyed the available personnel. Just as it had been at the stronghold, there was no council member present in the dynamic anymore. I analyzed for our highest military commander, the Legate.
Gone.
Then, a Tribune, perhaps? My call pinged two minds.
Only two Tribune left? Of the eight sent?
"What news from the homefront?" one barked across our connection.
Bruno's muscles continued to pump and bring us closer to the summit. I clung and focused.
"We are to evacuate. The stronghold is lost. Our civilians are lost."
Shock bolted through one of the Tribune. She froze. The enemy pounced. Through our mental connection, there was a white-hot flash of pain then her mind quieted forever. The final Tribune cursed. Her remaining subordinates fell to him.
Our forces had been gutted entirely.
My Century knew this. And yet, when we saw the battlefield, shock tore through us anew.
In the valley below, bodies scattered like thousands of dead flies across the grassy knolls and up the rocky slopes. All efforts were swarmed. Outnumbered. Drowning.
"Tribune," I called mentally to the battlefield, "Begin a retreat. We will defend the teleportation hub until your arrival."
He merely pressed his thoughts in the affirmative as he parried another attack.
I called to my century, "Move out."
Minds flickered out as we skirted the edge of the battlefield. Too many. And then we were out of range. Mama's scouting group outpaced us.
Not far now.
"Demons gaining again!"
A volley of spells! I ordered.
The minds of mounted Mages began to crisp and focus. From the corner of my eye, silver light blossomed in rings round their arms. Smooth as silk and bright as the full moon, magic illuminated the dreadful night. After mere moments, it burst off the Mages' fingertips. Demon crackles turned to high-pitched sizzles, like a campfire doused in water.
Our destination was upon us:
A yawning, shallow basin between high peaks sent cooling relief through my veins. In its center were three dozen gigantic circles all arranged circumference to circumference. Mama had dismounted and stood resolutely in the center of one with her arms splayed. Around her, the silver writing carved in our casting-tongue began to glow silver as chanted. Slowly, the glow inched around the circumference.
"Mages only able to cast one more spell, get down there," I barked, "All others, rearm our Battlers."
Ten Mages threw themselves down and sprinted into the basin. I helped arm my cousins.
Cousin Atticus elbowed forward and barked, "Longsword!"
I set both hands before me, palms up toward the moon, and focused.
[Spatha]
Pins of silver light descended like an alien rain. Just before they pierced my palms, their light melted, molded, and elongated into the shape of a hilt, then a long lethal shaft.
One-by-one I offered weapons. Bit-by-bit I felt my mana spooling out.
As a rapier dropped into Elza's shaking hands, she lifted her masked face to me.
"Auntie?" here voice trembled, "May I have a glyph? Please? I can't stop shaking."
"Of course," I murmured.
Bruno knelt. I reached to touch the skin of her chest and focused.
[Robervelox]
Beneath my fingers, swirling out onto her skin in a white, the glyph materialized . It wafted a scant amount of silver smoke. Elza breathed deeply and steadied with reinvigorated strength.
Father trotted to our right. As Mama's Second, he set the cousins in formation. Warmth swelled in my chest as they stood firm.
"You raised fine warriors," Father noted, his thoughts turning toward mine.
"We all did," I reminded him.
"We're going to get through this, right?" Elza wondered aloud, gripping her rapier tighter.
Carmella, mounted upon her elder sister Mirella, merely shook, "There's no way."
"You two sound scared," Atticus noted with a snort.
"Lost your nerve?" Sebastian goaded, but his mount, Claudia, growled beneath him.
"If you're not scared, you're stupid," Lucas announced from his twin, Caesar's, back. "You saw what happened to Renzo and Alberto. Who knows what happened to Valentina and Gianna."
Grief gripped us anew at the thought of our dead.
"Whatever they say," Bruno thought, "We know what they think. Hold steady."
"We'll see it through," I assured my little cousins, "Give them hell and then some."
They nodded.
"Incoming!"
Our respite evaporated. A teleportation spell took ten minutes. Only two had passed.
The enemy flung themselves up the rocky mountainside, keening with excitement like hellfire cicadas. My century resolved to become an impenetrable wall. A face bleached pale by moonlight, the first enemy, drew within range. More swarmed their unblinking expressions like that of skinless skulls.
"Ready a lure," I ordered.
Sebastian gripped his blade in a bare hand, sliding it across his palm. Vampire heads snapped about, noses flared, spines straightening to attention. Then they sprinted for him and beastly Claudia backed up, carrying him away.
Readying an instant-kill, I thought.
Bruno stepped to the back of the line, keeping me back. Atticus and Elza flanked us.
"Luna volente," I began in casting-tongue. Faint white tattoos, bands, along my upper arms began to glow. A symmetric pair. They rose above my skin, beginning to whirl as I concentrated, lifting one hand with fingers splayed-wide. "With a firm Spirit and steady hand..."
Bruno lurched. The enemy recognized my spellcasting pattern. Furious panic alit in their eyes.
I tensed, "May the Spirits guide my magic to grasp these creatures' hearts in my fingers."
I closed my fingers, seizing air, and yet, I was met with resistance. Within a twenty meter radius, all vampires stilled in pain and shock.
Their hearts were magically locked in my hand.
A few gritted their teeth, dug their heels in, and leaped backward out of range. But with a horrible, cracking squelch, something dark wrenched from each of their chests. Their bodies crumpled like wet paper mache. Their hearts remained suspended in midair.
The vampires who hadn't attempted to flee, grimaced as Bruno took a step backward.
Some tried to take a measured step with us. Others fell to the ground, heartless. Bruno continued to back farther and farther away. Only when the final vampire went limp did I release my hand. There was a sound like thick, squishy rain as the held-hearts finally fell.
I scanned the battle: I'd only resolved a mere fraction of the infestation.
"We've not sighted the evacuees," Bruno informed me.
Another five minds dropped from the collective.
Spirits preserve us! I thought, gritting my teeth, then ordered my Century, Fall back into the circles!
As one, they turned, pelting down into the circles with the casting Mages. Bruno ripped a snarl and seized a charging vampire by the head. A sound like a cracking, squelching watermelon split the air as he clamped his jaws.
Another vampire ran at us. I lifted a hand and concentrated:
[Ardeat]
The vampire let out a howl and clung to its peeling face, as if its skin were engulfed in flames.
"Finish it, Bruno-"
Enemy hands seized my arm and neck from behind. Fangs ravaged my neck as the hijacking vampire hiked my arm backward, wrenching and twisting. I gritted my teeth against a scream.
"Hold tight," Bruno instructed.
With my functioning arm, I did. He lurched. Then, suddenly, the silvery embrace of the teleportation magic enveloped us.
And the vampire atop me, evaporated.
A cloud of maroon vapor and empty clothes misted the air. The bitter of vampire blood, of corpse fluid, tainted my mouth as I slumped forward over Bruno's withers.
I analyzed the dynamic, watching for the last of my Century to flee into the bounds of the circles. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I sat upright and extended an arm toward the stragglers.
[Crepitus]
A vampire's arm exploded off from its torso and it screeched in surprise. With his attacker distracted, Atticus made a break for it yet enemies swarmed like shadows in his wake.
"On it," Mirella thought, her beastly form crushing one of the enemies as, from her back, Carmella speared another through the skull.
"Please, I'm fine," Atticus boasted, bracing his stance and swinging his longsword through another enemy. "Hey Sebs, I'm now three up from your count-"
A fresh swarm of vampires descended. Carmella was swept from her sister's back in an instant and her mind vanished.
Dead.
"Bruno," I snarled, digging my heels into his sides, "Go to them."
He stood still, but a whimper slid through his teeth.
Atticus rounded, putting his back to Mirella's beast form, but she'd been mounted by the enemy in spite of her bucking and writhing. The vampire flung itself from her back and seized Atticus by the head. The appendage rounded on his neck.
"It's only a break, not a decapitation- Bruno!" I yelled, kicking him in the sides.
He ignored me.
Father rallied the rest of the cousins to aid them.
"Calm is the mind, Calm is the Spirit," Bruno chanted.
I settled. I couldn't lose it. Not now-
Mirella's mind dropped from the collective.
"Got Atticus," Father reported.
The group slipped back into the safety of the circles to a spritz of maroon mist.
"We should be safe here," Father assessed, setting aside our shared grief, "The enemy seems to have realized that none but Lunari soldiers can enter a charging circle."
"We're not," I mumbled, "Just because the enemy can't enter doesn't mean... anyway, find a healing mage for Atticus. Quickly."
A figure at the top of the basin caught my eye as I scanned again. It bounced on the spot. Beside it, another straight-backed figure stood statuesque.
"Merda," I cursed, recognizing the dichotomous personalities, "Two of of the Theous."
Panic roared like wildfire through the dynamic at my assessment. Frantic, I analyzed my Mages, gaging their magic reserves. Mother was nearly finished her spell, the silver writing about her circle nearly complete.
"All available Mages," I barked, "Prepare wall spells! Now-!"
Then, Mama's head exploded.
"-Wall spells!" I screamed, exerting my full Authority across the dynamic. "Guard the casting Mages from projectiles!"
Handheld stones, thrown from the hands of the supernaturally enhanced, became bullets. A second Mage was struck, his head snapping backward. He crumpled to his knees. Wall-spells blossomed, vast two-meter-by-two-meter sheafs of silver magic per Mage, but the flat surfaces had gaps. Another five casting Mages crumpled, three clutching holes in their chests, another two without a head to speak of. Our exits had been halved in an instant.
But that wasn't all.
The magic of each of these circles extinguished, exposing the soldiers within.
"I can't!" The Mage within my circle whimpered, staring fearfully up at the top of the basin. Her magic simmered and winked. "I can't do it!"
"Cazzo," I cursed, throwing myself from Bruno's back. "Move and begin a wall-spell. I'll cast teleportation. Bruno, assume command of the Century."
Not a moment too soon, either. The poor Mage lost her nerve and the spell dissipated. I stood firm, quickly reestablishing a connection with the circle. It restarted. Another ten-minute cast. The tide of the battle ebbed and flowed in the back of my mind. Agony ripped through my leg as a projectile made contact. I fell to one knee. With a low groan, I closed my eyes, and chanted louder through the pain.
I could feel my spell nearing completion. But I was mere seconds away when I became aware of something even more horrible. A lack of chanting alongside mine.
The only Mage casting teleportation was me.
I opened my eyes. They laid upon a familiar, wolfish face only two meters beyond my circle's edge. A face set in concentration as, with an arm each, Bruno grappled two vampires at once.
"Go, Serafina!" he called.
"No!"
There were twenty-four minds were left in the dynamic. Five more winked out.
"Go!"
Bruno's olive face resolved from the beastly features, human with gray eyes and curly black hair: a half-morph. Just a bloodied head and shoulders.
He shouldn't be risking that.
As if to prove the point, one vampire writhed. It scooped up stones, but Bruno slammed it to the ground, almost losing grip on the second.
"Make for the circle," I ordered, Authority ringing in my voice.
The others, fighting outside the circle now, twitched, but couldn't disengage.
I remained alone in the circle.
"Can't, Sis," Bruno groaned, though his body leaned toward me. "If I move, they'll get loose. They'll start throwing things too. They'll kill you."
"The others-"
Another seven severed from the dynamic.
"We won't make it. Go."
"I won't leave without you!"
"Go!"
And for a second, I thought I could sense Authority ring out in his voice. Gritting my teeth, I nodded once, and flipped my palms from face up to face down.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
The world went white.