A Bastard's Allure-Chapter 131: Mysthaven Under Siege

The bells tolled in the capital, a sign the city was under attack. The dwellers were rushing into their houses and bolting the doors behind them, hoping the thick piece of wood would keep death at bay for now.

From the end of the kingsroad emerged a cavalry of knights marching towards the gates in uniformity. They were lead by the generals and Gabriel. He was easy to spot among the horse riders as he was dressed differently.

A black pair of pants that matched his black boots, a black shirt and his raven hair tied neatly. His sword was strapped at his back to rise taller in the envoy.

Darion was still nursing his injuries, too weak to fight. But what worried Gabriel the most was Elena’s earlier declaration. He was still uncertain about it but remembering the seriousness her face held that time, he knew she was in her stubborn mode.

And true to his thought, she emerged ahead of the convoy escorted by a couple of palace guards. Gabriel halted for a moment to scrutinize the situation. She was all clad in armor with two arm-length knifes strapped on her waist. The light metal did little to hide her curves, yet he could see she had lost some weight.

He clicked, urging his mount to move forward until he came close to where she was standing. She didn’t even spare him a glance! He was certain she had seen him coming.

Alighting, he held his horse by the reigns and walked around to meet with her strapping more knives around her calves.

"You know you don’t have to do this," he said when she didn’t look at him.

His voice seemed to irk her. Ignoring him, she tied her hair and was about to walk away unbothered when he held her by his arm. Her head whipped, her eyes sharp as daggers, staring deathly at him.

"Nobody walks away from me," Gabriel seethed.

"If you don’t let go of my hand, I’ll have my knights put you in a cellar until the war is over," she said, her voice low but the message clear.

Gabriel scoffed. "You would have me, your husband, arrested?" He asked, his voice laced in humor and misbelief.

"This is my kingdom. I can do whatever I want," she replied, her head held high. "My hand," she reminded.

Gabriel reluctantly let go, her words cutting sharper than a double edged sword. She knew just how to strike the right chords. Neither was she wrong. She had Mysthaven and he had... nothing. Nothing but a title whispered by a dying man and an army of a sick man to back him up.

And now he had brought a vampire hoarde outside the gates of Mysthaven, bearing for the blood of innocent humans. Of course she’d be angry.

That and the fact that he had slept with Kara.

"They’re breaching the gates!" A knight who had just alighted a speeding horse reported.

Gabriel’s gaze tore from Elena and shifted to the walls. The generals commanded the knights to be in formation but Gabriel couldn’t wait. He climbed the stairs that led to the walls to see a massive army of vampires below.

This time, they didn’t just attack like savages. They were laying siege...the human way! Weird, he thought.

They were storming the barricades with siege equipments. The archers rained arrows at the vampires below but what was an arrow to a vampire? Many would rise seconds after being struck, break the arrow as if they’d been stung by a mosquito, and advance with the attack.

A group of vampires started storming the gates with a heavy piece of wood while the others tried to climb the high walls.

"Rain fire!" Gabriel instructed.

The captain repeated the order before several of the archers poured oil on the vampires who were trying to climb the walls. They lit the arrows before loosing them on the first batch of the vampires.

The liquid caught fire fast, the screams of burning vampires echoing in the battlefield as they plummeted back to the ground, taking a few of the climbing vampires with them.

"Loose!"

Gabriel watched as another batch got engulfed in flames. But that did not stop the vampires from advancing. They leapt through the walls and were fast approaching the height of the not so high gate walls.

Below, Elena’s heart raced against her ribcage as she stood at the front of the Mysthaven army. The sound of the rumming of the gates increased with each passing second and she knew it was just a matter of time before the gate was breached. Today, the might of Mysthaven had been put to test.

The wood that held the gate developed a crack. A thin line of sweat formed on Elena’s face. She wanted to fight but she never thought she’d be this scared. And to think she’d be the first target did little to lessen her fear.

Her grip on her daggers tightened, a low pulsation around her neck and the instincts to stay alive giving her a little courage.

The gates were rummed once more, breaking the wood into half. Just one final push and the impregnable city would be riddled with blood suckers. This had never happened in the last hundred years!

The gates crashed open, Elena slowly resigning herself to fate. The vampires swam in large numbers, knocking her to the ground the moment she attacked.

The sound of flesh tearing and the smell of blood filled the once calm city. Even the horses fled in terror leaving their riders at the mercy of the vampires.

Gabriel spotted Elena struggling with a vampire on the ground. He abandoned the wall and in what could be termed as a blur, moved to Elena’s aid. His sword split the vamp into half, his blood dripping on a scared Elena before the halves separated to reveal her savior.

She could have thanked him but his face alone brought an ache to her already racing heart. If there’s a time she needed to do some stabbing, then it was now.

Gabriel offered her his hand but she declined, pushing herself to the ground instead.

"I didn’t need your help," she grunted, turning to look anywhere else but him when a vampire’s claw flew inches close to her iris. The ugly hand, dripping with blood, halted right before her eyes, as if giving her little time to contemplate her life choices.

"Looks like you need saving, damsel," Gabriel said from the side, his hand firmly holding the vampire’s. His smirk disappeared the moment he set his eyes on the vampire, instantly slicing the head off his shoulders in one go.