Page 13 of Suspicions on the Stage
Kaspar just snorts smoke, and I watch as electricity sparks along his scales. The asshole has no interest in helping me even though I’m up here risking my ass with the two of them, and I can’t even feign surprise. Last time we could work together to take out the fire drake, but he’s back to doubting me in no time.
The orc lets out another roar, reaching the end of the Fae market and thrashing about to knock the tents off the royal areas. I can see the smoke and fires in the wake of the explosions, but they’re not normal fire—they’re multi-colored and flickering over the people and objects the orc’s tantrum revealed. I don’t hear screams, which I’d expect, but it definitely appears that the beings down there are being harmed.
“What is this supposed to accomplish? Fear? Chaos?” I mutter as I swoop in closer to the flailing monster, as it barges through the set-up, smashing and bashing indiscriminately. It’s obviouslyconfused and angry, but I think Liam is right. This thing doesn’t have the higher level thinking to be aiming for anything in particular; it’s a distraction from whatever the booms were supposed to do.
The huge demon that has a shark fin on his back is battling his way through the scared bystanders and royal court Fae on fire with the crow. My breath catches when I see Lucas in bear form, charging in to help them, but I get the impression the small agreement we made between the princes will keep him safe as he works with them. Slade and Iggy are still inside of their bubble, as are the two magical demons commanded by the dragon I’m following. This is going to get worse before it gets better, because the people on the ground can’t do anything until we get this fucking giant wrecking ball under control.
Time to put your most dangerous weapons to work, Morgana.
eye of the tiger
LUCAS
Ihear 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’tlooklike 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 leastexperienced 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 getclose 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 takesthe 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.”
