Kyle let go of Jenna who knelt down and threw up blood near his feet.
"Sister, no!" Kyle knelt down and held on to her shoulders.
Damien ran towards them. He had no idea what to do.
Marcus lifted up Nina in his arms.
The night slowly gave way to morning, the darkness bleeding into a bruised purple dawn that cast long shadows over the carnage. Dew glistened on grass stained with blood, and a chill mist clung to their ankles like ghostly fingers, reluctant to release them from the horrors of the night.
Stephen caught Jenna as she dropped down into his arms.
"This wasn't meant to end like this?" Stephen said holding Jenna's cheek.
"Maybe it was." Jenna smiled at her fated mate. "This will make the two sides reconsider their hatred for one another."
"Where's the healer?!" Damien yelled.
A nurse appeared, and along with two other nurses, escorted Jenna to the clinic.
**
The first war was over. Both sides had suffered huge losses. Now, they were clearing up their dead and tending to the injured.
Elliot had finally reached the camp. Kyle embraced his brother upon seeing him.
"I'm sorry, Elliot." Kyle said sobbing. "I almost killed Jenna. The one who all this was for."
Elliot patted him on the back. "Where is she?"
"Recovering."
**
Jenna was alive. Her wound was quite deep but the healers had assured the bystanders that she would fully recover in time.
"Sorry I'm late, guys." Ray entered the clinic and Helena gave him a hug.
"I'm glad you're here." Helena told him.
Nina was in the clinic on another bed while Damien held her in his grasp.
"I will never let anything happen to you again." Damien said.
"Promise?" Nina asked.
"Cross my heart and hope to die."
They kissed passionately.
**
The next morning.
The Enchanted Ones had claimed the abandoned theme park as their sanctuary, transforming the rusted Ferris wheel and crumbling carousel into a makeshift stronghold. Faded carnival banners now flew their ancient symbols, while sentries perched atop roller coaster peaks.
Their faces, luminous with otherworldly beauty yet hardened by war, all turned cold when Kyle approached—their narrowed eyes and tightened jaws broadcasting a silent, collective judgment that made the air around him heavy with unspoken accusations.
"Where was your secret weapon?" One clan member hissed at him.
"Yeah, was it a lie?" Another one asked.
Kyle shushed at them. "Where is the damn witch?!"
**
Priya stood beneath the waterfall on the outskirts of town, letting the crystalline cascade thunder against her shoulders. Droplets clung to her copper skin like diamonds, catching the dappled sunlight that filtered through the canopy above.
The sacred herbs she'd crushed into the pool released tendrils of fragrant steam that coiled around her like protective spirits. With eyes closed in concentration, she traced ancient symbols across her collarbone with trembling fingers, her lips moving in silent incantation as the rushing water renewed her depleted magic.
**
That night.
It was chilly outside but within Helena's cottage the temperature was warm.
She and Stephen moved together in her bedroom, skin against skin, his fingers tracing the curve of her spine as moonlight spilled across the tangled sheets.
Her wolf senses heightened every touch, every whispered promise against her neck. When his eyes met hers, they glowed with that familiar amber fire that made her heart race and her body arch toward him, answering a call as ancient as the forest itself.
Afterwards, they laid together and talked about the war.
The previous night's battlefield still reeked of copper and wet fur, the ground churned to mud by the frenzied combat of claws against fangs.
Werewolf corpses lay frozen in their half-transformed states—human faces contorted in animal snarls, fingers elongated into claws that would never retract.
The vampires had fallen more elegantly in death, their pale skin like marble statues shattered across the field, crimson tears dried at the corners of their still-open eyes. Hundreds of immortal lives had ended under that blood-red moon, decades of existence reduced to cooling flesh under the indifferent stars.
**
Ray was downstairs with his boyfriend Harry.
The creaking finally stopped.
"Guess they're done having sex." Harry sighed.
"We were practically hearing their sex tape." Ray joked and they both laughed together.
"So, is it all true?" Harry asked. "There was a war between werewolves and vampires?"
"I'm shocked you aren't surprised by their existence."
"Oh, I knew they existed long before you found out." Harry winked.
Ray started reminiscing about how this all started. Stephen becoming the new guy at college. All of them running into Elliot who wanted to resurrect his brother, Kyle. Priya revealing herself to be a witch.
He took out his phone from his jeans pocket.
"Who are you calling?" Harry asked seeing the concern on his boyfriend's face.
"Priya." Ray replied."I haven't heard from her in three days."
**
Priya was inside an ancient well. She had climbed down using a rope.
She knew that was the place where Jenna had awakened her power.
She was naked and covered from head to toe in gasoline, which highlighted her voluptuous figure.
She lit a match and dropped it at her feet. The fire entangled her in its flames but she was unhurt and completely unburned. Instead, the flames encircled her and gave her wings of fire.
"Now, I will rise!" She shrieked. "As the Anti-Phoenix!"