My guards move out from our circle of protection, linking to Radar for direction and I watch as they move towards the figures around the room, preparing for them to intervene while Radar and another wolf head right for Juan. A tactical move to position themselves between them and their Luna and Rema. I don’t understand why this seems so easy, why he’s so smug, or why his protectors are motionless and watching. It’s all a little too simple.
“Wait. I don’t like this.” I strut forward fast and grab at Radar’s arm from behind, yanking myself free from Carmen to do so. The witch however seems to get irritated with the pause and waves her hands in the air with a huge sigh.
“Oh, for god’s sake, Juan, whatever trick you have planned, get on with it so we can move and get home before dawn. This is tiring.” She walks brazenly towards him, pushing from between us easily, like we’re made of paper, and his eyes narrow as he focuses on her face. Instant recognition lighting him up now his attention is on this dark cloaked figure who had been standing behind us.
“So much for being a neutral to the species, Leyanne. Long time no see. Are you going to make this an unfair fight by intervening with your powers? There’s no fun in that and I thought it was against your rules, your highness.” He mocks her and she only shrugs with one shoulder as though she expected him to say something so juvenile. I however squint at what he just addressed her as. Highness?
“Not if I don’t have to but at the end of the day, preserving a species sometimes needs a little intervention. My goal has never changed. I will always be neutral, but never inactive when it comes to keeping this world in check and balance. Your species needs to be rid of toxic influences to thrive. Don’t call me that anymore, it’s been a long time since I resigned from the high council.” Leyanne shuts him down with a bored tone and haughty response as she adjusts her outer robes. She means business and walks with confidence towards him, no fear at anything he can do because I truly believe she is above being harmed by any creature on this planet. She’s not like any witch I have ever heard of, and her constant unwavering calm tells me she knows she is invincible. I have heard of the high council; it’s known to be a collection of the most powerful of the species and exists to keep us all in check. I find it strangely unsurprising she was once one of them, but I wonder why she isn’t anymore.
“Hmmmm….. shame you’re immortal. It would make my day to see you of all people fall at my feet. The great and powerful Leyanne Cruden, deserter of her own position and back turner of her sisterhood. So high and mighty, yet so self-absorbed and alone…… Now were all gathered here…. Do you want my presents? Let’s make things fun!” He shifts up from his lounging position, having no effect on her at all, and all around minus me instantly shift to wolf form from the threat in his tone. They all sense the incoming danger and I recoil behind Sierra automatically, shielding my abdomen with the gut feeling this is about to go off. Leyanne on the other hand brushes her hair from one shoulder and gives another disinterested shrug.
“I didn’t know you knew the meaning of the word fun, Juan…. Also, you’re too selfish for gift giving. So, what is it?” Leyanne mocks him right back.
“I knew I could never take out any that came for me, so I prepared a parting sentiment. I just expected it to be a gift for my son and yet the coward doesn’t even show face to his father…HAH….. This is an end to all of this, but my bitch mate will have to do instead. She always did put herself in front of children anyway. One life takes four, right?” Juan snaps, sudden anger in his sardonic tone and jumps up clutching something in his hand. Something dark and clunky, as he springs to his feet, suddenly virile. Still the only wolf apart from me in human form, and it happens so fast it’s like a blink. I don’t get a second to think or take in his sudden shift.
The unmistakable click and pop that despite never hearing in life, I know instantly what it is. It seems so nothing and unreal yet flips my heart inside out and I lurch with the fright as it dawns on me that it’s the noise of something firing. The object in his hand smoking, as his eyes glare bright and amber with disdain, and I’m transfixed on what he’s holding. Everything around me halting in an instant as time ceases to progress and I’m focused only on what he just did.
The long, cold, and terrifying silhouette of a pistol gripped in his large hand, the scent of silver and wolfsbane permeating the air around me as everything moves in slow motion. I watch in despair as a bullet takes slow flight through the shadowy air and careful aim right at the forehead of Sierra. She’s leaping through towards him, right in its path of destruction, everything frozen in a moment of time suddenly and I have no idea why. Somehow, it’s as though only I can see this happening without restraint of my own actions and all those around me have become almost still as seconds slow to minutes.
All I know is that I’m seeing it this way, the descent of death upon Sierra, the slow-motion movements of my entire guard as they fly for targets and the looming figure of that snarling and smug Juan before me. I lift my hands in impulse, shocked that I can move freely and normally, an orb of translucent energy forming around my fists as instinct takes over. My weapon of destruction and the only thing I have within me to protect my Rema. I lift my fists above my head and throw everything I have at that bullet, that lingering shrapnel of evil that hangs in the air between him and her.
NO!
My energy blows out like an explosion and takes everything in its wake with it. Uncontrolled due to my sheer fear, mounting hysteria, and suddenly time ceases to cling on in the slow mo anymore. Wooosh, the clock restarts and everything in my wake is thrown wide like the after implosion of a nuclear bomb.
Sierra, Radar, the bullet, and Juan, are all catapulted away from me with force. Flying into a chaotic landing of limp bodies against the far wall behind the bed, taking a pillar and the canopy with it in a crashing chorus of thuds and growls. It’s a monumental fallout from something that I didn’t mean to deliver so viciously.
I have no idea where the bullet has landed or if I managed to set it off course and I scramble forward to unravel Sierra from the mess of bedding and debris around her, shielded by the hunched over wolf form of Radar. Even in freefall he somehow managed to cling to her and protect her as they went down.
I sense Juan pulling himself up, slightly dazed, from my left against the wall and throw another energy ball of anger his way that hurtles him another few feet towards his subordinates. Concentrated despisal in a specially wrapped package just for him and the crunch of his bones as he collides with a dresser gives me some deep satisfaction.
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