Flames and Starlight

12🌘

Ruben

I froze in my seat, watching as the men covered in head to toe in black point guns at Laura, barking orders at her to stay still as they advanced towards her. She remained still, though instead of fear on her face, she looked pissed much to my surprise.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see everyone else in the parking lot frozen as well, their faces filled with fear.

One of the people walked up to Laura, roughly grabbed her by her arm, held the gun up to her neck, and started pulling her towards the van, barking orders at her not to make any sudden moves the entire time and that these were enchanted bullets. Ice filled my veins as soon as I heard that. I knew exactly who they were now. The Silver Cross Gang, a human group that terrorized and went after supernaturals. They would hunt down and kill any supernatural they found, even in broad daylight.

They were probably the ones that were killing all those shapeshifters.

My muscles tensed and a vicious snarl escaped my lips as I watched them drag Laura closer and closer to their van, the person gripping the back of her neck tightly. The animal inside me wanted to spring to life to protect her. I knew as soon as they dragged her to the van she would either get killed or never be seen again and I was not about to let that happen.

The guns were pointed and trained on her, their attention mostly on her as they continued to drag her to the van. Maybe. . .

I had to do it. It was now or never.

I unbuckled my seatbelt, threw open the door, leaped out, and shapeshifted into a lion.

Screams erupted all around me as I lunged at the nearest Silver Cross-member, taking him or her completely by surprise. I clamped my jaws around their neck and felt the bone crunch under my teeth and blood gushed in my mouth. It only took seconds for the person to go limp beneath me.

I shot my head up and saw Laura flip the person who was dragging her over her head and kick out at the other one lunging at her. Three down. Two to go.

I ran forward and tackled one of the other members, though this one was more prepared. He pointed his gun at me and a bullet pierced my shoulder. I howled in pain and fell backward, blood gushing from my side.

I ignored the pain the best I could and brought them down again, slashing my jaw across their chest, causing them to scream out in pain. I clamped my jaw around their throat as well. They squirmed and fought for several seconds before going completely limp.

I looked up and saw Laura fighting a person, also in lion form. She was tearing their chest open, blood seeping from their black clothing.

My heart nearly stopped in my chest as I realized the fifth member was grabbing a gun and starting to point it towards Laura. My feet seemed frozen in place as I watched them start to fire the gun towards her, ready to strike her.

Suddenly, a huge, gray wolf appeared and tackled the person, tearing viciously at their throat, snarling and growling as the person screamed and whimpered as they were being mutilated.

A second later, after the person went dead still, the wolf released them and shifted into their human form. I was surprised to see it was Nick, one of my friends. Laura shifted into her human form as well, breathing heavily, her curly hair a mess around her face, eyes blazing with adrenaline as she gazed at the dead members all around us.

She looked over at me and rushed over. "Are you okay?"

I started to turn back when my shoulder started to throb painfully, the same one that was shot. I was suddenly too weak to stand and I fell to my side as my heart started to suddenly race ten times faster than it should've been. Indescribable pain ripped through my body. I felt like I was being torn in two. I tried to tell them what was happening but all that came out of my mouth was a deep groan.

I heard Laura scream and saw her kneel in front of me, asking me over and over what was wrong. Her voice sounded far away, as though she were in a tunnel and at the other end.

I tried to open my mouth to speak again, though my huge lion jaw was slack and my tongue felt twice its size, making it impossible to get any words out. 

My vision was starting to grow dark. My heart was racing way too fast.

I could make out Nick shoving Laura out of the way as he looked at my shoulder, saying something about enchanted bullets.

Enchanted bullets. Yep, that'll do it, I thought miserably to myself as my vision grew black.

I was going to die by an enchanted bullet. What a way to go.

EDITED: 8/16/21