Eye of the Tiger
LUCAS
I hear another sound from above and I pause, looking up to the sky to see Morgana shifting into the fearsome form of her gargoyle. Her hair has transformed into a mass of writhing snakes and even though I’m a bear at the moment, my body reacts.
My mate is hot as fuck in every state and I can’t wait to see her fuck that big ass orc up.
The two dragons are circling the enormous foe, one zapping it so it stops to twitch for a moment while the other one—well, I don’t know what the fuck the demon dragon is doing.
It doesn’t look like he’s doing anything, but the way the orc is reacting says he is.
And whatever the fuck it is, it’s painful because it’s bothering the creature even more than Kaspar’s electrics.
“Lucas!”
Liam’s shout penetrates my brain and I duck out of the way before one of these magical fire covered zombies in the Autumn tent gets its hands on me.
Morgana’s sexy stone distracted me and I can’t let that happen again.
Other than Slade, I’m the least experienced in our family when it comes to this kind of shit and I refuse to be the one who makes us look inept.
Banking off a wall when my charge propels me with enough momentum to crash, I plow forward through a crowd of Fae, dispersing them so the shark shifter can grab two and clunk their heads together.
“Fucking. Hate. Fire,” he snarls as he tosses the newest victims of his blunt method of slowing down the swarm of former revelers that seems to be hurting him. “Bear, chase more my way. Pair by pair until it stops.”
The guy isn’t a big talker, but I know what he means.
He wants to knock out all the probable innocents until Liam and Iggy can undo whatever the spell bomb in here did to drive them insane.
Throwing my head back, I let out a mighty polar bear roar, drawing the attention of another group of enchanted creatures.
I gallop across the destroyed party area, leading my new enemies on a small chase before herding them right back to the shark like a fucking border collie.
I should find it demeaning, but it’s not; it’s like taking orders from a general in battle.
As I skid past the big dude, he grabs another pair of them, repeating his move so that they drop to the ground limply.
I realize this might harm some of the people here and I hate that, but truthfully?
I get the feeling this dude would be happy to simply kill them if it wasn’t for the agreement Li made with his boss.
Demons don’t value life the same way surface supes do, it seems, and the look of irritation on my partner’s face is all I need to confirm that assumption.
He’d much rather take the threats out entirely than keep them breathing.
“Next,” he yells and I pick up my pace, running through another group until I have followers once more. But this time, when I get close to the pinch point they shy away. That makes the demon throw up his hands as if importing something, but I doubt it’s any of the powers that be I’m aware of.
“Casters—work faster. They are able to think!”
Raising up on my back paws, I swipe at the crowd that’s gathering around me as he starts stomping through the mind-controlled Fae, slinging his arms outward to just smack them across the floor like gnats.
Some stay down and some get up, but his method is elegant in its simplicity.
The more people he takes out, the less we’re worried about as we look for the true targets in this mess.
Because in my experience, the richest, most important people are always the targets and they always slip away to leave their minions to die in their place.
It takes the shark and me longer than I expected to get the Autumn crowd under control.
Morgana and the dragons are working to lure the orc away from the bazaar from above.
I was confused as to why they didn’t just take it out at first, but I finally realized they were trying to minimize the amount of people killed by dropping something the size of a small skyscraper.
I’ve wondered how cool it would have been to be a winged shifter and watching them in between clean-up definitely reinforced how fucking cool it would.
I wonder if Lady M will take me flying sometime; she’s strong enough for that, right?
“Lucas, we’re moving to you guys to help find the targets.” Liam’s voice gets my attention and I turn to face the two magic users moving towards the big guy and me in some sort of protective bubble.
I won’t be a lot of help to them in this form so I raise up on my back legs again and half-shift into the form that looks a lot like a sexy furry.
It’s not my favorite, to be honest, so I don’t do this very often.
It feels weird and awkward to look like an anime fever dream.
But I can talk better like this, and my brain isn’t quite so scattered.
Iggy arches a brow as he looks me up and down, then mutters, “Okay, now I fucking get it.”
Jackass .
“Thank you for your help, General,” Li says as he and the professor let the shield go to join us in the carnage that was the royal abode of the Autumn Court representatives. “Your magically gifted friends are working through the Reaping area.”
“Call me Slash,” the shark shifter says before looking up at the battle raging above us with an annoyed glare. “This would be faster if Jasper and your friends took the orc out immediately.”
I give him a reproachful look. “Then it would kill a hell of a lot of Fae and creatures when it hit the ground. Luring it away is the solution for the least collateral damage.”
“War cannot be won without such things.”
Liam shakes his head, his eyes dark as he shoots a few magical wisps of smoke and glitter from his palms. “We are not at war, Slash. At least, not yet. I’m unwilling to allow shadowy villains to cause mass casualties on planes neither of us hail from.
Imagine what that would cause… diplomatic sanctions neither of our parents’ courts would appreciate. ”
Slash grunts, but I think he’s on board. He seems like the type of guy to toe the line and if his Prince told him to help us, he will. “This was planned carefully.”
That gets Iggy’s attention and he scratches his chin as we carefully move through the rubble looking for places the Autumn dignitaries might be hiding.
“I agree. Tracer said these are called a month or so in advance, and invitations to the leaders go out first, then to each level of supernatural based on need for their presence. That means as quickly as the Fae built this little territory and the Sons built theirs, those who set up this ambush worked just as quickly to do something that should have been impossible.”
“Fuck, that’s bad,” Liam sighs as he rakes his hand through his hair.
“In so many ways, it reinforces our theory that there are rebel groups across the realms suddenly working together to cause chaos all over the globe. To what end, we don’t know, but they are using the built-in protocols all species have for gathering in large numbers. ”
Slash stops, turning around to face us, his expression grim. “For the first time in millennia, the demons have reinstated the Caliphate Games.”
I have no idea what that is and Ignatius looks similarly confused. The prince, however, curses liberally in English then another language I don’t recognize. Walking over to him, I put a hand on his shoulder as I ask, “What is that and why does your reaction make me want to find a spaceship?”
“It’s not optimal.”
Rolling my eyes at the short spoken demon, I wait for Liam to give us a bit more context.
He scrubs his palms over his face then turns to look at me and the mage.
“They were held every year until the current royal families were in them at the end of their tenure at Discordia University. They were the first team to ever play together and they used their victory to start a war—which led to their takeover of Hell. That was the last time they played. All royal heirs, no matter the species, learn a bit about the worst rebellions of the other species. I suppose they hope we’ll gain insight to prevent wars in our own realms.”
This time, I snort. “War isn’t preventable even with all the information in the known universe. There’s always bad apples in the bin and they’ll act with no regard for anything, but their own desires. It doesn’t matter if it’s demons or humans or whatever else.”
They all look at me with pleased expressions, even the shark and I shrug as a flush rises up my neck. Liam leans in and places his forehead against mine, smiling. “You’ve done well today, mathan óg . Morgana will be pleased as well when she’s done helping Kaspar and His Highness save the day.”
“Interesting.”
“Dude, you make statues seem talkative.” I grin at the demon and he just shakes his head before going back to searching the rubble.
“Speaking of statues—sort of— does anyone have a clue how we’re going to get these fiery folk to stop burning?
They’re out, but who knows for how long.
We need to find the diplomats or whatever, but we also definitely need to get the zombie Fae taken care of. ”
“Iggy, can you make a run for the shops and see if you can find anything to whip up a spell? I’m thinking maybe something along the lines of removing control or clearing minds might work. If we work together, we might be able to reverse it.”
“If not, the armorers have solutions.”
My jaw drops as I look at Slash. “Dude, we’re not killing all these people. There are kids and shit.”
“Don’t be daft. They also have restraints.”
Oh.
Iggy steps between us before I have to apologize, his hands up. “I’ll go search for ingredients but um… the restraints won’t be necessary.”
The demon arches a brow as he tosses aside a broken table. “Why not?”
“Because I can handle them,” the soft voice says as Slade approaches in the bubble our professor must have been holding him in.
“I’d prefer not to use my powers if possible because we don’t have protective gear for the demons, but if I must, I can supersede this spell. Though… I don’t know for how long.”
“Slade, buddy, you can definitely do it,” I say as he steps out of the magical force field to join us. “Hell, sirens are banned in some states because they’re so fucking good at that shit.”
He turns red and shrugs, looking embarrassed. “Sirens like my mother are why that law is in place. I’m not as flexible when it comes to my morals. But… speaking of them, do you think this attack was focused only on the Fae territory or are people battling shit out in the other areas?”
Slash’s eyes widen and his gaze darts up to the dragons and our gargoyle in the sky. “Shit.”
“Worried about the demon mafia, big guy?” I ask with a grin. “If it makes you feel better, we saw those snarky twins earlier, so your lands are probably okay. They had Fae and a phoenix and a lion with them—and their new mate seems like she wouldn’t put up with anyone’s shit.”
“New mates?” The huge hybrid sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose as he goes quiet again. After a moment or a two, he frowns. “I am inclined to agree with Prince Liam now. There is something more to this situation and I do not like it.”
Well, no shit, Sherlock.