Page 22 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 1

Even before he saw the shadow of Demos’ big cat form leaping towards the church window from inside, Ryder was already diving at the Vampires. He hadn’t made a sound in his bird form so they didn’t see him coming until they were being dive bombed by dozens of birds.

The leader let out a shriek as he pecked at her face, going for her eyes. She blindly thrust out her hands and lightning arced from her fingertips and hit the asphalt--shattering huge chunks of it and spraying the air--and the back of the church--two windows shattered and glass rained down. She also struck some of his bird bodies who let out a caw! And then burst into feathers that fluttered down to earth. He felt their loss like body blows, but they didn’t incapacitate him in any way.

On the front side of the church, he had dive bombed the whip-thin Asian woman and the old man. Both had ducked down to cover their faces. His talons drew blood and ripped strands of hair from their heads. He heard the old man curse with a British accent. The air pressure changed just before a wave of wind sent many of his bird bodies slamming against the church’s facade. Pain rocketed through Ryder, but he kept on attacking them.

The large front window of the church exploded outwards as Demos jumped out of it in his panther form. His massive front paws landed on the Asian woman’s shoulders as he took her down. She got out one shriek before Demos’ jaws closed around her throat and ripped it out. There was a gurgling sound and the older man shouted, “No, Ana!”

The old man then leaped on Demos’ back as he sent another wind wave that had all of Ryder’s bird forms on this side of the church splatting on the ground, broken and then bursting apart. Ryder was now only in the back of the church. Demos would have to hold his own.

He saw the leader and her two followers join hands just before they brought the whirlwind. Trees, branches, debris of all sorts gave the whirlwind its funnel-type shape. It ripped his bird bodies out of the sky and then shredded them in the blender of air. Ryder only stopped from passing out by disengaging his consciousness from those forms. But soon he was down to only a handful of ravens.

“You fucking stupid Weryn! Think a flock of birds can end us?” The leader laughed. “Now you DIE!”

But that was the thing about Ryder. Unlike the Weryn they were used to, he was not limited to one form. He flew a single bird body behind them while they picked off the rest, thinking that they were killing him.

And then he shifted again behind them into his new bear form.

He rose up on his hind legs. He lifted his two front paws on either side of the minion’s heads. Then he smashed their skulls together. They went to jelly in his hands. Brains and blood squished between his claws. The headless bodies slumped to the ground.

But he only had time to look up from his handiwork before a lightning bolt struck him in the center of his chest. He was thrown back over twenty feet. His bear body hit the ground and kept sliding. The pain was indescribable. He couldn’t breathe, but he could smell burnt bear fur and flesh. He couldn’t hear his own heartbeat.

I should be dead. I should be dead…

Then he saw the leader come into view. She had a rictus of a grin on her face. Blood streaked her cheeks. Her eyes were bright with malice. Her hands glowed with lightning.

One more strike…

But then she wasn’t grinning anymore. Wood splinters as large as stakes stuck out of her torso as if she were a pin cushion. Blood flooded down her chin as she stared in horror at the mess where her chest once was. She went down onto her knees and then fell completely over. He realized then that the “wooden stakes” was the church’s back door that had been shattered and then sent flying towards her at incredible force.

Ryder heard footsteps. He smelled the cold, icy scent that he now recognized as Grayson’s. The young man hove into view. He was swaying. His face was pale as milk.

Grayson? Grayson, how did you do that?

But he was still in his bear form and the words didn’t come. He managed to just catch Grayson as the young man collapsed in his arms.

NO CHOICE

The water surrounded Grayson. Or maybe it wasn’t water. But he was suspended in it. It was a dusky blue, lightning above him to a clear gray and darkening below him to a pitch black. Grayson slowly spun in a circle, trying to see if there was something different depending on where he looked, but every direction showed him the same: nothing.

And yet… Grayson felt like he had been here before. In this nothing. Though when he couldn’t quite place.

“... did Grayson do that? How? He’s not a Vampire,” Demos’ voice rose up behind him.

Grayson whipped around, but Demos was not there. He was alone in the blue void.

“Humans have spoken about powers like those for ages. I always thought that it was because of their exposure to our kind,” Ryder answered on the other side of him.

Ryder?!

Grayson spun around again, but, again, it was still him.

“As far as I know, there are no humans who can do what he did,” Demos said.

“And yet, here he is,” Ryder said.

Grayson thought he felt someone tucking a blanket around him. He wasn’t sure if he imagined the brush of warm fingers against his jaw or the light placement of a palm against his forehead,

Ryder?!

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