Free Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) by J.A. Cipriano Page B

They slammed into the line of Dioscuri, driving them backward across the street under the overwhelming weight of their numbers. Before I could stop myself, I charged forward and leapt over the Dioscuri’s heads.
    I slammed down onto a Viking, knocking him to the ground as I called upon my power and went to work. My swords danced in my hands, cutting down Vikings with every swing. Only they didn’t seem to care. For the most part, they ignored me, concentrating on breaking the line of Dioscuri behind me. Which made sense. They were still pouring from the hole in a nearly endless supply of fresh soldiers.
    Casualties didn’t matter for them, and I wasn’t sure when it would stop, or if it would stop, but for every enemy I killed, ten more joined the fight. Besides, they were already dead. For all I knew, they were just getting back out of the respawn-o-meter down below. No wonder they didn’t care. This wasn’t going to work. There were way too many Vikings to hold back with traditional methods. No, we needed something big and game changing. I took a deep breath. I knew how to get something big and game changing.
    “Connor,” I cried, swinging my gaze toward him while driving my wakazashi through the throat of a particularly hairy Viking. “Do something destroyer!” As I said the words, hot sticky blood splattered across my face.
    “No!” Thes cried, his voice a booming crescendo across the battlefield. Blood stained his fur as he threw off the Viking clinging to his back and bounded toward me, savagery in his eyes. “Don’t do it, Connor!” Thes tossed a Viking who got in his way aside like the guy weighed as much as a bag of potato chips before leaping into the air and crashing down on the woman in front of me just as she swung her axe in my direction.
    The bone splitting crack of her skull turning to paste on the concrete shocked me enough I that wasn’t able to do anything other than stare at Thes open mouthed. It was a poor decision because Thes reached out and grabbed me around the throat in an overwhelming display of werewolf badassery. Dammit, didn’t he know we were on the same side?
    “Connor cannot succumb to the darkness even a little. If he does, he could be lost forever,” Thes snarled, spittle spraying from his thousand-toothed maw as he hoisted me off my feet by my neck and pulled my face close to his muzzle. His warm breath danced along my skin as he eyed me carefully. “Do you understand, Lillim?”
    “Screw that noise!” I said, driving the twin blades of Shirajirashii into his stomach and tearing them out of him in a spray of blood and thicker bits. His eyes opened wide in shock as his hand spasmed around my throat. So what did I do? As I landed on my feet, I kicked him in the chest and sent him sprawling onto his back.
    “Connor!” I called, turning to face him as Thes started to tuck his insides back into his belly. I wouldn’t have long, he was already practically healed thanks to his innate werewolfness. “Do as I say! The darkness only wins if you let it, and I believe in you!”
    Connor was next to me so quickly it was like he’d materialized there. Hell, maybe he had. “You do?” His question seemed to weigh on my conscience like a thousand pounds as I met his gaze. His power hit me square in the soul with enough force to nearly drive me to my knees. It was bad. Worse than anything I’d ever felt, and I actually controlled the Egyptian deification of darkness. Still, I knew one thing. Anyone could be redeemed in the right circumstances. After all, even the villain is the hero of his own story.
    “Yes,” I said as Thes lunged for me. His shoulder slammed into my chest like a runaway train. Breath exploded from my lungs as my feet left the ground and I flew backward into the wall of Vikings surrounding us in a giant circle.
    I wasn’t sure why they’d cleared a space around Thes and I. Maybe it was because they were too busy killing our friends or maybe it was because