Page 26 of Of Flame and Fury

Chapter Ten

I slam my hands against the partition. “No.”

The three-headed Nyte bursts through what remains of the main entrance. As wolves, Aric, Gemini, and Bren tip the scales at over four-hundred pounds. Koda, closer to six hundred. This Nyte, covered in iridescent scales and more serpentine in his movements than lupine, matches their combine weight and size.

Aric could give a damn. He secures Celia between Koda and Shayna, ripping his bloody shirt off and gunning for the Nyte.

The Nyte stomps through the fray, swerving and coiling, ramming bodies through walls and partitions, no care for friend or foe. Without fear or hesitation, Aric leaps over the dense crowd scrambling out of the way or busy fighting other Nytes.

Aric punches the Nyte square in the chest. The sound of breaking bone reverberates the barrier against my hands. Black fluid splatters the rabid crowd. Aric doesn’t stop there. He fists the looser scales at the Nyte’s throat to hold him in place while his free hand rams him over and over, puncturing a hole through the chest.

Through the muffled barrier of magic, I hear the spurting of more fluid as Aric cracks open the Nyte’s chest. The center head collapses, its burnt orange eyes fading to black. Two more heads remain. So does Aric’s viciousness.

The brutality my brother-in-law demonstrates is hard to watch. Aric is no longer that leader ofweresI hated for hurting my sister and the man I’d bleed for for loving her just as hard. He’s a predator promising carnage and destruction to anyone who dares threaten his mate.

I press my hand against the barrier and draw my magic, using Aric’s rage to feed the magic spreading from my palm. Aric snatches the head on the left by the throat, swinging his legs to avoid the snapping jaws of the other wolf head when it strikes at him like a cobra. Aric’s quick and aggressive motions crack the larynx of the wolf with his grip. He rips open the skin, pulling out innards through the tear.

Like the first head, the second collapses. With another few strikes, Aric fractures the snout of the remaining wolf head. The Nyte bleeds out through its indented chest. It was the largest of its kind and imposing. Yet it never stood a chance. Like me, Aric will do what it takes for Celia to live.

I scream, packing my power into the divide. Gemini rams it when it starts to give. When it splits, he shoves his body through, keeping it open. I look away as he kicks at the bodies to make more room. His callousness will bother and haunt him later. I’ll help him work through it when the time comes. For now, we have to survive.

“Aric,” Gemini calls just loud enough to be heard.

Aric, now with Celia, jerks our way. “Go, go,” he urges his small group.

The barrier erupts with power, thrusting Gemini back. He curses and slams his shoulder into the barrier. This time, it doesn’t give. “Taran, break this thing open.”

I’m already trying except this time, it’s different. “This thing knows my power,” I admit.

“Then let it know how strong you are,” he bites out.

He’s damn right I will, throwing more of me into the magic.

Thewereguards assigned to Celia are gone. Dead or spread thin among the melee. Aric tucks Celia against him, Koda takes up the rear, his giant red wolf form snapping at anything that draws close.

Shayna is in the lead, her long black ponytail whipping back and forth as she cuts her way through the crowd. She’s exhausted, her features pained yet no less determined. Even as her silk shirt sticks to her thin frame, her strikes remain lethal, graceful, exactly what’s needed to get Celia through.

Aric edges around the pile of bodies, to the one spot not completely covered with corpses. Celia covers her mouth, scanning the dead. She thinks they died because of her. I want to scream at her this was never her fault. Evil doesn’t care. It simply takes.

Aric pounds against the barrier. “We can’t get through, and we can’t stand here.”

“I know,” Gemini shouts through the wall. “Taran is working on it.”

I mix my magic up, chanting fast and hard. The blue and white mist permeating from my palms spread, making the barrier visible. “Let them in,” I demand through clenched teeth. “See them through safe and whole.”

“We still need to find Emme and Bren,” Celia yells.

Gemini keeps his voice steady, speaking as if we’re not out of time. “We have them. They’re safe.”

Celia nods, tears welling in her eyes as she scans the dead at her feet. “Okay,” she stammers.

She’s a wreck. Aric can do little more than hold her. “We’re going to make it,” he tells her. “I swear it, sweetness.”

I cast more power. My right arm lights up and illuminates the area surrounding us. It draws attention in all the wrong ways. Koda brings something down large and wiry when it charges. I can’t quite make it out, it’s too fast. Not to sound selfish, but I’m glad I didn’t see it. Tails, lots of them, with suckling mouths at the tips, flail up as Koda goes to town on it.

Aric and Celia jump away from it, cringing. It’s always extra disturbing when awereis grossed out. Koda’s large foot smashes down on it. Squealing follows before the twisted tail slapping against the barrier falls limp.

A toadish creature leaps at Celia. Shayna rams her sword through its eye. Its gooey tongue whips out, lapping the air near her throat. She shakes her sword, trying to set it free so she can kill it. “Um, dude? I know you’re like, totally kicking butt in there, but can you, you know, go faster?”