The Guardians sometimes helped Kace and his associates train kids with poor living situations, all their fighting styles different. But the training wasn’t about violence, it was about discipline. Kace taught them how to defend themselves, how to deal with their trauma, if any, and how to manage their emotions in a safe, confident way.
It was an unsanctioned class that closed down The Vault once a week, allowing the kids who didn’t stay there permanently somewhere safe and warm for a few hours, a place where adults actually cared for them. They had the choice to join in, or simply watch. When Kace first started it, he barely had a few attend. Now there was a rotation of around twenty-five starting from as young as six, to around seventeen. There was no ageing out, once they were in, they were in.
Titus stood, stretching his arms over his head. It caused the tattoos on his chest to move, and he noticed a few of the kids’ eyes widen at the skull and dragon. They were grey, but they stood out against the stark black and red lines of the glyphs that surrounded them.
“You’re going to rip out your nipple,” Axel said, laughing at the metal ring that glinted in the light. “That’s gonna be interesting to watch heal.”
Titus shot him the middle finger, but his eyes immediately dropped to the floor as his phone vibrated against the floor tiles. With a frown he crouched, touching the screen before he burst to his feet. “Fuck, get in the car!” he barked, concentrating on his phone. “Kace, we need to go!”
“Marshall’s taking over here.” Their brother appeared, anger slicing across his face. “We’re only a few districts over.”
“What’s happened?” Hunter asked, running over. “Is it Eva? Is she hurt?”
Kace gripped Hunter’s shoulder. “Eva’s fine, but right now we’ve got to go.” He nodded to Titus, who was already heading out the door.
“Wait,” panic gripped Hunter’s voice. “Let me help, I can –”
“I need you to stay here and look after the younger ones,” Kace said, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“Look…” Hunter pulled his hands out of his sleeves, claws piercing out his fingertips before retracting just as fast. “I’ve been shifting, just like you asked. I’m getting better.”
“That –”
“Let the kid come,” Axel said, and Kace’s glare could have cut. “What could possibly –”
“Blood’s been hit,” Kace interrupted him. “So we need to go, and Hunter is going to stay here.”
It took a second for the words to register. “Oh fuck! Sorry kid, we got to go!”
“Wait!”
Axel and Kace ran for the door, finding Titus standing by his car. “What the fuck took you both so long?”
Kace slid into the driver’s seat while they climbed into the back. The tension rising as Titus continued to flick away on his phone.
“How bad?” Kace asked from the front, gunning the car far too fast down the busy streets.
“Bad,” came Titus’s tight reply.
“Why didn’t I get a text?” Axel asked before he realised the answer. He wasn’t a Guardian, so why would he have been notified? He dug his fingers into his thighs, body vibrating with energy. “Fuck, you think a Lord hit us?”
Neither answered, not until the orange glow of Blood Bar grew in the square just off Covent Road. With a sharp turn Kace parked the car on the pavement, barely missing the pedestrians who stood and watched as flames in the distance. A smaller crowd waited outside Blood Bar, many covered in soot and burns as paramedics parked a few buildings away.
“Fuck!” Kace cursed, the white-hot flames flicking between blue and red, the arms stretching out to lick at the adjoining buildings until they too were aflame. Charred wood, plastic and smoke drifted across the square, the smell choking as they watched helpless.
A fire engine was already there, firefighters gearing up the water while another barked orders.
The one in charge noticed them, storming over with a frown. “Get back right now, it’s not –”
A crash as the door blew outwards, knocking several firefighters off their feet. The flames seemed to curl out of the gaping hole, pushing through the entrance to hold the crumbling brick.
“What the fuck is that?” Titus asked. “That’s not normal, right?”
A snarl echoed above the crackle of flames, and two hounds stepped out from the entrance. Except they weren’t hounds, their fur stripped back to mainly muscle and their bodies contorted into unusual shapes. Their heads were too small for their shoulders, paws closer to hands with the claws piercing through the first knuckle, leaving the rest of the human fingers limp beneath. They seemed to have more bones than needed, back legs longer than the front and slightly bowed.
It reminded Axel of the gory middle part of a shifter’s change, where they were neither man nor animal.
He was wrong, they’re not Shadow-Veyn. Yet his chi rippled with awareness that something dark was there, corrupt.
