Page 124 of First Offense

She didn’t cower behind Raven, not that I’d expected her to. While her fight training didn’t rival mine or Auric’s, she definitely wasn’t lacking. She knew how to move and how to protect herself. Something she proved now by snatching up a fallen Nora’s blade and slicing it through the air to expertly open the vein of her nearest opponent.

Beautiful, I thought, pleased.And now I want to fuck again.

Just as soon as I took care of the crowd around me.

I started counting each slice of my razor-tipped wings.

Six.

Eight.

Twelve.

“Enough!” the one-handed Noir shouted, his tone edged with madness and irritation, as if my killing spree was merely an inconvenience. “Capture the females!”

My eyes widened. While I’d been leaving a trail of carnage, I’d moved farther away from Layla. She held her own, just as Auric did, but a new wave of inmates had somehow separated them, shoving Auric out of range and leaving her unprotected.

Auric killed one after another, the bodies piling up all around him, but the rush from inside kept coming.

Where the hell are all these inmates coming from?I wondered.A portal?

Was this all meant to be a test of fate from Sayir himself? A way to make us battle all the damn Noir in existence?

And he’d hyped them up on some sort of strength-enhancing drug as well.

“Layla, move!” Auric shouted, his gaze flicking up before a group of Noir crashed into him, sending him tumbling to the ground in a tangle of ebony and porcelain feathers.

I saw it too late, a series of nets hoisted by Noir with black eyes that sparkled with silver. They dropped, trapping Layla in one contraption and Raven in another.

I ran, only to slam straight into the one-handed Noir.

What the…?How did he move that fast?

“No!” Zian shouted as a hungry group of inmates separated him from his mate, one team dragging Raven toward the mountains and the other carrying Layla toward the tree line.

I made to move after her, only to meet the massive elbow of the one-handed Noir. It stopped me dead in my tracks, his body a mass of muscle that shouldn’t exist.

“Fuck!” Sorin took off running after Raven, leaving Layla to her fate.

I met Zian’s gaze, begging him to help Layla, reminding him that Raven was a warrior more than capable of taking care of herself. She also already had Sorin running after her.

I tried to shove the giant away from me once more, only for him to push me backward with far more strength than one should possess. I stumbled, my eyes widening as Zian took off toward Raven.

That left Layla completely unprotected.

Unacceptable.

A growl rumbled in my throat, words almost leaving my lips, except a searing pain smarted across my jaw.

Fuck. I blinked, my eyes momentarily blackened from the agony of being clocked in the jaw by the hilt of his dagger.What kind of drug is this guy on? The ash?

“Kill the Nora!” my attacker shouted, throwing up his good hand with his bloodied blade. The strike could have decapitated me had his aim been any better. “I’ll take care of this one.”

I scoffed and swiped the blood from my jaw. I’d take care of this asshole, then protect Layla. He moved too clumsily with his blade to be a seasoned warrior, staggering on one leg as if off-balance when he lunged for me.

Easy.

I shifted with the air currents, going with the flow instead of against it. Then I ducked low to the ground, wishing I had remembered my stolen blade, but my wings would do.