No Quarter (12 page)

Her feelings changed in a split second as one of the blades came down, cutting the Elder Gnome in two. A Fae shot a ball of light from his hands, hitting the boy in the chest. The sword flew out of his hands and was caught by a Dwarf who charged the students.

“It’s mayhem! Fuck!” Zoltar shifted and took off toward the crowd.

Nala froze for a moment, unable to tell who was friend and who was foe.

“Focus on who is attacking whom. Use your best judgement.”
Colin’s voice came through as he ran toward the fight.

Nala crouched down and sprang over the table, stopping next to Mary.
No one should die on their wedding day.
She climbed on Nala’s back. “Get them! Kill them all!” She screamed.

She tore off toward the fighting, grabbing a Werepanther who was clawing at a Pixie who was doing her best to fend off the attacker. Once she had her teeth in the panther’s neck, she pulled hard, rolling it away from the Pixie. Quick to its feet, the Panther swiped at her, cutting her snout. As the heat of the gash seared through her snout, she circled the animal. A new opponent would be good for her training.

The cat leaped at her, Nala shifted right before the cat made contact and kicked it hard with her steel toe shoe. She felt the ribs crack under her foot. She rolled again, grabbing a serving knife she spotted and plunging it into the cat’s side.

It let out a blood curdling howl.

The thundering of paws came from her left. She looked in time to see a young Lycan charging her and shifted to wolf, taking a chunk of panther throat with her as she turned to her new opponent. She sniffed the Lycan as she dodged his charge. They immediately shifted. “Xander, it’s me!” She screamed.

He stopped, his muzzle dropping open.

“Don’t worry about it. Go!”

She looked around for Mary, wondering what happened to her during the fight. High pitched growling came from behind her, so she spun around. Mary was mounted on a bear’s head, clawing at its eyes. She was vibrating, her eyes wide and blood red.

Nala shifted back to wolf. She’d never taken on a bear, but it was blind now. She ran to it, grabbing a mouthful of its leg and bit down, ripping a chunk off the animal. It roared in response.

“I’m coming! I’m coming!”
Grace’s voice screamed in her head. She could see the enormous wolf approaching.
“Together, on three. One…two…three!”

Grace grabbed the left wrist and Nala followed suit grabbing the right. They both pulled with everything they had, but Grace’s size gave her a lot more strength.

Another Lycan snout appeared next to Nala’s. She turned her eyes to see Xander pulling with her. Relieved he was okay and fighting with her, she pulled with everything she could, clamping her canines down on the wrist of the bear. Warm metallic blood flowed into her mouth.

When the bear’s left arm became detached, he howled out in pain, bent forward, and locked his jaws on Xander’s head. She could hear the crunching and grinding of bone and saw Xander’s eyes roll. Grace mounted the bear’s back and bit down on his neck. Warm red covered Nala’s face. She blinked to clear her vision, and finally shifted back to human form.

“Xander! No!” She knelt down next to him. “It’s going to be okay. Shift. Can you hear me? Shift now!”

He flopped on the ground. Gurgling sounds came from his mouth.

“Grace!” she cried.

Grace laid her hands on him and forced him to shift, which did little to heal his wounds. His head was split open and blood was leaking out. Around them people were still fighting and whatever blasts that started, continued but now grew closer.

“Grace!” Nala laid her hands on Xander. “Oh the gods, no!”

A tall man dropped to his knees on the other side of Xander. His hands hovered over his head. “Go!” He looked at Nala and Grace. “Go! I will take care of him.”

She looked at Grace, her stomach in knots. “The one who served me…I think she’s from my old pack. She smelled familiar.”

Nala shifted back to wolf, rage boiling in her veins. Jagger had come back to haunt her. He wasn’t going to win. Not again. Her eyes scanned the area and she found two humans with large tubes on their shoulders. One of the tubes erupted sending a ball of fire toward them. Her eyes narrowed and she launched herself straight at them. Fiery tubes or not, she was going to
end
them.

The sound of galloping followed her. She didn’t turn to see who it was. Instead, she dug in, running harder and faster than she ever had. A tingle of electricity raced through her.

“That’s the protective spell we passed,” Theron, Zoltar’s second in command said as he approached her flank. “We’re unprotected out here. Watch your back.” He drew back his arrow and released it, hitting one of the humans in the knee.

She wanted to ask why humans were now attacking them. What had they ever done to the humans except stay out of their way?

As she came to the top of the hill, she saw thirty or more humans behind the ones with the fiery tubes.
Shit! Colin, Grace, Zoltar…whomever, we’ve got trouble!”

Gustav appeared out of thin air next to one of the tube holders and bit his neck, bit his own finger and crammed it in the guy’s mouth. He did the same with every man holding the large metal tubes. Almost immediately, they fell to the ground.

“Stop!” He shouted to the humans. “Why are you attacking this school? I demand to know!”

The humans started screaming and holding up crosses. Some were made of wood and some of metal.

Nala scanned the crowd, taking mental note of each face. She sniffed the air and all she could smell was fear and sulfur. She shifted to human.

“He asked you a question. I can smell your fear, but
you’re
here attacking
us
. Not the other way around.”

Before anyone could say or do anything, the vampire grabbed one of the men he’d bitten and looked into his eyes. Something must have given him the power to read their minds.

“Fools!” He shot up like a rod. “You’re here trying to kill peaceful beings that have existed since the beginning of time. We’ve stayed hidden. We’ve stayed out of your way while you whore out the land, pollute everything you touch and breed like fucking rabbits and
you’re
afraid of
us
?” He spat blood on the ground.

A woman stepped up, clutching a black leather book to her chest. “Demons!”

Gustav’s laughter was eerie. “I could summon some if you’d like.”

Nala shivered, but thought his approach didn’t seem to work. Theron stood next to him with his bow pulled back ready to shoot anyone that stepped out of line.

“We saw you, on the internet, raping women…eating babies!” Her voice was shrill, terror licking at every word.

Zoltar, Roman, Wendy, and Grace approached. The humans eyes shifted and many of them took a step back.

Grace, they’re terrified. They’ve seen the faked videos and they think we’re monsters.

Wendy spoke first. “Those videos are faked. They are designed to scare you. We don’t rape humans or eat babies. We eat the same things you do.”

Grace walked forward until she was toe-to-toe with the woman clutching the book. “I grew up human and I can assure you, we are not evil. Nothing in that book covers what goes on here at this school. Your bible will neither guide nor protect you from any of it.”

“Blasphemy!” she screeched.

“I didn’t say God doesn’t exist. What I’m saying is the Catholic Church edited th
e
book at its inception to ensure supernaturals didn’t taint your blood or your beliefs. That is all.” She cleared her throat and stepped back, giving the woman a little breathing room.

The woman looked down at her book before clutching it to her chest. “I’ll keep it if it’s all the same to you.”

Nala knew the situation could continue to get worse, or someone could make a move toward peace. She already had to worry about challengers to her seat, but now, the humans…they were out for blood. “You have no idea what you’ve done. How many people are hurt and scared.”

Zoltar crossed his arms over his chest. “They’re lucky my pregnant wife is okay. Let’s show them.”

“Excuse me?” The bible clincher said.

Grace looked at him briefly then gave an affirmative nod. “That’s a great idea. Instead of us all killing each other, why don’t you come inside? You can see other than the wounded from your attack, our community is one of peace, of learning, and integration.”

A man shouted from the back. “What’s that gonna prove?”

Nala clenched her jaw in disbelief and anger. “You’re willing to kill us, but not take a look around?”

Grace continued as if there was no question of a tour. “Now, if you’ll all follow me, you can come meet the woman whose wedding you just destroyed and many more of our kind. You can take a tour of the school to see nothing sinister is taking place. Or…if you’re more comfortable, you can
make an appointment
to take a
peaceful
tour of the school.”

The woman backed away slowly. “You’ll slaughter us.”

“If you attack anyone, yes, you’ll die. However if you peacefully proceed, not one hair will be harmed on any of your human heads. See, I am the Queen of the Lycans, or…as you know them, werewolves. This,” she said pointing to Zoltar and Wendy, “is the King and Queen of the Centaurs. The other royals have assured me they’ve told their people to stand down so we can find a peaceful resolution to this conflict.”

Nala looked around the humans, waiting for something to happen. Finally three teenagers from the rear began heading toward them. “We’ll go.”

“No!” A large man stepped in front of them. “I won’t allow it.”

“Get out of the way! How many of them died because of us?” The young man challenged the older. “We at least owe them this much.” The two young women behind him locked hands.

The three of them stopped a foot in front of Grace. “We’ll go. And we will come back and tell them what we saw.”

“Do you have any weapons?” Theron asked.

The redhead to the left dug in her bag and pulled out a pocket knife, holding it up to him. “This is it. You can have it.”

He smiled down at her. “You can keep it.”

The other two shook their heads, indicating they were free of weapons.

The brunette girl looked at Nala. “So, you’re like a werewolf, huh?”

“Yes.” She eyed the girl, but tried to remain calm.

“So do you go all crazy when the moon is full?”

Nala couldn’t help, even with the tragedy, the girl’s question made her laugh.

The girl’s mouth fell slack. “You do?”

“Not in the way you think. But in a way that makes my mate—er, husband happy.”

The girls both giggled.

As they crested the hill, the devastation below came into view. The redhead released her girlfriend’s hand and covered her mouth. “Oh, my God!” Real tears streamed down her face. “It
was
a wedding.”

Grace looked at them over her shoulder. “Four of my people are dead. All of the attackers are also dead. The Pixies, Fae, Dwarves, and Gnomes are still getting their numbers together. The man who officiated the wedding was cut in half.”

The brunette dropped to her knees and vomited. As she choked and spit, she cried. “Oh God, please forgive me!”

“Get up!” Theron barked.

Nala shot him a look that told him to shut up, or she’d make him. She knelt next to the girl and put her hand on her back. “I know this is hard, but you need to stand up. We’ll get you some water.”
Colin, bring me a bottle of water, please.
A moment later he approached with a bottle of water. His eyes widened at the three humans. One was on her knees throwing up. The other stood with her mouth open and tears streaming down her face and the young man had his hands in his pockets and kicked at the grass, shame painted on his face.

Colin handed her the water. “Here,” she said, “rinse your mouth before you drink.”

The woman did as instructed, swishing and spitting before sipping at the water. “I can’t believe you’re being so nice.” She wiped her tears on the back of her wrist and stood to her feet.

“Would the three of you look at me, please?” Wendy asked.

The humans turned their attention to her.

“For hundreds of years we’ve all fought each other. It wasn’t until Grace, a Lycan who was raised believing she was a human, came to us. It was then we all began to get along. This school was built to integrate our species…to live peacefully among each other. We don’t want to hurt humans any more than we want to continue to hurt each other. I’m not saying we don’t have bad eggs, just like humans have theirs. But most of us…we just want to live.”

The girls locked hands again.

The boy began to sob. “We understand.”

“Very well. Now, we’re going to walk past the wounded and into the school. Are you ready?”

When they nodded, the group led the human trio inside the building after the redhead stopped to gag one more time. Once inside, the heavy air of chaos lifted.