Hades
My chest constricted, my lungs still burning from the last exerting task I had yet to recover from. I should have flown higher the mont I had noticed the hidden city, but attempting another one of those ascensions when I was still yet to recover from the first would have been detrintal.
We had already almost fallen from the sky.
My amplified sense of sight let see the creature below us almost face-to-face. This made my lungs burn harder as dread crawled up my throat, leaving bereft of air.
"Hades," I could hear the terror that tinged Kael’s words. Though he could not see what I was seeing, he could feel sothing was wrong.
The eyes of the creature below burned red, and I could feel its heat and intense scrutiny even with the distance that separated us.
"Hades, what is wrong?" Kael asked. "What are you looking at?"
I tore my gaze away from the thing still staring right at us from below and turned to him, my voice strained and unfamiliar as I spoke. "Buckle up."
Kael’s reaction ca swiftly as he held on to our passengers, using his other hand to grab my mbrane and tuck his legs.
I sucked in air like a vacuum. It seared my already bruised lungs, and the next flap of my wing was so strong, the wind almost blew off my axis.
I feared for those on my back, but I didn’t stop. I launched us forward with desperate urgency, following Thea’s instructions to cut diagonally across the hidden city. My wings beat in powerful, asured strokes despite the fire in my chest, carrying us on the path she’d mapped out—the route that would take us safely to Obsidian territory if we could just maintain our course.
But I couldn’t resist looking back.
My heart stopped completely when I saw the creature below beginning to move. What I had taken for a tall, pale figure in elegant black clothing was transforming before my eyes. The vampire’s alabaster skin began to ripple and darken, shifting from porcelain white to deep crimson. His lithe fra expanded as bones cracked and reford with sickening pops that sohow carried even through the distance between us.
Horns erupted from his skull—curved and wicked, just like mine. His clothing dissolved into his changing flesh as dark red mbranes unfurled from his back, stretching wide between newly elongated bone structures. The wings were massive, bat-like, their crimson surface catching the ethereal light of the hidden city below.
He was shifting into the sa form I took.
The realization hit like a physical blow.
And now he was coming for us.
The transford vampire launched himself skyward with a speed that defied physics, his massive wings propelling him upward in a direct intercept course. The distance between us began to shrink with terrifying rapidity as he climbed through the air like a crimson nightmare.
I banked hard to the right, my passengers crying out as the sudden maneuver pressed them against my spine. My lungs scread in protest, but I pushed harder, flying with every ounce of strength I had left. Behind us, I could hear the distinctive sound of those blood-red wings cutting through the night air, growing closer with each passing second.
"Hades!" Kael’s panicked voice slashed through my scrambling thoughts as I continued to launch myself forward, trying to avoid the thing coming right at us.
"It is coming," was the only thing I could say as I tried to save my breath and air to move faster than my exhausted body could manage.
If I were alone, maybe it would be possible to defend myself, but with three people on , it would be a suicide mission. There was no way we could all survive.
The creature reached our altitude with impossible speed, rising through the air like a blood-red cot. Up close, the transford vampire was even more terrifying—its crimson wings stretched wider than mine, mbranes pulsing with visible veins that seed to glow with their own inner fire. Its face had elongated into sothing predatory, fangs gleaming white against the darkness of its maw, and those burning red eyes locked onto us with single-minded hunger.
Behind , I heard Thea’s sharp intake of breath, followed by Micah’s whimper of pure terror. Kael’s grip on my mbrane tightened.
"What the hell is that thing?" Kael’s voice cracked with horror.
The creature didn’t answer. Didn’t speak at all. It simply attacked.
It dove at us with talons extended, moving with the fluid grace of a natural predator. I rolled to the left, feeling the wind from its claws as they missed us by inches. My passengers cried out as the sudden movent pressed them hard against my spine, but I couldn’t afford gentle maneuvers. Not when one solid hit would send us all plumting to our deaths.
The fall from this height would kill them instantly, even if they managed to shift mid-air. They would be nothing but pulp scattered across the golden streets of the hidden city below.
I banked sharply right as the creature wheeled around for another pass, its wings cutting through the night air with deadly precision. Every instinct scread at to shift into full combat mode, to et this threat with all the violence I was capable of. But I couldn’t. Not with three lives depending on my ability to stay airborne and stable.
The vampire struck again, this ti catching my left wing with razor-sharp claws. Pain exploded through my shoulder as its talons raked across mbrane and bone. I fought to keep my balance, biting back a roar of agony as I struggled not to roll or dive—any sudden movent would launch my passengers into the void.
Blood stread from the wounds, making my wing heavy and unsteady. The creature circled back, preparing for another attack, and I realized with growing desperation that my options for defense were impossibly limited. I was fighting with one wing tied behind my back, forced to absorb damage rather than dish it out.
All I could do was try to outrun it and pray we reached Obsidian territory before it tore us apart.
Kael had enough, and to my horror, he rose on my back, standing precariously on my spine as he shifted and—
Leaped.
Thea scread, voicing my alarm.
His wolf landed on our attacker’s back and began an onslaught as he ripped into the vampire’s mbrane. There was no hesitation nor fear as he bit into its long neck.
The vampire thrashed against him, rolling and tossing to get him off its back, but it was no use as Kael held firm, his grey fur drenched in blood that was not red but black.
I glanced down to see that despite the noise we were making, the utter maelstrom of blood and wings in the skies, the little boy had begun to cry just as I went for the offensive, Thea gripping as I sank my talon into its face and tore through it.
Then the onslaught on the creature continued in two fronts, from both and Kael, as I tried to stay steady, ignoring the way it felt like razors raced through every muscle that I moved.
But with each assault, the creature’s flesh nded while mine still throbbed and pulsed.
It still attacked but not as efficiently as before. It was still distracted by Kael on its back, not relenting in his own assault.
We had to go, as soon as possible. "Kael," I called.
To my dreadful surprise, the thing froze as well. Stilled to the point that for a perplexing mont, it looked like a floating statue. It was as if sothing had dawned on it enough to make it pause.
But as if Kael had not heard , he didn’t stop. Only when the thing finally turned to him did he pause—but that was all it took.
"Beta Kael Orlov." Its voice made stop dead, echoing even in open space. It knew Kael. Or rembered him.
Kael froze, like his body answered the call but not his mind, because his gaze flew to , a silent scream for help.
Just as I prepared to ram into the creature, building distance that would translate into force enough to knock it off—hopefully without endangering Kael and sending him plumting—I had so few options, it felt like the physical force of a hand wrapped around my throat.
But Thea spoke, her voice laced with fright, "His back is glowing, his back is glowing."
I stopped, eyes darting toward the creature’s back, but there was nothing. Then to Kael—and my eyes widened as I saw the dull light glowing from behind him, through his clothes.
Confusion whirled through as the creature spoke again. Its words were a whip disguised in a whisper: "Rip out your throat and jump."
My stomach churned as it dawned on fast what the only thing that could be glowing on his back could be. The unfinished mark of Malrik on his back.
"Kael!" His na tore from my throat as I watched in horror.
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