Page 36 of Of Blackened Blood (The Blackened Blade #3)
I make my way through five more men before the onslaught begins to turn my way. These attacks are focused fully on me with a new barrage of magical and physical weapons being thrown in my direction.
I dodge and evade, inching my way closer to the nearest figure lashing out before taking him out like all the others I’ve closed in on. When he falls to the ground, I notice the bombardment of attacks have stopped.
And that’s when I notice them: each of my men moving like well-oiled machines, picking off each attacker that’s targeting me as they lessen the numbers of black-clothed figures in the room.
I watch on as each one of them moves with precision.
Mallyn uses a speed as quick as my own to move himself across the space and snap the necks of two men pinning Erving down before moving on to his next victim.
Annex moves through the room with ease, stabbing anyone that gets near him while aiming for critical points as he makes his way closer to me. The skill and precision he has with his blades makes it look as if they are an extension of him rather than separate weapons.
Ezra’s eyes are fully lilac and focused on the warlocks around the room with four of them having cast barriers while directing attacks toward us. He manipulates their magic, twisting it until it reflects back on its casters, destroying their barriers before killing them.
And Creed ... it looks as if a black storm has been unleashed in the room.
A few of the attackers look hesitant to even make a move on him, stepping back with anxious eyes as he moves.
His black coiling mist pours from him in waves, his eyes fully black as he takes another domineering step toward them.
His coils lash out at anything near him, seeming wilder and more chaotic than anything else in the room. They almost hit Annex before he quickly dodges and slides to another of his soon-to-be victims.
Creed seems lost to his power, his coils destroying and killing anything around him, viewing it as an enemy. Has he lost complete control?
His very power seems like chaos and destruction formed into a storm circling around him with no one able to get close.
I hear movement from behind me and spin around just as two shifters transform: one large grey wolf and one hungry-looking lion. But before I can move toward them to attack, Creed’s black coils whip past me, quickly surrounding the shifters and dragging them both into the air.
I hear a whimper from the wolf before a sickening crack sound soon follows, and I watch on as they both fall limply to the ground.
“Micai!” Ezra shouts, fear tinged in his voice as Creed appears feet behind me, his coils now wrapping around my lower legs before slowly flowing up me.
The sounds around me begin to feel muffled as the black mist joins the coils seeping around me and begins encasing me in its black cloud. I reach toward the coils moving up my body, brushing my fingers back and forth between it and the inky mist as it softly grazes against my hands and thighs.
It all feels cold to the touch but not uncomfortable, and more like stroking my fingers through a soft, moving cloud. It feels slightly refreshing to touch.
The coils and mist continue to wrap itself around me, reaching my torso as Creed takes a step closer, the black in his eyes fading slightly to show his light amber eyes coming through. They narrow toward the coils gently climbing me.
His lips part in question, his brows pulling deeper down on his face as a look of complete confusion appears across his features.
I open my mouth, wanting to ask what is going on when a pained yell from across the room pulls our attention back to the space around us.
Creed’s black mist moves back, showing us the scene before us.
Luche is being held from behind by a large shifter, his claws wrapped around Luche’s neck and holding him hostage.
The shifter glares down at all the corpses scattered across the room, his eyes widening with the realisation of his impending fate.
“You shouldn’t have been here ...” he mumbles, his eyes flickering back and forth across the room as his claws dig deeper into Luche’s neck.
Luche lets out a pained grunt, gritting his teeth as Silas and Erving call out to him. Silas tries to take a step closer, but the shifter twists her way, a snarl coating his lips as his grip tightens again.
“I’ll rip his damn throat out before you make it here, bitch,” he spits out, a dark smirk coating his thin lips.
“I’ll kill you before you can—” she starts before he cuts her off, a gruff, humourless laugh leaving his twisted lips.
“That’s why you’re hesitating now, is it?” A smug look forms in his gaze. “Because you feel confident?” A loud scoff falls from his throat. “Don’t kid yourself, runt. He’ll die first, and you know it.”
Silas’s fangs elongate, her hands switching back and forth between claws and fingers as a low growl leaves her lips.
“Take another step and this pretty little artery of his will be severed.” His claws begin to dig slightly into Luche’s neck, a trail of blood forming as he makes his point and halts Silas’s movements.
The large shifter inches his way quickly to the door, only slowing down when he nears the frame. His eyes begin to flicker back and forth between his exit and the room, his gaze seeming shadier as he reaches the doorway.
I hear a slight click before I see the movement and dash toward him just as he shoves Luche back into the room and toward Silas who’s nearest him.
He palms a small silver grenade in his hand, one that’s leaking blue magical static as he rears back to throw it toward us.
I reach him just as the bomb leaves his fingers.
I move quickly, flipping into a flying kick before knocking both him and the bomb out of the room and off the second-floor landing.
His eyes widen as I watch him in slow motion, the bomb hitting his chest and the static growing larger as they fall together.
Creed’s black coils quickly wrap around me, pulling me back toward him as his black mist covers every visible inch of the room. Darkness covers all us just as a loud blast rings outside Creed’s misty barrier.
The building shakes and creaks from the explosion but still manages not to collapse. I guess some of the other protective spells are still intact .
After another minute of silence, Creed’s mist recedes, and Annex saunters out of the room before anyone can move, let alone stop him.
I’m about to follow him when I hear him chuckling and instantly relax with the sound.
He comes back in a couple of minutes later, a deranged grin stretching his cheeks. He hitches a finger behind him and to where the shifter fell.
“All the fixing in the world couldn’t put that mess of a corpse back together again.” He holds up two bloody severed fingers, his grin growing more manic as he waves them around the room.
I scrunch my nose as my black blades recede back into my wrists, a warmth settling inside me as they flow inward and take root there. Hopefully from now on, I’ll be able to get a better handle on them.
Ezra makes his way beside me, a grimace pulling at his face while watching Annex playing with the shifter’s severed fingers.
I look around the room, the floor littered with corpses as Erving rushes toward a bleeding Luche as Silas holds him. Silas rips off some fabric from her top to staunch the bleeding on his neck while Erving sounds off the best first aid techniques.
Ezra turns back toward them, making his way over to his injured subordinate, checking him over before giving the all clear.
“He might need a few days to rest and heal up, but he’ll survive,” he says before patting Erving on the back.
“Does that mean a vacation?” Luche murmurs with a little excitement as Erving and Silas chuckle.
Creed and Mallyn begin to inspect the corpses, checking for clues or similarities to the previous attacks. I join them, searching each bloody body for something that might help us.
We find three bodies among the corpses and body parts scattered throughout the building that remain somewhat intact. They bear a small, tattooed mark on their inner middle finger like the men from the attack on the abattoir. Were they the leaders of these groups?
The corpses also seem to be a mix of different supes, not pointing to any clan or group in particular, which is strange in and of itself. No clan has such a diversity in supernaturals.
Unless that was the point? They allowed for such a diversity to strengthen their line and create their own army that had not just one ability, but them all?
I shake my head. Either way, this was definitely The Facility, especially since this attack was so similar to the others.
While I’m lost in thought, Creed calls his other subordinates around the city, pulling them in to help with the clean-up and dealing with the human officials that might arrive due to all the noise.
Ezra and Erving work together to place a small illusionary boundary around the area to keep as many people as possible away while we continue to investigate through the bodies and mess.
When backup finally arrives, Creed orders Silas and Erving to take Luche to their infirmary at another safe house, and to stay with the larger team there until further notice.
They leave shortly after Luche receives help from a healer in their Yellow Team, with Silas and Erving keeping a close watch on him, not willing to leave his side.
Creed leaves orders with another group of his subordinates before we head out ourselves.
We decide to head to the academy’s dorms and stay there together for the night, thinking it would be the most crowded and least likely to be attacked.
A large car arrives as we make our way outside, the driver passing the keys to Creed before immediately heading into the half-destroyed building to help.
Creed gets in and starts the engine, the rest of us tumbling into the back as Ezra takes his place in the front.
An hour later, we’re pulling up outside of the academy and getting out.
“You weren’t half bad during the fight,” Creed remarks, closing the car door behind him and slipping the keys in through the window.
I guess he’ll have somebody pick it up later?
“But you left yourself open too many times. You need more training, especially with that new ability of yours.”
A small scoff leaves my lips as I roll my eyes. Of course the dickhead would try to critique my fighting skills.
Annex twists around toward Creed, his eyes narrowed toward the asshole.
“Red’s done more than enough, Creed. She could hold her own in any fight.
” He glances toward me, a playful look entering his eyes.
“But if she needs any help, I’ll happily have her back while watching her tight ass go to work.
” He gives me a wink before he slides beside me, taking my hand in his as he places a kiss along my knuckles.
“Besides ...” He looks back toward Creed, a mischievous look in his gaze as his lips curve upward. “Our sexy little ninja has proven her strength plenty enough, don’t you think, Creed?”
They share a strange look before Creed’s eyes widen. “You don’t mean ...”
I hear Ezra and Mallyn also come to a halt, each of them turning my way as Creed’s lips part and our gazes meet.
“That was you ?”