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Dash's hair singed a little on top of his head as my magic hit the hooded figure and blastedright through him,leaving him entirely unscathed. It hit the tree line behind them and several of the trees immediately burst into flames.

Oh, shit, shit,shit.

My magic hadn't even touched this creep. What was I supposed to do now?

"Let him go!" I screamed as I charged right at him.

The figure dropped Dash to the grass in a heap that had my heart stuttering in my chest as I watched in horror as he face-planted into the grass.

If he'd done any permanent damage to my roomie I was going to do something really unfortunate to that creep, something he'd be sorry for the rest of his miserable days.

"Ariel," Damien screamed from behind me. "Fucking stop right now. Get back here."

I could hear him flat out running from behind me, trying to catch me. I had stumbled when the magic had been ripped out of me but it hadn't slowed me down, and I was once again flat out running.

I crashed into them. They grunted painfully as the air was sucked out of my lungs and we both tumbled into the grass in a heap.

Dash didn't even twitch and it scared the piss out of me.

"Stupid bitch," the figure snarled angrily in a masculine voice, letting me know it was male.

We started to grapple, wrestling around on the grass for the upper hand. He flipped me over onto my back and the air left my lungs again in a rush, my head slamming hard into the ground.

"Get off me," I spat at him, as I clawed at the mask covering his face, trying to rip it off. I don't know why, but it seemed like it would be easier and a lot less terrifying to fend off someone when you could see their face as opposed to a blank mask with holes for eyes.

I ripped away the mask and let out a small cry of victory, which quickly changed to a muffled cry of pain as he reared back and punched me in the face. His fist landed brutally on the side of my cheek right above my scar. Pain exploded in my head and my vision clouded with dark spots. I shook my head, trying to shake the spots out of my vision, and blinked rapidly.

Lucky for me I'd been down this road before and pain and I were old friends.

He sat back on his haunches, looking down at me with the smug face of a handsome devil. He was far too pretty to be such a mega asshole who went around punching girls in the face.

I resisted the urge to punch him back, knowing all I'd do is likely injure my hand. And my goddamn magic didn't work against him.

I did the only thing, the smart thing really, a girl could do in this situation. I shifted my hips beneath him, getting the angle just right so I could reach where I needed to.

He looked down at my wiggling hips, his face a mask of sneered disgust.

"Stop moving, bitch," he hissed at me before reaching for my hips.

With his focus finally lowered, I had the opening I needed to do what I had to do.

I sat forward, cocked my arm back, and punched him right in the crotch.

A man's precious polished jewels. Rain had taught me well, when in doubt, go for the man meat every time.

The pretty creep crouched on top of me, immediately cupped his privates, as his body careened to the side. He dropped to the grass, curling up into a very unmasculine ball, all the while making sad, pathetic little noises in the back of his throat.

I didn’t feel sorry for him in the least. For a brief, psychotic moment, I thought about taking out my cell phone and snapping a picture of him real quick for Rain, knowing he'd be super proud of my actions.

Then I came back to reality and realized I was acting like a complete, idiotic moron when Damien dropped down to his knees in the grass beside me, panting heavily.

"You goddamned crazy girl," he huffs out between breaths.

Ignoring both him and the man still curled up in a ball crying about his man parts, I turned and crawled on hands and knees toward Dash's prone figure.

There were loud crashing noises coming from the forest as people came in similar black hoods and masks as the creeps came pouring out of the trees. They were dressed head to toe in black, their faces covered in those ridiculously blank-faced masks. Unlike the one I'd punched in the junk, these bad mothers were holding vicious looking curved swords in their hands.

I whipped around toward Dash again, reaching for his neck. I ran my fingers along, searching for a pulse. His chest moved up and down shallowly but that wasn't good enough for me, I needed more. My fingers tripped over his pulse. It was faint but it was there. That was all that mattered. I sagged against him for one second, allowing myself to feel absolute relief at knowing he was still alive.