Page 37 of Crush's Fall

“That’s kinda kickass,” Crush admitted with a shrug.

“Ordys is the lead champion of the Sagacity champions. Along with Rozzat and Vega, he serves Raghnall, the God of Sapientiam — the God of Wisdom and Thought, also referred to as the God of Wisdom and Judgment.”

Axle looked over and saw Ordys, Rozzat, and Vega each give him a nod.

“They are dragon shifters. Their specialty is, as you can probably guess, fire. They have enhanced strength and speed, but they’re also cunning and pretty good at persuasion. That’s why their biggest weakness is their ego.”

“Dragon shifters,” Pike uttered from behind Axle. “That’s insane.”

“Maybe,” Ordys began with a chuckle, “but it’s true.”

Lira smiled. “Next, we have two sets of champions, the Dolor Ayre and the Pangloss Eyne. They are closely connected, since their gods are twins. Rue is the God of Negans, the God of Negativity. Mattyx is the God of Positivum, the God of Positivity. Their champions are the ones that would be considered your gods since their champions are shifters of the water and the earth.” She turned her head and nodded to the table behind her and to her left. “Luna, Sky, and Orion are Dolor Ayre. Sol, Storme, and Aurora are Pangloss Eyne.” Each of the champions gave a wave, as their name was said. “Along with either pessimism or optimism, they have enhanced strength and hearing, but they are also really great at tracking, as you probably already know.”

Axle wasn’t surprised by any of that. It was basically any of his shifter brethren on steroids.

“Then we have Iri, Winona, and Chantel.” She nodded to the table where the three champions were sitting. “They are Stehppes and serve Teko, the God of Accio — the God of Action. Storms, shadows, stealth, and security systems are their thing. Locks mean shit to them. I think you all might have some of their skills in that department. They are impulsive. But they have been pretty firm on not using their storm and shadow powers. It fucks with the weather systems.” She shrugged as if she didn’t quite understand that, but she also didn’t care to. “They have the strength that the rest of us do.”

Crush nodded. “And what type of animal or whatever do they have?”

“Snakes and reptiles,” Iri said from his spot at the furthest table.

“Kickass,” Pinky commented from next to Pike.

“And lastly, we have the Atax Aya. They are the vampires and other hybrids, only vampires here, though. Steve, Spike, Poindexter, and Aires.” The middle table shot grins their way, showing off the fangs they let slide down. “They serve Aella, the God of Chaos. They are the spirit or energy god and can affect your energy, your spirit. Atax Aya are the masters of persuasion, manipulation, rumors. They aren’t allergic to garlic or the sun… or even religious relics and are just like shifters, except they don’t change form. Their eyes glow red, and their fangs come down, along with having enhanced hearing, strength, smell, etc.”

Marya took a deep breath and said, “Basically, we have much the same abilities as you. Ours are just more enhanced. The abilities we have that you don’t, we try not to use because it can have a wider influence on the world around us.”

Axle nodded. After glancing around at the champions again, he uttered, “Thank you for sharing that information with us. We appreciate your trust. Now… let’s get down to planning this war as much as we can with the limited information we have.”

The next day… Crush

Crush was pissed the fuck off at her club sister, Lace. She wasn’t the worst Crush had ever seen her when they got to Lace’s place, but she was definitely drunk. Lace was the ex-wife to Rock, a Howlers member, and they had two kids together, but she fell into addiction not long after having their second child. Rock tried to get her clean, but her sobriety never lasted long. Crush hated to do it, but she had put Lace on probationary member status after the second time she caught Lace stealing from one of the registers at their businesses. Probationary status prevented her from being alone at any of the businesses and deemed her unfit to vote in any club decision. Hell, they didn’t even trust her to know club business.

When they received information that the war was imminent, Crush, Pinky, and Nails headed to Lace’s off-compound apartment to get her and bring her to the compound where they knew she would be safe. She had been on a sobriety kick as of the last few months, but Crush should have known it was about time for a relapse.

With bloodshot eyes, Lace swayed and stumbled through her apartment. Who knew what else, besides alcohol, was in her system? After everything Rock and the Claws had done over the years in an effort to get her clean and sober, Lace was once again throwing it all away. It made Crush want to cut her loose from the club, but Lace was family, and Crush just couldn’t do it.

The three Claws decided they would just bring her back to the compound and let her sleep it off while the rest of them answered the emergency text Skull had sent her.

Skull : Explosions at HTC owned props. Gigi dead. Maybe others.

She didn’t know everything, but she knew enough to gauge that the war was upon them, and shit was already messy. Crush didn’t know Georgia well, but she liked her. The men of the Howlers loved that girl like she was their blood baby sister. This was going to destroy them. It was most likely going to be up to her and the Claws to keep everyone on track to take care of those responsible, because it was quite possible the men would be distracted with grief.

Crush and the girls were crossing the parking lot of Lace’s apartment building across town from the compound when it happened. Shots rang out from a row of trees at the back of the lot. Crush took cover behind a car and pulled her gun from the holster inside her cut. As she looked around to check on her crew, she found Lace on the ground a few feet from the rear end of the car Crush had been hiding next to, blood coming from the left side of her abdomen.

“Lace,” Crush shouted and tried to get to her, but if she did, she would put herself in the line of fire. “Lace!”

Pinky had dived behind the car that was on the other side of the lot. Lace was between them, out in the open. Crush wasn’t sure where Nails was at. Then she heard it.

“Fuck you,” Nails shouted. Her yell was followed by a series of shots.

Crush lifted enough from her crouch to look over the trunk of the car, just in time to see the bullet go into Nails’s left thigh.

Pinky rushed out to catch Nails as she fell. Not willing to let her members continue to be harmed, Crush rushed out and stood in front of them.

“Get them out of here, Pinks,” she ordered.

“I can ride,” Nails forced out through gritted teeth.

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