The Crystal Trials

14 Taury

I watched Dath jump out of the dwelling that he ran into moments before and shift mid air to catch the fall of the family he held. Damn. That was impressive. Nik was screaming at him, and his bear face looked terrified as the Axion close in on him. Ameer was clawing at the members who did not play fair. This was going to be a blood bath. There was no knocking these guys out.

The alleyway next me was dark but if my mental map of the city was correct, it would bring me around to the back of members closing in on Dath. I peered around me searching for someone I knew. There. Two were fighting a black cloaked figure.

"Garren! Faolan! This way!" They struck down their opponent with fire and sword. Together, we sprinted through the alley and made a sharp left. The side street we found ourselves in was already occupied causing us to come to an abrupt halt. There was an Axion member holding a woman against the wall. The sight of his hand up her skirts made me bare my teeth and the boys to each growl. The cult member heard us but didn't avert his attention, determined to be successful in his endeavor. He held the weeping woman by the throat and moved to undo his pants. Oh Hells no.

Garren beat me to it, shifting into his cheetah, looking absolutely menacing. Faolan, already as a wolf, stalked forward eyes on his prey. Garren roared and the member finally paused in his heinous act. The woman whimpered under his grip. Garren rushed the man from one side and Faolan the other. The man finally removed his hand from her throat and backed up. Garren took a swipe at his middle, and Faolan snapped at his back. I ran to the woman, and she stood up in defiance at her assaulter.

"Was he successful?" I asked her. I had to know if she would need the clinic after.

"No, but his friend was. He would have been the second one," her voice was unwavering.

"Garren hold him!"

The boys stopped their onslaught and Faolan froze his hand in a killing blow. I handed the woman my dagger and urged her forward.

"It's your kill."

She didn't hesitate to draw my dagger across the man's throat. His gurgling on his own blood music to our ears. Garren dropped the body disrespectfully and shifted back in a flash. I told the woman to come to the university clinic to make sure the correct tincture was given to her for the removal of any evidence of the night's horrors.

"That was hot," Garren admitted. I smiled wickedly at him.

On the other side of Dath, the mass of Axion members were thinner. There had to have been fifty in total in the area alone. That wasn't counting the ones that attacked the students a quarter mile away. Why so many were attacking the slums I couldn't make sense of. As one, we set to attack the Axion from behind. Before we could move forward though, Emyr snag from above as her phoenix, and from the alley we had just exited, Evander, Jaixin, and Zither emerged from the darkness. Zither dropped the darkness for us, and we joined her under the black curtain. The six of us marched forward ready to strike.