After the Moon Sets 3 (Werewolf Paranormal Romance) (2 page)

I had no idea where Julian was ta
king me until we arrived to at Connor’s loft in Downtown Detroit. I couldn’t believe it. We were on the verge of human extinction, and Julian still relied on Connor’s weaponry expertise. As Julian pulled me roughly into the loft, I began to wonder if humanity’s downfall was truly going to be due to overconfidence.

I did not want to accept this kind of defeat, but it was proving to be out of my hands. Connor lifted the doors as if he had been expecting us. Connor was strangely different
at the present time. His love for me faded as quickly as he fell for me, and right now he saw me as nothing more than the enemy. When Julian released me, he pointed at his cellphone.

“I only have to make one call Hanah to ensure Aiden’s demise. Please don’t test me.” He warned.

“I am your prisoner Julian. Don’t worry, I will obey.” I replied with a sonar grin. Connor tossed Julian a weapon.

“Keep it on her please. I don’t trust her this close to the weapons.” It crushed me to hear Connor of all people say those words. Not only was I an enemy to the
Agency, I was an enemy to humanity. I kept my head down knowing that Connor was now considered unpredictable. He could easily fly off the handle and kill me in order to achieve vengeance for what Lumar has done to the human race. Julian seemed to be aware of this, but he was also amused.

“Don’t you find it amazing just how quickly a hero can become an enemy?” He asked me. 
I ignored him, keeping my focus on Connor.

We seemed to remain here for a few hours, while Connor remained behind a curtain
working on something deemed important enough to warrant our wait here. Julian grew restless, letting the weapon fall down to his side. He pulled the curtain to the side.

“Why
is it taking so damn long Connor?” Julian complained.

“I’m not feeling very confident about this weapon. We have not tested it on anything.” Julian snatched the weapon and aimed it at me.

“Why is she here anyway?” Connor complained.

“No matter how much I want to pull
the trigger; Hanah is needed. Her life is our only hope for our survival.” Julian explained.

“Your weapons mean nothing. You will never be able to kill Lumar this way.” I reminded them. Connor seemed to believe my
words, but he didn’t respond. However, his silence was enough to say a thousand words. Julian took a private call, leaving me alone with Connor.

“Connor, please look at me. Are you really telling me that you can no longer see the woman that you’ve loved for all these years?” I refused to believe that he had given up all love for me. Connor looked up at me with a pained face.

“Your destiny is to be with this monster, it’s written in the prophecy.” He said. “No matter what I feel, I cannot deny what is written.” Connor turned away from me for a moment and pulled out a very old and thick book. He handed it to me.

“You were search
ing through the archives for something that is too old to be scanned as an image. The answers you seek are here.” Connor went back to his work, and I knew that it meant that he was saying good-bye. He had written me off, and I knew better than to call on him otherwise. Instead, I took the big book over to a nearby counter and began to rummage through the pages. I was looking for anything that would prove helpful for me to stop Lumar.

And then I found something.

It was something that I could get to close enough to perform. Slamming the book shut, Julian walked back into the room and glanced at the book in front of me.

“There’s nothing in there that will save us.” He said. However, Julian was very wrong, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. In fact, Julian would prove helpful in getting me back to Lumar, so I would continue to allow him to believe that he was in
command of this mission.

“It’s time to go.” He said. I turned to
give Connor a final farewell, knowing that there was a strong chance that I would never see him again. His faith remained with the human race, and he wasn’t going to allow his love for me to interfere with that. Now, love had quickly turned into hatred, and if I were to ever return to his presence, Connor would surely try to kill me. After all, Julian was the reason I was still breathing.

Julian grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the loft.

I did not know what next plan was, nor did I bother to ask. I allowed Julian to put me in the passenger side of the empty van and buckle my seatbelt. There was no point in struggling. Connor arrived out shortly after, helping Julian load weapons into the back seat of the van.

Julian drove quickly deep into the Eastside of Detroit, where the real battle had only begun. Hundreds if not thousands of
New-born Vampires were at war within the city streets. The roads seemed stained with red and human bodies were scattered everywhere. We were definitely losing this war. Julian pulled me out of the car and quickly began unloading weapons.

“If you care so much about the human race, then you should start by defending your own kind.” He said, slamming a weapon into my chest.

“This is how I was raised—to hate Vampires and not question the reason. There is a reason why I was forced to watch the death of my parents, and I know it wasn’t only because Lumar was merely territorial. There is something else going on here, something that I’ll never be told, but there is one thing I know for a fact, you were never my family Julian. I was nothing more than a pawn to you.” I didn’t give Julian a chance to respond. I pulled up my weapon and aimed it at a few of the Vampires.

It was strange, but I couldn’t bring myself
to shoot any of the rabid Vampires. I could have easily put one of them out of their misery, but still I could not do it. I couldn’t pull the trigger. I dropped my weapon, deciding to fight them the old-fashioned way, before vampire weaponry was ever invented. Perhaps this would force Lumar to call back his armies. Or maybe I just wanted to take my anger out on something. Leaping into the crowd, I struck one of the rabid Vampires, knocking them down to the ground. I pulled the butter knife from my pocket and proceeded to strike, but still I couldn’t do it.

Then I noticed something. I lo
oked around the battlefield, noticing the silence. No one was moving, not even the starving Vampires. I stepped from over the ravenous Vampire, and she pulled herself up to her knees, never meeting my eyes.

“Majesty.” She spoke through shortness of breath. Soon after, every other
vampire fell to their knees, acknowledging me at their leader—their queen. This type of power was not mentioned in books, nor has Lumar or the others spoken of it. This power was unknown to all, except for Lumar.

Now I understood things. Lumar unleashed these creatures purposely so that I could see my potential power. Lumar had no intention of calling them back, nor did he care for these newborn Vampires.

Lumar wanted me to call them off.

So how much
power did I have? I would have to put this to the test. I took a steps back until I was facing the crowd of Vampires who had paused in the midst of battle, waiting for my command.

“Rise.” I commanded in a low voice, but it was a command that was heard for miles. Every Vampire stood immediately, remaining in place.
Julian walked over to me, his voice bewildered:

“You are the one true Queen as it was written. You are the only one aside from
Lumar, who can command such armies.” Julian announced. I ignored him. I could see the greed and lust for power all over his face. To have this much control meant the ultimate power. Julian gently placed his hands over my shoulders; his voice suddenly soft and comforting.

“Hanah, do you have any idea what you can do with this kind of power?” Julian asked me. I shrugged, pushing his hands off my shoulders.

“It doesn’t matter.” I told him. I looked to the crowd of waiting Vampires.

“I command you—all of you to self-terminate.” I yelled. The Vampires extended their claws without question and put it to their chests. They were going to rip their hearts out.

“Wait!” Julian shouted. He pulled my eyes away from them and the creatures paused, questioning my judgment.

“Hanah, what are you doing?” He asked me.

“These Vampires are dangerous. I’m doing nearly what I was brought up to do. I’m protecting the human race.” I reminded him. Julian grabbed me roughly by my arm before I could finish, pulling me aside.

“It doesn’t matter Julian, enough is enough.

“You aren’t thinking clearly Hanah. I think that maybe you are getting beside yourself here. Therese Vampires could prove extremely useful. We could actually use them against Lumar.” I shook my head.

His judgment was clouded. How could he possibly expect me to use these helpless creatures? They did not ask to be born, nor commanded to be killers. I had enough of
this; it was time to put this army to rest once and for all.

However, if this was a test, Lumar would soon discover that I had
passed, and now it was time to collect me. Very well then, I needed to get to Lumar as quickly as possible, for now; I had the necessary tools to destroy him. I still had the butter knife in my hands and now; I knew exactly how to stop him.

“Julian, I’m going to ignore the fact that you want to keep
vampires alive, the one species you have spent your entire life trying to eliminate with no luck. Don’t you see what is happening? You see power and now it is the only thing you want to possess. However, this is not your power to control; it never was. It’s time for me to end this.”

As much as I did not want to do this, I also knew that it was the right thing to do.
Their claws digging slowly into their chests, I gave the command again.

“Self-terminate.” I said again. Julian screamed for the creatures to stop, but they did not hesitate. They tore their hearts from their chests, falling quickly to their death. Only a few Vampires were left standing, and we knew those were Lumar’s henchmen. They took one look and me and fled quickly into the darkness. The hunters
immediately drew their weapons and went after them.

I looked down at the ground, frowning upon the massive
grave site at my feet. All these Vampires wasted all for the sole purpose of war. How long before Lumar rose another army? My educated guess was that it would not be long. Something had to be done.

However, not only did I have to deal with
Lumar; I now had to deal with Julian, who looked at the army in devastation. As he looked up at me, I no longer saw that man that carried me as a child, trained me to be a killer, and loved me as if I were his own daughter. I saw a man in rage, a man that felt he had nothing more to lose. Julian did not approach me, nor did he command other hunters to kill me.

I could see it in his eyes—Julian had a far more sinister plan. He was going to hurt me in the worst way possible. Julian picked up his phone and pressed the send button.

“Kill him.” He commanded.

“No!” I yelled, but I knew that it was possibly too late.

Until….

“There’s been a security breech! Aiden has escaped!” The guard on the other line yelled.

“Don’t let him leave the facility alive. He’s injured so he won’t get far.” Julian responded. He ended the call immediately.

“Let’s see how fast you can get Downtown.” Julian mocked.

I didn’t have a chance nor did I have a choice. However, I had to try. As I took off running, no one stopped to help me, nor did they assist me with transportation. I knew that I would have to find my way on my own.

Aiden was now on human territory and who knew their land any better than us. Aiden would be dead in less than an
hour, unless I got to him immediately.

Now that I was out of view of Julian, I did the only thing I could do—I hijacked a car. Standing in the middle of the cold streets, traffic passed me until one unknowing driver stopped to help me. I felt bad about doing this, but I pulled the innocent man out of the car, tossing him onto the sidewalk and took off with his car.

During my race to save Aiden, I knew that I was losing what little humanity I had left. However, I lost my humanity a very long time ago when I was a child, innocently befriending a Vampire, who in turn had fallen in love with me.

As I drove q
uickly into the Downtown area, my mind swarmed with many thoughts. What I did not understand nor could I remember, was what was it that bonded me with this Vampire? What happened when I was a child?

My memory was wiped clean in an attempt to preserve my relationship, but it
had backfired. There was something missing, a piece to this puzzle I had yet to solve. I only knew that I was the key to ending all of this. Nearly causing a pile up in the Downtown area, I pulled to an abrupt stop and climbed out of the car. I knew I could never pull directly into the area; guards would be waiting for me, and I would be shot dead as I pulled into the parking structure.

The city was still in
chaos as I ran into the alley way of the building. Climbing up the ladder, I knew of an entrance that no one would detect until it was too late. One of my best attributes that I kept privately to myself was my ability to learn floor plans. I knew the Agency inside and out, studying for an impending terrorist attack. Little did I know I would be using my knowledge to defend myself.

Climbing inside through the ventilation, I crawled into one of the abandoned file rooms of the office building. I was unarmed and had no idea where to begin looking for Aiden in this massive building, but my first idea was to quietly follow the guards. They would eventually lead me to Aiden’s location.

There were cameras everywhere, and I would very easily be spotted. I didn’t have much time to find him. These guards were going to do anything to carry out Julian’s orders—the man who kills Aiden would surely be up for a promotion.

I wasn’t going to let this
happen; I wasn’t going to allow Aiden to die due to greed and power. The moment I left the abandoned office I was immediately spotted. The lights dimmed, and the alarms began to flare. Those alarms were for me, only me.

Now a target in the place I once called home, I had to fight for my new home, my life with the only thing that mattered to me
: Aiden. Taking the stairs now that the elevators were on lock down, I fought furiously with ever guard I crossed paths with on my way down. After striking the third guard, his two-way pager gave off some very valuable information. Aiden was by the entrance, and he was surrounded.