**Ch 89: Aftermath of Battle

As the first wave of the battle came to a standstill, some observed the damage. The landscape was littered with the remains of the defeated serpents while their charred bones lay strewn about the sand like discarded relics in an elephant graveyard. In the distance, countless vampires from the Rebellion succeeded in their crafty escape through the coruscating portals, disappearing from sight.

With almost everyone accounted for and those buried beneath the sand currently rescued, a moment of respite settled over the battlefield. Amidst the aftermath of the war, a handful of vampires lent aid to those in dire need of blood by sharing theirs with them.

Back on the rugged steep, Kai's gaze found Evan. Evan's heart was heavily wretched at the sight of his detained sons. Three had been turned to stone, while venom detained the other seven. Kai approached him, offering a comforting touch to his shoulder.

"We still have them so they can be reawakened," Kai murmured softly, seeking to alleviate Evan's sorrow with a glimmer of hope by offering him a semblance of solace in his cousin's anguish.

Though this was true, it still didn't erase Evan's pain from gnawing on his heart from being disconnected from his sons.

Evan bit into his wrist, offering his blood to his three sons, encased in stone. As the crimson liquid trickled into their mouths, the stone dissolved, gradually chipping away to reveal their awakening forms as they inhaled a raspy breath. Before he could awaken his other sons, who got detained by venom, they would first need to be taken to a safer environment at home to recover fully, where they could enter a detained healing sleep and recuperate from the effects of the venom.

Meanwhile, Orlando couldn't hide his smug pridefulness as he looked over his own sons, each standing unscathed and victorious during battle.

"Strong, just like me, while Evan's offspring are weak like him," he remarked to himself, a sense of pride swelling within him as he watched his sons stand tall and unharmed in the aftermath of the battle.

"Grab as many vampiresses as you can! Detain their offspring if they're under twenty!" Zane's command echoed from the steep, catching Kai's awareness. "What? You can make a nice profit on courtesans between warfares."

As Kai descended the steep alongside numerous others, he remained silent in response to Zane's statement.

"They fled, Zane!" his brother replied near the bottom as the Alphas surveyed the battlefield.

Nobody found any detained Rebellion vampiresses or their offspring, and the warriors they managed to detain had vanished.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Zane grumbled as he began to hike down the steep with his other brothers.

Dust and ashes billowed in the distance, overcasting a reddish haze in the landscape as Kai searched for his friends to check on them. Craters and cracks appeared farther away as the plate's crust shifted, causing many sand domes to crumble to dust. Hailstones pelted the cliffs from the planet's destruction, and a thick smog clouded the crimson ocean, obscuring a looming threat as the tides receded from the shoreline.

Meanwhile, Rome meticulously combed through the area where he had detained the vampiress with the black hair. To his exhilaration, he grinned upon discovering that she and her friends had been retrieved by their Covens.

"She'll be back," Rome mumbled to himself, expressing a silly grin spreading across his lips.

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Who are you talking about?" he inquired, already questioning why he asked when he knew that answer by the lovesick expression on Rome's face.

"My future wife," Rome sheepishly replied, and his goofy grin grew wider. "I think I'm in love!"

"You trader!" Jack teased, nudging Rome with a playful jab from his elbow.

"Only in his wildest dreams," with a chuckle, Glenn humorously added.

"I'll be counting down the days until my next encounter with her." Rome laughed.

Seemingly, the giggling sound became infectious as the others joined in. As the laughter subsided, Kai approached, finding his friends in their usual banter, while Kai's aura lingered with dour as he tramped past their presence to scan the battlefield with disappointment.

"We weren't successful in this battle," Dylan declared as he stepped near Kai's right shoulder.

"They escaped," Kai muttered as he quickly assessed the count of his clan. "They knew about the attack. The serpents were used as a decoy so they could flee with their detained warriors."

Orlando angrily snarled, positioning himself between Kai and Dylan. "And who do we all know that is allies with a lot of Slithers and Wings?"

"Tyler!" Kai grumbled, the bitterness quite detectable in his voice as his tongue spat out the name.

"You two morons really know how to lead an Allegiance!" Dylan growled, his frustration peaking as he directed his insult to Kai and Orlando as he faced them.

"You're one to talk!" Orlando fiendishly snapped. "I'd like to see you do a better job!"

"I already have!" Dylan mocked with a smirk lifting on his lips. "I do recall my family and our allies destroyed your home planet."

Orlando got instantly ruffled to attack Dylan until his twin brother restrained him by his arm.

"Remember, if this Allegiance fails, Victoria dies!" Alejandro wisely reminded him.

"I've heard reports from other areas of the planet had fared better than we did here," their best friend and cousin-in-law Zach informed those around them.

"You better hope so," Dylan advised. "Otherwise, Victoria is as good as dead unless we significantly reduce their numbers. The Rebellion seems pertinacious on escalating this into a third vampiric war."

"The Vampire Covenant is too stupid to see that!" CJ added with an edgy hiss of irritation.

Orlando growled as his voice laced with agitation. "We have less than three days to level the playing field with the Rebellion. If we fail, Victoria is getting executed in exactly three days!"

"We can do it!" Zach encouraged the Allegiance, trying to boost morale before tensions escalated into further fights.

"You might as well start digging her grave if you can't!" Dylan scolded the Mills and their allies while his words carried a haste of warning.

As Orlando suppressed his anger towards Dylan, Kai got away from them. "Start taking the detained back home!" he issued an order to his Coven.

His heart couldn't bear to listen to his enemies bickering with each other.

Dylan, in particular, couldn't care less about Victoria's fate, as he was only assisting them due to their Bridge Marriage arrangement. Alas, their enemies only saw Victoria as a means to gain power or revenge on him, while Kai cherished his wife deeply. Without her, his immortal existence felt hollow and meaningless.

"Are you alright?" Chester approached his younger brother, noticing Kai's somber demeanor.

Kai sighed heavily. "No," he admitted quietly. "I'm not. I want to be with my wife, but I can't. I can only imagine how frightened she must be. She must feel like I abandoned her again."

"I'm sure she is scared," Chester replied, gently placing a reassuring hand on Kai's shoulder. "But in the time I've spent with Victoria, I've come to know her resilience, so I can guarantee she understands why you can't be with her, as I am certain she hasn't given up hope. She knows you'll move mountains to save her from this fate."

"I hope you're right," Kai frowned while his expression was still clouded with worry as he pressed forward.

Portals began to open, and over the next twenty minutes, groups of vampires began transporting their detained warriors back home.