When I whispered something to that effect to my friends, Drake said, “They respect you, Leda. And after how you went off alone, braving the Black Plains to bring Nero back, how could they not? The story of your grand rescue is spreading across the Legion.”

“So is what happened at Heaven last night,” Ivy added, smiling over her cards.

“Ok, what happened last night?” Drake asked. “I heard demons attacked and Nero and Harker blew up an entire city block fighting them off.”

“That would have been preferable to what really happened,” I muttered.

“Which is?”

Ivy nudged me in my shoulder. “What are you talking about? What really happened was way better than demons attacking New York.” She looked at Drake. “Harker and Nero were fighting over Leda.”

Drake nodded. “Ah, that makes much more sense.”

“None of this makes sense. At all,” I declared.

The train was just pulling into the station, so we put away our cards. As soon as we stopped, Captain Somerset opened the door, and we all followed her out. Our presence—and Legion uniforms—attracted just as much attention here as it had in Purgatory.

So to the delight of our enthralled audience, we made our way down the street to the Legion office. The one here was a bit bigger than the one back in my hometown—two rooms instead of one—but we were also on the Frontier here. That meant resources were scarce, saved up and devoted to the big wall at the edge of town. After all, that was all that stood between humanity and the monsters.

There were two Legion trucks parked in the garage, and Captain Somerset selected the white one. Then she tossed the keys to Mina.

“I heard you did a good job driving that load of vampires back from the Black Plains, so I’m assigning you as our driver. Try not to crash the truck.” She smirked.

There wasn’t much to crash into, I thought as we left town. Past the wall, the Wilds—or the Wicked Wilds as many people called them—were nothing but an expanse of brown grass between a few mountains. There were no trees in sight. They’d been an early casualty of the monsters’ arrival here.

But as we drove further, trees appeared. It started as just a few sparse bushes, but with each passing mile, the trees grew taller and fuller until we were driving on a narrow street between two immense forests. The cloudy sky opened up, and snowflakes fluttered down softly like goose down.

“Snow? In summer?” Ivy asked, looking up in wonder.

“The weather is all out of whack up here,” Captain Somerset said.

Up ahead, the forest opened up into a clearing of three buildings. Two of the buildings had long since run into the ground, but the third was still standing. And from the flickers of light shining through the windows, someone was home.

The captain told Mina to stop the truck and turn off the engine. We stalked toward the forest, keeping to the trees. The snow was coming down harder now. It was getting difficult to see through the gusts of flurries whistling across the land. There were no guards, no alarms or traps. Nothing.

“This feels weird,” I said as we stopped at the edge of the trees.

“Not giving up, are you?” Captain Somerset replied.

“I just can’t shake the feeling that we were led here. The intel about this place came from the vampires we captured on the Black Plains, didn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“And the intel about the other two fortresses the Legion is checking out right now?”

“Same.”

“And we trust it?” I asked.

“Our interrogators are pretty thorough.”

I winced.

“I told you that you asked too many questions. Some things you’re best not knowing. Like how many people these bloodsuckers killed in New York and since they’ve left,” she told me.

“A lot?”

“It sure wasn’t a little. Bodies piled everywhere, their necks snapped, their blood drained.”

I swallowed hard.

Her gaze slid to the building before us. “It does look bigger than we’d expected. Ok, we’re going to move in, but I want you to keep your eyes peeled. Keep to the shadows and be careful. We need to scout the place and figure out how many vampires are hiding in there.”

We followed her lead, creeping in silence. No vampires jumped out of the snow piling up fast on the ground. Even as we entered the building, nothing happened. The hallways were empty, the rooms abandoned. It felt like a tomb in here.

It was a tomb. Our tomb. As we entered the large central chamber, vampires jumped out of the floorboards, fully awake. And they weren’t alone. The doors burst open, and witches and werewolves streamed in from the connecting rooms, surrounding us.

16

The Next Generation of Monsters

When faced with a horde of vampires, there was really only one thing you could do. No, not run away screaming like hell. The Legion of Angels frowned upon displays of outright cowardice in its soldiers. So we raised our guns and shot the vampires full of Legion-issued magic tranquilizers. They dropped like flies.

The werewolves didn’t react so kindly. In fact, the tranquilizers didn’t seem to do anything but make them angry. I kept shooting anything that moved anyway. What else could I do? We weren’t armed for anything but vampires.

If it had been just the vampires, we would have been ok, even with their numbers. We hadn’t counted on the supernatural support squad. What were they doing helping the rogue vampires?

Captain Somerset dashed forward, drawing her freakishly large sword. She slashed and slid, cut and cleaved, tearing through anything that made it past our firing line. I was really glad she was on our side. That woman was frighteningly fierce. And deadly efficient.