I would like to point out, again, that this is a really stupid idea.
I laughed softly at the sound of Jack’s voice in my head. They had to stay far enough away from me that the intruder wouldn’t be able to sniff them out, so we were communicating strictly by comm. It was probably driving Devin crazy.
Yeah, it is. Thanks for sticking me with him, by the way. He won’t shut the hell up.
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing louder. We’d known right away that the plan was going to drive Devin up a wall; he was ridiculously overprotective of me, and threatened to chain me in my room for a week when I explained the plan. Needless to say, Jack and Gale hadn’t liked the idea of it.
Hey, I never said I didn’t like the idea of you being chained up.
Jack! Pay attention to what you’re doing! That’s a wall! Gale’s sharp voice interrupted his flirting, and I felt the flash of pain from Jacob.
My control broke, and I stopped walking for a second so I could laugh, barely able to breathe. Jack had never mastered the art of walking and communicating through the comms at the same time. I had never imagined that he would walk into a wall, no matter how unskilled he was.
Come on, Eli. Don’t let that jackass distract you. Gale’s disdain was all for Jack. Back to work, if you please.
I took a deep breath to calm myself, swallowing down my laughter. Jack’s offended silence wasn’t helping, but I forced myself to pay attention to the job I was supposed to be doing. We’ve done half the city already. Where the hell is this guy hiding? Half the city, half a day of walking around. Half a day of people staring at me- they still weren’t used to seeing Vitals walking the streets, and having my wings out didn’t help with that.
It did, however, help spread my scent. A subtle shift of my wings was enough to push the scent down the street. If the intruder was within a block of me, he would smell me and come running. I had thought he would be close and we’d find him fast. That hope had been quickly dashed, and I was starting to get tired.
I walked another block before flexing my wings. The feathers just brushed the ground as the moved, dispersing my scent down the street. There was no response. I swore under my breath and kept walking, my head down. Anybody else have a better idea? I’m about to lose my-
Eli, look out!
Gale’s warning barely came in time; the knife clipped my wing, shearing off a few feathers as I dove to the side. Jack and Gale’s voices were a clamor in my head, and I had to drop the connection or end up a quivering puddle on the ground.
I turned quickly, my body falling instinctively into a fighting stance; my hands up, one foot slightly behind me and my back turned to protect my wings while having them ready to use as weapons. My attacker bared his teeth at me.
He didn’t look healthy. His skin was deathly pale, his veins thick and black, standing out against his skin. Lanky black hair fell into his eyes; and those dark green eyes were what had me stepping back with my own eyes widening. He looked… insane.
I had seen Soulless before, but they were always as rational as monsters like that could be. This one had lost his mind. That was bad, deadly, because a Soulless without a mind was nothing more than a whirlwind of chaos and destruction that would tear through the city leaving nothing but blood and rubble.
The case had just gotten a lot more complicated.
The Soulless made a move. He was faster than I expected, but he couldn’t compare to me; I had dodged around his blow and slid around before him only a heartbeat after I saw his decision to swing in his eyes. I brought my foot up and planted it squarely in the middle of his back, sending him pitching forward into the wall. The sickening crunch of his nose breaking was loud in the empty street.
I expected that to stop him; I wasn’t that lucky. The Soulless staggered back to his feet, and I nearly gagged as he turned with blood covering the bottom of his face and dripping onto his shirt.
“Damn it. Don’t you know you should stay down when somebody breaks your face?” I hissed, my wings stirring the air.
He smiled, revealing a row of crooked teeth. “Don’t you know you shouldn’t get distracted?” he snarled.
I did, but I had assumed there was only one enemy. An assumption that proved wrong when I was tackled hard to the ground, pain blazing sharp through my body as the pavement grated off the skin on my palms. “Son of a-”
“Eli!”
The cavalry had finally arrived; I could hear their feet pounding the pavement as they ran for me. The weight was plucked off my back like it was nothing, and I could breathe again. I yelped when a hand grabbed my collar, yanking me up and backward, away from the fray.
“Let me go!” I shouted, flexing my wings- they packed a powerful punch when they hit the one who had grabbed me.
Devin grunted, but his grip didn’t loosen. “Stop. They can handle it. Don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger.”
“It’s not unnecessary,” I sniffed- but I did what he said and stopped struggling against him, because he was right when he said the others could handle it.
Jack wasn’t as harmless as he pretended to be. He had taken time before we left to grow two of his extra arms; it was a process that was just as painful as when I put away my wings, but just as useful. Each of the hands on those extra arms was covered in suckers, barbed at the fingertips with little hooks that leaked a neurotoxin that would paralyze the first person he got a hold of. He fought without reservation, his deep purple hair taking on a rainbow hue of colors, just as his eyes did; he always lost control of that when he was mad. It only took a few good blows for him to be able to get those hooks into the Soulless who had tackled me, and the man went down.
“Go Jack!” I cheered for him, grinning and applauding.
He bowed, his hair slowly fading back to the deep purple as he laughed. “Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.”
“Really, you two? Can’t you you be serious for two minutes?” Gale snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.
I turned my gaze to him, unsurprised to find he’d taken down the insane Soulless with no effort while I was focused on Jack. Gale hadn’t even bothered to use any of the powers he held as a Vital; no doubt he didn’t think the situation was dire enough to call for it. There was only the barest hint of scales over his collar.
“I’m sorry, Gale. Did you want me to cheer for you, too?” I asked, smiling innocently at him.
He glared back, shaking his head. “You know I don’t give a shit. Can we just finish this and get back to the house before Narissa and Belle burn it down- or worse?”
“Fi-ine,” I sighed, stepping to the side so Devin could step forward.
He pulled one of the guns from the holsters at his hips. It was a sleek little silver thing, with a swirling pattern of leaves and ivy twining around the barrel. A fierce smile was on his face as he approached the defeated Soulless.
“Any last words?” he asked the one Jack had paralyzed. The man’s lips moved, but no words came out. The man lost his last chance to speak; Devin put a bullet between his eyes.
I grimaced and nudged the man’s corpse, letting his fall face down so I wouldn’t have to see the blood as Devin moved to the other one.
The insane Soulless tried to lunge at Devin; Gale kicked him back down, the force loudly cracking a few of his ribs. Coughing, the Soulless fell back against the wall. He glared at us with his wild eyes, and started to laugh.
I could tell Devin was unsettled by it; there was a slight tremor to his voice when he spoke. “Any last words, filth?”
The Soulless met my eyes, and his words were for me. “Long live the Gray Queen, and may your souls burn in hell!” The laughter started to bubble out of his throat again, but was cut off by the sharp sound of Devin’s gun.
“Long live the Gray Queen?” Jack repeated, puzzled.
Gale nudged the dead Soulless with the toe of his boot. “I wonder what he meant by that.”
I didn’t say a word. I turned my back on all of them, a powerful beat of my wings sending me straight up into the sky. Devin shouted my name, but I left the call unanswered.
Long live the Gray Queen, huh? We’d see about that.
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