I'll Protect You (Re-Edit #2, 2016)

I set fire to the rain--no, no, I didn't mean to do it literally!

why do i keep picking fall out boy songs for the fight scenes??? i have no idea. 

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"Traitor!" Abigail thundered. She was white as snow, her body shaking as she faced Alec. Logan cocked his gun, and Abigail clamped her mouth shut, though her body shook, her face looking livid. 

"I believe the definition of a traitor is someone who is disloyal. As nobles of the Cimerian clans, we're to remain loyal to the royal clan. I, Alec Darkwood, am standing here right now with my gun pressed against an enemy's head. So who's the real traitor now?" Alec retorted, still grinning. 

Flynn and I rose to our feet. While I stared at Alec with a mixture of disbelief and happiness, my heart swelling, Flynn exchanged a victorious smile with Archer, and I realized that, somehow, this had all been planned. 

"How long have you been playing us?" Marila asked, her words trembling. 

"Since the attack on Halloween night when I ran into Daniel," he admitted. Someone snarled from the sidelines and a boy around our age stumbled forward, his features contorted with outrage as he knelt before his peers, fist pounded into the floor. He pushed his sleeves up, his muscles tightening, and I saw the same black vines and curves that Marila had on his arms. 

A gunshot rang out in the room, the bullet burying itself into the wall behind me. Someone shouted, "Get them!" and Abigail ducked away as everyone charged towards us. I tackled Alec down to the floor just as a bullet ricocheted off of the wall besides his head. Marila disappeared into the crowd, her orange mane no longer visible as bodies clashed and fists flew. 

"Park, get yourself out of here!" Alec shouted over the commotion, gripping my arms and pulling me to my feet. "There's too many of them. Take Logan and--"

"On your left!" I interrupted. He dodged to the left and I seized the arm of the girl behind him, yanking her forward before bringing my knee up to her stomach. She doubled over and Alec snapped for me to move out of the way. Turning on my feet, I skidded to the right just as Alec delivered a blow to a boy with an obnoxious amount of piercings on his face. As the guy stumbled back, I took the advantage to slam my foot against his chest, knocking him backwards. 

"Get Logan and Sophia out of here. He's too injured to last in this fight," Alec panted. "Run, Park. Run and don't look back. We'll be right behind you."

I couldn't squeeze in any words--an expression of gratitude, an apology, a protest--before he shoved me out of the way and hopped over the sofa, slamming into someone and ruining their chances of wounding Elijah. 

Someone delivered a gunshot in my direction, but someone else had accidentally been on the receiving end of the bullet as I dashed off, calling Logan's name. Archer and Flynn were drawing the largest crowd, and though neither of them had guns on their bodies, they were fighting with ease, looking as though they were enjoying the challenge. 

Iris was exercising her flexibility to her fullest advantage as she took down several of her attackers, making sure that their guns couldn't gain a second to aim. As I passed by her, I wrenched on the  arm of a man with a scar brandished on his face as he held up his gun, giving him a right hook before taking the weapon and slamming it against his head. 

He crumpled still and I pushed onward, fighting the crowd, searching for Logan. The moment someone settled their gaze on me, their arms flew out, their hands clenched. In a matter of minutes, my body was bruised black and blue, and I was licking the blood off my lips as I tossed aside a boy who had given me the split lip with his knuckle rings. 

Logan and Sophia weren't anywhere to be seen. I couldn't catch a sight of them through the mass, I couldn't hear them through the shouting and screaming. I hollered their names as loud as I could, but I got nowhere, ending up with more foes on my trail than friends.