The guard closed in behind her, raising his baton to strike.
Cait did the only thing she could in an attempt to escape the beating he wanted to deliver.
She shifted.
Black fur swept over her skin as her limbs twisted, bones snapping out of place and reforming in the blink of an eye. She growled through her clenched fangs and fell onto her paws as her twin tails snaked from the base of her spine, her face changed and her ears moved upwards, becoming rounded. She snarled and blue fire leaped from between her teeth.
The crowd jeered again.
The guard hit her with the baton.
Cait turned on him and hissed when he grabbed the length of chain attached to her tight collar and yanked on it, choking her. She pulled away from him, trying to avoid being struck again, but he tugged her closer, too strong for her to resist. She growled as she realised that the male witch had only lifted the spell enough for her to regain a small fraction of her strength, all that she needed to shift into her hellcat form.
The guard brought the baton down hard again, striking her hindquarters. She snarled, baring her fangs at him. The blue glow emanating from her grew stronger as her anger rose, the hunger for violence within her rising with it, causing the fire that constantly swept across the tips of her tails to engulf their entire lengths and burst from her paws too.
Something inside her snapped when Taryn cried out and she whipped her head around.
The other guard held Taryn by her long purple-to-white hair while the fallen angel ran his hands down her naked body, pressing short claws into her flesh and leaving red score marks in their wake.
“This one would be well worth the pain of breaking her,” the fallen angel said with a wicked smile and a dark sadistic glint in his red eyes.
Several males in the audience began shouting numbers.
Cait roared and launched herself at the fallen angel. She sailed through the air, intent on knocking the disgusting male away from Taryn and helping her. The chain attached to her collar jerked tight and yanked on the metal ring that bit into her throat, stopping her in mid-air. She dropped and landed hard on the stage.
The fallen angel turned his cruel smile on her.
“No need to rush… I shall appraise you next. Thoroughly.”
Cait hunkered down as he turned towards her, growling at him and flicking her twin tails side to side. The darkness around him seemed to grow with each slow step towards her that he took, his red eyes beginning to glow in the low light.
Fear beat through her, too strong for her to master.
The tips of his emerging fangs showed between his lips as his smile widened.
His claws grew longer.
Cait lost her fight against her urge to cower.
“He comes,” Taryn murmured.
The fallen angel’s smile faded.
Cold blasted through the arena and Cait shuddered as it sucked the heat from her sleek body.
Black shadows swept in and swirled around, blanketing everything.
Screams pierced the darkness.
CHAPTER 13
Owen was pushing his luck, the shadow spell taking its toll on his body every time he renewed it, but he had a feeling that it had been worth the strange sensation that he was losing himself. It had taken him two days of tracking his own blood, but he had finally found what he had been looking for.
The people coming and going through the seedy medieval-looking town in the free realm of Hell spoke of an auction, unaware of him as he lurked in the shadows, one with them. Unless he chose to make his presence known, the spell kept him cloaked and incorporeal.
A wraith.
He looked down the main thoroughfare of the town, off to his right, towards endless black where only a single distant glow broke the darkness.
Many of the unsavoury males were heading in that direction, their excited murmurs about what goods they intended to purchase sickening him and making him want to kill them all and do the world a favour. He couldn’t expend that much power though. He would need all that he had left if he was going to save Cait.
Owen moved towards the glow, crossing the uneven black land at speed, floating like a phantom above it.
A canyon loomed ahead, formed of cragged obsidian rock. He rose up one of the steep inclines to the plateau at the top and drifted across it, following the sound of cheering.
When the large open area amidst the black rock came into view, Owen stopped dead and scowled down at the people crammed into the makeshift arena. At the far end across from him stood a stage and two immense dark-haired males dressed in black were parading a naked male and female across it, using batons to keep them in line. Another male, this one blond and dressed in a tailored dark suit, played the role of auctioneer, whipping the crowd into a buying frenzy.
Owen used his time wisely as he waited for Cait to appear, scanning the crowd and seeking out any dangerous opponents he needed to be aware of before he launched an attack. Most of the crowd weren’t a threat to him. They were weaker species, which left Owen despising them even more. They purchased their slaves to give them a sick sense of power.
The smartly dressed male on the stage didn’t need to sink to such low levels to feel powerful. He possessed strength, a deadly and dangerous edge to his aura, one that left Owen determined to avoid a direct confrontation with him.
He had met a fallen angel once.
It was the only job he had failed.
Owen was no match for the strength of the male, not even on his best day. Definitely not when he was liable to collapse into a writhing heap of agony the second he lifted his shadow spell.
The fallen angel could finish him with a single blow.
He spotted Marius moving to the canyon corridor that led off the back of the stage and clenched his fists at his sides, filled with an overwhelming need to fly down and tear the male to pieces for taking Cait from him.
The current auction ended and a nude female with dark-to-light hair came onto the stage, escorted by one of the guards.
Owen’s fury faded as he saw Cait behind her.
His beautiful Cait.
They had put a collar on her, just as she had feared, and he wanted to rip it off her and set her free.
He wanted to gather her into his arms and hold her, because there was fear in her eyes as she looked at Marius and then the crowd. He would take that fear away for her.
He moved around the edge of the canyon, drawing closer to her, waiting for the right moment to strike and barely holding himself back as Marius dared to plant a kiss on Cait. Owen plotted Marius’s death in his head as Cait broke free and turned on the hellcat male.
The crowd jeered and shouted demands, and Cait’s guard attached a chain to her collar, tying her to a thick post. Owen readied his weapon again as another male in a dark suit approached Cait, a sense of power flowing from him.
Magic.
Owen knew that spell. They were restraining Cait by using it on her collar and he suspected the same spell was in the other female’s shackles.
Before the guard could strike Cait, she had shifted, becoming a beautiful sleek black cat with twin tails that flickered with blue fire.
Owen began to chant beneath his breath as he prepared himself, sensing that everything was about to take a turn for the worse and his time to act was coming.
The fallen angel turned towards Cait as she tried to launch herself at him and failed. The male stalked towards her, vicious intent on his face, and she cowered, going down on her belly and backing away from him. He meant to hurt her. Never.
Owen would never let the male lay a finger on Cait.
A sudden outbreak in fighting in the middle of the crowd snapped Owen’s attention to that spot. Several males dressed in tight black armour appeared one after the other, led by one with wild blue-black hair and a long obsidian spear.
Owen saw his chance and took it.
He unleashed the spell he had been chanting and it swept across the canyon, sucking all
of the heat from the air as the shadows swirled and blanketed the area, plunging it into darkness.
He could see though.
The elves continued their fight, decimating the crowd as they pushed through it, evidently using their heightened senses to guide them towards whatever they had come for.
On the stage, the other female dropped to her knees, breaking free of the guard who held her hair. She roared and sprang, launching herself at the fallen angel’s back where he stood in the middle of the stage, looking around him, his red eyes glowing brightly.
Owen leaped from the edge of the canyon and landed silently on the ground below the cragged black wall of rock. He couldn’t fight as he was. The spell made it impossible and the moment he lifted it to attack, the shadows would lift too, dissipating in a heartbeat.
He swept through the crowd as they blindly ran, bumping into each other. Some made the unfortunate mistake of ending up in the path of the elves as they hacked their way through the darkness, cutting down any who dared to get in their way.
Owen lifted the spell as he kicked off, leaping onto the black stage.
The light from the torches instantly flickered into life, driving the shadows back and revealing the battle that had broken out. The cold lingered in the air though, cool against his bare chest, fighting the heat that began to rise inside him again as his body became solid once more.
The fallen angel bared his fangs on a hiss, huge black wings burst from his back and he kicked upwards, launching into the air. Fleeing. Owen didn’t care. He wasn’t here to throw what remained of his life away on fighting a fallen angel.
He was here to save Cait and make Marius pay.
His narrowed eyes slid towards Marius as he fled the stage and he threw his right hand towards him, releasing a twisting black and red orb. The spell struck the male in the back, sending him flying forwards down the steps into the canyon.
No escape for the bastard now.
Owen shifted his focus to Cait, chanting the spell that would reverse the one restraining her as he ran towards her. The other female landed hard where the fallen angel had been and growled through sharp teeth, her strange eyes flashing dangerously as she pinned them on him. She thought he was a threat.
Cait sniffed, her nose lifted high in the air, and then lowered her head and snarled at the female, black fur sticking up along her spine. She had scented him. He threw his hand towards the chain that held her and it shattered, the links breaking apart and flying in all directions.
The female immediately backed off and turned her rage on those who were a threat to them.
Cait looked back at him, her blue eyes bright in the low light. She changed back, writhing and growling as her body transformed and her black fur disappeared, leaving pink skin behind. He wanted to cover her with something, the thought of all the males in the area seeing her naked turning his blood to fire, but he couldn’t spare the magic or his strength.
She didn’t seem to care as she ran at him, hurled her arms around his neck, and kissed him hard.
Owen gathered her against him, his heart pounding and relief coursing through him as he felt her in his arms, her naked chest pressing against his bare one. Reality sank in swiftly to chase all of his fears away. She was safe now. All he had to do was get her out of this place and deal with the male who had put her here, and then he was done and he could rest.
The other female launched a brutal attack on one of the guards, raining blows down on him and managing to get his baton. She smacked the male across the head with it and he grunted and hit the deck, landing in a slump on the wooden boards.
Owen pressed his hand to Cait’s collar. It snapped open in response to his spell and he smiled as she tore it off her. She smiled back at him and wobbled in his vision.
“Not now,” he muttered and pressed his hand to his head, screwing his eyes shut as he fought the wave of nausea that ripped through him.
His knees buckled, the force of them hitting the stage sending a numbing jolt up his spine.
“Owen,” Cait shouted, dropped to her knees beside him and grabbed his shoulders. “Owen?”
He sucked down a sharp breath into his burning lungs and nodded, trying to let her know that he would be alright. For now at least. He wasn’t sure how much longer he had and he still needed to get Cait away from this place.
His hands shook as he fumbled for the remaining vial of the spell Julianna had made for him. He almost had it free of the pouch on the belt of his black jeans when another wave of dizziness crashed over him. Cait clutched him with one hand, keeping him steady, and reached for the pouch with the other.
“Clear vial.” He managed to squeeze those words out, afraid she would give him the black one instead. He couldn’t risk becoming a shadow again. He might not have the strength to make himself corporeal again.
She nodded and pulled the slender glass vial out, popped the cap off and brought it up to his lips. She poured it into his mouth. It instantly cooled the burning in his throat and his lungs as it went down and he sighed as it spread through him, stealing away his pain and the dizziness, leaving him able to fight again.
“We have to get out of here,” he said and stumbled onto his feet.
Cait hesitated. “I have to help Taryn.”
She looked behind her at the female where she was fighting the other guard and losing. The manacles were stealing her strength and inhibiting her. He nodded and Cait rushed to her aid, taking on the guard for her. The other men who had been on the stage had scattered, but Owen knew one of them hadn’t gone far.
Marius.
The bastard had ducked into the canyon beyond the stage but he wouldn’t get away. The spell Owen had hit him with was a tracker. No matter where the male hellcat went, Owen could find him now. He would pay for what he had done to Cait.
Owen muttered the spell that would lift the one on Taryn’s manacles as he stumbled towards her. Cait had the baton and seemed quite taken with the black weapon as she fought the guard, landing hard blows on his arms and his legs before leaping back to a safe distance as the male retaliated.
When Owen was close enough to Taryn and had finished the incantation, he stared at her manacles around her wrists and threw his hand forwards to unleash the spell. The restraints snapped open and fell from her arms, and she looked across at him, a flicker of gratitude in her violet-to-white eyes. What species was she?
She leaped into the fray before he could ask, helping Cait with the guard and taking him down with a single devastating blow.
Whatever she was, she was incredibly powerful.
The elves closed in on the stage, cutting through the remains of the crowd below him, and Owen spotted what they were after. Two elf females were huddled together near the corner of it ahead of him, wedged against the front of the stage and the canyon wall. Three males stood in front of them but they would be no match for the seven elf warriors coming at them.
A sensation went through Owen and he bit out a curse.
He turned back towards Cait and Taryn. “Marius is on the move.”
Cait glanced at him and then looked at Taryn. “Come with us.”
Owen looked back at the elves as they dealt with the last of the three men and carefully took the two female elves into their custody. He wished he could help them with their manacles, but he needed every last drop of his magic for the fight against Marius.
“Thank you, but I have to go,” Taryn said. “I have to fly.”
The elf warrior with the spear spun on his heel to face Taryn, his violet eyes wide. Owen looked to the female too. She was looking at the elf.
A heartbeat of time passed, a silent second in which the two merely stared at each other, and then the male lifted his hand and touched the left side of his neck, resting his fingers on the scales of his black armour.
Taryn turned away and Owen couldn’t believe his eyes as she transformed right in front of him, becoming an enormous dragon with violet scales that turned white down her throat and und
er her belly. White leathery membrane stretched as she beat her huge wings and threw her head back, her curved white horns almost touching her neck as she roared, the sound deafening as it echoed around the canyon.
“Wait!” The elf male launched onto the stage in a single leap, landing at her side.
She snarled through fangs each the length of Owen’s arms and swept her gigantic left paw down in a devastating arc, catching the elf male and sending him flying into a wall of black rock across the canyon.
“Commander Bleu,” one of the other elves called after him and teleported, appearing beside the fallen male.
The one called Bleu picked himself up, shook himself and then growled as Taryn took flight, the wind from each hard beat of her wings battering Owen and Cait. Bleu teleported and appeared on the stage in front of Owen, his gaze on the beautiful dragon as it disappeared into the gloom. He bit out something harsh sounding in a strange tongue, tossed Owen a black scowl, and turned on his heel, storming across the stage towards the group of elves that waited for him with the two females.
“He is coming... I thought Taryn meant you,” Cait murmured and looked up into Owen’s eyes as she approached him, concern and warmth flooding her blue irises. “But she meant him… the elf.”
“They know each other?” Owen said and Cait shrugged, drawing his attention back to the fact that she was naked.
He slowly moved towards the unconscious guards and set about pulling the black t-shirt off one of them for her. Sweat broke out across his brow and he wavered, his strength threatening to leave him again as his fever returned fiercer than ever.
“Owen.” Cait caught him around the waist when his knees weakened and held him up. He thanked her with a small smile and hated how concerned she looked, the fear back in her eyes again. Fear for him this time.
“I’m okay.” He hated himself for lying to her too. Especially when she responded by giving him a look filled with sorrow, as if he was already dead. “I told you once I was made of sterner stuff than you think.”
He held the t-shirt out to her and fought the wave of dizziness, refusing to let it send him swaying on his feet when he was trying to reassure her.
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