Page 35 of Of Blackened Blood (The Blackened Blade #3)

MICAI

M y ears are ringing, muffled voices echoing all around me as I feel the gravel beneath my fingers. I taste a slight tinge of blood on my lips, probably having hit or bitten something with the fall.

It takes me a moment to realise that Annex is wrapped around me, his body covering mine and his arms cradling my head from the fall. I feel more bodies beside us, surrounding and protecting us from the blast.

Smoke billows all around us as I begin to move, with ash and embers falling from the sky and from the building we were just in moments ago.

The voices around me become a little clearer as I try to pull myself up straight.

“Is she okay?”

“We need to move ? —”

“I can see figures moving into the safe house ? —”

I shake off the dizziness, closing my eyes from the blurry vision as I take a deep breath and begin to focus my senses past the ringing in my ears.

I take another breath and open my eyes toward the burning chaos that is now the safe house.

I watch on as at least three or four dozen figures dressed in black make their way into the burning building.

Its roof is smashed, all the spells destroyed with the lane-way entrance also in a bad state.

The door is now completely blown off and releasing magical static from its broken protection spells.

It looks like the barrier was disabled with the blast. It must have been some type of magical bomb.

“Are you all ready?” Creed calls, black mist forming around him as the whites of his eyes turn inky black, his gaze narrowing further at the men entering his safe house.

“I’m not leaving Micai here alone,” Ezra calls, his voice clear now that the ringing has stopped.

“You don’t need to worry about that ...” I pull myself up and brush the dirt from my clothes. “Because I’m coming too.”

I look to Creed, ready for an argument, but the steely-black look of his eyes has the words on my lips fading away.

“I said ‘all.’” Creed turns toward the building. “And I meant it. We move as one and stay together.” He turns back briefly, glancing my way. “Just try not to fall behind.”

I roll my eyes as Annex whips out his favourite Bowie and hands it to me. “Show me again how sexy you are when you get bloody, Red.”

I take his Bowie and twist it in my hands. I’d prefer to use my black blades, but I still haven’t mastered them yet and we don’t need the uncertainty right now.

“If anybody gets too close to you, Micai, make sure you aim for the neck or the centre of their chest.” Ezra takes a step closer, his eyes filled with worry.

I raise a brow at my beautiful Siren.

“This isn’t my first or second time being attacked by these assholes, remember?” I twirl the large blade back and forth with ease as Annex whistles. “I can handle my own shit.”

“Except the last time you got a little electrocuted, Red.” Annex’s nose scrunches up. “Let’s not do that again, ’kay.”

I give Annex a small glare as he chuckles before he takes two blades— just slightly smaller than his Bowie —from each of his boots.

Ezra’s eyes glow purple as Mallyn falls silent, a bright blue hue taking over his gaze as Creed’s mist flows out in waves around him. A menacing grin tugs at Annex’s lips while he twists his blades between his hands.

“Let’s move,” Creed calls, his mist moving ominously around him.

We move quickly and quietly, making our way in through the broken lane-way entrance.

Creed’s black coiling mist moves first into the area before we all follow, stealthily making our way in behind it. The black mist joins the grey smoke billowing from the building as we move further inside, mixing together and looking as if it were a dark storm.

One figure emerges from the smoke, but before he can attack, I dart forward, kicking his legs from under him. I twist the Bowie in my hand and aim straight for his chest, quickly finishing him before he can make a sound and alert the others.

Creed slides beside me, an amused look in his eyes as his black mist forms into large coiling shapes that whip forward. They catch two more figures nearby and wrap around them before quickly suffocating them in their inky black coils.

Then we steadily make our way in further, taking out dark-clothed attackers one by one. Annex moves forward, killing the next figure to enter our space, slicing one of his blades through his neck as he holds his hand over the attacker’s mouth, muffling his screams.

Mallyn finishes off another one at the same time as Annex, dealing a deathly blow to the man’s upper torso that instantly has his heart stopping and his body dropping to the ground beside him.

Ezra manipulates another two men with his power as we move further inside.

They seem like warlocks that were trying to cast some sort of barrier or blocker around the building.

Ezra uses his magic to manipulate their power before turning them against one another.

Then Annex and Mallyn help to finish them off silently.

We work as a team, moving seamlessly back and forth, taking down each figure that steps in our way with a precision and stealth I wouldn’t have expected for our first time together. Or from the guys at all.

We make our way deeper inside and toward the living area where we were earlier, the flames growing larger the closer we get to the centre.

Smoke surrounds us as more footsteps make their way closer.

Suddenly, attacks are thrown from every direction toward us, with Mallyn and Creed blocking them as I move into the veil of smoke, using it to my advantage.

I heighten my senses, seeking out each attacker cloaked in smoke before stealthily moving toward them. I catch each of them off guard, their attacks aimed and focused fully on the boys. I quickly pick them off one by one, aiming for their weakest points while using the smoke as a cover.

I reach my final figure and slice his throat just as the smoke clears around me, with Creed, Mallyn, Annex, and Ezra standing just feet from me. Their eyes fall to the corpses on the floor below me and the bloody Bowie gripped in my hand.

Annex lets out a sexy groan, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth. “ Fuck me , Red. You really know how to make me hard an?—”

Mallyn cuts him off, pulling Annex back as he signals to the space around us.

I nod. We aren’t done just yet.

By our body count, there is at least one more group left. And there has been no sign of Luche, Silas, or Erving. I hope we aren’t too late.

We make our way toward one of the half-destroyed staircases, the steps on this side the only ones still intact as we quickly make our way up toward Erving’s room.

We reach the top just as a blast sounds out from the rooms ahead.

A bloody body is thrown from the farthest room soon after, blood dripping from its head as it sags to the floor. Sounds of a heavy fight and struggle ring out as we step closer.

We hear loud shouting and make out Erving’s voice calling to Silas before quickly being followed by a pained grunt.

We rush forward, more urgency in our movements as we head into the room ready to take any unfamiliar face down.

But just as enter, I see one large figure wrapping his thick hand around Silas’s throat.

She thrashes, clawing at his hand and face but makes no headway as he tightens his grip around her.

There are bloody cuts and wounds trailing down her arms and legs from fighting, but she never eases up. She continues to attack him even as her oxygen runs out.

Her lips begin to turn blue, her movements growing slower, but her eyes turn to me, a small glint in them as they meet mine.

I move, knowing the look in her eyes and throw Annex’s Bowie her way. She catches it with ease and quickly stabs it into the side of her attacker’s head before he can properly react. Then she finishes him off before another figure can help him.

I gaze around at all the figures scattered around the large room.

There had to be at least twice the number of men here than in the two groups we took out downstairs.

Each of them just as large, armed, and covered from head to toe in black.

Their bulkier stature tells me the majority of them are shifters of some sort, with probably a few warlocks hidden in their ranks.

A dark grin pulls at my lips. All the better for me to test my new strength and abilities then.

I narrow my eyes toward the Bowie now sliding across the floor on the opposite side of the room as Silas fights off another shifter.

A sigh leaves my lips. There was no time to retrieve it as the men in the room notice our presence and begin attacking.

Creed covers us as Ezra works his manipulation magic, and Mallyn and Annex get ready to wade into the fights.

But I won’t be left behind. I have weapons of my own. Even if they may or may not appear for me.

I focus fully on the marks on my wrist, remembering the black blades gripped between my fingers, the familiarity and connection I felt with them.

I imagine pulling them out, calling to them as they do me, letting the emotion of wanting to protect what’s mine take over as I channel every thought and feeling into them.

The marks on my wrists begin to heat up almost to a molten-hot temperature before a black liquid begins to flow from them, twisting and swirling until the shape of two black curved blades begin to solidify in my hands.

My grin widens as I grip them tightly before turning toward the men still fighting around the room. “The real fight starts now.”

I take up speed, my body moving even quicker and more in tune with my surroundings than before as I begin to make my way to the nearest enemy.

I slide to the ground, using my blades to slice his tendons and watch him yell and fall before slashing my blade across his neck, silencing him permanently.

Then I move on to the next man nearest me, slicing his hand off before stabbing him in the heart.

I move through each shifter with ease and make my way quickly around the room.