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AT THE SPEED OF A DRAGONS wing, we came upon Grigori. Smoke curled in winding clouds that made Ryane choke and I nearly lost her from the convulsions. We pushed through it, I could barely see the ground if not for the light of the fires breaking through the tar blackness of it. We lifted above it to the spire and I flipped, catching Ryane in my arms as I took on my Human form and landed. Father did the same with Gage, who unfortunately threw up as soon as we hit the balcony. I immediately felt sorry for anyone on the ground. I don’t know what the boy was eating, but it smelled God awful.
“You alright?” I asked as he wiped his mouth.
“I was fine till he flip-flopped me,” Gage complained, his eyes scanning the ground below. “It’s a mad house down there, isn’t it?”
I looked down, I could hardly see through the smoke, and as we tried the entire spire shook as in the distance the entire Science building collapsed.
“Fuck, me,” Gage shouted. “How in the Hell are we gonna stop this?”
“I don’t know.” Ryane pulled out her cell and dialed.
“Herlihy? God, it’s a mess... The entire school is going to be destroyed.... We need help... I don’t know... I said I don’t know!”
“He says we need to find Aella.”
I nodded, “I’ll go, she’s gotta be down there somewhere.”
“I’ll come with you, son.”
“No, you stay up here, you keep them together. If I need you I’ll send a flare up.”
He nodded. “Okay, but you need to do something about the fires.”
“When I find Aella, we will.”
I took off down from the spire, my chest ached, my scales had never receded from their initial rise. I knew she was alive, I knew she was still in pain. I could feel her. I just had to catch her scent.
***
THE BASE OF THE SMOKE plumes was devastating. The smell of Otherkind blood soaked the earth and there were bodies strewn all over the grass. Some were Human, most were us. I shook my head, drawing my weapon and cloaking myself, I was not going to be ambushed. It was too quiet., I couldn’t take any chances I didn’t know who had stated this, whose side did what, for whom I should be leery.
I spied to my left, a member of the Campus Security, he carried a rifle and was kicking the body of an underclassman I didn’t know. When the young man groaned, he pointed the weapon and before I could reach him, pulled the trigger. I ended him in a single slice of my Katana. He’d just killed a wounded and unarmed boy! I now knew who the wrong side was, at least. It wasn’t us. It was never us. I heard a whimper and turned around to see, of all people, Kimmy, Ryane’s little blood whore. She was lying curled up under what looked to have been a podium at one point. She’d spied me when I appeared after taking the man’s head.
“Kimmy?” I asked softly. I reached out and she gasped, pulling away. She was covered in blood and beside her was what was left of her friend Tessa.
“They just went crazy... Then the one with the wings...”
She sobbed as I pulled her out of the hole and into my chest. I scooped her up and out of the carnage, back to Ryane and the rest of them.
“Oh, my God.” Ryane took Kimmy into her arms. “Babe, what on earth?”
“She’s in complete shock. Listen, I could be here all day with survivors. I can’t do that and look for Aella.”
“Then what do you want us to do?”
“It looks like whatever went on is either in a lull or is over. Father can you cloak and snatch and grab, to a safe distance? I thought as we were coming, I saw EMS trying to get here. Maybe if they see us trying to help, it will do some sort of good.” I was already trying to find solutions to the problems, even as they were tacking on more. I couldn’t let all of Keegan’s hard work go to waste. Two years of it, and now it was all to be gone? I couldn’t stand for that.
“I can. You go on, find your love.”
I hugged Ryane for luck and dove back down into the darkness.