Civilians wailed as panic ensued.
Somewhere below my rooftop, Slater swore.
One down.
Eleanor ghosted from rooftop to rooftop in a flitting scatter of bodies. A sparrow to a bat to an alley-cat to something I couldn’t name. They were animals that didn’t match a deer shifter at all. Sick as she’d been, she still moved, but she didn’t attack.
Still, it was impressive.
Hawk attempted crowd control at street level, where Slater’s chaos manifestation had flattened a few by-passers. He tossed out low, gut-deep growls intended to herd the civilians, but it backfired; the press of bodies surged in the wrong direction.
He adjusted, pushing supernaturals back away from where I was, but it didn’t work. They scattered in panic in all directions.
Dimitri used his vampire speed and loud, booming voice to draw their attention and try to corral the civilians away from me.
He did it in a much better style than Hawk did.
Above me, Koa hovered in phoenix form, his fiery wings burning against the sky, heat obstructing the edges of the air.
He made a show of challenging dives, buying time.
He was my biggest threat—except for Rune.
“Koa!” Aura screamed. “We have hurt civilians!”
Koa hesitated a beat before diving away with a predatory screech toward the injured civilians.
Easy enough.
Zuko slid along the roof in his basilisk form. For a heartbeat, his coloring made me pause: sunset scales, yellow through orange into ember red. It was unique anddangerous. I’d never seen coloring on a basilisk like that.
His fangs flashed as he struck, taking advantage of my momentary lapse.
My wings flared, and I kicked off the roof, dropping like a boulder as I slammed onto the bridge in front of Rune.
Pavement cracked under my talons, webbing out in a bloom.
“Woah, you’rebig,” she muttered under her breath, placing her hands on her hips as she stared up at me.
My chest tightened.
Zuko slithered down behind me and struck. His fangs were bared as he aimed for the soft line under my jaw. I flicked a talon and swatted him sideways into a building.
He went through the structure, but his venom still seeped into me from the contact of hitting him away.
Hot pain threaded my muscles, stiffening a wing joint.
Manageable enough.
I gritted my teeth through the agonizing lances.
Raze came from the shadows in his albino basilisk form, posed for a strike. I didn’t let his unique coloring throw me off this time like I had with Zuko’s. This squad was filled with different breeds of supernaturals, it seemed.
I whacked his attack away with a talon, sending him through the same building I’d sent Zuko through.
“My turn now, huh?” Rune didn’t run toward me. She walked in a calculated way that made my scales lift. The magic within her pulsed steadily in rhythm with mine.
Itreachedfor me. Something in me reached back.
