Authors: Katalyn Sage
Raven
braced herself, with her feet shoulder-width apart and her sword set gingerly
on her shoulder as she held the hilt with both hands. She looked around the
room, eyeing her next opponent. She spotted her quickly and primed for the
swing. She would have had her too, since the demon hadn’t been looking where she
was going. But Raven didn’t get the chance to carry out her plan. The entire
room around her shifted, and the ceiling caved in with showering ash as two
males duked it out. Furniture followed quickly behind them, everything crashing
into the floor. At the first impact, the wood splintered and groaned before it
disintegrated under feet. She fell, just like the others. The fall wasn’t too
far before she slammed onto something hard and rolled off, crashing to the
floor.
She
coughed and sat up, feeling pain in her ribs and hips. There were others around
her, though she only knew that because of their voices. Caleen was nearby; so
were Raine and at least a few of the Guardians. There was a lot of dust in the
air, but she was pretty sure there was a wall separating her from some of the
others.
“Caleen,”
she said. “Are you well?”
“Yeah.”
Raven
slid a leg under her and used it to help her up. Her ribs screamed in pain and
she bent over, pressing her arm against it. A body caught her attention through
the haze. He was lying on the floor, wrapped in white sheets. It took her a
moment to notice the overturned bed next to him. She reached out a hand to
check if he was alive, but the walls around her buckled and shifted violently.
The house quaked as more booms sounded, and others on the main level scrambled
to either keep fighting or to get the Hel out of there. More plumes of dust
exploded, and Raven rushed from the room as fast as she could.
****
“Holy
Jesus God.” Ferox looked down into the basement, where Raine and a few others
had fallen. He’d come close to going down as well. He and his twin had taken a
tumble from the upper level, landing on the main floor just before the
furniture had come down. He’d had Damion’s neck in his hands and had even
deprived his brother of his knife. With a single stab in the side of the neck,
he’d prepped for another strike. The killing blow. Only, the floor had buckled
and he’d lost his hold on Damion. He had then reached Raine, only to fall short
of reaching her hand. She appeared fine at the moment though. Ferox stayed on
his back, looking up at the rafters that were now showing high above him. He
appreciated the breather, glad that the SOB he’d just been fighting had likely
been finished off during the collapse, and even happier that Raine appeared
more or less whole at the moment.
The
fighting hadn’t completely ceased, though it had certainly quieted in his
immediate vicinity. He rolled into a sitting position and looked around, noting
that his “son,” Draven, was still in sight. The guy was out like a light, with
a little blonde woman lying next to him. She’d been run through. He could smell
her blood from this far away as though he were inhaling directly from her skin.
Her scent was sweet—intoxicating in a very powerful way. There was another man
kneeling over her, urgently checking her over.
Ferox
averted his gaze from the man’s panic and instead focused on two men battling
on the floor. They were tumbling as they threw punches and kicks. At this
point, he hadn’t the foggiest who was on his side and who was on his brother’s.
“Dani?
Dani, where are you?” a panicked voice called from the lower floor.
“Garrick?”
a woman replied. Ferox looked up to find the winged woman slowly descending the
stairs. “Where are you?”
Garrick
appeared suddenly beside her and took the woman in his arms. He pressed a kiss
to her forehead. “Thank the gods.”
Sirens
sounded outside, drawing his attention at the very same instant that one of the
other men cursed.
“Gods
dammit, didn’t anyone put up a cloak?”
So,
the one who’d just been fighting another man
was
one of the Guardians. He’d obviously won that particular
battle, but was pretty injured. He limped toward Draven and the little group
around the blonde, but a demon suddenly grabbed him around the legs and took
him down. Ferox lunged to his feet and went toward them as the Guardian fought.
He’d been stunned for a second too long as the man had slammed against the
floor, and Ferox reached them seconds too late. The Guardian bellowed as his
enemy plunged a piece of splintered floorboard into his chest.
“Ethan!”
another yelled, but Ferox took no notice of who had said it. He collided with
the demon, both of them rolling off the flailing Guardian. His opponent looked
mostly human, but had gills running on either side of his neck. Ferox stuck his
thumbs in and wrenched outward as the demon’s eyes widened in horror. Blood
spurted as soon as his skin gave way, and the demon’s hands reached for his own
neck. But Ferox didn’t stop there. He reached inside and gripped the column of
the bastard’s neck and gave it a quick twist of his wrist. It snapped like a
twig, and the demon’s body fell limp.
Ferox
pushed the body off of him and stood, wiping his bloody hands on his pants.
Ethan let out another wail, and he looked over as someone pulled the wood out
of his chest.
“Gah,”
Ethan breathed, coughing and wincing with every movement.
“He
needs blood,” the other man said.
“We
don’t have time. The humans are already here,” another replied.
The
sounds of car doors shutting reached his ears. They were right. If they were
trying to stay out of notice of humans, they were about to be found out.
“The
whole fucking neighborhood is out there,” one said. He held the curtains apart
as he peeked outside. The man looked nearly as worse-for-wear as Ethan, though
he appeared more worried about his blue-tipped hair than any of the wounds he
was sporting. “And that’s not the worst part.”
Ferox
approached the window, his gaze immediately landing on the bodies the humans
were gawking at.
“Fuck,”
Blue Hair said, darting away from the window. There were flashes from a camera
lighting the window. “We’ve got Press.”
Ferox
had dodged behind the curtain at the same time, hopefully avoiding the
photographer’s shots. He looked at the carnage inside and shook his head. How
in the hell were they going to get out of this one? While it was obvious they
weren’t the only survivors—there were others running for exits—he had no idea
how many of Raine’s friends made it. “You must have been in this situation
before. How did you get out of it then?”
“We’ve
never had shit like this,” Blue Hair replied. “I never really thought they’d
get us here.” That was said more to himself.
“I
must get you out of here.” Ferox’s attention went to the man kneeling next to
Draven and the blonde.
“I’m
not leaving without Draven. Or our family,” she replied weakly. She was sitting
up now, under the strength of the man behind her. While he held her, she held
Draven’s head in her lap. He was still dead to the world, though breath still
filled his lungs. Ferox’s gaze went over his son and then her, and then to the
man behind her. That guy was hardly scratched, as though he’d somehow missed
much of the battle.
“I
don’t even know where everyone
is
,”
Blue Hair said.
A
woman’s cries came from the basement below, and Ferox approached the gaping
hole, looking down at the wreckage. Raine was in a tight embrace with one of
her friends. They stood over another woman as her friend cried into her
shoulder. “It’ll be alright,” Raine soothed. “We’ll fix her up.”
He
stooped low and dropped into the basement, his boots crunching in the debris.
Raine and her friend whirled on him, as though ready to battle anew.
“We
have to get out of here,” he said, looking from Raine to the other women. A
splintered piece of wood protruded from the woman’s chest, though her heart
still beat. “We don’t have time.”
“He
is right,” another woman said—one of the brunettes. Another one was right
behind her, and the two of them approached the fallen warrioress and picked her
up, holding her between them.
“Be
careful with her,” the small woman said as she brushed her hair from her
tear-filled face.
As
they hauled her through the debris—refusing Ferox’s offer to help—toward the
stairway that led up to the others, her voice broke through the silence that
had blanketed them all after the battle. “The other Valkyries have come, Raine.
They have your home surrounded.”
Chapter Four
“You
must go,” Caleen said.
“I am
not leaving,” Raine said slowly, pronouncing each word so it left no question.
Some of her boys were injured, but though her neck wound repeatedly opened
during battle, it was now drying. Her men were in far worse condition, and she
gestured to them. “They are though. I can’t fight fully knowing that my sons
are injured and defenseless.”
“Hey!”
Ethan said, and then coughed.
“And
the fact that there are humans outside to be protected….” Raider shook his
head. “She’s right. We can’t leave.”
Blaze
nodded in agreement. “We need to get the injured out of here, though. Otherwise
they’re just sitting ducks.”
“Where
can we take them?” Raine asked.
“To our
place,” Ally said, grimacing at the movement. All eyes fell on the tiny blonde
on the floor as she held Draven against her. “We’ll all be safe there.”
Raine
glanced at each of the males, and even the new females that had recently—
very
recently—joined the family. “That’s
the plan then.”
“Problem,”
Blaze said, raising a finger. “How are we going to get out of here undetected?
Some of us can trace, some can flash, but most of us,” he said, emphasizing as
he rolled a look at Ethan, “are too wounded to do jack shit.”
The
room was silent for a second, maybe two.
“Garrick,”
the winged woman breathed. “Can you do it again?”
“Do
what?” Ethan asked.
She
looked startled to have been addressed directly and took an automatic step
toward Garrick. “He can make a portal. He’s uh … made one before.”
Garrick
shook his head and peered at Ally. “I’ve never been to your house. I can’t—”
Blaze
grunted as another demon came out of the shadows and punched his side. He’d
turned, swinging out a fist and connecting.
“Show
him,” Ally implored, her eyes on Dellingr. “Please, show him where to go.”
Dellingr
stood and reluctantly left her side. He reached Garrick and his female, and,
gripping the man’s arm, the two of them disappeared as Blaze continued to fight
the demon. Ferox had approached the fight as well, standing by if the occasion
called for it, but within seconds, Blaze had knocked the bastard unconscious.
Raine
had watched the fight, but her attention was mostly on the winged female. “Who
are you?”
“Danielle,”
she said automatically. Uncomfortably. She curled in on herself as though she
could make herself smaller.
“I’m
Raine.” She offered her hand to shake Danielle’s and shrugged. “Thank you for
doing what you did today. I fear many of us wouldn’t be here without you. Sorry
we couldn’t meet under better circumstances.”
Another
second later, and Garrick was back where he’d been, running a hand through the
air. As if with magic, an opened doorway appeared. Within its borders, Raine
could see snow falling at Ally and Draven’s gate.
“Go
baby,” he told Danielle, sending her carefully through the door. “I’ll be there
soon.”
Dellingr
appeared by Ally’s side again and moved to pick her up.
“No.”
She shook her head. “Him first.”
The
god grumbled something and picked up Draven instead before disappearing. Blaze
took Ally in his arms and walked toward the portal, stepping through without
hesitation. Within minutes, both were back.
“Don’t
even think about it,” Ethan growled, giving Raider a look that indicated he’d
enjoy the pits of Hel rather than dare pick him up. “I’ll go under my own
strength.” He pushed to his feet and gingerly walked toward the portal,
stopping just before he stepped through. “Has anyone seen Gregory?”
Raine’s
breath left her. “Oh no, I didn’t … I’m so sorry I didn’t get a chance to …”
Ethan’s
eyes narrowed. “Mom?”
She
closed her eyes. “Gregory is dead. He’s in the kitchen. And
“I’ll
get him,” Dellingr said, just before tracing from the room.
The
remaining Guardians and Valkyries looked around at each other, with the
exception of Blaze who quickly severed the demon’s head just as he began to
rouse.
“You
cannot stay here,” Raven said, glaring at Raine. “The other Valkyries have come
for you. We can’t let you stay.”
“And is
my life worth more than any of yours?” Raine hissed.