Page 28 of Bound By Love
Ronan rested his hands on the workbench as he studied the weapons. “Once they see a couple of these stones set into the swords, they’ll be determined to take them from us. We only have to tease them with a couple of swords that aren’t Willow’s.”
“Even if they don’t assume we have all of them, they’ll come for these,” Killean said. “They want them…badly.”
“And they won’t get them,” Willow said. “Since each of these weapons has been claimed by one of us, they can’t take any away unless we’re dead.”
Caro gulped. “That means the demons will come after us the hardest.”
Simone rested her hand on Killean’s arm. “Yes, it does.”
No one spoke until Caro broke the silence. “There’s a bunker on the property too. I’m not sure if it will do us any good, but it’s there.”
“We could turn it into another trap,” Saber said. “I could put some explosives down there and blow it up when the demons and Savages approached. They’d never see it coming.”
Caro winced at the prospect but bit her tongue. She’d resigned herself to this destruction and wouldn’t change it, no matter how much it hurt.
“So,” Ronan said, “we’ll spend the next few days setting traps and waiting for the rest of our fighters to arrive. And then, a few of us will go into the city of White Bridge, let the Savages see what we have, and lure them back here without making it look obvious. After that, we’ll go to war.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
They spentthe next week digging holes, making traps, and setting up wires. Saber was also preparing explosives for when they drew the demons here.
While they worked, more hunters arrived from Arizona, along with some of Willow and Vicky’s family. Their parents, Sera and Liam, and brothers, Ethan, Ian, and Aiden, arrived with their mates Emma, Paige, and Maggie.
Their sister, Abby, who was Vicky’s twin, also arrived with her mate, Brian, who Saber said possessed a unique ability to track others. Their adopted uncles, Jack and Mike, came with their mates, Charlie and Mollie.
They also said their brother Julian and his mate, Aida, Mollie’s younger sister, would be coming soon, as would their sister Isabelle and her mate, Stefan. They’d stayed behind to ensure all the children were settled before leaving.
The family had decided against splitting up the mated pairs, and though they all wanted to come, they left the other mated adults home to care for the children. They also stayed behind to help protect the female hunters and all the hunter children who traveled there after the compound fell. Some of those female hunters had also come to join the fight.
Every day, their numbers swelled until they had a small army stationed within the walls of her family property. Tents and sleeping bags were scattered through the yard and hidden amongst the trees beneath the thick canopy of pines.
Some newly arrived fighters slept in the barn, vehicles, and the bunker, but most were in the woods. They had to make sure that, when the Savages or demons trailed them here, they couldn’t see how big their army was.
They needed the demons to bring enough fighters that they could decimate their numbers, but not so many they were overrun. The demons and Savages could never see beyond the gates and walls, but if they had drones or some other aerial surveillance, many of their fighters would be hidden. Lucien and Saxon confirmed this after flying drones over the property.
Once they went to White Bridge, everyone here would go to their designated places until the demons and Savages breached the walls. And then, the blood would flow.
It was so strange for Caro to see her home, one that, before Saber, had only ever known her and her parents, overrun with so many vampires and hunters. It was also empowering.
At first, she wasn’t sure this would work, but she was beginning to think they could pull it off. The demons would never expect the sheer number of traps and fighters they had.
If, for some reason, they did suspect a trap, Saber had told her the demons would underestimate them. They were too arrogant not to.
Toward the end of the week, their numbers had swelled to well over two hundred. There were a lot more Savages in the world, but they wouldn’t all come here with the demons as they were spread out across the country.
“What about the demons in the other countries?” she asked Saber as they dug a hole in the woods on their final day of preparations.
“Ifthere are any demons in other countries, and I’m not sure there are, I believe they would stick closer together, a strength-in-numbers thing. But they will come too, once they receive word of the swords. It will take them time; they’ll have to travel at night and probably enclosed in something—”
“Like a coffin?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Caro couldn’t help but chuckle as she threw a shovel full of dirt and tree roots out of the hole. “Maybe we should try throwing garlic, holy water, and crosses at them too.”
“I doubt those would work, but sunlight will.”
They exchanged a look as they smiled at each other in amusement before returning to digging.
