Free Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) by Jennifer Thibeault

leaders of the leanthans, detailed histories of former leaders and previous battles, tales of Bradley’s role in collecting intelligence while on his many business trips and in his day to day travels around Ruthers, how he infiltrated thousands of businesses to gather a definitive list of holdings owned by leanthans and how their new team was expected to defeat the threat.
    By the time they got through the last stack, everyone in the room was as familiar with the threat as Bradley was. Now, they just needed to figure out how to face it, defeat it and save the world. No pressure there.
     
    Arratta paced back and forth in front of the imposing mahogany desk in his second floor office at C & R Enterprises. For the past five hundred years, he had been the leader of his species. It was since the last time the leanthans went to war. The war that depleted their numbers, killing off all of the generation before him. All of it was for revenge. There were so many unnecessary deaths, across all species, just because they felt abandoned by their creator and they were foolish enough to think that by killing off the humans, the species that all the others protected, they would gain superiority in the world and rule over the others.
    The war was violent beyond compare. It decimated half the population of leanthans and demons alike, not to mention the myriad human casualties.
    Arratta had still been very young during the conflict. He was one of the youngest soldiers on the field, fighting under his father Latta. Had it been a time of peace, he would still have been considered a child among his kind. But it was a time of war and that meant everything else was put aside for the chance to build the strongest army.
    At only two hundred years old, Arratta should have been a mere foot soldier. Good enough to fill out the ranks, but bringing little, if any, skill to the table. But being the child of a respected leanthan general, Arratta was determined to prove himself in battle and gain the respect of his father. Through his efforts, Arratta had quickly risen in ranks to become second in command at the battle that changed the way the leanthans lived and fought.
    He remembered that chilly November day with perfect clarity. The troop woke up from their camp in the woods at the first rays of the sun and followed the rocky path into town within minutes of rising from their slumber. The village before them held a large human population for the times and was well protected. They had at least ten immortals stationed in their regular duties within the borders.
    The world was different at that time. There was no phone communication to link populations. The only way information spread between communities was via word of mouth from travelers. This gave the leanthans the upper hand in their battles.
    The leanthans assumed that this battle would be just like all the others they’d fought leading up to that day and as they planned their ambush, they counted on catching the inhabitants, humans and immortals alike, off guard.
    Latta led the troops into the village that morning with Arratta walking in by his side. For the first time in the war things were different. Instead of walking into an empty town, to lay in wait until individuals began to emerge from their homes, they were met in the center of the village by a small and well armed group of demons and angels.
    Each leanthan warrior took up the fight. They engaged in hand to hand combat at first, and then escalated to battle with swords and daggers. The armies were so equally met that neither side took control for what seemed like hours, but more realistically was less than thirty minutes, judging from the position of the sun. It was an exhausting blur of metal and bodies impacting each other. Battle cries and screams of agony filled the air and the heavily metallic smell of the blue blood was nauseating.
    Only after the humans started trickling out, did the dynamic change. Their numbers increased quickly as