Flames of Mars (Celestial Shifters Book 2)

by Tjalara Draper

  The two spiky leopards slowly stalked toward her.

  Sagan yelled again. “Use your fire!”

  Fire?

  Her mind snapped out of the fear that had eclipsed all rational thought. She’d forgotten about her new abilities.

  Violet backed up a few steps as the creatures inched ever closer—they’d be upon her in moments. She held up shaky hands. But nothing happened. No fire, not even a spark.

  The six-eyed mutants took another step closer.

  Maybe she needed to say her ability out loud for it to work. “Fire!”

  Again, nothing. What on earth? How had she made her fire powers work last time?

  The creatures were now so close their humid breath warmed her outstretched hands.

  Again, the irresistible urge to run overwhelmed Violet’s mind, but just as she turned to sprint away, the ground beneath her shook. The leopards froze in their tracks. Their growling died out, then turned into whimpers. Violet tried to run, but the rumble beneath her feet rapidly grew into a violent quake, and she fell back into a heap on the ground.

  The spiky leopards turned and bolted, but the asphalted road exploded in front of them before they’d gone more than a few yards.

  If Violet had been afraid before, it was absolutely nothing compared to the paralyzing terror that slammed into her as a giant wormlike thing shot out of the ground right before her eyes.

  Thousands of razor-sharp fangs filled its gaping round maw, which was wide enough to swallow Violet with one bite. Scorpion tails rose threateningly from the two massive antennae on its head, and rows and rows of millipede-type legs lined the sides of its grotesque body. With heart-stopping speed, a slimy tongue tipped with a huge crab claw shot out and captured one of the leopard creatures around its middle. The feline’s agonized squeal ended abruptly when the crab claw crunched down hard. Bones cracked, guts squelched, and the leopard went limp. Then the mutant worm whipped its tongue back into its mouth along with its prey.

  The second leopard tried to make a run for it, but one of the scorpion-tailed antennae surged forward and pinned it to the ground. The leopard let out an ear-piercing shriek, writhing in a futile attempt to escape the scorpion stinger.

  Once the first leopard was gulped down, the second followed shortly after. Then the worm’s insectile eyes found Violet.

  Its mouth opened wide.

  Violet scrambled back, but she hadn’t even made it two feet before the creature’s tongue flew toward her. With a scream, she blocked her face with her arms.

  Just as she expected the crab claw to crunch down on her body, an almighty roar thundered in her ears and reverberated through her chest.

  Violet peeked through her arm shield to find her world bathed in a teal glow. Her hands were coated with flames, which sizzled the tongue to a charcoal crisp before the creature could whip it back into its mouth. Violet cringed back as the monstrous worm let out another earth-shattering shriek.

  One of its scorpion stingers lunged toward her.

  Someone grabbed Violet from behind and dragged her back—only a split second before the stinger smashed deep into the ground where Violet had been sprawled.

  “Get up!” Sagan commanded as he pulled her to her feet.

  A second stinger plummeted to the earth, missing Violet by inches as they turned and ran. Sagan had a tight grip on her upper arm and half dragged her behind him, his speed was way too fast for Violet to keep up.

  Another boom of exploding asphalt sounded at their backs, jolting the earth so that Violet almost stumbled. But Tio appeared at Violet’s other side to steady her and rush her toward Nika, who was standing by the jeep surrounded by the corpses of the three other leopard mutants.

  They were just a few feet away from the jeep when the earth burst open directly in their path, and the worm’s head sprang out with a roar. Violet, Sagan, and Tio skidded to a halt as a stinger hurtled toward them.

  But a breath before the stinger’s deadly point could make impact, a gleaming streak of metal cut across its path, neatly severing the scorpion tail from the antenna. The stinger crashed to the ground, and the worm shrieked and flailed, spraying putrid brown gore from its antenna stump.

  Violet glanced down at the severed scorpion stinger that still twitched on the ground, then over to what had severed it: a metal ninja star, now embedded in the concrete wall.

  The roaring stopped when the worm set its sights back on Violet.

  A person in a hooded jacket appeared in front of her. The mysterious figure held up one arm as the worm’s remaining scorpion stinger sped downward.

  Another streak of metal blasted from a contraption on the newcomer’s arm. With a faint clink-clink-clink, several more ninja stars shot through the air and sliced through the incoming stinger, sending more screams and more brown goo out into the night.

  The hooded person aimed their star launcher at the beast’s eyes next. More flashes of metal rocketed forth to blind the worm, which began flinging its head from side to side, bashing against the ground over and over—whether from the pain or to try and dislodge the stars, Violet wasn’t sure.

  The hooded person bolted toward the creature, nimbly dodging the worm’s head as it slammed into the ground. As the head rose, Hoodie latched on to one of the antennae stumps and swung themselves up so they were riding the monster like a bucking bronco. With one hand still holding tight to the stump, Hoodie produced a sword with the other, which they thrust deep into the raging beast’s head.

  The worm roared and flailed one last time before it crashed to the ground. Hoodie gripped the sword with both hands and drove it farther into the worm’s flesh. With a final twitch, the beast moved no more.

  Violet’s ears rang from the sudden void of noise.

  “Who on earth is that?” Tio asked.

  No one answered. All three stood motionless, stunned and breathing hard, as they watched the hooded person retrieve their metal stars from the dead worm’s body.

  Tio walked over to the star still wedged in the concrete wall. With a bit of effort, he pried it free, then brought it over to Violet and Sagan. The projectile had six-points, each blade shaped like a grim reaper scythe.

  Sagan took the star from Tio to inspect it more closely. That was when Violet noticed Tio’s other arm hugged tightly against his chest.

  “Tio, you’re hurt!” she exclaimed. Her stomach churned; “hurt” was an understatement. Half of Tio’s hand was missing, and the majority of his forearm was a mangled mess. Bright orange liquid covered his arm and clothes in streaks and splatters.

  A nauseating shame washed over Violet when she recalled how Tio had intercepted the spiky leopard while she’d been in the depths of uncontrollable panic.

  Tio shrugged but immediately winced from the movement. “Don’t worry about it. I’m Jiovis. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

  Violet couldn’t find the words to reply. How does one respond to someone who’d willingly volunteer to be mauled by a mutant leopard?

  Tio’s attention shifted to something behind Violet. “Nice of you to join us, Nika.” His tone dripped sarcasm.

  “Hey, don’t blame me if I don’t have a death wish when it comes to Godzilla worms.” She inclined her head to the hooded figure. “Who’s our new friend?”

  The hooded person looked up as if Nika had called their name. They removed the sword from the worm, sheathed it in a scabbard strapped to their back, and jumped off the creature’s lifeless body before sauntering over to the motley group.

  As they came closer, Violet realized Hoodie was a girl, possibly around her own age. She was of Asian descent, and her raven-black hair had a bright purple gradient at the ends. She must’ve had an affinity with gradated colors, because on closer inspection, her leather jacket was a midnight-blue-to-black ombre.

  Sagan took half a step forward as she approached the group. “Who are you?”

  Hoodie didn’t answer, coming to a stop in front of Tio. Her eyes trailed up and down the tall Jiovis sh
ifter.

  Tio frowned in confusion, then shared a glance with the others as Hoodie brushed a hand over the orange splatters on his shirt and inspected the orange blood on her fingers.

  She then moved to stand in front of Violet. The girl leaned in close, an uncomfortable inch from Violet’s nose, and stared deep into her eyes, as if searching for something. Then she took hold of one of Violet’s wrists and held it up.

  “What is she doing?” Tio asked under his breath as Hoodie inspected Violet’s hand.

  Finally, Hoodie dropped Violet’s wrist and moved over to Nika. The hunter glared at her, but that didn’t stop Hoodie from looking her up and down too. After a moment, she reached out and took hold of Nika’s amulet.

  “Hey! Watch it.” Nika slapped the girl’s hand, and the amulet bounced back into place against her chest.

  Hoodie cocked an eyebrow. An amused smile played at her lips as she pishhed before turning her attention to Sagan. Instead of facing him, as she’d done with the others, the girl first walked around Sagan in a slow circle. When she finally did stop in front of him, Sagan crossed his arms and met her gaze head on.

  Hoodie made a show of folding her arms too. Sagan frowned and put his hands on his hips. She did the same, then copied him again when his arms dropped to his sides.

  Sagan frowned with a soft gruff, to which the newcomer replied with a smirk. Then she tapped at the hidden amulet under Sagan’s shirt. It wasn’t hard to see he was trying to restrain himself from slapping the girl’s hand away as Nika had.

  “Who are you?” he asked again.

  She smiled. “I am . . . wondering what two hunters are doing with a Jiovis and . . .”—she pointed to Violet—“whatever type of shifter she is.”

  In a flash, something flitted out from within the girl’s hood. Another creature, about the size of a soda can, darted around Sagan’s head.

  “What the—” Sagan swatted at it, but it managed to swoop out of the way each time, tittering and chattering in a voice similar to a parakeet. When it held still long enough, Violet could just make out what looked like a tiny monkey with beetle wings.

  The little monkey finally ceased agitating Sagan and went to land on its owner’s shoulder, folding its wings up neatly beneath an iridescent beetle carapace on its back. It pointed a tiny clawed finger at Sagan and chattered in a way that made Violet think it was scolding him.

  The girl in the hoodie crossed her arms. “This is Toffee, and she’s wondering why the one with ice in his eyes would steal from us.”

  Sagan blinked; it was the closest Violet had ever seen him to being startled.

  “Steal from you? I’m not a thief.”

  The girl stepped forward until she was uncomfortably close to Sagan’s nose. “Then when were you planning on giving this back?” She snatched his wrist and held up the hand with the throwing star.

  “You could’ve just asked for it,” Sagan countered.

  “All right. May I please have my star back?”

  “On one condition.”

  The girl frowned. “Which is?”

  “You tell me your name.”

  The little monkey-fairy chattered. Hoodie shared a glance with it, and then the little creature shrugged.

  Raising her chin, the girl looked down her nose at Sagan. “I’m Umbra. And you?”

  “Sagan.” He held the star out to her.

  Plucking it from his fingers, Umbra raised her arm with the launching contraption, then with a subtle click-clack, loaded the star back in. Without a word, she turned and stalked off.

  “Wait,” Violet called after her.

  Umbra didn’t slow down. Only the little monkey on her shoulder turned back to look at Violet, who was now running after them.

  “Can you help us?”

  “I did help you. I just saved all your asses,” Umbra said without stopping. “Go home. You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Please,” said Violet. “I’m looking for my baby.”

  Umbra stopped and faced her. “They took your baby?”

  “Yes.” A small seed of hope began to sprout within Violet’s chest.

  “Is your baby like you?”

  “Like me?”

  “Does your baby make flames like the Magneii but with the color of the Veniri?”

  Violet shook her head. “No, she’s just a Veniri.”

  Umbra’s eyebrows shot sky high. “She?”

  Violet nodded.

  “Then it is too late for your baby. There’s no point trying to get her back—not unless you want to become one of these failed Xabat Lab experiments.” She pointed to the giant worm and mutant leopard corpses. “Go home, hybrid. And don’t come back.”

  Umbra reached out to a cable hanging down the side of one of the buildings. In one smooth motion, she put her foot in a loop at the end, yanked on the cable, and shot up, disappearing into the night.

  14

  It’s Time to Stop Moping

  Nathan leaned against the wall and waited. The back door of the house where Violet lived was the one place he figured she would eventually show up.

  No one had seen Violet since she’d arrived back from a trip to the city.

  Earlier that night, when he hadn’t been able to sleep, Nathan had gone for a walk only to find a battered Sagan and Nika half carrying Tio to the infirmary. All three had been covered in a concerning amount of red and orange blood mixed with some kind of brown slime.

  Sagan had filled in Nathan on their failed mission to rescue Violet’s child. Apparently, it had become clear during the car ride home that Tio couldn’t regenerate his hand after being attacked by a leopard-crocodile-mutant thing.

  Dawn had concluded that something in the leopard’s saliva might be preventing Tio’s healing ability from kicking in. In the end, Tio decided to treat it the same way he would rust rot and elected for an amputation. With a clean cut, he would be able to grow a new arm for himself.

  After Gus had patched up Sagan and Nika and administered painkillers, Nathan decided he needed to go check on Violet. Sagan told him she’d refused to get out of the car, even after she’d refused to get in the car in the first place and he’d been forced to throw her over his shoulder and lock her in the jeep’s cargo area to bring her home.

  The jeep was empty when Nathan checked, and Lazareth—who was up preparing community meals for the next day—had told him Violet hadn’t returned to the house yet.

  So Nathan waited. It was the middle of the night, and usually that wouldn’t have stopped him from using his tracking abilities, but since he’d made Violet immune to tracking, there was nothing for him to do except wait for her at the house.

  But what if she didn’t come back? What if she’d left in another desperate attempt to try and rescue her child?

  What if—

  “What are you doing here?”

  Despite Violet’s harsh tone, relief washed over Nathan. The incandescent security light above the back door shone its pale yellow hue over her blotched, puffy eyes. Her shoulders were hunched, and her arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

  Nathan casually slid his hands into his jacket pockets. “Waiting for you.”

  “I thought I told you I didn’t want to see you ever again.”

  “Actually, I recall you saying that you would kill me.”

  “So take a hint.”

  The cold distrust in her gray-blue eyes pierced Nathan deep. She’d never looked at him like that, not even when she’d been wary of him the first time they met. His mind went blank with the attempt to form a response.

  Seconds passed. A small swarm of moths bumped against the glass bulb of the security light with a subtle tink-tink-tink, keeping the complete silence at bay.

  “We need to talk,” he finally said. “There’s a lot I need to explain.”

  When he tried to continue, Violet shook her head and snorted with disgust. She stormed up to the door and shoved it open.

  “Violet, wait.” Nathan sidestepped to block her entry.
>
  Violet barked a humorless laugh. “Dream on, moron. I’m not talking to you. Ever.”

  She tried to shoulder through, but Nathan stood firm. Even though he wanted to, he couldn’t blurt out everything he’d promised he would say to her the moment he escaped Tempecrest—and there was no way he could force her to forgive him—but there was something he could do to help her get what she desperately wanted. “If you want to get your daughter back, you need to learn how to use your new abilities.”

  Her jaw dropped. “How did you know about Sol—” She groaned. “Did Gus tell you? Sagan?”

  “I know what happened at Rivermyre.”

  She exhaled with annoyance and took several steps back. “Look, if you’re here to give me a lecture, I don’t want to hear it. I got enough lectures during the car ride home. I get it, okay? It’s all my fault. It’s my fault Tio got hurt. It’s my fault we went in blind. And it’s my fault my baby—” A sob strangled her words.

  Nathan tried to approach her, but her hand flew up in his face.

  “Don’t!” Despite the tears streaming down her cheeks, her scowl had turned deadly. “Don’t you come near me.”

  “Violet—”

  “Look, whatever the others told you, it changes nothing between you and me. Now get out of my way.”

  Nathan didn’t move. Instead, he pushed aside his own hurt and focused on what needed to be done. “Do you want to get your daughter back?”

  Her scowl faltered.

  “Do you?” he pressed.

  “Of course I do.” She practically spat the words at him.

  “Then training you is even more urgent. If you want to get her back, you can’t go in half-cocked like you did tonight. You need to learn to control your abilities. It’s time to stop moping and—”

  “I haven’t been moping,” Violet snapped.

  Nathan continued as if she hadn’t interrupted. “—drop your sour, sooky attitude and get to work. Sulking isn’t going to get Solace back. Now get changed into clothes you don’t mind getting ruined, and meet me at the pavilion.”

  Violet opened her mouth to retort, but Nathan turned and headed down the path. He didn’t even glance back to make sure she was following his orders.