“Stay behind me,” Angel hissed, arching her upper body forward in a pose designed for striking hard and fast. “It’s a shadow hunter.”
I’d never heard of a shadow hunter, but the tense undertones in her voice told me that they were bad news. They were also probably here because of me, and once again, I was proving that my stupid ass was too dangerous to be left alone.
This was really Shadow’s fault, with his insistence I connect to the Shadow Realm.
Yep, I was satisfied with ninety percent of the blame lying with him.
“Behind,” she said again when I started to sidle around her.
“Girl, I don’t roll that way,” I said to her back. “I’ve never relied on anyone to fight my battle before, and I’m not about to start with you. We stand together.”
It was fine to wait for a knight in shining armor to save you—that was many a young shifter’s dream, but not mine. My knight would have no doubt shown up in shit-covered, rusty metal and proceeded to let me down over and over again. Why wait for that? Why have hope when it was always proven to be worthless?
Angel just shook her head but didn’t argue. “Also,” I added, “I know and acknowledge that you’re ten times more badass than me. But I will still always stand with you.”
Before she could reply, more roars ripped the room apart, and my wolf stirred in my chest, trying to surge forward with a howl of her own. I had the sense that drawing attention to us was a bad idea, so I locked her down the best I could.
Two shadow hunters came into sight, shrouded head to toe in black, marching swiftly along the rows. My wolf’s restlessness grew even stronger and I had to wonder why the hell everything in the Shadow Realm made her react so violently. Could it just be about a Shadow Beast connection? Or was it something else?
And would I ever solve these mysteries before one of these creatures took me out?
“Two of them,” Angel hissed, and there was a quiver of light along her skin as her wings burst free, weapons appearing in both hands. They were curved blades, shimmering gold and silver, with wickedly sharp tips on the ends.
“What are they here for?” I whispered. “And how do we take them out?”
She leaned farther forward, those blades swinging around her hands with the sort of skill that I would never possess—if I even remotely attempted that, I’d cut my damn arms off.
Maybe she really didn’t need me at her side.
“I’ve never heard of them being outside the Shadow Realm,” she said, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “They’re used to round up any creatures that escape royal control. Like supernatural bounty hunters. What they’re doing here, I have no idea, but the fact that they’ve arrived while Shadow Beast is busy is bad news.”
On the almost certainty that this was my fault, I had to do everything in my power to ensure that no one got hurt. And I seriously had to figure out how to send them back because it was getting crowded on this side of the door now. Not to mention it was all making sense why that door had been barred in the first place. Shadow creatures were just like the Shadow Beast—dangerous and uncontrollable. One of him in the Solaris System was more than enough.
Another roar shattered the unnatural silence, followed by the sound of scrambling as everyone scattered from the dining room, trying to escape whatever fate these two had in mind.
“What’s under their cloaks?” I murmured. “I didn’t even see their heads move when they screamed.”
Angel shook her head, focus never wavering. “No one knows. They always wear the shrouds, and the screams are debilitating to anything weaker in energy than them. Which is almost everything.”
Excellent. “We’re still standing, at least.”
Silver linings were not usually my forte, but I needed one today. Maybe Angel and I could at least hold them off until help arrived.
Unless we were the help…
“I’ve tangled with a shadow hunter before,” she said, swirling those blades again, “and one is no match for me, but two…”
The unsaid was obvious there. She had no idea if she could handle two. “I’ll be the annoying distraction,” I said as another scream, much louder this time, almost knocked me down. “That might give you an edge.”
They were standing in the middle of the row, and Angel kept trying to edge me out of the way. When it was obvious I wasn’t going to move, she let out a huff and launched herself forward, deciding to attack first.
Her wings released a powerful gust of air that knocked both cloaked figures back, their faces remaining well hidden in the darkness of their hoods. This close, I could tell they were tall and solidly built, with a black mist coating them from head to toe.
Angel crashed into the nearest, her weapon slicing out in a rapid arc, and at the same time, she released the blade in her left hand, sending it flying across the table. The second hunter managed to dodge the blow, but the curved blade returned to Angel in time for her to throw it again, all while parrying blows with the one she was face to face with.
The screeches were deafening, and I fought against the urge to cover my ears and crawl under the table. If Angel could somehow fight two dudes with magic flying blades on her own, I could manage to stay on my fucking feet and not cower like a bitch. Had to live up to my big talk of fighting my own battles, and at minimum that meant staying on my feet.
My wolf scratched against her metaphorical cage, trying to force a change. After a moment’s hesitation, I decided that maybe I should let her have the lead here. I had more weapons as a wolf, but there was still a small concern over the odd way she acted around shadow creatures.
“Get out of here,” Angel shouted, not hearing my internal debate. “Get Shadow.”
That was the logical step to take, but there was every chance he was fairly occupied himself. Surely, if he wasn’t, he would have already felt the chill of these two hunters—their icy energy was like a slap in the face with a frozen bag of balls.
Change! My wolf was not taking no for an answer, and with no more time to worry about the right path, I released her and let the shift wash across me. The pain was over in a flash, and it was the fastest I’d ever shifted. A great achievement if I wasn’t about to fight a darkness-washed hunter.
My wolf had no fear of these beings, and since I was hidden deep inside her soul, there was no hesitation as we attacked. Together we struck when, on my own, I would have shied away.
When we attached to the dark cloak, Angel let out a scream. “Don’t touch their darkness!”
It was too late to stop. My jaws already clamped around the cloak, tearing it away from the body. The wolf and I both wanted to know what lay below their shroud.
It tasted odd, the material musky and decaying. There had been no scent until we’d attached to it, but the moment that cloak was in our jaws, we were hit with wafts of death and blood.
It didn’t deter my wolf, who was vicious in her attack, as more and more strips were torn from the hunter. Angel continued shouting warnings at me, but I was beyond hearing.
The hunters screamed louder than ever, but it didn’t hurt at all in this form.
“How the hell are you doing that, wolf?” Angel bellowed so close to my ear that I was forced to hear her… forced to think about what she was saying.
Touching them was apparently a big no-no, for reasons I wasn’t aware of. There was just too damn much I didn’t know about this world; information that would no doubt come in handy when I was on the frontline battling.
Since they hadn’t killed us so far, we didn’t stop, choosing instead to up our attack, aiming higher to reach its “face.”
Sharp jabs of power slipped off my fur as it hit back. We felt the blow, but there was no follow-through with actual pain. More of its dark cloak fell to the ground, and my wolf was almost cut in two as a sickle blade zoomed past my head and embedded itself deep in the depthless hood of the hunter.
Its shriek was different this time. Higher-pitched with less force. The first scream was an attack, but this one was pain. Angel had hit right in the spot to cause the most damage.
The black cloak fluttered to the floor and we backed up, eyeing it. Whatever substance had been holding the hunter together had vanished with the strike of Angel’s blade, leaving behind a bundle of dark material.
Angel’s second battle cry was accompanied by a clap of her wings as they slammed into the remaining hunter, before he, too, was dispatched with her blades.
Her fucking awesome, wickedly sharp blades.
If I didn’t think I’d somehow kill myself with them, I would totally be getting a set.
When we were standing above two puddles of material, she spun to me, her chest heaving as she ran her gaze over my beast. Trying to pry out my secrets.
“You, my friend,” she huffed, “are no human or shifter.”
We stared up at her, my wolf as confused as me. What the heck did that mean?
