[Bonus chapter] A Church Fight

At the moment the interloper and Talia disappeared into the church, Cedric knew that going through the front door was asking to be hit directly in the chest.

Still, there was no choice. His woman was in serious danger and it would take too long for him to try to find another way through.

'Cedric. He's taken me into some large building. I don't know exactly what building it is, but it's at the center of town.'

'I saw. He's taken you into the church.'

'He put me on the altar and is running back towards the doorway. Be careful Cedric!'

'Hang in there, Love. Just leave it to your mate.'

Cedric ran closer to the front of the church and pulled a small headstone from the graveyard in front of the church.

With a calculated move, he threw the headstone at the front doors, breaking apart the latch. The front doors burst wide open.

The interior was dark, but his eyes could see two dark shapes within. One was Talia, lying prone on the altar, unmoving. The other shape was the interloper, running towards the front of the church.

He was heading straight for Cedric.

With a growl, Cedric lowered his body and took on the man. As they came into contact, he could feel a knife sink into his body.

"Aaaarghhhh!!!" Cedric growled in pain. The knife was silver, but thankfully it didn't hit any major organs or arteries.

Cedric reached out with powerful arms and threw the man off him, sending his body slamming into the pews by the entry way.

He reached down and pulled the knife out of his gut, tossing it behind him.

His wound began to close up and heal once the silver blade had been removed. Within minutes, there was nothing left of the wound but some residual blood stains on his ash blond fur.

Meanwhile, Cecil and Andre had moved on ahead of him. They both cornered the interloper and began to duel with him in hand-to-hand combat.

The man was very well-versed with fighting styles and techniques. Two against one was nothing to him. He lowered his body, whipping his legs onto Cecil, sending him flying through the nearest stained glass window.

"Aaaaaahhh!!!" Cecil yelled as he flew through the air, crashing through the glass and landing on some snow-covered bushes outside the church.

Cedric narrowed his eyes. With his brother safely out of the melee, he would spare nothing.

Reaching out into nothingness, he pulled from the very air, all the electrically charged particles that danced about, unseen by human senses.

At the moment when Andre separated from the interloper, Cedric threw the energy ball at him.

The man threw out his hand, blocking the energy ball and batting it back at Cedric.

He neatly dodged the incoming electric charge which flew towards the stained glass window behind him, breaking it into large shards.

At the same moment, Andre pushed a large heavy music stand at the interloper, breaking his concentrated effort at lobbing a second energy ball at Cedric.

The energy ball ricochet off the wall, breaking another stained glass window with an loud tinkling shatter.

The interloper knocked the music stand off him, swinging it back at Andre. He ducked but the music stand partially hit him and sent him to the floor.

"Ughhh!" He grunted, trying to recover his stance.

Distracted by Andre and the music stand, Cedric jumped onto the interloper's body, landing a solid punch into his solar plexus.

"Aaaaarghhh!!!" He yelled as his body crashed into the pews near the front of the platform with a thud, sending them scattering with a loud series of crashing sounds.

From the front entrance, Cecil had come back around and turned on the light switch, flooding the interior of the church with hundreds of points of lights coming from the suspended ceiling chandeliers.

From where he stood, Cedric could see the woman he loved lying on the altar, limp and unable to move. Her long dark hair spilled off the altar in tumbling waves that caught at his heart and made him see red.

How dare that man treat his precious love in such callous careless manner.

The kidnapper was lying on the floor, breathing heavily and trying to recover from having been bashed against the heavy black pews. Had he been anything other than a vampire, he would have been dead.

As both Andre and Cecil approached the kidnapper, he held out his hand in surrender and submitted to the white and black werewolves as they apprehended him.

Cedric left them to detain him and turned back to the woman still lying on the altar.

'Talia! Are you hurt?' Cedric called out to her in his mind.

'Cedric! Where are you? Are you okay?' She frowned and blinked from the glare of the lights shining directly on her. He could tell she was unable to focus on him although he could see her just fine.

"I'm fine Darling. I'm fine." He called out, over the expanse of the church as he headed towards her.

'Oh thank heavens!' She spoke into his mind and gave a shuddering gasp.

"Just be still. I'm almost there Darling." He called out again, leaping up onto the platform where she was placed.

'Cedric! Oh my God! You're bleeding!!!' She called out into his mind.

"It's fine, Darling. I'm not hurt. See?" He pulled his fur back so she could see that there truly was no wound.

In truth, the pain of the puncture wound was still slightly there, but it was healing so quickly, it would be completely healed by the time she could examine him.

'Something is wrong with my body, Cedric. I still can't move and still can't speak.' Talia spoke inside his mind. Her eyes gazed up at him with some trepidation.

'I hope this is temporary or you will have a woman who won't be able to do anything or say anything.' She laughed inside his mind. 'But I'll chatter into your mind so much I'll drive you crazy and you'll be tearing out your arm hair after a few days.'

Cedric looked at her with amber eyes that suddenly sprang a leak.

How she could crack a joke at a moment like this was beyond him when he was so frightened for her safety that he could barely keep his wits together.

He reached out and picked up her slight thin body. She had been abducted while wearing nothing more substantial than a dress made of some thin velvet material and her body was cold to the touch.

"It's freezing in this church. I'm going to take you back to the inn."

He turned back to the two werewolves who had bound the interloper's hands and were leading him between them.

"Let's get back to the inn and figure out who this joker is."