Become the Night

Battle Royale Part 2

"These two are nothing more than pawns to be discarded once I'm done with them." He gives a careless flick of his wrist. Neither changeling reacts to his comment, which makes me think that he's done something to them to make them follow him blindly.

Looking past Cashel, I see some witches in battle armor, what I can only assume are trolls judging by their size and general ugliness, a shit load of wolf shifters, tons of lion and jaguar shifters, some panther shifters, lots of Golden eagle shifters, and even a few bears, both grizzly and polar, and, of course, vampires. I'd say their numbers definitely rival ours, possibly even surpass them.

From behind Garrett's father, Jamie steps out to join him by his side. Garrett gasps, taken aback.

"Jamie, what are you doing? Get away from him. You don't have to join me here but please get away from him. He's no good for anyone," Garrett shouts at her. She hangs her head and shakes it side to side. Garrett starts to take a step forward towards his sister. I turn my massive head and shove at Garrett's chest, preventing him from advancing.

Cashel laughs in what I can only describe as an evil laugh.

"You see? She would rather be with her dear old dad than your mate's pack of garbage."

I motion at Garrett, nudging him and emitting a series of soft woofs. The fact that Garrett can understand what I'm trying to get across, says volumes about our relationship. He unsheathes the sword at his hip.

"Very well," Cashel taunts, "have it your way. My friends, the time has come to put this filthy species out of our misery. Just remember, we aren't in the business of taking prisoners."

The hoard at Cashel's back lunge forward. I give one short, loud bark, signaling our side it's time for action.

All of us rush forward, a few of the shifters leaping over our heads and landing on the front wave of Cashel's group. It's absolute mayhem. Though many of the shifters are different species on each side, it's still difficult to distinguish who is who.

I manage to spy Jamie off to the side, obviously not wanting to get in the middle of the action. That's fine with me since I don't think she should get mixed up in all this.

I see Kali lunge at a female lion shifter and sink her teeth in the cat's hind leg. The lion lets out an ear-piercing yowl before trying to turn and bite at Kali. The thing about spending most of your transformation at the mercy of instincts is that it gives you better reflexes. It's also easier to just let the wolf take over and fight.

I was right when I thought that Faolan and Lou's wolves would be huge. They tower over most everyone easily. Their size makes them formidable foes to be sure, and I, for one, am glad they are on our side. Especially, when I see them both leap straight up into the air, and they each snag a large Golden eagle out of midair, chomping down on them. The eagles don't get up again.

For a changeling, I'm kind of small. Which is probably why the little jaguar thought it could take me down. Unfortunately for it though, I've been bullied my whole life and that teaches one to fight dirty. I feel kind of bad, the jaguar can't be more than twenty years old, but that doesn't mean I'm going to roll over and let it kill me.

The jaguar leaps at my back, but I'm slightly faster, having anticipated it's move. I spin my hind legs away and clamp down on its midsection. It yelps and tries to bite at me. Since I'm so much larger than it, it can't reach. I tighten my bite down, just enough to draw blood and have it squirming and yelping. Then I drop it on the ground, a good five feet straight down. I hear a dull thud sound and, though it's whimpering, it doesn't get up.

Before I have a chance to turn to the next opponent, a loud crash sounds, shaking the entire block. The fighting stops momentarily. I look around and see Tyson, in dragon form, land roughly on the sidewalk. He stands on his hind legs, lifting himself to his full height of around thirty-five feet, spreads his wings out to either side, lifts his head in the air, and lets loose a blast of red and orange flames.

"Bringing your pet dragon because you can't handle us?" I hear one of the vampires mock me nearby. I show that vamp just what I can and can't handle by severing his head from his shoulders in one quick move, just like Garrett taught me during our training in the last month. This causes another vampire to screech and rush at me. A female this time. She descends on me faster than I can move out of the way. This is another move Garrett showed me. She tries to get her fangs in my neck, but my fur is far too thick for that.

I roll my eyes at her obviousness, stand back on my hind legs, and let my body fall backwards, landing on the female. I quickly get up while she lays stunned and make short work of her, just as I did the male.

A hoard of shifters attack Tyson En masse, but I leave them to him. I know what he can handle, and even a few dozen shifters are nothing to him. I catch Garrett's eye and nod to him. He smiles as he rips the head off of a particularly large male lion and nods back. He then turns and runs off to fight someone else.

I watch Garrett zoom off, only to have him stopped short by a female vampire. I take one step forward, but before I'm able to even take another breath, Cashel is there beside her, facing his son. The action slows as everyone turns to watch father and son duke it out.

"So, it's come to this then, huh, Father?"

"I always knew it would. From the time you were born. You've never been good enough for this family, so I knew that one day I'd have to put you in your place."

I hear a sound behind me. I whirl around and come face to face with the larger of the two changelings that stood by Cashel's side. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Cashel nod at Garrett in my direction. He smiles. Slowly. Manically.

The larger changeling and I are circling each other. I can read their flavor, but I don't understand it. All I feel from them is pure, unadulterated hatred. I refuse to take my eyes off of them, for fear of them attacking me before I'm ready. The changeling snaps and snarls at me, saliva dripping from their massive canines. They lunge at me. I lunge at him. At the same time, Garrett and his father are locked in battle.

The changeling attempts to rip into my neck, but thankfully my fur there is extra thick. I, however, don't go for the obvious kill and take a chunk out of their ear. They yelp loudly and back away slightly. We both shake out our fur and leap at each other simultaneously. We go down in a heap of fur and teeth. Both of us attempting to get a good grip on the other.

I feel the sun begin to rise and the now familiar feeling of changing back to my human form. Before I lose all of my strength, I twist my body so that I am on top of the changeling. I raise my paw to kill them, but before I can take a final, killing blow, we're both transformed back to human.

I look down at the male's face below me and put my hand down. My jaw drops open.

"Collin?"