They made eye contact, and she tensed.
“Take cover—“ he began as she shot a spell straight for him.
He dove to the side, already erecting a shield. He shot a spell back, but she was already on the move, dodging behind a parked car. Crap, she was quick.
“Don’t hurt her,” Austin said, yanking him off the sidewalk by the scruff of his neck and dragging him toward a parked car on their side.
“But she fired magic at us,” Sebastian said, poking his head around one end of the car.
He could just make her out. She was on the other side of the street, framed by the window of the car she’d taken cover behind. She popped up and lifted her hands to throw another spell at them over the roof of the car.
“Shekeepsfiring magic at us,” Sebastian said, erecting a magical barrier to catch the spell and determine its power.
Before she could fire the spell, however, a gargoyle rushed up behind her and caught her wrists in the air, forcing them down by her sides. Dangerous move—a mage of Sebastian’s caliber could still do magic like that, but the gargoyle clearly didn’t care.
Another gargoyle rushed to the first ones aid. The woman screamed and thrashed, trying to free herself, but gargoyles had tough hides, and she didn’t have the power to stop them.
“Okay, we’re good.” Breathing heavily, Sebastian rose from behind the car.
Another blast of magic shot at them from the right, down the street.
“What in the hell, man?” Sebastian hollered, spinning to return fire.
Except Austin shoved him before he could release the spell, and Sebastian’s spell went wide, hitting the wall, and sending him tumbling into the unforgiving metal of the car.
A swarm of insects turned into Edgar right behind a gangly man with a bad comb-over. The man still had his arms up, ready to do another spell. Edgar grabbed him by the shoulders and clamped his teeth onto Comb-Over’s neck. A gargoyle in human form came running. He’d clearly seen the commotion but had been stationed farther down.
He wouldn’t be needed. The serum in Edgar’s bite worked quickly, putting Comb-Over to sleep. Edgar dropped him to the ground.
The sound of heavy wings drowned out the yelling and screaming from the town’s residents. The town’s shifters turnedinto animals and two people jogged into the street, their hands raised to do magic.
A surge of magic rolled down the street, a warning that stung but was not terribly painful. The thunder of wings grew louder, and Tristan descended, carrying Jessie in gargoyle form.
Flexing her claws, she sent another heavy blast of magic at the shifters running toward them, and they bent.
A plethora of gargoyles flew from all directions, joining Tristan and hovering about ten feet above the street.
Larger animals ran in now, these in perfect synchrony. They formed a half circle on either side of the street before slowing and finally stopping, blocking Jessie’s people in and their people out.
That was, until the basajaunak joined the party.
“Oh, crap.” Sebastian scurried toward the wall and ducked down. He did not plan to handle this. He was quickly joined by Nessa.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Austin stalked into the street and put out his hands. The resident shifters scattered to the sides of the street. Unlike earlier that day, this time they did not plan to stand their ground. They’d let Jessie and Austin handle it.
“Wise,” Nessa said, clearly thinking along the same lines.
Tristan let go of Jessie, and she flew to the ground before shifting into her human form.
“Stop, stop, stop.” She flung out magic to slow the rampaging basajaunak before they reached the local shifters. “We’re not supposed to kill. I felt all the conflicting emotions. What’s going on?”
8
Jessie
It tookAustin very little time to relay the details, mostly because there weren’t many. He didn’t seem worried that we were in danger and given the one mage held by the gargoyles had relaxed, and the others hadn’t engaged, I assumed he was right.
“She attacked first?” I looked over at Sebastian as he entered the street.
