Breaking Free (BXB)

Chapter 25-Blood

Fear gripped my gut as I whirled around. Blood. I saw blood everywhere, blood and dead bodies and torn grass. It looked as if the world had been shredded within seconds. Screams tore apart the clearing and I felt a rush of adrenaline pump through my system. For a split second, I was alone, surrounded by men charging me and my friends. Friends that I couldn't see anywhere in the clusterfuck of dying men and women. It was just the five of us against thousands of them and despite our supernatural powers, we were overwhelmed.

I heard feet thunder behind me and I whirled around, baring my fangs at the man charging forward. Blood dripped down his face from a gash on his face, his eyes dark and menacing. Narrowing my eyes, I charged, throwing myself into the air just as he yelled, throwing himself up to meet me. Falling to the floor in a tangle of human and animal limbs, I snarled and ripped and shredded anything I could touch. Then, with a sharp edge of pain, I felt a knife tear through my fur.

Yowling in pain, I tore down on his throat, feeling my jowls fill up with warm, slick blood. He let loose a guttural scream, and my heart shuddered at the sound. Then he went silent, and a heaviness fell upon my shoulders. I stared guiltily down at his dead body for several seconds before I felt hand pull me off of him. Punch after punch rained down on me, and, gasping for air, I felt my body snap back into its human form. Face to face with a boy around my age. 

My breathing heavy and ragged, I prepared for him to launch at me, to kill me, to do something. Yet he just stared at me, breathing just as heavily, his arms limp at his sides. He had bright green eyes, similar to mine, but that was our only similarity. He was tall and muscular with a head of curly blonde hair and tan skin. For several seconds we just stared at each other, two sides of the same coin. My muscles pulled taut, ready to jump into actions at the slightest movement, yet he just stared. Then, tearing his eyes from mine, he ran off into the crowd.

A bird caw from above warned me of Owen's presence before he landed on my bare shoulder. Glancing over to him, Owen cawed a couple more times, before he flew off into the distance, high above the fight. I watched him grow smaller in the air before I shook my head. He would be back, I was sure of it. He wouldn't just leave us like that. Focusing on the fight at hand, I dove into action, whirling and whipping and punching as fast as I possibly could. I could see men and women fall around me, and I saw the glint of a sword at my feet. Scooping down to pick it up, I whirled around, plunging it into the chest of a man behind me. I didn't have time to waste, so I swung it up again, feeling it slice into someone else. I was numb to the screams as I slashed and stabbed and beat the men around me till I could see a familiar shock of red hair.

"Tom!" I cried. Turning his head, Tom shot me a goofy smile, despite the huge gash across his chest. Dashing across the hill, I stood back to back with him, holding the sword at the ready in front of me. It was heavy, heavier than any sword I had ever used with Sera, and it was almost the same height as me. My arms screamed with the effort of holding it up. Tom and I whirled around in circles, fighting and slashing through a blur of soldiers. Bodies dropped like flies and a cacophony of dizzying screams filled my head. Suddenly I could see myself how the hunters saw me. Heaving, covered in blood with hooded eyes surrounded by the bodies of their dead and dying friends.

Then a shrill scream tore through the clearing. I looked at Tom and he looked at me, our eyes wide. Charging through the crowds we fought our way to where we heard it and for several minutes we searched the clearing, desperately looking for her. I froze. Tom chocked and fell to the floor. Sera lay on the ground, her blonde hair soaked with blood, a trail of red leaking from her mouth. She had a knife embedded in her gut, and we watched as her veins turned black and pulsed with poison. My heart thundered in my chest as Sera struggled to breathe. Her eyes were fluttering open and closed as Tom begged her to stay awake. Tears poured down my face as I fought anyone who came close to us, slashing through man after man, my mind still on my dying friend.

Then a bird caw rang across the clearing. Glancing up at the sky, I saw Owen return. For several seconds the clearing was silent, every person frozen. I could hear something like thunder rumbling in the distance. Then I saw it. A horde of elephant shifters, twice the size of normal elephants, storming through the clearing. Falling to the ground I clutched Sera as Tom sobbed over her. Wave after wave of supernatural creatures stormed passed us. I could feel Sera's skin grow cold. Tom's sobs grew louder. Within seconds any trace of the soldiers was gone, and I heard cries of pain from across the clearing. I couldn't bring myself to look down at Sera, afraid of what I would find, or up at my friends who charged towards us, their pain too much for me to see.

"Sera!" Moglie cried, diving down and clutching her in his arms. "Sera, wake up! Please, Sera!" He cried, his voice thick with tears. Owen stared at me, his eyes welling with tears. I could see every emotion flash through his eyes as if they were mine. It could easily be one of us on the forest floor, dying in our lover's arms. Mogli shook Sera, pleading with her to look at him, and my heart shattered. Then a small, wrinkled hand landed on my shoulder.

"Come with us. We can help." I stared up at an old woman, who couldn't have been more than four feet tall, her eyes yellow and big like an owl's with wrinkles coating her body like a heavy blanket. Her skin was darkened by the sun and she had a sad smile on her face. Mogli struggled to stand, his legs shaking, as he carried Sera closer to the woman. Then the woman began to mutter things under her breath. I felt Owen slip his hand into mine, and I glanced up at his sad, dark eyes. Then my entire world was white, a soft voice singing in my ear, before I landed in an unknown house, alone.