Chapter 4 Zayn #2
I sucked in a breath. “Kick ass, warrior queen.”
She winked at me.
And in the next second, she was speeding out through to the wraparound balcony, then leaping up into the sky, and fucking shifting into dragon form in mid-air.
Holy. Shit.
The house shuddered again as another blast of magic hit.
The bedroom door burst open and Vax barreled in, phone in hand, his magic sparking as he clad himself in his leather battle gear—black leather, the bracers, his special daggers strapped to thigh holsters.
He flicked his citrine power at me, then I was dressed in that special tactical Requital gear. How had he—wow.
“Is it Temperance?” I asked, as he strode up to me, while pressing his phone to his ear.
“Among others.”
“You’re reaching out to Ryker Morgan?” The Guardian Movement hadn’t condoned the last Temperance attack, so they’d be all over this. They’d already arrested a bunch of them from that battle on campus grounds. Just how many were there?
“Attempting to. He’s juggling a lot.”
“What about Kai? You’re tight with him after working on that spell, right?”
“He’s grieving the loss of his closest friend.”
“Evira’s close with Vorzyr. Go through him. He can bring in Ariana for Celestial might.”
“I can use Taen’s.”
“No! We need that to help bring Win back, or even to put that motherfucker, Ruxnoth, down. Don’t use it for this battle.”
He nodded, taking my advice.
Him even thinking of using the Celestial power for this…
it wasn’t a normal move for him. Not tactical or careful.
He was reacting off emotion, desperate to protect us—because of what had happened to Win.
No doubt a part of him was blaming himself for Win being taken, as he’d been ripped from his arms. I mean, what the fuck had Vax thought he could have done differently with a warped True Celestial hellbent on doing that?
That’s right—nothing.
A dragon roar from Evira startled us both.
As Vax dialed, I rushed through the bedroom to the wraparound balcony and took in the situation.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Carnage.
Fury.
Insanity.
Desperation.
There was all of that going on, running loose and fucking rampant.
Through all hundred or so of them.
That many had come for us.
From what Vax had whispered to me as he’d analyzed the scene rapid-fire, even in the heat of battle at that, about fifty of them were Temperance members.
They were the ones taking the lead, but they were being bolstered by the others filling out the immediate area in front of the house—vampire clans who feared uncontrolled Necromancy, werewolves who weren’t under the protection of the Shifter Stabilization Unit run by Jaxon Silver and Vorzyr Titanus because they’d wanted to roam free.
There were also some Light Fae present who resided here and not in the Light Fae Realm, and then a bunch of sorcerers and sorceresses who weren’t bound to any covens, able to act freely—and insanely, like right now by coming at us.
Evira gave Vax and me another chin lift signal in her dragon form that she had earlier when we’d first come out here, and we took her cue—Vax grabbing me and bursting me back and out of the way.
Then in the next breath, she performed a Thunderstep, a flash-freeze lightning surge bursting out where her paws slammed into the ground, discharging a crack of thunder and frost rings that drove into the crowd of hostiles.
It ripped many off their feet, knocked out magic in the process, and even delivered frost injuries that compromised some of the wolves and vampires.
Clearing the way, basically, and causing controlled chaos in their ranks.
Vax had been sending his twin daggers out into the battlefield, where they’d stab two targets in unison, then shift with impossible physics-breaking maneuvers and hit others in the immediate vicinity, and then whoosh right back into Vax’s hands.
But he hadn’t deployed the venom imbued in them.
He was afraid of killing. There were so many different species here among the hostiles, some that could die from too high a dose of his Basilisk venom, and there wasn’t exactly time to calibrate for every single species and power set.
The no-killing thing wasn’t some arbitrary moral line, it was something the three of us had agreed on when we’d first hit the battlefield.
Because Temperance, despite the fucked-up way they were going about things, were really fucking scared.
Of becoming victims. Of being overpowered so brutally.
Of losing their lives and everything they held dear.
And that had precedent in what Morien Morgrave had done, many of the members had loved ones who’d been Morien’s victims. And they saw Winter as the same.
So us killing them for coming at us, even on a battlefield, wouldn’t exactly go over well in a larger sense.
It would be kind of fueling their narrative, and that was the last thing needed.
In the midst of the chaos and force-back Evira had created, I conjured fuchsia shimmering binds and sent them spinning out onto the battlefield and confining a dozen vampires.
Their speed was really biting us in the ass.
The cuts over my face, chest, and thighs—healing, at least—had been sustained by them bursting at me.
The same had happened to Vax. Even their talons had gone through our battle gear.
The Requital gear I was wearing was imbued with protective enchantments from Charlie, which had deflected some nasty magical attacks from magic-wielders who had tens of years on me.
The talons would’ve driven even deeper if not for it as well—like bleeding-out-wound territory.
Vax caught sight of two dozen magic-wielders conjuring leashes to throw over Evira to bring down her mammoth dragon form. He fired his citrine magic, invoking the petrification aspect, which turned the leashes to chalk in moments. Thank fuck.
Then he sent out what he called Corrosive Bursts that delivered shockwaves, which melted and destabilized the protective fields a bunch of the others had around them, as they fired upon us.
Evira let out a stream of her Cryogenic Frostfire, her ice dragon breath in a concentrated blast that cleared a third of the battlefield, hostiles thrown into the air as the ice hit, driving upward and forming land iceberg thingies all over that forced many of them to jump back to avoid being hit.
Then she swept a flood of it over the battlefield.
I could see her struggling to ensure it didn’t result in kills, though.
Especially when the magic-wielders started streaming against her, trying to hold off the ice and frost flooding toward them.
I blasted several wolves who went to leap at her, claws out and shimmering with magic that they must’ve been gifted by these fuckers—no doubt so they could penetrate her dragon hide.
But more kept coming.
Then the vampires joined in the same task.
Vax backed me up, but it wasn’t enough.
A dragon roar came from Evira, rumbling through the battlefield.
And then she abruptly shifted back, clothing herself in her go-to gray jeans, bustier, and big winter coat, just a second before she thrust her palms forward and her glacial magic shot out, forming a massive wall between us and the hostiles.
“Holy shit,” I exclaimed as I took in the shimmering, super thick ice wall, like sparkling crystal with light blue flecks dancing all over it.
My dick jerked at the sight of her looking so fucking strong and fierce, and it was hot as fuck.
Getting turned on by her in the heat of battle—yeah, with the adrenaline, using my Ifrit flame so much, and me being me, that tracked.
Hard. I blinked and looked away at Vax who’d come up on my right facing the wall.
And there he was spinning those daggers like a sexy fucking beast.
Jeez.
Movement breaking from the battlefield caught my attention, and the three of us watched at the ready as two hostiles strode up to the wall.
A guy with long curly brown hair stepped forward, built like a tank in all black—jeans, a denim jacket with a hood and a tee that barely stretched across his broad chest. He was a sorcerer, and I’d heard from calls and commands throughout the battle that his name was Hale.
A vampire in tactical gear similar to mine, except it was white, stepped up beside him and cocked her head at us with narrowed eyes, her blonde ponytail jerking like the lash of a whip.
I’d determined her name as well. Raquel.
The two of them were leaders of Temperance. They had a bunch, apparently.
Hale eyed Evira. “That’s immense power you’re using to hold that. What a shame it is that you’re on the wrong side of this, stunning princess.”
Evira’s eyes narrowed.
Vax hissed and I growled, the two of us not liking his come-on, kind of predatory tone with her.
He smirked at us, then Raquel stepped forward and spoke, “It’s public knowledge at this point that Winter Nox is in love with the three of you.
This will interrupt his work with that True Celestial horror show.
He will have to break from hiding out with that abomination, knowing you’re in danger.
He’ll come for you, step out from his greater domination plans just long enough for us to snatch him, then do what needs to be done. ”
“You’re misinformed,” Vax rumbled. “Winter isn’t hiding. Nor is he working with Ruxnoth. He’s being harmed and violated by him.”
“Held against his fucking will!” I yelled.
“He’s a victim here,” Evira added. “Just like all of you are afraid of becoming. He’s not your enemy. He never was.”
“You’re incredibly biased where he’s concerned,” Raquel returned.
“Bias doesn’t refute statements of actual fact,” Vax bit back.