Arik
The Anigma soldiers hadn’t tried to kill me. Not surprising. Now that Maddox knew I was alive, he would want to do the honors himself. Too bad that wish had cost him half a dozen soldiers, because I had no qualms about killing.
He’d seriously underestimated my skill in more ways than one. Maddox had made zero effort to cover the rest of his team’s tracks. Even with the ashes of the dead soldiers coating my nostrils, I could detect the stench of Maddox’s team fouling the air from yards above the ground. When a woman’s pain-filled scream reached my sensitive ears, I arrowed my body down, hitting the nearest rooftop at a run, racing toward the edge. Near the lip of the roof, I slowed to a silent stalk and retracted my wings through the slits in my back.
Like cockroaches coming out of the woodwork, more Anigma soldiers swarmed in the pitch-black recess below me. Far more than had been with Maddox when he’d left the bar—a dozen total, maybe. No worries about a few expendable recruits then. Loyalty unto death was an essential quality in a soldier, and one Maddox had been free to cultivate in the century he’d been head of the Anigma forces in this area. I was pretty sure the benefits package sucked, but the soldiers below didn’t seem concerned. No, they were ready to party, given the brazen laughter and hungry growls echoing up to the rooftop. The choked-off cries of a small female in Maddox’s grip incited the surrounding shifters like chum thrown to sharks. But one female could never feed all of them.
I shifted position to get a good look at Maddox’s captive. Despite the Anigma leader’s hold, the woman was struggling in his arms, fighting to get free. When Maddox jerked her head back, baring the woman’s face to the dim light of the moon, a shock of recognition whipped through me. The female from the bar. Of course. Maddox had made a special effort to point her out, but why the chase? One Anigma grunt, even a green one, could’ve captured the woman right outside the door to Lenny’s Bar. A single human female wasn’t worth this kind of effort.
I could see the appeal, though. Small. Slender. The perfect prey to hunt. Her wrists were so thin Maddox had them both in one hand, claws digging in, adding the scent of blood to the swirling lust in the air. Fiery red curls tangled with Maddox’s beard and around the fingers forcing her head to the side, baring the gleaming white skin of her neck. His head bent over one narrow, trembling shoulder, dripping fangs extended, the threat clear. Even in the dark I caught the shimmer of absolute terror in the woman’s eyes as they begged the night sky for help.
Begged me, when that tear-filled gaze met mine.
My griffin roared deep within me, driving me forward, demanding I respond to that unspoken cry for help. All it took was a single step over the roof’s edge as my wings unfurled, and I dropped silently into the alley. The backwash of air as I slowed yanked the nearest soldiers’ attention in my direction.
“Glad you could join us, brother.”
If Maddox was surprised, it didn’t show. Even when his team parted, allowing me a straight line of attack to their leader, Maddox’s focus stayed on the woman. On her neck. On the pumping jugular full of adrenaline-rich blood. I followed Maddox’s gaze to that tempting line, and my mouth watered.
Maddox’s razor-sharp teeth struck deep. A gargled scream jarred my sensitive ears.
My animal reacted instantly, surging so hard it felt like a wrecking ball hitting my sternum from the wrong side. I clamped down, forcing the griffin back under control. Wait! Our time is coming. Even then, I couldn’t stop my gaze from riveting on the bright red lines snaking down the woman’s creamy skin.
Maddox lapped at the stream, his laughter echoing in the alley and inside my mind. Then the bastard latched on and sucked, hollowing his cheeks, pulling not just blood but agony from the human writhing in his grasp. I struggled to shut out her strangled cries, shut out my griffin’s rage, and crept closer, waiting for the rush of bloodlust to hit my enemy and take his entire focus.
From the corner of one eye, I saw a soldier move to intercept me.
And then the unbelievable happened.
The female’s body contorted in Maddox’s arms, her spine arching painfully, limbs going rigid. The spasm threw her head back against his shoulder, tearing Maddox’s mouth from her neck. Blood gushed. Power gathered in her wide-open eyes, lighting them from within until that light flashed out, blinding us all, immobilizing every male in the alley for a single second. I knew what I was seeing, what Maddox had done; I just could not believe it. It simply wasn’t possible. Archai females didn’t run around the human world unprotected, unknown, vulnerable to the very kind of attack Maddox was visiting on this small, breakable human.
No, not human. She couldn’t be, not and go through the triggering.
“No!” The woman’s garbled scream echoed into the night. It broke the tableau, freed my frozen mind. I took immediate advantage, pulling the short sword strapped to my thigh. The nearest Anigma grunt stood, still staring at the female, mesmerized by the blaze of light. I slashed out. The knife sliced a ribbon of red across the male’s throat, and the shifter’s head rolled from his shoulders to hit the ground, eyes bulging, mouth working. Then another flash of light as the head and body burst into ash.
Spontaneous combustion, the final circuit overload. Gotta love it.
Shaking my head at the fucker’s stupidity, I turned immediately to the next one. By now the milling soldiers had gotten a clue. Maddox hefted the female into his arms and moved backward, deeper into the alley, surrounded by the biggest of his men. The rest converged on me, a sea of steel and determined faces.
I met them with grim determination of my own, the weight of my sword’s hilt secure in my palm. They were cannon fodder, nothing more. Even twelve against one.
“Stop!” the female shouted. Instinct dragged the heads of every Anigma soldier toward the command. Mine too. I watched as the single word shot power from her mouth. It wasn’t so much something visible as something sensed, a rush of wind, maybe, but every male witnessed it circling the alley before converging to zero back in like an arrow.
The force passed through the female harmlessly, the arrow’s ghostly point seeming tangible as it slid under her collarbone, through the meaty part of her shoulder, but then it struck Maddox, knocking him back. A gaping wound appeared where the female’s power had sliced through his clothes and into his chest. The general’s breastbone split in two, opening a hole in his heart that extended all the way though his ribs, stomach, and out his back.
Shit! I blinked, but when I opened my eyes, Maddox was still there, on the ground behind the female who’d dropped to her shaky knees—the female that had just ripped his guts open with no more than a word.
There’d been no flash, so Maddox’s head was still attached to his body, ready for me to take. That was all that mattered, no matter what bizarre circumstances occurred at the same time. I just had to get to the bastard before he died or escaped. Adrenaline and excitement met in a heady white-water rush through my brain.
The next Anigma grunt fell with equal ease as the first, waking the others from their daze. As I engaged another soldier, I heard Maddox croak, “Get the female!”
I faked a swing and struck instead with my fist, hilt inside. The latest grunt staggered back. His sword dropped. I sliced his neck with a backhand swing and whirled toward my next opponent. I caught a quick glimpse of a tall, heavy shifter grabbing the female by her hair as she tried to lunge farther into the alley, away from the fighting. He dragged her around while another soldier attempted to gather Maddox—and Maddox’s parts—off the ground.
I plowed doggedly through one shifter after another, moving steadily toward my goal. One grunt I threw into the nearest brick wall, knocking him unconscious. A quick duck and shove sent my sword straight through another’s neck, severing the spine from the front. Really, where were they getting their soldiers these days, the army surplus store? I turned away from the spark of life snuffing out and found my gaze locked once more on the female. She struggled, frantic hands unable to get a grip on her captor or break his hold.
“No!” she sobbed as the soldier jerked her backward. Her voice was barely audible over the growls and running footsteps and shouts filling the alley, but that didn’t matter. One word, one cry and power sliced through the air again. The shifter backpedaled, his grip still instinctively tangled in the female’s hair, but he couldn’t escape. When the wind hit him, his head didn’t so much slide off his neck as disintegrate completely. The female crumpled to the ground as the Anigma soldier flashed into ashes.
The few males still standing must have decided I was no longer their biggest threat, because they started scrambling over themselves to escape the next rush of power from the terrified female. Idiots. No measly psych tricks would keep me from killing every male in this alley—and enjoying it.
“No!” Maddox yelled as he was rushed toward the alley’s exit. “The female!”
At the dark promise of retaliation in his voice, his soldiers hesitated. Maddox’s eyes rolled back in his head, and the hand trying to hold his insides together fell limp.
“Secure the flank,” the shifter lugging Maddox barked. The remaining males formed a gauntlet preventing my advance as the soldier retreated, the Anigma leader in his arms. By the time the last male’s head slid off his shoulders, my prize had disappeared.
Scanning the empty alley, my chest heaved with the effort not to release my anger. My griffin roared instead, deep inside, claws raking, gut twisting, but nothing could bring back my enemy. Not right now.
Then a thread of sound whispered toward me out of the darkness.
The female Maddox had targeted lay, unconscious, slumped on the ground. The shadows of the buildings rising on each side cast a veil over her face, yet now, just as in the bar, something about her drew me, tempted me, pulled me closer until I squatted a few feet away.
I realized my head was shaking. I still couldn’t believe it, what she was, but the proof lay right in front of me. A female. An Archai female. And she’d just had her psychic doors blown open by a male’s first bite.
Her body twitched and jerked, tiny moans of pain escaping those full lips as uncontrolled power continued to blast the air around her. That power intrigued me. Triggering had been common among the Archai before the Great War, but the ritual was nothing like what Maddox had done tonight. It had been controlled, sacred, private. A female was prepared beforehand, then taken through the emergence of her power by the Aomai, the Archai’s sacred healer. I had never heard of a female killing anyone during the process, but then, they hadn’t been under attack.
Either this female’s power had mixed with some serious pissed-off to retaliate, or…she was something I’d never seen before. Maybe something no shifter had ever seen before.
Gradually the blasts quieted, as did the female’s cries. Driven by a need to touch her, a need I didn’t truly understand, I made a final, cautious approach. For a long moment all I could do was stare down at her. When my fingers skated over the dirt-smeared skin of one pale cheek, the female didn’t respond.
My body did, though.
What the hell was I doing? I should be securing her, not fantasizing about the feel of her skin in other, even softer places. She can take your head from your shoulders, remember?
She hadn’t killed anyone after that second attack, but I wasn’t taking any chances. One of the pockets of my fatigues held zip ties, which I used around her wrists and ankles. A strip of cloth torn from the bottom of my black shirt was used to gag her, the material tied in a secure knot behind her head. If I was careful not to entangle her hair, I ignored the fact and gathered her into my arms.
Bitterness dug deep with my final glance around the ash-littered alley. My plan hadn’t been to kill Maddox tonight—my plans for the shifter, and for our former clan, would hurt far worse than a quick slice of the spine. I’d waited centuries for the right moment, for the right pieces to fall into place to execute my revenge. Still, being this close had tempted me to forget all that and just go for a kill. For a while, I had forgotten. Now…
I looked down at the slender figure slumped in my arms. Maddox hadn’t wanted her left behind. He’d stalked the female for a reason, and he’d risked his own death to take her with him. Not to mention there were other parties that would be interested. After all, I needed an entrée to the clan, didn’t I?
As I stretched my wings in preparation for flight, I sucked in a smug breath. If my guess was right, this female could be the ultimate weapon, the linchpin I needed to pull my plan together. And thanks to her attack on Maddox, she’d just fallen right into my hands.