One vampire tried to run, but Jed used his own speed to catch him, and I winced as the two fell to the ground in a heap, claws and fangs creating a bloody mess.
The incubus on stage reached into his coat pocket, and I didn’t hesitate to shoot him. The bullets we were using were spelled to make the person freeze, so it wouldn’t kill him as long as the bullet itself didn’t do too much damage, although nearly all supes had healing abilities, so they should be fine. We had only counted a handful of humans in the crowd, though there may be more in the barn.
Oakley said, “Oh shit,” before they fired their own gun, and I was surprised to see the wolf shifter in his wolf form. Oakley’saim was true, though, and the wolf fell over, whimpering in pain as the spell took hold and kept him completely still.
A vampire stood in the middle of the crowd and yelled something unintelligible, and it was like some kind of signal to the others. Everyone in the audience stood as one and started running, shifting, or drawing on their magic. Several put shields over themselves, most not even covering their neighbors, only worrying about themselves, which, given what they were here for, wasn’t surprising.
“Well, shit,” Oakley said as several people scattered, running in all directions.
Into my mic, I said, “Light ‘em up!”
We both opened fire, taking down supe after supe after supe with nonlethal force.
But then a bear shifter came running toward us, and we were both out of magical freezing bullets.
The bear seemed to have eyes for me, and I was debating whether or not to shift to stop him when Oakley let out a loud roar from ten feet away. It started with their human voice, but it grew louder and deeper as the sound of clothes ripping joined the noise. They transformed in the blink of an eye into their golden dragon. They were nearly as big as the barn, even with their wings pressed tightly to their sides. They clearly didn’t want to knock anyone on our side over with them, which I appreciated.
Without hesitation, they stepped right in front of me, growled at the bear again, and snapped their teeth in his direction. The bear skidded to a halt, dropped to the ground, and rolled over, showing his belly.
When a cyclops tried sneaking around the side of the barn, Oakley turned to him and growled, and the cyclops froze right there. Tan ran over to him and started cuffing him.
Wow. Had Oakley really just…
I patted their big, scaly leg, heartened that they’d stepped in front of me to protect me.
It was sweet. Cute, even.
I was a bigger dragon than they were, and I was sure I’d be able to beat that bear in combat, even in this form, but they’d wanted to keep me safe.
“Thanks, Oak,” I said, stepping around them and up to the bear. “Shift back.”
The bear didn’t move, and Oakley growled, showing a little tooth. A whimper escaped the bear before he shifted back to his human form, giving us a naked eyeful.
Oakley growled at a couple of other perps who were giving our guys trouble, and they all listened, clearly terrified of the huge dragon that looked ready to flame them all and eat them for dinner.
After I cuffed the bear guy, I was about to ask if anyone needed anything, but Oak let out another loud, angry roar.
Before I could do anything other than gape at them, they had launched into the air. They leapt, or sort of jumped rather than flew, over the main crowd, landing far away from me.
But I saw what they already did—a vampire running for the trees.
It must’ve been an old vampire because they were so fast, they were almost invisible—almost.
Oakley ran a few steps, their wings tucked to their sides, before they leapt again, this time over the top of the perp. Oak twisted in the air like some kind of acrobat and landed right in front of the vamp, facing him.
The vampire must’ve been as surprised as everyone else was, because he didn’t have a chance to slow down. He ran right into Oak’s chest.
The momentary shock gave Oak an advantage, and they leaned down and placed their entire huge jaws around thevampire’s entire body. The threat was clear. You move, you get bitten in half.
Well… that was one way to stop a perp, that was for sure.
After making sure everyone else was alright and not in need of assistance, I ran through the crowd to catch up to Oak.
“You’ve got moves today,” I called out as I jogged over, receiving a rumbling laugh from the dragon.
The sound made the vampire perp whimper in fear.
As soon as I was close enough, I patted Oak’s snout and pulled out some magically strengthened twist ties.
