Alpha Asher and Lola novel Chapter 167

Read Alpha Asher by Jane Doe Chapter 167 – Many hit the trees, rocks, and earth, but even more hit the Vampire’s that stalked us, wrapping around their limbs, and tightening their grip much like a snake would. It was both beautiful and deadly, watching them pierce their skin, seeing the looks of apprehension and confusion as they realized I was capable of so much more than their previous ruler.

“Lola, remember you don’t want to k**l them.” I heard Tristan murmur, barely registering the sound of his voice over the roar in my ears. His hand ghosted across my shoulder in a gesture meant to soothe me, but all it did was break the haze the addictive power I wielded had over me.

The tendrils of shadow that had been tightening around their throats, turning their faces various shades of black and blue, loosened just enough to allow them air.

Rather than show my emotions and express the ripple of doubt and regret that passed through me, I steeled my spine and faced them the way a true Queen would.

“You have all made a grave mistake coming here tonight.” I assured them, looking each one in the face from where they hovered several feet above the ground, wrapped almost entirely in darkness and shadow. “K*****g all of you is well within my power, and well within my rights, but I vowed long ago that I would be a different kind of ruler. Tell me, (why) have you come here and where is Lars?”

With eyes of varying shapes and colors, each Vampire stared at me. Two of the males, both Hispanic with heads of curly hair spat at my feet, while the other three remained silent. The only female of the bunch, the one nimble enough to evade my first a****k, snarled freely.

“You are not their Queen, Luna Lola.” A voice both masculine and feminine said, pulsating from deeper within the forest, like an echo that rippled and spread across the earth. “Their true ruler resides within the Land of the D**d. For now, anyway.”

Tristan sank into a crouch beside me, all too easily snapping out of his surprise.

I saw his face first, pale and covered in dark veins as his blank eyes stared at me through the night. The way he moved, hobbling as he pushed past the bushes and hanging foliage, unflinching even with the knife protruding just below his left eye, struck a chord deep within me.

His arms and legs moved as though they were heavier than the rest of him and dredged up a seemingly unimportant memory from my childhood.

Back when Mom and I had gotten along, she’d taken me to one of those puppets shows kids seem to love. I remembered all of the other children enraptured with the little dolls, ignoring the wires that controlled their limbs and jaws, ignoring the puppet master behind the curtain, directing their every move.

“You’re not Lars.” I stated, taking a step to the left as I began circling him, keeping my movements slow and steady.

Tristan’s apprehension was practically tangible in the air between us, which I promptly ignored. The pull in my gut told me keeping my cool and feigning this indestructible confidence was the right move. Both my Vampire protector and Cassidy stuck by my side, watching the corpse I spoke to and my back incase any new intruders wanted to make an appearance.

I lifted my chin ever so slightly and spoke in a voice free of fear or doubt. It was one I only partially recognized. “Who’s pulling your strings, puppet?”

Lars’s lips split as they widened, dragged across his face in a grin that made the dark veins along his cheeks bulge sickeningly. His laughter was wet from the substance that coated his teeth, much thicker than blood even though it carried a similar scent. His laugh sounded both male and female, like two voices layered over one another. One belonged to a cocky biker, the other a woman.

“Where’s the fun in asking a question you already know the answer to?” He mused, his body uncomfortably still and his eyes unblinking. “Such incredible power, yet you lack the wits to put it to proper use.”

Anger swirled in my chest, threatening to melt the ice that held the six Vampire’s in place. Another gut feeling told me that if I lost my cool, I’d also lose control of whatever magic it was that gave me power over the shadows.

His words chased themselves in my mind, only it was the voice of the woman I heard. Round and round they went, staining my thoughts a bright shade of crimson and bringing the scent of fresh blood to my nose.

“You’re the blood-witch.”

Lars’s grin remained rooted in place, a b****y g**h across the lower half of his face. “Well would you look at that, you’re not entirely hopeless.”

“Why have you come here?” It was Tristan that sent the question hurling in her direction. “Why orchestrate this a****k?”