24. Alister
24
Alister
A gents swarmed past me as the academy’s protective wards shattered.
My stomach dropped.
This was it.
I hoped my human form could keep down the food I had eaten.
A familiar hulking figure appeared at my side.
Ryker.
His dark eyes scanned the chaos, his muscles coiled beneath tattooed skin.
“My men,” he growled. “The ones patrolling the perimeter of the wards. They’re not responding.”
My worry for Evelyn made me hesitate. I didn’t want to leave her, but we could potentially intercept some of Eris’s followers and lessen the burden. “Let’s investigate quickly.”
Ryker nodded, his body already shifting. Scales erupted across his skin as his limbs elongated into powerful haunches and wings.
A massive dragon stood before me in seconds, smoke curling from his nostrils.
I climbed onto his back. Then we were airborne, the wind whipping my hair as Ryker soared toward the southern border.
He banked sharply, nearly unseating me. I clung tighter—this was not the time to fall.
As we neared the perimeter, dread pooled in my stomach. Something was very wrong. Where were the agents? Where was everyone?
“Land here,” I instructed, pointing to a clearing.
Ryker touched down with surprising grace for his size. I slid off his back, scanning our surroundings. The eerie silence pressed against my ears, almost deafening in its intensity. Not a single bird chirped, nor leaves rustled in the wind.
“I don’t like this,” I muttered.
Ryker shifted back to his human form, his muscles rippling as he straightened. He cocked his head, listening intently with the acute senses of a shifter.
“Over here,” he said, his voice a low growl, pointing to a cluster of bushes.
We pushed through to find the bodies of Ryker’s men, the shifters who had been patrolling the perimeter. They lay in unnatural positions, eyes open, vacant, and completely drained of magic.
“Fuck,” Ryker swore, his fists clenching. The veins in his neck stood out, and his eyes burned with anger and sorrow.
We pressed on, uncovering more lifeless bodies—this time, Supernatural Law Enforcement officers. Each was an empty drained battery; their magic siphoned away. The sight made my human heart ache in a way it never had when I was a vampire.
Ryker halted abruptly, every muscle in his massive frame going rigid. “We’re not alone,” he growled, his eyes scanning the darkened forest with the keen alertness of a predator.
I gripped the hilt of my sword strapped to my back. “Is it Eris?”
Ryker shook his head slowly, his expression growing more severe. “Something else. Something…wrong.”
A low chuckle interrupted us.
“Well, well,” a large male shifter said, stepping out of the shadows. “If it isn’t the former vampire and his pet dragon. You’ve come far from being daddy’s little errand boy.”
The shifter wasn’t alone. Three others flanked him, their postures predatory. Their eyes glowing with an eerie, unnatural light made them look like they were juiced up on dark magic, and the effect was deeply unsettling.
They sprang into action before I could utter a retort, their bodies twisting and swelling grotesquely mid-leap. Claws elongated, fangs gleamed, and muscles rippled with unnatural bulk.
“What the hell?” I exclaimed, stumbling back as one of the creatures swiped at my head.
Ryker was faster. In a fluid motion, he shifted into his dragon form, his enormous body moving between me and the attackers. His roar ripped through the clearing, so primal it made the ground tremble. Flames erupted from his mouth, engulfing the mutated shifters in searing heat.
The forest lit up like a bonfire, and the air grew thick with the acrid stench of burning flesh. The shifters screamed, their monstrous forms writhing and melting under the blaze.
“That’s it,” I muttered, patting Ryker’s scaled neck with my human hand, which felt pathetically small. “Barbecue the bastards.”
But three more surged from the tree line.
“How are these things so damn big?” I muttered as I jumped onto Ryker’s back, gripping my sword tightly.
Ryker launched into the air just as one of them leaped high, its claws swiping dangerously close. I swung my sword wide, slicing clean through the creature’s neck. Its head spun off into the trees as its body crashed back to the ground.
Ryker’s powerful wings beat the air, propelling us upward. But an enormous bird with glowing, unnatural eyes rose to meet us. Mid-flight, it shifted into a humanoid form and landed behind me on Ryker’s back.
I barely had time to react before it grabbed my shoulders and yanked me off.
I tumbled through the air, fumbling for the bubble wrap potion I knew I’d stashed somewhere. Which pocket was it in? I cursed my clumsy human hands as panic surged.
Ryker dove, his massive form cutting through the air, catching me at the last possible second. His claws scooped me up, and we soared skyward again.
That had been way too close.
Being human was not all it was cracked up to be.
In times like this, I missed the invulnerability and detachment. This fragile, breakable existence was exhausting.
But we had survived. Barely. And for a moment, I let myself believe I wasn’t completely useless.
Then, a new sound reached us, and the earth trembled.
“Please tell me that’s your stomach,” I said weakly.
Ryker’s entire body stiffened. Slowly, he turned his massive head, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
That’s when I saw them. A seething mass of rotting flesh and exposed bone shambled toward the Academy.
“Bloody hell,” I muttered. “We need to get back now.”