Change is sweeping through the world, as humanity fights for autonomy, discord tears apart the foundations of the vampire order, and dhampirs return to the world after centuries of war between two powerful peoples. Dhampirs, creatures known to heral...
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Tara rubbed her eyes, but no matter how vigorously she tried to clear her vision, when she looked up it was still all double. In fact, it looked more like everyone had a ghost. Before Luna ducked to the ground, a whisper preceded her, and a moment later Fiorello's spell crushed the pavement where she sat. That spell too was like an echo, showing up and destroying the ground around only after a silent and motionless image appeared.
It was like someone had recorded over a VHS tape too many times. It had happened when she'd got stuck in rural areas and countries as a reporter, having to reuse old tape footage. If they did so too many times, a whisper of what had been recorded before shadowed the new images. They could be cleaned up, but it didn't change the haunted scenes.
Tara followed poison spikes as they wound around Rush, a phantom image bursting from the ground just as the man rolled to the side, and then a moment later it repeated with more clarity. Only the second time did the heavy dark magic pull at Tara's insides and feel real, if one could call any of this that. The chaos of the scene around her when everything seemed to happen twice drove her to seek something to focus on.
She needed to stabilize the spinning world around her, and she found Ezra in the mess ahead. Out of everyone, he'd been the kindest to her and was about as comfortable with fighting as Tara was with watching it. The man moved fluidly in the distance, and Tara took a few deep breaths and calmed as his hands swam through the air like a dance. Something about Ezra was more composed and grounded in the swirl of chaotic magic ahead.
Perhaps it was because everything around that near feral vampire Rush and his mate inevitably exploded and focusing anywhere near Luna blinded her. Ezra reminded her of a sculptor as he took what he had and worked it into different shapes and uses. It was grotesque when applied to a person, but in its magic essence, it was much less taxing on Tara's body.
While Ezra wasn't"trained in fighting"he moved comfortably around Luna's light spells and was always there when she needed someone to protect an open spot or weak area. It wasn't often he moved except when Fiorello got tired of his meddling and tried to do away with him. At first Ezra had shielded himself with things around him, blocking the brunt of the vibrations as they disintegrated, but as he ran lower of things, he'd started dashing to the side or swinging around one of Luna's spells as she intercepted.
In was in that way that Ezra found himself in the air descending to land back on the ground. As his foot touched the street again, shifting broken tiles from a decorative dais in front of the complex, spikes erupted from the ground. They shot out in long thin points like lances and pierced straight through his chest and neck. Tara didn't do much thinking, considering none of this made sense.
"Ezra, below you!" She yelled before the afterimage caught up with reality.
Ezra spun his gaze to the ground just as the second set of spikes caved in the ground below. It seemed like too little too late as Ezra hadn't time to shift course, but a blast of dark magic gave her goosebumps as it hit Ezra from the other direction. It threw him to the ground in the form of an enormous snake, but Ezra picked himself up quickly as the spell faded with a hiss. Just as Ezra recovered, a shadow dashed to Tara's side where Selena was. Tara moved before the afterimage caught up, shoving the girl away and taking her place as claws descended on her.
