by J. E. Cluney
They both nodded, and Tristan closed his eyes as he pulled out his trusty demon blade. I recognized it, and was beyond grateful he’d brought that one. Good.
Damien shot into the sky, and I launched out into the open, spreading my wings as I lit myself up with all the power I could pull forth, wanting to blind them to give Damien time to get away.
Wesley shot out before me, hurling fire into the fields all around us as shouts rose up and men cursed at the blinding light.
Tristan’s blade whizzed past, the black wisps trailing behind it.
A blade he could possess, something he’d created himself.
It slipped into the fields in search of someone to incapacitate.
I couldn’t see where Damien had disappeared to, but I prayed he’d gotten her out. I reached out mentally, and found him gliding away.
Good.
As long as Sav was safe, we could handle these guys.
35
Damien.
I held Sav tight against my chest, soaring over the fields as I kept an eye out, bullets had whizzed by me at first, but I avoided them miraculously.
I wanted to set her down and go back to my brother and the others, get them to safety. Kill those damned hunters.
But I knew I couldn’t leave her. She was out cold, and the thought of losing her crushed me. We’d gotten to know one another so much over the past few days, and she’d touched my heart with her unique personality, her spunk and bite. I’d never met anyone like her, and she brought out the hunger in all of us.
I could see that my brothers, the boys I’d grown up with, had all lightened, enjoying her company. Having a proper release for sex was good for them too, and they were more light-hearted and pleasant to be around.
We needed her, just as much as she needed us, even if she didn’t believe it.
We were mates now. Bonded, all of us.
A family.
I cursed as a bullet clipped my wing, and I veered to the side as I glanced down behind me.
An old blue pickup truck was hurtling down the dirt track, a man hanging out the window as he shot at me. Another was in the back of it, standing as he aimed a rifle at me.
Shit.
I swooped and ducked as bullets tore past me, shielding Sav with my body.
I snarled, wanting to fly down and take them out, but I couldn’t risk my little princess getting hurt.
I spun around, throwing one hand out as I shot a glowing ball of energy at them.
The truck veered, the man in the back stumbling and nearly falling out.
A paralyzing sensation overcame me, and I clung to Sav tightly as my wings seized up.
What the fuck was happening?
Magic. I knew it instantly. And I also knew it wasn’t coming from the hunters down below.
I murmured soft words of reassurance, knowing Sav couldn’t hear me as we plummeted from the sky.
I couldn’t move, every muscle locked, my arms wrapped firmly around her small frame in my arms.
This was going to hurt like a bitch.
I somehow managed to roll my body despite everything being frozen, and I closed my eyes at the incoming impact.
I was not expecting the excruciating crunch that shattered through my back and shoulder as I collided with the harsh earth, and then darkness took over me.
36
I awoke, blinking as I was jolted by some bumps. I looked up through blurry eyes, realizing I was in the backseat of a four-door pickup as it rumbled down a beaten road. The familiar scents hit me, and my stomach tightened.
“Dad?” I gasped, my body protesting as I tried to move.
“I’m not your father,” Thomas growled as he glanced at me in the rearview mirror.
I tried to move, but my hands were bound with magical cuffs. A tool us hunters had, but rarely used. Why capture when you can just kill?
So why was I still alive?
Where were the guys? What was going on?
“Jackson?” I murmured, knowing that I was more likely to get a response that way.
“That dickhead betrayed me. He wanted to save you. I tapped his bike, since he got his phone untraceable, been following him for the past week while he’s looked for you. I know how close you two are, and I knew he would’ve gotten to that witch before me. He’s always lucky with the girls,” Thomas sneered. “I figured he’d eventually lead me to you. Had my guys with me. They know just how deadly a kitsune can be, since your parents killed my brother with that bad mojo shit,” he spat.
I just lay frozen, completely blown away by his sudden nastiness. Nothing like the father I’d had before. This was the man I’d heard yelling, the man who wanted me dead.
“Why didn’t you just kill me?” I asked softly, my body groaning. Why was I in so much pain? I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. At least nothing felt broken. Hopefully.
“Can’t, not without giving myself a death sentence,” he growled. “Need to figure out a way to do it so the luck doesn’t turn on me.”
“Jackson’s hurt,” I tried to get him to soften. I needed to go back. My boys. Were they even alive. I was trying to reach them, but our minds were blocked. Hopefully only blocked, I’d hate to think…
“He’ll be fine. My guys will pull him out and knock some sense into him. Got yourself mixed up with some pretty interesting supes. Never seen those angel things before, and that fire one,” he clicked his tongue.
My blood ran cold at this, at the way he was smirking.
“Did you kill them?” I asked, my voice deathly low.
“No, but they’ll die. I saw that dark-winged one take you into the sky just before the other one blinded us all, managed to follow after him. We tried to shoot him down, but then he just fell. Fall fucked him up pretty bad, I left Nigel with him. Told him he could have his fun with the supe while I got you out of here and dealt with you,” he muttered, his voice harsh and cruel.
I looked around me for a way to escape, for something to pick my cuffs with.
My hands fumbled on the backseat behind me, desperately searching for anything to use.
I needed to go back, to save them. To stop all of this.
My chest tightened with worry and fear. Fear for my mates.
That same dread from early, a sense of danger, washed over me once more, and I tensed up.
“Tell me, Sav, when were you planning on coming for me? On killing me? I knew you would eventually, now that you’re one of them, it was only a matter of time,” he barked as the truck rumbled to a stop.
A peek out the window revealed we were at a train-line, and a stop sign was next to the vehicle.
“Never,” I growled, trying to understand where this growing panic was coming from.
Something deep inside me was screaming to run, but not from Thomas.
From something else.
“Ha! I highly doubt that!” he let out a sharp, sadistic laugh.
Where was the man that had raised me, that had cared for me and taught me everything? This was some horrible twisted version of him.
No. This was just that hatred and loathing directed at me now. He’d always been like this towards supes.
And I was now just another freak to him.
“What about Jackson? How were you going to kill him?” he asked, an ugly scowl on his face as he turned in his seat to look at me.
I tensed up, the screaming inside my body growing louder.
“How, Savage? How?!” he shouted.
I didn’t get a chance to answer as the door to the driver’s side was torn off, and my father was ripped from his seat.
Run Savage, run!
* * *
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