Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) - Jaymin Eve Page 0,102
mysteries before one of these creatures took me out?
“Two of them,” Angel hissed, and there was a quiver of light along her skin as her wings burst free, weapons appearing in both hands. They were curved blades, shimmering gold and silver, with wickedly sharp tips on the ends.
“What are they here for?” I whispered. “And how do we take them out?”
She leaned farther forward, those blades swinging around her hands with the sort of skill that I would never possess—if I even remotely attempted that, I’d cut my damn arms off.
Maybe she really didn’t need me at her side.
“I’ve never heard of them being outside the Shadow Realm,” she said, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “They’re used to round up any creatures that escape royal control. Like supernatural bounty hunters. What they’re doing here, I have no idea, but the fact that they’ve arrived while Shadow Beast is busy is bad news.”
On the almost certainty that this was my fault, I had to do everything in my power to ensure that no one got hurt. And I seriously had to figure out how to send them back because it was getting crowded on this side of the door now. Not to mention it was all making sense why that door had been barred in the first place. Shadow creatures were just like the Shadow Beast—dangerous and uncontrollable. One of him in the Solaris System was more than enough.
Another roar shattered the unnatural silence, followed by the sound of scrambling as everyone scattered from the dining room, trying to escape whatever fate these two had in mind.
“What’s under their cloaks?” I murmured. “I didn’t even see their heads move when they screamed.”
Angel shook her head, focus never wavering. “No one knows. They always wear the shrouds, and the screams are debilitating to anything weaker in energy than them. Which is almost everything.”
Excellent. “We’re still standing, at least.”
Silver linings were not usually my forte, but I needed one today. Maybe Angel and I could at least hold them off until help arrived.
Unless we were the help…
“I’ve tangled with a shadow hunter before,” she said, swirling those blades again, “and one is no match for me, but two…”
The unsaid was obvious there. She had no idea if she could handle two. “I’ll be the annoying distraction,” I said as another scream, much louder this time, almost knocked me down. “That might give you an edge.”
They were standing in the middle of the row, and Angel kept trying to edge me out of the way. When it was obvious I wasn’t going to move, she let out a huff and launched herself forward, deciding to attack first.
Her wings released a powerful gust of air that knocked both cloaked figures back, their faces remaining well hidden in the darkness of their hoods. This close, I could tell they were tall and solidly built, with a black mist coating them from head to toe.
Angel crashed into the nearest, her weapon slicing out in a rapid arc, and at the same time, she released the blade in her left hand, sending it flying across the table. The second hunter managed to dodge the blow, but the curved blade returned to Angel in time for her to throw it again, all while parrying blows with the one she was face to face with.
The screeches were deafening, and I fought against the urge to cover my ears and crawl under the table. If Angel could somehow fight two dudes with magic flying blades on her own, I could manage to stay on my fucking feet and not cower like a bitch. Had to live up to my big talk of fighting my own battles, and at minimum that meant staying on my feet.
My wolf scratched against her metaphorical cage, trying to force a change. After a moment’s hesitation, I decided that maybe I should let her have the lead here. I had more weapons as a wolf, but there was still a small concern over the odd way she acted around shadow creatures.
“Get out of here,” Angel shouted, not hearing my internal debate. “Get Shadow.”
That was the logical step to take, but there was every chance he was fairly occupied himself. Surely, if he wasn’t, he would have already felt the chill of these two hunters—their icy energy was like a slap in the face with a frozen bag of balls.
Change! My wolf was not taking no for an answer, and with no more time to worry about