They picked up the stuck emergency vehicles in their claws. Heads poked out of windows of bug-eyed EMTs as they carefully airlifted the vehicles into the square near the wounded. There were claps and calls of thanks before the emergency services personnel poured out and started helping their patients.
It was on one of these trips bringing vehicles that Caden just happened to see a hooded figure, moving furtively along the outside of the square. They carried a backpack. A rush of deja vu filled Caden. They--no, he--was bringing the backpack around to his chest and opening the flap. Red, flashing numbers illuminated upwards from the depths of the pack and showed Jasper’s face.
A bomb…
Caden shifted above the square and dropped silently down. He moved like liquid fire between the people towards the hooded figure with the backpack. Jasper was frantically punching buttons on the device, trying to make it go off then and there. He lifted his head just as Caden plowed into him.
They were in front of the ice cream store. They crashed through the plate glass window. They landed on the shiny black and white tiled floor. Jasper was on the bottom, Caden was on top. Jasper was still pressing buttons even as they slid all the way to the ice cream freezers in the back.
Caden punched Jasper in the face again and again, using all of his strength, not holding back. As the Behemoth, Jasper could take it. Caden needed to at least distract him from the bomb. If he hurt him, sent him into unconsciousness, all the better. But Jasper fought like someone possessed by an evil spirit would fight: with no quarter.
Help me, Iolaire! Give me strength! Caden cried.
Additional strength surged through Caden, and his next punch connected underneath Jasper’s chin. Jasper's head snapped back and he appeared dazed. That gave Caden the opportunity he needed. He pulled the backpack from Jasper’s hands and leaped to his feet. He had to get it out of there!
He leaped towards the shattered window in order to jump out, shift and soar well above the square where the bomb could go off without hurting anyone. But he took only one step before Jasper jumped onto his back. Caden’s head was smashed against the backpack, but that gave him a close up look at the timer. Thirty seconds left.
It’s like the day we met, Iolaire.
Jasper was screaming as he was pummeling Caden’s back, shoulders and head. The screams didn’t sound human. They were blood wrenching and terrible to hear. Caden though had no time to think about how to silence them. He simply kept moving, Jasper clinging to him, as he leaped out of the ice cream shop and shifted.
They shot up into the air. Straight up. As fast and as far as they could go. Caden could hear the bomb’s counter ticking down, or thought he did. He could also hear Jasper still screaming. The man was still holding onto him, but it was just his tail.
They were up so high that the air grew colder. The moonlight lit them up and caused the world to glow a ghostly white. Caden could see High Reach in the distance. It was peaceful. Remarkably peaceful in a way.
And then the last beep and the bomb exploded.
It was anticlimactic if he were to compare it to the day he and Iolaire had joined. Once more, the bomb did absolutely nothing to them. Nails and other metal pieces that had been packed inside just bounced off their scales and fell harmlessly away. The blast that would have ripped through human flesh and shattered human bone was rendered into barely a soft pat.
Good job, Iolaire, Caden said.
The White Dragon Spirit twittered the same back to him. They had done well.
Jasper had stopped screaming. He was just hanging onto their tail, glaring up at them, with all of the Behemoth’s bitterness and hate. But there was that fear there and despair now. It was indeed over.
Jasper let go and started to fall.
They watched the body of the leader of Humans First tumble end over end a bit. The scream that reached them no longer sounded inhuman, but instead very, very human. The Behemoth had done what it had done with Landry: released Jasper so that he would die a very mortal, human death.
Let’s save him. Jasper doesn’t get away with all he’s done this easy, Caden said to Iolaire.
They darted downwards towards the Earth. They resembled a sleek, white missile that flew past Jasper’s flailing, falling form. They plucked Jasper out of the air and held him lightly in one of their claws. He still kept screaming for about thirty-seconds before he realized he had been saved. He blinked up at Caden. He didn’t say thank you. He just glared, too, but with not the fire the Behemoth had. They landed in the square. Jasper struggled to get out of their claws and strove to look dignified while others looked on at him with suspicion.
“Look at the damage Shifters do!” Jasper got out as he saw the damage the Behemoth had done, that he had done.
Their eyes narrowed. Jasper was not trying to play the innocent, was he?
Of course, he is.
“If we didn’t have Shifters in the world, none of this would have--oh, my god?! What is that?!” Jasper practically curled into a ball in his terror.
It took Caden a minute to realize what he was looking at. It was a swarm. A huge swarm. So big and thick that the air was warmer around it. Bees and wasps flew together in a tight man-sized shape. The insects moved out of the way to show Valerius’ face. Valerius was flying inside of the swarm! Caden blinked.
Iolaire, are you seeing what I am?
The White Dragon Spirit twittered in awe.
Valerius lightly stepped out of the swarm, which became Rose and Marban. Everyone backed away except for him and Jasper, who still cowered.
