Authors: Penelope Fletcher
Gasps of horror drifted over the sound
of Amelia’s pain from the watching crowd, and a few Disciples
openly sobbed.
Ro’s eyes were locked on me,
considering, vacant. In discreet bouts, his eyes roamed the space
around me, but when he did not find who he was looking for they
came back to me. I knew who he looked for and it killed me that he
would never see her again.
A shrill cry snapped my attention back
to Amelia. She hunched over, limbs, and muscles quivering. The
Cleric backed away, his job done.
“
No!” Nimah
cried.
Amelia screamed, not mentally prepared
for her shift and her scream turned into the piercing yowl of a cat
as her mouth lengthened into a maw and her arms and legs shortened,
spine popped and rippled. Her clothes tore to ribbons as her body
grew in mass and density. There was a petrified screech from the
crowd as Amelia grew a tail and sprouted ocher fur. Fully shifted
into her cougar form she snarled.
Though she was larger than some of the
shifters I had seen on the Pride, her face most resembled the
smaller felines humans kept as pets. Scratching at the glass, her
patchy white underbelly pressed into the cage as she drew herself
up on her back legs, large rear paws prancing to keep her balanced.
Repeatedly she pounded the glass with her heavy fore paws from a
higher level. She was enraged, half mad as she paced the box, threw
herself bodily into the walls. Each time she tried to leap out the
open door her chain stopped her. Her tail, short fur dark as if
dipped in ink, thrashed back and forth.
I could feel how pissed she
was.
Cleric Tu turned round to face the
shaken Disciples. “See. Do you see the monsters they
are?”
“
Stop it,” I said. “You’re
scaring them.”
Despite the softness of the plea the
whole courtyard fell silent. Cleric Tu’s shoulders hunched but he
quickly straightened and barreled into the silence. “I have spoken
to the Priests,” he said in a jarringly calm voice. “They have
agreed these sessions will benefit you in the weeks to
come.”
“
You can’t do this,” I
choked, horrified.
“
I need a volunteer,” he
said. “I need one of you to come up here and show this
abomination,” his finger jerked to the cage, “exactly who the
superior species is.” There was silence, no movement. “I know
you’re frightened, and I know it seems barbaric–”
“
That’s because it is,” I
said through my teeth.
He ignored me. “This needs to be done.
You have been protected at the cost of lives.” His voice broke and
I knew he thought of the Lady Cleric who Tomas drained because he
was hungry after waiting for me in Bayou dorms. Maybe I would have
felt bad about that if she hadn’t been on a mission to kill me for
just existing. “You have forgotten that every day we have to fight
to stay alive. That we are trapped behind a fence that no longer
keeps the danger away. These monsters have even mange to infiltrate
the Temple.” His finger swung to point at me accusingly. “This
demon hid in plain sight for years. Had the gall to leech of our
resources as she plotted to kill us off one by one.”
I made a noise that crossed a snarl
with a groan. It was an odd sound I was mildly embarrassed to have
made. “That’s a lie.” My hands fisted in anger. “If I had wanted to
kill you you’d be dead. I’m looking forward to rectifying that
mistake.”
My words were nothing but the truth. I
had never meant to hurt anybody. I wanted to protect
them.
His hands beat on his chest. “Even now
she stands there and threatens me.”
“
Because you’re a fool.
You’re trying to brainwash them into thinking they have no choice
but to be murders.”
“
Who are you going to
believe? The lies of a demon, one of them? Or me, your teacher,
your protector.”
“
More like you’re a
rambling, mad man,” I snapped trying to get my point across. “Gods,
can’t you see you don’t have to listen to him.”
The Disciples barring Ro swelled
back.
I realized then what they saw. Wild
hair, talons for fingers, the wings of a dragonfly fluttering at my
back as my tail thrashed from side to side in agitation. They were
not seeing me, Rae. They saw a demon, something to fear and
mistrust. I pulled on my glamour, making myself look human, but it
was a foolish thing to do. They had already seen the true
me.
“
See!” Cleric Tu screeched
and pointed at me. “See how they deceive us.”
Uneasy murmurs rippled through the
crowd.
A Disciple I recognized, Jono, stepped
forward aggressively pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose,
but Ro’s beefy arm shot out to halt him.
His expression was cold, hard. “I’ll
do it,” he said quietly.
With slow deliberate steps, he walked
up to Cleric Tu. His tee shirt was hitched up over one shoulder,
exposing his chest marks. His low slung jeans showed a strip of
boxer. Ro always had been ripped, big, but the idea of him going
against a were-cougar was ridiculous. He passed by me, and I
clasped his upper arm. I felt a prick of disgust; after all he was
a human and I had no connection to him other than I knew my best
friend had once loved him. And there was something else, something
darker lurking beneath the surface.
“
You’re making a mistake.”
I looked him in the eye, pleading with him to see reason. “This
won’t end well.”
Ro tugged his hand from my grasp and
got up in my face. “You need to keep your hands off me,
freak.”
Shocked, I stepped back, truly taken
aback by the hate in his gaze.
Turning his head he spat in disgust
then turned away to look at Cleric Tu, who offered him a baton and
a gun. “The demon is chained with silver. End this
threat.”
I blanched.
Ro pushed the weapons aside. “Don’t
need them to put the hurt on her.”
He flexed, rolling his head round. He
walked round the glass box, checking Amelia out. Still chained by
the neck she did nothing but sit silent and still, her eyes filled
with crisp intelligence, watching him as he watched her.
Was there a way I could stop this? I
was outnumbered and to be honest, I was afraid. The crowd looked at
me with open fear and distrust. I had never been popular, had
always been the oddball but never had such loathing been directed
my way. My being was sensitive to the hostile vibe pulsing from the
crowd. The smell of fear was pungent, upsetting. My nature cried
out, nudged me to make it right even as my mind sought out Breandan
again, seeking the comfort of him. He was still far away, still
closed from me though I knew he was unharmed, wherever he was. I
pulled myself back to the now.
I had to do something, not just for
Amelia but for Ro too. He may not want my help but he was going to
get it. I owed Lex that much at least. I may die a prisoner, unable
to avenge her life, but I could at least ensure someone she cared
about was kept safe.
Ro was led into the box. Amelia did
not move though I saw a tightening of her muscles. Ro bent his
knees, slid around, keeping himself on the balls of his feet, gaze
locked on the demon before him. Ro was not a small boy. Easily
topping six foot, he was built and probably weighed four of me. He
knew how to handle himself. Not only did the Disciples naturally
have stronger, faster, and more resilient bodies and minds,
training at the Temple was designed to hone these skills. To turn
them into Hunters, and stalkers that could go toe to toe with
demons in a fair fight.
But the simple fact of the matter was
the Sect had not seen the true might of the demons they so
feared.
In reality, I knew if I were in a
fight with Ro, I would eviscerate him by hand, or simply end him
with magic, should I be so inclined. I snorted. If I could touch
the Source of focus for long enough that is. In my iron poisoned
state it would be a fair fight, just like now with Amelia being
drained with silver her reactions would be sluggish, slower than
normal.
Shifters possessed the same strength
and mental capabilities as a human, and they had the same power in
their changed form as that animal. I had no doubt that Amelia or
Nimah could meet other cougars in the wild and beat them, but it
would be a case of higher intelligence than strength. If they ever
came head to head with a bear, say, they may have a hard time of
it.
What I was looking at was a young girl
who had been beaten, humiliated, publicly flogged, poisoned, and
now was being forced to fight a boy who was blinded by
hate.
“
Stop this.” It was a
command. I was done being nice. “Now.”
Cleric Tu smirked. “And what are you
going to do?”
“
You have no idea what I am
capable of.”
“
We captured you easy
enough.” His eyes flicked over my circlet thoughtfully. “You’re
important to them, aren’t you? They’ll come for you.”
Knowing he was after information, I
gritted my teeth and said nothing.
He sneered, crossed his hands over his
chest. “I’ll take your silence as a yes, shall I? Good. I want them
to come. It is long past time we rid ourselves of your
kind.”
“
It’s people like you that
make it difficult to defend the human race,” I spat. “You’re
pathetic. Let them out of that cage, now.”
Tu paced forward and pressed his nose
to mine. “Or what?” His eyes were wild, glazed. His hand snaked out
grab my throat and tug me closer. My entire body shuddered in
disgust and I jerked my head away. He tipped his head to whisper in
my ear. “You should me more concerned of what will happen to you
once you’re thrown back in your hole. I wonder how long it would
take before I got you to show me your wings again.”
Icy cold fear clutched my heart before
it was replaced by a burst of rage, hot, blinding rage that
whiplashed across my frayed emotions.
“
What’s this?” There was a
heavy pressure at the back of my neck then a snap. Cleric Tu held
the key to the grimoire, my amulets in his fist, frowning at
it.
I reacted before any thoughts of
caution had been formed.
A trickle of my magic, gathered from
being outside in the sun, released in a punch of light and heat.
The chains unraveled from my hands, my neck, and coiled on the
floor. My glamour dropped as I lunged forward, and a powerful beat
of my wings added crushing force to the impact of me pushing Cleric
Tu off the platform, and putting him flat on his back. Someone
screamed. Straddling him high on the chest, my hands found his neck
a moment later and I squeezed.
“
My binds, Rae,’ Nimah
ordered. “Quick, before they….”
I refused to hear her. I had no other
thought than to rip this man’s head from his shoulders.
I lifted his head a fraction from the
floor and bashed it down.
His hands scrabbled at mine as his
lips turned blue. I sank my fingers in; satisfied when my talons
pierced his skin, and warm blood trickled over my fingers. I found
it more difficult to keep him down since I was still weak from the
iron, but my rage and the reviving flare of magic was enough so
that we were evenly matched.
The blow to my head knocked me
sideways and sent me sprawling. Recovering, I rolled up onto all
fours and shook my head, hissing when a boot slammed into my side.
Another landed on the middle of my back forcing me down to the
ground, and pushing my face into the cold concrete.
“
That’s enough for today,”
Cleric Tu said and jumped up, a hand on the back of his head, face
red. “Separate her from the others, and call the Priests. We have
work to do.”
Chapter Five
Chained, I was dragged kicking and
screaming back down into the tunnel, feeling my strength leeched
away by the hostile environment.
The humiliation didn’t stop there,
they took my clothes. Embarrassed, I pulled my glamour on and felt
less exposed.
I still had some magic left and I
focused on affecting anything but myself. It seemed I could heal
and use my glamour, but I could not make it work on anything else
tainted by iron. I tried to get my manacle to fall from my neck
again but nothing happened, my magic dissipated the moment it
touched the iron. My stomach sank. I had wasted my one shot on
Cleric Tu.
Thrown into an even smaller hovel than
before, my chains were clipped onto iron rings on the floor. As the
Two Clerics set to guard me worked, I saw Amelia – still in cat
form – being forced down the passageway too, the Clerics jabbing at
her with batons. Nimah was behind her cussing and swearing at them,
dragging her twin back by the scruff of the neck so she wouldn’t be
hurt.
“
Tell him what he wants to
know.”
Startled, I jumped back into a
defensive crouch.
The handsome Lord Cleric I remembered
from before peered at the wall with a hard expression. The other
one had left and it was just him … how brave. He tugged his
wide-brimmed hood off revealing dirty blonde-haired curls and a
neatly trimmed beard. His eyes – plain brown and wholesome – darted
to me then back to the wall. He cleared his throat, hands behind
his back. “He won’t stop hurting you until he’s heard whatever
answer he is looking for, so just tell him.”