All the way to the colonies?
All the way to Cass?
As they crossed into the city, the cracks in Rhamnos’s lustrous facade began to show: fissures in the sidewalks, broken windows, alleys filled with piles of garbage and rotten smells.
The streets teemed with Fae, many well-dressed in sleek, boldly-colored fashions that had not yet trended to the colonies and likely never would—the fabrics were far too expensive.
But there were plenty of others donning tattered rags and weary faces, shuffling through the streets and begging for sparedrachas. Wings of every color on the spectrum brushed past her and she cringed every time she saw the serpentine eyes of a Deathstalker. Many Beastrunners remained half-shifted, with claws, tails, horns and fangs on proud display. So different from the bi-forms in the colonies who preferred to blend in with the humans.
That thrumming, suffocating energy, the concentrated magic of so many Fae crammed together, pressed against her skin, making her feel keyed up and jittery. Like a spark hissing at the end of a very short fuse. She didn’t know how long she could endure the feeling, certain it would drive her mad.
They approached the corner of an intersection of two bustling avenues. A group of Fae gathered around a Deathstalker standing atop a wooden box.
“Open your eyes!” The Deathstalker’s amplified voice washed over the half-skeptical, half-curious crowd through a cone-shaped device. There was an odd symbol painted onto the back of his white trenchcoat—a circle slashed through with a line. “The evidence of her influence is all around us. She is coming to deliver us from the shackles of the Empire. Join the movement while you can.” Snickers erupted from the gathered Fae. “Before you will be forced to choose. Before the cleansing chaos restores our world’s balance.”
The Deathstalker raised his hand and a flame burst to life in his open palm. Half the crowd gasped and turned away from the spectacle, while the remaining onlookers surged towards the male, volleying questions about the appearance of the long-dead fire magic.
Xenia paused, transfixed.
The whine of a stun pistol cut through the din and a line of Empire soldiers in red jackets and golden helmets ringed the crowd. The lingering gawkers scattered, but the Deathstalker remained, eying the soldiers with mad, placid defiance.
“Show’s over, everyone! Move along,” one of the soldiers shouted before two others grabbed the Deathstalker and began hauling him away.
“You’re too late.” The Deathstalker hissed a laugh. “She will not be so easily overtaken this time.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the head soldier said. “That’s what your crackpot friends keep telling us. You can discuss it over tea from a cell in Tartarus.”
As the soldiers dragged the Deathstalker down the teeming avenue, one turned back and his eyes flew right to Xenia. “Hey,” he began, taking a step towards her.
Panic seized Xenia’s lungs as she barreled away from the soldier, pushing through the press of supernatural bodies, wondering where in the name of Stygios Cael had disappeared to.
She careened around a corner and crashed into a tall Beastrunner with ruddy skin and closely-cropped platinum hair.
“Hey, watch it,” the sleek-suited male snarled, tapping at the commstone beneath his left ear. His annoyance melted into a lascivious grin as his eyes trailed down Xenia’s body.
“Hang on a minute,” the male said, pressing the violet-colored stone again. “What do we have here? A tasty, frightened little human? Must be my lucky day.”
He yanked Xenia into a shadowy alley, then shoved her against a wall, caging her between his arms.
“Give us a sample, love, yeah?” His nose and jaw elongated into a fox’s muzzle with razor sharp teeth beneath glowing amber eyes. Whiskers tickled Xenia’s cheeks as he sucked down gulping breaths, heightening her fear.
Tortured screams overtook her mind and uncontrollable tremors wracked her body. She’d never been fed from before, didn’t know how to make him stop. She was paralyzed, shouting internally at her legs, her mouth tomove.A futile effort, as tortuous as trying to wake from a nightmare.
A booming voice echoed from the alley’s entrance.
“Let hergo.”
The Beastrunner whipped his head over his shoulder as Cael stalked into the shadows, blasting wind into the fox bi-form’s chest that caused him to stagger back.
The fear leaked from Xenia’s limbs, and she rushed to Cael, who clapped a possessive arm around her shoulder.
The Beastrunner’s muzzle shortened as he chuckled, straightening the black lapels of his suit jacket. “No offense intended. Didn’t realize she already had a master. How much you want for her?”
“She’s not for sale,” Cael growled, placing Xenia in front of him and wrapping his arms around her waist, stealing her breath.
The Beastrunner cocked his head. “I’m sure I can make it very worth your while, mate. I’ve got a client up in the Northern Territories who’s been begging me to procure him a pretty little blonde pet. How does two-hundred and fifty thousand sound?”
Xenia blanched at the astronomic sum.
