Who is Magpie?

Ezekiel and Bronx had been taken up by those trying to sneak up from behind, and every hit they took kept her mind focused. Other wolven still wearing masks came to the main doors, two risking shifting to help others get inside for air and get those doors closed. Relief wouldn’t be instant, but she could hear the duct systems still working, eventually the air would be pure enough to stop the coughing.

Now that they were inside, there was no where for any of them to hide.

She hoped the wolven still outside were retreating, going to whatever medical unit Ezekiel had no doubt stationed nearby. There wasn’t long to focus on it though, as the attacks began again. Azural had clambered over to her, dragging her to her feet with his ruined eye streaming blood down the side of his face.

“Don’t you do it. Don’t give me one ounce of your strength. It’s only an eye, and I wasn’t fond of that one anyway.” Azural’s attempt at humour didn’t help much, but it did lessen her concern.

She plucked a couple of knives from her belt and threw them with enough force to burry them to the handle in the chests of two former classmates. Azural stood to size up Gull but, with the Martin retreating behind a wall of living shields, Jessamine was ready to return every lump he’d dished out.

“Hey Gull, you limp dick, son of a bitch. Let’s go,” she urged him to attack first. “Pick your weapon.”

Her hands were empty, tempting him to admit he needed one. Gull looked between them and tossed the knuckles he held down. He looked eager, like he had been forced to hold back before.

“Don’t need one, I am a weapon.” The man grinned and Jessamine laughed, blatantly mocking him by repeating what he said back as she ran toward him.

He placed his feet as she ran, clearly trying to aim to grab her when she was close enough. Instead she dodged his grasp, faking to the right and kicking out his knee cap, dropping him on to one knee. He threw back an elbow, getting her in the thigh but she punched him in the back of the head and grabbed his hair.

“I know that it was you who kicked me through the body bag,” she snarled in his ear, pulling him back by his hair.

He tried to throw his head back but she dodged it. His big arms made her, between his shoulder blades, hard to reach. He threw his weight into one shoulder and she wrapped her leg over it, then switched her hand from his head to his other shoulder. Joining her hands and ankles around his shoulders she crunched herself inward, dislocating both shoulders at once.

“Now we have the same party trick,” she spat, watching the shock and pain ripple silently across his face.

She stomped to the centre of his forehead with her heal, seeing his eyes roll back as he fell over. Whether he was dead or passed out she wasn’t sure, but the resulting awe that this fight gained from her mates had her blushing despite everything.

When she looked around several wolven had cornered group of Fae that had given up. Jessamine recognized them, all having exotic bird names from a tropical island because the local names were taken. They were all new, not yet well trained or indoctrinated into the Fae’s way.

She made eye contact with the Martin and then looked away sharply. One word from him and she could be on the floor again, a sitting duck until something snapped her out of it. A hand on her hip made her flinch despite feeling him coming over to her.

“If you want to take him on, I’ll be here to pull you out of it,” Ezekiel whispered into her ear.

“I don’t know…” she began, but when she looked back to where he had been standing she just caught a panel of the wall closing. “No!”

She darted toward the wall, Azural and Ezekiel acting as blockers for those still willing to fight. She opened the door so roughly that the hinges ripped free from the paneling completely. She tossed it back into several people and darted down the narrow path, easily following the smell of his pipe.

She could see him ahead and listened to his footsteps clambering over the gritty ground. Hearing his steps stop around a corner, she punched through the wall into the back of his head. Before she could pull her hand back she felt his small teeth sink into her hand and she cursed him, swinging her foot around the corner to kick out.

He took off running again and she held the injured hand close to her chest. She knew where he headed, the exit by the kitchen, which was near a door to go outside, but she had been out this side before. This area of garden was larger, putting more space between the house and the perimeter.

Jessamine knew she could survive longer on this side than the front which made her nervous. He was too calculating to do this as a mistake, and she wanted to get to him before he could get that far. Throwing one of her few remaining knives to clip his shoulder as he turned a corner.

She heard his hissed breath and revelled in hearing his pain for a change. When she made it around the corner he was already slipping through the next panel into the main hall. Blood had been dripping from her hand as she ran, and she used that hand to open the panel and mark where she had exited for when her mates followed.

He indeed went outside and shut the door behind him but she kicked it open against the will of the latch that held them together. She threw another knife but he swat it away with his cane like it was a bat. Sprinting toward him she heard him yell that word that would have her sitting in the grass furiously.

“You shouldn’t have taken me on alone Magpie, you know you can’t hurt me,” he chuckled.

“No, I don’t know that. I’ve just never had the opportunity.” She struggled to force herself to stand but he yelled another command and she returned to sitting. “You can’t escape, most of your people have already been subdued or killed,” she growled.

“That’s alright. My cause has reached far enough that it won’t die with me, and as long as I can take one of you with me I’m alright to go.” He smirked devilishly and she knew he had a plan further than just making her sit in the grass.

Moments later the sprinkler heads popped up from the ground and her heart dropped into her stomach. It was well passed dark, when the sun had set, and the plants were watered.

“I turned off the water,” she managed to stammer out under her panic.

“The sprinklers are on a schedule,” he chuckled as the water began to spurt out and rain down all over the property. “They have their own reservoir.”

She shrieked in pain as the water ran over her already marred skin while he stood and laughed. She could hear his taunting, commanding her to stay whenever she tried to get up. Again and again he barked commands at her, but under the pain she felt something spark.

“Born alone, live alone, die alone,” he cackled.

She grasped onto that spark, understanding what it was with his words. “I’m never alone!”

Leti leapt out against her mind, helping her to work passed the pain in her skin as her bare flesh covered with fur. He stuttered a step back, she was sure he was calling out more of his commands, but Leti hadn’t been there for those years, she had no feelings towards his words.

The anger swelled as she stalked him, the water running over her pelt and leaving all the skin it touched aching and raw. Leti barely felt it over her anger as she got closer.

“You’re not me Magpie, be better than I was,” he begged when she was mere inches from him.

Her hot breath steamed over his face but he grinned, unsheathing a sword from his cane he swiped at her, catching the side of her face.

‘Enough games,’ Leti thought, pouncing forward to tuck his head between her side canines.

She felt his sharp fingers digging into her face, trying to pry her mouth off his neck as the pressure increased. A hot huffed breath rang out through her teeth around his skull as the pain flared in the lips and around her muzzle. Another loud growl rolled free, and a second later her teeth met, detaching his head from his body with a satisfying *pop*, like separating Lego bricks.